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• The Works of Voltaire: the Dramatic Works of Voltaire Vol. Ix— Part I
• Alzire
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• Orestes
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• SÉmiramis
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• Catiline
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• Pandora
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• The Dramatic Works of Voltaire Vol. Ix—part Ii
• The Scotch Woman
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• Nanine
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• The Prude
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• The Tatler
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.

ACT III.

SCENE I.

orestes, pylades, pammenes.

[A slave at the farther end of the stage carrying an urn and a sword.

pammenes.

• Blest be the day that to our wishes thus
• Restores the long-expected hope of Greece,
• My royal master’s son, the minister
• Of heaven’s high will, to execute swift vengeance
• On Agamemnon’s foes! The tyrant long
• Hath dreaded, long foreseen the impending blow;
• Conscious of guilt, in every face unknown
• Still he beholds his master and his judge,
• And still Orestes haunts his troubled soul:
• Much he inquires concerning you, and longs
• To see you both. I have a thousand fears,
• A thousand hopes; heaven grant we may succeed!
• Meantime I have obeyed your orders, sounded
• The people’s hearts, and strove to animate
• Their zeal; inspired them with the distant hope
• Of an avenger; soon or late the race
• Of rightful kings must prosper: every heart
• Glowed with warm transport at Orestes’ name;
• Awakened from her slumber, vengeance rises
• With double vigor; my few faithful friends,
• Who dwell in this lone desert with Pammenes,
• Lift up their hands to heaven, and call on thee;
• And yet I tremble to behold thee here
• Unarmed and unassisted, lest some chance
• Discover thee, and blast our hopes: the foe
• Is barbarous, active, vigilant, and bold;
• One fatal stroke may ruin all; whilst thou,
• Against a tyrant seated on his throne,
• Bringest nothing but Orestes, and his friend.

pylades.

• And are not they sufficient? ’Tis the work
• Of heaven that oft fulfils its own designs
• By means most wonderful, that in the deep
• O’erwhelmed our little all, and here alone
• Hath left us to perform the sacrifice.
• Sometimes it arms the sovereigns of the earth
• With tenfold vengeance; sometimes, in contempt
• Of human valor, strikes in awful silence;
• Nature and friendship then assert the rights
• Of heaven, and vindicate its power divine.

orestes.

• Orestes asks no other aid, no arm
• But thine, my Pylades.

pylades.

• Take heed, my friend,
• Quit not the paths of safety pointed out
• By the just gods; remember thou art bound
• By solemn oath to hide thee from Electra;
• Thy peace, thy happiness, thy kingdom, all
• Depend upon it: O refrain thy transports,
• Dissemble, and obey; ’tis fit Electra
• Should be deceived, even more than Clytemnæstra.

pammenes.

• Thank heaven, that thus ordained it for thy safety.
• Already hath Electra, bathed in tears,
• And calling for her great avenger, filled
• These solitary mansions with her cries;
• Importunate and bold, she sought me out,
• And with imprudent warmth, demanded loud,
• Where was her brother, where her dear Orestes:
• Nature had whispered to her anxious heart
• He was not far from his Electra: scarce
• Could I withhold her eager steps.

orestes.

• Ye gods!
• Must I refrain? O insupportable!

pylades.

• You hesitate; O think, my dear Orestes,
• Think on the menaces of angry heaven,
• Think on its goodness that preserved thy life
• From every danger; if thou shouldst oppose
• Its sacred will, eternal wrath awaits
• To blast thy purpose; tremble, son of Atreus
• And Tantalus, remember what thy hapless race
• Hath suffered, nor expect a milder doom.

orestes.

• What power invincible presides unseen
• O’er human actions, and directs our fate?
• Is it a crime to listen to the voice
• Of fond affection? O eternal justice,
• Thou deep abyss, unsearchable to man!
• Shall not our weakness and our guilt by thee
• Be still distinguished? shall the man who wanders
• From virtue’s paths unknowing, and who braves
• Thy power, shall he who yields to nature’s laws,
• And he who breaks them, share an equal fate?
• But shall the slave condemn his master? heaven
• Gave us our being, and can owe us nothing:
• Therefore no more: in silence I obey.
• Give me the urn, the ring, and bloody sword,
• Which thou hast hither brought, they shall be offered
• Far from Electra’s sight: let us be gone;
• I’ll see my sister when I have avenged her.
• [Turning to Pammenes.
• Go thou, Pammenes, and prepare the hearts
• Of thy brave followers for the great event
• Which Greece awaits, and I must execute:
• Deceive Ægisthus, and my guilty mother;
• Let them enjoy the transitory bliss,
• The short-lived pleasure of Orestes’ death,
• If an unnatural mother can behold
• With joy the ashes of a murdered son:
• Here will I wait, and stop them as they pass.

SCENE II.

electraandiphisaon one side of the stageorestesandpyladeson the other, with a slave carrying an urn and a sword.

electra.

• [To Iphisa.
• Hope disappointed is the worst of sorrows.
• O my Iphisa, all thy flattering dreams
• Are vanished, and Pammenes, with a word,
• Hath undeceived us; the fair day that shone
• So bright is clouded o’er, and darkness spreads
• On every side: alas! our wretched life
• Is but a round of never-ending woes.

orestes.

• [To Pylades.
• Two women, and in tears!

pylades.

• Alas, my lord,
• Beneath a tyrant all things wear the face
• Of grief and misery.

orestes.

• In Ægisthus’ court
• Nothing should reign but sorrow.

iphisa.

• [To Electra.
• Look, Electra,
• The strangers come this way.

electra.

• Unhappy omen!
• They did pronounce Ægisthus’ hated name.

iphisa.

• One is that hero whom I told thee of,
• The noble youth—

electra.

• [Looking at Orestes.
• Alas! I too, like thee,
• Have been deceived.
• [Turning to Orestes.
• Who are ye, wretched strangers;
• And what hath led you to this fatal shore?

orestes.

• We come to see the king who reigns in Argos,
• And take our orders from him.

electra.

• Are ye Grecians,
• And call ye him a king, the murderer
• Of Agamemnon?

orestes.

• He is sovereign here,
• And heaven commands us to respect his throne,
• Not to dispute his title.

electra.

• Horrid maxim!
• And what have you to ask of this proud king,
• This bloody monster here?

orestes.

• We come to bring him
• Some happy tidings.

electra.

• Dreadful then to us
• They must be.

iphisa.

• [Seeing the Urn.
• Ha! an urn! O grief, O horror!

pylades.

• Orestes—

electra.

• O ye gods! Orestes dead!
• I faint, I die.

orestes.

• What have we done, my friend!
• They could not be mistaken, for their grief
• Betrays them: O! my blood runs cold.—Fair princess,
• Be comforted, and live.

electra.

• Orestes dead?
• And can I live? O no, barbarians, here
• Complete your cruelty.

iphisa.

• Alas! you see
• The poor remains of Agamemnon; we
• Are his unhappy daughters, the sad sisters
• Of lost Orestes.

orestes.

• O Electra! O
• Iphisa! O where am I? cruel gods!
• [To the slave carrying the urn.
• Take from their sight those monuments of woe,
• That fatal urn, which—

electra.

• [Running towards the urn.
• Wouldst thou take it from me?
• Wouldst thou deprive me of the little all
• That’s left Electra by offended heaven?
• O give it me.
• [She takes the urn, and embraces it.

orestes.

• Forbear; what wouldst thou do?

pylades.

• Away: Ægisthus only must receive
• These precious relics.

electra.

• Must I then behold
• My brother’s ashes in a tyrant’s hand,
• And are Orestes’ murderers before me?

orestes.

• Horrid reproach! it shocks my very soul:
• I can no longer—

electra.

• Yet you weep with me:
• O, in the name of the avenging gods,
• If ye are guiltless, if your generous hands
• Collected his dear ashes—

orestes.

• Gracious heaven!

electra.

• If ye lament his death, O answer me:
• Who told you of his fate: art thou his friend?
• Speak, noble youth: both dumb! yet both afflicted:
• Even whilst your words plant daggers in my heart,
• Ye seem to pity me.

orestes.

• It is too much;
• The gods have been obeyed enough already.

electra.

• What sayest thou?

orestes.

• Leave those poor remains.

electra.

• O no:
• I never will: alas! is every heart
• Inflexible? I tell thee, cruel stranger,
• I must not, cannot give thee back again
• The fatal gift thy pity hath bestowed:
• ’Tis my Orestes; and I will embrace him:
• Behold his dying sister.

orestes.

• Cruel gods!
• Where are your thunders now? O strike: Electra,
• I can no longer—

electra.

• Ha!

orestes.

• I ought—

pylades.

• O heaven!

electra.

• Go on—

orestes.

• Know then—

SCENE III.

ægisthus, clytemnæstra, orestes, pylades, electra, iphisa, pammenes,Guards.

ægisthus.

• O glorious spectacle!
• Fortune, I thank thee: Can it be, Pammenes?
• My rival dead! it is, it must be true,
• Electra’s grief confirms it.

electra.

• Dreadful hour?

orestes.

• To what am I reserved?

ægisthus.

• Seize on the urn,
• And wrest it from her.
• [They take the urn from her.

electra.

• O thou hast robbed me of the only good
• This life could e’er afford me, barbarous monster!
• O take Electra too, tear forth this heart
• And join me to Orestes; father, son,
• Sister, and brother, all thy wretched victims
• Unite to satiate thy revenge: now, tyrant,
• Enjoy thy happiness, enjoy thy crimes:
• And thou, inhuman mother, look with him
• On the delightful spectacle, it suits
• Thy nature, and is worthy of you both.
• [Iphisa leads her off.

SCENE IV.

ægisthus, clytemnæstra, orestes, pylades,Guards.

clytemnæstra.

• Must I bear this?

ægisthus.

• She shall be punished for it:
• Let her complain to heaven, for heaven itself
• Will justify Ægisthus; it approves
• Where it forbids not; therefore I am guiltless,
• And happy too: my throne stands firmly now,
• My life’s in safety; but I must reward
• The zeal and valor of these noble Grecians.

orestes.

• It was our duty, royal sir, to lay
• These proofs before you: take this sword, this ring,
• You must remember it: ’twas Agamemnon’s.

clytemnæstra.

• And was it then by thee Orestes fell?

ægisthus.

• If thou hast served me, thine be the reward:
• But, say, who art thou, of what race?

orestes.

• My name
• Must not as yet be known; perhaps hereafter
• It may be: in the fields of Troy my father
• Distinguished shone amongst the great avengers
• Of Menelaus; in those days of glory
• He fought, and fell: deserted and forlorn,
• Left by a cruel mother, and pursued
• By most inhuman foes, this friend alone
• Supported me; was fortune, father, all;
• With him I still have trod the paths of honor,
• With him defied the malice of my fate:
• Such is my story.

ægisthus.

• But say where thy arm
• Avenged me of this hated prince: inform me.

orestes.

• ’Twas a word that to the temple leads
• Of Epidaurus, near Achemor’s tomb.

ægisthus.

• The king had set a price upon his head:
• How came you not to ask for your reward?

orestes.

• Because I hated infamy, and fought
• For vengeance, not for hire; I did not mean
• To sell his blood; a private motive raised
• This arm against him, as my friend well knows,
• And I revenged myself without the aid
• Of kings, nor shall I boast the victory:
• Forgive me, sir: I tremble; for the widow
• Of Agamemnon’s here; perhaps I’ve served,
• Perhaps offended her; I’ll take my leave.

ægisthus.

• Thou shalt not; stay, I charge thee.

clytemnæstra.

• Let him go:
• That urn, and the sad story he has told,
• Have filled my soul with horror: heaven, my lord,
• Protects your throne and life, be thankful for it,
• And leave a mother to indulge her sorrows.

orestes.

• Madam, I thought that Agamemnon’s son
• Was hateful to you.

clytemnæstra.

• I must own I feared him.

orestes.

• Feared him?

clytemnæstra.

• I did indeed; for he was born
• To be most guilty.

orestes.

• Guilty? and to whom?

clytemnæstra.

• The wretched wanderer, thou knowest, was doomed
• To hate a mother, doomed to shed the blood
• From whence he sprang; such was his horrid fate:
• Perhaps he had fulfilled—and yet, his death,
• I know not why, affrights me, and I tremble
• To look on you who saved me from his vengeance.

orestes.

• Alas! a son against a mother armed!
• O who could loose that sacred tie? perhaps
• He wished—

clytemnæstra.

• O heaven!

ægisthus.

• What sayest thou? didst thou know him?

pylades.

• [Aside.
• He will discover all.
• [To Ægisthus.
• He did, my lord,
• The wretched soon unite, and soon divide:
• At Delphi first we saw him.

orestes.

• Yes: I know
• His purpose well.

ægisthus.

• What was it?

orestes.

• To murder thee.

ægisthus.

• I’ve seen his malice long, but I despised it.
• Meantime Electra used Orestes’ name
• To spread division o’er my kingdom; she
• Was my worst foe: thou hast avenged me of her,
• Take thy reward, I yield her to thy power;
• She shall be thine: the haughty maid, who spurned
• The great alliance with Ægisthus’ son;
• Henceforth she is thy slave: the wretched race
• Of Priam long beneath the conqueror’s yoke
• Submissive bowed, and dragged the servile chain;
• And wherefore should not Agememnon’s blood
• Bend in its turn, and share an equal fate?

clytemnæstra.

• Would Clytemnæstra suffer that!

ægisthus.

• Thou wouldst not
• Defend thy worst of foes; proscribe Orestes,
• Yet spare Electra.
• [To Orestes.
• Leave the urn with me.

orestes.

• We will, my lord, and shall accept your offer.

clytemnæstra.

• That were to carry our resentment further
• Than justice warrants: let him hence, and bear
• Some other recompense: we too must go:
• Let us, my lord, I beg thee, let us quit
• These horrid mansions of the dead, where naught
• But dreadful images on every side
• Surrounds me: O we never can prepare
• The bloody feast between the father’s tomb
• And the son’s ashes! How shall we invoke
• The household gods, whom we have injured; how,
• Amidst our cruel sports, give up the blood
• Of Clytemnæstra to the murderer
• Of her Orestes? O it must not be!
• I tremble at the thought: my fears, Ægisthus,
• Should waken thine: this stranger rives my heart;
• His very sight is deadliest poison to me.
• Away, my lord, and let me be concealed
• From every eye; would it were possible
• To hide me from myself!
• [Exit Clytemnæstra.

ægisthus.

• [To Orestes.
• Stay thou, and wait
• Till time befriend thee; nature for a moment
• Is clamorous and loud, but soon as reason
• Shall reassume its empire, interest then
• Must plead thy cause, and she alone be heard.
• Meantime remain with us, and celebrate
• Our nuptial day:
• [To one of his attendants.
• Haste you to Epidaurus,
• And hither bring my son; let him confirm
• The welcome tidings.

SCENE V.

orestes, pylades.

orestes.

• Yes, Orestes comes
• To join the cruel pomp, and make thy feast
• A feast of blood.

pylades.

• O how I trembled for thee!
• I feared thy love; I feared thy tenderness;
• And, more than all, thy honest rage, that burst
• In transports forth when thou beheldest the tyrant:
• I saw thee ready to insult him; saw
• Thy soul take fire at Agamemnon’s name,
• And dreaded the sad consequence.

orestes.

• My mother,
• O, Pylades, my mother pierced my heart.
• Didst thou not mark the workings of her soul
• Whilst I was speaking? O I felt them all!
• Scarce could my voice in faltering accents tell
• The melancholy tale, whilst Clytemnæstra
• Still gazed, and trembled still: a father’s murder;
• A sister unrevenged; a tyrant yet
• Unpunished; and a mother to be taught
• Her interest and her duty; what a weight
• Of secret cares! great heaven complete thy work!
• Urge on the lingering moments that retard
• My vengeance; O, let me perform the task
• Of love, and hatred; let me mix the blood
• Of base Ægisthus with the vile remains
• Of Plisthenes; let sweet Electra see
• The cruel tyrant gasping at my feet,
• And know her dear deliverer in Orestes!

SCENE VI.

orestes, pylades, pammenes.

orestes.

• What hast thou done, Pammenes, may we hope—

pammenes.

• O my dear lord, never, since the fatal day
• When Agamemnon fell, did greater perils
• Threaten thy precious life.

orestes.

• Ha! what hath happened?

pylades.

• Still
• Must I have cause to tremble for Orestes?

pammenes.

• This instant is arrived a messenger
• From Epidaurus, and ere this related
• The death of Plisthenes.

pylades.

• Immortal gods!

orestes.

• And knows he that Orestes slew his son?

pammenes.

• They speak of nothing but his death; ere long
• Fresh tidings are expected; and the news
• Meantime concealed from Greece that she has lost
• One of her tyrants; the king, still in doubt,
• Shuts himself up with Clytemnæstra: this
• I learned from one, who, to the royal blood
• Still faithful, pines in loathsome servitude
• Beneath the proud usurper.

orestes.

• I have gathered
• At least the first fair fruits of promised vengeance;
• Grant me, ye gods, to reap a plenteous harvest!
• Thinkest thou, my friend, they would uplift this arm
• In vain, and only prosper to deceive me;
• To my successful valor give the son,
• And after yield me to the father’s power?
• Let us away: danger should make us bold;
• Who fears not death is master of his foe;
• I’ll seize the moment of uncertainty,
• Ere the full day of truth glares in upon him,
• And points his rage.

pammenes.

• Away: you must be known
• To those few noble spirits who will die
• To serve their prince; this secret place conceals
• Some faithful friends, who may be still more useful,
• Because unknown.

pylades.

• Haste then; and if the tomb
• Of thy dear father, if thy honored name
• Joined to Electra’s, if the wrath of heaven
• Against usurpers, if the gracious gods
• Who hither led thee, if they all should fail,
• If this detested spot is doomed by fate
• To be thy grave, O take a wretched life
• To thee devoted, we will die together,
• That comfort’s left; for Pylades shall fall
• Close by thy side, and worthy of Orestes.

orestes.

• Strike me, kind heaven! but O for pity save
• His matchless valor, and protect my friend!

End of the Third Act.