204 EURIPIDES
" Ay, and with bow, not justice, help this house ! "
" I help it, since a friend's woe weighs me too." 90
" And now, — wilt force from me this second corpse ? "
" By force I took no corpse at first from thee."
" How then is he above ground, not beneath ? "
"He gave his wife instead of him, thy prey."
" And prey, this time at least, I bear below ! " 95
- ' Go take her ! — for I doubt persuading thee . . ."
" To kill the doomed one ? What my function else ? "
" No ! Rather, to despatch the true mature."
" Truly I take thy meaning, see thy drift ! "
" Is there a way then she may reach old age ? " 100
" No way I I glad me in my honors too ! "
" But, young or old, thou tak'st one life, no more ! "
" Younger they die, greater my praise redounds ! "
" If she die old, — the sumptuous funeral ! "
" Thou layest down a law the rich would like." 105
" How so ? Did wit lurk there and 'scape thy sense ? "
" Who could buy substitutes would die old men."
" It seems thou wilt not grant me, then, this grace ? "
" This grace I will not grant : thou know'stmy ways."
" Ways harsh to men, hateful to Gods, at least ! " uo
" All things thou canst not have : my rights for me ! "
And then Apollon prophesied^ — / thinks More to himself than to impatient Death, Who did not hear or would not heed the while, — For he went on to say " Yet even so, us
