How swift upon the
thought!
Euripides - Electra
.
.
'Tis lost long since.
No more!
O, either 'twas some stranger passed, and shore
His locks for very ruth before that tomb:
Or, if he found perchance, to seek his home,
Some spy. . .
OLD MAN.
The strangers! Where are they? I fain
Would see them, aye, and bid them answer plain. . .
ELECTRA.
Here at the door!
How swift upon the thought!
_Enter_ ORESTES _and_ PYLADES.
OLD MAN.
High-born: albeit for that I trust them not.
The highest oft are false. . . . Howe'er it be,
[_Approaching them_.
I bid the strangers hail!
ORESTES.
All hail to thee,
Greybeard! --Prithee, what man of all the King
Trusted of old, is now this broken thing?
ELECTRA.
'Tis he that trained my father's boyhood.
ORESTES.
O, either 'twas some stranger passed, and shore
His locks for very ruth before that tomb:
Or, if he found perchance, to seek his home,
Some spy. . .
OLD MAN.
The strangers! Where are they? I fain
Would see them, aye, and bid them answer plain. . .
ELECTRA.
Here at the door!
How swift upon the thought!
_Enter_ ORESTES _and_ PYLADES.
OLD MAN.
High-born: albeit for that I trust them not.
The highest oft are false. . . . Howe'er it be,
[_Approaching them_.
I bid the strangers hail!
ORESTES.
All hail to thee,
Greybeard! --Prithee, what man of all the King
Trusted of old, is now this broken thing?
ELECTRA.
'Tis he that trained my father's boyhood.
ORESTES.
