yet ever the burthen of man's song. "Woman, to women silence brings honour." And I, thus schooled, desisted, while he rushed forth alone. And of his sufferings without I cannot speak; but he came in, bringing with him bulls tied together, herdsmen's dogs, and a noble horned booty. And of some he began to break the necks; others, turning them on their backs, to stab and cut through their spine; while others, enchained, would he scourge, falling on the flocks as on men. But at last, bursting away through the doors, he began to rant out words to some shadow, part against the Atridæ, and part about Ulysses; blending with them abundance of laughter, with how much of insult he had avenged himself on them in this sally. And then, having hurried back to his abode again, hardly is he at length restored to his senses, I know not how. And when he looks throughout the house, full fraught with [the work of] destruction, he smote

This is from Callistratus: As leaves are an ornament to trees, their fleeces to sheep, their manes to horses, the beard to men, so silence is an ornament to women.' '" Potter (from the Scholia.) A similar sentiment is put in the mouth of Hector. Il. vi. V. 490. See also Euripides :

Γυναικὶ γὰρ σιγή τε καὶ τὸ σωφρονεῖν

his head, and shrieked aloud; and amid the wrecks of the carcasses of slaughtered sheep, he sat stretched on the ground, rending with clenched grasp of hand and nail his hair. This time had he sat the longest without speaking then in dreadful terms he threatened me, unless I shewed him the whole calamity that had befallen; and asked me in what case he could possibly be. So I, my friends, being afraid, told him all that had been perpetrated, exactly as much as I knew. But he forthwith broke out into doleful shrieks: which never before had I heard from him; for such laments he all along was wont to pronounce were suited to a man of cowardly and little-minded spirit. But he, noiseless of shrill outcries, would groan inwardly, moaning as a bull. And now lying in such miserable plight, the man, uncheered by food or drink, has fallen, and sits quietly amid the cattle, victims of his steel and he evidently is about to work some ill, such are, I know not how, his words and lamentations. But, oh my friends, for to this intent was I sent, come ye in, and aid him, if at all ye can. For such as he are vanquished by the advice of friends.

CHO. Tecmessa, daughter of Teleutas, dire is thy tale to us, that the hero has by his woes been a driven to utter madness.

AJ. Ah me, me!

Hush!

TEC. Soon, it seems, will he be more so. heard ye not Ajax, what a cry this is that he utters aloud?

sun.

A metaphor from the inspiration supposed to be derived from the

AJ. Alas! alas!

CHO. He is, it seems, either still distempered, or at present pained with the sickness that erst possessed

him.

AJ. Oh son! son!

TEC. Unhappy me! "Eurysaces, for thee he claWhat can he be thus eager for? Where art thou? Woe is me!

mours.

AJ. Teucer I call: where's Teucer? will he everlastingly be following the foray, while I am perishing?

CHO. The man, it seems, is sensible: but open. Haply he may feel somewhat of respect at looking

even on me.

TEC, Behold, I open; and thou mayest see his deeds, and how he himself is conditioned.

AJ. O mariners beloved, my only friends, who only are abiding by [friendship's] just law, see what a tide from a bloody and tempestuous ocean, just now careering round, encircles me.

CHO. Alas! how just, too just, appears thy testimony! The deed declares how insane he is.

AJ. O race, that helped me in the seaman's art, thou that didst embark to ply the briny oar,-thee only, thee, I say, of all my guardians, have I seen bent to relieve me. No more; but slay me too.

* Eurysaces was son of Ajax by Tecmessa, so named from the celebrated shield, which in this play his sire bequeaths him.

• This confirms the remark of Thucydides respecting the nature of the Greek expedition against Troy, and the causes of its so long duration. Thục. I.

CHO. Be thy words of good import, do not by ministering to ills a remedy as ill augment the pain of thy calamity.

AJ. Seest thou me, the bold, the stout-hearted, the fearless in conflict with the foe,-now terrible of might amid harmless brutes?, Woe is me for the derision [to come]! How must I have been insulted!

TEC. Do not, Lord Ajax, I implore thee, speak thus.

AJ. Wilt thou not away? wilt not move hence thy foot in quick retire? Alas! oh alas!

Cнo. Oh, by the Gods I pray thee, yield, and be of thy right mind.

AJ. O luckless wretch, that let slip from my hands the villains; and falling on beeves with crankled horns, and on bleating flocks, shed their black blood!

CHO. Why, in sooth, shouldst thou grieve over the past and done? for it is impossible that these things should not be so.

AJ. PO thou that pryest into every thing,-continually the tool of all mischief,-son of Laertes,-thou vagabond, the worst, the filthiest of our host, full surely thou exultest with many a laugh for joy.

CHO. By heaven's boon every one both laughs and

mourns.

AJ. Could I now but see him, though afflicted as I am! Alas! alas!

P The description of Ulysses here given much resembles Thersites' picture of himself in Troilus and Cressida: "No, no, I am a rascal, a And the mercy which he

scurvy railing knave, a very filthy rogue."

thereupon obtains from Hector, may well bear Philoctetes out in his sentiments on the good and bad among mankind. See Phil. 446.

CH, Speak nothing haughty: seest thou not in what misery thou art ?

AJ. O Jove, sire of my forefathers, how might I, having destroyed that most smooth-tongued juggler, that hated outcast, and the two sovereign princes, at last myself too fall?

TEC. When such is thy prayer, at the same time beg death for me also; since what need have I to live, when thou art no more?

AJ. O darkness, now my light, O Erebus, to mine eyes most radiant, take me, oh take me, as your inmate take: for no longer am I worthy to look on the race of Gods or mortals for any profit to mankind. No, the warrior Goddess, daughter of Jove, disgracefully persecutes me to destruction. Whither, then, can one fly? Whither shall I go, and there abide? since one part is gone, my friends, e'en with the work before you; and I have set myself to hunt a silly prey: but for the army-they all would slay me with hand doubly armed.

TEC. Ah hapless me! that a man of worth approved should utter words like these, which he ne'er before could have had the heart [to speak]!

"There's nothing in this world can make me joy :
Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale

Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man;

And bitter shame hath spoil'd the world's sweet taste,
That it yields nought but shame and bitterness."

KING JOHN, Act 3. sc. 4.

· δίπαλτος here, as δορίπαλτος in the Agamemnon of Æschylus, is used transitively. Eustathius on this passage says the waλroy was a particular weapon.