PELEUS AND THETIS. THETIS. O PELEUS! O thou whom the Gods conferred on me for all my portion of happiness. . and it was (I thought) too great.. PELEUS. Goddess! to me, to thy Peleus, O how far more than Goddess! why then these tears? The last we shedd were when the Fates divided us, saying the Earth was not thine, and the brother of Jove had called thee. Those that fall between the beloved at parting, are bitter, and ought to be: Woe to him who wishes they were not! Those that flow again at the returning light of the blessed feet, should be refreshing and divine as morn. THETIS. Support me, support me in thy arms, once more, once only: lower not thy shoulder from my VOL. II. H cheek, to gaze at those features that pleased thee. The sky is serene; the heavens do not frown on us: do they then prepare for us fresh sorrow? Prepare for us! ah me! the word of Jupiter is spoken: our Achilles is discovered: he is borne in the ships, and would have flown faster than they sail, to Troy. Surely there are those among the Gods, or among the Goddesses, who might have forewarned me... and they did not! Were there no omens, no auguries, no dreams, to shake thee from thy security? no priest to prophesy? And what pastures are more beautiful than Larissa's; what victims more stately! PELEUS. Approach with me and touch the altar, O my beloved! and doth not thy finger now impress the soft embers of incense? how often hath it burned, for him, for thee! And the lowings of the herds are audible for their leaders, from the sources of Apidanus and Enipeus to the sea-beach. Priests can foretell but not avert the future; and all they can give us are promises and fears. Despond not, despair not, my long-lost Thetis! Hath not a God led thee back to me? why not hope then he will restore our son? which of them all hath such a child offended? THETIS. Uncertainties worse than uncertainties .. overthrow and overwhelm me. |