Messenger: Woe worth the day! what evil tidings have I brought for
thee, old sire, and for all who love my master! woe is me!
Peleus: Alas! my prophetic soul hath a presentiment.
Messenger: Aged Peleus, hearken! Thy grandson is no more; so grievously
is he smitten by the men of Delphi and the stranger from Mycenae.
Leader: Ah! what wilt thou do, old man? Fall not; uplift thyself.
Peleus: I am a thing of naught; death is come upon me. My voice is
choked, my limbs droop beneath me.
Messenger: Hearken; if thou art eager also to avenge thy friends,
lift up thyself and hear what happened.
Peleus: Ah, destiny! how tightly hast thou caught me in thy toils,
a poor old man at life's extremest verge! But tell me how he was taken
from me, my one son's only child; unwelcome as such news is, I fain
would hear it.
Studies
