Nurse: Help! ho! To the rescue all who near the palace stand! She
hath hung herself, our queen, the wife of Theseus.
Leader of the Chorus: Woe worth the day! the deed is done; our royal
mistress is no more, dead she hangs in the dangling noose.
Nurse: Haste! some one bring a two-edged knife wherewith to cut the
knot about her neck.
First Semi-Chorus: Friends, what shall we do? think you we should
enter the house, and loose the queen from the tight-drawn noose?
Second Semi-Chorus: Why should we? Are there not young servants here?
To do too much is not a safe course in life.
Nurse: Lay out the hapless corpse, straighten the limbs. This was
a bitter way to sit at home and keep my master's house! (She goes
in.)
Leader of the Chorus: She is dead, poor lady; 'tis this I hear. Already
are they laying out the corpse. (Theseus and his retinue have entered, unnoticed.)
Studies
