Messenger: He has but now returned, and he forebodes
That this going-forth will prove fatal to Ajax.
Tecmessa: Woe's me, alas! From whom has he learned this?
Messenger: From the seer, Thestor's son, this very day,
Which is fraught either with his death or life.
Tecmessa: Ah me, my friends, avert this threatening doom
Speed some of you to hasten Teucer hither:
Others go search the bays, some west, some east,
And track my lord's ill-omened going-forth.
Yes, now I know I have been deceived by him,
And from his former favour quite cast out.
Alas, child, what shall I do? Sit still I must not:
But far as I have strength I too will go.
Let us start quickly-'tis no time for loitering,
If we would save one who is in haste to die.
Leader: I am ready, as not words alone shall prove,
But speed of act and foot to make words good. (The Chorus, Tecmessa
and Messenger go out. The scene changes to a lonely place by the sea-shore.
Bushes and under- brush are in the background. Ajax enters alone.)
Studies
