Page:Woman in the Nineteenth Century 1845.djvu/195

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APPENDIX.

189

	Thy child: I was the first that on thy knees
	Fondly caressed thee, and from thee received
	The fond caress: this was thy speech to me:—
	‘Shall I, my child, e'er see thee in some house
	Of splendor, happy in thy husband, live
	And flourish, as becomes my dignity?’
	My speech to thee was, leaning 'gainst thy cheek,
	(Which with my hand I now caress:) ‘And what
	Shall I then do for thee? shall I receive
	My father when grown old, and in my house
	Cheer him with each fond office, to repay
	The careful nurture which he gave my youth?’
	These words are in my memory deep impressed,
	Thou hast forgot them and will kill thy child.”

Then she adjures him by all the sacred ties, and dwells pathetically on the circumstance which had struck even Menelaus.

“	If Paris be enamored of his bride,
	His Helen, what concerns it me? and how
	Comes he to my destruction?
	⁠Look upon me;
	Give me a smile, give me a kiss, my father;
	That if my words persuade thee not, in death
	I may have this memorial of thy love.”

Never have the names of father and daughter been uttered with a holier tenderness than by Euripides, as in this most lovely passage, or in the “Supplicants,” after the voluntary death of Evadne; Iphis says

“	What shall this wretch now do? Should I return
	To my own house? — sad desolation there
	I shall behold, to sink my soul with grief.
	Or go I to the house of Capaneus?
	That was delightful to me, when I found
	My daughter there; but she is there no more:
	Oft would she kiss my cheek, with fond caress
	Oft toothe me. To a father, waxing old,
	Nothing is dearer than a daughter! sons
	Have spirits of higher pitch, but less inclined

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