PRAXITHEA.

300

Whence? for thou sayest it is and is not mine.

ERECHTHEUS.

Hear then and know why only of all men I

That bring such news as mine is, I alone

Must wash good words with weeping; I and thou,

Woman, must wail to hear men sing, must groan

To see their joy who love us; all our friends

Save only we, and all save we that love

This holiness of Athens, in our sight

Shall lift their hearts up, in our hearing praise

Gods whom we may not; for to these they give

310

Life of their children, flower of all their seed,

For all their travail fruit, for all their hopes

Harvest; but we for all our good things, we

Have at their hands which fill all these folk full

Death, barrenness, child-slaughter, curses, cares,

Sea-leaguer and land-shipwreck; which of these,

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