Tragedies

TRAGEDIES

By SENECA

Translated by ELLA ISABEL HARRIS

Tragedies

By Seneca

Translated by Ella Isabel Harris

Print ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-6697-8

eBook ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-6698-5

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Cover Image: a detail of Oedipus and Antigone or The Plague of Thebes (oil on canvas), by Charles Francois Jalabert (1819-1901) / Bridgeman Images.

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CONTENTS

PREFACE

MAD HERCULES

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

ACT I

ACT II

ACT III

ACT IV

ACT V

THE DAUGHTERS OF TROY

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

ACT I

ACT II

ACT III

ACT IV

ACT V

THE PHOENICIAN WOMEN

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

ACT I

ACT II

ACT III

ACT IV

MEDEA

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

ACT I

ACT II

ACT III

ACT IV

ACT V

PHAEDRA

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

ACT I

ACT II

ACT III

ACT IV

ACT V

OEDIPUS

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

ACT I

ACT II

ACT III

ACT IV

ACT V

AGAMEMNON

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

ACT I

ACT II

ACT III

ACT IV

ACT V

THYESTES

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

ACT I

ACT II

ACT III

ACT IV

ACT V

HERCULES ON OETA

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

ACT I

ACT II

ACT III

ACT IV

ACT V

OCTAVIA

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

ACT I

ACT II

ACT III

ACT IV

ACT V

TO PROFESSOR

ALBERT STANBURROUGH COOK

WITH GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF WHAT IT OWES TO HIS CRITICAL SCHOLARSHIP AND LITERARY INSIGHT, THIS TRANSLATION IS DEDICATED BY THE TRANSLATOR

PREFACE

The student of the English drama finds constant allusion to the influence of Seneca upon the development of English tragedy, but he seldom has such command of Latin as will enable him freely to study Seneca in the original; and should he seek a firsthand knowledge of the Senecan plays and of the nature of their influence, a difficulty is at once presented by the fact that for many years there has been no English translation available, the old translations of 1581 and 1702 having been long out of print. It was my own sense of the need of a sufficiently literal and otherwise adequate translation of the Roman tragedies, while I was engaged in the study and teaching of the later drama, that occasioned the present translation.

In undertaking the work, I was at once met by the question of form. Should the translation be in prose or verse? If in verse, should any attempt be made to render the lyric measures of the choruses? The first question was easily answered, since blank verse has long been accepted as a fairly adequate rendering of the rhythm found in the dramatic portions of the tragedies, and has besides the advantage of being the poetic form most acceptable to English ears for dramatic compositions. The second question was not so easily answered. Ideally the choruses should have been rendered in lyric form; and it was with some regret that the decision was reached that this task was beyond the translator’s poetic power, and that blank verse must be retained throughout, or the whole marred by an unsuccessful attempt to transfer into the English the lyric measures of the Latin.

Leo’s text is the basis of the present translation, and has on the whole been closely followed, though other readings have occasionally been preferred when the change commended itself to the translator’s judgment. It has seemed best not to burden the translation with notes, since it is intended rather for the student of Seneca as an influence on modern drama than of Seneca for himself. For the same reason, any historical or critical introduction, such as those accompanying the volumes of Way’s Euripides, has been omitted.

In my work of translation I have to acknowledge my indebtedness to Dr. Albert S. Cook of Yale University, to whom this book is dedicated, and who from its inception has helped me with encouragement and criticism: without his aid and that of my sister, Dr. M. Anstice Harris, of Elmira College, it is doubtful whether the work would have been completed. I have also to express my thanks to those who were good enough to criticize the translation from the point of view of the erudite Latinist: to Dr. Robert S. Radford, of Elmira College, for the examination of The Trojans and Medea; to Dr. Hugh M. Kingery, of Wabash College, for the examination of The Mad Hercules and Hercules on Oeta; to Dr. Mortimer Lamson Earle, of Columbia University, for the examination of Oedipus; and to Dr. Charles Knapp, also of Columbia University, for the examination of Phaedra and Thyestes. Dr. Charles G. Osgood and Dr. Robert K. Root, of Yale University, have also assisted me with criticism and suggestion.

Two of the plays, Medea and The Trojans, were published upon their completion by Messrs. Lamson, Wolffe and Company, the copyright later passing into the hands of Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin and Company, who, upon the approval of Professor Palmer of Harvard University, brought these two plays out as the second in a series of translations inaugurated by Professor Palmer’s translation of the Antigone of Sophocles. The translations of the other plays included in this volume are now published for the first time.

E. I. H.

The Cottage, Martinsburg, New York:

July 18, 1904.

MAD HERCULES

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

HERCULES.

AMPHITRYON.

LYCUS.

THESEUS.

JUNO.

MEGARA.

THE CHILDREN OF HERCULES.

CHORUS OF THEBANS.

SCENE: Thebes.

ACT I

SCENE I

Juno, alone.

The Thunderer’s sister, for that name alone

Is left me, widowed, I am driven forth

From heaven’s heights and ever-faithless Jove;

Forced from the sky, have giv’n to concubines

5      My place, must dwell on earth while they hold heaven.

High in the zenith of the icy north

The star Arcturus guides the Argive fleet;

There where the day grows long with early spring,

The bull that bore away the Tyrian maid

10     Shines o’er the waves; there the Atlantides,

Aimlessly roaming, feared by ships at sea,

Rise, and Orion, threatening with his sword,

Affrights the gods; there golden Perseus gleams;

There shines the constellation of the twins,

15     The bright Tyndaridæ—for birth of these

The floating land stood still. And not alone

Do Bacchus and his mother dwell with gods:

Lest any place be free from infamy,

The sky must wear the Gnosian maiden’s crown.

20     But these are ancient griefs that we lament;

How often has the single land of Thebes,

Harsh and detested, full of impious ones,

Made me a stepdame! Jupiter permits

Victorious Alcmena to ascend

25     The skies and hold my place; the promised star

May be the habitation of her son,—

The world at his creation lost a day,

And Phœbus, bidden hold his light concealed

In ocean, slowly lit the western sky.

30     My hatred will not lightly die away,

Enduring anger stirs my wrathful soul;

Anger shall banish peace, my bitter rage

Shall wage eternal war. What war remains?

All fearful things the hostile earth brings forth,

35     Whatever dreadful, savage, harsh, or wild,

Or pestilential thing the sea or air

Creates, has been subdued and overthrown;

He conquers, waxes strong through ills, enjoys

Our anger, into glory turns our hate,

40     And I, in setting all too heavy tasks,

Increase his glory, prove him son of Jove.

Where with near torch the sun at rise and set

Touches at east and west the Ethiop’s land,

Fame of his valor spreads, and all the world

45     Proclaim him god; already monsters fail.

A lighter task it is for Hercules

To do my bidding than for me to bid,—

With joy he undertakes to do my will.

What harsh or tyrannous decree can harm

50     This dauntless youth? The things he feared and slew

He bears as weapons, panoplied he comes

With hydra’s spoil and lion’s. Lands enough

Do not lie open, he has burst apart

Th’ infernal monarch’s portals, brought to light

55     The wealth of Hades’ conquered king; I saw,

Myself I saw him at his father’s feet

Lay down the spoils he snatched from night, and death,

And vanquished Dis. Why leads he not in chains

Him who by lot was equal made with Jove?

60     Why rules he not in conquered Erebus?

Why lays he not the Stygian kingdom bare?

’Tis not enough that he returns again,

The federation of the world of shades

Is broken, from the lowest depths a path

65     Leads upward for return, the secret ways

Of cruel death are opened. Ah! and he,

Bold since he burst the prison of the shades,

Now triumphs over me and proudly leads

Through Argive towns the fierce black dog of hell.

70     I’ve seen the day at sight of Cerberus

Fail and the sun grow fearful, terror woke

In me as well, I saw the threefold head

Of Pluto’s vanquished monster, and I feared

Because I had commanded. But too long

75     I linger, grieving over petty ills;

I needs must fear for heav’n, lest he who took

Hell captive should be master of the skies,

And snatch the scepter from his father’s hand.

He seeks no quiet pathway to the stars,

80     As Bacchus did, through ruin he would make

His way, would govern in an empty world.

Tried strength he boasts, by bearing up the sky

Learned that he might have gained it by his might:

Upon his head he bore the world nor bent

85     Beneath the burden of its mighty mass;

Lightly upon the neck of Hercules

The vault of heaven rested, on his back

He bore th’ unshaken stars, the sky, yea, bore

My weight down-pressing. To the realms above

90     He seeks a path. Up vengeance, up and strike—

Strike him who meditates such wondrous deeds;

Join battle with him, with thine own hand strive,

Why delegate thy wrath? Wild beasts may go,

Eurystheus, wearied, cease to give new toils.

95     Let loose the Titans who dared storm Jove’s realm,

Lay wide the hollow peak of Sicily,

Let Doria, trembling underneath the blows,

Set free the buried monster—but him too

Alcides conquered; dost thou seek to find

100   Alcides’ peer? There is none but himself.

Alcides now must war against himself.

From lowest depths of Tartarus called forth,

Come, Furies, from your flaming locks, spread fire,

And wield with cruel hand your serpent scourge.

105   Go, proud one, seek thyself a seat in heaven

And scorn thy human lot. Dost thou believe

The gloomy shades and Styx are left behind?

Here will I show thee hell; will call again

Discord from where she lies in deepest gloom,