Thee to our native land will I conduct,

If not, lie stretcht beside thee in the grave.
Hear my opinion; if to chaste Diana

Our project had given umbrage, why should Phoebus.
Command me, by an oracle, to bear
The image of that Goddess to the city.
Where Pallas is ador'd, or suffer me
Thy face, my dearest Sister, to behold?
From every circumstance together weigh'd,
I trust that we with safety shall return.

IPHIGENIA.'

How can we 'scape from death, and how attain
The object of our wishes? O reflect,

Whether a voyage homeward on such terms
Be feasible: my zeal indeed is great.

ORESTES.

Shall we be able to dispatch the King?

IPHIGENIA.

There's danger in the scheme you have propos'd, For foreigners to slay their royal host.

ORESTES.

But if 'twill save us both, we ought to face

The danger..

IPHIGENIA.

This I cannot do; yet praise

Your enterprising spirit.

ORESTES.

In the fane,

Suppose thou place me from all eyes conceal'd.

IPHIGENIA..!

That we, when darkness favours, may escape.

n, Mr. Markland xalos into un'ulos; but Dr. Musgrave, who justly observes that the sense hereby becomes exactly the same with nos xardaruv mera in the next line, has (as appears to me) more happily substituted in his note to yɛ, for x' autos, and rendered this passage si res hic bene ceciderint, which at once removes the inconsistency of the antient reading, and the tautology of some later editors who have made injudicious attempts to correct it.

ORESTES.

Night is the season fit for treacherous deeds; But truth prefers the clearest beams of day.

IPHIGENIA.

Priests watch within; nor can we hope t' elude Their vigilance.

ORESTES.

We utterly are ruin'd!

Alas! what hope of safety yet remains ? ̈

IPHIGENIA.

A fresh discovery I methinks have made.

ORESTES.

What mean'st thou? tell me, for I wish to know

Thy projects.

IPHIGENIA.

To deceive them, of your woes (28)

Will I avail myself.

ORESTES.

Sure women frame

Their stratagems with most surprising art.

IPHIGENIA.

That, having slain your Mother, I will say, You hither fled from Argos.

ORESTES.

Make what use

Thou canst of my afflictions, if in aught

They serve thy interests.

IPHIGENIA.

Nor is it allow'd

To offer up such victims to the Goddess.

(28) The reading of avouas, furore, was so harsh and ill-suited to the context, that Brodæus renders it culpâ ac crimine, Carmelli attempts to reconcile him and Barnes, by saying, in his note, furores erant mala ex crimine profecta: but these palliations are now become needless, as Mr. Markland and Dr. Musgrave have established avais, infortunio, on the authority of three manuscripts: and what follows shews that Iphigenia had not the least intention to avail herself of the madness, but of the misfortunes of her Brother.

To you with stedfast hope I raise my eyes,
On you depends it whether I with bliss

Shall be attended, or reduc'd to nothing,
Torn from my country, from my Brother torn,
And this our (31) Kinsman. Thus begins my speech.
Since we are women, prone to mutual love,
And stedfast in the cause of our whole sex,
My schemes divulge not, and with generous zeal
Conspire to aid my flight. The tongue deserves
Great praise when with fidelity endued.
But mark how Fortune, by one single act,
To our paternal regions may restore,
Or visit with immediate death, us three
The dearest friends. But if I hence escape,
That you in our prosperity may share,
Hence will waft you to the Grecian coast,
But O, by friendship's plighted hand, those cheeks,
Those knees, and every fond connection left
At your own homes, by Mother, hoary Sire,
And Children, if among you there are those
Who boast the name of Parent; I implore
Both you, and you, and all. Reply, who grants,
Or who rejects my prayer? if ye consent not
To aid the scheme I have propos'd, myself
And my unhappy Brother too must perish.

(31) The expression of T5 T85 piλtatus, five lines lower, leaves little room to doubt that the word cuyo relates to Pylades, and is properly translated by Barnes cognato; but Mr. Markland and Dr. Musgrave are of opinion, that it ought to be understood of Orestes, and rendered fratre, in order to effect which, they are forced to alter pi ad, in the beginning of the line, into pins adixons, and apply it to Electra. Euferos, no doubt, signifies either " a Brother" or 66 a Kinsnan," and in the interpretation of ambiguous words, every man is at liberty to choose for himself, without violating the context; but a double alteration, without the smallest authority quoted in its support, merely for the sake of twisting the version according to it, will naturally incur the strongest suspicions of being erroneous.

CHORUS.

Take courage; the sole object of thy care Be thy own safety, O my dearest mistress': The secret which to me thou hast entrusted, Shall never be reveal'd: (32) imperial Jove I call to witness.

IPHIGENIA.

you

May each bliss attend
These generous words! It now behovés
To go into the temple: for the King
Of these domains will in a moment come,
To make enquiry if these foreign youths
Are sacrific'd. Most venerable Goddess,
Who erst, at Aulis' winding bay didst snatch
Thy votary from a Father's cruel arm
Uplifted to destroy me, now protect
Both me and these; else will Apollo's voice
Thro' thee by mortals be no more esteem'd
For its veracity. But O depart

With us from these abhorr'd Barbarian realms
Propitious, and to Athens speed thy course:
For here it ill becomes thee to reside,
When that blest city opens wide the gates
Of holier fanes impatient to receive thee.

both

[Exeunt IPHIGENIA, ORESTES, and PYLADES.

(32) Lord Roscommon, in a note on "ille tegat commissa," subjoined to his translation of Horace's Art of Poetry, observes, that the rule is not so general but it may admit of some exception; and after equally blaming the Corinthian women for concealing Medea's murder of her children, and the Chorus in Ion for betraying the secret of Xutaus to Creusa, adds; "but I can much less forgive Euripides for the "treachery committed in Iphigenia in Tauris; the Chorus is composed " of Grecian women, and this Princess begs them to tell nobody or her "plan to carry off the statue of Diana, promising to take them with "her. The women are faithful to her, and yet she flies away alone with "Orestes, and abandons them to the rage of Thoas, who would cer"tainly have severely punished them, had not Minerva came to their "deliverance."

CHORUS.

OD E.

I. 1.

O restless bird, in midway air
Still hovering round where pointed cliffs arise,
Thy song, fond Halcyon, to the wise,
For Ceyx' death, expresses thy despair.
With wings unfurnish'd, yet to thee
Justly compar'd for hopeless woe,

The peopled realms of Greece I long to see,
Long to attend Diana, who the bow

On Cynthus twangs, long for the shade
The palm and laurel's foliage braid,
Which on the sacred mountain grows
Luxuriant, and the olive's vernal bloom
Diffusing o'er the lake a rich perfume,

Where from the dying Swan th' harmonious cadence flows.

I. 2.

Adown my cheeks stream'd many a tear, When rapine's sons, an unrelenting band, The turrets of our native land

O'erthrew with conquering fleet and hostile spear: Sold for a price I hither came,

Where curst Barbarian laws prevail,

By Iphigenia with indignant shame
Employ'd in tasks which shuddering I bewail:
To her whose shafts transfix the hind,
Here human victims are consign'd,

And here I still bemoan my wretched state.
There are who to affliction long inur'd,
Till fortune change, its burden have endur'd,
But sorrows after bliss embitter man's hard fate.