PHI.  Fair daylight following sleep, and ye, dear friends,
Faithful beyond all hope in tending me! 
I never could have dreamed that thou, dear youth,
Couldst thus have borne my sufferings and stood near
So full of pity to relieve my pain. 
Not so the worthy generals of the host;—­
This princely patience was not theirs to show. 
Only thy noble nature, nobly sprung,
Made light of all the trouble, though oppressed
With fetid odours and unceasing cries. 
And now, since this my plague would seem to yield
Some pause and brief forgetfulness of pain,
With thine own hand, my son, upraise me here,
And set me on my feet, that, when my strength
After exhaustion shall return again,
We may move shoreward and launch forth with speed.

NEO.  I feel unhoped-for gladness when I see
Thy painless gaze, and hear thy living breath,
For thine appearance and surroundings both
Were deathlike.  But arise!  Or, if thou wilt,
These men shall raise thee.  For they will not shrink
From toil which thou and I at once enjoin.

PHI.  Right, right, my son!  But lift me thine own self,
As I am sure thou meanest.  Let these be,
Lest they be burdened with the noisome smell
Before the time.  Enough for them to bear
The trouble on board.

NEO.  I will; stand up, endure!

PHI.  Fear not.  Old habit will enable me.

NEO.  O me! 
What shall I do?  Now ’tis my turn to exclaim!

PHI.  What canst thou mean?  What change is here, my son?

NEO.  I know not how to shift the troublous word. 
’Tis hopeless.

PHI.  What is hopeless?  Speak not so,
Dear child!

NEO.  But so my wretched lot hath fallen.

PHI.  Ah!  Can it be, the offence of my disease
Hath moved thee not to take me now on board?

NEO.  All is offence to one who hath forced himself
From the true bent to an unbecoming deed.

PHI.  Nought misbecoming to thyself or sire
Doest thou or speak’st, befriending a good man.

NEO.  My baseness will appear.  That wrings my soul.

PHI.  Not in thy deeds.  But for thy words, I fear me!

NEO.  O Heaven!  Must double vileness then be mine
Both shameful silence and most shameful speech?

PHI.  Or my discernment is at fault, or thou
Mean’st to betray me and make voyage without me.

NEO.  Nay, not without thee, there is my distress! 
Lest I convey thee to thy bitter grief.

PHI.  How?  How, dear youth?  I do not understand.

NEO.  Here I unveil it.  Thou art to sail to Troy,
To join the chieftains and the Achaean host.

PHI.  What do I hear?  Ah!

NEO.  Grieve not till you learn.

PHI.  Learn what?  What wilt thou make of me?  What mean’st thou?

NEO.  First to release thee from this plague, and then
With thee to go and take the realm of Troy.