TEU.  O sorest spectacle mine eyes e’er saw! 
Woe for my journey hither, of all ways
Most grievous to my heart, since I was ware,
Dear Aias, of thy doom, and sadly tracked
Thy footsteps.  For there darted through the host,
As from some God, a swift report of thee
That thou wert lost in death.  I, hapless, heard,
And mourned even then for that whose presence kills me. 
Ay me!  But come,
Unveil.  Let me behold my misery. [The corpse of AIAS is uncovered
O sight unbearable!  Cruelly brave! 
Dying, what store of griefs thou sow’st for me! 
Where, amongst whom of mortals, can I go,
That stood not near thee in thy troublous hour? 
Will Telamon, my sire and thine, receive me
With radiant countenance and favouring brow
Returning without thee?  Most like! being one
Who smiles no more[4], yield Fortune what she may. 
Will he hide aught or soften any word,
Rating the bastard of his spear-won thrall,
Whose cowardice and dastardy betrayed
Thy life, dear Aias,—­or my murderous guile,
To rob thee of thy lordship and thy home? 
Such greeting waits me from the man of wrath,
Whose testy age even without cause would storm. 
Last, I shall leave my land a castaway,
Thrust forth an exile, and proclaimed a slave;
So should I fare at home.  And here in Troy
My foes are many and my comforts few. 
All these things are my portion through thy death. 
Woe’s me, my heart! how shall I bear to draw thee,
O thou ill-starr’d! from this discoloured blade,
Thy self-shown slayer?  Didst thou then perceive
Dead Hector was at length to be thine end?—­
I pray you all, consider these two men. 
Hector, whose gift from Aias was a girdle,
Tight-braced therewith to the car’s rim, was dragged
And scarified till he breathed forth his life. 
And Aias with this present from his foe
Finds through such means his death-fall and his doom. 
Say then what cruel workman forged the gifts,
But Fury this sharp sword, Hell that bright band? 
In this, and all things human, I maintain,
Gods are the artificers.  My thought is said. 
And if there be who cares not for my thought,
Let him hold fast his faith and leave me mine.

CH.  Spare longer speech, and think how to secure
Thy brother’s burial, and what plea will serve;
Since one comes here hath no good will to us
And like a villain haply comes in scorn.

TEU.  What man of all the host hath caught thine eye?

CH.  The cause for whom we sailed, the Spartan King.

TEU.  Yes; I discern him, now he moves more near.

Enter MENELAUS.

MENELAUS.  Fellow, give o’er.  Cease tending yon dead man! 
Obey my voice, and leave him where he lies.

TEU.  Thy potent cause for spending so much breath?

MEN.  My will, and his whose word is sovereign here.

TEU.  May we not know the reasons of your will?