MENELAUS.  Away with thee! thou art too faithful to thy masters.

OLD M. An honorable rebuke thou hast rebuked me with!

MEN.  To thy cost shall it be, if thou dost that thou shouldst not do.

OLD M. You have no right to open the letter which I was carrying.

MEN.  Nor shouldst thou bear ills to all the Greeks.

OLD M. Contest this point with others, but give up this [letter] to me.

MEN.  I will not let it go.

OLD M. Nor will I let it go.

MEN.  Then quickly with my sceptre will I make thine head bloody.

OLD M. But glorious it is to die for one’s masters.

MEN.  Let go.  Being a slave, thou speakest too many words.

OLD M. O master, I am wronged, and this man, having snatched thy letter out of my hands, O Agamemnon, is unwilling to act rightly.

MEN.  Ah! what is this tumult and disorder of words?

OLD M. My words, not his, are fittest to speak.[19]

AG.  But wherefore, Menelaus, dost thou come to strife with this man and art dragging him by force?

MEN.  Look at me, that I may take this commencement of my speech.

AG.  What, shall I through fear not open mine eyelids, being born of Atreus?

MEN.  Seest thou this letter, the minister of writings most vile?

AG.  I see it, and do thou first let it go from thy hands.

MEN.  Not, at least, before I show to the Greeks what is written therein.

AG.  What, knowest thou what ’tis unseasonable thou shouldst know, having broken the seal?

MEN.  Ay, so as to pain thee, having unfolded the ills thou hast wrought privily.

AG.  But where didst thou obtain it?  O Gods, for thy shameless heart!

MEN.  Expecting thy daughter from Argos, whether she will come to the army.

AG.  What behooves thee to keep watch upon my affairs?  Is not this the act of a shameless man?

MEN.  Because the will [to do so] teased me, and I am not born thy slave.

AG.  Is it not dreadful?  Shall I not be suffered to be master of my own family?

MEN.  For thou thinkest inconsistently, now one thing, before another, another thing presently.

AG.  Well hast thou talked evil.  Hateful is a too clever tongue.[20]

MEN.  But an unstable mind is an unjust thing to possess, and not clear[21] for friends.  I wish to expostulate with thee, but do not thou in wrath turn away from the truth, nor will I speak overlong.  Thou knowest when thou wast making interest to be leader of the Greeks against Troy—­in seeming indeed not wishing it, but wishing it in will—­how humble thou wast, taking hold of every right hand, and keeping open doors to any of the people that wished, and giving audience to all in turn even if one wished it not, seeking by manners to purchase popularity among the multitude.  But when you obtained the power, changing to different manners, you were no longer