Orestes monologue — Iphigenia in Tauris

Have then the powers above selected me To be the herald of a dreadful deed, Which, in the drear and soundless realms of night, I fain would hide for ever? 'Gainst my will Thy gentle voice constrains me; it demands, And shall receive, a tale of direst woe. Electra, on the day when fell her sire, Her brother from impending doom conceal'd; Him Strophius, his father's relative, With kindest care receiv'd, and rear'd the child With his own son, named Pylades, who soon Around the stranger twin'd the bonds of love. And as they grew, within their inmost souls There sprang the burning longing to revenge The monarch's death. Unlookd for, and disguis'd, They reach Mycene, feigning to have brought The mournful tidings of Orestes' death, Together with his ashes. Them the queen Gladly receives. Within the house they enter; Orestes to Electra shows himself: She fans the fires of vengeance into flame, Which in the sacred presence of a mother Had burn'd more dimly. Silently she leads Her brother to the spot where fell their sire; Where lurid blood-marks, on the oft-wash'd floor, With pallid streaks, anticipate revenge. With fiery eloquence she pictures forth Each circumstance of that atrocious deed,-- Her own oppress'd and miserable life, The prosperous traitor's insolent demeanour, The perils threat'ning Agamemnon's race From her who had become their stepmother; Then in his hand the ancient dagger thrusts, Which often in the house of Tantalus With savage fury rag'd,--and by her son Is Clytemnestra slain.