firmly will be ratified:
Lightly of human prophecies I deem. {438}

[_Orestes and his attendants enter the house._]

_Electra_ is in a quandary at the idea of people of such rank being
invited into her humble cottage.

_Peas._ Why not? If they are noble, as their port
Denotes them, will they not alike enjoy
Contentment, be their viands mean or rich?

The only device Electra can think of is to send to an old servant of
her father's house--the same who, as Tutor, preserved the child Orestes
on the fatal night--now an aged herdsman forced to hide himself in
obscurity, and ask him to help them in this emergency. _Exit Peasant
to the fields to find the old Tutor; Electra into the cottage_. {474}

CHORAL INTERLUDE I

apostrophises the array of ships that went to the Trojan war, the great
chiefs who commanded, especially Achilles, whose shield they have seen,
with its Gorgons, and Sphinxes, and Hermes in flight, and other
wondrous figures--suddenly at the end connects itself with the subject
of the play by the thought: it was the Prince who commanded heroes like
these that a wicked wife dared to slay! {530}

EPISODE II

_Enter from the fields the Aged Tutor, tottering under the weight of a
kid and other viands, clad in rags, and in tears_. _Electra_ wonders
why he weeps: to mourn for Agamemnon or Orestes is surely now to mourn
in vain.

_Tut._ In vain; but this my soul could not support; {553}
For to his tomb as on the way I came,
I turned aside, and falling on the ground,
Alone and unobserved, indulg'd my tears;
Then of the wine, brought for thy stranger guests,
Made a libation, and around the tomb
Plac'd myrtle branches; on the pyre I saw
A sable ewe, yet fresh the victim's blood,
And clust'ring auburn locks shorn from some head;
I marvell'd, O my child, what man had dar'd
Approach the tomb, for this no Argive dares.
Perchance with secret step thy brother came
And paid these honors to his father's tomb.
But view these locks, compare them with thine own,
Whether like thine their color; nature loves
In those who from one father draw their blood
In many points a likeness to preserve.
_Elec._ Unworthy of a wise man are thy words,
If thou canst think that to M