What captain dost thou see?

Menelaus, he at whose behest we sailed.

’Tis he, not hard to recognise thus near.

Stop, sirrah, bear no hand in raising up

The corse, I charge thee; leave it where it lies.

Wherefore dost waste thy breath in these proud words?

Such is my will and the great general’s will.

On what pretence? wilt please to tell us that?

Hear then. We thought to bring from Salamis

For Greeks a friend and firm ally, but found him

On trial worse than any Phrygian foe;

Who plotted death and sallied forth by night

’Gainst the whole host, to slay us with the spear;

And had some god not intervened to foil

This enterprise, his fate had now been ours,

To perish by an ignominious death,

While he had now been living. But a god

Turned his blind malice on the flocks and herds.

Thus hath he done, and no man shall prevail

By might to lay his body in the tomb.