for me?  O cruel remembrance of my bygone glory!  O work of a lifetime [lit. so many days] effaced in a day! new dignity fatal to my happiness! lofty precipice from which mine honor falls! must I see the count triumph over your splendor, and die without vengeance, or live in shame?  Count, be now the instructor of my prince!  This high rank becomes [lit. admits] no man without honor, and thy jealous pride, by this foul [lit. remarkable] insult, in spite of the choice of the king, has contrived [lit. has known how] to render me unworthy of it.  And thou, glorious instrument of my exploits, but yet a useless ornament of an enfeebled body numbed by age [lit. all of ice], thou sword, hitherto to be feared, and which in this insult has served me for show, and not for defence, go, abandon henceforth the most dishonored [lit. the last] of his race; pass, to avenge me, into better hands!

Scene VI.—­DON DIEGO and DON RODRIGO.

Don Diego. Rodrigo, hast thou courage [lit. a heart]?

Don Rodrigo. Any other than my father would have found that out instantly.

Don Diego. Welcome wrath! worthy resentment, most pleasing to my grief!  I recognize my blood in this noble rage; my youth revives in this ardor so prompt.  Come, my son, come, my blood, come to retrieve my shame—­come to avenge me!

Don Rodrigo. Of what?

Don Diego. Of an insult so cruel that it deals a deadly stroke against the honor of us both—­of a blow!  The insolent [man] would have lost his life for it, but my age deceived my noble ambition; and this sword, which my arm can no longer wield, I give up to thine, to avenge and punish.  Go against this presumptuous man, and prove thy valor:  it is only in blood that one can wash away such an insult; die or slay.  Moreover, not to deceive thee, I give thee to fight a formidable antagonist [lit. a man to be feared], I have seen him entirely covered with blood and dust, carrying everywhere dismay through an entire army.  I have seen by his valor a hundred squadrons broken; and, to tell thee still something more—­more than brave soldier, more than great leader, he is——­

Don Rodrigo. Pray, finish.

Don Diego. The father of Chimene.

Don Rodrigo. The——­

Don Diego. Do not reply; I know thy love.  But he who lives dishonored is unworthy of life; the dearer the offender the greater the offence.  In short, thou knowest the insult, and thou holdest [in thy grasp the means of] vengeance.  I say no more to thee.  Avenge me, avenge thyself!  Show thyself a son worthy of a father such as I [am].  Overwhelmed by misfortunes to which destiny reduces me, I go to deplore them.  Go, run, fly, and avenge us!

Scene VII.—­DON RODRIGO.

Pierced even to the depth [or, bottom of the heart] by a blow unexpected as well as deadly, pitiable avenger of a just quarrel and unfortunate object of an unjust severity, I remain motionless, and my dejected soul yields to the blow which is slaying me.  So near seeing my love requited!  O heaven, the strange pang [or, difficulty]!  In this insult my father is the person aggrieved, and the aggressor is the father of Chimene!