Who can tell me what caused the fatal stroke that reached thy heart, dear wife? Will no one tell me what befell? doth my palace all in vain give shelter to a herd of menials? Woe, woe for thee, my wife! sorrows past speech, past bearing, I behold within my house; myself a ruined man, my home a solitude, my children orphans!ChorusGoneLines 848-851 attributed to Theseus in the Greek. and left us hast thou, fondest wife and noblest of all women ’neath the sun’s bright eye or night’s star-lit radiance.Reading with Jacobs, whom Nauck follows, ἀστεπωπὸν σέλας.

ChorusPoor house, what sorrows are thy portion now! My eyes are wet with streams of tears to see thy fate; but the sequel to this tragedy has long with terror filled me.TheseusHa! what means this letter? clasped in her dear hand it hath some strange tale to tell. Hath she, poor lady, as a last request, written her bidding as to my marriage and her children? Take heart, poor ghost; no wife henceforth shall wed thy Theseus or invade his house. Ah! how yon seal of my dead wife stamped with her golden ring affects my sight! Come, I will unfold the sealed packet and read her letter’s message to me.

ChorusWoe unto us! Here is yet another evil in the train by heaven sent. Looking to what has happened, I should count my lot in life no longer worth one’s while to gain.This passage, as it stands, is unintelligible and corrupt. Paley attempts to extract meaning by changing μὲν into γ’ ἄν, but the result is not very satisfactory. My master’s house, alas! is ruined, brought to naught, I say. Nauck brackets the following three lines as spurious.Spare it, O Heaven, if it may be. Hearken to my prayer, for I see, as with prophetic eye, an omen boding 
mischief.TheseusO horror! woe on woe!