χαρᾷ is right. The objection to the MS. χαρᾶς, which Hermann and Paley keep, is the sense. She means that her tears of joy will be mistaken by Clyt. for tears of sorrow. But if we read “χαρᾶς”, too much stress is laid on that feeling of joy which she is to conceal, and δακρυρροοῦσα then becomes ambiguous; since the words could mean, as Triclinius saw, “οὔποτε παύσομαι τοῦ χαίρειν” (=“χαρᾶς”), “κἂν εἰς δάκρυα ἔλθω” (‘even though I weep’).
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Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part VI: The Electra. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1894.
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