Temporary, of course. Those impious Pigs, Who, by frequent squeaks, have dared impugn The settled Swellfoot system, or to make Irreverent mockery of the genuflexions Inculcated by the arch-priest, have been whipped Into a loyal and an orthodox whine.

Things being in this happy state, the Queen

Iona

(A loud cry from the Pigs)

She is innocent, most innocent!

PURGANAX

That is the very thing that I was saying,
Gentlemen Swine; the Queen Iona being
Most innocent, no doubt, returns to Thebes,
And the lean Sows and Boars collect about her,
Wishing to make her think that we believe
(I mean those more substantial Pigs who swill
Rich hog-wash, while the others mouth damp straw)
That she is guilty; thus, the Lean-Pig faction
Seeks to obtain that hog-wash, which has been
Your immemorial right, and which I will
Maintain you in to the last drop of —

A BOAR (interrupting him)

Does any one accuse her of?

What

PURGANAX

Why, no one

Makes any positive accusation; but

There were hints dropped, and so the privy wizards

26 by frequent || by their frequent, Forman conj., Rossetti.

Conceived that it became them to advise

His Majesty to investigate their truth;
Not for his own sake; he could be content
To let his wife play any pranks she pleased,

If, by that sufferance, he could please the
Pigs;

But then he fears the morals of the Swine,

The Sows especially, and what effect

It might produce upon the purity and
Religion of the rising generation

Of sucking Pigs, if it could be suspected
That Queen Iona-

(A pause

FIRST BOAR

Well, go on; we long

To hear what she can possibly have done.

PURGANAX

Why, it is hinted, that a certain Bull

Thus much is known: the milk-white Bulls that

feed

Beside Clitumnus and the crystal lakes

Of the Cisalpine mountains, in fresh dews

Of lotus-grass and blossoming asphodel

Sleeking their silken hair, and with sweet breath

Loading the mourning winds until they faint

With living fragrance, are so beautiful!
Well, I say nothing; but Europa rode
On such a one from Asia into Crete,

And the enamoured sea grew calm beneath
His gliding beauty. And Pasiphaë,

Iona's grandmother,

but she is innocent!

And that both you and I, and all assert.

Scorpions are green, and water-snakes, and efts,
And verdigris, and -

PURGANAX

Honorable Swine,

In Piggish souls can prepossessions reign?
Allow me to remind you, grass is green-
All flesh is grass; no bacon but is flesh
Ye are but bacon. This divining Bag
(Which is not green, but only bacon color)
Is filled with liquor, which if sprinkled o'er
A woman guilty of we all know what -
Makes her so hideous, till she finds one blind

She never can commit the like again;

If innocent, she will turn into an angel

And rain down blessings in the shape of com

fits

As she flies up to heaven. Now, my proposal
Is to convert her sacred Majesty

Into an angel (as I am sure we shall do),
By pouring on her head this mystic water.
[Showing the Bag.

I know that she is innocent; I wish
Only to prove her so to all the world.

FIRST BOAR

Excellent, just, and noble Purganax!

SECOND BOAR

How glorious it will be to see her Majesty
Flying above our heads, her petticoats
Streaming like -like-like—

But like a standard of an admiral's ship,
Or like the banner of a conquering host,
Or like a cloud dyed in the dying day,
Unravelled on the blast from a white mountain;
Or like a meteor, or a war-steed's mane,

Or waterfall from a dizzy precipice
Scattered upon the wind.

FIRST BOAR

Or a cow's tail,

SECOND BOAR

Or anything, as the learned Boar observed.

PURGANAX

Gentlemen Boars, I move a resolution,
That her most sacred Majesty should be
Invited to attend the feast of Famine,
And to receive upon her chaste white body
Dews of apotheosis from this Bag.

[A great confusion is heard, of the Pigs out of Doors, which communicates itself to those within. During the first strophe, the doors of the sty are staved in, and a number of exceedingly lean Pigs and Sows and Boars rush in.

SEMICHORUS I

No! Yes!

SEMICHORUS II

Yes! No!

SEMICHORUS I

A law!

SEMICHORUS II

A flaw!

SEMICHORUS I

Porkers, we shall lose our wash,

Or must share it with the Lean-Pigs!

FIRST BOAR

Order! order! be not rash!
Was there ever such a scene, Pigs!

AN OLD SOW (rushing in)

I never saw so fine a dash

Since I first began to wean Pigs.

SECOND BOAR (solemnly)

The Queen will be an angel time enough.
I vote, in form of an amendment, that
Purganax rub a little of that stuff
Upon his face-