Cyclops. I were more useful, giving to my friends.

Placing your mighty sides upon the ground.

And in the sun - warm

noon 'Tis sweet to drink. Lie down beside me now,

Cyclops. What do you put the cup behind me for?

Silenus. That no one here may

touch it. Cyclops.

Thievish one! You want to drink;-here place it in the midst.

Cyclops. Pour out, and only give
me the cup full.
Silenus. How is it mixed? let me

observe.

Ulysses. But village mirth breeds contests, broils, and blows. Cyclops. When I am drunk none shall lay hands on me.— Ulysses. A drunken man is better within doors. Cyclops. Cyclops. He is a fool, who drinking, Give it me so. loves not mirth. Silenus. Not till I see you wear That coronal, and taste the cup to you. Cyclops. Thou wily traitor! Silenus.

Curse you!

Ulysses. But he is wise, who drunk,
remains at home.
Cyclops. What shall I do, Silenus?
Shall I stay?

But the wine is sweet. Ay, you will roar if you are caught in drinking.

Silenus. Stay--for what need have
you of pot companions?
Cyclops. Indeed this place is closely
carpeted

With flowers and grass.
Silenus.

Silenus. By Jupiter! you said that
I am fair.

Cyclops. See now, my lip is clean and all my beard.

Silenus. Now put your elbow right
and drink again.
As you see me drink-
Cyclops. How now?
Silenus.

Ye Gods, what a delicious gulp!

Cyclops. Guest, take it;-you pour

Ulysses. Vulcan, Ætnean king! burn out with fire

out the wine for me. Ulysses. The wine is well accus- The shining eye of this thy neighbourtomed to my hand. Pour out the wine!

ing monster!

I pour; only be silent.
Silence is a hard task to
him who drinks.

And thou, O sleep, nursling of gloomy
night,
Descend unmixed on this God-hated
beast,

Ulysses. Take it and drink it off; And suffer not Ulysses and his comrades,
leave not a dreg.
Returning from their famous Trojan
toils,

Oh, that the drinker died with his own draught!

Cyclops.
Ulysses.

Cyclops.

To perish by this man, who cares not either

For God or mortal; or I needs must think

Cyclops. Papai! the vine must be a sapient plant. Ulysses. If you drink much after a mighty feast, That Chance is a supreme divinity, Moistening your thirsty maw, you will And things divine are subject to her sleep well; If you leave aught, Bacchus will dry you

power.

up.

Cyclops. Ho! ho! I can scarce rise.
What pure delight!

The heavens and earth appear to whirl
about

Confusedly. I see the throne of Jove
And the clear congregation of the Gods.
Now if the Graces tempted me to kiss
I would not, for the loveliest of them all
I would not leave this Ganymede.
Silenus.
Polypheme,
I am the Ganymede of Jupiter.

Cyclops. By Jove you are; I bore
you off from Dardanus.

Ulysses and the Chorus

Ulysses. Come, boys of Bacchus,
children of high race,

This man within is folded up in sleep,
And soon will vomit flesh from his fell

maw; The brand under the shed thrusts out its smoke,

No preparation needs, but to burn out The monster's eye;-but bear yourselves like men.

Chorus. We will have courage like the adamant rock,

All things are ready for you here; go in,
Before our father shall perceive the noise.

Chorus
Soon a crab the throat will seize
Of him who feeds upon his guest,
Fire will burn his lamp-like eyes
In revenge of such a feast!
A great oak stump now is lying
In the ashes yet undying.

Come, Maron, come!
Raging let him fix the doom,
Let him tear the eyelid up
Of the Cyclops-that his cup
May be evil!

Oh! I long to dance and revel
With sweet Bromian, long desired,
In loved ivy wreaths attired;
Leaving this abandoned home-
Will the moment ever come?
Ulysses. Be silent, ye wild things!
Nay, hold your peace,

And keep your lips quite close; dare not to breathe,

Or spit, or e'en wink, lest ye wake the monster,

Until his eye be tortured out with fire. Chorus. Nay, we are silent, and we chaw the air.

Ulysses. Come now, and lend a hand to the great stake Within-it is delightfully red hot. Chorus. You then command who first should seize the stake

Cyclops. Ah me! my eyesight is
parched up to cinders.
Chorus. What a sweet pæan! sing
me that again!

Semichorus I.

We are too far, We cannot at this distance from the door Thrust fire into his eye.

Cyclops. Ah me! indeed, what woe has fallen upon me!

Semichorus II. And we just now Have become lame; cannot move hand But wretched nothings, think ye not to or foot.

flee

To burn the Cyclops' eye, that all may share
In the great enterprise.

Chorus. The same thing has occurred to us, our ankles Are sprained with standing here, I know not how.

Ulysses. What, sprained with standing still?

Chorus.
And there is dust
Or ashes in our eyes, I know not whence.
Ulysses. Cowardly dogs! ye will
not aid me then?

Chorus. With pitying my own back
and my back bone,
And with not wishing all my teeth
knocked out,

This cowardice comes of itself-but stay,
I know a famous Orphic incantation
To make the brand stick of its own
accord

Into the skull of this one-eyed son of
Earth.

Ulysses. Of old I knew ye thus by nature; now

I know ye better.-I will use the aid Of my own comrades-yet though weak of hand

Speak cheerfully, that so ye may awaken The courage of my friends with your blithe words.

Chorus. This I will do with peril of
my life,

And blind you with my exhortations,
Cyclops.

Hasten and thrust,

And parch up to dust,
The eye of the beast,
Who feeds on his guest.
Burn and blind
The Etnean hind!
Scoop and draw,

But beware lest he claw

Your limbs near his maw.

Chorus. What are you roaring out,
Cyclops?
Cyclops.
Chorus.
Cyclops.
Chorus. What, did you fall into the
fire when drunk?

I perish!
For you are wicked.

And besides miserable.

Cyclops. 'Twas Nobody destroyed

me. Chorus.

Why then no one

Can be to blame.
Cyclops.

'twas Nobody

Who blinded me.
Chorus.

Why then you are not

blind. Cyclops. I wish you were as blind as I am. Chorus.

Nay,

It cannot be that no one made you blind. Cyclops. You jeer me; where, I ask, is Nobody?

I

Chorus. Nowhere, O Cyclops. Cyclops. It was that stranger ruined me-the wretch

First gave me wine and then burnt out

say

Near the rock itself. I will descend upon the shore, though blind,

Oh, misfortune

I go towards the shore to drive my ship
To mine own land, o'er the Sicilian To

IV. CIRCUMSTANCE

FRAGMENT OF THE ELEGY ON
THE DEATH OF ADONIS

FROM THE GREEK

A MAN who was about to hang himself,
Finding a purse, then threw away his

rope;

The owner, coming to reclaim his pelf,
The halter found and used it. So is
Hope

Changed for Despair-one laid upon the
shelf,

We take the other. Under heaven's high cope

Fortune is God-all you endure and do Her love, her husband calls-the purple Depends on circumstance as much as you.

blood

A deeper Venus bears upon her heart.
See, his beloved dogs are gathering
round-

The Oread nymphs are weeping-
Aphrodite

| With hair unbound is wandering thro'
the woods,
Wildered, ungirt,
thorns pierce

Her hastening feet and drink her sacred
blood.

tooth; he scarce

Yet breathes; and Venus hangs in agony
there.
The dark blood wanders o'er his snowy
limbs,
His eyes beneath their lids are lustreless,
The rose has fled from his wan lips, and
there
That kiss is dead, which Venus gathers
yet.

A deep deep wound Adonis . .

unsandalled - the

-

Bitterly screaming out she is driven on Thro' the long vales; and her Assyrian boy,

From his struck thigh stains her white navel now,

Her bosom, and her neck before like

snow.

Alas for Cytherea-the Loves mourn— The lovely, the beloved is gone-and

now

Her sacred beauty vanishes away.
For Venus whilst Adonis lived was fair-

Alas her loveliness is dead with him.
The oaks and mountains cry Ai! ai!
Adonis !

The

springs their waters change to tears and weep

The

are withered up with

flowers
grief.

The lovely one lies wounded in the
mountains,

Ai! ai!
Echo resounds

Adonis is dead
Adonis dead.

His white thigh struck with the white Who will weep not thy dreadful woe, O

Venus?

Soon as she saw and knew the mortal wound

Of her Adonis-saw the life-blood flow

From his fair thigh, now wasting, wailing loud

Stay,

She clasped him and cried
Adonis !
Stay dearest one,

...

and mix my lips with thineWake yet a while Adonis-oh but once,