Hippolytus; The Bacchae Part 13

PENTHEUS And comest thou first to Thebes, to have thy G.o.d Established?

DIONYSUS Nay; all Barbary hath trod His dance ere this.

PENTHEUS A low blind folk, I ween, Beside our h.e.l.lenes!

DIONYSUS Higher and more keen In this thing, though their ways are not thy way.

PENTHEUS How is thy worship held, by night or day?

DIONYSUS Most oft by night; 'tis a majestic thing, The darkness.

PENTHEUS Ha! with women worshipping?

'Tis craft and rottenness!

DIONYSUS By day no less, Whoso will seek may find unholiness--

PENTHEUS Enough! Thy doom is fixed, for false pretence Corrupting Thebes.

DIONYSUS Not mine; but thine, for dense Blindness of heart, and for blaspheming G.o.d!

PENTHEUS A ready knave it is, and brazen-browed, This mystery-priest!

DIONYSUS Come, say what it shall be, My doom; what dire thing wilt thou do to me?

PENTHEUS First, shear that delicate curl that dangles there.

[_He beckons to the soldiers, who approach_ DIONYSUS.]

DIONYSUS I have vowed it to my G.o.d; 'tis holy hair.

[_The soldiers cut off the tress_.]

PENTHEUS Next, yield me up thy staff!

DIONYSUS Raise thine own hand To take it. This is Dionysus' wand.

[PENTHEUS _takes the staff_.]

PENTHEUS Last, I will hold thee prisoned here.

DIONYSUS My Lord G.o.d will unloose me, when I speak the word.

PENTHEUS He may, if e'er again amid his bands Of saints he hears thy voice!

DIONYSUS Even now he stands Close here, and sees all that I suffer.

PENTHEUS What?

Where is he? For mine eyes discern him not.

DIONYSUS Where I am! 'Tis thine own impurity That veils him from thee.

PENTHEUS The dog jeers at me!

At me and Thebes! Bind him!

[_The soldiers begin to bind him_.]

DIONYSUS I charge ye, bind Me not! I having vision and ye blind!

PENTHEUS And I, with better right, say bind the more!

[_The soldiers obey_.]

DIONYSUS Thou knowest not what end thou seekest, nor What deed thou doest, nor what man thou art!

PENTHEUS (_mocking_) Agave's son, and on the father's part Echion's, hight Pentheus!

DIONYSUS So let it be, A name fore-written to calamity!

PENTHEUS Away, and tie him where the steeds are tied; Aye, let him lie in the manger!--There abide And stare into the darkness!--And this rout Of womankind that cl.u.s.ters thee about, Thy ministers of worship, are my slaves!

It may be I will sell them o'er the waves, Hither and thither; else they shall be set To labour at my distaffs, and forget Their timbrel and their songs of dawning day!

DIONYSUS I go; for that which may not be, I may Not suffer! Yet for this thy sin, lo, He Whom thou deniest cometh after thee For recompense. Yea, in thy wrong to us, Thou hast cast Him into thy prison-house!

[DIONYSUS, _without his wand, his hair shorn, and his arms tightly bound, is led off by the guards to his dungeon._ PENTHEUS _returns into the Palace._]

CHORUS

_Some Maidens_ Achelous' roaming daughter, Holy Dirce, virgin water, Bathed he not of old in thee, The Babe of G.o.d, the Mystery?

When from out the fire immortal To himself his G.o.d did take him, To his own flesh, and bespake him: "Enter now life's second portal, Motherless Mystery; lo, I break Mine own body for thy sake, Thou of the Twofold Door, and seal thee Mine, O Bromios,"--thus he spake-- "And to this thy land reveal thee."

_All_ Still my prayer toward thee quivers, Dirce, still to thee I hie me; Why, O Blessed among Rivers, Wilt thou fly me and deny me?

By His own joy I vow, By the grape upon the bough, Thou shalt seek Him in the midnight, thou shalt love Him, even now!

_Other Maidens_ Dark and of the dark impa.s.sioned Is this Pentheus' blood; yea, fashioned Of the Dragon, and his birth From Echion, child of Earth.

He is no man, but a wonder; Did the Earth-Child not beget him, As a red Giant, to set him Against G.o.d, against the Thunder?

He will bind me for his prize, Me, the Bride of Dionyse; And my priest, my friend, is taken Even now, and buried lies; In the dark he lies forsaken!

_All_ Lo, we race with death, we perish, Dionysus, here before thee!

Dost thou mark us not, nor cherish, Who implore thee, and adore thee?

Hither down Olympus' side, Come, O Holy One defied, Be thy golden wand uplifted o'er the tyrant in his pride!

_A Maiden_ Oh, where art thou? In thine own Nysa, thou our help alone?

O'er fierce beasts in orient lands Doth thy thronging thyrsus wave, By the high Corycian Cave, Or where stern Olympus stands; In the elm-woods and the oaken, There where Orpheus harped of old, And the trees awoke and knew him, And the wild things gathered to him, As he sang amid the broken Glens his music manifold?

Dionysus loveth thee; Blessed Land of Pierie, He will come to thee with dancing, Come with joy and mystery; With the Maenads at his hest Winding, winding to the West; Cross the flood of swiftly glancing Axios in majesty; Cross the Lydias, the giver Of good gifts and waving green; Cross that Father-Stream of story, Through a land of steeds and glory Rolling, bravest, fairest River E'er of mortals seen!

A VOICE WITHIN Io! Io!

Awake, ye damsels; hear my cry, Calling my Chosen; hearken ye!

A MAIDEN Who speaketh? Oh, what echoes thus?

ANOTHER A Voice, a Voice, that calleth us!

THE VOICE Be of good cheer! Lo, it is I, The Child of Zeus and Semele.

A MAIDEN O Master, Master, it is Thou!