Hippolytus; The Bacchae Part 14

ANOTHER O Holy Voice, be with us now!

THE VOICE Spirit of the Chained Earthquake, Hear my word; awake, awake!

[_An Earthquake suddenly shakes the pillars of the Castle._]

A MAIDEN Ha! what is coming? Shall the hall Of Pentheus racked in ruin fall?

LEADER Our G.o.d is in the house! Ye maids adore Him!

CHORUS We adore Him all!

THE VOICE Unveil the Lightning's eye; arouse The fire that sleeps, against this house!

[_Fire leaps upon the Tomb of Semele._]

A MAIDEN Ah, saw ye, marked ye there the flame From Semele's enhallowed sod Awakened? Yea, the Death that came Ablaze from heaven of old, the same Hot splendour of the shaft of G.o.d?

LEADER Oh cast ye, cast ye, to the earth! The Lord Cometh against this house! Oh, cast ye down, Ye trembling damsels; He, our own adored, G.o.d's Child hath come, and all is overthrown!

[_The Maidens cast themselves upon the ground, their eyes earthward._ DIONYSUS, _alone and unbound, enters from the Castle._]

DIONYSUS Ye Damsels of the Morning Hills, why lie ye thus dismayed?

Ye marked him, then, our Master, and the mighty hand he laid On tower and rock, shaking the house of Pentheus?--But arise, And cast the trembling from your flesh, and lift untroubled eyes.

LEADER O Light in Darkness, is it thou? O Priest, is this thy face?

My heart leaps out to greet thee from the deep of loneliness.

DIONYSUS Fell ye so quick despairing, when beneath the Gate I pa.s.sed?

Should the gates of Pentheus quell me, or his darkness make me fast?

LEADER Oh, what was left if thou wert gone? What could I but despair?

How hast thou 'scaped the man of sin? Who freed thee from the snare?

DIONYSUS I had no pain nor peril; 'twas mine own hand set me free.

LEADER Thine arms were gyved!

DIONYSUS Nay, no gyve, no touch, was laid on me!

'Twas there I mocked him, in his gyves, and gave him dreams for food.

For when he laid me down, behold, before the stall there stood A Bull of Offering. And this King, he bit his lips and straight Fell on and bound it, hoof and limb, with gasping wrath and sweat.

And I sat watching!--Then a Voice; and lo, our Lord was come, And the house shook, and a great flame stood o'er his mother's tomb.

And Pentheus hied this way and that, and called his thralls amain For water, lest his roof-tree burn; and all toiled, all in vain.

Then deemed a-sudden I was gone; and left his fire, and sped Back to the prison portals, and his lifted sword shone red.

But there, methinks, the G.o.d had wrought--I speak but as I guess-- Some dream-shape in mine image; for he smote at emptiness, Stabbed in the air, and strove in wrath, as though 'twere me he slew.

Then 'mid his dreams G.o.d smote him yet again! He overthrew All that high house. And there in wreck for evermore it lies, That the day of this my bondage may be sore in Pentheus' eyes!

And now his sword is fallen, and he lies outworn and wan Who dared to rise against his G.o.d in wrath, being but man.

And I uprose and left him, and in all peace took my path Force to my Chosen, recking light of Pentheus and his wrath.

But soft, methinks a footstep sounds even now within the hall; 'Tis he; how think ye he will stand, and what words speak withal?

I will endure him gently, though he come in fury hot.

For still are the ways of Wisdom, and her temper trembleth not!

[_Enter_ PENTHEUS _in fury_]

PENTHEUS It is too much! This Eastern knave hath slipped His prison, whom I held but now, hard gripped In bondage.--Ha! 'Tis he!--What, sirrah, how Show'st thou before my portals?

[_He advances furiously upon him._]

DIONYSUS And set a quiet carriage to thy rage.

PENTHEUS How comest thou here? How didst thou break thy cage?

Speak!

DIONYSUS Said I not, or didst thou mark not me, There was One living that should set me free?

PENTHEUS Who? Ever wilder are these tales of thine.

DIONYSUS He who first made for man the cl.u.s.tered vine.

PENTHEUS I scorn him and his vines.

DIONYSUS For Dionyse 'Tis well; for in thy scorn his glory lies.

PENTHEUS (_to his guard_) Go swift to all the towers, and bar withal Each gate!

DIONYSUS What, cannot G.o.d o'erleap a wall?

PENTHEUS Oh, wit thou hast, save where thou needest it!

DIONYSUS Whereso it most imports, there is my wit!-- Nay, peace! Abide till he who hasteth from The mountain side with news for thee, be come.

We will not fly, but wait on thy command.

[_Enter suddenly and in haste a Messenger from the Mountain._]

MESSENGER Great Pentheus, Lord of all this Theban land, I come from high Kithaeron, where the frore Snow spangles gleam and cease not evermore....

PENTHEUS And what of import may thy coming bring?

MESSENGER I have seen the Wild White Women there, O King, Whose fleet limbs darted arrow-like but now From Thebes away, and come to tell thee how They work strange deeds and pa.s.sing marvel. Yet I first would learn thy pleasure. Shall I set My whole tale forth, or veil the stranger part?

Yea Lord, I fear the swiftness of thy heart, Thine edged wrath and more than royal soul.

PENTHEUS Thy tale shall nothing scathe thee.--Tell the whole.

It skills not to be wroth with honesty.

Nay, if thy news of them be dark, 'tis he Shall pay it, who bewitched and led them on.

MESSENGER Our herded kine were moving in the dawn Up to the peaks, the greyest, coldest time, When the first rays steal earthward, and the rime Yields, when I saw three bands of them. The one Autonoe led, one Ino, one thine own Mother, Agave. There beneath the trees Sleeping they lay, like wild things flung at ease In the forest; one half sinking on a bed Of deep pine greenery; one with careless head Amid the fallen oak leaves; all most cold In purity--not as thy tale was told Of wine-cups and wild music and the chase For love amid the forest's loneliness.

Then rose the Queen Agave suddenly Amid her band, and gave the G.o.d's wild cry, "Awake, ye Baccha.n.a.ls! I hear the sound Of horned kine. Awake ye!"--Then, all round, Alert, the warm sleep fallen from their eyes, A marvel of swift ranks I saw them rise, Dames young and old, and gentle maids unwed Among them. O'er their shoulders first they shed Their tresses, and caught up the fallen fold Of mantles where some clasp had loosened hold, And girt the dappled fawn-skins in with long Quick snakes that hissed and writhed with quivering tongue.

And one a young fawn held, and one a wild Wolf cub, and fed them with white milk, and smiled In love, young mothers with a mother's breast And babes at home forgotten! Then they pressed Wreathed ivy round their brows, and oaken sprays And flowering bryony. And one would raise Her wand and smite the rock, and straight a jet Of quick bright water came. Another set Her thyrsus in the bosomed earth, and there Was red wine that the G.o.d sent up to her, A darkling fountain. And if any lips Sought whiter draughts, with dipping finger-tips They pressed the sod, and gushing from the ground Came springs of milk. And reed-wands ivy-crowned Ran with sweet honey, drop by drop.--O King, Hadst thou been there, as I, and seen this thing, With prayer and most high wonder hadst thou gone To adore this G.o.d whom now thou rail'st upon!

Howbeit, the kine-wardens and shepherds straight Came to one place, amazed, and held debate; And one being there who walked the streets and scanned The ways of speech, took lead of them whose hand Knew but the slow soil and the solemn hill, And flattering spoke, and asked: "Is it your will, Masters, we stay the mother of the King, Agave, from her lawless worshipping, And win us royal thanks?"--And this seemed good To all; and through the branching underwood We hid us, cowering in the leaves. And there Through the appointed hour they made their prayer And worship of the Wand, with one accord Of heart and cry--"Iacchos, Bromios, Lord, G.o.d of G.o.d born!"--And all the mountain felt, And worshipped with them; and the wild things knelt And ramped and gloried, and the wilderness Was filled with moving voices and dim stress.

Soon, as it chanced, beside my thicket-close The Queen herself pa.s.sed dancing, and I rose And sprang to seize her. But she turned her face Upon me: "Ho, my rovers of the chase, My wild White Hounds, we are hunted! Up, each rod And follow, follow, for our Lord and G.o.d!"

Thereat, for fear they tear us, all we fled Amazed; and on, with hand unweaponed They swept toward our herds that browsed the green Hill gra.s.s. Great uddered kine then hadst thou seen Bellowing in sword-like hands that cleave and tear, A live steer riven asunder, and the air Tossed with rent ribs or limbs of cloven tread, And flesh upon the branches, and a red Rain from the deep green pines. Yea, bulls of pride, Horns swift to rage, were fronted and aside Flung stumbling, by those mult.i.tudinous hands Dragged pitilessly. And swifter were the bands Of garbed flesh and bone unbound withal Than on thy royal eyes the lids may fall.

Then on like birds, by their own speed upborne, They swept toward the plains of waving corn That lie beside Asopus' banks, and bring To Thebes the rich fruit of her harvesting.

On Hysiae and Erythrae that lie nursed Amid Kithaeron's bowering rocks, they burst Destroying, as a foeman's army comes.

They caught up little children from their homes, High on their shoulders, babes unheld, that swayed And laughed and fell not; all a wreck they made; Yea, bronze and iron did shatter, and in play Struck hither and thither, yet no wound had they; Caught fire from out the hearths, yea, carried hot Flames in their tresses and were scorched not!