Hippolytus; The Bacchae Part 19

CADMUS O depth of grief, how can I fathom thee Or look upon thee!--Poor, poor bloodstained hand!

Poor sisters!--A fair sacrifice to stand Before G.o.d's altars, daughter; yea, and call Me and my citizens to feast withal!

Nay, let me weep--for thine affliction most, Then for mine own. All, all of us are lost, Not wrongfully, yet is it hard, from one Who might have loved--our Bromios, our own!

AGAVE How crabbed and how scowling in the eyes Is man's old age!--Would that my son likewise Were happy of his hunting, in my way When with his warrior bands he will essay The wild beast!--Nay, his valiance is to fight With G.o.d's will! Father, thou shouldst set him right.

Will no one bring him thither, that mine eyes May look on his, and show him this my prize!

CADMUS Alas, if ever ye can know again The truth of what ye did, what pain of pain That truth shall bring! Or were it best to wait Darkened for evermore, and deem your state Not misery, though ye know no happiness?

AGAVE What seest thou here to chide, or not to bless?

CADMUS (_after hesitation, resolving himself_) Raise me thine eyes to yon blue dome of air!

AGAVE 'Tis done. What dost thou bid me seek for there?

CADMUS Is it the same, or changed in thy sight?

AGAVE More shining than before, more heavenly bright!

CADMUS And that wild tremour, is it with thee still?

AGAVE (_troubled_) I know not what thou sayest; but my will Clears, and some change cometh, I know not how.

CADMUS Canst hearken then, being changed, and answer, now!

AGAVE I have forgotten something; else I could.

CADMUS What husband led thee of old from mine abode?

AGAVE Echion, whom men named the Child of Earth.

CADMUS And what child in Echion's house had birth?

AGAVE Pentheus, of my love and his father's bred.

CADMUS Thou bearest in thine arms an head--what head?

AGAVE (_beginning to tremble, and not looking at what she carries_) A lion's--so they all said in the chase.

CADMUS Turn to it now--'tis no long toil--and gaze.

AGAVE Ah! But what is it? What am I carrying here?

CADMUS Look once upon it full, till all be clear!

AGAVE I see... most deadly pain! Oh, woe is me!

CADMUS Wears it the likeness of a lion to thee?

AGAVE No; 'tis the head--O G.o.d!--of Pentheus, this!

CADMUS Blood-drenched ere thou wouldst know him! Aye, 'tis his.

AGAVE Who slew him?--How came I to hold this thing?

CADMUS O cruel Truth, is this thine home-coming?

AGAVE Answer! My heart is hanging on thy breath!

CADMUS 'Twas thou.--Thou and thy sisters wrought his death.

AGAVE In what place was it? His own house, or where?

CADMUS Where the dogs tore Actaeon, even there.

AGAVE Why went he to Kithaeron? What sought he?

CADMUS To mock the G.o.d and thine own ecstasy.

AGAVE But how should we be on the hills this day?

CADMUS Being mad! A spirit drove all the land that way.

AGAVE 'Tis Dionyse hath done it! Now I see.

CADMUS (_earnestly_) Ye wronged Him! Ye denied his deity!

AGAVE (_turning from him_) Show me the body of the son I love!

CADMUS (_leading her to the bier_) 'Tis here, my child. Hard was the quest thereof.

AGAVE Laid in due state?

[_As there is no answer, she lifts the veil of the bier, and sees._]

Oh, if I wrought a sin, 'Twas mine! What portion had my child therein!

CADMUS He made him like to you, adoring not The G.o.d; who therefore to one bane hath brought You and this body, wrecking all our line, And me. Aye, no man-child was ever mine; And now this first-fruit of the flesh of thee, Sad woman, foully here and frightfully Lies murdered! Whom the house looked up unto, [_Kneeling by the body._]

O Child, my daughter's child! who heldest true My castle walls; and to the folk a name Of fear thou wast; and no man sought to shame My grey beard, when they knew that thou wast there, Else had they swift reward!--And now I fare Forth in dishonour, outcast, I, the great Cadmus, who sowed the seed-rows of this state Of Thebes, and reaped the harvest wonderful.

O my beloved, though thy heart is dull In death, O still beloved, and alway Beloved! Never more, then, shalt thou lay Thine hand to this white beard, and speak to me Thy "Mother's Father"; ask "Who wrongeth thee?

Who stints thine honour, or with malice stirs Thine heart? Speak, and I smite thine injurers!"

But now--woe, woe, to me and thee also, Woe to thy mother and her sisters, woe Alway! Oh, whoso walketh not in dread Of G.o.ds, let him but look on this man dead!

LEADER Lo, I weep with thee. 'Twas but due reward G.o.d sent on Pentheus; but for thee ... 'Tis hard.

AGAVE My father, thou canst see the change in me, * * * * *

[_A page or more has here been torn out of the MS. from which all our copies of "The Bacchae" are derived. It evidently contained a speech of Agave (followed presumably by some words of the Chorus), and an appearance of_ DIONYSUS _upon a cloud. He must have p.r.o.nounced judgment upon the Thebans in general, and especially upon the daughters of_ CADMUS, _have justified his own action, and declared his determination to establish his G.o.dhead. Where the MS begins again, we find him addressing_ CADMUS.]