_The queen's suitors.--The battle of the beggars.--The armour taken
down.--The meeting with Penelope._
From the house of Eumæus the seeming beggar took his way, leaning on
his staff, till he reached the palace, entering in at the hall where
the suitors sat at meat. They in the pride of their feasting began to
break their jests in mirthful manner, when they saw one looking so
poor and so aged approach. He who expected no better entertainment was
nothing moved at their behaviour, but, as became the character which
he had assumed, in a suppliant posture crept by turns to every suitor,
and held out his hands for some charity, with such a natural and
beggar-resembling grace, that he might seem to have practised begging
all his life; yet there was a sort of dignity in his most abject
stoopings, that whoever had seen him, would have said, If it had
pleased heaven that this poor man had been born a king, he would
gracefully have filled a throne. And some pitied him, and some gave
him alms, as their present humours inclined them, but the greater part
reviled him, and bid him begone, as one that spoiled their feast; for
the presence of misery has this power with it, that while it stays, it
can dash and overturn the mirth even of those who feel no pity or wish
to relieve it; nature bearing this witness of herself in the hearts of
the most obdurate.
Now Telemachus sat at meat with the suitors, and knew that it was the
king his father, who in that shape begged an alms; and when his father
came and presented himself before him in turn, as he had done to the
suitors one by one, he gave him of his own meat which he had in his
dish, and of his own cup to drink. And the suitors were past measure
offended to see a pitiful beggar, as they esteemed him, to be so
choicely regarded by the prince.
Then Antinous, who was a great lord, and of chief note among the
suitors, said, "Prince Telemachus does ill to encourage these
wandering beggars, who go from place to place, affirming that they
have been some considerable persons in their time, filling the ears of
such as hearken to them with lies, and pressing with their bold feet
into kings' palaces. This is some saucy vagabond, some travelling
Egyptian."
"I see," said Ulysses, "that a poor man should get but little at your
board, scarce should he get salt from your hands, if he brought his
own meat."
Lord Antinous, indignant to be answered with such sharpness by a
supposed beggar, snatched up a stool, with which he smote Ulysses
where the neck and shoulders join. This usage moved not Ulysses; but
in his great heart he meditated deep evils to come upon them all,
which for a time must be kept close, and he went and sat himself down
in the door-way to eat of that which was given him, and he said, "For
life or possessions a man will fight, but for his belly this man
smites. If a poor man has any god to take his part, my lord Antinous
shall not live to be the queen's husband."
Then Antinous raged highly, and threatened to drag him by the heels,
and to rend his rags about his ears, if he spoke another word.
But the other suitors did in no wise approve of the harsh language,
nor of the blow which Antinous had dealt; and some of them said, "Who
knows but one of the deities goes about, hid under that poor disguise?
for in the likeness of poor pilgrims the gods have many times
descended to try the dispositions of men, whether they be humane or
impious." While these things passed, Telemachus sat and observed all,
but held his peace, remembering the instructions of his father. But
secretly he waited for the sign which Minerva was to send from heaven.
That day there followed Ulysses to the court one of the common sort of
beggars, Irus by name, one that had received alms beforetime of the
suitors, and was their ordinary sport, when they were inclined (as
that day) to give way to mirth, to see him eat and drink; for he had
the appetite of six men; and was of huge stature and proportions of
body; yet had in him no spirit nor courage of a man. This man thinking
to curry favor with the suitors, and recommend himself especially to
such a great lord as Antinous was, began to revile and scorn Ulysses,
putting foul language upon him, and fairly challenging him to fight
with the fist. But Ulysses, deeming his railings to be nothing more
than jealousy and that envious disposition which beggars commonly
manifest to brothers in their trade, mildly besought him not to
trouble him, but to enjoy that portion which the liberality of their
entertainers gave him, as he did quietly; seeing that, of their
bounty, there was sufficient for all.
But Irus thinking that this forbearance in Ulysses was nothing more
than a sign of fear, so much the more highly stormed, and bellowed,
and provoked him to fight; and by this time the quarrel had attracted
the notice of the suitors, who with loud laughters and shouting egged
on the dispute, and lord Antinous swore by all the gods it should be a
battle, and that in that hall the strife should be determined. To this
the rest of the suitors with violent clamours acceded, and a circle
was made for the combatants, and a fat goat was proposed as the
victor's prize, as at the Olympic or the Pythian games. Then Ulysses
seeing no remedy, or being not unwilling that the suitors should
behold some proof of that strength which ere long in their own persons
they were to taste of, stripped himself, and prepared for the combat.
But first he demanded that he should have fair play shewn him, that
none in that assembly should aid his opponent, or take part against
him, for being an old man they might easily crush him with their
strengths. And Telemachus passed his word that no foul play should be
shewn him, but that each party should be left to their own unassisted
strengths, and to this he made Antinous and the rest of the suitors
swear.
But when Ulysses had laid aside his garments, and was bare to the
waist, all the beholders admired at the goodly sight of his large
shoulders being of such exquisite shape and whiteness, and at his
great and brawny bosom, and the youthful strength which seemed to
remain in a man thought so old; and they said, What limbs and what
sinews he has! and coward fear seized on the mind of that great vast
beggar, and he dropped his threats, and his big words, and would
have fled, but lord Antinous staid him, and threatened him that if
he declined the combat, he would put him in a ship, and land him on
the shores where king Echetus reigned, the roughest tyrant which at
that time the world contained, and who had that antipathy to rascal
beggars, such as he, that when any landed on his coast, he would crop
their ears and noses and give them to the dogs to tear. So Irus,
in whom fear of king Echetus prevailed above the fear of Ulysses,
addressed himself to fight. But Ulysses, provoked to be engaged in so
odious a strife with a fellow of his base conditions, and loathing
longer to be made a spectacle to entertain the eyes of his foes, with
one blow, which he struck him beneath the ear, so shattered the teeth
and jaw bone of this soon baffled coward, that he laid him sprawling
in the dust, with small stomach or ability to renew the contest. Then
raising him on his feet, he led him bleeding and sputtering to the
door, and put his staff into his hand, and bid him go use his command
upon dogs and swine, but not presume himself to be lord of the guests
another time, nor of the beggary!
The suitors applauded in their vain minds the issue of the contest,
and rioted in mirth at the expense of poor Irus, who they vowed should
be forthwith embarked, and sent to king Echetus; and they bestowed
thanks on Ulysses for ridding the court of that unsavory morsel, as
they called him; but in their inward souls they would not have cared
if Irus had been victor, and Ulysses had taken the foil, but it was
mirth to them to see the beggars fight. In such pastimes and light
entertainments the day wore away.
When evening was come the suitors betook themselves to music and
dancing. And Ulysses leaned his back against a pillar from which
certain lamps hung which gave light to the dancers, and he made show
of watching the dancers, but very different thoughts were in his head.
And as he stood near the lamps, the light fell upon his head, which
was thin of hair and bald, as an old man's. And Eurymachus, a suitor,
taking occasion from some words which were spoken before, scoffed and
said, "Now I know for a certainty that some god lurks under the poor
and beggarly appearance of this man, for as he stands by the lamps,
his sleek head throws beams around it, like as it were a glory." And
another said, "He passes his time too not much unlike the gods, lazily
living exempt from labour, taking offerings of men." "I warrant," said
Eurymachus again, "he could not raise a fence or dig a ditch for his
livelihood, if a man would hire him to work in a garden."
"I wish," said Ulysses, "that you who speak this, and myself, were to
be tried at any task-work, that I had a good crooked scythe put in
my hand, that was sharp and strong, and you such another, where the
grass grew longest, to be up by day-break, mowing the meadows till
the sun went down, not tasting of food till we had finished, or that
we were set to plough four acres in one day of good glebe land, to
see whose furrows were evenest and cleanest, or that we might have
one wrestling-bout together, or that in our right hands a good
steel-headed lance were placed, to try whose blows fell heaviest and
thickest upon the adversary's head-piece. I would cause you such work,
as you should have small reason to reproach me with being slack at
work. But you would do well to spare me this reproach, and to save
your strength, till the owner of this house shall return, till the
day when Ulysses shall return, when returning he shall enter upon his
birth-right."
This was a galling speech to those suitors, to whom Ulysses's return
was indeed the thing which they most dreaded; and a sudden fear fell
upon their souls, as if they were sensible of the real presence of
that man who did indeed stand amongst them, but not in that form as
they might know him; and Eurymachus, incensed, snatched a massy cup
which stood on a table near, and hurled it at the head of the supposed
beggar, and but narrowly missed the hitting of him; and all the
suitors rose, as at once, to thrust him out of the hall, which they
said his beggarly presence and his rude speeches had profaned. But
Telemachus cried to them to forbear, and not to presume to lay hands
upon a wretched man to whom he had promised protection. He asked if
they were mad, to mix such abhorred uproar with his feasts. He bade
them take their food and their wine, to sit up or to go to bed at
their free pleasures, so long as he should give licence to that
freedom; but why should they abuse his banquet, or let the words which
a poor beggar spake have power to move their spleens so fiercely?
They bit their lips and frowned for anger, to be checked so by a
youth; nevertheless for that time they had the grace to abstain,
either for shame, or that Minerva had infused into them a terror of
Ulysses's son.
So that day's feast was concluded without bloodshed, and the suitors,
tired with their sports, departed severally each man to his apartment.
Only Ulysses and Telemachus remained. And now Telemachus, by his
father's direction went and brought down into the hall armour and
lances from the armoury: for Ulysses said, "On the morrow we shall
have need of them." And moreover he said, "If any one shall ask why
you have taken them down, say, it is to clean them and scour them from
the rust which they have gathered since the owner of this house went
for Troy." And as Telemachus stood by the armour, the lights were all
gone out, and it was pitch-dark, and the armour gave out glistening
beams as of fire, and he said to his father, "The pillars of the house
are on fire." And his father said, "It is the gods who sit above the
stars, and have power to make the night as light as the day." And
he took it for a good omen. And Telemachus fell to cleaning and
sharpening of the lances.
Now Ulysses had not seen his wife Penelope in all the time since his
return; for the queen did not care to mingle with the suitors at their
banquets, but, as became one that had been Ulysses's wife, kept much
in private, spinning and doing her excellent housewiveries among her
maids in the remote apartments of the palace. Only upon solemn days
she would come down and shew herself to the suitors. And Ulysses was
filled with a longing desire to see his wife again, whom for twenty
years he had not beheld, and he softly stole through the known
passages of his beautiful house, till he came where the maids were
lighting the queen through a stately gallery, that led to the chamber
where she slept. And when the maids saw Ulysses, they said, "It is
the beggar who came to the court to-day, about whom all that uproar
was stirred up in the hall: what does he here?" But Penelope gave
commandment that he should be brought before her, for she said, "It
may be that he has travelled, and has heard something concerning
Ulysses."
Then was Ulysses right glad to hear himself named by his queen, to
find himself in no wise forgotten, nor her great love towards him
decayed in all that time that he had been away. And he stood before
his queen, and she knew him not to be Ulysses, but supposed that he
had been some poor traveller. And she asked him of what country he
was.
He told her (as he had before told to Eumæus) that he was a Cretan
born, and however poor and cast down he now seemed, no less a man than
brother to Idomeneus, who was grandson to king Minos, and though he
now wanted bread, he had once had it in his power to feast Ulysses.
Then he feigned how Ulysses, sailing for Troy, was forced by stress
of weather to put his fleet in at a port of Crete, where for twelve
days he was his guest, and entertained by him with all befitting
guest-rites. And he described the very garments which Ulysses had on,
by which Penelope knew that he had seen her lord.
In this manner Ulysses told his wife many tales of himself, at most
but painting, but painting so near to the life, that the feeling of
that which she took at her ears became so strong, that the kindly
tears ran down her fair cheeks, while she thought upon her lord, dead
as she thought him, and heavily mourned the loss of him whom she
missed, whom she could not find, though in very deed he stood so near
her.
Ulysses was moved to see her weep, but he kept his own eyes as dry as
iron or horn in their lids, putting a bridle upon his strong passion,
that it should not issue to sight.
Then told he how he had lately been at the court of Thesprotia, and
what he had learned concerning Ulysses there, in order as he had
delivered to Eumæus: and Penelope was won to believe that there might
be a possibility of Ulysses being alive, and she said, "I dreamed a
dream this morning. Methought I had twenty household fowl which did
eat wheat steeped in water from my hand, and there came suddenly from
the clouds a crook-beaked hawk who soused on them and killed them all,
trussing their necks, then took his flight back up to the clouds. And
in my dream methought that I wept and made great moan for my fowls,
and for the destruction which the hawk had made; and my maids came
about me to comfort me. And in the height of my griefs the hawk came
back, and lighting upon the beam of my chamber, he said to me in a
man's voice, which sounded strangely even in my dream, to hear a hawk
to speak: Be of good cheer, he said, O daughter of Icarius! for this
is no dream which thou hast seen, but that which shall happen to thee
indeed. Those household fowl which thou lamentest so without reason,
are the suitors who devour thy substance, even as thou sawest the fowl
eat from thy hand, and the hawk is thy husband, who is coming to give
death to the suitors.--And I awoke, and went to see to my fowls if
they were alive, whom I found eating wheat from their troughs, all
well and safe as before my dream."
Then said Ulysses, "This dream can endure no other interpretation than
that which the hawk gave to it, who is your lord, and who is coming
quickly to effect all that his words told you."
"Your words," she said, "my old guest, are so sweet, that would you
sit and please me with your speech, my ears would never let my eyes
close their spheres for very joy of your discourse; but none that is
merely mortal can live without the death of sleep, so the gods who are
without death themselves have ordained it, to keep the memory of our
mortality in our minds, while we experience that as much as we live
we die every day: in which consideration I will ascend my bed, which
I have nightly watered with my tears since he that was the joy of it
departed for that bad city:" she so speaking, because she could not
bring her lips to name the name of Troy so much hated. So for that
night they parted, Penelope to her bed, and Ulysses to his son, and
to the armour and the lances in the hall, where they sat up all night
cleaning and watching by the armour.