The long long dances,
On through the dark till the dim stars wane?
Shall I feel the dew on my throat, and the stream
Of wind in my hair? Shall our white feet gleam
In the dim expanses?
Oh, feet of a fawn to the greenwood fled,
Alone in the grass and the loveliness;
Leap of the hunted, no more in dread,
Beyond the snares and the deadly press:
Yet a voice still in the distance sounds,
A voice and a fear and a haste of hounds;
O wildly labouring, fiercely fleet,
Onward yet by river and glen . . .
Is it joy or terror, ye storm-swift feet? . . .
To the dear lone lands untroubled of men,
Where no voice sounds, and amid the shadowy green
The little things of the woodland live unseen.
What else is Wisdom? What of man's endeavour
Or God's high grace, so lovely and so great?
To stand from fear set free, to breathe and wait;
To hold a hand uplifted over Hate;
And shall not Loveliness be loved for ever?
_Others._
O Strength of God, slow art thou and still,
Yet failest never!
On them that worship the Ruthless Will,
On them that dream, doth His judgment wait.
Dreams of the proud man, making great
And greater ever,
Things which are not of God. In wide
And devious coverts, hunter-wise,
He coucheth Time's unhasting stride,
Following, following, him whose eyes
Look not to Heaven. For all is vain,
The pulse of the heart, the plot of the brain,
That striveth beyond the laws that live.
And is thy Faith so much to give,
Is it so hard a thing to see,
That the Spirit of God, whate'er it be,
The Law that abides and changes not, ages long,
The Eternal and Nature-born--these things be strong?
What else is Wisdom? What of man's endeavour
Or God's high grace so lovely and so great?
To stand from fear set free, to breathe and wait;
To hold a hand uplifted over Hate;
And shall not Loveliness be loved for ever?
LEADER.
Happy he, on the weary sea
Who hath fled the tempest and won the haven.
Happy whoso hath risen, free,
Above his striving. For strangely graven
Is the orb of life, that one and another
In gold and power may outpass his brother.
And men in their millions float and flow
And seethe with a million hopes as leaven;
And they win their Will, or they miss their Will,
And the hopes are dead or are pined for still;
But whoe'er can know,
As the long days go,
That To Live is happy, hath found his Heaven!
_Re-enter_ DIONYSUS _from the Castle_.
DIONYSUS.
O eye that cravest sights thou must not see,
O heart athirst for that which slakes not! Thee,
Pentheus, I call; forth and be seen, in guise
Of woman, Maenad, saint of Dionyse,
To spy upon His Chosen and thine own
Mother!
[_Enter_ PENTHEUS, _clad like a Bacchanal, and strangely excited, a
spirit of Bacchic madness overshadowing him_.
Thy shape, methinks, is like to one
Of Cadmus' royal maids!
PENTHEUS.
Yea; and mine eye
Is bright! Yon sun shines twofold in the sky,
Thebes twofold and the Wall of Seven Gates. . . .
And is it a Wild Bull this, that walks and waits
Before me? There are horns upon thy brow!
What art thou, man or beast? For surely now
The Bull is on thee!
DIONYSUS.
He who erst was wrath,
Goes with us now in gentleness. He hath
Unsealed thine eyes to see what thou shouldst see.
PENTHEUS.
Say; stand I not as Ino stands, or she
Who bore me?
DIONYSUS.
When I look on thee, it seems
I see their very selves!--But stay; why streams
That lock abroad, not where I laid it, crossed
Under the coif?
PENTHEUS.
I did it, as I tossed
My head in dancing, to and fro, and cried
His holy music!
DIONYSUS (_tending him_).
It shall soon be tied
Aright. 'Tis mine to tend thee. . . . Nay, but stand
With head straight.
PENTHEUS.
In the hollow of thy hand
I lay me. Deck me as thou wilt.
DIONYSUS.
Thy zone
Is loosened likewise; and the folded gown
Not evenly falling to the feet.
PENTHEUS.
'Tis so,
By the right foot. But here, methinks, they flow
In one straight line to the heel.
DIONYSUS (_while tending him_).
And if thou prove
Their madness true, aye, more than true, what love
And thanks hast thou for me?
PENTHEUS (_not listening to him_).
In my right hand
Is it, or thus, that I should bear the wand,
To be most like to them?
DIONYSUS.
Up let it swing
In the right hand, timed with the right foot's spring. . . .
'Tis well thy heart is changed!
PENTHEUS (_more wildly_).
What strength is this!
Kithaeron's steeps and all that in them is--
How say'st thou?--Could my shoulders lift the whole?
DIONYSUS.
Surely thou canst, and if thou wilt! Thy soul,
Being once so sick, now stands as it should stand.
PENTHEUS.
Shall it be bars of iron? Or this bare hand
And shoulder to the crags, to wrench them down?
DIONYSUS.
Wouldst wreck the Nymphs' wild temples, and the brown
Rocks, where Pan pipes at noonday?
PENTHEUS.
Nay; not I!
Force is not well with women. I will lie
Hid in the pine-brake.
DIONYSUS.
Even as fits a spy
On holy and fearful things, so shalt thou lie!
PENTHEUS (_with a laugh_).
They lie there now, methinks--the wild birds, caught
By love among the leaves, and fluttering not!
DIONYSUS.
It may be. That is what thou goest to see,
Aye, and to trap them--so they trap not thee!
PENTHEUS.
Forth through the Thebans' town! I am their king,
Aye, their one Man, seeing I dare this thing!
DIONYSUS.
Yea, thou shalt bear their burden, thou alone;
Therefore thy trial awaiteth thee!--But on;
With me into thine ambush shalt thou come
Unscathed; then let another bear thee home!
PENTHEUS.
The Queen, my mother.
DIONYSUS.
Marked of every eye.
PENTHEUS.
For that I go!
DIONYSUS.
Thou shalt be borne on high!
PENTHEUS.
That were like pride!
DIONYSUS.
Thy mother's hands shall share
Thy carrying.
PENTHEUS.
Nay; I need not such soft care!
DIONYSUS.
So soft?
PENTHEUS.
Whate'er it be, I have earned it well!
[_Exit_ PENTHEUS _towards the Mountain_.
DIONYSUS.
Fell, fell art thou; and to a doom so fell
Thou walkest, that thy name from South to North
Shall shine, a sign for ever!--Reach thou forth
Thine arms, Agave, now, and ye dark-browed
Cadmeian sisters! Greet this prince so proud
To the high ordeal, where save God and me,
None walks unscathed!--The rest this day shall see.
[_Exit_ DIONYSUS _following_ PENTHEUS.
CHORUS.
_Some Maidens._
O hounds raging and blind,
Up by the mountain road,
Sprites of the maddened mind,
To the wild Maids of God;
Fill with your rage their eyes,
Rage at the rage unblest,
Watching in woman's guise,
The spy upon God's Possessed.
_A Bacchanal._
Who shall be first, to mark
Eyes in the rock that spy,
Eyes in the pine-tree dark--
Is it his mother?--and cry:
"Lo, what is this that comes,
Haunting, troubling still,
Even in our heights, our homes,
The wild Maids of the Hill?
What flesh bare this child?
Never on woman's breast
Changeling so evil smiled;
Man is he not, but Beast!
Lion-shape of the wild,
Gorgon-breed of the waste!"
_All the Chorus._
Hither, for doom and deed!
Hither with lifted sword,
Justice, Wrath of the Lord,
Come in our visible need!
Smite till the throat shall bleed,
Smite till the heart shall bleed,
Him the tyrannous, lawless, Godless, Echion's earth-born seed!
_Other Maidens._
Tyrannously hath he trod;
Marched him, in Law's despite,
Against thy Light, O God,
Yea, and thy Mother's Light;
Girded him, falsely bold,
Blinded in craft, to quell
And by man's violence hold
Things unconquerable.
_A Bacchanal._
A strait pitiless mind
Is death unto godliness;
And to feel in human kind
Life, and a pain the less.
Knowledge, we are not foes!
I seek thee diligently;
But the world with a great wind blows,
Shining, and not from thee;
Blowing to beautiful things,
On, amid dark and light,
Till Life, through the trammellings
Of Laws that are not the Right,
Breaks, clean and pure, and sings
Glorying to God in the height!
_All the Chorus._
Hither for doom and deed!
Hither with lifted sword,
Justice, Wrath of the Lord,
Come in our visible need!
Smite till the throat shall bleed,
Smite till the heart shall bleed,
Him the tyrannous, lawless, Godless, Echion's earth-born seed!
LEADER.
Appear, appear, whatso thy shape or name
O Mountain Bull, Snake of the Hundred Heads,
Lion of Burning Flame!
O God, Beast, Mystery, come! Thy mystic maids
Are hunted!--Blast their hunter with thy breath,
Cast o'er his head thy snare;
And laugh aloud and drag him to his death,
Who stalks thy herded madness in its lair!
_Enter hastily a_ MESSENGER _from the Mountain, pale and distraught_.
MESSENGER.
Woe to the house once blest in Hellas! Woe
To thee, old King Sidonian, who didst sow
The dragon-seed on Ares' bloody lea!
Alas, even thy slaves must weep for thee!
LEADER.
News from the mountain?--Speak! How hath it sped?
MESSENGER.
Pentheus, my king, Echion's son, is dead!
LEADER.
All hail, God of the Voice,
Manifest ever more!
MESSENGER.
What say'st thou?--And how strange thy tone, as though
In joy at this my master's overthrow!
LEADER.
With fierce joy I rejoice,
Child of a savage shore;
For the chains of my prison are broken, and the dread where I cowered
of yore!
MESSENGER.
And deem'st thou Thebes so beggared, so forlorn
Of manhood, as to sit beneath thy scorn?
LEADER.
Thebes hath o'er me no sway!
None save Him I obey,
Dionysus, Child of the Highest, Him I obey and adore!
MESSENGER.
One can forgive thee!--Yet 'tis no fair thing,
Maids, to rejoice in a man's suffering.
LEADER.
Speak of the mountain side!
Tell us the doom he died,
The sinner smitten to death, even where his sin was sore!
MESSENGER.
We climbed beyond the utmost habitings
Of Theban shepherds, passed Asopus' springs,
And struck into the land of rock on dim
Kithaeron--Pentheus, and, attending him,
I, and the Stranger who should guide our way.
Then first in a green dell we stopped, and lay,
Lips dumb and feet unmoving, warily
Watching, to be unseen and yet to see.
A narrow glen it was, by crags o'ertowered,
Torn through by tossing waters, and there lowered
A shadow of great pines over it. And there
The Maenad maidens sate; in toil they were,
Busily glad. Some with an ivy chain
Tracked a worn wand to toss its locks again;
Some, wild in joyance, like young steeds set free,
Made answering songs of mystic melody.
But my poor master saw not the great band
Before him. "Stranger," cried he, "where we stand
Mine eyes can reach not these false saints of thine.
Mount we the bank, or some high-shouldered pine,
And I shall see their follies clear!" At that
There came a marvel. For the Stranger straight
Touched a great pine-tree's high and heavenward crown,
And lower, lower, lower, urged it down
To the herbless floor. Round like a bending bow,
Or slow wheel's rim a joiner forces to,
So in those hands that tough and mountain stem
Bowed slow--oh, strength not mortal dwelt in them!--
To the very earth. And there he set the King,
And slowly, lest it cast him in its spring,
Let back the young and straining tree, till high
It towered again amid the towering sky;
And Pentheus in the branches! Well, I ween,
He saw the Maenads then, and well was seen!
For scarce was he aloft, when suddenly
There was no Stranger any more with me,
But out of Heaven a Voice--oh, what voice else?--
'Twas He that called! "Behold, O damosels,
I bring ye him who turneth to despite
Both me and ye, and darkeneth my great Light.
'Tis yours to avenge!" So spake he, and there came
'Twixt earth and sky a pillar of high flame.
And silence took the air, and no leaf stirred
In all the forest dell. Thou hadst not heard
In that vast silence any wild thing's cry.
And up they sprang; but with bewildered eye,
Agaze and listening, scarce yet hearing true.
Then came the Voice again. And when they knew
Their God's clear call, old Cadmus' royal brood,
Up, like wild pigeons startled in a wood,
On flying feet they came, his mother blind,
Agave, and her sisters, and behind
All the wild crowd, more deeply maddened then,
Through the angry rocks and torrent-tossing glen,
Until they spied him in the dark pine-tree:
Then climbed a crag hard by and furiously
Some sought to stone him, some their wands would fling
Lance-wise aloft, in cruel targeting.
But none could strike. The height o'ertopped their rage,
And there he clung, unscathed, as in a cage
Caught. And of all their strife no end was found.
Then, "Hither," cried Agave; "stand we round
And grip the stem, my Wild Ones, till we take
This climbing cat-o'-the-mount! He shall not make
A tale of God's high dances!" Out then shone
Arm upon arm, past count, and closed upon
The pine, and gripped; and the ground gave, and down
It reeled. And that high sitter from the crown
Of the green pine-top, with a shrieking cry
Fell, as his mind grew clear, and there hard by
Was horror visible. 'Twas his mother stood
O'er him, first priestess of those rites of blood.
He tore the coif, and from his head away
Flung it, that she might know him, and not slay
To her own misery. He touched the wild
Cheek, crying: "Mother, it is I, thy child,
Thy Pentheus, born thee in Echion's hall!
Have mercy, Mother! Let it not befall
Through sin of mine, that thou shouldst slay thy son!"
But she, with lips a-foam and eyes that run
Like leaping fire, with thoughts that ne'er should be
On earth, possessed by Bacchios utterly,
Stays not nor hears. Round his left arm she put
Both hands, set hard against his side her foot,
Drew . . . and the shoulder severed!--Not by might
Of arm, but easily, as the God made light
Her hand's essay. And at the other side
Was Ino rending; and the torn flesh cried,
And on Autonoe pressed, and all the crowd
Of ravening arms. Yea, all the air was loud
With groans that faded into sobbing breath,
Dim shrieks, and joy, and triumph-cries of death.
And here was borne a severed arm, and there
A hunter's booted foot; white bones lay bare
With rending; and swift hands ensanguined
Tossed as in sport the flesh of Pentheus dead.
His body lies afar. The precipice
Hath part, and parts in many an interstice
Lurk of the tangled woodland--no light quest
To find. And, ah, the head! Of all the rest,
His mother hath it, pierced upon a wand,
As one might pierce a lion's, and through the land,
Leaving her sisters in their dancing place,
Bears it on high! Yea, to these walls her face
Was set, exulting in her deed of blood,
Calling upon her Bromios, her God,
Her Comrade, Fellow-Render of the Prey,
Her All-Victorious, to whom this day
She bears in triumph . . . her own broken heart!
For me, after that sight, I will depart
Before Agave comes.--Oh, to fulfil
God's laws, and have no thought beyond His will,
Is man's best treasure. Aye, and wisdom true,
Methinks, for things of dust to cleave unto!
[_The_ MESSENGER _departs into the Castle_.
CHORUS.
_Some Maidens._
Weave ye the dance, and call
Praise to God!
Bless ye the Tyrant's fall!
Down is trod
Pentheus, the Dragon's Seed!
Wore he the woman's weed?
Clasped he his death indeed,
Clasped the rod?
_A Bacchanal._
Yea, the wild ivy lapt him, and the doomed
Wild Bull of Sacrifice before him loomed!
_Others._
Ye who did Bromios scorn,
Praise Him the more,
Bacchanals, Cadmus-born;
Praise with sore
Agony, yea, with tears!
Great are the gifts he bears!
Hands that a mother rears
Red with gore!
LEADER.
But stay, Agave cometh! And her eyes
Make fire around her, reeling! Ho, the prize
Cometh! All hail, O Rout of Dionyse!
[_Enter from the Mountain_ AGAVE, _mad, and to all seeming wondrously
happy, bearing the head of_ PENTHEUS _in her hand. The_ CHORUS
MAIDENS _stand horror-struck at the sight; the_ LEADER, _also
horror-struck, strives to accept it and rejoice in it as the God's
deed_.
AGAVE.
Ye from the lands of Morn!
LEADER.
Call me not; I give praise!
AGAVE.
Lo, from the trunk new-shorn
Hither a Mountain Thorn
Bear we! O Asia-born
Bacchanals, bless this chase!
LEADER.
I see. Yea; I see.
Have I not welcomed thee?
AGAVE (_very calmly and peacefully_).
He was young in the wildwood:
Without nets I caught him!
Nay; look without fear on
The Lion; I have ta'en him!
LEADER.
Where in the wildwood?
Whence have ye brought him?
AGAVE.
Kithaeron. . . .
LEADER.
Kithaeron?
AGAVE.
The Mountain hath slain him!
LEADER.
Who first came nigh him?
AGAVE.
I, I, 'tis confessed!
And they named me there by him
Agave the Blessed!
LEADER.
Who was next in the band on him?
AGAVE.
The daughters. . .
LEADER.
The daughters?
AGAVE.
Of Cadmus laid hand on him.
But the swift hand that slaughters
Is mine; mine is the praise!
Bless ye this day of days!
[_The_ LEADER _tries to speak, but is not able_; AGAVE _begins
gently stroking the head_.
AGAVE.
Gather ye now to the feast!
LEADER.
Feast!--O miserable!
AGAVE.
See, it falls to his breast,
Curling and gently tressed,
The hair of the Wild Bull's crest--
The young steer of the fell!
LEADER.
Most like a beast of the wild
That head, those locks defiled.
AGAVE (_lifting up the head, more excitedly_).
He wakened his Mad Ones,
A Chase-God, a wise God!
He sprang them to seize this!
He preys where his band preys.
LEADER (_brooding, with horror_).
In the trail of thy Mad Ones
Thou tearest thy prize, God!
AGAVE.
Dost praise it?
LEADER.
I praise this?
AGAVE.
Ah, soon shall the land praise!
LEADER.
And Pentheus, O Mother,
Thy child?
AGAVE.
He shall cry on
My name as none other,
Bless the spoils of the Lion!
LEADER.
Aye, strange is thy treasure!
AGAVE.
And strange was the taking!
LEADER.
Thou art glad?
AGAVE.
Beyond measure;
Yea, glad in the breaking
Of dawn upon all this land,
By the prize, the prize of my hand!
LEADER.
Show then to all the land, unhappy one,
The trophy of this deed that thou hast done!
AGAVE.
Ho, all ye men that round the citadel
And shining towers of ancient Thebe dwell,
Come! Look upon this prize, this lion's spoil,
That we have taken--yea, with our own toil,
We, Cadmus' daughters! Not with leathern-set
Thessalian javelins, not with hunter's net,
Only white arms and swift hands' bladed fall.
Why make ye much ado, and boast withal
Your armourers' engines? See, these palms were bare
That caught the angry beast, and held, and tare
The limbs of him! . . . Father! . . . Go, bring to me
My father! . . . Aye, and Pentheus, where is he,
My son? He shall set up a ladder-stair
Against this house, and in the triglyphs there
Nail me this lion's head, that gloriously
I bring ye, having slain him--I, even I!
[_She goes through the crowd towards the Castle, showing the head and
looking for a place to hang it. Enter from the Mountain_ CADMUS,
_with attendants, bearing the body of_ PENTHEUS _on a bier_.
CADMUS.
On, with your awful burden. Follow me,
Thralls, to his house, whose body grievously
With many a weary search at last in dim
Kithaeron's glens I found, torn limb from limb,
And through the interweaving forest weed
Scattered.--Men told me of my daughters' deed,
When I was just returned within these walls,
With grey Teiresias, from the Bacchanals.
And back I hied me to the hills again
To seek my murdered son. There saw I plain
Actaeon's mother, ranging where he died,
Autonoe; and Ino by her side,
Wandering ghastly in the pine-copses.
Agave was not there. The rumour is
She cometh fleet-foot hither.--Ah! 'Tis true;
A sight I scarce can bend mine eyes unto.
AGAVE
(_turning from the Palace and seeing him_).
My father, a great boast is thine this hour.
Thou hast begotten daughters, high in power
And valiant above all mankind--yea, all
Valiant, though none like me! I have let fall
The shuttle by the loom, and raised my hand
For higher things, to slay from out thy land
Wild beasts! See, in mine arms I bear the prize,
That nailed above these portals it may rise
To show what things thy daughters did! Do thou
Take it, and call a feast. Proud art thou now
And highly favoured in our valiancy!
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 God'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 God's will! Father, thou shouldst set him right. . . .
Will no one bring him hither, 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 tremor, 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 God!--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 God 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 God; 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 Gods, let him but look on this man dead!
LEADER.
Lo, I weep with thee. 'Twas but due reward
God 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 pronounced 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 godhead. Where the MS. begins again, we find him
addressing_ CADMUS.]
* * * * *
DIONYSUS.