I'll beat some of you till you rain tears--
Look up, not downwards when I speak to you.
Look up, not downwards when I speak to you.
Shelley
tameless, chaste, and wise,
Tritogenia, town-preserving Maid,
Revered and mighty; from his awful head
Whom Jove brought forth, in warlike armour dressed, _5
Golden, all radiant! wonder strange possessed
The everlasting Gods that Shape to see,
Shaking a javelin keen, impetuously
Rush from the crest of Aegis-bearing Jove;
Fearfully Heaven was shaken, and did move _10
Beneath the might of the Cerulean-eyed;
Earth dreadfully resounded, far and wide;
And, lifted from its depths, the sea swelled high
In purple billows, the tide suddenly
Stood still, and great Hyperion's son long time _15
Checked his swift steeds, till, where she stood sublime,
Pallas from her immortal shoulders threw
The arms divine; wise Jove rejoiced to view.
Child of the Aegis-bearer, hail to thee,
Nor thine nor others' praise shall unremembered be. _20
***
HOMER'S HYMN TO VENUS.
[Published by Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862; dated 1818. ]
[VERSES 1-55, WITH SOME OMISSIONS. ]
Muse, sing the deeds of golden Aphrodite,
Who wakens with her smile the lulled delight
Of sweet desire, taming the eternal kings
Of Heaven, and men, and all the living things
That fleet along the air, or whom the sea, _5
Or earth, with her maternal ministry,
Nourish innumerable, thy delight
All seek . . . O crowned Aphrodite!
Three spirits canst thou not deceive or quell:--
Minerva, child of Jove, who loves too well _10
Fierce war and mingling combat, and the fame
Of glorious deeds, to heed thy gentle flame.
Diana . . . golden-shafted queen,
Is tamed not by thy smiles; the shadows green
Of the wild woods, the bow, the. . . _15
And piercing cries amid the swift pursuit
Of beasts among waste mountains,--such delight
Is hers, and men who know and do the right.
Nor Saturn's first-born daughter, Vesta chaste,
Whom Neptune and Apollo wooed the last, _20
Such was the will of aegis-bearing Jove;
But sternly she refused the ills of Love,
And by her mighty Father's head she swore
An oath not unperformed, that evermore
A virgin she would live mid deities _25
Divine: her father, for such gentle ties
Renounced, gave glorious gifts--thus in his hall
She sits and feeds luxuriously. O'er all
In every fane, her honours first arise
From men--the eldest of Divinities. _30
These spirits she persuades not, nor deceives,
But none beside escape, so well she weaves
Her unseen toils; nor mortal men, nor gods
Who live secure in their unseen abodes.
She won the soul of him whose fierce delight _35
Is thunder--first in glory and in might.
And, as she willed, his mighty mind deceiving,
With mortal limbs his deathless limbs inweaving,
Concealed him from his spouse and sister fair,
Whom to wise Saturn ancient Rhea bare. _40
but in return,
In Venus Jove did soft desire awaken,
That by her own enchantments overtaken,
She might, no more from human union free,
Burn for a nursling of mortality. _45
For once amid the assembled Deities,
The laughter-loving Venus from her eyes
Shot forth the light of a soft starlight smile,
And boasting said, that she, secure the while,
Could bring at Will to the assembled Gods _50
The mortal tenants of earth's dark abodes,
And mortal offspring from a deathless stem
She could produce in scorn and spite of them.
Therefore he poured desire into her breast
Of young Anchises, _55
Feeding his herds among the mossy fountains
Of the wide Ida's many-folded mountains,--
Whom Venus saw, and loved, and the love clung
Like wasting fire her senses wild among.
***
THE CYCLOPS.
A SATYRIC DRAMA TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK OF EURIPIDES.
[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824; dated 1819.
Amongst the Shelley manuscripts at the Bodleian there is a copy,
'practically complete,' which has been collated by Mr. C. D. Locock. See
"Examination", etc. , 1903, pages 64-70. 'Though legible throughout, and
comparatively free from corrections, it has the appearance of being a
first draft' (Locock). ]
SILENUS.
ULYSSES.
CHORUS OF SATYRS.
THE CYCLOPS.
SILENUS:
O Bacchus, what a world of toil, both now
And ere these limbs were overworn with age,
Have I endured for thee! First, when thou fled'st
The mountain-nymphs who nursed thee, driven afar
By the strange madness Juno sent upon thee; _5
Then in the battle of the Sons of Earth,
When I stood foot by foot close to thy side,
No unpropitious fellow-combatant,
And, driving through his shield my winged spear,
Slew vast Enceladus. Consider now, _10
Is it a dream of which I speak to thee?
By Jove it is not, for you have the trophies!
And now I suffer more than all before.
For when I heard that Juno had devised
A tedious voyage for you, I put to sea _15
With all my children quaint in search of you,
And I myself stood on the beaked prow
And fixed the naked mast; and all my boys
Leaning upon their oars, with splash and strain
Made white with foam the green and purple sea,-- _20
And so we sought you, king. We were sailing
Near Malea, when an eastern wind arose,
And drove us to this waste Aetnean rock;
The one-eyed children of the Ocean God,
The man-destroying Cyclopses, inhabit, _25
On this wild shore, their solitary caves,
And one of these, named Polypheme. has caught us
To be his slaves; and so, for all delight
Of Bacchic sports, sweet dance and melody,
We keep this lawless giant's wandering flocks. _30
My sons indeed on far declivities,
Young things themselves, tend on the youngling sheep,
But I remain to fill the water-casks,
Or sweeping the hard floor, or ministering
Some impious and abominable meal _35
To the fell Cyclops. I am wearied of it!
And now I must scrape up the littered floor
With this great iron rake, so to receive
My absent master and his evening sheep
In a cave neat and clean. Even now I see _40
My children tending the flocks hitherward.
Ha! what is this? are your Sicinnian measures
Even now the same, as when with dance and song
You brought young Bacchus to Althaea's halls?
NOTE:
_23 waste B. ; wild 1824; 'cf. 26, where waste is cancelled for wild'
(Locock).
CHORUS OF SATYRS:
STROPHE:
Where has he of race divine _45
Wandered in the winding rocks?
Here the air is calm and fine
For the father of the flocks;--
Here the grass is soft and sweet,
And the river-eddies meet _50
In the trough beside the cave,
Bright as in their fountain wave. --
Neither here, nor on the dew
Of the lawny uplands feeding?
Oh, you come! --a stone at you _55
Will I throw to mend your breeding;--
Get along, you horned thing,
Wild, seditious, rambling!
EPODE:
An Iacchic melody
To the golden Aphrodite _60
Will I lift, as erst did I
Seeking her and her delight
With the Maenads, whose white feet
To the music glance and fleet.
Bacchus, O beloved, where, _65
Shaking wide thy yellow hair,
Wanderest thou alone, afar?
To the one-eyed Cyclops, we,
Who by right thy servants are,
Minister in misery, _70
In these wretched goat-skins clad,
Far from thy delights and thee.
SILENUS:
Be silent, sons; command the slaves to drive
The gathered flocks into the rock-roofed cave.
CHORUS:
Go! But what needs this serious haste, O father? _75
SILENUS:
I see a Grecian vessel on the coast,
And thence the rowers with some general
Approaching to this cave. --About their necks
Hang empty vessels, as they wanted food,
And water-flasks. --Oh, miserable strangers! _80
Whence come they, that they know not what and who
My master is, approaching in ill hour
The inhospitable roof of Polypheme,
And the Cyclopian jaw-bone, man-destroying?
Be silent, Satyrs, while I ask and hear _85
Whence coming, they arrive the Aetnean hill.
ULYSSES:
Friends, can you show me some clear water-spring,
The remedy of our thirst? Will any one
Furnish with food seamen in want of it?
Ha! what is this? We seem to be arrived _90
At the blithe court of Bacchus. I observe
This sportive band of Satyrs near the caves.
First let me greet the elder. --Hail!
SILENUS:
Hail thou,
O Stranger! tell thy country and thy race.
ULYSSES:
The Ithacan Ulysses and the king _95
Of Cephalonia.
SILENUS:
Oh! I know the man,
Wordy and shrewd, the son of Sisyphus.
ULYSSES:
I am the same, but do not rail upon me. --
SILENUS:
Whence sailing do you come to Sicily?
ULYSSES:
From Ilion, and from the Trojan toils. _100
SILENUS:
How, touched you not at your paternal shore?
ULYSSES:
The strength of tempests bore me here by force.
SILENUS:
The self-same accident occurred to me.
ULYSSES:
Were you then driven here by stress of weather?
SILENUS:
Following the Pirates who had kidnapped Bacchus. _105
ULYSSES:
What land is this, and who inhabit it? --
SILENUS:
Aetna, the loftiest peak in Sicily.
ULYSSES:
And are there walls, and tower-surrounded towns?
SILENUS:
There are not. --These lone rocks are bare of men.
ULYSSES:
And who possess the land? the race of beasts? _110
SILENUS:
Cyclops, who live in caverns, not in houses.
ULYSSES:
Obeying whom? Or is the state popular?
SILENUS:
Shepherds: no one obeys any in aught.
ULYSSES:
How live they? do they sow the corn of Ceres?
SILENUS:
On milk and cheese, and on the flesh of sheep. _115
ULYSSES:
Have they the Bromian drink from the vine's stream?
SILENUS:
Ah! no; they live in an ungracious land.
ULYSSES:
And are they just to strangers? --hospitable?
SILENUS:
They think the sweetest thing a stranger brings
Is his own flesh.
ULYSSES:
What! do they eat man's flesh? _120
SILENUS:
No one comes here who is not eaten up.
ULYSSES:
The Cyclops now--where is he? Not at home?
SILENUS:
Absent on Aetna, hunting with his dogs.
ULYSSES:
Know'st thou what thou must do to aid us hence?
SILENUS:
I know not: we will help you all we can. _125
ULYSSES:
Provide us food, of which we are in want.
SILENUS:
Here is not anything, as I said, but meat.
ULYSSES:
But meat is a sweet remedy for hunger.
SILENUS:
Cow's milk there is, and store of curdled cheese.
ULYSSES:
Bring out:--I would see all before I bargain. _130
SILENUS:
But how much gold will you engage to give?
ULYSSES:
I bring no gold, but Bacchic juice.
SILENUS:
Oh, joy!
Tis long since these dry lips were wet with wine.
ULYSSES:
Maron, the son of the God, gave it me.
SILENUS:
Whom I have nursed a baby in my arms. _135
ULYSSES:
The son of Bacchus, for your clearer knowledge.
SILENUS:
Have you it now? --or is it in the ship?
ULYSSES:
Old man, this skin contains it, which you see.
SILENUS:
Why, this would hardly be a mouthful for me.
ULYSSES:
Nay, twice as much as you can draw from thence. _140
SILENUS:
You speak of a fair fountain, sweet to me.
ULYSSES:
Would you first taste of the unmingled wine?
SILENUS:
'Tis just--tasting invites the purchaser.
ULYSSES:
Here is the cup, together with the skin.
SILENUS:
Pour: that the draught may fillip my remembrance.
ULYSSES:
See! _145
SILENUS:
Papaiapax! what a sweet smell it has!
ULYSSES:
You see it then? --
SILENUS:
By Jove, no! but I smell it.
ULYSSES:
Taste, that you may not praise it in words only.
SILENUS:
Babai! Great Bacchus calls me forth to dance!
Joy! joy!
ULYSSES:
Did it flow sweetly down your throat? _150
SILENUS:
So that it tingled to my very nails.
ULYSSES:
And in addition I will give you gold.
SILENUS:
Let gold alone! only unlock the cask.
ULYSSES:
Bring out some cheeses now, or a young goat.
SILENUS:
That will I do, despising any master. _155
Yes, let me drink one cup, and I will give
All that the Cyclops feed upon their mountains.
. . .
CHORUS:
Ye have taken Troy and laid your hands on Helen?
ULYSSES:
And utterly destroyed the race of Priam.
. . .
SILENUS:
The wanton wretch! she was bewitched to see _160
The many-coloured anklets and the chain
Of woven gold which girt the neck of Paris,
And so she left that good man Menelaus.
There should be no more women in the world
But such as are reserved for me alone. -- _165
See, here are sheep, and here are goats, Ulysses,
Here are unsparing cheeses of pressed milk;
Take them; depart with what good speed ye may;
First leaving my reward, the Bacchic dew
Of joy-inspiring grapes.
ULYSSES:
Ah me! Alas! _170
What shall we do? the Cyclops is at hand!
Old man, we perish! whither can we fly?
SILENUS:
Hide yourselves quick within that hollow rock.
ULYSSES:
'Twere perilous to fly into the net.
SILENUS:
The cavern has recesses numberless; _175
Hide yourselves quick.
ULYSSES:
That will I never do!
The mighty Troy would be indeed disgraced
If I should fly one man. How many times
Have I withstood, with shield immovable.
Ten thousand Phrygians! --if I needs must die, _180
Yet will I die with glory;--if I live,
The praise which I have gained will yet remain.
SILENUS:
What, ho! assistance, comrades, haste, assistance!
[THE CYCLOPS, SILENUS, ULYSSES; CHORUS. ]
CYCLOPS:
What is this tumult? Bacchus is not here,
Nor tympanies nor brazen castanets. _185
How are my young lambs in the cavern? Milking
Their dams or playing by their sides? And is
The new cheese pressed into the bulrush baskets?
Speak!
I'll beat some of you till you rain tears--
Look up, not downwards when I speak to you. _190
SILENUS:
See! I now gape at Jupiter himself;
I stare upon Orion and the stars.
CYCLOPS:
Well, is the dinner fitly cooked and laid?
SILENUS:
All ready, if your throat is ready too.
CYCLOPS:
Are the bowls full of milk besides?
SILENUS:
O'er-brimming; _195
So you may drink a tunful if you will.
CYCLOPS:
Is it ewe's milk or cow's milk, or both mixed? --
SILENUS:
Both, either; only pray don't swallow me.
CYCLOPS:
By no means. --
. . .
What is this crowd I see beside the stalls? _200
Outlaws or thieves? for near my cavern-home
I see my young lambs coupled two by two
With willow bands; mixed with my cheeses lie
Their implements; and this old fellow here
Has his bald head broken with stripes.
SILENUS:
Ah me! _205
I have been beaten till I burn with fever.
CYCLOPS:
By whom? Who laid his fist upon your head?
SILENUS:
Those men, because I would not suffer them
To steal your goods.
CYCLOPS:
Did not the rascals know
I am a God, sprung from the race of Heaven? _210
SILENUS:
I told them so, but they bore off your things,
And ate the cheese in spite of all I said,
And carried out the lambs--and said, moreover,
They'd pin you down with a three-cubit collar,
And pull your vitals out through your one eye, _215
Furrow your back with stripes, then, binding you,
Throw you as ballast into the ship's hold,
And then deliver you, a slave, to move
Enormous rocks, or found a vestibule.
NOTE:
_216 Furrow B. ; Torture (evidently misread for Furrow) 1824.
CYCLOPS:
In truth? Nay, haste, and place in order quickly
The cooking-knives, and heap upon the hearth, _221
And kindle it, a great faggot of wood. --
As soon as they are slaughtered, they shall fill
My belly, broiling warm from the live coals,
Or boiled and seethed within the bubbling caldron. _225
I am quite sick of the wild mountain game;
Of stags and lions I have gorged enough,
And I grow hungry for the flesh of men.
SILENUS:
Nay, master, something new is very pleasant
After one thing forever, and of late _230
Very few strangers have approached our cave.
ULYSSES:
Hear, Cyclops, a plain tale on the other side.
We, wanting to buy food, came from our ship
Into the neighbourhood of your cave, and here
This old Silenus gave us in exchange _235
These lambs for wine, the which he took and drank,
And all by mutual compact, without force.
There is no word of truth in what he says,
For slyly he was selling all your store.
SILENUS:
I? May you perish, wretch--
ULYSSES:
If I speak false! _240
SILENUS:
Cyclops, I swear by Neptune who begot thee,
By mighty Triton and by Nereus old,
Calypso and the glaucous Ocean Nymphs,
The sacred waves and all the race of fishes--
Be these the witnesses, my dear sweet master, _245
My darling little Cyclops, that I never
Gave any of your stores to these false strangers;--
If I speak false may those whom most I love,
My children, perish wretchedly!
CHORUS:
There stop!
I saw him giving these things to the strangers. _250
If I speak false, then may my father perish,
But do not thou wrong hospitality.
CYCLOPS:
You lie! I swear that he is juster far
Than Rhadamanthus--I trust more in him.
But let me ask, whence have ye sailed, O strangers? _255
Who are you? And what city nourished ye?
ULYSSES:
Our race is Ithacan--having destroyed
The town of Troy, the tempests of the sea
Have driven us on thy land, O Polypheme.
CYCLOPS:
What, have ye shared in the unenvied spoil _260
Of the false Helen, near Scamander's stream?
ULYSSES:
The same, having endured a woful toil.
CYCLOPS:
Oh, basest expedition! sailed ye not
From Greece to Phrygia for one woman's sake?
ULYSSES:
'Twas the Gods' work--no mortal was in fault. _265
But, O great Offspring of the Ocean-King,
We pray thee and admonish thee with freedom,
That thou dost spare thy friends who visit thee,
And place no impious food within thy jaws.
For in the depths of Greece we have upreared _270
Temples to thy great Father, which are all
His homes. The sacred bay of Taenarus
Remains inviolate, and each dim recess
Scooped high on the Malean promontory,
And aery Sunium's silver-veined crag, _275
Which divine Pallas keeps unprofaned ever,
The Gerastian asylums, and whate'er
Within wide Greece our enterprise has kept
From Phrygian contumely; and in which
You have a common care, for you inhabit _280
The skirts of Grecian land, under the roots
Of Aetna and its crags, spotted with fire.
Turn then to converse under human laws,
Receive us shipwrecked suppliants, and provide
Food, clothes, and fire, and hospitable gifts; _285
Nor fixing upon oxen-piercing spits
Our limbs, so fill your belly and your jaws.
Priam's wide land has widowed Greece enough;
And weapon-winged murder leaped together
Enough of dead, and wives are husbandless, _290
And ancient women and gray fathers wail
Their childless age;--if you should roast the rest--
And 'tis a bitter feast that you prepare--
Where then would any turn? Yet be persuaded;
Forgo the lust of your jaw-bone; prefer _295
Pious humanity to wicked will:
Many have bought too dear their evil joys.
SILENUS:
Let me advise you, do not spare a morsel
Of all his flesh. If you should eat his tongue
You would become most eloquent, O Cyclops. _300
CYCLOPS:
Wealth, my good fellow, is the wise man's God,
All other things are a pretence and boast.
What are my father's ocean promontories,
The sacred rocks whereon he dwells, to me?
Stranger, I laugh to scorn Jove's thunderbolt, _305
I know not that his strength is more than mine.
As to the rest I care not. --When he pours
Rain from above, I have a close pavilion
Under this rock, in which I lie supine,
Feasting on a roast calf or some wild beast, _310
And drinking pans of milk, and gloriously
Emulating the thunder of high Heaven.
And when the Thracian wind pours down the snow,
I wrap my body in the skins of beasts,
Kindle a fire, and bid the snow whirl on. _315
The earth, by force, whether it will or no,
Bringing forth grass, fattens my flocks and herds,
Which, to what other God but to myself
And this great belly, first of deities,
Should I be bound to sacrifice? I well know _320
The wise man's only Jupiter is this,
To eat and drink during his little day,
And give himself no care. And as for those
Who complicate with laws the life of man,
I freely give them tears for their reward. _325
I will not cheat my soul of its delight,
Or hesitate in dining upon you:--
And that I may be quit of all demands,
These are my hospitable gifts;--fierce fire
And yon ancestral caldron, which o'er-bubbling _330
Shall finely cook your miserable flesh.
Creep in! --
. . .
ULYSSES:
Ai! ai! I have escaped the Trojan toils,
I have escaped the sea, and now I fall
Under the cruel grasp of one impious man. _335
O Pallas, Mistress, Goddess, sprung from Jove,
Now, now, assist me! Mightier toils than Troy
Are these;--I totter on the chasms of peril;--
And thou who inhabitest the thrones
Of the bright stars, look, hospitable Jove, _340
Upon this outrage of thy deity,
Otherwise be considered as no God!
CHORUS (ALONE):
For your gaping gulf and your gullet wide,
The ravin is ready on every side,
The limbs of the strangers are cooked and done; _345
There is boiled meat, and roast meat, and meat from the coal,
You may chop it, and tear it, and gnash it for fun,
An hairy goat's-skin contains the whole.
Let me but escape, and ferry me o'er
The stream of your wrath to a safer shore. _350
The Cyclops Aetnean is cruel and bold,
He murders the strangers
That sit on his hearth,
And dreads no avengers
To rise from the earth. _355
He roasts the men before they are cold,
He snatches them broiling from the coal,
And from the caldron pulls them whole,
And minces their flesh and gnaws their bone
With his cursed teeth, till all be gone. _360
Farewell, foul pavilion:
Farewell, rites of dread!
The Cyclops vermilion,
With slaughter uncloying,
Now feasts on the dead, _365
In the flesh of strangers joying!
NOTE:
_344 ravin Rossetti; spelt ravine in B. , editions 1824, 1839.
ULYSSES:
O Jupiter! I saw within the cave
Horrible things; deeds to be feigned in words,
But not to be believed as being done.
NOTE:
_369 not to be believed B. ; not believed 1824.
CHORUS:
What! sawest thou the impious Polypheme _370
Feasting upon your loved companions now?
ULYSSES:
Selecting two, the plumpest of the crowd,
He grasped them in his hands. --
CHORUS:
Unhappy man!
. . .
ULYSSES:
Soon as we came into this craggy place,
Kindling a fire, he cast on the broad hearth _375
The knotty limbs of an enormous oak,
Three waggon-loads at least, and then he strewed
Upon the ground, beside the red firelight,
His couch of pine-leaves; and he milked the cows,
And pouring forth the white milk, filled a bowl _380
Three cubits wide and four in depth, as much
As would contain ten amphorae, and bound it
With ivy wreaths; then placed upon the fire
A brazen pot to boil, and made red hot
The points of spits, not sharpened with the sickle _385
But with a fruit tree bough, and with the jaws
Of axes for Aetnean slaughterings.
And when this God-abandoned Cook of Hell
Had made all ready, he seized two of us
And killed them in a kind of measured manner; _390
For he flung one against the brazen rivets
Of the huge caldron, and seized the other
By the foot's tendon, and knocked out his brains
Upon the sharp edge of the craggy stone:
Then peeled his flesh with a great cooking-knife _395
And put him down to roast. The other's limbs
He chopped into the caldron to be boiled.
And I, with the tears raining from my eyes,
Stood near the Cyclops, ministering to him;
The rest, in the recesses of the cave, _400
Clung to the rock like bats, bloodless with fear.
When he was filled with my companions' flesh,
He threw himself upon the ground and sent
A loathsome exhalation from his maw.
Then a divine thought came to me. I filled _405
The cup of Maron, and I offered him
To taste, and said:--'Child of the Ocean God,
Behold what drink the vines of Greece produce,
The exultation and the joy of Bacchus. '
He, satiated with his unnatural food, _410
Received it, and at one draught drank it off,
And taking my hand, praised me:--'Thou hast given
A sweet draught after a sweet meal, dear guest. '
And I, perceiving that it pleased him, filled
Another cup, well knowing that the wine _415
Would wound him soon and take a sure revenge.
And the charm fascinated him, and I
Plied him cup after cup, until the drink
Had warmed his entrails, and he sang aloud
In concert with my wailing fellow-seamen _420
A hideous discord--and the cavern rung.
I have stolen out, so that if you will
You may achieve my safety and your own.
But say, do you desire, or not, to fly
This uncompanionable man, and dwell _425
As was your wont among the Grecian Nymphs
Within the fanes of your beloved God?
Your father there within agrees to it,
But he is weak and overcome with wine,
And caught as if with bird-lime by the cup, _430
He claps his wings and crows in doting joy.
You who are young escape with me, and find
Bacchus your ancient friend; unsuited he
To this rude Cyclops.
NOTES:
_382 ten cj. Swinburne; four 1824; four cancelled for ten (possibly) B.
_387 I confess I do not understand this. --[SHELLEY'S NOTE. ]
_416 take]grant (as alternative) B.
CHORUS:
Oh my dearest friend,
That I could see that day, and leave for ever _435
The impious Cyclops.
. . .
ULYSSES:
Listen then what a punishment I have
For this fell monster, how secure a flight
From your hard servitude.
CHORUS:
O sweeter far
Than is the music of an Asian lyre _440
Would be the news of Polypheme destroyed.
ULYSSES:
Delighted with the Bacchic drink he goes
To call his brother Cyclops--who inhabit
A village upon Aetna not far off.
CHORUS:
I understand, catching him when alone _445
You think by some measure to dispatch him,
Or thrust him from the precipice.
NOTE:
_446 by some measure 1824; with some measures B.
ULYSSES:
Oh no;
Nothing of that kind; my device is subtle.
CHORUS:
How then? I heard of old that thou wert wise.
ULYSSES:
I will dissuade him from this plan, by saying _450
It were unwise to give the Cyclopses
This precious drink, which if enjoyed alone
Would make life sweeter for a longer time.
When, vanquished by the Bacchic power, he sleeps,
There is a trunk of olive wood within, _455
Whose point having made sharp with this good sword
I will conceal in fire, and when I see
It is alight, will fix it, burning yet,
Within the socket of the Cyclops' eye
And melt it out with fire--as when a man _460
Turns by its handle a great auger round,
Fitting the framework of a ship with beams,
So will I, in the Cyclops' fiery eye
Turn round the brand and dry the pupil up.
CHORUS:
Joy! I am mad with joy at your device. _465
ULYSSES:
And then with you, my friends, and the old man,
We'll load the hollow depth of our black ship,
And row with double strokes from this dread shore.
CHORUS:
May I, as in libations to a God,
Share in the blinding him with the red brand? _470
I would have some communion in his death.
ULYSSES:
Doubtless: the brand is a great brand to hold.
CHORUS:
Oh! I would lift an hundred waggon-loads,
If like a wasp's nest I could scoop the eye out
Of the detested Cyclops.
ULYSSES:
Silence now! _475
Ye know the close device--and when I call,
Look ye obey the masters of the craft.
I will not save myself and leave behind
My comrades in the cave: I might escape,
Having got clear from that obscure recess, _480
But 'twere unjust to leave in jeopardy
The dear companions who sailed here with me.
CHORUS:
Come! who is first, that with his hand
Will urge down the burning brand
Through the lids, and quench and pierce _485
The Cyclops' eye so fiery fierce?
SEMICHORUS 1 [SONG WITHIN]:
Listen! listen! he is coming,
A most hideous discord humming.
Drunken, museless, awkward, yelling,
Far along his rocky dwelling; _490
Let us with some comic spell
Teach the yet unteachable.
By all means he must be blinded,
If my counsel be but minded.
SEMICHORUS 2:
Happy thou made odorous _495
With the dew which sweet grapes weep,
To the village hastening thus,
Seek the vines that soothe to sleep;
Having first embraced thy friend,
Thou in luxury without end, _500
With the strings of yellow hair,
Of thy voluptuous leman fair,
Shalt sit playing on a bed! --
Speak! what door is opened?
NOTES:
_495 thou cj. Swinburne, Rossetti; those 1824;
'the word is doubtful in B. ' (Locock).
_500 Thou B. ; There 1824.
CYCLOPS:
Ha! ha! ha! I'm full of wine, _505
Heavy with the joy divine,
With the young feast oversated;
Like a merchant's vessel freighted
To the water's edge, my crop
Is laden to the gullet's top. _510
The fresh meadow grass of spring
Tempts me forth thus wandering
To my brothers on the mountains,
Who shall share the wine's sweet fountains.
Bring the cask, O stranger, bring! _515
NOTE:
_508 merchant's 1824; merchant B.
CHORUS:
One with eyes the fairest
Cometh from his dwelling;
Some one loves thee, rarest
Bright beyond my telling.
In thy grace thou shinest _520
Like some nymph divinest
In her caverns dewy:--
All delights pursue thee,
Soon pied flowers, sweet-breathing,
Shall thy head be wreathing. _525
ULYSSES:
Listen, O Cyclops, for I am well skilled
In Bacchus, whom I gave thee of to drink.
CYCLOPS:
What sort of God is Bacchus then accounted?
ULYSSES:
The greatest among men for joy of life.
CYCLOPS:
I gulped him down with very great delight. _530
ULYSSES:
This is a God who never injures men.
CYCLOPS:
How does the God like living in a skin?
ULYSSES:
He is content wherever he is put.
CYCLOPS:
Gods should not have their body in a skin.
ULYSSES:
If he gives joy, what is his skin to you? _535
CYCLOPS:
I hate the skin, but love the wine within.
ULYSSES:
Stay here now: drink, and make your spirit glad.
NOTE:
_537 Stay here now, drink B. ; stay here, now drink 1824.
CYCLOPS:
Should I not share this liquor with my brothers?
ULYSSES:
Keep it yourself, and be more honoured so.
CYCLOPS:
I were more useful, giving to my friends. _540
ULYSSES:
But village mirth breeds contests, broils, and blows.
CYCLOPS:
When I am drunk none shall lay hands on me. --
ULYSSES:
A drunken man is better within doors.
CYCLOPS:
He is a fool, who drinking, loves not mirth.
ULYSSES:
But he is wise, who drunk, remains at home. _545
CYCLOPS:
What shall I do, Silenus? Shall I stay?
SILENUS:
Stay--for what need have you of pot companions?
CYCLOPS:
Indeed this place is closely carpeted
With flowers and grass.
SILENUS:
And in the sun-warm noon
'Tis sweet to drink. Lie down beside me now, _550
Placing your mighty sides upon the ground.
CYCLOPS:
What do you put the cup behind me for?
SILENUS:
That no one here may touch it.
CYCLOPS:
Thievish One!
You want to drink;--here place it in the midst.
And thou, O stranger, tell how art thou called? _555
ULYSSES:
My name is Nobody. What favour now
Shall I receive to praise you at your hands?
CYCLOPS:
I'll feast on you the last of your companions.
ULYSSES:
You grant your guest a fair reward, O Cyclops.
CYCLOPS:
Ha!
Tritogenia, town-preserving Maid,
Revered and mighty; from his awful head
Whom Jove brought forth, in warlike armour dressed, _5
Golden, all radiant! wonder strange possessed
The everlasting Gods that Shape to see,
Shaking a javelin keen, impetuously
Rush from the crest of Aegis-bearing Jove;
Fearfully Heaven was shaken, and did move _10
Beneath the might of the Cerulean-eyed;
Earth dreadfully resounded, far and wide;
And, lifted from its depths, the sea swelled high
In purple billows, the tide suddenly
Stood still, and great Hyperion's son long time _15
Checked his swift steeds, till, where she stood sublime,
Pallas from her immortal shoulders threw
The arms divine; wise Jove rejoiced to view.
Child of the Aegis-bearer, hail to thee,
Nor thine nor others' praise shall unremembered be. _20
***
HOMER'S HYMN TO VENUS.
[Published by Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862; dated 1818. ]
[VERSES 1-55, WITH SOME OMISSIONS. ]
Muse, sing the deeds of golden Aphrodite,
Who wakens with her smile the lulled delight
Of sweet desire, taming the eternal kings
Of Heaven, and men, and all the living things
That fleet along the air, or whom the sea, _5
Or earth, with her maternal ministry,
Nourish innumerable, thy delight
All seek . . . O crowned Aphrodite!
Three spirits canst thou not deceive or quell:--
Minerva, child of Jove, who loves too well _10
Fierce war and mingling combat, and the fame
Of glorious deeds, to heed thy gentle flame.
Diana . . . golden-shafted queen,
Is tamed not by thy smiles; the shadows green
Of the wild woods, the bow, the. . . _15
And piercing cries amid the swift pursuit
Of beasts among waste mountains,--such delight
Is hers, and men who know and do the right.
Nor Saturn's first-born daughter, Vesta chaste,
Whom Neptune and Apollo wooed the last, _20
Such was the will of aegis-bearing Jove;
But sternly she refused the ills of Love,
And by her mighty Father's head she swore
An oath not unperformed, that evermore
A virgin she would live mid deities _25
Divine: her father, for such gentle ties
Renounced, gave glorious gifts--thus in his hall
She sits and feeds luxuriously. O'er all
In every fane, her honours first arise
From men--the eldest of Divinities. _30
These spirits she persuades not, nor deceives,
But none beside escape, so well she weaves
Her unseen toils; nor mortal men, nor gods
Who live secure in their unseen abodes.
She won the soul of him whose fierce delight _35
Is thunder--first in glory and in might.
And, as she willed, his mighty mind deceiving,
With mortal limbs his deathless limbs inweaving,
Concealed him from his spouse and sister fair,
Whom to wise Saturn ancient Rhea bare. _40
but in return,
In Venus Jove did soft desire awaken,
That by her own enchantments overtaken,
She might, no more from human union free,
Burn for a nursling of mortality. _45
For once amid the assembled Deities,
The laughter-loving Venus from her eyes
Shot forth the light of a soft starlight smile,
And boasting said, that she, secure the while,
Could bring at Will to the assembled Gods _50
The mortal tenants of earth's dark abodes,
And mortal offspring from a deathless stem
She could produce in scorn and spite of them.
Therefore he poured desire into her breast
Of young Anchises, _55
Feeding his herds among the mossy fountains
Of the wide Ida's many-folded mountains,--
Whom Venus saw, and loved, and the love clung
Like wasting fire her senses wild among.
***
THE CYCLOPS.
A SATYRIC DRAMA TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK OF EURIPIDES.
[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824; dated 1819.
Amongst the Shelley manuscripts at the Bodleian there is a copy,
'practically complete,' which has been collated by Mr. C. D. Locock. See
"Examination", etc. , 1903, pages 64-70. 'Though legible throughout, and
comparatively free from corrections, it has the appearance of being a
first draft' (Locock). ]
SILENUS.
ULYSSES.
CHORUS OF SATYRS.
THE CYCLOPS.
SILENUS:
O Bacchus, what a world of toil, both now
And ere these limbs were overworn with age,
Have I endured for thee! First, when thou fled'st
The mountain-nymphs who nursed thee, driven afar
By the strange madness Juno sent upon thee; _5
Then in the battle of the Sons of Earth,
When I stood foot by foot close to thy side,
No unpropitious fellow-combatant,
And, driving through his shield my winged spear,
Slew vast Enceladus. Consider now, _10
Is it a dream of which I speak to thee?
By Jove it is not, for you have the trophies!
And now I suffer more than all before.
For when I heard that Juno had devised
A tedious voyage for you, I put to sea _15
With all my children quaint in search of you,
And I myself stood on the beaked prow
And fixed the naked mast; and all my boys
Leaning upon their oars, with splash and strain
Made white with foam the green and purple sea,-- _20
And so we sought you, king. We were sailing
Near Malea, when an eastern wind arose,
And drove us to this waste Aetnean rock;
The one-eyed children of the Ocean God,
The man-destroying Cyclopses, inhabit, _25
On this wild shore, their solitary caves,
And one of these, named Polypheme. has caught us
To be his slaves; and so, for all delight
Of Bacchic sports, sweet dance and melody,
We keep this lawless giant's wandering flocks. _30
My sons indeed on far declivities,
Young things themselves, tend on the youngling sheep,
But I remain to fill the water-casks,
Or sweeping the hard floor, or ministering
Some impious and abominable meal _35
To the fell Cyclops. I am wearied of it!
And now I must scrape up the littered floor
With this great iron rake, so to receive
My absent master and his evening sheep
In a cave neat and clean. Even now I see _40
My children tending the flocks hitherward.
Ha! what is this? are your Sicinnian measures
Even now the same, as when with dance and song
You brought young Bacchus to Althaea's halls?
NOTE:
_23 waste B. ; wild 1824; 'cf. 26, where waste is cancelled for wild'
(Locock).
CHORUS OF SATYRS:
STROPHE:
Where has he of race divine _45
Wandered in the winding rocks?
Here the air is calm and fine
For the father of the flocks;--
Here the grass is soft and sweet,
And the river-eddies meet _50
In the trough beside the cave,
Bright as in their fountain wave. --
Neither here, nor on the dew
Of the lawny uplands feeding?
Oh, you come! --a stone at you _55
Will I throw to mend your breeding;--
Get along, you horned thing,
Wild, seditious, rambling!
EPODE:
An Iacchic melody
To the golden Aphrodite _60
Will I lift, as erst did I
Seeking her and her delight
With the Maenads, whose white feet
To the music glance and fleet.
Bacchus, O beloved, where, _65
Shaking wide thy yellow hair,
Wanderest thou alone, afar?
To the one-eyed Cyclops, we,
Who by right thy servants are,
Minister in misery, _70
In these wretched goat-skins clad,
Far from thy delights and thee.
SILENUS:
Be silent, sons; command the slaves to drive
The gathered flocks into the rock-roofed cave.
CHORUS:
Go! But what needs this serious haste, O father? _75
SILENUS:
I see a Grecian vessel on the coast,
And thence the rowers with some general
Approaching to this cave. --About their necks
Hang empty vessels, as they wanted food,
And water-flasks. --Oh, miserable strangers! _80
Whence come they, that they know not what and who
My master is, approaching in ill hour
The inhospitable roof of Polypheme,
And the Cyclopian jaw-bone, man-destroying?
Be silent, Satyrs, while I ask and hear _85
Whence coming, they arrive the Aetnean hill.
ULYSSES:
Friends, can you show me some clear water-spring,
The remedy of our thirst? Will any one
Furnish with food seamen in want of it?
Ha! what is this? We seem to be arrived _90
At the blithe court of Bacchus. I observe
This sportive band of Satyrs near the caves.
First let me greet the elder. --Hail!
SILENUS:
Hail thou,
O Stranger! tell thy country and thy race.
ULYSSES:
The Ithacan Ulysses and the king _95
Of Cephalonia.
SILENUS:
Oh! I know the man,
Wordy and shrewd, the son of Sisyphus.
ULYSSES:
I am the same, but do not rail upon me. --
SILENUS:
Whence sailing do you come to Sicily?
ULYSSES:
From Ilion, and from the Trojan toils. _100
SILENUS:
How, touched you not at your paternal shore?
ULYSSES:
The strength of tempests bore me here by force.
SILENUS:
The self-same accident occurred to me.
ULYSSES:
Were you then driven here by stress of weather?
SILENUS:
Following the Pirates who had kidnapped Bacchus. _105
ULYSSES:
What land is this, and who inhabit it? --
SILENUS:
Aetna, the loftiest peak in Sicily.
ULYSSES:
And are there walls, and tower-surrounded towns?
SILENUS:
There are not. --These lone rocks are bare of men.
ULYSSES:
And who possess the land? the race of beasts? _110
SILENUS:
Cyclops, who live in caverns, not in houses.
ULYSSES:
Obeying whom? Or is the state popular?
SILENUS:
Shepherds: no one obeys any in aught.
ULYSSES:
How live they? do they sow the corn of Ceres?
SILENUS:
On milk and cheese, and on the flesh of sheep. _115
ULYSSES:
Have they the Bromian drink from the vine's stream?
SILENUS:
Ah! no; they live in an ungracious land.
ULYSSES:
And are they just to strangers? --hospitable?
SILENUS:
They think the sweetest thing a stranger brings
Is his own flesh.
ULYSSES:
What! do they eat man's flesh? _120
SILENUS:
No one comes here who is not eaten up.
ULYSSES:
The Cyclops now--where is he? Not at home?
SILENUS:
Absent on Aetna, hunting with his dogs.
ULYSSES:
Know'st thou what thou must do to aid us hence?
SILENUS:
I know not: we will help you all we can. _125
ULYSSES:
Provide us food, of which we are in want.
SILENUS:
Here is not anything, as I said, but meat.
ULYSSES:
But meat is a sweet remedy for hunger.
SILENUS:
Cow's milk there is, and store of curdled cheese.
ULYSSES:
Bring out:--I would see all before I bargain. _130
SILENUS:
But how much gold will you engage to give?
ULYSSES:
I bring no gold, but Bacchic juice.
SILENUS:
Oh, joy!
Tis long since these dry lips were wet with wine.
ULYSSES:
Maron, the son of the God, gave it me.
SILENUS:
Whom I have nursed a baby in my arms. _135
ULYSSES:
The son of Bacchus, for your clearer knowledge.
SILENUS:
Have you it now? --or is it in the ship?
ULYSSES:
Old man, this skin contains it, which you see.
SILENUS:
Why, this would hardly be a mouthful for me.
ULYSSES:
Nay, twice as much as you can draw from thence. _140
SILENUS:
You speak of a fair fountain, sweet to me.
ULYSSES:
Would you first taste of the unmingled wine?
SILENUS:
'Tis just--tasting invites the purchaser.
ULYSSES:
Here is the cup, together with the skin.
SILENUS:
Pour: that the draught may fillip my remembrance.
ULYSSES:
See! _145
SILENUS:
Papaiapax! what a sweet smell it has!
ULYSSES:
You see it then? --
SILENUS:
By Jove, no! but I smell it.
ULYSSES:
Taste, that you may not praise it in words only.
SILENUS:
Babai! Great Bacchus calls me forth to dance!
Joy! joy!
ULYSSES:
Did it flow sweetly down your throat? _150
SILENUS:
So that it tingled to my very nails.
ULYSSES:
And in addition I will give you gold.
SILENUS:
Let gold alone! only unlock the cask.
ULYSSES:
Bring out some cheeses now, or a young goat.
SILENUS:
That will I do, despising any master. _155
Yes, let me drink one cup, and I will give
All that the Cyclops feed upon their mountains.
. . .
CHORUS:
Ye have taken Troy and laid your hands on Helen?
ULYSSES:
And utterly destroyed the race of Priam.
. . .
SILENUS:
The wanton wretch! she was bewitched to see _160
The many-coloured anklets and the chain
Of woven gold which girt the neck of Paris,
And so she left that good man Menelaus.
There should be no more women in the world
But such as are reserved for me alone. -- _165
See, here are sheep, and here are goats, Ulysses,
Here are unsparing cheeses of pressed milk;
Take them; depart with what good speed ye may;
First leaving my reward, the Bacchic dew
Of joy-inspiring grapes.
ULYSSES:
Ah me! Alas! _170
What shall we do? the Cyclops is at hand!
Old man, we perish! whither can we fly?
SILENUS:
Hide yourselves quick within that hollow rock.
ULYSSES:
'Twere perilous to fly into the net.
SILENUS:
The cavern has recesses numberless; _175
Hide yourselves quick.
ULYSSES:
That will I never do!
The mighty Troy would be indeed disgraced
If I should fly one man. How many times
Have I withstood, with shield immovable.
Ten thousand Phrygians! --if I needs must die, _180
Yet will I die with glory;--if I live,
The praise which I have gained will yet remain.
SILENUS:
What, ho! assistance, comrades, haste, assistance!
[THE CYCLOPS, SILENUS, ULYSSES; CHORUS. ]
CYCLOPS:
What is this tumult? Bacchus is not here,
Nor tympanies nor brazen castanets. _185
How are my young lambs in the cavern? Milking
Their dams or playing by their sides? And is
The new cheese pressed into the bulrush baskets?
Speak!
I'll beat some of you till you rain tears--
Look up, not downwards when I speak to you. _190
SILENUS:
See! I now gape at Jupiter himself;
I stare upon Orion and the stars.
CYCLOPS:
Well, is the dinner fitly cooked and laid?
SILENUS:
All ready, if your throat is ready too.
CYCLOPS:
Are the bowls full of milk besides?
SILENUS:
O'er-brimming; _195
So you may drink a tunful if you will.
CYCLOPS:
Is it ewe's milk or cow's milk, or both mixed? --
SILENUS:
Both, either; only pray don't swallow me.
CYCLOPS:
By no means. --
. . .
What is this crowd I see beside the stalls? _200
Outlaws or thieves? for near my cavern-home
I see my young lambs coupled two by two
With willow bands; mixed with my cheeses lie
Their implements; and this old fellow here
Has his bald head broken with stripes.
SILENUS:
Ah me! _205
I have been beaten till I burn with fever.
CYCLOPS:
By whom? Who laid his fist upon your head?
SILENUS:
Those men, because I would not suffer them
To steal your goods.
CYCLOPS:
Did not the rascals know
I am a God, sprung from the race of Heaven? _210
SILENUS:
I told them so, but they bore off your things,
And ate the cheese in spite of all I said,
And carried out the lambs--and said, moreover,
They'd pin you down with a three-cubit collar,
And pull your vitals out through your one eye, _215
Furrow your back with stripes, then, binding you,
Throw you as ballast into the ship's hold,
And then deliver you, a slave, to move
Enormous rocks, or found a vestibule.
NOTE:
_216 Furrow B. ; Torture (evidently misread for Furrow) 1824.
CYCLOPS:
In truth? Nay, haste, and place in order quickly
The cooking-knives, and heap upon the hearth, _221
And kindle it, a great faggot of wood. --
As soon as they are slaughtered, they shall fill
My belly, broiling warm from the live coals,
Or boiled and seethed within the bubbling caldron. _225
I am quite sick of the wild mountain game;
Of stags and lions I have gorged enough,
And I grow hungry for the flesh of men.
SILENUS:
Nay, master, something new is very pleasant
After one thing forever, and of late _230
Very few strangers have approached our cave.
ULYSSES:
Hear, Cyclops, a plain tale on the other side.
We, wanting to buy food, came from our ship
Into the neighbourhood of your cave, and here
This old Silenus gave us in exchange _235
These lambs for wine, the which he took and drank,
And all by mutual compact, without force.
There is no word of truth in what he says,
For slyly he was selling all your store.
SILENUS:
I? May you perish, wretch--
ULYSSES:
If I speak false! _240
SILENUS:
Cyclops, I swear by Neptune who begot thee,
By mighty Triton and by Nereus old,
Calypso and the glaucous Ocean Nymphs,
The sacred waves and all the race of fishes--
Be these the witnesses, my dear sweet master, _245
My darling little Cyclops, that I never
Gave any of your stores to these false strangers;--
If I speak false may those whom most I love,
My children, perish wretchedly!
CHORUS:
There stop!
I saw him giving these things to the strangers. _250
If I speak false, then may my father perish,
But do not thou wrong hospitality.
CYCLOPS:
You lie! I swear that he is juster far
Than Rhadamanthus--I trust more in him.
But let me ask, whence have ye sailed, O strangers? _255
Who are you? And what city nourished ye?
ULYSSES:
Our race is Ithacan--having destroyed
The town of Troy, the tempests of the sea
Have driven us on thy land, O Polypheme.
CYCLOPS:
What, have ye shared in the unenvied spoil _260
Of the false Helen, near Scamander's stream?
ULYSSES:
The same, having endured a woful toil.
CYCLOPS:
Oh, basest expedition! sailed ye not
From Greece to Phrygia for one woman's sake?
ULYSSES:
'Twas the Gods' work--no mortal was in fault. _265
But, O great Offspring of the Ocean-King,
We pray thee and admonish thee with freedom,
That thou dost spare thy friends who visit thee,
And place no impious food within thy jaws.
For in the depths of Greece we have upreared _270
Temples to thy great Father, which are all
His homes. The sacred bay of Taenarus
Remains inviolate, and each dim recess
Scooped high on the Malean promontory,
And aery Sunium's silver-veined crag, _275
Which divine Pallas keeps unprofaned ever,
The Gerastian asylums, and whate'er
Within wide Greece our enterprise has kept
From Phrygian contumely; and in which
You have a common care, for you inhabit _280
The skirts of Grecian land, under the roots
Of Aetna and its crags, spotted with fire.
Turn then to converse under human laws,
Receive us shipwrecked suppliants, and provide
Food, clothes, and fire, and hospitable gifts; _285
Nor fixing upon oxen-piercing spits
Our limbs, so fill your belly and your jaws.
Priam's wide land has widowed Greece enough;
And weapon-winged murder leaped together
Enough of dead, and wives are husbandless, _290
And ancient women and gray fathers wail
Their childless age;--if you should roast the rest--
And 'tis a bitter feast that you prepare--
Where then would any turn? Yet be persuaded;
Forgo the lust of your jaw-bone; prefer _295
Pious humanity to wicked will:
Many have bought too dear their evil joys.
SILENUS:
Let me advise you, do not spare a morsel
Of all his flesh. If you should eat his tongue
You would become most eloquent, O Cyclops. _300
CYCLOPS:
Wealth, my good fellow, is the wise man's God,
All other things are a pretence and boast.
What are my father's ocean promontories,
The sacred rocks whereon he dwells, to me?
Stranger, I laugh to scorn Jove's thunderbolt, _305
I know not that his strength is more than mine.
As to the rest I care not. --When he pours
Rain from above, I have a close pavilion
Under this rock, in which I lie supine,
Feasting on a roast calf or some wild beast, _310
And drinking pans of milk, and gloriously
Emulating the thunder of high Heaven.
And when the Thracian wind pours down the snow,
I wrap my body in the skins of beasts,
Kindle a fire, and bid the snow whirl on. _315
The earth, by force, whether it will or no,
Bringing forth grass, fattens my flocks and herds,
Which, to what other God but to myself
And this great belly, first of deities,
Should I be bound to sacrifice? I well know _320
The wise man's only Jupiter is this,
To eat and drink during his little day,
And give himself no care. And as for those
Who complicate with laws the life of man,
I freely give them tears for their reward. _325
I will not cheat my soul of its delight,
Or hesitate in dining upon you:--
And that I may be quit of all demands,
These are my hospitable gifts;--fierce fire
And yon ancestral caldron, which o'er-bubbling _330
Shall finely cook your miserable flesh.
Creep in! --
. . .
ULYSSES:
Ai! ai! I have escaped the Trojan toils,
I have escaped the sea, and now I fall
Under the cruel grasp of one impious man. _335
O Pallas, Mistress, Goddess, sprung from Jove,
Now, now, assist me! Mightier toils than Troy
Are these;--I totter on the chasms of peril;--
And thou who inhabitest the thrones
Of the bright stars, look, hospitable Jove, _340
Upon this outrage of thy deity,
Otherwise be considered as no God!
CHORUS (ALONE):
For your gaping gulf and your gullet wide,
The ravin is ready on every side,
The limbs of the strangers are cooked and done; _345
There is boiled meat, and roast meat, and meat from the coal,
You may chop it, and tear it, and gnash it for fun,
An hairy goat's-skin contains the whole.
Let me but escape, and ferry me o'er
The stream of your wrath to a safer shore. _350
The Cyclops Aetnean is cruel and bold,
He murders the strangers
That sit on his hearth,
And dreads no avengers
To rise from the earth. _355
He roasts the men before they are cold,
He snatches them broiling from the coal,
And from the caldron pulls them whole,
And minces their flesh and gnaws their bone
With his cursed teeth, till all be gone. _360
Farewell, foul pavilion:
Farewell, rites of dread!
The Cyclops vermilion,
With slaughter uncloying,
Now feasts on the dead, _365
In the flesh of strangers joying!
NOTE:
_344 ravin Rossetti; spelt ravine in B. , editions 1824, 1839.
ULYSSES:
O Jupiter! I saw within the cave
Horrible things; deeds to be feigned in words,
But not to be believed as being done.
NOTE:
_369 not to be believed B. ; not believed 1824.
CHORUS:
What! sawest thou the impious Polypheme _370
Feasting upon your loved companions now?
ULYSSES:
Selecting two, the plumpest of the crowd,
He grasped them in his hands. --
CHORUS:
Unhappy man!
. . .
ULYSSES:
Soon as we came into this craggy place,
Kindling a fire, he cast on the broad hearth _375
The knotty limbs of an enormous oak,
Three waggon-loads at least, and then he strewed
Upon the ground, beside the red firelight,
His couch of pine-leaves; and he milked the cows,
And pouring forth the white milk, filled a bowl _380
Three cubits wide and four in depth, as much
As would contain ten amphorae, and bound it
With ivy wreaths; then placed upon the fire
A brazen pot to boil, and made red hot
The points of spits, not sharpened with the sickle _385
But with a fruit tree bough, and with the jaws
Of axes for Aetnean slaughterings.
And when this God-abandoned Cook of Hell
Had made all ready, he seized two of us
And killed them in a kind of measured manner; _390
For he flung one against the brazen rivets
Of the huge caldron, and seized the other
By the foot's tendon, and knocked out his brains
Upon the sharp edge of the craggy stone:
Then peeled his flesh with a great cooking-knife _395
And put him down to roast. The other's limbs
He chopped into the caldron to be boiled.
And I, with the tears raining from my eyes,
Stood near the Cyclops, ministering to him;
The rest, in the recesses of the cave, _400
Clung to the rock like bats, bloodless with fear.
When he was filled with my companions' flesh,
He threw himself upon the ground and sent
A loathsome exhalation from his maw.
Then a divine thought came to me. I filled _405
The cup of Maron, and I offered him
To taste, and said:--'Child of the Ocean God,
Behold what drink the vines of Greece produce,
The exultation and the joy of Bacchus. '
He, satiated with his unnatural food, _410
Received it, and at one draught drank it off,
And taking my hand, praised me:--'Thou hast given
A sweet draught after a sweet meal, dear guest. '
And I, perceiving that it pleased him, filled
Another cup, well knowing that the wine _415
Would wound him soon and take a sure revenge.
And the charm fascinated him, and I
Plied him cup after cup, until the drink
Had warmed his entrails, and he sang aloud
In concert with my wailing fellow-seamen _420
A hideous discord--and the cavern rung.
I have stolen out, so that if you will
You may achieve my safety and your own.
But say, do you desire, or not, to fly
This uncompanionable man, and dwell _425
As was your wont among the Grecian Nymphs
Within the fanes of your beloved God?
Your father there within agrees to it,
But he is weak and overcome with wine,
And caught as if with bird-lime by the cup, _430
He claps his wings and crows in doting joy.
You who are young escape with me, and find
Bacchus your ancient friend; unsuited he
To this rude Cyclops.
NOTES:
_382 ten cj. Swinburne; four 1824; four cancelled for ten (possibly) B.
_387 I confess I do not understand this. --[SHELLEY'S NOTE. ]
_416 take]grant (as alternative) B.
CHORUS:
Oh my dearest friend,
That I could see that day, and leave for ever _435
The impious Cyclops.
. . .
ULYSSES:
Listen then what a punishment I have
For this fell monster, how secure a flight
From your hard servitude.
CHORUS:
O sweeter far
Than is the music of an Asian lyre _440
Would be the news of Polypheme destroyed.
ULYSSES:
Delighted with the Bacchic drink he goes
To call his brother Cyclops--who inhabit
A village upon Aetna not far off.
CHORUS:
I understand, catching him when alone _445
You think by some measure to dispatch him,
Or thrust him from the precipice.
NOTE:
_446 by some measure 1824; with some measures B.
ULYSSES:
Oh no;
Nothing of that kind; my device is subtle.
CHORUS:
How then? I heard of old that thou wert wise.
ULYSSES:
I will dissuade him from this plan, by saying _450
It were unwise to give the Cyclopses
This precious drink, which if enjoyed alone
Would make life sweeter for a longer time.
When, vanquished by the Bacchic power, he sleeps,
There is a trunk of olive wood within, _455
Whose point having made sharp with this good sword
I will conceal in fire, and when I see
It is alight, will fix it, burning yet,
Within the socket of the Cyclops' eye
And melt it out with fire--as when a man _460
Turns by its handle a great auger round,
Fitting the framework of a ship with beams,
So will I, in the Cyclops' fiery eye
Turn round the brand and dry the pupil up.
CHORUS:
Joy! I am mad with joy at your device. _465
ULYSSES:
And then with you, my friends, and the old man,
We'll load the hollow depth of our black ship,
And row with double strokes from this dread shore.
CHORUS:
May I, as in libations to a God,
Share in the blinding him with the red brand? _470
I would have some communion in his death.
ULYSSES:
Doubtless: the brand is a great brand to hold.
CHORUS:
Oh! I would lift an hundred waggon-loads,
If like a wasp's nest I could scoop the eye out
Of the detested Cyclops.
ULYSSES:
Silence now! _475
Ye know the close device--and when I call,
Look ye obey the masters of the craft.
I will not save myself and leave behind
My comrades in the cave: I might escape,
Having got clear from that obscure recess, _480
But 'twere unjust to leave in jeopardy
The dear companions who sailed here with me.
CHORUS:
Come! who is first, that with his hand
Will urge down the burning brand
Through the lids, and quench and pierce _485
The Cyclops' eye so fiery fierce?
SEMICHORUS 1 [SONG WITHIN]:
Listen! listen! he is coming,
A most hideous discord humming.
Drunken, museless, awkward, yelling,
Far along his rocky dwelling; _490
Let us with some comic spell
Teach the yet unteachable.
By all means he must be blinded,
If my counsel be but minded.
SEMICHORUS 2:
Happy thou made odorous _495
With the dew which sweet grapes weep,
To the village hastening thus,
Seek the vines that soothe to sleep;
Having first embraced thy friend,
Thou in luxury without end, _500
With the strings of yellow hair,
Of thy voluptuous leman fair,
Shalt sit playing on a bed! --
Speak! what door is opened?
NOTES:
_495 thou cj. Swinburne, Rossetti; those 1824;
'the word is doubtful in B. ' (Locock).
_500 Thou B. ; There 1824.
CYCLOPS:
Ha! ha! ha! I'm full of wine, _505
Heavy with the joy divine,
With the young feast oversated;
Like a merchant's vessel freighted
To the water's edge, my crop
Is laden to the gullet's top. _510
The fresh meadow grass of spring
Tempts me forth thus wandering
To my brothers on the mountains,
Who shall share the wine's sweet fountains.
Bring the cask, O stranger, bring! _515
NOTE:
_508 merchant's 1824; merchant B.
CHORUS:
One with eyes the fairest
Cometh from his dwelling;
Some one loves thee, rarest
Bright beyond my telling.
In thy grace thou shinest _520
Like some nymph divinest
In her caverns dewy:--
All delights pursue thee,
Soon pied flowers, sweet-breathing,
Shall thy head be wreathing. _525
ULYSSES:
Listen, O Cyclops, for I am well skilled
In Bacchus, whom I gave thee of to drink.
CYCLOPS:
What sort of God is Bacchus then accounted?
ULYSSES:
The greatest among men for joy of life.
CYCLOPS:
I gulped him down with very great delight. _530
ULYSSES:
This is a God who never injures men.
CYCLOPS:
How does the God like living in a skin?
ULYSSES:
He is content wherever he is put.
CYCLOPS:
Gods should not have their body in a skin.
ULYSSES:
If he gives joy, what is his skin to you? _535
CYCLOPS:
I hate the skin, but love the wine within.
ULYSSES:
Stay here now: drink, and make your spirit glad.
NOTE:
_537 Stay here now, drink B. ; stay here, now drink 1824.
CYCLOPS:
Should I not share this liquor with my brothers?
ULYSSES:
Keep it yourself, and be more honoured so.
CYCLOPS:
I were more useful, giving to my friends. _540
ULYSSES:
But village mirth breeds contests, broils, and blows.
CYCLOPS:
When I am drunk none shall lay hands on me. --
ULYSSES:
A drunken man is better within doors.
CYCLOPS:
He is a fool, who drinking, loves not mirth.
ULYSSES:
But he is wise, who drunk, remains at home. _545
CYCLOPS:
What shall I do, Silenus? Shall I stay?
SILENUS:
Stay--for what need have you of pot companions?
CYCLOPS:
Indeed this place is closely carpeted
With flowers and grass.
SILENUS:
And in the sun-warm noon
'Tis sweet to drink. Lie down beside me now, _550
Placing your mighty sides upon the ground.
CYCLOPS:
What do you put the cup behind me for?
SILENUS:
That no one here may touch it.
CYCLOPS:
Thievish One!
You want to drink;--here place it in the midst.
And thou, O stranger, tell how art thou called? _555
ULYSSES:
My name is Nobody. What favour now
Shall I receive to praise you at your hands?
CYCLOPS:
I'll feast on you the last of your companions.
ULYSSES:
You grant your guest a fair reward, O Cyclops.
CYCLOPS:
Ha!
