Part 2
Loose thy lips from out the rein; Lift thy wisdom to disdain; Whatso law thou canst not see, Scorning; so the end shall be Uttermost calamity! 'Tis the life of quiet breath, 'Tis the simple and the true, Storm nor earthquake shattereth, Nor shall aught the house undo Where they dwell. For, far away, Hidden from the eyes of day, Watchers are there in the skies, That can see man's life, and prize Deeds well done by things of clay. But the world's Wise are not wise, Claiming more than mortal may. Life is such a little thing; Lo, their present is departed, And the dreams to which they cling Come not. Mad imagining Theirs, I ween, and empty-hearted!
_Divers Maidens._
Where is the Home for me? O Cyprus, set in the sea, Aphrodite's home In the soft sea-foam, Would I could wend to thee; Where the wings of the Loves are furled, And faint the heart of the world.
Aye, unto Paphos' isle, Where the rainless meadows smile With riches rolled From the hundred-fold Mouths of the far-off Nile, Streaming beneath the waves To the roots of the seaward caves.
But a better land is there Where Olympus cleaves the air, The high still dell Where the Muses dwell, Fairest of all things fair! O there is Grace, and there is the Heart's Desire. And peace to adore thee, thou Spirit of Guiding Fire!
* * * * *
A God of Heaven is he, And born in majesty; Yet hath he mirth In the joy of the Earth, And he loveth constantly Her who brings increase, The Feeder of Children, Peace.
No grudge hath he of the great; No scorn of the mean estate; But to all that liveth His wine he giveth, Griefless, immaculate; Only on them that spurn Joy, may his anger burn.
Love thou the Day and the Night; Be glad of the Dark and the Light; And avert thine eyes From the lore of the wise, That have honour in proud men's sight. The simple nameless herd of Humanity Hath deeds and faith that are truth enough for me!
[_As the Chorus ceases, a party of the guards return, leading in the midst of them_ DIONYSUS, _bound_. _The_ SOLDIER _in command stands forth, as_ PENTHEUS, _hearing the tramp of feet, comes out from the Castle_.
SOLDIER.
Our quest is finished, and thy prey, O King, Caught; for the chase was swift, and this wild thing Most tame; yet never flinched, nor thought to flee, But held both hands out unresistingly-- No change, no blanching of the wine-red cheek. He waited while we came, and bade us wreak All thy decree; yea, laughed, and made my hest Easy, till I for very shame confessed And said: 'O stranger, not of mine own will I bind thee, but his bidding to fulfil Who sent me.' And those prisoned Maids withal Whom thou didst seize and bind within the wall Of thy great dungeon, they are fled, O King, Free in the woods, a-dance and glorying To Bromios. Of their own impulse fell To earth, men say, fetter and manacle, And bars slid back untouched of mortal hand. Yea, full of many wonders to thy land Is this man come. . . . Howbeit, it lies with thee!
PENTHEUS.
Ye are mad!--Unhand him. Howso swift he be, My toils are round him and he shall not fly.
[_The guards loose the arms of_ DIONYSUS; PENTHEUS _studies him for a while in silence, then speaks jeeringly_. DIONYSUS _remains gentle and unafraid_.
Marry, a fair shape for a woman's eye, Sir stranger! And thou seek'st no more, I ween! Long curls, withal! That shows thou ne'er hast been A wrestler!--down both cheeks so softly tossed And winsome! And a white skin! It hath cost Thee pains, to please thy damsels with this white And red of cheeks that never face the light! [DIONYSUS _is silent_. Speak, sirrah; tell me first thy name and race.
DIONYSUS.
No glory is therein, nor yet disgrace. Thou hast heard of Tmolus, the bright hill of flowers?
PENTHEUS.
Surely; the ridge that winds by Sardis' towers
DIONYSUS.
Thence am I; Lydia was my fatherland.
PENTHEUS.
And whence these revelations, that thy band Spreadeth in Hellas?
DIONYSUS.
Their intent and use Dionysus oped to me, the Child of Zeus.
PENTHEUS (_brutally_).
Is there a Zeus there, that can still beget Young Gods?
DIONYSUS.
Nay, only He whose seal was set Here in thy Thebes on Semele.
PENTHEUS.
What way Descended he upon thee? In full day Or vision of night?
DIONYSUS.
Most clear he stood, and scanned My soul, and gave his emblems to mine hand.
PENTHEUS.
What like be they, these emblems?
DIONYSUS.
That may none Reveal, nor know, save his Elect alone.
PENTHEUS.
And what good bring they to the worshipper?
DIONYSUS.
Good beyond price, but not for thee to hear.
PENTHEUS.
Thou trickster! Thou wouldst prick me on the more To seek them out!
DIONYSUS.
His mysteries abhor The touch of sin-lovers.
PENTHEUS.
And so thine eyes Saw this God plain; what guise had he?
DIONYSUS.
What guise It liked him. 'Twas not I ordained his shape.
PENTHEUS.
Aye, deftly turned again. An idle jape, And nothing answered!
DIONYSUS.
Wise words being brought To blinded eyes will seem as things of nought.
PENTHEUS.
And comest thou first to Thebes, to have thy God Established?
DIONYSUS.
Nay; all Barbary hath trod His dance ere this.
PENTHEUS.
A low blind folk, I ween, Beside our Hellenes!
DIONYSUS.
Higher and more keen In this thing, though their ways are not thy way.
PENTHEUS.
How is thy worship held, by night or day?
DIONYSUS.
Most oft by night; 'tis a majestic thing, The darkness.
PENTHEUS.
Ha! with women worshipping? 'Tis craft and rottenness!
DIONYSUS.
By day no less, Whoso will seek may find unholiness.
PENTHEUS.
Enough! Thy doom is fixed, for false pretence Corrupting Thebes.
DIONYSUS.
Not mine; but thine, for dense Blindness of heart, and for blaspheming God!
PENTHEUS.
A ready knave it is, and brazen-browed, This mystery-priest!
DIONYSUS.
Come, say what it shall be, My doom; what dire thing wilt thou do to me?
PENTHEUS.
First, shear that delicate curl that dangles there.
[_He beckons to the soldiers, who approach_ DIONYSUS.
DIONYSUS.
I have vowed it to my God; 'tis holy hair.
[_The soldiers cut off the tress._
PENTHEUS.
Next, yield me up thy staff!
DIONYSUS.
Raise thine own hand To take it. This is Dionysus' wand.
[PENTHEUS _takes the staff_.
PENTHEUS.
Last, I will hold thee prisoned here.
DIONYSUS.
My Lord God will unloose me, when I speak the word.
PENTHEUS.
He may, if e'er again amid his bands Of saints he hears thy voice!
DIONYSUS.
Even now he stands Close here, and sees all that I suffer.
PENTHEUS.
What? Where is he? For mine eyes discern him not.
DIONYSUS.
Where I am! 'Tis thine own impurity That veils him from thee.
PENTHEUS.
The dog jeers at me! At me and Thebes! Bind him!
[_The soldiers begin to bind him._
DIONYSUS.
I charge ye, bind Me not! I having vision and ye blind!
PENTHEUS.
And I, with better right, say bind the more!
[_The soldiers obey._
DIONYSUS.
Thou knowest not what end thou seekest, nor What deed thou doest, nor what man thou art!
PENTHEUS. (_mocking_).
Agave's son, and on the father's part Echion's, hight Pentheus!
DIONYSUS.
So let it be, A name fore-written to calamity!
PENTHEUS.
Away, and tie him where the steeds are tied; Aye, let him lie in the manger!--There abide And stare into the darkness!--And this rout Of womankind that clusters thee about, Thy ministers of worship, are my slaves! It may be I will sell them o'er the waves, Hither and thither; else they shall be set To labour at my distaffs, and forget Their timbrel and their songs of dawning day!
DIONYSUS.
I go; for that which may not be, I may Not suffer! Yet for this thy sin, lo, He Whom thou deniest cometh after thee For recompense. Yea, in thy wrong to us, Thou hast cast Him into thy prison-house!
[DIONYSUS, _without his wand, his hair shorn, and his arms tightly bound, is led off by the guards to his dungeon_. PENTHEUS _returns into the Palace_.
CHORUS.
_Some Maidens._
Acheloues' roaming daughter, Holy Dirce, virgin water, Bathed he not of old in thee, The Babe of God, the Mystery? When from out the fire immortal To himself his God did take him, To his own flesh, and bespake him: "Enter now life's second portal, Motherless Mystery; lo, I break Mine own body for thy sake, Thou of the Twofold Door, and seal thee Mine, O Bromios,"--thus he spake-- "And to this thy land reveal thee."
_All._
Still my prayer toward thee quivers, Dirce, still to thee I hie me; Why, O Blessed among Rivers, Wilt thou fly me and deny me? By His own joy I vow, By the grape upon the bough, Thou shalt seek Him in the midnight, thou shalt love Him, even now!
_Other Maidens._
Dark and of the dark impassioned Is this Pentheus' blood; yea, fashioned Of the Dragon, and his birth From Echion, child of Earth. He is no man, but a wonder; Did the Earth-Child not beget him, As a red Giant, to set him Against God, against the Thunder? He will bind me for his prize, Me, the Bride of Dionyse; And my priest, my friend, is taken Even now, and buried lies; In the dark he lies forsaken!
_All._
Lo, we race with death, we perish, Dionysus, here before thee! Dost thou mark us not, nor cherish, Who implore thee, and adore thee? Hither down Olympus' side, Come, O Holy One defied, Be thy golden wand uplifted o'er the tyrant in his pride!
_A Maiden._
Oh, where art thou? In thine own Nysa, thou our help alone? O'er fierce beasts in orient lands Doth thy thronging thyrsus wave, By the high Corycian Cave, Or where stern Olympus stands; In the elm-woods and the oaken, There where Orpheus harped of old, And the trees awoke and knew him, And the wild things gathered to him, As he sang amid the broken Glens his music manifold? Blessed Land of Pierie, Dionysus loveth thee; He will come to thee with dancing, Come with joy and mystery; With the Maenads at his hest Winding, winding to the West; Cross the flood of swiftly glancing Axios in majesty; Cross the Lydias, the giver Of good gifts and waving green; Cross that Father-Stream of story, Through a land of steeds and glory Rolling, bravest, fairest River E'er of mortals seen!
A VOICE WITHIN.
Io! Io! Awake, ye damsels; hear my cry, Calling my Chosen; hearken ye!
A MAIDEN.
Who speaketh? Oh, what echoes thus?
ANOTHER.
A Voice, a Voice, that calleth us!
THE VOICE.
Be of good cheer! Lo, it is I, The Child of Zeus and Semele.
A MAIDEN.
O Master, Master, it is Thou!
ANOTHER.
O Holy Voice, be with us now!
THE VOICE.
Spirit of the Chained Earthquake, Hear my word; awake, awake!
[_An Earthquake suddenly shakes the pillars of the Castle._
A MAIDEN.
Ha! what is coming? Shall the hall Of Pentheus racked in ruin fall?
LEADER.
Our God is in the house! Ye maids adore Him!
CHORUS.
We adore Him all!
THE VOICE.
Unveil the Lightning's eye; arouse The fire that sleeps, against this house!
[_Fire leaps up on the Tomb of Semele._
A MAIDEN.
Ah, saw ye, marked ye there the flame From Semele's enhallowed sod Awakened? Yea, the Death that came Ablaze from heaven of old, the same Hot splendour of the shaft of God?
LEADER.
Oh, cast ye, cast ye, to the earth! The Lord Cometh against this house! Oh, cast ye down, Ye trembling damsels; He, our own adored, God's Child hath come, and all is overthrown!
[_The Maidens cast themselves upon the ground, their eyes earthward._ DIONYSUS, _alone and unbound, enters from the Castle_.
DIONYSUS.
Ye Damsels of the Morning Hills, why lie ye thus dismayed? Ye marked him, then, our Master, and the mighty hand he laid On tower and rock, shaking the house of Pentheus?--But arise, And cast the trembling from your flesh, and lift untroubled eyes.
LEADER.
O Light in Darkness, is it thou? O Priest, is this thy face? My heart leaps out to greet thee from the deep of loneliness.
DIONYSUS.
Fell ye so quick despairing, when beneath the Gate I passed? Should the gates of Pentheus quell me, or his darkness make me fast?
LEADER.
Oh, what was left if thou wert gone? What could I but despair? How hast thou 'scaped the man of sin? Who freed thee from the snare?
DIONYSUS.
I had no pain nor peril; 'twas mine own hand set me free.
LEADER.
Thine arms were gyved!
DIONYSUS.
Nay, no gyve, no touch, was laid on me! 'Twas there I mocked him, in his gyves, and gave him dreams for food. For when he led me down, behold, before the stall there stood A Bull of Offering. And this King, he bit his lips, and straight Fell on and bound it, hoof and limb, with gasping wrath and sweat. And I sat watching!--Then a Voice; and lo, our Lord was come, And the house shook, and a great flame stood o'er his mother's tomb. And Pentheus hied this way and that, and called his thralls amain For water, lest his roof-tree burn; and all toiled, all in vain. Then deemed a-sudden I was gone; and left his fire, and sped Back to the prison portals, and his lifted sword shone red. But there, methinks, the God had wrought--I speak but as I guess-- Some dream-shape in mine image; for he smote at emptiness, Stabbed in the air, and strove in wrath, as though 'twere me he slew. Then 'mid his dreams God smote him yet again! He overthrew All that high house. And there in wreck for evermore it lies, That the day of this my bondage may be sore in Pentheus' eyes! And now his sword is fallen, and he lies outworn and wan Who dared to rise against his God in wrath, being but man. And I uprose and left him, and in all peace took my path Forth to my Chosen, recking light of Pentheus and his wrath. But soft, methinks a footstep sounds even now within the hall; 'Tis he; how think ye he will stand, and what words speak withal? I will endure him gently, though he come in fury hot. For still are the ways of Wisdom, and her temper trembleth not!
_Enter_ PENTHEUS _in fury_.
PENTHEUS.
It is too much! This Eastern knave hath slipped His prison, whom I held but now, hard gripped In bondage.--Ha! 'Tis he!--What, sirrah, how Show'st thou before my portals?
[_He advances furiously upon him._
DIONYSUS.
Softly thou! And set a quiet carriage to thy rage.
PENTHEUS.
How comest thou here? How didst thou break thy cage? Speak!
DIONYSUS.
Said I not, or didst thou mark not me, There was One living that should set me free?
PENTHEUS.
Who? Ever wilder are these tales of thine.
DIONYSUS.
He who first made for man the clustered vine.
PENTHEUS.
I scorn him and his vines!
DIONYSUS.
For Dionyse 'Tis well; for in thy scorn his glory lies.
PENTHEUS (_to his guard_).
Go swift to all the towers, and bar withal Each gate!
DIONYSUS.
What, cannot God o'erleap a wall?
PENTHEUS.
Oh, wit thou hast, save where thou needest it!
DIONYSUS.
Whereso it most imports, there is my wit!-- Nay, peace! Abide till he who hasteth from The mountain side with news for thee, be come. We will not fly, but wait on thy command.
[_Enter suddenly and in haste a Messenger from the Mountain._
MESSENGER.
Great Pentheus, Lord of all this Theban land, I come from high Kithaeron, where the frore Snow spangles gleam and cease not evermore. . .
PENTHEUS.
And what of import may thy coming bring?
MESSENGER.
I have seen the Wild White Women there, O King, Whose fleet limbs darted arrow-like but now From Thebes away, and come to tell thee how They work strange deeds and passing marvel. Yet I first would learn thy pleasure. Shall I set My whole tale forth, or veil the stranger part? Yea, Lord, I fear the swiftness of thy heart, Thine edged wrath and more than royal soul.
PENTHEUS.
Thy tale shall nothing scathe thee.--Tell the whole. It skills not to be wroth with honesty. Nay, if thy news of them be dark, 'tis he Shall pay it, who bewitched and led them on.
MESSENGER.
Our herded kine were moving in the dawn Up to the peaks, the greyest, coldest time, When the first rays steal earthward, and the rime Yields, when I saw three bands of them. The one Autonoe led, one Ino, one thine own Mother, Agave. There beneath the trees Sleeping they lay, like wild things flung at ease In the forest; one half sinking on a bed Of deep pine greenery; one with careless head Amid the fallen oak leaves; all most cold In purity--not as thy tale was told Of wine-cups and wild music and the chase For love amid the forest's loneliness. Then rose the Queen Agave suddenly Amid her band, and gave the God's wild cry, "Awake, ye Bacchanals! I hear the sound Of horned kine. Awake ye!"--Then, all round, Alert, the warm sleep fallen from their eyes, A marvel of swift ranks I saw them rise, Dames young and old, and gentle maids unwed Among them. O'er their shoulders first they shed Their tresses, and caught up the fallen fold Of mantles where some clasp had loosened hold, And girt the dappled fawn-skins in with long Quick snakes that hissed and writhed with quivering tongue. And one a young fawn held, and one a wild Wolf cub, and fed them with white milk, and smiled In love, young mothers with a mother's breast And babes at home forgotten! Then they pressed Wreathed ivy round their brows, and oaken sprays And flowering bryony. And one would raise Her wand and smite the rock, and straight a jet Of quick bright water came. Another set Her thyrsus in the bosomed earth, and there Was red wine that the God sent up to her, A darkling fountain. And if any lips Sought whiter draughts, with dipping finger-tips They pressed the sod, and gushing from the ground Came springs of milk. And reed-wands ivy-crowned Ran with sweet honey, drop by drop.--O King, Hadst thou been there, as I, and seen this thing, With prayer and most high wonder hadst thou gone To adore this God whom now thou rail'st upon! Howbeit, the kine-wardens and shepherds straight Came to one place, amazed, and held debate; And one being there who walked the streets and scanned The ways of speech, took lead of them whose hand Knew but the slow soil and the solemn hill, And flattering spoke, and asked: "Is it your will, Masters, we stay the mother of the King, Agave, from her lawless worshipping, And win us royal thanks?"--And this seemed good To all; and through the branching underwood We hid us, cowering in the leaves. And there Through the appointed hour they made their prayer And worship of the Wand, with one accord Of heart and cry--"Iacchos, Bromios, Lord, God of God born!"--And all the mountain felt, And worshipped with them; and the wild things knelt And ramped and gloried, and the wilderness Was filled with moving voices and dim stress. Soon, as it chanced, beside my thicket-close The Queen herself passed dancing, and I rose And sprang to seize her. But she turned her face Upon me: "Ho, my rovers of the chase, My wild White Hounds, we are hunted! Up, each rod And follow, follow, for our Lord and God!" Thereat, for fear they tear us, all we fled Amazed; and on, with hand unweaponed They swept toward our herds that browsed the green Hill grass. Great uddered kine then hadst thou seen Bellowing in sword-like hands that cleave and tear, A live steer riven asunder, and the air Tossed with rent ribs or limbs of cloven tread, And flesh upon the branches, and a red Rain from the deep green pines. Yea, bulls of pride, Horns swift to rage, were fronted and aside Flung stumbling, by those multitudinous hands Dragged pitilessly. And swifter were the bands Of garbed flesh and bone unbound withal Than on thy royal eyes the lids may fall. Then on like birds, by their own speed upborne, They swept toward the plains of waving corn That lie beside Asopus' banks, and bring To Thebes the rich fruit of her harvesting. On Hysiae and Erythrae that lie nursed Amid Kithaeron's bowering rocks, they burst Destroying, as a foeman's army comes. They caught up little children from their homes, High on their shoulders, babes unheld, that swayed And laughed and fell not; all a wreck they made; Yea, bronze and iron did shatter, and in play Struck hither and thither, yet no wound had they; Caught fire from out the hearths, yea, carried hot Flames in their tresses and were scorched not! The village folk in wrath took spear and sword, And turned upon the Bacchae. Then, dread Lord, The wonder was. For spear nor barbed brand Could scathe nor touch the damsels; but the Wand, The soft and wreathed wand their white hands sped, Blasted those men and quelled them, and they fled Dizzily. Sure some God was in these things! And the holy women back to those strange springs Returned, that God had sent them when the day Dawned, on the upper heights; and washed away The stain of battle. And those girdling snakes Hissed out to lap the waterdrops from cheeks And hair and breast. Therefore I counsel thee, O King, receive this Spirit, whoe'er he be, To Thebes in glory. Greatness manifold Is all about him; and the tale is told That this is he who first to man did give The grief-assuaging vine. Oh, let him live; For if he die, then Love herself is slain, And nothing joyous in the world again!
LEADER.
Albeit I tremble, and scarce may speak my thought To a king's face, yet will I hide it not. Dionyse is God, no God more true nor higher!
PENTHEUS.
It bursts hard by us, like a smothered fire, This frenzy of Bacchic women! All my land Is made their mock.--This needs an iron hand! Ho, Captain! Quick to the Electran Gate; Bid gather all my men-at-arms thereat; Call all that spur the charger, all who know To wield the orbed targe or bend the bow; We march to war!--'Fore God, shall women dare Such deeds against us? 'Tis too much to bear!
DIONYSUS.
Thou mark'st me not, O King, and holdest light My solemn words; yet, in thine own despite, I warn thee still. Lift thou not up thy spear Against a God, but hold thy peace, and fear His wrath! He will not brook it, if thou fright His Chosen from the hills of their delight.
PENTHEUS.
Peace, thou! And if for once thou hast slipped thy chain, Give thanks!--Or shall I knot thine arms again?
DIONYSUS.
Better to yield him prayer and sacrifice Than kick against the pricks, since Dionyse Is God, and thou but mortal.
PENTHEUS.
That will I! Yea, sacrifice of women's blood, to cry His name through all Kithaeron!
DIONYSUS.
Ye shall fly, All, and abase your shields of bronzen rim Before their wands.
PENTHEUS.
There is no way with him, This stranger that so dogs us! Well or ill I may entreat him, he must babble still!
DIONYSUS.
Wait, good my friend! These crooked matters may Even yet be straightened.
[PENTHEUS _has started as though to seek his army at the gate._
PENTHEUS.
Aye, if I obey Mine own slaves' will; how else?
DIONYSUS.
Myself will lead The damsels hither, without sword or steed.
PENTHEUS.
How now?--This is some plot against me!
DIONYSUS.
What Dost fear? Only to save thee do I plot.
PENTHEUS.
It is some compact ye have made, whereby To dance these hills for ever!
DIONYSUS.
Verily, That is my compact, plighted with my Lord!
PENTHEUS (_turning from him_).
Ho, armourers! Bring forth my shield and sword!-- And thou, be silent!
DIONYSUS (_after regarding him fixedly, speaks with resignation_).
Ah!--Have then thy will!
[_He fixes his eyes upon_ PENTHEUS _again, while the armourers bring out his armour; then speaks in a tone of command_.
Man, thou wouldst fain behold them on the hill Praying!
PENTHEUS (_who during the rest of this scene, with a few exceptions, simply speaks the thoughts that_ DIONYSUS _puts into him, losing power over his own mind_).