SCENE 3

_Open space. A crowd._ KANDAULES _on his throne_. LESBIA, HERO, _and others at one side, on a raised structure. The games are just over. General stir and drifting into groups. Wrestlers, boxers, charioteers, etc., come by degrees to sight, all crowned with branches of the Silver Poplar. Wine is handed round. Music. The Feast begins._

THE PEOPLE.

Hail, Gyges, hail!

KAN. (_gazing into the background_).

In discus-throwing, too? For the third time? I should be sore to see it! Why this leaves not a doit for mine own people!

[_He descends and goes to meet_ GYGES _as he comes from the background. The people are still acclaiming him and make way for him._

A modest fellow, you, forsooth! You take No more than’s here.

GYGES.

My Lord, I fought to-day As Greek and not as Gyges.

KAN.

All the sorrier For us if the new standard’s set by you. Why, then we’ll have to start at lumber-hunting And stuff to bulging those old skins of dragons That, left by Herakles in some odd place, Some temple hiding-hole, must now lie mouldering. The bladdered serpent, too, the hundred-headed, And any bogy that can raise Greek hair. You hear me not.

GYGES.

I do, I do!

KAN.

Oh no! I see too well. You slant at yonder maidens Your listless eyes. They see it too. Look there! The shorter twits the taller. You go red? Pooh, shame on you!

GYGES.

I’m thirsty, Sire.

KAN.

You’re thirsty? Why, that’s another tale. Who fights like you Has honest right unto a goodly drink, And though I lack the right I’ll share the draught. Ah, now there comes the part o’ the feast I love! (_Beckons to a servant._) Come hither!

[_The servant brings a goblet of wine._ KANDAULES _pours some drops on the earth_.

First the root and then the branch!

[_He drinks and is about to hand the goblet to_ GYGES, _but he is again looking towards the raised structure_.

Come! Ho! Brunette or dark? That is the question, Eh, friend?

GYGES.

Oh, Sire?

KAN.

Your palate likes the wine?

GYGES.

I’ve not yet drunk.

KAN.

You know’t? Then let your ears Accept reminder of your thirst and to it! I guarantee you this, that long enough She’ll stay to let you ease the press of pain.

GYGES (_drinks_).

That cools!

KAN.

Alack the day, down sinks your star!

[_The maidens retire, but can still be seen._

Well, it was time. Just glance around. Already They twine as though about a Thyrsus-staff That, sudden-launched from earth in upward sally, And swift and swifter dartwise nearing heaven, Cascades the clusters of a million grapes. Wine fits the subtler stuff of winged Beings, But not the world of hobbling crawling man, It stands him on his head. That old man there Would never stick at mounting on a tiger Or pranking his shrunk temples with a garland, As Dionysos did when Ganges-bound. But I’m at home with loosed wits--Was she fair?

GYGES.

I know not if what pleases me be fair.

KAN.

Say “yes”--no blushes! an eye like a coal, Only a-glimmer, but at lightest breath Bursting in sparks shot with such twining hues You could not tell if it be black or brown; And then, as though this restless weft of colour Immingled with her every drop of blood, ’Tis fluctuant ’twixt shame and love unbreathed That gives her blush a tint of peerless charm.

GYGES.

You make complete what the wind half-way wrought; It stirred the fringes, you uplift the veil.

KAN.

Not that you owe the bent knee at her power-- Nay, should I guide you to another vision, A sight like this, for all its winsomeness, You’d purge your eye of as it were a fleck That touched your glass with tarnish.

GYGES.

Think you, Sire?

KAN.

Even so; but stay--you should not cry a prize Which cannot be displayed--that earns you jeering. Who’s gulled by cries of “pearls!” when the hand’s shut?

GYGES.

I.

KAN.

Gyges--why, the shadow of Rhodope Cast in the shine o’ the moon--you smile! We’ll drink.

GYGES.

I smile not.

KAN.

Smile you should, then! Where’s the man That cannot boast thus? Should you speak to me As I to you, I’d say--“Then show her me Else hold your tongue.”

GYGES.

I trust you.

KAN.

Trust me, eh? The eye commands your credence, not the ear. You trust me! Ho! This shrinking bit of a girl Gave you hot cheeks, and now--enough, enough-- I’ll pout my breast no more with windy babble Such as for all this length of time I’ve used. Nay, you shall see her.

GYGES.

See her!

KAN.

And to-night. I want some soul to witness that I’m not A futile fool, a mere self-dupe that boasts He has the fairest woman for his kissing. I fill the want with you.

GYGES.

Oh, never more Think on it!--for the man ’twere blot of soul, But for a woman,--woman such as she That even by day----

KAN.

Why, why--she’ll never learn it. Have you forgot the ring? And I’ll ne’er be A happy man till your lips say I am. Come, ask you--if the crown were to your liking Should you be bound to wear it but in darkness? Well, that’s the plight I’m in with her. She is The Queen of women, but I hold possession Of her as Ocean holds its pearls--none dreams How rich I am, and when I’m dead and done with There’s not a friend can set it on my tombstone, And so I lie i’ the grave, beggar to beggar. Then do not say me nay, but take the ring.

[_He proffers it to_ GYGES, _who will not take it_.

The night is closing in; I’ll show the chamber And when you see me tread the floor with her Then follow us.

[_Takes_ GYGES _by the hand and draws him along with him_.

I lay demand on you, And is it not a debt to Lesbia forfeit? Perhaps she is the vanquisher.

[_Exeunt._