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 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)
That would I, though it cost me all
The gold of Thebes!
DIONYSUS
So much? Thou art quick to fall
To such great longing.
PENTHEUS (somewhat bewildered at what he has said)
Aye; 'twould grieve me much
To see them flown with wine.
DIONYSUS
Yet cravest thou such
A sight as would much grieve thee?
PENTHEUS
Yes; I fain
Would watch, ambushed among the pines.
DIONYSUS
'Twere vain
To hide. They soon will track thee out.
PENTHEUS
Well said!
'Twere best done openly.
DIONYSUS
Wilt thou be led
By me, and try the venture?
PENTHEUS
Aye, indeed!
Lead on. Why should we tarry?
DIONYSUS
First we need
A rich and trailing robe of fine-linen
To gird thee.
PENTHEUS
Nay; am I a woman, then,
And no man more.
DIONYSUS
Wouldst have them slay thee dead?
No man may see their mysteries.
PENTHEUS
Well said' -
I marked thy subtle temper long ere now.
DIONYSUS
'Tis Dionyse that prompteth me.
PENTHEUS
And how
Mean'st thou the further plan?
DIONYSUS
First take thy way
Within. I will array thee.
PENTHEUS
What array!
The woman's? Nay, I will not.
DIONYSUS
Doth it change
So soon, all thy desire to see this strange
Adoring?
PENTHEUS
Wait! What garb wilt thou bestow
About me?
DIONYSUS
First a long tress dangling low
Beneath thy shoulders.
PENTHEUS
Aye, and next?
DIONYSUS
The same red
Robe, falling to thy feet; and on thine head
A snood.
PENTHEUS
And after? Hast thou aught beyond?
DIONYSUS
Surely; the dappled fawn-skin and the wand.
PENTHEUS (after a struggle with himself)
Enough! I cannot wear a robe and snood.
DIONYSUS
Wouldst liefer draw the sword and spill men's blood?
PENTHEUS (again doubting)
True, that were evil. - Aye; 'tis best to go
First to some place of watch.
DIONYSUS
Far wiser so,
Than seek by wrath wrath's bitter recompense.
PENTHEUS
What of the city streets? Canst lead me hence
Unseen of any?
DIONYSUS
Lonely and untried
Thy path from hence shall be, and I thy guide!
PENTHEUS
I care for nothing, so these Bacchanals
Triumph not against me! ...Forward to my halls
Within! - I will ordain what seemeth best.
DIONYSUS
So be it, O King! 'Tis mine to obey thine hest,
Whate'er it be.
PENTHEUS (after hesitating once more and waiting)
Well, I will go - perchance
To march and scatter them with serried lance.
Perchance to take thy plan.... I know not yet.
[Exit PENTHEUS into the Castle.]
DIONYSUS
Damsels, the lion walketh to the net!
He finds his Bacchae now, and sees and dies,
And pays for all his sin! - O Dionyse,
This is thine hour and thou not far away.
Grant us our vengeance! - First, O Master, stay
The course of reason in him, and instil
A foam of madness. Let his seeing will,
Which ne'er had stooped to put thy vesture on,
Be darkened, till the deed is lightly done.
Grant likewise that he find through all his streets
Loud scorn, this man of wrath and bitter threats
That made Thebes tremble, led in woman's guise.
I go to fold that robe of sacrifice
On Pentheus, that shall deck him to the dark.
His mother's gift! - So shall he learn and mark
God's true Son, Dionyse, in fulness God,
Most fearful, yet to man most soft of mood.
[Exit DIONYSUS, following PENTHEUS into Castle.]
CHORUS
Some Maidens
Will they ever come to me, ever again,
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 Fate 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 thine 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!
Loin-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 earthborn 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 earthborn 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!
