CYCLOPS.

Indeed this place is closely carpeted

With flowers and grass.

SILENUS.

"Tis sweet to drink.

Placing your mighty

And in the sun-warm noon Lie down beside me now, 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?

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! what is this? Stealing the wine, you rogue !

SILENUS.

It was this stranger kissing me, because

I looked so beautiful.

CYCLOPS.

You shall repent

For kissing the coy wine that loves you not.

SILENUS.

By Jupiter! you said that I am fair.

Not till I see you wear

That coronal, and taste the cup to you.

CYCLOPS.

Curse you!

Thou wily traitor!

SILENUS.

But the wine is sweet.

Aye, you will roar if you are caught in drinking.

CYCLOPS.

See now, my lip is clean and all my beard.

SILENUS.

Now put your elbow right, and drink again.
As you see me drink— *

*

*

How now?

CYCLOPS.

SILENUS.

Ye Gods, what a delicious gulp!

CYCLOPS.

Guest, take it;—you pour out the wine for me.

ULYSSES.

The wine is well accustomed to my hand.

Pour out the wine!

CYCLOPS.

ULYSSES.

I pour; only be silent.

CYCLOPS.

Silence is a hard task to him who drinks.

ULYSSES.

Take it and drink it off; leave not a dreg.
Oh, that the drinker died with his own draught!

CYCLOPS.

Papai! the vine must be a sapient plant.

ULYSSES.

If you drink much after a mighty feast, Moistening your thirsty maw, you will sleep well; If you leave aught, Bacchus will dry you up.

CYCLOPS.

Ho! ho! I can scarce rise. What pure delight!
The heavens and earth appear to whirl about
Confusedly. I see the throne of Jove
And the clear congregation of the Gods.
Now if the Graces tempted me to kiss,
I would not, for the loveliest of them all
I would not leave this Ganymede.

SILENUS.

I am the Ganymede of Jupiter.

CYCLOPS.

Polypheme,

By Jove you are; I bore you off from Dardanus.

ULYSSES and the CHORUS.

ULYSSES.

Come, boys of Bacchus, children of high race,
This man within is folded up in sleep,

And soon will vomit flesh from his fell maw;
The brand under the shed thrusts out its smoke,
No preparation needs, but to burn out

The monster's eye;-but bear yourselves like men.

CHORUS.

We will have courage like the adamant rock.
All things are ready for you here; go in,
Before our father shall perceive the noise.

ULYSSES.

Vulcan, Etnean king! burn out with fire
The shining eye of this thy neighbouring monster!
And thou, O Sleep, nursling of gloomy night,
Descend unmixed on this God-hated beast,
And suffer not Ulysses and his comrades,
Returning from their famous Trojan toils,
To perish by this man, who cares not either
For God or mortal; or I needs must think
That Chance is a supreme divinity,

And things divine are subject to her power.

CHORUS.

Soon a crab the throat will seize

Of him who feeds upon his guest,
Fire will burn his lamp-like eyes
In revenge of such a feast!
A great oak stump now is lying
In the ashes yet undying.

Come, Maron, come!
Raging let him fix the doom,

Let him tear the eyelid up,
Of the Cyclops-that his cup
May be evil!

Oh, I long to dance and revel
With sweet Bromian, long desired,
In loved ivy-wreaths attired;
Leaving this abandoned home-
Will the moment ever come?

ULYSSES.

Be silent, ye wild things! Nay, hold your peace, And keep your lips quite close; dare not to breathe, Or spit, or e'en wink, lest ye wake the monster, Until his eye be tortured out with fire.

CHORUS.

Nay, we are silent, and we chaw the air.

ULYSSES.

Come now, and lend a hand to the great stake
Within-it is delightfully red hot.

CHORUS.

You then command who first should seize the stake

To burn the Cyclops' eye, that all

In the great enterprise.

may share

SEMI-CHORUS I.

We are too few;

We cannot at this distance from the door

Thrust fire into his eye.

SEMI-CHORUS II.

And we just now

Have become lame; cannot move hand nor foot.