CHORUS.

The same thing has occurred to us ;-our ancles Are sprained with standing here, I know not how.

ULYSSES.

What, sprained with standing still ?

CHORUS.

And there is dust Or ashes in our eyes, I know not whence.

ULYSSES.

Cowardly dogs ! ye will not aid me, then ?

CHORUS.

With pitying my own back and my back-bone,
And with not wishing all my teeth knocked out !
This cowardice comes of itself—but stay,
I know a famous Orphic incantation
To make the brand stick of its own accord
Into the skull of this one-eyed son of Earth.

ULYSSES.

Of old I knew ye thus by nature; now
I know ye better. I will use the aid
Of

my own comrades—yet though weak of hand Speak cheerfully, that so ye may awaken The courage

of
my
friends with

your

blithe words.

CHORUS.

This I will do with peril of my life,
And blind you with my exhortations, Cyclops.

Hasten and thrust,
And parch up to dust,
The eye of the beast,
Who feeds on his guest.

Burn and blind
The Ætnean hind!
Scoop and draw,
But beware lest he claw
Your limbs near his maw.

CYCLOPS.

Ah me! my eye-sight is parched up to cinders.

CHORUS.

What a sweet pæan! sing me that again!

CYCLOPS.

Ah me! indeed, what woe has fallen upon me! But, wretched nothings, think ye not to flee Out of this rock; I, standing at the outlet, Will bar the way, and catch you as you pass.

CHORUS.

What are you roaring out, Cyclops?

CYCLOPS.

I perish!

CHORUS.

For you are wicked.

CYCLOPS.

And besides miserable.

CHORUS.

What, did you fall into the fire when drunk ?

CYCLOPS.

'Twas Nobody destroyed me.

CHORUS.

Why then no one

Can be to blame.

CYCLOPS.

I say 'twas Nobody Who blinded me.

CHORUS.

Why then, you are not blind !

CYCLOPS.

I wish you were as blind as I am.

CHORUS.

Nay, It cannot be that no one made

you blind.

CYCLOPS.

You jeer me; where, I ask, is Nobody?

CHORUS.

No where, O Cyclops

OYCLOPS.

It was that stranger ruined me :—the wretch
First gave me wine, and then burnt out my eye,
For wine is strong and hard to struggle with.
Have they escaped, or are they yet within ?

CHORUS.

They stand under the darkness of the rock,
And cling to it.

OYCLOPS.

Oh, misfortune on misfortune! I've crack'd my skull.

CHORUS.

Now they escape you

there.

CYCLOPS.

Not there, although you say so.

OHORUS.

Not on that side.

CYCLOPS.

Where then ?

CHORUS.

They creep about you on your left.

CYCLOPS.

Ah! I am mocked! They jeer me in my ills.

CHORUS.

Not there! he is a little there beyond you.

CYCLOPS.

Detested wretch! where are you?

ULYSSES.

Far from you I keep with care this body of Ulysses.

CYCLOPS.

What do you say?

You proffer a new name.

ULYSSES.

My father named me so; and I have taken
A full revenge for your unnatural feast;
I should have done ill to have burned down Troy,
And not revenged the murder of my comrades.

OYOLOPS.

Ai! ai! the ancient oracle is accomplished;
It said that I should have my eye-sight blinded
By you coming from Troy, yet it foretold
That you should pay the penalty for this
By wandering long over the homeless sea.

ULYSSES.

I bid thee weep-consider what I say,
I go towards the shore to drive my ship
To mine own land, o'er the Sicilian wave.

OYCLOPS.

Not so, if whelming you with this huge stone
I can crush you and all your men together;
I will descend upon the shore, though blind,
Groping my way adown the steep ravine.

CHORUS.

And we, the shipmates of Ulysses now,
Will serve our Bacchus all our happy lives.