THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 GIFT 
 
 From the Library of 
 
 Henry Goldman, Ph.D. 
 
 1886-1972
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE 
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY 
 PACCHIAROTTO 
 
 AND OTHER POEMS 
 
 BY 
 
 ROBERT BROWNING 
 
 B O S T O N 
 HOUGHTON, M1FFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street 
 
 (Sfte tf itoersibe pre^, CamfcnDge
 
 CAM UK i DGE: 
 
 PRINTED AT THE RIVERSIDE PRESS
 
 Stack 
 Annex 
 
 i 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. ... 7 
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY ... ^57 
 PACCHIAROTTO AND OTHER POEMS. 
 
 PROLOGUE 475 
 
 OF PACCHIAROTTO, AND How HE WORKED m 
 
 DISTEMPER 477 
 
 AT THE "MERMAID" .... 59 
 
 HOUSE 5 ! 9 
 
 SHOP 523 
 
 PlSGAH-SlGHTS. I 53 l 
 
 PlSGAH-SlGHTS. 2 
 
 FEARS AND SCRUPLES 53 8 
 
 NATURAL MAGIC 542 
 
 MAGICAL NATURE 544 
 
 BIFURCATION 545 
 
 NUMPHOLEPTOS 54 
 
 APPEARANCES 55 6
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ST. MARTIN'S SUMMER 557 
 
 A FORGIVENESS . 564 
 
 CENCIAJA . . ., 586 
 
 FILIPPO BALDINUCCI ON THE PRIVILEGE OF 
 
 BURIAL 602 
 
 EPILOGUE 632
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE 
 
 INCLUDING 
 
 A TRANSCRIPT FROM EURIPIDES.
 
 To the Countess Cowper. 
 
 TF I mention the simple truth : that this Poem absolutely owes its 
 existence to you, who not only suggested, but imposed on me as 
 a /ask, what has proved the most delightful of May-month amuse- 
 ments, / shall seem honest, indeed, but hardly prudent; for hcnv 
 good and beautiful ought such a poem to be ! 
 
 Euripides might fear little ; but I, also, hctve an interest in tlie per- 
 formance ; and what wonder if I beg you to suffer tJiat it make, in 
 anotJur and far easier sense, its nearest possible approach to those 
 Greek qualities of goodness and beauty, by laying itself gratefully at 
 your feet ? 
 
 R. B 
 
 London, July 23, 1871.
 
 OUR EURIPIDES, THE HUMAN, 
 
 WITH HIS DROPPINGS OF WARM TEARS, 
 AND HIS TOUCHES OF THINGS COMMON 
 
 TILL THEY ROSE TO TOUCH THE SPHERE&
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 ABOUT that strangest, saddest, sweetest song 
 I, when a girl, heard in Kameiros once, 
 And, after, saved my life by ? Oh, so glad 
 To tell you the adventure ! 
 
 Petale, 
 
 Phullis, Charope, Chrusion ! You must know, 
 This " after " fell in that unhappy time 
 When poor reluctant Nikias, pushed by fate, 
 \Vent falteringly against Syracuse ; 
 And there shamed Athens, lost her ships and men, 
 And gained a grave, or death without a grave. 
 T was at Rhodes the isle, not Rhodes the town ; 
 
 7
 
 8 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Mine was Kameiros when the news arrived : 
 
 Our people rose in tumult, cried, " No more 
 
 Duty to Athens ! let us join the League, 
 
 And side with Sparta, share the spoil, at worst, 
 
 Abjure a headship that will ruin Greece ! " 
 
 And so, they sent to Knidos for a fleet 
 
 To come and help revolters. Ere help came, 
 
 Girl as I was, and never out of Rhodes 
 
 The whole of my first fourteen years of life, 
 
 But nourished with Ilissian mother's-milk, 
 
 I passionately cried to who would hear, 
 
 And those who loved me at Kameiros, " No ! 
 
 Never throw Athens off for Sparta's sake, 
 
 Never disloyal to the life and light 
 
 Of the whole world worth calling world at all ! 
 
 Rather go die at Athens, lie outstretched 
 
 For feet to trample on, before the gate 
 
 Of Diomedes or the Hippadai, 
 
 Before the temples and among the tombs, 
 
 Than tolerate the grim felicity 
 
 Of harsh Lakonia ! Ours the fasts and feasts,
 
 BALA USTION 'S AD VENTURE. 
 
 Choes and Chutroi ; ours the sacred grove, 
 
 Agora, Dikasteria, Poikile, 
 
 Pimx, Keramikos ; Salamis in sight ! 
 
 Psuttalia, Marathon itself, not far ! 
 
 Ours the great Dionusiac theatre, 
 
 And tragic triad of immortal fames, 
 
 Aischulos, Sophokles, Euripides ! 
 
 To Athens, all of us that have a soul, 
 
 Follow me ! " And 1 wrought so with my prayer, 
 
 That certain of my kinsfolk crossed the strait, 
 
 And found a ship at Kaunos ; well-disposed 
 
 Because the Captain where did he draw breath 
 
 First but within Psuttalia ? Thither fled 
 
 A few like-minded as ourselves. We turned 
 
 The glad prow westward ; soon were out at sea, 
 
 Pushing, brave ship with the vermilion cheek, 
 
 Proud for our heart's true harbor. But a wind 
 
 Lay ambushed by Point Malea of bad fame, 
 
 And leapt out, bent us from our course. Next day 
 
 Broke stormless, and so next blue day and next. 
 
 " But whither bound in this white waste ? " we plagued
 
 10 BALAUSTION^S ADVENTURE. 
 
 The pilot's old experience : " Cos, or Crete ? " 
 
 Because he promised us the land ahead. 
 
 While we strained eyes to share in what he saw, 
 
 The captain's shout startled us ; round we rushed : 
 
 What hung behind us but a pirate-ship 
 
 Panting for the good prize ? " Row ! harder row ! 
 
 Row for dear life ! " the captain cried : " 'tis Crete, 
 
 Friendly Crete, looming large there ! Beat this craft, 
 
 That's but a keles, one-benched pirate-bark, 
 
 Lokrian, or that bad breed off Thessaly ! 
 
 Only, so cruel are such water-thieves, 
 
 No man of you, no woman, child, or slave, 
 
 But falls their prey, once let them board our boat ! " 
 
 So, furiously our oarsmen rowed and rowed ; 
 
 And when the oars flagged somewhat, dash and dip, 
 
 As we approached the coast and safety, so 
 
 That we could hear behind us plain the threats 
 
 And curses of the pirate panting up 
 
 In one more throe and passion of pursuit, 
 
 Seeing our oars flag in the rise and fall, 
 
 I sprang upon the altar by the mast,
 
 BA LA USTION 'S AD VENTURE. 1 1 
 
 And sang aloft some genius prompting me 
 That song of ours which saved at Salami's : 
 " O sons of Greeks ! go, set your country free, 
 Free your wives, free your children, free the fanes 
 O' the gods, your fathers founded, sepulchres 
 They sleep in ! Or save all, or all be lost ! " 
 Then, in a frenzy, so the noble oars 
 Churned the black water white, that well away 
 We drew, soon saw land rise, saw hills grow up, 
 Saw spread itself a sea-wide town with towers, 
 Not fifty stadio distant ; and, betwixt, 
 A large bay and a small, the islet-bar, 
 Even Ortugia's self oh, luckless we! 
 For here was Sicily and Syracuse : 
 We ran upon the lion from the wolf. 
 Ere we drew breath, took counsel, out there came 
 A galley, hailed us : " Who asks entry here 
 In war-time ? Are you Sparta's friend or foe ? " 
 " Kaunians," our captain judged his best reply, 
 "* The mainland-seaport that belongs to Rhodes ; 
 Rhodes that casts in her lot now with the League,
 
 12 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Forsaking Athens, you have heard belike ! " 
 
 " Ay, but we heard all Athens in one ode 
 
 Just now ! we heard her in that Aischulos ! 
 
 You bring a boatful of Athenians here, 
 
 Kaunians although you be ; and prudence bid" 
 
 For Kaunos' sake, why, carry them unhurt 
 
 To Kaunos, if you will : for Athens' sake, 
 
 Back must you, though ten pirates blocked the bay 
 
 We want no colony from Athens here, 
 
 With memories of Salamis, forsooth, 
 
 To spirit up our captives, that pale crowd 
 
 I' the quarry, whom the daily pint of corn 
 
 Keeps in good order and submissiveness." 
 
 Then the gray captain prayed them by the gods, 
 
 And by their own knees, and their fathers' beards, 
 
 They should not wickedly thrust suppliants back, 
 
 But save the innocent on traffic bound, 
 
 Or, maybe, some Athenian family 
 
 Perishing of desire to die at home, 
 
 From that vile foe still lying on its oars, 
 
 Waiting the issue in the distance. Vain !
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 13 
 
 Words to the wind ! And we were just about 
 
 To turn and face the foe, as some tired bird 
 
 Barbarians pelt at, drive with shouts away 
 
 From shelter in what rocks, however rude 
 
 She makes for, to escape the kindled eye, 
 
 Split beak, crook'd claw, o 3 the creature, cormorant, 
 
 Or ossifrage, that, hardly baffled, hangs 
 
 Afloat i' the foam, to take her if she turn. 
 
 So were we at destruction's very edge, 
 
 When those o' the galley, as they had discussed 
 
 A point, a question raised by somebody, 
 
 A matter mooted in a moment, " Wait ! " 
 
 Cried they (and wait we did, you may be sure), 
 
 " That song was veritable Aischulos, 
 
 Familiar to the mouth of man and boy, 
 
 Old glory : how about Euripides ? 
 
 The newer and not yet so famous bard, 
 
 He that was born upon the battle-day 
 
 While that song and the salpinx sounded him 
 
 Into the world, first sound, at Salamis 
 
 Might you know any of his verses too ? "
 
 14 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Now, some one of the gods inspired this speech : 
 
 Since ourselves knew what happened but last year 
 
 How, when Gulippos gained his victory 
 
 Over poor Nikias, poor Demosthenes, 
 
 And Syracuse condemned the conquered force 
 
 To dig and starve i' the quarry, branded them 
 
 Freeborn Athenians, brute-like in the front 
 
 With horse-head brands, ah, " Region of the Steed ! '" 
 
 Of all these men immersed in misery, 
 
 It was found none had been advantaged so 
 
 By aught in the past life he used to prize 
 
 And pride himself concerning, no rich man 
 
 By riches, no wise man by wisdom, no 
 
 Wiser man still (as who loved more the Muse) 
 
 By storing, at brain's edge and tip of tongue, 
 
 Old glory, great plays that had long ago 
 
 Made themselves wings to fly about the world, 
 
 Not one such man was helped so at his need 
 
 As certain few that (wisest they of all) 
 
 Had, at first summons, oped heart, flung door wide, 
 
 At the new knocking of Euripides,
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 15 
 
 Nor drawn the bolt with who cried " Decadence ! 
 
 And, after Sophokles, be nature dumb ! " 
 
 Such, and I see in it God Bacchos' boon 
 
 To souls that recognized his latest child, 
 
 He who himself, born latest of the gods, 
 
 Was stoutly held impostor by mankind, 
 
 Such were in safety : any who could speak 
 
 A chorus to the end, or prologize, 
 
 Roll out a rhesis, wield some golden length 
 
 Stiffened by wisdom out into a line, 
 
 Or thrust and parry in bright monostich, 
 
 Teaching Euripides to Syracuse 
 
 Any such happy man had prompt reward : 
 
 If he lay bleeding on the battle-field 
 
 They stanched his wounds, and gave him drink and 
 
 food ; 
 
 If he were slave i' the house, for reverence 
 They rose up, bowed to who proved master now, 
 And bade him go free, thank Euripides ! 
 Ay, and such did so : many such, he said, 
 Returning home to Athens, sought him out,
 
 1 6 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 The old bard in the solitary house, 
 
 And thanked him ere they went to sacrifice. 
 
 I say, we knew that story of last year ! 
 
 Therefore, at mention of Euripides, 
 'The captain crowed out " Euoi, praise the God ! 
 Oop, boys, bring our owl-shield to the fore ! 
 Out with our Sacred Anchor ! Here she stands, 
 Balaustion ! Strangers, greet the lyric girl ! 
 Euripides ? Babai ! what a word there 'scaped 
 Your teeth's enclosure, quoth my grandsire's song ! 
 Why, fast as snow in Thrace, the voyage through, 
 Has she been falling thick in flakes of him ! 
 Frequent as figs at Kaunos, Kaunians said. 
 Balaustion, stand forth and confirm my speech ! 
 Now it was some whole passion of a play ; 
 Now, peradventure, but a honey-drop 
 That slipt its comb i' the chorus. If there rose 
 A star, before I could determine steer 
 Southward or northward if a cloud surprised 
 Heaven, ere I fairly hollaed ' Furl the sail ! '
 
 BALAUSTION^S ADVENTURE. 17 
 
 She had at finger's end both cloud and star ; 
 
 Some thought that perched there, tame and tuneable, 
 
 Fitted with wings ; and still, as off it flew, 
 
 ' So sang Euripides,' she said, ' so sang 
 
 The meteoric poet of air and sea, 
 
 Planets and the pale populace of heaven, 
 
 The mind of man, and all that's made to soar ! ' 
 
 And so, although she has some other name, 
 
 We only call her Wild-pomegranate-flower, 
 
 Balaustion ; since, where'er the red bloom burns 
 
 I' the dull dark verdure of the bounteous tree, 
 
 Dethroning, in the Rosy Isle, the rose, 
 
 You shall find food, drink, odor, all at once ; 
 
 Cool leaves to bind about an aching brow, 
 
 And, never much away, the nightingale. 
 
 Sing them a strophe, with the turn-again, 
 
 Down to the verse that ends all, proverr>like, 
 
 And save us, thou Balaustion, bless the name ! " 
 
 But I cried, " Brother Greek ! better than so, 
 Save us, and I have courage to recite
 
 1 8 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 The main of a whole play from first to last ; 
 
 That strangest, saddest, sweetest song of his, 
 
 ALKESTIS ; which was taught, long years ago 
 
 At Athens, in Glaukinos' archonship, 
 
 But only this year reached our Isle o' the Rose. 
 
 I saw it at Kameiros ; played the same, 
 
 They say, as for the right Lenean feast 
 
 In Athens ; and beside the perfect piece, 
 
 Its beauty and the way it makes you weep, 
 
 There is much honor done your own loved God 
 
 Herakles, whom you house i' the city here 
 
 Nobly, the Temple wide Greece talks about ! 
 
 I come a suppliant to your Herakles ! 
 
 Take me and put me on his temple-steps, 
 
 To tell you his achievement as I may, 
 
 And, that told, he shall bid you set us free ! " 
 
 Then, because Greeks are Greeks, and hearts are hearts, 
 And poetry is power, they all outbroke 
 In a great joyous laughter with much love : 
 " Thank Herakles for the good holiday !
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 19 
 
 Make for the harbor ! Row, and let voice ring, 
 ' In we row, bringing more Euripides ! ' 
 All the crowd, as they lined the harbor now, 
 ' More of Euripides ! ' took up the cry. 
 We landed ; the whole city, soon astir, 
 Came rushing out of gates irf common joy 
 To the suburb temple ; there they stationed me 
 O' the topmost step : and plain I told the play, 
 Just as I saw it ; what the actors said, 
 And what I saw, or thought I saw the while, 
 At our Kameiros theatre, clean-scooped 
 Out of a hill-side, with the sky above 
 And sea before our seats in marble row : 
 Told it, and, two days more, repeated it, 
 Until they sent us on our way again 
 With good words and great wishes. 
 
 Oh, for me ! 
 
 A wealthy Syracusan brought a whole 
 Talent, and bade me take it for myself : 
 I left it on the tripod in the fane, 
 For had not Herakles a second f'me
 
 20 BALAUSTION^S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Wrestled with Death, and saved devoted ones ? 
 
 Thank-offering to the hero. And a band 
 
 Of captives, whom their lords grew kinder to 
 
 Because they called the poet countryman, 
 
 Sent me a crown of wild-pomegranate-flower : 
 
 So, I shall live and die Balaustion now. 
 
 But one one man one youth, three days, each 
 
 day, 
 
 (If, ere I lifted up my voice to speak, 
 I gave a downward glance by accident) 
 Was found at foot o' the temple. When we sailed, 
 There, in the ship, too, was he found as well, 
 Having a hunger to see Athens too. 
 We reached Peiraieus ; when I landed lo, 
 He was beside me. Anthesterion-month 
 is just commencing: when its 'moon rounds full, 
 We are to marry. O Euripides ! 
 I saw the master : when we found ourselves 
 (Because the young man needs must follow me) 
 Firm on Peiraieus, I demanded first 
 Whither to go and find him. Would you think ?
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 2 
 
 The story how he saved us made some smile : 
 
 They wondered strangers were exorbitant 
 
 In estimation of Euripides. 
 
 He was not Aischulos nor Sophokles : 
 
 ' Then, of our younger bards who boast the bay, 
 
 Had I sought Agathon, or lophon. 
 
 Or, what now had it been Kephisophon ? 
 
 A man that never kept good company, 
 
 The most unsociable of poet-kind, 
 
 All beard that was not freckle in his face ! " 
 
 I soon was at the tragic house, and saw 
 
 The master, held the sacred hand of him, 
 
 And laid it to my lips. Men love him not : 
 
 How should they ? Nor do they much love his friend 
 
 Sokrates : but those two have fellowship ; 
 
 Sokrates often comes to hear him read, 
 
 And never misses if he teach a piece. 
 
 Both, being old, will soon have company, 
 
 Sit with their peers above the talk. Meantime, 
 
 He lives as should a statue in its niche ;
 
 22 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Cold walls enclose him, mostly darkness there, 
 Alone, unless some foreigner uncouth 
 Breaks in, sits, stares an hour, and so departs, 
 Brain-stuffed with something to sustain his life, 
 Dry to the marrow 'mid much merchandize. 
 How should such know and love the man ? 
 
 Why, mark ! 
 
 Even when I told the play and got the praise, 
 
 There spoke up a brisk little somebody, 
 
 Critic and whippersnapper, in a rage 
 
 To set things right : " The girl departs from truth ! 
 
 Pretends she saw what was not to be seen, 
 
 Making the mask of the actor move, forsooth ! 
 
 ' Then a fear flitted o'er the wife's white face,' 
 
 ' Then frowned the father,' ' then the husband shook,' - 
 
 ' Then from the festal forehead slipt each spray, 
 
 ' And the heroic mouth's gay grace was gone ; ' 
 
 As she had seen each naked fleshly face, 
 
 And not the merely-painted mask it wore ! " 
 
 Well, is the explanation difficult ? 
 
 What's poetry except a power that makes ?
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 23 
 
 And, speaking to one sense, inspires the rest, 
 
 Pressing them all into its service ; so 
 
 That who sees painting, seems to hear as well 
 
 The speech that's proper for the painted mouth ; 
 
 And who hears music, feels his solitude 
 
 Peopled at once for how count heart-beats plain 
 
 Unless a company, with hearts which beat, 
 
 Come close to the musician, seen or no ? 
 
 And who receives true verse at eye or ear, 
 
 Takes in (with verse) time, place, and person too, 
 
 So, links each sense on to its sister-sense, 
 
 Grace-like : and what if but one sense of three 
 
 Front you at once ? The sidelong pair conceive 
 
 Through faintest touch of finest finger-tips 
 
 Hear, see, and feel, in faith's simplicity, 
 
 Alike, what one was sole recipient of : 
 
 Who hears the poem, therefore, sees the play. 
 
 Enough and too much ! Hear the play itself ! 
 Under the grape-vines, by the streamlet-side, 
 Close to Baccheion ; till the cool increase,
 
 24 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 And other stars steal on the evening-star, 
 
 And so, we homeward flock i' the dusk, we five ! 
 
 You will expect, no one of all the words 
 
 O' the play but is grown part now of my soul, 
 
 Since the adventure. 'Tis the poet speaks : 
 
 But if I, too, should try and speak at times, 
 
 Leading your love to where my love, perchance, 
 
 Climbed earlier, found a nest before you knew 
 
 Why, bear with the poor climber, for love's sake ! 
 
 Look at Baccheion's beauty opposite, 
 
 The temple with the pillars at the porch ! 
 
 See you not something beside masonry ? 
 
 What if my words wind in and out the stone 
 
 As yonder ivy, the god's parasite ? 
 
 Though they leap all the way the pillar leads, 
 
 Festoon about the marble, foot to frieze, 
 
 And serpentiningly enrich the roof, 
 
 Toy with some few bees and a bird or two, 
 
 What then ? The column holds the cornice up \
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 2$ 
 
 There slept a silent palace in the sun, 
 
 With plains adjacent and Thessalian peace 
 
 Pherai, where King Admetos ruled the land. 
 
 Out from the portico there gleamed a god, 
 
 Apollon : for the bow was in his hand. 
 
 The quiver at his shoulder, all his shape 
 
 One dreadful beauty. And he hailed the house, 
 
 As if he knew it well and loved it much : 
 
 " O Admeteian domes ! where I endured, 
 
 Even the god I am, to drudge a while, 
 
 Accepting the slave's table thankfully, 
 
 Do righteous penance for a reckless deed ! " 
 
 Then told how Zeus had been the cause of all, 
 
 Raising the wrath in him which took revenge, 
 
 And slew those forgers of the thunderbolt 
 
 Wherewith Zeus blazed the life from out the breast 
 
 Of Phoibos' son Asklepios (I surmise,
 
 26 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Because he brought the dead to life again), 
 
 And so, for punishment, must needs go slave, 
 
 God as he was, with a mere mortal lord : 
 
 Told how he came to King Admetos' land, 
 
 And played the ministrant, was herdsman there, 
 
 Warding from him and his all harm away 
 
 Till now ; " For, holy as I am," said he, 
 
 " The lord I chanced upon was holy too : 
 
 Whence I deceived the Moirai, drew from death 
 
 My master, this same son of Pheres, ay, 
 
 The goddesses conceded him escape 
 
 From Hades, when the fated day should fall, 
 
 Could he exchange lives, find some friendly one 
 
 Ready, for his sake, to content the grave. 
 
 But trying all in turn, the friendly list, 
 
 Why, he found no one, none who loved so much, 
 
 Nor father, nor the aged mother's self 
 
 That bore him, no, not any save his wife, 
 
 Willing to die instead of him, and watch 
 
 Never a sunrise nor a sunset more ; 
 
 And she is even now within the house,
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 2^ 
 
 Upborne by pitying hands, the feeble frame 
 
 Gasping its last of life out ; since to-day 
 
 Destiny is accomplished, and she dies ; 
 
 And I, lest here pollution light on me, 
 
 Leave, as ye witness, all my wonted joy 
 
 In this dear dwelling. Ay,. for here comes Death 
 
 Close on us of a sudden ! who, pale priest 
 
 Of the mute people, means to bear his prey 
 
 To the house of Hades. The symmetric step ! 
 
 How he treads true to time and place and thing, 
 
 Dogging day, hour, and minute, for death's-due ! " 
 
 And we observed another deity, 
 
 Half in, half out the portal, watch and ward, 
 
 Eying his fellow : formidably fixed, 
 
 Yet faltering too at who affronted him, 
 
 As somehow disadvantaged, should they strive. 
 
 Like some dread heapy blackness, ruffled wing, 
 
 Convulsed and cowering head that is all eye, 
 
 Which proves a ruined eagle, who, too blind 
 
 Swooping in quest o' the quarry, fawn, or kid, 
 
 Descried deep down the chasm 'twixt rock and rock,
 
 z8 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Has wedged and mortised, into either wall 
 
 0' the mountain, the pent earthquake of his power ; 
 
 So lies, half hurtless yet still terrible, 
 
 Just when who stalks up, who stands front to front, 
 
 Bui the great lion-guarder of the gorge, 
 
 Lord of the ground, a stationed glory there ! 
 
 Yet he too pauses ere he try the worst 
 
 0' the frightful unfamiliar nature, new 
 
 To the chasm, indeed, but elsewhere known enough, 
 
 Among the shadows and the silences 
 
 Above i' the sky : so, each antagonist 
 
 Silently faced his fellow and forbore. 
 
 Till Death shrilled, hard and quick, in spite and fear 
 
 " Ha, ha ! and what may'st thou do at the domes, 
 Why hauntest here, thou Phoibos ? Here again 
 At the old injustice, limiting our rights, 
 Balking of honor due us gods o' the grave ! 
 Was 't not enough for thee to have delayed 
 Death from Admetos, with thy crafty art 
 Cheating the very Fates, but thou must arm
 
 BALAUSTIOWS ADVENTURE. 29 
 
 The bow-hand and take station, press 'twixt me 
 And Pelias' daughter, who then saved her spouse, 
 Did just that, now thou comest to undo, 
 Taking his place to die, Alkestis here ? " 
 But the god sighed, " Have courage ! All my arms, 
 This time, are simple justice and fair words." 
 
 Then each plied each with rapid interchange : 
 
 " What need of bow were justice arms enough ? " 
 
 " Ever it is my wont to bear the bow." 
 
 " Ay, and with bow, not justice, help this house ! " 
 
 " I help it, since a friend's woe weighs me too." 
 
 " And now, wilt force from me this second corpse ? 
 
 * By force I took no corpse at first fr^m thee."
 
 30 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 " How then is he above ground, not beneath ? " 
 
 " He gave his wife instead of him, thy prey." 
 
 " And prey, this time at least, I bear below ! " 
 
 " Go take her ! for I doubt persuading thee ..." 
 
 " To kill the doomed one ? What my function else ? " 
 
 " No ! Rather, to despatch the true mature." 
 
 " Truly I take thy meaning, see thy drift ! " 
 
 " Is there a way then she may reach old age ? " 
 
 " No way ! I glad me in my honors too ! " 
 
 " But, young or old, thou tak'st one life, no more ? " 
 
 " Younger they die, greater my praise redounds ! "
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 3' 
 
 "If she die old, the sumptuous funeral ! " 
 
 "Thou layest down a law the rich would like." 
 
 " How so ? Did wit lurk there and 'scape thy sense ? " 
 
 " Who could buy substitutes would die old men." 
 
 " It seems thou wilt not grant me, then, this grace ? " 
 
 " This grace I will not grant : thou know'st my ways." 
 
 " Ways harsh to men, hateful to gods, at least ! " 
 
 '* All things thou canst not have : my rights for me ! " 
 
 And then Apollon prophesied, I think, 
 More to himself than to impatient Death, 
 Who did not hear or would not heed the while, 
 For he went on to say, " Yet even so, 
 Cruel above the measure, thou shalt clutch
 
 $2 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 No life here ! Such a man do I perceive 
 Advancing to the house of Pheres now, 
 Sent by Eurustheus to bring out of Thrace, 
 The winter world, a chariot with its steeds ! 
 He indeed, when Admetos proves the host, 
 And he the guest, at the house here, he it is 
 Shall bring to bear such force, and from thy hands 
 Rescue this woman ! Grace no whit to me 
 Will that prove, since thou dost thy deed the same, 
 And earnest too my hate, and all for nought ! " 
 
 But how should Death or stay or understand ? 
 
 Doubtless, he only felt the hour was come, 
 
 And the sword free ; for he but flung some taunt, 
 
 " Having talked much, thou wilt not gain the more J 
 
 This woman then descends to Hades' hall 
 
 Now that I rush on her, begin the rites 
 
 O' the sword ; for sacred to us gods below, 
 
 That head whose hair this sword shall sanctify ! " 
 
 And, in the fire-flash of the appalling sword,
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 33 
 
 The uprush and the outburst, the onslaught 
 Of Death's portentous passage through the door, 
 Apollon stood a pitying moment-space : 
 I caught one last gold gaze upon the night 
 Nearing the world now : and the god was gone, 
 And mortals left to deal with misery ; 
 As in came stealing slow, now this, now that 
 Old sojourner throughout the country-side, 
 Servants grown friends to those unhappy here : 
 And, cloudlike in their increase, all these griefs 
 Broke and began the over-brimming wail, 
 Out of a common impulse, word by word. 
 
 " Whatever means the silence at the door ? 
 Why is Admetos' mansion stricken dumb ? 
 Not one friend near, to say if we should mourn 
 Our mistress dead, or still Alkestis live 
 And see the light here, Pelias' child to me, 
 To all, conspicuously the best of wives 
 That ever was toward husband in this world 1 
 Hears any one or wail beneath the roof,
 
 34 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Or hands that strike each other, or the groan 
 
 Announcing all is done and nought to dread ? 
 
 Still not a servant stationed at the gates ! 
 
 O Paian, that thou would'st dispart the wave 
 
 O' the woe, be present ! Yet, had woe o'erwhelmed 
 
 The housemates, they were hardly silent thus : 
 
 It cannot be, the dead is forth and gone. 
 
 Whence comes thy gleam of hope ? I dare not hope : 
 
 What is the circumstance that heartens thee ? 
 
 How could Admetos have dismissed a wife 
 
 So worthy, unescorted to the grave ? 
 
 Before the gates I see no hallowed vase 
 
 Of fountain-water, such as suits death's door ; 
 
 Nor any dipt locks strew the vestibule, 
 
 Though surely these drop when we grieve the dead : 
 
 Nor sounds hand smitten against youthful hand, 
 
 The woman's way. And yet the appointed time - 
 
 How speak the word ? this day is even the day 
 
 Ordained her for departing from its light. 
 
 O touch calamitous to heart and soul ! 
 
 Needs must one, when the good are tortured so,
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 35 
 
 Sorrow, one reckoned faithful from the first" 
 
 Then their souls rose together, and one sigh 
 
 Went up in cadence from the common mouth : 
 
 How "Vainly any whither in the world 
 
 Directing or land-labor or sea-search 
 
 To Lukia or the sand-waste, Ammon's seat 
 
 Might you set free their hapless lady's soul 
 
 From the abrupt Fate's footstep instant now. 
 
 Not a sheep-sacrificer at the hearths 
 
 Of gods had they to go to : one there was 
 
 Who, if his eyes saw light still, Phoibos' son, 
 
 Had wrought so, she might leave the shadowy place 
 
 And Hades' portal ; for he propped up Death's 
 
 Subdued ones, till the Zeus-flung thunder-flame 
 
 Struck him : and now what hope of life to hail 
 
 With open arms ? For all the king could do 
 
 Is done already, not one god whereof 
 
 The altar fails to reek with sacrifice : 
 
 And for assuagement of these evils nought ! "
 
 36 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 But here they broke off; for a matron moved 
 
 Forth from the house : and, as her tears flowed fast, 
 
 They gathered round. " What fortune shall we hear ? 
 
 To mourn indeed, if aught affect thy lord, 
 
 We pardon thee : but lives the lady yet, 
 
 Or has she perished ? that we fain would know ! " 
 
 " Call her dead, call her living, each style serves," 
 
 The matron said: "though grave-wards bowed, she 
 
 breathed ; 
 
 Nor knew her husband what the misery meant 
 Before he felt it : hope of life was none : 
 The appointed day pressed hard ; the funeral pomp 
 He had prepared too." 
 
 When the friends broke out, 
 " Let her in dying know herself at least 
 Sole wife, of all the wives 'neath the sun wide, 
 For glory and for goodness ! " " Ah, how else 
 Than best ? who controverts the claim ? " quoth she : 
 " What kind of creature should the woman prove 
 That has surpassed Alkestis ? surelier shown
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 37 
 
 Preference for her husband to herself 
 Than by determining to .die for him ? 
 But so much all our city knows indeed : 
 Hear what she did indoors and wonder then ! 
 For, when she felt the crowning day was come, 
 She washed with river-waters her white skin, 
 And, taking from the cedar closets forth 
 Vesture and ornament, bedecked herself 
 Nobly, and stood before the hearth, and prayed : 
 ' Mistress, because I now depart the world, 
 Falling before thee the last time, I ask 
 Be mother to my orphans ! wed the one 
 To a kind wife, and make the other's mate 
 Some princely person : nor, as I who bore 
 My children perish, suffer that they too 
 Die all untimely, but live, happy pair, 
 Their full glad life out in the fatherland ! ' 
 And every altar through Admetos' house 
 She visited and crowned and prayed before, 
 Stripping the myrtle-foliage from the boughs, 
 Without a tear, without a groan, no change
 
 38 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 At all to that skin's nature, fair to see, 
 
 Caused by the imminent evil. But this done, 
 
 Reaching her chamber, falling on her bed, 
 
 There, truly, burst she into tears and spoke : 
 
 ' O bride-bed ! where I loosened from my life 
 
 Virginity for that same husband's sake 
 
 Because of whom I die now fare thee well ! 
 
 Since nowise do I hate thee : me alone 
 
 Hast thou destroyed ; for, shrinking to betray 
 
 Thee and my spouse, I die : but thee, O bed ! 
 
 Some other woman shall possess as wife 
 
 Truer, no ! but of better fortune, say ! 
 
 So falls on, kisses it till all the couch 
 
 Is moistened with the eye's sad overflow. 
 
 But, when of many tears she had her fill, 
 
 She flings from off the couch, goes headlong forth, 
 
 Yet, forth the chamber, still keeps turning back 
 
 And casts her on the couch again once more. 
 
 Her children, clinging to their mother's robe, 
 
 Wept meanwhile : but she took them in her arms, 
 
 And, as a dying woman might, embraced
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Now one and now the other : 'neath the roof, 
 
 All of the household servants wept as well, 
 
 Moved to compassion for their mistress ; she 
 
 Extended her right hand to all and each, 
 
 And there was no one of such low degree 
 
 She spoke not to nor had an answer from. 
 
 Such are the evils in Admetos' house. 
 
 Dying, why, he had died \ but, living, gains 
 
 Such grief as this he never will forget ! " 
 
 And when they questioned of Admetos, " Well 
 
 Holding his dear wife in his hands, he weeps ; 
 
 Entreats her not to give him up, and seeks 
 
 The impossible, in fine : for there she wastes 
 
 And withers by disease, abandoned now, 
 
 A mere dead weight upon her husband's arm. 
 
 Yet none the less, although she breaths so faint, 
 
 Her will is to behold the beams o' the sun : 
 
 Since never more again, but this last once, 
 
 Shall she see sun, its circlet or its ray. 
 
 But I will go, announce your presence, friends 
 
 Indeed ; since 'tis not all so love their lords
 
 40 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 As seek them in misfortune, kind the same : 
 But you are the old friends I recognize." 
 
 And at the word she turned again to go : 
 
 The while they waited, taking up the plaint 
 
 To Zeus again : " What passage from this strait ? 
 
 What loosing of the heavy fortune fast 
 
 About the palace ? Will such help appear, 
 
 Or must we clip the locks, and cast around 
 
 Each form already the black peplos' fold ? 
 
 Clearly the black robe, clearly ! All the same 
 
 Pray to the gods ! like gods' no power so great ! 
 
 O thou King Paian, find some way to save ! 
 
 Reveal it, yea, reveal it ! Since of old 
 
 Thou found'st a cure, why, now again become 
 
 Releaser from the bonds of Death, we beg, 
 
 And give the sanguinary Hades pause ! " 
 
 So the song dwindled into a mere moan ; 
 
 How dear the wife, and what her husband's woe ; 
 
 When suddenly 
 
 " Behold, behold ! " breaks forth
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 4* 
 
 " Here is she coming from the house indeed ! 
 Her husband comes, too ! Cry aloud, lament, 
 Pheraian land, this best of women, bound 
 So is she withered by disease away 
 For realms below and their infernal king ! 
 Never will we affirm there's more of joy 
 Than grief in marriage ; making estimate 
 Both from old sorrows anciently observed, 
 And this misfortune of the king we see 
 Admetos who, of bravest spouse bereaved, 
 Will live life's remnant out, no life at all ! " 
 
 So wailed they, while a sad procession wound 
 Slow from the innermost o' the palace, stopped 
 At the extreme verge of the platform-front : 
 There opened, afcl disclosed Alkestis' self, 
 The consecrated lady, borne to look 
 Her last and let the living look their last 
 She at the sun, we at Alkestis. 
 
 We 
 For would you note a memorable thing ?
 
 42 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 We grew to see in that severe regard, 
 
 Hear in that hard dry pressure to the point, 
 
 Word slow pursuing word in monotone, 
 
 What Death meant when he called her consecrate 
 
 Henceforth to Hades. I believe, the sword 
 
 Its office was to cut the soul at once 
 
 From life, from something in this world which hides 
 
 Truth, and hides falsehood, and so lets us live 
 
 Somehow. Suppose a rider furls a cloak 
 
 About a horse's head ; unfrightened, so, 
 
 Between the menace of a flame, between 
 
 Solicitation of the pasturage, 
 
 Untempted equally, he goes his gait 
 
 To journey's end ; then pluck the pharos off ! 
 
 Show what delusions steadied him i' the straight 
 
 O' the path, made grass seem fire and Are seem grass, 
 
 All through a little bandage o'er the eyes ! 
 
 For certainly with eyes unbandaged now 
 
 Alkestis looked upon the action here, 
 
 Self-immolation for Admetos' sake ; 
 
 Saw, with a new sense, all her death would do,
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 43 
 
 And which of her survivors had the right, 
 And which the less right, to survive thereby. 
 For, you shall note, she uttered no one word 
 Of love more to her husband, though he wept 
 Plenteously, waxed importunate in prayer 
 Folly's old fashion when its seed bears fruit. 
 I think she judged that she had bought the ware 
 O' the seller at its value, nor praised him, 
 Nor blamed herself, but, with indifferent eye, 
 Saw him purse money up, prepare to leave 
 The buyer with a solitary bale 
 True purple but in place of all that coin, 
 Had made a hundred others happy too, 
 If so willed fate or fortune ! What remained 
 To give away, should rather go to these 
 Than one with coin to clink and contemplate. 
 Admetos had his share and might depart, 
 The rest was for her children and herself. 
 (Charope makes a face : but wait a while !) 
 She saw things plain as gods do : by one stroke 
 0' the sword that rends the life-long veil away.
 
 44 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 (Also Euripides saw plain enough : 
 
 But you and I, Charope , you and I 
 
 Will trust his sight until our own grow clear). 
 
 " Sun, and thou light of day, and heavenly dance 
 
 O' the fleet cloud-figure ! " (so her passion paused, 
 
 While the awe-stricken husband made his moan, 
 
 Muttered now this now that inaptitude : 
 
 " Sun that sees thee and me, a suffering pair, 
 
 Who did the gods no wrong whence thou should'st 
 
 die ! ") 
 
 Then, as if, caught up, carried in their course, 
 Fleeting and free as cloud and sunbeam are, 
 She missed no happiness that lay beneath : 
 " O thou wide earth, from these my palace roofs, 
 To distant nuptial chambers once my own 
 In that lolkos of my ancestry ! " 
 There the flight failed her. " Raise thee, wretched one i 
 Give us not up ! Pray pity from the gods ! " 
 
 Vainly Admetos : for " I see it see
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 45 
 
 The two-oared boat ! The ferryer of the dead, 
 Charon, hand hard upon the boatman's-pole, 
 Calls me even now calls ' Why delayest thou ? 
 Quick ! Thou obstructest all made ready here 
 For prompt departure : quick, then 1 ' ' 
 
 " Woe is me ! 
 
 A bitter voyage this to undergo, 
 Even i' the telling ! Adverse Powers above, 
 How do ye plague us ! " 
 
 Then a shiver ran : 
 
 " He has me seest not ? hales me, who is it ? 
 To the hall o' the Dead ah, who but Hades' self, 
 He, with the wings there, glares at me, one gaze 
 All that blue brilliance, under the eyebrow ! 
 What wilt thou do ? Unhand me ! Such a way 
 I have to traverse, all unhappy one ! " 
 
 " Way piteous to thy friends, but, most of all, 
 
 Me and thy children : ours assuredly 
 
 A common partnership in grief like this ! "
 
 46 BALA USTION 'S AD VENTURE. 
 
 Whereat they closed about her ; but " Let be ! 
 
 Leave, let me lie now ! Strength forsakes my feet. 
 
 Hades is here, and shadowy on my eyes 
 
 Comes the night creeping. Children children, now 
 
 Indeed, a mother is no more for you ! 
 
 Farewell, O children, long enjoy the light! " 
 
 " Ah, me ! the melancholy word I hear, 
 
 Oppressive beyond every kind of death ! 
 
 No, by the Deities, take heart, nor dare 
 
 To give me up no, by our children too 
 
 Made orphans of! But rise, be resolute ! 
 
 Since, thou departed, I no more remain ! 
 
 For in thee are we bound up, to exist 
 
 Or cease to be so we adore thy love ! " 
 
 Which brought out truth to judgment. At this word 
 
 And protestation, all the truth in her 
 
 Claimed to assert itself: she waved away 
 
 The blue-eyed, black-wing'd phantom, held in check 
 
 The advancing pageantry of Hades there, 
 
 And, with no change in her own countenance,
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 47 
 
 She fixed her eyes on the protesting man, 
 
 And let her lips unlock their sentence, so ! 
 
 " Admetos, how things go with me thou seest, 
 
 I wish to tell thee, ere I die, what things 
 
 I will should follow. I to honor thee, 
 
 Secure for thee? by my own soul's exchange, 
 
 Continued looking on the daylight here 
 
 Die for thee yet, if so I pleased, might live. 
 
 Nay, wed what man of Thessaly I would, 
 
 And dwell i' the dome with pomp and queenliness. 
 
 I would not, would not live bereft of thee, 
 
 With children orphaned, neither shrank at all, 
 
 Though having gifts of youth wherein I joyed. 
 
 Yet, who begot thee and who gave thee birth, 
 
 Both of these gave thee up ; for all, a term 
 
 Of life was reached when death became them well, 
 
 Ay, well to save their child and glorious die : 
 
 Since thou wast all they had, nor hope remained 
 
 Of having other children in thy place. 
 
 So, I and thou had lived out our full time, 
 
 Nor thou, left lonely of thy wife, wouldst groan
 
 48 BALA USTION 'S A D VENTURE. 
 
 With children reared in orphanage : but thus 
 
 Some god disposed things, willed they so should be. 
 
 Be they so ! Now do thou remember this, 
 
 Do me in turn a favor, favor, since 
 
 Certainly I shall never claim my due, 
 
 For nothing is more precious than a life : * 
 
 But a fit favor, as thyself wilt say, 
 
 Loving our children here no less than I, 
 
 If head and heart be sound in thee at least. 
 
 Uphold them, make them masters of my house, 
 
 Nor wed and give a step-dame to the pair, 
 
 Who, being a worse wife than I, thro' spite 
 
 Will raise her hand against both thine and mine. 
 
 Never do this at least, I pray to thee ! 
 
 For hostile the new-comer, the step-dame, 
 
 To the old brood a very viper she 
 
 For gentleness ! Here stand they, boy and girl ; 
 
 The boy has got a father, a defence 
 
 Tower-like he speaks to and has answer from : 
 
 But thou, my girl, how will thy virginhood 
 
 Conclude itself in marriage fittingly ?
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 49 
 
 Upon what sort of sire-found yoke-fellow 
 Art thou to chance ? with all to apprehend 
 Lest, casting on thee some unkind report, 
 She blast thy nuptials in the bloom of youth. 
 For neither shall thy mother watch thee wed, 
 Nor hearten thee in childbirth, standing by 
 Just when a mother's presence helps thee most ! 
 No, for I have to die : and this my ill 
 Comes to me, nor to-morrow, no, nor yet 
 The third day of the month, but now, even now, 
 I shall be reckoned among those no more. 
 Farewell, be happy ! And to thee, indeed, 
 Husband, the boast remains permissible 
 Thou hadst a wife was worthy ! and to you, 
 Children, as good a mother gave you birth." 
 
 " Have courage ! " interposed the friends. " For him 
 I have no scruple to declare, all this 
 Will he perform, except he fail of sense." 
 
 " All this shall be shall be ! " Admetos sobbed : 
 3
 
 50 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 " Fear not ! And, since I had thee living, dead 
 
 Alone wilt thou be called my wife : no fear 
 
 That some Thessalian ever styles herself 
 
 Bride, hails this man for husband in thy place ! 
 
 No woman, be she of such lofty line 
 
 Or such surpassing beauty otherwise ! 
 
 Enough of children : gain from these I have, 
 
 Such only may the gods grant ! since in thee 
 
 Absolute is our loss, where all was gain. 
 
 And I shall bear for thee no year-long grief, 
 
 But grief that lasts while my own days last, love ! 
 
 Love ! For my hate is she who bore me, now ; 
 
 And him I hate, my father : loving-ones 
 
 Truly, in word not deed ! But thou didst pay 
 
 All dearest to thee down, and buy my life, 
 
 Saving me so ! Is there not cause enough 
 
 That I who part with such companionship 
 
 In thee, should make my moan ? I moan, and more : 
 
 For I will end the feastings social flow 
 
 O' the wine friends flock for, garlands, and the Muse 
 
 That graced my dwelling. Never now for me
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 51 
 
 To touch the lyre, to lift my soul in song 
 
 At summons of the Lybian flute ; since thou 
 
 From out my life hast emptied all the joy ! 
 
 And this thy body, in thy likeness wrought 
 
 By-some wise hand of the artificers, 
 
 Shall lie disposed within my marriage-bed: 
 
 This I will fall on, this enfold about, 
 
 Call by thy name, my dear wife in my arms 
 
 Even though I have not, I shall seem to have 
 
 A cold delight, indeed, but all the same 
 
 So should I lighten of its weight my soul ! 
 
 And, wandering my way in dreams perchance, 
 
 Thyself wilt bless me : for, come when they will, 
 
 Even by night our loves are sweet to see. 
 
 But were the tongue and tune of Orpheus mine, 
 
 So that to Kore crying, or her lord, 
 
 In hymns, from Hades I might rescue thee, 
 
 Down would I go, and neither Plouton's dog 
 
 Nor Charon, he whose oar sends souls across, 
 
 Should stay me till again I made thee stand 
 
 Living, within the light ! But, failing this,
 
 52 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 There, where thou art, await me when I die, 
 
 Make ready our abode, my house-mate still ! 
 
 For in the self-same cedar, me with thee, 
 
 Will I provide that these our friends shall place, 
 
 My side lay close by thy side ! Never, corpse 
 
 Although I be, would I division bear 
 
 From thee, my faithful one of all the world ! " 
 
 So he stood sobbing : nowise insincere, 
 
 But somehow child-like, like his children, like 
 
 Childishness the world over. What was new 
 
 In this announcement that his wife must die ? 
 
 What particle of pain beyond the pact 
 
 He made, with eyes wide open, long ago, 
 
 Made, and was, if not glad, content to make ? 
 
 Now that the sorrow, he had called for, came, 
 
 He sorrowed to the height : none heard him say, 
 
 However, what would seem so pertinent, 
 
 " To keep this pact, I find surpass my powei 
 
 Rescind it, Moirai ! Give me back her life, 
 
 And take the life I kept by base exchange !
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 53 
 
 Or, failing that, here stands your laughing-stock 
 
 Fooled by you, worthy just the fate o' the fool 
 
 Who makes a pother to escape the best 
 
 And gain the worst you wiser Powers allot ! " 
 
 No, not one word of this : nor did his wife, 
 
 Despite the sobbing, and the silence soon 
 
 To follow, judge so much was in his thought, 
 
 Fancy that, should Moirai acquiesce, 
 
 He would relinquish life, nor let her die. 
 
 The man was like some merchant who, in storm, 
 
 Throws the freight over to redeem the ship : 
 
 No question, saving both were better still. 
 
 As it was, why, he sorrowed, which sufficed. 
 
 So, all she seemed to notice in his speech 
 
 Was what concerned her children. Children, too, 
 
 Bear the grief and accept the sacrifice. 
 
 Rightly rules Nature : does the blossomed bough 
 
 0' the grape-vine, or the dry grape's self, bleed wine ? 
 
 So, bending to her children all her love, 
 She fastened on their father's only word
 
 54 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 To purpose now, and followed it with this : 
 
 " O children ! now yourselves have heard these things, 
 
 Your father saying he will never wed 
 
 Another woman to be over you, 
 
 Nor yet dishonor me ! " 
 
 " And now at least 
 I say it, and I will accomplish too ! " 
 
 " Then, for such promise of accomplishment, 
 Take from my hand these children ! " 
 
 "Thus I take 
 Dear gift from the dear hand ! " 
 
 " Do thou become 
 Mother, now, to these children in my place ! " 
 
 ' Great the necessity I should be so, 
 At least, to these bereaved of thee ! " 
 
 "Child child!
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE, 55 
 
 Just when I needed most to live, below 
 Am I departing from you both ! " 
 
 " Ah me ! 
 And what shall I do, then, left lonely thus ? " 
 
 " Time will appease thee : who is dead is nought" 
 
 " Take me with thee take, by the gods below ! " 
 
 " We are sufficient, we who die for thee." 
 
 " O Powers ! ye widow me of what a wife ! " 
 
 " And truly the dimmed eye draws earthward now ! " 
 
 " Wife, if thou leav'st me, I am lost indeed ! " 
 
 u She once was now is nothing, thou may'st say." 
 
 M Raise thy face, nor forsake thy children thus ! "
 
 56 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 " Ah, willingly indeed I leave them not ! 
 But fare ye well, my children ! " 
 
 " Look on them - 
 Look ! " 
 
 "I am nothingness." 
 
 " What dost thou ! Leav'st " 
 " Farewell ! " 
 
 And in the breath she passed away. 
 " Undone me miserable ! " moaned the king, 
 While friends released the long-suspended sigh. 
 " Gone is she : no wife for Admetos more ! " 
 
 Such was the signal : how the woe broke forth, 
 Why tell ? or how the children's tears ran fast, 
 Bidding their father note the eyelids' stare, 
 Hands' droop, each dreadful circumstance of death, 
 
 u Ay, she hears not, she sees not : I and you,
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 57 
 
 Tis plain, are stricken hard, and have to bear ! " 
 
 Was all Admetos answered ; for, I judge, 
 
 He only now began to taste the truth : 
 
 The thing done lay revealed, which undone thing, 
 
 Rehearsed for fact by fancy, at the best, 
 
 Never can equal. He had used himself 
 
 This long while (as he muttered presently) 
 
 To practise with the terms, the blow involved 
 
 By the bargain, sharp to bear, but bearable 
 
 Because of plain advantage at the end. 
 
 Now that, in fact not fancy, the blow fell 
 
 Needs must he busy him with the surprise. 
 
 " Alkestis not to see her nor be seen, 
 
 Hear nor be heard of by her, any more, 
 
 To-day, to-morrow, to the end of time, 
 
 Did I mean this should buy my life ? " thought he. 
 
 So, friends came round him, took him by the hand, 
 Bade him remember our mortality, 
 Its due, its doom : how neither was he first, 
 Nor would be last, to thus deplore the loved.
 
 $8 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 11 1 understand," slow the. words came at last. 
 
 " Nor of a sudden did the evil here 
 
 Fly on me : I have known it long ago, 
 
 Ay, and essayed myself in misery; 
 
 Nothing is new. You have to stay, you friends, 
 
 Because the next need is to carry forth 
 
 The corpse here : you must stay and do your part, 
 
 Chant proper paean to the god below ; 
 
 Drink-sacrifice he likes not I decree 
 
 That all Thessalians over whom I rule 
 
 Hold grief in common with me ; let them shear 
 
 Their locks, and be the peplos black they show ! 
 
 And you to the chariot yoke your steeds, 
 
 Or manage steeds one-frontleted, I charge, 
 
 Clip from each neck with steel the mane away ! 
 
 And through my city, nor of flute nor lyre 
 
 Be there a sound till twelve full moons succeed. 
 
 For I shall never bury any corpse 
 
 Dearer than this to me, nor better friend : 
 
 One worthy of all honor from me, since 
 
 Me she has died for, she and she alone."
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 59 
 
 With that, he sought the inmost of the house, 
 
 He and his dead, to get grave's garniture, 
 
 While the friends sang the paean that should peal. 
 
 " Daughter of Pelias, with farewell from me, 
 
 I' the house of Hades have thy unsunned home ! 
 
 Let Hades know, the dark-haired deity, 
 
 And he who sits to row and steer alike, 
 
 Old corpse-conductor, let him know he bears 
 
 Over the Acherontian lake this time, 
 
 I' the two-oared boat, the best, oh, best by far 
 
 Of womankind ! For thee, Alkestis Queen, 
 
 Many a time those haunters of the Muse 
 
 Shall sing thee to the seven-stringed mountain-shell, 
 
 And glorify in hymns that need no harp, 
 
 At Sparta when the cycle comes about, 
 
 And that Karneian month wherein the moon 
 
 Rises and never sets the whole night through : 
 
 So too at splendid and magnificent 
 
 Athenai. Such the spread of thy renown, 
 
 And such the lay that, dying, thou hast left 
 
 Singer and sayer. Oh that I availed
 
 6o BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Of my own might to send thee once again 
 From Hades' hall, Kokutos' stream, by help 
 O' the oar that dips the river, back to-day ! " 
 
 So, the song sank to prattle in her praise : 
 
 " Light, from above thee, lady, fall the earth, 
 
 Thou only one of womankind to die, 
 
 Wife for her husband ! If Admetos take 
 
 Any thing to him like a second spouse, 
 
 Hate from his offspring and from us shall be 
 
 His portion, let the king assure himself! 
 
 No mind his mother had to hide in earth 
 
 Her body for her son's sake, nor his sire 
 
 Had heart to save whom he begot, not they, 
 
 The white-haired wretches ! only thou it was, 
 
 I' the bloom of youth, didst save him and so die ! 
 
 Might it be mine to chance on such a mate 
 
 And partner! For there's penury in life 
 
 Of such allowance : were she mine at least, 
 
 So wonderful a wife, assuredly 
 
 She would companion me throughout my days
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 6l 
 
 And ne\rer once bring sorrow ! " 
 
 A great voice 
 " My hosts here ! " 
 
 Oh, the thrill that ran through us ! 
 Never was aught so good and opportune 
 As that great interrupting voice ! For see ! 
 Here maundered this dispirited old age 
 Before the palace ; whence a something crept 
 Which told us well enough without a word 
 What was a-doing inside, every touch 
 O' the garland on those temples, tenderest 
 Disposure of each arm along its side, 
 Came putting out what warmth i' the world was left. 
 Then, as it happens at a sacrifice 
 When, drop by drop, some lustral bath is brimmed : 
 Into the thin and clear and cold, at once 
 They slaughter a whole wine-skin ; Bacchos' blood 
 Sets the white water all a-flame : even so, 
 Sudden into the midst of sorrow, leapt
 
 62 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Along with the gay cheer of that great voice, 
 Hope, joy, salvation : Herakles was here ! 
 Himself o' the threshold, sent his voice on first 
 To herald all that human and divine 
 I' the weary happy face of him, half god, 
 Half man, which made the god-part god the more. 
 
 " Hosts mine," he broke upon the sorrow with, 
 " Inhabitants of this Pheraian soil, 
 Chance I upbn Admetos inside here ? " 
 
 The irresistible sound wholesome heart 
 
 O' the hero, more than all the mightiness 
 
 At labor in the limbs that, for man's sake, 
 
 Labored and meant to labor their life long, 
 
 This drove back, dried up sorrow at its source. 
 
 How could it brave the happy weary laugh 
 
 Of who had bantered sorrow, " Sorrow here ? 
 
 What have you done to keep your friend from harm ? 
 
 Could no one give the life I see he keeps ? 
 
 Or, say there's sorrow here past friendly help,
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 63 
 
 Why waste a word or let a tear escape 
 
 While other sorrows wait you in the world, 
 
 And want the life of you, though helpless here ? " 
 
 Clearly there was no telling such an one 
 
 How, when their monarch tried who loved him more 
 
 Than he loved them, and found they loved, as he, 
 
 Each man, himself, and held, no otherwise, 
 
 That, of all evils in the world, the worst 
 
 Was being forced to die, whate'er death gain : 
 
 How all this selfishness in him and them 
 
 Caused certain sorrow which they sang about, 
 
 I think that Herakles, who held his life 
 
 Out on his hand, for any man to take 
 
 I think his laugh had marred their threnody. 
 
 " He is i' the house," they answered. After all, 
 
 They might have told the story, talked their best 
 
 About the inevitable sorrow here, 
 
 Nor changed nor checked the kindly nature, no ! 
 
 So long as men were merely weak, not bad, 
 
 He loved men : were they gods he used to help ?
 
 64 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 11 Yea, Pheres' son is in-doors, Herakles : 
 But say, what sends thee to Thessalian soil, 
 Brought by what business to this Pherai town ? " 
 
 " A certain labor that I have to do 
 Eurustheus the Tirunthian," laughed the god. 
 
 "And whither wendest on what wandering 
 
 Bound now ? " (they had an instinct, guessed what meanl 
 
 Wanderings, labors, in the god's light mouth.) 
 
 " After the Thracian Diomedes' car 
 
 \ 
 
 With the four horses." 
 
 " Ah ! but canst thou that? 
 
 Art inexperienced in thy host to be ? " 
 
 " All-inexperienced : I have never gone 
 As yet to the land o' the Bistones." 
 
 " Then look 
 By no means to be master of the steeds
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 65 
 
 Without a battle ! " 
 
 " Battle there may be : 
 I must refuse no labor, all the same." 
 
 " Certainly, either having slain a foe 
 Wilt thou return to us, or, slain thyself, 
 Stay there ! " 
 
 " And, even if the game be so, 
 The risk in it were not the first I run." 
 
 " But, say thou overpower the lord o' the place, 
 What more advantage dost expect thereby?" 
 
 " I shall drive off his horses to the king." 
 " No easy handling them to bit the jaw ! " 
 
 " Easy enough ; except, at least, they breathe 
 Fire from their nostrils ! " 
 
 " But they mmce up me 
 With those quick jaws 1 "
 
 66 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 " You talk of provendei 
 For mountain-beasts, and not mere horses' food ! " 
 
 " Thou may'st behold their mangers caked with gore ! " 
 
 " And of what sire does he who bred them boast 
 Himself the son ? " 
 
 " Of Ares, king o' the targe 
 Thracian, of gold throughout." 
 
 Another laugh. 
 
 " Why, just the labor, just the lot for me, 
 Dost thou describe in what I recognize ! 
 Since hard and harder, high and higher yet, 
 Truly this lot of mine is like to go 
 If I must needs join battle with the brood 
 Of Ares : ay, I fought Lukaon first, 
 And again, Kuknos : now engage in strife 
 This third time, with such horses and such lord. 
 But there is nobody shall ever see 
 Alkmene's son shrink, foemen's hand before ! "
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 67 
 
 " Or ever hear him say " (the chorus thought) 
 
 " That death is terrible ; and help us so 
 
 To chime in ' terrible beyond a doubt, 
 
 And, if to thee, why, to ourselves much more : 
 
 Know what has happened, then, and sympathize ! ' ' 
 
 Therefore they gladly stopped the dialogue, 
 
 Shifted the burthen to new shoulder straight, 
 
 As, " Look where comes the lord o' the land, himself, 
 
 Admetos, from the palace ! " they out-broke 
 
 In some surprise, as well as much relief. 
 
 What had induced the king to waive his right 
 
 And luxury of woe in loneliness ? 
 
 Out he came quietly ; the hair was dipt, 
 
 And the garb sable ; else no outward sign 
 
 Of sorrow as he came and faced his friend. 
 
 Was truth fast terrifying tears away ? 
 
 " Hail, child of Zeus, and sprung from Perseus too ! " 
 
 The salutation ran without a fault. 
 
 " And thou, Admetos, King of Thessaly 1 "
 
 68 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 " Would, as thou wishest me, the grace might fall ! 
 But my good-wisher, that thou art, I know." 
 
 "What's here? these shorn locks, this sad show of 
 thee ? " 
 
 " I must inter a certain corpse to-day. " 
 
 " Now, from thy children God avert mischance ! " 
 
 " They live, my children ; all are in the house ! " 
 
 " Thy father if 'tis he departs indeed, 
 His age was ripe at least" 
 
 " My father lives, 
 And she who bore me lives too, Herakles." 
 
 " It cannot be thy wife Alkestis gone ? " 
 " Two-fold the tale is, I can tell of her."
 
 BALAUSTION^S ADVENTURE. 69 
 
 " Dead dost thou speak of her, or living yet ? " 
 
 " She is and is not : hence the pain to me ! " 
 
 " I learn no whit the more, so dark thy speech ! " 
 
 " Know'st thou not on what fate she needs must fall ? " 
 
 " I know she is resigned to die for thee." 
 
 " How lives she still, then, if submitting so ? " 
 
 " Eh, weep her not beforehand ! wait till then ! " 
 
 " Who is to die is dead ; doing is done." 
 
 " To be and not to be are thought diverse." 
 
 " Thou judgest this I, that way, Herakles ! " 
 
 " Well, but declare what causes thy complaint !
 
 7 BALAUSTIOWS ADVENTURE. 
 
 Who is the man has died from out thy friends ? " 
 
 " No man : I had a woman in my mind." 
 " Alien, or some one born akin to thee ? " 
 " Alien : but still related to my house." 
 " How did it happen then that here she died ? " 
 " Her father dying left his orphan here." 
 
 "Alas, Admetos would we found thee gay, 
 Not grieving ! " 
 
 " What as if about to do 
 Subjoinest thou that comment ? " 
 
 " I shall seek 
 Another hearth, proceed to other hosts."
 
 BALAUSTION^S ADVENTURE. 
 
 " Never, O king, shall that be ! No such ill 
 Betide me ! " 
 
 " Nay, to mourners, should there come 
 A guest, he proves importunate ! " 
 
 " The dead 
 Dead are they : but go thou within my house ! " 
 
 " 'T is base carousing beside friends who mourn." 
 
 " The guest-rooms, whither we shall lead thee, lie 
 Apart from ours." 
 
 " Nay, let me go my way ! 
 Ten thousandfold the favor I shall thank ! " 
 
 " It may not be thou goest to the hearth 
 
 Of any man but me ! " so made an end 
 
 Admetos, softly and decisively, 
 
 Of the altercation. Herakles forbore : 
 
 And the king bade a servant lead the way, 
 
 Open the guest-rooms ranged remote from view
 
 72 BALAUSTION^S ADVENTURE. 
 
 O' the main hall, tell the functionaries, too, 
 They had to furnish forth a plenteous feast : 
 And then shut close the doors o' the hall, midway, 
 " Because it is not proper friends who feast 
 Should hear a groaning or be grieved," quoth he. 
 
 Whereat the hero, who was truth itself, 
 
 Let out the smile again, repressed a while 
 
 Like fountain brilliance one forbids to play. 
 
 He did too many grandnesses, to note 
 
 Much in the meaner things about his path : 
 
 And stepping there, with face towards the sun, 
 
 Stopped seldom to pluck weeds or ask their names. 
 
 Therefore he took Admetos at the word : 
 
 This trouble must not hinder any more 
 
 A true heart from good will and pleasant ways. 
 
 And so, the great arm, which had slain the snake, 
 
 Strained his friend's head a moment in embrace 
 
 On that broad breast beneath the lion's hide, 
 
 Till the king's cheek winced at the thick rough gold ; 
 
 And then strode off, with who had care of him,
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 73 
 
 To the remote guest-chamber : glad to give 
 Poor flesh and blood their respite and relief 
 In the interval 'twixt fight and fight again 
 All for the world's sake. Our eyes followed him, 
 Be sure, till those mid-doors shut us outside. 
 The king, too, watched great Herakles go off 
 All faith, love, and obedience to a friend. 
 
 And when they questioned him, the simple ones, 
 "What dost thou ? Such calamity to face,- 
 Lies full before thee and thou art so bold 
 As play the host, Admetos ? Hast thy wits ? " 
 He replied calmly to each chiding tongue : 
 " But if from house and home I forced away 
 A coming guest, would'st thou have praised me more ? 
 No, truly ! since calamity were mine, 
 Nowise diminished ; while I showed myself 
 Unhappy and inhospitable too : 
 So adding to my ills this other ill, 
 That mine were styled a stranger-hating house. 
 Myself have ever found this man the best 
 4
 
 74 BALAUSTION^S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Of entertainers when I went his way 
 To parched and thirsty Argos." 
 
 " If so be 
 
 Why didst thou hide what destiny was here, 
 When one came that was kindly, as thou say'st ? " 
 
 " He never would have willed to cross my door, 
 
 Had he known aught of my calamities. 
 
 And probably to some of you I seem 
 
 Unwise enough in doing what I do ; 
 
 Such will scarce praise me : but these halls of mine 
 
 Know not to drive off and dishonor guests." 
 
 And so, the duty done, he turned once more 
 
 To go and busy him about his dead. 
 
 As for the sympathizers left to muse, 
 
 There was a change, a new light thrown on things, 
 
 Contagion from the magnanimity 
 
 O' the man whose life lay on his hand so light, 
 
 As up he stepped, pursuing duty still, 
 
 " Higher and harder," as he laughed and said. 
 
 Somehow they found no folly now in the act
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 75 
 
 They blamed erewhile : Admetos' private grief 
 
 Shrank to a somewhat pettier obstacle 
 
 I' the way o' the world : they saw good days had been, 
 
 And good days, peradventure, still might be j 
 
 Now that they overlooked the present cloud 
 
 Heavy upon the palace opposite. 
 
 And soon the thought took words and music thus : 
 
 " Harbor of many a stranger, free to friend, 
 Ever and always, O thou house o' the man 
 We mourn for ! Thee, Apollon's very self, 
 The lyric Puthian, deigned inhabit once, 
 Become a shepherd here in thy domains, 
 And pipe, adown the winding hill-side paths, 
 Pastoral marriage-poems to thy flocks 
 At feed : while with them fed in fellowship, 
 Through joy i' the music, spot-skin lynxes ; ay, 
 And lions too, the bloody company, 
 Came, leaving Othrus' dell ; and round thy lyre, 
 Phoibos, there danced the speckle-coated fawn, 
 Pacing on lightsome fetlock past the pines
 
 76 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Tress-topped, the creature's natural boundary, 
 Into the open everywhere ; such heart 
 Had she within her, beating joyous beats, 
 At the sweet re-assurance of thy song ! 
 Therefore the lot o' the master is to live 
 In a home multitudinous with herds, 
 Along by the fair-flowing Boibian lake, 
 Limited, that ploughed land and pasture-plain, 
 Only where stand the sun's steeds, stabled west 
 I' the cloud, by that mid-air which makes the clime 
 Of those Molossoi : and he rules as well 
 O'er the Aigaian, up to Pelion's shore, 
 Sea-stretch without a port ! Such lord have we : 
 A.nd here he opens house now, as of old, 
 Takes to the heart of it a guest again : 
 Though moist the eyelid of the master, still 
 Mourning his dear wife's body, dead but now ! " 
 
 And they admired : nobility of soul 
 Was self-impelled to reverence, they saw ; 
 The best men ever prove the wisest too \
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. ^^ 
 
 Something instinctive guides them still aright 
 And on each soul this boldness settled now, 
 That one, who reverenced the gods so much, 
 Would prosper yet : (or I could wish it ran 
 Who venerates the gods i' the main, will still 
 Practise things honest though obscure to judge.) 
 
 They ended, for Admetos entered now ; 
 
 Having disposed all duteously indoors, 
 
 He came into the outside world again, 
 
 Quiet as ever : but a quietude 
 
 Bent on pursuing its descent to truth, 
 
 As who must grope until he gain the ground 
 
 O' the dungeon doomed to be his dwelling now. 
 
 Already high o'erhead was piled the dusk, 
 
 When something pushed to stay his downward step, 
 
 Pluck back despair just reaching its repose. 
 
 He would have bidden the kind presence there 
 
 Observe that, since the corpse was coming out, 
 
 Cared for in all things that befit the case, 
 
 Carried aloft, in decency and state,
 
 ?8 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURED 
 
 To the last burial place and burning pile, 
 'Twere proper friends addressed, as custom prompts, 
 Alkestis bound on her last journeying. 
 
 " Ay, for we see thy father," they subjoined, 
 
 " Advancing as the aged foot best may ; 
 
 His servants, too : each bringing in his hand 
 
 Adornments for thy wife, all pomp that's due 
 
 To the downward-dwelling people." And in truth, 
 
 By slow procession till they filled the stage, 
 
 Came Pheres, and his following, and their gifts. 
 
 You see, the worst of the interruption was, 
 
 It plucked back, with an over-hasty hand, 
 
 Admetos from descending to the truth, 
 
 (I told you) put him on the brink again, 
 
 Full i' the noise and glare where late he stood : 
 
 With no fate fallen and irrecoverable, 
 
 But all things subject still to chance and change : 
 
 And that chance, life, and that change, happiness. 
 
 And with the low strife came the little mind : 
 
 He was once more the man might gain so much,
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 79 
 
 Life too and wife too, would his friends but help ! 
 
 All he felt now was, that there faced him one 
 
 Supposed the likeliest, in emergency, 
 
 To help : and help, by mere self-sacrifice 
 
 So natural, it seemed as if the sire 
 
 Must needs lie open still to argument, 
 
 Withdraw the rash decision, not to die, 
 
 But rather live, though death would save his son : 
 
 Argument like the ignominious grasp 
 
 O' the drowner whom his fellow grasps as fierce, 
 
 Each marvelling that the other needs must hold 
 
 Head out of water, though friend choke thereby. 
 
 And first the father's salutation fell. 
 Burthened, he came, in common with his child, 
 
 * 
 
 Who lost, none would gainsay, a good chaste spouse : 
 Yet such things must be borne, though hard to bear. 
 " So, take this tribute of adornment, deep 
 In the earth let it descend along with her ! 
 Behooves we treat the body with respect 
 Of one who died, at least, to save thy life,
 
 8o BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Kept me from being-childless, nor allowed 
 
 That I, bereft of thee, should peak and pine 
 
 In melancholy age ; she, for the sex, 
 
 All of her sisters, put in evidence, 
 
 By daring such a feat, that female life 
 
 Might prove more excellent than men suppose. 
 
 O thou Alkestis ! " out he burst in fine, 
 
 " Who, while thou savedst this my son, didst raise 
 
 Also myself from sinking, hail to thee ! 
 
 Well be it with thee even in the house 
 
 Of Hades ! I maintain, if mortals must 
 
 Marry, this sort of marriage is the sole 
 
 Permitted those among them who are wise I " 
 
 So his oration ended. Like hates like : 
 
 % 
 
 Accordingly Admetos, full i' the face 
 Of Pheres, his true father, outward shape 
 And inward fashion, body matching soul, 
 Saw just himself when years should do their work 
 And re-enforce the selfishness inside 
 Until it pushed the last disguise away :
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 8 1 
 
 As when the liquid metal cools i' the mould, 
 
 Stands forth a statue : Bloodless, hard, cold bronze. 
 
 So, in old Pheres, young Admetos showed, 
 
 Pushed to completion : and a shudder ran, 
 
 And his repugnance soon had vent in speech : 
 
 Glad to escape outside, nor, pent within, 
 
 Find itself there fit food for exercise. 
 
 "Neither to this interment called by me 
 
 Comest thou, nor thy presence I account 
 
 Among the covetable proofs of love. 
 
 As for thy tribute of adornment, no ! 
 
 Ne'er shall she don it, ne'er in debt to thee 
 
 Be buried ! What is thine, that keep thou still ! 
 
 Then it behoved thee to commiserate 
 
 When I was perishing: but thou, who stood'st 
 
 Foot-free o' the snare, wast acquiescent then 
 
 That I, the young, should die, not thou, the old, 
 
 Wilt thou lament this corpse thyself hast slain ? 
 
 Thou wast not, then, true father to this flesh ; 
 
 Nor she, who makes profession of my birth, 
 
 And styles herself my mother, neither she 
 
 4*
 
 82 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Bore me : but, come of slave's blood, I was cast 
 
 Stealthily 'neath the bosom of thy wife ! 
 
 Thou showedst, put to touch, the thing thou art, 
 
 Nor I esteem myself born child of thee ! 
 
 Otherwise, thine is the pre-eminence 
 
 O'er all the world in cowardice of soul : 
 
 Who, being the old man thou art, arrived 
 
 Where life should end, didst neither will nor dare 
 
 Die for thy son, but left the task to her, 
 
 The alien woman, whom I well might think 
 
 Own, only mother both and father too ! 
 
 And yet a fair strife had been thine to strive, 
 
 Dying for thine own child ; and brief for thee 
 
 In any case, the rest of time to live ; 
 
 While I had lived, and she, our rest of time, 
 
 Nor I been left to groan in solitude. 
 
 Yet certainly all things which happy man 
 
 Ought to experience, thy experience grasped. 
 
 Thou wast a ruler through the bloom of youth, 
 
 And I was son to thee, recipient due 
 
 Of sceptre and demesne, no need to fear
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 83 
 
 That dying thou should'st have an orphan house 
 
 For strangers to despoil. Nor yet wilt thou 
 
 Allege that as dishonoring, forsooth, 
 
 Thy length of days, I gave thee up to die, 
 
 I, who have held thee in such reverence ! 
 
 And in exchange for it, such gratitude 
 
 Thou, father, thou award'st me, mother mine ! 
 
 Go, lose no time, then, in begetting sons 
 
 Shall cherish thee in age, and, when thou diest, 
 
 Deck up and lay thee out, as corpses claim ! 
 
 For never I, at least, with this my hand 
 
 Will bury thee : it is myself am dead 
 
 So far as lies in thee. But if I light 
 
 Upon another saviour, and still see 
 
 The sunbeam, his, the child I call myself 
 
 His, the old age that claims my cherishing. 
 
 How vainly do 1 these aged pray for death, 
 
 Abuse the slow drag of senility ! 
 
 But should death step up, nobody inclines 
 
 To die, nor age is now the weight it was ! " 
 
 You see what all this poor pretentious talk
 
 84 BALAUSTION\S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Tried at, how weakness strove to hide itself 
 
 In bluster against weakness, the loud word 
 
 To hide the little whisper, not so low 
 
 Already in that heart beneath those lips ! 
 
 Ha ! could it be, who hated cowardice 
 
 Stood confessed craven, and who lauded so 
 
 Self-immolating love, himself had pushed 
 
 The loved one to the altar in his place ? 
 
 Friends interposed, would fain stop further play 
 
 O' the sharp-edged tongue: they felt love's champion 
 
 here 
 
 Had left an undefended point or two, . 
 The antagonist might profit by ; bade " Pause ! 
 Enough the present sorrow ! Nor, O son, 
 Whet thus against thyself thy father's soul ! " 
 
 Ay, but old Pheres was the stouter stuff! 
 Admetos, at the flintiest of the heart, 
 Had so much soft in him as held a fire : 
 The other was all iron, clashed from flint 
 Its 6re, but shed no spark and showed no bruise.
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 85 
 
 Did Pheres crave instruction as to facts ? 
 
 He came, content, the ignoble word, for him, 
 
 Should lurk still in the blackness of each breast, 
 
 As sleeps the water-serpent half-surmised : 
 
 Not brought up to the surface at a bound, 
 
 By one touch of the idly-probing spear, 
 
 Reed-like against the unconquerable scale. 
 
 He came pacific, rather, as strength should, 
 
 Bringing the decent praise, the due regret, 
 
 And each banality prescribed of old. 
 
 Did he commence, " Why let her die for you ? " 
 
 And rouse the coiled and quiet ugliness, 
 
 " What is so good to man as man's own life ? " 
 
 No : but the other did : and, for his pains, 
 
 Out, full in face of him, the venom leapt. 
 
 "And whom dost thou make bold, son Ludian slave, 
 Or Phrugian whether, money made thy ware, 
 To drive at with revilings ? Know'st thou not 
 I, a Thessalian, from Thessalian sire 
 Spring, and am born legitimately free ?
 
 86 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Too arrogant art thou and, youngster-words 
 
 Casting against me, having had thy fling, 
 
 Thou goest not off as all were ended so ! 
 
 I gave thee birth indeed and mastership 
 
 I' the mansion, brought thee up to boot : there ends 
 
 My owing, nor extends to die for thee ! 
 
 Never did I receive it as a law 
 
 Hereditary, no, nor Greek at all, 
 
 That sires in place of sons were bound to die. 
 
 For, to thy sole and single self wast thou 
 
 Born, with whatever fortune, good or bad ; 
 
 Such things as bear bestowment, those thou hast ; 
 
 Already ruling widely, broad-lands, too, 
 
 Doubt not but I shall leave thee in due time : 
 
 For why ? My father left me them before. 
 
 Well then, where wrong I thee ? of what defraud ? 
 
 Neither do thou die for this man, myself, 
 
 Nor let him die for thee ! is all I beg. 
 
 Thou joyest seeing daylight : dost suppose 
 
 Thy father joys not too? Undoubtedly, 
 
 Long I account the time to pass below,
 
 BA LA USTION 'S ADVENTURE. 87 
 
 And brief my span of days ; yet sweet the same : 
 
 Is it otherwise to thee who, impudent, 
 
 Didst fight off this same death, and livest now 
 
 Through having sneaked past fate apportioned thee, 
 
 And slain thy wife so ? Cryest cowardice 
 
 On me, I wonder, thou the poor poltroon 
 
 A very woman worsted, daring death 
 
 Just for the sake of thee, her handsome spark ? 
 
 Shrewdly hast thou contrived how not to die 
 
 For evermore now : 'tis but still persuade 
 
 The wife for the time being take thy place ! 
 
 What, and thy friends who would not do the like 
 
 These dost thou carp at, craven thus thyself ? 
 
 Crouch and be silent, cravenj Comprehend 
 
 That, if thou lovest so that life of thine, 
 
 Why everybody loves his own life too : 
 
 So, good words henceforth ! If thou speak us ill, 
 
 Many and true an ill thing shalt thou hear ! " 
 
 There you saw leap the hydra at full length ! 
 Only, the old kept glorying the more,
 
 88 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 The more the portent thus uncoiled itself, 
 Whereas the young man shuddered head to foot, 
 And shrank from kinship with the creature. Why 
 Such horror, unless what he hated most, 
 Vaunting itself outside, might fairly claim 
 Acquaintance with the counterpart at home : 
 I would the Chorus here had plucked up heart, 
 Spoken out boldly, and explained the man, 
 If not to men, to gods. That way, I think, 
 Sophokles would have led their dance and song. 
 Here they said simply " Too much evil spoke 
 On both sides ! " As the young before, so now 
 They bade the old man leave abusing thus. 
 
 
 
 " Let him speak, I have spoken ! " said the youth ; 
 And so died outwhe wrangle by degrees, 
 In wretched bickering. " If thou wince at fact, 
 Behooved thee not prove faulty to myself ! " 
 
 " Had I died for thee I had faulted more ! "
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 89 
 
 " All's one, then, for youth's bloom and age to die?" 
 
 " Our duty is to live one life, not two ! " 
 " Go then, and outlive Zeus, for aught I care ! " 
 " What, curse thy parents with no sort of cause ? " 
 " Curse, truly ! All thou lovest is long life ! '' 
 
 " And dost not thou, too, all for love of life, 
 Carry out now, in place of thine, this corpse ? " 
 
 . 
 " Monument, rather, of thy cowardice, 
 
 Thou worst one ! " 
 
 " Not for me she died, I hope ! 
 That thou wilt hardly say ! " 
 
 " No, simply this : 
 Would some clay thou may'st come to need myself! " 
 
 u Meanwhile, woo many wives the more will die ! "
 
 90 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 " And so shame thee who never dared the like ! " 
 
 " Dear is this light o' tlie sun-god dear, I say ! " 
 " Proper conclusion for a beast to draw ! " 
 
 " One thing is certain : there's no laughing now, 
 As out thou bearest the poor dead old man ! " 
 
 % 
 
 " Die when thou wilt, thou wilt die infamous ! " 
 
 " And once dead, whether famed or infamous, 
 1 shall not care ! " 
 
 " Alas and yet again ! 
 How full is age of impudency ! " 
 
 " True ! 
 
 Thou could'st not call thy young wife impudent : 
 She was found foolish merely." 
 
 " Get thee gone ! 
 And let me bury this my dead 1 "
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 9* 
 
 "I gO. 
 
 Thou buriest her whom thou didst murder first ; 
 Whereof there's some account to render yet 
 Those kinsfolk by the marriage-side ! I think 
 Brother Akastos may be classed, with me, 
 Among the beasts, not men, if he omit 
 Avenging upon thee his sister's blood ! " 
 
 "Go to perdition, with thy housemate too, 
 Grow old all childlessly, with child alive, 
 Just as ye merit ! for to me, at least, 
 Beneath the same roof ne'er do ye return. 
 And did I need by heralds' help renounce 
 The ancestral hearth, I had renounced the same ! 
 But we since this woe, lying at our feet 
 I' the path, is to be borne let us proceed, 
 And lay the body on the pyre." 
 
 I think, 
 
 What, thro' this wretched wrangle, kept the man 
 From seeing clear beside the cause I gave 
 Was that the woe, himself described as full
 
 92 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 I' the path before him, there did really lie 
 
 Not roll into the abyss of dead and gone. 
 
 How, with Alkestis present, calmly crowned, 
 
 Was she so irrecoverable yet ? 
 
 The bird, escaped, that's just on bough above, 
 
 The flower, let flutter half-way down the brink ! 
 
 Not so detached seemed lifelessness from life, 
 
 But one dear stretch beyond all straining yet 
 
 And he might have had her at his heart once more. 
 
 But, in the critical minute, up there comes 
 
 The father and the fact, to trifle time ! 
 
 " To the pyre ! " an instinct prompted : pallid face, 
 
 And passive arm, and pointed foot, O friends ! 
 
 When these no longer shall absorb the sight, 
 
 Admetos will begin to see indeed 
 
 Who the true foe was, where the blows should fall ! 
 
 So, the old selfish Pheres went his way, 
 Case-hardened as he came ; and left the youth 
 (Only half-selfish now, since sensitive) 
 To go on learning by a light the more,
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 93 
 
 As friends moved off, renewing dirge the while : 
 
 " Unhappy in thy daring ! Noble dame, 
 
 Best of the good, farewell ! With favoring face 
 
 May Hermes the infernal, Hades too, 
 
 Receive thee ! And if there, ay, there, some touch 
 
 Of further dignity await the good, 
 
 Sharing with them, may'st thou sit throned by her 
 
 The Bride of Hades, in companionship ! " 
 
 Wherewith, the sad procession wound away, 
 
 Made slowly for the suburb sepulchre. 
 
 And lo, while still one's heart, in time and tune, 
 
 Paced after that symmetric step of Death 
 
 Mute-marching, to the mind's eye, at the head 
 
 O' the mourners one hand pointing out their path 
 
 With the long pale terrific sword we saw, 
 
 The other leading, with grim tender grace, 
 
 Alkestis quieted and consecrate, 
 
 Lo, life again knocked laughing at the door ! 
 
 The world goes on, goes ever, in and through,
 
 94 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 And out again o' the cloud. We faced about, 
 
 Fronted the palace where the mid-hall-door 
 
 Opened not half, nor half of half, perhaps 
 
 Yet wide enough to let out light and life, 
 
 And warmth, and bounty, and hope, and joy, at once. 
 
 Festivity burst wide, fruit rare and ripe 
 
 Crushed in the mouth of Bacchos, pulpy-prime, 
 
 All juice and flavor, save one single seed 
 
 Duly ejected from the god's nice lip, 
 
 Which lay o' the red edge, blackly visible 
 
 To wit, a certain ancient servitor : 
 
 On whom the festal jaws o' the palace shut, 
 
 So, there he stood, a much-bewildered man. 
 
 Stupid ? Nay, but sagacious in a sort : 
 
 Learned, life-long, i' the first outside of things, 
 
 Though bat for blindness to what lies beneath, 
 
 And needs a nail-scratch ere 'tis laid you bare. 
 
 This functionary was the trusted one 
 
 We saw deputed by Admetos late 
 
 To lead in Herakles and help him, soul 
 
 And body, to such snatched repose, snapped-up
 
 BALAUSTION^S ADVENTURE. 95 
 
 Sustainment, as might do away the dust 
 
 O' the last encounter, knit each nerve anew 
 
 For that next onset sure to come at cry 
 
 O' the creature next assailed, nay, should it prove 
 
 Only the creature that came forward now 
 
 To play the critic upon Herakles ! 
 
 " Many the guests " so he soliloquized 
 
 In musings burdensome to breast before, 
 
 When it seemed not too prudent, tongue should wag 
 
 " Many, and from all quarters of this world, 
 
 The guests I now have known frequent our house, 
 
 For whom I spread the banquet ; but than this, 
 
 Never a worse one did I yet receive 
 
 At the hearth here ! One who seeing, first of all 
 
 The master's sorrow, entered gate the same, 
 
 And had the hardihood to house himself. 
 
 Did things stop there ? But, modest by no means, 
 
 He took what entertainment lay to hand, 
 
 Knowing of our misfortune, did we fail 
 
 In aught of the fit service, urged us serve
 
 96 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Just as a guest expects ! And in his hands 
 
 Taking the ivied goblet, drinks and drinks 
 
 The unmixed product of black mother-earth, 
 
 Until the blaze o' the wine went round about 
 
 And warmed him : then he crowns with myrtle spiigs 
 
 His head, and howls discordance two-fold lay 
 
 Was thereupon for us to listen to 
 
 This fellow singing, namely, nor restrained 
 
 A jot by sympathy with sorrows here 
 
 While we o' the household mourned our mistress 
 
 mourned, 
 
 That is to say, in silence never showed 
 The eyes, which we kept wetting, to the guest 
 For there Admetos was imperative. 
 And so, here am I helping make at home 
 A guest, some fellow ripe for wickedness, 
 Robber or pirate, while she goes her way 
 Out of her house : and neither was it mine 
 To follow in procession, nor stretch forth 
 Hand, wave my lady dear a last farewell, 
 Lamenting who to me and all of us
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 97 
 
 Domestics was a mother : myriad harms 
 She used to ward away from every one, 
 And mollify her husband's ireful mood. 
 
 I ask then, do I justly hate or no 
 
 / 
 
 This guest, this interloper on our grief?" 
 
 " Hate him and justly ! " Here's the proper judge 
 Of what is due to the house from Herakles ! 
 This man of much experience saw the first 
 O' the feeble duckings-down at destiny, 
 When King Admetos went his rounds, poor soul, 
 A-begging somebody to be so brave 
 As die for one afraid to die himself 
 ' Thou, friend ? Thou, love ? Father or mother, then 1 
 None of you ? What, Alkestis must Death catch ? 
 O best of wives, one woman in the world ! 
 But nowise droop : our prayers may still assist: 
 Let us try sacrifice ; if those avail 
 Nothing, and gods avert their countenance, 
 Why, deep and durable the grief will be ! " 
 Whereat the house, this worthy at its head,
 
 98 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Re-echoed "deep and durable our grief!" 
 This sage, who justly hated Herakles, 
 Did he suggest once " Rather I than she ! " 
 Admonish the Turannos "Be a man ! 
 Bear thine own burden, never think to thrust 
 Thy fate upon another, and thy wife ! 
 It were a dubious gain could death be doomed 
 That other, yet no passionatest plea 
 Of thine, to die instead, have force with fate ; 
 Seeing thou lov'st Alkestis : what were life 
 Unlighted by the loved one ? But to live 
 Not merely live unsolaced by some thought, 
 Some word so poor yet solace all the same 
 As ' Thou i' the sepulchre, Alkestis, say ! 
 Would I, or would not I, to save thy life, 
 Die, and die on, and die forever more ? ' 
 No ! but to read red-written up and down 
 The world, ' This is the sunshine, this the shade^ 
 This is some pleasure of earth, sky, or sea, 
 Due to that other dead, that thou may'st live ! ' 
 Such were a covetable gain to thee ?
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 99 
 
 Go die, fool, and be happy while 'tis time ! " 
 One word of counsel in this kind, methinks, 
 Had fallen to better purpose than Ai, Ai, 
 Phen, pheu, e, papai, and a pother of praise 
 O' the best, best, best one ! Nothing was to hate 
 In king Admetos, Pheres, and the rest 
 O' the household down to his heroic self! 
 This was the one thing hateful : Herakles 
 Had flung into the presence, frank and free, 
 Out from the labor into the repose, 
 Ere out again and over head and ears 
 I' the heart of labor, all for love of men : 
 Making the most o' the minute, that the soul 
 And body, strained to height a minute since, 
 Might lie relaxed in joy, this breathing-space, 
 For man's sake more than ever ; till the bow, 
 Restrung o' the sudden, at first cry for help, 
 Should send some unimaginable shaft 
 True to the aim and shatteringly through 
 The plate-mail of a monster, save man so. 
 He slew the pest o' the marish yesterday :
 
 100 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 To-morrow he would bit the flame-breathed stud 
 
 That fed on man's-flesh : and this day between 
 
 Because he held it natural to die, 
 
 And fruitless to lament a thing past cure, 
 
 So, took his fill of food, wine, song, and flowers, 
 
 Till the new labor claimed him soon enough, 
 
 " Hate him and justly ! " 
 
 True, Charope mine ! 
 The man surmised not Herakles lay hid 
 I' the guest ; or knowing it, was ignorant 
 That still his lady lived, for Herakles ; 
 Or else judged lightness needs must indicate 
 This or the other caitiff quality ; 
 And therefore had been right if not so wrong ! 
 For who expects the sort of him will scratch 
 A nail's depth, scrape the surface just to see 
 What peradventure underlies the same ? 
 
 So, he stood petting up his puny hate, 
 Parent-wise, proud of the ill-favored babe. 
 Not long ! A great hand, careful lest it crush,
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. lot 
 
 Startled him on the shoulder : up he stared ; 
 
 And over him who stood but Herakles ? 
 
 There smiled the mighty presence, all one smile, 
 
 And no touch more of the world-weary god, 
 
 Through the brief respite ! Just a garland's grace 
 
 About the brow, a song to satisfy 
 
 Head, heart, and breast, and trumpet-lips at once, 
 
 A solemn draught of true religious wine, 
 
 And how should I know ? half a mountain goat 
 
 Torn up and swallowed down, the feast was fierce 
 
 But brief: all cares and pains took wing and flew, 
 
 Leaving the hero ready to begin 
 
 And help mankind, whatever woe came next, 
 
 Even though what came next should be nought more 
 
 Than the mean querulous mouth o' the man, remarked 
 
 Pursing its grievance up till patience failed, 
 
 And the sage needs must rush out, as we saw, 
 
 To sulk outside and pet his hate in peace. 
 
 By no means would the Helper have it so : 
 
 He who was just about to handle brutes 
 
 In Thrace, and bit the jaws which breathed the flame,
 
 102 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Well, if a good laugh and a jovial word 
 Could bridle age which blew bad humors forth, 
 That were a kind of help too ! 
 
 " Thou, there ! " hailed 
 
 This grand benevolence the ungracious one 
 " Why look'st so solemn and so thought-absorbed ? 
 To guests, a servant should not sour-faced be, 
 But do the honors with a mind urbane. 
 While thou, contrariwise, beholding here 
 Arrive thy master's comrade, hast for him 
 A churlish visage, all one beetle-brow 
 Having regard to grief that's out-of-door ! 
 Come hither, and so get to grow more wise ! 
 Things mortal know'st the nature that they have ? 
 No, I imagine ! whence could knowledge spring ? 
 Give ear to me, then ! For all flesh to die, 
 Is Nature's due ; nor is there any one 
 Of mortals with assurance he shall last 
 The coming morrow: for, what's born of chance 
 Invisibly proceeds the way it will, 
 Not to be learned, no fortune-teller's prize.
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 103 
 
 This, therefore, having heard and known through me, 
 
 Gladden thyself! Drink ! Count the day-by-day 
 
 Existence thine, and all the other chance ! 
 
 Ay, and pay homage also to, by far 
 
 The sweetest divinities for man, 
 
 Kupris ! Benignant goddess will she prove ! 
 
 But as for aught else, leave and let things be ! 
 
 And trust my counsel, if I seem to speak 
 
 To purpose as I do apparently. 
 
 Wilt not thou, then, discarding over much 
 
 Mournful ness, do away with this shut door, 
 
 Come drink along with me, be-garlanded 
 
 This fashion ? Do so, and, I well know what, 
 
 From this stern mood, this shrunk-up state of mind, 
 
 The pit-pat fall o } the flagon-juice down throat, 
 
 Soon will dislodge thee from bad harborage ! 
 
 Men being mortal, should think mortal-like : 
 
 Since to your solemn, brow-contracting sort, 
 
 All of them, so I lay down law at least, 
 
 Life is not truly life but misery."
 
 104 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE, 
 
 Whereto the man with softened surliness : . 
 
 " We know as much : but deal with matters, now, 
 
 Hardly befitting mirth and revelry." 
 
 " No intimate, this woman that is dead : 
 
 Mourn not too much ! For, those o' the house itself, 
 
 Thy masters live, remember ! " 
 
 " Live indeed ? 
 
 Ah, thou know'st nought o' the woe within these 
 walls ! " 
 
 " I do unless thy master spoke me false 
 Somehow ! " 
 
 " Ay, ay, too much he loves a guest, 
 Too much, that master mine ! " so muttered he. 
 
 " Was it improper he should treat me well, 
 Because an alien corpse was in the way ? " 
 
 '' No alien, but most intimate indeed 1 "
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 105 
 
 u Can it be, some woe was, he told me not ? " 
 
 " Farewell and go thy way ! Thy cares for thee 
 To us, our master's sorrow is a care." 
 
 " This word begins no tale of alien woe ! " 
 
 " Had it been other woe than intimate, 
 
 I could have seen thee feast, nor felt amiss." 
 
 " What ! have I suffered strangely from my host ? " 
 
 " Thou cam'st not at a fit reception-time : 
 With sorrow here beforehand ; and thou seest 
 Shorn hair, black robes." 
 
 " But who is it that's dead ? 
 Some child gone ? or the aged sire perhaps ? " 
 
 " Admetos' wife, then ! she has perished, guest ! " 
 
 " How sayest? And did ye house me all the same? " 
 5*
 
 106 BALAUSTION^S ADVENTURE, 
 
 " Ay /: for he had thee in that reverence 
 
 He dared not turn thee from his door away ! " 
 
 " O hapless, and bereft of what a mate ! " 
 " All of us now are dead, not she alone ! " 
 
 " But I divined it ! seeing, as I did, 
 
 His eye that ran with tears, his close-dipt hair, 
 
 His countenance ! Though he persuaded me, 
 
 Saying it was a stranger's funeral 
 
 He went with to the grave : against my wish, 
 
 He forced on me that I should enter doors, 
 
 Drink in the hall o' the hospitable man 
 
 Circumstanced so ! And do I revel yet 
 
 With wreath on head ? But thou to hold thy peace, 
 
 Nor tell me what a woe oppressed my friend ! 
 
 Where is he gone to bury her ? Where am I 
 
 To go and find her ? " 
 
 " By the road that leads 
 
 Straight to Larissa, thou wilt see the tomb, 
 
 Out of the suburb, a carved sepulchre."
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 107 
 
 So said he, and therewith dismissed himself 
 
 Inside to his lamenting : somewhat soothed, 
 
 However, that he had adroitly dashed 
 
 The mirth of the great creature : oh, he marked 
 
 The movement of the mouth, how lip pressed lip, 
 
 And either eye forgot to shine, as, fast, 
 
 He plucked the chaplet from his forehead, dashed 
 
 The myrtle-sprays down, trod them underfoot ! 
 
 And all the joy and wonder of the wine 
 
 Withered away, like fire from off a brand 
 
 The wind blows over beacon though it be, 
 
 Whose merry ardor only meant to make 
 
 Somebody all the better for its blaze, 
 
 And save lost people in the dark : quenched now ! 
 
 Not long quenched ! As the flame, just hurried off 
 The brand's edge, suddenly renews its bite, 
 Tasting some richness caked i' the core o' the tree, 
 Pine, with a blood that 's oil, and triumphs up 
 Pillar-wise to the sky and saves the world : 
 So, in a spasm and splendor of resolve,
 
 108 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 All at once did the god surmount the man. 
 
 " O much-enduring heart and hand of mine ! 
 
 Now show what sort of son she bore to Zeus, 
 
 That daughter of Elektruon, Tirun's child. 
 
 Alkmene* ! for that son must needs save now 
 
 The just-dead lady : ay, establish here 
 
 I' the house again Alkestis, bring about 
 
 Comfort and succor to Admetos so ! 
 
 I will go lie in wait for Death, black-stoled 
 
 King of the corpses ! I shall find him, sure, 
 
 Drinking beside the tomb, o' the sacrifice : 
 
 And if I lie in ambuscade, and leap 
 
 Out of my lair, and seize encircle him 
 
 Till one hand join the other round about 
 
 There lives not who shall pull him out from me, 
 
 Rib-mauled, before he let the woman go ! 
 
 But even say I miss the booty, say, 
 
 Death comes not to the boltered blood, why then, 
 
 Down go I, to the unsunned dwelling-place 
 
 Of Kore* and the king there, make demand,
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 109 
 
 Confident I shall bring Alkestis back, 
 
 So as to put her in the hands of him 
 
 My host, that housed me, never drove me off: 
 
 Though stricken with sore sorrow, hid the stroke, 
 
 Being a noble heart and honoring me ! 
 
 Who of Thessalians, more than this man, loves 
 
 The stranger ? Who, that now inhabits Greece ? 
 
 Wherefore he shall not say the man was vile 
 
 Whom he befriended, native noble heart ! " 
 
 So, one look upward, as if Zeus might laugh 
 
 Approved of his human progeny, 
 
 One summons of the whole magnific frame, 
 
 Each sinew to its service, up he caught, 
 
 And over shoulder cast, the lion-shag, 
 
 Let the club go, for had he not those hands ? 
 
 And so went striding off, on that straight way 
 
 Leads to Larissa and the suburb tomb. 
 
 Gladness be with thee, Helper of our world ! 
 
 I think this is the authentic sign and seal 
 
 Of godship, that it ever waxes glad,
 
 HO BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 And more glad, until gladness blossoms, bursts 
 
 Into a rage to suffer for mankind, 
 
 And recommence at sorrow : drops like seed 
 
 After the blossom, ultimate of all. 
 
 Say, does the seed scorn earth, and seek the sun ? 
 
 Surely it has no other end and aim 
 
 Than to drop, once more to die into the ground, 
 
 Taste cold and darkness and oblivion there : 
 
 And thence rise, tree-like grow through pain to joy, 
 
 More joy and most joy, do man good again. 
 
 So, off strode to the struggle Herakles. 
 
 When silence close behind the lion-garb, 
 
 Back came our dull fact settling in its place, 
 
 Though heartiness and passion half-dispersed 
 
 The invitable fate. And presently 
 
 In came the mourners from the funeral, 
 
 One after one, until we hoped the last 
 
 Would be Alkestis and so end our dream. 
 
 Could they have really left Alkestis lone 
 
 [' the wayside sepulchre ! Home, all save she !
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. ill 
 
 And when Admetos felt that it was, 
 
 By the stand-still : when he lifted head and face 
 
 From the two hiding hands and peplos' fold, 
 
 And looked forth, knew the palace, knew the hills, 
 
 Knew the plains, knew the friendly frequence there, 
 
 And no Alkestis any more again, 
 
 Why the whole woe billow-like broke on him. 
 
 " O hateful entry, hateful countenance 
 
 O' the widowed halls ! " he moaned. " What was to be ? 
 
 Go there ? Stay here ? Speak, not speak ? All was now 
 
 Mad and impossible alike ; one way 
 
 And only one was sane and safe to die : 
 
 Now he was made aware how dear is death, 
 
 How lovable the dead are, how the heart 
 
 Yearns in us to go hide where they repose, 
 
 When we find sunbeams do no good to see, 
 
 Nor earth rests rightly where our footsteps fall. 
 
 His wife had been to him the very pledge, 
 
 Sun should be sun, earth earth ; the pledge was robbed, 
 
 Pact broken, and the world was left no world."
 
 112 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 He stared at the impossible, mad life : 
 
 Stood, while they bade " Advance advance ! Go deep 
 
 Into the utter dark, thy palace-core ! " 
 
 They tried what they called comfort, " touched the quick 
 
 Of the ulceration in his soul," he said, 
 
 With memories, " once thy joy was thus and thus ! " 
 
 True comfort were to let him fling himself 
 
 Into the hollow grave o' the tomb, and so 
 
 Let him lie dead along with all he loved. 
 
 One bade him note that his own family 
 Boasted a certain father whose sole son, 
 Worthy bewailment, died : and yet the sire 
 Bore stoutly up against the blow and lived ; 
 For all that he was childless now, and prone 
 Already to gray hairs, far on in life. 
 Could such a good example miss effect ? 
 Why fix foot, stand so, staring at the house ? 
 Why not go in, as that wise kinsman would ? 
 
 " O that arrangement of the house I know 1
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. "3 
 
 How can I enter, how inhabit, thee, 
 
 Now that one cast of fortune changes all ? 
 
 Oh, me ! for much divides the then from now ! 
 
 Then with those pine-tree torches, Pelian pomp 
 
 And marriage-hymns, I entered, holding high 
 
 The hand of my dear wife ; while many-voiced 
 
 The revelry that followed me and her 
 
 That's dead now, friends felicitating both, 
 
 As who were lofty-lineaged, each of us 
 
 Born of the best, two wedded and made one ; 
 
 Now wail is wedding-chant's antagonist, 
 
 And, for white peplos, stoles in sable state 
 
 Herald my way to the deserted couch ! " 
 
 The one word more they ventured was, " This grief 
 Befell thee witless of what sorrow means, 
 Close after prosperous fortune : but, reflect ! 
 Thou hast saved soul and body. Dead, thy wife 
 Living, the love she left. What's novel here ? 
 Many the man, from whom Death long ago 
 Loosed the life-partner 1 "
 
 H4 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Then Admetos spoke 
 
 Turned on the comfort, with no tears, this time. 
 He was beginning to be like his wife. 
 I told you of that pressure to the point, 
 Word slow pursuing word in monotone, 
 Alkestis spoke with ; so Admetos, now, 
 Solemnly bore the burden of the truth. 
 And as the voice of him grew, gathered strength, 
 And groaned on, and persisted to the end, 
 We felt how deep had been descent in grief, 
 And with what change he came up now to light, 
 And left behind such littleness as tears. 
 " Friends, I account the fortune of my wife 
 Happier than mine, though it seem otherwise : 
 For, her indeed no grief will ever touch, 
 And she from many a labor pauses now, 
 Renowned one ! Whereas I, who ought not live, 
 But do live, by evading destiny, 
 Sad life am I to lead, I learn at last ! 
 For how shall I bear going in-doors here ? 
 Accosting whom ? By whom saluted back,
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Shall I have joyous entry? Whither turn ? 
 Inside, the solitude will drive me forth, 
 When I behold the empty bed my wife's 
 The seat she used to sit upon, the floor 
 Unsprinkled as when dwellers loved the cool, 
 The children that will clasp my knees about. 
 Cry for their mother back : these servants too 
 Moaning for what a guardian they have lost ! 
 Inside my house such circumstance awaits. 
 Outside, Thessalian people's marriage-feasts 
 And gatherings for talk will harass me, 
 With overflow of women everywhere ; 
 It is impossible I look on them 
 Familiars of my wife and. just her age ! 
 And then, whoever is a foe of mine, 
 And lights on me why, this will be his word 
 ' See there ! alive ignobly, there he skulks 
 That played the dastard when it came to die, 
 And, giving her he wedded, in exchange, 
 Kept himself out of Hades safe and sound, 
 The coward ! Do you call that creature man ?
 
 Il6 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 He hates his parents for declining death, 
 
 Just as if he himself would gladly die ' ' 
 
 This sort of reputation shall I have, 
 
 Beside the other ills enough in store. 
 
 Ill-famed, ill-faring, what advantage, friends, 
 
 Do you perceive I gain by life for death ? " 
 
 That was the truth. Vexed waters sank to smooth ; 
 
 'T was only when the last of bubbles broke, 
 
 The latest circlet widened all away, 
 
 And left a placid level, that up swam 
 
 To the surface the drowned truth, in dreadful change. 
 
 So, through the quiet and submission, ay, 
 
 Spite of some strong words (for you miss the tone) 
 
 The grief was getting to be infinite 
 
 Grief, friends fell back before. Their office shrank 
 
 To that old solace of humanity 
 
 " Being born mortal, bear grief ! Why born else ? " 
 
 And they could only meditate anew. 
 
 " They, too, upborne by airy help of song, 
 And haply science, which can find the stars,
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 1 1? 
 
 Had searched the heights : had sounded depths as well 
 
 By catching much at books where logic lurked, 
 
 Yet nowhere found they aught could overcome 
 
 Necessity : not any medicine served, 
 
 Which Thracian tablets treasure, Orphic voice 
 
 Wrote itself down upon : nor remedy 
 
 Which Phoibos gave to the Asklepiadai ; 
 
 Cutting the roots of many a virtuous herb 
 
 To solace overburdened mortals. None ! 
 
 Of this sole goddess, never may we go 
 
 To altar nor to image ; sacrifice 
 
 She hears not All to pray for is, ' Approach ! 
 
 But, oh. no harder on me, awful one, 
 
 Than heretofore ! Let life endure thee still ! 
 
 For, whatsoe'er Zeus' nod decree, that same 
 
 In concert with thee hath accomplishment 
 
 Iron, the very stuff o' the Chaluboi, 
 
 Thou by sheer strength dost conquer and subdue ; 
 
 Nor, of that harsh abrupt resolve of thine, 
 
 Any relenting is there ! '
 
 ri8 BALAUSTIOIV'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 " O my king ! 
 
 Thee also, in the shackles of those hands, 
 Unshunnable, the goddess grasped ! Yet, bear ! 
 Since never wilt thou lead from underground 
 The dead ones., wail thy worst ! If mortals die, - 
 The very children of immortals, too, 
 Dropped 'mid our darkness, these decay as sure I 
 Dear indeed was she while among us : dear, 
 Now she is dead, must she forever be : 
 Thy portion was to clasp, within thy couch, 
 The noblest of all women as a wife. 
 Nor be the tomb of her supposed some heap 
 That hides mortality : but like the gods 
 Honored, a veneration to a world 
 Of wanderers ! Oft the wanderer, struck thereby, 
 Who else had sailed past in his merchant-ship, 
 Ay, he shall leave ship, land, long wind his way 
 Up to the mountain-summit, till there break 
 Speech forth, ' So, this was she, then, died of old 
 To save her husband ! now a deity 
 She bends above us. Hail, benignant one 1
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. HQ 
 
 Give good ! ' Such voices so will supplicate. 
 
 But can it be ? Alkmene's offspring comes, 
 
 Admetos ! to thy house advances here ! " 
 
 I doubt not, they supposed him decently 
 
 Dead somewhere in that winter world of Thrace 
 
 Vanquished by one o' the Bistones, or else 
 
 Victim to some mad steed's voracity 
 
 For did not friends prognosticate as much? 
 
 It were a new example to the point, 
 
 That " children of immortals, dropped by stealth 
 
 Into our darkness, die as sure as we ! " 
 
 A case to quote and comfort people with : 
 
 But, as for lamentation, ai and pheu, 
 
 Right-minded subjects kept them for their lord. 
 
 Ay, he it was advancing ! In he strode, 
 
 And took his stand before Admetos, turned 
 
 Now by despair to such a quietude, 
 
 He neither raised his face nor spoke, this time, 
 
 The while his friend surveyed him steadily. 
 
 That friend looked rough with fighting : had he strained
 
 120 BALAUSTION^S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Worst brute to breast was ever strangled yet ? 
 Somehow, a victory for there stood the strength, 
 Happy, as always ; something grave, perhaps ; 
 The great vein-cordage on the fret-worked brow, 
 Black-swollen, beaded yet with battle-drops 
 The yellow hair o' the hero ! his big frame 
 A-quiver with each muscle sinking back 
 Into the sleepy smooth it leaped from late. 
 Under the great guard of one arm, there leant 
 A shrouded something, live and woman-like, 
 Propped by the heart-beats 'neath the lion-coat. 
 When he had finished his survey, it seemed, 
 The heavings of the heart began subside, 
 The helping breath returned, and last the smile 
 Shone out, all Herakles was back again, 
 As the words followed the saluting hand. 
 
 " To friendly man, behooves we freely speak, 
 Admetos ! nor keep buried, deep in breast, 
 Blame we leave silent. . I assuredly 
 Judged myself proper, if I should approach
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 121 
 
 By accident calamities of thine, 
 To be demonstrably thy friend : but thou 
 Told'st me not of the corpse then claiming care, 
 That was thy wife's, but didst instal me guest 
 I' the house here, as if busied with a grief 
 Indeed, but then, mere grief beyond thy gate : 
 And so, I crowned my head, and to the gods 
 Poured my libations in thy dwelling-place, 
 With such misfortune round me. And I blame 
 Certainly blame thee, having suffered thus ! 
 But still I would not pain thee, pained enough : 
 So let it pass ! Wherefore I seek thee now, 
 Having turned back again though onward bound, 
 That I will tell thee. Take and keep for me 
 This woman, till I come thy way again, 
 Driving before me, having killed the king 
 O' the Bistones, that drove of Thracian Steeds : 
 In that case, give the woman back to me ! 
 But should I fare, as fare I fain would not, 
 Seeing I hope to prosper and return. 
 Then, I bequeath her as thy household slave.
 
 122 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 She came into my hands with good hard toil ! 
 
 For, what find I, when started on my course, 
 
 But certain people, a whole country-side, 
 
 Holding a wrestling-bout ? as good to me 
 
 As a new labor : whence I took, and here 
 
 Come keeping with me, this, the victor's prize. 
 
 For, such as conquered in the easy work, 
 
 Gained horses which they drove away : and such 
 
 As conquered in the harder, those who boxed 
 
 And wrestled, cattle ; and, to crown the prize, 
 
 A woman followed. Chancing as I did, 
 
 Base were it to forego this fame and gain ? 
 
 Well, as I said, I trust her to thy care : 
 
 No woman I have kidnapped, understand ! 
 
 But good hard toil has done it : here I come ! 
 
 Some day, who knows ? even thou wilt praise the feat ! 
 
 Admetos raised his face and eyed the pair : 
 Then, hollowly and with submission, spoke, 
 And spoke again, and spoke time after time, 
 When he perceived the silence of his friend
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 123 
 
 Would not be broken by consenting word. 
 As a tired slave goes adding stone to stone 
 Until he stop some current that molests. 
 So poor Admetos piled up argument 
 Vainly against the purpose, all too plain 
 In that great brow acquainted with command. 
 
 " Nowise dishonoring, nor 'mid my foes 
 Ranking thee, did I hide my wife's ill fate. 
 But it were grief superimposed on grief, 
 Should'st thou have hastened to another home. 
 My own woe was enough for me to weep ! 
 But, for this woman, if it so may be, 
 Bid some Thessalian, I entreat thee, king ! 
 Keep her, who has not suffered like myself! 
 Many of the Pheraioi welcome thee ! 
 Be no reminder to me of my ills ! 
 I could not, if I saw her come to live, 
 Restrain the tear ! Inflict on me, diseased, 
 No new disease : woe bends me down enough ! 
 Then, where could she be sheltered in my house,
 
 124 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Female and young too ? For that she is young, 
 
 The vesture and adornment prove. Reflect ! 
 
 Should such an one inhabit the same roof 
 
 With men ? And how, mixed up, a girl, with youths, 
 
 Shall she keep pure, in that case ? No light task 
 
 To curb the May-day youngster, Herakles ! 
 
 I only speak because of care for thee ! 
 
 Or must I, in avoidance of such harm, 
 
 Make her to enter, lead her life within 
 
 The chamber of the dead one, all apart ? 
 
 How shall I introduce this other couch, 
 
 This where Alkestis lay ? A double blame 
 
 I apprehend : first, from the citizens 
 
 Lest some tongue of them taunt that I betray 
 
 My benefactress, fall into the snare 
 
 Of a new fresh face : then, the dead one's self, 
 
 Will she not blame me likewise ? Worthy, sure, 
 
 Of worship from me ! circumspect, my ways, 
 
 And jealous of a fault, are bound to be. 
 
 But thou, O woman ! whosoe'er thou art, 
 
 Know, thou hast all the form, art like as like
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 125 
 
 Alkestis, in the bodily shape ! Ah, me ! 
 
 Take, by the gods ! this woman from my sight. 
 
 Lest thou undo me, the undone before ! 
 
 Since I seem seeing her as if I saw 
 
 My own wife ! And confusions cloud my heart, 
 
 And from my eyes the springs break forth ! Ah, me 
 
 Unhappy ! how I taste for the first time 
 
 My miser)' in all its bitterness ! " 
 
 Whereat the friends conferred : " The chance, in truth, 
 
 Was an untoward one none said otherwise. 
 
 Still, what a god comes giving, good or bad, 
 
 That, one should take and bear with. Take her. then ! " 
 
 Herakles, not unfastening his hold 
 On that same misery, beyond mistake 
 Hoarse in the words, convulsive in the face, 
 " I would that I had such a power," said he, 
 " As to lead up into the light again . 
 
 Thy very wife, and grant thee such a grace ! "
 
 126 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 " Well do I know thou would'st : but where the hope ? 
 There is no bringing back the dead to light." 
 
 " Be not extravagant in grief, no less ! 
 Bear it, by augury of better things ! " 
 
 " 'Tis easier to advise ' bear up,' than bear ! " 
 
 " But how carve way i' the life that lies before, 
 If bent on groaning ever for the past ? " 
 
 " I myself know that : but a certain love 
 Allures me to the choice I shall not change." 
 
 " Ay, but, still loving dead ones, still makes weep ! ' ; 
 
 " And let it be so ! She has ruined me, 
 And still more than I say : that answers all." 
 
 " Oh, thou hast lost a brave wife ! who disputes ? "
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 127 
 
 " So brave a one that he whom thou behold'st 
 Will never more enjoy his life again ! " 
 
 " Time will assuage ! The evil yet is young ! " 
 
 " Time, thou may'st say, will ; if time mean to die." 
 
 ' A wife the longing for new marriage-joys 
 Will stop thy sorrow ! " 
 
 " Hush, friend, hold thy peace ! 
 What hast thou said ! I could not credit ear ! " 
 
 " How then ? Thou wilt not marry, then, but keep 
 A widowed couch ? " 
 
 " There is not any one 
 Of womankind shall couch with whom thou seest ! " 
 
 " Dost think to profit thus in any way 
 The dead one ? " 
 
 " Her, wherever she abide, 
 My duty is to honor."
 
 128 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 " And I praise 
 
 Indeed I praise thee ! Still, thou hast to pay 
 The price of it, in being held a fool ! " 
 
 " Fool call me only one name call me not ! 
 Bridegroom ! " 
 
 " No : it was praise, I portioned thee, 
 Of being good true husband to thy wife ! " 
 
 ' When I betray her though she is no more, 
 May I die ! " 
 
 And the thing he said was true ; 
 For out of Herakles a great glow broke. 
 There stood a victor worthy of a prize : 
 The violet-crown that withers on the brow 
 Of the half-hearted claimant. Oh, he knew 
 The signs of battle hard fought and well won, 
 This queller of the monsters ! knew his friend 
 Planted firm foot, now, on the loathly thing 
 That was Admetos late ! " would die," he knew, 
 Ere let the reptile raise its crest again.
 
 BALAUSTIOK'S ADVENTURE. 129 
 
 If that was truth, why try the true friend more ? 
 
 " Then, since thou canst be faithful to the death, 
 Take, deep into thy house, my dame ! " smiled he. 
 
 " Not so ! I pray, by thy Progenitor ! " 
 " Thou wilt mistake in disobeying me ! " 
 " Obeying thee, I have to break my heart ! " 
 
 " Obey me ! Who knows but the favor done 
 May fall into its place as duty too ? " 
 
 So, he was humble, would decline no more 
 Bearing a burden : he just sighed, " Alas ! 
 Wouldst thou hadst never brought this prize from game ! " 
 
 '' Yet, when I conquered there, thou conqueredst ! " 
 " All excellently urged 1 Yet spite of all.
 
 T30 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Bear with me ! let the woman go away ! " 
 
 " She shall go, if needs must: but ere she go, 
 See if there is need ! " 
 
 " Need there is ! At least, 
 Except I make thee angry with me, so ! " 
 
 " But I persist, because I have my spice 
 Of intuition likewise : take the dame 1 " 
 
 " Be thou the victor, then ! But certainly 
 Thou dost thy friend no pleasure in the act ! " 
 
 " Oh, time will come when thou shall praise me ! 
 
 Now 
 Only obey ! " 
 
 " Then, servants, since my house 
 Must needs receive this woman, take her there ! " 
 
 " I shall not trust this woman to the care 
 Of servants."
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 131 
 
 " Why, conduct her in thyself, 
 If that seem preferable ! " 
 
 " I prefer, 
 With thy good leave, to place her in thy hands ! " 
 
 " I would not touch her ! Entry to the house 
 That, I concede thee." 
 
 " To thy sole right-hand, 
 I mean to trust her ! " 
 
 " King ! Thou wrenchest this 
 Out of me by main force, if I submit ! " 
 
 " Courage, friend ! Come, stretch hand forth ! Good ! 
 
 Now touch 
 The stranger-woman ! " 
 
 " There ! A hand I stretch 
 
 \s though it meant to cut off Gorgon's head ! " 
 
 " Hast hold of her ? " 
 
 "Fast hold." 
 
 " Why, then, hold fast 
 And have her ! and, one day, asseverate
 
 132 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Thou wilt, I think, thy friend, the son of Zeus, 
 He was the gentle guest to entertain ! 
 Look at her ! See if she, in any way, 
 Present thee with resemblance of thy wife ! 
 
 Ah, but the tears come, find the words at fault ! 
 There is no telling how the hero twitched 
 The veil off : and there stood, with such fixed eyes 
 And such slow smile, Alkestis' silent self ! 
 It was the crowning grace of that great heart, 
 To keep back joy: procrastinate the truth 
 Until the wife, who had made proof and found 
 The husband wanting, might essay once more, 
 Hear, see, and feel him renovated now 
 Able to do, now, all herself had done, 
 Risen to the height of her : so, hand in hand, 
 The two might go together, live and die. 
 
 Beside, when he found speech, you guess the speech. 
 He could not think he saw his wife again : 
 It was some mocking god that used the bliss
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 133 
 
 To make him mad ! Till Herakles must help : 
 
 Assure him that no spectre mocked at all ; 
 
 He was embracing whom he buried once. 
 
 Still, did he touch, might he address the true, 
 
 True eye, true body, of the true live wife ? 
 
 And Herakles said, smiling " All was truth. 
 
 Spectre ? Admetos had not made his guest 
 
 One who played ghost-invoker, or such cheat ! 
 
 Oh, he might speak and have response, in time ! 
 
 All heart could wish was gained now life for death: 
 
 Only, the rapture must not grow immense : 
 
 Take care, nor wake the envy of the gods ! " 
 
 " O thou, of greatest Zeus true son ! " so spoke 
 Admetos when the closing word must come, 
 " Go ever in a glory of success, 
 And save, that sire, his offspring to the end ! 
 For thou hast only thou raised me and mine 
 Up again to this light and life ! " Then asked 
 Tremblingly, how was -trod the perilous path
 
 134 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Out of the dark into the light and life : 
 How it had happened with Alkestis there. 
 
 And Herakles said little, but enough 
 
 How he engaged in combat with that king 
 
 O' the demons : how the field of contest lay 
 
 By the tomb's self : how he sprang from ambuscade, 
 
 Captured Death, caught him in that pair of hands. 
 
 But all the time, Alkestis moved not once 
 Out of the set gaze and the silent smile ; 
 And a cold fear ran through Admetos' frame : 
 " Why does she stand and front me, silent thus ? " 
 
 Herakles solemnly replied, " Not yet 
 
 Is it allowable thou hear the things 
 
 She has to tell thee : let evanish quite 
 
 That consecration to the lower gods, 
 
 And on our upper world the third day rise ! 
 
 Lead her in, meanwhile ; good and true thou art, 
 
 Good, true, remain thou ! Practise piety
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 135 
 
 To stranger-guests the old way ! So, farewell ! 
 Since forth I fare, fulfil my urgent task 
 Set by the king, the son of Sthenelos." 
 Fain would Admetos keep that splendid smile 
 Ever to light him. " Stay with us, thou heart ! 
 Remain our house-friend ! " 
 
 " At some other day ! 
 Now, of necessity, I haste ! " smiled he. 
 
 " But may'st thou prosper, go forth on a foot 
 Sure to return ! Through all the tetrarchy, 
 Command my subjects that they institute 
 Thanksgiving-dances for the glad event, 
 And bid each altar smoke with sacrifice ! 
 For we are minded to begin a fresh 
 Existence, better than the life before ; 
 Seeing, I own myself supremely blest." 
 
 Whereupon all the friendly moralists 
 
 Drew this conclusion : chirped, each beard to each : 
 
 " Manifold are thy shapings, Providence !
 
 136 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE, 
 
 Many a hopeless matter gods arrange. 
 
 What we expected, never came to pass : 
 
 What we did not expect, gods brought to bear ; 
 
 So have things gone, this whole experience through J " 
 
 Ah, but if you had seen the play itself! 
 
 They say, my poet failed to get the prize : 
 
 Sophokles got the prize-, great name ! They say, 
 
 Sophokles also means to make a piece, 
 
 Model a new Admetos, a new wife : 
 
 Success to him ! One thing has many sides. 
 
 The great name ! But no good supplants a good, 
 
 Nor beauty undoes beauty. Sophokles 
 
 Will carve and carry a fresh cup, brimful 
 
 Of beauty and good, firm to the altar-foot, 
 
 And glorify the Dionusiac shrine : 
 
 Not clash against this crater, in the place 
 
 Where the god put it when his mouth had drained,
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 137 
 
 To the last dregs, libation life-blood-like, 
 
 A nd praised Euripides for evermore 
 
 T/ie Human with his droppings of warm tears. 
 
 Still, since one thing may have so many sides, 
 
 I think I see how, far from Sophokles, 
 
 You, I, or any one, might mould a new 
 
 Admetos, new Alkestis. Ah, that brave 
 
 Bounty of poets, the one royal race 
 
 That ever was, or will be, in this world ! 
 
 They give no gift that bounds itself, and ends 
 
 I' the giving and the taking : theirs so breeds 
 
 I' the heart and soul o' the taker, so transmutes 
 
 The man who only was a man before, 
 
 That he grows god-like in his turn, can give 
 
 He also : share the poet's privilege, 
 
 Bring forth new good, new beauty, from the old. 
 
 As though the cup that gave the wine, gave, too, 
 
 The god's prolific giver of the grape, 
 
 That vine, was wont to find out, fawn around 
 
 His footstep, springing still to bless the dearth.
 
 138 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 A-t bidding of a Mainad. So with me : 
 For I have drunk this poem, quenched my thirst, 
 Satisfied heart and soul yet more remains ! 
 Could we too make a poem ? Try at least, 
 Inside the head, what shape the rose-mists take ! 
 
 When God Apollon took, for punishment, 
 A mortal form, and sold himself a slave 
 To King Admetos till a term should end, 
 Not only did he make, in servitude, 
 Such music, while he fed the flocks and herds, 
 As saved the pasturage from wrong or fright, 
 Curing rough creatures of ungentleness: 
 Much more did that melodious wisdom work 
 Within the heart o' the master : there, ran wild 
 Many a lust and greed that grow to strength 
 By preying on the native pity and care, 
 Would else, all undisturbed, possess the land. 
 
 And these, the god so tamed, with golden tongue, 
 That, in the plenitude of youth and power,
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 139 
 
 Admetos vowed himself to rule thenceforth 
 In Pherai solely for his people's sake, 
 Subduing to such end each lust and greed 
 That dominates the natural charity. 
 
 And so the struggle ended. Right ruled might : 
 
 And soft yet brave, and good yet wise, the man 
 
 Stood up to be a monarch ; having learned 
 
 The worth of life, life's worth would he bestow 
 
 On all whose lot was cast, to live or die, 
 
 As he determined for the multitude. 
 
 So stands a statue : pedestalled sublime, 
 
 Only that it may wave the thunder off, 
 
 And ward, from winds that vex, a world below. 
 
 And then, as if a whisper found its way 
 
 E'en to the sense o' the marble, " Vain thy vow ! 
 
 The royalty of its resolve, that head 
 
 Shall hide within the dust ere day be done : 
 
 That arm, its outstretch of beneficence, 
 
 Shall have a speedy ending on the earth :
 
 140 BALAUSTION'S ADVEiVTURE. 
 
 Lie patient, prone, while light some cricket leaps 
 
 And takes possession of the masterpiece, 
 
 To sit, sing louder as more near the sun. 
 
 For why ? A flaw was in the pedestal ; 
 
 Who knows ? A worm's work ! Sapped, the certain 
 
 fate 
 
 O' the statue is to fall, and thine to die ! " 
 Whereat the monarch, calm, addressed himself 
 To die, but bitterly the soul outbroke 
 " O prodigality of life, blind waste 
 I' the world, of power profuse without the will 
 To make life do its work, deserve its day ! 
 My ancestors pursued their pleasure, poured 
 The blood o' the people out in idle war, 
 Or took occasion of some weary peace 
 To bid men dig down deep or build up high, 
 Spend bone and marrow that the king might feast 
 Intrenched and buttressed from the vulgar gaze. 
 Yet they all lived, nay, lingered to old age : 
 As though Zeus loved that they should laugh to scorn 
 The vanity of seeking other ends,
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. l< 
 
 In rule, than just the ruler's pastime. They 
 Lived ^ I must die." 
 
 And, as some long last moan 
 Of a minor suddenly is propped beneath 
 By note which, new-struck, turns the wail, that was, 
 Into a wonder and a triumph, so 
 Began Alkestis : " Nay, thou art to live ! 
 The glory that, in the disguise of flesh, 
 Was helpful to our house, he prophesied 
 The coming fate : whereon, I pleaded sore 
 That he, I guessed a god, who to his couch 
 Amid the clouds must go and come again, 
 
 While we were darkling, since he loved us both, 
 
 v, 
 
 He should permit thee, at whatever price, 
 To live and carry out to heart's content 
 Soul's purpose, turn each thought to very deed, 
 Nor let Zeus lose the monarch meant in thee. 
 
 To which Apollon, with a sunset smile, 
 Sadly 'And so should mortals arbitrate 1
 
 142 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 ' It were unseemly if they aped us gods, 
 And, mindful of our chain of consequence, 
 Lost care of the immediate earthly link : 
 Forewent the comfort of life's little hour, 
 In prospect of some cold abysmal blank 
 Alien eternity, unlike the time 
 They know, and understand to practise with, 
 No, our eternity, no heart's blood, bright 
 And warm outpoured in its behoof, would tinge 
 Never so palely, warm a whit the more ; 
 Whereas retained and treasured left to beat 
 Joyously on, a life's length, in the breast 
 O' the loved and loving, it would throb itself 
 Through, and suffuse the earthly tenement, 
 Transform it, even as your mansion here 
 Is love-transformed into a temple-home 
 Where I, a god, forget the Olumpian glow, 
 I' the feel of human richness like the rose ; 
 Your hopes and fears, so blind and yet so sweet, 
 With death about them. Therefore, well in thee 
 To look, not on eternity, but time :
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 143 
 
 To apprehend that, should Admetos die, 
 All we gods purposed in him dies as sure : 
 That, life's link snapping, all our chain is lost. 
 And yet a mortal glance might pierce, methinks, 
 Deeper into the seeming dark of things, 
 And learn, no fruit, man's life can bear, will fade : 
 Learn, if Admetos die now, so much more 
 Will pity for the frailness found in flesh, 
 Will terror at the earthly chance and change 
 Frustrating wisest scheme of noblest soul, 
 Will these go wake the seeds of good asleep 
 Throughout the world : as oft a rough wind sheds 
 The unripe promise of some field-flower, true ! 
 But loosens too the level, and lets breathe 
 A thousand captives for the year to come. 
 Nevertheless, obtain thy prayer, stay fate ? 
 Admetos lives if thou wilt die for him ! ' 
 
 So was the pact concluded that I die, 
 And thou live on, live for thyself, for me, 
 For all the world. Embrace and bid me hail,
 
 144 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Husband, because I have the victory : 
 
 Am heart, soul, head to foot, one happiness ! " 
 
 Whereto Admetos, in a passionate cry, 
 
 " Never, by that true word Apollon spoke ! 
 
 All the unwise wish is unwished, O wife ! 
 
 Let purposes of Zeus fulfil themselves, 
 
 If not through me, then through some other man ! 
 
 Still, in myself he had a purpose too, 
 
 Inalienably mine, to end with me : 
 
 This purpose that, throughout my earthly life, 
 
 Mine should be mingled and made up with thine, 
 
 And we two prove one force, and play one part, 
 
 And do one thing. Since death divides the pair, 
 
 Tis well that I depart, and thou remain 
 
 Who wast to me as spirit is to flesh : 
 
 Let the flesh perish, be perceived no more, 
 
 So thou, the spirit that informed the flesh, 
 
 Bend yet a while, a very flame above 
 
 The rift I drop into the darkness by, 
 
 And bid remember, flesh and spirit once
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Worked in the world, one body, for man's sake. 
 Never be that abominable show 
 Of passive death, without a quickening life 
 Admetos only, no Alkestis now ! " 
 
 Then she, " O thou Admetos ! must the pile 
 Of truth on truth, which needs but one truth more 
 To tower up in completeness, trophy-like, 
 Emprize of man, and triumph of the world, 
 Must it go ever to the ground again 
 Because of some faint heart or faltering hand, 
 Which we, that breathless world about the base, 
 Trusted should carry safe to altitude, 
 Superimpose o' the summit our supreme 
 Achievement, our victorious coping-stone ? 
 Shall thine, Beloved, prove the hand and heart 
 That fail again, flinch backward at the truth 
 Would cap and crown the structure this last time, 
 Precipitate our monumental hope 
 To strew the earth ignobly yet once more ? 
 See how, truth piled on truth, the structure wants, 
 7
 
 146 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Waits just the crowning truth I claim of thee ! 
 
 Wouldst thou, for any joy to be enjoyed, 
 
 For any sorrow that thou mightst escape, 
 
 Unwill thy will to reign a righteous king ? 
 
 Nowise ! And were there two lots, death and life, - 
 
 Life, wherein good resolve should go to air, 
 
 Death, whereby finest fancy grew plain fact 
 
 J' the reign of thy survivor, life or death ? 
 
 Certainly death, thou choosest. Here stand I 
 
 The wedded, the beloved : hadst thou loved 
 
 One who less worthily could estimate 
 
 Both life and death than thou ? Not so should say 
 
 Admetos, who Apollon made come court 
 
 Alkestis in a car, submissive brutes 
 
 Of blood were yoked to, symbolizing soul 
 
 Must dominate unruly sense in man. 
 
 Then shall Admetos and Alkestis see 
 
 Good alike, and alike choose, each for each, 
 
 Good, and yet, each for the other, at the last, 
 
 Choose evil ? What ? thou soundest in my soul 
 
 To depths below the deepest, readiest good
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 147 
 
 In evil, that makes evil good again, 
 And so allottest to me that I live 
 And not die letting die, not thee alone, 
 But all true life that lived in both of us ? 
 Look at me once ere thou decree the lot 1 " 
 
 Therewith her whole soul entered into his, 
 He looked the look back, and Alkestis died. 
 
 t '.':,!> 
 
 And even while it lay, i' the look cjf him, 
 Dead, the dimmed body, bright Alkestis' soul 
 Had penetrated through the populace 
 Of ghosts, was got to Kore, throned and crowned 
 The pensive queen o' the twilight, where she dwells 
 Forever in a muse, but half away 
 From flowery earth she lost and hankers for, 
 And there demanded to become a ghost 
 Before the time. 
 
 Whereat the softened eyes 
 Of the lost maidenhood that lingered still
 
 C4 BALAUSTION^S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Straying among the flowers in Sicily, 
 Sudden was startled back to Hades' throne, 
 By that demand : broke through humanity 
 Into the orbed omniscience of a god, 
 Searched at a glance Alkestis to the soul, 
 And said while a long slow sigh lost itself 
 I' the hard and hollow passage of a laugh : 
 
 " Hence, thou deceiver ! This is not to die, 
 
 If, by the very death which mocks me now, 
 
 The life, that's left behind and past my power, 
 
 Is formidably doubled. Say, there fight 
 
 Two athletes, side by side, each athlete armed 
 
 With only half the weapons, and no more, 
 
 Adequate to a contest with their foe : 
 
 If one of these should fling helm, sword, and shield 
 
 To fellow shieldless, swordless, helmless late 
 
 And so leap naked o'er the barrier, leave 
 
 A combatant equipped from head to heel 
 
 Vet cry to the other side, ' Receive a friend
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 149 
 
 Who fights no longer ! ' ' Back, friend, to the fray ! ' 
 Would be the prompt rebuff; I echo it. 
 Two souls in one were formidable odds : 
 Admetos must not be himself and thou ! " 
 
 And so, before the embrace relaxed a whit, 
 The lost eyes opened, still beneath the look ; 
 And lo, Alkestis was alive again, 
 And of Admetos' rapture who shall speak ? 
 
 So, the two lived together long and well. 
 But never could I learn, by word of scribe 
 Or voice of poet, rumor wafts our way, 
 That, of the scheme of rule in righteousness, 
 The bringing back again the Golden Age, 
 Our couple, rather than renounce, would die 
 Ever one first faint particle came true, 
 With both alive to bring it to effect : 
 
 x- 
 
 Such is the envy gods still bear mankind ! 
 So might our version of the story prove,
 
 ISO BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 And no Euripidean pathos plague 
 Too much my critic-friend of Syracuse. 
 
 '* Besides your poem failed to get the prize : 
 (That is, the first prize : second prize is none.) 
 Sophokles got it ! " Honor the great name ! 
 All cannot love two great names ; yet some do 
 I know the poetess who graved in gold, 
 Among her glories that shall never fade, 
 This style and title for Euripides, 
 The Human with his droppings of warm tears. 
 
 I know, too, a great Kaunian painter, strong 
 As Herakles, though rosy with a robe 
 Of grace that softens down the sinewy strength : 
 And he has made a picture of it all. 
 There lies Alkestis dead, beneath the sun, 
 She longed to look her last upon, beside 
 The sea, which somehow tempts the life in us 
 To come trip over its white waste of waves, 
 And try escape from earth, and fleet as free.
 
 BALAUSTION'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 Behind the body, I suppose there bends 
 Old Pheres in his hoary impotence ; . ' 
 And women-wailers, in a corner crouch 
 
 Four, beautiful as you four yes, indeed ! 
 Close, each to other, agonizing all, 
 
 As fastened, in fear's rhythmic sympathy, 
 
 To two contending opposite. There strains 
 
 
 The might o' the hero 'gainst his more than match, 
 
 Death, dreadful not in thew and bone, but like 
 The envenomed substance that exudes some dew, 
 Whereby the merely honest flesh and blood 
 
 Will fester up and run to ruin straight, 
 
 Ere they can close with, clasp and overcome 
 
 The poisonous impalpability 
 
 That simulates a form beneath the flow 
 
 Of those gray garments ; I pronounce that piece 
 
 Worthy to set up in our Poikil ! 
 
 
 And all came, glory of the golden verse, 
 
 And passion of the picture, and that fine 
 Frank ourgush of the human gratitude
 
 152 BALAUSTION'S ADVEN7URE. 
 
 Which saved our ship and me, in Syracuse, 
 Ay, and the tear or two which slipt perhaps 
 Away from you, friends, while I told my tale, 
 It all came of this play that gained no prize ! 
 Why crown whom Zeus has crowned in soul before ?
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY: 
 
 INCLUDING 
 
 A TRANSCRIPT FROM EURIPIDES, 
 
 BEING THE 
 
 LAST ADVENTURE OF BALAUSTION.
 
 owe eaOu KEvj3pei' dnorav (5e dvyi; n, ;coAi /j.e. 
 
 I eat no carrion ; when you sacrifice 
 
 Some cleanly creature call me for a slice !
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 WIND, wave, and bark, bear Euthukles and me, 
 Balaustion, from not sorrow but despair. 
 Not memory but the present and its pang! 
 Athenai, live thou hearted in my heart : 
 Never, while I live, may I see thee more, 
 Never again may these repugnant orbs 
 Ache themselves blind before the hideous pomp, 
 The ghastly mirth which mocked thine overthrow 
 Death's entry, Haides' outrage ! 
 
 Doomed to die, 
 
 Fire should have flung a passion of embrace 
 About thee till, resplendently inarmed, 
 (Temple by temple folded to his breast, 
 All thy white wonder fainting out in ash)
 
 156 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Some vaporous sigh of soul had lightly 'scaped, 
 
 And so the Immortals bade Athenai back ! 
 
 Or earth might sunder and absorb thee, save, 
 
 Buried below Olumpos and its gods, 
 
 Akropolis to dominate her realm 
 
 For Kore, and console the ghosts ; or, sea, 
 
 What if thy watery plural vastitude, 
 
 Rolling unanimous advance, had rushed, i 
 
 Might upon might, a moment, stood, one stare, 
 
 Sea-face to city-face, thy glaucous wave 
 
 Glassing that marbled last magnificence, 
 
 Till fate's pale tremulous foam-flower tipped the gray, 
 
 And when wave broke and overswarmed and, sucked 
 
 To bounds back, multitudinously ceased, 
 
 And land again breathed unconfused with sea, 
 
 Attike' was, Athenai was not now ! 
 
 Such end I could have borne, for I had shared. 
 But this which, glanced at, aches within my orbs 
 To blinding, bear me thence, bark, wind and wave ! 
 Me, Euthukles, and, hearted in each heart,
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 157 
 
 Athenai, undisgraced as Pallas' self, 
 
 Bear to my birth-place, Helios' island-bride, 
 
 Zeus' darling : thither speed us, homeward-bound, 
 
 Wafted already twelve hours' sail away 
 
 From horror, and a sunset nearer Rhodes ! 
 
 Why should despair be? Since, distinct above 
 
 Man's wickedness and folly, flies the wind 
 
 And floats the cloud, free transport for our soul 
 
 Out of its fleshly durance dim and low, 
 
 Since disembodied soul anticipates 
 
 (Thought-borne as now, in rapturous unrestraint) 
 
 Above all crowding, crystal silentness, 
 
 Above all noise, a silver solitude : 
 
 Surely, where thought so bears soul, soul in time 
 
 May permanently bide, " assert the wise," 
 
 There live in peace, there work in hope once more, 
 
 O nothing doubt, Philemon ! Greed and strife, 
 
 Hatred and cark and care, what place have they 
 
 In yon blue liberality of heaven ? 
 
 How the sea helps ! How rose-smit earth will rise
 
 158 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Breast-high thence, some bright morning, and be 
 
 Rhodes 1 
 
 Heaven, earth and sea, my warrant in their name, 
 Believe o'er falsehood, truth is surely sphered, 
 O'er ugliness beams beauty, o'er this world 
 Extends that realm where, "as the wise assert," 
 Philemon, thou shalt see Euripides 
 Clearer than mortal sense perceived the man ! 
 A sunset nearer Rhodes, by twelve hours' sweep 
 Of surge secured from horror? Rather say, 
 Quieted out of weakness into strength. 
 I dare invite, survey the scene my sense 
 Staggered to apprehend : for, disenvolved 
 From the mere outside anguish and contempt, 
 Slowly a justice centred in a doom 
 Reveals itself. Ay, pride succumbed to pride, 
 Oppression met the oppressor and its match. 
 Athenai's vaunt braved Spartd's violence 
 Till, in the shock, prone fell Peiraios, low 
 Rampart and bulwark lay, as, timing stroke 
 Of hammer, axe, beam hoist and poised and swung,
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 159 
 
 The very flute-girls blew their laughing best, 
 
 In dance about the conqueror while he bade 
 
 Music and merriment help enginery 
 
 Batter down, break to pieces all their trust, 
 
 Those citizens once, slaves now. See what walls 
 
 Play substitute for the long double range 
 
 Themistoklean, heralding a guest 
 
 From harbor on to citadel ! Each side 
 
 The senseless walls demolished stone by stone, 
 
 See, outer wall as stonelike, heads and hearts, 
 
 Athenai's terror-stricken populace ! 
 
 Prattlers, tongue-tied in crouching abjectness, 
 
 Braggarts, who wring hands wont to flourish swords 
 
 Sophist and rhetorician, demagogue, 
 
 (Argument dumb, authority a jest) 
 
 Dikast and heliast, pleader, litigant, 
 
 Quack-priest, sham-prophecy-retailer, scout 
 
 O' the customs, sycophant, whate'er the style, 
 
 Altar-scrap-snatcher, pimp and parasite, 
 
 Rivalities at truce now each with each. 
 
 Stupefied mud-banks, that's the use they serve !
 
 160 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 While the one order which performs exact 
 To promise, functions faithful last as first, , 
 What is it but the city's lyric troop, 
 Chantress and psaltress, flute-girl, dancing-girl ? 
 Athenai's harlotry takes laughing care 
 Their patron miss no pipings, late she loved, 
 But deathward tread at least the kordax-step. 
 
 Die then, who pulled such glory on your heads ! 
 There let it grind to powder ! Perikles ! 
 The living are the dead now : death be life ! 
 Why should the sunset yonder waste its wealth? 
 Prove thee Olympian ! If my heart supply 
 Inviolate the structure, true to type, 
 Build me some spirit-place no flesh shall find, 
 As Pheidias may inspire thee ; slab on slab, 
 Renew Athenai, quarry out the cloud, 
 Convert to gold yon west extravagance ! 
 'Neath Propulaia, from Akropolis 
 By vapory grade and grade, gold all the way, 
 Step to thy snow-Pnux, mount thy Bema-cloud,
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 161 
 
 Thunder and lighten thence a Hellas through 
 
 That shall be better and more beautiful 
 
 And too august for Sparta's foot to spurn ! 
 
 Chasmed in the crag, again our Theatre 
 
 Predominates, one purple : Staghunt-month, 
 
 Brings it not Dionusia ? Hail, the Three ! 
 
 Aischulos, Sophokles, Euripides 
 
 Compete, gain prize or lose prize, godlike still. 
 
 Nay, lest they lack the old god-exercise 
 
 Their noble want the unworthy, as of old, 
 
 (How otherwise should patience crown their might ?) 
 
 What if each find his ape promoted man, 
 
 His censor raised for antic service still ? 
 
 Some new Hermippos to pelt Perikles, 
 
 Kratinos to swear Pheidias robbed a shrine, 
 
 Eruxis I suspect, Euripides, 
 
 No brow will ache because with mop and mow 
 
 He gibes my poet? There's a clog-faced dwarf/ 
 
 That gets to godship somehow, yet retains 
 
 His apehood in the Egyptian hierarchy, 
 
 More decent yet indecorous enough :
 
 162 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Why should not dog-ape, graced in due degree, 
 Grow Momos as thou Zeus ? Or didst thou 
 
 sigh 
 
 Rightly with thy Makaria ? " After life, 
 Better no sentiency than turbulence ; 
 Death cures the low contention." Be it so ! 
 Yet progress means contention, to my mind. 
 
 Euthukles, who, except a love that speaks, 
 Art silent by my side while words of mine 
 Provoke that foe from which escape were vain 
 Henceforward, wake Athenai's fate^ and fall, 
 Do I amiss, who wanting strength use craft, 
 Advance upon the foe I cannot fly, 
 Nor feign a snake is dormant though it gnaw ? 
 That fate and fall, once bedded in our brain, 
 Roots itself past upwrenching ; but coaxed forth 
 Encouraged out to practise fork and fang, 
 Possibly, satiate with prompt sustenance, 
 It may pine off far likelier than left swell 
 In peace by our pretension to ignore,
 
 ARISTOPHANES' 1 APOLOGY. 163 
 
 Oi pricked to threefold fury, should our stamp 
 Bruise and not brain the pest. 
 
 A middle course. 
 
 What hinders that we treat this tragic theme 
 As the Three taught when either woke some 
 
 woe, 
 
 How Klutaimnestra hated, what the pride 
 Of lokaste', why Medeia clove 
 Nature asunder. Small rebuked by large, 
 We felt our puny hates refine to air, 
 Our prides as poor prevent the humbling hand, 
 Our petty passion purify its tide. 
 So, Euthukles, permit the tragedy 
 To re-enact itself, this voyage through, 
 Till sunsets end and sunrise brighten Rhodes ! 
 Majestic on the stage of memory, 
 Peplosed and kothorned, let Athenai fall 
 Once more, nay, oft again till life conclude, 
 Lent for the lesson : Choros, I and thou, 
 What else in life seems piteous any more
 
 164 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 After such pity, or proves terrible 
 Beside such terror? 
 
 Still since I'hrunichos 
 Offended, by too premature a touch 
 Of that Milesian smart-place freshly frayed 
 (Ah, my poor people, whose prompt remedy 
 Was fine the poet, not reform thyself!) 
 Beware precipitate approach ! Rehearse 
 Rather the prologue, well a year away, 
 Than the main misery, a sunset old. 
 What else but fitting prologue to the piece 
 Style an adventure, stranger than my first 
 By so much as the issue it enwombed 
 Lurked big beyond Balaustion's littleness? 
 Second supreme adventure ! O that Spring, 
 That eve I told the earlier to my friends ! 
 Where are the four now, with each red-ripe mouth 
 Crumpled so close, no quickest breath it fetched 
 Could disengage the lip-flower furled to bud 
 For fear Admetos, shivering head and foot,
 
 ARISTOPHANES 1 APOLOGY. 165 
 
 As with sick soul and blind averted face 
 
 He trusted hand forth to obey his friend, 
 
 Should find no wife in her cold hand's response, 
 
 Nor see the disenshrouded statue start 
 
 Alkestis, live the life and love the love ! 
 
 I wonder, does the streamlet ripple still, 
 
 Out-smoothing galingal and watermint 
 
 Its mat-floor? while at brim, 'twixt sedge and sedge, 
 
 What bubblings past Baccheion, broadened much, 
 
 Pricked by the reed and fretted by the fly, 
 
 Oared by the boatman-spider's pair of arms ! 
 
 Lenaia was a gladsome month ago 
 
 Euripides had taught " Andromede' : " 
 
 Next month, would teach " Kresphontes " which 
 
 same month, 
 
 Some one from Phokis, who companioned me 
 Since all that happened on those temple-steps, 
 Would marry me and turn Athenian too. 
 Now! if next year the masters let the slaves 
 Do Bacchic service and restore mankind 
 That trilogy whereof, 'tis noised, one play
 
 1 66 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Presents the Bacchai, no Euripides 
 Will teach the chores, nor shall we be tinged 
 By any such grand sunset of his soul, 
 Exiles from dead Athenai, not the new 
 That's in the cloud there with the star above ! 
 
 Speak to the infinite intelligence, 
 
 Sing to the everlasting sympathy! 
 
 Winds belly sail, and drench of dancing brine 
 
 Buffet our boat-side, so the prore bound free ' 
 
 Condense our voyage into one great day 
 
 Made up of sunset-closes : eve by eve, 
 
 Resume that memorable night-discourse 
 
 When, like some meteor-brilliance, fire and filth, 
 
 Or say, his own Amphitheos, deity 
 
 And dung, who, bound on the gods' embassage, 
 
 Got men's acknowledgment in kick and cuff 
 
 We made acquaintance with a visitor 
 
 Ominous, apparitional, who went 
 
 Strange as he came, but shall not pass away. 
 
 Let us attempt that memorable talk,
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 167 
 
 Clothe the adventure's every incident 
 With due expression : may not looks be told, 
 Gesture made speak, and speech so amplified 
 That words find blood-warmth which, cold-writ, they 
 lose ? 
 
 Recall the night we heard the news from Thrace, 
 One year ago, Athenai still herself. 
 
 We .two were sitting silent in the house, 
 Yet cheerless hardly. Euthukles, forgive ! 
 I somehow speak to unseen auditors. 
 Not you, but Euthukles had entered, grave, 
 Grand, may I say, as who brings laurel-branch 
 And message from the tripod : such it proved. 
 
 He first removed the garland from his brow, 
 Then took my hand and looked into my face. 
 " Speak good words ! " much misgiving faltered I. 
 
 ' Good words, the best, Balaustion ! He is crowned, 
 Gone with his Attic iv*' home to feast,
 
 1 68 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Since Aischulos required companionship. 
 Pour a libation for Euripides ! " 
 
 When we had sat the heavier silence out 
 
 " Dead and triumphant still ! " began reply 
 
 To my eye's question. " As he willed, he worked : 
 
 And, as he worked, he wanted not, be sure, 
 
 Triumph his whole life through, submitting work 
 
 To work's right judges, never to the wrong, 
 
 To competency, not ineptitude. 
 
 When he had run life's proper race and worked 
 
 Quite to the stade's end, there remained to try 
 
 Its turning, should strength dare the double course. 
 
 Half the diaulos reached, the hundred plays 
 
 Accomplished, force in its rebound sufficed 
 
 To lift along the athlete and insure 
 
 A second wreath, proposed by fools for first, 
 
 The statist's olive as the poet's bay. 
 
 Wiselier, he suffered not confuse his sight, 
 
 Retard his pace a twofold aim, at once 
 
 Poet arid statist ; though the multitude
 
 ARISTOPHANES 1 APOLOGY. 169 
 
 Girded him ever ' All thine aim thine art ? 
 
 The idle poet only ? No regard 
 
 For civic duty, public sendee, here ? 
 
 We drop our ballot-bean for Sophokles ! 
 
 Not only could he write " Antigone," 
 
 But since, we argued, whoso penned that piece 
 
 Might just as well conduct a squadron, straight 
 
 Good-naturedly he took on him command, 
 
 Got laughed at and went back to making plays, 
 
 Having allowed us our experiment 
 
 Respecting the fit use of faculty.' 
 
 No whit the more did athlete slacken pace. 
 
 Soon the jeers grew : ' Cold hater of his kind, 
 
 A sea-cave suits him, not the vulgar hearth ! 
 
 What need of tongue-talk, with a bookish store 
 
 Would stock ten cities ? ' Shadow of an ass ! 
 
 No whit the worse did athlete touch the mark, 
 
 And, at the turning-point, consign his scorn 
 
 O' the scorners to that final trilogy 
 
 'Hupsipule,' ' Phoinissai,' and the Match 
 
 Of Life Contemplative with Active Life,
 
 1 70 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Zethos against Amphion. Ended so ? 
 
 Nowise ! began again ; for heroes rest 
 
 Dropping shield's oval o'er the entire man ; 
 
 And he who thus took Contemplation's prize, 
 
 Turned stade-point but to face Activity. 
 
 Out of all shadowy hands extending help 
 
 For life's decline pledged to youth's enterprise, 
 
 Whatever renovation flatter age, 
 
 Society with pastime, solitude 
 
 With peace, he chose the hand that gave the heart, 
 
 Bade Macedonian Archelaos take 
 
 The leavings of Athenai, ash once flame. 
 
 For fifty politicians' frosty make, 
 
 One poet's ash found ample and to spare, 
 
 He propped the state and filled the treasury: 
 
 Counselled the king as might a meaner soul, 
 
 Furnished the friend with what shall stand in stead 
 
 Of crown and sceptre, star his name about 
 
 When these are dust ; for him, Euripides 
 
 Last the old hand on the old phorminx flung, 
 
 Clashed thence ' Alkaion,' maddened ' Pentheus ' up
 
 ARISTOPHANES* APOLOGY. i/i 
 
 Then music sighed itself away, one moan 
 Iphigeneia made by Aulis' strand ; 
 With her and music died Euripides. 
 
 " The poet-friend who followed him to Thrace, 
 Agathon, wrote thus much : the merchant-ship 
 Moreover brought a message from the king 
 To young Euripides, who went on board 
 This morning at Mounuchia: all is true." 
 
 I said, " Thank Zeus for the great news and good ! " 
 
 "Nay, the report is running in brief fire 
 Through the town's stubbly furrow," he resumed : 
 " Entertains brightly what their favorite styles 
 ' The City of Gapers ' for a week perhaps, 
 Supplants three luminous tales, but yesterday 
 Pronounced sufficient lamps to last the month: 
 How Glauketes, outbidding Morsimos, 
 Paid market-price for one Kopaic eel 
 \ thousand drachmai, and then cooked his prize
 
 172 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Not proper conger-fashion but in oil 
 
 And nettles, as man fries the foam-fish-kind ; 
 
 How all the captains of the triremes, late 
 
 Victors at Arginousai, on return 
 
 Will, for reward, be straightway put to death ; 
 
 How Mikon wagered a Thessalian mime 
 
 Trained him by Lais, looked on as complete, 
 
 Against Leogoras' blood-mare koppa-marked, 
 
 Valued six talents, swore, accomplished so, 
 
 The girl could swallow at a draught, nor breathe, 
 
 A choinix of unmixed Mendesian wine ; 
 
 And having lost the match will dine on herbs ! 
 
 Three stories late a-flame, at once extinct, 
 
 Out-blazed by just ' Euripides is dead ' ! 
 
 " I met the concourse from the Theatre, 
 The audience flocking homeward : victory 
 Again awarded Aristophanes 
 Precisely for his old play chopped and changed 
 'The Female Celebrators of the Feast' 
 That Thesmophoria : tried a second time,
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 173 
 
 ' Never such full success ! ' assured the folk, 
 Who yet stopped praising to have word of mouth 
 With 'Euthukles, the bard's own intimate, 
 Balaustion's husband, the right man to ask.' 
 
 "'Dead, yes, but how dead, may acquaintance know? 
 You were the couple constant at his cave : 
 Tell us now, is it true that women, moved 
 By reason of his liking Krateros ' . . . 
 
 " I answered, ' He was loved by Sokrates.' 
 
 " ' Nay,' said another, ' envy did the work ! 
 For, emulating poets of the place, 
 One Arridaios, one Krateues, both 
 Established in the royal favor, these ' . . . 
 
 " ' Protagoras instructed him,' said I. 
 ' P/iu' whistled Comic Platon, * hear the fact ! 
 Twas well said of your- friend by Sophokles, 
 " He hate our women ? In his verse, belike.
 
 174 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 But when it comes to prose-work, ha, ha, ha!" 
 New climes don't change old manners : so, it 
 
 chanced, 
 
 Pursuing an intrigue one moonless night 
 With Arethousian Nikodikos' wife, 
 (Come now, his years were simply seventy-five) 
 Crossing the palace-court, what haps he on 
 But Archelaos' pack of hungry hounds ? 
 Who tore him piecemeal ere his cry brought help.' 
 
 " I asked : ' Did not you write, " The Festivals " ? 
 
 You best know what dog tore him when alive. 
 
 You others, who now make a ring to hear, 
 
 Have not you just enjoyed a second treat, 
 
 Proclaimed that ne'er was play more worthy prize 
 
 Than this, myself assisted at, last year, 
 
 And gave its worth to, spitting on the same? 
 
 Appraise no poetry, price cuttlefish, 
 
 Or that seaweed-alphestes, scorpion-sort, 
 
 Much famed for mixing mud -with fantasy 
 
 Of midnights ! I interpret no foul dreams."
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 175 
 
 If so said Euthukles, so could not I, 
 Balaustion, say. After " Lusistratd " 
 No more for me of "people's privilege," 
 No witnessing ' the grand old Comedy 
 Coeval with our freedom, which, curtailed, 
 Were freedom's deathblow: relic of the past, 
 When Virtue laughingly told truth to Vice, 
 Uncensured, since the stern mouth, stuffed with 
 
 flowers, 
 
 Through poetry breathed satire, perfumed blast 
 Which sense snuffed up while searched unto the bone!" 
 I was a stranger: "For first joy," urged friends, 
 "Go hear our Comedy, some patriot piece 
 That plies the selfish advocates of war 
 With argument so unevadible 
 That crash fall Kleons whom the finer play 
 Of reason, tickling, deeper wounds no whit 
 Than would a spear-thrust from a savory-stalk ! 
 No: you hear knave and fool told crime and fault, 
 And see each scourged his quantity of stripes. 
 ' Rough dealing, awkward language,' whine our fops :
 
 176 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 The world's too squeamish now to bear plain words 
 
 Concerning deeds it acts with gust enough : 
 
 But, thanks to wine-lees and democracy, 
 
 We've still our stage where truth calls spade a spacie ! 
 
 Ashamed? Phuromachos' decree provides 
 
 The sex may sit discreetly, witness all, 
 
 Sorted, the good with good, the gay with gay, 
 
 Themselves unseen, no need to force a blush. 
 
 A Rhodian wife and ignorant so long? 
 
 Go hear next play!" 
 
 I heard " LusistrateV' 
 
 Waves, said to wash pollution from the world, 
 Take that plague-memory, cure that pustule caught 
 As, past escape, I sat and saw the piece 
 By one appalled at Phaidra's fate, the chaste, 
 Whom, because chaste, the wicked goddess chained 
 To that same serpent of unchastity 
 She loathed most, and who, coiled so, died distraught 
 Rather than make submission, loose one limb 
 Love-wards, at lambency of honeyed tongue, 
 Or torture of the scales which scraped her snow
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 177 
 
 J say, ihe piece by him who charged this piece 
 
 (Because Euripides shrank not to teach, 
 
 If gods be strong and wicked, man, though weak, 
 
 May prove their match by willing to be good) 
 
 With infamies the Scythian's whip should cure 
 
 "Such outrage done the public Phaidra named! 
 
 Such purpose to corrupt ingenuous youth, 
 
 Such insult cast on female character ! " 
 
 Why, when I saw that bestiality 
 
 So beyond all brute-beast imagining, 
 
 That when, to point the moral at the close, 
 
 Poor Salabaccho, just to show how fair 
 
 Was " Reconciliation," stripped her charms, 
 
 That exhibition simply bade us breathe, 
 
 Seemed something healthy and commendable 
 
 After obscenity grotesqued so much 
 
 It slunk away revolted at itself. 
 
 Henceforth I had my answer when our sage 
 
 Pattern-proposing seniors pleaded grave, 
 
 " You fail to fathom here the deep design ! 
 
 All's acted in the interest of truth,
 
 178 AKISTOPHANES 1 APOLOGY. 
 
 Religion, and those manners old and dear 
 Which made our city great when citizens 
 Like Aristeides and Miltiades 
 Wore each a golden tettix in his hair." 
 What do they wear now under Kleophon? 
 
 Well, for such reasons, I am out of breath, 
 
 But loathsomeness we needs must hurry past, 
 
 I did not go to see, nor then nor now, 
 
 The "Thesmophoriazousai." But, since males 
 
 Choose to brave first, blame afterward, nor brand 
 
 Without fair taste of what they stigmatize, 
 
 Euthukles had not missed the first display, 
 
 Original portrait of Euripides 
 
 By " Virtue laughingly reproving Vice : " 
 
 " Virtue," the author, Aristophanes, 
 
 Who mixed an image out of his own depths, 
 
 Ticketed as I tell you. Oh, this time 
 
 No more pretension to recondite worth ! 
 
 No joke in aid of Peace, no demagogue 
 
 Pun-pelleted from Pnux, no kordax-dance
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. *79 
 
 Overt helped covertly the Ancient Faith ! 
 
 All now was muck, home-produce, honestman 
 
 The author's soul secreted to a play 
 
 Which gained the prize that day we heard the death. 
 
 I thought, " How thoroughly death alters things ! 
 Where is the wrong now, done our dead and great ? 
 How natural seems grandeur in relief, 
 Cliff-base with frothy spites against its calm ! ' 
 
 Euthukles interposed he read my thought 
 
 "O'er them, too, in a moment came the change. 
 
 The crowd's enthusiastic, to a man: 
 
 Since, rake as such may please the ordure-heap 
 
 Because of certain sparkles presumed ore, 
 
 At first flash of true lightning overhead, 
 
 They look up, nor resume their search too soon. 
 
 The insect-scattering sign is evident, 
 
 And nowhere winks a fire-fly rival now, 
 
 Nor bustles any beetle of the brood
 
 l8o ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 With trundled dung-ball meant to menace heaven. 
 
 Contrariwise, the cry is, ' Honor him ! ' 
 
 ' A statue in the theatre ! ' wants one ; 
 
 Another, ' Bring tne poet's body back, 
 
 Bury him in Peiraios : o'er his tomb 
 
 Let Alkamenes carve the music-witch, 
 
 The songstress-seiren, meed of melody : 
 
 Thoukudides invent his epitaph ! ' 
 
 To-night the whole town pays its tribute thus." 
 
 Our tribute should not be the same, my friend ! 
 
 Statue ? Within our heart he stood, he stands ! 
 
 As for the vest outgrown now by the form, 
 
 Low flesh that clothed high soul, a vesture's fate 
 
 Why, let it fade, mix with the elements 
 
 There where it, falling, freed Euripides ! 
 
 But for the soul that's tutelary now 
 
 Till time end, o'er the world to teach and bless 
 
 How better hail its freedom than by first 
 
 Singing, we too, its own song back again, 
 
 Up to that face from which flowed beauty face
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. i3l 
 
 Now abler to see triumph and take love 
 Than when it glorified Athenai once ? 
 
 The sweet and strange Alkestis, which saved me, 
 Secured me you, ends nowise, to my mind, 
 In pardon of Admetos. Hearts are fain 
 To follow cheerful weary Herakles 
 Striding away from the huge gratitude, 
 Club shouldered, lion-fleece round loin and flank, 
 Bound on the next new labor "height o'er height 
 Ever surmounting destiny's decree ! " 
 Thither He helps us : that's the story's end ; 
 He smiling said so, when I told him mine 
 My great adventure, how Alkestis helped. 
 Afterward, when the time for parting fell, 
 He gave me, with two other precious gifts, 
 This third and best, consummating the grace, 
 "Herakles," writ by his own hand, each lire. 
 
 " If it have worth, reward is still to seek. 
 Somebody, I forget who, gained the prize
 
 182 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 And proved arch-poet : time must show ! " he smiled : 
 " Take this, and, when the noise tires out, judge me 
 Some day, not slow to dawn, when somebody 
 Who ? I forget proves nobody at all ! " 
 
 Is not that day come ? What if you and I 
 
 Re-sing the song, inaugurate the fame? 
 
 We have not waited to acquaint ourselves 
 
 With song and subject: we can prologuize 
 
 How, at Eurustheus' bidding, hate strained hard, 
 
 Herakles had departed, one time more, 
 
 On his last labor, worst of all the twelve ; 
 
 Descended into Haides, thence to drag 
 
 The triple-headed hound, which sun should see 
 
 Spite of the god whose darkness whelped the Fear. 
 
 Down went the hero, " back how should he come ? " 
 
 So laughed King Lukos, an old enemy, 
 
 Who in that prolonged absence, plain defeat 
 
 Of the land's loved one, for he saved the land 
 
 And for that service wedded Megara 
 
 Daughter of Thebai, realm her child should rule,
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 183 
 
 Saw his occasion, seized the tempting prey, 
 The Heracleiau House, defenceless left, 
 Father and wife and child, to trample out 
 Trace of its hearth-fire : since extreme old age 
 Wakes pity, woman's wrong wins championship, 
 And the child grows the man and takes revenge. 
 Hence see we that, from out their palace-home 
 Hunted, for last resource they cluster now 
 Couched on the cold ground, hapless supplicants 
 About their court-yard altar, Household Zeus, 
 Delaying death so, till deliverance come 
 \^hen did it ever? from the deep and dark. 
 And thus breaks silence old Amphitruon's voice. . . 
 Say I not true thus far, my Euthukles ? 
 
 Suddenly, torchlight ! knocking at the door, 
 
 Loud, quick, " Admittance for the revel's lord ! " 
 
 Some unintelligible Komos-cry 
 
 Raw-flesh red, no cap upon his head, 
 
 Dionusos, Eacchos, Phales, lacchos, 
 
 In let him reel with the kid-skin at his heel,
 
 184 ARISTOPHANES' 1 APOLOGY. 
 
 Where it buries in the spread of the bushy mirtle-bed ! 
 (Our Rhodian Jackdaw-song was sense to that ! ) 
 Then laughter, outbursts ruder and more rude, 
 Through which, with silver point, a fluting pierced, 
 And ever " Open, open, Bacchos bids ! " 
 
 But at last one authoritative word! 
 
 One name of an immense significance : 
 
 For Euthukles rose up, threw wide the door. 
 
 There trooped the Choros of the Comedy 
 
 Crowned and triumphant ; first, those flushed Fiftee^ 
 
 Men that wore women's garb, grotesque disguise. 
 
 Then marched the Three, who played Mnesilochos, 
 
 Who, Toxotes, and who, robed right, masked rare, 
 
 Monkeyed our Great and Dead to heart's content 
 
 That morning in Athenai. Masks were down 
 
 And robes doffed now ; the sole disguise was drink 
 
 Mixing with these I know not what gay crowd, 
 
 Girl-dancers, flute-boys, and pre-eminent 
 
 A.mong them, doubtless draped with such reserve
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 185 
 
 As stopped fear of the fifty-drachma fine 
 
 (Beside one's name on public fig-tree nailed) 
 
 Which women pay who in the streets walk bare, 
 
 Behold Elaphion of the Persic dance ! 
 
 Who lately had frisked fawn-foot, and the rest, 
 
 All for the Patriot Cause, the Antique Faith. 
 
 The Conservation of True Poesy 
 
 Could I but penetrate the deep design ! 
 
 Elaphion, more Peiraios-known as " Phaps," 
 
 Tripped at the head of the whole banquet-band 
 
 Who came in front now, as the first fell back ; 
 
 And foremost the authoritative voice, 
 
 The revel-leader, he who gained the prize, 
 
 And got the glory of the Archon's feast 
 
 There stood in person Aristophanes. 
 
 And no ignoble presence ! On the bulge 
 
 Of the clear baldness, all his head one brow, 
 
 True, the veins swelled, blue network, and there surged 
 
 A red from cheek to temple, then retired 
 
 As if the dark -leaved chaplet damped a flame, 
 
 Was never nursed by temperance or health
 
 186 ARISTOPHANES 1 APOLOGY, 
 
 But huge the eyeballs rolled black native fire, 
 
 Imperiously triumphant : nostrils wide 
 
 Waited their incense ; while the pursed mouth's pout 
 
 Aggressive, while the beak supreme above, 
 
 While the head, face, nay, pillared throat thrown back, 
 
 Beard whitening under like a vinous foam, 
 
 These made a glory, of such insolence 
 
 I thought, such domineering deity 
 
 Hephaistos might have carved to cut the brine 
 
 For his gay brother's prow, imbrue that path 
 
 Which, purpling, recognized the conqueror. 
 
 Impudent and majestic : drunk, perhaps, 
 
 But that's religion ; sense too plainly snuffed : 
 
 Still, sensuality was grown a rite. 
 
 What I had disbelieved most, proved most true. 
 
 There was a mind here, mind a-wantoning 
 
 At ease of undisputed mastery 
 
 Over the body's brood, those appetites. 
 
 Oh, but he grasped them grandly, as the god 
 
 His either struggling handful, hurtless snakes
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 187 
 
 Held deep down, strained hard off from side and side ! 
 
 Master}' his, theirs simply servitude, 
 
 So well could firm fist help intrepid eye. 
 
 Fawning and fulsome, had they licked and hissed? 
 
 At mandate of one muscle, order reigned. 
 
 They had been wreathing much familiar now 
 
 About him on his entry ; but a squeeze 
 
 Choked down the pests to place : their lord stood free 
 
 i y**^ 
 
 Forward he stepped, I rose and fronted him. 
 
 " Hail, house, the friendly to Euripides ! " . 
 
 (So he began) " Hail, each inhabitant ! 
 
 You, lady ? What, the Rhodian ? Form and face, 
 
 Victory's self upsoaring to receive 
 
 The poet? Right they named you . . . some rich 
 
 name, 
 
 Vowel-buds thorned about with consonants, 
 Fragrant, felicitous, rose-glow enriched 
 By the Isle's unguent : some diminished end 
 In ion, Kallistion? delicater still, 
 Kubelion or Melittion, or, suppose,
 
 l88 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 (Less vulgar love than bee or violet) 
 Phibalion, for the mouth split red-fig-wise, 
 Korakinidion, for the coal-black hair, 
 Nettarion, Phabion, for the darlingness ? 
 But no, it was some fruit-flower, Rhoidion . . . ha, 
 We near the balsam-bloom Balaustion ! Thanks, 
 Rhodes ! Folk have called me Rhodian, do you know ? 
 Not fools so far ! Because, if Helios wived, 
 As Pindaros sings somewhere prettily, 
 Here blooms his offspring, earth-flesh with sun-fire, 
 Rhodes' blood and Helios' gold. My phorminx, boy ! 
 Why does the boy hang back and baulk and ode 
 Tiptoe at spread of wing? But like enough, 
 Sunshine frays torchlight. Witness whom you scare, 
 Superb Balaustion ! Look outside the house ! 
 Pho, you have quenched my Komos by first frovm, 
 Struck dead all joyance : not a fluting puffs 
 From idle cheekband ! Ah, my Chores too ? 
 You've eaten cuckoo-apple? Dumb, you dogs? 
 So much good Thasian wasted on your throats 
 And out of them not one Threttanelo 1
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 189 
 
 Neblaretai! Because this earth-and-sun 
 t 
 
 Product looks wormwood and all bitter herbs? 
 
 Well, do I blench, though me she hates the most 
 
 Of mortals ? By the cabbage, off they slink ! 
 
 You, too, my Chrusomelolonthion-Phaps, 
 
 Girl-golclling-beetle-beauty ? You, abashed, 
 
 Who late, supremely unabashable, 
 
 Propped up my play at that important point 
 
 When Artamouxia tricks the Toxotes? 
 
 Ha, ha, thank Hermes for the lucky throw, 
 
 We came last comedy of the whole seven, 
 
 So went all fresh to judgment well-disposed 
 
 For who should fatly feast them, eye and ear, 
 
 We two between us ! What, you fail your friend ? 
 
 Away then, free me of your cowardice ! 
 
 Go, get you the goat's breakfast ! Fare afield, 
 
 Ye circumcised of Egypt, pigs to sow, 
 
 Back to the Priest's or forward to the crows, 
 
 So you but rid me of such company ! 
 
 Once left alone, I can protect myself 
 
 From statuesque Balaustion pedestalled
 
 190 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 On much disapprobation and mistake ! 
 She dares not beat the sacred brow, beside ! 
 Bacchos' equipment, ivy safeguards well 
 As Phoibos' bay. 
 
 " They take me at my word ! 
 One comfort is, I shall not want them long, 
 The Archon's cry creaks, creaks, ' Curtail expense ! ' 
 The war wants money, year the twenty-sixth ! 
 Cut down our Chores number, clip costume, 
 Save birds' wings, beetles' armor, spend the cash 
 In three-crest skull-caps, three days' salt-fish-slice, 
 Three-banked-ships for these sham-ambassadors, 
 And what not : any cost but Comedy's ! 
 ' No Chores ' soon will follow ; what care I ? 
 Archinos and Agurrhios, scrape your flint, 
 Flay your dead dog, and curry favor so ! 
 Choros in rags, with loss of leather next, 
 We lose the boy's vote, lose the song and dance, 
 Lose my Elaphion ! Still, the actor stays. 
 Save but my acting, and the baldhead bard
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. igi 
 
 Kudathenaian and Pandionid, 
 
 Son of Philippos, Aristophanes 
 
 Surmounts his rivals now as heretofore, 
 
 Though stinted to mere sober prosy verse 
 
 ' Manners and men,' so squeamish gets the world ! 
 
 No more ' step forward, strip for anapaests ! ' 
 
 No calling naughty people by their names, 
 
 No tickling audience into gratitude 
 
 With chickpease, barleygroats and nuts and plums, 
 
 No setting Salabaccho" . . . 
 
 A.S I turned 
 
 lifty; 
 
 "True, lady, I am tolerably drunk: 
 
 The proper inspiration ! Otherwise, 
 
 Phrunichos, Choirilos ! had Aischulos 
 
 So foiled you at the goat-song? Drink's a god. 
 
 How else did that old doating driveller 
 
 Kratinos foil me, match my masterpiece 
 
 The 'Clouds'? I swallowed cloud-distilment dew 
 
 Undimmed by any grape-blush, knit my brow
 
 192 ARISTOPHANES' 1 APOLOGY. 
 
 And gnawed my style and laughed my learnedest; 
 While he worked at his 'Willow-wicker-flask,' 
 Swigging at that same flask by which he swore, 
 Till, sing and empty, sing and fill again, 
 Somehow result was what it should not be 
 Next time, I promised him and kept my word! 
 Hence, brimful now of Thasian . . . I'll be bound, 
 Mendesian, merely : triumph-night, you know, 
 The High Priest entertains the conqueror, 
 And, since war worsens all things, stingily 
 The rascal starves whom he is bound to stuff, 
 Chores and actors and their lord and king 
 The poet ; supper, still he needs must spread 
 And this time all was conscientious fare : 
 He knew his man, his match, his master made 
 Amends, spared neither fish, flesh, fowl nor 
 
 wine : 
 
 So merriment increased, I promise you, 
 Till something happened." 
 
 Here he strangely paused.
 
 ARISTOPHANES 1 APOLOGY. 193 
 
 " After that, well, it either was the cup 
 To the Good Genius, our concluding pledge, 
 That wrought me mischief, decently unmixed, 
 Or, what if, when that happened, need arose 
 Of new libation? Did you only know 
 What happened ! Little wonder I am drunk." 
 
 Euthukles, o'er the boat-side, quick, what change, 
 
 Watch, in the water ! But a second since, 
 
 It laughed a ripply spread of sun and sea, 
 
 Ray fused with wave, to never disunite. 
 
 Now, sudden all the surface, hard and black, 
 
 Lies a quenched light, dead motion : what the cause ? 
 
 Look up and lo, the menace of a cloud 
 
 Has solemnized the sparkling, spoiled the sport! 
 
 Just so, some overshadow, some new care 
 
 Stopped all the mirth and mocking on his face, 
 
 And left there only such a dark surmise 
 
 No wonder if the revel disappeared, 
 
 So did his face shed silence every side ! 
 
 I recognized a new man fronting me.
 
 194 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 l So ! " he smiled, piercing to my thought at once, 
 
 "You see myself? Balaustion's fixed regard 
 
 Can strip the proper Aristophanes 
 
 Of what our sophists, in their jargon, style 
 
 His accidents ? My soul sped forth but now 
 
 To meet your hostile survey, soul unseen, 
 
 Yet veritably cinct for soul-defence 
 
 With satyr sportive quips, cranks, boss and spike, 
 
 Just as my visible body paced the street, 
 
 Environed by a boon companionship 
 
 Your apparition also puts to flight. 
 
 Well, what care I if, unaccoutred twice, 
 
 I front my foe no comicality 
 
 Round soul, and body-guard in banishment? 
 
 Thank your eyes' searching, undisguised I stand : 
 
 The merest female child may question me. 
 
 Spare not, speak bold, Balaustion ! " 
 
 I did speak 
 
 "Bold speech be welcome to this honored hearth^ 
 Good Genius 1 Glory of the poet, glow
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 195 
 
 O' the humorist who castigates his kind, 
 Suave summer-lightning lambency which plays 
 On stag-horned tree, misshapen crag askew, 
 Then vanishes with unvindictive smile 
 After a moment's laying black earth bare. 
 Splendor of wit that springs a thunderball 
 Satire to burn and purify the world, 
 True aim, fair purpose : just wit justly strikes 
 Injustice, right, as rightly quells the wrong, 
 Finds out in knaves', fools', cowards' armory 
 The tricky tinselled place fire flashes through, 
 No damage else, sagacious of true ore ; 
 Wit, learned in the laurel, leaves each wreath 
 O'er "lyric shell or tragic barbiton, 
 Though alien gauds be singed, undesecrate, 
 The genuine solace of the sacred brow. 
 Ay, and how pulses flame a patriot-star 
 Steadfast athwart our country's night of things, 
 To beacon, would she trust no meteor-blaze, 
 Athenai from the rock she steers for straight! 
 O light, light, light, I hail light everywhere,
 
 196 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 No matter for the murk that was, perchance, 
 That will be, certes, never should have been 
 Such orb's associate 1 
 
 " Aristophanes ! 
 
 'The merest female child may question you? ' 
 Once, in my Rhodes, a portent of the wave 
 Appalled our coast : for many a darkened day, 
 Intolerable mystery and fear. 
 
 Who snatched a furtive glance through crannied peak. 
 Could but report of snake-scale, lizard-limb, 
 So swam what, making whirlpools as it went, 
 Madded the brine with wrath or monstrous sport. 
 ' 'Tis Tuphon, loose, unmanacled from mount,' 
 Declared the priests, 'no way appeasable 
 Unless perchance by virgin-sacrifice ! ' 
 Thus grew the terror and o'erhung the doom 
 Until one eve a certain female-child 
 Strayed in safe ignorance to seacoast edge, 
 And there sate down and sang to please herself. 
 When all at once, large-looming from his wave.
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 197 
 
 Out leaned, chin hand-propped, pensive on the ledge, 
 
 A sea-worn face, sad as mortality, 
 
 Divine with yearning after fellowship. 
 
 He rose but breast-high. So much god she saw ; 
 
 So much she sees now, and does reverence ! " 
 
 Ah, but there followed tail-splash, frisk of fin ! 
 Let cloud pass, the sea's ready laugh outbreaks. 
 No very godlike trace retained the mouth 
 Which mocked with 
 
 " So, He taught you tragedy ! 
 I always asked, ' Why may not women act ? ' 
 Nay, wear the comic visor just as well ; 
 Or, better, quite cast off the face-disguise 
 And voice-distortion, simply look and speak, 
 Real women playing women as men men! 
 I shall not wonder if things come to that, 
 Some day when I am distant far enough. 
 Do you conceive the quite new Comedy 
 When laws allow? laws only let girls dance, 
 Pipe, posture, above all, Elaphionize,
 
 198 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Provided they keep decent that is, dumb. 
 Ay, and, conceiving, I would execute, 
 Had I but two lives : one were overworked ! 
 How penetrate incrusted prejudice, 
 Pierce ignorance three generations thick 
 Since first Sousarion crossed our boundary ? 
 He battered with a big Megaric stone ; 
 Chionides felled oak and rough-hewed thence 
 This club I wield now, having spent my life 
 In planing knobs and sticking studs to shine ; 
 Somebody else must try mere polished steel ! " 
 
 Emboldened by the sober mood's return, 
 
 " Meanwhile," said I, " since planed and studded club 
 
 Once more has pashed competitors to dust, 
 
 And poet proves triumphant with that play, 
 
 Euthukles found last year unfortunate, 
 
 Does triumph spring from smoothness still more 
 
 smoothed, 
 
 Fresh studs sown thick and threefold ? In plain words. 
 Have you exchanged brute-blows, which teach the brute
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 199 
 
 Man may surpass him in brutality, 
 
 For human fighting, or true god-like force - 
 
 Which breathes persuasion nor needs fight at all? 
 
 Have you essayed attacking ignorance, 
 
 Convicting folly, by their opposites, 
 
 Knowledge and wisdom? not by yours for ours, 
 
 Fresh ignorance and folly, new for old, 
 
 Greater for less, your crime for our mistake ! 
 
 If so success at last have crowned desert, 
 
 Bringing surprise (dashed haply by concern 
 
 At late discovery such wild waste of strength 
 
 (And what strength !) went so long to keep in 
 
 vogue 
 
 Such warfare (and what warfare !) shamed away, 
 Made obsolete forever, as foe fell 
 By the first arrow native to the orb, 
 First onslaught worthy Aristophanes) 
 Was this conviction's entry that same strange 
 Something that happened ' to confound your feast ? " 
 
 " Ah, did he witness then my play that failed,
 
 200 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY 
 
 First ' Thesmophoriazousai ? ' Well and good ! 
 But did he also see, your Euthukles, 
 My ' Grasshoppers ' which followed and failed too, 
 Three months since, at the ' Little-in-the-Fields ' ? " 
 
 "To say that he did see that First should say 
 He never cared to see its following." 
 
 "There happens to be reason why I wrote 
 
 First play and second also. Ask the cause ! 
 
 Fit answer, authorizing either act, 
 
 I warrant you receive ere talk be done. 
 
 But here's the point : as Euthukles made vow 
 
 Never again to taste my quality, 
 
 So I was minded next experiment 
 
 Should tickle palate yea, of Euthukles ! 
 
 Not by such utter change, such absolute 
 
 A topsyturvy of stage-habitude 
 
 As you and he want, Comedy built fresh, 
 
 By novel brick and mortar, base to roof, 
 
 No, for I stand too near and look too close I
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 201 
 
 Pleasure and pastime yours, spectators brave, 
 Should I turn art's fixed fabric upside down ! 
 Little you guess how such tough work tasks soul ! 
 Not overtasks, though : give fit strength fair play, 
 And strength's a demiourgos ! ' 
 
 " Art renewed ? 
 
 Ay, in some closet where strength shuts out first 
 The friendly faces, sympathetic cheer: 
 ' More of the old provision, none supplies 
 So bounteously as thou, our love, our pride, 
 Our author of the many a perfect piece ! 
 Stick to that standard, change were decadence ! ' 
 Next, the unfriendly : ' This time, strain will tire, 
 He's fresh, Ameipsias thy antagonist ! ' 
 Or better, in some Salaminian cave 
 Where sky and sea and solitude make earth 
 And man and noise one insignificance, 
 Let strength propose itself, behind the world, 
 Sole prize worth winning, work that satisfies 
 Strength it has dared and done strength's uttermost ' 
 After which, clap-to closet and quit cave,
 
 202 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Strength may conclude in Archelaos' court, 
 And yet esteem the silken company 
 So much sky-scud, sea-froth, earth-thistledown, 
 For aught their praise or blame should joy or grieve- 
 May lead the still life, ply the wordless task : 
 Then only, when seems need to move or speak, 
 Moving for due respect, since statesmen pass, 
 (Strength, in the closet, watched how spiders spin !) 
 Speaking when fashion shows intelligence, 
 (Strength, in the cave, had whistled to the gulls !) 
 Despise the world and reverence yourself, 
 Why, you may unmake things and remake things, 
 And throw behind you, unconcerned enough, 
 What's made or marred : ' you teach men, are not 
 
 taught 1 ' 
 So marches off the stage Euripides ! 
 
 "No such thin fare, feeds flesh and blood like mine, 
 No such faint fume the Aristophanic soul, 
 No such seclusion, closet, cave or court, 
 Suits either like our lostephanos
 
 ARISTOPHANES^ APOLOGY. 203 
 
 Worth making happy what coarse way she will 
 
 The happy-maker, when the cries increase 
 
 About the favorite ! ' Aristophanes ! 
 
 More grist to mill, here's Kleophon to grind ! 
 
 He's for refusing peace, though Sparte' cede 
 
 Even Dekeleia ! Here's Kleonumos 
 
 Declaring if he threw away his shield, 
 
 He'll thrash you till you lay your lyre aside ! 
 
 Orestes bids mind where you walk of nights : 
 
 He wants your cloak as you his cudgelling. 
 
 Here's, finally, Melanthios fat with fish, 
 
 The gormandizer-spendthrift-dramatist ! 
 
 So, bustle ! Pounce on opportunity ! 
 
 Let fun a-screaming in Parabasis, 
 
 Find food for folk agape at either end, 
 
 Mad for amusement! Times grow better too, 
 
 And should they worsen, why, who laughs, forgets. 
 
 In no case, venture boy-experiments ! 
 
 Old wine's the wine : new poetry drinks raw : 
 
 Two plays a season is your pledge, beside ; 
 
 So, give us ' Wasps ' again, grown hornets now ! "
 
 204 ARISTOPHANES^ APOLOGY. 
 
 Then he changed. 
 
 "Do you so detect in me 
 
 Brow-bald, chin-bearded, me, curved cheek, carved lip, 
 Or where soul sits and reigns in either eye 
 What suits the stigma, I say, style say you, ^ 
 Of 'Wine-lees-poet?' Bravest of buffoons, 
 Less blunt than Telekleides, less obscene 
 Than Murtilos, Hermippos: quite a match 
 In elegance for Eupolis himself, 
 Yet pungent as Kratinos at his best? 
 Graced with traditional immunity 
 Ever since, much about my grandsire's time, 
 Some funny village-man in Megara, 
 Lout-lord and clown-king, used a privilege, 
 As due religious drinking-bouts came round, 
 To daub his phiz, no, that was afterward, 
 He merely mounted cart with mates of choice 
 And traversed country, taking house by house, 
 At night, because of danger in the freak, 
 Then holloaed, ' Skin-flint starves his laborers !
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 205 
 
 Clinch-fist stows figs away, cheats government! 
 
 Such an one likes to kiss his neighbor's wife, 
 
 And beat his own ; while such another . . . Boh ! ' 
 
 Soon came the broad day, circumstantial tale, . 
 
 Dancing and verse, and there's our Comedy, 
 
 There's Mullos, there's Euetes, there's the stock 
 
 I shall be proud to graft my powers upon! 
 
 Protected? Punished quite as certainly 
 
 When Archons pleased to lay down each his law, 
 
 Your Morucheides-Surakosios sort, 
 
 Each season, ' No more naming citizens, 
 
 Only abuse the vice, the vicious spare ! 
 
 Observe, henceforth no Areopagite 
 
 Demean his rank by writing Comedy ! ' 
 
 (They one and all could write the ' Clouds ' of course 
 
 ' Needs must we nick expenditure, allow 
 
 Comedy half a chores, supper none, 
 
 Times being hard, while applicants increase 
 
 For, what costs cash, the Tragic Trilogy.' 
 
 Lofty Tragedians ! How they lounge aloof 
 
 Each with his Triad, three plays to my one,
 
 206 ARISTOPHANES' 1 APOLOGY. 
 
 Not counting the contemptuous fourth, the frank 
 
 Concession to mere mortal levity, 
 
 Satyric pittance tossed our beggar-world ! 
 
 Your proud Euripides from first to last 
 
 Doled out some five such, never deigned us more ! 
 
 And these what curds and whey for marrowy wine ! 
 
 That same Alkestis you so rave about 
 
 Passed muster with him for a Satyr-play, 
 
 The prig ! why trifle time with toys and skits 
 
 When he could stuff four ragbags sausage-wise 
 
 With sophistry, with bookish odds and ends, 
 
 Sokrates, meteors, moonshine, ' Life's not Life,' 
 
 'The tongue swore, but unsworn the mind remains,' 
 
 And fifty such concoctions, crab-tree-fruit 
 
 Digested while, head low and heels in heaven, 
 
 He lay, let Comics laugh for privilege! 
 
 Looked puzzled on, or pityingly off, 
 
 But never dreamed of paying gibe by jeer, 
 
 Buffet by blow: plenty of proverb-pokes 
 
 At vice and folly, wicked kings, mad mobs ! 
 
 No sign of wincing at my Comic lash,
 
 ARISTOPHANES' 1 APOLOGY. 207 
 
 No protest against infamous abuse, 
 
 Malignant censure, nought to prove I scourged 
 
 With tougher thong than leek-and-onion-plait ! 
 
 If ever he glanced gloom, aggrieved at all, 
 
 The aggriever must be Aischulos perhaps : 
 
 Or Sophokles he'd take exception to. 
 
 Do you detect in me in me, I ask, 
 
 The man like to accept this measurement 
 
 Of faculty, contentedly sit classed 
 
 Mere Comic Poet since I wrote ' The Birds' ? " 
 
 I thought there might lurk truth in jest's disguise. 
 
 " Thanks ! " he resumed, so quick to construe smile 
 " I answered in my mind these gapers thus ; 
 Since old wine's ripe and new verse raw, you judge 
 What if I vary vintage-mode and mix 
 Blossom with must, give nosegay to the brew, 
 Fining, refining, gently, surely, till 
 The educated taste turn unawares 
 From customary dregs to draught divine ?
 
 208 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Then answered with my lips : More ' Wasps ' you 
 
 want? 
 
 Come next year and I give you ' Grasshoppers ' ! 
 And 'Grasshoppers' I gave them, last month's play. 
 They formed the Choros. Alkibiades, 
 No longer Triphales but Trilophos, 
 (Whom I call Darling-of-the-Summertime, 
 Born to be nothing else but beautiful 
 And brave, to eat, drink, love his life away) 
 Persuades the Tettix (our Autochthon-brood, 
 That sip the dew and sing on olive-branch 
 Above the ant-and-emmet populace) 
 To summon all who meadow, hill and dale 
 Inhabit, bee, wasp, woodlouse, dragonfly, 
 To band themselves against red nipper-nose 
 Stagbeetle, huge Taiigetan (you guess 
 Spartd) Athenai needs must battle with, 
 Because her sons are grown effeminate 
 To that degree so morbifies their flesh 
 The poison-drama of Euripides, 
 Morals and music there's no antidote
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 209 
 
 Occurs save warfare which inspirits blood, 
 And brings us back perchance the blessed time 
 When (Chores takes up tale) our commonalty 
 Firm in primaeval virtue, antique faith, 
 Ere earwig-sophist plagued or pismire sage, 
 Cockered no noddle up with A, b, g, 
 Book-learning, logic-chopping, and the moon, 
 But just employed their brains on ' Ruppapai, 
 Row, boys, munch barley-bread, and take your ease 
 Mindful, however, of the tier beneath ! ' 
 Ah, golden epoch ! while the nobler sort 
 (Such needs must study, no contesting that!) 
 Wore no long curls, but used to crop their hair, 
 Gathered the tunic well about the ham, 
 Remembering 'twas soft sand they used for seat 
 At school-time, while mark this the lesson long, 
 No learner ever dared to cross his legs ! 
 Then, if you bade him take the myrtle-bough 
 And sing for supper 'twas some grave romaunt 
 How man of Mitulene, wondrous wise, 
 'Jumped into hedge, by mortals quickset call" *
 
 210 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 And there anticipating Oidipous, 
 
 Scratched out his eyes and scratched them in again, 
 None of your Phaidras, Augds, Kanakas, 
 To mincing music, turn, trill, tweedle-trash, 
 Whence comes that Marathon is obsolete ! 
 Next, my Antistrophe' was praise of Peace : 
 Ah, could our people know what Peace implies ! 
 Home to the farm and furrow! Grub one's vine, 
 Romp with one's Thratta, pretty serving-girl, 
 When wifie's busy bathing ! Eat and drink, 
 And drink and eat, what else is good in life? 
 Slice hare, toss pancake, gayly gurgle down 
 The Thasian grape in celebration due 
 Of Bacchos ! Welcome, dear domestic rite, 
 When wife and sons and daughters, Thratta too, 
 Pour peasoup as we chant delectably 
 In Bacchos reels, his tunic at his heels ! 
 Enough, you comprehend, I do at least ! 
 Then, be but patient, the Parabasis ! 
 Pray ! For in that I also pushed reform. 
 None of the self-laudation, vulgar brag,
 
 ARISTOPHANES 1 APOLOGY. 211 
 
 Vainglorious rivals cultivate so much! 
 
 No ! If some merest word in Art's defence 
 
 Justice demanded of me, never fear! 
 
 Claim was preferred, but dignifiedly. 
 
 A cricket asked a locust (winged, you know) 
 
 What he had seen most rare in foreign parts? 
 
 ' I have flown far,' chirped he, ' North, East, South 
 
 West, 
 
 And nowhere heard of poet worth a fig 
 If matched with Bald-head here, Aigina's boast, 
 Who in this play bids rivalry despair 
 Past, present and to come, so marvellous 
 His Tragic, Comic, Lyric excellence! 
 Whereof the fit reward were (not to speak 
 Of dinner every day at public cost 
 I' the Prutaneion) supper with yourselves, 
 My Public, best dish offered bravest bard ! ' 
 No more ! no sort of sin against good taste ! 
 Then, satire, Oh, a plain necessity ! 
 But I won't tell you: for could I dispense 
 With one more gird at old Ariphrades?
 
 212 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 How scorpion-like he feeds on human flesh 
 
 Ever finds _ out some novel infamy 
 
 Unutterable, inconceivable, 
 
 Which all the greater need was to describe 
 
 Minutely, each tail-twist at ink-shed time . . . 
 
 Now, what's your gesture caused by ? What you loathe, 
 
 Don't I loathe doubly, else why take such pains 
 
 To tell it you ? But keep your prejudice ! 
 
 My audience justified you ! Housebreakers ! 
 
 This pattern-purity was played and failed 
 
 Last Rural Dionusia failed ! for why ? 
 
 Ameipsias followed with the genuine stuff. 
 
 He had been mindful to engage the Four 
 
 Karkinos and his dwarf -crab-family 
 
 Father and sons, they whirled like spinning-tops, 
 
 Chores gigantically poked his fun, 
 
 The boy's frank laugh relaxed the seniors' brow, 
 
 The skies re-echoed victory's acclaim, 
 
 Ameipsias gained his due, I got my dose 
 
 Of wisdom for the future. Purity? 
 
 No more of that next month, Athenai mine 1
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 213 
 
 Contrive new cut of robe who will, I patch 
 
 The old exomis, add no purple sleeve ! 
 
 The Thesmophoriazousai, smartened up 
 
 With certain plaits, shall please, I promise you ! 
 
 "Yes, I took up the play that failed last year, 
 
 And re-arranged things ; threw adroitly in, 
 
 No Parachoregema, men to match 
 
 My women there already; and when these 
 
 (I had a hit at Aristullos here, 
 
 His plan how womankind should rule the roast) 
 
 Drove men to plough ' A-field, ye cribbed of cape ! ' 
 
 Men showed themselves exempt from service straight 
 
 Stupendously, till all the boys cried, ' Brave ! ' 
 
 Then for the elders, I bethought me too, 
 
 Improved upon Mnesilochos' release 
 
 From the old bowman, board and binding-strap: 
 
 I made his son-in-law Euripides 
 
 Engage to put both shrewish wives away, 
 
 'Gravity,' one, the other, 'Sophist-lore,' 
 
 And mate with the Bald Bard's hetairai twain
 
 214 ARISTOPHANES 1 APOLOGY. 
 
 1 Goodhumor ' and ' Indulgence : ' on they tripped, 
 
 Murrhine', Akalanthis, ' beautiful 
 
 Their whole belongings' crowd joined chores there 
 
 And while the Toxotes wound up his part 
 
 By shower of nuts and sweetmeats on the mob, 
 
 The woman-choros celebrated New 
 
 Kalligeneia, the frank last-day rite. 
 
 Brief, I was chaireM and caressed and crowned, 
 
 And the whole theatre broke out a-roar, 
 
 Echoed my admonition choros-cap 
 
 f 
 
 Rivals of mine, your hands to your faces I 
 
 Summon no more the Muses, the Graces, 
 
 Since here by my side they have chosen their places I 
 
 And so we all flocked merrily to feast, 
 
 I, my choragos, chores, actors, mutes 
 
 And flutes aforesaid, friends in crowd, no fear, 
 
 At the Priest's supper; and hilarity 
 
 Grew none the less that, early in the piece, 
 
 Ran a report, from row to row close-packed, 
 
 Of messenger's arrival at the Port 
 
 With weighty tidings, 'Of Lusandros' flight,'
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 215 
 
 Opined one ; ' That Euboia penitent 
 
 Sends the Confederation fifty ships,' 
 
 Preferred another; while 'The Great King's Eye 
 
 Has brought a present for Elaphion here, 
 
 That rarest peacock Kompolakuthes ! ' 
 
 Such was the supposition of a third. 
 
 * No matter what the news,' friend Strattis laughed, 
 
 ' It won't be worse for waiting : while each click 
 
 Of the klepsudra sets a-shaking grave 
 
 Resentment in our shark's-head, boiled and spoiled 
 
 By this time : dished in Sphettian vinegar, 
 
 Silphion and honey, served with cocks'-brain-sauce ! 
 
 So, swift to supper, Poet ! No mistake, 
 
 This play; nor, like the unflavored 'Grasshoppers,' 
 
 Salt -without thyme ! ' Right merrily we supped, 
 
 Till something happened. 
 
 "Out it shall, at last! 
 
 " Mirth drew to ending, for the cup was crowned 
 To the Triumphant ! ' Kleonclapper erst, 
 Now, Plier of a scourge Euripides
 
 2l6 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY, 
 
 Fairly turns tail from, flying Attike' 
 
 For Makedonia's rocks and frosts and bears, 
 
 Where, furry grown, he growls to match the squeak 
 
 Of girl-voiced, crocus-vested Agathon ! 
 
 Ha ha, he he ! ' When suddenly a knock 
 
 Sharp, solitary, cold, authoritative. 
 
 " ' Babaiax ! Sokrates a-passing by, 
 
 A-peering in, for Aristullos' sake, 
 
 To put a question touching Comic Law?' 
 
 " No ! Enters an old pale-swathed majesty, 
 Makes slow mute passage through two ranks as mute, 
 (Strattis stood up with all the rest, the sneak !) 
 Gray brow still bent on ground, upraised at length 
 When, our Priest reached, full-front the vision paused. 
 
 " ' Priest ! ' the deep tone succeeded the fixed gaze 
 ' Thou carest that thy god have spectacle 
 Decent and seemly; wherefore, I announce 
 That, since Euripides is dead to-day,
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 217 
 
 My Chores, at the Greater Feast, next month, 
 Shall, clothed in black, appear ungarlanded ' ' . 
 
 "Then the gray brow sank low, and Sophokles 
 Re-swathed him, sweeping doorward: mutely passed 
 'Twixt rows as mute, to mingle possibly 
 With certain gods who convoy age to port ; 
 And night resumed him. 
 
 " When our stupor broke, 
 Chirpings took courage, and grew audible. 
 
 " ' Dead so one speaks now of Euripides ! ' 
 
 'Ungarlanded his Choros, did he say? 
 
 I guess the reason : in extreme old age 
 
 No doubt such have the gods for visitants. 
 
 Why did he dedicate to Herakles 
 
 An altar else, but that the god, turned Judge, 
 
 Told him in dream who took the crown of gold? 
 
 lie who restored Akropolis the theft, 
 
 Himself may feel perhaps a timely twinge 
 
 Ait thought of certain other crowns he niched
 
 2l8 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 From who now visits Herakles the Judge. 
 
 Instance " Medeia ! " that play yielded palm 
 
 To Sophokles ; and he again to whom ? 
 
 Euphorion ! Why ? Ask Herakles the Judge ! ' 
 
 Ungarlanded, just means economy ! 
 
 Suppress robes, chaplets, every thing suppress 
 
 Except the poet's present! An old tale 
 
 Put capitally by Trugaios eh ? 
 
 ' News from the world of transformation strange ! 
 
 How Sophokles is grown Simonides, 
 
 And, aged, rotten, all the same, for greed 
 
 Would venture on a hurdle out to sea ! ' 
 
 So jokes Philonides. Kallistratos 
 
 Retorts, ' Mistake ! Instead of stinginess 
 
 The fact is, in extreme decrepitude, 
 
 He has discarded poet and turned priest, 
 
 Priest of Half-Hero Alkon : visited 
 
 In his own house too by Asklepios' self, 
 
 So he avers. Meanwhile, his own estate 
 
 Lies fallow ; lophon's the manager, 
 
 N"ay, touches up a play, brings out the same,
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 219 
 
 Asserts true sonship. See to what you sink 
 After your dozen-dozen prodigies ! 
 Looking so old Euripides seems young, 
 Born ten years later.' 
 
 " ' Just his tricky style ! 
 
 Since, stealing first away, he wins first word 
 Out of good-natured rival Sophokles, 
 Procures himself no bad panegyric. 
 Had fate willed othenvise, himself were taxed 
 To pay survivor's-tribute, harder squeezed 
 From anybody beaten first to last, 
 Than one who, steadily a conqueror, 
 Finds that his magnanimity is tasked 
 To merely make pretence and beat itself ! ' 
 
 " So chirped the f casters though suppressediy. 
 
 ' But I what else do you suppose ? had pierced 
 Quite through friends' outside-straining, foes' mock- 
 praise,
 
 220 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 And reached conviction hearted under all. 
 Death's rapid line had closed a life's account 
 And cut off, left unalterably clear 
 The summed-up value of Euripides. 
 
 " Well, it might be the Thasian ! Certainly 
 There sang suggestive music in my ears ; 
 And, through what sophists style the wall cf sense 
 My eyes pierced : death seemed life and life seeemed 
 
 death, 
 
 Envisaged that way, now, which I, before, 
 Conceived was just a moon-struck mood. Quite plain 
 There re-insisted, ay, each prim stiff phrase 
 Of each old play, my still-new laughing-stock, 
 Had meaning, well worth poet's pains to state, 
 Should life prove half true life's term death, the rest 
 As for the other question, late so large 
 Now all at once so little, he or I, 
 Which better comprehended playwright craft, 
 There, too, old admonition took fresh point. 
 As clear recurred our last word-interchange
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 221 
 
 Two years since, when I tried with ' Ploutos.' ' Vain ! ' 
 
 Saluted me the cold grave-bearded age 
 
 ' Vain, this late trial, Aristophanes ! 
 
 None baulks the genius with impunity ! 
 
 You know what kind's the nobler, what makes grave 
 
 Or what makes grin ; there's yet a nobler still, 
 
 Possibly, what makes wise, not grave, and glad, 
 
 * 
 
 Not grinning : whereby laughter joins with tears, 
 Tragic and Comic Poet prove one power, 
 And Aristophanes becomes our Fourth 
 Nay, greatest ! Never needs the Art stand still, 
 But those Art leans on lag, and none like you, 
 Her strongest of supports, whose step aside 
 Undoes the march : defection checks advance 
 Too late adventured ! See the " Ploutos " here ! 
 This step decides your foot from old to new 
 Proves you relinquish song and dance and jest, 
 Discard the beast, and, rising from all-fours, 
 Fain would paint, manlike, actual human life, 
 Make veritable men think, say and do. 
 Here's the conception : which to execute,
 
 222 ARISTOPHANES' 1 APOLOGY. 
 
 Where's force ? Spent ! Ere the race began, was breath 
 
 O' the runner squandered on each friendly fool 
 
 Wit-fireworks fizzed off while day craved no flame : 
 
 How should the night receive her due of fire 
 
 Flared out in Wasps and Horses, Clouds and Birds, 
 
 Prodigiously a-crackle ? Rest content ! 
 
 The new adventure for the novel man 
 
 Born to that* next success myself foresee 
 
 In right of where I reach before I rest. 
 
 At end of a long course, straight all the way, 
 
 Well may there tremble somewhat into ken 
 
 The untrod path, clouds veiled from earlier gaze ! 
 
 None may live two lives: I have lived mine through 
 
 Die where I first stand still. You retrograde. 
 
 I leave my life's work. / compete with you, 
 
 My last with your last, my "Antiope" 
 
 "Phoinissai" with this "Ploutos?" No, I think! 
 
 Ever shall "great and awful Victory 
 
 Accompany my life" in Maketis 
 
 tf not Athenai. Take my farewell, friend ! 
 
 Friend, for from no consummate excellence 
 
 S
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 223 
 
 Like yours, whatever fault may countervail, 
 
 Do I profess estrangement : murk the marsh, 
 
 Yet where a solitary marble block 
 
 Blanches the gloom, there let the eagle perch! 
 
 You show what splinters of Pentelikos, 
 
 Islanded by what ordure ! Eagles fly. 
 
 Rest on the right place, thence depart as free ; 
 
 But ware man's footstep, would it traverse mire 
 
 Untainted ! Mire is safe for worms that crawl.' 
 
 " Balaustion ! Here are very many words, 
 
 All to portray one moment's rush of thought, 
 
 And much they do it ! Still, you understand. 
 
 The Archon, the Feast-master, read their sum 
 
 And substance, judged the banquet-glow extinct, 
 
 So rose, discreetly if abruptly, crowned 
 
 The parting cup, ' To the Good Genius, then ! ' 
 
 " Up starts young Strattis for a final flash : 
 ' Ay, the Good Genius ! To the Comic Muse, 
 She who evolves superiority,
 
 224 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Triumph and joy from sorrow, unsuccess 
 And all that's incomplete in human life ; 
 Who proves such actual failure transient wrong. 
 Since out of body uncouth, halt and maimed 
 Since out of soul grotesque, corrupt or blank 
 Fancy, uplifted by the Muse, can flit 
 To soul and body, re-instate them Man : 
 Beside which perfect man, how clear we see 
 Divergency from type was earth's effect ! 
 Escaping whence by laughter, Fancy's feat, 
 We right man's wrong, establish true for false, 
 Above misshapen body, uncouth soul, 
 Reach the fine form, the clear intelligence 
 Above unseemliness, reach decent law, 
 By laughter : attestation of the Muse 
 That low-and-ugsome is not signed and sealed 
 Incontrovertibly man's portion here, 
 Or, if here, why, still high-and-fair exists 
 Tn that ethereal realm where laughs our soul 
 Lift by the Muse. Hail then her ministrant ! 
 Hail who accepted no deformity
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 225 
 
 In man as normal and remediless, 
 But rather pushed it to such gross extreme 
 That outraged we protest by eye's recoil 
 The opposite proves somewhere rule and law ! 
 Hail who implied, by limning Lamachos, 
 ' Plenty and pastime wait on peace, not war ! ' 
 Philokleon 'better bear a wrong than plead, 
 Play the litigious fool to stuff the mouth 
 Of dikast with the due three-obol fee ! ' 
 The Paphlagonian 'stick to the old sway 
 Of few and wise, not rabble-government ! ' 
 Trugaios, Pisthetairos, Strepsiades, 
 Why multiply examples ? Hail, in fine, 
 The hero of each painted monster so 
 Suggesting the unpicltired perfect shape ' 
 Pour out ! A laugh to Aristophanes ! ' 
 
 "Stay, my fine Strattis " and I stopped applause - 
 " To the Good Genius but the Tragic Muse ! 
 She who instructs her poet 'Bid man's soul 
 Play man's part merely nor attempt the gods'
 
 226 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Ill-guessed of ! Task humanity to height, 
 Put passion to prime use, urge will, unshamed 
 When will's last effort breaks in impotence ! 
 No power forego, elude : no weakness, plied 
 Fairly by power and will, renounce, deny ! 
 Acknowledge, in such miscalled weakness, strength 
 Latent : and substitute thus things for words ! 
 Make man run life's race fairly, legs and feet, 
 Craving no false wings to o'erfly its length ! 
 Trust on, trust ever, trust to end in truth ! 
 By truth of extreme passion, utmost will, 
 Shame back all false display of either force 
 Barrier about such strenuous heat and glow, 
 That cowardice - shall shirk contending, cant, 
 Pretension, shrivel at truth's first approach ! 
 Pour to the Tragic Muse's ministrant 
 Who, as he pictured pure Hippolutos, 
 Abolished our earth's blot Ariphracles ; 
 Who, as he drew Bellerophon the bold, 
 Proclaimed Kleonumos incredible ; 
 Who, as his Theseus tov^ered up man once more,
 
 ARISTOPHANES' 1 APOLOGY. 227 
 
 Made Alkibiades shrink boy again ! 
 
 A tear no woman's tribute, weak exchange 
 
 For action, water spent and heart's-blood saved 
 
 No man's regret for greatness gone, ungraced 
 
 Perchance by even that poor meed, man's praise 
 
 But some god's superabundance of desire, 
 
 Yearning of will to 'scape necessity, 
 
 Love's overbrimming for self-sacrifice, 
 
 Whence good might be, which never else may be, 
 
 By power displayed, forbidden this strait sphere, 
 
 Effort expressible one only way 
 
 Such tear from me fall to Euripides i ' 
 
 "The Thasian ! All, the Thasian, I account! 
 
 "Whereupon outburst the whole company 
 
 Into applause and laughter, would you think? 
 
 " ' The unrivalled one ! How, never at a loss, 
 He turns the Tragic on its Comic side 
 Else imperceptible ! Here's death itself
 
 228 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Death of a rival, of an enemy, 
 
 Scarce seen as Comic till the master-touch 
 
 Made it acknowledge Aristophanes! 
 
 Lo, that Euripidean laurel-tree 
 
 Struck to the heart by lightning! . Sokrates 
 
 Would question us, with buzz of " how " and " why,' 
 
 Wherefore the berry's virtue, the bloom's vice, 
 
 Till we all wished him quiet with his friend ; 
 
 Agathon would compose an elegy, 
 
 Lyric bewailment fit to move a stone, 
 
 And, stones responsive, we might wince, 'tis like ; 
 
 Nay, with most cause of all to weep the least, 
 
 Sophokles ordains mourning for his sake 
 
 While we confess to a remorseful twinge : 
 
 Suddenly, who but Aristophanes, 
 
 Prompt to the rescue, puts forth solemn hand, 
 
 Singles us out the tragic tree's best branch, 
 
 Persuades it groundward and, at tip, appends, 
 
 For votive-visor, Faun's goat-grinning face ! 
 
 Back it flies, evermore with jest a-top, 
 
 And we recover the true mood, and laugh ! '
 
 ARISTOPHANES' 1 APOLOGY. 229 
 
 "I felt as when some Nikias, ninny-like 
 Troubled by sunspot-portent, moon-eclipse, 
 At fault a little, sees no choice but sound 
 Retreat from foeman ; and his troops mistake 
 The signal, and hail onset in the blast, 
 And at their joyous answer, alale, 
 Back the old courage brings the scattered wits ; 
 He wonders what his doubt meant, quick confirms 
 The happy error, blows the charge amain. 
 So I repaired things. 
 
 "'Both be praised' thanked I 
 'You who have laughed with Aristophanes, 
 You who wept rather with the Lord of Tears ! 
 Priest, do thou, president alike o'er each, 
 Tragic and Comic function of the god, 
 Help with libation to the blended twain ! 
 Either of wnich who serving, only servos 
 Proclaims himself disqualified to pour 
 To that Good Genius complex Poetry, 
 Uniting each god-grace, including both : 
 Which, operant for body as for soul,
 
 230 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Masters alike the laughter and the tears, 
 
 Supreme in lowliest earth, sublimest sky. 
 
 Who dares disjoin these, whether he ignores 
 
 Body or soul, whichever half destroys, 
 
 Maims the else perfect manhood, perpetrates 
 
 Again the inexpiable crime we curse 
 
 Hacks at the Hermai, halves each guardian shape 
 
 Combining, nowise vainly, prominence 
 
 Of august head and enthroned intellect, 
 
 With homelier symbol of asserted sense, 
 
 Nature's prime impulse, earthly appetite. 
 
 For, when our folly ventures on the freak, 
 
 Would fain abolish joy and fruitfulness, 
 
 Mutilate nature what avails the Head 
 
 Left solitarily predominant, 
 
 Unbodied soul, not Hermes, both in one ? 
 
 I, no more than our City, acquiesce 
 
 In such a desecration, but defend 
 
 Man's double nature ay, wert thou its foci ! 
 
 Could I once more, thou cold Euripides, 
 
 Encounter thee, in nought would I abate
 
 ARISTOPHANES' AfOLOGY. 231 
 
 My warfare, nor subdue my worst attack 
 
 On thee whose life-work preached "Raise soul, sink 
 
 sense ! 
 
 Evirate Hermes ! " would avenge the god, 
 And justify myself. Once face to face, 
 Thou, the argute and tricksy, shouldst not wrap, 
 As thine old fashion was, in silent scorn 
 Those breast-beats quickened at the sting of truth ; 
 Nor turn from me, as, if the tale be true, 
 From Lais when she met thee in thy walks, 
 Demanded why she had no rights as thou. 
 Not so shouldst thou betake thee, be assured, 
 To book and pencil, deign me no reply ! 
 I would extract an answer from those lips 
 So closed and cold, were mine the garden-chance ! 
 Gone from the world ! Does none remain to take 
 Thy part and ply me with thy sophist-skill? 
 No sun makes proof of his whole potency 
 For gold and purple in that orb we view; 
 The apparent orb does little but leave blind 
 The audacious, and confuse the worshipping.
 
 232 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 But, close on orb's departure, must succeed 
 
 The serviceable cloud, must intervene, 
 
 Induce expenditure of rose and blue, 
 
 Reveal what lay in him, was lost to us. 
 
 So, friends, what hinders, as we homeward go, 
 
 If, privileged by triumph gained to-day, 
 
 We clasp that cloud our sun left saturate, 
 
 The Rhodian rosy with Euripides? 
 
 Not of my audience on my triumph-day, 
 
 She and her husband ! After the night's news 
 
 Neither will sleep, but watch ; I know the mood. 
 
 Accompany ! my crown declares my right ! ' 
 
 " And here you stand .with those warm golden eyes I 
 
 " In honest language, I am scarce too sure 
 Whether I really felt, indeed expressed 
 Then, in that presence, things I now repeat : 
 Nor half, nor any one word, will that do ? 
 May be, such eyes must strike conviction, turn 
 One's nature bottom upwards, show the base
 
 ARISTOPHANES' 1 APOLOGY. 233 
 
 The live rock latent under wave and foam : 
 
 Superimposure these ! Yet solid stuff 
 
 Will ever and anon, obeying star, 
 
 (And what star reaches rock-nerve like an eye ?) 
 
 Swim up lo surface, spout or mud or flame, 
 
 And find no more to do than sink as fast. 
 
 "Anyhow, I have followed happily 
 
 The impulse, pledged my Genius with effect, 
 
 Since, come to see you, I am shown myself ! " 
 
 I answered : 
 
 "One of us declared for both 
 Welcome the glory of Aristophanes.' 
 The other adds, ' and, if that glory last, 
 Nor marsh-born vapor creep to veil the same, 
 Once entered, share in our solemnity! 
 Commemorate, as we, Euripides ! " 
 
 " What ? " he looked round, " 1 darken the brigl t 
 house ?
 
 234 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Profane the temple of your deity? 
 
 That's true ! Else wherefore does he stand portrayed ? 
 
 What Rhodian paint and pencil saved so much, 
 
 Beard, freckled face, brow all but breath, I hope ' 
 
 Come, that's unfair: myself am somebody, 
 
 Yet my pictorial fame's just potter's work, 
 
 I barely figure on men's drinking-mugs ! 
 
 I and the Flat-nose, Sophroniskos' son, 
 
 Oft make a pair. But what's this lies below ? 
 
 His table-book and graver, playwright's tool ! 
 
 And lo, the sweet psalterion, strung and screwed, 
 
 Whereon he tried those le--e--s 
 
 And ke--c-'e-ks and turns and trills, 
 
 Lovely lark's tirra-lirra, lad's delight ! 
 
 Aischulos' bronze-throat eagle-bark at blood 
 
 Has somehow spoiled my taste for twitterings ! 
 
 With . . . what, and did he leave you ' Herakles ' ? 
 
 The 'Frenzied Hero,' one unfractured sheet, 
 
 No pine-wood tablets smeared with treacherous wax 
 
 Papuros perfect as e'er tempted pen ! 
 
 This sacred twist of bay-leaves dead and sere
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 235 
 
 Must be that crown the fine work failed to catch, 
 No wonder ! This might crown ' Antiope.' 
 ' Herakles ' triumph ? In your heart perhaps ! 
 But elsewhere ? Come now, I'll explain the case, 
 Show you the main mistake. Give me the sheet ! " 
 
 I interrupted: 
 
 " Aristophanes ! 
 
 The stranger-woman sues in her abode 
 ' Be honored as our guest ! ' But, call it shrine, 
 Then ' Nt dishonor to the Daimon ! ' bids 
 The priestess ' or expect dishonor's due ! ' 
 You enter fresh from your worst infamy, 
 Last instance of long outrage ; yet I pause, 
 Withhold the word a-tremble on my lip, 
 Incline me, rather, yearn to reverence, 
 So you but suffer that I see the blaze 
 And not the bolt, the splendid fancy-fling, 
 Not the cold iron malice, the launched lie 
 Whence heavenly fire has withered ; impotent, 
 Yet execrable, leave it 'neath the look
 
 236 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Of yon impassive presence ! What he scorned, 
 
 His life long, need I touch, offending foot, 
 
 To prove that malice missed its mark, that lie 
 
 Cumbers the ground, returns to whence it came ? 
 
 I marvel, I deplore, the rest be mute ! 
 
 But, throw off hate's celestiality, 
 
 Show jne, apart from song-flash and wit-flame, 
 
 A mere man's hand ignobly clinched against 
 
 Yon supreme calmness, and I interpose, 
 
 Such as you see me ! Silk breaks lightning's blow ! ' 
 
 He seemed to scarce so much as notice me, 
 Aught I had spoken, save the final phrase : 
 Arrested there. 
 
 " Euripides grown calm ! 
 
 Calmness supreme means dead and therefore safe," 
 He muttered : then more audibly began 
 
 " Dead ! Such must die ! Could people comprehend * 
 There's the unfairness of it ! So obtuse
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 237 
 
 Are all : from Solon downward with his saw 
 ' Let none revile the dead, no, though the son, 
 Nay, far descendant, should revile thyself!' 
 To him who made Elektra, in the act 
 Of wreaking vengeance on her worst of foes, 
 Scruple to blame, since speech that blames insults 
 Too much the very villain life-released. 
 Now, / say, only after death, begins 
 That formidable claim, immunity 
 Of faultiness from fault's due punishment! 
 The'iiving, who defame me, why, they live: 
 Fools, I best prove them foolish by their life, 
 Will they but work on, lay their work by mine, 
 And wait a little, one Olympiad, say! 
 Then where's the vital force, mine froze beside ? 
 The sturdy fibre, shamed my brittle stuff ? 
 The school-correctness, sure ot wise award 
 When my vagaries cease to tickle taste? 
 Where's censure that must sink me, judgment big 
 Awaiting just the word posterity 
 Pants to pronounce ? Time's wave breaks, buries 
 whom,
 
 238 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Fools, when myself confronts you four years hence/ 
 
 But die, ere next Lenaia, safely so 
 
 You 'scape me, slink with all your ignorance, 
 
 Stupidity and malice, to that hole 
 
 O'er which survivors croak ' Respect the dead ! ' 
 
 Ay, for I needs must! But allow me clutch 
 
 Only a carrion-handful, lend it sense, 
 
 (Mine, not its own, or could it answer me?) 
 
 And question 'You, I pluck from hiding-place, 
 
 Whose cant was, certain years ago, my "Clouds" 
 
 Might last until the swallows came with Spring 
 
 Whose chatter, " Birds " are unintelligible, 
 
 Mere psychologic puzzling : poetry ? 
 
 List, the true lay to rock a cradle with ! 
 
 O man of Mitulent, wondrous wise ! ' 
 
 Would not I rub each face in its own filth 
 
 To tune of ' Now that years have come and gone, 
 
 How does the fact stand ? What's demonstrable 
 
 By time, that tries things? your own test, not mine 
 
 Who think men are, were, ever will be fools, 
 
 Though somehow fools confute fools, as these, you 5
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 239 
 
 Don't mumble to the sheepish twos and threes 
 You cornered and called "audience !" face this me 
 Who know, and can, and helped by fifty years 
 Do pulverize you pygmies, then as now ! ' 
 
 " Ay, now as then, I pulverize the brood, 
 
 Balaustion ! Mindful, from the first, where foe 
 
 Would hide head safe when hand had flung its stone, 
 
 I did not turn cheek and take pleasantry, 
 
 But flogged while skin could purple and flesh start, 
 
 To teach fools whom they tried conclusions with. 
 
 First face a-splutter at me got such splotch 
 
 Of prompt slab mud as, filling mouth to maw, 
 
 Made its concern thenceforward not so much 
 
 To criticise me as go cleanse itself. 
 
 The only drawback to which huge delight, 
 
 (He saw it, how he saw it, that calm cold 
 
 Sagacity you call Euripides !) 
 
 Why, 'tis that, make a muckheap of a man, 
 
 There, pillared by your prowess, he remains, 
 
 Immortally immerded. Not so he!
 
 240 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Men pelted him but got no pellet back. 
 
 He reasoned, I'll engage, 'Acquaint the world 
 
 Certain minuteness butted at my knee ? 
 
 Dogface Eruxis, the small satirist, 
 
 What better would the manikin desire 
 
 Than to strut forth on tiptoe, notable 
 
 As who so far up fouled me in the flank ? ' 
 
 So dealt he with the dwarfs : we giants, too, 
 
 Why must we emulate their pin-point play? 
 
 Render imperishable impotence, 
 
 For mud throw mountains ? Zeus, by mud unreached. 
 
 Well, 'twas no dwarf he heaved Olumpos at ! " 
 
 My heart burned up within me to my tongue. 
 
 " And why must men remember, ages hence, 
 Who it was rolled down rocks, but refuse too 
 Strattis might steal from ! mixture-monument, 
 Recording what ? ' I, Aristophanes, 
 Who boast me much inventive in my art, 
 Against Euripides thus volleyed muck
 
 ARISTOPHANES' 1 APOLOGY. 241 
 
 Because, in art, he too extended bounds. 
 I patriot, loving peace and hating war, 
 Choosing the rule of few, but wise and good, 
 Rather than mob-dictature, fools and knaves 
 However multiplied their mastery, 
 Despising most of all the demagogue, 
 (Noisome air-bubble, buoyed up, borne along 
 By kindred breath of knave and fool below, 
 Whose hearts swell proudly as each puffing face 
 Grows big, reflected in that glassy ball, 
 Vacuity, just bellied out to break 
 And righteously bespatter friends the first) 
 Loathing, beyond a less puissant speech 
 Than my own god-grand language to declare, 
 The fawning, cozenage and calumny 
 Wherewith such favorite feeds the populace 
 That fan and set him flying for reward : 
 I who, detecting what vice underlies 
 Thought's superstructure, fancy's sludge and slime 
 Twixt fact's sound floor and thought's mere surface- 
 growth
 
 242 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Of hopes and fears which root no deeplier down 
 Than where all such mere fungi breed and bloat 
 Namely, man's misconception of the God : 
 i, loving, hating, wishful from my soul 
 That truth should triumph, falsehood have defeat, 
 Why, all my soul's supremacy of power 
 Did I pour out in volley just on him 
 Who, his whole life long, championed every cause 
 I called my heart's cause, loving as I loved, 
 Hating my hates, one false one true for both, 
 Championed my cause not flagellating foe 
 With simple rose and lily, gibe and jeer, 
 Sly wink of boon-companion o'er his bowze 
 Who, while he blames the liquor, smacks the lip, 
 Blames, doubtless, but leers condonation too, 
 No, the balled fist broke brow like thunderbolt, 
 Battered till brail' flew ! Seeing which descent, 
 None questioned that was first acquaintanceship, 
 The avenger's with the vice he crashed through bone 
 Still, he displeased me ; and I turned from foe 
 To fellow-fighter, flung much stone, more mud,
 
 ARISTOPHANES' 1 APOLOGY. 243 
 
 But missed him, since he lives aloof, I see.' 
 
 Pah ! stop more shame deep-cutting glory thro agh, 
 
 Nor add, this poet, learned, found no taunt 
 
 Tell like ' That other poet studies books ! ' 
 
 Wise, cried 'At each attempt to move our hearts, 
 
 He uses the mere phrase of daily life ! ' 
 
 Witty, ' His mother was a herb-woman ! ' 
 
 Veracious, honest, loyal, fair-and-good, 
 
 ' It was Kephisophon who helped him write ! ' 
 
 " Whence, O the tragic end of Comedy ! 
 
 Balaustion pities Aristophanes. 
 
 For, who believed him ? Those who laughed so loud ? 
 
 They heard him call the sun Sicilian cheese ! 
 
 Had he called true cheese curd, would muscle move? 
 
 What made them laugh but the enormous lie ? 
 
 ' Kephisophon wrote " Herakles " ? ha, ha, 
 
 What can have stirred the wine-dregs, soured the soul, 
 
 \nd set a-lying Aristophanes ? 
 
 Some accident at which he took offence ! 
 
 The Tragic Master in a moody muse
 
 244 ARISTOPHANES' 1 APOLOGY. 
 
 Passed him unhailing, and it hurts it hurts ! 
 Beside, there's license for the Wine-lees-song ! ' : 
 
 Blood burnt the cheek-bone, each black eye flashed 
 fierce. 
 
 " But this exceeds our license ! Stay a while 
 That's the solution ! both are foreigners, 
 The fresh-come Rhodian lady, and her spouse 
 The man of Phokis : newly resident, 
 Nowise instructed that explains it all ! 
 No born and bred Athenian hut would smile, 
 Unless frown seemed more fit for ignorance. 
 These strangers have a privilege ! 
 
 " You blame " 
 
 (Presently he resumed with milder mien) 
 " Both theory and practice Comedy : 
 Blame her from altitudes the Tragic friend 
 Rose to, and upraised friends along with him, 
 No matter how. Once there, all's cold and fine,
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 245 
 
 Passionless, rational ; our world beneath 
 
 Shows (should you condescend to grace so much 
 
 As glance at poor Athenai) grimly gross 
 
 A population which, mere flesh and blood, 
 
 Eats, drinks and kisses, falls to fisticuffs, 
 
 Then hugs as hugely: speaks too as it acts, 
 
 Prodigiously talks nonsense, townsmen needs 
 
 Must parley in their town's vernacular. 
 
 Such world has, of two courses, one to choose: 
 
 Unworld itself, or else go blackening off 
 
 To its crow-kindred, leave philosophy 
 
 Her heights serene, fit perch for owls like you. 
 
 Now, since the world demurs to either course, 
 
 Permit me, in default of boy or girl, 
 
 So they be reared Athenian, good and true, 
 
 To praise what you most blame ! Hear Art's defence ! 
 
 I'll prove our institution, Comedy, 
 
 Coeval with the birth of freedom, matched 
 
 So nice with our Republic, that its growth 
 
 Measures each greatness, just as its decline 
 
 Would signalize the downfall of the pair.
 
 246 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Our Art began when Bacchos . . . never mind ! 
 You and your master don't acknowledge gods : 
 ' They are not, no, they are not ! ' well, began 
 When the rude instinct of our race outspoke, 
 Found, on recurrence of festivity 
 Occasioned by black mother-earth's good will 
 To children, as they took her vintage-gifts, 
 Found not the least of many benefits 
 That wine unlocked the stiffest lip, and loosed 
 The tongue late dry and reticent of joke, 
 Through custom's gripe which gladness thrusts aside. 
 So, emulating liberalities, 
 
 Heaven joined with earth for that god's day at least, 
 Renewed man's privilege, grown obsolete, 
 Of telling triith nor dreading punishment. 
 Whereon the joyous band disguised their forms 
 With skins, beast-fashion, daubed each phiz with dregs, 
 Then holloaed, ' Neighbor, you are fool, you knave, 
 You hard to serve, you stingy to reward ! ' 
 The guiltless crowed, the guilty sunk their crest, 
 And good folks gained thereby, 'twas evident.
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 247 
 
 Whence, by degrees, a birth of happier thought, 
 
 The notion came not simply this to say, 
 
 But this to do prove, put in evidence, 
 
 And act the fool, the knave, the harsh, the hunks, 
 
 Who did prate, cheat, shake fist, draw purse-string tight, 
 
 As crowd might see, which only heard before. 
 
 " So played the Poet, with his man of parts ; 
 And all the others, found unqualified 
 To mount cart and be persons, made the mob, 
 Joined choros, fortified their fellows' fun, 
 Anticipated the community, 
 Gave judgment which the public ratified. 
 Suiting rough weapon doubtless to plain truth, 
 They flung, for word-artillery, why filth; 
 Still, folks who wiped the unsavory salute 
 From visage, would prefer the mess to wit 
 Steel, poked through midriff with a civil speech, 
 As now the way is : then, the kindlier mode 
 Was drub not stab, ribroast not scarify ! 
 So did Sousarion introduce, and so,
 
 248 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Did I, acceding, find the Comic Art : 
 
 Club, if I call it, notice what's implied! 
 
 An engine proper for rough chastisement, 
 
 No downright slaying: with impunity 
 
 Provided crabtree, steeped in oily joke, 
 
 Deal only such a bruise as laughter cures. 
 
 I kept the gained advantage : stickled still 
 
 For club-law stout fun and allowanced thurips : 
 
 Knocked in each knob a crevice to hold joke 
 
 As fig-leaf holds the fat-fry. 
 
 " Next, whom thrash , 
 
 Only the coarse fool and the clownish knave? 
 Higher, more artificial, composite 
 Offence sho.*ld prove my prowess, eye and arm ! 
 Not who robs henroost, tells of untaxed figs, 
 Spends all his substance on stewed ellops-fish, 
 Or gives a pheasant to his neighbor's wife : 
 No ! strike malpractice that affects the State, 
 The common weal intriguer or poltroon, 
 Venality, corruption, what care I
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 249 
 
 If shrewd or witless merely ? so the thing 
 
 Lay sap to aught that made Athenai bright 
 
 And happy, change her customs, lead astray 
 
 Youth or age, play the demagogue at Pnux, 
 
 The sophist in Palaistra, or what's worst, 
 
 As widest mischief, from the Theatre 
 
 Preach innovation, bring contempt on oaths, 
 
 Adorn licentiousness, despise the Cult. 
 
 Are such to be my game ? Why, then there wants 
 
 Quite other cunning than a cudgel-sweep ! 
 
 Grasp the old stout stock, but new tip with steel 
 
 Each boss, if I would bray no callous hide 
 
 Simply, but Lamachos in coat of proof, 
 
 Or Kleon cased about with impudence ! 
 
 Shaft pushed no worse while point pierced sparkling *c 
 
 That none smiled ' Sportive, what seems savagest, 
 
 Innocuous anger, spiteless rustic mirth ! ' 
 
 Yet spiteless in a sort, considered well, 
 
 Since I pursued my warfare till each wound 
 
 Went through the mere man, reached the principle 
 
 Worth purging from Athenai. Lamachos ?
 
 250 ARISTOPHANES* APOLOGY. 
 
 No, I attacked war's representative ; 
 
 Kleon ? No, flattery of the populace ; 
 
 Sokrates ? No, but that pernicious seed 
 
 Of sophists whereby hopeful youth is taught 
 
 To jabber argument, chop logic, pore 
 
 On sun and moon, and worship whirligig. 
 
 Oh, your tragedian, with the lofty grace, 
 
 Aims at no other and effects as much ? 
 
 Candidly: what's a polished period worth, 
 
 Filed curt sententiousness of loaded line, 
 
 When he who deals out doctrine, primly steps 
 
 From just that selfsame moon he maunders of, 
 
 And, blood-thinned by his pallid nutriment, 
 
 Proposes to rich earth-blood purity? 
 
 In me, 'twas equal-balanced flesh rebuked 
 
 Excess alike in stuff-guts Glauketes 
 
 Or starveling Chairephon ; I challenged both, 
 
 Strong understander of our common life, 
 
 Staple sustainment of humanity. 
 
 Whereas when your tragedian cries up Peace 
 
 He's silent as to cheesecake Peace may chew ;
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 251 
 
 Seeing through rabble-rule, he shuts his eye 
 
 To what were better done than crowding Pnux 
 
 Dancing ' Threttanelo, the Kuklops drunk ! ' 
 
 " My power has hardly need to vaunt itself ! 
 
 Opposers peep and mutter, or speak plain : 
 
 ' No naming names in Comedy ! ' votes one, 
 
 ' Nor vilifying live folk ! ' legislates 
 
 Another, ' urge amendment on the dead ! ' 
 
 ' Don't throw away hard cash,' supplies a third, 
 
 ' But crib from actor's dresses, chores-treats ! ' 
 
 Then Kleon did his best to bully me: 
 
 Called me before the Law Court : ' Such a play 
 
 Satirized citizens with strangers there, 
 
 Such other,' why, its fault was in myself! 
 
 I was, this time, the stranger, privileged 
 
 To act no play at all, Egyptian, I 
 
 Rhodian or Kameirensian, Aiginete, 
 
 Lindian, or any foreigner he liked 
 
 Because I can't write Attic, probably ! 
 
 Go ask my rivals, how they roughed my fleece,
 
 252 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 And how, shorn pink themselves, the huddled sheep 
 Shiver at distance from the clapping shears ! 
 Why must they needs provoke me? 
 
 "All the same. 
 
 No matter for its triumph, I foretell 
 Subsidence of the day-star : quench his beams ? 
 No Aias e'er was equal to the feat 
 By throw of shield, tough-hided seven times seven, 
 'Twixt sky and earth ! 'tis dullards soft and sure 
 Who breathe against his brightest, here a sigh 
 And there a ' So let be, we pardon you ! ' 
 Till the minute mist hangs entire, has tamed 
 Noonblaze to 'twilight mild and equable,' 
 Vote the old women spinning out of doors. 
 Give me the earth-spasm, when the lion ramped 
 And the bull gendered in the brave gold flare ! 
 O you shall have amusement, better still, 
 Instruction ! no more horse-play, naming names, 
 Taxing the fancy when plain sense will serve ! 
 Thearion, now, my friend who bakes you bread,
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 253 
 
 What's worthier limning than his household life ? 
 His whims and ways, his quarrels with the spouse, 
 And how the son, instead of learning knead 
 Kilikian loaves, brings heart-break on his sire 
 By buying horseflesh branded San, each flank, 
 From shrewd Menippos who imports the ware : 
 While pretty daughter Kepphd too much haunts 
 The shop of Sporgilos the barber ! brave ! 
 Out with Thearion's meal-tub politics 
 In lieu of Pisthetairos, Strepsiades ! 
 That's your exchange ? O Muse of Megara ! 
 Advise the fools ' Feed babe on weasel-lap 
 For wild-boards marrow, Cheirorfs hero-pap, 
 And rear, for man Ariphrades, mayhap ! ' 
 Yes, my Balaustion, yes, my Euthukles, 
 That's your exchange, who, foreigners in f ac: 
 And fancy, would impose your squeamishness 
 On sturdy health, and substitute such brat 
 For the right offspring of us Rocky Ones, 
 Because babe kicks the cradle, crows, not 
 mewls !
 
 254 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 "Which brings me to the prime fault, poison-speck 
 
 Whence all the plague springs that first feud of all 
 
 'Twixt me and you and your Euripides. 
 
 'Unworld the world' frowns he, my opposite. 
 
 I cry, ' Life ! ' ' Death,' he groans, ' our better Life \ ' 
 
 Despise what is the good and graspable. 
 
 Prefer the out of sight and in at mind, 
 
 To village-joy, the well-side violet-patch, 
 
 The jolly club-feast when our field's in soak, 
 
 Roast thrushes, haresoup, peasoup, deep washed down 
 
 With Peparethian ; the prompt paying off 
 
 That black-eyed brown-skinned country-flavored wench 
 
 We caught among our brushwood foraging : 
 
 On these look fig-juice, curdle up life's cream, 
 
 And fall to magnifying misery ! 
 
 Or, if you condescend to happiness, 
 
 Why, talk, talk, talk about the empty name 
 
 While thing's self lies neglected 'neath your nose 1 
 
 / need particular discourtesy 
 
 And private insult from Euripides 
 
 To render contest with him credible ?
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 255 
 
 Say, all of me is outraged ! one stretched sense, 
 
 I represent the whole Republic, gods, 
 
 Heroes, priests, legislators, poets, prone, 
 
 And pummelled into insignificance, 
 
 Jf will in him were matched with power of stroke. 
 
 For see what he has changed or hoped to change ! 
 
 How few years since, when he began the fight, 
 
 Did there beat life indeed Athenai through! 
 
 Plenty and peace, then ! Hellas thundersmote 
 
 The Persian. He himself had birth, you say, 
 
 That morn salvation broke at Salamis, 
 
 And heroes still walked earth. Themistokles 
 
 Surely his mere back-stretch of hand could still 
 
 Find, not so lost in dark, Odusseus ? he 
 
 Holding as surely on to Herakles, 
 
 Who touched Zeus, link and link, the unruptured 
 
 chain! 
 
 Were poets absent ? Aischulos might hail 
 With Pindaros, Theognis, whom for sire ? 
 Homeros' self, departed yesterday ! 
 While Hellas, saved and sung to, then and thus,
 
 256 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Ah, people, ah, lost antique liberty ! 
 
 We lived, ourselves, undoubted lords of earth : 
 
 Wherever olives flourish, corn yields crop 
 
 To constitute our title ours such land ! 
 
 Outside of oil and breadstuff, barbarism ! 
 
 What need of conquest ? Let barbarians starve ! 
 
 Devote our whole strength to our sole defence, 
 
 Content with peerless native products, home, 
 
 Beauty profuse in earth's mere sights and sounds, 
 
 Such men, such women, and such gods their guard ! 
 
 The gods ? he worshipped best who feared them most. 
 
 And left their nature uninquired into, 
 
 Nature ? their very names ! pay reverence, 
 
 Do sacrifice for our part, theirs would be 
 
 To prove benignantest of playfellows. 
 
 With kindly humanism they countenanced 
 
 Our emulation of divine escapes 
 
 Through sense and soul : soul, sense are made to use ! 
 
 Use each, acknowledging its god the while ! 
 
 Crush grape, dance, drink, indulge, for Bacchos' sake 
 
 Tis Aphrodite^s feast-day frisk and fling,
 
 ARISTOPHANRS' APOLOGY. 257 
 
 Provided we observe our oaths, and house 
 Duly the stranger : Zeus takes umbrage else ! 
 Ah, the great time had I been there to taste ! 
 Perikles, right Olympian, occupied 
 As yet with getting an Olumpos reared 
 Marble and gold above Akropolis, 
 Wisely so spends what thrifty fools amassed 
 For cut-throat projects. Who carves Promachos ? 
 Who writes the Oresteia? 
 
 "Ah, the time ! 
 
 For, all at once, a cloud has blanched the blue, 
 A cold wind creeps through the close vineyard-rank 
 The olive-leaves curl, violets crisp and close 
 Like a nymph's wrinkling at the bath's first splash 
 (Your pardon !) There's a restlessness, a change, 
 Deterioration. Larks and nightingales 
 Are silenced, here and there a gor-crow grim 
 Flaps past, as scenting opportunity. 
 Where Kimon passaged to the Boule once, 
 A starveling crew, unkempt, unshorn, unwashed,
 
 258 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Occupy altar-base and temple-step, 
 Are minded to indoctrinate our youth ! 
 How call these carrion kill-joys that intrude ? 
 'Wise men,' their nomenclature! Prodikos 
 Who scarce could, unassisted, pick his steps 
 From way Theseia to the Tripod's way, 
 This empty noddle comprehends the sun, 
 How he's Aigina's bigness, wheels no whit 
 His way from east to west, nor wants a steed ! 
 And here's Protagoras sets wrongheads right, 
 Explains what virtue, vice, truth, falsehood mean, 
 Makes all we seemed 'to know prove ignorance 
 Yet knowledge also, since, on either side 
 Of any question, something's straight to say, 
 Nothing to 'stablish, all things to disturb ! 
 And shall youth go and play at kottabos, 
 Leaving unsettled whether moon-spots breed ? 
 Or dare keep Choes ere the problem's solved 
 Why should I like my wife who dislikes me ? 
 But sure the gods permit this, censure that ? ' 
 So tell them ! straight the answer's in your teeth :
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 259 
 
 'You relegate these points, then, to the gods? 
 What and where are they ? ' ' What my sire supposed, 
 And where yon cloud conceals them !'...' Till they 
 
 'scape 
 
 And scramble down to Leda, as a swan, 
 Europa, as a bull ! why not as ass 
 To somebody ? Your sire was Zeus perhaps ! 
 Either away with such ineptitude ! 
 Or, wanting energy to break your bonds, 
 Stick to the good old stories, think the rain 
 Is Zeus distilling pickle through a sieve ! 
 Think thunder's thrown to break Theoros' head 
 For breaking oaths first! So you let ourselves 
 Instruct your progeny what fools are you 
 For fearing Zeus, who is the atmosphere, 
 Brother Poseidon, otherwise called sea, 
 And son Hephaistos fire and nothing else ! 
 Over which nothings there's a something still, 
 " Necessity," that rules the universe 
 And cares as much about your Choes-feast 
 Performed or intermitted, as you care
 
 260 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Whether gnats sound their trump from head or tail ! 
 
 When, stupefied at such philosophy, 
 
 We cry, ' Arrest the madmen, governor ! 
 
 Pound hemlock and pour bull's-blood, Perikles ! ' 
 
 Would you believe? The Olympian bends his brow, 
 
 Scarce pauses from his building ! ' Say they thus ? 
 
 Then, they say wisely. Anaxagoras, 
 
 I had not known how simple proves eclipse 
 
 But for thy teaching ! Go, men, learn like me ! ' 
 
 " ' Well, Zeus nods : man must reconcile himself, 
 
 So, let the Charon's-company harangue, 
 
 And Anaxagoras be as we wish ! 
 
 A comfort is in nature : while grass grows 
 
 And water runs, and sesame pricks tongue, 
 
 And honey from Brilesian hollow melts 
 
 On mouth, and Bacchis' lip beats both, my boy, 
 
 You will not be untaught life's use, young man ? ' 
 
 Pho ! My young man just proves that panniered ass 
 
 Said to have borne Youth strapped on his stout back, 
 
 Who bargained with a serpent, let him swap
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 261 
 
 The priceless boon for water to quench thirst! 
 What's youth to my young man? In love with age, 
 He Spartanizes, argues, fasts and prates, 
 Denies the plainest rules of life, long since 
 Proved sound ; sets all authority aside, 
 Must simply recommence things, learn ere act, 
 And think out thoroughly how youth should pass 
 Just as if youth stops passing, all the same ! 
 
 " One last resource is left us poetry ! 
 
 ' Vindicate nature, prove Plataian help, 
 
 Turn out, a thousand strong, all right and tight, 
 
 To save Sense, poet! Bang the sophist brood 
 
 Would cheat man out of wholesome sustenance 
 
 By swearing wine is water, honey gall 
 
 Saperdion The Empousa! Panic-smit, 
 
 Our juveniles abstain from Sense and starve. 
 
 Be yours to disenchant them ! Change things back ! 
 
 Or better, strain a point the other way 
 
 And handsomely exaggerate wronged truth ! 
 
 Lend wine a glory never gained from grape,
 
 262 ARISTOPHANES' 1 APOLOGY. 
 
 Help honey with a snatch of him we style 
 The Muses' Bee, bay-bloom-fed Sophokles, 
 And give Saperdion a Kimberic robe ! ' 
 
 " ' I, his successor,' gruff the answer grunts, 
 ' Incline to poetize philosophy, 
 Extend it rather than restrain ; as thus 
 Are heroes men? No more, and scarce as much, 
 Shall mine be represented. Are men poor? 
 Behold them ragged ! sick ? lame, halt and blind ! 
 Do they use speech ? Ay, street-terms, market-phrase ! 
 Having thus drawn sky earthwards, what comes next 
 But dare the opposite, lift earth to sky ? 
 Mere puppets once, I now make womankind, 
 For thinking, saying, doing, match the male. 
 Lift earth ? I drop to, dally with, earth's dung ! 
 Recognize in the very slave man's mate, 
 Declare him brave and honest, kind and true, 
 And reasonable as his lord, in brief. 
 "I paint men as they are" so runs my boast 
 "Not as they should be:" paint what's part of 
 " man,"
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 263 
 
 Wome.n and slaves, not as, to please your pride, 
 They should be, but your equals, as they are. 
 O and the Gods! Instead of abject mien, 
 Submissive whisper, while my Choros cants 
 "Zeus, with thy cubit's length of attributes, 
 May I, the ephemeral, ne'er scrutinize 
 Who made the heaven and earth and all things there 1 ' 
 Myself shall say ' . . . Ay, ' Herakles ' may help ! 
 Give me, I want the very words, attend ! " 
 
 He read. Then " Murder's out, ' There are no 
 
 gods,' 
 
 Man has no master, owns, by consequence, 
 No right, no wrong, except to please or plague 
 His nature : what man likes be man's sole law ! 
 Still, since he likes Saperdion, honey, figs, 
 Man may reach freedom by your roundabout ! 
 ' Never believe yourselves the freer thence ! 
 There are no gods, but there's " Necessity," 
 Duty enjoined you, fact in figment's place, 
 Throned on no mountain, native to the mind 1
 
 264 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Therefore deny yourselves Saperdion, figs, . 
 And honey, for the sake of what I dream, 
 A-sitting with my legs up ! * 
 
 " Infamy ! 
 
 The poet casts in calm his lot with these 
 Assailants of Apollon ! Sworn to serve 
 Each Grace, the Furies call him minister 
 He, who was born for just that rosy world 
 Renounced so madly, where what's false is fact, 
 Where he makes beauty out of ugliness, 
 Where he lives, life itself disguised for him 
 As immortality so works the spell, 
 Enthusiastic mood which marks a man 
 Muse-mad, dream-drunken, wrapt around by verse, 
 Encircled still with poet-atmosphere, 
 As lark emballed by its own crystal song, 
 Or rose enmisted by that scent it makes ! 
 No, this were unreality ! the real 
 He wants, not falsehood, truth alone he seeks, 
 Truth, for all beauty! Beauty, in all truth
 
 ARISTOPHANES' 1 APOLOGJ'. 265 
 
 That's certain somehow ! Must the eagle lilt 
 Lark-like, needs fir-tree blossom rose-like ? No ! 
 Strength and utility charm more than grace, 
 And what's most ugly proves most beautiful. 
 So much assistance from Euripides! 
 
 "Whereupon I betake me, since needs must, 
 
 To a concluding 'Go and feed the crows! 
 
 Do ! Spoil your art as you renounce your life, 
 
 Poetize your so precious system, do, 
 
 Degrade the hero, nullify the god, 
 
 Exhibit women, slaves and men as peers, 
 
 Your castigation follows prompt enough I 
 
 When all's concocted up stairs, heels o'er-head, 
 
 Down must submissive drop the masterpiece 
 
 For public praise or blame : so, praise away, 
 
 Friend Sokrates, wife's-friend Kephisophon ! 
 
 Boast innovations, cramp phrase, uncouth song, 
 
 Hard matter and harsh manner, gods, men, 
 
 slaves 
 And women jumbled to a laughing-stock
 
 266 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Which Hellas shall hold sides at lest she split ! 
 Hellas, on these, shall have her word to say ! ' 
 
 " She has it and she says it there's the curse ! - 
 
 She finds he makes the shag-rag hero-race, 
 
 The noble slaves, wise women, move as much 
 
 Pity and terror as true tragic types : 
 
 Applauds inventiveness the plot so new, 
 
 The turn and trick subsidiary so strange ! 
 
 She relishes that homely phrase of life, 
 
 That common town-talk, more than trumpet-blasts ; 
 
 Accords him right to chop and change a myth; 
 
 ' What better right had he, who told the tale 
 
 In the first instance, to embellish fact ? 
 
 This bard may disembellish yet improve ! 
 
 Both find a block : this man carves back to bull 
 
 What first his predecessor cut to sphynx: 
 
 Such genuine actual roarer, nature's brute, 
 
 Intelligible to our time, was sure 
 
 The old-world artist's purpose, had he worked 
 
 To mind ; this artist means and makes the thing !
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 26j 
 
 Then, past dispute, the verse slips oily-bathed 
 
 In unctuous music : say, effeminate 
 
 You also say, like Kuthereia's self, 
 
 A lulling effluence which enswathes some isle 
 
 Where hides a nymph, not seen but felt the more.' 
 
 That's He>las' verdict! 
 
 " Does Euripides 
 
 Even so far absolved, remain content? 
 Nowise ! His task is to refine, refine, 
 Divide, distinguish, subtilize away 
 Whatever seemed a solid planting-place 
 For footfall, not in that phantasmal spher^ 
 Proper to poet, but on vulgar earth 
 Where people used to tread with confidence. 
 There's left no longer one plain positive 
 Enunciation incontestable 
 
 Of what's good, right and decent here on earth. 
 Nobody now can say, ' this plot is mine, 
 Though but a plethron square, my duty ! ' 'Yours? 
 Mine, or at least not yours,' snaps somebody!
 
 268 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 And, whether the dispute be parent-right 
 
 Or children's service, husband's privilege 
 
 Or wife's submission, there's a snarling straight, 
 
 Smart passage of opposing ' yea ' and ' nay,' 
 
 ' Should,' ' should not,' till, howe'er the contest end, 
 
 Spectators go off sighing, ' Clever thrust ! \ 
 
 Why was I so much hurried to pay debt, 
 
 Attend my mother, sacrifice an ox, 
 
 And set my name down " for a trireme, good " ? 
 
 Something I might have urged on t'other side ! 
 
 No doubt, Chresphontes or Bellerophon 
 
 We don't meet every day; but Stab-and-stitch 
 
 The tailor ere I turn the drachmas o'er 
 
 I owe him for a chiton, as he thinks, 
 
 I'll pose the blockhead with an argument ! ' 
 
 " So has he triumphed, your Euripides ! 
 Oh, I concede, he rarely gained a prize : 
 That's quite another matter ! cause for that 1 
 Still, when 'twas got by Ions, lophons, 
 Off he would pace confoundedly superb,
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 269 
 
 Supreme, no smile at movement on his mouth 
 
 Till Sokrates winked, whispered: out it broke! 
 
 And Aristullos jotted down the jest, 
 
 While lophons or Ions, bay on brow, 
 
 Looked queerly, and the foreigners like you 
 
 Asked o'er the border with a puzzled smile 
 
 ' And so, you value Ions, lophons, 
 
 Euphorions ! How about Euripides ? ' 
 
 (Eh, brave bard's - champion ? Dof^ the angei 
 
 boil? 
 
 Keep within bounds a moment, eye and lip 
 Shall loose their doom on me, their fiery worst ! ) 
 What strangers ? Archelaos heads the file ! 
 He sympathizes, he concerns himself, 
 He pens epistle, each successless play: 
 ' Athenai sinks effete there's younger blood 
 In Makedonia. Visit where I rule ! 
 Do honor to me and take gratitude ! 
 Live the guest's life, or work the poet's way, 
 Which also means the statesman's : he who wrote 
 Erechtheus ' may be rawly politic
 
 27 ARISTOPHANES' 1 APOLOGY. 
 
 At home where Kleophon is ripe ; but here 
 My council-board permits him choice of seats.' 
 
 " Now, this was operating, what should prove 
 
 A poison-tree, had flowered far on to fruit 
 
 For many a year, when I was moved, first man, 
 
 To dare the adventure, down with root and branch. 
 
 So, from its sheath I drew my Comic steel, 
 
 And dared what I am now to justify. 
 
 A serious question first, though ! 
 
 f 
 
 " Once again ! 
 
 Do you believe, when I aspired in youth, 
 I made no estimate of power at all, 
 Nor paused long, nor considered much, what class 
 Of fighters I might claim to join, beside 
 That class wherewith I cast in company ? 
 Say, you profuse of praise no less than blame 
 Could not I have competed franker phrase 
 Might trulier correspond to meaning still, 
 Competed with your Tragic paragon?
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 271 
 
 Suppose me minded simply to make verse, 
 
 To fabricate, parade resplendent arms, 
 
 Flourish and sparkle out a Trilogy, 
 
 Where was the hinderance ? But my soul bade ' Fight ! 
 
 Leave flourishing for mock-foe, pleasure -time ; 
 
 Prove arms efficient on real heads and hearts ! ' 
 
 How? With degeneracy sapping fast 
 
 The Marathonian muscle, nerved of old 
 
 To maul the Mede, now strung at best to help 
 
 How did I fable ? War and Hubbub mash 
 
 To mincemeat Fatherland and Brotherhood, 
 
 Pound in their mortar Hellas, State by State, 
 
 That greed might gorge, the while frivolity 
 
 Rubbed hands and smacked lips o'er the dainty dish ! 
 
 Authority, experience pushed aside 
 
 By any upstart pleading throng and press 
 
 O' the people ! ' Think, say, do thus ! ' Wherefore, 
 
 pray ? 
 
 'We are the people: who impugns our right 
 Of choosing Kleon that tans hide so well, 
 Huperbolos that turns out lamps so trim,
 
 272 ARISTOPHANES^ APOLOGY. 
 
 Hemp-seller Eukrates or Lusikles 
 
 Sheep-dealer, Kephalos the potter's son, 
 
 Diitriphes who weaves the willow-work 
 
 To go round bottles, and Nausikudes 
 
 The meal -man ? Such we choose and more, their mates, 
 
 To think and say and do in our behalf ! ' 
 
 While sophistry wagged tongue, emboldened still, 
 
 Found matter to propose, contest, defend, 
 
 'Stablish, turn topsyturvy, all the same, 
 
 No matter what, provided the result 
 
 Were something new in place of something old, 
 
 Set wagging by pure insolence of soul 
 
 Which needs must pry into, have warrant for 
 
 Each right, each privilege good policy 
 
 Protects from curious eye and prating mouth ! 
 
 Everywhere lust to shape the world anew, 
 
 Spurn this Athenai as we find her, build 
 
 A new impossible Cloudcuckooburg 
 
 For feather-headed birds, once solid men, 
 
 Where rules, discarding jolly habitude, 
 
 Nourished on myrtle-berries and stray ants,
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 273 
 
 King Tereus who, turned Hoopoe Triple-Crest, 
 Shall terrify and bring the gods to terms ! 
 
 " Where was I ? Oh ! Things ailing thus I ask, 
 
 What cure ? Cut, thrust, hack, hew at heap-on-heaped 
 
 Abomination with the exquisite 
 
 Palaistra-tool of polished Tragedy? 
 
 ' Erechtheus ' shall harangue Amphiktuon, 
 
 And incidentally drop word of weight 
 
 On justice, righteousness, so turn aside 
 
 The audience from attacking Sicily ! 
 
 The more that Chores, after he recounts 
 
 How Phrixos rode the ram, the far-famed Fleece, 
 
 Shall add at last fall of grave dancing-foot 
 
 ' Aggression never yet was helped by Zeus ! ' 
 
 That helps or hinders Alkibiades ? 
 
 As well expect, should Pheidias carve Zeus' self 
 
 And set him up, some half a mile away, 
 
 His frown would frighten sparrows from your field / 
 
 Eagles may recognize their lord, belike, 
 
 But as for vulgar sparrows, change the god,
 
 274 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 And plant some big Priapos with a pole ! 
 
 I wield the Comic weapon rather hate ! 
 
 Hate ! honest, earnest, and directest hate 
 
 Warfare wherein I close with enemy, 
 
 Call him one name and fifty epithets, 
 
 Remind you his great-grandfather sold bran, 
 
 Describe the new exomion, sleeveless coat 
 
 He knocked me down last night and robbed me of, 
 
 Protest he voted for a tax on air ! 
 
 And all this hate if I write Comedy 
 
 With tolerance, most like applause, perhaps 
 
 True veneration ; for I praise the god 
 
 Present in person of his minister, 
 
 And pay the wilder my extravagance 
 
 The more appropriate worship to the Power 
 
 Adulterous, night-roaming, and the rest : 
 
 Otherwise, that originative force 
 
 Of nature, impulse stirring death to life, 
 
 Which, underlying law, seems lawlessness, 
 
 Yet is the outbreak which, ere order be, 
 
 Must thrill creation through, warm stocks and stones,
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 275 
 
 Phales lacchos. 
 
 " Comedy for me ! 
 
 Why not for you, my Tragic masters? Sneaks 
 Whose art is mere desertion of a trust ! 
 Such weapons lay to hand, the ready club, 
 The clay-ball, on the ground a stone to snatch, 
 Arms fit to bruise the boar's neck, break the chine 
 O' the wolf, and you must impiously despise? 
 No, I'll say, furtively let fall that trust 
 Consigned you! 'Twas not 'take or leave alone,' 
 But ' take and, wielding, recognize your god 
 In his prime attributes ! ' And though full soon 
 You sneaked, subsided into poetry, 
 Nor met your due reward, still, heroize 
 And speechify and sing-song and forego 
 Far as you may your function, still its pact 
 "Endures, one piece of early homage still 
 Exacted of you ; after your three bouts 
 At hoitytoity, great men with long words, 
 And so forth, at the end, must tack itself 
 The genuine sample, the Satyric Play,
 
 276 ARISTOPHANES' 1 APOLOGY. 
 
 Concession, with its wood-boys' fun and freak, 
 
 To the true taste of the mere multitude. 
 
 Yet, there again ! What does your Still-at-itch, 
 
 Always-the-innovator ? Shrugs and shirks ! 
 
 Out of his fifty Trilogies, some five 
 
 Are somehow suited : Satyrs dance and sing, 
 
 Try merriment, a grimly prank or two, 
 
 Sour joke squeezed through pursed lips and teeth on 
 
 edge, 
 
 Then quick on top of toe to pastoral sport, 
 Goat-tending and sheep-herding, cheese and cream, 
 Soft grass and silver rillets, country-fare 
 When throats were promised Thasian ! Five such 
 
 feats, 
 
 Then frankly off he threw the yoke : next Droll, 
 Next festive drama, covenanted fun, 
 Decent reversion to indecency, 
 Proved your ' Alkestis ! ' There's quite fun 
 
 enough, 
 
 Herakles drunk ! From out fate's blackening wave 
 Calamitous, just zigzags some shot star,
 
 ARISTOPHANES' 1 APOLOGY. 277 
 
 Poor promise of faint joy, and turns the laugh 
 
 On dupes whose fears and tears were all in waste ! 
 
 " For which sufficient reasons, in truth's name, 
 I closed with whom you count the Meaner Muse. 
 Classed me with Comic Poets who should weld 
 Dark with bright metal, show their blade may keep 
 Its adamantine birthright though a-blaze 
 With poetry, the gold, and wit, the gem, 
 And strike mere gold, unstiffened out by steel, 
 Gem, no rough iron joints its strength around, 
 From hand of posturer, not combatant ! 
 
 " Such was my purpose : it succeeds, I say ! 
 
 Have not we beaten Kallikratidas, 
 
 Not humbled Spartd ? Peace awaits our word, 
 
 In spite of Theramenes, and his like. 
 
 Since my previsions, warranted too well 
 
 By the long war now waged and worn to end 
 
 Had spared such heritage of misery, 
 
 My after-counsels scarce need fear repulse. 
 
 Athenai, taught prosperity has wings,
 
 278 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Cages the glad recapture. Demos, see, 
 
 From folly's premature decrepitude 
 
 Boiled young again, emerges from the stew 
 
 Of twenty-five years' trouble, sits and sways, 
 
 One brilliance and one balsam, sways and sits 
 
 Monarch of Hellas ! ay and, sage again, 
 
 No longer jeopardizes chieftainship, 
 
 No longer loves the brutish demagogue 
 
 Appointed by a bestial multitude, 
 
 But seeks out sound advisers. Who are they ? 
 
 Ourselves, of parentage proved wise and good ! 
 
 To such may hap stfains thwarting quality, 
 
 (As where shall want its flaw mere human stuff?) 
 
 Still, the right grain is proper to right race ; 
 
 What's contrary, call curious accident ! 
 
 Hold by the usual ! Orchard-grafted tree, 
 
 Not wilding, race-horse-sired, not rouncey-born, 
 
 Aristocrat, no sausage-selling snob ! 
 
 Nay, why not Alkibiades, come back 
 
 Filled by the Genius, freed of petulance, 
 
 Frailty, say, youthfulness that's all at fault,
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 279 
 
 Renewed to Perikles and something more ? 
 
 Being at least our duly born and bred, 
 
 Curse on what chaunoprockt first gained his ear 
 
 And got his . . . well, once true man in right place, 
 
 Our commonalty soon content themselves 
 
 With doing just what they are born to do, 
 
 Eat, drink, make merry, mind their own affairs 
 
 And leave state-business to the larger brain ! 
 
 I do not stickle for their punishment ; ' 
 
 But certain culprits have a cloak to twitch, 
 
 A purse to pay the piper: flog, say I, 
 
 Your fine fantastics, paragons of parts, 
 
 Who choose to play the important ! Far from side 
 
 With us, their natural supports, allies, 
 
 And, best by brain, help who are best by birth 
 
 To fortify each weak point in the wall 
 
 Built broad and wide and deep for permanence 
 
 Between what's high and low, what's rare and vile, 
 
 They cast their lot perversely in with low 
 
 And vile, lay flat the barrier, lift the mob 
 
 To dizzy heights where Privilege stood firm.
 
 280 ARISTOPHANES' 1 APOLOGY. 
 
 And then, simplicity become conceit, 
 
 Woman, slave, common soldier, artisan, 
 
 Crazy with new-found worth, new-fangled claims, 
 
 These must be taught next how to use their heads 
 
 And hands in driving man's right to mob's rule ! 
 
 What fellows thus inflame the multitude ? 
 
 Your Sokrates, still crying, ' Understand ! ' 
 
 Your Aristullos, ' Argue ! ' Last and worst, 
 
 Should, by good fortune, mob still hesitate, 
 
 Remember there's degree in heaven and earth, 
 
 Cry, ' Aischulos enjoined us fear the gods, 
 
 And Sophokles advised respect the kings ! ' 
 
 Why, your Euripides informs them Gods ? 
 
 They are not ! Kings ? They are, but ... do not I, 
 
 In ' Suppliants,' make my Theseus, yours, no 
 
 more, 
 
 Fire up at insult of who styles him King? 
 Tlay off that Herald, I despise the most, 
 As patronizing kings' prerogative 
 Against a Theseus proud to dare no step 
 Till he consult the people ?
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 281 
 
 "Such as these 
 
 Ah, you expect I am for strangling straight? 
 Nowise, Balaustion ! All my roundabout 
 Ends at beginning, with my own defence ! 
 I dose each culprit just with Comedy. 
 Let each be doctored in exact the mode 
 Himself prescribes: by words, the word-monger 
 My words to his words, my lies, if you like, 
 To his lies. Sokrates I nickname thief, 
 Quack, necromancer; Aristullos, say, 
 Male Kirke* who bewitches and bewrays 
 And changes folk to swine ; Euripides, 
 Well, I acknowledge ! Every word is false, 
 Looked close at ; but stand distant and stare through, 
 All's absolute indubitable truth 
 Behind lies, truth which only lies declare! 
 For come, concede me truth's in thing not word, 
 Meaning not manner ! Love smiles * rogue r and 
 
 'wretch* : **; 
 
 \\1ien ' sweet ' and ' dear ' seem vapid ; Hate adopts 
 Love's ' sweet * and ' dear,' when * rogue ' and ' wretch 
 
 fall flat ;
 
 282 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Love, Hate are truths, then, each, in sense not 
 
 sound. 
 
 Further : if Love, remaining Love, fell back 
 On ' sweet ' and ' dear,' if Hate, though Hate the 
 
 same, 
 Dropped down to ' rogue ' and ' wretch,' each 
 
 phrase were false. 
 
 Good! and now grant I hate no matter whom 
 With reason : I must therefore fight my foe, 
 Finish the mischief which made enmity. 
 How ? By employing means to most hurt him 
 Who much harmed me. What way did he do harm ? 
 Through word or deed ? Through word ? with word, 
 
 wage war! 
 
 Word with myself directly ? As direct 
 Reply shall follow : word to you, the wise, 
 Whence indirectly came the harm to me? 
 What wisdom I can muster waits on such j 
 Word to the populace which, misconceived 
 By ignorance and incapacity, 
 Ends in no such effect as follows cause
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 283 
 
 When I, or you the wise, are reasoned with, 
 
 So damages what I and you hold dear ? 
 
 In that event, I ply the populace 
 
 With just such word as leavens their whole lump 
 
 To the right ferment for my purpose. They 
 
 Arbitrate properly between us both? 
 
 They weigh my answer with his argument, 
 
 Match quip with quibble, wit with eloquence? 
 
 All they attain to understand is blank! 
 
 Two adversaries differ ! which is right 
 
 And which is wrong, none takes on him to say, 
 
 Since both are unintelligible. Pooh ! 
 
 Swear my foe's mother vended herbs she stole, 
 
 They fall a-laughing! Add, his household drudge 
 
 Of all-work justifies that office well, 
 
 Kisses the wife, composing him the play, 
 
 They grin at whom they gaped in wonderment, 
 
 And go off ' Was he such a sorry scrub ? 
 
 This other seems to know ! we praised too fast ! ' 
 
 Why then, my lies have done the work of truth, 
 
 Since ' scrub,' improper designation, means
 
 284 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Exactly what the proper argument 
 
 Had such been comprehensible proposed 
 
 To proper audience were I graced with such 
 
 Would properly result in ; so your friend 
 
 Gets an impartial verdict on his verse, 
 
 ' The tongue swears, but the soul remains unsworn ! 
 
 " There, my Balaustion ! All is summed and said. 
 
 No other cause of quarrel with yourself ! 
 
 Euripides and Aristophanes 
 
 Differ : he needs must round our difference 
 
 Into the mob's ear ; with the mob I plead. 
 
 You angrily start forward ' This to me ? ' 
 
 No speck of this on you the thrice refined ! 
 
 Could parley be restricted to us two, 
 
 My first of duties were to clear up doubt 
 
 As to our true divergence each from each. 
 
 Does my opinion so diverge from yours? 
 
 Probably less than little not at all 
 
 To know a matter, for my very self 
 
 And intimates that's one thing ; to imply
 
 ARISTOPHANES 1 APOLOGY. 285 
 
 By ' knowledge ' loosing whatsoe'er I know 
 Among the vulgar who, by mere mistake, 
 May brain themselves and me in consequence, 
 That's quite another. ' O the daring flight ! 
 This only bard maintains the exalted brow, 
 Nor grovels in the slime nor fears the gods ! ' 
 Did / fear / play superstitious fool, 
 Who, with the due proviso, introduced, 
 Active and passive, their whole company 
 As creatures too absurd for scorn itself? 
 Zeus? I have styled him 'slave, mere thrashing- 
 block ! ' 
 
 I'll tell you: in my very next of plays, 
 At Bacchos' feast, in Bacchos' honor, full 
 In front of Bacchos' representative, 
 I mean to make main-actor Bacchos' self! 
 Forth shall he strut, apparent, first to last, 
 A blockhead, coward, braggart, liar, thief, 
 Demonstrated all these by his own mere 
 Xanthias the man-slave : such man shows such god 
 Shamed to brute-beastship by comparison !
 
 286 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 And when ears have their fill of his abuse, 
 
 And eyes are sated with his pommelling, 
 
 My Chores taking care, by, all the while 
 
 Singing his glory, that men recognize 
 
 A god in the abused and pommelled beast, 
 
 Then, should one ear be stopped of auditor, 
 
 Should one spectator shut revolted eye, 
 
 Why, the Priest's self will first raise outraged voice 
 
 ' Back, thou barbarian, thou ineptitude ! 
 
 Does not most license hallow best our day, 
 
 And least decorum prove its strictest rite ? 
 
 Since Bacchos bids his followers play the fool, 
 
 And there's no fooling like a majesty 
 
 Mocked at, who mocks the god, obeys the law 
 
 Law which, impute but indiscretion to, 
 
 And . . . why, the spirit of Euripides 
 
 Is evidently active in the world ! ' 
 
 Do I stop here ? No ! feat of flightier force ! 
 
 See Hermes ! what commotion raged, reflect ! 
 
 When imaged god alone got injury 
 
 By drunkards' frolic 1 How Athenai stared 

 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 287 
 
 Aghast, then fell to frenzy, fit on fit, 
 
 Ever the last, the longest ! At this hour, 
 
 The craze abates a little; so, my Play 
 
 Shall have up Hermes : and a Karion, slave, 
 
 (Since there's no getting lower) calls our friend 
 
 The profitable god, we honor so, 
 
 Whatever contumely fouls the mouth 
 
 Bids him go earn more honest livelihood 
 
 By washing tripe in well-trough wash he does, 
 
 Duly obedient ! Have I dared my best ? 
 
 Asklepios, answer ! deity in vogue, 
 
 Who visits Sophokles familiarly, 
 
 If you believe the old man, at his age, 
 
 Living is dreaming, and strange guests haunt door 
 
 Of house, belike, peep through and tap at times 
 
 When a friend yawns there, waiting to be fetched, 
 
 At any rate, to memorize the fact, 
 
 He has spent money, set an altar up 
 
 In the god's temple, now in much repute. 
 
 That temple-service trust me to describe 
 
 Cheaters and choused, the god, his brace of girls,
 
 288 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Their snake, and how they manage to snap gifts 
 'And consecrate the same into a bag,' 
 For whimsies done away with in the dark ! 
 As if, a stone's throw from that theatre 
 Whereon I thus unmask their dupery, 
 The thing were not religious and august ! 
 
 "Of Sophokles himself nor word nor sign 
 
 Beyond a harmless parody or so ! 
 
 He founds no anti-school, upsets no faith, 
 
 But, living, lets live, the good easy soul 
 
 Who, if he saves his cash, unpoetlike, 
 
 Loves wine and never mind what other sport, 
 
 Boasts for his father just a sword-blade-smith, 
 
 Proves but queer captain when the people claim, 
 
 For one who conquered with 'Antigone,' 
 
 The right to undertake a squadron's charge, 
 
 And needs the son's help now to finish plays, 
 
 Seeing his dotage calls for governance 
 
 And lophon to share his property, 
 
 Why, of all this, reported true, I breathe
 
 ARISTOPHANES 1 APOLOGY. 289 
 
 Not one word true or false, I like the man ! 
 Sophokles lives, and lets live : long live he ! 
 Otherwise, sharp the scourge and hard the blow ! 
 
 "And what's my teaching but accept the old, 
 
 Contest the strange ! acknowledge work that's done, 
 
 Misdoubt men who have still their work to do ! 
 
 Religions, laws and customs, poetries, 
 
 Are old ? So much achieved victorious truth ! 
 
 Each work was product of a lifetime, wrung 
 
 From each man by an adverse world: for why' 
 
 He worked, destroying other older work 
 
 Which the world loved and so was loath to lose. 
 
 Whom the world beat in battle dust and ash! 
 
 Who beat the world, left work in evidence, 
 
 And wears its crown till new men live new lives, 
 
 And fight new fights, and triumph in their turn. 
 
 I mean to show you on the stage ! you'll see 
 
 My Just Judge only venture to decide 
 
 Between two suitors, which is god, which man, 
 
 By thrashing both of them as flesh can bear.
 
 290 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 You shall agree, whichever bellows first, 
 He's human ; who holds longest out, divine : 
 That is the only equitable test ! 
 Cruelty ? Pray, who pricked them on to court 
 My thong's award ? Must they needs dominate ? 
 Then I rebel ! Their instinct grasps the new ? 
 Mine bids retain the old : a fight must be, 
 And which is stronger the event will show. 
 
 but the pain ! Your proved divinity 
 
 Still smarts all reddened ? And the rightlier served ! 
 Was not some man's-flesh in him, after all ? 
 Do let us lack no frank acknowledgment 
 There's nature common to both gods and men ! 
 All of them spirit? What so winced was clay! 
 Away pretence to some exclusive sphere 
 Cloud-nourishing a sole selected few 
 Fume-fed with self -superiority ! 
 
 1 stand up for the common coarse-as-clay 
 Existence, stamp and ramp with heel and hoof 
 On solid vulgar life, you fools disown ! 
 
 Make haste from your unreal eminence,
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 291 
 
 And measure lengths with me upon that ground 
 
 Whence this mud-pellet sings and summons you! 
 
 I know the soul, too, how the spark ascends 
 
 And how it drops apace and dies away. 
 
 I am your poet-peer, man thrice your match ! 
 
 I too can lead an airy life when dead, 
 
 Fly like Kinesias when I'm cloudward bound ; 
 
 But here, no death shall mix with life it mars! 
 
 " So, my old enemy who caused the fight, 
 Own I have beaten you, Euripides ! 
 Or, if your advocate would contravene, 
 Help him, Balaustion ! Use the rosy strength ! 
 I have not done my utmost, treated you 
 As I might Aristullos, mint-perfumed, 
 Still, let the whole rage burst in brave attack! 
 Pon't pay the poor ambiguous compliment 
 Of fearing any pearl-white knuckled fist 
 Will damage this broad buttress of a brow! 
 Fancy yourself my Aristonumos, 
 Ameipsias or Sannurion : punch and pound !
 
 292 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Three cuckoos who cry ' cuckoo ! ' much I care ! 
 They boil a stone! Neblaretai ! Rattei!" 
 
 Cannot your task have end here, Euthukles? 
 Day by day glides our galley on its path : 
 Still sunrise and still sunset, Rhodes half-reached, 
 And still, my patient scribe ! no sunset's peace 
 Descends more punctual than that brow's incline 
 O'er tablets which your serviceable hand 
 Prepares to trace. Why treasure up, forsooth, 
 These relics of a night that left me rich, 
 But, in remembrance merely, makes less poor 
 None, stranger to Athenai and her past? 
 For how remembered ! As some greedy hind 
 Persuades a honeycomb, beyond the due, 
 To yield its hoarding, heedless what alloy 
 Of the poor bee's own substance taints the gold 
 Which, unforced, yields few drops, but purity, 
 So would you fain relieve of load this brain,
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 293 
 
 Though the hived thoughts must bring away, with 
 
 strength, 
 
 What words and weakness, strength's receptacle 
 Wax from the store ! Yet, aching soothed away, 
 Accept the compound ! No suspected scent 
 But proves some rose was rifled, though its ghost 
 Scarce lingers with what promised musk and myrrh. 
 No need of farther squeezing! What remains 
 Can only be Balaustion, just her speech ! 
 
 Ah, but because speech serves a purpose still ! 
 
 He ended with that flourish. I replied, 
 
 "Fancy myself your Aristonumos? 
 
 Advise me, rather, to remain myself, 
 
 Balaustion, mindful what mere mouse confronts 
 
 The forest-monarch Aristophanes ! 
 
 t who, a woman, claim no quality
 
 294 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Beside the love of all things lovable 
 
 Created by that power pre-eminent 
 
 In knowledge, as in love I stand perchance, 
 
 You, the consummately-creative ! How 
 
 Should I, then, dare deny submissive trust 
 
 To any process aiming at result 
 
 Such as you say your songs are pregnant with? 
 
 Result, all judge : means, let none scrutinize 
 
 Save those aware how glory best is gained 
 
 By daring means to end, ashamed of shame, 
 
 Constant in faith that only good works good, 
 
 While evil yields no fruit but impotence ! 
 
 Graced with such plain good, I accept the means 1 
 
 Nay, if result itself in turn become 
 
 Means, who shall say ? to ends still loftier yet, - 
 
 Though still the good prove hard to understand, 
 
 The bad still seemingly predominate, 
 
 Never may I forget which order bears 
 
 The burden, toils to win the great reward, 
 
 And finds, in failure, the grave punishment, 
 
 So, meantime, claims of me a faith I yield!
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 295 
 
 Moreover, a mere woman, I recoil 
 
 From what may prove man's-work permissible, 
 
 Imperative. Rough strokes surprise : what then ? 
 
 Some lusty armsweep needs must cause the crash 
 
 Of thorn and bramble ere those shrubs, those flowers, 
 
 We fain would have earth yield exclusively, 
 
 Are sown, matured, are garlanded for boys 
 
 And girls, who know not how the growth was gained. 
 
 Finally, am I not a foreigner? 
 
 No born and bred Athenian, isled about, 
 
 I scarce can drink, like you, at every breath, 
 
 Just some particular doctrine which may best 
 
 Explain the strange thing I revolt against 
 
 How by involvement, who may extricate? 
 
 Religion perks up through impiety, 
 
 Law leers with license, folly wise-like frowns, 
 
 The seemly lurks inside the abominable. 
 
 But opposites, each neutralizes each 
 
 Haply by mixture : what should promise death, 
 
 May haply give the good ingredient force, 
 
 Disperse in fume the antagonistic ill.
 
 296 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 This institution, therefore, Comedy, 
 
 By origin, a rite ; by exercise, 
 
 Proved an achievement tasking poet's power 
 
 To utmost, eking legislation out 
 
 Beyond the legislator's faculty, 
 
 Playing the censor where the moralist 
 
 Declines his function, far too dignified 
 
 For dealing with minute absurdities ; 
 
 By efficacy, virtue's guard, the scourge 
 
 Of vice, each folly's fly-flap, arm in aid 
 
 Of all that's righteous, customary, sound 
 
 And wholesome; sanctioned therefore, better say, 
 
 Prescribed for fit acceptance of this age 
 
 By, not alone the long recorded roll 
 
 Of earlier triumphs but, success to-day 
 
 (The multitude as prompt recipient still 
 
 Of good gay teaching from that monitor 
 
 They crowned this morning Aristophanes 
 
 As when Sousarion's car first traversed street) 
 
 This product of Athenai / dispute, 
 
 Impugn ? There's just one only circumstance
 
 ARISTOPHANES' 1 APOLOGY. 297 
 
 Explains that ! I, poor critic, see, hear, feel ; 
 
 But eyes, ears, senses prove me foreigner ! 
 
 Who shall gainsay that the raw new-come guest 
 
 Blames oft, too sensitive? On every side 
 
 Of larger than your stage life's spectacle, 
 
 Convention here permits and there forbids 
 
 Impulse and action, nor alleges more 
 
 Than some mysterious ' So do all, and so 
 
 Does no one : ' which the hasty stranger blames 
 
 Because, who bends the head unquestioning, 
 
 Transgresses, turns to wrong what else were right, 
 
 By failure of a reference to law 
 
 Beyond convention ; blames unjustly, too 
 
 As if, through that defect, all gained were lost 
 
 And slave-brand set on brow indelibly ; 
 
 Blames unobservant or experienceless 
 
 That men, like trees, if stout and sound and sane, 
 
 Show stem no more affected at the root 
 
 By bough's exceptional submissive dip 
 
 Of leaf and bell, light danced at end of spray 
 
 To windy fitfulness in wayward sport,
 
 298 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 No more lie prostrate, than low files of flower 
 Which, when the blast goes by, unruffled raise 
 Each head again o'er ruder meadow-wreck 
 Of thorn and thistle that refractory 
 Demurred to cower at passing wind's caprice. 
 Why shall not guest extend like charity, 
 Conceive how, even when astounded most 
 That natives seem to acquiesce in muck 
 Changed by prescription, they affirm, to gold, 
 Such may still bring to test, still bear away 
 Safely and surely much of good and true 
 Though latent ore, themselves unspecked, unspoiled? 
 Fresh bathed i' the icebrook, any hand may pass 
 A placid moment through the lamp's fierce flame : 
 And who has read your ' Lemnians,' seen ' The Hours. 
 Heard ' Female-Playhouse-seat-Pre-occupants,' 
 May feel no worse effect than, once a year, 
 Those who leave decent vesture, dress in rags 
 And play the mendicant, conform thereby 
 To country's rite, and then, no beggar-taint 
 Retained, don vesture due next morrow-day.
 
 ARISTOPHANES^ APOLOGY. 299 
 
 What if I share the stranger's weakness then? 
 Well, should I also show his strength, his sense 
 Untutored, ay ! but then untampered with ! 
 
 \ 
 " I fancy, though the world seems old enough, 
 
 Though Hellas be the sole unbarbarous land, 
 Years may conduct to such extreme of age, 
 And outside Hellas such new isles may lurk, 
 That haply, when and where remain a dream! 
 In fresh days when no Hellas fills the world, 
 In novel lands as strange where, all the same, 
 Their men and women yet behold, as we, 
 Blue heaven, black earth, and love, hate, hope and 
 
 fear, 
 
 Over again, unhelped by Attike' 
 Haply some philanthropic god steers bark, 
 Gift-laden, to the lonely ignorance 
 Islanded, say, where mist and snow mass hard 
 To metal ay, those Kassiterides ! 
 Then asks : ' Ye apprehend the human form. 
 What of this statue, made to Pheidias' mind,
 
 300 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 This picture, as it pleased our Zeuxis paint? 
 Ye too feel truth, love beauty : judge of these ! ' 
 Such strangers may judge feebly, stranger-like : 
 'Each hair too indistinct for, see our own! 
 Hands, not skin-colored as these hands we have, 
 And lo, the want of due decorum here ! 
 A citizen, arrayed in civic garb, 
 Just as he walked your streets apparently, 
 Yet wears no sword by side, adventures thus, 
 In thronged Athenai ! foolish painter's-freak ! 
 While here's his brother-sculptor found at fault 
 Still more egregiously, who shames the world,- 
 Shows wrestler, wrestling at the public games, 
 Atrociously exposed from head to foot ! ' 
 Sure, the Immortal would impart at once 
 Our slow-stored knowledge, how small truths sup- 
 pressed 
 
 Conduce to the far greater truth's display, 
 Would replace simple by instructed sense, 
 And teach Ihem how Athenai first so tamed 
 The natural fierceness that her progeny
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 301 
 
 Discarded arms nor feared the beast in man : 
 Wherefore at games, where earth's wise gratitude, 
 Proved by responsive culture, claimed the prize 
 For man's mind, body, each in excellence, 
 When mind had bared itself, came body's turn, 
 And only irreligion grudged the gods 
 One naked glory of their master-work 
 Where all is glorious rightly understood, 
 The human frame; enough that man mistakes: 
 Let him not think the gods mistaken too ! 
 
 " But, peradventure, if the stranger's eye 
 Detected . . . Ah, too high my fancy-flight ! 
 Pheidias, forgive, and Zeuxis bear with me 
 How on your faultless should I fasten fault 
 Of my own framing, even ? Only say, 
 Suppose the impossible were realized, 
 And some as patent incongruity, 
 Unseemliness, of no more warrant, there 
 And then, than now and here, whate'er the tmix. 
 And place, I say, the Immortal, who ca. 
 doubt ?
 
 302 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Would never shrink, but own ' The blot escaped 
 Our artist : thus he shows humanity ! ' 
 
 " May stranger tax one peccant part in thee, 
 Poet, three-parts divine? May I proceed? 
 
 " ' Comedy is prescription and a rite.' 
 
 Since when ? No growth of the blind antique time, 
 
 * It rose in Attikd with liberty ; 
 
 When freedom falls, it too will fall.' Scarce so ! 
 
 Your games, the Olympian, Zeus gave birth to 
 
 these ; 
 
 Your Pythian, these were Phoibos' institute. 
 Isthmian, Nemeian, Theseus, Herakles 
 Appointed each, the boys and barbers say ! 
 Earth's day is growing late : where's Comedy ? 
 ' Oh, that commenced, an age since, two, belike, 
 In Megara, whence here they brought the thing ! ' 
 Or I misunderstand, or here's the fact 
 Your grandsire could recall that rustic song, 
 How suchanone was thief, and miser such,
 
 ARISTOPHANES' 1 APOLOGY. 33 
 
 And how, immunity from chastisement 
 
 Once promised to bold singers of the same 
 
 By daylight on the drunkard's holiday, - 
 
 The clever fellow of the joyous troop 
 
 Tried acting what before he sang about, 
 
 Acted and stole, or hoarded, acting too: 
 
 While his companions ranged a-row, closed up 
 
 For Choros, bade the general rabblement 
 
 Sit, see, hear, laugh, not join the dance themselves. 
 
 Soon, the same clever fellow found a mate, 
 
 And these two did the whole stage-mimicking, 
 
 Still closer in approach to Tragedy, 
 
 So led the way to Aristophanes, 
 
 Whose grandsire saw Sousarion, and whose sire 
 
 Chionides ; yourself wrote ' Banqueters ' 
 
 When Aischulos had made 'Prometheus/ nay, 
 
 All of the man-els; Sophokles^ I'll cite, 
 
 'Oidipous' and Euripides I bend 
 
 The head ' Medeia ' henceforth awed the world ! 
 
 1 Banqueters ' ' Babylonians ' next come you ! 
 
 Surely the great days that left Hellas free
 
 34 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Happened before such advent of huge help, 
 
 Eighty-years-late assistance ? Marathon, 
 
 Plataia, Salamis were fought, I think, 
 
 Before new educators stood reproved, 
 
 Or foreign legates blushed, excepted to ! 
 
 Where did the helpful rite pretend its rise? 
 
 Did it break forth, as gifts divine are wont, 
 
 Plainly authentic, incontestably 
 
 Adequate to the helpful ordinance ? 
 
 Founts, dowered with virtue, pulse out pure from 
 
 source ; 
 
 'Tis there we taste the god's benign intent : 
 Not when, fatigued away by journey, foul 
 With brutish trampling, crystal sinks to slime, 
 And lymph forgets the first salubriousness. 
 Sprang Comedy to light thus crystal-pure ? 
 ' Nowise ! ' yourself protest with vehemence ; 
 ' Gross, bestial, did the clowns' diversion break ; 
 Every successor paddled in the slush ; 
 Nay, my contemporaries one and all 
 Gay played the mudlark till I joined their game;
 
 ARISTOPHANES^ APOLOGY. 35 
 
 Then was I first to change buffoonery 
 For wit, and stupid filth for cleanly sense, 
 Transforming pointless joke to purpose fine,. 
 Transfusing rude enforcement of home-law 
 "Drop knave's-tricks, deal more neighbor-like, ye 
 
 boors ! " 
 
 With such new glory of poetic breath 
 As, lifting application far past use 
 O' the present, launched it o'er men's lowly heads 
 To future time, when high and low alike 
 Are dead and done with, while my airy power 
 Flies disengaged, as vapor from what stuff 
 It say not, 'dwelt but fitlier, dallied with 
 To forward work, which done, deliverance brave, 
 It soars away, and mud subsides to dust. 
 Say then, myself invented Comedy ! ' 
 
 " So mouths full many a famed Parabasis ! 
 Agreed ! No more, then, of prescriptive use, 
 Authorization by antiquity, 
 For what offends our judgment! 'Tis your work,
 
 306 ARISTOPHANES 1 APOLOGY. 
 
 Performed your way: not work delivered you 
 
 Intact, intact producible in turn. 
 
 Everywhere have you altered old to new 
 
 Your will, your warrant : therefore, work must stand 
 
 Or stumble by intrinsic worth. What worth? 
 
 Its aim and object! Peace, you advocate, 
 
 And war would fain abolish from the land: 
 
 Support religion, lash irreverence, 
 
 Yet laughingly administer rebuke 
 
 To superstitious folly, equal fault ! 
 
 While innovating rashness, lust of change, 
 
 New laws, new habits, manners, men and things, 
 
 Make your main quarry, ' oldest ' meaning ' best.' 
 
 You check the fretful litigation-itch, 
 
 Withstand mob-rule, expose mob-flattery, 
 
 Punish mob-favorites ; most of all press hard 
 
 On sophists who assist the demagogue, 
 
 And poets their accomplices in crime. 
 
 Such your main quarry, by the way, you strike 
 
 Ignobler game, mere miscreants, snob or scamp, 
 
 Cowardly, gluttonous, effeminate:
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 37 
 
 Still with a bolt to spare when dramatist 
 
 Proves hapiy unproficient in his art. 
 
 Such aims alone, no matter for the means 
 
 Declare the unexampled excellence 
 
 Of their first author Aristophanes ! 
 
 "Whereat Euripides, oh, not thyself * 
 
 Augustlier than the need! thy century 
 
 Of subjects dreamed and dared and done, before 
 
 ' Banqueters ' gave dark earth enlightenment, 
 
 Or 'Babylonians' played Prometheus here, 
 
 These let me summon to defend thy cause ! 
 
 Lo, as indignantly took life and shape 
 
 Labor by labor, all of Herakles, 
 
 Palpably fronting some o'erbold pretence 
 
 ' Eurustheus slew the monsters, purged the world ! ' 
 
 So shall each poem pass you and imprint 
 
 Shame on the strange assurance. You praised Peace . 
 
 Sing him full-face, Kresphontes ! ' Peace ' the theme ? 
 
 ' Peace, in whom depths of wealth lie, of the bles 
 
 Immortals beauteousest,
 
 308 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Come ! for the heart within me dies away, 
 
 So long dost thou delay ! 
 
 O I have feared lest old age, much annoy, 
 
 Conquer me, quite outstrip the tardy joy, 
 
 Thy gracious triumph-season I would see, 
 
 The song, the dance, the sport, profuse of crowns to be, 
 
 But come ! for my sake, goddess great and dear, 
 
 Come to the city here ! 
 
 Hateful Sedition drive thou from our homes, 
 
 With Her who madly roams 
 
 Rejoicing in the steel against the life 
 
 That's whetted banish Strife!' 
 
 "Shall I proceed? No need of next and next! 
 That were too easy, play so presses play, 
 Trooping tumultuous, each with instance apt, 
 Each eager to confute the idle boast ! 
 What virtue but stands forth panegyrized, 
 What vice, unburned by stigma, in the books 
 Which bettered Hellas, beyond graven gold 
 Or gem-indenture, sung by Phoibos' self
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 309 
 
 And saved in Kunthia's mountain treasure-house 
 
 Ere you, man, moralist, were youth or boy? 
 
 Not praise which, in the proffer, mocks the praised 
 
 By sly admixture of the blameworthy 
 
 And enforced coupling of base fellowship. 
 
 Not blame which gloats the while it frowning laughs, 
 
 ' Allow one glance on horrors laughable ! ' 
 
 This man's entire of heart and soul, discharged 
 
 Its love or hate, each unalloyed by each, 
 
 On objects worthy either; earnestness, 
 
 Attribute him, and power! but novelty? 
 
 Nor his nor yours a doctrine all the world's ! 
 
 What man of full-grown sense and sanity 
 
 Holds other than the truth, wide Hellas through, 
 
 Though truth he acts discredit truth he holds? 
 
 What imbecile has dared to formulate 
 
 ' Love war, hate peace, become a litigant ! ' 
 
 And so preach on, reversing rule of right 
 
 Because he quarrels, combats, goes to lawr 
 
 No, for his comment runs, with smile or sigh 
 
 According to heart's temper ' Peace were best,
 
 310 ARISTOPHANES 1 APOLOGY. 
 
 Except occasions when we put aside 
 Peace, and bid all the blessings in her gift 
 Quick join the crows, for sake of Marathon ! ' 
 
 " Nay, you reply ; for one, whose mind withstands 
 
 His heart, and, loving peace, for conscience' sake 
 
 Wants war, you find a crowd of hypocrites 
 
 Whose conscience means ambition, grudge and greed 
 
 On such, reproof, sonorous doctrine, melts 
 
 Distilled like universal but thin dew 
 
 Which all too sparsely covers country : dear, 
 
 No doubt, to universal crop and clown, 
 
 Still, each bedewed keeps his own head-gear dry 
 
 With upthrust skiadeion, shakes adroit 
 
 The droppings to his neighbor. ' No ! collect 
 
 All of the moisture, leave unhurt the heads 
 
 Which nowise need a washing, save and store 
 
 And dash the whole condensed to one fierce spout 
 
 On some one evildoer, sheltered close, 
 
 Fond he supposed, till you beat guard away, 
 
 And showed your audience, not that war was wrong,
 
 ARISTOJPHANES* APOLOGY. 311 
 
 But Lamachos absurd, case, crests and all, 
 
 Not that democracy was blind of choice, 
 
 But Kleon and Huperbolos accurst : 
 
 Not superstition vile, but Nikias crazed, 
 
 The concrete for the abstract ; that's the wag ! 
 
 What matters Chores crying, ' Hence, impure ! ' 
 
 You cried, ' Ariphrades does thus and thus ! ' 
 
 Now, earnestness seems never earnest more 
 
 Than when it dons for garb indifference ; 
 
 So, there's much laughing : but, compensative, 
 
 When frowning follows laughter, then indeed 
 
 Scout innuendo, sarcasm, irony ! 
 
 Wit's polished warfare glancing at first graze 
 
 From off hard headpiece, coarsely-coated brain 
 
 O' the commonalty whom, unless you prick 
 
 To purpose, what avails that finer pates 
 
 Succumb to simple scratching ? Those not these -~ 
 
 'Tis Multitude, which, moved, fines Lamachos, 
 
 Banishes Kleon and burns Sokrates, 
 
 House over head, or, better, poisons him. 
 
 Therefore in dealing with King Multitude, 

 
 312 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Club-drub the callous numsculls ! In and in 
 
 Beat this essential consequential fact 
 
 That here they have a hater of the three, 
 
 Who hates in word, praise, nickname, epithet 
 
 And illustration, beyond doubt at all ! 
 
 And similarly, would you win assent 
 
 To Peace, suppose? You tickle the tough hide 
 
 With good plain pleasure her concomitant 
 
 And, past mistake again, exhibit Peace 
 
 Peace, vintager and festive, cheesecake-time, 
 
 Hare-slice-and-peasoup season, household-joy ; 
 
 Theoria's beautiful belongings match 
 
 Oporia's lavish condescendings : brief, 
 
 Since here the people are to judge, you press 
 
 Such argument as people understand : 
 
 If with exaggeration what care you? 
 
 "Have I misunderstood you in the main? 
 No ! then must answer be, such argument, 
 Such policy, no matter what good love 
 Or hate it help, in practice proves absurd,
 
 ARISTOPHANES' iPOLOGY. 313 
 
 Useless and null : henceforward intercepts 
 
 Sober effective blow at what you blame, 
 
 And renders nugatory rightful praise 
 
 Of thing or person. The coarse brush has daabed 
 
 What room for the fine limner's pencil-mark? 
 
 Blame ? You curse, rather, till who blames must 
 
 blush 
 
 Lean to apology or praise, more like ! 
 Does garment, simpered o'er as white, prove gray? 
 'Black, blacker than Acharnian charcoal, black 
 Beyond Kimmerian, Stugian blackness black.' 
 You bawl, till men sigh ' nearer snowiness ! ' 
 What follows? What one faint-rewarding fall 
 Of foe belabored ne'er so lustily ? 
 Laugh Lamachos from out the people's heart? 
 He died, commanding, ' hero,' say yourself ! 
 Gibe Nikias into privacy? nay, shake 
 Kleon a little from his arrogance 
 By cutting him to shoe-sole-shreds ? I think, 
 He ruled his life-long and, when time was ripe, 
 Died fighting for amusement, good tough hide !
 
 314 ARISTOPHANES^ APOLOGY. 
 
 Sokrates still goes up and down the streets 
 
 And Aristullos puts his speech in book, 
 
 When both should be abolished long ago. 
 
 Nay, wretchedest of rags, Ariphrades 
 
 You have been fouling that redoubtable 
 
 Harp-player, twenty years, with what effect? 
 
 Still he strums on, strums ever cheerily, 
 
 And earns his wage, who minds a joke? men say. 
 
 No, friend ! The statues stand mudstained at most 
 
 Titan or pygmy : what achieves their fall 
 
 Will be, long after mud is flung and spent, 
 
 Some clear thin spirit-thrust of lightning truth! 
 
 " Your praise, then honey-smearing helps your friend, 
 
 More than blame's ordure-smirch hurts foe, perhaps ? 
 
 Peace, now, misunderstood, ne'er prized enough, 
 
 Vou have interpreted to ignorance 
 
 Till ignorance opes eye, bat-blind before, 
 
 And for the first time knows Peace means the powe* 
 
 On maw of pan-cake, cheese-cake, barley-cake, 
 
 No stop nor stint to stuffing. While, in camp,
 
 ARISTOPHANES^ APOLOGY. 315. 
 
 Who fights chews rancid tunny, onions raw, 
 Peace sits at cosey feet with lamp and fire, 
 Complaisant smooth-sleeked flute-girls giggling gay. 
 How thick and fast the snow falls, freezing War 
 Who shrugs, campaigns it, and may break a shin 
 Or twist an ankle ! come, who hesitates 
 To give Peace, over War, the preference? 
 Ah, friend had this indubitable fact 
 Haply occurred to poor Leonidas, 
 How had he turned tail on Thermopulai ! 
 It cannot be that even his few wits 
 Were addled to the point that, so advised, 
 Preposterous he had answered 'Cakes are prime, 
 Hearth-sides are snug, sleek dancing-girls have worth, 
 And yet for country's sake, to save our gods 
 Their temples, save our ancestors their tombs, 
 Save wife and child and home and liberty, 
 I would chew sliced-salt-fish, bear snow nay, starve, 
 If need were, and by much prefer the choice ! ' 
 Why, friend, your genuine hero, all the while, 
 Has been who served precisely for your butt
 
 316 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Kleonumos that, wise, cast shield away 
 
 On battle-ground; cried, 'Cake my buckler be, 
 
 Embossed with cream-clot ! peace, not war, I choose, 
 
 Holding with Dikaiopolis ! ' Comedy 
 
 Shall triumph, Dikaiopolis win assent, 
 
 When next Miltiades shirks Marathon, 
 
 Themistokles swaps Salamis for cake, 
 
 And Kimon grunts, ' Peace, grant me dancing-girls ! ' 
 
 But sooner, hardly! twenty-five years since, 
 
 The war began, such pleas for Peace have reached 
 
 A reasonable age. The end shows all ! 
 
 And so with all the rest you advocate ! 
 
 ' Wise folk leave litigation ! ware the wasps ! 
 
 Who loves the law and lawyers, heliast-like, 
 
 Wants hemlock ! ' None shows that so funnily. 
 
 But, once cure madness, how comports himself 
 
 Your sane exemplar, what's our gain thereby? 
 
 Philokleon turns Bdelukleon ! just this change, 
 
 New sanity gets straightway drunk as sow, 
 
 Cheats baker-wives, brawls, kicks, cuffs, curses folk, 
 
 Parades a shameless flute-girl, bandies filth
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 3*7 
 
 With his own son who cured his father's cold 
 
 By making him catch fever funnily ! 
 
 But as for curing love of law-suits faugh ! 
 
 "And how does new improve upon the old 
 Your boast in even abusing? Rough, may be 
 Still, honest was the old mode. ' Call thief thief ! ' 
 But never call thief even murderer ! 
 Much less call fop and fribble, worse one whit 
 Than fribble and fop ! Spare neither ! beat your brains 
 For adequate invective, cut the life 
 Clean out each quality, but load your lash 
 With no least lie, or we pluck scourge from handl 
 Does poet want a whipping, write bad verse, 
 Inculcate foul deeds ? There's the fault to flog ! 
 You vow, ' The rascal cannot read nor write, 
 Spends more in buying fish than Morsimos, 
 Somebody helps his Muse and courts his wife, 
 His uncle deals in crockery, and last, 
 Himself 's a stranger ! ' That's the cap and crown 
 Of stinging-nettle, that's the master-stroke !
 
 318 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 What poet-rival, after ' housebreaker,' 
 ' Fish-gorging,' ' midnight footpad,' and so forth, 
 Proves not, beside, ' a stranger ? ' Chased from charge 
 To charge, and, lie by lie, laughed out of court, 
 Lo, wit's sure refuge, satire's grand resource 
 All, from Kratinos downward ' strangers ' they ! 
 Pity the trick's too facile 1 None so raw 
 Among your playmates but have caught the ball 
 And sent it back as briskly to yourself! 
 You too, my Attic, are styled ' stranger ' Rhodes 
 Aigina, Lindos or Kameiros, nay, 
 'Twas Egypt reared (if Eupolis be right) 
 Who wrote the comedy (Kratinos vows) 
 Kratinos helped a little ! Kleon's self 
 Was nigh promoted Comic, when he haled 
 My poet into court, and o'er the coals 
 Hauled and re-hauled ' the stranger, insolent, 
 Who brought out plays, usurped our privilege ! ' 
 Why must you Comics one and all take stand 
 On lower ground than truth from first to last? 
 Why all agree to let folks disbelieve,
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 319 
 
 So laughter but reward a funny lie ? 
 
 Repel such onslaughts answer, sad and grave, 
 
 Your fancy-fleerings who would stoop so low? 
 
 Your own adherents whisper, when disgust 
 
 Too menacingly thrills Logeion through 
 
 At Perikles invents this present war 
 
 Because men robbed his mistress of three maids 
 
 Or Sokrates wants burning, house o'er head, 
 
 'What, so obtuse, not read between the lines? 
 
 Our poet means no mischief ! All should know 
 
 Ribaldry here implies a compliment! 
 
 He deals with things, not men, his men are things 
 
 Each represents a class, plays figure-head 
 
 And names the ship : no meaner than the first 
 
 Would serve ; he styles a trireme " Sokrates " 
 
 Fears " Sokrates " may prove unseaworthy, 
 
 (That's merely " Sophists are the bane of boys ") 
 
 Rat-riddled ("they are capable of theft") 
 
 Rotten or whatsoe'er shows ship-disease, 
 
 (" They war with gods and worship whirligig.") 
 
 You never took the joke for earnest? scarce
 
 320 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Supposed mere figure-head meant entire ship, 
 And Sokrates the whole fraternity ? ' 
 
 "This then is Comedy, our sacred song, 
 
 Censor of vice, and virtue's guard as sure : 
 
 Manners-instructing, morals' stop-estray, 
 
 Which, born a twin with public liberty, 
 
 Thrives with its welfare, dwindles with its wane ! 
 
 Liberty? what so exquisitely framed 
 
 And fitted to suck dry its life of life 
 
 To last faint fibre? since that life is truth! 
 
 You who profess your indignation swells 
 
 At sophistry, when specious words confuse 
 
 Deeds right and wrong, distinct before, you say 
 
 (Though all that's done is dare veracity, 
 
 Show that the true conception of each deed 
 
 Affirmed, in vulgar parlance, ' wrong ' or ' right,' 
 
 Proves to be neither, as the hasty hold, 
 
 But, change your side, shoots light, where dark alone 
 
 Was apprehended by the vulgar sense) 
 
 You who put sophistry to shame, and shout,
 
 ARISTOPHANES 1 APOLOGY. 321 
 
 There's but a single side to man and thing ; 
 A side so much more big than thing or man 
 Possibly can be, that believe 'tis true ? 
 Such were too marvellous simplicity ! ' 
 Confess, those sophists whom yourself depict, 
 ( Abide by your own painting!) what they teach, 
 They wish at least their pupil to believe, 
 And, what believe, to practise ! did you wish 
 Hellas should haste, as taught, with torch in han 
 And fire the horrid Speculation-shop ? 
 Straight the shop's master rose and showed the mob 
 What man was your so monstrous Sokrates; 
 Himself received amusement, why not they? 
 Just as did Kleon first play magistrate 
 And bid you put your birth in evidence 
 Since no unbadged buffoon is licensed here 
 To shame us all when foreign guests may mock -*- 
 Then, birth established, fooling licensed you, 
 He, duty done, resumed mere auditor, 
 Laughed with the loudest at his Lamia-shape, 
 Kukloboros-roaring, and the camel-rest.
 
 322 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Nay, Aristullos, once your volley spent 
 On the male-Kirkd and her swinish crew, 
 PLATON, so others call the youth we love, 
 Sends your performance to the curious king 
 ' Do you desire to know Athenai's knack 
 At turning seriousness to pleasantry ? 
 Read this ! One Aristullos means myself. 
 The author is indeed a merry grig ! ' 
 Nay, it would seem as if yourself were bent 
 On Jaying down the law 'Tell lies I must 
 Aforethought and of purpose, no mistake ! ' 
 When forth yourself step, tell us from the stage, 
 'Here you behold the King of Comedy 
 Me, who, the first, have purged my every piece 
 From each and all my predecessors' filth, 
 Abjured those satyr-adjuncts sewn to bid 
 The boys laugh, satyr-jokes whereof not one 
 Least sample but would make my hair turn gray 
 Beyond a twelvemonth's ravage ! I renounce 
 Mountebank-claptrap, such as firework-fizz 
 A.nd torch flare, or else nuts and barleycorns
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 3 2 3 
 
 Scattered among the crowd, to scramble for 
 
 And stop their mouths with ; no such stuff shames me ! 
 
 Who, what's r^ore serious, know both when to 
 
 strike 
 
 And when to stay my hand : once dead, my foe, 
 Why, done, my fighting ! I attack a corpse ? 
 I spare the corpse-like even! punish age? 
 I pity from my soul that sad effete 
 Toothless old mumbler called Kratinos ! once 
 My rival, now, alack, the dotard slinks 
 Ragged and hungry to what hole's his home ; 
 Ay, slinks through byways where no passenger 
 Flings him a bone, to pick. You formerly 
 Adored the Muses' darling: dotard now, 
 Why, he may starve ! O mob most mutable ! ' j 
 So you harangued in person ; while, to point 
 Precisely out, these were but lies you launched, 
 Prompt, a play followed primed with satyr-frisks, 
 No spice spared of the stomach-turning stew, 
 Full fraught with torch-display, and barley-throw, 
 And Kleon, dead enough, bedaubed afresh ;
 
 324 ARISTOPHANES* APOLOGY. 
 
 While daft Kratinos home to hole trudged he, 
 Wrung dry his wit to the last vinous dregs, 
 Decanted them to ' Bottle,' beat, next year, 
 'Bottle' and dregs your best of 'Clouds' and dew! 
 Where, Comic King, may keenest eye detect 
 Improvement on your predecessors' work 
 Except in lying with audacity? 
 
 " Why genius ! That's the grandeur, that's the 
 
 gold 
 
 That's you superlatively true to touch 
 Gold, leaf or lump gold, anyhow the mass 
 Take manufacture and prove Pallas' casque 
 Or, as your choice falls, simply cask to keep 
 Corruption from decay ! Your rivals' hoard 
 May ooze forth, lacking such preservative : 
 Yours cannot gold plays guardian far too well ! 
 Genius, I call you : dross, your rivals share ; 
 Ay, share and share alike, too ! says the world, 
 However you pretend supremacy 
 In aught beside that gold, your very own.
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 3 2 5 
 
 Satire ? ' Kratinos for our satirist ! ' 
 
 The world cries. Elegance? 'Who elegant 
 
 As Eupolis ? ' resounds as noisily. 
 
 Artistic fancy? Choros-creatures quaint? 
 
 Magnes invented ' Birds ' and * Frogs ' enough, 
 
 Archippos punned, Hegemon parodied, 
 
 To heart's content, before you stepped on stage. 
 
 Moral invective? Eupolis exposed 
 
 'That prating beggar, he who stole the cup,' 
 
 Before your ' Clouds ' rained grime on Sokrates ; 
 
 Nay, what beat ' Clouds ' but ' Konnos,' muck for mud ? 
 
 Courage ? How long before, well-masked, you poured 
 
 Abuse on Eukrates and Lusikles, 
 
 Did Telekleides and Hermippos pelt 
 
 Their Perikles and Kumon ? standing forth, 
 
 Bare-headed, not safe crouched behind a name, 
 
 Philonides or else Kallistratos, 
 
 Put forth, when danger threatened, mask for face, 
 
 To bear the brunt, if blame fell, take the blame, 
 
 If praise . . . why, frank laughed Aristophanes 
 
 -They write such rare stuff? No, I promise you!'
 
 326 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Rather, I see all true improvements, made 
 
 Or making, go against you tooth and nail 
 
 Contended with ! 'tis still Moruchides, 
 
 "Tis Euthumenes, Surakosios, nay, 
 
 Argurrhios and Kinesias, common sense 
 
 And public shame, these only cleanse your style! 
 
 Coerced, prohibited, you grin and bear, 
 
 And, soon as may be, hug to heart again 
 
 The banished nastiness too dear to drop ! 
 
 Krates could teach and practise festive song 
 
 v et scorn scurrility ; as gay and good, 
 
 Pherekrates could follow. Who loosed hold, 
 
 Must let fall rose-wreath, stoop to muck once more 
 
 Did your particular self advance in aught, 
 
 Task the aad genius steady slave the while 
 
 To further say, the patriotic aim? 
 
 No, there's deterioration manifest 
 
 Year by year, play by play ! survey them all, 
 
 From that boy's-triumph when ' Acharnes ' dawned, 
 
 To ' Thesmophoriazousai,' this man's-shame J 
 
 There, truly, patriot zeal so prominent
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 3 2 ~. 
 
 Allowed friends' plea perhaps : the baser stuff 
 
 Was but the nobler spirit's vehicle 
 
 Who would imprison, unvolatilize 
 
 A violet's perfume, blends with fatty oils 
 
 Essence too fugitive in flower alone ; 
 
 So, calling unguent violet, call the play 
 
 Obscenity impregnated with ' Peace ' ! 
 
 But here's the boy grown bald, and here's the play 
 
 With twenty years' experience : where's one spice 
 
 Of odor in the hogs'-lard ? what pretends 
 
 To aught except a grease-pot's quality? 
 
 Friend, sophist-hating! know, worst sophistry 
 
 Is when man's own soul plays its own self false, 
 
 Reasons a vice into a virtue, pleads 
 
 'I detail sin to shame its author' not 
 
 ' I shame Ariphrades for sin's display ' i 
 
 ' I show Oporia to commend Sweet Home ' 
 
 Not ' I show Bacchis for the striplings' sake ! ' 
 
 u Yet all the same O genius and O gold 
 Had genius ne'er diverted gold from use
 
 328 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Worthy the temple, to do copper's work 
 
 And coat a swine's trough which abundantly 
 
 Might furnish Phoibos' tripod, Pallas' throne ! 
 
 Had you, I dream, discarding all the base, 
 
 The brutish, spurned alone convention's watch 
 
 And ward against invading decency, 
 
 Disguised as license, law in lawlessness, 
 
 And so, re-ordinating outworn rule, 
 
 Made Comedy and Tragedy combine, 
 
 Prove some new Both-yet-neither, all one bard, 
 
 Euripides with Aristophanes 
 
 Co-operant ! this, reproducing Now 
 
 As that gave Then existence : Life to-day, 
 
 This, as that other Life dead long ago! 
 
 The mob decrees such feat no crown, perchance, 
 
 But why call crowning the reward of quest ? 
 
 Tell him, my other poet, where thou walk'st 
 
 Some rarer world than e'er Ilissos washed ! 
 
 " But dream goes idly in the air. To earth ! 
 Earth's question just amounts to which succeeds,
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 329 
 
 Which fails of two life-long antagonists? 
 
 Suppose my charges all mistake ! assume 
 
 Your end, despite ambiguous means, the best 
 
 The only ! you and he, a patriot-pair, 
 
 Have striven alike for one result say, Peace ! 
 
 You spoke your best straight to the arbiters 
 
 Our people : have you made them end this war 
 
 By dint of laughter and abuse and lies 
 
 And postures of Oporia ? Sadly No ! 
 
 This war, despite your twenty-five years' work, 
 
 May yet endure until Athenai falls, 
 
 And freedom falls with her. So much for you ! 
 
 Now, the antagonist Euripides 
 
 Has he succeeded better? Who shall say? 
 
 He spoke quite o'er the heads of Kleon's crowd 
 
 To a dim future, and if there he fail, 
 
 Why, you are fellows in adversity. 
 
 But trial's unlike the fate of wise words launched 
 
 By music on their voyage. Hail, Depart, 
 
 Arrive, Glad Welcome ! Not my single wish 
 
 Yours also wafts the white sail on its way,
 
 33 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Your nature too is kingly. All beside 
 
 I call pretension no true potentate, 
 
 Whatever intermediary be crowned, 
 
 Zeus or Poseidon, where the vulgar sky 
 
 Lacks not Triballos to complete the group. 
 
 I recognize, behind such phantom-crew, 
 
 Necessity, Creation, Poet's Power, 
 
 Else never had I dared approach, appeal 
 
 To poetry, power, Aristophanes ! 
 
 But I trust truth's inherent kingliness, 
 
 Trust who, by reason of much truth, shall reign 
 
 More or less royally may prayer but push 
 
 His sway past limit, purge the false from true ! 
 
 Nor, even so, had boldness nerved my tongue 
 
 But that the other king stands suddenly, 
 
 In all the grand investiture of death, 
 
 Bowing your knee beside my lowly head 
 
 Equals one moment! 
 
 "Now, arise and go! 
 Both have done homage to Euripides ! "
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 33 1 
 
 Silence pursued the words : till he broke out 
 
 " Scarce so ! This constitutes, I may believe, 
 Sufficient homage done by who defames 
 Your poet's foe, since you account me such ; 
 But homage-proper, pay it by defence 
 Of him, direct defence and not oblique, 
 Not by mere mild admonishment of me ! " 
 
 "Defence? The best, the only!" I replied. 
 
 "A story goes When Sophokles, last year, 
 
 Cited before tribunal by his son 
 
 (A poet to complete the parallel) 
 
 Was certified unsound of intellect, 
 
 And claimed as only fit for tutelage, 
 
 Since old and doating and incompetent 
 
 To carry on this world's work, the defence 
 
 Consisted just in his reciting (calm 
 
 As the verse bore, which sets our heart a-swell 
 
 And voice a-heaving too tempestuously) 
 
 That choros-chant ' The station of the steed,
 
 33 2 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Stranger ! thou comest to, Kolonos white ! ' 
 
 Then he looked round and all revolt was dead. 
 
 You know the one adventure of my life 
 
 What made Euripides Balaustion's friend. 
 
 When I last saw him, as he bade farewell, 
 
 ' I sang another " Herakles," ' smiled he ; 
 
 ' It gained no prize : your love be prize I gain ! 
 
 Take it the tablets also where I traced 
 
 The story first with stulos pendent still 
 
 Nay, the psalterion may complete the gift, 
 
 So, should you croon the ode bewailing Age, 
 
 Yourself shall modulate same notes, same strings 
 
 With the old friend who loved Balaustion once.' 
 
 There they lie ! When you broke our solitude, 
 
 We were about to honor him once more 
 
 By reading the consummate Tragedy. 
 
 Night is advanced ; I have small mind to sleep ; 
 
 May I go on, and read, so make defence, 
 
 So test true godship ? You affirm, not I, 
 
 Beating the god, affords such test : 7 hold 
 
 That when rash hands but touch divinity,
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 333 
 
 The chains drop off, the prison-walls dispart, 
 
 And fire he fronts mad Pentheus! Dare we try?" 
 
 Accordingly I read the perfect piece.
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 ZEUS' Couchmate, who of mortals knows not me, 
 
 Argive Amphitruon whom Alkaios sired 
 
 Of old, as Perseus him, I Herakles ? 
 
 My home, this Thebai where the earth-born spike 
 
 Of Sown-ones burgeoned : Ares saved from these 
 
 A handful of their seed that stocks to-day 
 
 With children's children Thebai, Kadmos built. 
 
 Of these had Kreon birth, Menoikeus' child, 
 
 King of the country, Kreon that became 
 
 The father of this woman, Megara, 
 
 Whom, when time was, Kadmeians one and all 
 
 Pealed praise to, marriage-songs with fluted help,
 
 33 6 HERAKLES. 
 
 While to my dwelling that prand Herakles 
 
 Bore her, his bride. But, leaving Thebes where I 
 
 Abode perforce this Megara and those 
 
 Her kinsmen, the desire possessed my son 
 
 Rather to dwell in Argos, that v/alled work, 
 
 Kuklopian city, which I fly, myself, 
 
 Because I slew Elektruon. Seeking so 
 
 To ease away my hardships and once more 
 
 Inhabit his own land, for my return 
 
 Heavy the price he pays Eurustheus there 
 
 The letting in of light on this choked world ! 
 
 Either he promised, vanquished by the goad 
 
 Of Herd, or because fate willed it thus. 
 
 The other labors why, he toiled them through ; 
 
 But for this last one down by Tainaros, 
 
 Its mouth, to Haides' realm descended he 
 
 To drag into the light the three-shaped hound 
 
 Of Hell : whence Herakles returns no more. 
 
 Now, there's an old-world tale, Kadmeians have, 
 
 How Dirkd's husband was a Lukos once, 
 
 Holding the seven-towered city here in sway
 
 HERAKLES. 337 
 
 Before they ruled the land, white-steeded pair, 
 Amphion, Zethos, born to Zeus the twins. 
 This Lukos' son, named like his father too, 
 No born Kadmeian but Euboia's gift, 
 Comes and kills Kreon, lords it o'er the land, 
 Falling upon our town sedition-sick. 
 To us, akin to Kreon, just that bond 
 Becomes the worst of evils, seemingly; 
 For, since my son is in the earth's abysms, 
 This man of valor, Lukos, lord and king, 
 Seeks now to slay these sons of Herakles, 
 And slay his wife as well, by murder thus 
 Thinking to stamp out murder, slay too me, 
 (If me 'tis fit you count among men still, 
 Useless old .age) and all for fear lest these, 
 Grown men one day, exact due punishment 
 Of bloodshed and their mother's father's fate. 
 I therefore, since he leaves me in these domes, 
 The children's household guardian, left, when earth's 
 Dark dread he underwent, that son of mine, 
 t, with their mother, lest his boys should die,
 
 338 HERAKLES. 
 
 Sit at this altar of the savior Zeus 
 
 Which, giory of triumphant spear, he raised 
 
 Conquering my nobly-born ! the Minuai. 
 
 Here do we guard our station, destitute 
 
 Of all things, drink, food, raiment, on bare ground 
 
 Couched side by side : sealed out of house and home 
 
 Sit we in a resourcelessness of help. 
 
 Our friends why, some are no true friends, I see ! 
 
 The rest, that are true, want the means to aid. 
 
 So operates in man adversity : 
 
 Whereof may never anybody no, 
 
 Though half of him should really wish me well, 
 
 Happen to taste ! a friend-test faultless, that ! 
 
 MEGARA. 
 
 Old man, who erst didst raze the Taphian town, 
 
 Illustriously, the army-leader, thou, 
 
 Of speared Kadmeians how gods play men false I 
 
 I, now, missed nowise fortune in my sire, 
 
 Who, for his wealth, was boasted mighty once, 
 
 Having supreme rule, for the love of which
 
 HERAKLES. 339 
 
 Leap the long lances forth at favored breasts, 
 
 And having children too : and me he gave 
 
 Thy son, his house with that of Herakles, 
 
 Uniting by the far-famed marriage-bed. 
 
 And now these things are dead and flown away, 
 
 While thou and I await our death, old man, 
 
 These Herakleian boys too, whom my chicks 
 
 I save beneath my wings like brooding bird. 
 
 But one or other falls to questioning, 
 
 " O mother," cries he, " where in all the world 
 
 Is father gone to? What's he doing? when 
 
 Will he c^me back ? " At fault through tender years, 
 
 They seek their sire. For me, I put them off, 
 
 Telling them stories ; at each creak of door, 
 
 All wonder, "Does he come?" and all afoot, 
 
 Make for the fall before the parent knee. 
 
 Now then, what hope, what method of escape 
 
 Facilitatest thou? for, thee, old man, 
 
 I look to, since we may not leave by stealth 
 
 The limits of the land, and guards, more strong 
 
 Than we, are at the outlets ; nor in friends
 
 340 HERAKLES. 
 
 Remain to us the hopes of safety more. 
 Therefore, whatever thy decision be, 
 Impart it for the common good of all ! 
 Lest now should prove the proper time to die, 
 Though, being weak, we spin it out and live. 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Daughter, it scarce is easy, do one's best, 
 To blurt out counsel, things at such a pass. 
 
 MEGARA. 
 
 You want some sorrow more, or so love life ? 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 r both enjoy life, and love hopes beside. 
 
 MEGARA. 
 
 And I ; but hope against hope no, old man 1 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 In these delayings of an ill lurks cure. 
 
 A
 
 HERAKLES. 341 
 
 MEGARA. 
 But bitter is the meantime, and it bites. 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 O there may be a run before the wind 
 From out these present ills, for me and thee, 
 Daughter, and yet may come my son, thy spouse ! 
 But hush ! and from the children take away 
 Their founts a-flow with tears, and talk them calm, 
 Steal them by stories sad theft, all the same ! 
 For, human troubles they grow weary too ; 
 Neither the wind-blasts always have their strength, 
 Nor happy men keep happy to the end : 
 Since all things change their natures part in twain ; 
 And that man's bravest, therefore, who hopes on, 
 Hopes ever : to despair is cowardly. 
 
 CHOROS. 
 
 These domes that overroof, 
 
 This long-used couch, I come to, having made
 
 342 HERAKLES. 
 
 A staff my prop, that song may put to proof 
 The swan-like power, age-whitened, poet's aid 
 Of sobbed-forth dirges words that stand aloof 
 From action now: such am I just a shade 
 With night for all its face, a mere night-dream 
 And words that tremble too : howe'er they seem, 
 .Devoted words, I deem. 
 
 O, of a father ye unfathered ones, 
 O thou old man, and thou whose groaning stuns 
 Unhappy mother only us above, 
 Nor reaches him below in Haides' realm, thy love ! 
 (Faint not too soon, urge forward foot and limb 
 Way-weary, nor lose courage as some horse 
 3 Yoked to the car whose weight recoils on him 
 Just at the rock-ridge that concludes his course ! 
 Take by the hand, the peplos, any one 
 Whose foothold fails him, printless and fordone ! 
 Aged, assist along me aged too, 
 Who, mate with thee in toils when life was new, 
 And shields and spears first made acquaintanceship,
 
 HERAKLES. 343 
 
 Stood by thyself and proved no bastard-slip 
 Of fatherland when loftiest glory grew.) 
 See now, how like the sire's 
 Each eyeball fiercely fires ! 
 
 What though ill-fortune have not left his race ? 
 Neither is gone the grand paternal grace ! 
 Hellas ! O what what combatants, destroyed 
 In these, wilt thou one day seek seek, and find all 
 void ! 
 
 Pause ! for I see the ruler of this land, 
 Lukos, now passing through the palace-gate. 
 
 LUKOS. 
 
 The Herakleian couple father, wife 
 If need I must, I question : " must " forsooth ? 
 Being your master all I please, I ask. 
 To what time do you seek to spin out life ? 
 What hope, what help see, so as not to die? 
 Is it you trust the sire of these, that's sunk 
 In Haides, will return? How past the pitch,
 
 344 HERAKLES. 
 
 Suppose you have to die, you pile the woe 
 Thou, casting, Hellas through, thy empty vaunts 
 As though Zeus helped thee to a god for son ; 
 And thou, that thou wast styled our best man's -vife 
 Where was the awful in his work wound up, 
 If he did quell and quench the marshy snake 
 Or the Nemeian monster whom he snared 
 And says, by throttlings of his arm, he slew? 
 With these do you outwrestle me? Such feats 
 Shall save from death the sons of Herakles 
 Who got praise, being nought, for bravery 
 In wild-beast-battle, otherwise a blank ? 
 No man to throw on left arm buckler's weight, 
 Not he, nor get in spear's reach ! bow he bore 
 True coward's weapon : shoot first and then fly ! 
 No bow-and-arrow proves a man is brave, 
 But who keeps rank, stands, one unwinking stare 
 As, ploughing up, the darts come, brave is he. 
 My action has no impudence, old man ! 
 Providence, rather : for I own I slew 
 Kreon, this woman's sire, and have his seat.
 
 HERAKLES. 345 
 
 Nowise I wish, then, to leave, these grown up, 
 Avengers on me, payment for my deeds. 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 As to the part of Zeus in his own child, 
 
 Let Zeus defend that ! As to mine, 'tis me 
 
 The care concerns to show by argument 
 
 The folly of this fellow, Herakles, 
 
 Whom I stand up for ! since to hear thee styled 
 
 Cowardly that is unendurable. 
 
 First then, the infamous (for I account 
 
 Amongst the words denied to human speech, 
 
 Timidity ascribed thee, Herakles !) 
 
 This I must put from thee, with gods in proof. 
 
 Zeus' thunder I appeal to, those four steeds 
 
 Whereof he also was the charioteer 
 
 When, having shot down the earth's Giant-growth 
 
 (Never shaft flew but found and fitted flank) 
 
 Triumph he sang in common with the gods. 
 
 The Kentaur-race, four-footed insolence 
 
 Go ask at Pholoe, vilest thou of kings,
 
 346 HERAKLES. 
 
 Whom they would pick out and pronounce best man, 
 
 If not my son, " the seeming brave," say'st thou ! 
 
 But Dirphus, thy Abantid mother-town, 
 
 Question her, and she would not praise, [ think ! 
 
 For there's no spot, where having done some good, 
 
 Thy country thou mightst call to witness worth. 
 
 Now, that allwise invention, archer's-gear, 
 
 Thou blamest : hear my teaching and grow sage ! 
 
 A man in armor is his armor's slave, 
 
 And, mixed with rank and file that want to run, 
 
 He dies because his neighbors have lost heart 
 
 Then, should he break his spear, no way remains 
 
 Of warding death off, gone that body-guard, 
 
 His one and only; while, whatever folk 
 
 Have the true bow-hand, here's the one main 
 
 good, 
 
 Though he have sent ten thousand shafts abroad, 
 Others remain wherewith the archer saves 
 His limbs and life, too, stands afar and wards 
 Away from flesh the foe that vainly stares 
 Hurt by the viewless arrow, while himself
 
 HERAKLES. 347 
 
 Offers no full front to those opposite, 
 
 But keeps in thorough cover: there's the point 
 
 That's capital in combat damage foe, 
 
 Yet keep a safe skin foe not out of reach 
 
 As you are! Thus my words contrast with thine, 
 
 And such, in judging facts, our difference. 
 
 These children, now, why dost thou seek to slay? 
 
 What have they done thee ? In a single point 
 
 I count thee wise if, being base thyself, 
 
 Thou dreadst the progeny of nobleness. 
 
 Yet this bears hard upon us, all the same, 
 
 If we must die because of fear in thee 
 
 A death 'twere fit thou suffer at our hands, 
 
 Thy betters, did Zeus rightly judge us all. 
 
 If therefore thou art bent on sceptre-sway, 
 
 Thyself, here suffer us to leave the land, 
 
 Fugitives ! nothing do by violence, 
 
 Or violence thyself shalt undergo 
 
 When the gods' gale may chance to change for thee ! 
 
 Alas, O land of Kadmos, for 'tis thee 
 
 I mean to close with, dealing out the due
 
 348 HERAKLES. 
 
 Revilement, in such sort dost thou defend 
 
 Herakles and his children ? Herakles 
 
 Who, coming, one to all the world, against 
 
 The Minuai, fought them and left Thebes an eye 
 
 Unblinded henceforth to front freedom with ! 
 
 Neither do I praise Hellas, nor shall brook 
 
 Ever to keep in silence that I count 
 
 Towards my son, craven of cravens her 
 
 Whom it behooved go bring the young ones here 
 
 Fire, spears, arms in exchange for seas made 
 
 safe, 
 
 And cleansings of the land, his labor's price. 
 But fire, spears, arms, O children, neither Thebes 
 Nor Hellas has them for you ! 'Tis myself, 
 A feeble friend, ye look to : nothing now 
 But a tongue's muimur, for the strength is gone 
 We had once, and with age are limbs a-shake 
 And force a-flicker! Were I only young, 
 Still with the mastery o'er bone and thew, 
 Grasping first spear that came, the yellow locks 
 Of this iisulter would I bloody so
 
 HERAKLES. 349 
 
 Should send him skipping o'er the Atlantic bounds 
 Out of my arm's reach through poltroonery! 
 
 CHOROS. 
 
 Have not the really good folk starting-points 
 
 For speech to purpose, though rare talkers they ? 
 
 LUKOS. 
 
 Say thou against us words thou towerest with ! 
 
 I, for thy words, will deal thee blows, their due. 
 
 Go, some to Helikon, to Parnasos 
 
 Some, and the clefts there ! Bid the woodmen fell 
 
 Oak-trunks, and, when the same are brought inside 
 
 The city, pile the altar round with logs, 
 
 Then fire it, burn the bodies of them all, 
 
 That they may learn thereby, no dead man rules 
 
 The land here, but 'tis I, by acts like these ! 
 
 As for you, old sirs, who are set against 
 
 My judgments, you shall groan for not alone 
 
 The Herakleian children, but the fate 
 
 Of your own house beside, when faring ill
 
 350 HERAKLES, 
 
 By any chance : and you shall recollect 
 Slaves are you of a tyranny that's mine ! 
 
 CHORDS. 
 
 O progeny of earth, whom Ares sowed 
 
 When he laid waste the dragon's greedy jaw 
 
 Will ye not lift the staves, right-hand supports, 
 
 And bloody this man's irreligious head? 
 
 Who, being no Kadmeian, rules, the wretch, 
 
 Our easy youth : an interloper too ! 
 
 But not of me, at least, shalt thou enjoy 
 
 Thy lordship ever; nor my labor's fruit, 
 
 Hand worked so hard for, have ! A curse with thee, 
 
 Whence thou didst come, there go and tyrannize ! 
 
 For never while I live shalt thou destroy 
 
 The Herakleian children : not so deep 
 
 Hides he below ground, leaving thee their lord ! 
 
 But we bear both of you in mind, that thou, 
 
 The land's destroyer, dost possess the land, 
 
 While he who saved it, loses every right. 
 
 /play the busy-body for I serve
 
 HER AXLES. 35 1 
 
 My dead friends when they need friends' service most? 
 O right-hand, how thou yearnest to snatch spear 
 And serve indeed ! in weakness dies the wish, 
 Or I had stayed thee calling me a slave, 
 And nobly drawn my breath at home in Thebes 
 Where thou exultest ! city that's insane, 
 Sick through sedition and bad government, 
 Else never had she gained for master thee! 
 
 MEGARA. 
 
 Old friends, I praise you : since a righteous wrath 
 
 For friend's sake well becomes a friend. But no ! 
 
 On our account in anger with your lord, 
 
 Suffer no injury ! Hear my advice, 
 
 Amphitruon, if I seem to speak aright. 
 
 O yes, I love my children ! how not love 
 
 What I brought forth, what toiled for ? and to die 
 
 Sad I esteem too ; still, the fated way 
 
 Who stiffens him against, that man I count ' 
 
 Poor creature ; us, who are of other mood, 
 
 Since we must die, behooves us meet our death
 
 35 2 HERAKLES. 
 
 Not burnt to cinders, giving foes the laugh 
 
 To me, worse ill than dying, that ! we owe 
 
 Our houses many a brave deed, now to pay. 
 
 Thee, indeed, gloriously men estimate 
 
 For spear-work, so that unendurable 
 
 Were it that thou shouldst die a death of shame. 
 
 And for my glorious husband, where wants he 
 
 A witness that he would not save his boys 
 
 If touched in their good fame thereby? since birth 
 
 Bears ill with baseness done for children's sake, 
 
 My husband needs must be my pattern here ! 
 
 See now thy hope how much I count thereon' 
 
 Thou thinkest that thy son will come to light: 
 
 And, of the dead, who came from Hades back? 
 
 But we with talk this man might mollify : 
 
 Never ! Of all foes, fly the foolish one ! 
 
 Wise, well-bred people, make concession to ! 
 
 Sooner you meet respect by speaking soft. 
 
 Already it was in my mind perchance 
 
 We might beg off these children's banishment; 
 
 But even that is sad involving them
 
 HERAKLES. 353 
 
 In safety, ay and piteous poverty! 
 
 Since the host's visage for the flying friend 
 
 Has, only one day, the sweet look, 'tis said. 
 
 Dare with us death, which awaits thee, dared or no! 
 
 We call on thine ancestral worth, old man ! 
 
 For who out-labors what the gods appoint, 
 
 Shows energy, but energy gone mad. 
 
 Since what must none e'er makes what musl not be. 
 
 CHORDS. 
 
 Had any one, while yet my arms were strong, 
 Been scorning thee, he easily had ceased. 
 But we are nought, now ; thine henceforth to see 
 Amphitruon, how to push aside these fates ! 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Nor cowardice nor a desire of life 
 
 Stops me from dying: but I seek to save 
 
 My son his children. Vain ! I set my heart, 
 
 It seems, upon impossibility. 
 
 See, it is ready for the sword, this throat
 
 354 HERAKLES. 
 
 To pierce, divide, dash down from precipice ! 
 But one grace grant us, king, we supplicate ! 
 Slay me and this unhappy one before 
 The children, lest we see them impious sight ! 
 Gasping the soul forth, calling all the while 
 On mother and on father's father ! Else, 
 Do as thy heart inclines thee ! No resource 
 Have we from death, and we resign ourselves. 
 
 MEGARA. 
 
 And I too supplicate : add grace to grace, 
 
 And, though but one man, doubly serve us both ! 
 
 Let me bestow adornment of the dead 
 
 Upon these children ! Throw the palace wide ! 
 
 For now we are shut out. Thence these shall share 
 
 At least so much of wealth, was once their sire's ! 
 
 LUKOS. 
 
 These things shall be. Withdraw the bolts, I bid 
 My servants ! Enter and adorn yourselves ! 
 I grudge no peploi ; but when these ye wind
 
 HERAKLES. 355 
 
 About your bodies, that adornment done, 
 Then I shall come and give you to the grave. 
 
 MEGARA. 
 
 O children, follow this unhappy foot, 
 Your mother's, into your ancestral home, 
 Where others have the power, are lords in truth, 
 Although the empty name is left us yet ! 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 O Zeus, in vain I had thee marriage-mate, 
 In vain I called thee father of my child ! 
 Thou wast less friendly far than thou didst seem. 
 I, the mere man, o'ermatch in virtue thee 
 The mighty god: for I have not betrayed 
 The Herakleian children, whereas thou 
 Hadst wit enough to come clandestinely 
 Into the chamber, take what no man gave, 
 Another's -place ; and when it comes to help 
 Thy loved ones, there thou lackest wit indeed 1 
 Thou art some stupid god, or born unjust.
 
 356 HERAKLES. 
 
 CHORDS. 
 
 Even a dirge, can Phoibos suit 
 In song to music jubilant 
 For all its sorrow: making shoot 
 His golden plectron o'er the lute, 
 Melodious ministrant. 
 And I, too, am of mind to raise, 
 Despite the imminence of doom, 
 A song of joy, outpour my praise 
 To him T- what is it rumor says ? 
 Whether now buried in the ghostly gloom 
 Below ground, he was child of Zeus indeed, 
 Or mere Amphitruon's mortal seed 
 To him I weave the wreath of song, his labor's meed. 
 For, is my hero perished in the feat? 
 The virtues of brave toils, in death complete, 
 These save the dead in song, their glory-garland 
 meet! 
 
 First, then, he made the wood 
 Of Zeus a solitude.
 
 HERAKLES. 357 
 
 Slaying its lion-tenant ; and he spread 
 
 The tawniness behind his yellow head 
 
 Enmuffled by the brute's, backed by that grin of dread. 
 
 The mountain-roving savage Kentaur-race 
 
 He strewed with deadly bow about their place, 
 
 Slaying with winged shafts : Peneios knew, 
 
 Beauteously-eddying, and the long tracts too 
 
 Of pasture trampled fruitless, and as well 
 
 Those desolated haunts Mount Pelion under, 
 
 And, grassy up to Homole, each dell 
 
 Whence, having filled their hands with pine-tree 
 
 plunder, 
 
 Horse-like was \^>nt to prance from, and subdue 
 The land of Thessaly, that bestial crew. 
 The golden-headed spot-backed stag he slew, 
 That robber of the rustics : glorified 
 Therewith the goddess who in hunter's pride 
 Slaughters the game along Oinod's side. 
 And, yoked abreast, he brought the chariot-breed 
 To pace submissive to the bit, each steed 
 That in the bloody cribs of Diomede
 
 35 8 HERAKLES. 
 
 Champed and, unbridled, hurried down that gore 
 
 For grain, exultant the dread feast before 
 
 Of man's flesh : hideous feeders they of yore ! 
 
 All as he crossed the Hebros' silver-flow 
 
 Accomplished he such labor, toiling so 
 
 For Mukenaian tyrant; ay, and more 
 
 He crossed the Melian shore 
 
 And, by the sources of Amauros, shot 
 
 To death that strangers'-pest 
 
 Kuknos, who dwelt in Amphanaia : not 
 
 Of fame for good to guest ! 
 
 And next, to the melodious maids* he came, 
 Inside the Hesperian court-yard : hand must aim 
 At plucking gold fruit from the appled leaves, 
 Now he had killed the dragon, backed like flame, 
 Who guards the unapproachable he weaves 
 Himself all round, one spire about the same. 
 And into those sea-troughs of ocean dived 
 The hero, and for mortals calm contrived, 
 Whatever oars should follow in his wake.
 
 HERAKLES. 359 
 
 And under heaven's mid-seat his HUnds thrust he, 
 
 At home with Atlas : and, for valor's sake, 
 
 Held the gods up their star-faced mansionry. 
 
 Also, the rider-host of Amazons 
 
 About Maiotis many-streamed, he went 
 
 To conquer through the billowy Euxeine once, 
 
 Having collected what an armament 
 
 Of friends from Hellas, all on conquest bent 
 
 Of that gold-garnished cloak, dread girdle-chase ! 
 
 So Hellas gained the girl's barbarian grace 
 
 And at Mukenai saves the trophy still 
 
 Go wonder there, who will ! 
 
 And the ten thousand-headed hound 
 
 Of many a murder, the Lernaian snake 
 
 He burned out, head by head, and cast around 
 
 His darts a poison thence, darts soon to- slake 
 
 Their rage in that three-bodied herdsman's gore 
 
 Of Erutheia. Many a running more 
 
 He made for triumph and felicity, 
 
 And, last of toils, to Haides, never dry
 
 360 HERAKLES. 
 
 Of tears, he salted : and there he, luckless, ends 
 
 His life completely, nor returns again. 
 
 The house and home are desolate of friends, 
 
 And where the children's life-path leads them, plain 
 
 I see, no step retraceable, no god 
 
 Availing, and no law to help the lost ! 
 
 The oar of Charon marks their period, 
 
 Waits to end all. Thy hands, these roofs accost ! 
 
 To thee, though absent, look their uttermost ! 
 
 But if in youth and strength I flourished still, 
 
 Still shook the spear in fight, did power match will 
 
 In these Kadmeian co-mates of my age, 
 
 They would, and I, when warfare was to wage, 
 
 Stand by these children; but I am bereft 
 
 Of youth now, lone of that good genius leftl 
 
 But hist, desist! for here come these, 
 Draped as the dead go, under and over, 
 Children long since, now hard to discover, 
 Of the once so potent Herakles !
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 And the loved wife dragging, in one tether 
 About her feet, the boys together; 
 And the hero's aged sire comes last ! 
 Unhappy that I am ! Of tears which rise, 
 How am I all unable to hold fast, 
 Longer, the aged fountains of these eyes ! 
 
 MEGARA. 
 
 Be it so ! Who is priest, who butcher here 
 
 Of these ill-fated ones, or stops the breath 
 
 Of me, the miserable ? Ready, see, 
 
 The sacrifice to lead where Haides lives ! 
 
 O children, we are led no lovely team 
 
 Of corpses age, youth, motherhood, all mixed I 
 
 sad fate of myself and these my sons 
 Whom with these eyes I look at, this last time! 
 I, indeed, bore you : but for,' enemies 
 
 1 brought you up to be a laughing-stock, 
 Matter for merriment, destruction-stuff 1 
 Woe's me ! 
 
 Strangely indeed my hopes have struck me down
 
 362 ' HERAKLES. 
 
 From what I used to hope about you once 
 
 The expectation from your father's talk ! 
 
 For thee, now, thy dead sire dealt Argos to : 
 
 Thou wast to have Eurustheus' house one day, 
 
 And rule Pelasgia where the fine fruits grow ; 
 
 And, for a stole of state, he wrapped about 
 
 Thy head with that the lion-monster bore, 
 
 That which himself went wearing armor-wise. 
 
 And thou wast King of Thebes such chariots there ' 
 
 Those plains I had for portion all for thee, 
 
 As thou hadst coaxed them out of who gave birth 
 
 To thee, his boy: and into thy right hand 
 
 He thrust the guardian-club of Daidalos, 
 
 Poor guardian proves the gift that plays thee false I 
 
 And upon thee he promised to bestow 
 
 Oichalia what, with those far-shooting shafts, 
 
 He ravaged once ; and so, since three you were, 
 
 With threefold kingdoms did he build you up 
 
 To veiy towers, your father, proud enough, 
 
 Prognosticating, from your manliness 
 
 In boyhood, what the manhood's self would be.
 
 HERAKLES. 363 
 
 For my part, I was picking out for you 
 Brides, suiting each with his alliance this 
 From Athens, this from Spartd, this from Thebes - 
 Whence, suited as stern-cables steady ship 
 You might have hold on life gods bless. All gone ! 
 Fortune turns round and gives us you, the Fates 
 Instead of brides me, tears for nuptial baths, 
 Unhappy in my hoping ! And the sire 
 Of your sire he prepares the marriage-feast 
 Befitting Haides who plays father now 
 Bitter relationship ! Oh me ! which first 
 Which last of you shall I to bosom fold? 
 To whom shall I fit close, his mouth to mine? 
 Of whom shall I lay hold and ne'er let go? 
 How would I gather, like the brown-winged bee, 
 The groans from all, and, gathered into one, 
 Give them you back again, a crowded tear ! 
 Dearest, if any voice be heard of men 
 Dungeoned in Haides, thee to thee I speak! 
 Here is thy father dying, and thy boys! 
 And I too perish, famed as fortunate
 
 364 HERAKLES. 
 
 By mortals once, through thee ! Assist them ! Come ! 
 But come ! though just a shade, appear to me ! 
 For, coming, thy ghost-grandeur would suffice, 
 Such cowards are they in thy presence, these 
 Who kill thy children now thy back is turned ! 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Ay, daughter, bid the powers below assist! 
 
 But I will rather, raising hand to heaven, 
 
 Call thee to help, O Zeus, if thy intent 
 
 Be, to these children, helpful anyway, 
 
 Since soon thou wilt be valueless enough ! 
 
 And yet thou hast been called and called ; in vain 
 
 I labor : for we needs must die, it seems. 
 
 Well, aged brothers life's a little thing! 
 
 Such as it is, then, pass life pleasantly 
 
 From day to night, nor once grieve all the while ! 
 
 Since Time concerns him not about our hopes, 
 
 To save them, but his own work done, flies off. 
 
 Witness myself, looked up to among men, 
 
 Doing noteworthy deeds : when here comes fate
 
 HKRAKLES. 3^5 
 
 Lifts me away, like feather skyward borne, 
 In one day ! Riches then and glory, whom 
 These are found constant to, I know not. Friends, 
 Farewell ! the man who loved you all so much, 
 Now, this last time, my mates, ye look upon ! 
 
 MEGARA. 
 
 Ha! 
 
 O father, do I see my dearest? Speak! 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 No more than thou canst, daughter dumb like thee ! 
 
 MEGARA. 
 
 Is this he whom we heard was underground ? 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Unless at least some dream in day we see ! 
 
 MEGARA. 
 
 What do I say ? what dreams insanely view ? 
 This is no other than thy son, old sire 1
 
 366 HERAKLES. 
 
 Here, children ! hang to these paternal robes, 
 Quick, haste, hold hard on him, since here's your true 
 Zeus that can save and every whit as well ! 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 O hail, my palace, my hearth's propula, 
 
 How glad I see thee as I come to light ! 
 
 Ha, what means this ? My children I behold 
 
 Before the house in garments of the grave, 
 
 Chapleted, and, amid a crowd of men, 
 
 My very wife my father weeping too, 
 
 Whatever the misfortune! Come, best take 
 
 My station nearer these and learn it all ! 
 
 Wife, what new sorrow has approached our home? 
 
 MEGARA. 
 
 O dearest ! light flashed on thy father now ! 
 
 Art thou come ? art thou saved and dost thou fall 
 
 On friends in their supreme extremity? 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 How say'st thou? Father 1 what's the trouble here?
 
 HERAKLES. 367 
 
 MEGARA. 
 
 Undone are we ! but thou, old man, forgive 
 If first I snatch what thou shouldst say to him ! 
 For somehow womanhood wakes pity more. 
 Here are my children killed and I undone ! 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Apollon, with what preludes speech begins ! 
 
 MEGARA. 
 
 Dead are my brothers and old father too. 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 How say'st thou ? doing what ? by spear-stroke 
 
 whence ? 
 
 t 
 
 MEGARA. 
 
 Lukos destroyed them the land's noble king ! 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Met them in arms ? or through the land's disease ?
 
 3 68 HERAKLES. 
 
 MEGARA. 
 
 Sedition : and he sways seven-gated Thebes. 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Why then came fear on the old man and thee ? 
 
 MEGARA. 
 
 He meant to kill thy father, me, our boys. 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 How say'st thou ? Fearing what from orphanage ? 
 
 MEGARA. 
 
 Lest they should some day pay back Kreon's death. 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 And why trick out the boys corpse-fashion thus ? 
 
 MEGARA. 
 
 These wraps of death we have already donned.
 
 HERAKLES. 369 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 And you had died through violence ? Woe's me ! 
 
 MEGARA. 
 
 Left bare of friends : and thou wast dead, we heard 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 And whence came on you this faintheartedness? 
 
 MEGARA. 
 
 The heralds of Eurustheus brought the news. 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 And why was it you left my house and hearth ? 
 
 c 
 
 MEGARA, 
 
 Forced thence : thy father from his very couch ! 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 And no shame at insulting the old man?
 
 370 HERAKLES. 
 
 MEGARA. 
 
 Shame, truly ! no near neighbors he and Shame ! 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 And so much, in my absence, lacked I friends ? 
 
 MEGARA. 
 
 Friends, are there any to a luckless man? 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 The Minuai-war I waged, they spat forth these ' 
 
 MEGARA. 
 
 Friendless, again I tell thee, is ill-luck. 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Will not you cast these hell-wraps from your hair 
 And look on light again, and with your eyes 
 Taste the sweet change from nether dark to day? 
 While I for now there needs my handiwork 
 First I shall go, demolish the abodes
 
 HERAKLES. 371 
 
 Of these new lordships; next hew off the head 
 Accurst and toss it for the dogs to trail. 
 Then, such of the Kadmeians as I find 
 Were craven though they owed me gratitude, 
 Some I intend to handle with this club 
 Renowned for conquest ; and with winged shafts 
 Scatter the others, fill Ismenos full 
 With bloody corpses, Dirkd's flow so white 
 Shall be incarnadined. For, whom, I pray, 
 Behooves me rather help than wife and child 
 And aged father? Farewell, "Labors" mine! 
 Vainly I wrought them : my true work lay here ! 
 My business is to die defending these, 
 If for their father's sake they meant to die. 
 Or how shall we call brave the battling it 
 With snake and lion, as Eurustheus bade, 
 If yet I must not labor death away 
 From my own children ? " Conquering Herakles " 
 Folks will not call me as they used, I think 1 
 The right thing is for parents to assist 
 Children, old age, the partner of the couch.
 
 372 HERAKLES. 
 
 AMPIIITUUON. 
 
 True, son! thy duty is be friend to friends 
 And foe to foes : yet no more haste than needs 1 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Why, father, what is over-hasty here? 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Many a pauper, seeming to be rich, 
 
 As the word goes, the king calls partisan. 
 
 Such made a riot, ruined Thebes to rob 
 
 Their neighbor: for, what good they had at home 
 
 Was spent and gone flew off through idleness. 
 
 You came to trouble Thebes, they saw: since seen, 
 
 Beware lest, raising foes, a multitude, 
 
 You stumble where you apprehend no harm. 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 If all Thebes saw me, not a whit care I. 
 But seeing as I did a certain bird
 
 HERAKLES. 373 
 
 Not in the lucky seats, I knew some woe 
 Was fallen upon the house : so, purposely, 
 
 By stealth I made my way into the land. 
 
 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 And now, advancing, hail the hearth with praise 
 And give the ancestral home thine eye to see! 
 For he himself will come, thy wife and sons 
 To drag-forth slaughter slay me too, this king ! 
 But, here remaining, all succeeds with thee 
 Gain lost by no false step. So, this thy town 
 Disturb not, son, ere thou right matters here ! 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Thus will I do, for thou say'st well ; my home 
 Let me first enter ! Since at the due time 
 Returning from the unsunned depths where dwells 
 Haides' wife Kore', let me not affront 
 Those gods beneath my roof, I first should hail 1
 
 374 HERAKLES. 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 For didst thou really visit Haides, son? 
 
 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Ay dragged to light, too, his three-headed beast. 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 By fight, didst conquer or through Koreas gift? 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Fight : well for me, I saw the Orgies first ! 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 And is he in Eurustheus' house, the brute? 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Chthonia's grove, Hermion's city, holds him now. 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Does not Eurustheus know thee back on earth?
 
 HERAKLES. 375 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 No : I would come first and see matters here. 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 But how wast thou below ground such a time? 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 I stopped, from Haides, bringing Theseus up. 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 And where is he ? bound o'er the plain for home ? 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 i 
 
 Gone glad to Athens Haides' fugitive! 
 But, up, boys ! follow father into house ! 
 There's a far better going-in for you 
 Truly, than going-out was ! Nay, take heart, 
 And let the eyes no longer run and run! 
 And thou, O wife, my own, collect thy soul
 
 37 6 HERAKLES. 
 
 Nor tremble now ! Leave grasping, all of you, 
 
 My garments ! I'm not winged, nor fly from friends ! 
 
 Ah, 
 
 No letting go for these, who all the more 
 
 Hang to my garments ! Did you foot indeed 
 
 The razor's edge? Why, then I'll carry them 
 
 Take with my hands these small craft up, and tow 
 
 Just as a ship would. There ! don't fear I shirk 
 
 My children's service ! this way, men are men, 
 
 No difference ! best and worst, they love their boys 
 
 After one fashion : wealth they differ in 
 
 Some have it, others not ; but each and all 
 
 Combine to form the children-loving race. 
 
 CHOROS. 
 
 Youth is a pleasant burthen to me ; 
 
 But age on my head, more heavily 
 
 Than the crags of Aitna, weighs and weighs, 
 
 And 'darkening cloaks the lids and intercepts the rays 
 
 Never be mine the preference 
 
 Of an Asian empire's wealth, nor yet
 
 HERAKLES. 377 
 
 Of a house all gold, to youth, to youth 
 
 That's beauty, whatever the gods dispense ! 
 
 Whether in wealth we joy, or fret 
 
 Paupers, of all God's gifts most beautiful, in truth ! 
 
 But miserable murderous age I hate ! 
 Let it go to wreck, the waves adown, 
 Nor ever by rights plague tower or town 
 Where mortils bide, but still elate 
 With wings, on ether, precipitate, 
 Wander them round nor wait ! 
 
 But if the gods, to man's degree, 
 
 Had wit and wisdom, they would bring 
 
 Mankind a twofold youth, to be 
 
 Their virtue's sign-mark, all should see, 
 
 In those with whom life's winter thus grew spring. 
 
 For when they died, into the sun once more 
 
 Would they have traversed twice life's racecourse o'e* 
 
 While ignobility had simply run 
 
 Existence through, nor second life begun.
 
 378 HERAKLES. 
 
 And so might we discern both bad and good 
 
 As surely as the starry multitude 
 
 Is numbered by the sailors, one and one. 
 
 But now the gods by no apparent line 
 
 Limit the worthy and the base define ; 
 
 Only, a certain period rounds, and so 
 
 Brings man more wealth, but youthful vigor, no I 
 
 Well ! I am not to pause 
 
 Mingling together wine and wine in cup 
 
 The Graces with the Muses up 
 
 Most dulcet marriage : loosed from music's laws, 
 
 No life for me ! 
 
 But where the wreaths abound, there ever may I be ! 
 
 And still, an aged bard, I shout Mnemosune' 
 
 Still chant of Herakles the triumph-chant, 
 
 Companioned by the seven-stringed tortoise-shell 
 
 And Libuan flute, and Bromios' self as well, 
 
 God of the grape, with man participant ! 
 
 Not yet will we arrest their glad advance 
 
 The Muses who so long have led me forth to dance !
 
 HERAKLES. 379 
 
 A paian hymn the Delian girls indeed, 
 
 Weaving a beauteous measure in and out 
 
 His temple-gates, Latona's goodly seed ; 
 
 And paians I too, these thy domes about, 
 
 From these gray cheeks, my king, will swan-like 
 
 shout 
 
 Old songster ! Ay, in song it starts off brave 
 " Zeus' son is he ! " and yet, such grace of birth 
 Surpassing far, to man his labors gave 
 Existence, one calm flow without a wave, 
 Having destroyed the beasts, the terrors of the earth. 
 
 LUKOS. 
 
 From out the house Amphitruon comes in time ! 
 For 'tis a long while now since ye bedecked 
 Your bodies with the dead-folks' finery. 
 But quick ! the boys and wife of Herakles 
 Bid them appear outside this house, keep pact 
 To die, and need no bidding but your own !
 
 380 HERAKLES. 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 King ! you press hard on me sore-pressed enough, 
 And give me scorn beside my dead ones here. 
 Meet in such matters were it, though you reign, 
 To temper zeal with moderation. Since 
 You do impose on us the need to die 
 Needs must we love our lot, obey your will. 
 
 LUKOS. 
 Where's Megara, then ? Alkmend's grandsons, where ? 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 She, I think, as one figures from outside, 
 
 LUKOS. 
 Well, this same thinking, what affords its ground ? 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Sits suppliant on the holy altar-steps, 
 
 LUKOS. 
 
 Idly indeed a suppliant to save life !
 
 HERAKLES. 381 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 And calls on her dead husband, vainly too ! 
 
 LUKOS. 
 
 For he's not come, nor ever will arrive. 
 
 AMPEITRUON. 
 
 Never at least, if no god raise him up. 
 
 LUKOS. 
 
 Go to her, and conduct her from the house ! 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 I should partake the murder, doing that 
 
 LUKOS. 
 
 We, since thou hast a scruple in the case, 
 Outside of fears, we shall march forth these lads, 
 Mother and all. Here, follow me, my folk 
 A.nd gladly so remove what stops our toils!
 
 382 HERAKLES. 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Thou go then ! March where needs must ! What 
 
 remains 
 
 Perhaps concerns another. Doing ill, 
 Expect some ill be done thee ! 
 
 Ha, old friends ! 
 
 On he strides beautifully ! in the toils 
 O' the net, where swords spring forth, will he be fast 
 Minded to kill his neighbors the arch-knave 1 
 I go, too I must see the falling corpse ! 
 For he has sweets to give a dying man, 
 Your foe, that pays the price of deeds he did. 
 
 CHORDS. 
 
 Troubles are over! He the great king once, 
 Turns the point, tends for Haides, goal of life ! 
 O justice, and the gods' back-flowing fate ! 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Thou art come, late indeed, where death pays crime 
 These insults heaped on better than thyself!
 
 HERAKLES. 3 8 3 
 
 CHOROS. 
 
 Joy gives this outburst to my tears ! Again 
 Come round those deeds, his doing, which of old 
 He never dreamed himself was to endure 
 King of the country ! But enough, old man ! 
 Indoors, now, let us see how matters stand 
 If somebody be faring as I wish I 
 
 LUKOS. 
 
 Ah me me! 
 
 CHORDS. 
 
 This strikes the keynote music to my mind, 
 Merry i' the household ! Death takes up the tune 1 
 The king gives voice, groans murder's prelude well ! 
 
 LUKOS. 
 
 O, all the land of Kadmos ! slain by guile !
 
 384 HERAKLES. 
 
 CHOROS. 
 
 Ay, for who slew first? Paying back thy due, 
 Resign thee ! make, for deeds done, mere amends ! 
 Who was it grazed the gods through lawlessness 
 Mortal himself, threw up his fools'TConceit 
 Against the blessed heavenly ones as though 
 Gods had no power? Old friends, the impious man 
 Exists not any more ! The house is mute. 
 Turn we to song and dance ! For, those I love, 
 Those I wish well to, well fare they, to wish 1 
 
 Dances, dances and banqueting 
 
 To Thebes, the sacred city through, 
 
 Are a care ! for, change and change 
 
 Of tears to laughter, old to new, 
 
 Our lays, glad birth, they bring, they bring 1 
 
 He is gone and past, the mighty king ! 
 
 And the old one reigns, returned O strange ! 
 
 From the Acherontian harbor too ! 
 
 Advent of hope, beyond thought's widest range !
 
 HERAKLES. 385 
 
 To the gods, the gods are crimes a care, 
 And they watch our virtue, well aware 
 That gold and that prosperity drive man 
 Out of his mind those charioteers who hale 
 Might-without-right behind them : face who can 
 Fortune's reverse which time prepares, nor quail ? 
 He who evades law and in lawlessness 
 Delights him, he has broken down his trust 
 The chariot, riches haled now blackening in the 
 dust! 
 
 Ismenos, go thou garlanded! 
 
 Break into dance, ye ways, the polished bed 
 
 O' the seven-gated city! Dirke*, thou 
 
 Fair-flowing, with the Asoplad sisters all, 
 
 Leave your sire's stream, attend the festival 
 
 Of Herakles, one choir of nymphs, sing triumph now ! 
 
 O woody rock of Puthios and each home 
 
 O' the Helikonian Muses, ye ' shall come 
 
 With joyous shouting to my walls, my town 
 
 Where saw the light that Spartan race, those " Sown,"
 
 386 HERAKLES. 
 
 Braze n-shield-bearing chiefs, whereof the band 
 
 With children's children renovates our land, 
 
 To Thebes a sacred light ! 
 
 O combination of the marriage rite 
 
 Bed of the mortal-born and Zeus, who couched 
 
 Beside the nymph of Perseus' progeny ! 
 
 For credible, past hope, becomes to me 
 
 That nuptial story long ago avouched, 
 
 O Zeus ! and time has turned the dark to bright, 
 
 And made one blaze of truth the Herakleidan might 
 
 His, who emerged from earth's pavilion, left 
 
 Plouton's abode, the nether palace-cleft. 
 
 Thou wast the lord that nature gave me not 
 
 That baseness born and bred my king, by lot ! 
 
 Baseness made plain to all, who now regard 
 
 The match of sword with sword in fight, 
 
 If to the gods the Just and Right 
 
 Still pleasing be, still claim the palm's award. 
 
 Horror I 
 
 Are we come to the selfsame passion of /ear,
 
 HERAKLES; 3 8 7 
 
 Old friends? such a phantasm fronts me here 
 
 Visible over the palace-roof ! 
 
 In flight, in flight, the laggard limb 
 
 Bestir ! and haste aloof 
 
 From that on the roof there grand and grim ! 
 
 O Paian, king ! 
 
 Be thou my safeguard from the woful thing! 
 
 IRIS. 
 
 Courage, old men ! beholding here Night's birth >< 
 
 Madness, and me the handmaid of the gods, 
 
 Iris : since to your town we come, no plague 
 
 Wage war against the house of but one man 
 
 From Zeus and from Alkmend sprung, they say. 
 
 Now, till he made an end of bitter toils, 
 
 Fate kept him safe, nor did his father Zeus 
 
 Let us once hurt him, Here nor myself. 
 
 But, since he has toiled through Eurustheus' task, 
 
 Here desires to fix fresh blood on him 
 
 Slaying his children : I desire it too.
 
 388 HERAKLES. 
 
 Up then, collecting the unsoftened heart, 
 Unwedded virgin of black Night ! Drive, drag 
 Frenzy upon the man here whirls of brain 
 Big with child-murder, while his feet leap gay ! 
 Let go the bloody cable its whole length ! 
 So that, when* o'er the Acherousian ford 
 He has sent floating, by self-homicide, 
 His beautiful boy-garland, he may know 
 First, Herd's anger, what it is to him, 
 And then learn mine. The gods are vile indeed 
 And mortal matters vast, if he 'scape free ! 
 
 MADNESS. 
 
 Certes, from well-born sire and mother too 
 
 Had I my birth, whose blood is Night's and Heaven's 
 
 But here's my glory, not to grudge the good ! 
 
 Nor love I raids against the friends of man. 
 
 I wish, then, to persuade, before I see 
 
 You stumbling, you and Herd ! trust my words 1 
 
 This man, the house of whom ye hound me to,
 
 HERAKLES. 389 
 
 Is not unfamed on earth nor gods among ; 
 Since, having quelled waste land and savage sea, 
 He alone raised again the falling rights 
 Of gods gone ruinous through impious men. 
 Desire no mighty mischief, I advise ! 
 
 IRIS. 
 Give thou no thought to Here's faulty schemes ! 
 
 MADNESS. 
 
 Changing her step from faulty to fault-free ! 
 
 IRIS. 
 Not to be wise, did Zeus' wife send thee here ! 
 
 MADNESS. 
 
 Sun, thee I cite to witness doing what I loath to do ! 
 But since indeed to Herd and thyself I must subserve, 
 And follow, you quick, with a whizz, as the hounds 
 a-hunt with the huntsman,
 
 39 HERAKLES. 
 
 Go I will ! and neither the sea, as it groans with its 
 
 waves so furiously, 
 Nor earthquake, no, nor the bolt of thunder gasping 
 
 out heaven's labor-throe, 
 Shall cover the ground as I, at a bound, rush into 
 
 the bosom of Herakles ! 
 And home I scatter, and house I batter, 
 Having first of all made the children fall, 
 And he who felled them is never to know 
 He gave birth to each child that received the blow, 
 Till the Madness, I am, have let him go ! 
 
 Ha, behold, already he rocks his head he is off 
 from the starting-place ! 
 
 Not a word, as he rolls his frightful orbs, from their 
 sockets wrenched in the ghastly race ! 
 
 And the breathings of him he tempers and times no 
 more than a bull in act to toss, 
 
 And hideously he bellows invoking the Keres, daugh- 
 ters of Tartaros. 
 
 Ay, and I soon will dance thee madder, and pipe 
 thee quite out of thy mind with fearj
 
 HERAKLES. 39 r 
 
 So, up with the famous foot, thou Iris, march to 
 
 Olumpos, leave me here ! 
 Me and mine, who now combine, in the dreadful shape 
 
 no mortal sees, 
 And now are about to pass, from without, inside of 
 
 the home of Herakles ! 
 
 CHOROS. 
 
 Otototoi, groan ! Away is mown 
 Thy flower, Zeus' offspring, City! 
 Unhappy Hellas, who dost cast (the pity !) 
 Who worked thee all the good, 
 Away from thee, destroyest in a mood 
 Of Madness him, to death whom pipings dance ! 
 There goes she, in her chariot, groans, her brood, 
 And gives her team the goad, as thougn adrift 
 For doom, -Night's Gorgon, Madness, she whose glance 
 Turns man to marble ! with what hissings lift 
 Their hundred heads the snakes, her head's inherit- 
 ance ! 
 Quick has the god changed fortune : through their sire
 
 39 2 HERAKLES. 
 
 Quick will the children, that he saved, expire ! 
 O miserable me ! O Zeus ! thy child 
 Childless himself soon vengeance, hunger-wild, 
 Craving for punishment, will lay how low 
 Loaded with many a woe ! 
 
 O palace-roofs! your courts about, 
 
 A measure begins all unrejoiced 
 
 By the tympanies and the thyrsos hoist 
 
 Of the Bromian revel-rout ! 
 
 O ye domes ! and the measure proceeds 
 
 For blood, not such as the cluster bleeds 
 
 Of the Dionusian pouring-out ! 
 
 Break forth, fly, children! fatal this 
 
 Fatal ^the lay that is piped, I wis ! 
 
 Ay, for he hunts a children-chase 
 
 Never shall madness lead her revel 
 
 And leave no trace in the dwelling-place! 
 
 Ai ai, because of the evil! 
 
 Ai ai, the old man how I groan
 
 HERAKLES. 393 
 
 For the father, and not the father alone! 
 She who was nurse of his children, small 
 Her gain that they ever were born at all ! 
 
 See ! See ! 
 
 A whirlwind shakes hither and thither 
 The house the roof falls in together ! 
 Ha, ha, what dost thou, son of Zeus ? 
 A trouble of Tartaros broke loose, 
 Such as once Pallas on the Titan thundered, 
 Thou sendest on thy domes, roof-shattered and wall- 
 sundered ! . 
 
 MESSENGER. 
 
 O bodies white with age ! 
 
 CHORDS. 
 
 What cry, to me 
 What, dost thou call with? 
 
 MESSENGER. 
 
 There's a curse indoors!
 
 394 HERAKLES. 
 
 CHORDS. 
 
 I shall not bring a prophet : you suffice I 
 
 MESSENGER. 
 
 Dead are the children ! 
 
 CHORDS. 
 Ai ai! 
 
 MESSENGER. 
 
 Groan ! for, groans 
 
 Suit well the subject 1 Dire the children's death, 
 Dire too the parent's hands that dealt the fate. 
 No one could tell worse woe than we have borne! 
 
 CHORDS. 
 How dost thou that same curse curse, cause for 
 
 groan 
 
 The father's on the children, make appear ? 
 Tell in what matter they were hurled from heaven 
 Against the house these evils ; and recount 
 The children's hapless fate, O Messenger I
 
 HERAKLES. 395 
 
 MESSENGER. 
 
 The victims were before the hearth of Zeus, 
 
 A household-expiation: since the king 
 
 O' the country, Herakles had killed and cast 
 
 From out the dwelling ; and a beauteous choir 
 
 Of boys stood by his sire, too, and his wife. 
 
 And now the basket had been carried round 
 
 The altar in a circle, and we used 
 
 The consecrated speech. Alkmen^'s son, 
 
 Just as he was about, in his right hand, 
 
 To bear the torch, that he might dip into 
 
 The cleansing-water, came to a stand-still ; 
 
 And, as their father yet delayed, his boys 
 
 Had their eyes on him. But he was himself 
 
 No longer : lost in rollings of the eyes ; 
 
 Out-thrusting eyes their very roots like blood J 
 
 Froth he dropped down his bushy-bearded cheek, 
 
 \nd said, together with a madman's laugh 
 
 " Father ! why sacrifice, before I slay 
 
 Eurustheus? why have twice the lustral fire,
 
 396 HERAKLES. 
 
 And double pains, when 'tis permitted me 
 
 To end, with one good hand-sweep, matters here ? 
 
 Then, when I hither bring Eurustheus' head, 
 
 Then for these just slain, wash hands once for all ! 
 
 Now, cast drink-offerings forth, throw baskets down ! 
 
 Who gives me bow and arrows, who my club ? 
 
 I go to that Mukenai! One must match 
 
 Crowbars and mattocks, so that those sunk stones 
 
 The Kuklops squared with picks and plumb-line red 
 
 I, with my bent steel, may o'ertumble town ! " 
 
 Which said, he goes and, with no car to have 
 
 Affirms he has one ! mounts the chariot-board, 
 
 And strikes, as having really goad in hand ! 
 
 And two ways laughed the servants laugh with awe; 
 
 And one said, as each met the other's stare, 
 
 "Playing us boys' tricks? or is master mad?" 
 
 But up he climbs, and down along the roof, 
 
 And, dropping into the men's place, maintains 
 
 He's come to Nisos city, when he's come 
 
 Only inside his own house! then reclines 
 
 On floor, for couch, and, as arrived indeed,
 
 HERAKLES. 397 
 
 Makes himself supper ; goes through some brief stay 
 
 Then says he's traversing the forest-flats 
 
 Of Isthmos ; thereupon lays body bare 
 
 Of bucklings, and begins a contest with 
 
 No one ! and is proclaimed the conqueror 
 
 He by himself having called out to hear 
 
 Nobody ! Then, if you will take his word, 
 
 Blaring against Eurustheus horribly, 
 
 He's at Mukenai. But his father laid 
 
 Hold of the strong hand and addressed him thus : 
 
 " O son, what ails thee ? Of what sort is this 
 
 Extravagance ? Has not some murder-craze, 
 
 Bred of those corpses thou didst just despatch, 
 
 Danced thee drunk ? " But he, taking him to crouch, 
 
 Eurustheus' sire, that apprehensive touched 
 
 His hand, a suppliant, pushes him aside, 
 
 Gets ready quiver, and bends bow against 
 
 His children thinking them Eurustheus' boys 
 
 He means to slay. They, horrified with fear, 
 
 Rushed here and there, this child, into the robes 
 
 O' the wretched mother this, beneath the shade
 
 398 HERAKLES. 
 
 O' the column, and this other, like a bird, 
 Cowered at the altar-foot. The mother shrieks 
 "Parent what dost thou? kill thy children?" Sc 
 Shriek the old sire and crowd of servitors. 
 But he, outwinding him, as round about 
 The column ran the boy, a horrid whirl 
 O' the lathe his foot described ! stands opposite, 
 Strikes through the liver ! and supine the boy 
 Bedews the stone shafts, breathing out his life. 
 But " Victory " he shouted ! boasted thus : 
 " Well, this one nestling of Eurustheus dead 
 Falls by me, pays back the paternal hate ! " 
 Then bends bow on another who was crouched 
 At base of altar overlooked, he thought 
 And now prevents him, falls at father's knee, 
 Throwing up hand to beard and cheek above. 
 " O dearest ! " cries he " father, kill me not ! 
 Yours, I am your boy: not Eurustheus' boy 
 You kill now ! " But he, rolling the wild eye 
 Of Gorgon, as the boy stood all too close 
 For deadly bowshot, mimicry of smith
 
 HERAKLES. 399 
 
 Who batters red-hot iron, hand o'er head 
 
 Heaving his club, on the boy's yellow hair 
 
 Hurls it and breaks the bone. This second caught, 
 
 He goes, would slay the third, one sacrifice 
 
 He and the couple ; but, beforehand here, 
 
 The miserable mother catches up, 
 
 Carries him inside house and bars the gate. 
 
 Then he, as he were at those Kuklops' work, 
 
 Digs at, heaves doors up, wrenches doorposts out, 
 
 Lays wife and child low with the selfsame shaft. 
 
 And this done, at the old man's death he drives; 
 
 But there came, as it seemed to us who saw, 
 
 A statue Pallas with the crested head, 
 
 Swinging her spear and threw a stone which smote 
 
 Herakles' breast and stayed his slaughter-rage, 
 
 And sent him safe to sleep. He falls to ground 
 
 Striking against the column with his back 
 
 Column which, with the falling of the roof, 
 
 Broken in two, lay by the altar-base. 
 
 And we, foot-free now from our several flights, 
 
 Along with the old man, we fastened bonds
 
 400 HERAKLES. 
 
 Of rope-noose to the column, so that he, 
 
 Ceasing from sleep, might not go adding deeds 
 
 To deeds done. And he sleeps a sleep, poor wretch, 
 
 No gift of any god ! since he has slain 
 
 Children and wife. For me, I do not know 
 
 What mortal has more misery to bear. 
 
 CHOROS. 
 
 A murder there was which Argolis 
 
 Holds in remembrance, Hellas through, 
 
 As, at that time, best and famousest : 
 
 Of those, the daughters of Danaos slew. 
 
 A murder indeed was that ! but this 
 
 Outstrips it, straight to the goal has pressed. 
 
 I am able to speak of a murder done 
 
 To the hapless Zeus-born offspring, too 
 
 Proknd's son, who had but one 
 
 Or a sacrifice to the Muses, say 
 
 Rather, who Itus sing alway, 
 
 Her single child ! But thou, the sire 
 
 Of children three O thou consuming fire !
 
 HERAKLES. 401 
 
 In one outrageous fate hast made them all expire ! 
 
 And this outrageous fate 
 
 What groan, or wail, or deadmen's dirge, 
 
 Or choric dance of Haides shall I urge 
 
 The Muse to celebrate ? 
 
 Woe ! woe ! behold ! 
 
 The portalled palace lies unrolled, 
 
 This way and that way, each prodigious fold ! 
 
 Alas for me ! these children, see, 
 
 Stretched, hapless group, before their father he 
 
 The all-unhappy, who lies sleeping out 
 
 The murder of his sons, a dreadful sleep ! 
 
 And bonds, see, all about, 
 
 Rope-tangle, ties and tether, these 
 
 Tightenings around the body of Herakles 
 
 To the stone columns of the house made fast! 
 
 But like a bird that grieves 
 
 For callow nestlings, some rude hand bereaves 
 
 See, here, a bitter journey over-past, 
 
 The old man all too late is here at last!
 
 402 HERAKLES. 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Silently, silently, aged Kadmeians ! 
 Will ye not suffer my son, diffused 
 Yonder, to slide from his sorrows in sleep ? 
 
 CHORDS. 
 
 And thee, old man, do I, groaning, weep, 
 
 And the children too, and the head there used 
 
 Of old to the wreaths and paians ! 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Farther away ! Nor beat the breast, 
 Nor wail aloud, nor rouse from rest 
 The slumberer asleep, so best 1 
 
 CHOROS. 
 Ah me what a slaughter ! 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Refrain refrain 1 
 Ye will prove my perdition!
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 CHOROS. 
 
 Unlike water, 
 Bloodshed rises from earth again ! 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Do I bid you bate your breath, in vain 
 Ye elders ? Lament in a softer strain ! 
 Lest he rouse himself, burst every chain, 
 And bury the city in ravage bray 
 Father and house to dust away ! 
 
 CHOROS. 
 
 I cannot forbear I cannot forbear! 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Hush ! I will learn his breathings : there ! 
 I will lay my ears close. 
 
 CHOROS. 
 
 What, he sleeps?
 
 404 HERAKLES. 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Ay, sleeps ! A horror of slumber keeps 
 
 The man who has piled 
 
 On wife and child 
 
 Death and death, as he shot them down 
 
 With clang o' the bow. 
 
 CHORDS. 
 
 Wail 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Even so I 
 
 CHOROS. 
 
 The fate of the children 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Triple woe I 
 
 CHOROS. 
 
 Old man, the fate of thy son J
 
 HERAKLES. 405 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Hush, hush ! Have done ! 
 
 He is turning about ! 
 
 He is breaking out ! 
 
 Away ! I steal 
 
 And my body conceal, 
 
 Before he arouse, 
 
 In the depths of the house! 
 
 CHOROS. 
 
 Courage ! The Night 
 
 Maintains her right 
 
 On the lids of thy son there, sealed from sight! 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 See, see ! To leave the light 
 
 And, wretch that I am, bear one last ill, 
 
 I do not avoid ; but if he kill 
 
 Me his own father, and devise 
 
 Beyond the present miseries
 
 46 HERAKLES. 
 
 A misery more ghastly still 
 And to haunt him, over and above 
 Those here who, as they used to love, 
 Now hate him, what if Jie have with these 
 My murder, the worst of Erinues? 
 
 CHOROS. 
 
 Then was the time to die, for thee, 
 
 When ready to wreak in the full degree 
 
 Vengeance on those 
 
 Thy consort's foes 
 
 Who murdered her brothers! glad, life's close, 
 
 With the Taphioi down, 
 
 And sacked their town 
 
 Clustered about with a wash of seal 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 To flight to flight! 
 
 Away from the house, troop off, old men! 
 
 Save yourselves out of the maniac's sight!
 
 HERAKLES. 407 
 
 He is rousing himself right up : and then, 
 
 Murder on murder heaping anew, 
 
 He will revel in blood your city through ! 
 
 CHORDS. 
 
 Zeus, why hast, with such unmeasured hate, 
 Hated thy son, whelmed in this sea of woes ? 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Hah, 
 
 In breath indeed I am see things I ought 
 ^Ether, and earth, and these the sunbeam-shafts ! 
 But then some billow and strange whirl of sense 
 
 1 have fallen into ! and breathings hot I breathe 
 Smoked upwards, not the steady work from lungs. 
 See now! Why bound, at moorings like a ship, - 
 About my young breast and young arm, to this 
 Stone piece of carved work broke in half, do I 
 
 Sit, have my rest in corpses' neighborhood ? 
 Strewn on the ground are winged darts, and bow 
 Which played my brother-shieldman, held in hand.
 
 408 HERAKLES. 
 
 
 
 Guarded my side, and got my guardianship! 
 I cannot have gone back to Haides twice 
 Begun Eurustheus' race I ended thence? 
 But I nor see the Sisupheian stone, 
 Nor Plouton, nor Demeter's sceptred maid ! 
 I am struck witless sure ! Where can I be ? 
 Ho there! what friend of mine is near or far 
 Some one to cure me of bewilderment? 
 For nought familiar do I recognize. 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Old friends, shall I go close to these my woes? 
 
 CHOROS. 
 Ay, and let me too, nor desert your ills ! 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Father, why weepest thou, and buriest up 
 Thine eyes, aloof so from thy much-loved son? 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 O child ! for, faring badly, mine thou art !
 
 HERAKLES. 49 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Do I fare somehow ill, that tears should flow? 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Ill, would cause any god who bore, to groan! 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 That's boasting, truly ! still, you state no hap. 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 For, thyself seest if in thy wits again. 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 .Heyday! How riddlingly that hint returns! 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Well, I am trying art thou sane and sound! 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Say if thou lay'st aught strange to my life's charge !
 
 410 HERAKLES. 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 If thou no more art Haides-drunk, I tell! 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 I bring to mind no drunkenness of soul. 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Shall I unbind my son, old men, or what? 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 And who was binder, tell ! not that, my deed I 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Mind that much of misfortune pass the rest! 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Enough 1 from silence, I nor learn nor wish. 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 O Zeus, dost witness here throned Herd's work?
 
 HERAKLES. 411 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 But have I had to bear aught hostile thence? 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Let be the goddess bury thine own guilt! 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Undone! What is the sorrow thou wilt say? 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Look ! See the ruins of thy children here ! 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Ah me! What sight do wretched I behold? 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Unfair fight, son, this fight thou fastenedst 
 On thine own children ! 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 What fight? Who slew these?
 
 412 HERAKLES. 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Thou and thy bow, and who of gods was cause. 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 How say'st ? What did I ? Ill-announcing sire ! 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Go mad ! Thou askest a sad clearing up ! 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 And am I also murderer of my wife ? 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 All the work here was just one hand's work thine I 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Ai ai for groans encompass me a cloud! 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 For these deeds' sake do I begroan thy fate !
 
 HERAKLES. 4 r 3 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Did I break up my house or dance it down? 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 I know just one thing all's a woe with thee ! 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 But where did the craze catch me? where destroy? 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 When thou didst cleanse hands at the altar-flame. 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Ah me ! why is it then I save my life 
 
 Proved murderer of my dearest ones, my boys ? 
 
 Shall not I rush to the rock-level's leap, 
 
 Or, darting sword through breast and all, become 
 
 My children's blood-avenger? or, this flesh 
 
 Burning away with fire, so thrust away 
 
 The infamy, which waits me there, from life ?
 
 4i 4 HERAKLES. 
 
 Ah, but, a hindrance to my purposed death, 
 Theseus arrives, my friend and kinsman, here I 
 Eyes will be on me ! my child-murder-plague 
 In evidence before friends loved so much! 
 
 me, what shall I do? Where, taking wing 
 Or gliding underground, shall I seek out 
 
 A solitariness from misery? 
 
 1 will pull night upon my muffled head ! 
 
 Let this wretch here content him with his curse 
 Of blood : I would pollute no innocents ! 
 
 THESEUS. 
 
 I come, with others who await beside 
 Asopos' stream, the armed Athenian youth, 
 Bring thy son, old man, spear's fight-fellowship ! 
 For a bruit reached the Erectheidai's town 
 That, having seized the sceptre of this realm, 
 Lukos prepares you battle-violence. 
 So, paying good back, Herakles began, 
 Saving me down there, I have come, old man, 
 If aught, of my hand or my friends', you want.
 
 HERAKLES. 415 
 
 What's here ? Why all these corpses on the ground ? 
 Am I perhaps behindhand come too late 
 For newer ill ? Who killed these children now ? 
 Whose wife was she, this woman I behold ? 
 Boys, at least, take no stand in reach of spear! 
 Some other woe than war, I chance upon ! 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 O thou, who sway'st the olive-bearing height ! 
 
 THESEUS. 
 Why hail'st thou me with woful prelude thus ? 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Dire sufferings have we suffered from the gods. 
 
 THESEUS. 
 These boys, who are they, thou art weeping o'er? 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 He gave them birth, indeed, my hapless son ! 
 Begot, but killed them dared their bloody death.
 
 41 6 HERAKLES. 
 
 THESEUS. 
 Speak no such horror! 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Would I might obey! 
 
 THESEUS. 
 
 O teller of dread tidings! 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Lost are we 
 
 Lost flown away from life ! 
 
 What did he? 
 
 THESEUS. 
 
 What sayest thou? 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Erring through a frenzy-fit, 
 He did all, with the arrows dipped in dye 
 Of hundred-headed Hudra.
 
 HERAKLES. 4*7 
 
 THESEUS. 
 
 Herd's strife ! 
 But who is this among the dead, old man? 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Mine, mine, this progeny the labor-plagued, 
 Who went with gods once to Phlegruia's plain, 
 And in the giant-slaying war bore shield ! 
 
 THESEUS. 
 Woe woe ! What man was born mischanceful thus I 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Thou couldst not know another mortal man 
 Toil-weary, more outworn by wanderings. 
 
 THESEUS. 
 
 And why i' the peploi hides he his sad head? 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Not daring meet thine eye, thy friendliness 
 And kinship, nor that children's-blood about!
 
 41 8 HERAKLES. 
 
 THESEUS. 
 
 But / come to who shared my woe with me ! 
 Uncover him ! 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 O child, put from thine eyes 
 The peplos, throw it off, show face to sun ! 
 Woe's weight well matched contends with tears in 
 
 thee. 
 
 I supplicate thee, falling at thy cheek 
 And knee and hand, and shedding this old tear! 
 
 son, remit the savage lion's mood, 
 Since to a bloody, an unholy race 
 Art thou led forth, if thou be resolute 
 To go on adding ill to ill, my child! 
 
 THESEUS. 
 
 Let me speak ! Thee, who sittest seated woe 
 
 1 call upon to show thy friends thine eye ! 
 For there's no darkness has a cloud so black 
 May hide thy misery thus absolute.
 
 HERAKLES. 419 
 
 Why, waving hand, dost sign me murder's done? 
 Lest a pollution strike me, from thy speech ? 
 Nought care I to with thee, at least fare ill : 
 For I had joy once! Then, soul rises to, 
 When thou didst save me from the dead to light I 
 Friends' gratitude that tastes old age, I loathe, 
 And him who likes to share when things look fine, 
 But, sail along with friends in trouble no! 
 Arise, uncover thine unhappy head ! 
 Look on us ! Every man of the right race 
 Bears what, at least, the gods inflict, nor shrinks. 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Theseus, hast seen this match my boys with me? 
 
 THESEUS. 
 
 I heard of, now I see the ills thou sign'st. 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Why then hast thou displayed my head to sun?
 
 420 HERAKLES. 
 
 THESEUS. 
 Why? mortals bring no plague on aught divine! 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Fly, O unhappy, me an impious plague ! 
 
 THESEUS. 
 
 No plague of vengeance flits to friends from friends 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 I praise thee! But I helped thee, that is truth. 
 
 THESEUS. 
 And I, advantaged then, now pity thee. 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 The pitiable, my children's murderer I 
 
 THESEUS. 
 I mourn for thy sake, in this altered lot.
 
 HERAKLES. 421 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Hast thou found others in still greater woe? 
 
 THESEUS. 
 
 Thou, from earth, touchest heaven, one huge distress ! 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Accordingly, I am prepared to . die. 
 
 THESEUS. 
 
 Think'st thou thy threats at all import the gods ? 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Gods please themselves : to gods I give their like. 
 
 THESEUS. 
 Shut thy mouth, lest big words bring bigger woel 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 I am full fraught with ills no stowing more I
 
 422 HERAKLES. 
 
 THESEUS. 
 Thou wilt do what, then ? Whither moody borne ? 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Dying, I go below earth whence I came. 
 
 THESEUS. 
 Thou hast used words of what man turns up firs': 5 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 While thou, being outside sorrow, schoolest me. 
 
 THESEUS. 
 
 The much-enduring Herakles talks thus ? 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Not the so much-enduring : measure's past ! 
 
 THESEUS. 
 Mainstay to mortals, and their mighty friend ?
 
 HERAKLES. 423 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 They nowise profit me : but Here* rules. 
 
 THESEUS. 
 
 Hellas forbids thou shouldst ineptly die. 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 But hear, then, how I strive by arguments 
 Against thy teachings ! I will ope thee out 
 My life past, present as unlivable. 
 First, I was born of this man, who had slain 
 His mother's aged sire, and, sullied so, 
 Married Alkmene, she who gave me birth. 
 Now, when the basis of a family 
 Is not laid right, what follows needs must fall ; 
 And Zeus, whoever Zeus is, formed me foe 
 To Here (take not thou offence, old man ! 
 Since father, in Zeus' stead, account I thee) 
 And, while I was at suck yet, frightful snakes 
 She introduced among my swaddling-clothes, 
 That bed-fellow of Zeus ! to end me so.
 
 424 HER AXLES. 
 
 But when I gained the youthful garb of flesh, 
 
 The labon> I endured what need to tell ? 
 
 What lions ever, or three-bodied brutes, 
 
 Tuphons or giants, or the four-legged swarms 
 
 Of Kentaur-battle, did not I end out? 
 
 And that hound, headed all about with heads 
 
 Which cropped up twice, the Hudra, having slain 
 
 I both went through a myriad other toils 
 
 In full drove, and arrived among the dead 
 
 To convoy, as Eurustheus bade, to light 
 
 Haides' three-headed dog and door-keeper. 
 
 But then I, wretch, dared this last labor see ! 
 
 Slew my sons, keystone-coped my house with ills. 
 
 To such a strait I come ! nor my dear Thebes 
 
 Dare I inhabit, and, suppose I stay ? 
 
 Into what fane or festival of friends 
 
 Am I to go ? My curse scarce courts accost ! 
 
 Shall I seek Argos? How, if fled from home? 
 
 But say, I hurry to some other town ! 
 
 And there they eye me, as notorious now, 
 
 Kept by sharp tongue-taunts under lock and key
 
 HERAKLES. 425 
 
 " Is not this he, Zeus' son, who murdered once 
 
 Children and wife ? Let him go rot elsewhere ! " 
 
 To any man renowned as happy once, 
 
 Reverses are a grave thing; but to whom 
 
 Evil is old acquaintance, there's no hurt 
 
 To speak of, he and misery are twins. 
 
 To this degree of woe I think to come : 
 
 For earth will utter voice forbidding me 
 
 To touch the ground, and sea to pierce the wave, 
 
 The river-springs to drink, and I shall play 
 
 Ixion's part quite out, the chained and wheeled ! 
 
 And best of all will be, if so I 'scape 
 
 Sight from one man of those Hellenes, once 
 
 I lived among, felicitous and rich ! 
 
 Why ought I then to live ? What gain accrues 
 
 From good-for-nothing, wicked life I lead ? 
 
 In fine, let Zeus' brave consort dance and sing, 
 
 Stamp foot, the Olympian Zeus' own sandal-trick ! 
 
 What she has willed, that brings her will to pass 
 
 The foremost man of Hellas pedestalled, 
 
 Up, over, and down whirling ! Who would pray
 
 426 HERAKLES. 
 
 To such a goddess ? that, begrudging Zeus 
 Because he loved a woman, ruins me 
 Lover of Hellas, faultless of the wrong! 
 
 THESEUS. 
 
 This strife is from no other of the gods 
 Than Zeus' wife ; rightly apprehend, as well, 
 Why, to no death thou meditatest now 
 I would persuade thee, but to bear thy woes! 
 None, none of mortals boasts a fate unmixed, 
 Nor gods if poets' teaching be not false. 
 Have not they joined in wedlock against law 
 With one another? not, for sake of rule, 
 Branded their sires in bondage? Yet they house, 
 All the same, in Olumpos, carry heads 
 High there, notorious sinners though they be ! 
 What wilt thou say, then, if thou, mortal-born, 
 Bearest outrageously fate gods endure? 
 Leave Thebes, now, pay obedience to the law, 
 And follow me to Pallas' citadel! 
 There, when thy hands are purified from stain,
 
 HERAKLES. 4*7 
 
 House will I give thee, and goods shared alike. 
 
 What gifts I hold too from the citizens 
 
 For saving twice seven children, when I slew 
 
 The Knosian bull, these also give I thee. 
 
 And everywhere about the land are plots 
 
 Apportioned me : these, named by thine own name, 
 
 Shall be henceforward styled by all men thine, 
 
 Thy life long ; but at death, when Haides-bound, 
 
 All Athens shall uphold the honored one 
 
 With sacrifices, and huge marble heaps : 
 
 For that's a fair crown our Hellenes grant 
 
 Their people glory, should they help the brave ! 
 
 And I repay thee back this grace for thine 
 
 That saved me, now that thou art lorn of friends 
 
 Since, when the gods give honor, friends may flit : 
 
 For, a god's help suffices, if he please. 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Ah me, these words are foreign to my woes ! 
 
 I neither fancy gods love lawless beds, 
 
 Nor, that with chains they bind each other's hands,
 
 428 HERAKLES. 
 
 Have I judged worthy faith, at any time ; 
 
 Nor shill I be persuaded one is born 
 
 His fellows' master! since God stands in need 
 
 If he is really God of nought at all. 
 
 These are the poets' pitiful conceits ! 
 
 But this it was I pondered, though woe-whelmed 
 
 " Take heed lest thou be taxed with cowardice 
 
 Somehow in leaving thus the light of day ! " 
 
 For whoso cannot make a stand against 
 
 These same misfortunes, neither could withstand 
 
 A mere man's dart, oppose death, strength to strength 
 
 Therefore unto thy city I will go 
 
 And have the grace of thy ten thousand gifts. 
 
 There ! I have tasted of ten thousand toils 
 
 As truly never waived a single one, 
 
 Nor let these runnings drop from out my eyes ! 
 
 Nor ever thought it would have come to this 
 
 That I from out my eyes do drop tears ! Well ! 
 
 At present, as it seems, one bows to fate. 
 
 So be it! Old man, thou seest my exile 
 
 Seest, too, me my children's murderer 1
 
 HERAKLES. 429 
 
 These give thou to the tomb, and deck the dead, 
 
 Doing them honor with thy tears since me 
 
 Law does not sanction ! Propping on her breast, 
 
 And giving them into their mother's arms, 
 
 Re-institute the sad community 
 
 Which I, unhappy, brought to nothingness 
 
 Not by my will ! And, when earth hides the dead, 
 
 Live in this city! sad, but, all the same, 
 
 Force thy soul to bear woe along with me ! 
 
 O children, who begat and gave you birth 
 
 Your father, has destroyed you! nought you gain 
 
 By those fair deeds of mine I laid you up, 
 
 As by main-force I labored glory out 
 
 To give you, that fine gift of fatherhood ! 
 
 And thee, too, O my poor one, I destroyed, 
 
 Not rendering like for like, as when thou kept'st 
 
 My marriage-bed inviolate, those long 
 
 Household-seclusions draining to the dregs 
 
 Inside my house ! O me, my wife, my boys 
 
 And O myself, how, miserably moved, 
 
 A.m I disyoked now from both boys and wife !
 
 430 HEKAKLES. 
 
 O bitter those delights of kisses now 
 
 And bitter these my weapons' fellowship! 
 
 For I am doubtful whether shall I keep 
 
 Or cast away these arrows which will clang 
 
 Ever such words out, as they knock my side 
 
 " Us thou didst murder wife and children with ! 
 
 Us child- destroyers still thou keepest thine!" 
 
 Ha, shall I bear them in my arms, then? What 
 
 Say for excuse ? Yet, naked of my darts 
 
 Wherewith I did my bravest, Hellas through, 
 
 Throwing myself beneath foot to my foes, 
 
 Shall I die basely ? No ! relinquishment 
 
 Of these must never be, companions once, 
 
 We sorrowfully must observe the pact ! 
 
 In just one thing, co-operate with me 
 
 Thy sad friend, Theseus ! Go along with him 
 
 To Argos, and in concert get arranged 
 
 The price my due for bringing there the Hound ! 
 
 O land of Kadmos, Theban people all, 
 
 Shear off your locks, lament one wide lament, 
 
 Go to my children's grave and, in one strain,
 
 HERAKLES. 431 
 
 Lament the whole of us my dead and me 
 Since all together are fordone and lost, 
 Smitten by Herd's single stroke of fate ! 
 
 THESEUS. 
 
 Rise up now from thy dead ones ! Tears enough, 
 Poor friend ! 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 I cannot : for my limbs are fixed. 
 
 THESEUS. 
 
 Ay : even these strong men fate overthrows ! 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Woe! 
 
 Here might I grow a stone, nor mind woes more 1 
 
 THESEUS. 
 Cease! Give thy hand to friendly helpmate now!
 
 43 2 HERAKLES. 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Nay, but I wipe off blood upon thy robes! 
 
 THESEUS. 
 
 Squeeze out and spare no drop ! I take it all I 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Of sons bereaved, I have thee like my son ! 
 
 THESEUS. 
 
 Give to my neck thy hand ! 'tis I will lead. 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Yoke-fellows friendly one heart-broken, though! 
 O father 1 such a man we need for friend ! 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Certes, the land that bred him boasts good sons! 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Turn me round, Theseus to behold my boys!
 
 HERAKLES. 433 
 
 THESEUS. 
 
 What? will the having such a love-charm soothe? 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 I want it; and to press my father's breast. 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 See here, O son ! for, what I love thou seek'st ! 
 
 THESEUS. 
 
 Strange! Of thy labors no more memory? 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 All those were less than these, those ills I bore! 
 
 THESEUS. 
 Who sees thee grow a woman, will not praise ! 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 I live low to thee ? Not so once, I think !
 
 434 HERAKLES. 
 
 THESEUS. 
 
 Too low by far! "Famed Herakles" where's he? 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Down amid evils, of what kind wast thou 1 
 
 THESEUS. 
 
 As far as courage least of all mankind ! 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 How say'st, then, 7 in evils shrink to nought ? 
 
 THESEUS. 
 
 Forward ! 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Farewell, old father! 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 Thou too, son !
 
 HERAKLES. 435 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Bury the boys as I enjoined ! 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 And me 
 
 Who will be found to bury now, my child? 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 Myself ! 
 
 AMFHITRUON. 
 
 When, coming? 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 When thy task is done. 
 
 AMPHITRUON. 
 
 How?
 
 436 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY, 
 
 HERAKLES. 
 
 I will have thee carried forth from Thebes 
 To Athens. But bear in the children, earth 
 Is burthened by ! Myself, who with these shames 
 Have cast away my house, a ruined hulk, 
 I follow trailed by Theseus on my way ; 
 And whoso rather would have wealth and strength 
 Than good friends, reasons foolishly therein ! 
 
 CHOROS. 
 
 And we depart, with sorrow at heart, 
 Sobs that increase with tears that start; 
 The greatest of all our friends of yore, 
 We have lost forevermore ! 
 
 When the long silence ended, " Our best friend 
 Lost, our best friend ! " he muttered musingly. 
 Then, "Lachares the sculptor" (half aloud) 
 "Sinned he or sinned he not? 'Outrageous sin!'
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY- 437 
 
 Shuddered our elders, 'Pallas should be clothed: 
 He carved her naked.' ' But more beautiful ! ' 
 Answers this generation : ' Wisdom formed 
 For love not fear ! ' And there the statue stands, 
 Entraps the eye severer art repels. 
 Moreover, Pallas wields the thunderbolt, 
 Yet has not struck the artist all this while. 
 Pheidias and Aischulos ? Euripides 
 And Lachares? But youth will have its way! 
 The ripe man ought to be as old as young 
 As young as old. I too have youth at need. 
 Much may be said for stripping wisdom bare ! 
 
 'And who's 'our best friend'? You play kottabos; 
 Here's the last mode of playing. Take a sphere 
 With orifices at due interval, 
 Through topmost one of which, a throw adroit 
 Sends wine from cup, clean passage, from outside 
 To where, in hollow midst, a manikin 
 Suspended ever bobs with head erect 
 Right underneath whatever hole's a-top
 
 438 ARISTOPHANES" APOLOGY. 
 
 When you set orb a-rolling : plumb, he gets 
 
 Ever this benediction of the splash. 
 
 An other-fashioned orb presents him fixed : 
 
 Of all the outlets, he fronts only one, 
 
 And only when that one, and rare the chance ; 
 
 Comes uppermost, does he turn upward too : 
 
 He can't turn all sides with the turning orb. 
 
 Inside this sphere of life, all objects, sense 
 
 And soul perceive, Euripides hangs fixed, 
 
 Gets knowledge through the single aperture 
 
 Of High and Right : with visage fronting these 
 
 He waits the wine thence ere he operate, 
 
 Work in the world and write a tragedy. 
 
 WJhen that hole happens to revolve to point, 
 
 In drops the knowledge, waiting meets reward. 
 
 But, duly in rotation, Low and Wrong 
 
 When these enjoy the moment's altitude, 
 
 His heels are found just where his head should be , 
 
 No knowledge that way ! / am movable, 
 
 To slightest shift of orb make prompt response, 
 
 Face Low and Wrong and Weak and all the rest,
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 439 
 
 And still drink knowledge, wine-drenched every turn, 
 
 Equally favored by their opposites. 
 
 Little and Bad exist, are natural : 
 
 Then let me know them, and be twice as great 
 
 As he who only knows one phase of life I 
 
 So doubly shall I prove 'best friend of man,' 
 
 If I report the whole truth; Vice, perceived 
 
 While he shut eyes to all but Virtue there. 
 
 Man's made of both : and both must be of use 
 
 To somebody : if not to him, to me. 
 
 While, as to your imaginary Third 
 
 Who, stationed (by mechanics past my guess) 
 
 So as to take in every side at once, 
 
 And not successively, may reconcile 
 
 The High and Low in tragicomic verse, 
 
 He shall be hailed superior to us both 
 
 When born hi the Tin-Islands ! Meantime, here 
 
 In bright Athenai, I contest the claim, 
 
 Call myself lostephanos' 'best friend,' 
 
 Who took my own course, worked as I descried 
 
 Ordainment, stuck to my first faculty !
 
 44 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 " For, listen ! There's no failure breaks the heart, 
 Whate'er be man's endeavor in this world, 
 Like the rash poet's when he nowise fails 
 By poetizing badly, Zeus or makes 
 Or mars a man, so at it, merrily ! 
 But when, made man, much like myself, equipped 
 For such and such achievement, rash he turns 
 Out of the straight path, bent on snatch of feat 
 From who's the appointed fellow born thereto, 
 Crows take him ! in your Kassiterides ? 
 Half-doing his work, leaving mine untouched, 
 That were the failure ! Here I stand, heart-whole, 
 No Thamuris ! 
 
 " Well thought of, Thamuris ! 
 Has zeal, pray, for ' best friend ' Euripides 
 Allowed you to observe the honor done 
 His elder rival, in our Poikile'? 
 You don't know? Once and only once, trod stage, 
 Sang and touched lyre in person, in his youth, 
 Our Sophokles, youth, beauty, dedicate
 
 ARISTOPHANES' 1 APOLOGY. 441 
 
 To Thamuris who named the tragedy. 
 
 The voice of him was weak ; face, limbs and lyre, 
 
 These were worth saving: Thamuros stands yet 
 
 Perfect as painting helps in such a case. 
 
 At least you know the story, for ' best friend ' 
 
 Enriched his ' Rhesos ' from the Blind Bard's store ; 
 
 So haste and see the work, and lay to heart 
 
 What it was struck me when I eyed the piece ! 
 
 Here stands a poet punished for rash strife 
 
 With Powers above his power, who see with sight 
 
 Beyond his vision, sing accordingly 
 
 A song, which he must needs dare emulate ! 
 
 Poet, remain the man nor ape the Muse ! 
 
 " But lend me the psalterion ! Nay, for once 
 Once let my hand fall where the other's lay! 
 I see it, just as I were Sophokles, 
 That sunrise and combustion of the east ! " 
 
 ~C~- 
 
 And then he sang are these unlike the words ?
 
 442 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Thamuris marching, lyre and song of Thrace - 
 (Perpend the first, the worst of woes that were, 
 Allotted lyre and song, ye poet-race !) 
 
 Thamuris from Oichalia, feasted there 
 By kingly Eurutus of late, now bound 
 For Dorion at the uprise broad and bare 
 
 Of Mount Pangaios, (ore with earth enwound 
 
 Glittered beneath his footstep) marching gay 
 
 And glad, Thessalia through, came, robed and crowned, 
 
 From triumph on to triumph, 'mid a ray 
 
 Of early morn, came, saw and knew the spot 
 
 Assigned him for his worst of woes, that day. 
 
 Balura happier while its name was not 
 Met him, but nowise menaced ; slipped aside 
 Obsequious river, to pursue its lot
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 443 
 
 Of solacing the valley say, some wide 
 Thick busy human cluster, house and home, 
 Embanked for oeace, or thrift that thanks the tide. 
 
 Thamuris, marching, laughed " Each flake of foam " 
 
 (As sparklingly the ripple raced him by) 
 
 " Mocks slower clouds adrift in the blue dome ! " 
 
 For Autumn was the season ; red the sky 
 
 Held morn's conclusive signet of the sun 
 
 To break the mists up, bid them blaze and die. 
 
 Morn had the mastery as, one by one 
 
 All pomps produced themselves along the tract 
 
 From earth's far ending to near heaven begun. 
 
 Was there a ravaged 'tree? it laughed compact 
 With gold, a leaf-ball crisp, high-brandished now, 
 Tempting to onset frost which late attacked.
 
 444 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Was there a wizened shrub, a starveling bough, 
 
 A fleecy thistle filched from by the wind, 
 
 A weed, Pan's trampling hoof would disallow? 
 
 Each, with a glory and a rapture twined 
 About it, joined the rush of air and light 
 And force: the world was of one joyous mind. 
 
 Say not the birds flew ! they forbore their right 
 
 Swam, revelling onward in the roll of things. 
 
 Say not the beasts' mirth bounded ! that was flight 
 
 How could the creatures leap, no lift of wings? 
 Such earth's community of purpose, such 
 The ease of earth's fulfilled imaginings, 
 
 So did the near and far appear to touch 
 
 I' the moment's transport, that an interchange 
 
 ')t function, far with near, seemed scarce too much
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 445 
 
 And had the rooted plant aspired to range 
 
 With the snake's license, while the insect yearned 
 
 To glow fixed as the flower, it were not strange 
 
 No more than if the fluttery tree-top turned 
 
 To actual music, sang itself aloft ; 
 
 Or if the wind, impassioned chantress, earned 
 
 The right to soar embodied in some soft 
 Fine form all fit for cloud-companionship, 
 And, blissful, once touch beauty chased so oft. 
 
 Thamuris, marching, let no fancy slip 
 Born of the fiery transport ; lyre and song 
 Were his, to smite with hand and launch from lip 
 
 Peerless recorded, since the list grew long 
 Of poets (saith Homeros) free to stand 
 Pedestalled 'mid the Muses' temple-throng,
 
 44 6 ARISTOPHANES' 1 APOLOGY. 
 
 A statued service, laurelled, lyre in hand, 
 (Ay, for we see them) Thamuris of Thrace 
 Predominating foremost of the band. 
 
 Therefore the morn-ray that enriched his face, 
 
 If it gave lambent chill, took flame again 
 
 From flush of pride ; he saw, he knew the place. 
 
 What wind arrived with all the rhythms from plain, 
 Hill, dale, and that rough wildwood interspersed? 
 Compounding these to one consummate strain, 
 
 It reached him, music ; but his own outburst 
 
 Of victory concluded the account, 
 
 And that grew song which was mere music erst. 
 
 Be my Parnassos, thou Pangaian mount! 
 And turn thee, river, nameless hitherto ! 
 Famed shalt thou vie with famed Pieria's fount !
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 447 
 
 Here I await the end of this ado : 
 
 Which wins Earth's poet or the Heavenly Muse.' : . . . 
 
 But song broke up in laughter. "Tell the rest, 
 Who may ! I have not spurned the common life, 
 Nor vaunted mine a lyre to match the Muse 
 Who sings for gods, not men ! Accordingly, 
 I shall not decorate her vestibule 
 Mute marble, blind the eyes and quenched the brain, 
 Loose in the hand a bright, a broken lyre! 
 Not Thamuris but Aristophanes ! 
 
 " There ! I have sung content back to myself, 
 
 And started subject for a play beside. 
 
 My next performance shall content you both. 
 
 Did ' Prelude-Battle ' maul ' best friend ' too much ? 
 
 Then ' Main-Fight ' be my next song, fairness' self ! 
 
 Its subject Contest for the Tragic Crown. 
 
 Ay, you shall hear none else but Aischulos 
 
 Lay down the law of Tragedy, and prove 
 
 1 Best friend ' a stray-away, no praise denied
 
 448 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 His manifold deservings, never fear 
 
 Nor word more of the old fun ! Death defends 1 
 
 Sound admonition has its due effect. 
 
 Oh, you have uttered weighty words, believe ! 
 
 Such as shall bear abundant fruit, next year, 
 
 In judgment, regular, legitimate. 
 
 Let Bacchos' self preside in person ! Ay 
 
 For there's a buzz about those ' Bacchanals ' 
 
 Rumor attributes to your great and dead 
 
 For final effort : just the prodigy 
 
 Great dead men leave, to lay survivors low ! 
 
 Until we make acquaintance with our fate 
 
 And find, fate's worst done, we, the same, survive 
 
 Perchance to honor more the patron-god, 
 
 Fitlier inaugurate a festal year. 
 
 Now that the cloud has broken, sky laughs blue, 
 
 Earth blossoms youthfully ! Athenai breathes ! 
 
 After a twenty-six years' wintry blank 
 
 Struck from her life, war-madness, one long swoon, 
 
 She wakes up : Arginousai bids good cheer ! 
 
 We have disposed of Kallikratidas ;
 
 ARISTOPHANES 1 APOLOGY. 449 
 
 Once more will Spartd sue for terms, who knows? 
 Cede Dekeleia, as the rumor runs : 
 Terms which Athenai, of right mind again, 
 Accepts she can no other! Peace declared, 
 Have my long labors borne their fruit or no ? 
 Grinned coarse buffoonery so oft in vain? 
 Enough it simply saved you ! saviors praise 
 Theoria's beauty and Oporia's breadth ! 
 Nor, when Peace realizes promised bliss, 
 Forget the Bald Bard, Envy! but go burst 
 As the cup goes round, and the cates abound, 
 Collops of hare, with roast spinks rare ! 
 Confess my pipings, dancings, posings served 
 A purpose : guttlings, guzzlings, had their use ! 
 Say whether light Muse, Rosy-finger-tips, 
 Or 'best friend's' Heavy-hand, Melpomene', 
 Touched lyre to purpose, played Amphion's part, 
 And built Athenai to the skies once more ! 
 Farewell, brave couple ! Next year, welcome me ! "
 
 450 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 No doubt, in what he said that night, sincere! 
 
 One story he referred to, false or fact, 
 
 Was not without adaptability. 
 
 They do say Lais the Corinthian once 
 
 Chancing to see Euripides (who paced 
 
 Composing in a garden, tablet-book 
 
 In left hand, with appended stulos prompt) 
 
 "Answer me," she began, "O Poet, this! 
 
 What didst intend by writing in thy play 
 
 Go hang, thou filthy doer ? " Struck on heap, 
 
 Euripides, at the audacious speech 
 
 "Well now," quoth he, "thyself art just the one 
 
 I should imagine fit for deeds of filth ! " 
 
 She laughingly retorted his own line 
 
 " What's filth, unless who does it, thinks it so ? " 
 
 So might he doubtless think. "Farewell," said we. 
 
 And he was gone, lost in the morning-gray, 
 Rose-streaked and gold to eastward. Did we dream ' 
 Could the poor twelve hours hold this argument
 
 ARISTOPHANES' 1 APOLOGY. 451 
 
 We render durable from fugitive, 
 
 As July at each sunset's droop of sail, 
 
 Delay of oar, submission to sea-might, 
 
 1 slill remember, you as duly dint 
 
 Reme~nbrance, with the punctual rapid style, 
 
 Into what calm cold page ! 
 
 Thus soul escapes 
 
 From eloquence made captive : thus mere words 
 Al , would the lifeless body stay ! But no : 
 Change upon change till, who may recognize 
 What did soul service, in the dusty heap ? 
 What energy of Aristophanes 
 Inflames the wreck Balaustion saves to show? 
 Ashes be evidence how fire and smoke 
 All night went lamping on ! But morn must rise. 
 The poet I shall say burned up and, blank, 
 Smouldered this ash, now white and cold enough. 
 
 Nay, Euthukles ! for best, though mine it be, 
 Comes yet ! Write on, write ever, wrong no word I
 
 452 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Add, first, he gone, if jollity went too, 
 
 Some of the graver mood, which mixed and marred, 
 
 Departed likewise. Sight of narrow scope 
 
 Has this meek consolation : neither ills, 
 
 We dread, nor joys, we dare anticipate, 
 
 Perform to promise. Each soul sows a seed 
 
 Euripides and Aristophanes ; 
 
 Seed bears crop, scarce within our little lives ; 
 
 But germinates, perhaps enough to judge, 
 
 Next year? 
 
 Whereas, next year brought harvest-time ! 
 For, next year came, and went not, but is now, 
 Still now, while you and I are bound for Rhodes 
 That's all but reached ! and harvest has it brought, 
 Dire as the homicidal dragon-crop ! 
 Sophokles had dismissal ere it dawned, 
 Happy as ever ; though men mournfully 
 Plausive, when only soul could triumph now, 
 And lophon produced his father's play, 
 Crowned the consummate song where Oidipous
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 453 
 
 Dared the descent 'mid earthquake-thundering, 
 And hardly Theseus' hands availed to guard 
 Eyes from the honor, as their grove disgorged 
 Its dread ones, while each daughter sank to ground. 
 
 Then Aristophanes, on heel of that, 
 
 Triumphant also, followed with his " Frogs : " 
 
 Produced at next Lenaia, three months since, 
 
 The promised Main-Fight, loyal, license-free ! 
 
 As if the poet, primed with Thasian juice, 
 
 (Himself swore wine that conquers every kind 
 
 For long abiding in the head) could fix 
 
 Thenceforward any object in its truth, 
 
 Through eyeballs bathed by mere Castalian dew, 
 
 Nor miss the borrowed medium, vinous drop 
 
 That colors all to the right crimson pitch 
 
 When mirth grows mockery, censure takes the tinge 
 
 Of malice ! .-., _*-. 
 
 All was Aristophanes : 
 
 There blazed the glory, there shot black the shame 1 
 Ay, Bacchos did stand forth, the Tragic God
 
 454 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 In person ! and when duly dragged through mire, 
 Having lied, filched, played fool, proved coward, 
 
 flung 
 
 The boys their dose of fit indecency, 
 And finally got trounced to heart's content, 
 At his own feast, in his own theatre 
 ( Oh, never fear ! 'Twas consecrated sport, 
 Exact tradition, warranted no whit 
 Offensive to instructed taste, indeed, 
 Essential to Athenai's liberty, 
 
 Could the poor stranger understand !) why, then 
 He was pronounced the rarely-qualified 
 To rate the work, adjust the claim to worth, 
 Of Aischulos (of whom, in other mood, 
 This same appreciative poet pleased 
 To say " He's all one stiff and gluey piece 
 Of back of swine's neck ! ") and the Chatterbox 
 Who, "twisting words like wool," usurped his seat 
 In Plouton's realm : " the arch-rogue, liar, scamp 
 That lives by snatching-up of altar-orts," 
 Who failed to recognize Euripides?
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY, 455 
 
 Then came a contest for supremacy 
 
 Crammed full of genius, wit and fun and freak. 
 
 No spice of undue spite to spoil the dish 
 
 Of all sorts, for the Mystics matched the Frogs 
 
 In poetry, no Seiren sang so sweet ! 
 
 Till, pressed into the service (how dispense 
 
 With Phaps-Elaphion and free foot-display?) 
 
 The Muse of dead Euripides danced frank, 
 
 Rattled her bits of tile, made all too plain 
 
 How baby-work like " Herakles " had birth ! 
 
 Last, Bacchos, candidly disclaiming brains 
 
 Able to follow finer argument, 
 
 Confessed himself much moved by three main facts: 
 
 First, if you stick a " Lost his flask of oil " 
 
 At pause of period, you perplex the sense 
 
 Were it the Elegy for Marathon ! 
 
 Next, if you weigh two verses, " car " the word, 
 
 Will outweigh " club " the word, each word-packed 
 
 line ! 
 
 And last, worst fact of all ! in rivalry 
 The younger poet dared to improvise
 
 456 ARISTOPHANES' 1 APOLOGY. 
 
 Laudation less distinct of Triphales 
 
 (Nay, that served when ourself abused the 
 
 youth ! ) 
 
 Pheidippides (nor that's appropriate now ! ) 
 Then, Alkibiades, our city's hope, 
 Since times change and we Comics should change 
 
 too! 
 These three main facts, well weighed, drew judgment 
 
 down, 
 
 Conclusively assigned the wretch his fate 
 " Fate due " admonished the sage Mystic choir, 
 "To sitting, prate-apace, with Sokrates, 
 Neglecting music and each tragic aid ! " 
 
 All wound-up by a wish "We soon may cease 
 From certain griefs, and warfare, worst of them ! " 
 
 Since, deaf to Comedy's persistent voice, 
 War still raged, still was like to rage. In vain 
 Had Sparte' cried once more " For granted Peace 
 We give you Dekeleia back ! " Too shrewd 
 
 Was Kleophon to let escape, forsooth, 
 The enemy at final gasp, besides 1
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 457 
 
 So, Aristophanes obtained the prize, 
 
 And so Athenai felt she had a friend 
 
 Far better than her " best friend," lost last year ; 
 
 And so, such fame had "Frogs" that, when came 
 
 round 
 
 This present year, those Frogs croaked gay again 
 At the great Feast, Elaphebolion-month. 
 Only there happened Aigispotamoi ! 
 And, in the midst of the frog-merriment, 
 Plump o' the sudden, pounces stern King Stork 
 On the light-hearted people of the marsh ! 
 Spartan Lusandros swooped precipitate, 
 Ended Athenai, rowed her sacred bay 
 With oars which brought a hundred triremes back 
 Captive ! 
 
 And first word of the conqueror 
 
 Was " Down with those Long Walls, Peiraios' pride ! 
 Destroy, yourselves, your bulwarks ! Peace needs 
 
 none ! " 
 A.nd "We obey" they shuddered in their dream.
 
 45 S ARISTOPHANES' APOiLOGY. 
 
 But, at next quick imposure of decree 
 
 " No longer democratic government ! 
 
 Henceforth such oligarchy as ourselves 
 
 Please to appoint you ! " then the horror stung 
 
 Dreamers awake ; they started up a-stare 
 
 At the half-helot captain and his crew 
 
 Spartans, "men used to let their hair grow long, 
 
 To fast, be dirty, and just Socratize " 
 
 Whose word was " Trample on Themistokles ! " 
 
 So, as the way is with much misery, 
 
 The heads swam, hands refused their office, hearts 
 
 Sunk as they stood in stupor. " Wreck the Walls ? 
 
 Ruin Peiraios ? with our Pallas armed 
 
 For interference ? Herakles apprised, 
 
 And Theseus hasting? Lay the Long Walls low?" 
 
 Three days they stood, stared, stonier than their walls. 
 
 Whereupon, sleep who might, Lusandros woke: 
 Saw the prostration of his enemy,
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 459 
 
 Utter and absolute beyond belief, 
 
 Past hope of hatred even. I surmise 
 
 He also probably saw fade in fume 
 
 Certain fears, bred of Bakis-prophecy, 
 
 Nor apprehended any more that gods 
 
 And heroes, fire, must glow forth, guard the 
 
 ground 
 
 Where prone, by sober day-dawn, corpse-like lay 
 Powerless Athenai, late predominant 
 Lady of Hellas, Spartd's slave-prize now ! 
 Where should a menace lurk in those slack limbs? 
 What was to move his circumspection? Why 
 Demolish just Peiraios? 
 
 "Stay!" bade he: 
 
 w Already promise-breakers ? True to type, 
 Athenians ! past, and present, and to come, 
 The fickle and the false ! No stone dislodged, 
 No implement applied, yet three days' grace 
 Expire! Forbearance is no longer lived. 
 By breaking promise, terms of peace you break
 
 460 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Too gently framed for falsehood, fickleness ! 
 All must be reconsidered yours the fault ! " 
 
 Wherewith, he called a council of allies. 
 Pent-up resentment used its privilege, 
 Outburst at ending : this the summed result 
 
 " Because we would avenge no transient wrong 
 But an eternity of insolence, 
 Aggression, folly, no disasters mend, 
 Pride, no reverses teach humility, 
 Because too plainly were all punishment, 
 Such as comports with less obdurate crime, 
 Evadible by falsehood, fickleness 
 .Experience proves the true Athenian type, 
 Therefore, 'tis need we dig deep down into 
 The root of evil ; lop nor bole nor branch. 
 Look up, look round and see, on every side, 
 What nurtured the rank tree to noisome fruit! 
 We who live hutted (so they laugh) not housed, 
 Build barns for temples, prize mud-monuments,
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 461 
 
 Nor show the sneering stranger aught but men, 
 
 Spartans take insult of Athenians just 
 
 Because they boast Akropolis to mount, 
 
 And Propulaia to make entry by, 
 
 Through a mad maze of marble arrogance 
 
 Such as you see such as let none see more ! 
 
 Abolish the detested luxury ! 
 
 Leave not one stone upon another, raze 
 
 Athenai to the rock ! Let hill and plain 
 
 Become a waste, a grassy pasture-ground 
 
 Where sheep may wander, grazing goats depend 
 
 From shapeless crags once columns ! so at last 
 
 Shall peace inhabit there, and peace enough." 
 
 Whereon, a shout approved " Such peace bestow ! >! 
 Then did a Man of Phokis rise O heart ! 
 Rise when no bolt of Zeus disparted sky, 
 No omen-bird from Pallas scared the crew, 
 Rise when mere human argument could stem 
 No foam-fringe of the passion surging fierce, 
 Baffle no wrath-wave that o'er barrier broke
 
 462 ARISTOPHANES' 1 APOLOGY. 
 
 Who was the Man of Phokis rose and flung 
 
 A flower i' the way of that fierce foot's advance, 
 
 Which stop for ? nay, had stamped down sword's 
 
 assault ! 
 
 Could it be He stayed Sparte with the snatch 
 " Daughter of Agamemnon, late my liege, 
 Elektra, palaced once, a visitant 
 To thy poor rustic dwelling, now I come ? " 
 
 Ay, facing fury of revenge, and lust 
 Of hate, and malice moaning to appease 
 Hunger on prey presumptuous, prostrate now 
 Full in the hideous faces last resource, 
 He flung that choric flower, my Euthukles ! 
 \ 
 
 And see, as through some pinhole, should the wind 
 Wedgingly pierce but once, in with a rush 
 Hurries the whole wild weather, rends to rags 
 The weak sail stretched against the outside storm 
 So did the power of that triumphant play 
 Pour in, and oversweep the assembled foe !
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. . 463 
 
 Triumphant play, wherein our poet first 
 Dared bring the grandeur of the Tragic Two 
 
 x 
 
 Down to the level of our common life, 
 
 Close to the beating of our common heart. 
 
 Elektra? 'Twas Athenai, Sparta's ice 
 
 Thawed to, while that sad portraiture appealed 
 
 Agamemnonian lady, lost by fault 
 
 Of her own kindred, cast from house and home, 
 
 Despoiled of all the brave inheritance, 
 
 Dowered humbly as befits a herdsman's mate, 
 
 Partaker of his cottage, clothed in rags, 
 
 Patient performer of the poorest chares, 
 
 Yet mindful, all the while, of glory past 
 
 When she walked darling of Mukenai, dear 
 
 Beyond Orestes to the King of Men! 
 
 So, because Greeks are Greeks, though Sparte's brood, 
 And hearts are hearts, though in Lusandros' breast, 
 And poetry is power, and Euthukles 
 Had faith therein to, full-face, fling the same 
 Sudden, the ice-thaw! The assembled foe,
 
 464- ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Heaving and swaying with strange friendliness, 
 Cried " Reverence Elektra ! " cried " Abstain 
 Like that chaste Herdsman, nor dare violate 
 The sanctity of such reverse! Let stand 
 Athenai ! " 
 
 Mindful of that story's close, 
 
 Perchance, and how, when he, the Herdsman chaste, 
 Needs apprehend no break of tranquil sleep, 
 All in due time, a stranger, dark, disguised, 
 Knocks at the door : with searching glance, notes 
 
 keen, 
 
 Knows quick, through mean attire and disrespect, 
 The ravaged princess ! Ay, right on, the clutch 
 Of guiding retribution has in charge 
 The author of the outrage! While one hand, 
 Elektra's, pulls the door behind, made fast 
 On fate, the other strains, prepared to push 
 The victim-queen, should she make frightened pause 
 Before that serpentining blood which steals 
 Out of the darkness where, a pace beyond,
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 465 
 
 Above the slain Aigisthos, bides his blow 
 Dreadful Orestes ! 
 
 Klutaimnestra, wise 
 
 This time, forbore ; Elektra held her own ; 
 Saved was Athenai through Euripides, 
 Through Euthukles, through more than ever me, 
 Balaustion, me, who, Wild-pomegranate-flower, 
 Felt my fruit triumph, and fade proudly so ! 
 
 But next day, as ungracious minds, are wont, 
 
 The Spartan, late surprised into a grace, 
 
 Grew sudden sober at the enormity, 
 
 And grudged, by daybreak, midnight's easy gift ; 
 
 Splenetically must repay its cost 
 
 By due increase of rigor, doglike snatch 
 
 At aught still left dog to concede like man. 
 
 Rough sea, at flow of tide, may lip, perchance, 
 
 Smoothly the land-line reached as for repose 
 
 Lie indolent in. all unquestioned sway; 
 
 But ebbing, when needs must, all thwart and loath,
 
 . 466 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Sea claws at sand relinquished strugglingly. 
 So, harsh Lusandros pinioned to inflict 
 The lesser penalty alone spoke harsh, 
 A.S minded to imbitter scathe by scorn. 
 
 :t Athenai's self be saved then, thank the Lyre ! 
 
 If Tragedy withdraws her presence quick, 
 
 If Comedy replace her, what more just ? 
 
 Let Comedy do service, frisk away, 
 
 Dance off stage these indomitable stones, 
 
 Long Walls, Peiraian bulwarks ! Hew and heave, 
 
 Pick at, pound into dust each dear defence ! 
 
 Not to the Kommos elelekleu 
 
 With breast bethumped, as Tragic lyre prefers, 
 
 But Comedy shall sound the flute, and crow 
 
 At kordax-end the hearty slapping-dance ! 
 
 Collect those flute-girls trash who flattered ear 
 
 With whistlings, and fed eye with caper-cuts, 
 
 While we Lakonians supped black broth or crunched 
 
 Sea urchin, conchs and all, unpricked coarse brutes ' 
 
 Command they lead off step, time steady stroke
 
 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 467 
 
 To spade and pickaxe, till demolished lie 
 Athenai's pride in powder!" 
 
 Done that day 
 
 That sixteenth famed day of Munuchion-month ! 
 The day when Hellas fought at Salamis, 
 The very day Euripides was born, 
 Those flute-girls Phaps-Elaphion at their head 
 Did blow their best, did dance their worst, the while 
 Sparte' pulled down the walls, wrecked wide the works, 
 Laid low each merest molehill of defence, 
 And so the Power, Athenai, passed away ! 
 
 We would not see its passing! Ere I knew 
 The issue of their counsels, crouching low 
 And shrouded by my peplos, I conceived, 
 Despite the shut eyes, the stopped ears, by count 
 Only of heart-beats, telling the slow time, 
 Athenai's doom was signed and signified 
 In that assembly, ay, but knew there watched 
 One who would dare and do, nor bate at all
 
 468 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 The stranger's licensed duty, speak the word 
 
 Allowed the Man from Phokis ! Nought remained 
 
 But urge departure, flee the sights and sounds, 
 
 Hideous exultings, wailings worth contempt, 
 
 And press to other earth, new heaven, by sea 
 
 That somehow ever prompts to 'scape despair. 
 
 Help rose to heart's wish ; at the harbor-side, 
 
 The old gray mariner did reverence 
 
 To who had saved his ship, still weather-tight 
 
 As when with prow gay-garlanded she praised 
 
 The hospitable port and pushed to sea. 
 
 " Convoy Balaustion back to Rhodes, for sake 
 
 Of her and he,r Euripides ! " laughed he. 
 
 Rhodes, shall it not be there, my Euthukles, 
 
 Till this brief trouble of a life-time end, 
 
 That solitude two make so populous ! 
 
 For food finds memories of the past suffice, 
 
 May be, anticipations, hope so swells, 
 
 Of some great future we, familiar once 
 
 With who so taught, should hail and entertain ? 
 
 He lies now in the little valley, laughed
 
 ARISTOPHANES^ APOLOGY. 469 
 
 And moaned about by those mysterious streams, 
 
 Boiling and freezing, like the love and hate 
 
 Which helped or harmed him through his earthly 
 
 course. 
 
 They mix in Arethousa by his grave. 
 The warm spring, traveller, dip thine arms into, 
 Brighten thy brow with ! T,jfe detests black cold ! 
 
 I sent the tablets, the psalterion, so 
 Rewarded Sicily ; the tyrant there 
 Bestowed them worthily in Phoibos' shrine. 
 A gold-graved writing tells "I also loved 
 The poet, Free Athenai cheaply prized 
 King Dionusios, Archelaos-like ! " 
 
 And see if young Philemon, sure one day 
 
 To do good service and be loved himself, 
 
 If he too have not made a votive verse ! 
 
 " Grant, in good sooth, our great dead, all the same, 
 
 Retain their sense, as certain wise men say, 
 
 I'd hang myself to see Euripides!"
 
 470 ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY. 
 
 Hands off, Philemon ! nowise hang thyself, 
 But pen the prime plays, labor the right life, 
 And die at good old age as grand men use, 
 Keeping thee, with that great thought, warm the 
 
 while, 
 
 That he does live, Philemon ! Ay, most sure ! 
 " He lives ! " hark, waves say, winds sing out the 
 
 same, 
 
 And yonder dares the citied ridge of Rhodes 
 Its headlong plunge from sky to sea, disparts 
 North bay from south, each guarded calm, that guest 
 May enter gladly, blow what wind there will, 
 Boiled round with breakers, to no other cry ! 
 All in one choros, what the master-word 
 They take up ? hark ! " There are no gods, no gods ! 
 Glory to God who saves Euripides ! "
 
 PACCHIAROTTO 
 
 AND OTHER POEMS.
 
 PROLOGUE, 
 i. 
 
 O the old wall here! How I could pass 
 
 Life in a long Midsummer day, 
 My feet confined to a plot of grass, 
 
 My eyes from a wa'l not once away! 
 
 2. 
 
 And lush and lithe do the creepers clothe 
 Yon wall I watch, with a wealth of green : 
 
 Its bald red bricks draped, nothing loath, 
 In lappets of tangle they laugh between. 
 
 3- 
 
 Now, what is it makes pulsate the robe? 
 
 Why tremble the sprays? What life o'erbriins 
 The body. the house, no eye can probe, 
 
 Divined as, beneath a robe, the limbs?
 
 474 PROLOGUE. 
 
 4- 
 
 And there again! But my heart may guess 
 Who tripped behind ; and she sang perhaps : 
 
 So, the old wall throbbed, and its life's excess 
 Died out and away in the leafy wraps ! 
 
 5- 
 Wall upon wall are between us : life 
 
 And song should away from heart to heart! 
 I prison-bird, with a ruddy strife 
 
 At breast, and a lip whence storm-notes start 
 
 6. 
 
 Hold on, hope hard in the subtle thing 
 
 That's spirit: though cloistered fast, soar free; 
 
 Account as wood, brick, stone, this ring 
 Of the rueful neighbors, and forth to theel
 
 OF PACCHIAROTTO. 475 
 
 OF PACCHIAROTTO, AND HOW HE 
 WORKED IN DISTEMPER. 
 
 i. 
 
 QUERY: was ever a quainter 
 Crotchet than this of the painter 
 Giacomo Pacchiarotto 
 Who took " Reform " for his motto ? 
 
 2. 
 
 He, pupil of old Fungaio, 
 Is always confounded (heigho ! ) 
 With Pacchia, contemporaneous 
 No question, but how extraneous 
 In the grace of soul, the power 
 Of hand, undoubted dower 
 Of Pacchia who decked (as we *now, 
 My Kirkup !) San Bernardino,
 
 47 6 OF PA CCHIARA TTO, 
 
 Turning the small dark Oratory 
 
 To Siena's Art-laboratory, 
 
 As he made its straightness roomy 
 
 And glorified its gloomy, 
 
 With Bazzi and Beccafumi. 
 
 (Another heigho for Bazzi: 
 
 How people miscall him Razzi !) 
 
 3- 
 
 This Painter was of opinion 
 Our earth should be his dominion 
 Whose Art could correct to pattern 
 What Nature had slurred the slattern 1 
 And since, beneath the heavens, 
 Things lay now at sixes and sevens, 
 . Or, as he said, sopra-sotto 
 Thought the painter Pacchiarotto 
 Things wanted reforming, therefore. 
 " Wanted it " ay, but wherefore ? 
 When earth held one so ready 
 As he to step forth, stand steady
 
 AND HOW HE WORKED IN DISTEMPER. 477 
 
 In the middle of God's creation 
 And prove to demonstration 
 What the dark is, what the light is, 
 What the wrong is, what the right is, 
 What the ugly, what the beautiful, 
 What the restive, what the dutiful, 
 In Mankind profuse around him? 
 Man, devil as now he found him, 
 Would presently soar up angel 
 At the summons of such evangel, 
 And owe what would Man not owe 
 To the painter Pacchiarotto ? 
 Ay, look to thy laurels, Giotto! 
 
 4- 
 
 But Man, he perceived, was stubborn, 
 Grew regular brute, once cub born ; 
 And it struck him as expedient 
 Ere he tried to make obedient, 
 By piping advice in one key, 
 The wolf, fox, bear and monkey
 
 478 OF PACCHIAROTTO, 
 
 That his pipe should play a prelude 
 
 To something heaven-tinged not hell-hued, 
 
 Something not harsh but docile, 
 
 Man-liquid, not Man-fossil 
 
 Not fact, in short, but fancy. 
 
 By a laudable necromancy 
 
 He would conjure up ghosts a circle 
 
 Deprived of the means to work ill 
 
 Should his music prove distasteful, 
 
 And pearls to the swine go wasteful. 
 
 To be rent of swine that was hardl 
 
 With fancy he ran no hazard : 
 
 Fact might knock him o'er the mazard. 
 
 5- 
 
 So, the painter Pacchiarotto 
 Constructed himself a grotto 
 In the quarter of Stalloreggi 
 As authors of note allege ye. 
 And on each of the whitewashed sides of it 
 He painted (none far and wide so fit
 
 AND HOW HE WORKED IN DISTEMPER. 479 
 
 As he to perform in fresco) 
 
 He painted nor cried quiesco 
 
 Till he peopled its every square foot 
 
 With Man from the Beggar barefoot , 
 
 To the Noble in cap and feather : 
 
 All sorts and conditions together. 
 
 The Soldier in breastplate and helmet 
 
 Stood frowningly hail fellow well met 
 
 By the Priest armed with bell, book and candid 
 
 Nor did he omit to handle 
 
 The Fair Sex, our brave distemperer : 
 
 Not merely King, Clown, Pope, Emperor 
 
 He diversified too his Hades 
 
 Of all forms, pinched Labor and paid Ease, 
 
 With as mixed an assemblage of Ladies. 
 
 6. 
 
 Which work done, dry, he rested him, 
 Cleaned palette, washed brush, divested him 
 Of the apron that suits freseanti, 
 And, bonnet on ear stuck jaunty,
 
 480 OF PACCHIAROTTO, 
 
 This hand upon hip well planted, 
 
 That, free to wave as it wanted, 
 
 He addressed in a choice oration 
 
 His folk of each name and nation 
 
 On the duties of every station. 
 
 The pope was declared an arrant 
 
 Impostor at once, I warrant. 
 
 The Emperor truth might tax him 
 
 With ignorance of the maxim 
 
 " Shear sheep but nowise flay them ! " 
 
 And the Vulgar that obey them, 
 
 The Ruled, well-matched with the Ruling, 
 
 They failed not of wholesome schooling 
 
 On their knavery and their fooling. 
 
 /is for Art where's decorum? Pooh-poohed it If 
 
 iBy Poets that plague us with lewd ditties, 
 
 And Painters that pester with nudities 1 
 
 7- 
 
 Now, your rater and debater 
 Is balked by a mere spectator
 
 AND HOW HE WORKED IN DISTEMPER. 4 
 
 Who simply stares and listens 
 
 Tongue-tied, while eye nor glistens 
 
 Nor brow grows hot and twitchy, 
 
 Nor mouth, for a combat itchy, 
 
 Quivers with some convincing 
 
 Reply that sets him wincing? 
 
 Nay, rather reply that furnishes 
 
 Your debater with just what burnishes 
 
 The crest of him, all one triumph, 
 
 As you see him rise, hear him cry " Humph 1 
 
 Convinced am I ? This confutes me ? 
 
 Receive the rejoinder that suits me ! 
 
 Confutation of vassal for prince meet 
 
 Wherein all the powers that convince meet, 
 
 And mash my opponent to mincemeat ! " 
 
 8. 
 
 i 
 
 So, off from his head flies the bonnet, 
 His hip loses hand planted on it, 
 While t'other hand, frequent in gesture, 
 Slinks modestly back beneath vesture,
 
 482 OF PACCHIAROTTO, 
 
 As, hop, skip and jump, he's along with 
 
 Those weak ones he late proved so strong with ! 
 
 Pope, Emperor, lo he's beside them, 
 
 Friendly now, who late could not abide them, 
 
 King, Clown, Soldier, Priest, Noble, Burgess ; 
 
 And his voice, that out-roared Boanerges, 
 
 How minikin-mildly it urges 
 
 In accents how gentled and gingered 
 
 Its word in defence of the injured ! 
 
 " O call him not culprit, this Pontiff 1 
 
 Be hard on this Kaiser ye won't if 
 
 Ye take into con-si-de-ration 
 
 What dangers attend elevation ! 
 
 The Priest who expocts him to descant 
 
 On duty with more zeal and less cant? 
 
 He preaches but rubbish he's reared in. 
 
 The Soldier, grown deaf (by the mere din 
 
 Of battle) to mercy, learned tippling 
 
 And what not of vice while a stripling. 
 
 The Lawyer Hfe lies are conventional. 
 
 And as for the Poor Sort why mention all
 
 AND HOW HE WORKED IN DISTEMPER. 483 
 
 Obstructions that leave barred and bolted 
 Access to the brains of each dolt-head ? " 
 
 9- 
 
 He ended, you wager ? Not half ! A bet ? 
 Precedence to males in the alphabet ! 
 Still, disposed of Man's A. B. C., there's X. 
 Y. Z. want assistance, the Fair Sex ! 
 How much may be said in excuse of 
 Those vanities males see no use of 
 From silk shoe on heel to laced poll's-hood ! 
 What's their frailty beside our own falsehood? 
 The boldest, most brazen of ... trumpets, 
 How kind can they be to their dumb pets ! 
 Of their charms how are most frank, how fe\f 
 
 venal ! 
 
 While as for those charges of Juvenal 
 QIICK nemo dixisset in toto 
 Nisi (adepof) ore illoto 
 He dismissed every charge with an *Apagel*
 
 484 3P PACCfflAROTTO, 
 
 10. 
 
 Then, cocking (in Scotch phrase) his cap a-gee, 
 Right hand disengaged from the doublet 
 Like landlord, in house he had sublet 
 Resuming of guardianship gestion, 
 To call tenants' conduct in question 
 Hop, skip, jump, to inside from outside 
 Of chamber, he lords, ladies, louts eyed 
 With such transformation of visage 
 As fitted the censor of this age. 
 No longer an advocate tepid 
 Of frailty but champion intrepid 
 Of strength, not of falsehood but verity, 
 He, one after one, with asperity 
 Stripped bare all the cant-clothed abuses, 
 Disposed of sophistic excuses, 
 Forced folly each shift to abandon, 
 And left vice with no leg to stand on. 
 So crushing the force he exerted, 
 That Man at his foot lay converted 1
 
 AND HOW HE WORKED IN DISTEMPER. 485 
 
 II. 
 
 True Man bred of paint-pot and mortar 
 But why suppose folks of this sort are 
 More likely to hear and be tractable 
 Than folks all alive and, in fact, able 
 To testify promptly by action 
 Their ardor, and make satisfaction 
 For misdeeds non verbis sed factis ? 
 "With folks all alive be my practice 
 Henceforward! O mortar, paint-pot O, 
 Farewell to ye ! " cried Pacchiarotto, 
 " Let only occasion interpose ! " 
 
 12. 
 
 It did so : for, pat to the purpose 
 Through causes I need not examine, 
 There fell upou Siena a famine. 
 In vain did the magistrates busily 
 Seek succor, fetch grain out of Sicily, 
 Nay, throw mill and bakehouse wide open
 
 A86 OF PACCHIAROTTO, 
 
 Such misery followed as no pen 
 Of mine shall depict ye. Faint, fainter, 
 Waxed hope of relief: so, our painter, 
 Emboldened by triumph of recency, 
 How could he do other with decency 
 Than rush in this strait to the rescue, 
 Play schoolmaster, point as with fescue 
 To each and all slips in Man's spelling 
 The law of the land ? slips now telling 
 With monstrous effect on the city, 
 Whose magistrates moved him to pity 
 As, bound to read law to the letter, 
 They minded their hornbook no better, 
 
 I ought to have told you, at starting, 
 How certain, who itched to be carting 
 Abuses away clean and thorough 
 From Siena, both province and borough, 
 Had formed themselves into a company 
 Whose swallow could bolt in a lump any
 
 AND HOW HE WORKED IN DISTEMPER. 487 
 
 Obstruction of scruple, provoking 
 
 The nicer throat's coughing and choking. 
 
 Fit "Club, by as fit a name dignified 
 
 Of "Freed Ones " " Bardotti" which signified 
 
 " Spare-Horses " that walk by the wagon 
 
 The team has to drudge for and drag on. 
 
 This notable Club Pacchiarotto 
 
 Had joined long since, paid scot and lot to, 
 
 As free and accepted "Bardotto." 
 
 The Bailiwick watched with no quiet eye 
 
 The outrage thus done to society, 
 
 And noted the advent especially 
 
 Of Pacchiarotto their fresh ally. 
 
 14. 
 
 These Spare-Horses forthwith assembled: 
 Neighed words whereat citizens trembled 
 As oft as the chiefs, in the Square by 
 The Duomo, proposed a way whereby 
 The city were cured of disaster. 
 "Just substitute servant for master,
 
 488 OF PACCHIAROTTO, 
 
 Make Poverty Wealth and Wealth Poverty, 
 Unloose Man from overt and covert tie, 
 And straight out of social confusion 
 True Order would spring ! " Brave illusion 
 Aims heavenly attained by means earthy ! 
 
 Off to these at full speed rushed our worthy,' 
 Brain practised and tongue no less tutored, 
 In argument's armor accoutred, 
 Sprang forth, mounted rostrum and essayed 
 Proposals like those to which " Yes " said 
 So glibly each personage painted 
 O' the wall-side wherewith you're acquainted. 
 He harangued on the faults of the Bailiwick : 
 "Red soon were our State-candle's paly wick, 
 If wealth would become but interfluous, 
 Fill voids up with just the superfluous ; 
 If ignorance gave way to knowledge 
 Not pedantry picked up at college 
 From Doctors, Professors et ccetera
 
 AND HOW HE WORKED IN DISTEMPER. 489 
 
 (They say: ' kai ta loipa' like better a 
 
 Long Greek string of kappas, taus, lambdas, 
 
 Tacked on to the tail of each damned ass) 
 
 No knowledge we want of this quality, 
 
 But knowledge indeed practicality 
 
 Through insight's fine universality! 
 
 If you shout ' Bailiffs, out on ye all ! Fie, 
 
 Thou Chief of our forces, Amalfl, 
 
 Who shieldest the rogue and the clotpoll!' 
 
 If you pounce on and poke out, with what polt 
 
 I leave ye to fancy, our Siena's 
 
 Beast-litter of sloths and hyenas " 
 
 (Whoever to scan this is ill able 
 
 Forgets the town's name's a dissyllable) 
 
 "If, this done, ye did as ye might place 
 
 For once the right man in the right place, 
 
 If you listened to me ..." 
 
 16. 
 
 At which last " If ' 
 There flew at his throat like a mastiff
 
 49 o OF PA CCHIARO TTO, 
 
 One Spare-Horse another and another! 
 
 Such outbreak of tumult and pother, 
 
 Horse-faces a-laughing and fleering, 
 
 Horse-voices a-mocking and jeering, 
 
 Horse-hands raised to collar the caitiff 
 
 Whose impudence ventured the late "If" 
 
 That, had not fear sent Pacchiarotto 
 
 Off tramping, as fast as could trot toe, 
 
 Away from the scene of discomfiture 
 
 Had he stood there stock-still in a dumb fit sure 
 
 A.m I he had paid in his person 
 
 Till his mother might fail to know her son, 
 
 Though she gazed on him never so wistful, 
 
 In the figure so tattered and tristful. 
 
 Each mouth full of curses, each fist full 
 
 Of cuffings behold, Pacchiarotto, 
 
 The pass which thy project has got to, ' 
 
 Of trusting, nigh ashes still hot tow ! 
 
 (The paraphrase which I much need is 
 
 From Horace 'per ignes incediS?}
 
 AND HOW HE WORKED IN DISTEMPER. 491 
 
 Right and left did he dash helter-skelter 
 In agonized search of a shelter. 
 No purlieu so blocked and no alley 
 So blind as allowed him to rally 
 His spirits and see nothing hampered 
 His steps if he trudged and not scampered 
 Up here and down there in a city 
 That's all ups and downs, more the pity 
 For folks who would outrun the constable. 
 At last he stopped short at the one stable 
 And sure place of refuge that's offered 
 Humanity. Lately was coffered 
 A corpse in its sepulchre, situate 
 By St. John's Observance. " Habituate 
 Thyself to the strangest of bedfellows, 
 And, kicked by the live, kiss the dead fellows ! 
 So Misery counselled the craven. 
 At once he crept safely to haven 
 Through a hole left unbricked in the structure. 
 Ay, Misery, in have you tucked your
 
 49 2 OF PACCHIAROTTO, 
 
 Poor client and left him conterminous 
 With pah ! the thing fetid and verminous ! 
 (I gladly would spare you the detail, 
 But History writes what I retail.) 
 
 18. 
 
 Two days did he groan in his domicile : 
 " Good Saints, set me free and I promise I'll 
 Abjure all ambition of preaching 
 Change, whether to minds touched by teaching 
 
 The smooth folk of fancy, mere figments 
 Created by plaster and pigments, 
 
 Or to minds that receive with such rudeness 
 Dissuasion from pride, greed and lewdness, 
 
 The rough folk of fact, life's true specimens 
 Of mind ' haud in posse sed esse mens ' 
 
 As it was, is and shall be forever 
 Despite of my utmost endeavor. 
 
 live foes I thought to illumine, 
 Henceforth lie untroubled your gloom in! 
 
 1 need my own light, every spark, as 
 
 I couch with this sole friend a carcass ! "
 
 AND HOW HE WORKED IN DISTEMPER. 493 
 
 19. 
 
 Two days thus he maundered and rambled ; 
 Then, starved back to sanity, scrambled 
 From out his receptacle loathsome. 
 " A spectre ! " declared upon oath some 
 Who saw him emerge and (appalling 
 To mention) his garments a-crawling 
 With plagues far beyond the Egyptian. 
 He gained, in a state past description 
 A convent of monks, the Observancy. 
 
 20. 
 
 Thus far is a fact : I reserve fancy 
 For Fancy's more proper employment : 
 And now she waves wing with enjoyment, 
 To tell ye how preached the Superior 
 When somewhat our painter's exterior 
 Was sweetened. He needed (no mincing 
 The matter) much soaking and rinsing, 
 Nay, rubbing with drugs odoriferous,
 
 494 OF PACCHIAROTTO, 
 
 Till, rid of his garments pestiferous 
 
 And robed by the help of the Brotherhood 
 
 In odds and ends, this gown and t'other hood, 
 
 His empty inside first well-garnished, 
 
 He delivered a tale round, unvarnished. 
 
 21. 
 
 " Ah, Youth ! " so might run the admonishment, 
 "Thine error scarce moves my astonishment. 
 For why shall I shrink from asserting ? 
 Myself have had hopes of converting 
 The foolish to wisdom, till, sober, 
 My life found its May grow October. 
 I talked and I wrote, but, one morning, 
 Life's Autumn bore fruit in this warning: 
 ' Let tongue rest, and quiet thy quill be I 
 Earth is earth and not heaven, and nJer will be? 
 Man's work is to labor and leaven 
 As best he may earth here with heaven ; 
 'Tis work for work's sake that he's needing: 
 Let him work on and on as if speeding
 
 AND HOW HE WORKED IN DISTEMPER. 495 
 
 Work's end, but not dream of succeeding! 
 
 Because if success were intended, 
 
 Why, heaven would begin ere earth ended. 
 
 A Spare-Horse ? Be rather a thill-horse, 
 
 Or what's the plain truth just a mill-horse! 
 
 Earth's a mill where we grind and wear mufflers 
 
 A whip awaits shirkers and shufflers 
 
 Who slacken their pace, sick of lugging 
 
 At what don't advance for their tugging. 
 
 Though round goes the mill, we must still post 
 
 On and on as if moving the" mill-post 
 
 So, grind away, mouth-wise and pen-wise, 
 
 Do all that we can to make men wise ! 
 
 And if men prefer to be foolish, 
 
 Ourselves have proved horse-like not mulish : 
 
 Sent grist, a good sackful, to hopper, 
 
 And worked as the Master thought proper. 
 
 Tongue I wag, pen I ply, who am Abbot ; 
 
 Stick, thou, Son, to paint-brush and dab-pot 1 
 
 But, soft ! I scratch hard on the scab hot ? 
 
 Though cured of thy plague, there may lingei
 
 49 OF PACCHIAROTTO, 
 
 A pimple I fray with rough finger? 
 So soon could my homily transmute 
 Thy brass into gold ? Why, the man's mute ! " 
 
 22. 
 
 "Ay, Father, I'm mute with admiring 
 How Nature's indulgence untiring 
 Still bids us turn deaf ear to Reason's 
 Best rhetoric clutch at all seasons 
 And hold fast to what's proved untenable ! 
 Thy maxim is Man's not amenable 
 To argument : whereof by consequence 
 Thine arguments reach me : a non-sequence ! 
 Yet blush not discouraged, O Father J 
 I stand unconverted, the rather 
 That nowise I need a conversion. 
 No live man (I cap thy assertion) 
 By argument ever could take hold 
 Of me. 'Twas the dead thing, the clay-cold, 
 Which grinned ' Art thou so in a hurry 
 That out of warm light thou must scurry
 
 AND HOW HE WORKED IN DISTEMPER. 497 
 
 And join me down here in the dungeon 
 Because, above, onjs Jack and one John, 
 One's swift in the race, one a hobbler, 
 One's a crowned king and one a capped cobbler, 
 Rich and poor, sage and fool, virtuous, -vicious ? 
 
 Why complain? Art thou so unsuspicious 
 
 
 That airs for an hour of essaying 
 
 Who's fit and who's unfit for playing 
 His part in the after-construction 
 Heaven's Piece whereof Earth's the Induction ? 
 Tilings rarely go smooth at Rehearsal. 
 Wait patient the change universal, 
 And act, and let act, in existence! 
 For, as thou art clapped hence or hissed hence, 
 Thou hast thy promotion or otherwise. 
 And why must wise thou have thy brother wise 
 Because in rehearsal thy cue be 
 To shine by the side of a booby ? 
 No polishing garnet to ruby ! 
 All's well that ends well through Arfs magic. 
 Some end, whether comic or tragic,
 
 498 OF PACCHIAROTTO, 
 
 Tlie Artist has purposed, be certain ! 
 Explained at the fall of the curtain 
 In showing thy wisdom at odds with 
 TJiat folly : he tries men and gods with 
 No problem for weak wits to solve meant, 
 But one worth such Author's evolvement. 
 So, back nor disturb play's production 
 By giving thy brother instruction 
 To throw tip his fooFs-part allotted! 
 Lest haply thyself prove besotted 
 When stript, for thy pains, of that costume 
 Of sage, which has bred the imposthume 
 I prick to relieve thee of, Vanity I* 
 
 23- 
 
 "So, Father, behold me in sanity! 
 I'm back to the paint-brush and mahlstick: 
 And as for Man let each and all stick 
 To what was prescribed them at starting! 
 Once planted as fools no departing
 
 AND HOW HE WORKED IN DISTEMPER. 499 
 
 From folly one inch, sceculorum 
 
 In sacula! Pass me the jorum, 
 
 And push me the platter my stomach 
 
 Retains, through its fasting, still some ache 
 
 And then, with your kind Benedicitc, 
 
 Good-by!" 
 
 24. 
 
 I have told with simplicity 
 My tale, dropped those harsh analytics, 
 And tried to content you, my critics, 
 Who greeted my early uprising ! 
 I knew you through all the disguising, 
 Droll dogs, as I jumped up, cried "Heyday 
 This Monday is what else but May-day 
 And these in the drabs, blues and yellows 
 Are surely the privileged fellows. 
 So, saltbox and bones, tongs and bellows ! " 
 (T threw up the window) " Your pleasure ? "
 
 30 OF PACCHIAROTTO, 
 
 25- 
 
 Then he who directed the measure 
 An old friend put leg forward nimbly, 
 " We critics as sweeps out your chimbly ! 
 Much soot to remove from your flue sir! 
 Who spares coal in kitchen an't you, sir! 
 And neighbors complain it's no joke, sir, 
 You ought to consume your own smoke, sir!" 
 
 26. 
 
 Ah, rogues, but my housemaid suspects you 
 Is confident oft she detects you 
 In bringing more filth into my house 
 Than ever you found there ! I'm pious 
 However : 'twas God made you dingy 
 And me with no need to be stingy 
 Of soap, when 'tis sixpence the packet. 
 So, dance away, boys, dust my jacket, 
 Bang drum and blow fife ay, and rattle 
 Your brushes, for that's half the battle !
 
 AND HOW HE WORKED IN DISTEMPER. 501 
 
 Don't trample the grass, hocus-pocus 
 
 With grime my Spring snow-drop and crocus, 
 
 And, what with your rattling and tinkling, 
 
 Who knows but you give me an inkling 
 
 How music sounds, thanks to the jangle 
 
 Of regular drum and triangle? 
 
 Whereby, tap-tap, chink-chink, 'tis proven 
 
 I break rule as bad as Beethoven. 
 
 " That chord now a groan or a grunt is't ? 
 
 Schumann's self was no worse contrapuntist. 
 
 No ear! or if ear, so tough-gristled 
 
 He thought that he sung while he whistled ! " 
 
 27. 
 
 So, this time I whistle, not sing at all, 
 My story, the largess I fling at all 
 And every the rough there whose aubade 
 Did its best to amuse me, nor so bad ! 
 Take my thanks, pick up largess, and scamper 
 Off free, ere your mirfh gets a damper I
 
 $02 OF PACCHIAROTTOt 
 
 You've Monday, your one day, your fun-day, 
 While mine is a year that's all Sunday. 
 I've seen you, times who knows how many? 
 Dance in here, strike up, play the zany, 
 Make mouths at the Tenant, hoot warning 
 You'll find him decamped next May-morning ; 
 Then scuttle away, glad to 'scape hence 
 With kicks ? no, but laughter and ha'pence ! 
 Mine's freehold, by grace of the grand Lord 
 Who lets out the ground here, my landlord: 
 To him I pay quit-rent devotion ; 
 Nor hence shall I budge, I've a notion, 
 Nay, here shall my whistling and singing 
 Set all his street's echoes a-ringing 
 Long after the last of your number 
 Has ceased my front-court to encumber 
 While, treading down rose and ranunculus, 
 You Tommy-make-room-for-your- Uncle us ! 
 Troop, all of you man or homunculus, 
 Quick march! for Xanthippe, my housemaid, 
 If once on your pates she a souse made
 
 AND HOW HE WORKED IN DISTEMPER. 503 
 
 With what, pan or pot, bowl or skoramis 
 
 First comes to her hand things were more amiss I 
 
 I would not for worlds be your place in 
 
 Recipient of slops from the basin! 
 
 You, Jack-in-the-Green, leaf-and-twiggishness 
 
 Won't save a dry thread on your priggishness ! 
 
 While as for Quilp-Hop-o'-my-thumb there, 
 
 Banjo-Byron that twangs the strum-strum there 
 
 He'll think, as the pickle he curses, 
 
 I've discharged on his pate his own verses ! 
 
 " Dwarfs are saucy," says Dickens : so, sauced in 
 
 Your own sauce, . . .* 
 
 28. 
 
 But, back to my Knight of the Pencil, 
 Dismissed to his fresco and stencil ! 
 Whose story begun with a chuckle, 
 And throughout timed by raps of the knuckle, 
 
 No, please! For 
 
 "Who would be satirical 
 On a thing so very small?" PRINTER'S DEVIL.
 
 504 OF PACCHIAROTTO', 
 
 To small enough purpose were studied 
 
 If it ends with crown cracked or nose bloodied. 
 
 Come, critics, not shake hands, excuse me ! 
 
 But say have you grudged to amuse me 
 
 This once in the forty-and-over 
 
 Long years since you trampled my clover 
 
 And scared from my house-eaves each sparrow 
 
 I never once harmed by that arrow 
 
 Of song, karterotaton betas, 
 
 (Which Pindar declares the true melos) 
 
 I was forging and filing and finishing, 
 
 And no whit my labors diminishing 
 
 Because, though high up in a chamber 
 
 Where none of your kidney may clamber 
 
 Your hullabaloo would approach me ? 
 
 Was it " grammar " wherein you would " coach " me 
 
 You, pacing in even that paddock 
 
 Of language allotted you ad hoc, 
 
 With a clog at your fetlocks, you scorners 
 
 Of me free of all its four corners ? 
 
 Was it "clearness of words which convey thought?
 
 AND HOW HE WORKED IN DISTEMPER. 505 
 
 Ay, if words never needed enswathe aught 
 
 But ignorance, impudence, envy 
 
 And malice what word-swathe would then vie 
 
 With yours for a clearness crystalline ? 
 
 But had you to put in one small line 
 
 Some thought big and bouncing as noddle 
 
 Of goose, born to cackle and waddle 
 
 And bite at man's heel as goose-wont is, 
 
 Never felt plague its puny os frontis 
 
 You'd know, as you hissed, spat and sputtered, 
 
 Clear " quack-quack " is easily uttered ! 
 
 29. 
 
 Lo, I've laughed out my laugh on this mirth-day 1 
 Beside, at week's end, dawns my birth-day, 
 That hebdome, hieron emar 
 (More things in a day than you deem are !) 
 Tei gar Apollona chrusaora 
 Egdnato Leto. So, gray or ray 
 Betide me, six days hence, I'm vexed here
 
 506 OF PACCHIAROTTO. 
 
 By no sweep, that's certain, till next year! 
 
 " Vexed ? " roused from what else were insipid ease 
 
 Leave snoring a-bed to Pheidippides ! 
 
 We'll up and work! won't we, Euripides?
 
 AT THE i MERMAID: 507 
 
 AT THE 'MERMAID/ 
 
 The figure that thou here seest . . Tut! 
 Was it for gentle Shakespeare put? 
 
 B. JONSON. (Adapted^ 
 
 I. 
 
 I "Next Poet?" No, my hearties, 
 
 I nor am nor fain would be ! 
 Choose your chiefs and pick your parties, 
 
 Not one soul revolt to me! 
 I, forsooth, sow song-sedition ? 
 
 I, a schism in verse provoke ? 
 I, blown up by bard's ambition, 
 
 Burst your bubble-king? You joke. 
 
 2. 
 
 Come, be grave ! The sherris mantling 
 Still about each mouth, mayhap, 
 
 Breeds you insight just a scantling 
 Brings me truth out just a scrap.
 
 58 AT THE ' MERMAID: 
 
 Look and tell me ! Written, spoken, 
 Here's my life-long work: and where 
 
 Where's your warrant or my token 
 I'm the dead king's son and heir? 
 
 3- 
 Here's my work: does work discover 
 
 What was rest from work my life? 
 Did I live man's hater, lover? 
 
 Leave the world at peace, at strife ? 
 Call earth ugliness or beauty ? 
 
 See things there in large or small ? 
 Use to pay its Lord my duty? 
 
 Use to own a lord at all? 
 
 4- 
 Blank of such a record, truly, 
 
 Here's the work I hand, this scroll, 
 Yours to take or leave ; as duly, 
 
 Mine remains the unproffered soul.
 
 AT THE 'MERMAID: 509 
 
 So much, no whit more, my debtors 
 How should "one like me lay claim 
 
 To that largess elders, betters 
 
 Sell you cheap their souls for fame? 
 
 5- 
 Which of you did I enable 
 
 Once to slip inside my breast 
 There to catalogue and label 
 
 What I like least, what love best, 
 Hope and fear, believe and doubt of, 
 
 Seek and shun, respect deride ? 
 Who has right to make a rout of 
 
 Rarities he found inside? 
 
 6. 
 
 Rarities or, as he'd rather, 
 
 Rubbish such as stocks his own : 
 
 Need and greed (O strange) the Father 
 Fashioned not for him alone !
 
 AT THE 'MERMAID: 
 
 Whence the comfort set a-strutting, 
 Whence the outcry " Haste, behold ! 
 
 Bard's breast open wide, past shutting, 
 Shows what brass we took for gold ! " 
 
 I 
 
 Friends, I doubt not he'd display you 
 
 Brass myself call oreichalch, 
 Furnish much amusement ; pray you 
 
 Therefore, be content I balk 
 Him and you, and bar my portal ! 
 
 Here's my work outside : opine 
 What's inside me mean and mortal ! 
 
 Take your pleasure, leave me mine! 
 
 8. 
 
 Which is not to buy your laurel 
 As last king did, nothing loath. 
 
 Tale adorned and pointed moral 
 Gained him praise and pity both.
 
 AT THE ' MERMAID: 511 
 
 Out rushed sighs and groans by dozens, 
 Forth by scores oaths, curses flew 
 
 Proving you were cater-cousins, 
 Kith and kindred, king and you I 
 
 9- 
 
 Whereas do I ne'er so little 
 
 (Thanks to sherris) leave ajar 
 Bosom's gate no jot nor tittle 
 
 Grow we nearer than we are. 
 Sinning, sorrowing, despairing, 
 
 Body-ruined, spirit-wrecked, 
 Should I give my woes an airing, 
 
 Where's one plague that claims respect? 
 
 10. 
 
 Have you found your life distasteful ? 
 
 My life did and does smack sweet. 
 Was your youth of pleasure wasteful? 
 
 Mine I saved and hold complete.
 
 AT THE 'MERMAID: 
 
 Do your joys with age diminish? 
 
 When mine fail me, I'll complain. 
 Must in death your daylight finish? 
 
 My sun sets to rise again. 
 
 ii. 
 
 What, like you, he proved your Pilgrim - 
 
 This our world a wilderness, 
 Earth still gray and heaven still grim, 
 
 Not a hand there his might press, 
 Not a heart his own might throb to, 
 
 Men all rogues and women say, 
 Dolls which boys' heads duck and bob to, 
 
 Grown folk drop or throw away? 
 
 My experience being other, 
 How should I contribute verse 
 
 Worthy of your king and brother ? 
 Balaam-like I bless, not curse.
 
 AT THE ' MERMAID: 
 
 1 find earth not gray but rosy, 
 Heaven not grim but fair of hue. 
 
 Do I stoop ? I pluck a posy. 
 
 Do I stand and stare? All's blue. 
 
 Doubtless I am pushed and shoved by 
 
 Rogues and fools enough : the more 
 Good luck mine, I love, am loved by 
 
 Some few honest to the core. 
 Scan the near high, scout the far low! 
 
 " But the low come close : " what then ? 
 Simpletons? My match is Marlowe; 
 
 Sciolists ? My mate is Ben. 
 
 VVomankind "the cat-like nature, 
 False and fickle, vain and weak " 
 
 What of this sad nomenclature 
 
 Suits my tonga i, if I must speak?
 
 514 AT THE 'MERMAID: 
 
 Does the sex invite, repulse so, 
 Tempt, betray, by fits and starts? 
 
 So becalm but to convulse so, 
 Decking heads and breaking hearts? 
 
 Well may you blaspheme at fortune! 
 
 I " threw Venus " (Ben, expound !) 
 *Never did I need importune 
 
 Her, of all the Olympian round. 
 Blessings on my benefactress I 
 
 Cursings suit for aught I know 
 Those who twitched her by the back tress, 
 
 Tugged and thought to turn her so 1 
 
 16. 
 
 Therefore, since no leg to stand on 
 Thus I'm left with, joy or grief 
 
 Be the issue, I abandon 
 
 Hope or care you name me Chief!
 
 AT THE 'MERMAIDS 51.5 
 
 Chief and king and Lord's anointed, 
 
 I ? who never once have wished 
 Death before the day appointed : 
 
 Lived and liked, not poohed and pished ! 
 
 "Ah, but so I shall not enter, 
 
 Scroll in hand, the common heart 
 Stopped at surface : since at centre 
 
 Song should reach Welt-schmerz, world-smart ! " 
 "Enter in the heart?" Its shelly 
 
 Cuirass guard mine, fore and aft! 
 Such song " enters in the belly 
 
 And is cast out in the draught." 
 
 18. 
 
 Back then to our sherris-brewage ! 
 
 " Kingship " quotha ? I shall wait 
 Waive the present time : some new age . . . 
 
 But let fools anticipate 1
 
 516 AT THE MERMAID: 
 
 Meanwhile greet me "friend, good fellow, 
 Gentle Will," my merry men 1 
 
 As for making Envy yellow 
 With "Next Poet " (Manners, Ben!)
 
 HOUSE. 517 
 
 HOUSE. 
 
 i. 
 
 SHALL I sonnet-sing you about myself? 
 
 Do I live in a house you would like to v;e ? 
 Is it scant of gear, has it store of pelf? 
 
 "Unlock my heart with a sonnet-key?" 
 
 2. 
 
 Invite the world, as my betters have done? 
 
 " Take notice : this building remains on view, 
 Its suites of reception every one, 
 
 Its private apartment and bedroom too ; 
 
 3- 
 
 " For a ticket, apply to the Publisher." 
 No : thanking the public, I must decline. 
 
 A peep through my window, if folks prefer ; 
 But, please you, no foot over threshold of mine!
 
 518 HOUSE. 
 
 4- 
 
 I have mixed with a crowd and heard free talk 
 In a foreign land where an earthquake chanced 
 
 And a house stood gaping, nought to balk 
 Man's eye wherever he gazed or glanced. 
 
 5- 
 The whole of the frontage shaven sheer, 
 
 The inside gaped : exposed to day, 
 Right and wrong and common and queer, 
 
 Bare, as the palm of your hand, it lay. 
 
 6. 
 
 The owner ? Oh, he had been crushed, no doubt ! 
 
 " Odd tables and chairs for a man of wealth 1 
 What a parcel of musty old books about 1 
 
 He smoked, no wonder he lost his health !
 
 HOUSE. 519 
 
 7- 
 
 " I doubt if he bathed before he dressed. 
 
 A brazier? the pagan, he burned perfumes! 
 You see it is proved, what the neighbors guessed ; 
 
 His wife and himself had separate rooms." 
 
 8. 
 
 Friends, the goodman of the house at least 
 
 Kept house to himself till an earthquake came : 
 
 'Tis the fall of its frontage permits you feast 
 On the inside arrangement you praise or blame. 
 
 9- 
 
 Outside should suffice for evidence : 
 
 And whoso desires to penetrate 
 Deeper, must dive by the spirit-sense 
 
 No optics like yours, at any rate!
 
 520 HOUSE. 
 
 10. 
 
 " Hoity toity ! A street to explore, 
 
 Your house the exception ! ' With this same key 
 Shakespeare unlocked his heart,' once more ! " 
 
 Did Shakespeare ? If so, the less Shakespeare he !
 
 SHOP. 52I 
 
 SHOP. 
 
 i. 
 
 So, friend, your shop was all your house J 
 Its front, astonisliing the street, 
 
 Invited view from man and mouse 
 To what diversity of treat 
 Behind its glass the single sheet I 
 
 2. 
 
 What gimcracks, genuine Japanese : 
 Gape-jaw and goggle-eye, the frog; 
 
 Dragons, owls, monkeys, beetles, gees6 j 
 Some crush-nosed human-hearted dog: 
 Queer names, too, such a catalogue 1
 
 522 SHOP. 
 
 3- 
 
 I thought " And he who owns the wealth 
 Which blocks the window's vastitude, 
 
 Ah, could I peep at him by stealth 
 Behind his ware, pass shop, intrude 
 On house itself, what scenes were viewed ! 
 
 4- 
 
 "If wide and showy thus the shop, 
 What must the habitation prove ? 
 
 The true house with no name a-top 
 The mansion, distant one remove, 
 Once get him off his traffic-grove ! 
 
 " Pictures he likes, or books perhaps ; 
 And as for buying most and best, 
 
 Commend me to these city chaps! 
 Or else he's social, takes his rest 
 On Sundays, with a Lord for guest.
 
 SHOP. 523 
 
 6. 
 
 "Some suburb-palace, parked about 
 And gated grandly, built last year : 
 
 The four-mile walk to keep off gout ; 
 Or big seat sold by bankrupt peer : 
 But then he takes the rail, that's clear. 
 
 
 
 7- 
 
 " Or, stop ! I wager, taste selects 
 
 Some out o' the way, some all-unknown 
 
 Retreat : the neighborhood suspects 
 Little that he who rambles lone 
 Makes Rothschild tremble on his throne!" 
 
 8. 
 
 Nowise ! Nor Mayfair residence 
 Fit to receive and entertain, 
 
 Nor Hampstead villa's kind defence 
 
 From noise and crowd, from dust and drain, 
 Nor country-box was soul's domain!
 
 524 SHOP. 
 
 9- 
 
 Nowise ! At back of all that spread 
 Of merchandise, woe's me, I find 
 
 A hole i' the wall where, heels by head, 
 The owner couched, his ware behind, 
 In cupboard suited to his mind. 
 
 
 10. 
 
 For why? He saw no use of life 
 But, while he drove a roaring trade, 
 
 To chuckle " Customers are rife ! " 
 
 To chafe " So much hard cash outlaid 
 Yet zero in my profits made ! 
 
 "This novelty costs pains, but takes? 
 Cumbers my counter ! Stock no more ! 
 
 This article, no such great shakes, 
 Fizzes like wild fire ? Underscore 
 The cheap thing thousands to the forel"
 
 SHOP. 5 2 5 
 
 13. 
 
 Twas lodging best to live most nigh 
 (Cramp, coffinlike as crib might be) 
 
 Receipt of Custom ; ear and eye 
 
 Wanted no outworld : " Hear and see 
 The bustle in the shop!" quoth he. 
 
 My fancy of a merchant-prince 
 
 Was different. Through his wares we groped 
 Our darkling way to not to mince 
 
 The matter no black den where moped 
 
 4 
 
 The master if we interloped! 
 
 14. 
 
 Shop was shop only: household-stuff? 
 
 What did he want with comforts there? 
 * Walls, ceiling, floor, stay blank and rough, 
 
 So goods on sale show rich and rare! 
 and scud home, 1 be shop's affair!"
 
 526 SHOP. 
 
 What might he deal in ? Gems, suppose ! 
 Since somehow business must be done 
 
 At cost of trouble, see, he throws 
 You choice of jewels, every one 
 Good, better, best, star, moon and sun! 
 
 16. 
 
 Which lies within your power of purse ? 
 This ruby that would tip aright 
 
 Solomon's sceptre? Oh, your nurse 
 Wants simply coral, the delight 
 Of teething baby, stuff to bite ! 
 
 Howe'er your choice fell, straight you took 
 Your purchase, prompt your money rang 
 
 On counter, scarce the man forsook 
 His study of the "Times," just swang 
 Till-ward his hand that stopped the clang,
 
 SHOP. 527 
 
 18. 
 
 Then off made buyer with a prize, 
 Then seller to his " Times " returned, 
 
 And so did day wear, wear, till eyes 
 Brightened apace, for rest was earned : 
 He locked door long ere candle burned. 
 
 19. 
 
 And whither went he? Ask himself, 
 Not me ! To change of scene, I think. 
 
 Once sold the ware and pursed the pelf, 
 Chaffer was scarce his meat and drink, 
 Nor all his music money-chink. 
 
 20. 
 
 Because a man has shop to mind 
 
 In time and place, since flesh must live, 
 
 Needs spirit lack all life behind, 
 All stray thoughts, fancies fugitive, 
 All loves except what trade can .give ?
 
 528 SHOP. 
 
 21. 
 
 I want to know a butcher paints, 
 A baker rhymes for his pursuit, 
 
 Candlestick-maker much acquaints 
 His soul with song, or, haply mute, 
 Blows out his brains upon the flute! 
 
 22. 
 
 But shop each day and all day long! 
 Friend, your good angel slept, your star 
 
 Suffered eclipse, fate did you wrong! 
 From where these sorts of treasures are, 
 There should our hearts be Christ, how far!
 
 PISGAH-SIGHTS. 5 2 9 
 
 PISGAH-SIGHTS. I. 
 
 i. 
 
 OVER the ball of it, 
 
 Peering and prying, 
 How I see all of it, 
 
 Life there, outlying! 
 Roughness and smoothness, 
 
 Shine and defilement, 
 Grace and uncouthness: 
 
 One reconcilement 
 
 2. 
 
 Orbed as appointed, 
 Sister with brother 
 
 Joins, ne'er disjointed 
 One from the other.
 
 53 PISGAH-SIGHTS. 
 
 All's lend-and-borrow ; 
 
 Good, see, wants evil, 
 Joy demands sorrow, 
 
 Angel weds devil 1 
 
 3- 
 "Which things must why be?" 
 
 Vain our endeavor ! 
 So shall things aye be 
 
 As they were ever. 
 " Such things should so be I " 
 
 Sage our desistence ! 
 Rough-smooth let globe be, 
 
 Mixed man's existence! 
 
 4- 
 Man wise and foolish, 
 
 Lover and scorner, 
 Docile and mulish 
 
 Keep each his coiner!
 
 PISGAff-SIGHTS. 58 1 
 
 Honey yet gall of it! 
 
 There's the life 
 And I see all of it, 
 
 Only, I'm dying I
 
 S3 2 PISGAH-SIGHTS. 
 
 PISGAH-SIGHTS. 2. 
 
 i. 
 
 COULD I but live again, 
 
 Twice my life over, 
 Would I once strive again? 
 
 Would not I cover 
 Quietly all of it 
 
 Greed and ambition 
 So, from the pall of it, 
 
 Pass to fruition? 
 
 2. 
 
 "Soft!" I'd say, "Soul mine! 
 
 Three-score and ten years, 
 Let the blind mole mine 
 
 Digging out deniers !
 
 PISGAH-SIGHTS. 533 
 
 Let the dazed hawk soar, 
 
 Claim, the sun's rights too I 
 Turf 'tis thy walk's o'er, 
 
 Foliage thy flight's to." 
 
 3- 
 Only a learner, 
 
 Quick one or slow one, 
 Just a discerner, 
 
 I would teach no one. 
 I am earth's native: 
 
 No re-arranging it ! 
 / be creative, 
 
 Chopping and changing it ? 
 
 4- 
 March, men, my fellows I 
 
 Those who, above me, 
 (Distance so mellows) 
 
 Fancy you love me :
 
 534 PISGAH-SIGHTS. 
 
 Those who, below me, 
 
 (Distance makes great so) 
 Free to forego me, 
 Fancy you hate so 1 
 
 5- 
 Praising, reviling, 
 
 Worst head and best head. 
 Past me defiling, 
 
 Never arrested, 
 Wanters, abounders, 
 
 March, in gay mixture, 
 Men, my surrounders ! 
 
 I am the fixture. 
 
 6. 
 
 So shall I fear thee, 
 
 Mightiness yonder! 
 Mock-sun more near thee. 
 
 What is to wonder?
 
 PISGAH-SIGHTS. 535 
 
 So shall I love thee, 
 
 Down in the dark, lest 
 Glowworm I prove thee^ 
 
 Star that now sparkiest 1
 
 536 FEARS AND SCRUPLES. 
 
 FEARS AND SCRUPLES. 
 
 i. 
 
 HERE'S my case. Of old I used to love him, 
 This same unseen friend, before I knew: 
 
 Dream there was none like him, none above him, 
 Wake to hope and trust my dream was true. 
 
 2. 
 
 Loved I not his letters full of beauty? 
 
 Not his actions famous far and wide? 
 Absent, he would know I vowed him duty, 
 
 Present, he would find me at his side. 
 
 3- 
 
 Pleasant fancy! for I had but letters, 
 
 Only knew of actions by hearsay: 
 He himself was busied with my betters; 
 
 What of that? My turn must come some day.
 
 FEARS AND SCRUPLES. 537 
 
 4- 
 "Some day" proving no day! Here's the puzzle. 
 
 Passed and passed my turn is. Why complain? 
 He's so busied ! If I could but muzzle 
 
 People's foolish mouths that give me pain ! 
 
 5- 
 "Letters?" (hear them!) "You a judge of writing: 
 
 Ask the experts ! How they shake the head 
 O'er these characters, your friend's inditing 
 
 Call them forgery from A. to Z. ! 
 
 6. 
 " Actions ? Where's your certain proof " (they bother) 
 
 "He, of all you find so great and good, 
 He, he only, claims this, that, the other 
 
 Action claimed by men, a multitude?" 
 
 7- 
 I can simply wish I might refute you, 
 
 Wish my friend would, by a word, a wink, 
 Bid me stop that foolish mouth, you brute you! 
 
 He keeps absent, why, I cannot think.
 
 538 FEARS AND SCRUPLES. 
 
 8. 
 Never mind ! Though foolishness may flout me, 
 
 One thing's sure enough : 'tis neither frost, 
 No, nor fire, shall freeze or burn from out me 
 Thanks for truth though falsehood, gained 
 though lost. 
 
 9- 
 
 All my days, I'll go the softlier, sadlier, 
 
 For that dream's sake ! How forget the thrill 
 
 Through and through me as I thought " The gladlier 
 Lives my friend because I love him still ! " 
 
 10. 
 Ah, but there's a menace some one utters ! 
 
 "What and if your friend at home play tricks? 
 Peep at hide-and-seek behind the shutters? 
 
 Mean your eyes should pierce through solid bricks ? 
 
 n. 
 
 "What and If he, frowning, wake you, dreamy 
 Lay on you the blame that bricks conceal ? 
 
 Say ' At least I saw who did not see me, 
 Docs see now, and presently shall feel '?'"
 
 FEARS AND SCRUPLES. 539 
 
 12. 
 
 u Why, that makes your friend a monster ! " say you : 
 "Had his house no window? At first nod, 
 
 Would you not have hailed him ? " Hush, I pray 
 
 you ! 
 What if this friend happen to be God?
 
 NATURAL MAGIC. 
 
 NATURAL MAGIC. 
 
 x. 
 
 ALL I can say is I saw it! 
 
 The room was as bare as your hand. 
 
 I locked in the swarth little lady, I swear, 
 
 From the head to the foot of her well, quite as 
 
 barel 
 "No Nautch shall cheat me," said I, "taking my 
 
 stand 
 At this bolt which I drawl" And this bolt I 
 
 withdraw it, 
 
 And there laughs the lady, not bare, but embowered 
 With who knows what verdure, o'erfruited, o'er 
 
 flowered ? 
 Impossible ! Only I saw it I
 
 NATURAL MAGIC. 54 
 
 * 
 
 2. 
 
 All I can sing is I feel it! 
 
 This life was as blank as that room ; 
 
 I let you pass in here. Precaution, indeed ? 
 
 Walls, ceiling and floor, not a chance for a weed ! 
 
 Wide opens the entrance : where's cold now, where's 
 gloom ? 
 
 No May to sow seed here, no June to reveal it, 
 
 Behold you enshrined in these blooms of your bring- 
 ing, 
 
 These fruits of your bearing nay, birds of your 
 winging ! 
 
 A fairy-tale 1 Only I feel it 1
 
 542 MAGICAL NATURE. 
 
 MAGICAL NATURE. 
 
 i. 
 
 FLOWER I never fancied, jewel I profess you ! 
 Bright I see and soft I feel the outside of a 
 
 flower. 
 Save but glow inside and jewel, I should guess 
 
 you, 
 
 Dim to sight and rough to touch: the glory is 
 the dower. 
 
 2. 
 
 You, forsooth, a flower? Nay, my love, a jewel 
 Jewel at no mercy of a moment in your prime! 
 
 Time may fray the flower-face: kind be time or 
 
 cruel, 
 Jewel, from each facet, flash your laugh at time I
 
 BIFURCA TION. 
 
 BIFURCATION. 
 
 WE were two lovers ; let me lie by her, 
 
 My tomb beside her tomb. On hers inscribe 
 
 " I loved him ; but my reason bade prefer 
 
 Duty to love, reject the tempter's bribe 
 
 Of rose and lily when each path diverged, 
 
 And either I must pace to life's far end 
 
 As love should lead me, or, as duty urged, 
 
 Plod the worn causeway arm in arm with friend. 
 
 So, truth turned falsehood : ' How I loathe a flower, 
 
 How prize the, pavement I* still caressed his ear 
 
 The deafish friend's through life's day, hour by 
 
 hour, 
 
 As he laughed (coughing) 'Ay, it would appear/' 
 But deep within my heart of hearts there hid 
 Ever the confidence, amends for all, 
 That heaven repairs what wrong earth's journey did, 
 When love from life-long exile comes at call.
 
 544 BIFURCA TION. 
 
 Duty and love, one broadway, were the best 
 Who doubts ? But one or other was to choose. 
 I chose the darkling half, and wait the rest 
 In that new world where light and darkness fuse." 
 
 Inscribe on mine "I loved her : love's track lay 
 O'er sand and pebble, as all travellers know. 
 Duty led through a smiling country, gay 
 With greensward where the rose and lily blow. 
 ' Our roads are diverse : farewell, love ! ' said she : 
 ' 'Tis duty I abide by : homely sward 
 And not the rock-rough picturesque for me / 
 Above, where both roads join, I wait reward. 
 JBe you as constant to the path whereon 
 I leave you planted!' But man needs must mo T e, 
 Keep moving whither, when the star is gone 
 Whereby he steps secure nor strays from love ? 
 No stone but I was tripped by, stumbling-block 
 But brought me to confusion. Where I fell, 
 There I lay flat, if moss disguised the rock, 
 Thence, if flint pierced, I rose and cried 'Att's well;
 
 BIFURCA TION. 545 
 
 Duty be mine to tread in that high sphere 
 
 Where love from duty ne'er disparts, I trust, 
 
 &nd two halves make that -whole, -whereof since here 
 
 One must suffice. a man why, this one mustJ" 
 
 Inscribe each tomb thus : then, some sage acquaint 
 The simple which holds sinner, which holds saint 1
 
 546 NUMPHOLEPTOS. 
 
 NUMPHOLEPTOS. 
 
 STILL you stand, still you listen, still you smile! 
 Still melts your moonbeam through me, white awhile, 
 Softening, sweetening, till sweet and soft 
 Increase so round this heart of mine, that oft 
 I could believe your moonbeam-smile has past 
 The pallid limit and, transformed at last, 
 Lies, sunlight and salvation warms the soul 
 It sweetens, softens ! Would you pass that goal, 
 Gain love's birth at the limit's happier verge, 
 And, where an iridescence lurks, but urge 
 The hesitating pallor on to prime 
 Of dawn! true blood-streaked, sun-warmth, action- 
 time, 
 
 By heart-pulse ripened to a ruddy glow 
 Of gold above my clay I scarce should know
 
 NUMPHOLEPTOS. 545 
 
 From gold's self, thus suffused ! For gold mean 
 
 love. 
 
 What means the sad slow silver smile above 
 My clay but pity, pardon? at the best, 
 But acquiescence that I take my rest, 
 Contented to be clay, while in your heaven 
 The sun reserves love for the Spirit-Seven 
 Companioning God's throne thej> lamp before, 
 Leaves earth a mute waste only wandered o'er 
 By that pale soft sweet disempassioned moon 
 Which smiles me slow forgiveness! Such, the boon 
 I beg? Nay, dear, submit to this just this 
 Supreme endeavor! As my lips now kiss 
 Your feet, my arms convulse your shrouding robe, 
 My eyes, acquainted with the dust, dare probe 
 Your eyes above for what, if born, would blind 
 Mine with redundant bliss, as flash may find 
 The inert nerve, sting awake the palsied limb, 
 Bid with life's ecstasy sense overbrim 
 And suck back death in the resurging joy 
 Love, the love whole and sole without alloy 1
 
 548 NUMPHOLEPTOS. 
 
 Vainly ! The promise withers ! I employ 
 
 Lips, arms, eyes, pray the prayer which finds the 
 
 word, 
 
 Make the appeal which must be felt, not heard, 
 And none the more is changed your calm regard: 
 Rather, its sweet and soft grow harsh and hard 
 Forbearance, then repulsion, then disdain. 
 Avert the rest! I rise, see! make, again 
 Once more, the old departure for some track 
 Untried yet through a world which brings me back 
 Ever thus fruitlessly to find your feet, 
 To fix your eyes, to pray the soft and sweet 
 Which smile there take from his new pilgrimage 
 Your outcast, once your inmate, and assuage 
 With love not placid pardon now his thirst 
 For a mere drop from out the ocean erst 
 He drank at ! Well, the quest shall be renewed. 
 Fear nothing! Though I linger, unimbued 
 With any drop, my lips thus close. I go ! 
 So did I leave you, I have found you so, 
 And doubtlessly, if fated to return,
 
 NUMPHOLEPTOS. 549 
 
 So shall my pleading persevere and earn 
 Pardon not love in that same smile, I learn, 
 And lose the meaning of, to learn once more, 
 Vainly ! 
 
 What fairy track do I explore ? 
 What magic hall return to, like the gem 
 Centuply-angled o'er a diadem ? * 
 You dwell there, hearted ; from your midmost home 
 Rays forth through that fantastic world I roam 
 Ever from centre to circumference, 
 Shaft upon colored shaft : this crimsons thence, 
 That purples out its precinct through the waste. 
 Surely I had your sanction when I faced, 
 Fared forth upon that untried yellow ray 
 Whence I re track my steps ? They end to-day 
 Where they began, before your feet, beneath 
 Your eyes, your smile: the blade is shut in sheath, 
 Fire quenched in flint ; irradiation, late 
 Triumphant through the distance, finds its fate, 
 Merged in your blank pure soul, alike the source
 
 55 NUMPHOLEPTOS. 
 
 And tomb of that prismatic glow: divorce 
 
 Absolute, all-conclusive ! Forth I fared, 
 
 Treading the lambent flamelet : little cared 
 
 If now its flickering took the topaz tint, 
 
 If now my dull-caked path gave sulphury hint 
 
 Of subterranean rage no stay nor stint 
 
 To yellow, since you sanctioned that I bathe, 
 
 Burnish me, soul and body, swim and swathe 
 
 In yellow license. Here I reek suffused 
 
 With crocus, saffron, orange, as I used 
 
 With scarlet, purple, every dye o' the bow 
 
 Born of the storm-cloud. As before, you show 
 
 Scarce recognition, no approval, some 
 
 Mistrust, more wonder at a man become 
 
 Monstrous in garb, nay flesh disguised as well, 
 
 Through his adventure. Whatsoe'er befell, 
 
 I followed, wheresoe'er it wound, that vein 
 
 You authorized should leave your whiteness, stain 
 
 Earth's sombre stretch beyond your midmost place 
 
 Of vantage, trode that tinct whereof the trace 
 
 On garb and flesh repel you ! Yes, I plead
 
 NUMPHOLEP mS. 551 
 
 Your own permission your command, indeed, 
 
 That who would worthily retain the lo\ e 
 
 Must share the knowledge shrined those eyes above, 
 
 Go boldly on adventure, break through bounds 
 
 O' the quintessential whiteness that surrounds 
 
 Your feet, obtain experience of each tinge 
 
 That bickers forth to broaden out, impinge 
 
 Plainer his foot its pathway all ; distinct 
 
 From every other. Ah, the wonder, linked 
 
 With fear, as exploration manifests 
 
 What agency it was first tipped the crests 
 
 Of unnamed wildflower, soon protruding grew 
 
 Portentous mid the sands, as when his hue 
 
 Betrays him and the burrowing snake gleams 
 
 through ; 
 
 Till, last . . but why parade more shame and pain ? 
 Are not the proofs upon me ? Here again 
 I pass into your presence, I receive 
 Your smile of pity, pardon, and I leave . . . 
 No, not this last of times I leave you, mute, 
 Submitted to my penance, so my foot
 
 55 2 NUMPHOLEPTOS. 
 
 May yet again adventure, tread, from source 
 To issue, one more ray of rays which course 
 Each other, at your bidding, from the sphere 
 Silver and sweet, their birthplace, down that drear 
 Dark of the world, you promise shall return 
 Your pilgrim jewelled as with drops o' the urn 
 The rainbow paints from, and no smatch at all 
 Of ghastliness at edge of some cloud-pall 
 Heaven cowers before, as earth awaits the fall 
 O' the bolt and flash of doom. \yho trusts youi 
 
 word 
 
 Tries the adventure : and returns absurd 
 As frightful in that sulphur-steeped disguise 
 Mocking the priestly cloth-of-gold, sole prize 
 The arch-heretic was wont to bear away 
 Until he reached the burning. No, I say: 
 No fresh adventure ! No more seeking love 
 At end of toil, and finding, calm above 
 My passion, the old statuesque regard, 
 The sad petrific smile !
 
 NUMPHOLEPTOS. "553 
 
 O you less hard 
 
 And hateful than mistaken and obtuse 
 Unreason of a she-intelligence ! 
 You very woman with the pert pretence 
 To match the male achievement ! Like enough ! 
 Ay, you were easy victors, did the rough 
 Straightway efface itself to smooth, the gruff 
 Grind down and grow a whisper, did man's truth 
 Subdue, for sake of chivalry and ruth, 
 Its rapier-edge to suit the bulrush-spear 
 Womanly falsehood fights with ! O that ear 
 All fact pricks rudely, that thrice-superfine 
 Feminity of sense, with right divine 
 To waive all process, take result stain-free 
 From out the very muck wherein . . . 
 
 Ah me ! 
 
 The true slave's' querulous outbreak ! All the rest 
 Be resignation ! Forth at your behest 
 I fare. Who knows but this the crimson-quest 
 May deepen to a sunrise, not decay 
 To that cold sad sweet smile ? which I obey.
 
 5 5 4 APPEAR A NCES. 
 
 APPEARANCES. 
 
 i. 
 
 AND so you found that poor room dull, 
 Dark, hardly to your taste, my dear? 
 
 Its features seemed unbeautiful : 
 
 But this I know 'twas there, not here, 
 
 You plighted troth to me, the word 
 
 Which ask that poor room how it heard. 
 
 2. 
 
 And this rich room obtains your praise 
 Unqualified so bright, so fair, 
 
 So all whereat perfection stays ? . 
 Ay, but remember here, not there, 
 
 The other word was spoken ! Ask 
 
 This rich room how you dropped the mask!
 
 r. MARTIN'S SUMMER. 555 
 
 ST. MARTIN'S SUMMER. 
 
 i. 
 
 No protesting, dearert ! 
 Hardly kisses even ! 
 
 Don't we both know how it ends. 
 How the greenest leaf turns searest, 
 Bluest outbreak blankest heaven, 
 "Lovers friends ? 
 
 2. 
 
 You would build a mansion, 
 I would weave a bower 
 
 Want the heart for enterprise. 
 Walls admit of no expansion : 
 Trellis-work may haply flower 
 Twice the size-
 
 ST. MARTIN'S SUMMER. 
 
 3- 
 
 What makes glad Life's Winter? 
 New buds, old blooms after. 
 
 Sad the sighing " How suspect 
 Beams would ere mid- Autumn splinter, 
 Rooftree scarce support a rafter, 
 Walls lie wrecked?" 
 
 4- 
 
 You are young, my princess ! 
 I am hardly older : 
 
 Yet I steal a glance behind ! 
 Dare I tell you what convinces 
 Timid me that you, if bolder, 
 Bold are blind ? 
 
 5- 
 
 Where we plan our dwelling 
 Glooms a graveyard surely ! 
 
 Headstone, footstone moss may drape,
 
 ST. MARTINIS SUMMER. 557 
 
 Name, date, violets hide from spelling, 
 But, though corpses rot obscurely, 
 Ghosts escape. 
 
 6. 
 
 Ghosts ! O breathing beauty, 
 Give my frank word pafion ! 
 
 What if I somehow, somewhere 
 Pledged my soul to endless duty 
 Many a time and oft? Be hard on 
 Love laid there ? 
 
 7- 
 
 Nay, blame grief that's fickle, 
 Time that proves a traitor, 
 
 Chance, change, all that purpose warps, 
 Death who spares to thrust the sickle 
 
 Laid Love low, through flowers which later 
 Shroud the corpse 1
 
 558 ST. MARTIN'S SUMMER. 
 
 8. 
 
 And you, my winsome lady, 
 Whisper me with like frankness ! 
 Lies nothing buried long ago ? 
 Are yon which shimmer mid the shady 
 Where moss and violet run to rankness - 
 Tombs or no? 
 
 9- 
 
 Who taxes you with murder? 
 
 My hands are clean or nearly! 
 
 Love being mortal needs must pass. 
 Repentance? Nothing were absurder. 
 Enough : we felt Love's loss severely ; 
 Though now alas ! 
 
 10. 
 
 Love's corpse lies quiet therefore, 
 Only Love's ghost plays truant, 
 
 And warns us have in wholesome awe
 
 ST. MARTINIS SUMMER. 559 
 
 Durable mansionry; that's wherefore 
 I weave but trellis-work, pursuant 
 Life, to law. 
 
 n. 
 
 The solid, not the fragile, 
 
 Tempts rain and hail and thunder. 
 
 If bower stand firm at Autumn's close, 
 Beyond my hope, why, boughs were agile; 
 If bower. fall flat, we scarce need wonder 
 Wreathing: rose ! 
 
 12. 
 
 So, truce to the protesting, 
 So, muffled be the kisses ! 
 
 For, would we but avow the truth, 
 Sober is genuine joy. No jesting I 
 Ask else Penelope, Ulysses 
 Old in youth !
 
 560 ST. MARTIN'S SUMMER. 
 
 For why should ghosts feel angered ? 
 Let all their interference 
 
 Be faint march-music in the air ! 
 " Up ! Join the rear of us the vanguard I 
 Up, lovers, dead to all appearance, 
 Laggard pair ! " 
 
 14. 
 
 The while you clasp me closer, 
 The while I press you deeper, 
 
 As safe we chuckle, under breath, * 
 Yet all the slyer, the jocoser, 
 
 "So, life can boast its day, like leap-year, 
 Stolen from death ! " 
 
 Ah me the sudden terror ! 
 
 Hence quick avaunt, avoid me, 
 
 You cheat, the ghostly flesh-disguised 1
 
 .ST. MARTTN'S SUMMER. 561 
 
 Nay, all the ghosts in one ! Strange error ! 
 
 So, 'twas Death's self that clipped and coyed me ! 
 Loved and lied ! 
 
 16. 
 
 Ay, dead loves are the potent ! 
 Like any cloud they used $DU, 
 
 Mere semblance you, but substance they I 
 Build we no mansion, weave we no tent! 
 Mere flesh their spirit interfused you! 
 Hence, I say ! 
 
 ; 17. 
 
 All theirs, none yours the glamour ! 
 Theirs each low word that won me, 
 
 Soft look that found me Love's, and left 
 What else but you the tears and clamor 
 That's all your very own ! Undone me 
 Ghost-bereft 1
 
 562 A FORGIVENESS. 
 
 A FORGIVENESS. 
 
 I AM indeed the personage you know. 
 As for my wife, what happened long ago 
 You have a right to question me, as I 
 Am bound to answer. 
 
 " Son, a fit reply ! " 
 The monk half spoke, half ground through his 
 
 clenched teeth, 
 At the confession-grate I knelt beneath. 
 
 Thus then all happened, Father! Power and place 
 I had as still I have. I ran life's race, 
 With the whole world to see, as only strains 
 His strength some athlete whose prodigious gains 
 Of good appall him : happy to excess, 
 Work freely done should balance happiness
 
 A FORGIVENESS. 563 
 
 Fully enjoyed ; and, since beneath my roof 
 
 Housed she who made home heaven, in heaven's 
 
 behoof 
 
 I went forth every day, and all day long 
 Worked for the world. Look, how the laborer's song 
 Cheers him ! Thus sang my soul, at each sharp 
 
 throe 
 Of laboring flesh and blood *' She loves me so ! " 
 
 One day, perhaps such song so knit the nerve 
 That work grew play and vanished. " I deserve 
 Haply my heaven an hour before the time ! " 
 
 
 
 I laughed, as silverly the clockhouse-chime 
 Surprised me passing through the postern-gate 
 Not the main entry where the menials wait 
 And wonder why the world's affairs allow 
 The master sudden leisure. That was how 
 I took the private garden-way for once. 
 
 Forth from the alcove, I saw start, ensconce 
 Himself behind the porphyry vase, a man.
 
 5 6 4 A FORGIVENESS. 
 
 My fancies in the natural order ran : 
 
 "A spy, perhaps a foe in ambuscade,- 
 
 A thief, more like, a sweetheart of some maid 
 
 Who pitched on the alcove for tryst perhaps " 
 
 " Stand there ! " I bid. 
 
 Whereat my man but wraps 
 His face the closelier with uplifted arm 
 Whereon the cloak lies, strikes in blind alarm 
 This and that pedestal as, stretch and stoop, 
 Now in, now out of sight, he thrids the group 
 Of statues, marble god and goddess ranged 
 Each side the pathway, till the gate's exchanged 
 For safety : one step thence, the street, you know 1 
 
 Thus far I followed my gaze. Then, slow, 
 Near on admiringly, I breathed again, 
 And back to that last fancy of the train 
 " A danger risked for hope of just a word 
 With which of all my nest may be the bird 
 This poacher covets for her plumage, pray?
 
 A FORGIVENESS. 565 
 
 Carmen ? Juana ? Carmen seems too gay 
 For such adventure, while Juana's grave 
 Would scorn the folly. I applaud the knave ! 
 He had the eye, could single from my brood 
 His proper fledgling ! " 
 
 As I turned, there stood 
 
 In face of me, my wife stone-still stone-white. 
 Whether one bound had brought her, at first sight 
 Of what she judged the encounter, sure to be 
 Next moment, of the venturous man and me, 
 Brought her to clutch and keep me from my prey ; 
 Whether impelled because her death no day 
 Could come so absolutely opportune 
 As now at joy's height, like a year in June 
 Stayed at the fall of its first ripened rose ; 
 Or whether hungry for my hate who knows ? 
 Eager to end an irksome lie, and taste 
 Our tingling true relation, hate embraced 
 By hate one naked moment : anyhow 
 There stone-still stone-white stood my wife, but now
 
 566 . A FORGIVENESS. 
 
 The woman who made heaven within my house. 
 Ay, she who faced me was my very spouse 
 As well as love you are to recollect ! 
 
 "Stay!" she said. "Keep at least one soul unspecked 
 
 With crime, that's spotless hitherto your own ! 
 
 Kill me who court the blessing, who alone 
 
 Was, am and shall be guilty, first to last ! 
 
 The man lay helpless in the toils I cast 
 
 About him, helpless as the statue there 
 
 Against that strangling bell-flower's bondage : tear 
 
 Away and tread to dust the parasite, 
 
 But do the passive marble no despite ! 
 
 I love him as I hate you. Kill me ! Strike 
 
 At one blow both infinitudes alike 
 
 Out of existence hate and love ! Whence love ? 
 
 That's safe inside my heart, nor will remove 
 
 For any searching of your steel, I think. 
 
 Whence hate ? The secret lay on lip, at brink 
 
 Of speech, in one fierce tremble to escape, 
 
 A-t every form wherein your love took shape,
 
 A FORGIVENESS. 567 
 
 At each new provocation of your kiss. 
 Kill me ! " 
 
 We went in. 
 
 Next day after this, 
 
 I felt as if the speech might come. I spoke 
 Easily, after all. 
 
 "The lifted cloak 
 
 Was screen sufficient : I concern myself 
 Hardly with laying hands on who for pelf 
 Whate'er the ignoble kind may prowl and brave 
 Cuffing and kicking proper to a knave 
 Detected by my household's vigilance. 
 Enough of such ! As for my love-romance 
 I, like our good Hidalgo, rub my eyes 
 And wake and wonder how the film could rise 
 Which changed for me a barber's basin straight 
 Into Mambrino's helm? I hesitate 
 Nowise to say God's sacramental cup 1
 
 568 A FORGIVENESS. 
 
 Why should I blame the brass which, burnished up. 
 
 Will blaze, to all but me, as good as gold ? 
 
 To me a warning I was overbold 
 
 In judging metals. The Hidalgo waked 
 
 Only to die, if I remember, staked 
 
 His life upon the basin's worth, and lost : 
 
 While I confess torpidity at most 
 
 In here and there a limb ; but, lame and halt, 
 
 Still should I work on, still repair iny fault 
 
 Ere I took rest in death, no fear at all ! 
 
 Now, work no word before the curtain fall ! " 
 
 The " curtain ? " That of death on life, I meant : 
 
 My " word " permissible in death's event, 
 
 Would be truth, soul to soul; for, otherwise, 
 
 Day by day, three years long, there had to rise 
 
 And, night by night, to fall upon our stage 
 
 Ours, doomed to public play by heritage 
 
 Another curtain, when the world, perforce 
 
 Our critical assembly, in due course 
 
 Came and went, witnessing, gave praise or blame 
 
 To art-mimetic. It had spoiled the game
 
 A FORGIVENESS. 569 
 
 If, suffered to set foot behind our scene, 
 
 The world had witnessed how stage-king and queen, 
 
 Gallant and lady, but a minute since 
 
 Enarming each the other, would evince 
 
 No sign of recognition as they took 
 
 His way and her way to whatever nook 
 
 Waited them in the darkness either side 
 
 Of that bright stage where lately groom and bride 
 
 Had fired the audience to a frenzy-fit 
 
 Of sympathetic rapture every whit 
 
 Earned as the curtain fell on her and me, 
 
 Actors. Three whole years, nothing was to see 
 
 But calm and concord : where a speech was due 
 
 There came the speech ; when smiles were wanted 
 
 too 
 
 Smiles were as ready. In a place like mine, 
 Where foreign and domestic cares combine, 
 There's audience every day and all day long; 
 But finally the last of the whole throng 
 Who linger lets one see his back. For her 
 Why, liberty and liking: I a T- er,
 
 A FORGIVENESS. 
 
 Liking and liberty ! For me I breathed, 
 Let my face rest from every wrinkle wreathed 
 Smile-like about the mouth, unlearned my task 
 Of personation till next day bade mask, 
 And quietly betook me from that world 
 To the real world, not pageant: there unfurled 
 In work, its wings, my soul, the fretted power. 
 Three years I worked, each minute of each hour 
 Not claimed by acting: work I may dispense 
 With talk about, since work in evidence, 
 Perhaps in history ; who knows or cares ? 
 
 After three years, this way, all unawares, 
 
 Our acting ended. She and I, at close 
 
 Of a loud night-feast, led, between two rows 
 
 Of bending male and female loyalty, 
 
 Our lord the king down staircase, while, held high 
 
 At arm's length did the twisted tapers' flare 
 
 Herald his passage from our palace where 
 
 Such visiting left glory evermore. 
 
 Again the ascent in public, till at door
 
 A FORGIVENESS. 571 
 
 As we two stood by the saloon now blank 
 And disencumbered of its guests there sank 
 A whisper in my ear, so low and yet 
 So unmistakable ! 
 
 " I half forget 
 
 The chamber you repair to, and I want 
 Occasion for one short word it you grant 
 That grace within a certain room you called 
 Our ' Study' for you wrote there while I scrawled 
 Some paper full of faces for my sport. 
 That room I can remember. Just one short 
 Word with you there, for the remembrance' sake ! " 
 
 " Follow me thither ! " I -eplied. 
 
 We break 
 
 The gloom a little, as with guiding lamp 
 I lead the way, leave warmth and cheer, by damp 
 Blind disused serpentining ways afar 
 From where the habitable chambers are,
 
 572 A FORGIVENESS. 
 
 Ascend, descend stairs tunnelled through the stone, 
 
 Always in silence, till I reach the lone 
 
 Chamber sepulchred for my very own 
 
 Out of the palace-quarry. When a boy, 
 
 Here was my fortress, stronghold from annoy, 
 
 Proof-positive of ownership ; in youth 
 
 I garnered up my gleanings here uncouth 
 
 But precious relics of vain hopes, vain fears; 
 
 Finally, this became in after years 
 
 My closet of intrenchment to withstand 
 
 Invasion of the foe on every hand 
 
 The multifarious herd in bower and hall, 
 
 State-room, rooms whatsoe'er the style, which call 
 
 On masters to be mindful that, before 
 
 Men, they must look like men and something more. 
 
 Here, when our lord the king's bestowment ceased 
 
 To deck me on the day that, golden-fleeced, 
 
 I touched ambition's height, 'twas here, released 
 
 From glory (always symbolled by a chain !) 
 
 No sooner was I privileged to gain 
 
 My secret domicile than glad I flung
 
 A FORGIVENESS. 573 
 
 
 
 That last toy on the table gazed where hung 
 
 On hook my father's gift, the arquebuss 
 
 And asked myself " Shall I envisage thus 
 
 The new prize and the old prize, when I reach 
 
 Another year's experience? own that each 
 
 Equalled advantage sportsman's statesman's tool? 
 
 That brought me down an eagle, this a fool ! " 
 
 
 . \ 
 
 Into which room on entry, I set down 
 The lamp, and turning saw whose rustled gown 
 Had told me my wife followed, pace for pace. 
 Each of us looked the other in the face, 
 She spoke. " Since I could die now ..." 
 
 (To explain 
 
 Why that first struck me, know not once again 
 Since the adventure at the porphyry's edge 
 Three years before, which sundered like a wedge 
 Her soul from mine, though daily, smile to smile, 
 We stood before the public, all the while 
 Not once had I distinguished, in that tace
 
 t;74 A FORGIVENESS. 
 
 I paid observance to, the faintest trace 
 
 Of feature more than requisite for eyes 
 
 To do their duty by and recognize : 
 
 So did I force mine to obey my will 
 
 And pry no further. There exists such skill, 
 
 Those know who need it. What physician shrinks 
 
 From needful contact with a corpse? He drinks 
 
 No plague so long as thirst for knowledge, not 
 
 An idler impulse, prompts inquiry. What, 
 
 And will you disbelieve in power to bid 
 
 Our spirit back to bounds, as though we chid 
 
 A child from scrutiny that's just and right 
 
 In manhood? Sense, not soul, accomplished sight, 
 
 Reported daily she it was not how 
 
 Nor why a change had come to cheek and brow.) 
 
 " Since I could die now of the truth concealed, 
 Yet dare not, must not die, so seems revealed 
 The Virgin's mind to me, for death means peace, 
 Wherein no lawful part have I, whose lease 
 Of life and punishment the truth avowed
 
 A FORGIVENESS. 575 
 
 May haply lengthen, let me push the shroud 
 
 Away, that steals to muffle ere is just 
 
 My penance-fire in snow ! I dare I must 
 
 Live, by avowal of the truth this truth 
 
 I loved you! Thanks for the fresh serpent's tooth 
 
 That, by a prompt new pang more exquisite 
 
 Than all preceding torture, proves me right ! 
 
 I loved you yet I lost you! lAay I go 
 
 Burn to the ashes, now my shame you know?" 
 
 I think there never was such how express ? 
 
 Horror coquetting with voluptuousness, 
 
 As in those arms of Eastern workmanship 
 
 Yataghan, kandjar, things that rend and rip, 
 
 Gash rough, slash smooth, help hate so many ways, 
 
 Yet ever keep a beauty that betrays 
 
 Love still at work with the artificer 
 
 Throughout his quaint devising. Why prefer, 
 
 Except for love's sake, that a blade should writhe 
 
 And bicker like a flame ? now play the scythe 
 
 .As if some broad neck tempted, now contract
 
 576 
 
 A FORGIVENESS. 
 
 And needle off into a fineness lacked 
 
 For just that puncture which the heart demands? 
 
 Then, such adornment ! Wherefore need our hands 
 
 Enclose not ivory alone, nor gold 
 
 Roughened for use, but jewels ? Nay, behold ! 
 
 Fancy my favorite which I seem to grasp 
 
 While I describe the luxury. No asp 
 
 Is diapered more delicate round throat 
 
 Than this below the handle ! These denote 
 
 These mazy lines meandering, to end 
 
 Only in flesh they open what intend 
 
 They else but water-purlings pale contrast 
 
 With the life-crimson where they blend at last ? 
 
 And mark the handle's dim pellucid green, 
 
 Carved, the hard jadestone, as you pinch a bean, 
 
 Into a sort of parrot-bird ! He pecks 
 
 A grape-bunch ; his two eyes are ruby-specks 
 
 Pure from the mine : seen this way, glassy blank 
 
 But turn them, lo the inmost fire, that shrank 
 
 From sparkling, sends a red dart right to am! 
 
 Why did I choose such toys ? Perhaps the game
 
 A FORGIVENESS. 577 
 
 Of peaceful men is warlike, just as men 
 War-wearied get amusement from that pen 
 And paper we grow sick of statesfolk tired 
 Of merely (when such measures are required) 
 Dealing out doom to people by three words, 
 A signature and seal : we play with swords 
 Suggestive of quick process. That is how 
 I came to like the toys described you now, 
 Store of which glittered on the walls and strewed 
 The table, even, while my wife pursued 
 Her purpose to its ending. "Now you know 
 This shame, my three years' torture, let me go, 
 Burn to the very ashes ! You I lost, 
 Yet you I loved ! " 
 
 The thing I pity most 
 In men is action prompted by surprise 
 Of anger: men? nay, bulls whose onset lies 
 At instance of the firework and the goad ! 
 Once the foe prostrate, trampling once bestowed, 
 Prompt follows placability, regret.
 
 578 A FORGIVENESS. 
 
 Atonement. Trust me, blood-warmth never yet 
 
 Betokened strong will ! As no leap of pulse 
 
 Pricked me, that first time, so did none convulse 
 
 My veins at this occasion for resolve. 
 
 Had that devolved which did not then devolve 
 
 Upon me, I had done what now to do 
 
 Was quietly apparent. 
 
 "Tell me who 
 
 The man was, crouching by the porphyry vase!" 
 " No, never ! All was folly in his case, 
 All guilt in mine. I tempted, he complied." 
 
 "And yet you loved me?" 
 
 "Loved you. Double-dyed 
 In folly and in guilt, I thought you gave 
 Your heart and soul away from me to slave 
 At statecraft. Since my right in you seemed lost, 
 I stung myself to teach you, to your cost, 
 What you rejected could be prized beyond
 
 A FORGIVENESS. 579 
 
 Life, heaven, by the first fool I threw a fond 
 Look on, a fatal word to." 
 
 "And you still/ 
 
 Love me ? Do I conjecture well or ill ? " 
 "Conjecture well or ill! I had three years 
 To spend in learning you." 
 
 "We both are peers 
 
 In knowledge, therefore : since three years are spent 
 Ere thus much of yourself I learn who went 
 Back to the house, that day, and brought my mind 
 To bear upon your action, uncombined 
 Motive from motive, till the dross, deprived 
 Of every purer particle, survived 
 At last in native simple hideousness, 
 Utter contemptibility, nor less 
 Nor more. Contemptibility exempt 
 How could I, from its proper due contempt ? 
 I have too much despised you to divert 
 My life from its set course by help or hurt
 
 580 A FORGIVENESS. 
 
 Of your all-despicable life perturb 
 
 The calm I work in, by men's mouth to curb, 
 
 Which at such news were clamorous enough 
 
 Men's eyes to shut before my broidered stuff 
 
 With the huge hole there, my emblazoned wall 
 
 Blank where a scutcheon hung, by, worse than all, 
 
 Each day's procession, my paraded life 
 
 Robbed and impoverished through the wanting wife 
 
 Now that my life (which means my work) was 
 
 grown 
 
 Riches indeed ! Once, just this worth alone 
 Seemed work to have, that profit gained thereby 
 Of good and praise would how rewardingly ! 
 Fall at your feet, a crown I hoped to cast 
 Before your love, my love should crown at last. 
 No love remaining to cast crown before, 
 My love stopped work now : but contempt the more 
 Impelled me task as ever head and hand, 
 Because the very fiends weave ropes of sand 
 Rather than taste pure hell in idleness. 
 Therefore I kept my memory down by stress
 
 A FORGIVENESS. 5&* 
 
 Of daily work I had no mind to stay 
 
 For the world's wonder at the wife away. 
 
 Oh, it was easy all of it, believe, 
 
 For I despised you ! But your words retrieve 
 
 Importantly the past. No hate assumed 
 
 The mask of love at any time ! There gloomed 
 
 A moment when love took hate's semblance, urged 
 
 By causes you declare ; but love's self purged 
 
 Away a fancied wrong I did both loves 
 
 Yours and my own : by no hate's help, it proves, 
 
 Purgation was attempted. Then, you rise 
 
 High by how many a g^ade ! I did despise 
 
 I do but hate you. Let hate's punishment 
 
 Replace contempt's! First step to which ascent 
 
 Write down your own words I re-utter you ! 
 
 '/ loved my husband and I hated who 
 
 He was, I took up as my first chance, mere 
 
 Mud-ball to fling and make love foul with}' Here 
 
 Lies paper ! " 
 
 "Would my blood for ink suffice!"
 
 582 A FORGIVENESS. 
 
 <( It may : this minion from a land of spice, 
 Silk, feather every bird of jewelled breast 
 This poniard's beauty, ne'er so lightly prest 
 Above your heart there . ." 
 
 " Thus ? " 
 
 " It flows, I see 
 Dip there the point and write ! " 
 
 " Dictate to me ! 
 Nay, I remember." 
 
 And she wrote the words. 
 
 I read them. Then "Since love, in you, affords 
 License for hate, in me, to quench (I say) 
 Contempt why, hate itself has passed away 
 In vengeance foreign to contempt. Depart 
 Peacefully to that death which Eastern art 
 Imbued this weapon with, if tales be true 1 
 Love will succeed to hate. I pardon you 
 Dead in our chamber ! "
 
 A FORGIVENESS. 583 
 
 True as truth the tale. 
 
 She died ere morning; then, I saw how pale 
 Her cheek was ere it wore day's paint-disguise, 
 And what a hollow darkened 'neath her eyes, 
 Now that I used my own. She sleeps, as erst 
 Beloved, in this your church : ay, yours ! 
 
 Immersed 
 
 In thought so deeply, Father? Sad, perhaps? 
 For whose sake, hers or mine or his who wraps 
 Still plain I seem to see ! about his head 
 The idle cloak, about his heart (instead 
 Of cuirass) some fond hope he may elude 
 My vengeance in the cloister's solitude ? 
 Hardly, I think! As little helped his brow 
 The cloak then, Father as your grate helps now !
 
 584 CENCIAJA. 
 
 CENCIAJA. 
 
 Ogni cencio vuol entrare in bucato. Italian Proverb. 
 
 MAY I print, Shelley, how it came to pass 
 
 That when your Beatrice seemed by lapse 
 
 Of many a long month since her sentence fell 
 
 Assured of pardon for the parricide, 
 
 By intercession of stanch friends, or, say, 
 
 By certain pricks of conscience in the Pope 
 
 Conniver at Francesco Cenci's guilt, 
 
 Suddenly all things changed and Clement grew 
 
 "Stern," as you state, ^" nor to be moved nor -bent 
 
 But said these three words coldly ' She must die; ' 
 
 Subjoining ' Pardon ? Paolo Santa Croce 
 
 Murdered his mother also yestcreve, 
 
 And he is fled : she shall not flee at least/' 
 
 So, to the letter, sentence was fulfilled?
 
 CENCIAJA. 585 
 
 Shelley, may I condense verbosity 
 
 That lies before me, into some few words 
 
 Of English, and illustrate your superb 
 
 Achievement by a rescued anecdote, 
 
 No great things, only new and true beside ? 
 
 As if some mere familiar of a house 
 
 Should venture to accost the group at gaze 
 
 Before its Titian, famed the wide world through, 
 
 And supplement such pictured masterpiece 
 
 By whisper " Searching in the archives here, 
 
 I found the reason of the Lady's fate, 
 
 And how by accident it came to pass 
 
 She wears the halo and displays the palm : 
 
 Who, haply, else had never suffered no, 
 
 Nor graced our gallery, by consequence." 
 
 Who loved the work would like the little news 
 
 Who lauds your poem lends an ear to me 
 
 Relating how the penalty was paid 
 
 By one Marchese dell' Oriolo, called 
 
 Onofrio Santa Croce otherwise, 
 
 For his complicity in matricide
 
 586 CENCIAJA. 
 
 With Paolo his own brother, he whose crime 
 And flight induced " those three words She must 
 
 die." 
 Thus I unroll you then the manuscript. 
 
 " God's justice " (of the multiplicity 
 Of such communications extant still, 
 Recording, each, injustice done by God 
 In person of his Vicar-upon-earth, 
 Scarce one but leads off to the self-same tune) 
 " God's justice, tardy though it prove perchance, 
 Rests never on the track until it reach 
 Delinquency. In proof I cite the case 
 Of Paolo Santa Croce." 
 
 Many times 
 
 The youngster, having been importunate 
 That Marchesine Costanza, who remained 
 His widowed mother, should supplant the heir 
 Her elder son, and substitute himself 
 In sole possession of her faculty,
 
 CENCIAJA. 587 
 
 And meeting just as often with rebuff, 
 Blinded by so exorbitant a lust 
 Of gold, the youngster straightway tasked his wits, 
 Casting about to kill the lady thus. 
 
 He first, to cover his iniquity, 
 Writes to Onofrio Santa Croce, then 
 Authoritative lord, acquainting him 
 Their mother was contamination wrought 
 Like hell-fire in the beauty of their House 
 By dissoluteness and abandonment 
 Of soul and body to impure delight. 
 Moreover, since she suffered from disease, 
 Those symptoms which her death made manifest 
 Hydroptic, he affirmed were fruits of sin 
 About to bring confusion and disgrace 
 Upon the ancient lineage and high fame 
 O' the family, when published. Duty bound, 
 He asked his brother what a son should do ? 
 
 Which when Marchese dell' Oriolo heard
 
 588 CENCIAJA. 
 
 By letter, being absent at his land 
 
 Oriolo, he made answer, this, no more 
 
 "It must behoove a son, things haply so, 
 
 To act as honor prompts a cavalier 
 
 And son, perform his duty to all three, 
 
 Mother and brothers" here advice broke off. 
 
 By which advice informed and fortified 
 As he professed himself the bound by birth 
 To hear God's voice in primogeniture 
 Paolo, who kept his mother company 
 In her domain Subiaco, straightway dared 
 His whole enormity of enterprise 
 And, falling on her, stabbed the lady dead ; 
 Whose death demonstrated her innocence, 
 And happened, by the way, since Jesus Christ 
 Died to save man, just sixteen hundred years. 
 Costanza was of aspect beautiful 
 Exceedingly, and seemed, although in age 
 Sixty about, to far surpass her peers 
 The coetaneous dames, in youth and grace.
 
 CENCIAJA. 589 
 
 Done the misdeed, its author takes to flight, 
 Foiling thereby the justice of the world : 
 Not God's however, God, be sure, knows well 
 The way to clutch a culprit. Witness here ! 
 The present sinner, when he least expects, 
 Snug-cornered somewhere i' the Basilicate, 
 Stumbles upon his death by violence. 
 A man of blood assaults the man of blood 
 And slays him somehow. This was afterward : 
 Enough, he promptly met with his deserts, 
 And, ending thus, permits we end with him, 
 And push forthwith to this important point 
 His matricide fell out, of all the days, 
 Precisely when the law-procedure closed 
 Respecting Count Francesco Cenci's death 
 Chargeable on his daughter, sons and wife. 
 ''Thus patricide was matched with matricide," 
 A poet not inelegantly rhymed : 
 Nay, fratricide those Princes Massimi ! 
 Which so disturbed the spirit of the Pope 
 That all the likelihood Rome entertained
 
 59 CENCIAJA. 
 
 Of Beatrice's pardon vanished straight, 
 And she endured the piteous death. 
 
 Now see 
 
 The sequel what effect commandment had 
 For strict inquiry into this last case, 
 When Cardinal Aldobrandini (great 
 His efficacy nephew to the Pope!) 
 Was bidden crush ay, though his very hand 
 Got soil i' the act crime spawning everywhere ! 
 Because, when all endeavor had been used 
 To catch the aforesaid Paolo, all in vain 
 "Make perquisition" quoth our Eminence, 
 " Throughout his now deserted domicile ! 
 Ransack the palace, roof and floor, to find 
 If haply any scrap of writing, hid 
 In nook or corner, may convict who knows?- 
 Brother Onofrio of intelligence 
 With brother Paolo, as in brotherhood 
 Is but too likely : crime spawns everywhere ! "
 
 CENCIAJA. 591 
 
 And, every cranny searched accordingly, 
 There comes to light O lynx-eyed Cardinal ! 
 Onofrio's unconsidered writing-scrap, 
 The letter in reply to Paolo's prayer, 
 The word of counsel that things proving so, 
 Paolo should act the proper knightly part, 
 And do as was incumbent on a son, 
 A brother and a man of birth, be sure ! 
 
 Whereat immediately the officers 
 Proceeded to arrest Onofrio found 
 At foot-ball, child's play, unaware of harm, 
 Safe with his friends, the Orsini, at their seat 
 Monte Giordano ; as he left the house 
 He came upon the watch in wait for him 
 Set by the Barigel, was caught and caged. 
 
 News of which capture being, that same hour, 
 Conveyed to Rome, forthwith our Eminence 
 Commands Taverna, Governor and Judge, 
 To have the process in especial care,
 
 59 2 CENCIAJA. 
 
 Be, first to last, not only president 
 
 In person, but inquisitor as well, 
 
 Nor trust the by-work to a substitute: 
 
 Bids him not, squeamish, keep the bench, but scrub 
 
 The floor of Justice, so to speak, go^ try 
 
 His best in prison with the criminal ; 
 
 Promising, as reward for by-work done 
 
 Fairly on all-fours, that, success obtained 
 
 And crime avowed, or such connivancy 
 
 With crime as should procure a decent death 
 
 Himself will humbly beg which means, procure 
 
 The Hat and Purple from his relative 
 
 The Pope, and so repay a diligence 
 
 Which, meritorious in the Cenci-case, 
 
 Mounts plainly here to Purple and the Hat 1 
 
 Whereupon did my lord the Governor 
 So masterfully exercise the task 
 Enjoined him, that he, day by day, and week 
 By week, and month by month, from first to last 
 Deserved the prize : now, punctual at his place,
 
 CENCIAJA. 593 
 
 Played Judge, and now, assiduous at his post, 
 Inquisitor pressed cushion and scoured plank, 
 Early and late. Noon's fervor and night's chill, 
 Nought moved whom morn would, purpling, make 
 
 amends ! 
 
 So that observers laughed as, many a day, 
 He left home, in July when day is flame, 
 Posted to Tordinona-prison, plunged 
 Into the vault where daylong night is ice, 
 There passed his eight hours on a stretch, content, 
 Examining Onofrio : all the stress 
 Of all examination steadily 
 Converging into one pin-point, he pushed 
 Tentative now of head and now of heart. 
 As when the nuthatch taps and tries the nut 
 This side and that side till the kernel sound, 
 So did he press the sole and single point 
 What was the very meaning of the phrase 
 ' Do what beseems an honored cavalier ? ' 
 
 Which one persistent question-torture, plied
 
 594 CENCIAJA. 
 
 Day by day, week by week, and month by month, 
 Morn, noon and night, fatigued away a mind 
 Grown imbecile by darkness, solitude, 
 And one vivacious memory gnawing there 
 As when a corpse is coffined with a snake : 
 
 Fatigued Onofrio into what might seem 
 Admission that perchance his judgment groped 
 So blindly, feeling for an issue aught 
 
 With semblance of an issue from the toils 
 Cast of a sudden round feet late so free, 
 He possibly might have envisaged, scarce 
 Recoiled from even were the issue death 
 
 Even her death whose life was death and worse ! 
 Always provided that the charge of crime, 
 
 Each jot and tittle of the charge were true. 
 In such a sense, belike, he might advise 
 His brother to expurgate crime with . . well, 
 With blood, if blood must follow on ' the course 
 Taken as might beseem a cavalier? 
 
 Whereupon process ended, and report
 
 CENCIAJA. 595 
 
 Was made without a minute of delay 
 To Clement who, because of those two crimes 
 O' the Massitni and 'Cenci flagrant late, 
 Must needs impatiently desire result. 
 
 Result obtained, he bade the Governor 
 Summon the Congregation and despatch. 
 Summons made, sentence passed accordingly 
 Death by beheading. When his death-decree 
 Was intimated to Onofrio, all 
 Man could do that did he to save himself. 
 'Twas much, the having gained for his defence 
 The Advocate o' the Poor, with natural help 
 Of many noble friendly persons fain 
 To disengage a man of family, 
 So young too, from his grim entanglement. 
 But Cardinal Aldobrandini ruled 
 There must be no diversion of the law. 
 Justice is justice, and the magistrate 
 Bears not the sword in vain. Who sins must die.
 
 596 CENCIAJA. 
 
 So, the Marchese had his head cut off 
 In Place Saint Angelo beside the Bridge, 
 With Rome to see, a concourse infinite ; 
 Where, demonstrating magnanimity 
 Adequate to his birth and breed, poor boy ! 
 He made the people the accustomed speech, 
 Exhorted them to true faith, honest works, 
 And special good behavior as regards 
 A parent of no matter what the sex, 
 Bidding each son take warning from himself. 
 Truly, it was considered in the boy 
 Stark staring lunacy, no less, to snap 
 So plain a bait, be hooked and hauled a-shore 
 By such an angler as the Cardinal! 
 Why make confession of his privity 
 To Paolo's enterprise ? Mere sealing lips 
 Or, better, saying "When I counselled him 
 ' To do as might beseem a cavalier] 
 What could I mean but ' Hide our parent's shame 
 As Christian ought, by aid of Holy Church I 
 Bury it in a convent ay, beneath
 
 CENCIAJA. 597 
 
 Enough dotation to prevent its ghost 
 
 From troubling earth / ' ' Mere saying thus, 'tis 
 
 plain, 
 
 Not only were his life the recompense, 
 But he had manifestly proved himself 
 True Christian, and in lieu of punishment 
 Been praised of all men ! So the populace. 
 
 Anyhow, when the Pope made promise good 
 (That of Aldobrandini, near and dear) 
 And gave Taverna, who had toiled so much, 
 A Cardinal's equipment, some such word 
 As this from mouth to ear went saucily: 
 " Taverna's cap is dyed in what he drew 
 From Santa Croce's veins ! " So joked the world. 
 
 I add : Onofrio left one child behind, 
 A daughter named Valeria, dowered with grace 
 Abundantly of soul and body, doomed 
 To life the shorter for her father's fate. 
 By death of her, the Marquisate returned
 
 598 CENCIAJA. 
 
 To that Orsini House from whence it came : 
 Oriolo having passed as donative 
 To Santa Croce from their ancestors. 
 
 And no word more ? By all means ! Would you 
 
 know 
 
 The authoritative answer, when folks urged 
 "What made Aldobrandini, hound-like stanch, 
 Hunt out of life a harmless simpleton ? " 
 The answer was " Hatred implacable, 
 By reason they were rivals in their love." 
 The Cardinal's desire was to a dame 
 Whose favor was Onofrio's. Pricked with pride, 
 The simpleton must ostentatiously 
 Display a ring, the Cardinal's love-gift, 
 Given to Onofrio as the lady's gage ; 
 Which ring on finger, as he put forth hand 
 To draw a tapestry, the Cardinal 
 Saw and knew, gift and owner, old and young ; 
 Whereon a tury entered him the fire 
 He quenched with what could quench fire only 
 blood.
 
 CENCIAJA. 599 
 
 Nay, more : " there want not who affirm to boot, 
 
 The unwise boy, a certain festal eve, 
 
 Feigned ignorance of who the wight might be 
 
 That pressed too closely on him with a crowd, 
 
 And struck the Cardinal a blow : and then, 
 
 To put a face upon the incident, 
 
 Dared next day, smug as ever, go pay court 
 
 I' the Cardinal's antechamber. Mark and mend, 
 
 Ye youth, by this example how may greed 
 
 Vainglorious operate in worldly souls ! " 
 
 So ends the chronicler, beginning with 
 " God's justice, tardy though it prove perchance, 
 Rests never till it reach delinquency." 
 Ay, or how otherwise had come to pass 
 That Victor rules this present year, in Rome ?
 
 600 FILIPPO BALDINUCCI 
 
 FILIPPO BALDINUCCI ON THE PRIVI- 
 LEGE OF BURIAL. 
 
 A Reminiscence of A.D. 1676. 
 
 i. 
 "No, boy, we must not" so began 
 
 My Uncle (he's with God long since) 
 A-petting me, the good old man ! 
 
 " We must not " and he seemed to wince, 
 And lost that laugh whereto had grown 
 
 His chuckle at my piece of news, 
 How cleverly I aimed my stone 
 
 " I fear we must not pelt the Jews ! 
 
 2. 
 
 " When I was young indeed, ah, faith 
 
 % 
 
 Was young and strong in Florence too ! 
 We Christians never dreamed of scathe 
 Because we cursed or kicked the crew.
 
 ON THE PRIVILEGE OF BURIAL. 60 1 
 
 But now well, well ! The olive-crops 
 Weighed double then, and Arno's pranks 
 
 Would always spare religious shops 
 Whenever he o'erflowed his banks I 
 
 3- 
 " I'll tell you " and his eye regained 
 
 Its twinkle " tell you something choice I 
 Something may help you keep unstained 
 
 Your honest zeal to stop the voice 
 Of unbelief with stone-throw spite 
 
 Of laws, which modern fools enact, 
 That we must suffer Jews in sight 
 
 Go wholly unmolested 1 Fact 1 
 
 4- 
 
 "There was, then, in my youth, and yet 
 
 Is, by San Frediano, just 
 Below the Blessed Olivet, 
 
 A wayside ground wherein they thrust
 
 602 FIL1PPO BALDINUCCI 
 
 Their dead, these Jews, the more our shame 
 
 Except that, so they will but die, 
 We may perchance incur no blame 
 
 In giving hogs a hoist to sty. 
 
 5- 
 "There, anyhow, Jews stow away 
 
 Their dead ; and, such their insolence, 
 Slink at odd times to sing and pray 
 
 As Christians do all make-pretence 1 
 Which wickedness they perpetrate 
 
 Because they think no Christians see. 
 They reckoned here, at any rate, 
 
 Without their host : ha, ha, he, he ! 
 
 6. 
 
 "For, what should join their plot of ground 
 But ai good Farmer's Christian field? 
 
 The Jews had hedged their corner round 
 With bramble-bush to keep concealed
 
 ON THE PRIVILEGE OF BURIAL. 603 
 
 Their doings : for the public road 
 
 Ran betwixt this their ground and that 
 
 The Farmer's, where he ploughed and sowed, 
 Grew corn for barn and grapes for vat. 
 
 7- 
 
 " So, properly to guard his store 
 
 And gall the unbelievers too, 
 He builds a shrine and, what is more, 
 
 Procures a painter whom I knew, 
 One Buti (he's with God) to paint 
 
 A holy picture there no- less 
 Than Virgin Mary free from taint 
 
 Borne to the sky by angels : yes I 
 
 8. 
 
 "Which shrine he fixed, who says him nay? 
 
 A-facing with its picture-side 
 Not, as you'd think, the public way, 
 
 But just where sought these hounds to hide
 
 604 FILIPPO BALDINUCCI 
 
 Their carrion from that very truth 
 Of Mary's triumph : not a hound 
 
 Could act his mummeries uncouth 
 
 But Mary shamed the pack all round ! 
 
 9- 
 
 " Now, if it was amusing, judge ! 
 
 To see the company arrive, 
 Each Jew intent to end his trudge 
 
 And take his pleasure (though alive) 
 With all his Jewish kith and kin 
 
 Below ground, have his venom out, 
 Sharpen his wits for next day's sin, 
 
 Curse Christians, and so home, no doubt ! 
 
 10. 
 
 "Whereas, each phiz upturned beholds 
 Mary, I warrant, soaring brave ! 
 
 And in a trice, beneath the folds 
 
 Of filthy garb which gowns each knave,
 
 ON THE PRIVILEGE OF BURIAL. 605 
 
 Down drops it there to hide grimace, 
 Contortion of the mouth and nose 
 
 At finding Mar) 7 in the place 
 They'd keep for Pilate, I suppose I 
 
 n. 
 
 "At last, they will not brook not they! 
 
 Longer such outrage on their tribe : 
 So, in some hole and corner, lay 
 
 Their heads together how to bribe 
 The meritorious Farmer's self 
 
 To straight undo his work, restore 
 Their chance to meet, and muse on pelf 
 
 Pretending sorrow, as before ! 
 
 12. 
 
 " Forthwith, a posse, if you please, 
 Of Rabbi This and Rabbi That 
 
 Almost go down upon their knees 
 To get him lay the picture flat.
 
 606 FILIPPO BALDINUCCI 
 
 The spokesman, eighty years of age, 
 Gray as a badger, with a goat's 
 
 Not only beard but bleat, 'gins wage 
 War with our Mary. Thus he dotes : 
 
 "'Friends, grant a grace I How Hebrews toil 
 
 Through life in Florence why relate 
 To those who lay the burden, spoil 
 
 Our paths of peace ? We bear our fate. 
 But when with life the long toil ends, 
 
 Why must you the expression craves 
 Pardon, but truth compels me, friends ! 
 
 Why must you plague us in our graves 1 
 
 14. 
 
 "'Thoughtlessly plague, I would believe! 
 
 For how can you the lords of ease 
 By nurture, birthright Jen conceive 
 
 Our luxury to lie with trees
 
 ON THE PRIVILEGE OF BURIAL. 60 / 
 
 And turf, the cricket and the bird 
 
 Left for our last companionship: 
 No harsh deed, no unkindly word, 
 
 No frowning brow nor scornful lip I 
 
 " 'Death's luxury, we now rehearse 
 
 While, living, through your streets we fare 
 And take you*- hatred: nothing worse 
 
 Have we, once dead and safe, to bear ! 
 So we refresh our souls, fulfil 
 
 Our works, our daily tasks ; and thus 
 Gather you grain earth's harvest still 
 
 The wheat for you, the straw for us. 
 
 16. 
 
 ""What flouting in a face, what harm, 
 
 In just a lady borne aloft 
 By boys' heads, wings for leg and arm ? ' 
 
 You question. Friends, the harm is here'
 
 6o8 FILIPPO BALDINUCCI 
 
 That just when our last sigh is heaved, 
 And we would fain thank God and you 
 
 For labor done and peace achieved, 
 Back comes the Past in full review I 
 
 "' At sight of just that simple flag, 
 
 Starts the foe-feeling serpent-like 
 From slumber. Leave it lulled, nor drag 
 
 Though fangless forth, what needs must strike 
 When stricken sore, though stroke be vain 
 
 Against the mailed oppressor I Give 
 Play to our fancy that we gain 
 
 Lifers rights when once we cease to live! 
 
 18. 
 
 " ' Thus much to courtesy, to kind, 
 To conscience! Now to Florence folk! 
 Therms core beneath this apple-rind, 
 Beneath this white-of-egg there's yolk I
 
 ON THE PRIVILEGE OF BURIAL. 609 
 
 Beneath this prayer to courtesy, 
 
 Kind, conscience there's a sum to pouch! 
 How many ducats down will buy 
 
 Our shame's removal, sirs ? Avouch ! 
 
 19. 
 
 " ' Removal, not destruction, sirs I 
 
 yust turn your picture / Let it front 
 The public path I Or memory errs, 
 
 Or that same public path is wont 
 To witness many a chance befall 
 
 Of lust, theft, bloodshed sins enough, 
 Wherein our Hebrew part is small. 
 
 Convert yourselves /' he cut up rough. 
 
 20. 
 
 "Look you, how soon a service paid 
 
 Religion yields the servant fruit ! 
 A prompt reply our Farmer made 
 
 So following : ' Sirs, to grant your suit
 
 FILIPPO BALDINUCCI 
 
 Involve* much danger! How? Transpose 
 Our Lady ? Stop the chastisement, 
 
 All for your good, herself bestows ? 
 What wonder if I grudge consent ? 
 
 21. 
 
 " * Yet grant it : since, what cash I take 
 
 Is so much saved from wicked use. 
 We know you I And, for Mary's sake, 
 
 A hundred ducats sli&ll induce 
 Concession to your prayer. One day 
 
 Suffices : Master Butt's brush 
 Turns Mary round the other way, 
 
 And deluges your side with slush. 
 
 22. 
 
 "'JDown with the ducats therefore I' Dump, 
 Dump, dump it falls, each counted piece, 
 
 Hard gold. Then out of door they stump, 
 These dogs, each brisk as with new lease
 
 ON THE PRIVILEGE OF BURIAL. CTI 
 
 Of life, I warrant, glad he'll die 
 Hencefonvard just as he may choose, 
 
 Be buried and in clover lie ! 
 
 Well said Esaias ' stiff-necked Jews!' 
 
 23- 
 "Off posts without a minute's loss 
 
 Our Farmer, once the cash in poke, 
 And summons Buti ere its gloss 
 
 Have time to fade from off the joke 
 To chop and change his work, undo 
 
 The done side, make the side, f now blank, 
 Recipient of our Lady who, 
 
 Displaced thus, had these dogs to thank I 
 
 24. 
 
 "Now, boy, you're hardly to instruct 
 
 In technicalities of Art ! 
 My nephew's childhood sure has sucked 
 
 Along with mother's-milk some part
 
 6i2 FILIPPO BALDINUCCI 
 
 Of painter's-practice learned, at least, 
 
 How expeditiously is plied 
 A work in fresco never ceased 
 
 When once begun a day, each side 
 
 25- 
 "So, Buti (he's with God) begins: 
 
 First covers up the shrine all round 
 With hoarding; then, as like as twins, 
 
 Paints, t'other side the burial-ground, 
 New Mary, every point the same; 
 
 Next, sluices over, as agreed, 
 The old; and last but, spoil the game 
 
 By telling you ? Not I, indeed ! 
 
 26. 
 
 "Well, ere the week was half at end, 
 Out came the object of this zeal, 
 
 This fine alacrity to spend 
 
 Hard money for mere dead men's weal!
 
 ON THE PRIVILEGE OF BURIAL. 613 
 
 How think you ? That old spokesman Jew 
 Was High Priest, and he had a wife 
 
 As old, and she was dying too, 
 
 And wished to end in peace her life ! 
 
 27. 
 
 " And he must humor dying whims, 
 
 And soothe her with the idle hope 
 They'd say their prayers and sing their hymns 
 
 As if her husband were the Pope! 
 And she did die believing just 
 
 This privilege was purchased ! Dead 
 In comfort through her foolish trust 1 
 
 * Stiff-necked ones,' well Esaias said 1 
 
 28. 
 
 "So, Sabbath morning, out of gate 
 And on to way, what sees our arch 
 
 Good Farmer ? Why, they hoist their freight 
 The corpse on shoulder, and so, march !
 
 6 14 FILIPPO BALDINUCCI 
 
 ' Now for it, Buti!' In the nick 
 Of time 'tis pully-hauly, hence 
 
 With hoarding! O'er the wayside -quick 
 There's Mary plain in evidence ! 
 
 29. 
 
 "And here's the convoy halting: right 1 
 
 O they are bent on howling psalms 
 And growling prayers, when opposite ! 
 
 And yet they glance, for all their qualms, 
 Approve that promptitude of his, 
 
 The Farmer's duly at his post 
 To take due thanks from every phiz, 
 
 Sour smirk nay, surly smile almost! 
 
 30- 
 " Then earthward drops each brow again ; 
 
 The solemn task's resumed ; they reach 
 Their holy field the unholy train : 
 
 Enter its precinct, all and each,
 
 ON THE PRIVILEGE OF BURIAL. 615 
 
 Wrapt somehow in their godless rites j 
 
 Till, rites at end, up-waking, lo 
 They lift their faces ! What delights 
 
 The mourners as they turn to go ? 
 
 " Ha, ha, he, he ! On just the side 
 
 They drew their purse-strings to make quit 
 Of Mary, Christ the Crucified 
 
 Fronted them now these biters bit ! 
 Never was such a hiss and snort, 
 
 Such screwing nose and shooting lip! 
 Their purchase honey in report 
 
 Proved gall and verjuice at .first sip ! 
 
 32- 
 "Out they break, on they bustle, where, 
 
 A-top of wall, the Farmer waits 
 With Buti : never fun so rare ! 
 
 The Farmer has the best: he rates
 
 616 FILIPPO BALDINUCCI 
 
 The rascal, as the old High Priest 
 Takes on himself to sermonize 
 
 Nay, sneer, ' We Jews supposed, at least, 
 Theft was a crime in Christian eyes 1* 
 
 33- 
 " ' Theft ? ' cries the Farmer, ' Eat your words I 
 
 Show me what constitutes a breach 
 Of faith in aught was said or heard I 
 
 I promised you in plainest speech 
 I'd take the thing you count disgrace 
 
 And put it here and here 'tis put I 
 Did you suppose I'd leave the place 
 
 Blank therefore, just your rage to glut / 
 
 34- 
 " ' / guess you dared not stipulate 
 
 For such a damned impertinence I 
 So, quick, my graybeard, out of gate 
 
 And in at Ghetto I Haste you hente I
 
 ON THE PRIVILEGE OF BURIAL. 617 
 
 As long as I have house and land y 
 
 To spite you irreligious chaps 
 Here shall the Crucifixion stand 
 
 Unless you down with cash, perhaps / ' 
 
 35- 
 " So snickered he and Buti both. 
 
 The Jews said nothing, interchanged 
 A glance or two, renewed their oath 
 
 To keep ears stopped and hearts estranged 
 From grace, for all our Church can do ; 
 
 Then off they scuttle : sullen jog 
 Homewards, against our Church to brew 
 
 Fresh mischief in their synagogue. 
 
 36. 
 " But next day see what happened, boy ! 
 
 See why I bid you have a care 
 How you pelt Jews ! The knaves employ 
 
 Such methods of revenge, forbear
 
 6l8 FILIPPO BALDINUCCI 
 
 No outrage on our faith, when free 
 To wreak their malice ! Here they took 
 
 So base a method plague o' me 
 If I record it in my Book ! 
 
 37- 
 
 " For, next day, while the Farmer sat 
 
 Laughing, with Buti in his shop, 
 At their successful joke, rat-tat, 
 
 Door opens, and they're like to drop 
 Down to the floor as in there stalks 
 
 A six-feet-high herculean-built 
 Young he-Jew with a beard that balks 
 
 Description. ' Help ere blood be spilt t ' 
 
 38. 
 
 " Screamed Buti : for he recognized 
 Whom but the son, no less no more, 
 
 Of that High Priest his work surprised 
 So pleasantly the day before !
 
 ON THE PRIVILEGE OF BURIAL. 619 
 
 Son of the mother, then, whereof 
 
 The bier he lent a shoulder to, 
 And made the moans about, dared scoff 
 
 At sober Christian grief the Jew ! 
 
 39- 
 " ' Sirs, I salute you / Never rise I 
 
 No apprehension I ' (Buti, white 
 And trembling like a tub of size, 
 
 Had tried to smuggle out of sight 
 The picture's self the thing in oils, 
 
 You know, from which a fresco's dashed 
 Which courage speeds while caution spoils) 
 
 ' Stay and be praised, sir, unabashed I 
 
 40. 
 
 " ' Praised, ay, and paid too : for I come 
 
 To buy that very work of yours. 
 My poor abode, which boasts well, some 
 
 Few specimens of Art, secures
 
 620 FILIPPO BALDINUCCI 
 
 Haply, a masterpiece indeed 
 
 If I should find my humble means 
 
 Suffice the outlay. So, proceed I 
 Propose ere prudence intervenes I ' 
 
 41. 
 
 "On Buti, cowering like a child, 
 
 These words descended from aloft, 
 In tones so ominously mild r 
 
 With smile terrifically soft 
 To that degree could Buti dare 
 
 (Poor fellow) use his brains, think twice? 
 He asked, thus taken unaware, 
 
 No more than just the proper price! 
 
 I 
 42. 
 
 "'Done/' cries the monster. ' I disburse 
 forthwith your moderate demand. 
 
 Count on my custom if no worse 
 Your future work be, understand.
 
 ON THE PRIVILEGE OF BURIAL. 621 
 
 Than this I carry off! No aid ! 
 
 My arm, sir, lacks nor bone nor thews : 
 The burden's easy, and we're made, 
 
 Easy or hard, to bear we Jews}' 
 
 43- 
 "Crossing himself at such escape, 
 
 Buti by turns the money eyes 
 And, timidly, the stalwart shape 
 
 Now moving doorwards ; but, more wise, 
 The Farmer, who, though dumb, this while 
 
 Had watched advantage, straight conceived 
 A reason for that tone and smile 
 
 So mild and soft! The Jew believed 1 
 
 44- 
 " Mary in triumph borne to deck 
 
 A Hebrew household ! Pictured where 
 No one was used to bend the neck 
 
 In praise or bow the knee in prayer I
 
 622 FILIPPO BALDINUCCI 
 
 Borne to that domicile by whom ? 
 
 The son of the High Priest ! Through what ? 
 An insult done his mother's tomb ! 
 
 Saul changed to Paul the case came pat ! 
 
 45- 
 
 " 'Stay, dog- yew . . gentle sir, that is I 
 
 Resolve me 1 Can it be, she crowns, 
 Mary, by miracle, Oh bliss ! 
 
 My present to your burial-ground ? 
 Certain, a ray of light has burst 
 
 Your veil of darkness ! Had you else, 
 Only for Mary's sake, disbursed 
 
 So much hard money 1 } Tell oh, tell'sf 
 
 4 6. 
 
 "Round like a serpent that we took 
 For worm and trod on turns his bulk 
 
 About the Jew. First dreadful look 
 Sends Buti in a trice to skulk
 
 ON THE PRIVILEGE OF BURIAL. 623 
 
 Out of sight somewhere, save alack! 
 
 But our good Farmer faith made bold : 
 And firm (with Florence at his back) 
 
 He stood, while gruff the gutturals rolled 
 
 47- 
 ul Ay, sir, a miracle was worked 
 
 By quite another power, I trow, 
 TJian ever yet in canvas lurked, 
 
 Or you would scarcely face me now t 
 A certain impulse did suggest 
 
 A certain grasp with this right-hand. 
 Which probably had put to rest 
 
 Our quarrel, thus your throat once spanned I 
 
 48. 
 
 " ' But I remembered me, subdued 
 
 TJiat impulse, and you face me still/ 
 
 And soon a philosophic mood 
 
 Succeeding (hear it, if you willf)
 
 624 FILIPPO BALDINUCCr 
 
 Has altogether changed my views 
 Concerning Art. Blind prejudice! 
 
 Well may you Christians tax us yews 
 With scrupulosity too nice! 
 
 49- 
 " ' For, don't I see, lefs issue join ! 
 
 Whenever Pm allowed pollute 
 (I and my little bag of coin) 
 
 Some Christian palace of repute, 
 Don't I see stuck up everywhere 
 
 Abundant proof that cultured taste 
 Has Beauty for its only care, 
 
 And upon Truth no thought to waste ? 
 
 " * " Jew, since it must be, take in pledge 
 Of payment" so a Cardinal 
 
 Has sighed to me as if a wedge 
 
 Entered his heart " this best of all
 
 ON THE PRIVILEGE OF BURIAL. 625 
 
 My treasures ! " Leda, Ganymede 
 
 Or Antiope: swan, eagle, ape, 
 (Or what's the beast of what's the breed) 
 
 And Jupiter in every sJiape 1 
 
 Si- 
 " ' Whereat if I presume to ask, 
 
 "But, Eminence, though Titian's whisk 
 Of brush have well performed its task, 
 
 How comes it these false godships frisk 
 In presence of what yonder frame 
 
 Pretends to image ? Surely, odd 
 It seems, you let confront The Name 
 
 Each beast the heathen called his god 1 " 
 
 52. 
 " * Benignant smiles me pity straight 
 
 TJie Cardinal " 'Tis Truth, we prize I 
 Art's the sole question in debate 1 
 These subjects are so many lies.
 
 526 FILIPPO BALDINUCCI 
 
 We treat them with a proper scorn 
 
 When we turn lies called gods forsooth 
 
 To lies' fit use, now Christ is born. 
 Drawing and coloring are Truth. 
 
 53- 
 " ' " Think you I honor lies so much 
 
 As scruple to parade the charms 
 Of Leda Titian, every touch 
 
 Because the f hing within her arms 
 Means Jupiter who had the praise 
 
 And prayer of a benighted world ? 
 He would have mine too, if, in days 
 
 Of light, I kept the canvas furled!" 
 
 64- 
 " ' So ending, with some easy gibe. 
 
 What power has logic/ /, at once, 
 Acknowledged error in our tribe 
 
 So squeamish that, when friends ensconce
 
 ON THE PRIVILEGE OF BURIAL. 627 
 
 A pretty picture in its niche 
 
 To do us honor, deck our graves. 
 We fret and fume and have an itch 
 
 To strangle folk ungrateful knaves I 
 
 55- 
 " ' No, sir ! Be sure that what's its style, 
 
 Your picture ? shall possess ungrudged 
 A place among my rank and file 
 
 Of Ledas and what not be judged 
 Just as a picture ! and (because 
 
 I fear me much I scarce have bought 
 A Titian} Master Butt's flaws 
 
 Found there, will have the laugh flaws ought 7' 
 
 
 56. 
 
 " So, with a scowl, it darkens door 
 This bulk no longer! Buti makes 
 
 Prompt glad re-entry ; there's a .score 
 Of oaths, as the good Farmer wakes
 
 628 FILIPPO BALDINUCCI 
 
 From what must needs have been a trance, 
 Or he had struck (he swears) to ground 
 
 The bold bad mouth that dared advance 
 Such doctrine the reverse of sound ! 
 
 57- 
 " Was magic here ? Most like ! For, since, 
 
 Somehow our city's faith grows still 
 More and more lukewarm, and our Prince 
 
 Or loses heart or wants the will 
 To check increase of cold. 'Tis 'Live 
 
 And let live ! Languidly repress 
 The Dissident I In short contrive 
 
 Christians must bear with Jews : no less I* 
 
 
 
 S3- 
 "The end seems, any Israelite 
 
 Wants any picture, pishes, poohs, 
 Purchases, hangs it full in sight 
 
 In any chamber he may choose !
 
 ON THE PRIVILEGE OF BURIAL. 629 
 
 In Christ's crown, one more thorn we rue ! 
 
 In Mary's bosom, one more sword ! 
 No, boy, you must not pelt a Jew ! 
 
 O Lord, how long? How long, O Lord?"
 
 6.30 EPILOGUE 
 
 EPILOGUK. 
 
 ftECTOl . . . 
 
 olvm pthavos avOoofuw. 
 
 I. 
 
 " The poets pour us wine " 
 
 Said the dearest poet I ever knew, 
 Dearest and greatest and best to me. 
 You clamor athirst for poetry 
 We pour. " But when shall a vintage be " 
 
 You cry " strong grape, squeezed gold from 
 
 screw, 
 Yet sweet juice, flavored flowery-fine ? 
 
 That were indeed the wine ! " 
 
 2. 
 One pours your cup -stark strength, 
 
 Meat for a man ; and you eye the pulp 
 Strained, turbid still, from the viscous blood 
 Of the snaky bough: and you grumble "Good!
 
 EPILOGUE. 631 
 
 For it swells resolve, breeds hardihood ; 
 
 Despatch it, then, in a single gulp ! " 
 So, down, with a wry face, goes at length 
 
 The liquor : stuff for strength. 
 
 3- 
 One pours your cup sheer sweet, 
 
 The fragrant fumes of a year condensed: 
 Suspicion of all that's ripe or rathe, 
 From the bud on branch to the grass in swathe. 
 "We suck mere milk of the seasons," saith 
 
 A curl of each nostril " dew, dispensed 
 Nowise for nerving man to feat: 
 
 Boys sip such honeyed sweet ! " 
 
 4- 
 
 And thus who wants wine strong, 
 
 Waves each sweet smell of the year away; 
 Who likes to swoon as the sweets suffuse 
 His brain with a mixture of beams and dews
 
 632 EPILOGUE. 
 
 Turned sirupy drink rough strength eschews: 
 "What though in our veins your wine-stock stay? 
 
 The lack of the bloom does our palate wrong. 
 Give us wine sweet, not strong ! " 
 
 5- 
 
 Yet wine is some affirm 
 
 Prime wine there is in the world somewhere, 
 Of portable .strength with sweet to match. 
 You double your heart its dose, yet catch 
 As the draught descends a violet-smatch, 
 Through drops expressed by the fire and worm : 
 
 Strong sweet wine some affirm. 
 
 6. 
 
 Body and bouquet both? 
 
 'Tis easy to ticket a bottle so ; 
 But what was the case in the cask, my friends? 
 Cask ? Nay, the vat where the maker mends
 
 EPILOGUE. 633 
 
 His strong with his sweet (you suppose) and blends 
 His rough with his smooth, till none can know 
 
 How it comes you may tipple, nothing loath, 
 Body and bouquet both. 
 
 7- 
 "You" being just the world. 
 
 No poets who turn, themselves, the winch 
 Of the press ; no critics I'll even say, 
 (I am flustered and easy of faith, to-day) 
 Who for love of the work have learned the way 
 
 Till themselves produce home-made, at a pinch : 
 No ! You are the world, and wine ne'er purled 
 
 Except to please the world ! 
 
 8. 
 
 "For, oh the common heart! 
 
 And, ah the irremissible sin 
 Of poets who please themselves, not us ! 
 Strong wine yet sweet wine pouring thus,
 
 634 EPILOGUE. 
 
 How please still Pindar and ^Eschylus ! 
 Drink dipt into by the bearded chin 
 
 Alike and the bloomy lip no part 
 Denied the common heart ! 
 
 9- 
 
 "And might we get such grace, 
 
 And did you moderns but stock our vault 
 With the true half-brandy half-attar-gul, 
 How would seniors indulge at a hearty pull 
 While juniors tossed off their thimbleful ! 
 
 Our Shakespeare and Milton escaped your fault, 
 So, they reign supreme o'er the weaker race 
 That want the ancient grace ! " 
 
 10. 
 
 If I paid myself with words 
 
 (As the French say well) I were dupe indeed ! 
 I were found in belief that you quaffed and bowsed 
 At your Shakespeare the whole day long, caroused
 
 EPILOGUE. 635 
 
 In your Milton pottle-deep nor drowsed 
 A moment of night toped on, took heed 
 
 Of nothing like modern cream-and-curds ! 
 Pay me with deeds, not words ! 
 
 ii. 
 
 For see your cellarage ! 
 
 There are forty barrels with Shakespeare's brand. 
 Some five or six are abroach : the rest 
 Stand spigoted, fauceted. Try and test 
 What yourselves call best of the very best! 
 
 Why is it that still untouched they stand ? 
 Why don't you try tap, advance a stage 
 
 With the rest in cellarage ? 
 
 / 
 
 12. 
 
 For see your cellarage ! 
 
 There are four big butts of Milton's brew. 
 How comes it you make old drips and drops 
 Do duty, and there devotion stops?
 
 636 EPILOGUE. 
 
 Leave such an abyss of malt and hops 
 Embellied in butts which bungs still glue? 
 
 You hate your bard ! A fig for your rage ! 
 Free him from cellarage ! 
 
 'Tis said I brew stiff drink, 
 
 But the deuce a flavor of grape is there. 
 Hardly a May-go-down, 'tis just 
 A sort of a gruff Go-down-it-must 
 No Merry-go-down, no gracious gust 
 
 Commingles the racy with May, the rare! 
 "What wonder," say you "we cough, and blink 
 
 October's heady drink?" 
 
 14. 
 
 Is it a fancy, friends? 
 
 Mighty and mellow are never mixed, 
 Though mighty and mellow be born at once. 
 Sweet for the future, strong for the nonce !
 
 EPILOGUE. 637 
 
 * 
 Stuff you should stow away, ensconce 
 
 In the deep and dark, to be found fast-fixed 
 At the century's close : such time strength spends 
 A-sweetening for my friends ! 
 
 And then why, what you quaff 
 
 With a smack of lip and a cluck of tongue, 
 Is leakage and leavings just what haps 
 From the tun some learned taster taps 
 With a promise " Prepare your watery chaps ! 
 
 Here's properest wine for old and young ! 
 Dispute its perfection you make us laugh ! 
 
 Have faith, give thanks, but quaff ! " 
 
 1 6. 
 
 Leakage, I say, or worse, 
 
 Leavings suffice pot-valiant souls. 
 Somebody, brimful, long ago, 
 Frothed flagon he drained to the dregs ; and lo,
 
 638 EPILOGUE. 
 
 Down whisker and beard what an overflow ! 
 
 Lick spilth that has trickled from classic jowls. 
 Sup the single scene, sip the only verse 
 
 Old wine, not new and worse ! 
 
 I grant you : worse by much ! 
 
 Renounce that new where you never gained 
 One glow at heart, one gleam at head, 
 And stick to the warrant of age instead ! 
 No dwarfs-lap ! Fatten, by giants fed ! 
 
 You fatten, with oceans of drink undrained? 
 You feed who would choke did a cobweb smutch 
 
 The Age you love so much? 
 
 18. 
 
 A mine's beneath a moor : 
 
 Acres of moor roof fathoms of mine 
 Which diamonds dot where you please to dig : 
 Yet who plies spade for the bright and big?
 
 EPILOGUE. 639 
 
 Your product is truffles, you hunt with a pig! 
 
 Since bright-and-big, when a man would dine, 
 Suits badly: and therefore the Koh-i-noor 
 
 May sleep in mine 'neath moorl 
 
 19. 
 
 Wine, pulse in might from me! 
 
 It may never emerge in must from vat, 
 Never fill cask nor furnish can, 
 Never end sweet, which strong began 
 God's gift to gladden the heart of man ; 
 
 But spirit's at proof, I promise that! 
 No sparing of juice spoils what should be 
 
 Fit brewage mine for me. 
 
 20. 
 
 Man's thoughts and loves and hates! 
 
 Earth is my vineyard, these grew there: 
 From grape of the ground, I made or marred 
 My vintage ; easy the task or hard,
 
 640 EPILOGUE. 
 
 Who set it his praise be my reward ! 
 
 Earth's yield ! Who yearn for the Dark Blue Sea's 
 Let them " lay, pray, bray " the addle-pates, 
 
 Mine be Man's thoughts, loves, hates ! 
 
 21. 
 
 But some one says " Good Sir ! " 
 
 ('Tis a worthy versed in what concerns 
 The making such labor turn out well) 
 "You don't suppose that the nosegay-smell 
 Needs always come from the grape ? Each bell 
 
 At your foot, each bud that your Honor spurns, 
 The very cowslip would act like myrrh 
 On the stiffest brew good Sir ! 
 
 22. 
 
 " Cowslips, abundant birth 
 
 O'er meadow and hillside, vineyard too, 
 Like a schoolboy's scrawlings in and out 
 Distasteful lesson-book all about
 
 EPILOGUE. 641 
 
 Greece and Rome, victory and rout 
 Love-verses instead of such vain ado I 
 
 So, fancies frolic it o'er the earth 
 Where thoughts have rightlier birth. 
 
 23- 
 
 " Nay, thoughtlings they themselves : 
 
 Loves, hates in little and less and least ! 
 Thoughts? ' What is a man beside a mount T 
 Loves ? ' Absent poor lovers the minutes count I ' 
 Hates? 'Fie Pope's letters to Martha Blount!' 
 
 These furnish a wine for a children's-feast : 
 Insipid to man, they suit the elves 
 Like thoughts, loves, hates themselves." 
 
 24. 
 
 And, friends, beyond dispute 
 
 I too have the cowslips dewy and dear. 
 Punctual as Springtide forth peep they : 
 I leave them to make my meadow gay.
 
 642 EPILOGUE. 
 
 But I ought to pluck and impound them, eh ? 
 
 Not let them alone, but deftly shear 
 And shred and reduce to what may suit 
 
 Children, beyond dispute? 
 
 25 
 And, here's May-month, all bloom, 
 
 All bounty : what if I sacrifice ? 
 If I out with shears and shear, nor stop 
 Shearing till prostrate, lo, the crop ? 
 And will you prefer it to ginger-pop 
 
 When I've made you wine of the memories 
 Which leave as bare as a churchyard tomb 
 
 My meadow, late all bloom? 
 
 26. 
 
 Nay, what ingratitude 
 
 Should I hesitate to amuse the wits 
 That have pulled so long at my flask, nor grudged 
 The headache that paid their pains, nor budged
 
 EPILOGUE. 643 
 
 From bunghole before they sighed and judged 
 " Too rough for our taste, to-day, befits 
 
 The racy and right when the years conclude I " 
 Out on ingratitude ! 
 
 27. 
 
 Grateful or ingrate none, 
 
 No cowslip of all my fairy crew 
 Shall help to concoct what makes you wink, 
 And goes to your head till you think you think 
 I like them alive : the printer's ink 
 
 Would sensibly tell on the perfume too. 
 I may use up my nettles, ere I've done ; 
 
 But of cowslips friends get nonel 
 
 
 
 28. 
 
 Don't nettles make a broth 
 
 Wholesome for blood grown lazy and thick? 
 Maws out of sorts make mouths out of taste. 
 My Thirty-four Port no need to waste
 
 644 EPILOGUE. 
 
 On a tongue that's fur and a palate paste ! 
 
 A magnum for friends who are sound 1 the sick 
 I'll posset and cosset them, nothing loath, 
 
 Henceforward with nettle-broth !
 
 A 000143679 9