The Bacchae of Euripides

Look not to Heaven. For all is vain, The pulse of the heart, the plot of the brain, That striveth beyond the laws that live. And is thy Faith so much to give, Is it so hard a thing to see, That the Spirit of God, whate'er it be, The Law that abides and changes not, ages long, The Eternal and Nature-born--these things be strong? What else is Wisdom? What of man's endeavour Or God's high grace so lovely and so great? To stand from fear set free, to breathe and wait; To hold a hand uplifted over Hate; And shall not Loveliness be loved for ever? LEADER. Happy he, on the weary sea Who hath fled the tempest and won the haven. Happy whoso hath risen, free, Above his striving. For strangely graven Is the orb of life, that one and another In gold and power may outpass his brother. And men in their millions float and flow And seethe with a million hopes as leaven; And they win their Will, or they miss their Will, And the hopes are dead or are pined for still; But whoe'er can know, As the long days go, That To Live is happy, hath found his Heaven! _Re-enter_ DIONYSUS _from the Castle_. DIONYSUS. O eye that cravest sights thou must not see, O heart athirst for that which slakes not! Thee, Pentheus, I call; forth and be seen, in guise Of woman, Maenad, saint of Dionyse, To spy upon His Chosen and thine own Mother! [_Enter_ PENTHEUS, _clad like a Bacchanal, and strangely excited, a spirit of Bacchic madness overshadowing him_. Thy shape, methinks, is like to one Of Cadmus' royal maids! PENTHEUS. Yea; and mine eye Is bright! Yon sun shines twofold in the sky, Thebes twofold and the Wall of Seven Gates. . . . And is it a Wild Bull this, that walks and waits Before me? There are horns upon thy brow! What art thou, man or beast? For surely now The Bull is on thee! DIONYSUS. He who erst was wrath, Goes with us now in gentleness. He hath Unsealed thine eyes to see what thou shouldst see. PENTHEUS. Say; stand I not as Ino stands, or she Who bore me? DIONYSUS. When I look on thee, it seems I see their very selves!--But stay; why streams That lock abroad, not where I laid it, crossed Under the coif? PENTHEUS. I did it, as I tossed My head in dancing, to and fro, and cried His holy music! DIONYSUS (_tending him_). It shall soon be tied Aright. 'Tis mine to tend thee. . . . Nay, but stand With head straight. PENTHEUS. In the hollow of thy hand I lay me. Deck me as thou wilt. DIONYSUS. Thy zone Is loosened likewise; and the folded gown Not evenly falling to the feet. PENTHEUS. 'Tis so, By the right foot. But here, methinks, they flow In one straight line to the heel. DIONYSUS (_while tending him_). And if thou prove Their madness true, aye, more than true, what love And thanks hast thou for me? PENTHEUS (_not listening to him_). In my right hand Is it, or thus, that I should bear the wand, To be most like to them? DIONYSUS. Up let it swing In the right hand, timed with the right foot's spring. . . . 'Tis well thy heart is changed! PENTHEUS (_more wildly_). What strength is this! Kithaeron's steeps and all that in them is-- How say'st thou?--Could my shoulders lift the whole? DIONYSUS. Surely thou canst, and if thou wilt! Thy soul, Being once so sick, now stands as it should stand. PENTHEUS. Shall it be bars of iron? Or this bare hand And shoulder to the crags, to wrench them down? DIONYSUS. Wouldst wreck the Nymphs' wild temples, and the brown Rocks, where Pan pipes at noonday? PENTHEUS. Nay; not I! Force is not well with women. I will lie Hid in the pine-brake. DIONYSUS. Even as fits a spy On holy and fearful things, so shalt thou lie! PENTHEUS (_with a laugh_). They lie there now, methinks--the wild birds, caught By love among the leaves, and fluttering not! DIONYSUS. It may be. That is what thou goest to see, Aye, and to trap them--so they trap not thee! PENTHEUS. Forth through the Thebans' town! I am their king, Aye, their one Man, seeing I dare this thing! DIONYSUS. Yea, thou shalt bear their burden, thou alone; Therefore thy trial awaiteth thee!--But on; With me into thine ambush shalt thou come Unscathed; then let another bear thee home! PENTHEUS. The Queen, my mother. DIONYSUS. Marked of every eye. PENTHEUS. For that I go! DIONYSUS. Thou shalt be borne on high! PENTHEUS. That were like pride! DIONYSUS. Thy mother's hands shall share Thy carrying. PENTHEUS. Nay; I need not such soft care! DIONYSUS. So soft? PENTHEUS. Whate'er it be, I have earned it well! [_Exit_ PENTHEUS _towards the Mountain_. DIONYSUS. Fell, fell art thou; and to a doom so fell Thou walkest, that thy name from South to North Shall shine, a sign for ever!--Reach thou forth Thine arms, Agave, now, and ye dark-browed Cadmeian sisters! Greet this prince so proud To the high ordeal, where save God and me, None walks unscathed!--The rest this day shall see. [_Exit_ DIONYSUS _following_ PENTHEUS. CHORUS. _Some Maidens._ O hounds raging and blind, Up by the mountain road, Sprites of the maddened mind, To the wild Maids of God; Fill with your rage their eyes, Rage at the rage unblest, Watching in woman's guise, The spy upon God's Possessed. _A Bacchanal._ Who shall be first, to mark Eyes in the rock that spy, Eyes in the pine-tree dark-- Is it his mother?--and cry: "Lo, what is this that comes, Haunting, troubling still, Even in our heights, our homes, The wild Maids of the Hill? What flesh bare this child? Never on woman's breast Changeling so evil smiled; Man is he not, but Beast! Lion-shape of the wild, Gorgon-breed of the waste!" _All the Chorus._ Hither, for doom and deed! Hither with lifted sword, Justice, Wrath of the Lord, Come in our visible need! Smite till the throat shall bleed, Smite till the heart shall bleed, Him the tyrannous, lawless, Godless, Echion's earth-born seed! _Other Maidens._ Tyrannously hath he trod; Marched him, in Law's despite, Against thy Light, O God, Yea, and thy Mother's Light; Girded him, falsely bold, Blinded in craft, to quell And by man's violence hold Things unconquerable. _A Bacchanal._ A strait pitiless mind Is death unto godliness; And to feel in human kind Life, and a pain the less. Knowledge, we are not foes! I seek thee diligently; But the world with a great wind blows, Shining, and not from thee; Blowing to beautiful things, On, amid dark and light, Till Life, through the trammellings Of Laws that are not the Right, Breaks, clean and pure, and sings Glorying to God in the height! _All the Chorus._ Hither for doom and deed! Hither with lifted sword, Justice, Wrath of the Lord, Come in our visible need! Smite till the throat shall bleed, Smite till the heart shall bleed, Him the tyrannous, lawless, Godless, Echion's earth-born seed! LEADER. Appear, appear, whatso thy shape or name O Mountain Bull, Snake of the Hundred Heads, Lion of Burning Flame! O God, Beast, Mystery, come! Thy mystic maids Are hunted!--Blast their hunter with thy breath, Cast o'er his head thy snare; And laugh aloud and drag him to his death, Who stalks thy herded madness in its lair! _Enter hastily a_ MESSENGER _from the Mountain, pale and distraught_. MESSENGER. Woe to the house once blest in Hellas! Woe To thee, old King Sidonian, who didst sow The dragon-seed on Ares' bloody lea! Alas, even thy slaves must weep for thee! LEADER. News from the mountain?--Speak! How hath it sped? MESSENGER. Pentheus, my king, Echion's son, is dead! LEADER. All hail, God of the Voice, Manifest ever more! MESSENGER. What say'st thou?--And how strange thy tone, as though In joy at this my master's overthrow! LEADER. With fierce joy I rejoice, Child of a savage shore; For the chains of my prison are broken, and the dread where I cowered of yore! MESSENGER. And deem'st thou Thebes so beggared, so forlorn Of manhood, as to sit beneath thy scorn? LEADER. Thebes hath o'er me no sway! None save Him I obey, Dionysus, Child of the Highest, Him I obey and adore! MESSENGER. One can forgive thee!--Yet 'tis no fair thing, Maids, to rejoice in a man's suffering. LEADER. Speak of the mountain side! Tell us the doom he died, The sinner smitten to death, even where his sin was sore! MESSENGER. We climbed beyond the utmost habitings Of Theban shepherds, passed Asopus' springs, And struck into the land of rock on dim Kithaeron--Pentheus, and, attending him, I, and the Stranger who should guide our way. Then first in a green dell we stopped, and lay, Lips dumb and feet unmoving, warily Watching, to be unseen and yet to see. A narrow glen it was, by crags o'ertowered, Torn through by tossing waters, and there lowered A shadow of great pines over it. And there The Maenad maidens sate; in toil they were, Busily glad. Some with an ivy chain Tracked a worn wand to toss its locks again; Some, wild in joyance, like young steeds set free, Made answering songs of mystic melody. But my poor master saw not the great band Before him. "Stranger," cried he, "where we stand Mine eyes can reach not these false saints of thine. Mount we the bank, or some high-shouldered pine, And I shall see their follies clear!" At that There came a marvel. For the Stranger straight Touched a great pine-tree's high and heavenward crown, And lower, lower, lower, urged it down To the herbless floor. Round like a bending bow, Or slow wheel's rim a joiner forces to,