Part 11 (1/2)

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 s.h.i.+ne, 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d; Fill with your rage their eyes, Rage at the rage unblest, Watching in woman's guise, The spy upon G.o.d's Possessed.

_A Baccha.n.a.l._

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._