Part 2 (1/2)

HER. You like that style?

DIO. Like it? I dote upon it.

HER. I vow it's ribald nonsense, and you know it.

DIO. ”Rule not my mind”: you've got a house to mind.

HER. Really and truly though 'tis paltry stuff.

DIO. Teach me to dine!

XAN. But never a word of me.

DIO. But tell me truly-'twas for this I came Dressed up to mimic you-what friends received And entertained you when you went below To bring back Cerberus, in case I need them.

And tell me too the havens, fountains, shops, Roads, resting-places, stews, refreshment rooms, Towns, lodgings, hostesses, with whom were found The fewest bugs.

XAN. But never a word of me.

HER. You are really game to go?

DIO. O drop that, can't you? And tell me this: of all the roads you know Which is the quickest way to get to Hades? I want one not too warm, nor yet too cold.

HER. Which shall I tell you first? which shall it be?

There's one by rope and bench: you launch away And-hang yourself.

DIO. No thank you: that's too stifling.

HER. Then there's a track, a short and beaten cut.

By pestle and mortar.

DIO. Hemlock, do you mean?

HER. Just so.

DIO. No, that's too deathly cold a way; You have hardly started ere your s.h.i.+ns get numbed.

HER. Well, would you like a steep and swift descent?

DIO. Aye, that's the style: my walking powers are small.

HER. Go down to the Cerameicus.

DIO. And do what?

HER. Climb to the tower's top pinnacle-

DIO. And then?

HER. Observe the torch-race started, and when all The mult.i.tude is shouting Let them go, Let yourself go.

DIO. Go whither?

HER. To the ground.

DIO. O that would break my brain's two envelopes. I'll not try that

HER. Which will you try?

DIO. The way you went yourself.

HER. A parlous voyage that, For first you'll come to an enormous lake Of fathomless depth.