Part 474 (1/2)

ZEUS. (After a pause of astonishment.) Is Jupiter asleep? Will Nature Rush to her fall?--Can Semele speak thus?

What, not an answer? Eagerly mine arms Toward thee are stretched--my bosom never throbbed Responsive to Agenor's daughter,--never Throbbed against Leda's breast,--my lips ne'er burned For the sweet kiss of prisoned Danae, As now--

SEMELE. Peace, traitor! Peace!

ZEUS. (With displeasure, but tenderly.) My Semele!

SEMELE.

Out of my sight!

ZEUS. (Looking at her with majesty.) Know, I am Zeus!

SEMELE. Thou Zeus?

Tremble, Salmoneus, for he fearfully Will soon demand again the stolen charms That thou hast robbed him of--thou art not Zeus!

ZEUS. (With dignity.) The mighty universe around me whirls, And calls me so--

SEMELE. Ha! Fearful blasphemy!

ZEUS. (More gently.) How, my divine one? Wherefore such a tone?

What reptile dares to steal thine heart from me?

SEMELE.

My heart was vowed to him whose ape thou art!

Men ofttimes come beneath a G.o.dlike form To snare a woman. Hence! thou art not Zeus!

ZEUS.

Thou doubtest? What! Can Semele still doubt My G.o.dhead?

SEMELE. (Mournfully.) Would that thou wert Zeus! No son Of morrow-nothingness shall touch this mouth; This heart is vowed to Zeus! Would thou wert he!

ZEUS. Thou weepest? Zeus is here,--weeps Semele?

(Falling down before her.) Speak! But command! and then shall slavish nature Lie trembling at the feet of Cadmus' daughter!

Command! and streams shall instantly make halt-- And Helicon, and Caucasus, and Cynthus, And Athos, Mycale, and Rhodope, and Pindus, Shall burst their bonds when I order it so, And kiss the valleys and plains below, And dance in the breeze like flakes of snow.

Command! and the winds from the east and the north, And the fierce tornado shall sally forth, While Poseidon's trident their power shall own, When they shake to its base his watery throne; The billows in angry fury shall rise, And every sea-mark and dam despise; The lightning shall gleam through the firmament black While the poles of earth and of heaven shall crack, The ocean the heights of Olympus explore, From thousandfold jaws with wild deafening roar The thunder shall howl, while with mad jubilee The hurricane fierce sings in triumph to thee.

Command--

SEMELE, I'm but a woman, a frail woman How can the potter bend before his pot?

How can the artist kneel before his statue?

ZEUS.

Pygmalion bowed before his masterpiece-- And Zeus now wors.h.i.+ps his own Semele!

SEMELE. (Weeping bitterly.) Arise--arise! Alas for us poor maidens!

Zeus has my heart, G.o.ds only can I love, The G.o.ds deride me, Zeus despises me!

ZEUS. Zeus who is now before thy feet--

SEMELE. Arise!

Zeus reigns on high, above the thunderbolts, And, clasped in Juno's arms, a reptile scorns.

ZEUS. (Hastily.) Ha! Semele and Juno!--which the reptile!