Not till I see you wear That coronal, and taste the cup to you. Thou wily traitor! CYCLOPS. SILENUS. But the wine is sweet. Ay, you will roar if you are caught in drinking. CYCLOPS. See now, my lip is clean and all SILENUS. my beard. Now put your elbow right, and drink again. Guest, take it ;-you pour out the wine for me. Silence is a hard task to him who drinks. ULYSSES. Take it and drink it off; leave not a dreg. CYCLOPS. Papai! the vine must be a sapient plant. ULYSSES. If you drink much after a mighty feast, Moistening your thirsty maw, you will sleep well; If you leave aught, Bacchus will dry you up. CYCLOPS. Ho, ho! I can scarce rise. What pure delight The heavens and earth appear to whirl about Confusedly. I see the throne of Jove And the clear congregation of the gods. Now if the graces tempted me to kiss, I would not, for the loveliest of them all SILENUS. Polypheme, I am the Ganymede of Jupiter. CYCLOPS. By Jove you are; I bore you off from Dardanus. ULYSSES and the CHORUS. ULYSSES. Come, boys of Bacchus, children of high race, This man within is folded up in sleep, And soon will vomit flesh from his fell maw; The brand under the shed thrusts out its smoke; No preparation needs, but to burn out The monster's eye;-but bear yourselves like men. CHORUS. We will have courage like the adamant rock. ULYSSES. Vulcan, Etnean king! burn out with fire Descend unmixed on this God-hated beast, And suffer not Ulysses and his comrades, Returning from their famous Trojan toils, And things divine are subject to her power. CHORUS. Soon a crab the throat will seize Come, Maron, come! O, I long to dance and revel ULYSSES. Be silent, ye wild things! Nay, hold your peace, And keep your lips quite close; dare not to breathe, Or spit, or e'en wink, lest ye wake the monster, Until his eye be tortured out with fire. CHORUS. Nay, we are silent, and we chaw the air. JLYSSES. Come now, and lend a hand to the great stake CHORUS. You then command who first should seize the stake To burn the Cyclops' eye, that all may share In the great enterprise. SEMICHORUS 1. We are too few ; We cannot at this distance from the door Thrust fire into his eye. SEMICHORUS II. And we just now Have become lame-cannot move hand or foot. CHORUS. The same thing has occurred to us ;-our ankles Are sprained with standing here, I know not how. ULYSSES. What, sprained with standing still? CHORUS. And there is dust Or ashes in our eyes, I know not whence. |