ULYSSES.

Cowardly dogs! ye will not aid me then?

CHORUS.

With pitying my own back and my back-bone, And with not wishing all my teeth knocked out, This cowardice comes of itself—but stay,

I know a famous Orphic incantation

To make the brand stick of its own accord
Into the skull of this one-eyed son of Earth.

ULYSSES.

Of old I knew ye thus by nature; now
I know ye better.-I will use the aid

Of my own comrades-yet though weak of hand
Speak cheerfully, that so ye may awaken

The courage

of my

friends with your blithe words

CHORUS.

This I will do with peril of my life,

And blind you with my exhortations, Cyclops.

Hasten and thrust,

And parch up to dust

The eye of the beast

Who feeds on his guest.

Burn and blind

The Etnean hind!

Scoop and draw,

But beware lest he claw

Your limbs near his maw.

CYCLOPS.

Ah me! my eye-sight is parched up to cinders.

CHORUS.

What a sweet pæan! sing me that again!

CYCLOPS.

Ah me! indeed, what woe has fallen upon me!
But, wretched nothings, think ye not to flee
Out of this rock; I, standing at the outlet,
Will bar the way, and catch you as you pass.

What, did you fall into the fire when drunk?

CYCLOPS.

Twas Nobody destroyed me.

Can be to blame.

CHORUS.

Why then no one

CYCLOPS.

I say 'twas Nobody

Who blinded me.

CHORUS.

Why then, you are not blind!

CYCLOPS.

I wish you were as blind as I am.

You jeer me; where, I ask, is Nobody?

Nowhere, O Cyclops.

CHORUS.

CYCLOPS.

It was that stranger ruined me:-the wretch First gave me wine, and then burnt out my eye, For wine is strong and hard to struggle with. Have they escaped, or are they yet within?

CHORUS.

They stand under the darkness of the rock,
And cling to it.

CYCLOPS.

Ah! I am mocked! They jeer me in my ills.

CHORUS.

Not there! he is a little there beyond you.

CYCLOPS.

Detested wretch ! where are you?

ULYSSES.

Far from you

I keep with care this body of Ulysses.

CYCLOPS.

What do you say? You proffer a new name.

ULYSSES.

My father named me so; and I have taken
A full revenge for your unnatural feast;

I should have done ill to have burned down Troy
And not revenged the murder of my comrades.

CYCLOPS.

Ai! ai! the ancient oracle is accomplished;
It said that I should have my eye-sight blinded
By you coming from Troy, yet it foretold
That you should pay the penalty for this
By wandering long over the homeless sea.

ULYSSES.

I bid thee weep-consider what I say,