PENTHEUS He may, if e'er again amid his bands Of saints he hears thy voice!
DIONYSUS Even now he stands Close here, and sees all that I suffer.
PENTHEUS What? Where is he? For mine eyes discern him not.
DIONYSUS Where I am! 'Tis thine own impurity That veils him from thee.
PENTHEUS The dog jeers at me! At me and Thebes! Bind him! [_The soldiers begin to bind him_.]
DIONYSUS I charge ye, bind Me not! I having vision and ye blind!
PENTHEUS And I, with better right, say bind the more! [_The soldiers obey_.]
DIONYSUS Thou knowest not what end thou seekest, nor What deed thou doest, nor what man thou art!
PENTHEUS (_mocking_) Agâvê's son, and on the father's part Echion's, hight Pentheus!
DIONYSUS So let it be, A name fore-written to calamity!
PENTHEUS Away, and tie him where the steeds are tied; Aye, let him lie in the manger!--There abide And stare into the darkness!--And this rout Of womankind that clusters thee about, Thy ministers of worship, are my slaves! It may be I will sell them o'er the waves, Hither and thither; else they shall be set To labour at my distaffs, and forget Their timbrel and their songs of dawning day!
DIONYSUS I go; for that which may not be, I may Not suffer! Yet for this thy sin, lo, He Whom thou deniest cometh after thee For recompense. Yea, in thy wrong to us, Thou hast cast Him into thy prison-house! [DIONYSUS, _without his wand, his hair shorn, and his arms tightly bound, is led off by the guards to his dungeon._ PENTHEUS _returns into the Palace._]
_Some Maidens_ Achelous' roaming daughter, Holy Dircê, virgin water, Bathed he not of old in thee, The Babe of God, the Mystery? When from out the fire immortal To himself his God did take him, To his own flesh, and bespake him: "Enter now life's second portal, Motherless Mystery; lo, I break Mine own body for thy sake, Thou of the Twofold Door, and seal thee Mine, O Bromios,"--thus he spake-- "And to this thy land reveal thee."
_All_ Still my prayer toward thee quivers, Dircê, still to thee I hie me; Why, O Blessed among Rivers, Wilt thou fly me and deny me? By His own joy I vow, By the grape upon the bough, Thou shalt seek Him in the midnight, thou shalt love Him, even now!
_Other Maidens_ Dark and of the dark impassioned Is this Pentheus' blood; yea, fashioned Of the Dragon, and his birth From Echion, child of Earth. He is no man, but a wonder; Did the Earth-Child not beget him, As a red Giant, to set him Against God, against the Thunder? He will bind me for his prize, Me, the Bride of Dionyse; And my priest, my friend, is taken Even now, and buried lies; In the dark he lies forsaken!