The wanton wretch! she was bewitch'd to see
The many-colour'd anklets and the chain
Of woven gold which girt the neck of Paris,
And so she left that good man Menelaus.
There should be no more women in the world
But such as are reserved for me alone.—
See, here are sheep, and here are goats, Ulysses,
Here are unsparing cheeses of press'd milk;
Take them; depart with what tood speed ye may;
First leaving my reward, the Bacchic dew
Of joy-inspiring grapes.
- ULYsses.
Ah me! Alas!

What shall we do? the Cyclops is at hand!
Old man, we perish! whither can we tly?

st Le Nus.
Hide yourselves quick within that hollow rock.

Ut-Ysses.
"T were perilous to fly into the net.

silen us.
The cavern has recesses numberless;
slide yourselves quick.

Ulysses.

That will I never do! The mighty Troy would be indeed disgraced If I should tly one man. How many times Have I withstood, with shield immoveable, Ten thousand Phrygians!—if I needs must die, Yet will I die with glory; —if I live, The praise which I have gain'd will yet remain.

sile NUs. What, ho! assistance, comrades, haste assistance!

The Cyclops, Silenus, Ulysses; Chorus.

cyclops. What is this tumulti Bacchus is not here, Nor tympanies nor brazen castanets. How are iny young lambs in the cavern 1 Milking Their dams or playing by their sides? And is The new cheese press'd into the bull-rush baskets? Speak! I'll beat some of you till you rain tears— Look up, not downwards when I speak to you.

By no means.—— What is this crowd I see beside the stalls? Outlaws or thieves? for near my cavern-home, I see my young lambs coupled two by two With willow bands; mixed with my cheeses lie Their implements; and this old fellow here Has his bald head broken with stripes. silenus. Ah me! I have been beaten till I burn with fever. cyclops. By whom? Who laid his fist upon your head? silenus. Those men, because I would not suffer them To steal your goods. cyclops. Did not the rascals know I am a God, sprung from the race of heaven? silenus. I told them so, but they bore off your things, And ate the cheese in spite of all I said, And carried out the lambs—and said, moreover, They'd pin you down with a three-cubit collar, And pull your vitals out through your one eye, Torture your back with stripes, then binding you, Throw you as ballast into the ship's hold, And then deliver you, a slave, to move Enormous rocks, or found a vestibule. cyclops. In truth? Nay, haste, and place in order quickly The cooking-knives, and heap upon the hearth, And kindle it, a great faggot of wood– As soon as they are slaughter'd, they shall fill My belly, broiling warm from the live coals, Or boiled and seethed within the bubbliot; cauldron. I am quite sick of the wild mountain game; Of stags and lions I have gorged enough, And I grow hungry for the flesh of men. silenus. Nay, master, something new is very pleasant After one thing for ever, and of late Very few strangers have approach'd our cave. u Lysses. Hear, Cyclops, a plain tale on the other side. We, wanting to buy food, came from our ship Into the neighbourhood of your cave, and here This old Silenus gave us in exchange These lambs for wine, the which he took and drank,

And all by mutual compact, without force.
There is no word of truth in what he says,
For slily he was selling all your store.

st Lexus. I? May you perish, wretch—

u Lysses.

If I speak false!

st Lexts. Cyclops, I swear by Neptune who begot thee, By mighty Triton and by Nereus old, Calypso and the glaucous ocean Nymphs, The sacred waves and all the race of fishes— Be these the witnesses, my dear sweet master, My darling little Cyclops, that I never Gave any of your stores to these false strangers;– If I speak false may those whom most I love, My children, perish wretchedly :

choats.

There stop!

I saw him giving these things to the strangers.
If I speak false, then may my father perish,
But do not thou wrong hospitality.

cyclops.
You lie! I swear that he is juster far
Than Rhadamanthus—l trust more in him.
But let me ask, whence have ye sail'd, O strangers?
Who are you? And what city nourish'd ye?

U 1.Ysses.
Our race is Ithacan—having destroy'd
The town of Troy, the tempests of the sea
Have driven us on thy land, O Polypheme.

cy clops.
what, have ye shared in the unenvied spoil
Of the false Helen, near Scamander's stream?

to lysses. The same, having endured a woful toil.

cyclops. O, basest expedition! sail'd ye not From Greece to Phrygia for one woman's sake?

ultisses. 'T was the Gods' work—no mortal was in fault. But, O great offspring of the ocean-king, We pray thee and admonish thee with freedom, That thou dost spare thy friends who visit thee, And place no impious food within thy jaws. For in the depths of Greece we have uprear'd Temples to thy great father, which are all His homes. The sacred bay of sanarus Remains inviolate, and each dim recess Scoop'd high on the Malean promontory, And aery Sunium's silver-veined crag, Which divine Pallas keeps unprofaned ever, The Gerastian asylums, and whate'er Within wide Greece our enterprise has kept From Phrygian contumely; and in which You have a common care, for you inhabit The skirts of Grecian land, under the roots Of AEtna and its crags, spotted with fire. Turn then to converse under human laws, Receive us shipwreck'd suppliants, and provide Food, clothes, and fire, and hospitable gifts; Nor fixing upon oxen-piercing spits Our limbs, so fill your belly and your jaws. Priam's wide land has widow’d Greece enough ; And weapon-winged murder heap'd together Enough of dead, and wives are husbandless,

And ancient women and grey fathers wail
Their childless age;—if you should roast the rest.
And "t is a bitter feast that you prepare,
where then would any turn ? Yet be persuaded;
Forego the lust of your jaw-bone; prefer
Pious humanity to wicked will:
Many have bought too dear their evil joys-
- silts U.S.
Let me advise you, do not spare a morsel
of all his flesh. If you should eat his tongue
You would become most eloquent, O Cyclops!
cyclops.
wealth, my good fellow, is the wise man's God,
All other things are a pretence and boast.
what are my father's ocean promontories,
The sacred rocks whereon he dwells, to me?
Stranger, I laugh to scorn Jove's thunderbolt,
I know not that his strength is more than mine-
As to the rest I care not :—When he pours
Rain from above, I have a close pavilion
Under this rock, in which I lie supine,
Feasting on a roast calf or some wild beast,
And drinking pans of milk, and gloriously
Emulating the thunder of high heaven.
And when the Thracian wind pours down the snow,
I wrap my body in the skins of beasts,
Kindle a fire, and bid the snow whirl on.
The earth, by force, whether it will or no.
Bringing forth grass, fattens my flocks and herds,
Which, to what other God but to myself
And this great belly, first of deities,
Should I be bound to sacrifice I well know
The wise man's only Jupiter is this,
To eat and drink during his little day,
And give himself no care. And as for those
Who complicate with laws the life of man,
I freely give them tears for their reward.
I will not cheat my soul of its delight,
Or hesitate in dining upon you:-
And that I may be quit of all demands,
These are my hospitable gifts;–fierce fire
And yon ancestral cauldron, which o'erbubbling.
Shall finely cook your miserable flesh.
Creep in!—
- - - - - -
tly sses.
Ay! ay! I have escaped the Trojan toils,
I have escaped the sea, and now I fall
Under the cruel grasp of one impious man.
O Pallas, mistress, Goddess, sprung from Jove.
Now, now, assist me! Mightier toils than Troy
Are these.-1 totter on the chasms of peril; –
And thou who inhabitest the thrones
Of the bright stars, look, hospitable Jove,
Upon this outrage of thy deity,
Otherwise be consider'd as no God!
chosus (alone).
For your gaping gulf, and your gullet wide,
The ravine is ready on every side,
The limbs of the strangers are cook'd and done,
There is boild meat, and roast meat, and meat from the
coal,
You may chop it, and tear it, and gnash it for fun,
A hairy goat's-skin contains the whole.
Let me but escape, and ferry me o'er
The stream of your wrath to a safer shore.

The Cyclops AEtnean is cruel and bold, He murders the strangers That sit on his hearth, And dreads no avengers To rise from the earth. He roasts the men before they are cold, He snatches them broiling from the coal, And from the cauldron pulls them whole, And minces their flesh and gnaws their bone With his cursed teeth, till all be gone.

Farewell, foul pavilion' Farewell, rites of dread! The Cyclops vermilion, With slaughter uncloying, Now feasts on the dead, In the flesh of strangers joying! Ulysses. 0 Jupiter! I saw within the cave Horrible things; deeds to be feign'd in words, But not believed as being done. CHORus. What! sawest thou the impious Polypheme Feasting upon your loved companions now? ULYsses. Selecting two, the plumpest of the crowd, He grasp'd them in his hands. crionus. Unhappy man - - - - - ULY Sses. Soon as we came into this craggy place, Kindling a fire, he cast on the broad hearth The knotty limbs of an enormous oak, Three wagoon-loads at least; and then he strew'd Upon the ground, beside the red fire-light, His couch of pine leaves; and he milk'd the cows, And pouring forth the white milk, fill'd a bowl Three cubits wide and four in depth, as much As would contain four amphorae, and bound it With ivy wreaths; then placed upon the fire A brazen pot to boil, and made red-hot The points of spits, not sharpen'd with the sickle, But with a fruit-tree bough, and with the jaws Of axes for Ætnean slaughterings." And when this God-abandon'd cook of hell Had made all ready, he seized two of us And kill'd them in a kind of measured manner; For he flung one against the brazen rivets Of the huge cauldron, and seized the other By the foot's tendon, and knock'd out his brains Upon the sharp edge of the craggy stone: Then peel'd his flesh with a great cooking-knife, And put him down to roast. The other's limbs Ile chopp'd into the cauldron to be boil'd. And I, with the tears raining from my eyes, Stood near the Cyclops, ministering to him; The rest, in the recesses of the cave, Clung to the rock like bats, bloodless with fear. When he was fill'd with my companions' flesh, He threw himself upon the ground, and sent A loathsome exhalation from his maw. Then a divine thought came to me. I fill'd The cup of Maron, and I offer'd him

" I confess I do not understand this.-Note of the Author.

To taste, and said:—“Child of the Ocean God,
Behold what drink the vines of Greece produce,
The exultation and the joy of Bacchus.”
He, satiated with his unnatural food,
Received it, and at one draught drank it off,
And taking my hand, praised me: . Thou hast given
A sweet draught after a sweet meal, dear guest.,
And I, perceiving that it pleased him, filled
Another cup, well knowing that the wine
Would wound him soon, and take a sure revenge.
And the charm fascinated him, and I
Plied him cup after cup, until the drink
Had warmed his entrails, and he sang aloud
In concert with my wailing fellow-seamen
A hideous discord—and the cavern rung.
I have stolen out, so that if you will
You may achieve my safety and your own.
But say, do you desire, or not, to fly
This uncompanionable man, and dwell,
As was your wont, among the Grecian nymphs
Within the fanes of your beloved God!
Your father there within agrees to it;
But he is weak and overcome with wine;
And caught as if with bird-lime by the cup,
He claps his wings and crows in doting joy.
You who are young, escape with me, and find
Bacchus your ancient friend; unsuited he
To this rude Cyclops.
chorus.
Oh my dearest friend,
That I could see that day, and leave for ever
The impious Cyclops!
ULYsses.
Listen then what a punishment I have
For this fell monster, how secure a slight
From your hard servitude.
chorus.
Oh sweeter far
Than is the music of an Asian lyre
Would be the news of Polypheme destroyd.
u LYsses.
Delighted with the Bacchic drink he goes
To call his brother Cyclops—who inhabit
A village upon AEtna not far off.
chorus.
1 understand, catching him when alone
You think by some measure to dispatch him,
Or thrust him from the precipice.
ul-Ysses.
O no '
Nothing of that kind; my device is subtle.
chorus.
How then? I heard of old that thou wert wise.
ui, Ysses.
I will dissuade him from this plan, by saying
It were unwise to give the Cyclopses -
This precious drink, which if enjoyed alone
Would make life sweeter for a longer time.
When vanquish'd by the Bacchic power, he sleeps;
There is a trunk of olive wood within,
Whose point, having made sharp with this good sword,
I will conceal in fire, and when I see
It is alight, will fix it, burning yet,
Within the socket of the Cyclops' eye,
And melt it out with fire: as when a man

Turns by its handle a great auger round,
Fitting the frame-work of a ship with beams.
So will I, in the Cyclops' fiery eye,
Turn round the brand and dry the pupil up.

chorus.
Joy! I am mad with joy at your device.

ulysses.
And then with you, my friends, and the old man,
We'll load the hollow depth of our black ship,
And row with double strokes from this dread shore.

culopus.
May 1, as in libations to a God,
Share in the blinding him with the red brand
I would have some communion in his death.

ul. Ysses.
Doubtless: the brand is a great brand to hold.

chonus.
Oh! I would lift an hundred waggon-loads,
If like a wasp's nest I could scoop the eye out
Of the detested Cyclops.

ulysses.

Silence now!

Ye know the close device—and when I call,
Look ye obey the masters of the craft.
I will not save myself and leave behind
My comrades in the cave: I might escape,
Having got clear from that obscure recess,
But 't were unjust to leave in jeopardy
The dear companions who sail'd here with me.

chorals. Come! who is first, that with his hand Will urge down the burning brand Through the lids, and quench and pierce The Cyclops' eye so fiery fierce?

sexti-choraus i.
Song within.

Listen! listen he is coming,
A most hideous discord humming,
Drunken, muscless, awkward, yelling,
Far along his rocky dwelling ;
Let us with some comic spell
Teach the yet unteachable.
By all means he must be blinded,
If my council be but minded.

semi-chottus li. Happy those made odorous With the dew which sweet grapes weep To the village hastening thus, Seek the vines that soothe to sleep, Having first embraced thy friend, There in luxury without end, With the strings of yellow hair, Of thy voluptuous leman fair, Shalt sit playing on a bed!— Speak what door is opened?

cyclops. Ha! has ha " I 'm full of wine, Heavy with the joy divine, With the young feast oversated, Like a merchant's vessel freighted To the water's edge, my crop Isladen to the gullet's top.

cw clops. What sort of God is Bacchus then accounted :

ulyssrs. The greatest among men for joy of life.

cyclops. I gulp'd him down with very great delight.

ulysses.
This is a God who never injures men.

CYclops.
How does the God like living in a skin?

ulysses. He is content wherever he is put.

- cyclops.

Gods should not have their body in a skin.

ul-Ysses. If he gives joy, what is his skin to you ?

cyclops. I hate the skin, but love the wine within.

ULYsses. Stay here; now drink, and make your spirit glad.

cyclops. Should I not share this liquor with my brothers'

ul-Ysses. | Keep it yourself, and be more honour’d so.

cY cloPs. I were more useful, giving to my friends.

u Lyssrs. But village mirth breeds contests, broils, and blows

cyclops. When I am drunk none shall lay hands on me.—

ul-Ysses. A drunken man is better within doors.

cyclops.
He is a fool who, drinking, loves not mirth.

ULYsses.
But he is wise who, drunk, remains at home.

cyclops.
Whall shall I do, Silenus? shall I stay?

sit, exus. Stay-for what need have you of pot-companions”

cyclops.

Indeed this place is closely carpeted With flowers and grass.

51 Lexus. And in the sun-warm noon

Not till I see you wear That coronal, and taste the cup to you. cyclops. Thou wily traitor! 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 my beard. sli.e. wus. Now put your elbow right and drink again. As you see me drink— ” - - cyclops. How now 2 stirnus. Ye Gods, what a delicious gulp! cyclops. Guest, take it;-you pour out the wine for me. ulysses. The wine is well accustom'd to my hand. cyclops. Pour out the wine ! Ulysses. 1 pour; only be silent. cyclops. Silence is a hard task to him who drinks. ul Ysses. Take it and drink it off; leave not a dreg. O, that the drinker died with his own draught' cY clot's. l'apai' 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 I would not leave this Ganymede.

silenus.

Polypheme,

I am the Ganymede of Jupiter.

cyclops. By Jove you are! I bore you off from Dardanus.

chonus.
We will have courage like the adamant rock.
All things are ready for you here; go in,
Before our father shall perceive the noise.

ULYsses.
Vulcan, Etmean king! burn out with fire
The shining eye of this thy neighbouring monster
And thou, O Sleep, nursling of gloomy night,
Descend unmixed on this God-hated beast,
And suffer not Ulysses and his comrades,
Returning from their famous Trojan toils,
To perish by this man, who cares not either
For God or mortal; or I needs must think
That Chance is a supreme divinity,
And things divine are subject to her power.