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.

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.
All things are ready for you here; go in,
Before our father shall perceive the noise.

ULYSSES.

Vulcan, Etnean 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.

CHORUS.

Soon a crab the throat will seize
Of him who feeds upon his guest,
Fire will burn his lamp-like eyes
In revenge of such a feast!
A great oak stump now is lying
In the ashes yet undying.

Come, Maron, come!

Raging let him fix the doom,
Let him tear the eyelid up,
Of the Cyclops-that his cup
May be evil!

Oh, I long to dance and revel
With sweet Bromian, long desired,
In loved ivy-wreaths attired;
Leaving this abandoned home-
Will the moment ever come?

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.

ULYSSES.

Come now, and lend a hand to the great stake
Within-it is delightfully red hot.

CHORUS.

You then command who first should seize the stake
To burn the Cyclops' eye, that all may share
In the great enterprise.

SEMI-CHORUS I.

We are too few ;

We cannot at this distance from the door

Thrust fire into his eye.

SEMI-CHORUS II.

And we just now

Have become lame; cannot move hand or foot.

CHORUS.

The same thing has occurred to us ;-our ancles 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.

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.

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.

CHORUS.

What are you roaring out, Cyclops?

CYCLOPS.

I perish!

CHORUS.

For you are wicked.

CYCLOPS.

And besides miserable.

CHORUS.

What, did you fall into the fire when drunk?

CYCLOPS.

'Twas Nobody destroyed me.

Can be to blame.

CHORUS.

Why then no one