SCENE III     The audience chamber of the palace. Cepheus, Cassiopea, Andromeda, Cydone, Praxilla, Medes.   CEPHEUS A sudden ending to our sudden evils Propitious gods have given us, Cassiopea. Pursued by panic the Assyrian flees Abandoning our borders. - CASSIOPEA And I have got My children's faces back upon my bosom. What gratitude can ever recompense That godlike youth whose swift and glorious rescue Lifted us out of Hell so radiantly ? . CYDONE He has taken his payment in one small white coin Mounted with gold; and more he will not ask for. CASSIOPEA

SCENE IV   On the road to the sea-shore. Phineus and his Tyrians. PHINEUS A mighty power confounds our policies. Is't Heaven? is't Fate? What's left me, I will take. 'TIS best to rescue young Andromeda From the wild mob and bear her home to Tyre. She, when the roar is over, will be left My claim to Syria's prostrate throne, which force, If not diplomacy shall re-erect And Tyre become the Syrian capital. I hear the trampling of the rascal mob. CRIES (outside) Drag her more quickly To the rocks! to the rocks' Glory to great Poseidon! PHINEUS Tyrians, be ready.                      

PERSEUS THE DELIVERER   Part - I   The Legend of Perseus     ACRISIUS, the Argive king, warned by an oracle that his daughter's son would be the agent of his death, hoped to escape his doom by shutting her up in a brazen tower. But Zeus, the King of the Gods, descended into her prison in a shower of gold and Danae bore to him a son named Perseus. Danaë and her child were exposed in a boat without sail or oar on the sea, but here too fate and the gods intervened and, guided by a divine protection, the boat bore her safely to the Island of Seriphos. There Danaë was received and honoured by the King. When Perseus had grown to manhood the King, wis

SCENE II.   Cydone's garden. Cydone, Iolaus, Perseus. CYDONE , Perseus, you did not turn him into stone? IOLAUS You cruelty! must one go petrifying One's fellows through the world? 'Twould not be decent. CYDONE He would have been so harmless as a statue! PERSEUS The morning has broken over Syria and the sun Mounts royally into his azure kingdom. I feel a stir within me as if great things Were now in motion and clear-eyed Athene Urging me on to high and helpful deeds. There is a grandiose tumult in the air, A voice of gods and Titans locked i

SCENE III   Darkness. The Temple of Poseidon. Polydaon enters.   POLYDAON Cireas! Why, Cireas! Cireas! Knave, I call you! Is the rogue drunk or sleeps ? Cireas! you, Cireas! My voice comes echoing from the hollow shrine To tell me of solitude. Where is this drunkard ? A dreadful thing it is to stand alone In this weird temple. Forty years of use Have not accustomed me to its mute threatening. It seems to me as if dead victims moved With awful faces all about this stone Invisibly here palpable. And Ocean Groans ever like a wounded god aloud Against our rocky base, his vo

SCENE VI     Near the edge of the forest in Avunthie. Roomunwath, Yougundharayan, Alurca, Munjoolica, forces. ROOMUNWATH Stay, stay our march; 'tis Vuthsa's car arrives. The tired horses stumble as they pause. YOUGUNDHARAYAN There is a noise of armies close behind And out of woods the Avunthian wheels emerge. There arrive Vuthsa, Vicurna, Vasavadutta. VUTHSA My father, all things to their hour are true And I bring back my venture. Am I pardoned Its secrecy? YOUGUNDHARAYAN My pupil and son no more, But hero and monarch! Thou hast set thy foot Upon Avunthie's

Act Four   SCENE I     Swegn's fastness in the hills. Swegn, Hardicnut, Ragnar, with soldiers. SWEGN Fight on, fight always, till the gods are tired. In all this dwindling remnant of the past Desires one man to rest from virtue, cease From desperate freedom? HARDICNUT No man wavers here. SWEGN Let him depart unhurt who so desires. HARDICNUT Why should he go and whither? To Eric's sword That never pardons ? If our hearts were vile, Unworthily impatient of defeat, Serving not harassed right but chance and gain, Eric himself would keep them true. SWEGN    

  SCENE II   In the Temple of Poseidon. Cireas.   CIREAS I am done with thee, Poseidon Ennosigaios, man-slayer, ship-breaker, earth-shaker, lord of the waters! Never was faithful service so dirtily rewarded. In all these years not a drachma, not an obolus, not even a false coin for solace. And. when thou hadst mocked me with hope, when a Prince had promised me all my findings, puttest thou me off with two pauperized merchants of Babylon? What, thou takest thy loud ravenous glut of the treasures that should have been mine and roarest. derision at me with thy hundred-voiced laughters? Am I a sponge to suck up these insults? No!

SCENE IV       The same. Antiochus, Eunice, Rodogune. ANTIOCHUS , I put my hand on Antioch. Thou hast done well, O admirable quick Theramenes. This fight was lionlike. EUNICE         And like the lion Thou art, my warrior, thou canst now descend Upon Seleucus' city. How new 'twill seem After the mountains and the starlit skies To sleep once more in Antioch! RODOGUNE              I trust the stars And mountains better. They were kind to me. My blood within me chills when I look forward And think of Antioch. ANTIOCHUS These are the shadows from a clouded past

ERIC A dramatic romance CHARACTERS     ERIC SWEGN HARDICNUT RAGNAR GUNTHAR HARALD ASLAUG HERTHA   SCENE : Eric's Palace in his town of Yara. The Mountains, Swegn's Fastness.   Page – 473   Facsimile of a page from ERIC  Page – 475