SCENE V     A room in Vasavadutta's apartments. VASAVADUTTA I govern no longer what I speak and do.. Is this the fire my mother spoke of? Oh, It is sweet, it is sweet. But I will not be mastered By any equal creature. Let him serve Obediently and I will load his lovely head With costliest favours. He's my own, my own, My slave, my toy to play with as I choose, And shall not dare to play with me. I think he dares; I do not know, I think he would presume. He's gentle, brilliant, bold and beautiful. I'll send for him and chide and put him down, I'll chide him harshly; he must not presume. O,1 have forgotten almo

Act Five SCENE I     Eric, Gunthar, Swegn, Aslaug, Hertha. ERIC Not by love only, but by force and love. ' This man must lower his fierceness to the fierce, He must be beggared of the thing left, his pride And know himself for clay. He could not honour¹ This unfamiliar movement of my soul But would contemn and think my seated strength Had changed to trembling. Sound² the audience-gong,³ Herald. The master of my stars is he Who owns no master. Odin, what is this play, Thou playest with thy world, of fall and rise,, Of death, birth, greatness, ruin? The time m

SCENE II   The same. Perseus descends on winged sandals from the clouds. PERSEUS Rocks on the outland jagged with the sea, You slumbering promontories whose huge backs Jut into azure, and thou, O many-thundered Enormous Ocean, hail! Whatever lands Are ramparted with these forbidding shores, Yet if you hold felicitous roofs of men, Homes of delightful laughter, if you have streams Where chattering girls dip in their pitchers cool And dabble their white feet in the chill lapse Of waters, trees and a green-mantled earth, Cicalas noisy in a million boughs Or happy cheep of

SCENE II   A room in the women's apartments of the palace. Andromeda, Diomede, Praxilla. ANDROMEDA  My brother lives then? PRAXILLA Thanks to Tyre, it seems. DIOMEDE Thanks to the wolf who means to eat him later. PRAXILLA You'll lose your tongue some morning; rule it, girl. DIOMEDE These kings, these politicians, these high masters! These wise blind men! We slaves have eyes at least To look beyond transparency. PRAXILLA Because We stand outside the heated game unmoved By interests, fears and passions. ANDROMEDA He is a wolf, for

Act Three   The palace in Antioch.   SCENE I     The Audience Chamber in the palace. Nicanor, Phayllus and others seated;  Eunice, Philoctetes.., Thoas  apart near the dais. THOAS Is it patent ? Is he the elder ? do we know ? EUNICE Should he not rule? THOAS If Fate were wise, he should. EUNICE Will Timocles sack great Persepolis ? Sooner, I think, Phraates will couch here, The mighty, steadfast, patient subtle man, And from the loiterer take, the sensualist Antioch of the Seleucidae. THOAS Perhaps. But shall I rise against the country's laws

SCENE III       Before the Syrian hills. Antiochus' tent. Antiochus, Thoas, Leosthenes, Philoctetes. PHILOCTETES This is Phayllus' work, the Syrian mongrel. Who could have thought he'ld raise against us Greece And half this Asia ? ANTIOCHUS He has a brain. THOAS                       We feel it. This fight's our latest and one desperate chance Still smiles upon our fate. ANTIOCHUS Nicanor yields it us, Scattering his armies; for if we can seize, Before he gathers in his distant strengths, This middle pass, Antioch comes with it. So I find it best and think the gods d

SCENE III   The Palace of Cepheus. A room in the women's apartments. Praxilla, to her enters Diomede. DIOMEDE , O Praxilla, Praxilla! PRAXILLA So, thou art back, thou tall inutility? Where wert thou lingering all this hour? I am tired of always whipping thee. I will hire thee out to a timber-merchant to carry logs from dawn to night-fall. Thou shalt learn what labour is. DIOMEDE Praxilla, O Praxilla! I am full to the throat with news. I pray you, rip me open. PRAXILLA Willingly. She advances towards her with an uplifted knife. DIOMEDE (escaping) A plague

SCENE III     Avunthie, a wooded hill-side overlooking the plain. Gopalaca in a chariot with Vuthsa; armed men surround them.   GOPALACA Arrest our wheels. Those are our army's lights That climb to us like fireflies from the plain. VUTHSA (awakened from sleep) Is this Avunthie? GOPALACA We have passed her bounds. VUTHSA So, thou dear traitor, this thou from the first Cam'st planning? GOPALACA This and more for which it was done. VUTHSA Thou bearst me to thy father's house ? GOPALACA Where thou Shalt lie a jewel guarded

Act Three The chamber of Eric. SCENE I     Eric, Harald. ERIC At dawn have all things ready for my march. I come not back without the head of Swegn Or else his living body. Send to me¹ Aslaug the dancing-girl.                                                                        Harald goes out. I have resumed The empire with² the knowledge of myself. For this strong angel Love, this violent And glorious guest, let it possess my heart Without a rival, not invade the brain, Not with imperious discord cleave my soul Jangling its various³ harmonies, nor turn The manifold music of humanity Into a single

CONTENTS OF THE CENTENARY LIBRARY Volume 1 Volume 2 Volume 3 Volume 4 Volume 5 Volume 6 Volume 7 Volume 8 Volume 9 Volume 10 Volume 11 Bande Mataram, EARLY POLITICAL WRITINGS—I (1893-1908): New Lamps for Old; Bhawani Mandir; The Doctrine of Passive Resistance; editorials and comments from the Bande Mataram; Speeches. Karmayogin, EARLY POLITICAL WRITINGS—II (1909-1910): Uttarpara Speech; The Ideal of the. Karmayogin; An Open Letter to My Countrymen; other essays, notes and comments