SCENE III       The same. Eunice, Rodogune.   RODOGUNE Will they not let me go and see him even ? EUNICE We'll make our way to him and put for him To Egypt, Egypt. RODOGUNE There's only one joy left: To be with him whether we live or die. EUNICE You are too meek. Cleone helps us here Whatever be the spring of her strange pity. When we come back, Phayllus, we shall find out Whether the ingenuity of men Holds tortures huge enough for your deserts. RODOGUNE Why do you pace about with flaming eyes ? Be still and sit and put your h

Act Two   SCENE I   The audience-chamber, in the Palace of Cepheus. Cepheus and Cassiopea, seated. CASSIOPEA What will you do, Cepheus? CEPHEUS This that has happened Is most unfortunate. CASSIOPEA What will you do ? I hope you will not give up to the priest My Iolaus' golden head ? I hope You do not mean that? CEPHEUS Great Poseidon's priest Sways all this land: for from the liberal blood Moistening that high-piled altar grow our harvests And strong Poseidon satisfied defends Our frontiers from the loud Assyrian menace. CASSIOPEA Empty thy treasuries, glut him

SCENE II   The Temple of Poseidon.   Polydaon, Therops, Dercetes, Cydone, Damoetes and a great number of Syrians, men and women. Iolaus stands bound, a little  to the side: Cepheus and Cassiopea surrounded by armed men. POLYDAON Cepheus and Cassiopea, man and woman, Not sovereigns now, you see what end they have Who war upon the gods. CASSIOPEA To see thy end My eyes wait only. POLYDAON Let them see something likelier, Is't not thy son who wears those cords and that An altar ? What! the eyes are drowned in tears Where fire was once so ready! Where is thy pride, O C

SCENE II     The pleasure-groves of the palace in Ujjayinie. Gopalaca, Vuthsa, Vicurna; at a distance under the trees Ungarica, Vasavadutta and Umba. GOPALACA Vuthsa, the wine is singing in my brain, The moonlight floods my soul. These are the hours When the veil for eye and ear is almost rent And we can hear wind-haired Gundharvas sing In a strange luminous ether. Thou art one, Vuthsa, who has escaped the bars and walks Smiling and harping to enchanted men. VUTHSA It was your earthly moonlight drew me here And thou, Gopalaca, and Vindhya's hills And Vasavadutta. Thou shalt drink with me In m

SCENE V   The sea-shore.   Andromeda, dishevelled, bare-armed and unsandalled, stripped of  all but a single light robe, stands on a wide low ledge under a  rock jutting out from the cliff with the sea washing below her feet.  She is chained to a rock behind her by her wrists and ankles, her  arms stretched at full length against its side. Polydaon, Perissus, Damoetes and a number of Syrians stand near  on the great rocky platform projecting from the cliff of which the  ledge is the extremity. POLYDAON There meditate affronts to dire Poseidon. Rescue thyself, thou rescuer of victims! I am sorry

SCENE III     Under the Syrian hills. Antiochus, his generals, soldiers, Eunice, Rodogune, Mentho. ANTIOCHUS What god has moved them from their passes sheer Where they were safe from me ? THOAS They have had word, No doubt, to take us living. LEOSTHENES On! THOAS They are Three thousand, we six hundred armed men. Shall we go forward ? LEOSTHENES Onward still, I say! ANTIOCHUS Yes, on! I turn not back lest my proud Fate Avert her eyes from me. A hundred guard The princesses.                                                   

SCENE II     Eric, Hertha. ERIC I sent for thee to know thy name and birth. HERTHA My name is Hertha and my birth too mean To utter before Norway's lord. ERIC Yet speak. HERTHA A Trondhjem peasant and a serving-girl Were parents to me. ERIC And from such a stock Thy beauty and thy wit and grace were born? HERTHA The gods prodigiously sometimes reverse The common rule of Nature and compel Matter with soul. How else should it be guessed That gods exist at all? ERIC Who nurtured thee? HERTHA A da

SCENE II     The colonnade of a house in Antioch, overlooking the sea. Antiochus, Philoctetes. ANTIOCHUS The summons comes not and my life still waits. PHILOCTETES Patience, beloved Antiochus. Even now He fronts the darkness. ANTIOCHUS                                 Nothing have I spoken As wishing for his death. His was a mould That should have been immortal. But since all Are voyagers to one goal and wishing's vain To hold one traveller back, I keep my hopes. O Philoctetes, we who missed his life, Should have the memory of his end! Unseen He goes from us into the shades unknown:

  SCENE IV     A guard-room in the palace. Antiochus, alone. ANTIOCHUS What were Death then but wider life than earth Can give us in her clayey limits bound ? Darkness perhaps! There must be light behind.             As he speaks, Phayllus enters. Who is it? PHAYLLUS Phayllus and thy conqueror. ANTIOCHUS In some strange warfare then! PHAYLLUS            I came to see Before thy end the greatness that thou wert; For thou wert great as mortals measure. Thou hast An hour to live. ANTIOCHUS Shorter were better. PHAYLLUS

SCENE II   A hall in the palace at Cowsambie. Yougundharayan, Roomunwath. YOUGUNDHARAYAN I see his strength lie covered sleeping in flowers; Yet is a greatness hidden in his years. ROOMUNWATH Nourish not such large hopes. YOUGUNDHARAYAN I know too well The gliding bane that these young fertile soils Cherish in their green darkness; and my cares Watch to prohibit the nether snake who writhes Sweet-poisoned, perilous in the rich grass, Lust with the jewel love upon his hood, Who by his own crown must be charmed, seized, changed Into a warm great god. I seek a bride For Vuthsa. RO