The Bacchae of Euripides - LightNovelsOnl.com
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Most oft by night; 'tis a majestic thing, The darkness.
PENTHEUS.
Ha! with women wors.h.i.+pping?
'Tis craft and rottenness!
DIONYSUS.
By day no less, Whoso will seek may find unholiness.
PENTHEUS.
Enough! Thy doom is fixed, for false pretence Corrupting Thebes.
DIONYSUS.
Not mine; but thine, for dense Blindness of heart, and for blaspheming G.o.d!
PENTHEUS.
A ready knave it is, and brazen-browed, This mystery-priest!
DIONYSUS.
Come, say what it shall be, My doom; what dire thing wilt thou do to me?
PENTHEUS.
First, shear that delicate curl that dangles there.
[_He beckons to the soldiers, who approach_ DIONYSUS.
DIONYSUS.
I have vowed it to my G.o.d; 'tis holy hair.
[_The soldiers cut off the tress._
PENTHEUS.
Next, yield me up thy staff!
DIONYSUS.
Raise thine own hand To take it. This is Dionysus' wand.
[PENTHEUS _takes the staff_.
PENTHEUS.
Last, I will hold thee prisoned here.
DIONYSUS.
My Lord G.o.d will unloose me, when I speak the word.
PENTHEUS.
He may, if e'er again amid his bands Of saints he hears thy voice!
DIONYSUS.
Even now he stands Close here, and sees all that I suffer.
PENTHEUS.
What?
Where is he? For mine eyes discern him not.
DIONYSUS.
Where I am! 'Tis thine own impurity That veils him from thee.
PENTHEUS.
The dog jeers at me!
At me and Thebes! Bind him!
[_The soldiers begin to bind him._
DIONYSUS.
I charge ye, bind Me not! I having vision and ye blind!
PENTHEUS.
And I, with better right, say bind the more!
[_The soldiers obey._
DIONYSUS.
Thou knowest not what end thou seekest, nor What deed thou doest, nor what man thou art!
PENTHEUS. (_mocking_).
Agave's son, and on the father's part Echion's, hight Pentheus!
DIONYSUS.
