The Works of John Hookham Frere In Verse and Prose Now First Collected with a Prefatory Memoir by his Nephews W. E. and Sir Bartle Frere |
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HERCULES FURENS. |
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 | The Works of John Hookham Frere In Verse and Prose |  |
HERCULES FURENS.
Μη συ νουθετει, κ.τ.λ.
—l. 855.
—l. 855.
The Demon of Madness is represented as having a certain feeling of justice and right, averse to exercising her power, but at the same time having a pleasure in it. She has been remonstrating with Iris, who answers:
Iris.Don't remonstrate, Juno's order justifies you, never fear,
You've a warrant for your errand, and you come, commission'd here,
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Lissa.
Heaven and earth I call to witness. I protest and invocate,
Every power that sees and hears us, and the sun's all-viewing eye,
To record that, as a vassal, on compulsion I comply.
Since the fates have so decreed it, and you bring me tied and bound,
Train'd to chase the prey before me, like a huntsman with a hound,
Here I go then!—Nor the tempest, nor the deep earth quaking shock,
Nor the speed of angry lightning, nor the bolt that splits the rock,
With a fiercer haste and heat shall hurry than shall I to seize,
And overturn and storm the breast and brain of Hercules.
First, I mean to slay the children, nor shall he—the father—he,
Know the deed his hands are doing, 'till I leave his spirit free.
—Now the storm begins to shake him—life and death are in debate,—
—Look before you—there! behold him—low'ring at the palace gate—
Mark the turn his eyes are taking—and the forehead, bending low,
Breathing hard and angry like the bull that meditates a blow—
Invocating earth and hell, and all the dreary powers below.
There you stand entranced and idle! I shall rouse and shake ye soon—
Hand in hand, a surly partner dancing to a bloody tune.
—Iris, hence! to fair Olympus, speed aloft your airy flight.—
I proceed within the palace—creeping onward out of sight.
| The Works of John Hookham Frere In Verse and Prose | |