University of Virginia Library

SCENE III.

Pisthetærus, Chorus, Iris.
Pisthetærus.
Hilloah! thou! whither, whither in such haste?
Halt; stay thy flight; stand where thou art; advance not.
Who art thou? whence? thou shouldst have told ere now.

Iris.
From the Gods, I, th'Olympians.

Pisthetærus.
What thy name?
Vessel or herald's cap?

Iris.
Iris the swift.

Pisthetærus.
Paralus or Salaminian?

Iris.
Why? what's here?

Pisthetærus.
Will not some buzzard fly and seize her?

Iris.
Me?
Seize me? And what, the mischief! means all this?

Pisthetærus.
O thou shalt have it soundly.

Iris.
Strange this! Strange!

Pisthetærus.
Through what gates hast thou come within our wall,
Thou most audacious?

Iris.
I know not, I, by Jove,
Thorough what gates.

Pisthetærus.
Heard'st thou that, how she scoffs us?
Didst go to th'captain's guard of jackdaws? hast thou
The signet from the storks? Sayst?

Iris.
What? the mischief!

Pisthetærus.
Didst take it?

Iris.
Art i'thy senses?

Pisthetærus.
Nor did none
O'th'birds that are in command pass thee the sign?

Iris.
By Jove, wretch! none.

Pisthetærus.
And dost thou then in silence
Fly through a foreign state and chaos thus?

Iris.
What other way should the Gods fly?

Pisthetærus.
That, by Jupiter,
Is more than I can tell; but not by this.
And thou'rt e'en now on trespass. Know'st thou not
Of all the Irises that ever were,
None ever was more justly doom'd to die
Than thou, being ta'en thus, if thou'dst thy desert?

Iris.
But I am deathless.

Pisthetærus.
Yet thou shouldst have died.
For 'twere intolerable methinks if we
O'er others ruled, and you Gods lived as rebels,
Nor should acknowledge that to us in turn
Allegiance must be paid, as to your betters.
But tell me whither are thy pennons bound?

Iris.
Mine? From the Father down to men,—to bid them
Do sacrifice unto the Olympian Gods,
Slay victims on our sacrificial shrines,
And steam the ways with fat.

Pisthetærus.
To what Gods sayst thou?

Iris.
To what? To us, the Gods in heav'n.

Pisthetærus.
Ye! Gods?

Iris.
And who is God beside?

Pisthetærus.
The birds to men
Are now the Gods, to whom they must do sacrifice;
But, by Jove, not to Jove.

Iris.
Fool! fool! beware
How thou dost stir the terrible mind o'th'Gods,
Lest all the generation of ye doom'd
To ruin, justice with Jove's spade upset,
And sooty blaze thy body, house and all,
Resolve to ashes with Licymnian bolts.

Pisthetærus.
Hearken thyself. No more of this wild rant:
Be still: for whether dost thou think to scare
Some Lydian slave or Phrygian with these bugbears?
Know'st thou if Jove shall anger me yet more,
That I his roofs and houses of Amphion
Will with fire-bearing eagles burn to ashes?
And up to heav'n flamingos will I send,
Porphyrion fowls against him, and all cased
In leopard's skins, more than six thousand of them.
He knows how one Porphyrion plagued him once.
And thou, if thou shalt anger me a whit,
Shalt try an old man's prowess, my coy lady.
So shalt thou wonder enough, young mistress Wonder!

Iris.
Thou and thy words be split. Confusion to thee!

Pisthetærus.
Whew! whew! wilt not be off? wilt not whirr with thee?

Iris.
If my father doth not make thee smart for this—

Pisthetærus.
Gramercy, madam: to some younger spark;
And him resolve to ashes an thou wilt.

Chorus.
Aloud we declare
That of Jupiter's Gods
None henceforth should dare
To pass our abodes.
Nor in sacrifice
Let a mortal again
Presume from his fane
To send any incense this way to the skies.