 | Ulysses |  |
11
PROLOGUE
The curtain rising discloses the summit of Olympus, an amphitheatre of marble hills in a glimmering light of dawn: where the hills fall away, a distant view of the world, with countries and rivers, is seen far below. Near the front are the seats of the gods, cut in an irregular semicircle in the rock. As the scene progresses the morning light grows clearer, descending gradually from the mountain summit over the figures of the assembled gods. In the centre, Zeus, with the empty seat of Hera beside him; to his right Athene,12
Athene.
[Comes forward with outstretched arms.]
Father, whose oath in hollow hell is heard;
Whose act is lightning after thunder-word;
A boon! a boon! that I compassion find
For one, the most unhappy of mankind.
Zeus.
How is he named?
Ath.
Ulysses.
[Poseidon starts forward, but is checked by Zeus.
He who planned
To take the towered city of Troy-land;
A mighty spearsman, and a seaman wise,
A hunter, and at need a lord of lies.
With woven wiles he stole the Trojan town
Which ten years' battle could not batter down:
Oft hath he made sweet sacrifice to thee.
Zeus.
[Nodding benevolently.]
I mind me of the savoury smell.
13
Yet he,
When all the other captains had won home,
Was whirled about the wilderness of foam;
For the wind and the wave have driven him evermore
Mocked by the green of some receding shore;
Yet over wind and wave he had his will,
Blistered and buffeted, unbaffled still.
Ever the snare was set, ever in vain;
The Lotus Island and the Siren strain;
Through Scylla and Charybdis hath he run,
Sleeplessly plunging to the setting sun.
Who hath so suffered, or so far hath sailed,
So much encountered, and so little quailed?
Zeus.
What wouldst thou?
Ath.
This! that he at last may view
The smoke of his own fire upcurling blue.
Poseidon.
[Starting forward with menacing gesture.]
Father of Gods, this man hath stricken blind
My dear son Polyphemus, and with wind,
With tempest and a roaring wall of waves,
I fling him backward from the shore he craves.
14
We soon shall lack all reverence below;
It will be said, ‘The arm of Zeus doth shake,
Let none henceforward at his thunder quake!’
[Zeus moves uneasily.
This man is mine!
[Strikes trident on ground.]
By me let him be hurled
From sea to sea, and dashed about the world!
Ath.
Hath not Ulysses through such travail trod
As might appease even anger of a god?
Monarch of monstrous rage—
[With furious gesture at Poseidon.
Thou who dost launch
The crested seas in streaming avalanche!
Lord of the indiscriminate earthquake throe,
Of huge and random elemental blow,
Thou who dost drink up ships, and swallow down
Alike the pious and the impious town,
Whose causeless fury maketh men mistrust
If there be gods, or if those gods be just;
15
Thy genius ruin, and thy being strife!
Pos.
[Tauntingly.]
And thou, demure defender of chaste lives,
Smooth patroness of virgins and of wives,
I'll pluck from thee the veil thy craft doth wear,
The secret burning of thy heart declare.
Thy marble front of maidenhood conceals
Such wandering passion as a wanton feels.
What is thy heavenly sympathy but this,
To find occasion for Ulysses' kiss?
I will proclaim thee to Olympus—
[Poseidon and Athene start forward threatening each other with trident and lance.
Zeus.
Peace,
Children, and from your shrill reviling cease!
Do thou, Poseidon, for thy part, revere
The dower of her divinity severe:
And, daughter, gird not at his gloomier might,
His spoil of morning wrecks from furious night.
Endowed is he with violence by that law
Which gives thee wisdom—and thy father awe.
16
Of reverence speak'st thou? Then Ulysses urge
Back to his home irreverence to scourge;
There weeps his wife Penelope, hard driven
By men who spurn at law and laugh at heaven.
A swarm of impious wooers waste his halls,
Devour his substance and corrupt his thralls:
They cry about her that her lord is dead,
They bay around her for the marriage bed—
Zeus.
[Solemnly.]
Ulysses shall return!
Pos.
[Starting forward.]
Cloud-gatherer, stay!
Zeus.
Yet canst thou work him mischief on the way.
In thy moist province none can interfere;
There thou alone art lord, as I am here.
Where bides the man?
Ath.
Calypso this long while
Detains him in her languorous ocean-isle,
Ogygia, green on the transparent deep.
There did she hush his spirit into sleep,
And all his wisdom swoons beneath the charm
Of her deep bosom and her glimmering arm.
17
And dreamy bondage on the Witching Isle.
Zeus.
[Oracularly.]
Go, Hermes, and unweave her magic art.
Then let him choose; to linger, or depart.
Yet ere he touch at last his native shore,
Ulysses must abide one labour more.
Athene.
Say! say!
Zeus.
The shadowy region must he tread,
And breathing pace, amid the breathless dead,
The track of terror and the slope of gloom,
To learn from ghosts the tidings of his doom.
Ath.
O spare him, Father, spare him—
Zeus.
He must go
From dalliance to the dolorous realm below.
Ath.
Remember, sire, she snared with spells his will,
But his deep heart for home is hungering still.
Hermes.
[Mischievously, pointing at Apollo.]
And, sire, remember, we are gods, yet we
From human frailties were not ever free.
If even immortals genially stray,
18
But lately the sun-god himself was seen
Snatching at Daphne's robe upon the green.
Aphrodite.
[With soft insinuation.]
And even thou, O Father—in thy youth—
Didst feel, at least for mortal women, ruth.
To Leda, Leto, Danaë, we are told,
Didst show thee on occasion tender—
[Zeus thunders softly. General suppressed laughter among the gods Zeus thunders loudly: all the gods abase themselves.
Zeus.
Hold!
'Tis true that earthly women had their share
In this large bosom's universal care,
That Danaë, Leda, Leto, all had place
In my most broad beneficent embrace:
True that we gods who on Olympus dwell
With mortal passion sympathise too well.
[Sighs deeply.
But, daughter, 'tis not I that do impose
Upon Ulysses this the last of woes.
19
Than to expound eternal sapience.
It is that power which rules us as with rods,
Lord above lords and god behind the gods;
Fate hath decreed Ulysses should abide
More toils and fiercer than all men beside:
Heavily homeward must he win his way
Through lure, through darkness, anguish, and delay.
Ath.
Yet swear he shall return!
Zeus.
If he can dare
Through shadow of the grave to reach the air.
Ath.
Then swear it by the Styx!
Zeus.
I swear it.
[Rolling thunder is heard beneath.
Herm.
Hark!
'Tis ratified by rivers of the dark!
Ath.
I'll to Telemachus his son, and fire
His heart to prove him worthy of his sire.
[To Hermes.
Thou to Ogygia in the violet sea,
To touch Ulysses and to set him free.
[Exit Athene.
20
And I, Ulysses, will thy bark waylay!
And though thou must return, thou shalt not say
Thou wast afflicted lightly on the way.
[Exit Poseidon.
Zeus.
[To Hermes.]
Hermes, command Calypso to release
Ulysses, and to waft him over seas;
Yet she shall not forewarn him that his fate
Permits him homeward but through Hades' gate.
Exit Hermes.
[To Ganymede.]
The cup, bright Ganymede! Ah, from the first
The guiding of this globe engendered thirst.
[Zeus drinks: Olympus fades.
| Ulysses | |