 | Ulysses |  |
SCENE I
A gloomy barren shore, with black broken cliffs and a few cowering trees: at the back the entrance to a vast cave. Enter Ulysses slowly, armed and carrying a hunting spear; he gazes about him.Ulys.
A dark land and a barren! Hither urged
By strange and cold compulsion of the sea,
What hope for us of shelter or of food?
A grassless, fruitless, unsustaining shore!
I have outpaced my comrades [Calls]
Phocion!
Elpenor! The gods lied to me who swore
That we should see our homes again. Yet now,
What breathèd sweetness as of blended flowers?
Nearer and nearer still!
68
Athene! Thou!
Preceded by the fragrance of thy soul.
Ath.
Ulysses, know'st thou to what land thou art come?
Ulys.
I know not, but I know the gods did lie
Who swore that I should see at last my home.
Ath.
The gods lied not, for thou shalt see thy home.
Ulys.
[Eagerly.]
Ah!
Ath.
If thou hast but courage to descend
Thither; to gather tidings of thy land
There, in the dark world, and win back thy way.
Ulys.
What world?
Ath.
Doth not the region even now
Strike to thy heart? These warning cypress trees,
This conscious umbrage cowering to the ground,
The creeping up of the slow fearful foam;
Rocks rooted in the terror of some cry
That rang in the beginning of the world:
All nature frighted into barrenness.
69
And this no other than the door of hell!
[Ulysses falls on his face.
Swoonest thou down, Ulysses? Wouldst thou see
Thy home?
Ulys.
My home, alas!
Ath.
Thither! Wouldst thou
Catch to thy breast thy wife?
Ulys.
My wife, my wife!
Ath.
Thither!
Ulys.
[Rising wildly.]
Who should endure this? Back to the sea!
Back to the wild sea! Farewell, Ithaca!
To the wild winds! Penelope, farewell!
[Makes to go.
Ath.
Ulysses!
[He stops.
Hast thou that in thee which I
Have vaunted of thee 'mid the mighty gods,
And have stood surety for thee in high heaven?
Ulys.
Hast thou no pity?
Ath.
More than ever a woman;
But as my pity, so my pride in thee.
70
Why unto me, to me alone, is heaven
For ever cruel? Have I not borne enough,
Cyclops and Sirens and Charybdis' whirl,
Ogre and witch and dreadful swoop of winds,
That hell now stands between me and my home?
Ath.
The Power that is behind the gods decrees
To make a fiery trial of thy spirit.
Ulys.
Is there no other way?
Ath.
Thither alone,
Led by cold Hermes, who alone of gods
May pass that portal. Now, Ulysses, learn
What first must be encountered, and o'ercome.
Right in the threshold Hunger stands, and Hate,
And gliding Murder with his lighted face,
And Madness howling, Fear, and neighing Lust,
And Melancholy with her moony smile,
And Beauty with blood dripping from her lips.
Then shalt thou view the inmost house of woe,
And all the faint unhappy host of hell.
If these thou canst endure and pass, thou shalt
71
Emerge and come at last to thine own land.
Ulys.
The gods lay on me more than I can bear.
Ath.
Thy native shore!
Ulys.
The darkness and the dead!
Ath.
Thy warm fire-blaze!
Ulys.
The grave and all the grief!
Ath.
Voice of thy wife!
[Faint wailings from the abyss.
Ulys.
That crying from the deep
Ath.
Dare, dare it!
Ulys.
Is it sworn I shall return
Upward and homeward?
Ath.
In thy will it lies.
Thou, thou alone canst issue out of hell.
Ulys.
Then? Then?
Ath.
Thou shalt return. Zeus give thy voice.
[Thunder.
Ulys.
I go!
Ath.
Now thou art mine!
[She vanishes.
72
[Heard off.]
Ulysses! Where?
Enter Comrades.
Elpenor.
We have found thee, captain!
Another.
Does this land give aught
That we can eat?
Another.
Or drink?
Another.
O good roast flesh!
Another.
Even bread were something.
Another.
Great Ulysses, speak!
[Ulysses remains with fixed gaze on the entrance of the cave.
Another.
What hast thou speared for supper, hunter fleet?
[Ulysses slowly turns and looks on them.
Ulys.
Listen!
[A sound of cries, at first faint, rises. They all come round him fearfully. Three times the cries arise, each time louder.
Phocion.
Who are they that cry up from the earth?
Ulys.
The dead!
Com.
The dead!
73
And this? What is the place?
Ulys.
We now are standing at the door of hell!
[They shudder away from him in silence, all but Phocion.
Phoc.
Come! come away!
Ulys.
No! for I must descend.
Thus only can we reach our homes again.
Phoc.
In every peril have I been with thee:
Let me be with thee here!
Ulys.
[Tenderly.]
My Phocion!
Elp.
I am an old, old man! am long forgotten
Even by my dearest. Let me go with thee!
Ulys.
It may not be: leave me, and say no word!
[They gradually disappear.
[Ulysses advances and peers into the dark. A long solitary cry causes him to reel back, and he seems to hesitate when again Athene
74
Herm.
[Within.]
Ulysses!
Com.
[From a distance.]
Ulysses!
[Ulysses after a moment's pause gradually and fearfully descends.
| Ulysses | |