Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/411

Rh

Ah wretch, thou knowest not what thou hast said!

Thou'rt stark-mad now, who erst wast sense-bereft.

Let us go, Kadmus, and make intercession

Both for this man, brute savage though he be,

And Thebes, that no strange vengeance of the God

Smite them. Come with me, ivy-wand in hand,

Essay to upbear my frame, as I do thine.

Shame if two greybeards fell!—nay, what of that?

For Bacchus, Son of Zeus, we needs must serve.

Kadmus, beware lest Pentheus bring his echo,

Repentance, to thine house:—not prophecy here

Speaks, but his own deeds. Fools alone speak folly.

[Exeunt.

O Sanctity, thou who dost bear dominion

Over Gods, yet low as this earthly ground,

Unto usward, stoopest thy golden pinion,—

Hear'st thou the words of the king, and the sound

Of his blast of defiance, of Pentheus assailing

The Clamour-king?—hear'st thou his blasphemous railing

On Semelê's son, who is foremost found

Of the Blest in the festival beauty-crowned?—

Who hath for his own prerogative taken

To summon forth feet through his dances to leap,