Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/437

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I will pass in, and what befits devise.

So be it. I am resolved: my path is clear.

I go; for I must needs march sword in hand,

Or do according unto thine advice.

Women, the man sets foot within the toils.

The Bacchants—and death's penalty—shall he find.

Dionysus, play thy part now; thou art near:

Let us take vengeance. Craze thou first his brain,

Indarting sudden madness. Whole of wit,

Ne'er will he yield to don the woman's robe:

Yet shall he don, driven wide of reason's course.

I long withal to make him Thebes' derision,

In woman-semblance led the city through,

After the erstwhile terrors of his threats.

I go, to lay on Pentheus the attire

Which he shall take with him to Hades, slain

By a mother's hands. And he shall know Zeus' son

Dionysus, who hath risen at last a God

Most terrible, yet kindest unto men.

Ah, shall my white feet in the dances gleam

The livelong night again? Ah, shall I there

Float through the Bacchanal's ecstatic dream,

Tossing my neck into the dewy air?—