Pyrganax. The words went thus: "Boeotia, choose reform or civil war, When through the streets, instead of hare with dogs, A Consort-Queen shall hunt a King with Hogs, Riding upon the Ionian Minotaur." Mammon. Now, if the oracle had ne'er foretold Or not; and so it must now that it has; Pyrganax. You Arch-priests Believe in nothing; if you were to dream Of a particular number in the lottery, You would not buy the ticket. Mammon. Yet our tickets Are seldom blanks. But what steps have you taken? For prophecies, when once they get abroad, Like liars who tell the truth to serve their ends, Or hypocrites who, from assuming virtue, Do the same actions that the virtuous do, Contrive their own fulfilment. This Iona- And still how popular the tale is here; And these dull Swine of Thebes boast their descent From the free Minotaur. You know they still And everything relating to a bull Is popular and respectable in Thebes : Their arms are seven bulls in a field gules; They think their strength consists in eating beef. Now there were danger in the precedent, If Queen Iona Pyrganax. I have taken good care That shall not be. I struck the crust o' the earth With this enchanted rod, and hell lay bare: And from a cavern full of ugly shapes I chose a Leech, a Gadfly, and a Rat. The Gadfly was the same which Juno sent Has a loud trumpet like the scarabee; His crooked tail is barbed with many stings, He sees fair things in many hideous shapes, This Gadfly should drive Iona hither? Pyrganax. Gods! what an if! But there is my grey Rat; So thin with want he can crawl in and out Of any narrow chink and filthy hole; And he shall creep into her dressing-room, And Mammon. My dear friend, where are your wits? as if She does not always toast a piece of cheese, And bait the trap? and rats, when lean enough To crawl through such chinks Pyrganax. But my Leech-a leech Fit to suck blood, with lubricous round rings, Capaciously expatiative, which make His little body like a red balloon, As full of blood as that of hydrogen, Sucked from men's hearts; insatiably he sucks And clings and pulls—a horseleech, whose deep maw And who, till full, will cling for ever. Mammon. For Queen Iona might suffice, and less. Pyrganax. Mammon. This Done what? Disinherited My eldest son Chrysaor, because he Attended public meetings, and would always Stand prating there of commerce, public faith, Economy, and unadulterate coin, And other topics ultra-radical; And have entailed my estate, called the Fool's Paradise, And funds, in fairy-money, bonds, and bills, Upon my accomplished daughter Banknotina, And married her to the Gallows. Pyrganax. A good match! Mammon. A high connexion, Pyrganax. The bridegroom Is of a very ancient family, Of Hounslow Heath, Tyburn, and the New Drop, The young playing at hanging, the elder learning And reads a select chapter in the bible Before it goes to play. Pyrganax. [A most tremendous humming is heard. Ha! what do I hear? Enter GADFLY, followed by LEECH and RAT. Mammon. Your Gadfly, as it seems, is tired of gadding. Hum! hum! hum! GADFLY. From the lakes of the Alps, and the cold grey scalps Hum! hum! hum! From Morocco and Fez, and the high palaces Of golden Byzantium; From the temples divine of old Palestine, From Athens and Rome, With a ha! and a hum! I come! I come! All in-doors and windows Were open to me: I saw all that sin does, Which lamps hardly see That burn in the night by the curtained bed,— From slumber I rung her, Loud as the clank of an ironmonger! Hum! hum! hum! Far, far, far, With the trump of my lips, and the sting at my hips, I drove her-afar! Far, far, far! From city to city, abandoned of pity, A ship without needle or star. Homeless she passed, like a cloud on the blast, Seeking peace, finding war. She is here in her car, From afar and afar Hum! hum! With canting and quirking, She could not be deader than she will be soon; I have hummed her and drummed her From place to place, till at last I have dumbed her. Hum! hum! hum! I will suck Blood or muck. LEECH. Creeping through crevice and chink and cranny, With my snaky tail and my sides so scranny. Pyrganax. Aroint ye! Thou unprofitable worm! And thou, dull beetle, get thee back to hell, SWINE (within). Ugh, ugh, ugh! Hail! Iona the divine! We will be no longer Swine, But Bulls with horns and dewlaps. RAT. You know, my lord, the Minotaur [To the LEECH. [To the GADFLY. For Pyrganax (fiercely). Be silent! get to hell, or I will call And spell some scheme to make it ugly then. Enter SWELLFOOT. Swellfoot. She is returned! Taurina is in Thebes, When Swellfoot wishes that she were in hell! O Hymen, clothed in yellow jealousy, And in the arms of Adiposa oft Her memory has received a husband's [Exit. {A loud tumult and cries of "Iona for ever!-No Swellfoot!" How the Swine cry "Iona Taurina !" Hark |