'Twas the Gods' work-no mortal was in fault.

But, O great offspring of the Ocean King!
We pray thee and admonish thee with freedom,
That thou dost spare thy friends who visit thee,
And place no impious food within thy jaws.
For in the depths of Greece we have upreared
Temples to thy great father, which are all
His homes. The sacred bay of Tænarus
Remains inviolate, and each dim recess
Scooped high on the Malean promontory,
And aery Sunium's silver-veined crag,
Which divine Pallas keeps unprofaned ever,
The Gerastian asylums, and whate'er
Within wide Greece our enterprise has kept
From Phrygian contumely; and in which
You have a common care, for you inhabit
The skirts of Grecian land, under the roots
Of Ætna and its crags, spotted with fire.
Turn then to converse under human laws;
Receive us shipwrecked suppliants, and provide
Food, clothes, and fire, and hospitable gifts;
Nor, fixing upon oxen-piercing spits
Our limbs, so fill your belly and your jaws.
Priam's wide land has widowed Greece enough;
And weapon-winged murder heaped together
Enough of dead, and wives are husbandless,
And ancient women and grey fathers wail
Their childless age ;-if you should roast the rest,

And 'tis a bitter feast that you prepare,
Where then would any turn? Yet be persuaded;
Forego the lust of your jaw-bone; prefer
Pious humanity to wicked will;

Many have bought too dear their evil joys.

SILENUS.

Let me advise you; do not spare a morsel
Of all his flesh. If you should eat his tongue
You would become most eloquent, O Cyclops.

CYCLOPS.

Wealth, my good fellow, is the wise man's God;
All other things are a pretence and boast.
What are my father's ocean promontories,
The sacred rocks whereon he dwells, to me?
Stranger, I laugh to scorn Jove's thunderbolt,
I know not that his strength is more than mine.
As to the rest I care not.-When he pours
Rain from above, I have a close pavilion
Under this rock, in which I lie supine,
Feasting on a roast calf or some wild beast,
And drinking pans of milk, and gloriously
Emulating the thunder of high heaven.

And when the Thracian wind pours down the snow,

I wrap my body in the skins of beasts,
Kindle a fire, and bid the snow whirl on.
The earth by force, whether it will or no,
Bringing forth grass, fattens my flocks and herds,
Which, to what other God but to myself
And this great belly, first of deities,
Should I be bound to sacrifice? I well know
The wise man's only Jupiter is this,
To eat and drink during his little day,
And give himself no care. And as for those
Who complicate with laws the life of man,
I freely give them tears for their reward.
I will not cheat my soul of its delight,
Or hesitate in dining upon you :-
And that I may be quit of all demands,
These are my hospitable gifts ;-fierce fire
And yon ancestral cauldron, which o'erbubbling
Shall finely cook your miserable flesh.
Creep in!--

Soon as we came into this craggy place,
Kindling a fire, he cast on the broad heartl
The knotty limbs of an enormous oak,
Three waggon-loads at least, and then he strewed
Upon the ground, beside the red fire ligh,
His couch of pine leaves; and he milked he cows,
And pouring forth the white milk, filled a bowl
Three cubits wide and four in depth, much
As would contain four amphora, and bound it
With ivy wreaths; then placed upon the fire
A brazen pot to boil, and make re hot
The points of spits, not sharpener with the sickle,
But with a fruit-tree bough, andwith the jaws
Of axes for Ætnean slaughterigs*.

And when this God-abandone cook of hell
Had made all ready, he seize two of us,
And killed them in a kind o measured manner;
For he flung one against the brazen rivets
Of the huge cauldron, and seized the other
By the foot's tendon, andknocked out his brains
Upon the sharp edge of he craggy stone :
Then peeled his flesh with a great cooking knife,
And put him down to past. The other's limbs

He chopped into the Auldron to be boiled.
And I, with the tear raining from my eyes,
Stood near the Cyclps, ministering to him;
The rest, in the resses of the cave,
Clung to the rock ke bats, bloodless with fear.
When he was fill with my companions' flesh,
He threw himse upon the ground, and sent
A loathsome exalation from his maw.
Then a divine sought came to me. I filled
The cup of Mon, and I offered him

I confess I doot understand this.-Note of the Author.

To taste, and said :-"Child of the Ocean-God,
Behold what drink the vines of Greece produce,
The exultation and the joy of Bacchus."
He, satiated with his unnatural food,
Received it, and at one draught drank it off
And taking my hand, praised me:-"Thou hast
given

A sweet draught after a sweet meal, dear guest."
And I, perceiving that it pleased him, filled
Another cup, well knowing that the wine
Would wound him soon and take a sure revenge.
And the charm fascinated him, and I
Plied him cup after cup, until the drink
Had warmed his entrails, and he sang aloud
In concert with my wailing fellow-seamen
A hideous discord-and the cavern rung.
I have stolen out, so that if you will
You may achieve my safety and your own.
But say, do you desire, or not, to fly
This uncompanionable man, and dwell,

As was your wont, among the Grecian nymphs,
Within the fanes of your beloved God?
Your father there within agrees to it,
But he is weak and overcome with wine,
And caught as if with birdlime by the cup,
He claps his wings and crows in doating joy.
You who are young escape with me, and find
Bacchus your ancient friend; unsuited he
To this rude Cyclops.

CHORUS.

O my dearest friend,

That I could see that day, and leave for ever The impious Cyclops.

ULYSSES.

Listen then what a punishment I have For this fell monster, how secure a flight From your hard servitude.

CHORUS.

Oh sweeter far Than is the music of an Asian lyre Would be the news of Polypheme destroyed.

ULYSSES.

Delighted with the Bacchic drink, he goes To call his brother Cyclops-who inhabit A village upon Ætna not far off.

CHORUS.

I understand catching him when alone,
You think by some measure to despatch him,
Or thrust him from the precipice.

ULYSSES.

O no;

Nothing of that kind; my device is subtle.

CHORUS.

How then? I heard of old that thou wert wise.

ULYSSES.

I will dissuade him from this plan, by saying
It were unwise to give the Cyclopses
This precious drink, which if enjoyed alone
Would make life sweeter for a longer time.
When vanquished by the Bacchic power, he
sleeps,

There is a trunk of olive-wood within,
Whose point, having made sharp with this good
sword,

I will conceal in fire, and when I see
It is alight, will fix it, burning yet,
Within the socket of the Cyclops' eye,
And melt it out with fire-as when a man
Turns by its handle a great auger round,
Fitting the frame-work of a ship with beams,
So will I in the Cyclops' fiery eye
Turn round the brand, and dry the pupil up.

CHORUS.

Joy! I am mad with joy at your device.

ULYSSES.

And then with you, my friends, and the old man, We'll load the hollow depth of our black ship, And row with double strokes from this dread shore.

CHORUS.

May I, as in libations to a God,

Share in the blinding him with the red brand? I would have some communion in his death.

ULYSSES.

Doubtless; the brand is a great brand to hold.

CHORUS.

Oh! I would lift a hundred waggon-loads,
If like a wasp's nest I could scoop the eye out
Of the detested Cyclops.

ULYSSES.

Silence now!

Ye know the close device-and when I call,
Look ye obey the masters of the craft.
I will not save myself and leave behind
My comrades in the cave: I might escape,
Having got clear from that obscure recess,
But 'twere unjust to leave in jeopardy
The dear companions who sailed here with me.

CHORUS.

Come! who is first, that with his hand Will urge down the burning brand Through the lids, and quench and pierce The Cyclops' eye so fiery fierce ?

SEMI-CHORUS I. Song within. Listen! listen! he is coming, A most hideous discord humming, Drunken, museless, awkward, yelling, Far along his rocky dwelling; Let us with some comic spell Teach the yet unteachable. By all means he must be blinded, If my counsel be but minded.

SEMI-CHORUS II.

Happy those made odorous

With the dew which sweet grapes weep,
To the village hastening thus,

Seek the vines that soothe to sleep,
Having first embraced thy friend,
There in luxury without end,
With the strings of yellow hair,
Of thy voluptuous leman fair,
Shalt sit playing on a bed!-
Speak, what door is opened?

For God or mortal; or I needs must think
That Chance is a supreme divinity,
And things divine are subject to her power.

CHORUS.

Soon a crab the throat will seize
Of him who feeds upon his guest,
Fire will burn his lamp-like eyes
In revenge of such a feast!
A great oak stump now is lying
In the ashes yet undying.

Come, Maron, come!
Raging let him fix the doom,
Let him tear the eyelid up,
Of the Cyclops-that his cup
May be evil!

Oh, I long to dance and revel
With sweet Bromian, long desired,
In loved ivy-wreaths attired;

Leaving this abandoned home-
Will the moment ever come?