Of such exceeding delicacy, I think

We ought to put her majesty, the QUEEN,
Upon her trial without delay

Is here.

MAMMON.

THE BAG

PURCANAX.

I have rehearsed the entire scene

With an ox-bladder and some ditch-water,

On Lady P.-it cannot fail.

[Taking up the bag

Your majesty (to SWELLFOOT)

In such a filthy business had better

Stand on one side, lest it should sprinkle you.
A spot or two on me would do no harm;
Nay, it might hide the blood, which the sad genius
Of the Green Isle has fixed, as by a spell,
Upon my brow-which would stain all its seas,
But which those seas could never wash away!

IONA TAURINA.

My lord, I am ready-nay I am impatient,
To undergo the test.

[A graceful figure in a semitransparent veil passes unnoticed through the Temple; the word LIBERTY is seen through the veil, as if it were written in fire upon its forehead. Its words are almost drowned in the furious grunting of the Pigs, and the business of the trial. She kneels on the steps of the Altar, and speaks

in tones at first faint and low, but which ever become louder and louder.

LBIERTY.

Mighty Empress, Death's white wife,
Ghastly mother-in-law of life!

By the God who made thee such,
By the magic of thy touch,

By the starving and the cramming

Of fasts and feasts!--by thy dread self, O Famine!
I charge thee, when thou wake the multitude,
Thou lead them not upon the paths of blood.
The earth did never mean her foison
For those who crown life's cup with poison
Of fanatic rage and meaningless revenge-
But for those radiant spirits, who are still
The standard-bearers in the van of Change.
Be they th' appointed stewards, to fill
The lap of Pain, and Toil, and Age!
Remit, O Queen! thy accustom'd rage!
Be what thou art not! In voice faint and low
FREEDOM calls Famine, her eternal foe,
To brief alliance, hollow truce.—Rise now!

[Whilst the veiled figure has been chaunting the strophe, MAMMON, DAKRY, LAOCTONOS, and SWELLFOOT, have surrounded IONA TAURINA, who, with her hands folded on her breast, and her eyes lifted to Heaven, stands, as with saint-like resignation, to wait the issue of the business, in perfect confidence of her innocence. PURGANAX, after unsealing the GREEN BAG, is gravely

about to pour the liquor upon her head, when suddenly the whole expression of her figure and countenance

changes; she snatches it from his hand with a loud laugh of triumph, and empties it over SWELLFOOT and his whole Court, who are instantly changed into a number of filthy and ugly animals, and rush out of the Temple. The image of FAMINE then arises with a tremendous sound, the Pigs begin scrambling for the loaves, and are tripped up by the skulls; all those who eat the loaves are turned into Bulls, and arrange themselves quietly behind the altar. The image of FAMINE sinks through a chasm in the earth, and a MINOTAUR rises.

MINOTAUR.

I am the Ionian Minotaur, the mightiest
Of all Europa's taurine progeny ;

I am the old traditional man-bull;

And from my ancestors having been Ionian,
I am called Ion, which, by interpretation,
Is JOHN; in plain Theban, that is to say,
My name's JOHN BULL; I am a famous hunter,
And can leap any gate in all Bootia,

Even the palings of the royal park,

Or double ditch about the new inclosures;

And if your majesty will deign to mount me,
At least till you have hunted down your game,
I will not throw you.

IONA TAURINA.

[During this speech she has been putting on boots and spurs, and a hunting-cap, buckishly cocked on one side, and tucking up her hair, she leaps nimbly on his back. Ho, ho! tally-ho! tally-ho, ho, ho! Come, let us hunt these ugly badgers down,

These stinking foxes, these devouring otters,

These hares, these wolves, these anything but

men.

Hey, for a whipper-in! my loyal pigs,

Now let your noses be as keen as beagles',
Your steps as swift as greyhounds', and your cries
More dulcet and symphonious than the bells
Of village-towers, on sunshine holiday;
Wake all the dewy woods with jangling music.
Give them no law (are they not beasts of blood?)
But such as they gave you. Tally-ho, ho!
Through forest, furze, and bog, and den, and
desert,

Pursue the ugly beasts! Tally-ho, ho!

FULL CHORUS OF IONA AND THE SWINE.

Tally-ho, tally-ho!

Through rain, hail, and snow,

Through brake, gorse, and brier,

Through fen, flood, and mire,
We go, we go!

Tally-ho, tally-ho!

Through pond, ditch, and slough,
Wind them, and find them,
Like the Devil behind them!

Tally-ho, tally-ho!

[Exeunt, in full cry; Iona driving on the SWINE, with the empty GREEN Bag.

NOTE ON EDIPUS TYRANNUS

BY THE EDITOR.

In the brief journal I kept in those days, I find recorded In Angust, 1820, Shelley "begins Swellfoot the Tyrant, suggested by the pigs at the fair of San Giuliano." This was the period of Queen Caroline's landing in England, and the struggles made by George IV. to get rid of her claims; which failing, Lord Castlereagh placed the "Green Bag" on the table of the House of Commons, demanding, in the King's name, that an inquiry should be instituted into his wife's conduct. These circumstances were the theme of all conversation among the English. We were then at the Baths of San Giuliano; a friend came to visit us on the day when a fair was held in the square, beneath our windows. Shelley read to us his Ode to Liberty; and was riotously accompanied by the grunting of a quantity of pigs brought for sale to the fair. He compared it to the "chorus oi' frogs" in the satiric Crama of Aristophanes; and it being an hour of merriment, and one ludicrous association suggesting another, he imagined a political satirical drama on the circumstances of the day, to which the pigs would serve as chorus-and Swellfoot was begun. When finished, it was transmitted to England, printed and published anonymously; but stifled at the very dawn of its existence by the "Society for the Suppression of Vice," who threatened to prosecute it, if not immediately withdrawn. The friend who had taken the trouble of bringing it out, of course did not think it worth the annoyance and expense of 1 contest, and it was laid aside.