First leaving my reward, the Bacchic dew

Of joy-inspiring grapes.

ULYSSES.

Ah me! alas!

What shall we do? the Cyclops is at hand!
Old man, we perish! whither can we fly?

SILENUS.

Hide yourselves quick within that hollow rock.

ULYSSES.

'T were perilous to fly into the net.

SILENUS.

The cavern has recesses numberless;

Hide yourselves quick.

ULYSSES.

That will I never do:

The mighty Troy would be indeed disgraced
If I should fly one man. How many times
Have I withstood, with shield immovable
T'en thousand Phrygians!-If I needs must die,
Yet will I die with glory;-if I live,

The praise which I have gained will yet remain.

SILENUS.

What, ho! assistance, comrades, haste, assistance

The CYCLOPS, SILENUS, ULYSSES; CHORUS.

CYCLOPS.

What is this tumult? Bacchus is not here,
Nor tympanies nor brazen castanets.

How are my young lambs in the cavern? milking
Their dams, or playing by their sides? And is
The new cheese pressed into the bulrush baskets?
Speak! I'll beat some of you till you rain tears;
Look up, not downwards, when I speak to you.

SILENUS.

See! I now gape at Jupiter himself,
I stare upon Orion and the stars.

CYCLOPS.

Well, is the dinner fitly cooked and laid?

SILENUS.

All ready, if your throat is ready too.

CYCLOPS.

Are the bowls full of milk besides ?

SILENUS.

O'erbrimming

So you may drink a tunful if you will.

CYCLOPA.

Is it ewe's milk, or cow's milk, or both mixed?

SILENUS.

Both, either; only pray don't swallow me.

By no means.

*

CYCLOPS.

What is this crowd I see beside the stalls?
Outlaws or thieves? for near my cavern home
I see my young lambs coupled two by two
With willow bands; mixed with my cheeses lie
Their implements; and this old fellow here
Has his bald head broken with stripes.

SILENUS.

Ah me!

I have been beaten till I burn with fever.

CYCLOPS.

By whom? Who laid his fist upon your head?

SILENUS.

Those men, because I would not suffer them
To steal your goods.

CYCLOPS.

Did not the rascals know

I am a god, sprung from the race of heaven?

SILENUS.

I told them so, but they bore off your things,
And ate the cheese in spite of all I said,

And carried out the lambs and said, moreover, They'd pin you down with a three-cubit collar, And pull your vitals out through your one eye, Torture your back with stripes; then, binding

you,

Throw you as ballast into the ship's hold,
And then deliver you, a slave, to move
Enormous rocks, or found a vestibule.

CYCLOPS.

In truth? Nay, haste, and place in order quickly
The cooking knives, and heap upon the hearth,
And kindle it, a great fagot of wood.—

As soon as they are slaughtered, they shall fill
My belly, broiling warm from the live coals,
Or boiled and seethed within the bubbling caldron.
I am quite sick of the wild mountain game;
Of stags and lions I have gorged enough,
And I grow hungry for the flesh of men.

SILENUS.

Nay, master, something new is very pleasant
After one thing for ever, and of late
Very few strangers have approached our cave.

ULYSSES.

Hear, Cyclops, a plain tale on the other side. We, wanting to buy food, came from our ship Into the neighbourhood of your cave, and here This old Silenus gave us in exchange

These lambs for wine, the which he took and drank,
And all by mutual compact, without force.
There is no word of truth in what he says,

For slily he was selling all your store.

SILENUS.

I? May you perish, wretch

ULYSSES.

If I speak false !

SILENUS.

Cyclops, I swear by Neptune who begot thee,
By mighty Triton and by Nereus old,

Calypso and the glaucous Ocean-Nymphs,
The sacred waves and all the race of fishes-
Be these the witnesses, my dear sweet master,
My darling little Cyclops, that I never
Gave any of your stores to these false strangers.
If I speak false may those whom most I love,
My children, perish wretchedly!

CHORUS.

There stop!

I saw him giving these things to the strangers If I speak false, then may my father perish, But do not thou wrong hospitality.

CYCLOPS.

You lie! I swear that he is juster far
Than Rhadamanthus-I trust more in him.