There should be no more women in the world
But such as are reserved for me alone.—
See, here are sheep, and here are goats, Ulysses,
Here are unsparing cheeses of pressed milk;
Take them; depart with what good speed ye may;
First leaving my reward, the Bacchie 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.

"Twere perilous to fly into the net.

SILENUS.

The cavern has recesses numberless;

Hide yourselves quick.

ULYSSES.

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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,1
Ten 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 !2

1 In Mrs. Shelley's editions, immoveable.

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2 "At the entrance of the Cyclops," says Mr. Swinburne, "there is some

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 bull-rush 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'er-brimming ;

So you may drink a tunful if you will.

CYCLOPS.

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

SILENUS.

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

misconstruction... The line given to Silenus [What, ho! assistance,' &c.] belongs to the Cyclops as he bursts in upon the stage, and might

rather be rendered :

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Hold hard, let's see here, lend a hand: what's this?

What sloth? what rioting?"

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.

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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,

1 It is not very easy to imagine why Shelley left this passage incompletely rendered: Mr. Swinburne supplies

210

the blank with the two following lines: By no means, for you'd be the death of me Then, tumbling in my belly, with your tricks.

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 faggot 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 cauldron.

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

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235

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

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.

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There stop!

250

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.

But let me ask, whence have ye sailed, O strangers? Who are you? And what city nourished ye?

ULYSSES.

Our race is Ithacan-having destroyed

The town of Troy, the tempests of the sea
Have driven us on thy land, O Polypheme.

CYCLOPS.

What, have ye shared in the unenvied spoil
Of the false Helen, near Scamander's stream?

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