AGAVE Who slew him?--How came I to hold this thing?
CADMUS O cruel Truth, is this thine home-coming?
AGAVE Answer! My heart is hanging on thy breath!
CADMUS 'Twas thou.--Thou and thy sisters wrought his death.
AGAVE In what place was it? His own house, or where?
CADMUS Where the dogs tore Actaeon, even there.
AGAVE Why went he to Kithaeron? What sought he?
CADMUS To mock the God and thine own ecstasy.
AGAVE But how should we be on the hills this day?
CADMUS Being mad! A spirit drove all the land that way.
AGAVE 'Tis Dionyse hath done it! Now I see.
CADMUS (_earnestly_) Ye wronged Him! Ye denied his deity!
AGAVE (_turning from him_) Show me the body of the son I love!
CADMUS (_leading her to the bier_) 'Tis here, my child. Hard was the quest thereof.
AGAVE Laid in due state? [_As there is no answer, she lifts the veil of the bier, and sees._] Oh, if I wrought a sin, 'Twas mine! What portion had my child therein!
CADMUS He made him like to you, adoring not The God; who therefore to one bane hath brought You and this body, wrecking all our line, And me. Aye, no man-child was ever mine; And now this first-fruit of the flesh of thee, Sad woman, foully here and frightfully Lies murdered! Whom the house looked up unto, [_Kneeling by the body._] O Child, my daughter's child! who heldest true My castle walls; and to the folk a name Of fear thou wast; and no man sought to shame My grey beard, when they knew that thou wast there, Else had they swift reward!--And now I fare Forth in dishonour, outcast, I, the great Cadmus, who sowed the seed-rows of this state Of Thebes, and reaped the harvest wonderful. O my belovèd, though thy heart is dull In death, O still belovèd, and alway Beloved! Never more, then, shalt thou lay Thine hand to this white beard, and speak to me Thy "Mother's Father"; ask "Who wrongeth thee? Who stints thine honour, or with malice stirs Thine heart? Speak, and I smite thine injurers!" But now--woe, woe, to me and thee also, Woe to thy mother and her sisters, woe Alway! Oh, whoso walketh not in dread Of Gods, let him but look on this man dead!
LEADER Lo, I weep with thee. 'Twas but due reward God sent on Pentheus; but for thee ... 'Tis hard.
AGAVE My father, thou canst see the change in me, * * * * * * * * * * [_A page or more has here been torn out of the MS. from which all our copies of "The Bacchae" are derived. It evidently contained a speech of Agâvê (followed presumably by some words of the Chorus), and an appearance of_ DIONYSUS _upon a cloud. He must have pronounced judgment upon the Thebans in general, and especially upon the daughters of_ CADMUS, _have justified his own action, and declared his determination to establish his godhead. Where the MS begins again, we find him addressing_ CADMUS.] * * * *
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