LIBER TERTIUS VEL LABORIS
183
Minos,
A passionate being !
No weal to the light of his head
In the place of the seeing !
sHACUS.
Awake, wild justice of dread !
Lest shadows be fleeing
In fear of the portent to lurk
In a deeper-detested
Cave, ere we wake to the work.
RHADAMANTHUS,
Black snakes many-crested,
Arise ! lest the calm of the murk
From our places be wrested.
MINOS.
Who art thou ?
AL ACUS,
“Vhat ails thee to irk
From earth tender-breasted
To the milkless dugs of the grave
And the iron breasts of the pit?
RHADAMANTHUS,
Can a bodily presence save
Against a shadowy wilt?
MINOs.
Thy hope doth dwell, O slave,
Where thy mother fashioned it,
Oh heart of a fool, in thy breast.
EACUS.
Away, away to the skies!
RHADAMANTHUS.
That our dead may take their rest.
MINOS.
Arise to the air, arise !
cEACUS.
Away to the mountain crest !
RHADAMANTHUS.
Veil, veil from the awful eyes !
MINOS.
Endure thy heart as it may,
And steel thine heart,
Thou shalt hear and know and obey
As I say ‘‘ Depart” ;
Lest the arrow find its way
And the sternly-shapen dart.
AL ACUS.
A second our justice waits.
RHADAMANTHUS.
It falleth anon.
MINOS.
O fool of hopes and hates
Arise and begone !
AL ACUS.
O toy of the mirthless fates!
Who art thou to con
The mysteries of the dead in the black-souled
bastion ?
MINOs, ASACUS, RHADAMANTHUS.
Away ! away! to the light of day!
Now as it may: then as it must.
We are loath to pardon, and loath to slay,
Void of greed and anger and lust,—
But we are iron and thou art clay ;
We are marble and thou but dust.
ORPHEUS.
O iron, bow to silver’s piercing note |!
O marble, see the shape of ivory!
My justice fountains from a sweeter throat;
My death is bound beyond eternity.
O wise and just, hear ye the voice of man,
Not seeking to involve in woven spells
Or trickery the decree Tartarean,
By words to blink that justice which is
Hell’s!