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ORPHEUS
O sacred soul of water. Kiss, ah kiss,
With gentle waves like lips my breast, my
two small breasts,
Rose flames on ivory seas !
SECOND MANAD.
Nay! Nay!
Of ivy, clingst thou so for love?
O soul
A VOICE AS OF THE RUSTLING OF Ivy.
For love.
SECOND MAENAD.
Cling not so close! O no! cling closer then !
Let thy green coolness twine about my limbs
And still the raving blood: or closer yet,
And link about my neck, and kill me so!
THIRD M-ENAD.
Soul of the rock ! Dost love me?
A VOICE AS OF FALLING ROCK.
I love thee.
THIRD: MAENAD.
Woo me then!
Let all the sharp hard spikes of crystal dart,
Press hard upon my body! O, I fall,
Fall from thy crags, still clinging, clinging so,
Into the dark. Oblivion!
A DISTANT VOICE.
To Evoe!
[ORPHEUS ezfe7's.
Crown or MANADS.
Evoe! Evoe! It isa tion!
FourtTH MAENAD.
Lion,
O lion, dost thou love me?
FirrH MAENAD.
Thee I love,
OQ tawny king of these deep glades !
SIXTH MAENAD.
What wood
Were worthy for thy dwelling?
CHORUS.
Come, come, come,
O lion, and revel in our band !
ORPHEUS.
Alas!
I sorrow, seeing ye rejoice.
First MAmNAD.
O lion!
That is not kind.
ORPHEUS.
Too kind. ‘Since all is sorrow,
Sorrow implicit in the purest joy,
Sorrow the cause of sorrow ; evil still
Fertile, and sterile love and righteousness.
Eurydice, Eurydice !
SECOND MA:NAD.
Drink wine !
ORPHEUS.,
Ay, mask the grisly head of things that are
By drowning sense. Such horror as is hid
In life no man dare look upon. Woe! Woe!
AGAVE.
Call then reproach upon these maiden rites !
ORPHEUS.
Nay ! virtue is the devil’s name for vice,
And all your righteousness is filthy rags
Wherein ye strut, and hide the one base
thought.
To mask the truth, to worship, to forget ;
These three are one.
AGAVE.
What art thou then? a man?