FullReads

SEMELE.
What sayest thou? What are thunder-bolts to me?

JUNO. (Smiling.)
Ah, Semele! A jest becomes thee well!

SEMELE.
Deucalion has no offspring so divine
As is my Zeus–of thunder naught I know.

JUNO.
Mere envy! Fie!

SEMELE. No, Beroe! By Zeus!

JUNO.
Thou swearest?

SEMELE. By Zeus! by mine own Zeus!

JUNO. (Shrieking.) Thou swearest?
Unhappy one!

SEMELE. (In alarm.) What meanest thou, Beroe?

JUNO.
Repeat the word that dooms thee to become
the wretchedest of all on earth’s wide face!–
Alas, lost creature! ‘Twas not Zeus!

SEMELE. Not Zeus?
Oh, fearful thought!

JUNO. A cunning traitor ’twas
From Attica, who ‘neath a godlike form,
Robbed thee of honor, shame, and innocence!–
[SEMELE sinks to the ground.
Well mayest thou fall! Ne’er mayest thou rise again!
May endless night enshroud thine eyes in darkness,
May endless silence round thine ears encamp!
Remain forever here a lifeless mass!
Oh, infamy! Enough to hurl chaste day
Back into Hecate’s gloomy arms once more!
Ye gods! And is it thus that Beroe
Finds Cadmus’ daughter, after sixteen years
Of bitter separation! Full of joy
I came from Epidaurus; but with shame
To Epidaurus must retrace my steps.–
Despair I take with me. Alas, my people!
E’en to the second Deluge now the plague
May rage at will, may pile mount Oeta high
With corpses upon corpses, and may turn
All Greece into one mighty charnel-house,
Ere Semele can bend the angry gods.
I, thou, and Greece, and all, have been betrayed!

SEMELE. (Trembling as she rises, and extending an arm towards her.)
Oh, Beroe!

JUNO. Take courage, my dear heart!
Perchance ’tis Zeus! although it scarce can be!
Perchance ’tis really Zeus! This we must learn!
He must disclose himself to thee, or thou
Must fly his sight forever, and devote
The monster to the death-revenge of Thebes.
Look up, dear daughter–look upon the face
Of thine own Beroe, who looks on thee
With sympathizing eyes–my Semele,
Were it not well to try him?

SEMELE. No, by heaven!
I should not find him then–

JUNO. What! Wilt thou be
Perchance less wretched, if thou pinest on
In mournful doubt?–and if ’tis really he,–

SEMELE. (Hiding her face in Juno’s lap.)
Ah! ’tis not he!

JUNO. And if he came to thee
Arrayed in all the majesty wherein
Olympus sees him? Semele! What then?
Wouldst thou repent thee then of having tried him?

SEMELE. (Springing up.)
Ha! be it so! He must unveil himself!

JUNO. (Hastily.)
Thou must not let him sink into thine arms.
Till he unveils himself–so hearken, child,
To what thy faithful nurse now counsels thee,–
To what affection whispers in mine ear,
And will accomplish!–Say! will he soon come?

SEMELE.
Before Hyperion sinks in Thetis’ bed,
He promised to appear.

JUNO. (Forgetting herself hastily.) Is’t so, indeed?
He promised? Ha! To-day? (Recovering herself.) Let him approach,
And when he would attempt, inflamed with love,
To clasp his arms around thee, then do thou,–
Observe me well,–as if by lightning struck,
Start back in haste. Ha! picture his surprise!
Leave him not long in wonderment, my child;
Continue to repulse him with a look
As cold as ice–more wildly, with more ardor
He’ll press thee then–the coyness of the fair
Is but a dam, that for awhile keeps back
The torrent, only to increase the flood
With greater fury. Then begin to weep
‘Gainst giants he might stand,–look calmly on
When Typheus, hundred-armed, in fury hurled
Mount Ossa and Olympus ‘gainst his throne:
But Zeus is soon subdued by beauty’s tears.
Thou smilest?–Be it so! Is, then, the scholar
Wiser, perchance, than she who teaches her?–
Then thou must pray the god one little, little
Most innocent request to grant to thee–
One that may seal his love and godhead too.
He’ll swear by Styx. The Styx he must obey!
That oath he dares not break! Then speak these words:
“Thou shalt not touch this body, till thou comest
To Cadmus’ daughter clothed in all the might
Wherein thou art embraced by Kronos’ daughter!”
Be not thou terrified, my Semele,
If he, in order to escape thy wish,
As bugbears paints the horrors of his presence–
Describes the flames that round about him roar,
The thunder round him rolling when he comes:
These, Semele, are naught but empty fears–
The gods dislike to show to us frail mortals
These the most glorious of their attributes;
Be thou but obstinate in thy request,
And Juno’s self will gaze on thee with envy.