-17_Act Five-Scene-1.htm

The sea-shore. Andromeda chained to the cliff.

ANDROMEDA

O iron-throated vast unpitying sea,

Whose borders touch my feet with their cold kisses

As if they loved me f yet from thee my death

Will soon arise, and in some monstrous form

To tear my heart with horror before my body.

I am alone with thee on this wild beach

Filled with the echo of thy roaring waters.

My fellowmen have cast me out: they have bound me

Upon thy rocks to die. These cruel chains

Weary the arms they keep held stiffly out

Against the rough cold jagged stones. My bosom

Hardly contains its thronging sobs; my heart

Is torn with misery: for by my act

My father and my mother are doomed to death,

My kind dear brother, my sweet Iolaus,

Will cruelly be slaughtered; by my act

A kingdom ends in miserable ruin.

I thought to save two two fellowmen: I have slain

A hundred by their rescue. I have failed

In all I did and die accursed and hated.

I die alone and miserably, no heart

To pity me: only your hostile waves

Are listening to my sobs and laughing hoarsely

With cruel pleasure. Heaven looks coldly on.

Yet I repent not. O thou dreadful god!

Yes, thou art dreadful and most mighty; perhaps

This world will always be a world of blood

And smiling cruelty, thou its fit sovereign.

But I have done what my own heart required of me,

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And I repent not. Even if after death
Eternal pain and punishment await me
And gods and men pursue me with their hate,
I have been true to myself and to my heart,
I have been true to the love it bore for men,
And I repent not.

She is silent for a while.
Alas! is there no pity for me ? Is there
No kind bright sword to save me in all this world?
Heaven with its cold unpitying azure roofs me,
And the hard savage rocks surround: the deaf
And violent Ocean roars about my feet,
And all is stony, all is cold and cruel.
Yet I had dreamed of other powers. Where art thou,
O beautiful still face amid the lightnings,
Athene ? Does a mother leave her child ?
And thou, bright stranger, wert thou only a dream ?
Wilt thou not come down glorious from thy sun,
And cleave my chains, and lift me in thy arms
To safety ? I will not die! I am too young,
And life was recently so beautiful.
It is too hard, too hard a fate to bear.

She is silent, weeping. Cydone enters: she comes

and sits down at Andromeda’s feet.

CYDONE

How beautiful she is, how beautiful!
Her tears bathe all her bosom. O cruel Syrians!

ANDROMEDA

What gentle touch is on my feet ? Who art thou ?

CYDONE

I am Cydone. Iolaus loves me.

ANDROMEDA

My brother! lives he yet ?

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CYDONE

He lives, dear sweetness,
And sent me to you.

ANDROMEDA (joyfully)

It was a cruel lie!
He’s free?

CYDONE

No, bound and in the temple. Weep not.

ANDROMEDA

Alas! And you have left him there alone ?

CYDONE

The gods are with him, sister. In a few hours
We shall be all together and released
From these swift perils.

ANDROMEDA

Together and released!

Oh yes, in death.

CYDONE

I bid you hope. O child,
How beautiful you are, how beautiful,
Iolaus’ sister! This one white slight garment
Fluttering about you in the ocean winds,
You look like some wind-goddess chained in play
By frolic sisters on the wild sea-beaches.
I think all this has happened, little sister,
Just that the gods might have for one brief hour
You for a radiant vision of childish beauty
Exposed against this wild stupendous background.

ANDROMEDA

You make me smile in spite of all my grief.

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Did you not bid me hope, Cydone ?

CYDONE

And now
I bid you trust: for you are saved.

ANDROMEDA

I am.

I feel it now.

CYDONE

Your name’s Andromeda?

ANDROMEDA

Iolaus calls me so.

CYDONE

I think he cheats me.
You are Iolaus changed into a girl.
Come, I will kiss you dumb for cheating me
With changes of yourself.

Kisses her.

If I could have
My Iolaus always chained like this
To do my pleasure with, I would so plague him!
For he abuses me and calls me shrew,
Monster and vixen and names unbearable,
Because he’s strong and knows I cannot beat him.

ANDROMEDA

The world is changed about me.

CYDONE

Heaven’s above.

Look up and see it.  

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ANDROMEDA

There is a golden cloud

Moving towards me.

CYDONE

It, is Perseus. Sweetheart,
I go to Iolaus in the temple, —
I mean your other fair boy-self. Kiss me,
O sweet girl-Iolaus, and fear nothing.

She goes out over the rocks.

ANDROMEDA

I shall be saved! What is this sudden trouble
That lifts the bosom of the tossing deep,
Hurling the waves against my knees ? Save me!
Where art thou gone, Cydone ? What huge head
Raises itself on the affrighted seas ?
Where art thou, O my saviour? Come! His eyes
Glare up at me from the grey Ocean trough
Hideous with brutish longing. Like great sharp rocks
His teeth are in a bottomless dim chasm.

She closes her eyes in terror. Perseus enters.

PERSEUS

Look up, O sunny-curled Andromeda!
Perseus, the son of Danaë, is with thee
To whom thou now belongest. Fear no more
Sea-monsters nor the iron-souled Poseidon,
Nor the more monstrous flinty-hearted rabble
Who bound thee here. This huge and grisly enemy
That rises from the flood, need not affright thee.
Thou art as safe as if thy mother’s arms
Contained thee in thy brilliant guarded palace
When all was calm, O white Andromeda!
Lift up thy eyes’ long curtains: aid the azure
With thy regards, O sunshine. Look at me

And see thy safety.

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ANDROMEDA

O thou hast come to me!
It was not only a radiant face I dreamed of.

PERSEUS

In time to save-, thee, my Andromeda.
Sole jewel of the world. I go to meet
Thy enemy, confronting grim Poseidon.

ANDROMEDA

O touch me ere you go that I may feel
You are real.

PERSEUS

Let my kiss, sweet doubting dreamer,
Convince thee. Now I dart like a swift hawk
Upon my prey and smite betwixt the billows.
Watch how I fight for thee. I will come soon
To gather thee into my grasp, my prize
Of great adventure.

He goes out.

ANDROMEDA

The music of his name
Was in my brain just now. What must I call thee?
Perseus, the son of Danaë! Perseus!
Perseus, Athene’s sword! Perseus, my sungod!
O human god of glad Andromeda!
Forgive, Athene, my lack of faith. Thou art!
How like a sudden eagle he has swooped
Upon the terror, that lifts itself alarmed,
Swings its huge length along the far-ridged billows

And upwards yawns its rage. O great Athene!
It belches fiery breath against my Perseus
And lashes Ocean in his face. The sea
Is tossed upon itself and its huge bottoms
Catch chinks of unaccustomed day. But the aegis

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Of Perseus hurls the flame-commingled flood

Back in the dragon’s eyes: it shoots its lightnings

Into the horizon like fire-trailing arrows.

The world surprised with light gazes dismayed

Upon the sea-surrounded war, ringed in

With foam and flying, tumult. O glorious sight,

Too swift and terrible for human eyes!

I will pray rather. Virgin, beautiful

Athene, virgin-mother of my soul!

I cannot lift my hands to thee, they are chained

To the wild cliff, but lift my heart instead,

Virgin, assist thy hero in the fight.

Descend, armipotent maiden, child of Zeus,

Shoot from his god-like brain the strength of will

That conquers evil: in one victorious stroke

Collecting hurl it on the grisly foe.

Thou, thou art sword and shield, and thou the force

That uses shield and sword, virgin Athene.

The tumult ceases and the floods subside.

I dare not look. And yet I will. O death,

Thou tossest there inertly on the flood,

A floating mountain. Perseus comes to me

Touching the waves with airy-sandalled feet,

Bright and victorious.

Perseus returns.

PERSEUS

The grisly beast is slain that was thy terror,
And thou may’st sun the world with smiles again,
Andromeda.

ANDROMEDA

Thou hast delivered me, O Perseus, Perseus,
sovereign.

PERSEUS

Girl, I take into my arms

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My own that I have won and with these kisses
Seal to me happy head and smiling eyes,
Bright lips and all of thee, thou sunny Syrian.
All thy white body is a hero’s guerdon.

ANDROMEDA,

Perseus!

PERSEUS

Sweetly thou tak’st my eager kisses
With lovely smiles and glorious blushing cheeks
Rejoicing in their shame.

ANDROMEDA

I am chained, Perseus,
And cannot help myself.

PERSEUS

O smile of sweetness!
I will unravel these unworthy bonds
And rid thee of the cold excuse.

ANDROMEDA

My chains ?
They do not hurt me now, and I would wear them
A hundred times for such a happy rescue.

PERSEUS

Thou tremblest yet!

ANDROMEDA

Some sweet and sudden fear
O’ertakes me! O what is it? I dare not look
Into thy radiant eyes.

PERSEUS

Sweet tremors, grow

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Upon her. Never shall harsher fears again

O’ertake your rosy limbs, in Perseus’ keeping.

How fair thou art, my prize Andromeda!

O sweet chained body, chained to love not death,

That with a happy passiveness endures

My touch, once more, once more. And now fall down

Clashing into the deep, you senseless irons,

That took a place my kisses only merit.

Princess of Syria, child of imperial Cepheus,

Step forward free.

ANDROMEDA (falling at his feet and embracing them)

O Perseus, O my saviour!
Wilt thou not also save those dear to me
And make this life thou givest worth the giving?
My father, mother, brother, all I love,
Lie for my fault shuddering beneath the knife.

PERSEUS

It was a glorious fault, Andromeda.
Tremble not for thy loved ones. Wilt thou trust
Thy cherished body in my arms to bear
Upward, surprising Heaven with thy beauty?
Or wilt thou fear to see the blue wide Ocean
Between thy unpropped feet, fathoms below ?

ANDROMEDA

With you I fear not.

PERSEUS

Cling to me then, sweet burden,
And we will meet our enemies together.

He puts his arms round her to lift
her and the curtain falls.

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