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The Bacchae

Madeleine Guy, Author
The Bacchae, page 122 of 127
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cxxii

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<div class="path_left"><div class="path_nav_color path_nav_color_primary path_nav_color_expand_height" style ="background:#450b66"></div><a class="path_title_link" href="http://scalar.usc.edu/works/bacchae/play" title="by Euripides">The Bacchae</a><span style="white-space:nowrap;">, page 122 of 127</span></div>

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<h4 class="content_title">cxxii</h4>
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<div>

</div><div>AGAVE</div><div>

</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
What is the matter? Has anything gone wrong?
</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
Why do you keep talking of misfortune?
</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>KADMUS</div><div>

</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
Open your eyes, my daughter. First look that way.
</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Look at the sky.</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>AGAVE</div><div>
</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
There, at the sky. Why d'you want me to look?</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>KADMUS</div><div>

</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
Does it seem the same? Or somehow different?</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>AGAVE</div><div>
</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
A little brighter than before, and more - translucent.</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>KADMUS</div><div>
</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
And this excitement you were living in?
</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Is it still with you?</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>AGAVE</div><div>
</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
I do not know what you mean.
</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>And yet I feel</div>
<div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"></span>
My thoughts have become a little clearer.
</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
Something has shifted in my mind.</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>KADMUS</div><div>

</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
Can you hear me now? And answer clearly?</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>AGAVE</div><div>

</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
Yes - Father, what were we talking about?
</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Now? Just now?</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>KADMUS</div><div>

</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
When you were married, to whose house did you come?
</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Try to remember.</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>AGAVE</div><div>

</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
You gave me to the man born from this land.
</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>They called him Echion.</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>KADMUS</div><div>

</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
Here, in this palace, you gave a son to him.
</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Who was he?</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>AGAVE</div><div>

</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
Pentheus. That is right. My son and Echion's.</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>KADMUS</div><div>

</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
Now whose head are you cradling in your arms,
</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Whose face?</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>AGAVE</div><div>

</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
The head of a lion. That's what the hunters said.</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>KADMUS</div><div>

</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
Look at it, now.
</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
Go on, it is easy to look.
</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>It will soon be over.</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>AGAVE</div><div>

</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
Aah.
</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
What is this? What am I holding?</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>KADMUS</div><div>

</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
Look steadily at it, until you know it clearly.</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>AGAVE</div><div>

</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
I see a great sorrow. Oh, meee!</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>KADMUS</div><div>

</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
Does it seem, now, the head of a lion?</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>AGAVE</div><div>

</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>
No.
</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
Father, this thing looks like the face of my son.
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>KADMUS</div><div>

</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
And you were crying already, before you knew it.</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>AGAVE</div><div>

</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
Father, they killed him! Who did this? How did it
</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Come to my hands?</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>KADMUS</div><div>

</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
Oh, truth, terrible truth, it always comes too soon!</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>AGAVE</div><div>

</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
Go on, Father; say it; my heart has taken already&nbsp;
</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
A leap in the future.</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>KADMUS</div><div>

</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
It was <i>you</i>&nbsp;killed him, <i>you</i>&nbsp;and your sisters!</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>AGAVE</div><div>

</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
Where did he die? In the palace? Or where?</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>KADMUS</div><div>

</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
In the same spot, where years ago,
</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
His dogs tore Actaion, my other grandson,
</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Actaion! Actaion!</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>AGAVE</div><div>

</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
Cithaeron! What evil hour brought Pentheus
</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
To Cithaeron?</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>KADMUS</div><div>

</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
He went there in scorn of the god
</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
And your Bacchic madness.</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>AGAVE</div><div>

</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
But why did we all go there?</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>KADMUS</div><div>

</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
You went all mad; the whole town was dancing
</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
In ecstasy.</div><div>

</div><div>

</div><div>AGAVE</div><div>

</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
But why was Pentheus responsible?
</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>
What part did he play in my madness?
</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></div>

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