Wine is invincible.

CHORUS.

POLYPHEME.

By all the Gods,

Answer me I conjure you; did they fly,
Or are they here within?

CHORUS.

They on the top

Of yonder rock which skreens them from your reach, In silence take their stand.

Mischance; I have fallen down and crack'd my skull.

Ah me! I am de rided, ye but mock

At my affliction.

left.

CHORUS:

They are there no longer:

But Noman stands before you.

Where art thou?

POLYPHEME.

O thou villain,

ULYSSES, POLYPHEME, CHORUS.

ULYSSES.

Keeping cautiously aloof,

Thus I, Ulysses, guard my threaten'd life.

POLYPHEME.

What said'st thou? Wherefore hast thou chang'd thy

name

T'assume a new one?

ULYSSES.

Me my

father nam'd

Ulysses. It was destin'd you should suffer
A just requital for your impious feast;
For I in vain had with consuming flames
Laid Ilion waste, had I forborn, t' avenge
On you the murder of my valiant friends.

POLYPHEME.

Now is that antient oracle, alas,

Accomplish'd, which foretold, that I by thee
On thy return from Troy, should be depriv'd
Of sight but that thou also for a deed
So cruel, shalt be punish'd, and full long
Endure the beating of tempestuous waves.

ULYSSES.

Go weep, my (15) actions justify these words. But to the shore I haste; and to my country

Will steer the vessel o'er Sicilia's waves.

(15) Dr. Musgrave cites the authority of two manuscripts for altering dedogx, video, into dedeax', effeci.

POLYPHEME.

Thou shalt not; with this fragment of the rock Hurl'd at thy head, thee and thy perjur'd crew Will I demolish: for I yet, tho' blind, Can mount the cliff which overhangs the port, And in its wonted crannies fix my steps.

CHORUS.

But we, blest partners in Ulysses' voyage, Henceforth the laws of Bacchus will obey.

THE

CHILDREN OF HERCULES.

Ultor adest, primisque ducem profitetur in annis,
Bellaque non puero tractat agenda puer.
Auspiciis, animisque patris puer arma movebis,
Et vinces animis, auspiciisque patris :

Tale rudimentum tanto sub nomine debes.

OVID.

PERSONS OF THE DRAMA.

IOLAUS.

COPREUS.

CHORUS OF ATHENIAN OLD MEN.

DEMOPHOON.

MACARIA.

ALCMENA.

MESSENGER.

EURYSTHEUS.

SCENE BEFORE THE ALTAR OF JUPITER, IN THE FORUM AT MARATHON, A CITY IN THE ATHENIAN DOMINIONS.