How great a portion of my madness fell!
CADM. He was like you, and reverenc'd not the god,
Who therefore bound us all in the same chain
Of ruin, him, and you, to desolate
The house, and me, who destitute of sons
Behold this manly branch, which sprung from thee,
Murder'd most vilely, and most shamefully,
To whom all look'd with reverence. Thou, my child,
My daughter's son, didst in my house bear rule,
And awe the city: none to my hoar hairs
Dar'd offer violence, beholding thee;
Thy vengeance had chastis'd him: from my house
Disgrac❜d, an outcast shall I now be driven,
The mighty Cadmus, who the Theban race
Sow'd in the ground, and reap'd the glorious harvest.
Dearest of men! for thou, though now no more,
Shalt yet be number'd 'mongst my best lov'd sons.
No more thy hand shall stroke this beard, no more
Embrace thy mother's father, nor thy voice
Address me thus, Who wrongs thy reverend age?
Who dares dishonour thee? who wrings thy heart
With rude offence? Inform me, and this hand
Shall punish him that injures thee, my father.
But now I am afflicted, wretched thou.
Thy mother sinks beneath her misery,
And her unhappy sisters. If there be
A man, whose impious pride contemns the gods,
Let him behold his death, and own their pow'r.
CHOR. Cadmus, we grieve for thee: thy daughter's son
Hath his reward, just, though it pains thy heart.
BACC. O father, for my state now chang'd thou seest,
Thou and thy lov'd Harmonia, who from Mars
Descended grac'd thy bed, though mortal thou,
1407. Tyrwhitt thinks that the original is here mutilated; to him Dr. Musgrave Mr. Heath proposes a small, but very ingenious, emendation: Barnes defends the present text. The translator follows Mr. Heath. Bacchus now appears in his proper dignity as a god.
Shall wear a dragon's savage form. With her,
For so the oracle of Jove declares,
Toils after toils revolving shalt thou bear,
Leading barbarians; and with forces vast
Level great towns and many to the ground:
But when the shrine of Phoebus their rude hands
Shall plunder, intercepting their return
Misfortune shall await them: thee shall Mars
Deliver and Harmonia from the ruin,
And place you in the regions of the blest.
This, from no mortal father, but from Jove
Descended, Bacchus tells thee: had you known
What prudence is, but you would none of her,
You might have flourish'd in a prosp'rous state,
Blest with th' alliance of the son of Jove.
CADM. We have offended; we entreat forgiveness.
BACC. Too late you learn: you would not when you ought.
CADM. We own it; yet thy vengeance is severe.
BACC. Though born a god, I was insulted by you.
CADM. Ill suits the gods frail man's relentless wrath.
BACC. Long since my father Jove thus grac'd his son.
AGAV. Ah me! it is decreed, unhappy exile.
CADM. Alas, my daughter, in what dreadful ills
Are we all plung'd, thy sisters, and thyself
Unhappy! I shall bear my wretched age
To sojourn with barbarians, fated yet
To lead a mix'd-barbaric host to Greece.
Harmonia too, my wife, the child of Mars,
Chang'd to a dragon's savage form, myself
A dragon, to the altars, to the tombs
Of Greece, a chief with many a ported spear
Shall I lead back; and never shall my toils
Know respite; never shall I pass the stream
Of Acheron below, and there find rest.
AGAV. Hence, reft of thee, my father, will I fly.
1412. The translator readily acknowledges his uncertainty of the true reading
and true sense of this passage.
CADM. Why, my unhappy daughter, on my hand
Thus dost thou hang, as if the silver swan
Should fly for refuge to the useless drone?
AGAV. A wretched outcast, which way shall I fly?
CADM. I know not, child: small aid thy father gives.
AGAV. Farewell, my royal mansion, and farewell
Thou city of my fathers; I will leave thee,
Through grief an exile from my nuptial bed.
CADM. Go now, my child, to Aristaus go.
AGAV. I am bereav'd of thee, my father.
My daughter, and thy sisters' woes I wail.
AGAV. Severely, most severely hath the god
Brought on thy house this dreadful punishment. CADM. Dreadful through you my sufferings; every tongue Shall sound my name with infamy in Thebes.
AGAV. Farewell, my father.
Thou too farewell, if aught can now be well.
AGAV. Lead, my attendants, lead me to my sisters,
That I may take them with me, of my flight
Mournful associates. Thither will I go,
Where no Citharon is polluted, where
These eyes may never see Cithæron more,
And where no thyrsus wakes uneasy thought.
To other Bacchic dames I leave these rites.
CHOR. With various hand the gods dispense our fates;
1446. This also is a suspected passage: the proposed emendation of Mr. Heath is too violent, and little assists the sense." Dr. Musgrave observes, that the Swan' is celebrated by Sophocles for its filial affection; and that Euripides has elsew here used the word xɛôñva, a drone, to denote an enfeebled helpless old man.
1453. That is, to Thessaly, where Aristæus fed the sheep of the Muses. Apollon. Rhod. 1. 2. Dr. Musgrave.-He was the husband of Autonoe.
1458, 1459. These two lines are generally assigned to Bacchus: but after he had shewn himself as a god, and declared that his father Jupiter had long so graced his son, his continuance in the scene would be unnecessary, and even improper: they are therefore here given to Cadmus. The learned reader will judge.
Now show'ring various blessings, which our hopes
Dar'd not aspire to; now controlling ills
We deem'd inevitable: thus the god
To these hath giv'n an end exceeding thought:
Such is the fortune of this awful day.
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