PURGANAX 80 Honorable Swine, She never can commit the like again; As she flies up to heaven. Now, my proposal 89 Is to convert her sacred Majesty SEMICHORUS I Porkers, we shall lose our wash, FIRST BOAR Order! order! be not rash! AN OLD SOW (rushing in) I never saw so fine a dash SECOND BOAR (solemnly) The Queen will be an angel time enough. 124 PURGANAX (his heart is seen to beat through his waistcoat) Gods! What would ye be at? SEMICHORUS I Purganax has plainly shown a Cloven foot and jackdaw feather. SEMICHORUS II I vote Swellfoot and Iona Both should try the magic liquor. 139 AN OLD BOAR (aside) Of finding shelter there. Yet know, great A miserable state is that of Pigs, For if their drivers would tear caps and (For such whoever lives among you finds wigs, Place your most Sacred Person here. We pawn you, And so do I) the innocent are proud! I have accepted your protection only 170 Innocent queens o'er white-hot ploughshares tread Unsinged; and ladies, Erin's laureate sings it, Decked with rare gems, and beauty rarer Walked from Killarney to the Giant's Through rebels, smugglers, troops of yeo Lord Purganax, I do commit myself 180 Our lives that none a finger dare to lay To stand the test, whatever it may be ! on it. Those who wrong you, wrong us; civil war, 150 When through your streets, instead of hare with dogs, PURGANAX This magnanimity in your sacred Majesty being A heavenly angel. Smoke your bits of Ye loyal Swine, or her transfiguration AN OLD BOAR (aside) Enter MAMMON as Arch-priest, SWELLFOOT, DAKRY, PURGANAX, LAOCTONOS, followed by IONA TAURINA guarded. On the other side enter the Swine. CHORUS OF PRIESTS (accompanied by the Court We call thee Famine! Goddess of fasts and feasts, starving and cramming; Through thee, for emperors, kings and priests and lords, Who rule by viziers, sceptres, bank-notes, words, The earth pours forth its plenteous fruits, Corn, wool, linen, flesh, and roots. 10 SWELLFOOT Laoctonos is fishing for a compliment; But 't is his due. Yes, you have drunk more wine, And shed more blood, than any man in Thebes. (TO PURGANAX) For God's sake stop the grunting of those Pigs ! PURGANAX 40 We dare not, Sire! 'tis Famine's privilege. CHORUS OF SWINE Hail to thee, hail to thee, Famine! Thou devil which livest on damning; Till in pity and terror thou risest, When the loaves and the skulls roll about, The earth did never mean her foison The standard-bearers in the van of Clange Freedom calls Famine, her eternal foe, 100 - Rise [Taking up the Bag. Your Majesty [Whilst the veiled figure has been chanting the strophe, MAMMON, DAKRY, LAOCTONOS, and SWELLFOOT have surrounded IONA TAURINA, who, with her hands folded on her breast and her eyes lifted to Heaven, stands, as with saint-like resignation, to wait the issue of the business in perfect confidence of her innocence. PURGANAX, after unsealing the Green Bag, is gravely about to pour the liquor upon her head, when suddenly the whole expression of her figure and countenance changes; she snatches it from his hand with a loud laugh of triumph, and empties it over SWELLFOOT and his whole Court, who are instantly changed into a number NOW IMPRISONED IN THE CONVENT OF L'anima amante si slancia fuori del creato, e si crea nell' infinito un mondo tutto per essa, diverso assai da questo oscuro e pauroso baratro. HER OWN WORDS. The noble and unfortunate lady, Emilia V-, who inspired Epipsychidion was Teresa Emilia Viviani, eldest daughter of Count Viviani, a nobleman of Pisa. She had been placed by her family in the neighboring Convent of St. Anna, and there Shelley met her at the be ginning of December, 1820, and interested himself in her fortunes. The episode, which is too long for narration in a note, is best described in Mrs. Marshall's Life of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Its personal incidents are unimportant, since they do not enter into the |