AGAVE.
Where shall I turn me else? No home have I.
CADMUS.
I know not; I can help thee not.
AGAVE.
Farewell, O home, O ancient tower! Lo, I am outcast from my bower, And leave ye for a worser lot.
CADMUS.
Go forth, go forth to misery, The way Actaeon's father went!
AGAVE.
Father, for thee my tears are spent.
CADMUS.
Nay, Child, 'tis I must weep for thee;
For thee and for thy sisters twain!
AGAVE.
On all this house, in bitter wise, Our Lord and Master, Dionyse, Hath poured the utter dregs of pain!
DIONYSUS.
In bitter wise, for bitter was the shame Ye did me, when Thebes honoured not my name.
AGAVE.
Then lead me where my sisters be; Together let our tears be shed, Our ways be wandered; where no red Kithaeron waits to gaze on me; Nor I gaze back; no thyrsus stem, Nor song, nor memory in the air. Oh, other Bacchanals be there, Not I, not I, to dream of them!
[AGAVE with her group of attendants goes out on the side away from the Mountain. DIONYSUS rises upon the Cloud and disappears.
CHORUS.
There be many shapes of mystery. And many things God makes to be, Past hope or fear. And the end men looked for cometh not, And a path is there where no man thought. So hath it fallen here. [Exeunt.
NOTES ON THE BACCHAE
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
The Bacchae, being from one point of view a religious drama, a kind of "mystery play," is full of allusions both to the myth and to the religion of Dionysus.