Hypolympia; Or, The Gods in the Island, an Ironic Fantasy. Gosse Edmund
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pool,
There only worthy of thy clear regard,
A vision purified in woe.
[The reeds in the tarn are stirred, and there is audible a faint shriek and a ripple of laughter. A shrouded figure rises from the marsh, and, hastening by Phœbus through the darkness, is lost in the woods. It is followed closely by Pan, who, observing Phœbus, pauses in embarrassment.]
Phœbus.
I thought I was alone.
Pan.
And so did we, sire.
Phœbus.
Am I to congratulate you on your distractions?
Pan.
I have a natural inclination to marshy places.
Phœbus.
This is a ghastly night, Pan.
Pan.
I had not observed it, sire. Yes, doubtless a ghastly night. But I was occupied, and I am no naturalist. This glen curiously reminded me of rushy Ladon. I am a great student of reeds, and I was agreeably surprised to find some very striking specimens here – worthy of the Arcadian watercourses, as I am a deity. I should say, was a deity.
Phœbus.
They will help, perhaps, to reconcile you to mortality. You can add them to your collection.
Pan.
That, sire, is my hope. The stems are particularly full and smooth, and the heads of the best of them rustle back with a profusion of flaxen flowerage, remarkably agreeable to the touch. I broke one as your Highness approached. But the wind, or some goblin, bore it from me. This curious place seems full of earth-spirits.
Phœbus.
You must study them, too, Pan. That will supply you with another object.
Pan.
But the marsh water has a property unknown to the Olympian springs. I suspect it of being poisoned. After standing long in it, I found myself troubled with aching in the shank, from knee to hoof. If this is repeated, my studies of reed-life will be made dolorously difficult.
Phœbus.
It must now be part of your pleasure to husband your enjoyments. You have always rolled in the twinkle of the vine-leaves, hot enough and not too hot, with grapes – immense musky clusters – just within your reach. If you think of it philosophically —
Pan.
How, sire?
Phœbus.
Philosophically… Well, if you think of it sensibly, you will see that there was a certain dreariness in this uniformity of satisfaction. Rather amusing, surely, to find the cluster occasionally spring up out of reach, to find the polished waist of the reed slip from your hands? Occasionally, of course; just enough to give a zest to pursuit.
Pan.
Ah! there was pursuit in Ladon, but it was pursuit which always closed easily in capture. What I am afraid of is that here capture may prove the exception. Your Highness … but a slight family connection and our adversities are making me strangely familiar…
Phœbus.
Speak on, my good Pan.
Pan.
Your Highness was once something of a botanist?
Phœbus.
A botanist? Ah, scarcely! A little arboriculture, the laurel; a little horticulture, the sun-flower. Those varieties seem entirely absent here, and I have no thought of replacing them.
Pan.
The last thing I should dream of suggesting would be a hortus siccus…
Phœbus.
And I was never a consistent collector. There are reeds everywhere, you fortunate goat-foot, but even in Olympus I was the creature of a fastidious selection.
Pan.
The current of the thick and punctual blood never left me liable to the distractions of choice.
Phœbus.
I congratulate you, Pan, upon your temperament, and I recommend to you a further pursuit of the attainable.
[Pan makes a profound obeisance and disappears in the woodland. Phœbus watches him depart, and then turns to the moon.]
Phœbus [alone].
His familiarity was not distasteful to me. It reminded me of days out hunting, when I have come suddenly upon him at the edge of the watercourse, and have shared his melons and his conversation. I anticipate for him some not unagreeable experiences. The lower order of divinities will probably adapt themselves with ease to our new conditions. They despaired the most suddenly, with wringing of hands as we raced to the sea, with interminable babblings and low moans and screams, as they clustered on the deck of that extraordinary vessel. But the science of our new life must be to forget or to remember. We must live in the past or forego the past. For Pan and his likes I conceive that it will largely resolve itself into a question of temperature – of temperature and of appetite. That orb is of a sinister appearance, but to do it justice it looks heated. My sister had a passion for coldness; she would never permit me to lend her any of my warmth. I cannot say that it is chilly here to-night. I am agreeably surprised.
[The veiled figure flits across again, and Pan once more crosses in close pursuit.]
Phœbus [as they vanish].
What an amiable vivacity! Yes; the lower order of divinities will be happy, for they will forget. We, on the contrary, have the privilege of remembering. It is only the mediocre spirits, that cannot quite forget nor clearly remember, which will have neither the support of instinct nor the solace of a vivid recollection.
[He seats himself. A noise of laughter rises from he marsh, and dies away. In the silence a bird sings.]
Phœbus.
Not the Daulian nightingale, of course, but quite a personable substitute: less prolongation of the triumph, less insistence upon the agony. How curiously the note breaks off! Some pleasant little northern bird, no doubt. I experience a strange and quite unprecedented appetite for moderation. The absence of the thrill, the shaft, the torrent is not disagreeable. The actual Phocian frenzy would be disturbing here, out of place, out of time. I must congratulate this little, doubtless brown, bird on a very considerable skill in warbling. But the moon – what is happening to it? It is not merely climbing higher, but it is manifestly clarifying its light. When I came, it was copper-coloured, now it is honey-coloured, the horn of it is almost white like milk. This little bird's incantation has, without question, produced this fortunate effect. This little bird, halfway on the road between the nightingale and the cicada, is doubtless an enchanter, and one whose art possesses a more than respectable property. My sister's attention should be drawn to this highly interesting circumstance. Selene! Selene!
[He calls and waits. From the upper woods Selene slowly descends, wrapped in long white garments.]
Phœbus.
Sister, behold the throne that once was thine.
Selene.
And now, a rocking cinder, fouls the skies.
Phœbus.
A magian sweeps its filthy ash away.
Selene.
There is no magic in the bankrupt world.
Phœbus.
Nay, did'st thou hear this twittering peal of song?
Selene.
Some noise I heard; this glen is full of sounds.
Phœbus.
Fling back thy veil, and staunch thy tears, and gaze.
Selene.
At thee, my brother, not at my darkened orb.
Phœbus.
Gaze