Pen. But how shall I pass through the city of the Cadmeans unseen?
Dio. We will go by unfrequented paths. I will lead the way.
Pen. Anything rather than that the Bacchantes should laugh at me.
Dio. We[1] will enter the palace and consider the proper steps.
Pen. Thou hast my leave. I am all readiness. I will enter, prepared to set out either sword in hand or following thy advice.
[Exit Pentheus.
Dio. Women! our prize is nearly in the net. Soon shall he reach the Bacchanals, and there pay forfeit with his life. O Dionysus! now ’tis thine to act, for thou art not far away; let us take vengeance on him. First drive him mad by fixing in his soul a wayward frenzy; for never, whilst his senses are his own, will he consent to don a woman’s dress; but when his mind is gone astray he will put it on. And fain would I make him a laughing-stock to Thebes as he is led in woman’s dress through the city, after those threats with which he menaced[2] me before. But I will go to array Pentheus in those robes which he shall wear when he sets out for Hades’ halls, a victim to his own mother’s fury; so shall he recognize Dionysus, the son of Zeus, who proves himself at last a god most terrible, for all his gentleness to man.[3]
[Exit Dionysus.
Cho. Will this white foot e’er join the night-long dance? what time in Bacchic ecstasy I toss my neck to heaven’s dewy breath, like a fawn, that gambols ’mid the meadow’s green delights, when she hath escaped the fearful chase, clear of the watchers, o’er the woven nets; while the huntsman, with
