{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_14040/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_14040","id":"gutenberg_14040","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14040","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Humour","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Plays/Films/Dramas","English drama"],"text":"Graphics and textual content produced by Lolaness.\n\n\n\n\nHOUSEHOLD GODS\n\nA Comedy By Aleister Crowley\n\n[Privately Printed in 1912]\n\n\nTO LEILA WADDELL\n\n\n\n\n\nSCENE\n\nTHE HEARTH OF CRASSUS;\nAFTERWARDS THE LAWNS, THE WOODS, THE LAKE, THE ISLE.\n\n\n\nCHARACTERS\n\nCRASSUS, a barbarian from Britain.\nADELA, his wife, a noble Roman lady.\nALICIA, a servant in the house.\nA STATUE OF PAN.\nA FAUN.\n\n\n\n\nHOUSEHOLD GODS\n\nTHE SCENE is at the hearth of CRASSUS, where is a little\nbronze altar dedicated to the Lares and Penates. A pale\nflame rises from the burning sandal-wood, on which CRASSUS\nthrows benzoin and musk. He is standing in deep dejection.\n\nCRASSUS.\nSmoke without fire!\n  No thrill of tongues licks up\n  The offerings in the cup.\nDead falls desire.\n\nBlack smoke thou art,\n  O altar-flame, that dost dismember,\n  Devour the hearth, to leave no ember\nTo warm this heart.\n\nI see her still -\n  Adela dancing here\n  Till dim gods did appear\nTo work our will.\n\nThe delicate girl!\n  Diaphanous gossamer\n  Subtly revealing her\nBrave breast of pearl!\n\nNow - she's withdrawn\n  At dusk to the wild woods,\n  Mystic beatitudes\nThat dure till dawn.\n\nLet life exclaim\n  Against these things of spirit,\n  Mankind that disinherit\nOf love's pure flame!\n[He bends before the altar and begins to weep.]\n\nYe household gods!\n  By these male tears I swear\n  That ye shall grant this prayer.\nAll things at odds\n\nShall be put straight -\n  Harmonized, reconciled\n  By some appointed child\nOf some far Fate!\n[A curtain has been drawn aside during this invocation, and\nALICIA advances. She smiles subtly upon him; and, giving a\nstrange gesture, makes one or two noiseless steps of dancing.]\n\nALICIA.\nMaster still sad?\n\nCRASSUS.\nThese faint and fearful shores\n  Of time are beaten by the surge of sense,\n  Love worn away - by love? - to indifference.\nWho knows what god - or demon - she adores?\n  Or in what wood she shelters, or what grove\n  Sees her profane our sacrament of love?\n\nALICIA.\nI saw her follow\nThe stream in the hollow\nWhere never Apollo\n  Abides.\nSo thick are the trees\nThat never the breeze\nStirs them, or sees\n  What satyr inhabits the glen, what nymph in the\n    pools of it hides.\n\nLighter of foot\n  Than a sylph or a fairy,\n  Sinuous, wary,\n  I passed from the airy\nLawns, where the flute\n  Of the winds made tremulous music for man.\n\nI followed the ripple\n  Of the stream; I crept\n  Where the waters wept -\n    The floss in the foss\n    Gurgling across\n    The bosses of moss,\nLike a dryad's nipple\n  In the mouth of Pan!\n\nCRASSUS.\nO pearl of the house! you came to the end?\n\nALICIA.\nThe dusk of the slave, the dawn of a friend?\n\nCRASSUS.\nFreedom is thine for the skill and the will.\n\nALICIA.\nThe skill is mine - but the will lies still,\nStill as the earth that dare not stir\nTill the kiss of the sun awaken her!\n\nCRASSUS.\nYet at these secrets and riddles? Behold!\nI can fill thy lap with a harvest of gold.\n\nALICIA.\nYet all the gold you could give to me\nWould fall at my feet when I rose to be free.\n\nCRASSUS.\nWhat will you then?\n\nALICIA.\nNo gift from men.\nOf my own free will I give you wit,\n(O man so sorely in need of it!)\nAnd happiness; and the flame that hath dwindled\nOn this dull hearth shall be rekindled.\nBut this you must swear:\nTo will, and to dare,\nTo seek the spirit and slay the sense;\n  And for this hour\n  To give me power\nTo lead you in silent obedience,\nThough I bade you fall on your sword....\n\nCRASSUS.\n                        Enough!\nI give my life as I gave my love.\n\nALICIA.\nO! love you have not understood.\nYou have not guessed its secret food.\nYou have not seen its single eye;\nBut fear and doubt and jealousy\nHave risen, and now your love is trembling\nLike a mountebank dissembling\nWhen his trick's detected. Come!\nTo find home we must leave home.\n\nCRASSUS.\nStarless and moonless, hidden in cloud,\nThe night's one flame of pearl.\n\nALICIA.\nThe bat flaps; the owl hoots aloud.\n\nCRASSUS.\nLead on; I trust you, girl.\n\nALICIA.\nYou are bold to trust me; or, have you divined\nMy secret?\n\nCRASSUS.\nNo; the crystal of your mind\nShows only faint disturbing images,\nThings passing strange, as if enchanted seas\nKept their great swell upon it, and strange fish\nPlayed in its oily depths. Some monstrous wish,\nThe shadow of some unspeakable desire,\nStrikes my heart cold, and sets my brain on fire.\n\nALICIA.\nLearn this, as we pass through the portico:\nFear nothing; there is nothing you can know!\nAnd by these terraces and steps that gleam\nWintry, although the summer night is hot,\nThis - what we seek is never what we find!\n\nLife is a dream, like love; and from the dream\nIf we may wake, we never find it what\nWe would; for the wisdom of a mightier mind\nLeads us in its own ways\nTo a perfected praise.\n\nCRASSUS.\nWhy are these shadows thrown across the lawn\nFrom the elms and yews? They were not wont to reach\nBeyond the branches of that copper-beech.\n\nALICIA.\nAttend the dawn\nOf an unknown comet, that shall come\nFrom the unfathomable wells of space\nInto its halidom.\n\nCRASSUS.\nI know it not. Last night I walked alone\nHere, and saw nothing.\n\nALICIA.\n                        I was not with you!\nThere is no God upon the eternal throne\nOf stars begemming the bewildering blue\nUnless one has the eyes to see him. Think\nHow we two stand upon the brink\nOf nothing! Here's a globe, whereto we trust,\nNo larger than the smallest speck of dust\nOr mote in the sunbeam is to that sun's self,\nAnd we are like dead leaves in autumn's whil\nOf wind upon it.\n\nCRASSUS.\n                        Mystify me, girl!\nIt is the right of an elf.\nSurely your flickering fire\nWill draw me to some mire!\n\nALICIA.\nHere the stream dips its mouth into the wood.\nSo does youth's calm and chaste beatitude\nTouch the black mouth of Love, the ancient whore.\n\nCRASSUS.\nGirl! what a scorpion leaping from your lips!\n\nALICIA.\nMy mouth stings as no scorpion ever stang.\nin this round impudent smiling face of mine\nThere is a poison fiercer than all wine;\nAnd from these eyes more subtle sorrows pour\nThan you can dream. These teeth have been at grips\nWith gods; I have sung what no girl ever sang.\nThese ears have heard\nAn insufferable word!\n\nCRASSUS.\nWhat do you mean?\n\nALICIA.\n                        The secret's in a kiss.\nHere are no kisses. Here great Artemis\nRules; only in the woodland may a man\nHide his eyes from her, pledge himself to Pan.\nCome! through the tangled arches\nOf cypresses and larches,\nStoop; under Artemis we walked upright;\nBut this is Pan's home, and the House of Night.\n                        [They enter the wood.]\n\nCRASSUS.\nSo when I stoop, my cheek comes close to yours.\nGive me a kiss.\n\nALICIA.\nThe poisonous apple lures\nThus the boy's mouth. Beware!\n\nCRASSUS.\nO you are fair!\nFairer than ever! In this tangle of trees\nYour hot breath wraps you in perfume.\n\nALICIA.\nThere is some gloom or doom,\nA bitter harsh ingredient\nIn these my sorceries\nOf animal scent.\n\nCRASSUS.\nYes! there is fear mixed with the fascination.\nIt is the reverence that chastity, be sure!\nGains from the impure.\n\nALICIA.\nO virtuous nation!\nIt is the fear of the uninitiate\nBefore the throne of Fate\nThe hierophant.\n\nCRASSUS.\nKiss me, however!\n\nALICIA.\nDid I grant\nThis favour, all were lost. It is your truth\nTo Adela that tempts my youth.\n                [Henceforth Alicia shakes with silent laughter.]\n\nCRASSUS.\nWhat little breasts you have!\n\nALICIA.\nAy, maiden breasts!\nWould you betray my oath?\n\nCRASSUS.\nMy will contests\nMy wishes.\n\nALICIA.\nWait, and you shall surely see\nPart of the secret that ensorcels me.\nSee all these bosses! It is not\nAs if a Titan smote himself into the earth,\nAnd was caught into her, made one with her?\n\nCRASSUS.\nThe scent is fierce and hot\nLike a rutting panther's slot.\nYet you are matched with mirth,\nShaking each other like two wrestlers.\n\nALICIA.\nWhat should stir\nYour melancholy but laughter?\n\nCRASSUS.\nLook, before us\nLight streams, a tremulous chorus.\nOh, it is vague and vacillating!\n\nALICIA.\nLove,\nYoung love of maidens, is the soul thereof.\nAnd in the midst, behold, O man!\nThe image of great Pan.\n\nCRASSUS.\nI fear him.\n\nALICIA.\nGo and lie there, at his feet.\nLie supine! Lie on that moss-covered root,\nWhile I draw forth the flute\nAnd make a marvellous music.\n                        [She ceases laughing and begins to play.]\n\nCRASSUS.\nO I writhe\nBeneath the force of lips, of fingers lithe\nThat touch the delicate stops so delicately.\n\nALICIA.\nHush!\nI have drawn the bird from the bush.\nPan will appear anon.\n\nCRASSUS.\nAh! Ah! ... Ah! Ah!\n\nALICIA.\nThis music moves you. Now I'll play a tune\nThat would make mad the melancholy moon.\nThis.\n\nCRASSUS.\nAh! you tear my soul out with the trills.\nYour fingers play like summer lightning on the shaft.\nIt is like a storm on the mountains when it shrills;\nLike the angry sea when it booms. Hark!\n\nALICIA.\nSome god laughed.\n\nCRASSUS.\nYour mouth is like some god's It burns and blooms\nWith fire unheard of, with unguessed perfumes.\nO let me kiss you!\n\nALICIA.\nSo you stop my song!\n                        [She ceases the tune.]\n\nCRASSUS.\nThere is another song.\n\nALICIA.\nYou do me wrong.\nFor you love Adela!\n\nCRASSUS.\nBy God, girl, no!\nI love Alicia.\n\nALICIA.\nAh! you love her SO! [She laughs]\n\nCRASSUS.\nYour laugh is shocking - why do you mock me, dear?\n\nALICIA.\nBecause you will not guess my secret here.\nBut - put your arms about my neck, and swar\nYou love me, and will always keep them there.\nThen I might dare.\n\nCRASSUS.\nI swear it. O my sweet!\n\nALICIA.\nThen take my kiss.\n\nCRASSUS.\nYour mouth is like a rose of fire. But what is this?\nI cannot bear it.\n\nALICIA.\nAi! Uhu! Uhu!\nIt is my heart; this arrow strikes me through.\nStir not one muscle for a moment. Death!\nYou beast, you kill me with your urgent breath.\n\nCRASSUS.\nO how I love you! [He moves violently.]\n\nALICIA.\nFool! Now all my pain\nMust be gone through again.\nIt is sure your chastity's unstained by crime;\nYou do the wrong thing just at the right time!\n\nCRASSUS.\nWhy do you taunt me? All the wood is spring's,\nAnd love is hovering o'er us with his wings.\n\nALICIA.\nSub pennis, penis!\n\nCRASSUS.\nHush! you break the spell.\n\nALICIA.\nOh! you great fools fo men, I know you well.\nBut nothing is so detrimental\nTo love as to be sentimental.\nI will yet make you wise.\nKnow that I have the magic to disguise\nMyself in manyt ways. Do you feel this?\n(Lie still, this heaven were ruined by a kiss!)\nI am a butterfly, such idle flitting\nAs to a flower like you is fitting\nNow I'm a mole. Do you think you know me now?\nHere is the earthworm severed by the plough.\n\nCRASSUS.\nYou are a witch. I want your love; you give\nOnly love's comedy.\n\nALICIA.\nThe way to live\nIs to find comedy and tragedy\nIn everything. But if you cannot see\nThrough to the Bacchanal spirit, this should suit.\nHere is the blacksmith hammering a flute.\n\nCRASSUS.\nOh love, love, kiss me!\n\nALICIA.\nI will forge a ring\nOf bloom of blood-kisses upon your neck,\nTill it is like a garden of roses in late spring.\n\nCRASSUS.\n\"Soft, and stung softly, fairer for a fleck.\"\n\nALICIA.\nO marvellous nation!\nVanity, dullness, slobber, and quotation!\n\nCRASSUS.\nWhy do you love me if you scorn me so?\n\nALICIA.\nWhy, did I say I loved you? I say no.\n\nCRASSUS.\nWhy do you make love?\n\nALICIA.\nTo beguile the hour;\nTo crown my rose-wreath with a greener flower'\nTo do my master's bidding, that's to give\nLife to yourself, who only think you live.\nBut listen! Have you seen the nine waves roll\nMonotonous upon the shoal,\nRising and falling like a maiden asleep;\nThen with a lift and a leap\nThe ninth wave curls, and breaks upon the beach,\nAnd rushes up it, swallowing the sand?\nI am that ocean.... Now, you understand?\n\nCRASSUS.\nAlicia! O! this is unbearable.\nSurely this wave washes the shore of hell!\n\nALICIA.\nEach follows each\nRemorseless and indifferent as Nature\nIs to each creature.\n\nCRASSUS.\nWonderful, wonderful woman!\n                        [She throws her head back, and laughs]\n\nALICIA.\nNow, you think\nYou know my secret. I have given you drink,\nAnd you are wise. But hush! to all emotion\nSave this the pulse and swell of Ocean\nFor at the last with mouth and fingers wried\nAll must proclaim the triumph of the tide.\n\nCRASSUS.\nAh! still you mock me with your cruel laugh.\n\nALICIA.\nIt is your foolish epitaph.\n\nCRASSUS.\nBut this can be no mockery. Heave and sway\nAnd curl and thrust - these waves are not at play.\n\nALICIA.\nYou feel the ocean breaking on the shoal;\nBut passionless and moveless is its soul.\n\nCRASSUS.\nAh! but your soul is in your breath.\n\nALICIA.\nOnly as the graven image of death\nWhich men call life, and ignorantly adore!\n\nCRASSUS.\nSpare me! I cannot bear you more.\n\nALICIA.\nThen will I drown you. Lock your fingers fast\nIn mind, and let our mouths mix at the last.\n                        [The stuatue of PAN is seen to be alive.]\n\nPAN.\nShrill, shrill\nOver the hill!\nThe hunter is hot - this is the kill!\nScream! Scream!\nDissolving the dream\nOf life, the knife to the heart of the wife!\nThe fountain jets\nIts flood of blood,\nAnd the moss that it wets\nIs an amethyst flame of violets.\n\nWho shall escape\nMurder and rape\nWhat I am alive in my solemn shape?\nShrill, shrill,\nOver the hill!\nThe hunter is hot - this is the kill!\nThe heart of the home\nIs a fury of foam;\nThe storm is awake, and the billows comb.\nBut though I be\nTheir frenzy of glee,\nI am also the passionless soul of the sea!\n\nMine eyes glint fire,\nAnd my cruel lips curl;\nMine the desire\nOf the god and the girl;\nBut fierier and fleeter,\nAnd subtler and sweeter\nThan the race of the rhythm, the march of the metre,\nIs the shrilling, shrilling\nOf the knife in the killing\nThat ends, when it must,\n(O the throb and the thrust!)\nIn a death, in the dust,\nThe silence, the stillness, of satiate lust,\nThe solemn pause\nWhen the veil withdraws\nAnd man looks on his god, on the Causeless Cause.\nStill, still,\nUnder the hill!\nThe hunter is dead - this is the kill!\n\nCRASSUS.\nPan spoke.\n\nALICIA.\nPan never speaks till man is dumb,\nAnd only then if he be like a child\nSilently curled within its mother's womb,\nOr feeding at her breast. There is a wild\nWay also - when his dumbness is of death.\nAnd there's a first and second death. Remember\nTo die so that no god's or angel's breath\nMay quicken into life the wasted ember!\n\nCRASSUS.\nI am dead now.\n\nALICIA.\nBut I must raise you up.\nThe night grows darker; all Pan's light is gone,\nAnd you and I are pledged to sup\nUpon a secret.\n\nCRASSUS.\nAll your secret shone.\n                        [She laughs again.]\n\nALICIA.\nOh, when you know it! But you must divine\nAdela's shrine.\n\nCRASSUS.\nI am weary of Adela grown chaste and chill.\n\nALICIA.\nThe hunter lags; how heavy is the hill!\nBut you are bound to Adela.\n\nCRASSUS.\nTo you!\n\nALICIA.\nBut you have given me freedom. I will leave you.\n\nCRASSUS.\nWhat have I done to grieve you?\n\nALICIA.\nYou have been the solemn fool with face awry\nThat I have gathered in my ecstasy.\nYou are only a vulgar primrose I have plucked.\n\nCRASSUS.\nAt least, she-devil, you have been well-treated.\n\nALICIA.\nO tragic farce - not even rimes completed!\nNay, darling! no rebellion. When you know\nMy secret, you will understand. You are bound\nTo Adela within the portico,\nTo me upon this ground.\nBy day, in life, adore the Lares, man!\nBy night, in deaht, make offering to Pan!\nCan you cut day from night by any endeavour?\nIf so, both life and death were lost for ever.\nCome, the stream steepens.\n\nCRASSUS.\nThis road leads to hell.\n\nALICIA.\nThe way to heaven is shorter.\n\nCRASSUS.\nWho can tell?\n\nALICIA.\nI have measured it.\n\nCRASSUS.\nYou, girl?\n\nALICIA.\nIt is not hard.\n\nCRASSUS.\nWhat did you make the height of it?\n\nALICIA.\nOne yard.\n\nCRASSUS.\nYou always mock me?\n\nALICIA.\nPity of my youth!\nI swerve not from, you stumble at, the truth.\n\nCRASSUS.\nI like not jests. This is a serious journey.\n\nALICIA.\nWhy did you make a mocker your attorney?\nThe way to Rome leads through the Apennines.\nBacchus has horns beneath the crown of vines.\nIf you fear horns, make some polite excuse\nNot to invoke him by the name Zagreus!\n\nA FAUN [Passing among the trees].\nYe thought me a lamb\n  With a crown of thorns;\nI am royal, a ram\n  With death in my horns.\nSo mild and soft\n  And feminine,\nYe held me aloft\n  And frowned on sin!\nBut I was awake\n  In your clasp as I lay;\nI roused the snake\n  From its nest of clay;\nAnd ere ye knew\n  I had sunk my forehead\nThrough and through;\n  Harsh and horrid\nThrough all the pleasure\n  Of rose and vine\nI thrust my treasure,\n  The cone of the pine.\nIrru's maid\n  Was easily sated,\nFor she was afraid\n  When Irru mated!\n\nCRASSUS.\nHa! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!\n\nALICIA.\nYou would not laugh\nWere you the maid!\n\nCRASSUS.\nHow could I be?\n\nALICIA.\nGreat calf!\nBut you are all the same, blaspheme and jeer\nAt any mystery beyond your sphere\nOf beer, and beef, and beer, and beef, and beer.\nNow you have frightened the shy god!\n\nCRASSUS.\nWhy heed?\nBetween your - arms - is all the god I need.\n\nALICIA.\nPrudish and coarse to the last. Now hush indeed!\nThe stream kisses the lake. We near the shrine.\nStir no snapped twig. Let your foot - even yours -\nFall like a fawn's.\n\nCRASSUS.\nYour breath is like new wine.\n\nALICIA.\nHush now! no porpoise gambols!\n\nCRASSUS.\nHow obscure's\nThe glimmer of the lake. Is that the isle?\n\nALICIA.\nYes! in that shadow lurks a smile.\nSee; from that jagged cloud Diana starts\nLike a deer from the brake; her silver splendour darts\nThrough the crisp air to the grove upon the isle...\nDo you see her? Do you see her?\n\nCRASSUS.\nMonstrous! Vile!\nThese eyes betray me.\n\nALICIA.\nNo! your Adela lies\nWith arms thrown back, head tilted, open thighs.\nHer lips flame out like poppies in the dusk.\nThe breeze brings back to us a scent of musk.\nHer mouth is oozing kisses!\n\nCRASSUS.\nFilthy harlot!\n\nALICIA.\nI never fed on a superber scarlet.\nAnd look! the wonder of plumes that foams upon\nHer tidal breast - oh, but a swan! a swan!\nA swan snow-white with his sole scarlet hidden\nIn the abode forbidden!\n\nO but his eye swoons as his broad beak slips\nWithin her luscious lips.\nO but - I cannot see - I long to die\nAlike for wonder - and for jealousy!\n\nCRASSUS.\nVile, filthy whore! I'll catch you at it.\n\nALICIA.\nSoft!\nSee how his feathers hold her soul aloft!\n\nCRASSUS.\nBeast! Have you brought me through the wood for\n  this?\n\nALICIA.\nNow wonder I must teach you how to kiss.\n\nCRASSUS.\nI'll clip his wings.\n\nALICIA.\nSub pennis, penis! 'Slife!\nIt's not the wings of him that clip your wife.\n\nCRASSUS.\nThou art as filthy a creature as she!\n\nALICIA.\nFat fool!\nAll your emotions vary with your -\n\nCRASSUS.\n        What?\n\nALICIA.\nYour state of health.\n\nCRASSUS.\nBe off with you, foul --\n\nALICIA.\nWell?\n\nCRASSUS.\nI'll swim and stab them. The black mouth of hell\nYawns for their murder.\n\nALICIA.\nI'll be at the death.\nDive then, but softly. Scarcely draw your breath.\n\nCRASSUS.\nO, she's unwary!\n\nALICIA.\nIs your love forgotten?\n\nCRASSUS.\nAll love is rotten.\n\nALICIA.\nBut your pure love for me you boasted of?\n\nCRASSUS.\nAy, that was perfect love.\n\nALICIA.\nYou love me then, not her?\n\nCRASSUS.\nIndeed I do.\n\nALICIA.\nSwear me the oath anew!\n\nCRASSUS.\nI swear to love you till the world shall end.\n\nALICIA.\nThen, Crassus, I will always be your friend.\n\nCRASSUS.\nAh, that is good! You do not mock me now!\n\nALICIA.\nCreep softly to the land. Kiss but my brow.\nMy curls are wet... No, never touch me there!\n\nCRASSUS.\nWhy? Have I not?\n\nALICIA.\nYou have not.\n\nCRASSUS.\nJust my hand.\n\nALICIA.\nYou disobey your mistress's command?\nThe time is near when you shall see\nThe keyhole of my comedy!\n\nCRASSUS.\nHa! Ha! Ha!\n\nALICIA.\nHush, you coarse slave; we'll surprise\nYour good wife in her mystic exercise.\nQuick, through the bramble!\n                        [They burst through upon ADELA.]\n\nCRASSUS.\nNow, you beast, I've got you!\nThe curst of God, and plague of Naples, rot you!\nFor this white brute - one slit!\n                        [He cuts the throat of THE SWAN with\n                        his dagger.]\n\nADELA.\nOh love betrayed!\nO my dead beauty! Faugh! deceitful maid.\nNot Crassus found me out. Had I the wings\nOf my dead love - oh love! -\n\nALICIA.\nWhy, wondrous things!\n\nADELA.\nThese nails shall serve. A servant!\n\nCRASSUS.\nShe shall be\nMy wife, damned witch, when I have done with thee!\n                        [THE SWAN dies.]\n\nADELA.\nI'll kill her now. But see! my swan is dead.\n\nALICIA.\nYes! and what light is breaking overhead?\nWhat blaze of blue and gold envelops us?\n\nCRASSUS.\nO marvel! O miraculous!\n\nADELA.\nWhat is it? Why, my lover's life, in me\nOnce concentrated, now diffused, illumes\nThe endless reaches of eternity\nWith infinite brilliance, with intense perfumes.\n\nALICIA.\nO then your lover was some god's disguise.\n\nADELA.\nAnd you have robbed me. Now beware your eyes!\n                        [She springs at ALICIA, who guards herself\n                        easily. But in the struggle her robe tears.]\n\nALICIA.\nTake care!\n\nADELA.\nA boy!\n\nCRASSUS.\nA boy! Then what am I?\n\nALICIA.\nThat is the key-word of the comedy.\nYou thought you had two vices at your need;\nBut she had Jove and you had Ganymede.\n                        [They are struck dumb and still with\n                        amazement. ALICIA claps her hands four times.]\n\nSweep through the air, bright blaze of eagle-wings!\nCrassus, sub pennis, penis! How he swings\nHis bulk from yonder sightless poise, to bear\nme back to the Dominion of the air\nWhere I shall bear the cup of Jupiter!\nBlind babes, love one another, no less true\nBecause the gods have deigned to dwell with you!\n                        [The eagle bears GANYMEDE aloft.]\n\nCRASSUS.\nAdela! these mysteries too great\nFor you and me to estimate.\nBut, widowed both, come, seek domestic charms\nAs we were wont, in one another's arms!\nWhat perfect moss for you to lie upon!\n\nADELA.\nI am your wife, dear Crassus.\n        (sotto voce) Oh, my swan!\n\n\nCURTAIN.","title":"Household Gods: A Comedy","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":3894}