Oedipus Tyrannus Or Swellfoot The Tyrant. A Tragedy In Two Acts Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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DRAMATIS PERSONAE	A
	-
TYRANT SWELLFOOT KING OF THEBES	B
IONA TAURINA HIS QUEEN	C
MAMMON ARCH PRIEST OF FAMINE	D
PURGANAX DAKRY LAOCTONOS WIZARDS MINISTERS OF SWELLFOOT	E
THE GADFLY	F
THE LEECH	G
THE RAT	E
MOSES THE SOW GELDER	H
SOLOMON THE PORKMAN	D
ZEPHANIAH PIG BUTCHER	H
THE MINOTAUR	H
CHORUS OF THE SWINISH MULTITUDE	E
GUARDS ATTENDANTS PRIESTS ETC ETC	I
	-
SCENE THEBES	B
	-
ACT	E
	-
SCENE A MAGNIFICENT TEMPLE BUILT OF THIGH BONES AND	E
DEATH'S HEADS AND TILED WITH SCALPS OVER THE ALTAR THE STATUE OF	J
FAMINE VEILED A NUMBER OF BOARS SOWS AND SUCKING PIGS CROWNED	E
WITH THISTLE SHAMROCK AND OAK SITTING ON THE STEPS AND CLINGING	K
ROUND THE ALTAR OF THE TEMPLE	L
	-
ENTER SWELLFOOT IN HIS ROYAL ROBES WITHOUT PERCEIVING THE PIGS	M
	-
SWELLFOOT	E
Thou supreme Goddess by whose power divine	D
These graceful limbs are clothed in proud array	H
HE CONTEMPLATES HIMSELF WITH SATISFACTION	D
Of gold and purple and this kingly paunch	G
Swells like a sail before a favouring breeze	N
And these most sacred nether promontories	N
Lie satisfied with layers of fat and these	N
Boeotian cheeks like Egypt's pyramid	E
Nor with less toil were their foundations laid	E
Sustain the cone of my untroubled brain	D
That point the emblem of a pointless nothing	K
Thou to whom Kings and laurelled Emperors	N
Radical butchers Paper money millers	N
Bishops and Deacons and the entire army	O
Of those fat martyrs to the persecution	D
Of stifling turtle soup and brandy devils	N
Offer their secret vows Thou plenteous Ceres	N
Of their Eleusis hail	P
	-
NOTE	E
See Universal History for an account of the number of people who	Q
died and the immense consumption of garlic by the wretched Egyptians	N
who made a sepulchre for the name as well as the bodies of their	H
tyrants SHELLEY'S NOTE	E
	-
SWINE	D
Eigh eigh eigh eigh	J
	-
SWELLFOOT	E
Ha what are ye	O
Who crowned with leaves devoted to the Furies	N
Cling round this sacred shrine	D
	-
SWINE	D
Aigh aigh aigh	J
	-
SWELLFOOT	E
What ye that are	H
The very beasts that offered at her altar	H
With blood and groans salt cake and fat and inwards	N
Ever propitiate her reluctant will	R
When taxes are withheld	E
	-
SWINE	D
Ugh ugh ugh	J
	-
SWELLFOOT	E
What ye who grub	S
With filthy snouts my red potatoes up	T
In Allan's rushy bog Who eat the oats	N
Up from my cavalry in the Hebrides	N
Who swill the hog wash soup my cooks digest	E
From bones and rags and scraps of shoe leather	H
Which should be given to cleaner Pigs than you	Q
	-
SWINE SEMICHORUS	N
The same alas the same	U
Though only now the name	U
Of Pig remains to me	O
	-
SEMICHORUS	N
If 'twere your kingly will	R
Us wretched Swine to kill	R
What should we yield to thee	O
	-
SWELLFOOT	E
Why skin and bones and some few hairs for mortar	H
	-
CHORUS OF SWINE	D
I have heard your Laureate sing	K
That pity was a royal thing	K
Under your mighty ancestors we Pigs	N
Were bless'd as nightingales on myrtle sprigs	N
Or grasshoppers that live on noonday dew	E
And sung old annals tell as sweetly too	E
But now our sties are fallen in we catch	G
The murrain and the mange the scab and itch	G
Sometimes your royal dogs tear down our thatch	G
And then we seek the shelter of a ditch	G
Hog wash or grains or ruta baga none	D
Has yet been ours since your reign begun	D
	-
FIRST SOW	N
My Pigs 'tis in vain to tug	J
	-
SECOND SOW	N
I could almost eat my litter	H
	-
FIRST PIG	V
I suck but no milk will come from the dug	J
	-
SECOND PIG	V
Our skin and our bones would be bitter	H
	-
THE BOARS	N
We fight for this rag of greasy rug	J
Though a trough of wash would be fitter	H
	-
SEMICHORUS	N
Happier Swine were they than we	O
Drowned in the Gadarean sea	O
I wish that pity would drive out the devils	N
Which in your royal bosom hold their revels	N
And sink us in the waves of thy compassion	D
Alas the Pigs are an unhappy nation	D
Now if your Majesty would have our bristles	N
To bind your mortar with or fill our colons	N
With rich blood or make brawn out of our gristles	N
In policy ask else your royal Solons	N
You ought to give us hog wash and clean straw	H
And sties well thatched besides it is the law	H
	-
NOTE	E
thy edition your edition	D
	-
SWELLFOOT	E
This is sedition and rank blasphemy	O
Ho there my guards	N
	-
ENTER A GUARD	E
	-
GUARD	E
Your sacred Majesty	O
	-
SWELLFOOT	O
Call in the Jews Solomon the court porkman	D
Moses the sow gelder and Zephaniah	D
The hog butcher	H
	-
GUARD	O
They are in waiting Sire	H
	-
ENTER SOLOMON MOSES AND ZEPHANIAH	D
	-
SWELLFOOT	O
Out with your knife old Moses and spay those Sows	N
THE PIGS RUN ABOUT IN CONSTERNATION	D
That load the earth with Pigs cut close and deep	W
Moral restraint I see has no effect	O
Nor prostitution nor our own example	L
Starvation typhus fever war nor prison	D
This was the art which the arch priest of Famine	D
Hinted at in his charge to the Theban clergy	O
Cut close and deep good Moses	N
	-
MOSES	N
Let your Majesty	O
Keep the Boars quiet else	N
	-
SWELLFOOT	O
Zephaniah cut	O
That fat Hog's throat the brute seems overfed	O
Seditious hunks to whine for want of grains	N
	-
ZEPHANIAH	D
Your sacred Majesty he has the dropsy	O
We shall find pints of hydatids in 's liver	H
He has not half an inch of wholesome fat	O
Upon his carious ribs	N
	-
SWELLFOOT	O
'Tis all the same	U
He'll serve instead of riot money when	D
Our murmuring troops bivouac in Thebes' streets	N
And January winds after a day	O
Of butchering will make them relish carrion	D
Now Solomon I'll sell you in a lump	X
The whole kit of them	Y
	-
SOLOMON	D
Why your Majesty	O
I could not give	J
	-
SWELLFOOT	O
Kill them out of the way	O
That shall be price enough and let me hear	H
Their everlasting grunts and whines no more	H
	-
EXEUNT DRIVING IN THE SWINE	D
ENTER MAMM N THE ARCH PRIEST	O
AND PURGANAX CHIEF OF THE COUNCIL OF WIZARDS	N
	-
PURGANAX	N
The future looks as black as death a cloud	O
Dark as the frown of Hell hangs over it	O
The troops grow mutinous the revenue fails	N
There's something rotten in us for the level	L
Of the State slopes its very bases topple	L
The boldest turn their backs upon themselves	N
	-
MAMMON	D
Why what's the matter my dear fellow now	D
Do the troops mutiny decimate some regiments	N
Does money fail come to my mint coin paper	H
Till gold be at a discount and ashamed	O
To show his bilious face go purge himself	J
In emulation of her vestal whiteness	N
	-
PURGANAX	N
Oh would that this were all The oracle	L
	-
MAMMON	D
Why it was I who spoke that oracle	L
And whether I was dead drunk or inspired	O
I cannot well remember nor in truth	Z
The oracle itself	J
	-
PURGANAX	N
The words went thus	N
'Boeotia choose reform or civil war	H
When through the streets instead of hare with dogs	N
A Consort Queen shall hunt a King with Hogs	N
Riding on the Ionian Minotaur '	-
	-
MAMMON	D
Now if the oracle had ne'er foretold	O
This sad alternative it must arrive	J
Or not and so it must now that it has	N
And whether I was urged by grace divine	D
Or Lesbian liquor to declare these words	N
Which must as all words must he false or true	E
It matters not for the same Power made all	A2
Oracle wine and me and you or none	D
'Tis the same thing If you knew as much	G
Of oracles as I do	E
	-
PURGANAX	N
You arch priests	N
Believe in nothing if you were to dream	B2
Of a particular number in the Lottery	O
You would not buy the ticket	O
	-
MAMMON	D
Yet our tickets	N
Are seldom blanks But what steps have you taken	D
For prophecies when once they get abroad	O
Like liars who tell the truth to serve their ends	N
Or hypocrites who from assuming virtue	E
Do the same actions that the virtuous do	E
Contrive their own fulfilment This Iona	D
Well you know what the chaste Pasiphae did	O
Wife to that most religious King of Crete	O
And still how popular the tale is here	H
And these dull Swine of Thebes boast their descent	O
From the free Minotaur You know they still	R
Call themselves Bulls though thus degenerate	O
And everything relating to a Bull	C2
Is popular and respectable in Thebes	N
Their arms are seven Bulls in a field gules	N
They think their strength consists in eating beef	J
Now there were danger in the precedent	O
If Queen Iona	D
	-
NOTES	N
the edition thy cj Forman	D
cf Motto below Title and II i ticket edition	D
ticket edition	D
their own Mrs Shelley later editions	N
their editions and	O
	-
PURGANAX	N
I have taken good care	H
That shall not be I struck the crust o' the earth	D2
With this enchanted rod and Hell lay bare	H
And from a cavern full of ugly shapes	N
I chose a LEECH a GADFLY and a RAT	O
The Gadfly was the same which Juno sent	O
To agitate Io and which Ezekiel mentions	N
That the Lord whistled for out of the mountains	N
Of utmost Aethiopia to torment	O
Mesopotamian Babylon The beast	O
Has a loud trumpet like the scarabee	S
His crooked tail is barbed with many stings	N
Each able to make a thousand wounds and each	G
Immedicable from his convex eyes	N
He sees fair things in many hideous shapes	N
And trumpets all his falsehood to the world	O
Like other beetles he is fed on dung	E2
He has eleven feet with which he crawls	N
Trailing a blistering slime and this foul beast	O
Has tracked Iona from the Theban limits	N
From isle to isle from city unto city	O
Urging her flight from the far Chersonese	N
To fabulous Solyma and the Aetnean Isle	F2
Ortygia Melite and Calypso's Rock	G2
And the swart tribes of Garamant and Fez	N
Aeolia and Elysium and thy shores	N
Parthenope which now alas are free	O
And through the fortunate Saturnian land	O
Into the darkness of the West	O
	-
NOTES	N
Io The Promethetes Bound of Aeschylus SHELLEY'S NOTE	O
Ezekiel And the Lord whistled for the gadfly out of Aethiopia	X
and for the bee of Egypt etc EZEKIEL SHELLEY'S NOTE	O
	-
MAMMON	D
But if	J
This Gadfly should drive Iona hither	H
	-
PURGANAX	N
Gods what an IF but there is my gray RAT	O
So thin with want he can crawl in and out	O
Of any narrow chink and filthy hole	H2
And he shall creep into her dressing room	I2
And	O
	-
MAMMON	D
My dear friend where are your wits as if	J
She does not always toast a piece of cheese	N
And bait the trap and rats when lean enough	J
To crawl through SUCH chinks	N
	-
PURGANAX	N
But my LEECH a leech	G
Fit to suck blood with lubricous round rings	N
Capaciously expatiative which make	J2
His little body like a red balloon	D
As full of blood as that of hydrogen	D
Sucked from men's hearts insatiably he sucks	N
And clings and pulls a horse leech whose deep maw	H
The plethoric King Swellfoot could not fill	R
And who till full will cling for ever	H
	-
MAMMON	D
This	N
For Queen Jona would suffice and less	N
But 'tis the Swinish multitude I fear	H
And in that fear I have	J
	-
PURGANAX	N
Done what	O
	-
MAMMON	D
Disinherited	O
My eldest son Chrysaor because he	O
Attended public meetings and would always	N
Stand prating there of commerce public faith	K2
Economy and unadulterate coin	D
And other topics ultra radical	L
And have entailed my estate called the Fool's Paradise	N
And funds in fairy money bonds and bills	N
Upon my accomplished daughter Banknotina	D
And married her to the gallows	N
	-
NOTE	O
'If one should marry a gallows and beget young gibbets I never	H
saw one so prone CYMBELINE SHELLEY'S NOTE	O
	-
PURGANAX	N
A good match	G
	-
MAMMON	D
A high connexion Purganax The bridegroom	I2
Is of a very ancient family	O
Of Hounslow Heath Tyburn and the New Drop	X
And has great influence in both Houses oh	L2
He makes the fondest husband nay TOO fond	O
New married people should not kiss in public	M2
But the poor souls love one another so	L2
And then my little grandchildren the gibbets	L2
Promising children as you ever saw	L2
The young playing at hanging the elder learning	K
How to hold radicals They are well taught too	O
For every gibbet says its catechism	N2
And reads a select chapter in the Bible	L
Before it goes to play	O
	-
A MOST TREMENDOUS HUMMING IS HEARD	O
	-
PURGANAX	L2
Ha what do I hear	H
	-
ENTER THE GADFLY	F
	-
MAMMON	D
Your Gadfly as it seems is tired of gadding	K
	-
GADFLY	F
Hum hum hum	N2
From the lakes of the Alps and the cold gray scalps	L2
Of the mountains I come	N2
Hum hum hum	N2
From Morocco and Fez and the high palaces	L2
Of golden Byzantium	N2
From the temples divine of old Palestine	D
From Athens and Rome	O2
With a ha and a hum	N2
I come I come	N2
	-
All inn doors and windows	L2
Were open to me	O
I saw all that sin does	L2
Which lamps hardly see	O
That burn in the night by the curtained bed	O
The impudent lamps for they blushed not red	O
Dinging and singing	K
From slumber I rung her	H
Loud as the clank of an ironmonger	H
Hum hum hum	N2
	-
Far far far	H
With the trump of my lips and the sting at my hips	L2
I drove her afar	H
Far far far	H
From city to city abandoned of pity	O
A ship without needle or star	H
Homeless she passed like a cloud on the blast	O
Seeking peace finding war	H
She is here in her car	H
From afar and afar	H
Hum hum	N2
	-
I have stung her and wrung her	H
The venom is working	K
And if you had hung her	H
With canting and quirking	K
She could not be deader than she will be soon	D
I have driven her close to you under the moon	D
Night and day hum hum ha	P2
I have hummed her and drummed her	H
From place to place till at last I have dumbed her	H
Hum hum hum	N2
	-
NOTE	O
Edd have no stage direction after this line	D
	-
ENTER THE LEECH AND THE RAT	O
	-
LEECH	G
I will suck	K
Blood or muck	K
The disease of the state is a plethory	H
Who so fit to reduce it as I	F
	-
RAT	O
I'll slily seize and	O
Let blood from her weasand	O
Creeping through crevice and chink and cranny	O
With my snaky tail and my sides so scranny	O
	-
PURGANAX	L2
Aroint ye thou unprofitable worm	Q2
TO THE LEECH	G
And thou dull beetle get thee back to hell	R2
TO THE GADFLY	F
To sting the ghosts of Babylonian kings	L2
And the ox headed Io	L2
	-
SWINE WITHIN	O
Ugh ugh ugh	J
Hail Iona the divine	O
We will be no longer Swine	O
But Bulls with horns and dewlaps	L2
	-
RAT	O
For	H
You know my lord the Minotaur	H
	-
PURGANAX FIERCELY	O
Be silent get to hell or I will call	A2
The cat out of the kitchen Well Lord Mammon	O
This is a pretty business	L2
	-
EXIT THE RAT	O
	-
MAMMON	O
I will go	L2
And spell some scheme to make it ugly then	O
	-
EXIT	O
	-
ENTER SWELLFOOT	O
	-
SWELLFOOT	O
She is returned Taurina is in Thebes	L2
When Swellfoot wishes that she were in hell	R2
Oh Hymen clothed in yellow jealousy	O
And waving o'er the couch of wedded kings	L2
The torch of Discord with its fiery hair	H
This is thy work thou patron saint of queens	L2
Swellfoot is wived though parted by the sea	O
The very name of wife had conjugal rights	L2
Her cursed image ate drank slept with me	O
And in the arms of Adiposa oft	O
Her memory has received a husband's	L2
A LOUD TUMULT AND CRIES OF 'IONA FOR EVER NO SWELLFOOT '	-
Hark	K
How the Swine cry Iona Taurina	O
I suffer the real presence Purganax	L2
Off with her head	O
	-
PURGANAX	L2
But I must first impanel	L
A jury of the Pigs	L2
	-
SWELLFOOT	O
Pack them then	O
	-
PURGANAX	L2
Or fattening some few in two separate sties	L2
And giving them clean straw tying some bits	L2
Of ribbon round their legs giving their Sows	L2
Some tawdry lace and bits of lustre glass	L2
And their young Boars white and red rags and tails	L2
Of cows and jay feathers and sticking cauliflowers	L2
Between the ears of the old ones and when	O
They are persuaded that by the inherent virtue	O
Of these things they are all imperial Pigs	L2
Good Lord they'd rip each other's bellies up	X
Not to say help us in destroying her	H
	-
SWELLFOOT	O
This plan might be tried too where's General Laoctonos	L2
ENTER LAOCTONOS AND DAKRY	H
It is my royal pleasure	H
That you Lord General bring the head and body	O
If separate it would please me better hither	H
Of Queen Iona	O
	-
LAOCTONOS	L2
That pleasure I well knew	O
And made a charge with those battalions bold	O
Called from their dress and grin the royal apes	L2
Upon the Swine who in a hollow square	H
Enclosed her and received the first attack	K
Like so many rhinoceroses and then	O
Retreating in good order with bare tusks	L2
And wrinkled snouts presented to the foe	L2
Bore her in triumph to the public sty	O
What is still worse some Sows upon the ground	O
Have given the ape guards apples nuts and gin	O
And they all whisk their tails aloft and cry	O
'Long live Iona down with Swellfoot '	-
	-
PURGANAX	L2
Hark	K
	-
THE SWINE WITHOUT	O
Long live Iona down with Swellfoot	O
	-
DAKRY	O
I	O
Went to the garret of the swineherd's tower	O
Which overlooks the sty and made a long	K
Harangue all words to the assembled Swine	O
Of delicacy mercy judgement law	L2
Morals and precedents and purity	O
Adultery destitution and divorce	L2
Piety faith and state necessity	O
And how I loved the Queen and then I wept	O
With the pathos of my own eloquence	L2
And every tear turned to a mill stone which	G
Brained many a gaping Pig and there was made	O
A slough of blood and brains upon the place	L2
Greased with the pounded bacon round and round	O
The mill stones rolled ploughing the pavement up	X
And hurling Sucking Pigs into the air	O
With dust and stones	L2
	-
ENTER MAMMON	O
	-
MAMMON	O
I wonder that gray wizards	L2
Like you should be so beardless in their schemes	L2
It had been but a point of policy	O
To keep Iona and the Swine apart	O
Divide and rule but ye have made a junction	O
Between two parties who will govern you	O
But for my art Behold this BAG it is	L2
The poison BAG of that Green Spider huge	S2
On which our spies skulked in ovation through	O
The streets of Thebes when they were paved with dead	O
A bane so much the deadlier fills it now	O
As calumny is worse than death for here	O
The Gadfly's venom fifty times distilled	O
Is mingled with the vomit of the Leech	G
In due proportion and black ratsbane which	G
That very Rat who like the Pontic tyrant	O
Nurtures himself on poison dare not touch	G
All is sealed up with the broad seal of Fraud	O
Who is the Devil's Lord High Chancellor	O
And over it the Primate of all Hell	R2
Murmured this pious baptism 'Be thou called	O
The GREEN BAG and this power and grace be thine	O
That thy contents on whomsoever poured	O
Turn innocence to guilt and gentlest looks	L2
To savage foul and fierce deformity	O
Let all baptized by thy infernal dew	O
Be called adulterer drunkard liar wretch	G
No name left out which orthodoxy loves	L2
Court Journal or legitimate Review	O
Be they called tyrant beast fool glutton lover	O
Of other wives and husbands than their own	O
The heaviest sin on this side of the Alps	L2
Wither they to a ghastly caricature	O
Of what was human let not man or beast	O
Behold their face with unaverted eyes	L2
Or hear their names with ears that tingle not	O
With blood of indignation rage and shame '	-
This is a perilous liquor good my Lords	L2
SWELLFOOT APPROACHES TO TOUCH THE GREEN BAG	K
Beware for God's sake beware if you should break	K
The seal and touch the fatal liquor	O
	-
NOTE	O
or edition nor edition	O
	-
PURGANAX	L2
There	O
Give it to me I have been used to handle	L
All sorts of poisons His dread Majesty	O
Only desires to see the colour of it	O
	-
MAMMON	O
Now with a little common sense my Lords	L2
Only undoing all that has been done	O
Yet so as it may seem we but confirm it	O
Our victory is assured We must entice	L2
Her Majesty from the sty and make the Pigs	L2
Believe that the contents of the GREEN BAG	K
Are the true test of guilt or innocence	L2
And that if she be guilty 'twill transform her	O
To manifest deformity like guilt	O
If innocent she will become transfigured	O
Into an angel such as they say she is	L2
And they will see her flying through the air	O
So bright that she will dim the noonday sun	O
Showering down blessings in the shape of comfits	L2
This trust a priest is just the sort of thing	K
Swine will believe I'll wager you will see them	Y
Climbing upon the thatch of their low sties	L2
With pieces of smoked glass to watch her sail	P
Among the clouds and some will hold the flaps	L2
Of one another's ears between their teeth	T2
To catch the coming hail of comfits in	O
You Purganax who have the gift o' the gab	S
Make them a solemn speech to this effect	O
I go to put in readiness the feast	O
Kept to the honour of our goddess Famine	O
Where for more glory let the ceremony	O
Take place of the uglification of the Queen	O
	-
DAKRY TO SWELLFOOT	O
I as the keeper of your sacred conscience	L2
Humbly remind your Majesty that the care	O
Of your high office as Man milliner	O
To red Bellona should not be deferred	O
	-
PURGANAX	L2
All part in happier plight to meet again	O
	-
EXEUNT	O
	-
END OF THE ACT	O
	-
	-
ACT	O
	-
SCENE	O
THE PUBLIC STY	O
THE B ARS IN FULL ASSEMBLY	O
ENTER PUEGANAX	L2
	-
PURGANAX	L2
Grant me your patience Gentlemen and Boars	L2
Ye by whose patience under public burthens	L2
The glorious constitution of these sties	L2
Subsists and shall subsist The Lean Pig rates	L2
Grow with the growing populace of Swine	O
The taxes that true source of Piggishness	L2
How can I find a more appropriate term	Q2
To include religion morals peace and plenty	O
And all that fit Boeotia as a nation	O
To teach the other nations how to live	J
Increase with Piggishness itself and still	R
Does the revenue that great spring of all	A2
The patronage and pensions and by payments	L2
Which free born Pigs regard with jealous eyes	L2
Diminish till at length by glorious steps	L2
All the land's produce will be merged in taxes	L2
And the revenue will amount to nothing	K
The failure of a foreign market for	O
Sausages bristles and blood puddings	L2
And such home manufactures is but partial	L
And that the population of the Pigs	L2
Instead of hog wash has been fed on straw	L2
And water is a fact which is you know	O
That is it is a state necessity	O
Temporary of course Those impious Pigs	L2
Who by frequent squeaks have dared impugn	O
The settled Swellfoot system or to make	K
Irreverent mockery of the genuflexions	L2
Inculcated by the arch priest have been whipped	O
Into a loyal and an orthodox whine	O
Things being in this happy state the Queen	O
Iona	O
	-
NOTE	O
land's lands edition	O
	-
A LOUD CRY FROM THE PIGS	L2
She is innocent most innocent	O
	-
PURGANAX	L2
That is the very thing that I was saying	K
Gentlemen Swine the Queen Iona being	K
Most innocent no doubt returns to Thebes	L2
And the lean Sows and Bears collect about her	O
Wishing to make her think that WE believe	J
I mean those more substantial Pigs who swill	R
Rich hog wash while the others mouth damp straw	L2
That she is guilty thus the Lean Pig faction	O
Seeks to obtain that hog wash which has been	O
Your immemorial right and which I will	R
Maintain you in to the last drop of	J
	-
A BOAR INTERRUPTING HIM	U2
What	O
Does any one accuse her of	J
	-
PURGANAX	L2
Why no one	O
Makes ANY positive accusation but	O
There were hints dropped and so the privy wizards	L2
Conceived that it became them to advise	L2
His Majesty to investigate their truth	Z
Not for his own sake he could be content	O
To let his wife play any pranks she pleased	O
If by that sufferance HE could please the Pigs	L2
But then he fears the morals of the Swine	O
The Sows especially and what effect	O
It might produce upon the purity and	O
Religion of the rising generation	O
Of Sucking Pigs if it could be suspected	O
That Queen Iona	O
	-
A PAUSE	L2
	-
FIRST BOAR	O
Well go on we long	K
To hear what she can possibly have done	O
	-
PURGANAX	L2
Why it is hinted that a certain Bull	C2
Thus much is KNOWN the milk white Bulls that feed	O
Beside Clitumnus and the crystal lakes	L2
Of the Cisalpine mountains in fresh dews	L2
Of lotus grass and blossoming asphodel	C2
Sleeking their silken hair and with sweet breath	V2
Loading the morning winds until they faint	O
With living fragrance are so beautiful	C2
Well I say nothing but Europa rode	O
On such a one from Asia into Crete	O
And the enamoured sea grew calm beneath	T2
His gliding beauty And Pasiphae	J
Iona's grandmother but SHE is innocent	O
And that both you and I and all assert	O
	-
FIRST BOAR	O
Most innocent	O
	-
PURGANAX	L2
Behold this BAG a bag	K
	-
SECOND BOAR	O
Oh no GREEN BAGS Jealousy's eyes are green	O
Scorpions are green and water snakes and efts	L2
And verdigris and	O
	-
PURGANAX	L2
Honourable Swine	O
In Piggish souls can prepossessions reign	O
Allow me to remind you grass is green	O
All flesh is grass no bacon but is flesh	G
Ye are but bacon This divining BAG	K
Which is not green but only bacon colour	O
Is filled with liquor which if sprinkled o'er	O
A woman guilty of we all know what	O
Makes her so hideous till she finds one blind	O
She never can commit the like again	O
If innocent she will turn into an angel	C2
And rain down blessings in the shape of comfits	L2
As she flies up to heaven Now my proposal	C2
Is to convert her sacred Majesty	O
Into an angel as I am sure we shall do	O
By pouring on her head this mystic water	O
SHOWING THE BAG	K
I know that she is innocent I wish	G
Only to prove her so to all the world	O
	-
FIRST BOAR	O
Excellent just and noble Purganax	L2
	-
SECOND BOAR	O
How glorious it will be to see her Majesty	O
Flying above our heads her petticoats	L2
Streaming like like like	K
	-
THIRD BOAR	O
Anything	K
	-
PURGANAX	L2
Oh no	O
But like a standard of an admiral's ship	X
Or like the banner of a conquering host	O
Or like a cloud dyed in the dying day	O
Unravelled on the blast from a white mountain	O
Or like a meteor or a war steed's mane	O
Or waterfall from a dizzy precipice	L2
Scattered upon the wind	O
	-
FIRST BOAR	O
Or a cow's tail	C2
	-
SECOND BOAR	O
Or ANYTHING as the learned Boar observed	O
	-
PURGANAX	L2
Gentlemen Boars I move a resolution	O
That her most sacred Majesty should be	O
Invited to attend the feast of Famine	O
And to receive upon her chaste white body	O
Dews of Apotheosis from this BAG	K
	-
A GREAT CONFUSION IS HEARD OF THE PIGS OUT OF DOORS WHICH	G
COMMUNICATES ITSELF TO THOSE WITHIN DURING THE FIRST STROPHE THE	O
DOORS OF THE STY ARE STAVED IN AND A NUMBER OF EXCEEDINGLY LEAN PIGS	L2
AND SOWS AND BOARS RUSH IN	O
	-
SEMICHORUS	L2
No Yes	L2
	-
SEMICHORUS	L2
Yes No	O
	-
SEMICHORUS	L2
A law	C2
	-
SEMICHORUS	L2
A flaw	C2
	-
SEMICHORUS	L2
Porkers we shall lose our wash	G
Or must share it with the Lean Pigs	L2
	-
FIRST BOAR	O
Order order be not rash	G
Was there ever such a scene Pigs	L2
	-
AN OLD SOW RUSHING IN	O
I never saw so fine a dash	G
Since I first began to wean Pigs	L2
	-
SECOND BOAR SOLEMNLY	O
The Queen will be an angel time enough	J
I vote in form of an amendment that	O
Purganax rub a little of that stuff	J
Upon his face	L2
	-
PURGANAX HIS HEART IS SEEN TO BEAT THROUGH HIS WAISTCOAT	O
Gods What would ye be at	O
	-
SEMICHORUS	L2
Purganax has plainly shown a	O
Cloven foot and jackdaw feather	O
	-
SEMICHORUS	L2
I vote Swellfoot and Iona	O
Try the magic test together	O
Whenever royal spouses bicker	O
Both should try the magic liquor	O
	-
AN OLD BOAR ASIDE	O
A miserable state is that of Pigs	L2
For if their drivers would tear caps and wigs	L2
The Swine must bite each other's ear therefore	O
	-
AN OLD SOW ASIDE	O
A wretched lot Jove has assigned to Swine	O
Squabbling makes Pig herds hungry and they dine	O
On bacon and whip Sucking Pigs the more	O
	-
CHORUS	L2
Hog wash has been ta'en away	O
If the Bull Queen is divested	O
We shall be in every way	O
Hunted stripped exposed molested	O
Let us do whate'er we may	O
That she shall not be arrested	O
QUEEN we entrench you with walls of brawn	O
And palisades of tusks sharp as a bayonet	O
Place your most sacred person here We pawn	O
Our lives that none a finger dare to lay on it	O
Those who wrong you wrong us	L2
Those who hate you hate us	L2
Those who sting you sting us	L2
Those who bait you bait us	L2
The ORACLE is now about to be	O
Fulfilled by circumvolving destiny	O
Which says 'Thebes choose REFORM or CIVIL WAR	O
When through your streets instead of hare with dogs	L2
A CONSORT QUEEN shall hunt a KING with Hogs	L2
Riding upon the IONIAN MINOTAUR '	-
	-
NOTE	O
streets instead edition	O
	-
ENTER IONA TAURINA	O
	-
IONA TAURINA COMING FORWARD	O
Gentlemen Swine and gentle Lady Pigs	L2
The tender heart of every Boar acquits	L2
Their QUEEN of any act incongruous	L2
With native Piggishness and she reposing	K
With confidence upon the grunting nation	O
Has thrown herself her cause her life her all	C2
Her innocence into their Hoggish arms	L2
Nor has the expectation been deceived	O
Of finding shelter there Yet know great Boars	L2
For such whoever lives among you finds you	O
And so do I the innocent are proud	O
I have accepted your protection only	O
In compliment of your kind love and care	O
Not for necessity The innocent	O
Are safest there where trials and dangers wait	O
Innocent Queens o'er white hot ploughshares tread	O
Unsinged and ladies Erin's laureate sings it	O
Decked with rare gems and beauty rarer still	C2
Walked from Killarney to the Giant's Causeway	O
Through rebels smugglers troops of yeomanry	O
White boys and Orange boys and constables	L2
Tithe proctors and excise people uninjured	O
Thus I	O
Lord Purganax I do commit myself	J
Into your custody and am prepared	O
To stand the test whatever it may be	O
	-
NOTE	O
'Rich and rare were the gems she wore ' See Moore's Irish	G
Melodies SHELLEY'S NOTE	O
	-
PURGANAX	L2
This magnanimity in your sacred Majesty	O
Must please the Pigs You cannot fail of being	K
A heavenly angel Smoke your bits of glass	L2
Ye loyal Swine or her transfiguration	O
Will blind your wondering eyes	L2
	-
AN OLD BOAR ASIDE	O
Take care my Lord	O
They do not smoke you first	O
	-
PURGANAX	L2
At the approaching feast	O
Of Famine let the expiation be	O
	-
SWINE	O
Content content	O
	-
IONA TAURINA ASIDE	O
I most content of all	C2
Know that my foes even thus prepare their fall	C2
	-
EXEUNT OMNES	L2
	-
SCENE	O
THE INTERIOR OF THE TEMPLE OF FAMINE	O
THE STATUE OF THE GODDESS A SKELETON CLOTHED IN PARTI COLOURED RAGS	L2
SEATED UPON A HEAP OF SKULLS AND LOAVES INTERMINGLED	O
A NUMBER OF EXCEEDINGLY FAT PRIESTS IN BLACK GARMENTS ARRAYED ON EACH	G
SIDE WITH MARROW BONES AND CLEAVERS IN THEIR HANDS	L2
SOLOMON THE COURT PORKMAN	O
A FLOURISH OF TRUMPETS	L2
	-
ENTER MAMMON AS ARCH PRIEST SWELLFOOT DAKRY PURGANAX LAOCTONOS	L2
FOLLOWED BY IONA TAURINA GUARDED	O
ON THE OTHER SIDE ENTER THE SWINE	O
	-
CHORUS OF PRIESTS ACCOMPANIED BY THE COURT PORKMAN ON MARROW BONES	L2
AND CLEAVERS	L2
GODDESS bare and gaunt and pale	C2
Empress of the world all hail	C2
What though Cretans old called thee	O
City crested Cybele	C2
We call thee FAMINE	O
Goddess of fasts and feasts starving and cramming	K
Through thee for emperors kings and priests and lords	L2
Who rule by viziers sceptres bank notes words	L2
The earth pours forth its plenteous fruits	L2
Corn wool linen flesh and roots	L2
Those who consume these fruits through thee grow fat	O
Those who produce these fruits through thee grow lean	O
Whatever change takes place oh stick to that	O
And let things be as they have ever been	O
At least while we remain thy priests	L2
And proclaim thy fasts and feasts	L2
Through thee the sacred SWELLF T dynasty	O
Is based upon a rock amid that sea	O
Whose waves are Swine so let it ever be	O
	-
SWELLFOOT ETC SEAT THEMSELVES AT A TABLE MAGNIFICENTLY COVERED AT	O
THE UPPER END OF THE TEMPLE	C2
ATTENDANTS PASS OVER THE STAGE WITH HOG WASH IN PAILS	L2
A NUMBER OF PIGS EXCEEDINGLY LEAN FOLLOW THEM LICKING UP THE WASH	G
	-
MAMMON	O
I fear your sacred Majesty has lost	O
The appetite which you were used to have	J
Allow me now to recommend this dish	G
A simple kickshaw by your Persian cook	K
Such as is served at the great King's second table	C2
The price and pains which its ingredients cost	O
Might have maintained some dozen families	L2
A winter or two not more so plain a dish	G
Could scarcely disagree	O
	-
SWELLFOOT	O
After the trial	C2
And these fastidious Pigs are gone perhaps	L2
I may recover my lost appetite	O
I feel the gout flying about my stomach	G
Give me a glass of Maraschino punch	G
	-
PURGANAX FILLING HIS GLASS AND STANDING UP	X
The glorious Constitution of the Pigs	L2
	-
ALL	C2
A toast a toast stand up and three times three	O
	-
DAKRY	O
No heel taps darken daylights	L2
	-
LAOCTONOS	L2
Claret somehow	O
Puts me in mind of blood and blood of claret	O
	-
SWELLFOOT	O
Laoctonos is fishing for a compliment	O
But 'tis his due Yes you have drunk more wine	O
And shed more blood than any man in Thebes	L2
TO PURGANAX	L2
For God's sake stop the grunting of those Pigs	L2
	-
PURGANAX	L2
We dare not Sire 'tis Famine's privilege	W2
	-
CHORUS OF SWINE	O
Hail to thee hail to thee Famine	O
Thy throne is on blood and thy robe is of rags	L2
Thou devil which livest on damning	K
Saint of new churches and cant and GREEN BAGS	L2
Till in pity and terror thou risest	O
Confounding the schemes of the wisest	O
When thou liftest thy skeleton form	X2
When the loaves and the skulls roll about	O
We will greet thee the voice of a storm	X2
Would be lost in our terrible shout	O
	-
Then hail to thee hail to thee Famine	O
Hail to thee Empress of Earth	D2
When thou risest dividing possessions	L2
When thou risest uprooting oppressions	L2
In the pride of thy ghastly mirth	D2
Over palaces temples and graves	L2
We will rush as thy minister slaves	L2
Trampling behind in thy train	O
Till all be made level again	O
	-
MAMMON	O
I hear a crackling of the giant bones	L2
Of the dread image and in the black pits	L2
Which once were eyes I see two livid flames	L2
These prodigies are oracular and show	O
The presence of the unseen Deity	O
Mighty events are hastening to their doom	I2
	-
SWELLFOOT	O
I only hear the lean and mutinous Swine	O
Grunting about the temple	C2
	-
DAKRY	O
In a crisis	L2
Of such exceeding delicacy I think	K
We ought to put her Majesty the QUEEN	O
Upon her trial without delay	C2
	-
MAMMON	O
THE BAG	K
Is here	O
	-
PURGANAX	L2
I have rehearsed the entire scene	O
With an ox bladder and some ditchwater	O
On Lady P it cannot fail	C2
TAKING UP THE BAG	K
Your Majesty	O
TO SWELLFOOT	O
In such a filthy business had better	O
Stand on one side lest it should sprinkle you	O
A spot or two on me would do no harm	Y2
Nay it might hide the blood which the sad Genius	L2
Of the Green Isle has fixed as by a spell	C2
Upon my brow which would stain all its seas	L2
But which those seas could never wash away	C2
	-
IONA TAURINA	O
My Lord I am ready nay I am impatient	O
To undergo the test	O
A GRACEFUL FIGURE IN A SEMI TRANSPARENT VEIL PASSES UNNOTICED THROUGH	O
THE TEMPLE THE WORD LIBERTY IS SEEN THROUGH THE VEIL AS IF IT WERE	O
WRITTEN IN FIRE UPON ITS FOREHEAD ITS WORDS ARE ALMOST DROWNED IN THE	O
FURIOUS GRUNTING OF THE PIGS AND THE BUSINESS OF THE TRIAL SHE	O
KNEELS ON THE STEPS OF THE ALTAR AND SPEAKS IN TONES AT FIRST FAINT	O
AND LOW BUT WHICH EVER BECOME LOUDER AND LOUDER	O
Mighty Empress Death's white wife	J
Ghastly mother in law of Life	J
By the God who made thee such	G
By the magic of thy touch	G
By the starving and the cramming	K
Of fasts and feasts by thy dread self O Famine	O
I charge thee when thou wake the multitude	O
Thou lead them not upon the paths of blood	O
The earth did never mean her foison	O
For those who crown life's cup with poison	O
Of fanatic rage and meaningless revenge	Z2
But for those radiant spirits who are still	C2
The standard bearers in the van of Change	A3
Be they th' appointed stewards to fill	C2
The lap of Pain and Toil and Age	B3
Remit O Queen thy accustomed rage	B3
Be what thou art not In voice faint and low	O
FREEDOM calls Famine her eternal foe	O
To brief alliance hollow truce Rise now	O
	-
WHILST THE VEILED FIGURE HAS BEEN CHANTING THIS STROPHE MAMMON	O
DAKRY LAOCTONOS AND SWELLFOOT HAVE SURROUNDED IONA TAURINA WHO	O
WITH HER HANDS FOLDED ON HER BREAST AND HER EYES LIFTED TO HEAVEN	O
STANDS AS WITH SAINT LIKE RESIGNATION TO WAIT THE ISSUE OF THE	O
BUSINESS IN PERFECT CONFIDENCE OF HER INNOCENCE	L2
	-
PURGANAX AFTER UNSEALING THE GREEN BAG IS GRAVELY ABOUT TO POUR THE	O
LIQUOR UPON HER HEAD WHEN SUDDENLY THE WHOLE EXPRESSION OF HER FIGURE	O
AND COUNTENANCE CHANGES SHE SNATCHES IT FROM HIS HAND WITH A LOUD	O
LAUGH OF TRIUMPH AND EMPTIES IT OVER SWELLFOOT AND HIS WHOLE COURT	O
WHO ARE INSTANTLY CHANGED INTO A NUMBER OF FILTHY AND UGLY ANIMALS	L2
AND RUSH OUT OF THE TEMPLE THE IMAGE OF FAMINE THEN ARISES WITH A	O
TREMENDOUS SOUND THE PIGS BEGIN SCRAMBLING FOR THE LOAVES AND ARE	O
TRJPPED UP BY THE SKULLS ALL THOSE WHO EAT THE LOAVES ARE TURNED INTO	O
BULLS AND ARRANGE THEMSELVES QUIETLY BEHIND THE ALTAR THE IMAGE OF	J
FAMINE SINKS THROUGH A CHASM IN THE EARTH AND A MINOTAUR RISES	L2
	-
MINOTAUR	O
I am the Ionian Minotaur the mightiest	O
Of all Europa's taurine progeny	O
I am the old traditional Man Bull	C2
And from my ancestors having been Ionian	O
I am called Ion which by interpretation	O
Is JOHN in plain Theban that is to say	C2
My name's JOHN BULL I am a famous hunter	O
And can leaf any gate in all Boeotia	G
Even the palings of the royal park	K
Or double ditch about the new enclosures	L2
And if your Majesty will deign to mount me	O
At least till you have hunted down your game	U
I will not throw you	O
	-
IONA TAURINA DURING THIS SPEECH SHE HAS BEEN PUTTING ON BOOTS AND	O
SPURS AND A HUNTING CAP BUCKISHLY COCKED ON ONE SIDE AND TUCKING UP	X
HER HAIR SHE LEAPS NIMBLY ON HIS BACK	K
Hoa hoa tallyho tallyho ho ho	O
Come let us hunt these ugly badgers down	O
These stinking foxes these devouring otters	L2
These hares these wolves these anything but men	O
Hey for a whipper in my loyal Pigs	L2
Now let your noses be as keen as beagles'	L2
Your steps as swift as greyhounds' and your cries	L2
More dulcet and symphonious than the bells	L2
Of village towers on sunshine holiday	C2
Wake all the dewy woods with jangling music	K
Give them no law are they not beasts of blood	O
But such as they gave you Tallyho ho	O
Through forest furze and bog and den and desert	O
Pursue the ugly beasts tallyho ho	O
	-
FULL CHORUS OF I NA AND THE SWINE	O
Tallyho tallyho	O
Through rain hail and snow	O
Through brake gorse and briar	O
Through fen flood and mire	O
We go we go	O
	-
Tallyho tallyho	O
Through pond ditch and slough	J
Wind them and find them	Y
Like the Devil behind them	Y
Tallyho tallyho	O
	-
EXEUNT IN FULL CRY	O
IONA DRIVING ON THE SWINE WITH THE EMPTY GEEEN BAG	K
	-
THE END	O

Percy Bysshe Shelley

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