name, and the thing which you once were is in limbo; wherefore you suit these times, and are well matched with my sweet Columbine. Columbine. What am I? Silenus. What short flounces and limelight have made you. What do these woods know of fleshings? Doff them for shame, and go naked. Columbine [aside]. Swell till you burst, old pumpkin! We'll make a pantaloon of you before we've done. Silenus. What are you muttering? Do you hear? You must go naked with a tiger's skin. Harlequin. She shall. But see, they are ripe for your address. Silenus. I say, wine-bibbing is noble, and drunkenness a virtue. Give me a drink, and let me go to sleep. Harlequin. Have you forgotten? Silenus. I thank Jove I have. To forget is Elysium; regret is hell. I would put it better if I weren't so sleepy. Harlequin. This will rouse you. [Gives him wine. Silenus [drinks]. Aurora is in this wine: already I feel her chariot prancing through my veins. I have drunken of the sun. Children----[Aside.] What was I to say? There was some plot. Harlequin [aside]. You are Bacchus. Silenus. I am the new Bacchus---- Harlequin [aside]. No, no; you are the old Bacchus! Silenus. --and the old Bacchus, and Bacchus altogether; and that maiden-faced Bacchus, who these many generations has roamed about the world striking men with fury and madness, is not the son of Semele, but a pampered and audacious old mountain-rover, none other than my ancient, Silenus, disguised. And this is the meaning of the fable that says I was dead and buried for a time. What greater burial could there be than the eclipse of Bacchus by Silenus! Well then, I am Bacchus: Proserpina nursed me. Harlequin. The true Bacchus is come again! All. Long live the true Bacchus! Silenus. There shall be no more rations, but all shall drink as much as they please; for ever since I stepped out of Jove's thigh I have been a hard drinker. [Aside.] Do I not do it well? Observe how I throw in these back-handers about my parentage--casually--before I am aware; and I blush and hem, for I would not be thought proud.--Children, rumour has confounded me with my father, Jupiter. Think it not: I am plain Bacchus, whose only claims on the world are that he invented wine, and is a good fellow, and a hard drinker. Fear me not, for I am harmless. All. Long live Bacchus! Silenus. Columbine, where is Ariadne? Columbine. I do not know, but we must find her. Silenus. We must.--I have no chariot. Harlequin. You shall have one. Silenus. And tigers? Harlequin. I fear you can't have tigers: there are none on the island. Silenus. Then you must get me some cats instead. And now I bethink me, cats will please me better. They were dangerous reptiles, those tigers, and I am growing old: my charms have not the power they once had. Harness me some half-dozen tabbies: they shall serve well enough. I have