Glaucus. But, my lord Bacchus, I shall reform. Silenus. Never, by Styx, thou fool! I tell thee, wert thou to change one thought of thy brain, or could'st thou obliterate one dream of thy youth, or cancel an action of thy prime, thou would'st endanger the stability of the universe. Go to: if thou reformest thou losest immortality and mortality, and shalt cease to be. Glaucus. With all due respect for your godship, I do not like my character. Silenus. Dost thou think I like mine? Glaucus. But when I was Glaucus---- Silenus. Thou wert a fool and respectable, and did'st admire thyself. Go to. Scaramouch. Gall and wormwood! what sound is that? Silenus. I hear no sound. Scaramouch. A sort of tinkling. Silenus. O Hecate! it is the silver cymbals. Scaramouch. What cymbals? Silenus. Listen. Glaucus [aside]. The old wine-skin's going to faint. Silenus. He comes! he comes! great Bacchus comes! My heart! Now, foolish creatures, will you see a god. But me, alas! what punishment for me? Some wine! [Drinks.] I'll dull my sense and show no shame. [Empties his bottle. This wine has lost its virtue.--Do you hear? These cymbal-players all were ladies once, Matrons and maids, close-robed from head to heel: Wild panthers' skins, zoned slackly, vest them now; Their milk-white limbs like moonbeams softly glance From tree to tree: and through the night they come. Scaramouch. Would I could hear them! But I tremble. Glaucus. What does all this mean? [Rises, drunk.] Bacchus is here, and Bacchus is there, and I'm a god, and can't understand it. I have a crude suspicion that I have taken too much wine, which a man may do once or twice in his life. My opinions about drunkenness are strong, but I will keep them to myself. Suffice it to say that I have never been drunk without good reason, and I'm not drunk now. I know the difference--any man knows the difference between exhilaration and drunkenness. I'm exhilarated now; I'm not drunk. I seem to remember another man some time or other--several men, in fact, at various times--saying that they were only exhilarated. It's a common thing to say in certain circumstances: it's a platitude. I'm not drunk. Do you think I'm drunk? Scaramouch. Drams and drachmas! as drunk's a fiddler! Glaucus. Liar! liar, definitely! Put me to the test. Bacchus--give me a back! [Runs at Silenus, and falls. Silenus. These are the satyrs playing pandean pipes, These rippling flames of sound: the muffled notes Are tabors. How the music dwindles! Hark! From some far isle it seems to reach our ears, To reach our ears and faint: the tide-mark there Is out of hearing. I should say they pass A knoll that lies between us, or the road Winds backward, and the forest is more dense. Scaramouch. They may be going back. Silenus. No, Bacchus comes for me. Scaramouch. Perhaps they've lost the way. Silenus.