Wide as the Aegean, and as Olympus high, Your striking shall be felt. Come nearer me; Now strike, until your sword in splinters fly. [Harlequin strikes the earth with his sword. SCENE IV.--Transformation from the Sea-shore to the Bower of Ariadne. Song. Through the air, through the air, We are borne; from our hair A spicy odour is shaken: We sing as we sail; The strong trees quail, And the dreaming doves awaken. The pale screech-owl That, cheek by jowl, Goes ravening with night, Thinks day has come, And hurries home Half-starved, to shun the light. An eagle above us screams; But a star blows a silver horn, And a faint far echo floats From the depths of the lakes, and the streams Warble the shadowy notes. A young lark thinks it morn, And sings through our flying crowd, That seems to his eager soul Like a low-hung dawning cloud. The bells of midnight toll; The night-flowers tell the hour; And the stately planets roll, As we fly to our lady's bower. SCENE V.--The Bower of Ariadne. Enter Bacchus and Ariadne, Sarmion and Ione, Harlequin and Columbine, Glaucus, Scaramouch, Satyrs, and Bacchantes. Song. Here are brackens, green and gold, Fit for plumes of Titans old; And we see them by the light That immortals shed at night: Bosky rooms where to and fro Shadowy dryads come and go; Bubbling springs where naiads peep, Mossy couches where they sleep. Here beneath this tree-topped hill Pan oft comes to pipe his fill, Making all the valley ring; Here the Muses sometimes sing: And here upon this midnight hour We visit Ariadne's bower. Ariadne [to Sarmion]. Who may you be? Ione. He cannot speak. Ariadne. Not speak! Bacchus. Silenus knows a remedy for that. Silenus. None better. [Gives Sarmion wine in a goblet. This would loosen dead men's tongues. Sarmion. My name is Sarmion. Whence I come I know not: I know I live; and now I have command Of speech and of my thoughts, thanks to this wine. I first remember being on the sea: My shallop leapt from wave to wave: I thought For ever to go sailing through the night: My molten life welled from my heart and streamed In murmuring flame through all its channels, fanned By cooling winds: I watched the wanton waves That melted in each other till I slept. When I awoke the moon shone overhead, And made along the sea a path of light, Wherein I sailed: the beauty of it all Blanched me with rapture; but before I knew My shallop grounded, and I sprang on shore. I looked about me for a silver stair To mount up to the moon, and seeing none Began to be dismayed, when suddenly I came upon this lady, whom I love. [To Ione.] Lady, I love you. How I longed to say "I love you!"--We were carried to a ship, And thence arrived here borne upon a cloud. Bacchus. I know you now, and what and whence you are. I think this lady loves you in return: ask her and see. [Sarmion and Ione talk apart.