Welcome, gentle Stripling, Nature's darling thou! With thy basket full of blossoms, A happy welcome now! Aha!--and thou returnest, Heartily we greet thee-- The loving and the fair one, Merrily we meet thee! Think'st thou of my maiden In thy heart of glee? I love her yet, the maiden-- And the maiden yet loves me! For the maiden, many a blossom I begged--and not in vain! I came again a-begging, And thou--thou givest again: Welcome, gentle Stripling, Nature's darling thou-- With thy basket full of blossoms, A happy welcome now! SEMELE: IN TWO SCENES. Dramatis Personae. JUNO. SEMELE, Princess of Thebes. JUPITER. MERCURY. SCENE--The Palace of Cadmus at Thebes. SCENE I. JUNO. (Descending from her chariot, enveloped in a cloud.) Away, ye peacocks, with my winged car! Upon Cithaeron's cloud-capped summit wait! [The chariot and cloud vanish. Hail, hail, thou house of my undying anger! A fearful hail to thee, thou hostile roof, Ye hated walls!--This, this, then, is the place Where Jupiter pollutes his marriage-bed Even before the face of modest day! 'Tis here, then, that a woman, a frail mortal, A dust-created being, dares to lure The mighty Thunderer from out mine arms, And hold him prisoner against her lips! Juno! Juno! thought of madness! Thou all lonely and in sadness, Standest now on heaven's bright throne! Though the votive smoke ascendeth, Though each knee in homage bendeth, What are they when love has flown? To humble, alas, each too-haughty emotion That swelled my proud breast, from the foam of the ocean Fair Venus arose, to enchant gods and men! And the Fates my still deeper abasement decreeing, Her offspring Hermione brought into being, And the bliss once mine own can ne'er glad me again!