Well, what? THOAS. Not for five hundred years Has King in other trapping graced the games Your Ancestor, the Puissant, has stablished, And when, the feast before, you made endeavour To oust the hallowed things from olden honour, The folk stood rooted, horrified, amazed, Muttering as ne’er before. KAN. And so you think I should have marked their gapes for my salvation? I’ve hit your thought? THOAS. Lord, not without a shudder I touch this diadem, and not till now Has hand of mine been closed on this sword’s hilt That all the seed of Herakles once brandished; But these new baubles I can see unblenching Like any other such as blinks and glances And is your own for paying of the price. Not on Hephaestus do I need to think, At sight of these, who for divine Achilles His weapons smithied,--ay, and in the fire Wherewith the thunderbolts for Zeus are steeled; Nor yet on Thetis, she who bade her daughters For him be fisherfolk of pearl and coral That thus his decking fail not of its fill. But _this_ sword--why, I knew the man that forged it, And him by whom _this_ diadem was pieced! KAN. Eh, Gyges! THOAS. Sire, fair faith speaks out of me! If I am overbold, ’tis for your welfare. Believe my words, the many thousand folk That stream t’assembly hither,--ay, albeit They walk in finer wool and fare the daintier,-- Are just as fond or pious-prim as I. This crown here and your head--these are for them, Your henchman vouches, halves of a single whole, And in like grade this sword here and your arm. KAN. And that’s the thought of all? THOAS. Yes, by my head! KAN. Then there’s no room for dawdling! Take them off And do what I have bid! [THOAS _takes off the regalia_. GYGES. You’ve hurt the man. KAN. I know; but say, what else could I have done? ’Tis true what he has said; here the King’s worth Is gauged but by his crown, and the crown’s worth Owed to its rust. Woe to its furbisher! Brighter but lighter--gain and loss are matched. But why bemoan it if for just this once I so forgot me--sheer worn out, and loath Only by force of heirloom garb to glitter, Pass current just as minted coins pass current By take-for-granted worth, and share with statues That in the sacred temple-niches stand A blind and blockish sacrosanctity? You can’t undo what’s done. [THOAS _comes with the new adornment_. Ah, thus ’tis good! [_He puts on the diadem._