Well, it was time. Just glance around. Already They twine as though about a Thyrsus-staff That, sudden-launched from earth in upward sally, And swift and swifter dartwise nearing heaven, Cascades the clusters of a million grapes. Wine fits the subtler stuff of winged Beings, But not the world of hobbling crawling man, It stands him on his head. That old man there Would never stick at mounting on a tiger Or pranking his shrunk temples with a garland, As Dionysos did when Ganges-bound. But I’m at home with loosed wits--Was she fair? GYGES. I know not if what pleases me be fair. KAN. Say “yes”--no blushes! an eye like a coal, Only a-glimmer, but at lightest breath Bursting in sparks shot with such twining hues You could not tell if it be black or brown; And then, as though this restless weft of colour Immingled with her every drop of blood, ’Tis fluctuant ’twixt shame and love unbreathed That gives her blush a tint of peerless charm. GYGES. You make complete what the wind half-way wrought; It stirred the fringes, you uplift the veil. KAN. Not that you owe the bent knee at her power-- Nay, should I guide you to another vision, A sight like this, for all its winsomeness, You’d purge your eye of as it were a fleck That touched your glass with tarnish. GYGES. Think you, Sire? KAN. Even so; but stay--you should not cry a prize Which cannot be displayed--that earns you jeering. Who’s gulled by cries of “pearls!” when the hand’s shut? GYGES. I. KAN. Gyges--why, the shadow of Rhodope Cast in the shine o’ the moon--you smile! We’ll drink. GYGES. I smile not. KAN. Smile you should, then! Where’s the man That cannot boast thus? Should you speak to me As I to you, I’d say--“Then show her me Else hold your tongue.” GYGES. I trust you. KAN. Trust me, eh? The eye commands your credence, not the ear. You trust me! Ho! This shrinking bit of a girl Gave you hot cheeks, and now--enough, enough-- I’ll pout my breast no more with windy babble Such as for all this length of time I’ve used. Nay, you shall see her. GYGES. See her! KAN. And to-night. I want some soul to witness that I’m not A futile fool, a mere self-dupe that boasts He has the fairest woman for his kissing. I fill the want with you. GYGES. Oh, never more Think on it!--for the man ’twere blot of soul, But for a woman,--woman such as she That even by day---- KAN.