ACTUS SECUNDUS
93
THESEUS.
Tell me, friend master, how the work goes
on.
When shall our gallant vessel breast the
deep?
When shall we see the sun sink o’er the
Poop,
And look toward moonrise, and the land
be lost,
And the perched watcher on the mast
behold
The melting mirror of the ocean meet
The crystallising concave of the sky?
ARGUS.
All this shall happen when the work is done.
JASON.
How many moons, friend fool, before that
day?
ARGUS.
These things are known not even to the
Gods,
Except the Father only.?
HERACLES.
Fools must talk.
ARGUS.
I talk, divulging nothing.
HERACLES.
I strike thee,
Yet act not.
ARGUS.
Hero, stay that heavy hand!
The ship shall sail ere spring.
THESEUS.
But now you talk
More as befits a.workman to a king.
1 The satire is on Matthew xxiv. 36.
JASON.
Be gentle now, my friends!
builders,
Reared in the rugged borders of the North,}
Have northern manners ; surly if attacked,
But genial when——
These ship-
ARGUS.
The proper treatment is
Kindness—like lions whom Demeter tamed.
THESEUS.
I promise thee, the next time thou art
wroth,
A second kindness from Alcides’ hand.
ARGUS.
Spare me that, King, and take, thyself, a
club.
JASON.
King Theseus, thou art far reputed wise.
Hast thou not learnt a lesson from the hap
Of Heracles supreme in—shipbuilding?
I by my meekness will abash thy strength.
Good Argus, thou art unsurpassed in art
To curve the rougher timbers, to make
smooth
The joints and girders, and to plane and
work
The iron and the nailheads, and to lift
Row after row the tiers of benches thrice
In triple beauty, and to shape the oars,
To raise the mast——
ARGUS.
Thy knowledge staggers me!
IIow wast thou thus instructed?
JASON.
By much thought.
To clamp the decks——
1 Argus is wittily characterised as a Scottish
shipbuilder.