 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Rebecca Dittman, Liverpool United Kingdom. Web address, MercurialSpirit.co.uk The Adventures of Ulysses by Charles Lamb Chapter 6 Meantime, Minerva, designing an interview between the king's daughter of that country and Ulysses, when he should awake, went by night to the palace of King Alsinus, and stood at the bedside of the princess Norsica, in the shape of one of her favourite attendants, and thus addressed the sleeping princess. Norsica, why do you lie sleeping here, and never bestow a thought upon your bridal ornaments, of which you have many and beautiful, laid up in your wardrobe against the day of your marriage, which cannot be far distant? When you shall have need of all, not only to deck your own person, but to give away in presence to the virgins that honouring you shall attend you to the temple. Your reputation stands much upon the timely care of these things. These things are they which fill father and reverend mother with delight. Let us arise, be times, to wash your fair vestments of linen and silk in the river, and request your sire to lend you mules and a coach, for your wardrobe is heavy, and the place where we must wash is distant, and besides, it fits not a great princess like you to go so far on foot. So saying she went away, and Norsica awoke, full of pleasing thoughts of her marriage, which the dream had told her was not far distant, and as soon as it was dawn she arose and dressed herself, and went to find her parents. The queen, her mother, was already up, and seated among her maids, spinning at her wheel, as the fashion was in those primitive times, when great ladies did not disdain House Wifery, and the king her father was preparing to go abroad at the early hour to council with his grave senate. My father, she said, will you not order mules and a coach to be got ready that I may go and wash I and my maids at the cisterns that stand without the city? What washing does my daughter speak of? said Alsinus. Mine and my brother's garments, she replied, that have contracted soil by this time, with lying by so long in the wardrobe. Five sons have you that are my brothers. Two of them are married, and three are bachelors. These last it concerns to have their garments neat and unsoiled. It may advance their fortunes in marriage. And who but I, their sister, should have a care of these things? You yourself, my father, have need of the whitest apparel when you go, as now, to the council. She used this plea, modestly dissembling her case of her own nuptials to her father, who was not displeased at this instance of his daughter's discretion, for a seasonable care about marriage may be permitted to a young maiden, provided it be accompanied with modesty and dutiful submission to her parents in the choice of her future husband. And there was no fear of Norsica choosing wrongly or improperly, for she was as wise as she was beautiful, and the best in all Faecia were suitors to her for her love. So Alsinus readily gave consent that she should go, ordering mules and a coach to be prepared. And Norsica brought from her chamber all her vestments, and laid them up in the coach, and her mother placed bread and wine in the coach, and oil in a golden cruise to soften the bright skins of Norsica and her maids when they came out of the river. Norsica, making her maids get up into the coach with her, lashed the mules till they brought her to the cisterns which stood a little on the outside of the town, and were supplied with water from the river Calico. There her attendants unyoked the mules, took out the clothes and steeped them in the cisterns, washing them in several waters, and afterwards treading them clean with their feet, venturing wages who should have done soonest and cleanest, and using many pretty pastimes to beguile their labours as young maids use while the princess looked on. When they had laid their clothes to dry, they fell to playing again, and Norsica joined them in a game with a ball which is used in that country, which is performed by tossing the ball from hand to hand with great expedition. She who begins the pastime singing a song, it chanced that the princess whose turn it became to toss the ball sent it so far from its mark that it fell beyond into one of the cisterns of the river, at which the whole company in merry consternation set up a shriek so loud as waked the sleeping Ulysses, who was taking his rest after his long toils in the woods, not far distant from the place where these young maids had come to wash. At the sound of female voices, Ulysses crept forth from his retirement, making himself a covering with bows and leaves as well as he could shroud his nakedness. The sudden appearance of his weather-beaten and almost-naked form so frighted the maidens that they scutted away into the woods and all about to hide themselves. Only Minerva, who had brought about this interview to admirable purposes, by seemingly accidental means, put courage into the breast of Norsica, and she stayed where she was, and resolved to know what manner of man he was and what was the occasion of his strange coming to them. He, not venturing for delicacy to approach and clasp her knees as supplicants should, but standing far off, addressed this speech to the young princess. Before I presume rudely to press my petitions, I should first ask whether I am addressing a mortal woman or one of the goddesses. If a goddess, you seem to me to be likeest to Diana, the chaste huntress, the daughter of Jove. Like hers are your liniments, your stature, your features, and air divine. She, making answer that she was no goddess, but a mortal maid, he continued. If a woman, thrice-blessed, are both the authors of your birth, thrice-blessed are your brothers, who even to rapture must have joy in your perfections, to see you grown so like a young tree, and so graceful. But most blessed of all that breathe is he that has the gift to engage your young neck in the yoke of marriage. I never saw that man that was so worthy of you. I never saw man or woman that at all parts equalled you. Lately at Delos, where I touched, I saw a young palm which grew beside Apollo's temple. It exceeded all the trees which I ever beheld for straightness and beauty. I can compare you only to that. A stupor-past admiration strikes me, joined with fear, which keeps me back from approaching you to embrace your knees. Nor is it strange, for one of freshest and firmest spirit would falter approaching near to so bright an object, than one whom a cruel habit of calamity has prepared to receive strong impressions. Twenty days the unrelenting seas have tossed me up and down coming from Ogigia, and at length cast me shipwrecked last night upon your coast. I have seen no man or woman since I landed but yourself. All that I crave is clothes which you may spare me and to be shown the way to some neighbouring town. The gods who have care of strangers will requite you for these courtesies. She, admiring to hear such complimentary words proceed out of the mouth of one whose outside looks so rough and unpromising, made answer. Stranger, I discern neither sloth nor folly in you, and yet I see you are a poor and wretched, from which I gather that neither wisdom nor industry can secure felicity. Only Jove bestows it upon whomsoever he pleases. He perhaps has reduced you to this plight. However, since your wanderings have brought you so near to our city, it lies in our duty to supply your wants. Clothes and what else a human hand should give to one so suppliant and so tamed with calamity you shall not want. We will show you our city and tell you the name of our people. This is the land of the Faetians, of which my father, Alsinus, is king. Then, calling her attendants who had dispersed on the first sight of Ulysses, she rebuked them for their fear and said, This man is no cyclop, nor monster of sea or land that you should fear him. But he seems manly, staid and discreet, and though decayed in his outward appearance, yet he has the minds, rich wit and fortitude in abundance. Show him the systems where he may wash him from the seaweeds and foam that hang about him, and let him have garments that fit him out of those which we have brought with us to the systems. Ulysses, retiring a little out of sight, cleansed him in the systems from the soil and impurities with which the rocks and waves had covered all his body, and clothing himself with befitting rainment which the princess's attendants had given him, he presented himself in more worthy shape to Norsica. She admired to see what a comely personage he was, now he was dressed in all parts. She thought him some king or hero, and secretly wished that the gods would be pleased to give her such a husband. Then, causing her attendants to yoke her mules and lay up the vestments which the sun's heat had sufficiently dried in the coach. She ascended with her maids and drove off to the palace, bidding Ulysses, as she departed, keep an eye on the coach and to follow it on foot at some distance, which she did because if she had suffered him to have rode in the coach with her, it might have subjected her to some misconstructions of the common people who are always ready to vilify and censure their betters, and to suspect that charity is not always pure charity, but that love or some sinister intention lies hid under its disguise. So discreet and attentive to appearance in all her actions was this admirable princess. Ulysses, as he entered the city, wandered to see its magnificence, its markets, buildings, temples, walls and vampires, its trade and resort of men, its harbours for shipping, which is the strength of the Phoeesian state. But when he approached the palace and beheld its riches, the proportion of its architecture, its avenues, gardens, statues, fountains, he stood wrapped in admiration and almost forgot his own condition in surveying the flourishing estate of others. But recollecting himself, he passed on boldly into the inner apartment, where the king and queen were sitting at dinner with their peers, Norsica having prepared them for his approach. To them, humbly kneeling, he made it his request that, since fortune had cast him naked upon their shores, they would take him into their protection and grant him a conveyance by one of the ships of which their great Phoeesian state had such good stall to carry him to his own country. Having delivered his request to grace it with more humility, he went and sat himself down upon the half among the ashes, as the custom was in those days, when any would make a petition to the throne. He seemed a petitioner of so great state and of so superior a deportment that Alsinus himself arose to do him honour and causing him to leave that abject station which he had assumed, placing him next to his throne upon a chair of state, and thus he spake to his peers. Lords and councillors of Phoesia, ye see this man, who he is we know not, that is come to us in the guise of a petitioner. He seems no mean one, but whoever he is, it is fit since the gods have cast him upon our protection that we grant him the rights of hospitality while he stays with us, and at his departure, a ship well manned to convey so worthy a personage as he seems to be in a manner suitable to his rank to his own country. This council that peers with one consent approved, and wine and meat being set before Ulysses, he ate and drank, and gave the gods thanks who had stirred up the royal bounty of Alsinus to aid him in that extremity. But not as yet did he reveal to the king and queen who he was, or whence he had come, only in brief terms to relate his being cast upon their shores, his sleep in the woods, and his meeting with the Princess Norsica, her generosity, mingled with discretion, filled her parents with delight, as Ulysses in eloquent phrases adorned and commended her virtues. But Alsinus, humanely considering that the troubles which his guest had undergone required rest, as well as refreshment by food, dismissed him early in the evening to his chamber, where in a magnificent apartment, Ulysses found a smoother bed, but not a sounder repose than he had enjoyed the night before, sleeping upon leaves which he had scraped together in his necessity. End of Chapter 6 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Rebecca Dittman, from the Liverpool United Kingdom. Web address, mercuriospirit.co.uk The Adventures of Ulysses by Charles Lamb Chapter 7 When it was daylight, Alsinus caused it to be proclaimed by the heralds about the town that there was come to the palace a stranger shipwrecked on their coast that in mean and person resembled a god, and inviting all the chief people of the city to come and do honour to the stranger. The palace was quickly filled with guests, old and young, for whose cheer and to grace Ulysses more, Alsinus made a kingly feast with banquettings and music. Then, Ulysses being seated at a table next to the king and queen, in all men's view, they had feasted, Alsinus ordered Demodocus, the court singer to be called, to sing some songs of the deeds of heroes to charm the ear of his guest. Demodocus came and reached his harp, where it hung between two pillars of silver, and then the blind singer to whom in recompense of his lost sight the muses had given an inward discernment, a soul and a voice to excite the hearts of men and gods to delight, began in grave and solemn strains to sing the glories of men highly est famed. He chose a poem whose subject was the stern strife stirred up between Ulysses and great Achilles, as at a banquet sacred to the gods, in dreadful language, they expressed their difference. While Agamemnon sat rejoiced in soul to hear those Grecian's jar, for the oracle in Pytho had told him that the period of their wars in Troy should then be when the kings of Greece, anxious to arrive at the wished conclusion, should fall to strife and contend which must end the war, force or stratagem. This brave contention he expressed so to the life in the very words which they both used in the quarrel as brought tears to the eyes of Ulysses at the remembrance of past passage of his life and he held his large purple weed before his face to conceal it. Then, craving a cup of wine, he poured it out in secret libation to the gods who had put into the mind of Demodocus unknowingly to him so much honour. But when the moving poet began to tell of other occurrences where Ulysses had been present, the memory of his brave followers who had been with him in all difficulties now swallowed up and lost in the ocean and of those kings that had fought with him at Troy, some of whom were dead, some exiles like himself, forced itself so strongly upon his mind that forgetful where he was he sobbed outright with passion, which yet he restrained, but not so cunningly, and without taking notice of it to Ulysses, privately gave signs that Demodocus should cease from his singing. Next followed dancing in the Phoeesian fashion when they would show respect to their guests, which was succeeded by trials of skill, games of strength, running, racing, hurling of the coit, mock fights, hurling of the javelin, shooting with the bow, in some of which Ulysses, modestly challenging his entertainers, performed such feats of strength and prowess as gave the admiring Phoeicians fresh reason to imagine that he was either some god or hero of the race of the gods. These solemn shows and pageants in honour whose guest King Alsonus continued for the space of many days as if he could never be weary of showing courtesies to so worthy a stranger. In all this time he never asked him his name, nor sought to know more of him than he of his own accord disclosed. Till on a day as they were seated feasting, after the feast was ended, Demodocus being called, as was the custom, to sing some grave matter, sang how Ulysses, on that night when Troy was fired, made dreadful proof of his valour, maintaining singly a combat against the whole household of Diphobus, to which the divine expresser gave both act and passion, and breathed such a fire into Ulysses's deed that it inspired old death with life in the lively expressing of slaughters and rendered life so sweet and passionate in the hearers that all who heard felt it fleet from them in the narration, which made Ulysses even pity his own slaughters' deeds and feel touches of remorse to see how song can revive a dead man from the grave, yet no way can it defend a living man from death. And in imagination he underwent some part of death's horrors and felt in his living body a taste of those dying pangs which he had dealt to others, that with the strong conceit tears the true interpreters of unutterable emotion stood in his eyes. Which King Alsinus noting and that this was now the second time that he had perceived him to be moved at the mention of events touching the Trojan Wars, he took occasion to ask whether his guest had lost any friend or kinsman at Troy that Demodocus's singing had brought into his mind. Then Ulysses, drying the tears with his cloak and observing that the eyes of all the company were upon him, desirous to give them satisfaction in what he could and thinking this a fit time to reveal his true name and destination spake as follows. The courtesies which ye have all shown me and in particular yourself and princely daughter O King Alsinus, demand from me that I should no longer keep you in ignorance of what or who I am for to reserve any secret from you who have with such openness of friendship embraced my love would argue either a pusillaminous or an ungrateful mind in me. Know then that I am Ulysses of whom I perceive ye have heard something who here too for have filled the world with the renown of my policies. I am he by whose counsel if fame is to be left at all more than by the united valour of all the Grecians, Troy fell. I am that unhappy man whom the heavens and angry gods have conspired to keep an exile on the seas, wandering to seek my home which still flies from me. The land which I am in the quest of is Ithaca in whose ports some ship belonging to your navigation famed Faesian state may happily at some time had found a refuge from tempests. If ever you have experienced such kindness be quiet it now by granting to me who am the king of that land a passport to that land. Admiration seized all the court of Alsinus to behold in their presence one of the number of those heroes who fought at Troy whose divine story had been made known to them by songs and poems but of the truth they had little known or rather they had hitherto accounted those heroic exploits as fictions and exaggerations of poets but having seen and made proof of the real Ulysses they began to take those supposed inventions to be real verities and the tale of Troy to be as true was delightful. Then King Alsinus made answer Thrice fortunate ought we to esteem our lot in having seen and conversed with a man of whom report have spoken so loudly but as it seems nothing beyond the truth though we could desire no felicity greater than to have you always among us renowned Ulysses yet your desire having been expressed so often and so deeply to return home we can deny you nothing though to our own loss our kingdom of Faesha as you know is chiefly rich in shipping in all parts of the world where there are navigable seas or ships can pass our vessels will be found you cannot name a coast to which they do not resort every rock and every quicksand is known to them that lurks in the vast deep they pass a bird in flight and with such unearing certainty they make to their destination that some have said that they have no need of pilot or rudder but that they move instinctively self-directed and know the minds of their voyagers thus much that you may not fear to trust yourself in one of our physician ships tomorrow if you please you shall launch forth today spend with us in feasting who never can do enough when the gods send such visitors Ulysses acknowledged King Alsinus' bounty and while these two royal personages stood interchanging courteous expressions the heart of the Princess Norzika was overcome she had been gazing attentively upon her father's guest as he delivered his speech but when he came to that part where he declared himself to be Ulysses she blessed herself and her fortune that in relieving a poor shipwrecked mariner as he seemed no better she had conferred a kindness on so divine a hero as he proved and scarce waiting till her father had done speaking with the cheerful countenance she addressed Ulysses bidding him to be cheerful and when he returned home as by her father's means she trusted he would shortly sometimes to remember to whom he owed his life and who met him in the woods by the river Calico fair flower of Aisha he replied so may all the gods bless me with the strife of joys in that desired day whenever I shall see it as I shall always acknowledge to be indebted to your fair hand for the gift of life which I enjoy and all the blessings which shall follow upon my home return the gods give thee, Norzica, a princely husband and from you two spring blessings to this state so pray Ulysses his heart overflowing with admiration and grateful recollections of King Alsinus' daughter then at the king's request he gave them a brief relation of all the adventures that had befallen him since he launched forth from Troy during which the princess Norzica took great delight as ladies are commonly taken with these kind of travellers' stories to hear of the monster Polyphemus of the men that devour each other in Lystragonia of the enchantress Cersei of Scylla and the rest to which he listened with a breathless attention letting fall a shower of tears from her fair eyes every now and then when Ulysses told of some more than usual distressful passage in his travels and all the rest of his auditors if they had before entertained a high respect for their guest now felt their veneration increase tenfold when they learned from his own mouth what perils, what sufferance, what endurance of evils beyond man's strength to support this much sustaining, almost heavenly man by the greatness of his mind and by his invincible courage had struggled through the night was far spent before Ulysses had ended his narrative and with wishful glances he cast his eyes towards the eastern parts which the sun had begun to fleck with his first red for on the morrow Alcinus had promised that a bark should be in readiness to convoy him to Ithaca in the morning a vessel well manned and appointed was waiting for him into which the king and queen heaped presents of gold and silver massy plate, apparel, armour and whatsoever things of cost or rarity they judged would be most acceptable to their guest and the sails being set Ulysses embarking with expressions of regret took his leave of his royal entertainers of the fair princess who had been his first friend and of the peers of Faesha who crowding down to the beach to have the last sight of their illustrious visitant beheld the gallant ship with all her canvas spread bounding and curverting over the waves like a horse proud of his rider or as if she knew that in her capacious wounds rich freightage she bore Ulysses he whose life past had been a series of disquietes in seas among rude waves in battles amongst rude of foes now slept securely forgetting all his eyelids bound in such deep sleep as only yielded to death and when they reached the nearest Ithacan port by the next morning he was still asleep the mariners not willing to awake him landed him softly and laid him in a cave at the foot of an olive tree which made a shady recess in that narrow harbour the haunt of almost none but the sea nymphs which are called niads few ships before this Faesha vessel having put into that haven by reason of the difficulty and narrowness of the entrance here leaving him asleep and disposing in safe places near him the presence with which King Ausonus had dismissed him they departed for Faesha where those wretched mariners never again set foot but just as they arrived and thought to salute their country earth in sight of their city's turrets and in open view of their friends who from the harbour that was shouts greeted their return their vessel and all the mariners which were in her were turned to stone and stood transformed and fixed in the sight of the whole Faesha city where it yet stands by Neptune's vindictive wrath who resented thus highly the contempt which those Faesha's had shown in convoying home a man whom the god had destined destruction once it comes to pass that the Faesha's at this day will at no price be induced to lend their ships to strangers or to become the carriers for other nations so highly do they still dread the displeasure of their sea god while they see that terrible monument ever in sight when Ulysses awoke which was not till some time after the mariners had departed he did not at first know his country again either that long absence had made it strange or that Minerva which was more likely had cast a cloud about his eyes that he should have greater pleasure hereafter in discovering his mistake but like a man suddenly awaking in some desert isle to which his seamates have transported him in his sleep he looked around and discerning known known objects he cast his hands to heaven for pity and complained on those ruthless men who had beguiled him with a promise of conveying him home to his country and perfidiously left him to perish in an unknown land but then the rich presence of gold and silver given him by Aucinus which he saw carefully laid up in secure places near him staggered him which seemed not like the act of wrongful or unjust men such as turned pirates for grain or land helpless passengers in remote coasts to possess themselves of their goods while he remained in the suspense there came up to him a young shepherd clad in the finest sort of apparel such as King's son's war in those days when princes did not disdain to tend sheep who accosting him was saluted again by Ulysses who asked him what country that was on which he had been just landed and whether it were part of a continent or an island the young shepherd made show of wonder to hear anyone ask the name of that land as country people are apt to esteem those for mainly ignorant and barbarous who do not know the name of places which are familiar to them though perhaps they who ask have no opportunities of knowing and may have come from far countries I had thought, said he, that all people knew our land it is rocky and barren to be sure but well enough it feeds a goat or a locks well it is not wanting either in wine or in wheat it has good springs of water some fair rivers and wood enough as you may see it is called Ithaca Ulysses was joyed enough to find himself in his own country but so prudently he carried his joy that dissembling his true name and quality he pretended to the shepherd that he was only some foreigner who by stress of weather had put into that port and framed on the sudden a story to make it plausible how he had come from Crete in a ship of Faisha when the young shepherd laughing and taking Ulysses' hand in both his said to him he must be cunning I find who thinks to overreach you what cannot you quit your wiles and your subtleties now that you are in a state of security must the first word with which you salute your native earth be an untruth and think that you are unknown Ulysses looked again and he saw not a shepherd but a beautiful woman whom he immediately knew to be the goddess Minerva that in the wars of Troy had frequently vouched saved her sight to him and had been with him since in perils saving him unseen let not my ignorance offend the great Minerva he cried or move thy displeasure that in that shape I knew thee not since the skill of discerning of deities is not attainable by wit or study but hard to be hit by the wisest mortals to know thee truly through all thy changes is only given to those whom thou art pleased to grace to all men thou takest all likenesses all men in their wits think that they know thee and that they have thee thou art wisdom itself but a semblance of thee which is false wisdom often is taken for thee so thy counterfeit view appears to many but thy true presence to few those are they which lovingly above all are inspired with light from thee to know thee but this I surely know that all the time the sons of Greece waged war against Troy I was sundry times graced by thy appearance but since I have never been able to set eyes upon thee till now but have wandered at my own discretion to myself a blind guide erring up and down the world wanting thee then Minerva cleared his eyes and he knew the ground on which he stood to be Ithica that cave to be the same which the people of Ithica had in former times made sacred to the Senovs and where he himself had done sacrifices to them a thousand times and full in his view stood Mount Niritus with all his woods so that now he knew for certainty that he was arrived in his own country and with the delight which he felt he could not forbear down and kissing the soil End of chapter 7 The Adventures of Ulysses by Charles Lamb Chapter 8 Not long did Minerva suffer him to indulge vain transports but briefly recounting to him the events which had taken place in Ithica during his absence she showed him that his way to his wife and throne did not lie so open but that before he were reinstated in the secure possession of them he must encounter many difficulties His palace wanting its king was become the resort of insolent and imperious men the chief mobility of Ithica and of the neighbouring islands who in the confidence of Ulysses being dead came as suitors to Penelope The queen it was true continued single but was little better than a state prisoner in the power of these men who under the pretense of waiting her decision occupied the king's house rather as owners than guests lauding and domineering at their pleasure profaning the palace and wasting the royal substance with their feasts and mad riots Moreover, the goddess told him how fearing the attempts of these lawless men upon the person of his young son Telemachus she herself had put it into the heart of the prince to go and seek his father in far countries how in the shape of mentor she had borne him company in his first long search which though failing as she meant it should fail in its first object had yet had this effect that though hardships he had learned endurance through experience he had gathered wisdom and wherever his footsteps had been he had left such memorials of his worth as the fame of Ulysses's son was already blown throughout the world that it was now not many days since Telemachus had arrived in the island to the great joy of the queen his mother who had thought him dead by reason of his long absence and had begun to mourn him with a grief equal to that which she endured for Ulysses the goddess herself having so ordered the course of his adventures that the time of his return should correspond with the return of Ulysses that they might together concert measures how to repress the power and insolence of those wicked suitors this the goddess told him but of the particulars of his son's adventures of his having been detained in the delightful island which his father had so lately left of Calypso and her nymphs and the many strange occurrences which may be read with profit and delight in the history of the prince's adventures she forbore to tell him as yet as judging that he would hear them with greater pleasure from the lips of his own son when he should have him in an hour of stillness and safety when their work should be done and none of their enemies left alive to trouble them then they sat down the goddess and Ulysses at the foot of a wild olive tree consulting how they might with safety bring about his restoration and when Ulysses resolved in his mind how that his enemies were a multitude and he single he began to despond and he said I shall die an ill death like Agamemnon in the threshold of my own house I will perish like that unfortunate monarch slain by someone of my wife's suitors but then again calling to mind his ancient courage he secretly wished that Minerva would but breathe such a spirit into his bosom as she inflamed him with in the hour of Troy's destruction that he might encounter with 300 of those impudence suitors at once and strew the pavements of his beautiful palace with their bloods and brains and Minerva knew his thoughts and she said I will be strongly with thee if thou fail not to do thy part and for a sign between us that I will perform my promise and for a token on thy past of obedience I must change thee that thy person may not be known of men then Ulysses bowed his head to receive the divine impression and Minerva by her great power changed his person so that it might not be known she changed him to appearance into a very old man yet such a one as by his limbs and gates seemed to have been some considerable person in his time and to retain yet some remains of his once prodigious strength also instead of those rich robes in which King Alsinus had clothed him she threw over his limbs such old and tattered rags as wandering beggars usually wear a staff supported his steps and a script hung to his back such as travelling medicants used to hold the scraps which are given to them at rich men's doors so from a king he became a beggar as wise Tiresias had predicted to him in the shades to complete his humiliation and to prove his obedience by suffering she next directed him in his beggarly attire to go and present himself to his old herdsman Eumaeus who had the care of his swine and his cattle and had been a faithful steward to him all the time of his absence then strictly charging Ulysses that he should reveal himself to no man but to his own son whom she would send to him when she saw occasion the goddess went her way the transformed Ulysses bent his course to the cottage of the herdsman and entering in at the front court the dogs of which Eumaeus kept many fierce ones for the protection of the cattle flew with open mouths upon him as those ignoble animals have off times in antipathy to the sight of anything like a beggar and would have rent him in pieces with their teeth if Ulysses had not had the prudence to let fall his staff which had chiefly provoked their fury and sat himself down in a careless fashion upon the ground but for all that some serious hurt had certainly been done to him so raging the dogs were had not the herdsman marking of the dogs had fetched out of the house with shouting and with throwing of stones repressed them he said when he saw Ulysses old father how near you were to being torn in pieces by these rude dogs I should never have forgiven myself if through neglect of mine any hurt had happened to you but heaven has given me so many cares to my portion that I might well be excused for not attending to everything while here I lie grieving and mourning for the absence of that majesty which once ruled here and am forced to fatten his swine and his cattle for food to evil men who hate him and who wish his death when he perhaps strays up and down the world and has not wear with to appease hunger if indeed he yet lives which is a question and enjoys the cheerful light of the sun this he said little thinking that he of whom he spoke now stood before him and that in that uncouth disguise and beggarly obscurity was present the hidden majesty of Ulysses then he had his guest into the house and sat meet and drink before him and Ulysses said may jove and all the other gods requite you for the kind speeches and hospitable usage which you have shown me Emmaus made answer my poor guest if one in much worse plight than yourself had arrived it were a shame to such scanty means as I have if I had let him depart without entertaining him to the best of my ability poor men and such as have no houses of their own are by jove himself recommended to our care but the cheer which we that are servants to other men have to bestow it but sorry at most yet freely and lovingly I give it you indeed there once ruled here a man whose return the gods have set their faces against who if he had been suffered to reign in peace and grow old among us would have been kind to me in mine but he is gone and for his sake would to God that the whole posterity of Helen might perish with her since in her quarrel so many worthies have perished but such as your face is eat it and be welcome such lean beasts as our food for poor herdsmen the fattest go to feed the voracious stomachs of the Queen's suitors shame on their unworthiness there is no day in which two or three of the noblest of the herd are not slain to support their feasts and their surface Ulysses gave good ear to his words and as he ate his meat he even tore it and rent it with his teeth for mere vexation that his fat cattle should be slain to glut the appetites of those godless suitors and he said what chief or what ruler is this that thou commendest so highly and sayest that he perished at Troy I am but a stranger in these parts it may be I have heard of some such in my long travels Emmaus answered old father never any one of all the strangers that have come to our coast with news of Ulysses being alive could gain credit with the Queen or her son yet these travellers to get raiment or a meal will not stick to invent any lie truth is not the commodity they deal in never did the Queen get anything of them but lies she receives all that come graciously hears their stories inquires all she can but all ends in tears and dissatisfaction but in God's name old father if you have got a tale make the most aunt it may gain you a cloak or a coat from somebody to keep you warm but for him who is the subject of it dogs and vultures long since have torn him limb from limb or some great fish at sea has devoured him or he lieth with no better monument upon his bones than the sea sand but for me past all the race of men were tears created for I never shall find so kind a royal master more not if my father or my mother could come again and visit me from the tomb would my eyes be so blessed as they should be with the sight of him again coming as from the dead in his last rest my soul shall love him he is not here nor do I name him as a flatterer but because I am thankful for his love and care which he had to me a poor man and if I knew as surely that he were past all shores that the sun shines upon I would invoke him as a deified thing for this saying of Emmaus the waters stood in Ulysses' eyes and he said my friend to say and to affirm positively that he cannot be alive is to give too much license to incredulity for not to speak at random but with as much solemnity as an oath comes to I say to you that Ulysses shall return and whenever that day shall be then shall you give to me a cloak and a coat but till then I will not receive so much as a thread of a garment but rather go naked for no less than the gates of hell do I hate that man whom poverty can force to tell and untruth be jove then witness to my words that this very year nay ere this month be fully ended your eyes shall behold Ulysses dealing vengeance in his own palace upon the wrongers of his wife and his son to give the better credence to his words he amused Emmaus with a forged story of his life feigning of himself that he was a Cretan born and one that went with Idominius to the wars of Troy also he said that he knew Ulysses and related various passages which he alleged to have happened between Ulysses and himself which were either true in the main as having really happened between Ulysses and some other person or were so like to truth as corresponding with the known character and actions of Ulysses that Emmaus's incredulity was not a little shaken among other things he asserted that he had lately been entertained in the court of Thespratia where the king's son of the country had told him that Ulysses had been there but just before him and was gone upon a voyage to the Oracle of Jove in Doddena whence he should shortly return and a ship would be ready by the bounty of the Thesprotians to convoy him straight to Ithaca and in token that what I tell you is true said Ulysses if your king come not within the period which I have named you shall have leave to give your servants commandment to take my old carcass and throw it headlong from some steep rock into the sea that poor men taking example by me may fear to lie but Emmaus made answer that that should be small satisfaction or pleasure to him so while they sat discoursing in this manner supper was served and the servants of the herdsmen who had been out all day in the fields came into supper and took their seats at the fire for the night was bitter and frosty after supper Ulysses who had well eaten and drunken and was refreshed with the herdsmen's good cheer was resolved to try whether his host's hospitality would extend to the lending him a good warm mantle or rug to cover him in the night season and framing an artful tale for the purpose in a merry mood filling a cup of Greek wine he thus began I will tell you a story of your King Ulysses and myself if there is ever a time when a man may have leave to tell his own stories it is when he has drunken a little too much strong liquor driveeth the fool and moves even the heart of the wise moves and empowers him to sing and to dance and break forth in pleasant laughter and perchance to prefer a speech to which were better kept in when the heart is open the tongue will be stirring but you shall hear we led our powers to ambush once under the walls of Troy the herdsmen crowded about him eager to hear anything which related to their King Ulysses and the wars of Troy and thus he went on I remember Ulysses and Menelaus had the direction of that enterprise and they were pleased to join me with them in the command I was at that time in some repute among men though fortune has played mere tricks since as you may perceive but I was somebody in those times and could do something be that as it may a bitter freezing night it was such a night as this the air cut like steel and the sleet gathered on our shields like crystal there were some twenty of us that lay close crouched down among the reeds and bullrushes that grew in the moat that goes round the city the rest of us made tolerable shift for every man had to be careful to bring with him a good cloak or mantle to wrap over his armour and keep himself warm but I as it chanced had left my cloak behind me as not expecting that the night would prove so cold or rather I believe because I had at that time a brave suit of new armour on which being a soldier and having some of the soldiers vice about me I was not willing should be hidden under a cloak but I paid for my indiscretion with my sufferings for with the inclement of night and the wet of the ditch in which we lay I was well knifed frozen to death and when I could endure no longer I jogged Ulysses who was next to me and had a nimble ear and made known my case to him assuring him that I must inevitably perish he answered in a low whisper Hush! lest any Greek should hear you and take notice of your softness not a word more he said but showed as if I had no pity for the plight I was in but he was as considerate as he was brave and even then as he lay with his head reposing upon his hand he was meditating how to relieve me without exposing my weakness to the soldiers at last raising up his head he made as if he had been asleep and said friends I have been warned in a dream to send to the fleet to King Agamemnon for a supply to recruit our numbers for we are not sufficient for this enterprise and they believing him one Thoas was dispatched on that errand who departing for more speed as Ulysses had foreseen left his upper garment behind him a good warm mantle to which I succeeded and by the help of it got through the night with credit this shift Ulysses made for one in need and would to heaven that I had now the strength in my limbs which made me in those days to be accounted fit to be a leader under Ulysses I should not then want the loan of a cloak or a mantle to wrap about me and shield my old limbs from the night air the tale pleased the herdsman and Eumaeus who more than all the rest was gratified to hear tales of Ulysses true or false said that for his story he deserved a mantle and a night's lodgings which he should have and he spread for him a bed of goat and sheepskins by the fire and the seeming beggar who was indeed the true Ulysses lay down and slept under the poor roof in that abject disguise to which the will of Minerva has subjected him when morning was come Ulysses made offer to depart as if he were not willing to burden his hosts hospitality any longer but said that he would go and try the humanity of the townsfolk if any there would bestow upon him a bit of bread or a cup of drink perhaps the queen suitors he said out of their full feasts would bestow a scrap on him for he could wait at table if need were and play the nimble serving man he could fetch wood he said or build a fire prepare roast meat or boiled mix the wine with water or do any of those offices which recommend poor men like him to services in great men's houses alas poor guest said Eumaeus you know not what you speak what should so poor and older man as you do at the suitors tables their light minds are not given to such grave servitors they must have youths richly tricked out in flowing vests with curled hair like so many jove's cup bearers to fill out the wine to them as they sit at table and to shift their trenches their gorged insolence would but despise and make a mock at thy age stay here perhaps the queen or telemaccus hearing of thy arrival may send to thee of their bounty as he spake these words the steps of one crossing the front court were heard and a noise of the dogs thawning and leaping about as for joy by which Eumaeus guessed that it was the prince who hearing of a traveller being arrived at Eumaeus' cottage that brought tidings of his father was come to search the truth and Eumaeus said it is the tread of telemaccus the son of King Ulysses before he could well speak the words the prince was at the door whom Ulysses rising to receive telemaccus would not suffer that so aged a man as he appeared should rise to do respect to him but he courtesely and reverently took him by the hand and inclined his head to him as if he had surely known that it was his father indeed but Ulysses covered his eyes with his hands that he might not show the waters that stood in them and telemaccus said is this the man who can tell us tidings of the king my father he brags himself to be a Cretanborn said Eumaeus and that he has been a soldier and a traveller but whether he speaks the truth or not he alone can tell but whatsoever he has been what he is now is apparent such as he appears I give him to you do what you will with him his boast at present is that he is at the very best a supplicant be he what he may said telemaccus I accept him at your hands but where I should bestow him I know not seeing that in the palace his age would not exempt him from the scorn and contempt which my mother suitors in their light minds will be sure to fling upon him a mercy if he escaped without blows for they are a company of evil men whose profession is wrongs and violence Ulysses answered since it is free for any man to speak in presence of your greatness I must say that my heart puts on a wolfish inclination to tears and to devour hearing your speech that these suitors should with such injustice rage where you should have the rule solely what should the cause be do you willfully give way to their ill manners or has your government been such as has procured ill will towards you from your people or do you mistrust your kinfolk and friends in such sort as without trial to decline their aid a man's kindred are they that he might trust when extremities run high Telly Maccas replied the kindred of Ulysses are few I have no brothers to assist me in the strife but the suitors are powerful in kindred and friends the house of old Archesius has had this fate from the heavens that from old it still has been supplied with single heirs to Icesius Liartes was only born from Liartes descended only Ulysses from Ulysses I alone have sprung whom he left so young that from me never comfort arose to him but the end of all rests in the hands of the gods then Eumaeus departing to see to some necessary business of his herds Minerva took a woman's shape and stood in the entry of the door and was seen to Ulysses but by his son she was not seen for the presences of the gods are invisible save to those to whom they will reveal themselves nevertheless the dogs which were about the door saw the goddess and durced not bark but went crouching and licking of the dust for fear and giving signs to Ulysses that the time was now come in which he should make himself known to his son by her great power she changed back his shape into the same which it was before she transformed him and Telymakus who saw the change but nothing of the manner by which it was affected only he saw the appearance of a king in the figure of his age where but just now he had seen a worn and decrepit beggar was struck with fear and said some god has done this house this honour and he turned away his eyes and would have worshipped but his father permitted not but said look better at me I am no deity why put you upon me the reputation of Godhead I am no more but thy father I am even he I am that Ulysses by reason of whose absence thy youth has been exposed to such wrongs from injurious men then kissed he his son nor could any longer refrain those tears which he had held under such mighty restraint before though they would ever be forcing themselves out in spite of him but now as if their sluices had burst they came out like rivers pouring upon the warm cheeks of his son nor yet by all these violent arguments could Telymakus be persuaded to believe that it was his father but he said some deity had taken that shape to mock him for he affirmed that it was not in the power of any man who is sustained by mortal food to change his shape so in a moment from age to youth for but now said he you were all wrinkles and were old and now you look as the gods are pictured his father replied admire but fear not and know me to be at all parts substantially thy father who in the inner powers of his mind the unseen workings of a father's love to thee answers to his outward shape and pretence there shall no more eulises come here I am he that after twenty years absence and suffering a world of ill have recovered at last the sight of my country earth it was the will of Minerva that I should be changed as you saw me she put me thus together she put together or takes to pieces whom she pleases it is in the law of her free power to do it sometimes to show her favourites under a cloud and poor and again to restore them to their ornaments the gods raise and throw down men with ease then Telemakas could hold out no longer but he gave way now to a full belief and persuasion of that which for joy at first he could not credit that it was indeed his true and very father that stood before him and they embraced and mingled their tears then said eulises tell me who these suitors are what are their numbers and how stands the queen thy mother affected to them she bears them still no expectations said Telemakas which she never means to fulfil that she will accept the hand of some one of them in second nuptials she fears to displease them by an absolute refusal so from day to day she lingers them on with hope which they are content to bear the deferring of while they have entertainment at free cost in our palace then said eulises reckon up their numbers that we may know their strength and ours if we have numbered ourselves may hope to prevail against them oh father he replied I have off time heard of your fame for wisdom and of the great strength of your arm but the venturous mind which your speeches now indicates moves me even to amazement for in no wise can it consist with wisdom or a sound mind that two should try their strength against a host nor five or ten or twice ten strong are these suitors but many more by much from dulychium came their fifty and two they and their servants twice twelve cross the seas hither from samos from zasinthus twice ten of our native ithicans men of chief note are twelve who aspire to the bed and crown of penelope and all these under one strong roof a fearful odds against two my father there is need of caution lest the cup of your great mind so thirsts to taste of vengeance prove bitter to yourself in the drinking and therefore it will well that we should be think us of someone who might assist us in this undertaking think is thou said his father if we have maneuver and the king of skies to be our friends would their sufficiencies make strong our part or must we look for some further aid yet they you speak of are above the clouds and our sound aids indeed as powers that not only exceed human but bear the chiefest sway among the gods themselves then you laces gave directions to his son to go and mingle with the suitors and in no wise to impart his secret to any not even the queen his mother but to hold himself in readiness and to have his weapons and his good armor in preparation and he charged him that when he himself should come to the palace as he meant to follow shortly after and present himself in his beggars likeness to the suitors that whatever he should see which might grieve his heart with what foul usage and conchumelius language so ever the suitors should receive his father coming in that shape though they should strike and drag him by the heels along the floors that he should not stir nor make offer to oppose them further than by mild words to expostulate with them until Minerva from heaven should give the sign which should be the prelude to their destruction and telemaccus promising to obey his instructions departed and the shape of Ulysses fell to what it had been before and he became to all outward appearances a beggar in base and beggarly attire End of chapter 8 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Rebecca Dittman Liverpool United Kingdom Web address MercurialSpirit.co.uk The Adventures of Ulysses by Charles Lamb Chapter 9 From the house of Umyss the seeming beggar took his way leaning on his staff till he reached the palace entering in at the hall where the suitors sat at meet They in the pride of their feasting began to break their jests in mirthful manner when they saw one looking so poor and so aged approach He who expected no better entertainment was nothing moved at their behaviour but as became the character which he had assumed in a suppliant posture crept by turns to every suitor and held out his hands for some charity with such a natural and beggar resembling grace that he might seem to have practised begging all his life Yet there was a sort of dignity in his most abject stupings that whoever had seen him would have said if it had pleased heaven that this poor man had been born a king he would gracefully have filled a throne and some pitied him and some gave him arms as their present humours inclined them but the greater part reviled him and bade him be gone as one that spoiled their feast for the presence of misery has this power with it that while it stays it can ash and overturn the mirth even of those who feel no pity or wish to relieve it Nature bearing this witness of herself in the hearts of the most obdurate Now Telemachus sat at meat with the suitors and knew that it was the king his father who in that shape begged an arms and when his father came and presented himself before him in turn as he had done to the suitors one by one he gave him of his own meat which he had in his dish and of his own cup to drink and the suitors were past measure offended to see a pitiful beggar as they esteemed him to be so choicelessly regarded by the prince then Antinus who was a great lord and of chief note among the suitors said Prince Telemachus does ill to encourage these wandering beggars who go from place to place affirming that they have been some considerable persons in their time filling the ears of such as hearken to them with lies and pressing with their bold feet into king's palaces this is some saucy vagabond some travelling Egyptian I see said Ulysses that a poor man should get but little at your board scarce should he get salt from your hands if he brought his own meat Lord Antinus indignant to be answered with such sharpness by a supposed beggar snatched up a stool with which he smote Ulysses where the neck and shoulders join this usage moved not Ulysses but in his great heart he meditated deep evils to come upon them all which for a time must be kept close and he went and sat himself done in the doorway to eat of that which was given him and he said for life or possessions a man will fight but for his belly this man smites if a poor man has any god to take his part my lord Antinus shall not live to be the queen's husband then Antonius raged highly and threatened to drag him by the heels and to rend his rags about his ears he spoke another word but the other suitors did it know wise approve of the harsh language nor of the blow which Antonius had dealt and some of them said who knows but one of the deities goes about hid under that poor disguise for in the likeness of poor pilgrims the gods have many times descended to try the dispositions of men whether they be humane or impious while these things passed Telemaccus sat and observed all but held his peace remembering the instructions of his father but secretly he waited for the sign which Minerva was to send from heaven that day there followed Ulysses to the court one of the common sort of beggars Iris by name one that had received arms before time of the suitors and was their ordinary sport when they were inclined as that day to give way to Murth to see him eat and drink for he had the appetite of six men and was of huge stature and proportions of body yet had in him no spirit nor courage of a man this man thinking to carry favour with the suitors and recommend himself especially to such a great lord as Antonius was began to revile and scorn Ulysses making foul language upon him and fairly challenging him to fight with the fist but Ulysses deeming his railings to be nothing more than jealousy and that envious disposition which beggars commonly manifest to brothers in their trade mildly besought him not to trouble him but to enjoy that portion which the liberality of their entertainers gave him as he did quietly seeing that of their bounty there were sufficient for all but Iris thinking that this forbearance in Ulysses was nothing more than a sign of fear so much the more highly stormed and bellowed and provoked him to fight and by this time the quarrel had attracted the notice of the suitors who with loud laughter and shouting egged on the dispute and Lord Antonius swore by all the gods it should be a battle and that in that hall the strife should be determined to this the rest of the suitors with violent clamours acceded and a circle was made for the combatants and a fat goat was proposed at the victor's prize as at the Olympic or the Pythian Games then Ulysses seeing no remedy or being not unwilling that the suitors should behold some proof of that strength which they along in their own persons they were to taste of stripped himself and prepared for combat but first he demanded that he should have fair play shown him that none in that assembly should aid his opponent or take part against him for being an old man they might easily crush him with their strengths and Telemacus passed his word that no foul play should be shown him but that each party should be left to their own unassisted strengths and to this he made Antonius and the rest of the suitors swear but when Ulysses had laid aside his garments and was bare to the waist all the beholders admired at the godly sight of his large shoulders being of such exquisite shape and whiteness and at his great and brawny bosom and the youthful strength that seemed to remain in a man thought so old and they said what limbs and what sinews he has and coward fear seized on the mind of that great vast beggar and he dropped his threats and his big words and would have fled but Lord Antonius stayed him and threatened him that if he declined the combat he would put him in a ship and land him on the shores where King Eccitus reigned the roughest tyrant which at the time the world contained and who had that antipathy to rascal beggars such as he that when any landed on his coast he would crop their ears and noses and give them to the dogs to tear so Iris in whom fear of King Eccitus prevailed above the fear of Ulysses addressed himself to fight but Ulysses provoked to be engaged in so odious a strife with a fellow of his base conditions and loathing longer to be made a spectacle to entertain the eyes of his foes with one blow which he struck him beneath the ear so shattered the teeth and jawbone of this soon baffled coward that he laid him sprawling in the dust with small stomach or ability to renew the contest then raising him on his feet he led him bleeding and sputtering to the door and put his staff into his hand and bade him go use his command upon dogs and swine but not presume himself to be lord of the guests another time nor of the beggary the suitors applauded in their vain minds the issue of the contest and rioted in mirth at the expense of poor Iris who they vowed should be forthwith embarked and sent to King Eccitus and they bestowed thanks on Ulysses for ridding the court of that unsavory morsel as they called him but in their inward souls they would not have cared if Iris had been victor and Ulysses had been taken the foil but it was mirth to them to see the beggars fight in such pastimes and light entertainments the day wore away when evening was come the suitors betook themselves to music and dancing and Ulysses leaned his back against a pillar from which certain lamps hung which gave light to the dancers and he made show of watching the dancers but very different thoughts were in his head and as he stood near the lamps the light fell upon his head which was thin of hair and bald as an old man's and Yuri Makus a suitor taking occasion from some words which was spoken before scoffed and said now I know for certainty that some god lurks under the poor and beggarly appearance of this man for as he stands by the lamps his sleek head throws beams around it like as it were a glory and another said he passes his time too not much unlike the gods lazily living exempt from labour taking offerings of men I warrant said Yuri Makus again he could not raise a fence or dig a ditch for his livelihood if a man would hire him to work in a garden I wish said Ulysses that you who speak this and myself were to be tried at any task work that I had a good crooked scythe put in my hand that was sharp and strong and you such another where the grass grew longest to be up by daybreak mowing the meadows till the sun went down not tasting of food till we had finished all that we were set to plow four acres in one day of good glee bland to see whose furrows were evenest and cleanest all that we might have one wrestling bout together all that in our right hands a good steel headed lance were placed to try whose blows fell heaviest and thickest upon the adversary's headpiece I would cause you such work as you should have small reason to reproach me for being slack at work but you would do well to spare me this reproach and to save your strength till the owner of this house shall return till the day when Ulysses shall return when returning he shall enter upon his birthright this was a galling speech to those suitors to whom Ulysses's return was indeed the thing which they most dreaded and a sudden fear fell upon their souls as if they were sensible to the real presence of that man who did indeed stand amongst them but not in that form as they might know him and Yuri Makkos incensed snatched a massy cup which stood on a table near unhurled it at the head of the supposed beggar and but narrowly missed the hitting of him and all the suitors rose as at once to thrust him out of the hall which they said his beggarly presence and his rude speeches had profaned but Telly Makkos cried to them to forbear and not to presume to lay hands upon a wretched man to whom he had promised protection he asked if they were mad to mix such abhorred uproar with his feasts he bade them take their food and their wine to sit up or go to bed at their free pleasures so long as he should give license to that freedom but why should they abuse his banquet or let the words which a poor beggar spake have power to move their spleen so fiercely they bit their lips and frowned for anger to be checked so by a youth nevertheless for that time they had the grace to abstain either for shame or that Minerva had infused into them a terror of Ulysses's son so that day's feasts were concluded without bloodshed and the suitors tired with their sports departed severally each man to his apartment only Ulysses and Telly Makkos remained and now Telly Makkos by his father's direction went and brought down into the hall armour and lances from the armoury for Ulysses said on the morrow we shall have need of them and moreover he said if any one shall ask you why you have taken them down say it is to clean them and scour them from the rust which they have gathered since the owner of this house went for Troy and as Telly Makkos stood by the armour the lights were all gone out and it was pitch black and the armour gave out glistening beams as a fire and he said to his father the pillars of the house are on fire and his father said it is the gods who sit above the stars and have power to make the night as light as the day and he took it as a good omen and Telly Makkos fell to cleaning and sharpening of the lances now Ulysses had not seen his wife Penelope in all the time since his return for the queen did not care to mingle with the suitors at the embankments but as became one that had been Ulysses's wife kept much in private spinning and doing her excellent house wiferies among her maids in the remote parts of the palace only upon solemn days she would come down and show herself to the suitors and Ulysses was filled with a longing desire to see his wife again whom for twenty years he had not beheld and he softly stole through the known passages of his beautiful house till he came where the maids were lighting the queen through a stately gallery that led to the chamber where she slept and when the maids saw Ulysses they said it is the beggar who came to the court today about whom all that uproar was stirred up in the hall what does he hear? but Penelope gave commandment that he should be brought before her for she said it may be that he has travelled and has heard something concerning Ulysses then was Ulysses right glad to hear himself named by his queen to find himself in no wise forgotten nor her great love towards him decayed in all that time that he had been away and he stood before his queen and she knew him not to be Ulysses but suppose that he had been some poor traveller and she asked him of what country he was he told her, as he had before told Emmaus that he was a Cretan born and however poor and cast down he now seemed no less a man than brother to Idi Aminus who was grandson to King Minus and though he now wanted bread he had once had it in his power to feast Ulysses then he feigned how Ulysses, sailing from Troy was forced by stress of weather to put his fleet in at a port of Crete where for twelve days he was his guest and entertained by him with all befitting guest rights and he described the very garments which Ulysses had on by which Penelope knew he had seen her lord in this manner Ulysses told his wife many tales of himself at most but painting but painting so near to the life that the feeling of that which she took in at her ears became so strong that the kindly tears ran down her fair cheeks while she thought upon her lord dead as she thought him and heavily mourned the loss of him whom she missed whom she could not find though in very deed he stood so near her Ulysses was moved to see her weep but he kept his own eyes dry as iron or horn in their lids putting a bridle upon his strong passion that it should not issue to sight then he told how he had lately been at the court of Thesprotia and what he had learned concerning Ulysses there in order as he had delivered to Eumaeus and Penelope was wont to believe that there might be a possibility of Ulysses being alive and she said I dreamed a dream this morning me thought I had twenty household fowl which did eat wheat steeped in water from my hand and there came suddenly from the clouds a crooked beaked hawk who sowed on them and killed them all trussing their necks and took his flight back up to the clouds and in my dream me thought that I wept and made great moan for my fowls and for the destruction which the hawk had made and my maids came about me to comfort me and in the height of my griefs the hawk came back and lightning upon the beam of my chamber he said to me in a man's voice which sounded strangely even in my dream to hear a hawk to speak be of good cheer he said O daughter of Icarus for this is no dream which thou hast seen but that which shall happen to thee indeed those household fowl which thou lamentest so without reason are the suitors who devour thy substance even as thou sawest the fowl eat from thy hand and the hawk is thy husband who is coming to give death to the suitors and I awoke and went to see to my fowls if they were alive whom I found eating wheat from their troughs all well and safe as before my dream then said Ulysses this dream can endure no other interpretations than that which the hawk gave to it who is your lord and who is coming quickly to affect all that his words told you your words she said my old guest are so sweet that you would sit and please me with your speech my ears would never let my eyes close their spheres for joy of your discourse but none that is merely mortal can live without the death of sleep so the gods who are without death themselves have ordained it to keep the memory of our mortality in our minds while we experience that as much as we live we die every day in which consideration I will ascend my bed which I have nightly watered with my tears since he that was the joy of it departed for that bad city she so speaking because she could not bring her lips to name the name of Troy so much hated so for that night they parted Penelope to her bed and Ulysses to his son and to the armour and the lances in the hall where they sat up all night cleaning and watching by the armour End of chapter 9 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Rebecca Dittman Liverpool United Kingdom Web address MercurialSpirit.co The Adventures of Ulysses by Charles Lamb Chapter 10 When daylight appeared a tumultuous concourse of the suitors again filled the hall and some inquired what meant that glittering store of armour and lances which lay in heaps by the entry of the door and to all the task telemaccus made reply that he had caused them to be taken down to cleanse them of the rust and of the stain which they had contracted by lying so long unused even ever since his father went for Troy and with that answer their minds were easily satisfied so to their feasting and vain rioting again they fell Ulysses by telemaccus' order had a seat and a mess assigned him in the doorway and he had his eye ever on the lances and it moved gall in some of the great ones there present to have their feast still dulled with the society of that wretched beggar as they deemed him and they reviled and spurned at him with their feet only there was one Philiteus who had something of better nature than the rest that spake kindly to him and had his age in respect he coming up to Ulysses took him by the hand with a kind of fear as if touched exceedingly with imagination of his great worth and said thus to him Hail father, stranger my brows have swept to see the injuries which you have received and my eyes have broke forth in tears when I have only thought that such being often times the lot of worthiest men to this plight Ulysses may be reduced and that he may now wonder from place to place as you do for such who are compelled by need to range here and there and have no firm home to fix their feet upon God keeps them in this earth as underwater so are they kept down and depressed and a dark thread is sometimes spun in the fates of kings at this bare likening of the beggar to Ulysses Minerva from heaven made the suitors for foolish joy to go mad and roused them to such a laughter as would never stop they laughed without power of ceasing their eyes stood full of tears for violent joys but fears and horrible misgivings succeeded and one among them stood up and prophesied ah wretches he said what madness from heaven has seized you that you can laugh see you not that your meat drops blood at night like the night of death wraps you about you shriek without knowing it your eyes thrust forth tears the fixed walls and the beams that bear the whole house up fall blood ghosts choke up the entry full is the hall with apparitions of murdered men under your feet is hell the sun falls from heaven and it is midnight at noon but like men whom the gods had infatuated to their destruction they mocked at his fears and Yuri Makkos said this man is surely mad conduct him forth into the marketplace set him in the light for he dreams that is night within the house but Theoclemenas for that was the prophet's name whom Minerva had graced with a prophetic spirit that he foreseeing might avoid the destruction which awaited them answered and said Yuri Makkos I will not require a guide of thee for I have eyes and ears the use of both my feet and a sane mind within me and with these I will go forth of the doors because I know the imminent evils which await all you that stay by reason of this poor guest who is a favourite with all the gods so saying he turned his back upon those inhospitable men and went away home and never returned to the palace these words which he spoke were not unheard by Telly Makkos who kept still his eyes upon his father expecting fervently when he would give the sign which was to precede the slaughter of the suitors they dreaming of no such thing fell sweetly to their dinner as joing in the great store of banquet which was heaped in full tables about them but there reigned not a bitter banquet planet in all heaven than that which hung over them this day by secret destination of Minerva there was a bow which Ulysses left when he went for Troy it had lain by since that time out of use and unstrung for no man had strength to draw that bow save Ulysses so it had remained as a monument of the great strength of its master this bow with the quiver of arrows belonging there too Telly Makkos had brought down from the armory on the last night along with the lances and now Minerva intending to do Ulysses an honour put it into the mind of Telly Makkos to propose to the suitors to try who was strongest to draw that bow and he promised that to the man who should be able to draw that bow his mother should be given in marriage Ulysses his wife the prize to him who should bend the bow of Ulysses there was great strife and emulation stirred up among the suitors at those words of the Prince Telly Makkos and to grace her son's words and to confirm the promise which he had made Penelope came and showed herself that day to the suitors and Minerva made her that she appeared never so comely in their sight as that day and they were inflamed with the beholding of so much beauty proposed as the Prince of so great manhood and they cried out that if all those heroes who sailed to Colchis for the rich purchase of the Golden Fleece Ram had seen Earth's richer prize, Penelope they would have not made their voyage but would have vowed their valours and their lives to her for she was at all parts faultless and she said the gods have taken my beauty from me since my Lord went to Troy but Telly Makkos willed his mother to depart and not be present at that contest for he said it may be some rougher strife shall chance of this that may be expedient for a woman to witness and she retired she and her mates left the hall then the bow was brought into the midst and a mark was set up by Prince Telly Makkos and Lord Antonius as the chief among the suitors had the first offer and he took the bow and fitting an arrow to the string he strove to bend it but not with all his might and main could he once draw together the ends of that tough bow and when he found how vain a thing it was to endeavour to draw Ulysses's bow he desisted blushing for shame and for mere anger then Urymakkos adventured but with no better success but as it had torn the hands of Antonius so did the bow tear and strain his hands and marred his delicate fingers yet could he not stir the string then called he to the attendance to bring fat an unctuous matter which melting at the fire he dipped the bow therein thinking to supple it and make it more pliable but not with all the helps of arts could he succeed in making it move after him Lyades and Amphinimus and Polybus and Urinimus and Polyctorides is say their strength but not any one of them or of the rest of those aspiring suitors had any better luck yet not the meanest of them there but thought himself well worthy of Ulysses's wife though to shoot Ulysses's bow the completest champion among them was by proof found too feeble then Ulysses prayed that he might have leave to try and immediately a clamour was raised among the suitors because of his petition and they scorned and swelled with rage at his presumption and that a beggar should seek to contend in a game of such noble mastery but Telemacas ordered that the bow should be given him and that he should have leave to try since they had failed for he said the bow is mine to give or to withhold and none durst gainsay the prince then Ulysses gave a sign to his son and he commanded the doors of the hall to be made fast and all wondered at his words but none could define the cause and Ulysses took the bow into his hands and before he assayed to bend it he surveyed it all parts to see weather by long lying by it had contracted any stiffness which hindered the drawing and as he was busied in the curious surveying of his bow some of the suitors mocked him and said past doubt this man is a right cunning archer and knows his craft well see how he turns it over and over and looks into it as if he could see through the wood and others said we wish someone would tell out gold into our laps but for so long a time as he shall be in drawing of that string but when he had spent some little time in making proof of the bow and have found it to be in good plight like as a harper in tuning his harp draws out a string with such ease or much more than Ulysses draw to the head the string of his own tough bow and in letting of it go it twanged with such a shrill noise as a swallow makes when it sings through the air which so much amazed the suitors that their colours came and went and the skies gave out a noise of thunder which at heart cheered Ulysses for he knew that now his long labours by the disposal of the fates drew to an end then fitted he an arrow to the bow and drawing it to the head he sent it right to the mark which the prince had set up which done he said to Telemacas you have got no disgrace yet by your guest for I have struck the mark I shot at and gave myself no such trouble in teasing the bow with fat and fire as these men did but have made proof that my strength is not impaired nor my age so weak and contemptible as these were pleased to think it but come the day going down calls us to supper which succeed poem and harp and all delights which used to crown princely banquettings so saying he beckoned to his son who straight girt his sword to his side and took one of the lances of which there lay great store from the armory in his hand and armed at all points advance towards his father the upper rags which Ulysses wore fell from his shoulder and his own kingly likeness returned when he rushed to the great hall door with bow and quiver full of shafts which down at his feet he poured and in bitter words pre-signified his deadly intent to the suitors thus far he said this contest has been decided harmless now for us there rests another mark harder to hit but which my hands shall assay notwithstanding if Phoebus god of archers be pleased to give me the mastery with that he let fly a deadly arrow at Antonius which pierced him in the throat as he was in the act of lifting a cup of wine to his mouth amazement seized the suitors as their great champion fell dead and they raged highly against Ulysses and said that it should prove the dearest shaft which he had ever let fly for he had slain a man whose like breathed not in any part of the kingdom and they flew to their arms and would have seized the lances but Minerva struck them with dimness of sight that they went earring up and down the hall not knowing where to find them yet so infatuated were they by the displeasure of heaven that they did not see the imminent peril which impended over them but every man believed that this accident had happened beside the intention of the doer fools to think by shutting their eyes to evade destiny or that any other cup remained for them but that which their great Antonius had tasted then Ulysses revealed himself to all in that presence and that he was the man whom they had held to be dead at Troy whose palace they had usurped whose wife in his lifetime they had sought to impious marriage and for this reason destruction was come upon them and he dealt his deadly arrows among them and there was no avoiding him nor escaping from his horrid person and Telymachus by his side plied them thick with those murderous lances from which there was no retreat till fear itself made them valiant and the danger gave them eyes to understand the peril then they which had swords drew them and some with shields that could find them and some with tables and benches snatched up in haste rose in a mass to overwhelm and crush those two yet they singly bestowed themselves like men and defended themselves against that great host and through table shields and all right through the arrows of Ulysses clove and the irresistible lances of Telymachus and many lay dead and all had wounds and Minerva in the likeness of a bird sat upon the beam which went across the hall clacking her wings with a fearful noise and sometimes the great bird would fly among them cuffing at the swords and at the lances and up and down the hall would go beating her wings and troubling everything that it was frightful to behold and it frayed the blood from the cheeks of those heaven-hated suitors but to Ulysses and his son she appeared in her own divine similitude with her snake-fringe shield a goddess armed fighting their battles nor did that dreadful pair desist till they had laid all their foes at their feet at their feet they lay in shoals like fishes when the fishermen break up their nets so they lay gasping and sprawling at the feet of Ulysses and his son and Ulysses remembered the prediction of Tiresias which said that he was to perish by his own guests unless he slew those who knew him not then certain of the Queen's household went up and told Penelope what had happened and how her Lord Ulysses was come home and had slain the suitors but she gave no heed to their words but thought that some frenzy possessed them or that they mocked her for it is the property of such extremes of sorrow as she felt not to believe when any great joy cometh and she rated and chid them exceedingly for troubling her but they the more persisted in their asseverations of the truth of what they had affirmed and some of them had seen the slaughtered bodies of the suitors dragged forth of the hall and they said that poor guest whom you talked with last night with Ulysses then she was yet more fully persuaded that they mocked her and she wept but they said this thing is true which we have told we sat within in an inner room in the palace and the doors of the hall were shut on us but we heard the cries and the groans of the men that were killed but saw nothing till at length your son called to us to come in and entering we saw Ulysses standing in the midst of the slaughtered but she persisting in her unbelief said that it was some God which had deceived them to think it was the person of Ulysses by this time Telly MacCus and his father had cleansed their hands from the slaughter and were come to where the Queen was talking with those of her household and when she saw Ulysses she stood motionless and had no power to speak sudden surprise and joy and fear and many passions so strove within her sometimes she was clear that it was her husband that she saw and sometimes the alteration which twenty years had made in his person yet that was not much perplexed her that she knew not what to think and for joy she could not believe and yet for joy she would not but believe and above all that sudden change from beggar to King troubled her and wrought uneasy scruples in her mind but Telly MacCus seeing her strangeness blamed her and called her an ungentle and tyrannous mother and said that she showed a too great curiousness of modesty to abstain from embracing his father and to have doubts of his person when to all present it was evident that he was the very real and true Ulysses then she mistrusted no longer but ran and fell upon Ulysses's neck and said let not my husband be angry that I held off so long with strange delays it is the gods who severing us for so long time have caused this unseemly distance in me if Menelaus's wife had used half my caution she would never have taken so freely to a stranger's bed and she might have spared us all these plagues which have come upon us through her shameless deed these words which Penelope excused herself wrought more affection in Ulysses than if upon a first sight she had given up herself implicitly to his embraces and he wept for joy to possess a wife so discreet so answering to his own stayed mind that had a depth of wit proportion to his own and one that held chaste virtue at so higher price and he thought the possessions of such a one cheaply purchase with the loss of all Ulysses's delights and Calypso's immortality of joys and his long labours and his severe sufferings past seemed as nothing now they were crowned with the enjoyment of his virtuous and true wife Penelope and a sad man at sea whose ship has gone to pieces nigh shore swimming for their lives all drenched in foam and brine crawl up to some poor patch of land which they take possession of with as great a joy as if they had the world given them in fee with such delight did this chaste wife cling to her lord restored till the dark night fast coming on reminded of that more intimate and happy union when in her long widowed bed she would once again clasp a living Ulysses so from that time the land had rest from the suitors and the happy Ithacans with songs and solemn sacrifices of praise to the gods celebrated the return of Ulysses for he that had been so long absent was returned to wreak the evil upon the heads of the doers in the place where they had done the evil there wreaked he his vengeance upon them End of Chapter 10 End of The Adventures of Ulysses by Charles Lamb