Delphi Complete Works of Longus Read online

  28. Bryaxis, being astonished at this, started up, and calling together the captains of the ships, commanded that Chloe should be quickly sought for among the captives. They found her presently and brought her before him; for she sate crowned with the pine. The general, remembering that the pine was the mark and signal distinction which he had in his dream, carried the maid ashore in the admiral with no small observance and ceremonious fear. Now as soon as Chloe was set on shore, the sound of the pipe from the promontore began to be heard again, not martial and terrible as before, but perfectly pastoral such as is used to lead the cattle to feed in the fields. The sheep ran down the scale of the ship, slipping and sliding on their horny hooves; the goats more boldly, for they were used to climb the crags and steeps of the hills. 29. The whole flock encircled Chloe, moving as in a dance about her, and with their skipping and their blating shewed a kind of joyfulness and exultation. But the goats of other goatherds, as also the sheep and the herds, stirred not a foot, but remained still in the holds of the ships as if the music of that pipe did not at all call for them.

  When therefore they were all struck with admiration at these things and celebrated the praises of Pan, there were yet seen in both the elements things more wonderful then those before. For the ships of the Methymnaeans before they had weighed their anchors ran amain, and a huge dolphin bouncing still out of the sea went before and led their admiral On the land a most sweet melodious pipe led the goats and the sheep, and yet nobody saw the piper; only all the cattle went along together and fed rejoicing at his music.

  30. It was now the time of the second pasturing, when Daphnis having spied from a high stand Chloe coming with the flocks, crying out mainly “O ye Nymphs, O blessed Pan!” made down to the plain, and rushing into the embraces of Chloe, in a swoon fell to the ground. With much ado when he was come to himself with Chloe’s kisses and embraces in her close and warm arms, he got to the oak where they were wont, and when he was sate down on the trunk he asked her how she had escaped such a dangerous captivity as that. Then she told him everything one after another; how the fresh and berried ivy appeared on the horns of all the goats, how her sheep howled like wolves, how a pine sprung up upon her head, how all the land seemed on a fire, what horrible fragors and clashings were heard from the sea; with the two tones of that pipe from the crag of the promontore, the one to war, the other to peace, the terrible spectres of the night, how she not knowing her way had for her companion and guide the sweet music of that strange invisible pipe.

  Daphnis then acknowledged the vision of the Nymphs and the works of Pan, and storied to her what he himself had seen, and what he had heard, and how when he was ready to die for grief his life was saved by the providence and kindness of the holy Nymphs. And then presently he sent her away to bring Dry as and Lamo and their wives to the sacrifice, and all things necessary for such a devotion to Pan and the Nymphs. In the meantime he catched the fairest of all his she-goats, and when he had crowned it with ivy in that manner as the whole flock had appeared to the enemy, and had poured milk on the horns, in the name of the Nymphs he struck and killed it, and sacrificed it to them. He hanged it up, took off the skin, consecrated that, and made it an offering.

  31. When Chloe with her company was come, he made a fire, and some of the flesh being boiled and some roasted, he offered the first and chiefest parts of both to the Nymphs, and filling a bowl with new wine, made a libation; then, having made several beds of green leaves, every man gave himself wholly to eating, drinking, and playing; only they looked out now and then lest the irruption of a wolf upon the flocks should chance to do something like an enemy. They sung too certain songs in the praise of the Nymphs, the solemn carmens of the ancient shepherds. All that night they lay in the fields; and the next day they were not unmindful of the wonder-working Pan, but took the he-goat that was captain and leader of the flock, and when they had crowned him with pine-garlands they brought him to the pine, and pouring wine upon his head, with benedictions and thankful praise they sacrificed him to Pan the preserver. Then hanging him up they flayed him, and the flesh, part roasted, part boiled, they set upon banks of green leaves hard by in the meadow. The skin, horns and all, they pegged to the pine close to the statue, to a pastoral God a pastoral offering. They offered too the first carvings of the flesh, and made him a libation with a greater bowl then to the Nymphs. Chloe sang and Daphnis played upon the pipe.

  32. These rites performed, they sate down and fell to feast. And it happened that Philetas the herdsman came up to them bringing with him certain garlands to honour Pan, together with grapes hanging still among the leaves and branches. His youngest son Tityrus came along with him, a ruddy lad, greyeyed and fair-skinned, stout and fierce, and of a nimble bounding pace like a kid. When they saw what the intention of the good old Philetas was, they started up, and all together crowned the statue of Pan with garlands, and hanged the palmits with their grapes upon the leaves of the pine; and then they make Philetas sit down to the feast and be their guest, to eat and drink and celebrate. Then, as old men use to do when they are a little whittled with wine, they had various discourses and chats amongst them; how bravely in their youth they had administered the pasturing of their flocks and herds, how in their time they had escaped very many invasions and inroads of pirates and thieves. Here one bragged that he had killed a wolf, here another that he had bin second to Pan alone in the skill and art of piping. And this was the crack of Philetas; 33. and therefore Daphnis and Chloe used all manner of supplications to him, that he would communicate with them that art of piping, and play upon the pipe at the feast of that God whom he knew to delight so much in the pipe.

  Philetas promised to do it, although he blamed old age for his short breath; and so took Daphnis his pipe. But that being too little for so great an art, as being made to be inspirited by the mouth of a boy, he sent his son Tityrus for his own, the cottage lying distant from thence but ten furlongs. Tityrus, flinging off his jacket, ran swift as a hind. But Lamo promised to tell them that tale of the pipe which a Sicilian goatherd, hired by him for a goat and a pipe, had sung to him:

  34. “This pipe was heretofore no organ, but a very fair maid, who had a sweet and musical voice. She fed goats, played together with the Nymphs, and sang as now. Pan, while she in this manner was tending her goats, playing and singing, came to her and endeavoured to persuade her to what he desired, and promised her that he would make all her goats bring forth twins every year. But she disdained and derided his love, and denied to take him to be her sweetheart who was neither perfect man nor perfect goat. Pan follows her with violence and thinks to force her. Syrinx fled Pan and his force. Being now aweary with her flight, she shot herself into a grove of reeds, sunk in the fen, and disappeared. Pan for anger cut up the reeds, and finding not the maid there, and then reflecting upon what had happened, joined together unequal quills, because their love was so unequal, and thus invented this organ. So she who then was a fair maid is now become a musical pipe.”

  33. Lamo had now done his tale and Philetas praised him for it as one that had told them a story far sweeter then any song, when Tityrus came in and brought his father s pipe, a large organ and made of great quills, and where it was joined together with wax there too it was set and varied with brass. Insomuch that one would have thought that this had bin that very pipe which Pan the inventor made first. When therefore Philetas was got up and had set himself upright on a bench, first he tried the quills whether they sounded clear and sweet; then, finding never a cane was stopped, he played a loud and lusty tune. One would not have thought that he had heard but one pipe, the sound was so high, the consort so full. But by little and little remitting that vehemence, he changed it to a soft and sweeter tone, and displaying all the art of pastoral music, he shewed upon the pipe what notes were fit for the herds of cows and oxen, what agreed with the flocks of goats, what were pleasing to the sheep. The tones for the sheep were soft and sweet, those of the herds were vehement, and for the goats were sharp and shri
ll. In sum, that single pipe of his expressed even all the shepherd’s-pipes.

  34. Therefore the rest in deep silence sate still, delighted and charmed with that music. But Dryas, rising and bidding him strike up a Dionysiac tune, fell to dance before them the dance of the wine-press. And now he acted to the life the cutting and gathering of the grapes, now the carrying of the baskets, then the treading of the grapes in the press, then presently the tunning of the wine into the butts, and then again their joyful and hearty carousing the must. All these things he represented so aptly and clearly in his dancing, that they all thought they verily saw before their face the vines, the grapes, the press, the butts, and that Dryas did drink indeed.

  35. This third old man when he had pleased them so well with his dance, embraced and kissed Daphnis and Chloe. Therefore they two, rising quickly, fell to dancing Lamo’s tale. Daphnis played Pan, and Chloe Syrinx. He woos and prays to persuade and win her; she shews her disdain, laughs at his love, and flies him. Daphnis follows as to force her, and running on his tiptoes, imitates the hooves of Pan. Chloe on the other side, acts Syrinx wearied with her flight, and throws herself into the wood as she had done into the fen. But Daphnis, catching up that great pipe of Philetas, plays at first something that was doleful and bewailing, as a lover, then something that made love and was persuasive to relenting, then a recall from the wood, as from one that dearly sought her. Insomuch that Philetas, struck with admiration and joy, could not hold from leaping up and kissing Daphnis. Then he gave him that pipe of his and commanded him to leave it to a successor like himself. Daphnis hanged up his own small one to Pan, and when he had kissed his Chloe, as returning from a true unfeigned flight, he began to drive home his flocks (for night was fallen), piping all the way. 38. Chloe too by the same music gathered together her flocks and drove them home, the goats stitting along with the sheep, and Daphnis walking close by Chloe. Thus till it was night they filled themselves the one with the other, and agreed to drive out their flocks sooner the next morning.

  And so they did. For as soon as it was day they went out to pasture, and when they had first saluted the Nymphs and then Pan, afterwards sitting down under the oak they had the music of the pipe. After that, they kissed, embraced, and hugged one another, and lay down together on the ground; and so rose up again. Nor were they incurious of their meat, and for their drink they drank wine mingled with milk. 39. With all which incentives being more heated and made more lively and forward, they practised between them an amorous controversy about their love to one another, and by little and little came to bind themselves by the faith of oaths. For Daphnis coming up to the pine, swore by Pan that he would not live alone in this world without Chloe so much as the space of one day. And Chloe swore in the cave of the Nymphs that she would have the same death and life with Daphnis.

  Yet such was the simplicity of Chloe, as being but a girl, that when she came out of the cave she demanded another oath of Daphnis. “Daphnis,” quoth she, “Pan is a wanton, faithless God; for he loved Pitys, he loved Syrinx too. Besides, he never ceases to trouble and vex the Dryads and to solicit the Nymphs the president Goddesses of our flocks. Therefore he, if by thy faithlessness shouldst neglect him, would not take care to punish thee, although thou shouldst go to more maids then there are quills in that pipe. But do thou swear to me by this flock of goats, and by that goat which was thy nurse, that thou wilt never forsake Chloe so long as she is faithful to thee; and when she is false and injurious to thee and the Nymphs, then fly her, then hate her, and kill her like a wolf.” Daphnis was pleased with this pretty jealousy, and standing in the midst of his flocks, with one hand laying hold on a she-goat and the other on a he, swore that he would love Chloe that loved him, and that if she preferred any other to Daphnis, then he would slay, not her, but him that she preferred. Of this Chloe was glad, and believed him as a poor and harmless maid, one that was bred a shepherdess and thought that flocks of sheep and goats were proper deities of the shepherds.

  THE END OF THE SECOND BOOK

  A SUMMARY OF THE THIRD BOOK

  THE Mytilenaeans, upon that incursion, send Hippasus their general with land-forces against Methymna. But the quarrel is taken up. Daphnis and Chloe take it heavily that they are parted by the winter. Daphnis, to see her, goes a fowling before Dryas his cottage, and looks as if he minded not her. Dryas brings him in to the feast of Dionysus. The spring returning, they return to their pastorals. Daphnis complains of his ignorance in love. Lycaenium cozens Mm. Daphnis, as the mariners sail by, tells Chloe the Tale of Echo. Many and rich suitors are now about Chloe, and Dryas almost gives his consent. Daphnis is sad as being poor, but by direction of the Nymphs he finds a purse full of silver. He gives it Dryas, and Chloe is contracted to him; only Lamo, because he was a servant to Dionysophanes, says his lord is to be expected that he may ratify the business. Daphnis gives Chloe a rare apple.

  THE THIRD BOOK

  1. BUT the Mytilenaeans, when they heard of the expedition of those ten ships, and some of the countrymen coming up from the farms had told them what a plundering and rapine there had bin, thought it too disgraceful to be borne, and therefore decreed to raise arms against Methymna with all speed. And having chosen out three thousand targeteers and five hundred horse, they sent away their general Hippasus by land, not daring to trust the sea in winter.

  2. He did not as he marched depopulate the fields of Methymna, nor did he rob the farms of the husbandmen or the pastures of the shepherds, counting such actions as those to suit better with a larron then the grand captain of an army; but hasted up to the town itself to surprise it. But while he was yet an hundred furlongs off from the town an herald met him with articles. For after that the Methymnaeans were informed by the captives that the Mytilenaeans knew nothing of those things that had happened, and that ploughmen and shepherds provoked by the young gentlemen were they that were the causes of it all, it repented them of that expedition of Bryaxis against a neighbouring city, as of an action more precipitant then moderate and wise; and they were eager to return all the prey and spoil that was taken and carried away, and to have commerce and trade securely with them by land and by sea.

  Therefore Hippasus dispatches away that herald to Mytilene, although he had bin created the general of the war and so had power to sign as he listed; and pitching his camp about ten furlongs from Methymna, there he attended mandates from the city. Two days after, the messenger returned, and brought a command that they should receive the plundered goods and all the captives, and march home without doing the least harm, because Methymna, when war or peace were offered to be chosen, found peace to be more profitable. 3. And this quarrel betwixt Methymna and Mytilene, which was of an unexpected beginning and end, was thus taken up and composed.

  And now winter was come on, a winter more bitter then war to Daphnis and Chloe. For on a sudden there fell a great snow, which blinded all the paths, stopped up all the ways, and shut up all the shepherds and husbandmen. The torrents rushed down in flood, and the lakes were frozen and glazed with crystal. The hedges and trees looked as if they had bin breaking down. All the ground was hoodwinked up but that which lay upon the fountains and the rills. And therefore no man drove out his flocks to pasture or did so much as come out of the door, but about the cock’s crowing made their fires nose-high, and some spun flax, some wove tarpaulin for the sea, others with all their sophistry made gins and nets and traps for birds. At that time their care was employed about the oxen and cows that were foddered with chaff in the stalls, about the goats and about the sheep which fed on green leaves in the sheepcotes and the folds, or else about fatting their hogs in the sties with acorns and other mast.

  4. When all was thus taken up perforce with their domestic affairs, the other husbandmen and shepherds were very jovial and merry, as being for a while discharged of their labours and able to have their breakfast in the morning after sleeping long winter nights; so that the winter was to them more pleasant then the summer, the autumn, or the very spring. But Chloe
and Daphnis, when they remembered what a sweet conversation they had held before, how they had kissed, how they had embraced and hugged one another, how they had lived at a common scrip, all which were now as pleasures lost, now they had long and sleepless nights, now they had sad and pensive days, and desired nothing so much as a quick return of the spring, to become their regeneration and return from death.

  Besides this, it was their grief and complaint if but a scrip came to their hands out of which they had eaten together, or a sillibub-piggin out of which they had used both to drink, or if they chanced to see a pipe laid aside and neglected such as had bin not long before a lover’s gift from one to the other. And therefore they prayed severally to Pan and the Nymphs that they would deliver them from these as from the other evils and miseries, and shew to them and their flocks the Sun again. And while they prayed, they laboured too and cast about to find a way by which they might come to see one another. Poor Chloe was void of all counsel and had no device nor plot. For the old woman her reputed mother was by her continually, and taught her to card the fine wool and twirl the spindle, or else was still a clocking for her, and ever and anon casting in words and twattling to her about her marriage. But Daphnis, who was now at leisure enough and was of a more projecting wit then a maid, devised this sophism to see her: