BACCHUS AND ARIADNE.
125
Leonardi. 'Tis one of those bright fictions that have made
The name of Greece only another word
For love and poetry; with a green earth—
Groves of the graceful myrtle—summer skies,
Whose stars are mirror'd in ten thousand streams—
Winds that move but in perfume and in music,
And, more than all, the gift of woman's beauty.
What marvel that the earth, the sky, the sea,
Were filled with all those fine imaginings
That love creates, and that the lyre preserves!
Alvine. But for the history of that pale girl
Who stands so desolate on the sea shore?
Leonardi. She was the daughter of a Cretan king—
A tyrant. Hidden in the dark recess
