Part 7 (1/2)

PERSEUS.

Long was she chained?

ANDROMEDA.

Since the world began.

PERSEUS.

Who are her masters?

ANDROMEDA.

The lords of pride and of l.u.s.t.

PERSEUS.

Whence comes she?

ANDROMEDA,

From dust.

PERSEUS.

Where goes she?

ANDROMEDA.

To dust!

CHORUS OF FIRST WOMEN.

Is he fooled by her hair, Is he tranced by her eyes, That he draweth him near, That he speaketh him wise? ...

He has spoken again, He has taken her hands, He has loosened her chain, Unfettered she stands!

PERSEUS.

Stand there! Behold the new, uncharted day-- Not as a fool made sweet for fools to kiss; Not as a saint to whom sick masters pray; No more the sad sh.e.l.l singing of men's l.u.s.t; No more the sum of priests' pale sophistries; But as men stand, unchallenged, equal, free, Each path to take and every race to run.

Stand forth, O s.h.i.+ning equal in the sun!

Unfold, upspring, outblossom from the dust, O divinest playfellow even as we!

ANDROMEDA.

Where is he who chained me? I am weak.

I crouch still, whom the years forbade to stand.

The chain is still remembered on my neck, There are the marks of slaves still in this hand.

PERSEUS.

No more shall he who chained you forge that chain; He has looked upon Medusa, and has seen What he has made of woman. To him turned Is the last face (who shall never see again) With its hissing, furious hair, the eyelids burned With the eyes' hate, slime where the lips have been, That tumbled death upon him like a stone; And in your name Medusa smiled and spurned A dying face more dreadful than her own.