life of a beast with thee, naked, effeminate, subject to thy will, perhaps
to be advanced in time to the honour of a place in thy sty. What pleasure
canst thou promise which may tempt the soul of a reasonable man? Thy
meats, spiced with poison; or thy wines, drugged with death? Thou must
swear to me that thou wilt never attempt against me the treasons which
thou hast practised upon my friends." The enchantress, won by the terror
of his threats, or by the violence of that new love which she felt
kindling in her veins for him, swore by Styx, the great oath of the gods,
that she meditated no injury to him. Then Ulysses made show of gentler
treatment, which gave her hopes of inspiring him with a passion equal to
that which she felt. She called her handmaids, four that served her in
chief, who were daughters to her silver fountains, to her sacred rivers,
and to her consecrated woods, to deck her apartments, to spread rich
carpets, and set out her silver tables with dishes of the purest gold, and
meat as precious as that which the gods eat, to entertain her guest. One
brought water to wash his feet, and one brought wine to chase away, with a
refreshing sweetness, the sorrows that had come of late so thick upon him,
and hurt his noble mind. They strewed perfumes on his head, and, after he
had bathed in a bath of the choicest aromatics, they brought him rich and
costly apparel to put on. Then he was conducted to a throne of massy
silver, and a regale, fit for Jove when he banquets, was placed before
him. But the feast which Ulysses desired was to see his friends (the
partners of his voyage) once more in the shapes of men; and the food which
could give him nourishment must be taken in at his eyes. Because he missed
this sight, he sat melancholy and thoughtful, and would taste of none of
the rich delicacies placed before him. Which when Circe noted, she easily
divined the cause of his sadness, and leaving the seat in which she sat
throned, went to her sty, and let abroad his men, who came in like swine,
and filled the ample hall, where Ulysses sat, with gruntings. Hardly had
he time to let his sad eye run over their altered forms and brutal