DIONYSUS
Thou knowest not what end thou seekest, nor
What deed thou doest, nor what man thou art!

PENTHEUS (_mocking_)
Agave's son, and on the father's part
Echion's, hight Pentheus!

DIONYSUS
So let it be,
A name fore-written to calamity!

PENTHEUS
Away, and tie him where the steeds are tied;
Aye, let him lie in the manger!--There abide
And stare into the darkness!--And this rout
Of womankind that clusters thee about,
Thy ministers of worship, are my slaves!
It may be I will sell them o'er the waves,
Hither and thither; else they shall be set
To labour at my distaffs, and forget
Their timbrel and their songs of dawning day!

DIONYSUS
I go; for that which may not be, I may
Not suffer! Yet for this thy sin, lo, He
Whom thou deniest cometh after thee
For recompense. Yea, in thy wrong to us,
Thou hast cast Him into thy prison-house!
[DIONYSUS, _without his wand, his hair shorn, and his arms tightly