The fading and the
unfading
fires rise up
Like steam out of the earth; the grass and leaves
Shiver and shrink away and sway about,
Blown by unnatural gusts of ice-cold air.
Like steam out of the earth; the grass and leaves
Shiver and shrink away and sway about,
Blown by unnatural gusts of ice-cold air.
Yeats
SECOND MERCHANT.
[_Going to the window. _]
There are none here. They tired and strayed from hence--
Unwilling labourers.
FIRST MERCHANT.
I will draw them in.
[_He cries through the window. _
Come hither, you lost souls of men, who died
In drunken sleep, and by each other's hands
When they had bartered you--come hither all
Who mourn among the scenery of your sins,
Turning to animal and reptile forms,
The visages of passions; hither, hither--
Leave marshes and the reed-encumbered pools,
You shapeless fires, that were the souls of men,
And are a fading wretchedness.
SECOND MERCHANT.
They come not.
FIRST MERCHANT.
[_Making a sign upon the air. _]
Come hither, hither, hither.
SECOND MERCHANT.
I can hear
A crying as of storm-distempered reeds.
The fading and the unfading fires rise up
Like steam out of the earth; the grass and leaves
Shiver and shrink away and sway about,
Blown by unnatural gusts of ice-cold air.
FIRST MERCHANT.
They are one with all the beings of decay,
Ill longings, madness, lightning, famine, drouth.
[_The whole stage is gradually filled with vague forms,
some animal shapes, some human, some mere lights. _
Come you--and you--and you, and lift these bags.
A SPIRIT.
We are too violent; mere shapes of storm.
FIRST MERCHANT.
Come you--and you--and you, and lift these bags.
A SPIRIT.
We are too feeble, fading out of life.
FIRST MERCHANT.
Come you, and you, who are the latest dead,
And still wear human shape: the shape of power.
[_The two robbing peasants of the last scene come
forward. Their faces have withered from much pain. _
Now, brawlers, lift the bags of gold.
