Let your eyes be fifteen paces ahead.
Friend, think of the earth,
It awaits us both! . . . .
(A march. Opinion heads it, Orpheus second, then Eurydicea with John Styx.)
The Gods.For a husband what troubles?
He will look back!
He won't look back!
Yes, back!
Not back!
Ju.(anxiously eyeing Orpheus, who has nearly reached the galley.)
I have, indeed, in vain
Reckoned on his curiosity.
Op. (he has entered the galley.) We triumph! what a joy!
Ju. He turns not back—can't help it. I'll fulminate him!
(Jupiter takes his thunder in his right hand, shakes it, but instead of striking him, gives a kick in the air and in Orpheus' direction, which traverses the stage under the shape of an electric spark—(gong) ! ! !—Orpheus turns back suddenly as if struck by it—Eurydicea disappears.)
Op.Wretch! what hast thou done?
Or.An involuntary movement.
(Enters the galley which moves.)
Pl.You have lost her and forever!
Or., (apart.) Like a book this denouement suits me.
Pl.Then she becomes mine.
Ju.Not any more than mine—
I change her into a Bacchant!
And now I order—
I that am thin and nimble—
That as in the days
Of the great king,
Ye all dance the minuet! !
Op., (coming out of the galley.) Dance, who talks about dancing here? Why my darlings, you don't understand what dancing is now-a-days. Down below is the only place where they understand it . . See, good country folks, that's the way we practice the thing. (Dances comically. The Olympian gods allow themselves to be carried away by his merry dances.)
(Tableau. A choregraphic irregularity.)
