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To "give and take" we all must be agreed. |
| Venus. | Th' interpretation Proserpine thus makes,— She gives Dobrudscha,—Bessarabia takes. |
| Proserpine. | Why should I thus be twitted with my spoil; And why not some reward for all my toil? Why all this jealousy about the Straits?— And talk of ships, torpedoes, keys and gates? |
| Thetis | I will not, in obedience to 'brag' On the free seas consent to lower my flag. Hindoos to me than Slavs are yet more near,— My road to India, then, I must keep clear; (Her conqueror, of old, they say, was Bacchus,— Alas! I fear he has not ceased t'attack us) To Proserpine I will not give a chance Against my Indian Empire to advance; Let others quarrel for the Stygian plain,— Know Thetis, still, unrivalled rules the main. |
| Minerva. | Goddesses all, I feel quite sure that none Can think, but that we are not quite at one. Thetis we see, to move her fleet declines, While Proserpine keeps troops in Stamboul's lines.— And Proserpine insists her troops shall stay. While Thetis' ships still hold the water-way:— Let Thetis, then, consent to move her fleet, And Proserpine give signal for retreat. |
