EMPEDOCLES ON ETNA.
A DRAMATIC POEM.
PERSONS.
Empedocles.
Pausanias, a Physician.
Callicles, a young Harp-player.
The Scene of the Poem is on Mount Etna; at first in the forest region, afterwards on the summit of the mountain.
ACT I.
Scene I.—Morning. A Pass in the forest region of Etna.
CALLICLES (alone, resting on a rock by the path).
The mules, I think, will not be here this hour:
They feel the cool wet turf under their feet
By the stream-side, after the dusty lanes
In which they have toiled all night from Catana,
And scarcely will they budge a yard. O Pan,
How gracious is the mountain at this hour!
A thousand times have I been here alone,
Or with the revellers from the mountain towns,
But never on so fair a morn. The sun
Is shining on the brilliant mountain crests,
And on the highest pines; but farther down,
Here in the valley, is in shade; the sward
Is dark, and on the stream the mist still hangs;
