[A Pause.]

FIRST BOAR: Well, go on; we long To hear what she can possibly have done.

PURGANAX: Why, it is hinted, that a certain Bull-- Thus much is KNOWN:--the milk-white Bulls that feed Beside Clitumnus and the crystal lakes Of the Cisalpine mountains, in fresh dews Of lotus-grass and blossoming asphodel Sleeking their silken hair, and with sweet breath Loading the morning winds until they faint With living fragrance, are so beautiful!-- Well, _I_ say nothing;--but Europa rode On such a one from Asia into Crete, And the enamoured sea grew calm beneath His gliding beauty. And Pasiphae, Iona's grandmother,--but SHE is innocent! And that both you and I, and all assert.

FIRST BOAR: Most innocent!

PURGANAX: Behold this BAG; a bag--

SECOND BOAR: Oh! no GREEN BAGS!! Jealousy's eyes are green, Scorpions are green, and water-snakes, and efts, And verdigris, and--

PURGANAX: Honourable Swine, In Piggish souls can prepossessions reign? Allow me to remind you, grass is green-- All flesh is grass;--no bacon but is flesh-- Ye are but bacon. This divining BAG (Which is not green, but only bacon colour) Is filled with liquor, which if sprinkled o'er A woman guilty of--we all know what-- Makes her so hideous, till she finds one blind She never can commit the like again. If innocent, she will turn into an angel, And rain down blessings in the shape of comfits As she flies up to heaven. Now, my proposal Is to convert her sacred Majesty Into an angel (as I am sure we shall do), By pouring on her head this mystic water. [SHOWING THE BAG.] I know that she is innocent; I wish Only to prove her so to all the world.

FIRST BOAR: Excellent, just, and noble Purganax.

SECOND BOAR: How glorious it will be to see her Majesty Flying above our heads, her petticoats Streaming like--like--like--

THIRD BOAR: Anything.

PURGANAX: Oh no! But like a standard of an admiral's ship, Or like the banner of a conquering host, Or like a cloud dyed in the dying day, Unravelled on the blast from a white mountain; Or like a meteor, or a war-steed's mane, Or waterfall from a dizzy precipice Scattered upon the wind.

FIRST BOAR: Or a cow's tail.

SECOND BOAR: Or ANYTHING, as the learned Boar observed.

PURGANAX: Gentlemen Boars, I move a resolution, That her most sacred Majesty should be Invited to attend the feast of Famine, And to receive upon her chaste white body Dews of Apotheosis from this BAG.

[A GREAT CONFUSION IS HEARD OF THE PIGS OUT OF DOORS, WHICH COMMUNICATES ITSELF TO THOSE WITHIN. DURING THE FIRST STROPHE, THE DOORS OF THE STY ARE STAVED IN, AND A NUMBER OF EXCEEDINGLY LEAN PIGS AND SOWS AND BOARS RUSH IN.]

SEMICHORUS 1: No! Yes!

SEMICHORUS 2: Yes! No!

SEMICHORUS 1: A law!

SEMICHORUS 2: A flaw!

SEMICHORUS 1: Porkers, we shall lose our wash, Or must share it with the Lean-Pigs!

FIRST BOAR: Order! order! be not rash! Was there ever such a scene, Pigs!

AN OLD SOW (RUSHING IN): I never saw so fine a dash Since I first began to wean Pigs.

SECOND BOAR (SOLEMNLY): The Queen will be an angel time enough. I vote, in form of an amendment, that Purganax rub a little of that stuff Upon his face.

PURGANAX [HIS HEART IS SEEN TO BEAT THROUGH HIS WAISTCOAT]: Gods! What would ye be at?

SEMICHORUS 1: Purganax has plainly shown a Cloven foot and jackdaw feather.

SEMICHORUS 2: I vote Swellfoot and Iona Try the magic test together; Whenever royal spouses bicker, Both should try the magic liquor.

AN OLD BOAR [ASIDE]: A miserable state is that of Pigs, For if their drivers would tear caps and wigs, The Swine must bite each other's ear therefore.

AN OLD SOW [ASIDE]: A wretched lot Jove has assigned to Swine, Squabbling makes Pig-herds hungry, and they dine On bacon, and whip Sucking-Pigs the more.

CHORUS: Hog-wash has been ta'en away: If the Bull-Queen is divested, We shall be in every way Hunted, stripped, exposed, molested; Let us do whate'er we may, That she shall not be arrested. QUEEN, we entrench you with walls of brawn, And palisades of tusks, sharp as a bayonet: Place your most sacred person here. We pawn Our lives that none a finger dare to lay on it. Those who wrong you, wrong us; Those who hate you, hate us; Those who sting you, sting us; Those who bait you, bait us; The ORACLE is now about to be Fulfilled by circumvolving destiny; Which says: 'Thebes, choose REFORM or CIVIL WAR, When through your streets, instead of hare with dogs, A CONSORT QUEEN shall hunt a KING with Hogs, Riding upon the IONIAN MINOTAUR.'

NOTE: _154 streets instead edition 1820.