[Enter The Gadfly.]

MAMMON: Your Gadfly, as it seems, is tired of gadding.

GADFLY: Hum! hum! hum! From the lakes of the Alps, and the cold gray scalps Of the mountains, I come! Hum! hum! hum! From Morocco and Fez, and the high palaces Of golden Byzantium; From the temples divine of old Palestine, From Athens and Rome, With a ha! and a hum! I come! I come!

All inn-doors and windows Were open to me: I saw all that sin does, Which lamps hardly see That burn in the night by the curtained bed,— The impudent lamps! for they blushed not red, Dinging and singing, From slumber I rung her, Loud as the clank of an ironmonger; Hum! hum! hum!

Far, far, far! With the trump of my lips, and the sting at my hips, I drove her—afar! Far, far, far! From city to city, abandoned of pity, A ship without needle or star;— Homeless she passed, like a cloud on the blast, Seeking peace, finding war;— She is here in her car, From afar, and afar;— Hum! hum!

I have stung her and wrung her, The venom is working;— And if you had hung her With canting and quirking, She could not be deader than she will be soon;— I have driven her close to you, under the moon, Night and day, hum! hum! ha! I have hummed her and drummed her From place to place, till at last I have dumbed her, Hum! hum! hum!

NOTE: _260 Edd. 1820, 1839 have no stage direction after this line.