Seen what?

Zopyr. Ah! then, no matter:-- (turns away agitated.) I dare not sneak or stay[;] If I remain I shall discover all.

Asp. I see the king has trusted to your care Some great state secret which you fain would hide. I am your friend, trust my fidelity, If you're in doubt I'll be your counsellor. [45]

Zopyr. (with great importance.) Secret, Asphalion! How came you to know? If my great master (which I do not say) Should think me a fit friend in whom to pour The weighty secrets of his royal heart, Shall I betray his trust? It is not so;-- I am a poor despised slave.--No more! Join we the festal band which will conduct Silenus to his woods again?

Asph. My friend, Wherefore mistrust a faithful heart? Confide The whole to me;--I will be still as death.

Zopyr. As death! you know not what you say; farewell[!] A little will I commune with my soul, And then I'll join you at the palace-gate.

Asph. Will you then tell me?--

Zopyr. Cease to vex, my friend, Your soul and mine with false suspicion, (aside) Oh! I am choked! I'd give full ten years of my life To tell, to laugh--& yet I dare not speak.

Asph. Zopyrion, remember that you hurt [46] The trusting bosom of a faithful friend By your unjust concealment. (Exit.)

Zopyr. Oh, he's gone! To him I dare not speak, nor yet to Lacon; No human ears may hear what must be told. I cannot keep it in, assuredly; I shall some night discuss it in my sleep. It will not keep! Oh! greenest reeds that sway And nod your feathered heads beneath the sun, Be you depositaries of my soul, Be you my friends in this extremity[:] I shall not risk my head when I tell you The fatal truth, the heart oppressing fact,

(stooping down & whispering)

(_Enter Midas, Silenus & others, who fall back during the scene; Midas is always anxious about his crown, & Zopyrion gets behind him & tries to smother his laughter._)

Silen. (very drunk) Again I find you, Bacchus, runaway! Welcome, my glorious boy! Another time Stray not; or leave your poor old foster-father In the wild mazes of a wood, in which I might have wandered many hundred years, Had not some merry fellows helped me out, And had not this king kindly welcomed me, I might have fared more ill than you erewhile In Pentheus' prisons, that death fated rogue.

Bac. (to Midas.) To you I owe great thanks & will reward Your hospitality. Tell me your name And what this country is.

Midas. My name is Midas--

The Reeds (nodding their heads). Midas, the king, has the ears of an ass. [49]

Midas. (turning round & seizing Zopyrion). Villain, you lie! he dies who shall repeat Those traitrous words. Seize on Zopyrion!

The Reeds. Midas, the king, has the ears of an ass.

Mid. Search through the crowd; it is a woman's voice That dares belie her king, & makes her life A forfeit to his fury.

Asph. There is no woman here.

Bac. Calm yourself, Midas; none believe the tale, Some impious man or gamesome faun dares feign In vile contempt of your most royal ears. Off with your crown, & shew the world the lie!

Mid. (holding his crown tight) Never! What[!] shall a vile calumnious slave Dictate the actions of a crowned king? Zopyrion, this lie springs from you--you perish!

Zopy.