The Project Gutenberg eBook of Hypolympia, by Edmund Gosse

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Title: Hypolympia
Or, The Gods in the Island, an Ironic Fantasy

Author: Edmund Gosse

Release Date: March 7, 2009 [eBook #28270]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HYPOLYMPIA***

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_Verse by the Same Author_

ON VIOL AND FLUTE
KING ERIK
FERDAUSI IN EXILE
IN RUSSET AND SILVER

HYPOLYMPIA

Or

The Gods in the Island

_An Ironic Fantasy_

by

EDMUND GOSSE

London
William Heinemann
1901

PREFACE

_The scene of this fantasy is an island, hitherto inhabited by
Lutherans, in a remote but temperate province of Northern Europe.
The persons are the Gods of Ancient Greece. The time is early in
the Twentieth Century._

I

[_A terrace high above the sea, which is seen far below, through
vast masses of woodland. Steps lead down towards the water, from
the centre of the scene. To the left, a large, low country-house,
of unpretentious character, in the style of the late eighteenth
century. Gardens belonging to the same period, and now somewhat
neglected and overgrown, stretch on either side. The edge of the
terrace is marked by a stone balustrade, with a stone seat running
round it within. At the top of steps, ascending, appear_ APHRODITE
_and_ EROS.]

APHRODITE.

A moment, Eros. Let us sit here. What can this flutter at my girdle
be? I breathe with difficulty. Oh! Eros, can this be death?

EROS.

Death? Ah! no; you have roses in your cheeks, mother. Your lips are
like blood.

APHRODITE.

It must be weariness. Ever these new sensations, these odd,
exciting apprehensions! This must be mortality. I never breathed
the faster as I rose from terrace to terrace in Cythera.

EROS.

Yet this is like Cythera--a little like it. [_Looking round._] It
is not the least like it. These round billowy woods, that grey
strip of sea far below, the long smooth land with square yellow
fi