enzy she aims a dart at her faithful
Prothoe.

The battle begins, Achilles in fullest confidence in Penthesilea's love,
unfrightened by the wild army of dogs and elephants. The scene, told by
the present on-lookers, is heightened by the cries of horror and dismay
of the Amazons themselves.

Achilles falls; Penthesilea, a living Fury, dashes upon him with her
dogs in an insane orgy of blood. The Queen in the culminating scene is
greeted by the curses of the high priestess. Prothoe masters her horror
and turns back to soothe the Queen. Penthesilea, unmindful of what has
passed, moves once more through the whole gamut of her torturing
emotions, and is almost calmed when she spies the bier with the hero's
body. The last blow falls when upon her questions she learns the full
truth of her deed. The words she utters (that have been cited by the
hostile critics) may well be taken as the ravings of hopeless remorse,
with a symbolic play of words. She dies, as she proclaims, by the knife
of her own anguish.

The last lines of Prothoe are a kind of epilogue:

"She sank because too proud and strong she flourished.
The half-decayed oak withstands the tempest;
The vigorous tree is headlong dashed to earth
Because the storm has struck into its crown."[A]

[Footnote A: Translations, when not otherwise credited, are by the
author.]

The opening scene--"Lively, vehement: Departure of the Amazons for
Troy"--begins impetuous and hefty with big strokes of the throbbing
motive,

[Music: (_Tutti_ with higher 8ves.)
(Piccolo in 8ve.)
(Bass in 8ve.)]

the majestic rhythm coursing below, lashed by a quicker phrase above.
Suddenly trumpets sound, somewhat more slowly, a clarion call answered
by a choir of other trumpets and horns in enchanting retort of changing
harmonies. Ever a fresh color of

[Music: (Flutes and oboes)
(Answering groups of brass)
(Lower strings _pizz._)]

tone sounds in the call of the brass, as if here or yonder on the
battle-field. Sometimes it is almost too sweetly chanting for fierce
war. But presently it turns to a wilder mood and breaks in galloping
pace into a true chorus of song with clear cadence.

[Music: (Flutes with reeds in lower 8ve.)
(Violins with upper 8ve.)
(Lower strings and brass with lower 8ve.)]

The joyful tinge is quickly lost in the sombre hue of another phase of
war-song that has a touch of funeral trip (though it is all in 3/4
time):

[Music: (Muted strings)
(Ho