The Dream
(From The Golden Ass)
Apuleius
But I could in no wise sleep for the great fear which was in my heart, until it was
about midnight, and then I began to slumber. But, alas! behold suddenly the chamber
doors broke open, and locks, bolts, and posts fell down, that you would verily have
thought that some thieves had presently come to have spoiled and robbed us. And my bed
whereon I lay, being a truckle-bed, fashioned in the form of a cradle, and one of the feet
broken and rotten, by violence was turned upside down, and I likewise was overwhelmed
and covered lying in the same. And while I lay on the ground covered in this sort, I peeped
under the bed to see what would happen. And behold there entered in two old women, the
one bearing a burning torch, and the other a sponge and a naked sword; and so in this
habit they stood about, Socrates being fast asleep.
Then she which bare the sword said
unto the other, “Behold, sister Panthia, this is my dear and sweetheart, this is he who little
regarding my love, doth not only defame me with reproachful words, but also intendeth to
run away.” Which said, she pointed toward me that lay under the bed, and showed me to
Panthia. “This is he,” quoth she, “which is his counselor, and persuadeth him to forsake
me, and now being at the point of death, he lieth prostrate on the ground covered with his
bed, and hath seen all our doings, and hopeth to escape scot-free from my hands; but I will
cause that he shall repent himself too late, nay rather forthwith, of his former intemperate
language, and his present curiosity.” Which words when I heard, I fell into a cold sweat,
and my heart trembled with fear, insomuch that the bed over me did likewise rattle and
shake. Then spake Panthia unto Meroe and said, “Sister, let us by and by tear him in
pieces.” Then Meroe answered, “Nay, rather let him live, and bury the corpse of this poor
wretch in some hold of the earth”; and therewithal she turned up the head of Socrates on
the other side, and thrust her sword up to the hilt into the left part of his neck, and
received the blood that gushed out, into a pot, that no drop thereof fell beside: which
things I saw with mine own eyes; and as I think to the intent that she might alter nothing
that pertained to sacrifice, which she accustomed to make, she thrust her hand down into
the internals of his body, and searching about at length brought forth the heart of my
miserable companion, Socrates, who having his throat cut in such sort, yield out a dreadful
cry and gave up the ghost. Then Panthia stopped the wide wound of his throat with the
sponge, and said, “O sponge, sprung and made of the sea, beware that thou pass not by
running river.”
When this was ended, they went their ways, and the doors closed fast, the
posts stood in their old places, and the locks and bolts were shut again. But I that lay upon
the ground like one without soul, naked and cold, like to one that were more than half
dead, yet reviving myself, and appointed as I thought for the gallows, began to say, “Alas!
what shall become of me to-morrow, when my companion shall be found murdered here in
the chamber? To whom shall I seem to tell any similitude of truth, whenas I shall tell the
truth indeed? They will say, ‘If thou wert unable to resist the violence of the women, yet
shouldst thou have cried for help: wouldst thou suffer the man to be slain before thy face
and say nothing? Or why did they not slay thee likewise? Why did they spare thee that
stood by and saw them commit that horrible fact? Wherefore although thou hast escaped
their hands, yet thou shalt not escape ours.”’ While I pondered these things with myself,
the night passed on, and so I resolved to take my horse before day, and go forward on my
journey.
Howbeit the ways were unknown to me: and thereupon I took up my packet,
unlocked and unbarred the doors, but those good and faithful doors, which in the night did
open of their own accord, could then scantly be opened with their keys. And when I was
out I cried, “O sirrah hostler, where art thou? Open the stable-door, for I will ride away by
and by.” They hostler lying behind the stable-door upon a pallet and half asleep, “What
(quoth he), do you not know that the ways be very dangerous? what mean you to rise at
this time of night? If you, perhaps guilty of some heinous crime, be weary of your life, yet
think you not that we are such sots that we will die for you.” Then said I, “It is wellnigh
day, and moreover, what can thieves take from him that hath nothing? Dost thou not
know, fool as thou art, if thou be naked, if ten giants should assail thee, they could not
spoil or rob thee?” Whereunto the drowsy hostler, half asleep and turning on the other
side, answered, “What know I whether you have murdered your companion whom you
brought in yesternight or no, and now seek the means to escape away?” O Lord, at that
time, I remember, the earth seemed to open, and methought I saw at hellgate the dog
Cerberus ready to devour me; and then I verily believed that Meroe did not spare my
throat moved with pity, but rather cruelly pardoned me to bring me to the gallows.
Wherefore I returned to my chamber, and there devised with myself in what sort I should
finish my life. And therewithal I pulled out a piece of rope wherewith the bed was corded,
and tied one end thereof about a rafter by the window, and with the other end I made a
sliding knot, and stood upon my bed, and so put my neck into it, and when I leaped from
the bed thinking verily to strangle myself and so die, behold the rope, being old and rotten,
burst in the middle, and I fell down tumbling upon Socrates that lay under: and even at
that same very time the hostler came in crying with a loud voice and said, “Where are you
that made such haste at midnight, and now lies wallowing abed?” Whereupon (I know not
whether it was by my fall, or by the great cry of the hostler) Socrates as waking out of a
sleep, did rise up first and said, “It is not without cause that strangers do speak evil of all
such hostlers, for this caitiff in his coming in, and with his crying out, I think under a color
to steal away something, has waked me out of a sound sleep.” Then I rose up, joyful with
a merry countenance, saying, “Behold, good hostler, my friend, my companion and my
brother whom thou didst falsely affirm to be slain by me this night.” And therewithal I
embraced my friend Socrates and kissed him, and took him by the hand and said, “Why
tarry we? Why lose we the pleasure of this fair morning? let us go,” and so I took up my
packet, and paid the charges of the house and departed.
And we had not gone a mile out of the town but it was broad day, and then I diligently
looked upon Socrates’ throat to see if I could espy the place where Meroe thrust in her
sword; but when I could not perceive any such thing, I thought with myself, What a
madman am I, that being overcome with wine yesternight have dreamed such terrible
things! behold, I see Socrates is sound, safe and in health. Where is his wound? where is
the sponge? where is his great and new cut? And then I spake to him and said, “Verily it is
not without occasion that physicians of experience do affirm, that such as fill their gorges
abundantly with meat and drink shall dream of dire and horrible sights: for I myself, not
tempering my appetite yesternight from pots of wine, did seem to see this night strange
and cruel visions, that even yet I think myself sprinkled and wet with human blood.”
Whereunto Socrates laughing made answer, “Nay, verily, I myself dreamed this night that
my throat was cut, and that I felt the pain of the wound, and that my heart was pulled out
of my belly, and the remembrance thereof makes me now to fear, for my knees do so
tremble that I can scarce go any further; and therefore I would fain eat somewhat to
strengthen and revive my spirits.” Then said I, “Behold here thy breakfast”; and
therewithal I opened my scrip that hanged upon my shoulder, and gave him bread and
cheese, and we sat down under a great plane tree, and I ate part with him. And while I
beheld him eating greedily, I perceived that he waxed meager and pale, and that his lively
color faded away, insomuch that being in great fear, and remembering those terrible furies
of whom I lately dreamed, the first morsel of bread that I put in my mouth (which was but
very small) did so stick in my jaws, that I could neither swallow it down, nor yet yield it
up, and moreover the small time of our being together increased my fear: and what is he
that seeing his companion die in the highway before his face, would not greatly lament and
be sorry? But when that Socrates had eaten sufficiently, he waxed very thirsty, for indeed
he had well-nigh devoured all a whole cheese: and behold evil fortune! There was behind
the plane tree a pleasant running water as clear as crystal, and I said unto him, “Come
hither, Socrates, to this water and drink thy full.” And then he rose and came to the river,
and kneeled down upon the side of the bank to drink; but he had scarce touched the water
with his lips, whenas behold the wound of his throat opened wide, and the sponge
suddenly fell into the water, and after issued out a little remnant of blood, and his body
being then without life, had fallen into the river, had I not caught him by the leg and so
pulled him up. And after that I had lamented a good space the death of my wretched
companion, I buried him in the sands there by the river.
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