Praxiteles (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 edition. Excerpt: ... Scene 1. Stnoto of praritelea. Scene 2. a (c)narrp on JjJenteltcna. ACT 2. Stene 1. Stnoto of fjraritelea. Scene 2. banqnet room in f)on8e of )raritele0. ACT 3. Scene 1. Cjje jFonntatn of Salmacia. Scene 2. ante=room to Stnoto. Scene 3. pone of SUtpes. ACT 4. Scene I. ante-room of JJrarttelea. Scene 2. ante-room of practtele. (Two days later.) ACT 5. Scene I. Stnoio of Irarttelea. Scene 2. CCIje JFonntain of Salmacta. Scene 3. Stnoto of flrarttelea. PRAXITELES %tt l.--gttne h (c)be Strtia of prarttdeo. Busts, statues, clay models, drawings, etc. In the background a girl mixing clay. Prax. Seated in a despondent attitude I cannot work. And yet I rose this morn with every pulse athrob. While these dull laggards of the city here lay wanton in their beds, or dead in sleep, I hied me with quick step towards the shore. Then morn rose from the sea like one great pearl, gray orbed and lustreless; and then, as if it had a heart, life's red suffused it all. Then to an opal did it turn, and blazing lay in shimmering iridescence. Such green, such red--the vine-leaf and the wine. Then rose the sun, and morn lay shining there a glistening diamond in sea's sapphire cup. One moment's breath, the long, white seasands o'er, brought me the smell of salt, of ooze, of brine--a smell of distance, borne from isles afar. I stripped and stood there naked, all alone, a living whiteness on the dead sea-sand. Then I forgot myself and sat me down--forgot myself, the shore, the world, the sea--full only of a vagrant, antique dream--an unshaped beauty I had never caught. I strove to mould it in the fickle sand--that dead, dull sand, which, being dry, cohered not--being wet, did flow. And then I spurned the sand and sprung to foot, and revelled in my naked