網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版
[blocks in formation]

Myrrha. Despise the favorite slave? Not more than I have ever scorn'd myself. Sard. Scorn'd! what, to be the envy of your sex,

She will recover. Pray, keep back.—[Aside.]| And lord it o'er the heart of the world's lord?

[blocks in formation]

Uncall'd for: I retire.

Sard. Yet, stay-being here.

I pray you pardon me: events have sour'd me Till I wax peevish-heed it not: I shall Soon be myself again.

Myrrha. I wait with patience, What I shall see with pleasure.

Sard. Scarce a moment

Before your entrance in this hall, Zarina,
Queen of Assyria, departed hence.
Myrrha. Ah!

Sard. Wherefore do you start?
Myrrha. Did I do so?

Sard. 'Twas well you enter'd by another portal,

[blocks in formation]

Myrrha. Were you the lord of twice ten thousand worlds

As you are like to lose the one you sway'd—
I did abase myself as much in being
Your paramour, as though you were a
peasant--

Nay, more, if that the peasant were a Greck.
Sard. You talk it well-
Myrrha. And truly.
Sard. In the hour

Of man's adversity all things grow daring
Against the falling; but as I am not
Quite fallen, nor now disposed to bear
.reproaches,

Perhaps because I merit them too often,
Let us then part while peace is still be-

[blocks in formation]

parted,

[ocr errors]

And must not all the present one day part? Myrrha. Why?

Sard. For your safety, which I will have look'd to,

With a strong escort to your native land;
And such gifts, as, if you have not been all
A queen, shall make your dowry worth a
kingdom.

Myrrha. I pray you talk not thus.
Sard. The queen is gone:

You need not shame to follow. I would fall
Alone-I seek no partners but in pleasure,
Myrrha. And I no pleasure but in part-
ing not.

1

You shall not force me from you.
Sard. Think well of it-

It soon may be too late.

Myrrha. So let it be;

For then you cannot separate me from you. Sard. And will not; but I thought you wish'd it.

Myrrha. I!

Sard. You spoke of your abasement,
Myrrha. And I feel it

Deeply more deeply than all things but love.

Sard. Then fly from it.

Myrrha. Twill not recal the pastTwill not restore my honour, nor my heart, No-here I stand or fall. If that you conquer, I live to joy in your great triumph; should Your lot be different, I'll not weep, but share it.

You did not doubt me a few hours ago, Sard. Your courage never nor your love till now;

And none could make me doubt it save

yourself.

Those words

Myrrha. Were words. I pray you, let
the proofs

Be in the past acts you were pleased to praise
This very night, and in my further bearing,
Beside, wherever you are borne by fate.
Sard. I am content; and, trusting in
my cause,

Think we may yet be victors, and return
To peace-the only victory I covet.
To me war is no glory-conquest no
Renown. To be forced thus to uphold
my right,

Sits heavier on my heart than all the wrongs
These men would bow me down with.
Never, never

Can I forget this night, even should I live
To add it to the memory of others.
I thought to have made mine inoffensive rule
An era of sweet peace 'midst bloody annals,
A green spot amidst desert centuries,

On which the future would turn back and
smile,

And cultivate, or sigh when it could not
Recal Sardanapalus' golden reign.

I thought to have made my realm a paradise,
And every moon an epoch of new pleasures.
I took the rabble's shouts for love the breath
Of friends for truth-the lips of woman for
My only guerdon- so they are, my Myrrha:
[He kisses her.
Now let them take my realm

Kiss me.
and life!

They shall have both, but never thee!
Myrrha. No, never!

Man may despoil his brother man of all

Sard. Would I felt no more
Than she has said.

Sal. Tis now too late to feel!
Your feelings cannot cancel a sole pang;
To change them, my advices bring sure
tidings

That the rebellious Medes and Chaldees,
marshall'd

By their two leaders, are already up
In arms again; and, serrying their ranks,
Prepare to attack: they have apparently
Been join'd by other satraps.

Sard. What! more rebels?
Let us be first, then.

Sal. That were hardly prudent
Now, though it was our first intention. If
By noon to-morrow we are join'd by those
I've sent for by sure messengers, we shall be
In strength enough to venture an attack,
Ay,and pursuit too; but till then, my voice
Is to await the onset.

Sard. I detest

That waiting; though it seems so safe to fight

Behind high walls, and hurl down foes into Deep fosses, or behold them sprawl on spikes

Strew'd to receive them, still I like it notMy soul seems lukewarm ; but when I set on them,

Though they were piled on mountains, 1
would have

A pluck at them, or perish in hot blood!—
Let me then charge!

Sal. You talk like a young soldier.
Sard. I am no soldier,but a man: speak not
Of soldiership, I loathe the word, and those
Who pride themselves upon it; but direct me

That's great or glittering: kingdoms fall— | Where I may pour upon them.

hosts yield

Sal. You must spare

Friends fail-slaves fly-and all betray-To expose your life too hastily; 'tis not

[blocks in formation]

Like mine or any other subject's breath :
The whole war turns upon it—with it; this
Alone creates it,kindles,and may quench it—
Prolong it-end it.

Sard. Then let us end both!
'Twere better thus, perhaps, than prolong
either;

I'm sick of one, perchance of both.
[A trumpet sounds without.

Sal. Hark!
Sard. Let us
Reply, not listen.

Sal. And your wound?
Sard. 'Tis bound-

'Tis heal'd I had forgotten it. Away!
A leech's lancet would have scratch'd me
deeper;

The slave that gave it might be well
ashamed

To have struck so weakly.

Sal. Now, may none this hour
Strike with a better aim!

Sard. Ay, if we conquer;
But if not, they will only leave to me

A task they might have spared their king. Upon them! [Trumpet sounds again.

Sal. I am with you. Sard. Ho, my arms! again, my arms! [Exeunt.

ACT V.

SCENE 1.-The same Hall of the Palace.

MYRRHA and BALEA.

Myrrha (at a window). The day at last has broken. What a night Hath usher'd it! How beautiful in heaven! Though varied with a transitory storm, More beautiful in that variety!

How hideous upon earth! where peace and hope,

And love and revel, in an hour were trampled

By human passions to a human chaos,
Not yet resolved to separate elements.-
'Tis warring still! And can the sun so rise,
So bright, so rolling back the clouds into
Vapours more lovely than the unclouded sky,
With golden pinnacles, and snowy moun-
tains,

And billows purpler than the ocean's,making
In heaven a glorious mockery of the earth,
So like, we almost deem it permanent,
So fleeting, we can scarcely call it aught
Beyond a vision, 'tis so transiently
Scatter'd along the eternal vault: and yet
It dwells upon the soul, and soothes the soul,
And blends itself into the soul, until
Sunrise and sunset form the haunted epoch
Of sorrow and of love; which they who
mark not,

Know not the realms where those twin-genii (Who chasten and who purify our hearts, So that we would not change their sweet rebukes

For all the boisterous joys that ever shook The air with clamour) build the palaces Where their fond votaries repose and breathe

Briefly ;-but in that brief cool calm inhale Enough of heaven to enable them to bear The rest of common, heavy, human hours, And dream them through in placid suffer

ance;

Though seemingly employed like all the

rest

Of toiling breathers in allotted tasks
Of pain or pleasure, two names for one feeling,
Which our internal, restless agony
Would vary in the sound, although the sense
Escapes our highest efforts to be happy.
Balea. You muse right calmly; and can
you so watch

The sunrise which may be our last?
Myrrha. It is

Therefore that I so watch it, and reproach

Those eyes, which never may behold it more, For having looked upon it oft, too oft, Without the reverence and the rapture due To that which keeps all earth from being as fragile

As I am in this form. Come, look upon it, The Chaldee's god, which, when I gaze upon, I grow almost a convert to your Baal. Balea. As now he reigns in heaven, so once on earth

He sway'd.

Myrrha. He sways it now far more, then; never

Had earthly monarch half the peace and glory

Which centres in a single ray of his.
Balea. Surely he is a god!

Myrrha. So we Greeks deem too;
And yet I sometimes think that gorgeous orb
Must rather be the abode of gods than one
Of the immortal sovereigns. Now he breaks
Through all the clouds, and fills my eyes
with light

That shuts the world out. I can look no more.
Balea. Hark! heard you not a sound?
Myrrha. No, 'twas mere fancy;
They battle it beyond the wall, and not
As in late midnight-conflict in the very
Chambers: the palace has become a fortress
Since that insidious hour; and here within
The very centre, girded by vast courts
And regal halls of pyramid proportions,
Which must be carried one by one before
They penetrate to where they then arrived,
We are as much shut in even from the sound
Of peril as from glory.

Balea. But they reach'd
Thus far before.

Myrrka. Yes, by surprise, and were Beat back by valour; now at once we have Courage and vigilance to guard us. Balea. May they Prosper!

Myrrha. That is the prayer of many, and The dread of more: it is an anxious hour; I strive to keep it from my thoughts. Alas! How vainly!

Balea. It is said the king's demeanour In the late action scarcely more appall'd The rebels than astonish'd his true subjects.

Myrrha. Tis easy to astonish or appal The vulgar mass which moulds a horde of slaves: But he did bravely.

Balea. Slew he not Beleses?

I heard the soldiers say he struck him down. Myrrha. The wretch was overthrown, but rescued to

Triumph, perhaps, o'er one who vanquish'd him

In fight, as he had spared him in his peril, And by that heedless pity risk'd a crown. Balea. Hark!

Myrrha. You are right; some steps approach, but slowly.

[ocr errors]

Enter Soldiers, bearing in SALEMENES wounded, with a broken Javelin in his Side; they seat him upon one of the Couches which furnish the Apartment. Myrrha. Oh, Jove!

Balea. Then all is over.

Sal. That is false.

"

Hew down the slave who says so, if a soldier. Myrrha. Spare him-he's none: a inere court-butterfly,

That flutters in the pageant of a monarch. Sal. Let him live on, then.

Myrrha. So wilt thou, I trust.

Sal. I fain would live this hour out, and the event,

But doubt it. Wherefore did ye bear me here? Soldier. By the king's order. When the javelin struck you.

You fell and fainted; 'twas his strict command

To bear you to this hall.
Sal.

Twas not ill done:

For, seeming slain in that cold dizzy trance, The sight might shake our soldiers-but'tis vain.

[ocr errors]

I feel it ebbing!

Myrrha. Let me see the wound;

I am not quite skilless: in my native land. 'Tis part of our instruction. War being

constant,

[ocr errors]

We are nerved to look on such things. Soldier. Best extract

The javelin.

Myrrha. Hold! no, no, it cannot be.
Sal. I am sped, then!

Myrrha. With the blood that fast must follow

The extracted weapon, I do fear thy life. Sal. And I not death. Where was the king when you

Convey'd me from the spot where I was stricken?

Soldier. Upon the same ground, and

encouraging

With voice and gesture the dispirited troops
Who had seen you fall, and falter'd back.
Sal. Whom heard ye

Named next to the command?
Soldier. I did not hear.

1

1

Sal. Fly, then, and tell him, 'twas my last request That Zames take my post until the junction, So hoped for, yet delay'd, of Ofratanes, Satrap of Susa. Leave me here: our troops Are not so numerous as to spare your absence. Soldier. But, prince

Sal. Hence, I say! Here's a courtier and A woman, the best chamber-company. As you would not permit me to expire Upon the field, I'll have no idle soldiers About my sick-couch. Hence! and do my bidding! [Exeunt the Soldiers. Myrrha. Gallant and glorious spirit!

must the earth

So soon resign thee?

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Though thinly mann'd, may still hold out against

Their present force,or aught save treachery: But i' the field

Myrrha. I thought 'twas the intent Of Salemenes not to risk a sally Till ye were strengthen'd by the expected

succours.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]
[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

For the assurance of the vacant space
As time and means permit.

Sard. About it straight,
And bring me back, as speedily as full
And fair investigation may perinit,
Report of the true state of this irruption
Of waters.
[Excunt Pania and the Officer.
Myrrha. Thus the very waves rise up
Against you.

Sard. They are not my subjects, girl, And may be pardon'd, since they can't be punish'd.

Myrrha. I joy to see this portent shakes you not.

Sard. I am past the fear of portents: they can tell me

Nothing I have not told myself since midnight:

Despair anticipates such things.
Myrrha. Despair!

Sard.

No; not despair precisely. When we know

All that can come, and how to meet it, our Resolves, if firm, may merit a more noble Word than this is to give it utterance. But what are words to us? we have well nigh done

With them and all things.

Myrrha. Save one deed-the last And greatest to all mortals; crowning-act Of all that was-or is—or is to be— The only thing common to all mankind, So different in their births, tongues, sexes, natures,

Hues, features, climes, times, feelings, intellects,

Without one point of union save in this,

« 上一頁繼續 »