Basely

Bel.

Arb.

Say bravely.

Bel. And would, perhaps, betray as well

As quit me?

Arb.

That's a sacerdotal thought,

Be it what you will

And not a soldier's,

Bel.

Truce with these wranglings, and but hear me.
Arb.

There is more peril in your subtle spirit
Than in a phalanx.

Bel.
I'll on alone.

If it must be so

Arb.

Alone!

Bel.

Arb. But this is Sill'd.

Bel.

Thrones hold but one.

Yes

No.

With worse than vacancy—

A despised monarch. Look to it, Arbaces:

I have still aided, cherish'd, loved, and urged you;

Somewhat of both, perhaps. Was willing even to serve you, in the hope

To serve and save Assyria. Heaven itself
Seem'd to consent, and all events were friendly,
Even to the last, till that your spirit shrunk
Into a shallow softness; but now, rather
Than see my country languish, I will be
Her saviour or the victim of her tyrant,
Or one or both, for sometimes both are one;
And, if I win, Arbaces is my servant.
Arb. Your servant!
Bel.

Why not? better than be slave,
The pardon'd slave of she Sardanapalus.
Enter PANIA.

Pan. My lords, I bear an order from the king.
Arb. It is obey'd ere spoken.

So

Say, we depart.

Arb. No-but it had been better to have died
Than live ungrateful.

Bel.
Oh, the souls of some men!
Thou wouldst digest what some call treason, and
Fools treachery-and, behold, upon the sudden,
Because for something or for nothing, this
Rash reveller steps, ostentatiously,
'Twixt thee and Salemenes, thou art turn'd
Into-what shall I say?—Sardanapalus!

I know no name more ignominious.
Arb.

But

But

It must be obey'd;

Pan.
My order is to see you
Depart, and not to bear your answer.
Bel. (aside.)

Ay!

Well, sir, we will accompany you hence.
Pan. I will retire to marshal forth the guard
Of honour which befits your rank, and wait
Your leisure, so that it the hour exceeds not.

Bel. Now then obey!
Arb.

Bel.

[Exit PANIA.

Doubtless.

Yes, to the gates

That grate the palace, which is now our prison.
No further.

Arb. Thou hast harp'd the truth indeed!
The realm itself, in all its wide extension,
Yawns dungeons at each step for thee and me.
Bel. Graves!

Arb. If I thought so, this good sword should dig
One more than mine.
Bel.
It shall have work enough.

No, sir, proudly-being honest. Let me hope better than thou augurest;

I shall be nearer thrones than you to heaven;
And if not quite so haughty, yet more lofty.
You may do your own deeming-you have codes,
And mysteries and corollaries of

Right and wrong, which I lack for my direction,
And must pursue but what a plain heart teaches.
And now you know me.

At present let us hence as best we may.
Thou dost agree with me in understanding
This order as a sentence?

Arb.

Why, what other
Interpretation should it bear? it is
The very policy of orient monarchs-
Pardon and poison-favours and a sword-
A distant voyage, and an eternal sleep.

The free air of the city, and we 'll shorten

The journey.
Arb.
It may be.
Bel.
No; they hardly will risk that.
They mean us to die privately, but not
Within the palace or the city walls,
Where we are known and may have partisans:
If they had meant to slay us here, we were
No longer with the living. Let us hence,

"T will be shorten'd at the gates,

Arb. If I but thought he did not mean my life————
Bel. Fool! hence-what else should despotism
alarm'd

Mean? Let us but rejoin our troops, and march.
Arb. Towards our provinces ?
Bel.

No; towards your kingdom.

There's time, there's heart, and hope, and power, and

means,

Which their half measures leaves us in full scope.-
Away!

Arb. And I even yet repenting must
Relapse to guilt!

Bel.

Self defence is a virtue,

Sole bulwark of all right. Away, I say!

Let's leave this place, the air grows thick and choking,
And the walls have a scent of nightshade-hence!
Let us not leave them time for further council.

Our quick departure proves our civic zeal;
Our quick departure hinders our good escort,
The worthy Pania, from anticipating
The orders of some parasangs from hence;
Nay, there's no other choice, but—hence, I say.

[Exit with ARBACES, who follows reluctantly.

Enter SARDANAPALUS and SALEMENES.

Sar. Well, all is remedied, and without bloodshed,
That worst of mockeries of a remedy;
We are now secure by these men's exile.
Sal.

Yes,

As he who treads on flowers is from the adder
Twined round their roots.

Sar.
Why, what wouldst have me do?
Sal. Undo what you have done.
Sar.

Revoke my pardon?
Sal. Replace the crown now tottering on your temples.
Sar. That were tyrannical.

Sal.

Sar.

But sure.

We are so.

What danger can they work upon the frontier?

Sar. Yes Stay a moment, my good Salemenes,
My brother, my best subject, better prince
Than I am king. You should have been the monarch.
And I-I know not what, and care not; Lut
Think not I am insensible to all

Thine honest wisdom, and thy rough yet kind,
Though oft reproving, sufferance of my follies.
If I have spared these men against thy counsel,
That is, their lives-it is not that I doubt
The advice was sound; but, let them live: we will not
Cavil about their lives-so let them mend them.
Their banishment will leave me still sound sleep,
Which their death had not left me.

Sar. (solus.) That man is of a temper too severe;
Hard but as lofty as the rock, and free
From all the taints of common earth-while I
Am softer clay, impregnated with flowers.
But as our mould is, must the produce be.
If I have err'd this time, 't is on the side
Where error sits most lightly on that sense,
I know not what to call it; but it reckons
With me ofttimes for pain, and sometimes pleasure,
A spirit which seems placed about my heart
To court its throbs, not quicken them, and ask
Questions which mortal never dared to ask me,
Albeit his marble face majestical
Nor Baal, though an oracular deity--
Frowns as the shadows of the evening dim
His brows to changed expression, till at times
I think the statue looks in act to speak.
Away with these vain thoughts, I will be joyous-

Sa!. They are not there yet-never should they be so, And here comes Joy's true herald.

Were I well listen'd to.

SCENE I.-The Hall of the Palace illuminated-SARDA
NAPALUS and his Guests at Table.-A Storm without
and Thunder occasionally heard during the Banquet.

Sar. Fill full! why this is at it should be: here
Is my true realm, amidst bright eyes and faces
Happy as fair! Here sorrow cannot reach.

Zam. Nor elsewhere-where the king is, pleasure
sparkles.

Sar. Is not this better now than Nimrod's huntings go Or my wild grandam's chase in search of kingdoms She could not keep when conquer'd ?

King, wilt thou bear this mad impiety?

Sar. Impiety-nay, if the sires who reign'd
Before me can be gods, I'll not disgrace
Their lineage. But arise, my pious friends;
Hoard your devotion for the thunderer there;

These men sought to be so. I see but to be loved, not worshipp'd.

'T were not the first Greek girl had trod the path.

I will await here your return.

Is spacious, and the first to be sought out,
If they prevail; and, if it should be so,

And I return not

Myr.

Sar. How?

Myr.

Still we meet again.

Who fulminate o'er my father's land, protect him!
Were you sent by the king?

Alt.

By Salemenes,
Who sent me privily upon this charge,
Without the knowledge of the careless sovereign.
The king! the king fights as he revels! ho!

In the spot where all must meet at last-What, Sfero! I will seek the armoury—
In Hades! if there be, as I believe,

A shore beyond the Styx: and if there be not,

In ashes.

Sar.

Darest thou so much?

Myr.

I dare all things
Except survive what I have loved, to be
A rebel's booty: forth, and do your bravest.

Re-enter SFERO with the mirror.

He must be there.

[Exit ALTADA Myr. "T is no dishonour-no"T is no dishonour to have loved this man. I almost wish now, what I never wish'd Before, that he were Grecian. If Alcides Were shamed in wearing Lydian Omphale's She-garb, and wielding her vile distaff; surely He, who springs up a Hercules at once, Nursed in effeminate arts from youth to manhood.

Sar. (looking at himself.) This cuirass fits me well, And rushes from the banquet to the battle,

the baldric better,

Without he has your shield in readiness.

Sar. True; I forgot he is my shield-bearer
By right of blood, derived from age to age.

Myrrha, embrace me;-yet once more-once more—
Love me, whate'er betide. My chiefest glory
Shall be to make me worthier of your love.
Myr. Go forth, and conquer !

[Exeunt SARDANAPALUS and SFERO.
Now, I am alone,

All are gone forth, and of that all how few
Perhaps return. Let him but vanquish, and
Me perish! If he vanquish not, I perish;
For I will not outlive him. He has wound
About my heart, I know not how nor why.
Not for that he is king; for now his kingdom
Rocks underneath his throne, and the earth yawns
To yield him no more of it than a grave;
And yet I love him more. Oh, mighty Jove!
Forgive this monstrous love for a barbarian,
Who knows not of Olympus! yes, I love him
Now, now, far more than-Hark-to the war shout!
Methinks it nears me. If it should be so,

[She draws forth a small vial.
This cunning Colchian poison, which my father
Learn'd to compound on Euxine shores, and taught me
How to preserve, shall free me! It had freed me
Long ere this hour, but that I loved, until

I half forgot I was a slave :-where all
Are slaves save one, and proud of servitude,
So they are served in turn by something lower

In the degree of bondage, we forget
That shackles worn like ornaments no less
Are chains. Again that shout! and now the clash
Of arms-and now-and now-

As though it were a bed of love, deserves
That a Greek girl should be his
paramour,
And a Greek bard his minstrel, a Greek tomb
His monument. How goes the strife, sir?
Enter an Officer.

Officer.

Lost,

Myr.

They are here, then :—ay,

Their shouts come ringing through the ancient halls,
Never profaned by rebel echoes till

This fatal night. Farewell, Assyria's line!
Farewell to all of Nimrod! Even the name
Is now no more.
Pan.

Away with me-away!

Myr. No: I'll die here!-Away, and tell your king
I loved him to the last.

Enter SARDANAPALUS and SALEMENES with soldiers.
PANIA quits MYRRHA, and ranges himself with them.
Sar.
Since it is thus,
We'll die where we were born-in our own halls.
Serry your ranks-stand firm. I have despatcned
A trusty satrap for the guard of Zames,
All fresh and faithful; they'll be here ancn.
All is not over.-Pania, look to Myrrha,

[PANIA returns towards MYRKRA.