Selected Poems (120 page)

That he shed blood by oceans; and no god,

Because he turn’d a fruit to an enchantment,

Which cheers the sad, revives the old, inspires

190

The young, makes weariness forget his toil,

And fear her danger; opens a new world

When this, the present, palls. Well, then
I
pledge thee

And
him
as a true man, who did his utmost

In good or evil to surprise mankind.

[
Drinks
.]

195

SALEMENES
: Wilt thou resume a revel at this hour?

SARDANAPALUS:
And if I did, ’twere better than a trophy,

Being bought without a tear. But that is not

My present purpose: since thou wilt not pledge me,

Continue what thou pleasest.

[
To the Cupbearer:
]

Boy, retire.

[Exit Cupbearer.]

200

SALEMENES
: I would but have recall’d thee from thy dream;

Better by me awaken’d than rebellion.

SARDANAPALUS
: Who should rebel? or why? what cause? pretext?

I am the lawful king, descended from

A race of kings who knew no predecessors.

205

What have I done to thee, or to the people,

That thou shouldst rail, or they rise up against me?

SALEMENES
: Of what thou hast done to me, I speak not.

SARDANAPALUS
:But

Thou think’st that I have wrong’d the queen: is’t not so?

SALEMENES
:
Think!
Thou hast wrong’d her!

SARDANAPALUS
:Patience, prince, and hear me.

210

She has all power and splendour of her station,

Respect, the tutelage of Assyria’s heirs,

The homage and the appanage of sovereignty.

I married her as monarchs wed – for state

And loved her as most husbands love their wives.

215

If she or thou supposedst I could link me

Like a Chaldean peasant to his mate,

Ye knew nor me, nor monarchs, nor mankind.

SALEMENES
: I pray thee, change the theme: my blood disdains

Complaint, and Salemenes’ sister seeks not

220

Reluctant love even from Assyria’s lord!

Nor would she deign to accept divided passion

With foreign strumpets and Ionian slaves.

The queen is silent.

SARDANAPALUS
:And why not her brother?

SALEMENES
: I only echo thee the voice of empires,

225

Which he who long neglects not long will govern.

SARDANAPALUS
: The ungrateful and ungracious slaves! they murmur

Because I have not shed their blood, nor led them

To dry into the desert’s dust by myriads,

Or whiten with their bones the banks of Ganges;

230

Nor decimated them with savage laws,

Nor sweated them to build up pyramids, Or Babylonian walls.

SALEMENES
:Yet these are trophies

More worthy of a people and their prince

Than songs, and lutes, and feasts, and concubines,

235

And lavish’d treasures, and contemned virtues.

SARDANAPALUS
: Or for my trophies I have founded cities:

There’s Tarsus and Anchialus, both built

In one day - what could that blood-loving beldame,

My martial grandam, chaste Semiramis,

240

Do more, except destroy them?

SALEMENES
:’Tis most true;

I own thy merit in those founded cities,

Built for a whim, recorded with a verse

Which shames both them and thee to coming ages.

SARDANAPALUS
: Shame me! By Baal, the cities, though well built,

245

Are not more goodly than the verse! Say what

Thou wilt ’gainst me, my mode of life or rule,

But nothing ’gainst the truth of that brief record.

Why, those few lines contain the history

Of all things human: hear – ‘Sardanapalus,

250

The king, and son of Anacyndaraxes,

In one day built Anchialus and Tarsus.

Eat, drink, and love; the rest’s not worth a fillip.’

SALEMENES
: A worthy moral, and a wise inscription,

For a king to put up before his subjects!

255

SARDANAPALUS
: Oh, thou wouldst have me doubtless set up edicts —

‘Obey the king – contribute to his treasure –

Recruit his phalanx – spill your blood at bidding –

Fall down and worship, or get up and toil.’

Or thus – ‘Sardanapalus on this spot

260

Slew fifty thousand of his enemies.

These are their sepulchres, and this his trophy.’

I leave such things to conquerors; enough

For me, if I can make my subjects feel

The weight of human misery less, and glide

265

Ungroaning to the tomb: I take no license

Which I deny to them. We all are men.

SALEMENES
: Thy sires have been revered as gods -

SARDANAPALUS
:In dust

And death where they are neither gods nor men.

Talk not of such to me! the worms are gods;

270

At least they banqueted upon your gods,

And died for lack of farther nutriment.

Those gods were merely men; look to their issue –

I feel a thousand mortal things about me,

But nothing godlike, – unless it may be

275

The thing which you condemn, a disposition

To love and to be merciful, to pardon

The follies of my species, and (that’s human)

To be indulgent to my own.

SALEMENES
:Alas!

The doom of Nineveh is seal’d. – Woe – woe

280

To the unrivall’d city!

SARDANAPALUS
:What dost dread?

SALEMENES
: Thou art guarded by thy foes: in a few hours

The tempest may break out which overwhelms thee,

And thine and mine; and in another day

What
is
shall be the past of Belus’ race.

285

SARDANAPALUS
: What must we dread?

SALEMENES
:Ambitious treachery,

Which has environ’d thee with snares; but yet

There is resource: empower me with thy signet

To quell the machinations, and I lay

The heads of thy chief foes before thy feet.

290

SARDANAPALUS
: The heads – how many?

SALEMENES
:Must I stay to number

When even thine own’s in peril? Let me go;

Give me thy signet – trust me with the rest.

SARDANAPALUS
: I will trust no man with unlimited lives.

When we take those from others, we nor know

295

What we have taken, nor the thing we give.

SALEMENES
: Wouldst thou not take their lives who seek for thine?

SARDANAPALUS
: That’s a hard question – But I answer, Yes.

Cannot the thing be done without? Who are they

Whom thou suspectest? – Let them be arrested.

300

SALEMENES
: I would thou wouldst not ask me; the next moment

Will send my answer through thy babbling troop

Of paramours and thence fly o’er the palace

Even to the city, and so baffle all. –

Trust me.

SARDANAPALUS
:Thou knowest I have done so ever:

305

Take thou the signet. [
Gives the signet
.]

SALEMENES
: I have one more request. –

SARDANAPALUS
: Name it.

SALEMENES
: That thou this night forbear

the banquet

In the pavilion over the Euphrates.

SARDANAPALUS
: Forbear the banquet! Not for all the

plotters

That ever shook a kingdom! Let them come,

310

And do their worst: I shall not blench for them;

Nor rise the sooner; nor forbear the goblet;

Nor crown me with a single rose the less;

Nor lose one joyous hour. – I fear them not.

SALEMENES
: But thou wouldst arm thee, wouldst thou not, if needful?

315

SARDANAPALUS
: Perhaps. I have the goodliest armour, and

A sword of such a temper; and a bow

And javelin, which might furnish Nimrod forth:

A little heavy, but yet not unwieldy.

And now I think on ’t, ’tis long since I’ve used them,