Selected Poems (122 page)

MYRRHA
: Would that we could!

SARDANAPALUS
: And dost
thou
feel this? – Why?

455

MYRRHA
: Then thou wouldst know what thou canst never know.

SARDANAPALUS
: And that is

MYRRHA
:The true value of a heart;

At least, a woman’s.

SARDANAPALUS
: I have proved a thousand –

A thousand, and a thousand.

MYRRHA
:Hearts?

SARDANAPALUS
:I think so.

MYRRHA
: Not one! the time may come thou may’st.

SARDANAPALUS
:It will.

460

Hear, Myrrha; Salemenes has declared –

Or why or how he hath divined it, Belus,

Who founded our great realm, knows more than I –

But Salemenes hath declared my throne

In peril.

MYRRHA
: He did well.

SARDANAPALUS
:And say’st
thou
so?

465

Thou whom he spurn’d so harshly, and now dared

Drive from our presence with his savage jeers,

And made thee weep and blush?

MYRRHA
:I should do both

More frequently, and he did well to call me

Back to my duty. But thou spakest of peril –

470

Peril to thee —

SARDANAPALUS
: Ay, from dark plots and snares

From Medes — and discontented troops and nations.

I know not what – a labyrinth of things –

A maze of mutter’d threats and mysteries:

Thou know’st the man – it is his usual custom.

475

But he is honest. Come, we’ll think no more on ’t -

But of the midnight festival.

MYRRHA
:’Tis time

To think of aught save festivals. Thou hast not

Spurn’d his sage cautions?

SARDANAPALUS
: What? – and dost thou fear?

MYRRHA
: Fear? – I’m a Greek, and how should I fear death?

480

A slave, and wherefore should I dread my freedom?

SARDANAPALUS
: Then wherefore dost thou turn so pale?

MYRRHA
: I love.

SARDANAPALUS
: And do not I? I love thee far – far more

Than either the brief life or the wide realm,

Which it may be are menaced; – yet I blench not.

485

MYRRHA
: That means thou lovest nor thyself nor me;

For he who loves another loves himself,

Even for that other’s sake. This is too rash:

Kingdoms and lives are not to be so lost.

SARDANAPALUS
: Lost! – why, who is the aspiring chief who dared

490

Assume to win them?

MYRRHA
: Who is he should dread

To try so much? When he who is their ruler

Forgets himself, will they remember him?

SARDANAPALUS
: Myrrha!

MYRRHA
:Frown not upon me: you have smiled

Too often on me not to make those frowns

495

Bitterer to bear than any punishment

Which they may augur. – King, I am your subject!

Master, I am your slave! Man, I have loved you! –

Loved you, I know not by what fatal weakness,

Although a Greek, and born a foe to monarchs –

500

A slave, and hating fetters – an Ionian,

And, therefore, when I love a stranger, more

Degraded by that passion than by chains!

Still I have loved you. If that love were strong

Enough to overcome all former nature,

505

Shall it not claim the privilege to save you?

SARDANAPALUS
:
Save
me, my beauty! Thou art very fair,

And what I seek of thee is love – not safety.

MYRRHA
: And without love where dwells security?

SARDANAPALUS
: I speak of woman’s love.

MYRRHA
:The very first

510

Of human life must spring from woman’s breast,

Your first small words are taught you from her lips,

Your first tears quench’d by her, and your last sighs

Too often breathed out in a woman’s hearing,

When men have shrunk from the ignoble care

515

Of watching the last hour of him who led them.

SARDANAPALUS
: My eloquent Ionian! thou speak’st music,

The very chorus of the tragic song

I have heard thee talk of as the favourite pastime

Of thy far father-land. Nay, weep not – calm thee.

520

MYRRHA
: I weep not. – But I pray thee, do not speak

About my fathers or their land.

SARDANAPALUS
:Yet oft

Thou
speakest of them.

MYRRHA
: True – true: constant thought

Will overflow in words unconsciously;

But when another speaks of Greece, it wounds me.

525

SARDANAPALUS
: Well, then, how wouldst thou
save
me, as thou saidst?

MYRRHA
: By teaching thee to save thyself, and not

Thyself alone, but these vast realms, from all

The rage of the worst war – the war of brethren.

SARDANAPALUS
: Why, child, I loathe all war, and warriors;

530

I live in peace and pleasure: what can man

Do more?

MYRRHA
: Alas! my lord, with common men

There needs too oft the show of war to keep

The substance of sweet peace; and, for a king,

’Tis sometimes better to be fear’d than loved.

535

SARDANAPALUS
: And I have never sought but for the last.

MYRRHA
: And now art neither.

SARDANAPALUS
:Dost
thou
say so, Myrrha?

MYRRHA
: I speak of civic popular love,
self
-love,

Which means that men are kept in awe and law,

Yet not oppress’d – at least they must not think so;

540

Or if they think so, deem it necessary,

To ward off worse oppression, their own passions.

A king of feasts, and flowers, and wine, and revel,

And love, and mirth, was never king of glory.

SARDANAPALUS
: Glory! what’s that?

MYRRHA
: Ask of the gods thy fathers.

545

SARDANAPALUS
: They cannot answer; when the priests speak for them,

’Tis for some small addition to the temple.

MYRRHA
: Look to the annals of thine empire’s founders.

SARDANAPALUS
: They are so blotted o’er with blood, I cannot.

But what wouldst have? the empire
has been
founded.

550

I cannot go on multiplying empires.

MYRRHA
: Preserve thine own.

SARDANAPALUS
:At least, I will enjoy it.

Come, Myrrha, let us go on to the Euphrates:

The hour invites, the galley is prepared,

And the pavilion, deck’d for our return,

555

In fit adornment for the evening banquet,

Shall blaze with beauty and with light, until

It seems unto the stars which are above us

Itself an opposite star; and we will sit

Crown’d with fresh flowers like —

MYRRHA
: Victims.

SARDANAPALUS
:No, like sovereigns,

560

The shepherd king of patriarchal times,

Who knew no brighter gems than summer wreaths,

And none but tearless triumphs. Let us on.

[
Enter
PANIA
.]

PANIA
: May the king live for ever!

SARDANAPALUS
:Not an hour

Longer than he can love. How my soul hates

565

This language, which makes life itself a lie,

Flattering dust with eternity. Well, Pania!

Be brief.

PANIA
: I am charged by Salemenes to

Reiterate his prayer unto the king,

That for this day, at least, he will not quit

570

The palace: when the general returns,

He will adduce such reasons as will warrant

His daring, and perhaps obtain the pardon

Of his presumption.

SARDANAPALUS
:What! am I then coop’d?

Already captive? can I not even breathe

575

The breath of heaven? Tell prince Salemenes,

Were all Assyria raging round the walls