Selected Poems (123 page)

In mutinous myriads, I would still go forth.

PANIA
: I must obey, and yet —

MYRRHA
: Oh, monarch, listen. –

How many a day and moon thou hast reclined

580

Within these palace walls in silken dalliance,

And never shown thee to thy people’s longing;

Leaving thy subjects’ eyes ungratified,

The satraps uncontroll’d, the gods unworshipp’d,

And all things in the anarchy of sloth,

585

Till all, save evil, slumber’d through the realm!

And wilt thou not now tarry for a day, —

A day which may redeem thee? Wilt thou not

Yield to the few still faithful a few hours,

For them, for thee, for thy past father’s race,

590

And for thy sons’ inheritance?

PANIA
: ’Tis true!

From the deep urgency with which the prince

Despatch’d me to your sacred presence, I

Must dare to add my feeble voice to that

Which now has spoken.

SARDANAPALUS
:No, it must not be.

595

MYRRHA
: For the sake of thy realm!

SARDANAPALUS
:Away!

PANIA
:For that

Of all thy faithful subjects, who will rally

Round thee and thine.

SARDANAPALUS
:These are mere fantasies;

There is no peril: – ’tis a sullen scheme

Of Salemenes, to approve his zeal,

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And show himself more necessary to us.

MYRRHA
: By all that’s good and glorious take this counsel.

SARDANAPALUS
: Business to-morrow.

MYRRHA
:Ay, or death to-night.

SARDANAPALUS
: Why let it come then unexpectedly

‘Midst joy and gentleness, and mirth and love;

605

So let me fall like the pluck’d rose! – far better

Thus than be wither’d.

MYRRHA
:Then thou wilt not yield,

Even for the sake of all that ever stirr’d

A monarch into action, to forego

A trifling revel.

SARDANAPALUS
: No.

MYRRHA
:Then yield for
mine
;

610

For my sake!

SARDANAPALUS
: Thine, my Myrrha!

MYRRHA
: ’Tis the first

Boon which I ever ask’d Assyria’s king.

SARDANAPALUS
: That’s true, and wer’t my kingdom must be granted.

Well, for thy sake, I yield me. Pania, hence!

Thou hear’st me.

PANIA
:And obey.

[
Exit
PANIA
.]

SARDANAPALUS
:I marvel at thee.

615

What is thy motive, Myrrha, thus to urge me?

MYRRHA
: Thy safety; and the certainty that nought

Could urge the prince thy kinsman to require

Thus much from thee, but some impending danger.

SARDANAPALUS
: And if I do not dread it, why shouldst thou?

620

MYRRHA
: Because
thou
dost not fear, I fear for
thee
.

SARDANAPALUS
: To-morrow thou wilt smile at these vain fancies.

MYRRHA
: If the worst come, I shall be where none weep,

And that is better than the power to smile.

And thou?

SARDANAPALUS
: I shall be king, as heretofore.

625

MYRRHA
: Where?

SARDANAPALUS
: With Baal, Nimrod, and Semiramis, Sole in Assyria, or with them elsewhere.

Fate made me what I am – may make me nothing —

But either that or nothing must I be:

I will not live degraded.

MYRRHA
: Hadst thou felt

630

Thus always, none would ever dare degrade thee.

SARDANAPALUS
: And who will do so now?

MYRRHA
: Dost thou suspect none?

SARDANAPALUS
: Suspect! – that’s a spy’s office. Oh! we lose

Ten thousand precious moments in vain words,

And vainer fears. Within there! – ye slaves, deck

635

The hall of Nimrod for the evening revel:

If I must make a prison of our palace,

At least we’ll wear our fetters jocundly;

If the Euphrates be forbid us, and

The summer dwelling on its beauteous border,

640

Here we are still unmenaced. Ho! within there!

[Exit
SARDANAPALUS
.]

MYRRHA
[
sola
]: Why do I love this man? My country’s daughters

Love none but heroes. But I have no country!

The slave hath lost all save her bonds. I love him;

And that’s the heaviest link of the long chain —

645

To love whom we esteem not. Be it so:

The hour is coming when he’ll need all love,

And find none. To fall from him now were baser

Than to have stabb’d him on his throne when highest

Would have been noble in my country’s creed:

650

I was not made for either. Could I save him,

I should not love
him
better, but myself;

And I have need of the last, for I have fallen

In my own thoughts, by loving this soft stranger:

And yet methinks I love him more, perceiving

655

That he is hated of his own barbarians,

The natural foes of all the blood of Greece.

Could I but wake a single thought like those

Which even the Phrygians felt when battling long

’Twixt Ilion and the sea, within his heart,

660

He would tread down the barbarous crowds, and triumph.

He loves me, and I love him; the slave loves

Her master, and would free him from his vices.

If not, I have a means of freedom still,

And if I cannot teach him how to reign,

665

May show him how alone a king can leave

His throne. I must not lose him from my sight.

[
Exit
.]

Act II

SCENE I

The Portal of the same Hall of the Palace
.

BELESES
[
solus
]: The sun goes down: methinks he sets more slowly,

Taking his last look of Assyria’s empire.

How red he glares amongst those deepening clouds,

Like the blood he predicts. If not in vain,

5

Thou sun that sinkest, and ye stars which rise,

I have outwatch’d ye, reading ray by ray

The edicts of your orbs, which make Time tremble

For what he brings the nations, ’tis the furthest

Hour of Assyria’s years. And yet how calm!

10

An earthquake should announce so great a fall —

A summer’s sun discloses it. Yon disk,

To the star-read Chaldean, bears upon

Its everlasting page the end of what

Seem’d everlasting; but oh! thou true sun!

15

The burning oracle of all that live,

As fountain of all life, and symbol of

Him who bestows it, wherefore dost thou limit

Thy lore unto calamity? Why not

Unfold the rise of days more worthy thine

20

All-glorious burst from ocean? why not dart

A beam of hope athwart the future years,

As of wrath to its days? Hear me! oh, hear me!

I am thy worshipper, thy priest, thy servant –

I have gazed on thee at thy rise and fall,

25

And bow’d my head beneath thy mid-day beams,

When my eye dared not meet thee. I have watch’d

For thee, and after thee, and pray’d to thee,

And sacrificed to thee, and read, and fear’d thee,

And ask’d of thee, and thou hast answer’d – but

30

Only to thus much: while I speak, he sinks —

Is gone – and leaves his beauty, not his knowledge,

To the delighted west, which revels in

Its hues of dying glory. Yet what is

Death, so it be but glorious? ’Tis a sunset;

35

And mortals may be happy to resemble

The gods but in decay.

[
Enter
ARBACES
,
by an inner door
.]

ARBACES
:Beleses, why

So rapt in thy devotions? Dost thou stand

Gazing to trace thy disappearing god

Into some realm of undiscover’d day?

Our business is with night – ’tis come.

40

BELESES
:But not Gone.

ARBACES
: Let it roll on – we are ready.

BELESES
:Yes.

Would it were over!

ARBACES
:Does the prophet doubt,

To whom the very stars shine victory?

BELESES
: I do not doubt of victory – but the victor.

45

ARBACES
: Well, let thy science settle that. Meantime

I have prepared as many glittering spears

As will out-sparkle our allies – your planets.

There is no more to thwart us. The she-king,

That less than woman, is even now upon

50

The waters with his female mates. The order

Is issued for the feast in the pavilion.

The first cup which he drains will be the last

Quaff’d by the line of Nimrod.

BELESES
:’Twas a brave one.

ARBACES
: And is a weak one – ’tis worn out – we’ll mend it.

55

BELESES
: Art sure of that?

ARBACES: Its founder was a hunter –

I am a soldier – what is there to fear?

BELESES: The soldier.

ARBACES:And the priest, it may be: but

If you thought thus, or think, why not retain

Your king of concubines? why stir me up?

60

Why spur me to this enterprise? your own

No less than mine?

BELESES
:Look to the sky!

ARBACES
:I look.

BELESES
: What seest thou?

ARBACES
:A fair summer’s twilight, and

The gathering of the stars.

BELESES
:And midst them, mark

Yon earliest, and the brightest, which so quivers,

65

As it would quit its place in the blue ether.

ARBACES
: Well?

BELESES
: ’Tis thy natal ruler – thy birth planet.

ARBACES
[
touching his scabbard
]: My star is in this scabbard: when it shines,

It shall out-dazzle comets. Let us think

Of what is to be done to justify

70

Thy planets and their portents. When we conquer,

They shall have temples – ay, and priests – and thou

Shalt be the pontiff of – what gods thou wilt;

For I observe that they are ever just,

And own the bravest for the most devout.

75

BELESES
: Ay, and the most devout for brave – thou hast not Seen me turn back from battle.

ARBACES
:No; I own thee

As firm in fight as Babylonia’s captain,

As skilful in Chaldea’s worship: now,

Will it but please thee to forget the priest,

80

And be the warrior?

BELESES
:Why not both?

ARBACES
:The better;

And yet it almost shames me, we shall have

So little to effect. This woman’s warfare

Degrades the very conqueror. To have pluck’d

A bold and bloody despot from his throne,

85

And grappled with him, clashing steel with steel,

That were heroic or to win or fall;

But to upraise my sword against this silkworm,

And hear him whine, it may be —

BELESES
:Do not deem it:

He has that in him which may make you strife yet;

90

And were he all you think, his guards are hardy,

And headed by the cool, stern Salemenes.

ARBACES
: They’ll not resist.

BELESES
:Why not? they are soldiers.

ARBACES
:True,

And therefore need a soldier to command them.

BELESES
: That Salemenes is.

ARBACES
:But not their king.

95

Besides, he hates the effeminate thing that governs,

For the queen’s sake, his sister. Mark you not

He keeps aloof from all the revels?

BELESES
:But

Not from the council – there he is ever constant.

ARBACES
: And ever thwarted: what would you have more

100

To make a rebel out of? A fool reigning,

His blood dishonour’d, and himself disdain’d:

Why, it is
his
revenge we work for.

BELESES
:Could

He but be brought to think so: this I doubt of.

ARBACES
: What, if we sound him?

BELESES
: Yes – if the time served.

[
Enter
BALEA
.]

105

BALEA
: Satraps! The king commands your presence at

The feast to-night.

BELESES
:To hear is to obey.

In the pavilion?

BALEA
:No; here in the palace.

ARBACES
: How! in the palace? it was not thus order’d.

BALEA
: It is so order’d now.

ARBACES
:And why?

BALEA:I know not.

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May I retire?

ARBACES:Stay.

BELESES [
to
ARBACES
aside
]: Hush! let him go his way.

[
Alternately to
BALEA:]

Yes, Balea, thank the monarch, kiss the hem

Of his imperial robe, and say, his slaves

Will take the crums he deigns to scatter from

His royal table at the hour – was’t midnight?

115

BALEA
: It was: the place, the hall of Nimrod. Lords,

I humble me before you, and depart.

[
Exit
BALEA
.]

ARBACES
: I like not this same sudden change of place;

There is some mystery: wherefore should he change it?

BELESES
: Doth he not change a thousand times a day?

120

Sloth is of all things the most fanciful –

And moves more parasangs in its intents

Than generals in their marches, when they seek

To leave their foe at fault. – Why dost thou muse?