Selected Poems (125 page)

220

But use it with more moderation.

SALEMENES
:Sire,

I used it for your honour, and restore it

Because I cannot keep it with my own.

Bestow it on Arbaces.

SARDANAPALUS
:So I should:

He never ask’d it.

SALEMENES
:Doubt not, he will have it,

225

Without that hollow semblance of respect.

BELESES
: I know not what hath prejudiced the prince

So strongly ’gainst two subjects, than whom none

Have been more zealous for Assyria’s weal.

SALEMENES
: Peace, factious priest, and faithless soldier!

thou

230

Unit’st in thy own person the worst vices

Of the most dangerous orders of mankind.

Keep thy smooth words and juggling homilies

For those who know thee not. Thy fellow’s sin

Is, at the least, a bold one, and not temper’d

235

By the tricks taught thee in Chaldea.

BELESES
:Hear him,

My liege – the son of Belus! he blasphemes

The worship of the land, which bows the knee

Before your fathers.

SARDANAPALUS
:Oh! for that I pray you

Let him have absolution. I dispense with

240

The worship of dead men; feeling that I

Am mortal, and believing that the race

From whence I sprung are – what I see them – ashes.

BELESES
: King! Do not deem so: they are with the stars,

And —

SARDANAPALUS
: You shall join them there ere they will rise,

245

If you preach farther – Why,
this
is rank treason.

SALEMENES
: My lord!

SARDANAPALUS
:To school me in the worship of

Assyria’s idols! Let him be released –

Give him his sword.

SALEMENES
:My lord, and king, and brother,

I pray ye pause.

SARDANAPALUS
: Yes, and be sermonised,

250

And dinn’d, and deafen’d with dead men and Baal,

And all Chaldea’s starry mysteries.

BELESES
: Monarch! respect them.

SARDANAPALUS
:Oh! for that – I love them:

I love to watch them in the deep blue vault,

And to compare them with my Myrrha’s eyes;

255

I love to see their rays redoubled in

The tremulous silver of Euphrates’ wave,

As the light breeze of midnight crisps the broad

And rolling water, sighing through the sedges

Which fringe his banks: but whether they may be

260

Gods, as some say, or the abodes of gods,

As others hold, or simply lamps of night,

Worlds, or the lights of worlds, I know nor care not.

There’s something sweet in my uncertainty

I would not change for your Chaldean lore;

265

Besides, I know of these all clay can know

Of aught above it, or below it – nothing.

I see their brilliancy and feel their beauty —

When they shine on my grave I shall know neither.

BELESES
: For
neither
, sire, say
better
.

SARDANAPALUS
:I will wait,

270

If it so please you, pontiff, for that knowledge.

In the mean time receive your sword, and know

That I prefer your service militant

Unto your ministry – not loving either.

SALEMENES
[
aside
]: His lusts have made him mad. Then

must I save him,

275

Spite of himself.

SARDANAPALUS
: Please you to hear me, Satraps!

And chiefly thou, my priest, because I doubt thee

More than the soldier; and would doubt thee all

Wert thou not half a warrior: let us part

In peace – I’ll not say pardon – which must be

280

Earn’d by the guilty; this I’ll not pronounce ye,

Although upon this breath of mine depends

Your own; and, deadlier for ye, on my fears.

But fear not – for that I am soft, not fearful –

And so live on. Were I the thing some think me,

285

Your heads would now be dripping the last drops

Of their attainted gore from the high gates

Of this our palace, into the dry dust,

Their only portion of the coveted kingdom

They would be crown’d to reign o’er – let that pass.

290

As I have said, I will not
deem
ye guilty,

Nor
doom
ye guiltless. Albeit better men

Than ye or I stand ready to arraign you;

And should I leave your fate to sterner judges,

And proofs of all kinds, I might sacrifice

295

Two men, who, whatsoe’er they now are, were

Once honest. Ye are free, sirs.

ARBACES
: Sire, this clemency —

BELESES
[
interrupting him
]: Is worthy of yourself and, although innocent,

We thank—

SARDANAPALUS
: Priest! keep your thanksgivings for Belus;

His offspring needs none.

BELESES
:But being innocent —

300

SARDANAPALUS
: Be silent – Guilt is loud. If ye are loyal,

Ye are injured men, and should be sad, not grateful.

BELESES
: So we should be, were justice always done

By earthly power omnipotent; but innocence

Must oft receive her right as a mere favour.

305

SARDANAPALUS
: That’s a good sentence for a homily,

Though not for this occasion. Prithee keep it

To plead thy sovereign’s cause before his people.

BELESES: I trust there is no cause.

SARDANAPALUS
:No
cause
, perhaps;

But many causers: – if ye meet with such

310

In the exercise of your inquisitive function

On earth, or should you read of it in heaven

In some mysterious twinkle of the stars,

Which are your chronicles, I pray you note,

That there are worse things betwixt earth and heaven

315

Than him who ruleth many and slays none;

And, hating not himself, yet loves his fellows

Enough to spare even those who would not spare him

Were they once masters – but that’s doubtful. Satraps!

Your swords and persons are at liberty

320

To use them as ye will – but from this hour

I have no call for either. Salemenes

Follow me.

[
Exeunt
SARDANAPALUS
,
SALEMENES
,
and the Train, &c., leaving
ARBACES
and
BELESES
.]

ARBACES
: Beleses!

BELESES
:Now, what think you?

ARBACES
: That we are lost.

BELESES
:That we have won the kingdom.

ARBACES
: What? thus suspected – with the sword slung o’er us

325

But by a single hair, and that still wavering,

To be blown down by his imperious breath

Which spared us – why, I know not.

BELESES
:Seek not why;

But let us profit by the interval.

The hour is still our own – our power the same –

330

The night the same we destined. He hath changed

Nothing except our ignorance of all

Suspicion into such a certainty

As must make madness of delay.

ARBACES
: And yet —

BELESES
: What, doubting still?

ARBACES
:He spared our lives, nay, more,

335

Saved them from Salemenes.

BELESES
:And how long

Will he so spare? till the first drunken minute.

ARBACES
: Or sober, rather. Yet he did it nobly;

Gave royally what we had forfeited

Basely —

BELESES
: Say bravely.

ARBACES
:Somewhat of both, perhaps.

340

But it has touch’d me, and, whate’er betide,

I will no further on.

BELESES
:And lose the world!

ARBACES
: Lose any thing except my own esteem.

BELESES
: I blush that we should owe our lives to such

A king of distaffs!