Selected Poems (134 page)

The honey, nor enquire whence ’tis derived.

Be satisfied – you are not all abandon’d.

325

SARDANAPALUS
: My life insures me that. How long,

bethink you,

Were not I yet a king, should I be mortal;

That is, where mortals
are
, not where they must be?

ZARINA
: I know not. But yet live for my – that is,

Your children’s sake!

SARDANAPALUS
:My gentle, wrong’d Zarina!

330

I am the very slave of circumstance

And impulse – borne away with every breath!

Misplaced upon the throne – misplaced in life.

I know not what I could have been, but feel

I am not what I should be – let it end.

335

But take this with thee: if I was not form’d

To prize a love like thine, a mind like thine,

Nor dote even on thy beauty – as I’ve doted

On lesser charms, for no cause save that such

Devotion was a duty, and I hated

340

All that look’d like a chain for me or others

(This even rebellion must avouch); yet hear

These words, perhaps among my last – that none

E’er valued more thy virtues, though he knew not

To profit by them – as the miner lights

345

Upon a vein of virgin ore, discovering

That which avails him nothing: he hath found it,

But ’tis not his – but some superior’s, who

Placed him to dig, but not divide the wealth

Which sparkles at his feet; nor dare he lift

350

Nor poise it, but must grovel on, upturning

The sullen earth.

ZARINA
:Oh! if thou hast at length

Discover’d that my love is worth esteem,

I ask no more – but let us hence together,

And I – let me say
me
– shall yet be happy.

355

Assyria is not all the earth – we’ll find

A world out of our own – and be more bless’d

Than I have ever been, or thou, with all

An empire to indulge thee.

[
Enter
SALEMENES
.]

SALEMENES
: I must part ye –

The moments, which must not be lost, are passing.

360

ZARINA
: Inhuman brother! wilt thou thus weigh out

Instants so high and blest?

SALEMENES
:Blest!

ZARINA
:He hath been

So gentle with me, that I cannot think

Of quitting.

SALEMENES
: So – this feminine farewell

Ends as such partings end, in no departure.

365

I thought as much, and yielded against all

My better bodings. But it must not be.

ZARINA
: Not be?

SALEMENES
: Remain, and perish —

ZARINA
:With my husband

SALEMENES
: And children.

ZARINA
:Alas!

SALEMENES
:Hear me, sister, like

My
sister: – all’s prepared to make your safety

370

Certain, and of the boys too, our last hopes;

’Tis not a single question of mere feeling,

Though that were much – but ’tis a point of state:

The rebels would do more to seize upon

The offspring of their sovereign, and so crush —

375

ZARINA
: Ah! do not name it.

SALEMENES
:Well, then, mark me: when

They are safe beyond the Median’s grasp, the rebels

Have miss’d their chief aim – the extinction of

The line of Nimrod. Though the present king

Fall, his sons live for victory and vengeance.

380

ZARINA
: But could not I remain, alone?

SALEMENES
:What! leave

Your children, with two parents and yet orphans –

In a strange land – so young, so distant?

ZARINA
:No—

My heart will break.

SALEMENES
:Now you know all – decide.

SARDANAPALUS
: Zarina, he hath spoken well, and we

385

Must yield awhile to this necessity.

Remaining here, you may lose all; departing,

You save the better part of what is left,

To both of us, and to such loyal hearts

As yet beat in these kingdoms.

SALEMENES
:The time presses.

390

SARDANAPALUS
: Go, then. If e’er we meet again, perhaps

I may be worthier of you – and, if not,

Remember that my faults, though not atoned for,

Are
ended
. Yet, I dread thy nature will

Grieve more above the blighted name and ashes

395

Which once were mightiest in Assyria – than—

But I grow womanish again, and must not;

I must learn sternness now. My sins have all

Been of the softer order —
hide
thy tears –

I do not bid thee
not
to shed them – ’twere

400

Easier to stop Euphrates at its source

Than one tear of a true and tender heart –

But let me not behold them; they unman me

Here when I had remann’d myself. My brother,

Lead her away.

ZARINA
:Oh, God! I never shall

405

Behold him more!

SARDANAPALUS
[
striving to conduct her
]: Nay, sister, I
must
be obey’d.

ZARINA
: I must remain – away! you shall not hold me.

What shall he die alone? –
I
live alone?

SALEMENES
: He shall
not die alone
; but lonely you

Have lived for years.

ZARINA
: That’s false! I knew
he
lived,

410

And lived upon his image – let me go!

SALEMENES
[
conducting her off the stage
]: Nay, then, I must

use some fraternal force,

Which you will pardon.

ZARINA
:Never. Help me! Oh!

Sardanapalus, wilt thou thus behold me

Torn from thee?

SALEMENES
:Nay – then all is lost again,

415

If that this moment is not gain’d.

ZARINA
: My brain turns –

My eyes fail – where is he?

[
She faints
.]

SARDANAPALUS
[
advancing
]: No – set her down –

She’s dead – and you have slain her.

SALEMENES
:’Tis the mere

Faintness of o’erwrought passion: in the air

She will recover. Pray, keep back. – [
Aside
.] I must

420

Avail myself of this sole moment to

Bear her to where her children are embark’d,

I’ the royal galley on the river.

[
SALEMENES
bears her off
.]

SARDANAPALUS
[
solus
]: This, too –

And this too must I suffer – I, who never

Inflicted purposely on human hearts

425

A voluntary pang! But that is false –

She loved me, and I loved her. – Fatal passion!

Why dost thou not expire
at once
in hearts

Which thou hast lighted up at once? Zarina!

I must pay dearly for the desolation

430

Now brought upon thee. Had I never loved

But thee, I should have been an unopposed

Monarch of honouring nations. To what gulfs

A single deviation from the track

Of human duties leads even those who claim

435

The homage of mankind as their born due,

And find it, till they forfeit it themselves!

[
Enter
MYRRHA
.]

SARDANAPALUS
:
You
here! Who call’d you?

MYRRHA
: No one – but I heard

Far off a voice of wail and lamentation,

And thought —

SARDANAPALUS
: It forms no portion of your duties

440

To enter here till sought for.

MYRRHA
:Though I might,

Perhaps, recal some softer words of yours

(Although they
too were chiding
), which reproved me,

Because I ever dreaded to intrude;

Resisting my own wish and your injunction