445 | To heed no time nor presence, but approach you |
Uncall’d for: – I retire. | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
I pray you pardon me: events have sour’d me | |
Till I wax peevish – heed it not: I shall | |
Soon be myself again. | |
MYRRHA | |
450 | What I shall see with pleasure |
SARDANAPALUS | |
Before your entrance in this hall, Zarina, | |
Queen of Assyria, departed hence. | |
MYRRHA | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
MYRRHA | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
455 | Else you had met. That pang at least is spared her! |
MYRRHA | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
And beyond nature – ’tis nor mutual | |
Nor possible. You cannot pity her, | |
Nor she aught but — | |
MYRRHA | |
460 | Not more than I have ever scorn’d myself. |
SARDANAPALUS | |
And lord it o’er the heart of the world’s lord? | |
MYRRHA | |
As you are like to lose the one you sway’d – | |
465 | I did abase myself as much in being |
Your paramour, as though you were a peasant – | |
Nay, more, if that the peasant were a Greek. | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
MYRRHA | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
Of man’s adversity all things grow daring | |
470 | Against the falling; but as I am not |
Quite fall’n, nor now disposed to bear reproaches, | |
Perhaps because I merit them too often, | |
Let us then part while peace is still between us. | |
MYRRHA | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
475 | And must not all the present one day part? |
MYRRHA | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
With a strong escort to your native land; | |
And such gifts, as, if you had not been all | |
A queen, shall make your dowry worth a kingdom. | |
480 | MYRRHA |
SARDANAPALUS | |
You need not shame to follow. I would fall | |
Alone – I seek no partners but in pleasure. | |
MYRRHA | |
You shall not force me from you. | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
485 | It soon may be too late. |
MYRRHA | |
For then you cannot separate me from you. | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
MYRRHA | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
MYRRHA | |
Deeply – more deeply than all things but love. | |
490 | SARDANAPALUS |
MYRRHA | |
’Twill not restore my honour, nor my heart. | |
No – here I stand or fall. If that you conquer, | |
I live to joy in your great triumph: should | |
Your lot be different, I’ll not weep, but share it. | |
495 | You did not doubt me a few hours ago. |
SARDANAPALUS | |
now; | |
And none could make me doubt it save yourself. | |
Those words — | |
MYRRHA | |
Be in the past acts you were pleased to praise | |
500 | This very night, and in my further bearing, |
Beside, wherever you are borne by fate. | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
Think we may yet be victors and return | |
To peace – the only victory I covet. | |
505 | To me war is no glory – conquest no |
Renown. To be forced thus to uphold my right | |
Sits heavier on my heart than all the wrongs | |
These men would bow me down with. Never, never | |
Can I forget this night, even should I live | |
510 | To add it to the memory of others. |
I thought to have made mine inoffensive rule | |
An era of sweet peace ’midst bloody annals, | |
A green spot amidst desert centuries, | |
On which the future would turn back and smile, | |
515 | And cultivate, or sigh when it could not |
Recal Sardanapalus’ golden reign. | |
I thought to have made my realm a paradise, | |
And every moon an epoch of new pleasures. | |
I took the rabble’s shouts for love – the breath | |
520 | Of friends for truth – the lips of woman for |
My only guerdon – so they are, my Myrrha: | |
[ | |
Kiss me. Now let them take my realm and life! | |
They shall have both, but never thee! | |
MYRRHA | |
Man may despoil his brother man of all | |
525 | That’s great or glittering – kingdoms fall – hosts yield – |
Friends fail – slaves fly – and all betray – and, more | |
Than all, the most indebted – but a heart | |
That loves without self-love! ’Tis here – now prove it. | |
[ | |
SALEMENES | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
530 | Now |
Of higher matter than a woman’s presence. | |
SALEMENES | |
At such a moment now is safe in absence — | |
The queen’s embark’d. | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
SALEMENES | |
535 | Her transient weakness has pass’d o’er; at least, |
It settled into tearless silence: her | |
Pale face and glittering eye, after a glance | |
Upon her sleeping children, were still fix’d | |
Upon the palace towers as the swift galley | |
540 | Stole down the hurrying stream beneath the starlight; |
But she said nothing. | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
Than she has said! | |
SALEMENES | |
Your feelings cannot cancel a sole pang: | |
To change them, my advices bring sure tidings | |
545 | That the rebellious Medes and Chaldees, marshall’d |
By their two leaders, are already up | |
In arms again; and, serrying their ranks, | |
Prepare to attack: they have apparently | |
Been join’d by other satraps. | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
550 | Let us be first, then. |
SALEMENES | |
Now, though it was our first intention. If | |
By noon to-morrow we are join’d by those | |
I’ve sent for by sure messengers, we shall be | |
In strength enough to venture an attack, | |
555 | Ay, and pursuit too; but till then, my voice |
Is to await the onset. | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
That waiting; though it seems so safe to fight | |
Behind high walls, and hurl down foes into | |
Deep fosses, or behold them sprawl on spikes | |
560 | Strew’d to receive them, still I like it not — |
My soul seems lukewarm; but when I set on them, | |
Though they were piled on mountains, I would have | |
A pluck at them, or perish in hot blood! — | |
Let me then charge. | |
SALEMENES | |
565 | SARDANAPALUS |
Of soldiership, I loathe the word, and those | |
Who pride themselves upon it; but direct me | |
Where I may pour upon them. | |
SALEMENES | |
To expose your life too hastily; ’tis not | |
570 | Like mine or any other subject’s breath: |