The whole war turns upon it – with it; this | |
Alone creates it, kindles, and may quench it — | |
Prolong it – end it. | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
’Twere better thus, perhaps, than prolong either; | |
575 | I’m sick of one, perchance of both. |
[ | |
SALEMENES | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
Reply, not listen. | |
SALEMENES | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
’Tis heal’d – I had forgotten it. Away! | |
A leech’s lancet would have scratch’d me deeper; | |
The slave that gave it might be well ashamed | |
580 | To have struck so weakly. |
SALEMENES | |
Strike with a better aim! | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
But if not, they will only leave to me | |
A task they might have spared their king. Upon them! | |
[ | |
SALEMENES | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
[ |
Act V | |
SCENE I | |
The same Hall in the Palace | |
[ | |
MYRRHA | |
The day at last has broken. What a night | |
Hath usher’d it! How beautiful in heaven! | |
Though varied with a transitory storm, | |
More beautiful in that variety! | |
5 | How hideous upon earth! where peace and hope, |
And love and revel, in an hour were trampled | |
By human passions to a human chaos, | |
Not yet resolved to separate elements – | |
’Tis warring still! And can the sun so rise, | |
10 | So bright, so rolling back the clouds into |
Vapours more lovely than the unclouded sky, | |
With golden pinnacles, and snowy mountains, | |
And billows purpler than the ocean’s, making | |
In heaven a glorious mockery of the earth, | |
15 | So like we almost deem it permanent; |
So fleeting, we can scarcely call it aught | |
Beyond a vision, ’tis so transiently | |
Scatter’d along the eternal vault: and yet | |
It dwells upon the soul, and soothes the soul, | |
20 | And blends itself into the soul, until |
Sunrise and sunset form the haunted epoch | |
Of sorrow and of love; which they who mark not, | |
Know not the realms where those twin genii | |
(Who chasten and who purify our hearts, | |
25 | So that we would not change their sweet rebukes |
For all the boisterous joys that ever shook | |
The air with clamour) build the palaces | |
Where their fond votaries repose and breathe | |
Briefly; – but in that brief cool calm inhale | |
30 | Enough of heaven to enable them to bear |
The rest of common, heavy, human hours, | |
And dream them through in placid sufferance; | |
Though seemingly employ’d like all the rest | |
Of toiling breathers in allotted tasks | |
35 | Of pain or pleasure, |
Which our internal, restless agony | |
Would vary in the sound, although the sense | |
Escapes our highest efforts to be happy. | |
BALEA | |
40 | The sunrise which may be our last? |
MYRRHA | |
Therefore that I so watch it, and reproach | |
Those eyes, which never may behold it more, | |
For having look’d upon it oft, too oft, | |
Without reverence and the rapture due | |
45 | To that which keeps all earth from being as fragile |
As I am in this form. Come, look upon it, | |
The Chaldee’s god, which, when I gaze upon, | |
I grow almost a convert to your Baal. | |
BALEA | |
50 | He sway’d. |
MYRRHA | |
Had earthly monarch half the power and glory | |
Which centres in a single ray of his. | |
BALEA | |
MYRRHA | |
And yet I sometimes think that gorgeous orb | |
55 | Must rather be the abode of gods than one |
Of the immortal sovereigns. Now he breaks | |
Through all the clouds, and fills my eyes with light | |
That shuts the world out. I can look no more. | |
BALEA | |
MYRRHA | |
60 | They battle it beyond the wall, and not |
As in late midnight conflict in the very | |
Chambers: the palace has become a fortress | |
Since that insidious hour; and here, within | |
The very centre, girded by vast courts | |
65 | And regal halls of pyramid proportions, |
Which must be carried one by one before | |
They penetrate to where they then arrived, | |
We are as much shut in even from the sound | |
Of peril as from glory. | |
BALEA | |
70 | Thus far before. |
MYRRHA | |
Beat back by valour: now at once we have | |
Courage and vigilance to guard us. | |
BALEA | |
Prosper! | |
MYRRHA | |
The dread of more: it is an anxious hour; | |
75 | I strive to keep it from my thoughts. Alas! |
How vainly! | |
BALEA | |
In the late action scarcely more appall’d | |
The rebels than astonish’d his true subjects. | |
MYRRHA | |
80 | The vulgar mass which moulds a horde of slaves; |
But he did bravely. | |
BALEA | |
I heard the soldiers say he struck him down. | |
MYRRHA | |
Triumph, perhaps, o’er one who vanquish’d him | |
85 | In fight, as he had spared him in his peril; |
And by that heedless pity risk’d a crown. | |
BALEA | |
MYRRHA | |
[ | |
MYRRHA | |
BALEA | |
SALEMENES | |
Hew down the slave who says so, if a soldier. | |
90 | MYRRHA |
That flutters in the pageant of a monarch. | |
SALEMENES | |
MYRRHA | |
SALEMENES | |
But doubt it. Wherefore did ye bear me here? | |
95 | SOLDIER |
You fell and fainted: ’twas his strict command | |
To bear you to this hall. | |
SALEMENES | |
For seeming slain in that cold dizzy trance, | |
The sight might shake our soldiers – but – ’tis vain, | |
100 | I feel it ebbing! |
MYRRHA | |
I am not quite skilless: in my native land | |
’Tis part of our instruction. War being constant, | |
We are nerved to look on such things. | |
SOLDIER | |
The javelin. | |
MYRRHA | |
105 | SALEMENES |
MYRRHA | |
The extracted weapon, I do fear thy life. | |
SALEMENES | |
Convey’d me from the spot where I was stricken? | |
SOLDIER | |
110 | With voice and gesture the dispirited troops |
Who had seen you fall, and falter’d back. | |
SALEMENES | |
Named next to the command? | |
SOLDIER | |
SALEMENES | |
That Zames take my post until the junction, | |
115 | So hoped for, yet delay’d, of Ofratanes, |
Satrap of Susa. Leave me here: our troops | |
Are not so numerous to spare your absence. | |
SOLDIER | |
SALEMENES | |
A woman, the best chamber company. | |
120 | As you would not permit me to expire |
Upon the field, I’ll have no idle soldiers | |
About my sick couch. Hence! and do my bidding! | |
[ | |
MYRRHA | |
So soon resign thee? | |
SALEMENES | |
125 | The end I would have chosen, had I saved |
The monarch or the monarchy by this; | |
As ’tis, I have not outlived them. |