Selected Poems
Page 73
SARDANAPALUS: Oh! thou wilt hear it from my subjects.
Yes –
These slaves whom I have nurtured, pamper’d, fed,
And swoln with peace, and gorged with plenty, till
They reign themselves – all monarchs in their mansions –
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Now swarm forth in rebellion, and demand
His death, who made their lives a jubilee;
While the few upon whom I have no claim
Are faithful! This is true, yet monstrous.
ZARINA:’Tis
Perhaps too natural; for benefits
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Turn poison in bad minds.
SARDANAPALUS:And good ones make
Good out of evil. Happier than the bee,
Which hives not but from wholesome flowers.
ZARINA:Then reap
The honey, nor enquire whence ’tis derived.
Be satisfied – you are not all abandon’d.
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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!
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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 —
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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.
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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,
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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,
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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To heed no time nor presence, but approach you
Uncall’d for: – I retire.
SARDANAPALUS:Yet stay – being here.
I pray you pardon me: events have sour’d me
Till I wax peevish – heed it not: I shall
Soon be myself again.
MYRRHA:I wait with patience,
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What I shall see with pleasure
SARDANAPALUS:Scarce a moment
Before your entrance in this hall, Zarina,
Queen of Assyria, departed hence.
MYRRHA: Ah!
SARDANAPALUS: Wherefore do you start?
MYRRHA:Did I do so?
SARDANAPALUS: ’Twas well you enter’d by another portal,
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Else you had met. That pang at least is spared her!
MYRRHA: I know to feel for her.
SARDANAPALUS:That is too much,
And beyond nature – ’tis nor mutual
Nor possible. You cannot pity her,
Nor she aught but —
MYRRHA:Despise the favourite slave?
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Not more than I have ever scorn’d myself.
SARDANAPALUS: Scorn’d! what, to be the envy of your sex,
And lord it o’er the heart of the world’s lord?
MYRRHA: Were you the lord of twice ten thousand worlds –
As you are like to lose the one you sway’d –
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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: You talk it well—
MYRRHA:And truly.
SARDANAPALUS:In the hour
Of man’s adversity all things grow daring
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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: Part!
SARDANAPALUS: Have not all past human beings parted,
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And must not all the present one day part?
MYRRHA: Why?
SARDANAPALUS: For your safety, which I will have look’d to,
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.
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MYRRHA: I pray you talk not thus.
SARDANAPALUS:The queen is gone:
You need not shame to follow. I would fall
Alone – I seek no partners but in pleasure.
MYRRHA: And I no pleasure but in parting not.
You shall not force me from you.
SARDANAPALUS: Think well of it –
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It soon may be too late.
MYRRHA:So let it be;
For then you cannot separate me from you.
SARDANAPALUS: And will not; but I thought you wish’d it.
MYRRHA:I!
SARDANAPALUS: You spoke of your abasement.
MYRRHA:And I feel it
Deeply – more deeply than all things but love.
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SARDANAPALUS: Then fly from it.
MYRRHA: Twill not recal the past–
’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.
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You did not doubt me a few hours ago.
SARDANAPALUS: Your courage never — nor your love till
now;
And none could make me doubt it save yourself.
Those words —
MYRRHA:Were words. I pray you, let the proofs
Be in the past acts you were pleased to praise
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This very night, and in my further bearing,
Beside, wherever you are borne by fate.
SARDANAPALUS: I am content: and, trusting in my cause,
Think we may yet be victors and return
To peace – the only victory I covet.
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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
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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,
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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
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Of friends for truth – the lips of woman for
My only guerdon – so they are, my Myrrha:
[He kisses her.]
Kiss me. Now let them take my realm and life!
They shall have both, but never thee!
MYRRHA: No, never!
Man may despoil his brother man of all
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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.
[Enter SALEMENES.]
SALEMENES: I sought you – How! she here again?
SARDANAPALUS:Return not
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Now to reproof: methinks your aspect speaks
Of higher matter than a woman’s presence.
SALEMENES: The only woman whom it much imports me
At such a moment now is safe in absence —
The queen’s embark’d.
SARDANAPALUS:And well? say that much.
SALEMENES:Yes.
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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
Stole down the hurrying stream beneath the starlight;
But she said nothing.
SARDANAPALUS:Would I felt no more
Than she has said!
SALEMENES: ’Tis now too late to feel!
Your feelings cannot cancel a sole pang:
To change them, my advices bring sure tidings
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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:What! more rebels?
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Let us be first, then.
SALEMENES:That were hardly prudent
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,
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Ay, and pursuit too; but till then, my voice
Is to await the onset.
SARDANAPALUS:I detest
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
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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:You talk like a young soldier.
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SARDANAPALUS: I am no soldier, but a man: speak not
Of soldiership, I loathe the word, and those
Who pride themselves upon it; but direct me
Where I may pour upon them.
SALEMENES:You must spare
To expose your life too hastily; ’tis not
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Like mine or any other subject’s breath:
The whole war turns upon it – with it; this
Alone creates it, kindles, and may quench it —
Prolong it – end it.
SARDANAPALUS:Then let us end both!
’Twere better thus, perhaps, than prolong either;
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I’m sick of one, perchance of both.
[A trumpet sounds without.]
SALEMENES:Hark!
SARDANAPALUS:Let us
Reply, not listen.
SALEMENES:And your wound!
SARDANAPALUS:’Tis bound —
’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
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To have struck so weakly.
SALEMENES:Now, may none this hour
Strike with a better aim!
SARDANAPALUS:Ay, if we conquer;
But if not, they will only leave to me
A task they might have spared their king. Upon them!
[Trumpet sounds again.]
SALEMENES: I am with you.