by Byron
SARDANAPALUS:Ho, my arms! again, my arms!
[Exeunt.]
Act V
SCENE I
The same Hall in the Palace.
[MYRRHA and BALEA.]
MYRRHA [at a window]:
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!
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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,
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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,
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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,
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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,
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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
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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
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Of pain or pleasure, two names for one feeling,
Which our internal, restless agony
Would vary in the sound, although the sense
Escapes our highest efforts to be happy.
BALEA: You muse right calmly: and can you so, watch
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The sunrise which may be our last?
MYRRHA:It is
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
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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: As now he reigns in heaven, so once on earth
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He sway’d.
MYRRHA: He sways it now far more, then; never
Had earthly monarch half the power and glory
Which centres in a single ray of his.
BALEA: Surely he is a god!
MYRRHA:So we Greeks deem too;
And yet I sometimes think that gorgeous orb
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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: Hark! heard you not a sound?
MYRRHA: No, ’twas mere fancy;
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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
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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:But they reach’d
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Thus far before.
MYRRHA:Yes, by surprise, and were
Beat back by valour: now at once we have
Courage and vigilance to guard us.
BALEA:May they
Prosper!
MYRRHA: That is the prayer of many, and
The dread of more: it is an anxious hour;
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I strive to keep it from my thoughts. Alas!
How vainly!
BALEA:It is said the king’s demeanour
In the late action scarcely more appall’d
The rebels than astonish’d his true subjects.
MYRRHA: ’Tis easy to astonish or appal
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The vulgar mass which moulds a horde of slaves;
But he did bravely.
BALEA:Slew he not Beleses?
I heard the soldiers say he struck him down.
MYRRHA: The wretch was overthrown, but rescued to
Triumph, perhaps, o’er one who vanquish’d him
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In fight, as he had spared him in his peril;
And by that heedless pity risk’d a crown.
BALEA: Hark!
MYRRHA: You are right: some steps approach but slowly.
[Enter Soldiers, bearing in SALEMENES wounded, with a broken Javelin in his Side: they seat him upon one of the Couches which furnish the Apartment.]
MYRRHA: Oh, Jove!
BALEA:Then all is over.
SALEMENES:That is false.
Hew down the slave who says so, if a soldier.
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MYRRHA: Spare him – he’s none: a mere court butterfly,
That flutters in the pageant of a monarch.
SALEMENES: Let him live on, then.
MYRRHA:So wilt thou, I trust.
SALEMENES: I fain would live this hour out, and the event,
But doubt it. Wherefore did ye bear me here?
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SOLDIER: By the king’s order. When the javelin struck you,
You fell and fainted: ’twas his strict command
To bear you to this hall.
SALEMENES:’Twas not ill done:
For seeming slain in that cold dizzy trance,
The sight might shake our soldiers – but – ’tis vain,
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I feel it ebbing!
MYRRHA:Let me see the wound;
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:Best extract
The javelin.
MYRRHA:Hold! no, no, it cannot be.
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SALEMENES: I am sped, then!
MYRRHA:With the blood that fast must follow
The extracted weapon, I do fear thy life.
SALEMENES: And I not death. Where was the king when you
Convey’d me from the spot where I was stricken?
SOLDIER: Upon the same ground, and encouraging
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With voice and gesture the dispirited troops
Who had seen you fall, and falter’d back.
SALEMENES:Whom heard ye
Named next to the command?
SOLDIER:I did not hear.
SALEMENES: Fly, then, and tell him, ’twas my last request
That Zames take my post until the junction,
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So hoped for, yet delay’d, of Ofratanes,
Satrap of Susa. Leave me here: our troops
Are not so nu
merous to spare your absence.
SOLDIER: But prince —
SALEMENES:Hence, I say! Here’s a courtier and
A woman, the best chamber company.
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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!
[Exeunt the Soldiers.]
MYRRHA: Gallant and glorious spirit! must the earth
So soon resign thee?
SALEMENES:Gentle Myrrha, ’tis
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The end I would have chosen, had I saved
The monarch or the monarchy by this;
As ’tis, I have not outlived them.
MYRRHA:You wax paler.
SALEMENES: Your hand; this broken weapon but prolongs
My pangs, without sustaining life enough
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To make me useful: I would draw it forth
And my life with it, could I but hear how
The fight goes.
[Enter SARDANAPALUS and Soldiers.]
SARDANAPALUS: My best brother!
SALEMENES:And the battle
Is lost?
SARDANAPALUS [despondingly]: You see me here.
SALEMENES: I’d rather see you thus!
[He draws out the weapon from the wound, and dies.]
SARDANAPALUS: And thus I will be seen; unless the
succour,
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The last frail reed of our beleaguer’d hopes,
Arrive with Ofratanes.
MYRRHA:Did you not
Receive a token from your dying brother,
Appointing Zames chief?
SARDANAPALUS:I did.
MYRRHA:Where’s Zames?
SARDANAPALUS: Dead.
MYRRHA:And Altada?
SARDANAPALUS:Dying.
MYRRHA:Pania? Sfero?
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SARDANAPALUS: Pania yet lives; but Sfero’s fled or captive.
I am alone.
MYRRHA: And is all lost?
SARDANAPALUS:Our walls,
Though thinly mann’d, may still hold out against
Their present force, or aught save treachery:
But i’ the field —
MYRRHA:I thought ’twas the intent
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Of Salemenes not to risk a sally
Till ye were strenthen’d by the expected succours.
SARDANAPALUS: I overruled him.
MYRRHA:Well, the fault’s a brave one.
SARDANAPALUS: But fatal. Oh, my brother! I would give
These realms, of which thou wert the ornament,
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The sword and shield, the sole-redeeming honour,
To call back — But I will not weep for thee;
Thou shalt be mourn’d for as thou wouldst be mourn’d.
It grieves me most that thou couldst quit this life
Believing that I could survive what thou
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Hast died for – our long royalty of race.
If I redeem it, I will give thee blood
Of thousands, tears of millions, for atonement
(The tears of all the good are thine already).
If not, we meet again soon, – if the spirit
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Within us lives beyond: – thou readest mine,
And dost me justice now. Let me once clasp
That yet warm hand, and fold that throbless heart
[Embraces the body.]
To this which beats so bitterly. Now, bear
The body hence.
SOLDIER: Where?
SARDANAPALUS:To my proper chamber.
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Place it beneath my canopy, as though
The king lay there: when this is done, we will
Speak further of the rites due to such ashes.
[Exeunt Soldiers with the body of SALEMENES.]
[Enter PANIA.]
SARDANAPALUS: Well, Pania! have you placed the guards,
and issued
The orders fix’d on?
PANIA:Sire, I have obey’d.
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SARDANAPALUS: And do the soldiers keep their hearts up?
PANIA:Sire?
SARDANAPALUS: I’m answer’d! When a king asks twice, and has
A question as an answer to his question,
It is a portent. What! they are dishearten’d?
PANIA: The death of Salemenes, and the shouts
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Of the exulting rebels on his fall,
Have made them —
SARDANAPALUS: Rage – not droop – it should have been.
We’ll find the means to rouse them.
PANIA:Such a loss
Might sadden even a victory.
SARDANAPALUS:Alas!
Who can so feel it as I feel? but yet,
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Though coop’d within these walls, they are strong, and we
Have those without will break their way through hosts,
To make their sovereign’s dwelling what it was –
A palace; not a prison, nor a fortress.
[Enter an OFFICER, hastily.]
SARDANAPALUS: Thy face seems ominous. Speak!
OFFICER:I dare not
SARDANAPALUS:Dare not?
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While millions dare revolt with sword in hand!
That’s strange. I pray thee break that loyal silence
Which loathes to shock its sovereign; we can hear
Worse than thou hast to tell.
PANIA:Proceed, thou hearest.
OFFICER: The wall which skirted near the river’s brink
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Is thrown down by the sudden inundation
Of the Euphrates, which now rolling, swoln
From the enormous mountains where it rises,
By the late rains of that tempestuous region,
O’erfloods its banks, and hath destroy’d the bulwark.
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PANIA: That’s a black augury! it has been said
For ages, ‘That the city ne’er should yield
To man, until the river grew its foe.’
SARDANAPALUS: I can forgive the omen, not the ravage.
How much is swept down of the wall?
OFFICER:About
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Some twenty stadii.
SARDANAPALUS: And all this is left
Pervious to the assailants?
OFFICER:For the present
The river’s fury must impede the assault;
But when he shrinks into his wonted channel,
And may be cross’d by the accustom’d barks,
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The palace is their own.
SARDANAPALUS:That shall be never.
Though men, and gods, and elements, and omens,
Have risen up ’gainst one who ne’er provoked them,
My father’s house shall never be a cave
For wolves to horde and howl in.
PANIA:With your sanction,
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I will proceed to the spot, and take such measures
For the assurance of the vacant space
As time and means permit,
SARDANAPALUS: About it straight,
And bring me back, as speedily as full
And fair investigation may permit,
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Report of the true state of this irruption
Of waters.
[Exeunt PANIA and the OFFICER.]
MYRRHA: Thus the very waves rise up
Against you.
SARDANAPALUS: They are not my subjects, girl,
And may be pardon’d, since they can’t be punish’d.
MYRRHA: I joy to see this portent shakes you not.
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SARDANAPALUS: I am past the fear of portents: they can tell me
Nothing I have not told myself since midnight:
Despair anticipates such things.
MYRRHA:Despair
!
SARDANAPALUS: No; not despair precisely. When we know
All that can come, and how to meet it, our
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Resolves, if firm, may merit a more noble
Word than this is to give it utterances
But what are words to us? we have well nigh done
With them and all things.
MYRRHA: Save one deed – the last
And greatest to all mortals; crowning act
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Of all that was – or is – or is to be –
The only thing common to all mankind,
So different in their births, tongues, sexes, natures,
Hues, features, climes, times, feelings, intellects,
Without one point of union save in this,
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To which we tend, for which we’re born, and thread
The labyrinth of mystery, call’d life.
SARDANAPALUS: Our clew being well nigh wound out, let’s
be cheerful.
They who have nothing more to fear may well
Indulge a smile at that which once appall’d;
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As children at discover’d bugbears.
[Re-enter PANIA.]
PANIA:’Tis
As was reported: I have order’d there
A double guard, withdrawing from the wall
Where it was strongest the required addition
To watch the breach occasion’d by the waters.
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SARDANAPALUS: You have done your duty faithfully, and
as
My worthy Pania! further ties between us
Draw near a close. I pray you take this key:
[Gives a key.]
It opens to a secret chamber, placed
Behind the couch in my own chamber. (Now
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Press’d by a nobler weight than e’er it bore –
Though a long line of sovereigns have lain down
Along its golden frame – as bearing for
A time what late was Salenenes). Search
The secret covert to which this will lead you;
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’Tis full of treasure; take it for yourself
And your companions: there’s enough to load ye,
Though ye be many. Let the slaves be freed, too;
And all the inmates of the palace, of
Whatever sex, now quit it in an hour.
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Then launch the regal barks, once form’d for pleasure,
And now to serve for safety, and embark.
The river’s broad and swoln, and uncommanded
(More potent than a king) by these besiegers.
Fly! and be happy!
PANIA:Under your protection!
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So you accompany your faithful guard.
SARDANAPALUS: No, Pania! that must not be; get thee
hence
And leave me to my fate.
PANIA: ’Tis the first time
I ever disobey’d: but now—
SARDANAPALUS:So all men
Dare beard me now, and Insolence within
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Apes Treason from without. Question no further;