_Sal._ Alas!
The doom of Nineveh is sealed.--Woe--woe To the unrivalled city!
_Sar._ What dost dread? 280
_Sal._ Thou art guarded by thy foes: in a few hours The tempest may break out which overwhelms thee, And thine and mine; and in another day What _is_ shall be the past of Belus" race.
_Sar._ What must we dread?
_Sal._ Ambitious treachery, Which has environed thee with snares; but yet There is resource: empower me with thy signet To quell the machinations, and I lay The heads of thy chief foes before thy feet.
_Sar._ The heads--how many?
_Sal._ Must I stay to number 290 When even thine own"s in peril? Let me go; Give me thy signet--trust me with the rest.
_Sar._ I will trust no man with unlimited lives.
When we take those from others, we nor know What we have taken, nor the thing we give.
_Sal._ Wouldst thou not take their lives who seek for thine?
_Sar._ That"s a hard question--But I answer, Yes.
Cannot the thing be done without? Who are they Whom thou suspectest?--Let them be arrested.
_Sal._ I would thou wouldst not ask me; the next moment 300 Will send my answer through thy babbling troop Of paramours, and thence fly o"er the palace, Even to the city, and so baffle all.-- Trust me.
_Sar._ Thou knowest I have done so ever; Take thou the signet. [_Gives the signet_.
_Sal._ I have one more request.
_Sar._ Name it.
_Sal._ That thou this night forbear the banquet In the pavilion over the Euphrates.
_Sar._ Forbear the banquet! Not for all the plotters That ever shook a kingdom! Let them come, And do their worst: I shall not blench for them; 310 Nor rise the sooner; nor forbear the goblet; Nor crown me with a single rose the less; Nor lose one joyous hour.--I fear them not.
_Sal._ But thou wouldst arm thee, wouldst thou not, if needful?
_Sar._ Perhaps. I have the goodliest armour, and A sword of such a temper, and a bow, And javelin, which might furnish Nimrod forth: A little heavy, but yet not unwieldy.
And now I think on"t, "tis long since I"ve used them, Even in the chase. Hast ever seen them, brother? 320
_Sal._ Is this a time for such fantastic trifling?-- If need be, wilt thou wear them?
_Sar._ Will I not?
Oh! if it must be so, and these rash slaves Will not be ruled with less, I"ll use the sword Till they shall wish it turned into a distaff.
_Sal._ They say thy Sceptre"s turned to that already.
_Sar._ That"s false! but let them say so: the old Greeks, Of whom our captives often sing, related The same of their chief hero, Hercules, Because he loved a Lydian queen: thou seest 330 The populace of all the nations seize Each calumny they can to sink their sovereigns.
_Sal._ They did not speak thus of thy fathers.
_Sar._ No; They dared not. They were kept to toil and combat; And never changed their chains but for their armour: Now they have peace and pastime, and the license To revel and to rail; it irks me not.
I would not give the smile of one fair girl For all the popular breath[12] that e"er divided A name from nothing. What are the rank tongues[13] 340 Of this vile herd, grown insolent with feeding, That I should prize their noisy praise, or dread Their noisome clamour?
_Sal._ You have said they are men; As such their hearts are something.
_Sar._ So my dogs" are; And better, as more faithful:--but, proceed; Thou hast my signet:--since they are tumultuous, Let them be tempered, yet not roughly, till Necessity enforce it. I hate all pain, Given or received; we have enough within us, The meanest va.s.sal as the loftiest monarch, 350 Not to add to each other"s natural burthen Of mortal misery, but rather lessen, By mild reciprocal alleviation, The fatal penalties imposed on life: But this they know not, or they will not know.
I have, by Baal! done all I could to soothe them: I made no wars, I added no new imposts, I interfered not with their civic lives, I let them pa.s.s their days as best might suit them, Pa.s.sing my own as suited me.
_Sal._ Thou stopp"st 360 Short of the duties of a king; and therefore They say thou art unfit to be a monarch.
_Sar._ They lie.--Unhappily, I am unfit To be aught save a monarch; else for me The meanest Mede might be the king instead.
_Sal._ There is one Mede, at least, who seeks to be so.
_Sar._ What mean"st thou!--"tis thy secret; thou desirest Few questions, and I"m not of curious nature.
Take the fit steps; and, since necessity Requires, I sanction and support thee. Ne"er 370 Was man who more desired to rule in peace The peaceful only: if they rouse me, better They had conjured up stern Nimrod from his ashes, "The Mighty Hunter!" I will turn these realms To one wide desert chase of brutes, who _were_, But _would_ no more, by their own choice, be human.
_What_ they have found me, they belie; _that which_ They yet may find me--shall defy their wish To speak it worse; and let them thank themselves.
_Sal._ Then thou at last canst feel?
_Sar._ Feel! who feels not 380 Ingrat.i.tude?[14]
_Sal._ I will not pause to answer With words, but deeds. Keep thou awake that energy Which sleeps at times, but is not dead within thee, And thou may"st yet be glorious in thy reign, As powerful in thy realm. Farewell! [_Exit_ SALEMENES.
_Sar._ (_solus_). Farewell!
He"s gone; and on his finger bears my signet, Which is to him a sceptre. He is stern As I am heedless; and the slaves deserve To feel a master. What may be the danger, I know not: he hath found it, let him quell it. 390 Must I consume my life--this little life-- In guarding against all may make it less?
It is not worth so much! It were to die Before my hour, to live in dread of death, Tracing revolt; suspecting all about me, Because they are near; and all who are remote, Because they are far. But if it should be so-- If they should sweep me off from Earth and Empire, Why, what is Earth or Empire of the Earth?
I have loved, and lived, and multiplied my image; 400 To die is no less natural than those Acts of this clay! "Tis true I have not shed Blood as I might have done, in oceans, till My name became the synonyme of Death-- A terror and a trophy. But for this I feel no penitence; my life is love: If I must shed blood, it shall be by force.
Till now, no drop from an a.s.syrian vein Hath flowed for me, nor hath the smallest coin Of Nineveh"s vast treasures e"er been lavished 410 On objects which could cost her sons a tear: If then they hate me, "tis because I hate not: If they rebel, "tis because I oppress not.
Oh, men! ye must be ruled with scythes, not sceptres, And mowed down like the gra.s.s, else all we reap Is rank abundance, and a rotten harvest Of discontents infecting the fair soil, Making a desert of fertility.-- I"ll think no more.--Within there, ho!
_Enter an_ ATTENDANT.
_Sar._ Slave, tell The Ionian Myrrha we would crave her presence. 420
_Attend._ King, she is here.
MYRRHA _enters_.
_Sar._ (_apart to Attendant_). Away!
(_Addressing_ MYRRHA.) Beautiful being!
Thou dost almost antic.i.p.ate my heart; It throbbed for thee, and here thou comest: let me Deem that some unknown influence, some sweet oracle, Communicates between us, though unseen, In absence, and attracts us to each other.
_Myr._ There doth.
_Sar._ I know there doth, but not its name: What is it?
_Myr._ In my native land a G.o.d, And in my heart a feeling like a G.o.d"s, Exalted; yet I own "tis only mortal; 430 For what I feel is humble, and yet happy-- That is, it would be happy; but---- [MYRRHA _pauses_.