Selected Poems (127 page)

Our quick departure hinders our good escort,

The worthy Pania, from anticipating

The orders of some parasangs from hence:

465

Nay, there’s no other choice, but – hence, I say.

[
Exit with
ARBACES
,
who follows reluctantly
.]

[
Enter
SARDANAPALUS
and
SALEMENES
.]

SARDANAPALUS
: Well, all is remedied, and without bloodshed,

That worst of mockeries of a remedy;

We are now secure by these men’s exile.

SALEMENES
:Yes,

As he who treads on flowers is from the adder

470

Twined round their roots.

SARDANAPALUS
:Why, what wouldst have me do?

SALEMENES
: Undo what you have done.

SARDANAPALUS
:Revoke my pardon?

SALEMENES
: Replace the crown now tottering on your temples.

SARDANAPALUS
: That were tyrannical.

SALEMENES
:But sure.

SARDANAPALUS
:We are so.

What danger can they work upon the frontier?

475

SALEMENES
: They are not there yet – never should they be so,

Were I well listen’d to.

SARDANAPALUS
:Nay, I
have
listen’d

Impartially to thee – why not to them?

SALEMENES
: You may know that hereafter; as it is,

I take my leave to order forth the guard.

480

SARDANAPALUS
: And you will join us at the banquet?

SALEMENES
:Sire,

Dispense with me – I am no wassailer:

Command me in all service save the Bacchant’s.

SARDANAPALUS
: Nay, but ’tis fit to revel now and then.

SALEMENES
: And fit that some should watch for those who revel

485

Too oft. Am I permitted to depart?

SARDANAPALUS
: Yes — Stay a moment, my good

Salemenes,

My brother, my best subject, better prince

Than I am king. You should have been the monarch,

And I – I know not what, and care not; but

490

Think not I am insensible to all

Thine honest wisdom, and thy rough yet kind,

Though oft reproving, sufferance of my follies.

If I have spared these men against thy counsel,

That is, their lives – it is not that I doubt

495

The advice was sound; but, let them live: we will not

Cavil about their lives – so let them mend them.

Their banishment will leave me still sound sleep,

Which their death had not left me.

SALEMENES
:Thus you run

The risk to sleep for ever, to save traitors –

500

A moment’s pang now changed for years of crime.

Still let them be made quiet.

SARDANAPALUS
:Tempt me not:

My word is past.

SALEMENES
: But it may be recall’d.

SARDANAPALUS
: ’Tis royal.

SALEMENES:
And should therefore be decisive.

This half indulgence of an exile serves

505

But to provoke – a pardon should be full,

Or it is none.

SARDANAPALUS
: And who persuaded me

After I had repeal’d them, or at least

Only dismiss’d them from our presence, who

Urged me to send them to their satrapies?

510

SALEMENES
: True; that I had forgotten; that is, sire,

If they e’er reach’d their satrapies – why, then,

Reprove me more for my advice.

SARDANAPALUS
:And if

They do not reach them – look to it! – in safety,

In safety, mark me – and security –

515

Look to thine own.

SALEMENES
:Permit me to depart;

Their
safety
shall be cared for.

SARDANAPALUS
:Get thee hence, then;

And, prithee, think more gently of thy brother.

SALEMENES
: Sire, I shall ever duly serve my sovereign.

[
Exit
SALEMENES
.]

SARDANAPALUS
[
solus
]: That man is of a temper too

severe;

520

Hard but as lofty as the rock, and free

From all the taints of common earth – while I

Am softer clay, impregnated with flowers:

But as our mould is, must the produce be.

If I have err’d this time, ’tis on the side

525

Where error sits most lightly on that sense

I know not what to call it; but it reckons

With me ofttimes for pain, and sometimes pleasure;

A spirit which seems placed about my heart

To count its throbs not quicken them and ask

530

Questions which mortal never dared to ask me,

Nor Baal, though an oracular deity –

Albeit his marble face majestical

Frowns as the shadows of the evening dim

His brows to changed expression, till at times

535

I think the statue looks in act to speak.

Away with these vain thoughts, I will be joyous –

And here comes Joy’s true herald.

[
Enter
MYRRHA
.]

MYRRHA
:King! the sky

Is overcast, and musters muttering thunder,

In clouds that seem approaching fast, and show

540

In forked flashes a commanding tempest.

Will you then quit the palace?

SARDANAPALUS
:Tempest, say’st thou?

MYRRHA
: Ay, my good lord.

SARDANAPALUS
:For my own part, I should be

Not ill content to vary the smooth scene,

And watch the warring elements; but this

545

Would little suit the silken garments and

Smooth faces of our festive friends. Say, Myrrha,

Art thou of those who dread the roar of clouds?

MYRRHA
: In my own country we respect their voices

As auguries of Jove.

SARDANAPALUS
:Jove! – ay, your Baal –

550

Ours also has a property in thunder,

And ever and anon some falling bolt

Proves his divinity, – and yet sometimes

Strikes his own altars.

MYRRHA
:That were a dread omen.

SARDANAPALUS
: Yes – for the priests. Well, we will not go forth

555

Beyond the palace walls to-night, but make

Our feast within.

MYRRHA
: Now, Jove be praised! that he

Hath heard the prayer thou wouldst not hear. The gods

Are kinder to thee than thou to thyself,

And flash this storm between thee and thy foes,

560

To shield thee from them.

SARDANAPALUS
:Child, if there be peril,

Methinks it is the same within these walls

As on the river’s brink.

MYRRHA
: Not so; these walls

Are high and strong, and guarded. Treason has

To penetrate through many a winding way,

565

And massy portal; but in the pavilion

There is no bulwark.

SARDANAPALUS
:No, nor in the palace,

Nor in the fortress, nor upon the top

Of cloud-fenced Caucasus, where the eagle sits

Nested in pathless clefts, if treachery be:

570

Even as the arrow finds the airy king,

The steel will reach the earthly. But be calm:

The men, or innocent or guilty, are

Banish’d, and far upon their way.

MYRRHA
:They live, then?

SARDANAPALUS
: So sanguinary?
Thou!

MYRRHA
:I would not shrink

575

From just infliction of due punishment

On those who seek your life: wer’t otherwise,

I should not merit mine. Besides, you heard

The princely Salemenes.

SARDANAPALUS
:This is strange;

The gentle and the austere are both against me,

580

And urge me to revenge.

MYRRHA
: ’Tis a Greek virtue.

SARDANAPALUS
: But not a kingly one – I’ll none on’t; or

If ever I indulge in’t, it shall be

With kings – my equals.