Selected Poems (136 page)

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;

575

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

580

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.

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!

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,
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

40

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

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
: As now he reigns in heaven, so once on earth

50

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

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
: Hark! heard you not a sound?

MYRRHA
: No, ’twas mere fancy;

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
:But they reach’d

70

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;

75

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

80

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

85

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.

90

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?

95

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,

100

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.

105

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

110

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,

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
: But prince —

SALEMENES
:Hence, I say! Here’s a courtier and

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!

[
Exeunt the Soldiers
.]

MYRRHA
: Gallant and glorious spirit! must the earth

So soon resign thee?

SALEMENES
:Gentle Myrrha, ’tis

125

The end I would have chosen, had I saved

The monarch or the monarchy by this;

As ’tis, I have not outlived them.