That he shed blood by oceans; and no god, | |
Because he turn’d a fruit to an enchantment, | |
Which cheers the sad, revives the old, inspires | |
190 | The young, makes weariness forget his toil, |
And fear her danger; opens a new world | |
When this, the present, palls. Well, then | |
And | |
In good or evil to surprise mankind. | |
[ | |
195 | SALEMENES |
SARDANAPALUS: | |
Being bought without a tear. But that is not | |
My present purpose: since thou wilt not pledge me, | |
Continue what thou pleasest. | |
[ | |
Boy, retire. | |
[Exit Cupbearer.] | |
200 | SALEMENES |
Better by me awaken’d than rebellion. | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
I am the lawful king, descended from | |
A race of kings who knew no predecessors. | |
205 | What have I done to thee, or to the people, |
That thou shouldst rail, or they rise up against me? | |
SALEMENES | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
Thou think’st that I have wrong’d the queen: is’t not so? | |
SALEMENES | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
210 | She has all power and splendour of her station, |
Respect, the tutelage of Assyria’s heirs, | |
The homage and the appanage of sovereignty. | |
I married her as monarchs wed – for state | |
And loved her as most husbands love their wives. | |
215 | If she or thou supposedst I could link me |
Like a Chaldean peasant to his mate, | |
Ye knew nor me, nor monarchs, nor mankind. | |
SALEMENES | |
Complaint, and Salemenes’ sister seeks not | |
220 | Reluctant love even from Assyria’s lord! |
Nor would she deign to accept divided passion | |
With foreign strumpets and Ionian slaves. | |
The queen is silent. | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
SALEMENES | |
225 | Which he who long neglects not long will govern. |
SARDANAPALUS | |
Because I have not shed their blood, nor led them | |
To dry into the desert’s dust by myriads, | |
Or whiten with their bones the banks of Ganges; | |
230 | Nor decimated them with savage laws, |
Nor sweated them to build up pyramids, Or Babylonian walls. | |
SALEMENES | |
More worthy of a people and their prince | |
Than songs, and lutes, and feasts, and concubines, | |
235 | And lavish’d treasures, and contemned virtues. |
SARDANAPALUS | |
There’s Tarsus and Anchialus, both built | |
In one day - what could that blood-loving beldame, | |
My martial grandam, chaste Semiramis, | |
240 | Do more, except destroy them? |
SALEMENES | |
I own thy merit in those founded cities, | |
Built for a whim, recorded with a verse | |
Which shames both them and thee to coming ages. | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
245 | Are not more goodly than the verse! Say what |
Thou wilt ’gainst me, my mode of life or rule, | |
But nothing ’gainst the truth of that brief record. | |
Why, those few lines contain the history | |
Of all things human: hear – ‘Sardanapalus, | |
250 | The king, and son of Anacyndaraxes, |
In one day built Anchialus and Tarsus. | |
Eat, drink, and love; the rest’s not worth a fillip.’ | |
SALEMENES | |
For a king to put up before his subjects! | |
255 | SARDANAPALUS |
‘Obey the king – contribute to his treasure – | |
Recruit his phalanx – spill your blood at bidding – | |
Fall down and worship, or get up and toil.’ | |
Or thus – ‘Sardanapalus on this spot | |
260 | Slew fifty thousand of his enemies. |
These are their sepulchres, and this his trophy.’ | |
I leave such things to conquerors; enough | |
For me, if I can make my subjects feel | |
The weight of human misery less, and glide | |
265 | Ungroaning to the tomb: I take no license |
Which I deny to them. We all are men. | |
SALEMENES | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
And death where they are neither gods nor men. | |
Talk not of such to me! the worms are gods; | |
270 | At least they banqueted upon your gods, |
And died for lack of farther nutriment. | |
Those gods were merely men; look to their issue – | |
I feel a thousand mortal things about me, | |
But nothing godlike, – unless it may be | |
275 | The thing which you condemn, a disposition |
To love and to be merciful, to pardon | |
The follies of my species, and (that’s human) | |
To be indulgent to my own. | |
SALEMENES | |
The doom of Nineveh is seal’d. – Woe – woe | |
280 | To the unrivall’d city! |
SARDANAPALUS | |
SALEMENES | |
The tempest may break out which overwhelms thee, | |
And thine and mine; and in another day | |
What | |
285 | SARDANAPALUS |
SALEMENES | |
Which has environ’d 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. | |
290 | SARDANAPALUS |
SALEMENES | |
When even thine own’s in peril? Let me go; | |
Give me thy signet – trust me with the rest. | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
When we take those from others, we nor know | |
295 | What we have taken, nor the thing we give. |
SALEMENES | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
Cannot the thing be done without? Who are they | |
Whom thou suspectest? – Let them be arrested. | |
300 | SALEMENES |
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. | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
305 | Take thou the signet. [ |
SALEMENES | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
SALEMENES | |
the banquet | |
In the pavilion over the Euphrates. | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
plotters | |
That ever shook a kingdom! Let them come, | |
310 | And do their worst: I shall not blench for them; |
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. | |
SALEMENES | |
315 | SARDANAPALUS |
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, |