The path still open, and communication | |
Left ’twixt the palace and the phalanx? | |
PANIA | |
When I late left him, and I have no fear: | |
115 | Our troops were steady, and the phalanx form’d. |
SARDANAPALUS | |
And that I will not spare my own – and say, | |
I come. | |
PANIA | |
[ | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
Altada – Zames – forth, and arm ye! There | |
120 | Is all in readiness in the armoury. |
See that the women are bestow’d in safety | |
In the remote apartments: let a guard | |
Be set before them, with strict charge to quit | |
The post but with their lives – command it, Zames. | |
125 | Altada, arm yourself, and return here; |
Your ost is near our erson. | |
[ | |
[ | |
SFERO | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
my baldric; now | |
My sword: I had forgot the helm – where is it? | |
That’s well – no, ’tis too heavy: you mistake, too – | |
130 | It was not this I meant, but that which bears |
A diadem around it. | |
SFERO | |
That too conspicuous from the precious stones | |
To risk your sacred brow beneath – and trust me, | |
This is of better metal, though less rich. | |
135 | SARDANAPALUS |
Fellow! | |
Your part is to obey: return, and — no – | |
It is too late – I will go forth without it. | |
SFERO | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
A mountain on my temples. | |
SFERO | |
140 | Soldier goes not forth thus exposed to battle. |
All men will recognise you – for the storm | |
Has ceased, and the moon breaks forth in her brightness. | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
Shall be so sooner. Now – my spear! I’m arm’d. | |
[ | |
145 | Sfero – I had forgotten – bring the mirror. |
SFERO | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
Brought from the spoils of India – but be speedy. | |
[ | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
safety. | |
Why went you not forth with the other damsels? | |
150 | MYRRHA |
SARDANAPALUS | |
MYRRHA | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
MYRRHA | |
’Twere not the first Greek girl had trod the path. | |
I will await here your | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
Is spacious, and the first to be sought out, | |
155 | If they prevail; and, if it be so, |
And I return not – | |
MYRRHA | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
MYRRHA | |
last – | |
In Hades! if there be, as I believe, | |
A shore beyond the Styx: and if there be not, | |
160 | In ashes. |
SARDANAPALUS | |
MYRRHA | |
Except survive what I have loved, to be | |
A rebel’s booty: forth, and do your bravest. | |
[ | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
And the helm not at all. Methinks I seem | |
[ | |
165 | Passing well in these toys; and now to prove them. |
Altada! Where’s Altada? | |
SFERO | |
Without: he has your shield in readiness. | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
By right of blood, derived from age to age. | |
170 | Myrrha, embrace me; – yet once more – once more – |
Love me, whate’er betide. My chiefest glory | |
Shall be to make me worthier of your love. | |
MYRRHA | |
[ | |
Now, I am alone, | |
All are gone forth, and of that all how few | |
175 | Perhaps return. Let him but vanquish, and |
Me perish! If he vanquish not, I perish; | |
For I will not outlive him. He has wound | |
About my heart, I know not how nor why. | |
Not for that he is king; for now his kingdom | |
180 | Rocks underneath his throne, and the earth yawns |
To yield him no more of it than a grave; | |
And yet I love him more. Oh, mighty Jove! | |
Forgive this monstrous love for a barbarian, | |
Who knows not of Olympus! yes, I love him | |
185 | Now, now, far more than — Hark – to the war shout! |
Methinks it nears me. If it should be so, | |
[ | |
This cunning Colchian poison, which my father | |
Learn’d to compound on Euxine shores, and taught me | |
How to preserve, shall free me! It had freed me | |
190 | Long ere this hour, but that I loved, until |
I half forgot I was a slave: – where all | |
Are slaves save one, and proud of servitude, | |
So they are served in turn by something lower | |
In the degree of bondage, we forget | |
195 | That shackles worn like ornaments no less |
Are chains. Again that shout! and now the clash | |
Of arms – and now – and now — | |
[ | |
ALTADA | |
MYRRHA | |
ALTADA | |
200 | MYRRHA |
ALTADA | |
And bring him a new spear and his own helmet. | |
He fights till now bare-headed, and by far | |
Too much exposed. The soldiers knew his face, | |
And the foe too; and in the moon’s broad light, | |
205 | His silk tiara and his flowing hair |
Make him a mark too royal. Every arrow | |
Is pointed at the fair hair and fair features, | |
And the broad fillet which crowns both. | |
MYRRHA | |
Who fulminate o’er my father’s land, protect him! | |
210 | Were you sent by the king? |
ALTADA | |
Who sent me privily upon this charge, | |
Without the knowledge of the careless sovereign. | |
The king! the king fights as he revels! ho! | |
What, Sfero! I will seek the armoury – | |
215 | He must be there. |
[ | |
MYRRHA | |
’Tis no dishonour to have loved this man. | |
I almost wish now, what I never wish’d | |
Before, that he were Grecian. If Alcides | |
Were shamed in wearing Lydian Omphale’s | |
220 | She-garb, and wielding her vile distaff; surely |
He, who springs up a Hercules at once, | |
Nursed in effeminate arts from youth to manhood, | |
And rushes from the banquet to the battle, | |
As though it were a bed of love, deserves | |
225 | That a Greek girl should be his paramour, |
And a Greek bard his minstrel, a Greek tomb | |
His monument. How goes the strife, sir? | |
[ |