SARDANAPALUS | |
At least from thence he will depart to meet me. | |
HERALD | |
[ | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
355 | Now, my good Pania! – quick – with what I order’d. |
PANIA | |
And see! they enter. | |
[ | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
And thicker yet; and see that the foundation | |
Be such as will not speedily exhaust | |
340 | Its own too subtle flame; nor yet be quench’d |
With aught officious aid would bring to quell it. | |
Let the throne form the | |
Leave that, save fraught with fire unquenchable, | |
To the new comers. Frame the whole as if | |
365 | ’Twere to enkindle the strong tower of our |
Inveterate enemies. Now it bears an aspect! | |
How say you, Pania, will this pile suffice | |
For a king’s obsequies? | |
PANIA | |
I understand you, now. | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
PANIA | |
370 | Let me but fire the pile, and share it with you. |
MYRRHA | |
PANIA | |
MYRRHA | |
Part to die | |
The woman’s with her lover? | |
PANIA | |
MYRRHA | |
375 | In the mean time, live thou. – Farewell! the pile |
Is ready. | |
PANIA | |
With but a single female to partake | |
His death. | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
Me to the dust, already. Get thee hence; | |
380 | Enrich thee. |
PANIA | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
Thy vow: – ’tis sacred and irrevocable. | |
PANIA | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
Feel no remorse at bearing off the gold; | |
Remember, what you leave you leave the slaves | |
385 | Who slew me: and when you have borne away |
All safe off to your boats, blow one long blast | |
Upon the trumpet as you quit the palace. | |
The river’s brink is too remote, its stream | |
Too loud at present to permit the echo | |
390 | To reach distinctly from its banks. Then fly, – |
And as you sail, turn back; but still keep on | |
Your way along the Euphrates: if you reach | |
The land of Paphlagonia, where the queen | |
Is safe with my three sons in Cotta’s court, | |
395 | Say, what you saw at parting, and request |
That she remember what I | |
Parting more mournful still. | |
PANIA | |
Let me then once more press it to my lips; | |
And these poor soldiers who throng round you, and | |
400 | Would fain die with you! |
[ | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
Let’s not unman each other: part at once: | |
All farewells should be sudden, when for ever, | |
Else they make an eternity of moments, | |
And clog the last sad sands of life with tears. | |
405 | Hence, and be happy: trust me, I am not |
Now | |
Is past than present; – for the future, ’tis | |
In the hands of the deities, if such | |
There be: I shall know soon. Farewell – Farewell. | |
[ | |
410 | MYRRHA |
That our last looks should be on loving faces. | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
me! | |
If at this moment, – for we now are on | |
The brink, — thou feel’st an inward shrinking from | |
415 | This leap through flame into the future, say it: |
I shall not love thee less; nay, perhaps more, | |
For yielding to thy nature: and there’s time | |
Yet for thee to escape hence. | |
MYRRHA | |
One of the torches which lie heap’d beneath | |
420 | The ever-burning lamp that burns without, |
Before Baal’s shrine, in the adjoining hall? | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
MYRRHA | |
[ | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
will rejoin, | |
It may be, purified by death from some | |
425 | Of the gross stains of too material being, |
I would not leave your ancient first abode | |
To the defilement of usurping bondmen; | |
If I have not kept your inheritance | |
As ye bequeath’d it, this bright part of it, | |
430 | Your treasure, your abode, your sacred relics |
Of arms, and records, monuments, and spoils, | |
In which | |
To you in that absorbing element, | |
Which most personifies the soul as leaving | |
435 | The least of matter unconsumed before |
Its fiery workings: — and the light of this | |
Most royal of funereal pyres shall be | |
Not a mere pillar form’d of cloud and flame, | |
A beacon in the horizon for a day, | |
440 | And then a mount of ashes, but a light |
To lesson ages, rebel nations, and | |
Voluptuous princes. Time shall quench full many | |
A people’s records, and a hero’s acts; | |
Sweep empire after empire, like this first | |
445 | Of empires, into nothing; but even then |
Shall spare this deed of mine, and hold it up | |
A problem few dare imitate, and none | |
Despise – but, it may be, avoid the life | |
Which led to such a consummation. | |
[ | |
MYRRHA | |
450 | I’ve lit the lamp which lights us to the stars. |
SARDANAPALUS | |
MYRRHA | |
Make a libation to the gods. | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
To make libations amongst men. I’ve not | |
Forgot the custom; and although alone, | |
Will drain one draught in memory of many | |
A joyous banquet past. | |
[ | |
And this libation | |
Is for the excellent Beleses. | |
MYRRHA | |
Dwells thy mind rather upon that man’s name | |
Than on his mate’s in villany? | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
460 | Is a mere soldier, a mere tool, a kind |
Of human sword in a friend’s hand; the other | |
Is master-mover of his warlike puppet: | |
But I dismiss them from my mind. – Yet pause, | |
My Myrrha! dost thou truly follow me, | |
465 | Freely and fearlessly? |
MYRRHA | |
A Greek girl dare not do for love, that which | |
An Indian widow braves for custom? | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
We but await the signal. | |
MYRRHA | |
In sounding. | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
470 | MYRRHA |
SARDANAPALUS | |
ashes. |