Selected Poems (129 page)

The path still open, and communication

Left ’twixt the palace and the phalanx?

PANIA
:’Twas

When I late left him, and I have no fear:

115

Our troops were steady, and the phalanx form’d.

SARDANAPALUS
: Tell him to spare his person for the present,

And that I will not spare my own – and say,

I come.

PANIA
: There’s victory in the very word.

[
Exit
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.

[
Exeunt
ZAMES, ALTADA
,
and all save
MYRRHA
.]

[
Enter
SFERO
and others with the King’s Arms, &
]

SFERO
:King! your armour.

SARDANAPALUS
[
arming himself
]: Give me the cuirass – so:

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
:Sire, I deem’d

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
: You deem’d! Are you too turn’d a rebel?

Fellow!

Your part is to obey: return, and — no –

It is too late – I will go forth without it.

SFERO
: At least, wear this.

SARDANAPALUS
:Wear Caucasus! why, ’tis

A mountain on my temples.

SFERO
:Sire, the meanest

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
: I go forth to be recognised, and thus

Shall be so sooner. Now – my spear! I’m arm’d.

[
In going stops short, and turns to
SFERO
.]

145

Sfero – I had forgotten – bring the mirror.

SFERO
: The mirror, sire?

SARDANAPALUS
:Yes, sir, of polish’d brass,

Brought from the spoils of India – but be speedy.

[
Exit
SFERO
.]

SARDANAPALUS
: Myrrha, retire unto a place of

safety.

Why went you not forth with the other damsels?

150

MYRRHA
: Because my place is here.

SARDANAPALUS
: And when I am gone —

MYRRHA
: I follow.

SARDANAPALUS
:
You!
to battle?

MYRRHA
:If it were so,

’Twere not the first Greek girl had trod the path.

I will await here your
return
.

SARDANAPALUS
:The place

Is spacious, and the first to be sought out,

155

If they prevail; and, if it be so,

And I return not –

MYRRHA
:Still we meet again.

SARDANAPALUS
: How?

MYRRHA
:In the spot where all must meet at

last –

In Hades! if there be, as I believe,

A shore beyond the Styx: and if there be not,

160

In ashes.

SARDANAPALUS
: Darest thou so much?

MYRRHA
:I dare all things

Except survive what I have loved, to be

A rebel’s booty: forth, and do your bravest.

[
Re-enter
SFERO
with the mirror.
]

SARDANAPALUS
[
looking at himself
]: This cuirass fits me well, the baldric better,

And the helm not at all. Methinks I seem

[
Flings away the helmet after trying it again
.]

165

Passing well in these toys; and now to prove them.

Altada! Where’s Altada?

SFERO
:Waiting, sire,

Without: he has your shield in readiness.

SARDANAPALUS
: True; I forgot he is my shield-bearer

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
: Go forth, and conquer!

[
Exeunt
SARDANAPALUS
and
SFERO
.]

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,

[
She draws forth a small vial.
]

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 —

[
Enter
ALTADA
.]

ALTADA
:Ho, Sfero, ho!

MYRRHA
: He is not here; what wouldst thou with him? How Goes on the conflict?

ALTADA
:Dubiously and fiercely.

200

MYRRHA
: And the king?

ALTADA
:Like a king. I must find Sfero,

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
:Ye gods,

Who fulminate o’er my father’s land, protect him!

210

Were you sent by the king?

ALTADA
:By Salemenes,

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.

[
Exit
ALTADA
.]

MYRRHA
: ’Tis no dishonour – no –

’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?

[
Enter an
OFFICER
.]