SAHDANAPALUS.
Sal. Would thou couldst!
Myr. My sovereign,
I pray, and tliou, too, prince, permit my absence.Sen*. Since it must be so, and this churl hascheck’d
Thy gentle spirit, go; but recollect
That we must forthwith meet: I had rather lose
An empire than thy presence.
[Erifc Mijrrha.
Sal. It may be
Thou wilt lose both, and both for ever!
Sar. Brother!
I can at least command myself, who listenTo language such as this: yet urge me notBeyond my easy nature.
Sal. ’Tis beyond *
That easy, far too easy, idle nature,
Which I would urge thee. O that I could rousethee!
Though ’twere against myself.
The man would make me tyrant.
Sal. So thou art.
Think'st thou there is no tyranny but thatOf blood and chains ? The despotism of vice,The weakness and the wickedness of luxury,
The negligence, the apathy, the evilsOf sensual sloth—produce ten thousand tyrants,Whose delegated cruelty surpassesThe worst acts of one energetic master,
However harsh and hard in his own bearing.
The false and fond examples of thy lustsCorrupt no less than they oppress, and sapIn the same moment all thy pagcaut powerAnd those who should sustain it; so thatwhether
A foreign foe invade, or civil broilHistract within, both will alike prove fatal:
The first thy subjects have no heart to conquer;The last they rather would assist than vanquish.Sar. "Why, what makes thee mouth-piece of thepeople ?
Sal. Forgiveness of the Queen’s, my sister’swrongs ;
A natural love unto my infant nephews;
Faith to the King, a faith he may need shortly,lu more than words ; respect for Nimrod’s line jAlso, another thing thou knowest not.
Sar. Wliat’s that ?
Sal. To thee an unknown wordSar. Yet speak it;
I love to learn.
v Sar. Not know the word!
♦Never was word yet rung so in my ears—
Worse than the rabble's shout, or splittingtrumpet.
I’ve heard thy sister talk of nothing else.
Sal. To change the irksome theme, then hear ofvice.
Sar. From whom ?
Sal. Even from the winds, if thou couldstlisten
I'Uto the echoes of the nation’s voice.
Sar. Come, I’m indulgent, as thou knowest;
. patient,
thou hast often proved—speak out, whatmoves thee ?
Sal. Thy peril.
Sar. Say on.
Sul. Thus, then j all the nations,
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For they are many, whom thy father leftIn heritage, arc loud in wrath against thee.
Sar. ’Gainst me! What would the slaves ?
Sal. a king.
Sar. And what
Am I then?
Sal. In their eyes a nothing; but
In mine a man who might be something still.
Sar. The railing drunkards! why, what wouldthey have ?
Have they not peace and plenty ?
Sal. Of the first
More than is glorious; of the last, far lessThau the King recks of.
Sar. Whose then is the crime,
But the false satraps, who provide no better ?
Sal. And somewhat in the monarch who ne’erlooks
Beyond his palace walls, or if he stirsBeyond them, ’tis but to some mountain palace,Till summer heats wear down. Oh gloriousBaal !
Who built up this vast empire, and wert madeA god, or at the least shinest like a godThrough the long centuries of thy renown,
This, thy presumed descendant, ne’er beheldAs King the kingdoms thou didst leave as hero,W’on with thy blood, and toil, and time, andperil!
For what ? to furnish imposts for a revel,
Or multiplied extortions for a minion.
Sar. I understand thee—thou wouldst have mego
Forth as a conqueror. By all the starsWhich the Chaldeans read—the restless slavesDeserve that I should curse them with theirwishes,
And lead them forth to glory.
Sal. Wherefore not ?
Semiramis—a woman only—ledThese our Assyrians to the solar shoresOf Ganges .
Sar. ’Tis most true. And how return’d ?Sal. Why, like a mail—a hero; baffled, butNot vanquish’d. With but twenty guards, shemade
Sar. And how many
Left she behind in India to the vultures ?
Sal. Our annals say not.
Sar. Then I will say for them—
That she had better woven within her palaceSome twenty garments, than with twenty guardsHave fled to Bactria , leaving to the ravens,
And wolves, and men—the fiercer of the three—Her myriads of fond subjects. Is this glory ?Then let me live in ignominy ever.
Sal. All warlike spirits have not the samefate.
Semiramis, the glorious parent ofA hundred kings, although she fail’d in India ,Brought Persia, Media, Bactria , to the realmWhich she once sway’d—and thou might* at sway.
Sar. I sway them—
She but subdued them.
Sal. It may be ere long
That they will need her sword more than yoursceptre.
Sar. There was a certain Bacchus, was therenot ?
I’ve heard my Greek girls Apeak of such—theysay
it