-19_Act Five-Scene-3.htm

The audience chamber of the palace.
Cepheus, Cassiopea, Andromeda, Cydone, Praxilla, Medes.

CEPHEUS

A sudden ending to our sudden evils
Propitious gods have given us, Cassiopea.
Pursued by panic the Assyrian flees
Abandoning our borders. -

CASSIOPEA

And I have got
My children’s faces back upon my bosom.
What gratitude can ever recompense
That godlike youth whose swift and glorious rescue
Lifted us out of Hell so radiantly ? .

CYDONE

He has taken his payment in one small white coin
Mounted with gold; and more he will not ask for.

CASSIOPEA

Your name’s Cydone, child? your face is strange.
You are not of the slave-girls.

CYDONE

O I am!

Iolaus’ slave-girl, though he calls me sometimes
His queen: but that is only to beguile me.

ANDROMEDA

Oh, mother, you must know my sweet Cydone.
I shall think you love me little if you do not
Take her into your bosom: for she alone,
When I was lonely with my breaking heart,
Came to me with sweet haste and comforted

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My soul with kisses, — yes, even when the terror
Was rising from the sea, surrounded me
With her light lovely babble, till I felt
Sorrow was not in the same world as she.
And but for her I might have died of grief
Ere rescue came.

CASSIOPEA

What wilt thou ask of me,
Even to a crown, Cydone? thou shalt have it.

CYDONE

Nothing, unless ’tis leave to stand before you
And be for ever Iolaus’ slave-girl
Unchidden.

CASSIOPEA

Thou shalt be more than that, my daughter.

CYDONE

I have two mothers: a double Iolaus

I had already. O you girl-Iolaus,

You shall not marry Perseus: you are mine now.

Oh, if you have learned to blush!

ANDROMEDA (stopping her mouth)

Hush, you mad babbler!
Or I will smother your wild mouth with mine.

Perseus and Iolaus enter.

CEPHEUS

O welcome, brilliant victor, mighty Perseus!

Saviour of Syria, angel of the gods,

Kind was the fate that led thee to our shores.

CASSIOPEA (embracing Iolaus)

Iolaus, Iolaus, my son!

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My golden-haired delight they would have murdered!
Perseus, hast thou a mother?

PERSEUS

One like thee
In love, O Queen, though less in royalty.

CASSIOPEA

What can I give thee then who hast the world
To move in, thy courage and thy radiant beauty,
And a tender mother? Yet take my blessing, Perseus,
To help thee: for the mightiest strengths are broken
And divine favour lasts not long, but blessings
Of those thou helpest with thy kindly strength
Upon life’s rugged way, can never fail thee.

CEPHEUS

And what shall I give, seed of bright Olympus ?
Wilt thou have half my kingdom, Argive Perseus ?

PERSEUS

Thy kingdom falls by right to Iolaus

In whom I shall enjoy it. One gift thou hadst

I might have coveted, but she is mine,

O monarch: I have taken her from death

For my possession.

CEPHEUS

My sunny Andromeda!
But there’s the Tyrian: yet he gave her up
To death and cannot now reclaim her.

IOLAUS

Father,
The Babylonian merchants wait, and Cireas:

The people’s leaders and thy army’s captains

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Are eager to renew an interrupted
Obedience.

CEPHEUS

Admit them all to me: Go, Medes.

As Medes goes out, Diomede enters.

ANDROMEDA

Diomede! playmate! you too have come quite safe
Out of the storm. I thought we both must founder.

DIOMEDE

Oh, yes, and now you’ll marry Perseus, leave me
No other playmate than Praxilla’s whippings
To keep me lively!

ANDROMEDA

Therefore ’tis you look
So discontent and sullen ? Clear your face,
I’ll drag you to the world’s far end with me,
And take in my own hands Praxilla’s duty.
Will that please you?

DIOMEDE

As if your little hand could hurt!
I’m off, Praxilla, to pick scarlet berries
In Argolis and hear the seabirds’ cries
And Ocean singing to the Cyclades.
I’ll buy you brand new leather for a relic
To whip the memory of me with sometimes,
Praxilla.

PRAXILLA

You shall taste it then before you go.
You’ll make a fine fair couple of wilfulnesses.
I pity Perseus.

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ANDROMEDA ,

You are well rid of us,
My poor Praxilla.

PRAXILLA

Princess, little Princess,
My hands will be lighter, but my heart too heavy.

Therops and Dercetes enter with the Captains of
the army, Cireas, Tyrnaus, and Smerdas.

ALL

Hail, you restored high royalties of Syria.

THEROPS

O King, accept us, be the past forgotten.

CEPHEUS

It is forgotten, Therops. Welcome, Dercetes.
Thy friend Nebassar is asleep. He has done
His service for the day and taken payment.

CASSIOPEA

His blood is a deep stain on Syria’s bosom.

DERCETES

On us the stain lies, queen: but we will drown it
In native streams, when we go forth to scourge
The Assyrian in his home.

THEROPS

Death for one’s King
Only less noble is than for one’s country.
This foreign soldier taught us that home lesson.

CASSIOPEA

Therops, there are kings still in Syria?

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THEROPS

Great Queen,

Remember not my sins.

CASSIOPEA

They are buried deep,
Thy bold rebellion, — even thy cruel slanders,
If only thou wilt serve me as my friend
True to thy people in me. Will this be hard for thee ?

THEROPS

O noble lady, you pay wrongs with favours!
I am yours for ever, I and all this people.

CIREAS (to Diomede)

This it is to be an orator! We shall hear him haranguing the people next market-day on fidelity to princes and the divine right of queens to have favourites.

IOLAUS

Cireas, old bribe-taker, art thou living? Did Poseidon forget thee?

CIREAS

I pray you. Prince, remind me not of past foolishness. I have grown pious. I will never speak ill again of authorities and divinities.

IOLAUS

Thou art grown ascetic? thou carest no longer then for gold? I am glad, for my purse will be spared a very heavy lightening.

CIREAS

Prince, I will not suffer my young piety to make you break old promises; for if it is perilous to sin, it is worse to be the cause of
sin in others.

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IOLAUS

Thou shalt have gold and farms. I will absolve
Andromeda’s promise and my own.

CIREAS

Great Plutus!

O happy Cireas!

IOLAUS

Merchant Tyrnaus, art thou for Chaldea?

TYRNAUS

When I have seen these troubles’ joyous end
And your sweet princess, my young rescuer,
Happily wedded.

IOLAUS

I will give thee a ship
And merchandise enough to fill thy losses.

PERSEUS

And prayers with them, O excellent Chaldean.
The world has need of men like thee.

SMERDAS (aside)

I quake.
What will they say to me ? I shall be tortured
And crucified. But she with her smile will save me.

IOLAUS

Smerdas, thou unclean treacherous coward soul!

SMERDAS

Alas, I was compelled by threats of torture.

IOLAUS

And tempted too with gold. Thy punishment

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Shall hit thee in thy nature. Farmer Cireas!

CIREAS

Prince Plutus!

IOLAUS

Take thou this man for slave. He’s strong.
Work him upon thy fields and thy plantations.

SMERDAS

O this is worst of all.

IOLAUS

Not worse than thy desert.
For gold thou lustest? earn it for another.
Thou’lt save thy life ? it is a freedman’s chattel.

SMERDAS

O speak for me, lady Andromeda!

ANDROMEDA

Dear Iolaus, —

CEPHEUS

My child, thou art all pity;

But justice has her seat, and her fine balance

Disturbed too often spoils an unripe world

With ill-timed mercy. Thy brother speaks my will.

IOLAUS

Thou hast increased thy crime by pleading to her
Whom thou betrayed’st to her death. Art thou
Quite shameless ? Hold thy peace!

ANDROMEDA

Grieve not too much.
Cireas will be kind to thee; wilt thou not, Cireas ?

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CIREAS

At thy command I will be even that
And even to him.

Noise outside.

CEPHEUS

What other dangerous clamour
Is at our gates ?

Perissus enters brandishing his cleaver.

PERISSUS

Pull out that sharp skewer of thine, comrade Perseus, or let me handle my cleaver.

CEPHEUS

Thou art angry, butcher ? Who has disturbed thy noble serenity ?

PERISSUS

King Cepheus, shall I not be angry? Art thou not again our majesty of Syria ? And shall our majesty be insulted with noses ? Shall it be prodded by a proboscis? Perseus, thou hast slaughtered yonder palaeozoic icthyosaurus; wilt thou suffer me to chop this neozoan?

PERSEUS

Calmly, precisely and not so polysyllabically, my good Perissus. Tell the King what is this clamour.

PERISSUS

My monarch, Phineus of Tyre has brought his long-nosed royalty to thy gates and poke it he will into thy kingly presence. His blusterings. King, have flustered my calm great heart within me. 

CEPHEUS

Comes he alone?

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PERISSUS

Damoetes and some scores more hang on to his long tail of hook-nosed Tyrians; but they are all rabble and proletariate, not a citizen butcher in the whole picking. They brandish skewers; they threaten to poke me with their dainty iron spits, — me, Perissus, me, the butcher !

CEPHEUS

Phineus in arms! This is the after-swell
Of tempest.

PERSEUS

Let the Phoenician enter, comrade.

Perissus goes out.
Look not so blank. This man with all his crew
Shall be my easy care.

Phineus enters the hall with a great company,
Tyrians with drawn swords, Damoetes, Moms
and others: after them Perissus.

CEPHEUS

Welcome, Tyre.

CASSIOPEA

Thou breakest armed into our presence, Phineus.
Had they been earlier there, these naked swords
Would have been welcome.

PHINEUS

I am not here for welcome
Lady. King Cepheus, wilt thou yield me right,
Or shall I take it with my sword ?

CEPHEUS

Phineus,
I never have withheld even from the meanest,
The least thing he could call his right.

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PHINEUS

Thou hast not?
Who gives then to a wandering Greek my bride,
Thy perfect daughter ?

CASSIOPEA

She was in some peril,
When thou wert absent. Tyre.

PHINEUS

A vain young man,
A brilliant sworder wandering for a name,
Who calls himself the son of Danaë,
And who his father was, the midnight knows.
This is the lord thou giv’st Andromeda,
Scorning the mighty King of ancient Tyre.

CEPHEUS

He saved her from the death to which we left her,
And she was his, — his wife, if so he chose,
Or, conquered by the sword from grim Poseidon,
His then to take her as he would from that moment.

PHINEUS

Do his deeds or thy neglect annul thy promise ?

IOLAUS

King Phineus, wilt thou take up and lay down
At pleasure ? Who leaves a jewel in the mud,
Shall he complain because another took it?

PRAXILLA

And she was never his; she hated him.

PHINEUS

I’ll hear no reasons, but with strong force have her,
Though it be to lift her o’er the dearest blood

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Of all her kin. Tyrians!

Andromeda takes refuge with Perseus.

Abandon, princess,

The stripling bosom where thou tak’st thy refuge.
Thou hast mistook thy home, Andromeda.

IOLAUS

‘Tis thou mistakest, Phineus, thinking her

A bride who, touched, shall be thy doom. Get hence

Unhurt.

PHINEUS

Prince Iolaus, the sword that cut
Thy contract to Poseidon, cuts not mine, —
Which if you void, thou and thy father pay for it.

PERSEUS

Phineus of Tyre, it may be thou art wronged,
But ’tis not at his hands whom thou impugnest;

Her father gave her not to me.

PHINEUS

Her mother then ?
She is the man, I think, in Syria’s household.

PERSEUS

Her too I asked not,

PHINEUS

Thou wooedst then the maid?
It shall not help thee though a thousand times
She kissed thee yes. Pretty Andromeda,
Wilt thou have for thy lord this vagabond,
Wander with him as beggars land and sea ?
Despite thyself I’ll save thee from that fate
Unworthy of thy beauty and thy sweetness,
And make thee Queen in Tyre. Minion of Argos,  

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Learn, ere thou grasp at other’s goods, to ask
The owner, not the owned.

PERSEUS

I did not ask her.

PHINEUS

Then by what right, presumptuous, hast thou her?
Or wherefore lies she thus within thy arm ?

PERSEUS

Say, by what right, King Phineus, thou wouldst take her,
Herself and all refusing ?

PHINEUS

By my precontract.

PERSEUS

Thou gavest her to Death, that contract’s broken.
Or if thou seekest to revoke thy gift,
Foregather then with Death and ask him for her.
The way to him is easy.

PHINEUS

Then by my sword,
Not asking her or any, because I am a king,
I’ll take her.

PERSEUS

If the sword is the sole judge,
Then by my own sword I have taken her, Tyrian,
Not asking her or any, who am king
O’er her, her sovereign. This soft gold is mine
And mine these banks of silver; this rich country
Is my possession and owes to my strong taking
All her sweet revenues in honey. Phineus,
I wonder not that thou dost covet her

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Whom the whole world might want. Wrest her from me,
Phoenician, to her father she belongs not.

(opening his wallet)

King Phineus, art thou ready? Yet look once more
On the blue sky and this green earth of Syria.

PHINEUS

Young man, thou hast done deeds I’ll not belittle.
Yet was it only a sea-beast and a rabble
Whom thou hast tamed; I am a prince and warrior.
Wilt thou fright me with thy aegis ?

PERSEUS

Not fright, but end thee;

For thou hast spoken words deserving death.
Come forth into the open, this is no place
For battle. Marshal thy warlike crew against me,
And let thy Syrian mob-men help with shouts:

Stand in their front to lead them; I alone
Will meet their serried charge, Dercetes merely
Watching us.

PHINEUS

Thou art frantic with past triumphs:

Argive, desist. I would not rob thy mother
Of her sole joy, howe’er she came by thee.
The gods may punish her sweet midnight fault,
To whom her dainty trickery imputes it.

PERSEUS

Come now, lest here I slay thee.

PHINEUS

Thou art in love
With death: but I am pitiful, young Perseus,
Thou shalt not die. My men shall take thee living
And pedlars hawk thee for a slave in Tyre,

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Where thou shalt see sometimes far off Andromeda,
A Queen of nations.

PERSEUS

Thou compassionate man!
But I will give thee, hero, marvellous death
And stone for monument, which thou deservest;

For thou wert a great King and famous warrior,
When still thou wert living. Forth and fight with me!
Afterwards if thou canst, come for Andromeda;

None shall oppose thy seizure. Behind me, captain,
So that the rabble here may not be tempted
To any treacherous stroke.

Phineus goes out with the Tyrians, Damoetes and the
Syrian favourers of Phineus, followed by Perseus and
Dercetes. Cireas behind them at a distance.

CEPHEUS

Sunbeam, I am afraid.

ANDROMEDA

I am not, father.

CEPHEUS

Alone against so many!

IOLAUS

Shall I go, father,
And stand by him?

CEPHEUS

He might be angry. Hark!
The voice of Phineus.

IOLAUS

He cries some confident order.

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CEPHEUS

The Tyrians shout for onset; he is doomed.

There is a moments pause, all listening painfully.

IOLAUS

The shouts are stilled; there is a sudden hush. .

CEPHEUS

What can it mean ? This silence is appalling.

Dercetes returns.
What news? Thou treadest like one sleeping, captain.

DERCETES

O King, thy royal court is full of monuments.

CEPHEUS

What meanest thou? What happened? Where is Perseus?

DERCETES

King Phineus called to his men to take alive
The Greek; but as they charged, great Perseus cried, .
"Close eyes, Dercetes, if thou car’st to live,"
And I obeyed, yet saw that he had taken
A snaky something from the wallet’s mouth
He carries in his baldric. Blind I waited
And heard the loud approaching charge. Then suddenly
The rapid onset ceased, the cries fell dumb
And a great silence reigned. Astonishment
For two brief moments only held me close;

But when I lifted my sealed lids, the court
Was full of those swift charging warriors stiffened
To stone or stiffening, in the very posture
Of onset, sword uplifted, shield advanced,
Knee crooked, foot carried forward to the pace,
An animated silence, life in stone.
Only the godlike victor lived, a smile
Upon his lips, closing his wallet’s mouth.

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Then I, appalled, came from that place in silence.

CEPHEUS

Soldier, he is a god, or else the gods

Walk close to him. I hear his footsteps coming,

Hail, Perseus!

Perseus returns, followed by Cireas.

PERSEUS

King, the Tyrians all are dead,
Nor need’st thou build them pyres nor dig them graves.
If any hereafter ask what perfect sculptor
Chiselled these forms in Syria’s royal court,
Say then, "Athene, child armipotent
Of the Olympian, hewed by Perseus’ hand
In one divine and careless stroke these statues.
To her give glory."

CEPHEUS

O thou dreadful victor!
I know not what to say nor how to praise thee.

PERSEUS

Say nothing, King; in silence praise the Gods.
Let this not trouble you, my friends. Proceed
As if no interruption had disturbed you.

CIREAS

O Zeus, I thought thou couldst juggle only with feathers and phosphorus, but I see thou canst give wrinkles in magic to Babylon and the Medes. (shaking himself) I cannot feel sure yet that I am not myself a statue. Ugh! this was a stony conjuring.

PERISSUS (who has gone out and returned)

What hast thou done, comrade Perseus? Thou hast immortalised his long nose to all time in stone! This is a woeful thing for posterity; thou hadst no right to leave behind thee for its

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dismay such a fossil.

CEPHEUS

What now is left but to prepare the nuptials
Of sweet young sunny-eyed Andromeda
With mighty Perseus ?

PERSEUS

King, let it be soon
That I may go to my blue-ringed Seriphos,
Where my mother waits, and more deeds call to me.

CASSIOPEA

Yet if thy heart consents, then three months give us,
O Perseus, of thyself and our sweet child,
And then abandon.

PERSEUS

They are given.

ANDROMEDA

Perseus,
You give and never ask; let me for you
Ask something.

PERSEUS

Ask, Andromeda, and have.

ANDROMEDA

Then this I ask that thy great deeds may leave
Their golden trace on Syria. Let the dire cult
For ever cease and victims bleed no more
On its dark altar. Instead Athene’s name
Spread over all the land and in men’s hearts.
Then shall a calm and mighty Will prevail
And broader minds and kindlier manners reign
And men grow human, mild and merciful.

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PERSEUS

King Cepheus, thou hast heard; shall this be done?

CEPHEUS

Hero, thou earnest to change our world for us.
Pronounce; I give assent.

PERSEUS

Then let the shrine
That looked out from earth’s breast into the sunlight,
Be cleansed of its red memory of blood,
And the dread Form that lived within its precincts
Transfigure into a bright compassionate God
Whose strength shall aid men tossed upon the seas.
Give succour to the shipwrecked mariner.
A noble centre of a people’s worship,
To Zeus and great Athene build a temple
Between your sky-topped hills and Ocean’s vasts:

Her might shall guard your lives and save your land.

In your human image of her deity

A light of reason and calm celestial force

And a wise tranquil government of life,

Order and beauty and harmonious thoughts

And, ruling the waves of impulse, high-throned will

Incorporate in marble, the carved and white

Ideal of a young uplifted race.

For these are her gifts to those who worship her.

Adore and what you adore attempt to be.

CEPHEUS

Will the fiercer Grandeur that was here permit?

PERSEUS

Fear not Poseidon; the strong god is free.

He has withdrawn from his own darkness and is now

His new great self at an Olympian height.

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CASSIOPEA

How can the immortal gods and Nature change ?

PERSEUS

All alters in a world that is the same.
Man most must change who is a soul of Time;

His gods too change and live in larger light.

CEPHEUS

Then man too may arise to greater heights,
His being draw nearer to the gods ?

PERSEUS

Perhaps.
But the blind nether forces still have power
And the ascent is slow and long is Time.
Yet shall Truth grow and harmony increase:

The day shall come when men feel close and one.
Meanwhile one forward step is something gained,
Since little by little earth must open to heaven
Till her dim soul awakes into the Light.

Curtain

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