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Act III
The Palace in Antioch. Under the hills.
The Audience-Chamber in the Palace. Nicanor, Phayllus and others seated; Eunice, Philoctetes, Thoas apart near the dais.
THOAS Is it patent? Is he the elder? do we know?
EUNICE Should he not rule?
THOAS If Fate were wise, he should.
EUNICE Will Timocles sack great Persepolis? Sooner I think Phraates will couch here, The mighty, steadfast, patient, subtle man, And from the loiterer take, the sensualist Antioch of the Seleucidae.
THOAS Perhaps. But shall I rise against the country’s laws That harbours me? The sword I draw, is hers.
Page – 248 EUNICE Are law and justice always one? Reflect.
THOAS If justice is offended, I will strike. He withdraws to another part of the hall. EUNICE The man is wise, but when ambition’s heaped In a great bosom, Fate takes quickly fire. It only needs the spark.
PHILOCTETES Is it only that That’s needed? there shall be the spark. He withdraws. EUNICE Fate or else Chance Work out the rest. I have given your powers a lead. Nicanor, who has drawn near, stops before her. NICANOR Your council’s finished then?
EUNICE What council, father?
NICANOR I have seen, though I have not spoken. Meddle not In things too great for you. This realm and nation Are not a skein for weaving fine intrigues In your shut chambers.
EUNICE We have other sports. What do you mean?
Page – 249 NICANOR See less Antiochus. Carry not there your daring spirit and free rein To passion and ambition nor your bright scorn Of every law that checks your headstrong will. Or must I find a curb that shall restrain you? He withdraws. EUNICE My prudent father! These men think that wisdom Is tied up to beards. We too have heads And finer brains within them, as I think! She goes up on the dais. Leosthenes, Callicrates and others enter together. THOAS Leosthenes from Parthia! Speeds the war?
LEOSTHENES It waits a captain.
THOAS It shall have today A king of captains.
LEOSTHENES I have seen the boy. But there’s a mystery? Shall he be the king?
THOAS If Fate agrees with Nature.
LEOSTHENES Neither can err So utterly, I think; for, if they could, Man’s will would have a claim to unseat Fate, Which cannot be.
Page – 250 Cleopatra enters with Antiochus and Timocles; Cleone, Rodogune in attendance, the latter richly robed. PHILOCTETES See where she places him!
THOAS ‘Tis on her right!
PHAYLLUS It is a woman’s ruse. Or must I at disadvantage play the game With this strong piece against?
CLEOPATRA The strong Antiochus has gone too early Down the dim gorges to that silent world Where we must one day follow him. A younger hand Takes up his sceptre and controls his sword. These are the Syrian twins, Nicanor’s sons, These are Antiochus and Timocles. Why so long buried, why their right oppressed, Why their precedence tyrannously concealed, Forget. Forget old griefs, old hatreds; let them rest Inurned, nor from their night recover them.
NICANOR We need not raise the curtains that conceal Things long inurned, but lest by this one doubt The dead past lay a dark and heavy hand Upon our fairer future, let us swear The Queen shall be obeyed as if she spoke For Heaven. Betwixt the all-seeing gods and her Confine all cause of quarrel.
Page – 251 PHAYLLUS Let the princes swear; For how can subjects jar if they agree?
CLEOPATRA O not with oaths compel the Syrian blood! My sons, do you consent?
TIMOCLES Your sovereign will must rule, Mother, your children and our fraternal kindness Will drown the loser’s natural chagrin In joy at the other’s joy.
CLEOPATRA Antiochus, my son!
ANTIOCHUS Your question, Madam, was for Timocles; From me it needs no answer.
PHAYLLUS You accept Your mother’s choice?
ANTIOCHUS God’s choice. My mother speaks A thing concealed, not one unsettled.
PHAYLLUS Prince, Syria demands a plainer answer here.
ANTIOCHUS Who art thou? Art thou of Seleucus’ blood Who questionest Syria’s kings?
Page – 252 CLEOPATRA Enough. My sons Will know how to respect their kingly birth. Today begins another era. Rise, Princess of Parthia; sit upon this throne, Phraates’ daughter; thou art peace and love And must today be crowned. Marvel not, Syrians; For it is peace my envoys bear by now Upon their saddles to Persepolis.
THOAS This was a secret haste!
LEOSTHENES Is it possible? We had our heel upon the Parthian’s throat.
CLEOPATRA Since Parthia swept through the Iranian East Wrecking the mighty Macedonian’s toil, War sways for ever like a darkened sea In turmoil twixt our realms. How many heart-strings Have broken, what tears of anguish have been wept And eyes sought eastward unreturning eyes! Joy has been buried in the blood-drenched sands. Vain blood, vain weeping! Earth was made so wide That many might have majesty and joy Upon one mother’s equal breast. But we Arresting others’ portions lose our own. Nations that conquer widest, perish first, Sapped by the hate of an uneasy world. Then they are wisest victors who in time Knowing the limits of their prosperous fate Avoid the violence of Heaven. Syrians, After loud battles I have founded glorious peace. That fair work I began as Syria’s queen; To seal it Syria’s king must not refuse.
Page – 253 ANTIOCHUS I do refuse it. There shall be no peace.
CLEOPATRA My son!
ANTIOCHUS Peace! Are the Parthians at our gates? Has not alarm besieged Ecbatana? When was it ever seen or heard till now That victors sued for peace? And this the reason, A woman’s reason, because many have bled And more have wept. It is the tears, the blood Prodigally spent that build a nation’s greatness. I here annul this peace, this woman’s peace, I will proclaim with noise of victories Its revocation.
PHAYLLUS Now!
THOAS Thou speakest, King!
TIMOCLES You are not crowned as yet, Antiochus.
ANTIOCHUS Syria forbids it, Syria’s destiny Sends forth her lion voices from the hills Where trumpets blare towards Persepolis, Forbidding peace.
CLEOPATRA We do not sue for peace, My son, but give peace, taking provinces And taking Rodogune.
Page – 254 TIMOCLES Who twenty times Outweighs all hero’s actions and exceeds Earth’s widest conquests.
ANTIOCHUS For her and provinces! O worse disgrace! The sword had won us these. We wrong the mighty dead who conquered. Provinces! Whose soil are they that we must sue for them? The princess! She’s my prisoner, is she not? Must I entreat the baffled Parthian then What I shall do with my own slave-girl here In Antioch, in my palace? Queen of Syria, This was ignobly done.
CLEOPATRA I know you do not love me; in your cold heart Love finds no home; but still I am your mother. You will respect me thus when you are king?
ANTIOCHUS I will respect you in your place, enshrined In your apartments, governing your women, Not Syria.
CLEOPATRA Leave it. You will not think of peace?
ANTIOCHUS Yes, when our armies reach Persepolis.
MELITUS How desperate looks the Queen! What comes of this?
NICANOR (who has been watching Eunice) End this debate; let Syria know her king. Cleopatra rises and stands silent for a moment.
Page – 255 TIMOCLES Mother!
CLEOPATRA Behold your king!
MENTHO She has done it, gods! There is an astonished silence. NICANOR Speak once more, daughter of high Ptolemy, Remembering God. Speak, have we understood? Is Timocles our king?
CLEOPATRA (with a mechanical and rigid gesture) Behold your king! Nicanor makes a motion of assent as to the accomplished fact. NICANOR Let then the King ascend his throne.
LEOSTHENES (half-rising) Thoas!
PHILOCTETES Speak, King Antiochus, God’s chosen king Who art, not Cleopatra’s.
THOAS Speak, Antiochus.
ANTIOCHUS Why didst thou give to me alone the name Of Syria’s princes? why upon thy right Hast seated me? or wherefore mad’st thou terms For that near time when I should be the king,
Page – 256 Chaffering for my consent with arguments Unneeded if the younger were preferred? Wilt thou invoke the gods to seal this lie?
CLEOPATRA Dost thou insult me thus before my world? Ascend the throne, my son.
ANTIOCHUS Stay, Timocles. Make not such haste, my brother, to supplant Thy elder.
TIMOCLES My elder? He looks at Cleopatra. CLEOPATRA I have spoken the truth.
MENTHO Thou hast not; thou art delivered of a lie, A monstrous lie.
CLEONE Silence, thou swarthy slave!
MENTHO I’ll not be silent. She offends the gods. I am Mentho the Egyptian, she who saw The royal children born. She lies to you, O Syrians. Royal young Antiochus Was first on earth.
THOAS The truth breaks out at last.
Page – 257 PHAYLLUS This is a slave the surplus mud of Nile Engendered. Shall we wrong the Queen by hearing her?
MENTHO I was a noble Egyptian’s wife in Memphis, No slave, thou Syrian mongrel, and my word May stand against a perjured queen’s.
EUNICE (leaning forward)
Is’t done? Nicanor who has been hesitating, observes her action and stands forward to speak. NICANOR The royal blood of Egypt cannot lie. Shall Syria’s queen be questioned? Shall common words Of common men be weighed against the breath of kings? Let not wild strife arise, O princes, let it not. Antiochus, renounce unfilial pride; Wound not thy mother and thy motherland, Son of Nicanor.
THOAS Shall a lie prevail?
NICANOR (looking again at Eunice) It was settled then among you! Be it so. My sword is bare. I stand for Syria’s king.
PHILOCTETES (in the midst of a general hesitation) Egyptian Philoctetes takes thy challenge, Nicanor.
ANTIOCHUS Who is for me in Syria?
Page – 258 THOAS I set my sword Against Nicanor’s.
LEOSTHENES I am Leosthenes. I draw my victor steel for King Antiochus.
ANTIOCHUS Who else for me?
OTHERS I! I! and I! and I!
CALLICRATES AND OTHERS We for King Timocles.
LEOSTHENES Slay them, cut down The party of the liars. There is a shouting and tumult with drawing and movement of swords. NICANOR Protect the King. Let insolent revolt at once be quenched And sink in its own blood.
LEOSTHENES I slay all strife With the usurper.
THOAS Stay, stay, Leosthenes.
ANTIOCHUS Forbear! forbear, I say! let all be still!
Page – 259 The great Seleucus’ house shall not be made A shambles. Not by vulgar riot, not By fratricidal murder will I climb Into my throne, but up the heroic steps Of ordered battle. Brother Timocles, That oft-kissed head is sacred from my sword. Nicanor, thou hast thrown the challenge down; I lift it up.
CLEOPATRA O, hear me, son Antiochus.
ANTIOCHUS I have renounced thee for my mother.
RODOGUNE Alas!
CLEOPATRA O wretched woman! She hurries out followed by Rodogune, Eunice and Cleone. NICANOR Thou shalt not do this evil, Though millions help thee. He goes out with Timocles, Phayllus, Callicrates and the others of his party. PHILOCTETES Can we hold the house And seize the city? We are many here.
THOAS Nicanor’s troops hold Antioch.
Page – 260 LEOSTHENES Not here, not here. Out to the army on the marches! There Is Syria’s throne, not here in Antioch.
ANTIOCHUS Mentho, Go with us. Gather swiftly all our strength, Then out to Parthia! Page – 261
A hall in the Palace. Rodogune, Eunice.
RODOGUNE God gave my heart and mind; they are not hers To force into this vile adultery. I am a Parthian princess, of a race Who choose one lord and cleave to him for ever Through death, through fire, through swords, in hell, in heaven.
EUNICE The Queen’s too broken. It was Phayllus said it. He has leaped into the saddle of affairs And is already master. What can we hope for Left captive in such hands? Not Syria’s throne Shall you ascend beside your chosen lord, But as a slave the bed of Timocles.
RODOGUNE If we remain! But who remains to die? In Parthian deserts, in Antiochus’ tents! There we can smile at danger.
EUNICE Yes, oh, yes! Deserts for us are safe, not Antioch. Come. Antiochus and Philoctetes enter from without. ANTIOCHUS I sought for you, Eunice, Rodogune. To saddle! for our bridal pomp and torches
Page – 262 Are other than we looked for. Phayllus enters from within with Theras. PHAYLLUS Today, no later. The Egyptian rebel ravishes our queen! Help! help!
ANTIOCHUS Off, Syrian weasel! He flings off Phayllus and goes out with Eunice, Rodogune, Philoctetes. PHAYLLUS Theras, pursue them! Theras hastens out; Phayllus rushes to the window. Antiochus escapes! Oppose him, sentinels. A thousand pieces for his head! He’s through. O for a speedy arrow! Timocles enters with Cleone. TIMOCLES Who escapes?
PHAYLLUS Thy brother, forcing with him Rodogune, And with them fled Eunice.
TIMOCLES Rodogune!
PHAYLLUS By force he carried her.
TIMOCLES O no, she went Smiling and glad. O thou unwise Phayllus,
Page – 263 Why dost thou stay with me, a man that’s doomed? He will come back and mount his father’s throne And rule the nations. Why wouldst thou be slain? All, all’s for him and ever was. I have had Light loves, light friends, but no one ever loved me Whom I desired. So was it in our boyhood’s days, So it persists. He is preferred in heaven And earth is his and his humanity. Even my own mother is a Niobe Because he has renounced her.
PHAYLLUS I understand, Seeing this, the reason.
TIMOCLES Why should he always have the things I prize? What is his friendship but a selfish need Of souls to unbosom himself to, who will share, Mirror and serve his greatness? Yet it was he The clear discerning Philoctetes chose; Upon his shoulder leaned my royal uncle Preferring him to admonish and to love; On me he only smiled as one too light For praise or censure. What’s his kingliness But a lust of grandiose slaughter, an ambition Almost inhuman and a haughty mind That lifts itself above the highest heads As if his mortal body held a god And all were mean to him? Yet proudest men, Thoas, Theramenes, Leosthenes, Become unasked his servants. What’s his love? A despot’s sensual longing for a slave, Carnal, imperious, harsh, without respect, The hunger of the vital self, not raised, Refined, uplifted to the yearning heart. Yet Rodogune, my Rodogune to him
Page – 264 Has offered up her moonlit purity, Her secret need of sweetness. O she has Unveiled to him her sweet proud heart of love. She would not look at me who worshipped her. You too, Phayllus, go, Cleone, go And serve him in his tents: the future’s there, Not on this brittle throne with which the gods In idle sport have mocked me.
PHAYLLUS There must be a man Somewhere within this!
CLEONE You shall not speak so to him. Look round, King Timocles, and see how many Prefer you to your brother. I am yours, Phayllus works for you, princely Nicanor Protects you, famed Callicrates supports. Your mother only weeps in fear for you, Not passion for your brother.
TIMOCLES Rodogune Has left me.
PHAYLLUS We will have her back. Today Began, today shall end this rash revolt. Rise up, King Timocles, and be thyself, Possess thy throne, recover Rodogune.
TIMOCLES I cannot live unless you bring her back.
PHAYLLUS That is already seen to. My couriers ride
Page – 265 Before them to Thrasyllus on the hills. Their flight will founder there.
TIMOCLES O subtle, quick And provident Phayllus! Thou, thou, deviser, Art the sole minister for me. Cleone, The gods have made thee wholly beautiful That thou mightst love me. He goes out with Cleone. PHAYLLUS Minister! That’s something, Not all I work for. (to Theras who enters) Well? THERAS He has escaped. Your throw this time was bungled, Chancellor.
PHAYLLUS I saw his rapid flight; but afterwards?
THERAS The band of Syrian Phliaps kept the gates. We shouted loud, but he more quick, more high, Like some clear-voiced Tyrrhenian trumpet cried, “Syrians, I am your king,” and they at once, “Hail, glorious King!” and followed at his word, Galloping, till on the Orient road they seemed Like specks on a white ribbon.
PHAYLLUS Let them go. There’s yet Thrasyllus. Or if he returns, Though gods should help, though victory march his friend, I am here to meet him.
Page – 266
Under the Syrian hills. Antiochus, his generals, soldiers; Eunice, Rodogune, Mentho.
ANTIOCHUS What god has moved them from their passes sheer Where they were safe from me?
THOAS They have had word, No doubt, to take us living.
LEOSTHENES On!
THOAS They are Three thousand, we six hundred armed men. Shall we go forward?
LEOSTHENES Onward, still, I say!
ANTIOCHUS Yes, on! I turn not back lest my proud Fate Avert her eyes from me. A hundred guard The princesses. He goes, followed by Thoas, Leosthenes, Philoctetes. EUNICE He’ll break them like sea-spray;
Page – 267 They shall not stand before him.
RODOGUNE You missioned angels, guard Antiochus. As she speaks, the Eremite enters and regards her. EUNICE He is through them, he is through them! How they scatter Before his sword! My warrior!
RODOGUNE Who is this man, Eunice? He is terrible to me.
EREMITE Who art thou rather, born to be a torch To kingdoms? Is not thy beauty, rightly seen, More terrible to men than monstrous forms Which only frighten?
EUNICE What if kingdoms burn, So they burn grandly?
EREMITE Spirits like thine think so. Princess of Antioch, hast thou left thy father To follow younger eyes? Alas, thou knowst not Where they shall lead thee! It is to gates accursed And by a dolorous journey.
EUNICE Beyond all portals I’ld follow! I am a woman of the Greeks Who fear not death nor hell. Antiochus returns.
Page – 268 ANTIOCHUS Our swords have hewn A road for us. Who is this flamen?
EREMITE Hail! “Rejoice” I cannot say, but greet Antiochus Who never shall be king.
ANTIOCHUS Who art thou, speak, Who barst with such ill-omened words my way Discouraging new-born victory? What thou knowest, Declare! Curb not thy speech. I have a mind Stronger than omens.
EREMITE I am the appointed voice Who come to tell thee thou shalt not be king, But at thy end shall yield to destiny For all thy greatness, genius, pride and force Even as the tree that falls. March then no farther, For in thy path Fate hostile stands.
ANTIOCHUS If Fate Would have me yield, let her first break me. On!
EREMITE The guardians of the path then wait for thee Vigilant lest the world’s destiny be foiled By human greatness. March on to thy doom.
ANTIOCHUS I will. Straight on, whatever doom it be!
Page – 269 EREMITE Farewell, thou mighty Syrian, soul misled, Strength born untimely! We shall meet again When death shall lead thee into Antioch. He goes. ANTIOCHUS March. Page – 270 |