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Act IV
The countryside, high ground near the city of Cepheus. A crowd of Syrians, men and women, running in terror, among them Chabrias, Megas, Baltis, Pasithea, Morus, Gardas, Syrax.
B ALTIS (stopping and sinking down on her knees)Ah, whither can we run where the offended Poseidon shall not reach us?
C HABRIASStop, countrymen; Let’s all die here together.
OTHERS Let’s stop and die.
M EGASRun, run! Poseidon’s monsters howl behind.
PASITHEA O day of horror and of punishment!
SYRAX Let us stay here; it is high ground, perhaps The monster will not reach us. Damoetes enters. DAMOETES I have seen the terror near, and yet I live.
Page – 441 It vomits fire for half a league.
SYRAX It is As long as a sea-jutting promontory.
DAMOETES It has six monstrous legs.
SYRAX Eight, eight; I saw it.
MEGAS Chabrias, it caught thy strong son by the foot, And dashed his head against a stone, that all The brains were scattered.
CHABRIAS Alas, my son! I will Go back and join you in the monster’s jaws. He is stopped by the others. DAMOETES It seized thy daughter, O Pasithea, And tore her limbs apart, which it devoured While yet the trunk lay screaming under its foot.
PASITHEA Oh God! She swoons. ALL Lift her up, lift her up. Alas!
M EGASThese sorrows may be ours. Page – 442 BALTIS Ah Heaven, my son! I did not wake him when this news of horror Plucked me from sleep.
GARDAS My wife and little daughter Are in my cottage where perhaps the monster Vomits his fiery breath against the door. I will go back.
MORUS Let us go back, Damoetes.
DAMOETES I’ll not go back for twenty thousand wives And children. Life is sweet.
MANY VOICES Let us not go. They stop Gardas. M EGASWhat noise is that?
BALTIS Run, run, ’tis some new horror. All are beginning to run. Therops enters. THEROPS Where will you run? Poseidon’s wrath is near you And over you and behind you and before you. His monsters from the ooze ravage howling Along our shores, and the indignant sea Swelled to unnatural tumultuous mountains Is climbing up the cliffs with spume and turmoil.
Page – 443 DAMOETES O let us run a hundred leagues and live.
THEROPS Before you is another death. Last night The Assyrians at three points came breaking in Across the border and the frontier forces Are slain. They torture, burn and violate: Young girls and matrons, men and boys are butchered. Salvation is not in your front and flight Casts you from angry gods to men more ruthless. I wonder not that you are silent, stunned With fear: but will you listen, countrymen, And I will show you a cure for these fierce evils.
VOICES Oh tell us, tell us, you shall be our king.
M EGASWe’ll set thy image by the great Poseidon’s And worship it.
THEROPS What is the unexampled cause of wrath Which whelms you with these horrors? Is’t not the bold Presumptuous line of Cepheus? Is’t not your kings Whose pride, swollen by your love and homage, Syrians, Insults the gods, rescues Poseidon’s victims And with a sacrilegious levity Exposes all your lives to death and woe? There is the fount of all your misery, Syrians, For this the horror eats you up, — your kings.
CRIES Away with them! throw them into the sea — let Poseidon swallow them!
Page – 444 THEROPS But most I blame the fell Chaldean woman Who rules you. What is this Cepheus but a puppet Dressed up in royal seemings, pushed forth and danced At her caprice? Unhappy is the land That women rule, that country more unhappy That is to heartless foreigners a prey. But thou, O ill-starred Syria, two worst evils Hast harboured in a single wickedness. What cares the light Chaldean for your gods, Your lives, your sons, your daughters? She lives at ease Upon the revenues of your hard toil, Depending on favourites, yes, on paramours, — For why have women favourites but to ease Their sensual longings? — and insults your deities. Do you not think she rescued the Chaldeans Because they were her countrymen, and used Her daughter, young Andromeda, for tool That her fair childish beauty might disarm Wrath and suspicion? then, the crime unearthed, Braved all and set her fierce Chaldeans’ swords Against the good priest Polydaon’s heart, — You did not hear that? — the good Polydaon Who serves Poseidon with such zeal! Therefore The god is angry: your wives, sisters, daughters Must suffer for Chaldean Cassiopea.
CRIES Let us seize her and kill, kill, kill, kill her!
DAMOETES Burn her! MORUS Roast her! Page – 445 MEGAS Tear her into a million fragments.
CHABRIAS But are they not our kings? We must obey them.
THEROPS Wherefore must we obey them? Kings are men, And they are set above their fellow-mortals To serve us, friends, — not, surely, for our hurt! Why should our sons and daughters bleed for them, Syrians? Is not our blood as dear, as precious, As human? Why should these kings, these men, go clad In purple and in velvet while you toil For little and are hungry and are naked?
CRIES True, true, true!
G ARDASThis is a wonderful man, this Therops. He has a brain, countrymen.
DAMOETES A brain! He is no cleverer than you or I, Morus.
MORUS I should think not, Damoetes!
DAMOETES We knew these things long ago and did not need wind-bag Therops to tell us!
MORUS We have talked them over often, Damoetes. Page – 446 MEGAS We’ll have no more kings, countrymen.
CRIES No kings, no kings!
GARDAS Or Therops shall be king.
CRIES Yes, Therops king! Therops king!
DAMOETES Good king Lungs! Oh, let us make him king, Morus, — he will not pass wind in the market-place so often.
THEROPS Poseidon is our king; we are his people. Gods we must worship; why should we worship men And set a heavenly crown on mortal weakness? They have offended against great Poseidon, They are guilty of a fearful sacrilege. Let them perish.
CRIES Kill them! let us appease Poseidon.
CHABRIAS Worship Heaven’s power but bow before the king.
THEROPS What need have we of kings? What are these kings?
CHABRIAS They are the seed of gods. Page – 447 T HEROPSThen, let them settle Themselves their quarrel with their Olympian kindred. Why should we suffer? Let Andromeda Be exposed and Iolaus sacrificed: Then shall Poseidon’s wrath retire again Into the continent of his vast billows.
CHABRIAS If it must be so, let it come by award Of quiet justice.
THEROPS Justice! They are the judges Who did the crime. Wherefore dost thou defend them? Thou favourest then Poseidon’s enemies?
CRIES Kill him too, kill Chabrias. Poseidon, great Poseidon! we are Poseidon’s people.
DAMOETES Let him join his son and by the same road.
MORUS Beat his brains out — to see if he has any. Ho! ho! ho!
THEROPS Let him alone: he is a fool. Here comes Our zealous good kind priest, our Polydaon. Polydaon enters. CRIES Polydaon! Polydaon! the good Polydaon! Save us, Polydaon!
POLYDAON Ah, do you call me now to save you? Last night Page – 448 You did not save me when the foreign swords Were near my heart.
MEGAS Forgive us and protect.
DAMOETES You, lead us to the palace, be our chief.
MORUS We’ll have no kings: lead, you: on to the palace!
MEGAS Poseidon shall be king, thou his vicegerent.
GARDAS Therops at thy right hand!
CRIES Yes, Therops! Therops!
POLYDAON Oh, you are sane now, being let blood by scourgings! Unhurt had been much better. But Poseidon Pardons and I will save.
CRIES Polydaon for ever, the good Polydaon, Poseidon’s Viceroy!
POLYDAON Swear then to do Poseidon’s will.
CRIES We swear!
DAMOETES Command and watch the effect! Page – 449 P OLYDAONWill not the tongue Of Cassiopea once more change you, people?
DAMOETES We’ll cut it out and feed her dogs with it.
POLYDAON Shall Iolaus bleed? Andromeda Be trailed through the city and upon the rocks, As the god wills, flung naked to his monsters? Cepheus and Cassiopea die?
CRIES They shall!
MEGAS Not one of them shall live.
POLYDAON Then come, my children.
DAMOETES But the beast! Will it not tear us on the road?
POLYDAON It will not hurt you who do Poseidon’s will. I am your safeguard; I will march in front.
CRIES To the palace, to the palace! We’ll kill the Chaldeans, strangle Cepheus, tear the Queen to pieces.
POLYDAON In order, in good order, my sweet children. The mob surges out following Polydaon and Therops: only Damoetes, Chabrias, Baltis and Pasithea are left. Page – 450 DAMOETES Come, Chabrias, we’ll have sport.
CHABRIAS My dead son calls me. He goes out in another direction. BALTIS Pasithea, rise and come: you’ll see her killed Who is the murderess of your daughter.
PASITHEA Let me Stay here and die.
DAMOETES Lift her up. Come, fool. They go out, leading Pasithea. Page – 400
Cydone’s Garden. Cydone, Iolaus, Perseus.
C YDONEPerseus, you did not turn him into stone?
IOLAUS You cruelty! must one go petrifying One’s fellows through the world? ‘Twould not be decent.
CYDONE He would have been so harmless as a statue!
PERSEUS The morning has broken over Syria and the sun Mounts royally into his azure kingdom. I feel a stir within me as if great things Were now in motion and clear-eyed Athene Urging me on to high and helpful deeds. There is a grandiose tumult in the air, A voice of gods and Titans locked in wrestle. Diomede enters. DIOMEDE Ah, prince! She bursts into tears. IOLAUS Diomede, what calamity? Page – 452 DIOMEDE Flee, flee from Syria, save thyself.
IOLAUS From Syria! Am I alone in peril? Then I’ll sit And wait.
DIOMEDE Poseidon’s monsters from the deep Arise to tear us for our sin. The people In fury, led by Polydaon, march Upon the palace, crying, “Slay the King, Butcher the Queen, and let Andromeda And Iolaus die.” O my sweet playmate, They swear they’ll bind her naked to the rocks Of the sea-beach for the grim monster’s jaws To tear and swallow.
IOLAUS My sword, my sword, Cydone!
DIOMEDE Oh, go not to the fierce and bloody people! Praxilla stole me out, hiding my face In her grey mantle: I have outrun the wind To warn you. Had the wild mob recognised me, They would have torn me into countless pieces, And will you venture near whose name they join With death and cursings? Polydaon leads them.
CYDONE Had he been only stone!
IOLAUS My sword! Cydone gives him the sword. Perseus goes out to the cottage. Page – 453 DIOMEDE You’ll go? What will you do alone against ten thousand?
IOLAUS To die is always easy. This canaille I do not fear; it is a coward rabble.
DIOMEDE But terror gives them fierceness: they are dangerous.
IOLAUS Keep Diomede for your service, love, If I am killed; escape hence with your mother To Gaza; she has gold: you may begin A life as fair there. Sometimes remember me.
CYDONE Diomede, will you comfort my dear mother? Tell her I am quite safe and will be back By nightfall. Hush! this in your ear, Diomede. Escape with her under the veil of night, For I shall not come back. Be you her daughter And comfort her sad lonely age, Diomede.
IOLAUS What do you mean, Cydone?
CYDONE Are you ready? Let us be going.
IOLAUS Us, sweet lunatic?
CYDONE Often you’ve said that you and I are only one, I shall know now if you mean it. Page – 454 IOLAUS You shall not give To the rude mob’s ferocious violence The beautiful body I have kissed so often. You’ll not obey me?
CYDONE No.
IOLAUS Leave this you shall not.
CYDONE I do not know how you will stop me.
IOLAUS Shrew! You shall be stopped by bonds. Here you’ll remain Tied to a tree-trunk by your wilful wrists Till all is over. Perseus returns, armed. CYDONE I’ll bring the tree and all and follow you.
IOLAUS Oh, will you, Hercules?
PERSEUS Forbid her not, My Iolaus; no tress of her shall fall. I have arisen and all your turbulent Syria Shall know me for the son of Zeus.
IOLAUS Perseus, Art thou indeed a god? What wilt thou do, Page – 455 One against a whole people? What way hast thou?
PERSEUS This is no hour to speak or plan, but to act. A presence sits within my heart that sees Each moment’s need and finds the road to meet it. Dread nothing; I am here to help and save.
IOLAUS I had almost forgotten; the might thou hast shown Is a sufficient warrant.
CYDONE I shall come back, Diomede.
PERSEUS My grip is firm on Herpe, Athene’s aegis guards my wrist; herself The strong, omnipotent and tranquil goddess Governs my motions with her awful will. Have trust in me. Borne on my bright-winged sandals Invisibly I will attend your course On the light breezes. He goes out followed by Iolaus and Cydone. DIOMEDE I am too tired to follow, Too daunted with their mad-beast howls. Here let me hide Awaiting what event this war of gods May bring to me and my sweet-hearted lady. O my Andromeda! my little playmate! She goes out towards the cottage weeping. Page – 456
A room commanding the outer Court of the Palace. Nebassar, Praxilla.
P RAXILLAI have seen them from the roof; at least ten thousand March through the streets. Do you not hear their rumour, A horrid hum as of unnumbered hornets That slowly nears us?
NEBASSAR If they are so many, It will be hard to save the princess.
PRAXILLA Save her! It is too late now to save anyone.
NEBASSAR I fear so.
PRAXILLA But never is too late to die As loyal servants for the lords whose bread We have eaten. At least we women of the household Will show the way to you Chaldeans.
NEBASSAR We are soldiers, Praxilla, and need no guidance on a road We daily tread in prospect. I’ll bring my guards. He goes out saluting Cassiopea who enters.
Page – 457 CASSIOPEA Swift Diomede must have reached by now, Praxilla.
PRAXILLA I hope so, madam. She goes out to the inner apartments. CASSIOPEA Then Iolaus Is safe. My sad heart has at least that comfort. O my Andromeda, my child Andromeda, Thou wouldst not let me save thee. Hadst thou too gone, I would have smiled when their fierce fingers rent me. Cepheus enters. CEPHEUS The mob is nearing; all my Syrian guards Have fled; we cannot hope for safety now.
CASSIOPEA Then what is left but to set rapid fire To the rafters and prevent on friendly swords The rabble’s outrage?
CEPHEUS Was it for such a fate Thou camest smiling from an emperor’s palace, O Cassiopea, Cassiopea!
CASSIOPEA For me Grieve not.
CEPHEUS O Lady, princess of Chaldea, Pardon me who have brought thee to this doom. Page – 458 Yet I meant well and thought that I did wisely: But the gods wrest our careful policies To their own ends until we stand appalled Remembering what we meant to do and seeing What has been done.
CASSIOPEA With no half soul I came To share thy kingdom and thy joys; entirely I came, to take the evil also with thee.
CEPHEUS Is there no truth in our high-winging ideals? My rule was mild as spring, kind as the zephyr: It tempered justice with benevolence And offered pardon to the rebel and sinner; I showed mercy, the rare sign of gods and kings. In this too difficult world, this too brief life To serve the gods with virtue seemed the best. A nation’s happiness was my only care: I made the people’s love my throne’s sure base And dreamed the way I chose true, great, divine. But the heavenly gods have other thoughts than man’s; Their awful aims transcend our human sight. Another doom than I had hoped they gave.
CASSIOPEA A screened Necessity drives even the gods. Over human lives it strides to unseen ends; Our tragic failures are its stepping-stones.
CEPHEUS My father lived calm, just, pitiless, austere, As a stern god might sway a prostrate world: Admired and feared, he died a mighty king. My end is this abominable fate. Page – 459 CASSIOPEA Another law than mercy’s rules the earth.
CEPHEUS If I had listened to thee, O Cassiopea, Chance might have taken a fairer happier course. Always thou saidst to me, “The people’s love Is a glimmer on quicksands in a gliding sea: Today they are with thee, tomorrow turn elsewhere. Wisdom, strength, policy alone are sure.” I thought I better knew my Syrian folk. Is this not my well-loved people at my door, This tiger-hearted mob with bestial growl, This cry for blood to drink, this roar of hate? Always thou spok’st to me of the temple’s power, A growing danger menacing the State, Its ambition’s panther crouch and serpent pride And cruel craft in a priest’s sombre face: I only saw the god and sacred priest. To priest and god I am thrown a sacrifice. The golden-mouthed orator of the market-place, Therops, thou bad’st me fear and quell or win Gaining his influence to my side. To me He seemed a voice and nothing but a voice. Too late I learn that human speech has power To change men’s hearts and turn the stream of Time. Thy eyes could read in Phineus’ scheming brain. I only thought to buy the strength of Tyre Offering my daughter as unwilling price. He has planned my fall and watches my agony. At every step I have been blind, have failed: All was my error; all’s lost and mine the fault.
CASSIOPEA Blame not thyself; what thou hadst to be, thou wert, And never yet came help from vain remorse. It is too late, too late. To die is left; Page – 460 Fate and the gods concede us nothing more.
CEPHEUS But strength to meet the doom is always ours. In royal robes and crowned we will show ourselves To our people and look in the eyes of death and fate. What is this armoured tramp? The Chaldean guards enter with Nebassar at their head. CAPTAINS O King, we come To die with thee, the soldiers of Chaldea; For all in Syria have abandoned thee.
C EPHEUSI thank you, soldiers.
CRIES OUTSIDE Poseidon, great Poseidon! we are Poseidon’s people. In, in, in! Kill the cuckold Cepheus, tear the harlot Cassiopea.
C EPHEUSVoices of insolent outrage Proclaim the heartless rabble. On the steps Of our own palace we’ll receive our subjects.
CASSIOPEA This, this becomes thee, monarch.
NEBASSAR Soldiers, form With serried points before these mighty sovereigns. The mob surges in, Therops and Perissus at their head, Polydaon a little behind, Damoetes, Morus and the rest. Praxilla and others of the household come running in.
Page – 461 MOB On them! on them! Cut the Chaldeans to pieces!
THEROPS Halt, people, halt: let there be no vain bloodshed.
CASSIOPEA Here is a tender-hearted demagogue!
THEROPS Cepheus and Cassiopea, ’tis vain and heinous To dally with your fate; it will only make you More criminal before the majesty Of the offended people.
CEPHEUS Majesty!
CASSIOPEA An unwashed majesty and a wolf-throated!
THEROPS Insolent woman, to thee I speak not. Cepheus, —
CEPHEUS Use humbler terms. I am thy King as yet.
THEROPS The last in Syria. Tell me, wilt thou give up Thy children to the altar, and thyself Surrender here with this Chaldean woman For mercy or judgment to the assembled will Of Syria?
CASSIOPEA A tearing mercy, a howling judgment! Page – 462 POLYDAON Therops, why do you treat with these? Chaldeans! And you, Praxilla! women of the household! Bring out the abominable Andromeda Who brought the woe on Syria. Why should you vainly Be ripped and mangled?
CRIES OF WOMEN Bring out Andromeda! Bring out the harlot’s daughter, bring her out!
C RIES OF MENAndromeda! Andromeda! Andromeda! Bring out this vile Andromeda to die! Andromeda enters from the inner Palace, followed by slave-girls entreating and detaining her. P RAXILLA (sorrowfully)Wilt thou be wilful even to the end?
CASSIOPEA Alas, my child!
ANDROMEDA Mother, weep not for me. Perhaps my death May save you; and ’tis good that I should die, Not these poor innocent people. Against me Their unjust god is wroth.
CEPHEUS O my poor sunbeam!
ANDROMEDA (advancing and showing herself to the people) O people who have loved me, you have called me And I am here. A fierce roar from the mob. Page – 463 T HEROPSHow she shrinks back appalled!
PRAXILLA God! What a many-throated howl of demons! Their eyes glare death. These are not men and Syrians. The fierce Poseidon has possessed their breasts And breathed his awful blood-lust into all hearts Deafening the voice of reason, slaying pity: Poseidon’s rage glares at us through these eyes, It is his ocean roar that fills our streets. Cries from the mob. BALTIS Seize her! seize her! the child of wickedness!
VOICES OF WOMEN Throw her to us! throw her to us! We will pick The veins out of her body one by one.
DAMOETES Throw her to us! We will burn her bit by bit.
MORUS Yes, cook her alive; no, Damoetes? Ho, ho, ho!
VOICES OF MEN She has killed our sons and daughters: kill her, kill her!
V OICES OF WOMENShe is the child of her wicked mother: kill her!
M OBThrow her to us! throw her to us!
MEGAS We’ll tear her here, and the furies shall tear her afterwards for ever in Hell.
Page – 464 THEROPS Peace, people! she is not yours, she is Poseidon’s.
ANDROMEDA Alas, why do you curse me? I am willing To die for you. If I had known this morn The monster’s advent, I would have gone and met him While you yet slept, and saved your poor fair children Whose pangs have been my own. Had I died first, I should not then have suffered. O my loved people, You loved me too: when I went past your homes, You blessed me always; often your girls and mothers Would seize and bind me to their eager breasts With close imprisonment, kiss on their doorways And with a smiling soft reluctance leave. O do not curse me now! I can bear all, But not your curses.
PERISSUS Alack, my pretty lady! What madness made you do it?
POLYDAON She has rewarded Your love by bringing death upon you, Syrians, And now she tries to melt you by her tears.
MOB Kill her, kill her! Cut the Chaldeans to pieces! We will have her!
P ASITHEAO do not hurt her! She is like my child Whom the fierce monster tore.
MEGAS Unnatural mother! Would you protect her who’s cause your child was eaten?
Page – 465 PASITHEA Will killing her give back my child to me?
MEGAS No, it will save the children of more mothers.
DAMOETES Gag up her puling mouth, the white-faced fool!
VOICES Tear, tear Andromeda! Seize her and tear her!
W OMENLet us only get at her with our teeth and fingers!
NEBASSAR Use swords, Chaldeans.
POLYDAON Order, my children, order! Chaldean, give us up Andromeda, And save your King and Queen.
NEBASSAR What, wilt thou spare them?
CASSIOPEA Thou wilt not give my child to him, Nebassar? Thou dar’st not!
NEBASSAR Queen, ’tis better one should die For all.
POLYDAON I swear to thee, I will protect them. Page – 466 CASSIOPEA Trust not his oaths, his false and murderous oaths.
NEBASSAR He is a priest: if we believe him, nothing We lose, something may gain.
MEGAS What wilt thou do? The people do not like it. See, they mutter.
POLYDAON Let me have first their daughter in my grip, Be sure of the god’s dearest victim. People, I am Poseidon’s priest and your true friend. Leave all to me.
CRIES Leave all to Polydaon! the good priest knows what he is doing.
POLYDAON Soldier, give up the Princess.
NEBASSAR Shall she be only given to Poseidon? Will you protect her from worse outrage?
POLYDAON I will.
PRAXILLA Look! what a hideous triumph lights the eyes Of that fierce man. He glares at her with greed Like a wild beast of prey, and on his mouth There is a cruel unclean foam. Nebassar, O do not give her.
Page – 467 N If there were any help! Go forth, O princess, O Andromeda.
CASSIOPEA My child! my child!
ANDROMEDA Give me one kiss, my mother. We shall yet meet, I think. My royal father, Andromeda farewells you, whom you loved And called your sunbeam. But the night receives me.
CEPHEUS Alas!
DAMOETES How long will these farewells endure? They are not needed: you shall meet presently If Death’s angels can collect your tattered pieces.
CASSIOPEA O savage Syrians, let my curses brood Upon your land, an anguished mother’s curse. May the Assyrian come and flay you living, Impale your sons, rip up your ravished daughters Before your agonising eyes and make you feel, Who drag my child from me to butcher her, The horror that you do. I curse you, Syrians.
ANDROMEDA Hush, mother, mother! what they demand is just.
NEBASSAR Lead back the King and Queen into the Palace, Women. We too will from this sad surrender Remove our eyes. Page – 468 CASSIOPEA I will not go. Let them tear her Before me: then surely Heaven will avenge me.
CEPHEUS Come, Cassiopea, come: our death’s delayed By a few minutes. I will not see her slain. Cepheus and Praxilla go in, forcibly leading Cassiopea; they are followed by the slave-girls and then by Nebassar and the Chaldeans: Andromeda is left alone on the steps. CRIES OF THE MOB SURGING FORWARD Drag her, kill her, she is ours.
POLYDAON Therops and thou, Perissus, stand in front And keep the people off, or they will tear her, Defraud Poseidon.
PERISSUS Cheer up, my princess, come! You shall be cleanly killed.
THEROPS People of Syria, Rob not Poseidon of his own! ’tis not the way To turn his anger.
VOICES Right, right! leave her to Poseidon: out with her to the sea-monster.
GARDAS Therops is always right.
DAMOETES We will have her first: we will dress his banquet for him: none shall say us nay.
Page – 469 MORUS Good; we will show Poseidon some excellent cookery. Ho, ho, ho!
MEGAS No, no, no! To the rocks with her! Strip her, the fine dainty princess, and hang her up in chains on the cliff-face.
A WOMAN Strip her! Off with her broidered robe and her silken tunic! Why should she wear such, when my daughter carries only coarse woollen?
A WOMAN (shaking her fist)Curse the white child’s face of thee: it has ruined Syria. Die, dog’s daughter.
DAMOETES Is she to die only once who has killed so many of us? I say, tie her to one of these pillars and flog her till she drops.
MORUS That’s right, skin her with whips: peel her for the monster, ho, ho, ho!
BALTIS Leave her: Hell’s tortures shall make the account even.
POLYDAON In order, children: let all be done in order.
THEROPS She droops like a bruised flower beneath their curses, And the tears lace her poor pale cheeks like frost Glittering on snowdrops. I am sorry now I had a hand in this. Page – 470 A NDROMEDAYou two have faces Less cruel than the others. I am willing To die, — oh, who would live to be so hated? But do not let them shame or torture me.
P ERISSUSOff! off! thick-brained dogs, loud-lunged asses! What do you do, yelping and braying here? Will you give a maimed meal to Poseidon’s man-hound? Do you know me not? Have you never heard of Perissus, never seen Perissus the butcher? I guard Poseidon’s meat, and whoever touches a morsel of it, I will make meat of him with my cleaver. I am Perissus, I am the butcher.
VOICES It is Perissus, the good and wealthy butcher. He is right. To the rocks with her!
VOICES OF WOMEN Bind her first: we will see her bound!
P ERISSUSIn all that is rational, I will indulge you. Where is a cord?
C RIESA cord, who has a cord?
DAMOETES Here is one, Perissus. ‘Tis rough and strong and sure.
PERISSUS Come, wear your bracelets.
ANDROMEDA O bind me not so hard! You cut my wrists. She weeps. Page – 471 P ERISSUSYou are too soft and tender. There, dry your eyes, — but that, poor slip, you cannot. See, I have tied you very lightly: say not That this too hurts.
ANDROMEDA I thank you; you are kind.
PERISSUS Kind! Why should I not be kind? Because I am a butcher must I have no bowels? Courage, little Princess: none shall hurt thee but thy sea- monster and he, I am sure, will crunch thy little bones very tenderly. Never had man-eater such sweet bones to crunch. Alack! but where is the remedy?
POLYDAON Now take her to the beach and chain her there Upon the rocks to bear her punishment. Perissus, lead her forth! We’ll follow you.
CRIES Not I! not I!
DAMOETES You’ld kill us, Polydaon? Poseidon’s anger walks by the sea-beaches.
POLYDAON The fierce sea-dragon will not hurt you, friends, Who bring a victim to Poseidon’s altar Of the rude solemn beaches. I’ll protect you.
CRIES We’ll go with Polydaon! with the good Polydaon!
POLYDAON Perissus, go before. We’ll quickly come.
Page – 472 PERISSUS Make way there or I’ll make it with my cleaver. Heart, little Princess! None shall touch thee. Heart! Perissus and others make their way out with Andromeda. POLYDAON Hem, people, hem the Palace in with myriads: We’ll pluck out Cepheus and proud Cassiopea.
CRIES Kill Cepheus the cuckold, the tyrant! Tear the harlot Cassiopea.
THEROPS Is this thy sacred oath? Had not Nebassar Thy compact, priest?
POLYDAON I swore not by Poseidon. Wilt thou oppose me?
THEROPS Thy perjury too much Favours my private wishes. Yet would I not Be thou with such a falsehood on my conscience.
POLYDAON Why, Therops, be thyself and thou shalt yet Be something great in Syria.
DAMOETES Where’s Iolaus? Shall he not also die?
POLYDAON Too long forgotten! O that I should forget my dearest hatred! Page – 473 By this he has concealed himself or fled And I am baulked of what I chiefly cherished.
T HEROPSOh, do them justice! the great house of Syria Were never cowards. The prince has been o’erwhelmed On his way hither with rash sword to rescue: So Aligattas tells, who came behind us. He’s taken to the temple.
POLYDAON Heard you?
MOB Hurrah!
BALTIS But what’s the matter now with our good priest? His veins are all out and his face is blood-red!
DAMOETES This joy is too great for him.
POLYDAON I am a god, A god of blood and roaring victory. Oh, blood in rivers! His heart out of his breast, And his mother there to see it! and I to laugh At her, to laugh!
THEROPS This is not sanity.
POLYDAON (controlling himself with a great effort) The sacrilegious house is blotted out Of Cepheus. Let not one head outlive their ending! Andromeda appoints the way to Hades Page – 474 Who was in crime the boldest, then her brother Yells on the altar: last Cepheus and his Queen —
CRIES Tear her! let the Chaldean harlot die.
POLYDAON She shall be torn! but not till she has seen The remnants of the thing that was her daughter: Not till her sweet boy’s heart has been plucked out Under her staring eyes from his red bosom. Till then she shall not die. But afterwards Strew with her fragments every street of the city.
CRIES Hear, hear Poseidon’s Viceroy, good Polydaon!
MEGAS In! in! cut off their few and foreign swordsmen.
CRIES In! in! let not a single Chaldean live. The mob rushes into the Palace; only Therops and Polydaon remain. POLYDAON Go, Therops, take good care of Cassiopea, Or she will die too mercifully soon.
THEROPS (aside) How shall we bear this grim and cruel beast For monarch, when all’s done? He is not human. He goes into the Palace. POLYDAON I have set Poseidon’s rage in human hearts; His black and awful Influence flows from me.
Page – 475 Thou art a mighty god, Poseidon, yet And mightily thou hast avenged thyself. The drama’s nearly over. Now to ring out The royal characters amid fierce howlings And splendid, pitiless, crimson massacre, — A great finale! Then, then I shall be King. (As he speaks, he gesticulates more wildly and his madness gains upon him.) Thou luckless Phineus, wherefore didst thou leave So fortunate a man for thy ally? The world shall long recall King Polydaon. I will paint Syria gloriously with blood. Hundreds shall daily die to incarnadine The streets of my city and my palace floors, For I would walk in redness. I’ll plant my gardens With heads instead of lilacs. Hecatombs Of men shall groan their hearts out for my pleasure In crimson rivers. I’ll not wait for shipwrecks. Assyrian captives and my Syrian subjects, Nobles and slaves, men, matrons, boys and virgins At matins and at vespers shall be slain To me in my magnificent high temple Beside my thunderous Ocean. I will possess Women each night, who the next day shall die, Encrimsoned richly for the eyes’ delight. My heart throngs out in words! What moves within me? I am athirst, magnificently athirst, And for a red and godlike wine. Whence came The thirst on me? It was not here before. ‘Tis thou, ’tis thou, O grand and grim Poseidon, Hast made thy scarlet session in my soul And growest myself. I am not Polydaon, I am a god, a mighty dreadful god, The multitudinous mover in the sea, The shaker of the earth: I am Poseidon And I will walk in three tremendous paces Climbing the mountains with my clamorous waters Page – 476 And see my dogs eat up Andromeda, My enemy, and laugh in my loud billows. The clamour of battle roars within the Palace! I have created it, I am Poseidon. Sitst thou, my elder brother, charioted In clouds? Look down, O brother Zeus, and see My actions! they merit thy immortal gaze. He goes into the Palace. Page – 477
On the road to the sea-shore. Phineus and his Tyrians.
P HINEUSA mightier power confounds our policies. Is’t Heaven? is’t Fate? What’s left me, I will take. ‘Tis best to rescue young Andromeda From the wild mob and bear her home to Tyre. She, when the roar is over, will be left My claim to Syria’s prostrate throne, which force, If not diplomacy shall re-erect And Tyre become the Syrian capital. I hear the trampling of the rascal mob.
CRIES OUTSIDE Drag her more quickly! To the rocks! to the rocks! Glory to great Poseidon!
PHINEUS Tyrians, be ready. Perissus and a number of Syrians enter leading Andromeda bound. SYRIANS To the rocks with her, to the rocks! bind her on the rocks.
PHINEUS Pause, rabble! Yield your prey to Tyrian Phineus. Lift up thy lovely head, Andromeda! For thou art saved. Page – 478 PERISSUS Who art thou with thy nose and thy fellows and thy spits?
PHINEUS Knowst thou me not? I am the royal Phineus. Yield up the Princess, fair Andromeda.
PERISSUS Art thou the royal Phineus and is this long nose thy sceptre? I am Perissus, the butcher. Stand aside, royal Phineus, or I will chop thee royally with my cleaver.
ANDROMEDA What wilt thou with me, King of Tyre?
PHINEUS Sweet rose, I come to save thee. I will carry thee, My bride, far from these savage Syrian tumults To reign in loyal Tyre. Thou art safe.
ANDROMEDA (sorrowfully)
Safe! My father and my mother are not safe Nor Iolaus: nor is Syria safe. Will you protect my people, when the god, Not finding me, his preferable victim, Works his fierce will on these?
PHINEUS Thou car’st for them? They have o’erwhelmed thee with foul insult, bound thee, Threatened thy lovely limbs with rascal outrage And dragged to murder!
ANDROMEDA But they are my people.
Page – 479 Perissus, lead me on. I will not go with him. P Thou strange and beautiful and marvellous child, Wilt thou or wilt thou not, by force I’ll have thee. Golden enchantment! thou art too rare a thing For others to possess. Run, rascal rabble! On, Tyrians!
PERISSUS Cleavers and axes to their spits!
ANDROMEDA King Phineus, pause! I swear I will prefer Death’s grim embrace rather than be thy wife Abandoning my people. ‘Tis a dead body Thou wilt rescue.
PHINEUS Is thy resolve unshakable?
ANDROMEDA It is.
PHINEUS Die then! To Death alone I yield thee. He goes out with his Tyrians. PERISSUS So then thou art off, royal Phineus! so thou hast evaporated, bold god of the Hittites! Thou hast saved thy royal nose from my cleaver.
SYRIANS On to the rocks! Glory to great Poseidon. They go leading Andromeda. Page – 400
The sea-shore.
Andromeda, dishevelled, bare-armed and unsandalled, stripped of all but a single light robe, stands on a wide low ledge under a rock jutting out from the cliff with the sea washing below her feet. She is chained to the rock behind her by her wrists and ankles, her arms stretched at full length against its side. Polydaon, Perissus, Damoetes and a number of Syrians stand near on the great rocky platform projecting from the cliff of which the ledge is the extremity.
P There meditate affronts to dire Poseidon. Rescue thyself, thou rescuer of victims! I am sorry that thy marriage, sweet Andromeda, So poorly is attended. I could have wished To have all Syria gazing at thy nuptials With thy rare Ocean bridegroom! Thy mother most Should have been here to see her lovely princess So meetly robed for bridal, with these ornaments Upon her pretty hands and feet. She has Affairs too pressing. We do some surgery Upon thy brother Iolaus’ heart To draw the bad blood out and make it holy, And she must watch the skilful operation. Do not weep, fair one. Soon, be confident, They’ll meet thee in that wide house where all are going. Think of these things until thy lover comes. Farewell.
PERISSUS Art thou mad, priest Polydaon? How thou grinnest and drawest
Page – 481 back thy black lips from thy white teeth in thy rapture! Hast
thou gone clean mad, my skilful carver of hearts! art thou beside thyself, my ancient schoolmate and crony? S To the temple! To the temple!
POLYDAON Let one remain above the cliff And watch the monster’s advent and his going. Till I have news of dead Andromeda The sacrifice cannot begin. Who stays?
DAMOETES Not I!
ALL Nor I! nor I! nor I!
DAMOETES As well stay here with the girl and be torn with her!
PERISSUS Do you quake, my brave shouters? must you curl your tails in between your manly legs? I will stay, priest, who fear neither dog nor dragon. I am Perissus, I am the butcher.
POLYDAON I’ll not forget thy service, good Perissus.
PERISSUS Will you then make me butcher-in-chief to your viceroy in Damascus and shall I cut my joints under the patronage of King Polydaon? To the temple, Syrian heroes! I will go and cross my legs on the cliff-top. They go. Andromeda is left alone. Curtain Page – 482 |