Collected Plays and Stories

 

CONTENTS

 

Pre-content

 

PLAYS

THE VIZIERS OF BASSORA

 

Rodogune

Act One

Act Two

Act Three

Act Four

Act Five

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE I

SCENE II  

SCENE III

SCENE IV

SCENE V

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

 

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE IV

SCENE V

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE IV

 

 

Perseus the Deliverer

Act One

Act Two

Act Three

Act Four

Act Five

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE IV

SCENE V

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

 

Eric

Act One

Act Two

Act Three

Act Four

Act Five

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE IV

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE I

 

Vasavadutta

 

Incomplete and Fragmentary Plays

The Witch of Ilni

Act One

 

Act Two

 

Act Three

SCENE I

SCENE II

 

SCENE I

 

 SCENE I

SCENE II

 

The House of Brut

Act  twO

 

SCENE I

 

The Maid in the Mill

Act One

 

 

 

Act Two

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE Iii

SCENE Iv

SCENE v

 

 

 

SCENE I

 

The Prince of Edur

The Prince of Mathura

Act  One

SCENE I

 

The Birth of Sin

Act ONE

 

Fragment of a Play

Act  One

SCENE I

 

STORIES

Occult Idylls

The Phantom Hour

 The Door at Abelard

 

Incomplete and Fragmentary Stories

Fictional Jottings

Fragment of a Story

The Devil's Mastiff

The Golden Bird

 

 

Act V

 

The Palace in Antioch.

 

Scene 1

 

A hall in the Palace.

Phayllus, alone.

 

PHAYLLUS

My brain has loosened harder knots than this.

Timocles gets by this his Rodogune;

That's one thing gained. Tonight or else tomorrow

I'll have her in his bed though I have to hale her

Stumbling to it through her own husband's blood.

For he must die. He is too great a man

To be a subject: nor is that his intention

Who hides some subtler purpose. Exile would free him

For more stupendous mischief. Death! But how?

There is this Syrian people, there is Timocles

Whose light unstable mind like a pale leaf

Trembles, desires, resolves, renounces.

Timocles enters.

TIMOCLES

Phayllus,

It is the high gods bring about this good.

My great high brother, strong Antiochus

To come and kneel to me! No hatred more!

He is the brother whom I loved in Egypt.

 

Page – 293


PHAYLLUS

Oh, wilt thou always be, thou shapeless soul,

Clay for each passing circumstance to alter?

 

TIMOCLES

Do you not think I have only now to ask

And he will give me Rodogune? She's not his wife!

Cast always together in the lonely desert,

Long nearness must have wearied him of her;

For he was never a lover. O Phayllus,

When so much has been brought about, will you tell me

This will not happen too? I am sure the gods

Intend this.

 

PHAYLLUS

So you think Antiochus comes

To lay his lofty head below your foot?

You can believe it! Truly, if you think that,

There's nothing left that cannot be believed.

This soul that dreamed of conquests at its birth,

This strong overweening swift ambitious man

Whom victory disappoints, to whom continents

Seem narrow, will submit, you say, —  to you?

You'll keep him for your servant?

 

TIMOCLES

What is it you hint?

Stroke not your chin! Speak plainly. Do you know,

I sometimes hate you!

 

PHAYLLUS

I care not, if you hear me

And let me guard you from your enemies.

 

TIMOCLES

I know you love me, but your thoughts are evil

To every other and your ways are worse.

Page – 294


Yet speak; what is it you fear?

 

PHAYLLUS

How should I know?

Yet this seems probable that having failed

By violent battle he is creeping in

To slay you silently. You smile at that?

It is the commonest rule of statesmanship

And History's strewn with instances. Believe it not;

Believe your wishes, not mankind's record;

Slumber till with the sword in you you wake

And he assumes your purple.

 

TIMOCLES (indifferently)

I hear, Phayllus. Let him give me Rodogune

And all's excused he has ever done to me.

 

PHAYLLUS

He will keep her and take all hearts besides

That ever loved you.

 

TIMOCLES (still indifferently)

I will see that first.

Cleopatra enters quickly.

CLEOPATRA

It is true, Timocles? It is even true!

Antiochus my son is coming to me,

Is coming to me!

 

TIMOCLES

Thus you love him still!

 

CLEOPATRA

He is my child, he has his father's face.

And I shall have my Parthian Rodogune

With her sweet voice and gentle touch, and her,

Page – 295


My darling, my clear-eyed delight, Eunice,

And I shall not be lonely any more.

I have not been so happy since you came

From Egypt. But, O heaven! what followed that?

Will now no stark calamity arise

With Gorgon head to turn us into stone

Venging this glimpse of joy? Torn by your scourges

I fear you, gods, too much to trust your smile.

Nicanor enters.

NICANOR

Antiochus comes.

 

TIMOCLES

Hail, thou victorious captain,

Syria's strong rescuer!

 

NICANOR

Syria's rescuer comes,

Thy brother Antiochus who makes himself

A sword to smite thy dangerous enemies.

 

PHAYLLUS

You used not once to praise him so, Nicanor.

 

NICANOR

Because I knew not then his nobleness

Who had only seen his might.

 

PHAYLLUS

Yet had you promised

That if he entered Antioch, it would be chained

And naked, travelling to the pit or sword,

Nicanor.

 

NICANOR

He comes not as a prisoner,

Page – 296


But royally disdaining to enslave

For private ends his country to the Parthian.

 

TIMOCLES

Comes my dear brother soon?

 

NICANOR

Even at this moment

He enters.

 

TIMOCLES

Summon our court. Let all men's eyes behold

This reconciliation. I shall see

Next moment Rodogune!

There enter from one side Callicrates, Melitus,

Cleone, courtiers; from the other Antiochus, Eunice,

Rodogune, Thoas, Leosthenes, Philoctetes.

O brother, in my arms! Let this firm clasp

Be sign of the recovered amity

That binds once more for joy Nicanor's sons.

 

ANTIOCHUS

This is like thee, my brother Timocles.

Let all vain strife be banished from our souls.

My sword is thine, and I am thine and all

I have and love is thine, O Syrian Timocles,

Devoted to thy throne for Syria.

 

TIMOCLES

All?

Brother! O clasp me once again, Antiochus.

 

ANTIOCHUS

The Syrian land once cleansed of foemen, rescued

From these fierce perils, I shall have thy leave,

Brother, to voyage into distant lands;

But not till I have seen your Antioch joys

 

Page – 297


Of which they told us, I and my dear wife,

The Parthian princess Rodogune. See, brother,

How all things work out by a higher will.

Thou hast the Syrian kingdom, I have her

And my own soul for monarchy.

 

TIMOCLES

His wife!

 

MELITUS

The King is pale and gnaws his nether lip.

 

ANTIOCHUS

Mother, I kneel to you; raise me this time

And I will not be forward.

 

CLEOPATRA

My child! my child!

 

TIMOCLES

He will not give me Rodogune! And now he'll steal

My mother's heart. Captains, I welcome you:

You are my soldiers now.

 

LEOSTHENES

We thank thee, King.

We are thy brother's soldiers, therefore thine.

 

TIMOCLES

Yes! Philoctetes, old Egyptian friend,

You go not yet to Egypt?

 

PHILOCTETES

I know not where.

I have forgotten why I came from thence.

I hope that you will love your brother.

Page – 298


TIMOCLES

Him!

Oh yes, I'll love him.

 

ANTIOCHUS

Brother Timocles,

We have come far today; will you appoint us

Our chambers here?

TIMOCLES

I'll take you to them, brother.

All leave the hall except Cleone and Phayllus.

CLEONE

Is this their peace? But he'll have Rodogune

And I shall like a common flower be thrown

Into the dust-heap.

 

PHAYLLUS

Pooh!

CLEONE

 

I have eyes; I see.

Even then I knew I would be nothing to you

Once you were seated. I'll not be flung away!

Beware, Phayllus; for Antiochus lives.

 

PHAYLLUS

Make change of lovers then with Rodogune

While yet he lives.

 

CLEONE

I might do even that.

He has a beautiful body like a god's.

I will not have him slain.

Page – 299


PHAYLLUS

You may be his widow

If you make haste in marrying him; for soon

He will be carrion.

Timocles returns.

TIMOCLES

I'ld have a word with you,

Phayllus.

Cleone withdraws out of hearing.

Where will they put the Parthian Rodogune?

 

PHAYLLUS

Put her?

 

TIMOCLES

To sleep, dull ruffian! Her chamber! Where?

 

PHAYLLUS

Why, in one bed with Prince Antiochus.

 

TIMOCLES

Thou bitter traitor, dar'st thou say it too?

Art thou too leagued to slay me? Shall I bear it?

In my own palace! In one bed! O God!

I will go now and stab him through the heart

And drag her, drag her —

 

CLEONE (running to him)

The foam is on his lips!

 

PHAYLLUS

Restrain thy passions, King! He is transformed.

This is that curious devil, jealousy.

As if it mattered! He will have her soon.

Page – 300


TIMOCLES

Cleone, I thank you. When I think of this,

Something revolts within to strangle me

And tears my life out of my bosom. Phayllus,

You spoke of plots; where are they? Let me see them.

 

PHAYLLUS

That's hard. Are they not hidden in his breast?

 

TIMOCLES

Can you not tear them out?

 

PHAYLLUS

Torture your brother!

 

TIMOCLES

Torture his generals; let them howl their love for him!

Torture Eunice. Let truth come out twixt shrieks!

Number her words with gouts of blood!

 

PHAYLLUS

You'll hurt yourself.

Be calmer. Torture! To what purpose that?

It is not profitable.

 

TIMOCLES

I will have proofs.

Wilt thou thwart me, thou traitor, even thou?

Arrange his trial instantly, arrange

His exile.

 

PHAYLLUS

Exile! You might as well arrange

At once your ruin.

 

TIMOCLES

There shall be justice, justice.

 

Page – 301


Thou shalt be fairly judged, Antiochus.

I will not slay him. Exile! And Rodogune

With me in Antioch.

 

PHAYLLUS

Listen! the passing people sing his name.

They'll rise to rescue him and slay us all

As dogs are killed in summer. Command his death:

No man will rise for a dead carcase. Death,

Not exile! He'll return with Ptolemy

Or great Phraates, take your Syria from you,

Take Rodogune.

 

TIMOCLES

I give my power to you.

Try him and sentence him. But execution,

Let it be execution. I will have

No murder done. Arrange it.

He goes out followed by Cleone.

PHAYLLUS

While he's in the mood,

It must be quickly done. But that's to venture

With no support in Syria when it's done

Except this brittle king. It matters not.

Fortune will bear me out; she's grown my slave-girl.

What liberties have I not taken with her

Which she has suffered amorously, kinder grown

After each handling. Watch me, my only lover!

Sudden and swift shall be Phayllus' stroke.

Page – 302


Scene 2

Antiochus' chamber.

Cleopatra, Antiochus, Eunice, Rodogune.

 

CLEOPATRA

Eunice, cruel, heartless, sweet Eunice,

How could you leave me?

 

EUNICE

Pardon me, dear lady.

 

ANTIOCHUS

Mine was the error, mother.

 

CLEOPATRA

O my son,

If you had said that "mother" to me then,

All this had never happened.

 

ANTIOCHUS

I have been hard

To you, my mother, you to me your son.

We have both erred and it may be the gods

Will punish our offences even yet.

 

CLEOPATRA

O, say not that, my child. We must be happy;

I will have just a little happiness.

 

RODOGUNE

O, answer her with kisses, dear Antiochus.

Page – 303


CLEOPATRA

Do you too plead for me, sweet Parthian?

 

EUNICE

Cousin

Antiochus.

 

ANTIOCHUS

My heart is chastened and I love,

Mother, though even now I will not lie

And say I love you as a child might love

Who from his infancy had felt your clasp.

But, mother, give me time and if the gods

Will give it too, who knows? we may be happy.

Philoctetes enters.

PHILOCTETES

Pardon me, Madam, but my soul is harried

With fierce anxieties. You do not well

To linger with your son Antiochus.

A jealous anger works in Timocles

When he hears of it.

 

CLEOPATRA

Is't possible?

 

PHILOCTETES

Fear it!

Believe it!

 

CLEOPATRA (shuddering)

I will not give the gods a handle.

But I may take Eunice and your wife

To comfort me a little?

 

ANTIOCHUS

Go with her,

Page – 304


Eunice. Leave me for an hour, my Rodogune.

All go from the chamber except Antiochus.

When, when will the gods strike? I feel the steps

Of Doom about me. Open thy barriers, Death;

I would not linger underneath the stroke.

Phayllus enters with soldiers.

PHAYLLUS

Seize him! This is the prince Antiochus.

 

ANTIOCHUS

So soon! I said not farewell to my love.

Well, Syrian, dost thou carry only warrants

Or keeps the death-doom pace with thy arrest?

 

PHAYLLUS

Thy plots have been discovered, plotter.

 

ANTIOCHUS

Plots!

Vain subtle fool, I will not answer thee.

What matters the poor pretext? Guards, conduct me.

He goes out, guarded.

PHAYLLUS

Must thou be royal even in thy fall?

 

Page – 305


Scene 3

The same.

Eunice, Rodogune.

 

RODOGUNE

Will they not let me go and see him even?

 

EUNICE

We'll make our way to him and out for him

To Egypt, Egypt.

 

RODOGUNE

There's only one joy left,

To be with him whether we live or die.

 

EUNICE

You are too meek. Cleone helps us here

Whatever be the spring of her strange pity.

When we come back, Phayllus, we shall find out

Whether the ingenuity of men

Holds tortures huge enough for your deserts.

 

RODOGUNE

Why do you pace about with flaming eyes?

Be still and sit and put your hand in mine.

 

EUNICE

My Parthian sweetness! O, the gods are cruel

Who torture such a heart as thine.

 

RODOGUNE

Where is

 

Page – 306


My mother?

 

EUNICE

She is lying in her room

Dry-eyed and voiceless, gazing upon Fate

With eyes I dare not look at. Till tomorrow.

At dawn we'll have him out. Cleone bribes

The sentries; Thoas has horses and a ship

Wide-winged for Egypt, Egypt.

 

RODOGUNE

O yes, let us leave

Syria and cruel Antioch.

 

EUNICE

For a while.

I would have had him out tonight, my king,

But ruffian Theras keeps the watch till dawn.

How long will walls immure so huge a prisoner?

Trial! When he returns in arms from Egypt,

Try him, Phayllus. We must wait till dawn.

 

RODOGUNE

I shall behold him once again at dawn.

Page – 307


Scene 4

A guard-room in the Palace.

Antiochus, alone.

ANTIOCHUS

What were Death then but wider life than earth

Can give us in her clayey limits bound?

Darkness perhaps! There must be light behind.

As he speaks, Phayllus enters.

Who is it?

 

PHAYLLUS

Phayllus and thy conqueror.

 

ANTIOCHUS

In some strange warfare then!

 

PHAYLLUS

I came to see

Before thy end the greatness that thou wast;

For thou wert great as mortals measure. Thou hast

An hour to live.

 

ANTIOCHUS

Shorter were better.

 

PHAYLLUS

An hour!

It is strange. The beautiful strong Antiochus

In one brief hour and by a little stroke

Shall be mere rotten carrion for the flies

To buzz about.

Page – 308


ANTIOCHUS

Thinkest thou so, Phayllus?

 

PHAYLLUS

I know it, and in thy fall, because thou wert great,

I feel my greatness who am thy o'erthrower.

I long to probe the mightiness thou art

And know the thoughts that fill thee at this hour;

For it must come to me some day. The things

We are, do and are done to! Let it be.

Dost thou not ask to kiss thy wife? She'ld come,

Though she must leave thy brother's bed for it.

 

ANTIOCHUS

What a poor lie, Phayllus, for the great man

Thou thinkst thyself!

 

PHAYLLUS

Thou knowst not then for her

Thou diest, that his hungry arms may clasp

Her warm sweet body thou hast loved to kiss?

 

ANTIOCHUS

So didst thou work it? Thou art a rare study,

Thou Graeco-Syrian.

 

PHAYLLUS

I am what my clay

Has made me. It does not hurt thee then to know

That while thou art dying, they are hard at work

Even now before thy kingly corpse is cold?

 

ANTIOCHUS

What a blind owl thou art that seest the sun

And thinkst it darkness! Hence! I weary of thee.

Thou art too shallow after all. Outside

Is it the dawn?

Page – 309


PHAYLLUS

The dawn. Thou wak'st too early

For one who shall not sleep again.

 

ANTIOCHUS

Yes, sleep

I have done with; now for an immortal waking.

 

PHAYLLUS

That dream of fools! Thou art another man

Than any I have seen and to my eyes

Thou seemst a grandiose lack-wit. Yet in defeat

I could not move thee. I have limits then?

 

ANTIOCHUS

Yes, didst thou think thyself a god in evil

And souls of men thy subjects? Leave me, send

Thy executioner. Let him be quick.

I wait!

Phayllus goes.

I fear he still will loiter. Waiting

Was ever tedious to me: I will sleep.

(he lies down; after a pause)

Is this that other country? Theramenes

Before me smiling with his twenty wounds

And Mentho with the breasts that suckled me!

Who are these crowding after me so fast?

My mother follows me and cousin Eunice

Treads in her footsteps. Thou too, Timocles?

Thoas, Leosthenes and Philoctetes,

Good friends, will you stay long? The world grows empty.

Why, all that's great in Syria staggers after me

Into blind Hades; I am royally

Attended.

Theras enters.

Page – 310


THERAS

Phayllus' will compels me to it,

Or else I do not like the thing I do.

 

ANTIOCHUS

Who is it? Thou art the instrument. Strike in.

Keep me not waiting. I ever loved proud swiftness

And thorough spirits.

 

THERAS

I must strike suddenly or never strike.

He strikes.

ANTIOCHUS

I pass the barrier.

 

THERAS

Will not this blood stop flowing?

 

ANTIOCHUS

The blood? Let the gods have it; 'tis their portion.

 

THERAS

A red libation, O thou royal sacrifice!

I have done evil. Will sly Phayllus help me?

He was a trickster ever. I have done evil.

 

ANTIOCHUS

Tell Parthian Rodogune I wait for her

Behind Death's barrier.

 

THERAS

The world's too still. Will he not speak again

Upon this other side of nothingness?

O sounds, sounds, sounds! The sentries change, I think.

I'll draw thy curtains, O thou mighty sleeper.

Page – 311


He draws the curtains, extinguishes the light and

goes out. All is still for a while, then the door

opens again and Eunice and Rodogune enter.

EUNICE

Tread lightly, for he sleeps. The curtain's drawn.

RODOGUNE

O my Antiochus, on thy hard bed

In the rude camp with horses neighing round

Thou well mightst slumber nor the undistant trumpet

Startling unseal thy war-accustomed ears

From the sweet lethargy of earned repose.

But in the horrible silence of this prison

How canst thou sleep? It clamours in my brain

More than could any sound, with terror laden

And voices.

 

EUNICE

I'll wake him.

RODOGUNE

Do not. He is tired

And you will spoil his rest.

 

EUNICE

He moves no more

Than the dead might.

RODOGUNE

Speak not of death, Eunice;

We are too near to death to speak of him.

 

EUNICE

He must be waked. Cousin Antiochus,

You sleep too soundly for a prisoner. Wake!

 

Page – 312


RODOGUNE

There is some awful presence in this room.

 

EUNICE

I partly feel it. Wake, wake, Antiochus.

She draws apart the curtain and puts in

her arm, then hastily withdraws it.

O God, what is this dabbles so my hand,

That feels almost like blood?

(tearing down the curtain)

Antiochus!

She falls half-swooned against the wall. There is a

silence, then noise is heard in the corridors

and the voice of Nicanor at the door.

NICANOR

Guard carefully the doors; let no evasion

Deceive you.

 

RODOGUNE

Antiochus! Antiochus!

Antiochus!

 

EUNICE

Call him not; he will wake

And Heaven be angry. O my Rodogune,

Let us too sleep.

RODOGUNE

Antiochus! Antiochus!

Nicanor enters armed with soldiers and lights.

NICANOR

Am I in time? Thou? thou? How cam'st thou here?

Who is this woman with the dreadful face?

Can this be Rodogune? Eunice, speak.

What is this blood upon thy hands and dress?

 

Page – 313


Thou dost not speak! Oh, speak!

 

EUNICE

I am going, I am going to my chamber

To sleep.

 

NICANOR

Arrest her, guards.

He approaches the bed and recoils.

Awake the house!

Sound the alarm! O palace of Nicanor,

Thou canst stand yet upon thy stony base

Untroubled! The warlike prince Antiochus

Lies on this bed most treacherously murdered.

Cries and commotion outside.

Speak, wretched girl. What villain's secret hand

Profaned with death this royal sanctuary?

How cam'st thou here or hast this blood on thee?

There enter in haste Callicrates, Melitus,

Cleone; afterwards Phayllus and others.

CLEONE (to Nicanor)

Thou couldst not save him then for all my warning?

In vain didst thou mistrust me!

 

PHAYLLUS (entering)

It is done. Yet Theras came not! Do I fail?

Fortune, my kindly goddess, help me still

In the storm I have yet to weather.

 

NICANOR

Thou hast come!

This is thy work, thou ominous counsellor.

 

PHAYLLUS

In all the land who dare impugn me, if it be?

Page – 314


NICANOR

Thou art a villain! Thou shalt die for this.

 

PHAYLLUS

One day I shall, for this or something else.

But here's the King.

 

NICANOR

No more a king for me

Or Syria.

Timocles enters, followed by Cleopatra.

MELITUS

The Queen comes cold and white and shuddering.

 

CLEOPATRA (speaking with an unnatural calmness)

Why do these cries of terror shake the house

Repeating Murder and Antiochus?

Nicanor, lives my son?

 

NICANOR

Behold, O woman,

The frame you fashioned for Antiochus,

Cast from your love before, now cast from life,

By whose unnatural contrivance, let them say

Who did it.

 

CLEOPATRA

It is not true, it is not true!

There can be no such horror. O, for this,

For this you gave him back!

 

TIMOCLES

O gods! Phayllus,

I did not think that he would look like this.

Page – 315


MELITUS

Cover this death. It troubles the good King.

TIMOCLES (recovering himself )

This is a piteous sight, beloved mother;

Would that he lived and wore the Syrian crown

Unquestioned.

 

CLEOPATRA

Timocles, I will not credit

What yet a horror in my blood believes.

The eyes of all men charge you with this act;

Deny it!

 

TIMOCLES

Mother!

 

CLEOPATRA

Deny it!

 

TIMOCLES

Alas, mother!

 

CLEOPATRA

Deny it!

 

TIMOCLES

O mother, what shall I deny?

It had to be. Blame only the dire gods

And bronze Necessity.

 

CLEOPATRA

Call me not mother!

I have no children. I am punished, gods,

Who dared outlive my great unhappy husband

For this!

She rushes out.

 

Page – 316


NICANOR

Is this thy end, O great Seleucus?

What Fury rules thy house? The Queen is gone

With desperate eyes. Who next?

There enter in haste Philoctetes, Thoas, Leosthenes

and others of Antiochus' party.

PHILOCTETES

It is true then,

It is most true! O high Antiochus,

How are thy royal vast imaginations

All spilt into a meagre stream of blood!

And yet thy eyes seem to gaze royally

Into death's vaster realms as if they viewed

More conquests there and mightier monarchies.

When we were boys and slumber came with noon,

Often you'ld lay your head upon my knee

Even thus. O little friend Antiochus,

We are again in hundred-gated Thebes

And life is all before us.

 

THOAS

O insupportable!

Thou styled by men a king, no king of mine,

Acquit thyself of this too kindred blood.

No murderer sits in great Seleucus' chair

Longer than takes the movement of my sword

Out of its scabbard. I live to ask this question.

 

LEOSTHENES

Nor think thy royal title nor thy guards

Shall fence thy life, thou crowned fratricide,

Nor many ranks of triple-plated iron

Shut out swift vengeance.

 

PHILOCTETES

His eyes look up and seem to smile at me.

Page – 317


NICANOR

Thoas, thy anger ranges far too wide.

Respect the blood of kings, Leosthenes.

 

THOAS

See dabbled on this couch the blood of kings

Thus by a kindred blood respected.

 

TIMOCLES

The hearts

Of kings are not their own, nor yet their acts.

This was an execution, not a murder.

In better time and place you shall have proofs:

Phayllus knows it all. Be satisfied.

Lift up this royal dead. All hatred now

Forgotten, I will royally inter

His ashes guarding still his diadem

And sword and armour. All that most he loved

Shall go with him into the silent world.

RODOGUNE

I come.

TIMOCLES

The voice of Rodogune! That woman's form

The shadowy anguished robe concealed! She here

Beside my brother!

 

NICANOR

We had forgotten how piteous was this scene.

O you who loved the dead, forbear a while;

All shall be sternly judged.

 

TIMOCLES

O Rodogune,

The dead demands thy grief, since he too loved thee,

But not in this red chamber pay thy debt,

 

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Not in this square of horror. In thy calm room

Gently bedew his memory with tears

And I will help them with my own. Me too

He loved once.

 

LEOSTHENES

Shall our swords yet sleep? He wooes

His brother's wife beside his brother's corpse

Whom he has murdered.

 

THOAS

Yet, Leosthenes.

For Heaven has borne enough from him. At last

The gods lift up their secret thunderbolts

Above us.

 

NICANOR

She totters and can hardly move.

Assist her or she falls.

 

PHILOCTETES (raising his head)

O Rodogune,

What wilt thou with my dead?

 

PHAYLLUS

Shall it be allowed?

 

TIMOCLES

I do not grudge this corpse her sad farewell.

O Rodogune, embrace the unresponsive dead;

But afterwards remember life and love

Are still on earth.

 

THOAS

Afterwards, Timocles.

Give death a moment.

There is a silence while Rodogune bends

swaying over the dead Antiochus.

 

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TIMOCLES

O my Rodogune,

Leave now the dead man's side whose debt is paid.

Return to life, to love.

 

RODOGUNE (stretching out her arms)

My king! my king!

Leave me not, leave me not! I am behind thee.

She falls dead at the feet of Antiochus.

EUNICE

O, take me also!

She rushes to Rodogune and throws

herself on the dead bodies.

NICANOR

Raise the princess up;

She has swooned.

 

THOAS

Her heart has failed her: she is dead.

TIMOCLES

Rise up, my Rodogune.

 

THOAS

She is dead, Timocles;

She's safe from thee. Thou goest not alone,

My king, into the darkness.

 

CLEONE

Look to the King!

 

TIMOCLES (speaking with difficulty)

Lives she?

 

MELITUS

No, she is dead, King Timocles.

 

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CLEONE

Brother, the King!

Timocles has been tearing at the robe round

his neck. Phayllus, Melitus and others crowd

round to support him as he falls.

NICANOR

It is a fit at worst

Which anger and despair have forced him to.

 

PHAYLLUS

It is not death? I live then.

 

NICANOR

Death, thou intriguer!

Art thou not Death who with thy wicked promptings

And poisonous whispers worked to dangerous rage

The kindly moods of Timocles? Seize him,

He shall atone this murder.

 

PHAYLLUS

You build too soon

Your throne upon these prostrate bodies. Your king

Lives still, Nicanor.

 

NICANOR

Not to save thee from death,

Nor any murderer. Drag him hence.

 

CLEONE

The King revives.

Save thyself, brother.

LEOSTHENES

Ten kings should not avail

To save him.

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NICANOR

Drag hence that subtle Satan.

 

TIMOCLES

I live

And I remember!

 

CLEONE

Sleepest thou, Phayllus?

 

PHAYLLUS

My king, they drag me hence to murder me.

 

TIMOCLES (vaguely at first)

Who art thou? Thou abhorred and crooked devil,

Thou art the cause that she is lost to me.

Slay him! And that shrewd-lipped, rose-tinted harlot,

Let her be banished somewhere from men's sight

Where she can be forgotten. O brother, brother,

I have sent thee into the darkling shades,

Myself am barred the way.

 

PHAYLLUS

What I have done,

I did for this poor king and thankless man.

But there's no use in talking. I am ready.

 

TIMOCLES (half-rising, furiously)

Slay him with tortures! let him feel his death

As he has made me feel my living.

 

NICANOR

Take him

And see this sentence ruthlessly performed

Upon this frame of evil. May the gods

In their just wrath with this be satisfied.

 

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PHAYLLUS

And yet I loved thee, Timocles.

He is taken out, guarded.

NICANOR

Daughter,

Eunice, rise.

 

EUNICE

I did not know till now

Life was so difficult a thing to leave.

Her going was so easy!

 

NICANOR

Ah, girl, this tragic drama owns in part

Thy authorship! Henceforth be wise and humble.

To her chamber lead her.

 

EUNICE

Do with me what you will.

My heart has gone to journey with my dead.

O father, for a few days bear with me;

I do not think that I shall long displease you

Hereafter.

She goes, attended by Melitus.

NICANOR

Follow her, Callicrates,

And let no dangerous edge or lethal drink

Be near to her despair.

Callicrates follows.

THOAS

This cannot keep us

From those we loved.

 

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NICANOR

Syrians, what yet remains

Of this storm-visited, bolt-shattered house

Let us rebuild, joining our strength to save

The threatened kingdom. For when this deed is known,

The Parthian lion leaps raging for blood

And Ptolemy's dangerous grief for the boy he cherished

Darkens on us from Egypt. Syria beset

And we all broken!

 

TIMOCLES

Something has snapped in me

Physicians cannot bind. Thou, Prince Nicanor,

Art from the royal blood of Syria sprung

And in thy line Seleucus may descend

Untainted from his source. Brother, brother,

We did not dream that all would end like this,

When in the dawn or set we roamed at will

Playing together in Egyptian gardens,

Or in the orchards of great Ptolemy

Walked with our arms around each other's necks

Twin-hearted. But now unto eternity

We are divided. I must live for ever

Unfriended, solitary in the shades;

But thou and she will lie at ease inarmed

Deep in the quiet happy asphodel

And hear the murmur of Elysian winds

While I walk lonely.

 

PHILOCTETES

We too without thee now

Breath-haunted corpses move, Antiochus.

Thou goest attended to a quiet air;

Doomed still to live we for a while remain

Expecting what the gods have yet in store.

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