The Works of Lord Byron | Page 5

de Lord Byron_, par L. Alvin, was
performed at the Théatre Royal at Brussels, January 13, 16, 1834.
_Sardanapalus_, a Tragedy, was played for the first time at Drury Lane
Theatre, April 10, 1834, and (for the twenty-second time) June 5, 1834.

Macready appeared as "Sardanapalus," Miss Phillips as "Zarina," and
Miss Ellen Tree as "Myrrha." [In his diary for April 11, 1834 (see
_Reminiscences_, 1875, i. 414, 415) Macready wrote, "On arriving at
my chambers ... I found a letter without a signature; the seal was the
head of Byron, and in the envelope was a folded sheet with merely the
words, 'Werner, Nov., 1830. Byron, Ravenna, 1821,' and 'Sardanapalus,
April 10th, 1834.' Encircling the name of Byron, etc., was a lock of
grey hair fastened by a gold thread, which I am sure was Byron's, ... it
surprised and pleased me."]
_Sardanapalus, King of Assyria_, was produced at the Princess's
Theatre, June 13, 1853, and played till September 2, 1853. Charles
Kean appeared as "Sardanapalus," Miss Heath as "Zarina," and Mrs.
Charles Kean as "Myrrha."
_Sardanapale, Opéra en Trois Actes_, par M. Henry Becque, Musique
de M. Victorin Joncières, was performed for the first time at the
Théatre Impérial-Lyrique, February 8, 1867.
_Lord Byron's Tragedy of Sardanapalus_, in four acts, was performed
at the Theatre Royal, Manchester, March 31-April 28, 1877. Charles
Calvert (the adapter) played "Sardanapalus," Miss Hathaway "Zarina,"
and Miss Fanny Ensor "Myrrha;" and June 26-July 27, 1877, at the
Royal Alexandra Theatre, Liverpool. Calvert's adaptation was also
performed at Booth's Theatre, New York.]
INTRODUCTION TO _SARDANAPALUS_
Byron's passion or infatuation for the regular drama lasted a little over a
year. _Marino Faliero_, _Sardanapalus_, and the _Two Foscari_, were
the fruits of his "self-denying ordinance to dramatize, like the Greeks ...
striking passages of history" (letter to Murray, July 14, 1821, _Letters_,
1901, v. 323). The mood was destined to pass, but for a while the
neophyte was spell-bound.
_Sardanapalus, a Tragedy_, the second and, perhaps, the most
successful of these studies in the poetry of history, was begun at
Ravenna, January 13, 1821, "with all deliberate speed;" but, for a time,

from laziness or depression of spirits, or, perhaps, from the
counter-excitement of "the poetry of politics" (_Letters_, 1901, v. 205),
that is, the revolutionary drama which had begun to run its course, a
month went by before he had finished the first act (February 15). Three
months later (May 28) he announces the completion of the drama, the
last act having been "dashed off" in two or three days (_Letters_, 1901,
v. 300).
For the story of Sardanapalus, which had excited his interest as a
schoolboy, Byron consulted the pages of Diodorus Siculus
(_Bibliothecæ Historicæ_, lib. ii. pp. 78, sq., ed. 1604), and, possibly to
ward off and neutralize the distracting influence of Shakespeare and
other barbarian dramatists, he "turned over" the tragedies of Seneca
(_Letters_, 1901, v. 173). It is hardly necessary to remind the modern
reader that the Sardanapalus of history is an unverified if not an
unverifiable personage. Diodorus the Sicilian, who was contemporary
with Cicero, derived his knowledge of Assyrian history from the
_Persica_ of Ctesias of Cnidos, who was private physician at the court
of Artaxerxes Mnemon (B.C. 405-359), and is said to have had access
to, and to have consulted, the "Persian authorities" ([Greek: diphthe/rai
Basilikai\]).
The character which Ctesias depicted or invented, an effeminate
debauchee, sunk in luxury and sloth, who at the last was driven to take
up arms, and, after a prolonged but ineffectual resistance, avoided
capture by suicide, cannot be identified. Asurbanipal

(A[)s]ur-b[=a]ni-apli), the son of Esarhaddon and grandson of
Sennacherib, who ascended the throne B.C. 668, and reigned for about
forty years, was, as the cuneiform records and the friezes of his palace
testify, a bold hunter and a mighty warrior. He vanquished Tark[=u]
(Tirhakah) of Ethiopia, and his successor, Urdaman[=e]. Ba'al King of
Tyre, Yakinl[=u] King of the island-city of Arvad, Sand[)a]sarm[=u] of
Cilicia, Teumman of Elam, and other potentates, suffered defeat at his
hands. "The land of Elam," writes the king or his "Historiographer
Royal," "through its extent I covered as when a mighty storm
approaches; I cut off the head of Teumman, their king... Beyond
number I slew his warriors; alive in my hands I took his fighting men;

with their corpses, as with thorns and thistles, I filled the vicinity of
Susa; their blood I caused to flow in the Eulæus, and I stained its
waters like wool." Clearly the Sardanapalus who painted his face and
carded purple wool in the _penetralia_ of his seraglio does not bear
even a traditional resemblance to A[)s]ur-b[=a]ni-apli the Conqueror.
All that can be affirmed with any certainty is that within twenty years
of the death of Asurbanipal, the Assyrian Empire passed into the hands
of the