The Works of Lord Byron | Page 5

SIR J. REYNOLDS, P.R.A. 330
6. MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT SHELLEY, FROM A PICTURE BY R. ROTHWELL, R.H.A., IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY (1841) 474
SARDANAPALUS
A TRAGEDY.
[_Sardanapale, Tragédie Imitée 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 (_Bibliothec? Historic?_, 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 Eul?us, 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