The Works of Lord Byron | Page 7

one instance attempted to preserve, and in the other to approach, the "unities;" conceiving that with any very distant departure from them, there may be poetry, but can be no drama. He is aware of the unpopularity of this notion in present English literature; but it is not a system of his own, being merely an opinion, which, not very long ago, was the law of literature throughout the world, and is still so in the more civilised parts of it. But "nous avons changé tout cela," and are reaping the advantages of the change. The writer is far from conceiving that any thing he can adduce by personal precept or example can at all approach his regular, or even irregular predecessors: he is merely giving a reason why he preferred the more regular formation of a structure, however feeble, to an entire abandonment of all rules whatsoever. Where he has failed, the failure is in the architect,--and not in the art.
In this tragedy it has been my intention to follow the account of Diodorus Siculus;[4] reducing it, however, to such dramatic regularity as I best could, and trying to approach the unities. I therefore suppose the rebellion to explode and succeed in one day by a sudden conspiracy, instead of the long war of the history.
DRAMATIS PERSON?
MEN.
SARDANAPALUS, _king of Nineveh and Assyria, etc._
ARBACES, _the Mede who aspired to the Throne_.
BELESES, _a Chaldean and Soothsayer_.
SALEMENES, _the King's Brother-in-Law_.
ALTADA, _an Assyrian Officer of the Palace_.
PANIA.
ZAMES.
SFERO.
BALEA.
WOMEN.
ZARINA, _the Queen_.
MYRRHA, _an Ionian female Slave, and the Favourite Mistress
of_ SARDANAPALUS.
_Women composing the Harem of_ SARDANAPALUS, _Guards,
Attendants, Chaldean Priests, Medes, etc., etc._
SCENE.--A Hall in the Royal Palace of Nineveh.
SARDANAPALUS.[5]
ACT I.
SCENE I.--_A Hall in the Palace_.
_Salemenes_ (_solus_).?He hath wronged his queen, but still he is her lord;?He hath wronged my sister--still he is my brother;?He hath wronged his people--still he is their sovereign-- And I must be his friend as well as subject:?He must not perish thus. I will not see?The blood of Nimrod and Semiramis?Sink in the earth, and thirteen hundred years?Of Empire ending like a shepherd's tale;?He must be roused. In his effeminate heart?There is a careless courage which Corruption 10 Has not all quenched, and latent energies,?Repressed by circumstance, but not destroyed--?Steeped, but not drowned, in deep voluptuousness.?If born a peasant, he had been a man?To have reached an empire: to an empire born,?He will bequeath none; nothing but a name,?Which his sons will not prize in heritage:--?Yet--not all lost--even yet--he may redeem?His sloth and shame, by only being that?Which he should be, as easily as the thing 20 He should not be and is. Were it less toil?To sway his nations than consume his life??To head an army than to rule a harem??He sweats in palling pleasures, dulls his soul,[a]?And saps his goodly strength, in toils which yield not?Health like the chase, nor glory like the war--?He must be roused. Alas! there is no sound
[_Sound of soft music heard from within_. To rouse him short of thunder. Hark! the lute--?The lyre--the timbrel; the lascivious tinklings?Of lulling instruments, the softening voices 30 Of women, and of beings less than women,?Must chime in to the echo of his revel,?While the great King of all we know of earth?Lolls crowned with roses, and his diadem?Lies negligently by to be caught up?By the first manly hand which dares to snatch it.?Lo, where they come! already I perceive?The reeking odours of the perfumed trains,?And see the bright gems of the glittering girls,[b]?At once his Chorus and his Council, flash 40 Along the gallery, and amidst the damsels,?As femininely garbed, and scarce less female,?The grandson of Semiramis, the Man-Queen.--?He comes! Shall I await him? yes, and front him,?And tell him what all good men tell each other,?Speaking of him and his. They come, the slaves?Led by the monarch subject to his slaves.
SCENE II.
_Enter_ SARDANAPALUS _effeminately dressed, his Head crowned with Flowers, and his Robe negligently flowing,
attended by a Train of Women and young Slaves_.
_Sar._ (_speaking to some of his attendants_).?Let the pavilion[6] over the Euphrates?Be garlanded, and lit, and furnished forth?For an especial banquet; at the hour?Of midnight we will sup there: see nought wanting,?And bid the galley be prepared. There is?A cooling breeze which crisps the broad clear river:?We will embark anon. Fair Nymphs, who deign?To share the soft hours of Sardanapalus,?We'll meet again in that the sweetest hour,?When we shall gather like the stars above us, 10 And you will form a heaven as bright as theirs;?Till then, let each be mistress of her time,?And thou, my own Ionian Myrrha,[7] choose;?Wilt thou along with them or me?
_Myr._ My Lord--
_Sar._ My Lord!--my Life! why answerest thou so coldly? It is the curse of kings to be so answered.?Rule thy own hours, thou rulest mine--say, wouldst thou Accompany our guests, or charm away?The moments from me?
_Myr._ The King's choice