No More Learning

_ We have lived asunder
Too long to meet again--and _now_ to meet!
Have I not cares enow, and pangs enow,
To bear alone, that we must mingle sorrows, 230
Who have ceased to mingle love?

_Re-enter_ SALEMENES _and_ ZARINA.

_Sal. _ My sister! Courage:
Shame not our blood with trembling, but remember
From whence we sprung. The Queen is present, Sire.

_Zar. _ I pray thee, brother, leave me.

_Sal. _ Since you ask it.
[_Exit_ SALEMENES.

_Zar. _ Alone with him! How many a year has passed[27],
Though we are still so young, since we have met,
Which I have worn in widowhood of heart.
He loved me not: yet he seems little changed--
Changed to me only--would the change were mutual!
He speaks not--scarce regards me--not a word, 240
Nor look--yet he _was_ soft of voice and aspect,
Indifferent, not austere. My Lord!

_Sar. _ Zarina!

_Zar. _ No, _not_ Zarina--do not say Zarina.
That tone--That word--annihilate long years,
And things which make them longer.

_Sar. _ 'Tis too late
To think of these past dreams. Let's not reproach--
That is, reproach me not--for the _last_ time----

_Zar. _ And _first_, I ne'er reproached you.

_Sar. _ 'Tis most true;
And that reproof comes heavier on my heart
Than----But our hearts are not in our own power. 250

_Zar. _ Nor hands; but I gave both.

_Sar. _ Your brother said
It was your will to see me, ere you went
From Nineveh with----(_He hesitates_. )

_Zar. _ Our children: it is true.
I wish to thank you that you have not divided
My heart from all that's left it now to love--
Those who are yours and mine, who look like you,
And look upon me as you looked upon me
Once----but _they_ have not changed.

_Sar. _ Nor ever will.
I fain would have them dutiful.

_Zar. _ I cherish
Those infants, not alone from the blind love 260
Of a fond mother, but as a fond woman.
They are now the only tie between us.

_Sar. _ Deem not
I have not done you justice: rather make them
Resemble your own line than their own Sire.
I trust them with you--to you: fit them for
A throne, or, if that be denied----You have heard
Of this night's tumults?

_Zar. _ I had half forgotten,
And could have welcomed any grief save yours,
Which gave me to behold your face again.

_Sar. _ The throne--I say it not in fear--but 'tis 270
In peril: they perhaps may never mount it:
But let them not for this lose sight of it.
I will dare all things to bequeath it them;
But if I fail, then they must win it back
Bravely--and, won, wear it wisely, not as I[ag]
Have wasted down my royalty.

_Zar. _ They ne'er
Shall know from me of aught but what may honour
Their father's memory.

_Sar. _ Rather let them hear
The truth from you than from a trampling world.
If they be in adversity, they'll learn 280
Too soon the scorn of crowds for crownless Princes,
And find that all their father's sins are theirs.
My boys! --I could have borne it were I childless.

_Zar. _ Oh! do not say so--do not poison all
My peace left, by unwishing that thou wert
A father. If thou conquerest, they shall reign,
And honour him who saved the realm for them,
So little cared for as his own; and if----

_Sar. _ 'Tis lost, all Earth will cry out, "thank your father! "
And they will swell the echo with a curse. 290

_Zar. _ That they shall never do; but rather honour
The name of him, who, dying like a king,
In his last hours did more for his own memory
Than many monarchs in a length of days,
Which date the flight of time, but make no annals.

_Sar. _ Our annals draw perchance unto their close;
But at the least, whate'er the past, their end
Shall be like their beginning--memorable.

_Zar. _ Yet, be not rash--be careful of your life,
Live but for those who love.

_Sar. _ And who are they? 300
A slave, who loves from passion--I'll not say
Ambition--she has seen thrones shake, and loves;
A few friends who have revelled till we are
As one, for they are nothing if I fall;
A brother I have injured--children whom
I have neglected, and a spouse----

_Zar. _ Who loves.

_Sar. _ And pardons?

_Zar. _ I have never thought of this,
And cannot pardon till I have condemned.

_Sar. _ My wife!

_Zar. _ Now blessings on thee for that word!
I never thought to hear it more--from thee. 310

_Sar. _ Oh! thou wilt hear it from my subjects. Yes--
These slaves whom I have nurtured, pampered, fed,
And swoln with peace, and gorged with plenty, till
They reign themselves--all monarchs in their mansions--
Now swarm forth in rebellion, and demand
His death, who made their lives a jubilee;
While the few upon whom I have no claim
Are faithful! This is true, yet monstrous.

_Zar. _ 'Tis
Perhaps too natural; for benefits
Turn poison in bad minds.

_Sar. _ And good ones make 320
Good out of evil. Happier than the bee,
Which hives not but from wholesome flowers.

_Zar. _ Then reap
The honey, nor inquire whence 'tis derived.
Be satisfied--you are not all abandoned.

_Sar. _ My life insures me that. How long, bethink you,
Were not I yet a king, should I be mortal;
That is, where mortals _are_, not where they must be?

_Zar. _ I know not. But yet live for my--that is,
Your children's sake!

_Sar. _ My gentle, wronged Zarina!
I am the very slave of Circumstance 330
And Impulse--borne away with every breath!
Misplaced upon the throne--misplaced in life.
I know not what I could have been, but feel
I am not what I should be--let it end.
But take this with thee: if I was not formed
To prize a love like thine, a mind like thine,
Nor dote even on thy beauty--as I've doted
On lesser charms, for no cause save that such
Devotion was a duty, and I hated
All that looked like a chain for me or others 340
(This even Rebellion must avouch); yet hear
These words, perhaps among my last--that none
E'er valued more thy virtues, though he knew not
To profit by them--as the miner lights
Upon a vein of virgin ore, discovering
That which avails him nothing: he hath found it,
But 'tis not his--but some superior's, who
Placed him to dig, but not divide the wealth
Which sparkles at his feet; nor dare he lift
Nor poise it, but must grovel on, upturning 350
The sullen earth.

_Zar. _ Oh! if thou hast at length
Discovered that my love is worth esteem,
I ask no more--but let us hence together,
And _I_--let me say _we_--shall yet be happy.
Assyria is not all the earth--we'll find
A world out of our own--and be more blessed
Than I have ever been, or thou, with all
An empire to indulge thee.

_Enter_ SALEMENES.

_Sal. _ I must part ye--
The moments, which must not be lost, are passing.

_Zar. _ Inhuman brother! wilt thou thus weigh out 360
Instants so high and blest?

_Sal. _ Blest!

_Zar. _ He hath been
So gentle with me, that I cannot think
Of quitting.

_Sal. _ So--this feminine farewell
Ends as such partings end, in _no_ departure.
I thought as much, and yielded against all
My better bodings. But it must not be.

_Zar. _ Not be?

_Sal. _ Remain, and perish----

_Zar. _ With my husband----

_Sal. _ And children.

_Zar. _ Alas!

_Sal. _ Hear me, sister, like
_My_ sister:--all's prepared to make your safety
Certain, and of the boys too, our last hopes; 370
'Tis not a single question of mere feeling,
Though that were much--but 'tis a point of state:
The rebels would do more to seize upon
The offspring of their sovereign, and so crush----

_Zar. _ Ah! do not name it.

_Sal. _ Well, then, mark me: when
They are safe beyond the Median's grasp, the rebels
Have missed their chief aim--the extinction of
The line of Nimrod. Though the present King
Fall, his sons live--for victory and vengeance.

_Zar. _ But could not I remain, alone?

_Sal. _ What! leave 380
Your children, with two parents and yet orphans--
In a strange land--so young, so distant?

_Zar. _ No--
My heart will break.

_Sal. _ Now you know all--decide.

_Sar. _ Zarina, he hath spoken well, and we
Must yield awhile to this necessity.
Remaining here, you may lose all; departing,
You save the better part of what is left,
To both of us, and to such loyal hearts
As yet beat in these kingdoms.

_Sal. _ The time presses.

_Sar. _ Go, then. If e'er we meet again, perhaps 390
I may be worthier of you--and, if not,
Remember that my faults, though not atoned for,
Are _ended_. Yet, I dread thy nature will
Grieve more above the blighted name and ashes
Which once were mightiest in Assyria--than----
But I grow womanish again, and must not;
I must learn sternness now. My sins have all
Been of the softer order----_hide_ thy tears--
I do not bid thee _not_ to shed them--'twere
Easier to stop Euphrates at its source 400
Than one tear of a true and tender heart--
But let me not behold them; they unman me
Here when I had remanned myself. My brother,
Lead her away.

_Zar. _ Oh, God! I never shall
Behold him more!

_Sal. _ (_striving to conduct her_).
Nay, sister, I _must_ be obeyed.

_Zar. _ I must remain--away! you shall not hold me.
What, shall he die alone? --_I_ live alone?

_Sal. _ He shall _not die alone_; but lonely you
Have lived for years.

_Zar. _ That's false! I knew _he_ lived,
And lived upon his image--let me go! 410

_Sal. _ (_conducting her off the stage_).
Nay, then, I must use some fraternal force,
Which you will pardon.

_Zar. _ Never. Help me! Oh!
Sardanapalus, wilt thou thus behold me
Torn from thee?

_Sal. _ Nay--then all is lost again,
If that this moment is not gained.

_Zar. _ My brain turns--
My eyes fail--where is he? [_She faints_.

_Sar. _ (_advancing_). No--set her down;
She's dead--and you have slain her.

_Sal. _ 'Tis the mere
Faintness of o'erwrought passion: in the air
She will recover. Pray, keep back. --[_Aside_. ] I must
Avail myself of this sole moment to 420
Bear her to where her children are embarked,
I' the royal galley on the river.
[SALEMENES _bears her off_.

_Sar. _ (_solus_).
This, too--
And this too must I suffer--I, who never
Inflicted purposely on human hearts
A voluntary pang! But that is false--
She loved me, and I loved her. --Fatal passion!
Why dost thou not expire at _once_ in hearts
Which thou hast lighted up at once? Zarina! [ah]
I must pay dearly for the desolation
Now brought upon thee. Had I never loved 430
But thee, I should have been an unopposed
Monarch of honouring nations. To what gulfs
A single deviation from the track
Of human duties leads even those who claim
The homage of mankind as their born due,
And find it, till they forfeit it themselves!

_Enter_ MYRRHA.

_Sar. _ _You_ here! Who called you?

_Myr. _ No one--but I heard
Far off a voice of wail and lamentation,
And thought----

_Sar. _ It forms no portion of your duties
To enter here till sought for.

_Myr. _ Though I might, 440
Perhaps, recall some softer words of yours
(Although they _too were chiding_), which reproved me,
Because I ever dreaded to intrude;
Resisting my own wish and your injunction
To heed no time nor presence, but approach you
Uncalled for:--I retire.

_Sar. _ Yet stay--being here.
I pray you pardon me: events have soured me
Till I wax peevish--heed it not: I shall
Soon be myself again.

_Myr. _ I wait with patience,
What I shall see with pleasure.

_Sar. _ Scarce a moment 450
Before your entrance in this hall, Zarina,
Queen of Assyria, departed hence.

_Myr. _ Ah!

_Sar. _ Wherefore do you start?

_Myr. _ Did I do so?

_Sar. _ 'Twas well you entered by another portal,
Else you had met. That pang at least is spared her!

_Myr. _ I know to feel for her.

_Sar. _ That is too much,
And beyond nature--'tis nor mutual[ai]
Nor possible. You cannot pity her,
Nor she aught but----

_Myr. _ Despise the favourite slave?
Not more than I have ever scorned myself. 460

_Sar. _ Scorned! what, to be the envy of your sex,
And lord it o'er the heart of the World's lord?

_Myr. _ Were you the lord of twice ten thousand worlds--
As you are like to lose the one you swayed--
I did abase myself as much in being
Your paramour, as though you were a peasant--
Nay, more, if that the peasant were a Greek.

_Sar. _ You talk it well----

_Myr. _ And truly.

_Sar. _ In the hour
Of man's adversity all things grow daring
Against the falling; but as I am not 470
Quite fall'n, nor now disposed to bear reproaches,
Perhaps because I merit them too often,
Let us then part while peace is still between us.

_Myr. _ Part!

_Sar. _ Have not all past human beings parted,
And must not all the present one day part?

_Myr. _ Why?

_Sar. _ For your safety, which I will have looked to,
With a strong escort to your native land;
And such gifts, as, if you had not been all
A Queen, shall make your dowry worth a kingdom.

_Myr. _ I pray you talk not thus.

_Sar. _ The Queen is gone: 480
You need not shame to follow. I would fall
Alone--I seek no partners but in pleasure.

_Myr. _ And I no pleasure but in parting not.
You shall not force me from you.

_Sar. _ Think well of it--
It soon may be too late.

_Myr. _ So let it be;
For then you cannot separate me from you.

_Sar. _ And will not; but I thought you wished it.

_Myr. _ I!

_Sar. _ You spoke of your abasement.

_Myr. _ And I feel it
Deeply--more deeply than all things but love.

_Sar. _ Then fly from it.

_Myr. _ 'Twill not recall the past-- 490
'Twill not restore my honour, nor my heart.
No--here I stand or fall. If that you conquer,
I live to joy in your great triumph: should
Your lot be different, I'll not weep, but share it.
You did not doubt me a few hours ago.

_Sar. _ Your courage never--nor your love till now;
And none could make me doubt it save yourself.
Those words----

_Myr. _ Were words. I pray you, let the proofs
Be in the past acts you were pleased to praise
This very night, and in my further bearing, 500
Beside, wherever you are borne by fate.

_Sar. _ I am content: and, trusting in my cause,
Think we may yet be victors and return
To peace--the only victory I covet.
To me war is no glory--conquest no
Renown. To be forced thus to uphold my right
Sits heavier on my heart than all the wrongs[aj]
These men would bow me down with. Never, never
Can I forget this night, even should I live
To add it to the memory of others. 510
I thought to have made mine inoffensive rule
An era of sweet peace 'midst bloody annals,
A green spot amidst desert centuries,
On which the Future would turn back and smile,
And cultivate, or sigh when it could not
Recall Sardanapalus' golden reign.
I thought to have made my realm a paradise,
And every moon an epoch of new pleasures.
I took the rabble's shouts for love--the breath
Of friends for truth--the lips of woman for 520
My only guerdon--so they are, my Myrrha: [_He kisses her_.
Kiss me. Now let them take my realm and life!
They shall have both, but never _thee! _

_Myr. _ No, never!
Man may despoil his brother man of all
That's great or glittering--kingdoms fall, hosts yield,
Friends fail--slaves fly--and all betray--and, more
Than all, the most indebted--but a heart
That loves without self-love! 'Tis here--now prove it.

_Enter_ SALEMENES.

_Sal. _ I sought you--How! _she_ here again?

_Sar. _ Return not
_Now_ to reproof: methinks your aspect speaks 530
Of higher matter than a woman's presence.

_Sal. _ The only woman whom it much imports me
At such a moment now is safe in absence--
The Queen's embarked.

_Sar. _ And well? say that much.

_Sal. _ Yes.
Her transient weakness has passed o'er; at least,
It settled into tearless silence: her
Pale face and glittering eye, after a glance
Upon her sleeping children, were still fixed
Upon the palace towers as the swift galley
Stole down the hurrying stream beneath the starlight; 540
But she said nothing.

_Sar. _ Would I felt no more
Than she has said!

_Sal. _ 'Tis now too late to feel.
Your feelings cannot cancel a sole pang:
To change them, my advices bring sure tidings
That the rebellious Medes and Chaldees, marshalled
By their two leaders, are already up
In arms again; and, serrying their ranks,
Prepare to attack: they have apparently
Been joined by other Satraps.

_Sar. _ What! more rebels?
Let us be first, then.

_Sal. _ That were hardly prudent 550
Now, though it was our first intention. If
By noon to-morrow we are joined by those
I've sent for by sure messengers, we shall be
In strength enough to venture an attack,
Aye, and pursuit too; but, till then, my voice
Is to await the onset.

_Sar. _ I detest
That waiting; though it seems so safe to fight
Behind high walls, and hurl down foes into
Deep fosses, or behold them sprawl on spikes
Strewed to receive them, still I like it not-- 560
My soul seems lukewarm; but when I set on them,
Though they were piled on mountains, I would have
A pluck at them, or perish in hot blood! --
Let me then charge.

_Sal. _ You talk like a young soldier.

_Sar. _ I am no soldier, but a man: speak not
Of soldiership, I loathe the word, and those
Who pride themselves upon it; but direct me
Where I may pour upon them.

_Sal. _ You must spare
To expose your life too hastily; 'tis not
Like mine or any other subject's breath: 570
The whole war turns upon it--with it; this
Alone creates it, kindles, and may quench it--
Prolong it--end it.

_Sar. _ Then let us end both!
'Twere better thus, perhaps, than prolong either;
I'm sick of one, perchance of both.
[_A trumpet sounds without_.

_Sal. _ Hark!

_Sar. _ Let us
Reply, not listen.

_Sal. _ And your wound!

_Sar. _ 'Tis bound--
'Tis healed--I had forgotten it. Away!
A leech's lancet would have scratched me deeper;[ak]
The slave that gave it might be well ashamed
To have struck so weakly.

_Sal. _ Now, may none this hour 580
Strike with a better aim!

_Sar. _ Aye, if we conquer;
But if not, they will only leave to me
A task they might have spared their king. Upon them!
[_Trumpet sounds again_.

_Sal. _ I am with you.

_Sar. _ Ho, my arms! again, my arms!
[_Exeunt_.




ACT V.

SCENE I. -_The same Hall in the Palace_.

MYRRHA _and_ BALEA.

_Myr. _ (_at a window_)[28]
The day at last has broken. What a night
Hath ushered it! How beautiful in heaven!
Though varied with a transitory storm,
More beautiful in that variety!
How hideous upon earth! where Peace and Hope,
And Love and Revel, in an hour were trampled
By human passions to a human chaos,
Not yet resolved to separate elements--
'Tis warring still! And can the sun so rise,
So bright, so rolling back the clouds into 10
Vapours more lovely than the unclouded sky,
With golden pinnacles, and snowy mountains,
And billows purpler than the Ocean's, making
In heaven a glorious mockery of the earth,
So like we almost deem it permanent;
So fleeting, we can scarcely call it aught
Beyond a vision, 'tis so transiently
Scattered along the eternal vault: and yet
It dwells upon the soul, and soothes the soul,
And blends itself into the soul, until 20
Sunrise and sunset form the haunted epoch
Of Sorrow and of Love; which they who mark not,
Know not the realms where those twin genii[al]
(Who chasten and who purify our hearts,
So that we would not change their sweet rebukes
For all the boisterous joys that ever shook
The air with clamour) build the palaces
Where their fond votaries repose and breathe
Briefly;--but in that brief cool calm inhale
Enough of heaven to enable them to bear 30
The rest of common, heavy, human hours,
And dream them through in placid sufferance,
Though seemingly employed like all the rest
Of toiling breathers in allotted tasks[am]
Of pain or pleasure, _two_ names for _one_ feeling,
Which our internal, restless agony
Would vary in the sound, although the sense
Escapes our highest efforts to be happy.

_Bal. _ You muse right calmly: and can you so watch
The sunrise which may be our last?

_Myr. _ It is 40
Therefore that I so watch it, and reproach
Those eyes, which never may behold it more,
For having looked upon it oft, too oft,
Without the reverence and the rapture due
To that which keeps all earth from being as fragile
As I am in this form. Come, look upon it,
The Chaldee's God, which, when I gaze upon,
I grow almost a convert to your Baal.

_Bal. _ As now he reigns in heaven, so once on earth
He swayed.

_Myr. _ He sways it now far more, then; never 50
Had earthly monarch half the power and glory
Which centres in a single ray of his.

_Bal. _ Surely he is a God!

_Myr. _ So we Greeks deem too;
And yet I sometimes think that gorgeous orb
Must rather be the abode of Gods than one
Of the immortal sovereigns. Now he breaks
Through all the clouds, and fills my eyes with light
That shuts the world out. I can look no more.

_Bal. _ Hark! heard you not a sound?

_Myr. _ No, 'twas mere fancy;
They battle it beyond the wall, and not 60
As in late midnight conflict in the very
Chambers: the palace has become a fortress
Since that insidious hour; and here, within
The very centre, girded by vast courts
And regal halls of pyramid proportions,
Which must be carried one by one before
They penetrate to where they then arrived,
We are as much shut in even from the sound
Of peril as from glory.

_Bal. _ But they reached
Thus far before.

_Myr.