Fortitude
and stern endurance in misfortune, a faith that Rome must stand because
it must, with a daring shamelessncss tliat stopped at nothing to achieve a
purpose, made the greatness of the Eternal City.
it must, with a daring shamelessncss tliat stopped at nothing to achieve a
purpose, made the greatness of the Eternal City.
Krasinski - The Undivine Comedy
He might indeed be called
the very personification of age. The influences of the past seemed to
have left a void in his soul which nothing ever sufficed to fill. Sensuality
and weariness were the two strongest traits of his character ; these are also
the traits of old age. Weariness of lite {ennui), is the martyrdom which
springs from the feeling of eternal emptiness, and from the unceasing but
fruitless efforts to escape from its torment. Voluptuous sensuality is the
work of the imagination striving to find something which will have the
power to awaken and rekindle the dead senses. Passion is always vigor-
ous, it is the synthesis, the poetry of the body ; sensuality, on the contrary,
is full of ingenuity and research ; it stretches forth to and embraces a
thousand details, it individualizes and separates ; it is analysis, prose.
Heliogabalus cannot be said to have gratified his passions, for he had
none to gratify; he had only the burning desire to have passions. He
sought throughout nature, in every part of his wide realm, in his whole
being, for the excitants, the sparks which might kindle a fire of whatsoever
character, to inflame, to warm, to stimulate the cold void in his own soul.
His whole life was spent in this restless and miserable struggle, and con-
sequently everything he did was only a caprice. Such a character and
position in a young man would be utterly inexplicable, were it not that
the fatal old age of the world in which he was born had cast its burden
of years upon him. Thus Heliogabalus was old through the world which
surrounded him, and young through his own youth ; and from this melan-
choly contrast sprang the eternal contradiction in which his life was passed :
eternal impotence and eternal desire !
This impotent old man, this self-warring, decaying, worn-out, and ex-
hausted child, was born in Syria, the land of magical myths and consuming
climates. His grandmother Moesa was the sister of Julia, the wife of
Septimius Severus. After the death of this emperor, his whole family,
robbed of their power and influence, were banished to Syria. Moesa had
two daughters, Scemias and Mammea ; Mamniea was the mother of Alexis,
afterwards famous under the name of Alexander Severus. Heliogabalus
had been from the fourteenth year of Iiis age High-Priest in the temple
at Emessa, dedicated to the worship of the great god, Halgah-Baal or
Mithras, who was the god of the Chaldeans, and with whom all the Ori-
ental and Egyptian myths were closely linked. He was the symbol of
the Sun, and was revered as the most famous among the gods, the Highest,
the One, and, so to speak, the Abstract Essence ; for this reason no image
was made of him ; a round black stone was his symbol. Other gods were
worshiped in this temple; Baal-Fegor, or the sun materialized, the
Power which quickened and lived in vegetation; Gad- Baal, or the sun
incorporated, from whom came the Oracles; Phirbe, Astarte Baalis, the
great goddess, the spouse of Halgah-Baal, or the moon lighted by the
sun, nature ciuicUened by the sim ; Baalis Benoth or Venus, and Baalis
Dercote or the Grecian Ajihrodite, both designating nature already in-
carnated, woman. The death and resurrection of Adonis were celebrated
in this temple ; a symbol of nature forsaken by the sun in winter and re-
vivified in the spring by his warming rays. Presents were sent to it from
every part of Asia. Its solemnities were celebrated with incredible
luxury, but with the most brutal licentiousness. In this vast temple of
phantasms, luxuries, and crimes, the soul of Heliogabalus received its first
lessons, its earliest development. His healthful energies, his free will,
NOTES TO I RID I ON. 459
were thus crushed at his very entrance into life by fantastic scenes and
creeds, into which there entered neither truth nor reality ; luxury enervated
his mind, and voluptuousness sated his soul; the effects of both were in-
creased by the influence of a stimulating and exciting climate. In accord-
ance with all the accounts given of him, he was exceedingly beautiful.
It was a general rumor that he was the son of Caracalla, by whom his
mother had been loved, and whose memory was idolized by the soldiers
of the legions. After the murder of Caracalla, Macrinus, the Prefect of
the praetorians, ruled Rome and the world, but his reign was without
strength. One of the legions, passing through Emessa, saw the young
Heliogabalus. His exceeding beauty, associated with the memory of his
father, struck the legionaries; and Moesa, who could not forget that her
sister had once been the foremost woman in Rome, struggled with all her
powers to advance the interests of her grandson. She took Heliogabalus
and Scemias secretly at night from the temple, and conducted them to the
camp of the legion. The son of Caracalla was there proclaimed Coesar,
and Ulpius Julius, who had been sent thither by Macrinus, was killed.
Heliogabalus, for the first and last tmie in his life, displayed considerable
courage in the struggle which then occurred. Macrinus fled on receiving
the intelligence of the death of his son, and, springing from his chariot,
broke his arm, when his head was stricken off and taken to Heliogabalus.
Then commenced the reign of Heliogabalus, and his unceasing efforts to
escape from ennui.
To escape from these haunting feelings of weariness, he caused Halgah-
Baal to be brought to Rome, and had all the other gods transported into
his sanctuary, as well as all the heroes who received worship ; he had
in his possession the Troian Palladium and the shield of Vesta and
Numa ; he amused himself by making of these gods proconsuls, officers,
and servants to Halgah-Baal ; of the goddesses, he made mistresses or
consorts; first he gave Baal the Athenian Pallas as wife, but afterwards
took her away from him, and gave him the Carthaginian Venus, whom he
suffered to remain consort.
To escape from feeling weary : he brought chariots from Sicily, flute-
players from ^-Egium, cooks from Elis, bakers from Athens; he covered
the ground with Lvdian tapestries, used incense and perfumes from Syria,
he sent for doves to Cyprus, for pearls to Lydia, for horses to the island
of Melos, for oysters to Pylos, for fish to the Hellespont, for crabs to
Minturncie, for pears to Eubosa, for plums to Damascus, for grapes to
Rhodes, for oranges to Persia, for cedars to Palmyra, for pomegranates
to . Antioch, for dates to Phoenicia, for almonds to Naxos, for wine to the
apple-perfumed Thasos and to Cyprus.
And to escape from weariness: he drove out with cainels, elephants,
and lions harnessed to his chariot; he clothed himself in long, graceful
garments, instead of the short tunic of the Romans; and in the interior
of the palace he wore, to the great ilisgust of the Romans, the diadem
upon his brow, although he did not venture to appear in public with it.
He wore cothurni richly adorned with precious stones. He never put
the same garment on twice, nor the saiue shoes nor rings; he bathed in
immense baths of marble, with saffron and the most costly perfumes in
the water which he used ; he slept upon a couch cf silver, covered with
cushions of partridge and swan's-down ; he drank from goblets of crystal,
amber, onyx, and gold. After each course of food, the wreaths were
changed for his brows ; at the first course they were of roses, at the second
of violets, at the third of myrtle, at the fourth of narcissus-flowers, at the
46o NOTES TO IRIDION.
fifth of ivy, at the sixth of roses and papyri mingled, and at the seventh
of tlie Alexandrian lotus.
And to escape from weariness: he had the combs torn from the heads
of cocks while they were still living, and the tongues from peacocks and
nightingales; he had the brains pressed out of partridges and thrushes,
and the heads twisted off pheasants, canary-birds, and parrots. When
he passed through the halls of the palace, or went into the garden, slaves
strewed roses and silver sand before him. At one time he ordered ten
thousand spiders to be brought to him ; at another, ten thousand mice ;
then ten thousand martens ; and again, ten thousand cats. At the closing
of the games he would throw adders and basilisks among the assembled
people. To his parasites he would send as presents costly vessels closely
soldered, filled with toads and scorpions. Sometimes he would invite
some among them to banquets, and the ceiling would suddenly open
above them, and roses, violets, and other flowers would be thrown down
upon thein ; at first they would stretch themselves out delightedly under
the fragrant sliower, but the rain did not cease, flowers upon flowers con-
tinued to fall, until the room was filled; and the next day weie dragged
forth the corpses of the unhaj^py men who had been stifled under the un-
ceasing fall of tulips, lilies, violets, and roses. He would often have
favorite lions and tigers brought into the hall, and delight himself with
the fear and anguish of the senators, consuls, and courtiers, who had been
invited to his banquet.
. \nd to escape from weariness : at a time when prizes were distributed
for horsemanship at the circus, he resolved to play the charioteer, and
caught and seized in his own royal person the pieces of silver thrown by
the spectators ; then he played the part of a simple musician. As his
father, Caracalla, had been a passionate admirer and imitator of Alexan-
der the Great, he selected as his model Nero, who, stabbing himself in
a grotto in the Roman Campagna, cried to his followers: " See how an
artist can die ! "
And to escape from weariness: he caused Pomponius Bassus to be
murdered, tore the young wife Irom the corpse on which she lay pros-
trate, bathing it with bitter tears, forced the outraged widow to his own
bed, and dismissed her at daybreak : — he being already hopelessly wearied !
'I'iien he hoped to find relief in the profanation of the pure and unsul-
lied vestals; as no one in all antiquity had ever before thought of seizing
upon one of these consecrated virgins, his idea had all the s[)ice of nov-
elty, having consequently the greater charm for him : he had tlie audacity
to tear away . A. quilia Sevcra herself from the sacred fire of Vesta, but dis-
missed her the following day, even more hopelessly wearied !
Then he directed nautical machines, and games at the circus upon
water, and upon seas of wine and absinthe. Mammoa, the sister of
Scemias, inherited a strong will, a keen intellect, and a soaring ambition
from her mother. Scemias had studied the old systems of magic, and w. as
familiar with all the Oriental symbols of immortality, but Mammea liad
adopted the idealism of Neo-platonism, and tlie creed of Christianity.
She indoctrinated her son. Alexander Severus, in these principles, and he
had in hissacrarium the statues of Pythagoras, Orplieus, Abraham, Apol-
lonius 'Ihyancus, and Jesus Christ. He lived upon milk, in its various
prep. irations, and fruit. 'wrote verses, and read Seneca, Virgil, and Cicero
unceasingly.
Mainmca persuaded her sister's son, Heliogabalus, that as High-Priest
of the Sun, it accorded better with his dignity to occupy himself with the
NOTES TO J RID ION. 461
supersensual, supernatural, and magical arts alone, and to leave earthly,
vain, and trifling things to Alexander. Hcliogabalus at first approved
of this counsel, and intVustcd the charge of his mundane affairs to Alexis,
naming him Alexander Severus, Ca;sar, and Consul. But thereupon
commenced a strife, at first secret, but afterwards public, in the imperial
palace. Hcliogabalus tried to mould Alexander after his own image,
and because he resisted, he raged against the mother and the preceptors
of Alexander. He condemned the rhetorician Silvius to death ; he
burned Ulpian, a celebrated jurist; he surrounded Mammea with spies,
and he finally tried to murder Alexander. In this he did not succeed,
for Alexander was protected by the watchful eye of his mother; where-
upon he ordered the Senate to deprive him of his title of Caesar, and the
prKtorians to overturn his statues. The senators, alarmed, feared to
obey, and the praetorians, incited and paid by Mammea, rose in rebellion.
Then, the very Heliogabalus who, but three years before, had headed the
legion at Emessa, challenged the power of Macrinus, and, almost naked,
without armor or helmet, with no defense save the sword in his hand, had
given strong proofs of courage and prowess upon the field of battle, fled
for refuge to the camp without the city, and promised to confer new
honors and dignities upon Alexander.
His first thoughts after his return to the palace were occupied in de-
vising pretexts to escape from his promises. In order to ascertain the
true feelings of the praetorians, he caused a report of the death of Alex-
ander to be spread abroad, whereupon a tumult taking place in the camp,
he was forced to show his cousin living and uninjured to the soldiers in
order to allay the commotion. As he stood upon his chariot, leaning
upon Alexander, he addressed the legions, but hearing threatening on
every side, he fell into a rage, and ordered the offenders against his sacred
majesty to be immediately arrested. Then the tumult rapidly increased,
Mammea on the one side encouraging the soldiers, and Soemias on the
other promising rewards to fidelity, until Heliogabalus, seized with fright
and the presentiment of approaching death, fled. His party was destroyed
by the praetorians, — and perhaps this was the only moment of his life in
which he forgot to feel weary ! Alexander was hailed Emperor.
Long before these events', the Syrian Seers had prophesied that their
High-Priest would die no common death, and they had always declared
to him that he would take his own life. Consequently, he had prepared
various instruments for such an emergency; he had cups of poison,
poisoned bowls and poisoned swords, and he had hollowed out a tomb
for himself at the base of the marble tower, and inlaid it with precious
stones and jewels. As he had prepared banquets, games, and amuse-
ments for himself, he would also arrange for death ; but when death came,
perhaps the sole reality of his phantasmagoric life, he forgot his games
and his artistic preparations for his stern guest. He hid himself with his
mother in one of the most distant corners of his palace, — a corner en-
tirely unsuitable to the dignity of the Roman Caesars, and of which even
Nero, in the depths of his extremity, had never thought. But even in
this obscure hiding-place he was not safe ; he was discovered by the
praetorians, murdered, decapitated, and his headless corpse, together with
that of his unhappy mother, dragged about the streets of the city, and
then thrown into the sewer; but as the opening was narrow, it was agair*
dragged out, and was finally thrown into the Tiber. The last name of
Heliogabalus was Tiberinus.
Heliogabalus may be regarded as a synthetic embodiment of the
462 NOTES TO IRIDION.
Oriental myths. These myths, once full of deep and true thoughts, now
remained only in the entire prostitution of their outward forms, so that
the inner meaning was no longer suggested by, or even thought of in
connection with the external manifestation: and thus these degraded and
licentious symbols seem to have been gathered together and incarnated
in the form of Heliogabalus, that their character and influence might be
the more distinctly manifested, and that they might thus vanish from the
face of the earth. Indeed, the symbolism of the East fell almost neces-
sarily into degradation ; coming under the law of nature there prevalent,
the purest idea could take no pure form upon itself, for nature herself
there is destructive to human energy and freedom, enticing to sensuality
and luxury, lulling the conscience, and rife with the lotus-fruits of obliv-
ion. Through her own exceeding softness, beauty, and luxuriance, she
seems to choke and deaden the spiritual essence in the soul of man.
It is a common thing for historians to pass rapidly and contemptuously
over the few short days of the reign of Heliogabalus. As an individual,
he richly deserves their scorn, but not as an historic fact, for after his
death the victory of Christianity became every day more certain. Pagan-
ism manifested itself in its very apex in him, showing clearly before the
eyes of the world that it was rotten to the inmost core, that it could bear
fruit no longer; indeed, its whole extent and power, its utter prostration
and worthtessness to effect any good for humanity, was typified and mani-
fested in this physically beautiful, but cruel, vicious, and unhappy young
Priest of the Sun. A moral dissolution stamps every thought and deed
of Heliogabalus ; in his youthful desires and impotent decrepitude we
see an utter want of the life of the spirit, of the soul : — he was matter left
to its own corruption /
3 The Latin Diva. The emperors and their consorts were frequently
promoted to the rank of gods and goddesses by a decree of the Roman
Senate ; statues were erected in their honor, and temples dedicated to
them. Many Christians perished because they refused to burn incense
upon altars consecrated to the C;esars and adorned with their images.
Antinous, the idol of Adrian, was registered (after his death) among the
gods by a decree of the Roman Senate, pronounced in accordance with
the desire of Adrian.
NOTES TO ACT II.
» Names of great emperors who were registered after death among the
gods, and which became afterwards the titles of those who succeeded them,
or of the princes of the C;Ksarian line. Thus the emperors were called,
Augustus, Caesar. Heliogabalus had adopted the names of the best em-
perors as titles of honor, and was styled : Antoninus, Aurelius, etc. , etc.
* The Peristyle was the saloon of the ancients, their houses usu. ally
consisting of a long row of rooms, the one following immediately upon
the other, so that when one stood in the " Vestibulum" or<entrance, which
was commonly quite narrow, he could see through to the " Viridarium"
or garden, in which it was customary for the house to terminate at
the other end. Immediately back of the Vestibulum was the " Atrium,"
in which the slaves sat and the guests were first received. The " Vesti-
NOTES TO I RID ION. 463
bulum," in the midst of which was the " Impluvium," a round or square
tank destined to contain rain-water, was surrounded by small slcejiing-
apartments, the light of day entering through an opening immediately
over the Impluvium. Tiien came the " Tablinum," a long hall adorned
with all the precious or valuable things pertaining to the house. Beyond
it stood the " Peristyle," a quadrilateral room, generally adorned with col-
umns, and without a roof, intended for exercise, walking and amusement;
then came the "Triclinium" or eating-room, connected with and fre-
quently in the "Viridarium" or garden, in which were statues, vases,
flowers, and shrubs. This whole row of rooms was like a long corridor,
varied by the narrowing or widening of the walls, and adorned by stat-
ues and frescoes. The altars of the house gods stood in the \'estibulum,
and the other gods and heroes in the Peristyle and Viridarium. The
rooms occupied by the slaves, as well as the chambers of the family,
were only side cabinets attached to this main corridor, opening into it on
either side. In Rome, especially in the Palace of the Caesars, the pro-
portions were large and noble, but at Pompeii only the main corridor,
the places intended for the public eye, for the taking of meals or the re-
ception of guests, were either spacious or beautiful, the remainder of the
house consisting of low, narrow apartments.
3 Septimius Severus, whose wife, Julia, was the sister of Moesa, the
mother of Mammea and Soemias. Caracalla, the son of Septimius, suc-
ceeded him ; Macrinus, Prefect of the praetorian guard, succeeded Cara-
calla, and then came Heliogabalus.
^ Tiresias, a famous seer, was a son of the nymph Chariclo ; he was
deprived of sight by Juno, and gifted with prophetic power by Jupiter.
Heroes, when an. xious to pry into the future, went to visit him in the in-
fernal regions.
5 The inhabitants of Crotona were celebrated for their great physical
strength and their skill in combat.
* This entire speech of Iridion is based upon the foolish idolatry with
which Caracalla regarded Alexander the Great. Caracalla was a man
of but moderate ability, not of an iron will, but of iron caprices, vain, os-
tentatious, full of petty self-love, and suffering in some degree from dis-
order of the brain ; yet he was a bold and vigorous soldier. He was a jier-
fect hero in his own eyes, and believed that fate had created him for great
purposes. The star which shone with the greatest lustre in the Greek
and Roman hemisphere was the star of Alexander the Great ; it kindled
in him the desire to attain the same brilliancy, and it became the object
of his worship. He imitated Alexander as closely as possible, and his
courtiers declared to him he resembled him as one drop of water resem-
bles another. His helmet, sword, and entire armor were like to those of
Alexander, and he carried his head bent as Alexander had done, to in-
crease the resemblance to him. Although he could not be a genius and
a conqueror, yet he found resources in the mustering of legions ; and
since he could not take Tyre and Babylon, he marched upon Alexandria,
his own city, and in one day destroyed the half of its inhabitants, flatter-
ing himself that he too could conquer and murder as the Macedonian
king was wont to do. He finally deluded himself to such a degree that
he actually believed, toward the end of his days, that through metemp-
sychosis the spirit of the Macedonian had entered into his body, and that
he had become actually one with the great Alexander.
464 NOTES TO I RID ION.
NOTES TO ACT III.
' It would seem that near this monument, erected to the wife of the Tri-
umvir Crassus, was a secret entrance into the catacombs. Near it still
stands the church of St. Sebastian, from which the descent is now made
into the crypts.
» The place in front of the Capitol, upon which stood the rostra and
curiae. Steps ascended from the Forum to the top of the Capitoline hill ;
upon the left height stood the temple of Jupiter Feretrius upon the Tar-
peian rock; on the right, tliat of Jupiter Capitolinus. Opposite the Cap-
itol stood the temple of Vesta, and the cloisters of the vestals ; and near
the foot of the Capitolium was the temple of Fortune and Concordia.
On a vacant spot in the midst stood a rostrum. The general view must
have been exceedingly beautiful. That elevation of the soul which is
visible in , and is inspired by, Gothic architecture, is not indeed to be found
in the antic|ue or classic ; in its stead rules the highest worth of the mate-
rial, the highest dignity of the corporeal. The old intrepid patrician,
with his toga thrown back, resting after the offering he has made to the
gods, is the type of the ancient architecture. In its every part it is defined,
limited, clear, and perfectly finished. The ideas of mass and beauty are
in it united and brought into a firmly-closed and clearly-designated circle.
Firmness, imity, limitation, arc its distinctive marks, whereas in the Gothic
we have variety, movement, progression, suggestions of the infinite, life.
The one is a beautiful corpse ; the other a growing spirit ; or, classic
architecture is the spirit perfectly incorporated in dimensions, in matter;
and Gothic, matter struggling to idealize itself, to become spirit. Hence
it is that so few Gothic churches are entirely finished, while the heathen
temples were completed in every part ; hence, in regard to mere art. Pa-
gan architecture has surpassed the Christian, while in thought, spirit, and
suggestiveness, the Christian far excels the Pagan.
3 The walls in the catacombs were covered with monuments, with
sculpture and painting. In the early days of Christianity, art was essen-
tially symbolic. Thus Orpheus, the first sage, poet, and founder of so-
ciety and civilization among the heathens, was made to signify Christ, as
did also the figures of Noah, Isaac, and Joseph. A golden candlestick
with three branches represented Christ; so did a grape-vine. The lyre
was the symbol of the Cross; the palm, of glory in Heaven; a cross set
with precious stones, wound with wreaths of roses and with chains of gold
extending from the two Greek letters Alpha and Omega, signified God,
the beginning and end of all that is. The peacock symbolized the resur-
rection, but sometimes stood for . Satan. The wood of the olive was the
hieroglyphic of rest and eternity; the cypress and pine, of death; the
anchor, of redemption ; fish stood for men, in accordance with the words
of the Saviour to the Apostles: "be ye fishers of men;" the dolphin
representetl hope and the dead who had left this world for a better. Sam-
son with the gates upon his shoulders, signified Christ ; for: " Tollit por-
tas civitatis id est Inferni et removit mortis imperium. " Ci vitas once
meant the real deed of Samson, but also stood for the old world entire,
which w. is truly only a collection of cities, which, strong in their walled
and defended limits, opjircssed men to the uttermost. This type proves
that the Christians of the first centuries already felt their political mission.
NOTES TO I RID TON. 465
A shepherd meant an apostle; a cock, the watchfulness of the pastor;
and the cross was always made of four kinds of wood, — cypress, cedar,
pine, and olive.
4 The " Pro-Christum" was a little flask, which, containing some of
the blood of the martyr, was placed upon his breast in the coffin, en-
graved with the letters: P. Chr. (for Christ). The bodies of martyrs are
recognized even at the present date by this mark, although no other in-
scription remains to show they died for Christ.
s The depressing belief that the world was approaching its end, and
that the day of judgment was near, was frequent among Christians from
the death of Christ almost half through the Middle Ages. The entire
conspiracy and appeal of Iridion in the catacombs is based upon such
views of the approaching end of the world, the resurrection of the saints,
and the destruction of Rome.
NOTES TO ACT IV.
' The ancients constantly carried with them small tablets, covered with
wax, upon which they wrote with a sharp instrument of metal, called
stylus or style. These were worn thrust into the girdle of the tunic, and
were frequently used as daggers. Many of the conspirators by whom
Julms Caesar was killed came to the senate provided with such weapons.
Brutus stabbed him with the stylus.
^ The Roman legions were, upon the field of battle, drawn up in three
ranks : the first rank formed the " Hastati" ; the second, the " Principes" ;
and the third, the " Triarii. " Each rank was divided into twelve bands;
two bands formed a century, whose leaders were called centurions ; and
three companies formed a cohort. A company contained, at least, si. xty ;
at most, one hundred and twenty men.
3 A constellation so called from the sisljfr, and at the same time wife,
of Ptolemy Evergetes, a king of Egypt. She made a vow to cut off her
hair and offer it up in the temple of Mars, if her husband should return in
safety from an expedition which he had undertaken in Asia. U])on his
return, she kept her vow : it was hung up in the temple, but disappeared
during the same night. Fearing to lose his place, the court astronomer
then swore that a zephyr, commanded by Venus, had borne it to Heaven,
and named the seven glittering stars near the tail of the Lion : the hair of
Berenice.
4 Brennus, a leader of the Gauls, after the capture of the city of Rome
and the murder of the senators, when taking the exacted ransom then
being weighed before him, cast his heavy sword into the scales with the
famous words : "Vae victis I" Woe to the conquered !
5 Thrice powerful, because she was the Moon in Heaven, Diana upon
the earth, and Proserpine or Hecate in the lower world. Her usual
epithet was: Dea Feralis, — the Goddess of Destruction.
40
466
NOTES TO 1 RID ION.
NOTES TO ACT V.
' It is a well-known fact that when Attalus of Pergamus was dying
without heirs, he was induced to leave his beautiful provinces to Rome.
» Before the Romans began to assume an intermeddling and aggress-
ive part in the affairs of Greece, one of their ambassadors declared
openly before the inhabitants of the different cities then assembled from
all parts to attend the Isthmian games, that, after due consideration, the
Roman Senate and People held the demands of the Macedonian king to
be utterly unjust ; that they deemed the maintenance of Greece in her
rights would be useful and noble, and promised to aid her with all their
power against the attacks of Macedonia.
3 The last expression of the Greek school of Platonism was found in
Stoicism, in the dying'hours of antiquity. The idealism of the ancients
was realized in the Stoics, as their materialism was in the Epicureans.
The virtue of the Stoics was great, but harsh and inexorable. They knew
how to die, but not how to live. They held themselves aloof from other
men, gazed sadly upon the dying world, but made no efforts to save it.
Shut up in themselves, bowing only before the decrees of their own pride,
which they, indeed, called conscience, they were moral egotists, filled with
self-love, not even associating closely with each other; never kindled into
life by the love of humanity, nor warmed by the social relations and
friendships generated in society. Their thoughts and precepts circled
continually round an ideal world, and were never suited for the actual;
hence we have accounts of famous deaths among them rather than of
famous lives. The precepts of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius breathe
their highest and purest spirit. His maxims for a considerable time
served in some measure to console the world, which was daily falling
into the corruption of death, but they were unable to generate anything
truly great or living. The system of the Stoics might well be called a
"testament," in which the dying left nothing to the heirs but some
melancholy remarks on life. The Stoics first brought into the world the
malady known as the spleen, the last crisis of which is suicide.
4 Nothing could be less ideal, or more thoroughly real and practical,
than the policy uniformly pursued by Rome. Its Senate . "ihrank from no
treachery to defeat an enemy, or to deceive a friend and ally.
Fortitude and stern endurance in misfortune, a faith that Rome must stand because
it must, with a daring shamelessncss tliat stopped at nothing to achieve a
purpose, made the greatness of the Eternal City.
THE LAST.
Translated from the French transtation of the original made by
M. Constantine Gaszyiiski.
THE LAST.
From the summits of the mountains whither they had dragged their
heavy crosses, they saw afar off the Promised Land. They saw the
celestial splendor toward which the men of their race below were ap-
proaching; but they were not able to reach those heavenly regions. Ah!
they may never sit at the banquet of life; and perhaps even the memory
of their sacrifice will be forgotten !
"Anonyme. "
Nearly the whole of my sad life has passed
Under a dungeon's vault, a prison's bolts and bars,
In darkness, silence, sickness, misery.
My memory is fading day by day
Out of the helots of my compatriots;
The love of those who loved me once, grows cold;
Perhaps even now they have forgotten me !
A child of light, buried 'neath these dark vaults,
I suffer here because I dared to sing
To m_y_torn country, hymns of faith and love ;
To plant the word within men's sinJcing hearts.
To bloom in inspiration like my own !
I have been proud ! Proud only with the -haughty ;
Worst nature for success in this low world !
467
468 THE LAST.
Strike those already down, thou mayst find profit:
But if thou brav'st the arrogant oppressors,
If with a man's free eye thou look'st upon them
Simply as droves of brutes and not as men ;
A dreadful vengeance from those brutes awaits thee;
And thou, a man, will be enchained by them !
Ill,
Like skiffs that skim still lakes, or eagles cleaving space,
The first years of my life fled rapidly away.
Unfortunate ! I did not then foresee
Where these swift waves were bearing me ! As yet
The sun shone brilliantly above my head ;
Each moment of the day bloomed like a flower;
My fellow-beings were my Brothers, Sisters;
And this world, now so deaf to my complaints.
Was my yo\ith's Paradise !
IV.
Where is the angel who, after the pangs
Of martyrdom have ceased, the death-hour o'er,
Comes the third day marked for the Resurrection,
And lifts the stone pressing the tomb? Alas !
He comes alone for Heavenly Powers, not men!
Where is the second messenger from Heaven,
Wrenching the bolts from the Mamertine doors,
Who came at night, and bore the saints of the Lord,
In triumph from their executioners?
But I am no Elect — and these are other times!
Our Enemy has sterner arms than death ;
He, while hot life is throbbing in thy veins.
Will seize, will wrap and hold thee in a shroud,
Whence thine intelligence will never rise again !
For, shut within the walls of darkened cell.
Thy spirit, winged guest of the infinite.
Which used to dream of heavenly destinies.
Will feel itself so orphaned, so alone.
That thou wilt take a sjiider to thy heart.
And supplicate thy jailer for a word
THE LAST. 469
To hear again the sound of the human voice !
And when days, months, and years on years elapse,
And no hope ever comes to visit thee, —
The spirit sinks in deep abyss of nothingness !
VI.
How often have I tried by force of will,
To rouse my thoughts which fast were dying out,
Thus to escape the threatened death of soul !
But when despair has conquered, won its way,
And pierced the deep recesses of the brain,
'Tis horrible to see how fast the blood
Will pour itself along the deadly bolt,
How atrophy will feed upon the mind,
And how decay will paralyze the heart.
Which does not break, but hardens hour by hour,
Until no longer love beats in its throb : —
And of all bitter woes, this is the worst !
VII.
I struggled like a Titan 'gainst the void
Of nothingness, the death of life.
To bolts and bars I cried : " Tell me the news.
And what is passing where the living dwell! "
I took into my livid hands my lamp.
And one by one counted the calcined threads
Which made its wick, to generate a thought
To stimulate my torpid agony !
But nothing solaced me ; nothing aroused ;
A heavy fog drifted from day to day
Increasing, o'er my soul, darkening my faculties
Until the internal world went out within me !
All inspiration fled \ ideas died ;
I was alone ; alive — but in a grave;
Forever welded to this chain whose rings.
Set in my bones, are fastened to the clamp
Fixed in my dungeon walls.
viii.
Oh, oft in earlier years old men were wont to tell me :
"Young madman, cease ! or thy melodious harp
40*
47°
THE LAST.
Will plunge thee in an abyss of misery ;
Thy songs will die with thee 'neath bars and bolts !
To-day men care not for the hymns of liberty ;
They seek but peace, propitious to their commerce !
Vainly thou seek'st to stigmatize corruption ;
Such prophets noAv are stoned ! He who would bring
To earth the news from Heaven, must perish wretchedly ! '
I would not hear them ; doubted all they said.
I wished to live, not stagnate in this world;
Therefore while living, I am sternly doomed
To rot beneath the surface of the earth.
The light which shines for all, is torn from me.
Degraded from my dignity as man,
I've fallen so low, while God remains so high
In Heaven, that even His eye of mercy can
No more perceive me !
IX,
Yes, I am chained in subterranean cell.
Above me prisons more commodious rise,
Where light may enter; they are ever kept
For prisoners less unfortunate than I,
And treated by the Czar with less severity;
They only having killed a father, mother,
Brother, — and hence their doom less stern than mine !
Ah 1 they may freely gaze across their bars
Into blue space, and track the flying clouds,
And breathe fresh air, and see the happy sunshine,
And know when spring comes back again to warm
These dreary wastes of snow !
All is permitted them : nothing to me !
I am more guilty than those murderers,
Because I am a man, a Pole, a rebel
'Gainst foul injustice ; whence I'm surely deemed
A Satan in this Empire of all virtue !
X.
^eSiit_is_truej_I. soughl. to_ Vake4he Past,
And by my solemn chants to rouse again,
In souls unstrung by cowardice, a faith
More vivid in the future. . . . Yes, 'tis true.
THE LAST.
471
I have been proud, and hoped wliere hope was none.
I was not born to live in this, our age, —
Age of transition given up to evil, —
Which those who care not for the will of God —
Industrial Chiefs and Princes of the earth, —
Would fain perpetuate to coin in gold !
Like Solomon's Temple, ere Christ drove away
The money-changers, rose the structure of
The world I knew, approaching fast its fall,
Full of iniquity, and void of faith !
Within, the speculators circulated.
Striving the one to overreach the other,
Urged on by keen avidity of lucre;
Only arrested by the fear of war.
The world entire was but a mighty Bourse,
From which they had driven God ! . . .
Above this den of wily gain and fraud
Already loomed from icy northern clime
(Like Satan in the garb of an archangel)
A monstrous shadow, growing every hour,
Thrown by the Giant who has chained me here !
They all, instead of joining to repulse this foe,
Strike him with fire and iron, only used
The fire to forge the h-on into roads ;
And based their hopes on steam; while they feared war
Far more than they feared God or infamy.
Thus were the traders, manufi. icturers.
Contented with their lot.
<K XI.
Thus have they ever rested peaceably
Within their cities, near their shops and banks,
Crowning their markets with triumphal arches;
And I ? . . . Oh, I have miserably perished !
The foe, with arm as swift as sudden death,
Seized me by stealth. I was allowed to breathe
No parting wish in any human ear,
Nor bid farewell to any whom I loved.
Leaving no trace by which I might be found.
At dead of night they hurried me away
472
THE LAST.
In a kibitka :* secretly, in silence !
Only the stars of my own native sky
Were the mute witnesses of what was done,
And looked on my mysterious, rapid course.
XII.
Before an infamous court they summoned me ;
Tried and condemned me. The judges scoffed because
I, a weak Pole, for a moment could forget
The power of that Government, which holds
The keys of Life and Death, and said that I,
Having offended the Czar-god, deserved
Stern sentence for my crimes ! Then they decreed
That I should go on foot to the world's confines.
The land of ice ! I, son of a great nation,
Should go with convicts, welded to their chain !
XIII.
And I walked on forever through sad lands,
Chained with a drove of felons, Moscovites !
Our hangman led a horse before the convoy,
But never mounted it : a Holy Thing
Was to its saddle constantly appended ;
The KNOUT with thongs of leather, iron hooks
To gather the torn flesh back to its place
That the poor victim might still seem a man.
As mutilation, death, swept over him !
The executioner who led this horse
Forever with his finger pointed to it.
Crying: "Behold ! the organ of the Czar! "
He ordered men to kneel and bow before it
With reverence, as if it were the cross
Of sacrifice which from the saddle rose !
Thus did this emblem of the soul of Russia,
The Czar's omnipotence, still lead me on
Through never-ending steppes of desolation.
Toward the North Pole, bound in eternal ice.
* Kibitka, a Russian wagon in which condemned political prisoners
start on their journey to Siberia.
THE LAST. 473
XIV.
My traveling companions, robbers, thieves,
Forgers, assassins, had a hai)i)ier fate !
They loosed their chains, and left them on the route
At various places to form colonies,
And populate those wastes. * I, only I,
Was forced to drag on ever wearily
Behind that hangman, horse, and knout accursed !
And when my rings, welded on hands, on feet,
Had worn away the flesh and rubbed into the bones,
And I was suffering utmost agony,
And begged the rufhan for a moment's rest
Upon the horse ; the Moscovite replied :
" Die, cursed Pole, rather than thus pollute
With touch of thine, with stain of rebel hands,
The symbol of the justice of the Czar ! "f
Happy are they who may expire upon
The very threshold of their martyrdom !
Such death were but deliverance from worse ills !
Wait thou until the hour of victory,
Then wilt thou die 1 — but if thy life be naught
But misery, — that life shall be prolonged!
XV.
Where are thy smiling plains, my native land?
Fields gay with flowers, or rich with golden grain?
•■•■ The punishment of death in Russia is only inflicted on those guilty of
political crimes. The most dreadful criminals in common law are sent
to Siberia to work in the mines and fortresses; sometimes only in the
view of peopling the desert country.
f This episode may appear trivial to foreign readers, but our author
has inserted it in his poem as an historic remembrance. Prince Roman
Sanguszko, who was taken prisoner in the war of 1831, was condemned
to be sent to Siberia. The mother of the Prince hastened to St. Peters-
burg, and addressed a petition to the Emperor Nicholas, to obtain the
pardon of her son. The wtvr//>c/ Czar, however, augmented the punish-
ment by writing with his pencil at the foot of the petition of the sick-
hearted mother : " He shall go on foot. " The sentence was put into exe-
cution ; he went on foot ; and many, many years afterwards, when Prince
Roman Sanguszko had been pardoned and had returned to Poland, he
would often relate to his friends the above history of the e. Kecutioner, the
horse, and the knout.
474
THE LAST.
Where are the forests where the pine-trees wave
When the wind stirs their branches, murmuring
Mysterious tones, solemn and sweet as prayers ?
Where is the aerial warbling of the lark?
Where the old church where sleep my ancestors ?
Where are the Catholic litanies of my people,
People who call the Virgin Mary, Queen?
XVI.
Oh, what has passed? . . . Where am I, O my God?
Is there still left a corner in my soul
Where memory's lamp is not as yet quite out?
Does any human trait still live in me?
They say already twenty years have passed, —
I cannot tell, — but thou must know, my God,
Since I fell prostrate on this bed of death !
All consciousness of Present, Past, or Future
Then died in utter, sudden void and darkness!
But with a flash the black clouds sweep away ;
My Guardian Angel comes again to*-nie !
Tears tremble in my eyes, steal through my lids, —
'Tis long since I have wept ! Oh, very long
Since I could love, or dream of memory, hope !
My Angel, give me back love, memory,
In which each mortal claims his blessed share !
I supplicate thee. Angel, let me find
My soul again, if only for a moment,
Oh, let me feel it ! make it visible !
XVII.
My wandering thoughts, can you as yet remember
What ])resages were kindling in men's minds
When you were dizzied and obliterated ?
Were there not marvelous presentiments
Quivering in human souls in that wild hour
In which your agony began? . . .
Did not a voice rising from whence none knew.
But which reverberated everywhere.
Then prophesy what should befi\ll on earth ?
Peoples and kings condemned fell on their knees;
The uncreated Word made Itself heard
THE LAST.
475
In human souls, by strengthening Faith, Hope, Love !
The ruins of the crumbling centuries past,
With germs of future ages, — wholly freed
From their black clouds, — the Holy Spirit mingled
In the soft azure of the same horizon.
Lighted by but one sun : — for He will come
At last, the Saviour of all human races,
Restorer of all mutilated countries,
The avenger of all crimes against Humanity !
Into the Politics of this vexed world
He will bring Justice, — and His coming opens
A new — the third — last era of our Planet !
Factitious States no longer will exist,
Which for their profit, or their idle glory,
Have torn apart the body of a nation,
And stifled souls under the stones of graves.
And, by the will of God upon His earth,
The bodies and the souls of nations shall
Remain no longer sundered ! . . .
Yes, I remember now ! Such was the news ;
Such the presentiments which stirred the world,
Then given up to violence and woe.
And we, the Poles, knew well the Messenger, —
The Angel of the si)here of politics, —
Who from the stormy waves of earth's events
Was destined to bring peace, and reunite
The nationalities, could only be
Our holy Poland ; for that martyr's cross
'Had borne such woe, been bathed in such pure blood,
As might redeem this upper, earthly Hell.
Yes, I believed that having endured till death.
My People would unfurl their wings, and seize
The sword of miracle, thus to achieve
The works of life.
XVIII.
How many times Alas ! perhaps too soon,
I've seen in dreams the God of Resurrection !
No wounds, no blood upon His body now!
The form might seem another Christ, and yet
'Tis the same Christ in His eternal glory.
476
THE LAST.
His Face shines like the sun ; whiter than snow
His robe floats round Him in his heavenly course;
And in the dawn of worlds new-born to life
He bathes His unnailed Hands, transfigured now 1
XIX.
Behind the Man-God, slowly, very slowly,
In dazzling beauty, with no trace of death,
My Poland, my beloved Poland, moves !
She stops upon the threshold of the Sion
Promised to all the Peoples upon earth,
And from the sacred heights her voice resounds
So far the assembled nations clearly hear.
Or high, or low, or in the depths of space:
"To me ! to me, fraternal races, come !
Finished the latest fight of the final strife;
The snares of treason, webs of woven lies,
Are all destroyed, and hate is buried with them ;
Come, mount with me into the realm of Peace ! "
The chorus of all nations then responds :
" Glory and Benediction be to thee,
Poland ! for though truly all have suffered, .
the very personification of age. The influences of the past seemed to
have left a void in his soul which nothing ever sufficed to fill. Sensuality
and weariness were the two strongest traits of his character ; these are also
the traits of old age. Weariness of lite {ennui), is the martyrdom which
springs from the feeling of eternal emptiness, and from the unceasing but
fruitless efforts to escape from its torment. Voluptuous sensuality is the
work of the imagination striving to find something which will have the
power to awaken and rekindle the dead senses. Passion is always vigor-
ous, it is the synthesis, the poetry of the body ; sensuality, on the contrary,
is full of ingenuity and research ; it stretches forth to and embraces a
thousand details, it individualizes and separates ; it is analysis, prose.
Heliogabalus cannot be said to have gratified his passions, for he had
none to gratify; he had only the burning desire to have passions. He
sought throughout nature, in every part of his wide realm, in his whole
being, for the excitants, the sparks which might kindle a fire of whatsoever
character, to inflame, to warm, to stimulate the cold void in his own soul.
His whole life was spent in this restless and miserable struggle, and con-
sequently everything he did was only a caprice. Such a character and
position in a young man would be utterly inexplicable, were it not that
the fatal old age of the world in which he was born had cast its burden
of years upon him. Thus Heliogabalus was old through the world which
surrounded him, and young through his own youth ; and from this melan-
choly contrast sprang the eternal contradiction in which his life was passed :
eternal impotence and eternal desire !
This impotent old man, this self-warring, decaying, worn-out, and ex-
hausted child, was born in Syria, the land of magical myths and consuming
climates. His grandmother Moesa was the sister of Julia, the wife of
Septimius Severus. After the death of this emperor, his whole family,
robbed of their power and influence, were banished to Syria. Moesa had
two daughters, Scemias and Mammea ; Mamniea was the mother of Alexis,
afterwards famous under the name of Alexander Severus. Heliogabalus
had been from the fourteenth year of Iiis age High-Priest in the temple
at Emessa, dedicated to the worship of the great god, Halgah-Baal or
Mithras, who was the god of the Chaldeans, and with whom all the Ori-
ental and Egyptian myths were closely linked. He was the symbol of
the Sun, and was revered as the most famous among the gods, the Highest,
the One, and, so to speak, the Abstract Essence ; for this reason no image
was made of him ; a round black stone was his symbol. Other gods were
worshiped in this temple; Baal-Fegor, or the sun materialized, the
Power which quickened and lived in vegetation; Gad- Baal, or the sun
incorporated, from whom came the Oracles; Phirbe, Astarte Baalis, the
great goddess, the spouse of Halgah-Baal, or the moon lighted by the
sun, nature ciuicUened by the sim ; Baalis Benoth or Venus, and Baalis
Dercote or the Grecian Ajihrodite, both designating nature already in-
carnated, woman. The death and resurrection of Adonis were celebrated
in this temple ; a symbol of nature forsaken by the sun in winter and re-
vivified in the spring by his warming rays. Presents were sent to it from
every part of Asia. Its solemnities were celebrated with incredible
luxury, but with the most brutal licentiousness. In this vast temple of
phantasms, luxuries, and crimes, the soul of Heliogabalus received its first
lessons, its earliest development. His healthful energies, his free will,
NOTES TO I RID I ON. 459
were thus crushed at his very entrance into life by fantastic scenes and
creeds, into which there entered neither truth nor reality ; luxury enervated
his mind, and voluptuousness sated his soul; the effects of both were in-
creased by the influence of a stimulating and exciting climate. In accord-
ance with all the accounts given of him, he was exceedingly beautiful.
It was a general rumor that he was the son of Caracalla, by whom his
mother had been loved, and whose memory was idolized by the soldiers
of the legions. After the murder of Caracalla, Macrinus, the Prefect of
the praetorians, ruled Rome and the world, but his reign was without
strength. One of the legions, passing through Emessa, saw the young
Heliogabalus. His exceeding beauty, associated with the memory of his
father, struck the legionaries; and Moesa, who could not forget that her
sister had once been the foremost woman in Rome, struggled with all her
powers to advance the interests of her grandson. She took Heliogabalus
and Scemias secretly at night from the temple, and conducted them to the
camp of the legion. The son of Caracalla was there proclaimed Coesar,
and Ulpius Julius, who had been sent thither by Macrinus, was killed.
Heliogabalus, for the first and last tmie in his life, displayed considerable
courage in the struggle which then occurred. Macrinus fled on receiving
the intelligence of the death of his son, and, springing from his chariot,
broke his arm, when his head was stricken off and taken to Heliogabalus.
Then commenced the reign of Heliogabalus, and his unceasing efforts to
escape from ennui.
To escape from these haunting feelings of weariness, he caused Halgah-
Baal to be brought to Rome, and had all the other gods transported into
his sanctuary, as well as all the heroes who received worship ; he had
in his possession the Troian Palladium and the shield of Vesta and
Numa ; he amused himself by making of these gods proconsuls, officers,
and servants to Halgah-Baal ; of the goddesses, he made mistresses or
consorts; first he gave Baal the Athenian Pallas as wife, but afterwards
took her away from him, and gave him the Carthaginian Venus, whom he
suffered to remain consort.
To escape from feeling weary : he brought chariots from Sicily, flute-
players from ^-Egium, cooks from Elis, bakers from Athens; he covered
the ground with Lvdian tapestries, used incense and perfumes from Syria,
he sent for doves to Cyprus, for pearls to Lydia, for horses to the island
of Melos, for oysters to Pylos, for fish to the Hellespont, for crabs to
Minturncie, for pears to Eubosa, for plums to Damascus, for grapes to
Rhodes, for oranges to Persia, for cedars to Palmyra, for pomegranates
to . Antioch, for dates to Phoenicia, for almonds to Naxos, for wine to the
apple-perfumed Thasos and to Cyprus.
And to escape from weariness: he drove out with cainels, elephants,
and lions harnessed to his chariot; he clothed himself in long, graceful
garments, instead of the short tunic of the Romans; and in the interior
of the palace he wore, to the great ilisgust of the Romans, the diadem
upon his brow, although he did not venture to appear in public with it.
He wore cothurni richly adorned with precious stones. He never put
the same garment on twice, nor the saiue shoes nor rings; he bathed in
immense baths of marble, with saffron and the most costly perfumes in
the water which he used ; he slept upon a couch cf silver, covered with
cushions of partridge and swan's-down ; he drank from goblets of crystal,
amber, onyx, and gold. After each course of food, the wreaths were
changed for his brows ; at the first course they were of roses, at the second
of violets, at the third of myrtle, at the fourth of narcissus-flowers, at the
46o NOTES TO IRIDION.
fifth of ivy, at the sixth of roses and papyri mingled, and at the seventh
of tlie Alexandrian lotus.
And to escape from weariness: he had the combs torn from the heads
of cocks while they were still living, and the tongues from peacocks and
nightingales; he had the brains pressed out of partridges and thrushes,
and the heads twisted off pheasants, canary-birds, and parrots. When
he passed through the halls of the palace, or went into the garden, slaves
strewed roses and silver sand before him. At one time he ordered ten
thousand spiders to be brought to him ; at another, ten thousand mice ;
then ten thousand martens ; and again, ten thousand cats. At the closing
of the games he would throw adders and basilisks among the assembled
people. To his parasites he would send as presents costly vessels closely
soldered, filled with toads and scorpions. Sometimes he would invite
some among them to banquets, and the ceiling would suddenly open
above them, and roses, violets, and other flowers would be thrown down
upon thein ; at first they would stretch themselves out delightedly under
the fragrant sliower, but the rain did not cease, flowers upon flowers con-
tinued to fall, until the room was filled; and the next day weie dragged
forth the corpses of the unhaj^py men who had been stifled under the un-
ceasing fall of tulips, lilies, violets, and roses. He would often have
favorite lions and tigers brought into the hall, and delight himself with
the fear and anguish of the senators, consuls, and courtiers, who had been
invited to his banquet.
. \nd to escape from weariness : at a time when prizes were distributed
for horsemanship at the circus, he resolved to play the charioteer, and
caught and seized in his own royal person the pieces of silver thrown by
the spectators ; then he played the part of a simple musician. As his
father, Caracalla, had been a passionate admirer and imitator of Alexan-
der the Great, he selected as his model Nero, who, stabbing himself in
a grotto in the Roman Campagna, cried to his followers: " See how an
artist can die ! "
And to escape from weariness: he caused Pomponius Bassus to be
murdered, tore the young wife Irom the corpse on which she lay pros-
trate, bathing it with bitter tears, forced the outraged widow to his own
bed, and dismissed her at daybreak : — he being already hopelessly wearied !
'I'iien he hoped to find relief in the profanation of the pure and unsul-
lied vestals; as no one in all antiquity had ever before thought of seizing
upon one of these consecrated virgins, his idea had all the s[)ice of nov-
elty, having consequently the greater charm for him : he had tlie audacity
to tear away . A. quilia Sevcra herself from the sacred fire of Vesta, but dis-
missed her the following day, even more hopelessly wearied !
Then he directed nautical machines, and games at the circus upon
water, and upon seas of wine and absinthe. Mammoa, the sister of
Scemias, inherited a strong will, a keen intellect, and a soaring ambition
from her mother. Scemias had studied the old systems of magic, and w. as
familiar with all the Oriental symbols of immortality, but Mammea liad
adopted the idealism of Neo-platonism, and tlie creed of Christianity.
She indoctrinated her son. Alexander Severus, in these principles, and he
had in hissacrarium the statues of Pythagoras, Orplieus, Abraham, Apol-
lonius 'Ihyancus, and Jesus Christ. He lived upon milk, in its various
prep. irations, and fruit. 'wrote verses, and read Seneca, Virgil, and Cicero
unceasingly.
Mainmca persuaded her sister's son, Heliogabalus, that as High-Priest
of the Sun, it accorded better with his dignity to occupy himself with the
NOTES TO J RID ION. 461
supersensual, supernatural, and magical arts alone, and to leave earthly,
vain, and trifling things to Alexander. Hcliogabalus at first approved
of this counsel, and intVustcd the charge of his mundane affairs to Alexis,
naming him Alexander Severus, Ca;sar, and Consul. But thereupon
commenced a strife, at first secret, but afterwards public, in the imperial
palace. Hcliogabalus tried to mould Alexander after his own image,
and because he resisted, he raged against the mother and the preceptors
of Alexander. He condemned the rhetorician Silvius to death ; he
burned Ulpian, a celebrated jurist; he surrounded Mammea with spies,
and he finally tried to murder Alexander. In this he did not succeed,
for Alexander was protected by the watchful eye of his mother; where-
upon he ordered the Senate to deprive him of his title of Caesar, and the
prKtorians to overturn his statues. The senators, alarmed, feared to
obey, and the praetorians, incited and paid by Mammea, rose in rebellion.
Then, the very Heliogabalus who, but three years before, had headed the
legion at Emessa, challenged the power of Macrinus, and, almost naked,
without armor or helmet, with no defense save the sword in his hand, had
given strong proofs of courage and prowess upon the field of battle, fled
for refuge to the camp without the city, and promised to confer new
honors and dignities upon Alexander.
His first thoughts after his return to the palace were occupied in de-
vising pretexts to escape from his promises. In order to ascertain the
true feelings of the praetorians, he caused a report of the death of Alex-
ander to be spread abroad, whereupon a tumult taking place in the camp,
he was forced to show his cousin living and uninjured to the soldiers in
order to allay the commotion. As he stood upon his chariot, leaning
upon Alexander, he addressed the legions, but hearing threatening on
every side, he fell into a rage, and ordered the offenders against his sacred
majesty to be immediately arrested. Then the tumult rapidly increased,
Mammea on the one side encouraging the soldiers, and Soemias on the
other promising rewards to fidelity, until Heliogabalus, seized with fright
and the presentiment of approaching death, fled. His party was destroyed
by the praetorians, — and perhaps this was the only moment of his life in
which he forgot to feel weary ! Alexander was hailed Emperor.
Long before these events', the Syrian Seers had prophesied that their
High-Priest would die no common death, and they had always declared
to him that he would take his own life. Consequently, he had prepared
various instruments for such an emergency; he had cups of poison,
poisoned bowls and poisoned swords, and he had hollowed out a tomb
for himself at the base of the marble tower, and inlaid it with precious
stones and jewels. As he had prepared banquets, games, and amuse-
ments for himself, he would also arrange for death ; but when death came,
perhaps the sole reality of his phantasmagoric life, he forgot his games
and his artistic preparations for his stern guest. He hid himself with his
mother in one of the most distant corners of his palace, — a corner en-
tirely unsuitable to the dignity of the Roman Caesars, and of which even
Nero, in the depths of his extremity, had never thought. But even in
this obscure hiding-place he was not safe ; he was discovered by the
praetorians, murdered, decapitated, and his headless corpse, together with
that of his unhappy mother, dragged about the streets of the city, and
then thrown into the sewer; but as the opening was narrow, it was agair*
dragged out, and was finally thrown into the Tiber. The last name of
Heliogabalus was Tiberinus.
Heliogabalus may be regarded as a synthetic embodiment of the
462 NOTES TO IRIDION.
Oriental myths. These myths, once full of deep and true thoughts, now
remained only in the entire prostitution of their outward forms, so that
the inner meaning was no longer suggested by, or even thought of in
connection with the external manifestation: and thus these degraded and
licentious symbols seem to have been gathered together and incarnated
in the form of Heliogabalus, that their character and influence might be
the more distinctly manifested, and that they might thus vanish from the
face of the earth. Indeed, the symbolism of the East fell almost neces-
sarily into degradation ; coming under the law of nature there prevalent,
the purest idea could take no pure form upon itself, for nature herself
there is destructive to human energy and freedom, enticing to sensuality
and luxury, lulling the conscience, and rife with the lotus-fruits of obliv-
ion. Through her own exceeding softness, beauty, and luxuriance, she
seems to choke and deaden the spiritual essence in the soul of man.
It is a common thing for historians to pass rapidly and contemptuously
over the few short days of the reign of Heliogabalus. As an individual,
he richly deserves their scorn, but not as an historic fact, for after his
death the victory of Christianity became every day more certain. Pagan-
ism manifested itself in its very apex in him, showing clearly before the
eyes of the world that it was rotten to the inmost core, that it could bear
fruit no longer; indeed, its whole extent and power, its utter prostration
and worthtessness to effect any good for humanity, was typified and mani-
fested in this physically beautiful, but cruel, vicious, and unhappy young
Priest of the Sun. A moral dissolution stamps every thought and deed
of Heliogabalus ; in his youthful desires and impotent decrepitude we
see an utter want of the life of the spirit, of the soul : — he was matter left
to its own corruption /
3 The Latin Diva. The emperors and their consorts were frequently
promoted to the rank of gods and goddesses by a decree of the Roman
Senate ; statues were erected in their honor, and temples dedicated to
them. Many Christians perished because they refused to burn incense
upon altars consecrated to the C;esars and adorned with their images.
Antinous, the idol of Adrian, was registered (after his death) among the
gods by a decree of the Roman Senate, pronounced in accordance with
the desire of Adrian.
NOTES TO ACT II.
» Names of great emperors who were registered after death among the
gods, and which became afterwards the titles of those who succeeded them,
or of the princes of the C;Ksarian line. Thus the emperors were called,
Augustus, Caesar. Heliogabalus had adopted the names of the best em-
perors as titles of honor, and was styled : Antoninus, Aurelius, etc. , etc.
* The Peristyle was the saloon of the ancients, their houses usu. ally
consisting of a long row of rooms, the one following immediately upon
the other, so that when one stood in the " Vestibulum" or<entrance, which
was commonly quite narrow, he could see through to the " Viridarium"
or garden, in which it was customary for the house to terminate at
the other end. Immediately back of the Vestibulum was the " Atrium,"
in which the slaves sat and the guests were first received. The " Vesti-
NOTES TO I RID ION. 463
bulum," in the midst of which was the " Impluvium," a round or square
tank destined to contain rain-water, was surrounded by small slcejiing-
apartments, the light of day entering through an opening immediately
over the Impluvium. Tiien came the " Tablinum," a long hall adorned
with all the precious or valuable things pertaining to the house. Beyond
it stood the " Peristyle," a quadrilateral room, generally adorned with col-
umns, and without a roof, intended for exercise, walking and amusement;
then came the "Triclinium" or eating-room, connected with and fre-
quently in the "Viridarium" or garden, in which were statues, vases,
flowers, and shrubs. This whole row of rooms was like a long corridor,
varied by the narrowing or widening of the walls, and adorned by stat-
ues and frescoes. The altars of the house gods stood in the \'estibulum,
and the other gods and heroes in the Peristyle and Viridarium. The
rooms occupied by the slaves, as well as the chambers of the family,
were only side cabinets attached to this main corridor, opening into it on
either side. In Rome, especially in the Palace of the Caesars, the pro-
portions were large and noble, but at Pompeii only the main corridor,
the places intended for the public eye, for the taking of meals or the re-
ception of guests, were either spacious or beautiful, the remainder of the
house consisting of low, narrow apartments.
3 Septimius Severus, whose wife, Julia, was the sister of Moesa, the
mother of Mammea and Soemias. Caracalla, the son of Septimius, suc-
ceeded him ; Macrinus, Prefect of the praetorian guard, succeeded Cara-
calla, and then came Heliogabalus.
^ Tiresias, a famous seer, was a son of the nymph Chariclo ; he was
deprived of sight by Juno, and gifted with prophetic power by Jupiter.
Heroes, when an. xious to pry into the future, went to visit him in the in-
fernal regions.
5 The inhabitants of Crotona were celebrated for their great physical
strength and their skill in combat.
* This entire speech of Iridion is based upon the foolish idolatry with
which Caracalla regarded Alexander the Great. Caracalla was a man
of but moderate ability, not of an iron will, but of iron caprices, vain, os-
tentatious, full of petty self-love, and suffering in some degree from dis-
order of the brain ; yet he was a bold and vigorous soldier. He was a jier-
fect hero in his own eyes, and believed that fate had created him for great
purposes. The star which shone with the greatest lustre in the Greek
and Roman hemisphere was the star of Alexander the Great ; it kindled
in him the desire to attain the same brilliancy, and it became the object
of his worship. He imitated Alexander as closely as possible, and his
courtiers declared to him he resembled him as one drop of water resem-
bles another. His helmet, sword, and entire armor were like to those of
Alexander, and he carried his head bent as Alexander had done, to in-
crease the resemblance to him. Although he could not be a genius and
a conqueror, yet he found resources in the mustering of legions ; and
since he could not take Tyre and Babylon, he marched upon Alexandria,
his own city, and in one day destroyed the half of its inhabitants, flatter-
ing himself that he too could conquer and murder as the Macedonian
king was wont to do. He finally deluded himself to such a degree that
he actually believed, toward the end of his days, that through metemp-
sychosis the spirit of the Macedonian had entered into his body, and that
he had become actually one with the great Alexander.
464 NOTES TO I RID ION.
NOTES TO ACT III.
' It would seem that near this monument, erected to the wife of the Tri-
umvir Crassus, was a secret entrance into the catacombs. Near it still
stands the church of St. Sebastian, from which the descent is now made
into the crypts.
» The place in front of the Capitol, upon which stood the rostra and
curiae. Steps ascended from the Forum to the top of the Capitoline hill ;
upon the left height stood the temple of Jupiter Feretrius upon the Tar-
peian rock; on the right, tliat of Jupiter Capitolinus. Opposite the Cap-
itol stood the temple of Vesta, and the cloisters of the vestals ; and near
the foot of the Capitolium was the temple of Fortune and Concordia.
On a vacant spot in the midst stood a rostrum. The general view must
have been exceedingly beautiful. That elevation of the soul which is
visible in , and is inspired by, Gothic architecture, is not indeed to be found
in the antic|ue or classic ; in its stead rules the highest worth of the mate-
rial, the highest dignity of the corporeal. The old intrepid patrician,
with his toga thrown back, resting after the offering he has made to the
gods, is the type of the ancient architecture. In its every part it is defined,
limited, clear, and perfectly finished. The ideas of mass and beauty are
in it united and brought into a firmly-closed and clearly-designated circle.
Firmness, imity, limitation, arc its distinctive marks, whereas in the Gothic
we have variety, movement, progression, suggestions of the infinite, life.
The one is a beautiful corpse ; the other a growing spirit ; or, classic
architecture is the spirit perfectly incorporated in dimensions, in matter;
and Gothic, matter struggling to idealize itself, to become spirit. Hence
it is that so few Gothic churches are entirely finished, while the heathen
temples were completed in every part ; hence, in regard to mere art. Pa-
gan architecture has surpassed the Christian, while in thought, spirit, and
suggestiveness, the Christian far excels the Pagan.
3 The walls in the catacombs were covered with monuments, with
sculpture and painting. In the early days of Christianity, art was essen-
tially symbolic. Thus Orpheus, the first sage, poet, and founder of so-
ciety and civilization among the heathens, was made to signify Christ, as
did also the figures of Noah, Isaac, and Joseph. A golden candlestick
with three branches represented Christ; so did a grape-vine. The lyre
was the symbol of the Cross; the palm, of glory in Heaven; a cross set
with precious stones, wound with wreaths of roses and with chains of gold
extending from the two Greek letters Alpha and Omega, signified God,
the beginning and end of all that is. The peacock symbolized the resur-
rection, but sometimes stood for . Satan. The wood of the olive was the
hieroglyphic of rest and eternity; the cypress and pine, of death; the
anchor, of redemption ; fish stood for men, in accordance with the words
of the Saviour to the Apostles: "be ye fishers of men;" the dolphin
representetl hope and the dead who had left this world for a better. Sam-
son with the gates upon his shoulders, signified Christ ; for: " Tollit por-
tas civitatis id est Inferni et removit mortis imperium. " Ci vitas once
meant the real deed of Samson, but also stood for the old world entire,
which w. is truly only a collection of cities, which, strong in their walled
and defended limits, opjircssed men to the uttermost. This type proves
that the Christians of the first centuries already felt their political mission.
NOTES TO I RID TON. 465
A shepherd meant an apostle; a cock, the watchfulness of the pastor;
and the cross was always made of four kinds of wood, — cypress, cedar,
pine, and olive.
4 The " Pro-Christum" was a little flask, which, containing some of
the blood of the martyr, was placed upon his breast in the coffin, en-
graved with the letters: P. Chr. (for Christ). The bodies of martyrs are
recognized even at the present date by this mark, although no other in-
scription remains to show they died for Christ.
s The depressing belief that the world was approaching its end, and
that the day of judgment was near, was frequent among Christians from
the death of Christ almost half through the Middle Ages. The entire
conspiracy and appeal of Iridion in the catacombs is based upon such
views of the approaching end of the world, the resurrection of the saints,
and the destruction of Rome.
NOTES TO ACT IV.
' The ancients constantly carried with them small tablets, covered with
wax, upon which they wrote with a sharp instrument of metal, called
stylus or style. These were worn thrust into the girdle of the tunic, and
were frequently used as daggers. Many of the conspirators by whom
Julms Caesar was killed came to the senate provided with such weapons.
Brutus stabbed him with the stylus.
^ The Roman legions were, upon the field of battle, drawn up in three
ranks : the first rank formed the " Hastati" ; the second, the " Principes" ;
and the third, the " Triarii. " Each rank was divided into twelve bands;
two bands formed a century, whose leaders were called centurions ; and
three companies formed a cohort. A company contained, at least, si. xty ;
at most, one hundred and twenty men.
3 A constellation so called from the sisljfr, and at the same time wife,
of Ptolemy Evergetes, a king of Egypt. She made a vow to cut off her
hair and offer it up in the temple of Mars, if her husband should return in
safety from an expedition which he had undertaken in Asia. U])on his
return, she kept her vow : it was hung up in the temple, but disappeared
during the same night. Fearing to lose his place, the court astronomer
then swore that a zephyr, commanded by Venus, had borne it to Heaven,
and named the seven glittering stars near the tail of the Lion : the hair of
Berenice.
4 Brennus, a leader of the Gauls, after the capture of the city of Rome
and the murder of the senators, when taking the exacted ransom then
being weighed before him, cast his heavy sword into the scales with the
famous words : "Vae victis I" Woe to the conquered !
5 Thrice powerful, because she was the Moon in Heaven, Diana upon
the earth, and Proserpine or Hecate in the lower world. Her usual
epithet was: Dea Feralis, — the Goddess of Destruction.
40
466
NOTES TO 1 RID ION.
NOTES TO ACT V.
' It is a well-known fact that when Attalus of Pergamus was dying
without heirs, he was induced to leave his beautiful provinces to Rome.
» Before the Romans began to assume an intermeddling and aggress-
ive part in the affairs of Greece, one of their ambassadors declared
openly before the inhabitants of the different cities then assembled from
all parts to attend the Isthmian games, that, after due consideration, the
Roman Senate and People held the demands of the Macedonian king to
be utterly unjust ; that they deemed the maintenance of Greece in her
rights would be useful and noble, and promised to aid her with all their
power against the attacks of Macedonia.
3 The last expression of the Greek school of Platonism was found in
Stoicism, in the dying'hours of antiquity. The idealism of the ancients
was realized in the Stoics, as their materialism was in the Epicureans.
The virtue of the Stoics was great, but harsh and inexorable. They knew
how to die, but not how to live. They held themselves aloof from other
men, gazed sadly upon the dying world, but made no efforts to save it.
Shut up in themselves, bowing only before the decrees of their own pride,
which they, indeed, called conscience, they were moral egotists, filled with
self-love, not even associating closely with each other; never kindled into
life by the love of humanity, nor warmed by the social relations and
friendships generated in society. Their thoughts and precepts circled
continually round an ideal world, and were never suited for the actual;
hence we have accounts of famous deaths among them rather than of
famous lives. The precepts of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius breathe
their highest and purest spirit. His maxims for a considerable time
served in some measure to console the world, which was daily falling
into the corruption of death, but they were unable to generate anything
truly great or living. The system of the Stoics might well be called a
"testament," in which the dying left nothing to the heirs but some
melancholy remarks on life. The Stoics first brought into the world the
malady known as the spleen, the last crisis of which is suicide.
4 Nothing could be less ideal, or more thoroughly real and practical,
than the policy uniformly pursued by Rome. Its Senate . "ihrank from no
treachery to defeat an enemy, or to deceive a friend and ally.
Fortitude and stern endurance in misfortune, a faith that Rome must stand because
it must, with a daring shamelessncss tliat stopped at nothing to achieve a
purpose, made the greatness of the Eternal City.
THE LAST.
Translated from the French transtation of the original made by
M. Constantine Gaszyiiski.
THE LAST.
From the summits of the mountains whither they had dragged their
heavy crosses, they saw afar off the Promised Land. They saw the
celestial splendor toward which the men of their race below were ap-
proaching; but they were not able to reach those heavenly regions. Ah!
they may never sit at the banquet of life; and perhaps even the memory
of their sacrifice will be forgotten !
"Anonyme. "
Nearly the whole of my sad life has passed
Under a dungeon's vault, a prison's bolts and bars,
In darkness, silence, sickness, misery.
My memory is fading day by day
Out of the helots of my compatriots;
The love of those who loved me once, grows cold;
Perhaps even now they have forgotten me !
A child of light, buried 'neath these dark vaults,
I suffer here because I dared to sing
To m_y_torn country, hymns of faith and love ;
To plant the word within men's sinJcing hearts.
To bloom in inspiration like my own !
I have been proud ! Proud only with the -haughty ;
Worst nature for success in this low world !
467
468 THE LAST.
Strike those already down, thou mayst find profit:
But if thou brav'st the arrogant oppressors,
If with a man's free eye thou look'st upon them
Simply as droves of brutes and not as men ;
A dreadful vengeance from those brutes awaits thee;
And thou, a man, will be enchained by them !
Ill,
Like skiffs that skim still lakes, or eagles cleaving space,
The first years of my life fled rapidly away.
Unfortunate ! I did not then foresee
Where these swift waves were bearing me ! As yet
The sun shone brilliantly above my head ;
Each moment of the day bloomed like a flower;
My fellow-beings were my Brothers, Sisters;
And this world, now so deaf to my complaints.
Was my yo\ith's Paradise !
IV.
Where is the angel who, after the pangs
Of martyrdom have ceased, the death-hour o'er,
Comes the third day marked for the Resurrection,
And lifts the stone pressing the tomb? Alas !
He comes alone for Heavenly Powers, not men!
Where is the second messenger from Heaven,
Wrenching the bolts from the Mamertine doors,
Who came at night, and bore the saints of the Lord,
In triumph from their executioners?
But I am no Elect — and these are other times!
Our Enemy has sterner arms than death ;
He, while hot life is throbbing in thy veins.
Will seize, will wrap and hold thee in a shroud,
Whence thine intelligence will never rise again !
For, shut within the walls of darkened cell.
Thy spirit, winged guest of the infinite.
Which used to dream of heavenly destinies.
Will feel itself so orphaned, so alone.
That thou wilt take a sjiider to thy heart.
And supplicate thy jailer for a word
THE LAST. 469
To hear again the sound of the human voice !
And when days, months, and years on years elapse,
And no hope ever comes to visit thee, —
The spirit sinks in deep abyss of nothingness !
VI.
How often have I tried by force of will,
To rouse my thoughts which fast were dying out,
Thus to escape the threatened death of soul !
But when despair has conquered, won its way,
And pierced the deep recesses of the brain,
'Tis horrible to see how fast the blood
Will pour itself along the deadly bolt,
How atrophy will feed upon the mind,
And how decay will paralyze the heart.
Which does not break, but hardens hour by hour,
Until no longer love beats in its throb : —
And of all bitter woes, this is the worst !
VII.
I struggled like a Titan 'gainst the void
Of nothingness, the death of life.
To bolts and bars I cried : " Tell me the news.
And what is passing where the living dwell! "
I took into my livid hands my lamp.
And one by one counted the calcined threads
Which made its wick, to generate a thought
To stimulate my torpid agony !
But nothing solaced me ; nothing aroused ;
A heavy fog drifted from day to day
Increasing, o'er my soul, darkening my faculties
Until the internal world went out within me !
All inspiration fled \ ideas died ;
I was alone ; alive — but in a grave;
Forever welded to this chain whose rings.
Set in my bones, are fastened to the clamp
Fixed in my dungeon walls.
viii.
Oh, oft in earlier years old men were wont to tell me :
"Young madman, cease ! or thy melodious harp
40*
47°
THE LAST.
Will plunge thee in an abyss of misery ;
Thy songs will die with thee 'neath bars and bolts !
To-day men care not for the hymns of liberty ;
They seek but peace, propitious to their commerce !
Vainly thou seek'st to stigmatize corruption ;
Such prophets noAv are stoned ! He who would bring
To earth the news from Heaven, must perish wretchedly ! '
I would not hear them ; doubted all they said.
I wished to live, not stagnate in this world;
Therefore while living, I am sternly doomed
To rot beneath the surface of the earth.
The light which shines for all, is torn from me.
Degraded from my dignity as man,
I've fallen so low, while God remains so high
In Heaven, that even His eye of mercy can
No more perceive me !
IX,
Yes, I am chained in subterranean cell.
Above me prisons more commodious rise,
Where light may enter; they are ever kept
For prisoners less unfortunate than I,
And treated by the Czar with less severity;
They only having killed a father, mother,
Brother, — and hence their doom less stern than mine !
Ah 1 they may freely gaze across their bars
Into blue space, and track the flying clouds,
And breathe fresh air, and see the happy sunshine,
And know when spring comes back again to warm
These dreary wastes of snow !
All is permitted them : nothing to me !
I am more guilty than those murderers,
Because I am a man, a Pole, a rebel
'Gainst foul injustice ; whence I'm surely deemed
A Satan in this Empire of all virtue !
X.
^eSiit_is_truej_I. soughl. to_ Vake4he Past,
And by my solemn chants to rouse again,
In souls unstrung by cowardice, a faith
More vivid in the future. . . . Yes, 'tis true.
THE LAST.
471
I have been proud, and hoped wliere hope was none.
I was not born to live in this, our age, —
Age of transition given up to evil, —
Which those who care not for the will of God —
Industrial Chiefs and Princes of the earth, —
Would fain perpetuate to coin in gold !
Like Solomon's Temple, ere Christ drove away
The money-changers, rose the structure of
The world I knew, approaching fast its fall,
Full of iniquity, and void of faith !
Within, the speculators circulated.
Striving the one to overreach the other,
Urged on by keen avidity of lucre;
Only arrested by the fear of war.
The world entire was but a mighty Bourse,
From which they had driven God ! . . .
Above this den of wily gain and fraud
Already loomed from icy northern clime
(Like Satan in the garb of an archangel)
A monstrous shadow, growing every hour,
Thrown by the Giant who has chained me here !
They all, instead of joining to repulse this foe,
Strike him with fire and iron, only used
The fire to forge the h-on into roads ;
And based their hopes on steam; while they feared war
Far more than they feared God or infamy.
Thus were the traders, manufi. icturers.
Contented with their lot.
<K XI.
Thus have they ever rested peaceably
Within their cities, near their shops and banks,
Crowning their markets with triumphal arches;
And I ? . . . Oh, I have miserably perished !
The foe, with arm as swift as sudden death,
Seized me by stealth. I was allowed to breathe
No parting wish in any human ear,
Nor bid farewell to any whom I loved.
Leaving no trace by which I might be found.
At dead of night they hurried me away
472
THE LAST.
In a kibitka :* secretly, in silence !
Only the stars of my own native sky
Were the mute witnesses of what was done,
And looked on my mysterious, rapid course.
XII.
Before an infamous court they summoned me ;
Tried and condemned me. The judges scoffed because
I, a weak Pole, for a moment could forget
The power of that Government, which holds
The keys of Life and Death, and said that I,
Having offended the Czar-god, deserved
Stern sentence for my crimes ! Then they decreed
That I should go on foot to the world's confines.
The land of ice ! I, son of a great nation,
Should go with convicts, welded to their chain !
XIII.
And I walked on forever through sad lands,
Chained with a drove of felons, Moscovites !
Our hangman led a horse before the convoy,
But never mounted it : a Holy Thing
Was to its saddle constantly appended ;
The KNOUT with thongs of leather, iron hooks
To gather the torn flesh back to its place
That the poor victim might still seem a man.
As mutilation, death, swept over him !
The executioner who led this horse
Forever with his finger pointed to it.
Crying: "Behold ! the organ of the Czar! "
He ordered men to kneel and bow before it
With reverence, as if it were the cross
Of sacrifice which from the saddle rose !
Thus did this emblem of the soul of Russia,
The Czar's omnipotence, still lead me on
Through never-ending steppes of desolation.
Toward the North Pole, bound in eternal ice.
* Kibitka, a Russian wagon in which condemned political prisoners
start on their journey to Siberia.
THE LAST. 473
XIV.
My traveling companions, robbers, thieves,
Forgers, assassins, had a hai)i)ier fate !
They loosed their chains, and left them on the route
At various places to form colonies,
And populate those wastes. * I, only I,
Was forced to drag on ever wearily
Behind that hangman, horse, and knout accursed !
And when my rings, welded on hands, on feet,
Had worn away the flesh and rubbed into the bones,
And I was suffering utmost agony,
And begged the rufhan for a moment's rest
Upon the horse ; the Moscovite replied :
" Die, cursed Pole, rather than thus pollute
With touch of thine, with stain of rebel hands,
The symbol of the justice of the Czar ! "f
Happy are they who may expire upon
The very threshold of their martyrdom !
Such death were but deliverance from worse ills !
Wait thou until the hour of victory,
Then wilt thou die 1 — but if thy life be naught
But misery, — that life shall be prolonged!
XV.
Where are thy smiling plains, my native land?
Fields gay with flowers, or rich with golden grain?
•■•■ The punishment of death in Russia is only inflicted on those guilty of
political crimes. The most dreadful criminals in common law are sent
to Siberia to work in the mines and fortresses; sometimes only in the
view of peopling the desert country.
f This episode may appear trivial to foreign readers, but our author
has inserted it in his poem as an historic remembrance. Prince Roman
Sanguszko, who was taken prisoner in the war of 1831, was condemned
to be sent to Siberia. The mother of the Prince hastened to St. Peters-
burg, and addressed a petition to the Emperor Nicholas, to obtain the
pardon of her son. The wtvr//>c/ Czar, however, augmented the punish-
ment by writing with his pencil at the foot of the petition of the sick-
hearted mother : " He shall go on foot. " The sentence was put into exe-
cution ; he went on foot ; and many, many years afterwards, when Prince
Roman Sanguszko had been pardoned and had returned to Poland, he
would often relate to his friends the above history of the e. Kecutioner, the
horse, and the knout.
474
THE LAST.
Where are the forests where the pine-trees wave
When the wind stirs their branches, murmuring
Mysterious tones, solemn and sweet as prayers ?
Where is the aerial warbling of the lark?
Where the old church where sleep my ancestors ?
Where are the Catholic litanies of my people,
People who call the Virgin Mary, Queen?
XVI.
Oh, what has passed? . . . Where am I, O my God?
Is there still left a corner in my soul
Where memory's lamp is not as yet quite out?
Does any human trait still live in me?
They say already twenty years have passed, —
I cannot tell, — but thou must know, my God,
Since I fell prostrate on this bed of death !
All consciousness of Present, Past, or Future
Then died in utter, sudden void and darkness!
But with a flash the black clouds sweep away ;
My Guardian Angel comes again to*-nie !
Tears tremble in my eyes, steal through my lids, —
'Tis long since I have wept ! Oh, very long
Since I could love, or dream of memory, hope !
My Angel, give me back love, memory,
In which each mortal claims his blessed share !
I supplicate thee. Angel, let me find
My soul again, if only for a moment,
Oh, let me feel it ! make it visible !
XVII.
My wandering thoughts, can you as yet remember
What ])resages were kindling in men's minds
When you were dizzied and obliterated ?
Were there not marvelous presentiments
Quivering in human souls in that wild hour
In which your agony began? . . .
Did not a voice rising from whence none knew.
But which reverberated everywhere.
Then prophesy what should befi\ll on earth ?
Peoples and kings condemned fell on their knees;
The uncreated Word made Itself heard
THE LAST.
475
In human souls, by strengthening Faith, Hope, Love !
The ruins of the crumbling centuries past,
With germs of future ages, — wholly freed
From their black clouds, — the Holy Spirit mingled
In the soft azure of the same horizon.
Lighted by but one sun : — for He will come
At last, the Saviour of all human races,
Restorer of all mutilated countries,
The avenger of all crimes against Humanity !
Into the Politics of this vexed world
He will bring Justice, — and His coming opens
A new — the third — last era of our Planet !
Factitious States no longer will exist,
Which for their profit, or their idle glory,
Have torn apart the body of a nation,
And stifled souls under the stones of graves.
And, by the will of God upon His earth,
The bodies and the souls of nations shall
Remain no longer sundered ! . . .
Yes, I remember now ! Such was the news ;
Such the presentiments which stirred the world,
Then given up to violence and woe.
And we, the Poles, knew well the Messenger, —
The Angel of the si)here of politics, —
Who from the stormy waves of earth's events
Was destined to bring peace, and reunite
The nationalities, could only be
Our holy Poland ; for that martyr's cross
'Had borne such woe, been bathed in such pure blood,
As might redeem this upper, earthly Hell.
Yes, I believed that having endured till death.
My People would unfurl their wings, and seize
The sword of miracle, thus to achieve
The works of life.
XVIII.
How many times Alas ! perhaps too soon,
I've seen in dreams the God of Resurrection !
No wounds, no blood upon His body now!
The form might seem another Christ, and yet
'Tis the same Christ in His eternal glory.
476
THE LAST.
His Face shines like the sun ; whiter than snow
His robe floats round Him in his heavenly course;
And in the dawn of worlds new-born to life
He bathes His unnailed Hands, transfigured now 1
XIX.
Behind the Man-God, slowly, very slowly,
In dazzling beauty, with no trace of death,
My Poland, my beloved Poland, moves !
She stops upon the threshold of the Sion
Promised to all the Peoples upon earth,
And from the sacred heights her voice resounds
So far the assembled nations clearly hear.
Or high, or low, or in the depths of space:
"To me ! to me, fraternal races, come !
Finished the latest fight of the final strife;
The snares of treason, webs of woven lies,
Are all destroyed, and hate is buried with them ;
Come, mount with me into the realm of Peace ! "
The chorus of all nations then responds :
" Glory and Benediction be to thee,
Poland ! for though truly all have suffered, .
