No More Learning

Have I not rendered
_My_ sword? Then trust like me our Sovereign's justice.

_Arb. _ No--I will sooner trust the stars thou prat'st of,
And this slight arm, and die a king at least 170
Of my own breath and body--so far that
None else shall chain them.

_Sal. _ (_to the Guards_). You hear _him_ and _me_.
Take him not,--kill.

[_The Guards attack_ ARBACES, _who defends himself
valiantly and dexterously till they waver_.

_Sal. _ Is it even so; and must
I do the hangman's office? Recreants! see
How you should fell a traitor.
[SALEMENES _attacks_ ARBACES.

_Enter_ SARDANAPALUS _and Train_.

_Sar. _ Hold your hands--
Upon your lives, I say. What, deaf or drunken?
My sword! O fool, I wear no sword: here, fellow,
Give me thy weapon. [_To a Guard_.

[SARDANAPALUS _snatches a sword from one of the soldiers,
and rushes between the combatants--they separate_.

_Sar. _ In my very palace!
What hinders me from cleaving you in twain,
Audacious brawlers?

_Bel. _ Sire, your justice.

_Sal. _ Or-- 180
Your weakness.

_Sar. _ (_raising the sword_). How?

_Sal. _ Strike! so the blow's repeated
Upon yon traitor--whom you spare a moment,
I trust, for torture--I'm content.

_Sar. _ What--him!
Who dares assail Arbaces?

_Sal. _ I!

_Sar. _ Indeed!
Prince, you forget yourself. Upon what warrant?

_Sal. _ (_showing the signet_). Thine.

_Arb. _ (_confused_). The King's!

_Sal. _ Yes! and let the King confirm it.

_Sar. _ I parted not from this for such a purpose.

_Sal. _ You parted with it for your safety--I
Employed it for the best. Pronounce in person.
Here I am but your slave--a moment past 190
I was your representative.

_Sar. _ Then sheathe
Your swords.
[ARBACES _and_ SALEMENES _return their swords to the scabbards_.

_Sal. _ Mine's sheathed: I pray you sheathe _not_ yours:
Tis the sole sceptre left you now with safety.

_Sar. _ A heavy one; the hilt, too, hurts my hand.
(_To a Guard_. ) Here, fellow, take thy weapon back. Well, sirs,
What doth this mean?

_Bel. _ The Prince must answer that.

_Sal. _ Truth upon my part, treason upon theirs.

_Sar. _ Treason--Arbaces! treachery and Beleses!
That were an union I will not believe.

_Bel. _ Where is the proof?

_Sal. _ I'll answer that, if once 200
The king demands your fellow-traitor's sword.

_Arb. _ (_to Sal. _). A sword which hath been drawn as oft as thine
Against his foes.

_Sal. _ And now against his brother,
And in an hour or so against himself.

_Sar. _ That is not possible: he dared not; no--
No--I'll not hear of such things. These vain bickerings
Are spawned in courts by base intrigues, and baser
Hirelings, who live by lies on good men's lives.
You must have been deceived, my brother.

_Sal. _ First
Let him deliver up his weapon, and 210
Proclaim himself your subject by that duty,
And I will answer all.

_Sar. _ Why, if I thought so--
But no, it cannot be: the Mede Arbaces--
The trusty, rough, true soldier--the best captain
Of all who discipline our nations----No,
I'll not insult him thus, to bid him render
The scimitar to me he never yielded
Unto our enemies. Chief, keep your weapon.

_Sal. _ (_delivering back the signet_).
Monarch, take back your signet.

_Sar. _ No, retain it;
But use it with more moderation.

_Sal. _ Sire, 200
I used it for your honour, and restore it
Because I cannot keep it with my own.
Bestow it on Arbaces.

_Sar. _ So I should:
He never asked it.

_Sal. _ Doubt not, he will have it,
Without that hollow semblance of respect.

_Bel. _ I know not what hath prejudiced the Prince
So strongly 'gainst two subjects, than whom none
Have been more zealous for Assyria's weal.

_Sal. _ Peace, factious priest, and faithless soldier! thou
Unit'st in thy own person the worst vices 230
Of the most dangerous orders of mankind.
Keep thy smooth words and juggling homilies
For those who know thee not. Thy fellow's sin
Is, at the least, a bold one, and not tempered
By the tricks taught thee in Chaldea.

_Bel. _ Hear him,
My liege--the son of Belus! he blasphemes
The worship of the land, which bows the knee
Before your fathers.

_Sar. _ Oh! for that I pray you
Let him have absolution. I dispense with
The worship of dead men; feeling that I 240
Am mortal, and believing that the race
From whence I sprung are--what I see them--ashes.

_Bel. _ King! Do not deem so: they are with the stars,
And----

_Sar. _ You shall join them ere they will rise,
If you preach farther--Why, _this_ is rank treason.

_Sal. _ My lord!

_Sar. _ To school me in the worship of
Assyria's idols! Let him be released--
Give him his sword.

_Sal. _ My Lord, and King, and Brother,
I pray ye pause.

_Sar. _ Yes, and be sermonised,
And dinned, and deafened with dead men and Baal, 250
And all Chaldea's starry mysteries.

_Bel. _ Monarch! respect them.

_Sar. _ Oh! for that--I love them;
I love to watch them in the deep blue vault,
And to compare them with my Myrrha's eyes;
I love to see their rays redoubled in
The tremulous silver of Euphrates' wave,
As the light breeze of midnight crisps the broad
And rolling water, sighing through the sedges
Which fringe his banks: but whether they may be
Gods, as some say, or the abodes of Gods, 260
As others hold, or simply lamps of night,
Worlds--or the lights of Worlds--I know nor care not.
There's something sweet in my uncertainty
I would not change for your Chaldean lore;
Besides, I know of these all clay can know
Of aught above it, or below it--nothing.
I see their brilliancy and feel their beauty[m]--
When they shine on my grave I shall know neither.

_Bel. _ For _neither_, Sire, say _better_.

_Sar. _ I will wait,
If it so please you, Pontiff, for that knowledge. 270
In the mean time receive your sword, and know
That I prefer your service militant
Unto your ministry--not loving either.

_Sal. _ (_aside_). His lusts have made him mad. Then must I save him,
Spite of himself.

_Sar. _ Please you to hear me, Satraps!
And chiefly thou, my priest, because I doubt thee
More than the soldier; and would doubt thee all
Wert thou not half a warrior: let us part
In peace--I'll not say pardon--which must be
Earned by the guilty; this I'll not pronounce ye, 280
Although upon this breath of mine depends
Your own; and, deadlier for ye, on my fears.
But fear not--for that I am soft, not fearful--
And so live on. Were I the thing some think me,
Your heads would now be dripping the last drops
Of their attainted gore from the high gates
Of this our palace, into the dry dust,
Their only portion of the coveted kingdom
They would be crowned to reign o'er--let that pass.
As I have said, I will not _deem_ ye guilty, 290
Nor _doom_ ye guiltless. Albeit better men
Than ye or I stand ready to arraign you;
And should I leave your fate to sterner judges,
And proofs of all kinds, I might sacrifice
Two men, who, whatsoe'er they now are, were
Once honest. Ye are free, sirs.

_Arb. _ Sire, this clemency----

_Bel. _ (_interrupting him_).
Is worthy of yourself; and, although innocent,
We thank----

_Sar. _ Priest! keep your thanksgivings for Belus;
His offspring needs none.

_Bel. _ But being innocent----

_Sar. _ Be silent. --Guilt is loud. If ye are loyal, 300
Ye are injured men, and should be sad, not grateful.

_Bel. _ So we should be, were justice always done
By earthly power omnipotent; but Innocence
Must oft receive her right as a mere favour.

_Sar. _ That's a good sentence for a homily,
Though not for this occasion. Prithee keep it
To plead thy Sovereign's cause before his people.

_Bel. _ I trust there is no cause.

_Sar. _ No _cause_, perhaps;
But many causers:--if ye meet with such
In the exercise of your inquisitive function 310
On earth, or should you read of it in heaven
In some mysterious twinkle of the stars,
Which are your chronicles, I pray you note,
That there are worse things betwixt earth and heaven
Than him who ruleth many and slays none;
And, hating not himself, yet loves his fellows
Enough to spare even those who would not spare him
Were they once masters--but that's doubtful. Satraps!
Your swords and persons are at liberty
To use them as ye will--but from this hour 320
I have no call for either. Salemenes!
Follow me.

[_Exeunt_ SARDANAPALUS, SALEMENES, _and the Train, etc. ,
leaving_ ARBACES _and_ BELESES.

_Arb. _ Beleses!

_Bel. _ Now, what think you?

_Arb. _ That we are lost.

_Bel. _ That we have won the kingdom.

_Arb. _ What? thus suspected--with the sword slung o'er us
But by a single hair, and that still wavering,
To be blown down by his imperious breath
Which spared us--why, I know not.

_Bel. _ Seek not why;
But let us profit by the interval. [n]
The hour is still our own--our power the same--
The night the same we destined.
He hath changed 330
Nothing except our ignorance of all
Suspicion into such a certainty
As must make madness of delay.

_Arb. _ And yet--

_Bel. _ What, doubting still?

_Arb. _ He spared our lives, nay, more,
Saved them from Salemenes.

_Bel. _ And how long
Will he so spare? till the first drunken minute.

_Arb. _ Or sober, rather. Yet he did it nobly;
Gave royally what we had forfeited
Basely----

_Bel. _ Say bravely.

_Arb. _ Somewhat of both, perhaps--
But it has touched me, and, whate'er betide, 340
I will no further on.

_Bel. _ And lose the world!

_Arb. _ Lose any thing except my own esteem.

_Bel. _ I blush that we should owe our lives to such
A king of distaffs!

_Arb. _ But no less we owe them;
And I should blush far more to take the grantor's! [16]

_Bel. _ Thou may'st endure whate'er thou wilt--the stars
Have written otherwise.

_Arb. _ Though they came down,
And marshalled me the way in all their brightness,
I would not follow.

_Bel. _ This is weakness--worse
Than a scared beldam's dreaming of the dead, 350
And waking in the dark. --Go to--go to.

_Arb. _ Methought he looked like Nimrod as he spoke,
Even as the proud imperial statue stands
Looking the monarch of the kings around it,
And sways, while they but ornament, the temple.

_Bel. _ I told you that you had too much despised him,
And that there was some royalty within him--What
then? he is the nobler foe.

_Arb. _ But we
The meaner. --Would he had not spared us!

_Bel. _ So--
Wouldst thou be sacrificed thus readily? 360

_Arb. _ No--but it had been better to have died
Than live ungrateful.

_Bel. _ Oh, the souls of some men!
Thou wouldst digest what some call treason, and
Fools treachery--and, behold, upon the sudden,
Because for something or for nothing, this
Rash reveller steps, ostentatiously,
'Twixt thee and Salemenes, thou art turned
Into--what shall I say? --Sardanapalus!
I know no name more ignominious.

_Arb. _ But
An hour ago, who dared to term me such 370
Had held his life but lightly--as it is,
I must forgive you, even as he forgave us--
Semiramis herself would not have done it.

_Bel. _ No--the Queen liked no sharers of the kingdom,
Not even a husband. [17]

_Arb. _ I must serve him truly----

_Bel. _ And humbly?

_Arb. _ No, sir, proudly--being honest.
I shall be nearer thrones than you to heaven;
And if not quite so haughty, yet more lofty.
You may do your own deeming--you have codes,
And mysteries, and corollaries of 380
Right and wrong, which I lack for my direction,
And must pursue but what a plain heart teaches.
And now you know me.

_Bel. _ Have you finished?

_Arb. _ Yes--
With you.

_Bel. _ And would, perhaps, betray as well
As quit me?

_Arb. _ That's a sacerdotal thought,
And not a soldier's.

_Bel. _ Be it what you will--
Truce with these wranglings, and but hear me.

_Arb. _ No--
There is more peril in your subtle spirit
Than in a phalanx.

_Bel. _ If it must be so--
I'll on alone.

_Arb. _ Alone!

_Bel. _ Thrones hold but one. 390

_Arb. _ But this is filled.

_Bel. _ With worse than vacancy--
A despised monarch. Look to it, Arbaces:
I have still aided, cherished, loved, and urged you;
Was willing even to serve you, in the hope
To serve and save Assyria. Heaven itself
Seemed to consent, and all events were friendly,
Even to the last, till that your spirit shrunk
Into a shallow softness; but now, rather
Than see my country languish, I will be
Her saviour or the victim of her tyrant-- 400
Or one or both--for sometimes both are one;
And if I win--Arbaces is my servant.

_Arb. _ _Your_ servant!

_Bel. _ Why not? better than be slave,
The _pardoned_ slave of _she_ Sardanapalus!

_Enter_ PANIA.

_Pan. _ My Lords, I bear an order from the king.

_Arb. _ It is obeyed ere spoken.

_Bel. _ Notwithstanding,
Let's hear it.

_Pan. _ Forthwith, on this very night,
Repair to your respective satrapies
Of Babylon and Media.

_Bel. _ With our troops?

_Pan. _ My order is unto the Satraps and 410
Their household train.

_Arb. _ But----

_Bel. _ It must be obeyed:
Say, we depart.

_Pan. _ My order is to see you
Depart, and not to bear your answer.

_Bel. _ (_aside_). Aye[o]!
Well, Sir--we will accompany you hence.

_Pan. _ I will retire to marshal forth the guard
Of honour which befits your rank, and wait
Your leisure, so that it the hour exceeds not.
[_Exit_ PANIA.

_Bel. _ Now then obey!

_Arb. _ Doubtless.

_Bel. _ Yes, to the gates
That grate the palace, which is now our prison--
No further.

_Arb. _ Thou hast harped the truth indeed! 420
The realm itself, in all its wide extension,
Yawns dungeons at each step for thee and me.

_Bel. _ Graves!

_Arb. _ If I thought so, this good sword should dig
One more than mine.

_Bel. _ It shall have work enough.
Let me hope better than thou augurest;
At present, let us hence as best we may.
Thou dost agree with me in understanding
This order as a sentence?

_Arb. _ Why, what other
Interpretation should it bear? it is
The very policy of Orient monarchs-- 430
Pardon and poison--favours and a sword--
A distant voyage, and an eternal sleep.
How many Satraps in his father's time--
For he I own is, or at least _was_, bloodless--

_Bel. _ But _will_ not--_can_ not be so now.

_Arb. _ I doubt it.
How many Satraps have I seen set out
In his Sire's day for mighty Vice-royalties,
Whose tombs are on their path! I know not how,
But they all sickened by the way, it was
So long and heavy.

_Bel. _ Let us but regain 440
The free air of the city, and we'll shorten
The journey.

_Arb. _ 'Twill be shortened at the gates,
It may be.

_Bel. _ No; they hardly will risk that.
They mean us to die privately, but not
Within the palace or the city walls,
Where we are known, and may have partisans:
If they had meant to slay us here, we were
No longer with the living. Let us hence.

_Arb. _ If I but thought he did not mean my life--

_Bel. _ Fool! hence--what else should despotism alarmed 450
Mean? Let us but rejoin our troops, and march.

_Arb. _ Towards our provinces?

_Bel. _ No; towards your kingdom.
There's time--there's heart, and hope, and power, and means--
Which their half measures leave us in full scope. --
Away!

_Arb. _ And I even yet repenting must
Relapse to guilt!

_Bel. _ Self-defence is a virtue,
Sole bulwark of all right. Away, I say!
Let's leave this place, the air grows thick and choking,
And the walls have a scent of night-shade--hence!
Let us not leave them time for further council. 460
Our quick departure proves our civic zeal;
Our quick departure hinders our good escort,
The worthy Pania, from anticipating
The orders of some parasangs from hence:
Nay, there's no other choice, but----hence, I say[p].
[_Exit with_ ARBACES, _who follows reluctantly_.

_Enter_ SARDANAPALUS _and_ SALEMENES.

_Sar. _ Well, all is remedied, and without bloodshed,
That worst of mockeries of a remedy;
We are now secure by these men's exile.

_Sal. _ Yes,
As he who treads on flowers is from the adder
Twined round their roots.

_Sar. _ Why, what wouldst have me do? 470

_Sal. _ Undo what you have done.

_Sar. _ Revoke my pardon?

_Sal. _ Replace the crown now tottering on your temples.

_Sar. _ That were tyrannical.

_Sal. _ But sure.

_Sar. _ We are so.
What danger can they work upon the frontier?

_Sal. _ They are not there yet--never should they be so,
Were I well listened to.

_Sar. _ Nay, I _have_ listened
Impartially to thee--why not to them?

_Sal. _ You may know that hereafter; as it is,
I take my leave to order forth the guard.

_Sar. _ And you will join us at the banquet?

_Sal. _ Sire, 480
Dispense with me--I am no wassailer:
Command me in all service save the Bacchant's.

_Sar. _ Nay, but 'tis fit to revel now and then.

_Sal. _ And fit that some should watch for those who revel
Too oft.