All original dramatic works including 'The Viziers of Bassora', 'Rodogune', 'Perseus the Deliverer', 'Eric' and 'Vasavadutta'.; and works of prose fiction.
All original dramatic works and works of prose fiction. Volume 1: The Viziers of Bassora, Rodogune, and Perseus the Deliverer. Volume II: Eric and Vasavadutta; seven incomplete or fragmentary plays; and six stories, two of them complete.
A Drama
Acrisius, the Argive king, warned by an oracle that his daughter's son would be the agent of his death, hoped to escape his doom by shutting her up in a brazen tower. But Zeus, the King of the Gods, descended into her prison in a shower of gold and Danaë bore to him a son named Perseus. Danaë and her child were exposed in a boat without sail or oar on the sea, but here too fate and the gods intervened and, guided by a divine protection, the boat bore her safely to the Island of Seriphos. There Danaë was received and honoured by the King. When Perseus had grown to manhood the King, wishing to marry Danaë, decided to send him to his death and to that end ordered him to slay the Gorgon Medusa in the wild, unknown and snowy North and bring to him her head the sight of which turned men to stone. Perseus, aided by Athene, the Goddess of Wisdom, who gave him the divine sword Herpe, winged shoes to bear him through the air, her shield or aegis and the cap of invisibility, succeeded in his quest after many adventures. In his returning he came to Syria and found Andromeda, daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopea, King and Queen of Syria, chained to the rocks by the people to be devoured by a sea-monster as an atonement for her mother's impiety against the sea-god, Poseidon. Perseus slew the monster and rescued and wedded Andromeda.
In this piece the ancient legend has been divested of its original character of a heroic myth; it is made the nucleus round which there could grow the scenes of a romantic story of human temperament and life-impulses on the Elizabethan model. The country in which the action is located is a Syria of romance, not of history. Indeed a Hellenic legend could not at all be set in the environments of the life of a Semitic people and its early Aramaean civilisation: the town of Cepheus must be looked at as a Greek colony with a blonde Achaean dynasty ruling
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a Hellenised people who worship an old Mediterranean deity under a Greek name. In a romantic work of imagination of this type these outrages on history do not matter. Time there is more than Einsteinian in its relativity, the creative imagination is its sole disposer and arranger; fantasy reigns sovereign; the names of ancient countries and peoples are brought in only as fringes of a decorative background; anachronisms romp in wherever they can get an easy admittance, ideas and associations from all climes and epochs mingle; myth, romance and realism make up a single whole. For here the stage is the human mind of all times: the subject is an incident in its passage from a semi- primitive temperament surviving in a fairly advanced outward civilisation to a brighter intellectualism and humanism—never quite safe against the resurgence of the dark or violent life-forces which are always there subdued or subordinated or somnolent in the make-up of civilised man—and the first promptings of the deeper and higher psychic and spiritual being which it is his ultimate destiny to become.
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PALLAS ATHENE.
POSEIDON.
PERSEUS - son of Zeus and Danaë.
CEPHEUS - King of Syria.
IOLAUS - son of Cepheus and Cassiopea.
POLYDAON - priest of Poseidon.
PHINEUS - King of Tyre.
TYRNAUS, SMERDAS - merchants of Babylonia, wrecked on the coast of Syria.
THEROPS - a popular leader.
PERISSUS - a citizen butcher.
DERCETES - a Syrian captain.
NEBASSAR - captain of the Chaldean Guard.
CHABRIAS, DAMOETES, MEGAS, GARDAS, MORUS, SYRAX - townsmen and villagers.
CIREAS - a servant in the temple of Poseidon.
MEDES - an usher in the palace.
CASSIOPEA - princess of Chaldea, Queen of Syria.
ANDROMEDA - daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopea.
CYDONE - mistress of Iolaus.
PRAXILLA - head of the palace household in the women's apartments.
DIOMEDE - a slave-girl, servant and playmate of Andromeda.
BALTIS, PASITHEA - Syrian women.
SCENE. - The city of Cepheus, the seashore, the temple of Poseidon on the headland and the surrounding country.
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The Ocean in tumult, and the sky in storm: Pallas Athene appears in the heavens with lightnings playing over her head and under her feet.
ATHENE Error of waters rustling through the world, Vast Ocean, call thy ravenous waves that march With blue fierce nostrils quivering for prey, Back to thy feet. Hush thy impatient surges At my divine command and do my will.
VOICES OF THE SEA Who art thou layest thy serene command Upon the untamed waters?
ATHENE I am Pallas, Daughter of the Omnipotent.
VOICES What wouldst thou? For we cannot resist thee; our clamorous hearts Are hushed in terror at thy marble feet.
ATHENE Awake your dread Poseidon. Bid him rise And come before me.
VOICES Let thy compelling voice Awake him: for the sea is hushed.
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ATHENE Arise, Illimitable Poseidon! let thy blue And streaming tresses mingle with the foam Emerging into light.
Poseidon appears upon the waters.
POSEIDON What quiet voice Compels me from my rocky pillow piled Upon the floor of the enormous deep?
VOICES A whiteness and a strength is in the skies.
POSEIDON How art thou white and beautiful and calm, Yet clothed in tumult! Heaven above thee shakes Wounded with lightnings, goddess, and the sea Flees from thy dreadful tranquil feet. Thy calm Troubles me: who art thou, dweller in the light?
ATHENE I am Athene.
POSEIDON
Virgin formidable In beauty, disturber of the ancient world! Ever thou seekest to enslave to man The eternal Universe, and our huge motions That shake the mountains and upheave the seas Wouldst with the glancing visions of thy brain Coerce and bridle.
ATHENE Me the Omnipotent Made from His being to lead and discipline
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The immortal spirit of man, till it attain To order and magnificent mastery Of all his outward world.
POSEIDON What wouldst thou of me?
ATHENE The powers of the earth have kissed my feet In deep submission, and they yield me tribute, Olives and corn and all fruit-bearing trees, And silver from the bowels of the hills, Marble and iron ore. Fire is my servant. But thou, Poseidon, with thy kindred gods And the wild wings of air resist me. I come To set my feet upon thy azure locks, O shaker of the cliffs. Adore thy sovereign.
POSEIDON The anarchy of the enormous seas Is mine, O terrible Athene: I sway Their billows with my nod. Man's feeble feet Leave there no traces, nor his destiny Has any hold upon the shifting waves.
ATHENE Thou severest him with thy unmeasured wastes Whom I would weld in one. But I will lead him Over thy waters, thou wild thunderer, Spurning thy tops in hollowed fragile trees. He shall be confident in me and dare The immeasurable oceans till the West Mingles with India, and reach the northern isles That dwell beneath my dancing aegis bright, Snow-weary. He shall, armed with clamorous fire, Rush o'er the angry waters when the whale Is stunned between two waves and slay his foe
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Betwixt the thunders. Therefore I bid thee not, O azure strong Poseidon, to abate Thy savage tumults: rather his march oppose. For through the shocks of difficulty and death Man shall attain his godhead.
POSEIDON What then desir'st thou, Athene?
ATHENE On yonder inhospitable coast Far-venturing merchants from the East, or those Who put from Tyre towards Atlantic gains, Are by thy trident fiercely shaken forth Upon the jagged rocks, and who escape, The gay and savage Syrians on their altars Massacre hideously, thee to propitiate, Moloch-Poseidon of the Syrian coasts, Dagon of Gaza, lord of many names And many natures, many forms of power Who rulest from Philistia to the north, A terror and a woe. O iron King, Desist from blood, be glad of kindlier gifts And suffer men to live.
POSEIDON Behold, Athene, My waters! see them lift their foam-white tops Charging from sky to sky in rapid tumult: Admire their force, admire their thunderous speed. With green hooves and white manes they trample onwards. My mighty voices fill the world, Athene. Shall I permit the grand anarchic seas To be a road and the imperious Ocean A means of merchandise? Shall the frail keels Of thy ephemeral mortals score its back
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With servile furrows and petty souls of men Triumphing tame the illimitable sea? I am not of the mild and later gods, But of that elder world; Lemuria And old Atlantis raised me crimson altars, And my huge nostrils keep that scent of blood For which they quiver. Return into thy heavens, Pallas Athene, I into my deep.
ATHENE Dash then thy billows up against my aegis In battle! think not to hide in thy deep oceans; For I will drive thy waters from the world And leave thee naked to the light.
POSEIDON Dread virgin! I will not war with thee, armipotent.
ATHENE Then send thy champion forth to meet my champion, And let their conflict govern ours, Poseidon.
POSEIDON Who is thy champion?
ATHENE Perseus, the Olympian's son, Whom Danaë in her strong brazen tower, Acrisius' daughter, bore, by heavenly gold Lapped into slumber: for of that shining rain He is the beautiful offspring.
POSEIDON The parricide That is to be? But my sea-monster's fangs And fiery breathings shall prevent that murder.
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Farewell, Athene!
ATHENE Farewell, until I press My feet upon thy blue enormous mane And add thy Ocean to my growing empire.
Poseidon disappears into the sea.
He dives into the deep and with a din The thunderous divided waters meet Above his grisly head. Thou wingest, Perseus, From northern snows to this fair sunny land, Not knowing in the night what way thou wendest; But the dawn comes and over earth's far rim The round sun rises, as thyself shalt rise On Syria and thy rosy Andromeda, A thing of light. Rejoice, thou famous hero! Be glad of love, be glad of life, whose bosom Harbours the quiet strength of pure Athene.
She disappears into light.
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A rocky and surf-beat margin of land walled in with great frowning cliffs.
Cireas, Diomede.
CIREAS Diomede? You here so early and in this wild wanton weather!
DIOMEDE I can find no fault in the weather, Cireas; it is brilliant and frolicsome.
CIREAS The rain has wept itself out and the sun has ventured into the open; but the wind is shouting like mad and the sea is still in a mighty passion. Has your mistress Andromeda sent you then with matin-offerings to Poseidon, or are you walking here to whip the red roses in your cheeks redder with the sea-wind?
DIOMEDE My mistress cares as much for your Poseidon as I for your glum beetle-browed priest Polydaon. But you, Cireas? are you walking here to whip the red nose of you redder with the sea-wind or to soothe with it the marks of his holiness's cudgel?
CIREAS I must carry up these buckets of sea-water to swab down the blue-haired old fellow in the temple. Hang the robustious storm- shaken curmudgeon! I have rubbed him and scrubbed him and
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bathed him and swathed him for these eighteen years, yet he never sent me one profitable piece of wreckage out of his sea yet. A gold bracelet, now, crusted with jewels, dropped from the arm of some drowned princess, or a sealed casket velvet-lined with a priceless vase carried by the Rhodian merchants: that would not have beggared him! And I with so little could have bought my liberty.
DIOMEDE Maybe 'twas that he feared. For who would wish to lose such an expert body-servant as you, my Cireas?
CIREAS Zeus! if I thought that, I would leave his unwashed back to itch for a fortnight. But these Gods are kittle cattle to joke with. They have too many spare monsters about in their stables trained to snap up offenders for a light breakfast.
DIOMEDE And how prosper the sacrifices, Cireas? I hope you keep your god soothingly and daintily fed in this hot summer season?
CIREAS Alack, poor old Poseidon! He has had nothing but goats and sea-urchins lately, and that is poor food for a palate inured to homme à la Phénicienne, Diomede. It is his own fault, he should provide wreckage more freely. But black Polydaon's forehead grows blacker every day: he will soon be as mad as Cybele's bull on the headland. I am every moment in terror of finding myself tumbled on the altar for a shipwrecked Phoenician and old Blackbrows hacking about in search of my heart with his holy carving-tools.
DIOMEDE You should warn him beforehand that your heart is in your paunch hidden under twenty pounds of fat: so shall he have less cutting-exercise and you an easier exit.
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CIREAS Out! would you have me slit for a water-god's dinner? Is this your tenderness for me?
DIOMEDE Heaven forbid, dear Cireas. Syria would lose half her scampishness if you departed untimely to a worse world.
CIREAS Away from here, you long sauciness, you thin edge of naughty satire. But, no! First tell me, what news of the palace? They say King Phineus will wed the Princess Andromeda.
DIOMEDE Yes, but not till the Princess Andromeda weds King Phineus. What noise is that?
CIREAS It was the cry of many men in anguish.
He climbs up a rock.
DIOMEDE Zeus, what a wail was there! surely a royal Huge ship from Sidon or the Nile has kissed Our ragged beaches.
CIREAS A Phoenician galley Is caught and spinning in the surf, the men Urge desperate oars in vain. Hark, with a crash She rushes on the boulders' iron fangs That rip her tender sides. How the white ship Battered against them by the growling surf Screams like a woman tortured! From all sides The men are shaken out, as rattling peas Leap from a long and bursting sheath: these sink Gurgling into the billows, those are pressed
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And mangled on the jagged rocks.
DIOMEDE O it must be A memorable sight! help me up, Cireas.
CIREAS No, no, for I must run and tell old Blackbrows That here's fresh meat for hungry grim Poseidon.
He climbs down and out running.
DIOMEDE You disobliging dog! This is the first wreck in eighteen months and I not to see it! I will try and climb round the rock even if my neck and legs pay the forfeit.
She goes out in the opposite direction.
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The same.
Perseus descends on winged sandals from the clouds.
PERSEUS Rocks of the outland jaggèd with the sea, You slumbering promontories whose huge backs Jut into azure, and thou, O many-thundered Enormous Ocean, hail! Whatever lands Are ramparted with these forbidding shores, Yet if you hold felicitous roofs of men, Homes of delightful laughter, if you have streams Where chattering girls dip in their pitchers cool And dabble their white feet in the chill lapse Of waters, trees and a green-mantled earth, Cicalas noisy in a million boughs Or happy cheep of common birds, I greet you, Syria or Egypt or Ionian shores, Perseus the son of Danaë, who long Have sojourned only with the hail-thrashed isles Wet with cold mists and by the boreal winds Snow-swathed. The angry voices of the surf Are welcome to me whose ears have long been sealed By rigorous silence in the snows. O even The wail of mortal misery I choose Rather than that intolerable hush; For this at least is human. Thee I praise, O mother Earth and thy guardian Sea, O Sun Of the warm south nursing fair life of men. I will go down into bee-murmuring fields And mix with men and women in the corn And eat again accustomed food. But first
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This galley shattered on the sharp-toothed rocks I fly to succour. You are grown dear to me, You smiling weeping human faces, brightly Who move, who live, not like those stony masks And Gorgon visions of that monstrous world Beyond the snows. I would not lose you now In the dead surges of the inhuman flood.
He descends out of sight.
Iolaus enters with Cireas, Dercetes and soldiers.
IOLAUS Prepare your ambush, men, amid these boulders, But at the signal, leave your rocky lairs With level bristling points and gyre them in.
CIREAS O Poseidon Ennosigaios, man-swallower, earth-shaker, I have swabbed thee for eighteen years. I pray thee tot up the price of those swabbings and be not dishonest with me nor miserly. Eighteen by three hundred and sixty-five by two, that is the sum of them: and forget not the leap years either, O great Poseidon.
IOLAUS Into our ambush, for I hear them come.
They conceal themselves.
Perseus returns with Tyrnaus and Smerdas.
PERSEUS Chaldean merchants, would my speed to save Had matched the hawk's when he swoops down for slaughter. So many beautiful bodies of strong men Lost in the surge, so many eager hopes Of happiness now quenched would still have gladdened The sunlight. Yet for two delightful lives Saved to the stir and motion of the world I praise the Gods that help us.
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TYRNAUS Thou radiant youth Whose face is like a joyous god's for beauty, Whatever worth the body's life may have, I thank thee that 'tis saved. Smerdas, discharge That hapless humour from thy lids! If riches Are lost, the body, thy strong instrument To gather riches, is not lost, nor mind, The provident director of its labours.
SMERDAS Three thousand pieces of that wealthy stuff, Full forty chests all crammed with noble gems, All lost, all in a moment lost! We are beggars.
TYRNAUS Smerdas, not beggared yet of arm or brain.
SMERDAS The toil-marred peasant has as much.
PERSEUS Merchant, I sorrow for thy loss: all beautiful things Were meant to shine in the bright day, and grievous It is to know the senseless billows play with them. Yet life, most beautiful of all, is left thee. Is not mere sunlight something, and to breathe A joy? Be patient with the gods; they love not Rebellion and o'ertake it with fresh scourgings.
SMERDAS O that the sea had swallowed me and rolled In my dear treasure! Tell me, Syrian youth, Are there not divers in these parts, could pluck My wealth from the abyss?
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PERSEUS Chaldean merchant, I am not of this country, but like thyself Hear first today the surf roar on its beaches.
SMERDAS Cursed be the moment when we neared its shores! O harsh sea-god, if thou wilt have my wealth, My soul, it was a cruel mercy then to leave This beggared empty body bared of all That made life sweet. Take this too, and everything.
IOLAUS (stepping forward) Thy prayer is granted thee, O Babylonian.
The soldiers appear and surround Perseus and the merchants.
CIREAS All the good stuff drowned! O unlucky Cireas! O greedy Poseidon!
SMERDAS Shield us! what are these threatening spear-points?
TYRNAUS Fate's. This is that strange inhospitable coast Where the wrecked traveller in his own warm blood Is given guest-bath. (draws) Death's dice are yet to throw.
IOLAUS Draw not in vain, strive not against the gods. This is the shore near the temple where Poseidon Sits ivory-limbed in his dim rock-hewn house And nods above the bleeding mariner His sapphire locks in gloom. You three are come, A welcome offering to that long dry altar,
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O happy voyagers. Your road is straight To Elysium.
PERSEUS An evil and harsh religion You practise in your land, stripling of Syria, Yet since it is religion, do thy will, If thou have power no less than will. And yet I deem that ere I visit death's calm country, I have far longer ways to tread.
TYRNAUS (flinging away his sword) Take me. I will not please the gods with impotent writhing Under the harrow of my fate.
They seize Tyrnaus.
SMERDAS O wicked fool! You might have saved me with that sword. Ah youth! Ah radiant stranger! help me! thou art mighty.
PERSEUS Still, merchant, thou wouldst live?
SMERDAS I am dead with terror Of these bright thirsty spears. O they will carve My frantic heart out of my living bosom To throw it bleeding on that hideous altar. Save me, hero!
PERSEUS I war not with the gods for thee. From belching fire or the deep-mouthed abyss Of waters to have saved the meanest thing That wears man's kindly semblance, is a joy.
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But he is mad who for another's ease Incurs the implacable pursuit of heaven. Yet since each man on earth has privilege To battle even against the gods for life, Sweet life, lift up from earth thy fellow's sword; I will protect meanwhile thy head from onset.
SMERDAS Alas, you mock me! I have no skill with weapons Nor am a fighter. Save me!
The Syrians seize Smerdas.
Help! I will give thee The wealth of Babylon when I am safe.
PERSEUS My sword is heaven's; it is not to be purchased.
Smerdas and Tyrnaus are led away.
IOLAUS Take too this radiance.
PERSEUS (drawing his sword) Asian stripling, pause. I am not weak of hand nor feeble of heart. Thou art too young, too blithe, too beautiful; I would not disarrange thy sunny curls By any harsher touch than an embrace.
IOLAUS I too could wish to spare thy joyous body From the black knife, whoe'er thou art, O stranger. But grim compulsion drives and angry will Of the sea's lord, chafing that mortal men Insult with their frail keels his rude strong oceans. Therefore he built his grisly temple here, And all who are broken in the unequal war With surge and tempest, though they evade his rocks,
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Must belch out anguished blood upon that altar Miserably.
PERSEUS I come not from the Ocean.
IOLAUS There is no other way that men could come; For this is ground forbidden to unknown feet.
(smiling)
Unless these gaudy pinions on thy shoes Were wings indeed to bear thee through the void!
PERSEUS Are there not those who ask nor solid land For footing nor the salt flood to buoy their motions? Perhaps I am of these.
IOLAUS Of these thou art not. The gods are sombre, terrible to gaze at, Or, even if bright, remote, grand, formidable. But thou art open and fair like our blue heavens In Syria and thy radiant masculine body Allures the eye. Yield! it may be the God Will spare thee.
PERSEUS Set on thy war-dogs. Me alive If they alive can take, I am content To bleed a victim.
IOLAUS Art thou a demigod To beat back with one blade a hundred spears?
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PERSEUS My sword is in my hand and that shall answer. I am tired of words.
IOLAUS Dercetes, wait. His face Is beautiful as Heaven. O dark Poseidon, What wilt thou do with him in thy dank caves Under the grey abysms of the salt flood? Spare him to me and sunlight.
Polydaon and Phineus enter from behind.
DERCETES Prince, give the order.
IOLAUS Let this young sun-god live.
DERCETES It is forbidden.
IOLAUS But I allow it.
POLYDAON (coming forward) And when did lenient Heaven Make thee a godhead, Syrian Iolaus, To set thy proud decree against Poseidon's? Wilt thou rescind what Ocean's Zeus has ordered?
IOLAUS Polydaon—
POLYDAON Does a royal name on earth Inflate so foolishly thy mortal pride, Thou evenest thyself with the Olympians?
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Beware, the blood of kings has dropped ere now From the grey sacrificial knife.
IOLAUS Our blood! Thou darest threaten me, presumptuous priest? Back to thy blood-stained kennel! I absolve This stranger.
POLYDAON Captain, take them both. You flinch? Are you so fearful of the name of prince He plays with? Fear rather dark Poseidon's anger.
PHINEUS Be wise, young Iolaus. Polydaon, Thy zeal outstrips the reverence due to kings.
IOLAUS I need not thy protection, Tyrian Phineus: This is my country.
He draws.
PHINEUS (aside to Polydaon) It were well done to kill him now, his sword Being out against the people's gods; for then Who blames the god's avenger?
POLYDAON Will you accept, Syrians, the burden of his sacrilege? Upon them for Poseidon!
DERCETES Seize them but slay not! Let none dare shed the blood of Syria's kings.
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SOLDIERS Poseidon! great Poseidon!
PERSEUS Iolaus, Rein in thy sword: I am enough for these.
He shakes his uncovered shield in the faces of the soldiers: they stagger back covering their eyes.
IOLAUS Gods, what a glory lights up Syria!
POLYDAON Amazement! Is this a god opposes us? Back, back!
CIREAS Master, master, skedaddle: run, run, good King of Tyre, it is scuttle or be scuttled. Zeus has come down to earth with feathered shoes and a shield made out of phosphorus.
He runs off, followed more slowly by Dercetes and the soldiers.
PHINEUS Whate'er thou art, yet thou shalt not outface me.
He advances with sword drawn.
Hast thou Heaven's thunders with thee too?
POLYDAON (pulling him back) Back, Phineus! The fiery-tasselled aegis of Athene Shakes forth these lightnings, and an earthly sword Were madness here.
He goes out with Phineus.
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IOLAUS O radiant strong immortal, Iolaus kneels to thee.
PERSEUS No, Iolaus. Though great Athene breathes Olympian strength Into my arm sometimes, I am no more Than a brief mortal.
IOLAUS Art thou only man? O then be Iolaus' friend and lover, Who com'st to me like something all my own Destined from other shores.
PERSEUS Give me thy hands, O fair young child of the warm Syrian sun. Embrace me! Thou art like a springing laurel Fed upon sunlight by the murmuring waters.
IOLAUS Tell me thy name. What memorable earth Gave thee to the azure?
PERSEUS I am from Argolis, Perseus my name, the son of Danaë.
IOLAUS Come, Perseus, friend, with me: fierce entertainment We have given, unworthy the fair joyousness Thou carriest like a flag, but thou shalt meet A kinder Syria. My royal father Cepheus Shall welcome, my mother give thee a mother's greeting And our Andromeda's delightful smile
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Persuade thee of a world more full of beauty Than thou hadst dreamed of.
PERSEUS I shall yet be glad with thee, O Iolaus, in thy father's halls, But I would not as yet be known in Syria. Is there no pleasant hamlet near, hedged in With orchard walls and green with unripe corn And washed with bright and flitting waves, where I Can harbour with the kindly village folk And wake to cock-crow in the morning hours, As in my dear Seriphos?
IOLAUS Such a village Lurks near our hills,—there with my kind Cydone Thou mayst abide at ease, until thou choose, O Perseus, to reveal thyself to Syria. I too can visit thee unquestioned.
PERSEUS Thither Then lead me. I have a thirst for calm obscurity And cottages and happy unambitious talk And simple people. With these I would have rest, Not in the laboured pomp of princely towns Amid pent noise and purple masks of hate. I will drink deep of pure humanity And take the innocent smell of rain-drenched earth, So shall I with a noble untainted mind Rise from the strengthening soil to great adventure.
They go out.
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The Palace of Cepheus. A room in the women's apartments.
Praxilla, to her enters Diomede.
DIOMEDE O Praxilla, Praxilla!
PRAXILLA So, thou art back, thou tall inutility? Where wert thou lingering all this hour? I am tired of always whipping thee. I will hire thee out to a timber-merchant to carry logs from dawn to nightfall. Thou shalt learn what labour is.
DIOMEDE Praxilla, O Praxilla! I am full to the throat with news. I pray you, rip me open.
PRAXILLA Willingly.
She advances towards her with an uplifted knife.
DIOMEDE (escaping) A plague! can you not appreciate a fine metaphor when you hear it? I never saw so prosaic a mortal. The soul in you was born of a marriage between a saucepan and a broomstick.
PRAXILLA Tell me your news. If it is good, I will excuse you your whipping.
DIOMEDE I was out on the beach thinking to watch the seagulls flying and crying in the wind amidst the surf dashing and the black cliff-heads—
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PRAXILLA And could not Poseidon turn thee into a gull there among thy natural kindred? Thou wert better fitted with that shape than in a reasonable human body.
DIOMEDE Oh then you shall hear the news tell itself, mistress, when the whole town has chewed it and rechewed it.
She is going.
PRAXILLA Stop, you long-limbed impertinence. The news!
DIOMEDE I'll be hanged if I tell you.
PRAXILLA You shall be whipped, if you do not.
DIOMEDE Well, your goddess Switch is a potent divinity. A ship with men from the East has broken on the headland below the temple and two Chaldeans are saved alive for the altar.
PRAXILLA This is glorious news indeed.
DIOMEDE It will be a great day when they are sacrificed!
PRAXILLA We have not had such since the long galley from Cnossus grounded upon our shores and the temple was washed richly with blood and the altar blushed as thickly with hearts of victims as the King's throne with rubies. Poseidon was pleased that year and the harvest was so plentiful, men were brought in from beyond the hills to reap it.
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DIOMEDE There would have been a third victim, but Prince Iolaus drew sword on the priest Polydaon to defend him.
PRAXILLA I hope this is not true.
DIOMEDE I saw it.
PRAXILLA Is the wild boy In love with ruin? Not the King himself Can help him if the grim sacrificant Demand his fair young head: only a god Could save him. And he was already in peril From Polydaon's gloomy hate!
DIOMEDE And Phineus'.
PRAXILLA Hush, silly madcap, hush; or speak much lower.
DIOMEDE Here comes my little queen of love, stepping As daintily as a young bird in spring When he would take the hearts of all the forest.
Andromeda enters.
PRAXILLA You have slept late, Andromeda.
ANDROMEDA Have I? The sun had risen in my dreams: perhaps I feared to wake lest I should find all dark
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Once more, Praxilla.
DIOMEDE He has risen in your eyes, For they are full of sunshine, little princess.
ANDROMEDA I have dreamed, Diomede, I have dreamed.
DIOMEDE What did you dream?
ANDROMEDA I dreamed my sun had risen. He had a face like the Olympian Zeus And wings upon his feet. He smiled upon me, Diomede.
PRAXILLA Dreams are full of stranger fancies. Why, I myself have seen hooved bears, winged lions, And many other monsters in my dreams.
ANDROMEDA My sun was a bright god and bore a flaming sword To kill all monsters.
DIOMEDE I think I've seen today Your sun, my little playmate.
ANDROMEDA No, you have not. I'll not have any eyes see him but mine: He is my own, my very own.
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DIOMEDE And yet I saw him on the wild sea-beach this morning.
PRAXILLA What mean you, Diomede?
DIOMEDE (to Andromeda) You have not heard? A ship was flung upon the rocks this morning And all her human burden drowned.
ANDROMEDA Alas!
DIOMEDE It was a marvellous sight, my little playmate, And made my blood with horror and admiration Run richer in my veins. The great ship groaned While the rough boulders dashed her into pieces, The men with desperate shrieks went tumbling down Mid laughters of the surge, strangled twixt billows Or torn by strips upon the savage rocks That tossed their mangled bodies back again Into the cruel keeping of the surge.
ANDROMEDA O do not tell me any more! How had you heart To look at what I cannot bear to hear? For while you spoke, I felt as if the rocks Were tearing my own limbs and the salt surge Choking me.
DIOMEDE I suppose it must have hurt them. Yes, it was pitiful. Still, 'twas a sight. Meanwhile the deep surf boomed their grandiose dirge
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With fierce triumphant voices. The whole scene Was like a wild stupendous sacrifice Offered by the grey-filleted grim surges On the gigantic altar of the rocks To the calm cliffs seated like gods above.
ANDROMEDA Alas, the unhappy men, the poor drowned men Who had young children somewhere whom they loved! How could you watch them die? Had I been a god, I would not let this cruel thing have happened.
DIOMEDE Why do you weep for them? they were not Syrians.
PRAXILLA Not they, but barbarous jabbering foreigners From Indus or Arabia. Fie, my child, You sit upon the floor and weep for these?
ANDROMEDA When Iolaus fell upon the rocks And hurt himself, you did not then forbid me To weep!
PRAXILLA He is your brother. That was loving, Tender and right.
ANDROMEDA And these men were not brothers? They too had sisters who will feel as I should If my dear brother were to die so wretchedly.
PRAXILLA Let their own sisters weep for them: we have Enough of our own sorrows. You are young
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And softly made: because you have yourself No griefs, but only childhood's soon-dried tears, You make a luxury of others' woes. So when we watch a piteous tragedy, We grace with real tears its painted sorrows. When you are older and have true things to weep for, Then you will understand.
ANDROMEDA I'll not be older! I will not understand! I only know That men are heartless and your gods most cruel. I hate them!
PRAXILLA Hush, hush! You know not what you say. You must not speak such things. Come, Diomede, Tell her the rest.
ANDROMEDA (covering her ears with her hands) I will not hear you.
DIOMEDE (kneeling by her and drawing her hands away) But I Will tell you of your bright sun-god.
ANDROMEDA He is not My sun-god or he would have saved them.
DIOMEDE He did.
ANDROMEDA (leaping to her feet) Then tell me of him.
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DIOMEDE Suddenly there dawned A man, a vision, a brightness, who descended From where I know not, but to me it seemed That the blue heavens just then created him Out of the sunlight. His face and radiant body Aspired to copy the Olympian Zeus And wings were on his feet.
ANDROMEDA He was my sun-god!
DIOMEDE He caught two drowning wretches by the robe And drew them safe to land.
ANDROMEDA He was my sun-god. Diomede, I have seen him in my dream.
PRAXILLA I think it was Poseidon come to take His tithe of all that death for the ancient altar, Lest all be engulfed by his grey billows, he Go quite unhonoured.
DIOMEDE Hang up your grim Poseidon! This was a sweet and noble face all bright With manly kindness.
ANDROMEDA O I know, I know. Where went he with those rescued?
DIOMEDE Why, just then
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Prince Iolaus and his band leaped forth And took them.
ANDROMEDA (angrily) Wherefore took them? By what right?
DIOMEDE To die according to our Syrian law On dark Poseidon's altar.
ANDROMEDA They shall not die. It is a shame, a cruel cold injustice. I wonder that my brother had any part in it! My sun-god saved them, they belong to him, Not to your hateful gods. They are his and mine, I will not let you kill them.
PRAXILLA Why, they must die And you will see it done, my little princess. You shall! Where are you going?
ANDROMEDA Let me go. I do not love you when you talk like this.
PRAXILLA But you are Syria's lady and must appear At these high ceremonies.
ANDROMEDA I had rather be A beggar's daughter who devours the remnants Rejected from your table, than reign a queen Doing such cruelty.
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PRAXILLA Little passionate scold! You mean not what you say. A beggar's daughter! You? You who toss about if only a rose-leaf Crinkle the creamy smoothness of your sheets, And one harsh word flings weeping broken-hearted As if the world had no more joy in store. You are a little posturer, you make A theatre of your own mind to act in, Take parts, declaim such childish rhetoric As that you speak now. You a beggar's daughter! Come, listen what became of your bright sun-god.
DIOMEDE Him too they would have seized, but he with steel Opposed and tranquil smiling eyes appalled them. Then Polydaon came and Phineus came And bade arrest the brilliant god. Our Prince, Seized by his glory, with his virgin point Resisted their assault.
ANDROMEDA My Iolaus!
DIOMEDE All suddenly the stranger's lifted shield Became a storm of lightnings. Dawn was blinded: Far promontories leaped out in the blaze, The surges were illumined and the horizon Answered with light.
ANDROMEDA (clapping her hands) O glorious! O my dream!
PRAXILLA You tell the actions of a mighty god, Diomede.
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DIOMEDE A god he seemed to us, Praxilla. The soldiers ran in terror, Polydaon Went snorting off like a black whale harpooned, And even Phineus fled.
ANDROMEDA Was he not killed? I wish he had been killed.
PRAXILLA This is your pity!
ANDROMEDA (angrily) I do not pity tigers, wolves and scorpions. I pity men who are weak and beasts that suffer.
PRAXILLA I thought you loved all men and living things.
ANDROMEDA Perhaps I could have loved him like my hound Or the lion in the park who lets me pat his mane. But since he would have me even without my will To foul with his beast touch, my body abhors him.
PRAXILLA Fie, fie! you speak too violently. How long Will you be such a child?
DIOMEDE Our Iolaus And that bright stranger then embraced. Together They left the beach.
ANDROMEDA Where, where is Iolaus?
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Why is he long in coming? I must see him. I have a thousand things to ask.
She runs out.
DIOMEDE She is A strange unusual child, my little playmate.
PRAXILLA None can help loving her, she is in charm Compelling: but her mind is wry and warped. She is not natural, not sound in fancy, But made of wild uncurbed imaginations, With feelings as unruly as winds and waves And morbid sympathies. At times she talks Strange childish blasphemies that make me tremble. She would impose her fancies on the world As better than the eternal laws that rule us! I wish her mother had brought her up more strictly, For she will come to harm.
DIOMEDE Oh, do not say it! I have seen no child in all our Syria like her, None her bright equal in beauty. She pleases me Like days of sunlight rain when spring caresses Warmly the air. Oh, here is Iolaus.
PRAXILLA Is it he?
DIOMEDE I know him by the noble strut He has put on ever since they made him captain.
Andromeda comes running.
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ANDROMEDA My brother comes! I saw him from the terrace.
Enters Iolaus. Andromeda runs and embraces him.
Oh, Iolaus, have you brought him to me? Where is my sun-god?
IOLAUS In heaven, little sister.
ANDROMEDA Oh, do not laugh at me. I want my sun-god Whose face is like the grand Olympian Zeus' And wings are on his feet. Where did you leave him After you took him from our rough sea-beaches?
IOLAUS What do you mean, Andromeda?
DIOMEDE Some power Divine sent her a dream of that bright strength Which shone by you on the sea-beach today, And him she calls her sungod.
IOLAUS Is it so? My little wind-tossed rose Andromeda! I shall be glad indeed if Heaven intends this.
ANDROMEDA Where is he?
IOLAUS Do you not know, little rose-sister, The great gods visit earth by splendid moments And then are lost to sight? Come, do not weep; He is not lost to Syria.
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ANDROMEDA Iolaus, Why did you take the two poor foreign men And give them to the priest? My sun-god saved them, Brother,—what right had you to kill?
IOLAUS My child, I only did my duty as a soldier, Yet grieve I was compelled.
ANDROMEDA Now will you save them?
IOLAUS But they belong to dread Poseidon now!
ANDROMEDA What will be done to them?
IOLAUS They must be bound On the god's altar and their living hearts Ripped from their blood-choked breasts to feed his hunger.
Andromeda covers her face with her robe.
Grieve not for them: they but fulfil their fate. These things are in the order of the world Like plagues and slaughters, famines, fires and earthquakes, Which when they pass us by killing their thousands, We should not weep for, but be grateful only That other souls than the dear heads we loved Have perished.
ANDROMEDA You will not save them?
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PRAXILLA Unhappy girl! It is impiety to think of it. Fie! Would you have your brother killed for your whimsies?
ANDROMEDA Will you not save them, brother?
IOLAUS I cannot, child.
ANDROMEDA Then I will.
She goes out.
IOLAUS Does she mean it?
PRAXILLA Such wild caprices Are always darting through her brain.
IOLAUS I could not take Poseidon's wrath upon my head!
PRAXILLA Forget it As she will too. Her strange imaginations Flutter awhile among her golden curls, But soon wing off with careless flight to Lethe.
Medes enters.
IOLAUS What is it, Medes?
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MEDES The King, Prince Iolaus, Requires your presence in his audience-chamber.
IOLAUS So? Tell me, Medes, is Poseidon's priest In presence there?
MEDES He is and full of wrath.
IOLAUS Go, tell them I am coming.
Medes goes out.
PRAXILLA Alas!
IOLAUS Fear not. I have a strength the grim intriguers dream not of. Let not my sister hear this, Diomede.
He goes.
PRAXILLA What may not happen! The priest is dangerous, Poseidon may be angry. Let us go And guard our child from peril of this shock.
They go.
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The audience-chamber in the Palace of Cepheus.
Cepheus and Cassiopea, seated.
CASSIOPEA What will you do, Cepheus?
CEPHEUS This that has happened Is most unfortunate.
CASSIOPEA What will you do? I hope you will not give up to the priest My Iolaus' golden head? I hope You do not mean that?
CEPHEUS Great Poseidon's priest Sways all this land: for from the liberal blood Moistening that high-piled altar grow our harvests And strong Poseidon satisfied defends Our frontiers from the loud Assyrian menace.
CASSIOPEA Empty thy treasuries, glut him with gold. Let us be beggars rather than one bright curl Of Iolaus feel his gloomy mischiefs.
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CEPHEUS I had already thought of it. Medes!
Waits Polydaon yet?
MEDES He does, my lord.
CEPHEUS Call him, and Tyrian Phineus.
Medes goes out again.
CASSIOPEA Bid Tyre save Andromeda's loved brother from this doom; He shall not have our daughter otherwise.
CEPHEUS This too was in my mind already, queen.
Polydaon and Phineus enter.
Be seated, King of Tyre: priest Polydaon, Possess thy usual chair.
POLYDAON Well, King of Syria, Shall I have justice? Wilt thou be the King Over a peopled country? or must I loose The snake-haired Gorgon-eyed Erinnyes To hunt thee with the clamorous whips of Hell Blood-dripping?
CEPHEUS Be content. Cepheus gives nought But justice from his mighty seat. Thou shalt Have justice.
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POLYDAON I am not used to cool my heels About the doors of princes like some beggarly And negligible suitor whose poor plaint Is valued by some paltry drachmas. I am Poseidon's priest.
CEPHEUS The prince is called to answer here Thy charges.
POLYDAON Answer! Will he deny a crime Done impudently in Syria's face? 'Tis well; The Tyrian stands here who can meet that lie.
CASSIOPEA My children's lips were never stained with lies, Insulting priest, nor will be now; from him We shall have truth.
CEPHEUS And grant the charge admitted, The ransom shall be measured with the crime.
POLYDAON What talk is this of ransom? Thinkst thou, King, That dire Poseidon's grim offended godhead Can be o'erplastered with a smudge of silver? Shall money blunt his vengeance? Shall his majesty Be estimated in a usurer's balance? Blood is the ransom of this sacrilege.
CASSIOPEA Ah God!
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CEPHEUS (in agitation) Take all my treasury includes Of gold and silver, gems and porphyry Unvalued.
POLYDAON The Gods are not to be bribed, King Cepheus.
CASSIOPEA (apart) Give him honours, state, precedence, All he can ask. O husband, let me keep My child's head on my bosom safe.
CEPHEUS Listen! What wouldst thou have? Precedence, pomp and state? Hundreds of spears to ring thee where thou walkest? Swart slaves and beautiful women in thy temple To serve thee and thy god? They are thine. In feasts And high processions and proud regal meetings Poseidon's followers shall precede the King.
POLYDAON Me wilt thou bribe? I take these for Poseidon, Nor waive my chief demand.
CEPHEUS What will content thee?
POLYDAON A victim has been snatched from holy altar: To fill that want a victim is demanded.
CEPHEUS I will make war on Egypt and Assyria And throw thee kings for victims.
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POLYDAON Thy vaunt is empty. Poseidon being offended, who shall give thee Victory o'er Egypt and o'er strong Assyria?
CEPHEUS Take thou the noblest head in all the kingdom Below the Prince. Take many heads for one.
POLYDAON Shall then the innocent perish for the guilty? Is this thy justice? How shall thy kingdom last?
CEPHEUS You hear him, Cassiopea? he will not yield, He is inexorable.
POLYDAON Must I wait longer?
CEPHEUS Ho Medes!
Iolaus comes not yet.
CASSIOPEA (rising fiercely) Priest, thou wilt have my child's blood then, it seems! Nought less will satisfy thee than thy prince For victim?
POLYDAON Poseidon knows not prince or beggar. Whoever honours him, he heaps with state And fortune. Whoever wakes his dreadful wrath, He thrusts down into Erebus for ever.
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CASSIOPEA Beware! Thou shalt not have my child. Take heed Ere thou drive monarchs to extremity. Thou hopest in thy sacerdotal pride To make the Kings of Syria childless, end A line that started from the gods. Thinkst thou It will be tamely suffered? What have we To lose, if we lose this? I bid thee again Take heed: drive not a queen to strong despair. I am no tame-souled peasant, but a princess And great Chaldea's child.
POLYDAON (after a pause) Wilt thou confirm Thy treasury and all the promised honours, If I excuse the deed?
CEPHEUS They shall be thine.
He turns to whisper with Cassiopea.
PHINEUS (apart to Polydaon) Dost thou prefer me for thy foeman?
POLYDAON See In the queen's eyes her rage. We must discover New means; this way's not safe.
PHINEUS Thou art a coward, priest, for all thy violence. But fear me first and then blench from a woman.
POLYDAON Well, as you choose.
Iolaus enters.
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IOLAUS Father, you sent for me?
CEPHEUS There is a charge upon thee, Iolaus, I do not yet believe. But answer truth Like Cepheus' son, whatever the result.
IOLAUS Whatever I have done, my father, good Or ill, I dare support against the world. What is this accusation?
CEPHEUS Didst thou rescue At dawn a victim from Poseidon's altar?
IOLAUS I did not.
POLYDAON Dar'st thou deny it, wretched boy? Monarch, his coward lips have uttered falsehood. Speak, King of Tyre.
IOLAUS Hear me speak first. Thou ruffian, Intriguer masking in a priest's disguise,—
POLYDAON Hear him, O King!
CEPHEUS Speak calmly. I forbid All violence. Thou deniest then the charge?
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IOLAUS As it was worded to me, I deny it.
PHINEUS Syria, I have not spoken till this moment, And would not now, but sacred truth compels My tongue howe'er reluctant. I was there, And saw him rescue a wrecked mariner With his rash steel. Would that I had not seen it!
IOLAUS Thou liest, Phineus, King of Tyre.
CASSIOPEA Alas! If thou hast any pity for thy mother, Run not upon thy death in this fierce spirit, My child. Calmly repel the charge against thee, Nor thus offend thy brother.
PHINEUS I am not angry.
IOLAUS It was no shipwrecked weeping mariner, Condemned by the wild seas, whom they attempted, But a calm god or glorious hero who came By other way than man's to Syria's margin. Nor did rash steel or battle rescue him. With the mere dreadful waving of his shield He shook from him a hundred threatening lances, This hero hot from Tyre and this proud priest Now bold to bluster in his monarch's chamber, But then a pallid coward,—so he trusts In his Poseidon!
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POLYDAON Hast thou done?
IOLAUS Not yet. That I drew forth my sword, is true, and true I would have rescued him from god or devil Had it been needed.
POLYDAON Enough! He has confessed! Give verdict, King, and sentence. Let me watch Thy justice.
CEPHEUS But this fault was not so deadly!
POLYDAON I see thy drift, O King. Thou wouldst prefer Thy son to him who rules the earth and waters: Thou wouldst exalt thy throne above the temple, Setting the gods beneath thy feet. Fool, fool, Knowst thou not that the terrible Poseidon Can end thy house in one tremendous hour? Yield him one impious head which cannot live And he will give thee other and better children. Give sentence or be mad and perish.
IOLAUS Father, Not for thy son's, but for thy honour's sake Resist him. 'Tis better to lose crown and life, Than rule the world because a priest allows it.
POLYDAON Give sentence, King. I can no longer wait, Give sentence.
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CEPHEUS (helplessly to Cassiopea) What shall I do?
CASSIOPEA Monarch of Tyre, Thou choosest silence then, a pleased spectator? Thou hast bethought thee of other nuptials?
PHINEUS Lady, You wrong my silence which was but your servant To find an issue from this dire impasse, Rescuing your child from wrath, justice not wounded.
CASSIOPEA The issue lies in the accuser's will, If putting malice by he'ld only seek Poseidon's glory.
PHINEUS The deed's by all admitted, The law and bearing of it are in doubt.
(to Polydaon)
You urge a place is void and must be filled On great Poseidon's altar, and demand Justly the guilty head of Iolaus. He did the fault, his head must ransom it. Let him fill up the void, who made the void. Nor will high heaven accept a guiltless head, To let the impious free.
CASSIOPEA Phineus,—
PHINEUS But if The victim lost return, you cannot then
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Claim Iolaus; then there is no void For substitution.
POLYDAON King,—
PHINEUS The simpler fault With ransom can be easily excused And covered up in gold. Let him produce The fugitive.
IOLAUS Tyrian,—
PHINEUS I have not forgotten. Patience! You plead that your mysterious guest Being neither shipwrecked nor a mariner Comes not within the doom of law. Why then, Let Law decide that issue, not the sword Nor swift evasion! Dost thou fear the event Of thy great father's sentence from that throne Where Justice sits with bright unsullied robe Judging the peoples? Calmly expect his doom Which errs not.
CASSIOPEA Thou art a man noble indeed in counsel And fit to rule the nations.
CEPHEUS I approve. You laugh, my son?
IOLAUS I laugh to see wise men
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Catching their feet in their own subtleties. King Phineus, wilt thou seize Olympian Zeus And call thy Tyrian smiths to forge his fetters? Or wilt thou claim the archer bright Apollo To meet thy human doom, priest Polydaon? 'Tis well; the danger's yours. Give me three days And I'll produce him.
CEPHEUS Priest, art thou content?
POLYDAON Exceed not thou the period by one day, Or tremble.
CEPHEUS (rising) Happily decided. Rise My Cassiopea: now our hearts can rest From these alarms.
Cepheus and Cassiopea leave the chamber.
IOLAUS Keep thy knife sharp, sacrificant. King Phineus, I am grateful and advise Thy swift departure back to Tyre unmarried.
He goes out.
POLYDAON What hast thou done, King Phineus? All is ruined.
PHINEUS What, have the stripling's threats appalled thee, priest?
POLYDAON Thou hast demanded a bright dreadful god For victim. We might have slain young Iolaus: Wilt thou slay him whose tasselled aegis smote
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Terror into a hundred warriors?
PHINEUS Priest, Thou art a superstitious fool. Believe not The gods come down to earth with swords and wings, Or transitory raiment made on looms, Or bodies visible to mortal eyes. Far otherwise they come, with unseen steps And stroke invisible,—if gods indeed There are. I doubt it, who can find no room For powers unseen: the world's alive and moves By natural law without their intervention.
POLYDAON King Phineus, doubt not the immortal gods. They love not doubters. If thou hadst lived as I, Daily devoted to the temple dimness, And seen the awful shapes that live in night, And heard the awful sounds that move at will When Ocean with the midnight is alone, Thou wouldst not doubt. Remember the dread portents High gods have sent on earth a hundred times When kings offended.
PHINEUS Well, let them reign unquestioned Far from the earth in their too bright Olympus, So that they come not down to meddle here In what I purpose. For your aegis-bearer, Your winged and two-legged lion, he's no god. You hurried me away or I'ld have probed His godlike guts with a good yard of steel To test the composition of his ichor.
POLYDAON What of his flaming aegis lightning-tasselled?
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What of his winged sandals, King?
PHINEUS The aegis? Some mechanism of refracted light. The wings? Some new aerial contrivance A luckier Daedalus may have invented. The Greeks are scientists unequalled, bold Experimenters, happy in invention. Nothing's incredible that they devise, And this man, Polydaon, is a Greek.
POLYDAON Have it your way. Say he was merely man! How do we profit by his blood?
PHINEUS O marvellous! Thou hesitate to kill! thou seek for reasons! Is not blood always blood? I could not forfeit My right to marry young Andromeda; She is my claim to Syria. Leave something, priest, To Fortune, but be ready for her coming And grasp ere she escape. The old way's best; Excite the commons, woo their thunderer, That plausible republican. Iolaus Once ended, by right of fair Andromeda I'll save and wear the crown. Priest, over Syria And all my Tyrians thou shalt be the one prelate, Should all go well.
POLYDAON All shall go well, King Phineus.
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A room in the women's apartments of the Palace.
Andromeda, Diomede, Praxilla.
ANDROMEDA My brother lives then?
PRAXILLA Thanks to Tyre, it seems.
DIOMEDE Thanks to the wolf who means to eat him later.
PRAXILLA You'll lose your tongue some morning; rule it, girl.
DIOMEDE These kings, these politicians, these high masters! These wise blind men! We slaves have eyes at least To look beyond transparency.
PRAXILLA Because We stand outside the heated game unmoved By interests, fears and passions.
ANDROMEDA He is a wolf, for I have seen his teeth.
PRAXILLA Yet must you marry him, my little princess.
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ANDROMEDA What, to be torn in pieces by the teeth?
DIOMEDE I think the gods will not allow this marriage.
ANDROMEDA I know not what the gods may do: be sure, I'll not allow it.
PRAXILLA Fie, Andromeda! You must obey your parents: 'tis not right, This wilfulness. Why, you're a child! you think You can oppose the will of mighty monarchs? Be good; obey your father.
ANDROMEDA Yes, Praxilla? And if my father bade me take a knife And cut my face and limbs and stab my eyes, Must I do that?
PRAXILLA Where are you with your wild fancies? Your father would not bid you do such things.
ANDROMEDA Because they'ld hurt me?
PRAXILLA Yes.
ANDROMEDA It hurts me more To marry Phineus.
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PRAXILLA O you sly logic-splitter! You dialectician, you sunny-curled small sophist, Chop logic with your father. I'm tired of you.
Cepheus enters.
ANDROMEDA Father, I have been waiting for you.
CEPHEUS What! you? I'll not believe it. You? (caressing her) My rosy Syrian! My five-foot lady! My small queen of Tyre! Yes, you are tired of playing with the ball. You wait for me!
ANDROMEDA I was waiting. Here are Two kisses for you.
CEPHEUS Oh, now I understand. You dancing rogue, you're not so free with kisses: I have to pay for them, small cormorant. What is it now? a talking Tyrian doll? Or a strong wooden horse with silken wings To fly up to the gold rims of the moon?
ANDROMEDA I will not kiss you if you talk like that. I am a woman now. As if I wanted Such nonsense, father!
CEPHEUS Oh, you're a woman now? Then 'tis a robe from Cos, sandals fur-lined Or belt all silver. Young diplomatist,
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I know you. You keep these rippling showers of gold Upon your head to buy your wishes with. Therefore you packed your small red lips with honey. Well, usurer, what's the price you want?
ANDROMEDA I want,— But father, will you give me what I want?
CEPHEUS I'ld give you the bright sun from heaven for plaything To make you happy, girl Andromeda.
ANDROMEDA I want the Babylonians who were wrecked In the great ship today, to be my slaves, Father.
CEPHEUS Was ever such a perverse witch? To ask the only thing I cannot give!
ANDROMEDA Can I not have them, father?
CEPHEUS They are Poseidon's.
ANDROMEDA Oh then you love Poseidon more than me! Why should he have them?
CEPHEUS Fie, child! the mighty gods Are masters of the earth and sea and heavens, And all that is, is theirs. We are their stewards. But what is once restored into their hands
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Is thenceforth holy: he who even gazes With greedy eye upon divine possessions, Is guilty in Heaven's sight and may awake A dreadful wrath. These men, Andromeda, Must bleed upon the altar of the God. Speak not of them again: they are devoted.
ANDROMEDA Is he a god who eats the flesh of men?
PRAXILLA O hush, blasphemer!
ANDROMEDA Father, give command, To have Praxilla here boiled for my breakfast. I'll be a goddess too.
CEPHEUS Praxilla!
PRAXILLA 'Tis thus She talks. Oh but it gives me a shivering fever Sometimes to hear her.
CEPHEUS What mean you, dread gods? Purpose you then the ruin of my house Preparing in my children the offences That must excuse your wrath? Andromeda, My little daughter, speak not like this again, I charge you, no, nor think it. The mighty gods Dwell far above the laws that govern men And are not to be mapped by mortal judgments. It is Poseidon's will these men should die Upon his altar. 'Tis not to be questioned.
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ANDROMEDA It shall be questioned. Let your God go hungry.
CEPHEUS I am amazed! Did you not hear me, child? On the third day from now these men shall die. The same high evening ties you fast with nuptials To Phineus, who shall take you home to Tyre.
(aside)
On Tyre let the wrath fall, if it must come.
ANDROMEDA Father, you'll understand this once for all,— I will not let the Babylonians die, I will not marry Phineus.
CEPHEUS Oh, you will not? Here is a queen, of Tyre and all the world; How mutinous-majestically this smallness Divulges her decrees, making the most Of her five feet of gold and cream and roses! And why will you not marry Phineus, rebel?
ANDROMEDA He does not please me.
CEPHEUS School your likings, rebel. It is most needful Syria mate with Tyre. And you are Syria.
ANDROMEDA Why, father, if you gave me a toy, you'ld ask What toy I like! If you gave me a robe Or vase, you would consult my taste in these! Must I marry any cold-eyed crafty husband
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I do not like?
CEPHEUS You do not like! You do not like! Thou silly child, must the high policy Of Princes then be governed by thy likings? 'Tis policy, 'tis kingly policy That made this needful marriage, and it shall not For your spoilt childish likings be unmade. What, you look sullen? what, you frown, virago? Look, if you mutiny, I'll have you whipped.
ANDROMEDA You would not dare.
CEPHEUS Not dare!
ANDROMEDA Of course you would not. As if I were afraid of you!
CEPHEUS You are spoiled, You are spoiled! Your mother spoils you, you wilful sunbeam. Come, you provoking minx, you'll marry Phineus?
ANDROMEDA I will not, father. If I must marry, then I'll marry my bright sun-god! and none else In the wide world.
CEPHEUS Your sun-god! Is that all? Shall I not send an envoy to Olympus And call the Thunderer here to marry you? You're not ambitious?
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PRAXILLA It is not that she means; She speaks of the bright youth her brother rescued. Since she has heard of him, no meaner talk Is on her lips.
CEPHEUS Who is this radiant coxcomb? Whence did he come to set my Syria in a whirl? For him my son's in peril of his life, For him my daughter will not marry Tyre. Oh, Polydaon's right. He must be killed Before he does more mischief. Andromeda, On the third day you marry Tyrian Phineus.
He goes out hurriedly.
DIOMEDE That was a valiant shot timed to a most discreet departure. Parthian tactics are best when we deal with mutinous daughters.
PRAXILLA Andromeda, you will obey your father?
ANDROMEDA You are not in my counsels. You're too faithful, Virtuous and wise, and virtuously you would Betray me. There is a thing full-grown in me That you shall only know by the result. Diomede, come; for I need help, not counsel.
She goes.
PRAXILLA What means she now? Her whims are as endless as the tossing of leaves in a wind. But you will find out and tell me, Diomede.
DIOMEDE I will find out certainly, but as to telling, that is as it shall please me—and my little mistress.
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PRAXILLA You shall be whipped.
DIOMEDE Pish!
PRAXILLA The child is spoiled herself and she spoils her servants. There is no managing any of them.
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An orchard garden in Syria by a river-bank: the corner of a cottage in the background.
Perseus, Cydone.
CYDONE (sings) O the sun in the reeds and willows! O the sun with the leaves at play! Who would waste the warm sunlight? And for weeping there's the night. But now 'tis day.
PERSEUS Yes, willows and the reeds! and the bright sun Stays with the ripples talking quietly. And there, Cydone, look! how the fish leap To catch at sunbeams. Sing yet again, Cydone.
CYDONE (sings) O what use have your foolish tears? What will you do with your hopes and fears? They but waste the sweet sunlight. Look! morn opens: look how bright The world appears!
PERSEUS O you Cydone in the sweet sunlight! But you are lovelier.
CYDONE You talk like Iolaus.
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Come, here's your crown. I'll set it where 'tis due.
PERSEUS Crowns are too heavy, dear. Sunlight was better.
CYDONE 'Tis a light crown of love I put upon you, My brother Perseus.
PERSEUS Love! but love is heavy.
CYDONE No, love is light. I put light love upon you, Because I love you and you love Iolaus. I love you because you love Iolaus, And love the world that loves my Iolaus, Iolaus my world and all the world Only for Iolaus.
PERSEUS Happy Cydone, Who can lie here and babble to the river All day of love and light and Iolaus. If it could last! But tears are in the world And must some day be wept.
CYDONE Why must they, Perseus?
PERSEUS When Iolaus becomes King in Syria And comes no more, what will you do, Cydone?
CYDONE Why, I will go to him.
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PERSEUS And if perhaps He should not know you?
CYDONE Then it will be night. It is day now.
PERSEUS A bright philosophy, But with the tears behind. Hellas, thou livest In thy small world of radiant white perfection With eye averted from the night beyond, The night immense, unfathomed. But I have seen Snow-regions monstrous underneath the moon And Gorgon caverns dim. Ah well, the world Is bright around me and the quick lusty breeze Of strong adventure wafts my bright-winged sandals O'er mountains and o'er seas, and Herpe's with me, My sword of sharpness.
CYDONE Your sword, my brother Perseus? But it is lulled to sleep in scarlet roses By the winged sandals watched. Can they really Lift you into the sky?
PERSEUS They can, Cydone.
CYDONE What's in the wallet locked so carefully? I would have opened it and seen, but could not.
PERSEUS 'Tis well thou didst not. For thy breathing limbs Would in a moment have been charmed to stone
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And these smooth locks grown rigid and stiffened, O Cydone, Thy happy heart would never more have throbbed To Iolaus' kiss.
CYDONE What monster's there?
PERSEUS It is the Gorgon's head who lived in night. Snake-tresses frame its horror of deadly beauty That turns the gazer into marble.
CYDONE Ugh! Why do you keep such dreadful things about you?
PERSEUS Why, are there none who are better turned to stone Than living?
CYDONE O yes, the priest of the dark shrine Who hates my love. Fix him to frowning grimness In innocent marble. (listening) It is Iolaus! I know his footfall, muffled in the green.
IOLAUS Perseus, my friend,—
PERSEUS Thou art my human sun. Come, shine upon me; let thy face of beauty Become a near delight, my arm, fair youth, possess thee.
IOLAUS I am a warrant-bearer to you, friend.
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PERSEUS On what arrest?
IOLAUS For running from the knife. A debt that must be paid. They'll not be baulked Their dues of blood, their strict account of hearts. Or mine or thine they'll have to crown their altars.
PERSEUS Why, do but make thy tender breast the altar And I'll not grudge my heart, sweet Iolaus. Who's this accountant?
IOLAUS Poseidon's dark-browed priest, As gloomy as the den in which he lairs, Who hopes to gather Syria in his hands Upon a priestly pretext.
CYDONE Change him, Perseus, Into black stone!
PERSEUS Oh, hard and black as his own mood! He has a stony heart much better housed In limbs of stone than a kind human body Who would hurt thee, my Iolaus.
IOLAUS He'ld hurt And find a curious pleasure. If it were even My sister sunbeam, my Andromeda, He'ld carve her soft white breast as readily As any slave's or murderer's.
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PERSEUS Andromeda! It is a name that murmurs to the heart Of strength and sweetness.
IOLAUS Three days you are given to prove yourself a god! You failing, 'tis my bosom pays the debt. That's their decree.
CYDONE Turn them to stone, to stone! All, all to heartless marble!
PERSEUS Thy father bids this?
IOLAUS He dare not baulk this dangerous priest.
PERSEUS Ah, dare not! Yes, there are fathers too who love their lives And not their children: earth has known of such. There was a father like this once in Argos!
IOLAUS Blame not the King too much.
CYDONE Turn him to stone, To stone!
IOLAUS Hush, hush, Cydone!
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CYDONE Stone, hard stone!
IOLAUS I'll whip thee, shrew, with rose-briars.
CYDONE Will you promise To kiss the blood away? Then I'll offend Daily, on purpose.
IOLAUS Love's rose-briars, sweet Cydone, Inflict no wounds.
CYDONE Oh yes, they bleed within.
IOLAUS The brow of Perseus grows darkness!
PERSEUS Rise, And be my guide. Where is this temple and priest?
IOLAUS The temple now?
PERSEUS Soonest is always best When noble deeds are to be done.
IOLAUS What deed?
PERSEUS I will release the men of Babylon
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From their grim blood-feast. Let them howl for victims.
IOLAUS It will incense them more.
PERSEUS Me they have incensed With their fierce crafty fury. If they must give To their dire god, let them at least fulfil With solemn decency their fearful rites. But since they bring in politic rage and turn Their barbarous rite into a trade of murder, Nor rite nor temple be respected more. Must they have victims? Let them take and slay Perseus alone. I shall rejoice to know That so much strength and boldness dwells in men Who are mortal.
IOLAUS Men thou needst not fear; but, Perseus, Poseidon's wrath will wake, whose lightest motion Is deadly.
PERSEUS Mine is not harmless.
IOLAUS Against gods What can a mortal's anger do?
PERSEUS We'll talk With those pale merchants. Wait for me; I bring Herpe my sword.
CYDONE The wallet, Perseus! leave not the dear wallet!
Perseus goes out towards the cottage.
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IOLAUS My queen, have I your leave?
CYDONE Give me a kiss That I may spend the hours remembering it Till you return.
IOLAUS (kissing her) Will one fill hours, Cydone?
CYDONE I fear to ask for more. You're such a miser.
IOLAUS You rose-lipped slanderer! there! Had I the time I would disprove you, smothering you with what You pray for.
CYDONE Come soon.
IOLAUS I'll watch the sun go down. In your dark night of tresses.
Perseus returns.
PERSEUS Come.
IOLAUS I am ready.
CYDONE Stone, brother Perseus, make them stone for ever.
Perseus and Iolaus go out.
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(sings) "Marble body, heart of bliss Or a stony heart and this, Which of these two wilt thou crave? One or other thou shalt have." "By my kisses shall be known Which is flesh and which is stone. Love, thy heart of stone! it quakes. Sweet, thy fair cold limbs! love takes With this warm and rosy trembling. Where is now thy coy dissembling? Heart and limbs I here escheat For that fraudulent deceit." "And will not marble even grow soft, Kissed so warmly and so oft?"
Curtain
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The women's apartments of the Palace.
Andromeda, Diomede.
ANDROMEDA All's ready, let us go.
DIOMEDE Andromeda, My little mistress whom I love, let me Beseech you by that love, do not attempt it. Oh, this is no such pretty wilfulness As all men love to smile at and to punish With tenderness and chidings. It is a crime Full of impiety, a deed of danger That venturous and iron spirits would be aghast To dream of. You think because you are a child, You will be pardoned, because you are a princess No hand will dare to punish you. You do not know Men's hearts. They will not pause to pity you, They will not spare. The people in its rage Will tear us both to pieces, limb from limb, With blows and fury, roaring round like tigers. Will you expose yourself to that grim handling Who cry out at the smallest touch of pain?
ANDROMEDA Do not delay me on the brink of action. You have said these things before.
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DIOMEDE You shall not do it. I will not go with you.
ANDROMEDA So you expose me To danger merely and break the oath you swore; For I must do it then unhelped.
DIOMEDE I'll tell Your mother, child, and then you cannot go.
ANDROMEDA I shall die then on the third day from this.
DIOMEDE What! you will kill yourself, and for two strangers You never saw? You are no human maiden But something far outside mortality, Princess, if you do this.
ANDROMEDA I shall not need. You threaten me with the fierce people's tearings, And shall I not be torn when I behold My fellows' piteous hearts plucked from their bosoms Between their anguished shrieks? I shall fall dead With horror and with pity at your feet: Then you'll repent this cruelty.
She weeps.
DIOMEDE Child, child! Hush, I will go with you. If I must die, I'll die.
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ANDROMEDA Have I not loved you, Diomede? Have I not taken your stripes upon myself, Claiming your dear offences? Have I not lain Upon your breast, stealing from my own bed At night, and kissed your bosom and your hands For very love of you? And I had thought You loved me: but you do not care at last Whether I live or die.
DIOMEDE Oh hush! I love you, I'll go with you. You shall not die alone, If you are bent on dying. I'll put on My sandals and be with you in a moment. Go, little princess. I am with you; go.
ANDROMEDA O you poor shuddering men, my human fellows, Horribly bound beneath the grisly knife You feel already groping for your hearts, Pardon me each long moment that you wrestle With grim anticipation. O, and you, If there is any god in the deaf skies That pities men or helps them, O protect me! But if you are inexorably unmoved And punish pity, I, Andromeda, Who am a woman on this earth, will help My brothers. Then, if you must punish me, Strike home. You should have given me no heart; It is too late now to forbid it feeling.
She is going out. Athene appears.
What is this light, this glory? who art thou, O beautiful marble face amid the lightnings? My heart faints with delight, my body trembles, Intolerable ecstasy beats in my veins;
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I am oppressed and tortured with thy beauty.
ANDROMEDA Art thou a goddess? Thy name We hear far off in Syria.
ATHENE I am she Who helps and has compassion on struggling mortals.
ANDROMEDA (falling prostrate) Do not deceive me! I will kiss thy feet. O joy! thou art! thou art!
ATHENE Lift up thy head, My servant.
ANDROMEDA Thou art! there are not only void Azure and cold inexorable laws.
ATHENE Stand up, O daughter of Cassiope. Wilt thou then help these men of Babylonia, My mortals whom I love?
ANDROMEDA I help myself, When I help these.
ATHENE To thee alone I gave This knowledge. O virgin, O Andromeda,
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It reached thee through that large and noble heart Of woman beating in a little child. But dost thou know that thy reward shall be Betrayal and fierce hatred? God and man Shall league in wrath to kill and torture thee Mid dire revilings.
ANDROMEDA My reward shall be To cool this anguish of pity in my heart And be at peace: if dead, O still at peace!
ATHENE Thou fearst not then? They will expose thee, child, To slaughter by the monsters of the deep Who shall come forth to tear thy limbs.
ANDROMEDA Beyond too Shall I be hated, in that other world?
ATHENE Perhaps.
ANDROMEDA Wilt thou love me?
ATHENE Thou art my child.
ANDROMEDA O mother, O Athene, let me go. They linger in anticipated pangs.
ATHENE Go, child. I shall be near invisibly.
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She disappears. Andromeda stands with clasped hands straining her eyes as if into infinity.
Diomede returns.
DIOMEDE You are not gone as yet? what is this, princess? What is this light around you! How you are altered, Andromeda!
ANDROMEDA Diomede, let us go.
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In the Temple of Poseidon.
Cireas.
CIREAS I am done with thee, Poseidon Ennosigaios, man-slayer, ship-breaker, earth-shaker, lord of the waters! Never was faithful service so dirtily rewarded. In all these years not a drachma, not an obolus, not even a false coin for solace. And when thou hadst mocked me with hope, when a Prince had promised me all my findings, puttest thou me off with two pauperized merchants of Babylon? What, thou takest thy loud ravenous glut of the treasures that should have been mine and roarest derision at me with thy hundred-voiced laughters? Am I a sponge to suck up these insults? No! I am only moderately porous. I will break thy treasury, Poseidon, and I will run. Think not either to send thy sea-griffins after me. For I will live on the top of Lebanon, and thy monsters, when they come for me, shall snort and grin and gasp for breath and return to thee baffled and asthmatic.
As he talks Iolaus and Perseus enter.
IOLAUS What, Cireas, wilt thou run? I'll give thee gold To wing thy shoes, if thou wilt do my bidding.
CIREAS I am overheard! I am undone! I am crucified! I am disembowelled!
IOLAUS Be tranquil, Cireas, fool, I come to help thee.
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CIREAS Do you indeed! I see, they have made you a god, for you know men's minds. But could old father Zeus find your newborn godhead no better work than to help thieves and give wings to runaways? Will you indeed help me, god Iolaus? I can steal then under thy welcome protection? I can borrow Poseidon's savings and run?
IOLAUS Steal not: thou shalt have gold enough to buy Thy liberty and farms and slaves and cattle.
CIREAS Prince, art thou under a vow of liberality? or being about to die, wilt thou distribute thy goods and chattels to deserving dishonesty? Do not mock me, for if thou raise hopes again in me and break them, I can only hang myself.
IOLAUS I mock thee not, thou shalt have glut of riches.
CIREAS What must I do? I'ld give thee nose and ears For farms and freedom.
PERSEUS Wherefore dost thou bribe This slave to undo a bond my sword unties?
IOLAUS I shrink from violence in the grim god's temple.
CIREAS Zeus, art thou there with thy feathers and phosphorus? I pray thee, my good bright darling Zeus, do not come in the way of my earnings. Do not be so cantankerously virtuous, do not
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be so damnably economical. Good Zeus, I adjure thee by thy foot-plumes.
IOLAUS Cireas, wilt thou bring forth the wretched captives Who wait the butcher Polydaon's knife With groanings? we would talk with them. Wilt thou?
CIREAS Will I? Will I? I would do any bad turn to that scanty-hearted rampageous old ship-swallower there. I would do it for nothing, and for so much gold will I not?
IOLAUS And thou must shut thine eyes.
CIREAS Eyes! I will shut mouth and nose and ears too, nor ask for one penny extra.
IOLAUS Dost thou not fear?
CIREAS Oh, the blue-haired old bogy there? I have lived eighteen years in this temple and seen nothing of him but ivory and sapphires. I begin to think he cannot breathe out of water; no doubt, he is some kind of fish and walks on the point of his tail.
PERSEUS Enough, bring forth the Babylonian captives.
CIREAS I run, Zeus, I run: but keep thy phosphorus lit and handy against Polydaon's return unasked for and untrumpeted.
He runs out.
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PERSEUS O thou grim calmness imaged like a man That frownst above the altar! dire Poseidon! Art thou that god indeed who smooths the sea With one finger, and when it is thy will, Rufflest the oceans with thy casual breathing? Art thou not rather, lord, some murderous And red imagination of this people, The shadow of a soul that dreamed of blood And took this dimness? If thou art Poseidon, The son of Cronos, I am Cronos' grandchild, Perseus, and in my soul Athene moves With lightnings.
IOLAUS I hear the sound of dragging chains.
Cireas returns with Tyrnaus and Smerdas.
PERSEUS Smerdas and thou, Tyrnaus, once again We meet.
SMERDAS Save me, yet save me.
PERSEUS If thou art worth it, I may.
SMERDAS Thou shalt have gold. I am well worth it. I'll empty Babylonia of its riches Into thy wallet.
PERSEUS Has terror made thee mad? Refrain from speech! Thine eyes are calm, Tyrnaus.
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TYRNAUS I have composed my soul to my sad fortunes. Yet wherefore sad? Fate has dealt largely with me. I have been thrice shipwrecked, twice misled in deserts, Wounded six times in battle with wild men For life and treasure. I have outspent kings: I have lost fortunes and amassed them: princes Have been my debtors, kingdoms lost and won By lack or having of a petty fraction Of my rich incomings: and now Fate gives me This tragic, not inglorious death: I am The banquet of a god. It fits, it fits, And I repine not.
PERSEUS But will these help, Tyrnaus, To pass the chill eternity of Hades? This memory of glorious breathing life, Will it alleviate the endless silence?
TYRNAUS But there are lives beyond, and we meanwhile Move delicately amid aerial things Until the green earth wants us.
PERSEUS (shearing his chains with a touch of his sword) Yet awhile Of the green earth take all thy frank desire, Merchant: the sunlight would be loth to lose thee.
SMERDAS O radiant helpful youth! O son of splendour! I live again.
PERSEUS Thou livest, but in chains, Smerdas.
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SMERDAS But thy good sword will quickly shear them.
PERSEUS Thou wilt give me all Babylonia holds Of riches for reward?
SMERDAS More, more, much more!
PERSEUS But thou must go to Babylon to fetch it. Then what security have I of payment?
SMERDAS Keep good Tyrnaus here, my almost brother. I will come back and give thee gold, much gold.
PERSEUS You'ld leave him here? in danger? with the knife Searching for him and grim Poseidon angry?
SMERDAS What danger, when he is with thee, O youth, Strong radiant youth?
PERSEUS Yourself then stay with me, And he shall bring the ransom from Chaldea.
SMERDAS Here? here? Oh God! they'll seize me yet again And cut my heart out. Let me go, dear youth, Oh, let me go; I'll give thee double gold.
PERSEUS Thou sordid treacherous thing of fears, I'll not
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Venture for such small gain as the poor soul Thou holdest, nor drive with danger losing bargains.
SMERDAS Oh, do not jest! it is not good to jest With death and horror.
PERSEUS I jest not.
SMERDAS Oh God! thou dost.
DIOMEDE (without) Cireas!
CIREAS (jumping) Who? who? who?
IOLAUS Is't not a woman's voice? Withdraw into the shadow: let our swords Be out against surprise. Hither, Tyrnaus.
DIOMEDE Cireas! where are you, Cireas? It is I.
CIREAS It is the little palace scamp, Diomede. Plague take her! How she fluttered the heart in me!
IOLAUS Say nothing of us, merchant, or thou diest.
Iolaus, Perseus and Tyrnaus withdraw into the dimness of the Temple. Andromeda and Diomede enter.
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CIREAS Princess Andromeda!
PERSEUS (apart) Andromeda! Iolaus' rosy sister! O child goddess Dropped recently from heaven! Its light is still Upon thy face, thou marvel!
IOLAUS My little sister In these grim precincts, who so feared their shadows!
ANDROMEDA Cireas, my servant Diomede means To tell you of some bargain. Will you walk yonder?
Cireas and Diomede walk apart talking.
Art thou, as these chains say, the mournful victim Our savage billows spared and men would murder? But was there not another? Have they brought thee From thy sad prison to the shrine alone?
SMERDAS He,—he,—
ANDROMEDA Has terror so possessed thy tongue, It cannot do its office? Oh, be comforted. Although red horror has its grasp on thee, I dare to tell thee there is hope.
SMERDAS What hope? Ah heaven! what hope! I feel the knife even now Hacking my bosom. If thou bringst me hope, I'll know thee for a goddess and adore thee.
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ANDROMEDA Be comforted: I bring thee more than hope. Cireas!
CIREAS You'll give me chains? you'll give me jewels?
ANDROMEDA All of my own that I can steal for you.
CIREAS Steal boldly, O honey-sweet image of a thief, steal and fear not. I rose for good luck after all this excellent morning! O Poseidon, had I known there was more to be pocketed in thy disservice than in thy service, would I have misspent these eighteen barren years?
ANDROMEDA Undo this miserable captive's bonds.
SMERDAS What! I shall be allowed to live! Is't true?
ANDROMEDA No, I'll undo them, Cireas; I shall feel I freed him. Is there so much then to unlink? O ingenuity of men to hurt And bind and slay their brothers!
SMERDAS 'Tis not a dream, The horror was the dream. She smiles on me A wonderful glad smile of joy and kindness, Making a sunshine. Oh, be quicker, quicker. Let me escape this hell where I have eaten And drunk of terror and have slept with death.
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ANDROMEDA Are you so careless of the friend who shared The tears and danger? Where is he? Cireas!
TYRNAUS (coming forward) O thou young goddess with the smile! Behold him, Tyrnaus the Chaldean.
ANDROMEDA (dropping the chain which binds Smerdas) Already free! Who has forestalled me?
TYRNAUS Maiden, art thou vexed To see me unbound?
ANDROMEDA I grudge your rescuer the happy task Heaven meant for me of loosening your chains. It would have been such joy to feel the cold Hard irons drop apart between my fingers! Who freed you?
TYRNAUS A god as radiant as thyself, Thou merciful sweetness.
ANDROMEDA Had he not a look Like the Olympian's? Was he not bright like Hermes Or Phoebus?
TYRNAUS He was indeed. Thou knowst him then?
ANDROMEDA In dreams I have met him. He was here but now?
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TYRNAUS He has withdrawn into the shadow, virgin.
SMERDAS Why do you leave me bound, and talk, and talk, As if Death had not still his fingers on me?
ANDROMEDA (resuming her task) Forgive me! Tyrnaus, did that radiant helper Who clove thy chains, forget to help this poor Pale trembling man?
TYRNAUS Because he showed too much The sordid fear that pities only itself, He left him to his fate.
ANDROMEDA Alas, poor human man! Why, we have all so many sins to answer, It would be hard to have cold justice dealt us. We should be kindly to each other's faults Remembering our own. Is't not enough To see a face in tears and heal the sorrow, Or must we weigh whether the face is fair Or ugly? I think that even a snake in pain Would tempt me to its succour, though I knew That afterwards 'twould bite me! But he is a god Perhaps who did this and his spotless radiance Abhors the tarnish of our frailer natures.
SMERDAS Oh, I am free! I fall and kiss thy robe, O goddess, O deliverer.
ANDROMEDA You must
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Go quickly from this place. There is a cave Near to those unkind rocks where you were shipwrecked, A stone-throw up the cliff. We found it there Climbing and playing, reckless of our limbs In the sweet joy of sunshine, breeze and movement, When we were children, I and Diomede. None else will dream of it. There have I stored Enough of food and water. Closely lurk Behind its curtains of fantastic stone: Venture not forth, though your hearts pine for sunlight, Or Death may take you back into his grip. When hot pursuit and search have been tired out, I'll find you golden wings will carry you To your Chaldea.
SMERDAS Can you not find out divers Who'll rescue our merchandise from the sunk rocks Where it is prisoned?
TYRNAUS You have escaped grim murder, Yet dream of nothing but your paltry gems! You will call back Heaven's anger on our heads.
SMERDAS We cannot beg our way to far Chaldea.
ANDROMEDA Diving is dangerous there: I will not risk Men's lives for money. I promised Cireas what I have, And yet you shall not go unfurnished home. I'll beg a sum from my brother Iolaus Will help you to Chaldea.
SMERDAS O my dear riches!
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Must you lie whelmed beneath the Syrian surge Uncared for?
ANDROMEDA (to Diomede) Take them to the cave. Show Cireas The hidden mouth. I'll loiter and expect you Under the hill-side, where sweet water plashes From the grey fountain's head, our fountain. Merchants, go; Athene guard you!
TYRNAUS Not before I kneel And touch thy feet with reverent humble hands, O human merciful divinity, Who by thy own sweet spirit moved, unasked, Not knowing us, cam'st from thy safe warm chamber Here where Death broods grim-visaged in his home, To save two unseen, unloved, alien strangers, And being a woman feared not urgent death, And being a child shook not before God's darkness And that insistent horror of a world O'ershadowing ours. O surely in these regions Where thou wert born, pure-eyed Andromeda, There shall be some divine epiphany Of calm sweet-hearted pity for the world, And harsher gods shall fade into their Hades.
SMERDAS You prattle, and at any moment, comes The dreadful priest with clutch upon my shoulder. Come! come! you, slave-girl, lead the way, accursed! You loiter?
ANDROMEDA Chide not my servant, Babylonian. Go, Diomede; darkness like a lid Will soon shut down upon the rugged beach
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And they may stumble as they walk. Go, Cireas.
Diomede and Cireas go out, followed by the merchants.
Alone I stand before thee, grim Poseidon, Here in thy darkness, with thy altar near That keeps fierce memory of tortured groans And human shrieks of victims, and, unforced, I yet pollute my soul with thy bloody nearness To tell thee that I hate, contemn, defy thee. I am no more than a brief-living woman, Yet am I more divine than thou, for I Can pity. I have torn thy destined prey From thy red jaws. They say thou dost avenge Fearfully insult. Avenge thyself, Poseidon.
She goes out: Perseus and Iolaus come forward.
PERSEUS Thou art the mate for me, Andromeda! Now, now I know wherefore my eager sandals Bore me resistlessly to thee and Syria.
IOLAUS This was Andromeda and not Andromeda. I never saw her woman till this hour.
PERSEUS Knew you so ill the child you loved so well, Iolaus?
IOLAUS Sometimes we know them least Whom most we love and constantly consort with.
PERSEUS How daintily she moved as if a hand She loved were on her curls and she afraid Of startling the sweet guest!
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IOLAUS O Perseus, Perseus! She has defied a strong and dreadful god, And dreadfully he will avenge himself.
PERSEUS Iolaus, friend, I think not quite at random Athene led me to these happy shores That bore such beautiful twin heads for me Sun-curled, Andromeda and Iolaus, That I might see their beauty marred with death By cunning priests and blood-stained gods. Fear not The event. I bear Athene's sword of sharpness.
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Darkness. The Temple of Poseidon.
Polydaon enters.
POLYDAON Cireas! Why, Cireas! Cireas! Knave, I call you! Is the rogue drunk or sleeps? Cireas! you, Cireas! My voice comes echoing from the hollow shrine To tell me of solitude. Where is this drunkard? A dreadful thing it is to stand alone In this weird temple. Forty years of use Have not accustomed me to its mute threatening. It seems to me as if dead victims moved With awful faces all about this stone Invisibly here palpable. And Ocean Groans ever like a wounded god aloud Against our rocky base, his voice at night Weirdly insistent. I will go and talk With the Chaldeans in their chains: better Their pleasing groans and curses than the hush.
He goes out and after a while comes back, disordered.
Wake, sleeping Syria, wake! Thou art violated, Thy heart cut out: thou art outraged, Syria, outraged, Thy harvests and thy safety and thy sons Already murdered! O hideous sacrilege! Who can have dared this crime? Could the slave Cireas Have ventured thus? O no, it is the proud God-hating son of Cepheus, Iolaus, And that swift stranger borne through impious air To upheave the bases of our old religion. They have rescued the Chaldeans. Cireas lies
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Murdered perhaps on the sound-haunted cliffs Who would have checked their crime. I'll strike the gong That only tolls when dread calamity Strides upon Syria. Wake, doomed people, wake!
He rushes out. A gong sounds for some moments. It is silent and he returns, still more disordered.
Wake! Wake! Do you not hear Poseidon raging Beneath the cliffs with tiger-throated menace? Do you not hear his feet upon the boulders Sounding, a thunderous report of peril, As he comes roaring up his stony ramparts To slay you? Ah, the city wakes. I hear A surge confused of hurrying, cries and tumult. What is this darkness moving on me? Gods! Where is the image? Whose is this awful godhead?
The Shadow of Poseidon appears, vague and alarming at first, then distinct and terrible in the darkness.
POSEIDON My victims, Polydaon, give me my victims.
POLYDAON (falling prostrate) It was not I, it was not I, but others.
POLYDAON O dire offended god, not upon me Fall thy loud scourges! I am innocent.
POSEIDON How art thou innocent, when the Chaldeans Escape? Give me my victims, Polydaon.
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POLYDAON I know not how they fled nor who released them. Gnash not thy blood-stained teeth on me, O Lord, Nor slay me with those glaring eyes. Thy voice Thunders, a hollow terror, through my soul.
POSEIDON Hear me, unworthy priest. While thou art scheming For thy own petty mortal aims abroad, I am insulted in my temple, laughed at By slaves, by children done injurious wrong, My victims snatched from underneath my roof By any casual hand, my dreadful image Looking deserted on: for none avenges.
POLYDAON Declare thy will, O Lord, it shall be done.
POSEIDON Therefore I will awake, I will arise, And you shall know me for a god. This day The loud Assyrians shall break shouting in With angry hooves like a huge-riding flood Upon this country. The pleasant land of Syria Shall be dispeopled. Wolves shall howl in Damascus, And Gaza and Euphrates bound a desert. My resonant and cliff-o'ervaulting seas, Black-cowled, with foaming tops thundering shall climb Into your lofty seats of ease and wash them Strangled into the valleys. From the deep My ravening herds pastured by Amphitrite Shall walk upon your roads, devour your maidens And infants, tear your strong and armed men Helplessly shrieking like weak-wristed women, Till all are dead. And thou, neglectful priest, Shalt go down living into Tartarus Where knives fire-pointed shall disclose thy breast
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And pluck thy still-renewing heart from thee For ever: till the world cease shall be thy torments.
POLYDAON O dreadful Lord!
POSEIDON If thou wouldst shun the doom, And keep my Syria safe, discover then The rescuer of the Babylonian captives And to the monsters of my deep expose For a delicious banquet. Offer the heart Of Iolaus here still warmly alive And sobbing blood to leave his beautiful body; Slaughter on his yet not inanimate bosom The hero for whose love he braved my rage, And let the sacrilegious house of Cepheus Be blotted from the light. Thy sordid aims Put from thy heart: remember to be fearless. I will inhabit thee, if thou deserve it.
He disappears thundering.
POLYDAON Yes, Lord! shall not thy dreadful will be done?
Phineus enters and his Tyrians with torches.
PHINEUS Wherefore has the gong's ominous voice tonight Affrighted Syria? Are you Polydaon Who crouch here?
POLYDAON (rising) Welcome, King Phineus.
PHINEUS Who art thou? Thine eyes roll round in a bright glaring horror
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And rising up thou shak'st thy gloomy locks As if they were a hungry lion's mane Preparing for the leap. Speak, Polydaon.
POLYDAON Yes, I shall speak, of sacrilege and blood, Its terrible forfeit, and the wrath of Heaven.
Cepheus enters with Dercetes and Syrian soldiers, Therops, Perissus and a throng of Syrians; scores of torches.
CEPHEUS What swift calamity, O Polydaon, Has waked to clamorousness the fatal gong At which all Syria trembles? What is this face Thou showest like some grim accusing phantom's In the torches' light? Wherefore rangst thou the bell?
POLYDAON It rang the doom of thee and all thy house, Cepheus.
CEPHEUS My doom!
PHINEUS (aside) I glimpse a striking plot And 'tis well-staged too.
POLYDAON The victims are released, The victims bound for terrible Poseidon. Thou and thy blood are guilty.
CEPHEUS Thou art mad!
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POLYDAON 'Tis thou and thy doomed race are seized with madness, Who with light hearts offend against Poseidon. But they shall perish. Thou and thy blood shall perish.
CEPHEUS O, thou appalst me. Wherefore rings out thy voice Against me like a clamorous bell of doom In the huge darkness?
POLYDAON Poseidon's self arose In the dim night before me with a voice As angry as the loud importunate surge Denouncing thee. Thou and thy blood shall perish.
PHINEUS Cepheus, let search be made. Perhaps the victims Have not fled far, and all may yet be saved.
CEPHEUS Scour, captains, scour all Syria for the fugitives. Dercetes and thy troop, down to the coast, Scan every boulder: out, out, Meriones, Callias, Oridamas and Pericarpus, Ring in the countryside with cordons armed, Enter each house, ransack most private chambers, But find them.
Dercetes and the captains go out with their soldiers, the people making way for them.
POLYDAON People of Syria, hearken, hearken! Poseidon for this sacrilege arouses The Assyrian from the land and from the sea His waves and all their sharp-toothed monsters: your men
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Shall be rent and disembowelled, your women ravished, Butchered by foemen or by Ocean's dogs Horribly eaten: what's left, the flood shall swallow.
Cries and groans.
VOICES Spare us, Poseidon, spare us, dread deity!
POLYDAON Would you be spared? Obey Poseidon, people.
THEROPS Thou art our King, command us.
POLYDAON Bring the woman, Chaldean Cassiopea, and her daughter. Tell them that Syria's King commands them here.
Therops and others go out to do his bidding.
PHINEUS What mean you, priest?
CEPHEUS Wherefore my queen and princess?
POLYDAON I do the will of terrible Poseidon. Thou and thy blood shall perish.
PHINEUS Thou then art mad! I thought this was a skilful play. Thinkst thou I will permit the young Andromeda, My bride, to be mishandled or exposed To the bloody chances of wild popular fury In such a moment?
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POLYDAON Phineus, I know not what thou wilt permit: I know what terrible Poseidon wills.
PHINEUS Poseidon! thou gross superstitious fool, Hast thou seen shadows in the night and tookst them For angry gods?
POLYDAON Refrain from impious words, Or else the doom shall take thee in its net.
PHINEUS Refrain thyself from impious deeds, or else A hundred Tyrian blades shall search thy brain To look for thy lost reason.
POLYDAON (recoiling) Patience, King Phineus! It may be, thou shalt have thy whole desire By other means.
Dercetes returns.
DERCETES One of the fugitives is seized.
POLYDAON Where, where?
DERCETES Creeping about the sea-kissed rocks we found him Where the ship foundered, babbling greedily Of his lost wealth, in cover of the darkness.
POLYDAON Now we shall know the impious hand. Tremble,
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Tremble, King Cepheus.
CEPHEUS (aside) I am besieged, undone. No doubt it is my rash-brained Iolaus Ruins us all.
Soldiers enter, driving in Smerdas.
SMERDAS (groaning) I am dragged back to hell. I am lost and nothing now can save me.
POLYDAON Chaldean, The choice is thine. Say, wilt thou save thy life And see the green fields of thy land once more And kiss thy wife and children?
SMERDAS You mock me, mock me!
POLYDAON No, man! thou shalt have freedom at a price Or torture gratis.
SMERDAS Price? price? I'll give the price!
POLYDAON The names of those whose impious hands released thee: Which if thou speak not, thou shalt die, not given To the dire god, for he asks other victims, But crushed with fearful tortures.
SMERDAS O kind Heaven! Have mercy! Must I give her up,—that smile
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Of sweetness and those kindly eyes, to death? It is a dreadful choice! I cannot do it.
POLYDAON It was a woman did this!
SMERDAS I'll say no more.
CEPHEUS I breathe again: it was not Iolaus.
POLYDAON Seize him and twist him into anguished knots! Let every bone be crushed and every sinew Wrenched and distorted, till each inch of flesh Gives out its separate shriek.
SMERDAS O spare me, spare me: I will tell all.
POLYDAON Speak truth and I will give thee Bushels of gold and shipment to Chaldea.
SMERDAS Gold? Gold? Shall I have gold?
POLYDAON Thou shalt.
SMERDAS (after a pause) The youth You would have taken on the beach, arrived, And his the sword bit through my iron fetters.
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POLYDAON Palter not! Who was with him? Thou shalt have gold.
SMERDAS Young Iolaus.
CEPHEUS Alas!
PHINEUS Thus far is well.
POLYDAON Thou hast a shifty look about the eyes. Thou spokest of a woman. Was't the Queen? Hast thou told all? His face grows pale. To torment!
SMERDAS (groaning) I will tell all. Swear then I shall have gold And safety.
POLYDAON By grim Poseidon's head I swear.
SMERDAS O hard necessity! The fair child princess, Andromeda, with her young slave-girl came, She was my rescuer.
There is a deep silence of amazement.
PHINEUS I'll not believe this! could that gentle child Devise and execute so huge a daring? Thou liest: thou art part of some foul plot.
POLYDAON He has the accent of unwilling truth.
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Phineus, she is death's bride, not thine. Wilt thou Be best man in that dolorous wedding? Forbear And wait Poseidon's will.
PHINEUS (low) Shall I have Syria?
POLYDAON When it is mine to give thee.
Therops returns.
THEROPS The Queen arrives.
POLYDAON Remove the merchant.
The soldiers take Smerdas into the background. Cassiopea enters with Andromeda and Diomede, Nebassar and the Chaldean Guard.
CASSIOPEA Keep ready hands upon your swords, Chaldeans. What is this tumult? Wherefore are we called At this dim hour and to this solemn place?
POLYDAON Com'st thou with foreign falchions, Cassiopea, To brave the Syrian gods? Abandon her, Chaldeans. 'Tis a doomed head your swords encompass.
CASSIOPEA Since when dost thou give thy commands in Syria And sentence queens? My husband and thy King Stands near thee; let him speak.
POLYDAON Let him. There stands he.
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CASSIOPEA Why hidest thou thine eyes, monarch of Syria, Sinking thy forehead like a common man Unkingly? What grief o'ertakes thee?
POLYDAON You see he speaks not. 'Tis I command in Syria. Is't not so, My people?
THEROPS 'Tis so.
POLYDAON Stand forth, Andromeda.
CASSIOPEA What would you with my child? I stand here for her.
POLYDAON She is accused of impious sacrilege, And she must die.
CASSIOPEA (shuddering) Die! Who accuses her?
POLYDAON Bring the Chaldean.
DIOMEDE Oh, the merchant's seized And all is known. Deny it, my sweet lady, And we may yet be saved.
ANDROMEDA Oh poor, poor merchant! Did I unloose thy bonds in vain?
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DIOMEDE Say nothing.
ANDROMEDA And why should I conceal it, Diomede? What I had courage in my heart to do, Surely I can have courage to avow.
DIOMEDE But they will kill us both.
ANDROMEDA I am a princess. Why should I lie? From fear? But I am not afraid.
Meanwhile the soldiers have brought Smerdas to the front.
POLYDAON Look, merchant. Say before all, who rescued thee? She was it?
SMERDAS It is she. Oh, do not look With that sad smile upon me. I am compelled.
POLYDAON Is this the slave-girl?
SMERDAS It is she.
CASSIOPEA This wretch Lies at thy bidding. Put him to the question. He said he was compelled.
POLYDAON I'll not permit it.
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PERISSUS Why, man, it is the law. We'll not believe Our little princess did the crime.
CASSIOPEA Syrians, Look at this paltering priest. Do you not see It is a plot, this man his instrument Who lies so wildly? He'll not have him questioned. No doubt 'twas he himself released the man,— Who else could do it in this solemn temple Where human footsteps fear to tread? He uses The name of great Poseidon to conceal His plottings. He would end the line of Cepheus And reign in Syria.
PERISSUS This sounds probable.
VOICES Does he misuse Poseidon's name? unbind Victims? Kill him!
CASSIOPEA Look how he pales, O people! Is't thus that great Poseidon's herald looks When charged with the god's fearful menaces? He diets you with forgeries and fictions.
CRIES Let him be strangled!
PHINEUS This is a royal woman!
POLYDAON Well, let the merchant then be put to question.
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PERISSUS Come and be tickled, merchant. I am the butcher. Do you see my cleaver? I will torture you kindly.
SMERDAS O help me, save me, lady Andromeda.
ANDROMEDA Oh, do not lay your cruel hands upon him. I did release him.
CASSIOPEA Ah, child Andromeda.
PERISSUS You, little princess! Wherefore did you this?
ANDROMEDA Because I would not have their human hearts Mercilessly uprooted for the bloody Monster you worship as a god! because I am capable of pain and so can feel The pain of others! For which if you I love Must kill me, do it. I alone am guilty.
POLYDAON Now, Cassiopea! You are silent, Queen. Lo, Syrians, lo, my forgeries and fictions! Lo, my vile plottings! Enough. Poseidon wills That on the beach this criminal be bound For monsters of the sea to rend in fragments, And all the royal ancient blood of Syria Must be poured richly forth to appease and cleanse.
CASSIOPEA Swords from the scabbard! gyre in your King from harm, Chaldeans! Hew your way through all opposers!
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Thou in my arms, my child Andromeda! I'll keep my daughter safe upon my bosom Against the world.
POLYDAON What dost thou, Babylonian?
CASSIOPEA To the palace, My trusty countrymen!
POLYDAON Oppose them, soldiers! They cheat the god of the crime-burdened heads Doomed by his just resentment.
DERCETES We are few: And how shall we lay hands on royalty?
POLYDAON Nebassar, darest thou oppose the gods?
NEBASSAR Out of my sword's way, priest! I do my duty.
POLYDAON Draw, King of Tyre!
PHINEUS 'Tis not my quarrel, priest.
Nebassar and the Chaldeans with drawn swords go out from the Temple, taking the King and Queen, Andromeda and Diomede.
POLYDAON People of Syria, you have let them pass!
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You fear not then the anger of Poseidon?
PERISSUS Would you have us spitted upon the Chaldean swords? Mad priest, must we be broached like joints and tossed like pancakes? We have no weapons. Tomorrow we will go to the Palace and what must be done shall be done. But 'tis not just that many should be slain for the crime of one and the house of Syria out-rooted. Follow me and observe my commands, brave aristocracy of the shop, gallant commoners of the lathe and anvil, follow Perissus. I will lead you tonight to your soft downy beds and tomorrow to the Palace.
All the Syrians go out, led by Therops and Perissus.
PHINEUS Thou hast done foolishly in this, O priest. Hadst thou demanded the one needful head Of Iolaus, it was easy: but now The tender beauty of Andromeda Compels remorse and the astonished people Recoil from the bold waste of royal blood Thou appointest them to spill. I see that zeal And frantic superstition are bad plotters. Henceforth I work for my sole hand, to pluck My own good from the storms of civic trouble This night prepares.
He goes out with his Tyrians.
POLYDAON O terrible Poseidon, Thyself avenge thyself! hurl on this people The sea and the Assyrian. Where is the power Thou saidst should tarry with me? I have failed.
He remains sunk in thought for a while, then raises his head.
Tomorrow, Syrian? tomorrow is Poseidon's.
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The countryside, high ground near the city of Cepheus. A crowd of Syrians, men and women, running in terror, among them Chabrias, Megas, Baltis, Pasithea, Morus, Gardas, Syrax.
BALTIS (stopping and sinking down on her knees) Ah, whither can we run where the offended Poseidon shall not reach us?
CHABRIAS Stop, countrymen; Let's all die here together.
OTHERS Let's stop and die.
MEGAS Run, run! Poseidon's monsters howl behind.
PASITHEA O day of horror and of punishment!
SYRAX Let us stay here; it is high ground, perhaps The monster will not reach us.
Damoetes enters.
DAMOETES I have seen the terror near, and yet I live.
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It vomits fire for half a league.
SYRAX It is As long as a sea-jutting promontory.
DAMOETES It has six monstrous legs.
SYRAX Eight, eight; I saw it.
MEGAS Chabrias, it caught thy strong son by the foot, And dashed his head against a stone, that all The brains were scattered.
CHABRIAS Alas, my son! I will Go back and join you in the monster's jaws.
He is stopped by the others.
DAMOETES It seized thy daughter, O Pasithea, And tore her limbs apart, which it devoured While yet the trunk lay screaming under its foot.
PASITHEA Oh God!
She swoons.
ALL Lift her up, lift her up. Alas!
MEGAS These sorrows may be ours.
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BALTIS Ah Heaven, my son! I did not wake him when this news of horror Plucked me from sleep.
GARDAS My wife and little daughter Are in my cottage where perhaps the monster Vomits his fiery breath against the door. I will go back.
MORUS Let us go back, Damoetes.
DAMOETES I'll not go back for twenty thousand wives And children. Life is sweet.
MANY VOICES Let us not go.
They stop Gardas.
MEGAS What noise is that?
BALTIS Run, run, 'tis some new horror.
All are beginning to run. Therops enters.
THEROPS Where will you run? Poseidon's wrath is near you And over you and behind you and before you. His monsters from the ooze ravage howling Along our shores, and the indignant sea Swelled to unnatural tumultuous mountains Is climbing up the cliffs with spume and turmoil.
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DAMOETES O let us run a hundred leagues and live.
THEROPS Before you is another death. Last night The Assyrians at three points came breaking in Across the border and the frontier forces Are slain. They torture, burn and violate: Young girls and matrons, men and boys are butchered. Salvation is not in your front and flight Casts you from angry gods to men more ruthless. I wonder not that you are silent, stunned With fear: but will you listen, countrymen, And I will show you a cure for these fierce evils.
VOICES Oh tell us, tell us, you shall be our king.
MEGAS We'll set thy image by the great Poseidon's And worship it.
THEROPS What is the unexampled cause of wrath Which whelms you with these horrors? Is't not the bold Presumptuous line of Cepheus? Is't not your kings Whose pride, swollen by your love and homage, Syrians, Insults the gods, rescues Poseidon's victims And with a sacrilegious levity Exposes all your lives to death and woe? There is the fount of all your misery, Syrians, For this the horror eats you up,—your kings.
CRIES Away with them! throw them into the sea—let Poseidon swallow them!
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THEROPS But most I blame the fell Chaldean woman Who rules you. What is this Cepheus but a puppet Dressed up in royal seemings, pushed forth and danced At her caprice? Unhappy is the land That women rule, that country more unhappy That is to heartless foreigners a prey. But thou, O ill-starred Syria, two worst evils Hast harboured in a single wickedness. What cares the light Chaldean for your gods, Your lives, your sons, your daughters? She lives at ease Upon the revenues of your hard toil, Depending on favourites, yes, on paramours,— For why have women favourites but to ease Their sensual longings?—and insults your deities. Do you not think she rescued the Chaldeans Because they were her countrymen, and used Her daughter, young Andromeda, for tool That her fair childish beauty might disarm Wrath and suspicion? then, the crime unearthed, Braved all and set her fierce Chaldeans' swords Against the good priest Polydaon's heart,— You did not hear that?—the good Polydaon Who serves Poseidon with such zeal! Therefore The god is angry: your wives, sisters, daughters Must suffer for Chaldean Cassiopea.
CRIES Let us seize her and kill, kill, kill, kill her!
DAMOETES Burn her!
MORUS Roast her!
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MEGAS Tear her into a million fragments.
CHABRIAS But are they not our kings? We must obey them.
THEROPS Wherefore must we obey them? Kings are men, And they are set above their fellow-mortals To serve us, friends,—not, surely, for our hurt! Why should our sons and daughters bleed for them, Syrians? Is not our blood as dear, as precious, As human? Why should these kings, these men, go clad In purple and in velvet while you toil For little and are hungry and are naked?
CRIES True, true, true!
GARDAS This is a wonderful man, this Therops. He has a brain, countrymen.
DAMOETES A brain! He is no cleverer than you or I, Morus.
MORUS I should think not, Damoetes!
DAMOETES We knew these things long ago and did not need wind-bag Therops to tell us!
MORUS We have talked them over often, Damoetes.
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MEGAS We'll have no more kings, countrymen.
CRIES No kings, no kings!
GARDAS Or Therops shall be king.
CRIES Yes, Therops king! Therops king!
DAMOETES Good king Lungs! Oh, let us make him king, Morus,—he will not pass wind in the market-place so often.
THEROPS Poseidon is our king; we are his people. Gods we must worship; why should we worship men And set a heavenly crown on mortal weakness? They have offended against great Poseidon, They are guilty of a fearful sacrilege. Let them perish.
CRIES Kill them! let us appease Poseidon.
CHABRIAS Worship Heaven's power but bow before the king.
THEROPS What need have we of kings? What are these kings?
CHABRIAS They are the seed of gods.
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THEROPS Then, let them settle Themselves their quarrel with their Olympian kindred. Why should we suffer? Let Andromeda Be exposed and Iolaus sacrificed: Then shall Poseidon's wrath retire again Into the continent of his vast billows.
CHABRIAS If it must be so, let it come by award Of quiet justice.
THEROPS Justice! They are the judges Who did the crime. Wherefore dost thou defend them? Thou favourest then Poseidon's enemies?
CRIES Kill him too, kill Chabrias. Poseidon, great Poseidon! we are Poseidon's people.
DAMOETES Let him join his son and by the same road.
MORUS Beat his brains out—to see if he has any. Ho! ho! ho!
THEROPS Let him alone: he is a fool. Here comes Our zealous good kind priest, our Polydaon.
CRIES Polydaon! Polydaon! the good Polydaon! Save us, Polydaon!
POLYDAON Ah, do you call me now to save you? Last night
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You did not save me when the foreign swords Were near my heart.
MEGAS Forgive us and protect.
DAMOETES You, lead us to the palace, be our chief.
MORUS We'll have no kings: lead, you: on to the palace!
MEGAS Poseidon shall be king, thou his vicegerent.
GARDAS Therops at thy right hand!
CRIES Yes, Therops! Therops!
POLYDAON Oh, you are sane now, being let blood by scourgings! Unhurt had been much better. But Poseidon Pardons and I will save.
CRIES Polydaon for ever, the good Polydaon, Poseidon's Viceroy!
POLYDAON Swear then to do Poseidon's will.
CRIES We swear!
DAMOETES Command and watch the effect!
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POLYDAON Will not the tongue Of Cassiopea once more change you, people?
DAMOETES We'll cut it out and feed her dogs with it.
POLYDAON Shall Iolaus bleed? Andromeda Be trailed through the city and upon the rocks, As the god wills, flung naked to his monsters? Cepheus and Cassiopea die?
CRIES They shall!
MEGAS Not one of them shall live.
POLYDAON Then come, my children.
DAMOETES But the beast! Will it not tear us on the road?
POLYDAON It will not hurt you who do Poseidon's will. I am your safeguard; I will march in front.
CRIES To the palace, to the palace! We'll kill the Chaldeans, strangle Cepheus, tear the Queen to pieces.
POLYDAON In order, in good order, my sweet children.
The mob surges out following Polydaon and Therops: only Damoetes, Chabrias, Baltis and Pasithea are left.
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DAMOETES Come, Chabrias, we'll have sport.
CHABRIAS My dead son calls me.
He goes out in another direction.
BALTIS Pasithea, rise and come: you'll see her killed Who is the murderess of your daughter.
PASITHEA Let me Stay here and die.
DAMOETES Lift her up. Come, fool.
They go out, leading Pasithea.
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Cydone's Garden.
Cydone, Iolaus, Perseus.
CYDONE Perseus, you did not turn him into stone?
IOLAUS You cruelty! must one go petrifying One's fellows through the world? 'Twould not be decent.
CYDONE He would have been so harmless as a statue!
PERSEUS The morning has broken over Syria and the sun Mounts royally into his azure kingdom. I feel a stir within me as if great things Were now in motion and clear-eyed Athene Urging me on to high and helpful deeds. There is a grandiose tumult in the air, A voice of gods and Titans locked in wrestle.
Diomede enters.
DIOMEDE Ah, prince!
She bursts into tears.
IOLAUS Diomede, what calamity?
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DIOMEDE Flee, flee from Syria, save thyself.
IOLAUS From Syria! Am I alone in peril? Then I'll sit And wait.
DIOMEDE Poseidon's monsters from the deep Arise to tear us for our sin. The people In fury, led by Polydaon, march Upon the palace, crying, "Slay the King, Butcher the Queen, and let Andromeda And Iolaus die." O my sweet playmate, They swear they'll bind her naked to the rocks Of the sea-beach for the grim monster's jaws To tear and swallow.
IOLAUS My sword, my sword, Cydone!
DIOMEDE Oh, go not to the fierce and bloody people! Praxilla stole me out, hiding my face In her grey mantle: I have outrun the wind To warn you. Had the wild mob recognised me, They would have torn me into countless pieces, And will you venture near whose name they join With death and cursings? Polydaon leads them.
CYDONE Had he been only stone!
IOLAUS My sword!
Cydone gives him the sword.
Perseus goes out to the cottage.
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DIOMEDE You'll go? What will you do alone against ten thousand?
IOLAUS To die is always easy. This canaille I do not fear; it is a coward rabble.
DIOMEDE But terror gives them fierceness: they are dangerous.
IOLAUS Keep Diomede for your service, love, If I am killed; escape hence with your mother To Gaza; she has gold: you may begin A life as fair there. Sometimes remember me.
CYDONE Diomede, will you comfort my dear mother? Tell her I am quite safe and will be back By nightfall. Hush! this in your ear, Diomede. Escape with her under the veil of night, For I shall not come back. Be you her daughter And comfort her sad lonely age, Diomede.
IOLAUS What do you mean, Cydone?
CYDONE Are you ready? Let us be going.
IOLAUS Us, sweet lunatic?
CYDONE Often you've said that you and I are only one, I shall know now if you mean it.
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IOLAUS You shall not give To the rude mob's ferocious violence The beautiful body I have kissed so often. You'll not obey me?
CYDONE No.
IOLAUS Leave this you shall not.
CYDONE I do not know how you will stop me.
IOLAUS Shrew! You shall be stopped by bonds. Here you'll remain Tied to a tree-trunk by your wilful wrists Till all is over.
Perseus returns, armed.
CYDONE I'll bring the tree and all and follow you.
IOLAUS Oh, will you, Hercules?
PERSEUS Forbid her not, My Iolaus; no tress of her shall fall. I have arisen and all your turbulent Syria Shall know me for the son of Zeus.
IOLAUS Perseus, Art thou indeed a god? What wilt thou do,
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One against a whole people? What way hast thou?
PERSEUS This is no hour to speak or plan, but to act. A presence sits within my heart that sees Each moment's need and finds the road to meet it. Dread nothing; I am here to help and save.
IOLAUS I had almost forgotten; the might thou hast shown Is a sufficient warrant.
CYDONE I shall come back, Diomede.
PERSEUS My grip is firm on Herpe, Athene's aegis guards my wrist; herself The strong, omnipotent and tranquil goddess Governs my motions with her awful will. Have trust in me. Borne on my bright-winged sandals Invisibly I will attend your course On the light breezes.
He goes out followed by Iolaus and Cydone.
DIOMEDE I am too tired to follow, Too daunted with their mad-beast howls. Here let me hide Awaiting what event this war of gods May bring to me and my sweet-hearted lady. O my Andromeda! my little playmate!
She goes out towards the cottage weeping.
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A room commanding the outer Court of the Palace.
Nebassar, Praxilla.
PRAXILLA I have seen them from the roof; at least ten thousand March through the streets. Do you not hear their rumour, A horrid hum as of unnumbered hornets That slowly nears us?
NEBASSAR If they are so many, It will be hard to save the princess.
PRAXILLA Save her! It is too late now to save anyone.
NEBASSAR I fear so.
PRAXILLA But never is too late to die As loyal servants for the lords whose bread We have eaten. At least we women of the household Will show the way to you Chaldeans.
NEBASSAR We are soldiers, Praxilla, and need no guidance on a road We daily tread in prospect. I'll bring my guards.
He goes out saluting Cassiopea who enters.
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CASSIOPEA Swift Diomede must have reached by now, Praxilla.
PRAXILLA I hope so, madam.
She goes out to the inner apartments.
CASSIOPEA Then Iolaus Is safe. My sad heart has at least that comfort. O my Andromeda, my child Andromeda, Thou wouldst not let me save thee. Hadst thou too gone, I would have smiled when their fierce fingers rent me.
CEPHEUS The mob is nearing; all my Syrian guards Have fled; we cannot hope for safety now.
CASSIOPEA Then what is left but to set rapid fire To the rafters and prevent on friendly swords The rabble's outrage?
CEPHEUS Was it for such a fate Thou camest smiling from an emperor's palace, O Cassiopea, Cassiopea!
CASSIOPEA For me Grieve not.
CEPHEUS O Lady, princess of Chaldea, Pardon me who have brought thee to this doom.
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Yet I meant well and thought that I did wisely: But the gods wrest our careful policies To their own ends until we stand appalled Remembering what we meant to do and seeing What has been done.
CASSIOPEA With no half soul I came To share thy kingdom and thy joys; entirely I came, to take the evil also with thee.
CEPHEUS Is there no truth in our high-winging ideals? My rule was mild as spring, kind as the zephyr: It tempered justice with benevolence And offered pardon to the rebel and sinner; I showed mercy, the rare sign of gods and kings. In this too difficult world, this too brief life To serve the gods with virtue seemed the best. A nation's happiness was my only care: I made the people's love my throne's sure base And dreamed the way I chose true, great, divine. But the heavenly gods have other thoughts than man's; Their awful aims transcend our human sight. Another doom than I had hoped they gave.
CASSIOPEA A screened Necessity drives even the gods. Over human lives it strides to unseen ends; Our tragic failures are its stepping-stones.
CEPHEUS My father lived calm, just, pitiless, austere, As a stern god might sway a prostrate world: Admired and feared, he died a mighty king. My end is this abominable fate.
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CASSIOPEA Another law than mercy's rules the earth.
CEPHEUS If I had listened to thee, O Cassiopea, Chance might have taken a fairer happier course. Always thou saidst to me, "The people's love Is a glimmer on quicksands in a gliding sea: Today they are with thee, tomorrow turn elsewhere. Wisdom, strength, policy alone are sure." I thought I better knew my Syrian folk. Is this not my well-loved people at my door, This tiger-hearted mob with bestial growl, This cry for blood to drink, this roar of hate? Always thou spok'st to me of the temple's power, A growing danger menacing the State, Its ambition's panther crouch and serpent pride And cruel craft in a priest's sombre face: I only saw the god and sacred priest. To priest and god I am thrown a sacrifice. The golden-mouthed orator of the market-place, Therops, thou bad'st me fear and quell or win Gaining his influence to my side. To me He seemed a voice and nothing but a voice. Too late I learn that human speech has power To change men's hearts and turn the stream of Time. Thy eyes could read in Phineus' scheming brain. I only thought to buy the strength of Tyre Offering my daughter as unwilling price. He has planned my fall and watches my agony. At every step I have been blind, have failed: All was my error; all's lost and mine the fault.
CASSIOPEA Blame not thyself; what thou hadst to be, thou wert, And never yet came help from vain remorse. It is too late, too late. To die is left;
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Fate and the gods concede us nothing more.
CEPHEUS But strength to meet the doom is always ours. In royal robes and crowned we will show ourselves To our people and look in the eyes of death and fate. What is this armoured tramp?
The Chaldean guards enter with Nebassar at their head.
CAPTAINS O King, we come To die with thee, the soldiers of Chaldea; For all in Syria have abandoned thee.
CEPHEUS I thank you, soldiers.
CRIES OUTSIDE Poseidon, great Poseidon! we are Poseidon's people. In, in, in! Kill the cuckold Cepheus, tear the harlot Cassiopea.
CEPHEUS Voices of insolent outrage Proclaim the heartless rabble. On the steps Of our own palace we'll receive our subjects.
CASSIOPEA This, this becomes thee, monarch.
NEBASSAR Soldiers, form With serried points before these mighty sovereigns.
The mob surges in, Therops and Perissus at their head, Polydaon a little behind, Damoetes, Morus and the rest. Praxilla and others of the household come running in.
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MOB On them! on them! Cut the Chaldeans to pieces!
THEROPS Halt, people, halt: let there be no vain bloodshed.
CASSIOPEA Here is a tender-hearted demagogue!
THEROPS Cepheus and Cassiopea, 'tis vain and heinous To dally with your fate; it will only make you More criminal before the majesty Of the offended people.
CEPHEUS Majesty!
CASSIOPEA An unwashed majesty and a wolf-throated!
THEROPS Insolent woman, to thee I speak not. Cepheus,—
CEPHEUS Use humbler terms. I am thy King as yet.
THEROPS The last in Syria. Tell me, wilt thou give up Thy children to the altar, and thyself Surrender here with this Chaldean woman For mercy or judgment to the assembled will Of Syria?
CASSIOPEA A tearing mercy, a howling judgment!
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POLYDAON Therops, why do you treat with these? Chaldeans! And you, Praxilla! women of the household! Bring out the abominable Andromeda Who brought the woe on Syria. Why should you vainly Be ripped and mangled?
CRIES OF WOMEN Bring out Andromeda! Bring out the harlot's daughter, bring her out!
CRIES OF MEN Andromeda! Andromeda! Andromeda! Bring out this vile Andromeda to die!
Andromeda enters from the inner Palace, followed by slave-girls entreating and detaining her.
PRAXILLA (sorrowfully) Wilt thou be wilful even to the end?
CASSIOPEA Alas, my child!
ANDROMEDA Mother, weep not for me. Perhaps my death May save you; and 'tis good that I should die, Not these poor innocent people. Against me Their unjust god is wroth.
CEPHEUS O my poor sunbeam!
ANDROMEDA (advancing and showing herself to the people) O people who have loved me, you have called me And I am here.
A fierce roar from the mob.
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THEROPS How she shrinks back appalled!
PRAXILLA God! What a many-throated howl of demons! Their eyes glare death. These are not men and Syrians. The fierce Poseidon has possessed their breasts And breathed his awful blood-lust into all hearts Deafening the voice of reason, slaying pity: Poseidon's rage glares at us through these eyes, It is his ocean roar that fills our streets.
Cries from the mob.
BALTIS Seize her! seize her! the child of wickedness!
VOICES OF WOMEN Throw her to us! throw her to us! We will pick The veins out of her body one by one.
DAMOETES Throw her to us! We will burn her bit by bit.
MORUS Yes, cook her alive; no, Damoetes? Ho, ho, ho!
VOICES OF MEN She has killed our sons and daughters: kill her, kill her!
VOICES OF WOMEN She is the child of her wicked mother: kill her!
MOB Throw her to us! throw her to us!
MEGAS We'll tear her here, and the furies shall tear her afterwards for ever in Hell.
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THEROPS Peace, people! she is not yours, she is Poseidon's.
ANDROMEDA Alas, why do you curse me? I am willing To die for you. If I had known this morn The monster's advent, I would have gone and met him While you yet slept, and saved your poor fair children Whose pangs have been my own. Had I died first, I should not then have suffered. O my loved people, You loved me too: when I went past your homes, You blessed me always; often your girls and mothers Would seize and bind me to their eager breasts With close imprisonment, kiss on their doorways And with a smiling soft reluctance leave. O do not curse me now! I can bear all, But not your curses.
PERISSUS Alack, my pretty lady! What madness made you do it?
POLYDAON She has rewarded Your love by bringing death upon you, Syrians, And now she tries to melt you by her tears.
MOB Kill her, kill her! Cut the Chaldeans to pieces! We will have her!
PASITHEA O do not hurt her! She is like my child Whom the fierce monster tore.
MEGAS Unnatural mother! Would you protect her who's cause your child was eaten?
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PASITHEA Will killing her give back my child to me?
MEGAS No, it will save the children of more mothers.
DAMOETES Gag up her puling mouth, the white-faced fool!
VOICES Tear, tear Andromeda! Seize her and tear her!
WOMEN Let us only get at her with our teeth and fingers!
NEBASSAR Use swords, Chaldeans.
POLYDAON Order, my children, order! Chaldean, give us up Andromeda, And save your King and Queen.
NEBASSAR What, wilt thou spare them?
CASSIOPEA Thou wilt not give my child to him, Nebassar? Thou dar'st not!
NEBASSAR Queen, 'tis better one should die For all.
POLYDAON I swear to thee, I will protect them.
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CASSIOPEA Trust not his oaths, his false and murderous oaths.
NEBASSAR He is a priest: if we believe him, nothing We lose, something may gain.
MEGAS What wilt thou do? The people do not like it. See, they mutter.
POLYDAON Let me have first their daughter in my grip, Be sure of the god's dearest victim. People, I am Poseidon's priest and your true friend. Leave all to me.
CRIES Leave all to Polydaon! the good priest knows what he is doing.
POLYDAON Soldier, give up the Princess.
NEBASSAR Shall she be only given to Poseidon? Will you protect her from worse outrage?
POLYDAON I will.
PRAXILLA Look! what a hideous triumph lights the eyes Of that fierce man. He glares at her with greed Like a wild beast of prey, and on his mouth There is a cruel unclean foam. Nebassar, O do not give her.
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NEBASSAR If there were any help! Go forth, O princess, O Andromeda.
CASSIOPEA My child! my child!
ANDROMEDA Give me one kiss, my mother. We shall yet meet, I think. My royal father, Andromeda farewells you, whom you loved And called your sunbeam. But the night receives me.
DAMOETES How long will these farewells endure? They are not needed: you shall meet presently If Death's angels can collect your tattered pieces.
CASSIOPEA O savage Syrians, let my curses brood Upon your land, an anguished mother's curse. May the Assyrian come and flay you living, Impale your sons, rip up your ravished daughters Before your agonising eyes and make you feel, Who drag my child from me to butcher her, The horror that you do. I curse you, Syrians.
ANDROMEDA Hush, mother, mother! what they demand is just.
NEBASSAR Lead back the King and Queen into the Palace, Women. We too will from this sad surrender Remove our eyes.
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CASSIOPEA I will not go. Let them tear her Before me: then surely Heaven will avenge me.
CEPHEUS Come, Cassiopea, come: our death's delayed By a few minutes. I will not see her slain.
Cepheus and Praxilla go in, forcibly leading Cassiopea; they are followed by the slave-girls and then by Nebassar and the Chaldeans: Andromeda is left alone on the steps.
CRIES (of the mob surging forward) Drag her, kill her, she is ours.
POLYDAON Therops and thou, Perissus, stand in front And keep the people off, or they will tear her, Defraud Poseidon.
PERISSUS Cheer up, my princess, come! You shall be cleanly killed.
THEROPS People of Syria, Rob not Poseidon of his own! 'tis not the way To turn his anger.
VOICES Right, right! leave her to Poseidon: out with her to the sea-monster.
GARDAS Therops is always right.
DAMOETES We will have her first: we will dress his banquet for him: none shall say us nay.
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MORUS Good; we will show Poseidon some excellent cookery. Ho, ho, ho!
MEGAS No, no, no! To the rocks with her! Strip her, the fine dainty princess, and hang her up in chains on the cliff-face.
A WOMAN Strip her! Off with her broidered robe and her silken tunic! Why should she wear such, when my daughter carries only coarse woollen?
A WOMAN (shaking her fist) Curse the white child's face of thee: it has ruined Syria. Die, dog's daughter.
DAMOETES Is she to die only once who has killed so many of us? I say, tie her to one of these pillars and flog her till she drops.
MORUS That's right, skin her with whips: peel her for the monster, ho, ho, ho!
BALTIS Leave her: Hell's tortures shall make the account even.
POLYDAON In order, children: let all be done in order.
THEROPS She droops like a bruised flower beneath their curses, And the tears lace her poor pale cheeks like frost Glittering on snowdrops. I am sorry now I had a hand in this.
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ANDROMEDA You two have faces Less cruel than the others. I am willing To die,—oh, who would live to be so hated? But do not let them shame or torture me.
PERISSUS Off! off! thick-brained dogs, loud-lunged asses! What do you do, yelping and braying here? Will you give a maimed meal to Poseidon's man-hound? Do you know me not? Have you never heard of Perissus, never seen Perissus the butcher? I guard Poseidon's meat, and whoever touches a morsel of it, I will make meat of him with my cleaver. I am Perissus, I am the butcher.
VOICES It is Perissus, the good and wealthy butcher. He is right. To the rocks with her!
VOICES OF WOMEN Bind her first: we will see her bound!
PERISSUS In all that is rational, I will indulge you. Where is a cord?
CRIES A cord, who has a cord?
DAMOETES Here is one, Perissus. 'Tis rough and strong and sure.
PERISSUS Come, wear your bracelets.
ANDROMEDA O bind me not so hard! You cut my wrists.
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PERISSUS You are too soft and tender. There, dry your eyes,—but that, poor slip, you cannot. See, I have tied you very lightly: say not That this too hurts.
ANDROMEDA I thank you; you are kind.
PERISSUS Kind! Why should I not be kind? Because I am a butcher must I have no bowels? Courage, little Princess: none shall hurt thee but thy sea- monster and he, I am sure, will crunch thy little bones very tenderly. Never had man-eater such sweet bones to crunch. Alack! but where is the remedy?
POLYDAON Now take her to the beach and chain her there Upon the rocks to bear her punishment. Perissus, lead her forth! We'll follow you.
CRIES Not I! not I!
DAMOETES You'ld kill us, Polydaon? Poseidon's anger walks by the sea-beaches.
POLYDAON The fierce sea-dragon will not hurt you, friends, Who bring a victim to Poseidon's altar Of the rude solemn beaches. I'll protect you.
CRIES We'll go with Polydaon! with the good Polydaon!
POLYDAON Perissus, go before. We'll quickly come.
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PERISSUS Make way there or I'll make it with my cleaver. Heart, little Princess! None shall touch thee. Heart!
Perissus and others make their way out with Andromeda.
POLYDAON Hem, people, hem the Palace in with myriads: We'll pluck out Cepheus and proud Cassiopea.
CRIES Kill Cepheus the cuckold, the tyrant! Tear the harlot Cassiopea.
THEROPS Is this thy sacred oath? Had not Nebassar Thy compact, priest?
POLYDAON I swore not by Poseidon. Wilt thou oppose me?
THEROPS Thy perjury too much Favours my private wishes. Yet would I not Be thou with such a falsehood on my conscience.
POLYDAON Why, Therops, be thyself and thou shalt yet Be something great in Syria.
DAMOETES Where's Iolaus? Shall he not also die?
POLYDAON Too long forgotten! O that I should forget my dearest hatred!
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By this he has concealed himself or fled And I am baulked of what I chiefly cherished.
THEROPS Oh, do them justice! the great house of Syria Were never cowards. The prince has been o'erwhelmed On his way hither with rash sword to rescue: So Aligattas tells, who came behind us. He's taken to the temple.
POLYDAON Heard you?
MOB Hurrah!
BALTIS But what's the matter now with our good priest? His veins are all out and his face is blood-red!
DAMOETES This joy is too great for him.
POLYDAON I am a god, A god of blood and roaring victory. Oh, blood in rivers! His heart out of his breast, And his mother there to see it! and I to laugh At her, to laugh!
THEROPS This is not sanity.
POLYDAON (controlling himself with a great effort) The sacrilegious house is blotted out Of Cepheus. Let not one head outlive their ending! Andromeda appoints the way to Hades
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Who was in crime the boldest, then her brother Yells on the altar: last Cepheus and his Queen—
CRIES Tear her! let the Chaldean harlot die.
POLYDAON She shall be torn! but not till she has seen The remnants of the thing that was her daughter: Not till her sweet boy's heart has been plucked out Under her staring eyes from his red bosom. Till then she shall not die. But afterwards Strew with her fragments every street of the city.
CRIES Hear, hear Poseidon's Viceroy, good Polydaon!
MEGAS In! in! cut off their few and foreign swordsmen.
CRIES In! in! let not a single Chaldean live.
The mob rushes into the Palace; only Therops and Polydaon remain.
POLYDAON Go, Therops, take good care of Cassiopea, Or she will die too mercifully soon.
THEROPS (aside) How shall we bear this grim and cruel beast For monarch, when all's done? He is not human.
He goes into the Palace.
POLYDAON I have set Poseidon's rage in human hearts; His black and awful Influence flows from me.
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Thou art a mighty god, Poseidon, yet And mightily thou hast avenged thyself. The drama's nearly over. Now to ring out The royal characters amid fierce howlings And splendid, pitiless, crimson massacre,— A great finale! Then, then I shall be King.
(As he speaks, he gesticulates more wildly and his madness gains upon him.)
Thou luckless Phineus, wherefore didst thou leave So fortunate a man for thy ally? The world shall long recall King Polydaon. I will paint Syria gloriously with blood. Hundreds shall daily die to incarnadine The streets of my city and my palace floors, For I would walk in redness. I'll plant my gardens With heads instead of lilacs. Hecatombs Of men shall groan their hearts out for my pleasure In crimson rivers. I'll not wait for shipwrecks. Assyrian captives and my Syrian subjects, Nobles and slaves, men, matrons, boys and virgins At matins and at vespers shall be slain To me in my magnificent high temple Beside my thunderous Ocean. I will possess Women each night, who the next day shall die, Encrimsoned richly for the eyes' delight. My heart throngs out in words! What moves within me? I am athirst, magnificently athirst, And for a red and godlike wine. Whence came The thirst on me? It was not here before. 'Tis thou, 'tis thou, O grand and grim Poseidon, Hast made thy scarlet session in my soul And growest myself. I am not Polydaon, I am a god, a mighty dreadful god, The multitudinous mover in the sea, The shaker of the earth: I am Poseidon And I will walk in three tremendous paces Climbing the mountains with my clamorous waters
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And see my dogs eat up Andromeda, My enemy, and laugh in my loud billows. The clamour of battle roars within the Palace! I have created it, I am Poseidon. Sitst thou, my elder brother, charioted In clouds? Look down, O brother Zeus, and see My actions! they merit thy immortal gaze.
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On the road to the sea-shore.
Phineus and his Tyrians.
PHINEUS A mightier power confounds our policies. Is't Heaven? is't Fate? What's left me, I will take. 'Tis best to rescue young Andromeda From the wild mob and bear her home to Tyre. She, when the roar is over, will be left My claim to Syria's prostrate throne, which force, If not diplomacy shall re-erect And Tyre become the Syrian capital. I hear the trampling of the rascal mob.
CRIES OUTSIDE Drag her more quickly! To the rocks! to the rocks! Glory to great Poseidon!
PHINEUS Tyrians, be ready.
Perissus and a number of Syrians enter leading Andromeda bound.
SYRIANS To the rocks with her, to the rocks! bind her on the rocks.
PHINEUS Pause, rabble! Yield your prey to Tyrian Phineus. Lift up thy lovely head, Andromeda! For thou art saved.
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PERISSUS Who art thou with thy nose and thy fellows and thy spits?
PHINEUS Knowst thou me not? I am the royal Phineus. Yield up the Princess, fair Andromeda.
PERISSUS Art thou the royal Phineus and is this long nose thy sceptre? I am Perissus, the butcher. Stand aside, royal Phineus, or I will chop thee royally with my cleaver.
ANDROMEDA What wilt thou with me, King of Tyre?
PHINEUS Sweet rose, I come to save thee. I will carry thee, My bride, far from these savage Syrian tumults To reign in loyal Tyre. Thou art safe.
ANDROMEDA (sorrowfully) Safe! My father and my mother are not safe Nor Iolaus: nor is Syria safe. Will you protect my people, when the god, Not finding me, his preferable victim, Works his fierce will on these?
PHINEUS Thou car'st for them? They have o'erwhelmed thee with foul insult, bound thee, Threatened thy lovely limbs with rascal outrage And dragged to murder!
ANDROMEDA But they are my people.
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Perissus, lead me on. I will not go with him.
PHINEUS Thou strange and beautiful and marvellous child, Wilt thou or wilt thou not, by force I'll have thee. Golden enchantment! thou art too rare a thing For others to possess. Run, rascal rabble! On, Tyrians!
PERISSUS Cleavers and axes to their spits!
ANDROMEDA King Phineus, pause! I swear I will prefer Death's grim embrace rather than be thy wife Abandoning my people. 'Tis a dead body Thou wilt rescue.
PHINEUS Is thy resolve unshakable?
ANDROMEDA It is.
PHINEUS Die then! To Death alone I yield thee.
PERISSUS So then thou art off, royal Phineus! so thou hast evaporated, bold god of the Hittites! Thou hast saved thy royal nose from my cleaver.
SYRIANS On to the rocks! Glory to great Poseidon.
They go leading Andromeda.
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The sea-shore.
Andromeda, dishevelled, bare-armed and unsandalled, stripped of all but a single light robe, stands on a wide low ledge under a rock jutting out from the cliff with the sea washing below her feet. She is chained to the rock behind her by her wrists and ankles, her arms stretched at full length against its side. Polydaon, Perissus, Damoetes and a number of Syrians stand near on the great rocky platform projecting from the cliff of which the ledge is the extremity.
POLYDAON There meditate affronts to dire Poseidon. Rescue thyself, thou rescuer of victims! I am sorry that thy marriage, sweet Andromeda, So poorly is attended. I could have wished To have all Syria gazing at thy nuptials With thy rare Ocean bridegroom! Thy mother most Should have been here to see her lovely princess So meetly robed for bridal, with these ornaments Upon her pretty hands and feet. She has Affairs too pressing. We do some surgery Upon thy brother Iolaus' heart To draw the bad blood out and make it holy, And she must watch the skilful operation. Do not weep, fair one. Soon, be confident, They'll meet thee in that wide house where all are going. Think of these things until thy lover comes. Farewell.
PERISSUS Art thou mad, priest Polydaon? How thou grinnest and drawest
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back thy black lips from thy white teeth in thy rapture! Hast thou gone clean mad, my skilful carver of hearts! art thou beside thyself, my ancient schoolmate and crony?
SYRIANS To the temple! To the temple!
POLYDAON Let one remain above the cliff And watch the monster's advent and his going. Till I have news of dead Andromeda The sacrifice cannot begin. Who stays?
DAMOETES Not I!
ALL Nor I! nor I! nor I!
DAMOETES As well stay here with the girl and be torn with her!
PERISSUS Do you quake, my brave shouters? must you curl your tails in between your manly legs? I will stay, priest, who fear neither dog nor dragon. I am Perissus, I am the butcher.
POLYDAON I'll not forget thy service, good Perissus.
PERISSUS Will you then make me butcher-in-chief to your viceroy in Damascus and shall I cut my joints under the patronage of King Polydaon? To the temple, Syrian heroes! I will go and cross my legs on the cliff-top.
They go. Andromeda is left alone.
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Andromeda chained to the cliff.
ANDROMEDA O iron-throated vast unpitying sea, Whose borders touch my feet with their cold kisses As if they loved me! yet from thee my death Will soon arise, and in some monstrous form To tear my heart with horror before my body. I am alone with thee on this wild beach Filled with the echo of thy roaring waters. My fellowmen have cast me out: they have bound me Upon thy rocks to die. These cruel chains Weary the arms they keep held stiffly out Against the rough cold jagged stones. My bosom Hardly contains its thronging sobs; my heart Is torn with misery: for by my act My father and my mother are doomed to death, My dear kind brother, my sweet Iolaus, Will cruelly be slaughtered; by my act A kingdom ends in miserable ruin. I thought to save two fellowmen: I have slain A hundred by their rescue. I have failed In all I did and die accursed and hated. I die alone and miserably, no heart To pity me: only your hostile waves Are listening to my sobs and laughing hoarsely With cruel pleasure. Heaven looks coldly on.
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Yet I repent not. O thou dreadful god! Yes, thou art dreadful and most mighty; perhaps This world will always be a world of blood And smiling cruelty, thou its fit sovereign. But I have done what my own heart required of me, And I repent not. Even if after death Eternal pain and punishment await me And gods and men pursue me with their hate, I have been true to myself and to my heart, I have been true to the love it bore for men, And I repent not.
She is silent for a while.
Alas! is there no pity for me? Is there No kind bright sword to save me in all this world? Heaven with its cold unpitying azure roofs me, And the hard savage rocks surround: the deaf And violent Ocean roars about my feet, And all is stony, all is cold and cruel. Yet I had dreamed of other powers. Where art thou, O beautiful still face amid the lightnings, Athene? Does a mother leave her child? And thou, bright stranger, wert thou only a dream? Wilt thou not come down glorious from thy sun, And cleave my chains, and lift me in thy arms To safety? I will not die! I am too young, And life was recently so beautiful. It is too hard, too hard a fate to bear.
She is silent, weeping. Cydone enters: she comes and sits down at Andromeda's feet.
CYDONE How beautiful she is, how beautiful! Her tears bathe all her bosom. O cruel Syrians!
ANDROMEDA What gentle touch is on my feet? Who art thou?
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CYDONE I am Cydone. Iolaus loves me.
ANDROMEDA My brother! lives he yet?
CYDONE He lives, dear sweetness, And sent me to you.
ANDROMEDA (joyfully) It was a cruel lie! He's free?
CYDONE No, bound and in the temple. Weep not.
ANDROMEDA Alas! And you have left him there alone?
CYDONE The gods are with him, sister. In a few hours We shall be all together and released From these swift perils.
ANDROMEDA Together and released! Oh yes, in death.
CYDONE I bid you hope. O child, How beautiful you are, how beautiful, Iolaus' sister! This one white slight garment Fluttering about you in the ocean winds, You look like some wind-goddess chained in play By frolic sisters on the wild sea-beaches. I think all this has happened, little sister,
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Just that the gods might have for one brief hour You for a radiant vision of childish beauty Exposed against this wild stupendous background.
ANDROMEDA You make me smile in spite of all my grief. Did you not bid me hope, Cydone?
CYDONE And now I bid you trust: for you are saved.
ANDROMEDA I am. I feel it now.
CYDONE Your name's Andromeda?
ANDROMEDA Iolaus calls me so.
CYDONE I think he cheats me. You are Iolaus changed into a girl. Come, I will kiss you dumb for cheating me With changes of yourself.
Kisses her.
If I could have My Iolaus always chained like this To do my pleasure with, I would so plague him! For he abuses me and calls me shrew, Monster and vixen and names unbearable, Because he's strong and knows I cannot beat him.
ANDROMEDA The world is changed about me.
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CYDONE Heaven's above. Look up and see it.
ANDROMEDA There is a golden cloud Moving towards me.
CYDONE It is Perseus. Sweetheart, I go to Iolaus in the temple,— I mean your other fair boy-self. Kiss me, O sweet girl-Iolaus, and fear nothing.
She goes out over the rocks.
ANDROMEDA I shall be saved! What is this sudden trouble That lifts the bosom of the tossing deep, Hurling the waves against my knees? Save me! Where art thou gone, Cydone? What huge head Raises itself on the affrighted seas? Where art thou, O my saviour? Come! His eyes Glare up at me from the grey Ocean trough Hideous with brutish longing. Like great sharp rocks His teeth are in a bottomless dim chasm.
She closes her eyes in terror. Perseus enters.
PERSEUS Look up, O sunny-curled Andromeda! Perseus, the son of Danaë, is with thee To whom thou now belongest. Fear no more Sea-monsters nor the iron-souled Poseidon, Nor the more monstrous flinty-hearted rabble Who bound thee here. This huge and grisly enemy That rises from the flood, need not affright thee. Thou art as safe as if thy mother's arms Contained thee in thy brilliant guarded palace
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When all was calm, O white Andromeda! Lift up thy eyes' long curtains: aid the azure With thy regards, O sunshine. Look at me And see thy safety.
ANDROMEDA O thou hast come to me! It was not only a radiant face I dreamed of.
PERSEUS In time to save thee, my Andromeda, Sole jewel of the world. I go to meet Thy enemy, confronting grim Poseidon.
ANDROMEDA O touch me ere you go that I may feel You are real.
PERSEUS Let my kiss, sweet doubting dreamer, Convince thee. Now I dart like a swift hawk Upon my prey and smite betwixt the billows. Watch how I fight for thee. I will come soon To gather thee into my grasp, my prize Of great adventure.
ANDROMEDA The music of his name Was in my brain just now. What must I call thee? Perseus, the son of Danaë! Perseus! Perseus, Athene's sword! Perseus, my sun-god! O human god of glad Andromeda! Forgive, Athene, my lack of faith. Thou art! How like a sudden eagle he has swooped Upon the terror, that lifts itself alarmed, Swings its huge length along the far-ridged billows
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And upwards yawns its rage. O great Athene! It belches fiery breath against my Perseus And lashes Ocean in his face. The sea Is tossed upon itself and its huge bottoms Catch chinks of unaccustomed day. But the aegis Of Perseus hurls the flame-commingled flood Back in the dragon's eyes: it shoots its lightnings Into the horizon like fire-trailing arrows. The world surprised with light gazes dismayed Upon the sea-surrounded war, ringed in With foam and flying tumult. O glorious sight, Too swift and terrible for human eyes! I will pray rather. Virgin, beautiful Athene, virgin-mother of my soul! I cannot lift my hands to thee, they are chained To the wild cliff, but lift my heart instead, Virgin, assist thy hero in the fight. Descend, armipotent maiden, child of Zeus, Shoot from his godlike brain the strength of will That conquers evil: in one victorious stroke Collecting hurl it on the grisly foe. Thou, thou art sword and shield, and thou the force That uses shield and sword, virgin Athene. The tumult ceases and the floods subside. I dare not look. And yet I will. O death, Thou tossest there inertly on the flood, A floating mountain. Perseus comes to me Touching the waves with airy-sandalled feet, Bright and victorious.
PERSEUS The grisly beast is slain that was thy terror, And thou mayst sun the world with smiles again, Andromeda.
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ANDROMEDA Thou hast delivered me, O Perseus, Perseus, My sovereign!
PERSEUS Girl, I take into my arms My own that I have won and with these kisses Seal to me happy head and smiling eyes, Bright lips and all of thee, thou sunny Syrian. All thy white body is a hero's guerdon.
ANDROMEDA Perseus!
PERSEUS Sweetly thou tak'st my eager kisses With lovely smiles and glorious blushing cheeks Rejoicing in their shame.
ANDROMEDA I am chained, Perseus, And cannot help myself.
PERSEUS O smile of sweetness! I will unravel these unworthy bonds And rid thee of the cold excuse.
ANDROMEDA My chains? They do not hurt me now, and I would wear them A hundred times for such a happy rescue.
PERSEUS Thou tremblest yet!
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ANDROMEDA Some sweet and sudden fear O'ertakes me! O what is it? I dare not look Into thy radiant eyes.
PERSEUS Sweet tremors, grow Upon her. Never shall harsher fears again O'ertake you, rosy limbs, in Perseus' keeping. How fair thou art, my prize Andromeda! O sweet chained body, chained to love not death, That with a happy passiveness endures My touch, once more, once more. And now fall down Clashing into the deep, you senseless irons, That took a place my kisses only merit. Princess of Syria, child of imperial Cepheus, Step forward free.
ANDROMEDA (falling at his feet and embracing them) O Perseus, O my saviour! Wilt thou not also save those dear to me And make this life thou givest worth the giving? My father, mother, brother, all I love, Lie for my fault shuddering beneath the knife.
PERSEUS It was a glorious fault, Andromeda. Tremble not for thy loved ones. Wilt thou trust Thy cherished body in my arms to bear Upward, surprising Heaven with thy beauty? Or wilt thou fear to see the blue wide Ocean Between thy unpropped feet, fathoms below?
ANDROMEDA With you I fear not.
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PERSEUS Cling to me then, sweet burden, And we will meet our enemies together.
He puts his arms round her to lift her and the curtain falls.
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The Temple of Poseidon.
Polydaon, Therops, Dercetes, Cydone, Damoetes and a great number of Syrians, men and women. Iolaus stands bound, a little to the side: Cepheus and Cassiopea, surrounded by armed men.
POLYDAON Cepheus and Cassiopea, man and woman, Not sovereigns now, you see what end they have Who war upon the gods.
CASSIOPEA To see thy end My eyes wait only.
POLYDAON Let them see something likelier. Is't not thy son who wears those cords, and that An altar? What! the eyes are drowned in tears Where fire was once so ready? Where is thy pride, O Cassiopea?
CASSIOPEA There are other gods Than thy Poseidon. They shall punish thee.
POLYDAON If thou knewst who I am, which is most secret, Thou wouldst not utter vain and foolish wishes. When thou art slain, I will reveal myself.
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CASSIOPEA Thou hast revealed thyself for what thou art Already, a madman and inhuman monster.
CEPHEUS My queen, refrain from words.
DAMOETES Perissus comes.
THEROPS Look, the Queen swoons! Oh, look to her!
Perissus enters.
POLYDAON Yes, raise her up, bring back her senses: now I would not have them clouded. News, Perissus! Thy face is troubled and thy eyes stare wildly.
PERISSUS Stare, do they? They may stare, for they have cause. You too will stare soon, Viceroy Polydaon.
THEROPS What rare thing happened? The heavens were troubled strangely, Although their rifts were blue. What hast thou seen?
PERISSUS I have seen hell and heaven at grips together.
POLYDAON What do I care for hell or heaven? Your news! Did the sea-monster come and eat and go?
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PERISSUS He came but went not.
POLYDAON Was not the maiden seized?
PERISSUS Ay, was she, in a close and mighty grasp.
POLYDAON By the sea-beast?
PERISSUS 'Tis said we all are animals; Then so was he: but 'twas a glorious beast.
POLYDAON And was she quite devoured?
PERISSUS Why, in a manner,— If kisses eat.
POLYDAON Ha! ha! such soft caresses May all my enemies have. She was not torn? What, was she taken whole and quite engulfed?
PERISSUS Something like that.
POLYDAON You speak with difficult slowness And strangely. Where's your blithe robustness gone, Perissus?
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PERISSUS Coming, with the beast. He lifted her Mightily from the cliff to heaven.
POLYDAON So, Queen, Nothing is left thee of Andromeda.
PERISSUS Why, something yet, a sweet and handsome piece.
POLYDAON You should have brought it here, my merry butcher, That remnant of her daughter.
PERISSUS It is coming.
POLYDAON Ho, ho! then you shall see your daughter, Queen.
DERCETES This is a horrid and inhuman laughter. Restrain thy humour, priest! My sword's uneasy.
THEROPS It is a scandal in Poseidon's temple.
POLYDAON Do you oppose me?
(to Therops)
Wilt thou resist Poseidon, Misguided mortal?
DERCETES He glares and his mouth works. This is a maniac. Does a madman rule us?
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THEROPS There has been much of violence and mad fierceness, Such as in tumults may be pardoned. Now It is the tranquil hour of victory When decency should reign and mercy too. What do we gain by torturing this poor Queen And most unhappy King?
POLYDAON Hear him, O people! He favours great Poseidon's enemies. Therops turns traitor.
DAMOETES He rails at the good priest.
CRIES Therops a traitor!
MEGAS Therops, thou favour kings? Thou traitor to Poseidon and his people?
GARDAS I say, hear Therops. He is always right, Our Therops; he has brains.
CRIES Hear Therops, Therops!
THEROPS Let them be punished, but with exile only. I am no traitor. I worked for you, O people, When this false priest was with the King of Tyre Plotting to lay on you a foreign chain.
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CRIES Is it so? Is it the truth? Speak, Polydaon.
POLYDAON Must I defend myself? Was it not I Who led you on to victory and turned The wrath of dire Poseidon? If you doubt me, Be then the sacrifice forbidden; let Cepheus And Cassiopea reign; but when the dogs Of grim Poseidon howl again behind you, Call not to me for help. I will not always pardon.
CRIES Polydaon, Polydaon, Poseidon's mighty Viceroy! Kill Therops! Iolaus upon the altar!
POLYDAON Now you are wise again. Leave this Therops. Bring Iolaus to the altar here. Lay bare his bosom for the knife.
THEROPS Dercetes, Shall this be allowed?
DERCETES We must not dare offend Poseidon. But when it's over, I'll break in With all my faithful spears and save the King And Cassiopea. Therops, 'twould be a nightmare, The rule of that fierce priest and fiercer rabble.
THEROPS With all the better sort I will support thee.
PERISSUS Therops, my crowd-compeller, my eloquent Zeus of the market-place, I know thy heart is big with the sweet passion of
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repentance, but let it not burst into action yet. Keep thy fleet sharp spears at rest, Dercetes. There are times, my little captain, and there is a season. Watch and wait. The gods are at work and Iolaus shall not die.
POLYDAON We only wait until our mighty wrath Is shown you in the mangled worst offender Against our godhead. Then, O Cassiopea, I'll watch thy eyes.
PERISSUS Behold her, Polydaon.
Perseus and Andromeda enter the temple.
CRIES Andromeda! Andromeda! who has unchained her? It is Andromeda!
CEPHEUS It is the spirit of Andromeda.
THEROPS Shadows were ne'er so bright, had never smile So sunny! she is given back to earth: It is the radiant winged Hermes brings her.
DERCETES 'Tis he who baffled us upon the beach. I see the gods are busy in our Syria.
Andromeda runs to Cassiopea and clasps and kisses her knees, the soldiers making way for her.
CASSIOPEA (taking Andromeda's face between her hands) O my sweet child, thou livest!
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ANDROMEDA Mother, mother! I live and see the light and grief is ended.
CASSIOPEA (lifting Andromeda into her arms) I hold thee living on my bosom. What grief Can happen now?
CEPHEUS Andromeda, my daughter!
POLYDAON (awaking from his amazement) Confusion! Butcher, thou hast betrayed me. Seize them! They shall all die upon my mighty altar. Seize them!
PERSEUS (confronting him) Priest of Poseidon and of death, Three days thou gav'st me: it is but the second. I am here. Dost thou require the sacrifice?
POLYDAON Art thou a god? I am a greater, dreadfuller. Tremble and go from me: I need thee not.
PERSEUS Expect thy punishment. Syrians, behold me, The victim snatched from grim Poseidon's altar. My sword has rescued sweet Andromeda And slain the monster of the deep. You asked For victims? I am here. Whose knife is ready? Let him approach.
THEROPS Who art thou, mighty hero? Declare unto this people thy renown And thy unequalled actions. What high godhead
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Befriends thee in battle?
PERSEUS Syrians, I am Perseus, The mighty son of Zeus and Danaë. The blood of gods is in my veins, the strength Of gods is in my arm: Athene helps me. Behold her aegis, which if I uncover Will blind you with its lightnings; and this sword Is Herpe, which can pierce the earth and Hades. What I have done, is by Athene's strength. Borne from Seriphos through pellucid air Upon these winged shoes, in the far west I have traversed unknown lands and nameless continents And seas where never came the plash of human oars. On torrid coasts burned by the desert wind I have seen great Atlas buttressing the sky, His giant head companion of the stars, And changed him into a hill; the northern snows Illimitable I have trod, where Nature Is awed to silence, chilled to rigid whiteness; I have entered caverns dim where death was born: And I have taken from the dim-dwelling Graiae Their wondrous eye that sees the past and future: And I have slain the Gorgon, dire Medusa, Her head that turns the living man to stone Locking into my wallet: last, today, In Syria by the loud Aegean surges I have done this deed that men shall ever speak of. Ascending with winged feet the clamorous air I have cloven Poseidon's monster whose rock-teeth And fiery mouth swallowed your sons and daughters. Where now has gone the sea-god's giant stride That filled with heads of foam your fruitful fields? I have dashed back the leaping angry waters; His Ocean-force has yielded to a mortal. Even while I speak, the world has changed around you.
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Syrians, the earth is calm, the heavens smile; A mighty silence listens on the sea. All this I have done, and yet not I, but one greater. Such is Athene's might and theirs who serve her. You know me now, O Syrians, and my strength I have concealed not. Let no man hereafter Complain that I deceived him to his doom. Speak now. Which of you all demands a victim?
He pauses: there is silence.
What, you have howled and maddened, bound sweet women For slaughter, roared to have the hearts of princes, And are you silent now? Who is for victims? Who sacrifices Perseus?
THEROPS Speak! is there A fool so death-devoted?
PERSEUS Claims any man victims?
CRIES There's none, great Perseus.
PERSEUS Then, I here release Andromeda and Iolaus, Syrians, From the death-doom: to Cepheus give his crown Once more. Does any man gainsay my action? Would any rule in Syria?
CRIES None, mighty Perseus.
PERSEUS Iolaus, sweet friend, my work is finished.
He severs his bonds.
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IOLAUS O mighty father, suffer me for thee To take thy crown from the unworthy soil Where rude hands tumbled it. 'Twill now sit steady. Dercetes, art thou loyal once again?
DERCETES For ever.
IOLAUS Therops?
THEROPS I have abjured rebellion.
IOLAUS Lead then my royal parents to their home With martial pomp and music. And let the people Cover their foul revolt with meek obedience. One guiltiest head shall pay your forfeit: the rest, Since terror and religious frenzy moved To mutiny, not their sober wills, shall all Be pardoned.
CRIES Iolaus! Iolaus! Long live the Syrian, noble Iolaus!
IOLAUS Andromeda, and thou, my sweet Cydone, Go with them.
CEPHEUS I approve thy sentence, son.
Dercetes and his soldiers, Therops and the Syrians leave the temple conducting Cepheus and Cassiopea, Andromeda and Cydone.
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IOLAUS Now, Polydaon,—
POLYDAON I have seen all and laughed. Iolaus, and thou, O Argive Perseus, You know not who I am. I have endured Your foolish transient triumph that you might feel My punishments more bitter-terrible. 'Tis time, 'tis time. I will reveal myself. Your horror-starting eyes shall know me, princes, When I hurl death and Ocean on your heads.
PERSEUS The man is frantic.
IOLAUS Defeat has turned him mad.
PERISSUS I have seen this coming on him for a season and a half. He was a fox at first, but this tumult gave him claws and muscles and he turned tiger. This is the end. What, Polydaon! Good cheer, priest! Roll not thy eyes: I am thy friend Perissus, I am thy old loving schoolmate; are we not now fellow-craftsmen, priest and butcher?
POLYDAON Do you not see? I wave my sapphire locks And earth is quaking. Quake, earth! rise, my great Ocean! Earth, shake my foemen from thy back! clasp, sea, And kiss them dead, thou huge voluptuary. Come barking from your stables, my sweet monsters: With blood-stained fangs and fiery mouths avenge me Mocking their victory. Thou, brother Zeus, Rain curses from thy skies. What, is all silent? I'll tear thee, Ocean, into watery bits
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And strip thy oozy basal rocks quite naked If thou obey me not.
IOLAUS (advancing) He must be seized And bound.
PERSEUS Pause. See, he foams and clutches!
Polydaon falls to the ground.
He Is sentenced.
PERISSUS Polydaon, old crony, grows thy soul too great within thee? dost thou kick the unworthy earth and hit out with thy noble fists at Heaven?
IOLAUS It was a fit; it is over. He lies back white And shaking.
POLYDAON (As he speaks, his utterance is hacked by pauses of silence. He seems unconscious of those around him, his being is withdrawing from the body and he lives only in an inner consciousness and its vision.)
I was Poseidon but this moment. Now he departs from me and leaves me feeble: I have become a dull and puny mortal. (half rising) It was not I but thou who fearedst, god. I would have spoken, but thou wert chilled and stone. What fearedst thou or whom? Wast thou alarmed By the godhead lurking in man's secret soul Or deity greater than thy own appalled thee?... Forgive, forgive! pass not away from me. Thy power is now my breath and I shall perish
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If thou withdraw.... He stands beside me still Shaking his gloomy locks and glares at me Saying it was my sin and false ambition Undid him. Was I not fearless as thou bad'st me? Ah, he has gone into invisible Vast silences!... Whose, whose is this bright glory? One stands now in his place and looks at me. Imperious is his calm Olympian brow, The sea's blue unfathomed depths gaze from his eyes, Wide sea-blue locks crown his majestic shape: A mystic trident arms his tranquil might. As one new-born to himself and to the world He turns from me with the surges in his stride To seek his Ocean empire. Earth bows down Trembling with awe of his unbearable steps, Heaven is the mirror of his purple greatness.... But whose was that dimmer and tremendous image?... A horror of darkness is around me still, But the joy and might have gone out of my breast And left me mortal, a poor human thing With whom death and the fates can do their will.... But his presence yet is with me, near to me.... Was I not something more than earthly man?...
(with a cry)
It was myself, the shadow, the hostile god! I am abandoned to my evil self. That was the darkness!... But there was something more Insistent, dreadful, other than myself! Whoever thou art, spare me!... I am gone, I am taken. In his tremendous clutch he bears me off Into thick cloud; I see black Hell, the knives Fire-pointed touch my breast. Spare me, Poseidon.... Save me, O brilliant God, forgive and save.
He falls back dead.
PERSEUS Who then can save a man from his own self?
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IOLAUS He is ended, his own evil has destroyed him.
PERSEUS This man for a few hours became the vessel Of an occult and formidable Force And through his form it did fierce terrible things Unhuman: but his small and gloomy mind And impure dark heart could not contain the Force. It turned in him to madness and demoniac Huge longings. Then the Power withdrew from him Leaving the broken incapable instrument, And all its might was spilt from his body. Better To be a common man mid common men And live an unaspiring mortal life Than call into oneself a Titan strength Too dire and mighty for its human frame, That only afflicts the oppressed astonished world, Then breaks its user.
IOLAUS But best to be Heaven's child. Only the sons of gods can harbour gods.
PERISSUS Art thou then gone, Polydaon? My monarch of breast-hackers, this was an evil ending. My heart is full of woe for thee, my fellow-butcher.
IOLAUS The gods have punished him for his offences, Ambition and a hideous cruelty Ingenious in mere horror.
PERSEUS Burn him with rites, If that may help his soul by dark Cocytus.
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But let us go and end these strange upheavals: Call Cireas from his hiding for reward, Tyrnaus too, and Smerdas from his prison, Fair Diomede from Cydone's house. Humble or high, let all have their deserts Who partners were or causes of our troubles.
IOLAUS There's Phineus will ask reasons.
PERSEUS He shall be satisfied.
PERISSUS He cannot be satisfied, his nose is too long; it will not listen to reason, for it thinks all the reason and policy in the world are shut up in the small brain to which it is a long hooked outlet.
PERSEUS Perissus, come with me: for thou wert kind To my fair sweetness; it shall be remembered.
PERISSUS There was nothing astonishing in that: I am as chock-full with natural kindness as a rabbit is with guts; I have bowels, great Perseus. For am I not Perissus? am I not the butcher?
They go out: the curtain falls.
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The audience-chamber of the Palace.
Cepheus, Cassiopea, Andromeda, Cydone, Praxilla, Medes.
CEPHEUS A sudden ending to our sudden evils Propitious gods have given us, Cassiopea. Pursued by panic the Assyrian flees Abandoning our borders.
CASSIOPEA And I have got My children's faces back upon my bosom. What gratitude can ever recompense That godlike youth whose swift and glorious rescue Lifted us out of Hell so radiantly?
CYDONE He has taken his payment in one small white coin Mounted with gold; and more he will not ask for.
CASSIOPEA Your name's Cydone, child? your face is strange. You are not of the slave-girls.
CYDONE O I am! Iolaus' slave-girl, though he calls me sometimes His queen: but that is only to beguile me.
ANDROMEDA Oh, mother, you must know my sweet Cydone.
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I shall think you love me little if you do not Take her into your bosom: for she alone, When I was lonely with my breaking heart, Came to me with sweet haste and comforted My soul with kisses,—yes, even when the terror Was rising from the sea, surrounded me With her light lovely babble, till I felt Sorrow was not in the same world as she. And but for her I might have died of grief Ere rescue came.
CASSIOPEA What wilt thou ask of me, Even to a crown, Cydone? thou shalt have it.
CYDONE Nothing, unless 'tis leave to stand before you And be for ever Iolaus' slave-girl Unchidden.
CASSIOPEA Thou shalt be more than that, my daughter.
CYDONE I have two mothers: a double Iolaus I had already. O you girl-Iolaus, You shall not marry Perseus: you are mine now. Oh, if you have learned to blush!
ANDROMEDA (stopping her mouth) Hush, you mad babbler! Or I will smother your wild mouth with mine.
Perseus and Iolaus enter.
CEPHEUS O welcome, brilliant victor, mighty Perseus! Saviour of Syria, angel of the gods,
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Kind was the fate that led thee to our shores.
CASSIOPEA (embracing Iolaus) Iolaus, Iolaus, my son! My golden-haired delight they would have murdered! Perseus, hast thou a mother?
PERSEUS One like thee In love, O Queen, though less in royalty.
CASSIOPEA What can I give thee then who hast the world To move in, thy courage and thy radiant beauty, And a tender mother? Yet take my blessing, Perseus, To help thee: for the mightiest strengths are broken And divine favour lasts not long, but blessings Of those thou helpest with thy kindly strength Upon life's rugged way, can never fail thee.
CEPHEUS And what shall I give, seed of bright Olympus? Wilt thou have half my kingdom, Argive Perseus?
PERSEUS Thy kingdom falls by right to Iolaus In whom I shall enjoy it. One gift thou hadst I might have coveted, but she is mine, O monarch: I have taken her from death For my possession.
CEPHEUS My sunny Andromeda! But there's the Tyrian: yet he gave her up To death and cannot now reclaim her.
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IOLAUS Father, The Babylonian merchants wait, and Cireas: The people's leaders and thy army's captains Are eager to renew an interrupted Obedience.
CEPHEUS Admit them all to me: go, Medes.
As Medes goes out, Diomede enters.
ANDROMEDA Diomede! playmate! you too have come quite safe Out of the storm. I thought we both must founder.
DIOMEDE Oh, yes, and now you'll marry Perseus, leave me No other playmate than Praxilla's whippings To keep me lively!
ANDROMEDA Therefore 'tis you look So discontent and sullen? Clear your face, I'll drag you to the world's far end with me, And take in my own hands Praxilla's duty. Will that please you?
DIOMEDE As if your little hand could hurt! I'm off, Praxilla, to pick scarlet berries In Argolis and hear the seabirds' cries And Ocean singing to the Cyclades. I'll buy you brand new leather for a relic To whip the memory of me with sometimes, Praxilla.
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PRAXILLA You shall taste it then before you go. You'll make a fine fair couple of wilfulnesses. I pity Perseus.
ANDROMEDA You are well rid of us, My poor Praxilla.
PRAXILLA Princess, little Princess, My hands will be lighter, but my heart too heavy.
Therops and Dercetes enter with the Captains of the army, Cireas, Tyrnaus and Smerdas.
ALL Hail, you restored high royalties of Syria.
THEROPS O King, accept us, be the past forgotten.
CEPHEUS It is forgotten, Therops. Welcome, Dercetes. Thy friend Nebassar is asleep. He has done His service for the day and taken payment.
CASSIOPEA His blood is a deep stain on Syria's bosom.
DERCETES On us the stain lies, Queen: but we will drown it In native streams, when we go forth to scourge The Assyrian in his home.
THEROPS Death for one's King Only less noble is than for one's country.
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This foreign soldier taught us that home lesson.
CASSIOPEA Therops, there are kings still in Syria?
THEROPS Great Queen, Remember not my sins.
CASSIOPEA They are buried deep, Thy bold rebellion,—even thy cruel slanders, If only thou wilt serve me as my friend True to thy people in me. Will this be hard for thee?
THEROPS O noble lady, you pay wrongs with favours! I am yours for ever, I and all this people.
CIREAS (to Diomede) This it is to be an orator! We shall hear him haranguing the people next market-day on fidelity to princes and the divine right of queens to have favourites.
IOLAUS Cireas, old bribe-taker, art thou living? Did Poseidon forget thee?
CIREAS I pray you, Prince, remind me not of past foolishness. I have grown pious. I will never speak ill again of authorities and divinities.
IOLAUS Thou art grown ascetic? thou carest no longer then for gold? I am glad, for my purse will be spared a very heavy lightening.
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CIREAS Prince, I will not suffer my young piety to make you break old promises; for if it is perilous to sin, it is worse to be the cause of sin in others.
IOLAUS Thou shalt have gold and farms. I will absolve Andromeda's promise and my own.
CIREAS Great Plutus! O happy Cireas!
IOLAUS Merchant Tyrnaus, art thou for Chaldea?
TYRNAUS When I have seen these troubles' joyous end And your sweet princess, my young rescuer, Happily wedded.
IOLAUS I will give thee a ship And merchandise enough to fill thy losses.
PERSEUS And prayers with them, O excellent Chaldean. The world has need of men like thee.
SMERDAS (aside) I quake. What will they say to me? I shall be tortured And crucified. But she with her smile will save me.
IOLAUS Smerdas, thou unclean treacherous coward soul!
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SMERDAS Alas, I was compelled by threats of torture.
IOLAUS And tempted too with gold. Thy punishment Shall hit thee in thy nature. Farmer Cireas!
CIREAS Prince Plutus!
IOLAUS Take thou this man for slave. He's strong. Work him upon thy fields and thy plantations.
SMERDAS O this is worst of all.
IOLAUS Not worse than thy desert. For gold thou lustest? earn it for another. Thou'lt save thy life? it is a freedman's chattel.
SMERDAS O speak for me, lady Andromeda!
ANDROMEDA Dear Iolaus,—
CEPHEUS My child, thou art all pity; But justice has her seat, and her fine balance Disturbed too often spoils an unripe world With ill-timed mercy. Thy brother speaks my will.
IOLAUS Thou hast increased thy crime by pleading to her Whom thou betrayedst to her death. Art thou
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Quite shameless? Hold thy peace!
ANDROMEDA Grieve not too much. Cireas will be kind to thee; wilt thou not, Cireas?
CIREAS At thy command I will be even that And even to him.
Noise outside.
CEPHEUS What other dangerous clamour Is at our gates?
Perissus enters, brandishing his cleaver.
PERISSUS Pull out that sharp skewer of thine, comrade Perseus, or let me handle my cleaver.
CEPHEUS Thou art angry, butcher? Who has disturbed thy noble serenity?
PERISSUS King Cepheus, shall I not be angry? Art thou not again our majesty of Syria? And shall our majesty be insulted with noses? Shall it be prodded by a proboscis? Perseus, thou hast slaughtered yonder palaeozoic ichthyosaurus; wilt thou suffer me to chop this neozoan?
PERSEUS Calmly, precisely and not so polysyllabically, my good Perissus. Tell the King what is this clamour.
PERISSUS My monarch, Phineus of Tyre has brought his long-nosed royalty to thy gates and poke it he will into thy kingly presence.
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His blusterings, King, have flustered my calm great heart within me.
CEPHEUS Comes he alone?
PERISSUS Damoetes and some scores more hang on to his long tail of hook-nosed Tyrians; but they are all rabble and proletariate, not a citizen butcher in the whole picking. They brandish skewers; they threaten to poke me with their dainty iron spits,—me, Perissus, me, the butcher!
CEPHEUS Phineus in arms! This is the after-swell Of tempest.
PERSEUS Let the Phoenician enter, comrade.
Perissus goes out.
Look not so blank. This man with all his crew Shall be my easy care.
Phineus enters the hall with a great company, Tyrians with drawn swords, Damoetes, Morus and others; after them Perissus.
CEPHEUS Welcome, Tyre.
CASSIOPEA Thou breakest armed into our presence, Phineus. Had they been earlier there, these naked swords Would have been welcome.
PHINEUS I am not here for welcome, Lady. King Cepheus, wilt thou yield me right,
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Or shall I take it with my sword?
CEPHEUS Phineus, I never have withheld even from the meanest The least thing he could call his right.
PHINEUS Thou hast not? Who gives then to a wandering Greek my bride, Thy perfect daughter?
CASSIOPEA She was in some peril, When thou wert absent, Tyre.
PHINEUS A vain young man, A brilliant sworder wandering for a name, Who calls himself the son of Danaë, And who his father was, the midnight knows. This is the lord thou giv'st Andromeda, Scorning the mighty King of ancient Tyre.
CEPHEUS He saved her from the death to which we left her, And she was his,—his wife, if so he chose, Or, conquered by the sword from grim Poseidon, His then to take her as he would from that moment.
PHINEUS Do his deeds or thy neglect annul thy promise?
IOLAUS King Phineus, wilt thou take up and lay down At pleasure? Who leaves a jewel in the mud, Shall he complain because another took it?
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PRAXILLA And she was never his; she hated him.
PHINEUS I'll hear no reasons, but with strong force have her, Though it be to lift her o'er the dearest blood Of all her kin. Tyrians!
Andromeda takes refuge with Perseus.
Abandon, princess, The stripling bosom where thou tak'st thy refuge. Thou hast mistook thy home, Andromeda.
IOLAUS 'Tis thou mistakest, Phineus, thinking her A bride who, touched, shall be thy doom. Get hence Unhurt.
PHINEUS Prince Iolaus, the sword that cut Thy contract to Poseidon, cuts not mine,— Which if you void, thou and thy father pay for it.
PERSEUS Phineus of Tyre, it may be thou art wronged, But 'tis not at his hands whom thou impugnest. Her father gave her not to me.
PHINEUS Her mother then? She is the man, I think, in Syria's household.
PERSEUS Her too I asked not.
PHINEUS Thou wooedst then the maid? It shall not help thee though a thousand times
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She kissed thee yes. Pretty Andromeda, Wilt thou have for thy lord this vagabond, Wander with him as beggars land and sea? Despite thyself I'll save thee from that fate Unworthy of thy beauty and thy sweetness, And make thee Queen in Tyre. Minion of Argos, Learn, ere thou grasp at other's goods, to ask The owner, not the owned.
PERSEUS I did not ask her.
PHINEUS Then by what right, presumptuous, hast thou her? Or wherefore lies she thus within thy arm?
PERSEUS Say, by what right, King Phineus, thou wouldst take her, Herself and all refusing?
PHINEUS By my precontract.
PERSEUS Thou gavest her to Death, that contract's broken. Or if thou seekest to revoke thy gift, Foregather then with Death and ask him for her. The way to him is easy.
PHINEUS Then by my sword, Not asking her or any, because I am a king, I'll take her.
PERSEUS If the sword is the sole judge, Then by my own sword I have taken her, Tyrian,
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Not asking her or any, who am king O'er her, her sovereign. This soft gold is mine And mine these banks of silver; this rich country Is my possession and owes to my strong taking All her sweet revenues in honey. Phineus, I wonder not that thou dost covet her Whom the whole world might want. Wrest her from me, Phoenician; to her father she belongs not.
(opening his wallet)
King Phineus, art thou ready? Yet look once more On the blue sky and this green earth of Syria.
PHINEUS Young man, thou hast done deeds I'll not belittle. Yet was it only a sea-beast and a rabble Whom thou hast tamed; I am a prince and warrior. Wilt thou fright me with thy aegis?
PERSEUS Not fright, but end thee; For thou hast spoken words deserving death. Come forth into the open, this is no place For battle. Marshal thy warlike crew against me, And let thy Syrian mob-men help with shouts: Stand in their front to lead them; I alone Will meet their serried charge, Dercetes merely Watching us.
PHINEUS Thou art frantic with past triumphs: Argive, desist. I would not rob thy mother Of her sole joy, howe'er she came by thee. The gods may punish her sweet midnight fault, To whom her dainty trickery imputes it.
PERSEUS Come now, lest here I slay thee.
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PHINEUS Thou art in love With death: but I am pitiful, young Perseus; Thou shalt not die. My men shall take thee living And pedlars hawk thee for a slave in Tyre, Where thou shalt see sometimes far off Andromeda, A Queen of nations.
PERSEUS Thou compassionate man! But I will give thee, hero, marvellous death And stone for monument, which thou deservest; For thou wert a great King and famous warrior, When still thou wert living. Forth and fight with me! Afterwards if thou canst, come for Andromeda; None shall oppose thy seizure. Behind me, captain, So that the rabble here may not be tempted To any treacherous stroke.
Phineus goes out with the Tyrians, Damoetes and the Syrian favourers of Phineus, followed by Perseus and Dercetes. Cireas behind them at a distance.
CEPHEUS Sunbeam, I am afraid.
ANDROMEDA I am not, father.
CEPHEUS Alone against so many!
IOLAUS Shall I go, father, And stand by him?
CEPHEUS He might be angry. Hark!
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The voice of Phineus.
IOLAUS He cries some confident order.
CEPHEUS The Tyrians shout for onset; he is doomed.
There is a moment's pause, all listening, painfully.
IOLAUS The shouts are stilled; there is a sudden hush.
CEPHEUS What can it mean? This silence is appalling.
What news? Thou treadest like one sleeping, captain.
DERCETES O King, thy royal court is full of monuments.
CEPHEUS What meanest thou? What happened? Where is Perseus?
DERCETES King Phineus called to his men to take alive The Greek; but as they charged, great Perseus cried, "Close eyes, Dercetes, if thou car'st to live," And I obeyed, yet saw that he had taken A snaky something from the wallet's mouth He carries on his baldric. Blind I waited And heard the loud approaching charge. Then suddenly The rapid footsteps ceased, the cries fell dumb And a great silence reigned. Astonishment For two brief moments only held me close; But when I lifted my sealed lids, the court Was full of those swift charging warriors stiffened To stone or stiffening, in the very posture
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Of onset, sword uplifted, shield advanced, Knee crooked, foot carried forward to the pace, An animated silence, life in stone. Only the godlike victor lived, a smile Upon his lips, closing his wallet's mouth. Then I, appalled, came from that place in silence.
CEPHEUS Soldier, he is a god, or else the gods Walk close to him. I hear his footsteps coming.
Perseus returns, followed by Cireas.
Hail, Perseus!
PERSEUS King, the Tyrians all are dead, Nor needst thou build them pyres nor dig them graves. If any hereafter ask what perfect sculptor Chiselled these forms in Syria's royal court, Say then, "Athene, child armipotent Of the Olympian, hewed by Perseus' hand In one divine and careless stroke these statues To her give glory."
CEPHEUS O thou dreadful victor! I know not what to say nor how to praise thee.
PERSEUS Say nothing, King; in silence praise the Gods. Let this not trouble you, my friends. Proceed As if no interruption had disturbed you.
CIREAS O Zeus, I thought thou couldst juggle only with feathers and phosphorus, but I see thou canst give wrinkles in magic to Babylon and the Medes. (shaking himself) Ugh! this was a stony conjuring. I cannot feel sure yet that I am not myself a statue.
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PERISSUS (who has gone out and returned) What hast thou done, comrade Perseus? Thou hast immortalised his long nose to all time in stone! This is a woeful thing for posterity; thou hadst no right to leave behind thee for its dismay such a fossil.
CEPHEUS What now is left but to prepare the nuptials Of sweet young sunny-eyed Andromeda With mighty Perseus?
PERSEUS King, let it be soon That I may go to my blue-ringed Seriphos, Where my mother waits and more deeds call to me.
CASSIOPEA Yet if thy heart consents, then three months give us, O Perseus, of thyself and our sweet child, And then abandon.
PERSEUS They are given.
ANDROMEDA Perseus, You give and never ask; let me for you Ask something.
PERSEUS Ask, Andromeda, and have.
ANDROMEDA Then this I ask that thy great deeds may leave Their golden trace on Syria. Let the dire cult For ever cease and victims bleed no more On its dark altar. Instead, Athene's name
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Spread over all the land and in men's hearts. Then shall a calm and mighty Will prevail And broader minds and kindlier manners reign And men grow human, mild and merciful.
PERSEUS King Cepheus, thou hast heard; shall this be done?
CEPHEUS Hero, thou cam'st to change our world for us. Pronounce; I give assent.
PERSEUS Then let the shrine That looked out from earth's breast into the sunlight, Be cleansed of its red memory of blood, And the dread Form that lived within its precincts Transfigure into a bright compassionate God Whose strength shall aid men tossed upon the seas, Give succour to the shipwrecked mariner. A noble centre of a people's worship, To Zeus and great Athene build a temple Between your sky-topped hills and Ocean's vasts: Her might shall guard your lives and save your land. In your human image of her deity A light of reason and calm celestial force And a wise tranquil government of life, Order and beauty and harmonious thoughts And, ruling the waves of impulse, high-throned will Incorporate in marble, the carved and white Ideal of a young uplifted race. For these are her gifts to those who worship her. Adore and what you adore attempt to be.
CEPHEUS Will the fiercer Grandeur that was here permit?
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PERSEUS Fear not Poseidon; the strong god is free. He has withdrawn from his own darkness and is now His new great self at an Olympian height.
CASSIOPEA How can the immortal gods and Nature change?
PERSEUS All alters in a world that is the same. Man most must change who is a soul of Time; His gods too change and live in larger light.
CEPHEUS Then man too may arise to greater heights, His being draw nearer to the gods?
PERSEUS Perhaps. But the blind nether forces still have power And the ascent is slow and long is Time. Yet shall Truth grow and harmony increase: The day shall come when men feel close and one. Meanwhile one forward step is something gained, Since little by little earth must open to heaven Till her dim soul awakes into the Light.
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