Selected Poems

by Byron

  Of Nineveh’s vast treasures e’er been lavish’d

  On objects which could cost her sons a tear:

  If then they hate me, ’tis because I hate not:

  If they rebel, ’tis because I oppress not.

  Oh, men! ye must be ruled with scythes, not sceptres,

  415

  And mowd down like the grass, else all we reap

  Is rank abundance, and a rotten harvest

  Of discontents infecting the fair soil,

  Making a desert of fertility. –

  I’ll think no more. — Within there, ho!

  [Enter an ATTENDANT.]

  SARDANAPALUS:Slave, tell

  420

  The Ionian Myrrha we would crave her presence.

  ATTENDANT: King, she is here.

  [MYRRHA enters.]

  SARDANAPALUS [apart to ATTENDANT]: Away!

  [Addressing MYRRHA]Beautiful being!

  Thou dost almost anticipate my heart;

  It throbb’d for thee, and here thou comest: let me

  Deem that some unknown influence, some sweet oracle,

  425

  Communicates between us, though unseen,

  In absence, and attracts us to each other.

  MYRRHA: There doth.

  SARDANAPALUS:I know there doth, but not its name:

  What is it?

  MYRRHA: In my native land a God,

  And in my heart a feeling like a God’s,

  430

  Exalted; yet I own ’tis only mortal;

  For what I feel is humble, and yet happy –

  That is, it would be happy; but —

  [MYRRHA pauses.]

  SARDANAPALUS:There comes

  For ever something between us and what

  We deem our happiness: let me remove

  435

  The barrier which that hesitating accent

  Proclaims to thine, and mine is seal’d.

  MYRRHA: My lord! –

  SARDANAPALUS: My lord – my king – sire – sovereign;

  thus it is –

  For ever thus, address’d with awe. I ne’er

  Can see a smile, unless in some broad banquet’s

  440

  Intoxicating glare, when the buffoons

  Have gorged themselves up to equality,

  Or I have quaff’d me down to their abasement.

  Myrrha, I can hear all these things, these names,

  Lord – king – sire – monarch – nay, time was I prized them;

  445

  That is, I suffer’d them – from slaves and nobles;

  But when they falter from the lips I love,

  The lips which have been press’d to mine, a chill

  Comes o’er my heart, a cold sense of the falsehood

  Of this my station, which represses feeling

  450

  In those for whom I have felt most, and makes me

  Wish that I could lay down the dull tiara,

  And share a cottage on the Caucasus

  With thee, and wear no crowns but those of flowers.

  MYRRHA: Would that we could!

  SARDANAPALUS: And dost thou feel this? – Why?

  455

  MYRRHA: Then thou wouldst know what thou canst never know.

  SARDANAPALUS: And that is

  MYRRHA:The true value of a heart;

  At least, a woman’s.

  SARDANAPALUS: I have proved a thousand –

  A thousand, and a thousand.

  MYRRHA:Hearts?

  SARDANAPALUS:I think so.

  MYRRHA: Not one! the time may come thou may’st.

  SARDANAPALUS:It will.

  460

  Hear, Myrrha; Salemenes has declared –

  Or why or how he hath divined it, Belus,

  Who founded our great realm, knows more than I –

  But Salemenes hath declared my throne

  In peril.

  MYRRHA: He did well.

  SARDANAPALUS:And say’st thou so?

  465

  Thou whom he spurn’d so harshly, and now dared

  Drive from our presence with his savage jeers,

  And made thee weep and blush?

  MYRRHA:I should do both

  More frequently, and he did well to call me

  Back to my duty. But thou spakest of peril –

  470

  Peril to thee —

  SARDANAPALUS: Ay, from dark plots and snares

  From Medes — and discontented troops and nations.

  I know not what – a labyrinth of things –

  A maze of mutter’d threats and mysteries:

  Thou know’st the man – it is his usual custom.

  475

  But he is honest. Come, we’ll think no more on ’t -

  But of the midnight festival.

  MYRRHA:’Tis time

  To think of aught save festivals. Thou hast not

  Spurn’d his sage cautions?

  SARDANAPALUS: What? – and dost thou fear?

  MYRRHA: Fear? – I’m a Greek, and how should I fear death?

  480

  A slave, and wherefore should I dread my freedom?

  SARDANAPALUS: Then wherefore dost thou turn so pale?

  MYRRHA: I love.

  SARDANAPALUS: And do not I? I love thee far – far more

  Than either the brief life or the wide realm,

  Which it may be are menaced; – yet I blench not.

  485

  MYRRHA: That means thou lovest nor thyself nor me;

  For he who loves another loves himself,

  Even for that other’s sake. This is too rash:

  Kingdoms and lives are not to be so lost.

  SARDANAPALUS: Lost! – why, who is the aspiring chief who dared

  490

  Assume to win them?

  MYRRHA: Who is he should dread

  To try so much? When he who is their ruler

  Forgets himself, will they remember him?

  SARDANAPALUS: Myrrha!

  MYRRHA:Frown not upon me: you have smiled

  Too often on me not to make those frowns

  495

  Bitterer to bear than any punishment

  Which they may augur. – King, I am your subject!

  Master, I am your slave! Man, I have loved you! –

  Loved you, I know not by what fatal weakness,

  Although a Greek, and born a foe to monarchs –

  500

  A slave, and hating fetters – an Ionian,

  And, therefore, when I love a stranger, more

  Degraded by that passion than by chains!

  Still I have loved you. If that love were strong

  Enough to overcome all former nature,

  505

  Shall it not claim the privilege to save you?

  SARDANAPALUS: Save me, my beauty! Thou art very fair,

  And what I seek of thee is love – not safety.

  MYRRHA: And without love where dwells security?

  SARDANAPALUS: I speak of woman’s love.

  MYRRHA:The very first

  510

  Of human life must spring from woman’s breast,

  Your first small words are taught you from her lips,

  Your first tears quench’d by her, and your last sighs

  Too often breathed out in a woman’s hearing,

  When men have shrunk from the ignoble care

  515

  Of watching the last hour of him who led them.

  SARDANAPALUS: My eloquent Ionian! thou speak’st music,

  The very chorus of the tragic song

  I have heard thee talk of as the favourite pastime

  Of thy far father-land. Nay, weep not – calm thee.

  520

  MYRRHA: I weep not. – But I pray thee, do not speak

  About my fathers or their land.

  SARDANAPALUS:Yet oft

  Thou speakest of them.

  MYRRHA: True – true: constant thought
<
br />   Will overflow in words unconsciously;

  But when another speaks of Greece, it wounds me.

  525

  SARDANAPALUS: Well, then, how wouldst thou save me, as thou saidst?

  MYRRHA: By teaching thee to save thyself, and not

  Thyself alone, but these vast realms, from all

  The rage of the worst war – the war of brethren.

  SARDANAPALUS: Why, child, I loathe all war, and warriors;

  530

  I live in peace and pleasure: what can man

  Do more?

  MYRRHA: Alas! my lord, with common men

  There needs too oft the show of war to keep

  The substance of sweet peace; and, for a king,

  ’Tis sometimes better to be fear’d than loved.

  535

  SARDANAPALUS: And I have never sought but for the last.

  MYRRHA: And now art neither.

  SARDANAPALUS:Dost thou say so, Myrrha?

  MYRRHA: I speak of civic popular love, self-love,

  Which means that men are kept in awe and law,

  Yet not oppress’d – at least they must not think so;

  540

  Or if they think so, deem it necessary,

  To ward off worse oppression, their own passions.

  A king of feasts, and flowers, and wine, and revel,

  And love, and mirth, was never king of glory.

  SARDANAPALUS: Glory! what’s that?

  MYRRHA: Ask of the gods thy fathers.

  545

  SARDANAPALUS: They cannot answer; when the priests speak for them,

  ’Tis for some small addition to the temple.

  MYRRHA: Look to the annals of thine empire’s founders.

  SARDANAPALUS: They are so blotted o’er with blood, I cannot.

  But what wouldst have? the empire has been founded.

  550

  I cannot go on multiplying empires.

  MYRRHA: Preserve thine own.

  SARDANAPALUS:At least, I will enjoy it.

  Come, Myrrha, let us go on to the Euphrates:

  The hour invites, the galley is prepared,

  And the pavilion, deck’d for our return,

  555

  In fit adornment for the evening banquet,

  Shall blaze with beauty and with light, until

  It seems unto the stars which are above us

  Itself an opposite star; and we will sit

  Crown’d with fresh flowers like —

  MYRRHA: Victims.

  SARDANAPALUS:No, like sovereigns,

  560

  The shepherd king of patriarchal times,

  Who knew no brighter gems than summer wreaths,

  And none but tearless triumphs. Let us on.

  [Enter PANIA.]

  PANIA : May the king live for ever!

  SARDANAPALUS:Not an hour

  Longer than he can love. How my soul hates

  565

  This language, which makes life itself a lie,

  Flattering dust with eternity. Well, Pania!

  Be brief.

  PANIA: I am charged by Salemenes to

  Reiterate his prayer unto the king,

  That for this day, at least, he will not quit

  570

  The palace: when the general returns,

  He will adduce such reasons as will warrant

  His daring, and perhaps obtain the pardon

  Of his presumption.

  SARDANAPALUS:What! am I then coop’d?

  Already captive? can I not even breathe

  575

  The breath of heaven? Tell prince Salemenes,

  Were all Assyria raging round the walls

  In mutinous myriads, I would still go forth.

  PANIA: I must obey, and yet —

  MYRRHA: Oh, monarch, listen. –

  How many a day and moon thou hast reclined

  580

  Within these palace walls in silken dalliance,

  And never shown thee to thy people’s longing;

  Leaving thy subjects’ eyes ungratified,

  The satraps uncontroll’d, the gods unworshipp’d,

  And all things in the anarchy of sloth,

  585

  Till all, save evil, slumber’d through the realm!

  And wilt thou not now tarry for a day, —

  A day which may redeem thee? Wilt thou not

  Yield to the few still faithful a few hours,

  For them, for thee, for thy past father’s race,

  590

  And for thy sons’ inheritance?

  PANIA: ’Tis true!

  From the deep urgency with which the prince

  Despatch’d me to your sacred presence, I

  Must dare to add my feeble voice to that

  Which now has spoken.

  SARDANAPALUS:No, it must not be.

  595

  MYRRHA: For the sake of thy realm!

  SARDANAPALUS:Away!

  PANIA:For that

  Of all thy faithful subjects, who will rally

  Round thee and thine.

  SARDANAPALUS:These are mere fantasies;

  There is no peril: – ’tis a sullen scheme

  Of Salemenes, to approve his zeal,

  600

  And show himself more necessary to us.

  MYRRHA: By all that’s good and glorious take this counsel.

  SARDANAPALUS: Business to-morrow.

  MYRRHA:Ay, or death to-night.

  SARDANAPALUS: Why let it come then unexpectedly

  ‘Midst joy and gentleness, and mirth and love;

  605

  So let me fall like the pluck’d rose! – far better

  Thus than be wither’d.

  MYRRHA:Then thou wilt not yield,

  Even for the sake of all that ever stirr’d

  A monarch into action, to forego

  A trifling revel.

  SARDANAPALUS: No.

  MYRRHA:Then yield for mine;

  610

  For my sake!

  SARDANAPALUS: Thine, my Myrrha!

  MYRRHA: ’Tis the first

  Boon which I ever ask’d Assyria’s king.

  SARDANAPALUS: That’s true, and wer’t my kingdom must be granted.

  Well, for thy sake, I yield me. Pania, hence!

  Thou hear’st me.

  PANIA:And obey.

  [Exit PANIA.]

  SARDANAPALUS:I marvel at thee.

  615

  What is thy motive, Myrrha, thus to urge me?

  MYRRHA: Thy safety; and the certainty that nought

  Could urge the prince thy kinsman to require

  Thus much from thee, but some impending danger.

  SARDANAPALUS: And if I do not dread it, why shouldst thou?

  620

  MYRRHA: Because thou dost not fear, I fear for thee.

  SARDANAPALUS: Tomorrow thou wilt smile at these vain fancies.

  MYRRHA: If the worst come, I shall be where none weep,

  And that is better than the power to smile.

  And thou?

  SARDANAPALUS: I shall be king, as heretofore.

  625

  MYRRHA: Where?

  SARDANAPALUS: With Baal, Nimrod, and Semiramis, Sole in Assyria, or with them elsewhere.

  Fate made me what I am – may make me nothing —

  But either that or nothing must I be:

  I will not live degraded.

  MYRRHA: Hadst thou felt

  630

  Thus always, none would ever dare degrade thee.

  SARDANAPALUS: And who will do so now?

  MYRRHA: Dost thou suspect none?

  SARDANAPALUS: Suspect! – that’s a spy’s office. Oh! we lose

  Ten thousand precious moments in vain words,

  And vainer fears. Within there! – ye slaves, deck

  635

  The hall of Nimrod for the evening revel:

  If I must make a prison of our palace,

  At least we’ll w
ear our fetters jocundly;

  If the Euphrates be forbid us, and

  The summer dwelling on its beauteous border,

  640

  Here we are still unmenaced. Ho! within there!

  [Exit SARDANAPALUS.]

  MYRRHA [sola]: Why do I love this man? My country’s daughters

  Love none but heroes. But I have no country!

  The slave hath lost all save her bonds. I love him;

  And that’s the heaviest link of the long chain —

  645

  To love whom we esteem not. Be it so:

  The hour is coming when he’ll need all love,

  And find none. To fall from him now were baser

  Than to have stabb’d him on his throne when highest

  Would have been noble in my country’s creed:

  650

  I was not made for either. Could I save him,

  I should not love him better, but myself;

  And I have need of the last, for I have fallen

  In my own thoughts, by loving this soft stranger:

  And yet methinks I love him more, perceiving

  655

  That he is hated of his own barbarians,

  The natural foes of all the blood of Greece.

  Could I but wake a single thought like those

  Which even the Phrygians felt when battling long

  ’Twixt Ilion and the sea, within his heart,

  660

  He would tread down the barbarous crowds, and triumph.

  He loves me, and I love him; the slave loves

  Her master, and would free him from his vices.

  If not, I have a means of freedom still,

  And if I cannot teach him how to reign,

  665

  May show him how alone a king can leave

  His throne. I must not lose him from my sight.

  [Exit.]

  Act II

  SCENE I

  The Portal of the same Hall of the Palace.

  BELESES [solus]: The sun goes down: methinks he sets more slowly,

  Taking his last look of Assyria’s empire.

  How red he glares amongst those deepening clouds,

  Like the blood he predicts. If not in vain,

  5

  Thou sun that sinkest, and ye stars which rise,

  I have outwatch’d ye, reading ray by ray

  The edicts of your orbs, which make Time tremble

  For what he brings the nations, ’tis the furthest

  Hour of Assyria’s years. And yet how calm!

  10

  An earthquake should announce so great a fall —

  A summer’s sun discloses it. Yon disk,

  To the star-read Chaldean, bears upon

  Its everlasting page the end of what

  Seem’d everlasting; but oh! thou true sun!

  15

  The burning oracle of all that live,

  As fountain of all life, and symbol of

  Him who bestows it, wherefore dost thou limit

  Thy lore unto calamity? Why not

  Unfold the rise of days more worthy thine

  20

  All-glorious burst from ocean? why not dart