University of Virginia Library

SCENE THE SECOND.

Agesistrata, Leonidas, Anpharus.
Ages.
Who interrupts my progress? While I go
To the asylum of the Spartan monarch,
Around these confines do I not behold
Another, and new king of Sparta stalk?

Le.
And had I an asylum in the world
On that disastrous day, when Sparta's king
From Sparta I was driven? For a long time
I lived in exile from the throne; and lived,
Which is far worse, apparently a culprit.
Grief would have slain me, if my innocence,
Together with my usurp'd majesty,
Had not been fully to myself restored
By wiser councils of that very Sparta.
Cleombrotus, my execrable rival,
Banish'd from Sparta, he, to whom thy son,
Master of all things then, my sceptre gave,
Himself made my defence. To publish his,
Why delays Agis? He was on the throne
My colleague; yet he is my daughter's consort;
And may, if so it please him, be my foe.—
But say, what other cause except his guilt
Detains him now imprison'd in the temple?

Ages.
Leonidas, to Sparta and to me
Thou art but too well known: what are thy faults,
And what are those of Agis, is express'd
In a few words. Agis wish'd Sparta free;
Equal her citizens, courageous, strong,
And terrible: true Spartans: and he wish'd,
Not to be paramount to any man,
Except in magnanimity and virtue.
Rich, mercenary, sunk in indolence,
Effeminate, by party spirit torn,
Such as she is in short, Leonidas
Desired her still to be. To guilt ascribed
Are Agis' purposes, because the bad
In Sparta o'er the good preponderate;
Those of Leonidas ascribed to virtue,
Because they are adapted to the times.
To-day, at least, remember if thou canst,
That my son shew'd himself the open foe
Of thy power only, never of thy person;
Reflect that now thou would'st not live, if he,
More citizen than king, had not preserved,
And perhaps to his own detriment, thy life.

Le.
'Tis true, that Agis, perhaps in spite of thee,
On that same day on which thy cruel brother
Sent vile assassins to destroy my life,
By other satellites, to him attach'd,
Preserved me living, and exempt from wounds:
But can a banish'd king, of throne bereft,
Bereft of honour and of innocence,
By a fierce rival, his ill-granted life
Ascribe to generous impulses of pity?

Ages.
The gift was no less noble than imprudent:
Agis himself so deem'd it; but innate
Is magnanimity in that great heart.
Th'illustrious Agis would not, with thy blood,
Contaminate the enterprise, at once
Unparallel'd and generous, of a king,
Resolved spontaneously to reinstate
His people in illimitable freedom.
I ne'er dissuaded him from pardoning thee;
And perhaps should have attempted it in vain:
Mother of Agis, could I e'er betray
A heart less high than that of such a son?
'Tis true, I call Agesilaus brother;
But now of such a name he is unworthy.
With florid eloquence, and specious virtues,
Covering his irreclaimable corruption,
Agis and Sparta, and with these myself,
He hath deceived ...

Le.
Never Leonidas.

Ages.
He was thy counterpart, and thence well known.
To take for ever from the creditors
And debtors, from the rich and mendicants,
Their Anti-Spartan names, Agesilaus,
More than all other men, persuaded Agis.
Seeing himself by our example forced
To sacrifice his riches, and subdued
By brutal avarice, disgracing thus
Th'ephori's sacred function, he forbade
The high participation. Hence the people,
Confused, and more oppress'd, in doubt and fear
Betwixt their not extinguish'd servitude,
And their confounded, scarce reviving freedom,
Recall'd thee to the throne: and chose in thee
A worthy instrument to prop once more
Their soft, incurably corrupted customs.
That very people, to thy hands gave bound
Cleombrotus, erewhile elected king:
That very people to the custody
Of an asylum only relegates
Agis, their monarch once so idolized.

An.
Far more is he protected by the laws,
Than by this his asylum. Though he be
Th'annuller and subverter of those laws,
Yet does he owe to them and us his safety.
To us, true ephori, before all Sparta,
Will he be challenged to defend himself:
Provided he can prove his innocence,
He need not fear the monarch or his people.

Le.
If in his heart he is not self-accused,
Whence this asylum? Why not summon me
To an impartial judgment at the just
And popular tribunal?

Ages.
Because thou
Dost render it (of virtue destitute)
Thy instrument with bribery and arms.
Because thou dost return full of revenge,
Which that tribunal too well knows: in short,
Because thy new, not Spartan ephori,
Other than legal terrors fulminate.
My Agis knows not fear; but he would snatch
Himself from infamy; which evermore
He who usurps authority, on others
Can, for a transient space at least, bestow.

Le.
What will thy Agis do then? He cannot
Now longer keep himself conceal'd, if he
Fear real infamy.

An.
Much less can Sparta,
In her existing strange vicissitudes,
Endure the loss of one of her two kings.
Agis still bears the name, yet he performs not
The necessary functions of a king:
Meanwhile within its ramparts, and without
Sparta is insecure; its institutes
Are all despised; and there is need ...

Ages.
Of Agis;
And with him need of every thing that's good.
The enemies of Sparta know this truth
As well as we, in whose breasts Agis only
Revived a terror of our arms. Yes, Agis,
The beardless Agis, made the Ætolians tremble,
On whom the great Aratus, hoary leader,
Made no impression with his fierce Achaians.
I do conjure thee now, Leonidas,
To undertake no scheme for his destruction.
For notwithstanding fate, often unjust,
Should crown thy efforts now in the attempt,
From thence would'st thou in course of time entail
Heavy disgrace and blame upon thyself,
And on thy country lasting detriment.
A know not whether country be to thee
A sacred name; but among us it is
A name so strong and paramount to all,
That if a fleeting doubt rose in my heart
Whether the thoughts, much more the deeds of Agis,
Were all directed to the good of Sparta,
I, though his mother, I would first implore
Against my son, in all its plenitude,
The inexorable rigour of the laws.
Act thou then now according to thy judgment,
Nor Agis, nor who brought him into life,
Save for their country and their countrymen
Can ever tremble: thou, although in arms,
And in a prosperous state, within thy heart
Self-conscious, tremble for thyself alone.

Le.
Lady, thou art a mother, and of one
Thou art a mother who possess'd the sceptre,
Hence I excuse thee. Fear in you dwells not;
So say'st thou. May its absence be auspicious;
But the ephori and Sparta, and myself
Give to you only one whole day to prove
This innocence of yours, for ever vaunted,
And never proved. Let him at last come forth,
And exculpate himself; and even me,
If so he will, let him accuse: his choice,
Except in reference to this asylum,
Is free in all things else. But say to him,
If he persist to sequestrate himself,
That Sparta by to-morrow's dawn no more
Deems him her king, and I no more a colleague.