University of Virginia Library

ACT IV.

Enter Queen, and Scythian.
Queen.
What have I heard! Arm'd Men upon the Breach!

Scyth.
Above an hundred, all with Grecian Plumes,
And Grecian Shields.

Queen.
Double the Guards around the Temple,
And strongly guard the Passes.
Who saw these Grecians?

Scyth.
As we expecting lay for your Return,
Upon the Summet of yon shaggie Mountain,
That bending its black Brow, with dreadful Scowl,
Over the gloomy Deep, affrights great Neptune,
By the pale Moon's reflected Beams we spied them:
And on the sight, dismounting all my Men,
I brought them to defend your sacred Person.

Queen.
And so, upon your March at this dead Season,
You took these Grecian Fugitives: 'Tis well;
You have done important Service, and I thank you.
But what's the Reason that the younger Captive
Is not already in my Presence?
My severe Charge how dare they disobey?

Scyth.
Behold, dread Queen, he comes.

Queen.
Then go and see my other Orders executed.
[Ex. Scyth.
Enter Pilades.
Whom wou'd not that Majestick Mien deceive?
And his Friend's God-like Eyes that look Divinity?
Why shou'd the Sacred Character of Virtue
Shine on a Villain's Countenance? Ye Pow'rs!
Why fix'd ye not a Brand on Treason's Front,
That we might know t'avoid perfidious Mortals?
[Aside.
Look if the Traytor once vouchsafes to blush!
[To him.
If still his Countenance be not assur'd!
His Eyes Commanding, and his Aspect Lordly!
How do'st thou dare, with that audacious Look,
T'affront offended Majesty?

Pil.
I know no Mortal whom I ought to fear.

Queen.
An Hypocrite, and not afraid!
What makes Hypocrisie so very odious?
Unless because 'tis Cowardice.

Pil.
Know, Queen, I scorn Hypocrisie, and know
The basest of Hypocrisies is Slander.

Queen.
And am I then defi'd, presumptuous Grecian,
And dar'd to prove my Charge?

Pil.
I dare ev'n Jove, who knows all Hearts, to prove it.

Queen.
Then, past Reply thou soon shalt stand convicted.
When I in Mercy gave you Life and Liberty,
Did you not own your self oblig'd?

Pil.
I own it.

Queen.
But when Diana's Priestess I bestow'd on you,
Did not you seem transported? Answer me.
Was not your Joy extravagant and loud?
Did you not swear, that I, of all the World,
Was she who nearest had oblig'd your Soul?

Pil.
I said it, and I thought it.

Queen.
Did you not promise to reside in Scythia?
And to engage your Friend to do the like?
That with the Service of your Life you might
Return me Thanks for the rich Present made you?
Were not these very Words your own?

Pil.
They were.

Queen.
Then think of thy base Flight, if thou dar'st think of it,
And say, thou art not a Hypocrite.
What canst thou answer to thy just Accuser?

Pil.
That which will make my Accuser say, she wrongs me.
You accuse me that I wou'd have fled: Indeed
I attempted to regain that Liberty,
Of which your Pow'r unjustly had depriv'd me.
What Reason cou'd you find, insulting Queen,
To make them Captives whom the Gods made free,
And gave them Souls deserving Liberty?
As against Nature's Laws we are your Victims,
Against the Right of Nations we're your Captives;
And any way was lawful to fair Liberty,
Which we were born for, and for which we'll die.

Queen.
That very Moment I restor'd your Liberty.

Pil.
Indeed you did restore it, but on Terms
Impossible to be perform'd by us.

Queen.
Why did you then approve them?

Phel.
I never knew them well till I had left you.

Queen.
A meer Pretence! Is Grecian Faith so known?
Had not you giv'n that Faith to remain here?

Pil.
But then that Faith was on Conditions giv'n;
Which soon I found you never cou'd perform.

Queen,
Wherefore?

Pil.
Because the Gift you offer'd, was no Gift.

Queen.
What was no Gift? The Present which you priz'd so!

Pil.
Had it been real, it had been inestimable.
You only gave me Words, and the vain Promise
Of what the Gods had taken from your Pow'r.

Queen.
Surely thou ravest,
Is not Diana's Priestess in my Pow'r?

Pil.
Her Body is; but tho' it be a glorious One
Without her Soul, I wou'd refuse the Treasure:
But love alone can of her Soul dispose;
And, without leave obtain'd of you,
The God had frankly done it.

Queen.
Ha! To whom!

Pil.
How fain you wou'd extort this Secret from me?

Queen.
How fain I wou'd? by Heav'n I will extort it.

Pil.
You never shall; I know I am to bleed,
And with me too the fatal Truth shall die.

Queen.
Then 'tis no Truth, and thou wilt die a Villain:
Die with the Brand of an ungrateful Traytor,
An odious Hypocrite.

Pil.
To be reveng'd for these opprobrious Wrongs,
I need but tell you what you ask, proud Princess.

Queen.
Do it then.

Pil.
Will you persist to urge me?

Queen.
I will. The Priestess! Who has touch'd her Heart?

Pil.
In your own Breast the fatal Secret's lodg'd.

Queen.
Lodg'd in my Breast!

Pil.
Ask, ask your self the Question, who is he
Who finds the way of touching Scythian Hearts?

Queen.
Ha! Gods! That stings.
[Aside.
Here Guards, withdraw your Pris'ner,
And bring Diana's Priestess hither instantly.
[Exeunt with Pil.
By yon Bright Goddess, He's come off with Honour.
But Oh, the exalted Virtue of his Friend!
Who freely for his Friend can Life resign,
And for his Mistress can contemn a Crown!
This Raises him still more in my Esteem.
It wou'd do, had he made a better Choice.
And is the Priestess then preferr'd to me?
Have I, who have had the Ambition to behold
Admiring Monarchs at my Feet adoring,
Liv'd to reflect, with mortifying Soul,
That I my self, to one unknown, have offer'd,
And been, O Gods! by one unknown refus'd?
And for Diana's Priestess too refus'd!
Refus'd! Scorn'd! loath'd! Oh, how that tears my Heart!
But if thou hast a Soul, with treble Scorn
Return it: Suffer him to take this Priestess;
And let his despicable Choice revenge thee.
What! must he gain her by the odious Boast,
That he has sacrific'd me to my Creature?
And can I suffer it? I cannot think of it
Without Distraction. But the Priestess comes.
Enter Iphigenia.
So; From whence come you? Ha! whence these Disorders?
What makes you tremble? And what strikes you dumb?

Iph.
To such a haughty and insulting Look
I have not learnt to answer.

Queen.
I look, as it becomes me, on my Slave.

Iph.
The sight of such a Slave shou'd make you humble,
By shewing you to what excess of Wretchedness
The Daughter of a mighty King may fall.

Queen.
Say, From whence come you? I command you answer.

Iph.
I have no Pow'r to speak.

Queen.
So hasty was your Flight?

Iph.
Who must not fly from acting Cruelties,
At which Barbarity it self can melt?

Queen.
Oh, how those meek and melting Words
Become the soft and tender Race of Tantalus!

Iph.
The Race of Tantalus has been revengeful:
But yet it ne'er was bloody unprovok'd.
What have these Grecians done to me?

Queen.
What hadst thou done t'assembled Greece at Aulis?
What hadst thou done to thy own Father there?
Who to thy Ruin, unprovok'd, consented;
Nay, press d it, urg'd it.

Iph.
My Mother urg'd it not.
I from the Heroines of our Race have learnt
To shew soft Pity.

Queen.
Thou from the Heroines of thy Race hast learnt,
Thou hast, fond Maid, to shew a guiltier Passion.
Oh, how their kind Reception of their Guests
Had made their Names throughout the World renown'd!

Iph.
For an Example of such kind Reception,
Perhaps I need not fly to Greece.

Queen.
I understand thee well.
Plagu'd by the Terrors of impending Wrath,
Thou would'st provoke and hasten Death, thou would'st,
And have him swifter that he may be gentler;
But know, fond Maid, thou shalt not die so early,
Think of thy Gratitude to thy Preserver,
And think what that deserves.

Iph.
My preserver!

Queen.
Was ever such audacious insolence?
Who was it sav'd thee from immediate Death,
At thy Arrival on this Shoar of Tauris?

Iph.
Would I had been a Man at that Arrival,
For then my Blood had stain'd your cruel Altars!

Queen.
O wretch, ungrateful to that black Degree,
As to disown the mighty Obligation,
By which thou liv'st to say thou art not oblig'd!
Would'st thou insinuate that thy Sex preserv'd thee?

Iph.
Men are the Victims that your Goddess claims!

Queen.
Not always.

Iph.
Tradition says so, and your bloody Rites
Are founded on Tradition.

Queen.
When she her self declares her awful Will,
Tradition's of no force.
But not the feeble voice of faint Tradition;
No, the loud call of the descending Goddess,
Claim'd thee at Aulis her devoted Victim,
At least so Calchas said.

Iph.
The fraud of Calchas plainly she Detected,
By suffering me to evade th'inhuman Altar.

Queen.
'Twas Clytemnestra's Sacrilege preserv'd thee,
And not the Goddess;
Who wracking thee on this her sacred Shore,
Strongly appears to Redemand her Fugitive.

Iph.
Before these Grecians came you had no such thoughts.

Queen.
No, thy soft graceful look, and seeming innocence,
Inclin'd me to suspect the crafty Calchas.
But thy black Guilt appearing with thy Ingratitude,
Makes me repent of my mistaken pity.

Iph.
O fatal pity! Rightly term'd mistaken?
True pity would have suffered me to bleed;
Then I had been at rest in the Dark Grave,
With my unhappy Parents!
Not have convers'd with everlasting woe,
In yon Dire Tabernacle of Despair!
For there no smiling Beam of Joy is seen;
No gladsom sound is ever heard,
But all is always rueful Lamentation,

Queen.
If thuo'rt so sensible of this,
Then know that there's a punishment preparing for thee,
A punishment that's worthy thy perfidiousness.
If 'tis so terrible to see these Sights,
So woful but to hear these sounds of Sorrow,
What must it be to act the bloody Office?
What must it be to one who has a Soul
As soft as thine, as melting ev'n as Mercies,

Iph.
Ah miserable me!

Queen.
To act it, nay, and act it on a Grecian?
One who himself has only tender thoughts,
Or only tender Thoughts at least towards thee.
One who perhaps could die for thee, for whom
Perhaps ev'n thou could'st die?

Iph.
Ah Gods!

Queen.

[Ex. with Train.
Iph.
Inhuman Queen! Must I not only lose him,
But must I urge him to forsake me? No,
Alas thou need'st not urge him, that assure thy self;
For what would'st thou perswade him to?
To avoid Death, and to embrace a Crown?
A little Argument will there prevail.
But the Queen says he loves me, is that true?
No, 'tis the Vision of a Jealous Woman.
But say it should be true, forbid it Gods!
Oh should He love me, I must taste of misery,
Which ev'n in this extremity I tremble at;
For I could die for him, and should he love me,
How can I plead against my self successfully?
How can I e'er find words that can perswade him
To make another Happy! Cursed thought!
To make another Happy, and me Miserable?
I cannot, I can see him perish first.
Perish! By whom! Ah wretch! Inhuman wretch!
And canst thou then at last resolve to Murder him?
Enter Orestes.
See where He comes, and with a Look so sweet,
As might disarm ev'n Death, ye Gods, ye Gods,
Who have resolved that I must be a wretch,
Beyond whatever Mortal was before;
Take care that I prevail to my undoing,
And give me strength enough to court Despair.

Or.
Madam, I come to hear your last Commands,
Let them be what they will, yet I with Joy am come.
But why upon this lovely Brow,
So black a cloud of Sorrow?

Iph.
Oh could you see my Heart, and all the Horrour
Which wildly rages there, how would you pity me?

Or.
Alas! ev'n now I pity thee!

Iph.
Do you?

Or.
Yes, from my very Soul, you cannot think
How much Compassion tears my tortur'd Heart.

Iph.
Make hast then, and prevent the cursed Blow,
That I'm compell'd to strike.

Or.
Had I a Dagger, I would do it instantly.

Iph.
There is an easier way at least to you.

Or.
Name it.

Iph.
I cannot.

Or.
Why?

Iph.
Grecians abhor.
That Virgins of Affairs like this should speak,
You have beheld the Queen.

Or.
O mention not the Queen, I must not hear you.

Iph.
Wherefore?

Or.
Too well alas, I understand you,
And would not have you name the only thing,
Which I can never grant.

Iph.
Then I am lost, for thou art surely lost,
But why should you so cruelly refuse it?

Or.
Reason and Justice equally refuse it,
I love another.

Iph.
Ha! Then his fatal Moment must determine,
[aside.
What ground the Queen had for her strange suspicion,
You love another?

Or.
O more than Life, you see I love another!

Iph.
Whom?

Or.
That let me Hide ev'n from her self ye pow'rs!

Iph.
Ha! Why should you conceal it from her?

Or.
Ask me no more.

Iph.
I must, and you must answer.

Or.
She is my Mortal Enemy.

Iph.
Can any Woman prove a Mortal Enemy,
To one who loves like you?
Your passion known perhaps had made her kind.

Or.
'Tis to avoid her kindness I conceal it.

Iph.
T'avoid it?

Or.
More than Ten Thousand Deaths I dread her kindness.

Iph.
You love your Enemy, and dread her Kindness?

Or.
She is by force, and not by choice my Enemy.
She pities me, ev'n from her Soul she pities me;
Yet my hard Fate compells her to be cruel to me.
But ye Gods!
How much I suffer from her pity more,
Than from her Cruelty I e'er can feel!

Iph.
O Heaven and Earth, I tremble least the Queen
Had but too just a ground for her suspicion.

[Aside.
Or.
Who can see her, he Loves in Grief,
And bear an equal Mind?
How might my Passion known, augment her Sorrow?

Iph.
But what can force her since she is so tender,
T'appear your Mortal Enemy?

Or.
Why should you ask! Your questions but disturb me!

Iph.
I ask to save you, and I must be answer'd;
Speak, what can force her, since she is so tender,
T'appear your Mortal Enemy?
T'appear your Mortal Enemy?

Or.
A cruel God! and a more cruel Woman!

Iph.
O all ye immortal Pow'rs! [Aside.]
But one thing more;
When did you see her last?

Or.
Ha! Enquire no more, for I no more must answer.

Iph.
You must, you shall, by Love, and ev'ry God,
Tell me, I charge you, when you saw her last.

Or.
The Man who loves with Violence like mine,
Always beholds the Object of his Wishes;
She now, ev'n now, is present to my sight.

Iph.
Enough: His Tongue has said enough, too much:
Let me consult his Eyes. Ah, cruel Sight!
[Aside.
What hast thou done?
Thou hast awak'd ten thousand tender Thoughts in me,
That add fresh Horrors to the dismal Deed.

Or.
Confusion!

Iph.
Oh! thou hast rais'd a Fury that thou dream'st not of.
Appease the Queen.

Or.
Never.

Iph.
Gods! Am I doom'd to kill the Man who loves me!

Or.
Why shou'd a Stranger's Fate cause these Convulsions?

Iph.
Why? Can you ask? Suppose that you were forc'd
T'embrue your Hands in Blood, wou'd it not shake you?

Or.
Ha?

Iph.
Were you compell'd to act a barbarous Murther,
Wou'd not the very Thought beforehand; say,
Wou'd it not, like a Vulture, gnaw your Heart?

Or.
Yours is a Sacrifice, and not a Murther;
And one of the immortal Pow'rs commands it.

Iph.
What if a God had laid Commands on you
To stain your Hands with Blood; wou'd you obey?
Wou'd Nature suffer you? or if it wou'd,
Cou'd you expect one Moments quiet afterwards?

Or.
Cruel Remembrance!

[Aside.
Iph.
Wou'd not your Conscience haunt you like a Fury?
Fly ev'ry Moment in your Face,
And plague you into Madness?

Or.
Oh, how that stings me!

[Aside.
Iph.
Ha! what, you start, and tremble, and turn pale!
When the bare mention works on you so terribly.
Can I endure the thing?

Or.
The Pow'r that you adore, and that commands it,
Will calm, and will support you.

Iph.
What if one God commands the dreadful Deed?
Perhaps another mightier Pow'r forbids it;
And if I do it, threatens me with Plagues
Not to be born; no, not to be conceiv'd
Without Despair and Madness.
Which then shall I obey?

Or.
Which of the Gods forbids you?

Iph.
Thou ask'st me that to which I dare not answer.
His awful Name's inutterable.

Or.
When came his great command to you?

Iph.
Ev'n now: Attend, and hear his potent Voice!

Or.
Where?

Iph.
Here, where amidst Confusion he gives Law.

Or.
Here?

Iph.
Here, look and tremble at his Pow'r Divine!

Or.
Ha!

Iph.
Is' he not manifest? Is he not terrible?

Or.
Oh astonishment!

Iph.
If thou art blind, like him, and canst not see him,
Know, that thou feel'st him, wretched Man,
And own'st his dreadful Sway.

Or.
Amasement!
And canst thou be so infinitely miserable,
To love this Object of Divine Displeasure?
Oh this pathetick Silence how it moves me!
How this Disorder in thy Beauty melts me!
And quite destroys my manlier Resolution?

Iph.
Cou'd you see all the Ravage that's within me!
Cou'd you behold my Heart!—

Or.
I have been shewn it; I have seen my self there;
And in that Sight I saw a World of Woe.

Iph.
Think what's to come, imagine me at th'Altar.

Or.
I do, I do, my Soul's entirely there.

Iph.
Reflect upon my Looks, reflect upon my Cries there.

Or.
Damnation! What art thou to undergo!
And what must I endure!

Iph.
Have Mercy then upon your self and me.

Or.
O for a Dagger!
That plunging it in my Heart's Blood,
I might to both shew Mercy.

Iph.
That Thought's a Dagger; there's another way.

Or.
No!
My Heart, my Life, my very Soul is yours:
My Honour and my Virtue are the Gods:
They are Depositums entrusted with me;
And I'll, untouch'd, with my last Breath restore them.

Iph.
Help me, support me, for, alas, I die.

[Flat Trumpets.
Or.
From whence that Start! and these convulsive Tremblings!

Iph.
O those accurst abominable Sounds!

Or.
What mean they?

Iph.
Now, now the impious Rites are just beginning;
And yon hoarse Cornets with their dreadful Clangours,
Summon th'Assistants to the dismal Ceremony.
Ah! See the bloody Messengers of Fate!
See where they come! Pity my lost Condition,
And be not obstinate in so much Cruelty.

Or.
The Gods and Fate are obstinate.

Iph.
Instant Destruction seize me, for they come!

Or.
Alas! you faint.

Iph.
Horror has curdled all my Blood within me;
And my Heart dies within my wretched Bosom.

Or.
O Words, that rend my vital Strings asunder!
O Sight not to be born by one who loves!
Let me support thee in these dying Arms.
Come, thou most wretched Maid, that seest the Light:,
To the cold Arms of the most lost of Men.
[Embraces.
Nay shrink not from me; yet thou hast no Dagger.
O Sweetness in Dispair till now unknown!
Thus from ill Fate I force one happier Moment,
Than ever Fortune in her Smiles bestow'd on me;
But dearly is the short-liv'd Pleasure purchas'd;
For the next Moment, how must we embrace?

Iph.
Oh, Oh, Oh.

Enter Scythians.
Or.
She faints, she dies;
And yet I live and breath like one insensible.
[He sees the Scythians coming up to him.
O wou'd but Jove let loose the Hand that plagues me!
And now, now dash me at one bounteous blow.

1 Scyth.
Grecian, the Queen has sent us to inform thee,
That thy Delay has mortally offended her;
And Death and Vengeance chase thee now in view.
Here, you must to the Temple guard the Priestess.
[To some of the Guards.
And you in Iron Bonds must bind the Pris'ner:
[To others.
Then lead him where the Ministers expect him,
To bind his Temples, and to veil his Eyes.

Or.
Stay but one Moment, when a Wretch requires it,
The only happy Moment I ere knew.

1 Scyth.
We dare not; for severely we're forbidden.
The Grecians who were seen upon the Beach,
With their drawn Weapons now ascend the Mountain;
And if thou shouldst be snatch'd from out our Hands,
The Queen has sworn by yonder dreadful Altar,
That we shall all of us expire in Torments.
D'y' hear? We must dispatch; a second time
[Flat Trumpets.
The Cornets with their mournful Clangours summouns.
Bind him, you Slaves, when 'tis the Queen's command,
How dare you stand insensible?

[Iph. throws her Veil over her Eyes.
Or.
My Grecians climbing up the Rock!
I'd give the World then for a Moment's Liberty:
[While they bind him
But since it will not be, Hear me, ye Pow'rs!
I ask not Liberty, I ask not Life,
I ask not ev'n a Death exempt from Tortures,
Pour down your Plagues on my devoted Head,
Torment me, rack me, tear me,
Torture me any way, unless by torturing her:
Comfort her poor afflicted Heart, ye Pow'rs!
And grant, that at our next accursed meeting,
Grant, cruel Gods, that mine be all the Pain.

Iph.
Break Heart, that we may never meet again.