 | Agis |  |
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ACT THE SECOND.
SCENE THE FIRST.
Agis.Agis.
Ye pitying gods, who have till now been pleased
To rescue from Leonidas's rage
My well-known innocence, no more can I
Remain within your temple. I from you
Sought an asylum, that my infirm country
Might not be forced t'endure more violence,
More slaughter, and more broils: now there are those
Who dare ascribe this step to my misdeeds,
And to the terror of just punishment.
Behold, at once the asylum I relinquish.—
Oh Sparta, Sparta! ... To thy true deliverers
Must thou be ever fatal? Ah, to me
Were but the fate allow'd that once befell
Thy first illustrious father! Not content
With everlasting exile, on himself
Inflicted by Lycurgus, I would chuse
Further, ignoble death, if by that death
I might at least behold with thee revive
The pristine vigour of thy sacred laws! ...
But who so quickly comes to this asylum? ...
Whom do I see? Oh heavens! Agiziade! ...
The daughter of Leonidas! ... Alas! ...
That consort, who, although so well beloved,
Yet for her father's sake abandon'd me!
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SCENE THE SECOND.
Agis, Agiziade.Agi.
What do I see? My Agis, hast thou ventured
To leave the asylum? Speedily I came
To find thee there ...
Agis.
Whate'er thou wert towards me,
My still beloved consort, why dost thou
Thus bend thy steps towards a wretched husband?
Agi.
Scarce can I speak, oh Agis. ... I return
To thee, with thy embitter'd, alter'd fate.
Thy mournful state, and that alone, had power
To tear me from my father. On the day
That I was forced, oh consort, to abandon
My children, and thyself, that I might not
Suffer my father, in his wretched exile,
To go from us a lonely fugitive,
I felt my heart as if asunder torn:
Nor would'st thou ever have beheld me more,
I now confess to thee, in Sparta's soil,
If to the cruel shafts of adverse fortune
He had remain'd obnoxious. Once more he
Is raised on high; thou, in thy turn, depress'd.
Who, who could now dissever me from thee?
With all my heart do I to thee return:
And I conjure thee, by my unfeign'd love;
(For thine, I know not if I yet possess it;)
By those loved children once to thee so dear;
And further I conjure thee by thy country,
To which thou art so loftily devoted,
To grant at least a respite for the present
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The first of benefits, to this induce thee:
Be pleased to reassume, as heretofore,
In strict conjunction with Leonidas,
Supreme controulment of the Spartan state.
Agis.
Lady, who could that fondness ever blame
Thou bear'st thy father? Thou canst never know him;
This is not thy prerogative: most good,
Most fond, most pious, most accomplish'd, thou,
In these corrupted times, a rare example
Of pristine conjugal and filial love;
Feel'st no solicitude except to be
The generous partner of his destiny
Whom adverse fortunes persecutes the most.
If thou wert ever dear to me, to see thee
To-day return to me when all men fly,
Makes thee to me more dear. From thy great heart
Less I expected not: I only fear'd
That with his happiness intoxicate,
Leonidas perchance might interdict
Thy quitting him for me.
Agi.
Just were thy fears.
Since Sparta as a conqueror received him
Three days have past; three days have also past
That I have combated with him for thee.
Nor, since I could not his consent obtain,
Was I less firm, whate'er the risk might be,
To join thee here. Himself, at length compliant,
A little while ago to thee would send me
A messenger of peace: he, by my lips,
Now proffers it to thee without reserve;
He begs thee and conjures thee, that thou wilt,
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Adopt all means whence Sparta may obtain
Henceforth entire indissoluble peace.
Agis.
Doth he send thee to me? This change, so sudden,
Permits the indulgence of no joyful hope.
What do I say? If in himself he hope not,
Can Agis hope? What more remains for me
To fear, when my poor country every day
Is more enslaved?—more, every day, remote
From her primæval eminence, her great,
Illustrious, and immortalizing virtues?
I had already of my own accord
Abandon'd my retreat: far other motives
Had now induced me to anticipate
The crafty wishes of Leonidas ...
Ah! this will be a memorable day
To Sparta and to me; fatal perchance
To thee, if thou dost love me ... I cannot,
Oh my beloved consort, doubt of this ...
But, if thou hearkenest to my upright words,
Do not thou, worthy of a better father,
I do beseech thee, irritate in vain
His captious soul. Live for thy children's sake;
Against the rage of fierce Leonidas
Be thou to them a shield: those lofty thoughts
Which I have ever shared with thee, and which
Thou feltest so profoundly, fortified
By other lofty ones in thee innate,
Which are the source sublime of filial love,
Do thou in them transfuse, that they may live
The glory of their father and their country.
A thirst for vengeance do I not expire,
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Provided that they one day may arise,
Although in distant times, from sons of mine,
With this my spirit will be satisfied ...
Agi.
My heart thou rendest ... Why thus speak of death?
Agis.
Thou art a Spartan, and the wife of Agis;
Refrain from tears. My blood may serve my country;
My tears cannot serve thee. Ah, dry thine eyes;
Compel me not to weep ...
Agi.
I know full well
The bitter agonies of thy sublime,
Devoted heart; thy upright, generous schemes
Within my breast profoundly are engraved;
And if in their complete accomplishment
The entire and lofty ruin of my father
Were not involved, e'en at the risk of life,
Would'st thou find me first ready to promote them ...
How oft have I lamented o'er that father,
So different to thee! How oft have I
Wept that I was his daughter! Yet, alas!
I was indeed, and am ... and 'twixt you two
I live distracted, and I ought to be
The means of amity betwixt you both,
Or ought to die.
Agis.
If thou in other times,
From other blood hadst been in Sparta born,
Daughter of Sparta, mother of true Spartans
Thou would'st have been. Yet thy not Spartan father
I would not as a crime to thee impute.
Prompted by thy most generous, lofty heart,
But not well disciplined, I heard thy lips
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But not thy country's. Yet why should I wonder,
If thou art more a daughter and a wife
Than citizen? Whate'er thou art, I love thee;
Nor any force, save that of my example,
To thy not Spartan feelings would I use.
Hence I conjure thee by our love, yea, more,
If it be needful, I command, that thou
Should'st manifest to-day that thou art yet
E'en more a mother than a wife or daughter.—
But whence this horrible tumult that approaches?
What crowd is this? what cries? oh heaven! my mother!
And a great multitude of people arm'd
Pursues her steps!
SCENE THE THIRD.
Agis, Agesistrata, Agiziade, People.Ages.
My son, and what, hast thou
Left thy retreat? In whom dost thou confide?
In the base daughter of Leonidas?
Behold, I bring thee a more certain succour;
These will at any moment be prepared ...
Agis.
Oh mother, thou should'st better know thy son:
I in myself, or else in no one, trust.
She whom thou call'st Leonidas's daughter,
Is both my wife and friend, and one with me.—
Spartans, if ye indeed are such, whom now
I, at the risk of my renown, behold
Tumultuously menacing in arms;
Spartans, now Agis speaks to you: no arms
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Against my country. I seek no protection;
Nor fear I any man. I well suffice
To authenticate my perfect innocence:
To make that innocence completely triumph
O'er other's malice, not with arms indeed,
But with more firm resolves, ye might yourselves
A just support one day have given to me:
But now, too late and vain, and (which is worse)
Illicit, would your interference be.
Ages.
And would'st thou then expose thyself unarm'd
To the malign rage of Leonidas?
To the bribed ephori's perfidious snares?
Ah! I endure it not, nor these true sons
Of Sparta will endure it, who are all
Now ready for their king to yield their lives.
People.
Yes, we are all ready to die for Agis.
Agis.
Agis and Sparta heretofore were one;
Now are they thoroughly by fate disjoin'd;
Now that, perchance, 'tis indispensable
That Agis perish to make Sparta safe.
Blood should be never spill'd; much less when blood
Cannot regenerate virtue. Ye cannot
Now die for me, without the sacrifice
Of many others: and your own lives here,
And those of others equally, are all
Not yours, but the possession of your country.
There are, I know, in multitudes there are,
Misguided citizens: but to restore them
To the straight path of duty I prepare
A reconciliatory sacrifice.
With this can I compel them to amendment;
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The worshippers of self-renouncing virtue.
Agi.
Oh wretched me! Thou mak'st me tremble. Speak.
What dost thou now intend?
Ages.
Lady, for whom
Are these thy fears, thy husband or thy father?
Agis.
Mother, thou know'st not how it wounds my heart
To hear thee thus irreverently taunt
My faithful wife. She has this instant made
Herself, with her true filial piety,
More dear to me than ever yet she was.—
Mother, and wife, and citizens, attend.—
I have resolved within my inmost heart
To make malignancy itself confess,
The most invidious, and the most depraved,
That I'm a real lover of my country.
A king, a father, and a citizen,
And nothing else have I to Sparta been;
At least if I am not deceived: in others
Perhaps I myself, with violence, inspired
At first some misconception of myself.
This choice of an asylum thence was not
To wisdom in me, but a guilty conscience,
And terrors of just punishment, ascribed.
Thence Agis of a vulgar king endured
The insufferable stigma. But to-day,
Such as it is, my heart shall be reveal'd.
Oh welcome, yes, thrice welcome, is the danger
Which I am forced to encounter, to make clear
The good which I attempted to effect,
And of those men whose interest is in evil
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I well knew how to prove myself a king,
And dared to do it, for the public good;
And for my private good I also dare
Become once more a private citizen.
Not that I hope at present to convince
The countless disaffected; they in heart
Already are too much so; but I ought
Now in the presence of collected Sparta,
To cover them with shame and infamy.
They would, and still I hope they will, accuse me:
I rather with my actions, than with words,
Shall undertake to exculpate myself.
First would I unreservedly to Sparta
Promulgate my intentions, then submit ...
People.
Agis submit! No, never! All of us
Will make those traitors listen to thy words ...
Agis.
Not you, oh no! Truth, from my lips alone,
Shall make me by unwilling ears be heard.
And if my honour in your sight is dear;
If I have any thing from you deserved;
If there is aught in me; or if, at least,
Ye, from the recollection of my deeds,
For something hope, I supplicate, exhort,
Nay, I command you, to lay down your arms,
And to the ephori, whate'er they be,
To render, with myself, submission due.
The king of Persia, when he finds that foes
Are risen against himself within his realm,
Accosts them with compulsatory weapons;
But Sparta's monarch doth esteem himself
E'en to his enemies accountable:
At first he strives to baffle calumny
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With the immoveable calmness of a king.—
I grieve that, and eternally shall grieve,
The same Leonidas, who thus assails me,
Unheard and exiled, from your city went.
Perchance his cause he could not have defended;
Perchance he would not have attempted it;
But for this purpose I should have allow'd him
Ample convenience. My guilty colleague,
Agesilaus, was resolved on force;
My opposition ineffectual proved.
Few are aware of this: hence he and I
In the same imputation are involved.
I from thenceforth discover'd, though too late,
That he was only a dissembling Spartan:
But time press'd on me, and the lofty wish
To effect the good, to which the banishment
Of fierce Leonidas (its chiefest hindrance)
Seem'd to prepare the way. His exile, hence,
Just, but inflicted in an unjust manner,
I tolerated for the good of Sparta.
People.
And who knows not that thou didst save his life?
Agi.
Yes, by his means alone my father yet
Enjoys the breath of life. Myself beheld
The cruel danger which surrounded him;
The assassins of Agesilaus now
Had almost in their snares entangled him,
When opportunely Agis' partizans
Dispersed them, and deliver'd us unhurt.
Ages.
Leonidas to-day would hence repay him,
By wresting from him not his life alone,
But his fame also.
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To effect this purpose
The tyrant has no power: on me alone,
And on my deeds, my fame depends.
Ages.
The firm
And persevering project to oppress thee,
The jealousy of others, from thy deeds
Solely arise. But Anpharus comes hither,
The friend and colleague worthy of the tyrant.
Agis.
Let him be heard.
Agi.
Oh heavens! for thee I tremble ...
SCENE THE FOURTH.
Agis, Agesistrata, Agiziade, Anpharus, People.An.
Far from thy refuge, Agis, in the midst
Of such a throng, I did not think to find thee.
But yet more grateful witnesses than these
I could not wish to meet. I hither come
The will of Sparta to unfold to thee.
Agis.
It is ...
An.
Pacific.
Agis.
How?
An.
It breathes true peace,
If peace be not too adverse to thy views;
Or if at once security and greatness
Thou dost not seek in turbulence and discord.
Agis.
I ought not now to clear myself to thee:
Perhaps before them to whom I owe the homage,
Of this I shall acquit myself. Meanwhile,
What is this peace Leonidas proposes?
An.
Am I the monarch's messenger? I am
One of the ephori; in Sparta's name
Do I address thee. If thou now consent
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(The true and wise ones,) and restore once more
Peace to the city, each new law of thine
Thyself condemning, Sparta, by my lips,
To-day restores to thee thy royal seat,
Which thou hast abdicated by thy flight.
Ages.
Agis ...
Agis.
I am thy son, oh mother; now
On me rely.—Thou, that in Sparta's name,
So that I make myself unworthy of it,
Offerest to me the throne, I pray thee take
This answer to Leonidas, that I
Would speak with him, ere to collected Sparta
I solemnly and finally appeal.
Agi.
I do beseech thee to my father go,
Oh Anpharus, and urge him to compliance.
Make him remember that he would not now
Be blest with life, had it not been for Agis;
That he to Agis as a consort gave
His much-loved only daughter ...
Agis.
Nothing else
Make him remember, than that we are both
The citizens of Sparta; and that now
The interest of all obliges him
To grant me audience.
An.
It is most uncertain
Whether he can or will confer with thee,
Till he has learn'd if his proposed conditions
Are by thyself rejected or embraced.
Agis.
He can, on no account, nor will he do it,
Refuse to hear me. I, from henceforth, quit
For ever my asylum: round my person
No train do I permit.—Spartans, to you
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Here, undefended, innocent, alone,
Will I remain.—Anpharus, witness thou;
The time, the place, the circumstance, all now
Will be most opportune. Ere it be long,
I to this forum will return; and here
May the king not disdain to come to me.
I shall be here alone; but let him have
His satellites beside him; we shall be
By all the citizens of Sparta seen,
But shall not be by any of them heard.
An.
Since thou wilt have it so, I quickly fly
To bear the tidings to Leonidas.
SCENE THE FIFTH.
Agis, Agesistrata, Agiziade.Agis.
Well did I know with what a bait t'entice him.—
Now, ladies, to my dwelling and my children
Let me return with you. I shall enjoy
A few brief, final moments, in your presence,
Of private consolation, till I join
This fatal conference.
Agi.
Oh heaven! ...
Ages.
Oh son!
What canst thou hope from this perfidious king?
Agis.
He grasps the fate of Sparta; and canst thou,
Oh mother, ask what Agis hopes from him?
| Agis | |