University of Virginia Library

ACT III.

Scene I.

A Public Square.
Enter from opposite sides two Ambassadors.
FIRST AMBASSADOR.
Baron, well met. I'm on my way to you.

SECOND AMBASSADOR.
And I to you. Too fearful for report
Is this black deed.

FIRST AMBASSADOR.
A deed the color of him,
The doer, the hideous whelp of revolution.

SECOND AMBASSADOR.
An innocent Prince, shot coldly by decree
Of an incarnate demon!

FIRST AMBASSADOR.
And that we,
The spokesmen of anointed Majesties
Must silent bide in sound of such a shot!
The pitying winds, that cry this cruel deed
To the far corners of th' astounded earth,
Will paint mute pallor on the nations' cheeks.

SECOND AMBASSADOR.
The Senate have proclaimed him Emperor.

FIRST AMBASSADOR.
Thankt be they for 't. These shallow braggarts' eyes
Are bandaged by their self-conceitedness.
Neither their Master nor his slaves can see—
So introverted is their guilty sight—
That this re-raising of the prostrate throne
Is a far summons to th' ejected line.
And more;—the new Imperial diadem
Is pledge of wider war, of ceaseless war.
Only by sword can a sword-lifted upstart
Be struck from his usurping sovereignty.
Let us go in: we are observed. In this
Vexed city, stones have ears, and pillars eyes.

[Exeunt.
Enter Borini, Tesafo, and Alardo.
TESAFO.
Better have lost two battles than have gained
Such victory over one high harmless man.
This murder's blood so taints th' Imperial air
That millions of the well-disposed will turn
Sickened away. Alardo, that proud post
I must forego. I would have served your master,
And served him faithfully. I cannot now.

ALARDO.
Count, for your feeling I must honor you,
While I deplore your act. Hold off awhile,
And the necessities of time and place
Will show this bloodshed in another light.

TESAFO.
I could no longer be a zealous agent.

[Exit.
BORINI.
'T is an untimely blow, this execution.

ALARDO.
Th' indenture that it makes Imperial growth
Will swiftly smooth. New epochs must create
New atmospheres, wherein their facts can breathe,—
Thus spake deep Brangonar, not two hours gone.
Kings have decreed thousands of undue deaths,
And no complaining heard. But let a Prince
Be struck, and the wide air, all saturate
With slavishness and regal dominance,
Shrieks, as the very heart of Nature's self
Were touched.

BORINI.
Things run so fast I fear a stumble.

ALARDO.
How quick a horse outspeeds the clumsy ox,
Who well might deem his gallop dangerous.
Beneath the drowsy spell of the slow past
All but the youngest of us lie so tranced,
The freer motion of th' unfettered present
To many seems a headlong rapidness.
Here come some citizens. Let's mine their meaning:
They know us not.

Enter several Citizens; among them Curio, a half witted humorist.
CURIO
(to BORINI and ALARDO).

My masters, be you Princes?

ALARDO.

Why do you ask?

CURIO.

If you be Princes, I'll take a shot at you. These be great times. With a flash we turn a Prince into dirt; and then of other dirt we make other Princes.

FIRST CITIZEN.

What say you to our new Emperor, Curio?

CURIO.

Catch me saying anything to him. I'll keep out of his way.

ALARDO.

And what say you yourself, citizen?

FIRST CITIZEN.

All I say is, health and long life to him. Anything else that he wants he can give to himself.

SECOND CITIZEN.

For me, I like a Republic better than an Empire.

FIRST CITIZEN.

And I an Empire best; for I want a strong government.

SECOND CITIZEN.

And I want a free government.

CURIO,
to Second Citizen.

You ought to be a woman.

SECOND CITIZEN.

Why a woman?

CURIO.

That you might be the better half of this other. Without freedom there is no lasting strength: without

strength, no freedom. So marry one another, you two, as fast as you can, that we may have better breeds.

BORINI.

Are you a Senator?

CURIO.

Have I more words than wisdom, more profession than performance, a lean wit and a fat purse? Be you Jack Ketch?

BORINI.

Do I look like him?

CURIO.

You have rather a hang-dog look.

THIRD CITIZEN.

I don't like this changing of labels. I say, stick to the Republic.

CURIO.

You should be an apothecary, by your speech.

THIRD CITIZEN,
huffish at being guessed.

Well: what of that?

CURIO.

Tell me then: how can I stick to a plaister, if the plaister will not stick to me?

FOURTH CITIZEN.

There comes a courier. Let us go learn the news. News plenty, victuals scarce; that 's the way we thrive.

THIRD CITIZEN,
to CURIO.

Come, Master Loose-tongue; perhaps he brings a salve for your wits.

CURIO.

Your tongue is beyond salve: it needs the knife.

[Exeunt all but Curio.

Men be of three classes. First, those that are whole fools; and these make up nine tenths of the world. Second, those that are half fools, like myself; and we make the other tenth. The third class be they that are neither whole fools nor half fools, but are downright wise. They that were here be of the first class: they know not how to speak, nor how to hold their tongues.

O! what a pity that men are not witty,
[Sings.
But will be so silly and dull;
For unless one has wit, the devil a bit
Can he get his belly afull.

I could sing a better song once. That was when I was not hungry. Hunger eats into a man's brains. If I can't sing I can prophesy.

When men shall die without disease,
And lawyers live without their fees,
When watch-dogs smile and jailors sleep,
And dice and cards are buried deep,
When tongues shall be our swords in battle,
And women have grown wise by tattle,
When flatterers shall have lost their meed,
And liars be of no more need,
When children shall not fear a witch,
And when contractors grow not rich,
When honest men shall serve the State,
And grain no more intoxicate,
When Kings are dead and buried all,
And Priests have gone the self same track,
Then shall we get up from the fall,
Adam and Eve will then come back,
Then will the earth be in its prime,
Then shall we have a right good time,
For then the Devil will be quite dead,
And every man be fully fed.

In the mean time I'll go try to get something to eat.

[Exit.

Scene II.

A Room of State in the Palace.
Brangonar, as Emperor, in robes, on the throne, crowned, surrounded by the high officers of state,—the Arch-Chancellor, the Arch-Treasurer, the Constable, the High Admiral, the Grand Elector, Grand Equerry, Marshals, etc.
BRANGONAR.
Arch-Chancellor, Arch-Treasurer, and Lords,
Intendants high of this redoubling realm,
Chief officers of our Imperial State,
The throne's stout stay at once and pedestal;
This throne, darting fresh splendor in the eyes
Of neighboring unmasked decrepitudes,
Looms with a seeming suddenness, because
Monarchic might can best maintain a land,
Encompassed round by armed hostilities.
The people's scattered force needs centering,
To meet the strokes of hate-cemented foes.
Of these there are so steeped in dastard fears
They seek, by infamous assassination,
That to achieve which manly war denies them,—
The death of this great People's chief, striking
Not more at mine than at the Nation's heart.
For well they know, the leader's taking off
At this warm juncture, were to loose the hounds
Of civil strife; whence malice, anarchy,
And mutual slaughter; and to them this were
Their single promise of a mastery.
Weighing these motives in its wisdom's scales,
The Senate, earnest, and instinctive with
The People's and the Army's broad desires,
Hath now proclaimed the Empire; and it has
My brow begirt with this Imperial badge,
Beneath whose golden round there throbs no thought
But for our lifted country's lasting weal,
Its glory, grandeur, and prosperity.
The means to front the universal war,
That lowereth or rageth on the rim
Of our wide borders, have with conquest grown.
My Lord Arch-Treasurer, are you prepared
To keep the army-chests replenished full?

ARCH-TREASURER.
Sire, at your Majesty's command, I have,
With an exacting eye, scanned our long scores,
And find them equal to all warlike needs.

BRANGONAR.
And you, my Lord High Admiral, what show
Now make your dock-yards?

HIGH ADMIRAL.
Sire, there are afloat
More ships and better manned than e'er before.

BRANGONAR.
Marshals, I think that you and I may speak
Without misgiving for our armies.

Enter a Chamberlain.
CHAMBERLAIN.
Sire,
The Ambassadors and foreign Ministers
Are on the steps.

BRANGONAR.
We'll see them presently.

The scenes close, so as to make an antechamber of the front of the stage. Enter the two Ambassadors and three Ministers, shown in by an attendant in gorgeous livery, who retires.
FIRST MINISTER.
The Brangonarian ante-chamber this.

SECOND AMBASSADOR.
Odd place for us, born as we are.

SECOND MINISTER.
Some things
Some men never can fit them to. To wit:
Envoys being mostly old—

THIRD MINISTER.
Of all us five,—
And I myself am oldest of the group,—
Viscount, there is not one this epithet
Becomes.

SECOND MINISTER.
Dear Baron, pardon me. In years
Not one of us is scored with age. For you,
It lies not in hard years to make you old.
But all,—and I myself am youngest here,—
We all are old, in that from th' olden time
We have our habits, wants, and very thoughts,
Our dear beliefs, opinions, prejudices.
Thence oft to us the new is insolence.

THIRD MINISTER.
This surely is a special insolence.
Sir Count (to 1st Amb.)
, if we are kept still longer here,
Like guilty schoolboys waiting to be whipt,
Your speech will cool.

FIRST AMBASSADOR.
I am mechanical
On these occasions, making me a pipe
For my chief's sovereign breath to breathe through.

THIRD MINISTER.
We'll wait no further. Spokesman of the corps
I name myself. Forgive th' indignity
Dear Baron: (to 2d Amb.)
You be th' Emperor.

SECOND AMBASSADOR.
[Crossing his arms, and striking his hat down on his forehead.
Be brief:
For windy envoys soldiers have no ears.

THIRD MINISTER.
Sire, you 've laid waste our fields, defiled our homes;
Therefore we would congratulate you on
This fresh Imperial growth of means to waste.
You 've spurned at us; therefore we flatter you.
Part of our territory you 've annexed;
Therefore ourselves we wholly annex to you.
You 've kept no faith with us; therefore we pray
You let us bind ourselves to you again
With tighter bonds, made of your broken vows—

Enter Chamberlain.
CHAMBERLAIN.
Gentlemen, his Majesty awaits you.

The scenes reopen, and show the Emperor and his officers of state as before, who rise as the envoys advance, and bow. The Emperor bows without advancing.
FIRST AMBASSADOR.
Sire, by command of my liege sovereign,
I bring to your Imperial Majesty
Congratulations and fraternal greetings.
My master trusts that your investiture
With dignities monarchical will be
Another tie of friendship and alliance
'Twixt your Imperial Majesty and him.
My colleagues, Sire, here present, honor me
By making me the spokesman for themselves
And sovereign Kings of full felicitations.

BRANGONAR.
Sir Count and Gentlemen, accept my thanks
For the good wishes and congratulations
Wherewith you have just gratified my ears.
Say to your several Courts that my desires
Are now, as they have ever been, for peace.
The populations all need rest, relief.
Wars are the scourges of humanity.
Say to the Emperor, your master, Count,
I would that he would band his strength with mine
For reëstablishment of general peace.
We two, we might command it easily.

[The Emperor bows. The envoys bow, and then retire on one side, the high officials on the other.
BRANGONAR,
alone.
Unless it dureth long, Power's sway is naught.
Authority, that were an annual trust,
To be or ta'en away or reconferred,
Were, by a man feeling within himself
Monarchal might, not worth the holding. Nor
For single lives doth foresight dominate:
Men look unselfishly beyond themselves.
Prevision is of man's prerogatives
That one whereby, with likeliest warranty,
He claims companionship with Godhead's self,
With what creates and forerules wheeling worlds.
The pettiest builder builds for his descent;
And this staunch forethought steads the general weal.
But when great monarchs found, resistless found,
New Empires, then stability and strength,—
Whereby so many millions stand erect,—
Hanging upon directness of succession,
What was parental care becomes bold duty,
The good, the very being, of a precious state
Depending on blood-continuity.
My daughter cannot reign: our law forbids.—
The gentle Jesola will grieve; for she
Has ever loved me with her whole pure heart;
And I love her, and the pert prattler too;
But she reminds me daily of my want.

Enter Lusky.
LUSKY.
Your brother, Sire, would see your Majesty.

BRANGONAR.
My brother Roso?

LUSKY.
Aye, your Majesty.

BRANGONAR.
Say, I'm preoccupied.
[Exit Lusky.
What can he want?
Lusky! ho! Lusky!
Reënter Lusky.
You may give him entrance.
[Exit Lusky.
Shall I to him uncover the divorce?
Enter Roso.
Well, brother, is a crown become more dazzling?

ROSO.
Crowns are to me what they have ever been.

BRANGONAR.
Have you a suit unto your Emperor?

ROSO.
I am not a man of suits.

BRANGONAR.
Your object then?

ROSO.
My object, brother, is a painful one.

BRANGONAR.
Relates it to yourself?

ROSO.
Not to myself
More than to others; most to you.

BRANGONAR.
Speak out.
I half divine your drift. 'T is my divorce
That troubles you.

ROSO.
Far more than I can say.

BRANGONAR.
Every condition, brother, hath its core,
Whence only emanate the subtle lines
For its unravelment. The eye that grasps
The vast horizon of a mountain-top
Hath messages from upland, valley, lake,
That nourish valid judgments, whereof he
Is barren who looks from the bounded base.
On such a peak of social eminence
I stand, and thence see pressures, tendencies,
Relations, which men lower down see not.

ROSO.
Your peak is still commanded by a higher,
Whence from an ardent summit issue rays,
Without whose active light your social circuits,
However clear to intellect they seem,
Are in their bent and bearings as confused
As is, to him who waits on Alpine top,
Nature's far-beaming pageantry around,
All blank and bare an hour before the sun
Hath poured into the plain his sparkling wealth.
The soul hath rights against expediency.
Nature will not be outraged unavenged.

BRANGONAR.
Have you a special key to her best secrets?
Nature, forsooth! Nature! And am not I
A child of Nature, aye, a favorite child?
Why shall not I unriddle, too, the sphinx?

ROSO.
Duties there are that hold so much and strike
So deep, to break them sends a mortal pang
Through th' inner being. To break them breaks the breaker.

BRANGONAR.
If you are come to teach me action's law,
You lose your breath.

ROSO.
Brother, some time gone by
You proffered me a crown. I will unclasp
My tight resolves. I will accept and wear,
And loyal wear in fealty to you,
The weightiest crown your wishful hand can clutch,
So you renounce this fateful damned divorce.

BRANGONAR.
My strength you gauge by your inthralling lack,
With lame reluctances would'st match my will!
Not more incorporate with the thunder-cloud
Is lightning than is will with act in me.
Right to my aim I drive, swung by the might
Of steadfast choice. Power is born of will
And thought, and by far-sighted watchers nursed.
What I dare do, you dare not think. The glance
And soar and fiery flight, that have rapt me
Up to this high Imperial diadem,
Are mine, and mine alone, and the pale awe
Of nations, their dread wonder, all is mine.
Nor have I yet swept my full orbit's sweep.
And you, you think to slack my swiftness,—send
The volleyed flash back to its cloud.—But, Roso,
Though me you cannot move, you can harm others
Whom I must use. This is no more your place:
Betake you to the neighboring Isle.

ROSO.
Farewell.

[Exit.
BRANGONAR.
This brother should have been a sleek high-priest:
He has, or seems to have, so fixed a faith,
And speaks with such an oily urgency.
Enter Alardo.
What news, Alardo?

ALARDO.
Sire, great news. The King
Of Cillia has embarked, flying his Kingdom.

BRANGONAR.
I need it for a Prince of my own blood.

ALARDO.
The King of Barca, Sire, has abdicated.

BRANGONAR.
My eldest brother on that throne I'll seat.
So long as I reign here shall he reign there.
Lusky!
Enter Lusky.
By set of sun we must be launched
With speed upon our eastern track again.
Alardo, ere we go I'd speak with you.
[Exeunt severally Alardo and Lusky.
How deep a quarry is that element
Our days are measured by, which men call time,—
The feeder of all action, of all thought
Silent concomitant, mysterious womb,
Whence leap events, vast unsubstantial film,
Whereof all solid substances are knit
By him who has the plastic craft to ply
With thy omnipotent unseen resource.
So do I prize thee, that, delighted, thou
Dost fan me with thy sightless pinions, swayed
So strenuous round me, men bewildered gape
At our conjunctive deeds.—The fleshly frame
Must have its daily rest; but I begrudge
The moments lost to enterprise and motion.
Not all to motion; for while thought doth pause,
Nearer my distant aim I'm starlit wheeled.
To-morrow's early sun shall find me shot
So far upon my way, my partner, Time,
Will smile to see how I have cheated sleep.

[Exit.