 | Agis |  |
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 ...
| Agis | |