 | Agis |  |
SCENE THE FOURTH.
Agiziade, Leonidas, Agesistrata.Agi.
Father, and is it true? ... by treacherous wiles
Hast thou to soldiers hands my spouse ...
Ages.
Is this
Thy promised faith, Leonidas?
Le.
What faith?
What have I promised? I have pledged my faith
To Sparta, but to Agis never.
Agi.
Ah!
Beloved father, to thy daughter grant ...
Alas! ...
Ages.
Spontaneously did he not quit
The place of refuge? Did he not come forth,
Alone, unarm'd, and of his own accord,
To treat with thee of peace? And thou, meanwhile,
Dost instigate thy parasites to drag him
Within a prison? violating thus
The honour of a king, and, more than this,
The express will of Sparta? ... Infamous ...
Le.
Oh ladies, to divert me from my will,
Tears and reproaches equally are vain.
I am the first of Sparta's magistrates,
And not her tyrant. The ephori and Sparta
Should now pass judgment on the guilty Agis;
The ephori and Sparta should restore him,
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Ne'er would it have been possible to prove him
Guilty or innocent, if he persisted
To seek th'interposition of the people,
Or an asylum in the temple's walls.
'Tis time, high time, that Sparta should be freed
From the distraction of suspense, produced
By knowing not, if she does, as she ought,
Possess two monarchs, or if one is wanting.
Agi.
Ah father! ... Agis rescues thee from death,
And thou that Agis draggest to a prison?
On him hast thou bestow'd thy daughter's hand,
And yet would'st rob him of his fame? Though guilty,
(Which he is not,) thou shouldest be the first
To interpose in his behalf. I gave
To thee no dubious trial of my love
In thy adversity: and now from Agis
Nothing, in his adversity, can wrest me:
To doom thy daughter with thy son-in-law
To chains, or to release him from those chains,
Art thou constrain'd: nor menaces, nor prayers,
Shall e'er persuade me to abandon him.
Nor canst thou wreak a vengeance on his head,
Which shall not equally rebound on me:
Thou, thou must shed that very daughter's blood,
Who, to accompany thee in banishment,
Her husband, and her children, and her throne,
And her beloved country, sacrificed.
Ages.
Oh thou indeed not his, but my true daughter!
Thou Spartan wife and daughter, thou in vain
Appealest to a father not a Spartan.—
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Close both his heart and lips.—What could'st thou say? ...
Thou, oh Leonidas, within thy heart
Hast sworn th'entire destruction of my son,
I know thou hast; and equally I know
All, all thy impious stratagems. But yet
If thou on both of us should'st death inflict,
(For my existence and my son's are one,)
In vain thou hopest to destroy our fame.
Thine own by this means ... but what do I say?
Art thou possess'd of fame?—No other object
Did thy heart e'er propose, than to preserve
And to augment thy riches by the throne.
Thou in Seleucus' court becam'st at once
Accomplish'd in the art of avarice,
And that of wasting blood. A Persian thou,
Reignest in Sparta: hence thou dost abhor
The equality of citizens, from whence
New virtues soon would rise; whence thou once more
Would'st be for ever from the throne expell'd:
Nor dare thy heart aspire beyond that throne.
Le.
Nor thy reproaches can exasperate,
Nor thy just sorrows mollify my soul.
Sparta, and not myself, impeaches Agis,
And summons him to exculpate himself.
Towards him no other force will I adopt,
(Nor could I if I would,) except to take
From him all means by which he would evade
Just chastisement ...
Ages.
Just?—Tell me, would'st thou dare
To all-assembled Sparta, in this forum,
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Of thy arm'd satellites? ...
Le.
I know not yet
The judgment of the ephori; but ...
Ages.
Thine
Is too well known to me! Let Agis be
Brought to the presence of collected Sparta,
Not of the mercenary ephori,
Or to his presence Sparta will repair.
If thou destroy me not before my son,
Although a powerless defenceless lady,
This I protest to thee shall be accomplish'd.
| Agis | |