University of Virginia Library

ACT IV.

SCENE I.

SOHEMUS, SALOME.
Sohemus.
Restrain this flood of unavailing tears!
For if they flow for pity or remorse,
They flow in vain. In distant ages past
Pity dy'd young; of grief, they say, to see
An eagle wreak his malice on a wren.
If she were yet on earth, where cou'd she find
A nobler palace than a brother's breast?
But there you found her not; the more's the shame!
Since pity's fled to heav'n, we'll send remorse
To howl in hell; it has no business here!—
But if these tears flow from the nobler source
Of indignation, and the generous shame
Of injur'd merit; if they relish strong
The bitterness of soul from which they stream;
O, let increasing fury swell the tide,
Ev'n whilst we put in act our great revenge!
So weeps the storm, while the devouring waves
Close o'er the wrecks it made.

Sal.
Had I not seen
His cheek discolour'd, when his passion foam'd;
And heard him thunder threats of instant death
To me, and all whose generous spirits scorn
To bear th' oppression of his haughty Queen;
I never had believ'd my self so lost
To his affection.

Soh.
Lost! he lov'd you not;
Ambition is the mistress of his soul;
The Queen herself holds but the second place:
To please that mistress, he condemn'd to die
All the wife's kindred; now, to please the wife,
His own must bleed: greatness hath made him deaf
To nature's voice, ev'n while she pleads for you.

Sal.
The wretch who in an earthquake sees the ground
Heave like a swelling wave, before it gapes
To sink him to the centre, stands as safe,
As I so near the tyrant!

Soh.
In his court,
On these sad terms at best you but enjoy
A prison of state. When rival princes laid
Their sceptres at your feet, the Queen prevail'd
To have each honourable suit refus'd.

Sal.
Revenge no more shall grovel in the dark,
But fan with dragon-wings the face of day;
Oppose her course who can! It is resolv'd—

Soh.
Once Mariamne was the destin'd prey;
But since her charms enthrall the King as fast,
As in the freshness of her bridal love,
They both shall die.

Sal.
Yes, both; and all their friends
At once descending crowd the gates of night:
For self-defence will sanctify the deed:
And fame, th'officious herald of success,
Will blazon our renown; and though we fail,
'Tis great to dare.

Soh.
When those proud cedars fall,
Their spreading ruin will destroy the shrubs
Which flourish in their shade.—And lo, the man!
Whom fate selects t' atchieve her high decree.

SCENE II.

[To them Sameas enters.]
Salome.
This diamond, Sameas, but prepares the way
For future favours.

[Gives him a Jewel.
Sam.
Your auspicious smiles,
Madam, o'er-pay my service.

Soh.
Sameas wait
A while in my apartment, and I come
T' instruct you further to deserve her grace.

[Exit Sam.

SCENE III.

Salome.
The diamond which I gave him is the Queen's;
Arsinoe lent it, for the jeweller
To model one for me.

Soh.
It sure will prove
Of dearest value now: I was amaz'd
To see you give an earnest of such price,
To one whose genuine malice renders vice
Its own reward, and kills for killing sake.

Sal.
The wretch is avaritious; we must feed
That appetite of wealth, which urg'd him first
To trade in death.

Soh.
How urg'd?

Sal.
Along the shore
He walk'd one ev'ning, when the clamorous rage
Of tempests wreck'd a ship: the crew were sunk,
The master only reach'd the neighb'ring strand,
Born by a floating fragment; but so weak
With combating the storm, his tongue had lost
The faculty of speech, and yet for aid
He faintly wav'd his hand, on which he wore
A fatal jewel. Sameas quickly charm'd
Both by its size and lustre, with a look
Of pity, stoop'd to take him by the hand;
Then cut the finger off to gain the ring,
And plung'd him back to perish in the waves;
Crying, go dive for more.—I've heard him boast
Of this adventure.

Soh.
He's a very fiend!
If we succeed, he shall not live an hour,
In mercy to our selves: his poisoning art
In time wou'd taint the vital breath of spring;
And spread contagion with each spicy gale.—

[A Messenger enters.
Mess.
Lord Hazeroth releas'd, demands to see
Your lordship.—

[Exit.
Soh.
Me?

Sal.
Receive him; I retire.
[Exit Sal.

SCENE IV.

HAZEROTH, SOHEMUS.
Hazeroth.
The King, I thank his grace! vouchsafes me leave
To breath a freer air, than what was judg'd
Fit for my constitution; though the terms
Of freedom are severe.

Soh.
What terms, my lord?

Haz.
To sue for reconcilement, and receive
In sacred friendship that injurious hand,
Which coop'd me, like a starling in a cage:
You know the man!

Soh.
My lord, the man you mean
Bears such devotion to your high descent;
That 'tis the favourite passion of his soul,
To live your humblest servant—

Haz.
And his tongue
Distills court-honey, while his heart o'er-flows
With quintessence of gall!

Soh.
That character,
My lord, with great submission I disown:
You hear the dictates of an honest heart,
That's warm in all your interests.

Haz.
You confin'd
My person, like a felon's to promote
My interest! statesmen have peculiar arts!
They're so mysterious, few can apprehend
The favours they confer!

Soh.
The crime deserv'd
Severer penance than the King enjoin'd.

Haz.
I thank your majesty!

Soh.
I then, my lord,
Bore th' express image of the sov'reign pow'r;
And that's allow'd to dignify the coin,
However mean the metal. Me you brav'd,
With most unseemly licence; but th' affront
Wounded the King: and his prerogative
Reveng'd itself, not me.

Haz.
Whene'er the spleen
And pride of Tools in office are chastis'd;
The King's affronted!—is the general cry,
From those who lord it in the Sanhedrim,
To him who drives the camels!

Soh.
When, my lord,
Your shining merits meet their just reward;
Distinguish'd with some honourable post,
As soon they must; you'll own my doctrine sound.
Nothing but duty to preserve the crown
In its full lustre, 'till the King return'd,
Cou'd urge me to exert an act of pow'r
On you, my lord, whose qualities adorn
Your royal lineage: but, the noblest fruits
Have too much tartness, 'till the mellowing year
Digests their eager juices.

Haz.
Youth is apt
T' incur such indiscretions, as the King
Forgave in me, and you, my lord, forget:
Our friendship here begins.

Soh.
May death alone
Dissolve the honour'd tie! [Ex. Haz.]
O flattery!
How soon thy smooth insinuating oil
Supples the toughest fool!
[Exit Soh.

SCENE V.

MARIAMNE, ARSINOE.
Mariamne.
With less regret
I can support your absence, since my son
Will find so kind a guardian, to discharge
The dear engagements that a mother owes:
We differ but in name.

Ar.
The prince shall be
The tender object of my hourly care:
Happy! that fate reserves it in my pow'r,
T' express the sense my grateful heart retains
Of royal favour.

Mar.
Nature form'd our sex
For soft endearing offices: she starts,
When pity is depos'd, and cruel pride
Usurps the vacant throne. Alas! you see
How deep the darts of fortune wound the great,
Though clad in golden armour. Were you sway'd
By favours in reversion, which allure
Ev'n vulgar souls to succour the distress'd;
Int'rest wou'd tell you, that your darling son
May want a friend; and then, my tender plant
In the full verdure of his royal growth,
May recompense your kind protecting care,
And shield him from a storm.—Is the time fix'd
For your departure?

Ar.
Sohemus intends
T' obtain the royal mandate, to delay
My journey with my lord: then all my joys,
Like the false colours of the show'ry bow,
Will fade in tears!

Mar.
The politician's art
Must so revenge his disappointed love?
His spider-constitution wou'd dissolve
In its own venom, if he shou'd forbear
To spin it off in crafty dark intrigues;
Pernicious to my peace, and those I love.
Before the banquet, you shall quit the court;
Then let Flaminius vindicate his claim.
And by this prompt compliance with your lord,
Form all your future conduct; and affect
The pow'r to please, and not to give him pain:
For wedded love is founded on esteem,
Which the fair merits of the mind engage:
For those are charms that never can decay;
But time, which gives new whiteness to the swan,
Improves their lustre.

Ar.
None of humane race
Wou'd live more happy, cou'd we but transcribe
The bright example of a royal pair:
If my Flaminius ever wou'd reward
My constant ardor, with an equal flame;
Engag'd by such endearing decencies,
As make the lamp of love in Herod's breast
To burn so bright, and never to consume.

Mar.
Beware of flatt'ry! 'tis a flow'ry weed,
Which oft offends the very idol-vice,
Whose shrine it would perfume.

Ar.
But rigid truth
Turns praise to incense, which the nicest sense
Of virtue may receive.—In your soft chains
Your captive lord is led from joy to joy:
Days, months, and years, in circling raptures rowl,
And each advancing hour outshines the past.
None, none but he can such a treasure boast,
Rich in perfections, able to suffice
His avarice of love!

Mar.
When hearts are join'd
In virtuous union, love's impartial beams
Gild the low cottage of the faithful swain
With equal warmth, as when he darts his fires
On canopies of state.

Ar.
The danger's fled,
And now I may disclose a stronger proof
Of Herod's passion, than the long records
Of love contain.

Mar.
What proof?—a dangerous proof,
Conceal'd from me!

Ar.
When Cæsar's mounted beams
Prevail'd o'er Anthony's inferior star;
He thought the victor, in severe revenge,
Would take both life and crown: his life and crown
Were toys beneath his care; but oh! what pangs
He felt, reflecting that your death alone
Cou'd save your beauties to himself entire!
How vast a passion his, who could not bear
A rival in the grave!

Mar.
How! Did the king
To the red hand of slaughter doom the breast
Of once-lov'd Mariamne?—Gave command
This breast shou'd bleed, where never dwelt a thought
Disloyal or unkind!—Had other lips
Breath'd forth this fatal truth, it would appear
The dictate of inventive spleen, disclos'd
To violate my peace: But you're sincere;
And knowing that, I know my self undone!

Ar.
O, that I had been born like nature's mutes,
That swim the silent deep!—Believe me false;
Or else, with me, believe the King's decree
A test of wondrous love, and dear esteem!

Mar.
Love, and esteem!—

Ar.
Alas! rekindling rage
Glows on your cheek, and sparkles in your eyes:—
Think me perfidious, or distrust the pow'r,
And evidence of ev'ry faithful sense;
Rather than doubt your self the worship'd shrine
Of his fond soul, and treasure of his joys.

Mar.
To dissipate my doubt, recite the whole,
Without evasions.

Ar.
When he went to Rhodes,
He thus to Sohemus his charge address'd.
If I to Cæsar's rage a victim fall,
Let not my beauteous Queen survive, to grace
The victor's triumphs, or to crown his love:
Let me lie envy'd in the grave, possess'd
Of Mariamne there! a happier doom,
Than 'tis to live the world's imperial lord
Without my Queen, or rival'd in my love.

Mar.
Whene'er did cruelty assume a look
So smooth and fair before?—To summon death,
And arm the Terror with a dart of love,
Against his Queen! his wife! whose ardent vows,
Incessant pray'r, and sacrifice, implor'd
Th'unutterable name, to make his head
White as the flow'ring almond, with increase
Of prosp'rous days; that ages yet unborn
Might bow before his throne, and bless his pow'r;
When I lie unlamented and forgot,
A little heap of dust: and this return!—
A sad return indeed!

Ar.
Call it despair,
And fear of losing what his soul adores.
Our deeds receive their colour from the will;
His tongue was cruel, but his heart was kind;
And rigor was, at worst, the sullen child
Of grief, and bore a fix'd, but melting eye:
Or if a crime, the crime of boundless love.

Mar.
Good heav'n! that base perfidious creature, man!—
With what dissembled agonies of grief
He cried, farewel! and fainted in my arms;
I credulously fond thought all sincere!

Ar.
His grief was undissembled; but your charms
Have wrought his love to rage.

Mar.
If this poor stock
Of artless beauty hath such fatal pow'r,
When you, Arsinoe, have a daughter born,
Beg all deformities of shape and face,
T'insure her quiet from that monster, man!
Who quitting reason, a celestial claim,
To the sweet harmony of souls prefers
A little white and red, the airy food
Of bestial appetite: and for a cheek,
Whose transient beauties hardly will outwear
The wardrobe of a flow'r—

[A Messenger enters.
Mess.
The king and court
Intreat your majesty wou'd come, to grace
The banquet.

Mar.
No! I'm indispos'd— [Exit Mess.]
Now fly,
Arsinoe, fly the meditated snare,
Which Sohemus will spread: and may your love
In the warm smile of fortune flourish fair,
Fruitful of virtuous joys: but if the Pow'r
Blast with malignant frowns the blooming sweets,
Absolve your destiny of partial rage:
Think on the wife, the mother, and the queen,
Whose heart her hostile troops have long besieg'd:
Think with kind pity on the countless store
Of Mariamne's woes, and weep no more.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VI.

Enter Salome alone.
Salome.
I thought my heart was arm'd with adamant
Against remorse, but nature fools me now;
A faint cold shiv'ring seizeth every limb.

SCENE VII.

Enter Sohemus.
Salome.
My lord! O breathe some cordial to revive
My sick'ning expectation.

Soh.
To defeat
Our purpose, fortune with malicious joy
Fav'ring the Queen, hath snatch'd her from the stroke
Of lifted thunder; but the bolt is hurl'd,
And on her head the ruin shall rebound.
Her stern refusal to partake the feast,
In foul suspicion will confirm the King;
Absolve us, and to her transfer the crime:
With hope attend th'event.
[Exit. Soh.

SCENE VIII.

Salome.
alone.
On this great hour
Shine all ye planets, whose malignant rays,
Blast the fair prosp'rous growth of regal pow'r!
Hark!—Death's in action; from the banquet sounds
The musick of his triumphs, groans and cries.

SCENE IX.

[To her Pheroras enters.]
Pheroras.
Give me, good heav'n! to feed on wholesom herbs
In camps, and drink the pure untainted spring;
Since death in ambush lies in sparkling cups,
And courtly viands!

Sal.
Why, my lord, so pale?
What strange disorder ends the festival?

Pher.
Sameas, the wretch whom I prefer'd to court,
Design'd to poison all.

Sal.
Avert it, heav'ns!
I hope he fail'd.

Pher.
His felon-cheek ne'er chang'd
It's colour, when he brought th'impoison'd bowl,
With garlands crown'd, and gave it to the King:
Who with the fondness of a lover cry'd,
He'd not indulge his taste, because the Queen
Refus'd t'adorn the circle, so resign'd
To Hazeroth the pledge of royal grace.
Sudden his lips grew livid, and discharg'd
A purple foam, his labouring bosom swell'd;
His eye-balls like malignant meteors glar'd,
Unmov'd and gastly: as the venom spread,
Frightful convulsions writh'd his tortur'd limbs;
Then mad with anguish, rushing to the floor
He groan'd his soul away.

Sal.
All scap'd but he?

Phe.
Had not the villain over-drug'd the wine,
We all had perish'd.

SCENE X.

Herod enters on one side of the Stage, and Sohemus on the other.
Herod,
to Sohemus.
Will the Queen obey
Our order, and attend us?

Soh.
Sir, she comes
With much reluctance.

[Mariamne enters.
Her.
to Mar.
Did the banquet want
Variety, or elegance of art,
T'engage you to partake? If all our court
Had been alike abstemious, Death had miss'd
A rich repast!

Mar.
Death!—I can bear the sound:
Ill fate is grown familiar to my ear!

Her.
There let it meet your eye.
[She goes to the door which he points to.
O'er the black crime
How white a veil of innocence she throws!

Soh.
Her eyes glance indignation, now she finds
Th' invenom'd dart hath err'd.

Mar.
Poor Hazeroth!
Thy freedom costs thee dear!

Her.
You have been just,
In punishing the traytor's insolence;
Whom in excess of clemency I spar'd,
Because ally'd to you.

Mar.
Murther'd by me!—
So let the tiger sheath his savage fangs,
And for the mangled fawn implead the roe!—
To build my frame the forming pow'r infus'd
Too mild a spirit, in too soft a mold,
For such barbarian deeds.—Who wears the sword
That flesh'd in slaughter, levell'd to the dust
The royal stem, whence that poor scion sprung?
[Pointing toward Haz.
Who doom'd to death the hoary majesty
Of good Hyrcanus? Whose insatiate rage
Murther'd my royal father, and his son?
Bid fame to late posterity report
That Mariamne did it:—She destroy'd
Her grandsire, father, uncle, brother, all
Her Asmonæan race; and then constrain'd
Herod to wear the crown!—

Her.
So grac'd, to fall
A nobler victim to her vast revenge!

Mar.
Call your brib'd witnesses; they're useful paint
To varnish acts of arbitrary rage.

Her.
Why comes not Sameas?
[Exit. Soh.
Oh! how blest am I,
If heav'n preserves that angel-form the seat
Of innocence and truth: but much I fear
Too plain conviction; for thy dream reveal'd
This meditated crime: I heard thee cry,
The King is poison'd.—But attend the proof.

SCENE XI.

Sohemus enters with Sameas.
Sohemus,
to Sameas.
The diamond will confirm your evidence.

[Aside.
Her.
Sameas beware, and tremble to transgress
The bounds of truth: if one assertion fail
Of utmost evidence against the Queen;
Thou for a single fiction shalt descend
Quick to the heart of hell. Who gave the drugs
That poison'd Hazeroth?

Sam.
Arsinoe said
She brought them from the Queen; and much extoll'd
Their pow'rful virtue to revive the flames
Of dying love.

Mar.
Heav'n guard my innocence!

Her.
Haste! call Arsinoe.—

Soh.
Sir, she fled the court
In great disorder.

Her.
How!

Soh.
The Roman camp
Protects her guilt.

Her.
A potion to revive
The flames of love! Did e'er my passion need
The wicked pow'r of art to make it glow?
[To Mar.
O'er-whelm'd with blank confusion!—

Mar.
Must a dream,
The transient image of a troubled thought,
Join'd with that villain's frontless perjury,
Be clear consummate proof, t' affirm a fact
Wou'd make fiends start, and stand in wild amaze
Abstracted from their hate! Can he produce
A promise of rewards, or present bribe
To fortify this proof?

Sam.
Arsinoe gave
This precious token of your future grace.

[Shews a jewel
Her.
Know you this diamond, sorceress!

Mar.
'Tis the same
You gave me on your birth-day.

Her.
To be made
The lure of death—O foul!

Mar.
Arsinoe's false;
Send, intercept her flight: let her confront
His evidence; and if they both conspire
T' attaint my innocence—

Her.
My guards!—secure
[To the Captain of the guard.
That wicked woman with a double guard—
Seize her, I say!—

Mar.
Friend, tremble not t' obey
His orders, thou'rt a soldier.—But, my lord!—
Think not these tears, the frailty of my sex,
Argue a sense of guilt, or servile hope
Of moving pity, to retard my doom:
I weep not for my self; nor wish to ward
The blow, whene'er misguided justice strikes:
But if I e'er was treasur'd in your heart;
For sure you lov'd me once—

Her.
And lov'd too well!
May all who hate me love as much as I,
And then be thus requited!

Mar.
When I'm dead,
O, let the stream of dear affection flow,
Redoubled on my son! to him transfer
The share I've lost.—And never may the wrong
His mother bears, obstruct the sweet returns
Of filial duty, and paternal love!
But may my memory his soul inspire
To scorn inglorious life, when honour calls
Greatly to act, or suffer in her cause:
And think the debt which death is sure to claim,
A tribute due to virtue, and to fame.

[Exeunt.