 | Artaxerxes |  |
SCENE XIV.
Artaxerxes, Artaban, Semira.Artax.
O my Semira! how has Heaven conspir'd
To ruin poor Arbaces!
Sem.
Barbarous tyrant!
And art thou chang'd so soon? First would'st thou kill
Thy friend, and then lament him?
Artax.
To his father
I gave the power to acquit or to condemn him.
And am I then a tyrant? Have I kill'd him?
Sem.
O! 'tis the most ingenious cruelty!
The father judging, was compell'd to act
Subservient to the laws; to thee, a king,
The laws were subject: pity had in him
Been criminal, but was from thee a duty.
No, rather tell me that with savage joy,
Thou see'st a son slain by his father's doom;
That friendship and that love are thine no more.
Artax.
Let Persia witness for me, that I now
Am grateful to Arbaces, that I feel
57
Sem.
Yes, till this hour, I with the world deceiv'd,
Admir'd thy seeming virtue, and believ'd thee
A tender lover, and a generous friend:
But now, one moment shews thee, as thou art;
A treacherous friend, and an inhuman lover.
Admir'd thy seeming virtue, and believ'd thee
A tender lover, and a generous friend:
But now, one moment shews thee, as thou art;
A treacherous friend, and an inhuman lover.
When love with unresisted chains
The natives of the woods constrains,
The Armenian tigress drops her rage,
The lion learns his wrath to assuage.
But thou with wrath more fell indu'd,
Than every savage of the wood,
Canst bid thy heart relentless prove
To every tender call of love.
The natives of the woods constrains,
The Armenian tigress drops her rage,
The lion learns his wrath to assuage.
But thou with wrath more fell indu'd,
Than every savage of the wood,
Canst bid thy heart relentless prove
To every tender call of love.
[Exit.
| Artaxerxes | |