University of Virginia Library

ACT THE FIRST.

SCENE THE FIRST.

Leonidas, Anpharus.
An.
Behold, Leonidas, thou once more sittest
Upon thy royal throne. Entirely, Sparta,
Or of her citizens the better part,
Those who are really and maturely wise,
The lovers of the public weal, have turn'd
Their eyes to thee, expecting, by thy means,
To gain a respite from their long distress.

Le.
Yet thence I do not deem, while Agis lives,
That I am king of Sparta. He not only
Lives, but reigns also in the hearts of many.
This temple is to him a place of refuge,
Whose neighbouring portals every day are fill'd
With a tumultuary audacious throng,
Who yet desire him for their king, and cry
For him once more my partner on the throne.

An.
And fearest thou to be o'ercome by him?
I swear, and all the other ephori
Swear likewise, Agis never shall be king.
But art is rather needful now than force ...

Le.
Lately had he such influence acquired,
That he had dared, with his contrivances,
And with his new and ill-imagined laws,
To overturn all Spartan institutes
By open force, and from the throne to drive
Me into exile: ought I, in that throne,
Reseated by my faithful Spartans, now
To avenge myself on him by hidden schemes?

An.
Thou art compell'd to stoop to stratagems:
He is thy son-in-law. The day that thou
In cruel banishment, alone, abandon'd,
Robb'd of thy royal crown, from Sparta wentest,
He shew'd thee kindness. To the fierce assassin,
That in pursuit of thee, to spill thy blood,
Agesilaus sent, with open force
Agis opposed himself, and led thee safe
(Thou must remember) to Tegæa's confines:
In this one act alone he did not seem
The son of Agesistrata, in this
Openly adverse to her guilty brother.
Thou only now canst prosecute thy vengeance
By feign'd concernment for the public good.

Le.
An infamous gift he made me of my life
The day that he expell'd me from the throne;
And as the injury most exquisite,
Should I impute it to him. He deem'd me
A foe no longer to be fear'd! To-day
Will I in this entirely undeceive him.
That he's my son-in-law, doubles in me
My hatred towards him. Son-in-law to me?
Ah! what was my mistake t'have given to him
A lady so dissimilar in marriage?
No reparation but his death remains.
Beloved Agiziade, mine only daughter,
Thou my companion, my solace thou
Wert to me in my dreary exile. She
Abandon'd her beloved spouse, since he
Was hostile to her father; she esteem'd
The ties of nature more imperative
Than those of love: and she would rather drag
A wretched wandering life with me, than share
The throne with my unworthy adversary.

An.
Yet in proportion as thy rage is just,
Suppress its workings, if thou would'st indulge it.
Not less than thee I hate the haughty Agis;
And his parade of antiquated virtues,
Feign'd to reflect on us. It is a folly
No less ambitious than malevolent,
To seek to rivet Sparta with those chains
That erst Lycurgus framed: yet his design
Has no less scope than this; hence had his rule
Reduced our city to extremity:
And yet distracted, languishing she lies,
In tumults, and perplexities involved.
But all things change with time. Those factious traitors,
The ephori, Agesilaus' slaves,
And more to him devoted than to Agis,
Are all with him now banish'd or destroy'd,
And Sparta now in us alone is centred.
But the flagitious, discontented people,
Always desirous of new men and measures,
Yet, as a means to their pernicious views,
Their suffrage give to Agis. Ill can we
Restrain them by mere force; it is not safe
In a new government to use coercion.
The people may, with less of peril, be
Deluded than compell'd. Leave thou to me
This enterprise, in which, not less than thine,
My heart an interest takes. But here, behold
Comes Agesistrata. This lady makes
Fresh progress in th'affections of the Spartans
From day to day: she also should be fear'd.

SCENE THE SECOND.

Agesistrata, Leonidas, Anpharus.
Ages.
Who interrupts my progress? While I go
To the asylum of the Spartan monarch,
Around these confines do I not behold
Another, and new king of Sparta stalk?

Le.
And had I an asylum in the world
On that disastrous day, when Sparta's king
From Sparta I was driven? For a long time
I lived in exile from the throne; and lived,
Which is far worse, apparently a culprit.
Grief would have slain me, if my innocence,
Together with my usurp'd majesty,
Had not been fully to myself restored
By wiser councils of that very Sparta.
Cleombrotus, my execrable rival,
Banish'd from Sparta, he, to whom thy son,
Master of all things then, my sceptre gave,
Himself made my defence. To publish his,
Why delays Agis? He was on the throne
My colleague; yet he is my daughter's consort;
And may, if so it please him, be my foe.—
But say, what other cause except his guilt
Detains him now imprison'd in the temple?

Ages.
Leonidas, to Sparta and to me
Thou art but too well known: what are thy faults,
And what are those of Agis, is express'd
In a few words. Agis wish'd Sparta free;
Equal her citizens, courageous, strong,
And terrible: true Spartans: and he wish'd,
Not to be paramount to any man,
Except in magnanimity and virtue.
Rich, mercenary, sunk in indolence,
Effeminate, by party spirit torn,
Such as she is in short, Leonidas
Desired her still to be. To guilt ascribed
Are Agis' purposes, because the bad
In Sparta o'er the good preponderate;
Those of Leonidas ascribed to virtue,
Because they are adapted to the times.
To-day, at least, remember if thou canst,
That my son shew'd himself the open foe
Of thy power only, never of thy person;
Reflect that now thou would'st not live, if he,
More citizen than king, had not preserved,
And perhaps to his own detriment, thy life.

Le.
'Tis true, that Agis, perhaps in spite of thee,
On that same day on which thy cruel brother
Sent vile assassins to destroy my life,
By other satellites, to him attach'd,
Preserved me living, and exempt from wounds:
But can a banish'd king, of throne bereft,
Bereft of honour and of innocence,
By a fierce rival, his ill-granted life
Ascribe to generous impulses of pity?

Ages.
The gift was no less noble than imprudent:
Agis himself so deem'd it; but innate
Is magnanimity in that great heart.
Th'illustrious Agis would not, with thy blood,
Contaminate the enterprise, at once
Unparallel'd and generous, of a king,
Resolved spontaneously to reinstate
His people in illimitable freedom.
I ne'er dissuaded him from pardoning thee;
And perhaps should have attempted it in vain:
Mother of Agis, could I e'er betray
A heart less high than that of such a son?
'Tis true, I call Agesilaus brother;
But now of such a name he is unworthy.
With florid eloquence, and specious virtues,
Covering his irreclaimable corruption,
Agis and Sparta, and with these myself,
He hath deceived ...

Le.
Never Leonidas.

Ages.
He was thy counterpart, and thence well known.
To take for ever from the creditors
And debtors, from the rich and mendicants,
Their Anti-Spartan names, Agesilaus,
More than all other men, persuaded Agis.
Seeing himself by our example forced
To sacrifice his riches, and subdued
By brutal avarice, disgracing thus
Th'ephori's sacred function, he forbade
The high participation. Hence the people,
Confused, and more oppress'd, in doubt and fear
Betwixt their not extinguish'd servitude,
And their confounded, scarce reviving freedom,
Recall'd thee to the throne: and chose in thee
A worthy instrument to prop once more
Their soft, incurably corrupted customs.
That very people, to thy hands gave bound
Cleombrotus, erewhile elected king:
That very people to the custody
Of an asylum only relegates
Agis, their monarch once so idolized.

An.
Far more is he protected by the laws,
Than by this his asylum. Though he be
Th'annuller and subverter of those laws,
Yet does he owe to them and us his safety.
To us, true ephori, before all Sparta,
Will he be challenged to defend himself:
Provided he can prove his innocence,
He need not fear the monarch or his people.

Le.
If in his heart he is not self-accused,
Whence this asylum? Why not summon me
To an impartial judgment at the just
And popular tribunal?

Ages.
Because thou
Dost render it (of virtue destitute)
Thy instrument with bribery and arms.
Because thou dost return full of revenge,
Which that tribunal too well knows: in short,
Because thy new, not Spartan ephori,
Other than legal terrors fulminate.
My Agis knows not fear; but he would snatch
Himself from infamy; which evermore
He who usurps authority, on others
Can, for a transient space at least, bestow.

Le.
What will thy Agis do then? He cannot
Now longer keep himself conceal'd, if he
Fear real infamy.

An.
Much less can Sparta,
In her existing strange vicissitudes,
Endure the loss of one of her two kings.
Agis still bears the name, yet he performs not
The necessary functions of a king:
Meanwhile within its ramparts, and without
Sparta is insecure; its institutes
Are all despised; and there is need ...

Ages.
Of Agis;
And with him need of every thing that's good.
The enemies of Sparta know this truth
As well as we, in whose breasts Agis only
Revived a terror of our arms. Yes, Agis,
The beardless Agis, made the Ætolians tremble,
On whom the great Aratus, hoary leader,
Made no impression with his fierce Achaians.
I do conjure thee now, Leonidas,
To undertake no scheme for his destruction.
For notwithstanding fate, often unjust,
Should crown thy efforts now in the attempt,
From thence would'st thou in course of time entail
Heavy disgrace and blame upon thyself,
And on thy country lasting detriment.
A know not whether country be to thee
A sacred name; but among us it is
A name so strong and paramount to all,
That if a fleeting doubt rose in my heart
Whether the thoughts, much more the deeds of Agis,
Were all directed to the good of Sparta,
I, though his mother, I would first implore
Against my son, in all its plenitude,
The inexorable rigour of the laws.
Act thou then now according to thy judgment,
Nor Agis, nor who brought him into life,
Save for their country and their countrymen
Can ever tremble: thou, although in arms,
And in a prosperous state, within thy heart
Self-conscious, tremble for thyself alone.

Le.
Lady, thou art a mother, and of one
Thou art a mother who possess'd the sceptre,
Hence I excuse thee. Fear in you dwells not;
So say'st thou. May its absence be auspicious;
But the ephori and Sparta, and myself
Give to you only one whole day to prove
This innocence of yours, for ever vaunted,
And never proved. Let him at last come forth,
And exculpate himself; and even me,
If so he will, let him accuse: his choice,
Except in reference to this asylum,
Is free in all things else. But say to him,
If he persist to sequestrate himself,
That Sparta by to-morrow's dawn no more
Deems him her king, and I no more a colleague.

SCENE THE THIRD.

Agesistrata, Anpharus.
An.
He speaks embitter'd by his recent exile:
But Sparta doth not share in his resentments.
Thou shouldest, thou, to whom alike are dear
Agis and Sparta, strive to adapt thy son
To times like these, and inculcate compliance ...

Ages.
To compromise his honour, not myself,
Nor you, nor Sparta, ever could induce him.
That the king's rage is not the rage of Sparta,
The throng immense of Spartans in fresh troops,
Round his asylum every day assembled,
Sufficiently convince me, who call him,
With loud, audacious, and intrepid cries,
Preserver, sovereign-citizen, and father;
Second deliverer, a new Lycurgus.
His virtue must indeed be eminent,
Since Sparta thus dare praise him at her peril;
Since admiration of that excellence
Greater effects in Sparta can produce
Than all the terror of your arm'd adherents.

An.
The people gather into crowds, and shout,
Yet nothing they attempt: nor will their vile
And turbulent deportment aught effect,
Except increasingly to exasperate
The good against thy son. Thou canst do much,
Mother of Agis, on the Spartan people;
On Agis canst do more: the first induce,
(I pray thee hear) to cease from turbulence;
The second, for a little time at least,
To adapt himself to time and circumstance.
If thy son's good, and if the good of all
Thou dost desire, 'tis ill, thou know'st, ensured
By civil violence and rabid strife.—
If thou refusest, in a cause like this,
Warmly to exert thyself, not wrongfully,
Leonidas, and Sparta, and myself,
Will execrate you as domestic foes;
Then, then 'will irrefragably appear
That all your ample wealth, a tribute large,
Was with malignant purposes relinquish'd
To purchase in reversion for yourselves
Supremacy, and not equality.
The fame of lofty efforts, good or bad,
On the event depends. Let not your deeds,
Magnanimous and generous (if they are,)
Receive a taint from other men's suspicions,
Which tax you now with probable repentance
For such a mighty gift; and further tax you
With a design large harvest thence to reap.
I, as a magistrate and citizen,
Not as a foe, lay every thing before thee:
On you alone it afterwards depends
To take what measures seem the most expedient.

SCENE THE FOURTH.

Agesistrata.
Ages.
Fain would these men gain time; but time shall not
Be granted to them. Ah, the suavity
Of Anpharus, so subtly feign'd; the rage
Of fierce Leonidas, with pain repress'd,
Too manifestly indicate to me
The destiny of Agis and of Sparta.
Let nothing now be left untried to save them;
And if our country's angry gods with blood
Alone can be appeased, myself and Agis
Will for that country die; we're born to serve her.
May Sparta from our ashes rise once more.