The poems (1969) :: :: University of Virginia Library

Ye captive tribes, that hourly work and weep
Where flows Euphrates murmuring to the deep,
Suspend awhile the task, the tear suspend,
And turn to God, your father and your friend.
Insulted, chained, and all the world a foe,
Our God alone is all we boast below.

CHORUS OF ISRAELITES

Our God is all we boast below,
To him we turn our eyes;
And every added weight of woe
Shall make our homage rise.

And though no temple richly dressed
Nor sacrifice is here,
We'll make his temple in our breast,
And offer up a tear.

SECOND PROPHET

Recitative

That strain once more; it bids remembrance rise,
And calls my long-lost country to mine eyes.
Ye fields of Sharon, dressed in flowery pride,
Ye plains where Jordan rolls its glassy tide,
Ye hills of Lebanon with cedars crowned,
Ye Gilead groves that fling perfumes around,
These hills how sweet! those plains how wondrous fair,

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But sweeter still, when Heaven was with us there!

Air

O memory, thou fond deceiver,
Still importunate and vain;
To former joys recurring ever,
And turning all the past to pain;

Hence, deceiver, most distressing,
Seek the happy and the free:
They who want each other blessing,
Ever want a friend in thee.

FIRST PROPHET

Recitative

Yet, why repine? What, though by bonds confined,
Should bonds enslave the vigour of the mind?
Have we not cause for triumph when we see
Ourselves alone from idol-worship free?
Are not this very day those rites begun,
Where prostrate error hails the rising sun?
Do not our tyrant lords this day ordain
For superstition's rites and mirth profane?
And should we mourn? should coward virtue fly,
When impious folly rears her front on high?
No; rather let us triumph still the more,
And as our fortune sinks, our wishes soar.

610

Air

The triumphs that on vice attend
Shall ever in confusion end;
The good man suffers but to gain,
And every virtue springs from pain:

As aromatic plants bestow
No spicy fragrance while they grow;
But crushed, or trodden to the ground,
Diffuse their balmy sweets around.

SECOND PROPHET

Recitative

But hush, my sons, our tyrant lords are near;
The sound of barbarous mirth offends mine ear;
Triumphant music floats along the vale;
Near, nearer still, it gathers on the gale;
The growing note their near approach declares;
Desist, my sons, nor mix the strain with theirs.

Enter Chaldean Priests attended
FIRST PRIEST

Air

Come on, my companions, the triumph display;
Let rapture the minutes employ;
The sun calls us out on this festival day,
And our monarch partakes of our joy.

Like the sun, our great monarch all pleasure supplies,
Both similar blessings bestow;
The sun with his splendour illumines the skies,
And our monarch enlivens below.

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CHALDEAN WOMAN

Air

Haste, ye sprightly sons of pleasure;
Love presents its brightest treasure,
Leave all other sports for me.

CHALDEAN ATTENDANT
Or rather, love's delights despising,
Haste to raptures ever rising:
Wine shall bless the brave and free.

SECOND PRIEST
Wine and beauty thus inviting,
Each to different joys exciting,
Whither shall my choice incline?

FIRST PRIEST

I'll waste no longer thought in choosing;
But, neither love nor wine refusing,
I'll make them both together mine.

Recitative

But whence, when joy should brighten o'er the land,
This sullen gloom in Judah's captive band?
Ye sons of Judah, why the lute unstrung?
Or why those harps on yonder willows hung?
Come, leave your griefs and join our warbling choir,
For who like you can wake the sleeping lyre?

SECOND PROPHET
Bowed down with chains, the scorn of all mankind,

612

To want, to toil and every ill consigned,
Is this a time to bid us raise the strain,
And mix in rites that Heaven regards with pain?
No, never! May this hand forget each art
That speeds the powers of music to the heart,
Ere I forget the land that gave me birth,
Or join with sounds profane its sacred mirth.

FIRST PRIEST
Insulting slaves! if gentler methods fail,
The whips and angry tortures shall prevail.

[Exeunt Chaldeans
FIRST PROPHET
Why, let them come, one good remains to cheer;
We fear the Lord, and know no other fear.

CHORUS
Can whips or tortures hurt the mind
On God's supporting breast reclined?
Stand fast, and let our tyrants see
That fortitude is victory.

End of the First Act

ACT II

Scene as before
CHORUS OF ISRAELITES
O Peace of mind, thou lovely guest,

613

Thou softest soother of the breast,
Dispense thy balmy store.
Wing all our thoughts to reach the skies,
Till earth, diminished to our eyes,
Shall vanish as we soar.

FIRST PRIEST

Recitative

No more. Too long has justice been delayed,
The king's commands must fully be obeyed;
Compliance with his will your peace secures,
Praise but our gods and every good is yours.
But if, rebellious to his high command,
You spurn the favours offered from his hand,
Think, timely think, what ills remain behind;
Reflect, nor tempt to rage the royal mind.

SECOND PRIEST

Air

Fierce is the whirlwind howling
O'er Afric's sandy plain,
And fierce the tempest rolling
Along the furrowed main:

But storms that fly
To rend the sky,
Every ill presaging,
Less dreadful show
To worlds below
Than angry monarchs raging.

ISRAELITISH WOMAN

Recitative

Ah, me! what angry terrors round us grow;
How shrinks my soul to meet the threatened blow!
Ye prophets, skilled in Heaven's eternal truth,

614

Forgive my sex's fears, forgive my youth!
If, shrinking thus, when frowning power appears,
I wish for life and yield me to my fears.
Let us one hour, one little hour obey;
Tomorrow's tears may wash our stains away.

Air

To the last moment of his breath
On hope the wretch relies;
And even the pang preceding death
Bids expectation rise.

Hope, like the gleaming taper's light,
Adorns and cheers our way;
And still, as darker grows the night,
Emits a brighter ray.

SECOND PRIEST

Recitative

Why this delay? at length for joy prepare;
I read your looks and see compliance there.
Come raise the strain and grasp the full-toned lyre:
The time, the theme, the place and all conspire.

615

CHALDEAN WOMAN

Air

See the ruddy morning smiling,
Hear the grove to bliss beguiling;
Zephyrs through the valley playing,
Streams along the meadow straying.

FIRST PRIEST
While these a constant revel keep,
Shall reason only bid me weep?
Hence, intruder! we'll pursue
Nature, a better guide than you.

SECOND PRIEST

Air

Every moment, as it flows,
Some peculiar pleasure owes;
Then let us, providently wise,
Seize the debtor as it flies.

Think not tomorrow can repay
The pleasures that we lose today;
Tomorrow's most unbounded store
Can but pay its proper score.

FIRST PRIEST

Recitative

But hush! see, foremost of the captive choir,
The master-prophet grasps his full-toned lyre.
Mark where he sits, with executing art,

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Feels for each tone and speeds it to the heart.
See, inspiration fills his rising form,
Awful as clouds that nurse the growing storm;
And now his voice, accordant to the string,
Prepares our monarch's victories to sing.

FIRST PROPHET

Air

From north, from south, from east, from west,
Conspiring foes shall come;
Tremble, thou vice-polluted breast;
Blasphemers, all be dumb.

The tempest gathers all around,
On Babylon it lies;
Down with her! down, down to the ground;
She sinks, she groans, she dies.

SECOND PROPHET
Down with her, Lord, to lick the dust,
Ere yonder setting sun;
Serve her as she hath served the just.
'Tis fixed-it shall be done.

FIRST PRIEST

Recitative

Enough! when slaves thus insolent presume,
The king himself shall judge and fix their doom.
Short-sighted wretches, have not you, and all,
Beheld our power in Zedekiah's fall?
To yonder gloomy dungeon turn your eyes;
See where dethroned your captive monarch lies.
Deprived of sight and rankling in his chain,
He calls on death to terminate his pain.
Yet know, ye slaves, that still remain behind
More ponderous chains and dungeons more confined.

617

CHORUS
Arise, all-potent Ruler, rise,
And vindicate the people's cause;
Till every tongue in every land
Shall offer up unfeigned applause.

End of the Second Act

ACT III

Scene as before
FIRST PRIEST

Recitative

Yes, my companions, Heaven's decrees are past,
And our fixed empire shall for ever last;
In vain the maddening prophet threatens woe,
In vain rebellion aims her secret blow;
Still shall our fame and growing power be spread,
And still our vengeance crush the guilty's head.

Air

Coeval with man
Our empire began,
And never shall fall
Till ruin shakes all;
With the ruin of all
Shall Babylon fall.

SECOND PROPHET

Recitative

'Tis thus that pride triumphant rears the head:
A little while and all her power is fled.
But ha! what means yon sadly plaintive train,

618

That this way slowly bends along the plain?
And now, methinks, a pallid corse they bear
To yonder bank, and rest the body there.
Alas! too well mine eyes observant trace
The last remains of Judah's royal race:
Our monarch falls and now our fears are o'er:
The wretched Zedekiah is no more!

Air

Ye wretches who, by fortune's hate,
In want and sorrow groan,
Come ponder his severer fate,
And learn to bless your own.

Ye sons, from fortune's lap supplied,
Awhile the bliss suspend;
Like yours his life began in pride,
Like his your lives may end.

SECOND PROPHET
Behold his squalid corse with sorrow worn,
His wretched limbs with ponderous fetters torn;
Those eyeless orbs that shock with ghastly glare,

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Those ill-becoming robes and matted hair.
And shall not Heaven for this its terrors show,
And deal its angry vengeance on the foe?
How long, how long, Almighty Lord of all,
Shall wrath vindictive threaten ere it fall?

ISRAELITISH WOMAN

Air

As panting flies the hunted hind,
Where brooks refreshing stray,
And rivers through the valley wind,
That stop the hunter's way:

Thus we, O Lord, alike distressed,
For streams of mercy long;
Those streams which cheer the sore oppressed,
And overwhelm the strong.

FIRST PROPHET

Recitative

But whence that shout? Good Heavens! amazement all!
See yonder tower just nodding to the fall:
See where an army covers all the ground,
Saps the strong wall and pours destruction round.
The ruin smokes, destruction pours along;
How low the great, how feeble are the strong!
The foe prevails, the lofty walls recline:
O God of hosts, the victory is thine!

620

CHORUS OF ISRAELITES
Down with her, Lord, to lick the dust;
Let vengeance be begun:
Serve her as she hath served the just,
And let thy will be done.

FIRST PRIEST

All, all is lost. The Syrian army fails;
Cyrus, the conqueror of the world, prevails.
Save us, O Lord! to thee, though late, we pray,
And give repentance but an hour's delay.

Air

Thrice happy, who in happy hour
To Heaven their praise bestow,
And own his all-consuming power
Before they feel the blow!

FIRST PROPHET

Recitative

Now, now's our time! ye wretches bold and blind,
Brave but to God and cowards to mankind,
Too late you seek that power unsought before,
Your wealth, your pride, your empire, are no more.

Air

O Lucifer, thou son of morn,
Alike of Heaven and man the foe;
Heaven, men and all

621

Now press thy fall,
And sink thee lowest of the low.

SECOND PRIEST
O Babylon, how art thou fallen,
Thy fall more dreadful from delay!
Thy streets forlorn
To wilds shall turn,
Where toads shall pant and vultures prey.

FIRST PROPHET

Recitative

Such be her fate. But listen, from afar
The clarion's note proclaims the finished war!
Cyrus, our great restorer, is at hand,
And this way leads his formidable band.
Now, give your songs of Sion to the wind,
And hail the benefactor of mankind:
He comes pursuant to divine decree,
To chain the strong and set the captive free.

CHORUS OF YOUTHS
Rise to raptures past expressing,
Sweeter from remembered woes;
Cyrus comes, our wrongs redressing,
Comes to give the world repose.

CHORUS OF VIRGINS
Cyrus comes, the world redressing,
Love and pleasure in his train;
Comes to heighten every blessing,
Comes to soften every pain.

CHORUS OF YOUTHS AND VIRGINS
Hail to him with mercy reigning,
Skilled in every peaceful art,

622

Who from bonds our limbs unchaining,
Only binds the willing heart.

LAST CHORUS
But chief to Thee, our God, our father, friend,
Let praise be given to all eternity;
O Thou, without beginning, without end,
Let us, and all, begin and end in Thee!

FINIS