University of Virginia Library

ACT I.

Storm.
Iphigenia. Euphrosine.
Iph.
Defend me, great Diana!
Defend thy Iphigenia, thou bright Goddess,
The wretched Servant of whose cruel rites
Before thy Sacred Temple here I stand!
A Storm so dreadful my eyes ne're beheld,
Not ev'n in this accursed Scythian Climate,
O're which the furious God of War presiding,
The restless Natives and the outrageous elements
All wage eternal War.

Euph.
There's something surely above Nature in it.

Iph.
But if this Storm's so terrible to us,
How must it look, alas, to those poor Souls,
With conqu'ring Death conflicting on the Main!
Look there Euphrosine's a sight will melt
Thy pitying heart within thy tender bosom;
See, in the mouth of this tempestuous Bay,
Upon the Sommet of whose horrid Cliffs
This threatning Fabrick stands,
Yon goodly Vessel, of a foreign make,
No Pilot to conduct it but the Tempest,
Before the foaming surges bounds along.

Euph.
Bless me, ye pow'rs! what god can save them sinking?
Shou'd they scape foundring in the wild Abyss,
Anon they run amain upon the Rocks
Of this inhospitable shore.

Iph.
Or if by wondrous chance they avoid those Rocks,
Something more dangerous than the Rocks or Seas,
And rougher than the rudest of the Winds
Attends them on the shore.

Euph.
If they are caught on Scythian ground they dye,
And fall the Victims of these dreadful Altars.

Iph.
They die, but by whose hands, Euphrosine?
Ah miserable me! Tho in this place
The men are more relentless than the Rocks,
Yet here are always Women to be found
More savage than the cruelst of their men.
Enter Messenger.
Whence art thou? And to whom?

Mess.
From yon uncultivated Eastern Plain,
O're which our Roving Scythians drive
Their wandring Habitations,
Our warlike Queen has sent me to demand,
If all things are prepar'd to solemnize
Our great Diana's Annual Festival.

Iph.
Tell her they are.
The Garlands are prepar'd the Victim's crown'd,
The Sacred Pomp of the Procession's ready,
And nothing but the Queen herself is wanting;
For now the night, the fatal hour approaches.

Mess.
I fly to let her know it.

Exit.
Iph.
Ah woe, Euphrosine! But yesterday
This fatal office was conferr'd upon me,
Which to refuse had brought me certain Death,
And yet this night already I must—Heav'ns!
My Blood runs chill within me, at the thought
Of executing this most horrid office.

Euph.
Yes, you're to plunge your Knife in human Blood;
But 'tis the Blood of Strangers.
Were you to offer up your darling Child,
Or to embrue your Hands in the dear Blood
Of one who lov'd you, and was belov'd by you,
How then wou'd your poor trembling Heart recoil
At the bare thought of such a dreadful office!
Yet, Iphigenia from a Race descends,
To which from Tantalus to Agamemnon,
Those dismal deeds have been but too familiar;
You sacrifice a Stranger to Diana,
Remember that your Father Agamemnon
A Daughter wou'd have sacrific'd.

Iph.
O dire Original of all my woe!
Why, my Euphrosine, wou'd'st thou remind me of it?
To that intention of a cruel Father
I owe a tedious twelve years misery;
I owe a tedious twelve years residence
In this sad Clime, where Heav'ns inclemency
Frowns all the year upon the Horrid Natives.
Where I must linger out a wretched life,
Far from my Country, and my dear Relations,
Far from the sweet society of Ladys,
Whose Souls with ev'ry Grace and Virtue fraught,
Alone can by their Conversation give
Insipid life a Relish.
'Tis now five years since the last wretched Grecian
Was thrown upon this Coast, and I alas
Am utterly a stranger to whate're
Has happen'd to my Country and my Friends;
Only last night, last feardful night, Orestes,
My only Brother, and the second hope
Of Royal Agamemnon's High born Race,
Broke my distracted slumbers with dire Visions,
That quite dismay'd my Soul; my very Dreams
All in this place, are like the Natives, dreadful.

Euph.
However, you exclaim against those Natives,
To you, they are less barbarous than your Grecians,
And far more gentle than a cruel Father.
To them you owe your Liberty, your Honour,
To them too next the Gods you owe the punishment
Of a curst Slaves design upon them both.
When for the space of three revolving Moons
The Grecian Fleet had windbound lain at Aulis,
And great Achilles longing lay, impatient
To urge the Trojan Fate;
Calchas aloud proclaim'd throughout the Army
That the offended Gods deny'd the Winds,
Till that the King of Kings, who stood oblig'd
By an old Vow, to offer to Lucina
The loveliest product of the fertile year,
Should sacrifice his Beauteous Iphigenia.

Iph.
Why wilt thou old Calamities renew?

Euph.
To reconcile you more to your misfortune,
And shew you what great things the Gods have done for you,
Tho you ungratefully repine, the King
By damnable Ambition urg'd, consented
To what the Camp with one accord demanded,
And make your Marriage with the great Achilles,
The subtle lure to draw you down from Argos

Iph.
The fraud of Calchas and of dire Ulysses!
False fatal Marriage!

Euph.
And tho true, untimely,
Scarce had ten Springs then bloom'd upon your Cheek,
And yet your tender Mother Clytemnestra,
Betray'd and flatter'd by the hope of seeing
Your Destiny united to a Hero's,
And such a Heroe from a Goddess sprung
Too soon consented to the fatal Journey.

Iph.
I wou'd no hear the rest.

Euph.
You must; at Aulis
The subtle Clytemnestra found the Cheat,
Then like a Raging Lyoness, whose young
Some desperate Hunter in the Toils entangles,
Your Raving Mother soon dismay'd your Father,
Flew to his Tent with Fury in her Soul
And Terror in her Eyes, storm'd, wept, pray'd, shriek'd,
Till she at last prevail'd on his hard heart;
So far she shook his fainting resolution.

Iph.
What canst thou mean by this sad repetition
Of what I wou'd not hear?

Euph.
Once more, I tell you,
To reconcile you to your Scythian Fate;
For to that strange degree you were undone,
That only Scythia's shore cou'd have preserv'd you
From a worse Fate than that from which you fled:
For after that your Mother had prevail'd
Upon your Father to retract your Destiny,
It was determin'd that at dead of night
You shou'd by stealth from Aulis be convey'd,
To Thracian Polimnestor's Court,
There to remain conceal'd till the event
Of that fam'd Expedition:
And that a Lesbian Slave in shape and size,
And age resembling yours,
In a long Veil should dye for Iphigenia;
So you escap'd, and so all Greece was cheated.

Iph.
Unfortunate escape! for that which follows
Was ten times worse than Death, and barely mention'd
Strikes to my Heart like Fate, and shakes my Nature.

Euph.
Yet I must on; your peace of mind depends on it.
That day it happen'd that there came to Aulis
A Master of a Vessel in his Boat,
Whose Ship lay out some leagues at Sea,
Being bound for the Propontis:
The Master was by Birth of Tomos;
The Country where the Isther
It self at all its sev'n wide mouths
Discharges in the Euxine.
To him you were deliver'd, with large Treasures,
And six small Virgins of your Train, of which
My wretched self was one:
To be convey'd to Thracian Polimnestor:
With him we at the Ship arriv'd, and sail'd:
But then that Beauty, which at Land had made you
The most unfortunate of women.
Had like to have prov'd more fatal on the Main;
For fir'd by that, and by the Treasure tempted,
The Captain past by Thrace and the Propontis,
Designing to transport us all to Tomos.

Iph.
Oh the Villain!

Euph.
As soon as in the Euxine, all the world
Appear'd to be compos'd but of two Elements;
The desperate Caitiff made a damn'd attempt;
We helpless wretches shriek'd to Heaven for succour,
When strait upon the wings of all the winds
Th'avenging Gods flew down from Heav'n to Rescue us,
Jove gave th'alarm to Nature, strait the Thunder
From different quarters roar'd, and the Blue Lightning
Thwarted the Lightning in its slanting flight;
The Sea Gods in a moment turn'd the Seas
Up from their deep Foundation.
They roaring out, in liquid Mountains roll'd,
With intervals of horrid Vales between them,
While screaming Monsters eccho'd to our shrieks,
Death in a thousand shapes at once appear'd,
And each of them amazing.

Iph.
The very bare remembrance of that Storm
Still strikes a thrilling Horror to my Heart,
The terriblest I ever saw
Before I saw this ev'ning.

Euph.
Yet 'twas by that that gracious Heav'n preserv'd us;
For now the Vessel tumbling in the Abyss,
The King of Terrors in his dismalst shape
Star'd in the Villains face, and made him soon
Desist from his curst enterprize.
A sharper care now seiz'd his guilty Soul.
Three days and nights adrift before the Storm
We in the Deep lay rolling, on the fourth
The Tempest wrack'd us on this Scythian shore;
We strait were by the Natives seizd, the Master
And all his Crew, the Crew of guilty wretches
Who would have sacrific'd our spotless Honours
To their internal lusts, that very night
Yielded their throats at great Diana's Altars.
We were preserv'd, and constituted part
Of the bright train attendant on the Goddess.

Iph.
See, thou hast talk'd this Tempest over too;
But ah the goodly Ship is seen no more,
And all the wretches in its hollow womb
Are perish'd in the waves; and now alas
The Elements seem reconcil'd, and now
The angry Ocean sinks into a Calm,
As if it like a Hungry Lyon roar'd
But for its prey, and were by that appeas'd.
But look, Euphrosine, what two are those
Who with such friendly care assist each other
To climb the craggy steepness of the Cliff,
While two at distance with unequal pace
Pursuing, pant behind them?

Euph.
The wretched Remnants of the Wreck,
Who come to perish here.

Iph.
Strangers they by their garb appear, and Grecians;
With what laborious toil they mount,
And ever and anon
They stop, and cast an eager eye
Tow'rds these Tremendrous Altars!

Euph.
The foremost wears affliction in his aspect,
And the black Cloud that lowrs upon his Brow
Seems to declare strange wretchedness of sorrow.

Iph.
Yet sorrow on his Brow majestick sits,
And shows that from no common cause it springs.
His mien seems earnest, and his looks profound,
Like one upon important business bent.
Ah wretch! if thou art by our Scythians seen,
Thy business is to dye.
But let's retire, and let th'Attendants bar
These massy Gates, for lo they come, Euphrosine.

Enter Orestes, Pilades, Helymus, Diores.
Euph.
Shall we alarm the Guards?

Iph.
Not for thy life.
My first request to great Diana, is,
That I may ne'er perform this cruel function:
For that which Reason utterly abhors
Can ne're be acceptable to Divinity.
But if I am compell'd by these Barbarians
To do a deed which most my Soul abhors,
Let the Slaves destin'd for the Altar bleed:
But spare your Images, ye pow'rs above,
In those two Godlike Youths.

Exeunt Iph. Euph.
Or.
You Helymus, and you Diores,
Keep exact watch upon your several posts,
If we are caught on Scythian ground we die.
Ex. Hel. Di.
I fear not for my self, why shou'd a wretch
That groans beneath intolerable woe,
Fear Death, his kind Redeemer?
But for my Friend, my Pilades,
I cannot chuse but fear.

Pil.
I cannot fear with my Orestes near me,
Not even for Orestes?

Or.
Alas, you need not fear for me,
I am so exquisitely miserable
That Death will long avoid me;
A wretch that labours with a world of woe;
By all but my Pilades forsaken,
By Gods and men forsaken,
And by the formidable Furies haunted.

Pil.
Now your long miseries must cease, take comfort,
The Delphick God has said it.
This is the Temple of the Dreadful Goddess,
Whose cruel Altars smoke with Human gore,
If we her Image can transport to Athens
Your woes are at an end.
So said Divine Apollo.

Or.
See, where that Image sits, inthron'd in Horror,
And on the Bloody Battlements behold
The spoils of murder'd Grecians.
The dreadful Gates are barr'd,
And the high Walls prohibit all access.
May we not justly then suspect this Oracle?
For how can we approach this fatal Image,
Or how can we transport it?

Pil.
When we despair,
Great Love shall crown our action with success,
And from the Dangers of the place deliver us.
So said the God, upon our Virtue then,
Upon our Friendship firmly let's depend,
Immortal Love ne're stirs a moment from us.

Or.
Above the world, I swear I love my Pilades.
Then let us to the Ship retire,
That lies among the Rocks conceal'd,
And with the advantage of approaching night,
Sally with all our Friends,
Surprize and force the place.
Enter Helymus, and after him Diores.
How now? what means that ghastly look!
Hast thou too seen the Furies? Why standst thou speechless?
What means that deep fetcht groan? Why does Despair
Stare thro thy haggard eyes?

Hel.
My Lords defend your selves.
For from the Brow of yonder neighb'ring Hill
A party of the Scythians have surpriz'd me;
Their reinless Steeds come scowring down the Mountain
As they had Wings, and seem to bend their course
Directly tow'rds the Temple.

Or.
It is enough, my Pilades retire,
In the good Ship thy refuge quickly take,
While I with Helymus and good Diores
Keep these inhumane Dogs that hunt for Blood at bay.

Pil.
Had I made that Request to my Orestes,
By Heav'n I ne're shou'd have forgiv'n my self,
Because Orestes ne're could have forgiven me.
Should Pilades have ask'd his only friend
To be so false, so infinitely base
As to desert him; one day I must dye,
That is most certain, and who knows how poorly,
How like the base born vulgar?
Cou'd I have ever wish'd to have faln more nobly,
Than fighting, dying for my Dear Orestes?
How shou'd a Friend expire but with his Friend?
And not when Death has seiz'd his nobler part
Drag a half wretched paralytick life,
His own forlorn Surviver.
Why wouldst thou then unkindly thus deprive me
Of such a Death as I shou'd envy thee?
Then as we have liv'd, let us embracing dye.
Now let them come. Had they attack'd me only,
I wou'd have giv'n my wretched Breast to them,
That groans beneath th'intolerable weight
Of never ceasing woe.
But since through mine they seek the life of Pilades,
By Castor, and the friendly God his Brother,
They'll find they safelier might have undertaken
To have rous'd the Hungry Monarch of the Woods,
While slumbring o're his young.

Enter Queen of the Scythians, and Train.
Queen.
Give orders that the Horse remain at distance,
Let these on foot attend me to the Temple,
There's something sad in my foreboding mind
That's unbecoming of this pompous Festival.
Last night, when Death-like Sleep had seiz'd on Mortals,
In the dread hour to silent Horror sacred,
This in the Visions of the Dark I saw,
The foldings of th'Apartment where I lay
Flew open with a Whirlwinds violent blast,
And to my eyes appear'd th'amazing form
Of our tremendous Goddess.
With threatning Majesty her head she shook,
Her severe eyes with wrathful frown she rowl'd,
And then she cry'd, while me chill Horrour Froze,
Offrings of Human blood I will no more,
I will no more with Scythian. Horrors dwell.
The Sacrifice which thou prepar'st I abhor;
Know to my eyes 'tis impious, 'tis abominable;
T'a powerful God thou must thy self be victim,
Thou must thy self to morrow burn and bleed.
'Tis by the Assembled Gods, and by the Fates decreed.
She said, and disappear'd; but Dreams are Dreams,
All superstition is below great Souls,
And I will think no more of it.
Seeing the Grecians.
Ha! what are you? that thus with Arms unlicenc'd,
And these Majestick miens,
Appear on Scythian ground, that calls me Soveraign!

Or.
Well may you wonder at us, we are men,
And those are Creatures you ne're saw before.

Queen.
Yes, I'm a woman, born to command men.

Pil.
No, to command Barbarians, we are Grecians

Queen.
By your exalted Speech and touring Meins,
I took you to be Gods;
But if you're Grecians, we shall find you mortal:
For if you're Grecians, know that you must dye.

Or.
Then know that we resolve to die like Grecians,
Like two who know that we were born to die.

Pil.
That ev'ry brave mans business is to die.

Or.
Th'Employment of your Scythians is to kill,
But the whole business of a Grecians life
Is like himself to die.

Pil.
For Death is only certain, all things else
Depend on Fortune's Arbitrary freak,
And may or may not happen, Death is Fate's,
And only sure and common to us all.

Queen.
Gods how they talk! I'll see what they can do
Fall on.

Or.
Now the two friendly Brother Gods assist us.

They beat off the Scythians.
Queen.
Gods! what have I beheld? with what a fury
They drove my Dastard Scythians all before them,
As Whirlwinds drive the Dust.
Protect me, great Diana!

Orestes, Piladus, Helymus, Diores Re-enter.
Or.
Now Madam you may see, that tho we're mortal,
Grecians, are yet as far above your Scythians
As they're below the gods But you are mute,
Expecting we should use our Fortune basely,
Because your Scythians basely would have us'd it;
But we are able to forgive our Captives,
The high prerogative of all the Brave.
Your Subjects, as by Cruelty they're instigated,
In all their Combats conquer to destroy.
Greatness of mind excites the Greek to Battel,
Who conquers only to preserve,
And to improve the vanquish'd.
That you shall see, your Life, your Liberty,
Your Scepter's yours once more; now learn from us
To shew more mercy to unhappy Strangers.
Farewel.

Exeunt Grecians.
Queen.
Gods! Have I liv'd to hear such words as these?
'Tis not the easie Conquest they obtain'd
That mortifies my pride; what's that to me?
I have a greatness of my own, a greatness
Immortal, like my Soul in which it dwells,
And ne're can suffer by my Subjects baseness.
But this is what torments me, I have heard,
Gods! I have heard them say such things, as shows
They who pronounc'd them thought they were to me
Superiour beings; but by Heav'n once more
I'll have them in my power, and then I'll shew them—
Re-enter Scythians.
Oh! are you then return'd at last? you wretches!
What can you think your selves that you deserve?
When twenty of you, with true Scythian Scimitars,
Fled from four Greecian Swords.

I Scyth.
Pardon, great Queen, we fled not from their Swords,
Their eyes had something more than mortal in them;
We could not bear their darting beams, which shot
Pernicious Fire thro all our daring Souls,
That in a moment blasted all our vigour.

Queen.
Give order, that the Horse immediately
Fly down the Road that winds around the Cliff,
And intercept their passage to the Sea;
And charge them ev'ry man upon their lives
Neither to kill the Grecians, nor permit them
T'escape from out their hands, but bring them bound,
To great Diana's Shrine, where I'll expect them;
Fly instantly, ye Slaves, for if they escape,
I'll have new ways invented to torment them
Shall make you howling beg for Death,
Which ye so basely shunn'd.

Scyth.
We fly, O Queen, t'obey thee.
Exeunt Scythians

Queen.
If these are Men, they had reason to declare
That Men were creatures I ne're saw before.
But sure this action speaks them more, then show them
That thou art more than Woman, and contemnst
The Grecian Leda's, and their wanton Helena's,
As much as they despise thy Scythian Souldiers;
Shew them that thou too hast a magnanimous Soul,
A Soul of their original.
Which, kindled by th'informing Breath of Jove,
And made Immortal as himself, aspires
To all that's worthy of its great extraction.
Should they escape, they ne're can know thy worth,
Nor can that haughty Stranger, who so proudly
Gave me my Life and Liberty, e're know
That my disdainful Soul impatient longs
To pay the mighty Debt in kind. What then?
Thy Conscience knows it, and Immortal Jove
And the bright eye of you, Resulgent Goddess,
That with one view sees all the world, bears witness to it.
Gods! must they then depart with little thoughts of me?
What if they should? why should that fear disturb thee?
'Tis a precarious greatness that depends
On others thoughts, my own sustain my excellence.
Why dost thou wish then with such eagerness
To have these Grecians in thy eye once more!
What means this strange disquiet, and the fire
Of this so wild, untractable desire?