University of Virginia Library

SCENE IV.

MARIAMNE, NARBAS.
MARIAMNE.
Thou too, my valued Narbas, help to fix
The jarring thoughts of my unsettled mind.
Thy virtue, thy attachment to my service,
Thy sage experience, have long time possess'd
My confidence entire. To thee my heart
And all its secret purposes are known;
Th'afflictions which I suffer, and the train
Of dire calamities which I foresee.
Thou hast beheld my mother in the depth
Of hopeless anguish, urging me with tears
T'accompany her flight. Her soul weigh'd down
By no unreal terrors, to her view
Presents each moment Herod in his rage,
Still in her kindred blood embathed, prepared
Before her eyes t'assassinate her daughter.
She wishes that my death-devoted children
From Cæsar may a father's kindness seek,
In Rome, a cradle. Rome, they say, protects
All the unfortunate; at Rome's tribunal
The prostrate world is judged. I will approach
The sovereign arbiter of kings.—Yet still,
Tho' well I know the voice of reason bids
To shun the murtherer's violence, and fate
Allows this only choice; fears, conscious fears,
Whether from virtue, or from weakness, shakes
My inmost soul, while stern reflection tells me
'Tis from a husband I prepare to fly.
And my irresolute and faultering steps,
Spite of myself, refuse to bear me hence.

NARBAS.
These generous fears my admiration claim;
False tho' they are, they spring from native virtue.
Thy heart which self-supported smiles at fortune
And her malicious fury, views appall'd
Even the faint resemblance of a crime,
Yet looks on death unterrified. Oh, banish
These secret feelings, fancy's blind suggestions!
Open thy eyes! look round! by Herod spilt
Thy father's blood following his vengeful steel
Here gush'd on thee. Here fell thy much-loved brother,
Fell in his early prime. In vain the king
His innocence avows, Cæsar deceived
Absolves him of the horrid crime in vain.
The east revolts, and firm in its opinion
Accuses him alone. Oh, place before thee
Thy mother's flowing tears, the injury
Thy sons sustain, thy father's sacred blood,
Herod's fell cruelty, his sister's hate,
And (what strikes me with horror, tho' the idea
Shocks not thy calm serenity of virtue)
Death more than once before thy eyes upraised
Grim brandishing his dart.—But if thy soul
Unshaken views these images of dread,
And dauntless can the yawning tomb survey,
At least protect thy children! leave not them
Without defence! already hath the king
Wrested the rightful hopes of empire from them.
And well thou recollect'st the voice of heaven,
The direful prophecy which now long time
Hath for their fate kept all thy fears awake,
Foretelling that one day a stranger's hand
Should to thy father join thy hapless sons.
A fierce, obdurate, and unpitying Arab
Half this obscure prediction hath accomplish'd.
A dire convincing proof, which leaves no doubt
But the barbarian will fulfil the whole.
To the wild lawless transports of his fury
Nothing is sacred. Now, e'en now perhaps
He comes to realize his bloody threats,
And extirpate the Asmonean race.
Seize then th'auspicious moment, and prevent
His menaced violence, the moment seize
Which saves thy husband from the guilt of murder,
And bears these tender victims far away
From the keen sword unsheath'd by thy oppressors,
Far from th'example of their horrid crimes.
Protected by thy royal ancestors,
By them brought up e'en from my tender years,
Go when thou wilt, and to whatever clime,
Behold me ready to attend thy steps.
Haste! break these chains! be Rome itself thy goal!
Implore the justice of its aweful senate,
Confide thy children's fortune to their hands,
Own'd and adopted by the Roman people.
So pure a virtue with astonishment
Will strike Augustus. If his reign indeed
Deserves the vaunted names of just and happy,
If the transported nations clasp his knees
And hail their common parent; if he merits
This state of glory, he will undertake
Thy cause, and lavish all his care on thee.

MARIAMNE.
This is no time I see for frigid caution,
I hesitate no longer, thy advice;
My mother's tears, the peril of my sons,
That fate whose power may haply drag me on
To more transcendent miseries; all conspire
To fix my wavering mind, I yield. Return;
Bear thou the tidings, and console my mother.
When gloomy night inwraps in shadowy veil
These haunts of guilt, let to the palace wall
A messenger approach to give me notice.
They have prevail'd, necessity requires it,
I am prepared to quit this hateful soil.