 | Adrastus |  |
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ACT V.
Scene—A Portico and Area adjoining the Palace, with an ancient Altar—Couches here and there.Philon and an Officer.
Philon.
The morning air is cool and favourable.
All 's right. See that the Choristers attend,
Before the coming of the King and Nobles,
Ready to greet the royal ear with glee.
Officer.
See yonder, Sir, his Highness with the Princess—
A gloom unusual lowers upon his brow.
Philon.
Some serious talk, but soon that cloud will vanish.
Health and the air have tempted him abroad.
Let us retire.
[Exeunt.
(Crœsus and Ada, conversing earnestly, cross the portico—she goes off—he advances.)
Crœsus alone.
Crœsus.
Somewhere there 's falsehood, faithlessness and treason.
The Princess? Gods forbid!—Adrastus? No!
Impossible! I cannot think him guilty.
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Kind, candid, brave, and by affliction tried,
Can never stoop to deeds corrupt and base.
But Ada says it—and Ada must be base,
If he be not.—On either side lie horrors.
Would Atys were return'd!—What feeling 's this?
Is 't fear?—Suspicion?—'Tis not happiness!
Oh! man of Athens! at whom so late I scoff'd,
Thy words come rushing on my memory:
“Call no one happy ere he die”—Ah! Crœsus!
Thou 'st made thy pride thy chief divinity,
And deem'd thyself the ruler of thy fortunes—
But now the gods assert their rights, to show
They are the rulers o'er the affairs of men,
And mock who solely on themselves rely.
Philon! approach.
Enter Philon.
Philon.
Your Highness has observed
The preparations have been made.
Crœsus.
Good Philon!
Far other thoughts engage my anxious mind.
Philon.
Anxious! Forbid it, heaven! Oh! may that word
For ever be dismiss'd from Crœsus' lips!
Crœsus.
Philon! The man of Athens spoke the truth—
Solon is wise, and Crœsus but a fool.
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Whate'er disturbs your Highness' mind, I trust
Is but a slight and transient, airy, cloud,
Dissolving as it forms.
Crœsus.
Judge of its weight
By your amazement when I tell you, Philon,
I wish to find a villain in—Adrastus.
Philon.
Your Highness does indeed amaze me—Gods!
Can such a wish find place in Crœsus' mind?
Crœsus.
A dread alternative alone could raise it—
A villain he, or Atys sacrificed!
Bound in the dire chains of a new Medea!
I know not what to think—Hast e'er observed
Familiar gallantry, in look, or gest,
That might denote him of licentious habits?
Philon.
Oh! never, Sir.
Crœsus.
Nor know you aught
Might lead you to suspect he has designs
Upon my son's bride?
Philon.
Good my Lord! Designs?
Crœsus.
You have not chanced to see them yet alone?
Philon.
Soon after the arrival of Adrastus,
Passing the lobby of Prince Atys' rooms,
I saw them in the gallery together,
Alone and loud, and so absorb'd in talk
I might have pass'd much nearer unperceived—
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But, gracious Sir, designs!
Crœsus.
Together! loud!
By heaven! it is.—By heaven! it cannot be.
E'en vice is neutralized by gratitude.
Perdition! Yes, perdition's work begins—
Philon.
My King! my Master! be not thus moved, I pray.
Crœsus.
I'll tell thee, Philon.—Before his homicide,
Adrastus was received by Ada's father,
At Halicarnassus—But of this anon—
For see who comes, all health and cheerful smiles!
My sweet, my amiable Aryenis!
Dear to my heart! thou daughter of my soul!
(Embraces her.)
Philon.
How lovely nature shines
In ties like theirs!
[Exit Philon.
Crœsus and Aryenis.
Aryenis.
My dear father!—It glads me, Sir, to see
How much you relish the delights of others—
Your morning thoughts are on our hunters turn'd,
And bring you hither to anticipate.
Crœsus.
Trust me, my child, the habit is a good one.
Who joy anticipates doth twice enjoy;
And others' bliss is usury of bliss.
Our sympathies have hitherto been joyous:
But painful ones have far more pungent force.
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Far! far! as well I know, when for Adrastus
I've felt the sympathy of grief. And yet
The poignancy, I know not how, is soothed
By some mysterious balm, self-minister'd.
My father sighs—Sure, 'tis a new event!
I scarce remember one so deep.
Crœsus.
Nor I.—
You 've named Adrastus—tell me now, my child,
Has he e'er spoke to you of love?
Aryenis.
He has—
Oft has he warn'd me 'gainst its dangerous power:
And with his mournful lips such lessons given,
As would become the oldest sage of Greece.
Crœsus.
I own I thought him wise beyond his years—
But has he made you offers of his love?
Aryenis.
Never.—But candidly to speak my thought,
As I am used to thee, my dearest father,
My ear deceived me, or he did last night.
Yet 'twas so instantly recall'd, so soon
Succeeded by deterring wisdom's counsel,
That doubt I do not of my strange mistake.
Crœsus.
What think you of him?
Aryenis.
Dear Sir, as of one
Whose virtues merit all the gods can grant.
Crœsus.
I think so too. Has Ada told you aught?
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Nought of Adrastus—Even now I met her;
But stay'd her not—she frown'd and pass'd me by—
What ails my father? Why so bent his brows?
I never saw them thus before—Dear Sir!
Your face no longer seems the face of Crœsus.
Crœsus.
Oh! how I love thee, Aryenis! How
Throbs my fond heart with ever new delight
When to this breast I press my virtuous child!
Aryenis.
Dear Sir!
Crœsus.
A cloud hangs over us, my daughter!
Aryenis.
When Crœsus talks of clouds, sure Nature 's changed.
Crœsus.
You know the love I cherish for your brother:
You know in Atys centre all the hopes
Of future heirs to Crœsus' throne and fortunes—
What think you of your sister?
Aryenis.
Ada, Sir,
Is eminent in beauty and in wit.
Crœsus.
Think you Adrastus is convinced of those?
Aryenis.
Sir!—who?
Crœsus.
Hath he discoursed her beauty to you?
Aryenis.
What means my father?
Crœsus.
Speaks he of her virtues?
Aryenis.
I rather think him niggard of his speech:
He seldom mentions her, and never first.
Last night, indeed—you bring it to my mind—
Just when I thought he spoke of love to me,
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When suddenly his cheeks their ruby lost,
He mutter'd something of a heated brain,
And most abruptly ended our discourse.
Crœsus.
Then! then, 'tis true—It must, it must be true.
Aryenis.
What must be true, my father?
Crœsus.
Oh! my child!
Adrastus is—I cannot call him—villain.
Aryenis.
The gods forefend! 'Twere impious so to speak.
Crœsus.
With shameless love he persecutes your sister.
Aryenis.
Adrastus! 'Tis false! Believe it not.
If ever heart of man was pure—
Crœsus.
Hark!
(Noise at a distance.)
The hunt is o'er—the hunters are returning.
(A general scream near the palace.)
What means that cry?
(Persons enter, and hastily withdraw.)
Come hither, Sir.
(The person called, approaches uneasily, but passes and escapes.)
Enter an Officer and Guards.
Crœsus.
What may this mean?
Officer.
My liege—Your Highness—
Crœsus.
Speak.
Officer.
The Prince your son—
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Where is he, Sir?
Officer.
My liege!— (Aside.)
—I cannot speak.
Crœsus.
Call Atys in, I say—
Why move ye not?
(To the Guards.)
Officer.
Sir! collect yourself—
Remember Crœsus is a King—
Crœsus.
Heaven!
Lives my son?
Officer.
Would I could say he does!
Aryenis.
My brother dead?—Support—support the King.
(Her father falls into her arms, the Officer helping—the Guards advance a couch.)
My father! oh my father!
Lifeless his hand—haste, haste for aid—fly, fly!
[Exeunt Officer.
He breathes not—Crœsus! king! father! awake!
Enter Philon.
(With Attendants—two Women go to Aryenis.)
Philon.
My king, my master, royal Crœsus! Oh!
Aryenis.
Life stirs not in him—Is my brother dead?
(Philon makes a mournful sign.)
Is there no hope from skill?
Philon.
Oh! Princess! none.
Aryenis.
He breathes—he moves—bear up, bear up, I pray.
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Oh!—Where? how?—where is my son?
(Philon makes a mournful sign.)
Where 's the corse?
They shall answer it to me—Where 's the corse?
Philon.
Within the gates, upon the funeral car,
Drawn by his mournful friends, approaching slow.
Crœsus.
You all shall answer it, all—Where's Adrastus?
Philon.
Lost youth! With heart dismay'd, and downcast eye,
He follows close upon the car.
Crœsus.
But how?
You answer not—What horror more awaits?
How fell my son?
Philon.
Oh! King!
Crœsus.
I charge you, speak!
Hide nought—my soul 's prepared to know the whole.
Philon.
The Prince—has perish'd—by Adrastus' hand.
Crœsus.
True at last! most monstrous! and most true!
Oh! villain, villain, villain! Monster! monster!
(Aryenis screams, falls into the arms of her Women, and is carried off.)
Guards! seize, and drag him to my sight—
(Some Guards go out.)
He dies—slowly in flame expiring, dies.
Now be his purifying fluid fire!
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(To Philon.
Be here forthwith erected—And command
Faggots, and blazing heath, and iron plates
Susceptible of fire, to form a base,
On which his tender soles may agonize.
And, oh ye gods! invigorate sensation,
To make his torture equal to his crimes!
No fouler murder ever stain'd the earth!
Oh! most licentious villain!—Ada! Ada!
Thy truth I doubted—Philon, use despatch—
Myself will tend the monster at the stake,
And feast my grief upon the villain's pangs—
And let the corse beside the stake be placed,
That soul and body join to rack the wretch—
Where is my daughter?—Gone!—Where 's Aryenis?
Philon! despatch—Oh! Atys! Aryenis!
Oh! my children! my children!
[Exit.
Philon.
(To an Officer.)
Sir, you have heard the royal orders given:
See they be instantly obey'd.—Oh! Rhodius!
Enter Rhodius.
(During the following scene, the stake, faggots, &c. are made ready.)
Rhodius.
A sad conclusion of our sport, good Philon!
Oh! melancholy day!—How fares the King?
Philon.
As one bereft of hope, yet like a lion
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He dooms Adrastus to the flames.
Rhodius.
The flames!
He wrongs himself—The hunters all proclaim
Adrastus innocent, and I myself will vouch,
For I was close upon the boar,
The fault was more the Prince's than his friend's.—
To save the Prince, on whom the monster brush'd,
He aim'd his weapon at the foaming brute.
Just as the shaft he hurl'd, back Atys leap'd,
And met the point, which pierced him thro' the neck—
When Atys sprung, Adrastus' lance was sped.
The King must instant be inform'd of this.
Philon.
This truth, tho' proved, will little weigh, I fear,
To change the purpose of the monarch's breast,
Now pre-resolved by countervailing proof
Of deeds atrocious, which confirm design.—
Guards are despatch'd to seize him.
Rhodius.
That I know,
For I was with the escort when they came,
And hasten'd on to tell they are restrain'd,
And by the Lydians kept from off the convoy.
His new calamity is known to all:
They grieve for Atys, but are just to him.
[Exit.
(Grave and solemn music, flutes prevailing —the procession—the car followed by Adrastus, &c.—the car placed near the stake.)
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Philon.
Unhappy youth!—Oh! Sir, I cannot tell—
(To an Officer.)
Impart the royal sentence to the Prince.
Officer.
It is my duty, Sir, to speak—
The King decrees your death.
Adrastus.
I welcome the decree.
Officer.
Permit— (Offering to bind him.)
Adrastus.
No bonds! I shall not shrink from pain.
Orontes.
How! Death?
The stake! Monstrous! monstrous! it must not be.
Where is the King?—The parent, Sir, may feel;
The monarch must be just.
Philon.
Seek him, I pray.
[Exit Orontes.
Enter Ada.
Philon.
Madam! Madam! shun the car.
Ada.
Shun the car!
Think'st thou that Ada faints at sight of death?—
I'd speak in private with the Prince—fall back.
(Philon and Attendants retire.)
Ada.
I know thy lofty and thy virtuous soul,
Were it e'en tempted, pure of a design
Which even love like mine could ne'er suggest:
But let that pass—That love I come to prove—
Nay, do not shudder—Hope hath left this breast—
Thy new misfortune hath subdued my soul—
And wrought a change unhoped, ineffable—
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With tears repent me of the wrongs I meant—
Thy love I seek no more.—Oh! worthy youth!
The gods do oft afflict whom most they love.
Think of Alcides,
When Hercules killed Iphitus he retired to Lydia, where he was long a slave to Omphale.—He was denied the necessary lustration by Neleus at Pylus—he obtained it from Deïphobus at Amyclæ. He applied to the Oracle at Delphi, and was answered, that he must spend three years in servitude to be effectually cured of a severe illness he had contracted on that occasion. —(Plutarch.)
Live to support them, so to please the heavens,
Whose instrument thou art to punish Crœsus,
Vainly elate with sublunary bliss.
Adrastus.
Now art thou lovely!
Ada.
The King believes thee false,
And criminal—Forgive him this—'twas I—
Another instrument of heavenly ire
To punish royal pride and tutor princes—
'Twas I abused his ear.
Adrastus.
Oh!
Ada.
That groan
Darts anguish with its keen reproach.—Adrastus,
I come to disabuse the Parent's ear,
Prove thee all virtue, and myself all guilt.
Adrastus.
Gods! what a mind has passion overthrown!
Will you be now my friend?
Ada.
What would you? Speak.
Adrastus.
Conceal your error still—subdue all weakness,
Establish firm your fame by virtuous deeds,
Then by a glorious, as uncall'd, confession,
Wipe off the stain from mine.—At present, oh!
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Do not, by sad and needless recantation,
Deprive me of my only hope of rest.
Ada
(weeping.)
Let my tears answer for my faulty soul:—
Faulty it is indeed, but not ignoble.
Adrastus.
I meant not that—forgive—I meant—
No matter—
Enter Crœsus, Orontes, and Rhodius.
Crœsus.
Tell me not, Sir, of accident—Design
Is clear at least in his licentious course—
And see the Princess to confound him here.
Thou murderer! Is this your gratitude?
(In agony over the bier.)
Where is my son?—Upon his bier—Yet, Prince!
Had all been chance, had no foul passion sway'd,
Justice had quell'd my rage.
Adrastus.
Crœsus! I 'm lost—
I care not for my life.—I know the crime
Of which you hold me guilty—Sir! Time was
When Crœsus would have ask'd Adrastus kindly,
“Is 't so?” and held his negative full proof—
That time gone by, and this new horror fallen,
I neither seek nor satisfy inquiry:
I wish for death, and thank thee for my doom.
Ada.
Oh! wondrous virtue!—Crœsus! turn on me
Those eyes of fire, and light round me the flames,
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Wretch that I am, I still must blush to own
The sway which passion o'er this bosom bore.
The Prince is innocent—I—I am guilty—
Require no more—I speak before the gods.
Crœsus.
Amazement!
Ada.
Great King of Lydia! let not this amaze:
But rather wonder heaven so long hath borne
The impious vanity that swell'd thy mind
In the proud course of thy prosperity.
Now learn, that men—and kings are men—depend
On heaven, whence joy and woe are dealt to earth.
(Goes to the bier and weeps.)
Atys! farewell! Accept a guiltless tear,
In lieu of guilty smiles that mock'd thy faith—
Friendship like thine deserved a better love.
[Exit, weeping.
Crœsus.
The soul of Solon spoke in Ada's voice!
Oh! Solon! Solon!
When Crœsus was conquered by Cyrus, he was bound and about to be burned on a pile, when he remembered the words of Solon, and three times pronounced his name. The explanation, given at the request of Cyrus, preserved the life of Crœsus, and obtained him respect and honour with his conqueror. —(Plutarch's Life of Solon.)
(To Adrastus.)
Thy grief and voluntary condemnation
Disarm my anger. Live, Adrastus, live.
The immortal will 'tis fit I should obey—
But oh! my children! my children!
(Going.)
Adrastus.
Crœsus! stay.
My second father! purifier! friend!
Grant, grant thy pity to a wretch forlorn!
One child remains to comfort yet thine age:
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Thy grief from Nature flows: and Nature, kind,
Knows how to heal the wound her hand inflicts:
Horrors rouse mine:—Where'er I turn, is gore,
Disaster, melancholy, black despair.
Stain'd with a brother's blood, again this hand
Hath plunged my benefactor into woe!
Again deprived the man I loved of life!
How can I live? Death is my sole resource—
And, Crœsus! thus I expiate the deed.
(Stabs himself.)
Crœsus.
Hold!
All.
Oh!
Adrastus.
Atys! I come—Orontes! fare thee well!
Say—say to Gordius—say to my dear father,
I would—Agathon! Oh!
(Dies.)
END OF THE TRAGEDY.
| Adrastus | |