University of Virginia Library

Scene I.

—The Garden of Polemius.
Enter Polemius, Aurelius, Claudius, and Escarpin.
Polemius.
All my house is in confusion,
Full of terrors, full of horrors;
Ah! how true it is a son
Is the source of many sorrows!—

Claudius.
But, my lord, reflect ...

Escarpin.
Consider ...
Think ...

Polemius.
Why think, when misery follows?—
Cease: you add to my affliction,
And in no way bring me solace.
Since you see that in his madness
He is now more firm and constant,
Falling sick of new diseases,
Ere he's well of old disorders:
Since one young and beauteous maiden,
Whom love wished to him to proffer,
Free from every spot and blemish,
Pure and perfect in her fondness,
Is the one whose fatal charms
Give to him such grief and torment,
That each moment he may perish,
That he may expire each moment;
How then can you hope that I
Now shall list to words of comfort?—

Claudius.
Why not give this beauteous maiden
To your son to be his consort,
Since you see his inclination?

Polemius.
For this reason: when the project
I proposed, the two made answer,
That before they wed, some problem,
Some dispute that lay between them
Should be settled: this seemed proper:
But when I would know its nature
I could not the cause discover.
From this closeness I infer
That some secret of importance
Lies between them, and that this
Is the source of all my sorrows.

Aurelius.
Sir, my loyalty, my duty
Will not let me any longer
Silence keep, too clearly seeing
How the evil has passed onward.
On that day we searched the mountain. ...

Polemius
(aside).
Woe is me! could he have known then
All this time it was Chrysanthus?

Aurelius.
I approaching, where with shoulders
Turned against me stood one figure,
Saw the countenance of another,
And methinks he was ...

Polemius
(aside).
Ye gods!
Yes, he saw him! help! support me!

Aurelius.
The same person who came hither
Lately in the garb of a doctor,
Who to-day to cure Chrysanthus
Such unusual treatment orders.
Do you ascertain if he
Is Carpophorus; let no portent
Fright you, on yourself rely,
And you'll find that all will prosper.

Polemius.
Thanks, Aurelius, for your warning,
Though 't is somewhat tardily offered.
Whether you are right or wrong,
I to-day will solve the problem.
For the sudden palpitation
Of my heart that beats and throbbeth
'Gainst my breast, doth prove how true
Are the suspicions that it fostered.
And if so, then Rome will see
Such examples made, such torments,
That one bleeding corse will show
Wounds enough for myriad corses.

[Exeunt Aurelius and Polemius.
Claudius.
Good Escarpin ...

Escarpin.
Sir.

Claudius.
I know not
How to address you in my sorrow.
Do you say that Cynthia was
One of those not over-modest
Beauties who to court Chrysanthus
Hither came, and who (strange portent!)
Had some share of his bewitchment
In the stupor that came on them?

Escarpin.
Yes, sir, and what's worse, Daria
Was another, thus the torment
That we both endure is equal,
If my case be not the stronger,
Since to love her would be almost
Less an injury than to scorn her.

Claudius.
Well, I will not quarrel with you
On the point (for it were nonsense)
Whether one should feel more keenly
Love or hate, disdain or fondness
Shown to one we love; enough
'T is to me to know, that prompted
Or by vanity or by interest,
She came hither to hold converse
With him, 't is enough to make me
Lose the love I once felt for her.

Escarpin.
Sir, two men, one bald, one squint-eyed,
Met one day ...

Claudius.
What, on your hobby?
A new story?

Escarpin.
To tell stories,
Sir, is not my forte, 'pon honour:—
Though who wouldn't make a hazard
When the ball is over the pocket?—

Claudius.
Well, I do not care to hear it.

Escarpin.
Ah, you know it then: Another
Let me try: A friar once ...
Stay though, I have quite forgotten
There are no friars yet in Rome:
Well, once more: a fool ...

Claudius.
A blockhead
Like yourself, say: cease.

Escarpin.
Ah, sir,
My poor tale don't cruelly shorten.
While the sacristan was blowing ...

Claudius.
Why, by heaven! I'll kill you, donkey.

Escarpin.
Hear me first, and kill me after.

Claudius.
Was there ever known such folly
As to think 'mid cares so grave
I could listen to such nonsense?

(exit.
[Enter Chrysanthus and Daria, at opposite sides.]
Daria
(to herself).
O ye gods, since my intention
Was in empty air to scatter
All these prodigies and wonders
Worked in favour of Chrysanthus
By the Christians' sorcery, why,
Having you for my copartners,
Do I not achieve a victory
Which my beauty might make facile?

Chrysanthus.
O ye heavens, since my ambition
Was to melt Daria's hardness,
And to bring her to the knowledge
Of one God who works these marvels,
Why, so pure is my intention,
Why, so zealous and so sanguine,
Does not easy victory follow,
Due even to my natural talent?

Daria
(aside).
He is here, and though already
Even to see him, to have parley
With him, lights a living fire
In my breast, which burns yet glads me,
Yet he must confess my gods,
Ere I own that I am vanquished.

Chrysanthus
(aside).
She comes hither, and though I
By her beauty am distracted,
Still she must become a Christian
Ere a wife's dear name I grant her.

Daria
(aside).
Venus, to my beauty give
Power to make of him my vassal.

Chrysanthus
(aside).
Grant, O Lord, unto my tongue
Words that may dispel her darkness.

Daria
(aside).
To come near him makes me tremble.

Chrysanthus
(aside).
To address her, quite unmans me:—
Not in vain, O fair Daria,
(aloud.
Does the verdure of this garden,
When it sees thee pass, grow young
As beneath spring's dewy spangles;
Not in vain, since though 't is evening,
Thou a new Aurora dazzleth,
That the birds in public concert
Hail thee with a joyous anthem;
Not in vain the streams and fountains,
As their crystal current passes,
Keep melodious time and tune
With the bent boughs of the alders;
The light movement of the zephyrs
As athwart the flowers they're wafted,
Bends their heads to see thee coming,
Then uplifts them to look after.

Daria.
These fine flatteries, these fine phrases
Make me doubt of thee, Chrysanthus.
He who gilds the false so well,
Must mere truth find unattractive.

Chrysanthus.
Hast thou then such little faith
In my love?

Daria.
Thou needst not marvel.

Chrysanthus.
Why?

Daria.
Because no more of faith
Doth a love deserve that acteth
Such deceptions.

Chrysanthus.
What deceptions?

Daria.
Are not those enough, Chrysanthus,
That thou usest to convince me
Of thy love, of thy attachment,
When my first and well-known wishes
Thou perversely disregardest?
Is it possible a man
So distinguished for his talents,
So illustrious in his blood,
Such a favourite from his manners,
Would desire to ruin all
By an error so unhappy,
And for some delusive dream
See himself abhorred and branded?

Chrysanthus.
I nor talents, manners, blood,
Would be worthy of, if madly
I denied a Great First Cause,
Who made all things, mind and matter,
Time, heaven, earth, air, water, fire,
Sun, moon, stars, fish, birds, beasts, Man then.

Daria.
Did not Jupiter, then, make heaven,
Where we hear his thunders rattle?

Chrysanthus.
No, for if he could have made
Heaven, he had no need to grasp it
For himself at the partition,
When to Neptune's rule he granted
The great sea, and hell to Pluto;—
Then they were ere all this happened.

Daria.
Is not Ceres the earth, then?

Chrysanthus.
No.
Since she lets the plough and harrow
Tear its bosom, and a goddess
Would not have her frame so mangled.

Daria.
Tell me, is not Saturn time?

Chrysanthus.
He is not, though he dispatcheth
All the children he gives birth to;
To a god no crimes should happen.

Daria.
Is not Venus the air?

Chrysanthus.
Much less,
Since they say that she was fashioned
From the foam, and foam, we know,
Cannot from the air be gathered.

Daria.
Is not Neptune the sea?

Chrysanthus.
As little,
For inconstancy were god's mark then.

Daria.
Is not the sun Apollo?

Chrysanthus.
No.

Daria.
The moon Diana?

Chrysanthus.
All mere babble.
They are but two shining orbs
Placed in heaven, and there commanded
To obey fixed laws of motion
Which thy mind need not embarrass.
How can these be called the gods—
Gods adulterers and assassins!
Gods who pride themselves for thefts,
And a thousand forms of badness,
If the ideas God and Sin
Are opposed as light to darkness?—
With another argument
I would further sift the matter.
Let then Jupiter be a god,
In his own sphere lord and master:
Let Apollo be one also:
Should Jove wish to hurl in anger
Down his red bolts on the world,
And Apollo would not grant them,
He the so-called god of fire;
From the independent action
Of the two does it not follow
One of them must be the vanquished?
Then they cannot be called gods,
Gods whose wills are counteracted.
One is God whom I adore ...
And He is, in fine, that martyr
Who has died for love of thee!—
Since then, thou hast said, so adverse
Was thy proud disdain, one only
Thou couldst love with love as ardent
Almost as his own, was he
Who would ...

Daria.
Oh! proceed no farther,
Hold, delay thee, listen, stay,
Do not drive my brain distracted,
Nor confound my wildered senses,
Nor convulse my speech, my language,
Since at hearing such a mystery
All my strength appears departed.
I do not desire to argue
With thee, for, I own it frankly,
I am but an ignorant woman,
Little skilled in such deep matters.
In this law have I been born,
In it have been bred: the chances
Are that in it I shall die:
And since change in me can hardly
Be expected, for I never
At thy bidding will disparage
My own gods, here stay in peace.
Never do I wish to hearken
To thy words again, or see thee,
For even falsehood, when apparelled
In the garb of truth, exerteth
Too much power to be disregarded.

[Exit.
Chrysanthus.
Stay, I cannot live without thee,
Or, if thou wilt go, the magnet
Of thine eye must make me follow.
All my happiness is anchored
There. Return, Daria. ...

(Enter Carpophorus.)
Carpophorus.
Stay.
Follow not her steps till after
You have heard me speak.

Chrysanthus.
What would you?

Carpophorus.
I would reprimand your lapses,
Seeing how ungratefully
You, my son, towards me have acted.

Chrysanthus.
I ungrateful!

Carpophorus.
You ungrateful,
Yes, because you have abandoned,
Have forgotten God's assistance,
So effectual and so ample.

Chrysanthus.
Do not say I have forgotten
Or abandoned it, wise master,
Since my memory to preserve it
Is as 'twere a diamond tablet.

Carpophorus.
Think you that I can believe you,
If when having in this garment
Sought you out to train and teach you,
In the Christian faith and practice,
Until deep theology
You most learnedly have mastered;
If, when having seen your progress,
Your attention and exactness,
I in secret gave you baptism,
Which its mark indelibly stampeth;
You so great a good forgetting,
You for such a bliss so thankless,
With such shameful ease surrender
To this love-dream, this attachment?
Did it strike you not, Chrysanthus,
To that calling how contrasted
Are delights, delirious tumults,
Are love's transports and its raptures,
Which you should resist? Recall too,
Can you not? the aid heaven granted
When you helped yourself, and prayed for
Its assistance: were you not guarded
By it when a sweet voice sung,
When a keen wit glowed and argued,
When the instrument was silenced,
When the tongue was forced to stammer,
Until now, when with free will
You succumb to the enchantment
Of one fair and fatal face,
Which hath done to you such damage
That 'twill work your final ruin,
If the trial longer lasteth?—

Chrysanthus.
Oh! my father, oh! my teacher,
Hear me, for although the charges
Brought against me thus are heavy,
Still I to myself have ample
Reasons for my exculpation.
Since you taught me, you, dear master,
That the union of two wills
In our law is well established.
Be not then displeased, Carpophorus ...
(Aside.)
Heavens what have I said? My father!

(Enter Polemius.)
Polemius
(aside).
Ah! this name removes all doubt.
But I must restrain my anger,
And dissemble for the present,
If such patience Jove shall grant me:—
How are you to-day, Chrysanthus?

(aloud.
Chrysanthus.
Sir, my love and duty cast them
Humbly at your feet: (aside,
Thank heaven,
That he heard me not, this calmness
Cannot be assumed).

Polemius.
I value
More than I can say your manner
Towards my son, so kind, so zealous
For his health.

Carpophorus.
Heaven knows, much farther
Even than this is my ambition,
Sir, to serve you: but the passions
Of Chrysanthus are so strong,
That my skill they overmaster.

Polemius.
How?

Carpophorus.
Because the means of cure
He perversely counteracteth.

Chrysanthus.
Ah! sir, no, I've left undone
Nothing that you have commanded.

Carpophorus.
No, not so, his greatest peril
He has rashly disregarded.

Polemius.
I implicitly can trust you,
Of whose courage, of whose talents
I have been so well informed,
That I mean at once to grant them
The reward they so well merit.

Carpophorus.
Sir, may heaven preserve and guard you.

Polemius.
Come with me; for I desire
That you should from my apartments
Choose what best doth please you; I
Do not doubt you'll find an ample
Guerdon for your care.

Carpophorus.
To be
Honoured in this public manner
Is my best reward.

Polemius
(aside).
The world
Shall this day a dread example
Of my justice see, transcending
All recorded in time's annals.

(Exeunt Polemius and Carpophorus.)
Chrysanthus.
Better than I could have hoped for
Has it happened, since my father
Shows by his unruffled face
That his name he has not gathered.
What more evidence can I wish for
Than to see the gracious manner
In which he conducts him whither
His reward he means to grant him?
Oh! that love would do as much
In the fears and doubts that rack me,
Since I cannot wed Daria,
And be faithful to Christ's banner.

(Enter Daria.)
Daria
(aside).
Tyrant question which methought
Timely flight alone could answer,
Once again, against my will
To his presence thou dost drag me.

Chrysanthus
(aside).
But she comes again: let sorrow
Be awhile replaced by gladness:—
Ah! Daria, so resolved
(aloud,
Not to see or hear me more,
Art thou here?

Daria.
Deep pondering o'er,
As the question I revolved,
I would have the mystery solved:
'T is for that I'm here, then see
It is not to speak with thee.

Chrysanthus.
Speak, what doubt wouldst thou decide?

Daria.
Thou hast said a God once died
Through His boundless love to me:
Now to bring thee to conviction
Let me this one strong point try ...

Chrysanthus.
What?

Daria.
To be a God, and die,
Doth imply a contradiction.
And if thou dost still deny
To my god the name divine,
And reject him in thy scorn
For beginning, I opine,
If thy God could die, that mine
Might as easily be born.

Chrysanthus.
Thou dost argue with great skill,
But thou must remember still,
That He hath, this God of mine,
Human nature and divine,
And that it has been His will
As it were His power to hide—
God made man—man deified—
When this sinful world He trod,
Since He was not born as God,
And it was as man He died.

Daria.
Does it not more greatness prove,
As among the beauteous stars,
That one deity should be Mars,
And another should be Jove,
Than this blending God above
With weak man below? To thee
Does not the twin deity
Of two gods more power display,
Than if in some mystic way
God and man conjoined could be?

Chrysanthus.
No, I would infer this rather,
If the god-head were not one,
Each a separate course could run:
But the uncreated Father,
But the sole-begotten Son,
But the Holy Spirit who
Ever issues from the two,
Being one sole God, must be
One in power and dignity:—
Until thou dost hold this true,
Till thy creed is that the Son
Was made man, I cannot hear thee,
Cannot see thee or come near thee,
Thee and death at once to shun.

Daria.
Stay, my love may so be won,
And if thou wouldst wish this done,
Oh! explain this mystery!
What am I to do, ah! me,
That my love may thus be tried?

Carpophorus
(within).
Seek, O soul! seek Him who died
Solely for the love of thee.

Chrysanthus.
All that I could have replied
Has been said thus suddenly
By this voice that, sounding near,
Strikes upon my startled ear
Like the summons of my death.

Daria.
Ah! what frost congeals my breath,
Chilling me with icy fear,
As I hear its sad lament:
Whence did sound the voice?

[Enter Polemius and soldiers.
Polemius.
From here:
'T is, Chrysanthus, my intent
Thus to place before thy sight—
Thus to show thee in what light
I regard thy restoration
Back to health, the estimation
In which I regard the wight
Who so skilfully hath cured thee.
A surprise I have procured thee,
And for him a fit reward:
Raise the curtain, draw the cord,
See, 't is death! If this ...

(A curtain is drawn aside, and Carpophorus is seen beheaded, the head being at some distance from the body.)
Chrysanthus.
I freeze!—

Polemius.
Is the cure of thy disease,
What must that disease have been!
'T is Carpophorus. ...

Daria.
Dread scene!

Polemius.
He who with false science came
Not to give thee life indeed,
But that he himself should bleed:—
That thy fate be not the same,
Of his mournful end take heed:
Do not thou that dost survive,
My revenge still further drive,
Since the sentence seems misread—
The physician to be dead,
And the invalid alive.—

Chrysanthus.
It were cruelty extreme,
It were some delirious dream,
That could see in this the cure
Of the ill that I endure.

Polemius.
It to him did pity seem,
Seemed the sole reward that he
Asked or would receive from me:
Since when dying, he but cried ...

The Head of Carpophorus.
Seek, O soul! seek Him who died
Solely for the love of thee!—

Chrysanthus.
What a portent!

Daria.
What a wonder!

Escarpin.
Jove! my own head splits asunder!—

Polemius.
Even though severed, in it dwells
Still the force of magic spells.

Chrysanthus.
Sir, it were a fatal blunder
To be blind to this appalling
Tragedy you wrong by calling
The result of spells—no spells
Are such signs, but miracles
Outside man's experience falling.
He came here because he yearned
With his pure and holy breath
To give life, and so found death.
'T is a lesson that he learned—
'T is a recompense he earned—
Seeing what his Lord could do,
Being to his Master true:
Kill me also: He had one
Bright example: shall I shun
Death in turn when I have two?

Polemius.
I, in listening to thy raving,
Scarce can calm the wrath thou'rt braving.
Dead ere now thou sure wouldst lie,
Didst thou not desire to die.

Chrysanthus.
Father, if the death I'm craving ...

Polemius.
Speak not thus: no son I know.

Chrysanthus.
Not to thee I spoke, for though
Humanly thou hast that name,
Thou hast forfeited thy claim:
I that sweet address now owe
Unto him whose holier aim
Kindled in my heart a flame
Which shall there for ever glow,
Woke within me a new soul
That thou'rt powerless to control—
Generated a new life
Safe against thy hand or knife:
Him a father's name I give
Who indeed has made me live,
Not to him whose tyrant will
Only has the power to kill.
Therefore on this dear one dead,
On this pallid corse laid low,
Lying bathed in blood and snow,
By this lifeless lodestone led,
I such bitter tears shall shed,
That my grief ...

Polemius.
Ho! instantly
Tear him from it.

Daria
(aside).
Thus to be
By such prodigies surrounded,
Leaves me dazzled and confounded.

Polemius.
Hide the corse.

Escarpin.
Leave that to me

(The head and body are concealed).
Polemius.
Bear Chrysanthus now away
To a tower of darksome gloom
Which shall be his living tomb.

Chrysanthus.
That I hear with scant dismay,
Since the memory of this day
With me there will ever dwell.
Fair Daria, fare thee well,
And since now thou knowest who
Died for love of thee, renew
The sweet vow that in the dell
Once thou gav'st me, Him to love
After death who so loved thee.

Polemius.
Take him hence.

Daria.
Ah! suddenly
Light descendeth from above
Which my darkness doth remove.
Now thy shadowed truth I see,
Now the Christian's faith profess.
Let thy bloody lictors press
Round me, racking every limb,
Let me only die with him,
Since I openly confess
That the gods are false whom we
Long have worshipped, that I trust
Christ alone—the True—the Just—
The One God, whose power I see,
And who died for love of me.

Polemius.
Take her too, since she in this
Boasts how dark, how blind she is.

Daria.
Oh! command that I should dwell
With Chrysanthus in his cell.
In our hearts we long are mated.
And ere now had celebrated
Our espousals fond and true,
If the One same God we knew.

Chrysanthus.
This sole bliss alone I waited
To die happy.

Polemius.
How my heart
Is with wrath and rage possest!—
Hold thy hand, present it not,
For I would not have thy lot
By the least indulgence blest;
Nor do thou, if thy wild brain
Such a desperate course maintain,
Hope to have her as thy bride—
Trophy of our gods denied:—
Separate them.

Chrysanthus.
O the pain!

Daria.
O the woe! unhappy me!

Polemius.
Take them hence, and let them be
(Since my justice now at least
Makes amends for mercy past)
Punished so effectually
That their wishes, their desires,
What each wanteth or requires,
Shall be thwarted or denied,
That between opposing fires
They for ever shall be tried:—
Since Chrysanthus' former mood
Only wished the solitude
Whence such sorrows have arisen.
Take him to the public prison,
And be sure in fire and food
That he shall not be preferred
To the meanest culprit there.
Naked, abject, let him fare
As the lowest of the herd:
There, while chains his body gird,
Let him grovel and so die:—
For Daria, too, hard by
Is another public place,
Shameful home of worse disgrace,
Where imprisoned let her lie:
If, relying on the powers
Of her beauty, her vain pride
Dreamed of being my son's bride,
Never shall she see that hour.
Soon shall fade her virgin flower,
Soon be lost her nymph-like grace—
Roses shall desert her face,
Waving gold her silken hair.
She who left Diana's care
Must with Venus find her place:
'Mong vile women let her dwell,
Vile, abandoned even as they.

Escarpin
(aside).
There my love shall have full play.
O rare judge, you sentence well!

Chrysanthus.
Sir, if thou must have a fell
Vengeance for this act of mine,
Take my life, for it is thine;
But my honour do not dare
To insult through one so fair.

Daria.
Wreak thy rage, if faith divine
So offends thee, upon me,
Not upon my chastity:—
'T is a virtue purer far
Than the light of sun or star,
And has ne'er offended thee.

Polemius.
Take them hence.

Chrysanthus.
Ah me, to find
Words, that might affect thy mind!
Melt thy heart!

Daria.
Ah, me, who e'er
Saw a martyrdom so rare?—

Polemius.
Wouldst thou then the torment fly,
Thou hast only to deny
Christ.

Chrysanthus.
The Saviour of mankind?
This I cannot do.

Daria.
Nor I.

Polemius.
Let them instantly from this
To their punishment be led.—

Escarpin.
Do not budge from what you said.
It is excellent as it is.

Chrysanthus.
Woe is me! but wherefore fear,
O beloved betrothéd mine?—
Trust in God, that power divine
For whose sake we suffer here:—
He will aid us and be near:—

Daria.
In that confidence I live,
For if He His life could give
For my love, and me select,
He His honour will protect.

Chrysanthus.
These sad tears He will forgive.
Ne'er to see thee more! thus driven ...

Daria.
Cease, my heart like thine is riven.
But again we'll see each other.
When in heaven we'll be, my brother,
The two lover saints of Heaven.

(They are led out.