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Act III
The women's apartments of the Palace. Andromeda, Diomede.
A NDROMEDAAll's ready, let us go.
DIOMEDE Andromeda, My little mistress whom I love, let me Beseech you by that love, do not attempt it. Oh, this is no such pretty wilfulness As all men love to smile at and to punish With tenderness and chidings. It is a crime Full of impiety, a deed of danger That venturous and iron spirits would be aghast To dream of. You think because you are a child, You will be pardoned, because you are a princess No hand will dare to punish you. You do not know Men's hearts. They will not pause to pity you, They will not spare. The people in its rage Will tear us both to pieces, limb from limb, With blows and fury, roaring round like tigers. Will you expose yourself to that grim handling Who cry out at the smallest touch of pain?
ANDROMEDA Do not delay me on the brink of action. You have said these things before.
Page – 402 DIOMEDE You shall not do it. I will not go with you.
ANDROMEDA So you expose me To danger merely and break the oath you swore; For I must do it then unhelped.
DIOMEDE I'll tell Your mother, child, and then you cannot go.
ANDROMEDA I shall die then on the third day from this.
DIOMEDE What! you will kill yourself, and for two strangers You never saw? You are no human maiden But something far outside mortality, Princess, if you do this.
ANDROMEDA I shall not need. You threaten me with the fierce people's tearings, And shall I not be torn when I behold My fellows' piteous hearts plucked from their bosoms Between their anguished shrieks? I shall fall dead With horror and with pity at your feet: Then you'll repent this cruelty. She weeps. DIOMEDE Child, child! Hush, I will go with you. If I must die, I'll die. Page – 403 ANDROMEDA Have I not loved you, Diomede? Have I not taken your stripes upon myself, Claiming your dear offences? Have I not lain Upon your breast, stealing from my own bed At night, and kissed your bosom and your hands For very love of you? And I had thought You loved me: but you do not care at last Whether I live or die.
DIOMEDE Oh hush! I love you, I'll go with you. You shall not die alone, If you are bent on dying. I'll put on My sandals and be with you in a moment. Go, little princess. I am with you; go. She goes. ANDROMEDA O you poor shuddering men, my human fellows, Horribly bound beneath the grisly knife You feel already groping for your hearts, Pardon me each long moment that you wrestle With grim anticipation. O, and you, If there is any god in the deaf skies That pities men or helps them, O protect me! But if you are inexorably unmoved And punish pity, I, Andromeda, Who am a woman on this earth, will help My brothers. Then, if you must punish me, Strike home. You should have given me no heart; It is too late now to forbid it feeling. She is going out. Athene appears. What is this light, this glory? who art thou, O beautiful marble face amid the lightnings? My heart faints with delight, my body trembles, Intolerable ecstasy beats in my veins; Page – 404 I am oppressed and tortured with thy beauty.
ATHENE I am Athene.
ANDROMEDA Art thou a goddess? Thy name We hear far off in Syria.
ATHENE I am she Who helps and has compassion on struggling mortals.
ANDROMEDA (falling prostrate) Do not deceive me! I will kiss thy feet. O joy! thou art! thou art!
ATHENE Lift up thy head, My servant.
ANDROMEDA Thou art! there are not only void Azure and cold inexorable laws.
ATHENE Stand up, O daughter of Cassiope. Wilt thou then help these men of Babylonia, My mortals whom I love?
ANDROMEDA I help myself, When I help these.
ATHENE To thee alone I gave This knowledge. O virgin, O Andromeda,
Page – 405 It reached thee through that large and noble heart Of woman beating in a little child. But dost thou know that thy reward shall be Betrayal and fierce hatred? God and man Shall league in wrath to kill and torture thee Mid dire revilings.
ANDROMEDA My reward shall be To cool this anguish of pity in my heart And be at peace: if dead, O still at peace!
ATHENE Thou fearst not then? They will expose thee, child, To slaughter by the monsters of the deep Who shall come forth to tear thy limbs.
ANDROMEDA Beyond too Shall I be hated, in that other world?
ATHENE Perhaps.
ANDROMEDA Wilt thou love me?
ATHENE Thou art my child.
ANDROMEDA O mother, O Athene, let me go. They linger in anticipated pangs.
ATHENE Go, child. I shall be near invisibly. Page – 406 She disappears. Andromeda stands with clasped hands straining her eyes as if into infinity. Diomede returns. DIOMEDE You are not gone as yet? what is this, princess? What is this light around you! How you are altered, Andromeda!
ANDROMEDA Diomede, let us go. They go out. Page – 407
In the Temple of Poseidon. Cireas.
C IREASI am done with thee, Poseidon Ennosigaios, man-slayer, ship-breaker, earth-shaker, lord of the waters! Never was faithful service so dirtily rewarded. In all these years not a drachma, not an obolus, not even a false coin for solace. And when thou hadst mocked me with hope, when a Prince had promised me all my findings, puttest thou me off with two pauperized merchants of Babylon? What, thou takest thy loud ravenous glut of the treasures that should have been mine and roarest derision at me with thy hundred-voiced laughters? Am I a sponge to suck up these insults? No! I am only moderately porous. I will break thy treasury, Poseidon, and I will run. Think not either to send thy sea-griffins after me. For I will live on the top of Lebanon, and thy monsters, when they come for me, shall snort and grin and gasp for breath and return to thee baffled and asthmatic. As he talks Iolaus and Perseus enter. IOLAUS What, Cireas, wilt thou run? I'll give thee gold To wing thy shoes, if thou wilt do my bidding.
CIREAS I am overheard! I am undone! I am crucified! I am disembowelled!
IOLAUS Be tranquil, Cireas, fool, I come to help thee.
Page – 408 CIREAS Do you indeed! I see, they have made you a god, for you know men's minds. But could old father Zeus find your newborn godhead no better work than to help thieves and give wings to runaways? Will you indeed help me, god Iolaus? I can steal then under thy welcome protection? I can borrow Poseidon's savings and run?
IOLAUS Steal not: thou shalt have gold enough to buy Thy liberty and farms and slaves and cattle.
CIREAS Prince, art thou under a vow of liberality? or being about to die, wilt thou distribute thy goods and chattels to deserving dishonesty? Do not mock me, for if thou raise hopes again in me and break them, I can only hang myself.
IOLAUS I mock thee not, thou shalt have glut of riches.
CIREAS What must I do? I'ld give thee nose and ears For farms and freedom.
PERSEUS Wherefore dost thou bribe This slave to undo a bond my sword unties?
IOLAUS I shrink from violence in the grim god's temple.
CIREAS Zeus, art thou there with thy feathers and phosphorus? I pray thee, my good bright darling Zeus, do not come in the way of my earnings. Do not be so cantankerously virtuous, do not
Page – 409 be so damnably economical. Good Zeus, I adjure thee by thy foot-plumes.
IOLAUS Cireas, wilt thou bring forth the wretched captives Who wait the butcher Polydaon's knife With groanings? we would talk with them. Wilt thou?
CIREAS Will I? Will I? I would do any bad turn to that scanty-hearted rampageous old ship-swallower there. I would do it for nothing, and for so much gold will I not?
IOLAUS And thou must shut thine eyes.
CIREAS Eyes! I will shut mouth and nose and ears too, nor ask for one penny extra.
IOLAUS Dost thou not fear?
CIREAS Oh, the blue-haired old bogy there? I have lived eighteen years in this temple and seen nothing of him but ivory and sapphires. I begin to think he cannot breathe out of water; no doubt, he is some kind of fish and walks on the point of his tail.
PERSEUS Enough, bring forth the Babylonian captives.
CIREAS I run, Zeus, I run: but keep thy phosphorus lit and handy against Polydaon's return unasked for and untrumpeted. He runs out. Page – 410 PERSEUS O thou grim calmness imaged like a man That frownst above the altar! dire Poseidon! Art thou that god indeed who smooths the sea With one finger, and when it is thy will, Rufflest the oceans with thy casual breathing? Art thou not rather, lord, some murderous And red imagination of this people, The shadow of a soul that dreamed of blood And took this dimness? If thou art Poseidon, The son of Cronos, I am Cronos' grandchild, Perseus, and in my soul Athene moves With lightnings.
IOLAUS I hear the sound of dragging chains. Cireas returns with Tyrnaus and Smerdas. PERSEUS Smerdas and thou, Tyrnaus, once again We meet.
SMERDAS Save me, yet save me.
PERSEUS If thou art worth it, I may.
SMERDAS Thou shalt have gold. I am well worth it. I'll empty Babylonia of its riches Into thy wallet.
PERSEUS Has terror made thee mad? Refrain from speech! Thine eyes are calm, Tyrnaus.
Page – 411 TYRNAUS I have composed my soul to my sad fortunes. Yet wherefore sad? Fate has dealt largely with me. I have been thrice shipwrecked, twice misled in deserts, Wounded six times in battle with wild men For life and treasure. I have outspent kings: I have lost fortunes and amassed them: princes Have been my debtors, kingdoms lost and won By lack or having of a petty fraction Of my rich incomings: and now Fate gives me This tragic, not inglorious death: I am The banquet of a god. It fits, it fits, And I repine not.
PERSEUS But will these help, Tyrnaus, To pass the chill eternity of Hades? This memory of glorious breathing life, Will it alleviate the endless silence?
TYRNAUS But there are lives beyond, and we meanwhile Move delicately amid aerial things Until the green earth wants us.
PERSEUS (shearing his chains with a touch of his sword) Yet awhile Of the green earth take all thy frank desire, Merchant: the sunlight would be loth to lose thee.
SMERDAS O radiant helpful youth! O son of splendour! I live again.
PERSEUS Thou livest, but in chains, Smerdas.
Page – 412 SMERDAS But thy good sword will quickly shear them.
PERSEUS Thou wilt give me all Babylonia holds Of riches for reward?
SMERDAS More, more, much more!
PERSEUS But thou must go to Babylon to fetch it. Then what security have I of payment?
SMERDAS Keep good Tyrnaus here, my almost brother. I will come back and give thee gold, much gold.
PERSEUS You'ld leave him here? in danger? with the knife Searching for him and grim Poseidon angry?
SMERDAS What danger, when he is with thee, O youth, Strong radiant youth?
PERSEUS Yourself then stay with me, And he shall bring the ransom from Chaldea.
SMERDAS Here? here? Oh God! they'll seize me yet again And cut my heart out. Let me go, dear youth, Oh, let me go; I'll give thee double gold.
PERSEUS Thou sordid treacherous thing of fears, I'll not
Page – 413 Venture for such small gain as the poor soul Thou holdest, nor drive with danger losing bargains.
SMERDAS Oh, do not jest! it is not good to jest With death and horror.
PERSEUS I jest not.
SMERDAS Oh God! thou dost.
DIOMEDE (without) Cireas!
CIREAS (jumping) Who? who? who?
IOLAUS Is't not a woman's voice? Withdraw into the shadow: let our swords Be out against surprise. Hither, Tyrnaus.
DIOMEDE Cireas! where are you, Cireas? It is I.
CIREAS It is the little palace scamp, Diomede. Plague take her! How she fluttered the heart in me!
IOLAUS Say nothing of us, merchant, or thou diest. Iolaus, Perseus and Tyrnaus withdraw into the dimness of the Temple. Andromeda and Diomede enter.
Page – 414 CIREAS Princess Andromeda!
PERSEUS (apart) Andromeda! Iolaus' rosy sister! O child goddess Dropped recently from heaven! Its light is still Upon thy face, thou marvel!
IOLAUS My little sister In these grim precincts, who so feared their shadows!
ANDROMEDA Cireas, my servant Diomede means To tell you of some bargain. Will you walk yonder? Cireas and Diomede walk apart talking. Art thou, as these chains say, the mournful victim Our savage billows spared and men would murder? But was there not another? Have they brought thee From thy sad prison to the shrine alone?
SMERDAS He, — he, —
ANDROMEDA Has terror so possessed thy tongue, It cannot do its office? Oh, be comforted. Although red horror has its grasp on thee, I dare to tell thee there is hope.
SMERDAS What hope? Ah heaven! what hope! I feel the knife even now Hacking my bosom. If thou bringst me hope, I'll know thee for a goddess and adore thee.
Page – 415 ANDROMEDA Be comforted: I bring thee more than hope. Cireas!
CIREAS You'll give me chains? you'll give me jewels?
ANDROMEDA All of my own that I can steal for you.
CIREAS Steal boldly, O honey-sweet image of a thief, steal and fear not. I rose for good luck after all this excellent morning! O Poseidon, had I known there was more to be pocketed in thy disservice than in thy service, would I have misspent these eighteen barren years?
ANDROMEDA Undo this miserable captive's bonds.
SMERDAS What! I shall be allowed to live! Is't true?
ANDROMEDA No, I'll undo them, Cireas; I shall feel I freed him. Is there so much then to unlink? O ingenuity of men to hurt And bind and slay their brothers!
SMERDAS 'Tis not a dream, The horror was the dream. She smiles on me A wonderful glad smile of joy and kindness, Making a sunshine. Oh, be quicker, quicker. Let me escape this hell where I have eaten And drunk of terror and have slept with death.
Page – 416 ANDROMEDA Are you so careless of the friend who shared The tears and danger? Where is he? Cireas!
TYRNAUS (coming forward) O thou young goddess with the smile! Behold him, Tyrnaus the Chaldean.
ANDROMEDA (dropping the chain which binds Smerdas) Already free! Who has forestalled me?
TYRNAUS Maiden, art thou vexed To see me unbound?
ANDROMEDA I grudge your rescuer the happy task Heaven meant for me of loosening your chains. It would have been such joy to feel the cold Hard irons drop apart between my fingers! Who freed you?
TYRNAUS A god as radiant as thyself, Thou merciful sweetness.
ANDROMEDA Had he not a look Like the Olympian's? Was he not bright like Hermes Or Phoebus?
TYRNAUS He was indeed. Thou knowst him then?
ANDROMEDA In dreams I have met him. He was here but now?
Page – 417 TYRNAUS He has withdrawn into the shadow, virgin.
SMERDAS Why do you leave me bound, and talk, and talk, As if Death had not still his fingers on me?
ANDROMEDA (resuming her task) Forgive me! Tyrnaus, did that radiant helper Who clove thy chains, forget to help this poor Pale trembling man?
TYRNAUS Because he showed too much The sordid fear that pities only itself, He left him to his fate.
ANDROMEDA Alas, poor human man! Why, we have all so many sins to answer, It would be hard to have cold justice dealt us. We should be kindly to each other's faults Remembering our own. Is't not enough To see a face in tears and heal the sorrow, Or must we weigh whether the face is fair Or ugly? I think that even a snake in pain Would tempt me to its succour, though I knew That afterwards 'twould bite me! But he is a god Perhaps who did this and his spotless radiance Abhors the tarnish of our frailer natures.
SMERDAS Oh, I am free! I fall and kiss thy robe, O goddess, O deliverer.
ANDROMEDA You must Page – 418 Go quickly from this place. There is a cave Near to those unkind rocks where you were shipwrecked, A stone-throw up the cliff. We found it there Climbing and playing, reckless of our limbs In the sweet joy of sunshine, breeze and movement, When we were children, I and Diomede. None else will dream of it. There have I stored Enough of food and water. Closely lurk Behind its curtains of fantastic stone: Venture not forth, though your hearts pine for sunlight, Or Death may take you back into his grip. When hot pursuit and search have been tired out, I'll find you golden wings will carry you To your Chaldea.
SMERDAS Can you not find out divers Who'll rescue our merchandise from the sunk rocks Where it is prisoned?
TYRNAUS You have escaped grim murder, Yet dream of nothing but your paltry gems! You will call back Heaven's anger on our heads.
SMERDAS We cannot beg our way to far Chaldea.
ANDROMEDA Diving is dangerous there: I will not risk Men's lives for money. I promised Cireas what I have, And yet you shall not go unfurnished home. I'll beg a sum from my brother Iolaus Will help you to Chaldea.
SMERDAS O my dear riches!
Page – 419 Must you lie whelmed beneath the Syrian surge Uncared for?
ANDROMEDA (to Diomede) Take them to the cave. Show Cireas The hidden mouth. I'll loiter and expect you Under the hill-side, where sweet water plashes From the grey fountain's head, our fountain. Merchants, go; Athene guard you!
TYRNAUS Not before I kneel And touch thy feet with reverent humble hands, O human merciful divinity, Who by thy own sweet spirit moved, unasked, Not knowing us, cam'st from thy safe warm chamber Here where Death broods grim-visaged in his home, To save two unseen, unloved, alien strangers, And being a woman feared not urgent death, And being a child shook not before God's darkness And that insistent horror of a world O'ershadowing ours. O surely in these regions Where thou wert born, pure-eyed Andromeda, There shall be some divine epiphany Of calm sweet-hearted pity for the world, And harsher gods shall fade into their Hades.
SMERDAS You prattle, and at any moment, comes The dreadful priest with clutch upon my shoulder. Come! come! you, slave-girl, lead the way, accursed! You loiter?
ANDROMEDA Chide not my servant, Babylonian. Go, Diomede; darkness like a lid Will soon shut down upon the rugged beach Page – 420 And they may stumble as they walk. Go, Cireas. Diomede and Cireas go out, followed by the merchants. Alone I stand before thee, grim Poseidon, Here in thy darkness, with thy altar near That keeps fierce memory of tortured groans And human shrieks of victims, and, unforced, I yet pollute my soul with thy bloody nearness To tell thee that I hate, contemn, defy thee. I am no more than a brief-living woman, Yet am I more divine than thou, for I Can pity. I have torn thy destined prey From thy red jaws. They say thou dost avenge Fearfully insult. Avenge thyself, Poseidon. She goes out: Perseus and Iolaus come forward. PERSEUS Thou art the mate for me, Andromeda! Now, now I know wherefore my eager sandals Bore me resistlessly to thee and Syria.
IOLAUS This was Andromeda and not Andromeda. I never saw her woman till this hour.
PERSEUS Knew you so ill the child you loved so well, Iolaus?
IOLAUS Sometimes we know them least Whom most we love and constantly consort with.
PERSEUS How daintily she moved as if a hand She loved were on her curls and she afraid Of startling the sweet guest!
Page – 421 IOLAUS O Perseus, Perseus! She has defied a strong and dreadful god, And dreadfully he will avenge himself.
PERSEUS Iolaus, friend, I think not quite at random Athene led me to these happy shores That bore such beautiful twin heads for me Sun-curled, Andromeda and Iolaus, That I might see their beauty marred with death By cunning priests and blood-stained gods. Fear not The event. I bear Athene's sword of sharpness. They go out. Page – 422 Darkness. The Temple of Poseidon. Polydaon enters.
POLYDAON Cireas! Why, Cireas! Cireas! Knave, I call you! Is the rogue drunk or sleeps? Cireas! you, Cireas! My voice comes echoing from the hollow shrine To tell me of solitude. Where is this drunkard? A dreadful thing it is to stand alone In this weird temple. Forty years of use Have not accustomed me to its mute threatening. It seems to me as if dead victims moved With awful faces all about this stone Invisibly here palpable. And Ocean Groans ever like a wounded god aloud Against our rocky base, his voice at night Weirdly insistent. I will go and talk With the Chaldeans in their chains: better Their pleasing groans and curses than the hush. He goes out and after a while comes back, disordered. Wake, sleeping Syria, wake! Thou art violated, Thy heart cut out: thou art outraged, Syria, outraged, Thy harvests and thy safety and thy sons Already murdered! O hideous sacrilege! Who can have dared this crime? Could the slave Cireas Have ventured thus? O no, it is the proud God-hating son of Cepheus, Iolaus, And that swift stranger borne through impious air To upheave the bases of our old religion. They have rescued the Chaldeans. Cireas lies
Page – 423 Murdered perhaps on the sound-haunted cliffs Who would have checked their crime. I'll strike the gong That only tolls when dread calamity Strides upon Syria. Wake, doomed people, wake! He rushes out. A gong sounds for some moments. It is silent and he returns, still more disordered. Wake! Wake! Do you not hear Poseidon raging Beneath the cliffs with tiger-throated menace? Do you not hear his feet upon the boulders Sounding, a thunderous report of peril, As he comes roaring up his stony ramparts To slay you? Ah, the city wakes. I hear A surge confused of hurrying, cries and tumult. What is this darkness moving on me? Gods! Where is the image? Whose is this awful godhead? The Shadow of Poseidon appears, vague and alarming at first, then distinct and terrible in the darkness. POSEIDON My victims, Polydaon, give me my victims.
POLYDAON (falling prostrate) It was not I, it was not I, but others.
POSEIDON My victims, Polydaon, give me my victims.
POLYDAON O dire offended god, not upon me Fall thy loud scourges! I am innocent.
POSEIDON How art thou innocent, when the Chaldeans Escape? Give me my victims, Polydaon. Page – 424 POLYDAON I know not how they fled nor who released them. Gnash not thy blood-stained teeth on me, O Lord, Nor slay me with those glaring eyes. Thy voice Thunders, a hollow terror, through my soul.
POSEIDON Hear me, unworthy priest. While thou art scheming For thy own petty mortal aims abroad, I am insulted in my temple, laughed at By slaves, by children done injurious wrong, My victims snatched from underneath my roof By any casual hand, my dreadful image Looking deserted on: for none avenges.
POLYDAON Declare thy will, O Lord, it shall be done.
POSEIDON Therefore I will awake, I will arise, And you shall know me for a god. This day The loud Assyrians shall break shouting in With angry hooves like a huge-riding flood Upon this country. The pleasant land of Syria Shall be dispeopled. Wolves shall howl in Damascus, And Gaza and Euphrates bound a desert. My resonant and cliff-o'ervaulting seas, Black-cowled, with foaming tops thundering shall climb Into your lofty seats of ease and wash them Strangled into the valleys. From the deep My ravening herds pastured by Amphitrite Shall walk upon your roads, devour your maidens And infants, tear your strong and armed men Helplessly shrieking like weak-wristed women, Till all are dead. And thou, neglectful priest, Shalt go down living into Tartarus Where knives fire-pointed shall disclose thy breast
Page – 425 And pluck thy still-renewing heart from thee For ever: till the world cease shall be thy torments.
POLYDAON O dreadful Lord!
POSEIDON If thou wouldst shun the doom, And keep my Syria safe, discover then The rescuer of the Babylonian captives And to the monsters of my deep expose For a delicious banquet. Offer the heart Of Iolaus here still warmly alive And sobbing blood to leave his beautiful body; Slaughter on his yet not inanimate bosom The hero for whose love he braved my rage, And let the sacrilegious house of Cepheus Be blotted from the light. Thy sordid aims Put from thy heart: remember to be fearless. I will inhabit thee, if thou deserve it. He disappears thundering. POLYDAON Yes, Lord! shall not thy dreadful will be done? Phineus enters and his Tyrians with torches. PHINEUS Wherefore has the gong's ominous voice tonight Affrighted Syria? Are you Polydaon Who crouch here?
POLYDAON (rising) Welcome, King Phineus.
PHINEUS Who art thou? Thine eyes roll round in a bright glaring horror Page – 426 And rising up thou shak'st thy gloomy locks As if they were a hungry lion's mane Preparing for the leap. Speak, Polydaon.
POLYDAON Yes, I shall speak, of sacrilege and blood, Its terrible forfeit, and the wrath of Heaven. Cepheus enters with Dercetes and Syrian soldiers, Therops, Perissus and a throng of Syrians; scores of torches. CEPHEUS What swift calamity, O Polydaon, Has waked to clamorousness the fatal gong At which all Syria trembles? What is this face Thou showest like some grim accusing phantom's In the torches' light? Wherefore rangst thou the bell?
POLYDAON It rang the doom of thee and all thy house, Cepheus.
CEPHEUS My doom!
PHINEUS (aside) I glimpse a striking plot And 'tis well-staged too.
POLYDAON The victims are released, The victims bound for terrible Poseidon. Thou and thy blood are guilty.
CEPHEUS Thou art mad! Page – 427 POLYDAON 'Tis thou and thy doomed race are seized with madness, Who with light hearts offend against Poseidon. But they shall perish. Thou and thy blood shall perish.
CEPHEUS O, thou appalst me. Wherefore rings out thy voice Against me like a clamorous bell of doom In the huge darkness?
POLYDAON Poseidon's self arose In the dim night before me with a voice As angry as the loud importunate surge Denouncing thee. Thou and thy blood shall perish.
PHINEUS Cepheus, let search be made. Perhaps the victims Have not fled far, and all may yet be saved.
CEPHEUS Scour, captains, scour all Syria for the fugitives. Dercetes and thy troop, down to the coast, Scan every boulder: out, out, Meriones, Callias, Oridamas and Pericarpus, Ring in the countryside with cordons armed, Enter each house, ransack most private chambers, But find them.
Dercetes and the captains go out with their soldiers, the people making way for them. POLYDAON People of Syria, hearken, hearken! Poseidon for this sacrilege arouses The Assyrian from the land and from the sea His waves and all their sharp-toothed monsters: your men Page – 428 Shall be rent and disembowelled, your women ravished, Butchered by foemen or by Ocean's dogs Horribly eaten: what's left, the flood shall swallow. Cries and groans. VOICES Spare us, Poseidon, spare us, dread deity!
POLYDAON Would you be spared? Obey Poseidon, people.
THEROPS Thou art our King, command us.
POLYDAON Bring the woman, Chaldean Cassiopea, and her daughter. Tell them that Syria's King commands them here. Therops and others go out to do his bidding. PHINEUS What mean you, priest?
CEPHEUS Wherefore my queen and princess?
POLYDAON I do the will of terrible Poseidon. Thou and thy blood shall perish.
PHINEUS Thou then art mad! I thought this was a skilful play. Thinkst thou I will permit the young Andromeda, My bride, to be mishandled or exposed To the bloody chances of wild popular fury In such a moment? Page – 429 POLYDAON Phineus, I know not what thou wilt permit: I know what terrible Poseidon wills.
PHINEUS Poseidon! thou gross superstitious fool, Hast thou seen shadows in the night and tookst them For angry gods?
POLYDAON Refrain from impious words, Or else the doom shall take thee in its net.
PHINEUS Refrain thyself from impious deeds, or else A hundred Tyrian blades shall search thy brain To look for thy lost reason.
POLYDAON (recoiling) Patience, King Phineus! It may be, thou shalt have thy whole desire By other means. Dercetes returns. DERCETES One of the fugitives is seized.
POLYDAON Where, where?
DERCETES Creeping about the sea-kissed rocks we found him Where the ship foundered, babbling greedily Of his lost wealth, in cover of the darkness.
POLYDAON Now we shall know the impious hand. Tremble, Page – 430 Tremble, King Cepheus.
CEPHEUS (aside) I am besieged, undone. No doubt it is my rash-brained Iolaus Ruins us all. Soldiers enter, driving in Smerdas. SMERDAS (groaning) I am dragged back to hell. I am lost and nothing now can save me.
POLYDAON Chaldean, The choice is thine. Say, wilt thou save thy life And see the green fields of thy land once more And kiss thy wife and children?
SMERDAS You mock me, mock me!
POLYDAON No, man! thou shalt have freedom at a price Or torture gratis.
SMERDAS Price? price? I'll give the price!
POLYDAON The names of those whose impious hands released thee: Which if thou speak not, thou shalt die, not given To the dire god, for he asks other victims, But crushed with fearful tortures.
SMERDAS O kind Heaven! Have mercy! Must I give her up, — that smile Page – 431 Of sweetness and those kindly eyes, to death? It is a dreadful choice! I cannot do it.
POLYDAON It was a woman did this!
SMERDAS I'll say no more.
CEPHEUS I breathe again: it was not Iolaus.
POLYDAON Seize him and twist him into anguished knots! Let every bone be crushed and every sinew Wrenched and distorted, till each inch of flesh Gives out its separate shriek.
SMERDAS O spare me, spare me: I will tell all.
POLYDAON Speak truth and I will give thee Bushels of gold and shipment to Chaldea.
SMERDAS Gold? Gold? Shall I have gold?
POLYDAON Thou shalt.
SMERDAS (after a pause) The youth You would have taken on the beach, arrived, And his the sword bit through my iron fetters. Page – 432 POLYDAON Palter not! Who was with him? Thou shalt have gold.
SMERDAS Young Iolaus.
CEPHEUS Alas!
PHINEUS Thus far is well.
POLYDAON Thou hast a shifty look about the eyes. Thou spokest of a woman. Was't the Queen? Hast thou told all? His face grows pale. To torment!
SMERDAS (groaning) I will tell all. Swear then I shall have gold And safety.
POLYDAON By grim Poseidon's head I swear.
SMERDAS O hard necessity! The fair child princess, Andromeda, with her young slave-girl came, She was my rescuer. There is a deep silence of amazement. PHINEUS I'll not believe this! could that gentle child Devise and execute so huge a daring? Thou liest: thou art part of some foul plot.
POLYDAON He has the accent of unwilling truth. Page – 433 Phineus, she is death's bride, not thine. Wilt thou Be best man in that dolorous wedding? Forbear And wait Poseidon's will.
PHINEUS (low) Shall I have Syria?
POLYDAON When it is mine to give thee. Therops returns. THEROPS The Queen arrives.
POLYDAON Remove the merchant. The soldiers take Smerdas into the background. Cassiopea enters with Andromeda and Diomede, Nebassar and the Chaldean Guard. CASSIOPEA Keep ready hands upon your swords, Chaldeans. What is this tumult? Wherefore are we called At this dim hour and to this solemn place?
POLYDAON Com'st thou with foreign falchions, Cassiopea, To brave the Syrian gods? Abandon her, Chaldeans. 'Tis a doomed head your swords encompass.
CASSIOPEA Since when dost thou give thy commands in Syria And sentence queens? My husband and thy King Stands near thee; let him speak.
POLYDAON Let him. There stands he. Page – 434 CASSIOPEA Why hidest thou thine eyes, monarch of Syria, Sinking thy forehead like a common man Unkingly? What grief o'ertakes thee?
POLYDAON You see he speaks not. 'Tis I command in Syria. Is't not so, My people?
THEROPS 'Tis so.
POLYDAON Stand forth, Andromeda.
CASSIOPEA What would you with my child? I stand here for her.
POLYDAON She is accused of impious sacrilege, And she must die.
CASSIOPEA (shuddering) Die! Who accuses her?
POLYDAON Bring the Chaldean.
DIOMEDE Oh, the merchant's seized And all is known. Deny it, my sweet lady, And we may yet be saved.
ANDROMEDA Oh poor, poor merchant! Did I unloose thy bonds in vain? Page – 435 DIOMEDE Say nothing.
ANDROMEDA And why should I conceal it, Diomede? What I had courage in my heart to do, Surely I can have courage to avow.
DIOMEDE But they will kill us both.
ANDROMEDA I am a princess. Why should I lie? From fear? But I am not afraid. Meanwhile the soldiers have brought Smerdas to the front. POLYDAON Look, merchant. Say before all, who rescued thee? She was it?
SMERDAS It is she. Oh, do not look With that sad smile upon me. I am compelled.
POLYDAON Is this the slave-girl?
SMERDAS It is she.
CASSIOPEA This wretch Lies at thy bidding. Put him to the question. He said he was compelled.
POLYDAON I'll not permit it. Page – 436 PERISSUS Why, man, it is the law. We'll not believe Our little princess did the crime.
CASSIOPEA Syrians, Look at this paltering priest. Do you not see It is a plot, this man his instrument Who lies so wildly? He'll not have him questioned. No doubt 'twas he himself released the man, — Who else could do it in this solemn temple Where human footsteps fear to tread? He uses The name of great Poseidon to conceal His plottings. He would end the line of Cepheus And reign in Syria.
PERISSUS This sounds probable.
VOICES Does he misuse Poseidon's name? unbind Victims? Kill him!
CASSIOPEA Look how he pales, O people! Is't thus that great Poseidon's herald looks When charged with the god's fearful menaces? He diets you with forgeries and fictions.
CRIES Let him be strangled!
PHINEUS This is a royal woman!
POLYDAON Well, let the merchant then be put to question.
Page – 437 PERISSUS Come and be tickled, merchant. I am the butcher. Do you see my cleaver? I will torture you kindly.
SMERDAS O help me, save me, lady Andromeda.
ANDROMEDA Oh, do not lay your cruel hands upon him. I did release him.
CASSIOPEA Ah, child Andromeda.
PERISSUS You, little princess! Wherefore did you this?
ANDROMEDA Because I would not have their human hearts Mercilessly uprooted for the bloody Monster you worship as a god! because I am capable of pain and so can feel The pain of others! For which if you I love Must kill me, do it. I alone am guilty.
POLYDAON Now, Cassiopea! You are silent, Queen. Lo, Syrians, lo, my forgeries and fictions! Lo, my vile plottings! Enough. Poseidon wills That on the beach this criminal be bound For monsters of the sea to rend in fragments, And all the royal ancient blood of Syria Must be poured richly forth to appease and cleanse.
CASSIOPEA Swords from the scabbard! gyre in your King from harm, Chaldeans! Hew your way through all opposers! Page – 438 Thou in my arms, my child Andromeda! I'll keep my daughter safe upon my bosom Against the world.
POLYDAON What dost thou, Babylonian?
CASSIOPEA To the palace, My trusty countrymen!
POLYDAON Oppose them, soldiers! They cheat the god of the crime-burdened heads Doomed by his just resentment.
DERCETES We are few: And how shall we lay hands on royalty?
POLYDAON Nebassar, darest thou oppose the gods?
NEBASSAR Out of my sword's way, priest! I do my duty.
POLYDAON Draw, King of Tyre!
PHINEUS 'Tis not my quarrel, priest. Nebassar and the Chaldeans with drawn swords go out from the Temple, taking the King and Queen, Andromeda and Diomede. POLYDAON People of Syria, you have let them pass! Page – 439 You fear not then the anger of Poseidon?
PERISSUS Would you have us spitted upon the Chaldean swords? Mad priest, must we be broached like joints and tossed like pancakes? We have no weapons. Tomorrow we will go to the Palace and what must be done shall be done. But 'tis not just that many should be slain for the crime of one and the house of Syria out-rooted. Follow me and observe my commands, brave aristocracy of the shop, gallant commoners of the lathe and anvil, follow Perissus. I will lead you tonight to your soft downy beds and tomorrow to the Palace. All the Syrians go out, led by Therops and Perissus. PHINEUS Thou hast done foolishly in this, O priest. Hadst thou demanded the one needful head Of Iolaus, it was easy: but now The tender beauty of Andromeda Compels remorse and the astonished people Recoil from the bold waste of royal blood Thou appointest them to spill. I see that zeal And frantic superstition are bad plotters. Henceforth I work for my sole hand, to pluck My own good from the storms of civic trouble This night prepares. He goes out with his Tyrians. POLYDAON O terrible Poseidon, Thyself avenge thyself! hurl on this people The sea and the Assyrian. Where is the power Thou saidst should tarry with me? I have failed. He remains sunk in thought for a while, then raises his head. Tomorrow, Syrian? tomorrow is Poseidon's. Curtain Page – 440 |