The Audience Chamber in the palace.

Nicanor, Phayllus and others seated; Eunice, Philoctetes.., Thoas apart near the dais.

THOAS

Is it patent ? Is he the elder ? do we know ?

EUNICE

Should he not rule?

THOAS

If Fate were wise, he should.

EUNICE

Will Timocles sack great Persepolis ?
Sooner, I think, Phraates will couch here,
The mighty, steadfast, patient subtle man,
And from the loiterer take, the sensualist
Antioch of the Seleucidae.

THOAS

Perhaps.
But shall I rise against the country's laws
That harbours me ? The sword I draw is hers.

EUNICE

Are law and justice always one? Reflect.

THOAS

If justice is offended, I will strike.

Page – 394

He withdraws to another part of the hall.

EUNICE

The man is wise, but when ambition's heaped
In a great bosom. Fate takes quickly fire.
It only needs the spark.

PHILOCTETES

Is it only that
That's needed ? there shall be the spark.

He withdraws.

EUNICE

Fate or else Chance
Work out the rest. I have given your powers a lead.

Nicanor, who has drawn near, stops before her.

NICANOR

Your council's finished then ?

EUNICE

What council, father?

NICANOR

I have seen, though I have not spoken. Meddle not
In things too great for you. This realm and nation
Are not a skein for weaving fine intrigues
In your shut chambers.

EUNICE

We have other sports.
What do you mean ?

NICANOR

See less Antiochus.
Carry not there your daring spirit and free rein
To passion and ambition nor your bright scorn

Page – 395

Of every law that checks your headstrong will,
Or must I find a curb that shall restrain you?

He withdraws.

EUNICE

My prudent father! These men think that wisdom
Is tied up to their beards. We too have heads
And finer brains within them, as I think!

She goes up on the dais; Leosthenes, Callicrates
and others enter together.

THOAS

Leosthenes from Parthia! Speeds the war?

LEOSTHENES

It waits a captain.

THOAS

It shall have today
A king of captains.

LEOSTHENES

I have seen the boy.
But there's a mystery? Shall he be the king?

THOAS

If Fate agrees with Nature.

LEOSTHENES

Neither can err
So utterly, I think; for if they could,
Man's will would have a claim to unseat Fate,
Which cannot be.

Cleopatra enters with Antiochus and
Timocles; Cleone, Rodogune in attendance,

the latter richly robed.

Page – 396

PHILOCTETES

See where she places him!

THOAS

'Tis on her right!

PHAYLLUS

It is a woman's ruse.
Or must I at disadvantage play the game
With this strong piece against ?

CLEOPATRA

The strong Antiochus has gone too early

Down the dim gorges to that silent world

Where we must one day follow him. A younger hand

Takes up his sceptre and controls his sword.

These are the Syrian twins, Nicanor's sons,

These are Antiochus and Timocles.

Why so long buried, why their right oppressed,

Why their precedence tyrannously concealed,

Forget. Forget old griefs, old hatreds; let them rest

Inurned, nor from their night recover them.

NICANOR

We need not raise the curtains that conceal

Things long inurned, but lest by this one doubt

The dead past lay a dark and heavy hand

Upon our fairer future, let us swear

The Queen shall be obeyed as if she spoke

For Heaven. Betwixt the all-seeing gods and her

Confine all cause of quarrel.

PHAYLLUS

Let the princes swear;

For how can subjects jar if they agree ?

Page – 397

CLEOPATRA

O not with oaths compel the Syrian blood!
My sons, do you consent ?

TIMOCLES

1 Your sovereign will must rule,
Mother, your children and our fraternal kindness
Will drown the loser's natural chagrin
In joy at the other's joy.

CLEOPATRA

Antiochus, my son!

ANTIOCHUS

Your question, Madam, was for Timocles;

From me it needs no answer.

PHAYLLUS

You accept
Your mother's choice ?

ANTIOCHUS

God's choice. My mother speaks
A thing concealed, not one unsettled.

PHAYLLUS

Prince,
Syria demands a plainer answer here.

ANTIOCHUS

Who art thou? Art thou of Seleucus' blood
Who questionest Syria's kings?

CLEOPATRA

Enough. My sons
Will know how to respect their kingly birth.
Today begins another era. Rise,

Page – 398

Princess of Parthia; sit upon this throne,

Phraates' daughter; thou art peace and love

And must today be crowned. Marvel not, Syrians;

For it is peace my envoys bear by now
Upon their saddles to Persepolis.

THOAS

This was a secret haste!

LEOSTHENES

Is it possible ?
We had our heel upon the Parthian's throat.

CLEOPATRA

Since Parthia swept through the Iranian East

Wrecking the mighty Macedonian's toil,

War sways for ever like a darkened sea

In turmoil 'twixt our realms. How many heart-strings

Have broken, what tears of anguish have been wept

And eyes sought eastward unreturning eyes!

Joy has been buried in the blood-drenched sands.

Vain blood, vain weeping! Earth was made so wide

That many might have majesty and joy

Upon one mother's equal breast. But we

Arresting others' portions lose our own.

Nations that conquer widest, perish first,

Sapped by the hate of an uneasy world.

Then they are wisest victors who in time

Knowing the limits of their prosperous fate

Avoid the violence of Heaven. Syrians,

After loud battles I have founded glorious peace.

That fair work I began as Syria's queen;

To seal it Syria's king must not refuse.

ANTIOCHUS

I do refuse it. There shall be no peace.

Page – 399

CLEOPATRA

My son!

ANTIOCHUS

Peace! Are the Parthians at our gate ?
Has not alarm besieged Ecbatana ?
When was it ever seen or heard till now
That victors sued for peace? And this the reason,
A woman's reason, because many have bled
And more have wept. It is the tears, the blood
Prodigally spent that build a nation's greatness.
I here annul this peace, this woman's peace,
I will proclaim with noise of victories
Its revocation.

PHAYLLUS

Now?

THOAS

Thou speakest. King!

TIMOCLES

You are not crowned as yet, Antiochus.

ANTIOCHUS

Syria forbids it, Syria's destiny
Sends forth her lion voices from the halls
Where trumpets blare towards Persepolis,
Forbidding peace.

CLEOPATRA

We do not sue for peace,
My son, but give peace, taking provinces
And taking Rodogune.

TIMOCLES

Who twenty times

Page – 400

Outweighs all hero's actions and exceeds
Earth's widest conquests.

ANTIOCHUS

For her and provinces!
O worse disgrace-! The sword has won jus these.
We wrong the mighty dead who conquered. Provinces!
Whose soil are they that we must sue for them ?
The princess! She's my prisoner, is she not ?
Must I entreat the baffled Parthian then
What I shall do with my own slave girl here
In Antioch, in my palace ? Queen of Syria,
This was ignobly done.

CLEOPATRA

I know you do not love me; in your cold heart
Love finds no home; but still I am your mother.
You will respect me thus when you are king?

ANTIOCHUS

I will respect you in your place, enshrined
In your apartments, governing your women,
Not Syria.

CLEOPATRA

Leave it. You will not think of peace ?

ANTIOCHUS

Yes, when our armies reach Persepolis.

MELITUS

How desperate looks the Queen! What comes of this ?

NICANOR (who has been watching Eunice)

End this debate; let Syria know her king.

Cleopatra rises and stands silent for a moment.  

Page – 401

TIMOCLES

Mother!

CLEOPATRA

Behold your king!

MENTHO

She has done it, gods!

There is an astonished silence.

NICANOR

Speak once more, daughter of high Ptolemy,
Remembering God. Speak, have we understood?
Is Timocles our king?

CLEOPATRA (with a mechanical and rigid gesture)

Behold your king!

Nicanor makes a motion of assent as
to the accomplished fact.

NICANOR

Let then the King ascend his throne.

LEOSTHENES (half-rising)

Thoas!

PHILOCTETES

Speak, King Antiochus, God's chosen king
Who art, not Cleopatra's.

THOAS

Speak, Antiochus.

ANTIOCHUS

Why didst thou give to me alone the name

Of Syria's princes? why upon thy right

Hast seated me? or wherefore mad'st thou terms  

Page – 402

For that near time when I should be the king,
Chaffering for my consent with arguments
Unneeded if the younger were preferred ?
Wilt thou invoke the gods to seal this lie ?

CLEOPATRA

Dost thou insult me thus before my world ?
Ascend the throne, my son.

ANTIOCHUS

Stay, Timocles.
Make not such haste, my brother, to supplant
Thy elder.

TIMOCLES

My elder ?

He looks at Cleopatra.

CLEOPATRA

I have spoken the truth.

MENTHO

Thou hast not; thou art delivered of a lie,
A monstrous lie.

CLEONE

Silence, thou swarthy slave.

MENTHO

I'll not be silent. She offends the gods.
I am Mentho the Egyptian, she who saw
The royal children born. She lies to you,
O Syrians. Royal young Antiochus
Was first on earth.

THOAS

The truth breaks out at last.  

Page – 403

PHAYLLUS

This is a slave the surplus mud of Nile
Engendered. Shall we wrong the Queen by hearing her?

MENTHO

I was a noble Egyptian's wife in Memphis,
No slave, thou Syrian mongrel, and my word
May stand against a perjured queen's.

EUNICE (leaning forward)

Is't done?

Nicanor who has been hesitating, observes
her action and stands forward to speak.

NICANOR

The royal blood of Egypt cannot lie.
Shall Syria's queen be questioned? Shall common words
Of common men be weighed against the breath of kings ?
Let not wild strife arise, O princes, let it not.
Antiochus, renounce unfilial pride;

Wound not thy mother and thy motherland,
Son of Nicanor.

THOAS

Shall a lie prevail?

NICANOR (looking again at Eunice)

It was settled then among you! Be it so.
My sword is bare. I stand for Syria's king.

PHILOCTETES (in the midst of a general hesitation)

Egyptian Philoctetes takes thy challenge,
Nicanor.

ANTIOCHUS

Who is for me in Syria?  

Page – 404

THOAS

I set my sword
Against Nicanor's.

LEOSTHENES

I am Leosthenes.
I draw my victor steel for King Antiochus.

ANTIOCHUS

Who else for me ?

OTHERS

I! I! and I! and I!

CALLICRATES AND OTHERS

We for King Timocles.

LEOSTHENES

Slay them, cut down
The party of the liars.

There is a shouting and tumult with
drawing and movement of swords,

NICANOR

Protect the King.
Let insolent revolt at once be quenched
And sink in its own blood.

LEOSTHENES

I slay all strife

With the usurper.

THOAS

Stay, stay, Leosthenes.

ANTIOCHUS

Forbear! forbear, I say! let all be still!

Page – 405

The great Seleucus' house shall not be made

A shambles. Not by vulgar riot, not

By fratricidal murder will I climb

Into my throne, but up the heroic steps

Of ordered battle. Brother Timocles,

That oft-kissed head is sacred from my. sword.

Nicanor, thou hast thrown the challenge down;

I lift it up.

CLEOPATRA

O, hear me, son Antiochus.

ANTIOCHUS

I have renounced thee for my mother.

RODOGUNE

Alas!

CLEOPATRA

O wretched woman!

She hurries out followed by Rodogune,
Eunice and Cleone.

NICANOR

Thou shalt not do this evil,
Though millions help thee.

He goes out with Timocles, Phayllus,
Callicrates and others of his party.

PHlLOCTETES

Can we hold the house
And seize the city ? We are many here.

THOAS

Nicanor's troops hold Antioch.  

Page – 406

LEOSTHENES

Not here, not here.
Out to the army on the marches! There
Is Syria's throne, not here in Antioch.

ANTIOCHUS

Mentho,
Go with us. Gather swiftly all our strength,
Then out to Parthia!

Page – 407