Perseus the Deliverer

Scene I

The women's apartments of the Palace.

 

Andromeda, Diomede.

 

ANDROMEDA

All'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.

 

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.

 

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;

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,

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.

 

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.

 

Scene II

In the Temple of Poseidon.

 

Cireas.

 

CIREAS

I 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.

 

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 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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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?

 

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

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!

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

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!

 

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.

 

Scene III

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

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.

 

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

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

 

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!

 

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

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?

 

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,

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

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.

 

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.

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.

 

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?

 

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.

 

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.

 

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!

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!

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