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DRAMATIC POEMS. 
 
 BY ^ 
 
 WILLIAM ENTRIKEK BAILY. 
 
 I* 
 
 .... Shall I call 
 Antiquity from the old schools of Greece? 
 
 —Milton. 
 
 '4;£;^ ""^<'^v 
 
 APftxOidy4*. 
 Printed fok the Author. J ^Tff^C^^^f 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: "^^ VVASH^** ^ 
 
 1894. 
 

 
 Copyright, 1894, by 
 William Entkiken Baily. 
 
DRAMATIC POEMS 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Sacrifice of Iphigenia 7 
 
 Priam, King of Troy 38 
 
 Andromache in Captivity 69 
 
 The Daughters of CEdipus 92 
 
DRAMATIC POEMS 
 
 THE SACRIFICE OF IPHIGENIA. 
 
 THE PERSONS. 
 
 Agamemnon, the Grecian commander, 
 Achilles, a Grecian leader. 
 Clytemnestra, wife to Agamemnon. 
 Iphigenia, daughter to Agamemnon. 
 
 SCENE Z— At Aulis. 
 
 Iphigenia alone. 
 
 Iph. Ah, woe is me! alone to die! — foredoomed 
 To heir this ill so soon! What visions haunt, 
 As if from realms below, my memory! 
 I would not have the naked truth reveal 
 The providence of Fate; a pause must give 
 To fancy yet its spell, relieving it 
 Of the dim things oppressive to control. 
 'Tis maidenhood would live, life's spring, life's hues 
 To have, as has the blossom's beauty hued 
 To germinate in fruit. Thus sad it is 
 (For flesh is e'er suppliant for its own) 
 To sue for being's self from him who gave — 
 Who is a part of me, and I of him; — 
 
 (7) 
 
8 DRAMATIC POEMS. 
 
 The final vital link of child with sire 
 To separate, to be a ghost in night 
 Perpetual veiled! . . . Still moments mutable 
 Their feelings form, impressing with a thrill, 
 This instant sent. Despair gives birth to hope, 
 And hope to peace, as perished voices come 
 Assuring all is well. Endurance then 
 Must its requital have. A father's words 
 Withal the heart condones, as bows the head 
 In bitter duty borne to sacrifice. 
 The gods contriving and attesting it! 
 
 Enter Clytemnestka. 
 
 Clyt. What lot for thee, my child! Deliberate 
 I cannot on it with what patience teaches. 
 My husband! — so to wander from himself 
 As false to be to thee; thy father once. 
 Destroyer now — the Hours that beat down men 
 To dust, their rulings to anticipate; 
 And thou so young, so fair! . . . Must he his own. 
 My own, repudiate, nor leave me plead 
 For it? What righteousness is there? Oh, plight 
 Of woman, why bid go to man for joy. 
 And going so, too often find there woe? 
 
 Iph. Behooves thee not complaining of our lord, 
 Tliy husband, when as agent he submits 
 To grim necessity. Forthwith he parts 
 With me, 't is from his flesh, as much as if 
 With his right arm, subjecting the intent 
 
THE SACBIFICE OF IFHIGENIA. 9 
 
 Obedient to Diana's wish. In heaven she, 
 
 On earth we — how attain can we as shades 
 
 Eegions Elysian, to espouse ourselves 
 
 To happiness, supernal there, opposed 
 
 As mortals to the laws bestowing it? 
 
 We forfeit favors by disloyalty 
 
 Unto the powers above surmounting kings. 
 
 Clyt. Alas! my child, as this to hear thee utterl 
 To bear a victim for the altar who. 
 In blindness to her ties, o'errules now me! 
 Sad fruit of cares, ungrateful daughter thou! . . . 
 Affection now grow cold! Consoling e'er 
 Again, welcome not its life-flame to meet 
 Love with contrary qualities! . . . What, both — 
 A husband and a daughter — turned against 
 The mother and the wife in one! But, no! — 
 It must not be confronted thus. Come, strength, 
 A barrier to the heart's infirmity. 
 To aid the mind to act 'gainst present ills! . . . 
 Iphigenia, we must move to thwart 
 Thy father's purpose. Thou, in lethargy. 
 Art conscious not of will. Let it arouse; 
 Be leader hence with mine; be rational 
 To risk what must be met; thus meeting it, 
 In reason's triumph thy salvation find. 
 Thus men proceed to ends, why women not? 
 
 Ipli. Mother, beware! I shall not follow thee. 
 Be ruled by confidence that what 's to come. 
 Though evil, good promotes. I 've shed some tears; 
 I 've pleadings made impelled by selfishness; 
 
10 BBAMATIC POEMS. 
 
 I 've wrestled with a spirit grieved within, 
 Uncertain, though achieving what I would, 
 To call it victory. Then heedful be, 
 Dear mother; for persuasion thine so warm 
 Falls on cold ears. 
 
 Clyt. Thee Aulis hath confused; 
 
 Thou shouldst be home in Argos. Loss is here ! — 
 Salvation thine I need, in pang my want. 
 
 Iph. Wanting supplies the pang, and not the need. 
 
 Clyt, A mother seeks her offspring's charity! 
 
 Iph. This same is due from thee to him, my sire. 
 
 Clyt. I would have thee his wish obey at first, 
 And disobey anon. Subjected thus. 
 My bosom bears a share of fickleness. 
 Wliat is within is comprehended not; 
 Wliat is without no less is dark, not plain. 
 Darkness, it seems to me, is evil's own, 
 Not tenable by virtue, that pursues 
 The free and wholesome light. Hence when 't is bid 
 For thee to die, I fear 'tis but the craft 
 Of men so ord'ring to accomplish what 
 They suffer not to be proclaimed; or, next. 
 Conceive I 't is the working of the gods 
 Upon these men, in some undeemed behalf 
 Of justice, 'gainst its foes to counteract. 
 Thus is my mind swayed to and fro — thus why 
 I would have thee his wish obey at first, 
 And disobey anon. 
 
 Mcit Iphigenia. 
 
THE SACRIFICE OF IPHIGENIA. 11 
 
 She 's gone! She heard, 
 But pondering lost the sense of what I spoke. 
 To be confuted thus 't is pitiful ! 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 Agamemnon alone. 
 
 Aga. Unfortunate my portion if to strive 
 Do not I to unlink what holds us here, 
 Aulis! Ambition deals with us with cold 
 Keserve of mastership that lacketh trust 
 In us, and to another nature than 
 Our own makes us appear akin. It seems 
 The heart is severed from the mind; it is 
 Apart, with pity faint, asleep to thought, 
 Save that which stirs solicitude. Thus moved, 
 It is compunction first; assurance next. 
 That headlong would be first, and to prevail. 
 Points that endurance is a chain now gross 
 To wear. What privilege hath freedom's wing! 
 But Aulis rules with bitter jealousy, 
 Her winds not fa v 'ring Greece. It seems that Troy, 
 By her protected, Heaven protects it, too, 
 Instilling by degrees a daunted sense, 
 That numbs — ambition's bane! — that men the chief 
 Yield to — a superstition in the breast, 
 Which shows despite itself we objects are 
 Of vague decrees from high; yet so direct 
 Their causes hidden to fulfill I . . . Calchas, 
 
12 DBAMATIG POEMS. 
 
 Approaching Menelaus, Ulysses, I, 
 Was made to utter what, with touch prolonged, 
 Makes shudders steal. Industrious as I am 
 "With reveries, unfolding thought o'er thought. 
 Deep in futurity to know the fates, 
 "VVliat pain to learn Diana wroth demands 
 A victim from my family — from me, 
 The king of kings, of those as great as I 
 The cynosure! It to complain was just 
 (Although Ulysses proved it otherwise, 
 Making respected and respecting pleas 
 Answer persuasion well) unto the gods 
 That she, my daughter, Iphigenia 
 (Betrothed to the resistless Achilles), 
 Must bend in sacrifice I Fruitless complaint 
 Is witness proving fault in making it. 
 Hereby comforted, pacing to and fro. 
 Atoning with reflections for the ear 
 Of Heaven, I observe abroad, and hark 
 As if kind Heaven is responsive thus: 
 ^T is for thy own avail these ships go far! 
 Then musing know the goddess to appease 
 Is to have means to reach the Asian shore. 
 That step of glory fraught with Trojan doom. 
 Kext conscience dictates what I do, virtues 
 Inspiring it; else would I feel not part 
 In right supported not in part by them. 
 Thus are the deeds of greatness born in what 
 Seems crime, the merit leaving to outlast 
 The blemish, and to hallow it for aye. 
 
THE SACRIFICE OF IPHIGENIA. 13 
 
 Enter Clytemnestra. 
 
 Clyt. Must your own daughter on the altar die? 
 To be the bride of Achilles; now not: 
 Felicity to persecution joined! 
 
 Aga. She 's pledged by me, with honor absolute. 
 
 Clyt. With honor absolute! What term is this? 
 This Helen, lo! is she to be the bane 
 Of Greece so far, and still besides unknown? 
 Must war for her impress you so against 
 Your blood transmitted to the one that woke 
 Your love with baby energy, your beard 
 With her wee palms outstretching to displace 
 And pluck? Now this gift from the gods, as 't was 
 Your wont to say, disowned must be, in view 
 To gratify fulfilled the promise made 
 Of Asia's government to that of Greece, 
 You sovereign. An oracle speaks what 
 He wills, with outer show of truth to win 
 His cause, and inner error moving him. 
 And he, deceiving, self deceives. Thus from 
 A spring impure, so acrid to the taste, your mind 
 Contaminate proceeds to act! . . . Defend, 
 Ye skies, from what inhuman is! — from what 
 No mercy can approve — restoring us 
 Domestic bliss lost in opprobrium! 
 
 Aga. O wife! far Troy in dark renown must fall. 
 She breeds catastrophe, aflecting men 
 With passion, tyranny and perfidy. 
 It is a vital force, not conquered soon 
 
14 DBAMATIG POEMS. 
 
 Is conqueror, debasing to endure: 
 
 Kot wisdom's choice its menace to connive; 
 
 Not valor's to decline when it confronts; 
 
 But both, in concord acting, aim to serve 
 
 Through war's turmoils to found posthumous rights, 
 
 Their foe barbarous forcing to constraint. 
 
 Glyt, Doth love of equity you urge to bear 
 This manner changed? Is the excuse for it 
 Not hued by falsehood, that ashamed is placed 
 Behind what is ostensible to those 
 Who see amiss? Your nature you condemns 
 E'en to benignity, to palliate 
 So ready. Time must show it mockery, 
 Leading you forward to contrition's vale. 
 What pride is yours to serve in majesty 
 Of sacrifice, impressing twenty kings, 
 Greece, too, as lord of all, in spurning ties 
 Of duty as the father of your child! 
 
 Aga. Helpmeet, why futile chide? 'Tis Destiny 
 Commands; submitting thus incline thyself. 
 A king's own joy is not his diadem. 
 What I possess I owe to Jupiter; 
 To him all must be first, myself be last. 
 He rules, inscrutable, appearing just 
 To faith resigned to power supreme. ^VTiat can 
 I less than yield unto the course of things, 
 He forming them; by means to strive as man 
 Approval his to win, and thence endowed 
 (For such we are at best with spell divine), 
 In life, in death, be part of him my soul? 
 
THE SACBIFIGE OF IPHIGENIA. 15 
 
 So innate this impulse, it would expand; 
 Ascends it oft, as oft descends in grief; 
 It as the mariner on ocean views 
 An infinite comprising space in vain; 
 Its sole temptation is the fruit of Time 
 (Outvying far the clustered gems of Bacchus !) 
 With bays by, reached to be through jeopardy; 
 Its standard, heroic Hercules — man's 
 Thought eminent, woman's misconception. 
 
 Clyt. An Argonaut, with tale score-told of past 
 Exploits, your aim! — still foe to the idea 
 Iphigenia should be your primal care! 
 Is this something, this soul-search for a goal 
 (Which you allures, astray you leaving oft), 
 Absorbing passion, void of love domestic? — 
 Your daughter fit for Lethe's dark embrace, 
 By martial drift cast there! What purpose next 
 May lead you on I know not; but a fear 
 Presages that my fate, at your behest. 
 In turn may yield in shameful union joined 
 With hers. Ah, there must surely lurk within 
 You a perversion that, unseen of any, 
 Strides on, relentless, acting that unfeigned 
 With furtive brow, conspiring more and more 
 Unto a haughty soul to minister, 
 Your family to doom to perdition! 
 
 Aga. So extravagant 'gainst the circumstance 
 Investing us at Aulis here; of Heaven 
 Defiant, too! Necessity requires 
 A deed of dread; alone, how dark! but placed 
 
16 DBAMATIG POEMS. 
 
 Beside that which conjoins the country's weal 
 
 To armed hosts here (to whom infallible 
 
 Was promised much), it darkness seems exchanged 
 
 For dawn. Iphigenia, so tractable, 
 
 So modest, self-adaptful to events, 
 
 So like a child in tempered womanhood. 
 
 The mandate harsh full knows recoils my heart. 
 
 Too fond at times, to bid that done which left 
 
 Undone shall peril all. Myself would fall 
 
 Upon embattled fields, subserving Greece, 
 
 Feeling the death would be a monument 
 
 Outlasting what I am. I would have her, 
 
 My child, to die, no less to reap effect 
 
 From such a cause — a daughter vain in war, 
 
 Still aiding it, her honor, too, by one 
 
 Day's death submissive to Diana's best. 
 
 Clyt. Husband, it looks as if this madness were; 
 Or else an attitude of humor yoked 
 With those who would undo, to raise themselves. 
 Your household kindred. ... It is Calchas' sin! 
 His artifice advantage counts for self. 
 Thus comes he 'tween a father and a child. 
 What prophet knows the path that Time pursues? 
 Yet master now, assuming that he does. 
 He Greece instructs, its armies here, their chiefs; 
 Ignoring royalty, bids kings obey. 
 As Menelaus, Ulysses and their friends 
 Support him in his tragic offices. 
 Thus are you hedged, exaction's prisoner, 
 E'en to avow it to yourself too weak! 
 
THE SACBIFICE OF IPHIGENIA. 17 
 
 Aga. O wife! thy fears, while showing love, deny 
 What reason would to all corroborate: 
 Hence is it vain to make thy passion see; 
 Another time submission govern let, 
 As 't is m daughter thine exemplified. 
 
 Clyt. When kissing Iphigenia thrice good-by, 
 As you were leaving for the war, from Troy 
 You promised her the spoils of jewels choice, 
 Eare pearls, and weavings inestimable. 
 To come to this! What child hereafter knows 
 Its father? . . . Menelaus asks sacrifice; 
 Would he had he a daughter forming it? 
 
 Exit Agamemnon. 
 
 Alas! he, too, moves coldly from my side 
 As Iphigenia. Alienated, 
 Despite myself, I am from those held dear, 
 That wander spectre-liko from off my path. 
 What can it mean? Perhaps my words to tact 
 Were recreant; reacting hence, his mind 
 Turns off resolved, in opposition fixed. 
 Reproof, more mild, sagacious e'er, for me 
 Wins not with truth enclosed within a bur, 
 That pricks, arouses, then presents the nut 
 To gratify the eye. Thus do I lose 
 By pleas — by labor often false with voice 
 Of anger, not with that of judgment true. 
 Oh, let hereafter be my bosom hard 
 The better to control its purposes! 
 
 2-B 
 
18 DBAMATIG POEMS. 
 
 Contemning it as now unworthy, weak, 
 Be parent not by half, but father all, 
 To rule inflexible and masculine. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 Achilles and Clytemnestra. 
 
 Achil. Iphigenia here! ^VTiy is it thus? 
 Delayed at Aulis, waiting for the wind 
 To puff our sails, our hosts excitable, 
 Eager for Troy (in daily menaces 
 Her name oft heard), as martial blasts abound. 
 We are filled up with enterprising thoughts; 
 Kow love comes in contrasting such the more. 
 
 Clyt. How cold is this! Not nature's lover you. 
 Love is memorial keeping much in mind. 
 Why ask you so, nor leap in joy her here? 
 
 Achil. Fear sees prudently, love impelling it. 
 Why did she leave paternal Argive soil? 
 
 Clyt. She left it at the bidding of my lord. 
 So underhand! — hath he not told you she 
 Has come, her lover you, with right to know? 
 
 Achil. Not he, I swear. He is obliged to me, 
 To whom imperial favors have I borne. 
 Now he from me himself aloof retires: 
 Is this a meed for loyalty? Yet he. 
 Now wisely silent, may have cause. Besides, 
 Within the camps are casualties, murmurs 
 Increasing o'er and o'er. Her advent here 
 Does surely not in part occasion them? 
 
THE SACRIFICE OF IPHIGENIA. 19 
 
 Clyt. I know not. There is foiling mystery 
 Afoot behind impatience everywhere, 
 That keeps surmises busy in the mouths, 
 As movements ripen in tlieir character. 
 My husband is unquiet, meeting me 
 At AuHs here (and tlius, too, after me 
 In haste to bring) with glances scornful, wild. 
 As if intruding I am thwarting too. 
 
 Achil. Was his purport, in calling you both here. 
 Touching not me, but other chieftains by? 
 
 Clyt, This you may learn anon. Led on we were 
 With aught to make us curious, knowing he 
 Thus caught most easily we women are. 
 Now here, entrapped as birds in nets by him, 
 We face the hazard of conditions hard. 
 With worse in store, perhaps, in the unknown. 
 
 Achil. Iphigenia, would he do her harm? — 
 No! — not so bold as that. His daughter's face 
 Would stand precluding even thought of it. 
 
 Clyt. Alack! I know the motion of his thoughts. 
 And how they sway: embodied in shame's action 
 His own unsettled self create would not. 
 However, he 's environed late by those 
 ^Yh.o know he 's king by half, the other lamb. 
 
 Achil. 'T is hard to understand what inner cause 
 Now underlies with peril, proof so scant. 
 
 Clyt. Believe there 's peril near. The proof is in 
 Much seen, much heard. Suspicion's hungry look 
 Beholds. Oh, overthrow! — strike at the root 
 Ere the obnoxious fruit finds birth in blossom. 
 
20 BBAMATIG POEMS. 
 
 Achil. Aye! aye! — my happiness on it depends. 
 Nature is stirred within to supplement 
 What it owes to itself to be content. 
 This never is (speak heart!) when she 's in bonds: 
 The boundary of her liberty curtailed, 
 A martyr to emotion's circumstance. 
 
 Clyt. Eather say you, to Iphigenia pledged: 
 Discontent, having ferret's sight, must seek 
 Causes in secrecy surrounding her. 
 
 Achil. What must we crawl into forbidden paths? 
 
 Clyt. 'T is well to verify to self the need. 
 
 Achil. What man than Agamemnon dost thou fearV 
 
 Clyt. I think that Calchas has a motive hid. 
 And matches mischief with a hand, in what 
 It does concealing what it wants. He feigns. 
 And piously, 'tis given him dark rights. 
 
 Achil. But Agamemnon, keen observing men, 
 In this deluded could not surely be. 
 
 Clyt. What scruples he to borrow, not to pay — 
 To profit by a promise e'er unkept? 
 iSTow militant, his very breath comes forth 
 As neighing courser's. Thus him Calchas finds, 
 And he, abetting, makes my husband prone 
 To countenance conclusions plausible 
 Each fears to say to us in confidence. 
 Lest power of ours confronting him defeats. 
 Ask you: Why is Iphigenia here? 
 Why are you sought to be deceived in this? 
 Why shuns my husband, morbid in his tent, 
 The broad day's eye, as if alarmed at light? 
 
THE SACRIFICE OF IPHIQENIA. 21 
 
 These answer all as best you can, and lo! 
 There follows naught assuaging to belief. 
 
 Achil. What is this Calchas? Is he not high-priest 
 Of these times chosen, trusted, faithful, mild 
 And zealous, stored with lore and laws, sincere 
 And frank to strangers needing his advice? 
 As sinister, conjecture knows him not. 
 Yet with him late too oft Ulysses goes. 
 The Ithacan is poor; is double-mouthed, 
 Eevolving words to justify his acts; 
 His love adventure and its readiness; 
 His knack lies in the careless use of self 
 To mount and rule. He may in Calchas see 
 An advocate, and leading him amiss 
 Steals to a goal productive to his claim. 
 The chiefs contentious nurse disturbing schemes; 
 'T is not alone they war for Menelaus; 
 Ambition's weeds impair the planter's skill; 
 Kor wonder Agamemnon is distressed. 
 
 Clyt. If so, could he receive his wife, his brows 
 Close knit, pompous, repelling, wordy, vague? 
 He knows what obstacles intimidate. 
 There 's matter that concerns his household which, 
 To you and me, is fatal to repose. 
 With him according Iphigenia stands, 
 Voicing for him what argument forbids. 
 
 Achil. Alack, against us two? If so, 't is one 
 That errs obedient to a stronger one, 
 And erring will resume anon a course 
 Of rectitude, her genial attribute. 
 
22 DEAMATIO POEMS. 
 
 Clyt. She errs, indeed! Yet she 's variable, 
 As if to strive 'gainst agony; then would 
 Betime it chide, it smiling down. Her eyes 
 Are shaded with dismay, or radiant 
 And affable; her voice hath winter's blare. 
 Or summer's calm inducing friends to seek 
 Her face to face — all in an hour. Still know. 
 There is intent behind the seen unseen. 
 Drawing these men, about whom we surmise, 
 Eluding serpent-like, through artifice 
 And labyrinth of watchful policy 
 For chance success to favor them. They know 
 To you in love is Iphigenia wed; 
 Her mother doth in this co-operate; 
 Formidable, emphatic, Achilles; 
 Therefore they circumspect must be. Arouse! 
 Treat them as holding you, their gratitude 
 To you as debt likewise despised, until 
 They prove by candor errors bias you. 
 If not, consider there is risk at stake. 
 That must be bravely met by means protective. 
 
 Achil. Yes, yes! methinks of recent subterfuges 
 Of Agamemnon, which, convincing half, 
 Have that about them which keeps memory. 
 Kise they twofold in bulk, evoking what 
 Makes seem indices to conspiracy. 
 
 Clyt. With me just so — conspiracy the word! 
 We were requested ones to interview 
 For reasons that the present findeth not; 
 We were told much that once examined left 
 
THE SACRIFICE OF IPHIGENIA. 23 
 
 Us doubters questing, point by point forestalled; 
 
 We were informed that you, degenerate. 
 
 Embraced the follies of a warrior's lot. 
 
 Turning your back on sweet, preceding ties — 
 
 On Iphigenia, callous, reckless you! 
 
 Thus here I am (with spies besetting near 
 
 At every corner), issues waiting soon 
 
 In execution dread, 't is known not what. 
 
 'Tis terror maketh women doubly feel, 
 
 So distant from their palace and their home! 
 
 Achil. There must misunderstanding be in this. 
 Yet blame not Agamemnon thou for all. 
 He may complot some triumph to adorn. 
 Hold fast to love, for love rules men. Be not 
 Infatuated; soon clear-sightedness 
 Keturning, we and others shall rejoice. 
 
 Clyt. He sins by fractions, others helping him, 
 Although the sum his all at times appears, 
 
 Achil. This half excuses him with charity. 
 
 Clyt. Still Iphigenia's welfare stands forth first. 
 
 AcMl. Do not I go to rescue Helen held 
 By Troy's hard terms, opposing life to death? 
 Would I do less for Iphigenia harmed. 
 Whose patience hath a voice in pallid looks, 
 Whose serenity a solace sheds around. 
 Whose soul alone in absence me inspires? 
 
 Clyt. You well refute what was alleged against 
 Your faith; and I exult you honor self 
 With a demeanor of sincerity: 
 My daughter's safety in it lies. 
 
24 DBAMATIC POEMS. 
 
 Achil. There must be in the wind retarding us 
 At Aulis here an ill reserved for some 
 Impiety, transgressing covertly. . . . 
 Ye gods, guile confound, dealing punishment! . . . 
 Meanwhile I '11 turn to Agamemnon, still 
 His friend (though deep he is!) — I '11 go to him. 
 To judge by surface means; and more to know 
 Endeav'ring, may through knowledge concord make. 
 
 Exit ACHLLLES. 
 
 Clyt. Oh, let him go in ignorance! Alack! 
 This Helen, renegade, outlives; and she, 
 More dear, allegiant e'er, to save her dies — 
 Dies Iphigenia, the sacred knife to stain; — 
 Her father's sentence, judging as in law 
 Against his own, with Calchas at the rear 
 In arch -deceiving dexterous — these learn 
 Let him! There 's more behind — con it let him, 
 This more; — and thus together all arouse 
 Shall him to such a fury as to make 
 The bravest quail; at least, 'tis so proposed. 
 Men managed are through passion stirring them 
 To do that which defeat serves in the end. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 Agamemnon, Achilles and Iphigenxa.. 
 
 AcMl, I come before j^ou bearing that within 
 Which you accusing still excuses you; 
 My ear would justify your words, your course, 
 
THE SACBIFICE OF IPHIGENIA. 25 
 
 Your semblance late (not social to converse 
 As wont with some), in hearing you unfold. 
 Your wife impassioned, suffers and upbraids. 
 Your Iphigenia here; why is it so 
 To tread upon the thorny path of war? 
 
 Aga. She comes within the shadow of a storm; 
 The sun, dispersing clouds, shall glorify 
 The dim beginning in the shining end. 
 
 Achil. Her presence here, is it connected with 
 The object of our expedition stayed? 
 
 Aga. It is. Late the local divinity 
 Consulting Menelaus, Ulysses, I, 
 With sacrifice upon her altar, heard. 
 With an authoritative voice, proclaim 
 To us this Calchas, prophet, what assured 
 Shall be, with instance that the future brought 
 Within the circle of the present — he 
 So potent was! Diana pacified 
 Must be, demanding richly, as befits 
 An immortal. Offending much I must 
 Atone — the stag she favored fell by these 
 My hands. Question no more, but Calchas seek. 
 
 Exit Achilles. 
 
 Oh, peace departed, left behind in Argos, 
 Refusing to transmarine shores to gol 
 ^N'ow struggles that, heart-rending, lading with 
 The dust, make choke the atmosphere of sense, 
 O'erwhelming are! ... He will know all, and that. 
 
26 DBAMATIC POEMS. 
 
 Too, holding gratitude's indebtment o'er; 
 For him I owq much, valiant Achilles. 
 But how is this? — a thought so trammeling 
 Leads back to childhood, confessing dread 
 Of him returning. I should dread him not. 
 And yet I do. His qualities endowed 
 Have strong and noble touches, fit to bear 
 The rod of fortitude in cold behalf 
 Of duty asking that himself be ruled: 
 Let Calchas so dispose his earnestness! 
 
 Enter Iphigenia. 
 
 ^Vliat, daughter, here alone! Expected not, 
 Yet thou dost come fulfilling to a wish. 
 With flush on cheek, composure on thy brow. 
 
 Ipli. My father, dear, I yield to you — to that 
 Which claims you most, superior to the self 
 That dwells in flesh; — and I no less accede 
 To Calchas kind yet stern, a votary 
 Upon the current of decree severe 
 To be borne, worthy of Minerva's blessing. 
 
 Aga. Think not in error of myself I spoke. 
 With mind distorted from affection just. 
 Cold in embraces of illusions wild. 
 To lead thee on, forever from this life 
 Delivered up. An early innocence 
 Came forth, as if in mist inspirited. 
 From days agone, and woke those sentiments 
 That charmed me when thou, upon my knee 
 (Arises clear thy infant ecstasy 
 
THE SACBIFICE OF IPHIGENIA. 27 
 
 E'en now in imagery!) wast then in figure 
 Invested with the traits of beaut}- — saw 
 A woman standing firm in qualities, 
 Myself reflected in their excellence — 
 And shook my locks in giddy pride of thee. 
 Much more, in tenor of this vein, might say 
 I now, but such avowal would be turned 
 Awry in serving motive that forbids 
 Details. To van of thought to forward right 
 I owe, it making be from wrongs of state 
 By barbarians, by kings iniquitous; 
 From overflowing tides of darkness deep, 
 The guide ideal. Thus consecrated, I 
 AYould to my aim my Iphigenia win. 
 Judging her death as bliss beyond the tomb. 
 
 Ipli. I kneel, my father, as I have implied, 
 Unto the altar's doom, as if a gate 
 It were, to me alone, to Olympus. 
 
 SCENE F. 
 Achilles and Iphigenia. 
 
 Achil. From Calchas I have bitter tidings heard. 
 Thou dedicated to the altar's rite! 
 A\Tiat painful riot in the temper plays! 
 Dost thou consent? — Ah, me! thy looks are pale. 
 
 Iph. Duty a golden medium is to joy. 
 
 Achil, Reply of thine it seemed would be just so. 
 'T was deemed that thou of me forgetful art. 
 Thy eye's familiar is some vision strange. 
 
28 DRAMATIC POEMS. 
 
 Ipli. Be thou of bravery thine aware to aid 
 The will in this emergency imposed. 
 
 Achil. 'T is little thee to shield commanding thou; 
 Patroclus mine (a friend to might and valor) 
 And the Thessalian host would rescue thee. 
 
 I2)h. Use arms against the judgment seat, upheld 
 By motive in the sphere of spheres! Ko, no! 
 
 Achil. Alas, to list! How Calchas' counsels foil! 
 ]N"ow hard to undergo this double trial. 
 Thy father foiling, too — adverse to that 
 Late pledge uniting thee to me! Too soon 
 This in the dust must under foot be crushed! 
 
 l2Jh. It is unjust to speak of this bygone. 
 
 Achil. In much I am undone. In what is said 
 'T is not the choice, but the compulsion speaks. 
 
 ip7i. Remember Agamemnon's realm of Greece 
 Is fairest; Iphigenia, princess born. 
 His daughter, proud of him, of country, too. 
 Will serve them both in yielding to the claim 
 Of Diana — country, patriots, father, all 
 Subserved — what obligation with a meed! 
 
 Achil. But such a tenor in her delicacy 
 Is the advice of chance unsteadiness. 
 Or human not — so armed against her friends! 
 
 I2)h. The Parcse with a vigor have instilled 
 This frame (that might bear wrinkles and decay) so 
 To order and ordain their purposes. 
 Musing of it, what noble feelings stir! 
 
 Achil. Shall now forego, Iphigenia, that heart, 
 In which those noble feelings are, my own, 
 
TBE SACBIFIGE OF IPHIQENIA. 29 
 
 Keeping in view no resolution proud 
 
 Averse to me, but winning maidenhood? 
 
 Ah, me! regard that state forlorn of life, 
 
 Thy mother's, and thy lover's, too, anon 
 
 "WTien thou art gone, thy shade with alien shade 
 
 To roam, ne'er to return to earth again! 
 
 Iph. Arousing thus, a spark within myself 
 Effects the more the cause with thee. But know 
 A father's wisdom stands a daughter's less 
 In error's mesh to aid. Inclined to veer 
 From fixed devotion to her land, her elders, 
 Her worship at the fane, prohibits she 
 To entertain thy plea with humbleness; 
 Nor murmur shouldst thou vain from me estranged. 
 
 Achil. What lot to supplicate without amends! 
 How doubt belief did! Charlatan was this 
 Belief in feigning thou didst feign; but truth 
 Comes through thy features, virtue's seal thereon. 
 
 Iph. Kegard profound with suasion would prevail. 
 
 Achil. So speaking seems as if a statue speaks; 
 It makes the present poor, unfortunate. 
 
 Iph. The future richer by privation now. 
 
 Achil. Still stay! For beauty liveth sternness j^et, 
 Meet due from man. Death tempting thee away, 
 From this to turn to cold eternity! 
 
 Iph. Aye, aye, there majesty immutable, 
 Forever cold to those who feel it not. 
 
 Achil. To flutter o'er oneself with spirit brave 
 Is that unreal in mortals which oft falters when 
 Comes experience dread. A preceptor 
 
30 DBAMATIG POEMS. 
 
 Let pausing moments be. Too soon regretting, 
 Kash acts anticipate retrieving steps. 
 
 Iph. Why thus accost my fear? Why not my faith? 
 Hallow the gods the tidings fraught for us. 
 
 Acliil. We cannot praise the gods for all they do; 
 Then what they hid why sanction always we? 
 
 Iph. In candor mine find not a mind amiss, 
 Void of what claims esteem for intellect. 
 I would live! Life engenders life, joy joy, 
 Hope hope. Would I achieving these in lot 
 To gratify, relinquish it to fade 
 Ere ripe — to meet in summer autumn's blight — 
 Without inducing effort stirred within, 
 Supple and strong as is the palm, to take 
 A course of rigor that e'en frailty charms? 
 The gods do surely blunder not in this. 
 
 Acliil. Oh, so to express! — so unlike the one — 
 The Iphigenia fair, of earth, for earth. 
 Adorning and adorned! — so like the one 
 On a tribunal citing principles! 
 Retire, at least, in memory; be absent from 
 These places, in thy native haunts; recall 
 Thy father, simple there, sweet manners bidding, 
 Aspiring and unruly not. O'erlooked 
 That father is; this father, mounting where 
 He would, sees less and less his wife and children, 
 Until they are mere ciphers to himself. 
 
 Iph. Why should I be a victim to design 
 When me admonishes clear consciousness 
 To be steadfast in that I do? Wliat false, 
 
THE SACBIFICE OF IPHIGENIA. 31 
 
 My father! No, no! He for me grieves more 
 Than I that am to suffer. Faith him knows 
 As it knows self — as woman knows the depth 
 Of man, self-knowledge his in instinct naught. 
 
 Achil. 'T is hard to deafen what affection urges 
 Eesigning thee for aye in one dull thought. 
 Can this accomplished be in so short time? 
 Profoundest functions of the mind rebel. 
 Give hours for such, they cycles would appear. 
 
 Iph. Oh, court not languor fatal to the sense 
 That boasts the hardihood of Grecian brawn! 
 
 Achil. Still recollection must, corroding this 
 Same sense, prevail, with age untimely blending — 
 Sad jDlight! — a weight upon the manhood's prime, 
 Making imperfect what encouraged bears 
 E'en brawn unto the dangerous verge of deeds. 
 
 Iph. The end behold! This passion for the present 
 A poison is, a toil, an ignorance. 
 Let flowery thoughts be o'er it victory, 
 Communing with the future as in prayer. 
 
 Achil. Yet feel it rue that one so good should leave! 
 
 Ixoh. The grim, gaunt ferryman, of whom we note, 
 Conveys not, wrapped in terror of his mien, 
 All numbers vain across the turbid flood. 
 Beyond, in the abode of all the just. 
 Associations are enriching to the soul 
 In tranquil proportions. Of them reflect 
 To animate belief that now would die; 
 And that alive in strength would cast the form 
 Of Iphigenia — thy Iphigenia! — 
 
32 DBA3IATIG POEMS. 
 
 Into the clasping of fatality, 
 
 Deeming it weal. . . . Ah, me! what music were 
 
 Thy accents, Achilles — my Achilles! — 
 
 Unto my maiden diffidence, that wooed 
 
 In harmony obedience to thy nods! — thy smiles, 
 
 How vital to expectation in days 
 
 Gone by! — my strength with thine so marvelous; 
 
 How it made grow, its breath of power through me 
 
 As April's through a tree's fresh foliage! 
 
 But now I stand at variance with all this, 
 
 As breeze that favored late the blossom's birth, 
 
 ^ow changed its bearings, chills it to the core; 
 
 Nor blame aught me. Is mercy gone from love 
 
 Of thine that nurtured me? Mayhaps "t is masked 
 
 Behind the ardor of a warrior's brow 
 
 To show again. If so, to plead were idle; 
 
 For mercy apprehending will adapt 
 
 Itself unto the burden of my pUght, 
 
 And try to lessen it. ... O AchiUes! 
 
 Bequest no more. Remember prophecy, 
 
 Thee auspicious. Thy shade of vagueness turn 
 
 To sunshine, wishing what of moral worth 
 
 It holds, foreseeing and receiving grace. 
 
 The footprints of our day outlast us shall. 
 
 Let 's part, each mo"VTDg in a course aright: 
 
 Thou to the fray, I to the tomb, life's foe 
 
 In both — my sacrifice first coming moulds 
 
 The cause of things; thy sacrifice efiect, 
 
 Crowning with aweless sword the fall of Troy. 
 
THE SACRIFICE OF IPHIGENIA. 33 
 
 SCENE VI. 
 Agamemnon, Clytemnestra and Iphigenia. 
 
 CJyt. These galleys that lie idle on the beach; 
 These sailors that seek foreign shores for sport, 
 Let the wind-ruler, Mollis, refrain 
 To aid! Why complicate a spirit base 
 With what moves majesty, and call both good, 
 Finding in chance all self-authority? 
 
 Iph. Mother, put no such question now, so near 
 The time to spread light from a dark event. 
 
 Clyt. I saw them to the altar go just now 
 With odored offerings. IVhen thou wast born 
 ^o altar was adorned; then innocent; 
 But guilty now, condemned, misused, diso^nied, 
 They must, as if atoning for neglect. 
 To mitigate the scene, thus honor thee. 
 
 Iph. Ah, mother, please refer no more as this! 
 Let that thee hold, each function loyal e'er. 
 To the sad covenant my father holds. 
 
 Clyt. The skill of Orpheus would him move not. 
 What cares he for that baleful Helen flown? 
 What cares she to come back, with Paris fain. 
 Having, o'er Tyrian garments rare, a chain 
 Of woven gold around his princely neck? 
 ^YhJ meditate a good to gild an ill? 
 For she, returning, will pollution bring. 
 Her beauty bearing 'fore the Trojan dames, 
 3- c 
 
34 DRAMATIC POEMS. 
 
 She lives for it, proud, blind to Menelaus. 
 
 With rustic vigor born, love's opposite, 
 
 He talks of cheeses, goats and herds of beeves! 
 
 Iph. Aught overwhelms with silentness; it comes 
 Upon the air, subduing passion full 
 To fade, forecasting it to blend with some 
 Remote contingency, until we have 
 A mood that stands above a mortal plane 
 Prepared to die. O mother! do not try 
 To alter what in me determines so. 
 Lest thou, incurring ire of what, unnamed, 
 Unknown, behind me moves, shouldst be in range 
 Of shaft destructful from on high. So stir 
 Thy words, that would mislead, for thee and thine 
 I tremble as a bark sea-struck. Oh, cease! 
 
 Clyt. I cannot — thou, a daughter, bidding such! 
 Thy zeal hath it still not a tie to her 
 Who gave thee being? — thou, persistent in 
 A willfulness, resolved so to go 
 Among thy kind, as foreign to my bosom 
 As to thy neighbor! ... I distracted am! 
 I would to Jupiter appeal; believing not, 
 "VYhat must I do? . . . Flow, eyes! regardless weep 
 Of that desire which would have hardness shield — 
 The vent maternal of my bitterness! 
 
 Enter Agamemnon. 
 
 Aga. My wife, repress thyself. O'erhearing thee. 
 Thy language hearing shocked. Speak not In strain 
 
THE SACRIFICE OF IPHIGENIA. 35 
 
 Impious of the father of the gods, 
 
 Lest harm betide. Calclias hereafter sees, 
 
 Reporting wliat is best, concealing mucli, 
 
 This best to be repeated in the much 
 
 A thousandfold enchained in fixed results. 
 
 This I believe. Then, helpmeet, fail not me. 
 
 Clyt. If to this outrage now assenting I, 
 Can I with love uphold as husband you 
 In years of future, musing of this day? 
 
 Aga. Ah, yes; forgetful of thyself, thy mind 
 In peace shall know 't is sacrilege to stand 
 As thou dost now, and love thy husband more. 
 
 Clyt. Our son Orestes, what shall he be taught 
 In this? 
 
 Aga. The truth; nor grudge the teacher freedom; 
 Say what he will, it matters not if true. 
 
 Clyt. Oself! surrender to thy lord. What must 
 Be will support its right, and consequence 
 Acquit the doer. Now, ye thoughts, prepare 
 To an influence exterior to bend; 
 For know that no interior might could make 
 Ye alter so. It seems a touch without 
 Approaches consciousness, adjusting it 
 To form anew; perceiving much (in gloom 
 Before) in light disclosing now, it moves 
 Concordant with that which you would exact. 
 
 [Aside. 
 Words! words! for him, but not the aim of them. 
 
 Aga. Rejoiced I hear, O wife of Sparta, this! 
 Seeing to that we plan in vain, 't is well 
 
36 DRAMATIC POEMS. 
 
 Death is an ever open portal through 
 
 Which to celestial haunts men triumphs bear, 
 
 From what they are hereon much raised therein. . . . 
 
 So perfectly, with heart so manifest, 
 
 Not knowing she of that our league admires, 
 
 Hath Iphigenia prompt addressed herself 
 
 Unto the full adoption of my choice 
 
 (Demurring though at first, susceptible 
 
 To fitful fears), she stands in calm relief, 
 
 A thing to flatter pride in us paternal. 
 
 With Spartan worth, stern quality inborn. 
 
 She shine th through the smoke of sacrifice! . . . 
 
 Iphigenia, beloved now as e'er. 
 
 Approaches step by step the Hour to take 
 
 Thee to the sombre dwelling of the dead; 
 
 Art thou, as formerly, as satisfied 
 
 To go, subjected to the augury? 
 
 Tph. I am. Let me proceed to pay the debt 
 My father owes. Myself no longer am 
 A subject of a birth, its sequels close 
 Extending to bereave. . . . Vitality, 
 Delusion's nurse! now m-itigate each grief 
 Attending moments soon to ruin thee. . . . 
 I have felt that I would not you unveil. 
 Hence, my frail ghost, the image of a being 
 Confined, would move forth, as mild Hermes bent 
 On journey high, impatient to foretaste 
 The weal ethereal; would j^earn, beyond 
 Exempt from all the flesh's ministry, 
 In distant periods to expatiate. 
 
THE SACBIFICE OF IPHIGENIA. 37 
 
 Then 3'oiith in me must with sad cypress not 
 
 For crown, but leaves of joyful laurel, bid 
 
 A self -fare well. Death is the heart of life. 
 
 Then to the scene, as if a heifer from 
 
 The herd, with gilded horns and dew-kissed flowers, 
 
 Conduct my feet. Would consecrate this flesh 
 
 Diana pure; would purge of vagaries 
 
 Coming from thought's perpetual mist on mist; 
 
 Of dumb reluctance erring in its course; 
 
 Of memories inviolate, j^et false in view; 
 
 Of virgin lamentations burning yet; 
 
 Of mortal sins immortal oft across 
 
 In Tartarus! . . . Move to the foreordained! 
 
 Come, come! start for the altar — father, guide! 
 
 To tarry here afilicts the gods with pain. 
 
 Thou shouldst be brave. The pallor on thy brow, 
 
 Oh, banish it! The color of a chief 
 
 Appears more well. . . . My mother dear, thy tears 
 
 Are the sur\lvals of that fear 't is hoped 
 
 Is dead; let not thy breast them nurture more; 
 
 But weep, if weep thou must, for this day past, 
 
 Not nxorrow near. Unto the sacrifice I go; 
 
 The army stands encircling to b&hold; 
 
 Calchas awaits, Diana pressing him. 
 
 Adieu ! adieu ! O mother dear ! . . . Lead on ! 
 
38 DBAMATIC POEMS, 
 
 PRIAM, KING OF TROY. 
 
 tii:e p:EESOifs. 
 
 Priam, king of Troy. 
 ^NEAS, a Trojan leader. 
 
 Hector, son to Priam. 
 Officer and others. 
 
 SCENE I.— Troy; the Grecian hosts before it. 
 
 Priam alone. 
 
 Pri. The Greeks lie hapless in the tents on plains 
 Late ringing, that give play to zephyrs now 
 From bosom of the South. The cry. To arms ! 
 To arms! is sleeping in their mouths. Would it 
 Ne'er v/aken more, uprising rash against 
 Our walled town — the ornament renowned 
 Of Phrygia. To overtures of peace 
 Give ear, O Time! — Oh, favor them as thou 
 Dost favor genial Mays succeeding months 
 Of winters fierce! — lest war thy work shall do. 
 And crumbling turn our towers to the ground: 
 Be this thy task. Defended by thy laws. 
 The foe, by Troy's six gates, immures; but show, 
 O Time! advantage by the flocks, in fields. 
 At haunts of home, and let him seek it there. 
 Withdrawn from here where ills offset his gains. 
 What miss we Trojans, too, opposing might, 
 
FBI AM, KING OF TROY. 39 
 
 By the hap-hazard art of Mars sustained, 
 Eepulse our lot, made smarting more to deem 
 Hell's sj'mpathy gives boast to victory? 
 This awe of circumstance without us leaves 
 Ineffective, dazed, groping as in dark. 
 Our nature to arouse to light within, that stirs 
 Sensations just and reason domineers. 
 Lamenting we behold the dead, to rise 
 As heroes nevermore: that fire extinct 
 Which an illumination spread, and showed 
 Each triumph is its own encomiast; 
 Now breaks our transport dreaming of it gone. 
 Why turn to count the waste of numbers soon 
 As they to fall? This count forecast affords 
 Composure not far darkling on the view 
 Departing hence. Let day of peace forestall; 
 Let satisfaction find in this a meed; 
 Let groves of olive shelter what they grant; 
 Let shafts of winged doom to winged doves 
 Give place. O Time! aflbrd (returning sweet!) 
 The means conducive to this end, to hold 
 Despair from its apportionment! . . . Oh, would 
 This Helen were with Menelaus, and Pride, 
 The false, the leader to this siege, were where 
 Humanity a master is! As pupils then 
 Men would be sages soon, and warriors hold 
 In execration. . . . ^neas approaches! 
 He comes on the desire immediate 
 That would confide in one as safe as he. 
 Miter -^NEAS. 
 
40 DBAMATIC POEMS. 
 
 Hail ! hail ! brave bearer of the shield. The news 
 From the besiegers' ground relate if well. 
 
 uEne. Not well for them; for us, perhaps, 't is so. 
 Their sentinels are scorched upon the rounds. 
 Yiews them with scorn the solitary Sun, 
 As if he would our cause abet, and lay 
 Each armed Greek cold at the feet of Death. 
 
 Fri. Let 's follow this advantage to the test 
 Of more to com.e. Be you favorable 
 To what is purposed with your aid. The time 's 
 Mature for other action than to face 
 With stubborn brow the foe besetting Troy; 
 To linger out our days, privations near. 
 With self-inflictions adding to chagrin, 
 Waiving that touchstone — happiness. This plight 
 Unroyal dictates duty to a king; 
 For grief is wisdom's antecedent school. 
 Go to the Greeks encamped, as messenger 
 To speak; Ulysses find; Diomedes; 
 Or Nestor (nearest Agamemnon's ear. 
 The chief of chiefs), his eloquence to warm 
 Propitious to ourselves; — to them say all 
 (If fortune so allow) that Priam, not 
 For partiality, but equity. 
 With honor quests the terms of equal peace. 
 
 ^ne. I would, O king! yet would I not. Consent 
 Would go, but tarries confidence. I am 
 A soldier void of tact to harmonize. 
 With language apt persuasive to a point, 
 Discordant men. To plead is better than 
 
FBI AM, KING OF TROY. 41 
 
 My tougiie my sword. Why not leave Anterior 
 Be substitute in this affair? He is 
 Without a peer when an occasion calls 
 For promptitude to advocate a cause, 
 Failing not to attain whereby to thrive 
 Betime when others fail endeav'ring more. 
 
 Fri. Antenor 's prized; but less by me when choice 
 Requires the self-dictates to meet the form 
 Of unexpected things. Your traits, though few, 
 Are sturdy, fitting for the hour, the place 
 To bear upon them what would weigh his down; 
 Your speech suflQcient, and your prudence just. 
 Tims talented, refuse not me the task 
 I would have you now undertake for Troy, 
 
 ^ne. Refuse I not, O king! — outright, at least. 
 But recollect the Greeks have craft, and I 
 Have none; that they have art, and I have none; 
 That they have wit, and I have none. A host 
 Himself Ulysses is, unmatched, renowned: 
 Yet who, to gain his point (so is it said). 
 Within the circle of ambition fair 
 Moves not; but lurks without, adept, for prey 
 Lynx-eyed. There ISTestor is, whose eloquence 
 Is music's instrument, inspiring foes 
 To turn to friends, to cast their cause behind. 
 To follow where he leads, adversely moved 
 Against their own. There's Achilles proof-hard; 
 Contrary, though reserved; insidious, too. 
 With motives various — now for love, and now 
 For strife; — with lusty voice he reasons not, 
 
42 DBAMATIG POEMS. 
 
 But roars his passion out. Confront I must 
 
 A willfulness most thrifty in excuse, 
 
 For service in its own behalf, 
 
 Of these; yea, yea, by others, to themselves 
 
 Law-givers, judging harshly, guile of theirs 
 
 At work to flourish ever, must stand I 
 
 Surrounded, balked, by them sent back to you 
 
 A Trojan scorned. To meet and turn against 
 
 Themselves with that they 'd cumber me — to fetch 
 
 The olive branch away — the firm address, 
 
 The winning use of words from feeling free 
 
 (So e'er promotive of an issue good!) 
 
 Of Antenor will better serve. On him, 
 
 In view of this and much unsaid, still known, 
 
 I pray, the duty be conferred at once. 
 
 Pri. No, no! It is imperative for you to go. 
 With favors antidoting enmity. 
 Hence let consent move hand-in-hand with what 
 Is bid; with what requires that self should be 
 Behind, design before, absorbed in earnestness 
 Well to acquit itself. Thus 'mong the Greeks, 
 What presence for a safeguard, bearing down 
 Each spell opposing! 'T is the spirit true, 
 Diplomatic, moves to success ill-placed; 
 For men subdued by means sincere, and led 
 To grant, approving what they do as that 
 Proceeding from themselves, are wont to grant 
 With double bounty. Furthermore, the gods, 
 Observing you, with mission just, will prompt 
 A speech and method suited to prevail. 
 
FBI AM, KING OF TROY, 43 
 
 Hence halt not; let the soldier's courage be, 
 To act, unto the envoy's caution joined. 
 
 ^ne. I cease to argue. I as soldier yield 
 To commandment. The Grecian leaders found 
 Shall hear that Priam, king of Troy, asks truce. 
 Whereby to sound the chords of peace — the harp 
 In hand, the trumpet laid aside. Returned, 
 Eelate will JEneas outcome with them. 
 Proceeding thus, accomplished be your orders? 
 
 Fri. Aye, aye! Depart. Let seemly haste impel. 
 Hereafter come again with news joy-bearing. 
 
 Exit ^NEAS. 
 
 SCFNF II. — In the Grecian camp. 
 
 Ulysses, Nestor and JEneas. 
 
 ZJlyss. ISTestor, awake! let not the sluggard's tent 
 Your wisdom shade; within, its tempting fold 
 Deprives to view of pictured excellence, 
 Which on the citadel of Ilium 
 Hangs now in mists. Aurora's aerial tints 
 Are cast with rosy fingers wet in dawn. 
 Your taper's restless flame should smoke you out. 
 Come, come, man! breathing exercise yourself! 
 
 Enter Nestok. 
 
 Nest. O comrade, hail ! Now what is felt is not 
 Of me, but me conveyed as largess from 
 
44 BBAMATIC POEMS. 
 
 The fount of Life, reviving morn by morn. 
 Now worship coincides with what is best 
 Derived from sleep, approach so near to that 
 Wliich is a smnmons to existence's close. 
 
 TJlyss. "We hear too oft this strain of casual talk; 
 Of pious theories; of portents many, 
 Keen to anticipate, false in results. 
 Deluding self, you others would delude. 
 "Why a soothsayer be to deal in kind, 
 Discoursing of Mount Ida's store of gods; 
 Of Scamander, and her reputed nymphs; 
 Of mystagogues, traversing from afar 
 To bother us (save entertaining you!) 
 And not a soldier with his antic airs, 
 Prating, with themes off-hand, of what our league 
 Should magnify, respite from war unsought? 
 "What recks — . . . But who is yon advancing here? 
 Ho, ho, a nondescript! to seek your tent, 
 I swear, with an outlandish gibberish 
 Attention to excite: what means to use 
 For Troy's downfall; what indicate to him 
 A bird's entrails; his so-forths and so-forths 
 Gathering volume in sonorous flow! . . . 
 Seriously, half afraid he straggles here; 
 If worth he have, 't is -of the modest sort 
 That women like. A shepherd he, perhaps. 
 Leaving his flock, with what across his shoulders 
 A wolfish hide appears. Still is his look 
 Mysterious, and augurs much that fear 
 Confounds with truth, the heart uncertain what 
 
FBI AM, KING OF TROY. 45 
 
 To feel, the mind Avhat to believe. . . . But, no! — 
 
 Doth vision fail, forsaking me? It is, 
 
 On closer view, no renegade from Troy, 
 
 But a commander late confronting us. 
 
 AVliat wants he here among antagonists? 
 
 'T is ^neas, upon my word, disguised! 
 
 Nest. Beware of him! He seeks what we should 
 hold; 
 Yet let us listen him with due reserve, 
 IS'ot cold, lest freezing him it may deter 
 The candor that confides in deference. 
 
 TJlyss. Advise you well, O comrade! Him accost 
 Let me. Behind step where the tent obscures; 
 There hearing wait the consequence of what 
 His answers make to questions put. Meanwhile, 
 As if upon cross-purpose bent, I '11 stir 
 Him so that if deceit he bear, it will 
 Be shown in contradiction. Hasten in! 
 He comes a seeming prowler to this place. 
 
 Exit Kestor. Enter ^neas. 
 
 JEne. Is this Ulysses, king of Ithaca? 
 
 TJlyss. It is. What man are you? 
 
 ^ne. ^neas I. 
 
 I issued from the gate of Troy ere dawn. 
 
 TJlyss. "Why hither come so venturesome to stand? 
 I tremble for your fate if known by here 
 To Grecian hosts a Trojan leader is — 
 A hue and cry, and murder with a sling ! 
 
 .Mne. The gods beheld with fear, I fear not death. 
 
46 DBAMATIC POEMS. 
 
 XJlyss. ^Yhat credence can I give to this in guise 
 Of shepherd you, to come so awkwardly 
 Misgiving us? Is it for espionage 
 That you are here? You will for answer give 
 A no; hut how am I to trust this no 
 When you convicted are hefore insight 
 Of stepping on our grounds unworthily? 
 
 j3Ene. I do not wear this habit to mislead; 
 It is to signify the shepherd's lot — 
 The virtue mothered by the hills, wild flowers 
 Among, with bleating lambs by ewes — the crook, 
 And not the sword. From Priam I, who sends 
 His greeting. His decision on the throne 
 Is this, to proffer you the olive branch. 
 He would have me hold speech with all your chiefs; 
 Would know if strife by their insistence must 
 Pursue a bloody course. . . . Oh, hear my cause 
 With trust! — if void of faith, you me undo. 
 
 TJlyss. Our chiefs are scattered here and there; 
 Some in pavilions loll, whilst others roam. 
 They bear such characters as fail in ease 
 Wlien terms exacting ask obedience. 
 Troy rouses rage: why crave we yield to her? 
 Is Menelaus to find revenge in peace? 
 What water tame this peace wlio thirsts for blood! 
 
 ^ne. O Greek! your valor question none of Troy; 
 Of this same trait your wisdom is a match: 
 Oh, let them both my mission turn to aid! 
 In setting artifice of pride apart. 
 Let me, a suppliant, be in degree 
 
FBI AM, KING OF TBOY. 47 
 
 Much less, my cause much more; thus entertained, 
 For sake of Greece, for sake of Troy reply! 
 
 TJlyss. A servant of the hour is not my power; 
 •It is the subject of experience long. 
 Patience, as beast of burden, wrong o'er wrong 
 Of Troy sustained. As beacon lights, that glow 
 From mount to mount, the news ran wildly far: 
 Paris the climax caps! The thought was dire: 
 Barbarous Trojans coming to our homes. 
 And then outraging them — proud Greece, renowned 
 For civil polity, from Phrygia, 
 Half knowing laws, corrupt, to tolerate 
 Her deed! Now do you wonder anger rose. 
 Inspiring shame, then power with triple strength, 
 Aggressive to maintain what us is due. 
 To move, my host and I, from Ithaca, - 
 Here to avenge sad Menelaus? Deem you 
 Our bosom's zeal, with heat burned out, must show 
 A bed of ashes? No, burn on it must. 
 At last involving ruin flames to spread. 
 Think you, the brave commander of our troops 
 Must turn to Priam changed in mood because 
 Troy would not have spears hostile in her clime? 
 Think you, must we return to Greece, our wives 
 To guard, forgetting Helen left behind. 
 Each Trojan visitor alert to dupe? 
 
 ^dEVie. Helen, alas! of woes so manifold 
 The cause, is not integral to the part 
 Concession would hold back. . . . But to detail 
 Of armistice I am permitted not 
 
48 BBAMATIG POEMS. 
 
 To move; the king direct alone there goes. 
 
 Ulyss, What is averred believing all is vain. 
 
 u^ne. Then bear my speech, the best and worst— 
 The grain and chaff— to Agamemnon (me 
 Denied), the chieftain of ye leaders all. 
 Who may befriend its vs^orth, its dross ignore. 
 
 Ulyss. Humph! Agamemnon is too near akin 
 To Menelaus to give reception fair 
 To what you offer here. His brother would 
 Its virtue vitiate, confusing it 
 With shrewd make-shifts suggested by the wound 
 He bears, inflicted by his consort held. 
 
 u^ne. To deem this Helen soon to be restored 
 Should cause him joy; thus mollified, he would 
 By nature's feelings urged, to overture 
 From Troy concede a share of patronage. 
 What policy for him, and fame likewise, 
 Before invading hosts, so fortified 
 In fortitude, its limit to announce, 
 Kewarding conflicts past with peace! peace! peace! 
 
 Ulyss. It will take time to temper heat in men, 
 Impassioned, counting not the sands of life. 
 To gain the final victory, with song 
 Hymenean (as if it marriage were, 
 Venus favoring it), to greet the glad event ! 
 
 j^ne. Alas, too true! emotions lead, and false! 
 l!^evertheless, O Greek! yourself persuade 
 To yield to sentiment, arising o'er 
 Past wrongs, that bids cessation of armed feud. 
 O Greek! if so, you fellow-chiefs instill, 
 
FBI AM. KING OF TEOT. 49 
 
 Tending to wake them to impressions bent 
 
 As yours, and soothing to perplexity. . . . 
 
 Awaiting your disposal of this case, 
 
 I go. Troy stands immured, authority 
 
 Tenacious of; withal, the olive branch 
 
 One hands upholds, the other grasps the sword. 
 
 Oh, let the sword fall low, the branch prevail ! 
 
 Exit ^KEAS. 
 Ulyss. He goes, a lion bayed! "Within himself 
 He bears the spirit not of peace; he feels 
 Too much. A torment such as his must vent 
 Itself to ease the mind in some gross act. 
 
 Enter INestor. 
 
 JSfest. He stood so pillar-like against your words. 
 Showing the hero through and through! Alas, 
 Such one should be conjoined against our ranks! 
 
 Ulyss. You favor him. He 's plausible. Does he 
 iN'ot wear the wolfish hide, attracting thus 
 Suspicion on himself? I feel his steps 
 To follow would be caution to denote 
 His presence is dishonored by distrust. 
 His mien was as a cur's, to reconcile 
 Him to a master who offended stands; 
 But as he warmed in speech, he shone above 
 His minor self, superior as a man 
 In that false way dissimulation holds. 
 That would enlighten if it could, for it 
 Should, urged and tasked by high authority. 
 
 4-D 
 
50 DBAMATIG POEMS. 
 
 JS'est. One-sided you. You weigh with scales 
 That ever favor self. 'T is well to try 
 His case as one complex. To claim to know 
 Him all is to transcend that which is well. 
 The gods of knowledge false in us make sport, 
 And us confound to punish for conceit. 
 
 TJlyss. That 's so; yet error holds some truth as salt 
 That seasons oft the mental pabulum: 
 Wliat taste likes well belief finds proof for it. 
 Eneas' evidence against himself 
 Is such as reason obvious moves to deem. 
 Good-will to him forbids not e'en this right; 
 Misgiving just passed by, ignored, unheard. 
 Is duty held in thrall. We soldiers here 
 Must guard our safety in defense, that asks 
 That done which, counter to the spirit's choice, 
 Must grossly labor to avert the aims 
 Of those who, through deceiving, would attain 
 Some point of victory. jEneas thus 
 I fear. He is a warrior blunt and bold; 
 But as a man a fox in circumstance 
 And stratagem. He goes to Priam now 
 To breathe those feelings by the throne which make 
 Kings move purblind 'gainst fate, their satellites 
 To blame, in mischief working for themselves. 
 
 iVesf. Yet if he came in all sincerity 
 To help restore the peace, what follows now 
 Your bluff reception must be wrong from you. 
 Within himself now much displeasure reigns. 
 Perhaps. 'T is well to ask, who placed it there? 
 
FBI AM, KING OF TBOY. 51 
 
 The mere imprudence of your course may turn 
 Advantage from our side in battle pitched, 
 The gods befriending his, tlie Trojan's side. 
 In just accord he with supernal laws; 
 Excite Tate's enmity at fault ourselves. 
 
 Ulyss. How variable! You cried at first: Beware 
 Of him! He seeks what we sliould hold. ^\Tiy now 
 Condemn the language used, as you in part 
 Impelled its strain? ... In danger here we are, 
 For Nestor stands engend'ring such a plight! 
 Affected must we be by that he urges! . . . 
 Does Priam send him here from Hector's side 
 (Who is so open, imposition scorning), 
 Or from the couch of Paris, timorous. 
 Yet heartless, cunning, Helen's paramour? 
 Of these two sons the father Priam is: 
 'T is safe to judge by offspring of the king. 
 Whose evils mingled are with virtues clear. 
 If fraught with honor he, why herald it 
 Through such as ^neas, arriving here 
 With dubious movement, honor's counterpace? 
 
 West. Paris o'erlook awhile; Hector mark: 
 A statue not empowered less than he 
 Imposes and retains the feelings to iteelf, 
 Eouf^ing heroic thoughts. The sire, indeed. 
 Must be a certain portion of the son, 
 Who honor shows, old Priam's gift, who moved 
 Himself thereby ^Eneas sent to us. 
 
 Ulyss. But did this Priam say to iEneas 
 (His honor bootless 'gainst the heat of rancor), 
 
52 DBAMATIG POEMS. 
 
 Take you this hide of wolf, and, wearing it, 
 
 Go seek our enemy and sue for peace, 
 
 With inner motive hid and treacherous? 
 
 Thus Paris shows in him, not Hector frank. 
 
 But if this ^ncas acted thus alone, 
 
 Moved to impress us with a kind effect. 
 
 Seeking to v,in with worthy means, these means 
 
 Have proved with flaw, and we have right to choose 
 
 A har.sh occasion to rebuke his plea. 
 
 And answer, too, thereby, the king of Troy. 
 
 Nest. The times give joyless nursing to the senses; 
 He came on us in our predicament. 
 Our armies are seditions hatching late; 
 They bear the hardships of a siege prolonged — 
 The bafllings, throes from nameless maladies — 
 And murmur for their home. Hence you, fatigued 
 With crowding under foot conspiracies. 
 Maintain not that reflective poise by which 
 To judge serenely of an opponent, 
 That would by his own choice change to a friend. 
 
 Ulyss. That is, apparently. 'T is Nestor trusts. 
 I see more keenly with a spirit roused; 
 Salvation comes through human eagerness. 
 I may amiss behold true ^neas; 
 But in beholding wisdom much enjoins. 
 Besides, it seems that Priam pressed to yield 
 By some exhaustion must surrender soon; 
 And that for us to show a tendency 
 To shrink would waive a right for us to say 
 To what conditions should comjily his course. 
 
PBIAM^ KING OF TROY. 53 
 
 This idea tempered passion as I spoke 
 
 To ^neas, as othenvise to him 
 
 I might have been more rude. 'T is left to you, 
 
 My method reading in this light, to judge — 
 
 Opposed the stand to ^neas; attained, 
 
 The bearing of the end; the theories 
 
 To be observed by Greece, Troy's foe; the scheme 
 
 Of conquest to secure redemption's store; — 
 
 Of these judge you, and me acquit of blame. 
 
 SCSNE III.— In Troy. Priam's palace. 
 
 Priam, Hector, ^neas, Officer and Herald. 
 
 Hect. You ask me to submit to these demands; 
 To favor peace from yonder Greeks, resolved. 
 Ingenious in resentment stemmed, to bear 
 Themselves above ourselves; to yield anon 
 To Menelaus this Helen, repelling all 
 Our brother's right to her. Let Paris speak 
 In this. For me, desire to satisfy 
 Ambition with the deeds of courage born 
 Is first. For her, the queen, no sentiment 
 Should come between the course of holding her. 
 Or of releasing her, to hinder us 
 From driving one by one the foe, overwhelmed. 
 Their only safeguard Greece, their mother land. 
 Beleaguer us (their vaunt!) not long in vain; 
 A certain justice strained their cause supports; 
 Influenced thus, their spirit is unapt 
 
54 BBAMATIG POEMS. 
 
 To cede meet dues to us in intercourse, 
 
 So double in endeavor to o'erreach e'en friends, 
 
 We Trojans less would trebly be them prey. 
 
 PH. Our profit not is in revenge; it is 
 Kot sanctified by Heaven; imbitters what 
 It eats, and thirsts as Tantalus. Besides, 
 Our plains should bear for harvest gilded sheaves, 
 Not bristling spears and battle-axes sharp; 
 Those to sustain our life, these to destroy. 
 
 Hect. I am most dutiful as son to you; 
 From youth to man was taught I reverence 
 For rules particular, wherein my steps 
 Have followed as a path, gave ease to use 
 And love to habit, that to break in part 
 Therefrom is self-regard impaired, somewhat 
 Of penalty; but duty can exist 
 In opposition's ]3lea, and laurels gain 
 In license. Therefore me a pardon grant 
 In saying Hector does concealment spurn, 
 In justice to his sire, in leading him 
 Believe he stands with silence to agree 
 In this so moving him. To conquer now 
 Is progress; to succumb, it to impeach; 
 A zigzag lapse to take, amiss at last 
 To be as bondsmen, shamed and portionless. 
 
 Fri. 'T is pride inborn conceives a specious vista; 
 Your mother's hauteur ever bides with you. 
 The future certain, graphic, zeal reproaches; 
 'T will show surmises past deceptive webs 
 Whereon were winged fancies caught. To threat 
 
FBI AM, KING OF TBOT. 55 
 
 The present stands with danger, fashioning 
 Disasters odious, chief victims ours. 
 Hence caution should control experience, 
 That bids the patriot relinquish much; 
 That leads him seek sedate iDliilosophy, 
 Vexation's halm, adapting ends to ends. 
 
 Hect. But "vvhy should courage not exert itself 
 To bring about such things as sages cheer, 
 E'en to a point decisive to attain 
 Whereby to yield is plain necessity? 
 Then to submit is satisfaction's part 
 To soften what our foemen would impose. 
 In deeming that exhausted are the means 
 Which strove, fulfilling not success, but that 
 Which gives to failure honor's ornament. 
 
 PH. Now sore of mind, such things discomfort it. 
 A course has been determined on to serve — 
 That would make short the interval between 
 The seed and fruit, ^neas sent hath been 
 Into the Grecian camp, there to confer 
 With the commanders; to suggest that Troy 
 Will at the rites of peace administer. 
 Keturning he may issues bring that must 
 Be met not with reluctance, shifting from 
 The scene; not with bravado, wrong and scornful — 
 Impulses of a warrior. . . . Oh, let 
 The gods decree that instantly descend 
 Inspiring all serenely to the means 
 Subservient to our kingdom's interest! 
 Miter uEneas. 
 
56 JDBAMATIC F0EM8. 
 
 Welcome once more, the leader of my hosts! 
 
 The mud j-oiir ankles bear is proof enough 
 
 A servant comes, e'er dutiful, our cup 
 
 To sweeten. . . . "What to you the Grecians said? 
 
 Are they inclined to wage still 'gainst our walls. 
 
 So stubborn, fury stubborn of their own. 
 
 Or to dej^art from Phrygia for home. 
 
 There to partake repose, denied them here? 
 
 ^ne. I to Ulysses spoke of your desire. 
 To a fixed station of unbending thought 
 He moved, then language used implying that 
 As suitor I was vain, I felt so curbed, 
 Spoke cowardice as in a beggar's limbs. 
 As he, more proud than e'er, half looked at me. 
 
 Pri. Alas, and you so honest in your motive! 
 
 ^ne. Finally, thinking of your wish for peace, 
 I intimated what to it might add 
 In value much that woke within my mind. 
 That deeming probable you would concede 
 To them, the Greeks, in order to induce 
 Him well to hear my case. My manners changed, 
 Impelled by the occasions of ordeal. 
 Beyond what loatience taught an hour before. 
 And moved my mission to accuse itself 
 111 done. Ulysses then, erroneous. 
 An opposition took such as to quote 
 Its verbal course would not be profiting 
 Unto ourselves. Enough is said, I left 
 Him fixed against the realm's security 
 Xn that degree as to assail, he j^earns, 
 
PBIAM, KING OF TROT. 57 
 
 It to a downfall. But with time's own change, 
 His views must change; and cooled, they may avail 
 Themselves of what is better, and advance 
 To where I would have led them to myself. 
 May Heaven, that guides our days, so favor us\ 
 
 Pri. Meanwliile, O Troy! hast much to undergo 
 From the events that in appearance spring 
 From earth's fatality, as cursing us 
 For rising human from her soil! Thus more 
 And more affairs combine themselves, to plans 
 Adverse that would calm hours restore. Thus this 
 And that in opposition stand in man, 
 E'en from the womb unto the tomb! . . . Hector, 
 Among our people move; their attitude 
 Discern toward their government; they much 
 l!^ow suffer, suffring more the cause unspoken. 
 Close at the heart to canker. But, alas, 
 'T is sad to counsel ears as thine! Thou art 
 In contravention to my wish (Troy's weal). 
 And farther would it separate from right 
 To wrong. ... I humbly turn, O ^neas! 
 To thee, the, succor of gray hairs, to feel 
 Its essence as the flame that vrarms the limbs 
 In winter chilled and stiff; withal, to feel 
 A confidence that, chiding, shows my sons 
 Eeflect the folly of their stock in that 
 Uncurbed, and learn the lesson of reproach. 
 
 ^ne. You should not think so sorely of j^our sons, 
 AVith character abroad rare, prominent, 
 WTiere every humble roof their triumphs flatters. 
 
58 DRAMATIC POEMS. 
 
 PH. You flatter, too, in thus excusing them. 
 But call it melancholy, fond of late 
 To move me so to feel; beholding, too, 
 Severe. Withal, 'tis hard this enmity 
 Of men to face, assembled, host by host. 
 From o'er the briny waters, to avenge 
 For injury that had origin here, 
 Our future's name enscrolled in black reproof! 
 Yet must we, though oflenders past, and now, 
 Despite ourselves, offending still, be bold 
 Protecting well the fair in us, the gross 
 Associate a shelter, too, to give. 'T is thus. 
 Contending with afiairs, that men, inclined 
 To rectitude, do carry inner stain 
 They blush to name; 't is thus that kingdoms, too. 
 Have workings in tliemselves enfeebling much, 
 That cause, against their nobler quality 
 (That would control), suspicious realms to rise. 
 To war inspired, them anxious to destroy. 
 
 ^ne. You utter truth, O best of Asia's kings! 
 But recollect the Greeks are at our gates; 
 You would have them, ignoring much bygone. 
 Each breach of faith, as pilgrims enter all; 
 'T is not their choice, alas! What must we do? 
 The Parcse, pitiless, direct us not: 
 From night we must emerge if can to day. 
 An index be, O king! If to lay down 
 Our arms — point so; 'tis done: or if to bear 
 Them forth in struggle dire — point so; 't is done. 
 The men of Troy bow to their sovereign. 
 
PBIAM, KING OF TBOY. 59 
 
 PH. Thus glory comes from such obedience; 
 To this indebted, I these men owe much; 
 In them re warding, Troy should triumph hold. 
 This idea happy makes to spurn the Greek, 
 To note the horror he essays to spread, 
 To deem him worthy of the javelin's doom. 
 
 Ilect. He comes to humble us, ransack our homes, 
 Towers o'erthrow, fanes desecrate, retreats 
 Most holy level, Ilium sacrifice, 
 Burnished war-cars and all the horses seize. 
 Lead stalwart men in irons — aye, Oh, you, 
 The king of men, the sire of fifty sons! 
 "Would harness to a chariot in a realm 
 To you most strange, its chief to draw before 
 A populace to greet the victory. 
 Consider these; not far in time, perhaps. 
 To be the sharp experience of us all. 
 
 Fri. Although excessive this, yet truth it has. 
 And forcible the likelihood! Still, son. 
 Could we but mitigate the Grecian rage. 
 Turn men humane, themselves resigned to reason. 
 An office then endeavor would encrown 
 More golden to esteem than this we w^ear. 
 Since not our wish for peace is first (that would 
 To good deeds a light-bearer be), but war 
 To lead, w^e must as partial cowards hear 
 The trumpeters, and follow to the fray. 
 And bravery prove — yet tremble will each knee. 
 
 Enter an Officer. 
 
60 DBAMATIC POEMS. 
 
 Offi. A herald comes beseeching interview 
 With you, O king! A message bears his bosom 
 From the beleaguers, for imperial ears 
 Alone. He waits without command to hear. 
 
 PH. His errand to fulfill bid him draw nigh. 
 
 Enter a Hekald. 
 
 Unburden, man, of what you have for us. 
 Have no concern for those about, for they 
 Are such as prize as duty secrecy. 
 
 Her. You to address, O ruler famous! I 
 Am here from Agamemnon, king of kings. 
 I bear a challenge from Achilles stern; 
 Yet not so stern but that affection's spark 
 His mind inflames, his dear Patroclus mourning; 
 Who would your Hector, slayer of his foe 
 (Dead friend to Greece!) encounter soon with arms 
 In combat single on the plain by Troy. 
 
 Ilect. I am so ready I would now be there, 
 Him to confoimd, his figure to lay lov/, 
 To typify the fall of all his cause. 
 
 Pri. Are you, within your camp, so idle grown 
 You need the pageant of a fray between 
 The j)i'iiice, my son, and him, Peleus' son? 
 Their blood once spilt, can it atonement serve? 
 Your rams, why batter more against our walls? 
 Yourselves, exhaustion's prey, why not sustain? 
 Your ships, why not with honor quest their shores, 
 The rowers busy churning ocean to a foam, 
 
PBIAM, KING OF TBOY. 61 
 
 The Fails inflated, blessed with \yinds of peace? 
 
 Her. You queries follow in an order such 
 I know not how to answer them, except 
 To break the obligations that restrain. 
 From Agamemnon grave I come, O ruler! 
 His gravity, his silence much forbid. 
 And long example holds in loyalty. 
 
 Hect. Yes, go to him, and say accepted is 
 The challenge; say, besides, the son of Priam, 
 In panoply, will Achilles confront 
 Between the city and your smoking camp. 
 The day, to-morrow name, at trumpet's note, 
 Issued upon the citadel. Ilium. 
 
 Her, I go to Agamemnon to convey 
 Your words, O prince! . . . Adieu, O king! 
 
 Exit Hekald. 
 
 SCENE JF.— In the Grecian camp. 
 Ulysses and Kestok. 
 
 JJlyss. Achilles soon will signify to all 
 His prowess o'er the lusty, handsome prince, 
 Hector, who towers despite antagonism 
 Above w^hat Grecian eyes would see in him. 
 
 JSfest. The dawn's birth-note comes; scenes radiant 
 Kefresh; their colors ample mists unfold. 
 As if by river-nymphs bedight. This day 
 What contrast gory must assoil! That speech 
 
e2 DBAMATIC POEMS. 
 
 Of JSneas so orders thoughts they would 
 Prevail to honor what it bore, on him 
 Reflecting thus a beauty luminous. 
 His voice had wisdom, though we heard it little; 
 After-effect its echo is with charm to woo. 
 Oh, would soon end this campaign w^earisome! 
 
 Ulyss. To tend aloof from what you have avowed 
 Is your profession now, at variance next 
 "With this to plead for war! . . . Time-serving, prone 
 To show a gift of eloquence, it leader, 
 He follower, is I^estor's soft example! . . . 
 Would you have Achilles turn from himself, 
 As you, give way to Troy, outrages past 
 And others yet condone, a downward step 
 Pursue, as man ascending nevermore? 
 
 JS'est. Ulysses, know the Greeks example are 
 To all surrounding people of the earth. 
 E'en to its edge where ocean shows no more; 
 Know this example flawed, is moral power 
 Descending, going to the glooms below. 
 Greece should be just as much as friend as foe 
 To all mankind itself besides: as foe. 
 Attacked, tenacious of its rights; as friend, 
 Invoked, forgetful of itself, but not 
 Of law correct, impartial, dealing dues. 
 The tone of ^neas appeared for this. 
 All praise to him! . . . This conflict of to-day, 
 Between their Hector and our Achilles, 
 Should close in peace: if Hector victor be. 
 Then Troy should arbitrator stand, but Greece 
 
PBIAM, KING OF TBOY. 63 
 
 If Achilles. Of Agamemnon's ear 
 Let 's seek attention to abet this course. 
 Our strujjgle long is struggle's vanquisher, 
 Us to exhaust by time's dilemmas weaved. 
 
 ZUtjss. Your mother's nature is too much in you; 
 Your father's, passive, steals from energy 
 For war's stern claim that marshals soldiers true. 
 
 Nest. It may be so. Still this maternal trait 
 Of warmth, let Heaven (refined inspirer!) shield! 
 Ulysses you less hard would be more dear; 
 The counsels of the soul would stir you more, 
 Attaching you to men and women, too, 
 In recognition of life's righteousness 
 Evolving in the races of the earth. 
 
 JJlyss, Tut! tut! such phrases fit not what we are. 
 To quaver noAv! Is hardihood to take 
 The rear of diffidence, whose skulking shadow 
 Keturn would home? Evoking rigid measures. 
 Great war at hand, with terms effeminate 
 You meet the call — at heart the otherwise 
 Of what you seemed — the one that swore, as o'er 
 The deep he came, e'en in his throes, sea-sick, 
 To Neptune's ear, with strokes of battle's skill 
 The best a path to find for victory. 
 E'en in the citadel! . . . This truth all know: 
 Of Frimii's lofty town we HI bend the head! 
 Ye winds diffuse, this threat bear to Troy's throne! 
 Ye winds, know, too, by strength or stratagem. 
 That if or Hector or Achilles dies 
 To-day our strife in neither death finds end! 
 
64 DBAMATIG POEMS. 
 
 SCENE V.—lw Priam's palace. 
 Priam, ^keas, Officer and Oracles. 
 
 Pri. Wliere 's Hecuba? My wife, my favorite, 
 Anear should be, her grace to minister. 
 
 Offi. She, with the matrons all retired, is gossip 
 Hearing. They w^eave, and smile, and sing. Betimes 
 They change their mood, their theme exploits of men 
 And demi-gods so long ago on earth; 
 Of Hercules, the monsters slaying, he 
 To be no more with mortals, now immortal. 
 An expectation gloweth through their task. 
 As hums each spinning-wheel's low monotone. 
 To hear them oft the senses overtakes 
 With new-made fire, reviving youth in age. 
 
 PH. 'T is ever thus: men's deeds, however brutal. 
 Yet modified by fame, are women's praise. 
 
 Offi. They talked awhile of one most dear to all, 
 Whose reputation is the commonwealth's — 
 The bulwark of the state in days as these. 
 
 Pri. Of Hector this. ^Yhere is he now? Not here 
 He comes to know, as wont, his father's bidding. 
 
 Offi. I heard a tumult in the street. To know 
 The cause a messenger in speed was sent. 
 Who soon returning uttered this in joy: 
 Brave Hector hath from Andromache gone 
 To meet Achilles, face to face to fight ! 
 I learned thereafter, from another voice, 
 Their parting was affecting e'en to tears. 
 
PRIAM, KING OF TROY. 65 
 
 With heavy step she moved alone to mourn; 
 With buoyant step he moved toward the gate. 
 Those who, walls posted on, beheld him last 
 Said he strode on the plain, a prince, indeed! 
 His plumes high nodding, kissed by zephry Day, 
 As if to her endeared. . . . x\non he meets 
 His opponent in bloody exercise 
 To vie. Oh, may good fortune him attend! 
 'T is hard to deem him as a victim marked, 
 His attributes so in his courage shine! 
 
 Pri. Impulsive, goes he thus! Oh, that he were 
 As one to calculate the means to win, 
 And that ignored is courage void of arms! 
 
 Offi. With him the people in elation are: 
 Their beau-ideal from youth, when first he trode 
 The thoroughfares of Troy. He grew; surprise 
 Awakened often was with some display 
 Of unexpected worth. In consequence. 
 Their faith goes with his pride, believing that 
 Destiny it approves. Thus they exclaim: 
 Great Hector, now all Asia''s choice, return 
 Will soon with glory to enwaft his name 
 From land to land, a hero for all time! 
 
 Pri. O people whimsical! purblind to plans, 
 Adjusted to control crowned thrones, of Jove's 
 Contriving, aspirations fresh with frost 
 To wither, hesitate, and think, and know 
 So to exclaim vexatious is to him. 
 Who over you empowered rules, to hear — 
 5 - E 
 
66 DBAMATIG POEMS. 
 
 The very prattle of regardless mouths! . . . 
 I would be, man, alone. Within there steals 
 A cast of feeling made for solitude; 
 The mixture, melancholy, drugs each thought. 
 
 Exit Officer. 
 
 I would have succor from the lips of Fate. 
 The mind a gleam upholds, that shows my life, 
 A river turbid, left a mother spring 
 Of purity; it must flow on, by other streams. 
 Still sullied more, self-anguished by its lot! . . . 
 Behold! what 's this upon the dusky wall? — 
 Ghosts roaming, shrouded, silent, horrid all, 
 As squadrons come and go in dust and din — 
 The din, how muffled rolling through these halls! 
 A voice is heard, as if by winds faint borne: 
 Of Priam^s lofty town ?ce HI bend the head I 
 Is this an omen for deep purpose sent? 
 Holds it relation to the fatal truth 
 Of sure events approaching to embroil? 
 Better to hope false-wise than to foretell 
 Keality the present to make sad. 
 
 Enter ^neas. 
 
 Keturned again? Or spectre thou, bereft, 
 From battle-sounding plains, thy body slain? 
 Such seems. The air is full of winged forms. 
 
 JEne. No, no ! If any ghost appears 't is his — 
 To voice what happened has, what pangs! O gods! 
 
FBI AM, KING OF TBOT. 67 
 
 Pri. O ^neas! is Hector sacrificed? 
 
 ^ne. Indeed, by hand of Achilles. He lies 
 All bruised, unconscious of the deed 
 Of Grecian victory, his flesh-life closed. 
 
 PH. Such was the prophecy to moral counsel, 
 And which, now proved, is reconciled by us 
 In part because with previous blow it struck; 
 And, too, because, once here, it master is. 
 Kg rampart of the mind prevails against 
 The subtle energy of sure-set laws. 
 That steal within, dread presence to control! . . . 
 O Peace! where art thou now, deserting us? ... 
 O Troy! thy walls are but mere stumbling stones. 
 Thy foes to fall upon, to rise again 
 More wroth. The night of change thy towers cast, 
 Xow beautiful in day, in ruin shall. 
 Heaven proclaims: The Greeks are instruments; 
 TJie gods offended Jit the penalty! 
 
 uEne. Oh, go no farther thus declaring, king! 
 There are remaining noble ones to guard 
 Your person; others, too, of fortitude, 
 Troy's enemies to front with valiant zeal. 
 Until, as ashes pale, this zeal 's extinct. 
 Hector, dear shade, although retired below. 
 Lives in the ardor of a multitude. 
 
 Enter two Oracles. 
 
 Pri. Oh, men, to counterfeit the voice of Time, 
 Announcing omens that this day refutes! 
 
68 DRAMATIC POEMS. 
 
 Did you not both say Hector would survive, 
 In grandeur clad, the horrors of this siege? 
 
 1st Or. I did. 'T was Heaven prompted thus. 
 For cause unknown it 's altered incidents. 
 
 2d Or. That happen shall to give a lucky issue. 
 Prized Troy's advantage comes from Hector's fate. 
 
 Pri. Believe not so, ah me! Ye oracles, 
 False pillars of this realm, your words ill-chosen — 
 Ye tyros (better name!), know Priam saw 
 This day's misfortune hover o'er, with woes 
 At hand uniting woes to come. Witness 
 Shall ye Troy low at feet of Greece, with wounds 
 To plant; her throngs (proud, bowed in tears!) led off. 
 The goad of bondage theirs, to foreign climes; 
 And Andromache, Hector's widow now 
 Too soon, by victor-hands, conducted, grieving. 
 Then princess not, bid spin for boorish strangers, 
 Her blushes artless confusion to their eyes. 
 Presaging thus, ye men, by that abstruse. 
 The vision's mirror facts to come reflects. . . . 
 Ah, ^neas, prepare thee for the hour I 
 The closing scene is nigh. Mayst thou outlive, 
 An honor now to Jove, more glorious yet I 
 My path declining is to Stygian wilds. 
 Adieu! Adieu! seems proper now to utter; 
 For whitened is the beard upon my chest; 
 For autumn's gloomy color is at hand; 
 For pale flocks bleat when frost destroys the flowers. 
 Hence, ^neas, e'er faithful one, farewell! 
 In Fields Elysian may we meet again. 
 
ANDBOMACHE IN CAPTIVITY. 69 
 
 ANDROMACHE IN CAPTIVITY. 
 
 THE PERSONS. 
 A]srDrtO:MACHE, icidow of Hector. 
 Pyrrhus, king of Epirus. 
 Kalaxtiia, a confidante to Andromache. 
 Orgilus, a Trojan hondman. 
 
 SCENE I— In Buthrotum, city of Epirus. 
 
 Andromache alone. 
 
 An. It seems come hither they, the dead, from past 
 Arising. Adversity doth impel 
 With longings that impart to passing hours 
 'T is known not what of feelings new to life. 
 Not what it was is earth; 't is frozen o'er; 
 Of yore it bore a vestment green with flowers. 
 Beheld there is a girlhood fresh and joyful; 
 A wifehood next, by Hector's heart besought, 
 Adorement his in trusting prodigal. 
 E'en knew his horses me, approaching, neighing, fed 
 From these same hands. Those evanescent days, 
 With moral meaning bound, translated not 
 By tongue, so woven they are with the mind! 
 Then when on breast they laid the babe, was felt 
 Through him, my lord, through him, my son. 
 Thence through his issue, joined to glory of 
 My land, my Troy, my shrine, my home. No bird 
 More fond than I of what made love confiding. 
 
70 DRAMATIC P0E3£S. 
 
 But love, unstable, leave tli nature false 
 
 In this, I would be other than I am; 
 
 And true in this, I would be rather what 
 
 I was, brave Hector's bride! A captive mourning. 
 
 Condemned to desire to cheer these hours 
 
 With the vague hope, enamored once again, 
 
 To rise by love to love's superior lot 
 
 Before enjoyed, in that the wish makes fear, 
 
 Fear grief, grief double torment to one bound. 
 
 Enter Pyrehus. 
 
 Pyr. ^Y[\y so soliloquize? Your words overheard 
 In part, bid me believe you are at war 
 With some interior passion broke afresh. 
 Is it a struggle 'gainst events that rise? 
 If so, they shape; they wound; they heal, for time 's 
 Their remedy, physician to events; 
 But if 't is passion hidden, bitter to 
 Your peace, rebels, conceal it not, lest growing 
 Stronger it may oppress — a tyrant then: 
 Free speech its foe, the friend of liberty. 
 
 An. My spirit haunts a sphere unknown to men — 
 Most all to you. A woman's heart 's unread 
 As nature's is. Pardon this speech. . . . My lost. 
 Where are they now? You stand between my ov.n 
 (That are with likeness memory's scenes within) 
 And me — that is the passion moving much 
 You heard. A widow aching answers thus, 
 When things so near the soul are half revealed. 
 
ANDBOMACHE IN CAPTIVITY. 71 
 
 Pyr. Alas, thus to express oneself! At times 
 You are above refined, but now below. 
 Are measured not aright we Grecians here 
 In deeming they you trammel with distrust, 
 Retaining friendly favors from your state 
 By way of punishment. Believe not so. 
 They would all bear you offerings from good-will: 
 Due courtesy, attentions from their doors 
 And hearts, and sympathies the social hour 
 To animate. But you are proud, and pride 
 They fear in majesty, aloof themselves 
 To hold it with a coldness to admire. 
 To them would you a due complaisance show, 
 You would find wondrous change, descending then 
 To be as they — as they to love and be 
 Beloved. Your grievance would be lost in joy. 
 And you would live a Trojan Grecian turned. 
 
 An. All, how could one indebted so to Troy? 
 I would dishonor me by such an art. 
 For nature scarce would give consent. Inhaled 
 The air of freedom is enthralled; in that 
 Same freedom I am otherwise than Greek: 
 This freedom loved, take it takes life in part 
 Away; what would remain despair would seize 
 And warp, unworthy reason's oversight. 
 
 Pyr. Your tongue with cold refusal is, the heart 
 With warm assent! The tongue's words are as winds 
 Impatient. Lulls the winds the sun, and may 
 Your bosom words. May you apply that jewel 
 (Which ever is encased in mortals best), 
 
72 DBAMATIG POEMS. 
 
 Whose potency enlightens as a flame, 
 With thought arising o'er ties intimate, 
 In universal union with mankind. 
 
 An. Too much is asked. Can woman yield a hold 
 On destiny? Herself so with it knit. 
 She feels its strength; is with its knowledge fraught, 
 Man ignorant — himself a host, unknown 
 The foe. His feelings less are stumble -blocks; 
 Her feelings more secure in prophepy. 
 Thus as she is, you come most politic; 
 Ask her with self-deceptions, ever prone 
 To be, turn off from destiny — forego 
 Her home, her friends, her land — the elements 
 Of thought that are their fruit — to be half blind 
 In future! . . . Minerva, the day forbid!. 
 
 Pyr. To be an object of your ire, alas. 
 Is now misfortune. Wronged you were when fell 
 niustrious Troy; that terms of war imposed. 
 It might have been vouchsafed a lot for you 
 Less rough; this made events, not men. In that 
 And this absolve you me. As for the present, 
 Behold you I with kindness doubly deep, 
 That with it bears the murmurs not full heard, 
 Its current's depth controlling, better still 
 For you. Withal, the inspiration yours, 
 A sentiment my master is, and you 
 Beholding as a queen see slave, not king. 
 Oh, woman, know your power upon a seat 
 Unconscious of a crown! For you it is 
 To hear, to weigh, to judge, to amplify 
 
ANDBOMACHE IN CAPTIVITY. 73 
 
 Your realm, with king by king petitioner. 
 
 An. Ah, so to speak! Your sire remember; he 
 My Hector sent to seek tlie shades below. 
 In widow's plight to stand, forgetting not, 
 Ought she forgive? My son, too, joy quenched out, 
 Is sought. As if his mother ling 'ring by 
 It seems — not knowing, lost, as spirit where 
 To go — as if, approaching, timid, would 
 Maternal succor plead, his father's ghost 
 Oblivious of. 'T was dreamed the case was such; 
 The warm impressions of the memory 
 Aroused; estranging from what 's now, a pang 
 Of double motherhood gave birth to more 
 Than voice can tell. What feelings turn to die 
 Unworthy are of womanhood; the best 
 Till end survive, unvariable to do 
 The service of a life. Then me cast not 
 Where to belong counts woman void true love; 
 A graceless figure, not to Beauty known; 
 A mask-misleading face, her breast half stone. 
 
 Pyy. Ah, to yourself still anger speaks. Within 
 Your bosom nursed, itself it magnifies 
 By what has been with what fear deems will be. 
 'T is true, that Troy reduced to formless ashes 
 A spectacle most melancholy is 
 Unto the musings of a Trojnn's sorrow. 
 But will they thither go, persist to haunt 
 Eemains of w^ar — grim, crumbled wall by wall. 
 As tree by tree in winter bare and bowed. 
 Standing in solitude, awful, speechless? 
 
74 BBAMATIC POEMS. 
 
 An. Troy's homes, gay temples, statues, palaces 
 A medley is of things material — 
 But ruins for faint shapes! — the raven and 
 The owl's abode! The winds the heart's abode, 
 Outlasting iron walls, enduring ever. 
 The tenants of Troy's dwellings, where are they? 
 
 Pyr. Alas, they victims are of circumstance! 
 Now's solaces invite to other thoughts. 
 
 An. How like a Greek you speak I — that quality 
 Enclosing quality! Ulysses was 
 As you, attaining by degrees of craft 
 A final aim of war, to call it peace 
 In Ithaca! What Trojans dread conferred, 
 Not on them thrust, is Grecian peace — a gift. 
 That covets what it gives in claiming due 
 From foes of rights, of lives the sacrifice. 
 
 Pyr. This fact remember kings mere subjects are 
 As men, that are behind their title, fain 
 To cast their errors to account of title, 
 So little they esteem the worth of it. 
 As kings, they folly do that censure in 
 The governed moves, who little probity 
 In them as men allow; whereas, as men 
 They would kings rectify were but to right, 
 Law, wisdom, charity the governed true. 
 Degrees of virtue are a labyrinth 
 Led through thick briery evils to the haunt 
 Of excellence. To rule, is ill to one 
 Committed; doing wrong discreetly is 
 All rulers' right; and to gainsay this right 
 
ANDBOMACHE IN CAPTIVITY. 75 
 
 (Wlierein they would, if could, shine forth as men 
 
 Uncrowned) injustice is to kings. Be thus, 
 
 Andromache! — desert you not the man; 
 
 The king revile, who unto Troy was false 
 
 In feeling as Ulysses was in deed — 
 
 The king, the people's medium blundering, 
 
 Too oft undone, abortive on his throne! 
 
 An. Let this repeated be again, again: 
 Her fealty is to the absent. Men, 
 Assuming friendship, seek to break that bond; 
 And you, as enem}^ for this approach. 
 Avaunt! avaunt! . . . Why hesitate? . . . You, king! — 
 The king of Epirus, the conqueror! — 
 The author of such evils they obscure, 
 As clouds, the azure of your glory. When 
 The north-winds come the zephyrs sigh and crouch. 
 Thus feelings fresh and innocent withdraw 
 In dread when come surprising rigors yours, 
 The dread the more because concealed they. 
 From a demeanor's courteousness to burst! . . . 
 Oh, what a land is this, chaotic with 
 Environments so counter to one's rest! 
 To find repose, let meditations dwell. 
 In desert silence, native to the past! 
 
 Exit Andromache. 
 
 Pyr. She goes. Her kind was never seen before. 
 Her character occasions doubts in those 
 Who read with common nature life's strange book; 
 These doubts embarrass so a penalty 
 
76 DBAMATIC POEMS. 
 
 They are to bear. Alas, to think makes hold 
 
 Obedient to their weight intelligence; 
 
 Still not to think deprives; forge tfulness 
 
 It is of her and self united not. 
 
 It cannot be! A course pursued in fear 
 
 An end attractive has; it courage gives, 
 
 And heart-rewarding is. Vexations keep 
 
 A charm receding just before to whet 
 
 The pleasure for attainment soon. Till then, 
 
 Let patience be a staff to lean upon; 
 
 It can await the hour subjected thus. 
 
 Ignoring what amiss to seekers happen. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 Andromache and Kalantha. 
 
 An. Ah, Kalantha, another load of grief 
 I have to bear to thee. Thy ears are now 
 With ill news surfeited, despite the times 
 Which thee would greet to-day with festival. 
 
 Kal. Alas, hast seen thy husband's manes stalk 
 Within the lunar glimpses of green woods? 
 Thou art so secret with thy steps; so strange 
 In manner, wild and tame by turns; so prone 
 To hover by each busy highway at the morn. 
 Likewise the solitude of ruins chilled by eve. 
 It seems a fev'rish presence in the blood 
 Is partly answerable for these thy doings, 
 Evoking pity from thy wond'ring friends. 
 
ANDROMACHE IN CAPTIVITY. 77 
 
 An. What stone is this to cast at me? Do tliey 
 All pity me? I am, despising it, 
 Half pity-proof. Plague on a friendship thus! 
 I would have it exemplify, and bear 
 A stern approval, watching silently 
 My vagaries. Were friends, a score or more, 
 Of mine as I, their trials would prevail 
 Not o'er the tongue to utter what the heart 
 Aye hold should, locked as in treasury. 
 
 Kal. They do not talk of thee; their eyes bestow 
 Such glances as say more than words; they sigh, 
 Next turn their faces to the wall. 
 
 An. Ah, well ! 
 
 Nature to follow thus 't is just. 'T is hard 
 From what experienced is within to turn; 
 Still I it all in shame would there disguise. 
 Leaving suspicion not least espionage 
 To stand upon. This qualm is pride's — so false! 
 It would delude itself; deluded be 
 A glory-bearer of some worth, from it 
 Estranged because of hollowness. As said, 
 I would not have these friends me note aggrieved; 
 And yet, how kind in them to speak of naught 
 I do or say, but keep it patiently! 
 
 Kal. They by sheer means sheer friendship show, 
 as well 
 As gentle instinct that with breeding fits. 
 
 An. From me, who Trojan am, Epirian they, 
 Some gratitude is due. Howe'er I am 
 Not of their clime: the body here, afar 
 
78 DBAMATIC POEMS. 
 
 The spirit, roving in ol:)livion's dusk, 
 
 With memory, a gleam, to pierce this dusk, 
 
 Researching for the idols lost. . . . O Kemesis! 
 
 What has been done, that to crime capital 
 
 Belongs, dispensing by degrees to one 
 
 Its opposite, guiltless deeming self? 
 
 Kal. Ah, turn to ponder on the days that are! 
 Within themselves an inspiration is. 
 As in corn-foliage, Ceres' culture. 
 
 An. Yet doubt is here, faith far. Perception has 
 Too nice a love for joy to seek it where 
 Treads duty not. This duty is no yoke: 
 I call it freedom wailing for the dead — 
 A solace thrilling with heroic heat — 
 And when one comes to chill this mood all is 
 Discomforted. Not then the value of 
 A proffered sympathy I see, so blind 
 Compassion grows. Ingratitude, a wasp, 
 Next leaves a wound, that swells, confusing more 
 And more, until I fain do go betime 
 To ramble in the melancholy night. . . . 
 An evil genius one — Pyrrhus — the cause! 
 
 Kal. Hath he, pursuing thee, praised civilly? 
 
 An. Aye! — more! — he would himself insinuate 
 Within these arms of love. He bayed is held. 
 Withal, I fear his eye, it hath such power. 
 
 Kal. Oh, do not care for it! He would appease, 
 Perhaps, thy troubles (too, his own remorse). 
 In giving thee restored due rights. Regrets 
 He consequences that averts not war. 
 
ANDBOMACHE IN CAPTIVITY. 79 
 
 An. Mistrusting Greeks, ado is the effect; 
 And this effect makes errors theirs seem gross. 
 They are at variance with direction free 
 And frank: so subtle, fitful, coy and bold, 
 Is kept the spirit busy to trace aught, 
 A\Tiich traced, is hid at last in secrecy. 
 'T is hard, confronted thus, to merge with .those 
 In friendship who, adroit, would alter it 
 To serve themselves. As for their king, he is 
 The figure-head of worst and best in them; 
 So mixed with traits contrary to ideas 
 Of regal excellence; he crawls or flies — 
 And in his flight, we think of one just crawled — 
 And on the ground, of one unfit to fly. 
 ^Ylien he is seen to come, I dread to move; 
 Sensations rising so averse to him. 
 His shadow on the floor they see, a twin 
 To one within him darker still. 
 
 Kal. Thou shouldst be woman-like, adapting self 
 To fair conditions. Brooding, social not. 
 Thy vision colors what is seen with hues 
 Unseen by other eyes. To one depressed. 
 The Orient's splendor laced with silver daw^n 
 Is but a leaden object to the sight. ' 
 What crown is this to thrust aloof? Is this, 
 Its profferer, unworthy so it seems 
 Not gold, but brass? AVhen sweet advantage comes, 
 Ch, mock it not, but nurse it with fresh smiles! 
 
 An. Unknown by thee, why do me violence thus? 
 Secure from worldly fancies, virtue's sphere, 
 
80 BBAMATIG POEMS. 
 
 Life's winged element, exalts the mien 
 
 From this persuasion thine would have me do. 
 
 Kal. Soften dejection into genial looks. 
 It to oppose is friendship's duty. 'T is 
 An enemy, enfeebling by too tine 
 A course of sentiment, courageous not. 
 
 An. Thou art, it seems, his advocate. A meed 
 In view, thou dost attempt to form a plea. 
 It, insincere, accords with what expects 
 A judge, who listens with an ear that holds 
 A conscience moved by human nature's best, 
 By it, as by a lamp, the worst well read. 
 So evident, O woman! servile, guard 
 Thyself, lest rash turned aloof thou mayst be, 
 Forbidden a return to my protection. 
 
 Kal. I would not passive be, nor go too far; 
 Involved in thought's false mist the medium true 
 My danger is — and thine! Astray thou, can 
 I lead thee to the goal assuaging those 
 Who sutler if due means are me denied? 
 
 An. Myself shall leader be. Above thy aid 
 I feel; persuasive aid it is! — to some 
 Near point, now cherished by thyself, which she, 
 Th}^ mistress, must contribute such a share 
 As w^ill her render servant to obey. 
 Once more I thee admonish to beware! 
 
 Exit Andkomaciie. 
 
 Kal. Ye gods! how hard to understand she isl 
 Deep, deep would intuition peer, her soul 
 
ANBBOMACHE IN CAPTIVITY. 81 
 
 Bare to behold. AYhy is it I, adept, 
 Abiding with her long, discern not how 
 To move her counsels, cherished, hidden, kept 
 In mystery? With strength uncommon, half 
 Unsexed, she stands with man's reserve, anon 
 To pine as woman mutable, and shrinks 
 As if in superstitious depths to tread. . . . 
 But let he go! Awaiting, daj^s may come, 
 Propitious as the breeze to ships shore-bound, 
 My fortune's drift to favor with their swell. 
 Meanwhile, prevailing not o'er her (for now 
 The Parca3 thwart the better to endow), 
 I '11 to the king, and answer how things failed 
 In such a way as, still provoking hope. 
 May lead him farther to espouse more done. 
 Such game, within the net, well fed will thrive 
 To feed and fatten who the meat provide. 
 
 SCENE IIL 
 
 Pykkhtjs alone. 
 
 Pyr. "With night just gone, not tranquil is the flow 
 Of after-musings. Sudden changes came 
 Upon each dream — now fair, now dark. Oh, would 
 Depart the spell! It as Aquilo chills. 
 Sending from peaks of snow clouds cumbersome. 
 With phantoms fraught. Methought, arising from 
 The bed, my soul, delivered to eterne, 
 6- F 
 
82 DBAMATIG POEMS. 
 
 Sojourned within the boundary of the dead. 
 
 The atmosphere translucent magnified 
 
 Each object far. Sounds echoed e'er remote, 
 
 Attuned, serene, divine. All distance was 
 
 Contiguity, the centre self, the scenes 
 
 In radius unfolding, interfused 
 
 "With nature-giving arts, nature mystic seeming. 
 
 Thoughts vivified arose, existence fresh 
 
 (Expressed to them by some arcanum there) 
 
 Glad paths to show, ideal and multiform. 
 
 Ere long unpurged, unworthy feelings stole 
 
 Within, as if controlled by agency 
 
 Supreme, remorse to raise, as from the ken 
 
 Faded Elysium. . . . Advanced a Shadow soon 
 
 To hover and to menace wantonly. 
 
 Going, returning oft. Tartarus then 
 
 Behold! The Stream of Lamentation slow 
 
 (Approaching it, not moving I) rolled on, 
 
 Moaning as if a river-god. Beivare! 
 
 Beware! appeared its utterance, as came 
 
 A figure greeting, haggard, dolorous. 
 
 In glamour's glim to stand. Kalantha she! 
 
 I saw, as spirits see — interior — 
 
 The fold in fold, that wisdom let ignore. 
 
 As dusky Morpheus closed the drowsy dream. . . . 
 
 The potency of Heaven at work would baffle 
 
 That to this woman holds the key occult! 
 
 Alas! too much has been to her confided — 
 
 Too much, too much! that should be matter dark, 
 
 Known to another not. Offset forthwith 
 
ANDBOMACHE IN CAPTIVITY. 83 
 
 Must be what 's done with what to do — to meet 
 This woman once propitious, tragic now, 
 Driving repose e'en from this temple crowned. 
 
 Enter Kalantiia. 
 
 What have you to report? 
 
 Kal. Andromache 
 
 Opposed was to the tenor of the speech, 
 That worked with all its skill in your behalf. 
 I wish to have instructions more forthwith. 
 
 Pijr. How 's she averse — comported she herself 
 Against the rules of reason, prone to show 
 The inner workings of an enmity? 
 
 Kal, She censured you so freely, futile was 
 The tide of her affections to confront. 
 That do as sea-shells murmur to themselves 
 A requiem. With eyes that weep she dwells 
 On Troy. But such things must have daj's anew 
 For consequence; these days' fresh thought may give, 
 E»iierging she from widowhood distressed, 
 A cheerful brow. Time serves congenial gifts 
 To those that mourn to woo them to forget. 
 Meanwhile, occasion to assist, I '11 move 
 Her so (despite her mien, inscrutable 
 At times), whilst seeming to pursue, as her 
 Shall lead unto the presence of yourself. 
 Her eyes then dry, her mood with favors full. 
 
 Pyr. Speaks she of Achilles — of him, my sire. 
 Who hardy Hector slew by Trojan walls? — 
 Of his same corse dragged round the city thrice, 
 
84 BBAMATIG POEMS. 
 
 Ere Priam begged his bones dishonored thus? 
 
 Kal. Nay, nay! — upon her son Astyanax 
 Disconsolate she meditates the more, 
 Though Hector's name is in her mouth. Her heart 
 Is wounded from the blow that took from her 
 The babe in such a way as to conceive, 
 E'en as an image, makes a shudder come; 
 How cogent more reality! 
 But this with careful surgery of love. 
 That cuts to save, that suffers using skill 
 More than the patient, shall I remedy. 
 Her memory must of itself have less — 
 Be dead in part — a portion lopped away — 
 The past a blank so far as entertains 
 That which you would not hear. Her leave to me 
 In this, a woman moulding woman's will. 
 And doubly able to sustain the effort 
 In that I hold a phial whose contents, 
 Once tasted, veers to those who give the mind 
 Of those who take, subjecting them to go. 
 To stay, to smile, to cry, to utter aught — 
 Such is this charm's unfailing efficacy. 
 
 Pyr. [Aside. 
 
 What artfulness is this! I truly dreamed. 
 
 [To Kalantha. 
 How came you to possess this you speak of? 
 It may a drug be baleful; caution must 
 Foreknow the worst in best. 'T is policy 
 Before proceeding in an enterprise 
 To search the dangers out, whilst seeing them 
 
ANBB03IACHE IN CAPTIVITY. 85 
 
 Less fearing them. Be candid then, nor fear. 
 
 Kdl. Among the slaves from Troy is one adept 
 In sciences from whom was begged the phial. 
 
 Pyr, His name? His habits give, describing him. 
 
 Kal. His name, Orgilus. Wrinkled, pale his face 
 At intervals within the portico 
 He falters. Once at time of sacrifice, 
 Bareheaded in the sun, he was seen stand. 
 As if in act to imitate a priest 
 In giving oracles; they failed to come; 
 Next passers-by him taunted, saying: What 
 A post is Orgilus! Another day, 
 A little skeptical, we turned an ear 
 To him, his converse to invite; ere long. 
 Addressing him with kindness, he with thanks 
 Each favored all. In time him innocent, 
 Not deep, we found. He reads the stars; the earth 
 Is nature at his feet o'er-flowered ever. 
 Guileless, discourses he of Cadmus oft; 
 Of Saturn's advent and the age of gold. 
 The gods revering, he would evil thwart 
 And virtue aid; hence we confide in him. 
 
 Pyr. Hath he acquaintance with Andromache? 
 
 Kal. He her observes from far, nor dares to step 
 Across to her. Keserved in modesty. 
 He would not come e'en if invited once. 
 
 Pyr. Your friendship warm, 't is plain, prevails 
 O'er him, else he would not commit to you 
 The philter. But, in this, your need, not hers, 
 Not mine, may have procured the means to bless 
 
86 DRAMATIC POEMS. 
 
 Yourself; if so, your zeal 's excusable. 
 
 Still should it prove its means before to use 
 
 In this one case, wherein success comes not 
 
 Save through the medium of alacrity. 
 
 So hard to move in Andromache bowed. . . . 
 
 Where did you see this modest chemist first? 
 
 Kal. Within far Troy surrounded by the Greeks. 
 The bondmaids heard him tell of Helen oft; 
 Of Sparta and the heroes of that land; 
 Of Menelaus, the husband wronged, in ire. 
 In dialect uncouth he spoke, and held 
 Famed Troy would fall this Helen unrestored 
 To the besiegers; next, the city sacked, 
 Would Trojan slaves be scattered in strange lands. 
 He lives with us to see his words fulfilled. 
 
 Pyr. Do know aught else of him? Associate 
 Does he with men that meet in crowds? T\Tiat trade 
 Hath he whereby to eke his master's profit? 
 
 Kal. Scarce more I know of him, this more is that 
 He is reputed versed in prodigies. 
 For having roved from land to land — to edge 
 Of seas surrounding all the earth — and divers 
 Kaces mingled with, he such tales can tell 
 As multiply our fears of foreign parts 
 And make us love our home. . . . He knows no men 
 As friends, 'tis said; he labors 'gainst the wind. 
 That pulls him back, where intercourse invites 
 The gossips hereabout. . . . His trade unknown, 
 Involved in privacy, conjectures he 
 Arouses, lodging all alone. He seems 
 
ANDROMACHE IJST CAPTIVITY. 87 
 
 His master, yet is not. He fortunes tells 
 Betimes, receiving humbly coin therefor, 
 Yet is as proud as Phoebus of his breed. 
 Modest, still bold, or vain or real, it is 
 His merit chief he hinders false insight, 
 Living in peace,^ a tortoise to the world. 
 
 Pyr. Enough discovered. Here your guerdon take. 
 Go, w^oman, to your dwelling. Unto those 
 Who may what 's passed between us turn to know 
 Be statue-dumb, inquiry to frustrate. 
 
 Exit Kalantha. 
 
 Ah, yes! — go, handmaid, teaching not amiss, 
 Though evil. Thus embroiled unworthily, 
 Compunction showeth justice hath in me 
 Concealed itself to rise, with warnings where 
 To go. Thus government celestial moves 
 In darkness, otherwise to lead than where 
 Allure would foolishness, and makes us sage 
 Through tests severe of operations slow. 
 Henceforth my life within is life without. 
 Exchanging phantasies for verities. 
 Along decades to move to age, controlled 
 By what it seeks in best of nature all. 
 
 Enter Orgilus. 
 
 What, man, intruding here! why so? 
 
 Org. O king! 
 
 The step intrusive comes, but held in leash. 
 My wife here entrance found, 't is said; and fear 
 
88 DRAMATIC POEMS. 
 
 With busy visions breaks propriety, 
 Into your cliambers searcliing. She a drug 
 Of deadly agency purloined hath from 
 My closet, it believing love-inspiring. 
 I would from her possession rescue it, 
 Lest fatal consequences follow suddenly. 
 
 Pyr. Your name? 
 
 Org, Orgilus mine, Kalantha hers. 
 
 Pyr, To Andromache go — quick! — find her there. 
 
 Exit Okgilus. 
 
 What adder is this woman! . . . Thus the dream 
 Proves monitor to higher consciousness! 
 To a sweet end let satisfaction wed! 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 Andromache and Kalantha. 
 
 Kal. Disguise thy spirit in the mien that is 
 Congenial to the lover's attitude 
 Toward the smile that flatters him. Hide cause, 
 Effect then tolerate. Were loyalty 
 Not mine, I would induce myself 't is well 
 That thou shouldst be in rue, and go from worse 
 To worse, in hope to see thee in a state 
 Where envy meanly brings superiors down. 
 
 An. So skillful thou, persuasion thine has voice 
 Seeming not human nature's counterfeit. 
 Somehow, candid to be,, thou art much feared. 
 
ANDBOMACHE IN CAPTIVITY, 89 
 
 Kal, Oh, say not so! 'T is luckless fortune thine 
 That utters. Hence, forgiveness sweeten thought 
 (That welcome might resentment, to thee false), 
 And fill my mind with musings charitable! 
 
 An. Yes, yes! the drug thou gavest me was said 
 A cordial to be for nerves unsteady — 
 Those sluices to the brain, exhausted source 
 Of tears! Thy husband came announcing it 
 A medicine dangerous. Charity, 
 Indeed! Dost thou forgive, excusing profier 
 This thine with ever ready casuistry? 
 
 Kal. It was my husband's carelessness, alas! 
 
 An. Ah, says no more! If tainted thou with guilt, 
 The Furies thee will scourge. But innocent 
 Let thee the present call. It easy is 
 To pardon, since for pardon yearn I now; 
 It seems that I committed have a thing 
 Impious. Ringing in my ears it comes, 
 It goes, 't is known not what. Why so for me 
 Apj)arent is black Tartarus reserved? 
 
 Kal. [^Aside. 
 
 How she to humbleness constrains my speech, 
 Assuming what it should, not what it would! 
 
 [To Andromache. 
 Thou surely art addicting these thy days 
 To much on earth suggesting Tartarus. 
 Remember as thou ailest that relief 
 Extends a freedom clothed in royal robes. 
 Oh, turn to it! The past is Tartarus. 
 
 An. Ah, me! 't is true. It goadeth to the quick 
 
90 BBAMATIG POEMS. 
 
 E'en to admit it so. But who of all — 
 What presence from infernal regions stole 
 To make on earth this Tartarus, with flame 
 And smoke, and din of chariots, and troops 
 Of archers rushing to the fore, and swords 
 Of slaughter rich in Trojan blood to foam. 
 And I to breathe a victim here, the siege 
 Not o'er it seems? Whose figure is it comes 
 Athwart my meditative paths, and haunts. 
 And haunts, until thought reckons it a dread — 
 A hydra moving in obscurity — 
 A curse in instant time, so sealed in grief 
 It fade will never in chilled memory? 
 These answer to thyself, and feel results. 
 
 Kal. Pray, cease! Love has its season as a flower; 
 The autumn frost it kills, then summer's ray 
 Kevives it on the stem: so 't is with love — 
 '•T is nipped; misfortune's chilly north-winds blow; 
 Then zephyrs come, its fervor to inspire 
 Again. Thus Kature nature forms with cold. 
 Then heat; with night, then day; contrasting change 
 With change in endless course. Then why should we 
 Allow the half not wished proportioned more 
 To be than destiny designs, until 
 Growing it cramps the other half desired? 
 
 An. Woman, 't is vain to parley with thee ever. 
 The all in all walks on thy sandals, earth 
 To earth, for aye the winged element 
 Prohibited. . . . Hereafter go thy way, 
 I mine. Thy seed, ill sown, proves false to trusti 
 
ANDBOMACHE IN CAPTIVITY, 91 
 
 SCENE V. 
 
 Pyrrhus alone. 
 
 Pyr. Alas, to be the object of disdain! 
 No regal rights saved self from its effects; 
 It lived subdued in glances, made the mien 
 Its citadel, and darted words to wound. 
 As slingers cast sharp stones, e'en unrebuked 
 To do, its liberty in moral power. 
 Yet I, new-dowered with fresh strength, survive — 
 Survive the flood. Repulsed awhile the shore; 
 But stood at last a being stern to breathe, 
 A slave no more to Neptune's furious scowl! . . . 
 Remembrance turns and dwells on scenes gone by. 
 Oh, how, returning from the siege of Troy, 
 Applauses swelled! Wain after wain of spoils 
 Enriching Epirus! The slaves in herds 
 Affected were, and gladly, by that day, 
 Aforetime woes forgetting. How prevailed 
 Andromache, with speechless majesty — 
 "With much within herself that ruled men's eyes, 
 E'en with her shadow, though a captive mourning! 
 Self learned, though high, from her, though low in 
 
 state. 
 The space that was between us two; it strove 
 With what is best in thought, with special speech 
 A cause in love to advocate, and won 
 At last — impressing onward with slow art; — 
 Won, too, the kingdom of fair Epirus! 
 
92 DBAMATIG POEMS, 
 
 THE DAUGHTERS OF (EDIPUS. 
 
 THE PEESONS, 
 
 Creon", Mng of Thebes. 
 Nearchus, a confidant to Creon. 
 Officer and attendants. 
 
 SCENE Z— Thebes. 
 
 Antigone and Ismene. 
 
 An. Unhappy moments! Music heard is none, 
 Yet ears would hear, with soothing rapture stirred, 
 This antidote for grief. I would, O life! 
 Have music for thy sake; on heaven gazing. 
 Would have thee breathe its primal innocence, 
 A being better, fresh with beauty's power. . . . 
 It seems our race, outsprung from CEdipus, 
 Is doomed to evil, shame and tyranny. 
 And silent bitterness so prolonged. 
 Hence I, as from imprisonment, would flee 
 From self — my race — in expiation not 
 For that my father did displeasing Jove, 
 And all earth's watchful, ghostly hosts of virtue. 
 But no — it cannot be. Here must remain. 
 Housed up in what I am, my fate my thoughts. 
 Deep in vexations I of harsh events. 
 
 Is. Thou sayest truly, sister. What we are 
 We cannot be from it; what us has come 
 
THE DAUGHTEBS OF (EDIPTJS. 93 
 
 Appears avenging, proper not for those 
 
 That love the virtues. Still it is some fault 
 
 Lurks in the blood, I often say, that calls 
 
 For our chastisement, seeming harsh, y^i that 
 
 May prove, when this dark fault is cast away. 
 
 The function of salvation. Some event 
 
 Of happiness, superior far to things 
 
 Long suffered, may transpire. Content thee then 
 
 In deeming that the worst has passed; behold, 
 
 As from a ruin near, arise the walls 
 
 Of safety to confound our enemies. 
 
 An. Didst hear the latest tidings that they bear? 
 A brother's sister thou, and still so cold! 
 Here, too, thou movest with assurance such 
 As fancy kindles, counsel prone to give. 
 Whilst he, thy brother, stark in death, remains 
 Unburied on the stony, star-lit plain, 
 ThQ rites of funeral prohibited. 
 
 Is. Believe I hardly it. So fair, so brave, 
 O Polynices gone! Our brother dear, 
 Eteocles, interment had. He was 
 Lamented by his comrades dutiful, 
 By me not less, affectionate to yield. 
 My ties of blood out-grieving them, impelled 
 By friendship and sad ceremony. 
 
 An. Oh, boast not thou! — unbecoming to the hour 
 It is. Whilst Polynices' body lies 
 To vultures ready to devour a prey 
 (To them delivered by his uncle's oath, 
 Creon's, our guardian, who sits on the throne 
 
94 DBAMATIC POEMS. 
 
 Our father graced), be serious with thy will, 
 O sister! to oppose his will who rules, 
 Forgetting justice in severity. 
 
 Is. What can I do? What canst thou do? Mistrust 
 Gives pause to thought to wonder what to do, 
 And answer leaves us none save that to fear 
 Our uncle more. Confronts he sympathy, 
 As thou dost know, with speech of violence, 
 Making meek women tremble as he strides. 
 
 An. O sister cease! Thy instincts are amiss. 
 Always understand duty courage teaches; 
 It would my brother timely burial give. 
 He otherwise must wander desolate 
 About the earth, his soul permitted not 
 To go with Charon o'er the guarded stream 
 Unto Elysium. 
 
 Is. Wouldst thou defy 
 
 Thy uncle, and, perhaps, the powers above 
 Himself, that move him oft to do what he 
 As man would leave undone? Beware, O sister! 
 It seems thou standest near a precipice, 
 Half-blind, bewildered, going but few steps 
 To fall. In falling so, accursed as 
 Our brother, thy own body would entombed 
 Be not. What double portion then for grief! 
 Ah, me! to mourn thy fate, his fate, to deem 
 Ye wander vainly both about the earth! 
 
 An. Sister, he is my brother; thine also: 
 To bury him my duty; thine also. 
 United thus, our union strengthen we, 
 
THE BAUGHTEBS OF (EDIPVS. 95 
 
 For mercy's sake, to find a sepultre 
 
 For him forthwith ere Time delay condemns. 
 
 Is. What I thee aid? The king would forfeit ask; 
 Compel to look on Death, the enemy. 
 The urn we prize not holding me entombed! 
 
 An. The king! — comes he by what authority 
 Upon the pathway of a purpose dear 
 It to defeat? Why fear him so? The will 
 Of woman, zealous though in weakness, touched 
 By kindness, makes men turn about in shame, 
 Dreading the ministry of love's reproof. 
 
 Is. Still let the deed of burial lie within 
 Ourselves, inaction's child: the gods will know 
 It there, rewarding what we would with what 
 We should encountered by impediment. 
 Is in a passiveness the better course; 
 It pleases; not in an advancement rash, 
 Which galls authority, it making lose 
 Its reason in emotions prone to evil. 
 Reflecting on we have endured, and this 
 Endurance ours so long, why ask we not: 
 Where is respite, hy any source, with halm 
 Assuaging for awhile? Come, sister, come, 
 Let 's seek it far — another country in. 
 Dividing seas a precious space between 
 Old woes, new joys. . . . Infernal powers, attest 
 Nowise abet I what is bid undone, 
 And do persuade against unlawful things! 
 
 A71. Alas, go then! Antigone alone 
 Her brother's body, wetting it with tears, 
 
96 DBAMATIC POEMS. 
 
 Shall crown with pious sepulture. Secure 
 To go, he '11 journey to the Fields, to her 
 Indebted for the happhiess. AVhat more 
 Demands the conscience for reward than this: 
 AfTection moved through peril right to do; 
 Affection found fulfillment's anadem? 
 
 Zs. It is not love of flesh debars to aid; 
 Though over-hanging shade of danger comes 
 To startle vision, flesh cares less for it; 
 This would it undergo, earth's ills permit; 
 But that so poignant, creej)ing, essential 
 Without proportions, evermore enthralling, 
 I dread. . . . O sister! rouse from reveries; 
 See death related to thy soul in such 
 A form that fate to come is pardonless. 
 
 An. Unworthy thou, reluctant thou, O sister! 
 From honor's sacred emblem gone and lost, 
 In gloom to wander so, and fain to go! 
 Thy uncle's nature half in rule, thy own 
 To welcome it too ready with the word! 
 Ah, well, the funereal rites must mine alone! . . . 
 Subserve, ye hands, my brother's destiny, 
 No kindred else a tenderness to add! 
 
 Is. If must, then shalt thou do — alone! But in 
 Thy doing keep it private from report: 
 This much to Ismene a duty is; 
 Otherwise such may happen dark to name. 
 
 An. Expedient one! what time the thunder comes 
 Thou art abashed ; when lightning comes, forlorn. 
 A bud would face a storm, and thou wouldst shrink! 
 
THE DAUGHTERS OF (EDIPUS. 97 
 
 Is. Thou art, distracted, not conditioned well 
 To answer what impresses best. Therefore 
 Overlooked is contempt expressed by thee. 
 Another time let passion cool to ashes, 
 Leaving thy reason to resolve fair things; 
 Foul things expressive of one's poise are not. 
 Therefore, sorrow awaiting, joy will then 
 Receive one true as sister dear restored. 
 Oh, may the hour be sooni Till then, adieul 
 
 Exit ISMENE. 
 
 An. Ah, well, Ismene goes! Her absence means 
 Much to Antigone. Appears it she. 
 Now gone, hence better seen, is not the person 
 Thought pictured to myself : of womanhood 
 The proof lies in the deed, not in the guessing. 
 How frigid her demeanor! Heart, how hardl 
 Of pity destitute, dry to the taste 
 Of noble feeling doing noble work. 
 And deeming those thus actuated lost 
 Within the feeble mazes of distress I . . . 
 From this, O sister! turn I now; to thee, 
 Dear brother, go my steps. It seems impels 
 Thy ghost. May action favored be! If so. 
 Thy bones inhumed sliall be; thy soul appeased 
 Shall from its dismal state descend 
 To Charon's boat, embarking to attain 
 Elysian Fields, thy kindred to rejoin. 
 7-a 
 
98 DBAMATIG POEMS, 
 
 SCENE II.— In Creon's palace. 
 Creon and ISTeakchus. 
 
 Cre. What rumor this that stirs? 'T is said, the law 
 Defied, that Polynices' body hath obtained 
 Interment. Who the traitor that would do 
 This thing? He 's free, unpunished for a time; 
 More fatal be the hour detecting him I 
 If what is said be true, confirm it so. 
 
 JVe. No further know I than from rumor comes. 
 
 Cre. Why bid you trace the rumor to its lair? 
 Unconscious else to what the crown is due. 
 Still falter not to go to find wherewith 
 To ease from doubt. 
 
 Exit Nearchus. 
 
 These Argives bold, of whom 
 Was Polynices chief, may have through zeal 
 Their courage left approach too near the mark 
 Forbidden, cast defiance at law's means. 
 By which they would, upraising, steal within 
 The sacred limits of imperial rights, 
 An by usurping be authority 
 Unto authority, subjecting by some chance 
 The very kingdom to plebeian feet. . . , 
 How vexed to note ambition's seething sea; 
 To meet cajolers ever to the front; 
 To know that shadow near, hypocrisy; 
 To hear, e'en by the throne, those stinged whispers 
 That hint at hand of fell conspiracy, 
 
THE DAUGHTERS OF CEDIPUS. 99 
 
 To breathe in struggle soon, opposing hate 
 
 To hate, and shield to shield, in bloody bounds 
 
 To execute! A mark for obloquy, 
 
 In these sore tempest-times, his silence art 
 
 To veil those self-endearments that make kings 
 
 Mere men, and that make fears, and these those acts 
 
 That men, not kings, despotic call, the lot 
 
 Of Creon is! Hence, how with tact impartial, 
 
 Yet ones unruly holding in a course. 
 
 To act, evades at times the will; is blurred 
 
 The judgment, breeding for humanity 
 
 Distrust, for self likewise. Thence thought refers 
 
 To Heaven for light in darkness — torch to guide 
 
 The steps — to move the atmosphere of minds. 
 
 With favors fraught, obedient they to view 
 
 Their best in him, their king, sustaining one 
 
 Another with accord. But Heaven is dumb. 
 
 Hence, he must still the mask of hardness wear. 
 
 The people know the face, the heart unknown. 
 
 Then face be king, implacable as night 
 
 Concealing soothing day, the heart of time! . . . 
 
 Appears it Thebes, despoiling now herself. 
 
 Sits weeping by a willow near a stream 
 
 (As yet veiled, robed as mourning widowhood), 
 
 As if in knowledge of careers ordained 
 
 Her children, grim and soon, to overhaul 
 
 With irony. Events control events. 
 
 Having no cause in that of mankind worthy; 
 
 They tend not from a something worst of past 
 
 To a something best, future's purgative. 
 
100 DRAMATIC POEMS. 
 
 Till then, the goddess Peace will not to Thebes, 
 Bearing aloof what would rebel. . . . Discord, 
 O (Edipus! was from thyself. Thy sons 
 Their father proved in simulating thee; 
 Kow all the base results from what thou wast 
 Encounter hour by hour a censure futile: 
 It powerless; surviving, they o'erwhelm 
 As waves o'erwhelm the eddy of the shore. 
 
 Enter Nearchus. 
 
 Ne. It is too true! — delivered to the tomb 
 Hath Polynices been. The people stare 
 And marvel at the deed, dispersing as 
 In fear when questioned as to him so bold, 
 So law-renouncing, so confronting risk 
 As thus to tread the field of legal danger 
 In doing it. Appear, sheep-eyed, they as 
 Those who tend to forbidden paths were once 
 The wolf away, their leader now not seen. 
 Mysterious. IVhat notes suspicion near. 
 Much more imagination notes afar. 
 Mingling what is within with that without. 
 Until my breast enkindles doubt on doubt. 
 
 Cre. What, what! — hat*h Polynices been interred? 
 Curse it! — What traitor hath interment given? 
 Curse him! — Who do concealment help in this? 
 Curse them! . . . Ye witnesses above, ye gods, 
 Kemand the guilty ones to justice sudden! . . . 
 When happened the event? 
 
THE BAUGHTEBS OF (EDIPUS. 101 
 
 JVe. A time most e'er 
 
 Conducive to the men of treason, worst 
 Then doing — in the ambush of the night. 
 
 Ore. Thus danger comes and takes us in the back; 
 It uses darkness still unrighteously. 
 
 iVe. Alas, too true, with overreaching stealth! 
 
 Cre. 'T is well to hesitate in quest; lest he. 
 The doer of this wrong, should bear the palm 
 Of victory in feeling that distrust 
 His work beholds, and flee the consequence. 
 
 JSfe. Let vigilance, not words, investigate. 
 
 Cre. Let scruples seek an art too fine for men. 
 Appropriate to kings, men to undo, 
 Who with their bluntness act, betraying them 
 Little by little to the judgment seat. 
 • JS'e. Let silence then be bait to trust. 
 
 Cre. Treason 
 
 To find is task for instinct; still to lose 
 For reason to amend a failure hard; 
 For this, be silent altogether not, 
 As words are arms stragetic when well used. 
 
 Ne. Let silence be to words a monitor. 
 
 Cre. What man or men can be suspect in this? 
 
 -ZVe. Of this one here, of that one there 't is known 
 Enough to follow to their haunts, at last 
 Them to detect in some oflfense that would 
 Debar their liberty; but these confound, 
 Not clear decision guilty ones pursuing. 
 
 Cre. Then do what 's well, arousing senses all, 
 In such a way as will take note of much. 
 
102 JDBAMATIG POEMS. 
 
 Your mask indifference, until the game 
 Comes in tlie range of a conviction sure. 
 Till then be shrewd; be officer to none, 
 But citizen to all; in converse move 
 Congenial to the common flow of talk; 
 Meet smile with smile, regardless of tlie proof 
 Borne in the face of things of mischief done. 
 Thus acting, have for model nature near, 
 With movements none unconscious of a part 
 That one, not acting, would to failure sink. 
 Thus trained, depart, all Thebes a hunting field. 
 
 Ne. Nearchus goes. Let duty be the soul, 
 Accomplishment the body of intent; 
 The latter awkward moveth to an end, 
 The former would unerring what it should. 
 Then blame not him if all is not success 
 Subserving you, for aught amiss may hap. 
 
 Exit Nearchus. 
 
 Cre. Yes, yes! Xearchus goes, the sj^cophant! 
 So eager to observe observing vain, 
 lie makes forms familiar strange, and forms 
 Uncommon usual — thus he crawls, though man ! . . 
 O royalty! Vvhy not abandon thee? 
 With all I am, with purple clothed, makes that 
 To alter not in self to relish what 
 Grants plain simplicity a hermit knows. 
 To bear compunction; this awakes a touch 
 Of wild desire self w^ould not have; yet it 
 
THE DAUGHTERS OF (EDIPUS. 103 
 
 Maintained abides. Believing that accused, 
 Of daring eyes the stigma, disappear 
 The purer feeUngs once famiUar! 
 Kot fear, bosom's Eumenide, relents; 
 No virtue it expels; no succor comes 
 Persuading it to go afar. . . . Then Sleep, 
 
 Sleep! as ancient as the earth on which 
 We dwell, so powerful to bear thy balm, 
 Approach from shrouded mystery with dreams, 
 Efiacing what is felt with deep repose. 
 
 SCENE III. — An area by the palace. 
 
 Antigone, Ismene, Nearchtjs and Officers. 
 
 Is. O sister dear! the king doth know the deed; 
 A spy hath traced it to thy door. Thou art 
 Condemned by many, others grieving. Still, 
 Thou must with self-denial soon do more — 
 Thou must avow what 's done. 
 
 An. I live in this: 
 
 1 would not seek the favors of the world 
 Departing from myself, to leave behind 
 Within a better comfort than is found 
 Without. So colored with profanities, 
 
 So counter to philosophy this world, 
 I know not how to bend to him, the king. 
 Its head, its heart, without upon myself 
 Inflicting sorrow. Still I '11 go to him. 
 Confession make, yet free within to shield 
 A potency, and feel in silence blessed. 
 
104 BBAMATIG POEMS, 
 
 Is. With thee shall go I then, conjoint to say 
 "Was Ismene a prop to this, thy deed, 
 By him detested, ready to endure 
 What comes expressive of his vengeance certain. 
 
 An. Oh, do not have it so! Thou didst oppose 
 What was the prompting of my heart with what 
 Was from thy mind. 'T is not becoming thee 
 To offer now to stand, with such a mind, 
 Thy sister by the sentence to receive 
 That her is due in fullness of effect. 
 Because the cause was hers. 
 
 Is. Keprove not so. 
 
 My duty owed to thee its wisdom choice; 
 Pretending, it meanwhile supported thee 
 With that from thee concealed. Now comes it forth. 
 In sympathy it feels for thee with such 
 A warmth that this thy cause is mine, whereby, 
 Beginning thus anew, in union now 
 We are, assuming equal amnesty. 
 
 An. Sister, thou dost delude thyself. How couldst 
 Thou have been with me in thy soul, when thou, 
 With tongue so ready, didst upon my heart 
 Cast wounds that only partial rancor gives? 
 Surely, an evil phantom at thy ear 
 Made thee indifferent to thy brother stricken 
 Whilst so involved in anger's hastiness 
 Me to frustrate in his behalf. 
 
 Is. Alas, 
 
 I did but try to waken to the risk 
 Most oft encircling those infringing laws. 
 
THE DAUGHTEBS OF (EDIPUS. 105 
 
 The risk thou didst not fear. Thy eye dwelt not 
 
 On outward things; thy mind, content with what 
 
 It held, supplied the sight with sacred rites 
 
 Proceeding from thy tenderness. Absorbed so, 
 
 It natural was to study to alarm 
 
 That preservative sense that bids us all 
 
 Take care of self. Revolving o'er thy lot 
 
 To come, departed from thee I as shook 
 
 Each limb impatient. Know my love for him, 
 
 Our brother, is as thine; withal for thee 
 
 It is as strong; then why should I have quit 
 
 This love for thee to leave thee deviate 
 
 In not availing of all that is mine 
 
 Of reason and its ministers to draw 
 
 Thee from thy peril? Sister, see aright: 
 
 How stood my motive that was puzzled much 
 
 What course to follow to advantage bring 
 
 Unto our common selves, whilst came the hope 
 
 That he, the king, relenting, might permit 
 
 The funeral pile unto our brother dead. 
 
 An. Why dost thou to such means resort as balk 
 An understanding of thy womanhood? 
 Thy variance is oft masculine, oft deep 
 In method, semblance hiding much, I am 
 Half loath to call thee sister. Why to me 
 Be not a twin in fundamental love. 
 In mental concourse one, obscuring naught 
 Thus bound? Apprising thee so prone, my words 
 Are on my lips ere time takes time to form 
 Them into syllables, and ere I know 
 
106 DBAMATIC FOEMS. 
 
 What 's said 't is said. I can not hold account 
 Of what I feel or think or do from thee devoid 
 Of those sensations which rebuke with such 
 A force regret is mine. But thou art swayed 
 With such conditions 't is a mystery 
 To solve that we are kindred of one bed, 
 Save by an instinct faintly knowing each 
 As brute knows brute. 
 
 Is. Sister, no more! 
 
 Thou art unjust in judging traits of mine. 
 I know not how it is; but confidence 
 Withheld is modesty discreet, or tone 
 Of manhood curbing woman's mouth, or ill 
 Within the blood of candid words afraid. 
 As thou, I am in dark about the matter. 
 
 An. Is felt w^hat thou dost say is so: a cloud 
 Doth settle o'er me, keeping indistinct 
 Much that I, curious, would perceive. Although 
 Too close in speech, reserved to give where well 
 Thy secrets not, yet blameless thou. Still there 's 
 Within thee, counterpoising to my wish, 
 Some quality that on occasions thoughts 
 Evoke, admiring faintly, drooping soon; 
 At others, selfish censure that this wish 
 Would have thee hear for penalty: in this 
 I go below myself, in that above; in both, 
 A medium false, discerning I not clearly. 
 Oh, could we mortals eke our day's scant light, 
 What virtues would adorn its sentiments! 
 
 7s. Pause, sister, pause! Without this area gaze. 
 
THE DAUGHTEBS OF (EDIPUS. 107 
 
 Who 's 3'onder coming scanning all around? 
 Nearchus! Seems his shadow him before 
 Advances, dragging him behind. As wont, 
 He mutters 'tween his teeth. Hq sees us not. 
 Let us retire within the peristj^le. 
 
 An. Ah, no! I would not have myself confess 
 Thus so a cowardice to consciousness. 
 That would, despite the faults it bears, sustain 
 Not this. Let us confront him with a look 
 Of houor, aid to innocence, if so 
 We can. . . . He turns to us. I would not fear, 
 Yet fearing thrills. He is the king's own spy, 
 Tigerish. Comes he! Sister, lend thy arm 
 To bend, supporting me, around the waist. 
 He nearsi Let 's turn away; my breath is short. 
 
 Is. No, no! let us retain our ground. Now hap 
 What will, we must the worst with strength repel, 
 Forsaking not the best some end to gain. 
 The gods behold, with whom resides our weal, 
 Dividing it for those here disappointed. 
 
 Enter Nearchus. 
 
 JYe. Ye trembling aspens, what a scene presenting! 
 Ah, well! . . . The king, Antigone, in wrath 
 Hath spoken, intercessors vain. Many 
 From him in apprehension turn. Accuse 
 Thee others, saying thou at night hast sinned 
 In giving forms of burial to the one. 
 Who' traitor to his country, was outlawed. 
 
108 DBAMATIC POEMS. 
 
 Kow, what misfortune thine! What grief for it! 
 
 The king, in terms repeated, hoarse, declares 
 
 Aversion for the heirs of (Edipus, 
 
 Anathemas succeeding as he hears 
 
 The late injunction violated is. 
 
 Oh, say thou guiltless art, and thus relieve 
 
 Suspense that hangs mist-like about all Thebes! 
 
 An. The deed was mine. A sister's right impelled 
 To wish a brother's bones immunity 
 To have from fowls devouring flesh therefrom; 
 His spirit gifted, loved so well by many, 
 To enter Pluto's bounds, arrested not 
 By Styx, the Fields Elysian to extend 
 To it their welcome. Well reflected I 
 On what was due to him, on what was due 
 To Creon; weighing these confused, was chosen 
 The firmness of my love for leadership. 
 That held obedient every faculty 
 Of grosser nature to accomplish this 
 You censure so. The consequence was known. 
 And knowledge half prepared my fortitude 
 To aim at no evasion power provokes — 
 To die if need be. Having for reward 
 The joy of doing well, joy 's conqueror. 
 
 Ne. To such would further listen not my ears. 
 Would eyes behold thee friendly to the state, 
 Its pillar clothing as an ivy thou! 
 
 Is. I, too, am guilty, scorning the impulse 
 That lurks within, suggesting phrases veiled, 
 That would aught hide, insidious to avert 
 
THE DAUGHTERS OF (EDIPUS. 109 
 
 The blame; the ostracism; the penalty 
 
 Most stern imposed by judgment's seat. To her 
 
 A relative I am; together Ave 
 
 As children played; we are as women bound 
 
 By ties so mutual they most precious are 
 
 Unto ourselves. I knew beforehand what 
 
 Was her intent, inclined to yield as is 
 
 Her wont to mercy's call. I sympathized 
 
 With her in part; yet failed I her to hinder 
 
 In the accomplishment. Ismene thus 
 
 Is guilty, wishing thus to stand with her. 
 
 iVe. Thou, too, false subject to authority! 
 
 Is. Yes, let our uncle, Creon, hear it so. 
 
 JVe. Ah, well! I, messenger, to give to him 
 Who circumspect implored, forbidding me 
 Awhile with accusation none to join! . . . 
 Having well-wishes in respect to you. 
 His nieces, he especial for your sake 
 Won praise from those, your opponents, who were 
 Most quick to cast suspicion on j'our backs. 
 Then still he favored you when rumor came 
 More pointedly arraigning you, with proof 
 So positive it made him tremble — cheeks 
 Both pale, eyes both uneasy. Came anon, 
 Assailing him, his wish to hear them not. 
 Such words, such phrases and such sentences 
 Concerning you as chafing him he burst 
 With passion, full persuaded that the truth 
 Alone you charged exactly. Thus from him 
 I came, and found you here, O guilty pair! 
 
110 DRAMATIC POEMS. 
 
 An. Return to him and say Antigone 
 Will yield to the outcome, yet with assent 
 Seeing no law. At first she wept to think 
 Creon's decree to break; but having it 
 Once broken, so enforced with faith that what 
 She did is right, above the awe of kings, 
 With better purpose proud she stands. . . . Alone 
 I am in this, and she, my sister here. 
 Is innocent; return and tell him so. 
 
 Ke. Antigone, have pity! Bid me take 
 That thou as she art innocent, a task 
 Much lighter! Trifling is the falsehood. 
 Thy guilt, a heavy load, must cause remorse 
 More grief than falsehood aiming for thy weal. 
 A life's own fortune lies within thy mouth; 
 A whisper is enough. Dost understand? 
 Then utter it, oblivious not of friends 
 Who wait in doubt and anxious for thy safety. 
 
 An, No, no! in fear of gods, my thoughts not less. 
 
 iVe. Still pity me, for go I unto one 
 Who, inexorable, is rash to act. 
 Compassion crushing, fiery in revenge. 
 His end attaining by the surest course! 
 
 Exit Nearchus. 
 
 Is. Alack, alack! Impressions come that make 
 So dizzy now the brain things are amiss. 
 Aught inimical now influence would, 
 Turning virtue's motive out of doors! . , . 
 
THE BAVGHTEBS OF (EDIPUS. Ill 
 
 Eecede let us to some near place retired; 
 There let us sit, assuaging senses all. 
 Something may yet be done us from to loose 
 The fatal tangle making to involve 
 Our lives, to perish by degrees. . . . Oh, thou 
 Hast been bewildered from thy better self 
 By a false deity, hell-born, profane, 
 Thy frailty to mislead, apart to act 
 Against prerogatives of innocence! 
 
 An. Be not afflicted. Thy true self, away 
 From thee, will come again. Remember, fear 
 Is at the heart where courage was before; 
 Thou didst inspire me with it now not more 
 Than half an hour. I feel -its tone as yet 
 Dilating as harp-sounds the drooping head. 
 Oh, what half phantoms we as women are! 
 We are embodied in too false a mould, 
 That, not all ours, or fickle, rash or wise 
 Makes us, the sum oft small, the kind oft poor. 
 
 Is. Oh, this is not a time for utterance! 
 I want to be alone. Oh, go awhile 
 Away! A heavy sickness by the heart 
 Thy presence aggravates, disdaining thoughts 
 Of duty that would fortify the will. 
 In sympathy with thee, to be more strong. 
 
 An. I go. . . . Eesolve, my master be. I turn 
 From tribulations of life's day to calm 
 Of death's near night. . . . O flesh, dim servitor! 
 Thy mission done, sink in oblivion's flood; 
 Thou art of earth — mere dust. . . . O soul, adored! 
 
112 BBAMATIG POEMS. 
 
 Be now my all, supreme; with speed direct 
 Me from where flesh is now to where 't is well, 
 Salvation there, its presence serving, bowed 
 Before the humble. . . . Nerves, be strong! I would 
 Not quaver now in what intent conceives, 
 Lest shame might conscience burn, and form 
 On it a scar forevermore. . . . Thus, thus! — 
 Fare thee well, sister, fairest Ismene! — 
 Whilst dauntless is the mood I must be going. 
 
 Exit Antigone. 
 
 Is. What can she mean? The figures of her speech 
 Abstruse! But that her custom is, impulse, 
 Doth bear her forth. A heart of dove, a wing 
 Of eagle, too, both hers! Still in her features 
 There something was unusual e'en for her. 
 My words may have offended her; if so, 
 Herself restored to love will come again 
 And smile on me. . . . This head doth ache and ache. 
 What drowsy numbness this that lulls my tongue? 
 'T is well she 's hence, repose a panacea. 
 
 Enter Nearchus and Officeks. 
 
 Ne. Ismene, what appearance this! Upon 
 Thy cheek a snow-white pallor is. This day's 
 Sad business, unsettling to strong men. 
 Hath called for austere bearing of ourselves; 
 But thou, one delicate, succumbing now, 
 
THE DAUGHTEBS OF (EDIPUS. 113 
 
 With firmness gone, art proof, indeed, of what 
 The struggle costs. Condolence bends to thee; 
 It would not, futile, tender what it hath 
 To aid distress. Withal, it would not go 
 Too far; it hath intelligence it shrinks 
 To tell. The torrent of the times brings down 
 Disasters on proud heads. Impious thought, 
 Though sufTring moves to it, dares not reproach 
 The gods, for evils are their plagues men due. 
 Let patience be the gospel then of mortals — 
 Mortals that blend as mist in ether high 
 With immortality, Time's province fairest! 
 This good should be the chief to instigate 
 Our progress through the moments trying us. . . . 
 Thy sister, Ismene, hath more than erred; 
 Her trespass Creon rouses more and more — 
 A lion rampant he. These officers 
 Standing hard by he sent with mandate clothed 
 According to his wish. Dost know the rest? . . . 
 Thy sister, where is she? 
 
 Is. I do not know. 
 
 Just ere you came she left. She here will be 
 Anon. She 's much disturbed, and wanders to 
 And fro. Her hair disheveled fell adown 
 The back; her garments loose the zephyrs seized 
 As if in wantonness. Two passers-by 
 Did look on her with sorrow joined to awe, 
 Shaking their he^ds as they moved off. I should 
 Have gone with her. He mien bewildered so, 
 8-n 
 
114 BBAMATIG POEMS, 
 
 A chain it is that to itself may link 
 
 (So heavy now with weight accrued!) more harm. 
 
 But here I am, and she aloof. She here, 
 
 There I should be. She should be Ismene, 
 
 And I Antigone; for grievance drugs 
 
 Me so the worst I would have happen me, 
 
 Not her. 
 
 JVe. Which way went she? 
 
 Is, I think without 
 
 The city's walls toward yon cypress grove. 
 
 JVe. Officers, thither go; if her you find, 
 A prisoner of state with her return. 
 
 Exeunt Officers. 
 
 Is. How cruel is the king! Yet you are kind; 
 For you would hide what he determined has. 
 
 ^e. In self-esteem find courage to assist. 
 
 Is. To know the terms precise he has imposed 
 The ear just now to listen would recoil. 
 
 Ne. Still know, prophetic shadows hover near. 
 
 Is. As fears the bud the frost, so hope fears them, 
 Chilling the ardor of warm maidenhood. 
 
 Ne. Take time awhile assuaging fear aroused. 
 
 Is. What 's best, that would, were mercy's news 
 Vouchsafed, be bright, dispelling vapors thick 
 Which rise, enshrouding from occurrences; 
 That would awhile, surmising, fain believe 
 That all is well, and what is present past. 
 Making the future golden, promising. 
 
THE DAUGHTERS OF (EDIPUS. 115 
 
 Yet 't is foolishness! — ^jargon! — vagary! 
 
 Stands Reality before with mantle dire, 
 
 Material as the flesh in which breath is, 
 
 We facing where, ere long there, i^erish all. . . . 
 
 Nearchus, then say on! Be foul or fair 
 
 The tidings, speak of Antigone's fate. 
 
 JVe. The king gives forth she shall alive be cast 
 Entombed, atoning for her late offense. 
 
 Is. Oh, loathsome sentence, from an uncle, too! 
 To die shut up with perturbations strange! 
 The mould, the worms each vital moment seizing! 
 
 JVe. I would friend's comfort give; my functions bid 
 A cold performance of command. . . . Behold, 
 An officer approaching here in haste. 
 What can this signify? 
 
 Enter Officer. 
 
 What, ho, man! Where 
 Is she for whom you have been sent? Foot-speeding, 
 Such tells of some mishap betiding late. 
 
 Offi. She — Antigone — the others guard her form. 
 
 JVe. Ho, ho! give voice, and stammer not, its Avords. 
 
 Offi. Within the cypress grove, at mouth of cave, 
 Her body lies, stabbed to the heart. Blood red 
 Flows on the lily whiteness of her breast. 
 
 JVe. Some one has murder done! 
 
 Offi. In dexter hand 
 
 She clasped the dagger jealous of her life. 
 And self-infliction helped it to its work. 
 
116 DBAMATIC POEMS. 
 
 Ne, Art certain, man, it is Antigone? 
 
 0^. Certain! Upon the temple's marble steps, 
 Ascending she to worship, have I seen 
 Her frequently, as people nodding said: 
 There goes Antigone, soon (EcUpus, 
 Her father blind, to lead. Hoio filial she! 
 Then on she moved amid a general hush. 
 Unlike she was to any woman else 
 In Thebes, so dear to high and low! Now sleeps 
 That figure (swine it snuffing when we saw 
 It first) ne'er to awake again. 
 
 JVe. Let 's hence. 
 
 This work will anger more the king. Thus foiled 
 His mandate, breed it may annoying hints, 
 Until his palace with contention sounds. 
 But go to her at once, then go to him. 
 Come, come! delay answers effect not well. 
 
 Exeunt Nearchus and Officer. 
 
 Is. Now, think of it! — so warm of late, now cold! 
 Her virtues turned to a sad monument! 
 Oh, would it were not so! . . . Desert me not, 
 O strength! I would have thee support these limbs 
 E'en to the green spot where she lies. But how 
 Is this? Frailty with crippled gait is here 
 Instead, when I should hasten to her corse — 
 Ah, there should go all out of breath, and cast 
 Me down, and weep affliction out. She gone. 
 My father gone, my brothers gone, and I 
 
THE DAUGHTEBS OF (EDIPUS. 117 
 
 Alone — these things possession have. A numb 
 Sensation steals, as poppy's dreamy fume, 
 Arousing then depressing efforts made. 
 That waning would resign. This knot on knot 
 In woof of present to unweave repels 
 Less skill than Tate's; but she in distance grim, 
 For race of CEdipus admonishment. 
 Is as a thunder-cloud. Then joy is sin 
 IMien Time atonement for fatality 
 Invokes, to answer stage by stage unto 
 The tomb. . . . Antigone, all spectral now, 
 Thou art so severed from this earth, the loss 
 Not its, but Ismene's — so much, no gain 
 From other one existing can restore. 
 Removing to a bourn, in that reserved 
 In shadow-land no footstep to invite 
 Pursuit behind, I would be old more near 
 To be the path on which, descending now, 
 Thou art at peace; I would be old, forgot 
 Youth's weariness, to feel soft tremors come; 
 The fading day of self into its night 
 To undulate. . . . But how is this? Oh! Oh! 
 How sight doth fail! The footsteps halt! I would 
 Recline somewhere. ^N'ot here. A\Tiere shall I go? 
 Each sense, how dull! . . . O Antigone, me return! 
 
 [She swoons. 
 
 THE END. 
 
X107 
 

 
 
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