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New York 14609 USA (7 1 6) 482 - 0300 - Phone (716) 288 - 5989 -Fox £.'^0'-^ -> vCc-,'^ .-^ % Irama. A: / nzq^ BY HENRY BLISS. WILLIAMS AND NORGATE, 14, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON- AND ' 20, SOUTH FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURGH. 1866. 1 LONDON: PniNTED BT C. ROWORTH AND SONS, BF.I.I, YARD, TEMPLE PAR. PROLOGUE. Once more ye forked hills, ye fabled nine, And glades and fountains, still in verse divine, A votary comes, where others reap, to glean, And fill his hand with blossoms else unseen, And twine once more a garland for your cell, And hymn thanksgiving and a last farewell. This task alone remains. My space is spanned ; And time has touched my forehead with his brand ; And life's illusions, summer birds, have fled : First, youth and love their pinions heavenward spread ; Then passed the flowers of theatre and feast ; Ambition faded next, and laughter ceased ; And now health threatens flight, and with it, worse ! The charm of beauty's power, and charm of verse. m Peace to the rest! But how from thee to part, Spirit of song, whose shrine is in my heart? a 2 I IV PROLOGUE. Thou, who hast cheered a life's laborious years, My joys ennobled, chased away my tears, My passions purified, my tastes refined. And raised my morals, and enlarged my mind. As oft beneath sea-beaten cliffs Ave met, To eye the west when summer's sun was set. And vivid clouds were varying hue and shape. And ocean glowed as tinted of the grape : Or met at morn in by-paths on the down. Ere toil with smoke o'ercanopied the town ; Or met in midnight volumes all thine own, Or tlie thronged playhouse, still with thee alone. Thee, heaven-descended on the noonday's wings. Each valley welcomed, thee the woods and springs, Thee the bleak headlands, thee the glassy brine Exulting hailed, and mixed their voice with thine — Soft winds and conscious skies returned the call, And the whole world's great presence throbbed through all. In which ere merged I pass away from time, Be still propitious, and inspire the rhyme. PROLOGUE. V Thnt fain would catch some concords of tho blest In hope's new soug, whose echoes woke the west, When, fraught with tidings told by tongues tha^ burned, Strangers of Rome from Pentecost returned. Heralds of peace— how beautiful their feet On Alba's mountain and the Appian street ! Where Zion's angel met the muse of Greece, And joined in anthems never more to cease. Bear me back thither, and recall the time False gods gan tremble, and a voice sublime Preached to the world " The promised star has shined : " The gates of heaven are free to all mankind. " Peace and goodwill salute you from above : " Be pure and live for ever— God is love." What answered Rome ? How mused the matron gi'ave ? What said the sage? the senator? the slave? When seed was sown o'er earth, and hidden teemed To change earth's aspect, while her children dreamed. VI PROLOGUE. As twilight dawns on objects half defined, Thick fancies throng the vistas of my mind : Scenes from the shade emerge, with legends ritb, And characters, as statues, start to life: Their histories transpire, their fates impend, Their passions kindle, principles contend. Arms glisten, voices plead for right or wrong — And lo ! a mystery and a myth in song. T HE C L A: a Urama. PERSONS. NERO. IIELIUS. GALBA. SENECA. STATILIA. TIIECLA. A DWARF. Chorus of Christians. Chorus of Pagan.s. Soldiers, pretorian, and legionary. Populace. Sieves. THECL A. Hence ! ACT I. SCENE I. STATILIA. THECLA. STATILIA. THECLA, 1 am innoeent ! STATILIA. The quicker hence ! Til is palace 1ms no place for innocence But prison, or a toml). TIIKCLA. 'Tis all I vvanr. / Worse waits thee. TIIECLA. STATILIA. TIIECLA. I am wretched. STATILIA. Wretch, avaunt ! There's misery here enough without thee. Fly ! TIIECLA. Pity me ! Spare me ! Hear a suppliant's cry ! Thou, whoso regards are hailed as morning's birtli, Consort of Caesar, arbitress of earth, In whom all nature's gifts and fortune's shine, Oh harden not your heart to wrongs like mine. WTi-oiigs— what has fortune fairer than the might Or nature nobler than the will to right ? STATTLTA. Wrongs, and a slave ? TIIECLA, Nor thoreforo wi'onged the less. ACT I. SCENE I. 3 STATILIA. Even so ? AIus . vv'luit wrongs can I redress ? THECLA. If" tlie fair fane those shapely shafts surround, If one briglit cohjniii with acanthus crowned Some riot woukl deface or rite pi-ofane, Could the nmte stones for rescue plead in vain ? STATILIA. A poor bird fluttering toward the seri)ent's fangs. TIIKCLA. Its spires infold me, and its gorge o'erhangs. And this beast preys on soul and body both. Woe for the spirit, jture awhile and loath. But closed in corporal ties it dares not sever. Till by the carrion's taint corrupt for ever. STATIT.IA. (This heart attests it ! What can tears avail ?) Who are you then, or whose ? TIIECLA. b2 A slave, for sale. THECLA. Blest be the babe exposed lor wolves to meet, Or thieves to maim and beg with through the street ; Brute sense and sleep engross the sufferer's breath, Ignorant of better things till taught by death. But me cast out on Alexandria's shore, Me Rabbi Midian rescued, homeward bore, Mixed with his own, taught, cherished, till in line His kin, his country and his God were mine. But Egypt's hated them, and envied him. A furious rabble tore him limb from limb. His house was sacked and fired, his household fled. And half-starved daughters bartered me for bread. An eunuch bought me and embarked for Rome, With children kidnapped from a Nubian home. Of manners conrily, nor of mien uncouth. This monger trades in human flesh and youth ; Gold is his idol ; and my tears and prayers Are heeded as a steel-trap heeds a hare's : He bought me for my form, with purpose fell Me for my form, my luckless foim, to sell. If e'er you wearied of this world of tears, And sighed to pierce the planetary spheres— ACT I. SCENE I. STATILIA. Cease, miserable maid ! nor prate of woe, Whose aspect and approach is all you know. Come hither, 'earn what woman has to bear ! In sorrow's presence stand, and listen there ! To splendour born, in luxury I rose : My grandsire, the last friend Augustus chose. Triumphed o'er Afi-ica, was consul twice. And Rome and earth long vaunted his advice. My modest father shunned official rods, And served the muse, my mother all the gods. Such parents pledged betimes my marriage vows ; Vestinus wooed and, consul, was my spouse. And our's seemed bliss no fate could interrupt. Ere the moon waned, one evening, as we supped. Arms and a tramp of troops alarmed our board : The doors burst open, smitten with a sword : Through trembling slaves an officer drew nigh, And cried " Vestiims, Ciesar bids you die. Ere midnight die, by any means you please. But I must watch them, and this leech may ease." Vestinus answered " Speed, while choice remains, Let your leech speed and open all my veins : 6 T1I1':CLA. Ami when to Ctv^ur yoii report wliut past, Give him my service and my tlianks — my last." Would gods and men hud sentenced me that hour To share my husband's fate, or lent the power I But foes refased it and no friend could give, For Ciusar's orders came " The wife must live." What thence ensued till 1 Avas next a bride Let Lethe drown and Stygian darkness hide ! But, veiled in purple, following song and torch. With all ill omens welcomed at the porch, By spectres beckoned from the door to flee. Hither I came, his wife who widowed mc. TllECLA. r.et me depart ! STATII.IA. Kemain ! Whate'er my crime 'Tis puiushcd, witness and be warned in time ! Brief was my dream ^f majesty and power, As autunni's morn whose sunshine turns to shower, As wine's inebriate wit till reason wakes, O'' 'v child's passion for the toy he breaks. er, ACT I. SCENK I. Ere the vogue varied for our nuptial hymn, Ere the I.ride's garland on my hrovv was dim, Though slight the change in Nero's manners' spi.d, 'Tvvas imaged in his slaves and magnified ; Sneers glimmered, and anon the phrase was free That the wife's ornaments sufficed for me. Thence to my opening eyes and wakening soul What dread, dread secrets gan this roof unroll ! The porch is fair, with revels sculptured round, With golden capitals the shafts are crowned ; ' Bright arabesques embower saloon and hall ; Groves, cloisters, fountains, art has peopled all : But mid the graven groups and i)ictured fables, The crystal wine cups and the i\ory tables, Monscers more horrible than hell's emei-ge. And fiercer fiends than furies stretch the scourge. The fate they threaten and the guilt they blame Would sear your heart, as vellum at the flame. To Ctpsar's house ere beauty flee for life Or innocejice ,ask aid of Caesar's wife— Leap from the clifl^and claim a sea-nymph's care! Tempt Kome's arena when th(. wolf is there! 8 TIIi:CLA. When winter howls tempt Tivoli's abyss, To death and hell tetnjit any Avay bnt this ! THECLA. Woe ! for thy port grows terrible and jjrand, As the dread Si)hinx o'ershadows Egypt's sand. And I, frail swimmer, struggling to escape From torrent Nile, where river-dragons gape, Meet on the marge a lion from the wold. Yet hear, still hear ! My tale is half untold. Last night, with haughty step and followers four, A Roman, cloaked and hooded, darked our door. With brow far beetling o'er a serpent's eye, Ilis glance passed other forms of bondage by. And singled mine-methought he would devour. I swooned. On waking, all had left the bower ; But horror staid behind, and urged my flight. I sallied to the street ere morn was bright : Pursued and nigh o'erta'eu, Avith desperate pace I pierced the palace-gate, and baulked the chase. Yet still that jutty forehead, snaky glare, And swinish neck seem here, seem everywhere. ACT I. {SCENE 1. STATILIA. I'^ly .' 'tis the .satyr's hoof, the centaur's shape, n.e faun, Jialf-deity half-boast : e.cai,e ! liun^.'s househokl Pan pursues thee with a mesh AncI Egypt's dog is daniorous for thy flesh. ^y •' My worst visions are fulfilled to-day. 1' Voni Jio,„o, from Italy, from earth away ! <>"t-' to thy master's mart of vice and lust, Or course the streets till trampled there to'dust ' TllKCLA. Ah ! why so wroth ? W •hat reason have I given ? STATILIA. Enough to rive thy heart as mJno • • J "cai I, as mme is riven. TIIECLA 'i'o Ileal them both, have pity on my life ! STATILIA. '^-.t palter V Out! Am I not Caesar's wife ^ Whose power and spirit still so far arc mine, That slaves within need nothing but my sign, C 10 TIIECLA. To bind uiul bear thee to the torturer's cell Arched under earth, siiid wall thee in a well, Of hands and feet bereft, of nose and lips, Ears cropped, and eyes immersed in such eclipse The paramour, whose folly thought thee fair. Would doubt what animal were grovelling there. THECLA. Now savo me, God ! the only God that saves ! 1 sink, I faint — STATILIA. Slaves ! Hither, hither, slaves ! ACT I. SCENK II. II scenm: ti. IIRLTUS. STATILIA. TITECLA. Sr.AVES (ricliiis!) STATILIA. SLAVES. Command ! STATILIA. Tliat boggar is dismissed. Conduct her to the street. SLAVES. Depart ! MELIUS. C2 Desist ! \9 TIIECLA. 8TATIL1A. (My tlronm^ I) HRUIJS. Conduct licr to tli<' imperiiil bowtM-s I Culm rouv dcportmtMit, pray, ami pnrtloii ours, Statilin! Rome has oracles divine ; But in all else your pleasure shall be mine. STATIT.IA. (Vestinus!) HELIUS. (Send a leech ! Let delicate hands Restore and robe her !) Please you, your commands? STATIT-IA. (Great gods!) HELIUS. To cheer you and delight us all, Deign grace awhile to-day the judgment hull. There's a grand oyer : CfEsar to preside : And the Jew, Paul of Tarsus, w'll be tried. '&m ACT I. SCENI, fi. la 8TATILIA. PfUll HKLIirs. 0..ill,a l,rinnr.s In„, ; poliorts y ne'er redress ? Why claim regard of men they fail to hless ? ^^('i' I. NCKNE IV. SKN'KCA. lo l.lamo the gods or doubt .heirpnnUIe.M. ■ <>'-• M.St with Hllthutwo.nuuhoo.lcun win, A.sk of tluMvorkhs without you und within ' "<>- were they culled fi.on.no,hin.no.su,llnio.h,v Vi.unm„e,whut,oven.sull those ,.euhnsoni"ht ^^'"""-unVnund,undallinheuven'sexpun.^ 19 STAIIIJA, c'huuce. ^•'Hlonis! whut's impossible or strunj^e To chuucN infinite uud endless eln.n Jv And where wus,u-ovid..nce ere u.un hud bi,,hP VVhez-e, when all woHds were subjected to earth All eurth to Kon,e, und Hon.e to Cesar's nod > These wulls beur witness ehunce alone is god. What else could n>ake them seem of sacred stone Or tolerate all they hide, o,- all they own > ^V know! not Tiber's torrent, nor the Rhine's, ^'"• .•'11 HuHreams of Alps and Apennines, 1)2 20 THECLA. Nor all the cataracts that heaveu can raiu, Nor the whole deluge of the iiuligiuiut main Could wash this ])alace clean of blood and sin. CHRISTIANS ivithoilt. Peace to this ])alace ! Peace to all within I STATILIA. What's that? Who dares apostrophise these halls As heaveu ne'er hailed? Whose followers are they ? SENKCA. Paul's STATILIA. Paul's I What has Paul to do with peace or strife ? He conies in bonds to answer here for life ? SENECA. But his are bonds that set his followers free ; His, words that stir, as temj)ests stir the sea. ACT I. SCENE V. 21 halls e they ? strife ? SCENE y. ^ALJJA. STATILIA. SENECA. GALIJA. Halt, G„a,,Uhe,„,,o„„rtl,e... No a^pof. .v„ r.ll .Spa,„ arrive, nor order, thence but „,i„e • U"t when Spain enters, tell it to the sun • Let the full choir of elarions peal ,« one! htatilia, Rome's example, feai-'s bride, And Seneca, his empire's light and guide Know ye what fetes were yesterday fuldliodP Know ye whose death the best of princes willed > Whose? STATILIA. Thrasea's. GALBA. STALIhiA. Thrusca ffone ? GALBA. Digmissed from earth, ^^or cnmc, descried where others saw hut v^orth. 22 THIX'LA. Home ^^lllukleI•.- miito ; iln; temples arc in tear.-* ; And virtue seems extinct— as faction fears. SENECA. No aage for death or life was more preiiaretl. STATILIA. l>iit Ilis la.si inonieiits, know you how llu'v Dm ' ? GALIJA. On Anio's hanks hy moonlight, friemls among, Tlie soul's inuiiortal hope inspired his tongue ; Wlien, as he closed his heaven-directed sj)eecli, The tribune came with soldiers and a leech, And Civsar's order instantly to die. Without adieu, or change of tone or eye, He seized the leech's lancet, homeward drove, And cried " To Jove, the liberator Jove ! Lo, my last thanks and last libation given. Look, if of omen ill, avert it Iltaven I But look, young man! the times ia which you Ww Most need of all examples this 1 give." I. .i ACT I. SCENE V 23 SEN'KCA, Who wouM have guessed lussuilt? Wo U guilt.-' We live to learn. <;ali!a. 'Twas guilt no eye i.ut Cu-sar', oonhl (liscer 'II. I " ? Guilt? STAT I MA. P.ifienco I SKNKCA. «'i'ATlHA. Speak W'liy this— WJ GALBA. 10 next? If An. I too oJd V is Senecu you are quite secure, too pure ? STATILIA. Hmve heard hints might every heart appall iiut wallij have ears. SENECA. Say nothing! we know all. 26 TIIECLA. liut wlieii, when tlicreforo lijive I entered liere With face less blithe, or purpose less sincere, To dare oi- suffer as the gods devised, Howe'cr their eartlily instrument were prized. (JALHA. Tlie gods my guardians are the sole he hears, E'en his own pride, credulity and fears : His pride, that holds my age beneath disdain ; His fears of Gaul, his foolish faith in Spain : Whence legions, trained by mo, are summoned home ; Already one at Ostia moves on Rome. STATIJJA. Say on ! T .e ornaments of Ciesar's wife Are all my portion and 1 loathe the life ; Yet dread divorce ; nor could survive my rank. What is't you meditate ? Be friends, be frank ! GALBA. Business ! ACT I. SCKXEV 27 STATILIA. What ? STATILIA. CALHA. Mon STATU, lA. To slaujfliter wifli the pwino ! But liarm not Ca?snr — <;alija, Caesar's life is mine. Fear not — SENECA. What wonls ! If woman guard them well, Know, Galba, duty might drive man to tell. (JALBA. What liave I said ? what Ctosar would explore? Who tells so little will be racked for more. But Seneca is sage, Statilia wronged ; And neither knows how Ca;sai''s ears arc throno-ed. 11 • ACT I. SC'ENK y. ' 29 i4 Tl.ore, nothing stints my influence ; yet its growth Has scaree snfficed till now to save you l.oth : There, nothing turns on innocence or crime; No, tJie sole question there for all is time. Disgrace o'erhangs the sage, divorce the wife, And death the prefect, who protects his life, iiut had I sought it, think you I should ask His wife and tutor to partake the task ? Though both expected, fi.r their evening's dole. The leech's lancet or the poisoner's howl. Adieu ! veil, SENECA. Stay, Galha ! smitten steel intones. Rocks echo ; is my spirit steel or stone's ? And stay, so please, Statilia ! Looks have speech. And yours need answer; trust the (ruths I teach. ' Here if a maniac raged, or monster reigned. Whom no wrong sated, and no right restrained Kven [ would arm, war with him and strike home To liberate all, or one at least, in IJome : Worn as I am with three-score years and ten, r would strike home, to rescue gods and men 30 TIIECLA. But Iiope still lingers : Cicsar reasons still. He for all worth wants nothing hut the will. Ilis speech can please ; ho cultivates the arts, Loves letters, courts the nuise, has taste and parts. His first five years redeemed an eni[)ire lost : Had counsels came ; worse followed ; frost on frost. Yet patience ! frosts when most intense give way. Extreme of darkness heralds dawn of day. Heaven broods o'er earth ; guilt caimot long prevail : Good words may yet reclaim him. Should they fail, Ere arms are moved, the consequence forecast I Who next ? and what ? This Caesar is our last. Five have you followed : and if one foretold Vou should taste empire, taste he saiil, not hold. Your grandsire tasted il, hut brief the zest, When his blade pierced the last «>", ......I .llsown divine control. Fearing neither fame of godhead, nor the ilic thunder, "■'■'-' ' '"■«"' '"•"■ "l"VU,.„, „„„.,„.,,; ,„„,,„, natur(;'s bars asunder, G murmurs of 42 TllKCLA. Forth beyond the flamnig walls tiiat gird the universe's zone, Forth he fared through all the regions of the infinite unknown. Wlience victorious back lie brought us knowledge what to fear and hope, VVliat are fortune's liniit;5, what is nature's law, and reason's sco})e. Wherefore in her turn religion prostrate under foot is trod ; Death is vanquished, and the victory has exalted man to god. , 1 ^S4^?^vk?.: / universe s ACT 11. SCENKI. 43 le iniiuite A(1T II. Luowledge scf:NE r. hiw, juul Nr.RO. SENKCA. UEUV^. .nVARF ler foot is ulted mail NKRO. What power ha.s palsied you, and outraged us? Wiio is it, ,„a„ or ^od, ii, .-md, why should I ilissemblo, This hierophiuit, this ivusoncr made mo treniblo. What counsel must I take ? what vengeance wreak ? What do, what think ? Speak, Seneca ! Ilelius, si)eak ! HELirs. Shall T (since here experience seems o'ercome, And Avisdom doubts, and eloquence is duml)) — I answer whence this bjiljhicr is, and who, And what an outraged prince should think and do? Impostors, rife in every place and time, Thrived never more than now in Jewry's clime. For Solyma, like Rome, has long aspired To rule mankind, but different means retiuiicd : Arms and the laws arc; Rome's imperial rod ; But Zion claims to commune with a god ; Reveals his rites, interprets his connnand, And oft i)roclaims his kingdom is at hand. And dupes have welcomed every advent named, And victims perished for the crown they claimed ; Till now enthusiasts change the hope they cherished. And crown in heaven the last of them that perished: niblo, iiMo. ^ wreak ? us, siM'sik ! IP. Liid do ? me. (1 : lod, nied ; lorislied, orisliod : ACT II. SCENKI. And plodgo ins renin, in wino-cups, witl. h sc.m <>/ .spiritual empire and tJie life to come. Honce, schooled in Tarsus to some smattering small Of (irecian lore and morals, Paul, or Saul, Has learned to scorn his country', laws in vain . Her poets and her seers have turned his l.rain. And stureurn them and their book' I-t words like Panl's the universe subvert; Lest every form ofgod be spurned as dirt. 4o 46 THI'X'LA. Lost crime's foil cross usurp dominion's sign, Surmount our tomplcs, and bo doomed divine. NERO. Bold measures, Helius! and the best I ken. Still, past success scarce warrants them for men Whose multitude is much, whose madness more. Whom jiower might scorn, and pity will deplore. But history writes while we deliberate thus. All Kome, all earth, methinks, o'erwatches us. For future ages, for the world's repute We counsel — Why is Seneca so mute ? < I SKNECA. Caisar, such cause had needed further time. Wore this my first of counsels so sublime ; lint T, since Paul here sojourned, oft have heard And pondered much the mysteries of his word ; Pondered, with })angs of travail sore bested. To these conclusions, born of doubt and dread. One great Supreme, howe'er adored or named, Nature or God, is everywhere proclaimed ; ACTir. SCKNEJ. 47 mon lore, iloro. IS, eard ^1, By whom all worlds, ull atoms were arranged : He reigns forever, and shall reign unchange.l. All else succumbs to time. The hills aredven, Seas rise, sands deepen from the desert driven ;' Karth's aspect alters as its seasons pass, And men and men's opinions fade as grlss. E'en those dread myths, by which, since earth be^an The great first-cause has been revealed to man, Koligions change : old oracles are dumb ; Rites, ten.ples and the gods to tin.e succun.b. M'hate'er our sires reveretl has lost belief; ^\'hate'er Greece serve.l, save one eternal chief. And, as a night-watch to the orient looks, Rome turns to Egypt's rites and Jewry's books ; i'nx'd of a sensual creed, and craving still To question heaven, and scan its author's will. ^^^^'''^'''' '"^"^'^ "''"^'' ^y nature's primal scheme As blows rebound, recoils from each extreme : Aud,ifinarmsnongehasour'ssi,rpast Are not Rome's vices now the worst and last? Or whether, when earth's wickedness o'erflows ^"■'■'^''^ "-''"■•c'ot once more deigns interpose, ' 4S TIIIX'LA. Ill ' ( To renovate his work, supi)ly defects, And give his laws the sanction man expects. This intervention, due to truth and worth, This long lost intercourse of heaven Avith earth ; Which still the guilty conscience doubts to shun, Which mercy vouches for a world undone, Which hope has long foretold, and faith believed ; This, Paul asseverates, is at last achieved. Strantre news! Is Paul insane? Good taste, gooil sense, Logic and lore still grace his eh>quence : Where Hebrew myths Greek morals have enshrined. And angels hymn what Plato half divined ; As two broad rivers, separate many a mile, Both heaven-descended, join and roll the Nile. Is Paul sincere ? For what is it lie feigns ? Death, death's the issue, which he pleads in chains- Pleads, with a zeal no falsehood --ould inspire, Aye, pleads with lips of light . i tongue of fire. Can reason doubt a God ? can power resist ? If heaven has spoken, list, oh Csesar, list ! i ACT II. SCENE I. 49 !Utli ; shun. ievod ; tMstc, good .'ushriucd, ile. i I chuiiis — re, f fire. V NEUO. Aye. Different elime.s muy difforent rites install. SKNKCA. O.ir sir... „.lo,,(o.l some, und revereneed ftll. NKRO. W.-is ever city stormed, till priests for Rome Evoked tJ.e ^ods, and promised here a homo ? HENKCA. And what if Magnus vowed in Jewry thus, For Salem's fane, a nobler one with us ? IIELIUS. Home has had gods of Egypt, gods of Greece, For here Pan, Jove and Isis reign in peace : Will Salem's deity divide the throne ? Methinks Paul preaches one Supreme alone. SENKCA. ir™,. f„rtl,er ! W|,„t „,, i,i,, j„^ „„j j,_^^_ l!"lminl„„..»„r,„yll„,ievis„|l,y,„„„? n .',() THECLA. IIKLIUS. The power our gods possess the emperor shnres ; This world is Ctessir's, all beside is theirs : Will Salem's god respect the emjieror's worth ? ()!■ preaehes Paul heaven's kingdom come to earth NEltO. ioe ic uoes SENKCA. I [('Ml' further I . :| M".|{0. Have I time to (hiy ? (ares and the hours will never own my sway. Master of cailh am I to i)e tlieir thrall, And yield some fraction of my life to Paul ? Let who will hear him, and believe who can ! My tastes and pleasures trace a different plan, do, Seneca ! your counsel has its meed ; Remand the prisoner, whose excuse you plead ! Say 'tis my ph'asure. and the doom I give, That Paul at present rest in bonds, and live, ACT II. .scm-K I. F«<'." t., ivceiv^. wl..„.v,.r , nay .Inivv near- ■S<» Galhu guard J,i„,, nil wl,o like nuiy I.ear. ")1 NKNKCA. (hvat thanks ! I go to announce it and o'ersee 'Sucl. grace will charm your In.usehold, bond and free H 2 Oli THECLA. SCKNE II. NEHO, HliLIUS. DWAUF. NEKO. lie fails : liu dotes : fits follow tluit diseuse. . ^ lIKLll S. Mcaiiwliile lie makes his own what ineasures please. Yours what offend ; parades his wealth and fame ; And wants of empire nothing but the name. His cant and rhetoric mystify mankind : Your talents are ignored, your tastes maligned, Your feats of art, your scenic palms deprest, Traduced your gifts of driving six abreast. Listless he hears the edicts you rehearse, And scarce connneuds your voice, or reads your verse. NKUO. His own forsooth absorbs his whole applause. But. worse than all, he serves Statilia's cause. ACT II. SCKNK II. He h.ved her fati.er, loved her former spouse. I J.inks to liokl me for ever in her vows ; And Rome woidd ring witJi diatribes on lust, Shoidd I prove generous enough or just To appreciate women by their natural wortli, And raise a bonKao,.,l„„,,„.,oga.e«,„l love von ' 56 Phrases ! TIIECLA. TIIKCI.A. The heart's ! believe, or prove their tnilli I Have wc not both alFection, health and yonth ? Am I not Cajsar ? Need I more than nod. To jrive you all a woman asks her god ? Robes, gems, each luxury of art and ease, Parks, graven groups by terraces and trees, Villas where sport and taste delight to dwell. And ivory boards, and beds of tortoise shell : All earth can yield your happiness to fill, And nothing wanting but your own good will. Accept the garland while the fragrance lives ; And taste the golden fruit the season gives ! An emperor is your suitor, Rome your dower; Enjoy your worth, and bid him to your bower ! Beauty and youth were made for love and pleasure; And fortune crowns them here with every treasui'e. All creatures pair ; no kind had else increased. Heaven's own exann)Ie tem])ls us to the feast, ^CTII. SCENE III. Which nature celebrate, the ,oas provide, An.l fate exacts, for Ca3sar and his b.-ide. 57 Vour bride ? THECLA. IVERO. Had ever nionarcJi bride „„ „., Ivome'« empire and the worid'. is at your feet so meet ? THECLA. ,''"""™- "'■"■"» """™»''. with more ,,,„,„, ^iJiMt me one favour ? NKUo. Name ir ! TIIEOI.A. ^ei me Jience. I 58 TllKCLA. NEHO. Stay, stay I Statiliu'fi dooiiied : (his day we sever. She's l»auished : she's divorced. TIIKOI.A. For me ? No. Never, NKKO. Her de.stiiiy was sealed ere yours was kiictwii. ^ly licart is vacant, vacant house antl throne. Accept them I I conjure, who couUl control — TIIKCLA. This vessel— haply : but my lieart, my soul ? NKKO. 'Tis that I covet : 'tis for that I strive : 'Tis with your own sweet si)irit I would wive. Yet let the casket guard the gem within, The slirinc its idol; both be mine to win ! Ik'jiuty of form and spirit nmst comi)ine; lieart, reason, passion, person, all be mine. . / ACT 11. SCENE III. 59 TIIECLA. (Folly! VV,.ercnmI? Vidian! Ileaveu f«H>id • Vot mij^ht I not do good-as Esther ,!id ? I^'--^'>'>i •' thy law .should sway the Roman's rod And Theela .serve thy people, serve thy God.)' Vuu hesitate— You're NERO. mine. THECLA. Avaunt, away I rrive me a little spaee, to think and pray. Uespeet my freedom, and indulge my foars. I need reflection, solitude and tears : Need eommune here with 0„o no eye can see- Leave me with Tlim ! if I indood am free ? NERO. Yes-While my letters of divorce are sealed. All Romans claim this right; shall Ca^sar yield ? i2 I:'! 60 THECLA. SCENE rv. THECLA. Oh Thou, 'vlio bringcst day from darkness still, Food fiom the furrow, and from rock the rill, And makest frost and tempest cleanse the air, And kings obey thy bidding — hear my prayer I ACT II. SCENE V. 61 SCENE V. STATILIA. THECLA. Slave; ES. STATILIA. The web is spun : the spider waits her prey. Oh could I drive a butterfly that way ! Shame to the vengeance I in vain control ! Locusta's secret has transformed my soul ; As gold did hers. Another on her knees ? The whole house labours with this dire disease. These walls, these vaults are smitten with a change ; And each face fills with something new and strange. Fair maid, and richer than an idol gemmed ! Art thou too waiting to hear Paul condemned r (My rival's face ! and fair enough, I own. To excuse an emperor's fault, could wives condone. Ila ! The same shape Locusta's mirror gave ! I'll break that charm betimes.) How now, fair slave ! I fhought thee comely when we last had words ; ThouVt comelier thus. Fine feathers make fine birds. ■« . . ? Ab ' j M it-,dtt-v^ v.f aK-^ 62 TIIECLA. THKCLA. Alas ! these ^auds become my station ill, Aiul suit my woo as little us my will : Yet might I prize them more is others treasure, Could such things ser\c to les.^on your displeasure. STATILIA. Fshaw ! If you value aught beyond their price, And f^till would shun the abyss of shime and vice, Yon gsj.tes a moment own my slaves' conti-ol, Fly for your ii-i'., yovr inancence. your soul ! THKOLA. Whither ? STATILIA. No matter—fly ! The porch is free- Go, and leave misery, death and sin with me. The moment presses— Speed ! 1 1 I Idiot- THKCLA. I wouhl — STATILIA. Away ! ACT II. sCENK V. TIIfiCLA. IwouM-IwiU. IJutthis array — 63 STATIUA. Lo, your last dmuce. You hesitate, Vou're lost. Remain ! you doubt XHECLA, Wliat ho])e have I without ? STATILIA. Stay then, and welcome to despair within ' Stay, and share with me misery, death and sin I Tis all I have, hut ample, for amends Of past offence : and let us now be friends. We know each other now too well for strife. Con,e, 0.sar's miss, shako hands with Ca3sar's wife r Neitherneed grudge what each of us endures Ke^pcct my portion, and be blest with yours » ^w TIIECLA. That blessing I disdain,, that portion spurn : Aye, though fate's bean, be trcmblin on (he turn. ^'->^'; i;l 64 TIIECLA. Of those three gifts you proiier for my pniiis, I challenge tleath nm\ misery. STATILIA. (Sill remains.) THECLA. But what has cJianged, or what disguised you thus ? To deign o'crstep the bound that separates us ? To promise friendship, and your hand outstretch To me, a sometime slave, and still a wretch ? Glad would I trim my galley to the breeze, Yet mai'vel much what magic smooths the seas. STATILIA. Magic ? Aye. Strange, strange magic has foreshown E'en that my fate blends, Thecia, with your own. Listen I Tliis labyrinth has secret colls. Where a In-ight daughtei- of the dog-sfar dwells. Iler's are alembics, planetary powers. And waxen shapes that dwindle us she lours : Where round exotic plants a cloister sweeps ; A wolf, once human, watches there and weeps ; ((] : i I! i Ill VC I' li. SCENE V. There, white witi. age, u raven tulk.s ulon. And a toml gibbers, ibu..d in doveu stone.' Walled in a donu, that darkens noon to ni.^ht She sits aloof and diademed with light; before her feet a braxen eauldron, bn-mn.ed ^^ "h limped silver: there the iates are limned. I'ore, whoso dares explore them, and descends And, asked who sent him, answers "CW sends " i ho tripod takes. She medicates his eyes An,l waves her wand in ares a rainbow ,|yes. The vault knolls thrice- th.. r.„„i i "^< • tiie eauhlron seelhs and •steams. flo bends above: it settles, and it beams And in the wondrous n.irror fornus are seen '^ -«t scant and dim, then perfect and serene ■ ''"'I'ko events in dramas ,„.,Mb-e«m ^'Vm.gs through the street, or gallies down a stream, '^"^'« future fates in in,ages appear, '^c-enc. after scene, and year succeeding year '' '" '''''"^' '^' '"«^ " vapour clonals the track • IhecauMn.nseeths again, and all is blaek. ' K «0 66 TIIKCLA. \'oirvi' sjcii 'i IHKCI.A. ■V .rn.i \ Firsf— THKCLA. Well :- STATU, lA. Vein Hjruri;_tluiS l)C(Iijrln. Am isl.i. 1 next: n.ii,,. in,,,jr,. on tlie heijrht. An „I,1 n,;n, came ; earth treml.l<.,J n.s he .pake : The mountain burned, and, sinkin^r, left « lake : From whose clear ho.som rose a white-ron.-d b^uid Of youths and maids f|,..,( ancient, led to lund. The IKues grew si., at, ; alt.rs flamed no uior. ; Idol and shrine fell pn.stralr to the floor : Till men-at-anns encio 1 the choir, ,-.nd drove T.> meet their doom, or sncritice to Jove. The pranor came : lire i.M.dles ,.' his see I, And lions in their rages ehaf,. and howl ; h f ACT n. SC'ENK V. A".l I nn. rluTc. an.l ,e.mln^ly dovo.u, ^o'ria. I ridicule, and .ods I doul.t. Ciuud«c,o.e--di.po.e:a„dla.„theroi„ei.i..s Vlme-rohed,au.I ready fo,.tho«eir-.sar„o pains «.i.k. Your figure reappear.. I ,oar- Agaiu the ,nirrorelo..d,s-,and cleared no .nore 67 ><'«'•'"■'■. -"Id y„,„.,n„e decree i.' II 70 THKCLA. F I ■ 1. 1 :. •^TATIIJA. ,"""' ' '"" """»'•• '" ■"^""oe j.„u and l,„te » '""'"■'' y"" «'"»■■ hm., unwdcmcl wait i.lU.ke,l,„lK.„.e.,„Bi„,,l,e«c,.p..„,, ,«„,,, And„„w,„.I„nK.,li„.,„^„„,l„„,„,„|,,|,.„ You temp, ,,,3, ,„„,,„,„, „, ,;,_,^^_^ 1^.^ ^^^^^^ • Von I,™,- |„.„,K,.„u» ,!,„,, ,,,.„,„j^ ,,, ,_^^|^ • Vol, stoal hi, ,i„,„., t„ _|^^^.^^ |_.^ _^^_^ '^' »" }"""-«-lf a Koman ,.i,i,„,_ 7"""""""' "■«■•"•" -n.-^., divide .,„,polr. CUKVLA. Holp, Catsnr! «,v,. ,1,0 ; STATILIA. Muftio up Hint din ' Knock thrico-sny (^..«,, ,e,.t-,.,Hl tluuHf. lior in. ^^'l' n. 8CKNK VI. 71 SCENE VI "i-- STATILfA. TIIECLA. •SLAVKs, NKUo VVIuU-shorelAl., wretches you simll wriMie for tj.is. >>av(' inc ! TIIKCI.A. NKKo. iJo culm. Your Hluve«, Stutiliu > STATILIA. TJIKCLA. '*^«*'v<' n.e n-om tl.at VVJiilc I livi.. ''lATH.lA. ■■ 7'i I J' 72 TIIIX'LA. NKUO. Since when was that i)rei<)«fiuive your (lower ? NVhat ! u> my very house, usurp my power V What, to my J'aee I heard majcjsty hy force ? Traitress ! Take there your letters of divorce. n STATU, lA. Ah ! penned forsooth ah'cady since liie otlinicc ? IIELIUS. Uctiu'n the keys ! take what is yours, and henct- 1 The nuiri'iage contract tlius, and thus we sever. And Hing its fragments to the winds for ever. STATILIA. Cu'sar — IIKMUS. He prudent! STATII.IA. Sycophaiil, l»c ihunli I 1 must have utterance. <'(im( uiiale'ti iiia\ conn ACT 11. SCENE VI. Badge of a burthen borne by none with ease, My predecessors twain or me, these keys I hurl to hei-, my successor, selected To fdl the i)!at'e eie I was well ejected. Oh worthiest choice, no doubt, that mart of lust And luHinr of vice could offer power august ! One, whose high merit needed but be seen— A wench, from Egypt disembarked yestreen ! Whose Ijirth let gods adopt, for men ignore : An outcast, found on Alexandria's shore, Spawn of some crocodile in Egypt's wateis, Reared by a beggar, burlered i)y his daughters, Bought by ji monger, and with Nubians shipped, And sent to Home, for market, to iio stripped. 73 NEUO. Slaves ! are there tortures you would have mc spare ? Arrest that woman! still her, bind her, bear Through three courts n(.r(hward, eastward thre<' <-x. plore. I)«'\vii the dim L'iillciv, to ii brozi'ii d<«or. KiH.rk ilui,..., ilnnsi i„ vnm buillien. sjiy | m-iii ' 74 Tnr:cLA. STATILIA. Augu8t ! (livine ! have; luercy ! iitar ! relent ! Forgive, forgive nu} prostrate ut your feet— Fair Thecla, tleign for pity, deigu entreat ! Hleed me to death ! starve ! strangle ! auy fate. By any way, except that ]»razea gate ! You loved me once ; I thought so, and you swore : And I adored you, aye, as none adore ; I could have knelt and worshipped where you trod. Jie great, be generous, like yourself, my god ! A little longer life ! Forget, forgive ! Divorce me, banish ! only let me live — To hide my hated head in some far isle, Some Lybian crypt, some cave— a little while ; Where never mortal would iiujuire my home, Nor echo thence disquiet you in Home ; Nor bird nor Ijreeze shall whisper J am there, And nothing earthly know, but pain and care. All else be yours, to hold, with years prolonged. And her, whom I so wickedly have wronged : Till nameless stones my sepulchre incrust, And all my crimes and sorrows merge in dust. ACT 11. SCENE Vl. 75 THECLA, Metliinks her prayer would turn an arrow's fliglit, And sootlic tlio north-wind of a winter's night. Shall human hearts prove harder to incline Than storm or steel ? Not Ci«sar's heart, nor mine. Indulge them both ! Be gracious to repentance ! Hoar her, hear mc, and mitigate! that sentence! NKUO. Command ! THKCr,A. Divorciul and banished let her H(H', And shun wlmte'er the pitfall dug for nv. NKllO. Even so. An isle precipitous and tall Above the -^Egtean lifts its cloudlikc wall, Where l^atmos oilers, all you need or crave, In life a prison and in death a grave. Sot forth to-monow for your sea-boat coll ! Till thou avoid my prosonoo! and farewell! L 2 76 TiriX'LA. STATILIA. Farewell ! P\)rjret me soon ! You will, with ea.so. I have tried hard to scrv*? you, hard to please. In vain ! Yet suiFer me tJiis last endeavour Once more to warn you, ere \vc part f'oi- ever. Beware of whom you trust, and whom disdain ! Beware, still more, the prisoner yon nncii.uii : No mortal's voice so menaces t/ioso walls, No Titan's e'er so menaced heavc.i, as Paul's. Let sages doubt, and soldiers scorn alarm, But what fools follow multitudes may arm. CHIMSTIANH without. (Had tijlinsrs! I'f STATU.] A. C'nisil them ! citRiSTiANs without. Blessed are the ptm*. The world shall pjiss away ; tiie word endure. ACT II. SCENE VI. 77 STATILIA. Silence tliat song, or, Cffisar, join the choir ! Quench, or bocomo as fuel to the fire ! Rome has grown great l»y rites our fathers cherished. Uehpect the gods ! I slighted them, and perished. 7H TIIFX'LA. scKNE vri. ;'» NEHO. TIIECLA. HELIUS. DvVAHI CHIIISTIANS without. O'er hill.s jind sens, to priaons und to graves, 'Tis morn timt l.oamp : wake, citizens unpart. NKUO. Thanks, thanks ! To-morrow shall pn.claim our vowp; And Rome and earth eoul'ess you Ca3sar'.s sjwusc. ACT II. SCENE VII. (;iinisTiANs without. IIo! homicide mul lust, 'tis morn tlmt beams ! Your siub will flml you out— TIIECLA. Hark ! 79 NEIJO. Cliristiuii dreams ! TilKCr-A. What throngs ai'e gathering to hear Paul discourse Methinks one thing she prophesied has force. lA't mc assist. If l»aul his faith foresro. And seek his God's and country's overthrow ; My cries for justice shall like her's be swift, And claim Jjis sentence, as my bridal gift. The apostate Jew shall perish as accurst ; Let stones oVrwhehn him ! I will hurl the first. I Jut e'er we punish let us prove the otfencc— 80 TIIECLA. NEUO. Hear you mn\ judrr, : u.^, Heliu.s, we must hence- To cxpluio the lutes. Furewell u\\ Jjile ! TIIKCLA. Farewell IIELIUS. (The shive's already iu Loeusta's eell.) NEllO. How loud on lust old llhetoric will haiaii<,'uc ! IIELIUS. May Chiron's test spare all of us the nan" f/ rf% A( r 11. SCKNK viir. Ml hence — rewell SCENK .Iff CIIOHI S OF CHHISTIANM. ^TUOPIIE. IIo : 'J'o ilio water.s, all who iJiirst ' T:,t' -I roam uiieiol.l, un.stintecl Hows : I'rom eastcTU liiUs the foimtiiin l.ur«t, Hills, that have .sources heaven bestow. Oil weary vi u world of woes, ll'» barharous sous tiutl sensual (laugh lor.-. Ye, who have i)urer hearts than those, lit), hith. !(. tlie waters ! ANTISTROPIIK. Whoe'er lias known affection's blight. Affliction's Sling, misfortune's soourire 1101)0, i;ke a meteor of the night. And wealth unstable as the surge. The coueh disease and anguish ur.'e 'I'll.' breast whoso burthen is a mountain, I'ho breast no human rite can purge. Ho ! hidier to the fonnlain ! .^1 I MICROCOPY RESOlUriON TEST CHART (ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No. 2) 1.0 I.I 1.25 m m I" 2.8 3.2 !f IIIIM ^ mil 4.0 1.4 12.5 2.2 2.0 1.8 1.6 jd APPLIED IIVMGE Inc 1653 East Main Street Rochester, New York 14609 USA (715) 482 - 0300 - Phone (716) 288 - 5989 - Fax 82 TIIECLA. :i^i' i:' El'ODK. Can Ave longer sit contented in the kennel, in the gloom, Poring o'er our graves, nor asking what exists beyond the tomb ? Can we longer trust the fables, which our very slaves deride. Deities effete, and morals based on selfishness and pride ? Morals no religion sanctions, morals every vice defies, And examples — pass in silence, pass them with averted eyes ! Can we use our wondrous reason uor examine whence its birth ? Not of me, the deep makes answer, not of me, re- echoes earth. Can we gaze at heaven nor Avonder who upholds the fabric still ? Can Ave find liim out nor Avorship, Avorship and not ask his will, ACT II. SCENE VIII. 83 Learn his Aviil and not obey it, disobey no/ weep the sin ? Oh ! to wash from us for ever tears without and stains within ! Or still cleave we to the kennel, beasts that perish, weeds that wither ? To the Avaters ! to the fountain ! bondmen, freemen, hither, hither I me wlience m2 84 rilKCLA. il %} ACTIII. S C K N E f . si:neca. Slaves listen, womou weep, the poor are pleased : He chnrms the oppressed, the afflicted and diseased. What school can heal the heart remorse has riven ? What sage give guilt the hope to be forgiven ? What surer rule of life coi.ld morals preach Than heaven's own will revealed in writ and speech ? What nobler type has gotlhcad than the Son Who loved and suffered for a world undone ? Yet here are dogmas reason must reject? Keason has bounds : hear further and reflect I I shall find leisure when I steal from Rome, And make some woodland solitude my home ; Some island in a lake whose waters sleep. Some greensward's terrace half-way up the steep. ACT III. SCENE I. 85 That looks o'er meadows flcckud with flocks at rest, Wlicre lixiiH glides and Corduba is blest. Wiijit need 1 more than books and tablets there, A straw-strown couch and philosophic fare, To enjoy and rule the kingdom of my mind ; Explore its treasures, cull their best, and bind In phrases quaint, as silver sets a gem, For men lo praise, or, if they will, contemn. Thought, only thought can pain the soul or please ; And my soul's peace depends on thoughts like these. Why waste life's remnant here in toil and cai-e ? I sctirce sustain what others press to share. Riches l)ut tempt the foe to follow faster ; They, like Acta-on's dogs, devour their master. Obscurity and ease are all I need. These let me challenge, and from Rome recede : Like some old courser, first in many a test, But now turned out to pasture and to rest. Long have I braved the perils of this court, The poisoner's craft, and slanderer's false report ; No drtv shunned, no labour spared : in vain ! The more, since Burrhus, stricken down by bane, 86 TIIECLA. His face averted, when the prince inquired, And answering -' AH is well witli n.e !" expired. Want follows waste : the treasury stands agape. My wealth pursues me : fame betrays. Escape .' " How ? " cried the mouse : the granary's chink replied " E'en poor and empty as you passed inside." The Inuited castor mutilates itself. Caesar wants money, and I scorn the pelf. Oh freedom, long desired and oft contrived — He comes ! the time to attempt it has arrived. i 'M u ' * ACT III. SCENE II. 87 SCENE II. NERO. SENECA. DWARF. NERO. Doiir kind old man, my friend and tutor sage, I grieve to find you pale beyond your age. You suffer, you are ill. Repose you here ! And mine own taster shall bring wine to cheer- Choice Massic, of all ailments cure alone ; The true nepenthe Helen learned of Thone ; Whence soul and body both imbibe relief, And long oblivion comes to pain and grief. SKNKCA. Cnesar, my ills are more than Massic cures, Or Helen's cup, or any power but your's. Have I not served, within this golden gate, Your studies fourteen years, your counsels eight ? And been so whelmed with honour and with treasure, Nothing seemed wanting to my bliss but measure. ^ili ; 88 THECLA. I ; l^s I Impcriul u.so gives here examples just. Tour own great-gm.ulf'atl.er, tJie first August, Dismissed Agrippa to a Lesbian liome, Dismissed IMeeanias to repose in Rome ; Both comrades, this in war and that in peace, An.l both well pensioned ere they sought release. But what pretext for bounty could bo made Of me, save books and studies in the shade? And those, when called to educate your youth, ^^'ere thus o'erhonoured and o'erpaid in sooth.' Yet have you added wealth and place, so high, My mind oft questions who and where am l"? ' Of rank equestrian, and provincial birth, What makes this upstart with the first of earth ? Where now those wishes pure content fulfils ? Forsooth in gardens and suburban vills, In adding tower to tower and lea to lea. And sending gold for usury o'er the sea. My fortune's sole excuse was Cesar's pleasure But have not both of us surpassed the measure Of all a, prince should grant or subject share ? More would move envy : not for you to bear ; ACT III. SCENE II. 89 .5* -Si ,4" it Such luiinan griefs fall far beneath your aiute ; Me they o'erwhehn : release me from their weight I As age in war or travel claims support, An old man, wearied with the cares of court. Whose slightest charge exceeds his strength and health, Cries out beneath the burthen of his wealth. Help ! and let othei-s take the charge and risk ; And add at once my fortune to the fisc I Think not I sink to poverty or need : Impediments and pomps are all I cede. Books shall reclaim the moments wealth demiuuls, And my mind's culture supersede my land's. You follow fortune still, with flag unfurled, And strength to wield the empire of the world ! But age requires and service claims relief: Nor dims that claim the lustre of a chief, Whose friends thus prove so paramount to place riuit. laised with honour, they can fall with grace. NEKO. To answer promj)tly so profound a speech Had needed talent far beyond my loach ; N 1'.;^^ }i I!' I 90 TIIECLA. But to foresee, or, failing to foresee, Deal with the unforeseeu, was learned of thee. True, my great-grandsire gave Agiippa rest, And gave Mecajnas, both with age opprest ; Yet neither stript of Avhat their toil had gained, In camps and battles, where his youth was trained. My earlier years laekeil only books and lore ; Or doubtless you in arms had served me more. Still services like yours through life avail ; While towers and treasures, my rewards, may fail. Great as you deem them, greater have been known For meed of merit far beneath your own : I name not libertines or sons of earth ; But 'tis not always wealth is false to worth. What, green in age, and equal to the pains And palms of office, now your pupil reigns, Retire, ere Galba goes, though consul thrice ? Shall Claudius then seem worthier your advice ? Nay, tarry still, and give my youth support. And guide my manhood, and adorn my court ! Lest you seem banished from the place you shunned, And reft of what you modestly refund. ACT III. SCENE II. Ah ! seek no praise that caUimny may claim, Nor on a friend's discredit found your fame ! Is your wealth more than many a miser sums ? Embrace ! 91 «S8 SKNECA. Thanks, Caesar ! NEUO. 'Tis my taster comes. 'Ti£ my choice M&ssic. Dwarf, fill up, fill up ! And, Seneca, come drain the crystal cup ! Lo, the last pledge of Rome's imperial host. This he gives those who merit it the most. 'Twill chase fatigue, as mist before the sun. And soothe all anguish, as no sleep has done. Drink ! SENECA. Not for mine existence. NERO. n2 I beseech — 92 THECLA. lljl SENECA. Ctusnr liiinsclfiiays homage to his leech; And iniuo forbids all beverage of the grupe. NEUO. (Bring Melius, Dv.arf !) (The sophist will escape.) What, deny ago its medicinal wine ? I doubt your leech's skill— (consult with mine!) nr"''( ^ ( :i :\ ! I ACT III. SCENE HI. 93 SCENE III. FIELIUS. NERO. SENECA. DWARF. Ilclius ! NEUO. IIELIUS. Ah I Cfcsar ! NERO. Wlicrcforo this nlarm ? HELIUS. First let me separate you from him aud harm. NERO. Helius? HELIUS. The mystery's solved of Piso's plot- 'Twas ho, 'twas Seneca-- »■)•: lil III 94 THECLA. NERO. Great gods ! 'Twas not. Who dares defame him ? HELIUS. Every thing has proof. The intrigue is all unravelled, web and woof. Locusta'8 mill has sifted flour and bran. Piso was but a pageant— there's the man ! 'Twns Seneca should take the imperial robe ; That stoicism forsooth might rule the globe. NERO. That's like their cant. 1 ' t ". ! i ■ ■ til i ? 1 IIELIUS. Philosophers are kings. NERO. My friend and tutor sage, you hear these things ? iUi ACT III. SCENE III. 95 SENECA. As a man hears, whom innocence protects, And no event surprise!^, none dejects. For none can harm : my consT'once none can touch. ^ NERO. TJiat's well. IIELIUS. Have you no more for answer ? SENECA. Much But, Helius, first I ask the accuser's name. IIELIUS. Chiron. SENECA. What Chiron ? Piso's slave ? IIELIUS. The same. ^?K ): il' i^ ' 96 Ciusur, oonfrout us ! THECLA. SENECA. riELIUS. You tk'fy llic (loiitl. SENECA. All! IIELIUS. lli« last words heaped curses on your head SENECA. I never gave him cause. •i! IIELIUS. Then why so moved ? I ' I SENECA. Lest Cfcsar think your false assertions proved — For you're the accuser now. Come, state at largo What Itave I done, what plotted — what's the charge ? 1=1 ACT III. SCENE III. UK I I'iso was ina.sk, to wear aiU' iist asidt' Fur your sake, yours : so Chiron saiil, and died. 97 '!fl 1! sp:neca. Whul further ? IIELIUS. Ftirther ? Death prevented more. SKNECA. What! e'en that curse? which wiiy should Chiron pour? My name beguiled him not : or had he said it, I never knew it then, nor now can credit. If Piso mixed me with his mad endeavour, I never sanctioned, ncAcr know it. ticver. NEKO. Helius, in sooth some proof of that is lacked. HELIUS. But add the fact Natnlis told— XEUO. What fact ? o i' B '€ ,l!|i.' it • ifii li ^\ ^ ts ^1? 98 THECLA. HELIUS. Piso sent some, iiucoiiscious of his treason, To Seneca when ill, antl asked the reason No visits were returneil — NERO. Is that true ? SKNECA. Y^es HELIUS. What was your answer ? SENECA. Well, what was it? HELIUS. This. 11 « 'Twere best awhile to cease such interchange : But your own welfare hung on his — ACT J II. SCENE III. 99 NEUO. That's strangt ! Vou hear that ? SENECA. I bethink me now, I used 111 health for plea why visits were refused ; But had no motive, and can none divine, For prizing Piso'.s welfare more than mine : And none knows better than the emperor knows How my lips loathe such compliments as those. But when was Chiron questioned ? who was there ? Who heard his words ? who registered ? NERO. Forbear ! 1 pray you both, forbear I My heart is racked. With shafts no trick of rhetoric can extract. Piso had youth, ancestral fame and pride. To prompt and palliate that for which he died ; But here's a pedant, old and out of health, A man I raised from poverty to wealth, o2 100 THECLA. P / From notliiugness to hououi's ijuue trausceiul ; Mado him my tutor, couiii^cllor ond friend : This mau conspires to assas.sinatc conspires To tear me piecemeal, by a moi> he hires. Or hurl me o'er the ])reeipiee to hell ; That he, forsooth, may totter Avhere I fell. As if the Galbas, Othos, and the floAvcr Of Rome's high stems to Cordnba Avoidd oowei- ; And camps and navios serve for rhetoric tools, And earth au emperor seek in Grecian schools. SENECA. One moment hear me- lil '1M^ i , I NEIU). 'Twas by friends he cherished, By foes he pardoned, the first Caesar perished. I slum that error ; nor shall you repeat What Brutus dared ; tlu.ugli Tullius praised the tea(. SEXEOA. Hnt liear — ACT III. SCENE III. 101 NERO. Already I have heard you both, Uh cliargo, and your denial. Add your oath ! Ilelius add hiy ! and what's the sum for trial ? Oaih against oath, his charge and your denial. SKNECA. vol' ; ?herisihcd, tlie fejti. Ciiesnr, hear reason - NERO. You have gifts of speech, And rhetoric arts, beyond a soldier's reach ; And can prepare, or haply now recite Most eloquent tropes, to puzzle wrong and right. Out on such rubbish I Let me read your breast. Come, give both truth and loyalty a test. Answer me this ! Had Caesar been destroyed — SENECA. Such omens Heaven avert, and vou avoid ! >f ;W 'If ! J 02 TIIECLA. NKRO. Blencli not at that. Have courage, and tell truth. By all you still profess, and taught my youth ! Had Plso done whatever ho designed, And ofFered you the empire of mankind ; Say, aye or no! if nothing had withstood, Would you have ta'en that offer ? SENECA. Aye, I would, NEUO. You've all things ready to leave life, no doubt ? SENECA. No more than man should never bo without. , ^ ! NERO. Then home ! and die ! A sentence niyrcy leavens. Or you should learn what 'tis to die, hy heavens I ( ,,t i;i j. ACT III. SCENE III. 103 SENECA. Thanks, Caesar. NERO. Hie, good Helius ! take my leech - Give him till sunset — ever in your reach. (His will needs now no codicil.) Farewell, Ingrate and ti'aitor ! Prosper you in hell ! SENECA. Cfesar ! NERO. Be silent ! More reproach I spare : Nor more will heed your cant, nor hear your prayer. 5 '1 t ■ 104 THECLA. SCENE IV. t SENECA. IlELTT^S. l'\ ; ■ 1 ,., 1 .. " i ' HELIUS. I too, here charged unwillingly to wait, And hence conduct you to the verge of fate, 1, misconceived your foe, would words refrain, And spare your exit all superfluous pain. Only bethink you of the appointed hour ; And live, while living, as in Ca3sar's power. SKNECA. ITelius my foe ? From enmity exempt Towards all, for him T feel not e'en contempt. But life's last day has duties to fulfil. Remain you must, behave as e'en you will : Yet learn one lesson, if your heart incline, If else, your conduct must not influence mine. Oh my sweet wife ! Philosopher, be firm ! Know, blest of heaven, all l)lessings have their term. ACT in. SCENE IV. 105 The moment needs lot tenderness but force. Prove you can practise what you could discourse! Arm her with courage for the last adieu, And not to impede your going, nor pursue. But here again comes misery, blind as night ; That knows not good from evil, wrong from right. KMj TllECLA. ^k SCENE V. STATIUA. ITFLIUP. SENECA. STxVTIMA. Oh, best of friends, and bitterest of foes. Hear, Seneca and Ilelius, hear my woes ! Divorce and banishment ! By all above, For no offence towards Caesar, but my love. His doom to-day to-morrow must enforce. Oh, doom of misery ! exile and divorce ! Nay, Seneca, such ills have no relief. Philosophy itself should share my grief. But hear, ye furies ! hear in hell's abyss, 'Tis Helius, Helius I've to thank for this. '•I HELirS. You wrong me much — STATILTA. Accursed be thy brain ! As scathed a tree-top Avithers on the plain, li . ACT III. SCENE V. 107 Witli feet as rooted, let thy limbs disown Their office, aud thy tongue forget its touu I Sleep Hy thy bed, aud ii , ipetite thy board ! Thy heart with stings in every pulse be stored ! Thine eyes see only phantoms night shall rear, And nothing but my curses pierce thine ear ! 'Till from thy bones their sinews burst alive, And worms devour thee long ere death arrive. SENECA. Wave after wave thus menaces the rocks ; The shipwieck trembles, but the headland mocks : And spray and foam, from billows heavenward tost. Return to ocean, or in air are lost. Subdue this storm ! resume your self-control ! Is not all sting of suffering in the soul ? Can the soul feel but what attention seizes ? Which can not habit guide as reason pleases ? Like some fair house, well-furnished, make your mind ; With courts and bowers for every use assigned ; Bowers for the bath, for exercise, for sleep, Bowers for refection, bowers for books : but keep r2 r if .1 Ni !h 108 TllECLA. No cell neglected, no unguarded giite, Nor deu of liorrora keep for spleen or hate ! Who knocks so loud there ? ''Lictors !" What about ? " Exile, death, torture ! " Do it then without ! While here my soul resumes its work within : Your's needs no notice more, nor more shall win. Why, strip these bugbears of their pomp and suit, Our groundless fears and people's false repute ; Bring exile and divorce to weight and scale ; Add, if you will, death's terrors to the tale ; Exile, divorce and death, in all their force. What are they ? E'en death, exile and divorce. No more ? All else is added by our fears. Anxiety and grief, like sobs and tears. Spring from ourselves. A child can these suppress ; Melhinks adults should nnister those no less. ! I STATILIA. You reason, but I suffer. SK.NKCA. Reason still I And learn that suffering half depends on will. ACT III. SCENE V. 109 about r n. Liit, STATILIA. The nick, untried, is scanned with curious eyes, But how unlike the wretch's whom it tries. And ts, No woman understands, and this derides. e! SENECA, We part, on different paths, perhaps for Make duty's still your preference and en.leavour ! )r ever ■ a a - im^ t ttmituemi^- 114 THECLA. I' ^ I'l And still success your footsteps shall pursue, As still it folloAvs mine. Adieu ! tf:' STATIMA. Adieu ACT 111. SCENE VI. 115 SCENE VI. STATILIA. HELIUS. STAT ILIA. High flown and ominous, as eveuiug's rack ! And Ilelius sneer and dictate ? Ila ! come back ! Ho ! you, ^vho used to tremble at my breath — Accursed minister of doom and death, What's now your business with the best of Rome ? HELIUS. Next nothing. STATI1.IA. Whither weml you with liim ? HELIUS. Home. q2 il I 116 Coiuleiniieil TiIi:CLA. MATIMA. UELIUS. Hei^. STAXIMA. To banishment ? IIELI'JS. To die. If .'''Mill r I '••^ A(.T III. SCENE VII. 11' SCENE VII. ST ATI Ll A. Ah, whiit a witlt'ris, Avoitlilcss wretch uin I ! And thus the hero to his tomb desceucls, Nor owns a sorrow till he soothe a friend's : While I reproached, insulted him, methinks, And mixed with bitterness the dregs he drinks. Ah, shameless woman ! Follow ? 'Tis too late. There closes, crash on crash, the brazen gate, Which death, divorce and banishment invest, Oh fast and hard, as Nero's brazen breast ! That gate divides me from the noblest sage, That ever graced an impious clin' 3 and age ; Last of my father's friends, and sole of all. That cither mourned my rise, or mourns my fall. Adieu ! The stoic's stern philosophy Ne'er shone so pure and brilliant as in thee. Great moralist ! whose wisdom, lore and worth Were guides to Rome, and ornaments to earth ; 118 TIIIX'LA. w \ Teaching immkiml to t'lisure their own re|)os«e, To work out happiness from wrongs an 1 woes, To con^ner anger, tolei'nte eonlenipt, Live, though in chains, from servitude exempt. Esteem good conscience more than e'en good lieaith, And alms and gifts the only use of wealth. So, Seneca must die ; as Tlu'asea died. Star after star extinguished, guide on guide I Oh, what a drear and desolate world is this ! A shoreless sea, a fathomless abyss, And lieaven, as marble, arched o'er all in night— THKCLA loit/iout. Come, dayspring from on high I innnortal light I M STATILIA. Vain vows I What answei- have the gods to give ? Despair and peiish ! TIIECLA withotif. 1 believe I I live I i. 1. 1 ACT 111. SCKNE VIII. 119 ThrclM ! SCENE VIII. THECLA. 8TATILIA. 8TATIL1A. rilKCLA. Iloavt'ii opeiLs, ii.s u doiuo, alxivc! STATU. lA. (Slio i'iiv(',><.) THECLA. The ]•ut^llin}J: storm— the radiant dove- STATILIA. (She has lieard Paul. His fury fdl.s her breast : And hope relin iis to mine. Wuit. wait the rest !) 1 120 Tlir/LA. TUKCI.A. The cloud rolls wci?t\vnnl, folded ns a robe. A many-coloured rainbow vaults the globe. Land of my fathers, peace be in thy bowers ! Lo, the waste frcHlicnf*, and a fountain towers ! Its healing streams to thine, Damascus, roll ; And Abana and IMiarphar cleanse the soul. Bleak Tabor blossoms ; hymns from Hermon rise ; And Lebanon's broad cednrs greet the skies. :M! till! 'i' / STATIMA. (Ye gods! this Christian Jewess plight her troth As CfBsar's consort ? Konie would rend them both.) TIIECLA. In wilds, beyond the mountains of the morn, Mid rock and sand, a desert lone and lorn, Where but the scorpion breeds or serpent bides, Behold ! with bursting hoof, and heaving sides, With bloodshot eye, and tongue consumed of thirst, Guiltless himself, for others' guilt accurst. ACT [II. SCENE VTII. 121 Feoblo in blent, with look to heaven upcast The mystic scape-goat sinks, and sighs his last. rs tn rise ; 8TATILIA. (Fond fool, pursue your superstitions dreams ! But r already hear the tiger's screams, Whose yellow teeth shall tear you stripped for him, And round the arena scatter limb from limb.) • troth m both.) n. jides, sides, of thirst, TIIECLA. What more could hope demand, or wit devise? Rise, slaves and captives ! lazars, lepers rise ! As rivers pour, lo ! innocence is given. And sorrow, shame and sin aspire to heaven. How proud, hoAv selfish have I been, how vain ! What insolence of grandeur turned my brain ! Off, off, vile gewgaws of a worthless world! This tire, these rubied rings, these bracelets pearled, These spotted wasps, these adders sting my head. How can I wear what others want for bread ? Take, take them, and divide to thoso that need ! Go, clothe the naked, bid (ho rnmished feed! B I »i: r 'Hi 122 THECLA. STATIIJA. (My jewels I Who would prize what she contemns ? But thus t.he dunghill bird appreciates gems : Thus, Cfcsar's gifts the beggar. Fates revoke Both exile and divorce. 'Tis time I spoke.) Once more I cross the progress of your pride, Welcome, I ween, as ghost to liomicide— I I r m ('i TTIKCl.A. Crowned with a star, let Bethlehem lift her voice ! Far isles shall answer, and the floods rejoice. Speak, Salem, speak ! thy tidings are from heaven ; Speak, and be echoed from these mountains seven ! STATILIA. (Forsooth, ye muses, cease your choirs, and learn Of Jewry's harp 1) Will Thecla deign discern ? THEC1.A. Trouble me not ! my sins shall be forgiven. These hands, these feet are pierced ; this heart is riven. ill ACT III. SCENE VIII. 123 ontemns ? s : ake ) clc, [• voice ! e. heaven ; s seven 1 learn icern ? lis heart is Statiiia ? Woe mine eyes, with visions thronged, To o'erlook, sad sight, the woman I have wronged ! Forgive, forgive me ! I Avas vain and young, Friendless, and ignorant of a flatterer's tongue : And fondly thouglit to rule a vacant breast, Rebuild a temple, make a people blest, Till heaven the winnower sent, with fan and sieve, To separate wheat and chaif— Forgive, forgive ! The place you claim, and merit, I resign. It never was, nor should, nor shall be mine. Return, return to Ca3sar's house and heart ! From both forever be it mine to part! For some far wood, some isle beyond the wave, Some outcast's cottage, some barbarian's cave ; Wherever want and woe their couch conceal, There be it mine to minister and kneel : There no extreme shall find my service loath, To soothe all suffering, soul's and body's both. Your wrongs are great ? but great amends are tliese. Accept them ! Pray ! Forgive me, on my knees ! Be not too i)roud ! Accept these great amends. Or dictate more, and let us part as friends. r2 I- ii ■' ( 'III \ V ! t 1 J 1 124 THECLA. STAXILIA. Friends ! You repent, and think to be forgiven ? You, who have beggared me, divorced and driven To exile on a roclc that ocean hems, While here you strew the pavement with my gems : And now, wlien doltish dreams of heaven and hell, And feats the conjurer wrought, or conjured tell, Have roused your credulous hopes or craven fears. Prostrate to me you proffer prayers and teai's ? Pardon, of course, to penitence belongs, And these amends compensate all my wrongs ? Oh fool, and liberal of another's dower ! The amends you offer are beyond your power. Know, great occasions hinge on pivots small ; A gate one moment proves the next a wall. I warned you once, the portal might be passed : I warned you twice — that offer was your last. Yes, Paul may preach offences are commuted, And vouch the cures in Galilee reputed ; But nature's laws hold unrelenting sway : Whoe'er incurs their penalty must pay. Can premises their just conclusion shun? Can crimes their consequence ? What's done is done ACT III. SCENE Vir. 125 What can not be undone must have its meeds, And shed its influence o'er whate'er succeeds. Though great your charms of beauty and discourse, Is Cesar's heart so subject to their force, 'Twill reconcile him to a wife once hated, Or wean from him a wench, ere lust be sated ? The task exceeds your intellect and nerve. Potent to wrong me, impotent to serve. Learn better who it is with whom you mix ! And let me shun him, though to cross the Styx. Thither the only friend, who could have striven To mitigate my doom, e'en now is driven ; Lest haply he should check the hopes you cherish ; And, the last Roman, Seneca must perish. THECLA, Wliat ! Seneca doomed, whom Paul esteemed so well ? Their words made concords, sweet as horn and shell. Each seemed the seraph of a separate sphere, For different parts, in one great purpose here. Proud dame, your lips have arrows sharp and fierce. But all I offer is a heart to pierce. ;|-^ ri.i> t .; 126 TIIECLA. To Coesar ! come I — I pray you, I iiiiplore- 8pced ! I can serve you, reconcile, restore. Trust me ! in vain you execrate and spurn To serve and save you be my sole return. Let my last efforts serve an injured wife, And save a Christian's soul, or sage's life ! I! " i STATILIA. For others, prove your power ! for me, adieu ! When Cuesar wants me, he must seek, and sue. i!) I'l !.'!■: 1 li ' ' U 'i'l i ij ir ;:!; i ilk ACT III. SCENE IX. 127 SCENE IX. STATILIA. Go ! tinsel insect, of a reptile born, Your little day of sunshine clouds at morn. Go, reft of sting, pursue your song and flight ! Go, look for honey-dew where snares invite. And think you charm each creature you annoy, Till seized for sport and toitured by a boy. Yet Syria's goddess made this prince her thrall : Devotion rules the vulgar, great and small. Man's cradle was the east ; and thence has pest, Poison, and power pursued him to the west ; Thence clouds of locusts drive on winds that Avither, And thence religions, old and new, come hither. Nature now dotes : and what if Konie embrace The slavish virtues of that conquered race ? Forgot the Olympian company of Jove, Foi-got the powers that people stieani and grove ; I € ' ( -i n imii lii/ .'( ! ' hi • Vi- i ■ .' .1 i ^: 'U ■ I IS \ I 128 Til EC LA. Fair Dian's train, and memory's fairer choir ; All that beam beauty, all that breathe desire ; Forgot, for what ? mean rites, a wildering creed, Laws none can keep, and letters few can read, Vain hopes, low-lived examples, recreant fears. And a lone god that menaces the spheres. Rome, Rome, adieu ! No isle in ocean lost. No mountain's cavern, wood of Thraciau frost. Or cell in Lybian sand, but oifers home To me less loathed than Cicsar's house in Rome. Ye golden halls, ye tortoise-shell arcades. Towers, graven gates, and leafy colonnades. Farewell ! To me your future aspect looms, , Frightful as ruin's, hateful as the toml)'s. To me disgrace, wan', insult, all the ills Divorce invites, and banishment fulfils. Were, to the pleasures Caesar's house respires, As health's own bed to fever's or to fire's. Let me leave Rome ere evening dark the fen. Hail, and farewell, great mother of great men ! Whose trophies witness, and whose tombs repeat, Thy worth exhausted, and thy womb effete, iii ACT III. SCENE IX. 129 Thy liberties extinct, thy conquests o'er, Thine arts degenerate, and thy mind still more. Though high o'erlooking earth and ocean, still, Barren and bald thou standest on the hill. An oak of leafless top and inly rotten, Or pillar piled for uses long forgotten. Lo ! superstitions drear, malia;n and vile, Arabia's refuse, and the scum of Nile, Myths void of grace, and godheads void of form, Rise from corruption, as an insect swarm : To darken heaven, waste earth, and people hell. Ah, once great mother of great men, farewell ! 11 ^ ' ■ ^ ! I 11 ( ' I ■ ^^ lao TllECLA. SCENE X. CHORUS OF CHRISTIANS. fTROl'HE. Will the hciithen for ever so iji«re ? Will these lords of the laiul and the inniii, And the statesmen and wits, that enlighten their age, Still imagine a counsel so vain ? All the princes and rulers arose with one mind, And the senates assembled and spoke — Break asunder his bands, give his words to the wind ! Let us shake from our shoulders the yoke. But, enthroned in the splendours of uioru, Where the light of the universe spring.^ He shall laugh the philosopher's wisdom to scorn, And rebuke the devices of kings. ANTlSTIlurilK. There's a voice from the zenith, and voice From the rivers and mountains replies- Let the wilderness waken, the desert rejoice. And (he vales witli an anthem arise I I ' ACT III. SCENE X. 131 An liighway shall bo tlicre, an highway for the blest, Which the lioi, and dragon forcffo Where the ransomed may worship, the wayfarer rest, And the impotent bound as a roe. There's a wail fiom the deep , there's a cry From the l)ottomIcss darkness beneath ; There's a his., from the serpent that never can die ; There's a weeping and gnashing of teeth. EPODK. Yet I paused to see the wicked prosper still in lust and pride, Hobed in red, with golden foreheads, and a tongu,. that heaven defied, Blossoming as blooms the heather, swelling as a ti.ie intense — Had I vainly cleansed my heart, and washed my hands in innocence ? Here my feet had nearly faltered, here were shades beset with snares ; Till the word's celestial radia and theirs. s2 ance rose upon my path i; iJ ?r,r"7;~nii i ' ..i. i.j' i . ■ten l\ 132 TIIECLA. Lo, tlicy stniid on slippery places, o'er a fathomless abyss, Gitldy with their height, and madly dancing towards the precipice. Where, where are they ? Oh how abject ! Oh liow terrible their fall ! 'Twas a dream : the world awakes ; and heaven alone is over all. h . I '^i;:| B,„r, l.l . ACT IV. SCENE I. 133 ACT IV. SCENE I. NERO. Avaunt, ascetic bacchanal^*, avaunt ! These walls are weary of your funeral cliaunt ! Woe the fanatic that inspires your vows ! His stormy tongue, his cloud compelling brows Still haunt my senses, as, when sleep has fled, Pale scowls of punished traitors haunt my bed. But Jewry dogs him ; Thecia comes to doom ; And Kome shall welcome him where beasts entomb ; And out for ever shall this trash '>e trod. In blood and dirt, his gospel and his god. Aye, for ere this old Seneca is free Among the dead, and Rome belongs to me— Whom notliing now divine or human thralls. Gods ! shall I change a pedant's yoke for Paul's ? m it I'M I III' 134 Tm-:cLA. 'I I 'i: i 1 , i. ■ !) fi f * ! !, ® '. i il'p', > i * J. 1 - 8 Spnninrds nre coming : Giilba drivels still — Speed hither, gnllants, and hero work my will ! Which camp and forum else would fain deride, Nor own in Jewry's maid an emperor's bride. The pampered slaves shall lick the dust she treads ; And all earth worship whom its master weds. No prince before me knew what power confers. My voice is Rome's : my will, my welfare hers : Whatever lust can prompt, or fancy raise, 'Tis mine to dictate, and the world's to praise. Why, what's this life ? The moment present here. All else is memory, or but hope and fear. The future has not come ; the past has flown : The present's all we lose, and all we own. Alas ! even so, is empire worth the cost ? No pause— no peace— still struggle or be lost ! Suspect— espy— discover- doom -destroy ! Till when ? That old muu loved me well a boy. Why stept he still between me and mine aim ? The shaft once sped, an archer's not to blame. Sooner or later old men must decease. How Helius loiters ! Will he bring me peace ? ACT IV. SCENK I. 133 Chano the grim slmpo. tlmt nightly Hmmg ,„y ro.,.u ; Or .still my mother's shrieking "Sn.ite the womb"? ' la vain have gods been bribed from fane to fane; I'Vom court to court armed sentinels in vain : Not all Locusta's arts can lay that scream, Nor all these conjurers vaunt, and dupes esteem : Wine has no opiate, intellect no force To cease that cry, when midnight wakes remorse. 'Tisdone. 'Twas fated. Children mourn the past ; The future, fools expect, and knaves forecast ; Men sei^e the present. Hero at least we are '; The wlience and wliither never needs a care. if] !..'( 13G TIIECLA. SCENE II. ^fil ;l ; :' n ' in H m (ii Iff i ill ' GALEA. NERO. DWARF. NERO. What tempest agitates the cedar now ? What mist with menace wraps the mountain's brow ? Has Vindex risen from the dead in Gaul ? Or Spain rebelled, or Rome run mad for Paul ? An old man's tears, like thaws in winter, course : If I can stay the cun-ent, state the source ! GALBA. My heart is riven. Rome shudders with a cry That Ctesur's doom sends Seneca to die. NERO. For treason, Galba I fouler ne'er was known, Piso's whole plot for Seneca was sown. The stalk shows first, the blossom bides its hour— But could r smite the stem and spare the flower ? ACT IV. SCENE II. Unless to own all past discoveries vain, And all the accomplices unjustly slain. 137 our ver GALBA. WTien Cii3sar dooms I dare not doubt the reason : But I dare claim compassion e'en for treason, In Cttsar's friend ; whoso precepts formed his mind, Adorn his empire, and might mend mankind. At seventy years, can I have long to mourn, Philosophy extinct, and lore forlorn ? But you, on empire's height, in manhood's flower, Entering a long career of fame and power, You need, to witness and applaud your course, Oh more than arts confer, or arms enforce. Of all your virtues mercy yields to none : Its use but wants occasions : here is one. Revoke that doom ! I dare not say forgive, But mitigate the sentence : let him live ! Your glory's monument, your mercy's shrine— Which ages hence shall hallow as divine. And history cite, to exemplify your worth, While letters hist, or virtue lives on earth. T m •TlWHHiii Ill II h>i 138 TIIECLA. NERO. The advice you olFc'r r GALIU. And the prayer I plead. Accept it, as a god ! accept, aud speed ! Lest death prevent you. Cancel that decree, And call back Seneca to life and me ! For Caesar's sake, for Rome's — ill 1 1 li *;) NERO. I will. I yield. Centurion, fly I My sentence is repealed. OALUA. Make me your messenger ! li. i !■ NERO. Good Gall)a, fly ! You counsel wisely. What a wretch am I ! Speed I That stern sentence is revoked. Be fast ! Had you been here, it never woukl have past. ffi;: ,!!. i ACT IV. SCENE II. Go, rescue him from deatli, and me from worse, The hasty doom one vainly would reverse. Instead of death, be banishment his meed ! And let liim choose what island-Galba, speed ! (On a fool's errand. Helius waits without. He who gains time, gains everything no doubt.) 139 ! T 2 ",f ■MMMlMHU P .' M'r! 140 THECLA. ■ r '•1, Jii: V Ml- SCENE III. HELIU8. NERO. DWARF. NERO. W*^!! ! what miscliauce makes Melius come so co'sVed '. Against my doles are antidotes allowed ? Against my sentence lies appeal ? To whom ? Or dares death doubt to execute ray doom ? ! I ' lifj li: IIELIUS. Be Coesar'.s mandates all as well fulfilled, And all his foes as Seneca i;-" stilled! Ilim have I left, exhaust of blood and breath, In charge of Caisar's favourite lictor, death. NERO. Well said ! But how did Sophistry behave ? Tell by what steps he tottered to his grave ? The play's last scenes are those that mr.st engage j And life grows sweeter as foes leave the stage. ACT IV. SCENE III. 141 IIELJUS. Hence to his house we hastened : on the road, Who passed, were greeted in his usual mode. Our entrance at the porch his wife discerned, And came fortli, cheering « But you have returned !" Then, seeing me, pursued with faltering face— " The gods remunerate Cajsar for his grace !" " To work his will and theirs "-he calmly said— " I hither have returned, as hence I sped j " And bring, the work to witness or fulfil, " This soldier's duty, and that surgeon's skill : " Your fortitude is all there needs beside. «' Think who you are, whose daughter, and whose bride! " Think in Avhose reign our destinies are cast, " And in whose presence we now speak our last." Then kissed her silent till, in vain supprest, A shriek of anguish pierced her surging breast- When the whole household wept aloud and wailed. He strove to soothe them, and ere long prevailed. Then sat, and bade his codicils be brought : AVhich I forbade his altering — NERO. As you ought. •I l.r I' . 142 TIIECLA. IlELIUS. Whereon he, turning to his household, cried— " Since I may leave no legacy beside, " Accept the example I have given and give, " And, as you see me perish, learn to live ! " For noAv 'tis time these elements dissever, " And part, the human and divine, for ever : " Rendering to earth whate'er of earth was given, " While I, the soul, restore myself to heaven. " Whence reason came, as radiance from the sun, " To illume this body, for a work now done. " And, from the teeming womb, when time ordains, •' As struggles forth the babe, with throes and pains ; " As spreads its wings the chrysalis for flight ; " As morn lifts up its eyelids on the height ; " So yearns my spirit toward its second birth, " And bids the flesh farewell— farewell to earth ! " And hail ! the eterne, the beautiful above, " The boundless world of wisdom, worth and love." With this he bared his arms, and called i cech, And stretched them forward. Veins were pierced in each. ACT IV. SCENE III. 143 His wife, dissuaded still, now lanced her own : And her red blood already stained the stone, When, as your orders came, her wounds were closed. Nor dares she since leave life, howe'er disposed. Blood soon ceased flowing from the old man's veins : Cramps followed: and he craved the bowl that Lanes. Which, brought and emptied, answered ill its part. To roach through vacant arteries head or heart. Straight " To the bath ! " he faltered. Whither sped, He took up water, sprinkled it, and said- " To god, the saviour ! " Then sank down beneath. Where he soon ceased to struggle, and to breathe. NERO. The dotard nn'ght have died with less parade. Whate'er his suflfcring, 'twas the choice he made. Life at his years, methiuks, were litlle worth : I gave him seventy : 'twas enough. Henceforth I live and govern for my own behoof, And fear no more philosophy's reproof. Nor will I tolerate Paul's. The world shall know What empire means. You've one thing yet to show- h'i ij ! ) 'I 144 TIIFX'LA. IIELIUS. Ten twelfths to Caesar : one to several friends And one his wife — i'f NERO. Well, well ! but that depends. Now let his name for ever be forg-ot ! IIELIUS. Perish his memory ! li ■ Ml.' : t 1 i h 1 ACT I\', SC'EXE IV 145 8CENE IV. THECLA. HELIUS, NERO. DWARF TIIECLA. Seneca is not ? No more irELius. NERO. What now ? Why kneel you to the skies, With gibl,ering lips, and hands uplift and eyes ? Save to thank heaven : for never death befel For me timed better, nor for you so well. Sweet nymph ! our marriage gods and men speed on. Of two, that dared oppose it, one has gone ; The other waits your pleasure ; yours is mine. Which, forum, camp and senate may malign ; But once let Galba trumpet Spain arrived, An.l earth shnll worship whore ils lord has wived. u 146 THECLA. Hi: I; ill M ii.: ifi But what strnngo mystery in that face appears ! Is gratitude best shown by sighs and tears ? Sunshine and shower in summer's cloud combine— Oh more than ever lovely, more divine ! TIIECLA. (In peace ! A holy and a wholesome thought. Ah, gleams of morn, that mountain-tops have caught ! Spirit to si)irit, dust to dust, we sever: Who made and governs all things, reign.s for ever.) NERO. Thecla, look on me, goddess of my soul ! The hour draws nigh, and swift, ye moments, roll ! Wlien Caesar's love no longer need bo hidden. Our marriage shall lie — TIIECLA. Never ! 'Tis forbidden. Statilia is your wife. If beauty, grace. Talent and truth could vindicate that place. No worthier wife e'er charmed an emperor's heart. Restore her ! love her ! I, 'tis I depart. ACT IV. SCENE IV. 147 NEKO. VVlmt's this '( THKCLA. Fnrewoll ! NEKO, Stay, Tlioeltt, stay .' return The Avorltl is at your feot — THECLA. A world I spuru. NEKO. Accept earth's empire, and its m.ister's love ! TIIECLA. Heaven's kingdom comes : my master reigns above. NEKO. Your words are foolishness— u 2 mi m si! 148 THECLA. TIIFCLA. Your otfers ilrossi, NEUO. 1 wield the sccptre- THECLA. Aiul I wear tUc cross. ' I 'iH \\ NKHo. Ha! Paul has lived too lung. Dear Thecia, stay I An age of jjleasuro wait;? us. rilECLA. Hence ! away ! My heart is changed : my soul transformeil : farewell ! A gulf divides us, fathomless as hell. Go, follow phantoms, and be mocked by dreams ; Go, look for dayspring, where a bonfire gleams ! I know a path to rise by, as the dove, To where bright spheres of innocence and love, ACT IV. SCENE IV. 149 TImt wept the dowiifuU of a world tbrloru, Ilyinii eiu'th's return, uiid welcome back to morn. Ho! foul of heiut, and hands of bloodshed full, Your soot sliiill be as snow, your crimson wool. Wash, or seek refuge uniler earth and sea, For One is coniinj,% whom the hills shall flee. A voice i)rccedes : it echoes iu these walls : He.ur and confess, 'tis Heaven's, and heard in Paul's. ay! liy all our gods- NEKO. THECLA. All vanities and lies I cwell ! NERO. That man shall perish — THECLA. lie shall live! NERO. He dies ! lil i>l 130 TIIECLA. THECLA. Dt'iitli shull not touch him, nor your laennce move. NEUU. That tiuju shall try — TIIECLA. Eternity shall prove. |!- i. f ' I I' . 1 i t ■ij^ I'M - til J". ia NEKO. Time ami the sword- THECLA. Eternity and grace — Where neither ileath has force, nor Ca;sar phice. NEKO, But death and Cicsar here have j)lace and force. TIIECI.A. The soul is free : you cannot quell discourse. And Paul's alreaily peals from zone to /.one — Woi' I if it> tiinie hciij) curt-es on vmn own. ACT IV. SCENE IV. lol c. 1. Beware ! The echoes of that voice sublime Shall pierce through darkness, like the shafts of time, Tlirough silence, like the sun's ; from breast to breast; As waters wear the rock, as vines invest; To grace and gladden earth's remotest spot, When Rome is ruins, and your name forgot. Beware you wrong him, or cons])irc to harm ! A Aviscr watches with a mightier arm. Listen, and learn of him to reign and live. And win a worthier crown than Rome can give. An empire greater than from pole to pole- Right reason's rule, the kingdom of the soul ; The contrite lieart, where peace preserves its throno, That peace you oft invoke, but ne'er have known. Lo ! one good angol lingers o'er you still, For the last time to cry " Thou shalt not kill ! " Repent, ere yet the accepted time be o'er ! Recall Statilia— NERO. Never name her more ! Ill n\ ■ ' 4 J n Ml' \ ; 152 TIIECLA. THECLA. I never will. The Jiccepted time is past : The one good angel gone, that lingered last. Why should I loiter still, or longer strive? Me waters wait to bury and revive, In purity and peace ; from thee to sever, And leave, in ah what company for ever I Mine eyes are opened. Woe I the palace swarms With furies, fiends, and blood-bespotted forms : High in the midst a matron smites her womb, And chides the pale-faced people of the tomb ; Who throng the cloisters, throng the porch, in troops. As wolves gape rotuul the buffivio that droops. Away ! let none resist me, none recall ! My master summons ! From tli(> world ! To Paul ! CIIItlSTIANS wifhoKf. Angels liave charge to rend the prisoiier's chain. And waves to wall a pathway through the main. ■'i !l : I li' . ACT IV. SCENE V. 153 SCENE V. IIELIUS. NERO. DWARF. NERO. Paul to the lions ! H£LIUS. Ctesar ? NEKO. Speed ' HELIUS. 'Tis sped- ut I'liul's II Koiiiaii- NERO. Bring me theti his head ! 4 I '' 154 TIIECLA. As you prize yours. Send orders, instant seud ! Insanity or nonsense, this must end. Bring his head JiitLer, that mine eyes may feast! I fi! ciiuiSTiANS without. Man's blood shall be reciuired of man and beast. i: •'! NEKO. Christians ? Pursue her ! I will not be balked : Though never muse so sang, or syren talked. Pursue ! but wreathe your fetters still with flowers, And lure or bear her to Europa's bowers— No— to the bower where Capricorn careers : There let her rage exhaust itself in tears ! This purity, with Avhich she plumes her pride, Must first be humbled. I have means untried. ill; CHRISTIANS without. In their own craft lie takes the crafty sfill And makes men's anger magnify His will— ACT IV. SCENE V. 155 NKUO. Silence fliose sots I HF.LirS. The headsniau grinds his blade. Your eneinies lie, an Pntil shall soon bo laid ! CHRISTIANS wit/ioiit. Vengeance is His, who can and will repay. Beware the pitfall — NEKO. Ha ! what's that they say ? Locusta hints of mists inhaled, that steep Each sense awhile in half-delirious sleep, Prostrate in imjjotence to strive with force, But conscious still for pleasure keen and coarse. CHUISTIANS tcithout. Brief as a breath the sinner's joys are o'er — Fruit, fair without, but ashes at the core — x2 m 156 THECLA. liemor«e succeeds— u shadow none can fly— And death s j^ale horse, and hell's— NERO. They rave. They lie. 'i I li. CHRISTIANS icithoiit. Their fire still kindles : still their norm corro I^ :s- l\ NERO. Your 3 he that omen, and tiie fate it bodes ! ciiniSTfANs without. Their smoke of toirnvi,; to^ver.- for ev erniore- lii'i 'I \ NERO. Wm no sword smite those maniacs from my door? Dwarf, bring Locusta, ore my l,ath be ta'en— And, Ilolius, speed thereafter news from Spain. ACT IV. SCENE VI. 157 They lie. SCENE VI. NERO. DWARF. NEUO. (Good servants both ! as trustworthy as clever I And silent, both I One must be so for ever.) Cjcsar DWARF. NKKO. Who spoke r nWAHF Beware — NERO. Who said that ? Thou ? Ha! Dwarf! lias dumbness then been feigned till now : Or have these Christians driven a demon thence ? Or gods sent thither one for Rome's defence ? Speak ! If thou canst—- f4]\ 158 Speak, speak ! TIJIOCLA. Heware I NERO. Of what? Of whom? ;:Jh nWARF. Beware my demon and my doom ! \l H 1 1 . ) m 'M NEllO. What's that ? Say on ! UWARF. You see me Iiunched and lame, Of face 111 favoured, and a stunted frame; But once I strode, like others, tall and straight With grace of mien, and confidence of gait ; My limbs as beeehen boughs, my eyes as stars ; The shape and ],ort man images for Mars : And, more, with spirit tameless as the wind ; No toils exhausted me, no terms confined ; / ACT IV. SCENE VI. 159 >f wJioni ? )in : ntl lame, t, All nature's powers seemed opening on my soul, And heaven's blue heights my element and goal. When through the clouds that coming days disclose, O'er fancies bright, a brighter phantom rose, And all my youth's illusions merged in one. An Ethiop's daughter, dazzling as the sun, Made me her guest ; and, sorceress, made accept The cup she drugged. I drained it, and I slept ; Nor know how long : but found in me awake. Oh dreader change than age or death could make ! I found my stature dwarfed, my back imbost, My features shrunk, my fair proportions lost, Extinct my voice, extirpated my tongue. Yet all half-imaged what I had been young — As mildewed maize suggests its tasselled leaves ; As plato its pattern, battered down by thieves. But worse, alas ! for now I feel it such, I found my tastes and passions changed as much : All seeds of former vice o'ergrowu, as gorse. And all of virtue stifled, save remorse. What could I thence, subdued by want and fear, But follow hor for bread, who sold me here '' 1 i' ) If , i 1 KiO THKCLA. The tcrrihio LovmUi, now by time Deformed icnrce less tJmii 1 uui by htr crime. Vou bonjrlit nn.l j.itied me nbJiorred of all, Ami raised to n.Ie your ' , ,. .a your hall. Ami r have loved an,. .,•■ i you as divine ; And now would save irom Hufferings more than mine ill f I; I t't *• ! VEUO. But whence these accents of unearthly knell ? Open thy mouth, in.postor I Death and hell ! Whence, wh -nee these words ? 1>WAI{F. Shall C.Tsar be deceived? The prisoner ])reached-I heard, ami I believed. And, as he crossed to heaven the sacred sign, The shadow of his spirit swept through mine. Prostrate I fell, in tears of penance drowned. He came, with speecli how piteous, how profound • Oh co.dd you hear-send for him, great August ! Ilf'ar, and have faith-he raise.l me from th< dust; ACT IV. SCENE VI. 161 me. ir hnll. o; than iniije. n? 11 : tleccived? 'ved. II, e. I. found ! fust I (lust : And, instant making nil these words mine own, IJude jue seek Ca'snr's face, and, found alone, Sjuak, and say thus — NEKO. Thou liest, or thou ravest. Wretch ! thou shalt learn whose reason 'tis thou bravest. Taul's feats, forsooth ? Locusta's are as clever. By 8tyx ! I'll have thee stilled again for ewv. Dowo, to lier cavern ! and be dwarfed and throed, E'en till thy soul change bodies with tl toad ! Yet stay ! l»erhaps thou'lt serve me better thus. Hear, imp ! Continue dumb to all but us : And watch Locusta ! and lietray, each eve ! (There's none I trust. There's nothing I believe.) Go, I ling the sorceress to my ant( -room! (I wili i iwarc il.y demon, and thy doom.) Mj lfi2 TIIECLA. .SCENE VII. CHORUS UF PAGANS. 1!! r>'i , h;( I STKOI'HK. Hence ! with your upstart superstition ! Your rituals, that disfigure Zion's ! Offspring of ignorance and sedition. In deserts thief and slave partition. Hence ! you, who promise sin remission, For faith in Galilee's magician — The Christians to the lions I Genial and generous rites are ours, By nature taught ere fraud had birth ; Prescriptive gods, primeval powers, That charm and cherish earth. ACT IV. NCKNE VII. 168 ANTISTROPIIK, Great Jove, around whose starry slirino The muses, liours mul graces quiro ; With many a deity benign — The lord of light and lore divine, The maid whose arts with arms combine, The yonth who cheers the world with wine, Tlie fjuoen of soft desire Dian, who speeds the babe unborn, And Mars, who balks the wariior's boast, And she who binds the golden corn- Hail to (he heavenly host! EPODE. And if demigods from earth e'er entered yon celestial dome, Thither if from Greece Alcides if a Ciesar soared from Rome, Have not they, man's benefactors, by whose light he Icnined to live, They, who gave him laws and morals, which the gods forgot to give — y2 iL'rl Mine eyelids are the lighf., mine cars the air's. ACT V. SCENE 1 1. 169 AVES. NERO. There's nothing safe. The writer mu«t be traced. Arrest luul (lucstioii hvv I Centurion, haste ! I passed three heads impaled in the outer court. The bald one seemed of dictatorial port— HELIL'S. Sjllu's. NEJIO. The embalmed one ? that waits, lyre ? nspirp." dares 'f irV. IIEHUS. Plautus'a from Greece. NERO. And one still bleeding HELILS. Paul's. NERO. A blest release ! z ii •^^ I'f 11 ; 170 TIIECLA. in f Three enemies the fewer ! Prospects clear : 1 see before me a long life's career. As one, who climbs the nuuuitain, turns his eyes O'er boumllcss tracts of waters, lands and skies— Clouds few and far. By Lusitanian streams Otho, that beardless priest of Isis, dreams : Vitellius fattens where the Danube runs : And Syria binds Vespasian and his sons. But what served Sylla the dictator's name ? What Plautus lineage of imperial claim ? And Paul, thy faith, that nothing could confute, And words, that none could answer, all are mute. Where now the god, that j.ardous anloo: I too am ready, I, for ollering up. But know! the martyr's blo..d and victim's tears, As seed the forest sows of future years ACTV. SCKNE riF. 17.-. Shnll rise from earth, < r^hadow it, and toss To heftven their trec-tf^ps: and ii.. cr<>*(s, the cross, Which issued hence 1«. torture nnd Jiffriglit, And followed tlirough the world your eagle's flight. That cross returns, sole sign of pence and woiih, S<»le symbol to coiieilinte heaven and eui th, IJi'turns, to hi am o'er dome and diadem. As beams o'er orient hills the njorniug's gem. NEHO. Meanwhile 1 govern Rome, and Rome shall reign While earth com inubj— Cease this odious strain. To me unwonted, id for man unmeet! Tongue never thii> Ibretold but rued the feat. TIIKCLA. A new eonunand, new covenant begins — I'roud city, hear! or perish in thy sins! Thou, that between the mountain and the flood, Hero sittest, rich in pillage, red in blood ; And givest kings their crowns, and men their laws, And challengest in arts the world's applause ; MICROCOPY RESOLUTION TEST CHART (ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No. 2) 1.0 I.I 1.25 IS 2.8 IIIIIM IIIIM ■ 4.0 2.5 2.2 2£ 1.8 1.6 ^ APPLIED IIVMGE Ir S-^ 1653 Easl Main Street ^S Rochester, New York 14609 USA S= (715) 482 - OJOO - Ptione ~ (716) 288- 5989 - Fax ■' ./ ,13' n ; i f \ ( 1 I 17(> THECLA. With theatres and gatcri eucumbrhig plauis, And covering hills with palaces and fanes — A fire shall hedge thee ; plague on plague shall scourge. Lo hordes, as locusts, from the east emerge, Hordes from the north, as snows in winter strive, Hordes from the south, as dust the deserts drive ; And shouts of sea-kings from the west resound, " Down with old Rome! down with her to the ground! " Alas, the broken arch, the tottering stone. The battered idol, and the shaft o'erthrown ! When briars shall climb the cornice gold surmounts, Wild cattle slake their thirst at marble founts, An owlet hoot beneath the graven roof. Mosaics echo to tlie satyr's hoof. Wolves drag their prey to Caesar's banquet-room. And serpents hiss, sole tenants of his tomb. NERO. Treason or madness ! Take her from my sight ! I cannot tolerate this, and will requite. Are these slaves Caesar's, that gape here aghast ? Can Helius hear ? Arrest her, bind her, cast, ACT V. SCENE III. 177 To wait my orders, at the tort'irer's feet, Who tears out tongues, for slanderers to eat. THECLA. Oh monster ! mixed of cruelty and lust, Whose crimes have earned earth's horror and disgust, Till e'en these bondmen shrink from thy decree. And Helius doubts a stronger speaks by me. 'Tis thine no more to deal destruction round : 'Tis thine to tremble— for the trump shall souud— NERO. Kill her ! THECLA. Thou scandal of all future fame, Whom no one virtue has redeemed from shame ! The moment speeds, that sums thy sin's amount, And the last trump shall call thee to account— NERO. These gospelled cravens disobey my will. 'Tis mine own blade must silence her, must kill. A A ■'Wis^' ^^■^-■--s^-l^Sl^CX I J I irt **' d 178 THECLA. What's this ? A swordless hilt ! A scabbard void ! Guards ! The last Caesar is betrayed, destroyed ! Help I Traitress, hands remain to clutch thee fast, To rend thee, strangle thee — THECLA. The moment's past ! Hark ! How your summons peals from hall to hall- NERO. 'Tis Galba's clarions THECLA. 'Tis the trunip of Paul. oj 1 1 . I: i ' 1 f 1 |L ACT V. SCENE IV. 179 SCENE IV. GALJBA. NERO. THECLA. HELIUS. DWARF. Legionaries. Slaves. NERO. What's this ! Where am I ! Magic— or a dream ? On every side spears bristle ! daggers gleam ! What brings you hither ? Here what ?s't you seek, Ere summoned to my presence ? Galba, speak ! What legion ? GALBA. Spain's. NERO. Who brings them hither ? 6ALBA. A a2 I. ^■ar.i i m i n w : I t' J i : 41, ( 1 -t • :; ■ ■ ! 1 ' t ■ 180 TIIECLA. NERO. What means this ? Traitor ! GALEA. Tyrant ! You must die I NERO. Who said that ? Galba ? Do I hear or see ? What ! all conspired to assassinate me, me ? All, even to my hilt without a blade ? Nay, yet one effort— gods, give ear and aid ! Brave Spaniards, hither sped in happy hour, To rescue Caesar from pretorian power, That makes for mine each edict men bemoan. And intercepts each largess else your own — Galba's a traitor ! 'Tis at Galba's sign False Melius desolates your homes and mine. Name your own price, and give me Galba's head ! As much for Helius living, half if dead ! 'Twas for this cause I summoned you to Rome. Obey, and make its palaces your home ! Soldiers, 'tis Caesar orders you : awake ! Caesar, whose arms yon bear, whose bread you break, ilJi ACT V. SCKNE IV. 181 Ca'sar here cluims I'ulliliuL'iit of your oath ; Obey, and save him life and empire both ! What ! Turn ou me the weapons I have given ? By hands I nourished shall my heart be riven ? Ingrates ! All Galba'jr soul is in their eyes : And Melius lightens there, without disguise. The rocks of Spain would sooner heed appeal, Those rocks, whose bowels yield but brass and steel. What's your demand then, Galba? What your pleasure ? Take any office, province, power or treasure ! Or, if all else be little for your share. Take empire too ! but spare existence, spare ! All peace, all order rests on Caesar's fame. Spare the last scion of that house and name ! Send me to build some Syrian fane, for hire; Or earn through Greece my living, by the lyre ; Or beg, or serve— is this too much to give ? Entomb me in the mines— but let me live ! \4 GALBA. Nero ! let no such hoi^e delude your brain. Your prayers are useless, as your threats were vain : "f^rtms^. 1 1 I i I i: . : ,i '. l ¥1 if - 182 TIIECLA. And your weak wiles, my Spanianls to suborn, Turn pity to disgust, and hate to scorn. Why should I cite those prodigies of shame, At which earth shudders ? Why your victims name, Wortliiest of Rome, wliose vengeance I pursue, And here invoke their ghosts to chum its due ? Are not your days all chronicled hy crime. And traced in blood, to shock succeeding time ? Earth, that bears all things, spurns you from her shore : The all-seeing sun will look on you no more : And air, that folds all creatures in its clasp, That brooks the tiger's breath, and feeds the asp, No more will mingle with your heart's supply. But peals to heaven the sentence " Tyrant, die !" What ! CiEsar's name will certes much be missed, When, worst that Avore it, you no more exist ? Haply your pride o'errates a race's worth, Of whose five princes four were pests to earth : Haply, should worthier successors bo seen, Men may make princes, as the bees their queen : And haply, far as name alone inures, Cajsars may spring from nobler blood than yours— m \. m ACTV. SCENE IV. 183 Whose ancestry has many a blot to pass, And whose true name- denotes a "beard of brass," Aye, " Beard of brass !" for such, the proverb said, Best suited heart of stone, and brain of lead. NERO. Are such terms generous ? GALBA. Such are just and true, And here what's generous must attend what's due. NERO. Misfortune mitigates reproach, sometimes. GALBA. Who dooms a criminal, must name his crimes. NERO. What right have you to sentence me to death ? GALBA. What none but tyrants forfeit, right to breath. / f *iMW-"««i^-* 184 TIIECLA. All hands arc raisied against a beast of prey : All arms are lawful when a snake's at bay. Yet here, lest emph'c deem its rank maligned, I, in the name of outraged human kind, Before the gods will challenge, and, for them. Shall Rome's high senate judge you, and condemn. The doom you know — Hi: H! li'' * 'ill' :' M ! ■ i ■ 1 i. 1 ^1 fi,, m u NERO. Oh sterner than the storm, What frost is harder than old age to warm ! Have you no pity, or no claim have 1 ? A prince, so fallen like Phaeton from high. A prince, so swaddled in the purple robe. Ere ruler of himself, to rule the globe ; A prince, so tempted, flattered, ill-advised ; His life, the while, so scanned, so scrutinized ; The bad made worse and everywhere revealed, The little good all lessened and concealed : Till now, no follower left him, friend to aid, Or slave to serve, by gods and men betrayed, He stands here, doomed by one he never harmed, By one he trusted, doomed and, worse I disarmed. iiy ACT V. SCENE IV. 185 M GALBA. There I relent. Your hilt was harmless made, To save, not you, but others from its blade. Dwarf! give him thine— and may the gift impart, What for its use seems wanting, nerve and heart. Receive that dirk ! and with it time and room. So courage hold, to anticipate your doom ! That doom the senate is convened to give. Till then we leave you, if you like, to live, Walled, but unwitnessed, in this court, alone, And master still of one man's life, your own. Receive that dirk ! and for its use betimes, Consult your rank, your conscience and your crimes I Think what becomes your present fate, your past, A pupil of th« sage you slaughtered last, Your mother's house, much graced by tyrants four. Your sire's, by one tyrannicide much more : Think what is due to humankind and Rome, And strike, for vengeance and remorse, strike home ! Be life's last work, an act of justice high. To rid oarth of a monster — Strike and die ! B B M ! ' i i m \ 11' 1 ■ ! 'i 'i: f _■, * > ii i fcl! ^ 186 TIIHCLA. SCENE V. NEHU. There's no escape : these pilhus are too vast. Pavement and vault conspire to hokl rae fast. Rude Made ! but smoother than that old man's tongue. How like a beast's at feeding-time it rung ! And here he leaves me for a future feast — As in the ai-ena I have seen a beast Scanning some Christian, seek again its lair, And crouching eye him, till stirred up to tear. If prince betrayed have still enough control To curse his traitors — cursed be Galba's soul ! Auger and avarice, ye furies twain. That haunt old age, devour his heart and brain ! And thou, that still hast smitten pride to dust, Nor spared one Caisar, save the great August, Pursue the name, oh Nemesis divine ! Give no usurper happier fate than mine ! ACT V, SCENE V. 187 's tongue. t". m t, Mock liim, yc guards, that raise him from the mud ! And, having drained his gold, demand his blood! Hangmen o'ertake him, slaves abandon dead, And dogs in streets make battle for his head ! Why did I trust him ? Yet what cause to fear A childless baldhead in his .seventieth year ! His seventieth year? Did Delphi not divine Woes from that year ? I counted it as mine. To give him honours he could never earn, Fool that I was ! and this is his return ? This knife ! and what, unless I fall on this? What I must fly from, though to hell's abyss. Though to meet there a ruthless mother's ghost, A sire's, a sister's, and the clamorous host Of all sent thither by my bane and blade. From homes as desert as mine own is made. Hence ! horrible shapep ! What is it you prepare ? I never used such tortures — Spare me, spare ! There's no such thing. 'Tis all a dream. Even so? I live — am Caesar — here's my palace ? No. Here ruin has arrived, in Galba's shape. Here is my prison : hence but one escape ; R B 2 ' Hi. III' l' 188 THECLA. By this, his gift— Unless yon walls would feel, Or guards bring Gulba back to mine appeal— For what ? To fling me at his feet returned, Again beg being, and again be spurned ? No. Sooner die. Die, Ctesar ! Must it be ? Oh ! what an artist perishes in me ! Greece would enthrone me ; Egypt half adore : Could I reach Phai , or the Isthmian shore— Or rouse the cohorts ? 'Tis my last resource. Pretorians, help ! Your emperor suffers force ! The doors unbar -to legionary drums— Arms ring. What is it, life or death, that comes ? Death I could bear, in any form enforced But not the wife I banished and divorced. *■! ■II :ilr ; ! .,■; ACT V. SCENE VI. 189 SCENE VI. STATILIA. NERO. STATILIA. Oh Caesar, oh my lord, mine emperor still ! Though all forsake you, and conspire to kill, Give me the leave your enemies have given, And let a sometime wife, to exile driven, Return to r -fort this distressful hour, And offer all fate places in her power. Service and sympathy, my prayers and tears— Oh could I add my life's remaining years ! But take instead, what nothing yet withstands. My last advice, and give your last commands. hi NERO. Advise me how I may escape and live. STATILIA. Caesar, not even the gods have that to give. ^^/n h '11' im I ) 1 .1 frii I t 1 " ; : ||iri 190 THECLA. KERO. Go, make the gods or Galba more benign. 'Say I adopt him : empire I resign : I ask but life, in any climate, isle, Mine, prison-life, a little, little while. STATILIA. Cassar, whate'er such prayers could do is done. Isles, prisons, mines have mercy, Galba none. Though dark their caverns, and their doors be hai-d. His heart is darker, deeper, doubly barred. But why should Cassar's hope to prayer devolve ? Is life or death a question foes should solve ? Why ask of others ? you have all you need : Or have at least all Galba Avill concede — So far supreme, though reft of axe and rods, And emperor still, in spite of men and gods. NERO, Take it ! have courage, and thrust f lirough my heart ! STATILIA. Oh spare me that ! 'twere man's not woman's part n ACT V. SCENE VJ. And, Caism-, least beseems your sometime wife. Fall oil the point, and rid yourself of life ! 191 NEHO. Ye gods ! Low lost, how destitute urn 1 ! Will neither friend nor enemy help me die ? STATILIA.. Friends can but mourn what enemies have reft, Till ah ! how little of yourself is left. Where now the emperor's, where the Roman's soul ? Can senates so strip man of self-control ! ^•i> m NERO. The senate has convened ? STATILIA. Their edict passed- My doom ! NERO. J 1 $An' bj IV ;i iJ I ^i '(■ ( i ll : *■ 1 ! 1 • '■ ' 1 1 1 ! 1 ■. I':; 1 i| !" ,^^ i ''l i^ \'"i 1 ■ ] * ; ■ 11 ; iii I i ( r if 1 1 ' „ !tt. 192 THECLA. STATILIA. A]as ! NERO. What is't ? STATILIA. The worst and last. NERO. Death ? STATILIA. Death. And more — NERO. The mode ? STATILIA. NERO. It must be told — Tell! STATILIA. By the mode our fathers used of old. ACT V. SCENE VI. 193 NERO. I know not that : what is't ? STATILIA. The last and worst. Tis to be stocked, and publicly accursed : Then scourged through streets, stripped naked to the skin, Hands bound behind, a fork beneath the chin, And headlong down the mountain hurled to hell— NERO. Enough. POPULACE toithofit. Where is lie ? (I;i STATILIA. Fare you Avell! NERO. Farewell ! c c «r^' ,7"*^ m: P I: if Hi It: 1 wm II ^ B I, . r t-i fid 194 THIXLA. SCENE VII. GALBA. STATILIA. NERO. HELIUS. DWARF. Legionaries. Populace. populace. Out with him ! Board of brass ! He lives too lon^ ! Our whips are ready, ready fork and thong. Down with the tyrant ! Down, his liouse of goM ! To death ! the way our fathers used of old ! STATILIA. Galba, lo! tliere, in agonies of death, Weltering in blood, and gasping still for breath, Lies the last Caesar ! GALEA. And the Avorst of men. Never that name be given him again ! I gaze with horror on a monster's corse, Who daied all crimes, and never owned remorse. tlJ- E f !i. H ACT V, SCENE VII. liaze out liis titles wheresoe'er emblazed ! The golden house he lived in shall be razed, His acts annulled, his images reversed, And while remembrance lives his name accursed. Rome is restored ! Her citizens are freed ! Each to regain each right the laws concede. 195 s too long I LEGIONARIES. POPULACE. Galba be emperor ! Emperor Galba, live ! GALEA. That power I take not till the ser.ate give. Meanwhile the commonwealth resumes its voice, To inspire imperial lips, if mine the choice. Statilia, seek you hence some other home ! And, by my thought, it should not be in Home — STATILIA. Nor, by my wish. A doom has passed on me, And a voice summons from the -^gaean sea. To where an isle precipitous and tall O'er the lone waters lifts its cloudlike wall, c c 2 M 196 TIIECLA. And PatmoH offers, all I need or crave, In life a dwelling, and in death a grave. Thither my back shall set mo forth to-nion-ow, There to meet fate in solitude and sorrow. Only, one favour ! let me first find room, For earth's late master, in my father's tomb. And, by that speechless Dwarf's o'erflowing eyes, There's one yet left would aid those obsequies. !:: i II ( ! V I Mi ; f: i 1 , i ' ' ' fl: ■ •1 : U.I :l!J GALBA. So please you. Hither, Dwarf ! 'Tis told me late, Among dread signs preceding Nero's fate, Words from your lips forwarned him and conjured- HoAv falsely told, none needs be here assured. Nor need I now an idler tale refute. That 'twas Locusta's magic made you mute. And still constrained by Cajsar's side to stay, A goblin elf, to watch him for her prey. The thought distracts you-But dismiss your fears ! I comprehend your worth, respect your tears. Pity your fate, and will defend your weal. Nay, cease attempts to tell me what you feel ! "Wi ACT V. SCENE VII. 19" Your looks niul manners want not words, be sure ! Is their loss recent? or has man its cure? As you have borne it, bear, in silence meek ! Nor more embrace my hands, nor strive to speak ! Confide— yes, yes, you wear the cross, I see — Go, serve Statilia, and conlide in me. HELIUS. Great Galba- GALBA. Helius waits there, faint and wan— Nor have I words for him, except Begone ! With life— why spared, let men in vain divine. Long as he shuns the city's sight and mine. Bring her you rescued from the tyrant's hold I "Ill' ■ j .; 1 ii i n ■ i ' 1 .( ( II i pf llll, Ii WV ' U)H TIIIXLA. SCENE VIII. TIIECLA. GALBA. CHORUS OF CIIHISTIANS. CHORUS OF PAGANS. Legionaries. T'opulace. GALBA. Tliecla, your story hitherto is told : Henceforth wliut can we for your earthly bliss ? TIIECLA. Nothing for me ; and for my friends but this ! Make it not treason to tell truths we feel, Nor crime to worship what those truths reveal- To pledge our lives *to innocence and love, Cleanse the heart's thought, and lift to hopes above ; Forgiving wrongs, and rendering good for ill. Pot all crimes else, what punishment you will ! Yet slander not the mysteries we adore — And ere you spurn glad tidings deign exploie ! in; " ! ACT V. SCENE VIII. 199 \GANS. All your reqiie«ts are grnuted, but tho last. For that, life's moments are too few and fast. Yet, while I rule, opinion shall be free ; Let everythiu}^ or nothing bend the knee ! The gods, if grieved, may vindicate their cause If careless, careless be like them the laws ! Now take in turn one small request of mine ! Beware you outrage what Rome deems divine ; Or trench on empire, by decrees it blames, Extatic rites, and supernatural claims. bove ; LKGIONARIES. Emperor ! a donative I GALUA. Strike up the drum ! What, what ! For traffic hither have you come ? Your tents are pitched beyond the Na^vian arch ! I give not bribes but orders — LEGIOKARIES. Empej'or ! GALnA. March ! ili I 4, 200 TIIIXLA. I! I I I :! ! 1 ■ ; i, T 1 .' r '. (And when yon weapons turn t)n nic ihcir ire, 13c my last order " Strike! if Konie re(i,ure.") LocuHta's cavern barred inside, and void ? She inii • be found, and with her works destroyed. Explore each cell and passage under ground ! Go, prosecute your search ! She must be found. We now these fasces to the Semite bear, Then seek the fanes, and tliank the immortals tlioro- Whosc judgments o'er us, like a storm, have passed. And quelled this worst of tyrants and the last. By his own hand, its first good v/ork, its sole. But, as earth travails while the tempests roll. And nurses in its womb the germ of spring. So here, while thrones succumb, and ruins ring If I can read such prodigies aright, And dare divine the morrow by the night Beneath this wreck of dynasties and powers, Rome teems with nobler fate than theirs or ours : Silent and secret teems, by due degrees To bring forth all that providence may please. Then march, march on ! and hymn the world's new birth ! Hymn thanks to all in heaven, and peace to all on earth. ACT V. ScI^InE VIII. 291 rnonus of pagans. The gods nre great, the gods are just. Lo, RomeV last tyrant bites the dust. And freedom re-asserts its state. The gods are just, the gods are gref!.. CllOnUS OF CHRISTIANS. Lift up your hearts ! There beams above A herald star of hope and love : The cloud disperses, night departs ; 'Tis day-spring dawns. Lift up your hearts I CHOKUS OF PAGANS. Arbitress of kings and nations, born of Venus, born to Mars, Rome! thy sons, at Galba's summons, gather, as nt night's the stars. To the level of thy fortune lift, lift up tlie people's mind ! Spare the humble, spurn the haughty, and .'ive laws to humankind ! D D i: t '. '\, 1 .'i '( i •f 1 1 1 ,-lif, ; i 1 . 1 I'! ( ! ' t' 1 f^l 'i'fl r *i' 202 THECLA. CHORUS OF CHRISTIANS. Wliatsoever things are honest, whatsoever pure and true, Generous, lovely, well reputed, if to any praise be due, Think of them, and practise them, but oh appreciate them as dross. Rags, that rather shame than clothe you-Nail your virtues to the cross. THECLA. By death divided, flesh and soul Speed to the sphere of cither's birth ; The spirit, to the starry pole. The body, earth to earth. Then forth ! and thither bear along Yon relics, there awhile to sleep : Come forth, come throng, with funeral song, Out of the deep ! mill] I ► ACT V. SCENE VHI. 203 r pure and ' praise be appreciate -Nail your ong, CHORUS OF CHRISTIANS. Out of the deep ! we raise our voice To him who hears the mourner weep, And bids the broken bones rejoice — Out of the deep ! THECLA. Out of the deep ! the lions' den, In blood where martyrs lie like sheep — Till when, till when ? Amen, amen ! Out of the deep ! CHORUS OF CHRISTIANS. Out of the deep ! we part with breath All to be changed, not all to sleep : Where, where, oh death, thy sting ? he saith- Out of the deep ! THECLA. Out of the deep ! his word shall roll O'er earth as waters o'er the steep ; From soul to soul, from pole to pole — Out of the deep ! D D 2 \t i 1 'M i |) ,4: ' 1(^1 204 THECLA. CHORUS OF CHRISTIANS. Out Of the deep! till day shall rise lu flames o'er heaven and eai-th to swce],, And seas and skies lift up their cries- Out of the deep! Out of the deep. *; ' f i EPILOGUE. My task is finished. Myth and Muse farewell ! Here ends my tale : the last I had to tell. So nature willed, or so my demon wrought. Mysterious powers! that fill man's mind with thought- Since nothing is by chance— say ! what decree Brought back such shadows of the past on mo ? And mixed with mine their character and speech, And made me e'en live o'er the life of each— Till my soul seemed the mirror they surveyed. The wax they moulded, and the pipe they played. Who brought them hither, and their coming timed "When woe was me except I wrote and rhymed ? When thought had sallies nothing could coerce, And my lost soul poured forth itself in verse. Oh then what pageantries of eld returned ! Princes and consuls rose from dust inurned : ^f^ ^1% > ''W ' 206 M if ' i 1:: i '\ i 1 ' 1 m I id * I 11: I' ' II' i-. II I- » I. i i 'f EPILOGUE. 1. ondbaro,,, bowed tohw, a Tudor swayed. And queens, taprfsoned this, and that enthroned >.od both iu guilt, whieh one i„ Hood atoued. Pnosts in procession through the minster marched ; And inighls through gates a barbican o'erarched. Lo, Rome from ruins re-asaerts lier reign Recalls her idols, and rebuilds their fane.' 'i'he senate meets; the Ides of March are there ■ White robes, red-edged, pros, round the ivory ch„ir ■ Prone Ca-sar muffles up his mortal pangs : Antonius arms ; and Cicero harangues. What words! What thoughts .- Through every age and chme ^ Their voice still echoes o'er the gulf of time- Pleads the great cause of liberty and worth • Dooms their assassin to the scorn of earth • And lights the gloom of fate with patriot fire As burns and shines his country's funeral pyre. Next, Spain's fair courts and colonnades were seen : >Vhere the son's spouse becomes the father's .ueen. EPILOGUE. 207 In vain young lovers vow for aye to part, Tiberius half revives in Philip's heart. The king detects the passion they suppress. To him, the virtue m.-kes the guilt no less. In the same dungeon the same death they share : Fate happier far than his who doomed them tliere. A shout from myriads surging as the flood— " All men are free ! all equal ! Bread or blood ! " There revolution raves, with song and dance, And axe that drips with slaughter. Woe for Franco ! Yet no form fails, to law and freedom dear : Still legislatures vote, tribunals hear : But one man's breath inspires the doom they give. Of him all ask how long has each to live. Till one fair woman's courage shames their fear : Tallien for her dares war with Robespierre. Armed with dread words, they battle, life for life : France guards the lists, and arbitrates the strife. The scales long vibrate. Truth prevails at last. Down with the tyrant ! Terror's reign has past. Dragged to the block he lies between the beams, And Paris rings with Robespierre's last screams. ■'^.0. II 208 EPILOCxUE. ! f!, i I! '■ i 'i; t t ;i \ ; !;: 1 R^fom.! "-»uch for over been thy p„,,, " "" ""^ "»■■"' ">e neoromanccr'8 art Tl.ot„iers pretence, the g^e of t„„;, „„.,,„ ! "'™"""'™-' ^^^ 0„ee, and „„„ „„e„, "7" ™ "■■*"■■ ^'" '■-- -- t-e,, it, so,„.ee. I.-dvent, whither? And ho,v .,pe,Ut. e„,™e ? As sob, the air, ere inn-rieane, have ,.irred As the sea quiver,, ere that ,„b is heard, The news readied Rome—, „.i ■ «oine— a wli.sper, Bcnrcc per- ceived : * A deep,, tern, .„,n„„r, some who heard believed- A psahn, a rite, in catacomb, immersed • The depth, were moved; the surface seemed a, erst Apostie, came, the, preached, the, wrote the wo,,,'. Basihca, received it, prince, heard- The heatlien rnrz-pri . +i,« ,. ««ea , the persecutor stormed ; ■But earth was changed mul ).«„ Old rnvf I 1 '" ^'^''^ transformed. Old myths became effete, old rites disdamed. ^777'^^^^'^^'«^«««^'^l--dremamed. But bard, beware of mysteries too profound! rhe drama builds not we,, on ha„owed .round. Let fiction seeic some legendary source To in.age scenes, and bid events discourse, EPILOGUE. 209 How light from Betlilchoin ro.so on Ca\sn's donu", And foith's first martyrs sang their dirge to Rome. Wlience, wlicnco these mandates, nothing could control? Why have such phantoms haunted so a soul That sought in Avayward wilfulness to live, And envied nothing fame or power could give ; Nor cared for censure or for praise of verse No praise made better, and no censure worse : While self-approoi; sole recompense desired. Was brief enjoyed, hard earned, nor oft aocjuired, Nor ever stayed misgiving's vain lament Of woe mistaken talents, time misspent. And luckless labour ! Fiend, in line be stilled ! Some purpose has been served, some fate fulfilled. Each atom adds what everything requires: Each act moves something, and each thought inspires. Warned by past errors, science finds the truth ; And falls in childhood keep the poise of youth. Nothing can perish, matter, force, or thought : All, in the infinite work by nature wrought E E 'f! 210 M H m I # !f '! Nl! 1:^ if I'A'UAKiVK. Have part and place. Karh wave on ocean c-nl,.! I^ivcs the vast tide tln.t .urge, round tl.e world. Ki.eh monad l.ear. w]iat o.l.ers J.ave imprest; And who sees all things sees in each tlie rest.' Vol were those visions but as dreams of night, Were their sole n. ssion here thine own delighi, ^yh', oh my soul, should gratitude be less ?" Tlie task they set mc needed not success : The character they formed inspired content ; Gave the great strength to welcome each event ■ To spurn all vulgar care for place or pelf, All vulgar virtue that but seeks itself, And found my peace beyond the world's control I" the heart's thought, the kingdom of the soul.' Shadows ! your mission is fulfilled-and mine. Popart, dread spectres! wliom a voice divine Man calls the muse, evoked from night, to tell Your crimes and wrongs-hence I thither! and far.. Avell! Lot darkness shroud you in its silent den ' I follow-There to be forgot ? Amen. KPILOGCE. 211 Oh Thou ! uho hast awakened ,ne fruni dust. And made sueh facnlties and .seuH'.s mine, To ,c-an thy work., how heauteous how angnst, And eonunune witli the spirit all enshrinr-. Ami take some part in providence divine. If now my labours toucli their destined goal. Into thy hands my future I resi-ni Oh Souree of all things, Refuge of the whole ! Vouehsafe to aeeept the last thanksgiving of my soul. / >1 I f1( f ' I ■« Ll fir LONDON ; misiMi liv c. Hiiwonni ami suns. UKLL VAnii, n:Ml'I.K i;ar. II ! .4!, h'