There be I shall know soon. Farewell-Farewell. [Exeunt PANIA and Soldiers. Myr. These men were honest: it is comfort still 410 That our last looks should be on loving faces. Sar. And lovely ones, my beautiful!—but hear me ! If at this moment,—for we now are on The brink,-thou feel'st an inward shrinking from Myr. Thou shalt see. 420 [Exit MYRRHA. Sar. (solus). She 's firm. My fathers! whom I will rejoin, It may be, purified by death from some As ye bequeathed it, this bright part of it, Which most personifies the soul as leaving Not a mere pillar formed of cloud and flame, Voluptuous princes. Time shall quench full many i. Funeréal -[MS. M.] ii. And strew the earth with ashes .—[MS. M. erased.] 430 440 A people's records, and a hero's acts; MYRRHA returns with a lighted Torch in one Hand, and a Cup in the other. Myr. Lo! I've lit the lamp which lights us to the stars. 450 Sar. And the cup? Myr. 'Tis my country's custom to And mine Make a libation to the Gods. Sar. To make libations amongst men. Forgot the custom; and although alone, Will drain one draught in memory of many A joyous banquet past. [SARDANAPALUS takes the cup, and after drinking and tinkling the reversed cup, as a drop falls, exclaims Is for the excellent Beleses. Myr. And this libation Why Dwells thy mind rather upon that man's name Sar. Is a mere soldier, a mere tool, a kind The other Of human sword in a friend's hand; the other 460 But I dismiss them from my mind.-Yet pause, Freely and fearlessly? Myr. And dost thou think A Greek girl dare not do for love, that which Sar. Now, farewell; one last embrace. Myr. Embrace, but not the last; there is one more. 470 Sar. True, the commingling fire will mix our ashes. Myr. And pure as is my love to thee, shall they, Purged from the dross of earth, and earthly passion, Mix pale with thine. A single thought yet irks me. Sar. Say it. Myr. It is that no kind hand will gather The dust of both into one urn. Sar. The better: The winds of heaven, and scattered into air, Of slaves and traitors. In this blazing palace, 480 Hath piled in her brick mountains, o'er dead kings,' So much for monuments that have forgotten Myr. Then farewell, thou earth! And loveliest spot of earth! farewell, Ionia! Be thou still free and beautiful, and far Aloof from desolation! My last prayer 490 Was for thee, my last thoughts, save one, were of thee! Sar. And that ? Myr. Is yours. [The trumpet of PANIA sounds without. 1. [Bishop Heber (Quarterly Review, July, 1821, vol. xxvii. p. 503) takes exception to these lines on the ground that they "involve an anachronism, inasmuch as, whatever date be assigned to the erection of the earlier pyramids, there can be no reason for apprehending that, at the fall of Nineveh, and while the kingdom and hierarchy of Egypt subsisted in their full splendour, the destination of those immense fabrics could have been a matter of doubt. . . . Herodotus, three hundred years later, may have been misinformed on these points," etc., etc. According to modern Egyptology, the erection of the "earlier pyramids" was an event of remotest antiquity when the Assyrian Empire was in its infancy.] Sar. Myr. Sar. Hark! Now! Adieu, Assyria ! I loved thee well, my own, my fathers' land, I. Myr. Now, Myrrha ! Sar. As the torch in thy grasp. Myr. [He mounts the pile. Art thou ready? [MYRRHA fires the pile. 'Tis fired! I come. [As MYRRHA springs forward to throw herself into the flames, the Curtain falls. End of Act fifth.-B. Ravenne. May 27th 1821. Mem. I began the drama on the 13th of January, 1821, and continued the two first acts very slowly and at long intervals. The three last acts were written since the 13th of May, 1821 (this present month, that is to say in a fortnight). THE TWO FOSCARI:' AN HISTORICAL TRAGEDY.2 The father softens, but the governor's resolved."—Critic,3 1. [The MS. of The Two Foscari is now in the possession of H.R. H. the Princess of Wales.] 2. [Begun June the 12th, completed July the 9th, Ravenna, 1821.Byron MS.] 3. [Gov. The father softens-but the governor is fixed." Dingle. "Aye that antithesis of persons is a most established figure." -Critic, act ii. sc. 2. Byron may have guessed that this passage would be quoted against him, and, by taking it as a motto, hoped to anticipate or disarm ridicule; or he may have selected it out of bravado, as though, forsooth, the public were too stupid to find him out.] |