SCENE V.

MARIAMNE and ARSINOE.

Mar. With less regret

I can support your absence, since my son
Will find so kind a guardian, to discharge
The dear engagements that a mother owes :
We differ but in name.

Arsi. The prince shall be

The tender object of my hourly care:
Happy, that fate reserves it in my pow'r,

To express the sense my grateful heart retains
Of royal favour.

Mar. Nature form'd our sex

For soft endearing offices: she starts,
When pity is depos'd, and cruel pride
Usurps the vacant throne. Alas! you see
How deep the darts of fortune wound the great,
Though clad in golden armour. Were you sway'd
By favours in reversion, which allure
Ev'n vulgar souls to succour the distress'd,
Int'rest would tell you, that your darling son
May want a friend; and then, my tender plant
In the full verdure of his royal growth,
May recompense your kind protecting care,
And shield him from a storm.-Is the time fix'd
For your departure?

Arsi. Sohemus intends

Tobtain the royal mandate to delay

My journey with my lord; then all my joys,
Like the false colours of the show'ry bow,
Will fade in tears!

Mar. The politician's art

Must so revenge his disappointed love!
His spider-constitution would dissolve
In its own venom, if he should forbear
To spin it off in crafty dark intrigues,
Pernicious to my peace, and those I love.
Before the banquet, you shall quit the court;
Then let Flaminius vindicate his claim.
And by this prompt compliance with your lord,
Form all your future conduct; and effect
The pow'r to please, and not to give him pain:
For wedded love is founded on esteem,
Which the fair merits of the mind engage,
For those are charms that never can decay:
But time, which gives new whiteness to the swan,
Improves their lustre.

Arsi. None of human race

Would live more happy, could we but transcribe
The bright example of a royal pair:
If my Flaminius ever would reward
My constant ardour, with an equal flame;
En ag'd by such endearing decencies
As make the lamp of love in Herod's breast
To burn so bright as never to consume.
Mar. Beware of flatt'ry! 'tis a flow'ry weed,
Which oft offends the very idol-vice,
Whose shrine it would perfume.

Arsi. But rigid truth

Turns praise to incense, which the nicest sense Of virtue may receive. In your soft chains Your captive lord is led from joy to joy:

Days, months, and years, in circling raptures roll,
And each advancing hour outshines the past.
None, none but he can such a treasure boast,
Rich in perfections, able to suffice
His avarice of love.

Mar. When hearts are join'd

In virtuous union, love's impartial beams
Gild the low cottage of the faithful swain
With equal warmth, as when he darts his fires
On canopies of state.

Arsi. The danger's fled,

And now I may disclose a stronger proof
Of Herod's passion, than the long records
Of love contain.

Mar. What proof?-a dangerous proof
Conceal'd from me!

Arsi. When Cæsar's mounted beams Prevail'd o'er Antony's inferior star, He thought the victor, in severe revenge, Would take both life and crown; his life and crown Were toys beneath his care; but oh! what pangs He felt, reflecting that your death alone Could save your beauties to himself entire! How vast a passion his, who could not bear A rival in the grave!

Mar. How did the king

To the red hand of slaughter doom the breast
Of once-lov'd Mariamne? Gave command
This breast should bleed, where never dwelt a
thought

Disloyal or unkind !-Had other lips
Breath'd forth this fatal truth, it would appear
The dictate of inventive spleen, disclos'd
To violate my peace: but you're sincere ;
And, knowing that, I know myself undone !
Arsi. O, that I had been born like nature's

mutes,

That swim the silent deep!-Believe me false;
Or else, with me, believe the king's decree
A test of wond'rous love, and dear esteem.
Mar. Love, and esteem!-

Arsi. Alas! rekindling rage

Glows in your cheek, and sparkles in your eyes:→→→
Think me perfidious, or distrust the power,
And evidence of ev'ry faithful sense,
Rather than doubt yourself the worship'd shrine
Of his fond soul, and treasure of his joys.

Mar. To dissipate my doubt, recite the whole, Without evasions.

Arsi. When he went to Rhodes,
He thus to Sohemus his charge address'd.
If I to Cæsar's rage a victim fall,
Let not my beauteous queen survive, to grace
The victor's triumphs, or to crown his love:
Let me lie envy'd in the grave, possess'd
Of Mariamne there! a happier doom,
Than 'tis to live the world's imperial lord
Without my queen, or rival'd in my love.

Mar. Whene'er did cruelty assume a look
So smooth and fair before?-To summon death,
And arm the terror with a dart of love,
Against his queen! his wife! whose ardent vows,
Incessant pray'r and sacrifice, implor'd
Th' unutterable name, to make his head

White as the flow'ring almond, with increase
Of prosp'rous days, that ages yet unborn
Might bow before his throne, and bless his pow'r;
When I lie unlamented and forgot,

A little heap of dust: and this return!
A sad return indeed!

Arsi. Call it despair,

And fear of losing what his soul adores.

Our deeds receive their colour from the will;
His tongue was cruel, but his heart was kind;
And rigour was, at worst, the sudden child
Of grief, and bore a fix'd, but melting eye:
Or if a crime, the crime of boundless love.
Mar. Good heav'n! that perfidious creature,

man!

With what dissembled agonies of grief
He cried, farewell! and fainted in my arms;
I, credulously fond, thought all sincere!

Arsi. His grief was undissembled; but your charms

Have wrought his love to rage.

Mar. If this poor stock

Of artless beauty hath such fatal pow'r,
When you, Arsinoe, have a daughter born,
Beg all deformities of shape and face,
T'insure her quiet from that monster, man!
Who, quitting reason, a celestial claim,
To the sweet harmony of souls prefers
A little white and red, the airy food
Of bestial appetite; and for a cheek,
Whose transient beauties hardly will outwear
The wardrobe of a flow'r-[A Messenger enters.
Mess. The king and court

Intreat your majesty would come, to grace
The banquet.

Mar. No! I'm indispos'd-[Exit Mess.] Now
fly,

Arsinoe, fly the meditated snare,
Which Sohemus will spread; and may your love
In the warm smile of fortune flourish fair,
Fruitful of virtuous joys: but, if the pow'r
Blast with malignant frowns the blooming sweets,
Absolve your destiny of partial rage:
Think on the wife, the mother, and the queen,
Whose heart her hostile troops have long besieg'd:
Think with kind pity on the countless store
Of Mariamne's woes, and weep no more.

SCENE VI.

Enter SALOME alone.

[Exeunt.

Sal. I thought my heart was arm'd with ada

mant

Against remorse; but nature fools me now; A faint cold shiv'ring seizeth every limb

SCENE VII.

Enter SOHEMUS.

Sal. My lord! O breathe some cordial to revive

My sick'ning expectation.

Soh. To defeat

Our purpose, Fortune, with malicious joy,

Phe. His felon-cheek ne'er chang'd Its colour, when he brought th' impoison'd bowl, With garlands crown'd, and gave it to the king: Who with the fondness of a lover cry'd, He'd not indulge his taste, because the queen Refus'd t' adorn the circle; so resign'd To Hazeroth the pledge of royal grace: Sudden his lips grew livid, and discharg'd A purple foam, his labouring bosom swell'd, His eye-balls like malignant meteors glar'd, Unmov'd and ghastly: as the venom spread, Frightful convulsions writh'd his tortur'd limbs, Then, mad with anguish, rushing to the floor, He groan'd his soul away.

Sul. All 'scap'd but he?

Phe. Had not the villain over-drug'd the wine, We all had perish'd.

SCENE X.

HEROD enters on one side of the Stage, and SOHEMUS on the other.

Her. [To Soн.] Will the queen obey Our order, and attend us?

Soh. Sir, she comes

With much reluctance.

Enter MARIAMNE.

Her. [To MAR.] Did the banquet want Variety, or elegance of art,

To engage you to partake? If all our court

Th' envenom'd dart hath err'd.

Mar. Poor Hazeroth!
Thy freedom cost thee dear!

Her. You have been just,

In punishing the traitor's insolence;
Whom in excess of clemency I spar'd,
Because allied to you.

Mar. Murder'd by me!

So let the tiger sheath his savage fangs,

And for the mangled fawn implead the roe!
To build my frame the forming pow'r infus'd
Too mild a spirit, in too soft a mold,

For such barbarian deeds.--Who wears the sword

That, flesh'd in slaughter, levell'd to the dust
The royal stem, whence that poor scion sprung?
[Pointing towards HAZ.
Who doom'd to death the hoary majesty
Of good Hyrcanus? Whose insatiate rage
Murder'd my royal father and his son ?
Bid fame to late posterity report
That Mariamne did it :- -She destroy'd
Her grandsire, father, uncle, brother, all
Her Asmonæan race; and then constrain'd
Herod to wear a crown!

If heaven preserves that angel form the seat
Of innocence and truth: but much I fear
Too plain conviction; for thy dream reveal'd
This meditated crime: I heard thee cry,
The king is poison'd.-But attend the proof.
SCENE XI.

Enter SOHEMUS with SAMEAS.

Soh. [To SAM.] The diamond will confirm your
evidence.
[Aside.
Her. Sameas beware, and tremble to trans-
gress

The bounds of truth: If one assertion fail
Of utmost evidence against the queen,
Thou for a single fiction shalt descend

Sam. Arsinoe gave

This precious token of your future grace.
[Shews a jewel.
Her. Know you this diamond, sorceress ?
Mar. 'Tis the same

You gave me on your birth-day.

Her. To be made

The lure of death-O foul!

Mar. Arsinoe's false;

Send, intercept her flight; let her confront
His evidence; and if they both conspire
To attaint my innocence-

Her. My guards !-secure

[To the captain of the guard. That wicked woman with a double guardSeize her, I say!

Mar. Friend, tremble not to obey
His orders, thou'rt a soldier.-But, my lord!
Think not these tears, the frailty of my sex,
Argue a sense of guilt, or servile hope

Of moving pity, to retard my doom;

I weep not for myself, nor wish to ward
The blow, whene'er misguided justice strikes :
But if I e'er was treasur'd in your heart,
For sure you lov'd me once-

Her. Ånd lov'd too well!

May all who hate me love as much as I,
And then be thus requited!

Mar. When I'm dead,

O, let the stream of dear affection flow,
Redoubled on my son! to him transfer
The share I've lost-And never may the wrong
His mother bears, obstruct the sweet returns
Of filial duty and paternal love!

But may my memory his soul inspire
To scorn inglorious life, when honour calls

That poison'd Hazeroth?

Sam. Arsinoe said

And think the debt which death is sure to claim, A tribute due to virtue, and to fame. [Exeunt.

SCENE I.

Enter HEROD and PHERORAS.

Phe. The silent night hath pass'd her sable

noon;

In mercy to your realm, regard your health,
Compose yourself to sleep.

Her. Bid the wretch sleep,

Whose limbs, extended on the rack, endure
The utmost stretch of pain: I suffer more!
More, my Pheroras, more! The balm of sleep
Can ne'er refresh these eyes, 'till the pale hand
Of death shall draw their curtains, and exclude
The busy buzzing swarm of stinging thoughts.
My bed, the scene of all my blissful hours,
Of all my tender, chaste, endearing joys,
Which now have wing'd their everlasting flight,
Is grown the den of horror and despair.
O Mariamne!-With my setting sun,
Ill fortune now projects a deeper shade :
I wish I were as I had never been,
Number'd among the dead!

Phe. Sir, let her crime

Erase the faithful characters, which love Imprinted on your heart.

Her. Alas! the pain

We feel, whene'er we dispossess the soul
Of that tormenting tyrant, far exceeds
The rigour of his rule.

Phe. With reason quell

That haughty passion; treat it as your slave: Resume the monarch.

Her. Where's the monarch now?The vulgar call us gods, and fondly think That kings are cast in more than mortal molds: Alas! they little know that when the mind Is cloy'd with pomp, our taste is pall'd to joy; But grows more sensible of grief or pain. The stupid peasant with as quick a sense, Enjoys the fragrance of a rose, as I: And his rough hand is proof against the thorn, Which, rankling in my tender skin, would seem A viper's tooth. O blissful poverty! Nature, too partial, to thy lot assigns Health, freedom, innocence, and downy peace, Her real goods: and only mocks the great With empty pageantries! Had I been born A cottager, my homely bowl had flow'd Secure from pois'nous drugs; but now my wife! Let me, good heav'n! forget that guilty name, Or madness will ensue.

SCENE II.

The High-Priest enters.

Her. At this late hour,

When only discontented spectres roam,

In moon-light walks; or yet more anxious men, With pangs of agonizing passion torn,

Accuse their stars, and with their sorrows make
The midnight echoes mourn; at this late hour,
What discords break the virtuous harmony,
Which wont to reign within thy pious breast?
High-Pr. O, that, my royal lord, that which
will spread

O'er Palestine the blackest veil of woe,
That ever nation wore! Forgive my zeal,
Which breaks through courtly forms, to execute
The heavenly office which my order claims.
Peace is my province; and I prostrate beg,
By all your public and domestic joys,
By the dear offspring of your royal bed,
By all that merits your regard, release
Your injur'd queen!

Her. Have you not heard her crime?
Shall I resume a sorceress to my breast,
Who, unprovok'd, with black infernal hate
Attempted our perdition? No!-

High-Pr. My liege!

Her gentle goodness ne'er could break the band Of nature, and the stronger ties of love.

Her. Thirst for her husband's blood!-A lioness

Is kinder to her mate.

High-Pr. It cannot be :

Some wretch hath sold his mercenary soul, T'accuse her without cause.

Her. Is all our court

Combin'd in perjury? They all condemn
Her execrable deed.

High-Pr. Their tongues are tun'd
To what they think delights the royal ear:
In this confusion, should a comet rise,
They'd cry, the queen hath set the world o' fire!
Vouchsafe her audience, sir; hear her defence
With cool impartial reason: error oft
Assumes the shape of truth, and the wild eye
Of passion rarely can at first discern

Th' imposture in disguise. Let not your heart,
Where late her beauteous image was inshrin'd,
Be now immur'd with marble from her pray'r!
Offended heav'n, with pitying ear, accepts
The sigh of penitents, and freelier grants
Access when soonest sought.

Her. Did she request Admittance to me?

High-Pr. Yes; with such an air Of grief ennobled with majestic grace; With such undaunted fortitude of mind, Soft'ned with pensive sweetness in her eyes, That speaks her wrong'd; none but a soul as

white

As new-born innocence, could shine so clear
On the dim verge of death.-My gracious lord,
Forgive the frailties of forgetful age!
She took this ruby-bracelet from her arm,
Which on this anniverse she wont to wear,
In sweet remembrance of the nuptial morn,
When first you tied it on: Restore, she cried,

This pledge of fond affection to the king: Tell him, howe'er unkind! I've yet deserv'd To wear no other chain than this of love:Then wept a tender show'r.

Her. The time hath been,

I'd not have seen my Mariamne drop
One precious tear, for all the radiant mines

The womb of earth contains; but now her heart
Is chang'd, and so must mine!-Yet if she craves
To see me now, give orders; let the guard
Conduct her to me. [Exeunt HER. and PHER.
High-Pr. Now, with speedy flight,
Descend, celestial ministers of peace,
Who kindle virtuous ardours, and preside
O'er nuptial vows; aid with auspicious zeal,
The first reunion of those royal hearts;
And never from your sacred charge remove,
'Till death's commission'd to divide their love!

To them SAMEAS enters.

Sal. Sameas, thou best of friends! thy wish'd approach

By instinct I perceiv'd; thy influence spreads
Like rich perfumes, which, though invisible,
Refresh the sense.

Sam. Madam, I hop'd my art
Had well deserv'd a jewel of your own,
T'engage my service: 'twas too politic
To feign a favour but to serve your cause,
When the nice article of proof came on.

Sal. Contemn that worthless pebble; we're intent

On far more glorious views; whole provinces
Shall recompence thy love.

Sam. Rather consult

Our common safety; life is all I crave.

Sal. What may'st thou mean?

Sam. Th' high-priest hath won the king

To see the queen to-night.

Soh. Impossible!

I'll do it.

[SAL. whispers SOH,

To hell! poor tim'rous wretch, and tell the devil

[In the struggle SAMBAS wrests the dagger out of SOHEMUS's hand; and, in falling backward, he strikes it into SALOME's bo som, and dies.

Soh. Princess ador'd and lov'd! oh, speak!
Sal. Death! Death!--

Save me, O Sohemus, from that black troop
Of grizly shapes, which in fantastic dance
Frisk round, and call me hence.-O, kind in
vain-

A fiery whirlwind bears me from thy arms
To seas of boiling sulphur; the blue waves
Receive me to their bosom.-Down! deep! deep!
[She dies,

SCENE V.

Enter HEROD and PHERORAS, with attendants. Her. What hideous sound of shrieks and dying groans

Echo'd from hence, as if by violence
A soul had left her mansion unprepar❜d?
Pher. Horrors! our sister dead!
Soh. That villain came

[Pointing to SAMEAS's body,
In all the gestures of extreme despair;
Crying she brib'd him to accuse the queen;
And having heard Arsinoe would return
To null his evidence, rage and remorse
Urg'd him to plunge the dagger in her breast,
And then he pierc'd himself.

Her. O Salome!

The jarring elements which compos'd thy frame,
Made thee aspiring, turbulent, and bold:
In others woe was thy supreme delight;
And most against my queen thy malice aim'd
Her venom'd shafts; but now thy guilty blood
Will quench the flames, which thy infernal torch
Spread o'er the harvest of my nuptial joys.

Soh. How blind, alas! to fate is the dim eye Of dull mortality!

Her. O, Sohemus!

A thrilling horror freezeth every vein, While I review the precipice of fate,

court;

VOL. 11.

Had plunged me in the abyss of endless woe,

E