Sprung from Statira and a demi-god;
A mother in this shrine august I find
Divested of her name, her rank, her all,
And hardly from a dream of death awakened.
I as a benefactor wed the man
Whose dagger had my mother’s bosom gored.
While thus disasters compass me about,
Your arm you offer to avenge my cause.
What answer can I make? . . . At such a time
[Embracing her mother.
’Tis here that my first duties are required.
Judge if the torch of Hymen’s e’er was made
To yield its light amidst this gloom of woe:
See in one day how I’m with ills o’erwhelmed,
And think not I can listen now to love.
statira.
I’ll answer for her, heaven decrees her to you.
Perhaps in former times the majesty—
Or call it pride—of my imperial throne,
My daughter to a subject had denied,
But you deserve her since you would defend,
’Twas you that Alexander meant his heir.
He named the worthiest, you the worthiest prove.
His throne you have a right to, who support.
May the unceasing favor of the gods
Second you, may their power to empire raise.
Both Alexander and his queen interred
He in his tomb, and I within these walls,
Will see you on our throne without regret:
And may henceforth the fates, grown less severe,
Oppose for you that strange fatality,
Which oft has overwhelmed that throne in blood.
antigones.
It shall be raised by fair Olympia’s hand.
To Asia’s people show yourself and her.
Quit this asylum. All things I’ll prepare
Your husband to avenge, and fill his place.
[Exit Antigones.
SCENE VI.
statira, olympia.
statira.
By your means, daughter, I the barrier break
That keeps me distant from all human kind;
Again I enter this degenerate world
My husband to avenge, and break thy chains.
New strength the gods will to a mother give,
And soon thou shalt be set at liberty.
Help me to keep my word, by a new oath
Help me to wipe away the former’s guilt.
olympia.
Alas!
statira.
You groan!
olympia.
Must then this fatal day
Twice light up Hymen’s inauspicious torch?
statira.
What dost thou say?
olympia.
—Permit me, this first time,
My thoughts to utter with a trembling voice.
So much I love thee, mother, I would shed
The blood which from thee I derive, if so
The gods would, by new added years, protract
Thy life, or render it completely blessed.
statira.
Dearest Olympia!
olympia.
Shall I tell those gods
I ask no throne except this calm retreat?
In it you’ll see me lead my life resigned
And look with scorn on crowns forgot by you.
Thinkest thou my father, in the silent tomb,
Desires his foe should perish by our hands?
Amidst the horrors of the fight, let kings
Destroy each other, and avenge his death:
But we, the victims of so many ills,
Shall we, with feeble hands, assist their rage?
Shall we a fruitless murder undertake?
Tears are our portion, crimes for them were made.
statira.
Our portion tears! For whom thus dost thou weep?
Is Alexander’s daughter by the gods
Restored me? Heavens, is it her whose voice I hear!
olympia.
Mother!
statira.
Ye angry gods!
olympia.
Cassander! . . .
statira.
Explain yourself, my soul is shocked to hear you.
olympia.
I cannot speak—
statira.
—You wound me to the heart.
End this anxiety, I charge thee, speak.
olympia.
Madam, too well I see I give you pain,
But whom I love I never will deceive.
Although forever I am resolved to shun
My guilty husband, I must love him still.
statira.
Oh words accursed! ah, daughter since you love
This cruel husband, you will never fly him.
Thus Alexander you betray and me!
Ye gods, I saw my sire and husband die:
My daughter from me torn, your cruel will
Restores to make me perish by her fault.
olympia.
Thus prostrate falling—
statira.
—Daughter ever dear,
But cruel and unnatural—
olympia.
Alas!
Oppressed with woe I bathe your knees with tears.
Mother forgive me.—
statira.
—So I will and die.
olympia.
Be calm and hear me—
statira.
—What have you to say?
olympia.
I swear by heaven, by my own name, by you,
By nature, I the punishment will bear
Of my own guilt. This hand to-day