cassander.
I own myself unworthy of such bliss.
I know the crimes which cruel destiny
For both our ruin made my hand commit.
Thinking to expiate I’ve their measure filled.
My presence hurts you and my love insults.
Howe’er, vouchsafe to answer: has my aid
From war and from destruction saved your youth?
olympia.
Why did you save it?—
cassander.
Even in infancy
Was not your innocence by me revered?
Did I not idolize you?—
olympia.
That’s my grief.
cassander.
After acknowledging the purest flame,
Free in your choice and mistress of yourself,
Did you not in the presence of the gods
Before this shrine receive my solemn vows?
olympia.
It is too true. May pitying Heaven avert
The punishment I have thereby incurred
cassander.
I had your heart, Olympia.—
olympia.
Do not add
To my distress by such a keen reproach.
My youth ’twas easy for you to seduce;
My ignorance and weakness you deceived:
Your guilt’s by this enhanced, fly hence. To hear
Your conversation is in me a crime.
cassander.
Beware how you a greater crime commit
In listening to a treacherous villain’s vows.
If for Antigones—
olympia.
Cease, wretched man,
My soul rejects his vows as well as yours.
Since I was once deluded and this hand
Was joined to thine stained with my parents’ blood,
No mortal to my heart shall e’er lay claim:
Marriage, the world, and life alike I hate.
Since now my soul is mistress of her choice,
I without hesitation choose these tombs
Which hide my mother, for my last retreat;
I this asylum choose whose God alone
My heart by thee deceived shall now possess.
These altars I embrace, all thrones detest,
All Asia’s thrones, but far above the rest
That which by proud Antigones is filled.
See me no more, go, let me mourn alone
That promised love which now I must abhor.
cassander.
If then your heart my rival’s love rejects,
You can’t deprive me of a ray of hope;
And when your virtue a new husband shuns,
I think a favor is conferred on me.
Although I with your parents’ blood am stained,
My soul, my being must depend on you;
Wife ever dear, whose virtues turned aside
The thunders aimed at my devoted head,
Still o’er my soul maintained a sovereign sway
And should your mother’s rigor have disarmed.
olympia.
My mother! can your tongue pronounce her name!
Ah, if repentance, pity or soft love
Have any influence upon your heart,
Fly from the places she inhabits, fly
The altars I embrace.—
cassander.
No, without you
I cannot go, you must my steps attend.
[He takes her by the hand.
Come, dearest wife.—
olympia.
[Pulling back her hand.
Then like my mother treat me,
This bosom, to its duty faithful, pierce:
A surer dagger plunge in this sad heart,
To shed my blood that cruel hand was formed.
Strike here.—
cassander.
Your vengeance carries you too far.
My cruelty and violence were less.
Heaven pardons man, you how to punish know:
But your ingratitude exceeds all bounds
When thus a benefactor feels your hate.
olympia.
Have you not by your deeds incurred my hate?
Cassander, had thy fierce, thy bloody hand,
Which with the murderous steel my mother gored,
Stabbed me alone and shed no other blood,
I could have pardoned thee and loved thee still.
Fly, cruel man, fate wills that we should part.
cassander.
No, destiny itself can’t separate
Our fates, did you Cassander more detest;
Had you even married me to pierce my heart,
You must my steps attend; ’tis fate’s decree.
Let me still love you as a punishment:
I swear by you it never will have end:
Punish, detest your husband, don’t forsake.
SCENE VI.
cassander, olympia, sosthenes.
sosthenes.
Appear, or soon Antigones prevails:
The gate he blocks, your warriors he harangues,
Your friends assembled near the sacred shrine
He strives to gain, and their fidelity
Seems to be shaken by his daring words:
He on Olympia calls, and on her sire;
Tremble both for your love and for your life;
Come.—
cassander.
Is it thus you sacrifice me then
To a detested rival? I in quest
Of death will go, since you my death desire.
olympia.
Alas! Olympia cannot wish thy death.
Live distant from her.—
cassander.
Without thee the light
Of heaven is odious to my eyes, and