With foul dishonor: vanity, ambition,Caprice, and folly, bore the name of love;
Such conquests were unworthy of thy friend.
At length the power I had so long contemned
Indignant saw me from his Eastern throne,
And soon subdued; it was my fate to rule
O’er Syria’s melancholy plains: when heaven
Had to Augustus given the vanquished world,
And Herod, midst a crowd of kneeling kings,
Fell at his feet, and sued for his protection,
Hither I came, and fatal to my peace
Was Palestine, for there I first beheld her.
The melancholy theme of every tongue
Was Mariamne’s woes; all wept her fate,
Doomed to the arms of an inhuman husband,
Who slew the father of his lovely bride:
Thou knowest what miseries she had suffered since,
Her sorrows only equalled by her virtue:
Truth, ever banished from the courts of kings,
Dwells on her lips, and all the art she knows
Is but the generous care to serve the wretched.
Her duty is her law; her innocence,
Calm and serene, contemns the tyrant’s power,
And pardons her oppressor; even solicits
My aid to save the man who would destroy her.
Her virtues, her misfortunes, and her charms
United, are too powerful for my soul;
I love her, my Albinus; but my love
Is not a passion which one day creates,
And in another is forgotten; no:
The heart she has subdued is not the slave
Of loose desire, but by her virtue fired,
Means to revenge but never to betray her.
albinus.
But if the king, my lord, has gained from Rome
Permission to return.
varus.
Ay, that I fear:
Alas! myself did move the senate for him.
Perhaps already he returns to empire,
And this abhorred mandate is his own;
The first sad proof of his authority:
It may be fatal to him. Varus’ power
May soon be lost, but O! his love remains;
Yes, I will die in Mariamne’s cause;
The world shall weep her fate, and I avenge it.
End of the First Act.
ACT II.
SCENE I.
salome, mazael.
salome.
Thou seest we are ruined; Mariamne triumphs,
And Salome’s undone: that lingering Zares,
How tedious was his voyage, as if the sea
Unwillingly transported him! whilst Herod
Flies with the winds to empire and to love:
But sea and land, the elements, the heavens,
All, all conspire with Varus, to destroy me.
Ambition, thou hast plunged me deep in woe;
Why did I listen to thy fatal voice?
I knew his foolish heart would soon relent;
Even now I fear he has revoked the mandate,
And all the harvest of my toil is grief
And danger, that still wait on high condition
Stripped of its power: already fawning crowds
Adore my rival, and insult my fall:
My feeble glories, all eclipsed by her,
Shall shine no more, for this new deity
Must now be worshipped: but this is not all,
My death, I know, must crown the triumph; she
Can never reign whilst Salome survives;
She will not spare a life so fatal to her.
And yet, O shame, O infamous submission!
My pride must stoop to vile dissimulation,
To soothe her vanity with feigned respect,
And give her joy of—Salome’s destruction.
mazael.
Despair not, Madam, arms may yet be found
To conquer this proud queen: I ever feared
Her powerful charms, and Herod’s weakness for her;
But if I may depend on Zares, still
In the king’s bosom dwells determined hate,
And he has sworn that she shall die: the blow
Is but suspended till he comes himself
To execute his vengeance; but, meantime,
Whether his heart be sharpened by resentment,
Or moved by love, it is enough his hand
Once signed the mandate: Mariamne soon
Will swell the tempest, and eternal discord
Shall rankle in their hearts: I know them well:
Soon will she light again the torch of hatred,
