Polyeucte Part 16

FELIX.

What is this deadly draught that thou wouldst drain?

I'll drink thy wine.--Till then, from death refrain!

POLY.

To swine no more my holy pearls I cast, Faith,--_faith_--not reason, shall see light at last; Soon--when I see my G.o.d--yes, face to face, I will implore that Felix may find grace.

FELIX.

O dearest son, thy loss were death to me!

POLY.

This loss can be repaired--the remedy Find in Severus; he will take my place; By Decius honoured he will not disgrace Thy house: my death will an advantage win For thee, for her, for me.--The work begin!

FELIX.

Such my reward! Yes, insult is the child Of injury. The grace I grant, reviled, Shall turn to swift revenge. The G.o.ds defied May do their will and speed the suicide!

POLY.

I thought the G.o.ds were dead, but they revive With human pa.s.sion; Felix, do not strive Against thy nature; lay aside thy ruth; Who loves a lie can never follow truth.

FELIX.

I humoured madness, but the mood is o'er, I am myself again; I did implore,-- 'Twas vain; the dark abyss that yawns for thee May hold thee now, tomb to thy constancy.

The hope I cherished--fondled--now is flown Severus will be king, and I o'erthrown;-- Shall I the G.o.ds by incense pacify?

Or by thy death? for thou, at last, must die!

POLY.

Incense might but incense; I cannot tell:

(Enter Pauline)

Pauline!

PAUL.

That word broke from thee like a knell; Who seeks my doom to-day? Thou--or my sire?

Who fires the brand? Who lights the funeral pyre?

My father should, by nature, be my friend, And lover's heart to love an ear should lend.

Who here is mine ally, and who my foe?

Who has a heart to feel?--this would I know.

FELIX.

Nay, to thy lord appeal.

(Pauline turns to Polyeucte)

POLY.

Severus wed!

PAUL.

Ah, this is outrage! Rather strike me dead!

POLY.

Oh, dearer than myself to me thy weal!

My love would never wound, it seeks to heal.

I see thee wrestle with thy deep distress Alone--unless Severus bring redress; His merit, that once gained thy maiden heart, Hath still that worth when I from thee must part, Once loved--and loving still--his honour grows.

PAUL.

Thy wife's true heart another treatment owes: O base reproach! For this I crushed for thee My former love: that I disdained might be?

This my reward for dearest victory won,-- I did that love undo--to be myself undone!

Resolve, faith, abnegation, all were vain, For thy return is outrage heaped on pain.

Oh, sunk in tomb of shame, most vile, most mean, Come back to life--to honour--to Pauline!

(Holds out her arms.) To learn from her that loyalty and faith Religion are:--and all beside but death!

Once more Alcestis wrestles with the tomb, Arise, arise from thy enthralling doom!

And if my invocation feeble be, Regard the tears--the sighs,--shed--breathed for thee!

Love is too weak a word--I thee adore!

POLY.

Once have I said--yet now I say once more-- 'Live with Severus, or--with Polyeucte die!'

Thy tears are mine, and thy pure constancy I share: But--I am soldier of the Cross!

Take up thine own, and count all gain but loss!

Pauline--no more!

(To FELIX.) Thy slumbering wrath rewake!

Thy fates and furies wait! Their vengeance slake!

PAUL.

His life is saved! These fetters all undo!-- For justice never yet a madman slew; And he is mad,--but, father, thou art sane, And thou, his father, must his friend remain.

A father cannot less than father be, Oh, be to him what thou hast been to me!

But cast upon thy child a kinder eye,-- Slay him?--Then know that I am doomed to die!

But even if justly done to death were he, The sentence wrong that, with him, slayeth me.

For double death would double wrong present, And slay the guilty with the innocent.

'Twas thou didst link us closely hand in hand, 'To live in bliss together' thy command.

Oh, shall the will that both our lives did bless Doom both these lives to death--to nothingness?

When lips are sealed to lips, and heart to heart, 'Tis tyranny, not law, such love to part.

Oh, not a tyrant, but a father be, Forgive,--give back--restore my love to me!

FELIX.

Dear child, thy father is thy father still, Nothing hath parted us, and nothing will.

My heart is tender, and it beats for thee: Against this madman let us joined be.

O wretched man, hast thou no eyes to see, no heart to feel?

Thy guilt, thy crime, I would efface, thy pardon I would seal, _For_ thee my daughter cannot die--say, must she die _with_ thee?

A victim to the only sin which ne'er can pardoned be.

O sight most strange! Here at thy knees as suppliant I sue!

(Felix kneels.) The evil that thyself hast wrought--that ill thyself undo!

POLY.

Arise, old man, from knees unused to bend, Or to another ear pet.i.tion send!

This artifice befits nor me nor thee, To beg of one twice threatened!--Mockery!

First, by thy hand Nearchus felt the flame, Then love, forsooth, thy plea--(profaned name!) The path of Christian neophyte hast thou trod, And, in G.o.d's name, hast mocked Almighty G.o.d!

Earth, heaven, and h.e.l.l in turn have been thy tool, And him thou hast traduced thou wouldst befool!

Go,--bully-flatterer--liar!--Every part Thou playest, while delay doth break my heart!

Enough of dallying! While thou dost dissolve Thy feeble soul in doubt, hear my resolve: The G.o.d who made me--Him will I adore; He holds my plighted faith,--and evermore He works salvation for his ransomed race-- Who gave His Son to death that we might life embrace; And this--Christ's sacrifice--continued day by day, The Christ reveals and pleads--The Life--The Truth--The Way!

No more His mysteries to self-stopped ears Will I disclose--(he heedeth not nor hears.) (Pointing to Felix.) Pray then to these thy G.o.ds of wood and stone, To G.o.ds who every deed of crime enthrone, Who boast their malice, and their foul incest, Vaunt theft and murder--all that we detest.