MYRRHA, an Ionian female Slave, and the Favourite of SARDANAPALUS.

Women composing the Harem of SARDANAPALUS, Guards, Attendants, Chaldean Priests, Medes, etc. Scene-a Hall in the Royal Palace of Nineveh.

peculiarity from this consideration. Its style should be an accompaniment to action, and should be calculated to excite the emotions, and keep alive the attention of gazing multitudes. If an author does not bear this continually in his mind, and does not write in the ideal presence of an eager and diversified assemblage, he may be a poet perhaps, but assuredly he will never be a dramatist. If Lord Byron really does not wish to impregnate his elaborate scenes with the living part of the drama-if he has no hankering after stage effect-if he is not haunted with the visible presentiment of the persons he has created-if, in setting down a vehement invective, he does not fancy the tone in which Mr. Kean would deliver it, and anticipate the long applauses of the pit, then he may be sure that neither his feelings nor his genius are in unison with the stage at all. Why, then, should he affect the form without the power of tragedy? Didactic reasoning and eloquent description will not compensate, in a play, for a dearth of dramatic spirit and invention: and, besides, sterling sense and poetry, as such, ought to stand by themselves, without the unmeaning mockery of a dramatis persona. As to Lord Byron pretending to set up the unities, at this time of day, as the law of literature throughout the world,' it is mere caprice and contradiction. He, if ever man was, is a law to himself— ' a chartered libertine;'-and now, when he is tired of this unbridled license, he wants to do penance within the unities! English dramatic poetry soars above the unities, just as the imagination does. The only pretence for insisting on them is, that we suppose the stage itself to be, actually and really, the very spot on which a given action is performed; and, if so, this space cannot be removed to another. But the supposition is manifestly quite contrary to truth and experience."-Edin. Rev. vol. xxxvi.

The reader may be pleased to compare the above with the following passage from Dr. Johnson:

"Whether Shakspeare knew the unities, and rejected them by design, or deviated from them by happy ignorance, it is, I think impossible to decide, and useless to inquire. We may reasonably suppose, that when he rose to notice, he did not want the counsels and admonitions of scholars and critics; and that he at last deliberately persisted in a practice which he might have begun by chance. As nothing is essential to the fable but unity of action, and as the uni

SARDANAPALUS.

ACT I.

SCENE I.

A Hall in the Palace.

Salemenes (solus). He hath wrong'd his queen, but
still he is her lord;

He hath wrong'd my sister, still he is my brother;
He hath wrong'd his people, still he is their sovereign,
And I must be his friend as well as subject:
He must not perish thus. I will not see
The blood of Nimrod and Semiramis
Sink in the earth, and thirteen hundred years
Of empire ending like a shepherd's tale;
He must be roused. In his effeminate heart
There is a careless courage which corruption
Has not all quench'd, and latent energies,
Repress'd by circumstance, but not destroy'd-
Steep'd, but not drown'd, in deep voluptuousness.
If born a peasant, he had been a man
To have reach'd an empire: to an empire born,
He will bequeath none; nothing but a name,
Which his sons will not prize in heritage:-
Yet, not all lost, even yet he may redeem
His sloth and shame, by only being that
Which he should be, as easily as the thing
He should not be and is. Were it less toil
To sway his nations than consume his life?
To head an army than to rule a harem?

ties of time and place arise evidently from false assump tions, and, by circumscribing the extent of the drama, less its variety, I cannot think it much to be lamented that they were not known by him, or not observed: nor, if such an other poet could arise, should I very vehemently reproach him, that his first act passed at Venice, and his best a Cyprus. Such violations of rules merely positive become the comprehensive genius of Shakspeare, and such censures are suitable to the minute and slender criticism of Voltaire:

-Non usque adeo permisenit imis
Longus summa dies, ut non, si voce Metelli
Serventur leges, malint a Cæsare tolli.'

Yet, when I speak thus slightly of dramatic rules, I cannot
but recollect how much wit and learning may be produced
against me; before such authorities I am afraid to stand,
not that I think the present question one of those that
to be decided by mere authority, but because it is to be su
pected, that these precepts have not been so easily received,
but for far better reasons than I have yet been able to find
The result of my inquiries, in which it would be ludicross
to boast of impartiality, is, that the unities of time and
place are not essential to a just drama; that though they
may sometimes conduce to pleasure, they are always to
be sacrificed to the nobler beauties of variety and instruc
tion; and that a play written with nice observation of
critical rules is to be contemplated as an elaborate car
osity, as the product of superfluous and ostentatious art, by
which is shown rather what is possible than what is ne
cessary. He that, without diminution of any other excel
lence, shall preserve all the unities unbroken, deserves the
like applause with the architect, who shall display all the
orders of architecture in a citadel without any deduction
from its strength: but the principal beauty of a citadel is
to exclude the enemy; and the greatest graces of a play
are to copy nature and instruct life." Preface to Shakspeare.
-L. E.

minacy, luxury, and cowardice. He never went out of his (1) This prince surpassed all his predecessors in effepalace, but spent all his time among a company of women, dressed and painted like them, and employed like them at the distaff. He placed all his happiness and glory in the possession of immense treasures, in feasting and rioting, and indulging himself in all the most infamous and criminal

He sweats in palling pleasures, dulls his soul, (1)
And saps
his goodly strength, in toils which yield not
Health like the chase, nor glory like the war-
He must be roused. Alas! there is no sound

[Sound of soft music heard from within.
To rouse him, short of thunder. Hark! the lute,
The lyre, the timbrel; the lascivious tinklings
Of lulling instruments, the softening voices
Of women, and of beings less than women,
Must chime in to the echo of his revel;

While the great king of all we know of earth
Lalls crown'd with roses, and his diadem
Lies negligently by, to be caught up

By the first manly hand which dares to snatch it.
Lo, where they come! already I perceive
The reeking odours of the perfumed trains,

And see the bright gems of the glittering girls, (2)
At once his chorus and his council, flash
Along the gallery, and amidst the damsels,
As femininely garb'd, and scarce less female,

pirasores. He ordered two verses to be put upon his tomb, gifying that he carried away with him all he had eaten, and all the pleasures he had enjoyed, but left every thing else behind him :

Κείν' ἔχω όσσ' ἔφαγον καὶ ἐξύβρισα, καὶ μετ' ἔρωτος
Τραν' ἔπαθον, τὰ δὲ πολλὰ καὶ ὄλβια πάντα λέλειπται

tap, says Aristotle, fit for a hog. Arbaces, governor of Media, having found means to get into the palace, and having with his own eyes seen Sardanapalus in the midst fis famous seraglio, enraged at such a spectacle, and table to endure that so many brave men should be subjer to a prince more soft and effeminate than the women themselves, immediately formed a conspiracy against him. Beeses, governor of Babylon, and several others, entered to it. On the first rumour of this revolt, the king hid bimif in the inmost part of his palace. Being afterwards shliged to take the field with some forces which he had asembled, he at first gained three successive victories over be enemy, but was afterwards overcome, and pursued to de gates of Nineveh ; wherein he shut himself, in hopes the bels would never be able to take a city so well fortified, and stored with provisions for a considerable time. The ege proved, indeed, of very great length. It had been de ared by an ancient oracle that Nineveh could never be aten, unless the river became an enemy to the city. These rds buoyed up Sardanapalus, because he looked upon the ng as impossible. But when he saw that the Tigris, by Talent inundation, had thrown down twenty stadia (two les and a half) of the city wall, and by that means opened passage to the enemy, he understood the meaning of the racle, and thought himself lost. He resolved, however, to it in such a manner as, according to his opinion, should over the infamy of his scandalous and effeminate life. dered a pile of wood to be made in his palace, and setting re to it, burnt himself, his eunuchs, his women, and his asures."-Diod. Sic. 1. ii. p. 109.

He

Sardanapalus is, beyond all doubt, a work of great beauty ad power; and though the heroine has many traits in emmon with the Medoras and Gulnares of Lord Byron's dramatic poetry, the hero must be allowed to be a new aracter in his hands. He has, indeed, the scorn of war, glory, and priesteraft, and regular morality, which disruishes the rest of his lordship's favourites; but he has misanthropy, and very little pride-and may be regarded, the whole, as one of the most truly good-humoured, miable, and respectable voluptuaries to whom we have er been presented. In this conception of his character,

e author has very wisely followed nature and fancy rather an history. His Sardanapalus is not an effeminate wornat debauchee, with shattered nerves and exhausted senses, slave of indolence and vicious habits; but a sanguine stary of pleasure, a princely epicure, indulging, revelling boundless luxury while he can, but with a soul so inured voluptuousness, so saturated with delights, that pain and nger, when they come uncalled for, give him neither conern nor dread; and he goes forth from the banquet to the attle, as to a dance or measure, attired by the Graces, and with youth, joy, and love for his guides. He dallies with

Sar. (speaking to some of his attendants.) Let the pavilion over the Euphrates

Be garlanded, and lit, and furnish'd forth
For an especial banquet; at the hour

Of midnight we will sup there: see nought wanting,
And bid the galley be prepared. There is

A cooling breeze which crisps the broad clear river: Bellona as her bridegroom-for his sport and pastime; and the spear or fan, the shield or shining mirror, become his bands equally well. He enjoys life, in short, and triumphs in death; and whether in prosperous or adverse circumstances, his soul smiles out superior to evil.”—Jeffrey.

"The Sardanapalus of Lord Byron is pretty nearly such a person as the Sardanapalus of history may be supposed to have been. Young, thoughtless, spoiled by flattery and unbounded self-indulgence, but with a temper naturally amiable, and abilities of a superior order, he affects to undervalue the sanguinary renown of his ancestors, as an excuse for inattention to the most necessary duties of his rank; and flatters himself, while he is indulging his own sloth, that he is making his people happy. Yet, even in his fondness for pleasure, there lurks a love of contradiction. Of the whole picture, selfishness is the prevailing feature-selfishness admirably drawn, indeed; apologised for by every palliating circumstance of education and habit, and clothed in the brightest colours of which it is susceptible, from youth, talents, and placability. But it is selfishness still; and we should have been tempted to quarrel with the art which made vice and frivolity thus amiable, if Lord Byron had not at the same time pointed out, with much skill, the bitterness and weariness of spirit which inevitably wait on such a character; and if he had not given a fine contrast to the picture in the accompanying portraits of Salemenes and of Myrrha." Heber.-L. E.

ful.

(1) In the MS.

"He sweats in dreary dull'd effeminacy.”—L. E. (2) In the MS.

"And see the gewgaws of the glittering girls."-L. E. (3) Salemenes is the direct opposite to selfishness; and the character, though slightly sketched, displays little less ability than that of Sardanapalus. He is a stern, loyal, plain-spoken soldier and subject; clear-sighted, just and honourable in his ultimate views, though not more punctilious about the means of obtaining them than might be expected from a respectable satrap of ancient Nineveh, or a respectable vizier of the modern Turkish empire. To his king, in spite of personal neglect and family injuries, he is, throughout, pertinaciously attached and punctiliously faithTo the king's rebels he is inclined to be severe, bloody, and even treacherous; an imperfection, however, in his character to want which would, in his situation, be almost unnatural, and which is skilfully introduced as a contrast to the instinctive perception of virtue and honour which flashes out from the indolence of his master. Of the satrap, however, the faults as well as the virtues are alike the offspring of disinterested loyalty and patriotism. It is for his country and king that he is patient of injury; for them he is valiant; for them cruel. He has no ambition of persoIn battle and in nal power, no thirst of individual fame. victory, Assyria!' is his only war-cry. When he sends off the queen and princes, he is less anxious for his nephews and sister than for the preservation of the line of Nimrod; and, in his last moments, it is the supposed flight of his sovereign which alone distresses and overcomes him." Heber. -L. E.

Myr. I think the present is the wonted hour

Of council; it were better I retire.

Sar. Not blush! Thou hast no more eyes than heart, to make her crimson Like to the dying day on Caucasus,

Where sunset tints the snow with rosy shadows, And then reproach her with thine own cold blindness, Which will not see it. What! in tears, my Myrrha

Sal. Let them flow on; she weeps for more than one, And is herself the cause of bitterer tears. Sar. Cursed be he who caused those tears to flow! Sal. Curse not thyself-millions do that already. Sar. Thou dost forget thee: make me not remember I am a monarch.

says well: let her retire.

Sar. Who answers? How now, brother? Sal.

The queen's brother,

And your most faithful vassal, royal lord.

Sar.

By the god Baal!

The man would make me tyrant.
Sal.
So thou art.
Think'st thou there is no tyranny but that

(1) "The Ionian name had been still more comprehensive, having included the Achaians and the Baotians, who, together with those to whom it was afterwards confined, would make nearly the whole of the Greek nation; and among the orientals it was always the general name for the Greeks." Mitford's Greece, vol. i. p. 199.

(2) "The chief charm and vivifying angel of the piece is Myrrha, the Greek slave of Sardanapalus-a beautiful, heroic, devoted, and etherial being-in love with the generous and infatuated monarch-ashamed of loving a barbarianand using all her influence over him to ennoble as well as to adorn his existence, and to arm him against the terrors of its close. Her voluptuousness is that of the heart-her he roism of the affections. If the part she takes in the dialogue be sometimes too subdued and submissive for the lofty daring of her character, it is still such as might become a Greek slave-a lovely lonian girl, in whom the love of liberty and the scorn of death were tempered by the consciousness of what she regarded as a degrading passion, and an inward sense of fitness and decorum with reference to her condition." Jeffrey.-L. E.

(3) "Myrrha is a female Salemenes, in whom, with admirable skill, attachment to the individual Sardanapalus is substituted for the gallant soldier's loyalty to the descendant of kings; and whose energy of expostulation, no less

The weakness and the wickedness of luxury-
The negligence-the apathy-the evils
Of sensual sloth-produce ten thousand tyrants,
Whose delegated cruelty surpasses
The worst acts of one energetic master,
However harsh and hard in his own bearing.
The false and fond examples of thy lusts
Corrupt no less than they oppress, and sap
In the same moment all thy pageant power
And those who should sustain it; so that whether
A foreign foe invade, or civil broil

Distract within, both will alike prove fatal:
The first thy subjects have no heart to conquer;

than the natural high tone of her talents, her courage, her Grecian pride, is softened into a subdued and win tenderness by the constant and painful recollection of abasement as a slave in the royal harem; and still more the lowliness of perfect womanly love in the presence and towards the object of her passion. No character c be drawn more natural than hers; few ever have be drawn more touching and amiable. Of course she is nor could be, a Jewish or a Christian heroine; but she is model of Grecian piety and nobility of spirit, and she one whom a purer faith would have raised to the level of Rebecca or a Miriam." Heber.--L. E.

(4) "That the character of Myrrha was drawn from life and that the Guiccioli was the model, I have no deat Byron had with him the very being in person whom he bi depicted in the drama, of dispositions and endowmeri greatly similar, and in circumstances in which she enak but feel as Myrrha is supposed to have felt: and it must b admitted that he has applied the good fortune of that in dent to a beautiful purpose." Galt.-P. E.

(5) In the original draught, “Byblis.”—L. E(6) In the MS.

"I know cach glance of those deep Greek-soul'd eyes" LL

lore than is glorious; of the last, far less

Than the king recks of.

Sar.

[have?

Whose then is the crime, at the false satraps', who provide no better? Sal. And somewhat in the monarch who ne'er looks eyond his palace walls; or if he stirs beyond them, 'tis but to some mountain palace, ill summer heats wear down. O glorious Baal! Nho built up this vast empire, and wert made 1 god, or at the least shinest like a god Through the long centuries of thy renown, This, thy presumed descendant, ne'er beheld Asking the kingdoms thou didst leave as hero, Won with thy blood, and toil, and time, and peril! For what? to furnish imposts for a revel, Or multiplied extortions for a minion.

Sar. I understand thee-thou wouldst have me go Forth as a conqueror. By all the stars Which the Chaldeans read-the restless slaves (1) Deserve that I should curse them with their wishes, And lead them forth to glory. Sal. Semiramis-a woman only-led These our Assyrians to the solar shores

Of Ganges

Sar.

Wherefore not?

"Tis most true. And how return'd? Sal. Why, like a man-a hero; baffled, but Not vanquish'd. With but twenty guards, she made

Good her retreat to Bactria. Sar.

And how many

Left she behind in India to the vultures?
Sal. Our annals say not.
Sar.
Then I will say for them-
That she had better woven within her palace
Some twenty garments, than with twenty guards
Have fled to Bactria, leaving to the ravens,
And wolves, and men--the fiercest of the three,
Her myriads of fond subjects. Is this glory?
Then let me live in ignominy ever.

Sal. All warlike spirits have not the same fate. Semiramis, the glorious parent of

A hundred kings, although she fail'd in India,
Brought Persia, Media, Bactria, to the realm
Which she once sway'd-and thou might'st sway.
I sway them-

Sar.

She but subdued them.

Sal. It may be, ere long, That they will need her sword more than your sceptre. Sar. There was a certain Bacchus, was there not? I've heard my Greek girls speak of such-they say He was a god, that is, a Grecian god, An idol foreign to Assyria's worship, Who conquer'd this same golden realm of Ind Thou pratest of, where Semiramis was vanquish'd.

Sal. I have heard of such a man; and thou perThat he is deem'd a god for what he did. [ceivest Sar. And in his godship I will honour himNot much as man. What, ho! my cupbearer! Sal. What means the king? Sar.

And ancient conqueror.

To worship your new god Some wine, I say.

Enter Cupbearer.

Sar. (addressing the Cupbearer.) Bring me the golden goblet thick with gems,

Which bears the name of Nimrod's chalice. Hence!
Fill full, and bear it quickly. [Exit Cupbearer.
Sal.
Is this moment
A fitting one for the resumption of
Thy yet uuslept-off revels?

Re-enter Cupbearer, with wine.

Sar. (taking the cup from him.) Noble kinsman! If these barbarian Greeks of the far shores And skirts of these our realms lie not, this Bacchus Conquer'd the whole of India, did he not?

Sal. He did, and thence was deem'd a deity. (2) Sar. Not so:-of all his conquests a few columns, Which may be his, and might be mine, if I Thought them worth purchase and conveyance, are The landmarks of the seas of gore he shed, The realms he wasted, and the hearts he broke. But here, here in this goblet, is his title To immortality-the immortal grape From which he first express'd the soul, and gave To gladden that of man, as some atonement For the victorious mischiefs he had done. Had it not been for this, he would have been A mortal still in name as in his grave; And, like my ancestor Semiramis, A sort of semi-glorious human monster. Here's that which deified him-let it now

Humanise thee; my surly chiding brother,