There be I shall know soon.

Farewell-Farewell. [Exeunt PANIA and Soldiers. Myr. These men were honest: it is comfort still 410 That our last looks should be on loving faces.

Sar. And lovely ones, my beautiful!—but hear me ! If at this moment,-for we now are on

The brink,-thou feel'st an inward shrinking from
This leap through flame into the future, say it :
I shall not love thee less; nay, perhaps more,
For yielding to thy nature: and there's time
Yet for thee to escape hence.

Shall I light

Myr.
One of the torches which lie heaped beneath
The ever-burning lamp that burns without,
Before Baal's shrine, in the adjoining hall?
Sar. Do so. Is that thy answer?
Myr.

Thou shalt see.

420

[Exit MYRRHA.

Sar. (solus). She 's firm. My fathers! whom I will

rejoin,

It may be, purified by death from some
Of the gross stains of too material being,
I would not leave your ancient first abode
To the defilement of usurping bondmen;
If I have not kept your inheritance

As ye bequeathed it, this bright part of it,
Your treasure-your abode-your sacred relics
Of arms, and records-monuments, and spoils,

In which they would have revelled, I bear with me
To you in that absorbing element,

Which most personifies the soul as leaving
The least of matter unconsumed before
Its fiery workings:-and the light of this
Most royal of funereal pyres shall be

Not a mere pillar formed of cloud and flame,
A beacon in the horizon for a day,
And then a mount of ashes-but a light".
To lesson ages, rebel nations, and

Voluptuous princes. Time shall quench full many

i. Funeréal.—[MS. M.]

ii. And strew the earth with ashes —.—{MS. M. erased.]

430

440

A people's records, and a hero's acts;
Sweep empire after empire, like this first
Of empires, into nothing; but even then
Shall spare this deed of mine, and hold it up
A problem few dare imitate, and none
Despise-but, it may be, avoid the life
Which led to such a consummation.

MYRRHA returns with a lighted Torch in one Hand, and a Cup in the other.

Myr.

Lo!

I've lit the lamp which lights us to the stars.

450

Sar. And the cup?

Myr.

'Tis my country's custom to

And mine
I've not

Make a libation to the Gods.

Sar.

To make libations amongst men.

Forgot the custom; and although alone,

Will drain one draught in memory of many

A joyous banquet past.

[SARDANAPALUS takes the cup, and after drinking and tinkling the reversed cup, as a drop falls, exclaims

Is for the excellent Beleses.

Myr.

And this libation

Why

Dwells thy mind rather upon that man's name
Than on his mate's in villany?

Sar.

The other

Is a mere soldier, a mere tool, a kind

Of human sword in a friend's hand; the other
Is master-mover of his warlike puppet;

But I dismiss them from my mind.-Yet pause,
My Myrrha ! dost thou truly follow me,

Freely and fearlessly?

Myr.

And dost thou think

A Greek girl dare not do for love, that which
An Indian widow braves for custom ? i

460

Sar.

Now, farewell; one last embrace.

Myr. Embrace, but not the last; there is one more. 470 Sar. True, the commingling fire will mix our ashes. Myr. And pure as is my love to thee, shall they, Purged from the dross of earth, and earthly passion, Mix pale with thine. A single thought yet irks me. Sar. Say it.

Myr.

It is that no kind hand will gather

The dust of both into one urn.

Sar.

The better:

Rather let them be borne abroad upon

The winds of heaven, and scattered into air,
Than be polluted more by human hands

Of slaves and traitors. In this blazing palace,
And its enormous walls of reeking ruin,
We leave a nobler monument than Egypt

Hath piled in her brick mountains, o'er dead kings,'
Or kine for none know whether those proud piles
Be for their monarch, or their ox-god Apis:

So much for monuments that have forgotten
Their very record!

Myr.

Then farewell, thou earth!

And loveliest spot of earth! farewell, Ionia !
Be thou still free and beautiful, and far

Aloof from desolation! My last prayer

480

490

Was for thee, my last thoughts, save one, were of thee! Sar. And that?

Myr.

Is yours.

[The trumpet of PANIA sounds without.

1. [Bishop Heber (Quarterly Review, July, 1821, vol. xxvii. p. 503) takes exception to these lines on the ground that they "involve an anachronism, inasmuch as, whatever date be assigned to the erection of the earlier pyramids, there can be no reason for apprehending_that, at the fall of Nineveh, and while the kingdom and hierarchy of Egypt subsisted in their full splendour, the destination of those immense fabrics could have been a matter of doubt. Herodotus, three hundred years later, may have been misinformed on these points," etc., etc. According to modern Egyptology, the erection of the earlier pyramids" was an event of remotest antiquity when the Assyrian Empire was in its infancy.]

Sar. Myr. Sar.

Hark!

Now!

Adieu, Assyria !

I loved thee well, my own, my fathers' land,
And better as my country than my kingdom.
I sated thee with peace and joys; and this
Is my reward! and now I owe thee nothing,
Not even a grave.

I.

[He mounts the pile.

Art thou ready?

[MYRRHA fires the pile. 'Tis fired! I come.

[As MYRRHA springs forward to throw herself into the flames, the Curtain falls.

End of Act fifth.-B.

Ravenne. May 27th 1821.

Mem. I began the drama on the 13th of January, 1821, and continued the two first acts very slowly and at long intervals. The three last acts were written since the 13th of May, 1821 (this present month, that is to say in a fortnight).

THE TWO FOSCARI:'

AN HISTORICAL TRAGEDY.2

"The father softens, but the governor's resolved."—Critic.3

1. [The MS. of The Two Foscari is now in the possession of H.R. H. the Princess of Wales.]

2. [Begun June the 12th, completed July the 9th, Ravenna, 1821.— Byron MS.] 3. [Gov.

"The father softens-but the governor is fixed." Dingle. "Aye that antithesis of persons is a most established figure." -Critic, act ii. sc. 2.

Byron may have guessed that this passage would be quoted against him, and, by taking it as a motto, hoped to anticipate or disarm ridicule; or he may have selected it out of bravado, as though, forsooth, the public were too stupid to find him out.]