Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 5.djvu/37

 SARDANAPALUS/

ACT I.

Scene 1.—A Baffin fAe Palace.

Sakmmes {solus). He hath wronged his queen, but still he is her lord ; He hath wronged my sister — still he is my brother;

I. [This prince surpassed all his predecessors in effeminacy, luxury, and cowaroice. He never went out of his palace, but spent all his time among a company of women, dressed and painted like them, and employed uke 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 crimmal pleasures. He ordered two verses to be put upcm his tomb, signifying that he carried away with him all he luul eaten, and all the pleasures he had enjoyed, but left everything else behind him, — an epitaph, says Aristotle, fit fir a hog, Aibooes, |^vemor of Media, having found means to get into the Duace, and having with his own eyes seen Sordanapalus in me midst of his infamous seraglio, enraged at such a spectacle, and not able to endure that so many brave men should be subjected to a prince more soft and effeminate than the women themselves, immediately formed a conspiracy a^^ainst him. Beleses, governor of Babylon, and several others, entered mto it On the first nunour of this revolt the kin^ hid himself in the inmost part of his palace. Being afterwards obliged to uUce the field with some forces which he had assembled, he at first gained three successive victories over the enemy, but was afterwards overcome, and pursued to the gates of Nineveh ; wherein he shut him- self, in hopes me rebels would never be able to take a city so well fortified, and stored with provisions for a considerable time. The siege proved indeed of very great length. It had been declared by an ancient oracle that Nineveh could never be taken tmless the river became an enemy to the city. These words buoyed up Sardanapalus, because he looked upon the thin^ as impossible. But when he saw that the Tigris, by a violent inunoation, haid thrown down twenty stadia (two miles and a half) of the city wall, and by that means opened a passage to the enemy, he understood the meaning of the oracle, and thought himself lost. He resolved, however, to die in such a manner as, aa»rding to