The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Götz Von Berlichingen With the Iron Hand. a Drama.
• Dramatis PersonÆ
• Act I.
• Scene I.—: An Inn At Schwarzenberg In Franconia.
• Scene II.—: A Cottage In a Thick Forest.
• Scene III.—: An Apartment In Jaxthausen, the Castle of Goetz Von Berlichingen.
• Scene IV.—: The Bishop of Bamberg’s Palace.
• Scene V.—: Jaxthausen.
• Act II.
• Scene I.—: Bamberg. a Hall.
• Scene II.—: Jaxthausen. a Hall In Goetz’s Castle.
• Scene III.—: The Bishop’s Palace At Bamberg.
• Scene IV.—: The Spessart.
• Scene V.—: The Bishop’s Palace. His Cabinet.
• Scene VI.—: Adelaide’s Apartment.
• Scene VII.—: An Ante-room.
• Scene VIII.—: The Spessart.
• Scene IX.—: Hall In the Bishop’s Palace At Bamberg.
• Scene X—: an Inn.
• Act III.
• Scene I.—: A Garden At Augsburg.
• Scene II.—: Jaxthausen.
• Scene III.—: The Camp of the Party Sent to Execute the Imperial Mandate.
• Scene IV.—: Jaxthausen.
• Scene V.—: Bamberg. Adelaide’s Chamber.
• Scene VI.—: Jaxthausen.
• Scene VII.—: A Wood On the Borders of a Morass.
• Scene VIII.—: Camp of the Imperialists.
• Scene IX.—: Jaxthausen.
• Scene X.—: The Imperial Camp.
• Scene XI.—: Mountains and a Wood.
• Scene XII.—: A Heath—on One Side an Eminence, With a Ruined Tower, On the Other the Forest.
• Scene XIII.—: The Camp.
• Scene XIV.—: Jaxthausen.
• Scene XV.—: Camp.
• Scene XVI.—: Jaxthausen.
• Scene XVII.—: The Kitchen.
• Scene XVIII.—: A Hall.
• Scene XIX.—: The Court of the Castle.
• Scene XX.: The Armory.
• Act IV.
• Scene I.—: An Inn In the City of Heilbronn
• Scene II.—: The Council-house At Heilbronn.
• Scene III.—: A Large Hall In the Council-house, Beset By Sickingen’s Troops.
• Scene IV.—: The Castle of Adelaide. Augsburg.
• Scene V.—: Jaxthausen.
• Act V.
• Scene I.—: A Village Plundered By the Insurgent Peasantry. Shrieks and Tumult.
• Scene II.—: Open Country. In the Distance Two Villages and an Abbey Are Burning.
• Scene III.—: A Hill and Prospect of the Country. In the Flat Scene a Mill. a Body of Horsemen.
• Scene IV.—: Jaxthausen.
• Scene V.—: A Village.
• Scene VI.—: The Front of a Gypsy-hut In a Wild Forest.—night.—a Fire Before the Hut, At Which Are Seated the Mother of the Gypsies and a Girl.
• Scene VII.—: Inside the Hut.
• Scene VIII.—: Adelaide’s Bedchamber.
• Scene IX.—: Street Before the Prison At Heilbronn.
• Scene X.—: An Apartment In Weislingen’s Castle.
• Scene XI.—: A Narrow Vault Dimly Illuminated. the Judges of the Secret Tribunal Discovered Seated, All Muffled In Black Cloaks.
• Scene XII.—: The Court of an Inn.
• Scene XIII.—: The Prison At Heilbronn.
• Scene the Last. —: the Prison Garden.
• Iphigenia In Tauris a Drama
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Scene I.—: A Grove Before the Temple of Diana.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Scene IV.
• Act II.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Act III.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Act IV.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Scene IV.
• Scene V.
• Act V.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Scene IV.
• Scene V.
• Scene VI.
• Torquato Tasso
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Scene I.: A Garden Adorned With Busts of the Epic Poets. to the Right a Bust of Virgil: to the Left, One of Ariosto.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Scene IV.
• Act II.
• Scene I.—: A Room.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Scene IV.
• Scene V.
• Act III.
• Scene I.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Scene IV.
• Scene V.
• Act IV.
• Scene I.—: A Chamber.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Scene IV.
• Scene V.
• Act V.
• Scene I.—: A Garden.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Scene IV.
• Scene V.
• Clavigo
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Scene I.—: Clavigo’s Dwelling.
• Scene II.—: Guilbert’s Dwelling.
• Act II.
• Scene I.—: Clavigo’s House.
• Act III.
• Scene I.—: Guilbert’s Abode.
• Act IV.
• Scene I.—: Clavigo’s Abode. Carlos, Alone.
• Scene II.—: Guilbert’s Abode.
• Act V.
• Scene I.—: The Street Before the House of Guilbert. Night.
• Scene II.
• Scene III.
• Scene IV.
• Scene V.
• Scene VI.
• Stella. a Tragedy.
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• The Brother and Sister
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• A Tale.
• The Good Women.
• Reynard the Fox.
• Chapter I.: The Accusation.
• Chapter II.: The First Summons.
• Chapter III.: The Second Summons.
• Chapter IV.: The Trial.
• Chapter V.: The Pardon.
• Chapter VI.: The Relapse.
• Chapter VII.: The Outlawry.
• Chapter VIII.: The Journey.
• Chapter IX.: The Advocacy.
• Chapter X.: The Second Pardon.
• Chapter XI.: The Defiance.
• Chapter XII.: The Battle.

ACT I.

SCENE I.—

A Grove before the Temple of Diana.

Iphigenia.

Beneath your leafy gloom, ye waving boughs

Of this old, shady, consecrated grove,

As in the goddess’ silent sanctuary,

With the same shuddering feeling forth I step,

As when I trod it first, nor ever here

Doth my unquiet spirit feel at home.

Long as a higher will, to which I bow,

Hath kept me here conceal’d, still, as at first,

I feel myself a stranger. For the sea

Doth sever me, alas! from those I love,

And day by day upon the shore I stand,

The land of Hellas seeking with my soul;

But to my sighs, the hollow-sounding waves

Bring, save their own hoarse murmurs, no reply.

Alas for him! who friendless and alone,

Remote from parents and from brethren dwells;

From him grief snatches every coming joy

Ere it doth reach his lip. His yearning thoughts

Throng back forever to his father’s halls,

Where first to him the radiant sun unclosed

The gates of heav’n; where closer, day by day,

Brothers and sisters, leagued in pastime sweet,

Around each other twin’d love’s tender bonds.

I will not reckon with the gods; yet truly

Deserving of lament is woman’s lot.

Man rules alike at home and in the field,

Nor is in foreign climes without resource;

Him conquest crowneth, him possession gladdens,

And him an honorable death awaits.

How circumscrib’d is woman’s destiny!

Obedience to a harsh, imperious lord,

Her duty, and her comfort; sad her fate,

Whom hostile fortune drives to lands remote!

Thus Thoas holds me here, a noble man

Bound with a heavy though a sacred chain.

Oh, how it shames me, goddess, to confess

That with repugnance I perform these rites

For thee, divine protectress! unto whom

I would in freedom dedicate my life.

In thee, Diana, I have always hoped,

And still I hope in thee, who didst infold

Within the holy shelter of thine arm

The outcast daughter of the mighty king.

Daughter of Jove! hast thou from ruin’d Troy

Led back in triumph to his native land

The mighty man, whom thou didst sore afflict,

His daughter’s life in sacrifice demanding,—

Hast thou for him, the godlike Agamemnon,

Who to thine altar led his darling child,

Preserv’d his wife, Electra, and his son,

His dearest treasures?—then at length restore

Thy suppliant also to her friends and home,

And save her, as thou once from death didst save,

So now, from living here, a second death.

SCENE II.

Iphigenia, Arkas.

Arkas.

The king hath sent me hither, bade me greet

With hail and fair salute, Diana’s priestess.

For new and wondrous conquest, this the day,

When to her goddess Tauris renders thanks.

I hasten on before the king and host,

Himself to herald, and its near approach.

Iphigenia.

We are prepar’d to give them worthy greeting;

Our goddess doth behold with gracious eye

The welcome sacrifice from Thoas’ hand.

Arkas.

Would that I also found the priestess’ eye,

Much honor’d, much rever’d one, found thine eye,

O consecrated maid, more calm, more bright,

To all a happy omen! Still doth grief,

With gloom mysterious, shroud thy inner mind;

Vainly, through many a tedious year we wait

For one confiding utterance from thy breast.

Long as I’ve known thee in this holy place,

That look of thine hath ever made me shudder;

And, as with iron bands, thy soul remains

Lock’d in the deep recesses of thy breast.

Iphigenia.

As doth become the exile and the orphan.

Arkas.

Dost thou then here seem exil’d and an orphan?

Iphigenia.

Can foreign scenes our fatherland replace?

Arkas.

Thy fatherland is foreign now to thee.

Iphigenia.

Hence is it that my bleeding heart ne’er heals.

In early youth, when first my soul, in love,

Held father, mother, brethren fondly twin’d,

A group of tender germs, in union sweet,

We sprang in beauty from the parent stem,

And heavenward grew; alas, a foreign curse

Then seized and sever’d me from those I lov’d,

And wrench’d with iron grasp the beauteous bands.

It vanish’d then, the fairest charm of youth,

The simple gladness of life’s early dawn;

Though sav’d, I was a shadow of myself,

And life’s fresh joyance blooms in me no more.

Arkas.

If thou wilt ever call thyself unbless’d,

I must accuse thee of ingratitude.

Iphigenia.

Thanks have you ever.

Arkas.

Not the honest thanks

Which prompt the heart to offices of love;

The joyous glance, revealing to the host

A grateful spirit, with its lot content.

When thee a deep mysterious destiny

Brought to this sacred fane, long years ago,

To greet thee, as a treasure sent from heaven,

With reverence and affection, Thoas came.

Benign and friendly was this shore to thee,

To every stranger else with horror fraught,

For, till thy coming, none e’er trod our realm

But fell, according to an ancient rite,

A bloody victim at Diana’s shrine.

Iphigenia.

Freely to breathe alone is not to live.

Say, is it life, within this holy fane,

Like a poor ghost around its sepulchre,

To linger out my days? Or call you that

A life of conscious happiness and joy,

When every hour, dream’d listlessly away,

Still leadeth onward to those gloomy days,

Which the sad troop of the departed spend

In self-forgetfulness on Lethe’s shore?

A useless life is but an early death;

This woman’s destiny hath still been mine.

Arkas.

I can forgive, though I must needs deplore,

The noble pride which underrates itself;

It robs thee of the happiness of life.

But hast thou, since thy coming here, done naught?

Who hath the monarch’s gloomy temper cheer’d?

Who hath with gentle eloquence annull’d,

From year to year, the usage of our sires,

By which, a victim at Diana’s shrine,

Each stranger perish’d, thus from certain death

Sending so oft the rescued captive home?

Hath not Diana, harboring no revenge

For this suspension of her bloody rites,

In richest measure heard thy gentle prayer?

On joyous pinions o’er the advancing host,

Doth not triumphant conquest proudly soar?

And feels not every one a happier lot,

Since Thoas, who so long hath guided us

With wisdom and with valor, sway’d by thee,

The joy of mild benignity approves,

Which leads him to relax the rigid claims

Of mute submission? Call thyself useless! Thou,

When from thy being o’er a thousand hearts

A healing balsam flows? when to a race,

To whom a god consign’d thee, thou dost prove

A fountain of perpetual happiness,

And from this dire inhospitable coast,

Dost to the stranger grant a safe return?

Iphigenia.

The little done doth vanish to the mind,

Which forward sees how much remains to do.

Arkas.

Him dost thou praise, who underrates his deeds?

Iphigenia.

Who weigheth his own deeds is justly blam’d.

Arkas.

He too, real worth too proudly who condemns,

As who, too vainly, spurious worth o’errateth.

Trust me, and heed the counsel of a man

artist: Ferd. keller.

IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS. ACT I, SCENE II.

iphigenia.

With honest zeal devoted to thy service:

When Thoas comes to-day to speak with thee,

Lend to his purposed words a gracious ear.

Iphigenia.

Thy well-intention’d counsel troubles me:

His offer I have ever sought to shun.

Arkas.

Thy duty and thy interest calmly weigh.

Si’thence King Thoas lost his son and heir,

Among his followers he trusts but few,

And trusts those few no more as formerly.

With jealous eye he views each noble’s son

As the successor of his realm, he dreads

A solitary, helpless age—perchance

Sudden rebellion and untimely death.

A Scythian studies not the rules of speech,

And least of all the king. He who is used

To act and to command, knows not the art,

From far, with subtle tact, to guide discourse

Through many windings to its destin’d goal.

Thwart not his purpose by a cold refusal.

By an intended misconception. Meet,

With gracious mien, half-way the royal wish.

Iphigenia.

Shall I then speed the doom that threatens me?

Arkas.

His gracious offer canst thou call a threat?

Iphigenia.

’Tis the most terrible of all to me.

Arkas.

For his affection grant him confidence.

Iphigenia.

If he will first redeem my soul from fear.

Arkas.

Why dost thou hide from him thy origin?

Iphigenia.

A priestess secrecy doth well become.

Arkas.

Naught to a monarch should a secret be;

And, though he doth not seek to fathom thine,

His noble nature feels, ay, deeply feels,

That thou with care dost hide thyself from him.

Iphigenia.

Ill-will and anger harbors he against me?

Arkas.

Almost it seems so. True, he speaks not of thee,

But casual words have taught me that the wish

Thee to possess hath firmly seiz’d his soul;

Oh, leave him not a prey unto himself,

Lest his displeasure, rip’ning in his breast,

Should work thee woe, so with repentance thou

Too late my faithful counsel shalt recall.

Iphigenia.

How! doth the monarch purpose what no man

Of noble mind, who loves his honest name,

Whose bosom reverence for the gods restrains,

Would ever think of? Will he force employ

To drag me from the altar to his bed?

Then will I call the gods, and chiefly thee,

Diana, goddess resolute, to aid me;

Thyself a virgin, wilt a virgin shield,

And to thy priestess gladly render aid.

Arkas.

Be tranquil! Passion and youth’s fiery blood

Impel not Thoas rashly to commit

A deed so lawless. In his present mood,

I fear from him another harsh resolve,

Which (for his soul is steadfast and unmov’d)

He then will execute without delay.

Therefore I pray thee, canst thou grant no more.

At least be grateful—give thy confidence.

Iphigenia.

Oh, tell me what is further known to thee.

Arkas.

Learn it from him. I see the king approach;

Him thou dost honor, thine own heart enjoins

To meet him kindly and with confidence.

A man of noble mind may oft be led

By woman’s gentle word.

Iphigenia.

(Alone.) How to observe

His faithful counsel see I not in sooth.

But willingly the duty I perform

Of giving thanks for benefits receiv’d,

And much I wish that to the king my lips

With truth could utter what would please his ear.

SCENE III.

Iphigenia. Thoas.

Iphigenia.

Her royal gifts the goddess shower on thee,

Imparting conquest, wealth and high renown.

Dominion, and the welfare of thy house,

With the fulfilment of each pious wish.

That thou, whose sway for multitudes provides,

Thyself may’st be supreme in happiness!

Thoas.

Contented were I with my people’s praise;

My conquests others more than I enjoy.

Oh! be he king or subject, he’s most bless’d,

Whose happiness is centred in his home.

My deep affliction thou didst share with me

What time, in war’s encounter, the fell sword

Tore from my side my last, my dearest son;

So long as fierce revenge possess’d my heart,

I did not feel my dwelling’s dreary void;

But now, returning home, my rage appeas’d,

Their kingdom wasted, and my son aveng’d,

I find there nothing left to comfort me.

The glad obedience I was wont to see

Kindling in every eye, is smother’d now

In discontent and gloom; each, pondering, weighs

The changes which a future day may bring,

And serves the childless king, because he must.

To-day I come within this sacred fane,

Which I have often enter’d to implore

And thank the gods for conquest. In my breast

I bear an old and fondly-cherish’d wish,

To which methinks thou canst not be a stranger;

I hope, a blessing to myself and realm,

To lead thee to my dwelling as my bride.

Iphigenia.

Too great thine offer, king, to one unknown;

Abash’d the fugitive before thee stands,

Who on this shore sought only what thou gavest,

Safety and peace.

Thoas.

Thus still to shroud thyself

From me, as from the lowest, in the veil

Of mystery which wrapp’d thy coming here,

Would in no country be deem’d just or right.

Strangers this shore appall’d; ’twas so ordain’d,

Alike by law and stern necessity.

From thee alone—a kindly-welcom’d guest,

Who hast enjoy’d each hallow’d privilege.

And spent thy days in freedom unrestrain’d—

From thee I hop’d that confidence to gain

Which every faithful host may justly claim.

Iphigenia.

If I conceal’d, O king, my name, my race,

It was embarrassment, and not mistrust.

For didst thou know who stands before thee now.

And what accursed head thine arm protects,

Strange horror would possess thy mighty heart;

And, far from wishing me to share thy throne,

Thou, ere the time appointed, from thy realm

Would’st banish me; would’st thrust me forth, perchance

Before a glad reunion with my friends

And period to my wand’rings is ordain’d,

To meet that sorrow, which in every clime,

With cold, inhospitable, fearful hand,

Awaits the outcast, exil’d from his home.

Thoas.

Whate’er respecting thee the gods decree.

Whate’er their doom for thee and for thy house,

Since thou hast dwelt amongst us, and enjoy’d

The privilege the pious stranger claims,

To me hath fail’d no blessing sent from heaven;

And to persuade me, that protecting thee

I shield a guilty head, were hard indeed.

Iphigenia.

Thy bounty, not the guest, draws blessings down.

Thoas.

The kindness shown the wicked is not bless’d.

End then thy silence, priestess; not unjust

Is he who doth demand it. In my hands

The goddess placed thee; thou hast been to me

As sacred as to her, and her behest

Shall for the future also be my law:

If thou canst hope in safety to return

Back to thy kindred, I renounce my claims:

But is thy homeward path forever closed—

Or doth thy race in hopeless exile rove,

Or lie extinguish’d by some mighty woe—

Then may I claim thee by more laws than one.

Speak openly, thou know’st I keep my word.

Iphigenia.

Its ancient bands reluctantly my tongue

Doth loose, a long-hid secret to divulge;

For once imparted, it resumes no more

The safe asylum of the inmost heart,

But thenceforth, as the powers above decree,

Doth work its ministry of weal or woe,

Attend! I issue from the Titan’s race.

Thoas.

A word momentous calmly hast thou spoken.

Him nam’st thou ancestor whom all the world

Knows as a sometime favorite of the gods?

Is it that Tantalus, whom Jove himself

Drew to his council and his social board?

On whose experienc’d words, with wisdom fraught,

As on the language of an oracle,

E’en gods delighted hung?

Iphigenia.

’Tis even he;

But the immortal gods with mortal men

Should not, on equal terms, hold intercourse;

For all too feeble is the human race,

Not to grow dizzy on unwonted heights,

Ignoble was he not, and no betrayer;

To be the Thunderer’s slave, he was too great;

To be his friend and comrade,—but a man.

His crime was human, and their doom severe;

For poets sing, that treachery and pride

Did from Jove’s table hurl him headlong down

To grovel in the depths of Tartarus.

Alas, and his whole race must bear their hate.

Thoas.

Bear they their own guilt, or their ancestor’s?

Iphigenia.

The Titan’s mighty breast and nervous frame

Was his descendants’ certain heritage;

But round their brow Jove forg’d a band of brass.

Wisdom and patience, prudence and restraint,

He from their gloomy, fearful eye conceal’d;

In them each passion grew to savage rage,

And headlong rush’d with violence uncheck’d.

Already Pelops, Tantalus’ lov’d son,

Mighty of will, obtain’d his beauteous bride,

Hippodamia, child of Œnomans,

Through treachery and murder; she ere long,

To glad her consort’s heart, bore him two sons,

Thyest and Atreus. They with envy mark’d

The ever-growing love their father bore

To his first-born, sprung from another union.

Hate leagued the pair, and secretly they wrought,

In fratricide, the first dread crime. The sire

Hippodamia held as murderess,

With savage rage he claim’d from her his son,

And she in terror did destroy herself—

Thoas.

Thou’rt silent? Pause not in thy narrative;

Repent not of thy confidence—say on!

Iphigenia.

How bless’d is he who his progenitors

With pride remembers, to the listener tells

The story of their greatness, of their deeds,

And, silently rejoicing, sees himself

The latest link of this illustrious chain!

For seldom does the self-same stock produce

The monster and the demigod: a line

Or good or evil ushers in, at last,

The glory or the terror of the world.—

After the death of Pelops, his two sons

Rul’d o’er the city with divided sway.

But such an union could not long endure.

His brother’s honor first Thyestes wounds.

In vengeance Atreus drove him from the realm,

Thyestes, planning horrors, long before

Had stealthily procur’d his brother’s son,

Whom he in secret nurtur’d as his own.

Revenge and fury in his breast he pour’d,

Then to the royal city sent him forth,

That in his uncle he might slay his sire.

The meditated murder was disclos’d,

And by the king most cruelly aveng’d,

Who slaughter’d, as he thought, his brother’s son.

Too late he learn’d whose dying tortures met

His drunken gaze; and seeking to assuage

The insatiate vengeance that possess’d his soul,

He plann’d a deed unheard of. He assum’d

A friendly tone, seem’d reconcil’d, appeas’d,

And lur’d his brother, with his children twain,

Back to his kingdom; these he seiz’d and slew;

Then plac’d the loathsome and abhorrent food

At his first meal before the unconscious sire.

And when Thyestes had his hunger still’d

With his own flesh, a sadness seiz’d his soul;

He for his children ask’d,—their steps, their voice

Fancied he heard already at the door;

And Atreus, grinning with malicious joy,

Threw in the members of the slaughter’d boys.

Shudd’ring, O king, thou dost avert thy face:

So did the sun his radiant visage hide,

And swerve his chariot from the eternal path.

These, monarch, are thy priestess’ ancestors,

And many a dreadiul fate of mortal doom,

And many a deed of the bewilder’d brain,

Dark night doth cover with her sable wing,

Or shroud in gloomy twilight.

Thoas.

Hidden there

Let them abide. A truce to horror now,

And tell me by what miracle thou sprangest

From race so savage.

Iphigenia.

Atreus’ eldest son

Was Agamemnon; he, O king, my sire:

But I may say with truth, that, from a child,

In him the model of a perfect man

I witness’d ever. Clytemnestra bore

To him, myself, the firstling of their love,

Electra then. Peaceful the monarch rul’d,

And to the house of Tantalus was given

A long-withheld repose. A son alone

Was wanting to complete my parents’ bliss;

Scarce was this wish fulfill’d, and young Orestes,

The household’s darling, with his sisters grew,

When new misfortunes vex’d our ancient house.

To you hath come the rumor of the war,

Which, to avenge the fairest woman’s wrongs,

The force united of the Grecian kings

Round Ilion’s walls encamp’d. Whether the town

Was humbled, and achiev’d their great revenge,

I have not heard. My father led the host.

In Aulis vainly for a favoring gale

They waited; for, enrag’d against their chief.

Diana stay’d their progress, and requir’d,

Through Chalcas’ voice, the monarch’s eldest daughter.

They lur’d me with my mother to the camp,

They dragg’d me to the altar, and this head

There to the goddess doom’d.—She was appeas’d;

She did not wish my blood, and shrouded me

In a protecting cloud; within this temple

I first awaken’d from the dream of death;

Yes, I myself am she, Iphigenia,

Grandchild of Atreus, Agamemnon’s child,

Diana’s priestess, I who speak with thee.

Thoas.

I yield no higher honor or regard

To the king’s daughter than the maid unknown;

Once more my first proposal I repeat:

Come follow me, and share what I possess.

Iphigenia.

How dare I venture such a step, O king?

Hath not the goddess who protected me

Alone a right to my devoted head?

’Twas she who chose for me this sanctuary,

Where she perchance reserves me for my sire,

By my apparent death enough chastis’d,

To be the joy and solace of his age.

Perchance my glad return is near; and how,

If I, unmindful of her purposes,

Had here attach’d myself against her will?

I ask’d a signal, did she wish my stay.

Thoas.

The signal is that still thou tarriest here.

Seek not evasively such vain pretexts.

Not many words are needed to refuse,

The no alone is heard by the refus’d.

Iphigenia.

Mine are not words meant only to deceive;

I have to thee my inmost heart reveal’d.

And doth no inward voice suggest to thee,

How I with yearning soul must pine to see

My father, mother and my long-lost home?

Oh, let thy vessels bear me thither, king?

That in the ancient halls, where sorrow still

In accents low doth fondly breathe my name,

Joy, as in welcome of a new-born child,

May round the columns twine the fairest wreath.

New life thou would’st to me and mine impart.

Thoas.

Then go! Obey the promptings of thy heart;

And to the voice of reason and good counsel

Close thou thine ear. Be quite the woman; give

To every wish the rein, that bridleless

May seize on thee, and whirl thee here and there.

When burns the fire of passion in her breast,

No sacred tie withholds her from the wretch

Who would allure her to forsake for him

A husband’s or a father’s guardian arms;

Extinct within her heart its fiery glow;

The golden tongue of eloquence in vain

With words of truth and power assails her ear

Iphigenia.

Remember now, O king, thy noble words!

My trust and candor wilt thou thus repay?

Thou seem’st, methinks, prepar’d to hear the truth.

Thoas.

For this unlook’d-for answer not prepar’d.

Yet ’twas to be expected; knew I not

That with a woman I had now to deal?

Iphigenia.

Upbraid not thus, O king, our feeble sex!

Though not in dignity to match with yours,

The weapons woman wields are not ignoble.

And trust me, Thoas, in thy happiness

I have a deeper insight than thyself.

Thou thinkest, ignorant alike of both,

A closer union would augment our bliss;

Inspir’d with confidence and honest zeal

Thou strongly urgest me to yield consent;

And here I thank the gods, who give me strength

To shun a doom unratified by them.

Thoas.

’Tis not a god, ’tis thine own heart that speaks.

Iphigenia.

’Tis through the heart alone they speak to us.

Thoas.

To hear them have I not an equal right?

Iphigenia.

The raging tempest drowns the still small voice.

Thoas.

This voice no doubt the priestess hears alone.

Iphigenia.

Before all others should the prince attend it.

Thoas.

Thy sacred office, and ancestral right

To Jove’s own table, place thee with the gods

In closer union than an earth-born savage.

Iphigenia.

Thus must I now the confidence atone

Thyself didst wring from me!

Thoas.

I am a man.

And better ’tis we end this conference

Hear then my last resolve. Be priestess still

Of the great goddess who selected thee;

And may she pardon me, that I from her,

Unjustly and with secret self-reproach,

Her ancient sacrifice so long withheld.

From olden time no stranger near’d our shore

But fell a victim at her sacred shrine.

But thou, with kind affection (which at times

Seem’d like a gentle daughter’s tender love.

At times assum’d to my enraptur’d heart

The modest inclination of a bride),

Didst so enthral me, as with magic bonds,

That I forgot my duty. Thou didst rock

My senses in a dream: I did not hear

My people’s murmurs: now they cry aloud.

Ascribing my poor son’s untimely death

To this my guilt. No longer for thy sake

Will I oppose the wishes of the crowd,

Who urgently demand the sacrifice

Iphigenia.

For mine own sake I ne’er desir’d it from thee.

Who to the gods ascribe a thirst for blood

Do misconceive their nature, and impute

To them their own inhuman dark desires.

Did not Diana snatch me from the priest.

Holding my service dearer than my death?

Thoas.

’Tis not for us, on reason’s shifting grounds.

Lightly to guide and construe rites divine.

Perform thy duty: I’ll accomplish mine.

Two strangers, whom in caverns of the shore

We found conceal’d, and whose arrival here

Bodes to my realm no good, are in my power.

With them thy goddess may once more resume

Her ancient, pious, long-suspended rites!

I send them here.—thy duty not unknown

[Exit.

SCENE IV.

Iphigenia.

(Alone.) Gracious protectress! thou hast clouds

To shelter innocence distress’d.

And from the arms of iron fate

Gently to waft her o’er the sea,

O’er the wide earth’s remotest realms,

Where’er it seemeth good to thee.

Wise art thou,—thine all-seeing eye

The future and the past surveys;

Thy glance doth o’er thy children rest,

E’en as thy light, the life of night,

Keeps o’er the earth its silent watch.

O Goddess! keep my hands from blood!

Blessing it never brings, and peace;

And still in evil hours the form

Of the chance-murder’d man appears

To fill the unwilling murderer’s soul

With horrible and gloomy fears.

For fondly the Immortals view

Man’s widely-scatter’d, simple race;

And the poor mortal’s transient life

Gladly prolong, that he may lift

Awhile to their eternal heavens

His sympathetic joyous gaze.