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Subject Area: Literature
Debate: Cato and Caesar

ACT III. - Voltaire, The Works of Voltaire, Vol. VIII The Dramatic Works Part 1 (Mérope, Olympia, The Orphan of China, Brutus) and Part II (Mahomet, Amelia, Oedipus, Mariamne, Socrates). [1901]

Edition used:

The Works of Voltaire. A Contemporary Version. A Critique and Biography by John Morley, notes by Tobias Smollett, trans. William F. Fleming (New York: E.R. DuMont, 1901). In 21 vols. Vol. VIII The Dramatic Works Part 1 (Mérope, Olympia, The Orphan of China, Brutus) and Part II (Mahomet, Amelia, Oedipus, Mariamne, Socrates).

Part of: The Works of Voltaire. A Contemporary Version, in 21 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


ACT III.

SCENE I.

(The Temple is shut.)

cassander, sosthenes.

cassander.

  • [Within the porch.
  • The truth prevails, no more can I suppress
  • The fatal secret by my sire concealed:
  • Forced to the public voice at length to yield
  • To a king’s daughter I have justice done;
  • Should I then longer injure royal blood
  • By cruel silence keeping it concealed?
  • Already I’ve incurred enough of guilt.

sosthenes.

  • A jealous rival of Olympia’s name
  • Avails himself intent upon your ruin;
  • The people he excites, the town’s alarmed.
  • Antigones religious zeal contemns,
  • And yet has blown its fire to tenfold rage.
  • ’Tis thought a shocking crime in you to wed
  • The daughter, you who had the mother slain.

cassander.

  • Ye gods, the keen reproaches of my heart
  • Torture me more than all the Ephesians say.
  • The hearts of all the citizens I’ve calmed,
  • Yet still my own is by the furies torn
  • Victim of love and of my cruelty.
  • I would have had her all things owe to me,
  • Not know a fate replete with horrors dire.
  • Her sire’s dominions to her I restored.
  • Transmitted from Antipater to me.
  • Blest in the favors on my love conferred,
  • I was to calm tranquillity restored,
  • I had repaired all wrongs, and justice done.
  • My heart indeed was conscious of no crime;
  • I killed Statira by the chance of war,
  • Even whilst I strove to save a father’s life.
  • ’Twas in the heat of slaughter and of rage
  • When duty to excess my valor drove;
  • ’Twas in the blindness which a sable cloud
  • Of horror shed upon my darkened eyes;
  • I shuddered to think on it e’er I felt
  • The fatal passion which enslaved my soul,
  • I thought myself acquitted in the sight
  • Of God and of the world, not in my own.
  • Nor in Olympia’s, that’s what racks my soul:
  • Despair lies that way: she must either choose
  • To seal my pardon or to pierce my heart,
  • This heart that burns with love’s consuming fire.

sosthenes.

  • ’Tis said, Olympia to this temple brought
  • Can here retract the faith which she has sworn.

cassander.

  • I know it, Sosthenes, and if this law
  • Should be abused by her my soul adores,
  • Woe to my rival and the temple too;
  • Though I am here a model of true zeal,
  • The temple I’d a scene of vengeance make.
  • But let me banish far this terror vain;
  • I am beloved, her heart was ever mine;
  • The god of love shall undertake my cause:
  • To her upon the wings of love I fly.

SCENE II.

cassander, sosthenes, the hierophants.

[Coming out of the Temple.

cassander.

  • Interpreter of heaven and minister
  • Of clemency, I in this solemn day
  • Have from your temple banished war’s alarms:
  • I have not fought against Antigones.
  • Days to peace consecrated I revered;
  • That peace to my distracted soul restore.
  • My rites are numerous, I’ll defend them all;
  • Let us conclude this marriage. But first say
  • What does the daughter of the conqueror?

the hierophants.

  • My lord, Olympia duties now fulfils,
  • Duties most sacred, to her heart most dear.

cassander.

  • Mine shares them. Where’s the priestess whose kind hand
  • Is to present the bride and bless our loves?

the hierophants.

  • She’ll bring her quickly, may such glorious ties
  • Not end in the destruction of you both.

cassander.

  • Alas! upon this very day the woes
  • I long groaned under seemed to have an end.
  • For the first time a moment of repose
  • Seemed to becalm the troubles of my soul

the hierophants.

  • Perhaps Olympia’s woe surpasses yours.

cassander.

  • What do you say? can she have aught to fear?

the hierophantes.

[Going.

  • Too soon you’ll know it—

cassander.

  • Stay, explain yourself.
  • Do you espouse Antigones’s cause?

the hierophantes.

  • Forbid it, Heaven, that I should pass the bounds
  • Which to my zeal my duty has prescribed.
  • The din of factions, the intrigues of courts,
  • The passions that distract the human soul
  • Have never troubled our obscure retreats;
  • We lift pure hands unto the God we serve.
  • Contests of kings too much to discord prone
  • We learn but with intention to compose:
  • And of their greatness we should never hear
  • Did they not often need our friendly prayers.
  • I go, my lord, to invoke the immortal gods
  • For you, Olympia, and for many more.

cassander.

  • Olympia!

the hierophantes.

  • This moment to the temple she returns.
  • Try if she still will own you for her lord.
  • I leave you.
  • [He goes out, and the temple opens.

SCENE III.

cassander, sosthenes, statira, olympia.

cassander.

  • By heaven she trembles! and I quake all o’er;
  • You cast upon the ground your streaming eyes!
  • You turn aside that face where nature’s hand
  • With the most strong expression traced at once
  • The noblest and the tenderest of souls!

olympia.

  • [Throwing herself into her mother’s arms.
  • Ah cruel man! ah madam!

cassander.

  • Speak, explain
  • This agitation. Wherefore do you fly me?
  • Whose arms do you run into? What means this?
  • Why must my anxious soul be thus alarmed?
  • Who is’t attends and bathes you with her tears?

statira.

  • [Unveiling and turning towards Cassander.
  • Hast thou forgot me?—

cassander.

  • —At that voice, those looks
  • My blood runs cold. Where am I? What means this?

statira.

  • That thou’rt a villain—

cassander.

  • Is Statira here?

statira.

  • Behold, thou wretch, the widow of thy lord,
  • Olympia’s mother.—

cassander.

  • Oh you bolts of Jove,
  • Against my guilty head point all your rage.

statira.

  • Thou shouldst have sooner for destruction prayed,
  • Eternal enemy of me and mine,
  • If ’twas the will of heaven that both my throne
  • And husband to thy rage should owe their fall,
  • If amidst carnage, in that day of crimes
  • Thy cowardice and cruelty was such,
  • That thou couldst pierce a woman’s breast, and plunge
  • Her body in the flood of gore she shed,
  • Leave me what of that hapless blood remains.
  • Must you be ever fatal to my peace?
  • Tear not my daughter from my heart, my arms,
  • Deprive me not of her whom heaven restores,
  • Respect the place of refuge which I’ve chosen,
  • That from earth’s tyrants I might live retired.
  • Monster to crimes inured, cease, cease at length
  • In sacred tombs to persecute the dead.

cassander.

  • Less dread the voice of thunder would inspire;
  • I dare not prostrate kiss the ground before you;
  • I own I am made unworthy by my crimes,
  • If in excuse war’s horrors I should urge,
  • If I should say I was imposed upon
  • When the illustrious hero was cut off;
  • That I to serve my sire took arms against you,
  • I should not pacify your angry soul.
  • You’ll no excuse admit, though I might say
  • I saved your daughter whom my soul adores;
  • That at your feet I lay my crown and realms.
  • All makes against me, no defence you’ll hear,
  • Soon to my wretched life I’ll put an end,
  • A life whose punishment outweighs its guilt,
  • If your own child, spite of herself and me,
  • Did not attach me to detested life.
  • Your daughter I brought up with tender care,
  • And to her friends’ and father’s place supplied;
  • She has my every wish, my heart; the gods
  • Perhaps have made us in this temple meet,
  • That we by Hymen’s sacred ties might change,
  • The horrors of our destiny to bliss.

statira.

  • Heavens! what a match. Could you the villain wed
  • Who slew your sire, and would have murdered me?

olympia.

  • No, no, extinguished ever be the torch,
  • The guilty torch of nuptials so accursed:
  • Blot from my heart the shocking memory
  • Of those dire bands which were to join our hands.
  • My soul prefers, you’ll wonder at the choice,
  • Your ashes to the sceptre he bestows.
  • I must not hesitate; in your kind arms,
  • Let me forget his love, and all his crimes.
  • Your daughter loving him partook his guilt.
  • Forgive me, my dire sacrifice accept:
  • Think not his villainies involve my heart,
  • But keep me, keep me ever from his sight.

statira.

  • Thou showest a spirit worthy of thy race,
  • These sentiments revive my drooping soul.
  • Eternal gods, could you have then decreed
  • That with these hands I should Olympia give
  • To the most barbarous of the human race?
  • Can you exact it of me? Such a deed
  • The priestess and the mother both disclaim.
  • You pitied me, it was not your design
  • That I so dire a duty should perform . . . .
  • Villain, no more the altar and the throne
  • Insult, the walls of Babylon you stained
  • With this heart’s blood, but I would rather see
  • That blood shed now by such a parricide,
  • Than see my foe, my subject—see Cassander
  • Presume audaciously to proffer love
  • To Alexander’s daughter, and to mine.

cassander.

  • Still with more rigor I condemn myself;
  • But then I love, to frantic love give way.
  • Olympia’s mine; who was her sire I know;
  • Like him I am a king, I have the right,
  • I have the power, in fine, Olympia’s mine.
  • Her fate and mine are not to be disjoined.
  • Neither her fears nor you, the gods, my crimes,
  • Nor aught shall break a tie so sanctified;
  • The gods did not my penitence reject.
  • When they united us they pardoned all.
  • But if you’d rob me of my charming bride,
  • Whose hand I have received and plighted faith,
  • This blood you first must shed, pluck out this heart
  • Which beats for her alone, which you detest.
  • No privilege your altars shall protect,
  • Who murdered now shall sacrilege commit.
  • I’ll from this temple, from your very arms,
  • From the unpitying gods bear off my wife.
  • I seek for death, ’tis my desire, my wish.
  • But I’ll the husband of Olympia die.
  • In spite of you I’ll carry to the grave
  • The tenderest love, and most illustrious name,
  • And grief for an involuntary crime,
  • Which will the manes of her sire appease.
  • [Exit Cassander with Sosthenes.

SCENE IV.

statira, olympia.

statira.

  • What horrid blasphemies have reached my ear?
  • Daughter, how dearly for thy life I pay!
  • The horrors which I feel you suffer, too,
  • My grief I in your eyes conspicuous read;
  • Our hearts still sympathize. Your kind embraces
  • And deep-fetched sighs console my wounded soul;
  • Because you share my griefs, I feel them less;
  • In you I find a shelter from the storm.
  • I brave my fate since you possess a heart
  • Worthy of Alexander and of me.

olympia.

  • Heaven knows my heart was ne’er by nature formed
  • To copy after yours, to be inspired
  • By such high sentiments, such swelling virtues.
  • O widow of famed Alexander, sprung
  • From famed Darius, wherefore being torn
  • From thy maternal arms, was I brought up
  • By this Cassander, thy most mortal foe?
  • Why on Olympia did your assassin
  • Unasked new favors every day confer?
  • Why did he not with cruel hand oppress me?
  • Too dangerous favors! why was I beloved?
  • Heavens, who do I behold in this retreat!
  • [Antigones advances.

SCENE V.

statira, olympia, antigones.

antigones.

  • —Retire not queen.
  • You see a king by Alexander taught.
  • His widow I respect and will defend.
  • You from that altar’s foot again might rise
  • To the high rank which you possessed before;
  • Replace your daughter there, and vengeance take
  • Of that proud ravisher who injures both.
  • Your story’s known, and every heart is yours;
  • All men are weary of those tyrants’ yoke,
  • Who at your husband’s death the empire seized.
  • Your name this revolution will support;
  • As your defender will you own me here?

statira.

  • Yes, if ’tis pity that directs your heart,
  • And if this friendly offer is sincere.

antigones.

  • I will not suffer an audacious youth
  • To gain a double right to Cyrus’ throne,
  • When of your virtuous daughter’s hand possessed.
  • He is unworthy, and I cannot doubt
  • But you will never grant him your consent.
  • I have not to the priest explained myself:
  • Though I came hither as a worshipper,
  • Who to the gods for clemency applies,
  • I come before you with fierce vengeance armed.
  • The widow of the conqueror may forget
  • Her greatness, but the honor of her race
  • She never can forget or overlook.

statira.

  • I’m weary both of life and of the throne;
  • One’s taken from me, the other near an end.
  • If from an impious ravisher you snatch
  • The only comfort heaven has left my woe:
  • If you protect her and avenge her sire,
  • I’ll own you as my tutelary god.
  • Oh! sir, whilst on life’s utmost verge I stand,
  • Preserve my daughter from the dangerous crime
  • Of marrying him whose bloody malice strove
  • Her hapless mother to deprive of life.

antigones.

  • Say worthy offspring of the conqueror,
  • Dost thou accept the offer which I make?

olympia.

  • Cassander I should hate.—

antigones.

  • —You then must grant
  • The prize, the noble prize I come to ask.
  • Against my all I will assert your cause,
  • Since I deserve you be my recompense.
  • ’Tis this I ask, all other prize I scorn,
  • Such worth should never be Cassander’s lot;
  • Speak: the unequalled glory I will owe
  • To this right arm, the queen, and to yourself.

statira.

  • Decide.—

olympia.

  • —My scattered spirits let me first
  • Awhile recover. Scarce my eyes are opened,
  • Trembling and terrified from slavery,
  • I to this temple’s hallowed cells retire,
  • Sprung from Statira and a demi-god;
  • A mother in this shrine august I find
  • Divested of her name, her rank, her all,
  • And hardly from a dream of death awakened.
  • I as a benefactor wed the man
  • Whose dagger had my mother’s bosom gored.
  • While thus disasters compass me about,
  • Your arm you offer to avenge my cause.
  • What answer can I make? . . . At such a time
  • [Embracing her mother.
  • ’Tis here that my first duties are required.
  • Judge if the torch of Hymen’s e’er was made
  • To yield its light amidst this gloom of woe:
  • See in one day how I’m with ills o’erwhelmed,
  • And think not I can listen now to love.

statira.

  • I’ll answer for her, heaven decrees her to you.
  • Perhaps in former times the majesty—
  • Or call it pride—of my imperial throne,
  • My daughter to a subject had denied,
  • But you deserve her since you would defend,
  • ’Twas you that Alexander meant his heir.
  • He named the worthiest, you the worthiest prove.
  • His throne you have a right to, who support.
  • May the unceasing favor of the gods
  • Second you, may their power to empire raise.
  • Both Alexander and his queen interred
  • He in his tomb, and I within these walls,
  • Will see you on our throne without regret:
  • And may henceforth the fates, grown less severe,
  • Oppose for you that strange fatality,
  • Which oft has overwhelmed that throne in blood.

antigones.

  • It shall be raised by fair Olympia’s hand.
  • To Asia’s people show yourself and her.
  • Quit this asylum. All things I’ll prepare
  • Your husband to avenge, and fill his place.
  • [Exit Antigones.

SCENE VI.

statira, olympia.

statira.

  • By your means, daughter, I the barrier break
  • That keeps me distant from all human kind;
  • Again I enter this degenerate world
  • My husband to avenge, and break thy chains.
  • New strength the gods will to a mother give,
  • And soon thou shalt be set at liberty.
  • Help me to keep my word, by a new oath
  • Help me to wipe away the former’s guilt.

olympia.

  • Alas!

statira.

  • You groan!

olympia.

  • Must then this fatal day
  • Twice light up Hymen’s inauspicious torch?

statira.

  • What dost thou say?

olympia.

  • —Permit me, this first time,
  • My thoughts to utter with a trembling voice.
  • So much I love thee, mother, I would shed
  • The blood which from thee I derive, if so
  • The gods would, by new added years, protract
  • Thy life, or render it completely blessed.

statira.

  • Dearest Olympia!

olympia.

  • Shall I tell those gods
  • I ask no throne except this calm retreat?
  • In it you’ll see me lead my life resigned
  • And look with scorn on crowns forgot by you.
  • Thinkest thou my father, in the silent tomb,
  • Desires his foe should perish by our hands?
  • Amidst the horrors of the fight, let kings
  • Destroy each other, and avenge his death:
  • But we, the victims of so many ills,
  • Shall we, with feeble hands, assist their rage?
  • Shall we a fruitless murder undertake?
  • Tears are our portion, crimes for them were made.

statira.

  • Our portion tears! For whom thus dost thou weep?
  • Is Alexander’s daughter by the gods
  • Restored me? Heavens, is it her whose voice I hear!

olympia.

  • Mother!

statira.

  • Ye angry gods!

olympia.

  • Cassander! . . .

statira.

  • Explain yourself, my soul is shocked to hear you.

olympia.

  • I cannot speak—

statira.

  • —You wound me to the heart.
  • End this anxiety, I charge thee, speak.

olympia.

  • Madam, too well I see I give you pain,
  • But whom I love I never will deceive.
  • Although forever I am resolved to shun
  • My guilty husband, I must love him still.

statira.

  • Oh words accursed! ah, daughter since you love
  • This cruel husband, you will never fly him.
  • Thus Alexander you betray and me!
  • Ye gods, I saw my sire and husband die:
  • My daughter from me torn, your cruel will
  • Restores to make me perish by her fault.

olympia.

  • Thus prostrate falling—

statira.

  • —Daughter ever dear,
  • But cruel and unnatural—

olympia.

  • Alas!
  • Oppressed with woe I bathe your knees with tears.
  • Mother forgive me.—

statira.

  • —So I will and die.

olympia.

  • Be calm and hear me—

statira.

  • —What have you to say?

olympia.

  • I swear by heaven, by my own name, by you,
  • By nature, I the punishment will bear
  • Of my own guilt. This hand to-day should shed
  • My blood ere I’d consent to be his wife.
  • You know my heart, I’ve told you that I love;
  • By this confession and my weakness judge
  • If my heart’s yours, if love for you prevails
  • Over that love which has subdued my senses.
  • Consider not my sex or tender age,
  • Courage from my great parents I derive.
  • I might offend them, I cannot betray;
  • You’ll know Olympia, when you see her die.

statira.

  • Dear, but inhuman daughter, can you die,
  • And yet not hate the assassin of your sire!

olympia.

  • Tear out my heart, examine it, you’ll find,
  • Though dear, my husband reigned not there like you.
  • The blood which animates it then you’ll know;
  • Your daughter sacrifice.—

statira.

  • —I know your heart.
  • I pity you, my child, and don’t condemn.
  • Your courage and your duty give me hope,
  • I pity even the love that injures me.
  • You tear my heart, yet you affect it too.
  • Console your mother whilst you cause her death.
  • Alas! I am wretched, but you’re not to blame.

olympia.

  • Which bears, oh heavens, of woe the greatest weight!
  • Which has most reason, to complain, of fate!

End of the thirdAct.