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• The Works of Voltaire: the Dramatic Works of Voltaire Vol. Viii— Part I
• MÉrope
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• A Letter to the Marquis Scipio Maffei, Author of the Italian Mérope, and Many Other Celebrated Performances.
• A Letter From M. De La Lindelle to M. De Voltaire.
• The Answer of M. De Voltaire to M. De La Lindelle.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• Olympia
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• The Orphan of China
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• To the Most Noble Duke of Richelieu, Marshal and Peer of France, First Gentleman of the Chamber to His Majesty, Governor of Languedoc, and Member of the Academy of Sciences.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• Brutus
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• The Dramatic Works of Voltaire Vol. Viii— Part Ii
• Mahomet.
• To His Majesty the King of Prussia.
• A Letter From M. De Voltaire to Pope Benedict XIV.
• The Answer of Pope Benedict XIV. To M. De Voltaire. Benedictus P. P. Dilecto Filio Salutem & Apostolicam Benedictionem.
• A Letter of Thanks From M. De Voltaire to the Pope.
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act Ii
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• Amelia
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• Œdipus
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• Mariamne
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• Socrates
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.

ACT IV.

SCENE I.

antigones, hermas.

[In the porch.

hermas.

• You warned me well; the holy place profaned,
• Will soon of strife and slaughter be the scene.
• Your soldiers guard our passage near the shrine,
• Cassander mad with love, with grief, and rage,
• Daring the gods whom he before invoked,
• Advances towards you by another path.
• The signal’s given, but in this enterprise
• The people doubt whose cause they should espouse.
• [Going out.

antigones.

• I’ll soon unite them.

SCENE II.

antigones, hermas, cassander, sosthenes.

cassander.

[Stopping Antigones.

• —Stay unworthy friend,
• False ally, and detested enemy,
• How durst thou claim what heaven bestows on me?

antigones.

• I do—should that in thee excite surprise?
• The conqueror’s daughter has sufficient right
• To make the sons of Asia rise in arms,
• And haughty tyrants tremble on their thrones.
• Her portion’s Babylon, but she may claim
• The empire’s wide extent in right of birth.
• I, to possess them both, aspire, and know
• Thy tears, thy expiations and thy grief,
• The piercing eyes of nations cannot blind.
• Think not Olympia’s love still prone to doubt,
• If thou art guilty of her father’s death.
• In her opinion you are now condemned.
• Your heart, enslaved and tyrannized by love,
• Seduced Olympia, and you hid her birth.
• You thought to bury in oblivion’s night
• The fatal secret which to me is known.
• Her love you owe to baseness and deceit.
• But time at length her eyes has opened, and now
• Cassander his pretensions must forego.
• What, were thy hopes presumptuous? Didst thou think
• By her right, to become the king of kings? . . .
• By arms I may defend Statira’s cause,
• But would you our alliance still preserve?
• In your new kingdom would you reign in peace,
• Regain my friendship, on my arm depend?

cassander.

• Proceed.—

antigones.

• Olympia yield, and we are friends:
• For you I’ll spill my blood; if you refuse
• I’ll henceforth be the greatest of your foes.
• Maturely weigh your interests, and choose.

cassander.

• My choice is easy, and I hither came
• To make to you an offer that may please.
• You know nor law nor pity, nor remorse;
• Friendship to violate, to you is sport.
• The gods I feared, you heavenly justice mock;
• The fruit of all your crimes you now enjoy;
• You shall not long.—

antigones.

• —What mean these swelling words?

cassander.

• If your fierce soul of virtue is not void,
• Let us not to our soldiers have recourse
• Our rage to second, and our anger serve.
• Our people should not in our quarrels bleed,
• They should not in our contests be involved.
• You, if you’re bold enough, alone should brave
• My courage, and my single arm oppose:
• I was not to the commerce of the gods
• Admitted in their sight to slay my friend;
• ’Tis an unheard-of crime prepared by you:
• Come, we were born to act this bloody part.
• Come on, decide both of my fate and yours,
• Pour out your blood, or glut yourself with mine.

antigones.

• With joy the combat I accept; be sure
• Olympia weds the man by whom thou art slain.
• [They draw.

SCENE III.

The Hierophants come precipitately from the temple with the priests and the initiated, who, with a multitude of the populace, part Cassander and Antigones, and disarm them.

the hierophants.

• Hold your audacious hands, you men profane!
• Respect our god, respect his sacred rites!
• Haste, priests and people, part these barbarous men:
• Banish fierce discord from this sacred shrine.
• Your crimes atone—swords quickly disappear—
• Ye gods grant pardon—monarchs heaven obey.

cassander.

• To you and heaven I yield.—

antigones.

• —I still persist,
• I call to witness Alexander’s shade,
• I call to witness the avenging gods,
• That whilst I live, Olympia, my beloved,
• Ne’er shall be folded in my rival’s arms.
• The impious match on Ephesus would bring
• Shame, and make Asia’s sons with horror shrink.

cassander.

• It would, no doubt, had it been made by you.

the hierophants.

• With spirit calmer, and with heart less fierce.
• Yield to the law obedience and respect.
• All men it binds, by all should be fulfilled.
• The poor man’s hut, the haughty monarch’s throne,
• Alike subjected hear the voice of law;
• The weak she aids, transgressors she restrains,
• And her power sets the blameless victim free.
• Whene’er a husband of whatever rank
• Has chanced the parents of his wife to slay,
• Though he be by our mysteries purified,
• By Vesta’s fire, and by her healthful stream,
• And by repentance more essential still,
• His wife that day may new engagements form.
• She may, without offence, except she choose
• To imitate the gods and pardon him.
• As still Statira lives, you well may think
• That she will of her daughter’s fate dispose.
• A mother’s woes, a mother’s rights respect;
• The law of nations, and the character
• Which nature gives, and nothing can efface.
• Her voice august Olympia must obey.
• All your attempts are vain since you must wait,
• The widow’s and her daughter’s final will.
• [Exit with his followers.

antigones.

• I to these terms subscribe, she’s surely mine.
• [Exit Antigones with Hermas.

SCENE IV.

cassander, sosthenes.

[In the porch.

cassander.

• You shall not find her treacherous, cruel man.
• Let us remove her from this fatal shrine,
• And disappoint this daring villain’s hopes,
• He laughs at my remorse, insults my grief,
• And would with calm serenity and joy
• Concealed, destroy my peace and tear my heart.

sosthenes.

• Statira he seduces, sir, the deed
• He justifies by laws he violates,
• And by the gods his impious soul contemns.

cassander.

• Let’s take her from the gods whom I have served,
• Those cruel gods by whom I am betrayed.
• I’d gladly die, the thunderer’s stroke I’d bless;
• But that my wife should in this fatal day
• Pass from Cassander’s to his rival’s hand:
• Ere that I bear, this temple shall be laid
• In ashes, oh ye gods, you pardoned me!
• My soul grown calm with blessed tranquillity,
• Gave itself up to that delusive hope,
• Ye gods, you snatch Olympia from my arms,
• Thus do you pardon expiated crimes?

sosthenes.

• You have not lost the fair; her tender heart
• To you obedient and devoted still
• Cannot so soon the man she loved forget;
• Changes so quick are to the heart unknown.
• By loving you she breaks not nature’s law;
• The wounds which you in fight at random dealt
• Have, I will grant you, shed most precious blood!
• The gods permitted that calamity.
• You are not guilty of her father’s death.
• Your tears have for her mother’s blood atoned;
• Her woes are past, your favors present still.

cassander.

• The anguish of my soul you sooth in vain:
• Statira’s blood and Alexander’s ghost
• Cry from the ground and fill my soul with dread
• She is their daughter, and may justly hate
• Her hapless husband with relentless rage;
• Olympia hates me, she whom I prefer
• To Cyrus’ throne, to all the thrones on earth.
• Those expiations, secret mysteries
• By kings neglected, sought with care by me,
• She was their object, and my guilty soul
• Approached the gods her presence to enjoy.

sosthenes.

• [Seeing Olympia.
• Alas! behold her to her griefs a prey,
• She clasps the altar, bathes it with her tears.

cassander.

• ’Tis time to take her from this shrine by force:
• Go, lose no time, but everything prepare.
• [Exit Sosthenes.

cassander, olympia.

olympia.

• [Reclined upon the altar without seeing Cassander.
• How my heart rises in my throbbing breast!
• How in despair ’tis plunged! how self-condemned!
• [Seeing Cassander.
• What do I see?—

cassander.

• Your husband plunged in woe.

olympia.

• Cassander, to that name no more pretend,
• That you should be my husband’s not in fate.

cassander.

• I own myself unworthy of such bliss.
• I know the crimes which cruel destiny
• For both our ruin made my hand commit.
• Thinking to expiate I’ve their measure filled.
• My presence hurts you and my love insults.
• Howe’er, vouchsafe to answer: has my aid
• From war and from destruction saved your youth?

olympia.

• Why did you save it?—

cassander.

• Even in infancy
• Was not your innocence by me revered?
• Did I not idolize you?—

olympia.

• That’s my grief.

cassander.

• After acknowledging the purest flame,
• Free in your choice and mistress of yourself,
• Did you not in the presence of the gods
• Before this shrine receive my solemn vows?

olympia.

• It is too true. May pitying Heaven avert
• The punishment I have thereby incurred

cassander.

• I had your heart, Olympia.—

olympia.

• Do not add
• To my distress by such a keen reproach.
• My youth ’twas easy for you to seduce;
• My ignorance and weakness you deceived:
• Your guilt’s by this enhanced, fly hence. To hear
• Your conversation is in me a crime.

cassander.

• Beware how you a greater crime commit
• In listening to a treacherous villain’s vows.
• If for Antigones—

olympia.

• Cease, wretched man,
• My soul rejects his vows as well as yours.
• Since I was once deluded and this hand
• Was joined to thine stained with my parents’ blood,
• No mortal to my heart shall e’er lay claim:
• Marriage, the world, and life alike I hate.
• Since now my soul is mistress of her choice,
• I without hesitation choose these tombs
• Which hide my mother, for my last retreat;
• I this asylum choose whose God alone
• My heart by thee deceived shall now possess.
• These altars I embrace, all thrones detest,
• All Asia’s thrones, but far above the rest
• That which by proud Antigones is filled.
• See me no more, go, let me mourn alone
• That promised love which now I must abhor.

cassander.

• If then your heart my rival’s love rejects,
• You can’t deprive me of a ray of hope;
• And when your virtue a new husband shuns,
• I think a favor is conferred on me.
• Although I with your parents’ blood am stained,
• My soul, my being must depend on you;
• Wife ever dear, whose virtues turned aside
• The thunders aimed at my devoted head,
• Still o’er my soul maintained a sovereign sway
• And should your mother’s rigor have disarmed.

olympia.

• My mother! can your tongue pronounce her name!
• Ah, if repentance, pity or soft love
• Have any influence upon your heart,
• Fly from the places she inhabits, fly
• The altars I embrace.—

cassander.

• No, without you
• I cannot go, you must my steps attend.
• [He takes her by the hand.
• Come, dearest wife.—

olympia.

• [Pulling back her hand.
• Then like my mother treat me,
• This bosom, to its duty faithful, pierce:
• A surer dagger plunge in this sad heart,
• To shed my blood that cruel hand was formed.
• Strike here.—

cassander.

• Your vengeance carries you too far.
• My cruelty and violence were less.
• Heaven pardons man, you how to punish know:
• But your ingratitude exceeds all bounds
• When thus a benefactor feels your hate.

olympia.

• Have you not by your deeds incurred my hate?
• Cassander, had thy fierce, thy bloody hand,
• Which with the murderous steel my mother gored,
• Stabbed me alone and shed no other blood,
• I could have pardoned thee and loved thee still.
• Fly, cruel man, fate wills that we should part.

cassander.

• No, destiny itself can’t separate
• Our fates, did you Cassander more detest;
• Had you even married me to pierce my heart,
• You must my steps attend; ’tis fate’s decree.
• Let me still love you as a punishment:
• I swear by you it never will have end:
• Punish, detest your husband, don’t forsake.

SCENE VI.

cassander, olympia, sosthenes.

sosthenes.

• Appear, or soon Antigones prevails:
• The gate he blocks, your warriors he harangues,
• Your friends assembled near the sacred shrine
• He strives to gain, and their fidelity
• Seems to be shaken by his daring words:
• He on Olympia calls, and on her sire;
• Tremble both for your love and for your life;
• Come.—

cassander.

• Is it thus you sacrifice me then
• To a detested rival? I in quest
• Of death will go, since you my death desire.

olympia.

• Alas! Olympia cannot wish thy death.
• Live distant from her.—

cassander.

• Without thee the light
• Of heaven is odious to my eyes, and life
• An object full of horror; if I escape
• Death’s rage, I to this temple will return
• And force thee hence, or with the vital drops
• That warm my heart the sacred pavement stain.
• [Exit with Sosthenes.

SCENE VII.

olympia.

[Alone.

• Ah, wretch! ’tis he that causes my alarms!
• Wherefore, Cassander, should I weep for you?
• Is it so hard our duty to perform?
• The blood from whence I sprung shall o’er my mind
• Rule with despotic sway. By nature’s voice
• I’ll be directed, by her power I swear
• To sacrifice my sentiments to you.
• Far different oaths I at this altar made,
• Gods, you received them, and your clemency
• Approved the passion which inspired my soul.
• My state your power has changed, then change my heart,
• Give me a virtue suited to my woe.
• Pity a soul by ruthless passion torn,
• Which must its nature or its faith forego.
• Whilst yet obscure, I lived in perfect bliss,
• The world forgetting in captivity;
• Both to my parents and myself unknown.
• Ruin to my illustrious name I owe,
• At least I’ll strive to merit it. Cassander
• I must forsake, must fly thee; can I hate?
• How little power has woman o’er her heart!
• Weeping, I tear the wound that rankles there,
• And whilst my hand, with trembling, seeks the dart,
• I plunge it deeper, make the wound more wide.

SCENE VIII.

olympia, the hierophants,Attendants.

olympia.

• Pontiff, where go you? Oh! protect the weak:
• You tremble, and your eyes with tears o’erflow.

the hierophants.

• I grieve, unhappy Princess! at your lot.

olympia.

• Since I am forlorn, afford me then thy aid.

the hierophants.

• With resignation to their heavenly will
• Expect protection from the gods alone.

olympia.

• Alas! what words are these!—

the hierophants.

• —O daughter dear!
• The widow of great Alexander.—

olympia.

• —Gods!
• Has aught befallen my mother? quickly speak.

the hierophants.

• All’s lost, both kings roused up to furious rage,
• Trampling on law, and armed against the gods,
• Within this temple’s consecrated porch,
• Their troops spurred on to murder and to rage.
• Blood flowed on every side, with sword in hand,
• To you Cassander cut himself a path.
• I marched against him, having no defence
• But laws neglected and offended gods.
• Your mother in despair his fury met—
• She thought him master of the shrine and you.
• Tired of such horrors, tired of such black deeds,
• She seized the knife with which we victims slay,
• And plunged it in those loins wherein you found
• The source of life and of calamity.

olympia.

• I die! Support me—is she yet alive?

the hierophants.

• Cassander’s with her, he laments her fate,
• And even presumes to offer her relief,
• To second those whose virtuous hands assist her.
• He raves, himself he blames, throws down his arms,
• Her feet embraces, bathes them with his tears.
• Hearing his cries, her dying eyes she opes,
• And looks upon him as a monster fierce
• Come to deprive her of life’s poor remains,
• By the same hand which she had escaped before;
• She makes an effort weak to raise herself,
• Then falls again and gasps for her last breath:
• Cassander and the light she hates alike,
• Then opening with regret her half-closed eyes,
• Go, says she to me, hapless minister
• Of a sad shrine profaned with human gore,
• Console Olympia, she her mother loves,
• Tell her it is my pleasure that she wed
• Antigones, he will avenge my death.

olympia.

• I’ll go and near her die; now hear me gods,
• Accompany my steps and close my eyes.

the hierophants.

• Intrepid courage to your ills oppose.

olympia.

• Perhaps I soon may show to proud mankind,
• That courage may inspire the female mind.