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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.

genghis, octar, osman.

Attendants.

genghis.

  • What say the captives, is the fraud discovered,
  • And vengeance taken on these vile impostors?
  • Have they delivered up the orphan prince
  • To Octar?

osman.

  • Prayers, and threats, and torments, all
  • Are vain: the undaunted Zamti still persists
  • In his first answer: on his open brows
  • Are engraved the marks of truth: the mournful fair one,
  • Whose grief but adds new lustre to her charms,
  • With tears incessant and heart-rending sighs,
  • Moves every heart: spite of ourselves we wept
  • Her wretched fate: ne’er did my eyes behold
  • A sweeter mourner: she entreats to see
  • And speak with you; the conqueror of kings,
  • She hopes, will hear the wretched, and in wrath
  • Remember mercy; that he will protect
  • A guiltless child, and show mankind his goodness
  • Is like his power, unlimited. ’Twas thus,
  • My lord, she spoke of you, and I have promised
  • She shall have audience.

genghis.

  • [To one of the attendants.
  • Bid her enter now,
  • We shall unravel this deep mystery;
  • But let her not imagine a few sighs,
  • And bidden tears, can e’er impose on me:
  • I have experienced all these female arts,
  • But I defy them now: let her be careful,
  • Her life depends on her sincerity.

osman.

  • My lord, she comes.

genghis.

  • What do I see? O heaven!
  • It cannot be Idame, sure my senses—

SCENE II.

genghis, idame, octar, osman.

Guards.

idame.

  • My lord, I came not to solicit pardon,
  • My forfeit life is yours, I ask not for it:
  • Why should I wish for years of added woe?
  • But spare a guiltless infant.

genghis.

  • Rise, Idame,
  • Fate conquers all, it has deceived us both.
  • If heaven hath raised a poor inhabitant
  • Of Scythia, once the object of your scorn,
  • To power, and splendor, you have naught to fear:
  • The emperor never will avenge the wrongs
  • Of Temugin; but public good demands
  • The royal victim; ’tis a sacrifice
  • Which must be made: for your own son, myself
  • Will be his guard: I promise to protect him.

idame.

  • Then I am happy.

genghis.

  • But inform me, madam,
  • What is this fraud, this mystery between you?
  • For I must know it all.

idame.

  • O spare the wretched.

genghis.

  • Have I not cause to hate this Zamti?

idame.

  • You,
  • My lord?

genghis.

  • I’ve said too much.

idame.

  • Restore my child,
  • You’ve promised it.

genghis.

  • His pardon must depend
  • On you alone: you know I have been injured,
  • My favors scorned, my orders disobeyed:
  • Who is this Zamti, this respected lord,
  • This husband? in that name alone comprised
  • Is every guilt: what charms has he to boast
  • Who braves me thus?

idame.

  • He was my only comfort,
  • My joy, my happiness, the best of men;
  • He served his God, his country, and his king.

genghis.

  • How long, Idame, have you been united?

idame.

  • Ever since the fatal time, when wayward fortune
  • Espoused thy cause, and gave a tyrant power
  • To scourge mankind.

genghis.

  • I understand you, madam,
  • E’er since the time you mean, when I was scorned
  • By a proud beauty, when this country first
  • Deserved the chains which it was doomed to wear.

SCENE III.

genghis, octar, osman.

[On one side of the stage.

idame, and zamti.

[On the other, Guords.

genghis.

  • What sayest thou, slave? hast thou delivered up
  • The emperor’s son?

zamti.

  • I have, my lord, ’tis done:
  • I have fulfilled my duty.

genghis.

  • Well thou knowest
  • Nor fraud, nor insolence escape my vengeance:
  • If thou hast dared to hide him from my wrath,
  • He must be found, his death shall follow thine.
  • [To the guards.
  • Seize and destroy that infant.

zamti.

  • Wretched father!

idame.

  • Stay, cruel tyrant, stay, is this your pity,
  • Is this your promise?

genghis.

  • I have been deceived;
  • Explain the mystery, madam, or he dies.

idame.

  • I’ll tell thee all; and if it be a crime
  • To follow nature, and obey her laws,
  • If still thy cruel spirit thirsts for blood,
  • Let all your anger light on me, but spare
  • The noble Zamti: to our mutual care
  • The emperor entrusted his dear son:
  • Thou knowest too well what scenes of horrid slaughter
  • Followed thy cruel victory, and marked
  • Thy steps with blood; that might have satisfied
  • A less inhuman conqueror: when thy slaves
  • Demanded our last hope, the royal heir,
  • My generous Zamti, faithful to his king,
  • To duty gave up all, and sacrificed
  • His son, nor listened to the powerful voice
  • Of nature; I admired that patriot firmness
  • I had not strength to imitate: alas!
  • I am a mother, how could I consent
  • To my child’s death? my terrors, my despair,
  • My rage, my anguish, all too plainly spoke
  • What Zamti strove to hide: behold, my lord,
  • The wretched father, he deserves your pity:
  • So does my guiltless infant: punish me,
  • And me alone: forgive me, dearest Zamti,
  • Forgive a mother’s tenderness, forgive
  • A wife that loves thee and would save thy son.

zamti.

  • I have forgiven thee, and, thank heaven, my king,
  • The royal infant’s safe.

genghis.

  • ’Tis false; begone,
  • And find him, traitor, or thou diest; atone
  • For thy past crimes.

zamti.

  • The crime were to obey
  • A tyrant, but my royal master’s voice
  • Cries from the tomb, and bids me tell thee, Genghis,
  • Thou art my conqueror, but not my king:
  • Were Zamti born thy subject, he had been
  • Most faithful to thee: I have sacrificed
  • My son, and thinkest thou I can fear to die?

genghis.

  • [To the guard.
  • Away with him.

idame.

  • O stay.

genghis.

  • I’ll hear no more.

idame.

  • I have deserved thy anger, I alone
  • Should feel thy vengeance: thou hast slain my king,
  • And now my husband and my child must fall
  • By thy destructive hand: inhuman tyrant,
  • When will thy wrath be satisfied?

genghis.

  • Away:
  • Follow thy guilty husband: darest thou plead
  • For mercy, thou reproach me?

idame.

  • Then all hope
  • Is lost.

genghis.

  • If ever I think of clemency,
  • It must not be till ample reparation
  • Is made for all my wrongs: you understand me.

SCENE IV.

genghis, octar.

genghis.

  • What means this fluttering heart, and wherefore thus
  • Steals from my breast the involuntary sigh?
  • Some power divine protects her: O my Octar,
  • What secret charms have innocence and beauty,
  • That proud authority should thus submit
  • To own their influence? I have lost myself
  • And want a friend; O lend me thy kind counsel.

octar.

  • Since I must speak, I’ll speak with freedom; know then
  • This dangerous branch of a detested race
  • Must be cut off, or we are not secure
  • In our new conquest; victory’s best guard
  • Is rigor; by severity alone
  • Your power can be established. Time, my lord,
  • Will bring back order and tranquillity;
  • The people by degrees forget their wrongs,
  • Or pardon them: you then may reign in peace.

genghis.

  • And can it be Idame, that proud beauty,
  • Given to another, to my mortal foe!

octar.

  • She merits not your pity, but your hate;
  • I cannot, must not think you ever loved her;
  • ’Twas but a short and momentary flame,
  • That sparkled and expired; her cruel scorn,
  • Her proud refusal, and the hand of time,
  • Have quite extinguished it; she is no more
  • To Genghis now than the ignoble wife,
  • Of an abandoned traitor.

genghis.

  • He shall die;
  • A slave! a rival!

octar.

  • Wherefore lives he yet?
  • Strike, and revenge thyself.

genghis.

  • I know not why,
  • But my fond heart still trembles at the thought
  • Of injuring her: subdued by beauty’s tears
  • I dare not hurt a rival and a slave;
  • Even in the husband I respect the wife:
  • Is love indeed so great a conqueror,
  • And must I grace his triumphs?

octar.

  • All I know,
  • And all I wish for, is to follow thee,
  • The rattling chariot, and the sounding bow,
  • The fiery coursers, and the din of arms:
  • These are my passions, these the joys of Octar:
  • I am a stranger to the sighs of love,
  • And think them far beneath the royal soul
  • Of Genghis; they debase a character
  • So great as thine.

genghis.

  • I know my power, I know
  • That I could make her mine: but what avails
  • The fairest form without the conquered heart?
  • Where is the joy to press within our arms
  • A trembling slave? to see her beauteous eyes
  • Forever bathed in tears, and her full heart
  • Oppressed with sorrow? ’tis a barbarous triumph:
  • The savage herd, that through the forest roam,
  • Enjoy more peace, and boast a purer love:
  • The fair Idame has some secret power
  • That charms me more than victory and empire:
  • I thought I could have driven her from my heart,
  • But she returns, and triumphs.

SCENE V.

genghis, octar, osman.

genghis.

  • Well: what says she?

osman.

  • That she will perish with her husband rather
  • Than tell the place where, hid from every eye,
  • The orphan lies concealed; the tender husband
  • Supports her in his arms; with added courage
  • Inspires her soul, and teaches her to die.
  • They wish to be united in the grave;
  • The people throng around, and every eye
  • Is wet with tears, lamenting their sad fate.

genghis.

  • And does Idame talk of death from me?
  • Fly, Osman, fly, tell her I hold her life
  • As sacred as my own: away.

SCENE VI.

genghis, octar.

octar.

  • This infant,
  • Concerning him, my lord—what’s to be done?

genghis.

  • Nothing.

octar.

  • You gave commands he should be torn
  • Even from Idame’s bosom.

genghis.

  • We must think
  • Of that hereafter.

octar.

  • What if they should hide—

genghis.

  • He cannot escape us.

octar.

  • Still they may deceive you.

genghis.

  • Idame is incapable of fraud.

octar.

  • And would you then preserve the royal race?

genghis.

  • I would preserve Idame; for the rest
  • ’Tis equal all, dispose it as thou wilt.
  • Go, bring her hither—stay—my Octar—try
  • If thou canst soften this rebellious slave,
  • This Zamti, and persuade him to obey me.
  • We will not heed this infant; he shall make me
  • A nobler sacrifice.

octar.

  • Who, he, my lord?

genghis.

  • Ay, he.

octar.

  • What hopest thou?

genghis.

  • To subdue Idame,
  • To see her, to adore her, to be loved
  • By that ungrateful fair one; or to take
  • My full revenge, to punish her, and die.

End of the Third Act.