SCENE I.—ANTIOCHUS; JASON.
ANTIOCHUS. O ANTIOCH, my Antioch, my city! | |
| Queen of the East! my solace, my delight! | |
| The dowry of my sister Cleopatra | |
| When she was wed to Ptolemy, and now | |
| Won back and made more wonderful by me! | 5 |
| I love thee, and I long to be once more | |
| Among the players and the dancing women | |
| Within thy gates, and bathe in the Orontes, | |
| Thy river and mine. O Jason, my High-Priest, | |
| For I have made thee so, and thou art mine, | 10 |
| Hast thou seen Antioch the Beautiful? | |
| |
JASON. Never, my Lord.
ANTIOCHUS. Then hast thou never seen | |
| The wonder of the world. This city of David | |
| Compared with Antioch is but a village, | |
| And its inhabitants compared with Greeks | 15 |
Are mannerless boors.
JASON. They are barbarians, | |
And mannerless.
ANTIOCHUS. They must be civilized. | |
| They must be made to have more gods than one; | |
And goddesses besides.
JASON. They shall have more. | |
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ANTIOCHUS. They must have hippodromes, and games, and baths, | 20 |
| Stage-plays and festivals, and most of all | |
The Dionysia.
JASON. They shall have them all. | |
| |
ANTIOCHUS. By Heracles! but I should like to see | |
| These Hebrews crowned with ivy, and arrayed | |
| In skins of fawns, with drums and flutes and thyrsi, | 25 |
| Revel and riot through the solemn streets | |
| Of their old town. Ha, ha! It makes me merry | |
| Only to think of it!—Thou dost not laugh. | |
| |
JASON. Yea, I laugh inwardly.
ANTIOCHUS. The new Greek leaven | |
| Works slowly in this Israelitish dough! | 30 |
| Have I not sacked the Temple, and on the altar | |
| Set up the statue of Olympian Zeus | |
To Hellenize it?
JASON. Thou hast done all this. | |
| |
ANTIOCHUS. As thou wast Joshua once and now art Jason, | |
| And from a Hebrew hast become a Greek, | 35 |
| So shall this Hebrew nation be translated, | |
| Their very natures and their names be changed, | |
And all be Hellenized.
JASON. It shall be done. | |
| |
ANTIOCHUS. Their manners and their laws and way of living | |
| Shall all be Greek. They shall unlearn their language, | 40 |
| And learn the lovely speech of Antioch. | |
| Where hast thou been to-day? Thou comest late. | |
| |
JASON. Playing at discus with the other priests | |
In the Gymnasium.
ANTIOCHUS. Thou hast done well. | |
| There ’s nothing better for you lazy priests | 45 |
| Than discus-playing with the common people. | |
| Now tell me, Jason, what these Hebrews call me | |
| When they converse together at their games. | |
| |
JASON. Antiochus Epiphanes, my Lord; | |
Antiochus the Illustrious.
ANTIOCHUS. Oh, not that; | 50 |
| That is the public cry; I mean the name | |
| They give me when they talk among themselves, | |
| And think that no one listens; what is that? | |
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JASON. Antiochus Epimanes, my Lord! | |
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ANTIOCHUS. Antiochus the Mad! Ay, that is it. | 55 |
| And who hath said it? Who hath set in motion | |
That sorry jest?
JASON. The Seven Sons insane | |
| Of a weird woman, like themselves insane. | |
| |
ANTIOCHUS. I like their courage, but it shall not save them. | |
| They shall be made to eat the flesh of swine | 60 |
Or they shall die. Where are they?
JASON. In the dungeons | |
Beneath this tower.
ANTIOCHUS. There let them stay and starve, | |
| Till I am ready to make Greeks of them, | |
After my fashion.
JASON. They shall stay and starve.— | |
| My Lord, the Ambassadors of Samaria | 65 |
Await thy pleasure.
ANTIOCHUS. Why not my displeasure? | |
| Ambassadors are tedious. They are men | |
| Who work for their own ends, and not for mine | |
| There is no furtherance in them. Let them go | |
| To Apollonius, my governor | 70 |
| There in Samaria, and not trouble me. | |
What do they want?
JASON. Only the royal sanction | |
| To give a name unto a nameless temple | |
Upon Mount Gerizim.
ANTIOCHUS. Then bid them enter. | |
| This pleases me, and furthers my designs. | 75 |
| The occasion is auspicious. Bid them enter. | |
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SCENE II.—ANTIOCHUS; JASON; the SAMARITAN AMBASSADORS.
ANTIOCHUS. Approach. Come forward; stand not at the door | |
| Wagging your long beards, but demean yourselves | |
| As doth become Ambassadors. What seek ye? | |
| |
AN AMBASSADOR. An audience from the King.
ANTIOCHUS. Speak, and be brief. | 80 |
| Waste not the time in useless rhetoric. | |
Words are not things.
AMBASSADOR (reading). “To King Antiochus, | |
| The God, Epiphanes; a Memorial | |
| From the Sidonians, who live at Sichem.” | |
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ANTIOCHUS. Sidonians?
AMBASSADOR. Ay, my Lord.
ANTIOCHUS. Go on, go on! | 85 |
| And do not tire thyself and me with bowing! | |
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AMBASSADOR (reading). “We are a colony of Medes and Persians.” | |
| |
ANTIOCHUS. No, ye are Jews from one of the Ten Tribes; | |
| Whether Sidonians or Samaritans | |
| Or Jews of Jewry, matters not to me; | 90 |
| Ye are all Israelites, ye are all Jews. | |
| When the Jews prosper, ye claim kindred with them; | |
| When the Jews suffer, ye are Medes and Persians; | |
| I know that in the days of Alexander | |
| Ye claimed exemption from the annual tribute | 95 |
| In the Sabbatic Year, because, ye said, | |
| Your fields had not been planted in that year. | |
| |
AMBASSADOR (reading). “Our fathers, upon certain frequent plagues, | |
| And following an ancient superstition, | |
| Were long accustomed to observe that day | 100 |
| Which by the Israelites is called the Sabbath, | |
| And in a temple on Mount Gerizim | |
| Without a name, they offered sacrifice. | |
| Now we, who are Sidonians, beseech thee, | |
| Who art our benefactor and our savior, | 105 |
| Not to confound us with these wicked Jews, | |
| But to give royal order and injunction | |
| To Apollonius in Samaria, | |
| Thy governor, and likewise to Nicanor, | |
| Thy procurator, no more to molest us; | 110 |
| And let our nameless temple now be named | |
| The Temple of Jupiter Hellenius.” | |
| |
ANTIOCHUS. This shall be done. Full well it pleaseth me | |
| Ye are not Jews, or are no longer Jews, | |
| But Greeks; if not by birth, yet Greeks by custom. | 115 |
| Your nameless temple shall receive the name | |
| Of Jupiter Hellenius. Ye may go! | |
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SCENE III.—ANTIOCHUS; JASON.
ANTIOCHUS. My task is easier than I dreamed. These people | |
| Meet me half-way. Jason, didst thou take note | |
| How these Samaritans of Sichem said | 120 |
| They were not Jews? that they were Medes and Persians, | |
| They were Sidonians, anything but Jews? | |
| ’T is of good augury. The rest will follow | |
Till the whole land is Hellenized.
JASON. My Lord, | |
| These are Samaritans. The tribe of Judah | 125 |
| Is of a different temper, and the task | |
Will be more difficult.
ANTIOCHUS. Dost thou gainsay me? | |
| |
JASON. I know the stubborn nature of the Jew. | |
| Yesterday, Eleazer, an old man, | |
| Being fourscore years and ten, chose rather death | 130 |
| By torture than to eat the flesh of swine. | |
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ANTIOCHUS. The life is in the blood, and the whole nation | |
| Shall bleed to death, or it shall change its faith! | |
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JASON. Hundreds have fled already to the mountains | |
| Of Ephraim, where Judas Maccabæus | 135 |
| Hath raised the standard of revolt against thee. | |
| |
ANTIOCHUS. I will burn down their city, and will make it | |
| Waste as a wilderness. Its thoroughfares | |
| Shall be but furrows in a field of ashes. | |
| It shall be sown with salt as Sodom is! | 140 |
| This hundred and fifty-third Olympiad | |
| Shall have a broad and blood-red seal upon it, | |
| Stamped with the awful letters of my name, | |
| Antiochus the God, Epiphanes!— | |
Where are those Seven Sons?
JASON. My Lord, they wait | 145 |
Thy royal pleasure.
ANTIOCHUS. They shall wait no longer! | |
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