Scene 2
The Temple of Hestia. Evening: torches are lit. In the centre a statue of the goddess. Rhodope appears from the right in solemn procession, with her Lesbia, Hero, and Karna.
Rhodope.
Karna, the funeral-pyre—’tis being built?
Karna.
’Tis built ere now.
[Rhodope paces into the temple and kneels before the statue of the goddess.
Hero.
She speaks of funeral-pyres
Instead of bridal-chambers?
Lesbia.
What, amazed?
There must be first one dead within this place
Or ever in this place there be a bride.
Hero.
I tremble, Lesbia. She questioned me,
When I was tiring her, if in our garden
Were growing poison-berries——
Lesbia.
What?
Hero.
And if
I might not go and bring her some of them,
For every one she said she’d give a pearl
Though there should be a hundred; but with speed
It must be done.
Lesbia.
And you?
Hero.
I answered no,
And thereupon she smiled and said, “I’m like
To think it. I shall show you them to-morrow.”
And yet I thought it strange.
Lesbia.
And strange it is.
Hero.
Thereon she sent me from her, but I spied
And saw her take a poniard fine of point
As though for test, no other word could name it,
And scratch her arm.
Lesbia.
Hero!
Hero.
’Tis true. There came
Red blood as well.
Lesbia.
Oh horror!
Hero.
Sooth it is
She honours equally with ours strange gods
We have no knowledge of; and so perchance
’Tis some dark rite.
Lesbia.
No, no! Where sounds the flute
And where the pipe? Who sings the song of Hymen?
Where is the band of dancers? I was blind!
She has gone forth to turn her home no more.
Queen, hearken to my prayer—relent!... And is
A feast prepared?
Hero.
No. Oh, to be in the dark!
Lesbia.
Then curses on the pride of heart that held me,
This very day of all, so far from her!
And now—O Goddess, she is Thine this hour,
Incline her heart, I cannot do so more!
Hero.
Yes, Pure and Chaste and Holy, do this thing ...
And is’t not strange as well that she should choose
No more the ever-blithesome Aphrodite
For witness, but the stern-faced Hestia
Before whose gaze the greenest garland dries?
Lesbia.
Oh, oh, it means the Thing most dread of all!
[Enter Gyges.
Hero.
Gyges!
Lesbia.
Oh take him! Only—do it not!
Gyges.
I feel as though myself had lost the blood
That streamed from out his veins. I am death-cold.
Hero.
How pale his seeming is!
Gyges.
There is the altar—
But at another have I sought for her——
And there her maids are standing—there is she——
What means it all?
[Enter Thoas.
Thoas.
I offer you the crown.
Gyges.
It passes to the Lydians, not to me.
Thoas.
I brought it to the Lydians ere to you,
And as their herald stand before you now.
The People
(without). Hail, Gyges, Hail!
[Rhodope rises and turns round.
The People
(pressing in). Gyges, our King, all hail!
Thoas.
This shouting is no thing for pride. The neighbours
Have fallen on the land, and ’tis your task
To lead them.
Gyges.
What?
Thoas.
’Twas just as I had thought.
He was too mild; there’s not a soul that feared him,
And now they’re here.
[Gyges puts on the crown.
Gyges.
’Tis I that pay his debt.
Rhod.
(who has been slowly approaching Gyges). Gyges, your own is first to pay.
Gyges.
O Queen,
Be you the prize that draws me with its lure
When far and wide I’ve crushed my foes in rout.
Rhod.
Nay, nay! You gain no hour of grace from me.
We cannot go before my Father’s presence;
Then come with me and stand at Hestia’s altar,
And give to me before her countenance
The hand’s eternal bond I give to you.
Gyges.
Had you but seen how he took leave of life
You’d call’t a holy thing, this awed recoil
That sanctions not the mere touch of your garment,
Till I have done this thing for him. There’s none
Had more o’ the rich world’s goods than he, and yet
He went therefrom as others come therein.
Rhod.
If with such noble soul he trod the way
To dusky death, that realm where none renews
The stain of sin, then with a glow at heart
I’ll meet him, though no more than on the threshold.
Yea, I will stoop and make my hands a cup
To draw for him from Lethe; but myself
Shall never taste the beatific drink.
But you—I warn you—make an end!
Gyges.
So be it.
Yet this I swear to thee, beloved Shade,
I shall away as soon as e’er ’tis done.
Rhod.
I too have sworn to do a thing.
Gyges.
O Queen,
The man whose hand defers a cup so brimming
With every bliss, as mine does now, though but
For one short hour, that man has won it well.
Rhod.
Hush, hush! Your feet are in a holy place!
[They walk to the altar.
O Hestia, Thou Guardian of the Flame
Whose fire consumes the thing it cannot cleanse,
I give this youth my thanks that once again
I dare appear before thy countenance.
And as the folk exalteth him to King,
Be witness thou, I raise him to my lord.
[She gives Gyges her hand.
And you—regard as wedding-gift the crown
Now flinging from your head its lordly sparkle,
But give to me the Dead Man’s Ring for pledge.
Gyges.
Nay, that the King still bears upon his finger.
Rhod.
Already then it has its fitting place.
[She frees Gyges’ hand.
And now step back. Be faithful to your vow
As I keep faith with mine. My stain is purged,
For none has seen me save for whom ’twas meet.
But now I disunite me (stabs herself) thus from you!