THE CUP
AND
THE FALCON

THE CUP
AND
THE FALCON

BY
ALFRED
LORD TENNYSON
POET LAUREATE

London
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1884

THE CUP
A TRAGEDY

“The Cup” was produced at the Lyceum Theatre, under the management of Mr. Henry Irving, January 3, 1881, with the following cast:—

GALATIANS.

ROMANS.

ACT I.

ACT II.

ACT I.

Scene I.—Distant View of a City of Galatia.

As the curtain rises, Priestesses are heard singing in the Temple. Boy discovered on a pathway among Rocks, picking grapes. A party of Roman Soldiers, guarding a prisoner in chains, come down the pathway and exeunt.

Enter Synorix (looking round). Singing ceases.

Synorix.

Pine, beech and plane, oak, walnut, apricot,

Vine, cypress, poplar, myrtle, bowering-in

The city where she dwells. She past me here

Three years ago when I was flying from

My Tetrarchy to Rome. I almost touch’d her—

A maiden slowly moving on to music

Among her maidens to this Temple—O Gods!

She is my fate—else wherefore has my fate

Brought me again to her own city?—married

Since—married Sinnatus, the Tetrarch here—

But if he be conspirator, Rome will chain,

Or slay him. I may trust to gain her then

When I shall have my tetrarchy restored

By Rome, our mistress, grateful that I show’d her

The weakness and the dissonance of our clans,

And how to crush them easily. Wretched race!

And once I wish’d to scourge them to the bones.

But in this narrow breathing-time of life

Is vengeance for its own sake worth the while,

If once our ends are gain’d? and now this cup—

I never felt such passion for a woman.

[Brings out a cup and scroll from under his cloak.

What have I written to her?

[Reading the scroll.

“To the admired Camma, wife of Sinnatus, the Tetrarch, one who years ago, himself an adorer of our great goddess, Artemis, beheld you afar off worshipping in her Temple, and loved you for it, sends you this cup rescued from the burning of one of her shrines in a city thro’ which he past with the Roman army: it is the cup we use in our marriages. Receive it from one who cannot at present write himself other than

“A Galatian serving by force in the Roman Legion.”

[Turns and looks up to Boy.

Boy, dost thou know the house of Sinnatus?

Boy.

These grapes are for the house of Sinnatus—

Close to the Temple.

Synorix.

Yonder?

Boy.

Yes.

Synorix (aside).

That I

With all my range of women should yet shun

To meet her face to face at once! My boy,

[Boy comes down rocks to him.

Take thou this letter and this cup to Camma,

The wife of Sinnatus.

Boy.

Going or gone to-day

To hunt with Sinnatus.

Synorix.

That matters not.

Take thou this cup and leave it at her doors.

[Gives the cup and scroll to the Boy.

Boy.

I will, my lord.

[Takes his basket of grapes and exit.

Enter Antonius.

Antonius (meeting the Boy as he goes out).

Why, whither runs the boy?

Is that the cup you rescued from the fire?

Synorix.

I send it to the wife of Sinnatus,

One half besotted in religious rites.

You come here with your soldiers to enforce

The long-withholden tribute: you suspect

This Sinnatus of playing patriotism,

Which in your sense is treason. You have yet

No proof against him: now this pious cup

Is passport to their house, and open arms

To him who gave it; and once there I warrant

I worm thro’ all their windings.

Antonius.

If you prosper,

Our Senate, wearied of their tetrarchies,

Their quarrels with themselves, their spites at Rome,

Is like enough to cancel them, and throne

One king above them all, who shall be true

To the Roman: and from what I heard in Rome,

This tributary crown may fall to you.

Synorix.

The king, the crown! their talk in Rome? is it so?

[Antonius nods.

Well—I shall serve Galatia taking it,

And save her from herself, and be to Rome

More faithful than a Roman.

[Turns and sees Camma coming.

Stand aside,

Stand aside; here she comes!

[Watching Camma as she enters with her Maid.

Camma (to Maid).

Where is he, girl?

Maid.

You know the waterfall

That in the summer keeps the mountain side,

But after rain o’erleaps a jutting rock

And shoots three hundred feet.

Camma.

The stag is there?

Maid.

Seen in the thicket at the bottom there

But yester-even.

Camma.

Good then, we will climb

The mountain opposite and watch the chase.

[They descend the rocks and exeunt.

Synorix (watching her).

(Aside.) The bust of Juno and the brows and eyes

Of Venus; face and form unmatchable!

Antonius.

Why do you look at her so lingeringly?

Synorix.

To see if years have changed her.

Antonius (sarcastically).

Love her, do you?

Synorix.

I envied Sinnatus when he married her.

Antonius.

She knows it? Ha!

Synorix.

She—no, nor ev’n my face.

Antonius.

Nor Sinnatus either?

Synorix.

No, nor Sinnatus.

Antonius.

Hot-blooded! I have heard them say in Rome,

That your own people cast you from their bounds,

For some unprincely violence to a woman,

As Rome did Tarquin.

Synorix.

Well, if this were so,

I here return like Tarquin—for a crown.

Antonius.

And may be foil’d like Tarquin, if you follow

Not the dry light of Rome’s straight-going policy,

But the fool-fire of love or lust, which well

May make you lose yourself, may even drown you

In the good regard of Rome.

Synorix.

Tut—fear me not;

I ever had my victories among women.

I am most true to Rome.

Antonius (aside).

I hate that man!

What filthy tools our Senate works with! Still

I must obey them. (Aloud.) Fare you well.

[Going.

Synorix.

Farewell!

Antonius (stopping).

A moment! If you track this Sinnatus

In any treason, I give you here an order

[Produces a paper.

To seize upon him. Let me sign it. (Signs it.) There

“Antonius leader of the Roman Legion.”

[Hands the paper to Synorix. Goes up pathway and exit.

Synorix.

Woman again!—but I am wiser now.

No rushing on the game—the net,—the net.

[Shouts of “Sinnatus! Sinnatus!” Then horn.

Looking off stage.] He comes, a rough, bluff, simple-looking fellow.

If we may judge the kernel by the husk,

Not one to keep a woman’s fealty when

Assailed by Craft and Love. I’ll join with him:

I may reap something from him—come upon her

Again, perhaps, to-day—her. Who are with him?

I see no face that knows me. Shall I risk it?

I am a Roman now, they dare not touch me.

I will.

Enter Sinnatus, Huntsmen and hounds.

Fair Sir, a happy day to you!

You reck but little of the Roman here,

While you can take your pastime in the woods.

Sinnatus.

Ay, ay, why not? What would you with me, man?

Synorix.

I am a life-long lover of the chase,

And tho’ a stranger fain would be allow’d

To join the hunt.

Sinnatus.

Your name?

Synorix.

Strato, my name.

Sinnatus.

No Roman name?

Synorix.

A Greek, my lord; you know

That we Galatians are both Greek and Gaul.

[Shouts and horns in the distance.

Sinnatus.

Hillo, the stag! (To Synorix.) What, you are all unfurnish’d?

Give him a bow and arrows—follow—follow.

[Exit, followed by Huntsmen.

Synorix.

Slowly but surely—till I see my way.

It is the one step in the dark beyond

Our expectation, that amazes us.

[Distant shouts and horns.

Hillo! Hillo!

[Exit Synorix. Shouts and horns.

Scene II.—A Room in the Tetrarch’s House.

Frescoed figures on the walls. Evening. Moonlight outside. A couch with cushions on it. A small table with flagon of wine, cups, plate of grapes, etc., also the cup of Scene I. A chair with drapery on it.

Camma enters, and opens curtains of window.

Camma.

No Sinnatus yet—and there the rising moon.

[Takes up a cithern and sits on couch. Plays and sings.

“Moon on the field and the foam,

Moon on the waste and the wold,

Moon bring him home, bring him home

Safe from the dark and the cold,

Home, sweet moon, bring him home,

Home with the flock to the fold—

Safe from the wolf”——

(Listening.) Is he coming? I thought I heard

A footstep. No not yet. They say that Rome

Sprang from a wolf. I fear my dear lord mixt

With some conspiracy against the wolf.

This mountain shepherd never dream’d of Rome.

(Sings.) “Safe from the wolf to the fold”——

And that great break of precipice that runs

Thro’ all the wood, where twenty years ago

Huntsman, and hound, and deer were all neck-broken!

Nay, here he comes.

Enter Sinnatus followed by Synorix.

Sinnatus (angrily).

I tell thee, my good fellow,

My arrow struck the stag.

Synorix

But was it so?

Nay, you were further off: besides the wind

Went with my arrow.

Sinnatus.

I am sure I struck him.

Synorix.

And I am just as sure, my lord, I struck him.

(Aside.) And I may strike your game when you are gone.

Camma.

Come, come, we will not quarrel about the stag.

I have had a weary day in watching you.

Yours must have been a wearier. Sit and eat,

And take a hunter’s vengeance on the meats.

Sinnatus.

No, no—we have eaten—we are heated. Wine!

Camma.

Who is our guest?

Sinnatus.

Strato he calls himself.

[Camma offers wine to Synorix, while Sinnatus helps himself.

Sinnatus.

I pledge you, Strato.

[Drinks.

Synorix.

And I you, my lord.

[Drinks.

Sinnatus (seeing the cup sent to Camma).

What’s here?

Camma.

A strange gift sent to me to-day.

A sacred cup saved from a blazing shrine

Of our great Goddess, in some city where

Antonius past. I had believed that Rome

Made war upon the peoples not the Gods.

Synorix.

Most like the city rose against Antonius,

Whereon he fired it, and the sacred shrine

By chance was burnt along with it.

Sinnatus.

Had you then

No message with the cup?

Camma.

Why, yes, see here.

[Gives him the scroll.

Sinnatus (reads).

“To the admired Camma,—beheld you afar off—loved you—sends you this cup—the cup we use in our marriages—cannot at present write himself other than

“A Galatian serving by force in the Roman Legion.”

Serving by force! Were there no boughs to hang on,

Rivers to drown in? Serve by force? No force

Could make me serve by force.

Synorix.

How then, my lord?

The Roman is encampt without your city—