sane. Ant. I like their courage, but it shall not save them. ANTIOCHUS; JASON: the SA MARITAN AMBASSADORS. Ant. Approach. Come forward; stand not at the door Wagging your long beards, but demean yourselves As doth become Ambassadors. seek ye? Wha An Ambassador. An audience from the King. Ant. Speak, and be brief. Waste not the time in useless rhetoric. Words are not things. Ambassador (reading). “To King The God, Epiphanes; a Memorial Ant. Ay, my Lord. Go on, go on! And do not tire thyself and me with bowing! Ambassador (reading). "We are a col· ony of Medes and Persians." Ant. No, ye are Jews from one of the Ten Tribes ; They shall be made to eat the flesh of Whether Sidonians or Samaritans Or Jews of Jewry, matters not to me; 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 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, There is no furtherance in them. Let Were long accustomed to observe that Without a name, they offered sacrifice. Now we, who are Sidonians, beseech thee, Who art our benefactor and our savior, 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; And let our nameless temple now be named Ant. 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 ! 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 !- The Temple of Jupiter Hellenius." it pleaseth me Ye are not Jews, or are no longer Jews, But Greeks; if not by birth, yet Greeks by custom. Your nameless temple shall receive the How these Samaritans of Sichem said 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. These are Samaritans. Judah Ant. My Lord, they wait They shall wait no longer! Of earthen vessels broken at a well. O my dear children, mine in life and death, I know not how ye came into my womb; I neither gave you breath, nor gave you life, My Lord, Is of a different temper, and the task Ant. Yesterday, Eleazer, an old man, By torture than to eat the flesh of swine. Ant. The life is in the blood, and the whole nation Shall bleed to death, or it shall change its faith! Jason. Hundreds have fled already to the mountains Of Ephraim, where Judas Maccabæus Hath raised the standard of revolt against thee. members JUDAS MACCABÆUS. Hark! I can hear within the sound of Witness of God! if thou for whom I feared Canst thus encounter death, I need not fear; The others will not shrink. Third Voice (within). Behold these hands Held out to thee, O King Antiochus, Not to implore thy mercy, but to show That I despise them. He who gave them to me Will give them back again. The Mother. It is thy voice. hear it ; For the last time on earth, but not the O Avilan, For the last time I last. To death it bids defiance and to torture. It sounds to me as from another world, And makes the petty miseries of this Seem unto me as naught, and less than naught. Farewell, my Avilan; nay, I should say Welcome, my Avilan; for I am dead Before thee. I am waiting for the others. Why do they linger? Fourth Voice (within). It is good, O Being put to death by men, to look for hope From God, to be raised up again by him. But thou no resurrection shalt thou have To life hereafter. The Mother. Four already four! Three are still living; nay, they all are living, Half here, half there. Make haste, Antiochus, To reunite us; for the sword that cleaves These miserable bodies makes a door and Through which our souls, impatient of The same Voice (within). Thou, like Takest us from this present life, but God, Who rules the world, shall raise us up again Into life everlasting. The Mother. Courage to die for thee. O my Adaiah, release, Rush to each other's arms. Fifth Voice (within). Thou hast the Their murdered infants round their [As she, the daughter of Aiah, mourned necks, slay me, For I too am a woman, and these boys Are mine. Make haste to slay us all, And hang my lifeless babes about my neck. Sixth Voice (within). Think not, Antiochus, that takest in hand To strive against the God of Israel, Thou shalt escape unpunished, for his wrath Shall overtake thee and thy bloody house. The Mother. One more, my Sirion, and then all is ended. Having put all to bed, then in my turn I will lie down and sleep as sound as they. My Sirion, my youngest, best beloved! And those bright golden locks, that I so oft Have curled about these fingers, even now Are foul with blood and dust, like a lamb's fleece, Slain in the shambles. Not a sound I hear. This silence is more terrible to me Doth his heart fail him? Doth he fall away In the last hour from God? O Sirion, Sirion, Art thou afraid? I do not hear thy voice. Die as thy brothers died. Thou must not live! the dead, If he would turn from your Mosaic Law And be as we are; but he will not listen. The Mother. My noble Sirion! Ant. Therefore I beseech thee, Who art his mother, thou wouldst speak with him, And wouldst persuade him. I am sick of blood. The Mother. Yea, I will speak with him and will persuade him. O Sirion, my son! have pity on me, On me that bare thee, and that gave thee suck, SCENE II. — THE MOTHER; ANTIOCHUS; And fed and nourished thee, and brought SIRION. Are they all dead? Of all thy Seven Sons Behold them where they How dost thou like this picture? The Mother. God in heaven! Can a man do such deeds, and yet not die By the recoil of his own wickedness? Ye murdered, bleeding, mutilated bodies That were my children once, and still thee up With the dear trouble of a mother's care Unto this age. Look on the heavens But, being worthy of thy brethren, take Thy death as they did, that I may re ceive thee Again in mercy with them. Ant. I am mocked, Yea, I am laughed to scorn. Sirion. Whom wait ye for! |