SCENE I

Place--Shushan, the Capital of Persia.

Time--478 B.C.

[_A hall in the palace of the king. Enter Smerdis, the king's jester, and Ahafid, poet and minstrel to the king, from opposite sides of the hall. Ahafid is already an old man, with long grey beard and a little stooped with age. He carries a golden Persian harp on which he plays and accompanies his own song._]

_Ahafid_

[_Sings._]

Now War has doffed his mailed coat And Peace forgot her art; The lute but not the bugle's note Can stir the kingly heart; Nights of revel and carp, And days of sensuous rust, How can a poet's harp Intone a song of lust?

The king is mad. His flight from Salamis Was bad enough. But that could be excused. For six months now what has he done but drink, Carouse and wallow in lascivious ease, While subjects driven to despair with tax Have fallen on the poisoned sword and cursed In death the son of their once goodly king?

_Smerdis_

Ahafid, you do seem to think the first Great business of a king is war. Now pray You, why should Xerxes waste the lusty days Of youth in bloody strife? To furnish themes, No doubt, for dullard bards and minstrelsy. Ahasuerus is the wisest king That ever sat upon a Persian throne. You graybeard fool, stupid as poets are. Can you not see the wisdom of our king In substitution of the flight for death, Of feast for fight, of wine for blood? Think you 'Tis wise to wear the plaited mail of Mars When Venus bids you to the festival Of love?

_Ahafid_

You call me then a graybeard fool! Though I have dropped the purple bloom of spring The autumn's silvery down may indicate The ripened fruit of wisdom which your youth Has never tasted. Smerdis, you are blind! My beard is white, but vision clear. The king Does daily waste the substance of his realm, And nightly dissipates his energies In vices of the blood. Vashti, the queen, The idol of her people, is in grief.

_Smerdis_

In grief for what? Does she too wish the king To take the field? I know our queen is fair Of face and most voluptuous of form. Perhaps her grief is due to jealousy. Would she monopolize his love, because Her beauty is surpassing?

_Ahafid_

Vashti does Not know that she is beautiful. She loves Her country and is brave as well as good. I dread the issue of this night. The king Has ordered that the queen be brought before The court, a target for licentious eyes. She will refuse to go because her heart Is pure. Ahasuerus, flushed with wine, Will brook no opposition to his will. A tragedy that never Persia knew Will see the rising of to-morrow's sun.

_Smerdis_

A tragedy no country ever knew-- A woman who is beautiful, but doesn't know it's true.

_Ahafid_

[_Sings._]

Oh, for a song to cleanse the heart Or touch the sceptred power; Oh, might the gods a strength impart To meet this tragic hour.

[_Exeunt Ahafid and Smerdis._]

[_Enter Vashti and Zethar._]

_Vashti_

Oh, Zethar, do you think this night will end The revels that dishonor Persia's king? To-day unknown I strolled through squalid parts Of this old city and observed the poor. My lord, unmindful of their misery, Has laid a heavy tax for his insane Extravagance upon the helpless child That begs in Shushan's streets. Not here alone, This suffering; but Persia's peasantry, The glory of the old empire, the heart That once defied the world, is broken on The wheel of tax. And all for what?

_Zethar_

O queen, Always the world has had its poverty. You shall forget the poor. One stoop of wine Will bring you happiness. Vashti, drink.

_Vashti_

Forgive me, Zethar, but no wine to-night.

[_Enter Meheuman, Biztha and Abagtha._]

_Meheuman_

[_Loftily._]

Our most imperial queen, the king has laid A banquet in the palace garden court, The crowning act of that munificence Toward prince and people great and small alike, Ahasuerus now for many months Has shown the loyal subjects of his realm. The adornment of the court displays a rich Magnificence of taste; the couches are Of fretted gold and silver set upon A pavement of mosaic inlaid stone. The drinking is according to the law-- None can compel, each vessel is diverse, But all of gold. Th' abundance of the wine Shows the unstinted bounty of the king. Our monarch's heart is merry in the cup, And boasts that Vashti's beauty does excel In magic power the fabled Helen's charms, And bids us bring immediately before The court great Persia's matchless queen!

_Vashti_

Meheuman, tell Ahasuerus I Must thank his majesty since he can still Remember Vashti's beauty, though his grace Has lost all sense of modesty and shame. You say his heart is merry now in wine And that he glories with exceeding pride Because my face is fair to look upon! I do not doubt his tongue is eloquent; The fiery phrase is his! Why, often I Have heard him praise his horse in language that Seemed kindled at the altar of the gods. It may be that he holds me higher than His hundred concubines.

_Meheuman_

Your majesty, The king does hold his queen a goddess.

_Vashti_

Well, Perhaps he thinks himself divine. Go tell The king I do not wish to be enrolled Among divinities. I am the queen-- He must respect me as the one who wears The Persian crown.

'Tis scarce three years since he Began to reign. He was Darius' son-- A king of whom the world was proud. He wooed Me as a prince of noble blood, and I Received his hand with dignity as well As love. I was a princess, but I had A heart. Long since I found that he had none. A hundred eighty days continuous feast He has oppressed the people of his rule With drunken revels and with wanton waste. And now to crown his sensuality He sends his vulgar chamberlains to bring Me to his palace garden that his lords May gaze with unchaste eyes upon my form. Meheuman, Biztha, will you tell the king That Vashti bids him come to her if he Would see the queen.

_Meheuman_

You understand The costly hangings of the garden court Are blue and green and white?

_Vashti_

Now pray you what Significance has that? What if each couch Is gold and silver and each goblet set With stones?

_Meheuman_

The king's great love for Vashti!

_Vashti_

Then He has prepared this banquet for his queen? And does he think this is an evidence Of love. It rather means the king's debauched. I will not be a party to his sin.

_Meheuman_

The etiquette of court commands you to Obey.

_Vashti_

Commands! Well, has it come to that? But I will not obey. I am a queen! Here! Take this purple robe and coronet, And tell Ahasuerus to adorn Some harlot of his harem. She will grace The queenship of his kingdom better than A pure and modest wife.

_Abagtha_

You do not know The meaning of your words!

_Vashti_

Abagtha, why Do you admonish me? Do I not know The forfeit? Chamberlains, this message take Licentious Xerxes from his virtuous queen: I do not fear his wrath. I will not come At his command. I have a royal heart And will not thus disgrace the Persian throne. The king that's halfway worthy of my hand Would hate the queen that yielded to his lust. My heart, O chamberlains, is broken, not That Vashti's crown is lost, but oh, to see The regal name of Persia brought so low! I weep. The tears are for my country. Go!

[_Exeunt Vashti, Abagtha, etc._]

[_Curtain is lowered to denote the passage of six years._]