SCENE 6

MARIAMNE. TITUS. _Afterwards_, JOAB.

MARIAMNE. (_approaching_ TITUS).

Yet one more word before I sleep, the while My latest chamberlain prepares my bed. I see you are astounded that this word Directs itself on you and not my mother, But she is far and foreign to my heart.

TITUS.

Astounded that the woman thus should teach me How hearted I, the man, should meet my death. Yes, Queen, it prickles sense, this thing you’ve done, Nor less, I hide it not, your Being’s self; Yet, this despite, the hero-soul I honour Which lets you take your leave of life as though You left this fair world at your journey’s end No longer worth a fleeting backward glance. And this brave mood half reconciles me to you.

MAR.

’Tis no brave mood.

TITUS.

I’ faith I have been told Your black-look Pharisees give out the notion That death is but the proper birth of life. And who believes them sets the world at nothing In which the sun alone gives light eternal And all beside is puffed into the night.

MAR.

I ne’er would hear them and believe it not. Nay, nay, I know from what I am to part.

TITUS.

Then you stand thus as scarce could Caesar’s self When Brutus’ hand had dealt the dagger-thrust. For he, too proud to bare his pain of heart And yet not strong enough to choke it under, In falling covered up his countenance. But you can hold it back within your breast.

MAR.

No more, no more! It is not as you think. I feel no longer pain of heart, for pain Demands the nerve of life, and life in me Is a quenched fire. I long have been no more Than middle thing between the Man and Shadow And scarcely grasp the thought I still can die. Hear now a thing I will confide in you, But first give oath to me as man and Roman That you’ll be dumb till I am under earth, And that you bear me escort when I go. You hesitate? I ask too much of you? My slip to sin is not the cause, and if You later speak or if you hold your peace Decide yourself; I’ll bind you not in aught, And more, I hold that wish of mine in check Since you have ever, like a bronzen god Above a brawl of fire, self-mastered, cold, Cast the strong fretless eye upon our hell. You may command belief in giving witness. We are for you a race of other breed No bond can knit to you; you speak of us As we would speak of foreign plants and stones, Impartial, void of love and void of hate.

TITUS.

You go too far.

MAR.

If you refuse me now Your overstubborn word, I take my secret With me into the grave; my latest solace I then must lack this--that one human breast Will keep mine image pure and undefiled, Which then when Fate has dared its ugliest Can lift the veil that shrouds it from the feel Of duty and of reverence for the truth.

TITUS.

Good. I will swear the oath to you.

MAR.

Then know I put deceit on Herod, but ’twas other, Far other than he weens; nay, I was true As he to self. Why shame me thus--much truer, For he has long been other than he was. What, am I to protest it? Sooner far I were resolved to swear an oath I have My eyes and hands and feet. Them I would lose And I would still remain that which I am; But not my heart and soul.

TITUS.

I do believe you And I will----

MAR.

Keep the promise you have made. I doubt it not. Now ask yourself my feeling When for the second time (for once already I’d pardoned him) he put me under sword And I must say to me:--“Your shadow’s liker Your proper self than that wry twisted image He bears of you far in his inmost depths.” ’Twas that I would not bear, and could I so? I made to grasp my dagger, and prevented From rash-essayed self-murder, I then swore-- “It is your will in death to be my headsman? You shall become my headsman, but in life. The woman you have gazed on you shall slaughter And not till death shall see me as I am;” You came unto my feast; well then, a mask Was dancing there.

TITUS.

Ha!

MAR.

’Twas a mask that stood To-day before the Judges; for a mask The axe is whetted, but it strikes myself.

TITUS.

I stand dumbfounded, Queen, and yet I charge you With no injustice when perforce I say That you had duped my very self, had filled me With horror and recoil before your feast As now with shudders and admiring wonder. If thus with me, how could this show for him Have failed to dim your Being in a darkness, For him, whose heart all passion-fluctuous As little as a turbid-troubled stream Could image things reflected as they are. Therefore I give his hurt my answering feel And find that your revenge is overstern.

MAR.

But that revenge I take at my own cost; And proof it was not for the sake of life That death like any altar-beast incensed me I give you, for I cast that life away.

TITUS.

Give me my word again!

MAR.

And if you broke it You’d alter not a tittle; for to die, There man commands his fellow, but to live, In that the mightiest forces not the weakest. And I’m aweary! Yea, I envy now The stone, and if the end of life is this That man should learn to hate it and to death, Eternal death, give preference, it is Achieved in me. And may they quarry granite, Uncrumbling rock, to hollow out my coffin, May it be sunken in abysmal ocean That so my dust escape the elements Oblivioned for all eternity.

TITUS.

And yet we all live in the world of show.

MAR.

I see that now and therefore I go out.

TITUS.

I have myself against you testified.

MAR.

To gain that end I had you at the feast.

TITUS.

Should I say to him what to me you’ve said--

MAR.

Then he would call me back, I doubt it not. And if I followed, this were my reward, That now before each one that comes anear me Henceforward I must shudder and inly say-- “Take care, for this perchance is your third headsman!” No, Titus, no, I played no pettish game; For me there’s no return; if such there were Think you I had not found it out when I Took everlasting farewell from my children? Naught but defiance drove me, as he thinks; If so my guiltless smart had broke defiance And now ’twould only mean a bitterer death.

TITUS.

Oh, if he felt that, came himself and flung him Down at your feet!

MAR.

Yes, then indeed he had The Demon overmastered, and I could Say all to him. For it is not my part To chaffer with him meanly for a life That through the price alone at which ’tis bought Must lose for me the paltriest patch of worth. It were my part, to crown him for self-conquest And, oh believe, I could!

TITUS.

Have you no boding, O Herod?

[JOAB _enters noiselessly and remains standing in silence_.

MAR.

No! You see, he sends me--him! (_pointing to_ JOAB.)

TITUS.

Let me----

MAR.

Have you not understood me, Titus? And in your eyes is still the cause defiance That put my mouth in lock? Can I still live? Can I still live with him, the man who now In me God’s image venerates no more? And if by keeping silence I had power To necromance old Death and give him weapons Were it my duty then to break my silence Only to change one dagger for the other? And were it more to do so?

TITUS.

She is right.

MAR. (_to_ JOAB).

Are you prepared?

[JOAB _bows_.

(_Turning towards_ HEROD’S _apartments_.) Then, Herod, fare you well! (_To Earth._) Thou, Aristobulus, oh receive my greeting! Soon I am with thee in eternal night.

[_She moves towards the door._ JOAB _opens it. Armed men are seen who form their ranks in homage. She goes out._ TITUS _follows her_. JOAB _joins them. Solemn pause._