Classic Poem

Canto the Third.

From the Ætolians' late victorious king
Ambassadors in Sparta's court arrive;
Where slighted, back they this sad message bring,
That force must only make his just claim thrive.

Which to confirm, the Epirot's power invades
His land, in hopes for full reward to have
Pharonnida; but close Almanzor shades
His glorious hopes in an untimely grave.

An unripe rumor, such as causes near
Declining catch at, when betraying fear
Plunges at hope, had through Gerenza spread
The story of Argalia's fate, but shed
From such loose clouds of scattered fame, as by
Observant wits were only thought to fly
In the airy region of report, where they
Are forced each wind of fancy to obey;
Whose various blasts, when brought unto the test
Of judgment, rather the desires exprest,
Than knowledge of its authors. Here, 'mongst those
Of various censure, sly Almanzor chose
To be of the believing part, since that
Might soonest crush all hopes that levelled at
Affection to Pharonnida, whom he
Strove to preserve in calm neutrality.
But here he fails to countermine his plot,
This seeming fable soon appears begot
By solid truth; a truth which scorns to lie
Begging at th' gates of probability:
Which to avoid, she from Argalia brings
Ambassadors, those mouths of absent kings,
To plead her right; at whose unlooked-for view,
Almanzor, whose fallacious schemes were drew
Only for false phaenomena, is now
Forced to erect new figures, and allow
Each star its influence; but declared in vain,
Since pride did lord of the ascendant reign —
Pride, which, conjoined to policy, had made
All other motions seem but retrograde.
His black arts thus deceived, since nought could make
The dull spectator's ignorance mistake
This constellation for a comet, he
Attempts with fear of its malignity
To fright each busy gazer; and since all
The circles of opinion were to fall
Like spacious azimuths in that zenith, to
Settle the prince, through whom the people view
All great conjunctions, where the different sign
Should force those aspects, which might 'mongst that trine
Of love else hold a concord, to dispense
On him its most destructive influence.
The court being thus prepared, he boldly now
Dares the delayed ambassadors allow
A long expected audience, which in brief
Makes known their master's fate in the relief
Of's injured father; thence proceeds to show
How much of praise his thankful friends did owe
To Heaven for his own restored estate, which he
Desires to join in calm confederacy
With them, his honored neighbours; hence they past
To what concerned Pharonnida, their last
And most important message. Which, when heard
In such a language as their rivals feared;
A language, which, to prove his interest
In her unquestioned, come but to request
The freedom of a father's grant, a high
But stifled rage began to mutiny
In all their breasts, such as, if not withheld
B' the law of nations, had her father swelled
To open acts of violence; which seen
By some o'the lords, they calm his passion in
A cool retreat, such as might seem to be,
Though harsh contempt, wrapped in civility.
Fired with disdain, the ambassadors, in such
A speed which showed affronts that did but touch
Their master's honor wounded their's, forsook
Gerenza; whilst Euriolus betook
Himself to some more safe disguise that might
Protect him, till the subject of delight,
The course his royal master meant to steer
In gaining her, his story makes appear
Unto distressed Pharonnida: who, in
That confidence secure as she had been
From all succeeding ills protected by
A guard of angels, in a harmony
Of peaceful thoughts, such as in dangers keep
Safe innocence, rocks all her cares asleep.
But here she rests not long before the fall
Of second storms proves this short interval
But lightning, which in tempests shows unto
Shores, which the shipwrecked must no more than view.
Anger, ambition, hate, and jealous fear,
Had all conspired love's ruin, which drew near
From hasty counsels rash results, which in
His passion's storm had by her father been,
Like rocks which wretched mariners mistake
For harbours, fled to, when he did forsake
That safer channel of advice that might,
From free conventions, like the welcome light
Of Pharos, guided his designs, till they
At anchor in the road of honor lay.
As if his fears by nothing could have been
Secured, but what proved him ungrateful in
Argalia's ruin, all discourses are
Distasteful grown; but what to sudden war
Incites his rage: which humor, though it needs
No greater fire than what his envy feeds,
Besides those court tarantulas whose breath
Stings easy princes, till they dance to death
At the delightful sound of flattery, there
Were deeper wits, such whom a subtle care,
Not servile fear, taught how to aggravate
His anger's flame, till their own eager hate,
Though burning with a mortal fury, might
Pass unobserved, since near a greater light.
Amongst those few whose love did not depend
So much on fortune, but the name of friend
Was still preserved, the faithful Cyprian prince
Durst only strive by reason to convince
Their wilder passions; but each argument
With which affection struggled to prevent
A swift destruction, only seemed to prove
His friendship more effectual than his love.
From which mistake, such as did strive to please
The angry prince's passionate disease,
With what might feed the sickly humors, draw
A consequence that proves Pharonnida
A blessing which was to his merits due
Who most opposed the bold aspirer to
That throne of beauty, which before possest,
Whole armies must dispute their interest.
The slighted Cyprian, since their fear could trust
None but confederates, from their counsels thrust,
Those swift conclusions, which before to stay
Their violence had reason's cool allay,
Hurried to action, strict commands are sent
From fierce Zoranza through each regiment
Which stooped their ensigns to his power, — that, by
Such marches as they'd follow victory,
They reach Ætolia, ere its new-crowned king,
Warned by report, had liberty to bring
Opposing strengths, — a task too hard to be
Performed with ease in power's minority.
Nor fails this counsel, for their army draws
No sooner near, but such as in the cause
Of unsuccessful rebels late had been
Exposed to danger, seek for refuge in
A fresh revolt; and, since their ulcerous guilt
Was so malignant, that e'en mercy spilt
Its balm in vain, their injured prince forsake,
To strengthen his proud enemies, who make
Those poisons up in cordials, and compound
Them with their army: which being thus grown sound,
Whereas it lately fainted, durst provoke
Unto the trial of another stroke
His late victorious forces; which, though yet
Faint with the blood lost in the last great fit
Of honor's fever, when the crisis proved
The cure's prognostic, had with case removed
The proud invaders, had Morea been,
As heretofore, a hurtful neuter in
That war; which now, since double strengths oppose,
Brave fortitude, like base oppression shows.
So long both parties with variety
Of fortune fought, that fearing whose might be
The sad success, that old Cleander, in
Such speed as if his crown engaged had been,
Raises an army; whose command, since he
Base flattery takes for brave fidelity,
Waving those peers to whose known faith he owes
The most of trust, in hoodwinked hope bestows
On false Almanzor; who by power advanced
Near to those hopes at which ambition glanced,
But like weak eyes upon the dazzling sun,
From that last fatal stage his plots begun
Mischief's dark course, which, ere concluded, shall
Crush the Epirot in Morea's fall.
In this, the hot distemper of their state,
Amindor, whom the destinies of late,
To double-dye his honor's purple thread,
Robbed of a father, most disquieted
Their secret counsels; since they knew the love
He bore Argalia, propped with power, might prove
A sad obstruction to their plots, if he,
Urged by distastes, shook their confederacy
Off to assist his friend. Which to oppose,
With flattery fleeting as the gourd that rose
But to discover his just wrath that made
The plant to cover, when it could not shade,
They all attempt; though he engage not in
Their party, yet his easy youth to win
By honor's moths, by time's betrayers, soft
And smooth delights, those serpents which too oft
Strangle Herculean virtues: but they here
In age's April find a wit appear
Of such full growth, that by his judgment they
Are undermined, who studied to betray.
Being thus secured from foreign fears, they new
Employ that rage, whose speed could scarce allow
Advice from counsel, to extirpate those
New planted laurels victory did compose
To crown Argalia. But before they go
To ravish conquest from so cheap a foe,
Whose valour by o'erwhelming power was barred
From lying safe at a defensive guard,
Till old Cleander, that their league might be
Assured by bonds whose firm stability
Death only could divorce, intends, though she,
With such aversion as their destiny
Wretches condemned would shun, attempt to fly
The storm of fate; yet countermanded by
His power, the fair Pharonnida, although
He not to love, but duty, seemed to owe
For such a blessing, should Zoranza's be,
Confirmed by Hymen's high solemnity.
This resolution, whose self ends must blame
Her father's love, once registered by fame,
Submits to censure; whilst Pharonnida
Laments her fate, some, prompted by the law
Of love and nature, are to entertain
So much of freedom, as they prove in vain
Her advocates; others, whose cautious fear
Dares only pity, in that dress appear
Silent and sad; only Almanzor, in
This state distemper, by that subtle sin,
Dissimulation, so disguises all
His black intentions, that whilst truth did call
Him treason's agent, its reflected light,
Appearance, spoke him virtue's proselyte;
So much a convert, as if all those hot
Crimes of his youth ambition had begot,
Discreeter age had either cooled, or by
Repentance changed to zeal and loyalty.
Whilst thus i' the court the most judicious eyes
Deluded were by faction's false disguise,
By rumors heavy as the damps of death,
When they fly laden with the dying breath
Of new departed souls, this fatal news
Assaults the princess; which whilst reason views
With sad resentments, to support her in
This storm of fate, Amindor, who had been
In all her griefs her best adviser, now
Enters, to tell her fainting sorrows how
They'd yet a refuge left, from whom she might
Reap hopes of safety. The first welcome sight
Of such a friend, whose former actions had
Enhanced his worth, encountering with her sad
And serious thoughts, so rarifies that cloud
Of grief, that ere dissolving tears allowed
A vocal utterance, as intended words
Something contained too doleful for records,
Both sighed, both wept: at length the princess broke
Silence, and thus her dismal passions spoke.
" Dare you, my lord, approach so near unto
A factious grief, in this black storm to view
Distressed Pharonnida? Have either I
Or my Argalia's slighted memory
Yet in Morea a remaining friend,
Whose virtue dares by its own strength contend
Against this torrent of court factions? Now,
Now, royal sir, that doom which will allow
My soul no more refreshing slumbers, by
My father's passed — my father, sir, whom I
Must disobey with all the curses due
To black rebellion, or else prove untrue
Those vows, those oft repeated vows, which in
Our love's full growth hath to Argalia been
Sealed in the sight of heaven. " — About to speak
Her passions fuller, sorrow here did break
The sad theme off, and to proclaim her fears,
Except the o'erflowing language of her tears,
No herald left. In which sad silent fit
The valiant Cyprian, who at first did sit
His passion's prisoner, from that bondage free,
To her disease prescribes this remedy.
" . . . . . . Cease, madam, . . . . . . . . . .
Cease to eclipse illustrious beauty by
Untimely tears; your grief's deformity
Frights not Amindor from his friendship. When
I first beheld that miracle of men,
Adored Argalia, pluck from victory
His naval laurels, honor told me I
Was then so much his virtue's captive, that
Not all the dangers mortals tremble at
Can make me shun assisting of him in
Retaining you; though my attempts have been
Employed in vain, in public council to
Procure your peace, there's something left to do,
By which our private plots may undermine
Their public power, and, unperceived, decline
That danger which, without this secret friend,
It lies not in our fortune to defend. "
From grief's cold swoon to living comforts by
This cordial raised, Pharonnida's reply
Owns this pathetic language: " If there be
In all the dark paths of my destiny
Yet left a road to safety, name it, sir.
What I 'll attempt, no danger shall deter,
So brave Amindor be my conduct through
The dismal road; but my wild hopes outgrow
Whate'er my reason dictates. No, my lord,
Fly that sad fate whose progress can afford
Nought but disasters, and live happy in
Orlinda's love. Should I attempt to win
You from so fair a virtue, 'twere a wrong
Too full of guilt to let me live among
The number of your friends, 'mongst whom let me
In all your future thoughts remembered be
As the most wretched — to whom rigid fate
All hope's weak cordials hath applied too late. "
Here ceased the sorrowing lady, to suspend
Whose following tears, her charitable friend
Prescribes this comfort: — " Though my zeal hath been,
When serving you, so unsuccessful in
My first attempts, it gives just cause to doubt
My future actions; yet to lead you out
Of this dark labyrinth, where your sorrow stands
Masked with amazements, not the countermands
Of my affection to Orlinda, though
Confirmed by vows, shall stop; let grief bestow
But so much time, unclouded by your fear,
To look hope's volumes o'er, there will appear
Some lines of comfort yet; which that we may
Not in a heedless horror cast away,
Prepare for speedy action; to prevent
Ensuing ills, no time is left unspent,
But only this approaching night; by which,
To fly from danger, you must stoop to enrich
A coarse disguise, whose humble shadow may
Inquiring eyes to dark mistakes betray.
" Our first retreat, which is designed to be
No further than the neighbouring monastry,
Where I of late did lie concealed, I have
Thus made secure: — There stands an antient cave,
Close hid in unfrequented shadows, near
Your garden's postern-gate; which, when the fear
Of bordering foes denied a free access
To the old abbey, they, from the distress
Of threatening scouts were safe delivered by
A vault that through it leads; which, though so nigh
Unto the city, careless time, since not
Forced to frequent, hath wholly left forgot
By busy mortals. In this silent cell,
Where nought but light's eternal strangers dwell
In the meridian depth of night, whilst all
Are robed in rest, you none encounter shall
Except myself, but him, who may with us
This secret share, esteemed Euriolus;
With whom, and your endeared Florenza, we,
Within the unsuspected monastry
Protected by some secret friends, may stay
Till fruitless searches waste their hopes away,
Whose watchful spleen, by care conducted, might
Stop our intentions of a further flight. "
Raised from the cold bed of despair by this
Mature advice to hopes of future bliss,
The heavenly fair Pharonnida had now
Withdrawn the veil of grief, and could allow
Some smiles to wait upon those thanks which she
Returned her friend; who, that no time might be
Lost by neglect from needful action, in
A calm of comforts, such as had not been
Her late associates, leaves the princess to
Pursue those plots, which fortune bent to undo,
Whilst hope on expectation's wings did hover,
Did thus by fatal accident discover.
That knot in her fair thread of destiny,
That lurking snake, the purgatory by
Which Heaven refined her, cursed Amphibia, had,
Whilst mutual language all their thoughts unclad,
Close as an unsuspected plague that in
Darkness assaults, an unknown sharer been
Of this important issue; which with hate
Her genius met, soon strives to propagate
A brood of fiends. Almanzor, whose dark plots,
Like images of damned magicians, rots
Themselves to ruin others, like in this
Last act of ill by too much haste to miss
The road that led through slippery paths of sin,
From pride's stupendous precipice falls in
A gulf of horror; in whose dismal shade
A private room his dark retreat is made.
Here, whilst his heart is boiled in gall, his brain
O'erwhelmed in clouds, whose darkness entertain
No beam of reason; whilst ambition mixed
Examples of the bloodiest murders fixed
Upon the brazen front of time, all which
Lends no unfathomed policy to enrich
His near impoverished brain, he hears one knock;
Whose sudden noise soon scattering all the flock
Of busy thoughts, him in a hasty rage
Hurries t' the door; where come, his eyes engage
His tongue to welcome one whose cursed advice
His tortured thoughts turned to a paradise
Of pleasing hopes, on whose foundation he
Prepares to build a future monarchy.
A slow-consuming grief, whose chronic stealth
Had slily robbed Palermo's prince of health,
In spite of all the guards of art had long
Worn out his strength, and now had grown too strong
For age to bear. Each baffled artist in
A sad despair forsaking what had been
Tried but to upbraid their ignorance, except
An aged friar, whose judgment long had slept
From watchful practice, but i' the court of arts
Been so employed, that the mysterious parts
Of clouded theories, which he courted by
High contemplation, to his mind's clear eye
Lay all undressed of that disguise which in
Man's fall, to afflict posterity, they'd been
By angry Heaven wrapped in; so that he knew
What astral virtues vegetables drew
From a celestial influence, and by what
Absconded magic Nature fitted that
To working humors, which they either move
By expulsive hate, or by attractive love.
This art's true master, when his hope was grown
Faint with delays, to the sick prince made known,
A swift command calls from his still repose
The reverend sire; who come, doth soon disclose
That long concealed malignity which had
The feeble prince in sickly paleness clad:
Nor stays his art at weak prognostics, but
Proceeds to practice whatso'er may put
His prince in ease — cordials abstracted by
A then near undiscovered chemistry,
Such as in single drops did all comprise
Nature e'er taught art to epitomize;
Such as, if armed with a Promethean fire,
Might force a bloodless carcass to respire;
Such as curbed fate, and, in their hot assault
Whilst storming life, made death's pale army halt.
This rare elixir by the prince had been,
With such success as those that languish in
Consuming ills, could wish themselves, so long
Used, that those fits, which else had grown too strong
For nature to contend withal, were now
Grown more remiss; when fate, that can allow
No lasting comforts, to declare her power
O'er art itself, arrests that conqueror
Of others' ills with a disease that led
Him a close prisoner to an uncouth bed.
Which like to prove nature's slow chariot to
The expecting grave, loath to the public view
To prostitute a secret, yet bound by
The obligation of his loyalty
To assist his prince, he to Pharonnida
That sovereign secret, which could only awe
Her father's threatening pain, declares; which she
Hath since composed, whene'er's extremity
Suffered those pains: whose progress to prevent
She'd by Amphibia now the cordial sent,
The sly Amphibia, who did soon obey
What lent her hate a freedom to betray.
His first salutes being past, with such a speed
As did declare the guilt of such a deed
Might doubt discovery, she unfolds that strange
Amazing truth, which from the giddy range
Of wild invention soon contracts each thought
Into resolves, such as no object sought
But the destruction of whate'er might stop
Ambition's progress; towards the slippery top
Of which now climbing, on Conceit's stretched wings,
He silent stands, whilst teeming fancy brings
That monster forth, for whose conception he
Long since defloured his virgin loyalty.
Few minutes, by that auxiliary aid
Which her discovery lent, his thoughts conveyed
Through all the roads of doubt; which safely past,
Strictly embracing her who in this last
And greatest act of villany must have
A further share, he thus begins: — " Oh save,
Save, thou that art my better genius now,
What thou alone hast raised; my hopes must bow
Beneath impossibilities, if not
By thee assisted. Fortune hath begot
The means already; let this cordial be
With poison mixed — Fate knows no enemy
Dares grapple with me — Do not start, there's here
No room for danger, if we banish fear. "
His thoughts thus far discovered, finding in
Her various looks, that apprehended sin,
The soul's mercurial pill, did penetrate
Her callous conscience, in whose cell this sat
With gnawing horror, whilst all other lives
Whom her fraud spilt, proved hurtless corrosives,
From the cold ague of repentance he
Thus rouses her: — " Can my Amphibia be
By fear, that fatal remora to all
That's great or good, thus startled? Is the fall
Of an old tyrant grown a subject for
This soft remorse? Let thy brave soul abhor
Such sickly passions: when our fortune stands
Fixed on their ruin, the unwilling hands
Of those that now withstand our glorious flight,
Will help enthrone us; whilst unquestioned right,
Which is for power the world's mistaken word,
Is made our own b' the legislative sword. "
Raised from her fear's cold trepidations by
These hot ingredients, in an ecstacy
Of flatuous hopes, she casts herself into
This gulf of sin; and being prepared to do
An act, which not the present times could see
With sense enough, whilst in the extremity
Of wonder lost, through all his guards' strict care
Death to the unsuspecting prince doth bear.
Freed from this doubt, Almanzor, to avoid
That storm of rage, which, when their prince destroyed
The court should know, might rise from fear, pretends
Haste to the army; but being gone, suspends
That speedy voyage, and being attended by
A wretch whose guilt assured his privacy,
Through paths untrod hastes to the cave wherein
Those habits, which had by Amindor been
(Whilst he his beauteous charge did thence convey)
Prepared to cloud illustrious beauty, lay:
Of which, in such whose size did show they were
For th' largest sex, they both being clad, with care
Secret as swift, haste to augment the flood
Of swelling sins with yet more royal blood.
The Epirots' constant prince, by custom had
Made known a walk, which, when the day unclad
Of glittering tissue in her evening's lawn
Sat coolly drest — to court the sober dawn,
He often used. Near this, Almanzor, by
Hell made successful in his villany,
Arrived some minutes ere the other, lies
Concealed, till darkness and a close disguise,
Those safe protectors, from his unseen seat
Call him to action; where, with thoughts replete
With too much joy to admit suspicion, he
Finds the Messenian, whom no fear to be
Assaulted there had armed, his spacious train
Shrunk into one that served to entertain
Time with discourse. Upon which heedless pair
The armed Almanzor rushing unaware,
Ere strength had time their valour to obey,
In storms of wounds their senses lose the way
To external objects; in which giddy trance
The other lord, whose spirits' re-advance
To life they fear not, lies secure, whilst by
Redoubled wounds his prince's spirits fly
From the most strong retreats of life; which now,
Battered by death, no safety could allow.
Revenge's thirst being in this royal flood
Quenched for awhile, that from the guiltless blood
His honor might not yet a stain receive,
First hasting to the cave, he there doth leave
Those injured habits, which by him were meant
For the betrayers of the innocent.
This done, that he e'en from suspicion might
Secure his guilt, before the wasted night
Looks pale at the approach of day, he flies
T' the distant army; there securely lies,
Till all those black productions of his brain,
Now ripening to perfection, should attain
Maturity, and in the court appear
In their most horrid dress; knowing the fear
Of the distracted city soon would call
Him and his army, to prevent the fall
Of such distracting dangers, as might be
Attendants on the eclipse of majesty.