Becket And Other Plays Part 40

Answer not, but strike.

DE TRACY.

There is my answer then.

[_Sword falls on_ GRIM'S _arm, and glances from it, wounding_ BECKET.

GRIM.

Mine arm is sever'd.

I can no more--fight out the good fight--die Conqueror. [_Staggers into the chapel of St. Benedict_.

BECKET (_falling on his knees_).

At the right hand of Power-- Power and great glory--for thy Church, O Lord-- Into Thy hands, O Lord--into Thy hands!---- [_Sinks p.r.o.ne_.

DE BRITO.

This last to rid thee of a world of brawls! (_Kills him_.) The traitor's dead, and will arise no more.

FITZURSE.

Nay, have we still'd him? What! the great Archbishop!

Does he breathe? No?

DE TRACY.

No, Reginald, he is dead.

(_Storm bursts_.) [Footnote: _A tremendous thunderstorm actually broke over the Cathedral as the murderers were leaving it.]

DE MORVILLE.

Will the earth gape and swallow us?

DE BRITO.

The deed's done-- Away!

[DE BRITO, DE TRACY, FITZURSE. _rush out, crying 'King's men!'_ DE MORVILLE _follows slowly.

Flashes of lightning thro' the Cathedral_.

ROSAMUND _seen kneeling by the body of_ BECKET.

THE CUP

A TRAGEDY

_DRAMATIS PERSONAE_.

GALATIANS.

SYNORIX, _an ex-Tetrarch_.

SINNATUS, _a Tetrarch_.

_Attendant_.

_Boy_.

_Maid_.

PHOEBE.

CAMMA, _wife of Sinnatus, afterwards Priestess in the Temple of Artemis_.

ROMANS.

ANTONIUS, _a Roman General_.

PUBLIUS.

_n.o.bleman_.

_Messenger_.

THE CUP.

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 G.o.ds!

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 pa.s.sion 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 Gamma, wife of Sinnatus, the Tetrarch, one who years ago, himself an adorer of our great G.o.ddess, Artemis, beheld you afar off wors.h.i.+pping 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?