AGATHOCLES By Voltaire

Translated and adapted by Frank J. Morlock

Etext by Dagny
  • ACT I
  • ACT II
  • ACT III
  • ACT IV
  • ACT V
  • Etext by Dagny
    This Etext is for private use only. No republication for profit in 
    print or other media may be made without the express consent of the 
    Copyright Holder. The Copyright Holder is especially concerned about 
    performance rights in any media on stage, cinema, or television, or 
    audio or any other media, including readings for which an entrance fee 
    or the like is charge. Permissions should be addressed to: Frank 
    Morlock, 6006 Greenbelt Rd, #312, Greenbelt, MD 20770, USA or 
    frankmorlock@msn.com. Other works by this author may be found at 
    http://www.cadytech.com/dumas/personnage.asp?key=130

                         Translated and adapted by Frank J. Morlock
                         C 2003

    ++++++++++++++++++++++++

    CHARACTERS

    AGATHOCLES, tyrant of Syracuse

    POLYCRATES, son of Agathocles

    ARGIDUS, son of Agathocles

    YDASAN, an old warrior in the service of Carthage

    AEGESTES, an officer in the service of Syracuse

    YDACE, daughter of Ydasan

    ELPENOR, councillor to the King

    A Priestess of Ceres

    Soldiers and Courtiers

    ++++++++++++++++++++++++

    The action takes place in a square between the king's palace and the ruins of a temple.

    ++++++++++++++++++++++++

    ACT I

    AEGESTES: Heaven has finally taken pity on our misfortunes
     Today it strengthens the bonds of old friendship.
     When peace reunites Carthage and Syracuse,
     Can you shed tears by the shores of the Arethusa?
     Whatever may be our destinies, the places where one is born
     Still have attractions for an unfortunate.
     It's delightful to return to one's cherished country.

    YDASAN: It's no longer cherished and it's glory is withered.
     It's cowardly servitude, and thirty years of misfortunes
     Are souring my courage by tearing tears from me.
     The volcanoes of Aetna, its ashes, its abysses,
     Are less terrible than this region of crimes.
     The sword that the cyclops forged in their flanks
     Was less harsh than the heart of tyrants.
     Go, I hate Syracuse, Agathocles, and life.

    AEGESTES: What do you expect? For a long while, Sicily, enslaved
     By fortunate Agathocles, has recognized his rule.
     Agathocles is counted amongst the greatest of kings.
     Chance, destiny, merit, perhaps,
     Dispose of states, make one slave, the other master.
     No man has ever succeeded to the rank of kings
     Without sublime talent, without some virtue.
     Let's be just, friend; I loved my republic
     But I knew how to bend myself to monarchic power.
     Born a subject like us, hurled into the crowd
     Agathocles conquered harsh adversity.
     Cleverness, courage, and especially fortune,
     Brought him to this rank whose dazzle importunes him.
     Raised by degrees to the helm of state
     He was already king while I was soldier.
     With these blows of destiny I know they murmur;
     The great success of others are an injury for us.
     But let's not dissimulate; would we reject the prize
     If it were offered to us?

    YDASAN: It would have been by me: I prefer, dear Aegestes,
     I prefer my sad poverty to his funereal grandeur.
     Excuse your master no further, and leave to my sorrow
     The consolation of hating his happiness.
     What then! I would have seen him, a citizen-mercenary,
     The work of his hands nourishing its misery;
     And civil war, in its horrors would have
     Put this son of the earth at the height of grandeurs!
     He reigns in Syracuse! and as for me, for my share,
     Banished from my country, and soldier of Carthage,
     Aged with dangers and bent under the harness,
     Obscurely burdened with useless exploits,
     I saw two sons perish in this iniquitous war
     Which for a long while desolated Sicily and Africa.
     After so many labours, after so many reversals,
     My daughter remains to me; my daughter is in chains!
     The unhappy Ydace is in the rank of captives
     That the Arethusa again sees weeping by its shores!
     That's what brings me to these funereal parts,
     To the place of my birth a horror to my eyes.
     Without support, without country, impoverished by war,
     Deprived of my two sons, I have nothing on earth
     But the debris of a fortune hardly put together
     To deliver the child that the gods have left me.
     I grasped the opportunity of the first days of peace.
     I am returning to tear Ydace from slavery.
     To the feet of your tyrant I am bearing her ransom
     And, after avarice opens her prison,
     I am returning to Carthage to end my career.
     There, I will no longer see, hidden in the dust,
     Mortals swallowed under the feet of a tyrant;
     At least I will die free.—Go, serve in your country.

    AEGESTES: You won't leave without costing me some tears.
     I bear arms under this king that you hate;
     Our different duties have not broken the bonds
     Of old friendship which unite the two of us.
     I've seen your daughter Ydace; and sharing her pains,
     As much as I've been able, I've assuaged them.

    YDASAN: You've softened me up, Aegestes. Is it near these walls
     That she's dragging out her days and her obscure misfortune?
     Where to find her? How to get near her?

    AEGESTES: Her cruel prison is in the ruin of a temple
     Near this square and not very far off,
     From the superb place where the king holds his court.

    YDASAN: A court! prisons! what a fatal congruity!
     Thus despotism is near slavery.
     This palace is erected with marbles that once
     Consecrated happy liberty to our laws.
     Won't I be able to speak to my blood under these porticoes?
     I've seen them decorated by our domestic gods;
     But our gods are no more—Can I at least present
     This feeble ransom that I am bringing?
     Will your king Agathocles deign to hear me?

    AEGESTES: He no longer stoops to this unworthy detail;
     His greatness abandons to one of his children
     The profits of battle's debasing cares.

    YDASAN: To whom must I address myself in my sorrow?

    AEGESTES: To his son Polycrates, object of his tenderness,
     And already, they tell us, named his successor,
     All unworthy though he is of this excess of honor.

    YDASAN: I cannot see this king?

    AEGESTES: His somber distrust
     Of all strangers forbids his presence;
     With regret he permits his appearance to his own:
     Thus it is that distance imposes respect.
     Thus it is that, changed by age, and weary of the diadem,
     He hides from the world and searches within himself.
     For your daughter Ydace, a hurtful order
     Will not prevent her from appearing before your eyes.
     She lives separate from the rest of the captives,
     At the temple of Ceres, secretly retired:
     Her grace, her beauty, her charms more flattering
     Than the splendor of gold or that of pomp
     Cause hearts to fly to her feet as they pass,
     Without her daring to think that they are rendering her homage—
     I see her seeming to rest her eyes on us
     Amidst the debris of the temple of our gods.
     Weeping she is following this simple priestess
     Who softens the sadness of her slavery.

    YDASAN: I endure the shock of seeing her,
     Consolation is mixed with despair.
     So then it's you, o my daughter! o unfortunate Ydace!
    (Enter Ydace and Priestess.)

    YDACE: I bathe your knees in my tears as I embrace them.
     I saw you, father, and flew to you.
     Among the Syracusans who has remembered you?
     Could you have fallen into my funereal condition?
     What have you come to seek here?

    YDASAN: The sole treasure that remains to me.
     (to priestess) My blood, my dear daughter—O you, whose goodness
     Extends a propitious hand toward calamity,
     May the eternal justice of the just gods
     Pay with a worthy reward the noble and tender zeal
     Which gives to the great of the world, in these unfortunate times
     Such a beautiful example, so seldom followed by them!

    PRIESTESS: I have weakly fulfilled the duty that engages me.

    YDASAN: I am coming to rescue my daughter and to take her to Carthage:
     Protect us.

    YDACE: Alas! your efforts are superfluous;
     I am a slave.

    YDASAN: No, you won't be any longer;
     I am coming to deliver you.

    YDACE: O best of fathers!
     What! your goodness will end my misery!

    YDASAN: Yes, I've collected the price of your liberty.

    YDACE: You, alas! the wretched debris of your wealth
     Will not leave you more than a terrible indigence!

    YDASAN: Go, be free, it suffices, and my death is happy—
     Have you, in your prison, appeared before the king?

    YDACE: No, how could he lower himself to me?
     How could a conqueror, from the breast of victory,
     From the height of a throne where his glory shines,
     Be able to discern an ignored object,
     Obscurely delivered from obscure misfortunes?
     Does he know my fate, my name, the horror in which I am left?
     By Ceres in these parts, this worthy priestess
     Has deigned, in my captivity,
     To cast on my disaster a kind regard;
     Her cares have eased my cruel fortune;
     I am learning at least to suffer by suffering in her company.

    YDASAN: I am going to find this king; I hope that his heart,
     Although corrupted by thirty years of happiness,
     Although hardened by time and supreme rank,
     Will not dare to commit an injustice before me:
     He will recollect that I was his equal.

    PRIESTESS: He's forgotten it too much.

    YDASAN: In his royal pomp,
     Perhaps he'll blush at seeing my misery.

    PRIESTESS: I doubt it; but go, generous and tender father,
     May simple virtue finally be able to touch him!
     So that they let you approach his throne.
    (Exit Ydasan and Aegestes.)

    YDACE: By our forgotten gods, beneficent priestess,
     You are protecting me from the son of a tyrant
     And from the misfortune that pursues me and favors him.
     You who see the abyss in which my feet have plunged,
     Don't abandon me.

    PRIESTESS: Alas! what can I do?
     The ministers of gods whose sad character,
     Once venerated, today scorned,
     The still smoking temple, burned in war,
     The altars of Ceres buried under ashes,
     Can they, can my prayers, my screams defend you?

    YDACE: Will they at least suffer that I return, far from these parts
     To Carthage where I was born?

    PRIESTESS: Agathocles has delivered to bloody and avaricious hands
     The sustenance of his arbitrary laws.
     Polycrates, his son, commands over the port.
     The prisons, the ships, everything in this region of death.
     All is his: the king gives him for his share
     Sovereign taxes levied on slavery.
     The captives are treated like vile bands
     Destined for death, in circuses, at labors,
     At the odious, pleasures of a capricious master,
     Prouder, more distracted than the king has been.
     Polycrates counts you in the rank of those beauties
     That he destines to serve his dolorous lusts.
     Amorous without tenderness, disdainful of pleasing,
     As ferocious in his desires as in his rages,
     He's a young lion, who, always threatening,
     Wants to ravish his conquest, and, roaring, love her.
     No, no, his father was never more tyrannous
     Than in naming this monstrous despot his heir.

    YDACE: Ah! how is it that the gods, always cruel to me
     Exposed me to his criminal eyes?
     Between his brother and him, heavens! what a difference!
     Argidus' humanity equals his valor.
     This virtuous brother of a detested pirate
     Has softened at least over my calamity.
     Ought I to have some hope in Argidus?

    PRIESTESS: Argidus has virtues, and very little power.
     Polycrates is master; he devours the fruit
     Of the labors of an old geezer headed toward the sepulchre.
     But shall I confess my secret alarms?
     Argidus is a hero, your eyes have charms;
     And despite the horrors of this frightful place,
     Misfortune mollifies and disposes towards love
     A prince born for pleasure, and who seeks to seduce
     Intends to establish his empire over our weakness.
     Innocence succumbs to the tenderness of the great
     And tyrants are not the most dangerous.

    YDACE: Ah! what did you say to me? His generous kindness
     Will be a new snare for this unfortunate girl!
     I will have Argidus to fear in my fatal error,
     And my gratitude will have deceived my heart!
     In this distracted heart can you feel the wound?
     In the heap of tortures that my youth endures
     Is there a new one whose blows I must feel?

    PRIESTESS: Love is sometimes the cruellest of all.

    YDACE: Then what is my resource? Eh, why was I born?
     Exposed to opprobrium, abandoned to chains,
     The misfortune which pursues me surrounded my cradle;
     Heaven returns to me a father on the edge of his tomb!
     Far from Argidus, and from you, my timid youth,
     There will only be another burden for his sad old age!
     Hope deserts me! Death, only death,
     Is it at least an end to the rigors of my fate?
     Will I have enough strength, great enough courage,
     To run to this port in the midst of the storm?
     You read in my heart, you see my danger:
     Ah! rather deign to encourage me to die;
     Firm up my uncertain, weakened soul
     Against the feeling that ties me to life.

    PRIESTESS: Would that I, rather, by useful assistance,
     Help you bear the burden of your life!
     It weighs on all mortals, and God, who imposes it on us,
     Intends, by having given it to us, to alone dispose of it.
     He must have pity on your distracted soul.
     Expect everything from a father and my friendship,
     But especially of yourself and your courage.
     I see it; you are struggling against a fatal storm.
     God, my daughter, is pleased to see from the high heavens
     These great battles in a sensitive and virtuous heart.
     Beauty, candor, modest fortitude,
     Haven often vanquished, the most funereal fate.

    YDACE: I throw myself into your arms: my desolated spirit
     Believes, in listening to you, that the gods have spoken to me.

    CURTAIN

    ACT II


    (Agathocles passes across the back of the stage; he seems to speak to his two sons, Polycrates and Argidus; he is surrounded by courtiers and guards. Ydasan and Aegestes are near the temple.)

    YDASAN: There's that old tyrant, so great, so formidable,
     That people think so fortunate! His age is overwhelming him,
     His face, burdened with cares, seems to say to humans
     That peace at heart is far from sovereigns.
     Is this he whose miserable infancy I saw
     With our fellow citizens grovelling in poverty?
     Is this really Agathocles? How many brilliant slaves
     Loan their servile hand to his shaking steps!
     How he is surrounded! their impenetrable troupe
     Seems to hide an unapproachable monster from the people.
     Are those there his two sons of whom you've spoken to me?

    AEGESTES: Yes; you see Polycrates called to the empire.
     He's said to be harsher and more inaccessible
     Than this somber old geezer, once so terrible.
     Argidus is more affable; he is great without pride,
     And his noble virtue doesn't have a rough exterior.
     Athens cultivated his morals and his genius.
     Born of an illustrious tyrant, he hates tyranny.
     The two of them are advancing towards the ruins of this temple.
     Let's seize this moment, let's dare to approach them.
     But especially remember, that Polycrates is master.

    YDASAN: Before him how hard it is to appear, dear friend!

    AEGESTES: In speaking to him, forget republican sentiments

    YDASAN: (striding towards Polycrates)
     Prince, do you know the rights of mankind?

    POLYCRATES: Who's this stranger? Who's this bold one?

    YDASAN: A man, a citizen, an old soldier, a father.

    POLYCRATES: What do you demand from me?

    YDASAN: Justice, my blood.
     I don't intend to tarnish the dazzle of your rank.
     Why keep the treaties; return young Ydace,
     Sole escapee of the misfortunes of my race.
     I am bringing the ransom.

    POLYCRATES: (to his attendants) Let them hide from my eyes
     An indiscreet old geezer of injurious appearance.

    ARGIDUS: Brother, he's only making a fair request of you.

    POLYCRATES: Soldiers, obey when I command.
     Let him be removed.

    YDASAN: Ah, great gods, return to me the time
     When my hand served you and struck tyrants.
     Must the sad decadence of my years
     Leave me expiring at their knees without vengeance.
    (Exit all but Polycrates and Argidus.)

    ARGIDUS: You could have responded to him, with more bounty;
     An old soldier ought to be respected, brother.

    POLYCRATES: No, brother; know that I will lose my life
     Before my captive is ravished from my hands.
     Neither the severity of my father's wrath,
     Nor all these idle treaties that speak against us,
     Nor the lightning of the gods aflame on my head,
     Will take from me the object whose conquest I made.
     My slave is my property, nothing can deprive me of it;
     I am going to take her away from these parts instantly.
    (after having looked at him for some time in silence)
     Do you condemn this plan that my heart has confided to you?

    ARGIDUS: Who? Me! Do you expect for me to justify you?
     What need would you have of my consent?
     How could I approve such a distracted action?
     Peace has already been declared with Carthage.
     Agathocles, swore it today on the altars.
     All our fellow citizens have been returned.
     If this Carthaginian has only a refusal from you,
     You are reigniting the war.

    POLYCRATES: And that's what I am aspiring to do.
     War is necessary to this nascent empire.
     Where would we be without it?

    ARGIDUS: In these times full of horrors,
     War has put my father in grandeurs.
     To long sustain this fragile edifice,
     Laws are necessary, brother, there must be justice.

    POLYCRATES: Laws! That's an idle name of which I am unworthy!
     Is it by the support of laws that Agathocles reigns?
     He knew only two: strength and trickery.
     The law of Syracuse is that I am to be obeyed.
     Agathocles was master, and I intend to equal him.

    ARGIDUS: The example is dangerous: it can make you tremble.
     See Croesus in Persia and Dionysius in Corinth.

    POLYCRATES: (after having looked at him again fixedly)
     Are you trying to alarm me, to inspire me with fear?
     Do you pretend to instruct Agathocles and his son?
     I wanted a service and not advice;
     I was counting on you—

    ARGIDUS: I will be your brother,
     Your true friend, ardent to humor you,
     When you demand of my fidelity, of my heart,
     All that a warrior can, in honor, permit.

    POLYCRATES: Well! serve me then.

    ARGIDUS: What plan is animating you?
     Do you want me to serve you by hiding a crime?

    POLYCRATES: A crime, you say?

    ARGIDUS: I cannot otherwise
     Describe the atrocity of this enslavement.

    POLYCRATES: A crime! you dare—

    ARGIDUS: Yes, I dare to teach you
     The harsh truth that you fear to hear.
     And who besides me can say it plainly?

    POLYCRATES: Go, that's where my unfortunate love awaits you.
     Traitor! You haven't known how to hide my injury from me.
     I see the imposture of your false virtues.
     I didn't intend to discover my heart to you.
     I sounded the profound depths of yours.
     I've seen the recesses; I've penetrated the mystery
     With which you know how to fascinate the looks of the vulgar.
     I saw in my brother a fatal enemy;
     He wants to appear just; he's merely my rival.
     You are: you think to hide behind a mask of prudence
     With slavery and with your unworthy intelligence.
     More guilty than me, you dare to condemn me.
     But you know your brother; he knows little to pardon.

    ARGIDUS: I believe you; I know your fierce insolence;
     You think to exercise the power of the king, my father.
     Mounted on the steps of this supreme rank
     Are you alone here, born of his blood.
     You are only the mud in which heaven gave it birth.
     He knew how to cover it with the virtues of a master;
     And your distractions have much disappointed him;
     They've returned you to the rank which he left.

    POLYCRATES: They've left me this arm to punish a perfidious brother.

    ELPENOR: (coming to Polycrates) Lord, the king wants you

    POLYCRATES: Yes, I obey—Argidus,
     That's your last trick; but tremble on my return.
    (Polycrates leaves.)

    ARGIDUS: I'll be waiting for you; we will see at the end of the day
     If ferocity, threat, and outrage
     Hide your weakness or demonstrate your courage.

    ELPENOR: What did I hear, Lord? What ardent wrath
     Is arming before my astonished eyes your brother and you?
     Alas! I've seen you enemies from infancy.
     But what have I to expect from so much violence?
     You make me shiver.

    ARGIDUS: Your advice is dear to me;
     But I learned from you to brave the perverse.
     I learned yet more in Sparta and Athens.
     Elpenor, condemn my bold frankness
     I confess, my heart is no longer made for the court.

    ELPENOR: It is free, it is great; but lord, if love
     Mixing its cruel weaknesses with your virtues
     Ignites between the two of you these fatal quarrels!
     They suspect it at least.

    ARGIDUS: Ah! don't suspect it;
     I don't know how to form an unworthy bond.
     Polycrates, it's true, in his burning audacity
     Thinks to submit to his rule the unfortunate Ydace,
     And I cannot suffer this injurious right
     That the fate of battles gives to the victorious.
     I dare to brave my brother and serve innocence.
     No, it's not love which will take up her defense;
     I didn't know it; my heart until today
     Had no need of her to avenge virtue.
     Elpenor, believe me, if it's necessary that he must subdue me
     He won't drag out of me anything for which I must blush.

    ELPENOR: I have no trouble believing you, and my discreet looks
     Respect the secrets of this generous heart.
     But, lord, I would wish that a little complaisance
     Were able to reassure the king of sad distrust.
     He loves your brother; he fears you.

    ARGIDUS: Elpenor,
     He ought to esteem me, and I dare say again
     That the public voice, equitable and sincere
     Would console me for the rebuffs of my father—
     But what uproar, what tumult! and what do I see!
    (A great uproar is heard on the stage: it opens, Ydace appears, followed by the priestess. The populace and the soldiers come forward from the back of the stage.)

    ARGIDUS: Is this Ydace? She—herself—in this terrible region!
     Are you fleeing, unfortunate captive?

    YDACE: Infamously dragged by horrible soldiers,
     Torn from the altars of my godly protectors,
     From the hands of the priestess to whom, in my misfortunes,
     Heaven had confided my fearful youth,
     They pursued me still, distracted, fugitive.
     When my father, overcome by the weight of my sorrows,
     Went to the palace to let his tears speak
     They seized his daughter in the name of your brother!
     At this frightful moment their bloody troupe
     Recoils in surprise at your august appearance.
     So much the just impress the perverse with respect!
     From this respect, lord, I am carried away without doubt
     But the horror in which I am, the horror that I fear
     Are my fatal excuse in this extremity.
     And your great heart of noble humanity
     Will deign in the end, propitious to my misery,
     To save my freedom from the distractions of your brother.

    ARGIDUS: Yes, yes, I will defend you from this furious man.
     This very sacred trust that I am receiving from the gods.
     I am taking you under my protection at the peril of my life.

    YDACE: Through your rare virtues I am more enslaved
     Than by this slavery to which fate has reduced me.
     I detest life and I invoke death;
     I live by you—

    ARGIDUS: Go; delivered from a tyrant
     Revisit far from us your happy country.
     It's all over, beautiful Ydace—Carry our regrets
     For her departure, friends, let preparations be hastened.
    (to the populace at the back)
     Noble Syracusans, help innocence,
     Embrace her defense against ravishers.
    (to the priestess)
     Priestess of Ceres, join with me;
     Speak in the name of the gods, and especially of the law;
     Let Ydace be free at last, and let them lead her to Carthage
     With her worthy father from this shore.
    (to the people)
     Let none of you exact and let no one accept
     The ransom this old geezer wished to purchase her with.
     Freedom! freedom! you were always sacred:
     When one puts a price on it is dishonored.
    (to the priestess)
     Protect this object that I've returned to you.
     Hide her virtue from persecutions.
     Let her leave this terrible land today.
     Ydace! live long and happily far from me.
     Go: flee especially far from a persecutor.
     In making her leave, I am tearing my heart out.
    (to Elpenor)
     Will you reproach me that love may be my master?
     Favorite of Agathocles! learn to know me.
     I honor virtue, misfortune softened me.
     It's up to you to judge if love is swallowing me.
    (Exit Argidus and Elpenor.)

    YDACE: Great gods! who by means of
     Argidus' hands are breaking my funereal yoke,
     In your Olympus is there a soul more celestial?
     Isn't it thus, that formerly, mortals
     By approaching you deserved altars?
    (to the priestess)
     Alas! you make my offended soul fear
     That its pure virtue was not unselfish!

    PRIESTESS: I admire him with you; today I think to see
     The blood of our tyrants purified by him.

    YDACE: They say that he was nourished in Sparta and in Athens.
     He has their courage and humane virtues.
     What modest grandeur in offering his help!
     How my heart, which escapes me, is full of his speech!
     How in defending me he was forgetting himself!
     At the court of tyrants is it thus that one is loved?
     I have nothing to blush for from his generous efforts.
     They are not the effect of an amorous distraction.
     His feelings are pure, and I am without alarms.
     Yes, my happiness begins.

    PRIESTESS: And you are shedding tears!

    YDACE: I am weeping, I owe it to him; the excess of his bounties
     His glory, his virtue—all softened me.

    PRIESTESS: Leave.

    YDACE: It's all over; let's return to the place that saw my birth.
     Must I leave you! Ah! why isn't he my master!

    PRIESTESS: Trust me, dear Ydace; from this day you must
     Flee these dangerous shores menaced by love.
     Your tender heart wants in vain to constrain itself.
     Argidus and his virtues are too much to be feared by you.
     Let's prepare everything, let's fear that his odious brother
     Not bring crime into these funereal parts.

    YDACE: God, if you are protecting this weak and timid heart,
     Gods! don't permit it to dare to love Argidus!
     Suffocate in my breast these secret feelings
     Which will deliver my life to eternal regrets.
     And by which, despite myself, the involuntary charm
     Increases further my shame and my misery!

    PRIESTESS: O pure and sensitive heart, born in misfortunes!
     Go, fear even virtue, and flee far from grandeurs.

    CURTAIN

    ACT III

    YDASAN: I appeared before him, I saw him again, this king,
     This hero once more unknown.
     My deep sorrows subduing violence
     I was able to control my revulson and pray to him.
     My features disfigured by the outrage of time
     This scarred face covered with white hair
     Didn't prevent him from recognizing
     A fellow citizen whose eyes had seen his birth.
     I astonished myself that he saw my tears shed
     Without noticing the disdain that grandeur inspired,
     Time, whose injury he begins to feel,
     Could it have softened this proud and harsh soul?
     With a softened look this prince commanded
     That I be returned my blood as I requested.
     Polycrates, indignant at the order of his father
     Was unable to restrain his rage before him.
     The barbarian left with fury in his eyes.

    PRIESTESS: Everything is to be feared of that audacious one.
     His father has for him alone a blind tenderness.
     One sees so much weakness with astonishment.
     This king, so bold, so suspicious of all
     So secret in his plans, so jealous of his power
     Is softly submissive, like a vulgar man
     To the proud ascendancy of a bold youth.
     He doesn't love Argidus; he seems to distrust
     This male virtue which he cannot imitate.
     He outrages and insults this noble character.
     He loves Polycrates; he cherishes his portrait.
     The barbarian abuses it; there are no felonies
     That his distractions have not soiled the palace with.
     The father was a tyrant; the son is more so:
     Without Argidus's virtue, and without this proud courage,
     Your unfortunate blood, blighted, dishonored,
     Was going to be delivered to cowardly Polycrates.

    YDASAN: He would have committed this affront to her unfortunate father!

    PRIESTESS: He would have dared it; but Argidus is a tutelary god,
     A god who descended amongst us today,
     Coming to avenge virtue and console the earth.
     You must honor him, you owe him life.
     Take your daughter away. A barbarian, an impious one,
     Is still capable of attempting the laws of nations.
     His terrible character knows no respect.
     Put deep seas between him and crime.
     May a favorable god guide you on the waves.
     Remember me under a happier sky.

    YDASAN: Your virtues, your kindnesses, have surpassed my wishes.
     Doubtless I am separating from you with regret.
     But I must leave this barbarous region.
     I must die free, and I am running on this path.
    (Enter Aegestes.)

    AEGESTES: We are all lost: friend go no further.
     Death is henceforth the sole recourse remaining to us.
     Argidus, Polycrates, Ydace—

    YDASAN: Ah, dear Aegestes!
     My daughter! Ydace! speak and give me death.

    AEGESTES: We were escorting Ydace; she approached the port
     She was waiting for you to leave Syracuse.
     The people rushed to the shores of the Arethusa,
     Weeping over her departure, admiring her beauty,
     Loading heaven with vows for her prosperity.
     Suddenly, Polycrates, separating from the crowd
     Appeared like a lightning bolt which cleaves profound night.
     He seized Ydace: and with a detested arm
     Tore his prey from the shocked populace.
     Argidus alone, Argidus undertook her defense.
     His firmness opposed so much violence.
     The infamous ravisher, poignard in hand
     Suddenly threw himself on this young hero.
     Argidus fought; but with what courage!
     You'd have thought a god against a savage monster.
     Polycrates defeated, fell and died at his feet.
     The shouts of the citizens almost reached the heavens
     And instantly bore the news to his father.
     In his triumph, forgetting his wrath,
     The softened conqueror aided amidst groans
     The proud enemy who died threatening.
      YDASAN: You haven't said anything to me which is not propitious to us.
     We are completely avenged.

    PRIESTESS: Heaven has done justice.
     It's one tyrant the less in our calamities.

    YDASAN: Let's leave these parts, let's move—What have I to fear?

    AEGESTES: (stopping him) Listen.
     The king, who put so much hope in his son
     Ran to the very place, shouting to us: “Vengeance!
     My unnatural son has just murdered my son!”
     His proud soldiers assembled at his screams;
     The populace dispersed, and fled with a timid step.
     Distracted Agathocles has had Argidus arrested;
     Your daughter was seized, and in his frightful trouble
     The despairing king has proscribed the two of you.

    YDASAN: My daughter, just your name tears my entrails!
     I hoped to die on the field of battle
     Are we going to expire under the sword of executioners?
     An old soldier must die without complaint.
     But you?

    AEGESTES: If he committed that horrible injustice,
     Ydasan, I can only follow you to death.
     Despotic power is master of our lives.
     We are without support, without arms, without help—
     But priestess, can't you, as if dreaming,
     Make your holy character speak?

    PRIESTESS: The time is no more: Once the gods'
     Empire was respected; their voice heard.
     Remorse stopped on the edge of the abyss
     Eternal justice shocked crime—
     Tyrants have raised themselves on our downbeaten gods,
     Enriched themselves with our wealth, wallowed in our tears
     Declared war on our ancient rights.
     Pride and rapine are the gods of the earth.

    AEGESTES: Let's separate; they're coming. It's Agathocles in tears;
     He's a father like you, and I fear his sorrow.
     Vengeance follows it.
    (Agathocles enters with his suite.)

    AGATHOCLES: Let them take from my sight
     This wretched object who causes me indignation and is killing me.
     Over her and over her father keep your eyes open.
     Let them both be guarded, let them be loaded with fetters
     Lead before me this criminal Argidus.

    AN OFFICER: Your son?

    AGATHOCLES: Him! my son! no—why this parricide.
     My son is dead.
    (they bring in Argidus in chains, escorted; Aegestes distances himself with the guards) (to Argidus)
     Cruel one! he died through your blows,
     And you still brave my tears and my wrath;
     And this blinded populace, seduced by your audacity
     Applauds your crime and demands mercy for you.

    ARGIDUS: Lord, the people are just.

    AGATHOCLES: It's going to be seen today
     Whether this wretched prince is more just than they are;
     Traitor! I abandon you to the laws I have brought.

    ARGIDUS: If they were dictated by justice alone,
     They will conclude that in this sad battle
     I saved innocence, and perhaps the state.
     The name of law is dear to me, and that name reassures me.

    AGATHOCLES: Thus you increase your crime and my injury!
     You never loved me and think to disarm me?

    ARGIDUS: My ever submissive heart sought to love you:
     It is pure; it has no reproach to make itself.
     This heart rose in rebellion when I killed my brother.
     I felt the power of nature in me.
     But it had to be combatted and I've done my duty.
     I punished felonies and I avenged innocence;
     She had only me, lord, for her defense.
     The cruel one forced me to pierce his flank.
     Follow your wrath, bathe in my blood.
     If, in this frightful day, remorse can be born
     I ought not to feel it—you may have it, perhaps.

    AGATHOCLES: What! your fierce pride still dares to insult me!

    ARGIDUS: I only know how to pity you and to respect you.

    AGATHOCLES: (groaning) You tore my son from me!

    ARGIDUS: I defended my life
     And I served you, I tell you, and my country.

    AGATHOCLES: Flee from my eyes, barbarian; await your just end.

    ARGIDUS: You are sovereign; command. I am ready.
    (They lead him away.)

    AGATHOCLES: What am I going to become? Into what trouble he hurls me.
     What then! his firmness, tranquil and satisfied
     With an indifferent eye, an unnatural arm,
     Come to turn the dagger in my shredded heart!
     Now there are the worthy fruits of false wisdom
     That Syracusans were seeking in Greece!
     They've brought scorn on my laws,
     Death even, and the hate of kingship.
     So I no longer have any children! My old age overwhelmed
     Is going to descend into the tomb without being consoled.
     My glory, this phantom useless to happiness,
     Illustrates my disgrace, by augmenting my horror.
     What good's this glory and supreme grandeur do me?
     I am deprived of everything and reduced to myself.
     In the wretched days that may remain to me
     I read a future which ought to shock me.
     It's up to me to die: but at least I flatter myself
     That all the assassins of my son Polycrates
     Will submit with me to the most just death.
    (to a guard)
     You, watch over Argidus and walk at his heels.
    (to another)
     You, answer for Ydace and especially her father.
    (to another)
     Let Elpenor be found, A salutary advisor
     From his experience there is always a lucky fruition.
     His eyes will clarify things for me in this frightful night.
    (to an officer)
     Sustain me; my soul, in its funereal transports
     Has consumed the rest of its exhausted strength.
     I no longer know myself. God of kings and of gods!
     God that Plato announced in the home of our great ancestors,
     I invoke you in the end, be it reason, be it weakness.
     If you reign over us, if your high wisdom
     From the height of heaven takes care over the destiny of states,
     If you have raised me up, don't abandon me.
     I imitated you at least, by founding an empire.
     And in giving it laws; and my sorrow aspires
     At the end of the career I've reached today,
     Only to avenge my dear son, so as to fall with him.

    CURTAIN

    ACT IV

    Guards in the rear.

    YDACE: (not containing herself within the boundaries of a modest sorrow, she must appear in disorder, her hair wild, and break out into sobs)
     No, I can no longer hide my fatal tenderness.
     I love him, I confess it and love makes us equal.
     No, don't control further a heart made to suffer.
     I learned to live as a slave, and I will learn to die as one.
     Don't hide anything from me; I can hear everything.
     I know that in these parts the king ought to come.
     He's an outraged father; he's an absolute master.
     They say he's spoken; but what has he decided?

    PRIESTESS: He floated uncertainly; his soul demonstrated
     Weakening sorrow and altered blood.
     So much so that with a single word he froze us with horror,
     And especially his silence inspired terror;
     As soon as the depth of his somber thoughts
     Revealed itself to the glances of a bustling crowd.
     He sighs, he threatens, he calms down, he groans:
     The only one they think can soften him is Elpenor.
     His courtiers ranged around him fear him,
     And in his despair he is the one who they pity.

    YDACE: They pity a tyrant! low spirits! vile flatterers!
     They don't dare to pity Argidus! they close their hearts to him!
     They think to make it a crime to take up his defense.

    PRIESTESS: The affliction of the master imposes a silence on all.

    YDACE: (uttering a cry and weeping)
     Ah! tell me, at least, answer my cries
     Is it true that Agathocles has condemned his son.

    PRIESTESS: The rumor is spreading.

    YDACE: I am dying.

    PRIESTESS: Dear Ydace!
     Ah! come to yourself! a father who threatens
     Doesn't always strike. Daughter, reassure yourself,
     Revive your wits distracted by trouble.
     Remove from your soul such a dark image.

    YDACE: Argidus is condemned!

    PRIESTESS: No, I don't believe it.

    YDACE: I believe it too well—It's over with.

    PRIESTESS: It's here that the fate which awaits him must be revealed.
     The fatal moment is approaching: Agathocles is coming forward.
     It appears that Elpenor is speaking to him confidently.
     Let's wait a moment in these retired parts.
     At all times they were made for sacred asylums.
     Scorned by our great, the populace revere them.
     I see your unfortunate father has already come there.

    YDACE: They will come to tear him from your holy asylum.
     Who can hide from the glance of a tyrant?
    (Agathocles enters on one side followed by Elpenor. Ydasan, Ydace and the Priestess are withdrawn in the ruins of the temple on the other.)

    AGATHOCLES: (to Elpenor)
     Yes, I tell you, the traitor irritates my wrath;
     With his forced respect he insults his father.
     Seeing Argidus near me, you would have said
     That I was the guilty one, and that Argidus was king.
     The insolent one boasted of his crime to my face.
     The murder of his brother, is, he says, legitimate.
     He served the state by tearing my son from me!
    (he sits)
     It's too much! Let them avenge me—Elpenor, obey.
     Let them avenge me.—Soldiers, don't spare Argidus any longer.
     A king must punish a parricide.
     Let him die.

    PRIESTESS (rushing from her asylum and throwing herself at Agathocles' knees.)
     No, lord, no, you don't want
     To contemplate the death of two sons in one day.
     You will not sacrifice half of yourself.
     The supreme majesty of my scorned gods
     Is not speaking here with my feeble voice.
     I will no longer attest their justice and their laws.
     I know to well the slow action of their eternal vengeance
     In pursuit of the criminal heads of evil kings;
     And that often lightning bursts in idle bolts
     For hardened hearts who do not fear it.
     But don't ruin yourself on such a funereal day.
     Don't avenge one son on the son that remains to you.
     And don't deprive yourself of the only succor
     That heaven keeps for you in your unfortunate life.

    YDASAN: Cruel man! can you strike an innocent girl!

    YDACE: I bring my head here, and your bloody hand
     Will favor me by making me die.
     But see the horrors in which you are going to run.
     The son whose very deserved death you are weeping for
     Had an atrocious soul infected with crime
     And jealous of his brother was going to murder him.
     The son that an unjust father dares here to condemn
     Is a hero, a god who did us justice.
     If you determinately will his death
     See already this blood shed by your hands,
     Gods and humans rise against you.
     You will be detested by all of nature.
     Detested for yourself—and the august and pure soul,
     The soul of great Argidus vainly from the height of the heavens
     Will implore for you the clemency of the gods.
     They will follow your example: they will be without mercy.
     This very precious blood will shriek loudly for vengeance.
     The truth is rising to your deceived eyes.
     It led our voices—I await death; strike.

    AGATHOCLES: What! these three enemies are insulting my loss!
     What! under their trembling feet when the tomb is opened
     They are still tearing up this desperate heart!
     Make them leave!
    (They are led away.)

    AGATHOCLES: My distracted wits
     From all I am hearing receives frightful omens.
     Friend, during thirty years of labors and storms
     Tested each day by new perils,
     Never has a day risen more frightful to me.
     My son had his faults; paternal friendship
     Doesn't paint an unfaithful image to me.
     But his lofty courage seconded my plans,
     He supported the throne established by my hands.
     And, it's necessary to reveal my thoughts to your view.
     My old age wearied of this bloody throne
     Was going to resign it to my unfortunate son.
     You see what effects my plans have followed.
     My heart is opening to your eyes; open yours to mine.
     Tell me the truth; I fear it but I love it.
     Is it true that my sons were fighting both of them
     Over this young beauty, this dangerous creature,
     This slave?

    ELPENOR: It's pretended that they burned for her.
     This love produced their bloody quarrel.
     She caused the death of the son that you are weeping for.
     Polycrates, scorning your sacred orders
     By raising over Ydace a bold hand
     Raised the dagger against his unfortunate brother.
     Argidus is courageous; he didn't belie
     The pure blood of a hero from which he's seen to come.
     I moan with you that this intrepid son
     With so much virtue is only a parricide.
     But Polycrates was the unjust aggressor.

    AGATHOCLES: The two of them are criminals; they've pierced my heart.
     The one succumbed to death, and the other deserves it.
     Against the murderer you know all that irritates me.
     His popular favor must have alarmed me.
     He offended me especially by making himself loved.
     His name thrived in the ruins of my glory.
     In vain in the West the hands of Victory
     Have crowned me a hundred times with laurels.
     In my sad house I was abandoned—
     I am forever. I feel too keenly that the envy
     Of the tortures that I am enduring is hardly glutted.
     They hate me, and there's the envenomed feature
     That pierces a withered heart consumed by boredom—
     But Argidus is my son.

    ELPENOR: And I dare yet tell you
     That he is worthy of being so, and worthy of the empire
     Incapable of feigning as of flattering,
     Of suffering an affront and of deserving it.
     Virtuous and sensitive—

    AGATHOCLES: Ah! what are you daring to contend?
     Him, sensitive! Did he deign to give in to my tears?
     Had he remorse for the murder of his brother?
     Has he made some tentative efforts to soften me?
     Eh! didn't he brave the sorrow of his father?

    ELPENOR: There's too much pride in this great character
     He doesn't know how to bend,

    AGATHOCLES: I must know how to punish.

    ELPENOR: Don't prepare a horrible future.
     Nature has spoken; its voice is always tender,

    AGATHOCLES: The shout of vengeance is also making itself heard.
     I owe everything to my throne! O embloodied throne!
     So brilliant, so funereal, and so dearly bought!
     Dazzling grandeur, and what evil I have known!
     To what degree will your shining seduce my gaze?

    ELPENOR: Of the trouble wherein I see you what must this presage?
     What do you decree for a son?

    AGATHOCLES: Let me breathe.

    CURTAIN

    ACT V


    (The Priestess and Ydasan by the temple at the front of the stage. Guards at the back.)

    PRIESTESS: Astonishing examples of the caprices of fate!
     In this region of death, unknown to one another
     Under the fetters of a tyrant, a prison joins us back together.
     And I've seen you only to die together!
     O unfortunate father! it's in these same parts
     In this temple where formerly our gods descended
     It's in the debris of the ashes of their altars
     That the king is going to appear, and the execution must take place!
     Agathocles intends that his servile court
     Solemnise with him this deplorable day.
     It's an august ceremonial: and his afflicted soul
     Thinks that by this great glitter his loss will be better avenged.
     He thinks to instruct better a shocked populace
     That the blood of a tyrant must be respected.
     All must bend beneath his powerful voice
     And they call this horrible spectacle justice!

    YDASAN: Priestess, believe me, this violent wrath
     Surfeited with blood won't reach you.
     There are, there's no doubt of it, sacred barriers
     Whose revered limits one doesn't cross.
     A tyrant fears the people; and this people, in my eyes
     All corrupted though it is, respects its gods in you.
     After all, you are not the accomplice of my daughter.
     It's enough that an unfortunate perish with her.
     That's my sole prayer: and the blow that awaits me
     Can advance my death by only a moment.
     I am leaving you softened; pardon my tears.

    PRIESTESS: They're not permitted; these armed informers
     Are going to our tyrant to report our conversation.

    YDASAN: I know it; it's the custom established in courts.
     Great gods! I see Argidus appearing with Ydace!

    ARGIDUS (entering, guards at the back) It's permitted; I am coming to
     seek mercy here.

    YDASAN: Lord, what are you saying?

    ARGIDUS: I defended your daughter
     Against her ravisher, and avenged her honor.
     I've done more; I loved her and sacrificing myself for her,
     I imposed on myself an eternal absence.
     I ask of you here, the reward of her virtue
     For which I am going to die, for which I fought.
     I stifled my love, and I was unable to pretend
     —misfortune of being a prince—to become your son-in-law.
     But in the end, I am very honored by this name.
     I want to bear that sacred name in my tomb.
     Ydace, let my dying hand press yours,
     Loving each other we will expire for one another.
     May my eyes be still fixed on your eyes
     May the divinity which nourished our ancestors
     Preside with marriage at our fatal hour.
    (to priestess)
     O priestess light the nuptial torch.
    (to Ydasan)
     Hug us, my father, in our last moments.
     Ydace, dear Ydace, accept my oaths.
     They are pure like you: our conjoined souls
     Are being recalled to heaven which created them.
     Protect, if possible, a just future,
     the most holy eternal memory of love.

    YDACE: (to Ydasan) Argidus' feelings have entered my soul;
     His courage raises me, and his virtue inflames me.
     The name of his spouse is too fine a title
     For you to refuse to decorate my tomb with it.
     No, Argidus, with you death is not cruel;
     Life is transient, and glory is immortal.

    YDASAN: Ah, my prince, my daughter!

    PRIESTESS: Unfortunate spouses!
     Couple worthy of heaven! it is open for you;
     It sees a great spectacle, and worthy of admiration,
     Virtue combatting tyranny.

    YDASAN: Dear daughter! great prince! in what a horrible day
     In what horrible places you speak to me of love!
     Well, I unite you; well, gods that I affirm,
     Gods of the unfortunates, form this funereal bond.
     And to celebrate it, overthrow our tyrants
     Into the abyss where lightning hurled the Titans!
     Let the flame of Aetna illuminate these chasms!
     Let the barbarian fall into it, live there, and be consumed by it!
     Let his just death, forever repeated
     Be the eternal vengeance of my innocent blood,
     And Sicily and Syracuse fall into powder
     If the oppressor of the people escapes the thunderbolt.
     Those are my wishes for you, dear and tender lovers
     Both our wedding songs and my last oaths.

    PRIESTESS: Our time has come; Agathocles is coming forward
     He is adding to death the horror of his presence.

    ARGIDUS: What! his court surrounds him and the people are following
     him!

    YDASAN: What demon, what intrigue is leading him to us?
    (Enter Agathocles surrounded by his court. The populace arranges itself on both side of the stage, the great take their place around the throne and remain standing.)

    AGATHOCLES: Tempered Justice—it's voice dictates the sentence—
    (he mounts his throne that has been brought in and sits on it)
     It's I who am announcing it to you: listen in silence—
     You see me on the throne, it's the worthy reward
     For thirty years of labor undertaken for the State.
     I was ambitious, I make no excuse for it;
     And if with some glory, on the plains of Syracuse
     Amongst so many battles, I was able to cover my name,
     That glory was the fruit of my ambition.
     If it was a fault, it was a heroic fault.
     I was born unknown in your republic.
     I was base, and I owe everything to myself,
     The talents, the virtues which made me your king.
     I didn't need an illustrious origin.
     Mine added a new luster to my grandeur
     Potter's clay once moulded by my hands
     Produced the gold which crowned my face.
     Seized with glory and with so much power
     Still, I felt a sad insufficiency.
     —I see plainly, heaven places in the depths of our hearts
     A secret feeling above grandeurs;
     I experienced it and my soul is much stronger still
     To disdain the dazzle adored by the vulgar.
     Having consulted myself carefully, I can equally
     Live and die on the throne or in obscurity.
     —-For a son that I loved, my prodigal tenderness
     Made me hope that in the days of my old age
     He would sustain the weight of my powerful empire.
     I thought him worthy of ruling you.
     I was abused; these deceitful errors
     Are the common share of kings and fathers.
     It's little to know them, they must be expiated.
     O my son, in my arms, deign to forget them.
    (he takes Argidus in his arms and makes him sit beside him)
     People, here's the king you must recognize
     I trust all is repaired, I am making him your master.
     Yes, my son, I knew that in this sad day
     Virtue would win out over the most tender love.
     You deserve Ydace as well as my crown
     Enjoy them both; your father gives them to you.
     Priestess of Ceres, light the torches
     Which must lighten such beautiful triumphs.
     Rebuild your altars, celebrate your mysteries
     That I thought too great for my contrary power.
     Teach the people to fulfill, at the same time,
     What is owed to gods and what is owed to kings
     —-You generous warrior, you, father of Ydace!
     May you see your blood reborn in my race!
     Serve as father to my son, give me your friendship.
     Pardon the sovereign who forgot you,
     Pardon these grandeurs that heaven is delivering me from.
     The prince has vanished; the man begins to live.

    YDACE: (to the priestess) O gods!

    AEGESTES: What a change!

    YDASAN: What a prodigy!

    YDACE: Happy day!

    ARGIDUS: Father, you astonish me; and perhaps in my turn
     At this moment I am going to astonish you.
     You deign to cede to me this brilliant diadem
     Inestimable prize of your warrior toil,
     That your valiant hands covered with laurels.
     I dare to accept from you this august share
     And before your eyes I am going to make a worthy use of it.
     Plato came to these shores; he instructed kings;
     My heart is his disciple; and I will follow his laws.
     A sage instructed me; but it is you I am imitating.
     Your example, to live as a citizen invites me.
     You are above all sovereign honors.
     You trample them under your feet, lord, and I fear them.
     Misfortune to any mortal who thinks himself capable
     Of bearing this formidable weight after you!
     People, I am using a moment of my authority.
     I reign—your kings returns your freedom to you.
    (he descends the throne)
     Agathocles just gave justice to his son;
     I give it to all of you. May propitious heaven
     From this day begin a century of happiness,
     A century of virtue, rather than grandeur!
     O my august spouse! o noble citizeness!
     This people cherish you; you are more than queen.

    CURTAIN