THE FRAGMENTS OF ARTEMIRA

By Voltaire

EText by Dagny
This Etext is for private use only. No republication for profit in 
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http://www.cadytech.com/dumas/personnage.asp?key=130
Translated and adapted by Frank J. Morlock C 2003 ++++++++++++++++++++++++


Although this play was left unfinished Voltaire's stage directions are sufficiently complete and the exposition sufficiently straightforward so that I believe the unfinished portions of the play could be easily mimed and the fragment could be successfully performed
.


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


CHARACTERS


CASSANDER, King of Macedon


ARTEMIRA, Queen of Macedon


PALLANTAS, favorite of the King


MENAS, relative and confidant of Pallantas


HIPPARCHUS, Minister of Cassander


CEPHISES, confidante of Artemira


PHILOTAS, prince


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





The action takes place in the palace of the king
.





ACT I



(Artemira, suffering from the greatest sorrow, hides nothing from Cephises of the tortures she is made to endure from the suspicious nature and cruelty of her husband Cassander, that war has separated from her, and whose return makes her tremble.)



ARTEMIRA
: Yes, all these conquerors are assembled on these shores,
Soldiers under Alexander, and kings after his death.
Wearied with crimes and exhausted by war
They have given themselves up to rest
Which they deprived the earth of.
I give thanks, Cephises, to this lucky peace
Which, breaking your bonds, delivers you to my wishes.
Alas! how this peace that Greece breathes
Is a blessing little known to sad Artemira!
Cassander — at that name alone, sorrow and terror
In my alarmed heart seize me despite myself.
Conqueror of the Locrians, Cassander is going to appear;
Slave in my palace, I await my master here.
Pardon, I am unable to call him my spouse.
Ah! how to give him a name so sweet?
He's forgotten it only too well, the barbarian!


CEPHISES
: You are weeping!


ARTEMIRA
: Would it had pleased the gods to enfettered Megara
I had been forever abandoned in chains!
Would it had pleased to the gods that marriage's extinguished torch
Under this funereal throne had hollowed out my tomb!
The most shameful fetters, the most terrible father
Would have been, Cephises, a less terrible torture
Than this odious rank wherein Cassander is seated
This rank which I detest and which dazzles you —


CEPHISES
: What! you —


ARTEMIRA
: It reminds you of the sad day
Which ravished Alexander from astonished Asia.
The trembling earth saw after his death
His impatient henchmen eager to divide his Estates;
And, jealous of one another, in their greedy rage
Vie, in tearing this superb inheritance apart.
Divided by self interest, united for crime
To assassinate his mother, his widow, and his son:
These are the honors they rendered to his ashes.
I don't wish, Cephises, to be unjust towards Cassander,
By accusing a spouse of all these horrors.
A more tender interest makes my tears flow:
His hands have sacrificed the most tender victims
I have no need to search him for crimes.
He's had all the fruit of the reward of so much blood he sheds
Innocent or guilty.
He reigns: he occupies the place of Alexander.
Shocked Greece approves his audacity,
And his submissive rivals demand laws from him.
To my misfortune, when drawn to Epirus
He saw me: he offered me his heart and his empire.
Antinous, my father, insensitive to my tears,
Despite me, accepted these funereal honors.
I complained in vain to his constrained austerity;
By tyrannizing me, he thought he was acting as a father;
He thought to assure my glory and my happiness.
He hardly enjoyed his fatal error.
He soon learned; the suspicious Cassander
Became his enemy as soon as he became his son-in-law.
Don't ask me what various interests,
What troubles, what conspiracies, what secret movements
Excited storms in this deceitful court,
That desolated the shores of Larissa with fires.
Finally, in this palace, theatre of reversals
My father saw himself laden with fetters.
Alas! all he had here was my tears for his defence.
That's how our gods attest vengeance,
By embracing a homicidal conqueror's knees
I threw myself, trembling, under his blows.
The cruel man, repulsing his weeping spouse —
O crime, o memory by which I am torn apart!
Cephises! in this very place, where your speech flatters
A throne wherein you see me extolled by its delights
In this funereal place, witness of my misery
My husband massacred my father before my eyes.


CEPHISES
: By a spouse — a father! o completion of horrors!


ARTEMIRA
: His death was the greatest of misfortunes for me.
But not the only one; and my softened soul
Owes to your friendship the story of my life.
Cephises, no one knows what a blow it was for me
When they engaged my faith to the tyrant of the Greeks.
Before this marriage, young Philotas
Intended to unite his fate to my destiny.
His charms, his virtues, had touched my heart.
I loved him, I admit it; and my fatal passion
Formed a flattering hope of a sweet marriage.
Without him, Artemira could not be happy.
You see my tears flow from this single memory.
I can give them to this hero without blushing
I don't forbid them to myself, I owe them to his ashes.


CEPHISES
: He is no more?


ARTEMIRA
: He died at the hand of Cassander;
And when I wanted to rejoin him in the tomb,
Cephises, they ordered me to marry his executioner.


CEPHISES
: And you were able to form this execrable marriage?


ARTEMIRA
: I was young, and my father was inexorable;
I was trembling to arm myself with an odious refusal:
In the end, without confessing it, I was blushing with love.
What do you want? I obeyed. Pardon, too dear ghost,
Pardon for this marriage my father forced me into.
Alas, he received cruel punishment for it,
And I am weeping at the same time for my father and my lover.


(Still she must respect the bond the joins her to Cassander.)


CEPHISES
: — To speak to him and see him
And in his arms —


ARTEMIRA
: Alas! that's my despair.
I know that against him love and nature
Excite an eternal murmur in my heart.
All that I adored is fallen beneath his blows,
Cephises, yet Cassander is my husband;
His parricidal hand, still prompt to injure me
Has soiled our bonds, and was unable to destroy them.
Perhaps I have the right to hate him in secret,
But, in hating him I owe him obedience
Such is my destiny —


CEPHISES
: (speaks to her of her grandeur) You reign.
What misfortune in reigning cannot be softened?


ARTEMIRA
: Cephises! me, reign! me command here!
You know Cassander ill! he allows me, in sharing
On this embloodied throne shame and slavery.
His favorite Pallantas is here the only king;
He's a second tyrant who imposes his law on me.
What am I saying? all these kings, courtiers of Pallantas
Shamefully flatter his audacious insolence,
Around my spouse implore his support
And their crowned heads lower themselves before him
And I —


CEPHISES
: Someone's coming to you.


ARTEMIRA
: God! I observe Pallantas:
How his wild appearance afflicts and shocks me!


(Enter Pallantas.)


PALLANTAS
: — And of his actions give a faithful account.


ARTEMIRA
: Philotas! gods! what do I hear? Ah! heaven! what news!
What, lord, Philotas still sees the light of day —
How can it be?


PALLANTAS
: Yes, madame, he is in this court.


ARTEMIRA
: What miracle! what god!


PALLANTAS
: — To regain his throne and sustain his rights.


ARTEMIRA
: All powerful gods!


PALLANTAS
: Read what I am ordered to do.


ARTEMIRA
: I cannot hide anything; so much happiness astonishes.
Since when does he deign to confide to my fidelity
Secrets of state and letters from the king?
You know, Pallantas, slave on the throne,
Cassander abandons me to my obscurity.
I have never had a share in the orders he prescribes.


PALLANTAS
: — Read what he writes me.


ARTEMIRA
: (reads) “Cassander to Pallantas:
I am returning triumphant to the bosom of my empire.
I am leaving the submissive Locrians under my rule.
And, wishing to avenge myself on all my enemies
I am awaiting from your hand, the head of Artemira.”
So then, my fate is to be consummated today!
I wasn't expecting less from a spouse such as him.
Pallantas, it's up to you to demand my head;
You are master here, your victim is prepared.
Doubtless you were expecting it, and this sweet order
Has as many charms for you as for Cassander.


PALLANTAS
: — Would you like to live still, and reign?


ARTEMIRA
: Ah! lord,
What pity for me can touch your heart?
I already told you, take your victim.
But may I not, in dying, ask my crime,
And why your lofty master strikes today
My blood with this long deferred blow?


PALLANTAS
: — To be the shameful instrument of his murders.


ARTEMIRA
: You know me ill, and my soul is surprised
Much less by my death than by your enterprise.
Allow Artemira, in her last moments
To reveal to you her heart and true feelings.
If my eyes, busy with weeping for my misery
Saw in the king only the assassin of a father,
If I listened to his crime and my irritated heart
Cassander would perish, he deserves it too well:
But he is my spouse, although unworthy of being so.
Heaven which pursues me, gave me him for master.
I know my duty and I know what I owe
To the unlucky fetters which join him to me.
Let him at his ease extinguish his rage in my blood.
Of the Gods, braved by him, he is for me the image,
I will not accept the arm you offer me.
He can cut off my life, but his for me is sacred.
I prefer, lord, in my deplorable condition
To die by his felonies than to live guilty.


PALLANTAS
: You must without hesitating, marry me or perish.
I can do nothing more: it's up to you to choose.


ARTEMIRA
: My choice is made: follow what the king directs you to do.
He orders my death and I demand it of you.
It's over, lord, an eternal boredom
Is the only benefit that I have received from him.


PALLANTAS
: But, madame, think.


ARTEMIRA
: No, leave me alone, Pallantas
I am not to be pitied and I am dying very content.
Artemira doesn't wish to escape your blows.
I accept your hand but it is to strike me. (she leaves)


(Pallantas is furious that he cannot reap the fruit of the jealous suspicions he has planted in the heart of Cassander. Still he doesn't despair of conquering the resistance of the queen; he is emboldened in the plan to assassinate the king.)


PALLANTAS
: His throne, his treasures will be the wages.
Crime is approved when it is necessary.


(Pallantas has need of an accomplice; he thinks he cannot choose better than Menas, his relative and his friend who he sees appear. He asks him if he feels enough courage to undertake a great enterprise. Menas replies that to doubt his zeal and his friendship is to do him a grave injury. Pallantas then confides to him the love that burns in him for the queen. Menas is not astonished; but he represents to Pallantas that the virtue of Artemira is equal to her beauty. Pallantas doesn't regard women's virtue as anything other than a great hypocrisy.)


PALLANTAS
: Now there's what is often a woman's virtue.
Honor depicted in her eyes seems to be in her soul.
But this false honor
Serves only to cover the shame of her passions.
Lavishing a single cherished lover in her tenderness
For all others she has only a cold disdain.
And the rebuffed lover often takes for virtue
The proud disdain of a heart otherwise corrupted.


(He develops his plan to Menas, who promises not to betray him, but while refusing to be the accomplice of his crimes. Pallantas, remains alone, no longer looks at Menas as anything but a dangerous confidante whose indiscretion he must prevent.)



CURTAIN





ACT II



ARTEMIRA
: — Ah! that's enough of that, Pallantas.


PALLANTAS
: If you resist me it's only from weakness.


ARTEMIRA
: So this great brave dares to propose to me
To assassinate Cassander and marry you!
I really want to hold in check a vain rage,
But think a bit more that I am your queen;
You can attempt my unfortunate life
But in the bosom of death I must be respected.
End forever a speech that offends me;
Death displeases me less than such insolence.
And if, in this fatal moment, I prefer you
To be my murderer than my lover
Strike and leave off your furious indiscretions.


PALLANTAS
: — Be grateful to an avenger or fear your master.


ARTEMIRA
: Yes, you can shed the blood of your king;
But I warn you to start with me.
In whatever extremity Cassander has hurled me
Artemira is still his wife and his subject.
I will go to parry the blows they wish to bring to him
And preserve the life for him that he wishes to separate me from.


(Pallantas leaves: Artemira remains with Cephises, who learns from her that Philotas is not dead, that he's going to reappear; she advises her to manage Pallantas, to gain time, so as to resume being mistress of her destiny; she reproaches her for having braved the favorite of the king too much.)


CEPHISES
: Madame, ought you to irritate him to that degree?


ARTEMIRA
: Ah! I was hastening the blows he intends to bring me;
Cephises, with pleasure aggravating his wrath,
I myself, was urging the death he is deferring.
I render thanks to the gods whose cruel assistance
Is going to end my life as Philotas is returning.
Alas! by my spouse arming his bloody hand
At least they intend that I die innocent!


CEPHISES
: When you could reign, you will perish like this?


ARTEMIRA
: Philotas is living, Philotas is here:
Misfortune! how can I endure his sight?
You (addressing herself) who, informed for so long of so much love
After so many oaths, have received in your arms
The cruel murderer of your dear Philotas!
You who burn in secret with an unfaithful passion,
Innocent in the past, today criminal!
Alas! I was loved, and I broke the bonds
Of the most tender and virtuous love.
I betrayed my lover; for whom? for a perfidious one
Of my father and myself a parricidal murderer.
In the face of our gods I promised him my faith
And the empire over a heart that was no longer mine.
And my soul, attached to an oath that bound me
Still owes him its faith when he separates me from life!
No, it's too much torture, trouble and remorse:
Let's bear my virtue, if it's possible, amongst the dead
So that my timid reason
Still keeps some empire over a heart torn by love.

CEPHISES: You are ruining yourself by yourself, and all those who wish to serve you.


ARTEMIRA
: I know my weakness, and I must punish myself for it.


CEPHISES
: Madame, do you think that he still cherishes you?


ARTEMIRA
: He ought to detest me, Cephises, and I adore him.
His return, his name alone, this name dear to my heart,
Has reanimated the passion of a fire very badly extinguished.
My death, that was pronounced at the same time as Pallantas'
Has not occupied my thoughts with the least trouble;
I wasn't even thinking of it, and today my soul in this yoke
Of all its misfortunes has felt only that of its love.
To what shame, o gods, have you made me descend!
Ungrateful to Philotas, faithless to Cassander,
My heart, poisoned by a dangerous love
Was always criminal and always unhappy.
Let their resentment, let their hate unite them;
The two of them offended, let the two of them punish me!
Let them come bathe in my odious blood!


CEPHISES
: Madame, a stranger is coming forward here.


ARTEMIRA
: If it's an assassin that Pallantas is sending me,
Cephises, he can enter, I am expecting him with joy.
O death! with pleasure I pass into your arms —
Cephises, support me: great gods! it's Philotas!
(Philotas enters. To Philotas)
What! it's you that I see! what the enemy Fury
Has respected the course of such a beautiful life.


(Philotas addresses reproaches to Artemira, for lacking faith to him by passing into the arms of Cassander, and reminds her of the love with which they burned for each other.)


PHILOTAS
: — Is this the way you loved me?


ARTEMIRA
: You can expose to the eyes of a faithless one
The hate and scorn that you have for her.
Overwhelm me with names reserved for ingrates.
I deserved them, I won't pity myself for them.
If yet, Philotas, despite his wrath
Deigns to remember how dear I was to him
Although unworthy of life and so much friendship
I dare hope still a remainder of pity.
Don't outrage a soul that's unfortunate enough.
The fate that pursues you has not spared me
It hated me too much to give me to you.


PHILOTAS
: — Can this horror excuse itself?


ARTEMIRA
: I don't excuse myself at all, I know my failings.
Lord, in my crime I found my torture.
No longer reproach me with your outraged love.
Rather pity me indeed, you are very well avenged,
I cannot tell you to what degree my austere duty
Attached my destiny to the orders of my father.
I should have disobeyed this inhuman order.
Lord, heaven is just: it knew how to punish me for it.
Leave these parts, flee far from a criminal woman.


(Philotas repeats how Cassander, a cowardly assassin was unworthy of her.)


PHILOTAS
: — Is to be possessed by a cowardly assassin.


ARTEMIRA
: Cease to speak to me of this sad marriage.
The torch has been extinguished; my race is run.
Cassander is punishing me for this unlucky choice,
And I am speaking to you here for the last time.
Heaven, who reads in my heart, and who sees my alarms
Protect Philotas, and pardon for my tears
The pressing horrors of the death I am awaiting.
Lord, they were only shed in seeing you appear.
I witness to the gods, who they perhaps offend.
My heart, for a long while subject to displeasures,
Knew for you only the habit of sighs.
I loved you always — This fatal passion
Devoured my soul in Cassander's arms.
At the door of the tomb I can confess it to you.
Perhaps it's a crime and I am going to expiate it.
Alas in seeing you, dragged towards you alone,
I deserve the death to which I am condemned.


PHILOTAS
: — What crime have I committed? what obstinate error —


ARTEMIRA
: You will learns soon enough what my destiny is.
Goodbye, Prince.


(Pallantas enters and surprises Philotas with Artemira. Philotas leaves braving this favorite, who urges Artemira to accept his hand to save her life; she refuses it.)


PALLANTAS
: — I intend that you yourself direct its fate.


ARTEMIRA
: Mine is in your hands, and you see your victim.
Tyrant, you can strike, it's quite enough for a crime.


PALLANTAS
: — You would still have recourse to death then?


ARTEMIRA
: Death is preferable to your cowardly assistance;
Get it over with, and fulfill the funereal order of your king.


PALLANTAS
: And despite you, I am able to see from
Where your refusal springs.


ARTEMIRA
: Coward, what can you suspect? what can you think?
Sever my sad life, but respect my glory.
— And further more don't expect that I can ever
Purchase that life at the price of your crimes.
My eyes that a pale day light over your rage
Begin to pierce this horrible mystery.
You've been unable until today to hatch your murder-plots;
One day does not suffice for so much politics.
You were expecting, doubtless, the order of your master
I will tell you even more; you perhaps dictated it.
If you can be astonished by my just suspicions
Your crimes are known; these are my reasons.
It's you whose advice and whose slanders
Severed the life of my unfortunate father.
It's you, who, infamous corrupter of your prince,
Prepared his heart for crimes from childhood.
It's you who, calling injustice on his throne
Led him by degrees to the edge of the precipice.
Perhaps he was born to be just and generous
Perhaps, without Pallantas he would be virtuous!
May heaven at last, too slow in its justice,
Grant your death to oppressed Greece!
May your death, in the future shock
The ministers of kings who would imitate you!
In this happy hope, traitor, I am going to await
The effect of your rage, and the decree of Cassander.
And the voice of my blood, rising towards the heavens,
Will go to importune the gods for your death.


(She leaves.)



CURTAIN





ACT III



ARTEMIRA
: I told you, he loves me, and master of my fate
He gives me the choice between crime and death.
In these extremities into which destiny delivers me
You know me too well to order me to live.


PHILOTAS
: — That heaven has reserved for us both.


ARTEMIRA
: No, prince; the gods have condemned me without reprieve,
Since their cruelty has given me to others than you.
That love, once so peaceful and sweet,
In Larissa, henceforth is a crime for us.
I cannot see you or hear you without remorse.
From a very fatal charm I have trouble defending myself.
You aggravate my ills instead of curing them.
Ah, flee from Artemira and let her die.


PHILOTAS
: O too cruel virtuousness!


ARTEMIRA
: O law too strict!


PHILOTAS
: Live, Artemira!


ARTEMIRA
: And for whom — misfortune!


PHILOTAS
: If ever your heart shared my sorrows —


ARTEMIRA
: I love you and I am dying; that's all I can do —


PHILOTAS
: In the name of this love that the gods have betrayed —


ARTEMIRA
: My love is a crime; it's necessary for me to expiate it.


PHILOTAS
: — You are his accomplice, and behold your crime.


ARTEMIRA
: The rights that he has over me —


PHILOTAS
: All his rights are lost.


ARTEMIRA
: I am submissive to him.


PHILOTAS
: No, you are not any longer.


ARTEMIRA
: The gods have joined us together.


PHILOTAS
: His crime releases you.


ARTEMIRA
: What will the surprised universe say of it?
What shame! lord, and what new affront!
If, fleeing a spouse —


PHILOTAS
: — I am going to learn the road of death from you.


ARTEMIRA
: Cruel one, don't add to the misfortune that hounds me;
My heart is known to you, you know my weakness;
Prince, deign to pity it and not to abuse it further.
See what affronts you wish to expose me to.
Perhaps no one knows the misfortunes I am avoiding;
Without knowing the cause they will apprehend my flight.
She's in love, they will say, and her distraction
Makes her flee a spouse in the arms of a lover.
No, you don't want my glory tarnished.


PHILOTAS
: — I will drag you away from a deplorable destiny.


ARTEMIRA
: Are you able to, lord?


PHILOTAS
: — Won't you give in to my just prayer?


ARTEMIRA
: Cruel one! I would leave the light with pleasure.
I detest life, and already my sorrow
Accuses the slowness of barbarous Pallantas.
Must then, combating so just a wish,
Your speech, despite me, return me to life?
And what will I do, o heaven! in some gentler climes,
With this wretched life which is not yours?


PHILOTAS
: — Come, let's go, madame.


ARTEMIRA
: Where to, lord, in what parts?
Who can defend me against my enemies?
Where will I have support from the furors of Cassander?


PHILOTAS
: — Deign to follow me and allow yourself to be escorted.


ARTEMIRA
: To what extremity would you reduce me?


MESSENGER
: (entering) Madame —


ARTEMIRA
: Well?


MESSENGER
: Cassander —


ARTEMIRA
: My spouse!


MESSENGER
: Cassander will reach the palace in an hour.


(The Messenger leaves.)


ARTEMIRA
: (to Philotas) Finally, you see, it's time for me to die;
Heaven has declared itself against all your plans.


PHILOTAS
: — Trust me, let's find some moments.


ARTEMIRA
: What, you wish —


PHILOTAS
: You have no other asylum!


ARTEMIRA
: What are you saying, Lord? It's too much to soften us :
Destiny wants my ruin; it must be obeyed.
Goodbye. Think of yourself: leave this funereal place
That furor dwells in, and that heaven detests.
You intend in vain to snatch me from death;
You will ruin yourself, lord, and not save me.
Let's steal one prey from our common tyrants.
Let me take this joy into the tomb.
My soul will descend fearlessly amongst the dead
If Philotas intends to live, and live happily without me.


PHILOTAS
: — Ah, gods! It's Pallantas himself.


ARTEMIRA
: From this palace follow devious routes.
Go — and as for us, we shall reenter.


(Exit Philotas.)


(Pallantas enters and detains the queen and points to the order for her death.)


PALLANTAS
: — It's up to you to choose
Either sword or poison that I am coming to offer you.


ARTEMIRA
: My hope, at last, is no longer deceived;
My destiny is completed; give me that sword;
The most prompt death is the sweetest for me.
Give me, give me.


(Enter Hipparchus.)


HIPPARCHUS
: Madame, ah gods! what are you doing?
Stop.


ARTEMIRA
: I am obeying the laws of your master.


HIPPARCHUS
: (tells the Queen that Cassander has revoked his bloody orders)
I am going to fill all the populace with joy.


ARTEMIRA
: Take back this sword to the king who sends you:
The heart of his spouse is submissive to his laws.
The king wants me to live, Hipparchus, and I obey.
If he is tired of seeing the diadem on my face
If he still wants my blood, I will obey all the same.


(She leaves.)


(In the following scene, Pallantas, far from renouncing his criminal projects, embraces them with greater ardor, and seeks for new ways to accomplish them.)


PALLANTAS
: Powerful gods! second the fury that animates me,
And don't punish me at least until after my crime.



CURTAIN


ACT IV





(In the opening scenes, Pallantas deceives Cassander with a new imposture, by persuading him that he had discovered a criminal correspondence between the Queen and Menas, and that he's just knifed him, having surprised him with the Queen. Cassander resumes all his furor.)



CASSANDER
:— Let everything be readied for her death.
— And you go wait for me.


(Exit Pallantas.)


ARTEMIRA
: Where am I? where am I going? O gods! I am dying, I see it.


CEPHISES
: Let's come forward.


ARTEMIRA
: Heaven!


CASSANDER
: Well, what do you want from me?


CEPHISES
: Just gods, protect an innocent Queen!


ARTEMIRA
: You see me, lord, speechless and dying.
I don't dare raise a trembling eye to you
And my timid voice expires in speaking to you.


CASSANDER
: Raise yourself, and leave these shameful alarms.


ARTEMIRA
: Alas! I am not coming with powerless tears
Fearing your justice and fleeing death,
To beg for a pardon I will not obtain.
Death to my sight is already present
Calmly and without regret I would have accepted it.
Must your hate, passionate to save me
For a more frightful fate it intended to reserve for me?
Hear me at least, and suffer at your feet
This wretched object of so much enmity.
Lord, in the name of the gods whom perjury offends,
By heaven, which hears me, that knows my innocence,
By your glory at last, that I dare to conjure:
Give me death without dishonoring me!


CASSANDER
: Don't accuse yourself of it when I give you justice;
The shame is in the crime and not in the punishment.
Get up and leave off an aggravating conversation
Which redoubles my shame and weighs on the two of us.
Now then, what is the secret that you wanted to inform me of?


ARTEMIRA
: Eh! what use will it be to me, lord, to tell you it?
I am unaware, as I speak to you, if the hand which ruins me
In this terrible moment betrays you or serves you.
I am unaware if you yourself, in proscribing my life
Haven't been armed by the slanders of Pallantas.
Alas! after two years of hate and misfortune
Suffer that a some surprises excuse your harshness;
My heart, even in secret, refuses to believe it.
You dishonor me, and I love glory;
I will never confuse Pallantas and my spouse.
Dying by your blows, I respect you still.
I pity you for listening to the monster who accuses me.
And when you oppress me, it's I who excuse you;
But if you were to learn that today Pallantas
Offered me against you a criminal support,
That Menas at my feet, fearing your justice,
The unlucky accomplice of a clever scoundrel,
In the name of this perfidious one implored — But, alas!
You are turning your eyes away, and not listening to me.


CASSANDER
: No, I won't listen further to your cowardly impostures.
Cease, don't borrow the assistance of perjuries;
It's quite enough for me with all your outrages.
Don't defend them with new felonies.
Anyway, it's over, your ruin is certain
All complaint is frivolous, and all excuse is vain.


ARTEMIRA
: Alas! here's my heart; it doesn't fear your blows;
Pour out my blood, barbarian, it's yours.
But the marriage bond which unites us with each other.
As unlucky as it is, joins my horror to yours.
Why do you wish to cover it with such an affront?
Let me descend to the dead without blushing.
Do you think that for Menas an adulterous passion —


CASSANDER
: If Menas betrayed me, Menas ought to pity you.
Your heart is known to me better than you think,
Today's not the start of your hate for me.


ARTEMIRA
: Well! know my heart in its entirety then.
Don't seek a sad light elsewhere.
I am going to inform you of all my crimes.
Yes, Cassander, it's true, I was unable to love you.
I tell you this without fear, and it's a sincere confession
Which ought to astonish you very little,
And ought to displease you little.
Indeed, what right did you have over a heart
Which saw in you only its persecutor,
You, who, with the bloody hands of an enemy
Had murdered my father in my very arms.
You, who, I never faced without terror;
You whose arm I've always seen raised against me;
You, suspicious tyrant, whose terrifying injustice
Led me to death from torture to torture?
I've never received other blessings from you.
You know it, Cassander: learn my crimes
Before a fatal bond made me submissive to your rule
My soul had been taken for another.
I suffocated in your arms a very charming love
I still fight it, even in this moment.
Don't flatter yourself; it's not to please you.
You are my husband, and my glory is dear to me.
My duty suffices me; and this innocent heart
Protects its duty to you, even while hating you.
I've done more: this morning, condemned to death
I was able to break the bonds of a funereal marriage
I saw in my hands your fate and empire.
If I'd said one word, they'd have killed you.
Your unworthy people were going to recognize me.
Everything solicited me; perhaps I would have been able to do it;
At least, instructed by your example in crimes,
I was able to break laws that you didn't keep:
Still, I wished to respect your life.
I considered neither your barbarism
Nor my present perils, nor my past misfortunes.
I saved my spouse; you live, that's enough.
Time which pierces the most obscure night
Will perhaps reveal this horrible adventure.
And your eyes, receiving a sad enlightenment
Will much too late see the light of truth.
Then you will know the crime you are committing
And you will shiver for it, tyrant though you are.


CASSANDER
: — Your crimes are equal, perish like him.


ARTEMIRA
: At last, it's over with, my fate is decided.


CASSANDER
: Your shame is very just, and you willed it.


ARTEMIRA
: That at least to my eyes Pallantas dares offer himself.


(Cassander withdraws without listening any further.)


CEPHISES
: — He knows how to punish crimes and avenge innocence.


ARTEMIRA
: With what artifices, with what slanders
Pallantas has known how to contrive this long tissue of horrors!
No, I am not returning to my extreme shock.
What! Menas massacred by him before my eyes.
Twenty dying conspirators who accuse only me!
Ah! that's too much, Cephises, and I pardon the king.
Alas, the king, seduced by this cowardly trickery
Seems to condemn me himself with justice.


CEPHISES
: Implore Philotas, to whom your virtue
For a long while —


ARTEMIRA
: Just gods! whose name are you pronouncing?
Alas! there's the completion of my deplorable fate.
Philotas is abandoning me and flees a guilty one:
He detests his passion and my weak attractions
And for me, henceforth, all hearts are closed.


CEPHISES
: Can you suspect that a heart that adores you —


ARTEMIRA
: If Philotas loved me, if he still esteemed me
He would see me, Cephises, at the peril of his life.
He knows the back ways to my sad retreat.
Love would lead him here, he will come to defend me.
He will come to brave the wrath of Cassander.
I don't demand those proofs of his faith:
That he thinks me innocent is enough for me.


CEPHISES
: Ah! madame, suffer that I run to tell him.


ARTEMIRA
: Go, my dear Cephises; and before I expire
Say to him, if there's time for it, that he dare still see me;
Depict to him my feelings, depict to him my despair.
If his obstinate heart refuses your prayer,
If he refuses this last mercy to my tears
Return, without delay, to this funereal place.
You will receive my soul and my last goodbyes.
Preserve, after my death, a friendship so tender;
In your faithful hands, deign to gather my ashes.
Deliver to Philotas these unhappy remains,
Alone pledges of a love too fatal to the two of us.
Reveal to his eyes my doleful story;
Perhaps, after my death he will better believe you.
Say to him, that descending to the dead without regret
I was able in the tomb to bring remorse.
Combating in secret the passion that devours me
I only reproach myself for not loving him more.



CURTAIN





ACT V



CEPHISES
: — Philotas
By secret detours is following on my heels.


ARTEMIRA
: To what abasement have I fallen?


CEPHISES
: Madame, here he is.


(Enter Philotas.)


ARTEMIRA
: Deign to suffer my sight;
Lord, I am going to die, time is precious.
For the last time turn your eyes toward me
And inform me, at least, if this unfortunate
Is condemned also in the depth of your heart.


PHILOTAS
: — Shame or sorrow must end my life,.


ARTEMIRA
: Philotas! is it you who are treating me like this?
My spouse condemns me, and you, Lord, also?
I pardon an excusable error to Cassander;
Nourished in crimes, he thinks me capable of them.
He offended me, he ought to hate me;
He sought a crime so as to punish me for it:
But you, who in Epirus sighed next to me,
Having read so many times in Artemira's heart;
You, for whom virtue deserved all my cares;
You who loved me, alas! at least who said so,
It's you who redouble my shame and my insult,
By listening to the imposture of the monster who accuses me?
Barbarian! all my misfortune lacked was your suspicions.
Ah! When braving the furor of Pallantas
Combating despite myself my passion and your alarms,
My despairing heart resisted your tears,
And very weak indeed against a charm so sweet
Sought protection against you in death.
Alas! who would have told me that this same day
My virtue would be suspected by yourself?
I thought I knew you better, and couldn't believe
That you would hesitate between Pallantas and me.
Pardon me, great gods who have condemned me!
By the entire universe I die abandoned;
My death, hiding truth in the tomb
Will cause my shame to pass to posterity.
Once, in the horror of such a cruel torture,
If Philotas at least had done me justice,
If he could esteem me and pity me in secret,
I feel that I would die with less regret.


PHILOTAS
: — What right has a wretch over your soul?
How?


ARTEMIRA
: Ah! if my heart's been able to allow itself to be touched
If it has some inclination that I must tear out,
You know only too well for whom, full of tenderness
This heart, up to now, has struggled against its weakness.
I have, perhaps, offended the gods and my spouse.
But if I was capable of that, ingrate, it was for you.


PHILOTAS
: — Let's run to your tyrants.


ARTEMIRA
: No, stay here, lord.
I prefer your regrets to a useless audacity;
Innocent in your eyes, I will perish calmly
And the fate which awaits me will be able to seem sweet,
Since it will punish me for not being yours.
Goodbye: the time approaches when they intend for me to expire
Goodbye: Don't forget the innocent Artemira;
May her name be dear to you; she deserved it.
Return purity to her withered honor,
And may, despite the horror of so dark a stain,
Your tears sometimes honor her memory.


PHILOTAS
: — The role which remains to you,
And I'm running there.


ARTEMIRA
: Stop! Ah, funereal despair!
With what new misfortune are you going to overwhelm me?
Cephises, it's better to die without speaking to him,
And — But what pallor is spreading over your face?


CEPHISES
: That monster is again presenting himself to your eyes.


ARTEMIRA
: Cephises, he's coming to rejoice in his crime.
In the arms of death he's coming to see his victim.
My death is little if it doesn't feast his sight.
Let's go and entrust our vengeance to the gods.


(Exit Philotas and enter a guard.)


GUARD
: — He examines, he suspects, and his eyes are going to open.


ARTEMIRA
: Gods, whose hands weigh ceaselessly on me,
Lead me at whim from death to life,
Powerful gods, on me alone extend your arm!
Give me my death and save Philotas;
Extinguish in my heart an unfaithful passion.
The greater his peril is, the more criminal I am.
Come, Cassander, it's time, come, strike, avenge yourself.
I pardon you everything; just sacrifice me alone.
Ah! the sword has been raised over my head for too long!
I suffer at every moment the death that it is bringing me.
Let them come!


(Philotas enters.)


ARTEMIRA
: Why what god gives you back at my prayers?
You live!


PHILOTAS
: It's all over, the two of us must perish.


ARTEMIRA
: You!


PHILOTAS
: — We are coming to defend you and perish at your feet.


ARTEMIRA
: Ah! if some pity for me interests you!


PHILOTAS
: Alas! know my tenderness from my distractions!


ARTEMIRA
: Cease to offer yourself to these perils.
What can you do for me, prince?


PHILOTAS
: I can die.


ARTEMIRA
: Heaven! with what frightful screams your vaults echo!
I no longer know myself; my knees are weakening.
Lord, in the name of the gods —


(Envoy enters.)


ENVOY
: — Is perhaps going to succeed so much enmity.


ARTEMIRA
: What do I hear?


ENVOY
: — And your spouse is expiring.


ARTEMIRA
: Him! my spouse!


PHILOTAS
: — And it's not for me to be the witness of it


(Philotas leaves.)


ARTEMIRA
: Gods! can I bear these funereal advances!
Alas! his shed blood reproaches me too much!


(Cassander, wounded in a battle is led in almost dying onto the stage.)


CASSANDER
: — All kings are deceived. Seduced by imposture
I long suspected the most pure virtue.
Now, but much too late, my eyes have been opened.
At last madame, I know you, and I am losing you. —
And I am receiving the reward of my crimes.


ARTEMIRA
: Ah! lord, since in the end virtue is dear to you,
Live, deign to enjoy life which enlightens you.
Despite your cruelties, I am still yours;
Your virtuous remorse has returned you as my spouse.
Live to efface the crimes of Pallantas.
Live to protect an innocent spouse.
Don't lose any time, allow prompt help —


(Cassander expires after having pardoned Philotas and done justice to the Queen.)



CURTAIN