ANTIOCHUS; JASON; the SAMARITAN AMBASSADORS. Ant. Approach. Come forward; stand not at the door Wagging your long beards, but demean yourselves As doth become Ambassadors. seek ye? What An Ambassador. An audience from the King. Ant. Speak, and be brief. Waste not the time in useless rhetoric. Words are not things. Ambassador (reading). "To King The God, Epiphanes; a Memorial Ant. Ay, my Lord. Go on, go on! And do not tire thyself and me with bowing! Ambassador (reading). “We are a col ony of Medes and Persians." Whether Sidonians or Samaritans When the Jews suffer, ye are Medes and I know that in the days of Alexander Ye claimed exemption from the annual tribute In the Sabbatic Year, because, ye said, Your fields had not been planted in that year. Ambassador (reading). "Our fathers, upon certain frequent plagues, And following an ancient superstition, There is no furtherance in them. Let Were long accustomed to observe that them go To Apollonius, my governor There in Samaria, and not trouble me. What do they want? day Which by the Israelites is called the Sabbath, And in a temple on Mount Gerizim Without a name, they offered sacrifice. Now we, who are Sidonians, beseech thee, Who art our benefactor and our savior, Not to confound us with these wicked Jews, But to give royal order and injunction To Apollonius in Samaria. Thy governor, and likewise to Nicanor, Thy procurator, no more to molest us; And let our nameless temple now be named Ant. I will burn down their city, and will make it Waste as a wilderness. Its thoroughfares Shall be but furrows in a field of ashes. It shall be sown with salt as Sodom is ! This hundred and fifty-third Olympiad Shall have a broad and blood-red seal upon it, Stamped with the awful letters of my name, Antiochus the God, Epiphanes! The Temple of Jupiter Hellenius." it pleaseth me Ye are not Jews, or are no longer Jews, But Greeks; if not by birth, yet Greeks by custom. Your nameless temple shall receive the How these Samaritans of Sichem said They were not Jews? that they were Medes and Persians, They were Sidonians, anything but Jews? "T is of good augury. The rest will follow Till the whole land is Hellenized. Jason. These are Samaritans. Judah My Lord, Ant. My Lord, they wait They shall wait no longer! ACT II. The Dungeons in the Citadel. SCENE I. THE MOTHER of the SEVEN SONS alone, listening. The Mother. Be strong, my heart! Break not till they are dead, All, all my Seven Sons; then burst asunder, And let this tortured and tormented soul Leap and rush out like water through the shards Of earthen vessels broken at a well. I know not how ye came into my womb; The tribe of And neither was it I that formed the Is of a different temper, and the task Ant. Yesterday, Eleazer, an old man, By torture than to eat the flesh of swine. Ant. The life is in the blood, and the whole nation Shall bleed to death, or it shall change its faith! Jason. Hundreds have fled already to the mountains Of Ephraim, where Judas Maccabæus Hath raised the standard of revolt against thee. 1 Hark! I can hear within the sound of Witness of God! if thou for whom I To wake at night at the least cry ye made, To whom ye ran at every slightest hurt, I cannot take you now into my lap And soothe your pain, but God will take you all Into his pitying arms, and comfort you, And give you rest. A Voice (within). What wouldst thou ask of us? Ready are we to die, but we will never Transgress the law and customs of our fathers. The Mother. It is the voice of my first-born! O brave And noble boy! Thou hast the privilege Of dying first, as thou wast born the first. The same Voice (within). God looketh on us, and hath comfort in us; As Moses in his song of old declared, He in his servants shall be comforted. The Mother. I knew thou wouldst not These miserable bodies makes a door And swift to change, gentle and Through which our souls, impatient of yielding always. Be steadfast, O my son! The same Voice (within). Thou, like a fury, Takest us from this present life, but God, Who rules the world, shall raise us up again Into life everlasting. Courage to die for thee. O my Adaiah, release, Their murdered infants round their | As she, the daughter of Aiah, mourned necks, slay me, For I too am a woman, and these boys Are mine. Make haste to slay us all, And hang my lifeless babes about my neck. Sixth Voice (within). Think not, Antiochus, that takest in hand To strive against the God of Israel, Thou shalt escape unpunished, for his wrath Shall overtake thee and thy bloody house. The Mother. One more, my Sirion, and then all is ended. Having put all to bed, then in my turn I will lie down and sleep as sound as they. My Sirion, my youngest, best beloved! And those bright golden locks, that I so oft Have curled about these fingers, even now Are foul with blood and dust, like a lamb's fleece, Slain in the shambles. - Not a sound I hear. This silence is more terrible to me Doth his heart fail him? Doth he fall away In the last hour from God? O Sirion, Sirion, Art thou afraid? I do not hear thy voice. Die as thy brothers died. Thou must not live! SCENE II. suck, THE MOTHER; ANTIOCHUS; And fed and nourished thee, and brought The Mother. One only lives. lie; SIRION. Are they all dead? Of all thy Seven Sons How dost thou like this picture? are mine, I cannot watch o'er you as Rispah watched In sackcloth o'er the seven sons of Saul, Till water drop upon you out of heaven And wash this blood away! I cannot mourn thee up With the dear trouble of a mother's care Unto this age. Look on the heavens |