BELSHAZZAR.

PART II.

SCENE

The Court of Belshazzar. The king seated on a magnificent Throne. Princes, Nobles, and Attendants. Ladies of the Court. Music. A

superb Banquet.

2d Cour.

1st Cour. [rises and kneels.] HAIL, mighty king! Belshazzar, live for ever! 3d Cour. Sun of the world, and light of kings, all

hail!

4th Cour. With lowly rev'rence, such as best be

comes

The humblest creatures of imperial power,

Behold a thousand nobles bend before thee!
Princes far fam'd, and dames of high descent!
Yet all this pride of wealth, this boast of beauty,
Shrinks into nought before thine awful eye!
And lives or dies as the king frowns or smiles!
Bel. This is such homage as becomes your love,
And suits the mighty monarch of mankind.

5th Cour. The bending world should prostrate thus before thee;

And pay not only praise but adoration!

Bel. [rises and comes forward.] Let dull philosophy preach self-denial;

Let envious poverty and snarling age

Proudly declaim against the joys they know not;
Let the deluded Jews, who fondly hope
Some fancied heav'n hereafter, mortify,
And lose the actual blessings of this world
To purchase others which may never come.
Our gods may promise less, but give us more.
Ill could my ardent spirit be content
With meagre abstinence and hungry hope.
Let those misjudging Israelites, who want
The nimble spirits and the active soul,
Call their blunt feelings virtue: let them drudge,
In regular progression, through the round
Of formal duty and of daily toil;

And, when they want the genius to be happy,
Believe their harsh austerity is goodness.

If there be gods, they meant we should enjoy:
Why give us else these tastes and appetites;

And why the means to crown them with indulgence ? To burst the feeble bonds which hold the vulgar

Is noble daring.

1st Cour.

And is therefore worthy

The high imperial spirit of Belshazzar.

2d Cour. Behold a banquet which the gods might share!

Bel. To-night, my friends, your monarch shall be

blest

With ev'ry various joy; to-night is ours;

Nor shall the envious gods, who view our bliss,
And sicken as they view, to-night disturb us.
Bring all the richest spices of the East;

The od❜rous cassia and the drooping myrrh,
The liquid amber and the fragrant gums,
Rob Gilead of its balms, Belshazzar bids;
And leave th' Arabian groves without an odour.
Bring freshest flow'rs, exhaust the blooming spring,
Twine the green myrtle with the short-liv'd rose;
And ever, as the blushing garland fades,
We'll learn to snatch the fugitive delight,
And grasp the flying joy ere it escape us.
Come-fill the smiling goblet for the king;
Belshazzar will not let a moment pass

Unmark'd by some enjoyment! The full bowl
Let every guest partake!

[Courtiers kneel and drink.

1st Cour. Here's to the king!

Light of the world, and glory of the earth,
Whose word is fate!

Bel.

Yes; we are likest gods

When we have pow'r, and use it. What is wealth But the rich means to gratify desire?

I will not have a wish, a hope, a thought,

That shall not know fruition. What is empire?
The privilege to punish and enjoy ;

To feel our pow'r in making others fear it ;
To take of Pleasure's cup till we grow giddy,
And think ourselves immortal. This is empire!
My ancestors scarce tasted of its joys:

Shut from the sprightly world and all its charms,
In cumbrous majesty, in sullen state
And dull unsocial dignity they liv'd;

Far from the sight of an admiring world,

That world, whose gaze makes half the charms of

greatness;

They nothing knew of empire but the name,

Or saw it in the looks of trembling slaves;
And all they felt of royalty was care.

But I will see and know it of myself;

Youth, Wealth, and Greatness court me to be blest,
And Pow'r and Pleasure draw with equal force
And sweet attraction: both I will embrace
In quick succession; this is Pleasure's day;
Ambition will have time to reign hereafter;
It is the proper appetite of age.

The lust of pow'r shall lord it uncontroul'd,
When all the gen'rous feelings grow obtuse,
And stern dominion holds with rigid hand
His iron rein, and sits and sways alone.
But youth is Pleasure's hour!

1st Cour.

Perish the slave

Who, with officious counsel, would oppose

The king's desire, whose slightest wish is law

Bel. Now strike the loud-ton'd lyre and softer lute; Let me have music, with the nobler aid

Of poesy. Where are those cunning men

Who boast, by chosen sounds, and measur'd sweetness, To set the busy spirits in a flame,

And cool them at their will? who know the art

To call the hidden pow'rs of numbers forth,
And make that pliant instrument, the mind,
Yield to the pow'rful sympathy of sound,
Obedient to the master's artful hand?

Such magic is in song! Then give me song;
Yet not at first such soul-dissolving strains

As melt the soften'd sense; but such bold measures
As may inflame my spirit to despise

Th' ambitious Persian, that presumptuous boy,
Who rashly dares e'en now invest our city,
And menaces the invincible Belshazzar.

[A grand concert of Music, after which an Ode.]
In vain shall Persian Cyrus dare
With great Belshazzar wage unequal war :
In vain Darius shall combine,

Darius, leader of the Median line!

While fair Euphrates' stream our wall protects,
And great Belshazzar's self our fate directs.
War and famine threat in vain,

While this demigod shall reign!

Let Persia's prostrate king confess his pow'r,
And Media's monarch dread his vengeful hour.
On Dura's ample plain behold

Immortal Belus †, whom the nations own;
Sublime he stands in burnish'd gold,
And richest offerings his bright altars crown.
To-night his deity we here adore,

And due libations speak his mighty pow'r.

* Daniel, chap. iii.

+ See a very fine description of the temple of this idol.
The tow'ring fane

Of Bel, Chaldean Jove, surpassing far

That Doric temple, which the Elean chiefs
Rais'd to their thunderer from the spoils of war;
Or that Ionic, where th' Ephesian bow'd

To Dian, queen of heav'n. Eight towers arise,
Each above each, immeasurable height,
A monument at once of Eastern pride,
And slavish superstition, &c.

Judah Restored,