Act II: Scene V

MATHAN.Great queen! is this a fitting place for you?What trouble agitates you--fear congeals?What do you come to seek amidst your foes?Dare you approach this temple of profaneness?Have you cast off that hatred so intense--

ATHALIAH.List both of you attentively:I wish not here to call to mind the past,Nor render an account of blood that's flowed;I do not take a hasty crowd for judge;In what its violence has dared put forth,To justify me, heaven itself has cared.The great achievements of my rooted powerHave made my name respected to both seas:By me Jerusalem's a calm profound;Jordan no longer sees the vagrant Arabs',Nor proud Philistines' constant ravages,Lay waste her banks, as in your sovereigns' times;The Syrian treats me as a sister queen;At length the treacherous scourger of my house.

ATHALIAH.Who was to drive his cruelty on me,Jehu, the haughty Jehu, in SamariaIs trembling; pressed by potent neighboursOn every side, whom I have found the meansTo raise against that murderer; and IAm left the royal mistress of those lands;In peace the fruit of my sagacityEnjoying. But, some days ago, there cameA sleepless trouble to arrest the courseOf my prosperity. A dream (why should a dreamDisquiet me?) feeds in my heart a pangThat wrings it; everywhere I try to shun it;But everywhere it follows me. It wasDuring the horror of the night profound,My mother, Jezebel, before me stood,Apparelled gorgeously, as on the dayOf her decease; misfortunes had not crushedHer dignity; and even she had stillThat borrowed tint, with which it was her careTo bloom and ornament her countenance,In order to repair the ravagesOf years irreparable. 'Tremble, daughter,Thou worthy of myself,' to me she said;'The cruel God of Judah over theeWill certainly prevail: I pity thee,My daughter, falling into His dread hands.'These fearful words completed, towards my bedHer shadow seemed to bend itself, and IHeld out my arms in order to embrace it;But only found confusion horribleOf mangled bones and flesh dragged in the mud,And tatters soaked in gore, of hideous limbs,That dogs, devouring, fought for with each other.

ABNER.Great God!

ATHALIAH.In this disorder came before mine eyesA tender boy, in radiant robes arrayed,As one beholds the Hebrew priests attired.My sunken spirits rallied at the vision;But when recovering from my deadly trouble,His sweetness, noble air, and modestyI was admiring, all at once I feltA homicidal steel, plunged by the traitorDeep through my breast.--Of objects so diverseThe strange assemblage, seems to you perhapsA work of chance; and I myself, at times,Shamed of my fears, have thought it but the effectOf sombre melancholy; but my soul,Possessed by this remembrance, in my sleep,Has twice beheld that spectre terrible:Twice my sad eyes have had upon them tracedThe picture of that boy always preparedTo spring on me. At length, quite wearied out,With horrors that pursued me, unto BaalI went to ask protection for my life,And at his altars look for some repose:What cannot terror do in mortal mind?An instinct forced me to the Jewish temple,And I conceived the thought to appease their God:Some offerings, I believed, would calm His rage,And make that God, whate'er He be, more gentle.Pontiff of Baal excuse my feebleness!I entered; but the sacrifices ceased,The people fled; the high-priest furiouslyRushed towards me; whilst he spake, O terriblesurprise!I saw that selfsame child, my menacer,Such as my frightful dream had fashioned him.I saw him; even his air, his linen garb,His gait, his eyes, his lineaments entire:It was himself. He walked beside the high-priest:But soon they caused him to avoid my sight.This is the trouble that arrests me here,And touching which I long to question both.Mathan, what does this prodigy forebode?

MATHAN.This dream, and this resemblance seem to meQuite terrible.

ATHALIAH.But, Abner, have you seen that fatal boy?What is he? Of what blood, and of what tribe?

ABNER.Two children at the altar lend their service:The one is Joad's, his mother, Josabet;The other is unknown to me.

MATHAN.But whyDeliberate, Madam, must not both be seized?You know my moderation, and regardFor Joad, and that I do not seek revengeFor injuries; that equity aloneIn all my counsels is the ruling virtue.But after all, even were it his own child,Could he one moment let the culprit live?

ABNER.What is the crime for which the boy is fitted?

MATHAN.Heaven's shown him with a weapon in his hand.Heaven, just' and wise, does nothing fruitlessly.What do you seek for more?

ABNER.But on the strengthOf a mere dream urge you that we should plungeOur hands into the blood of blossoming youth?You know not yet his father, who he is.

MATHAN.He stirs our fears; that comprehends the whole.If of illustrious parents he is born,The splendour of his lot must speed his doom.Should fate have ranked him in obscurity,What matters it if low-born blood be spilt?Does this slow justice appertain to kings?Their safety oft depends on prompt redress.Let us not pinch them with perplexing cares:Suspected ones are criminals to them.

ABNER.Mathan, is this the language of a priest?I, trained to horrid carnage in the field,The stern executor of royal vengeance,Must I to the unhappy lend my voice!And you, who owe to him a father's yearnings,You, minister of peace in time of wrath,Now, covering your resentment with false zeal,Are of opinion blood too lightly flows!You have commanded me to speak to youWithout concealment, Madam: What is thenThis mighty cause of fear? A dream, a childDevoid of power, that your suspicious eyeThinks it has recognised, perhaps untruly.

ATHALIAH.I wish to think so, Abner, I may beDeluded; probably an empty dreamHas too much occupied my spirit. Well,I must observe that child more narrowly;His features I must scan at leisure. LetThem both be brought before me.

ABNER.I fear--

ATHALIAH.What would they fail in courtesy to me?Of that strange non-compliance, what the cause?It might produce in me mistrustful thoughts.Let Josabet, or Joad, I tell you, bring them \I can, when time requires, speak like a queen.Abner, to you I may indeed declare,Your priests have reason to be satisfiedWith Athaliah's kindness. Still I knowThat on my conduct and against my powerHow far they bear the license of their speech:They live, however, and their temple stands.But soon, I feel, my gentleness must end.Let Joad put bridle on his savage zeal,Nor wound me with a second outrage. Go.