BOOK SECOND.

JUDAS MACCABEUS.

ACT I.

The Citadel of Antiochus at Jerusalem.

SCENE I. ANTIOCHUS; JASON.

ANTIOCHUS.

O ANTIOCH, My Antioch, my city!
Queen of the East! my solace, my delight!
The dowry of my sister Cleopatra

When she was wed to Ptolemy, and now
Won back and made more wonderful by me!
I love thee, and I long to be once more
Among the players and the dancing women
Within thy gates, and bathe in the Orontes,
Thy river and mine. O Jason, my High-Priest,
For I have made thee so, and thou art mine,
Hast thou seen Antioch the Beautiful?

Never, my Lord.

JASON.

ANTIOCHUS.

Then hast thou never seen

The wonder of the world. This city of David
Compared with Antioch is but a village,

And its inhabitants compared with Greeks
Are mannerless boors.

And mannerless.

JASON.

They are barbarians,

ANTIOCHUS.

They must be civilized.

They must be made to have more gods than one; And goddesses besides.

JASON.

They shall have more.

ANTIOCHUS.

They must have hippodromes, and games, and baths,

Stage-plays and festivals, and most of all

The Dionysia.

JASON.

They shall have them all.

ANTIOCHUS.

By Heracles! but I should like to see

These Hebrews crowned with ivy, and arrayed
In skins of fawns, with drums and flutes and thyrsi,
Revel and riot through the solemn streets

Of their old town. Ha, ha! It makes me merry
Only to think of it! Thou dost not laugh.

Yea, I laugh inwardly.

JASON.

ANTIOCHUS.

The new Greek leaven

Works slowly in this Israelitish dough!

Have I not sacked the Temple, and on the altar Set up the statue of Olympian Zeus

To Hellenize it!

JASON.

Thou hast done all this.

ANTIOCHUS.

As thou wast Joshua once and now art Jason,
And from a Hebrew hast become a Greek,
So shall this Hebrew nation be translated,

Their very natures and their names be changed,

And all be Hellenized.

JASON.

It shall be done.

ANTIOCHUS.

Their manners and their laws and way of living Shall all be Greek. They shall unlearn their language,

And learn the lovely speech of Antioch.

Where hast thou been to-day? Thou comest late.

JASON.

Playing at discus with the other priests
In the Gymnasium.

ANTIOCHUS.

Thou hast done well.

There's nothing better for you lazy priests
Than discus-playing with the common people.
Now tell me, Jason, what these Hebrews call me
When they converse together at their games.

JASON.

Antiochus Epiphanes, my Lord;
Antiochus the Illustrious.

ANTIOCHUS.

O, not that;

That is the public cry; I mean the name
They give me when they talk among themselves,
And think that no one listens; what is that?

JASON.

Antiochus Epimanes, my Lord.

ANTIOCHUS.

Antiochus the Mad!

Ay, that is it.

And who hath said it?

That sorry jest?

Who hath set in motion

JASON.

The Seven Sons insane

Of a weird woman, like themselves insane.

ANTIOCHUS.

I like their courage, but it shall not save them.
They shall be made to eat the flesh of swine,
Or they shall die. Where are they?

JASON.

In the dungeons

Beneath this tower.

ANTIOCHUS.

There let them stay and starve,

Till I am ready to make Greeks of them,

After

my fashion.

JASON.

They shall stay and starve.·

My Lord, the Ambassadors of Samaria

Await thy pleasure.

ANTIOCHUS.

Why not my displeasure?

Ambassadors are tedious. They are men

Who work for their own ends, and not for mine; There is no furtherance in them. Let them go To Apollonius, my governor

There in Samaria, and not trouble me.

What do they want?

JASON.

Only the royal sanction

To give a name unto a nameless temple

Upon Mount Gerizim.

ANTIOCHUS.

Then bid them enter.

This pleases me, and furthers my designs.
The occasion is auspicious. Bid them enter.

SCENE IL ANTIOCHUS; JASON; the SAMARITAN

AMBASSADORS.

ANTIOCHUS.

Approach. Come forward; stand not at the door Wagging your long beards, but demean yourselves As doth become Ambassadors. What seek ye?

"To King Antiochus,

The God, Epiphanes; a Memorial

From the Sidoniáns, who live at Sichem."

Sidonians?

ANTIOCHUS.

AMBASSADOR.

Ay, my Lord.

ANTIOCHUS.

Go on, go on!

And do not tire thyself and me with bowing!

AMBASSADOR, reading.

"We are a colony of Medes and Persians."

ANTIOCHUS.

No, ye are Jews from one of the Ten Tribes;
Whether Sidonians or Samaritans

Or Jews of Jewry, matters not to me;
Ye are all Israelites, ye are all Jews.

When the Jews prosper, ye claim kindred with them;