The open sea. Edgar Lee Masters

Чтение книги онлайн.

       The Festival of Flagons, now to keep

       The Ritual of Passing Life was theirs.

       But first they suffered anger with each other

       While on her ship, till touching Tenarus

       When they were brought to speak by women friends,

       At last to eat and sleep together. Yet

       Poison had fallen on their leaves, which stripped

       Their greenness to the stalk, as you shall see. …

       Here to make clear what flight of Antony meant,

       For cause how base or natural, let me say

       That Actium’s battle had not been a loss

       To Antony and his honor, if Canidius,

       Commanding under Antony, had not flown

       In imitation of his chief; the soldiers

       Fought desperately in hope that Antony

       Would come again and lead them.

      So it was

       He touched, with Cleopatra, Africa,

       And sent her into Egypt; and with us,

       Myself and Aristocrates, walked and brooded

       In solitary places, as I said.

       But when he came to Alexandria

       He finds his Cleopatra dragging her fleet

       Over the land space which divides the sea

       Near Egypt from the Red Sea, so to float

       Her fleet in the Arabian Gulf, and there,

       Somewhere upon earth’s other side, to find

       A home secure from war and slavery.

       She failed in this; but Antony leaves the city,

       And leaves his queen, plays Timon, builds a house

       Near Pharos on a little mole; lives here

       Until he hears all princes and all kings

       Desert him in the realm of Rome; which news

       Brings gladness to him, for hope put away,

       And cares slipped off. Then leaving Timoneum—

       For such he named his dwelling there near Pharos—

       He goes to Cleopatra, is received,

       And sets the city feasting once again.

       The order of Inimitable Livers breaks,

       And forms the Diers Together in its place.

       And all who banquet with them, take the oath

       To die with Antony and Cleopatra,

       Observing her preoccupation with

       Drugs poisonous and creatures venomous.

       And thus their feast of flagons and of love

       In many courses riotously consumed

       Awaits the radiate liquor dazzling through

       Their unimagined terror, like the rays

       Shot from the bright eyes of the cockatrice,

       Crackling for poison in the crystal served

       By fleshless hands! A skeleton steward soon

       Will pass the liquer to them; they will drink,

       And leave no message, no commandment either—

       As Theophrastus was reluctant to—

       Denied disciples; for Inimitable Livers

       Raise up no followers, create no faith,

       No cult or sect. Joy has his special wisdom,

       Which dies with him who learned it, does not fire

       Mad bosoms like your Virtue.

      I must note

       The proffered favors, honors of young Cæsar

       To Cleopatra, if she’d put to death

       Her Antony; and Antony’s jealousy,

       Aroused by Thyrsus, messenger of Cæsar,

       Whom Cleopatra gave long audiences,

       And special courtesies; seized, whipped at last

       By Antony, sent back to Cæsar. Yet

       The queen was faithful. When her birth-day came

       She kept it suitable to her fallen state,

       But all the while paying her Antony love,

       And honor, kept his birth-day with such richness

       That guests who came in want departed rich …

      Wine, weariness, much living, early age

       Made fall for Antony. October’s clouds

       In man’s life, like October, have no sun

       To lift the mists of doubt, distortion, fear.

       Faces, events, and wills around us show

       Malformed, or ugly, changed from what they were.

       And when his troops desert him in the city

       To Cæsar, Antony cries out, the queen,

       His Cleopatra, has betrayed him. She

       In terror seeks her monument, sends word

       That she is dead. And Antony believes

       And says delay no longer, stabs himself,

       Is hauled up dying to the arms of her,

       Where midst her frantic wailings he expires!

       Kings and commanders begged of Cæsar grace

       To give this Antony his funeral rites.

       But Cæsar left the body with the queen

       Who buried it with royal pomp and splendor.

       Thus died at fifty-six Marc Antony,

       And Cleopatra followed СКАЧАТЬ