Merope

“ He, being very tired, went to sleep, and an old man, who was the channel through whom the mother and son used to communicate, arrived at this moment in tears, bringing word to Merope that her son had disappeared from his protector's house, and was slain. Merope, believing that the sleeping stranger was the murderer of her son, came into the guest-chamber with an axe, not knowing that he whom she would slay was her son; the old man recognized him, and withheld Merope from slaying him. The king, Polyphontes, rejoicing at the supposed death of Æpytus, celebrated a sacrifice ”

“ In the four tragedies of which her story forms the subject, [86] we see her but in one point of view, namely, as a mere impersonation of the maternal feeling. The poetry of the situation is every thing, the character nothing. Interesting as she is, take Merope out of the circumstances in which she is placed,—take away her son, for whom she trembles from the first scene to the last, and Merope in herself is nothing; she melts away into a name, to which we can fix no other characteristic by which to distinguish her. ”

“ MEROPE, the name of several figures in Greek mythology. The most important of them are the following: (1) The daughter of Cypselus, king of Arcadia, and wife of Cresphontes, ruler of Messenia. During an insurrection Cresphontes and two of his sons were murdered and the throne seized by Polyphontes, who forced Merope to marry him. ”

“ Merope
Wait, then, until sufficient help appears.
Æpytus
Orestes in Mycenæ had no more.
Merope
He to fulfil an order raised his hand.
Æpytus
What order more precise had he than I?
Merope
Apollo peal'd it from his Delphian cave.
Æpytus
A mother's murder needed hest divine.
Merope
He had a hest, at least, and thou hast none.
Æpytus
The Gods command not where the heart speaks clear.
Merope
Thou wilt destroy, I see, thyself and us. [413]
Æpytus
O suffering! ”

“ Merope
Not till the ways of prudence all are tried,
And tried in vain, the turn of rashness comes.
Thou leapest to thy deed, and hast not ask'd
Thy kinsfolk and thy father's friends for aid.
Æpytus
And to what friends should I for aid apply?
Merope
The royal race of Temenus, in Argos——
Æpytus
That house, like ours, intestine murder maims.
Merope
Thy Spartan cousins, Procles and his brother——
Æpytus
Love a won cause, but not a cause to win.
Merope
My father, then, and his Arcadian chiefs— [412] —
Æpytus
Mean still to keep aloof from Dorian broil. ”

“ When he has grown up, and has secretly returned to Messenia to take vengeance, Polyphontes is pressing Merope to let bygones be bygones and marry him, so as to reconcile the jarring parties in the State. Æpytus, the son, to facilitate his reception, represents himself as a messenger charged to bring the news of his own death; and Merope, hearing this and believing the messenger to be also the assassin, obtains access to the chamber where he is resting after his journey, and is about to murder her own sleeping son when he is saved by the inevitable anagnorisis. ”

“ And Polyphontes reigned in his stead, he, too, being of the family of Hercules; and he had for his wife, against her will, Merope, the widow of the murdered king. But Merope had borne to Cresphontes a third son, called Æpytus; him she gave to her own father to bring up. He, when he came to man's estate, returned secretly to Messenia, and slew Polyphontes and the other murderers of his father."
Hyginus says:—"Merope sent away and concealed her infant son. Polyphontes sought for him everywhere in vain. He, when he grew up, laid a plan to avenge the murder of his father and brothers. ”

“ Plēiădes, or Vergĭliæ, a name given to seven of the daughters of Atlas by Pleione or Æthra, one of the Oceanides. They were placed in the heavens after death, where they formed a constellation called Pleiades, near the back of the bull in the Zodiac. Their names were Alcyone, Merope, Maia, Electra, Taygeta, Sterope, and Celeno. They all, except Merope, who married Sisyphus king of Corinth, had some of the immortal gods for their suitors. On that account, therefore, Merope’s star is dim and obscure among the rest of her sisters, because she married a mortal. ”

“ Æpytus
Never to part again.
[They fall into one another's arms. Then Merope,
holding Æpytus by the hand, turns to The
Chorus.
Merope
O kind Messenian maidens, O my friends,
Bear witness, see, mark well, on what a head
My first stroke of revenge had nearly fallen! [404]
The Chorus
We see, dear mistress: and we say, the Gods,
As hitherto they kept him, keep him now.
Merope
O my son! str.
I have, I have thee ... the years
Fly back, my child! and thou seem'st
Ne'er to have gone from these eyes,
Never been torn from this breast.
Æpytus
Mother, my heart runs over ”

“ And emulate his wisdom; ever right
In never moving, more than absolute need.
Thus shall I find my solace in disdain
Of earth's inhabitants, whom through city and field
I've found sheer clay, save in the visions bright,
Of Goddess, and of Nymph,⸻O Merope! ”

“ He married Helice, by whom he had a daughter called Hero, or Merope, of whom the giant Orion became enamoured. The father, unwilling to give his daughter to such a lover, and afraid of provoking him by an open refusal, evaded his applications, and at last put out his eyes when he was intoxicated. Some suppose that this violence was offered to Orion after he had dishonoured Merope. Œnopion received the island of Chios from Rhadamanthus, who had conquered most of the islands of the Ægean sea, and his tomb was still seen there in the age of Pausanias. ”

“ These warriors rarely die of sickness; they delight in warfare, and generally lose their lives in battle. There is also in this new world another numerous people called Meropes; and in their country is a place called ‘Anostus,’ that is to say, ‘not to be repassed,’ because no one ever comes back from thence. ”

“ Meropius, a philosopher at Tyre, a Greek by nation and by religion, had taken a passage in a ship on the Red Sea to India, and had with him two young men, Frumentius and Œdesius, whom he intended to bring up to trade, after having given them a very liberal education. It happened their vessel was cast away on a rock upon the coast of Abyssinia. Meropius, defending himself, was slain by the natives, and the two boys carried to Axum, the capital of Abyssinia, where the Court then resided. Though young, they soon began to shew the advantages attending a liberal education. ”

“ In the evening, before leaving the Gallic army, Meroë dressed herself in her sailor's garments—a short blouse of brown wool, drawn tight with a leather belt, large broad breeches of white cloth, which fell below her knees, and shoes of sealskin. She carried on her left shoulder her short, hooded cloak, and on her flowing hair was a leathern bonnet. By her resolute air, the agility of her step, the perfection of her sweet and virile countenance, one might have taken Meroë for one of those young men whose good looks make maidens dream of marriage. Albinik also was dressed as a mariner. ”

“ Indeed, a holy man!" whispered Sem.
"And what wilt Thou say, worthiness," asked Mefres, "of the prince and the disturbances which his conduct has caused in the country?"
"I will say the same as Beroes: 'The heir does not cause harm to Egypt, so we should show him indulgence. '."
"This young man reviles the gods and miracles; he enters foreign temples, he excites the men to rebellion. These are no small matters," said Mefres, bitterly. This priest could not pardon Ramses for having jeered at his devotion so rudely. ”

“ He laughed bitterly, and asked:
“Should two of a trade waste time on foolishness? Listen now. Teach me your secrets, and I will teach you mine, and together we will drive Egypt like a chariot.”
“I have no secrets, I have only faith,” said Merapi again.
“Woman,” he went on, “woman or devil, will you take me for friend or foe? Here I have been shamed, since it was to me and not to their gods that the priests trusted to destroy you. Yet I can still forgive. Choose now, knowing that as my friendship will lead you to rule, to life and splendour, so my hate will drive you to shame and death.” ”

“ Ramses feigned to be so mightily indignant that the priests were satisfied.
"Thou speakest, prince," said Mefres, "as becomes a good Egyptian. Such a treaty would pain us, too; but danger to the state forces men to yield temporarily to circumstances."
"What forces you to yield?" cried the prince. "Have we lost a great battle, or have we no army?"
"The oarsmen on the boat in which Egypt is sailing through the river of eternity are gods," replied Mefres, with solemnity; "but the steersman is the Highest Lord of existence. ”

“ Memphis was four hundred aters from the City of the Sun, down the river.
The further the king went the happier he was, as though he had, indeed, escaped from prison. It made him happy that the yellow streak of the dead sands and the black of fertile earth stretched on either side of the river simply, quietly and monotonously: life and death side by side in eternal union, eternal peace; that the slow oxen were drawing deep furrows in rich earth and the bright green crops already showed here and there, and the monotonous singing of the ploughman echoed far in the stillness of the fields. ”

“ All rose from their seats; the king, the queen, the princesses, the heir-apparent and Merira walked to the altar that stood in the depths of the room before a bas-relief of the god Aton.
"Glory be to the unseen god, to the midnight sun!" Merira intoned. "Oh, mighty Falcon, with broad wings, flying through the two skies, hastening in thy sleepless course through the sky underneath the earth, to arise in thy place in the morning, the most secret of secret gods. In thy life the dead come to life again; thou givest their nostrils the breath of life and air to their stifled throats. ”

“ Beppo sprang to the top of the low parapet wall which borders the road, and from that stepped on to the little space in front of the ruins of the chapel. As he so stood facing the ruins, the precipice and the river were on his right hand, and the road with the entrance to the tunnel on his left. And there, with his musket on his arm, he awaited till the owner of the voice should emerge from the darkness. The voice came on, plaintively chanting its morning song to the Virgin, and it became certain that it was the voice of a woman. ”

“ But being contadini they sate in silence, with care-worn anxious faces, but with meek-eyed patience, till the great authority sitting in that awful sanctum on the other side of the partition-wall should be ready to receive them, and give them the fateful answers of the oracle. But Beppo, in his anxiety, had raised his voice in speaking with the servant-girl who had opened the door to him; and the attorney, having overheard and recognised it, came hurrying out of his den with his pen in his hand. ”

“ Why did you send her to her destruction?"
"Misericordia!'" exclaimed the old woman, as this new light broke in upon her mind; "is that the reason why you don't care to stay at Bella Luce any more, or ever to see the place again? Why, Beppo, my son, she was a good-for-nought! She was not worthy of so much as a look from thee!"
"Mother! mother! She was as good a girl as ever breathed!" said Beppo, with a sob in his voice; "you know she was, mother!"
"I did think she was; but you ask his reverence! Ask the priest, my son. He knows the truth." ”

“ I have learned that holy Mefres holds a certain Lykon, a Greek, on whom two crimes are weighing: he murdered the pharaoh's son, and besides he looks like his holiness. Let the worthy Mefres not bring disgrace on the revered priestly order; let him yield the murderer to justice at the earliest; for if we find Lykon, I swear that Mefres will lose not his office alone, but his head also. In our kingdom it is not permitted to patronize murderers and secrete men who resemble the sovereign. ”

“ Beppo was there alone. The other young men from his commune had come up together; but he had felt too miserable and down-hearted to come with them. Yet there was little in their comradeship, that would have jarred upon his melancholy mood. The lads of the French rural district, though abhorring the conscription to the full as much as these Romagnoles could do will go to the fatal urn, singing and laughing, hiding the death in their hearts from every eye, and from their own consciousness as far as noise and bluster, and “Dutch courage,” will enable them to do so. ”

“ The king looked at Beppo and was grateful to him.
“Thou hast given me pleasure and comfort,” said he; “ask what thou wilt in return and if it is in reason thou shalt have it.”
“I will have only this,” said Beppo: “that your majesty will allow me once every three days to come to the palace, and that then you will take me aside and will whisper these words into my ear so that no one else may hear them—A word, a word, only a few words; spoken ill, they are ill; spoken well, they are more precious than gold and jewels.’”
The king burst out laughing. ”

“ Also we fear the curses of our priests who bid us to depart.”
“Then I should fear these things also,” said Merapi.
“Not so, Lady, seeing that being the only beloved of the Prince of Egypt who, rumour tells us, will soon be Pharaoh of Egypt, by him you will be protected from the anger of the Egyptians. And being, as we all know well, the greatest sorceress in the world, the overthrower of Amon-Ra the mighty, and one who by sacrificing her child was able to ward away every plague from the household where she dwelt, you have naught to fear from priests and their magic.” ”