Sophonisba

“ Sophonisba looks down and beholds poor little Bliss walking by her side like a motherless lamb needing protection. A feeling of pity takes possession of her bosom, and pity is nearly akin to love."
"The big woman first pities the little man, and then loves him?"
"That is just it. Did you ever see a very large woman married to a man of similar proportions?"
"Indeed, I have. Mrs. Foot is as tall as Sophonisba, and much more robust. Her husband, Gideon Foot, looks like Winfield Scott; while her son, who is called Hercules, stands six feet seven in his stockings." ”

“ Shall Sophonisba then
With me go bound, and wait on Scipio’s wheel?
When th’ whole world’s giddy, one man cannot reel.
Mass. Starve thy lean hopes; and, Romans, now behold
A sight would sad the gods, make Phœbus cold.
Organ and recorders play to a single voice. Enter in the meantime the mournful solemnity of Massinissa’s presenting Sophonisba’s body.
Look, Scipio, see what hard shift we make
To keep our vows. Here, take, I yield her thee;
And Sophonisba, I keep vow, thou’rt still free.
Sy. Burst, my vex’d heart: the torture that most racks 40
An enemy is his foe’s royal acts. ”

“ Masinissa, the victor, besieged Cirtha, his capital, and took it. But he met with a greater danger in that city than he had faced in the field, and this was Sophonisba, whose charms and endearments he was unable to resist. To secure this princess to himself, he married her, but a few days after, he was obliged to send her a dose of poison, as her nuptial present; this being the only way that he could devise to keep his promise with his queen, and preserve her from the power of the Romans. ”

“ Surely peace slept not more softly on the Moruna in old days before the names of Gorice and Witchland were heard in that country, than she shall sleep for us on this new earth and Demonland, now that those names are drowned for ever under the whirlpools of oblivion and darkness."
Juss said, "O Queen Sophonisba, desire not that the ⁠p. 495 names of great men dead should be forgot for ever. So should these wars that we last year brought to so mighty a conclusion to make us undisputed lords of the earth go down to oblivion with them that fought against us. ”

“ Miss Faithful was much engaged with her sewing just at that moment, and her sister's unusual agitation escaped her notice. Presently she said, "Sophonisba, isn't there a bit of old black ribbon in that cupboard? I want something of the kind, just to put round inside the neck of the dress, and then it will be done."
"Yes--I don't know--I think not," said her sister, with a hesitation so unlike her usual promptness that Miss Faithful looked up surprised. "I mean, I think there is," said Miss Sophonisba. "If you'd like to look, I'll hold the candle for you." ”

“ Greene said it was not there. I worked hard to look it up, and even went into Sophonisba’s bed-room in my search. In Sophonisba’s bed-room there was but one canvas-covered box. “That is my own,” said she, “and it is all that I have, except this bag.”
“Where on earth can it be?” said I, sitting down on the trunk in question. At the moment I almost thought that she had been instrumental in hiding it.
“How am I to know?” she answered; and I fancied that even she was dismayed. “What a fool that woman is!”
“The box must be in the house,” I said.
“Do find it, for papa’s sake; there’s a good fellow. ”

“ Greatly honoured am I that so beauteous a princess should deign to shed the light of her beauty upon our poor dwelling. Welcome art thou, ay, doubly art thou welcome, seeing that thou art the betrothed of our kinsman Maharbal.” And he smiled pleasantly as he kissed her hand. “Welcome to thee also, oh Sophonisba; truly so fair a flower as thou hath never yet blossomed in the gardens of Syphax. Would to the gods that it might take root upon our Numidian soil, then would the palace doors be bright, and the hearts of the people happy.” ”

“ But when the poet is content to deliver his message like a man of this world, we discover with mingled satisfaction, astonishment, and irritation that he can write when he pleases in a style of the purest and noblest simplicity; that he can make his characters converse in a language worthy of Sophocles when he does not prefer to make them stutter in a dialect worthy of Lycophron. And in the tragedy of 'Sophonisba' the display of this happy capacity is happily reserved for the crowning scene of the poem. ”

“ The Sophonisba of Mairet and of Lee is a tender, passionate, amorous mistress of Massinissa: Corneille and Mr. Thomson give her no other passion but the love of her country, and make her as cool in her affection to Massinissa as to Syphax. In the two latter she resembles the character of Queen Elizabeth; in the two former she is the picture of Mary Queen of Scotland. In short, the one Sophonisba is as different from the other as the Brutus of Voltaire is from the Marius, jun., of Otway, or as the Minerva is from the Venus of the ancients. ”

“ She turneth to greet him. Tall she is, and young she is, and beautiful, and proud-faced, and sweet-faced, and most gallant-hearted too, and merry of heart too, if her looks belie her not."
Queen Sophonisba covered her eyes, saying, "My lords, I see no more. The crystal curdles within like foam in a whirlpool under a high force in rainy weather. ⁠p. 510 Mine eyes grow sore with watching. Let us row back, for the night is far spent and I am weary."
But Juss stayed her and said, "Let me dream yet awhile. ”

“ Sophonisba's mamma replies. "I remember. Very quiet-looking kind of place, isn't it?" It is impossible to say what description of "loud" place had dwelt in the mind of Sophonisba's mamma as [Pg 55] the locale where the Empress Eugénie's milliner "made" for her Majesty. Perhaps she hoped to see two cent gardes doing duty at the door of an or-molu paradise.
At every step the ladies find new excitement. By the quiet door of Madame Laure is the renowned Neapolitan Ice Establishment, well known to most ladies who have been in Paris. ”

“ As he was entering the vestibule, on the very threshold in fact, he was met by Sophonisba, the wife of Syphax and daughter of the Carthaginian Hasdrubal. When she saw him surrounded by an armed escort, and conspicuous by his arms and general appearance, she rightly guessed that he was the king, and throwing herself at his feet, exclaimed: "Your courage and good fortune aided by the gods have given you absolute power over us. ”

“ Sophonisba is a fearless and magnanimous heroine, but her temper is too masculine; she talks too much and too bluntly, and is too fond of striking an attitude. Syphax, the villain of the play, is so prodigiously brutal as to appear perfectly grotesque; and the hero Massinissa bores us by his trite moral reflections. Marston strove to produce a stately tragedy, and was under the impression that his efforts had been crowned with success ”

“ Then the field hands began talking about the black snake that visited old Sophonisba's cabin every night after midnight. One of them showed me its trail, and not long afterward I found out that Aunt Sophy herself had begun to pay strange visits to the cellar of the big house, lingering and muttering for hours in the very spot where none of the other blacks would go. God, but I was glad when that old witch died! I honestly believe she had been a priestess of some ancient and terrible tradition back in Africa. She must have lived to be almost a hundred and fifty years old. ”

“ Hasdrubal made Sophonisba's hand the price of an alliance which he wished Syphax, Masinissa's rival in the struggle for the Numidian throne, to contract with Carthage. In the war that followed, Syphax was defeated, first by the Romans, afterwards by Masinissa himself, who took Cirta, his capital, and in it Sophonisba. To marry her at once seemed to the conqueror the only way of saving her from the Romans. But the marriage did not suit the policy of Rome, which dreaded the hostile influence which such a woman might exercise. ”

“ This word transfigures everything, and brings fresh green shoots even from the dry wood of souls defrauded of love and hope. Life is a thorny rose- bush, and Art its flower. Here Mirth is melancholy—Joy is sorrowful and Liberty is dead. Here Art withers and—like an exotic—is prevented perishing outright only by artificial culture. But there is a land, I know it well, for it is my home—where Art buds and blossoms and throws its shade over all the highways. Favorite of Antonio, knight of the Word—you must go to Italy!"
Sophonisba had spoken. He must go to Italy. The home of Titian! ”

“ This play met with a favourable reception from the public. Mrs. Oldfield greatly distinguished herself in the character of Sophonisba, which Mr. Thomson acknowledges in his preface.—'I cannot conclude, says he, without owning my obligations to those concerned in the representation. They have indeed done me more than justice; Whatever was designed as amiable and engageing in Masinessa shines out in Mr. Wilks's action. Mrs. Oldfield, in the character of Sophonisba, has excelled what even in the fondness of an author I could either wish or imagine. ”

“ The joyful reunion is presently interrupted by the entrance of the Roman general, Lælius, who orders Massinissa to deliver Sophonisba into Scipio’s custody (Syphax having represented to Scipio that Sophonisba would quickly induce Massinissa to revolt from Rome) . Lælius departs with Massinissa’s assurance that the command shall be obeyed. Massinissa is distracted; he must either break the oath that he had pledged to Sophonisba, or he must be faithless in the allegiance that he had sworn to Rome. Sophonisba’s heroism rescues him from his dilemma. She declares her willingness to die ”

“ She enters, and promises to charm Sophonisba to his bed. Quite suddenly, and without any Exit or other indication of a change of locality, we are back in the chamber at Cirta. Music sounds within ‘the canopy’ and ‘above’. Erichtho, disguised as Sophonisba, enters the canopy, as to bed. Syphax [149] follows, and only discovers his misadventure at the beginning of Act V. [494] Even if the play was staged as a whole on public theatre methods, it is difficult not to suppose that the two entrances to the cave, at Cirta and in the forest, were shown together. ”

“ James Thomson, Sophonisba (1729) .
(In Thomson’s tragedy occurs the line, “Oh, Sophonisba! Sophonisba, oh!” and a wit set all the town laughing with “Oh, Jemmy Thomson! Jemmy Thomson, oh!”)
Sophronia, a young lady who was taught Greek, and to hate men who were not scholars. Her wisdom taught her to gauge the wisdom of her suitors, and to discover their shortcomings. She never found one up to the mark, and now she is wrinkled with age, and talks about the “beauties of the mind.”--Goldsmith, A Citizen of the World, xxviii. (1759) .
Sophronia. (See Sofronia.) ”

“ In the language of one of their admirers, they were intended to be "reasonable entertainments becoming virtue itself to behold with tears of approbation." [34] "Sophonisba" is sternly heroic in its subordination of love to patriotic hate of Rome in the character of its heroine, and sternly classic in the simplicity of its plot and the heaviness of its inflated rhetoric. "Agammemnon," also a "She-tragedy," is designed after the school of Racine rather than of Corneille ”

“ A candid and creditable avowal, but, alas, “words is wind and wind is mutable.” In the second edition there follows a briefer address, in which the writer promises to “present a tragedy which shall boldly abide the most curious perusal;” and from a marginal note we learn that the tragedy of Sophonisba, published in 1606, was the work which was so boldly to challenge criticism. It is to be feared that this cherished offspring of Marston’s imagination will not be regarded with affection by many readers. ”

“ Shal I then put into his hands mine own Sophonisba? But before I so 248 doe, the armipotent God aboue, with his flashing fires and flamming brands shall thunder me downe into the depthe of Hell. The gapyng ground receiue my corps, before I yeld to that request, the trampling steedes of sauage kinde do teare my members in thousand gobbets, the desert beastes consume my flesh, the rauening gripes and carrain kites pick out my tongue and eyes, before I glutte his rauenous mind with that demaund to break the fayth which by holy othe I haue promised to performe. ”

“ There was no answer to this question, but in a minute or two a movement was heard and the attendants uncovered him; his eyes were set, and Crito closed his eyes and mouth.
From Jowett's "Dialogues of Plato."
Sophonisba (the wife of Syphax, King of Numidia) . "If my husband has for his new wife no better gift than a cup of death, I bow to his will and accept what he bestows. I might have died more honorably if I had not wedded so near to my funeral." ”

“ But the other lords of Demonland stood up and flung down their jewelled swords on the table beside Lord Brandoch Daha's. And Lord Juss spake and said, "We may well cast down our swords as a last offering on Witchland's grave. For now must they rust: seamanship and all high arts of war must wither: and, now that our great enemies are dead and gone, we that were lords of all the world must turn shepherds and hunters, lest we become mere mountebanks and fops, fit fellows for the chambering Beshtrians or the Red Foliot. O Queen Sophonisba, ⁠p. ”

“ They must both go. The safety of the world demands that they go!'
"Denis might have whispered more, but a fresh burst of distant wailing cut us short. For the first time we knew what it was, for a westerly veering wind brought articulate words at last. We ought to have known long before, since sounds much like it had often come from the same source. It was wrinkled Sophonisba, the ancient Zulu witchwoman who had fawned on Marceline, keening from her cabin in a way which crowned the horrors of this nightmare tragedy. ”