A TRAGEDY.
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_Sardanapale, Tragedie Imitee de Lord Byron_, par L. Alvin, wasperformed at the Theatre Royal at Brussels, January 13, 16, 1834. _Sardanapalus_, a Tragedy, was played for the first time at Drury LaneTheatre, April 10, 1834, and (for the twenty-second time) June 5, 1834.Macready appeared as "Sardanapalus," Miss Phillips as "Zarina," and MissEllen Tree as "Myrrha." [In his diary for April 11, 1834 (see_Reminiscences_, 1875, i. 414, 415) Macready wrote, "On arriving at mychambers ... I found a letter without a signature; the seal was the headof Byron, and in the envelope was a folded sheet with merely the words,'Werner, Nov., 1830. Byron, Ravenna, 1821,' and 'Sardanapalus, April10th, 1834.' Encircling the name of Byron, etc., was a lock of grey hairfastened by a gold thread, which I am sure was Byron's, ... it surprisedand pleased me."] _Sardanapalus, King of Assyria_, was produced at the Princess's Theatre,June 13, 1853, and played till September 2, 1853. Charles Kean appearedas "Sardanapalus," Miss Heath as "Zarina," and Mrs. Charles Kean as"Myrrha." _Sardanapale, Opera en Trois Actes_, par M. Henry Becque, Musique de M.Victorin Joncieres, was performed for the first time at the TheatreImperial-Lyrique, February 8, 1867. _Lord Byron's Tragedy of Sardanapalus_, in four acts, was performed atthe Theatre Royal, Manchester, March 31-April 28, 1877. Charles Calvert(the adapter) played "Sardanapalus," Miss Hathaway "Zarina," and MissFanny Ensor "Myrrha;" and June 26-July 27, 1877, at the Royal AlexandraTheatre, Liverpool. Calvert's adaptation was also performed at Booth'sTheatre, New York.] INTRODUCTION TO _SARDANAPALUS_ Byron's passion or infatuation for the regular drama lasted a littleover a year. _Marino Faliero_, _Sardanapalus_, and the _Two Foscari_,were the fruits of his "self-denying ordinance to dramatize, like theGreeks ... striking passages of history" (letter to Murray, July 14,1821, _Letters_, 1901, v. 323). The mood was destined to pass, but for awhile the neophyte was spell-bound. _Sardanapalus, a Tragedy_, the second and, perhaps, the most successfulof these studies in the poetry of history, was begun at Ravenna, January13, 1821, "with all deliberate speed;" but, for a time, from laziness ordepression of spirits, or, perhaps, from the counter-excitement of "thepoetry of politics" (_Letters_, 1901, v. 205), that is, therevolutionary drama which had begun to run its course, a month went bybefore he had finished the first act (February 15). Three months later(May 28) he announces the completion of the drama, the last act havingbeen "dashed off" in two or three days (_Letters_, 1901, v. 300). For the story of Sardanapalus, which had excited his interest as aschoolboy, Byron consulted the pages of Diodorus Siculus (_BibliothecaeHistoricae_, lib. ii. pp. 78, sq., ed. 1604), and, possibly to ward offand neutralize the distracting influence of Shakespeare and otherbarbarian dramatists, he "turned over" the tragedies of Seneca(_Letters_, 1901, v. 173). It is hardly necessary to remind the modernreader that the Sardanapalus of history is an unverified if not anunverifiable personage. Diodorus the Sicilian, who was contemporary withCicero, derived his knowledge of Assyrian history from the _Persica_ ofCtesias of Cnidos, who was private physician at the court of ArtaxerxesMnemon (B.C. 405-359), and is said to have had access to, and to haveconsulted, the "Persian authorities" ([Greek: diphthe/rai Basilikai\]). The character which Ctesias depicted or invented, an effeminatedebauchee, sunk in luxury and sloth, who at the last was driven to takeup arms, and, after a prolonged but ineffectual resistance, avoidedcapture by suicide, cannot be identified. Asurbanipal(A[)s]ur-b[=a]ni-apli), the son of Esarhaddon and grandson ofSennacherib, who ascended the throne B.C. 668, and reigned for aboutforty years, was, as the cuneiform records and the friezes of his palacetestify, a bold hunter and a mighty warrior. He vanquished Tark[=u](Tirhakah) of Ethiopia, and his successor, Urdaman[=e]. Ba'al King ofTyre, Yakinl[=u] King of the island-city of Arvad, Sand[)a]sarm[=u] ofCilicia, Teumman of Elam, and other potentates, suffered defeat at hishands. "The land of Elam," writes the king or his "HistoriographerRoyal," "through its extent I covered as when a mighty storm approaches;I cut off the head of Teumman, their king... Beyond number I slew hiswarriors; alive in my hands I took his fighting men; with their corpses,as with thorns and thistles, I filled the vicinity of Susa; their bloodI caused to flow in the Eulaeus, and I stained its waters like wool."Clearly the Sardanapalus who painted his face and carded purple wool inthe _penetralia_ of his seraglio does not bear even a traditionalresemblance to A[)s]ur-b[=a]ni-apli the Conqueror. All that can be affirmed with any certainty is that within twenty yearsof the death of Asurbanipal, the Assyrian Empire passed into the handsof the Medes;[1] but there is nothing to show whether the period ofdecay had already set in before the close of his reign, or under whichof his two successors, [)A]sur-etil-il[=a]ni or Sin-[)s]ar-i[)s]kun,the final catastrophe (B.C. 606) took place (_Encyclopedia Biblica_,art. "Assyria," art. "[)A]sur-bani-pal," by Leonard W. King). "I have made," writes Byron (May 25, 1821), "Sardanapalus brave thoughvoluptuous (as history represents him), and as amiable as my poor pencould make him." Diodorus, or rather Ctesias, who may have drawn uponpersonal reminiscences of his patron, Artaxerxes Mnemon (see Plutarch's_Artaxerxes_, _passim_), does not enlarge upon his amiability, andcredits him only with the courage of despair. Byron's Sardanapalus, withhis sudden transition from voluptuous abandonment to heroic chivalry,his remorseful recognition of the sanctities of wedlock, his generalgood nature, his "sly, insinuating sarcasms" (Moore's Diary, September30, 1821, _Memoirs_, iii. 282), "all made out of the carver's brain,"resembles _history_ as little as _history_ resembles the Assyrianrecord. Fortunately, the genius of the poet escaped from the mesheswhich he had woven round himself, and, in spite of himself, he wasconstrained to "beat his music out," regardless of his authorities. The character of Myrrha, which bears some resemblance to Aspasia, "anative of Phocea in Ionia--the favourite mistress of Cyrus" (seePlutarch's _Artaxerxes_, Langhorne's Translation, 1838, p. 699), wasintroduced partly to pacify the Countess Guiccioli, who had quarrelledwith him for maintaining that "love was not the loftiest theme for truetragedy," and, in part, to prove that he was not a slave to his ownideals, and could imagine and delineate a woman who was both passionateand high-minded. Diodorus (_Bibl. Hist._, lib. iii. p. 130) records theexploits of Myrina, Queen of the Amazons, but it is probable that Byronnamed his Ionian slave after Mirra, who gives her name to Alfieri'stragedy, which brought on a convulsive fit of tears and shuddering whenhe first saw it played at Bologna in August, 1819 (_Letters_, 1900, iv.339). _Sardanapalus, a Tragedy_, was published together with _The Two Foscari,a Tragedy_, and _Cain, a Mystery_, December 19, 1821. The three plays were reviewed by Heber in the _Quarterly Review_, July,1822, vol. xxvii. pp. 476-524; by Jeffrey in the _Edinburgh Review_,February, 1822, vol. 36, pp. 413-452; in _Blackwood's EdinburghMagazine_, February, 1822, vol. xi. pp. 212-217; and in the _Portfolio_(Philadelphia), December, 1822, vol. xiv. pp. 487-492.
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