Ion. Medon. To this great peril, and I will not stay thee. Now. Only before I go, thus, on my knee, Bless thee, son! Medon. Farewell then! Your prayers wait on my steps. The arm of Heaven His parting interview with Clemanthe, the Priest's daughter, the beloved companion of his youth, is throughout very beautiful; but we cannot trust ourselves to extract all that is beautiful for fear of trespassing on the Reviewer's licence. The haughty Adrastus, the too confident descendant " of a great race of kings, along whose line the eager mind lives aching," is introduced in the second Act; and to him Ion, supported by the strength of heaven and the nation's good cause, pleads for the people of Argos, and warns the tyrant of his speedily approaching hour of doom. As this scene contributes more than any to develope the plot of this noble Tragedy, and at the same time will give an excellent idea of the Poet's descriptive powers, we hesitate not to give a large portion of it to our readers. Ion. King Adrastus, Of pomp and power, a few short summers since Glare o'er their perishing children: hast thou shared Ion. Ion. Adrastus. Pity! dare To speak that word again, and torture waits thee! Thy time is short, and I am pledged to hear. Beware! beware! Ion. Thou hast! I see thou hast! Thou art not marble, Adrastus. Ion. And thou shalt hear me! Think upon the time Shapes of one heavenly vision; and thy heart, That tone! that tone! Whence came it? from thy lips? It cannot be- Roll on! roll on !-Stranger, thou dost enforce me As a child. Adrastus. Again! that voice again!-thou hast seen me moved Ion. Adrastus, As never mortal saw me, by a tone Which some light breeze, enamour'd of the sound, This city, which, expectant of its Prince, Lighted from thence be arm'd, and both soon quench'd, Of years to know myself a thing accursed, A second son was born, to steal the love Which fate had else scarce rifled: he became My parent's hope, the darling of the crew Who lived upon their smiles, and thought it flattery To trace in every foible of my youth A prince's youth!-the workings of the curse; To speak it now--look'd freezingly upon me! Died. Thou hast heard the lie, Ion. 1drastus. Ion. Adrastus. Ion. Adrastus. Not in open speech :-they felt I should have seized the miscreant by the throat, Of the base speaker;-but the tale look'd out When mine have met them; murmur'd through the crowd Stood distant from me; burnt into my soul To whom? And whose reluctant courtesy I bore, Pale with proud anger, till from lips compress'd Answer to them: No! though my heart had burst, In search of weariness, and learn'd to rive Its stubborn boughs, till limbs once lightly strung Or on the sea-beat rock tore off the vest A blessed one! Became one happy being. Days, weeks, months, In our delightful nest. My father's spies— Slaves, whom my nod should have consign'd to stripes Adrastus. Ion. Adrastus. Fools! did they deem The ruffians broke upon us; seiz’'d the child; Of waters that shall cover him for ever; And the mother- There's magic in 't. Bear with me-I am childish. Ion succeeds in awakening the sympathies of Adrastus; and, gaining his consent to an interview with the elders of the city, returns in safety to the temple, where he is eagerly welcomed by Medon and his own beloved Clemanthe, in an interview which is interrupted by the arrival of Phocion, the high priest's son, with tidings from the shrine of Delphi. The scene of the interview between the king and the elders, and the announcement of the prophecy-" Argos ne'er shall find release,-till her monarch's race shall cease," is very finely wrought. Ion's warning to Adrastus, and the king's reply, rur as follows:: Ion. Adrastus. Nay, yet an instant !—let my speech have power Long fever'd and sophisticate, the gods Art mad? 14 The common life which every slave endures, Broken by man's intrusion. Councillors, faint A conspiracy is formed to liberate Argos from the sway of the guilty and now heaven-accused tyrant, in which heaven prompts Ion to take a share. Chance allots to Ion the post of honour and danger, as the king's destroyer, and he receives at the altar the knife consecrated" to untrembling service against the king of Argos and his race." Phocion's lot calls him to second Ion if he should hearted. Meanwhile, by the agency of a slave, Irus, the proof of prove Ion's true and royal lineage is established, on hearing which Clemanthe, not ignorant of the conspiracy (for her fears had led her to track Ion to the rendezvous) wildly urges her father to stop or prevent the act of parricide, and prevails on him to seek the palace whither Ion was to strike the blow of death to Adrastus and freedom to Argos. The scene in which Ion wakes the sleeping monarch, and bids him prepare for death, and the recognition of Ion, through Medon, is, if we mistake not, the finest in the whole Play. Its earlier portion only is here given. Adrastus is asleep and Ion enters with a knife. We refer our readers to pp. 80-84 of the work. Ion's purpose is stayed; but vengeance follows Adrastus from the dagger of another conspirator, whose parent had fallen a victim to the king's bloody tyranny. Ion re-enters, supporting his wounded father, and is pronounced "king of Argos" by his dying lips. A king indeed is Ion,-a king too, patriot enough to save his country by his own death. This high bearing and stern resolution to die for Argos disarms the enmity of the foes of Adrastus's race, and arrests the assassin arm of his friend Phocion. The scene in which this assassination is attempted is certainly one of the grandest passages that we ever read in any play, and affords scope for the highest powers of tragic representation. [Enter PHOCION behind, who strikes at Ion with a dagger.] [ION struggles with him, seizes the dagger, which he throws away.] Ion. And couldst thou think I had forgotten? Thou? Phocion. |