Pharmas, we have been waiting for you; come. We must be going. Listen to your orders. During this feast go down among the guards ...
Do not you talk of feasting, nor of guards. The Queen has sent Micaiah with the guards To fetch poor Naboth here.
I do not know; but not for any good. “Fetch Naboth here before me,” was the order. It has gone off by this.
What can she want with Naboth? Painted hag, Thus to command a man.
Was the guard ordered to suppress the feast?
No, but it is suppressed with Naboth taken.
We shall be taken next, so save yourself.
I will be gone. You know my hiding-place, The old one near the wall; send word to me There, if you have a message. [_Exit._
Set forth the chair of audience for the Queen. Be reverent; the Queen approaches. Hail!
Micaiah, Pharmas, and Ashobal, stay. Within few moments, when the guards return, You will return to take your places here, Even as you stand this minute.
Dismiss then, till the guards appear. [_The_ MEN _go_.
I am the King, upon whose balance lies The nation’s need to prompt me to be wise. Ruin to all I cherish, if I fail. God, judge for me, thy wisdom turn the scale.
Once long ago young Nireus was the King In Syme Island, so the stories say, And at his birth the gods made holiday, And blessed the child and gave him each one thing,
Courage, and skill, and beauty, and bright eyes, Wisdom, and charm, and many another power, So that he grew to manhood like a flower For beauty, and like God for being wise.
Now Nireus’ friend was Paris, out of Troy, Paris, the prince, the archer, who had seen The goddesses within the forest green; King Priam’s son, a peacock of a boy.
At Sparta’s court, not far from Syme Isle, Bright Helen lived, King Menelaus’ Queen, The loveliest woman that has ever been, Who made all mortals love her by her smile.
Nireus and Paris went together there To Helen’s palace: and when Nireus saw Helen the Queen, the lovely without flaw, He loved her like her shadow everywhere.
And Paris, when he saw her with her mate, Helen, the rose, beside that withered weed, Loved her no less, but with a young man’s greed That wants the moon from heaven and cannot wait.
Straightway he wooed Queen Helen to be his, And won her love, and cried to Nireus then, “O Nireus, help to save us from this den, Lend us your ship to bring us out of this.”