The World's Greatest Books [Volumes 1-15, 17-20]

Act II

Titus: Has anyone seen the King of Commagene? And what is Queen Berenice doing?

Paulinus: I saw that the king was waiting on her no

in an audience, and as he came out I gave him your orders. The queen has gone to beseech Heaven for your imperial welfare.

Titus : Alas! amiable princess.

Paulinus: Why this sadness? The queen is about to be made mistress of all the Orient. Do you pity her?

Titus: My plans are still uncertain, and all Rome waits to learn the destiny of the queen. She and I are the talk of the whole people. Now, Paulinus, speak out freely. Knowing as you do how the popular opinion tends, let me understand how this idea of a union between me and the queen is regarded.

Paulinus: My emperor, there exists no doubt. Either from right reason or sheer caprice, Rome, though all confess her charms, does not expect the queen to become empress. She has a thousand virtues. She has truly the heart of a Roman. But she is a queen! Rome, by an immutable law, admits no foreign blood, and, since she banished her own kings for ever, looks on kingship with inexorable antagonism. Julius, our first Caesar, though inflamed with passion for Cleopatra, allowed her to sigh alone in the East. Antony, who was enamoured of her to the point of idolatry, and in her bosom forgot alike his country and his glory, never dared to offer her the position of wife.

Titus: Alas, how impassioned is the love I am thus expected to renounce! Paulinus, I have made it an indispensable pleasure of my life to see her, to love her, to please her. I have done more. I have rendered a hundred times thanks to the gods for having honoured my father by giving him the empire of the world, and for counting me worthy to follow him for whom I would willingly have given my life to prolong his. But all this glory I had fondly hoped to share with her, and to see the world at her feet as well as my own. And now, after cherishing such hopes for five long years, Paulinus, I am about—heavens, can I say so!—I am about to part

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from her. But what else does supreme honour exact? What shame should I inflict on this noble queen were I to indulge my love for her by trampling on the strictest of all the laws of Rome! How cruel under its glittering name is glory! I know Berenice, and I know too well that her heart demands nothing but mine. I loved her, I pleased her. Since that day—shall I call it blessed or fatal ?—when we first acknowledged our mutual affection, she has been absorbed in this love. A stranger in Rome, unknown at the court, she passes her days, Paulinus, caring for nought except to spend an hour with me or to wait till such an hour arrives. Oh, heavens, how can I find the way to inflict on her this cruel decision? But come, it is vain to think. I know my duty; be it mine to perform it. I ask not whether I can survive the ordeal.

Berenice enters. She gently reproaches Titus for delaying to come to see her ivhcn his audience with the Senate was over. Titus attempts to pave the way for the cruel announcement he has to make, but falters, turns away in embarrassment, which astonishes the queen, and beats a hasty retreat.

Act III

Berenice : Ah, my lord, is it you ? So you are not yet gone?

Antiochus: Madame, I perceive you are disappointed, for you were looking for Caesar. But blame Caesar himself for the fact that I thus once again intrude on you. Probably I should now be at Ostia but that he prohibited my departure, detaining me to talk only of you.

Berenice: Of me, prince? And what can he have said to you?

Antiochus: In the name of the gods, madame, how can I venture to declare it? But, prepare yourself.

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Titus has commanded me to tell you that which must touch you in the tenderest spot of your heart. You and Titus must separate.

Berenice: Separate! Who—I? Titus from Berenice?

Antiochus : I must render him justice in your presence. I have seen in him all that despair can inflict on a sensitive and generous heart. He weeps, he adores you. But what avails it that he still loves you ? A queen in this Roman empire is a suspect. You must separate, and you yourself must depart to-morrow.

Berenice : Titus to abandon me after so many vows! He who swore to me— No, I can never believe it! This is a plot to disunite us. Titus loves me. He is not willing that I should die. I will speak to him at once. Come!

Antiochus : What ? You can regard me as

Berenice: I do not believe you. But, whatever be the fact, take care that you never see me again.

Act IV

Berenice: Ah, my lord! Well, then it is true that Titus abandons me? We must part. He himself commands it.

Titus: Do not, madame, overwhelm a miserable prince! Do not afflict us both. Compel your love to be silent, and, with an eye enlightened by glory and by reason alike, contemplate my bounden duty in all its rigour. Fortify my heart yourself against you. Help me, if it be possible, to conquer my weakness, and to stay the tears which escape me without ceasing. Or if we cannot command our eyes to refrain from tears, at least let glory help us to endure our grief; for, my princess, we must part.