The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales - Richard Garnett
"Father," said Mithridata, "either I shall love this young prince, or I
shall not. If I do not love him, I am nowise minded to suffer him to caress
me. If I do love him, I am as little minded to be the cause of his death."
"Not even in consideration of the benefit which will accrue to thee by this
event?"
"Not even for that consideration."
"O these daughters!" exclaimed the old man. "We bring them up tenderly, we
exhaust all our science for the improvement of their minds and bodies, we
set our choicest hopes upon them, and entrust them with the fulfilment of
our most cherished aspirations; and when all is done, they will not so much
as commit a murder to please us! Miserable ingrate, receive the just
requital of thy selfish disobedience!"
"O father, do not turn me into a tadpole!"
"I will not, but I will turn thee out of doors."
And he did.
II
Though disinherited, Mithridata was not destitute. She had secured a
particle of the philosopher's stone--a slender outfit for a magician's
daughter! yet ensuring her a certain portion of wealth. What should she do
now? The great object of her life must henceforth be to avoid committing
murder, especially murdering any handsome young man. It would have seemed
most natural to retire into a convent, but, not to speak of her lack of
vocation, she felt that her father would justly consider that she had
disgraced her family, and she still looked forward to reconciliation with
him. She might have taken a hermitage, but her instinct told her that a
fair solitary can only keep young men off by strong measures; and she
disliked the character of a hermitess with a bull-dog. She therefore went
straight to the great city, took a house, and surrounded herself with
attendants. In the choice of these she was particularly careful to select
those only whose personal appearance was such as to discourage any approach
to familiarity or endearment. Never before or since was youthful beauty
surrounded by such moustached duennas, squinting chambermaids, hunchbacked
pages, and stumpy maids-of-all-work. This was a real sorrow to her, for she
loved beauty; it was a still sadder trial that she could no longer feel it
right to indulge herself in the least morsel of arsenic; she sighed for
strychnia, and pined for prussic acid. The change of diet was of course at
first most trying to her health, and in fact occasioned a serious illness,
but youth and a sound constitution pulled her through.
Reader, hast thou known what it is to live with a heart inflamed by love
for thy fellow-creatures which thou couldst manifest neither by word nor
deed? To pine with fruitless longings for good? and to consume with vain
yearnings for usefulness? To be misjudged and haply reviled by thy fellows
for failing to do what it is not given thee to do? If so, thou wilt pity
poor Mithridata, whose nature was most ardent, expansive, and affectionate,
but who, from the necessity under which she laboured of avoiding as much as
possible all contact with human beings, saw herself condemned to a life of
solitude, and knew that she was regarded as a monster of pride and
exclusiveness. She dared bestow no kind look, no encouraging gesture on any
one, lest this small beginning should lead to the manifestation of her
fatal power. Her own servants, whose minds were generally as deformed as
their bodies, hated her, and bitterly resented what they deemed her haughty
disdain of them. Her munificence none could deny, but bounty without
tenderness receives no more gratitude than it deserves. The young of her
own sex secretly rejoiced at her unamiability, regarding it as a
providential set-off against her beauty, while they detested and denounced
her as a--well, they would say viper in the manger, who spoiled everybody
else's lovers and would have none of her own. For with all Mithridata's
severity, there was no getting rid of the young men, the giddy moths that
flew around her brilliant but baleful candle. Not all the cold water
thrown upon them, literally as well as figuratively, could keep them from
her door. They filled her house with bouquets and billets doux; they stood
before the windows, they sat on the steps, they ran beside her litter when
she was carried abroad, they assembled at night to serenade her, fighting
desperately among themselves. They sought to gain admission as tradesmen,
as errand boys, even as scullions male and female. To such lengths did they
proceed, that a particularly audacious youth actually attempted to carry
her off one evening, and would have succeeded but for the interposition of
another, who flew at him with a drawn sword, and after a fierce contest
smote him bleeding to the ground. Mithridata had fainted, of course. What
was her horror on reviving to find herself in the arms of a young man of
exquisite beauty and princely mien, sucking death from her lips with
extraordinary relish! She shrieked, she struggled; if she made any
unfeminine use of her hands, let the urgency of the case plead her apology.
The youth reproached her bitterly for her ingratitude. She listened in
silent misery, unable to defend herself. The shaft of love had penetrated
her bosom also, and it cost her almost as much for her own sake to dismiss
the young man as it did to see him move away, slowly and languidly
staggering to his doom.
For the next few days messages came continually, urging her to haste to a
youth dying for her sake, whom her presence would revive effectually. She
steadily refused, but how much her refusal cost her! She wept, she wrung
her hands, she called for death and execrated her nurture. With that
strange appetite for self-torment which almost seems to diminish the pangs
of the wretched, she collected books on poisons, studied all the symptoms
described, and fancied her hapless lover undergoing them all in turn. At
length a message came which admitted of no evasion. The King commanded her
presence. Admonished by past experience, she provided herself with a veil
and mask, and repaired to the palace.
The old King seemed labouring under deep affliction; under happier
circumstances he must have been joyous and debonair. He addressed her with
austerity, yet with kindness.
"Maiden," he began, "thy unaccountable cruelty to my son----"
"Thy son!" she exclaimed, "The Prince! O father, thou art avenged for my
disobedience!"
"Surpasses what history hath hitherto recorded of the most obdurate
monsters. Thou art indebted to him for thy honour, to preserve which he has
risked his life. Thou bringest him to the verge of the grave by thy
cruelty, and when a smile, a look from thee would restore him, thou wilt
not bestow it."
"Alas! great King," she replied, "I know too well what your Majesty's
opinion of me must be. I must bear it as I may. Believe me, the sight of me
could effect nothing towards the restoration of thy son."
"Of that I shall judge," said the King, "when thou hast divested thyself of
that veil and mask."
Mithridata reluctantly complied.
"By Heaven!" exclaimed the King, "such a sight might recall the departing
soul from Paradise. Haste to my son, and instantly; it is not yet too
late."
"O King," urged Mithridata, "how could this countenance do thy son any
good? Is he not suffering from the effects of seventy-two poisons?"
"I am not aware of that," said the King.
"Are not his entrails burned up with fire? Is not his flesh in a state of
deliquescence? Has not his skin already peeled off his body? Is he not
tormented by incessant gripes and vomitings?"
"Not to my knowledge," said the King. "The symptoms, as I understand, are
not unlike those which I remember to have experienced myself, in a milder
form, certainly. He lies in bed, eats and drinks nothing, and incessantly
calls upon thee."
"This is most incomprehensible," said Mithridata. "There was no drug in my
father's laboratory that could have produced such an effect."
"The sum of the matter is," continued the King, "that either thou wilt
repair forthwith to my son's chamber, and subsequently to church; or else
unto the scaffold."
"If it must be so, I choose the scaffold," said Mithridata resolutely.
"Believe me, O King, my appearance in thy son's chamber would but destroy
whatever feeble hope of recovery may remain. I love him beyond everything
on earth, and not for worlds would I have his blood on my soul."
"Chamberlain," cried the monarch, "bring me a strait waistcoat."
Driven into a corner, Mithridata flung herself at the King's feet, taking
care, however, not to touch him, and confided to him all her wretched
history.
The venerable monarch burst into a peal of laughter. "A bon chat bon rat!"
he exclaimed, as soon as he had recovered himself. "So thou art the
daughter of my old friend the magician Locusto! I fathomed his craft, and,
as he fed his child upon poisons, I fed mine upon antidotes. Never did any
child in the world take an equal quantity of physic: but there is now no
poison on earth can harm him. Ye are clearly made for each other; haste to
his bedside, and, as the spell requires, rid thyself of thy venefic
properties in his arms as expeditiously as possible. Thy father shall be
bidden to the wedding, and an honoured guest he shall be, for having taught
us that the kiss of Love is the remedy for every poison."
NOTES
The first edition of these Tales was published in 1888. It contained
sixteen stories, to which twelve are added in the present impression. Many
originally appeared in periodicals, as will be found indicated in the
annotations which the recondite character of some allusions has rendered it
desirable to append, and which further provide an opportunity of tendering
thanks to many friends for their assent to republication.
P. 5. _The divine tongue of Greece was forgotten,_--Hereby we may detect
the error of those among the learned who have identified Caucasia with
Armenia. "Hellenic letters," says Mr. Capes, writing of Armenia in the
fourth century, "were welcomed with enthusiasm, and young men of the
slenderest means crowded to the schools of Athens" ("University Life in
Ancient Athens," p. 73).
P. 28. _Who have discovered the Elixir of Immortality._--The belief in
this elixir was general in China about the seventh century, A.D., and many
emperors used great exertions to discover it. This fact forms the
groundwork of Leopold Schefer's novel, "Der Unsterblichkeitstrank," which
has furnished the conception, though not the incidents, of "The Potion of
Lao-Tsze."
P. 38. _So she took the sceptre, and reigned gloriously._--In A.D. 683,
the Dowager-Empress Woo How, upon her husband's death, caused her son to be
set aside, and ruled prosperously until her decease in 703. In our day we
have seen China virtually governed by female sovereigns.
P. 50. _Ananda the Miracle Worker._--This story was originally published
in Fraser's Magazine for August, 1872. A French translation appeared in the
_Revue Britannique_ for November, 1872. Buddha's prohibition to work
miracles rests, so far as the present writer's knowledge extends, on the
authority of Professor Max Mueller ("Lectures on the Science of
Religion"). It should be needless to observe that Ananda, "the St. John of
the Buddhist group," is not recorded to have contravened this or any other
of his master's precepts.
P. 66. _The City of Philosophers._--This story has been translated into
French by M. Sarrazin.
P. 68. _There to establish a philosophic commonwealth._--The petition was
actually preferred, and would have been granted but for the disordered
condition of the empire. Gallienus, though not the man to save a sinking
state, possessed the accomplishments which would have adorned an age of
peace and culture.
P. 82. _The sword doubled up; it had neither point nor edge._--Gallienus
was fond of such practical jocularity. "Quum quidam gemmas vitreas pro
veris vendiderat ejus uxori, atque illa, re prodita, vindicari vellet,
surripi quasi ad leonem venditorem jussit. Deinde e cavea caponem emittit,
mirantibusque cunctis rem tam ridiculam, per curionem dici jussit,
'Imposturam fecit et passus est': deinde negotiatorem dimisit" (Trebellius
in Gallieno, cap. xii.).
P. 100. _Hypati, anthypati, &c._--_Hypati_ and _anthypati_ denote consuls
and proconsuls, dignities of course merely titular at the court of
Constantinople. _Silentiarii_ were properly officers charged with
maintaining order at court; but this duty, which was perhaps performed by
deputy, seems to have been generally entrusted to persons of distinction.
The _protospatharius_ was the chief of the Imperial body-guard, of which
the _spatharocandidati_ constituted the _elite_.
P. 114. _The Wisdom of the Indians._--Appeared in 1890 in _The Universal
Review_. The idea was suggested by an incident in Dr. Bastian's travels in
Burma.
P. 124. _The Dumb Oracle._--Appeared in the _University Magazine_ for
June, 1878. The legend on which it is founded, a mediaeval myth here
transferred to classical times, is also the groundwork of Browning's
ballad, "The Boy and the Angel."
P. 136. _Duke Virgil._--The subject of this story is derived from Leopold
Schefer's novel, "Die Sibylle von Mantua," though there is but little
resemblance in the incidents. Schefer cites Friedrich von Quandt as his
authority for the Mantuans having actually elected Virgil as their duke in
the thirteenth century: but the notion seems merely founded upon the
interpretation of the insignia accompanying a mediaeval statue of the poet.
P. 138. _To put the devil into a hole_.--"Then sayd Virgilius, 'Shulde ye
well passe in to the hole that ye cam out of?' 'Yea, I shall well,' sayd
the devyl. 'I holde the best plegge that I have, that ye shall not do it.'
'Well,' sayd the devyll, 'thereto I consent.' And then the devyll wrange
himselfe into the lytyll hole ageyne, and he was therein. Virgilius kyvered
the hole ageyne with the borde close, and so was the devyll begyled, and
myght nat there come out agen, but abideth shutte still therein" ("Romance
of Virgilius").
_Ibid. Canst thou balance our city upon an egg?_--"Than he thought in his
mynde to founde in the middle of the sea a fayre towne, with great landes
belongynge to it, and so he did by his cunnynge, and called it Napells. And
the foundacyon of it was of eggs" ("Romance of Virgilius").
P. 148. _The Claw_.--Originally published in _The English Illustrated
Magazine_.
P. 151. _Peter of Abano_.--Pietro di Abano, who took his name from his
birthplace, a village near Padua, was a physician contemporary with Dante,
whose skill in medicine and astrology caused him to be accused of magic. It
is nevertheless untrue that he was burned by the Inquisition or stoned by
the populace; but after his death he was burned in effigy, his remains
having been secretly removed by his friends. Honours were afterwards paid
to his memory; and there seems no doubt that he was a man of great
attainments, including a knowledge of Greek, and of unblemished character,
if he had not sometimes sold his skill at too high a rate. For his
authentic history, see the article in the _Biographie Universelle_ by
Ginguene; for the legendary, Tieck's romantic tale, "Pietro von Abano"
(1825), which has been translated into English.
P. 156. _Alexander the Rat-catcher_.--This story, to whose ground-work
History and Rabelais have equally contributed, was first published in vol.
xii. of _The Yellow Book_, January, 1897.
P. 157. _Cardinal Barbadico_.--This cardinal was actually entrusted by
Alexander VIII. with the commission of suppressing the rats; an occasion
upon which the "sardonic grin" imputed to the Pope by a detractor may be
conjectured to have been particularly apparent. Barbadico was a remarkable
instance of a man "kicked upstairs." As Archbishop of Corfu he had had a
violent dispute with the Venetian governor, and Innocent XI., equally
unwilling to disown the representative of Papal authority or offend the
Republic, recalled him to Rome and made him a Cardinal to keep him there.
P. 177. _The Rewards of Industry._--Appeared originally in _Atalanta for
August_, 1888.
P. 194. _The Talismans._--First published in _Atalanta_ for September,
1890.
P. 202. _The Elixir of Life._--Published July, 1881, in the third number
of a magazine entitled _Our Times_, which blasted the elixir's character by
expiring immediately afterwards.
P. 226. _The Purple Head._--Appeared originally in _Fraser's Magazine_ for
August, 1877.
P. 228. _The purple of the emperor and the matrons appeared ashy grey in
comparison._ "Cineris specie decolorari videbantur caeterae divini
comparatione fulgoris" (Vopiscus, in Vita Aureliani, cap. xxix.).
P. 230. _All these sovereigns._--"Diligentissime et Aurelianus et Probus
et proxime Diocletianus missis diligentissimis confectoribus requisiverunt
tale genus purpurae, nec tamen invenire potuerunt" (Vopiscus, _loc. cit._).
P. 241. _Pan's Wand._--Published originally in a Christmas number of The
_Illustrated London News_.
P. 249. _A Page from the Book of Folly._--Appeared in _Temple Bar_ for
1871.
P. 282. _The Philosopher and the Butterflies._--One of the contributions
by various writers to "The New Amphion," a little book prepared for sale at
the Fancy Fair got up by the students of the University of Edinburgh in
1886.
P. 294. _The Three Palaces._--Published originally on a similar occasion
to the last story, in "A Volunteer Haversack," an extensive repertory of
miscellaneous contributions in prose and verse, printed and sold at
Edinburgh for a benevolent purpose in 1902.
P. 300. _New Readings in Biography._--Originally published in _The Scots
Observer_ in 1889.
P. 315. _The Poison Maid._--The author wrote this tale in entire
forgetfulness of Hawthorne's "Rapaccini's Daughter," which nevertheless he
had certainly read.
[Transcriber's note: a misprint in the book was corrected in
this edition, from "He martyrdom" to "His martyrdom".]