LA MORT DE MITRIDATE - University of Liverpool

ACTE III.
[p.32]
SCENE PREMIERE.
HYPSICRATEE. MITRIDATE.
MITRIDATIE. NISE.
On tire la tapisserie. 1
HYPSICRATEE.
Depuis que le destin contre luy se declare,
Un cœur se doit munir d’une constance rare. 2
Il est vray, cher espoux, nous avons tout perdu :
Mais pour ces vains regrets nous sera-t’il rendu ?
Notre trouppe à nos yeux entierement deffaicte,
630 Dans ce dernier Palais nostre seule retraicte, 3
La ville à la mercy du soldat insolent,
Pour affliger une ame est un mal violent :
Mais par ce desespoir, dont vostre esprit s’accable,
Pouvez-vous reparer un mal irreparable ?
MITRIDATE.
635 Non, mais juge toy-mesme en l’estat où je suis,
Que respirer le jour c’est tout ce que je puis :
Qu’il n’est point de regret qui ne soit legitime,
Et qu’apres tant de maux la constance est un crime.
Commander Souverain à cent peuples divers,
640 Donner de l’épouvente aux Rois de l’univers,
Voir ceder tant de peuple 4 à la gloire d’un homme,
Estre l’appuy d’Asie, & la terreur de Rome, 5
[p.33]
1
2
3
4
5
This stage direction is in the left-hand margin between lines 625 and 626.
The audience’s curiosity as to the result of Mitridate’s sortie, which had ended the
previous act on a note of suspense, is quickly satisfied in these opening lines.
Moreover, Hypsicratée shows that stoicism is not just the preserve of the Romans, and
that such sentiments are invariably expressed sententiously.
The feeling of claustrophobia increases, as the failure of the sortie means that the
family’s room for manœuvre has been reduced from the city as a whole to just the
palace.
Errata: in making peuple singular, although originally printed plural, a syllable is
saved.
Through his long opposition to Rome, Mithradates could lay claim to being the great
defender of the East against Western expansion into Asia Minor. Seeing himself as a
successor to Alexander, he allied himself with the Greek city states in Anatolia against
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