Excerpt from Bérénice

PAULINUS: That love is ardent, I confess.

TITUS: A thousand times more ardent than you think.
I’ve made my happiness depend on this—
To see her, love her, please her every day.
I have done more. Nothing is hid from you.
Daily I’ve thanked the gods for her that they
In Idumaea sought my father out,
Placed under him the army and the East,
And, stirring up the other lands as well,
Placed Rome still bleeding in his peaceful hands.
I even coveted my father’s place,
I who, Paulinus, had relenting fate
Postponed the destined day, would, every hour,
Have gladly died if that prolonged his life.
All this (how little lovers know themselves!),
In hopes to share the throne with Berenice,
To recognize one day her love and troth,
And at her feet see the whole world and me.
Yet, despite all my love and all her charms,
After a thousand vows backed by my tears,
Now that at last her beauty can be crowned,
Now that I love her more than e’er I did,
That marriage ties, linking our destinies
Can in one day reward five years’ desires,
I shall... O God, I cannot speak the word.

PAULINUS: Shall what, my lord?

TITUS: For ever part from her.
My heart’s not waited until now to yield.
If I have sought and listened to your words,
I wanted inwardly to make you crown
The rain of a love that’s loath to die.
Berenice long kept victory in doubt.
If in the end my honour tips the scales,
Battles were fought to conquer so much love
From which my heart will bleed for many a day.
I loved, I yearned in the profoundest peace—
Another was assigned to rule the world.
Lord of my destiny and free to love,
I owed account to no one but myself.
But hardly had my father passed away,
As soon as my sad hand had closed his eyes,
Of my fond error I was undeceived.
I felt the burden that was thrust on me.
I knew that, far from being my beloved’s,
I would be forced soon to renounce myself,
And that the gods, frowning upon my love,
Delivered me thenceforth up to the world.
Rome in my new career is watching me.
How vile for me, how ominous for her,
If, from the first, setting at nought its rights,
I built upon their wreck my happiness!
Resolved to make this cruel sacrifice,
I tried to school poor Berenice for it.
But where should I begin? For a whole week,
I’ve tried to broach the question to the queen.
A hundred times, at the first word, my tongue
Clove to my mouth, speechless, a hundred times.
I hoped at least my troubled heart, my grief,
Would bring our common sorrows home to her.
But, unsuspecting, sensing my distress,
She lifts her hand to wipe away my tears,
And never in her ignorance foresees
The ending of a love so much deserved.
At last today I summoned up my will.
See her I must, Paulinus, and speak out.
I’m waiting for Antiochus, to give
This precious trust to him I cannot keep.
He must escort the queen back to the East.
Tomorrow Rome will see her leave with him.
Soon she’ll be so informed by me myself;
For the last time I go to speak to her.

PAULINUS: I knew your love of glory would prevail
Which everywhere made vict’ry follow you.
Enslaved Judaea and its reeking walls,
That noble ardour’s deathless monument,
Were guarantee enough that your great heart
Would not, my lord, destroy its handiwork;
And that the conqueror of so many lands
Would now or later quell his passions too.

TITUS: Ah! under what fine trappings is concealed
This cruel glory! Better far for me
If all that still awaited me were death!
Nay this consuming zeal for glorious deeds,
Berenice fired me with it long ago.
As well you know, fame did not always shine
With the same lustre on my name as now.
My youth, Paulinus, spent at Nero’s court,
Was by corrupt example led astray,
Following the primrose path of dalliance.
Berenice pleased me. What does one not do
To please one’s love and win one’s conqueror?
I carried all before me on the field.
In triumph I returned. But blood and tears
Were not sufficient to deserve her smile.
I sought a thousand wretches’ happiness.
My charities were lavished far and wide,
Happy far more than you can understand
When I could come before her laden with
A thousand hearts that my good deeds had won.
I owe her all. Ah! cruel recompense.
All that I owe her will recoil on her.
As thanks for all these virtues and-renown,
I’ll tell her: “Go and never see me more.”