THE CUP AND THE FALCON [Illustration] THE CUP AND THE FALCON BY ALFRED LORD TENNYSON POET LAUREATE London MACMILLAN AND CO. 1884 THE CUP _A TRAGEDY_ “THE CUP” WAS PRODUCED AT THE LYCEUM THEATRE, UNDER THE MANAGEMENT OF MR. HENRY IRVING, JANUARY 3, 1881, WITH THE FOLLOWING CAST:— GALATIANS. SYNORIX, _an ex-Tetrarch_ MR. HENRY IRVING. SINNATUS, _a Tetrarch_ MR. TERRIS. _Attendant_ MR. HARWOOD. _Boy_ MISS BROWN. _Maid_ MISS HARWOOD. PHŒBE MISS PAUNCEFORT. CAMMA, _wife of Sinnatus, afterwards Priestess in the Temple of Artemis_ MISS ELLEN TERRY. ROMANS. ANTONIUS, _a Roman General_ MR. TYARS. PUBLIUS MR. HUDSON. _Nobleman_ MR. MATHESON. _Messenger_ MR. ARCHER. ACT I. SCENE I.—_Distant View of a City of Galatia. (Afternoon.)_ ” II.—_A Room in the Tetrarch’s House. (Evening.)_ ” III.—_Same as Scene I. (Dawn.)_ ACT II. SCENE—_Interior of the Temple of Artemis._ ACT I. SCENE I.—_Distant View of a City of Galatia._ As the curtain rises, Priestesses are heard singing in the Temple. Boy discovered on a pathway among Rocks, picking grapes. A party of Roman Soldiers, guarding a prisoner in chains, come down the pathway and exeunt. _Enter SYNORIX (looking round). Singing ceases._ SYNORIX. Pine, beech and plane, oak, walnut, apricot, Vine, cypress, poplar, myrtle, bowering-in The city where she dwells. She past me here Three years ago when I was flying from My Tetrarchy to Rome. I almost touch’d her— A maiden slowly moving on to music Among her maidens to this Temple—O Gods! She is my fate—else wherefore has my fate Brought me again to her own city?—married Since—married Sinnatus, the Tetrarch here— But if he be conspirator, Rome will chain, Or slay him. I may trust to gain her then When I shall have my tetrarchy restored By Rome, our mistress, grateful that I show’d her The weakness and the dissonance of our clans, And how to crush them easily. Wretched race! And once I wish’d to scourge them to the bones. But in this narrow breathing-time of life Is vengeance for its own sake worth the while, If once our ends are gain’d? and now this cup— I never felt such passion for a woman.