OVERTHROW OF BELSHAZZAR BRYAN WALLER PROCTER EBUCHADNEZZAR, the greatest of the Babylonian monarchs, captured Jerusalem and carried the leading Jewish families into captivity. During his reign, Babylon was enlarged, fortified, and beautified until it became one of the most magnificent of the ancient cities. With great success, the kings and their courts were given over to luxury and licentiousness. Nabonidus, the last king, was ruling jointly with his son Belshazzar. It was during one of these scenes of wildest revelry, in which Belshazzar and his court participated, that a specter hand-writing appeared upon the wall, and that night Cyrus the Great, ruler of the Medes and Persians, captured the city and put an end to Babylonian power. The incident is related by one of the Jewish captives. “Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was at Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein. Then they brought the golden vessels.... They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, and of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone. "In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace; and the king saw.... Then his countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another." The king's astrologers and soothsayers could not read the writing, though promised large rewards. Finally Daniel, the captive Jew, was called and declared that God's own hand had written the decree which, being interpreted, is: "God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it... Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting.... Thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians." "In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain."-Daniel, Chapter V. OVERTHROW OF BELSHAZZAR Belshazzar is king! Belshazzar is lord! And a thousand dark nobles all bend at his board; And the beauty that maddens the passion of earth; Till the vast roofs ring, "All praise to Belshazzar, Belshazzar the king!" "Bring forth," cries the monarch, "the vessels of gold, Whilst the trumpets bray, And the cymbals ring, “Praise, praise to Belshazzar, Belshazzar the king!" What cometh?-look, look! Without menace or call? What drives the cold blood from his cheek to his heart? "Chaldeans! magicians! the letters expound!" They are read-and Belshazzar is dead on the ground! Hark! the Persian is come, On a conqueror's wing; And a Mede's on the throne of Belshazzar the king! SUGGESTIVE EXERCISES 1. Sketch briefly the history of the Babylonian kingdom. Locate Babylon. 2. Explain "all bend at his board." 3. Why were they praising Belshazzar the king? 4. What did he order done as a final touch of iniquitous revelry? 5. What were the "vessels of gold"? 6. What was "the temple of old"? 7. In worship of whom was the wild revelry carried on? Who was Baal? 8. What strange sight appeared to the revelers? 9. Who interpreted the writing? 10. How was it interpreted? 11. What events immediately followed? 12. In what sense does this poem interpret the statement, "Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people"? REFERENCES Vision of Belshazzar. To BYRON: Destruction of Sennacherib. Belshazzar. The Eve before Waterloo. DANIEL: Chapter V. MILTON Paradise Lost. (Battle Scene with Satan.) : LOWELL: We See Dimly in the Present. SILL: The Fool's Prayer. KNOX: Why Should the Spirit of Mortal be Proud? THE PATRIOT- AN OLD STORY A ROBERT BROWNING PATRIOT-LEADER, who perchance has saved his country from the ravages of a powerful foe, returns to his native city amidst profusion of flowers, flaming flags, the wild ringing of bells, and the mad plaudits and boundless love of his people. A year passes. He has done his best to serve the people, but the tide of public sentiment has turned against him, and today he goes cruelly bound, with forehead bleeding from the pelting stones, to the scaffold where a hostile populace exult fiend-like over his certain death. But "God shall repay," and with triumphant faith he declares, "I am safer so." The form of the poem is dramatic monologue. In the words of one speaker, the events, the actors, the scenery, even the stage itself, are suggested. The poem does not refer to any one in particular, but it is a universal interpretation of the variableness of the popular mind with "God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own." THE PATRIOT It was roses, roses, all the way, With myrtle mixed in my path like mad; The air broke into a mist with bells, The old walls rocked with the crowd and cries. Had I said, "Good folk, mere noise repels But give me your sun from yonder skies!" They had answered, "And afterward, what else?" Alack, it was I who leaped at the sun reap There's nobody on the house-tops now- At the Shambles' Gate-or, better yet, I go in the rain, and, more than needs, Thus I entered, and thus I go! In triumphs, people have dropped down dead. "Paid by the world, what dost thou owe Me?"-God might question; now instead, ""T is God shall repay: I am safer so." SUGGESTIVE EXERCISES 1. What do roses and myrtle signify? 2. Supply the words omitted in the phrase like mad. 3. What pictures are given in the first two stanzas? 4. Explain "The air broke into a mist with bells." 5. What statement shows most strongly the boundless love of the people? 6. What change is intimated by the first word in the third stanza? What does the entire stanza show? |