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Semiramis, the glorious parent of
A hundred kings, although she failed in India,
Brought Persia--Media--Bactria--to the realm
Which she once swayed--and thou _mightst_ sway.

_Sar._ _I sway_ them--
She but subdued them.

_Sal._ It may be ere long
That they will need her sword more than your sceptre.

_Sar._ There was a certain Bacchus, was there not?
I've heard my Greek girls speak of such--they say
He was a God, that is, a Grecian god,
An idol foreign to Assyria's worship, 150
Who conquered this same golden realm of Ind
Thou prat'st of, where Semiramis was vanquished.

_Sal._ I have heard of such a man; and thou perceiv'st
That he is deemed a God for what he did.

_Sar._ And in his godship I will honour him--
Not much as man. What, ho! my cupbearer!

_Sal._ What means the King?

_Sar._ To worship your new God
And ancient conqueror. Some wine, I say.

_Enter Cupbearer_.

_Sar._ (_addressing the Cupbearer_).
Bring me the golden goblet thick with gems,
Which bears the name of Nimrod's chalice. Hence, 160
Fill full, and bear it quickly. [_Exit Cupbearer_.

_Sal._ Is this moment
A fitting one for the resumption of
Thy yet unslept-off revels?

_Re-enter Cupbearer, with wine_.

_Sar._ (_taking the cup from him_). Noble kinsman,
If these barbarian Greeks of the far shores
And skirts of these our realms lie not, this Bacchus
Conquered the whole of India,[8] did he not?

_Sal._ He did, and thence was deemed a Deity.[f]

_Sar._ Not so:--of all his conquests a few columns.[9]
Which may be his, and might be mine, if I
Thought them worth purchase and conveyance, are 170
The landmarks of the seas of gore he shed,
The realms he wasted, and the hearts he broke.
But here--here in this goblet is his title
To immortality--the immortal grape
From which he first expressed the soul, and gave
To gladden that of man, as some atonement
For the victorious mischiefs he had done.
Had it not been for this, he would have been
A mortal still in name as in his grave;
And, like my ancestor Semiramis,