BAJAZET Essay Example For Students

BAJAZET Essay A monologue from the play by Jean Racine NOTE: This monologue is reprinted from The Dramatic Works of Jean Racine. Trans. Robert Bruce Boswell. London: George Bell and Sons, 1911. ACHMET: Wouldst thou have me learnNow at my age the worthless lore of love?And shall a heart that years of toil have hardendBlindly submit to follow vain delights?Nay, she attracts my gaze with other charms,I love in her the blood of royal sires.Through this alliance to the throne and brought nearBy Bajazet, I thus secure a shieldTo guard myself against him. Some offenceIs sure to rise, for scarcely has vizierBeen chosen ere the Sultan fears his creature,And greed or envy soon effects his ruin.To-day he honours me and courts my favour,The risks he runs incline his heart toward me.But stablishd on the throne, this BajazetPerchance will throw aside a useless friend:And, if my faithful service be forgotten,The day may come when he will dare to doom meTo death. I say no more, but tis my purposeTo keep him waiting for my head full long.I know the duty that I owe my masters,But tis for slaves to humour their caprices,Nor am I so besotted as to lickThe hand that strikes me. Thus it comes to passThat I within these walls have free admittance,And with mine eyes may look upon Roxana.At first she listend to my voice, herselfUnseen, and feard to break the rigid lawsThat guard the harem. But those irksome scruples,Our converse hampering, ere long were banishd.She has herself chosen this nook remoteWhere eyes may hearts discover unrestraind.A slave conducts me by a secret passageBut here she comes, with her loved Atalide.Stay, and be ready, should there need arise,To ratify the statement I shall make her.