MITHRIDATE Persuasive Essay Example For Students

MITHRIDATE Persuasive 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. XIPHARES: I love her, and may own my passionNow that that brother is my only rival.Doubtless you wonder at the words I speak,But tis no secret of a few short days,Long has this love of mine grown up in silence.How I could make you realize its ardour,My earliest sighs, my latest disappointment!But in the state to which we are reducedTis no fit time to task my memoryWith the recital of an amorous tale.Let it suffice, to justify myself,That it was I who first beheld the Queen,And loved her. Ere the name of MonimaHad reachd my fathers ears, her charms had rousedA lawful passion in my heart. He saw her,And courted her, but with unworthy suit,Deeming that she would prove an easy conquest,Without presuming to claim marriage honours.You know how warmly he assaild her virtue,And, weary of a long and fruitless struggle,Absent, but never parted from his passion,He by your hands sent her his diadem.Judge of my grief, when tidings came that toldToo truly of the purpose of the King,How Monima his destined bride had takenHer journey hither under your protection!Twas then, ah! odious time, my mothers eyesWere opend to the offers of the Romans.Whether in jealous rage at these new nuptials,Or to procure me Pompeys powrful favour,My father she betrayd, and gave to RomeThe town and treasures to her care entrusted.How did my mothers crime affect my feelings?No more I saw a rival in my father,I thought not of the love his own had crossd,And had no eyes but for my fathers wrongs.Soon I attackd the Romans; and my mother,Distracted, saw me wounded to the deathRecovering the place she had surrenderd,And with my dying breath cursing her name.Since then the Euxine has been free, and soRemains; from Pontus to the BosphorusAll ownd my fathers sway; his fleet victoriousFound winds and waves its only enemies.More I would fain have done; I thought, Arbates,To march upon Euphrates to his rescue,When I was stunnd by tidings of his death.But mingled with my tears, I will confess it,Back to my tho ughts came charming Monima,Entrusted by my father to your hands.In these sad times I trembled for her life,Dreading that in his cruel jealousyThe King, as oft before with many a mistress,Might means have taken to secure her death.Hither I flew, and neath Nymph?ums wallsMy anxious eyes encounterd Pharnaces,A sight, I trow, of evil augury.You received both of us, and know the rest.Hasty in all his actions, PharnacesOf his presumptuous wishes made no secret,Related to the Queen my fathers ruin,And, since the King was dead, offerd himselfTo fill his place; nor will his deeds fall shortOf words. I too will show what I can do.The love that bade me reverence a sireTo whom from childhood I have ownd submission,This very love, now rising in revolt,Scorns the authority of this new rival.Either the suit I venture to advanceMust be by Monima herself rejected,Or else, whatever ill may come of it,She shall not be anothers, while I live.Thus have I told the secrets of my heart;With you it rests to choose the side you take.Which of us seems the worthier of allegiance,The slave of Rome, or Mithridates son?