ACT TWO

SCENE 8

EPILOGUE

Cassander, Glaucias, Alexander IV, Roxanê

(Cassander enters SL, followed by Glaucias who carries a tray with a flask and two glasses.)

CASSANDER

Glaucias, you have done well these many years. What do you say has brought us to this final gate?

GLAUCIAS

Its close will open to us our prospects. Cassander, we cannot touch Alexander who lies in a tomb in Egypt where Ptolemy rules. You are the general of Europe. Lysimachus rules Thrace. Antigonus rules Asia. The Greeks are now autonomous, but Antigonus is coming for all of it here.

CASSANDER

They all lust for the power over all that Alexander held. Now the word spreads that the son of Roxanê has grown up.

GLAUCIAS

Some proclaim the boy should be released from custody and given his father's kingdom.

CASSANDER

The new Alexander. I have taken all their wealth at Dodona and Pella. I have read all of Alexander's letters to Olympias and burned them. There shall be no worship of Alexander, ever. I know what secrets he had to disclose to her. Nothing there.

GLAUCIAS

The greatest was of his visits to the oracles at Dodona and in the desert at Siwah, they say.

CASSANDER

His fortune was mere chance, like the games he played. The casting of the dice. And, as chance would have it, he died very soon. His plans would have soon ended his rule, if he had lived. Here is the final door of the great god's life.

GLAUCIAS

The boy is tall for his age, considering his inheritance.

CASSANDER

Bring them out here.

(While Glaucias goes to the door, knocks, waits, and receives Alexander and Roxanê as they come out after a while, this aside:)

CASSANDER

(continuing)

We are alone here. No one will know. They believe the kingdom is rightfully his. Given to him! Simply placed in his hands? Never! Too much fighting and death for that to happen! The prize of these battles goes to me. I will wear the crown.

(The king and his mother come into the hall through the great door of their bedchamber.)

CASSANDER

(continuing)

Are you well today, Alexander?

ALEXANDER IV

Yes, thank you. Today, I would like to visit the people in the town, Cassander. I am ready to greet them.

CASSANDER

And so you shall, later, when we will all go together. I have prepared a refreshment for both of you. It is a new vintage I have just opened and want your opinion. Now go in, refresh yourselves, and dress for our visit to the people.

ROXANÊ

We are grateful to you, Cassander. You have guarded us well, and protected us from the perils out there in the wars for many years. We have been alone and isolated here. Would not giving the king his place in the lands once ruled by his father solve many problems? Is he not ready now?

CASSANDER

We shall discuss that as we travel to town. It is time for great changes to take place.

(The king and his mother go in.)

CASSANDER

(continuing)

Soon we shall see. Roxanê, the Asian barbarian, a queen? Courtesan, concubine or wife? Not the favorite of Alexander. She murdered his next wife, Barsine-Stateira, with Alexander's baby in her womb. She stood behind the murder of Eurydice and Philip Arrhidaeus.

(Glaucias comes out and closes the door.)

CASSANDER

(continuing)

Are they refreshing themselves?

(Glaucias nods and stands by the door to listen. During the following, screams begin to be heard from behind the door.)

CASSANDER

(continuing)

Alexander was not the true heir of Philip. Olympias was a barbarian, not a Macedonian princess at the time of their marriage. Therefore, Alexander was a Pretender, with no legal right to the throne.

(The moaning begins, and grows louder.)

CASSANDER

(continuing)

Glaucias, take the bodies out at night and conceal them well, where there is no possibility they will ever be found. And, Glaucias, on pain of death to you and all your family, disclose to no one what you have done.

(The cries of pain begin to peak.)

CASSANDER

(continuing)

A proclamation shall be issued, Glaucias. Alexander was a drunkard, a murderer of friends and companions, and a power-mad tyrant.

(The cries of the boy and the mother are at their peak now. The mother can be heard shouting "Alexander", and the boy, "Mother", There is banging on the door. Then the boy's voice alone is heard.)

CASSANDER

(continuing)

Henceforth, all publications not showing Alexander as such, are banned. No one shall read anything about him--

(One last, weak knock on the door. A loud moan growing instantly weak. Then silence.)

CASSANDER

(continuing)

--but that which shows him to be the evil person he really was.

END OF THE PLAY