Poly monologue — Polyeucte

Arise, old man, from knees unused to bend, Or to another ear petition send! This artifice befits nor me nor thee, To beg of one twice threatened!--Mockery! First, by thy hand Nearchus felt the flame, Then love, forsooth, thy plea--(profaned name!) The path of Christian neophyte hast thou trod, And, in God's name, hast mocked Almighty God! Earth, heaven, and hell in turn have been thy tool, And him thou hast traduced thou wouldst befool! Go,--bully-flatterer--liar!--Every part Thou playest, while delay doth break my heart! Enough of dallying! While thou dost dissolve Thy feeble soul in doubt, hear my resolve: The God who made me--Him will I adore; He holds my plighted faith,--and evermore He works salvation for his ransomed race-- Who gave His Son to death that we might life embrace; And this--Christ's sacrifice--continued day by day, The Christ reveals and pleads--The Life--The Truth--The Way! No more His mysteries to self-stopped ears Will I disclose--(he heedeth not nor hears.) (Pointing to Felix.) Pray then to these thy gods of wood and stone, To gods who every deed of crime enthrone, Who boast their malice, and their foul incest, Vaunt theft and murder--all that we detest. This, their example,--Pagan--follow thou! To Pluto bend, to Aphrodite bow! For this I broke their altars, rased their shrine,-- Yea, for those crimes that thou dost call divine! And what I did, that would I do once more Before Severus--Decius,--nay, before The eyes of all men;--so would I proclaim One God alone adored,--one Holiest Name!