"THE FALL OP BABYLON." — Dramatized from the fifth chapter of Daniel. Historically true, dramatically perfect, artistically marvelous.

CHARACTERS AND ARTISTS.

Belshazzar, King of Babylon. ... M. Leonce Ferret, of Odeon Theatre, Paris
The Prophet Daniel ... George Wagus, The Famous French Impersonator.
The Dancer ... Mademoiselle Napierowski. The Opera Comique.

Cyrus, King of the Persiams — The Royal Houshold — And Ethiopian Chieftain — Dancing Girls — A Babylonian Captain — Persian Warriors — Chaldean Soldiers — Slave Drivers — Slaves — Messengers — Priests of the People — Soothsayers — Citizens and Tradesmen in great numbers.

Time — B. C. 538. Place — Babylon, The Princess and Glory of Kingdoms.

ACT I.
Scene 1 — The High Ramparts of Babylon.
Scene 2 — The Court of the Palace.
Scene 3 — The Treasure Rooms of the Temple.

ACT II.
Scene 1 — Banquet Hall of the Palace.
Scene 2 — The Handwriting on the Wall.

ACT HI.
Scene 1 — The River Gate at Night.
Scene 2 — Banquet Hall of the Palace.

ACT IV.
Scene 1 — The Burning City.
Scene 2 — The Triumph of Cyrus.

Time of Action — Twenty-four hours.

INTRODUCTION.

Now, first let it be known that Babylon the beau¬ tiful, builded to artistic completeness and fortified beyond any city of its time by Nebuchadnezzar and ruled over at the time of our drama by Belshazzar, his son, was surrounded by the Persians and their many allied armies under Cyrus.
For many days desultory battle had waged about the walls with no success to the attacking army.

The only hope of the Medes and Persians, who despaired of carrying by assault a city so well fortified and manned, was in cutting off all supplies of victuals and other necessities.

This was hard to do, in consideration of the vast length of the walls which gird the city.

Now, while the beseiged were pleasing themselves in that deceitful gladness, that is the ordinary fore¬ runner of sudden calamity, Cyrus, strong, constant, inventive, devised a huge number of channels and trenches, which were sufficient to draw the great Euphrates from its regular course through the city, and leave its dry bed a highroad of entry beneath the impregnable walls.

THE STORY AS TOLD IN DANIEL.

1. Belshazzar, the king, made a great feast to a thousand of his lords and drank wine before the thousand.
2. Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the glden and silver vessels which his father, Nebuchadnazzar, had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, his wives, and his concubines might drink therein
3. Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temples of the house of God, which was' at Jerusalem.
4. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood and of stone.
5. In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the pilaster of the wall of the king’s palace and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.
13 and 17. Then Daniel was brought in before the king * * * and said:
25. And this is the writing that was written: "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin."
2G. This is the interpretation of the thing: Mene — God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it.
27. Tekel — Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting.
28. Peres — Thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.
30 and 31. In that night was Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldreans slain. And Cyrus, the Median, took the kingdom. * * *

Source: The Film Index

The Book of Daniel narrates in its fifth chapter that, at a banquet, Baltasar desecrated the vessels from the temple of Jerusalem, which had previously been brought to Babylon as booty, by ordering them to be used as tableware by his courtiers. At that moment, a mysterious hand would have appeared and left some unintelligible words written on the wall. No court sage was able to decipher them, only the Hebrew prophet Daniel, who understood the language, announced that such arrogance would be punished with the death of Baltasar and the fall of his kingdom.

Source: Filmaffinity - Translated