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Title: David - A Tragedy
Author: Rice, Cale Young
Language: English
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DAVID;
A Tragedy
by
CALE YOUNG RICE
* * * * * *
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
_Charles Di Tocca_
* * * * * *
DAVID;
A Tragedy
by
CALE YOUNG RICE
[Illustration]
New York
McClure, Phillips & Co.
MCMIV
Two hundred and fifty copies of this book have been
printed at the McClure Press, of which
this is No. __________
Copyright, 1904, by
McClure, Phillips & Co.
Published May, 1904. N.
AFFECTIONATELY
TO MY BROTHER
LACY L. RICE
CHARACTERS
SAUL King of Israel.
JONATHAN Heir to the throne.
ISHUI His brother.
SAMUEL The Prophet of Israel.
ABNER Captain of the Host of Israel.
DOEG An Edomite; Chief Servant of Saul,
and suitor for Michal.
ADRIEL A lord of Meholah, suitor for Merab.
DAVID A Shepherd, secretly anointed King.
ABISHAI A follower of David.
ABIATHAR A Priest and follower of David.
A PHILISTINE SPY
AHINOAM The Queen.
MERAB }
MICHAL } Daughters of Saul and Ahinoam.
MIRIAM A blind Prophetess, and later the
“Witch of Endor.”
JUDITH }
LEAH } Timbrel-players of the King.
ZILLA }
ADAH Handmaiden to Merab.
A Chorus of Women. A Band of Prophets. Followers of David.
Soldiers of Saul. People of the Court, etc.
DAVID
ACT I
_SCENE: A Hall of Judgment in the palace of Saul at Gibeah. The
walls, pillars and ceiling are of cedar richly carven with images
of serpents, pomegranates and cherubim in gold. The floors are of
bright marble; the throne of ivory, hung with a lion’s skin whose
head is its footstool. On the right and left, doors, draped with
finely woven curtains of purple and white, lead to other portions
of the palace. Seats toward the front. Lamps burn low._
_The Hall, supported on pillars, is open along the back, where
a Porch, surrounding the Court of the palace, crosses. Through
the Porch, on the environing hills, glow the camp-fires of the
Philistines, the enemies of Israel._
_JUDITH, LEAH and ZILLA are reclining restively on the floor of
the Hall._
JUDITH
[_Springing to her feet impatiently._]
O for a feast! pomegranate wine and song!
LEAH
Oh! oh!
ZILLA
A feast indeed! the men in camp!
When was a laugh or any leaping here?
Never; and none to charm with timbreling!
[_She goes to the porch._]
LEAH
What shall we do?
JUDITH
I’ll dance.
ZILLA
Until you’re dead.
JUDITH
Or till a youth wed Zilla for her beauty?
I’ll not soil mine with sullen fear all day
Because these Philistines press round. As well
Be wenches gathering grapes or wool! Come, Leah.
[_She prepares to dance._]
LEAH
No, Judith, I’ll put henna on my nails,
And mend my anklet.
[_She sits down._]
ZILLA
[_At the curtains._] Oh! oh, oh!
JUDITH
Now hear her!
Who, who, now? who, who is it? dog, fox, devil?
ZILLA
All!
JUDITH
Then ’tis Ishui! [_Bounding to curtains._] Yes, Ishui!
And fury in him, sallow, sour fury!
A jackal were his mate! Come, come, we’ll plague him.
ZILLA
And too--with David whom he hates!
JUDITH
Aie, David!
A joy to rouse men up to jealousy!
LEAH
Why hates he David, Zilla?
ZILLA
Stupid Leah!
JUDITH
Hush, hush, be meet and ready now; he’s near.
Look as for silly visions and for dreams!
[_They pose themselves. Ishui enters--sees them. Judith sighs._]
ISHUI
Now timbrel-gaud, why gaping here!
JUDITH
O! ’tis
Prince Ishui!
ZILLA
Prince Ishui! Then he
Will tell us! he will tell us!
LEAH
Yes!
JUDITH
Of David!
O is he come! when, where, quick, quick, and will
He pluck us ecstasies out of his harp,
Winning until we’re wanton for him, mad,
And sigh and laugh and weep to the moon!
ISHUI
Low thing!
Chaff of the king!
JUDITH
The king! I had not thought!
David a king! how beauteous would he be!
ISHUI
David?
JUDITH
Turban of sapphire! robe of gold!
ISHUI
A king? o’er Israel?
JUDITH
Who, who can tell!
Have you not heard? Yesterday in the camp
Among war-old but fearful men he offered
Kingly to meet Goliath--great Goliath!
ISHUI
What do you say? to meet Goliath?
JUDITH
[_Laughing in his face._] Aie!
[_He thrusts her from him. She goes dancing with Zilla and
Leah._]
ADRIEL
[_Who has entered._] Ishui, in a rage?
ISHUI
Should I not be!
ADRIEL
Not would you be yourself.
ISHUI
Not? [_Deftly_.] You say well.
I should not, no. Pardon, then, Adriel.
ADRIEL
What was the offence?
ISHUI
Turn from it.--I have not
Bidden you here for vapours; yet they had
Substance as well for you!
ADRIEL
For me?
ISHUI
Who likes
Laughter against him!
ADRIEL
I was laughed at?
ISHUI
Why,
It is this shepherd!
ADRIEL
David?
ISHUI
With his harp!
Flinging enchantment on the palace air
Till he impassions to him all who breathe.
ADRIEL
What sting from that? He’s lovable and brave.
ISHUI
Lovable? _Lovable?_
ADRIEL
I do not see.
ISHUI
This then: you’ve hither come with gifts and gold,
Dream-bringing amethyst and weft of Ind,
To wed my sister, Merab?
ADRIEL
It is so.
ISHUI
And you’ve the king’s consent; but she denies?
ADRIEL
As every wind, you know it.
ISHUI
Still denies!
And you, lost in the maze of her, fare on
Blindly and find no reason for it!
ADRIEL
How?
What reason can be? women are not clear;
And least unto themselves.
ISHUI
Or to their fools.
[_He goes to curtains and draws out Adah._]
Your mistress, Merab, girl, whom does she love?
Unclench your hands.
ADAH
I hate her.
ISHUI
Insolent!
Answer; I am not milky Jonathan.
Answer; and for the rest--You hear?
ADAH
She loves--
The shepherd David!
ADRIEL
Who, girl?
ADAH
I care not!
She is unkind; I wilt not spy for her
On Michal, and I’ll tell her secrets all!
And David does not love her--and she raves.
ISHUI
Off to your sleep; now off--
[_Makes to strikes her._]
ADRIEL
Ishui, no.
[ADAH _goes_.]
ISHUI
And see you now how ‘lovable’ he is!
I tell you that he stands athwart us all!
The heart of Merab swung a censer to him,
My seat at table with the king usurped!
Mildew and mocking to the harp of Doeg,
As it were any slave’s; the while we all
Are lepered with suspicion.
ADRIEL
Of the king?
ISHUI
Ah! and of Jonathan and Michal.
ADRIEL
Hush.
[_Enter_ MICHAL _passing with_ MIRIAM.]
Michal, delay. Whom lead you?
MICHAL
Miriam,
A prophetess.
ADRIEL
How of the king to-night?
MICHAL
He’s not at rest; dreads Samuel’s prophecy
The throne shall pass from him, and darkens more
Against this boundless Philistine Goliath
Who dares at Israel daily on the hills,
As we were dogs!
ADRIEL
Is David with him?
MICHAL
No;
But he is sent for--and will ease him--Ah!
He’s wonderful to heal the king with his harp!
A waft, a sunny leap of melody,
And swift the hovering mad shadow’s gone--
As magic!
ISHUI
Michal.… Curst!
MICHAL
What anger’s this?
ISHUI
Disdaining Doeg and his plea to dust,
His waiting and the winning-o’er of Edom,
You are enamoured of this David too?
MICHAL
I think my brother Ishui hath a fever.
[_She goes--calmly, with Miriam._]
ISHUI
Now are you kindled--are you quivering,
Or must this shepherd put upon us more?
ADRIEL
But has he not dealt honorably?
ISHUI
No.
ADRIEL
Why do you urge it?
ISHUI
Why have senses. He
With Samuel the prophet fast enshrouds
Some secret, and has Samuel not told
The kingdom from my father shall be rent
And fall unto another?
ADRIEL
You are certain?
ISHUI
As granite.
[_Voices are heard in altercation._]
Yonder!
ADRIEL
The king?
ISHUI
And Samuel
With prophecy or some refusal tears him!
[_They step aside._ SAUL _followed by_ SAMUEL _strides
in and mounts the throne_.]
SAUL
You threat, and ever thunder threatening!
Pour seething prophesy into my veins,
Till a simoon of madness in me moves.
Am I not king, the king? chosen and sealed?
Who’ve been anathema and have been bane
Unto the foes of Israel, and filled
The earth with death of them?
And do you still forbid that I bear gold
And bribe away this Philistine array
Folded about us, fettering with flame?
SAMUEL
Yes,--yes! While there is air, and awe of Heaven
Do I forbid! A champion must rise
To level this Goliath. Thus may we
Loose on them pest of panic and of fear.
SAUL
Are forty days not dead? A champion!
None will arise--’tis vain. And I’ll not wait
On miracle.
SAMUEL
Offer thy daughter then,
Michal, thy fairest, to whoever shall.
SAUL
Demand and drain for more! without an end.
Ever vexation! No; I will not.
SAMUEL
Then,
Out of Jehovah and a vast foreseen
I tell thee again, thou perilous proud king,
The sceptre shall slip from thee to another!
[_He moves to go._]
SAUL
The sceptre.…
SAMUEL
To another!
SAUL
From me! No!
You rouse afar the billowing of ill.
I grant--go not!--I grovel to your will,
Fear it and fawn as to omnipotence,
[_Snatching at_ SAMUEL’S _mantle_.]
And vow to all its divination--all!
SAMUEL
Then, Saul of Israel, the hour is near,
When shall arise one, and Goliath fall!
[SAMUEL _goes slowly out_, SAUL _sinks back_.]
ISHUI
Oh,--subtle!
SAUL
Thus he sways me.
ISHUI
Subtle!--subtle!
And yet I must not speak; come, Adriel,
No use of us here.
[_He makes as if to go._]
SAUL
Use? subtle? Stand!
ISHUI
No, father, no.
SAUL
What mean you?
ISHUI
Do not ask.…
Yet how it creeps, and how!
SAUL
Unveil your words.
ISHUI
Do you not see it crawl, this serpent scheme?
Goliath slain--the people mad with praise,
Then fallen from you--Michal the victor’s wife.…
SAUL
Say on; say on.
ISHUI
Or else the champion slain--
Fear on the people--panic--the kingdom’s ruin!
SAUL
Now do the folds slip from me.
ISHUI
And you see?
Ah then, if one arise? If one arise?
SAUL
Death, death! If he hath touched this prophet--if
Merely a little moment!--
ISHUI
I have seen
Your David with him.
SAUL
Death! if--Come here: David?
ISHUI
In secret.
SAUL
Say you?
ISHUI
Yes,
SAUL
The folds slip further;
To this you lead me--hatred against David!
To this with supple envy’s easy glide!
ISHUI
I have but told--
SAUL
You have but builded lies,
As ever you are building and forever.
I’ll hear no more against him--Abner--No.
[_To_ ABNER, _who enters_.]
David, and with his harp.
ABNER
My lord--
SAUL
Not come?
He is not come? And never! but delays.
ABNER
Time’s yet to pass.
SAUL
There is not--Am I king?
[_A harp is heard._]
See you, ’tis he! ’Tis David, and he sings!
DAVID [_Bravely, within._]
Smiter of hosts,
Terrible Saul!
Vile on the hills shall he laugh who boasts
None is among
Great Israel’s all
Fearless for Saul, king Saul!
[_Entering with people of the palace._]
Aye, is there none
Galled of the sting,
Will at the soul of Goliath run?
Wring it and up
To his false gods fling?…
None for the king, the king?
[_He drops to his knee, amid praise, before the throne._]
SAUL [_Darkening_]
Forego this praise and stand
Away from him; ’tis overmuch.
[_To_ DAVID] Why have
You dallied and delayed?
DAVID
My lord, delayed?
SAUL
Do not smile wonder, mocking!
DAVID
Why, my lord,
I do not mock. Only the birds have wings.
Yet on the vales behind me I have left
Haste and a swirling wonderment of air,
And in the torrent’s troubled vein amaze,
So swift I hurried hither at your urgence
Out of the fields and folding the far sheep!
SAUL
You have not; you have dallied.
[_He motions. All go but_ DAVID, _whom he
comes down toward, indeterminately_.]
You have dallied.
DAVID
Deep in the king I see a darkness foam
And sheeted passion, as a lightning gust.
Shall I not play to him?
SAUL
You shall not, no.
[_Slowly draws a dagger._]
I’ll not be lulled.
DAVID
Is it a tiger gleam,
Terrible fury stealing from the heart
And crouching cold within the eye of Saul?
SAUL
I’ll not endure. They say that you--
DAVID
They say?
What is this ravage in you. Does the truth
So limpid overflow in palaces?
Never an enemy to venom it?
Am I not David, faithful, and thy friend?
SAUL
I’ll slay you, and regretless.
DAVID [_Unmoving_]
Slay, my lord?
SAUL
Do you not fear? and brave me to my breast!
DAVID
Have I done wrong that I should fear the king?
Reed as I am, could he not breathe and break?
And I should be oblivion at a word!
But under the terror of his might have I
Not seen his heart beat justice and beat love?
See, even now…!
SAUL
I will not listen to them!
DAVID
To whom, my lord, and what?
SAUL
Ever they say,
“This David,” and “this David!”
DAVID
Ah, my harp!
SAUL
But think you, David, I shall lose the kingdom?
DAVID [_Starting_]
My lord…!
SAUL
Pain in your eyes? you think it? Deem
I cannot overleap this destiny?
DAVID
To that let us not verge; it has but ill.
Deeper the future gulf is for our fears.
Forget it. Forget the brink may ever gape,
And wield the throne so well that God himself
_Must_ not unking you, more than he would cry
The morning star from Heaven! Then, I swear it,
None else will!
SAUL
Swear?
DAVID
Nay, nay!
SAUL
You swear?
DAVID
But words,
Foolishly from the heart; a shepherd speech!
Give them no mood; but see, see yonder fires
Camping upon the peace of Israel,
As we were carrion beneath the sun!
Let us conceive annihilation on them,
Hurricane rush and deluging and ruin.
SAUL
Ah, but the prophecy! the prophecy!
It eats in me the food of rest and ease.
And David, nearer: Samuel in my stead
Another hath anointed.
DAVID
Saul, not this!
This should not fall to me, my lord; no more!
You cannot understand; it pains beyond
All duty and enduring!
SAUL
Pains beyond…?
Who is he? know you of him? do you? know you?
You sup the confidence of Samuel?
I’ll search from Nile to Nineveh--
DAVID
My lord!
SAUL
Mountain and desert, wilderness and sea,
Under and over, search--and find.
DAVID
Peace, peace!
[_Enter_ MICHAL _joyously_.]
MICHAL
O father, father! David! Listen!--Why,
All here is dark and quivering as pain,
And a foreboding binds me ere I breathe!
David, you have not been as sun to him!
DAVID
But Michal will be now.
SAUL
Child, well, what then?
MICHAL
Father, a secret! Oh, and it will make
Dawn and delight in you!
SAUL
Perhaps; then, well?
MICHAL
Oh, I have heard…!
SAUL
Have heard?--Why do you pale?
[_She stands unaccountably moved._]
Now are you Baal-bit?
DAVID
Michal!
MICHAL [_In terror._]
David!… the dread.
What does it mean? I cannot speak! It shrinks
Shivering down upon my heart in awe!
DAVID
So piteous are you? suddenly so numb?
And you are faint? let it rush from your lips!
Can any moving in the world so bring
Terror upon you! Speak, what is it?
MICHAL
Ah!
I know not; danger rising and its wing
Sudden against my lips!
DAVID
To warn?
MICHAL
It shall not!
There--now again flows joy; I think it flows.
SAUL
Then--you have heard…?
MICHAL
Yes, father, yes! Have you
Not much desired discovery of whom
Samuel hath anointed?
SAUL
Well?
MICHAL
I’ve found
[DAVID _blenches_.]
Almost have found! A prophetess to-day
Hath told me that he is a--
[_She stops in realizing horror._]
SAUL
Now you cease?
Sudden and senseless!
MICHAL
David?--No!
SAUL
God! God!
Have I not bidden swiftly! Ever then
Vexation! I could--No. Will she not speak!
MICHAL
I cannot.
SAUL
Cannot! Are you flesh of me!
DAVID
My lord, not anger! Hear me …
SAUL
Cannot?
DAVID
Hear!
Her lips could never seal upon a wrong.
Sudden divinity is on them, silence
Sent for the benison of Israel,
Else were it shattered by her love to you!
Believe! in all the riven realm of duty
There’s no obedience from thee she would hold.
If it seem other--
[_Enter_ ABNER _hurriedly_.]
ABNER
Pardon, O king. At once!
SAUL
I will not. Do you come with vexing too?
ABNER
The Philistines--some fury is afoot.
A spy within our gates--and scorns to speak.
SAUL
Conspiracy of silence!… Back to him.
[ABNER _goes_.]
[_To_ DAVID _and_ MICHAL.] But you--I’ll not forget.
I’ll not forget.
[SAUL _goes_.]
DAVID
Forget! anointing! peril! what are they all!
Michal?--for me you have done this, for me?
[_She stands immovable._]
I am swung with joy, as palms of Abila!
[_Goes to her._]
A princess, you, and the veins of you live warm
With sympathy and love unto your father,
Yet you have shielded me?
MICHAL
You are the anointed?
DAVID
I am--oh do not flint your loveliness!--
I am the anointed, but all innocent
In will or hope of any envious wrong
As lily blowing of blasphemy! as dew
Upon it is of enmity!
MICHAL
Anointed!
You whom the king uplifted from the fields!
DAVID
And who am ever faithful to him!
MICHAL
You,
Whom Jonathan loves more than women love!
DAVID
Yet reaches not my love to Jonathan!
MICHAL
You--you!
DAVID
But, hear me!
MICHAL
You, of all!
DAVID
O Hear!
Of my anointing Jonathan is ’ware,
Knows it is holy, helpless, innocent
As dawn or a drift of dreaming in the night!
Knows it unsought--out of the skies--supernal--
From the inspirèd cruse of Samuel!
For Israel it dripped upon me, and
For Israel must drip until I die!
Or till high Gath and Askalon are blown
Dust on the wind, and all Philistia
Lie peopleless and still under the stars!--
Goliath, then, a laughter evermore!…
Still, still you shrink! do you not see, not feel?
MICHAL
So have you breathed yourself about my heart,
Even as moon-lit incense, spirit flame
Burning away all barrier!
DAVID
But see!
MICHAL
And all the world has streamed a rapture in,
Till even now my lids from anger falter
And the dew falls!
DAVID
Restrain! O do not weep!
Upon my heart each tear were as a sea
Flooding it from all duty but the course
Of thy delight!
MICHAL
Poor, that I should have tears!
Fury were better, tempest! O weak eyes,
When ’tis my father, and with Samuel
You creep to steal his kingdom!
DAVID
Michal!… God!
MICHAL
Yes, steal it!
DAVID
Cruel! fell accusal! Yes,
Utterly false and full of wounding!
[_Struggling, then with control._] Yet,
Forgive that even when thy arrows drive
Deeper than all the skill of time can draw,
I spare thee not the furrowed face of pain.…
Delirious wings of hope that fluttered up,
At last to fall!
[_Moves to go._]
MICHAL
David!
DAVID
Farewell!
MICHAL
… You must not!
DAVID
Peace to you--peace and joy!
MICHAL
You must not go!
[_He turns. She sways, then reaches out her
arms. As irresistibly they move toward each
other_, DOEG _and_ MERAB _appear through
the curtains_. MICHAL _utters a low cry_.
_They vanish._]
MICHAL
[_In numb affright_] Merab and Doeg!
DAVID
Yet what matter, now!
Were it the driven night-unshrouded dead!
Under the firmament is but one need,
That you will understand!
MICHAL
But Merab! ah,
She’s cunning, cold and cruel, and she loves thee;
Hath told her love to Ahinoam the queen!
And Doeg hates thee--since for me he’s mad!
DAVID
Be it, his hate, as wild, as wide as winds
That gather up the desert for their blast,
Be it as Sheol deep, stronger than stars
That fling fate on us, and I care not, care not,
If I am trusted and to Michal truth!
Hear, hear me! for the kingdom, tho ’t may come,
I yearn not, but for you!
MICHAL
No, no!
DAVID
For you!
Since I a shepherd o’er a wild of hills
First beheld you the daughter of the king
Amid his servants, leaning, still with noon,
Beautiful under a tamarisk, until
All beauty else is dead--
MICHAL
Ah cease!
DAVID
Since then,
I have been wonder ecstasy and dream!
The molded light and fragrant miracle,
Body of you and soul, lifted me till
When you departed--
MICHAL
No, you rend me!
DAVID
I
Fell thro’ infinity of void!
MICHAL
No more!
DAVID
Then came the prophet Samuel with anointing!
My hope sprung as the sun!
MICHAL
I must not hear!
DAVID
Then was I called to play before the king.
Here in this hall where cherubim shine out,
Where the night silence--
MICHAL
David!
DAVID
Strung me tense,
I waited, shepherd-timid, and you came,
You for the king to try my skill! you, you!
MICHAL
Leave me, ah leave! I yield!
DAVID
And often since
Have we not swayed and swept thro’ happy hours,
Far from the birth unto the bourne of bliss?
MICHAL
And I--
DAVID
To-night you did not to the king
Reveal my helpless chrism, give me to peril.
Say but the reason!
MICHAL
David!
DAVID
Speak, O speak!
MICHAL
And shall I, shall I? how this prophetess
Miriam hath foretold--
DAVID
Some wonder? speak!
MICHAL [_Springing up the throne._] Hath told I shall be queen of Israel!
DAVID
Michal, the queen? the queen! We two are then
Yoked of eternity unto this end!
MICHAL [_Shrinking down._] No, no! horror in me moans out against it!
Wed me with destiny against my father?
Dethrone my mother? Ah!
DAVID
Not that--no wrong!
MICHAL
Then swear conspiracy upon its tide
Never shall lift you!
DAVID
Deeper than soul or sea,
Deep as divinity is deep, I swear.
If it shall come, the kingdom--
MICHAL
“If!” not “if.”
Surrender this anointing! Spurn it, say
You never will be king though Israel
Kingless go mad for it!
DAVID
I cannot.
MICHAL
Guile!
DAVID
I cannot--and I must not. It is holy!
MICHAL
Then must I hate you--scorn you--
DAVID
Michal!
MICHAL
And will.
But to reign over Israel you care,
Not for the peace of it!
DAVID
Thus all is vain;
A seething on the lips, I’ll say no more …
Care but to reign and not for Israel’s calm?
I who am wounded with her every wound?…
Look out upon yon Philistine bold fires
Lapping the night with bloody tongue--look out!
[_A commotion is heard within._]
As God has swung the world and hung forever
The infinite in awe, to-morrow night
Not one of them shall burn!
MICHAL
You pall me!
DAVID
None!
MICHAL
What is this strength! It seizes on me! No,
I’ll not believe, no, no, more than I would
From a boy’s breath or the mere sling you wear
A multitude should flee! And you shall learn
A daughter to a father may be true
Tho paleness be her doom until she die!
[_She turns to go. Enter_ JONATHAN _eagerly_.]
JONATHAN
David!
DAVID
My friend--my Jonathan! ’Tis you?
[_They embrace._ MICHAL _goes_.]
JONATHAN
Great heart, I’ve heard how yesterday before
The soldiers you.… But Michal gone? No word?
DAVID
The anointing.
JONATHAN
Ah, she knows?
DAVID
All.
JONATHAN
And disdains
Believing? tell me.
DAVID
No, not now--not now.
Let me forget it in a leap of deeds.
[_The commotion sounds again._]
And all this murmur misty of distress,
What is it? sprung of the Philistines? new terror?
This sounding giant flings again his foam?
Jonathan, I am flame that will not wait,
What is it? I must strike.
JONATHAN
David.…
DAVID
Tell me,
And do not bring dissuasion more, or pause.
JONATHAN
The king comes here.
DAVID
Now?
JONATHAN
With a spy who keeps
Fiercely to silence.
DAVID
Then is peril up!
Jonathan--!
JONATHAN
David, you must cool from this.
Determination surges you o’erfar.
I will not see you rush on perishing,
Not though it be the aid of Israel.
DAVID
I must.… I will not let them ever throng,
Staining the hills, and starving us from peace.
Rather the last ray living in me, rather
Death and the desecration of the worm.
Bid me not back with love, nor plea; I must!
JONATHAN
But think--
DAVID
I must.
JONATHAN
’Twere futile.
DAVID
Hear; the king!
JONATHAN
The madness of it!
DAVID
No, and see; they come.
JONATHAN
Strangely my father is unstrung.
DAVID
They come.
[_Enter_ SAUL _with_ SAMUEL; _Soldiers with the
spy_; AHINOAM _with_ ABNER; _and all the
court in suppressed dread_.]
SAUL
[_To_ SAMUEL] He will not speak, but scorns me, and his lips
Bitterly curve and grapple. But he shall
Learn there is torture to it! Set him forth.
[_The spy is thrust forward._]
Tighten his bonds up till he moan.
[_It is done._]
Aye, gasp,
Accursed Philistine! Now wilt thou tell
The plan and passion of thy people ’gainst us?
SPY
Baal!
SAUL
Tighten the torture more.… Now will you?
SPY [_In agony._]
Yea!
SAUL
On, then, reveal.
SPY
New forces have arrived.
Numberless; more than peaks of Arabah.
[_General movement of uneasiness._]
Unless before to-morrow’s moon one’s sent
To overthrow Goliath--Gods! the pain!
SAUL
Well?--Well?
SPY
Then Gibeah attacked, and all
Even to sucking babes be put to sword!
[_A movement of horror._]
AHINOAM
All Gibeah!
A WOMAN
My little ones? No, no!
[_She rushes frantically out._]
SAMUEL
Then, Saul of Gibeah, one thing and one
Alone is to be done. A champion,
To break this beetling giant down to death!
SAUL
There is none.
SAMUEL
Is none! Call! I order it.
SAUL
Then who will dare against him!
[_A silence._]
See you now.
SAMUEL
You, Abner, will not?
ABNER
It were death and vain.
SAMUEL
Doeg, chief servant of the king?
DOEG
Why me?
Had I a mother out of Israel?
I am an alien, an Edomite.
DAVID
My lord, this is no more endurable!
Futile and death? Alien? Edomite?
Has not this Philistine before the gates
With insult and illimitable breath
Vaunting of vanity and smiting laughter
Boasted and braved and threatened up to Baal?
And now unless one slay him, Israel
From babe to age must bleed and be no more!
I am a shepherd, have but seized the lion
And throttled the bleating kid out of his throat;
Little it then beseems that I thrust in
Where battle captains pale and falter off;
But this is past all carp of rank or station.
One must go out--Goliath must have end.
DOEG
Ah, ah! and _you_ will!
ISHUI
_You?_
JONATHAN
No, David!
SAUL
_You?_
DAVID
Sudden you hound about me ravenous?
Have I thrown doom not daring to your feet,
Ruler of Israel, that you rise wild,
Livid above me as an avalanche?
DOEG
A plot! it is a plot! He will be slain--
From you, my lord, dominion then will fall!
Or should it not …
SAMUEL
Liar; it is no plot.
But courage sprung seraphic out of night,
Beautiful and a bravery from God!
MICHAL [_Behind the throng._]
Open, and let me enter! Open!
[_She enters._]
Father,
It is not false? but now, the uttermost?
To-morrow, if Goliath still exult,
There’s peril of desolation, bloody ruin?
SAMUEL
I answer for him.
MICHAL
Then to your will,
Father, unto will of yesterday
I bend me now with sacrificial joy.
Unto Goliath’s slayer is the hand
Of Michal, the king’s daughter!
DAVID [_Joyously_]
Michal! Michal!
DOEG
See, see, my lord! Do you not understand?
ISHUI
It is another coiling of their plot!
MICHAL
Coiling of plot? What mean you?
MERAB
Ah? You know
Not it is David offers against Goliath?
MICHAL
David? [_Shrinking_] David?
[_A low tumult is heard without.
Enter a Captain hurriedly._]
CAPTAIN
O King, bid me to speak!
SAUL
Then speak!
CAPTAIN
Fear is upon the host. There will
Be mutiny unless, Goliath slain,
Courage spring up anew.
DAVID
My lord, then, choose!
Ere longer waiting fester to disaster.
SAMUEL
Yea, king of Gibeah, and bid him go,
And Michal for his meed! or evermore
Evil be on you and the sear of shame--
And haunting memory beyond the tomb!
SAUL
Then let him--let him. And upon the field
Of Ephes-Dammin. But I am not blind!
[_To_ ABNER]
Let him, to morrow! Go, prepare the host.
Yet--I am king, remember! I am king!
[SAUL _goes_; _there is a murmur of relief_. _All
except_ MICHAL _follow, with various expressions
of joy or hate toward_ DAVID.]
DAVID
Michal!
[_She looks at him; struggles against tears, and
turning, goes._ DAVID _stands gazing sadly
after her_. _Then a trumpet sounds, and soldiers
shouting exultantly without, throng to
the porch._]
DAVID [_Thrilled; his hand on his sling_]
For Israel! For Israel!
[_He goes, toward the soldiers._]
[_CURTAIN._]
ACT II
_SCENE: The royal tent of Saul pitched on one hill of the
battle-field of Ephes-Dammin. The tent is of black embroidered
with various warlike designs. To one side on a dais are the
chairs of SAUL and AHINOAM; also DAVID’S harp. On the other side,
toward the front, is a table with wine and wine cups. The tent
wall is lifted along the back, revealing on the opposite hill,
across a deep narrow valley, the routed camp of the Philistines:
before it in gleaming brazen armor lies GOLIATH slain. Other
hills beyond, and the sky above. By the wine table, her back to
the battle-field, sits MERAB in cold anger. AHINOAM and several
women look out in ecstasy toward DAVID, SAUL, JONATHAN and the
army, returning victorious and shouting._
FIRST WOMAN
See, see, at last!
SECOND WOMAN
They come!
THIRD WOMAN
An avalanche.
Over the brook and bright amid hosannas!
SECOND WOMAN
And now amid the rushes!
FIRST WOMAN
And the servants!
Goliath’s head high-borne upon a charger!
The rocks that cry reverberant and vast!
The people and the palms!
THIRD WOMAN
Yea all the branches
Torn from the trees! The waving of them--O!
SECOND WOMAN
And David, see! triumphant, calm, between
The king and Jonathan!… His glory
All the wild generations of the wind
Ever shall utter! Hear them--
[_The tumult ascends afar_]
David! David!
A sea of shouting!--
O queen!
AHINOAM
You yearn for it?
Then go and lave you in this tide of joy.
[_The women go rapturously._ AHINOAM _turns_.]
MERAB
Mother!
AHINOAM
My daughter?
MERAB
Well?
AHINOAM
They all are gone.
MERAB
And Michal, where?
AHINOAM
I do not know, my child.
MERAB
Why did my father pledge her to him! you
Not hindering!
AHINOAM
She is your sister. You
Are pledged to Adriel.
MERAB
And as a slave!
And if I do not love him there is--riches!
If he is Sodom-bitter to me--riches!
AHINOAM
But for the kingdom.
MERAB
For my torture! What
Kingdom is to a woman as her love!
AHINOAM
And David still enthralls you?
MERAB
Though he never
Sought me with any murmur or desire!
Though he is Michal’s for Goliath’s death!
Michal’s to-day, unless--
AHINOAM
Merab, a care!
Too near in you were ever love and hate.
[_The tumult nears._ AHINOAM _goes to look out._]
[DOEG _enters to_ MERAB.]
DOEG [_low_]
News, Merab!
MERAB
Well--?
DOEG
A triumph o’er him, yet!
The king is worn, as a leopard pent, between
Wonder of David and quick jealousy
Because of praise this whelming of Goliath
Wakes in the people.
MERAB
Then? the triumph?
DOEG
This.
[_The tumult, nearer._]
I’ve skilfully disposed the women
To coldly sing of Saul, but of our David
With lavish of ecstasy as to a king.
[_He watches her._]
MERAB
Then _I_ will praise him.
DOEG
David? you?
MERAB
As he
Was never--and shall never be again,--
DOEG
But--
MERAB
Give me the phial.
DOEG
The poison?
MERAB
Come; At once!
DOEG
What will you do?
MERAB
At once with it!
[_He hands it to her. She dips the point of her dagger
in it._]
DOEG
To stab him
MERAB
As any fool? Wait.--And the rest now, quick.
This timbrel-player, Judith?
DOEG
She is ready
And ravishing!
MERAB
Well, well; then--?
DOEG
We will send her
Sudden, as Michal is alone with David,
To seize him with insinuative kisses,
And arms that wind as they were wonted to him.
Michal once jealous--and already I
Have sowed suspicions--
MERAB
Will--? yes--?
DOEG
On him burst [_laughs_]
And as a fury.
MERAB
May it be their rending!
[_The tumult, near._]
Come, we must see.
[_They go to look out. Shouts of “David!”
“David!” arise, and a band of timbrel-players,
dancing and singing, followed by a band
of priests bearing the ark with its cherubim of
gold, pass the tent opening._ DAVID, SAUL,
JONATHAN, ISHUI _and the Court then enter
amid acclamations; before them servants, bearing
the head of Goliath on a charger under
a napkin_. SAUL _darkly mounts the throne
with_ AHINOAM, _to waving of palms and to
praise_.]
A WOMAN [_breaking from the throng_.]
Our little ones are saved! hosannah! joy!
[_She kisses_ DAVID’S _hand_.]
JONATHAN
Woman, thy tongue should know an angel-word,
Or seraph-syllables new-sung to God!
Earth has not any rapture well for this!
David, my brother!
DAVID
Jonathan, my friend!
While life has any love, know mine for you.
JONATHAN
Then am I friended as no man was ever!
And though my soul were morning wide it were
Helpless to hold my wonder and delight!
O people, look upon him!
THE PEOPLE
David! David!
JONATHAN
Never before in Israel rose beauty
Up to this glory!
DAVID
Jonathan, nay--
JONATHAN
Never!
[_Loosing his robe and girdle._]
Therefore I pour him splendor passionate.
In gold and purple, this my own, I clothe him.
David, my brother!
SAUL [_Angered._]
Brother!
AHINOAM
Saul?
SAUL
Thou fool!
JONATHAN
Father?
AHINOAM
My lord?
SAUL
Thou full-of-lauding fool!
Of breath and ravishment unceasing!
AHINOAM
Saul!
SAUL
Is it not praise enough, has he not reached
The skies on it!
DAVID
O king, my lord--
SAUL
Had Saul
Ever so rich a rapture from his son?
Ever this worshipping of utterance?
DAVID
My lord, my lord, this should not fret you.
DOEG [_Derisively._]
Nay!
DAVID
’Tis only that the soul of Jonathan,
Brimmed by the Philistines with bitterness,
Sudden is joy and overfloweth--
DOEG
Fast--
DAVID
Upon his friend, thy servant, David.
DOEG
Aie!
[_He turns away laughing._]
SAUL
Why do you laugh?
DOEG
“Thy servant David!”
SAUL
Why!
A WOMAN [_Without._]
King Saul has slain his thousands!
DOEG
“Why,” my lord?
THE WOMAN
But David his ten thousands!
DOEG
Do you hear?
King Saul has slain his thousands, David ten!
Thy servant is he? servant?
DAVID [_To_ SAUL.]
Shall thy sceptre
Be wielded by this venom-word, as is
A weed under the wind?
SAUL
’Tis overmuch!
I’ll burst all bond of priest or prophecy.
Nor cringe to threatening and fondle fear.
[_He seizes a javelin._]
I’ll smite where’er I will.
DAVID
No!
JONATHAN
Father!
DAVID
Shall
A rapid palsy now come on thy hand,
Awful and sceptre-ruined lord of men?
An impotence, a shriveling to fear,
Avenging ere thou shed offenceless blood?
[SAUL’S _hand drops_.]
Is this thy love, the love of Saul the king?
Who once was kindlier than kindest are.
For but a woman’s wantonness of word
And idle air, my life?
AHINOAM
Saul, Saul--!
JONATHAN
The shame!
DAVID
Some enemy--does Doeg curve his lip?--
Hath put into her mouth this stratagem
Of fevered false-impassioned overpraise.
[SAUL, _silent, rises slowly and goes, entreated of_
JONATHAN. _Many follow in doubt, whispering._]
DOEG [_To_ DAVID.]
This is not all, boy out of Bethlehem.
Goliath’s dead--
DAVID
But not all villainy?
[DOEG _goes, flushing,--and all follow, except_
MICHAL, _and_ MERAB, _who moves cunningly
forward as if incensed_.]
MERAB
I burn for it!
DAVID
For what, and suddenly?
MERAB
My father so ungenerously wroth!
And wrought away from recompense so right;
Can you forgive him?
DAVID
Merab?…
MERAB
Is it strange
That even _I_ now ask it?
DAVID
Merab’s self?
MERAB
Herself and not to-day your friend; but now
Conquered to exaltation and aglow
To wreathe you for this might to Israel,
Beautiful, unbelievable and bright!
Noble the dawn of it within your dream,
Noble the lightning of it in your arm,
And noble in your veins the fearless flow
And dare of blood!--so noble that I ask
As a remembrance and bequest forever,
In priceless covenant of peace between us,
A drop of it--
[_She draws her dagger and offers it to him._]
Upon this sacred blade.
DAVID
Such kindness, in all honor?
MERAB
Poor requital
To one whose greatness humbles me from hate.
DAVID
Then of my veins whatever drop you will,
Were it the very dwelling of my soul.
[_He takes the dagger and makes as if to prick
himself._]
Ah, but you do not mock me?
MERAB
Rather upon
Its edge one vein of you--than priceless nard.
DAVID
And perfume out of India jewel poured?
[_He searches her eyes._]
Or than--I may believe?--a miracle
Of dew, were you a traveller and lost
Upon the illimitable desert’s thirst?
Or than--
[_He draws his own dagger, pricks his wrist with
it, and hands it to her._]
than this?
MERAB
Shepherd!
Treachery, then?
Under a sham of tribute, poison?
MICHAL
Poison?
DAVID
And I of vanity should prick it in?
I a mere shepherd innocent of wile!
A singer music-maudled and no more.
[_As she goes, stung with chagrin._]
The daughter of king Saul has yet to learn.
[_From looking after her, he turns toward_ MICHAL,
_and, sighing, slowly approaches her_.]
The vaunting of this victory is done.
We are alone at last.
MICHAL
Yes.
DAVID
That is all?
For Israel I’ve wrought to-day, for you
Who were about me, in me, as a mist
Of armed mighty angels triumphing.
MICHAL
Yes? It was well.
DAVID
To you no more? to you
Whom not a slave can serve unhonored?
MICHAL [_Struggling._]
Nothing.
DAVID
Empty of glow then seems it, impotent,
A shrivelled hallowing.…
Ashes of ecstasy that burned in vain.
MICHAL
No, no! I--
DAVID
Michal?
MICHAL
No, divine it was!
And had I cried my praise the ground had broke
To Eden under me with blossoming.
Where was so wonderful a deed as this,
So fair a springing of salvation up!
Glory above star-soaring could I seize,
Auras of dawn and loveliness unfading,
To crown you with and crown!
DAVID
O lips!
MICHAL
With but
A sling, a shepherd’s sling, you sped the brook,
Drew from its bed a stone, and up the hill
Where the great Philistine contemning cried,
Mounted and flung it deep upon his brain!
DAVID
This is the victory and not his death!
Tell, tell thy joy with kisses on my lips!
Thy mouth! thy arms! thy breast!
MICHAL
No no!
DAVID
Thy soul!
Too much of waiting and of severance!
Of dread and distance and the deep of doubt.
Now must I fold you, falter all my love
And triumph on your senses till they burn
Beautiful to eternity with bliss.
MICHAL
Loose, loose me!
DAVID
Nay, again! immortal kisses!
MICHAL
A frenzy, ’tis a frenzy! From me! see!
This irremediable victory
Over Goliath severs us the more.
[_The tumult breaks again, afar._]
Hear how the people lift you limitless!
Almost, to-day, and in my father’s room
They would that you were king.
DAVID
But ere to-morrow
Dim shall I be, and ere the harvest bend
Less than a gleam in their forgotten peril!
MICHAL
O were it, were it! But all silently
Jehovah fast is beckoning the realm
Into thy hands.
DAVID
Then futile to resist
The gliding on of firm divinity.
And yet whatever may be shall be done.
MICHAL
All, all?
DAVID
That for thee reverently may.
MICHAL
The anointing, then--
DAVID
Of that!… not that!
MICHAL
Yet grant
It may be told my father; that I may
Say to him all the secret!
DAVID
And provoke
Murder in him, insatiable though
I fled upon the wilderness and famine?
MICHAL
He would not!
DAVID
Nay.
MICHAL
I’ll plead with him.
DAVID
In vain!
MICHAL
Then [_coldly_] it is as I thought.
DAVID
You are distraught.
MICHAL
This stroke to-day [_pointing to_ GOLIATH’S _head_]
no love of me had in it.
DAVID
A love, a passion fervid thro’ me as
The tread and tremble of immortal song
Along the infinite.
MICHAL
You use me!
DAVID
Use?
MICHAL
A step to rise and riot in ambition!
DAVID
So bitter are you, blind?
MICHAL
It was a trick!
You snared me to you.
DAVID
Michal!
MICHAL
Cunningly
With Samuel netted fears about my father
Till I am paltrily unto you pledged.
DAVID
Enough.
MICHAL
Too much.
DAVID
No more; the pledge I fling
Out of my heart, as ’twere enchantment dead.
And free you; but, no more.
[_He moves from her._]
MICHAL
As if it were
Enchantment dead. Ah, then ’tis true--there is
Another--is another!
DAVID
Now what fever?
A gentleness clad once your every grace.
MICHAL
There is some other that you lure and love.
DAVID
It is not Michal speaking; so I wait.
MICHAL
Then--
[JUDITH _glides suddenly in with a low laugh and
kneels before_ DAVID. MICHAL _stands amazed_.]
JUDITH [_As if with amorous admiration._]
Brave, it was brave, my love! beauteous! brave!
DAVID
Woman?
JUDITH
The Philistine, a brazen tower,
A bastion of strength fell to the earth!
DAVID
Woman, who are you?
[_She clasps and kisses him._]
Take away your flesh.
[_Free_] Take it away, the heat and myrrh of it.
JUDITH
So cold?
DAVID
Away.
JUDITH
And ’tis no longer fair?
[_Wantonly_] Oh! Ah! I understand! the princess?--
DAVID
Go.
[JUDITH _obeys, laughing and shaking her timbrel_.]
MICHAL
A dancer then, a very timbrel player!
DAVID
Until this hour I never looked upon her.
It is chicanery of chance or craft.
You who are noble, though in doubt adrift,
Be noble now!
MICHAL
And loving? O, I will--
Now that I know what should be done. Be sure.
DAVID
You mean, that Saul?--you would not, no!
MICHAL
Rest sure.
[_A hand is seen at the tent._ AHINOAM _enters_.]
AHINOAM
David, the king--But what is this?
[MICHAL _goes_.]
DAVID
O queen--
It is but life.
AHINOAM
Nay.
DAVID
Life that ever strings
Our hearts, so pitifully prone for it,
To ecstasy--then snaps.
AHINOAM
I love thee, David.
DAVID
Then gracious be, and question here no more.
Where words are futile for an utterance.
But of the king--the king?
AHINOAM
He’s driven still.
And hither comes, and soon, and must be calmed.
Thy harp take, winds of beauty from it bring,
And consolation--as of valley-eves
When there is ebb of sorrow and of toil,
O could you heal him and forever heal.
DAVID
Then would I be--!
[_He breaks off with a gesture of great desire,
takes the harp and seats himself._]
AHINOAM
At once, for he will come.
[DAVID _begins; a strain of wild sadness_. SAUL _enters and
with him_ DOEG, ISHUI, JONATHAN--_others_. _He pauses, his hand
to his brow, and goes slowly, enspelled of_ DAVID’s _playing,
up the dais_.]
AHINOAM
My lord, shall David sing--to ease us?
SAUL
Let him.
DAVID
[_With high sorrow._]
O heart of woe,
Heart of unrest and broken as a reed!
[_Plays._]
O heart whose flow
Is anguish and all the bitterness of need!
[_Plays._]
O heart as a roe,
Heart as a hind upon the mountain fleeing
The arrow-wounds of being,
Be still, O heart, and rest and do not bleed!
[_Plays longer with bowed head._]
O days of life,
Days that are driven swift and wild from the womb!
[_Plays._]
O days so rife--
Days that are torn of trouble, trod of doom!
[_Plays._]
[MICHAL _enters_.]
O days of strife,
Days of desire on deserts spread unending,
The burning blue o’erbending,
O days, our peace, our victory is the tomb!
[_He plays to a close that dies in anguished silence._]
SAUL [_Rising in tears_]
David!
DAVID
My lord?
SAUL
Thy breathing! beauteous!
Stilling to sorrow! O my friend, my son!
DAVID
To me is this? I dream it not? The king
Again is kind and soft his spirit moves?
SAUL
To you!
DAVID
How shelter o’er me then will spring
And safety covering!
SAUL
It ever shall.
Loveliest have you been among my days,
And singing weary madness from my brain.
[DAVID _starts toward him_.]
How I have wronged thee!
MICHAL
Wronged him? [_In fury._]
DAVID
Michal!
SAUL
Girl?
MICHAL
You have not wronged him!
DAVID
Michal!
MICHAL
No, but he
Is jeopardy and fate about you! drive
Him from you utterly and now away!
[_Murmurs of astonishment._]
SAUL
What mean you?
ISHUI
Speak.
SAUL
What mean you?
MICHAL
This!
DAVID
No word!
MICHAL
I’ll not be kept--
DAVID
But shall be; for to tell
Would rend silence forever from you--pale
Your flesh with haunting of it evermore!
All, all your being would become a hiss.
A memory of syllables that sear,
A living iteration of remorse.
I--I myself will save your lips the words
Of this betrayal leaping from your heart.
[_Nobly, before Saul._]
You seek, my lord, you seek whom Samuel
Anointed.
SAUL
Yes.
DAVID
Then know that it is I.
SAUL
’Tis--?
DAVID
I.
SAUL
You!
DAVID
I. And guiltless I, no other.
I, though I sought it not and suffer, though
I would it had not come and fast am sworn
Never against you to lift up--
MERAB
Hear, hear!
Now he will cozen!
DOEG
He, “thy servant!”
ISHUI
Hear!
A VOICE [_Without._]
A thousand Saul hath slain! But David ten!
SAUL [_Choking._]
Omnipotence shall not withhold me more.
[_He lifts a javelin._]
DAVID
Murderous king afoam with murder-heat!
[_He avoids from side to side._]
Monarch of misery--of might--of rage
So fell that lightning were not dread enough
Were it thy bolt! To-day you will destroy me?
[GOLIATH’S _head overturned, rolls on the floor_.]
Upon this day will slay me innocent?
SAUL
Die, die!
JONATHAN
No, father, hold!
[SAUL _flings the javelin_.]
MICHAL [_Reeling._]
What have I done?
JONATHAN
David, unhurt? Away, the wilderness.
[_Thrusts a sword on him._]
SAUL
He shall not! no.
[_Seizes another javelin._]
DAVID [_Aflame._]
Then, king of Israel, strike!
Strike me to darkness and the waiting worm!
Into the Pit and to the hopeless gloom.
But, after, be your every breathing blood,
Remorse and riving bitterness and fear,
Be guilt and all the hideous choke of horror!
[SAUL _trembling at the curse lets the javelin fall from his
hand_. DAVID _breaking through_ DOEG _and_ ISHUI _escapes by
the door_. MICHAL _sinks to her knees, her face buried in her
hands_.]
[_CURTAIN._]
ACT III.
_SCENE: A savage mountain-cliff in the wilderness of Engeddi. On
either side gray crags rise rugged, sinking away precipitously
across the back. Cut into each is a cave. The height is reached
by clefts from all sides._
_Between the crags to the East is the far blue of the Dead Sea;
and still beyond, bathed in the waning afternoon, stretch the
purple shores of Moab. During the act the scene grows crimson
with sunset and a thunder-cloud rises over the sea._
_Lying on a pallet of skins near the cliff’s verge, DAVID tosses
feverishly. Three of his followers and a lad, who serves him,
are gathered toward the front, ragged, hungry, and hunted, in
altercation over a barley-cake._
DAVID
Water! the fever fills me, and I thirst.
Water!
FIRST FOLLOWER
Listen.
SECOND FOLLOWER
He calls.
DAVID
Water! I thirst.
THE LAD
Yes, yes, my lord. [_Takes up a water-skin._] Ah, empty, not a quaff!
They’ve drunk it all from him! My lord, none’s left.
I’ll run and in the valley brim it soon.
[_He goes._ DAVID _sinks back_.]
SECOND FOLLOWER [_To_ FIRST.] _You_ drank it then.
FIRST FOLLOWER
And should I thirst, not he?
Give me the bread.
SECOND FOLLOWER
If it would strangle you.
FIRST FOLLOWER
I’ll have it.
SECOND FOLLOWER
Or betray him? spitingly?
It is the last. Already you have eat.
And we are here within a wilderness.
FIRST FOLLOWER
Be it, but I’ll not starve.
THIRD FOLLOWER
He utters right.
Why should we but to follow a mere shepherd
Famish and o’er a hundred desert hills?
The prophecy portending him the throne--
Folly, not fate! though it is Samuel’s.
I’ll trust in it no more.
FIRST FOLLOWER
Nor I.
THIRD FOLLOWER
And Saul
Has driven us from waste to waste--pressed us
Even unto the Philistines for shelter,
And now unto this crag. And is not David’s
Thought but of Michal, not of smiting him
And, with a host, of leaping to the kingdom?
[DAVID _stirs to rise_.]
FIRST FOLLOWER
He moves; peace!
THIRD FOLLOWER
Let him.
SECOND FOLLOWER
Peace.
THIRD FOLLOWER
And fawning too?
DAVID [Sufferingly] Men--men, we must have news.
Perpetual,
Implacable they stare unto each other.
This rock and stony sky.
[_Rises and comes down to them._] We must have news.
[_They are silent._]
Longer is death. ’Tis overmany days
Of sighing and remembered verdancy;
Nor any dew or upward odor comes.
Who will go now and bring us word of Saul?
THIRD FOLLOWER
Have not Abishai, Abiathar,
And others gone?
DAVID
Bravely.
THIRD FOLLOWER
And none returned!
DAVID
Not one of all.
THIRD FOLLOWER
Well, then, we are not swine,
And life’s but once.
DAVID
So----?
THIRD FOLLOWER
We will follow you
No longer hungered and rewarded never,
But perilously ever.
DAVID
It is well.
[_He looses a bracelet from his arm._]
This was a gift from Saul. In it is ease.
[_Gives it to_ THIRD FOLLOWER, _who goes_.]
This ring was Jonathan’s. The jewel tells
Still of the sunny haven of his heart.
Upon my hand he pressed it--the day we leapt
Deeper than friends into each other’s love.
[_Gives it to_ FIRST FOLLOWER, _who goes_.]
This chain----
SECOND FOLLOWER
I want it not.
DAVID
You have not thought;
’Tis riches--such as Sidon marts and Tyre
Would covet.
SECOND FOLLOWER
I care not.
DAVID
None else is left.
SECOND FOLLOWER
No matter.
DAVID
Then----?
SECOND FOLLOWER
There was of Gibeah
A woman--dear to me. Her face at night
Weeping among my dreams.…
The prophecy
Is unfulfilled, and vain!
DAVID
And you would go?
SECOND FOLLOWER
The suffering--this cliff.
DAVID
I understand,
[_Motions._] So, without any blame, and to content.
[_The_ SECOND FOLLOWER _falters, then goes_.]
[_Quietly._] A desolation left, of rock and air,
Of barren sea and bitterness as vast.
Thou hast bereft me, Saul! thou hast bereft!
[_He moves up the cliff, gazes sadly away, then kneels by a
stone, as to pray._]
My flesh cries for oblivion--to sink
Unwaking away into the Night … where is
No tears, but only tides of sleep.…
No, crieth
Not for Oblivion and Night, but for
Rage and revenge! Saul! Saul!… My spirit, peace.
As pants the heart for the water-brook, so I!
[_He bows his head._ MICHAL _in rags that disguise,
enters with the_ LAD, _unseen_.]
Her lips it was that hurled me unto this!
Yet, yet not violence on him and blood!
I must revenge’s call within me quell,
Though righteously it quivers and aflame.
[_He goes slowly into the cave, Right._]
MICHAL
This is the place, then, this?
LAD
Yes, princess.
MICHAL
Here
So long in want and sickness he hath hid?
Under the livid day and lonelier night!
LAD
I brought him water, often.
MICHAL
Little lad!
But he has heard no word from me--not how
My father, Saul, frantic of my repentance,
Had unto Phalti, a new lord, betrothed me?
How then I fled to win unto these wilds?
LAD
He heard not anything--only the tales
I told of Moab, my own land.
[DAVID _plays within_.]
But oh!
It is his harp.
MICHAL
And strains that weep o’er me!…
I’ll speak to him … and yet must be unknown!
A leper? as a leper could I…?
LAD
Why
Must he not know you?
MICHAL
Ask me not, lad, now;
But go a little.
LAD
Yes.
[_He sets down the water-skin and goes._]
MICHAL [_Delaying, then in a loud voice._] Unclean! Unclean!
[_Conceals her face in her hair._]
DAVID
Who crieth here?
MICHAL
Unclean!
DAVID [_Appearing._] Who cries unclean?
Poor leper in these wilds, who art thou?
MICHAL
One
Outcast and faint, forlorn!
DAVID
Then you have come
To one more bitter outcast than yourself,
One who has less than this lone void to give,
This sterile solitude and sun, this scene
Of leaden desolation that makes mad.
Who has no ease but cave or shading rock,
Or the still moon, or stars that glide the night.
One over whom----
MICHAL
Yet, pity!
DAVID
The pale hours
Flow dead into eternity.
MICHAL
Ah, yet…!
DAVID
My cloak, then, for thy tattered limbs. Or, no--
This chain of Ophir for thy every need.
Once was it dear, but should be so no more.
[_Flinging it to her._] Have it, and with it vanish memory
Out of my breast----
MICHAL
No, no.
DAVID
And from me fall
Link upon link her loveliness that bound.
MICHAL
Oh, do not!
DAVID
Woman…?
MICHAL
Nothing. A chain like this
I once beheld wind undulantly bright
O’er Michal, the king’s daughter.
DAVID
Woman, the king’s?
MICHAL
Pity!
DAVID
Who are you?
MICHAL
Stay! Unclean!
DAVID
A spy?
A spy of Saul and hypocrite have crept
Hither to learn…?
MICHAL
Have heed--unclean!
DAVID
How then
Wandering come you here?
MICHAL
Unclean! Unclean!
DAVID
My brain is overfull of fever, mad.
Almost and I had touched thy peril, held
Thy hideous contagion.
MICHAL
Wrong!
DAVID
Then who
Art thou to know and speak of her, of Michal?
MICHAL
One who has served the king.
DAVID
And you have seen
Michal, you have beheld her?
MICHAL
Once, when she
In face was fairer and in heart than now
They say she is.
DAVID
And heard her speak?
MICHAL
A night
Under the leaves of Gibeah--when she
Sang with another--David.
DAVID
Say no more.
MICHAL
And from afar, under the moon, blew faint
The treading of the wine-presses with song.
David she loved, but anger-torn betrayed,
Unworthy of him.
DAVID
Speak of her no more,
Nor of her cruelty, unless to pray
He she has ruined may forget her.
MICHAL
Yet
If deep she should repent----?
DAVID
Leper, no more.
[_A moment; then a jackal’s cry shrills to them._ DAVID
_starts_.]
The signal. [_He listens._] Thrice repeated? Word at last?
[_To_ MICHAL.] He who is near may prove to thee less kind.
[_She goes. He springs to look down the cliff._]
Abishai? Abiathar? It is!
But staggering and wounded? breathless? torn?
[_He watches, then turns to meet them. They enter_--ABIATHAR
_with bloody ephod and broken breastplate_--_and
sink in panting exhaustion_.]
Abishai, what is it that you bring?
Abiathar, up! answer!
ABIATHAR
Water!
DAVID
Up!
[_He brings the water-skin. They drain it fiercely._]
What is it now so fevered from you stares
And breathing too abhorrence? Gasp it out.
ABIATHAR
I stifle--in a universe--he still--
Has breath in.
DAVID
Saul?
ABIATHAR
I’ll scathe him! Scorpions
Of terror and remorse sting in his soul!
DAVID
If you have tidings, not in words so wild.
ABIATHAR
Then ask and hate shall calm me.
DAVID
Ask?
ABIATHAR
On, on!
Seek if he lives!
DAVID
Who?
ABIATHAR
Seek if prophecy
Founts yet in Judah!
DAVID
Samuel…?
ABIATHAR
Is dead!…
Dead--and of tidings more calamitous.
[_A pause._]
DAVID [_Hoarsely._]
Tell on. I hear.
ABIATHAR
Saul gloating to believe
The priests, assembled sacredly at Nob,
Plotted assisting you, hath had them----
DAVID
No…!
ABIATHAR
Slain at the hands of Doeg--murdered, all!
DAVID
But he--your father?
ABIATHAR
Was among them; fell.
[_He stands motionless._]
DAVID [_Gently._]
Abiathar, my friend!… Appeaseless Saul!
ABIATHAR
Hear all, hear all! Thy father, too, and mother,
Even thy kindred, out of Israel
Are driven into Moab; and this king,
Delirious still for blood as desert pard,
With Merab, whelp of him, and many armed,
Is near us now--aquiver at Engeddi
For your destruction:
[DAVID _struggles for control_.]
And yet you will not strike.
DAVID
[_Low._] No, but of Michal, tell me good at once,
Lest unendurable this lot, I may--
and mount o’er every oath into revenge.
ABIATHAR
Ha--Michal!
DAVID
She withholds her father’s wrath?
ABIATHAR
She’s well.
DAVID
Not if you say no more.
ABIATHAR
I know
Nothing of her.
DAVID
Your look belies.
ABIATHAR
Perhaps:
As did her love.
DAVID
That is for me.
ABIATHAR
Well, what?
A woman who betrays?
DAVID
Speak, not evade;
And judge her when earth has no mystery.
ABIATHAR
Then from your craving put her--wide; she is
Unworthy any tremor of your veins.
DAVID
Dawn-lilies under dew are then unworthy,
And nesting doves are horrible to heaven.
I will not so believe. Your reason…!
ABIATHAR
Saul
Has given her--and she will wed him, aye--
To Phalti, a new lord.
DAVID
Untrue of her!
ABIATHAR
Cry. Yet you will believe it.
DAVID
Not until
The verdant parable of spring is hushed
Ever of bloom, to prove it. Never till
Hermon is swung into the sea! until
The last void of the everlasting sky----
[_Looking up he falters, breaks off, and is strangely
moved at something beheld._]
ABIATHAR
What, what alarm?
ABISHAI
What stare you on?
ABIATHAR
He’s mad?
[DAVID _points_. _They look up._]
ABIATHAR
An eaglet!…
ABISHAI
Eaglet?
ABIATHAR
Pierct!
ABISHAI
Pierct?…
DAVID
Falling here.
And beating against death unbuoyantly.
[_The bird, an arrow through it, drops in throes at their
feet._]
A destiny, a fate in this is hidden!
[_He bends over it, then quickly back._]
ABIATHAR
A destiny, how, how?
DAVID
The arrow!--His!
His, and no other’s. Quick, then, no delay.
ABIATHAR
Be clear, clearer.
DAVID
We are discovered--near
On us is death. Open the secret chamber
Within the cave, for from the bow of Saul
Is yonder bleeding--from no other.
ABIATHAR
Saul’s?
But how, was any here?
DAVID
To-day, to-day.
A leper wandering.
ABIATHAR
We are betrayed.
[ABISHAI _with the water-skin hastens into the cave, Right_.
DAVID _and_ ABIATHAR _stand listening_. _Noise of
approach is heard._]
DAVID
They near.
ABIATHAR
And many.
DAVID
King of Israel!
Inexorable!
ABIATHAR
O, rebuke him, do!
DAVID
Almost I am beyond this tolerance.
ABIATHAR
In truth. Therefore it is you rise and shake
Out of his power the sceptre!
DAVID
Tempt me not!
Mercy and memory almost are dead,
And craving birth in me is fateful ire.
[_They follow into the cave. Hardly have they done so when
at a shout_, SAUL, _bloodthirsty, with_ DOEG, ABNER,
ISHUI, _and soldiers, pour in from all sides, with drawn
weapons_.]
SAUL
On, to him! search the caves! In, in, and bring
Him to my sword, and Michal with him.
[_Pacing terrible the while._] They
Shall couch upon eternity and dust.
[_Weakly._] I am the king, and Israel is mine.…
I’ll sleep upon their grave--I’ll sleep upon it,
And hear the worm…!
[_To a_ SOLDIER _re-entering from one cave_.] Where is he? Bring him.
SOLDIER
O King----
SAUL
You’ve slain him and you tremble! Say it.
SOLDIER
No.
SAUL
Then hither with him; hither!
SOLDIER
He’s not here.
SAUL
A treachery! You cunningly contrive
To aid him, so.…
[_To a_ SOLDIER _re-entering fearfully from the other cave_.]
Bring me his head.
SOLDIER
My lord,
He is not there.
SAUL
I tell you it is lies--
Because you deem that he shall be the king
And treasure up reward and amnesty.
[_Into one cave, then another he rushes, then out among them
furious._]
From me, ill-fruited ineffectual herd!
Away from me, he’s fled and none of you
Is servant and will find and for me seize him!
From me--I’ll sleep--I’ll rest--and then--
[_All begin to crowd out, overawed, but_ DOEG and ABNER.]
I’ll sleep.
[_Slowly he moves into the cave, Left, and lies down._]
ABNER
[_To_ DOEG, significantly.] The evil spirit.
DOEG
Yes; is on him swift
As never before, and as a drunkenness.
ABNER
Then, safe to leave him?
DOEG
Will he brook denial?
ABNER
And Merab, too, will soon be here.
DOEG
Well, come.
ABNER
I’ll go and look upon him.
[_Goes to_ SAUL’S _cave and returns_.]
Already he sleeps.
[_Turning they encounter_ MICHAL _entering, still disguised_.
_She quails._]
Woman, who are you, who?
MICHAL
Unclean! away!
DOEG
Unclean? a leper? in this place? Are there
No stones to stone you? Hence! And had I not
A brother such as thou----
MICHAL
Pity! Unclean!
[_She goes quickly; then they. A space. Then she returns
trembling, fearful._]
I’ll call him! I will save him!--David! David!--
I his discomfiture and ruin!--David!
David! hear me! David!
[_Searching, she approaches the cave where_ SAUL _lies, but
recoils terrified_.]
The king! my father!
I cannot--am not--whither shall I, whither?
[_Confused she flees, as scuffling is heard, and_ ABISHAI _and_
ABIATHAR, _struggling with_ DAVID, _appear_.]
DAVID
Loose me, I say. ’Twas Michal and she called.
[_Breaking free._] I say that it was she!
ABIATHAR
Foolhardy, no.
Return into the cave, and ere too late!
[MERAB, _veiled, enters behind them_.]
DAVID
’Twas Michal and no other.
ABIATHAR
You are duped.
DAVID
The breathing of archangels could not so
Have swung the burden from me as her call.
[_Searching, he faces--and beholds_ MERAB. _His look
grows to coldness._]
MERAB
It is not Michal.
DAVID
No--it is not Michal.
[_He motions_ ABIATHAR _and_ ABISHAI _aside_.]
MERAB
Yet it is one who----
DAVID
Need not lift her veil
Or longer stay. The path she came is open.
MERAB
I’m here--and here will speak! I’ve hither stolen,
Yearning--I say it--yearning--and I will.
DAVID
These words I do not know.
MERAB
Because you will not.
More all-devouring than a Moloch is
This love within me----
DAVID
Love and you are twain,
As sun and Sheol.
MERAB
False. I am become
For want of you as famine-wind, a wave
In the mid-tempest, with no rest, no shore.
DAVID
I do not hear the unashamed words
Of one who has but recently another,
Adriel, wedded.
MERAB
You refuse me then?
DAVID
I beg you but to cease.
MERAB
Goaded, chagrined?
No, but this will I do. The Philistines,
For long at rioting within their walls,
Gather again and break toward Gilboa.…
DAVID
This is not true.
MERAB
To-morrow must my father
From hunting you return and arm for battle.
But--many would that you were king.
DAVID
Were?…
MERAB
King!
DAVID
I do not understand your eyes.
MERAB
I will
For love of you arouse rebellion up,
Murmur about the host your heaven-call,
And lift you to the kingdom.
DAVID
To the--stay!
Your words again.
MERAB
The kingdom.
DAVID
Awful God!
MERAB
What is your mien? you will not?
DAVID
Twice the words--
Full from her lips--and to betray her father.
[ABIATHAR _discovers_ SAUL.]
MERAB
You will not? answer!
DAVID
Odious utterly!
As yonder sea of death and bitter salt,
As foam-girt Joppa of idolatry,
As Memphian fane of all abhorrencies!
Morning would move with horror of it, noon
A livid sepulchre of shame span o’er,
And night shrink to remember day had been!
MERAB
You scorn--you scorn me?
DAVID
Jonathan! your sister!
MERAB
Then Saul shall rend you dead. And Jonathan!…
[_She laughs shrilly._]
Perchance you have not heard that Jonathan
Knows to the Philistines you fled--and loathes you!
DAVID
I have not heard.
MERAB
Nor have not, ah? how Michal
Is given to the embraces of another?
[DAVID _shrinks_.]
You desperately breathe and pale at last?
[_She laughs more bitterly._]
To me for aid, to me, you yet shall come.
[_She goes._ DAVID _slowly lifts his hand to his brow in
heavy pain_. ABIATHAR--_and soon_ ABISHAI--_abruptly
descends from the cave to him_.]
ABIATHAR
David----
DAVID
Leave me.
ABIATHAR
Not till you know--and strike!
DAVID
I tell you go.
ABIATHAR
I tell you ’tis the king.
DAVID
Who breaks forbearance--yes.
ABIATHAR
Who lieth yonder,
And sleeping lieth--for a thrust to end.
DAVID
[_His sword quickly out, struggling._]
This throb and wounds that wring me! and this wail
Under the deeps of me against his wrongs,
Awakening remembrance that with burst
And burn of pain.… O, never-ceasing ill!
[_Flings the sword down, anguished._]
ABIATHAR
You will not come?
DAVID
The sun is set.
ABIATHAR
Has Saul
Hunted you to this desert’s verge----?
DAVID
Enough!
ABIATHAR
Has he pursued you, all his hate unleashed?
Is Samuel not slain? the priests? my father?
The kingdom is not in decay, and falls?
You are not prophecy’s anointed one?
Seize up the sword and strike--or I myself!
DAVID
Or … you yourself…?
[_Silently he puts them aside, takes up the sword, and slowly
goes into_ SAUL’S _cave_.]
ABISHAI
What will he do? Listen!
[MICHAL _enters unseen_.]
ABIATHAR
If Saul cries out.…
ABISHAI
Be ready.…
MICHAL
[_To them._] What is this!
[DAVID, _haggard, with drawn sword and a piece of_ SAUL’S
_cloak in his hand, re-enters from the cave_. _He sees_
MICHAL, _pauses, and gazes upon her, as she on him,
with rising emotion_.]
MICHAL [_Inarticulate. Then._]
Ah, you have slain--
Have slain him! Wretch! thou wretch!
And sleeping as he was!
DAVID
Then it was you?
In lying rags?
MICHAL
Have struck him in his sleep!
And merciless!--And now will kill me, too?
DAVID
In faithless rags? You are the leper? Who
[_Growing frenzied._]
Drove me a prey unto this wilderness!
Upon the blot of it and death and sear!
The silence, burning, and relentless swoon!
You are the leper, who have broken troth
And shut the cry of justice from your breast!
Who’ve stifled me with desolation’s woe,
Who’ve followed still and still have me betrayed!
MICHAL
Betrayed? No, loose me!
DAVID
Slain thy father? slain?
[_Flinging the piece of_ SAUL’S _cloak at her feet_.]
See how I might--see, see you, yonder he lies
A king who quits the kingdom, though a cloud
Of Philistines is foaming toward Gilboa;
Jeoparded leaves it, undefended, for
Pursuit of me and pitiless harrying!
A king who murders priests.…
MICHAL
Priests?
DAVID
Stifles God
With penitence that he has shaped the world!
Have slain? have slain him! I have slain him! Ah!
Ah, that I had thy falseness and could slay him!
MICHAL
David!…
DAVID
Nevermore near me! never with
That quivering and tenderness of lure.
Those eyes that hold infinity of fate,
That breathing cassia-sweet, but sorcery!
MICHAL
Oh.…
DAVID
Never thy presence pouring beauty, swift,
And seething in the brain as frantic wine!
I’ll be no more enspelled of thee--never!
I will not hear thee and be wound by words
Into thy wile as wide as Ashtoreth’s,
Back into hope, eternity of pain!
[_In agony he goes_, ABIATHAR _and_ ABISHAI _after_.
MICHAL _stands gazing fearlessly before her, as_ SAUL,
_awakened, slowly comes from the mouth of the cave down
toward her_.]
[_CURTAIN._]
ACT IV.
_SCENE: The House of MIRIAM, the “Witch of Endor,” by Mount
Gilboa--where Saul is encamped against the Philistines. It is of
one story, built rectangularly about an inner court, which is
dimly lighted._
_Under the gallery which ranges around the court are doors
leading to the sleeping and other apartments; before one of
these, a lattice. On the left is the gate opening to the street.
In the back to one side, the teraphim, or image of divination; on
the other side a stairway mounts to the roof. Above is the night,
and vague lightning amid a moan of wind. During the act comes
dawn._
_Forward on a divan sits MIRIAM alone, in blind restlessness._
MIRIAM
Adah!
The child is sunken in a sleep.
Yet would I have her near me in this night,
And hear again the boding of her tale.
Unto the blind the vision and the awe
Of the invisible sway ever in,
The shadow of nativities that lead
Upon fatality.
Girl! Adah! girl!
[_The wind passes._ ADAH _enters from a chamber, rubbing
her eyes_.]
Thou art awake?
ADAH
I slumbered.
MIRIAM
Stand you where
Fathoming I may feel within you. Now,
Again--you’ve hither fled your mistress Merab,
In fear of her?
ADAH
Yes.
MIRIAM
At Engeddi Michal
By Saul was apprehended? Merab now
Plotteth against her--she and Doeg?
ADAH
Still.
MIRIAM
And ’twas in Merab’s tent you heard, the king
Despairing of to-morrow’s battle, comes
Hither to-night to bid me lift the spirit
Of Samuel out of the dead and learn
The issue?
ADAH
Doeg said it.
MIRIAM
And--you hear?--
Many within the army urge for David,
Would cry him king, if Saul were slain?
ADAH
O many.
[_A knock at the gate. They start up fearful._]
MIRIAM
Who seeks blind Miriam of Endor’s roof,
Under the night and unextinguished storm?
Come you a friend?
DAVID [_Without._]
A friend.
MIRIAM
As knows my soul!
[_Breathless she opens the gate._ DAVID _and_ ABIATHAR
_enter cloaked_.]
Thy voice again!--this blindness of my eyes--
If it be David, speak.
DAVID
Yes, Miriam.
MIRIAM
David of Jesse, Israel’s desire!
Let me behold thee [_Her hands go over him._] with my fingers’ sight,
And gather in them touch of thee again!
Thy voice is as dream-dulcimers that stir
Quivering myrrh of memory and joy--
But, aie! why are you here? You have been _there_?
DAVID
Yes--in the camp of Saul.
MIRIAM
In spite of death!
Do you not know----?
DAVID
I know--that Saul would rather
O’ertrample me than a multitude of foes.
That it is told him I who shun his ire--
Though death were easier, if dutiful--
Am come up with the Philistines to win
The kingdom. That he would slay me though I fought
For Israel!--But, Michal!----
MIRIAM
Aie----
DAVID
What brews?
She was not in the camp.
MIRIAM
Men all are mad!
And you who should be never.
DAVID
She is in
Some peril.
MIRIAM
You, in more! And must from here
Swiftly away, for Saul is----
DAVID
I must see her.
MIRIAM
Unholy!
DAVID
Yet unholier were flight.
MIRIAM
You are the anointed!
[_A heavy knock at the gate._] Ah, calamity!
You would not heed--’tis Saul!
DAVID
Here?
MIRIAM
He is come
That I shall call up Samuel.
DAVID
You, you--
The awful dead?
SAUL
[_Calls._] Woman of Endor!
MIRIAM
Hide!
The lattice yonder!
SAUL
Woman of Endor! woman!
[DAVID _and_ ABIATHAR _conceal themselves behind the lattice_.
_The knocking, hastier._]
Woman of Endor! Woman of Endor! Woman!
MIRIAM
Who crieth at my gate?
SAUL
Unbar and learn.
MIRIAM
To danger?
SAUL
None.
MIRIAM
To thieves?
SAUL
To rueing if
You tarry!
[_She opens the gate._ ADAH _cowers down_. SAUL, ISHUI,
_and_ ADRIEL _enter_.]
MIRIAM
Whom seek you?
SAUL
Witch of Endor, you,
Who of the fate-revealing dead divine.
Out of the Pit you call them!
MIRIAM
What is this?
SAUL
I say that you can lift them!
MIRIAM
You are come
With snaring! knowing well that Saul the king
Is woe and bitterness to all who move
With incantation.
SAUL
He is not.
MIRIAM
Depart!
SAUL
I must have up out of the Awfulness
Him I would question.
MIRIAM
Perilous!
SAUL
Prepare
Before thy teraphim. No harm, I swear,
Shall come of it. Bid Samuel appear.
The battle! its event!
MIRIAM
[_With a cry._] I know thee now!
Saul! thou art Saul! the Terror!
SAUL
Call him up.
Ready is it, the battle--but I am
Forsaken of all prophecy and dream,
Of voices and of priest and oracle,
To augur it.
MIRIAM
A doom in this!
SAUL
He must
Hold comfort, and the torrent of despair
Within me stay and hush.
MIRIAM
Then must it be.
[_Turning towards the teraphim amid wind and pallid lightning,
and prostrating herself before it._]
Prophet of Israel, who art beyond
The troubling and the terrifying grave,
Th’ immeasurable moan and melancholy
Of ways that win to Sheol--Rise! Arise!
[_She waits. Only the gust. Then springing up and
stretching wide her arms with wild, blind eyes._]
Prophet of Israel, arise! Not in
The name of Baal, Amon, Ashtoreth,
Dagon or all the deities that dream
In trembling temples of Idolatry,
But of Jehovah! of Jehovah! rise!
[_An elemental cry is heard. Then vast wavering forms
rise out of the earth, in continuous stream._ MIRIAM,
_with a long curdling shriek, sinks moaning to her knees_.]
SAUL
Woman, I cannot--dare not--look upon it.
Utter thy sight.
[_The spirit of_ SAMUEL _begins to take shape through the
phantoms_.]
MIRIAM
I saw ascending
Forms as of gods in swaying ghostliness,
Dim apparitions of a dismal might,
And now is one within a mantle clad,
Who looketh----
SAUL
Samuel!
MIRIAM
Who looketh with
Omniscience in his mien, and all the chill
And cling about him of eternity.
His eyes impale me!
SAUL
Spirit, give me word!
[_He falls heavily to the ground._]
SAMUEL
[_As afar._] O evil king! and wretched king! why hast
Thou brought me from the quietness and rest.
SAUL
The battle on the morrow----!
SAMUEL
Evil thou art
For underneath this night thou hast conspired
Death to thy daughter Michal--if at dawn
The battle shall be lost--lest she may fall
Into the hands of David----
DAVID [_In horror._]
O!
ISHUI
Whose cry?
SAMUEL
I tell thee, Saul, thy sceptre shrivels fast.
The battle shall be lost--it shall be lost.
[_The spirit of_ SAMUEL _disappears_. _A wail of wind._]
ADRIEL
Ishui, true? Is Michal to be slain?
ISHUI
This is no hour for fools and questioning.
SAUL
[_Struggling up._] The battle, Ishui, at once command
It shall begin! To Jonathan and say it.
[ISHUI _goes_.]
No prophecy shall sink me and no shade.
I am the king, and Israel, my own.
[_Frenzied he goes. A silence._]
DAVID
[_Breaking forth._] Michal to die and Israel to fall!
Prophet of prophets, Samuel, return!
[ADRIEL _goes_.]
The quivering
Quicksands of destiny beneath her stir.
Is heaven a mocking shield which ever keeps
God from our prayers?
MIRIAM
David, contain thy heart.
[_A faint uproar begins afar; and dawn._]
DAVID
The battle! on the wind. Abiathar,
Speed out upon the mountain-side and cull
All that befalls.
[ADAH _opens the gate_. ABIATHAR _goes_.]
ADAH
[_Springing back._] Oh!
DAVID
Child, why do you quail?
ADAH
My mistress, Merab!
DAVID
Girl?
ADAH
I saw her--she
Is coming hither! Do not let her--she
I fear--I fear her!
DAVID
Hither coming?
[MERAB _throws open the gate and enters_.]
ADAH
Oh!
MERAB
Woman and witch, did Adriel, my husband,
Come to you with the king?
[_She sees_ DAVID _and shrinks_.]
DAVID
Unnatural,
Unkind, most cruel sister!
MERAB
You are here?
DAVID
Once me you would have poisoned, but the coil
Within your bosom I beheld. And now
Michal your sister is the victim.
MERAB
I--
Know not your meaning.
DAVID
The battle burning yonder,
If it adversely veers, the king has planned
Michal is not to live, lest she may hap
Unto my arms.
MERAB
That Michal shall be slain?
[_The tumult again._]
DAVID
Almighty, smite, and save to thee thy people!
And save thy altars unto Israel.
[_He bows his head. A stir comes at the gate._]
MERAB
David, ’tis Adriel!
ADRIEL
Ope! open you!
DAVID
At last the word.
MERAB
Girl, Adah, draw the bar.
[DAVID _throws a cloak over his face_. ADAH _obeys_.
ADRIEL _enters, and_ DOEG, _who pauses in quick alarm,
as_ DAVID _goes between him and the gate_.]
DOEG
What place is this? Why do you bar that gate?
Merab, ’tis you? Why do you gaze, rigid?
And this is the blind witch, Miriam?
DAVID
It is.
[_He throws off his cloak._]
DOEG
Lured? I am snared? a trap?
DAVID
Where have you Michal?
DOEG
[_Drawing._] No closer!
DAVID
If she is an atom harmed----!
Where is she?
DOEG
I was the servant of the king,
I but obeyed him.
DAVID
And thy horrible heart.
Then speak, or unto frenzy I am driven.
DOEG
I’ll drive you there with----
[_Breaks off with low laugh._]
DAVID
Tell it!
DOEG
Unto your
Soft sympathy--and passion? [_Laughs._] She is dead.
DAVID
[_Immovable, then repressed._]
If it is so, the lightning, that is wrath
Within the veins of God, should sink its fang
Into thy bosom and sear out thy heart.
If it is so, this momentary calm,
This silence pouring overfull the world,
Would rush and in thee cry until thy bones
Broken of guilt are crumbled in thy groans.
Dead, she is dead?
MIRIAM
No, David, my lord, he lies!
[_Strangely, as in a trance._]
To wound you, lies!
DAVID
Not dead?
MIRIAM
I see her eyes!
[_All listen amazed._]
I see her in a vision. She is near--
Is in a cave--is bound--and is alone.
I will go to her--quickly bring her.
DOEG
Not
[_Lunges at her._]
If this shall reach you.
DAVID
Ah, to pierce a woman!
[MIRIAM _finds her way out_.]
You’ve plotted, false have been and bloody, foul,
And as a pestilence of midnight marsh
Have oozed corruption into all around you.
The kingdom thro’ you is in brokenness,
Within its arteries you flow, poison,
Incentive of irruption and unrest,
Of treachery and disaffection’s sore,
Till even the stars of truest ray seem tares
Sown hostile o’er the nightly vale of heaven.
[_Drawing firmly, he coldly, skilfully approaches for attack._]
DOEG
[_Retreating._] No further!
DAVID
Unto the end!
[_He rushes in, they engage._ DOEG _is wounded, recovers,
defends furiously, then is disarmed and forced under_.]
Thy villainy is done.
[_The gate opens and_ ABIATHAR _hurries in_.]
ABIATHAR
David, the battle----
[_He sees_ DOEG _and stops_.]
DAVID
Fetter him.
ABIATHAR
Only fetter? [_His dagger out._] The murderer
Of priestly sanctity and of my father?
DAVID
Abiathar! You know obedience?
[ABIATHAR _sullenly sheathes his weapon and binds_ DOEG.
_A dim panic is heard afar, and a lament without._
DAVID, _who has sunk to a seat, springs anxiously up_.]
Listen! that cry!
THE VOICE
Woe! woe!
DAVID
What is its wail?
THE VOICE
The battle’s lost!
DAVID
Abiathar----?
THE VOICE
Saul flees!
DAVID
Abiathar, is lost?
ABIATHAR
I fear it.
DAVID
Then [_Pointing to_ DOEG.]
Off with his armor for me, I will go
Forth and perchance may backward bend defeat.
Duty to Saul is over.
ADRIEL
You must not.
A fruitless intrepidity it were.
ABIATHAR
Remember your anointing!
ADRIEL
The prophesy!
[MIRIAM _enters leading_ MICHAL. _A moment’s suspense._]
MERAB
See!
ADRIEL
See!
MERAB
She liveth!
MIRIAM
David----
MICHAL [_Pleading to him._]
It is I.
MIRIAM
The cords were cruel, hungrily sank in
Her wrists and ankles.
MICHAL
David, look on me.
DAVID
My words must be alone with her--alone.
ADRIEL
Come, all of you--the battle.
[_They go out the gate._ DAVID _stands speechless_.]
MICHAL
David--my lord!
I ask not anything but to be heard--
Though once I would not hear. Has all of life
No glow for me!
DAVID
Betrayers should have none.
MICHAL
I was a woman--the entanglement
Of duty amid love we have no skill
To loosen, but with passion.
DAVID
You too late
Remember it is so.
MICHAL
Nobility
All unbelievable it seemed that you
Could innocently watt on time to tide
You to the kingdom. Then forgive, I plead.
DAVID
But in the wilderness, your perfidy!
MICHAL
Doubt of it welleth thro’ your voice. No, no,
To save you strove I----!
DAVID
Michal?
MICHAL
Not to betray!
From Saul, my father, penitent I fled,
Seeking you in Engeddi’s wild.
DAVID
And Phalti?
MICHAL
’Twas wedding him I loathed.
DAVID
Say true!
MICHAL
This knife
Unfailingly into my breast had spared
Me from him, had not flight.
DAVID
This--this can be?
[_A great joy dawning in him._]
Beyond all hope is it, even as day’s
Wide empery outspans our littleness.
[_Goes toward her._]
A tithing of thy loveliness were beauty
Enough for earth. Yet it is mine, is mine?
MICHAL
David--forever! long as odorous
Cooling o’er Lebanon shall blow, long as
The swinging sapphire of the sea shall flash
Up to the sun: until the soul no more
Is soul, but vapor!
DAVID
Michal!
MICHAL
Evermore!
[_She sinks into his arms, and there is a pause. But a sudden
confusion of cries is heard and they start apart. The gate is
flung back and_ ADRIEL _enters, shaken with awe. He looks from
one to the other, silent_.]
DAVID [_At last._]
Adriel!
What have you!
ADRIEL
Saul … is slain!
MICHAL
My father?
ADRIEL
Slain!
And Jonathan----
DAVID
No!
ADRIEL
Fell beside him down.
The fray was fast--Israel fled--the foe
Fierce after Saul, whom Jonathan defended.
MICHAL
My father!
DAVID
And my brother Jonathan!
If I believe it will not miracle
Alone bring joy again unto my pain?
[_The wailing again without, and deeper groans._]
O Israel, the Infinite has touched
Thy glory and it changes to a shroud!
Thy splendor is as vintage overspilt.
For Saul upon the mountains low is lying,
And Jonathan beside him, beautiful
Beyond the mar of battle, and of death.
[_He bows his head in tears._]
O kingly Jonathan, would I might give
The beating of my life into your veins--
Willing for it would I be drouth and die.
How are the mighty fallen and the fair!
[_With lifted arm, deeply moved._]
Peaks, mountains of Gilboa, let no more
Dew be upon you, and as sackcloth let
Clouds cover you, and ashes be your soil,
Until I bring upon Philistia
And Gath and Askalon extinguishing,
And sorrow--and immensity of tears!
[MICHAL _goes to him and takes his hand. He folds her in
his arms._]
But we must calm the flowing of this grief.
Though yet we cannot mind us to remember
Love will as sandal-breath and trickling balm
O’erheal us in the unbegotten years,
Too headlong must not be our agony.
Hush now thy woundedness, my Michal, now.
See, o’er the East the lifted wings of dawn.
[_Slowly they climb the stair to the house-top. At they look
away toward the battle’s rout the clouds part, and the
full brightness of the sun breaks over them._]
[_CURTAIN._]
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "David - A Tragedy" ***
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