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 ZILLA | }Timbrel-players of the King. |
| 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.]