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. At 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?
Miriam. As knows my soul!
(Throws open the gate. David enters and Abiathar 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'er-tramble 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.
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 withdraw. 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 it
You tarry!
(She lets him in, with Ishui and Adriel.)
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 raise 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 prophesy and dream,
Of voices and of priest and oracle,
To augur it.
Miriam. A doom's in this!
Saul. He must
Hold comfort, and the torrent of despair
Within me stay and hush.
Miriam. Then must it be.
(She turns to the teraphim, amid wind and pallid lightning prostrating herself.)
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 wind gust. Then springing up, with wide arms, and 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 wavering forms rise, vast, out of the earth, in continuous stream. Miriam, with a 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 see ... 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 there is 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!
Out of the Shadow and the Sleep, return,
Compassionate, and tell me where she is
That I may save. Again appear and say
That Israel to-morrow may not fall—
Not fall on ruin!
Adriel. David? is it thou?
David. Meholah's Adriel, your conscience asks.
Adriel. You were concealed?
David. And I have heard. Cry then
Out unto Saul! Betray me, cry you out!
Adriel. Betray?
David. Is the word honey? Is it balm?
Adriel. David, I've wronged you—
David. Haply!
Adriel. Jealously.
And ask now no forgiveness—not until
Michal is won from peril!
David. Do you know
More of her? still?
Adriel. Saul——
David. Saul——?
Adriel. Has given Doeg
Power of this.... And to some spot of Endor
Here he has brought her.
David. God!
Adriel. And now himself,
David, himself cannot be far away.
David. Ahaste, and bring him then by force or guile,
In any way, that we may from him win
Where she is prisoned.
(Adriel goes.)
The quivering
Quicksands of destiny beneath her stir.
Is heaven a mocking shield that 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. The priest 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?
Adah. She!
(The gate is thrown open fiercely.)
Merab (entering). Woman and witch, did Adriel, my husband,
(Sees David.)
Come to you with the king?
David. Unnatural,
Unkind, most cruel sister!
Merab (shrinks). 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 to his face, as 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 the cloak.)
Doeg. Lured? I am snared? a trap?
David. Where have you Michal?
David. If she is an atom harmed——!
Where is she?
Doeg. I was the servant of the king,
I but obey 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, have been false 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 that light it seem as tares
Sown hostile o'er the nightly vale of heaven.
(Draws firmly. Coldly, skilfully approaches for attack.)
Doeg (retreating). No farther!
David. Unto the end! unto the end!
(He rushes in; they engage; Doeg is wounded.)
Your villainy is done.
(Quickly forces him under. The gate then opens and Abiathar hurries in.)
Abiathar. David, the battle——!
(Sees Doeg and stops, pale.)
David. Fetter him.
Abiathar. Only fetter? (His dagger out) the murderer
Of priestly sanctity and of my father?
David. Abiathar! You know obedience?
(Doeg is sullenly bound and led aside. Then a panic is heard afar, and dim laments. David, who has sunk to a seat, springs anxiously up.)
Listen! that cry!
A 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 armour for me, I will go
Forth and may backward, backward bend defeat.
Duty to Saul is over.
Adriel. You must not.
A fruitless intrepidity it were.
Abiathar. Remember your anointing!
Abishai. The prophesy!
And Michal! (The gate opens.) Michal who lives! who
lives! who lives!
(David has turned and sees her enter with Miriam.)
Hosanna!...
Adriel. Ever!...
Miriam. David——
Michal (pleading, to him). It is I.
Miriam. The cords were cruel, hungrily sank in
Her wrists and ankles.
David. My words must be alone with her—alone.
Adriel. Come, all of you—the battle.
(They go out the gate.)
Michal. My lord!... my lord!
(He is silent.)
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 wait 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 sunk
And spared me, had not flight.
David. This—this can be?
(A great joy dawning in him.)
Beyond all hope it is, even as day's
Wide empery outspans our littleness.
A tithing of thy loveliness were beauty
Enough for earth. Yet it is mine, is mine?
Michal. David—for ever!
(She starts toward his arms. But cries and confusion of cries beat back their joy. Then the gate is flung open and Adriel enters, shaken. He looks from one to the other.)
David (at last). Adriel! 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, and deeper groans.)
O Israel, the Infinite has touched
Thy glory and it changes to a shroud!
Thy splendour 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.
Yea, kingly Jonathan! And I would give
The beating of my life into his veins.
Willing for it would I be drouth and die!...
(As the wails re-arise.)
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. 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.
(They climb the stair to the house-top. As they look away toward the battle's rout the clouds part, and over them breaks the full brightness of the sun....)
THE END.
The Gresham Press,
UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED.
WOKING AND LONDON.
Transcriber's Notes:
Simple typographical and spelling errors were corrected. Considerable latitude was provided the dialogue and poetry.