Scene 5
Herod. Joseph.
[Enter a Servant.
Servant.
Your kinsman!
Herod.
He is welcome!
There is my man! To him I hand my sword
And goad him through the craven mood so deep
To hardy mettle that he’ll use’t like me.
[Enter Joseph.
Joseph.
I heard immediate start for Alexandria
Is your intent, and wished to bid God-speed.
Herod.
God-speed! A speed, belike, without returning.
Joseph.
Without returning!
Herod.
Ay, ’tis possible.
Joseph.
I never saw you thus till now.
Herod.
Proof certain
I never was in such ill plight till now.
Joseph.
But if you grow heart-faint——
Herod.
I’ll not, I say!
For, come what will, I’ll bear it: yet the hope
That any good can come leaves me in lurch.
Joseph.
That makes me wish to God I had been blind
And ne’er on Alexandra’s hooded doings
Had played the pry.
Herod.
I could believe it of you!
Joseph.
For had I not unearthed the portraiture
Of Aristobulus which in secrecy
For Antony was painted, and had I
Not scented out her courier-despatch
To Cleopatra: more than all, the coffin
That with her son concealed her at the harbour—
Had I not blocked it and prevented flight
That was begun already——
Herod.
Then had she
No thanks to owe you, and with qualmless mind
You’d bear to see her daughter on the throne,
The throne that she, the dauntless Maccabean,
Will surely mount if I return no more,
And none before her edge his way thereto.
Joseph.
I mean it not that way; I mean that much
Had lain in smother.
Herod.
Much! Why, not a doubt
But much that’s awkward had instead occurred.
No matter now. You make your tally full;
But there’s one item you’ve forgot——
Joseph.
And that?
Herod.
You were presumably attending him
The time he went a-bathing when——
Joseph.
I was.
Herod.
Presumably you wrestled him?
Joseph.
At first, yes.
Herod.
H’m, queerish! Well?
Joseph.
No dizziness attacked him
When he was in my arms, and had it happened
Either I would have rescued him or he
Had dragged me under with him to the bottom.
Herod.
No doubt. But as you cannot help but know,
All who were there make just your protestation,
And since a perverse chance will have it so,
That you not only bore him company
But wrestled him——
Joseph.
What means that check of word?
Herod.
My Joseph, you and I, we make a couple
That stands stern charge.
Joseph.
I too?
Herod.
I dare assert
I have both kin and trusty friend in you?
Joseph.
’Tis so I flatter me.
Herod.
’Twere better not so.
Had I like Saul cast the dart after you
And could you prove it through your deathly wound
For you ’twere better: no back-biter’s word
Had risen to find the credulous ear: and you,
For a blood-deed of which your hands were guiltless,
Would never lose your head.
Joseph.
I? lose my head?
Herod.
That is your fate if I do not return,
And Mariamne——
Joseph.
But my hands are guiltless:
Herod.
What helps you there? the ugly look’s against you.
And then again, suppose you were believed,
Are not the many, many services
You’ve rendered me, in Alexandra’s eyes
As many crimes against herself? Will she
Not have these thoughts—“Had he o’erwinked my flight
There’d be one living who now lies i’ the grave?”
Joseph.
True, true!
Herod.
And can she not then with some show
Of right demand your life to pay another’s
That she imagines lost through fault of yours?
Will she not set her daughter on to do it?
Joseph.
Salome! Ah, that comes of visiting
The painter. Year on year fresh portraits of me
She still demands.
Herod.
I know she loves you dear.
Joseph.
The less her love, the better were my case.
Had I the portrait of Aristobulus
Detected when I—good then. She can soon
Possess my latest, less a head.
Herod.
My Joseph,
A man protects his head.
Joseph.
When you have given
Your own for lost?
Herod.
That’s only half the trick.
I’ll try to save it through the stratagem,
That of myself free-willed I thrust that head
Into the lion’s gullet.
Joseph.
Once luck helped you
When the Pharisees——
Herod.
This is a sorrier case.
But hap what haps to me it is my will
To lay your destiny in your own hands.
You always were a man, be now a king.
I hang the purple mantle round your neck
And proffer you the sceptre and the sword.
Hold fast. To me alone you give it back!
Joseph.
What, do I understand you?
Herod.
And confirm
Your throne and life with it in certain tenure
By killing Mariamne if your hear
That I return not hither.
Joseph.
Mariamne?
Herod.
She is the last bond whereby Alexandra
Is knit unto the folk now that the flood
Has choked her son; she is the gay-hued plume
Rebellion’s helm will flaunt, the day whereon
It heads against you.
Joseph.
Ah, but Mariamne!
Herod.
Amazed that I——? I’ll make no false front, Joseph!
My counsel’s good, is good for you; what need
Of further words? yet, to be frank, I give it
Not for your sake alone—Here’s the bluff truth!
That she should with some other—I can’t bear it—
That would be bitterer than—I grant she’s proud—
But after death—and then, Antony—
And first and worst of all that mother of hers
Who’ll harry on the dead against the dead—
You catch my drift, you must.
Joseph.
But——
Herod.
Hear me out!
She led me on to hope that she herself
Would deal her death if I——Tell me, can debts
Be summoned in by proxy? ’Tis allowed
Even by force—what think you?
Joseph.
’Tis allowed.
Herod.
Promise me then that you will take her life
If she take not her own. Be not too hasty
And not too tardy either. Go to her
Soon as my messenger, for I shall send one,
Reports of me “it’s over!” tell it her
And mark then if she reaches hand for dirk
Or makes to do aught else. You promise?
Joseph.
Yes.
Herod.
I will not have you swear, for no man yet
Forced any one to swear he’d use his foot
To crush a snake that threatened him with death.
He does it of himself if he be sane;
For he could sooner practise abstinence
Of meat and drink without a scathe, than this.
[Joseph makes a gesture.
I know you throughly and I will commend you
To Antony as one in all this crew
That he dare trust in. You will prove him that
By showing that a woman of your blood
Is not too sacred to become your victim
When smothering of rebellion is the stake,
For that’s the point of view will gloze the deed,
That side you serve up for his eyes. ’Tis followed
By a street hubbub: your despatch to him
Is that an outbreak was your deed’s precursor
And only by its instrument was quelled.
As for the folk, ’twill have a shuddering-fit
When it beholds your bloody sword, and many
Will say:—“It seems I knew but half this man!”
And now——
Joseph.
I’ll see you yet, not now alone;
I know for sure, as ever you’ll come back.
Herod.
’Tis not past hope: and therefore one thing more—
[A long pause.
I swore just now an oath that touches you.
[Writes a letter and seals it.
Here ’tis! Receive in charge this letter sealed.
You see the run o’ the title—
Joseph.
To the headsman!
Herod.
I’ll keep what I have therein promised you,
And if, perhaps, you’ve mind to tell a tale
About a King who——
Joseph.
Come! Impose the task,
To hand this note myself unto the headsman.[5]
[Exit.