SCENE X
Courtyard of SAUL’S house in Gilgal. Confusion of people and men just come in — MAIDENS still singing outside.
ABNER: The King is returned to his own house once more full of victory. When shall we slay the sacrifice?
SAUL: To-night I will slay a bull calf for my house, and an ox will I sacrifice for my household. And for the men will we slay oxen and sheep and goats.
ABNER: Yea! For this is a great day before the Lord in Israel! And we will sprinkle the spoil with the sacrifice.
SAUL: Hast thou heard the song of the women? Nay, hearest thou? Hark! (In the distance is heard the singing.)
MERAB: Saul in thousands slew their men.
MICHAL: David slew his thousands ten.
ALL: Lu-lu-lu-li-lu-lu-a! A-li-lu-lu-a-li-lu!
ABNER: Ay!
SAUL: May such mouths be bruised!
ABNER: Nay! Nay! King Saul! In this hour!
SAUL: In this instant! They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands. And what can he have more, but the Kingdom?
ABNER: Nay, nay, O Saul! It is but the light words of women. Ay, let them sing! For as vain women they fancy naught but that head of Goliath, with the round stone sunken in. But the King is King.
SAUL: Shall that shepherd oust me, even from the mouths of the maidens?
ABNER: Nay, this is folly, and less than kingly.
MICHAL (followed by MERAB — running round the KING with their tambourines): Lu-li-lu-lu-a-li-lu! A-li-lu-lu-a-li-lu-lu-lu!
SAUL: Away!
MERAB AND MICHAL: Lu-lu-lu-lu! Saul, the King! Lu-lu-lu-lu-al-li-lu-lu! Saul! Saul! Lu-lu-lu! Saul! Saul! Lu-lu-lu!
SAUL: Peace, I say!
Exit SAUL, passing into house.
MERAB AND MICHAL: Jonathan and David. Lu-lu-lu! Here they come, the friendly two! Lu-lu-lu-lu-a-li-lu! Lu-lu-a-li-lu-lu-lu!
MERAB: Jonathan is kingly bred.
MICHAL: David took Goliath’s head.
BOTH: Jonathan and David! Lu-lu-lu! — a! Here they come, the loving two-a!
MICHAL (to DAVID): Where is the giant’s head?
DAVID: It is in Jerusalem of Judah, O Maiden.
MICHAL: Why did you not bring it here, that we might see it?
DAVID: I am of Judah, and they would have it there.
MICHAL: But Saul is King, and could have it where he would.
DAVID: Saul would leave it in Jerusalem.
MICHAL: And the armour, and the greaves of brass, and the shield, and the sword? The coat of brass that weighs five thousand shekels. Where are these? I want to see them, O David!
DAVID: The armour is in my father’s house, and in Jerusalem. The sword lies before the Lord in Ramah, with Samuel, O Maiden!
MICHAL: Why take it to Samuel? Do you not know my name, O David!
DAVID: You are Michal.
MICHAL: I am she. And this is Merab! Look at him, Merab, and see if you like him. Is it true, O my brother Jonathan, that the King will give Merab his daughter to the slayer of the Philistine?
JONATHAN: He hath said so.
MICHAL: To us he has not said one word. O Merab! Look at thy man! How likest thou him?
MERAB: I will not look at him yet.
MICHAL: Oh, thou! Thou hast spied out every hair in his beard. Is he not fox-red? I think the beard of a man should be raven-black. O Merab, thy David is very ruddy.
MERAB: Nay! He is not yet mine, nor I his.
MICHAL: Thou wouldst it were so! Aiee! Thou art hasty and beforehand with the red youth! Shame on thee, that art a King’s daughter.
MERAB: Nay, now, I have said naught.
MICHAL: Thou shouldst have said somewhat, to cover thy unmaidenly longing. — O David, this Merab sighs in her soul for you. How like you her?
DAVID: She is fair and a modest maiden.
MICHAL: As am not I! Oh, but I am Saul’s very daughter, and a hawk that soars kinghigh. And what has David brought, to lay before Merab?
DAVID: All I have is laid before the King.
MICHAL: But naught of the Philistine Goliath! All that spoil you took home to your father’s house, as the fox brings his prey to his own hole. Ah, David, the wary one!
MERAB: It was his own! Where should he take it, but to his father’s house!
MICHAL: Is not the King his father! Why should he not bring it here? Is Merab not worth the bride-money?
JONATHAN: Oh, peace! Thou art all mischief, Michal. Thou shouldst be married to a Philistine, for his undoing.
MICHAL: Ayee! This David has come back to trouble us! Why didst not thou slay the Philistine, Jonathan?
JONATHAN: Peace! Let us go in, David! These maidens are too forward. My father did never succeed in ruling his household of women.
MICHAL: Ayee! His household of women! Thou, Jonathan! Go in, David! They shall not put poison in your meat.
As DAVID and JONATHAN depart she sings:
Empty-handed David came!
Merab saw him full of shame!
Lu-lu-lu-lu-lu-li-lu! A-li-lu-a! A-li-lu!
Empty-handed David came!
Merab saw him full of shame!
A-li-lu-lu! A-li-lu-li! Li-lu-li-lu-a!
(To MERAB.) So he has come!
MERAB: Even so! Yet his brow says: Have a care!
MICHAL: Have a care, Merab! Have a care, David! Have a care, Michal! Have a care, Jonathan! Have a care, King Saul! I do not like his brow, it is too studied.
MERAB: Nay, it is manly, and grave.
MICHAL: Ayee! Ayee! He did not laugh. He did not once laugh. It will not be well, Merab!
MERAB: What will not be well?
MICHAL: The King will not give thee to him.
MERAB: But the King hath spoken.
MICHAL: I have read the brow of Saul, and it was black. I have looked at David’s brow, and it was heavy and secret. The King will not give thee to David, Merab. I know it, I know it.
MERAB: A King should keep his word!
MICHAL: What! Art thou hot with anger against thy father, lest he give thee not to this shepherd boy! David hath cast a spell on Merab! The ruddy herdsman out of Judah has thrown a net over the King’s daughter! Oh, poor quail! poor partridge!
MERAB: I am not caught! I am not!
MICHAL: Thou art caught! And not by some chieftain, nor by some owner of great herds. But by a sheep-tending boy! Oh, fie!
MERAB: Nay, I do not want him.
MICHAL: Yea, thou dost. And if some man of great substance came, and my father would give thee to him, thou wouldst cry: Nay! Nay! Nay! I am David’s!
MERAB: Never would I cry this and that thou sayest. For I am not his. — And am I not first daughter of the King!
MICHAL: Thou waitest and pantest after that red David. And he will climb high in the sight of Israel, upon the mound of Merab. I tell thee, he is a climber who would climb above our heads.
MERAB: Above my head he shall not climb.
MICHAL:
Empty-handed David came!
Merab saw him full of shame!
Lu-li-lu-li! Lu-li-lu-lu-li! A-li-lu-lu!
CURTAIN
SCENE XI
Room in KING’S house at Gilgal. Bare adobe room, mats on the floor. SAUL, ABNER and ADRIEL reclining around a little open hearth.
SAUL: And how is the slayer of Goliath looked upon, in Gilgal?
ABNER: Yea! he is a wise young man, he brings no disfavour upon himself.
SAUL: May Baal finish him! And how looks he on the King’s daughter? Does he eye Merab as a fox eyes a young lamb?
ABNER: Nay, he is wise, a young man full of discretion, watching well his steps.
SAUL: Ay is he! Smooth-faced and soft-footed, as Joseph in the house of Pharaoh! I tell you, I like not this weasel.
ABNER: Nay, he is no enemy of the King. His eyes are clear, with the light of the Lord God. But he is alone and shy, as a rude young shepherd.
SAUL: Thou art his uncle, surely. I tell you, I will send him back to Bethlehem, to the sheep-cotes.
ABNER: He is grown beyond the sheep-cotes, O King! And wilt thou send him back into Judah, while the giant’s head still blackens above the gates of Jerusalem, and David is darling of all Judea, in the hearts of the men of Judah? Better keep him here, where the King alone can honour him.
SAUL: I know him! Should I send him away, he will have them name him King in Judah, and Samuel will give testimony. Yea, when he carried the sword of the giant before Samuel in Ramah, did not Samuel bless him in the sight of all men, saying: Thou art chosen of the Lord out of Israel!
ABNER: If it be so, O King, we cannot put back the sun in heaven. Yet is David faithful servant to the King, and full of love for Jonathan. I find in him no presumption.
SAUL: My household is against me. Ah, this is the curse upon me! My children love my chief enemy, him who hath supplanted me before the Lord. Yea, my children pay court to David, and my daughters languish for him. But he shall not rise upon me. I say he shall not! Nor shall he marry my elder daughter Merab. Wellah, and he shall not.
ABNER: Yet Saul has given his word.
SAUL: And Saul shall take it back. What man should keep his word with a supplanter? Abner, have we not appointed him captain over a thousand? Captain over a thousand in the army of Saul shall he be. Oh yes! And to-morrow I will say to him, I will even say it again: Behold Merab, my elder daughter, her will I give thee to wife: only be thou valiant for me, and fight the Lord’s battles. And then he shall go forth with his thousand again, quickly, against the Philistine. Let not my hand be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistine be upon him.
ABNER: But if the Lord be with him, and he fall not, but come back once more with spoil, wilt thou then withhold the hand of thy daughter Merab from him?
SAUL: He shall not have her! Nay, I know not. When the day comes that he returns back to this house, then Saul will answer him. We will not tempt the Thunderer.
ADRIEL: I have it sure, from Eliab his brother, that David was anointed by Samuel to be King over Israel, secretly, in the house of his father Jesse. And Eliab liketh not the youngster, saying he was ever heady, naughty-hearted, full of a youngling’s naughty pride, and the conceit of the father’s favourite. Now the tale is out in Judah, and many would have him King, saying: Why should Judah look to a King out of Benjamin? Is there no horn-anointed among the men of Judah?
SAUL: So is it! So is it! — To-morrow he shall go forth with his men, and the hand of the Philistine shall be upon him. I will not lift my hand upon him, for fear of the Dark! Yet where is he now? What is he conniving at this moment, in the house of Saul? Go see what he is about, O Adriel!
Exit ADRIEL.
ABNER: It is a bad thing, O Saul, to let this jealous worm eat into a King’s heart, that always was noble!
SAUL: I cannot help it. The worm is there. And since the women sang — nay, in all the cities they sang the same — Saul hath slain his thousands, but David hath slain his tens of thousands, it gnaws me, Abner, and I feel I am no longer King in the sight of the Lord.
ABNER: Canst thou not speak with the Morning Wind? And if the Lord of Days have chosen David to be king over Israel after thee, canst thou not answer the great Wish of the Heavens, saying: It is well!?
SAUL: I cannot! I cannot deny my house, and my blood! I cannot cast down my own seed, for the seed of Jesse to sprout. I cannot! Wellah, and I will not! Speak not to me of this!
ABNER: Yet wert thou chosen of God! And always hast thou been a man of the bright horn.
SAUL: Yea, and am I brought to this pass! Yea, and must I cut myself off? Almost will I rather be a man of Belial, and call on Baal. Surely Astaroth were better to me. For I have kept the faith, yet must I cut myself off! Wellah, is there no other strength?
ABNER: I know not. Thou knowest, who hast heard the thunder and hast felt the Thunderer.
SAUL: I hear It no more, for It hath closed Its lips to me. But other voices hear I in the night — other voices!
Enter ADRIEL.
SAUL: Well, and where is he?
ADRIEL: He is sitting in the house of Jonathan, and they make music together, so the women listen.
SAUL: Ah! And sings the bird of Bethlehem? What songs now?
ADRIEL: Even to the Lord: How excellent is thy name in all the earth. And men and women listen diligently, to learn as it droppeth from his mouth. And Jonathan, for very love, writes it down.
SAUL: Nay, canst thou not remember?
ADRIEL: I cannot, O King. Hark!
A man is heard in the courtyard, singing loud and manly, from Psalm viii.
Voice of singer: What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands;
Thou hast put all things under his feet:
All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
SAUL listens moodily.
SAUL: I hear him! Yea, they sing after him! He will set all Israel singing after him, and all men in all lands. All the world will sing what he sings. And I shall be dumb. Yea, I shall be dumb, and the lips of my house will be dust! What, am I naught; and set at naught! What do I know? Shall I go down into the grave silenced, and like one mute with ignorance? Ha! Ha! There are wells in the desert that go deep. And even there we water the sheep, when our faces are blackened with drought. Hath Saul no sight into the unseen? Ha, look! look down the deep well, how the black water is troubled. — Yea, and I see death, death, death! I see a sword through my body, and the body of Jonathan gaping wounds, and my son Abinadab, and my son Melchishua, and my son Ishbosheth lying in blood. Nay, I see the small pale issue of my house creeping on broken feet, as a lamed worm. Yea, yea, what an end! And the seed of David rising up and covering the earth, many, with a glory about them, and the wind of the Lord in their hair. Nay, then they wheel against the sun, and are dark, like the locusts sweeping in heaven, like the pillars of locusts moving, yea, as a tall, dark cloud upon the land. Till they drop in drops of blood, like thunder-rain, and the land is red. Then they turn again into the glory of the Lord. Yea, as a flight of birds down all the ages, now shedding sun and the gleam of God, now shedding shadow and the fall of blood, now as quails chirping in the spring, now as the locust pillars of cloud, as death upon the land. And they thicken and thicken, till the world’s air grates and clicks as with the wings of locusts. And man is his own devourer, and the Deep turns away, without wish to look on him further. So the earth is a desert, and manless, yet covered with houses and iron. Yea, David, the pits are digged even under the feet of thy God, and thy God shall fall in. Oh, their God shall fall into the pit, that the sons of David have digged. Oh, men can dig a pit for the most high God, and He falls in — as they say of the huge elephant in the lands beyond the desert. And the world shall be Godless, there shall no God walk on the mountains, no whirlwind shall stir like a heart in the deeps of the blue firmament. And God shall be gone from the world. Only men there shall be, in myriads, like locusts, clicking and grating upon one another, and crawling over one another. The smell of them shall be as smoke, but it shall rise up into the air, without finding the nostrils of God. For God shall be gone! gone! gone! And men shall inherit the earth! Yea, like locusts and whirring on wings like locusts. To this the seed of David shall come, and this is their triumph, when the house of Saul has been swept up, long, long ago into the body of God. Godless the world! Godless the men in myriads even like locusts. No God in the air! No God on the mountains! Even out of the deeps of the sky they lured Him, into their pit! So the world is empty of God, empty, empty, like a blown egg-shell bunged with wax and floating meaningless. God shall fall Himself into the pit these men shall dig for Him! Ha! Ha! O David’s Almighty, even He knows not the depth of the dark wells in the desert, where men may still water their flocks! Ha! Ha! Lord God of Judah, thou peepest not down the pit where the black water twinkles. Ha-ha! Saul peeps and sees the fate that wells up from below! Ha! Lo! Death and blood, what is this Almighty that sees not the pits digged for Him by the children of men? Ha! Ha! saith Saul. Look in the black mirror! Ha!
ABNER: It is not well, O King.
SAUL: Ha! It is very well! It is very well. Let them lay their trap for his Lord. For his Lord will fall into it. Aha! Aha! Give them length of days. I do not ask it.
ABNER: My lord, the darkness is over your heart.
SAUL: And over my eyes! Ha! And on the swim of the dark are visions. What? Are the demons not under the works of God, as worms are under the roots of the vine? Look! (Stares transfixed.)
ABNER (to ADRIEL): Go quickly and bring Jonathan, and David, for the Kings is prophesying with the spirit of the under-earth.
Exit ADRIEL.
SAUL: The room is full of demons! I have known it filled with the breath of Might. The glisten of the dark, old movers that first got the world into shape. They say the god was once as a beetle, but vast and dark. And he rolled the earth into a ball, and laid his seed in it. Then he crept clicking away to hide for ever, while the earth brought forth after him. He went down a deep pit. The gods do not die. They go down a deep pit, and live on at the bottom of oblivion. And when a man staggers, he stumbles and falls backwards down the pit — down the pit, down through oblivion after oblivion, where the gods of the past live on. And they laugh, and eat his soul. And the time will come when even the God of David will fall down the endless pit, till He passes the place where the serpent lies living under oblivion, on to where the Beetle of the Beginning lives under many layers of dark. I see it! Aha! I see the Beetle clambering upon Him, Who was the Lord of Hosts.
ABNER: I cannot hear thee, O King. I would e’en be deaf in this hour. Peace! I bid thee! Peace!
SAUL: What? Did someone speak within the shadow? Come thou forth then from the shadow, if thou hast aught to say.
ABNER: I say Peace! Peace, thou! Say thou no more!
SAUL: What? Peace! saith the voice? And what is peace? Hath the Beetle of the Beginning peace, under many layers of oblivion? Or the great serpent coiled for ever, is he coiled upon his own peace?
Enter JONATHAN, DAVID, and MEN.
SAUL (continuing): I tell you, till the end of time, unrest will come upon the serpent of serpents, and he will lift his head and hiss against the children of men — thus will he hiss! (SAUL hisses.) Hiss! Hiss! and he will strike the children of men — thus —
SAUL strikes as a serpent, and with his javelin.
JONATHAN: Father, shall we sound music?
SAUL: Father! Who is father? Know ye not, the vast, dark, shining beetle was the first father, who laid his eggs in a dead ball of the dust of forgotten gods? And out of the egg the serpent of gold, who was great Lord of Life, came forth.
JONATHAN (to DAVID): Now sing, that peace may come back upon us.
DAVID: If he heed me. (Sings Psalm viii.)
SAUL meanwhile raves — then sinks into gloom, staring fixedly.
SAUL: And the serpent was golden with life. But he said to himself: I will lay an egg. So he laid the egg of his own undoing. And the Great White Bird came forth. Some say a dove, some say an eagle, some say a swan, some say a goose — all say a bird. And the serpent of the sun’s life turned dark, as all the gods turn dark. Yea, and the Great White Bird beat wings in the firmament, so the dragon slid into a hole, the serpent crawled out of sight, down to the oblivion of oblivion, yet above the oblivion of the Beetle.
DAVID meanwhile sings.
SAUL (striking with his hands as if at a wasp): Na-a! But what is this sound that comes like a hornet at my ears, and will not let me prophesy! Away! Away!
JONATHAN: My Father, it is a new song to sing.
SAUL: What art thou, Jonathan, thy father’s enemy?
JONATHAN: Listen to the new song, Father.
SAUL: What? (Hearkens a moment.) I will not hear it! What! I say I will not hear it! Trouble me not, nor stop the dark fountain of my prophecy! I will not hearken! (Listens.)
DAVID (singing): When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained.
SAUL: What! art thou there, thou brown hornet, thou stealer of life’s honey! What, shalt thou stay in my sight! (Suddenly hurls his javelin at DAVID. DAVID leaps aside.)
JONATHAN: My Father, this shall not be!
SAUL: What! art thou there? Bring me here my dart.
JONATHAN (picking up the javelin): Look then at the hole in the wall! Is not that a reproach against the house of the King for ever? (Gives the javelin to SAUL.)
SAUL sinks into moody silence, staring. DAVID begins to sing very softly.
DAVID (singing): O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! Who has set thy glory above the heavens.
SAUL very softly, with the soft, swift suddenness of a great cat, leaps round and hurls the javelin again. DAVID as swiftly leaps aside.
SAUL: I will smite David even to the wall.
ABNER: Go hence, David! Swiftly hence!
JONATHAN: Twice, Father!
Exit DAVID.
ABNER (seizing javelin): The evil spirits upon thee have done this. O Saul! They have not prevailed.
SAUL: Have I pierced him? Is he down with the dead? Can we lay him in the sides of the pit?
ABNER: He is not dead! He is gone forth.
SAUL (wearily): Gone forth! Ay! He is gone forth! — What, did I seek to slay him?
JONATHAN: Yea, twice.
SAUL: I was out of myself. I was then beside myself.
ABNER: Yea, the evil spirits were upon thee.
SAUL: Tell him, O Jonathan, Saul seeks not his life. Nay! Nay! Do I not love him, even as thou dost, but more, even as a father! O David! David! I have loved thee. Oh, I have loved thee and the Lord in thee. — And now the evil days have come upon me, and I have thrown the dart against thee, and against the Lord. I am a man given over to trouble, and tossed between two winds. Lo, how can I walk before the faces of men! (Covers his face with his mantle.)
ABNER: The evil spirits have left him. Peace comes with sorrow.
JONATHAN: And only then.
SAUL: Bring David hither to me, for I will make my peace with him, for my heart is very sore.
JONATHAN: Verily, shall it be peace?
SAUL: Yea! For I fear the Night.
Exit JONATHAN.
Surely now will David publish it in Judah: Saul hath lilted his hand to slay me.
ABNER: He will not publish it in Judah.
SAUL: And wherefore not? Is he not as the apple of their eyes to the men of Judah, who love not overmuch the tribe of Benjamin?
ABNER: But David is the King’s man.
SAUL: Ah, would it were verily so.
Enter JONATHAN and DAVID.
DAVID: The Lord strengthen the King!
SAUL: Ah, David, my son, come, and come in peace. For my hands are bare and my heart is washed and my eyes are no longer deluded. May the Lord be with thee, David, and hold it not against me, what I have done. Spirits of the earth possess me, and I am not my own. Thou shalt not cherish it in thy heart, what Saul did against thee, in the season of his bewilderment?
DAVID: Naught has the King done against me. And the heart of thy servant knoweth no ill.
SAUL: Hatest thou me not, David?
DAVID: Let the word be unspoken, my Father!
SAUL: Ah, David! David! Why can I not love thee untroubled? — But I will right the wrong. — Thou shalt henceforth be captain of the thousand of Hebron, and dwell in thine own house, by the men. And behold, Merab, my elder daughter, I will give thee to wife.
DAVID: Who am I, and what is my life, or my father’s family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the King?
SAUL: Nay, thou art of mine own heart, and the Lord is thy great strength. Only be valiant for me, and fight the Lord’s battles.
DAVID: All my life is the King’s, and my strength is to serve.
SAUL: It shall be well. And with thy thousand shalt thou succour Israel.
CURTAIN
SCENE XII
The well at Gilgal: MAIDENS coming with water-jars. Two HERDSMEN filling the trough — one below, at the water, one on the steps. They swing the leathern bucket back and forth with a rough chant: the lower shepherd swinging the load to the upper, who swings it to the trough, and hands it back. DAVID approaching.
1ST HERDSMAN: Ya! David missed her.
2ND HERDSMAN: Let him get her sister — Oh! Oh-oh-h!
1ST HERDSMAN: Ya! David missed her.
2ND HERDSMAN: Let him get her sister — Oh-h-h-h! (Continue several times.)
1ST MAIDEN: How long, O Herdsman!
2ND HERDSMAN: Ho-o-o! Enough!
1ST HERDSMAN (coming up): Ya! David missed her!
MAIDENS run away from him.
1ST MAIDEN: Ho, thou! Seest thou not David?
1ST HERDSMAN: Yea, he is there! Ho! David! And hast thou missed her?
MAIDENS laugh.
DAVID: What sayest thou, O Man?
1ST HERDSMAN: Thou hast missed her — say! — am I not right?
DAVID: And whom have I missed?
1ST HERDSMAN: Wellah! And knowest thou not?
DAVID: Nay!
1ST HERDSMAN: Wellah! But Merab, the King’s elder daughter! Wellah! We feasted her week half a moon ago, whilst you and your men were gone forth against the Philistines. Wellah, man, and didst thou not know?
DAVID: Sayest thou so?
1ST HERDSMAN: Wellah! And is it not so? Say, Maidens, hath not Adriel the Meholathite got Merab, Saul’s daughter, to wife? And hath he not spent his week with her? Wellah, thou art ousted from that bed, O David.
DAVID: And hath the King given his daughter Merab unto Adriel the Meholathite! Wellah, shall he not do as he choose, with his own?
1ST HERDSMAN: Ay, wellah, shall he! But thou wert promised. And in thy stead, another hath gone in unto her. Is it not so, O Maidens? Sleeps not Merab in the tent of Adriel the Meholathite?
1ST MAIDEN: Yea, the King hath married her to the man.
DAVID: And sings she as she shakes his butter-skin?
1ST MAIDEN: Nay, as yet she sings not. But if David sits here beneath the tree, she will come with her jar. Nay, is that not Adriel the Meholathite himself, coming forth? O Herdsman, drive not the cattle as yet to the drinking troughs! (Goes down and fills her pitcher.)
2ND MAIDEN: Will David sit awhile beneath the tree?
DAVID: Yea!
2ND MAIDEN: Then shall Michal, daughter of Saul, come hither with her water-jar. Is it well, O David?
DAVID: Yea, it is very well.
MAIDEN goes down with her pitcher.
ADRIEL: Ha, David! And art thou returned? I have not seen thee before the King.
DAVID: I returned but yesterday. And I saw the King at the dawn. Now art thou become a great man in Israel, O Adriel, and son-in-law to the King. How fareth Merab in the tents of the Meholathite?
ADRIEL: Yea, and blithely. And to-morrow even in the early day will I set her on an ass, and we will get us to my father’s house. For he is old, and the charge of his possessions is heavy upon him, and he fain would see his daughter Merab, who shall bring him sons — sons to gladden him. And she shall have her handmaidens about her, and her store-barns of wool, and corn, and clotted figs, and bunches of raisins, all her wealth she shall see in store!
DAVID: May she live content, and bring thee sons, even males of worth.
ADRIEL: The Lord grant it! And thou hast come home once more with spoil! How thou chastenest the Philistine! Yea, and behold, the King hath delight in thee, and all his servants love thee! Lo! I am the King’s son-in-law, of Merab. Now, therefore, be thou also the King’s son-in-law, for there is yet a daughter.
DAVID: Seemeth it to you a light thing, to be the King’s son-in-law, seeing that I am a poor man, and lightly esteemed?
ADRIEL: By my beard, the King delighteth in thee, and all his servants love thee. There is no man in Israel more fit to take a daughter of the King.
DAVID: Yea, there be men of mighty substance such as thou, whose flocks have not been counted, and who send men-at-arms pricking with iron lance-points, to the King’s service. But what have I, save the bare hands and heart of a faithful servant?
ADRIEL: Nay, thy name is high among men. But lo! here cometh Saul, as he hath promised. He is coming out to my tents. I will go forward to bring him in. Come thou?
DAVID: Nay! Leave me here.
Exit ADRIEL.
1ST HERDSMAN: I have heard the mouth of Adriel, O David! Surely he is the King’s listener.
DAVID: And thou! Who made thee a listener?
1ST HERDSMAN: Nay, I must guard the water-troughs till the cattle have drunk. Adriel hath flocks and men-servants, but David hath the Lord, and the hearts of all Israel! Better a brave and bright man, with a face that shines to the heart, than a great owner of troops and herds, who struts with arms akimbo. As I plant this driving-stick in the soft earth, so hath the Lord planted David in the heart of Israel. I say: Stick, may thou flourish! May thou bud and blossom and be a great tree. For thou art not as the javelin of Saul, levelled at David’s bosom.
DAVID: Peace! Saul cometh.
1ST HERDSMAN: Wellah! And I will go down to the water. (Goes to the well.)
DAVID: The Lord strengthen the King.
SAUL: Art thou my son, David? Yea, David, have they told thee, I have married my daughter Merab unto Adriel the Meholathite, even to him who stands here?
DAVID: Yea, O Saul! They told me the King’s pleasure. May the Lord bless thy house for ever!
SAUL: Have I not promised my daughter unto thee? But my servants tell me the heart of Michal goes forth wishful unto David. Say now, is she fair in thine eyes?
DAVID: Yea! Yea, O King, yea!
SAUL: When the new moon shows her tender horns above the west, thou shalt this day be my son-in-law in one of the twain.
DAVID: Let thy servant but serve the King!
SAUL: Yea, an thou serve me, it shall be on the day of the new moon.
DAVID: Yea, will I serve without fail.
SAUL: So be it!
Exit with ADRIEL.
HERDSMAN (coming up): Now is David the richest man in Israel — in promises! Wilt thou not sell me a King’s promise, for this my camel-stick?
DAVID: It is well.
HERDSMAN: Sayest thou? Then it is a bargain? Wellah! Take my stick. It is worth the word of a King.
DAVID: Peace!
HERDSMAN: Thou meanest war!
DAVID: How?
HERDSMAN: If thou get her, it is war. If thou get her not, it is more war. Sayest thou peace?
MAIDENS (running): Oh, master David, hath Saul passed with Adriel?
HERDSMAN: They have passed, letting fall promises as the goat droppeth pills.
DAVID: Peace, O Man!
MAIDEN: Oh, master David, shall Michal come forth to fill her water-jar? For Merab is setting meats before the King, in the booth of Adriel. Oh, David, shall Michal bring her jar to the well?
HERDSMAN: Ay, wellah, shall she! And I will hold back the cattle this little while, for I hear their voices.
Exit HERDSMAN.
DAVID: Run back quickly and let her come.
Exit MAIDEN.
DAVID (alone): Lord! dost Thou send this maiden to me? My entrails strain in me, for Michal, daughter of Saul. Lord God of my Salvation, my wanting of this maiden is next to my wanting Thee. My body is a strung bow. Lord, let me shoot mine arrow unto this mark. Thou fillest me with desire as with thunder, Thy lightning is in my loins, and my breast like a cloud leans forward for her. Lord! Lord! Thy left hand is about her middle, and Thy right hand grasps my life. So Thou bringest us together in Thy secret self, that it may be fulfilled for Thee in us. Lord of the Great Wish, I will not let her go.
MICHAL (entering — covering her chin and throat with her kerchief): Wilt thou let me pass to fill my jar, O thou stranger?
DAVID: Come, Michal, and I will fill thy jar.
She comes forward — he takes her jar and goes down the steps. Returning he sets it on the ground at his feet.
MICHAL: Oh, David! And art thou still unslain?
DAVID: As the Lord wills, no man shall slay me. And livest thou in thine house lonely, without thy sister Merab?
MICHAL: Is thy heart sore in thee, David, that thou hast lost Merab? Her heart is gentle, and she sighed for thee. But e’en she obeyed.
DAVID: She hath a man of more substance than David. And my heart is very glad on her account.
MICHAL: It is well.
DAVID: O Michal, didst thou come willingly to the well, when the maiden told thee I waited here?
MICHAL: Yea, willingly.
DAVID: O Michal, my heart runs before me, when it sees thee far off, like one eager to come to his own place. Oh, thou with the great eyes of the wilderness, shall my heart leap to thee, and shall thou not say Nay! to it?
MICHAL: What said my father, O David, when he passed?
DAVID: He said: when the new moon showeth her horns in the west, on this day shalt thou surely be my son-in-law of one of the twain.
MICHAL: Yea, and is thy heart uplifted, to be a King’s son-in-law?
DAVID: So she be Michal, my body is uplifted like the sail of a ship when the wind arouses.
MICHAL: Nay, thou art a seeker of honours! Merab had been just as well to thy liking.
DAVID: Ah, no! Ah! Ah! Merab is gentle and good, and my heart softened with kindness for her, as a man unto a woman. But thou art like the rising moon, that maketh the limbs of the mountain glisten. O Michal, we twain are upon the hillsides of the Lord, and surely He will bring our strength together!
MICHAL: And if the Lord God say thee nay!
DAVID: He will not. He hath thy life in His left hand, and my life He holdeth in His right hand. And surely He will lay us together in the secret of His desire, and I shall come unto thee by the Lord’s doing.
MICHAL: But if He say thee nay, thou wilt let me go.
DAVID: Thou knowest not the Lord my God. The flame He kindles He will not blow out. He is not yea-and-nay! But my Lord my God loveth a bright desire and yearneth over a great Wish, for its fulfilment. Oh, the Lord my God is a glowing flame and He loveth all things that do glow. So loves He thee, Michal, O woman before me, for thou glowest like a young tree in full flower, with flowers of gold and scarlet, and dark leaves. O thou young pomegranate tree, flowers and fruit together show on thy body. And flame calleth to flame, for flame is the body of God, like flowers of flame. Oh, and God is a great Wish, and a great Desire, and a pure flame for ever. Thou art kindled of the Lord, O Michal, and He will not let thee go.
MICHAL: Yet the Lord Himself will not marry me.
DAVID: I will marry thee, for the Lord hath kindled me unto thee, and hath said: Go to her, for the fruits of the pomegranate are ripe.
MICHAL: Will thou not seek me for thyself?
DAVID: Yea, for my very self; and for my very self; and for the Lord’s own self in me.
MICHAL: Ever thou puttest the Lord between me and thee.
DAVID: The Lord is a sweet wind that fills thy bosom and thy belly as the sail of a ship; so I see thee sailing delicately towards me, borne onwards by my Lord.
MICHAL: Oh, David, would the new moon were come! For I fear my father, and I misdoubt his hindrances.
DAVID: Thinkest thou, he would marry thee away, as Merab?
MICHAL: Nay, but thou must make a song, and sing it before all Israel, that Michal is thine by the King’s promise, no man shall look on her but David.
DAVID: Yea! I will make a song. And yea, I will not let thee go. Thou shalt come to me as wife, and I will know thee, and thou shalt lie in my bosom. Yea! As the Lord liveth!
MICHAL: And as the Lord liveth, not even my father shall constrain me, to give me to another man, before the new moon showeth her horns.
DAVID: It is well, O Michal! O Michal, wife of David, thou shalt sleep in my tent! In the tent of the men of war, beside the sword of David, Michal sleeps, and the hand of David is upon her hip. He has sealed her with his seal, and Michal of David is her name, and kingdoms shall he bring down to her. Michael of David shall blossom in the land, her name shall blossom in the mouths of soldiers as the rose of Sharon after rain. And men-at-arms shall shout her name, like a victory cry it shall be heard. And she shall be known in the land but as Michal of David; blossom of God, keeper of David’s nakedness.
MICHAL: They shall not reive me from thee. — I see men coming.
DAVID: Wilt thou go?
MICHAL: I shall call my maidens. So ho! So ho! (Waves the end of her kerchief.)
HERDSMAN (entering): There are two captains, servants of Saul, coming even now from the booths of the Meholathite, where the King is.
MICHAL: Yea, let them come, and we will hear the words they put forth.
HERDSMAN: And the cattle are being driven round by the apricot garden. They will soon be here.
DAVID: In two words we shall have the mind of Saul from these captains.
MAIDENS enter, running.
MAIDENS: O Michal, men are approaching!
MICHAL: Fill you your jar, and with one ear let us listen. David stays under the tree.
1ST MAIDEN: Stars are in thine eyes, O Michal, like a love night!
2ND MAIDEN: Oh! and the perfume of a new-opened flower! What sweetness has she heard?
3RD MAIDEN: Oh, say! what words like honey, and like new sweet dates of the Oasis, hath David the singer said to Michal? Oh, that we might have heard!
1ST CAPTAIN (entering): David is still at the well?
DAVID: Yea, after war and foray, happy is the homely passage at the well?
2ND CAPTAIN: Wilt thou return to the King’s house with us, and we will tell thee what is toward: even the words of Saul concerning thee.
DAVID: Say on! For I must in the other way.
1ST CAPTAIN: The King delighteth in thee more than in any man of Israel. For no man layeth low the King’s enemies like David, in the land.
DAVID: Sayest thou so?
1ST CAPTAIN: Yea! And when the new moon shows her horns shalt thou be son-in-law to Saul, in his daughter Michal.
DAVID: As the Lord, and the King, willeth. Saul hath said as much to me, even now. Yet I am a poor man, and how shall the King at last accept me?
2ND CAPTAIN: This too hath Saul considered. And he hath said: Tell my son David, the King desireth not any bride-money, nay, neither sheep nor oxen nor asses, nor any substance of his. But an hundred foreskins of the Philistines shall he bring to the King, to be avenged of his enemies.
1ST CAPTAIN: So said the King: Before the new moon, as she cometh, sets on her first night, shall David bring the foreskins of an hundred Philistines unto Saul. And that night shall Saul deliver Michal, his daughter, unto David, and she shall sleep in David’s house.
2ND CAPTAIN: And Israel shall be avenged of her enemies.
DAVID: Hath the King verily sent this message to me?
1ST CAPTAIN: Yea, he hath sent it, and a ring from his own hand. Lo! here it is! For said Saul: Let David keep this for a pledge between me and him, in this matter. And when he returneth, he shall give me my ring again, and the foreskins of the Philistine, and I will give him my daughter Michal to wife.
DAVID: Yea! Then I must hence, and call my men, and go forth against the Philistine. For while the nights are yet moonless, and without point of moon, will I return with the tally.
Exit DAVID.
2ND CAPTAIN: Yea, he is gone on the King’s errand.
1ST CAPTAIN: Let him meet what the King wishes.
Exeunt IST and 2ND CAPTAINS.
HERDSMAN: Yea, I know what ye would have. Ye would slay David with the sword of the Philistine. For who keeps promise with a dead man! (MICHAL and MAIDENS edge in.) Hast thou heard, O Michal? David is gone forth against the Philistine. For Saul asketh an hundred foreskins of the enemy as thy bride-money. Is it not a tall dowry?
MICHAL: Yea! hath my father done this!
HERDSMAN: Wellah, hath he! For dead men marry no king’s daughters. And the spear of some Philistine shall beget death in the body of David. Thy father hath made thee dear!
MICHAL: Nay, he hath made my name cheap in all Israel.
2ND HERDSMAN (entering): Run, Maidens! The cattle are coming round the wall, athirst!
MAIDENS (shouldering their jars): Away! Away!
Exeunt.
CURTAIN
SCENE XIII
A room in DAVID’S house in Gilgal. Almost dark. DAVID alone, speaking softly: an image in a corner.
DAVID: Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my meditation.
Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray.
My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.
For thou art not a God that hast pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee.
The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.
But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple.
Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness, because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face.
For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre: they flatter with their tongue.
Destroy thou them, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they have rebelled against thee.
But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee.
For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him, as with a shield.
Pause.
Nay Lord, I am Thy anointed, and Thy son. With the oil of anointment hast Thou begotten me. Oh, I am twice begotten: of Jesse, and of God! I go forth as a son of God, and the Lord is with me. Yet for this they hate me, and Saul seeks to destroy me. What can I do, O Lord, in this pass?
Enter MICHAL, through curtain at side, with tray and lamp.
MICHAL: The dawn is at hand. Art thou not faint with this long watching before the Lord? Oh! why wilt thou leave thy bed and thy pleasure of the night, to speak out into the empty, chill hour towards morning? Come then, eat of the food which I have brought.
DAVID: I will not eat now, for my soul still yearns away from me.
MICHAL: Art thou sick?
DAVID: Yea! My soul is sick.
MICHAL: Why?
DAVID: Nay, thou knowest. Thy father hates me beyond measure.
MICHAL: But I love you.
DAVID (takes her hand): Yea!
MICHAL: Is it nothing to you that Michal is your wife and loves you?
DAVID: Verily, it is not nothing. But, Michal, what will come to me at last? From moon to moon Saul’s anger waxes. I shall lose my life at last. And what good shall I be to thee then?
MICHAL: Ah, no! Ah, no! Never shall I see thee dead. First thou shalt see me dead. Never, never shall I tear my hair for thee, as a widow. It shall not be. If thou go hence, it shall not be into death.
DAVID: Yet death is near. From month to month, since I came back with the foreskins of the Philistine, and got thee to wife, Saul has hated me more. Michal loves David, and Saul’s hate waxes greater. Jonathan loves David, and the King commands Jonathan, saying: There, where thou seest him, there shalt thou slay David.
MICHAL: My father is no more a man. He is given over entirely to evil spirits. But Jonathan will save thee through it all.
DAVID: The Lord will save me. And Jonathan is dearer to me than a heart’s brother.
MICHAL: Think, O husband, if Saul hateth thee, how Michal and Jonathan, who are children of Saul, do love thee.
DAVID: Yea, verily! It is like the rainbow in the sky unto me. But, O Michal, how shall we win through? I have loved Saul. And I have not it in me to hate him. Only his perpetual anger puts on me a surpassing heaviness, and a weariness, so my flesh wearies upon my bones.
MICHAL: But why? Why? Why does it matter to thee? I love thee, all the time — Jonathan loves thee — thy men love thee. Why does the frenzy of one distracted man so trouble thee? Why? It is out of all measure.
DAVID: Nay, he is Saul, and the Lord’s anointed. And he is King over all Israel.
MICHAL: And what then? He is no man among men any more. Evil possesses him. Why heed him, and wake in the night for him?
DAVID: Because he is the Lord’s anointed, and one day he will kill me.
MICHAL: He will never kill thee. Thou sayest thyself the Lord will prevent him. And if not the Lord, then I will prevent him — for I am not yet nothing in Gilgal. And Jonathan will prevent him. And the captains will prevent him. And art thou not also the Lord’s anointed? And will not the Lord set thee King on the hill of Zion, in thine own Judah?
DAVID: O Michal! O Michal! That the hand of the Lord’s anointed should be lifted against the Lord’s anointed! What can I do? For Saul is the Lord’s, and I may not even see an enemy in him. I cannot verily! Yet he seeks to slay me. All these months since he gave thee to me, after I brought the foreskins of the Philistine for thy dowry, he has hated me more, and sought my life. Before the moon of our marriage was waned away thy father commanded his servants, and even Jonathan, to slay David on that spot where they should find him. So Jonathan came to me in haste and secret, and sent me away into the fields by night and hid me. Yea, before the month of our marriage was finished I had to flee from thee in the night, and leave my place cold.
MICHAL: But not for long. Not for long. Jonathan persuaded my father, so he took thee back. Even he loved thee again.
DAVID: Yea, he also loves me! But Saul is a man falling backward down a deep pit, that must e’en clutch what is nearest him, and drag it down along with him.
MICHAL: But Saul swore: As the Lord liveth, David shall not be slain.
DAVID: Ay, he swore. But before two moons were passed his brow was black again. And when the season of the year came, that the Kings of the Philistine go forth, I went up against them, and fought. The months of the fighting I fought with them, and all the people rejoiced. But I saw with a sinking heart the face of Saul blacken, blacken darker with greater hate! Yea, he hath loved me, as the Lord’s anointed must love the Lord’s anointed. But Saul is slipping backward down the pit of despair, away from God. And each time he strives to come forth, the loose earth yields beneath his feet, and he slides deeper. So the upreach of his love fails him, and the downslide of his hate is great and greater in weight. I cannot hate him — nor love him — but, O Michal, I am oppressed with a horror of him.
MICHAL: Nay, do not dwell on him.
DAVID: And the year went round its course, and once more there was war with the Philistine. And once more we prevailed, in the Lord. And once more the armies shouted my name. And once more I came home to thee — and thou didst sing. And my heart did sing above thee. But as a bird hushes when the shadow of the hawk dances upon him from heaven, my heart went hushed under the shadow of Saul. And my heart could not sing between thy breasts, as it wanted to, even the heart of a bridegroom. For the shadow of Saul was upon it.
MICHAL: Oh, why do you care? Why do you care? Why do you not love me and never care?
DAVID: It is not in me. I have been blithe of thy love and thy body. But now three days ago, even in the midst of my blitheness, Saul again threw his javelin at me — yea, even in the feast. And I am marked among all men. And the end draws nigh. — For scarce may I leave this house, lest at some corner they slay me.
MICHAL: What end, then? What end draws nigh?
DAVID: I must get me gone. I must go into the wilderness.
MICHAL (weeping): Oh, bitter! Bitter! My joy has been torn from me, as an eagle tears a lamb from the ewe. I have no joy in my life, nor in the body of my lord and my husband. A serpent is hid in my marriage bed, my joy is venomed. Oh, that they had wed me to a man that moved me not, rather than be moved to so much hurt.
DAVID: Nay, nay! Oh, nay, nay! Between me and thee is no bitterness, and between my body and thy body there is constant joy! Nay, nay! Thou art a flame to me of man’s forgetting, and God’s presence. Nay, nay! Thou shalt not weep for me, for thou art a delight to me, even a delight and a forgetting.
MICHAL: No! No! Thou leavest me in the night, to make prayers and moaning before the Lord. Oh, that thou hadst never married in thy body the daughter of thine enemy!
DAVID: Say not so, it is a wrong thing; thou art sweet to me, and all my desire.
MICHAL: It is not true! Thou moanest, and leavest me in the night, to fall before the Lord.
DAVID: Yea, trouble is come upon me. And I must take my trouble to the Lord. But thy breasts are my bliss and my forgetting. Oh, do not remember my complaining! But let thyself be sweet to me, and let me sleep among the lilies.
MICHAL: Thou wilt reproach me again with my father.
DAVID: Ah, no! Ah, never I reproached thee! But now I can forget, I can forget all but thee, and the blossom of thy sweetness. Oh, come with me, and let me know thee. For thou art ever again as new to me.
MICHAL (rising as he takes her hand): Nay, thou wilt turn the bitterness of thy spirit upon me again.
DAVID: Ah, no! I will not! But the gate of my life can I open to thee again, and the world of bitterness shall be gone under as in a flood.
MICHAL: And wilt thou not leave me?
DAVID: Nay, lift up thy voice no more, for the hour of speech has passed.
Exeunt DAVID and MICHAL through curtain at back.
SCENE XIV
The same room, unchanged, an hour or so later: but the grey light of day. A WOMAN-SERVANT comes in. There is a wooden image in a corner.
WOMAN-SERVANT: Yea, the lighted lamp, and the food! My lord David hath kept watch again before the Lord, and tears will fall in Michal’s bosom, and darken her heart! Aiee! Aiee! That Saul should so hate the life of David! Surely the evil spirits are strong upon the King.
BOY (entering): Jonathan, the King’s son, is below, knocking softly at the door.
WOMAN-SERVANT: Go! Open swiftly, and make fast again. Aiee! Aiee! My lord Jonathan comes too early for a pleasure visit. I will see if they sleep.
Exit WOMAN-SERVANT through the curtain.
Enter JONATHAN. JONATHAN stands silent, pensive. Goes to window. Re-enter WOMAN-SERVANT. She starts, seeing JONATHAN — then puts her hand on her mouth.
WOMAN-SERVANT: O my lord Jonathan! Hush!
JONATHAN: They are sleeping still?
WOMAN-SERVANT: They are sleeping the marriage sleep. David hath even watched before the Lord, in the night. But now with Michal he sleeps the marriage sleep in the lands of peace. Now grant a son shall come of it, to ease the gnawing of Michal’s heart.
JONATHAN: What gnaws in Michal’s heart?
WOMAN-SERVANT: Ah, my lord, her love even for David, that will not be appeased. If the Giver gave her a son, so should her love for David abate, and cease to gnaw in her.
JONATHAN: But why should it gnaw in her? Hath she not got him, and the joy of him?
WOMAN-SERVANT: O Jonathan, she is even as the house of Saul. What she hath cannot appease her.
JONATHAN: What then would she more?
WOMAN-SERVANT: She is of the house of Saul, and her very love is pain to her. Each cloud that crosses her is another death of her love. Ah, it is better to let love come and to let it go, even as the winds of the hills blow along the heavens. The sun shines, and is dulled, and shines again; it is the day, and its alterings; and after, it is night.
JONATHAN: David and Michal are asleep?
WOMAN-SERVANT: In the marriage sleep. Oh, break it not!
JONATHAN: The sun will soon rise. Lo! this house is upon the wall of the city, and the fields and the hills lie open.
WOMAN-SERVANT: Shall I bring food to Jonathan?
JONATHAN: Nay! Hark! Men are crying at the city’s western gate, to open. The day is beginning.
WOMAN-SERVANT: May it bring good to this house!
JONATHAN: It is like to bring evil.
WOMAN-SERVANT: Ah, my lord!
DAVID (appearing through the curtain at the back): Jonathan!
JONATHAN: David! Thou art awake!
DAVID (laughing): Yea! Am I not? Thou art my brother Jonathan, art thou not? (They embrace.)
JONATHAN: O David, the darkness was upon my father in the night, and he hath again bid slay thee. Leave not the house. Unbar not the door! Watch! And be ready to flee! If armed men stand round the door (enter MICHAL), then let down the boy from the window, and send instantly to me. I will come with thy men and with mine, and we will withstand the hosts of Saul, if need be.
MICHAL: Is something new toward?
JONATHAN: My father bade his men take David, and slay him in the dawn. I must away, lest they see that I have warned thee. Farewell, O David!
DAVID: Farewell, my brother Jonathan! But I will come down the stair with thee.
Exeunt DAVID and JONATHAN.
MICHAL: Yea! Yea! So sure as it is well between me and him, so sure as we have peace in one another, so sure as we are together — comes this evil wind, and blows upon us! And oh, I am weary of my life, because of it!
WOMAN-SERVANT: Aiee! Aiee! Say not so, O Michal! For thy days are many before thee.
MICHAL: This time, an they take him, they will surely kill him.
WOMAN-SERVANT: Sayest thou so! Oh, why, in the Lord’s name!
MICHAL: I know it. If they take him this time, he is lost.
WOMAN-SERVANT: Oh, then shall they surely not take him! Oh, but what shall we do?
MICHAL: Creep thou on the roof! Let no man see thee. And there lie: watch if armed men approach the house.
Enter DAVID.
DAVID: There is no one there.
MICHAL: They will come as the sun comes. (To WOMAN.) Go thou and watch.
WOMAN-SERVANT: Verily I will!
Exit WOMAN-SERVANT.
MICHAL: O David! So sure as it is springtime in me, and my body blossoms like an almond-tree, comes this evil wind upon me, and withers my bud! Oh, how can I bring forth children to thee when the spear of this vexation each time pierces my womb?
DAVID: Trouble not thyself, my flower. No wind shall wither thee.
MICHAL: Oh, but I know. This time, an they take thee, thou shalt lose thy life. — And Jonathan will not save thee.
DAVID: Nay! Be not afraid for me.
MICHAL: Yes! I am afraid! I am afraid! Ho! Ho, there! (Claps her hands. Enter BOY. To BOY.) Bring the water-skin for thy master, filled with water. And his pouch with bread — for he goeth on a journey. — O David! David! Now take thy cloak, and thy bow, and thy spear, and put on thy shoes. For thou must go! Jonathan cannot avail thee this time.
DAVID: Nay! Why shall I flee, when the sun is rising?
MICHAL: Yea! If thou go not before the sun is here in the morning shalt thou be slain. Oh make ready! Thy shoes! Put them on! (DAVID reluctantly obeys.) Thy cloak, so they shall not know thee! (He puts it on.) Thy spear and bow!
Enter BOY.
BOY: Here is the pouch and the water-flask.
MICHAL: Run, bring figs and dry curds. Dost thou hear aught at the door?
BOY: Naught!
Exit BOY.
MICHAL: O David, art thou ready! Oh, that thou leavest me!
DAVID: I need not go! Yea, to comfort thee, I will go to the place that Jonathan knoweth of, and thou shalt send thither for me. Or wilt thou —
Re-enter WOMAN-SERVANT.
WOMAN-SERVANT: O Michal! O David, master! There be men-at-arms approaching, under the wall, and walking by stealth. Oh, flee! Oh, flee! for they mean thy life.
MICHAL: Now must thou go by the window, into the fields. I see the sun’s first glitter. Even for this hour have I kept the new rope ready. (She fastens the rope to a stout stake, and flings the ends from the window. To DAVID.) Go! Go! Swiftly be gone!
DAVID: I will come again to thee. Sooner or later as the Lord liveth, I will take thee again to me, unto my bed and my body.
MICHAL: Hark! They knock! Ha — a!
Enter BOY.
BOY: There are men at the door!
MICHAL: Go! Call to them! Ask what they want! But touch thou not the door!
DAVID meanwhile climbs through the window — the stake holds the rope.
WOMAN-SERVANT (climbing with her hands): So! So! So! My lord David! So! So! Swing him not against the wall, O spiteful rope. So! So! He kicks free! Yea! And God be praised, he is on the ground, looking an instant at his hands. So he looks up and departs! Lifts his hand and departs!
MICHAL: Is he gone? Draw in the rope, and hide it safe.
WOMAN-SERVANT: That I will!
Meanwhile MICHAL has flung back the curtain of the recess where the low earthen bank of the bed is seen with skins and covers. She takes the wooden image of a god and lays it in the bed, puts a pillow at its head, and draws the bed-cover high over it.
MICHAL (to herself): Yea, and my house’s god which is in my house, shall lie in my husband’s place, and the image of my family god, which came of old from my mother’s house, shall deceive them. For my house has its own gods, yea, from of old, and shall they forsake me?
Enter BOY.
BOY: They demand to enter. The King asketh for David, that he go before the King’s presence.
MICHAL: Go thou, say to them: My lord and my master, David, is sick in his bed.
BOY: I will say that.
Exit BOY.
WOMAN-SERVANT: Sit thou nigh the bed. And if they still will come up thou shalt say he sleepeth.
MICHAL: Yea, will I. (Sits by bed.) O god of my household, O god of my mother’s house, O god in the bed of David, save me now!
Enter BOY.
BOY: They will e’en set eyes on my master.
MICHAL: Stay! Say to them, that their captains shall come up, two only: but softly, for my lord David hath been sick these three days, and at last sleepeth.
BOY: I will tell them.
Exit BOY.
WOMAN-SERVANT: And I too will go bid them hush.
Exit WOMAN-SERVANT. MICHAL sits in silence. Enter two CAPTAINS with the WOMAN-SERVANT.
WOMAN-SERVANT: There he sleepeth in the bed.
MICHAL: Sh-h-h!
1ST CAPTAIN: I will go even now and tell the King.
Exeunt the CAPTAINS after a pause.
CURTAIN
Curtain rises after a short time on same scene.
WOMAN-SERVANT (rushing in): They are coming again down the street, but boldly now.
MICHAL: Yea! Let them come! By this time is David beyond their reach, in the secret place.
WOMAN-SERVANT: Oh, and what shall befall thee! Oh!
MICHAL: I am the King’s daughter. Even Saul shall not lift his hand against me. Go down thou to the door, and hold the men whilst thou mayst. Why should we admit them forthwith? Say that Michal is performing her ablutions.
WOMAN-SERVANT: Will I not!
Exit WOMAN-SERVANT.
MICHAL: And shall I strip the bed? They will search the house and the fields. Nay, I will leave it, and they shall see how they were fools. O teraphim, O my god of my own house, hinder them and help me. O thou my teraphim, watch for me!
Sound of knocking below.
VOICE OF SERVANT: Ho, ye! Who knocks, in the Lord’s name?
VOICE OF CAPTAIN: Open! Open ye! In the name of the King.
VOICE OF SERVANT: What would ye in this house of sickness?
VOICE OF CAPTAIN: Open, and thou shalt know.
VOICE OF SERVANT: I may not open, save Michal bid me.
VOICE OF CAPTAIN: Then bid Michal bid thee open forthwith.
VOICE OF SERVANT: O thou captain of the loud shout, surely thou wert here before! Know then, my master is sick, and my mistress performeth her ablutions in the sight of the Lord. At this moment may I not open.
VOICE OF CAPTAIN: An thou open not, it shall cost thee.
VOICE OF SERVANT: Nay, now, is not my mistress King’s daughter, and is not her command laid on me? O Captain, wilt thou hold it against me, who tremble between two terrors?
VOICE OF CAPTAIN: Tremble shalt thou, when the terror nips thee. E’en open the door, lest we break it in.
VOICE OF SERVANT: Oh, what uncouth man is this, that will break down the door of the King’s daughter, and she naked at her bath, before the Lord!
VOICE OF CAPTAIN: We do but the King’s bidding.
VOICE OF SERVANT: How can that be? What, did the King indeed bid ye break down the door of his daughter’s house, and she uncovered in the Lord’s sight, at her ablutions?
VOICE OF CAPTAIN: Yea! The King bade us bring before him instantly the bed of David, and David upon the bed!
VOICE OF SERVANT: Oh, now, what unseemly thing is this! Hath not the King legs long enough? And can he not walk hither on his feet? Oh, send, fetch the King, I pray thee, thou Captain. Say, I pray thee, that Michal prays the King come hither.
VOICE OF CAPTAIN: Word shall be sent. Yet open now this door, that the bird escapes me not.
VOICE OF SERVANT: O Captain! And is my master then a bird? O would he were, even the young eagle, that he might spread wing! O man, hast thou no fear what may befall thee, that thou namest David a bird? O Israel, uncover now thine ear!
VOICE OF CAPTAIN: I name him not.
VOICE OF SERVANT: And what would ye, with this bird my master! Oh, the Lord forbid that any man should call him a bird!
VOICE OF CAPTAIN: We e’en must bring him upon his bed before the King.
VOICE OF SERVANT: Now what is this! Will the King heal him with mighty spells? Or is David on his sick-bed to be carried before the people, that they may know his plight? What new wonder is this?
VOICE OF CAPTAIN: I cannot say — Yet I will wait no longer.
MICHAL: Open, Maiden! Let them come up.
VOICE OF SERVANT: Oh, my mistress crieth unto me, that I open. Yea, O Michal, I will e’en open to these men. For who dare look aslant at the King’s daughter?
Enter CAPTAIN, followed by SOLDIERS.
CAPTAIN: Is David still in the bed? An he cannot rise, will we carry him upon the bed, before the King.
MICHAL: Now what is this?
CAPTAIN: Sleeps he yet? Ho, David, sleepest thou?
2ND SOLDIER: We will take up the bed, and wake him.
3RD SOLDIER: He stirs not at all.
CAPTAIN (to MICHAL): Yea, rouse him and tell him the King’s will.
MICHAL: I will not rouse him.
CAPTAIN (going to the bed): Ho, thou! Ho! David! (He suddenly pulls back the bed-cover.) What is this? (Sudden loud shrilling laughter from the WOMAN-SERVANT, who flees when the men look round.)
SOLDIERS (crowding): We are deceived. Ha-ha! It is a man of wood and a goats’-hair bolster! Ha-ha-ha! What husband is this of Michal’s?
MICHAL: My teraphim, and the god of my house.
CAPTAIN: Where hast thou hidden David?
MICHAL: I have not hidden him.
Pause.
VOICE OF SAUL (on the stair): Why tarry ye here? What! Must the King come on his own errands? (Enter SAUL.) And are ye here?
MICHAL: The Lord strengthen thee, my Father.
SAUL: Ha! Michal! And can then David not rise from his bed, when the King sendeth for him?
CAPTAIN: Lo! O King! Behold the sick man on the bed! We are deceived of Michal.
SAUL: What is this? (Flings the image across the room.)
MICHAL: Oh, my teraphim! Oh, god of my house! Oh, alas, alas, now will misfortune fall on my house! Oh, woe is! woe is me! (Kneels before teraphim.)
SAUL: Where is David? Why hast thou deceived me?
MICHAL: O god of my house, god of my mother’s house, visit it not upon me!
SAUL: Answer me, or I will slay thee!
MICHAL: God of my house, I am slain! I am slain!
SAUL: Where is David?
MICHAL: O my lord, he is gone; he is gone ere the sun made day.
SAUL: Yea, thou hast helped him against me.
MICHAL (weeping): Oh! Oh! He said unto me: Let me go; why shouldst thou make me slay thee, to trouble my face in the sight of men. I could not hinder him, he would have slain me there!
SAUL: Why hast thou deceived me so, and sent away mine enemy, that he escaped?
MICHAL (weeping): I could not prevent him.
SAUL: Even when did he go?
MICHAL: He rose up before the Lord, in the deep night. And then he would away, while no man saw.
SAUL: Whither is he gone?
MICHAL: Verily, and verily, I know not.
Pause.
SAUL: So! He hath escaped me! And my flesh and my blood hath helped mine enemy. Woe to you, Michal! Woe to you! Who have helped your father’s enemy, who would pull down thy father to the ground. Lo! my flesh and my blood rebel against me, and my seed lies in wait for me, to make me fall!
MICHAL: Oh, why must David be slain?
SAUL: Woe to you, Michal! And David shall bring woe to you, and woe upon you. David shall pull down Saul, and David shall pull down Jonathan; thee, Michal, he will pull down, yea, and all thy house. Oh, thou mayst call on the teraphim of thy house. But if thy teraphim love thy house, then would he smite David speedily to the death, for if David liveth I shall not live, and thou shalt not live, and thy brother shall not live. For David will bring us all down in blood.
MICHAL (weeping): O my Father, prophesy not against him!
SAUL: It shall be so. What, have I no insight into the dark! And thou art now a woman abandoned of her man, and thy father castest thee off, because thou hast deceived him, and brought about his hurt.
MICHAL: O my Father, forgive me! Hold it not against me!
SAUL: Nay, thou hast bent thy will against thy father, and called destruction upon thy father’s house.
MICHAL: Ah, no! Ah, no!
CURTAIN
SCENE XV
Naioth in Ramah. A round, pyramid-like hill, with a stair-like way to the top, where is a rude rock altar. Many PROPHETS, young and old, wild and dressed in blue ephods without mantle, on the summit of the hill and down the slope. Some have harps, psalteries, pipes and tabrets. There is wild music and rough, ragged chanting. They are expecting something. Below, SAMUEL and DAVID, talking. Not far on a PROPHET in attendance.
PROPHETS (on hill — irregularly crying and chanting): This is the place of the Lord! Upon us shines the Unseen! Yea, here is very God! Who dare come into the glory! O thou, filled with the Lord, sing with me on this high place. For the egg of the world is filled with God.
SAMUEL (speaking to DAVID): It is time thou shouldst go. As a fox with the dogs upon him, hast thou much fleeing to do.
DAVID: Must I always flee, my Father? I am already weary of flight.
SAMUEL: Yea, to flee away is thy portion. Saul cometh hither to seek thee. But surely shall he fall before the Lord. When he gets him back to his own city, enquire thou what is his will towards thee. And if it still be evil, then flee from him diligently, while he lives.
DAVID: And shall there never be peace between Saul’s house and mine?
SAMUEL: Who knows the Lord utterly! If there be not peace this time, then shall there never in life be peace between thee and him, nor thy house and his.
DAVID: Yet am I his son-in-law, in Michal my wife! And my flesh yearneth unto mine own.
SAMUEL: Is the house of Saul thine own?
DAVID: Yea, verily!
SAMUEL: Dost thou say, Yea, verily? Hark, now! If this time there be peace between thee and him, it should be peace. But if not, then think of naught but to flee, and save thyself, and keep on fleeing while Saul yet liveth. The Lord’s choice is on thee, and thou shalt be King in thy day. As for me, I shall never see thy day.
DAVID: Would I could make my peace with Saul! Would I could return to mine own house, and to mine own wife, and to the men of my charge!
SAMUEL: My son, once the Lord chose Saul. Now hath He passed Saul over and chosen thee. Canst thou look guiltless into the face of Saul? Can he look guiltless into thy face? Can ye look into each other’s faces, as men who are open and at peace with one another?
DAVID: Yet would I serve him faithfully.
SAMUEL: Yea, verily! And in thine heart, art thou King, and pullest the crown from his brow with thine eyes.
DAVID: O my Father, I would not!
SAMUEL: Wouldst thou not? Willst thou say to me here and now: As the Lord liveth, I will not be King! But Saul and his house shall rule Israel for ever: and Jonathan my friend shall be King over me! Wilt thou say that to me?
DAVID: Does Samuel bid me say this thing?
SAMUEL: He bids thee not. But for Saul’s sake, and for Jonathan’s, and for Michal’s, and for peace, wilt thou say it? Answer me from thine own heart, for I know the smell of false words. Yea, I bid thee, speak!
DAVID: The Lord shall do unto me as He will.
SAMUEL: Yea, for the Lord hath anointed thee, and thou shalt rule Israel when Saul is dead, and I am dead, and the Judges of Israel are passed away. For my day is nearly over, and thine is another day. Yea, Saul has lived in my day, but thou livest in thine own day, that I know not of.
DAVID: O my lord, is there naught but wrath and sorrow between me and Saul henceforth?
SAMUEL: The Lord will show! Knowest thou not?
DAVID: I would it were peace!
SAMUEL: Wouldst thou verily? When the wind changes, will it not push the clouds its own way? Will fire leap lively in wet rain? The Lord is all things. And Saul hath seen a tall and rushing flame and hath gone mad, for the flame rushed over him. Thou seest thy God in thine own likeness, afar off, or as a brother beyond thee, who fulfils thy desire. Saul yearneth for the flame: thou for thy to-morrow’s glory. The God of Saul hath no face. But thou wilt bargain with thy God. So be it! I am old, and would have done. Flee thou, flee, and flee again, and once more, flee. So shalt thou at last have the kingdom and the glory in the sight of men. I anointed thee, but I would see thee no more, for my heart is weary of its end.
DAVID: Wilt thou not bless me?
SAMUEL: Yea, I will bless thee! Yea, I will bless thee, my son. Yea, for now thy way is the way of might; yea, and even for a long space of time it shall be so. But after many days, men shall come again to the faceless flame of my Strength, and of Saul’s. Yea, I will bless thee! Thou art brave, and alone, and by cunning must thou live, and by cunning shall thy house live for ever. But hath not the Lord created the fox, and the weasel that boundeth and skippeth like a snake!
DAVID: O Samuel, I have but tried to be wise! What should I do, and how should I walk in the sight of men? Tell me, my Father, and I will do it.
SAMUEL: Thou wilt not. Thou walkest wisely, and thy Lord is with thee. Yea, each man’s Lord is his own, though God be but one. I know not thy Lord. Yet walk thou with Him. Yea, thou shalt bring a new day for Israel. Yea, thou shalt be great, thou shalt fight as a flower fighteth upwards, through the stones and alone with God, to flower in the sun at last. For the yearning of the Lord streameth as a sun, even upon the stones. (A tumult above among the PROPHETS. SAMUEL looks up — continues abstractedly.) Yea, and as a flower thou shalt fade. But Saul was once a burning bush, afire with God. Alas, that he saw his own image mirrored in the faces of men! (A blare of music above.)
SAMUEL (to PROPHET): What see ye?
PROPHETS (shouting): The sun on the arms of the King.
SAMUEL (to DAVID): Now shalt thou go! For I, too, will not set mine eyes upon Saul the King.
DAVID: Bless me then, O my Father!
SAMUEL: The Lord fill thy heart and thy soul! The Lord quicken thee! The Lord kindle thy spirit, so thou fall into no snare! And now get thee gone! And when Saul is returned to his own place, enquire thou secretly his will towards thee. And then act wisely, as thou knowest.
DAVID: I go forth into the fields, as a hare when the hound gives mouth! But if the Lord go with me . . .
Exit DAVID.
SAMUEL (to PROPHET): Is Saul surely in sight?
PROPHET: Verily, he is not far off. He has passed the well of Shecu.
SAMUEL: Has he company of men?
PROPHET: Ten armed men has he.
SAMUEL: Will he still bring armed men to the high place? Lo! Say thou to him: Samuel hath gone before the Lord, in the hidden places of the Hill.
PROPHET: I will e’en say it.
SAMUEL: Say also to him: David, the anointed, is gone, we know not whither. And let the company of the prophets come down towards the King.
PROPHET: It shall be so.
Exit SAMUEL.
PROPHET (climbing hill and calling): O ye Prophets of the Lord, put yourselves in array, to meet Saul the King.
2ND PROPHET (on hill with flute — sounds flute loudly with a strong tune — shouts): Oh, come, all ye that know our God! Oh, put yourselves in array, ye that know the Name. For that which is without name is lovelier than anything named! (Sounds the tune strongly.)
PROPHETS gather in array — musicians in front; they chant slowly. As SAUL approaches they slowly descend.
CHORUS OF PROPHETS: Armies there are, for the Lord our God!
Armies there are against the Lord!
Wilt thou shake spears in the face of Almighty God?
Lo! in thy face shakes the lightning. [Bis.
Countest thou thyself a strong man, sayest thou Ha-ha!
Lo! We are strong in the Lord! Our arrow seest thou not!
Yet with the unseen arrows of high heaven
Pierce we the wicked man’s feet, pierce we his feet in the fight.
Lo! the bow of our body is strung by God.
Lo! how He taketh aim with arrow-heads of our wrath!
Prophet of God is an arrow in full flight
And he shall pierce thy shield, thou, thou Lord’s enemy.
Long is the fight, yet the unseen arrows fly
Keen to a wound in the soul of the great Lord’s enemy.
Slowly he bleeds, yet the red drops run away
Unseen and inwardly, as bleeds the wicked man.
Bleeding of God! Secretly of God.
SAUL enters with ARMED MEN. PROPHETS continue to chant.
SAUL: Peace be with you!
PROPHET: Peace be with the King!
SAUL: Lo! ye prophets of God! Is not Samuel set over you?
PROPHET: Yea! O King!
SAUL (beginning to come under the influence of the chant and to take the rhythm in his voice): Is Samuel not here?
PROPHET: He hath gone up before the Lord!
SAUL: Surely the Lord is in this place! Surely the great brightness (Looks round.) — and the son of Jesse, is he among the prophets?
PROPHET: Nay, he has gone hence.
SAUL: Gone! Gone! What, has he fled from the high place! Surely he feared the glory! Yea, the brightness! So he has fled before the flame! Thus shall he flee before the flame! But gone? Whither gone?
PROPHET: We know not whither.
SAUL: Even let him go! Even let him go whither he will! Yea, even let him go! Yea! Come we forth after such as he? Let him go! Is not the Lord here? Surely the brightness is upon the hill! Surely it gleams upon this high place!
LEADER OF MEN-AT-ARMS: Tarry we here, O King? Where shall we seek the son of Jesse?
SAUL: Even where ye will.
LEADER: Tarrieth the King here?
SAUL: Yea! I will know if the Lord is verily in this place.
PROPHET: Verily He is here.
Company of PROPHETS still chant.
SAUL (going slowly forward): Art Thou here, O Lord? What? Is this Thy brightness upon the hill? What? Art Thou here in Thy glory?
COMPANY OF PROPHETS: Fire within fire is the presence of the Lord!
Sun within the sun is our God! [Bis.
Rises the sun among the hills of thy heart
Rising to shine in thy breast? [Bis.
SAUL: Yea! O Prophets! Am I not King? Shall not the Sun of suns rise among the hills of my heart, and make dawn in my body? What! Shall these prophets know the glory of the Lord, and shall the son of Kish stay under a cloud? (Sticks his spear into the ground, and unbuckles his sword-belt.)
LEADER OF ARMED MEN: Wilt thou go up before the Lord, O King? Then camp we here, to await thy pleasure.
SAUL: I will go up. Camp an ye will.
LEADER: Even camp we here. (They untackle.)
SAUL: Ha! Ha! Is there a glory upon the prophets? Do their voices resound like rocks in the valley! Ha! Ha! Thou of the sudden fire! I am coming! Yea! I will come into the glory! (Advancing, throws down his woollen mantle. The IST PROPHET takes it up.)
CHORUS OF PROPHETS: Whiteness of wool helps thee not in the high place
Colours on thy coat avail thee naught. [Bis.
Fire unto fire only speaks, and only flame
Beckons to flame of the Lord! [Bis.
The PROPHETS divide and make way as SAUL comes up.
SAUL: Is my heart a cold hearth? Is my heart fireless unto Thee? Kindler! it shall not be so! My heart shall shine to Thee, yea, unshadow itself. Yea, the fire in me shall mount to the fire of Thee, Thou Wave of Brightness!
SOLDIER (below — with loud and sudden shout): The sun is in my heart. Lo! I shine forth!
SAUL (with suddenness): I will come up! Oh! I will come up! Dip me in the flame of brightness, Thou Bright One, call up the sun in my heart, out of the clouds of me. Lo! I have been darkened and deadened with ashes! Blow a fierce flame on me, from the middle of Thy glory, O Thou of the faceless flame. (Goes slowly forward.) Oh, dip me in the ceaseless flame!
Throws down his coat, or wide-sleeved tunic, that came below the knee and was heavily embroidered at neck and sleeves in many colours: is seen in the sleeveless shirt that comes half-way down the thigh.
SOLDIER (below): Kings come and pass away, but the flame is flame for ever. The Lord is here, like a tree of white fire! Yea, and the white glory goes in my nostrils like a scent.
SAUL: Shall a soldier be more blessed than I? Lo! I am not dead, thou Almighty! My flesh is still flame, still steady flame. Flame to flame calleth, and that which is dead is cast away. (Flings off his shirt: is seen, a dark-skinned man in leathern loin-girdle.) Nay, I carry naught upon me, the long flame of my body leans to the flame of all glory! I am no king, save in the Glory of God. I have no kingdom, save my body and soul. I have no name. But as a slow and dark flame leaneth to a great glory of flame, and is sipped up, naked and nameless lean I to the glory of the Lord.
CHORUS OF PROPHETS: Standeth a man upon the stem of upright knees
Openeth the navel’s closed bud, unfoldeth the flower of the breast!
Lo! Like the cup of a flower, with morning sun
Filled is thy breast with the Lord, filled is thy navel’s wide flower!
SOLDIER: Oh, come! For a little while the glory of the Lord stands upon the high place! Oh, come! before they build Him houses, and enclose Him within a roof! Oh, it is good to live now, with the light of the first day’s sun upon the breast. For when the seed of David have put the Lord inside a house, the glory will be gone, and men will walk with no transfiguration! Oh, come to this high place! Oh, come!
SAUL: Surely I feel my death upon me! Surely the sleep of sleeps descends. (Casts himself down.) I cast myself down, night and day; as in death, lie I naked before God. Ah, what is life to me! Alas that a man must live till death visit him! — that he cannot walk away into the cloud of Sun! Alas for my life! For my children and my children’s children, alas! For the son of Jesse will wipe them out! Alas for Israel! For the fox will trap the lion of strength, and the weasel that is a virgin, and bringeth forth her young from her mouth, shall be at the throats of brave men! Yea, by cunning shall Israel prosper, in the days of the seed of David: and by cunning and lurking in holes of the earth shall the seed of Jesse fill the earth. Then the Lord of Glory will have drawn far off, and gods shall be pitiful, and men shall be as locusts. But I, I feel my death upon me, even in the glory of the Lord. Yea, leave me in peace before my death, let me retreat into the flame!
A pause.
ANOTHER SOLDIER: Saul hath abandoned his kingdom and his men! Yea, he puts the Lord between him and his work!
PROPHET: E’en let him be! For his loss is greater than another’s triumph.
SOLDIER: Yea! But wherefore shall a man leave his men leaderless — even for the Lord!
1ST SOLDIER (prophesying): When thou withdrawest Thy glory, let me go with Thee, O Brightest, even into the fire of Thee!
CHORUS OF PROPHETS: Cast thyself down, that the Lord may snatch thee up.
Fall before the Lord, and fall high.
All things come forth from the flame of Almighty God, Some things shall never return! [Bis.
Some have their way and their will, and pass at last
To the worm’s waiting mouth. [Bis.
But the high Lord He leans down upon the hill,
And wraps His own in His flame,
Wraps them as whirlwind from the world,
Leaves not one sigh for the grave. . . .
CURTAIN
SCENE XVI
Late afternoon. A rocky place outside Gilgal. DAVID is hiding near the stone Ezel.
DAVID (alone): Now, if Jonathan comes not, I am lost. This is the fourth day, and evening is nigh. Lo! Saul seeketh my life. O Lord, look upon me, and hinder mine enemies! Frustrate them, make them stumble, O my God! So near am I to Gilgal, yet between me and mine own house lies the whole gap of death. Yea, Michal, thou art not far from me. Yet art thou distant even as death. I hide and have hidden. Three days have I hidden, and eaten scant bread. Lo! Is this to be the Lord’s anointed! Saul will kill me, and I shall die! There! Someone moves across the field! Ah, watch! watch! Is it Jonathan? It is two men; yea, it is two men. And one walks before the other. Surely it is Jonathan and his lad! Surely he has kept his word! O Lord, save me now from mine enemies, for they compass me round. O Lord my God, put a rope round the neck of my enemy, lest he rush forward and seize me in the secret place. Yea, it is Jonathan, in a striped coat. And a man behind him carrieth the bow. Yea, now must I listen, and uncover my ears, for this is life or death. O that he may say: Behold, the arrows are on this side of thee, take them! For then I can come forth and go to my house, and the King will look kindly on me. — But he comes slowly, and sadly. And he will say: The arrows are beyond thee — and I shall have to flee away like a hunted dog, into the desert. — It will be so! Yea! And I must hide lest that lad who follows Jonathan should see me, and set Saul’s soldiery upon me.
Exit DAVID after a pause.
Enter JONATHAN with bow, and LAD with quiver.
JONATHAN (stringing his bow): Lo! this is the stone Ezel. Seest thou the dead bush, like a camel’s head? That is a mark I have shot at, and now, before the light falls, will I put an arrow through his nose. (Takes an arrow.) Will this fly well? (Balancing it.)
LAD: It is well shafted, O Jonathan.
JONATHAN: Ay! Let us shoot. (Takes aim — shoots.) Yea, it touched the camel’s ear, but not his nose! Give me another! (Shoots.) Ah! Hadst thou a throat, thou camel, thou wert dead. Yet is thy nose too cheerful! Let us try again! (Takes another arrow — shoots.) Surely there is a scratch upon thy nose-tip! Nay, I am not myself! Give me the quiver. And run thou, take up the arrows ere the shadows come.
LAD: I will find them.
He runs, as he goes JONATHAN shoots an arrow over his head. The LAD runs after it — stops.
JONATHAN: Is not the arrow beyond thee?
LAD: One is here! Here, another!
JONATHAN: The arrow is beyond thee! Make speed! Haste! Stay not!
LAD: Three have I! But the fourth —
JONATHAN: The arrow is beyond thee! Run, make haste!
LAD: I see it not! I see it not! Yea, it is there within bush. I have it, and it is whole. O master, is this all?
JONATHAN: There is one more. Behold it is beyond thee.
LAD (running): I see it not! I see it not! Yea, it is here!
JONATHAN: It is all. Come, then! Come! Nay, the light is fading and I cannot see. Take thou the bow and the arrows, and go home. For I will rest here awhile by the stone Ezel.
LAD: Will my master come home alone?
JONATHAN: Yea will I, with the peace of day’s-end upon me. Go now, and wait me in the house. I shall soon come.
Exit LAD. JONATHAN sits down on a stone till he is gone.
JONATHAN (calling softly): David! David!
DAVID comes forth, weeping. Falls on his face to the ground and bows himself three times before JONATHAN. JONATHAN raises him. They kiss one another, and weep.
DAVID: Ah, then it is death, it is death to me from Saul?
JONATHAN: Yea, he seeks thy life, and thou must flee far hence.
DAVID (weeping): Ah, Jonathan! Thy servant thanks thee from his heart. But ah, Jonathan, it is bitter to go, to flee like a dog, to be houseless and homeless and wifeless, without a friend or helpmate! Oh, what have I done, what have I done! Tell me, what have I done! And slay me if I be in fault.
JONATHAN (in tears): Thou art not in fault. Nay, thou art not! But thou art anointed, and thou shalt be King. Hath not Samuel said it even now, in Naioth, when he would not look upon the face of Saul! Yea, thou must flee until thy day come, and the day of the death of Saul, and the day of the death of Jonathan.
DAVID (weeping): Oh, I have not chosen this. This have I not taken upon myself. This is put upon me, I have not chosen it! I do not want to go! Yea, let me come to Gilgal and die, so I see thy face, and the face of Michal, and the face of the King. Let me die! Let me come to Gilgal and die! (Flings himself on the ground in a paroxysm of grief.)
JONATHAN: Nay! Thou shalt not die. Thou shalt flee! And till Saul be dead, thou shalt flee. But when Saul has fallen, and I have fallen with my father — for even now my life follows my father — then thou shalt be King.
DAVID: I cannot go!
JONATHAN: Yea! Thou shalt go now. For they will send forth men to meet me, ere the dark. Rise now, and be comforted. (DAVID rises.)
DAVID: Why shouldst thou save me! Why dost thou withhold thy hand! Slay me now!
JONATHAN: I would not slay thee, nor now nor ever. But leave me now, and go. And go in peace, forasmuch as we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord, saying: The Lord be between me and thee, and between my seed and thy seed for ever.
DAVID: Yea, the covenant is between us! And I will go, and keep it.
They embrace in silence, and in silence DAVID goes out.
JONATHAN (alone in the twilight): Thou goest, David! And the hope of Israel with thee! I remain, with my father, and the star-stone falling to despair. Yet what is it to me! I would not see thy new day, David. For thy wisdom is the wisdom of the subtle, and behind thy passion lies prudence. And naked thou wilt not go into the fire. Yea, go thou forth, and let me die. For thy virtue is in thy wit, and thy shrewdness. But in Saul have I known the magnanimity of a man. Yea, thou art a smiter down of giants, with a smart stone! Great men and magnanimous, men of the faceless flame, shall fall from Strength, fall before thee, thou David, shrewd whelp of the lion of Judah! Yet my heart yearns hot over thee, as over a tender, quick child. And the heart of my father yearns, even amid its dark wrath. But thou goest forth, and knowest no depth of yearning, thou son of Jesse. Yet go! For my twilight is more to me than thy day, and my death is dearer to me than thy life! Take it! Take thou the kingdom, and the days to come. In the flames of death where Strength is, I will wait and watch till the day of David at last shall be finished, and wisdom no more be fox-faced, and the blood gets back its flame. Yea, the flame dies not, though the sun’s red dies! And I must get me to the city.
Rises and departs hastily.
CURTAIN