JEPHTHAH

A TRAGEDY

BY

A GENTLEMAN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF

CAMBRIDGE

(ALEISTER CROWLEY)

LONDON

1898

(NOT FOR SALE)

JEPHTHAH,

A TRAGEDY

O Jephthah! judge of Israel!”—Hamlet

TO

GERALD KELLY,

POET AND PAINTER

I Dedicate

THIS TRAGEDY; BECAUSE HIS FRIENDSHIP WAS THE

TURQUOISE, WHICH I HAD OF HIM BEFORE I

WAS A BACHELOR; AND WHICH I WOULD

NOT HAVE GIVEN FOR A WILDER-

NESS OF MONKEES.

     Cambridge,

          November, 1898.

CHARACTERS.

Jephthah.

Adulah, his Daughter.

Jared, A Gileadite, cousin to Jephthah.

A Prophet of the Lord.

Eleazar, Chief of the Elders of Israel.

Ahinoam, an aged Priest.

First Messenger.

Second Messenger.

First Herald.

Second Herald.

Soldiers of Jephthah.

Soldiers of Israel.

Chorus of Elders of Israel.

Maidens of Israel.

Scene:—An Open Place before Mizpeh. In the midst an Altar.

Time:—The duration of the play is from noon of the first day to dawn of the third.

Jephthah.

Eleazar.   Prophet.   Chorus.

CHORUS.

NOW is our sin requited of the Lord.

For, scorning Jephthah for an harlot’s son,

We cast him forth from us, and said: Begone,

Thou shalt not enter in with us; thy mouth

Shall thirst for our inheritance in vain;

Thou hast no lot nor part in Gilead.

And now, he gathers to himself vain men,

Violent folk, and breakers of the law,

And holds aloof in rocky deserts, where

The land, accurst of God, is barren still

Of any herb, or flower, or any tree,

And has no shelter, nor sweet watersprings,

Save where a lonely cave is hollow, and where

A meagre fountain sucks the sand. Our folk

Are naked of his counsel and defence

Against the tribe of Ammon, and stand aghast;

Our feeble arms sway doubtfully long swords,

And spears are flung half-heartedly; and he

With warlike garrison and stronger arms

Who might have helped us, laughs, and violence

Threatens the white flower of our homes: our wives,

Daughters, and sons are as a prey to them,

And where the children of the Ammonites

Throng not swift hoofs for murder, Jephthah’s men

Blaspheme our sanctuaries inviolate,

And rob us of our dearest. Woe on woe,

The overwhelming summit of a wave

Too black, too concentrate, too impious,

And culminating in a double death,

Hangs imminent to crush the slender sides

And battered bulwarks of our state. O thou

Whose hoary locks and sightless eyes compel

Our pity and our reverence, and whose mouth

Foams with the presence of some nearer god

Insatiate of thy body frail, give tongue,

If tongue may so far master deity

As give his fury speech, or shape thy words

From the blind auguries of madness.

PROPHET.

                                                       Ha!

The rose has washed its petals, and the blood

Pours through its burning centre from my heart.

The fire consumes the light; and rosy flame

Leaps through the veins of blue, and tinges them

With such a purple as incarnadines

The western sky when storms are amorous

And lie upon the breast of toiling ocean,

Such billows to beget as earth devours

In ravening whirlpool gulphs. My veins are full,

Throbbing with fire more potent than all wine,

All sting of fleshly pangs and pleasures. Oh!

The god is fast upon my back; he rides

My spirit like a stallion; for I hate

The awful thong his hand is heavy with.

ELEAZAR.

Speak, for the god compels, and we behold.

PROPHET.

A harlot shall be mother of Israel.

CHORUS.

He speaks of her who sighed for Gilead.

PROPHET.

A maiden shall be slain for many men.

CHORUS.

A doubtful word, and who shall fathom it?

PROPHET.

Thy help is from the hills and desert lands.

CHORUS.

Our help is from the hills: we know the Lord.

PROPHET.

Death rides most violently against the sun.

CHORUS.

And who shall bridle him, or turn his way?

For Fate alone of gods, inflexible,

And careless of men’s deeds, is firm in heaven.

PROPHET.

I see a sword whose hilt is to thy hand.

CHORUS.

But which of us shall wield the shining blade?

PROPHET.

I see a dove departing to the hills.

CHORUS.

I pray it bring an olive-branch to us.

PROPHET.

The god has overcome me, I am silent.

CHORUS.

He lies as one lies dead; none wakens him.

Nor life nor death must touch him now: beware!

ELEAZAR.

Beware now, all ye old wise men, of this.

For high things spoken and unjustly heard,

Or heard and turned aside, are fruitless words,

Or bear a blossom evil and abhorred,

Lest God be mocked: consider well of this.

CHORUS.

A sword, a sword, to smite our foes withal!

ELEAZAR.

A help shall come from desert lands to us.

CHORUS.

Toward what end? For present help is much,

But uttermost destruction more, for we

Have no strong hope in any hand of man:

God is our refuge and our tower of strength.

In Him if any man abide; but if

He put his faith in horsemen, or the sword,

The sword he trusted shall be for an end.

ELEAZAR.

But evils fall like rain upon the land.

CHORUS.

Let us not call the hail to give us peace.

ELEAZAR.

Nor on the sun, lest he too eat us up.

CHORUS.

The heart of a man as the sea

     Beats hither and thither to find

Ease for the limbs long free,

     Light for the stormy mind,

     A way for the soul to flee,

A charm for the lips to bind;

And the struggle is keen as the strife to be,

     And the heart is tossed by the thankless wind.

ELEAZAR.

Nay, for a man’s sure purpose is of God.

CHORUS.

The large pale limbs of the earth are tanned

With the sun and the sea and the yellow sand

And the face of earth is dark with love

Of the lords of hell and the spirits above

That move in the foggy air of night,

And the spirit of God, most like a dove,

Hovers, and lingers, and wings his flight,

Spurned and rejected and lost to sight;

But we desire him, a holy bird,

And we turn eyes to the hollow hills;

For God is strong , and His iron word

Mocks at the gods of the woods and rills.

For our God is as a fire

That consumeth every one

That is underneath the sun,

And our uttermost desire

Must abase, with rent attire,

Souls and bodies to His throne,

Where above the starry choir

Stands the jasper, where alone

Palest seraphim respire

Perfumes of a precious stone,

Where beneath His feet the dire

World of shells is pashed with mire,

And the evil spirits’ ire

Steams and fumes within the zone

Girt with minaret and spire

Broken, burst, and overthrown,

Dusty, and defiled, and dun,

Palled with smoke of fruitless altars

Cast beneath the ocean now,

Ruined symbols, changéd psalters,

Where no lip no longer falters,

And the priest’s deep brow

Pales not, flushes not for passion,

Clouds not with concealéd thought,

And the worshipper’s eye, wrought

To the stars in subtle fashion,

By no magic is distraught.

For our hope is in His holy

Places, and our prayers ascend

Fervent, and may sunder slowly

The blue darkness at the end.

For we know not where to send

For a sword to cleanse the land,

For a sharp two-edgéd brand,

All our homesteads to defend.

For amid the desert sand

Lives an outcast of our race,

Strong, immutable, and grand,

And his mighty hand

Grips a mighty mace.

He would shatter, did we call,

Sons of Ammon one and all,

Did we fear not lest his eye

Turn back covetous to try

For our palaces, to rule

Where the far blue Syrian sky

Stretches, where the clouds as wool

Mark the white Arabian border,

To become a tyrant king

Where his sword came conquering.

Out of chaos rises order

On her wide unwearying wing,

But the desolate marauder

Never over us shall swing

Such a sceptre as should bring

Sorrow to one home of ours.

Better bear the heavy hours

Under God’s avenging breath,

Better brave the horrid powers,

Nor avoid the foreign death,

Humbling all our pride before

God’s most holy throne, abasing

Every man’s strong soul, and facing

All the heathen Ammon bore

On the angry shore,

Trusting to the mercy rare

Of Jehovah, than to bare

Hearts and bosoms to a friend

Who high truth and faith may swear,

And betray us at the end

To his robber bands.

So we clasp our humble hands,

Praying God to lift His sword

From our bleeding state, that stands

Tottering to its fall.

Though we call not Jephthah back

To repel the harsh attack,

Nor his followers call,

Hear thou, O Most High, give ear

To our pitiful complaint:

Under woes of war we faint.

Pity, Lord of Hosts, our fear!

Hear, Most High, oh, hear!

Enter Messenger.

MESSENGER.

My lords, take heed now, prayer is good to save

While yet the foemen are far off; but now

They howl and clamour at our very gates.

ELEAZAR.

Blaspheme not God, but tell thy woeful news.

CHORUS.

I fear me for the sorrow that he speaks.

MESSENGER.

The tribe of Ephraim went forth to fight

Armed, and with bows, and turned them back to-day.

For in the South a cloud of many men,

And desert horsemen fiery as the sun,

Swarmed on the plains, a crescent from the hills

That girdle Mahanaim: and behold!

Our men were hemmed before the city gates,

The elders having fortified them: so

They fled about the city, and the horsemen,

Dashing, destroyed them as the wind that sweeps

Sere leaves before its fury: then the city

With arrows darkened all the air; and luck

Smote down some few pursuing; but their captain,

Riding his horse against the gate, drove in

His spear, and cried to them that followed him:

Who plucks my spear out shall be chief of all

That ply the short spear: and who breaks the gate

Shall lead my horsemen into Mizpeh: then,

Rushing, their spearmen battered in the gate

And overpowered the youths and agéd men,

That put up trembling spears, and drew slack bows,

And flung weak stones that struck for laughter’s sake.

And so the city was the spoil of them,

And all our women-folk are slain or violate,

And all our young men murderously slain,

And children spitted on their coward spears.

CHORUS.

How heavy is Thy hand upon us, Lord!

MESSENGER.

Nor stayed they there; but, firing Mahanaim,

Sweep toward Mizpeh like a locust-cloud.

ELEAZAR.

Get thee to horse and carry me this message:

The Elders unto Jephthah, greeting: Help!

No single cry beyond that Help! Be gone!

Exit Messenger.

CHORUS.

I fear me our necessity is sure.

But they come hither. Shall we rather flee?

ELEAZAR.

I stand here manly, and will die a man.

CHORUS.

For cowardice not pleases God, nor fear.

Shall we not take up weapons? Or shall He

Rather defend us with His Holy Arm,

We not presuming in our arrogance

To come with cunning, and defend ourselves?

ELEAZAR.

Nay, but God smites with sharpness of our swords.

CHORUS.

The sword is made sharp in our hands, but the point He shall guide;

We grasp the tough ash of the spear, but His hand is beside;

We drive in a cloud at the foe, but His chariots ride

Before us to sunder the spears.

We trust in His arms, and His prowess shall fledge our song’s wing;

Our triumph we give to His glory, our spoil to the King;

Our battles He fights as we fight them, our victories bring

For His temple a tribute of tears.

Enter Jephthah amid his Soldiers, with many young men of Israel.

JEPHTHAH.

Yea, for a man’s sword should not turn again

To his own bosom, and the sword of fear

Smites not in vain the heart of cowardice.

But who hath called me hither to what end?

ELEAZAR.

For these, and for the sake of Israel.

JEPHTHAH.

And who are these? And who are Israel?

CHORUS.

Turn not thy face from us in wrath, for we

Are thine own father’s children, and his loins

With double fervour gat a double flower;

And we indeed were born of drudging wives,

Pale spouses whom his heart despised, but thou

Wast of a fairer face and brighter eyes,

And limbs more amorous assuaged thy sire;

And fuller blood of his is tingling thus

Now in thy veins indignant at our sin.

But thou art strong and we are weak indeed,

Nor can we bear the burden, nor sustain

The fury of the Children of the East

That ride against us, and bright victory

Is thronéd in their banners, and on ours

Perches the hideous nightbird of defeat.

Mourn, mourn and cry; bow down unto the dust

O Israel, and O Gilead, for your son

Comes with unpitying eyes and lips compressed

To watch the desecration of thy shrine,

Jehovah, and the ruin of our hearth.

JEPHTHAH.

I am your outcast brother. At my birth

My father did not smile, nor she who bore

These limbs dishonourable did not smile,

Nor did my kisses soothe a mother’s woe,

Because my thews grown strong were impotent

To reign or be a captain any more,

Though I might serve the children who had grown

Less godlike from his loins who made me god.

So when the day was ripe, my brethren turned

And gnashed upon me, mocking, with their teeth:

Thou art the son of a strange woman, thou!

Begone from honest folk!—and I in wrath

Smote once or twice with naked hand, and slew

Two gibing cowards, and went forth an outcast,

And gathered faithful servitors, and ruled

Mightiest in the desert, and was lord

Of all the marches where my spear might throw

Its ominous shadow between night and noon.

Yet always I considered my revenge,

And purposed, seeking out those kin of mine,

To make them as those kings that Gideon slew

Hard by the bloody waters of a brook.

And now ye call me to your help, forsooth!

CHORUS.

Let no ill memory of an ancient wrong,

     Most mighty, edge thy sword

Against the prayer of this repentant song.

     Dire sorrow of the Lord

Consumes our vital breath, and smites us down,

     And desecrates the crown.

For we have sinned against thee, and our souls

     Scathe and devour as coals,

And God is wroth because of thee, to break

The spirit of our pride, our lips to make

Reverent toward thee, as of men ashamed.

And now we pray thee for our children’s sake,

And thine own pity’s sake, to come untamed,

And furiously to ride against our foes,

And be our leader, till one sanguine rose

Spread from thy standard awful leaves of blood,

And thy swords pour their long insatiate flood

Through ranks of many dead, and then to close

The wounds of all the land, and bid it bud

And blossom; as when two-and-thirty men,

The sons of Jair, on milk-white asses rode,

And judged us righteously, and each abode

Safe in the shadow of his vine; as when

The peace of Joshua lay upon the land,

And God turned not away His piteous eyes,

Nor smote us with the fury of His hand,

Nor clouded over His mysterious skies,

And storm and wind had no more might at all,

And death and pestilence forgotten were,

And angels came to holy men that call,

And gracious spirits thronged the happy air;

When God was very gracious to all folk,

And lifted from us the Philistian yoke,

And all the iron power of Edom broke,

And all the Earth was fair!

Now, seeing that we are sinners, wilt not thou

Relent thy hateful brow,

And bend on us a forehead full of peace,

And bid thine anger cease,

And speak sweet words most comfortable, and lose

The bitter memory of the wrong long dead

And be the lord and prince we gladly choose

And crown the mercy of thy royal head,

And be the chief, and rule upon thy kin,

And be not wroth for sin?

For surely in the dusty days and years

There is a little river flowing still

That brings forgetfulness of woes and fears

And drinks up all the memory of ill.

Wherefore our tribute to thy feet we bring;

Conquer our foes, and reign our king!

JEPHTHAH.

Ye have no king but God: see ye to that!

ELEAZAR.

Behold, these people are as children, hiding

Thoughts beautiful and true in profuse words,

Not meaning all the lofty flight that fancy

And the strong urgement of a tune discover.

Be thou our judge, as Joshua long ago.

JEPHTHAH.

Swear by the Name unspoken that the truth

Flashes between the lips that tremble thus!

Ye love me not; ye fear me; ye might thrust

Some petty obstacle before my hands

When I would grasp your promise, and betray

Your faith for fear of me. I read thy thoughts,

Old man; I trust no word of thine, but these

Full-hearted mourners, them will I believe

Upon their oath most solemn and secure.

But take thou warning now, I shall not spare

Grey hairs or faltering limbs for treachery.

ELEAZAR.

Lift up your hands, all people of this land,

And swear with me this oath my lips pronounce:

By Wisdom, father of the world, we swear;

By Understanding, mother of the sea,

By Strength and Mercy, that support the throne,

By Beauty, Splendour, Victory, we swear,

And by the strong foundations, and the Kingdom,

Flower of all kingdoms, and by the holy Crown

Concealed with all concealments, highest of all,

We swear to be true men to thee and thine.

JEPHTHAH.

I thank you, people. Let the younger men

Gather their swords and spears, and pass before

This spear I strike into the earth, that so

I see how many fight for Israel.

CHORUS.

The young men are girded with swords,

     And the spears flash on high, and each shield

Gleams bright like the fury of lords

     Through the steam of the well-foughten field,

And the children of Ammon are broken, their princes and warriors yield.

The captain is chosen for fight,

The light of his eye is as fire,

And his hand is hardy of might

And heavy as dead desire;

And the sword of the Lord and of Jephthah shall build our dead women a pyre.

The people were sad for his wrath,

     The elders were bowed with despair,

And Death was the piteous path;

With ashes we covered our hair;

The voice of the singer was dumb, the voice of the triumph of prayer.

But God had pity upon us,

     Our evil and fallen way;

His mercy was mighty on us;

     His lips are as rosy as day

Broken out of the sea at the sunrise, as fragrant as flowers in May.

Our sin was great in His sight:

     We chased from our gates our brother,

We shamed his father’s might,

     We spat on the grave of his mother,

We laughed in his face and mocked, looking slyly one to another.

But God beheld, and His hand

     Was heavy to bring us grief;

He brought down fire on the land,

     And withered us root and leaf

Until we were utterly broken, lost men, without a chief.

But whom we scorned we have set

     A leader and judge over all;

His wrong he may not forget,

     But he pitieth men that call

From the heart that is broken with fear and the noise of funeral.

JEPHTHAH.

Are all these ready for their hearth and altars

To perish suddenly upon the field,

Pavilioned with the little tents at noon,

And ere the nightfall tented with the dead,

And every hollow made a sepulchre,

And every hill a vantage ground whereon

Hard-breathing fighting men get scanty sleep

Till the dawn lift his eyebrows, and the day

Renew the battle? Will ye follow me

Through slippery ways of blood to Ephraim

To beat with sturdy swords unwearying

Our foemen to their Ammon, and to grapple

With red death clutching at the throat of us,

With famine and with pestilence, at last

To reach a barren vengeance, and perchance

An hundred of your thousands to return

Victors—so best God speed us—and for worst

Death round our cities horrible and vast,

And rape and murder mocking at our ghosts?

A SOLDIER.

Better they taunt our ghosts than us for cowards!

Live through or die, I will have my sword speak plain

To these damned massacring invaders. Say,

My fellows, will ye follow Jephthah? Hail!

SOLDIERS.

We follow Jephthah to the death. All hail!

JEPHTHAH.

Go then, refresh yourselves, and sleep to-night.

I will send messages to their dread lord

Demanding his fell purpose, threatening

My present aid to you with men of valour

Chosen of all your tribes, and charging him

As he loves life, and victory, to content

His army with their present brief success,

Lest he pass by the barrier of our suffering,

And find our wrath no broken sword, and find

Despair more terrible than hope. Go now.

A SOLDIER.

We go, my lord, less readily to sleep

Than if you bade us march. No man of us

But stirs a little, I warrant, in his dreams,

And reaches out for sword-hilt. All hail, Jephthah!

SOLDIERS.

Jephthah! a leader, a deliverer. Hail!

                         [Exeunt Soldiers and Young Men.

Enter a Herald.

JEPHTHAH.

Hearken, Jehovah, to thy servant now;

Fill Thou my voice with thine own thunders; fill

My swift sharp words with such a lightning-fork

As shall fall venomous upon the host

Of these idolatrous that thus invade

Our fencéd cities, these that put to sword

Our helpless. Hear the cry of widowed men!

And young men fatherless! And old men reft

Of children! Grant us victory to avenge

Their innocent shed blood, and ruined land.

So, to gain time for prayer and penitence

For grievous trespass of idolatry

Done to th’ accurséd Baalim, and time

To gather fugitives, and make them men,

And straggling herdsmen for our armament,

We send thee, herald, to the furious king

Who lies with all his power encamped somewhere

Hence southward toward Mahanaim. Say

Unto the king of Ammon: Thus saith Jephthah:

Why hast thou come with bloody hands against us?

Our holy God, that bound the iron sea

With pale frail limits of white sand, and said:

Thus far, and not one billowy step beyond!

Saith unto thee in like commandment: Thou

Who hast destroyed my people from the land

So far, shalt not encroach upon their places

One furlong more, lest quickly I destroy

Thee and thy host from off the earth. Say thus;

Ride for thy life, and bring me speedy word.

                                                       [Exit Herald.

CHORUS.

Not wingéd forms, nor powers of air,

Nor sundered spirits pale and fair,

Nor glittering sides and scales, did bring

The knowledge of this happy thing

That is befallen us unaware.

In likeness to the lips that sing

Ring out your frosty peal, and smite

Loud fingers on the harp, and touch

Lutes, and clear psalteries musical,

And all stringed instruments, to indite

A noble song of triumph, such

As men may go to fight withal.

For freedom on her fiery wings

Flies over camps and tented kings,

And bears a sword avenging us,

And turns her face to Israel thus.

For now a captain brave and strong

Shall break the fury of the thong

Wherewith the sons of Ammon scourge

Our country; and his war shall urge

Long columns of victorious men

To blackest wood and dimmest den,

Wherever fugitive and slave

Shall seek a refuge, find a grave;

And so pursue the shattered legions

Through dusty ways and desert regions

Back to the cities whence they came

With iron, massacre, and flame,

And turn their own devouring blade

On city fired and violate maid,

That Israel conquer, and men know

God is our God against a foe.

For the web of the battle is woven

     Of men that are strong as the sea,

When the rocks by its tempest are cloven,

     And waves wander wild to the lee;

When ships are in travail forsaken,

And tempest and tumult awaken;

When foam by fresh foam overtaken

     Boils sanguine and fervent and free.

For its sides are a million of paces;

     Its centre is Death as he stands

Pale-horsed, where the iciest places

     Chill blood in the furious hands.

He stands like a spectre, and urges

The horsemen in thunderous surges

On columns where blood not asperges

     The splashing of struggling bands.

The sword is like lightning in battle,

     The spear like the light of a star;

It strikes on the shield, and the rattle

     Of arrows is hail from afar.

For the ways of the anger of lords

Are bloody with widowing swords,

And the roar of contention of chords

     Rolls back from the heart of the war.

But Victory lights on the banner

     Of Israel like to a bird;

It flaps in the air, and Hosanna!

     Flings up to the sky for a word!

Long streams of light horsemen are flashing

Through fields where the tempest was lashing,

Through the pools of the battle-blood splashing,

     Long swords to the rout of the herd.

For fighters slip down on the dying,

     And flying folk stumble on dead,

And the sound of the pitiless crying

     Of slaughter is heavy and red,

The sound of the lust of the slayer

As fierce as a Persian’s prayer,

And the sound of the loud harp-player

     Like the wind beats to their tread.

A royal triumph is waiting

     For the captain of Heaven’s choice,

A noise as of eagles mating,

     A cry as of men that rejoice.

For victory crowns with garlands

Of fame his valour in far lands,

And suns sing back to the starlands

     His praise with a perfect voice.

JEPHTHAH.

Leave prophecy until I come again.

CHORUS.

A prophet told us thou shouldst fight for us

And save thy people from the Ammonites.

JEPHTHAH.

Why look you so? He told you other thing.

CHORUS.

Nay, lord, no saying that we understood.

JEPHTHAH.

Speak thou its purport; I may understand.

For, know you, in the desert where I dwelt

I had strange store of books obscure; books written

Not openly for fools, but inwardly

Toward the heart of wise men. And myself

Studied no little while upon these things,

And, seeking ever solitude, I went

Nightly upon a rock that stood alone

Threatening the sandy wilderness, and prayed.

Where many visions came before mine eyes

So strange—these eyes have started from my head,

And every hair, grown fearful, like a steed

Reared in its frenzy; see, these lips of mine

Have blanched, these nails have bitten through my flesh

For sundry things I saw—and these informed

My open spirit by their influence,

And taught mine ears to catch no doubtful sound

Of prophecy, but fix it in my mind,

A lambent liquid fire of poetry

Full of all meaning as the very stars.

Yet of my own life they have never breathed

One chilly word of fear, or one divine

Roseate syllable of hope and joy.

Still less of love. For no sweet life of love

Lies to my hand, but I am bound by Fate

To the strong compulsion of the sword; my lips

Shall fasten on my wife’s not much; nor those

Pure lips of innocent girlhood that call me

Father; but my lips must wreathe smiles no more,

But set in fearful strength of purpose toward

The blood of enemies, in horrid gouts

And hideous fountains leaping from great gashes,

Rather than that belovéd blood that wells

Fervent and red-rose-wise in loving breasts,

And little veins of purple in the arms,

Or cheeks that are already flushed with it,

To crimson them with the intense delight

Of eyes that meet and know the spirit dwells

Beyond their profound depth in sympathy.

Nay, my delight must find some dearest foe,

And cleave his body with a lusty stroke

That sets the blood sharp tingling in my arm.

Yet tell me if perchance I lay aside

One day the harness of cold iron, bind on

The lighter reins of roses deftly twined

By children loving me, to be a harness

To drive me on the road of happiness

To the far goal of heaven. Would to God

It might be so a little ere I die!

CHORUS OF ELDERS.

This doubtful word his fuming lips gave forth:

A maiden shall be slain for many men.

This only of his fury seemed obscure.

JEPHTHAH.

A maiden shall be slain for many men.

Surely, O people, and men of Israel,

The prophecy is happy to the end.

For see yon moon that creeps inviolate

Against the corner of the mountains so,

Slowly and gracefully to lighten us.

So, ere three nights be gone, the course of heaven

Shall be most monstrously o’erwhelmed for us

Ere sundown, as for Joshua, and the moon,

The maiden moon, be slain that we may see

By the large moveless sun to slay and slay,

More utterly proud Ammon to consume.

This is the omen. Shout for joy, my friends!

But who comes whirling in yon dusty cloud

With trampling charger dimly urging him

Toward our conclave? ’Tis our messenger.

Re-enter Herald.

Sir, you ride well. I pray your news be good.

HERALD.

So spake the haughty and rebellious Ammon

Defying your most gentle words with scorn:

Tell Jephthah: Israel took away my land

When they came out of Egypt from the river

Of Ammon unto Jabbok, and unto Jordan.

Wherefore, I pray thee, sheathe thy sword, restore

Peaceably these my lands, and go in peace,

Lest wrath, being kindled, consume thee utterly.

JEPHTHAH.

Let yet another herald stand before me

Fresh, and go thou, swiftest of messengers,

And sleep and eat a little, and to-morrow

Thou shalt have guerdon of thy faithfulness.

                                                       [Exit Herald.

Enter Second Herald.

But now, sir, go to this rebellious king

And say to him: Thus Jephthah, judge of Israel,

With gentle words answers thy greediness:

Israel took not thy land, nor that of Moab:

But, coming out of Egypt, through the sea

And over wilderness, to Kadesh came.

Our people sent a message unto Edom

Unto the king thereof, and prayed his grace,

To let them pass through his dominions

And unto Moab: and they answered Nay.

So Israel abode in Kadesh: then

Passing through all the desert round about

Edom and Moab, pitched their weary tent

Beyond the bank of Ammon; and they sent

Messengers thence to Sihon, Heshbon’s king,

The lord of Amorites, and said to him:

I prithee, let us pass to our own place

Through thy dominions: but his crafty mind,

Fearing some treachery, that was not, save

In his ill mind that thought it, did determine

To gather all his people, and to pitch

Tents hostile in the plains before Jahaz.

And there he fought with Israel; but God

Delivered Sihon to our hands, and all

That followed him: whom therefore we destroyed

With many slaughters: so we dispossessed

The envious Amorites, and had their land,

A land whose borders were the Ammon brook

On the one hand, and on the other Jabbok

And Jordan: we, who slew the Amorites.

What hast thou, king of Ammon, here to do?

How thinkst thou to inherit their possessions

That the Lord God hath given us? Go to!

Chemosh your god hath given you your land;

Possess that peaceably; but whomsoever

The Lord our God shall drive before our spears,

His lands we will possess. And thou, O king,

Art thou now better than that bloody Balak

Whose iron hand was upon Moab? He,

Fought he against us, while three hundred years

We dwelt in Heshbon and her towns, and Aroer

And her white cities, and by Ammon’s coast?

Why therefore did ye not recover them

Then and not now? I have not sinned against thee;

But thou dost me foul wrong to bring thy sword

And torch of rapine in my pleasant land.

Between the folk of Ammon and the folk

Of Israel this day be God the judge.

                                             [Exit Second Herald.

ELEAZAR.

Well spoken: but the ear that will not hear

Is deafer than the adder none may charm.

JEPHTHAH.

I know it, and will not await the answer.

But dawn shall see a solemn sacrifice,

And solemn vows, and long swords glittering,

And moving columns that shall shake the earth

With firm and manly stride; and victory

Most like a dove amid the altar-smoke.

CHORUS.

We, passing here the night in prayer, will wait

And with thee offer up propitious doves,

And firstling males of all the flocks of us.

JEPHTHAH.

Not so: but I will have you hence in haste

To gather food and arms and carriages,

That all our soldiers may have sustenance,

And fresher weapons. I alone will spend

The long hours with Jehovah, at His throne,

And wrestle with th’ accuser. So, depart!

CHORUS OF ELDERS.

When the countenance fair of the morning

     And the lusty bright limbs of the day

Race far through the west for a warning

     Of night that is evil and gray,

When the light by the southward is dwindled,

     And the clouds as for sleep are unfurled,

The moon in the east is rekindled,

     The hope of the passionate world.

The stars for a token of glory

     Flash fire in the eyes of the night,

And the holy immaculate story

     Of Heaven is flushed into light.

For the night has a whisper to wake us,

     And the sunset a blossom to kiss,

And the silences secretly take us

     To the well of the water that is;

For the darkness is pregnant with being,

     As earth that is glad of the rain,

And the eyes that are silent and seeing

     Are free of the trammels of pain.

Like light through the portals they bounded,

     Their lithe limbs with cruelty curled,

And the noise of their crying resounded

     To kindle the death of the world.

For the heaven at sunset is sundered,

     Its gates to the sages unclose,

And through waters that foamed and that wondered

     There flashes the heart of a rose;

For its petals are beauty and passion,

     For its stem the foundation of earth,

For bloom the incarnadine fashion

     Of blessings that roar into birth;

And the gates that roll back on their hinges

     The soul of the sage may discern,

Till the water with crimson that tinges

     Beyond them miraculous burn;

And the presence of God to the senses

     Is the passion of God in the mind,

As the string of a harp that intenses

     The note that its fire may not find.

For here in the tumult and labour

     And blindness of cowering man,

The spirit has God for a neighbour,

     And the wheels unreturning that ran

Return to the heart of the roses,

     And curl in the new blossom now,

As the holiest fire that encloses

     Gray flame on the holiest brow.

So midnight with magic reposes,

     And slumbers to visions bow.

For the soul of man, being free, shall pass the gates of God,

And the spirit find the Sea by the feet of Him untrod,

And the flesh, a lifeless ember, in ashen fear grow cold,

As the lives before remember the perished hours of gold.

                                   [Exeunt all but Jephthah.

JEPHTHAH.

Surely, my God, now I am left alone

     Kneeling before Thy throne,

I may grow beautiful, even I, to see

     Thy beauty fair and free.

For on the vast expanses of the wold

     I hear the feet of gold,

And over all the skies I see a flame

     That flickers with Thy Name.

Therefore, because Thou hast hid Thy face, and yet

     Given me not to forget

The foaming cloud that shaped itself a rose,

     Whose steady passion glows

Within the secretest fortress of my heart,

     Because, my God, Thou Art,

And I am chosen of Thee for this folk,

     To break the foreign yoke,

Therefore, Existence of Existence, hear!

     Bend low Thine holy ear,

And make Thyself, unseen, most terrible

     To these fierce fiends of hell

That torture holiest ears with false complaint:

     Bend down, and bid me faint

Into the arms of night, to see Thine hosts

     March past the holy coasts,

A wall of golden weapons for the land,

     And let me touch Thy hand,

And feel Thy presence very near to-night!

     I sink as with delight

Through places numberless with fervid fires

     Of holiest desires

Into I know not what a cradle, made

     Of subtle-shapéd shade,

And arms most perdurable. I am lost

     In thought beyond all cost—

Nay, but my spirit breaks the slender chain

     That held it down. The pain

Of death is past and I am free. Nay, I,

     This body, dead, must lie

Till Thou come home again, O soaring Soul.

     The gates supernal roll!

Flash through them, O white-winged, white-blossom ghost!

     Ah, God! for I am lost.

                                   [Jephthah remains motionless.

                                                    [Morning dawns.

Enter Jared, Soldiers, Prophet.

SOLDIERS.

Hail, captain! We are ready now for death,

Or victory, if shining wings are fain

To hover over dauntless hearts. Behold

Our ready bands to follow to the fray.

JEPHTHAH.

Welcome! hail ye this happy dawn as one

That shall see freedom smile on us, and peace,

And victory, and new hours of happiness.

CHORUS OF SOLDIERS.

Out of the waters of the sea

     Our father Abraham beheld

The lamp of heaven arise and be

     The monarch quenchless and unquelled;

But we on this far Syrian shore

See dawn upon the mountains pour.

The limit of the snows is bright;

     As spears that glitter shine the hills;

The foaming forehead of the light

     All air with cloudy fragrance fills;

And, born of desolation blind,

The young sweet summer burns behind.

The Altar of the Lord is set

     With salt and fire and fervid wine,

And toward the east the light is let

     For shadow for the holiest shrine:

One moment hangs the fire of dawn

Until the sacrament be sworn.

Behold, the priest, our captain, takes

     The sacred robes, the crown of gold,

The light of other sunlight breaks

     Upon his forehead calm and cold

And other dawns more deep and wise

Burn awful in his holy eyes.

A moment, and the fire is low

     Upon the black stone of the altar,

The spilt blood eagerly doth glow,

     And lightnings lick the light, and falter,

Feeling the vast Shekinah shine

Above their excellence divine.

The Lord is gracious to His own,

     And hides with glory as a mist

The sacrifice and smitten stone,

     And on the lips His presence kissed

Burn the high vows with ample flame

That He shall swear to by the Name.

JEPHTHAH.

Highest of Highest, most Concealed of all,

Most Holy Ancient One, Unnameable,

Receive for these Thy servants this our oath

To serve none other gods but Thee alone.

And for my own part who am judge of these

I vow beyond obedience sacrifice,

And for the victory Thou shalt give, I vow

To sacrifice the first of living things

That with due welcome shall divide the doors

Of my house, meeting me, an offering

Burnt before Thee with ceremony meet

To give Thee thanks, nor take ungratefully

This first of favours from the Hand Divine.

SOLDIERS.

A noble vow: and God is glad thereat.

PROPHET.

I charge you in the name of God, go not!

I see a mischief fallen on your souls

Most bitter. Aye! an evil day is this

If ye go forth with such a sacrifice,

And vows most hideous in their consequence.

SOLDIERS.

It is the prophet of the Lord.

JEPHTHAH.

                                        Possessed

By Baal; scourge him hence; he lies, for God

With powerful proof and many lightnings came

Devouring up the offering at the altar.

PROPHET.

O Jephthah, it is thou on whom it falls,

The sorrow grievous as thy life is dear.

A SOLDIER.

He is the prophet of the Baalim.

We have enough of such: in God’s name, home!

                                                  [Stabbing him.

PROPHET.

Thy spear shall turn against thyself, alas!

But welcome, death, thou looked-for spouse of mine!

Thy kiss is pleasant as the shaded well

That looks through palm leaves to the quiet sky.

                                                                 [Dies.

JEPHTHAH.

Thou didst no evil in the slaying him,

For God is a consuming fire; high zeal

Against idolatry lacks not reward.

And now the sun is up: for Israel, march!

JARED.

Good luck be with your spears; and homecoming

Gladden victorious eyes ere set of sun.

                              [Exeunt Jephthah and Soldiers.

Enter Eleazar, Ahinoam, Chorus of Elders.

CHORUS.

The sun is past meridian. No sound

Of trampling hoofs assails th’ unquiet wind,

Nor trembles in the pillared echo-places,

And windy corridors of pathless snow.

But let us wait, expecting victory.

No fugitive returns, nor messenger:

They have not shocked together, or perchance

The grim fight rolls its sickening tide along

Homeward or southward, undecided yet;

Or victory made certain but an hour

Lends no such wings to jaded horses as

May bear a jaded rider to our gates;

Wait only, friends, and calm our troubled mind,

Nor stir the languid sails of our desire

With breath of expectation or despair.

Rather give place to those untroubled thoughts

That sit like stars immobile in the sky

To fathom all the desolate winds of ocean,

And draw their secrets from the hidden mines

Whose gold and silver are but wisdom, seeking

Rather things incorruptible above

Than sordid hopes and fears. But look you, friends,

Where in the sun’s eye rolls a speck of cloud

Lesser than the ephemeral gnat may make

Riding for sport upon a little whirl

Of moving breezes, so it glows and rolls,

Caught in the furnace of the sun, opaque

To eyes that seek its depth, but penetrable

By those long filaments of light beyond.

See, the spot darkens, and a horseman spurs

A flagging steed with bloody flanks, and waves

A cloudy sword to heaven—I am sure

He brings us eagle-wingéd victory,

And tiding of no battle lost for Israel.

Yes, he grows great before the sun, and stands

Now in his stirrups, and shouts loud, and waves

A blade triumphant. Now the weary horse

Stumbles with thundering strides along the last

Furlong, and greets us with a joyous neigh

As if he understood the victory.

Enter Second Messenger.

SECOND MESSENGER.

Rejoice, O Israel, for this day hath seen

Utter destruction overtake, and death

Ride furious over, trampled necks of men

Desperate in vain, and seen red hell gape wide

To swallow up the heathen. Victory

Swells the red-gleaming torrent of pursuit,

And Israel shakes her lazy flanks at last

A lion famished, and is greedy of death.

CHORUS.

O joyful day! And where is Jephthah now?

MESSENGER.

Faint with the heat of a hard battle fought,

But following hard after with the horse.

For from Aroer even unto Minnith

He smote them with a slaughter most unheard,

And twenty cities saw from trembling walls

Twice twenty thousand corpses; stragglers few

Call to the rocks and woods, whose dens refuse

Shelter and refuge to the fugitives,

But, in revolt against the natural order,

Gape like the ravening jaws of any beast

To let the furious invaders down

Into the bowels of the earth, and close

Upon those grisly men of war, whose life

Groans from the prison that shall crush it out.

CHORUS OF ELDERS.

Be thou most blessed of the Lord for ever!

But what shall he that hath delivered us

Have for his guerdon when he comes in triumph?

A milk-white ass shall bear him through the city,

And wreaths of roses be instead of dust,

And dancing girls, and feet of maidens most,

Shall strike a measure of delight, and boys

With bright unsullied curls shall minister

Before him all the days of life God grants,

And all his platters shall be made of gold,

And jewels beyond price shall stud them all.

What sayest thou, O wisest of our race,

Ahinoam, the aged priest of God,

Who weighest out the stars with balances,

And knowest best of men the heart of man?

AHINOAM.

Ye are as children, and nowise your tongues

Speak sense. I never hear your voice but know

Some geese are gabbling. Sing to him perchance!

The voice of old men is a pleasant thing.

CHORUS.

What say ye, brethren, shall we sing to him

Some sweet low ditty, or the louder pæan?

AHINOAM.

They verily think I speak, not mocking them.

CHORUS.

Who shall uncover such a tongue for wiles,

And pluck his meaning from his subtle words?

AHINOAM.

Who shall speak plain enough for such as these

To understand? Or so debase his thought

As meet their minds, and seem as wisdom’s self?

CHORUS.

Leave now thy gibing in the hour of joy,

And lend sweet wisdom to awaiting ears.

Thy voice shall carry it, thy words shall bear

Full fruit to-day. Speak only, it is done.

AHINOAM.

I am grown old, and go not out to wars.

But in the lusty days of youth my face

Turned from the battle and pursuit and spoil

Only to one face dearer than my soul,

And my wife’s eyes were welcome more desired

Than chains of roses, and the song of children,

And swinging palm branches, and milk-white—elders.

CHORUS.

Fie on thy railing! But his wife is sick,

And cannot leave the borders of her house.

AHINOAM.

But he hath one fair only daughter! Friends,

With maidens bearing timbrels, and with dances,

Let her go forth and bring her father home.

JARED [aside].

Horrible! I must speak and silence this

Monstrous impossible villainy of fate.

CHORUS.

O wise old man, thou speakest cleverly.

AHINOAM.

So do, and praise be given you from God.

ELEAZAR.

God, Who this day has slumbered not, nor slept,

He only keepeth Israel: He is God!

CHORUS.

When God uplifted hands to smite,

     And earth from chaos was unrolled,

And skies and seas from blackest night

     Unfurled, twin sapphires set with gold,

And tumult of the boisterous deep

Roared from its slow ungainly sleep,

     And flocks of heaven were driven to fold,

Then rose the walls of Israel steep,

     For in His promise we behold

The sworded Sons of glory leap

Our tribes in peace to keep.

Deep graven in the rocky girth

     Of Israel’s mountains, in the sky,

In all the waters of the earth,

     In all the fiery steeds that ply

Their champing harness and excel

The charioteers of heaven and hell,

     In all the Names writ secretly

And sacred songs ineffable,

     In all the words of power that fly

About the world, this song they spell:

He keepeth Israel.

AHINOAM.

Ye praise God of full heart: I would to God

Your minds were somewhat fuller, and could keep

Discretion seated on her ivory throne.

What folly is it they will now be at,

Gray beards, and goatish manners? Hearken them!

CHORUS.

In the brave old days ere men began

     To bind young hearts with an iron tether,

Ere love was brief as life, a span,

     Ere love was light as life, a feather,

     Earth was free as the glad wild weather,

God was father and friend to man.

AHINOAM.

Then when with mildness and much joy our judge

Draw hither, let us send to meet his steps

In sackcloth clad, with ashes on their heads,

His cruel brethren, that he spare their lives.

CHORUS.

In the heart of a conqueror mercy sits

     A brighter jewel than vengeance wroken,

And grace is the web that his people knits,

     And love is the balm for the hearts nigh broken.

     Peace is arisen, a dove for token,

Righteousness, bright as the swallow flits.

JARED [aside].

So, in his victory is our disgrace.

CHORUS.

Fair as the dawn is the maiden wise

     Pale as the poppies by still white water,

Sunlight burns in her pure deep eyes,

     Love lights the tresses of Jephthah’s daughter;

     Kissing rays of the moon have caught her,

Rays of the moon that sleeps and sighs.

JARED [aside].

In our disgrace, behold! Our vengeance strikes.

I am inspired with so profound a hate—

He shall not triumph: in the very hour

When his o’ermastering forehead tops the sky

I strike him to the earth. I need not move.

Silence—no more—and all accomplishes.

Leviathan, how subtle is thy path!

CHORUS.

Not now may the hour of gladness fade,

     The wheel of our fate spins bright and beaming;

God has fashioned a sun from shade,

     Mercy and joy in one tide are streaming,

     Fortune is powerless, to all good seeming;

Fate is stricken, and flees afraid.

JARED.

Bring me the sackcloth and the ashes now.

ELEAZAR.

Behold! the crown of all our maiden wreath,

Adulah, white and lissome, with the flames

Of dawn forth blushing through her flower-crowned hair.

CHORUS.

Behold a virgin to the Lord!

     Behold a maiden pale as death,

Whose glance is silver as a sword,

     And flowers of Kedar fill her breath,

Whose fragrance saturates the sward,

     Whose sunny perfume floating saith:

From my ineffable desire is drawn

The awful glory of the golden dawn.

Behold her bosom bare and bold

     Whose billows like the ocean swing!

The painted palaces of gold,

     Where shell-born maidens laugh and sing,

Are mirrored in those breasts that hold

     Sweet odours of the sunny spring.

Behold the rising swell of perfect calm

In breezy dells adorable of balm!

Behold the tender rosy feet

     Made bare for holiness, that move

Like doves amid the waving wheat,

     Or swallows silver in the grove

Where sylph and salamander meet,

     And gnome and undine swoon for love!

Her feet that flit upon the windy way

Twin fawns, the daughters of the rosy day.

Behold, the arms of her desire

     Wave, weave, and wander in the air,

Vines life-endued by subtle fire

     So quick and comely, curving bare;

The white diaphanous attire

     Floats like a spirit pale and fair;

The dance is woven of the breeze, the tune

Is like the ocean silvered by the moon.

Behold the maidens following,

     And every one is like a flower,

Or like an ewe lamb of the king

     That comes from water at the hour

Of even. See, the dancers swing

     Their censers; see, their tresses shower

Descending flames, and perfumes teem divine,

And all the air grows one pale fume of wine.

Their songs, their purity, their peace,

     Glide slowly in the arms of God;

His lips assume their sanctities,

     His eyes perceive the period

Of woven webs of lutes at ease,

     And measures by pure maidens trod,

Till, like the smoke of mountains risen at dawn,

The cloud-veils of the Ain are withdrawn.

Pure spirits rise to heaven, the bride.

     Pure bodies are as lamps below.

The shining essence, glorified

     With fire more cold than fresh-fallen snow,

And influences, white and wide,

     Descend, re-gather, kindle, grow,

Till from one virgin bosom flows a river

Of white devotion adamant for ever.

Enter Adulah and Chorus of Maidens.

ADULAH.

Fathers of Israel, we are come to you

With many maidens praising God, for this,

The victory of my father. Happy girls!

Whose brothers struck to-day for Israel,

Whose fathers smote the heathen; happiest,

Ye blushing flowers, beyond your younger spring

That bends in you toward summer, faint and fair,

Whose lovers bared their swords to-day; and ye,

O reverend heads, most beautiful for gray,

The comely crown of age, that doth beseem

Your wise sweet beauty, as the ivy wreathes

The rugged glory of the sycamore,

Have ye heard aught of Jephthah’s home-coming?

For our cheeks tingle with th’ expected kiss

Of hardy warriors dear to us, and now

By double kinship rendered doubly dear.

For O! my father comes to gladden me

With those enduring kisses that endow

Heart, hope, and life with gladness. Comes he soon?

ELEAZAR.

Maiden most perfect, daughter of our lord,

And ye, most fairest branches of our tree,

Maidens of Israel, we await you here

That ye, no other, may go forth to meet

The chief victorious. And after you

Those villains that once cast him out shall forth

In sackcloth to his feet, if haply so

He spare their vagabond and worthless lives.

ADULAH.

Not so, my father. In my father’s name

I promise unto all great happiness,

And vengeance clean forgotten in the land;

“Vengeance is mine, Jehovah will repay.”

My father shall not frown on any man.

JARED [aside].

She is most gracious: I must speak and save.

[Aloud.] Friends! [Aside.] Stay—Is this a tempter voice that soothes

My conscience? Art thou that Leviathan,

Thou lipless monster, gnashing at my soul

Abominable teeth? Art thou the fiend

Whom I have seen in sleep, and waking served?

O horrible distortion of all truth

That I must serve thee still. Thy word’s a lie,

That if I keep my silence, I do good

To her, the milk-white virgin sacrifice,

And only smite the bloody father down!

A lie, I say! A lie! Yet—dare I speak,

Those eyes upon me, torturing my soul

And threatening revenge? His fingers gross,

Purple, and horrible, to blister me

With infamous tearing at my throat. O Hell!

Vomit thy monsters forth in myriads

To putrefy this fair green earth with blood,

But make not me the devilish minister

Of such a deed as this! No respite?—Must?

Irrevocable? I dare not call on God.

Thou, thou wilt serve me if I do this thing?

Oh, if this be a snare thou settest now,

Who hast once already mocked our pact, I swear

By God, I cast thee off. Leviathan!

Accept the bargain. And I seal it—thus.

                                           [Writing in the air

I will keep silence, though they tear my tongue

Blaspheming from my throat. My servant now!

ELEAZAR.

Mingled emotions quickly following

Fear upon fear, and joy and hope at last

Crowning, have maddened Jephthah’s kinsman here.

Mark his lips muttering, and his meaningless

Furious gestures, and indignant eyes

Starting, and hard-drawn breath! Him lead away

Tenderly, as beseems the mercy shown

To his repentance by this maiden queen.

The Lord is merciful to them that show

Mercy, and all such as are pure of heart;

Thy crown, Adulah, wears a double flower

Of these fair blossoms wreathed in one device

Of perfect love in perfect maidenhood.

JARED [recovering himself].

Nay, but my voice must fill the song of joy

With gratitude, and meet thanksgiving. Me

More than these others it beseems, who love

Less dearly for their innocence than I,

Pardoned of my unpardonable sin.

ADULAH.

The flowers turn westerward; the sun is down

Almost among those clouds that kiss the sea

With heavy lashes drooping over it,

A mother watching her own daughter swoon

To sleep. But look toward the southern sky;

It is my father. Let us go to him,

Maidens, with song and gladness of full hearts.

SEMICHORUS OF MAIDENS I.

The conqueror rides at last

     To home, to love;

The victory is past,

     The white-wing dove

Sails through the crystal air of eve with a pæan deep and vast.

     Jephthah!

SEMICHORUS OF MAIDENS II.

Forth, maidens, with your hands

     White with new lilies!

Forth, maidens, in bright bands,

     Virgins whose one sweet will is

To sing the victory of our God in all sky-girdled lands!

     Elohim!

SEMICHORUS I.

With dancing feet, and noise

     Of timbrels smitten,

With tears and tender joys,

     With songs unwritten,

With music many-mouthed, with robes in snowy equipoise.

     Jephthah!

SEMICHORUS II.

With hearts infused of fire,

     Eyes clear with many waters,

With lips to air that quire,

     We, earth’s desirous daughters,

Lift up the song of triumph, sound the lutes of our desire!

     Elohim!

SEMICHORUS I.

With branches strewn before us,

     And roses flung

In all the ways, we chorus

     With throat and tongue

The glory of our warrior sires whose victor swords restore us

     Jephthah!

SEMICHORUS II.

With angels vast and calm

     That keep his way,

With streams of holy balm,

     The prayers of them that pray,

We go to bring him home and raise to Thee our holy psalm,

     Elohim!

ELEAZAR.

Go ye, make ready for the happy march.

                              [Exeunt Adulah and Maidens.

And we too, changing these funereal vestments

Will clothe in moonlike splendour, candid robes

Of priestly purity, our joyous selves.

O fortunate day! O measured steps of noon,

Quicken, if once ye stayed for Joshua,

To keep sweet music to our hearts. Away!

                                             [Exeunt all but Jared.

JARED.

I will await, and hide myself away

Behind yon bushes, to behold the plot

Bud to fulfilment. Then, Leviathan,

I am thy master. Mockery of a God

That seest this thing prosper—Ha! thine altar!

Let me give thanks, Jehovah! O thou God

That rulest Israel as sheep and slaves,

But over me no ruler; thou proud God

That marshallest these petty thunder-clouds

That blacken over the inane abyss

But canst not tame one fierce desire of mine,

Nor satiate my hatred, nor destroy

This power of mine over thy devil-brood,

The hatchment of thine incest, O thou God

Who knowest me, me, mortal me, thy master,

Thy master—and I laugh at thee, the slave!

Down from Thy throne, impostor, down, down, down

To thine own Hell, immeasurable—

               A VOICE.

                                   Strike!

[The storm, gathering to a climax, bursts in a tremendous flash of lightning, and Jared is killed.

Enter Jephthah and Soldiers.

JEPHTHAH.

A terrible peal of thunder! And the sky

Seems for an hour past to have been in labour

And, safely now delivered, smiles again.

For see, the sun! O happy sunlight hours—

What is this blackened and distorted thing?

A SOLDIER.

Some fellow by the altar that kept watch,

Some faithful fellow—he is gone to God.

JEPHTHAH.

How is’t the cattle have been driven home?

I trusted we had found a tender lamb,

A lamb of the first year, unblemished, white,

To greet me, that we do meet sacrifice,

Fulfilling thus my vow, and all our duty.

                           [A noise of timbrels and singing.

Surely some merriment—our news hath reached.

Glad news and welcome: God is very good.

Enter Adulah, running, followed by singing Maidens.

ADULAH.

Father!

JEPHTHAH.

          My daughter!

     [He suddenly stops, and blanches, understanding.

                    Alas my daughter!

               [He continues in a dazed, toneless voice.

Thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me; for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back.

ADULAH.

My father, O my father!

Enter Eleazar and Chorus.

ELEAZAR.

Most welcome, conqueror!

                                        [Jephthah waves him aside.

                                        What is this? What is this?

CHORUS.

Speak, Jephthah, speak! What ill has fallen? Speak!

[Silence. After a little the Chorus of Maidens understand, and break into wailing. The old men gradually understand, and fill the air with incoherent lamentations. Behind Jephthah the soldiers, with white lips, have assumed their military formation, and stand at attention by a visible effort of self-control.

ADULAH.

My father, if thou hast openéd thy mouth

Unto the Lord, fulfil the oath to me,

Because the Lord hath taken vengeance for thee

Of all thine enemies, the Ammonites.

Let this be done for me, that I may go

Two months upon the mountains, and bewail,

I and my fellows, my virginity!

JEPHTHAH.

Go!

CHORUS OF MAIDENS.

O the time of dule and teen!

O the dove the hawk has snared!

Fate the cruel and obscene,

Fate that snaps us unprepared,

We, who else had dared

Every mountain cold and keen,

Cleft and stricken in between

By the joy our bosoms shared;

Would to God we had not been,

We, who see our maiden queen,

Love has slain whom hate had spared.

Sorrow for our sister sways

All our maiden bosoms, bared

To the dying vesper rays,

Where the sun below the bays

Of the West is stooping;

All our hearts together drooping,

Flowers the ocean bears.

All the garb that gladness wears

To a rent uncouth attire

Changed with cares;

Happy songs our love had made

Ere the sun had sunk his fire,

In the moonrise fall and fade,

And the dregs of our desire

Fall away to death;

Tears divide our labouring breath

That our sister—O our sister!

Moon and sun and stars have kissed her

She must touch the lips of death,

Touch the lips whose coldness saith:

Thou art clay.

Let us fare away, away

To the ice whose ocean gray

Tumbles on the beach of rock,

Where the wheeling vultures mock

Our distress with horrid cries,

Where the flower relenting dies,

And the sun is sharp to slay;

Where the ivory dome above

Glimmers like the dawn of love

On the weary way;

Where the ibex chant and call

Over tempest’s funeral;

Where the hornéd beast is shrill,

And the eagle hath his will,

And the shadows fall

Sharp and black, till day is passed

Over to the ocean vast;

Where the barren rocks resound

Only to the rending roar

Of the shattering streams that pour

Rocks by ice eternal bound,

Myriad cascades that crowned

Once the far resounding throne

Of the mountain spirits strong.

All the treacherous souls that throng

Desolate abodes of stone,

Barren of all comely things,

Given to the splendid kings,

Gloomy state, and glamour dark,

Swooping jewel-feathered wings,

Eyes translucent with a spark

Of the world of fire, that swings

Gates of adamant below

Lofty minarets of snow.

Thence the towering flames arise,

Where the flashes white and wise

Find their mortal foe.

Let us thither, caring not

Anything, or any more,

Since the sorrow of our lot

Craves to pass the abysmal door;

Never more for us shall twine

Rosy fingers on the vine;

Never maiden lips that cull

Myriad blossoms beautiful;

Never cheeks that dimple over

At the perfume of the clover,

With the laughing summer seas

Of the smile of hearts at ease;

Never bosoms bright and round

Shall be garlanded and bound

With the chain of myrtle, wreathed

By the fingers of the maid

Each has chosen for a mate,

When the west wind lately breathed

Murmurs in the wanton glade

Of the day that dawneth late

In a maiden’s horoscope,

Dawning faith and fire and hope

On the spring that only knew

Flowers and butterflies and dew,

Skies and seas and mountains blue,

On the spring that wot not of

Fruit and falling leaves and love;

Never dew-dashed foreheads fair

Shall salute the idle air;

Never feet shall wander deep

Where the fronds of fern, asleep,

Kiss her rosy feet that pass

On the spangled summer grass,

Half awake, and drowse again;

Never more our feet shall stain

Purple with the joyous grape,

Whence there rose a fairy shape

In the fume and must and juice,

Singing lest our eyes escape

All his tunic wried and loose

With the feet that softly trod

In the vat the fairy god;

Never more our eyes shall swim,

Looking to the ocean brim

In the magic moon that rose

Through the archipelagos,

When the Grecian woods were wet

With our dewy songs, that set

Quivering all seas and snows,

Stars and tender winds that fret

Lily, lily, laughing rose,

Sighing, sighing violet,

Dusky pansy, swaying rush,

And the stream that flows

Singing, ringing softly: Hush!

Listen to the bird that goes

Wooing to the brown mate’s bough;

Listen to the breeze that blows

Over cape and valley now

At the silence of the noon,

Or the slumber-hour

Of the white delicious moon

Like a lotus-flower.

Let us sadly, slowly, go

To the silence of the snow.

ADULAH [embracing Jephthah].

Whose crystal fastnesses shall echo back

The lamentations of these friends of mine

But not my tears. For I will fit myself

By solitude and fasting and much prayer

For this most holy ceremony, to be

A perfect, pure, accepted sacrifice.

Only this sorrow—O father, father, speak!

JEPHTHAH.

Go!

ADULAH.

     Most unblameable, we come again.

I would not weep with these; I dare not stay,

Lest I weep louder than them all. Fare well,

My father, O my father! I am passing

Into the night. Remember me as drawn

Into the night toward the golden dawn.

                                 [Exeunt Adulah and Maidens.

CHORUS.

Toward the mountains and the night

     The fairest of all Israel go,

Toward the hollows weird and white,

     Toward the sorrow of the snow;

To desolation black and blind

They move, and leave us death behind.

The Lord is great, the Lord is wise

     Within His temple to foresee

With calm impenetrable eyes

     The after glory that shall be;

But we, of mortal bodies born,

Laugh lies consoling unto scorn.

The God of Israel is strong;

     His mighty arm hath wrought this day

A victory and a triumph-song—

     And now He breathes upon His clay,

And we, who were as idols crowned,

Lie dust upon the empty ground.

She goes, our sorrow’s sacrifice,

     Our lamb, our firstling, frail and white,

With large sweet love-illumined eyes

     Into the night, into the night.

The throne of night shall be withdrawn;

So moveth she toward the dawn.

All peoples and all kings that move

     By love and sacrifice inspired

In light and holiness and love,

     And seek some end of God desired,

Pass, though they seem to sink in night,

To dawns more perdurably bright.

So priest and people join to praise

     The secret wisdom of the Lord,

Awaiting the arisen rays

     That smite through heaven as a sword

Remembering He hath surely sworn:

Toward the night, toward the dawn!

Behold the moon that fails above,

     The stars that pale before the sun!

How far, those figures light as love

     That laughing to the mountains run!

Behold the flames of hair that leap

Above her forehead mild and deep!

She turns to bless her people still:

     So, passes to the golden gate

Where snow burns fragrant on the hill,

     Where for her step those fountains wait

Of light and brilliance that shall rise

To greet her beauty lover-wise.

The silver west fades fast, the skies

     Are blue and silver overhead;

She stands upon the snow, her eyes

     Fixed fast upon the fountain-head

Whence from Eternity is drawn

The awful glory of the dawn!

ELEAZAR.

Let every man depart unto his house.

CHORUS.

He hath made His face as a fire; His wrath as a sword;

He hath smitten our soul’s desire; He is the Lord.

He hath given and taken away, hath made us and broken;

He hath made the blue and the gray, the sea for a token;

He hath made to-day and to-morrow; the winter, the spring;

He bringeth us joy out of sorrow; Jehovah is King.

     [Exeunt. Jephthah is left standing with white set face. Presently tears come into his eyes, and he advances, and kneels at the altar.

THE END.

A NOTE ON “JEPHTHAH.”

A short explanation of the scheme of theology adopted in this play appears necessary. The Hebrews of the period had formulated the idea of Deity as manifesting from the fundamental conception of Negative Existence: The איו Ain, negativity, unfolded; the םור איו Ain Soph Aur, the limitless light. This limitless ocean of negative light concentrates a centre כתר, Kether, the Crown, and this is our first positive manifestation of Deity, or, as the Hebrews technically call it, an emanation or םפירא Sephira. Of these Sephiroth there are ten, each emanating from the last, and successively male or female toward the next below or above. These are I, the Kether; 2, חכמה, Chokmah, Wisdom; 3, בינה, Binah, Understanding, often symbolized as the great Sea; 4, חסר, Chesed, Mercy (or ברולה, Gedulah, Magnificence); 5, נבורה, Geburah, Strength; 6, תפארת, Tiphereth, Beauty; 7, נצח, Netzach, Victory; 8, הוד, Hod, Splendour; 9, יסוד, Jesod, the Foundation; and 10, מלכות, Malkuth, the Kingdom.

In the Tetragram יהות, translated in our Bible “Jehovah” or “the Lord” the last nine Sephiroth are summed up. The first also contains the idea of existence, the Divine Name connected with this Sephira being אהיה, Eheieh, Existence. Below this world of Atziluth or of God is that of Briah or Thrones; to this world belong the Archangels; still lower that of Yetzirah or Formation; to this world ten orders of angels are attributed; and lastly, the world of Assiah, or of action (the material world). The further development of these facts, their connection with the numerical system, the parts of the soul, and many other interesting details may be studied in the seventy-two volumes of the written Qabalah, though, perhaps (a word to the wise is enough), truth lies hidden deeper yet in the ten volumes of that Qabalah which is unwritten, and which is only granted to those who by previous incarnations have fitted themselves for so sublime a knowledge. The brief sketch above will, however, make clear the Oath of the people and the Prayer of Jephthah, among other phrases which may seem at first sight less unintelligible to ordinary analysis.

That I have made Jephthah a Magician is also in accordance with tradition. Great captains were always great priests, in the secret Qabalistical sense. The priests themselves, then as to-day, were foolish old men trained to bolster up the externals of religion. The real rulers, then as to-day, were not, officially, priests; the sceptre was wielded by those who, swathed in thick darkness, and enthroned on their own thunderclouds, looked with the eye of gods upon this earth, and carried out the designs of God with tranquil power. I have depicted such a Servant of God stepping down from his throne at the precise moment when his presence was required, and the tragedy represented in the play stands for the impotent spite of the Evil One, venting itself in personal malice.

In short, I have ventured (I trust that in so doing the human pathos of the story has lost nothing, even from the merely legendary point of view), behind the veil of man’s blindness, and the inexorable Até, to hint at the cloudy conflict of the mysterious forces that rule beyond our vision or our comprehension; and if, at the end, I have dared to lift that veil, and to put in the mouths of uninitiates words appreciative of those glorious destinies that overrule the cruelties of fate, let me find my excuse in that love for, and faith in, “the holy spirit of man,” which itself may do so much toward the final regeneration of humanity, and the uniting of man once more with that God of whom Porphyry has written, “We are but a little part of Him.”