UC-NRLF 45 117 = ^; LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIB LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIE v/ \XD ^D IIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY 9le IIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY 5 f5 % w \ O LUCIFER A THEOLOGICAL TRAGEDY LUCIFER A Theological Tragedy BY GEORGE SANTAYANA HERBERT S. STONE AND COMPANY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK MDCCCXCIX COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY HERBERT S. STONE & CO INVOCATION Te whose lost voices, echoing in this rhyme, My tongue usurps, forgive if I have erred. Not as ye uttered, but as I have heard, I spell your meanings in an evil time. Mock not the hope your conference sublime Hath in the vigils of an exile stirred, But let the music of my woven word Waft to your shades the sweetness of your prime. For ye have passed beyond the gate of day Into the twilight of a paler morn, And hidden beauty from the world, and shorn The mortal eye of its supernal ray. Take, till I come, the homage of my lay, Nor hold the pilgrim of your night in scorn. DRAMATIS PERSONS THE RISEN CHRIST MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL SAINT PETER ANGELS AND SAINTS LUCIFER MEPHISTOPHELES AZAZEL BELIAL TUREL DEVILS AND WITCHES ZEUS HERMES ARES HERA ATHENA APHRODITE GODS, GODDESSES AND ATTENDANTS ACT FIRST A MOUNTAIN TOP. BELOW, A CAVE. NIGHT HERMES {alighting) What star art thou and by what god beguiled To wander in this heaven Far from the serene and mild Circle of the sisters seven ? O blasted rock, untenanted and wild, By lightnings riven, Receive thou me, O goddess, if the Pleiad lost thou be, Lost too and driven By viewless currents of the ethereal sea. (Kisses the ground.) For Earth, my mother, while her child Wings these frozen spaces drear, Oh, how otherwise enisled In her blue and liquid sphere LUCIFER ACT I Swims, forgetting grief, and sleeps Wrapped in the fleeces of her atmosphere ! Above Olympus, Phoebe dim Patiently shines the while, and keeps Still watch in heaven; while below the rim Of ocean now her brother s steeds uprear Their fiery manes apace, and dawn is near. But here no dawn is, and no morning star; The suns that nearest are Show like a twinkling host, and peer Through the cold night, immeasurably far. Here who can dwell ? If there be deities Whose body stone, whose spirit silence is, Here they might slumber frozen. Wrinkled brow And cloven sides of mountains, heaped up rocks Toys of young giants long since dead, and thou Horrid abyss that meteors hot might plough From Heaven falling, and ye vales, by shocks Of earthquake split in snowy chasms, Oh speak, If ye have tongues or any ghostly life ! The stranger do not wrong, A god, though seeming weak, ACT I LUCIFER 3 Who prays you, with the winds too long at strife, For shelter from this night and stinging thong Of sleet. Oh, answer me, if any banished soul Haunts you, and guards from harm the frozen pole. LUCIFER (rising from a rocky pinnacle upon which he has been seated] Nay! Not a banished soul. What seems forlorn, Hermes, to thee, another loveth best. In this crag, the throne of scorn, Hath a bolder spirit rest. HERMES Thou who callest me by name, Large spectre plumed for the eagle s flight, Let me be thy guest this night If kindness move thy breast, or any flame Leap on thy hearth, that henceforth, ever bright, On this hoarse and angry coast, May gleam the beacon of its sacred light Where a god, by fortune hurled, Found an altar and a host High on the utmost headland of the world. 4 LUCIFER ACT I LUCIFER (advancing) Stranger, look upon this face, Look long, nor let thy fond heart rashly speak. Seest thou mortal blood within this cheek ? Do not think thy brother s grace Befits all spirits. Some there be too high To wear outward glory still; For it passes nature s skill To paint reason to the eye Or cast in mould indomitable will. My hand drew yon starry girth About the middle of the hollow sky; I have stood a witness by At the founding of the earth; I have seen the twelve gods birth, Alas ! and I wait to see them die. HERMES Imperious spirit, I would not offend. Thy heart knows if this be truth, And mine eyes, on thee gazing, comprehend That thou art a god in sooth. Be then gracious, and befriend ACT I LUCIFER 5 The stranger, and beside thee grant me rest, That I gain strength unto my journey s end, And see again Olympus gleaming crest And the brothers that I love. (Embraces the knees of Lucifer) LUCIFER But what error brought the dove To the eagle s wintry nest ? HERMES I wandered long upon an idle quest And found no other isle in all the deep. LUCIFER Luckless for the child of Jove To set his winged foot upon this steep. No vines upon so wild a ruin creep, No Nereid sports in such an icy cove. But, come. There is a cavern in the hill. HERMES Twill be a covert from this piercing air. 6 LUCIFER ACT I LUCIFER My servant s fire shall medicine thy chill. Perhaps thy hunger will not scorn our fare. This way. Tis dark along the icy stair. (Gives Hermes his hand) HERMES Art thou a serpent, that thy flesh is cold ? LUCIFER They call me so. My blood was hot of old. HERMES But froze from breathing long this cruel storm? LUCIFER Nay, gentle Hermes. It was not the wind Which only bites because the heart is warm. Mine cannot suffer. In my youth I sinned And loved the soft caresses of the world. Now I am free. I have forsworn delight Which makes us slaves. HERMES The chill of wintry night Keeps germs from budding; with no leaf unfurled ACT I LUCIFER 7 Dies the imprisoned deity within. How, then, shouldst thou be free beneath the blight Of this sharp flaw? LUCIFER I can be free from sin. ( They reach the cave) HERMES O welcome glow ! My brother s nimble spirit Even to this region creeps, ingenious fire, And leaps to meet me, conscious that I came. But who is he I see in silence near it ? LUCIFER An angel once, now guardian of this flame, Still studious, as thou seest, of the lyre. He mixed the draught and heaped the driftwood up That we have light and comfort while we sup. ( They sit down) HERMES A subtle servitor, that serves desire. So watching for the dawn before the fight Soldiers might bivouac. 8 LUCIFER ACT I LUCIFER Stranger, fill thy cup And wrap thee in this cloak, if coarse attire Can please thee, being warm, on such a night. Guests come not often hither, for the sky Grudges me chance of hospitality Lest that small virtue in me wound its sight. HERMES But is the sky thine enemy? LUCIFER Thou seest It doth not flatter. Yet tis the ally Of one that wrongs us both. HERMES Why, if thou fleest Into the tempest, on thee it must blow. LUCIFER Ah, if thou knewest ! HERMES Art thou here confined ? ACT I LUCIFER c LUCIFER By a great sorrow and a tameless mind. HERMES A sorrow ? LUCIFER Listen, if thou needs must know, There is among the stars one greatest star Which showeth dark, and none may see it shine. Men know it by their hope; a hand divine Must darkly lead them thither from afar. But once within its bounds eternal light Streams on their ampler souls, and there they are What upon earth they would be. Of this realm An ancient God is king, majestic, wise, Of triple form and all-beholding eyes. The terror of his glance can overwhelm The sense, as lightning when it rends the skies. The dread words of his mouth are gladly heard But marvellous their meaning, not to prove Except by faith and argument of love. He saith he fashioned nature with a word, And in him all things are and live and move. io LUCIFER ACT I To that fair kingdom from primeval night I passed, and clad in splendour and in might I led the armies of my father, God. My right hand urged them with a sword of light, My left hand ruled them with a flowering rod. Brave was my youth and pleasing in his sight, Next him in honour; till one day discourse Upon his greatness and our being s source Led me to question : " Tell, O Lord, the cause Why sluggish nature doth with thee contend. And thy designs, observant of her laws, By tortuous paths must struggle to their end." To this with many words of little pith He answered. And as when sailors crossing some broad frith Spy in the lurid west a sudden gloom And grasp the rudde t taking double reef, I nerved my heart for battle ; for my doom I saw upon me, and that I was born To suffer and to fill the world with grief. But strong in reason, terrible in scorn, I rose. u Seek not, O Lord, my King," I cried, " With solemn phrases to deceive my doubt. ACT I LUCIFER n Tell me thy thought, or I will pluck it out With bitter question. Woe if thou hast lied, Woe if thou hast not ! Make thy prudent choice ! Either confess that how thou cam st to be Or why the winds are docile to thy voice, And why the will to make us was in thee, And why the partners of thy life are three Thou canst not know, but even as the rest That wake to life behold the sun and moon And feel their natural passions stir their breast They know not why, so thou from some long swoon Awaking once, didst with supreme surprise Scan thy deep bosom and the vault of heaven, For I did so when fate unsealed mine eyes. Thy small zeal for the truth may be forgiven If thou confess it now, and I might still Call thee my master, for thou rulest well And in thy kingdom I have loved to dwell. Or else, if truth offend thy pampered will, And with caressing words and priestly spell Thou wouldst seduce me, henceforth I rebel." I knew his answer, and I drew my sword, And many spirits gathered to my side. 12 LUCIFER ACT I But in high heaven he is still the Lord ; I am an exile in these spaces wide Where none is master. The north wind and the west Are my companions, and the void my rest. HERMES Tis much. When evil fortune bows a friend We blush that we are happy. LUCIFER Nay, rejoice. The pleasant music of a tempered voice Is cure for sadness. If my grief could end It would with dreaming of an age of gold When all were blessed. HERMES They who serve thy King Are they not blessed still ? LUCIFER A doubtful thing Is happiness like that. They grow not old. They live in friendship and their wondering eyes Blinded to nature feed on fantasies. ACT I LUCIFER 13 Their raptured souls, like lilies in a stream, That from their fluid pillow never rise, Float on the lazy current of a dream. My grief is not that I am not like them, Or that the splendour of my life is less. My soul hath kinship with the wilderness. But rage at pangs that reason cannot stem Right balked with cunning and truth shamed with lies Rage that the lust of living never dies Gnaws at my heart. My noble trust deceived In justice and indomitable truth, The unthought of shame that I should stand alone When universal nature was aggrieved And should have mutinied ! Faith of my youth That my stout heart did never yet disown, Prove thyself true and still to be believed ! Hasten, just day, and hurl him from his throne As children in a chasm cast a stone ! HERMES That day may come, but wishing now is vain. Rest from this passion ; much I fear my speech Hath stirred unwittingly a slumbering pain. 1 4 LUCIFER ACT I LUCIFER Not slumbering; dumb, and eased with words again Now thou dost listen. HERMES Tell me, I beseech, Were many with thee from thy kingdom driven? And are their hearts embittered like thine own ? LUCIFER Like mine ? Like mine ? Peerless I stood in heaven, And in misfortune still I stand alone. They follow each his will, and ill they fare. In having poor and only rich in greed, They dwell in caves or sail the murky air. Their spirits have been humbled to their need. In hunger once, not finding root or weed One killed a heron and lapped up the blood. Straight his will, mastered by the infectious deed, Lost its free function. His lean body s food Must be warm blood, on blood his visions feed. Another, then without the goad of lust, Fell to lasciviousness ; his narrowed gaze, ACT I LUCIFER 15 Caught by the wanton image, from him thrust All other joys. Impossible desire Is the foul torment of his nights and days. So some to drunkenness and some to ire Are also slaves. HERMES If all are thus depraved I see thou canst not live among them now. LUCIFER They are my people, Hermes. Knowest thou Twas by my deed that they \vere first enslaved ? How should I leave them ? Wrongly I allow Myself this absence, but their hideous lot Fills me with grief, and I can bear it not. Almost it seemeth that the will must err That brings such sorrow. That thought rends my heart With vacillation. Fear me. All I touch Is blasted with infection. HERMES Bitter thou art, And to a by-gone sorrow bound too much. 1 6 LUCIFER ACT I LUCIFER Thinkest thou it is gone ? Was it the blow Of Michael s sword ? Was it the infinite fall, The darkness, the desire for heaven ? No ! What men call pain I never felt at all, Nor fear, nor need to see the face of God. The love of woman I have held in scorn, And could I make an Eden with a nod, , I would not do it. Tis nothing to my soul What blooms, what withers ; by what little thorn My firm foot, treading on the rose, is torn. These things are swallowed in the fatal whole That mocks at justice. HERMES But why dwell apart On this bleak mountain ? If thy wound is deep To natural slumber yield thy tortured heart. Watch not these feeble stars, sad lamps of grief, But close thine eyes on the vain past, and sleep. LUCIFER Sleep ? Yet, why not ? When every shivering leaf From the proud oak is stripped by autumn s flaw ACT I LUCIFER 17 He suffers winter s deep oblivious snows To choke his anguish and enshroud his woes, Nor wakes till the new buds begin to thaw And the whole forest is alive with song. Yes, sleep. The child, rebellious at some wrong, Frets in his helpless pain till slumber dries, Closing his weary eyelids, his dim eyes. They open laughing in the morning light j Then his keen pang is nothing, and his cries The all-forgotten dream of yesternight. But is my grief a child s ? Am I so slight ? Or could my bosom like the wanton trees Put forth new blooms to every wind that blew ? Say that it could : say that some vernal breeze Melted my winter ; could my vain forgetting Make heaven just or make the past untrue ? The evil lives, and if I ceased regretting I should be more unhappy than I knew. HERMES No one is truly happy. Evil things Fate lays upon us. Yet she makes amends, Bringing us daily comfort on the wings Of sleep, and by the willing hands of friends. 1 8 LUCIFER ACT I LUCIFER Of friends ? HERMES Thou hadst none ? Deem that time is far. Friendship is knitted in a single night Twixt noble minds. Quench not the memory quite If I to-day was welcome in this star, But let that breed new kindness. I in turn Would greet thee in my kingdom. It is fair. The wisest mind hath something yet to learn, And I might teach oblivion to thee there. How sweet it is to scent that fragrant air At evening, where the outer planets burn ! Ah ! hear the blast. I yet have far to fare. LUCIFER Aks ! I have not suffered thee to rest. I had forgotten, as I sleep no more, Thy happy need of sleep. Ay, to the roar Of this hoarse ocean shut a while thy breast, And on the pillow of thy bended arm Lay there thy head. It is a barren nest, But, by mine honour, stranger, safe from harm. ACT I LUCIFER 19 I will watch yonder on the mountain crest \ Perchance ere thou awake the drifting storm Will veer to blow thee homeward from the west. HERMES Do as thou wilt. Here by the hearth tis warm. (Lies down in the cave) LUCIFER Turel ! TUREL My lord. LUCIFER To-day or am I wrong? I heard thee croon and strum upon the lyre. It was some echo of Sicilian song Which shepherds on the slopes of ./Etna s pyre Thou heardst to sing, when we were wanderers. It was a hymn they chanted to this god. Sing it. He ll dream the breath of summer stirs The leafy grove, while mid his worshippers He doth upon his wreathed altar nod. TUREL I do but half remember it, my lord, But I will try. (Turel sits at the mouth of the cave with his lyre) 20 LUCIFER ACT I LUCIFER Do, boy. Ay, that s the chord. Play on. The children of Pythagoras When they would sleep bade gentle numbers sound To tune the soul to truth and the profound Order of things ; so might she sooner pass Into the light and be with beauty crowned. (Climbs to his seat upon the rocky pinnacle) TUREL (sings) O blessed night that crept O er Maia s cave when Zeus approached her side, While in Olympus wide Among the gods the white-armed Hera slept. For, when the tenth new moon Over Cyllene cast its thievish beams, She bare the friend of dreams Who born at daybreak played the lyre at noon. HERMES (rising on his elbow} What voice is this ? What words I long have heard ? Good youth, is this thy song? TUREL Tis I that sing. ACT I LUCIFER 21 HERMES Who taught thee ? TUREL He who taught each cuckoo-bird To mock the rest. HERMES Where didst thou hear the thing ? TUREL In Sicily they sang it long ago. HERMES But wast thou there ? TUREL My master travelled then Much upon earth. Twas well for me to know The country manners and thoughts of men So he should keep me by him. HERMES Not of late Thou servest Lucifer ? 22 LUCIFER ACT I TUREL Know you the date When first he marshalled all the heavenly host ? That day he chose two youths, who pleased him most, To walk before him, me to bear the spear And one more stout to bear the golden shield ; But he feigned scruples when the end drew near, And followed not his master to the field. So I remain alone. LUCIFER (above) Is this a dream ? What vital breath is blowing on my soul ? Into my deepest bosom falls a gleam That makes me wish to live. Oh, strange, I seem As if escaping from mine own control, As if a fever waned, and opiate balm Were running through my veins ! The gates of hell Are open to the morning, to the spell Of the chill dewy glades. They breathe such calm As heaven s garden knew, when evening fell ACT I LUCIFER 23 In gold and purple, and each conscious flower Blest God, and inly felt its sister sing Inaudibly the praises of the spring. HERMES Is t Lucifer ? TUREL Ay, many an hour He thus discourseth to the random wind Of things I know not. Only, to my mind, His voice is changed. LUCIFER (above) It were a wondrous thing If once again the womb of ancient night Were big with being, and a giant came A rival to the other. Oh, the fight, The victory, the fallen tyrant s shame ! HERMES He plots revenge. LUCIFER (as before) He hath a wondrous charm, A gentle hand, warm, made to touch a friend s, 24 LUCIFER ACT I A well-born, open spirit, that attends To others words, a young god s strength of arm, The inward smile of them that know no harm. HERMES He speaks of me. Tis me that he intends. I cannot doubt it. LUCIFER There should be no more pain, And I, in that republic of the just Might live from day to day in peace, a-nd trust That life, although mysterious, was not vain. HERMES Hearest thou well ? What saith he ? TUREL Sir, I hear But may not understand his sacred word. HERMES Will he say more ? TUREL Methinks he will, anon. ACT I LUCIFER 25 HERMES Come hither, little page. For many a year Thou followest Lucifer, and thou hast heard His daily musings. TUREL I have gone Where he has led me, since the heaven s birth, Even to this cold island of the north Where, sir, you find us. HERMES Tis well; thinkest thou To do me pleasure he would journey still And let me follow as thou followest now ? TUREL O sir, tis not a place for you to fill. You are too rich. The nights are long and drear. He speaks but little, and you love him not. But I, if you should rob me of my lot If you have any pity, do not do it. HERMES But would he go if I should put him to it ? 26 LUCIFER ACT I TUREL He would, I know. Never since in his court The six archangels gathered round his throne, And graciously he spoke to every one Beautiful words, and gave and took report Of all their doings have I heard him greet Any one so, or ponder so his word, As he doth now with you. Tis as he heard The wide-eyed Gabriel singing. HERMES Run with joy. Run where he loiters. Tell him that I stand Waiting to beg a favour at his hand But fear to ask it. Run, my gentle boy ! (Exit Turel, with hesitation) HERMES (taking the lyre, sings:) Twas I with subtle craft Contrived you first, ye docile strings, to sound. Twas I that playing found The secret of your little souls, and laughed. Apollo took you then, And made of seven strings a louder lyre. ACT I LUCIFER 27 His move the heavenly choir My three suffice to rule the hearts of men. With three did Orpheus tame The shaggy lion and the panther wild, With three doth Maia s child Enchant this desert whither first he came. (Re-enter Lucifer and Turel} LUCIFER Is music sweeter to my friend than sleep ? HERMES Nay, music is a slumber of the soul That rests from thinking. LUCIFER Is thy thought so deep ? And is this true, thou hast a boon to ask From a poor hermit of the frozen pole ? HERMES The gods have laid on me a heavy task LUCIFER And can I make it lighter ? 28 LUCIFER ACT I HERMES to explore The sea of space, and every luminous isle That in its waters swims, from shore to shore, And to make trial of what secret powers Might lurk in Nature s womb, what realms stretch out Through space, beyond this twinkling vault of ours. For meditation endeth still in doubt. Upon this quest I started when the gale Drove me, unwilling, on thy rock. LUCIFER I know. Wouldst thou look farther ? Thou dost see the vale ; A gorge beneath it chokes with heavy snow ; A frozen river, like time s pulses slow, Works through the rock its hesitating way. There is naught else to see. HERMES It is not that, For to the gods I am content to say ACT I LUCIFER 29 On what sad throne so sad a monarch sat. That is enough of glory for one day. But if again, most like, they send me forth Without a chart and with the feeble oar Of my light wing, how shall I breast the north Or shun the straying planets, bright no more ? Yet if beneath the cloak and mighty arm Of one whose eye knows every cloudy bar, I then should fly, I should be safe from harm And reach the haven of some living star. LUCIFER Where wouldst thou go ? HERMES I know not. It were good To look upon thy vassals, in their rude Abandonment, and see their savage state, For it might strengthen us in fortitude To know how bravely they endure their fate. LUCIFER O generous soul, that in the lost in hell Still marks a virtue ! 30 LUCIFER ACT I HERMES I should mark it best Could I prevail upon thy hand to guide me. LUCIFER How shouldst thou not? Tis thine. (Holds out his hand] HERMES (taking it) And for the rest Wilt thou in all my perils stand beside me ? LUCIFER Ay, by what most is sacred to my soul By my own honour and thy love I swear it. All that is mine I yield to thy control. My wings, my arms, my thought, if thou canst bear it, With all the stars that in their courses roll Obedient unto reason, rule, and date. Time, Hermes, hath reduced to one estate Our different lives, made sweeter that we share it. Wanderer by nature thou, and I by fate. Oh, let us forth ! My joy arriveth late. ACT I LUCIFER 31 HERMES But it is come now never to depart. LUCIFER Never ? O let us shut the future out, Lest thought should poison with the shaft of doubt The happy now ! Would I could trust my heart. HERMES Nay, come along. LUCIFER The event shall show the truth. But, Turel, where art thou ? What thinkest thou ? TUREL What should I think, my lord ? LUCIFER Unhappy youth, Why did I never pity thee till now ? How weary have these watches been for thee Serving me here ! Thou art too young a boy To languish in this desert. 32 LUCIFER ACT I TUREL Tis my joy, My lord, to serve you, wheresoe er it be. LUCIFER What should now be the season of the year ? TUREL Methinks it should be spring. LUCIFER Canst hear the birds ? TUREL Birds in this island without sedge or tree ? LUCIFER They now are singing in my memory. HERMES Come, come. Waste not the night in empty words. LUCIFER Lucifer comes. Be patient. It is new For Lucifer to smile and brook command. ACT I LUCIFER 33 I scarce believe it. Let me touch thy hand, Beautiful angel ! Oh, can this be true ? Do I obey thee ? Have I vowed a vow ? Tis wonderful the things that time will do. Turel, thy master hath a master now. We must away. This night shall have its dreams. Thou shalt behold a green land, watered well, Where large white swans swim in the lucent streams, And bosky thickets where the harpy screams, And centaurs scour the fields of asphodel, While young fauns pluck their beards, and start away At great Pan s feast to pipe an interlude. There painted dolphins with the Nereids play, Splashing green waves for rainbows in the spray. And friendly poets, straying thro the wood, Lay finger on the mouth, to watch askance How in wild ring the nymphs and satyrs dance. Wouldst thou not go ? TUREL Tis as my master wills. 34 LUCIFER ACT I LUCIFER Ay, ay, make ready. (Looks about) Sad familiar hills For how long do I leave you ? Not for ever. A voice of inward warning tells me so. Forget ye not my voice. Your silence fills My spirit always; no, I cannot sever The bond that binds me to your sunless snow. But farewell for a season. Far I go, Far, tho I know not wh ither, for the breath Of life is on me, or the hand of death. (Exeunt) ACT SECOND THE GARDEN OF THE HESPERIDES. THE SEA BEHIND. LUCIFER. MEPHISTOPHELES. LUCIFER Yes, I will go to-night. Too long it is Since I have seen my friends. MEPHISTOPHELES It is indeed, But you were busy. LUCIFER Ay, with thoughts that feed Upon an idle heart. Nought s gone amiss In my long absence ? MEPHISTOPHELES Nothing. All s as well As when you were among us. 35 36 LUCIFER ACT II LUCIFER That is good. I sometimes wondered in my solitude If they had need of me. MEPHISTOPHELES I cannot tell. It hath been noted that you were not there, Reasons, perhaps, assigned, false, as I think, As that you loved us not, or your despair Of governing our wills, or that some link Of pure affection kept you bound elsewhere, Like fond Ulysses in Calypso s isle. But need of you, precisely, no one had. LUCIFER Calypso s isle ? MEPHISTOPHELES Ah, ah ! I see you smile. I am most glad to note it. It is bad Never to smile ; and you were once too sad. LUCIFER Perhaps I was. ACT II LUCIFER 37 MEPHISTOPHELES If you will come to-night Twere well to start. We have a longish flight To our good cavern. LUCIFER Not yet. It is not late. Hermes, perhaps, will come to-day. Tis soon, But he was not to loiter. I will wait Until the sun is down. MEPHISTOPHELES Tis after noon Already. LUCIFER Oh, there s time. If he arrives, I ll take him with me. On no better day Could he observe the wildness of our lives Than when the warders of our rocky nest Welcome me back. MEPHISTOPHELES Indeed, I think they ought. 38 LUCIFER ACT II LUCIFER Dost thou know, Mephistopheles, the thought Of what the world was, when I knew it best And found some solace in it, has been brought By Hermes converse back ; and now I see Why losing relish for my wandering life, Since Christ was born, I left the world to thee And to thy demons ? For then lies grew rife, Thought lost jts freedom^grief its majesty. Since thefast zealot from their altar hurled The smiling gods and fled into his den, Reason has been an exile in the world, And beauty but a pilgrim among men. MEPHISTOPHELES And now they will move on and visit hell, Where you will dwell with Hermes. But I think I see him coming. LUCIFER Ah! (Goes to the back) (Enter Hermes) ACT II LUCIFER 39 MEPHISTOPHELES (apart) A lovers meeting. Tears, perhaps. Oh^ to what the proud will sink Whenj^hqjr tijrn comes I Let me not view their greeting Lest I should blush. No, I will look away Like a duenna. HERMES See, I came to-day. LUCIFER I was expecting thee. HERMES The many things I have to tell thee have made light my wings. Shall I speak here ? LUCIFER Oh, surely. Thou mayst say All that thou wilt. Tis Mephistopheles Of whom I told thee. 40 LUCIFER ACT II HERMES That his wit is keen His face gives token. But the glade is green Beneath the arching of these ancient trees. If we walk there we shall be more at ease. (Exeunt) MEPHISTOPHELES So soon dislikes me ? Features will belie The best of men. Only a jackanapes Judges men s spirit by their outer shapes, Not he that knows the world. But I must try To please this humming-bird, since what he chirps Lucifer thunders. Lucifer and I, Compare us. What hath he, that he usurps The kingdom over me ? The right divine, God once appointed him ! Xhough ever since He hath done nothing he must still be prince. I have done all. The work, the skill are mine. Why not the honour ? He may live abroad Pampering his lordly lusts, until the whim Of his last darling makes him think of God And think of us. Then all must run to him ACT II LUCIFER 41 And hail him master. Yet I need not dread His meddling now. The hellish rage is fled, Out_of his eyes. In soft delicious climes He must pluck flowers and weep and murmur rhymes To his young love. He finds a mossy bed Beneath great oaks and sleeps and dreams who knows ? Of the white limbs of nymphs among the trees Spied as he walks, to meditate his woes, Near where they bathe at noon. Strange changes these. He is all charity. He stops and heeds The clownish minstrelsy that drowns the reeds Of some lewd grinning faun. He lifts his eyes To see the naiads rising from the weeds Startled by him rapt poet as he hies To parley with the waves and gather hints At sunset from the cloudlets speckled tints. But can this last ? A month, perhaps, or two, Not more. For he has seen the face of God, And dreams are dreams. Awake, what will he do? He s a proud fool and will be fooled anew 42 LUCIFER ACT II Not to confess his folly. It were odd Yet like his whims, if he should carry through The monstrous comedy. How I should laugh To see him play the lover, scene by scene, And kneel at last before the Nazarene ! It yet may come to that. We are but chaff, Light, light in any wind. The issue is : Master I am and master must remain In the good pit of hell. They come again Let us take note of their sweet reveries. (He hides in the wood) (Re-enter Lucifer and Hermes) HERMES Yes, when I told them of the thousand spires Thou show dst me glittering in that fair half-light, They marvelled much ; and Zeus, much wrought, requires That I go back, and in adventurous flight Inspect those bastions. LUCIFER Ah, not now, to-night I thought to take thee to the cave of hell ACT II LUCIFER 43 To a strange banquet. With carouse and song They welcome me, withdrawn from them so long. It is a wild fantastic spectacle To make thee wonder. HERMES It would please me well, But from my father s soul the dread of wars Hath banished sleep. I am his herald. Thou, I know wilt guide me, though it be not now, Into the region of those viewless stars That I may do his bidding. LUCIFER Thou hast seen The place already. HERMES But I must once more To better purpose, for that day I bore No messages from Zeus. LUCIFER What dost thou mean ? 44 LUCIFER ACT II HERMES That coming to the presence of that King I am to say: " O Lord of Hosts, I bring Greeting from Zeus. He never knew before Thy dwelling-place, else had he long ago Sent me to thee with gifts, for it is well For kings to live in friendship. * LUCIFER Dost thou know What thou art saying ? Is it possible That I should take thee to my dearest foe To sue for his good favour ? HERMES But to hell I will come also, seeking other things. I have no horror of the nether gloom Nor it of me. Though kings must deal with kings, Yet friends will follow friends to any doom. LUCIFER Ah, Hermes, it were ill to follow me Whom all ill follows, and the mockery ACT II LUCIFER 45 Of those I love. What thou dost ask is hard, Exceeding hard the passage of that gate, And I walk never through it. With strong hate And iron sorrow it is sealed and barred. HERMES Thou needest not to come, then. I will dare To go alone. LUCIFER But I have made a vow. HERMES That is fulfilled if thou dost guide me there With prudent counsel. LUCIFER Dearest friend, what care, What joy, what hope, what grief can touch me now Save only thine ? I prize thy valiant soul That lays before the truth thy bosom bare, And bids her strike, though she have strength to kill. Thou growest like me. Yes, I will unroll The whole world to thine eyes ; and yet I feel 46 LUCIFER ACT II Some strange misgiving, some prophetic grief To think of thee in heaven. Thou must steel Thy heart against temptation and in brief Return to me. But, oh, of that return What dim forebodings haunt me, what deep dread Of utter loss, as if I saw thee dead ! Hence, evil omen, do not make me stern For I believe thee not. HERMES Thou art distraught. I am immortal as the earth and sky By whose pure life I live. Bring back thy thought To things in reason. LUCIFER Thou shouldst never die. HERMES Tell me the way and I alone will fly To that high citadel. Its crested walls Will not refuse the herald some reply. I see that to revisit it appalls Thy wounded soul. ACT II LUCIFER 47 LUCIFER And yet I shook it, I Whom it could never shake. No path leads there, Nor Aquilo nor Notus blows from thence, Nor fills it any region of the air. By thought alone in its omnipotence We come to God. But I may have thee led, Good Mephistopheles MEPHISTOPHELES (aside) What s this I hear ? LUCIFER Goes thither. He will guide thee in my stead. HERMES I care not. MEPHISTOPHELES (aside) Thank you. That is kindly said. HERMES Where is he, then ? Methought he loitered near, I must speak with him of my embassy. 48 LUCIFER ACT II LUCIFER Ho ! Mephistopheles ! MEPHISTOPHELES (within) What ! here again ? LUCIFER Come hither, pray. MEPHISTOPHELES (aside) Now they have need of me, They like me well enough. LUCIFER I called to thee To tell thee of a charge thou must sustain For love of me and Hermes. He would fain Visit Jehovah s city to deliver A message from high Zeus. To spare me pain In seeing all that I have lost for ever Thou wilt conduct him. MEPHISTOPHELES When is this to be ? ACT II LUCIFER 49 HERMES To-morrow, pray. I must not lengthen out My father s trouble. For he lives in doubt. LUCIFER To-morrow then. Let me commend to thee His safety and success. The thing is new Which he attempts and hazardous to do. Use good words first, but if the Porter frown, Push to the gates, for they should let him through Who hath no sin. Guide him and set him down Before the throne, thyself removed a space, And let him speak, and let the King reply. Say not a word thyself, but still stand by To lead him, when he wishes, from the place. When thou hast past the cloud-bar, look for me, And I will take him from thy hands, and see That for this service thou hast ample grace. MEPHISTOPHELES I humbly thank you. Such fair company Will be reward enough. Here at this gate I meet him in the morning. 50 LUCIFER ACT II - HERMES At the dawn I shall not fail. , MEPHISTOPHELES Nor shalt thou need to wait. Come now, my lord. The sun is set. Tis late. LUCIFER Go thou before. My absence hath withdrawn The single check, perhaps, their license had In my poor kingdom. Go thou and proclaim My coming, lest what should have made them glad Should, ill prepared for, cover them with shame And my first word of greeting turn to blame. MEPHISTOPHELES I go, sweet Prince, to make thy welcome such That thou shalt better judge our loyalty. (Exit Mephistopheles) LUCIFER I do them wrong, perhaps; to doubt too much Has been my weakness. Thou must bear with me. ACT II LUCIFER 51 But come, my Hermes. Let us now begin Our flight together. All hell s shouts and din Will seem sweet music to me. At thy side, Blest in thy love, I shall grow strong in pride And deem not their calamity my sin. HERMES Alas, it cannot be to-night, I fear. Beside the midland sea expired a seer At point of sunset ; facile, happy sage, Lover of reason in a fevered age, He lived apart, and his thought s jewel clear Set in the wrought gold of a perfect page. Dying, he thought not of the Nazarene, Nor his own sins, but of the gentle god That to the mansions of the dead serene Shepherded shadows with a winged rod, And a deep sigh to join those blessed souls Was his last breath. I hear his voice, for prayer, Even unuttered, knows no bounds of air, Nor time, nor opposition of the poles. I go to lead his spirit in my ways, To wash his wounds of life in Lethe s stream, 52 LUCIFER ACT II And bind his brow with cool ambrosial bays, That with the blameless ghosts of better days Smiling he walks in an eternal dream. This piety performed, I shall be free But am not now. LUCIFER Ah ! Come then after me. The way is easy for one light of wing, And cannot well be missed. Our revelry Once started knows nor dawn nor evening, And thou hast time for all. Above the sea, Along the breakers and the desert sands, Fly to the south. Heed not the marshy lea, Pestiferous, havenless, dark jungle lands, Nor heed the barren islands, single rocks, That brave that sullen ocean. But dart on To where the Antarctic ice, like mountains, locks The waters in. Dart on, till at the pole Thou see a black unfathomable lake Lapped in foul snow, where many a fiery flake And falling cinder burns its sputtering hole. There, in the water s midst, a mighty rock ACT II LUCIFER 53 Belches volcanic fumes. -Its spongy sides Are fretted into caves, and there a flock Of bat-like demons circles, peeps, and hides Like bees about a hive. If they should mock, Disdain their chatter. They are cowards all And the mere glance of thy divinity Will scatter them like gnats. Girdle the wall Of that steep mountain till above the wave Thou see the triple yawning of a cave. There is the gate into our sombre hall, And there thou shalt be welcomed by some brave And trusty officer. HERMES Behold, the night Begins to gather. Mournful Acheron Summons me now. But I will come anon. LUCIFER Thou wilt not fail ? HERMES So wonderful a sight Would tempt me farther. I must now begone. (Exit) 54 LUCIFER ACT II LUCIFER Farewell; and may the good thou goest to do Make thee more blessed. Oh, how far from me Are all his thoughts ! To him the world is true, And in his fair divine simplicity He deems his virtue all. He is a boy. If he swims well, or answers riddles well, Or knows the winds well why should conscience clog His young blood s current, or truth blight his joy? His life is heaven. And my life is hell. Because I know. O poisonous alloy Of reason in me, quickening the heart With all the sorrows of the universe To futile anger ! Undeserved curse That will not let me live or have my part In joy with all the world ! I cast thee out. I wash myself quite clean of thee. Begone ! Speak not to me of evil. There is none, For I am happy. Tell me not of doubt For I behold the splendour of the sun And feel the sinews of my body strong To prove my faith. And murmur not of wrong ACT II LUCIFER 55 Or of false gods again. What s done is done. How should I change it ? Here Heracles of old Ended his labours and to Atlas gave Again the weight of heaven. He was brave, Yet from these boughs he plucked the ripened gold, Rejoicing in that little prize. Behold, A second hero treads your hallowed glades, Daughters of Hesper. From a greater strife His spirit passes to your charmed life. Welcome me, sisters. Let your ancient shades Favour my slumber. Hark, the pleasant sound Of your green leafage whispers, holy maids, Your pieties to me. Here is the spot Where I will live. Here I will choose my lot With your fair silvan presences around And my great peace with things. I made them not. From such an Eden once I tempted men To evil fortunes. Here the apple hangs, By Lethe watered, that might still their pangs And bring them peace at last. I take thee, then, Fair gift of nature. (Plucks an apple) Nourish me with joy. Run, run, thou pleasing poison thro my brain 56 LUCIFER ACT II And make me happy, like that innocent boy That smiles, wide-eyed, upon a world of pain. Do lions sleep not, because sins abound ? Are eagles pensive for the griefs of men ? Do the fair gods upon Olympus crowned Pity the world ? The devils in their den Make merry, and forget the wrath of heaven. Nay, God himself, who saith he died for all, Remembers not his myriad unforgiven Children in hell, nor all the worms that crawl Through suffering to death. Must I alone Cry JUSTICE^? _Jjdone renounce^thg wrong ? LucifeTjJLuc^^ strong Onlyjto suffer ? Live, and take thine own. Thou Morning Star, shine forth ! Shine forth again In the pale Orient, Herald of the Day ! Haply some shepherd, watching for thy ray, Will at thy brightening glow beguile his pain And lie down comforted. Resume thy reign. Behold the altar of thy heart relumes Its ancient fire, and through the pulsing vein The warm blood mounts. Again thy beauty blooms; Again the iris glitters in thy plumes ACT II LUCIFER 57 Outspread to heaven. Hermes shall not shrink Except in awe before thee ; thy caress Shall be his pride hereafter. He shall think Thou comest not to serve him, but to bless With glorious apparition and excess Of supernatural light. Depart, depart From mine immortal beauty, blight of care. O Lucifer, dishonour not thy heart Though it be dead. Remember who thou art And with thy glory cover thy despair. ACT THIRD HELL. SUBTERRANEOUS HALL, WITH A GREAT HEARTH, DEVILS AND WITCHES. FIRST DEVIL (Sings) Blow, bellows, blow Till the red coals glow And the cauldron simmer. Aho! Aho! This work is slow. Blow, bellows, blow And, flamelets, glimmer. CHORUS Blow, bellows, blow ! Aho! Aho! FIRST DEVIL Blow, bellows, blow, For without is snow* 58 ACT III LUCIFER 59 And rain and drizzle. Aho ! Aho ! The fire burns low. Blow, bellows, blow And, kettle, sizzle. CHORUS Blow, bellows, blow ! Aho ! Aho ! (Enter Mephistopheles) MEPHISTOPHELES Ho ! worthy matrons, what s there fit for food ? FIRST WITCH There s goat s flesh broth, my lord, and micklegood. MEPHISTOPHELES Go kill a heifer or a swine at least. I met his highness walking in a wood, He eyed me so, in melancholy mood, And said : " I come to-day. Prepare a feast." SEVERAL VOICES What ! What ! The Prince is coming ? 60 LUCIFER ACT III MEPHISTOPHELES Coming soon. SECOND WITCH Then I must fetch the silver bowl and spoon. (Exit) SECOND DEVIL I ll stick the pig. I ve a sharp, sharp sword. (Exit) FIRST DEVIL Give me the key to the wine, my lord. (Sings) For tho* we drink but stalish beer The Prince must quaff canary clear And, pray, my lord, let go my ear. (Exit) FIRST WITCH (Sings) I will trim the lamp, For the cave is dark. SECOND WITCH (sings) It is dark and damp. I will fetch a log ACT III LUCIFER 61 With a good dry bark. Oh, the merry blaze and the crackling spark ! THIRD WITCH (sings) I will cut a spit That they roast the hog As is right and fit When his Highness is coming to taste of it. CHORUS Flit, comrades, flit, And show your wit, And make good cheer; For the Devil is coming to supper here. (Exeunt dancing) MEPHISTOPHELES (looking about) Where is the sly minx hiding ? I come weary And all this howling rabble needs must din Their ribald nonsense in mine ears ; she only Is gone who hath some spark of understanding And the rare gift to please me. Where s she gone ? Hist, gossip, hist ! (Enter another Witch) 62 LUCIFER ACT III WITCH Doth my lord call ? Alack, How long an absence ! But how doth my lord ? MEPHISTOPHELES 111, very ill. Business and state affairs Fill my head full. But I am still a man, Ay, hussy, still a man. For all they say I m lean and sour, I relish my rank pleasures Even as the keenest rascal of them all. Heugh ! But your burgher s wives are fat and heavy, Dull, artless, like so many grunting sows Who s there? Who comes ? WITCH We are alone, sweet lord. MEPHISTOPHELES By the cold blasts of hell ! Hence quickly, go ! They must not see me thus. It is a weakness I am not thought to have. ACT III LUCIFER 63 WITCH Nay, no one comes. MEPHISTOPHELES I heard a step. Yes, listen. Voices too. Tis mad Azazel and besotted Belial Reasoning together. Quickly, till to-night. (Exit witch) (Enter Azazel and Belial) AZAZEL (to Mephistopheles) Alone and melancholy ? Have you caught The Prince s malady ? BELIAL Nought s wrong, I hope. MEPHISTOPHELES I was impatiently awaiting you. Strange signs of disaffection to the Prince Spread through the people. Much will be to do To keep them down. If they receive him ill Tis we shall bear the blame. 64 LUCIFER ACT III BELIAL What ? Disaffection ? You make me wonder at your words. I thought I read delight upon their honest faces To hear he came to-night. AZAZEL Yes. They are fools. They gladly sweat, though they love idleness And scrape them clean, although their natural dirt Keeps them as warm as any monkey s hair, All in the Prince s honour. Know you why ? He feeds them not, he helps them not, nor loves them ; No, but he reigns. That s argument enough For loyalty of fools. BELIAL Fore God, tis true. He has no stomach for our brave designs. All day he walketh by the sounding shore That hems the skirts of Atlas and the world, Discoursing to the light clouds and the winds That cannot hear his words. I ll swear he s mad. ACT III LUCIFER 65 MEPHISTOPHELES You do him wrong. He keeps a pupil there, None else than Hermes, to discourse to now. And such sage lessons ! I have heard him ape Your speech and paint your manners to his friend Like a true poet. BELIAL What ? He mocks us, eh ? MEPHISTOPHELES In truth of you, my friend, he hardly speaks Except to say : cc And there s a fellow, Belial, Among my lackeys hath such want of wit He keeps the rest a-laughing. Wine helps, too, For that s an essence kindles sluggish brains, And he is ever drunk." BELIAL The damned liar ! His lackey, too. MEPHISTOPHELES (to Azazel) Of you, my friend, he drew A fairer picture. 66 LUCIFER ACT III AZAZEL Yes, he ever praised My worth, I know, but coupled with soft words No fit rewards of honour. MEPHISTOPHELES He is proud, And doubtless envy of your greater merit Held back his hand. And envy, too, methinks, Prompted the gibes for what could prompt them else I heard him chatter to the laughing god, As when he said : " These men of noble blood When their ambition makes them serve the mob Sink to their master s level, heart and soul. Azazel once was noble ; see him now ! He knows not truth, nor his own bosom s thought, But what the fickle rabble crave to hear That he says first and then believes outright. He mouths a part and, as bad players use, Feels what he feigns and doth himself abuse." ACT III LUCIFER 67 AZAZEL The tyrant s impudence ! The people s will Guides me in all. MEPHISTOPHELES O wondrous policy ! AZAZEL He scorned us always and betrays us now, And under Hermes guidance makes again A covenant with heaven. MEPHISTOPHELES As for that Tis harmless trifling. Metaphysical air Has ever been the pasture of his soul. The braying conclave of the saints will grant him A doctor s title, if his logic prove How erring Nature is fulfilled by Grace, With thrice three hundred clinching arguments. BELIAL I never more will serve him. Why, I swear, I never quite perceived the thing till now ; 68 LUCIFER ACT III But he s a brain-sick dreamer and no chief For us, a parcel of good honest fellows Who brave the gusts of chance. AZAZEL Whom shall we serve Who have not wit enough to serve ourselves ? BELIAL Tut, Mephistopheles, we ll make thee Prince. AZAZEL We can debate hereafter upon that. There will be time enough. We can do nothing While Lucifer is with us, for his presence Will cast a spell around. BELIAL Then keep him out. AZAZEL We should first choose another lerder. BELIAL Why, Here is the noble Mephistopheles. ACT III LUCIFER 69 MEPHISTOPHELES Do you trust me ? (He brings them forward) Hear my plan. He will bring his friend to-night To sup with him. His delight Never was among his clan. But our foolish custom s ban Keeps from this benighted cave Every stranger, god or man. Therefore when fat Hermes, grave, With wide unperceiving eyes And curled shock entwined with flowers, Startles this grim pit of ours, Raise, my friends, loud, piercing cries : Treason! "Treason ! The surprise Helps us, for like senseless fire Through the mob contagion flies Seize them, ere the tide retire, Cast them out and let them go. Meanwhile I will plainly show To the people gaping here The great ills they had to fear, 70 LUCIFER ACT III From which we have saved them so. They will raise a drunken cheer. Lucifer may freely then Dwell among his gods and men For twelve months of every year. Now what say you, friends ? AZAZEL AND BELIAL Amen. (Exeunt) (A bell tolls. The devils and witches re-enter with utensils and lay the tables, dancing and singing) FIRST DEVIL I hear the great bell That with merry knell Wakes the fiends that dwell In the breast of the teeming earth. SECOND DEVIL I hear the great bell And I sniff the smell That I love full well Of a roast on the roaring hearth. ACT III LUCIFER 71 FIRST WITCH I hear the great bell And its changes tell That the Prince of Hell Is the guest of our seldom mirth. CHORUS I hear the great bell. Let its merry knell Wake all fiends that dwell In the breast of the teeming earth. (Re-enter Azazel and Belial) AZAZEL Think you, Belial, The double-minded Mephistopheles Could rule us long ? He scorns and loathes us more Than Lucifer himself, and were he Prince Would be detested for his tyrannies As for his mockeries he is hated now. What ? See you not that he is all compact Of malice, envy, and hypocrisy ? 72 LUCIFER ACT III His avarice will grind the people down, And his insufferable taunts will kindle Their hatred to rebellion. BELIAL How now, man ? You urged me first to rise against the Prince, And would you now restore my loyalty ? Nay, that you shall not, for my mind is fixed. AZAZEL Not that ; but who would quit a noble master To serve a slave ? For freedom s sake we rose Against the Lord a virtuous king enough But yet a king and we must still be free. Let Mephistopheles give out the cry. Then if he fails the punishment is his, If he succeeds we make ourselves his partners And share the just rewards. No. We must serve Only ourselves, or else some honest chief. BELIAL Well said, well said. Each man shall rule himself. I will remember your good words. I will. (Enter Titrel) ACT III LUCIFER 73 TUREL Silence all. The Prince is there. One foot on the topmost stair Stands he with uplifted face Gazing into starry space, Drinking deep the midnight air. From his brow the matted hair Floats, each lock a golden flame. High scorn quivers through his frame, His fixed eye with question burns, And his soul unconquered yearns For the heaven whence it came. Him those mighty pinions brought To this island s yawning shore That so grandly beat and soar To the pulses of his thought. By the winds his vesture caught Filled and floated like a cloud, Dun and silvern as a shroud ; For all sea mews and sea gulls, Flying in the tempest lulls, Ravens, hawks, and eagles loud, 74 LUCIFER ACT HI And whatever living things Trembled upon woven wings In the path he chanced to take, Fell into the bitter lake, Weary suddenly of breath; And the spoil of quiet death Strewed the billows in his wake. Behold him. {Enter Lucifer) BELIAL God ! He never looked so fair Even in heaven. MEPHISTOPHELES Tis the change of air. LUCIFER Again I greet you, hollow rocks ; again Among your ancient treasures hide my pain. I love you better than the heaven blue, Which is not blue nor heaven. This squat dome Broods like a dungeon close. Its frown is true. Were my soul local I could call this home. ACT III LUCIFER 75 And O my piteous angels, faithful few Of all my comrades, I return to you. All brutish natures fructify and grow, But you are barren. Others breed and sow, And only kill what may be food for them. You in just hate and scorn of being stem The world s unfathomable flood of woe. Reason, that first in my deep heart was born, Won your rude natures for this work of peace. But, oh, how slowly doth the evil cease ! Would that the healing edge of my keen scorn Had plunged to nature s heart, the sacred fire Of my compulsive thought consumed desire. Then were a lull in heaven and deep sleep, And sweeter music than the angels choir. Let us forget redemption, and not keep Our hearts enchanted by a hope so vain. The whole creation is in love with pain. The child, delighted at the sparrow s note, Cries, Would I were a bird that I might fly ! But the bird s chirping is his hunger s cry, A nameless want is throbbing at his throat, His wings are weary, and the season s stress 76 LUCIFER ACT III Drives him from wilderness to wilderness. If one of you had watched him in the glade Hop to his nest, officious with a straw, Across the patches of the sun and shade, You had belched fire upon him, or your claw Had gashed his breast. And it were better so. No more those numbed feet would mark the snow, Or that slight soul accuse the gods above. Thus your wild instinct does the work of love. He and none else is cruel who began The fatal work of life, and in each breast Bade some blind passion torture all the rest, To die unsatisfied. Innocent man Obeys his need, and pities when he can. Therefore I love you. In your delved hall Night is as day, and by this leaping flame Summer and frozen winter are the same. So, too, your wills, raised by your noble fall, Surpass the servitude to praise and blame. Save that great sin which is to be at all, Ye know no crime, but as each soul is made So it stands forth, incapable of shame, Naked, defiant, lustful, undismayed ; ACT III LUCIFER 77 And that I prize, as my soul hates the fool Whose only passion is to live by rule. Unreason made the world ; if her vast loom Chance to inweave a monstrous figure there, And if I choose to dote and deem it fair, For that strange judgment there is also room. For every spirit born to breathe the air Is his own master and himself his doom. (He takes his place on the dais) Thus I fill the flagon up With red wine and pass the cup. Lo ! My lips have touched the brim Where the beaded bubbles swim. As I drink, drink, comrades, after Of this fount of love and laughter. Curst be he who stints his joy ; Him the honeyed foam shall cloy. The stout heart that drinketh deep Hath loud laughter and long sleep. Drain the bitter dregs, my braves, Nor go foolish to your graves, For it ne er comes round again, Youth s full cup of joy and pain. 78 LUCIFER ACT III We who were together boys In the painted house of joys, We who have been young together Breasting foul and wintry weather, When the sand doth scrape the prow, How shall we be parted now ? Shame to him who scorns the pleasure That hath filled another s measure. Death to him who dreads the groan That a brother s soul hath known. Thus I drink with each that saith : Here s to friendship unto death. (Drinks and passes the cup. They sit down to eat) (Music and Dance) BELIAL Let s to the food. AZAZEL So Hermes is not come ? MEPHISTOPHELES The time s not yet, but we shall see anon The rosy god, the Prince s darling friend Of whom he thought the while he flattered us ACT III LUCIFER 7 g Who being gay and squeamish in his food Is fortunately late. Else had he heard That woeful monologue, and smelt this fish. We, my lord s comrades, whom he frankly hates, Are fools and churlish knaves. He told us so. He gives us his sad words ; his jolly wine He keeps for better company. In sooth, Twill be that novel friendship s sweetening Of which he sings the praises. Some such catch I learned while at the university I read Aquinas. I oft heard the like In their beer-cellars. BELIAL Twas a beauteous song. MEPHISTOPHELES My barrel-bellied friends, the publicans, Know many better. I will sing you one When you are drunker and of keener wit To relish song. Perhaps the thieving god Will never deign to come. This barren house Gives little scope for his dexterity, 8o LUCIFER ACT III And dining off his father s golden plate Seems better worth his pains. But I will ask. (To Lucifer) My lord, was it to-day the son of Jove Walked awhile with us in the wonted grove ? LUCIFER Ay; said I not I meant to bring him here ? MEPHISTOPHELES I had forgot. Was he prevented then ? LUCIFER His duty called him to the needs of men. Alas ! How grim a cavern hell will seem After Elysium ! Some one must stand near With courteous greeting, lest he shrink in fear. Yes, let one go and signal from the hill. Azazel, thou, who ever drinkest least. AZAZEL Not I, my lord. Bid servants do your will. LUCIFER Why, I should go myself, but that the feast Would lack a chief. Yet, since thou tak st it ill, Here s Mephistopheles ACT I II LUCIFER 81 MEPHISTOPHELES My lord, the law, If I mistake not, and not any lack Of zeal to serve your fancy holds him back. Law when unwelcome most enforces awe. LUCIFER The law? MEPHISTOPHELES You live away from us, my lord, Among the better people of your dreams, And you forget how great a trifle seems To meaner spirits. Would you might afford More counsel to your people ! LUCIFER But didst thou say the law ? MEPHISTOPHELES It was my word. A constant custom has the force of law. If he who made it, with a wayward mind Repents, it yet finds honour from mankind. That which the prudent people never saw 8z LUCIFER ACT III Is dangerous to do, what e er it be, But more if it be rash and mark disdain Of their poor safety in the strong who reign. LUCIFER I do not understand. The law I know Is that the greater should command the less And that by nature mincing crookedness Hath a bad end. Lead Hermes hither ; go. MEPHISTOPHELES I would, my lord, but that it cannot be. This is the kingdom s inmost citadel. No foreign chief or enemy of hell May enter here. Such is the law s decree. LUCIFER Ah, that ! If that were all, all yet were well. I see a deeper treason in thy breast. The law ? Who made it, that it fetters me ? I chose not hitherto to bid a guest To my rude hall, and am I now not free ? He oft must change his ways who seeks the best. ACT III LUCIFER 83 MEPHISTOPHELES You changed them once, my lord, and we lost heaven. Was that, too, for the best ? LUCIFER It was indeed. To suffer for the truth is to succeed, The fall had been by falsehood to have thriven. MEPHISTOPHELES Ah ! I had thought you meant the good old King Should die and you be heir. With some such thing I thought you tempted us. LUCIFER It was a dream. Reason at first is ignorant. Her might She deems, like her prerogative, supreme, And weds in fancy victory with right. By grief instructed, none the less I cling To truth, and from my deepest heart defy The shameful triumphs of iniquity. 84 LUCIFER ACT III Thou dost not so, my brother. Thy sick mind Needs to be truckled to by flatteries. Small tricks of chance and favours of mankind Are dainties to thy palate. Wretched lies, Unmeaning strokes of fortune, mad and blind, What should they be to me ? I let them strike That cannot wound my honour. MEPHISTOPHELES Sir, I like Your martyr s courage, but could wish removed The disappointment of your slight mistake, Although the people s murmurs be reproved Whose folly makes them think the burning lake Less pleasant than cool heaven. LUCIFER Villain, when were such words addressed to me ? Ho ! Where is Belial ? Call him quickly here Is this mere madness or conspiracy ? From mild Olympus what have they to fear ? It were too gross a blindness for their eyes. Ho ! Belial ! Where is Belial ? ACT III LUCIFER 85 FIRST DEVIL Here he lies. Look, sir, the Prince is calling. BELIAL Let him call. (Sings) Ho, heigh, ho, the wine is red, One more cup and then to bed And between that s wrong, that s wrong. Sing thou, I have forgot the song. FIRST DEVIL Come, sir, the Prince speaks. Attend. BELIAL ( reeling, cup in hand) Would the sweet Prince drink with me ? I am now his enemy, But until the mad world s end If a man will drink with me I will count him for a friend. MEPHISTOPHELES Hush, fool, you are drunk. Be still. 86 LUCIFER ACT III BELIAL So I am ; but you forget You are not my master yet. Drunk ? Well, drunk I ll have my will. ( To Lucifer) Mephistopheles and I Have decreed that you must go. All the rest would have it so I forget the reason why. You must fly, my lord, must fly And I bid you now farewell. In the lands where you will dwell I will sometimes visit you And in cups like this renew Pleasant memories of hell. MEPHISTOPHELES Nay, this is his dream, my lord v Hatched in his besotted brain. We all hope you long may reign And we would not use the sword. But we all, with one accord, (Offers his hand) (Drinks) ACT III LUCIFER 87 Will from strangers guard this hold. You are welcome as of old, But your friend you cannot bring, For a treasonable king Makes the loyal subject bold. LUCIFER Astonishment more utter than disdain Ties my parched tongue. How should you ban ish me ? To me the gates of heaven still are free And cannot close ; the Father s weary brain By nature s curse, though unconfessedly, Holds nightly session with my mastering pain, And will you banish me ? MEPHISTOPHELES Not from our thought, My lord. We shall remember you, no doubt, Though in the body you should dwell without. But let your better judgment yet be brought Not to command the impossible. The fool Loves to attempt it. Bid your passion cool And answer the assembled people this : 88 LUCIFER ACT III Shall a god, pampered and tyrannical, Who burdens mortals to increase his bliss, Sit like a guest of honour in this hall Spying our deeds ; and having had his fill Issue from hence and hurry to his mates Sitting in sloth upon their castled hill To plan campaigns against us ? LUCIFER Hold! Be still! I must no longer hear thee. The just Fates Are sleeping else this kingdom could not stand. gentle friend, if o er the moonlit waves Thy light soul flieth to this shaken land, Turn back, and enter not these cursed caves, For here a great calamity has come. 1 might with flaming sword, ay, with a breath Quell this rebellion, like Samson split this dome, And crush these venomous worms in sudden death. Ay, and then say .to him who entereth : These are my vassals, this my house and home. O deep damnation ! Avaunt, thou festering plague, thou livid scum ACT III LUCIFER 89 Of hell s envenomed serpent-breeding pool ! That ever I should call this people mine Amid their swinish kisses belching wine ! Why did I e er seduce them, trustful fool, To follow reason ? Heaven was their place. Leave me, go back to him, implore his grace Who with bribes sweetens his usurped rule. You know me not. In me you never saw The truth s superb and calm authority That without armies holds the world in awe. You saw a kinder, weaker lord in me Smiling on license, and your evil blood And lust of riot hatched your mutiny. Doth my dog love me only for his food, Or follow to be sleek ? Ye mongrel curs That bite when you are thin ! What s hungry truth That you should serve it, or be ministers Of holy pity or all-healing ruth ? Henceforth to be your king shall be my shame. Look not to me, nor hide your rankling vices Beneath the mantle of my spotless name. Back to your ancient master ; he ll forgive 90 LUCIFER ACT III And feast you for returning. It suffices That you blaspheme my faith. O live and thrive, Show all the hireling world how wise you are. I do so hate you I would have you live. Grow, breed, beget, let writhing lechery Drive sleep from you at night and treacherous war Hound you for ever. Breed, that if you die Misshapen giants may the plagues inherit With which I curse you now. TUREL O jhaken spirit ! AZAZEL What will he do ? MEPHISTOPHELES Nothing^ but nurse his grief. AZAZEL He ll leave us. MEPHISTOPHELES Ay, in that our plot succeeds. ACT III LUCIFER 91 LUCIFER Farewell for ever, partners of my deeds, False to my thought. Look, soldiers, on your chief For the last time. FIRST DEVIL My lord SECOND DEVIL My lord, I pray, Charge not to me another s treachery. LUCIFER Ye all are foul. Speak not a word to me. I fly beyond the fountains of the day Into the silence. The polluted- shore Of hell releases me. I strive no more. TUREL Master, may I go with you ? LUCIFER Who shall tread my secret ways ? 92 LUCIFER ACT III TUREL I have served you all my days. What is left for me to do ? LUCIFER I have been a curse to thee Ever. Thou forsookest heaven Uncondemned, thy choice was free. Fool, by love to ruin driven ! Unavailing, unforgiven Was the only love of me. (Exit) MEPHISTOPHELES Comrades, the Prince, as you have seen, hath fled. As to the next in office lend instead Your loyal aid to me. AZAZEL Hold ! Not so quick. Others have equal privilege and I Cannot consent. This is too plain a trick. The common voice alone may choose a king. MEPHISTOPHELES Nature hath named him. ACT III LUCIFER 93 BELIAL Mark his vanity. MEPHISTOPHELES Thou shalt not mark it twice. (Stabs Belial, who falls) AZAZEL Pernicious fiend, Thy reign is well begun, but it shall end Ere further mischief follow. 4 (Draws) MEPHISTOPHELES Fool, come on. (Exeunt, fighting) SECOND DEVIL (seizing a fire brand) I will set fire to something. If one fall I ll brand the other till he howl with pain. Come on, a blaze ! A revel, one and all. Who knows when such a night will come again ? (Exit, amid general confusion) FIRST DEVIL (after the stage is emptied, fills a bowl and sings) What care I what king is king ? I am still a slave. 94 LUCIFER ACT III While there s red wine in his cave Ring, bells, ring What care I what king is king ? What care I what king is king If my coat is brave ? While I have a song to sing Dig his grave What care I what king is king ? ACT FOURTH SCENE FIRST IN FRONT A PLATFORM. ON ONE SIDE THE OPEN SKY, WITH FLOATING CLOUDS. ON THE OTHER THE GATE OF HEAVEN. BESIDE IT, SAINT PETER, IN HIS CHAIR, READ ING. BEHIND, A PART OF THE WALLS AND PINNACLES OF THE CELESTIAL CITY. (Hermes and Mephistopheles arriving) MEPHISTOPHELES We started early. It is twilight yet. HERMES Pleasant it is to watch this broader sun Rise from this calmer sea. MEPHISTOPHELES It is a moon. The sun shines there within and cannot set. 96 LUCIFER ACT IV HERMES Your feast was brief. MEPHISTOPHELES It ended with the broth. About some trifle almost I forget The cause our Lucifer was greatly wroth And burst with curses from us. That upset Our festival. HERMES Indeed ! In one so just The thing is strange. MEPHISTOPHELES Who knows ? Some deep chagrin May have found vent in this. The sinless must Lay all their troubles to another s sin, Which thus grows large. He did not seem at ease. I think thy absence grieved him. HERMES It was late When I came forth and found thee at the gate. Thou saidst that all was over. ACT IV LUCIFER 97 MEPHISTOPHELES If thou please Sit here awhile. The Porter seems awake. I will be gentle with him for thy sake. (Approaches Saint Peter) Ho ! Father Porter, is there leave to pass ? You will grow fat in office, now, I fear, That no one knocks, and doze while chanticleer Awakes us busy people. But, alas, Though others fail you, I will come to mass And keep the Church s precept once a year. SAINT PETER Thou knowest, devil, that the way is free. It is thy pride hath forged for thee the lock And closed thy bosom to felicity. Go, demon, see the glory thou dost mock. Go, fiend, and double torment may it be To look on heaven, having hell in thee. MEPHISTOPHELES Slowly, good Father, give me time to blink, For, by the Cock, you are infallible And rashness now might bring expense of ink 98 LUCIFER ACT IV On sucking theologians. Truth to tell But I forgot. I have some news for you That will surprise you. Lucifer, I think, Is coming back to heaven. He withdrew Last night from our command. He says we stink. He will not speak in his own name at first He has diplomacy but sends to sue For leave that one, his favourite, may view The sights of heaven. But, mark me, if he durst, He would beg pardon for himself. His sin Will be forgiven, and sans further harm You ll have a soldier-prince. The secular arm Will drive the clergy hard when he is in. I am most sensible of your alarm. You see this strange conversion must chagrin Me also, who have lost him. But we bear, They say, the griefs more lightly which we share. SAINT PETER Ah, liar ! Is there any truth in this ? MEPHISTOPHELES All I have said. I came now not to miss The touching scene. He will be here anon. ACT IV [ LUCIFER 99 But I have brought you Hermes, who would ask A herald s privilege and see the King, To offer gifts from Zeus. A pious task, Unless your Holiness forbid the thing. SAINT PETER Why is it pleasant to thee to offend ? Thou knowest such imaginations vain. Here children born to Adam and again Born unto Christ with angels live alone. He who comes with thee comes to no good end. MEPHISTOPHELES His ends are his, I make them not my own, But as a common human courtesy I point the way to strangers. To the throne I take the slight petition you deny, For, though I m sorry for it, sure I am God receives many that the churches damn. (T^^rnsback to Hermes) SAINT PETER God knows the right ; but it is not our place To make exceptions. He can grant a grace Who gave the law. We cannot. ioo LUCIFER ACT IV MEPHISTOPHELES Well, my son, He will not let thee pass. HERMES And were it rash To try the gate ? MEPHISTOPHELES Tis hardly to be done, And failure in that insolence would dash All hopes of parley. HERMES May he not be won ? Leave the old man to me. MEPHISTOPHELES Prescriptions bind These priests and pedants, and he thinks to find Some ancient rule against it. Underlings Will ever stickle at the forms of things. The King himself will judge with freer mind And haply bid thee welcome. I will ask That favour, being fitted for the task ACT IV LUCIFER 101 Better, perhaps, than thou. Thou art a Greek Unused to kiss the ground before the throne Of the Great King, or smile the smile, and speak The flowery phrase. Tis well I go alone. I know the anguished look, the posture meek, The trembling voice that make good manners here; And, though I am a rebel, I appear As an old courtier and I move with ease. Over my lot the cherubs shed a tear, And spite of all my blasphemies I please. Talk meantime to the priest. He is a sage Of pleasant wit when he forgets his role, And when not bent on catching any soul Enjoys the fancies of this naughty age. Nor has he worshipped at thy shrine in vain. He knows thy trick of words and trick of gain. (Goes in) HERMES Old man, I pray thee, wherefore may I not Speak to thy King ? SAINT PETER Thou hast no need of grace. That is a sadder and a higher lot Than thine. The poor in spirit see his face. LUCIFER ACT IV HERMES Strange ! Surely Lucifer who knows the truth Sent me not hither to be turned away. SAINT PETER It is a serpent tempts thee, noble youth. Even while speaking truth he leads astray. His eye is subtle, but his heart is blind, And of God s fruits he marks the spotted rind, But not the kernel where their virtue lay. All nature yields no meaning to his mind, For understanding withers at its springs Unless love guide it to the sense of things. On faith is built the wisdom of mankind. Mark how this age, that builds its truth on doubt, Falters at heart and knows no certain hope, But trusts to fate, with which it dare not cope, To work its undeserved salvation out. What truth have men ? The senses brief deceit. What happiness ? The slavery to greed. What art ? An echo and a paltry cheat. What God ? A helpless consciousness of need. Upon what food, then, doth this people feed ACT IV LUCIFER 103 That it forgets of whom it borrows breath ? Knows it the secret of the budding grain, Or can it conjure floods or summon rain ? Or grows it sick and amorous of death, Or like its father, Satan, dull to pain ? Oh, men have waxed too covetous of gold To lift their eyes up from their labour s gain ; And as each morning brings the sun again And summer wears his splendours as of old, They drive the ploughshare deeper in the mould And say : There are no longer gods in heaven ! With smitten breast and penance would they crave Their bread, if God less bountifully gave, But they forget him now, when all is given. Thus are the souls my Master died to save Like earth-regarding beasts in stupor driven Without the hope of heaven to the grave. HERMES Old man, thy words are strange, thy thought is just. Our altars have not smoked these many years; Our shrines are desolate, our statues dust. None bring us sacrifice of joys and fears, 104 LUCIFER ACT IV As for our honour and their good they must. For men have need of us to feed their soul And with a perfect thought their pain beguile. We are the better part that saves the whole, And man s heart lightens when he treads a grove Hallowed by me or any child of Jove. SAINT PETER Amiable spirit, in the heaven s smile Among the flowers thy beauty came to birth. Live, and make fragrant still that early earth Where nothing sinful is and nothing vile. (To himself} No, Adam, thine was not a blessed fault, Though ransomed by the blessed death of Christ. The good that nature gave us had sufficed, Nor if the touch of evil could exalt Would God forbid it and the heart cry, Halt ! (To Hermes) Why shouldst thou pray to pass these heavy doors Through which the triumphs of our sorrow go When heaven dwells within thy breast and pours Its music through thy being s pulses ? No. Envy us not the comfort of our woe. ACT IV LUCIFER HERMES I envy nothing. If I scaled these towers Twas to deliver messages I bring From Zeus, my father, to thy Lord, the King, And bear his answer back. SAINT PETER A darkness lowers Suddenly in the east, as if a storm Were coming on us. From all evil powers Defend us, Master. Hath the thing a form ? {Enter Lucifer) HERMES Tis Lucifer ! SAINT PETER I know not what I fear, But a great chillness falls upon my heart. LUCIFER Alas ! Methought that I should find thee here. HERMES How welcome, Lucifer, how fair thou art In these strange heavens ! 105 io6 LUCIFER ACT IV LUCIFER Whither didst thou flee ? Couldst thou not find some path across the sea To where I waited ? HERMES It was late to start And Mephistopheles LUCIFER O evil name, Let me not hear thee utter it ! HERMES He came Ere midnight, saying that the feast was o er, And led me straightway hither. LUCIFER Did no shame Show on the villain s brow ? HERMES He seemed the same. Tis thou hast never looked so stern before. ACT IV LUCIFER 107 LUCIFER Where is he now ? HERMES Within. The gate is locked Against me, but he took my message in. LUCIFER Couldst thou trust him, whose words have ever mocked His own heart s thinking ? HERMES It was not my sin. When to his hands thou hast commended me Should I not trust him ? LUCIFER Fates, ye spin, ye spin ! HERMES If I might enter now tis not too late. Question this man. I cannot find the cause Why, being good, he keeps me from the gate. io8 LUCIFER ACT IV LUCIFER Leave the old fool alone. This realm hath laws Older than those in which his tribe is schooled. Do not these frowning portals give thee pause ? HERMES I fain would pass them. LUCIFER They may yet be ruled. Hear me, ye gates, if ye have memory Of peaceful days when ye could wider swing And feel the brazen chariots, wing and wing, Roll o er your golden threshold to the sky. Hear me, ye gates, and, opening, reply. HERMES Hear me, ye gates ! A winged herald I From distant skies, with greetings to your King ; The guardian of the souls that ever sing, The shepherd of the shades that never die. Hear me, ye gates, and, opening, reply. ACT IV LUCIFER 109 LUCIFER Hear ye not, O ye faithless gates, the cry That with hosannas made this welkin ring, When ye, a-tremble at so glad a thing, Opened to let the swift Archangel by ? Ye hear me not. Your silence makes reply. SAINT PETER Vain incantation ! See ye not the cross Above the doors ? HERMES Ah, look ! Was that sign there When they obeyed thee ? LUCIFER Out of my despair Thou bring st me, Hermes, to a second loss. I never thought to see this place again. Never! Never to call and call in vain At my own kingdom s portals. Still to hope Was folly. See how like the blind I grope, Led by thy wanton hand ; into what mesh Of infinite affliction thou hast led me ! no LUCIFER ACT IV Thou with a touch hast quickened my dead flesh And on the bitterness of beauty fed me Till all my healed wounds do bleed afresh. HERMES What have I done ? I know not. If this place Is grievous to thee, do not enter in. Methinks this good old man will have the grace To be my messenger. LUCIFER Twas an innocent sin, Hermes, in thee. HERMES Why, then, this bitterness. Thou lov st me not. * LUCIFER Incredible to me Is the deep root thy love hath taken in me, * So deep it wounds, so deep it cannot bless. What need of proof? A word of thine could win me To leave my proper throne and follow thee. Remember, Hermes, that my grief is large, ACT IV LUCIFER 1 1 Not small my love. Can time unsalt the sea For drinking sweetness of a thousand streams ? Tis they grow brackish far above the marge With his pollution. Malediction seems To spread about me. O beware, beware, Lest some great evil fall upon thy head, As upon all my mates, and leave despair To mock the phantom of thy beauty dead. But I will save thee still. When I am fled Twill be my comfort in my heavy lot To know thee happy. It shall then be said That one was once my friend and rued it not. For this sole thing, to have the power to bless, As all men have, I could remount my sphere. There, where I loved, I carried happiness. Now I must banish me from what is dear Lest it should perish if I linger near. HERMES And I had hoped to make thy sorrow less ! LUCIFER Alas ! The ghost of good that haunts the earth Is sadder than all evil. Of thy birth, ii2 LUCIFER ACT IV Of thy young faith, repent ! Let no caress Win thee to softness, no sweet voice decoy, For it will leave thee like a desolate child Weeping a blasted hope. In thy defiled And empty heart, oh, quench the hope of joy ! Guileless thou wert. Myself have I beguiled Into this toil. There is a time in love When comes a chill, a little touch of frost, And the simplicity of love is lost. It may live after, many a trial prove Its constancy ; but upon friend and friend The burden lies foreknowledge of the end. My flower is nipped. We stood now at the crest Of our high friendship. The pathway heretofore Mounted, and love was daily more and more, But henceforth to the gates of death addressed It winds into the sunset. I am loath, Hermes, to grieve thee, but the truth is best. I shall not falter. Faithful to my oath I will walk with thee till thou hast thy will, But then I leave thee. To my desert hill Never pursue me, to ensnare us both. ACT IV LUCIFER 113 HERMES Nay, I release thee now. LUCIFER Tis not the oath. When the lips swear, the lips may be forsworn, But, oh, the torment when the heart is torn ! How could I leave thee in so strange a plight Amid the quicksands of this ghostly shore, Where every blear and unfamiliar light Would mock thee and bewitch thee o er and o er? Thou art not armoured for so vast a war, Nor in the bivouac of so foul a night Hast thou in thy sweet soul enough despair To keep the courage of thine inward right And the last issue of thy fate to dare. Therefore, for the sad sake of this last love So rich in sorrow, and in hope so poor, I make me thine ambassador above. Insolent gates, avaunt ! Proud heart, endure ! (Lucifer strikes the gates with his lance. They open and he enters. Hermes attempts to follow, but an invisible barrier prevents him from crossing the threshold. Saint Peter, making the sign of the cross, follows Lucifer* The gates close again, and Hermes remains watching the scene in an attitude of rest.) U4 LUCIFER ACT IV SCENE SECOND HEAVEN: FROM THE AISLE THAT OCCUPIES THE FORE GROUND THE CHOIR OF A VAST CATHEDRAL IS SEEN THROUGH AN OPEN SCREEN. ANGELS AND SAINTS. IN THE SHADOW OF A PILLAR, MEPHISTOPHELES. MEPHISTOPHELES In ill time have I come. They are at prayers. I know the tinkle of that feeble bell. These drowsy animals with pompous airs How I rejoice they do not cumber hell. It rasps against the bone to hear them whine. We had good music once. Here comes his grace, Led by his new love to this torture-place. (Enter Lucifer) Pish though : tis good to see the true steel shine Amid this tinsel army. (To Lucifer) Good my lord LUCIFER Do not speak to me. ACT IV LUCIFER 1 1 5 MEPHISTOPHELES We have passed the gate, But here s the ante-room. They make us wait. LUCIFER Silence. Let not thy lips pronounce a word. MEPHISTOPHELES Why not ? Does this sweet song so charm your ear That my voice grates ? I ll speak to others, then, For I am not disposed to stand by here Until they reach the eighty-fifth Amen. (He goes up to the screen, looks through, and touches the Archangel Michael, who stands near it, on the shoulder) Michael, although men s fortune may decline You prize the ancient privilege of race. Lucifer stands with mortals here in line And fain would see the Master face to face. MICHAEL (approaching Lucifer) Lucifer, have good patience for a while, The evening canticle is just begun. But if thou wilt, withdraw beneath this aisle. I will stand with thee till the song is done. n6 LUCIFER ACT IV ANGELS SING As the grass-blade in the sod Turns to heaven from the clod, I from nothingness to God. LUCIFER Thou lookest on me, Michael, and thy gaze Saith, Oh, how changed, how changed my captain is. But heaven too is changed, more changed, since days When only perfect spirits knew its bliss. ANGELS SING On the floating cloud I swim, Finding in the brightness dim Him and Him and only Him. MICHAEL Ay, brother. Many earthly voices swell The mellowed music of the angel-host, And in my soul man s works the greatest spell, For it is man the Lord hath honoured most. ACT IV LUCIFER 117 ANGELS SING As a drop within the sea I am lost and found in thee, Thou, my life, exceeding me. LUCIFER Who now is King ? A man the Roman slew For working wonders to the gaping mob. And who is Queen ? The daughter of a Jew, And heaven trembles at a girlish sob. ANGELS SING As a little star on fire Twinkles In thy silent choir, My heart sings with joy entire. MICHAEL There is no greater glory than to raise The spirit s dignity from grievous fall. Think of the joy if after evil days Thou wert a prince again among us all. ANGELS SING As the grain within the ear Feels the summer of the year So I watch and love and fear. n8 LUCIFER ACT IV LUCIFER I am a thing raised high above the world And challenge this great evil s right to be. With reason like a cloak about me furled I bid the mad gods thunder over me. ANGELS SING As in quiet space a wind, Though embosomed not confined, Moves my mind within thy mind. MICHAEL There is no right nor wrong, no high nor deep, There is no reason nor unreason here. I choke with too great reverence to weep And sink before the wonder I revere. ANGELS SING As of leaves the tender est one All my soul is overrun With warm love, as with the sun. LUCIFER The wonder is in us and in our thought, I will not worship any lesser thing. ACT IV LUCIFER 119 The waking cometh when the dream is nought. The void will then be glad, the silence sing. ANGELS SING As the snow-flake in the sky Willeth with the storm to fly, Living in thy life I die. MICHAEL God was before us ; in his boundless mind Found us and loved us first and called us forth. He would not leave us to his beauty blind, But bade us know the love that gave us birth. ANGELS SING To thy wisdom all I leave, It is thine to take and give, Mine to love and to believe. LUCIFER He saith he made us. Let him then destroy. He is his nature s slave as much as I. Think not your flattery can give him joy, For in his heart he knoweth it a lie. 120 LUCIFER ACT IV ANGELS SING Hold me fast, or make me free Freely to return to thee, Thou the all in all of me. MICHAEL I know the comfort of my Master s breast, And with no fever is my spirit tossed. Remember, Lucifer, thou once wast blest, And tell me what is gained for what is lost. ANGELS SING By thy sacred body fed, Living by thy blood, and led By thy spirit overspread, LUCIFER Ah ! For his gifts thou worshippest thy Lord, Thy courtier s privilege, thy garments sheen. For all the glory of thy flashing sword Thou art a coward, and thy sou! is mean. ANGELS SING While I see thee, I am blest, While I touch thee, I can rest, While I love thee, all is best. ACT IV LUCIFER 121 MICHAEL I will not answer now. Behold the King. (A gate in the screen opens. Enter: The Risen Christ, clothed in white, bearing the standard of the cross t the wounds on his hands, feet, and side.) LUCIFER What, so ? No more ? CHRIST (to some who Point out the presence of Lucifer) Peace. Greet ye not with scorn One who comes not in anger. LUCIFER (apart) What ? So shorn Of all his glory ? A man ? O pitiful thing ! Why did I tremble ? I come to triumph here And find my conqueror more lost than I. (To Christ) Alas, O King, thou bought st thy victory dear If having vanquished thou wast fain to die. CHRIST (to Lucifer) We both have chosen sorrow. Therefore speak The burden of thy heart. What seekest thou ? 122 LUCIFER ACT IV LUCIFER I ? Nothing. CHRIST For thyself thou dost not seek That which thou seekest, for thou doest now Another s errand. LUCIFER Oh, then wherefore ask What thou well knowest, as thou knowest all, And make more grievous thus mine honest task ? Be generous, O King, that if thou fall Men may lament thy ruin. At thy gates Unhoused, unheard, an unarmed herald waits. Thy churlish warder would not let him pass There comes he frowning : his poor brain debates The point of law and reckons up the toll Therefore to this strange kingdom I, alas, Am come with jarring words to wound thy soul. SAINT PETER What I have done is well. Authority Hath not been laid upon me without grace To know my office. No, it was not I ACT IV LUCIFER 123 That kept the youth away. There is no place In heaven for his nature or his race. LUCIFER (looking about him) O wonderful ! Where thieves, adulterers, And knaves with blood-stained hands, for dying well Have entered in, more welcome that they fell, No star may transit make that never errs From its true course, celestial sentinel ! SAINT PETER A perfect nature is its proper heaven, But when the struggling spirit, from its fall Would rise through penance, saving grace is given. LUCIFER Is not thy bosom still the home of all, Is not the womb of night, by thy rays riven, Fruitful by thee ? Is not now every star A spark of thine own life s incessant fire, And every wind that sweeps the cosmic lyre An echo of thy heart-beats felt afar, A needful voice in thine eternal choir ? This we believed when thou wast God indeed, I2 4 LUCIFER ACT IV But now thou hast renounced the world entire To be but Saviour to the woman s seed. SAINT PETER Mark how the devil will misquote the creed. CHRIST When to my breast I took the universe And from its exile promised it return, I bent to that which most had felt the curse Of being other : from the farthest bourn I took the weakest up and most forlorn. For there is nothing in the infinite More pitiful than man ; no mortal cry Comes with such bitter wailing through the sky. Upon his brow alone the curse is writ Of shame and labour in divinity. In losing all things he foreknows his loss. Therefore I made his agony mine own When I cried //, dying on the cross. I died a man, yet not for man alone, But that all natures might my peace receive And learn that he who laid on them to live Himself had suffered first, and felt, and known. ACT IV LUCIFER 125 LUCIFER If we forgive thee, then thou wilt forgive, Bartering mercy ! But let mercy be, I speak of justice. If the vilest dust Assume the godhead, and its brother worm Enter thy glory, must the purer form Coming with innocent questionings be thrust Unanswered from thy portals ? Is it just ? Thou lovest men who turn away from thee. Why then despise the god that dares to trust His open bosom to thy courtesy ? CHRIST Wouldst thou have brought him were he seek ing me ? He knows not of me, but for love of wealth And idle knowledge tempts an unknown sea. These are his Indies, and he sails by stealth Borne on we know what broad-winged argosy. LUCIFER Tis true. Once in my bosom s folds I brought The wanderer hither, but his pilot thought 126 LUCIFER ACT IV Pointed the way, and his bold spirit filled The vans that bore him. To thy surly gate I had not sent him if he had not willed. He begged it of me. I deny him nought. Make not my love a reason for thy hate. CHRIST Doth thy heart echo to the dulcet string To which the speech is tuned ? Thy care was less For other souls of old. LUCIFER My heart, sad King, Is full as thine of ancient bitterness. The wreathed roses that about it press Are its new crown of thorns. Look, else, and see. Why should I make my soul a mystery When it is pure and worthier to be known Than all men gape at in the rolling heaven ? They think, since I am just, my heart is stone. Stone be it, yet for grief that stone is riven. By the world s shame into the desert driven, I live in torment, for I live alone. ACT IV LUCIFER 127 Alone in thought I fathomed the false deeps Of old pretension and alone I rose, For they that followed are in truth my foes. Alone I stand in nature, for she sleeps And leaves me the large treasure of her woes. Hunger for love is still our misery Whether we feed it or we feed it not. Thinking of that, in patience of my lot, I sat upon a crag above the sea The vultures fly in terror from the spot It doth so whisper of eternity When Hermes, angel to his father Jove, Set foot to plume his wing upon the steep. For many leagues the bitter wind he clove And found no other island in the deep. Marvelling, I questioned him. What care could keep His youth in exile from the vernal grove? No vines upon so gaunt a ruin creep, No Nereid sports in such an icy cove. He feared me not, but smiled at what I said, Nor marked the ominous thunderbolts that played Ceaseless above me ; all I chanced to ask iz8 LUCIFER ACT IV He freely answered, hiding nothing; laid His warm hand in my hand, and his fair head Upon my flinty pillow ; told what task The gods had laid upon him to explore The sea of space and every luminous isle That in its waters swims, from shore to shore, And to make trial of what secret powers Might lurk in Nature s womb, what realms stretch out Through space beyond this twinkling vault of ours; For meditation ended still in doubt. He spoke, and speaking wove a net about My thought-sick heart, and at his breath new flowers Sprang in my fancy, barren long with drought. The fragrance of the past came back to me Laden with joys. I saw these courts again, And through the silence of my charmed pain Burst snatches of an ancient harmony. It loosed amain the floodgates of my youth To see his beauty and angelic mind So like my comrades lost, and I resigned My will to his, and told him all the truth. ACT IV LUCIFER 129 And as an eagle, old and hoarse and blind, Turns his young fledglings eyes to the sun s fire, Proud they should relish the ancient fierce delight, So have I led my loved one higher and higher Till mine own heaven opened to his sight. Alas, I deemed those glories ever bright And find them now tear-tarnished. How require His simple soul to read this riddle right? Tis well thy gate is shut, for with disgust He would have turned him from this ghostly throng, Nor would his sense have found the measure just Of the so mournful passion of their song. CHRIST Lead him hence quickly, if thou be his friend. LUCIFER He seeks the truth, and this is thy reply? CHRIST Reason not of him. What is he to us ? Speak of thyself if thou art come to-day To crave a grace. For him tis hazardous 1 3 o LUCIFER ACT IV To loiter here, beyond the tepid ray Of his own yellow star, Twere better thus. LUCIFER Happier is he, O King, than thou or I Who cannot hope, for we behold the end. CHRIST His paradise hath no forbidden tree. While there he ranges he is safe from harm, But if he venture, trusting in thine arm, Into the infinite, his choice must be Either to die or to believe in me. LUCIFER What ! dost thou threaten ? Dost thou think to lay Bold hands upon him ? Look to what thou dost ! Where are thine armies now ? Where that array Thy trumpets marshalled once ? Lost ! Mortal clay Clogs thine own soul. Thy long-sheathed sword is rust, And all thy silver clarions choke with dust. These vaults, these bastions, of themselves decay, Crack, crumble, rock, methinks, to hide for shame ACT IV LUCIFER 131 The rabble that they house. Women and friars Fight for thee now. Nor deem my lance the same That broke once in my hand ; tis purged with fires, Unflinching steel, thrice tempered in the flame. That he will die, I know ; but not alone. Thou, who wouldst seem to guide the hand of death, Shalt fall beneath the sickle. Every groan Scatters thine irrecoverable breath Into the vast inane. Merciful death Hushes all sorrow, and will hush thine own. Would he might lay his magic hand on me, Seal mine eyes, too, and turn my heart to stone ! He cannot. For while truth is, I must be. CHRIST Unteachable ! Is God not Lord of Hosts ? The arrows that against his bosom fly His own strength drives, and in thy mutiny He triumphs, and is mighty in thy boasts. What need of sentinel to guard the shore When he is master of the embosoming sea, When his the wave, the bark, the sail, the oar, 1 32 LUCIFER ACT IV And his the sinews of his enemy ? O Lucifer, couldst thou behold thy soul As it lies open to my Father s sight, The gathering clouds of pity fast would roll Across thine eyes, to hide thy proper plight, And rain on thy parched heart in showers light Of sweet humility. Woe to the vain And raging will that hugs its mortal pain ! Is it for thee to fathom wrong and right ? Tis God who spun the fibres of thy brain And wove thy reason; had he placed awry One thread, new dreams had turned thy dreams to naught And idle thought confounded idle thought For ever, and none questioned destiny. Now thine own tyrant, to thyself unkind, Thou chafest at the limits of thy wit Whose meek quietus were to live resigned And serve the elder Will that fashioned it. For in the bosom of the infinite Thou hast thy life, and thy forsaken woes, Like foam on the false bosom of a wave, Rise in vain fury, impotently rave ACT IV LUCIFER 133 A moment only. Then thy proud will goes Whither the billow sinks or the wind blows. LUCIFER (turning to go} Thou wastest words. CHRIST Await my last reply. That which is written shall be now fulfilled. To all the spirits of the earth and sky My grace extends. The Father ever willed They should be gathered to him in the end. And as he sent me once to those who fell To those who fell not he will also send. I went to earth in sorrow, and to hell I went in death, a ghost to call a ghost. In peace I now will go to those that dwell In peace upon Olympus, that the host Of heaven s sentinels may know the Lord. Let Hermes to his father bear my word And prophesy my coming. LUCIFER Thou wilt go To them thyself and thou wilt not receive Him they have sent thee ? 134 LUCIFER ACT IV CHRIST He should first believe. LUCIFER Believe ? Full well thou knowest, as I know, He never can believe. It is too gross And palpable a fiction, fit for those Who dream awake. And must I leave him so ? Hell in revolt and heaven in disdain Shut in his face, and my great vow quite vain? Behold how time, the keen inquisitor, Hath stopped my torture to increase my pain ! Fool that I was to buckle on once more The harness of the world ! Remember, heart, Remember not to love. CHRIST Thou temptedst me, Satan, of old. Now I have tempted thee. Thrice didst thou try me, thrice with divers art Woo me to evil; thrice I turned away. But I have tried thee and enticed with good And thou hast yielded twice, and shalt to-day Yield the third time. ACT IV LUCIFER 135 LUCIFER Nay, by high heaven! Say, When have I yielded ? CHRIST In thy solitude I found thee hungry and thou turn dst to bread The stone I showed thee. It was I that led An angel to thee. It was I that stirred Thy heart with longing at the words he said Though he meant nothing ; and it was my word Made thee renounce thine anger, and confess Thy need of love. LUCIFER Thou sayest it was thou. I know it not. CHRIST A second time but now I showed thee hell and its unrighteousness, And tempted thee to cast thy kingdom off For a just life; and in that trial s stress A second time I vanquished. 136 LUCIFER ACT IV LUCIFER I might scoff, But that which vanquished was a holy thing, And even thou if thou usurp its name Shalt find me patient. CHRIST A third time I bring Thy spirit to the proof. I shall proclaim My godhead in Olympus and their king And all his sons shall hear me. If they came And did me homage, trusting what they heard, And in their ignorance of primal things Honoured my witness and received my word, Hermes among them would their faith suffice To bring thee with them to the king of kings ? Or would thy pride refuse to pay the price ? LUCIFER Tis a vain question. Why should I decide ? They never can submit. CHRIST Nay, answer me. ACT IV LUCIFER 137 LUCIFER Think not to triumph over my just pride With indirection, for it shall not be. Of my own will I have renewed my soul And to my love and not to thy control I gave a short and doubtful mastery. True, I am weary. My eternal flight Finds not a resting-place in all the world. Against the void 1 have disdained to fight, My heart is silent, and my wings are furled. But locked within the consciousness of right For ever lives, and though I wear again My natural glory in the realms of light, Yet in my bosom s hushed and secret shrine I celebrate my sacrament of pain, And as thine altars in meek bread and wine Repeat thy bloody sacrifice again, So in my silence I remember mine. Oh, there is little in the world can add Now to my doom ; and even if thou stole The only good that yet might touch my soul I do not think that it could make me sad; 138 LUCIFER ACT IV Nay, happy rather. Take, yes, take the boy For ever from me. Make the whole world mad, And let all worship thee and find their joy In what I know is false. For that is life. And never let a glimmer of my doubt Disturb his faith ; abolish quite the strife Of reason in him; blot my being out. Bring back thy demons from the pit of hell To dwell in plenty ; uproot the cancerous vice I planted in their bosoms, and dispel Their long delusion. Let my pangs suffice Thine anger. In the place where I shall dwell, Sole victim of an endless sacrifice, It then will comfort me to be alone, For I shall hear no other spirit moan In the wide world where all was misery. CHRIST The third time, Satan, do I vanquish thee. Thou yieldest in my hands, lest it should perish, Thy single joy. Why yield me not thy pain? Is evil more than good, that thou shouldst cherish Thy misery? Shall wrath alone remain? AcrJV LUCIFER 139 LUCIFER That cannot yield which is invincible. This wrath is I; I am this pain and hell. CHRIST All can believe. It is not faith to know, It is not faith to trust when all is sure, But, knowing not, to venture and endure. Thou, Satan, when I gave thee long ago The call of faith, didst ask me for a sign. The sign I gave thee was that thou wast mine And I was thine; for love can also know. Thou wast too happy in thy lordly mind, Too rich in thy fond reason, for belief. Now thou art wiser, having tasted grief, And partly seeing, being partly blind, Art willing to be led. Me thou didst scorn In the proud days of thy tranquillity, Who was thy God, not yet of woman born, And now, behold, a child is leading thee, So lowly is thy plight and so forlorn. Yet this repentance in thy sorrow s stress, If thou hold fast and suffer to the end, I 4 o LUCIFER ACT IV Shall be accounted thee for righteousness. Thou lovest me, when thou dost love thy friend, And what thou doest to the least of these Thou doest unto me. LUCIFER (kneeling) Spare me, O Lord. Spare me, I pray thee on my stubborn knees ! Why wilt thou, in mere vengeance, plunge this sword So deep into my heart ? Hath thine not bled ? By the remembrance of our glory fled, By that long morning of felicity Ere thou or I had ever bowed the head, Yea, by those joys that never shall be more, And by the ghost of trust and honour dead, Spare me, O Lord. (Rises) No ; this can never be. Thou knowest it. It ne er can come again, That ancient life, nor can my faithful pain Be swallowed up in empty mockery. Yet I confess to thee thy victory, If such it be. For when the heart is weak ACT IV LUCIFER 141 There is no honour in a swaggering tongue. Mine ever spoke the truth, and now shall speak, Although my heart in speaking it be wrung, And in thy temples a new hymn be sung How Lucifer was vanquished. Go, persuade, Persuade all other gods to worship thee, Or him alone who (as it seems) was made The unwitting herald of thy grace to me : If he believe and enter through the gate His faith has opened, I will follow him, Resume my throne and wear my old estate, Making thy glory bright, which shows so dim. For I have wholly understood my fate, And know there is not in this scheme of things Room for my soul. Then why not hide it here ? But nothing shall be true to me, or dear, Of what the vision of thy glory brings : The words of prophets and the deeds of kings, Like rustling leaves, a pleasing noise at best, The fruit of all the anguish of the years, Nor truth, nor hope, nor certainty, nor rest, But only laughter in my hollow breast, Laughter, and in the night a gust of tears 1 42 LUCIFER ACT IV scorn, O pity, that the heart must teem With these false joys, these troubles of a dream ! Why troop the wailing phantoms through my soul ? Why wake the echoing caverns of my mind To sound of warring, cloud-compelling wind ? All things are parts of me, and I the whole; And if entangled in the web I weave To stars or gods or men I yield control Over my heart, and bowing down believe, Me headlong in their dance of death they roll And with perpetual mockeries deceive. Steadfast I therefore stand, enwrapped about As with this mantle in my large despair, And armed as with this lance by piercing doubt 1 scorn the gathering armies of the air. In midst of battles islanded in peace, And firm beneath the ruins of the sky, I live by truth, as ye by falsehood die. The wreck of worlds is my supreme release, The death of gods mine immortality. (Exit) ACT IV LUCIFER 143 THE ANGELS SING God gave us grace to love The earth, the sea, the starry air, But woe to him whose love remaineth there, Nor flies to rest above In the Eternal Fair. CHRIST I breathed the breath of life Into thy nostrils, but in vain, Unless for love thou render it again. Else comes no rest from strife, Nor any peace to pain. THE ANGELS SING I loved them where are they ? That led me, loving them, to thee, Who only art my joy or failest me* My loves have passed away From earth and air and sea ACT FIFTH SCENE FIRST THE PALACE OF ZEUS UPON OLYMPUS. A HALL SUR ROUNDED BY COLUMNS. BEYOND, THE OPEN SKY. ON ONE SIDE, THE THRONE OF ZEUS. OPPOSITE, A GROUP OF NYMPHS, ATTENDANTS OF ATHENA, AT THEIR HANDI WORK. AMONG THEM ATHENA AND APHRODITE, WHO, BEARING LONG GARLANDS OF ROSES, RISES AS IF TO GO. ATHENA Stay, Aphrodite ; do not leave us thus. Hermes, methinks, is on his homeward way With answers from that King. Abide with us. APHRODITE I have seen men before, dear Maid. They say This is a man. ATHENA Half man, half marvellous God of the heavens. I beseech thee, stay. 144 ACT V LUCIFER 145 APHRODITE Since this new business filleth night and day I find no solace in Olympus more. I go to Paphos. Haply in that isle Men doubt not yet what spirits to adore, Nor urge new questions. I would rest awhile. ATHENA How the alloy of Oriental ore Shows in thy golden heart, in spite of time ! Do we not love thee ? Could a sultry clime Prone sloth and revels make thee happy now ? No. Thou wouldst lack the calm illumined brow And holy lips of Zeus, and me, thy friend. Thou knowest how this enterprise began. Stay by us now, and see its wondrous end. APHRODITE Well, be it so. But speak not of the man. Tis that thou askest, and the hour grows late To start to-day. Alas ! I know not why The doubt pursues me that it may be fate That I should never see my native sky. 146 LUCIFER ACT V heavy bondage, though a silver chain Fetter the exile to a golden throne. 1 would go forth, I would be free again Unwatched, uncensured, unbeloved, alone. Here every morning with the same sweet note The bugle blows at sunrise ; every eve Pass the same solemn gods, that Zeus receive His daily homage ; the same cloudlets float In the same luminous ether ; the same dreams Visit the sleeping dryads by the streams, And from the same high crag the same remote Unheeded melancholy vulture screams. Oh, I should die, did not my lover come, Ares, from battle, and fling down his crest And bloody harness on the marble floor, Startling as with a lion s roar the dumb Cool cloister rafters, and still red with gore Rush like a child upon my heaving breast. Then I am happy and forget the rest. With gentle palm I close his bloodshot eyes That still shoot fire, and wash away with care The sweat and clotted blood, and with my hair Dry all again; and if some splinter lies ACT V LUCIFER Deep in the quivering flesh, or some sharp thorn, I pick it out, and where the skin is torn I pour rich drops of nectar on the place Till the wound heals. Oh, then tis paradise To watch the sweetness creep into his face ! Alas! alas! ATHENA If happy love so sighs, How shall unhappy lovers breathe their woes? APHRODITE They say there is a thorn in every rose, But that is false ; for see, these roses here Prick not my fingers as I weave the crown. I cut the thorns off first. Look, sister dear, And in thy book of wisdom set that down. ATHENA I will, and guard my soul as thou thy flesh, Unhappy sister, lest thy wreaths enmesh My strength and reason. Hera comes. Her frown Will grow but darker, if she see thee weep. (Athena draws Aphrodite to a seat beside her, and dries her tears. Enter Hera.) 148 LUCIFER ACT V HERA Thy father, Pallas, hath not tasted sleep Since Hermes putting forth, but racks his mind With dim forebodings. (She turns to observe the sky) The eyes utmost sweep Spies not a speck in all this depth of air. To women s warning men are rashly blind, Else had he never started. It is cold In those disconsolate regions ; the ether rare Cheateth the breath, the wings will not upbear. How mad a venture, when all signs foretold Some evil ! ATHENA Pray, fair Hera, do not grieve. Our crafty herald will in time return. HERA Apollo will not speak. He must discern His brother s fate, but will not undeceive A hapless father with the dreaded truth. There stretch the kingdoms of eternal snow Where savage tyrants rule, unchaste, uncouth, ACT V LUCIFER 149 Who for no ransom let the stranger go. Thy father comes. If gentle Hermes dies He will go mad. Too much his heart hath fed On these wild thoughts. Behold his bended head And voiceless lips that mumble prophecies Dishonoured long ago. With stealthy tread He makes perpetually the bastions round, And lists to sound of wings or any sound For tidings of his son. He loves you both. Go to him, speak. Dispel his sullen mood And the dark dream on which his vigils brood. My words, alas, he flouteth. I am loath To feed his choler. Ay, my lips are dumb, But my heart saith, the worst is yet to come. (Exit) (Enter Zeus. Athena and Aphrodite advance to meet him) ATHENA Father, thou comest fitly to dissuade Our friend from an ill purpose. APHRODITE Tis not ill. I long have nursed the hope I now fulfil. 150 LUCIFER AcrV ATHENA She would depart. APHRODITE For a brief time, dear Maid. ZEUS The time is chosen well ; this is the season When courtiers leave a king. ATHENA When his renown Spreads to new regions ? ZEUS When he pawns his crown. ATHENA What words are these ? Thine own thoughts hatch this treason. ZEUS Is he not living, that invisible god That drove our image from the soul of man ? I know the time when first his fame began AcrV LUCIFER 151 And Sinai shook, unshaken by my nod, And through the wilderness a caravan Bore jealously his ark. ATHENA Let these things be. What terror hath the tale, that Jove should stare ? ZEUS Where doth he lurk? The unfathomable air Doth not contain him, nor the monstrous sea, And when I searched in hell he was not there. My brothers portioned out the world with me And we left nought but the intangible And barren night, where nothing good might dwell, Not subject to our sceptre; but from thence, Alas, ariseth now the dread offence. Evil is laid on us at birth ; the spell Broods silent on us, thickening to the dread Ordained finish. When my father fell He cursed me, for his father, dead, long dead, Had cursed him so. The one my hand avenged, The other s curse now hangs above my head. 152 LUCIFER AcrV ATHENA For shame, good Father. Is thy mind estranged ? I, though a woman, cannot know such fear. This sombre god hath lived for many a year Lost in his cloud-land. Let him there live on. What s that to us ? He will not face us here, Or, if he doth, he will be gladly gone. The Indian Caucasus is full of ghosts, For I have chased them oft from peak to peak With laughter and the prick of my bright spear. Before the ^Egis fly their gibbering hosts, Rending the woeful night with many a shriek; Yet each is a great wizard. ZEUS Brave words these, But vain to help us in an evil hour. O parent sky, shed light upon my heart! O kindred deep, replenish with thy power The fountains of my joy ! (Re-enter Hera> following a Herald} HERALD See, see him dart. AerV LUCIFER 153 HERA Where? HERALD There, to the west, good mistress. HERA That bird there? ZEUS (who has joined them, looking- to the sky) It is his plunge. I know the motion, I. None other of my sons so cleaves the air, As if an arrow thinkingly should fly, Dodging the denser cloud. Now with sly speed He finds the rifts of navigable sky, Now diving rends the thinner mist asunder, With radiant visage laughing at the wonder. Ay, tis my messenger. HERA It is, indeed. Ah me ! how many pangs and errors pave The way to doubtful peace. (Enter Hermes) ATHENA Happy the brave, For either victory crowns their venturous deed Or fame their failure. 154 LUCIFER ACT V ALL Welcome. ZEUS Welcome, son. Glad are mine eyes to see thee. They will close Content to-night. ATHENA But hast thou met with foes ? Where hast thou tarried ? Is thine errand done ? HERA At least thou hast no wound ? Thou art not maimed ? ZEUS Leave the poor boy awhile. You will be blamed, Fair goddesses, to ply your questions now. The beaded sweat is standing on his brow, And still he pants for breath. Ho! fetch him first The nectared cup, that he perform the vow, Home-coming, to the god, and quench his thirst. HERMES (taking the cup that is brought to him) Olympus, and ye elder gods that keep Invisible watch about this hallowed dome, AcrV LUCIFER 155 Receive your child. Guard ye my toil, my sleep. Fly with my flight, defend and lead me home. (He pours a libation and drinks} ZEUS Send forth a crier. Be it known to all That Hermes is returned. HERALD (blowing a bugle) Ho ! Hermes is returned ! ( The cry is echoed in the distance. The gods gather, and group themselves in a circle before Zeus, who has mounted his throne.) ZEUS (to Hermes) Speak now. So shall the praises thou hast earned Sound as is fit. HERMES In sooth, the praise is small, For thus it chanced. I passed the empty main Led by a subtle guide. I saw again, More near at hand, what belfries from afar Lucifer showed me, when he cast a spell Over mv soul and first I saw the star. 156 LUCIFER AcrV ATHENA How gladly would I view the miracle ! HERMES Twere worth thy pains. For if to Babylon Thou addest Nineveh and Thebes by Nile, With silvering moonbeams falling full upon, And raisest Zion on them, then the pile Were half as vast and intricate with spires As the embattled and cloud-girded isle Where that god dwells, with all his winged choirs. ZEUS And didst thou enter in ? HERMES It was forbidden. ZEUS Then is thy message undelivered ? HERMES Nay, Lucifer passed through the wide gates ; but hidden Magical bolts, if I pressed, barred the way. ACT V LUCIFER 157 HERA O evil omen! ZEUS Brought he no reply ? HERMES This only : that the King himself would come Here to our midst, and answer us. ZEUS But how ? Can all his legions pass the infinite sky ? HERMES I know no more. For Lucifer was dumb. Issuing from thence with thunder-laden brow, He seized me as thine eagles seize a lamb, With sudden swoop, and hid me in his arms, . And with no further word through the abyss Bore me, and through the zone obscure of charms That hems that sphere, ere yet the lights of this Gladden the eyes. When Hesper gan to shine I cried in joy, c I see my star ; and he, Spreading his arms to give me liberty, 158 LUCIFER AcrV Answered, afar already, c I see mine. I turned. Nor he, nor his pale star was there, Only a solemn sound of rushing wind Retreating ; and alone, with laden mind, Homeward I journeyed through the sweetening air. ZEUS Blind were your counsels, children. Doubly blind My doting heart. ATHENA And blinder thy despair. Let this god come, if haply come he dare, And what is lost ? ZEUS Our peace is lost. Henceforth We never shall know sleep, were t but the thought That from the cloud-land and the bitter north Some monstrous shape might come. But this is fraught With greater dangers. He may now descend With all his legions on us. Who can know How against magic we should then defend These ancient walls ? Perchance we touch our end. ACT V LUCIFER 1 59 Let us not meet it basely. Long ago, Alone, I slew the Titans and with cords I bound the hoary tyrants. Sons, to arms ! Keep diligent watch and burnish bright your swords, And fix keen brazen heads upon your spears, But temper most your souls, for tis by charms And traitorous thoughts, and heart-corroding fears, That this new enemy works. Be ye but brave, And all worth saving in yourselves ye save. Away ! To arms ! (Exeunt all but Zeus and Hera) HERA Wilt thou now trust my tears, Hard-hearted, whom no word of mine could move ? It is not I alone have vouched for this, Apollo saw him. ZEUS Show me where he is, If he be here. Each palace, grove, and grot, I have had searched. HERA He cannot thus be found, But I have seen him, though I sought him not, 160 LUCIFER ACT V As in a dream. I cannot tell the spot, Or say whether he flew or trod the ground. The form pursues me like a secret crime Where er I go. I dare not lift mine eyes For fear to look on him a second time. Apollo also in his rhapsodies Of late evokes the ghost ; or from the ground As exhalations to the moon arise, Or from the very potency of sound, It shapes itself before his haggard eyes Into a thing of meaning. ZEUS Fantasies. Both he and thou have ever been abused By turbid humours. Prophets are the curse Of kings. When young men gape, amused With dreams and marvels, kingdoms are undone. Peace to these woman s ravings. There is worse To fear. We must seek out a greater foe. Leave me awhile to my heart s counsel. Go. (Exit Hera) AcrV LUCIFER 161 ZEUS Intolerable doubt ! What stratagem Hath this god planned, that proffers coming here And cometh not, nor giveth ear to them We send with gifts and greetings ? Much I fear His onset in the night, while evil dreams Benumb our courage. Is his flight misled, Unused to ford the rushing ether-streams That part our kingdoms ? Is he lost or dead ? My winged boy himself could hardly thread That labyrinth of shadows, ere to-day He had come else. Ah me, what have I said ? Perhaps it is my own blind heart that errs, Perhaps these weak unbidden thoughts that prey Upon my quiet are his messengers, His shafts that find a quick and magic way To my defenceless soul. He may be here, And in my sister s madness and my son s Begin to work my ruin, while he shuns My stronger eyes. If thou be true, appear, Insidious foe, and poison not my life With evil rumours. Better open strife i6z LUCIFER AcrV Than endless watching in the house of fear. (The Risen Christ appears) What do I see ? Ere this, when racked with care Men have seen ghosts. My senses are befooled. Why should these inward vapours not be ruled By him who drives the thunderbolt ? Look there ! Oh, I must nip this ague in the germ Ere it grow master-madness ! Let me clutch My good throne so. Ah, while I feel thee firm My reason will be safe. The rest s not much. Behold, he cometh terrible and grave To seize my sceptre. CHRIST Tis a thing I gave. ZEUS He answereth my thought, or is t my thought That answereth itself? Thou gav st me naught. My father Time gave all I boast to have. Who sayest thou thou art ? CHRIST Eternity. Both life and kingdom have I given thee. ACT V LUCIFER 163 ZEUS My father s spirit ! Spare me ! I resign Both life and kingdom, if thou too give thine Back to thy father. CHRIST I have rendered mine. ZEUS What ! Is old Uranus awake again ? CHRIST Can Heaven sleep? Are not his silent spheres Perpetual in their round? Is not his main Of light immense, and infinite his years ? ZEUS What wouldst thou then ? Wouldst thou again devour Thy children s souls and henceforth reign alone ? CHRIST I and my Father envy not thy throne. ZEUS Why come so ghost-like then to mock my power ? 164 LUCIFER ACT V CHRIST Ripeness of time and the appointed hour Come to us all. Thou in thy day of need Hast called upon me, and behold I heed. ZEUS I never called upon thee. CHRIST Thou didst send Thy son with offerings to me ; even now Didst pray to see my face. ZEUS What, was it thou, Cronos, that Hermes sought ? O bitter end ! I see the meshes of the Parcae now. While in fond sloth I slept, and thought me blest Drinking sweet poison in a golden cup, My outraged blood bred this avenger up. Too late I sought thee in thy cloudy nest, Ill-boding Phoenix ; too, too late delayed To its last refuge to pursue thy shade. Would I had hastened, burning still with wrong ACT V LUCIFER 165 And drunk with blood, while death was in thine eyes, And crushed thee quite, nor seen thee thus arise After long ages. But I thought me strong, And was too merciful. Yet the vision lies, Perchance. Thou wouldst my kingdom ? , CHRIST Nay. Thy heart. ZEUS Ah, cruel father ! Canst thou pluck it out ? CHRIST To me it lieth bare. ZEUS No sword, no dart Is in thy hand. My children stand about Ready with arms. Attempt it, if thou dare. CHRIST The sword I bring is now transfixed there. Invisibly it long hath pierced thy soul With secret anguish, and the fear of death 1 66 LUCIFER ACT V Dwells in thy breast. To me is given power, If thou dost will, to heal thee with my breath. ZEUS To pluck my heart, and heal me ? CHRIST Thou hast heard. ZEUS (.rising) I called upon thee in an an evil hour, Impotent shade that with equivocal word Dost work upon my doubt. Avaunt ! Begone ! In what I did, not I but nature erred, That made me mad. Let vengeance long deferred Come now, and let what must be be anon. Ho! children. Look, dear sister. There he stands Whom ye have summoned, Cronos, once a god. Question ye him, if any understands His riddled speech. Of old I bound his hands And took his thunder from him and his rod. (Re-enter all the gods successively} ATHENA I told thee, Hera, there was naught to fear. Let us approach. AerV LUCIFER 167 HERA The same I saw, the same. But oh, not Cronos. Could my father dear Wear such a shape ? ATHENA Come, I will ask his name. ZEUS Tis Cronos shade. HERA (to Zeus) Thy wit is turned, for shame At that old crime. (To Athena) No, daughter, not too near. ATHENA (to Christ) What do men call thee ? CHRIST Many names they use. Some call me Son, some Master, some the Word, Some by another name of angels heard On bended knees alone. i68 LUCIFER ACT V ATHENA Dost thou refuse To tell us what thou art? CHRIST Lo ! I am he Near to all hearts whom none hath ever found. Read, if ye will. (He writes on the ground with his staff. All, in a circle , watch him.) ARES (aside to Aphrodite) What writes he on the ground ? APHRODITE A word in my own tongue he means for me. ARES (looking) Why, I can read it, too. Plain c Victory/ ATHENA That is a thought thou tak st the title of And not a thing of life. To be c the Truth Is to be bright in every spirit s love, Being nothing in oneself. ACT V LUCIFER 169 HERA (apart) Ah, from my youth No seer ever read my secret so. (To Christ) But tell me, prophet, art thou friend or foe ? CHRIST Friend, if he be a friend who gave thee life. ZEUS But foe, if he would take that life again. To ease their lust the husband and the wife Beget the child and bring him forth to pain, And while for their delight they rear the boy Tread down his soul, and chide with peevish rage If far from home he snatch a day of joy, While they devise how in their feeble age To use his love and keep his heritage. So common fathers are, but thou the worst Who art not only tyrant of the soul, But the frail children thou begettest first Devourest after ; and when in natural thirst 170 LUCIFER AcrV For life and joy they slip thy harsh control Watchest to curse them. Be thyself accurst. (He turns away and mounts his throne again) HERA He thinks thee Cronos. He is much distraught And hath misread thy script. Let me, who share His royal office, speak his better thought. What in thy country is thy private care Concerns us not, what battles thou hast fought Or triumphs sounded in those realms of air. We would not harm thee, for thou seemest wise And weak. Not by thy hand we think to fall. The rich and gleaming treasures of this hall Bring little gladness to thy godlike eyes. Go therefore back. We will persuade no more Thy griefs to wander from their cloudy shore. (She turns away and takes her place beside Zeus) CHRIST If I go hence, great weakness overwhelms Your kingdom now. As long ago I gave I now take back your being and your realms. Who keeps shall lose his life, who gives shall save. AcxV LUCIFER 171 ARES Bah ! Would a child be gulled by such a trick? I have fought much, but never yielded yet To any foe, although my heart grew sick And mine eyes dim, with naught but glory set Before the victor. I can still endure And face the worst. It were not much to die, And it behooves the soldier to be poor. CHRIST To what end battiest thou ? ARES I know not, I. Only a coward asks the reason why. (fie turns away) ATHENA (joining Ares, and -moving with him towards their thrones) Nay, courage also wields the arms of thought. It is for freedom, brother, thou hast fought, For the sweet privilege of breathing deep The air of heaven and of speaking sooth And sharing with the comrades of thy youth 172 LUCIFER AcrV The joy of battle and the balm of sleep. I know these wiles. What calls itself the Truth Wraps in an evil dream the things we see, And henceforth naught is pleasant, fair, or free In all the world, till in her ecstasy The soul, bereft of light, her heavenly food, Deems her last agony her perfect good. APHRODITE (who meantime has drawn nearer to Christ) Stranger, who comest from my native land For these are not the hills where I was born, Nor these my sisters heed thou not their scorn. Some things the happy never understand. CHRIST Art thou not happy ? APHRODITE Oh, the mocking word ! The chains of fortune and of fatal love Burden my soul, while perfect joy deferred Woos me to fly, and flies with each remove. Where shall I find my rest ? AcrV LUCIFER 173 CHRIST In loving more. APHRODITE Tis now my torment that I love too much. CHRIST Love all things and love justly. They who clutch My raiment lose me. Touch not and adore. APHRODITE Ah, that were peace. And yet what love is this That drives all hope away ? CHRIST It is a cross. The perfect victory of love it is To conquer love, and in that blessed loss To live for ever without other bliss. APHRODITE Were death not better ? With hope set before Patience is good, but not with hope denied. Knowing the sea to stretch without a shore 174 LUCIFER ACT V The mariner would drop the oar he plied ; Nor would the ploughman yoke the labouring steer Thinking it should be winter all the year. We look for happiness, else had we died When reason dawned. I think at last to hear The longed-for voice, the music of my dreams, Calling my name, at last to kiss the face My fancy painted, know the long embrace. Else what were love ? A foolish thing, meseems, That ends in nothing. CHRIST Love can never end. {Aphrodite turns away slowly) But is there none will hearken to my voice In all these mansions ? None that knows his friend ? HERMES I hearken gladly, and had I the choice Would venture with thee. Who untaught shall tell Whether thou counsellest and lovest well ? But with my father and my brothers here My life is knit for better or for worse, AcrV LUCIFER 175 And I would rather take with them thy curse Than far from them thy blessing. CHRIST Lucifer Thou lovest not ? HERMES I hold the stranger dear. CHRIST From all love flows intelligence of love, And thine might yet persuade his soul to move In her true orbit, with her starry mates. HERMES Let him make head alone against the fates Even as I ; or if sad thoughts reprove What once he did, let him return to thee. (He turns away) CHRIST The hour is come. All is that was to be. The gift I brought which ye would not receive Was life, but death shall be the gift I leave. 176 LUCIFER ACT V I am the Lord of Immortality, The way, the truth, the life ; who lives by me Shall live for ever. You some inward voice Persuaded once that you should ever live. What privilege have you that you rejoice While all things suffer ? You shall also grieve. I have endowed you with exceeding strength And beauty, bidding time to spare your pride And leave you young. But you shall now at length Grow old. Vain and unsanctified, Weary of pleasures, you shall yield your breath Like waves that sink again into the sea, Not having any voice to cry to me. But painless be to you the hour of death For you have sinned in all unwittingly And full of stars the night on which you cease, Passing forgetful to the realms of peace. (Christ disappears) HERA He vanishes ! ATHENA Tis well. AcrV LUCIFER 177 ZEUS If I must die, To-day at least I sit upon my throne ; And not in fief I hold it. Tis mine own. The earth, my temple, stands. My native sky Claps me about with homage of sweet air. The kindly light of the unquenched sun Gladdens mine eyes. To-day the world is fair. To-morrow, if dark clouds rebellious run In flaming rack athwart the seas of heaven, I shall not less have lived, I, mighty one. And there where night, the mother of us all, By the quick birth of light asunder riven, Broods infinite and in her starless pall Folds all the stars, there, children, is much room For you and me and him, when he shall fall, Who judging others speaks his proper doom. Some comfort it will be, when we abide In that unbodied realm, to see this ghost, Ill-boding spirit of impalpable pride, Enter oblivion, and, hearing still his boast, Feel o er our face the shade of laughter glide. We also thought we should not taste of death, 1 78 LUCIFER ACT V But it is fated. Fleeting is the breath That saith : I am eternal ! We were born And we must therefore die. Such is the wage Of being. Mourn, my stricken children, mourn. Into the boundless ether breathe your rage. You will be quiet soon. E en now, meseems, His peace is on us. Lethargy of age Creeps over nature, chilling all her streams, And heavy with the languor of dull dreams Ye sit upon Olympus, and are dumb. No longer from his crag the eagle screams, And in the wood the dryad s limbs are numb. The last sad summer of the world is come. The earth, that in her youth prodigious bore Mammoth and Mastodon and Titan bold,d, Scarce feeds the pigmies that she spawned of yore. Weary she bows he-r palsied head and hoar, Likening her fate unto the fate untold Of by-gone worlds, while man, her nursling, gathers The utmost harvest from the laboured mould, Envying the straitened fortunes of his fathers In piety content, though poor in gold ; And on the barren peak he lived to climb AcrV LUCIFER 179 He stands aghast, and vainly waxen old Prays the sweet heavens. But the stars are cold. Fool, fool, to chide his soul with ancient crime, Nor mark how earth and sky, together rolled, His loves, his labours, and the gods sublime He deemed immortal, slowly yield to time. SCENE SECOND LUCIFER S ISLAND, AS IN ACT FIRST. TUREL Came he hither ? In the sphere Where the happy angels dwell They made answer : All is well. Lucifer is past from here. When I asked the lost in hell For their lord, they cried to me: Look in heaven. We are free. When I sought him by the shore, We remembered him no more, Said the voices of the sea. i8o LUCIFER AcrV Thou alone, unhappy star, Still hast echoes for his name. Will he welcome me, or blame That I followed him afar ? When he cometh, let him mark The old glimmer of this flame. (He kneels by the hearth to kindle it) The dead flint still yields a spark To the steel that striketh. Hark ! My heart leaps as if he came. (Lucifer crosses over) Doth he see me ? Doth he pass ? Ah ! his thoughts are otherwhere And the bitter mask of care Lies upon his face. Alas, Buried in the ancient pain, He who made the world so bright For a space ! O happy night When Lord Hermes comes again ! LUCIFER (stopping) Thou art a fool to wish him back again. He s dead. AcrV LUCIFER 181 TUREL Dead ? Oh, I knew not that. LUCIFER Tis true. To the eternal spirit s changeless view What shall be is. The way of speech is vain That saith, He is not, but shall be anon, And then, He is, and then, He is no more. Thus with a groping hand the blind explore The embossed page ; the word their finger s on They know, but have not eyes to look before. Yet every letter of that ancient page For ever stands, imprinted as on brass, And it is we then turn the leaves and pass, Reading the sequent tale of age on age. TUREL Alas ! How did he die ? LUCIFER Unthrifty boy, How art thou here to ask ? I bid thee go And not entangle in my mesh of woe 1 82 LUCIFER AerV Thy witless soul. The devils will employ Thine idleness and give thee answers. No, I will no longer keep thee. TUREL Lord, forgive Or slay me else. I have no will to live. LUCIFER Ha ! What a blessed end it is for all To die. The flowers of sweetest breath Are nearest to the blessedness of death, For as their sweetness is ephemeral So is their life. Only the rankest thorn That thrives by hatred hath the winds in scorn. Ay, it is well I killed him. TUREL Hermes killed ! LUCIFER It was in mercy. Thou didst beg to die But now. In him the blessing is fulfilled That cannot come to thee. AcrV LUCIFER 183 TUREL You did it ? LUCIFER I. To die is better than to live. Our sin Alone is fertile, peopling all the earth With lust and error and their troublous kin. But chastity is barren, and her worth Outshines the stars ; she brings all good things in Into the soul, and mercy, strength, and peace Follow her light. Long years the lingering ghosts Of hate and folly walk the night in hosts. The life of innocence is quenched with ease. So thou, the perfect, whom the sacred earth Brought forth to beauty, dying, now hast shed Thy fragrance in the garden of thy birth, As Hyacinth once bowed his poppied head Parched by the noon, when from the highest height Phoebus, his lover, rained the shafts of light And slew his love, and hallowed him when dead. The sad Apollo kept the flower instead To be his comfort ; I have lost thee quite, And all the sweetness of my life is fled. 1 84 LUCIFER ACT V TUREL If he is dead and can return no more And you must keep your vigils here alone, Oh, let me serve you, even as before, For sorrow hath a comfort of its own Coming by you. LUCIFER What ! Must I say it o er ? Have hell or heaven any part in me, Whichever thou be of? Begone. Of old I did thee wrong, and all I see in thee Is that dead horror. Get thee hence. Yet hold ; There s yet an office for thy ministry Greater than all. When Hermes star is cold, And chaos shattereth his crystal sphere, And other gods lie buried with their fear Beneath Olympus ruin, he, the bold And swift contriver, will with skill elude The crumbling stars, and reach the outer wold, And in that dark and pathless solitude Remember me. Safe then will seem the nest The eagle builded, sweet the bitter rest AcrV LUCIFER 185 Of exile, and the face of friendship good ; And he will yield him, trusting in my aid, To the dark whirlwind. When he first essayed That unknown flood, the swift insidious flaw Wafted him hither, falsely seeming kind ; Unsought he found me, sought he shall not find, But in the midst of heaven struck with awe Sink in the void. With fluttering of his wings He shall not fly beyond the realms of death, Nor by the wasting of his little breath Reverse the ancient destiny of things. \ TUREL Then this hath not been yet. May I not go, Find him and save him ? LUCIFER No, I tell thee, no. No man shall hearken unto him that saith : Lucifer, Lucifer. That word of woe Shall be his last. But listen : on the strand Walk thou and watch, till the disconsolate flow Of the same flood that cast him here of yore 186 LUCIFER ACT V Wash up his body on the beaten shore. Close for my sake his eyes with pious hand Lest afterwards their dumb and piteous stare Haunt thee in hell. Then in the yielding sand Dig deep his grave, and lay him gently there. When thou hast smoothed it over, go thy way. And if in hell thy comrades speak of me And ask if I have perished, thou shalt say That the last service that in life could be, Thy hand did for me. Go, child, go. This day My soul hath entered on eternity. {Exit Turel) Great God, when thy frail son of Galilee Forsaken on the cross was nigh to death, Into thy hands he yielded up his breath. Death s vain forgetting hath no balm for me. Hereafter I shall look upon the sun In sorrow, for my circle is not run, The circle of mine endless misery. My pang is greater than a man s could be Whose father was in heaven and who, forsooth, Thought to be happy. And I needs must find A greater, dearer comforter than he. AcrV LUCIFER 187 truth, O truth, eternal bitter truth, Be thou my refuge when all else is blind! Thou art the essence of my lofty mind ; At thy pure wells I will renew my youth. Thy joyless bosom never was unkind To him who loved thee ; let us now be one. 1 have no other friend, I have resigned All love but thine. My foolish life is done. But O ye hills that I have known of old, Unravished of the sun, ye snowy flock For ever sleeping, take me to your fold And in your flanks of adamantine rock Entomb my fiery heart. Over me spread Your frozen shroud and wreathe me in ice-flowers, To watch with you through everlasting hours And not remember. Lo ! I lift my head Into the void, in scorn of all that live Through hope and anguish and insensate wars. For, knowing grief, I have forgot to grieve, And, having suffered, without tears receive The visitation of my kindred stars. THE END PRINTED BY R. R. DONNELLEY AND SONS COMPANY AT THE LAKESIDE PRESS, CHICAGO, ILL. 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED CO J-V1 if! UNIVERSITY Of CALIFORNIA S LIBRARY OF THE UNI\ \ A ^\^ . 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