UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES POEMS OF REVOLT AND SATAN UNBOUND BY THE SAME AUTHOR AN ISEULT IDYLL DELILAH LOVE'S TESTAMENT POEMS OF REVOLT AND SATAN UNBOUND By G. CONSTANT LOUNSBERY NEW YORK MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 1911 COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY NEW YORK All Rights Reserved Published, September, igir THE QUINN A BOOEN CO. PRESS KAHWAY, N, 4, CONTENTS PAGE INVOCATION 3 THE HOUSE OF HOPE 5 ODE TO AMERICA ....... 7 THE BEGGARS ..'-''. . . . . . 8 THE PRISONER . . . . . . .10 BETRAYED 14 MATERNITY 16 THE CURSE j . . 17 To FRANCE . 19 LINES TO A ROMAN TEMPLE . . . .19 LES MARCHANDES D' AMOUR 20 CALL OF THE NIGHT . . .... 22 HYMN TO THE FOREST . .... 23 WORK .24 AUTUMN DIRGE 25 HOMELESS (Lullaby) 26 SPRING SONG 28 A POET'S GRAVE 28 THE SECRET 30 THE FUTURE . . . . . .31 SATAN UNBOUND . . . . . .33 402646 POEMS OF KEVOLT POEMS OF REVOLT o o INVOCATION O THOU Mother, and mistress, and muse, Through the desperate days of the year, When the ghosts of dead hours haunt the hearth, With compassion and comfort be near. In the whip of a merciless wind, How the world with its weariness writhes, While the barren tree silently points To the fugitive moon in the skies. All my heart is an ember consumed, And my youth is a garment outworn, For the roses of love that is fled, In the present have put forth a thorn. In the pitfalls and snares of the past I have fallen, and sinned against thee, I have bowed to the yoke of the world, I thy poet, thy chosen, born free. 3 POEMS OF EEVOLT I have clothed me in manifold lies That my days might be wrapped in their ease, I have hated thy truth, I have strayed Through the perilous pathways of peace. I have murmured the maxims of men With the lazy indulgence of slaves, I have walked with the fool, I have hid From thy light in the dark of thy caves. I have said, " They are legion, alas, " Shall I war with impossible things, " Shall I follow the path of the sun, " To the sound of invisible wings ? " " For men move as the universe moves " In a circle that does not advance, " Shall I tilt with our destiny, dare " Kisk the delicate shaft of my lance ? " But the hope of my heart has betrayed All the reasoned reflection of man, Shall the soldier seek peace at the hearth When the battle cry rouses the van? In the night, in the terrible night Comes the moaning and mourning of men ; And the sound of the serpent of Strife, Like the hissing of snakes in a den. 4 POEMS OF EEVOLT For in heaven, alas, is no god While a victim is writhing in hell, Yea, and who shall cry out in his pride, " Though the world weep, with me all is well " Therefore, out of the rapture of rest, I who fled am returned unto thee, With a song and the sword thou hast blest To do battle, till all men be free. Even were it a dream, then the dream Is in truth worth a cycle of pain. Who shall say that the sun shall not gleam Behind torrents and tempests of rain! o o THE HOUSE OF HOPE STRANGER, what house in the dark of the night Looms like a castle that harbors delight, Girded with garlands, and smilingly dressed, Glowing with warmth like a haven of rest, Say then what Goddess, what mortal so blessed Holds this dominion in fee to her might ? This is the House of Hope, all may behold, Welcome, the watchword, the passport of old, Beggar and pauper and poet within 5 POEMS OF EEVOLT Feast in their glory and pray for their sin. All who escape from despair here may win Welcome and warmth and a friend in the fold. High in her tower sits Hope at her loom Saving the victims of Life from their doom, High in the tower a light that shall shine Dimming the darkness a signal and sign. Tended by Hope like a vestal divine Glowing with Beauty that burns through the gloom. High in the tower she sits, and she sings Songs of her fashioning, songs that have wings Slumbering sorrow, and songs whence joy springs; Dreams too she weaves of a justice for man, Dreams of a world that the future shall plan Hope to the outcast her pitying brings. She alone feeds with her hand liberty, She alone bids man endure, to be free, She alone lights and leads humanity. Prisoner, sorrower, dreamer, take heart, Lend her your loyalty, stand ye apart, Battle, my brothers, for ye, and for me. POEMS OF REVOLT ODE TO AMERICA COUNTEY, my country, superb in thy pride, Towering with mountains, and wooed of the tide, Lulled to the lure of a thunderous lyre As the wind sweeps thy forests with fingers of fire, Shining with cities that sparkle their light Dazzling as stars in the skirts of the night. Marvellous, multiple, marching along, Oh, take heed and beware of the sob in thy song ! Since thou art hailed as the land of the free, Who are the thousands that march listlessly, Eyes full of anger and hate on each face, Of what nation are they and what race is their race ? Whence come these slaves, and what terrible foe Casts on our shores all its wreckage of woe ? Tell me, ye weary, whence come ye, and why Are ye like a brute herd that is led forth to die ? " Starving and stricken with fever and want, " Broken with bitterness, weary of cant, " We are thy children who seek, who demand " Either freedom to live or to die by thy hand. " Mammon, a monster of terrible greed, " Tramples our ranks, and makes sport of our need, " Many are idle, and many in pain " For the labor that cripples them cry out in vain ! " 7 POEMS OF EEVOLT Country, my country, the sun on thy brow, Sacred and strong, sets the seal of thy vow. Where is thy help, and what might is thy might If the babe thou hast reared is to die in thy sight ? Gird thee, awake thee, come down from thy lair, Famine devours, greed befouls what was fair. Hallow the vow that was born of thy breath Lest there be desolation, destruction and death. Did not the mountains take heed and give ear, Did not the forests, majestic, austere, Murmur with multiple leaves " Liberty " And the shore whisper it to the pulsating sea ? Did not the nations of all men rejoice, Heartened with happiness, hearing thy voice? Is it not treasured deep down in thy caves And the sea has it not hid thy word in her waves? o o THE BEGGARS SOEDID stroller of the street, Eyes of hunger, shuffling feet, What have I to do with thee And thy trailing misery ? Take this pittance, turn away, Go thy aimless, angry way, Dull resentment in thy mind Smouldering against mankind. 8 POEMS OF EEVOLT Why, within my secret room, Through the softly-scented gloom, By the fireside's glint and glow, Steals the vision of thy woe? Say what wrong did I to thee To endure thy misery? Who art thou, and who am I? Does some deep affinity Bid me hear thy baffled cry, Smite me with thine agony? Not the very lips of love, Murmuring, are heard above That wild weeping in the night, Shivering our vain delight. / beseech thee, take from me Thy intruding misery! Thou hast stricken my content, Joy before thee steals away, Happiness, the heaven sent, Hungering is held at bay. Wreck of wandering weariness, Mine, the blight of thy distress Turning here, and turning there, I behold thee everywhere! POEMS OF EEVOLT Lift thy curse, the curse from me, Beggar, of thy misery! Hollow, haggard, in the glass Thy face is my face, alas! Beggar, thou art one with me, One with my humanity ! O O THE PRISONER (To the author of "A Ballad of Reading Gaol and " The Soul of Man Under Socialism ") No jailer sits before the door, No turnkey shouts, " All's Well," No sentry paces up the floor, No bugle, and no bell Rings its commands to fettered hands, My jail is wide as Hell. Behind the scars of iron -bars, That stripe the light of day, They have not cast a man to shame, Nor hidden me away, I bear an all untarnished name Upon my prison way. 10 POEMS OF EEVOLT I wear a well known uniform, We count a million men, Who march the street from night to morn, From morn to night again. Each in the rags that are our tags, Our livery of scorn. Despair we call our corporal, Our marshall, Poverty! We have no muster, no roll call, Too numerous are we; And some are short, and some are tall, But all are sad to see. No daily rations are our fare, ]STo water and no bread, We feed upon God's own pure air, The statesmen find us fed! If we complain, alas in vain, We soon are quieted. They hang the murderer with mirth, And then they cut him down, They give him six feet two of earth, Here in the crowded town. In vain through life, I seek with strife A square foot of my own. I thought, his sleep is sweet and deep, I envied him his rest, Alas, the priest cried, " Watch and weep, 11 POEMS OF EEVOLT " What, would you die unblessed ? " The suicide shall sorrow reap " In hell all unconfessed." And then I climbed the prison wall, It was well kept within, There each man sat at even fall, Well guarded for his sin, Each had a bed, a loaf of bread, Would I could such fare win. I cried, " O prison, shelter me ! " The guard cried, " Get along." "I am a criminal." "We'll see!" " What have you done that's wrong ? " The magistrate said, grim as fate, " He's giving us a song ! " " Contempt of court ; ten shillings, sir, " Or ten days, take your choice " My brain was in a perfect whirr. " Ten days ! " joy broke my voice. " Hard labor too's the cure for you " A job ! boys, rejoice ! I've got a job, that none can rob, A week of honest toil, The bath, the bed don't cost a bob, A book by Conan Doyle. God ! after that I choked a sob, I'll sleep on harder soil. 12 POEMS OF REVOLT Up spoke a youngster, " I protest, " Your Honor, let him go, " I'll pay his fine" " Perhaps 'tis best, " Discharged ! " My luck, you know. " Thank God," said he, " for liberty! " / stood out in the snow ! The wind goes swinging down the street, The wind sits in the tree, It has no home and no retreat, Twin wanderers are we I slip along; I've done no wrong, So no wall shelters me. Then Death and Life walked either side, Each held a weary hand, Said Life, " I will not be his bride, " Come join him to thy band, " So lean and lorn, and so forlorn, " His destiny is planned." But with a sigh, Death made reply, And turned his head away, " I follow only when men fly, " I seize unwilling prey, " The outcast's call none heeds at all, " He lias no debt to pay! " " Cast dice for him " Then in a trice, I saw that they were three ; One look alone did quite suffice 13 POEMS OF EEVOLT To show mine enemy! Death vanished, Life gave up the strife, For there stood Misery! o o BETRAYED RUSSIA, January 5, 1905. WHO are these in the light of the morning In a silent and sorrowful throng, Without arms, without sound, as of singing, Without music, thus marching along? They are peaceful, pathetic as children, They are dumb as if marching to doom, As the sheep to the slaughter, these strong men, Or as martyrs athirst for the tomb. They are numbered in hundreds and thousands, They are marshalled by sorrow and pain, They are driven by hunger, as quicksands That are moved by the wind and the rain. They are seeking their loved one, their Father, And with hope in their hearts, they would cry, " It is Thou whom we seek, and none other, " We who hunger, who suffer, who die. 14 POEMS OF KEVOLT " We are thine, we are thine for thy bidding, " By the love that we cherish of thee, " Be not thine the indifference forbidding, '" These thy people, to love and be free. " With our hands we will serve and defend thee, " With our blood we will drown out the foe, " Let us talk with thee, plead with thee, see thee, " All we seek is to know, is to know ! " But what cry like a stab in the silence, With a shuddering moan as of pain, Rends the heavens with pity, and why, whence, On the pavements this blood and these slain ? They are fallen and praying for mercy, In their wonder, their terror, their fear, While their brothers, their comrades, with fury Whip them there, strike them now, shoot them here ! And a sound of immutable weeping, And of anger astonished, defies The coward assassin who, keeping In his hiding, is armored in lies. " Peace," he said to the world, and it wondered, And what now shall ye say to this thing? Ye have heard, oh ye nations, he thundered, From the dark he has darted his sting. 15 POEMS OF KEVOLT Have they yielded in war, have they faltered, Have they fled, or complained when they fall, When their fortune was false have they altered In their faith or allegiance at all ? And a wave of our great indignation Shall declare us their friends, unafraid, Let them rise as a man, as a nation, With the war cry, the one word, " Betrayed ! " o o MATERNITY CALL a halt, ye, and listen, give ear and take heed, All ye Mothers of men, who have mocked in your pride, Ye who bid us bear children and drift on the tide Of a terrible life force that blindly will breed. Are not we the true mothers of men, we who say Let the living have Life, let the child born be free, As we cry " Halt, surrender ! " to fierce Destiny, " Ye must pass our dead bodies to seize on your prey"? Nay, not blood of our blood these, but heart of our heart. All our children these outcasts, whom ye have passed by With the wisdom of those who rear young life to die. D ye mothers, our part is a holier part. 16 POEMS OF KEVOLT We have listened at night to the falling of tears, To the terrible tears that trickle like rain, Shall the world propagate and perpetuate pain, And shall Life bear Death fruit through immutable years ? Shall the travail of women, the wail of the babe, Shall the shuddering silence of bondmen who toil, Those who falter in famine while others reap spoil, Not appall with the horror of Life's living grave? Like a man in the silent, the terrible tomb, Like a man who is closed in the still place of Death They are buried alive, and each gasp of their breath Is a cry like the child's that bursts forth from the- womb. Halt, ye Mothers, and listen, stoop down and bend low To the weeping of those who are born but to die, Give ye ear and take heed, yea, and answer their cry, Shall our life breed such life? No, a thousand times no! o o THE CURSE THIS is the curse, that man of woman born Shall be from darkest night to brighest morn A Thing of scorn. 1? POEMS OF KEVOLT Behold, where'er he turns each path is barred, Each Eden by a flaming sword is marred, Each Adam scarred. Together do we march, together stand Or labor valiantly, hand helping hand Across the land. We force our fainting brother to the wall, We pause to watch his tears, to see his fall, We mock his call. Behold him on his aimless, endless beat Return again with tired, discouraged feet, Recoil, advance, retreat. His eyes are worn with watching and his hands Will ache with idleness who understands His chainless bands. Behold his woman, bounden unto man To starve, or feed his foolish lust, life's plan Since life began ! A criminal indifference has slain The living dead whose voice cries out again The curse of Cain! 18 POEMS OF EEVOLT TO FRANCE SUN-LOVED lover of liberty, oh France, Sweet glorious land, the magic of whose name Uttered, is like the unfurled oriname Before the hosts of freedom that advance; Not as a stranger curious of thy chance But as a lover jealous of thy fame, Through blood, through battle, through defeat, through shame We watch the uplifting of thy countenance. Seas cannot sunder us, nor time divide Our ancient heritage of liberty, Thou old world sentinel of all men free, The old wrongs live, the old hates have not died, Lead on, lead on against the tyrant gold To whom all men are slaves, now as of old. O O LINES TO A ROMAN TEMPLE THEEE is a haunting unread mystery Where the proud temple empty stands alone Hearing the whispers of the wind bemoan The onward march of man toward destiny ! 19 POEMS OF EEVOLT Some unsuspected music with delight Pulsating through the twilight throbs its joy While the belated unseen shepherd boy Mocking our tuneless days puts Time to flight. We pause, we listen trembling on the verge Of unknown wonders, for our souls have been A moment face to face with the unseen Where life and death, where flesh and spirit merge. Race after race descends the flights of Time, Roman and Celt and Gaul, and none endure, Yet we live on in what we can ensure Of sculptured loveliness, or passioned rhyme. A song, a statue, only these remain A mighty heritage, Beauty alone Leads man from age to age up to the throne That he aspires to, that he shall attain. O O LES MARCHANDES D'AMOUR PHANTOM ghosts of gaiety, Pity, pity, pity ye! Hearts of hate and lips of love, Whither, whither do ye rove? Who will buy the offered smile, Who fulfil your fate awhile ? 20 POEMS OF REVOLT Like a host of leaves when driven From the starry haunts of heaven, Drifting on the tide of chance, Wind-whirled in fantastic dance. Mincing mien and flaunting air, Gaudy, garrulous and fair As a booty or a spoil, Captured, caught, with snare and toil. Selling pleasure, selling joy, Tantalizing, tortured toy; Tricked and trafficked, mocked and marred, Branded, baffled, scoffed and scarred! Wander, wander whither, why? Ye who pay while all pass by, Casting stones each at his sin As he spurns in you his kin. Fools of fortune, pity ye Your bejewelled poverty ! Hounded like a hare at bay, That no coup de grace will slay, Like a bird of broken wing, Wild, defiant, fluttering. Hither, thither, drearily, On and onward, wearily; Laughing, cursing to defy Stifled sob and surging sigh. 21 Scorned and feted, sought and fled, Living tomb when love long dead, Through the hours of memory Haunts the hearth and gibes at ye. Pleasure then with whip in hand Lashes on the maddened band, Till ye seek oblivion And the goal of death is won. Victims, shall we pity ye More than they whose cruelty Blind and brutal in its might Sells despair and buys delight ? Fools are they, and ye and we To endure life's anarchy ! O O CALL OF THE NIGHT NIGHT marches clothed in mighty mystery, The net of darkness trailing in her hand Is cast about the still quiescent land, Whilst star on star swims up an azure sea. What shapes, what shades of human misery Unseen beneath the sun, whose faces scanned Strike sorrow in our heart, come band on band With suffering confront us, crouch and flee ? 22 POEMS OF REVOLT Hide, hide away your scorn and hush your curse, We have not broken ye, ye birds of night, And ye, ye maids, whose laughter chills delight, Whose flowers hide the horror of a hearse. Appalled we pause, we pity, we regret, Then helplessly we pass, and we forget ! O O HYMN TO THE FOREST .HAIL, sacred guardian of the mysteries That hedge our lives about, that penetrate Our hidden thought, moulding our mortal fate, And baffling all our vain philosophies! The wind goes swinging down thy winding ways, The sunlight pours his beauty on thy breast, The dancing rain leaps lightly to his rest, And many a winged insect hums thy praise. Teach me thy magic, lay thy healing wand Upon my weariness, lead me apart And pour thy melodies into my heart That I may sing them to the barren land. Give me thy peace, thy beauty, cover me With all thy shelter, smooth the weary frown, That through the toil and turmoil of the town Thy sweetness and thy strength may follow me. 23 POEMS OF KEVOLT For I would build thy temple once again, And where man prostrate fell upon the sod Adoring, I would raise him up, a God,. Sound, simple, sweet, peaceful, serene and sane. o o WORK AND the word of the world shall be work As we wake to the sense of our own, As ye stand, hand in hand, With the might of the brand Where we faltered and fell when alone. For the head shall not war with the hand, Nor the woman do battle with man, Each for all be our cry, each for all be our call, Without class, without caste, without clan. Peace we whisper and peace through the strife, Seeking life and our birthright of joy, With the help that shall heal The dull wounds we conceal As they break us to fashion a toy. And let no man be idle or vain, And let no man be crushed by his toil, Like a beast at their feast They have slighted the least, And corrupted their hearts with their spoil. 24 POEMS OF EEVOLT We the workers whose will shall not fail, We the workers who cry not in vain, Each for all, we give hail, for our hearts shall prevail, As we labor in joy, not in pain. O O AUTUMN DIRGE GOLDEN brown, Sifting down, Over turret, turf and town; Every leaf, Like a grief, Taking flight at autumn's frown ! Round and round O'er the ground, How they flutter, all earth bound! How they dance In a trance, Now recoil and now advance! Never more Shall they soar Toward the heavens as before! Still they try For the sky, Tortured leaves that cannot fly! 25 POEMS OF REVOLT Why will ye Restlessly Follow and then flee from me? Are ye then Hopes of men That may never soar again. Back away, Ghosts at bay, Must I be your hunted prey? Has life shed Us and fled, And can Death thus scorn the dead? o o HOMELESS Lullaby MOTHER'S baby, her delight, Sleep, oh, sleep, the moon so bright Lights her taper; she has shed Kisses on thy helpless head. Mother's heart shall hold thee warm, Swung aloft on mother's arm; Cradle bed nor home have we, Yet the stars dance merrily. 26 POEMS OF EEVOLT Though a demon, whispering, Murmurs, " Death is pitying/' Though the wind, a wolf at bay, Gnaws my naked heel away Though a host of butterflies Flit and flutter through the skies, As the snow with cloak of white Spreads our coverlet to-night Wind nor cold shall harm my flower, Guarded by a mother's power; Heart of mine, O little heart, That no break of birth shall part. Though with thee came poverty, None so rich as I in thee ! Bowed before the altar, men Worship motherhood, and then Scatter, leaving us to pray, Begging on our hungry way; In the council statesmen plead, " Give us children in our need ! " Hush, my baby, sleep, while I Hate and Fate and Life defy. Sleep, the moon keeps pace with me Lest I sleep and waken thee. 27 POEMS OF EEVOLT SPRING SONG THERE is a joy in the mere breath of life When the wind sweetens with the scent of Spring, And the low lisping southern waters sing A lullaby to wild and wintry strife. Ah then the heart forgets its weariness, And timidly puts forth its buds of hope, Smiling with sun-born faith at man's distress, Knowing all happiness within his scope! Joy strong to strengthen, joy to purify A world deluded with vain suffering, To banish strife, join hands and hearts, defy The old sad order and proclaim the Spring. O O A POET'S GRAVE SILENCE and solitude and shy-eyed sleep Above the melancholy murmuring pine, Fluttered with wings that thrill the ancient vine, A watch eternal o'er thy slumbers keep. And here the multitude in pilgrimage Pauses the hurry of its vagrant feet, While Life and Death like hostile sovereigns meet To read the annals of another age. 23 POEMS OF EEVOLT For thou art one with all high holy things, Beside the silence of the dormant stream Thy spirit hovers like a haunting dream And pulses in the note the wood-bird sings. We tremble on the verge of the unseen, Circled about by many a mystery, Knowing not what shall be nor what has been, Ignoring man's innate divinity. High singer of the sad equality Forced on us all by all-embracing Death, Late heritage, sealed with our failing breath, When shall we learn to live immortally ? When shall we banish and subdue the strife Of man with man, and God against the world, When shall the banner of proud peace unfurled Float o'er the boundless universe of life ? When shall our days in comradeship and love Fall as the petals of a perfect flower, Distilling beauty through the ripening hour, Drawing down heaven from the clouds above ? 29 POEMS OF KEVOLT THE SECRET SINCE joy is like a bubble That glows, then melts away Within the mists of trouble That tantalize the day. Since Pleasure in her playing Is hounded hard by pain, And Love for all gainsaying Blows hot then cold again. When sleep is horror haunted By ghostly dreams that fright, And roses spring enchanted Await the winter blight. What cheer when life is hollow, And fragile all things fair, While every path we follow Leads somewhere to Despair? Hide in thy heart the beauty, Build deep within thy soul A palace of thy booty Where Time has no control. With cypress tree and willows And stately columns set, By mystic seas whose billows Murmur " Forget, forget." 30 POEMS OF REVOLT Here May shall cry " Bemember " And Hope shall rise and sing, Disarming sad November, Defying Winter's sting. Roses and rest and rapture, One love that cannot fail, These treasures of thy capture Enchanting hill and vale. One smile shall banish sorrow, One friend make all men true, One dream defy the morrow, One rose wake spring anew! o o THE FUTURE O LITTLE life so brief, so bitter long, So vain of joy, so vexed with futile pain, With vanities of hope, with greed of gain, Then silenced like the ending of a song! Strange as the labyrinth of some wild dream, Bewildered and perplexed I watch the show, Hurried along to some goal none may know, And blindly battling toward some distant gleam. 31 POEMS OF EEVOLT With now a tear, and now a smile or sigh, I see the pageant of my days and thine, O world half bestial, human, and divine, Till life forgetting us shall pass us by! Unto the dizzy centuries I cry, " Hope on high-hearted, mould and make your Fate, " The stars attend you, and the great suns wait, " Dare on though Destiny himself defy. " Out of the present hell of life, from clay " Inanimate and ugly, shape and form " The human god to greet the growing morn, " And build his heaven here, To-day To-day I " 32 SATAN UNBOUND A DRAMATIC POEM IN THREE ACTS To suffer woes which hope thinks infinite, To forgive wrongs darker than death or night, To defy power which seems omnipotent, To love and fear, to hope till hope creates From its own wreck the thing it contemplates. SHELLEY ( ' ' Prometheus " ) TO M. S. P. PEEFACE Shelley: the magic of his name must ever be dear to all who are rebels, impatient as he was of all but perfection. It is only through discontent that we push on to something higher, always higher. Rebellion and repression are two mighty forces necessary to keep the world in equilibrium; repres sion lest it speed on too fast and so miss the mark; rebellion lest it stagnate where it should evolute. In the war of these forces lies the action of this drama. It is well to remember that America is the work of a band of rebels, and to-day we need again to unshackle the hands of bound liberty; we are crushed in the cuirass of custom ; we are stereotyped, we are plagued with old world prejudices; we need to be large living and compassionate. Happiness is forbidden man while he is the oppressor or the oppressed. Of rebels, Satan is the greatest prototype, bring ing man discontent with his little state. He gives the knowledge of good and of evil and also the dream of immortality; for this he pays the price of pain; the curse is to find only misunderstanding, for he is in too far advance of his multitude. Defying Des- 35 PREFACE tiny, he still is the instrument of a destiny that con tains us each and all; in this knowledge he at last finds peace. The good he gives is thought evil until man learns that evil is negative and that he must seek in his own soul the secret god. Humanity is an organic whole, who injures the smallest part injures each and all of us. In every myth there is hidden a meaning and each man must, as he may, interpret it, nor tremble if he differs from the might of a Milton. I have given of my own measure; it is no concern of mine what becomes of it, neither failure nor fortune are of importance; but this only counts that a man shall dream, that a man shall dare. G. CONSTANT LOUNSBERY. PABIS, 1910, Hotel de Biron. 36 ACT I. A primeval oak grove. Late afternoon. ACT II. Ruined castle in the depths of the valley Des Beaux. The Tenth Century, A. D. Night. ACT III. Cemetery in Paris. Early morning. Time A. D., 1910. 37 402646 CHARACTERS ACT I. Satan The Comrade The Queen The High Priest The Child 1st Merchant 2nd Merchant 3rd " 4th " A young woman An old woman Priests, soldiers and people ACT II. Satan The Comrade King of the East King of the West Priest of Buddha Priest of Christ A Poet A Courtesan A Leper Four Merchants Witches, maidens people. and ACT III. Satan 3rd Phantom Mirabeau 1st Phantom Socrates 4th Phantom Washington 2nd Phantom Brutus A Maiden A Workman 38 ACT I. A primeval oak grove with three paths, right, left and back of stage, leading into forest. Back stage, the bank of a river. Left stage, a throne, hewn in a rock and sheltered by a large oak. Right centre, a Druidical stone altar. Discovered Satan clad in gold scale armor. The Comrade enters left stage and comes timidly towards him. THE COMEADE Celestial Comrade, hail! First by thy might, Thy beauty, thy divine intelligence, Among the gods that radiate like stars Around the sacred sun of Destiny, Vouchsafe to tell me, for my love of thee, Why thou art come among the race of man ? SATAH" Who may behold the secret thought, and know The hidden purpose of his slightest deed, Or what wide circles in the sea of Fate The slightest pebble, cast with careless hand, Shall spread? And so I answer not, nor seek With wealth of words to deck mine ignorance! Some impulse urged me here, and so 'tis well ! 39 SATAN UNBOUND COMRADE Would it were well for thee and thy renown ! Canst thou, a god, commune with lesser man, Abortive creature whom the womb of Fate Has fashioned neither god nor animal ? Fiercer is he than beasts of prey that prowl, And terrible in his intelligence, A foe to man and beast, he lives, alas, Destroyer, seeking ever to destroy. SATAN Be not impatient in complaint, but know Perfection leaps not, patience hews her path. Nature, who fashioned man a mortal, seeks To raise in him an immortality. COMEADB Satan, beware, lest pity in thy heart Betray thee. SATAN Pity! Thou hast said! COMRADE Alas! Have pity then of thee. 40 SATAN UNBOUND SATAN Yet hear my mind, And understand this mystery of man. Desire, blind desire goads him on, Wisdom he knows not, immortality He seeks not, but within the moment mured, Bewildered in the labyrinth of life, Remembering not the annals of his race, He moves within the web of ignorance. Life leads towards life complex and intricate, From seed to flower, then to fairest flesh, Yet one in beast and bird and blood of man. Within each cell the racial memory Of each inheritance, with strange desires And baffling instincts warring, wills its way. Confusion works within the human mind Perplexed, and purposeless, and impotent ! What if man knew, what if he could divine These workings ? He who was a clot of clay Might he not consciously become a god ? COMRADE I have the secret of thy thought, and fear Is oft the herald of foreboding fate, Pity betrays thee, unto such as these Satan is come to give forbidden gifts. SATAN I value nothing, nothing call mine own, But that which freely I may give again ! 41 SATAN UNBOUND COMRADE Is it not then decreed and known to thee, The curse on him who shall betray the gods, And give to mortals knowledge and the thirst For wisdom or for immortality? SATAN What is forbidden is ordained! The curse Stirs in me deep resentment and revolt, Law that is harmony is obvious, Unconsciously obeyed. COMEADE What wouldst thou then? Learn suffering to teach a beast delight ? SATAN If I alone might pay the fatal price ! COMEADE And who are we to say what penalty Man too shall pay, what evil out of good Shall grow and wreck this daring dream of thine ? SATAN Thy speech is like a mortal's, ignorant, There is no good, no evil. 42 SATAN UNBOUND COMBADE We who see The sum of all things that the mind resolves Know pain is but a warning, evil too The discord of disordered harmony That comes in broken rhythms to our sense. But man all imperfected, impotent, Perceives but fragments of a shattered whole, Ignoring all things. Were this well for him ? Might he not for his harm behold the truth, Seeing the evil, fancy it the good, And so in his confusion curse himself? SATAN I know not, what a menace in thy words! Yet, since my utter ignorance ordains A risk to mortals, I will hold my peace. We, finite bits of all infinity, Know not the sum of things. COMEADE Wisdom prevails Let us be gone, what have we here to do ? SATAN Stay, I would see who comes, and if perchance The fairest of all mortals, crowned their queen, Lights with her beauty their dark ignorance. 43 SATAN UNBOUND COMRADE Farewell, and of my words take heed. SATAN Farewell. (Exit left stage Comrade. Satan hides among the oaks left stage. The Queen enters right stage es corted by the High Priest, Cap tain, and soldiers clad in leopard skins and armed with swords and spears. She takes her place upon the throne.) HIGH PRIEST Justice, O Queen ! A scandal in the land Demands chastising, lest it do thee harm. QUEEN Speak as thy heart shall counsel thee, great priest, I listen. HIGH PRIEST Custom is the heritage And wisdom of our fathers. By its law We do excel the beast. We rule, we reign By fear. 44 SATAN UNBOUND QUEEN Fear is the sceptre of the state, the sword. HIGH PEIEST Beware lest mockery shall blunt the blade. QUEEN Less craft, O cunning man, speak out thy will. HIGH PEIEST A sacred custom of the land, O Queen, Is daily violated. QUEEN Who is he? Who braves our laws ? HIGH PKIEST The Queen has done this thing. QUEEN The Queen ? Choose well thy boastful speech, O Priest. 45 SATAN UNBOUND HIGH PEIEST Yet listen in humility and judge. Thy son QUEEN My little son, unhappy child ! HIGH PEIEST An ancient and a sacred law commands That at his birth each weakling shall be slain. He lives, whose life is forfeit, he, thy shame. QUEEN I sheltered his first smile, I hoped in vain The years might yield him beauty! HIGH PEIEST Idle dream. And pitiful, for how then shall the host Despising this thy fruit still honor thee? QUEEN One weakling counts not in a herd of men What harm is his, he cannot work us ill. I gave him life, and death I may not give. 46 SATAN UNBOUND HIGH PEIEST Yet if we nourish weaklings in our race At war with nature all untamed, at war With men like beasts but thirstier for prey, We are disarmed before the enemy. Not this alone I see ; thy royal might, How shall it make men tremble at thy throne If thou dost fear ? QUEEN I fear? HIGH PEIEST If not afraid Why shield this living sorrow, mocking thee, That shames thy motherhood? Thy child should be A light, a loveliness, swift, subtle, strong. QTTEEN Torment me not, he lives, it is too late. HIGH PKIEST Too late, a coward's word that shackles slaves. QUEEN If such thy zeal why hast thou not destroyed This error of my flesh ? 47 SATAN UNBOUND HIGH PBIEST Almighty Queen, Thy word and thy command should urge the deed. That once again the host may fear, and bow Before thy power, passionless and stern, As is a god's. QUEEN I ? Must I do this thing ? Would ye had slain him, sleeping on my breast So sweet, so small, in infant innocence. HIGH PEIEST I yielded to thy prayer, yield thou in turn, Lest one and all we flee from force, and fall Unthroned. But since death comes to all at last, To all an end, what matters when the day ? QUEEN Are ye then all agreed, ye holy men, Is there no other way, and must he die ? HIGH PEIEST The child must die. QUEEN Ye soldiers, say your will. 48 SATAN UNBOUND CAPTAIN The child must die, no chief of men is he. QUEEN I order, I decree his death, that men May know me without weakness, free of fear. HIGH PEIEST To-day the divers, the assembled tribes With wares for barter, bringing tribute, come. The Queen weighs justice equally to all. They shall not see thy son, let him be slain. QTJEEN So swiftly, must it be so suddenly? HIGH PKIEST The child must die. QUEEN So be it. (The child enters back stage; his arms full of flowers, he comes limping in.) 49 SATAN UNBOUND CHILD Mother, see, All these for you, so fair, so cool, so sweet. The children of the camp cast stones at me, The women whispered, then I ran, I ran, They called me slow-foot, speckled toad, and yet The little birds come to me when I call, They sing, they sit upon my shoulders QUEEN Peace I CHILD But I must tell you, if the fairy flowers Are happy with me, tell me QTJEEN Make an end. CHILD You will not listen, but the mountain stream Sings sweetly to me secrets, while the breeze Shakes all the little leaves to sport with me, Each has its wonders, each its mystery, They call me and they seek me. I must find What they will tell me. HIGH PKIEST Shall this be a man, This babbler? 50 SATAN" UNBOUND CAPTAIN Shall he wield the smiting sword And bathe in blood, a leader ? CHILD No one hears, And no one understands. QUEEN Be brief, have done. (The soldiers seize the child.) CHILD Mother they hurt me, oh, they hurt me, help, I am so little, I will be so small ; They are about to do some wickedness That frightens them, they grow so rough, so fierce To hide their fear. CAPTAIN (turning away) I cannot. HIGH PRIEST Bind his eyes. Lead him away, SATAN UNBOUND CHILD Oh, they have killed the flowers. They are afraid. What makes them tremble so ? CAPTAIN Thus with our shields, and face turned away, Crush out his life. CHILD Alas, O Mother, oh! (The soldiers encircle him and are about to crush him when Satan with flaming sword surges among them, scattering them on every side.} SATAN Might against might, ye beasts of prey, give way. Art thou calm Nature's self, to smile and smile And slay thine offspring, mother, murderer ? QUEEN I will not live defeated, strike me down, For surely thou a god art come to kill. CHILD Be not afraid ; see, Mother, he is strong And calm and gentle. Strength can do no ill. (Exit child.) 52 SATAN UNBOUND QUEEN I fear thee not, give me thy sword, that I May die defying thee in life and death. SATAN I come to teach thine ignorance, O Queen. I pity thee, I bring thee gifts so great QUEEN" Have I then need of gifts, the world is mine. SATAN Beauty is thine that glitters, proud and vain, Ignorance too is thine of thy desire, Ignorance of thine aim and of thy need, And savagery is thine that slays and slays, Till it be slain with thee and hid away. QUEEN Insolent prince, since thou art conqueror My ransom waits thee, name it, and release ! SATAN The child's life is my price. QUEEN So let it be, Yet how can beauty covet ugliness ? 53 SATAN UNBOUND SATAN O Woman, hast thou looked upon thy child ? QUEEN He shames me. SATAN Said I not thine eyes were blind ? Hast thou not seen 'a tiger for her young Do battle ? Does the pelican not feed Her life blood to the smallest of her brood ? Shall not his weakness waken strength in thee, His feeble flesh be sweeter to defend, His helplessness be holy? QTJEEN Strange indeed, stranger, is thy speech. SATAN An unknown world Shall open unto thee, who hast not known A lover's kiss ; for thee who in thy flesh Fashioned a loveless fruit, brought forth in scorn. QTJEEN 1 have obeyed the laws of life and man, Conceived in pain, brought forth in peril this 54 SATAN UNBOUND My child who shames me, I withheld from death The babe condemned, and so defied the law, Though now I do repent me. SATAN Nay, rejoice, For thou shalt live to see his loveliness. QUEEN Now do I fear thee, I who knew not fear, Some ray of beauty seems to fall from thee Upon the babe. Alas, I would that he Were godlike, great and goodly as thou art. SATAN Beauty is thine and mine to look upon, Within his heart his loveliness is hid. QUEEN Yet give him of thine beauty, let there be A sign that he is favored of the gods, For sacred secrets surely must be thine. SATAN Would I could give thee of the gift of love. QUEEN What then is love ? 55 SATAN UNBOUND SATAN Nor god nor man shall say. A mighty moving mystery that moulds The heart to harmony. What words shall wake This wonder for thee, ignorant, since hate Holds heart from heart, and hand from sword- bound hand ! What simple simile shall show this thing ? Yet that which man ignores the beasts divine ; Hast thou not seen some humble-hearted hound Caress the hand that buffets him, and leap With joy to hear one voice, one footfall near, Indifferent to all save one alone ? Hast thou not seen him guard his master's grave And die deserted, giving life for love ? That which man still ignores the beasts divine. QTTEEN Hate have I known, that holds men separate And binds them jointly 'gainst a common foe. Desire, brutal lust akin to hate, That hunts its prey and downs it, I have known. But love I have not seen. SATAN And shall not see. A million moons will not suffice to show This mystery to man. Yet, should he learn 56 SATAN UNBOUND The secret of this force that flows through life, Welds heart to heart, dissolves the single self Within the sea of unity, and thrills The sluggish flesh with fairest flower of fire Illuminating spirit, he would scale The happy heights that harbor only gods. QUEEN Some warmth within my heart awakening stirs Say on. SATAN The great earth nurtures this thy race Resolving through the cycles, thou in turn Hast given forth a seed of flowering flesh, Thy child, who waits for love. The bond of life Is never severed at the break of birth. QUEEN I look upon him with new eyes, it seems A yearning grows within me. I would be Above him and about him like a cloak. To fold him soft against a world of harm, To treasure him, to serve him. Only mine, My child, my little self, and yet, methinks, It were a sweetness to renounce all self For him adoring. What is this new thing That moves within me, masters, sweeps me on, 57 SATAN UNBOUND And bears me helpless as upon a sea That seizes suddenly a babe at play ? What moisture brims mine eyes and darkens sight ? SATAN A tear is shed to hallow tenderness. My lips salute thee lest its bitterness Should stain thy beauty, and a kiss is born. (Satan kisses her.) QUEEN How soft, how sweet, how strange, Oh, fold me so I am diffused and scattered, I am lost And found within the refuge of thine arms. Stranger thou art, yet nearer than my heart, And mine, and mine SATAN What riot in thy words. QUEEN Say thou art mine, thou shalt not leave me more, Alas, alas, I suffer, for no hurt, A joy too heavy seems to weigh me down. SATAN This too is love, fear not, and yet beware, In loving only is all love fulfilled. 58 SATAN UNBOUND Only the love we give returns to be The rapture, the reward of having loved, Happy in giving of its happiness, But seeking in its selfishness lies pain, Sorrow, and many a subtle suffering. . QUEEN I will grow lovely with love's loveliness, And bless thee with my beauty for thy gift. My heart rejoicing would give out to all Thy secret. Master, lead me on, and on, And show my people this new mystery. Yea, turn the bond of hate which binds their hands Together 'gainst a foe, to bond of love. Reign thou and rule though over them and me. (Re-enter right stage High Priest, Captain, soldiers, people and chil dren.) HIGH PEIEST O Queen, hast thou no harm ? CAPTAIN The hostile god, Has he not slain thee ? 59 SATAN UNBOUND QUEEN Soldiers, priests, and ye, Ye hosts, draw near, hear ye and heed my words, A mighty power conquers us, but wills A lasting good. This god shall he your king And so reveal the gods' own mysteries, That you, who are as beasts in ignorance, May now become far mightier than men. HIGH PKIEST The Queen has spoken, even we as fools Before his wisdom were afraid and fled. CAPTAIN So let it be, like weaklings we were bowed Before the flashing of his sword. Hail, King. HIGH PRIEST Hail, King, we are thy people, we are thine. Thy secret shall be shrined within our heart. CAPTAIN Thy force shall soon abase our every foe. QUEEN Teach us thy will, thy way. The god has shown A new world and a life no dream has told. Teach us thy mysteries. 60 SATAN UNBOUND SATAN How shall I see Their ignorance, and hide within my heart The knowledge guarded jealously by Fate! What seek ye, men, throughout the mortal years ? HIGH PEIEST We know not. The high gods forever live And know all things. The low beasts live their day And know not why. Hunger pursues them; fear Doth teach them hate. They breed, they die, their young Do even so, so live we, so we die. And yet we sorrow, knowing this, that we Are bounded by a sea of ignorance. Help thou our helplessness ! QUEEN I conjure thee Eefuse us not this refuge, heed our prayer. We bow, we bend, we worship in our need. SATAN Thus am I cursed and smitten with their pain. Shall I then suffer silence and endure The pleading of their blind despair, how thus With sorrow watch eternal sorrowing ? 61 SATAN UNBOUND Better defy the gods and pay in pain The gift, mine be alone the bitterness. So be it. HIGH PEIEST Speak, we wait, we cry to thee ! SATAN The gods live on, ye say, the gods are wise, They know all things and they abide for aye. Wisdom and immortality man too In time shall conquer. Nature works her way, Nature who holds us as the changing sea Holds all its drops of water separate: She moves and moulds us, gods and men and beasts, Toward wisdom and toward immortality. HIGH PEIEST Hard words, what thing is needful? SATAN Discontent! This first, that ye perceive how low your state. f Desire, this is needful, great desire, Of which all things are born. If ye forget, If ye be as the beasts, whose bellies rule, Senseless and satisfied with ignorance, 62 SATAN UNBOUND Then shall ye sink to beastliness again, And all its works and ways, that make for hate. If ye shall learn the mystery of love, The link of life to life, if hand in hand Ye labor, each for each to share the earth, From knowledge unto knowledge ye shall grow, From life to life, from star to star ascend Until ye conquer immortality. HIGH PEIEST We are thy slaves. SATAN Alas, be ye as men, Be masters each, each over self a king, None serving none, yet each one serving all, All serving each, for this is happiness. HIGH PEIEST Hard words, what first ? SATAN The Queen shall tell the way. QUEEN First this, as beasts when driven by wild lust Ye live no longer, choose ye each a mate, A comrade, a companion, for your days, 63 SATAN UNBOUND And cleave ye each to each in helpfulness. Let not the mother rear alone her young, But let the man defend her and his child. PEOPLE This will we do. QUEEN Choose ye. CAPTAIN Shall no man choose B.ut one ? QUEEN One only. CAPTAIN Brown, or black, or blonde, Blonde, black, or brown? (He chooses a maiden.) AN OLD MAN She is not thine, stand back. CAPTAIN Will she not have me, dullard ? 64 SATAN UNBOUND OLD MAN She is mine, My goods, my chattel, mine to do my will. CAPTAIN Nay, she is for my pleasure, since my strength Gives power to subdue her, or to slay. QUEEN They quarrel. SATAN Make an end of folly, peace ! HIGH PRIEST It is our right, the highest in the land, To choose the fairest women of the flock. CAPTAIN Shall we then by whose sword all ye enjoy A stale tranquillity, not have our say ? QUEEN They look with hatred 65 SATAN UNBOUND CAPTAIN Henceforth we are all As rivals, now as when we sort the spoil That follows battle. HIGH PKIEST Though the god be wise, With all possession jealousy is born And hatred at the heel of jealousy. CAPTAIN Seize, soldiers, each a mate! QUEEN Alas. SATAN Ye fools, enough. Go each man to his place, In meditation and in fasting strive, And for a month live separate, then come Before the throne again with quiet mind, And let each tell his choice before all men. HIGH PKIEST So let it be, behold the day wears on Sell ye your wares. 66 SATAN UNBOUND 1ST MERCHANT Who buys a fine young kid ? A WOMAN Three chickens for a kid. 1ST MERCHANT Three chickens ? Four! A WOMAN No, three, old miser. 2ND MERCHANT Wheat, white wheat. A sack of wheat, who buys ? 3RD MERCHANT A snow-white pig For thy white wheat. 2ND MERCHANT No pig, hast thou a sow? A better bargain promising ten pigs. The wheat will yield an acre if 'tis sown. 67 SATAIST UNBOUND 4TH MEECHANT A sheepskin for thy wheat. 2ND MEECHANT I will not trade. Who knows how much of wheat a sheepskin counts ! Since thou art king, decide. What will he do ? (During this scene Satan has de scended into the river; he comes back, his hands full of nuggets of gold.) SATAN A common measure for your merchandise. Six pieces for a sheep, a bag of wheat Six pieces. So henceforth a man may sell That which he would not keep, and take away Portable value, that shall let him buy The thing he covets, when and where he will. Out of the river's mouth I bring ye gold Precious and rare and malleable, divide. 1ST MEECHANT And who shall guard the gold, come give it me. HIGH PEIEST Shall not the priests, for in it lies a force That wise men will control? 68 SATAN UNBOUND CAPTAIN Some hostile tribe That hears of this new wealth, with sword and spear Will come to wrest it from you. It is ours, By right of the strong sword, to guard, to give. 1ST MEECHANT It is the Merchant's measure. Give it us. CAPTAIN Seize ye the treasure. HIGH PRIEST Gold! MEECHANTS The gold I SOLDIEES The gold ! (They go off the stage still disputing. The child runs in and the Queen seizes him in her arms.) 69 SATAN UNBOUND QUEEN My son, my little son, new born for me. A WOMAN Her son? 2ND WOMAN A Queen's son? 1ST WOMAN Look at mine. 2ND WOMAN And mine! 1ST WOMAN A fishwife would be shamed by such a child. Is a child worth a thought ? Behold the Queen, As if she found a treasure ! 2ND WOMAN Nay, but ours Are beautiful, the world is changed to-day. CHILD Mother ! 70 SATAN UNBOUND QUEEN Hide closer, sweeter, sweeter so, World-hated, mine the more, my little one ! (Priests, people and soldiers come back violently -fighting. The child slips from his mother's arms and rushes among them to try to stop them. He is caught in the fray and dis appears.) Alas, my people, and alas, my prince, The blood-price stains thy gold. 1ST WOMAN O Queen, behold My son, my little son. 2ND WOMAN And mine. (The people fall back and in the clear ing is seen the Queens child slain.) QUEEN My child Oh, give him me again, this very hour, 71 SATAN UNBOUND Only this hour, my heart awoke and knew The joy of him. Not dead, not dead indeed, But sleeping. CHILD (moaning) Mother. IST WOMAN Call upon the god, For he shall waken him. 2ND WOMAN We wait thy word. We kneel before thee, show us all thy might. SATAN O Death, yield up thy dead, I conjure thee, By this mine immortality, renew His loveliness to light. QUEEN He moves, he lives, No, he is still, so strangely still, alas It cannot be, beseech the god for me. CAPTAIN Is not a god omnipotent? 72 SATAN UNBOUND SATAN Alas, I weep with thee, for none against the law Of nature shall prevail. QUEEN Mockery, O bitterness, is this indeed thy gift ? Why hast thou come to torture us with love ? Hard hate was not so pitiless. The sun Seems fallen from the sky, my day is dark. Give me my child again or take my curse. HIGH PEIEST The gods are wroth with us and so chastise Our vain presumption. Immortality The fair king promised, he has taught us death, Now suddenly death seems most terrible, Death that was but an end has darkened life And casts its fatal shadow o'er the flesh. He is no god, therefore avenge the gods. He whispered wisdom, all his wisdom loosed The sea of hatred, let it sweep him hence. SATAN Not in a day, men, not in a day, But through eternity, we must attain The growing love that works for good. 73 SATAN UNBOUND QUEEN Enough ! Pluck out my heart and harden me with hate, For sorrow is the seed of love, and life A seeking which shall end in empty death. HIGH PRIEST Make way with him! CAPTAIN Yea, let him expiate, Disarm him. With his magic sword, O Queen, Smite him who smote us. (Satan lets himself be disarmed, bound, and thrown on the altar.) So we sacrifice Upon the altar to the dreaded god This boaster. (Captain stabs him.) Conqueror, hate conquers thee ; I feared thee, know my fear was in thy flesh. 74 SATAN UNBOUND HIGH PRIEST I worshipped thee, I curse thee in my turn. (Each in turn plants his dagger in the body of Satan and goes out. When the stage is empty, Satan breaks his bonds and comes down from the altar, the daggers fall from him.) SATAN The sword of solitude alone remains And stabs me with each heartbeat, woe is me. Out of love, sorrow. Out of knowledge, sin. From wisdom, folly. Immortality That seeks the spirit, falls within the death Of all the fragile flesh. Pain, ever pain, And war for peace. I gave them of mine own The fruits of happiness, yet suffering Is all they reaped. Alas, what have I done ? The night steals on, the leaves are murmurous, They seem to call me softly. Comfort me, Ye spirits of the wind, that wakes a world To music. VOICES Satan. 75 SATAN UNBOUND SATAN Speak, what would ye say, Ye voices of the soft, sweet-breathing night ? (Satan tries each path in turn.) VOICES (right stage) Spirit of evil, Satan, hail, all hail. VOICES (centre) Spirit of evil, Satan, hail, all hail. VOICES (left stage) Spirit of evil, Satan, hail, all hail. SATAN The way is barred, the earth gives out the curse, I hear the doom of dread Destiny, And all I do shall turn to hurt and harm, Till good grows evil. Whither shall I turn ? Where hide, and how escape this cruelty ? What though through pain, and senseless suffering, I walk with man proclaimed his enemy, No fate shall conquer me, nor take again From out man's heart the mystic dream of love, Nor quench the thirst of knowledge in his breast. Yet though they heed me not, and see not me, These gifts are mine, desire, discontent, 76 SATAN UNBOUND To goad them on and upward toward a goal. They shall not move in utter ignorance, For henceforth they are haunted with my dreams. Masters they shall obtain, and slavery, Restraint and rulers and all wretchedness, Mad revolution, riotous revolt, Till none shall brook a master or a slave. Then ye shall build the universe of love, Then shall ye scale the heights of happiness, And grow in godhead, till the man is god. The curse ? I do defy the curse, and cry O Destiny, I too am Destiny. (Draws his sword and rushes off stage.) CTJETAIN 77 ACT II. A ruined castle in the depths of a dark roclcy valley that forms a deep hemi-cirde. High on a throne built of stone piled on stone sits Satan, a multitude in medieval costumes is prostrated before him. THE PEOPLE Hail, Satan, hail, them Prince of Evil, hail. THE COMRADE Thine is the Kingdom of the World, and thine The hearts of men, the secret hearts of hate. Thine is his cunning, thine his craft, his guile. PEOPLE Triumph and victory! Hail, Satan, hail. COMRADE The heavens tremble and the earth is bowed. The gods, the changing gods, sink one by one To deep oblivion, like falling stars, And are dissolved and are not any more. The magic of thy might alone endures. 78 SATAN UNBOUND PEOPLE Hail, Satan, hail, thou Prince of Evil, hail. SATAN All ye who stab my solitude, ye men Who multiply my mocking loneliness, Numberless nothings, what would ye of me ? PEOPLE Suffer our homage, we would worship thee. SATAN Dark, dark within my soul enduring night, I may not see, I grope about in vain ! What man am I, whence came I here and why Enthroned for worship? As an actor reigns Illusion of illusions, so I rule. Memory like a ghost that haunts me flees, Betraying me again to passioned pain. Immortal doubts, that torture mortals, vex A soul that 'scapes not immortality. Oh, that this self would scatter drop by drop, Dissolve within the sea of sleep, and be One with eternal things eternally. COMEADE Master of men, behold the loveliness That lifts its beauty for thy praise. Command 79 SATAN UNBOUND The dance, and heed the rhythm of delight. Full sweet it is, to drift along the maze Of subtle sense, and steep the baffled soul In brief forgetfulness. Our Lord is sad, O maidens, weave a spell to snare his pain. (The young maidens dance before Satan.) SATAN Sorrow knows not an infidelity. Distraction breeds a deeper discontent, And thought alone brings peace to tortured thought. In vain these vanities. (Exit maidens.) COMRADE Yet turn thine eyes, Behold these night hawks, sorcerers whose spell So strong, so subtle, snares men to thy will, Mighty with mysteries a million years Will not unveil, they mock the mind of man. Shall not their science soothe thy strife ? SATAN Alas, In vain their mummery. I suffer on. Let these be gone. (Exit sorcerers.) 80 SATAN UNBOUND COMEADE Yet venerable men From farthest East, and out of distant West, Await thy presence. Let them pay their praise. SATAN Speak each in turn his sum of foolishness, Some word may waken for me memory. THE POET Hail, Satan, hail, thou Prince of Evil, hail, For I will hymn thy conquest and thy fame, Poet am I, thy birthborn enemy. Of love I sang and of the heart of love, And how two move across the mystery Of multitudes, of daring distances, While stars and seas, attentive, tremulous, With mystic music murmur as they march, And meet and mingle, one with Destiny. Then lightly, from the lips of loveliness, Came laughter, shattering my sacred song. I tuned my lyre to sing of liberty, I shook the chains of men, unbinding slaves, While tyrants trembled, tortured in their turn. But with the fetters I had loosened each Would bind his brother, while the multitude, The many mightier than were the few, Turned freedom unto utter tyranny. 81 SATAN UNBOUND Then all my light grew darkness. In my pain I mocked at loveliness, and Beauty heard And light Love heeded. Ribaldry, I sang, While lovers trooped like fawning hounds at heel. The smilingly I praised the power of kings, Proclaimed the secret sense of slavery. I knew high favor, feted, I was free And grown to glory. So, the lesson learned, That in the Universe God's part is small, And Evil has the triumph of all time, I therefore in thy wisdom have prevailed, With song and praise I glorify thy name. SATAN Enough, his harmony is discord. Go! His music heals me not, but smites my soul So scarred with suffering. Priest, have thy word. PEIEST OF THE EAST Out of the East a light, and we, who were The torches of a wisdom, worshipped long, Yea, we communed with all high holiness. We ordered days and dreams, consulting then With stars and suns, we were the sanctified. We peaceful, placid, like a Buddha grown To lowly greatness, tender of all life That flows and fills the changing firmament, Wrought toward perfection. We through love learned love, High-hearted hope, and healing happiness. 82 SATAN UNBOUND SATAN Ye hail me Prince of Evil ! Wherefore then Mock ye, and whisper thus before my Throne ? PEIEST OF THE WEST Give heed and hear, we walked aside with God And we proclaimed the Prince of Peace. We sang No mystery unto a wondering world, We whispered this, the Christ-word, Brotherhood, The word of God made man, to make man God. SATAN From out the dark, the lightning of a dream ! Say on, yet much I marvel what ye mean. PEIEST OF THE EAST We fasted, and we fled through day on day, We mocked man's folly, yet no man gave heed, Or listened meaningly to us, who held The key of life and death, and deathless things. Then, at the end of many a desert year, Our hands were empty and our hollow hearts Were haunted by hard hate, and pride of place. PEIEST OF THE WEST We, preaching peace, were smitten with the sword, Shepherding wolves, we wearied. We divined 83 SATAN UNBOUND The wonder of a power to oppress A people pitiless. Then taking thought The sacred truths, the secret truths of man, Became within our hands a subtle snare, A net cast craftily about the soul ; For man more fears eternity unknown Than smiting sword and sudden biting spear. We bid the slaves renounce, resign and seek But sacrifice, submitting to our will. We nailed Christ on a dogma crucified. He found a heaven, we invented hell. PEIEST OF THE EAST So fought we men with fear, yea, fearlessly We set a yoke upon humanity ! PEIEST OF THE WEST We ruled and rule. For this, O Satan, hail. Each people has its god, each god its day, But we remain obscuring God and cry PEIEST OF THE EAST Hail, Satan, hail, triumphant thou of time. SATAIT What part have I in this, and what in these Who weary not of wretched wickedness ? Shall all these shadows shut away the sun? 84; SATAN UNBOUND KING OF THE EAST Hail, King of Kings, our Kingdoms bow to thee ! We were the fathers of a flock who fed With equal justice all our children. Lo! The races and the nations in revolt Called us old gray beards. Greed of gain, and lust, And hatred, beat within the blood of man. So led, we were their leaders, bared the sword, Dissension sowing, played them man 'gainst man, And smote them with the blade of fear or bribed The bravest with debauchery and lust. Then all their swords upheld the sword of state, For every slave holds sacred slavery, And cries himself the one man nobly free. KING OF THE WEST Thus we who held the earth in fealty Do homage, Satan, subject to thy will. CAPTAIN I lured the simple from the soil, and sowed The seed of hatred, setting men at strife Against his brother, all unknown, unseen. So war awakened war, that will not die, But feeds devouring peace, and all her works, Imaginings, inventions, blood and brain. Thus man, who would not harm a flying fawn, Alone so gentle, laughs aloud at life, 85 SATAN UNBOUND When bandied to a menace, all his might Unslaked in strife sets on to slay and slay. SATAN And ye resplendent with the glint of gold, What men are ye whom Kings and Priests salute ? MERCHANT The merchants we, the marvels of thy might ! For us, the kings in bonden slavery Have scarred the earth with sword, and dragged the sea. For us the priests strike terror to the soul, Disarm the daring with the dread of death, That slaves may starve, and strive for us and ours. Each has his little weight. We buy, we buy The brain, the beauty of the best. We sell Heart, honor, happiness. King, people, priest Are puppets that we play for gold. Rejoice! Gold glittering, gold glorious, thy gold By thee once given. Thine the praise, O King ! SATAN Does the world weigh and balance 'gainst a coin, A hoop, a circle, beaten out of ore ? It were a thing to laugh at, if 'twere true ! What word, oh woman, would thy homage bring? 86 SATAN UNBOUND COT7BTESAN King, I too have conquered through thy guile. 1 asked but love, I gave but tenderness, Then man, who held my heart, cried out, a Toy ! And like a child he broke it bit by bit, Despising all my loveliness, pursued And valued only when denied. Through pain Came understanding suddenly to me. Then I abased myself, the secret slave, Lips lisping love I lured with poisoned lust ! I gave not love, I took of glowing gold And hid my heart that all hearts should be mine. My heart that sang of sorrow now is still, Hushed, hollow, hidden. Vengeance is avenged. But me none master, whatsoe'er his might No man escapes the secret snare of sense. So I prevailed, and none elude my lure. For this I praise thee. SATAN Yet methinks a tear Has trembled for this tenderness so torn. Her words strike chill, and in my heart a weight Of weariness. O world, is this thy sum ? POET Give me thy subtlety to snare with song. 87 SATAN UNBOUND PRIESTS Give us the wiles of all thy wickedness. KINGS Give us thy power to oppress the pride. MERCHANTS Protect us from all pitying of pain. COURTESAN Give me thy beauty and thy deep disdain. Let none renounce, revile us for our shame. POET Within thy glory lies our glory, slaves, We seek thy service, slaving all to thee. SATAN (descending the throne) If ye be slaves, and I your Master, see The might of me, in this that I alone Hound ye and hunt ye from me, who despise Servitude, hating all your hatefulness; Ye who are held, and I whose helplessness Has harbored ye. 88 SATAN UNBOUND KING OF THE EAST None may resist his wrath. KING OF THE WEST His might is master. PEIEST OF THE EAST Let us then devise Some deeper wickedness to please his will. MERCHANT We are unworthy, flee ! ALL Hail, Satan, hail ! (Satan, with drawn sword, drives them from him. Only the Comrade remains.) SATAN Are these then men, is there in them a blood That beats, or has my brain brought forth this brood, These doubts and these disasters, each a death Of something dear, and something beautiful, Song, worship, force, and love the light of all ? Am I become that Evil ? Is there then 89 SATAN UNBOUND A darkness that is more than absent light ? Is Death a living thing ? Alas, alas, The anguish of an immortality, Aching along the yearning of my years. I conjure ye, ye voices of the night, Ye little leaves, ye waters murmuring, Ye starry fields unfolding flowers of fire, Life-forging forces, ay, I conjure ye, Dim dreams, that haunt me with delusive dread, Whisper the meaning of me, breathe my name, Echo me up the past, what man am I ? COMEADE Satan, remember, and recall the curse, O sinning slave of sacred Destiny, Submit, and cease the cycle of thy pain ! SATAN Now wave on wave, the sea of memory Surges about me, lifts me, sweeps me on Back to the dawn of days. The dream, the dream Of passionate release from pulsing pain, Of perfect peace. COMRADE The secret of the gods By thee was given to man's ignorance. See what a world has wrought and weigh it well. 90 SATAN UNBOUND Man has undone thy might, and thou alas, Art fallen to his flesh. Nor shall his soul Soar upward to the spirit of thy dream. With thee came sin, submit thee, sacrifice. SATAN Is there a ransom ? COMBADE Listen and obey. Within the curse is hidden the escape. SATAN Is there an end to anguish, shall I heed The little murmur of a mighty joy ? For sorrow makes us shy of suffering. I dare not. Yet say on. COMRADE Weigh well my words. Deny the truths of Destiny, proclaim That man is but a mortal, ignorant, And wisdom but a weariness. Again, Give back the secrets to the hidden gods. For what avail great gifts to little lives ? In recompense, rule thou and be, in truth, Evil and Prince of Evil. Let that sin Which is elusion be reality. So the gods triumph, triumph thou in turn ! SATAN UNBOUND SATAN i Is evil not triumphant, people, priest, Do they not worship wickedness ? COMRADE And yet, If there be one of these, but only one, Demanding, and desiring, Destiny To give him godhead, he shall still prevail. A man's dreams are immortal, they endure Within the matrix of Eternity, They work their way, and are brought forth in time. Consider well this truce and wisely choose, For by refusal, doomed art thou, until That soul who knows not evil, brings release. What cycles then of aimless cruelty Shall capture thee, upon thy quest in vain ? SATAN Smite me, and sunder me with suffering, I will go forth to seek that soul. Again, I do defy the gods to take the gift. Here in myself I will absorb each sin, Each suffering that plagues the race of man. COMRADE Woe, woe is thee and me, eternal woe, Weeping and weariness of world on world ! 92 SATAN UNBOUND The surging sea will sob thy suffering, Pulsating in thy pain. The wild winds sigh, And moan about the mountains, murmuring " Pain, ever pain." While drop by drop, the rain Tender and tremulous with tears will seek The bosom of the earth. So, secretly, Spreads sorrow like a mist. SATAN Pain, ever pain! I murmur not, let come what may, I wait. (Enter right stage a Leper clothed in rags and covered with a long dusty coat, a staff in his hand.) THE LEPER Misery, misery, have pity, Prince! SATAN Who art thou, speak ? LEPEE My body is a wound That scars my soul with ceaseless suffering. I live, and death lives in my leprosy. My purse is poor. 93 SATAN UNBOUND SATAN O human misery ! leper, lost to loveliness, whom life Holds hard in tyranny, peace be with thee. Give me thy cloak, so, let thy flesh have faith ; Disorder, and disease, and discord fear The force concealed, the force we may reveal, Yet understand not. Of the life of me, 1 give thee life, and of my faith, the faith To heal thee. Go, thy flesh is fair, yet, stay, For I will take upon me misery, And poverty, and every ill of man, To expiate all human ignorance. (He casts away his crown and clothes himself in the Leper's cloak, chang ing his sword for the Leper's staff.) So will I journey, till I find that soul Who knows not slavery, who knows not sin, Denying evil, who demands, with me, Of Destiny divinity for man. (The beggar lingers.) "Not gone, not grateful, dumb, for all this good ? LEPER The greater ill remains, the deep disease That breeds all others, see my purse is poor, 94 SATAN UNBOUND So lack I food and fortune, heart and home, Permitted only for a price. (Satan gives him money, and as he fastens Ms wallet the Leper steals his purse.) A fool! A fair, fond, futile fool ! Fool's gold, fool's faith, fool's folly. Best away: The saints protect me from his evil eye. (Exit the Leper crossing himself, as a crowd rushes in left stage crying.) COMRADE Master, what canst thou make of man ? SATAN A god! COMRADE The hosts return, let them not see thy shame. (On every side the people come timidly forward.) Our master is not here. PRIEST OF THE EAST Still we would praise The proud perfection of his power. 95 SATAN UNBOUND KING OF THE WEST (seeing Satan) Hist! A beggar. POET Ouf ! A beast. MERCHANT Go not too near, He breeds pollution in our feast. PKIEST OF THE WEST Not so, He tells our triumph. 'Tis a holy man To be so plagued with every poverty. Accost him. Father ! SATAN Friends, where am I come ? KING OF THE WEST In Satan's power. SATAN Who may Satan be? POET Mockery ! 96 SATAN UNBOUND MERCHANT Blasphemy! PEIEST OF THE WEST Stupidity ! Worship the Prince of Evil, he who reigns Above the earth, within the heart of man. SATAN There is no evil. PKIEST OF THE WEST Satan, Prince of Sin. SATAN There is no sin. PEIEST OF THE WEST What then? SATAN This, ignorance ! While veil on veil obscures the growing good. MEECHANT Out on him. PEIEST OF THE WEST Who is Satan, canst thou say 2 97 SATAN UNBOUND SATAN Illusion in your eyes, he in whose heart Is understanding. POET Eiddles ! PRIEST OF THE EAST Rank revolt. God even to the goodly is not great, Unless he be at strife with Satan, sin. POET Worship upon thy knees, and wander on. (He tries to force Satan to his knees.) SATAN I bend not, bow not. PEIEST OF THE EAST Beggar, who art thou ? SATAN A god who gropes toward greatness like thyself. MERCHANT Tell us, oh wise man, each what fortune waits. 98 SATAN UNBOUND KING OF THE WEST Behold a King and tremble. SATAN Thou a King? Who canst not rule thy slightest mad caprice ? KING OF THE EAST A King whom all men fear. SATAN And this I say That thou in turn shalt fear all men, and die Of this thy fear, dragged down and down and down. KING OF THE EAST A living insolence that merits death! PRIEST OF THE EAST What fate is mine ? SATAN I see the worm of pride That breeds within thy heart, thy heart 'of hate. I see thy shadow spread, obscuring God, And yet I say the sun at last shall show Thine emptiness. 99 SATAN UNBOUND MERCHANT What fate is mine ? Though these men vanish ? SATAN Yet a poverty Is in thy hungering for happiness, And death shall steal thy gold, and time destroy Thy tribe that long has triumphed over men. COURTESAN And I? SATAN Love flees thy lure, though all men yield, Till loathing dispossesses loveliness. PRIEST OF THE EAST What man is he who mocks us ? PRIEST OF THE WEST We are poor Within his eyes, diminished in our own. POET What canst thou know of us, or Destiny ? 100 SATAN UNBOUND SATAN Who may discern the hidden hand of Fate, Or what wild way the sudden turning leads, Or in what ambush lurks the fatal foe ? In riches, desolation, poverty, And dread disease, unmake the force of man. Therefore let arrogance not bid ye mock, Yet in thy pride remember that the stars, And every force that fills the firmament, Attend thy going out, thy coming in. POET If these men be not great, O little man, What then is greatness ? MERCHANT Question not a fool. SATAN Nothing is little, nothing great, for each Holds in its fragments something of the whole, And through the finest fibre flows each force That ebbs, and emanates, and is the god. POET Out, out on him. He shall be judged. Thy name? (Satan draws himself up as if to dom inate them. Hunting horns sound in distance.) 101 SATAN UNBOUND SATAN Satan ! POET Avenge the gods this blasphemy. (Satan with his staff tries to drive the multitude from him. He is easily disarmed and thrown on his knees J SATAN What, aim I prisoner of misery? Is my might fallen in this feeble flesh ? POET The hunt, the hunt, a living foe for prey I KING OF THE EAST A spear. MEECHANT A lash! CAPTAIN An arrow ! PEIEST OF THE EAST Nay, a crown ! 102 SATAN UNBOUND PBIEST OF THE WEST A mitre ! ALL Satan, hail, defend thee, Prince ! (During this scene the hunting horns have come nearer and nearer. The hunters rush across the stage, joined by the crowd. Satan lashed on, goaded by spear and sword, is slowly driven out.} POET Hound on, and bait him, let the death cry be : Satan, thou Prince of Evil, hail, all hail ! (The hunting horns sound the death. The stage is left empty for an in stant, excepting for the Comrade, who cowers by the throne. Satan, wounded and bleeding, returns and falls at the foot of the throne.) COMEADE O Satan, yield thee unto Fate, be wise, No god, no man, shall conquer Destiny. Eepent and be thou King, and reign again. Become that evil which is triumphant. 103 SATAN UNBOUND SATAN (raising himself painfully) I curse thee, get thee hence. (The Comrade leaves him sorrowfully. In the distance the hunting horns sound joyfully, the multitude rushes across the stage crying, " Hail, Satan, Prince of Evil, hail!") Pain, ever pain! CUETAIN 104 ACT III. Early morning, just before dawn, in a cemetery in Paris. The towers of the city are seen in the distance. Bade stage a high wall. Right stage a marble vault. Centre stage a freshly made grave. Here and there cypress trees. Left stage a path. Discovered Satan, a very old man clothed in modern rags. He wanders from grave to grave as if vainly seeking an escape from life. During the scene the stage brightens until at the end of the act there is full sunrise. SATAN We drift and drift, yet may not sink or die, Nor harbor and be gone, but on and on With secret currents, or resistless wind, We wander from the wherefore to the why. Is there a goal, is there a sudden sleep, Is there a bourn to all this bitterness ? And we, what make we here ? If this alone, Hope held to beacon us, that day by day We sow some secret seed, which Fate shall tend, And flower into human happiness ; Else were our life a futile mockery, And immortality a dream, Holding us helpless in our ignorance. 105 SATAN UNBOUND Cycles and cities change, and centuries, The wheel of time revolves, and turn by turn Come ancient and forgotten vanities, Yet no new thing of beauty or of joy. A people's hecatomb of history Leaves but a cloud of dust to mark its day ; And as the race, the man, his morning spent In passionate acquiring. Pence on pence He piles, and wrangles wretchedly for gold, As sordid urchins bicker in the dust. Gloated at last, from lust to lust he goes, And poisoning with pleasure drugs his days, From luxury to luxury allured, So do the nations and the man decay, Heedless of life, and every whispering force That breathes about him, softly murmuring Mysteries of his own immortal might. O night, wherein all things await the day, Mine eyes are dark, I suffer on and on, Yet loosen not the sum of suffering What shapes of sorrow seek me, what are ye ? (During this scene four Phantoms have come sloivly from, behind the trees where they stand peering at Satan. They are the famous rebels, Socrates, Brutus, Mirabeau and Washington.) 106 SATAN UNBOUND 1ST PHANTOM We are not men but memories of men, Illusive apparitions that remain. In death we die not, having dreamed thy dream Of immortality. SATAN Why, this is well. 1ST PHANTOM We anguish on, like shadows of a life Existing, yet we live not, hour by hour We curse thee, we, alas, who may not die, We who endure ! SATAN What would ye then of me ? 2ND PHANTOM Make us as mortals, give us once again The sudden sleep of death. BED PHANTOM Take back thy lie And cry there is no immortality. 107 SATAN UNBOUND 1ST PHANTOM Pity our helplessness, too great the dream ; Yea, give us death indeed. We are but men, Earth of the earth. SATAN Are ye not dead indeed, A living image of that nothing, Death, How know ye that ye live? 1ST PHANTOM In that we suffer, life is, this we know. SATAN Each drop of blood weeps pity in my veins, Mine eyes are tears that hide from me the light. 1ST PHANTOM Deny. 2ND PHANTOM Absolve me from the sin of hope. SKD PHANTOM Cursed thy gift and thy revolt. SATAN (shrinking from them) Away ! Ye vain temptations, ye disastrous doubts. 103 SATAN UNBOUND 1ST PHANTOM Drive us not forth. SATAH" What men in life were ye ? 2ND PHANTOM We were the rebels. 3RD PHANTOM Each man in his day Lifted the torch of freedom in his land, And stabbed at slavery of heart or hand. 2ND PHANTOM Men called me Brutus, Caesar I laid low And, slaying friendship, smote his heart and mine At one fell blow. Rome, what of Rome to-day ? Is there not still a Caesar, still a slave ? If Caesar's virtues die, his vice lives on, And little men make mighty with a crown, Parcelling power. SATAN What deed for men did ye ? 109 SATAN UNBOUND 3RD PHANTOM Am I not he who to the march of kings Triumphant in their tyranny cried : " Halt," So that no King again shall dare be king, But wears alone the show of royalty As actors may, oft trembling at night To hear the wind that whispers, " Mirabeau! " What of my deed, alas, what of my day, For revolution riotous with blood Blotted out freedom, rivers running red Wrote on the earth the name Napoleon. So slavery leads on to slavery. 4TH PHANTOM I lighted men to long-loved liberty, Kingless and crownless, still a conqueror Baptized with blood a nation blessed at birth, Freemen within a land for ever free. They of their greatness, grinding gold on gold, Fashioned a Moloch for their worshipping. They sweat, they groan, they toil, they strive, they slave, Each man oppresses each, and over all The multiple, the mighty multitude, With prejudice and passion, snare on snare, Binding their brothers, shout the old refrain Arrogant, crying: We alone are free! 110 SATAN UNBOUND 1ST PHANTOM Suffer us then to die, and cease the dream. 2ND PHANTOM For we are damned, defying Destiny. 3RD PHANTOM Where is the man, the nation that is free ? 4TH PHANTOM Lies, lies that lead us, idly on and on, We who have seen the dream that will not die. SATAN Each word is like a wound where poison burns And tortures. Shall I slay their hope, deny, Submit, and sleep beyond the strife of sense, Or dare despair ? Are these then of my brain ? Doubts that would dwindle me, for well I know No god, nor world of gods, nor master men Destroy a man, unless he smite himself With soul surrender. 1ST PHANTOM Satan, give us peace. Ill SATAN UNBOUND 2ND PHANTOM Deny. Let man be man, submitted animal, Vain hope of wisdom, immortality. PHANTOM We wait thy word, we would revolt no more, But sink to senselessness and henceforth sleep. SATAN A man's doubts are his foes and with decay Like worms they work within, undoing all. I, do I doubt, or have my tears obscured The light within, and hid the world without. Better I say the dream, if but a lie, Than sworded truth if it were truth indeed. BED PHANTOM The world of wretchedness denies thy truth. 4TH PHANTOM Man is man's master, fate the foe of all. SATAN The dream, the dream, is all a mockery, Vain aspiration, vain each winged hope ! Or is not thus the sole reality, The matrix and the nucleus, this dream 112 SATAN UNBOUND Born of our brains, our being, freed and free And deathless, doomed to life when we are fled ? And yet, and yet ? I will not doubt the dream, I who trust not the doubt. Ye shapes, begone! SBD PHANTOM We lived in vain, and vainly did we die. We gave our blood, we shed men's blood in vain. SATAN Ever, for ever blood, so have ye doomed Unto disaster all that ye would do. With violence none conquers violence. With hate man fathers hate. SED PHANTOM Shall not a man Hate evil, smite a tyrant with revenge ? SATAN So ye disarm the foe, and so become The foe to freedom, falling on the sword That armed the enemy. Thus ye in turn Are conquered, never conquerors. Kevolt ? Ye have not known revolt, ye little men, A prey to passion, smiting pain with pain. Conquest corrupts the conqueror. And ye, Alas, ye see not, this the truth, the truth 113 SATAN UNBOUND That he who stabs his hated enemy Smites something sacred in himself, and wounds Humanity. Which one is clear of blood ? Let him stand forth, to him I will reply. Then let him judge of me, and of my dream, Of my rebellion. Unto him I say, Out of the humble shall come forth the great, And everywhere the moving multitude Shall wake and wonder, " Lo, I am a man, " My master, and my brother's brother," so Eevolt shall come, revolt and discontent That seeks some higher self, on, on and on. SRD PHANTOM Alas, alas, this too is but a dream. (In the distance is heard a faint music.) SATAN Why, look ye, this is all a man may do : Dream nobly, nobly do and ask no more, Neither result, reward, nor recompense, These come not in a day, no thing is lost, And loveliness leads on to loveliness. It is enough. BED PHANTOM The dawn ! 114 SATAN UNBOUND 4TH PHANTOM Away, away ! (The Phantoms vanish, the stage lightens. The music comes nearer.) SATAN A music, and a murmur as of light Breaks in upon my night, some secret song Accompanies my words and wings them on, Saying that which I would might be, alas, If that it might be. Pain, for ever pain. And yet the night is but the womb whereof A new day and a new joy shall be born. Is not the sun a symbol that the dark Must droop and die ? Disaster and despair Yield to the light ? Behold how ray on ray, As little waves leap up along the shore, Floods all the darkness. Like a breath of dawn A maiden moves across this place of death. (A working girl comes down the path; she carries in one hand a humble bunch of flowers and on one arm a lunch basket. She goes forward toward the new-made grave without seeing Satan.) I would not with my weariness destroy The freshness of her fragrant faith in life. 115 SATAN UNBOUND Yet I would speak with her and know her heart. Maiden, be not afraid. MAIDEN Why should I fear, The poor are rich in pity toward the poor ! I come to lay upon a comrade's grave A flower. SATAN On my life thy loveliness Has laid its healing beauty. He who died Was loved, and yet no sorrow stains thy face ? MAIDEN Peace is with him, with me, for well he died In strife for peace, a workman smitten down Opposing all oppression, war and death. So dying, he has bought for others bread, A crumb, but crumb by crumb we knead the loaf Till none shall hunger, none shall be afraid. SATAN She cries not out against her pain, nor weeps In wild revolt. MAIDEN But you, what do you here ? Deep in the damp, poor stranger, come away. 116 SATAN UNBOUND SATAN I am a wanderer, no home is mine. MAIDEN How weak, how wretched, take this bread and eat, This wine. I have' not more to give, alas, Slight fare, my noonday meal, but sweeter shared. SATAN Come not so near, beware of me, behold These wounds and these. Know you not evil comes To him who gives out goodness ? MAIDEN Sorrow shared Is sorrow halved, and heals the heart that gives. SATAN I have such need MAIDEN What then is lacking most ? SATAN Life ! In my flesh there rages living death. I am a leper, in the times gone by 117 SATAN UNBOUND A child's blood, so men said, would cure this ill. What if I sprang upon thee, with my teeth Tore from thy flesh the blood to cleanse my pain ? (The Maiden wonderingly bares her arm and holds it out to him.) No tremor tells of fear. MAIDEN Drink life again. SATAN O child, take back the sacred sacrifice. MAIDEN There is no pleasure such as healing pain. SATAN She fears not evil and she knows not sin. Is this not still some snare of suffering, Or shall she bring me ransom and release ? Still must I prove her. MAIDEN What thing may I do, What else is lacking, stranger ? 118 SATAN UNBOUND SATAN Search my face, Am I a mortal ? MAIDEN Why, a man, what else ? SATAN Look well upon me, I am he men hate, The spirit of all evil, hatred's self. MAIDEN Sorrow and suffering will scar the soul, Distort, disform the very mind of man, And happiness alone can heal a man And make him holy. Stranger, let us go. SATAN Go? MAIDEN Come with me, although my home be small It is thy shelter. SATAN I! I share thy home? I have no part in thy humanity. Nor man, nor god am I, but one whose name 119 SATAN UNBOUND Has ruled the centuries, Satan, a force, The spirit of all evil, and the soul Of evil through the ages, in revolt Against the jealous force of Destiny. MAIDEN (laughing indulgently) Satan ? A myth of priestcraft, and a snare For cringing crowds. SATAN And evil, is that too A myth, the hurt man does to man, the pain ? Is this not evil ? MAIDEN Only ignorance, Deep ignorance of good. SATAN Her words like balm Drop, healing me of life and all its wounds. MAIDEN Yet once a man awoke and dared a dream, Revolting at the littleness of man, 120 SATAN UNBOUND Demanding from the hand of Destiny Wisdom and knowledge of the good and ill. He fell, as blinded by a light too great For unawakened eyes. Yet all things grow And come in season. So this too shall be, And every force be subject to man's soul, For in and through him grows the only good. SATAN What thing is needful for a man to do ? MAIDEN Set ye a smile upon your lips to see The follies of mankind. Shed ye a tear, A tear of tenderness, for all their pain, In pity of the evil that they do. Rebel against all human misery, Demanding joy for all, for all delight. Impatient of perfection, on and on, Each peacefully toward peace pursue the dream. SATAN A sudden joy has slain my suffering, And I grow weak to know my freedom near. MAIDEN Lean all thy weariness upon my strength. 121 SATAN UNBOUND SATAN Immortal sight is mine, this thing I know I too am Destiny, and must prevail. So pain and discord and revolt drive on A man to seek some better state, some goal. The dream to-day, to-morrow lives and leads On, on and on ; so I, I too have been A working and a way of Destiny. (The music which has from time to time come nearer bursts out with full force now, bringing the voices of a multitude of men singing the Internationale.) What march of men is trembling the earth, What song is pulsing life, what joy is near ? MAIDEN The humble, the high-hearted who with hope War against war, opposing pride with peace, And calling the oppressor brother, come To pay a tribute to the Comrade's grave. They sing the song of life, of liberty. (The workmen, in their everyday clothes, are seen coming down the path. Satan, realizing that his task is done, slips to the earth.) 122 SATAN UNBOUND SATAN Let thy lips sweeten sleep, my time is come. (With the help of the maiden he struggles to his feet.} Not thus, but as a conqueror I rise To greet the future, and the victory. (Satan dies, standing, as the song stops abruptly; when the men see him, they come forward as he slips to the ground from the maiden's arms.) A WORKMAN What man is this ? MAIDEN What matters it, a man, Bury in him all human suffering, And set your faces to salute the dawn. (While certain workmen force open the gate of the vault, others lift Satan tenderly and place him within the vault. They stand with bare heads about the humble grave of the workman, and each lays on it a flower. Absolute silence for a moment, and then, as if suddenly 123 SATAN UNBOUND wakening, they pick up their shovels and pickaxes and shoulder ing them, start off towards their work singing to the music of the Internationale the following song.) COMRADES Comrades, a hymn of our hopeful humanity, Father of all of the gods of the future, Neither a song for the idle nor cowardly Lurking in luxury, hidebound in prejudice ; Nay, but a song for our children's own children, Wiser than we who are weak in our wondering. Facing the foe, we combative, provocative, Peaceful and passionate, bountiful builders. Ever rebellious, and ever revolting, We discontented with all but perfection, Levelling caste, yea and lifting the lowliest ; Breaking the barriers, bursting the boundaries. Knowing not nations, nor class in its crippling, Woman as man sacred, sanctified, beautiful, Comforting, even compelling with brotherhood, Scoffing denial, assertive and clamorous, Hateful of hatred, and loving all loveliness, Damning the sin, and the sorrow of suffering, Riotous toward resignation and sacrifice, Wresting from nature, our mother, our murderer, Life for the living, delight and the joy thereof! Healing the heart of man's hate with our happiness, 124 SATAN UNBOUND Seeking the God that is deep in the depths of us Groping and growing toward greatness, in little ness, We who are chanting the hymn of humanity, Hearing the wind of the world whisper, " Com rades!" CURTAIN 125 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY This book is DUE on the last date stamped below 31 1981! LD4JW 3 1972 Form L-9 20m -1,' 42(8519) IWIVER8ITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LQS ANGELES UBRAJRY A 000 929 595 7 1