JEPHTHAH.

CAMBRIDGE, "November," 1898.

JEPHTHAH.

"Let my lamp, at midnight hour,

Be seen in some high lonely Tower,

Where I may oft outwatch the Bear,

With thrice-great Hermes, or unsphear

The spirit of Plato, to unfold

What Worlds, or what vast Regions hold

The immortal mind that hath forsook

Her mansion in the fleshy nook;

And of those Daemons that are found

In fire, air, flood, or under ground,

Whose power hath a true consent

With Planet, or with Element.

Some time let Gorgeous Tragedy

In Sceptr’d Pall come sweeping by."

"Il Penseroso."

Ταδενυν

εταιραισ

Ταισ εμαισι

τερπνα καλωσ

αεισω.

SAPPHO.

"It need not appear strange unto you that this Book is not at all like unto so many others which I have, and which are composed in a lofty and subtle style." -- "The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage."

PRELIMINARY INVOCATION.

TO A. C. S.

IN the blind hour of madness, in its might,

When the red star of tyranny was highest;

When baleful watchfires scared the witless night,

And kings mocked Freedom, as she wept: "Thou diest!" {64A}

The splendid forehead, crowned with Love and Light,

Flames in the starry air: the fallen minions

Drop like lost souls through horrid emptinesses

To their own black unfathomable abysses!

Now Freedom, flower and star and wind and wave

And spirit of the unimagined fire,

Begotten on the dishonourable grave

Of fallen tyranny, may seek her sire

In the pure soul of Man, her lips may have

In the pure waters of her soul’s desire,

Truth: and deep eyes behold thine eyes as deep,

Fresh lips kiss thine that kissed her soul from sleep.

See Italy, the eagle of all time,

Triumphant, from her coffin’s leaden prison,

Soar into freedom, seek the heights sublime

Of self-reliance, from those depths new-risen,

Stirred by the passion of thy mighty rhyme:

Eagle, and phoenix: shrill, sharp flames bedizen

The burning citadle, where crested Man

Leaps sword in hand upon the Vatican.

Those dire words spoken, that thine hammer beat,

Of fire and steel and music, wrath god-worded,

Consuming with immeasurable heat

The sties and kennels of priest and king, that girded

The loins of many peoples, till the seat

Of Hell was shaken to its deep, and herded

Hosts of the tyrant trembled, faltered, fled,

When none pursued but curses of men dead: --

See, from the Calvary of the Son of Man,¹

Where all the hopes of France were trodden under;

See, from the crucifixion of Sedan

Thy thought the lightning, and thy word the thunder!

See her supreme, kingly, republican,

New France arisen, with her heart in sunder --

Yet throned in Heaven on ever-burning wheels,

Freedom resurgent, sealed with seven seals. {65A}

Of earth, and leave thy mantle, and thy lyre,

A double portion of thy spirit to render,

That yet the banner may fling out on high,

And yet the lyre teach freemen how to die!

Master, the night is falling yet again.

I hear dim tramplings of unholy forces:

I see the assembly of the foully slain:

The scent of murder steams: riderless horses

Gallop across the earth, and seek the inane:

The sun and moon are shaken in their courses:

The kings are gathered, and the vultures fall

Screaming, to hold their ghastly festival.

Master, the sons of Freedom are but few --

Yea, but as strong as the storm-smitten sea,

Their forehead consecrated with the dew,

Their heart made mighty: let all my voice decree,

My spirit lift their standard: clear and true

Bid my trump sound, "Let all the earth be free!"

With thine own strength and melody made strong,

And filled with fire and light of thine own song.

Only a boy’s wild songs, a boy’s desire,

I bring with reverent hands. The task is ended --

The twilight draws on me: the sacred fire

Sleeps: I have sheathed my sword, my bow unbended:

So for one hour I lay aside the lyre,

And come, alone, unholpen, unbefriended,

As streams get water of the sun-smit sea,

Seeking my ocean and my sun in thee.

Yea, with thy whirling clouds of fiery light

Involve my music, gyring fuller and faster!

Yea, to my sword lend majesty and might

To dominate all tumult and disaster,

That even my song may pierce the iron night,

Invoking dawn in thy great name, O Master!

Till to the stainless heaven of the soul

Even my chariot-wheels on thunder roll.

And so, most sacred soul, most reverend head,

The silence of deep midnight shall be bound,

And with the mighty concourse of the dead

That live, that contemplate, my place be found, {66A}

Shall thirst for our inheritance in vain;

Thou hast no lot nor part in Gilead.

And now, he gathers to himself vain men,

Violent folk, and breakers of the law,

And holds aloof in rocky deserts, where

The land, accurst of God, is barren still

Of any herb, or flower, or any tree,

And has no shelter, nor sweet watersprings,

Save where a lonely cave is hollow, and where

A meagre fountain sucks the sand. Our folk

Are naked of his counsel and defence

Against the tribe of Ammon, and stand aghast;

Our feeble arms sway doubtfully long swords,

And spears are flung half-heartedly; and he

With warlike garrison and stronger arms

Who might have helped us, laughs, and violence

Threatens the white flower of our homes: our wives,

Daughters, and sons are as a prey to them,

And where the children of the Ammonites

Throng not swift hoofs for murder, Jephthah’s men

Blaspheme our sanctuaries inviolate,

And rob us of our dearest. Woe on woe

Hangs imminent to crush the slender sides

And battered bulwarks of our state. O thou

Whose hoary locks and sightless eyes compel

Our pity and our reverence, and whose mouth

Foams with the presence of some nearer god

Insatiate of thy body frail, give tongue,

If tongue may so far master deity

As give his fury speech, or shape thy words

From the blind auguries of madness.

PROPHET.

Ha!

The rose has washed its petals, and the blood

Pours through its burning centre from my heart.

The fire consumes the light; and rosy flame

Leaps through the veins of blue, and tinges them

With such a purple as incarnadines {67A}

PROPHET.

I see a dove departing to the hills

CHORUS.

I pray it bring an olive-branch to us.

PROPHET.

The god has overcome me; I am silent.

CHORUS.

He lies as one lies dead; none wakens him.

Nor life nor death must touch him now: beware!

ELEAZAR.

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

For high things spoken and unjustly heard,

Or heard and turned aside, are fruitless words,

Or bear a blossom evil and abhorred,

Lest God be mocked. Consider well of this.

CHORUS.

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

ELEAZAR.

A help shall come from desert lands to us.

CHORUS.

Toward what end? For present help is much,

But uttermost destruction more, for we

Have no strong hope in any hand of man:

God is our refuge and our tower of strength.

In him if any man abide -- But if

He put his faith in horsemen, or the sword,

The sword he trusted shall be for an end.

ELEAZAR.

But evils fall like rain upon the land.

CHORUS.

Let us not call the hail to give us peace.

ELEAZAR.

Nor on the sun, lest he too eat us up. {68A}

Cast beneath the ocean now,

Ruined symbols, changed psalters,

Where no lip no longer falters,

And the priest’s deep brow

Pales not, flushes not for passion,

Clouds not with concealed thought,

And the worshipper’s eye, wrought

To the stars in subtle fashion,

By no magic is distraught.

Ay! our hope is in His holy

Places, and our prayers ascend

Fervent, and may sunder slowly

The blue darkness at the end.

For we know not where to send

For a sword to cleanse the land,

For a sharp two-edged brand,

All our homesteads to defend.

Now amid the desert sand

Lives an outcast of our race,

Strong, immutable, and grand,

And his mighty hand

Grips a mighty mace.

He would shatter, did we call,

Sons of Ammon one and all,

Did we fear not lest his eye

Turn back covetous to try

For our pleasances, to rule

Where the far blue Syrian sky

Stretches, where the clouds as wool

Mark the white Arabian border,

To become a tyrant king

Where his sword came conquering.

Out of chaos rises order

On her wide unwearying wing,

But the desolate marauder

Never over us shall swing

Such a sceptre as should bring

Sorrow to one home of ours.

Better bear the heavy hours

Under God’s avenging breath,

Better brave the horrid powers,

Better taste the foreign death,

Humbling all our pride before

God’s most holy throne, abasing

Every man’s strong soul, and facing

All the heathen Ammon bore

On the angry shore, {69A}

Sere leaves before its fury: then the city

With arrows darkened all the air; and luck

Smote down some few pursuing; but their captain

Riding his horse against the gate, drove in

His spear, and cried to them that followed him:

Who plucks my spear out shall be chief of all

That ply the short spear: and who breaks the gate

Shall lead my horsemen into Mizpeh: then,

Rushing, their spearmen battered in the gate

And overpowered the youths and aged men,

That put up trembling spears, and drew slack bows,

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

So now the city is the spoil of them,

And all our women-folk are slain or violate,

And all our young men murderously slain,

And children spitted on their coward spears.

CHORUS.

How heavy is thy hand upon us, Lord!

MESSENGER.

Nor stayed they there; but, firing Mahanaim,

Sweep toward Mizpeh like a locust-cloud.

ELEAZAR.

Get thee to horse and carry me this message:

The Elders unto Jephthah, greeting: Help!

No single cry beyond that Help! Be gone!

["Exit" Messenger.

CHORUS.

I fear me our necessity is sure.

But they come thither. Shall we rather flee?

ELEAZAR.

I stand here manly, and will die a man. {70A}

Pale spouses whom his heart despised, but thou

Wast of a fairer face and brighter eyes,

And limbs more amorous assuaged thy sire;

And fuller blood of his is tingling thus

Now in thy veins indignant at our sin.

But thou art strong and we are weak indeed,

Nor can we bear the burden, nor sustain

The fury of the Children of the East

That ride against us, and bright victory

Is throned in their banners, while on ours

Perches the hideous nightbird of defeat.

Mourn, mourn and cry; bow down unto the dust

O Israel, and O Gilead, for your son

Comes with unpitying eyes and lips compressed

To watch the desecration of thy shrine,

Jehovah, and the ruin of our hearth.

JEPHTHAH.

I am your outcast brother. At my birth

My father did not smile, nor she who bore

These limbs dishonourable did not smile,

Nor did my kisses soothe a mother’s woe.

Because my thews grown strong were impotent

To reign or be a captain any more,

Though I might serve the children who had grown

Less godlike from his loins who made me god.

So when the day was ripe, my brethren turned

And gnashed upon me, mocking, with their teeth:

Thou art the son of a strange woman, thou!

Begone from honest folk! -- and I in wrath

Smote once or twice with naked hand, and slew

Two gibing cowards, and went forth an outcast,

And gathered faithful servitors, and ruled

Mightiest in the desert, and was lord

Of all the marches where my spear might throw

Its ominous shadow between night and noon.

Yet always I considered my revenge, {71A}

Ah! all the Earth was fair!

Now, seeing that we are sinners, wilt not thou

Relent thy hateful brow,

Bend down on us a forehead full of peace,

Bidding thine anger cease,

Speaking sweet words most comfortable. O lose

The bitter memory of the wrong long dead!

O be the lord and prince we gladly choose

And crown the mercy of thy royal head!

Be thou the chief, and rule upon thy kin,

And be not wroth for sin.

For surely in the dusty days and years

There is a little river flowing still

That brings forgetfulness of woes and fears

And drinks up all the memory of ill.

Wherefore our tribute to thy feet we bring;

Conquer our foes, and reign our king!

JEPHTHAH.

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

ELEAZAR.

Behold, these people are as children, hiding

Thoughts beautiful and true in profuse words,

Not meaning all the lofty flight that fancy

And the strong urgement of a tune discover.

Be thou our judge, as Joshua long ago.

JEPHTHAH.

Swear by the Name unspoken that the truth

Flashes between the lips that tremble thus!

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

Some petty obstacle before my hands

When I would grasp your promise, and betray

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

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

Full-hearted mourners, them will I believe

Upon their oath most solemn and secure.

But take thou warning now! I shall not spare

Grey hairs or faltering limbs for treachery. {72A}

But God had pity upon us,

Our evil and fallen way;

His mercy was mighty on us;

His lips are as rosy as day

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

Our sin was great in His sight:

We chased from our gates our brother,

We shamed his father’s might,

We spat on the grave of his mother,

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

But God beheld, and His hand

Was heavy to bring us grief;

He brought down fire on the land,

And withered us root and leaf

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

But whom we scorned we have set

A leader and judge over all;

His wrong he may not forget,

But he pitieth men that call

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

JEPHTHAH.

Are all these ready for the hearth and altars

To perish suddenly upon the field,

Pavilioned with the little tents at noon,

And ere the nightfall tented with the dead,

And every hollow made a sepulchre,

And every hill a vantage ground whereon

Hard-breathing fighting men get scanty sleep,

Till the dawn lift his eyebrows, and the day

Renew the battle? Will ye follow me

Through slippery ways of blood to Ephraim

To beat with sturdy swords unwearying

Our foemen to their Ammon, and to grapple

With red death clutching at the throat of us,

With famine and with pestilence, at last

To reach a barren vengeance, and perchance

An hundred of your thousands to return {27A}

JEPHTHAH.

Hearken, Jehovah, to thy servant now;

Fill Thou my voice with thine own thunders; fill

My swift sharp words with such a lightning-fork

As shall fall venomous upon the host

Of these idolatrous that thus invade

Our fenced cities, these that put to sword

Our helpless. Hear the cry of widowed men!

Of young men fatherless! Of old men reft

Of children! Grant us victory to avenge

Their innocent shed blood, and ruined land.

So, to gain time for prayer and penitence

For grievous trespass of idolatry

Done to the accursed Baalim ("aside") -- and time

To gather fugitives, and make them men,

And straggling herdsmen for our armament! -- ("aloud")

We send the, herald, to the furious king

Who lies with all his power encamped somewhere

Hence southward toward Mahanaim. Say

Unto the king of Ammon: Thus saith Jephthah:

Why hast thou come with bloody hands against us?

Our holy God, that bound the iron sea

With pale frail limits of white sand, and said:

Thus far, and not one billowy step beyond!

Saith unto thee in like commandment: Thou

Who hast destroyed my people from the land

So far, shalt not encroach upon their places

One furlong more, lest quickly I destroy

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

Ride for thy life, and bring me speedy word.

["Exit Herald."

CHORUS.

Not winged forms, nor powers of air,

Nor sundered spirits pale and fair,

Nor glittering sides and scales, did bring

The knowledge of this happy thing {74A}

The sound of the lust of the slayer

As fierce as a Persian’s prayer,

And the sound of the loud harp-player

Like the wind beats to their tread.

A royal triumph is waiting

For the captain of Heaven’s choice,

A noise as of eagles mating,

A cry as of men that rejoice.

For victory crowns with garlands

Of fame his valour in far lands,

And suns sing back to the starlands

His praise with a perfect voice.

JEPHTHAH.

Leave prophecy until I come again!

CHORUS.

A prophet told us thou shouldst fight for us

And save thy people from the Ammonites.

JEPHTHAH.

Why look you so? He told you other thing.

CHORUS.

Nay, lord, no saying that we understood.

JEPHTHAH.

Speak thou its purport; I may understand.

For, know you, in the desert where I dwelt

I had strange store of books obscure; books written

Not openly for fools, but inwardly

Toward the heart of wise men. And myself

Studied no little while upon these things,

And, seeking ever solitude, I went

Nightly upon a rock that stood alone

Threatening the sandy wilderness, and prayed

Where many visions came before mine eyes

So strange -- these eyes have started from my head,

And every hair, grown fearful, like a steed

Reared in its frenzy: see, these lips of mine

Have blanched, these nails have bitten through my flesh {75A}

JEPHTHAH.

A maiden shall be slain for many men.

Surely, O people, and men of Israel,

The prophecy is happy to the end.

For see yon moon that creeps inviolate

Against the corner of the mountains so,

Slowly and gracefully to lighten us.

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

Shall be most monstrously o’erwhelmed for us

Ere sundown, as for Joshua, and the moon,

The maiden moon, be slain that we may see

By the large moveless sun to strike and slay,

More utterly proud Ammon to consume.

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

But who comes whirling in yon dusty cloud,

His eager charger dimly urging him

Toward our conclave? ’Tis our messenger.

"Re-enter Herald."

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

HERALD.

So spake the haughty and rebellious Ammon

Defying your most gentle words with scorn:

Tell Jephthah: Israel took away my land

When they came out of Egypt from the river

Of Ammon unto Jabbok, and unto Jordan.

Wherefore, I pray thee, sheathe thy sword, restore

Peaceably these my lands, and go in peace,

Lest wrath, being kindled, consume thee utterly.

JEPHTHAH.

Let yet another herald stand before me

["Enter Second Herald."

Fresh, and go thou, swiftest of messengers,

And sleep and eat a little, and to-morrow

Thou shalt have guerdon of thy faithfulness.

["Exit Herald."

But now, sir, go to this rebellious king {76A}

Fought he against us, while three hundred years

We dwelt in Heshbon and her towns, and Aroer

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

Why therefore did ye not recover them

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

But thou dost me foul wrong to bring thy sword

And torch of rapine in my pleasant land.

Between the folk of Ammon and the folk

Of Israel this day be God the judge.

["Exit Second Herald."

ELEAZAR.

Well spoken: but the ear that will not hear

Is deafer than the adder none may charm.

JEPHTHAH.

I know it, and will not await the answer.

But dawn shall see a solemn sacrifice,

And solemn vows, and long swords glittering,

And moving columns that shall shake the earth

With firm and manly stride; and victory

Most like a dove amid the altar-smoke.

CHORUS.

We, passing here the night in prayer, will wait

And with thee offer up propitious doves,

And firstling males of all the flocks of us.

JEPHTHAH.

Not so: but I will have you hence in haste

To gather food and arms and carriages,

That all our soldiers may have sustenance,

And fresher weapons. I alone will spend

The long hours with Jehovah, at His throne,

And wrestle with the accuser. So, depart!

CHORUS.

When the countenance fair of the morning

And the lusty bright limbs of the day

Race far through the west for a warning

Of night that is evil and gray; {77A}

The spirit has God for a neighbour,

And the wheels unreturning that ran

Return to the heart of the roses,

And curl in the new blossom now,

As the holiest fire that encloses

Gray flame¹¹ on the holiest brow.

So midnight with magic reposes,

And slumbers to visions bow.

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

And the spirit find the Sea by the feet of Him¹² untrod,

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

As the lives before remember the perished hours of gold.

["Exeunt all but" JEPHTHAH.

JEPHTHAH.

Surely, my God, now I am left alone

Kneeling before Thy throne,

I may grow beautiful, even I, to see

Thy beauty fair and free.

For on the vast expanses of the wold

I hear the feet of gold,

And over all the skies I see a flame

That flickers with Thy Name.

Therefore, because Thou hast hid Thy face, and yet

Given me not to forget

The foaming cloud that shaped itself a rose,

Whose steady passion glows

Within the secretest fortress of my heart,

Because, my God, Thou Art,

And I am chosen of Thee for this folk

To break the foreign yoke,

Therefore, Existence of Existence, hear!

Bend low Thine holy ear,

And make Thyself, unseen, most terrible

To these fierce fiends of hell

That torture holiest ears with false complaint:

Bend down, and bit me faint {78A}

CHORUS OF SOLDIERS.

Out of the waters of the sea

Our father Abraham beheld

The lamp of heaven arise to be

The monarch quenchless and unquelled;

But we on this far Syrian shore

See dawn upon the mountains pour.¹⁵

The limit of the snows is bright;

As spears that glitter shine the hills;

The foaming forehead of the light

All air with cloudy fragrance fills;

And, born of desolation blind,

The young sweet summer burns behind.

The Altar of the Lord is set

With salt and fire and fervid wine,

And toward the east the light is let

For shadow for the holiest shrine:

One moment hangs the fire of dawn

Until the sacrament be sworn.

Behold, the priest, our captain, takes

The sacred robes, the crown of gold,

The light of other sunlight¹⁶ breaks

Upon his forehead calm and cold;

And other dawns more deep and wise

Burn awful in his holy eyes.

A moment, and the fire is low

Upon the black stone of the altar,

The spilt blood eagerly doth glow,

And lightnings lick the light, and falter,

Feeling the vast Shekinah¹⁷ shine

Above their excellence divine.

The Lord is gracious to His own,

And hides with glory as a mist

The sacrifice and smitten stone,

And on the lips His presence kissed

Burn the high vows with ample flame

That He shall swear to by the Name. {79A}

PROPHET.

Thy spear shall turn against thyself, alas!

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

Thy kiss is pleasant as the shaded well

That looks through palm leaves to the quiet sky.

["Dies."

JEPHTHAH.

Thou didst no evil in the slaying him,

For God is a consuming fire; high zeal

Against idolatry lacks not reward.

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

JARED.

Good luck be with your spears; and homecoming

Gladden victorious eyes ere set of sun.

["Exeunt" JEPHTHAH "and Soldiers."

"Enter" ELEAZAR, AHINOAM, "Chorus of Elders."

CHORUS.

The sun is past meridian. No sound

Of trampling hoofs assails the unquiet wind,

Nor trembles in the pillared echo-places,

And windy corridors of pathless snow.

But let us wait, expecting victory.

No fugitive returns, no messenger:

They have not shocked together, or perchance

The grim fight rolls its sickening tide along

Homeward or southward, undecided yet;

Or victory made certain but an hour

Lends no such wings to jaded horses as

May bear a jaded rider to our gates.

Wait only, friends, and calm our troubled mind,

Nor stir the languid sails of our desire

With breath or expectation or despair.

Rather give place to those untroubled thoughts

That sit like stars immobile in the sky

To fathom all the desolate winds of ocean,

And draw their secrets from the hidden mines

Whose gold and silver are but wisdom, seeking

Rather things incorruptible above {80A}

Twice twenty thousand corpses; stragglers few

Call to the rocks and woods, whose dens refuse

Shelter and refuge to the fugitives,

But, in revolt against the natural order,

Gape like the ravening jaws of any beast

To let the furious invaders down

Into the bowels of the earth, and close

Upon those grisly men of way, whose life

Groans from the prison that shall crush it out.

CHORUS.

Be thou most blessed of the Lord for ever!

FIRST ELDER.

But what shall he that hath delivered us

Have for his guerdon when he comes in triumph?

SECOND ELDER.

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

THIRD ELDER.

And wreaths of roses be instead of dust.

FOURTH ELDER.

And dancing girls --

FIFTH ELDER.

And feet of maidens most

Shall strike a measure of delight.

SIXTH ELDER.

And boys

With bright unsullied curls shall minister

Before him all the days of life God grants.

SEVENTH ELDER.

And all his platters shall be made of gold.

EIGHTH ELDER.

And jewels beyond price shall stud them all. {81A}

And my wife’s eyes were welcome more desired

Than chains of roses, and the song of children,

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

CHORUS.

Fie on thy railing! But his wife is sick,

And cannot leave the borders of her house.

AHINOAM.

But he hath one fair only daughter! Friends,

With maidens bearing trimbrels, and with dances,

Let her go forth and bring her father home.

JARED ["aside"].

Horrible! I must speak and silence this

Monstrous impossible villainy of fate.

CHORUS.

O wise old man, thou speakest cleverly.

AHINOAM.

So do, and praise be given you from God.

ELEAZAR.

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

He only keepeth Israel: He is God!

CHORUS.

When God uplifted hands to smite,

And earth from chaos was unrolled;

When skies and seas from blackest night

Unfurled, twin sapphires set with gold;

When tumult of the boisterous deep

Roared from its slow ungainly sleep,

And flocks of heaven were driven to fold;

Then rose the walls of Israel steep,

For in His promise we behold

The sworded Sons of glory leap

Our tribes in peace to keep.

Deep graven in the rocky girth

Of Israel’s mountains, in the sky,

In all the waters of the earth,

In all the fiery steeds that ply {82A}

CHORUS.

Fair as the dawn is the maiden wise;

Pale as the poppies by still white water!

Sunlight burns in her pure deep eyes;

Love lights the tresses of Jephthah’s daughter.

Kissing rays of the moon have caught her,

Rays of the moon that sleeps and sighs.

JARED ["aside"].

In our disgrace, behold! our vengeance strikes.

I am inspired with so profound a hate --

He shall not triumph: in the very hour

When his o’ermastering forehead tops the sky

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

Silence -- no more -- and all accomplishes.

Leviathan, how subtle is thy path!

CHORUS.

Not now may the hour of gladness fade,

The wheel of our fate spins bright and beaming.

God has fashioned a sun from shade.

Mercy and joy in one tide are streaming.

Fortune is powerless, to all good seeming.

Fate is stricken, and flees afraid.

JARED.

Bring me the sackcloth and the ashes now!

ELEAZAR.

Behold! the crown of all our maiden wreath,

Adulah, white and lissome, with the flames

Of dawn forth blushing through her flower-crowned hair.

CHORUS.

Behold a virgin to the Lord!

Behold a maiden pale as death,

Whose glance is silver as a sword,

And flowers of Kedar fill her breath,

Whose fragrance saturates the sward,

Whose sunny perfume floating saith:

From my ineffable desire is drawn

The awful glory of the golden dawn. {83A}

Pure spirits rise to heaven, the bride.

Pure bodies are as lamps below.

The shining essence, glorified

With fire more cold than fresh-fallen snow,

And influences, white and wide,

Descend, re-gather, kindle, grow,

Till from one virgin bosom flows a river

Of white devotion adamant for ever.

"Enter" ADULAH "and her Maidens."

ADULAH.

Fathers of Israel, we are come to you

With many maidens praising God, for this

The victory of my father. Happy girls!

Whose brothers struck to-day for Israel,

Whose fathers smote the heathen; happiest,

Ye blushing flowers, beyond your younger spring

That bends in you toward summer, faint and fair,

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

O reverend heads, most beautiful for gray,

The comely crown of age, that doth beseem

Your wise sweet beauty, as the ivy wreathes

The rugged glory of the sycamore,

Have ye heard aught of Jephthah’s homecoming?

For our cheeks tingle with the expected kiss

Of hardy warriors dear to us, and now

By double kinship rendered doubly dear.

For O! my father comes to gladden me

With those enduring kisses that endow

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

ELEAZAR.

Maiden most perfect, daughter of our lord,

And ye, most fairest branches of our tree,

Maidens of Israel, we await you here

That ye, no other, may go forth to meet

The chief victorious. And after you {84A}

ELEAZAR.

Mingled emotions quickly following

Fear upon fear, and joy and hope at last

Crowning, have maddened Jephthah’s kinsman here.

Mark his lips muttering, and his meaningless

Furious gestures, and indignant eyes

Starting, and hard-drawn breath! Him lead away

Tenderly, as beseems the mercy shown

To his repentance by this maiden queen.

The Lord is merciful to them that show

Mercy, and all such as are pure of heart;

Thy crown, Adulah, wears a double flower

Of these fair blossoms wreathed in one device

Of perfect love in perfect maidenhood.

JARED ["recovering himself"].

Nay, but my voice must fill the song of joy

With gratitude, and meet thanksgiving. Me

More than these others it beseems, who love

Less dearly for their innocence than I,

Pardoned of my unpardonable sin.

ADULAH.

The flowers turn westerward; the sun is down

Almost among those clouds that kiss the sea

With heavy lashes drooping over it,

A mother watching her own daughter swoon

To sleep. But look toward the southern sky;

It is my father. Let us go to him,

Maidens, with song and gladness of full hearts.

SEMICHORUS OF MAIDENS I.

The conqueror rides at last

To home, to love;

The victory is past,

The white-wing dove

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

Jephthah! {85A}

ELEAZAR.

Go ye, make ready for the happy march.

["Exeunt" ADULAH "and Maidens."

And we too, changing these funereal vestments

Will clothe in moonlike splendour, candid robes

Of priestly purity, our joyous selves.

Of fortunate day! O measured steps of noon,

Quicken, if once ye stayed for Joshua,

To keep sweet music to our hearts. Away!

["Exeunt all but" JARED.

JARED.

I will await, and hide myself away

Behind yon bushes, to behold the plot

Bud to fulfilment. Then, Leviathan,

I am thy master. Mockery of a God

That seest this thing prosper -- Ha! thine Altar!

Let me give thanks, Jehovah! O thou God

That rulest Israel as sheep and slaves,

But over me no ruler; thou proud God

That marshallest these petty thunder-clouds

That blacken over the inane abyss

Buts canst not tame one fierce desire of mine,

Nor satiate my hatred, nor destroy

This power of mine over thy devil-brood,

The hatchment of thine incest, O thou God

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

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

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

To thine own Hell, immeasurable -

A VOICE.

Strike!

["The storm, gathering to a climax, bursts in a tremendous flash of

lightning, and" JARED "is killed." {86A}

"Enter" ELEAZAR "and Chorus."

ELEAZAR.

Most welcome, conqueror!

[JEPHTHAH "waves him aside."

What is this! What is this!

CHORUS.

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

["Silence. After a little the Chorus of Maidens understand, and break

into wailing. The old men gradually understand and fill the air

with incoherent lamentations. Behind" JEPHTHAH "the soldiers, with

white lips, have assumed their military formation, and stand at

attention by a visible effort of self-control."

ADULAH.

My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth

Unto the Lord, fulfil the oath to me,

Because the lord hath taken vengeance for thee

Of all thine enemies, the Ammonites.

Let this be done for me, that I may go

Two months upon the mountains, and bewail,

I and my fellows, my virginity!

JEPHTHAH.

Go!

CHORUS OF MAIDENS.

O the time of dule and teen!

O the dove the hawk has snared!

Would to God we had not been,

We, who see our maiden queen,

Love has slain whom hate had spared.

Sorrow for our sister sways

All our maiden bosoms, bared

To the dying vesper rays,

Where the sun below the bays

Of the West is stooping;

All our heats together drooping,

Flowers the ocean bears.

All the garb that gladness wears {87A}

Where the flashes white and wise

Find their mortal foe.

Let us thither, caring not

Anything, or any more,

Since the sorrow of our lot

Craves to pass the abysmal door.

Never more for us shall twine

Rosy fingers on the vine.

Never maiden lips shall cull

Myriad blossoms beautiful.

Never cheeks shall dimple over

At the perfume of the clover.

Never bosoms bright and round

Shall be garlanded and bound

With the chain of myrtle, wreathed

By the fingers of the maid

Each has chosen for a mate,

When the west wind lately breathed

Murmurs in the wanton glade

Of the day that dawneth late

In a maiden’s horoscope,

Dawning faith and fire and hope

On the sprig that only knew

Flowers and butterflies and dew,

Skies and seas and mountains blue,

On the spring that wot not of

Fruit and falling leaves and love.

Never dew-dasked foreheads fair

Shall salute the idle air.

Never shall we wander deep

Where the fronds of fern, asleep,

Kiss her rosy feet that pass

On the spangled summer grass,

Half awake, and drowse again.

Never more our feet shall stain

Purple with the joyous grape,

Whence there rose a fairy shape

In the fume and must and juice,

Singing lest our eyes escape

All his tunic wried and loose

With the feet that softly trod

In the vat the fairy god.

Never more our eyes shall swim,

Looking for the love of him

In the magic moon that bent

Over maidens moon-content,

When the summer woods were wet

With our dewy songs, that set {88A}

CHORUS.

Toward the mountains and the night

The fruitless flowers of Gilead go;

Toward the hollows weird and white,

Toward the sorrow of the snow;

To desolation black and blind

They move, and leave us death behind.

The Lord is great: the Lord is wise

Within His temple to foresee

With calm impenetrable eyes

The after glory that shall be;

But we, of mortal bodies born,

Laugh lies consoling unto scorn.

The God of Israel is strong;

His mighty arm hath wrought this day

A victory and a triumph-song --

And now He breathes upon His clay,

And we, who were as idols crowned,

Lie dust upon the empty ground.

She goes, our sorrow’s sacrifice,

Our lamb, our firstling, frail and white,

With large sweet love-illumined eyes

Into the night, into the night.

The throne of night shall be withdrawn;

So moveth she toward the dawn.

All peoples and all kings that move

By love and sacrifice inspired

In light and holiness and love,

And seek some end of God desired,

Pass, though they seem to sink in night,

To dawns more perdurably bright.

So priest and people join to praise

The secret wisdom of the Lord,

Awaiting the arisen rays

That smite through heaven as a sword;

Remembering He hath surely sworn:

Toward the night, toward the dawn! {89A}