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24 THE WORLD’S TRAGEDY. THE DOVE Well, you will. We’ll make a rule That anyone who disbelieves it Shall be strictly prosecuted — With the utmost rigour Of the majesty of law. THE LAMB And if any fool believes it — THE DOVE He shall come to live with Us. What a privilege ! THE VULTURE Provided He observe propriety, Never laugh, never dance, Never do the dreadful thing ! THE DOVE Precisely so !
THE GARDEN OF EROS. 23 THE DOVE Of course I will ; I’m accustomed to ’ proceeding’. Let the lamb grow up to manhood. Then we’ll have him whipped and tortured And eventually killed. THE VULTURE That sounds lovely. THE LAMB Do you think so ? I record my vote against it. THE DOVE Stupid ! in a day or so We will have you rise again. THE LAMB Really ! I may be a dullard ; But I cannot see the point Of this most elaborate nonsense.
…HE VULTURE You are out of order, sir. THE LAMB I shall get my own back later In the Theatres of London Where a show of legs decides. THE DOVE By the way — THE VULTURE These sleeping women Are no good to us, of course ? THE DOVE No indeed ! I want a creature Very different to that, THE VULTURE Well, you’ll have a job to find one.
… TRAGEDY. I have magnificent And sublime and noble scheme. Listen ! I will find a woman — THE VULTURE Oh ! you dirty-minded rascal ! THE DOVE Wait a moment — I will do it. Find a virgin — if I can, And on her beget this lambkin In the image of a man. THE VULTURE That seems complicated, pigeon. We’ve the lamb begotten here. THE DOVE Yes, I know ; it seems absurd ; But in practice I am certain It will work out splendidly. THE VULTURE Well, proceed !
THE GARDEN OF EROS. 27 THE DOVE Would you lend me your red star ? THE VULTURE With the greatest pleasure, pigeon ! THE DOVE I’ll be off, then. THE LAMB So will I. THE VULTURE I shall know where I can find you. THE LAMB Would you had a moment’s patience ! I had a much better scheme — One involving pigeon-pie ! THE VULTURE Butch ! be off with you. I’ll hop Up again to the tree-top. Yaugh Waugh ! That’s me ! Always at the top of the tree ! (They depart separately, yet together. The old Philosopher wakes).
THE RED STAR. 47 ALEXANDER He was softer than a dove ; He was made for human love. I have given him for food To the lusty panic rood, And the obscure brotherhood. IST NYMPH So the doves of men begotten Shall be plucked, and bruised, and rotten. 2ND NYMPH So shall full-fed brothel-knaves Kick them to indecent graves In the name of the sweet Dove That is God — for God is Love. ALEXANDER See ye naught but cruelty In the infinite To-Be ? Look you, I have seen a star Threatening pestilence or war In the vault that hangs — a splash Like a scar.
…mingly unanimously Carried by a show of wings. THE LAMB I protest. THE VULTURE You did not vote. THE LAMB If I had a pair of wings — THE DOVE You might fly ; and so might pigs ! THE VULTURE Pray, sir, do not mention pigs ! Gru — utch ! Scheme approved, and entered in The Minutes. I declare the board Quite indefinitely adjourned.
…t it be a boy. I would enjoy His love. Who hath come forth with such keen pain Owes keener pleasure, going back again. A curse upon that Dove.
… know, the dazzling dream Of the swimmer in the stream. Boy to girl and maid to man, Mine are all joys of Pan. Chrysis seeks the darling dove, Gets the eagle to her love. Hylas, trembling towards the pine, Finds the soft voluptuous vine. RHODOPE Curl ye close ! Curl ye close ! Fold your petals like the rose ! All the satyr’s lust of limb ; All the delicate and slim Slenderness of laughing faun Twine like serpents on the lawn ;
…s sad behaviour, This gross impropriety, Irreligion — Uck ! it’s awful. Squat, then ! Pigeon, you’re the youngest : You speak first. THE DOVE Almighty father !
…’s station. They shall cling to degradation, Dance to the clank of the chains that eat Deep ulcers in their fettered feet. Lock love the dove in a close cage, And loose the tiger marriage : To the camel of joy be a needle’s eye, And a wolf’s-throat to monogamy. Youth’s lusty god shall turn them sick, While they dote on age’s gilded stick. Beauty shall shiver in the cold While they warm their buttocks at the fire
…S EVADNE HERACLEITUS a Philosopher. ANTINOUS } CHRYSIPPUS, his disciple. GITON Young boys YAUGH WAUGH. A man vulture. HYLAS A lambkin. A dove. THE PERSONS OF THE TRAGEDY ALEXANDER, a wise king, ruling An ox. Macedon, Babylonia, etc. ZAKARIAH, an ass. TWO SATYRs. GOVINDA, king of the Indies. A fair man child. CHAU, SON of HEAVEN, king of Tar- TWO NYMPHS. tary and China. MIRIAM a Syrian Girl. A company of rats. A white-robed youth. A company of toads. Legions of apes, worms and monsters. A brass bottle containing a Mannikin AGRIPPA, a Roman centu…
… Whirling the spumy scud Of the lake into a column of ecstasy ! Like a sharp spear it rushes up to me, And in my face it flutters like a dove Whispering strange words of love. It sunders me ! it cuts me — now, ah ! touch ! These empty arms that grope, that strain, that clutch Mere air, grow limp..... The wind is like a scythe That cuts its swathe through my green field, Even as I groan and writhe In the agony that pierces to the marrow. The wind ! the wind ! an arrow That hath smitten me through the shield — I float in mine own virgin tide Let …
…ans, anxious about humanity. He is not squeamish about a little blood, his own or another’s, and he discovers the plot. Next we find the dove achieving his foul purpose, not on a pure laughing Pagan girl, but on a furtive lecherous girl, already half a Christian. Enough of this painful subject ! Now comes the Nativity, with the guardians, under Alexander’s presidency, on the watch. They are perfectly indifferent to all but the secret purpose — more magical ethics, my disciples ! They are moved neither to pity nor to disgust, for the Great Pity …