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…in the viewless iron And velvet vice of a singing siren ! I lift this blade to sheer In one deliberate sweep Of startling light All that man holdeth dear. From the sun’s high steep to the great deep Of unimaginable night To dive — I dive. Lord, now ! Pan ! Pan ! Accept the supreme vow ! The man Shall be no more a man — Stay ! who are these ?
… The pedestal is of lapis-lazuli, the space around of malachite. It is strewn with red roses. Before the image of the god stands a naked man, in whose hand is a sharp sword heavy and curved. Its blade is of blue steel, its hilt encrusted with rubies. The man is come to his full strength ; he is very dark with deep-set glittering eyes of green flecked with fire. His beard is short, square, curly, and black mingled with red. It is noon ; the sun stands sole and supreme in the abyss of azure. The grove is completely hidden from the outer world by …
THE PERSONS OF THE PROLOGUE MARSYAS } ANAXIMANDER } SILENUS Satyrs LYSANDER Men CHIRON ANAXAGORAS RHODON } CHRYSIS } SALMACIS Hermaphrodites DORIS Nymphs EROTION ATTHIS HELIORUS } RHODOPE } HYACINTHUS Fauns ERINNA Girls OLYMPAS 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 H…
…IGHT SCENE. — The thick darkness of the Emptiness of Things. Yet in the midst appears a certain glory veiling the figure of a tall stern man, the king Alexander. In his hand is a black rod clothed with twin glittering snakes, the royal Uraeus serpents of ancient Khem ; at its point gleams faint and blue A star of six rays, whose light now illumines the pale and tortured features of a man, with outstret- ched arms, who is hanging (apparently) in space. It is Issa, but the weariness is gone ; and noble-strong is the scarred brow of his agony. ALE…
II8 THE WORLD’S TRAGEDY. ISSA I am ? ALEXANDER Man, at mine essay. By the Balance reaching forth To the south and to the North Have I consecrated thee Co-victim with humanity. O mis-begotten, miscreate Dwarf as thou wast, the child of hate ; Thou who hast felt the sordidness Of thine own effect on thine own distress ; Art come thereby to the stature of man By my power, who am Pan. And by this death shalt laugh to know Thy father’s final overthrow. My soul the heights and depths has spanned. I hold the star-streams in mine hand. I am the master …
… arises in me Like a warrior weary of slaughter Striding to the striped lair Of deftly-woven camel’s hair, Where the trembling captive-woman Waits his pleasure-hour inhuman ! All the roots of love and power Flushed at last into a flower. All the films of sense dissolved ; All the spirit sight evolved, So that after myriad aeons Filled with trumpet-pealing paeans, With the nuptial bliss of man Prostituted unto Pan, Rises on the vast inane Your dread red star again ! O star, thy secret I possess : I, watcher for man’s happiness. I go to ward thy …
…the liver ; fever swells the spleen ; Meat clogs the belly ; dusts inflames the eye : Stone irks the bladder ; gout — plague — leprosy ! Man born of woman is most full of trouble ; God a gorged fool that belches him, a bubble ! — But of all plagues wherewith a man is cursed, Take my word for it, woman is the worst ! JOHN Maybe, dear Lord, of all the words men say Of thine, that one shall never pass away. But what hath the wench done ?
… for subtle truth, The essential youth Of all things is corrupt. I will away Into the mystic palaces of Pan Hidden from day, Hidden from man, Awaiting there the coming of the Sphinx Whose genius drinks The poison of this pestilence, and saves The world from all its lords and slaves. Ho ! for his chariot-wheels that whirl afar ! His hawk’s eye flashing through the silver star ! Upon the heights his standard shall be plant Free, equal, passionate, pagan, dominant, Mystic, indomitable, self-controlled, The red rose glowing on its cross of gold... …
…ultimately “ I will do as I like ”, and I suspect my father’s heroics only meant that he thought a slump was coming. Their attitude to human reason, too, was simply won- derful. Some Wicked Man would point out that the Jonah story was contrary to our experience of possibility. THE P. B. — The word is not “ whale ” in the Hebrew : it probably means “ dog-shark ”. (This “ solution ” is actually printed in a book of the liar and slanderer Torrey). THE W. M. — Our experience of dog-sharks tells us — THE P. B. — What, after all, is human reason ? To…
I36 THE WORLD’S TRAGEDY. PUBLIUS Death was duty’s one divorcement. AGRIPPA Pooh ! The stern old Roman ! Fudge ! Even Horatio would budge. Kill that Jew, men ! A SOLDIER Heard and done. ISSA It is finished ! PUBLIUS Ill begun When the Roman virtue sleeps ! AGRIPPA Death, man ! See the tide that sweeps From his side, a pinkish flood Of foaming water mixed with blood. It swells; it washes all the hill —
…8 THE WORLD’S TRAGEDY. IST NYMPH From what a lash ! 2ND NYMPH O the monstrous travail—gape In the belly of the sky ! IST NYMPH Shall the man beget the ape, All the wine of time run dry ? 2ND NYMPH Ah ! the grisly spoil of rape Dark with vilest ecstasy ! IST NYMPH Listen, how shall life escape From such death it breedeth by ? 2ND NYMPH Hangs there not a single grape From that nightshade galaxy ?
XXXVI PREFACE. formal or informal pledged to the guardianship of mankind. With this postulate the way is clear. In the prologue we find innocence : Pagan love, Pagan music, Pagan mysticism, and we find the Sabbatarians pretty sick about it, like the fox that lost his tail. We next find Alexander, one of the guardians, 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 gir…
92 THE WORLD’S TRAGEDY. Whose windy letch hath blown me out Like a rich man with flatulence and gout ! THE HAG Ho ! stanch thy throttle ! Come forth ! She delivers her. O jest insane ! For all this pious pain Naught but an old brass bottle ! GOVINDA Maybe it holds the two and seventy Jinn That Solomon screwed in. ALEXANDER More like, the wine that Dionysus spilled From Cyprus grapes distilled. CHAU We lose our wagers ? It may be Best to unscrew it, and to see.
22 THE WORLD’S 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 !
IV THE BLACK BEAN SCENE — A small Syrian mud hut. On a truckle bed strewn with dirty straw lie a naked man and woman. MAGDA Give me more money, Baa-Baa, for a kiss ; One of my kisses. ISSA Youdesh has the bag. (A pause.) Also I weary of thy sordidness. Love is at bottom a most noisome hag. Mother and brothers ! all the pageant passes Like a loud caravan of braying asses ; And now I — love thee ! in this hole of hell. A rotting camel by a dried-up well !
I30 THE WORLD’S TRAGEDY. AGRIPPA So I have heard. Last year I flirted With Isis — but was unconverted. If this man’s prophet loose my nails I’ll gibe no more at prophet’s whales. PUBLIUS I loathe and despise all kinds of fiction Whether or no it ease life’s friction. AGRIPPA Anoint the next fair lambkin’s fleece With rock-sand in the stead of grease. PUBLIUS He speaks again. ISSA Forgive me, brothers ! I knew not what I did. PUBLIUS His mother’s Here; wants the body.
… mystic art. She knows the trick to curl Dried leaves in fire, and augur thence. I bought her in the mart From an old Greek — a vile old man ! He told me she was a Bohemian ; And by a fabulous conjuring with cards Indeed she can divine. CHAU So can our bards. These girls are shifty. GOVINDA Maybe so ; but list ! (I pray you) She can take an amethyst And see a thousand visions. CHAU So can I
…e head of a goat and the nose of a Jew And the... GOVINDA Would your Pasiphae challenge him lightly ? CHAU Truly, a marvel. Come, little man ! We kiss your hands, and sail back home Over the desert and over the foam. ALEXANDER And I go back to the grove of Pan. GOVINDA What is thy name ? I will proclaim Thy marvellous fame From the Gulf of Kutch to the shores of Orissa. MIRIAM I pray your Majesty, call him Issa.
XXX PREFACE. defining Christianity as the religious expression of the slave- spirit in man. I do not wish to argue that the doctrines of Jesus, they and they alone, have degraded the world to its present con- dition. I take it that Christianity is not only the cause but the symptom of slavery. There were slaves in Rome, of course, even under the republic. But it was only through Paul that the slime found tongue, and uttered its agony and blasphemy. Now, through the steady growth of alt- ruism pari-passu with the Gospel that advocates it, the wo…
52 THE WORLD’S TRAGEDY. In our innermost ravines Inaccessible to man, That our perfect peace in Pan Hide from us the knowledge of This eclipse of joy and love ! ALEXANDER Is there nothing but distress In the mystic vision lurking ? IST NYMPH Ah ! but were thy loveliness With the God supremely working ! ALEXANDER Nymph, thy face is like a flower Fairer than the driven foam ! Shining like an honeycomb Is thy body — and thy soul Shoots me to the gilded goal. I shall master yet the hour. SATYRS King of Kings, we bow before Thee ; As our Master we a…