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Page 1 of 21898 · PDF PAGE 12
8 JEPHTHAH. CHORUS. And who shall bridle him, or turn his way? For Fate alone of gods, inflexible, And careless of men’s deeds, is firm in heaven. PROPHET. I see a sword whose hilt is to thy hand. CHORUS. But which of us shall wield the shining blade? 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 …
1898 · PDF PAGE 13
JEPHTHAH. 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 u…
1898 · PDF PAGE 11
…The awful thong his hand is heavy with. ELEAZAR. Speak, for the god compels, and we behold. PROPHET. A harlot shall be mother of Israel. CHORUS. He speaks of her who sighed for Gilead. PROPHET. A maiden shall be slain for many men. CHORUS. A doubtful word, and who shall fathom it? | PROPHET. Thy help is from the hills and desert lands. CHORUS. Our help is from the hills: we know the Lord. PROPHET. Death rides most violently against the sun.
1898 · PDF PAGE 64
… them that trouble me; for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back. ADULAH. My father, O my father! 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! [Szlence. After a little the Chorus of Maidens understand, and break into watling. The old men gradually understand, and fill the atr with incoherent lamentations. BehindJephthah the soldiers, with white lips, have assumed their military formation, and s…
1898 · PDF PAGE 19
… 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 hither. Shall we rather flee ? ELEAZAR. I stand here manly, and will die a man. CHORUS. For cowardice not pleases God, nor fear. Shall we not take up weapons? Or shall He Rather defend us with His Holy Arm, We not presuming in our arrogance To come with cunning, and defend ourselves ? ELEAZAR. Nay, but God smites with sharpness of our swords, CHORUS. The s…
1898 · PDF PAGE 50
46 JEPHTHAH. | AHINOAM. They verily think I speak, not mocking them. | CHORUS. Who shall uncover such a tongue for wiles, And pluck his meaning from his subtle words ? AHINOAM. Who shall speak plain enough for such as these To understand? Or so debase his thought As meet their minds, and seem as wisdom’s self? CHORUS. Leave now thy gibing in the hour of joy, And lend sweet wisdom to awaiting ears. Thy voice shall carry it, thy words shall bear Full fruit to-day. Speak only, it is done. AHINOAM. I am grown old, and go not out to wars. But in the…
1898 · PDF PAGE 51
…et her go forth and bring her father home. JARED [aszae]. 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 sliumbered not, nor slept, He only keepeth Israel: He is God! CHORUS. When God uplifted hands to smite, And earth from chaos was unrolled, And skies and seas from blackest night Unfurled, twin sapphires set with gold, And tumult of the boisterous deep Roared from its slow ungainly sl…
1898 · PDF PAGE 46
…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 th’ unquiet wind, Nor trembles in the pillared echo-places, And windy corridors of pathless snow. But let us wait, expecting victory. No fugitive returns, nor messenger : They have not shocked together, or perchance The grim fight rolls its sickening tide along
1898 · PDF PAGE 54
50. JEPHTHAH. 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 …
1898 · PDF PAGE 9
JEPHTHAH. Eleazar. Pvrophet. Chorus. CHORUS. OW is our sin requited of the Lord. For, scorning Jephthah for an harlot’s son, We cast him forth from us, and said: Begone, Thou shalt not enter in with us; thy mouth 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 l…
1898 · PDF PAGE 33
JEPHTHAH. 209 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…
1898 · PDF PAGE 53
JEPHTHAH. 49 In sackcloth clad, with ashes on their heads, His crue] brethren, that he spare their lives. CHORUS. In the heart of a conqueror mercy sits A brighter jewel than vengeance wroken, And grace is the web that his people knits, And love is the balm for the hearts nigh broken. Peace is arisen, a dove for token, Righteousness, bright as the swallow fiits. JARED [aszde}. So, in his victory is our disgrace. 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 ligh…
1898 · PDF PAGE 49
…HAH. 45 Into the bowels of the earth, and close Upon those grisly men of war, whose life Groans from the prison that shall crush it out. CHORUS OF ELDERS. Be thou most blessed of the Lord for ever! But what shall he that hath delivered us Have for his guerdon when he comes in triumph ? A milk-white ass shall bear him through the city, And wreaths of roses be instead of dust, And dancing girls, and feet of maidens most, Shall strike a measure of delight, and boys With bright unsullied curls shall minister Before him all the days of life God gran…
1898 · PDF PAGE 8
…rael. AHINOAM, an aged Priest. First Messenger. Second Messenger. First Herald. Second Herald. Soldiers of Jephthah. Soldiers of Israel. Chorus of Elders of Israel. Maidens of Israel. SCENE :—An Open Place before Mizpeh. In the midst an Altar. TiME :—The duration of the play is from noon of the first day to dawn of the third.
1898 · PDF PAGE 61
JEPHTHAH. 57 SEMICHORUS II. With hearts infused of fire, Eyes clear with many waters, With lips to air that quire, We, earth’s desirous daughters, Lift up the song of triumph, sound the lutes of our desire! Elohim ! SEMICHORUS I. With branches strewn before us, And roses flung In all the ways, we chorus With throat and tongue The glory of our warrior sires whose victor swords restore us Jephthah! SEMICHORUS II. With angels vast and calm That keep his way, With streams of holy balm, The prayers of them that pray, We go to bring him home and rais…
1898 · PDF PAGE 70
…ather, O my father! I am passing Into the night. Remember me as drawn Into the night toward the golden dawn. [Exeunt Adulah and Maidens. CHORUS. Toward the mountains and the night The fairest of all Israel 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
1898 · PDF PAGE 17
…le yet the foemen are far off ; but now They howl and clamour at our very gates. ‘ ELEAZAR. Blaspheme not God, but tell thy woeful news. CHORUS. I fear me for the sorrow that he speaks. MESSENGER. The tribe of Ephraim went forth to fight Armed, and with bows, and turned them back to-day.
1898 · PDF PAGE 65
…onites. 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 ! Fate the cruel and obscene, Fate that snaps us unprepared, We, who else had dared Every mountain cold and keen, Cleft and stricken in between By the joy our bosoms shared ; 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 th…
1898 · PDF PAGE 43
JEPHTHAH. 39 That shall see freedom smile on us, and peace, And victory, and new hours of happiness, CHORUS OF SOLDIERS. Out of the waters of the sea Our father Abraham beheld The lamp of heaven arise and be The monarch quenchless and unquelled ; But we on this far Syrian shore See dawn upon the mountains pour. 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…
1898 · PDF PAGE 72
…xed fast upon the fountain-head Whence from Eternity is drawn The awful glory of the dawn! ELEAZAR. Let every man depart unto his house. CHORUS. He hath made His face as a fire; His wrath as a sword; He hath smitten our soul’s desire; He is the Lord.