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Page 1 of 21898 · PDF PAGE 48
…and greets us with a joyous neigh As if he understood the victory. Enter Second Messenger. SECOND MESSENGER. Rejoice, O Israel, for this day hath seen Utter destruction overtake, and death Ride furious over, trampled necks of men Desperate in vain, and seen red hell gape wide To swallow up the heathen. Victory Swells the red-gleaming torrent of pursuit, And Israel shakes her lazy flanks at last A lion famished, and is greedy of death. CHORUS. O joyful day! And where is Jephthah now? | MESSENGER. Faint with the heat of a hard battle fought, But …
1898 · PDF PAGE 73
…HAH. 69 He hath given and taken away, hath made us and broken; He hath made the blue and the gray, the sea for a token ; He hath made to-day and to-morrow ; the winter, the spring; He bringeth us joy out of sorrow ; Jehovah is King. [Exeunt. Jephthah ts left standing with white set face. Presently tears come into his eves, and he advances, and kneels at the altar. THE END.
1898 · PDF PAGE 8
…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 75
…ccordance with tradition. Great captains were always great priests, in the secret Qabalistical sense. The priests themselves, then as to-day, were foolish old men trained to bolster up the externals of religion. The real rulers, then as to-day, were not, officially, priests ; the sceptre was wielded by those who, swathed in thick darkness, and enthroned on their own thunderclouds, looked with the eye of gods upon this earth, and carried out the designs of God with tranquil power. I have depicted such a Servant of God stepping down from his thro…
1898 · PDF PAGE 45
…God is glad thereat. PROPHET. I charge you in the name of God, go not ! ‘I see a mischief fallen on your souls Most bitter. Aye! an evil day is this If ye go forth with such a sacrifice, And vows most hideous in their consequence. SOLDIERS. It is the prophet of the Lord. JEPHTHAH. Possessed By Baal; scourge him hence; he lies, for God With powerful proof and many lightnings came Devouring up the offering at the altar. PROPHET. O Jephthah, it is thou on whom it falls, The sorrow grievous as thy life is dear. A SOLDIER. He is the prophet of the B…
1898 · PDF PAGE 51
…llainy 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 sleep, And flocks of heaven were driven to fold, Then rose the walls of Israel] steep, For in His promise we behold The swo…
1898 · PDF PAGE 17
…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 67
JEPHTHAH. 63 Sharp and black, till day is passed Over to the ocean vast ; Where the barren rocks resound Only to the rending roar Of the shattering streams that pour Rocks by ice eternal bound, Myriad cascades that crowned Once the far resounding throne Of the mountain spirits strong, All the treacherous souls that throng Desolate abodes of stone, Barren of all comely things, Given to the splendid kings, Gloomy state, and glamour dark, Swooping jewel-feathered wings, Eyes translucent with a spark Of the world of fire, that swings Gates of adama…
1898 · PDF PAGE 71
…hall 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 in…
1898 · PDF PAGE 26
… voice of the triumph of prayer. 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 u…
1898 · PDF PAGE 50
… 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 lusty days of youth my face Turned from the battle and pursuit and spoil Only to one face dearer than my soul, 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 th…
1898 · PDF PAGE 55
…h and salamander meet, And gnome and undine swoon for love ! Her feet that flit upon the windy way Twin fawns, the daughters of the rosy day. Behold, the arms of her desire Wave, weave, and wander in the air, Vines life-endued by subtle fire So quick and comely, curving bare ; The white diaphanous attire Floats like a spirit pale and fair ; The dance is woven of the breeze, the tune Is like the ocean silvered by the moon. Behold the maidens following, And every one is like a flower, Or like an ewe lamb of the king That comes from water at the h…
1898 · PDF PAGE 56
… 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
1898 · PDF PAGE 68
…e, 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 spring 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-dashed foreheads fair Shall salute the idle air; Never feet shall wander deep | Where the fronds of fern, asleep, Kiss her rosy feet that pass On the spangled su…
1898 · PDF PAGE 38
…hou 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. [Exzt 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, pas…
1898 · PDF PAGE 62
…oo, changing these funereal vestments Will clothe in moonlike splendour, candid robes Of priestly purity, our joyous selves. O 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, Bu…
1898 · PDF PAGE 27
…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 Victors—so best God speed us—and for worst Death round our cities horrible and vas…
1898 · PDF PAGE 57
JEPHTHAH. 53 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 home-coming ? For our cheeks tingle with th’ 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 gla…
1898 · PDF PAGE 39
…, And wrestle with th’ accuser. So, depart! CHORUS OF ELDERS. 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, When the light by the southward is dwindled, And the clouds as for sleep are unfurled, The moon in the east is rekindled, The hope of the passionate world. The stars for a token of glory Flash fire in the eyes of the night, And the holy immaculate story Of Heaven is flushed into light. For the night has a whisper to wake us, And the su…
1898 · PDF PAGE 21
…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, Cc