PILATE. Longinus.
LONGINUS. Lord.
PILATE [_giving scroll_]. Your warrant. Take the key.
Go to Barabbas' cell and set him free,
The mob has chosen him.
LONGINUS. And Jesus?
PILATE. Wait.
He can be scourged and put outside the gate,
With warning not to make more trouble here.
See that the sergeant be not too severe.
I want to spare him.
LONGINUS. And the Jew, the Priest,
Outside?
PILATE. I'll see him now.
LONGINUS. Passover Feast
Always brings trouble, Lord. All shall be done.
Dismiss?
PILATE. Dismiss. [_Exit_ LONGINUS.
There's blood about the sun,
This earthquake weather presses on the brain.
_Enter_ PROCULA.
You?
PROCULA. Dear, forgive me, if I come again
About this Jesus, but I long to know
What Herod said. Did he dismiss him?
PILATE. No.
He sent him back to me for me to try,
The charge being local.
PROCULA. Have you tried him?
PILATE. Ay,
Henceforth he will be kept outside the walls.
Now, listen, wife: whatever dream befalls,
Never again send word to me in Court
To interrupt a case. The Jews made sport
Of what you dreamed and what you bade me fear
About this Jesus man. The laws are clear.
I must apply them, asking nothing more
Than the proved truth. Now tell me of your dream:
What was it? Tell me then.
PROCULA. I saw a gleam
Reddening the world out of a blackened sky,
Then in the horror came a hurt thing's cry
Protesting to the death what no one heard.
PILATE. What did it say?
PROCULA. A cry, no spoken word
But crying, and a horror, and a sense
Of one poor man's naked intelligence,
Pitted against the world and being crushed.
Then, waking, there was noise; a rabble rushed
Following this Jesus here, crying for blood,
Like beasts half-reptile in a jungle mud.
And all the horror threatening in the dim,
In what I dreamed of, seemed to threaten him....
So in my terror I sent word to you,
Begging you dearly to have nought to do
With that wise man.
PILATE. I grant he says wise things.
Too wise by half, and too much wisdom brings
Trouble, I find. It disagrees with men.
We must protect him from his wisdom then.
PROCULA. What have you done to him?
PILATE. Made it more hard
For him to wrangle in the Temple yard
Henceforth, I hope.
_Enter_ LONGINUS.
PROCULA. You have not punished him?
PILATE. Warned him.
LONGINUS. The envoy from the Sanhedrim
Is here, my lord.
PILATE. Go. I must see him. Stay.
You and your women, keep within to-day.
It is the Jewish Feast and blood runs high
Against us Romans when the zealots cry
Songs of their old Deliverance through the land.
Stay, yet. Lord Herod says that he has planned
To visit us to-night, have all prepared.
PROCULA. I would have gone to Herod had I dared,
To plead for this man Jesus. All shall be
Made ready. Dear, my dream oppresses me.
[_Exit._
PILATE. It is this earthquake weather: it will end
After a shock. Farewell.
_Enter_ CHIEF CITIZEN.
CHIEF CIT. Hail, Lord and friend.
I come about a man in bonds with you,
One Jesus, leader of a perverse crew
That haunts the Temple.
PILATE. Yes, the man is here.
CHIEF CIT. Charged with sedition?
PILATE. It did not appear
That he had been seditious. It was proved
That he had mocked at rites which people loved.
No more than that. I have just dealt with him.
You wish to see him?
CH. CIT. No, the Sanhedrim
Send me to tell you of his proved intent.
You know how, not long since, a prophet went
Through all Judæa turning people's brains
With talk of One coming to loose their chains?
PILATE. John the Baptiser whom old Herod killed.
CH. CIT. The Jews expect that word to be fulfilled,
They think that One will come. This Jesus claims
To be that Man, Son of the Name of Names,
The Anointed King who will arise and seize
Israel from Rome and you. Such claims as these
Might be held mad in other times than ours.
PILATE. He is not mad.
CH. CIT. But when rebellion lowers
As now, from every hamlet, every farm,
One word so uttered does unreckoned harm.
PILATE. How do you know this?
CH. CIT. From a man, his friend,
Frightened by thought of where such claims would end.
There had been rumors, yet we only heard
The fact but now. We send you instant word.
PILATE. Yes. This is serious news. Would I had known.
But none the less, this Jesus is alone.
A common country preacher, as men say,
No more than that, he leads no big array;
No one believes his claim?
CH. CIT. At present, no.
He had more friends a little while ago,
Before he made these claims of being King.
PILATE. You know about him then?
CH. CIT. His ministering
Was known to us, of course.
PILATE. And disapproved?
CH. CIT. Not wholly, no; some, truly; some we loved.
At first he only preached. He preaches well.
PILATE. What of?
CH. CIT. Of men, and of escape from hell
By good deeds done. But when he learned his power
And flatterers came, then, in an evil hour,
As far as I can judge, his head was turned.
A few days past, from all that we have learned
He made this claim, and since persists therein.
Deluders are best checked when they begin.
So, when we heard it from this frightened friend,
We took this course to bring it to an end.
PILATE. Rightly. I thank you. Do I understand
That friends have fallen from him since he planned
To be this King?
CH. CIT. They have, the most part.
PILATE. Why?
What makes them turn?
CH. CIT. The claim is blasphemy
Punished by death under the Jewish laws.
PILATE. And under ours, if sufficient cause
Appear, and yet, if all the Jews despise
This claimant's folly, would it not be wise
To pay no heed, not make important one
Whom all contemn?
CH. CIT. His evil is not done.
His claim persists, the rabble's mind will turn.
Better prevent him, Lord, by being stern.
The man has power.
PILATE. That is true, he has.
CH. CIT. His is the first claim since the Baptist was,
Better not let it thrive.
PILATE. It does not thrive.
CH. CIT. All ill weeds prosper, Lord, if left alive.
The soil is ripe for such a weed as this.
The Jews await a message such as his,
The Anointed Man, of whom our Holy Books
Prophesy much. The Jewish people looks
For Him to come.
PILATE. These ancient prophecies
Are drugs to keep crude souls from being wise.
Time and again Rome proves herself your friend,
Then some mad writing brings it to an end.
Time and again, until my heart is sick.
Dead prophets spreading madness in the quick.
And now this Jesus whom I hoped to save.
Have you the depositions?
CH. CIT. Yes, I have.
PILATE. Give me.
CH. CIT. This is the docquet.
PILATE. This is grave.
CH. CIT. I thought that you would think so.
PILATE. I will learn
What he can say to this and then return.
Wait. I must speak. Although I shall not spare
Anyone, man or woman, who may dare
To make a claim that threatens Roman rule,
I do not plan to be a priestly tool.
I know your Temple plots; pretend not here
That you, the priest, hold me, the Roman, dear.
You, like the other Jews, await this King
Who is to set you free, who is to ding
Rome down to death, as your priests' brains suppose.
This case of Jesus shows it, plainly shows.
He and his claim were not at once disowned;
You waited, while you thought "He shall be throned,
We will support him, if he wins the crowd."
You would have, too. He would have been endowed
With all your power to support his claim
Had he but pleased the rabble as at first.
But, since he will not back the priestly aim,
Nor stoop to lure the multitude, you thirst
To win my favor by denouncing him.
This rebel does not suit the Sanhedrim.
I know.... The next one may.
CH. CIT. You wrong us, Sire.
PILATE. Unless he blench, you 'complish your desire
With Jesus, though; there is no king save Rome
Here, while I hold the reins. Wait till I come.
[_Exit_ PILATE.
THE MADMAN. Only a penny, a penny,
Lilies brighter than any
White lilies picked for the Feast.
_He enters, tapping with his stick._
I am a poor old man who cannot see,
Will the great noble present tell to me
If this is the Paved Court?
CH. CIT. It is.
MADMAN. Where men
Beg for a prisoner's freedom?
CH. CIT. Yes. What then?
MADMAN. I come to help the choosing.
CH. CIT. You can go.
MADMAN. Where, lord?
CH. CIT. Why, home. You hear that noise below,
Or are you deaf?
MADMAN. No, lordship, only blind.
CH. CIT. Come this-day-next-year if you have the mind.
This year you come too late, go home again.
MADMAN. Lord. Is the prisoner loosed?
CH. CIT. Yes, in the lane.
Can you not hear them cry "Barabbas" there?
MADMAN. Barabbas, Lord?
CH. CIT. The prisoner whom they bear
In triumph home.
MADMAN. Barabbas?
CH. CIT. Even he.
MADMAN. Are not you wrong, my Lord?
CH. CIT. Why should I be?
MADMAN. There was another man in bonds, most kind
To me, of old, who suffer, being blind.
Surely they called for him? One Jesus? No?
CH. CIT. The choice was made a little while ago.
Barabbas is set free, the man you name
Is not to be released.
MADMAN. And yet I came
Hoping to see him loosed.
CH. CIT. He waits within
Till the just pain is fitted to his sin.
It will go hard with him, or I mistake.
Pray God it may.
MADMAN. I sorrow for his sake.
CH. CIT. God's scathe.
_Enter more_ JEWS.
MADMAN. A penny for the love of Heaven.
A given penny is a sin forgiven.
Only a penny, friends.
1ST CIT. The case was proved. He uttered blasphemy.
Yet Pilate gives him stripes: the man should die.
3RD CIT. Wait here awhile. It is not over yet.
This is the door, the man shall pay his debt.
After the beating they will let him go
And we shall catch him.
2ND CIT. We will treat him so
That he will not be eager to blaspheme
So glibly, soon.
3RD CIT. We will.
1ST CIT. Did Pilate seem
To you, to try to spare him?
2ND CIT. Ay, he did,
The Roman dog.
3RD CIT. We will not.
2ND CIT. God forbid.
1ST CIT. Well, we'll stay here.
2ND CIT. We will anoint this King.
CH. CIT. You talk of Jesus?
1ST CIT. Yes.
CH. CIT. I had to bring
News from the Temple but a minute past,
To-day is like to be King Jesus' last.
1ST CIT. So?
CH. CIT. It is sure. Wait here a little while.
1ST CIT. We mean to, Lord. His tongue shall not defile
Our Lord again, by God.
CH. CIT. By a happy chance
There came a hang-dog man with looks askance,
Troubled in mind, who wished to speak with us.
He said that he had heard the man speak thus
That he was the Messiah, God in man.
He had believed this, but his doubts began
When Jesus, not content, claimed further things;
To be a yoke upon the necks of Kings,
Emperor and Priest. Then, though he found him kind
In friendship, he was troubled. With bowed mind
He came to us and swore what Jesus claimed.
This Emperor over Kings will now be tamed.
VOICES. Will Pilate back the priests?
CH. CIT. He cannot fail.
It threatens Roman power.
A VOICE. Listen, friends,
Pilate is coming; hark! the sitting ends.
No. 'Tis the Bench.
[_The bench is set by_ SLAVES.]
What will Lord Pilate do?