Jehu has been my captain of the horse,
My comrade in the field, my counsellor,
My soldier, who has shed his blood for me
In five campaigns, in many years of war.
This prophet is indeed the enemy
Of much that I have planned, but as for Jehu,
I know him, and I know that you have wronged him
And speak from bitterness.
JEZEBEL.
Ahab, beware.
By all our lives together, you beware
Of Jehu and this man.
AHAB.
Had I been ware of you, Queen Jezebel,
Many years sooner, I had had no need
To be aware of any of my subjects.
I cannot longer countenance your dealings.
They neither suit my people nor the time. Therefore
I do dismiss you from your royalty,
From Queenship and command and counselling,
From all authority in Shemer here.
This shall be straightway published as my will.
PROPHET.
The messenger that spoke through me has gone,
And I am cold and broken as with blows,
But yet I hear--can you not hear--do you?
AHAB.
What should we hear, old ruffian from the desert?
PROPHET.
The wings descending and the footsteps coming.
The vultures and the dogs coming for blood.
Listen. The vultures settle in the court,
And there are footsteps coming up the stair,
The footsteps of the dogs that come for blood;
For blood is coming upon this house, and I
Have told you that it comes; I am its herald.
_Enter_ JEHU _from in front, carrying armour. He comes on, stands
motionless, then flings down a helmet; then, after a pause, a
corselet; then, after a pause, a sword._ ZAKKUR _stands behind him_.
AHAB.
What does your coming with these weapons mean?
Whose weapons are they? What has happened, Jehu?
Is it some challenge? Speak.
JEZEBEL.
I know that sword.
It’s Ahaziah’s sword. My son is dead?
(JEHU _nods_.)
AHAB.
What? Ahaziah dead? How did he die?
JEHU.
While he was riding here, he made a halt,
To rest his horses, at the inn at Springs;
And leaning on the lattice, looking out,
He fell out of the upper balcony,
And died soon after, broken by the fall.
Here is the witness, who will tell you how.
AHAB.
Speak, then, and tell the tale. How could he fall?
ZAKKUR.
By treachery, by Syrian treachery.
Lord, when our Queen commanded the Prince to return here, she sent her
orders by a Syrian of the Court.
JEZEBEL.
I did, by Malik.
ZAKKUR.
Malik was in the pay of the King of Syria.
JEZEBEL.
That is false. That lie has been exposed many times over.
ZAKKUR.
Madam, alas, it is now proven, by Malik’s confession.
AHAB.
Who are you who speak?
ZAKKUR.
A lieutenant in our late Prince’s troop, my lord.
AHAB.
Go on, then, about Malik.
ZAKKUR.
Before delivering his orders to our late Prince, he showed them to
the Syrian officers in the garrison at Ramoth. They saw a chance of
intercepting our Prince upon his way. They bribed Malik to lead the
Prince, so as to halt at the inn at Springs. They did not wish to set
upon him, because they expected the troop to be with the Prince. They
sawed through the beams of the balcony of the inn so that when he set
foot upon it, the floor should give way. The Prince did not bring his
troop with him, but set out with myself, his galloper, and Malik. He
halted at the inn, at Malik’s persuasion, much against his will, for he
wished to be here. Then all happened as his murderers the Syrians had
devised. He went upon the balcony, it fell, and he died from it.
After he had died, my lord, Malik urged us to come away, which I and my
colleague would not, without examination. When we found that the beams
had been sawn, remembering Malik’s Syrian birth and his suspicious
wishes, first to halt there, then to come away, we taxed him with the
crime and he confessed, and was secured.
The galloper waits at the inn for an escort for the body and the
prisoner. It was decided that I should ride here at once with the news.
JEZEBEL.
Before he died, did he say anything?
ZAKKUR.
Yes, Madam; he muttered about the gods, and about you.
JEZEBEL.
What did he say?
ZAKKUR.
That we were to tell you that this was the gods’ reward for peace with
Syria.
JEZEBEL.
Since he is dead, wisdom and peace are dead!
[_She goes out._
AHAB.
God, thou hast faced me with my sin this day.
My son, who was to follow me as King,
Killed by a Syrian plot, by treachery.
Killed, coming home to help me in my sorrows.
PROPHET.
Killed by your treachery, that made the peace
With Syria, against God’s ordinance.
JEHU.
Nothing that has been done by Syria
Against this land can rank beside this deed;
The loss of such a Prince by such a crime
Will rouse this country, lord. You will keep peace
By your great policy, but through your people
A mighty cry for vengeance will arise.
AHAB.
And not unheeded, Jehu. Listen, all.
This was his sword. He was to be the King
After my death, fulfilling all my dreams.
See, you, and you, and you, I take the sword
And draw it out and swear upon its hilt
To take a vengeance on the murderers
Who brought him to his death.
JEHU.
Well sworn, O King;
PROPHET.
Surely the Spirit of God is working in you!
AHAB.
Wait yet, O Prophet; though my heart is sick
At having trusted in my enemies,
And been ill-paid, I will ask help from God;
Counsel and help in any act of justice.
Go, gather me the prophets, let them seek
Illumination, then bring word to me
Whether the spirit do approve a war.
I will go seek for guidance, though my heart
Seeks less for guidance now than for release.
JEHU.
Lord, all true hearts commiserate your grief.
AHAB.
Thank you, good Jehu. [_Exit_ AHAB.
ZAKKUR.
Well, he took the story.
JEHU.
Yes, as I knew he would. The score’s one each.
He has won Naboth, I have Ahaziah.
PROPHET.
Was not the story true?
JEHU.
The Prince is dead,
So much is true; and in an hour from now
We can be marching hence with Ahab’s self,
If all your prophets will but prophesy.
I want him killed in war, outside the city.
Go, bid the prophets prophesy for war.
[_Exit_ PROPHET, _with_ ZAKKUR.
JEHU.
So, Ahaziah, you were rude to me.
Princes should not be rude to rising men,
For men may rise. You will be rude no more.
I have been rude to you, my Ahaziah.
I kicked the lips that once were rude to me.
My foot is on your heart’s blood, Ahaziah.
CURTAIN.
FIFTH CHORUS
MOON-BLOSSOM.
Full of years and wealth and evil, Menelaus died in Sparta,
And Queen Helen at his bedside stood and looked upon him dead,
He who once had bought her beauty, to be bride to him, by barter,
He whom she had loathed and fled from, now lay silenced on the bed.
ROSE-FLOWER.
Bitter thoughts were in her as she looked upon his meanness,
Thoughts of Paris in his beauty when their love was at its height.
Paris in his morning, and the King in his uncleanness,
And this dead mean thing, her master, and the winner of the fight.
TOGETHER.
All was silent in the palace of the King,
Save the soft-foot watchers whispering;
All was dark, save in the porch
The wind-blown fire of a torch,
And the sentries still as in a stound,
With their spear-heads drooped upon the ground.
ROSE-FLOWER.
Then she thought: “These two men had me, and a myriad men have sickened
To a fever of a love for me who saw me passing by:
When they saw me, all their eyes grew bright, and all their pulses
quickened,
And to win me or to keep me they went up to Troy to die.
MOON-BLOSSOM.
“Now the earthly moon, my beauty, and the rose, my youth, have
dwindled.
I am old, my hair is grey, and none remembers
What a fire in men’s hearts Queen Helen kindled
Ere the fire in Queen Helen turned to embers.”
TOGETHER.
All was silent in the palace of the King,
Save the wind-blown torch-flame guttering,
And a moth that came
Beating with his wings about the flame,
And the sentries drawing breath,
With their spear-heads drooped saluting death.
MOON-BLOSSOM.
Then she said: “The gods conspired to give gifts of beauty to me,
And the beauty gave the gift of death to all who came to woo me;
Now of all the men who loved me, none remain,
And of both the men who had me neither knew me
Surely all my past was evil, for its fruit is bitter pain.
ROSE-FLOWER.
“I will go to some lone island where I am not made a story,
Where my beauty made no widow, nor no orphan wanting bread;
Where no human sorrow suffers the disaster of my glory,
And my eyes may lose the vision of the hauntings of the dead.”
MOON-BLOSSOM.
“Day and night the dead men haunt me, whom the madness of my caring
Brought from home and wives and children to be bones upon the plain;
All the panther-like for beauty, all the lion-like for daring,
And they lie among the bindweed now, uncovered by the rain.”
TOGETHER.
All was silent in the palace of the King,
Save the soft-foot watchers whispering;
All was dark, save in the porch
The wind-blown fire of a torch,
And the sentries still as in a stound
With their spear-heads drooped upon the ground.
Then she rose, and cloaked her face, and hurried swiftly from the city,
And to sea, away from Hellas, but she dared not show her face,
For the women and the orphans would have killed her without pity:
She had sown her crop of death too far, she found no resting-place.
But in inns where people gathered in the evenings after labour,
Where the shepherd’s pipe or viol stirred the blind man to his verse,
Till the hearers swayed and trembled and the rough man touched his
neighbour,
They would talk of Troy with sadness, but of Helen with a curse.
SIXTH CHORUS
MOON-BLOSSOM.
After long years, when Helen was riding by night
In storm, in the Ida forest, alone, not knowing the road,
She saw a light in the blackness; she turned to the light,
She came to the fort on the crag, the panther-women’s abode.
ROSE-FLOWER.
Hearing her horse’s stamp, they brought her into the yard,
Those women fierce from the killing of lion or boar or man;
They came with their torches round her, they stared at her hard,
They knew her for Helen the Queen from whom their sorrows began.
For years they had longed for her coming, to have her to kill,
Her beauty a throat for their knives, her body a prey--
Helen, who ruined their lovers, the root of their ill--
She said: “I am Helen. Avenge yourselves on me. You may.”
MOON-BLOSSOM.
Still they stared at her there in the torchlight; then one of them
said:
“God used you to bring things to be; evil things to our city,
Evil things to yourself, for your face declares you have paid;
You have come to the truth like ourselves; we take not vengeance,
but pity.”
Then they welcomed her into their hold, and when morning broke clear,
They rode with her down to the ruins of what had been Troy;
There they left her alone in the wreck of the thing overdear
That the gods cannot grant to mankind, but unite to destroy.
FOURTH ACT
JEZEBEL.
I shall not look upon my son again!
How many million mothers must have felt
As I, with a dead child. How many lives
Have been made lightless thus.
For no child ever dies without the breaking
Of someone’s heart.
And yet the world goes on.
I shall go on, perhaps for many years,
And in my heart’s most secret corridor
Will be a shrine, where I shall watch my son,
Lonely as Helen in her tower at Troy
When Paris had been killed.
Would I had been beside him when he fell,
And fallen with him to the pit of death!
Better die so, not mangled in the war,
A young man, beautiful in youth, as thou wert;
Not troubled yet by life; not yet a King;
Thou hast been only young and now art dead.
With all life’s faults, I want you back in life,
Not dead, my son, beyond my touch and speech,
But here, moving and speaking, being mine.
My help and stay and wisdom and assuagement
As in the past. You, who gave no farewell,
Speak to me from the grave, O lovely son.
(_There is a sighing._)
Was that an answer from the dead, or birds
Flying away before the winter comes?
My son, if you are there, speak to my spirit.
(_There is a sighing._)
What message do you bring, that you are here?
What do you come to tell me?
THE VOICE.
Death.
JEZEBEL.
What?
THE VOICE.
Death.
JEZEBEL.
Whose death? Mine? Or your father’s? Or the kingdom’s?
My son’s soul was within this room and speaking.
O speak again, say something, give me proof
That you are linked still by dear love to me. Hark! Hush!
No. There was no voice speaking; nor will be.
AHAZIAH _appears_.
My boy! My son!
AHAZIAH.
Mother!
JEZEBEL.
My child! My dear!
AHAZIAH.
Listen. I cannot say it all. The flowers
Speak truth. You all are coming.
JEZEBEL.
Then, beloved,
We shall soon meet again, and part no more.
AHAZIAH.
Mother, I struggle back to tell you this:
It is most hard to come, most hard to speak.
You must with all your power strive to cut
These nets.
JEZEBEL.
What are these nets?
AHAZIAH.
The nets of death,
That are all round you like a hunter’s toils.
JEZEBEL.
Do you mean civil war? Or war with Syria?
AHAZIAH.
That is not what I mean; but someone near you.
Someone about you has most deadly hands,
A hangman’s hands; and you must break his hands.
JEZEBEL.
Who is it, that is deadly? Is it Joram?
AHAZIAH.
I cannot speak his name, but, mother, hark:
He murdered me; I never saw his face;
He killed me at the inn.
JEZEBEL.
Jehu, you mean?
AHAZIAH.
The man forever looking at the throat,
Whose fingers twitch; a red-eyed man it is,
I cannot speak the name.
JEZEBEL.
Oh, it is Jehu!
And Jehu murdered you?
AHAZIAH.
There’s danger, mother;
Avoid the nets. I cannot make you see them.
JEZEBEL.
Jehu is spreading nets of treachery?
AHAZIAH.
The flowers speak truth; the flowers and the rod,
The riding rod. [_He goes._
JEZEBEL.
Oh, speak! O my dear son,
How can I help, I being Queen no longer,
But banished and condemned? What can I do?
And what is this of riding rods and flowers?
(_There is a sighing._)
My son is gone into the night of Death,
And Jehu murdered him in ways unknown.
Would I could prove the crime!
_Enter_ MICAIAH.
MICAIAH.
Madam, a rider from the inn at Springs
Has brought these flowers, gathered by the Prince
Your son, now dead.
JEZEBEL.
The flowers that speak truth;
Was there no other relic but the flowers?
MICAIAH.
Yes, Madam, this: a staff or riding rod,
Left on the flowers, so the rider said.
JEZEBEL.
A riding rod! And do you know the rod?
MICAIAH.
Madam, I do. It is Lord Jehu’s staff.
JEZEBEL.
What brought it to the inn at Springs, Micaiah?
MICAIAH.
I do not know. The rider found it there.
JEZEBEL.
Where is the rider who delivered these?
MICAIAH.
Gone, Madam; he preferred not to be known.
JEZEBEL.
I see you have suspicions; let me know them.
MICAIAH.
Madam, this staff was in Lord Jehu’s hand
This morning, when I saw him here at court.
JEZEBEL.
That, or one like it? Could you swear to that?
MICAIAH.
He held this staff. He stopped me in the square
About a warrant, and I noticed it.
This little scratch is unmistakable.
JEZEBEL.
And what can you conclude from this, Micaiah?
MICAIAH.
That the Lord Jehu hurried to the Springs,
After I saw him, and then hurried back.
JEZEBEL.
What duty could have taken him to Springs?
MICAIAH.
Madam, he had no duty there. I asked.
JEZEBEL.
Might not a messenger have gone from him
Bearing his staff?
MICAIAH.
Madam, he went himself.
The warden at the west gate saw him start
In that direction, and return from thence
Three hours later. He was back by noon.
JEZEBEL.
So that he would have been at Springs, perhaps,
Before Prince Ahaziah halted there?
MICAIAH.
Perhaps.
JEZEBEL.
Yet not perhaps; he would have been there.
He must have been there at the very time.
MICAIAH.
Madam, I dare not utter thoughts like these.
JEZEBEL.
Yet Jehu could not know that he was coming
Home from the frontier, or would pass by Springs.
MICAIAH.
So please you, Madam, but the fact was known
Publicly in the city everywhere.
The knowledge was abroad, I know not how.
You are beset by watchers, and by traitors.
JEZEBEL.
And murderers and friends of murderers.
Jehu waylaid my son and murdered him.
By these poor relics sacred with his blood
I will denounce him to the King myself,
Or lay him dead before me with my hands.
(_She gathers the relics._)
MICAIAH.
Lie there, sad relic of a glorious youth.
ZIKRI (_entering_).
Make ready for the utterance of the Prophet!
KALLAI (_entering_).
Bow down before the Prophet, bringer of truth!
_Enter the_ PROPHET.
PROPHET.
I am bringer of Truth out of the hidden,
I am finder of ways where footing is sure,
I am sword and shield against things forbidden.
I am brightness to guide, healing to cure;
Mine are the words that endure.
I, now, about to declare as the Spirit orders,
Cry, let women avoid, let children hide,
Let none but spearmen be here, the city’s warders.
I speak, out of the Truth, words that abide.
Men only may hear what might of men must decide.
[JEZEBEL _veils and goes_.
_Enter_ JORAM, _then_ JEHU, _then_ AHAB, _preceded by_ SPEARMEN.
AHAB.
Now that the revelation is vouchsafed,
Stand, all, before this Prophet, who has seen
Light in the darkness that has blinded us.
PROPHET.
Hearken, O King, to revelation’s self.
The spirit says, “Go up against the Syrians;
At Ramoth-Gilead you shall conquer them.”
See here these horns of iron that I wear.
The spirit says, “With these horns shalt thou push
The Syrians, until they be consumed.”
JEHU.
Good messages, good omens, good foretellings.
AHAB.
May they prove good.
JORAM.
The spirit filled the prophets with a glory
Marvellous to watch and hear: they spoke as one.
MICAIAH.
Not quite as one, Prince Joram and my King.
One was not filled with spirit.
AHAB.
Who is this?
MICAIAH.
I am Micaiah, lord, who have been counted
A seer, too, at times.
AHAB.
Oh, it is you!
Honest Micaiah, who must speak the truth.
I hate this man; he prophesies not good
But evil of me.
JEHU.
These fellows are too ready with their evil.
PHARMAS (_to_ MICAIAH).
See now, the prophets foretell victory,
With one mouth; say the same; cry victory.
MICAIAH.
As the Lord lives I’ll speak what the Lord says.
AHAB.
Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth-Gilead
To battle, or forbear?
MICAIAH.
Go, lord, and prosper,
The Lord shall make it yours.
AHAB.
How many times
Shall I adjure you that you speak the truth,
Speak nothing but the truth.
JORAM.
I’d have a way to make him speak the truth.
Two troopers with a pair of stirrup leathers
To teach his obstinate jaw some reverence.
AHAB.
Peace, Joram: let him speak.
MICAIAH.
Sir, I will speak.
In dreams, last night, in the dark night, ere cocks crowed,
I saw a downland empty to the sky.
JORAM.
That is the way these fellows use to talk;
They’d talk another way, had I my will.
MICAIAH.
And suddenly I saw all Israel
Scattered upon that downland frantically,
Like sheep without a shepherd. The Lord said:
“These have no master now; let them go home.”
AHAB.
And how do you interpret this your dream?
MICAIAH.
That if you go this warfare, you, the master
Of Israel, will die.
AHAB.
How die?
MICAIAH.
I do not know.
JEHU.
You mean, in battle?
MICAIAH.
By violence.
JORAM.
That means in battle, surely.
MICAIAH.
Not necessarily.
JEHU.
How else, then, man?
MICAIAH.
I do not know. Perhaps by treachery.
JEHU.
We will protect the King from treachery.
JORAM (_to_ MICAIAH).
Except such treachery as men like you
Think in their hearts and utter in big words,
Trying to wreck the State.
AHAB.
Did I not say
That he would utter evil about me?
JORAM.
These fellows need a bit within their jaws.
MICAIAH.
My Prince, no bit can stop the telling truth.
PROPHET.
What do you know of truth, idolater?
MICAIAH.
Nothing. I know that certain things are true.
JEHU.
Fine talk, to keep the army lingering.
AHAB.
Have you some other vision to reveal?
MICAIAH.
A sort of vision.
PROPHET.
Ay, a sort of vision.
There is one way of vision, only one,
Vouchsafed to men, you false one, with false gods.
AHAB.
What is this vision? Will it lighten me?
MICAIAH.
It is of you and of the prophet tribe.
PROPHET.
Some blasphemy. Take heed to what he says.
MICAIAH.
In the dark night I saw this other thing:
I saw the Lord in heaven on his throne,
With all the host of heaven standing by him.
He said, “Who shall persuade King Ahab to go up
And die at Ramoth-Gilead?” They discussed it.
At last a spirit said, “I will persuade him.”
The Lord said, “How?”
The spirit said, “I will go forth and be
A lying spirit in his prophets’ mouths.”
And the Lord said, “Thou shalt. Go forth and do so.”
Behold the Lord hath put a lying spirit
Into thy prophets’ mouths, and spoken evil
Not good to you.
PROPHET.
You think God’s truth has passed from me to you.
When did it pass, and how?
MICAIAH.
You will know that
When you shall go into an inner chamber
To hide yourself.
AHAB.
Carry this fellow to the Governor,
And have him into prison in the dark,
And let his bread and drink be bitterness
Until I come in peace.
MICAIAH.
If you return at all
In peace, the spirit has not spoken by me.
Hearken, O people, every one of you.
AHAB.
Have him away.
MICAIAH.
Which story is the likelier to be true,
Mine, which when told brings prison, or this fellow’s
Which earns the King’s reward? The truth is dangerous.
JORAM.
You’ll find this dangerous. Away with him!
(_He is dragged out._)
JEHU.
That shows how close your enemies can come.
Even to your very court.
JORAM.
He should be silenced.
AHAB.
He is a gallant fellow, without judgment.
But he presumes too much, he and his dreams.
PROPHET.
(_Crying aloud._) O King, a vision is vouchsafed to me!
I see! I see! Hearken to what I see.
I see a red bull trampling down God’s foes;
He neezes fire and all his fell is fire;
His shoulder is a mountain rough with forest;
His eye the wrath of God; he stamps the cities.
Go up against the Syrians, like this bull.
JORAM.
There is the voice of God.
JEHU.
Ay, truly, Prince.
AHAB.
Since God declares that we should make this war,
Which we, as men, have shrunk from hitherto,
Although provoked by countless insolence,
Now hearken to the utterance of the crown.
_Enter_ JEZEBEL.
JEZEBEL.
Ay, hearken to the utterance of the crown.
You are all come to hear a war declared.
Now I, the crown, declare it unto you.
I declare war upon our enemies.
They are all present, standing in this place,
Waiting the execution of our sword.
(_To_ PROPHET.) This man, the madman from the desert, first,
Who rages like a desert-storm, that kills
With sand, burning hot sand, pitiless sand.
(_To_ JORAM.) This next, the hater of his house, our son,
Who, for a wound that pains him would be glad
That thousand others should be sick with wounds.
(_To_ JEHU.) Then, next, this other man, not mad not sick,
Not even suspected; honoured, trusted, loved.
This man, the rider to the inn at Springs,
For secret evil. Hark! This man, King Ahab,
Murdered our son and plots to murder you.
Seize him, King Ahab, ere it be too late.
AHAB.
Murdered our son? But this is childishness.
JEZEBEL.
No, I bring proof; the rod, the rod he holds,
Was found at Springs, to prove that he was there.
JEHU.
This rod, good Madam?
JEZEBEL.
Even that very rod.
AHAB.
Who found it at the Springs? Who brought it here?
JEZEBEL.
A rider, lord, who gave it to Micaiah.
JORAM.
What rider?
AHAB.
Yes, what rider, can you tell?
JEZEBEL.
One who would not be known, Micaiah said.
AHAB.
Micaiah! He?
JORAM.
The man imprisoned here.
JEHU.
My lord, I grieve less at this ill suspicion
Than at the sad disaster which has caused it.
JEZEBEL.
You killed my son most foully at the inn;
You were seen riding thither before noon,
And left your rod there while you did the deed,
Upon these flowers which my son had gathered;
These desert flowers.
JEHU.
My Lord and King, I can most clearly prove
That I was at my quarters all the morning.
This rod I missed this morning from my quarters
And found it here on entering but now.
Prince Joram saw me find it as I entered.
JORAM.
That is most true; I did.
Mother, you should not be here; come away.
JEZEBEL.
My lord, my King, my husband, listen to me.
You know me, whether I am mad or no.
I am not mad; but Ahaziah’s spirit
Came to me here, stood where his murderer stands,
Less than an hour ago, denouncing him,
His murderer, and traitor to yourself.
I, knowing this, see to the soul of things,
And cry, if you be man, attack this traitor,
Tear out his wicked plottings and destroy him.
AHAB.
Let the Queen’s women come. I hear your charges
Brought with more passion than with evidence.
These are our friends, our proven soldier, Jehu,
Our son, and this, the prophet of the spirit,
Not what you think. See, here your women come.
Tend the Queen’s majesty to her apartments.
JEZEBEL.
You think me mad, my inmost wisdom, mad.
For the last time, for Ahaziah’s sake,
For your sake, for the kingdom, for the crown,
And for the sake of God who gives the crown,
Believe what I have said against this Jehu.
AHAB.
I grieve that anyone should bring such charges.
That you should bring them is an anguish to me.
Go with your women hence, and try to rest.
JEZEBEL.