EIGHTH ACTION
(“Which, O Lord, is Wisest?”)
STAGE A
The THREE KINGS enter before the Tree, their Followers grouped on the right. As he comes, King CASPAR lifts his voice in a carol, solo, in which BELSHASAR and MELCHIOR soon join with him. Each of them, in his singing, acts out the sung carol in his bearing and movement.
Carol 5. Solo and Trio. The Bell, the Sword and the Laughter
CASPAR
Lord of life! how pleasant ways
Are thy paths of danger,
Leading down from Herod’s place
By an ox’s manger:
Lo, there lay a little child
Rosy ’neath the rafter.—
Ahaha! how glad he smiled!
Lord, how blithe his laughter!
MELCHIOR
CASPAR
Him, the child, where mid the chaff
He lay on the hay-mow.
Sure, Belshasar, thou didst bend
Nigh him and thou heardest.
BELSHASAR
Caspar, nay: I comprehend
Not one thing thou wordest.
CASPAR
Ohoho! Still, Lord, I hear
Music of that laughter.
MELCHIOR
Daft thou ever wert: I fear
Still thou growest dafter.
Nothing heard I, by my soul
But a sword its clanging.
BELSHASAR
Nay, a bell, I heard it toll:
On a cross ’twas hanging.
MELCHIOR
Now, am I not Melchior?
By my crown its keeping!
’Twas a sword that dangled o’er
BELSHASAR
Nay, a bell—a passing-bell:
Lonely was its ringing.
CASPAR
Ahaha! I heard full well
‘Merry Christmas!’ singing.
CASPAR, BELSHASAR AND MELCHIOR
(Sing together)
Lord, how may we wise men tell
How to clothe our starkness?
Song and sword and passing-bell
Lure us through the darkness.
Send us sign of hidden things—
Thou who naught despisest!
Lo, of us three crownèd kings,
Which, O Lord, is wisest?
VOICES OF ELF AND GNOME
(Echo in song, within)
“Which, O Lord, is wisest?”
(In songful laughter)
Óhoho! Aháha!
CASPAR
BELSHASAR
Nay, voices of the desert places!
MELCHIOR
Mockings of midnight!
ELF AND GNOME
(Enter, laughing lyricly)
Óhoho! Aháha!
CASPAR
Heigh! What is here? Elf!—Gnome!
BELSHASAR
Keep back! They are imps of evil.
MELCHIOR
Stay! Do not speak with them. Hush!
(Caspar pays no heed, but greets the Fairies, who return his greeting with blithe bows.)
CASPAR
Now, neighbors, God rest you merry!
ELF
GNOME
Welcome, Sir King!
MELCHIOR
(To Belshasar)
He speaks with them.
BELSHASAR
(To Melchior)
Come. He is lost!
(They draw away.)
GNOME
Where are you from—ye Kings?
CASPAR
From the East, returning home from Herod’s land.
ELF
What went you there for to do?
CASPAR
To worship a new-born Child.
GNOME
How did you find your way?
CASPAR
ELF AND GNOME
(Nodding to each other)
A star!
CASPAR
Yea, but our path now has lost it.—
Why do ye laugh there so merry?
ELF AND GNOME
(Pointing)
Look up!
CASPAR
The star! The star!
Ho, Melchior, Belshasar, look up!
His star—the star we have lost—is found:
Behold, it shines on the tree!
MELCHIOR
I see no star.
BELSHASAR
’Tis darkness all.
CASPAR
What! Can you see nothing shining yonder?
MELCHIOR
Nothing. Your eyes are bleary with night.
BELSHASAR
CASPAR
Deaf to His laughter, blind to His star!
God save you, Wise Men! Let me grow old
And merry and cracked,
And talk with His wild, silly creatures.
(Enter Wolf, Bear and Lion.)
BELSHASAR
(To Melchior)
Come farther!—Wild beasts they draw near.
(They move aside into shadow.)
CASPAR
Halloa, goodman Bear! Good even!
BEAR
(Forlornly)
Ooff! Ooff! My honey hive’s empty.
LION
Look you! My bone is picked bare.
WOLF
I’ve never a bone left to pick,
And I’m losing the fur on my tail.
CASPAR
LION
The Light-Child is gone on his way.
WOLF
When a fellow can’t sing, he feels hungry.
CASPAR
Nay, neighbors, the Light-Child is with us;
He smiles from His twinkling star
Yonder, yea laughs in His light
And bids us make merry together
For joy of His shining.—Hoho!
Bring hither my music, good fellows!
Bring hither my fiddles and cakes
To make Him a feast night.
(From among Caspar’s Followers, cakes and instruments are brought before him. To Wolf, Bear and Lion he gives each a cake; to Elf and Gnome a stringed instrument.)
Here, neighbors,
Have each of you now a sweet frosting:
Here’s moon-cake and sun-cake and star-cake,
To mind us His birth-time. And you—
Here’s tune-strings to play, while we sing
To praise this good tree of His star.
(Tree enters, winged, all in white.)
ELF
TREE
Welcome, dear passers in darkness!
The Light-Child is gone on His way,
But He leaves you His star, to make glad
Your path in the wilderness.—Welcome
Under His star!
CASPAR
Thank you, Tree.
His star hath made merry our hearts
To dance in His light—aye, to sing
As we enter your place of His dreams.
Come, neighbors, now blithe be our carol!
(With his sceptre for baton, Caspar leads in dance and song Wolf, Bear, Lion, Elf and Gnome, the Beasts holding their cakes, the Fairies playing their instruments. Joining in their blithe dance of devotion, the old King clutches the great flap of his crown, to keep it from joggling off.)
Carol 6. Dance-Carol of the Evergreen.
ALL
(Sing, to the strongly stressed dance-rhythm)
O Evergreen, our Evergreen!
Thy boughs are brave and bright o’ sheen,
Thy bark and wood are live and strong
And bonny with the berry.
So we will sing our even-song
And dance for thee, like king and queen.—
O Evergreen, dear Evergreen!—
O Even-song, our Even-song,
Thy notes this holy night belong
To Him who came to heal our teen
With love and starry leaven.
His childhood keepeth ever green
All hearts of creatures here that long—
O Even-song, dear Even-song—
To make our earth His heaven.
(Following Tree, they dance joyously within. Outside, Melchior, Belshasar and their Followers wait in the dimness.)
BELSHASAR
A bell! I hear a bell tolling.
MELCHIOR
A sword! The clang of a sword!