ACT IV
Scene 1
The Castle on Zion. Mariamne’s Apartments. Mariamne. Alexandra.
Alex.
You pose me with your riddles. First the oath
“I kill myself if he return no more!”
Then bitter coldness when he came, so froward
That he was mortified as keen as I
Rejoiced; and now again the deepest mourning!
I’d gladly see the man who comprehends you.
Mar.
If ’tis so hard, why do you plague yourself?
Alex.
And then the tart repugnance in the manner
With which you fend Soemus to his distance!
His looks betray there’s something on his heart——
Mar.
You think so?
Alex.
Ay, and he would make avowal
But dare not venture it; he would perhaps,
If he should see you leap into the Jordan,
Be dubious if he were privileged
To rescue you from death; and he were right,
For this blunt gracelessness is past all bounds.
Mar.
You’ll own at least that Herod cannot say
I probed the virtue of his friend, and lured
His secret, if he has one, out of him
With cozening-tongued duplicity. No, no;
It lies on the knees of God if I should learn it;
And my heart says I take no risk therein.10
[Enter Sameas, with fetters on his hands.
Scene 2
The Same. Sameas.
Sameas.
The Lord is great!
Mar.
He is.
Alex.
You free, and yet
In fetters? Yet one riddle more!
Sameas.
These fetters
I lay not by again. Jerusalem
Shall day by day have brought to its remembrance
That Jonah’s progeny in prison sat.
Alex.
How came you out, then? Did you bribe the gaolers?
Sameas.
What, I? the gaolers?
Alex.
True, with what I know not.
You still have on your shirt of camel’s hair,
And that they freed you for a wild bees’ nest
Which you, with every hollow tree familiar,
Could have betrayed to them for ransom-price—
That I misdoubt, for there’s enough of honey.
Sameas.
Why, what a question! ’Twas Soemus’ self
That oped the gates for me.
Mar.
How could he dare that?
Sameas.
How then? And was’t not you that gave him orders?
Mar.
I?
Sameas.
No? And yet I thought ’twas what he said.
I may have erred, for I was just then saying
The last psalm backwards-way when he came in
And slackly gave him only half my ear.
Well, good! It seems the Lord has done’t, and I
Must go unto the Temple there to thank Him,
For I have naught to do in David’s castle.
Mar.
The Lord!
Sameas.
The Lord. Was I endungeoned justly?
Mar.
The times are now no more in which the Lord
Spoke with the naked word unto His People.
We have instead the Law; that speaks for Him.
Extinguished is the Pillar of Fire and Cloud
Through which our Fathers in the Wilderness
Were shown the paths he led them, and the Prophets
Are dumb as He.
Alex.
Nay, not yet wholly so!
Only a short time since there was a fire
Foretold by one—a fire that came to pass.
Mar.
Granted; but ’twas himself at mid of night
Applied the kindling flame.
Sameas.
Woman, blaspheme not!
Mar.
And I blaspheme not! No, I say what happened.
The man’s a Pharisee like you yourself.
He speaks like you, he raves like you. The fire
Was meant to prove to us that he was truly
A prophet, and could see into the future.
But still a soldier caught him in the act.
Sameas.
A Roman?
Mar.
Yes.
Sameas.
He lied! He was perhaps
Suborned. He was suborned thereto by Herod,
Suborned by you yourself.
Mar.
Sirrah, your place!
Sameas.
You are his wife, you are the wife o’ the miscreant
Who overweens him into the Messiah.
If you can lock him in your arms and kiss him
You can do other things for him as well.
Alex.
He overweens him now into Messiah?
Sameas.
He does! He flung the words into my teeth
When to the dungeon he had ordered me.
I shrieked to God. I cried—“Look on thy folk
And send Messiah unto us, whom Thou
Hast promised for the time of direst need!
The direst need’s upon us!” Then replied he
With a proud curl o’ the lip—“He’s long since here;
But ye—ye know it not! ’Tis I myself!”
Alex.
Now, Mariamne?
Sameas.
Then, with godless wit
He proved that we’re a Folk of scatter-brains
And he alone has got an uncracked pate.
We did not dwell for naught on the Dead Sea
That is devoid of motion—ebb and flood—
And therefore poisons all the world with pest.
It was a trusty mirror of ourselves!
And he was bent to pang us into living
Were he compelled e’en Moses’ numskull book—
So unabashed his words—with force to tatter.
It was for that sole cause our river Jordan,
Whose clear wave laughed and leapt throughout our land,
Symbolled us not instead of a dull bog.
Alex.
He flung the mask so wholly from him?
Sameas.
Ay!
And yet perchance he deemed me, when he did it,
As good as dead by then, for straight thereon
He gave the word of death.
Mar.
He had been goaded.
He found revolt for greeting.
Sameas.
Now I warn you
What is your duty. Be renounced from him
As he has now renounced his God. Thereby
You can chastise him, for he loves you dear.
My only notion, when Soemus freed me,
Was that you’d done it. If you do it not
Chide not the shaft that from the welkin falls
As undeserved when it strikes you with him.
I go to sacrifice.
Alex.
Take then the victims
From out my stall.
Sameas.
I take them where they’re missed,
The widow-woman’s lamb, the poor man’s sheep.
What is your ox to God?
[Exit. Enter Soemus.
Scene 3
Mariamne. Alexandra. Soemus.
Soemus.
Pardon!
Mar.
Indeed,
I wished even now to have you called. Come in!
Soemus.
’Tis the first time you had such wish.
Mar.
Ay, true!
Soemus.
You’ve parried me till now.
Mar.
And have you then
Sought for me? Have you aught to seek from me?
I cannot think it so.
Soemus.
At least the former;
Behold in me the truest of your servants.
Mar.
I did, but do so now no more.
Soemus.
No more?
Mar.
How could you let that rebel, him whom Herod
Ordered to prison, have his dungeon opened?
Is he still King, or is he King no more?
Soemus.
The answer’s not so easy as you think.
Mar.
And if you find it hard you’ll pay it dearly.
Soemus.
You’ve not yet heard the news the fight is lost?
Mar.
The fight at Actium’s reported lost?
Soemus.
Yes. Antony is fallen by his own hand,
With like death Cleopatra.
Mar.
What, could she
Have such fine nerve? Time was she could not bear
A sword to sight, and shuddered back at his
Whene’er he held it toward her for a mirror.
Soemus.
Titus the Captain had these very tidings.
Octavian curses that no means were used
To hinder them. Myself I read the letter.
Mar.
Then Death for some long time has had his share
And every head stands firmer than it stood
Ere then.
Soemus.
You think so?
Mar.
Why that riddling smile?
Soemus.
You do not know Octavian, it would seem.
He will not ask Death if his maw be queasy;
He’ll find the friends of Antony of use
To serve him yet another meal, and one
Where tasty tit-bits will not be so scarce.
Mar.
That touches Herod?
Soemus.
Well, if he should hold
To what he purposed——
Mar.
What was that?
Soemus.
He said:—
“I have no further love for Antony,
Far sooner do I hate him; but I will
Stand at his side unto the latest hour
Although I fear that he is doomed to fall.
I owe it to myself if not to him.”
Mar.
Right kingly spoke!
Soemus.
Ay, true, right kingly spoke!
Only Octavian’s not the man t’admire it,
And Herod if he do so——
Mar.
Who dares doubt it?
Soemus.
Then he’s a lost man too, or black affront
Has smirched Octavian’s name when rumour said
The mighty slaughter following Caesar’s death
Was written on his reckoning.
Mar.
That you’re fast
In faith on such an outcome, and that Herod
Is ranked by you with death, is clear enough,
Else had you never dared what you have dared.
Ay, and the shudder takes me, I confess it,
At your calm certainty. You are no fool
And without ground would never dare so much.
But, howsoe’er it be, this thing is true—
I’m still alive, and I, yes I, shall show you
That I am skilled to render him obedience
Even in his death; there’s not a sole command
That he has given shall not be executed.
Such be the Dead Man’s sacrifice.
Soemus.
Not one?
I doubt it, Queen! (Aside.) Now let the blow come down!
Mar.
As true as I am Maccabee you send
This Sameas again into his dungeon.
Soemus.
If such your will demand, ’tis done; and if
You will yet more, if he shall die the death
The King had threatened, speak and he is dead.
But now vouchsafe a question of your grace—
Shall I take you, that thus the sacrifice
You think to yield be full and blemishless,
Shall I take you and pierce you with a sword-thrust?
For such injunction too I have from him.
Mar.
Woe!
Alex.
Nevermore!
Mar.
And so the end is come!
And what an end! One that its own beginning
Engulfs with all beside. The time that’s past,
The time to come, dissolve to naught in me.
Naught I have had and naught I have and naught
I shall have. Oh, was mortal e’er so poor?
Alex.
Whatever misdeed hatched and wrought by Herod
You told me, every several one I’d credit,
But this——
Mar.
Misdoubt it not, ’tis fixed and sure.
Alex.
You say’t yourself?
Mar.
O God, I know wherefore!
Alex.
Then must you know the deed before you!
Mar.
Ay!
[She thrusts the dagger at herself.
Alex. (preventing her).
Mad fool! Is this his due? Is it his due?
That you should play the butcher on yourself?
Mar.
A topsy-turvy freak! My thanks! This office
He’d chosen for himself. (Throws the dagger away.) Tempter, begone!
Alex.
You’ll seek a refuge under Rome’s protection!
Mar.
On none who has a thing at heart to do
I’ll put the hindrance. I myself, I give
A feast to-night.
Alex.
A feast?
Mar.
And there I dance——11
Yes, yes, that is the way!
Alex.
To gain what end?
Mar.
Hey, servants!
[Enter Moses and Servants.
Fling the splendid state-rooms wide
And summon all that can be jubilant!
Put fire to every candle that will burn,
Pluck all the flowers from stem that are not faded!
There is no need that any now survive.
(To Moses.) You tricked our wedding once in famous trappings,
Your task to-day’s a feast more brilliant still.
Spare nothing therefore. (Advancing.) Herod, tremble now
Though never yet before in life you trembled!
Soemus.
(approaching her). I feel your smart as you do.
Mar.
Keep your pity,
I’ll rob you not! You axe no butcher’s boor,
I dare not doubt it, you have given me proof!
But that has turned you traitor, and to traitors
I give no thanks nor bear them round my person
Whatever use they may be in this world.
For that’s not judged awry. Were you the man
You seemed to be, it had been forced on God
To work a wonder; He were forced to lend
The very air the tongue it lacks for utterance.
That He foresaw or ere your clay He shaped
And made the first of hypocrites—made you!
Soemus.
That thing I am not! I was Herod’s friend,
His weapon-brother and his shoulder-fellow,
Before he scaled the throne! I was his servant,
His truest servant, since he’s been a king,
But only so as long as he could hold
The Man in me inviolate and the Human,
As I in him the Hero and the Lord.
He did so till, the eyes of the dissembler
For the first time unworthily down-drooping,
He gave the word of Blood through which he doomed,
All-heartless, me and you to certain death,
Through which he doomed me to your folk’s revenge,
To Roman rage, and to his own slant spite,
And you to be the prey of my sword’s point.
That was my proof how high he rated me.
Mar.
Did you not tell him how your heart recoiled?
Soemus.
I did it not because I would protect you.12
I took his charge in show and hypocrited,
If you will have the word, that thus no other
Take it instead from him and stab me down.
A Galilean had the deed accomplished.
Mar.
I own me wrong. You stand with him as I;
You have, as I, in your most Holy Place
Felt hurt; as I, am slighted to a Thing,
For what he is as spouse he is as friend.13
Come to my feast.
[Exit.
Alex.
So you, it seems, were waiting for your time
As I was!
Soemus.
For my time? How mean you that?
Alex.
I’ve often seen it with a wondering eye
How, when the King gives thanks for his high office
Unto the Roman’s whim (the heady swiller!)
And not to lineage and pride of birth,
You bent your back as though you seemed, like him,
Forgetful that you were his equal peer.
But now I pierce your mask; it was your wish
To lull him from suspicion!
Soemus.
There you err.
I spoke the truth in all. His equal peer
I do not deem myself nor ever shall.
How many a paltry wight there is I know
Who, just because his blood’s no kin of his,
Yields muttering homage; others too, I know,
Keep troth alone for Mariamne’s sake.
But I am never bonded with that brood
That rather to a baby’s sword is loyal,
If it be birthright, than a hero’s sword
That is not wrought till smithied out of fire.
I ever saw the higher soul in him,
And when the weapon-brother dropped his shield
I raised it for him with as ready will
As e’er I raised his sceptre for the King.
The crown and the first woman: both I yielded
With grudgeless heart, for I had felt his worth.
Alex.
But you too are a man!
Soemus.
That I am not
Forgetful of such truth I prove you now.
There’s none so great that I’m a working-tool
Fit to his use. Who calls on me for service
That rendered or not rendered, come what may,
Makes me to sure and shameful death devote,
That man annuls my every bond, to him
My duty is to show that ’twixt the King
And slave there is an intermediate stage
And that the Man takes stand on this.
Alex.
To me
’Tis one what ground you had. Enough; you’ve come
To join my faction.
Soemus.