ACT III.

SCENE: The royal tent of Saul pitched on one hill of the battle-field of Ephes-Dammin. The tent is of black embroidered with various warlike designs. To one side on a dais are the chairs of SAUL and AHINOAM; also DAVID’S harp. On the other side, toward the front, is a table with wine and wine cups. The tent wall is lifted along the back, revealing on the opposite hill, across a deep narrow valley, the routed camp of the Philistines: before it in gleaming brazen armor lies GOLIATH slain. Other hills beyond, and the sky above. By the wine table, her back to the battle-field, sits MERAB in cold anger. AHINOAM and several women look out in ecstasy toward DAVID, SAUL, JONATHAN and the army, returning victorious and shouting.

SCENE: The royal tent of Saul pitched on one hill of the battle-field of Ephes-Dammin. The tent is of black embroidered with various warlike designs. To one side on a dais are the chairs of SAUL and AHINOAM; also DAVID’S harp. On the other side, toward the front, is a table with wine and wine cups. The tent wall is lifted along the back, revealing on the opposite hill, across a deep narrow valley, the routed camp of the Philistines: before it in gleaming brazen armor lies GOLIATH slain. Other hills beyond, and the sky above. By the wine table, her back to the battle-field, sits MERAB in cold anger. AHINOAM and several women look out in ecstasy toward DAVID, SAUL, JONATHAN and the army, returning victorious and shouting.

FIRST WOMANSee, see, at last!SECOND WOMANThey come!THIRD WOMANAn avalanche.Over the brook and bright amid hosannas!SECOND WOMANAnd now amid the rushes!FIRST WOMANAnd the servants!Goliath’s head high-borne upon a charger!The rocks that cry reverberant and vast!The people and the palms!THIRD WOMANYea all the branchesTorn from the trees! The waving of them—O!SECOND WOMANAnd David, see! triumphant, calm, betweenThe king and Jonathan!… His gloryAll the wild generations of the windEver shall utter! Hear them—[The tumult ascends afar] David! David!A sea of shouting!—O queen!AHINOAMYou yearn for it?Then go and lave you in this tide of joy.[The women go rapturously.Ahinoamturns.]MERABMother!AHINOAMMy daughter?MERABWell?AHINOAMThey all are gone.MERABAnd Michal, where?AHINOAMI do not know, my child.MERABWhy did my father pledge her to him! youNot hindering!AHINOAMShe is your sister. YouAre pledged to Adriel.MERABAnd as a slave!And if I do not love him there is—riches!If he is Sodom-bitter to me—riches!AHINOAMBut for the kingdom.MERABFor my torture! WhatKingdom is to a woman as her love!AHINOAMAnd David still enthralls you?MERABThough he neverSought me with any murmur or desire!Though he is Michal’s for Goliath’s death!Michal’s to-day, unless—AHINOAMMerab, a care!Too near in you were ever love and hate.[The tumult nears.Ahinoamgoes to look out.][Doegenters toMerab.]DOEG [low]News, Merab!MERABWell—?DOEGA triumph o’er him, yet!The king is worn, as a leopard pent, betweenWonder of David and quick jealousyBecause of praise this whelming of GoliathWakes in the people.MERABThen? the triumph?DOEGThis.[The tumult, nearer.]I’ve skilfully disposed the womenTo coldly sing of Saul, but of our DavidWith lavish of ecstasy as to a king.[He watches her.]MERABThenIwill praise him.DOEGDavid? you?MERABAs heWas never—and shall never be again,—DOEGBut—MERABGive me the phial.DOEGThe poison?MERABCome; At once!DOEGWhat will you do?MERABAt once with it![He hands it to her. She dips the point of her dagger in it.]DOEGTo stab himMERABAs any fool? Wait.—And the rest now, quick.This timbrel-player, Judith?DOEGShe is readyAnd ravishing!MERABWell, well; then—?DOEGWe will send herSudden, as Michal is alone with David,To seize him with insinuative kisses,And arms that wind as they were wonted to him.Michal once jealous—and already IHave sowed suspicions—MERABWill—? yes—?DOEGOn him burst [laughs]And as a fury.MERABMay it be their rending![The tumult, near.]Come, we must see.[They go to look out. Shouts of “David!” “David!” arise, and a band of timbrel-players, dancing and singing, followed by a band of priests bearing the ark with its cherubim of gold, pass the tent opening.David,Saul,Jonathan,Ishuiand the Court then enter amid acclamations; before them servants, bearing the head of Goliath on a charger under a napkin.Sauldarkly mounts the throne withAhinoam, to waving of palms and to praise.]A WOMAN [breaking from the throng.]Our little ones are saved! hosannah! joy![She kissesDavid’shand.]JONATHANWoman, thy tongue should know an angel-word,Or seraph-syllables new-sung to God!Earth has not any rapture well for this!David, my brother!DAVIDJonathan, my friend!While life has any love, know mine for you.JONATHANThen am I friended as no man was ever!And though my soul were morning wide it wereHelpless to hold my wonder and delight!O people, look upon him!THE PEOPLEDavid! David!JONATHANNever before in Israel rose beautyUp to this glory!DAVIDJonathan, nay—JONATHANNever![Loosing his robe and girdle.]Therefore I pour him splendor passionate.In gold and purple, this my own, I clothe him.David, my brother!SAUL [Angered.]Brother!AHINOAMSaul?SAULThou fool!JONATHANFather?AHINOAMMy lord?SAULThou full-of-lauding fool!Of breath and ravishment unceasing!AHINOAMSaul!SAULIs it not praise enough, has he not reachedThe skies on it!DAVIDO king, my lord—SAULHad SaulEver so rich a rapture from his son?Ever this worshipping of utterance?DAVIDMy lord, my lord, this should not fret you.DOEG [Derisively.]Nay!DAVID’Tis only that the soul of Jonathan,Brimmed by the Philistines with bitterness,Sudden is joy and overfloweth—DOEGFast—DAVIDUpon his friend, thy servant, David.DOEGAie![He turns away laughing.]SAULWhy do you laugh?DOEG“Thy servant David!”SAULWhy!A WOMAN [Without.]King Saul has slain his thousands!DOEG“Why,” my lord?THE WOMANBut David his ten thousands!DOEGDo you hear?King Saul has slain his thousands, David ten!Thy servant is he? servant?DAVID [ToSaul.]Shall thy sceptreBe wielded by this venom-word, as isA weed under the wind?SAUL’Tis overmuch!I’ll burst all bond of priest or prophecy.Nor cringe to threatening and fondle fear.[He seizes a javelin.]I’ll smite where’er I will.DAVIDNo!JONATHANFather!DAVIDShallA rapid palsy now come on thy hand,Awful and sceptre-ruined lord of men?An impotence, a shriveling to fear,Avenging ere thou shed offenceless blood?[Saul’shand drops.]Is this thy love, the love of Saul the king?Who once was kindlier than kindest are.For but a woman’s wantonness of wordAnd idle air, my life?AHINOAMSaul, Saul—!JONATHANThe shame!DAVIDSome enemy—does Doeg curve his lip?—Hath put into her mouth this stratagemOf fevered false-impassioned overpraise.[Saul, silent, rises slowly and goes, entreated ofJonathan. Many follow in doubt, whispering.]DOEG [ToDavid.]This is not all, boy out of Bethlehem.Goliath’s dead—DAVIDBut not all villainy?[Doeggoes, flushing,—and all follow, exceptMichal, andMerab, who moves cunningly forward as if incensed.]MERABI burn for it!DAVIDFor what, and suddenly?MERABMy father so ungenerously wroth!And wrought away from recompense so right;Can you forgive him?DAVIDMerab?…MERABIs it strangeThat evenInow ask it?DAVIDMerab’s self?MERABHerself and not to-day your friend; but nowConquered to exaltation and aglowTo wreathe you for this might to Israel,Beautiful, unbelievable and bright!Noble the dawn of it within your dream,Noble the lightning of it in your arm,And noble in your veins the fearless flowAnd dare of blood!—so noble that I askAs a remembrance and bequest forever,In priceless covenant of peace between us,A drop of it—[She draws her dagger and offers it to him.]Upon this sacred blade.DAVIDSuch kindness, in all honor?MERABPoor requitalTo one whose greatness humbles me from hate.DAVIDThen of my veins whatever drop you will,Were it the very dwelling of my soul.[He takes the dagger and makes as if to prick himself.]Ah, but you do not mock me?MERABRather uponIts edge one vein of you—than priceless nard.DAVIDAnd perfume out of India jewel poured?[He searches her eyes.]Or than—I may believe?—a miracleOf dew, were you a traveller and lostUpon the illimitable desert’s thirst?Or than—[He draws his own dagger, pricks his wrist with it, and hands it to her.]than this?MERABShepherd!Treachery, then?Under a sham of tribute, poison?MICHALPoison?DAVIDAnd I of vanity should prick it in?I a mere shepherd innocent of wile!A singer music-maudled and no more.[As she goes, stung with chagrin.]The daughter of king Saul has yet to learn.[From looking after her, he turns towardMichal, and, sighing, slowly approaches her.]The vaunting of this victory is done.We are alone at last.MICHALYes.DAVIDThat is all?For Israel I’ve wrought to-day, for youWho were about me, in me, as a mistOf armed mighty angels triumphing.MICHALYes? It was well.DAVIDTo you no more? to youWhom not a slave can serve unhonored?MICHAL [Struggling.]Nothing.DAVIDEmpty of glow then seems it, impotent,A shrivelled hallowing.…Ashes of ecstasy that burned in vain.MICHALNo, no! I—DAVIDMichal?MICHALNo, divine it was!And had I cried my praise the ground had brokeTo Eden under me with blossoming.Where was so wonderful a deed as this,So fair a springing of salvation up!Glory above star-soaring could I seize,Auras of dawn and loveliness unfading,To crown you with and crown!DAVIDO lips!MICHALWith butA sling, a shepherd’s sling, you sped the brook,Drew from its bed a stone, and up the hillWhere the great Philistine contemning cried,Mounted and flung it deep upon his brain!DAVIDThis is the victory and not his death!Tell, tell thy joy with kisses on my lips!Thy mouth! thy arms! thy breast!MICHALNo no!DAVIDThy soul!Too much of waiting and of severance!Of dread and distance and the deep of doubt.Now must I fold you, falter all my loveAnd triumph on your senses till they burnBeautiful to eternity with bliss.MICHALLoose, loose me!DAVIDNay, again! immortal kisses!MICHALA frenzy, ’tis a frenzy! From me! see!This irremediable victoryOver Goliath severs us the more.[The tumult breaks again, afar.]Hear how the people lift you limitless!Almost, to-day, and in my father’s roomThey would that you were king.DAVIDBut ere to-morrowDim shall I be, and ere the harvest bendLess than a gleam in their forgotten peril!MICHALO were it, were it! But all silentlyJehovah fast is beckoning the realmInto thy hands.DAVIDThen futile to resistThe gliding on of firm divinity.And yet whatever may be shall be done.MICHALAll, all?DAVIDThat for thee reverently may.MICHALThe anointing, then—DAVIDOf that!… not that!MICHALYet grantIt may be told my father; that I maySay to him all the secret!DAVIDAnd provokeMurder in him, insatiable thoughI fled upon the wilderness and famine?MICHALHe would not!DAVIDNay.MICHALI’ll plead with him.DAVIDIn vain!MICHALThen [coldly] it is as I thought.DAVIDYou are distraught.MICHALThis stroke to-day [pointing toGoliath’shead] no love of me had in it.DAVIDA love, a passion fervid thro’ me asThe tread and tremble of immortal songAlong the infinite.MICHALYou use me!DAVIDUse?MICHALA step to rise and riot in ambition!DAVIDSo bitter are you, blind?MICHALIt was a trick!You snared me to you.DAVIDMichal!MICHALCunninglyWith Samuel netted fears about my fatherTill I am paltrily unto you pledged.DAVIDEnough.MICHALToo much.DAVIDNo more; the pledge I flingOut of my heart, as ’twere enchantment dead.And free you; but, no more.[He moves from her.]MICHALAs if it wereEnchantment dead. Ah, then ’tis true—there isAnother—is another!DAVIDNow what fever?A gentleness clad once your every grace.MICHALThere is some other that you lure and love.DAVIDIt is not Michal speaking; so I wait.MICHALThen—[Judithglides suddenly in with a low laugh and kneels beforeDavid.Michalstands amazed.]JUDITH [As if with amorous admiration.]Brave, it was brave, my love! beauteous! brave!DAVIDWoman?JUDITHThe Philistine, a brazen tower,A bastion of strength fell to the earth!DAVIDWoman, who are you?[She clasps and kisses him.]Take away your flesh.[Free] Take it away, the heat and myrrh of it.JUDITHSo cold?DAVIDAway.JUDITHAnd ’tis no longer fair?[Wantonly] Oh! Ah! I understand! the princess?—DAVIDGo.[Judithobeys, laughing and shaking her timbrel.]MICHALA dancer then, a very timbrel player!DAVIDUntil this hour I never looked upon her.It is chicanery of chance or craft.You who are noble, though in doubt adrift,Be noble now!MICHALAnd loving? O, I will—Now that I know what should be done. Be sure.DAVIDYou mean, that Saul?—you would not, no!MICHALRest sure.[A hand is seen at the tent.Ahinoamenters.]AHINOAMDavid, the king—But what is this?[Michalgoes.]DAVIDO queen—It is but life.AHINOAMNay.DAVIDLife that ever stringsOur hearts, so pitifully prone for it,To ecstasy—then snaps.AHINOAMI love thee, David.DAVIDThen gracious be, and question here no more.Where words are futile for an utterance.But of the king—the king?AHINOAMHe’s driven still.And hither comes, and soon, and must be calmed.Thy harp take, winds of beauty from it bring,And consolation—as of valley-evesWhen there is ebb of sorrow and of toil,O could you heal him and forever heal.DAVIDThen would I be—![He breaks off with a gesture of great desire, takes the harp and seats himself.]AHINOAMAt once, for he will come.[Davidbegins; a strain of wild sadness.Saulenters and with himDoeg,Ishui,Jonathan—others. He pauses, his hand to his brow, and goes slowly, enspelled ofDavid’s playing, up the dais.]AHINOAMMy lord, shall David sing—to ease us?SAULLet him.DAVID[With high sorrow.]O heart of woe,Heart of unrest and broken as a reed![Plays.]O heart whose flowIs anguish and all the bitterness of need![Plays.]O heart as a roe,Heart as a hind upon the mountain fleeingThe arrow-wounds of being,Be still, O heart, and rest and do not bleed![Plays longer with bowed head.]O days of life,Days that are driven swift and wild from the womb![Plays.]O days so rife—Days that are torn of trouble, trod of doom![Plays.][Michalenters.]O days of strife,Days of desire on deserts spread unending,The burning blue o’erbending,O days, our peace, our victory is the tomb![He plays to a close that dies in anguished silence.]SAUL [Rising in tears]David!DAVIDMy lord?SAULThy breathing! beauteous!Stilling to sorrow! O my friend, my son!DAVIDTo me is this? I dream it not? The kingAgain is kind and soft his spirit moves?SAULTo you!DAVIDHow shelter o’er me then will springAnd safety covering!SAULIt ever shall.Loveliest have you been among my days,And singing weary madness from my brain.[Davidstarts toward him.]How I have wronged thee!MICHALWronged him? [In fury.]DAVIDMichal!SAULGirl?MICHALYou have not wronged him!DAVIDMichal!MICHALNo, but heIs jeopardy and fate about you! driveHim from you utterly and now away![Murmurs of astonishment.]SAULWhat mean you?ISHUISpeak.SAULWhat mean you?MICHALThis!DAVIDNo word!MICHALI’ll not be kept—DAVIDBut shall be; for to tellWould rend silence forever from you—paleYour flesh with haunting of it evermore!All, all your being would become a hiss.A memory of syllables that sear,A living iteration of remorse.I—I myself will save your lips the wordsOf this betrayal leaping from your heart.[Nobly, before Saul.]You seek, my lord, you seek whom SamuelAnointed.SAULYes.DAVIDThen know that it is I.SAUL’Tis—?DAVIDI.SAULYou!DAVIDI. And guiltless I, no other.I, though I sought it not and suffer, thoughI would it had not come and fast am swornNever against you to lift up—MERABHear, hear!Now he will cozen!DOEGHe, “thy servant!”ISHUIHear!A VOICE [Without.]A thousand Saul hath slain! But David ten!SAUL [Choking.]Omnipotence shall not withhold me more.[He lifts a javelin.]DAVIDMurderous king afoam with murder-heat![He avoids from side to side.]Monarch of misery—of might—of rageSo fell that lightning were not dread enoughWere it thy bolt! To-day you will destroy me?[Goliath’shead overturned, rolls on the floor.]Upon this day will slay me innocent?SAULDie, die!JONATHANNo, father, hold![Saulflings the javelin.]MICHAL [Reeling.]What have I done?JONATHANDavid, unhurt? Away, the wilderness.[Thrusts a sword on him.]SAULHe shall not! no.[Seizes another javelin.]DAVID [Aflame.]Then, king of Israel, strike!Strike me to darkness and the waiting worm!Into the Pit and to the hopeless gloom.But, after, be your every breathing blood,Remorse and riving bitterness and fear,Be guilt and all the hideous choke of horror![Saultrembling at the curse lets the javelin fall from his hand.Davidbreaking throughDoegandIshuiescapes by the door.Michalsinks to her knees, her face buried in her hands.][CURTAIN.]

FIRST WOMANSee, see, at last!SECOND WOMANThey come!THIRD WOMANAn avalanche.Over the brook and bright amid hosannas!SECOND WOMANAnd now amid the rushes!FIRST WOMANAnd the servants!Goliath’s head high-borne upon a charger!The rocks that cry reverberant and vast!The people and the palms!THIRD WOMANYea all the branchesTorn from the trees! The waving of them—O!SECOND WOMANAnd David, see! triumphant, calm, betweenThe king and Jonathan!… His gloryAll the wild generations of the windEver shall utter! Hear them—[The tumult ascends afar] David! David!A sea of shouting!—O queen!AHINOAMYou yearn for it?Then go and lave you in this tide of joy.[The women go rapturously.Ahinoamturns.]MERABMother!AHINOAMMy daughter?MERABWell?AHINOAMThey all are gone.MERABAnd Michal, where?AHINOAMI do not know, my child.MERABWhy did my father pledge her to him! youNot hindering!AHINOAMShe is your sister. YouAre pledged to Adriel.MERABAnd as a slave!And if I do not love him there is—riches!If he is Sodom-bitter to me—riches!AHINOAMBut for the kingdom.MERABFor my torture! WhatKingdom is to a woman as her love!AHINOAMAnd David still enthralls you?MERABThough he neverSought me with any murmur or desire!Though he is Michal’s for Goliath’s death!Michal’s to-day, unless—AHINOAMMerab, a care!Too near in you were ever love and hate.[The tumult nears.Ahinoamgoes to look out.][Doegenters toMerab.]DOEG [low]News, Merab!MERABWell—?DOEGA triumph o’er him, yet!The king is worn, as a leopard pent, betweenWonder of David and quick jealousyBecause of praise this whelming of GoliathWakes in the people.MERABThen? the triumph?DOEGThis.[The tumult, nearer.]I’ve skilfully disposed the womenTo coldly sing of Saul, but of our DavidWith lavish of ecstasy as to a king.[He watches her.]MERABThenIwill praise him.DOEGDavid? you?MERABAs heWas never—and shall never be again,—DOEGBut—MERABGive me the phial.DOEGThe poison?MERABCome; At once!DOEGWhat will you do?MERABAt once with it![He hands it to her. She dips the point of her dagger in it.]DOEGTo stab himMERABAs any fool? Wait.—And the rest now, quick.This timbrel-player, Judith?DOEGShe is readyAnd ravishing!MERABWell, well; then—?DOEGWe will send herSudden, as Michal is alone with David,To seize him with insinuative kisses,And arms that wind as they were wonted to him.Michal once jealous—and already IHave sowed suspicions—MERABWill—? yes—?DOEGOn him burst [laughs]And as a fury.MERABMay it be their rending![The tumult, near.]Come, we must see.[They go to look out. Shouts of “David!” “David!” arise, and a band of timbrel-players, dancing and singing, followed by a band of priests bearing the ark with its cherubim of gold, pass the tent opening.David,Saul,Jonathan,Ishuiand the Court then enter amid acclamations; before them servants, bearing the head of Goliath on a charger under a napkin.Sauldarkly mounts the throne withAhinoam, to waving of palms and to praise.]A WOMAN [breaking from the throng.]Our little ones are saved! hosannah! joy![She kissesDavid’shand.]JONATHANWoman, thy tongue should know an angel-word,Or seraph-syllables new-sung to God!Earth has not any rapture well for this!David, my brother!DAVIDJonathan, my friend!While life has any love, know mine for you.JONATHANThen am I friended as no man was ever!And though my soul were morning wide it wereHelpless to hold my wonder and delight!O people, look upon him!THE PEOPLEDavid! David!JONATHANNever before in Israel rose beautyUp to this glory!DAVIDJonathan, nay—JONATHANNever![Loosing his robe and girdle.]Therefore I pour him splendor passionate.In gold and purple, this my own, I clothe him.David, my brother!SAUL [Angered.]Brother!AHINOAMSaul?SAULThou fool!JONATHANFather?AHINOAMMy lord?SAULThou full-of-lauding fool!Of breath and ravishment unceasing!AHINOAMSaul!SAULIs it not praise enough, has he not reachedThe skies on it!DAVIDO king, my lord—SAULHad SaulEver so rich a rapture from his son?Ever this worshipping of utterance?DAVIDMy lord, my lord, this should not fret you.DOEG [Derisively.]Nay!DAVID’Tis only that the soul of Jonathan,Brimmed by the Philistines with bitterness,Sudden is joy and overfloweth—DOEGFast—DAVIDUpon his friend, thy servant, David.DOEGAie![He turns away laughing.]SAULWhy do you laugh?DOEG“Thy servant David!”SAULWhy!A WOMAN [Without.]King Saul has slain his thousands!DOEG“Why,” my lord?THE WOMANBut David his ten thousands!DOEGDo you hear?King Saul has slain his thousands, David ten!Thy servant is he? servant?DAVID [ToSaul.]Shall thy sceptreBe wielded by this venom-word, as isA weed under the wind?SAUL’Tis overmuch!I’ll burst all bond of priest or prophecy.Nor cringe to threatening and fondle fear.[He seizes a javelin.]I’ll smite where’er I will.DAVIDNo!JONATHANFather!DAVIDShallA rapid palsy now come on thy hand,Awful and sceptre-ruined lord of men?An impotence, a shriveling to fear,Avenging ere thou shed offenceless blood?[Saul’shand drops.]Is this thy love, the love of Saul the king?Who once was kindlier than kindest are.For but a woman’s wantonness of wordAnd idle air, my life?AHINOAMSaul, Saul—!JONATHANThe shame!DAVIDSome enemy—does Doeg curve his lip?—Hath put into her mouth this stratagemOf fevered false-impassioned overpraise.[Saul, silent, rises slowly and goes, entreated ofJonathan. Many follow in doubt, whispering.]DOEG [ToDavid.]This is not all, boy out of Bethlehem.Goliath’s dead—DAVIDBut not all villainy?[Doeggoes, flushing,—and all follow, exceptMichal, andMerab, who moves cunningly forward as if incensed.]MERABI burn for it!DAVIDFor what, and suddenly?MERABMy father so ungenerously wroth!And wrought away from recompense so right;Can you forgive him?DAVIDMerab?…MERABIs it strangeThat evenInow ask it?DAVIDMerab’s self?MERABHerself and not to-day your friend; but nowConquered to exaltation and aglowTo wreathe you for this might to Israel,Beautiful, unbelievable and bright!Noble the dawn of it within your dream,Noble the lightning of it in your arm,And noble in your veins the fearless flowAnd dare of blood!—so noble that I askAs a remembrance and bequest forever,In priceless covenant of peace between us,A drop of it—[She draws her dagger and offers it to him.]Upon this sacred blade.DAVIDSuch kindness, in all honor?MERABPoor requitalTo one whose greatness humbles me from hate.DAVIDThen of my veins whatever drop you will,Were it the very dwelling of my soul.[He takes the dagger and makes as if to prick himself.]Ah, but you do not mock me?MERABRather uponIts edge one vein of you—than priceless nard.DAVIDAnd perfume out of India jewel poured?[He searches her eyes.]Or than—I may believe?—a miracleOf dew, were you a traveller and lostUpon the illimitable desert’s thirst?Or than—[He draws his own dagger, pricks his wrist with it, and hands it to her.]than this?MERABShepherd!Treachery, then?Under a sham of tribute, poison?MICHALPoison?DAVIDAnd I of vanity should prick it in?I a mere shepherd innocent of wile!A singer music-maudled and no more.[As she goes, stung with chagrin.]The daughter of king Saul has yet to learn.[From looking after her, he turns towardMichal, and, sighing, slowly approaches her.]The vaunting of this victory is done.We are alone at last.MICHALYes.DAVIDThat is all?For Israel I’ve wrought to-day, for youWho were about me, in me, as a mistOf armed mighty angels triumphing.MICHALYes? It was well.DAVIDTo you no more? to youWhom not a slave can serve unhonored?MICHAL [Struggling.]Nothing.DAVIDEmpty of glow then seems it, impotent,A shrivelled hallowing.…Ashes of ecstasy that burned in vain.MICHALNo, no! I—DAVIDMichal?MICHALNo, divine it was!And had I cried my praise the ground had brokeTo Eden under me with blossoming.Where was so wonderful a deed as this,So fair a springing of salvation up!Glory above star-soaring could I seize,Auras of dawn and loveliness unfading,To crown you with and crown!DAVIDO lips!MICHALWith butA sling, a shepherd’s sling, you sped the brook,Drew from its bed a stone, and up the hillWhere the great Philistine contemning cried,Mounted and flung it deep upon his brain!DAVIDThis is the victory and not his death!Tell, tell thy joy with kisses on my lips!Thy mouth! thy arms! thy breast!MICHALNo no!DAVIDThy soul!Too much of waiting and of severance!Of dread and distance and the deep of doubt.Now must I fold you, falter all my loveAnd triumph on your senses till they burnBeautiful to eternity with bliss.MICHALLoose, loose me!DAVIDNay, again! immortal kisses!MICHALA frenzy, ’tis a frenzy! From me! see!This irremediable victoryOver Goliath severs us the more.[The tumult breaks again, afar.]Hear how the people lift you limitless!Almost, to-day, and in my father’s roomThey would that you were king.DAVIDBut ere to-morrowDim shall I be, and ere the harvest bendLess than a gleam in their forgotten peril!MICHALO were it, were it! But all silentlyJehovah fast is beckoning the realmInto thy hands.DAVIDThen futile to resistThe gliding on of firm divinity.And yet whatever may be shall be done.MICHALAll, all?DAVIDThat for thee reverently may.MICHALThe anointing, then—DAVIDOf that!… not that!MICHALYet grantIt may be told my father; that I maySay to him all the secret!DAVIDAnd provokeMurder in him, insatiable thoughI fled upon the wilderness and famine?MICHALHe would not!DAVIDNay.MICHALI’ll plead with him.DAVIDIn vain!MICHALThen [coldly] it is as I thought.DAVIDYou are distraught.MICHALThis stroke to-day [pointing toGoliath’shead] no love of me had in it.DAVIDA love, a passion fervid thro’ me asThe tread and tremble of immortal songAlong the infinite.MICHALYou use me!DAVIDUse?MICHALA step to rise and riot in ambition!DAVIDSo bitter are you, blind?MICHALIt was a trick!You snared me to you.DAVIDMichal!MICHALCunninglyWith Samuel netted fears about my fatherTill I am paltrily unto you pledged.DAVIDEnough.MICHALToo much.DAVIDNo more; the pledge I flingOut of my heart, as ’twere enchantment dead.And free you; but, no more.[He moves from her.]MICHALAs if it wereEnchantment dead. Ah, then ’tis true—there isAnother—is another!DAVIDNow what fever?A gentleness clad once your every grace.MICHALThere is some other that you lure and love.DAVIDIt is not Michal speaking; so I wait.MICHALThen—[Judithglides suddenly in with a low laugh and kneels beforeDavid.Michalstands amazed.]JUDITH [As if with amorous admiration.]Brave, it was brave, my love! beauteous! brave!DAVIDWoman?JUDITHThe Philistine, a brazen tower,A bastion of strength fell to the earth!DAVIDWoman, who are you?[She clasps and kisses him.]Take away your flesh.[Free] Take it away, the heat and myrrh of it.JUDITHSo cold?DAVIDAway.JUDITHAnd ’tis no longer fair?[Wantonly] Oh! Ah! I understand! the princess?—DAVIDGo.[Judithobeys, laughing and shaking her timbrel.]MICHALA dancer then, a very timbrel player!DAVIDUntil this hour I never looked upon her.It is chicanery of chance or craft.You who are noble, though in doubt adrift,Be noble now!MICHALAnd loving? O, I will—Now that I know what should be done. Be sure.DAVIDYou mean, that Saul?—you would not, no!MICHALRest sure.[A hand is seen at the tent.Ahinoamenters.]AHINOAMDavid, the king—But what is this?[Michalgoes.]DAVIDO queen—It is but life.AHINOAMNay.DAVIDLife that ever stringsOur hearts, so pitifully prone for it,To ecstasy—then snaps.AHINOAMI love thee, David.DAVIDThen gracious be, and question here no more.Where words are futile for an utterance.But of the king—the king?AHINOAMHe’s driven still.And hither comes, and soon, and must be calmed.Thy harp take, winds of beauty from it bring,And consolation—as of valley-evesWhen there is ebb of sorrow and of toil,O could you heal him and forever heal.DAVIDThen would I be—![He breaks off with a gesture of great desire, takes the harp and seats himself.]AHINOAMAt once, for he will come.[Davidbegins; a strain of wild sadness.Saulenters and with himDoeg,Ishui,Jonathan—others. He pauses, his hand to his brow, and goes slowly, enspelled ofDavid’s playing, up the dais.]AHINOAMMy lord, shall David sing—to ease us?SAULLet him.DAVID[With high sorrow.]O heart of woe,Heart of unrest and broken as a reed![Plays.]O heart whose flowIs anguish and all the bitterness of need![Plays.]O heart as a roe,Heart as a hind upon the mountain fleeingThe arrow-wounds of being,Be still, O heart, and rest and do not bleed![Plays longer with bowed head.]O days of life,Days that are driven swift and wild from the womb![Plays.]O days so rife—Days that are torn of trouble, trod of doom![Plays.][Michalenters.]O days of strife,Days of desire on deserts spread unending,The burning blue o’erbending,O days, our peace, our victory is the tomb![He plays to a close that dies in anguished silence.]SAUL [Rising in tears]David!DAVIDMy lord?SAULThy breathing! beauteous!Stilling to sorrow! O my friend, my son!DAVIDTo me is this? I dream it not? The kingAgain is kind and soft his spirit moves?SAULTo you!DAVIDHow shelter o’er me then will springAnd safety covering!SAULIt ever shall.Loveliest have you been among my days,And singing weary madness from my brain.[Davidstarts toward him.]How I have wronged thee!MICHALWronged him? [In fury.]DAVIDMichal!SAULGirl?MICHALYou have not wronged him!DAVIDMichal!MICHALNo, but heIs jeopardy and fate about you! driveHim from you utterly and now away![Murmurs of astonishment.]SAULWhat mean you?ISHUISpeak.SAULWhat mean you?MICHALThis!DAVIDNo word!MICHALI’ll not be kept—DAVIDBut shall be; for to tellWould rend silence forever from you—paleYour flesh with haunting of it evermore!All, all your being would become a hiss.A memory of syllables that sear,A living iteration of remorse.I—I myself will save your lips the wordsOf this betrayal leaping from your heart.[Nobly, before Saul.]You seek, my lord, you seek whom SamuelAnointed.SAULYes.DAVIDThen know that it is I.SAUL’Tis—?DAVIDI.SAULYou!DAVIDI. And guiltless I, no other.I, though I sought it not and suffer, thoughI would it had not come and fast am swornNever against you to lift up—MERABHear, hear!Now he will cozen!DOEGHe, “thy servant!”ISHUIHear!A VOICE [Without.]A thousand Saul hath slain! But David ten!SAUL [Choking.]Omnipotence shall not withhold me more.[He lifts a javelin.]DAVIDMurderous king afoam with murder-heat![He avoids from side to side.]Monarch of misery—of might—of rageSo fell that lightning were not dread enoughWere it thy bolt! To-day you will destroy me?[Goliath’shead overturned, rolls on the floor.]Upon this day will slay me innocent?SAULDie, die!JONATHANNo, father, hold![Saulflings the javelin.]MICHAL [Reeling.]What have I done?JONATHANDavid, unhurt? Away, the wilderness.[Thrusts a sword on him.]SAULHe shall not! no.[Seizes another javelin.]DAVID [Aflame.]Then, king of Israel, strike!Strike me to darkness and the waiting worm!Into the Pit and to the hopeless gloom.But, after, be your every breathing blood,Remorse and riving bitterness and fear,Be guilt and all the hideous choke of horror![Saultrembling at the curse lets the javelin fall from his hand.Davidbreaking throughDoegandIshuiescapes by the door.Michalsinks to her knees, her face buried in her hands.][CURTAIN.]

FIRST WOMAN

See, see, at last!

SECOND WOMAN

They come!

THIRD WOMAN

An avalanche.

Over the brook and bright amid hosannas!

SECOND WOMAN

And now amid the rushes!

FIRST WOMAN

And the servants!

Goliath’s head high-borne upon a charger!

The rocks that cry reverberant and vast!

The people and the palms!

THIRD WOMAN

Yea all the branches

Torn from the trees! The waving of them—O!

SECOND WOMAN

And David, see! triumphant, calm, between

The king and Jonathan!… His glory

All the wild generations of the wind

Ever shall utter! Hear them—

[The tumult ascends afar] David! David!

A sea of shouting!—

O queen!

AHINOAM

You yearn for it?

Then go and lave you in this tide of joy.

[The women go rapturously.Ahinoamturns.]

MERAB

Mother!

AHINOAM

My daughter?

MERAB

Well?

AHINOAM

They all are gone.

MERAB

And Michal, where?

AHINOAM

I do not know, my child.

MERAB

Why did my father pledge her to him! you

Not hindering!

AHINOAM

She is your sister. You

Are pledged to Adriel.

MERAB

And as a slave!

And if I do not love him there is—riches!

If he is Sodom-bitter to me—riches!

AHINOAM

But for the kingdom.

MERAB

For my torture! What

Kingdom is to a woman as her love!

AHINOAM

And David still enthralls you?

MERAB

Though he never

Sought me with any murmur or desire!

Though he is Michal’s for Goliath’s death!

Michal’s to-day, unless—

AHINOAM

Merab, a care!

Too near in you were ever love and hate.

[The tumult nears.Ahinoamgoes to look out.]

[Doegenters toMerab.]

DOEG [low]

News, Merab!

MERAB

Well—?

DOEG

A triumph o’er him, yet!

The king is worn, as a leopard pent, between

Wonder of David and quick jealousy

Because of praise this whelming of Goliath

Wakes in the people.

MERAB

Then? the triumph?

DOEG

This.

[The tumult, nearer.]

I’ve skilfully disposed the women

To coldly sing of Saul, but of our David

With lavish of ecstasy as to a king.

[He watches her.]

MERAB

ThenIwill praise him.

DOEG

David? you?

MERAB

As he

Was never—and shall never be again,—

DOEG

But—

MERAB

Give me the phial.

DOEG

The poison?

MERAB

Come; At once!

DOEG

What will you do?

MERAB

At once with it!

[He hands it to her. She dips the point of her dagger in it.]

DOEG

To stab him

MERAB

As any fool? Wait.—And the rest now, quick.

This timbrel-player, Judith?

DOEG

She is ready

And ravishing!

MERAB

Well, well; then—?

DOEG

We will send her

Sudden, as Michal is alone with David,

To seize him with insinuative kisses,

And arms that wind as they were wonted to him.

Michal once jealous—and already I

Have sowed suspicions—

MERAB

Will—? yes—?

DOEG

On him burst [laughs]

And as a fury.

MERAB

May it be their rending!

[The tumult, near.]

Come, we must see.

[They go to look out. Shouts of “David!” “David!” arise, and a band of timbrel-players, dancing and singing, followed by a band of priests bearing the ark with its cherubim of gold, pass the tent opening.David,Saul,Jonathan,Ishuiand the Court then enter amid acclamations; before them servants, bearing the head of Goliath on a charger under a napkin.Sauldarkly mounts the throne withAhinoam, to waving of palms and to praise.]

A WOMAN [breaking from the throng.]

Our little ones are saved! hosannah! joy!

[She kissesDavid’shand.]

JONATHAN

Woman, thy tongue should know an angel-word,

Or seraph-syllables new-sung to God!

Earth has not any rapture well for this!

David, my brother!

DAVID

Jonathan, my friend!

While life has any love, know mine for you.

JONATHAN

Then am I friended as no man was ever!

And though my soul were morning wide it were

Helpless to hold my wonder and delight!

O people, look upon him!

THE PEOPLE

David! David!

JONATHAN

Never before in Israel rose beauty

Up to this glory!

DAVID

Jonathan, nay—

JONATHAN

Never!

[Loosing his robe and girdle.]

Therefore I pour him splendor passionate.

In gold and purple, this my own, I clothe him.

David, my brother!

SAUL [Angered.]

Brother!

AHINOAM

Saul?

SAUL

Thou fool!

JONATHAN

Father?

AHINOAM

My lord?

SAUL

Thou full-of-lauding fool!

Of breath and ravishment unceasing!

AHINOAM

Saul!

SAUL

Is it not praise enough, has he not reached

The skies on it!

DAVID

O king, my lord—

SAUL

Had Saul

Ever so rich a rapture from his son?

Ever this worshipping of utterance?

DAVID

My lord, my lord, this should not fret you.

DOEG [Derisively.]

Nay!

DAVID

’Tis only that the soul of Jonathan,

Brimmed by the Philistines with bitterness,

Sudden is joy and overfloweth—

DOEG

Fast—

DAVID

Upon his friend, thy servant, David.

DOEG

Aie!

[He turns away laughing.]

SAUL

Why do you laugh?

DOEG

“Thy servant David!”

SAUL

Why!

A WOMAN [Without.]

King Saul has slain his thousands!

DOEG

“Why,” my lord?

THE WOMAN

But David his ten thousands!

DOEG

Do you hear?

King Saul has slain his thousands, David ten!

Thy servant is he? servant?

DAVID [ToSaul.]

Shall thy sceptre

Be wielded by this venom-word, as is

A weed under the wind?

SAUL

’Tis overmuch!

I’ll burst all bond of priest or prophecy.

Nor cringe to threatening and fondle fear.

[He seizes a javelin.]

I’ll smite where’er I will.

DAVID

No!

JONATHAN

Father!

DAVID

Shall

A rapid palsy now come on thy hand,

Awful and sceptre-ruined lord of men?

An impotence, a shriveling to fear,

Avenging ere thou shed offenceless blood?

[Saul’shand drops.]

Is this thy love, the love of Saul the king?

Who once was kindlier than kindest are.

For but a woman’s wantonness of word

And idle air, my life?

AHINOAM

Saul, Saul—!

JONATHAN

The shame!

DAVID

Some enemy—does Doeg curve his lip?—

Hath put into her mouth this stratagem

Of fevered false-impassioned overpraise.

[Saul, silent, rises slowly and goes, entreated ofJonathan. Many follow in doubt, whispering.]

DOEG [ToDavid.]

This is not all, boy out of Bethlehem.

Goliath’s dead—

DAVID

But not all villainy?

[Doeggoes, flushing,—and all follow, exceptMichal, andMerab, who moves cunningly forward as if incensed.]

MERAB

I burn for it!

DAVID

For what, and suddenly?

MERAB

My father so ungenerously wroth!

And wrought away from recompense so right;

Can you forgive him?

DAVID

Merab?…

MERAB

Is it strange

That evenInow ask it?

DAVID

Merab’s self?

MERAB

Herself and not to-day your friend; but now

Conquered to exaltation and aglow

To wreathe you for this might to Israel,

Beautiful, unbelievable and bright!

Noble the dawn of it within your dream,

Noble the lightning of it in your arm,

And noble in your veins the fearless flow

And dare of blood!—so noble that I ask

As a remembrance and bequest forever,

In priceless covenant of peace between us,

A drop of it—

[She draws her dagger and offers it to him.]

Upon this sacred blade.

DAVID

Such kindness, in all honor?

MERAB

Poor requital

To one whose greatness humbles me from hate.

DAVID

Then of my veins whatever drop you will,

Were it the very dwelling of my soul.

[He takes the dagger and makes as if to prick himself.]

Ah, but you do not mock me?

MERAB

Rather upon

Its edge one vein of you—than priceless nard.

DAVID

And perfume out of India jewel poured?

[He searches her eyes.]

Or than—I may believe?—a miracle

Of dew, were you a traveller and lost

Upon the illimitable desert’s thirst?

Or than—

[He draws his own dagger, pricks his wrist with it, and hands it to her.]

than this?

MERAB

Shepherd!

Treachery, then?

Under a sham of tribute, poison?

MICHAL

Poison?

DAVID

And I of vanity should prick it in?

I a mere shepherd innocent of wile!

A singer music-maudled and no more.

[As she goes, stung with chagrin.]

The daughter of king Saul has yet to learn.

[From looking after her, he turns towardMichal, and, sighing, slowly approaches her.]

The vaunting of this victory is done.

We are alone at last.

MICHAL

Yes.

DAVID

That is all?

For Israel I’ve wrought to-day, for you

Who were about me, in me, as a mist

Of armed mighty angels triumphing.

MICHAL

Yes? It was well.

DAVID

To you no more? to you

Whom not a slave can serve unhonored?

MICHAL [Struggling.]

Nothing.

DAVID

Empty of glow then seems it, impotent,

A shrivelled hallowing.…

Ashes of ecstasy that burned in vain.

MICHAL

No, no! I—

DAVID

Michal?

MICHAL

No, divine it was!

And had I cried my praise the ground had broke

To Eden under me with blossoming.

Where was so wonderful a deed as this,

So fair a springing of salvation up!

Glory above star-soaring could I seize,

Auras of dawn and loveliness unfading,

To crown you with and crown!

DAVID

O lips!

MICHAL

With but

A sling, a shepherd’s sling, you sped the brook,

Drew from its bed a stone, and up the hill

Where the great Philistine contemning cried,

Mounted and flung it deep upon his brain!

DAVID

This is the victory and not his death!

Tell, tell thy joy with kisses on my lips!

Thy mouth! thy arms! thy breast!

MICHAL

No no!

DAVID

Thy soul!

Too much of waiting and of severance!

Of dread and distance and the deep of doubt.

Now must I fold you, falter all my love

And triumph on your senses till they burn

Beautiful to eternity with bliss.

MICHAL

Loose, loose me!

DAVID

Nay, again! immortal kisses!

MICHAL

A frenzy, ’tis a frenzy! From me! see!

This irremediable victory

Over Goliath severs us the more.

[The tumult breaks again, afar.]

Hear how the people lift you limitless!

Almost, to-day, and in my father’s room

They would that you were king.

DAVID

But ere to-morrow

Dim shall I be, and ere the harvest bend

Less than a gleam in their forgotten peril!

MICHAL

O were it, were it! But all silently

Jehovah fast is beckoning the realm

Into thy hands.

DAVID

Then futile to resist

The gliding on of firm divinity.

And yet whatever may be shall be done.

MICHAL

All, all?

DAVID

That for thee reverently may.

MICHAL

The anointing, then—

DAVID

Of that!… not that!

MICHAL

Yet grant

It may be told my father; that I may

Say to him all the secret!

DAVID

And provoke

Murder in him, insatiable though

I fled upon the wilderness and famine?

MICHAL

He would not!

DAVID

Nay.

MICHAL

I’ll plead with him.

DAVID

In vain!

MICHAL

Then [coldly] it is as I thought.

DAVID

You are distraught.

MICHAL

This stroke to-day [pointing toGoliath’shead] no love of me had in it.

DAVID

A love, a passion fervid thro’ me as

The tread and tremble of immortal song

Along the infinite.

MICHAL

You use me!

DAVID

Use?

MICHAL

A step to rise and riot in ambition!

DAVID

So bitter are you, blind?

MICHAL

It was a trick!

You snared me to you.

DAVID

Michal!

MICHAL

Cunningly

With Samuel netted fears about my father

Till I am paltrily unto you pledged.

DAVID

Enough.

MICHAL

Too much.

DAVID

No more; the pledge I fling

Out of my heart, as ’twere enchantment dead.

And free you; but, no more.

[He moves from her.]

MICHAL

As if it were

Enchantment dead. Ah, then ’tis true—there is

Another—is another!

DAVID

Now what fever?

A gentleness clad once your every grace.

MICHAL

There is some other that you lure and love.

DAVID

It is not Michal speaking; so I wait.

MICHAL

Then—

[Judithglides suddenly in with a low laugh and kneels beforeDavid.Michalstands amazed.]

JUDITH [As if with amorous admiration.]

Brave, it was brave, my love! beauteous! brave!

DAVID

Woman?

JUDITH

The Philistine, a brazen tower,

A bastion of strength fell to the earth!

DAVID

Woman, who are you?

[She clasps and kisses him.]

Take away your flesh.

[Free] Take it away, the heat and myrrh of it.

JUDITH

So cold?

DAVID

Away.

JUDITH

And ’tis no longer fair?

[Wantonly] Oh! Ah! I understand! the princess?—

DAVID

Go.

[Judithobeys, laughing and shaking her timbrel.]

MICHAL

A dancer then, a very timbrel player!

DAVID

Until this hour I never looked upon her.

It is chicanery of chance or craft.

You who are noble, though in doubt adrift,

Be noble now!

MICHAL

And loving? O, I will—

Now that I know what should be done. Be sure.

DAVID

You mean, that Saul?—you would not, no!

MICHAL

Rest sure.

[A hand is seen at the tent.Ahinoamenters.]

AHINOAM

David, the king—But what is this?

[Michalgoes.]

DAVID

O queen—

It is but life.

AHINOAM

Nay.

DAVID

Life that ever strings

Our hearts, so pitifully prone for it,

To ecstasy—then snaps.

AHINOAM

I love thee, David.

DAVID

Then gracious be, and question here no more.

Where words are futile for an utterance.

But of the king—the king?

AHINOAM

He’s driven still.

And hither comes, and soon, and must be calmed.

Thy harp take, winds of beauty from it bring,

And consolation—as of valley-eves

When there is ebb of sorrow and of toil,

O could you heal him and forever heal.

DAVID

Then would I be—!

[He breaks off with a gesture of great desire, takes the harp and seats himself.]

AHINOAM

At once, for he will come.

[Davidbegins; a strain of wild sadness.Saulenters and with himDoeg,Ishui,Jonathan—others. He pauses, his hand to his brow, and goes slowly, enspelled ofDavid’s playing, up the dais.]

AHINOAM

My lord, shall David sing—to ease us?

SAUL

Let him.

DAVID

[With high sorrow.]

O heart of woe,

Heart of unrest and broken as a reed!

[Plays.]

O heart whose flow

Is anguish and all the bitterness of need!

[Plays.]

O heart as a roe,

Heart as a hind upon the mountain fleeing

The arrow-wounds of being,

Be still, O heart, and rest and do not bleed!

[Plays longer with bowed head.]

O days of life,

Days that are driven swift and wild from the womb!

[Plays.]

O days so rife—

Days that are torn of trouble, trod of doom!

[Plays.]

[Michalenters.]

O days of strife,

Days of desire on deserts spread unending,

The burning blue o’erbending,

O days, our peace, our victory is the tomb!

[He plays to a close that dies in anguished silence.]

SAUL [Rising in tears]

David!

DAVID

My lord?

SAUL

Thy breathing! beauteous!

Stilling to sorrow! O my friend, my son!

DAVID

To me is this? I dream it not? The king

Again is kind and soft his spirit moves?

SAUL

To you!

DAVID

How shelter o’er me then will spring

And safety covering!

SAUL

It ever shall.

Loveliest have you been among my days,

And singing weary madness from my brain.

[Davidstarts toward him.]

How I have wronged thee!

MICHAL

Wronged him? [In fury.]

DAVID

Michal!

SAUL

Girl?

MICHAL

You have not wronged him!

DAVID

Michal!

MICHAL

No, but he

Is jeopardy and fate about you! drive

Him from you utterly and now away!

[Murmurs of astonishment.]

SAUL

What mean you?

ISHUI

Speak.

SAUL

What mean you?

MICHAL

This!

DAVID

No word!

MICHAL

I’ll not be kept—

DAVID

But shall be; for to tell

Would rend silence forever from you—pale

Your flesh with haunting of it evermore!

All, all your being would become a hiss.

A memory of syllables that sear,

A living iteration of remorse.

I—I myself will save your lips the words

Of this betrayal leaping from your heart.

[Nobly, before Saul.]

You seek, my lord, you seek whom Samuel

Anointed.

SAUL

Yes.

DAVID

Then know that it is I.

SAUL

’Tis—?

DAVID

I.

SAUL

You!

DAVID

I. And guiltless I, no other.

I, though I sought it not and suffer, though

I would it had not come and fast am sworn

Never against you to lift up—

MERAB

Hear, hear!

Now he will cozen!

DOEG

He, “thy servant!”

ISHUI

Hear!

A VOICE [Without.]

A thousand Saul hath slain! But David ten!

SAUL [Choking.]

Omnipotence shall not withhold me more.

[He lifts a javelin.]

DAVID

Murderous king afoam with murder-heat!

[He avoids from side to side.]

Monarch of misery—of might—of rage

So fell that lightning were not dread enough

Were it thy bolt! To-day you will destroy me?

[Goliath’shead overturned, rolls on the floor.]

Upon this day will slay me innocent?

SAUL

Die, die!

JONATHAN

No, father, hold!

[Saulflings the javelin.]

MICHAL [Reeling.]

What have I done?

JONATHAN

David, unhurt? Away, the wilderness.

[Thrusts a sword on him.]

SAUL

He shall not! no.

[Seizes another javelin.]

DAVID [Aflame.]

Then, king of Israel, strike!

Strike me to darkness and the waiting worm!

Into the Pit and to the hopeless gloom.

But, after, be your every breathing blood,

Remorse and riving bitterness and fear,

Be guilt and all the hideous choke of horror!

[Saultrembling at the curse lets the javelin fall from his hand.Davidbreaking throughDoegandIshuiescapes by the door.Michalsinks to her knees, her face buried in her hands.]

[CURTAIN.]

SCENE: A savage mountain-cliff in the wilderness of Engeddi. On either side gray crags rise rugged, sinking away precipitously across the back. Cut into each is a cave. The height is reached by clefts from all sides.Between the crags to the East is the far blue of the Dead Sea; and still beyond, bathed in the waning afternoon, stretch the purple shores of Moab. During the act the scene grows crimson with sunset and a thunder-cloud rises over the sea.Lying on a pallet of skins near the cliff’s verge, DAVID tosses feverishly. Three of his followers and a lad, who serves him, are gathered toward the front, ragged, hungry, and hunted, in altercation over a barley-cake.

SCENE: A savage mountain-cliff in the wilderness of Engeddi. On either side gray crags rise rugged, sinking away precipitously across the back. Cut into each is a cave. The height is reached by clefts from all sides.

Between the crags to the East is the far blue of the Dead Sea; and still beyond, bathed in the waning afternoon, stretch the purple shores of Moab. During the act the scene grows crimson with sunset and a thunder-cloud rises over the sea.

Lying on a pallet of skins near the cliff’s verge, DAVID tosses feverishly. Three of his followers and a lad, who serves him, are gathered toward the front, ragged, hungry, and hunted, in altercation over a barley-cake.

DAVIDWater! the fever fills me, and I thirst.Water!FIRST FOLLOWERListen.SECOND FOLLOWERHe calls.DAVIDWater! I thirst.THE LADYes, yes, my lord. [Takes up a water-skin.] Ah, empty, not a quaff!They’ve drunk it all from him! My lord, none’s left.I’ll run and in the valley brim it soon.[He goes.Davidsinks back.]SECOND FOLLOWER [ToFirst.]Youdrank it then.FIRST FOLLOWERAnd should I thirst, not he?Give me the bread.SECOND FOLLOWERIf it would strangle you.FIRST FOLLOWERI’ll have it.SECOND FOLLOWEROr betray him? spitingly?It is the last. Already you have eat.And we are here within a wilderness.FIRST FOLLOWERBe it, but I’ll not starve.THIRD FOLLOWERHe utters right.Why should we but to follow a mere shepherdFamish and o’er a hundred desert hills?The prophecy portending him the throne—Folly, not fate! though it is Samuel’s.I’ll trust in it no more.FIRST FOLLOWERNor I.THIRD FOLLOWERAnd SaulHas driven us from waste to waste—pressed usEven unto the Philistines for shelter,And now unto this crag. And is not David’sThought but of Michal, not of smiting himAnd, with a host, of leaping to the kingdom?[Davidstirs to rise.]FIRST FOLLOWERHe moves; peace!THIRD FOLLOWERLet him.SECOND FOLLOWERPeace.THIRD FOLLOWERAnd fawning too?DAVID[Sufferingly]Men—men, we must have news.Perpetual,Implacable they stare unto each other.This rock and stony sky.[Rises and comes down to them.] We must have news.[They are silent.]Longer is death. ’Tis overmany daysOf sighing and remembered verdancy;Nor any dew or upward odor comes.Who will go now and bring us word of Saul?THIRD FOLLOWERHave not Abishai, Abiathar,And others gone?DAVIDBravely.THIRD FOLLOWERAnd none returned!DAVIDNot one of all.THIRD FOLLOWERWell, then, we are not swine,And life’s but once.DAVIDSo——?THIRD FOLLOWERWe will follow youNo longer hungered and rewarded never,But perilously ever.DAVIDIt is well.[He looses a bracelet from his arm.]This was a gift from Saul. In it is ease.[Gives it toThird Follower, who goes.]This ring was Jonathan’s. The jewel tellsStill of the sunny haven of his heart.Upon my hand he pressed it—the day we leaptDeeper than friends into each other’s love.[Gives it toFirst Follower, who goes.]This chain——SECOND FOLLOWERI want it not.DAVIDYou have not thought;’Tis riches—such as Sidon marts and TyreWould covet.SECOND FOLLOWERI care not.DAVIDNone else is left.SECOND FOLLOWERNo matter.DAVIDThen——?SECOND FOLLOWERThere was of GibeahA woman—dear to me. Her face at nightWeeping among my dreams.…The prophecyIs unfulfilled, and vain!DAVIDAnd you would go?SECOND FOLLOWERThe suffering—this cliff.DAVIDI understand,[Motions.] So, without any blame, and to content.[TheSecond Followerfalters, then goes.][Quietly.] A desolation left, of rock and air,Of barren sea and bitterness as vast.Thou hast bereft me, Saul! thou hast bereft![He moves up the cliff, gazes sadly away, then kneels by a stone, as to pray.]My flesh cries for oblivion—to sinkUnwaking away into the Night … where isNo tears, but only tides of sleep.…No, criethNot for Oblivion and Night, but forRage and revenge! Saul! Saul!… My spirit, peace.As pants the heart for the water-brook, so I![He bows his head.Michalin rags that disguise, enters with theLad, unseen.]Her lips it was that hurled me unto this!Yet, yet not violence on him and blood!I must revenge’s call within me quell,Though righteously it quivers and aflame.[He goes slowly into the cave, Right.]MICHALThis is the place, then, this?LADYes, princess.MICHALHereSo long in want and sickness he hath hid?Under the livid day and lonelier night!LADI brought him water, often.MICHALLittle lad!But he has heard no word from me—not howMy father, Saul, frantic of my repentance,Had unto Phalti, a new lord, betrothed me?How then I fled to win unto these wilds?LADHe heard not anything—only the talesI told of Moab, my own land.[Davidplays within.]But oh!It is his harp.MICHALAnd strains that weep o’er me!…I’ll speak to him … and yet must be unknown!A leper? as a leper could I…?LADWhyMust he not know you?MICHALAsk me not, lad, now;But go a little.LADYes.[He sets down the water-skin and goes.]MICHAL [Delaying, then in a loud voice.]Unclean! Unclean![Conceals her face in her hair.]DAVIDWho crieth here?MICHALUnclean!DAVID [Appearing.]Who cries unclean?Poor leper in these wilds, who art thou?MICHALOneOutcast and faint, forlorn!DAVIDThen you have comeTo one more bitter outcast than yourself,One who has less than this lone void to give,This sterile solitude and sun, this sceneOf leaden desolation that makes mad.Who has no ease but cave or shading rock,Or the still moon, or stars that glide the night.One over whom——MICHALYet, pity!DAVIDThe pale hoursFlow dead into eternity.MICHALAh, yet…!DAVIDMy cloak, then, for thy tattered limbs. Or, no—This chain of Ophir for thy every need.Once was it dear, but should be so no more.[Flinging it to her.] Have it, and with it vanish memoryOut of my breast——MICHALNo, no.DAVIDAnd from me fallLink upon link her loveliness that bound.MICHALOh, do not!DAVIDWoman…?MICHALNothing. A chain like thisI once beheld wind undulantly brightO’er Michal, the king’s daughter.DAVIDWoman, the king’s?MICHALPity!DAVIDWho are you?MICHALStay! Unclean!DAVIDA spy?A spy of Saul and hypocrite have creptHither to learn…?MICHALHave heed—unclean!DAVIDHow thenWandering come you here?MICHALUnclean! Unclean!DAVIDMy brain is overfull of fever, mad.Almost and I had touched thy peril, heldThy hideous contagion.MICHALWrong!DAVIDThen whoArt thou to know and speak of her, of Michal?MICHALOne who has served the king.DAVIDAnd you have seenMichal, you have beheld her?MICHALOnce, when sheIn face was fairer and in heart than nowThey say she is.DAVIDAnd heard her speak?MICHALA nightUnder the leaves of Gibeah—when sheSang with another—David.DAVIDSay no more.MICHALAnd from afar, under the moon, blew faintThe treading of the wine-presses with song.David she loved, but anger-torn betrayed,Unworthy of him.DAVIDSpeak of her no more,Nor of her cruelty, unless to prayHe she has ruined may forget her.MICHALYetIf deep she should repent——?DAVIDLeper, no more.[A moment; then a jackal’s cry shrills to them.Davidstarts.]The signal. [He listens.] Thrice repeated? Word at last?[ToMichal.] He who is near may prove to thee less kind.[She goes. He springs to look down the cliff.]Abishai? Abiathar? It is!But staggering and wounded? breathless? torn?[He watches, then turns to meet them. They enter—Abiatharwith bloody ephod and broken breastplate—and sink in panting exhaustion.]Abishai, what is it that you bring?Abiathar, up! answer!ABIATHARWater!DAVIDUp![He brings the water-skin. They drain it fiercely.]What is it now so fevered from you staresAnd breathing too abhorrence? Gasp it out.ABIATHARI stifle—in a universe—he still—Has breath in.DAVIDSaul?ABIATHARI’ll scathe him! ScorpionsOf terror and remorse sting in his soul!DAVIDIf you have tidings, not in words so wild.ABIATHARThen ask and hate shall calm me.DAVIDAsk?ABIATHAROn, on!Seek if he lives!DAVIDWho?ABIATHARSeek if prophecyFounts yet in Judah!DAVIDSamuel…?ABIATHARIs dead!…Dead—and of tidings more calamitous.[A pause.]DAVID [Hoarsely.]Tell on. I hear.ABIATHARSaul gloating to believeThe priests, assembled sacredly at Nob,Plotted assisting you, hath had them——DAVIDNo…!ABIATHARSlain at the hands of Doeg—murdered, all!DAVIDBut he—your father?ABIATHARWas among them; fell.[He stands motionless.]DAVID [Gently.]Abiathar, my friend!… Appeaseless Saul!ABIATHARHear all, hear all! Thy father, too, and mother,Even thy kindred, out of IsraelAre driven into Moab; and this king,Delirious still for blood as desert pard,With Merab, whelp of him, and many armed,Is near us now—aquiver at EngeddiFor your destruction:[Davidstruggles for control.]And yet you will not strike.DAVID[Low.] No, but of Michal, tell me good at once,Lest unendurable this lot, I may—and mount o’er every oath into revenge.ABIATHARHa—Michal!DAVIDShe withholds her father’s wrath?ABIATHARShe’s well.DAVIDNot if you say no more.ABIATHARI knowNothing of her.DAVIDYour look belies.ABIATHARPerhaps:As did her love.DAVIDThat is for me.ABIATHARWell, what?A woman who betrays?DAVIDSpeak, not evade;And judge her when earth has no mystery.ABIATHARThen from your craving put her—wide; she isUnworthy any tremor of your veins.DAVIDDawn-lilies under dew are then unworthy,And nesting doves are horrible to heaven.I will not so believe. Your reason…!ABIATHARSaulHas given her—and she will wed him, aye—To Phalti, a new lord.DAVIDUntrue of her!ABIATHARCry. Yet you will believe it.DAVIDNot untilThe verdant parable of spring is hushedEver of bloom, to prove it. Never tillHermon is swung into the sea! untilThe last void of the everlasting sky——[Looking up he falters, breaks off, and is strangely moved at something beheld.]ABIATHARWhat, what alarm?ABISHAIWhat stare you on?ABIATHARHe’s mad?[Davidpoints. They look up.]ABIATHARAn eaglet!…ABISHAIEaglet?ABIATHARPierct!ABISHAIPierct?…DAVIDFalling here.And beating against death unbuoyantly.[The bird, an arrow through it, drops in throes at their feet.]A destiny, a fate in this is hidden![He bends over it, then quickly back.]ABIATHARA destiny, how, how?DAVIDThe arrow!—His!His, and no other’s. Quick, then, no delay.ABIATHARBe clear, clearer.DAVIDWe are discovered—nearOn us is death. Open the secret chamberWithin the cave, for from the bow of SaulIs yonder bleeding—from no other.ABIATHARSaul’s?But how, was any here?DAVIDTo-day, to-day.A leper wandering.ABIATHARWe are betrayed.[Abishaiwith the water-skin hastens into the cave, Right.DavidandAbiatharstand listening. Noise of approach is heard.]DAVIDThey near.ABIATHARAnd many.DAVIDKing of Israel!Inexorable!ABIATHARO, rebuke him, do!DAVIDAlmost I am beyond this tolerance.ABIATHARIn truth. Therefore it is you rise and shakeOut of his power the sceptre!DAVIDTempt me not!Mercy and memory almost are dead,And craving birth in me is fateful ire.[They follow into the cave. Hardly have they done so when at a shout,Saul, bloodthirsty, withDoeg,Abner,Ishui, and soldiers, pour in from all sides, with drawn weapons.]SAULOn, to him! search the caves! In, in, and bringHim to my sword, and Michal with him.[Pacing terrible the while.] TheyShall couch upon eternity and dust.[Weakly.] I am the king, and Israel is mine.…I’ll sleep upon their grave—I’ll sleep upon it,And hear the worm…![To aSoldierre-entering from one cave.] Where is he? Bring him.SOLDIERO King——SAULYou’ve slain him and you tremble! Say it.SOLDIERNo.SAULThen hither with him; hither!SOLDIERHe’s not here.SAULA treachery! You cunningly contriveTo aid him, so.…[To aSoldierre-entering fearfully from the other cave.]Bring me his head.SOLDIERMy lord,He is not there.SAULI tell you it is lies—Because you deem that he shall be the kingAnd treasure up reward and amnesty.[Into one cave, then another he rushes, then out among them furious.]From me, ill-fruited ineffectual herd!Away from me, he’s fled and none of youIs servant and will find and for me seize him!From me—I’ll sleep—I’ll rest—and then—[All begin to crowd out, overawed, butDoegandAbner.]I’ll sleep.[Slowly he moves into the cave, Left, and lies down.]ABNER[ToDoeg, significantly.] The evil spirit.DOEGYes; is on him swiftAs never before, and as a drunkenness.ABNERThen, safe to leave him?DOEGWill he brook denial?ABNERAnd Merab, too, will soon be here.DOEGWell, come.ABNERI’ll go and look upon him.[Goes toSaul’scave and returns.]Already he sleeps.[Turning they encounterMichalentering, still disguised. She quails.]Woman, who are you, who?MICHALUnclean! away!DOEGUnclean? a leper? in this place? Are thereNo stones to stone you? Hence! And had I notA brother such as thou——MICHALPity! Unclean![She goes quickly; then they. A space. Then she returns trembling, fearful.]I’ll call him! I will save him!—David! David!—I his discomfiture and ruin!—David!David! hear me! David![Searching, she approaches the cave whereSaullies, but recoils terrified.]The king! my father!I cannot—am not—whither shall I, whither?[Confused she flees, as scuffling is heard, andAbishaiandAbiathar, struggling withDavid, appear.]DAVIDLoose me, I say. ’Twas Michal and she called.[Breaking free.] I say that it was she!ABIATHARFoolhardy, no.Return into the cave, and ere too late![Merab, veiled, enters behind them.]DAVID’Twas Michal and no other.ABIATHARYou are duped.DAVIDThe breathing of archangels could not soHave swung the burden from me as her call.[Searching, he faces—and beholdsMerab. His look grows to coldness.]MERABIt is not Michal.DAVIDNo—it is not Michal.[He motionsAbiatharandAbishaiaside.]MERABYet it is one who——DAVIDNeed not lift her veilOr longer stay. The path she came is open.MERABI’m here—and here will speak! I’ve hither stolen,Yearning—I say it—yearning—and I will.DAVIDThese words I do not know.MERABBecause you will not.More all-devouring than a Moloch isThis love within me——DAVIDLove and you are twain,As sun and Sheol.MERABFalse. I am becomeFor want of you as famine-wind, a waveIn the mid-tempest, with no rest, no shore.DAVIDI do not hear the unashamed wordsOf one who has but recently another,Adriel, wedded.MERABYou refuse me then?DAVIDI beg you but to cease.MERABGoaded, chagrined?No, but this will I do. The Philistines,For long at rioting within their walls,Gather again and break toward Gilboa.…DAVIDThis is not true.MERABTo-morrow must my fatherFrom hunting you return and arm for battle.But—many would that you were king.DAVIDWere?…MERABKing!DAVIDI do not understand your eyes.MERABI willFor love of you arouse rebellion up,Murmur about the host your heaven-call,And lift you to the kingdom.DAVIDTo the—stay!Your words again.MERABThe kingdom.DAVIDAwful God!MERABWhat is your mien? you will not?DAVIDTwice the words—Full from her lips—and to betray her father.[AbiathardiscoversSaul.]MERABYou will not? answer!DAVIDOdious utterly!As yonder sea of death and bitter salt,As foam-girt Joppa of idolatry,As Memphian fane of all abhorrencies!Morning would move with horror of it, noonA livid sepulchre of shame span o’er,And night shrink to remember day had been!MERABYou scorn—you scorn me?DAVIDJonathan! your sister!MERABThen Saul shall rend you dead. And Jonathan!…[She laughs shrilly.]Perchance you have not heard that JonathanKnows to the Philistines you fled—and loathes you!DAVIDI have not heard.MERABNor have not, ah? how MichalIs given to the embraces of another?[Davidshrinks.]You desperately breathe and pale at last?[She laughs more bitterly.]To me for aid, to me, you yet shall come.[She goes.Davidslowly lifts his hand to his brow in heavy pain.Abiathar—and soonAbishai—abruptly descends from the cave to him.]ABIATHARDavid——DAVIDLeave me.ABIATHARNot till you know—and strike!DAVIDI tell you go.ABIATHARI tell you ’tis the king.DAVIDWho breaks forbearance—yes.ABIATHARWho lieth yonder,And sleeping lieth—for a thrust to end.DAVID[His sword quickly out, struggling.]This throb and wounds that wring me! and this wailUnder the deeps of me against his wrongs,Awakening remembrance that with burstAnd burn of pain.… O, never-ceasing ill![Flings the sword down, anguished.]ABIATHARYou will not come?DAVIDThe sun is set.ABIATHARHas SaulHunted you to this desert’s verge——?DAVIDEnough!ABIATHARHas he pursued you, all his hate unleashed?Is Samuel not slain? the priests? my father?The kingdom is not in decay, and falls?You are not prophecy’s anointed one?Seize up the sword and strike—or I myself!DAVIDOr … you yourself…?[Silently he puts them aside, takes up the sword, and slowly goes intoSaul’scave.]ABISHAIWhat will he do? Listen![Michalenters unseen.]ABIATHARIf Saul cries out.…ABISHAIBe ready.…MICHAL [To them.]What is this![David, haggard, with drawn sword and a piece ofSaul’scloak in his hand, re-enters from the cave. He seesMichal, pauses, and gazes upon her, as she on him, with rising emotion.]MICHAL [Inarticulate. Then.]Ah, you have slain—Have slain him! Wretch! thou wretch!And sleeping as he was!DAVIDThen it was you?In lying rags?MICHALHave struck him in his sleep!And merciless!—And now will kill me, too?DAVIDIn faithless rags? You are the leper? Who[Growing frenzied.]Drove me a prey unto this wilderness!Upon the blot of it and death and sear!The silence, burning, and relentless swoon!You are the leper, who have broken trothAnd shut the cry of justice from your breast!Who’ve stifled me with desolation’s woe,Who’ve followed still and still have me betrayed!MICHALBetrayed? No, loose me!DAVIDSlain thy father? slain?[Flinging the piece ofSaul’scloak at her feet.]See how I might—see, see you, yonder he liesA king who quits the kingdom, though a cloudOf Philistines is foaming toward Gilboa;Jeoparded leaves it, undefended, forPursuit of me and pitiless harrying!A king who murders priests.…MICHALPriests?DAVIDStifles GodWith penitence that he has shaped the world!Have slain? have slain him! I have slain him! Ah!Ah, that I had thy falseness and could slay him!MICHALDavid!…DAVIDNevermore near me! never withThat quivering and tenderness of lure.Those eyes that hold infinity of fate,That breathing cassia-sweet, but sorcery!MICHALOh.…DAVIDNever thy presence pouring beauty, swift,And seething in the brain as frantic wine!I’ll be no more enspelled of thee—never!I will not hear thee and be wound by wordsInto thy wile as wide as Ashtoreth’s,Back into hope, eternity of pain![In agony he goes,AbiatharandAbishaiafter.Michalstands gazing fearlessly before her, asSaul, awakened, slowly comes from the mouth of the cave down toward her.][CURTAIN.]

DAVIDWater! the fever fills me, and I thirst.Water!FIRST FOLLOWERListen.SECOND FOLLOWERHe calls.DAVIDWater! I thirst.THE LADYes, yes, my lord. [Takes up a water-skin.] Ah, empty, not a quaff!They’ve drunk it all from him! My lord, none’s left.I’ll run and in the valley brim it soon.[He goes.Davidsinks back.]SECOND FOLLOWER [ToFirst.]Youdrank it then.FIRST FOLLOWERAnd should I thirst, not he?Give me the bread.SECOND FOLLOWERIf it would strangle you.FIRST FOLLOWERI’ll have it.SECOND FOLLOWEROr betray him? spitingly?It is the last. Already you have eat.And we are here within a wilderness.FIRST FOLLOWERBe it, but I’ll not starve.THIRD FOLLOWERHe utters right.Why should we but to follow a mere shepherdFamish and o’er a hundred desert hills?The prophecy portending him the throne—Folly, not fate! though it is Samuel’s.I’ll trust in it no more.FIRST FOLLOWERNor I.THIRD FOLLOWERAnd SaulHas driven us from waste to waste—pressed usEven unto the Philistines for shelter,And now unto this crag. And is not David’sThought but of Michal, not of smiting himAnd, with a host, of leaping to the kingdom?[Davidstirs to rise.]FIRST FOLLOWERHe moves; peace!THIRD FOLLOWERLet him.SECOND FOLLOWERPeace.THIRD FOLLOWERAnd fawning too?DAVID[Sufferingly]Men—men, we must have news.Perpetual,Implacable they stare unto each other.This rock and stony sky.[Rises and comes down to them.] We must have news.[They are silent.]Longer is death. ’Tis overmany daysOf sighing and remembered verdancy;Nor any dew or upward odor comes.Who will go now and bring us word of Saul?THIRD FOLLOWERHave not Abishai, Abiathar,And others gone?DAVIDBravely.THIRD FOLLOWERAnd none returned!DAVIDNot one of all.THIRD FOLLOWERWell, then, we are not swine,And life’s but once.DAVIDSo——?THIRD FOLLOWERWe will follow youNo longer hungered and rewarded never,But perilously ever.DAVIDIt is well.[He looses a bracelet from his arm.]This was a gift from Saul. In it is ease.[Gives it toThird Follower, who goes.]This ring was Jonathan’s. The jewel tellsStill of the sunny haven of his heart.Upon my hand he pressed it—the day we leaptDeeper than friends into each other’s love.[Gives it toFirst Follower, who goes.]This chain——SECOND FOLLOWERI want it not.DAVIDYou have not thought;’Tis riches—such as Sidon marts and TyreWould covet.SECOND FOLLOWERI care not.DAVIDNone else is left.SECOND FOLLOWERNo matter.DAVIDThen——?SECOND FOLLOWERThere was of GibeahA woman—dear to me. Her face at nightWeeping among my dreams.…The prophecyIs unfulfilled, and vain!DAVIDAnd you would go?SECOND FOLLOWERThe suffering—this cliff.DAVIDI understand,[Motions.] So, without any blame, and to content.[TheSecond Followerfalters, then goes.][Quietly.] A desolation left, of rock and air,Of barren sea and bitterness as vast.Thou hast bereft me, Saul! thou hast bereft![He moves up the cliff, gazes sadly away, then kneels by a stone, as to pray.]My flesh cries for oblivion—to sinkUnwaking away into the Night … where isNo tears, but only tides of sleep.…No, criethNot for Oblivion and Night, but forRage and revenge! Saul! Saul!… My spirit, peace.As pants the heart for the water-brook, so I![He bows his head.Michalin rags that disguise, enters with theLad, unseen.]Her lips it was that hurled me unto this!Yet, yet not violence on him and blood!I must revenge’s call within me quell,Though righteously it quivers and aflame.[He goes slowly into the cave, Right.]MICHALThis is the place, then, this?LADYes, princess.MICHALHereSo long in want and sickness he hath hid?Under the livid day and lonelier night!LADI brought him water, often.MICHALLittle lad!But he has heard no word from me—not howMy father, Saul, frantic of my repentance,Had unto Phalti, a new lord, betrothed me?How then I fled to win unto these wilds?LADHe heard not anything—only the talesI told of Moab, my own land.[Davidplays within.]But oh!It is his harp.MICHALAnd strains that weep o’er me!…I’ll speak to him … and yet must be unknown!A leper? as a leper could I…?LADWhyMust he not know you?MICHALAsk me not, lad, now;But go a little.LADYes.[He sets down the water-skin and goes.]MICHAL [Delaying, then in a loud voice.]Unclean! Unclean![Conceals her face in her hair.]DAVIDWho crieth here?MICHALUnclean!DAVID [Appearing.]Who cries unclean?Poor leper in these wilds, who art thou?MICHALOneOutcast and faint, forlorn!DAVIDThen you have comeTo one more bitter outcast than yourself,One who has less than this lone void to give,This sterile solitude and sun, this sceneOf leaden desolation that makes mad.Who has no ease but cave or shading rock,Or the still moon, or stars that glide the night.One over whom——MICHALYet, pity!DAVIDThe pale hoursFlow dead into eternity.MICHALAh, yet…!DAVIDMy cloak, then, for thy tattered limbs. Or, no—This chain of Ophir for thy every need.Once was it dear, but should be so no more.[Flinging it to her.] Have it, and with it vanish memoryOut of my breast——MICHALNo, no.DAVIDAnd from me fallLink upon link her loveliness that bound.MICHALOh, do not!DAVIDWoman…?MICHALNothing. A chain like thisI once beheld wind undulantly brightO’er Michal, the king’s daughter.DAVIDWoman, the king’s?MICHALPity!DAVIDWho are you?MICHALStay! Unclean!DAVIDA spy?A spy of Saul and hypocrite have creptHither to learn…?MICHALHave heed—unclean!DAVIDHow thenWandering come you here?MICHALUnclean! Unclean!DAVIDMy brain is overfull of fever, mad.Almost and I had touched thy peril, heldThy hideous contagion.MICHALWrong!DAVIDThen whoArt thou to know and speak of her, of Michal?MICHALOne who has served the king.DAVIDAnd you have seenMichal, you have beheld her?MICHALOnce, when sheIn face was fairer and in heart than nowThey say she is.DAVIDAnd heard her speak?MICHALA nightUnder the leaves of Gibeah—when sheSang with another—David.DAVIDSay no more.MICHALAnd from afar, under the moon, blew faintThe treading of the wine-presses with song.David she loved, but anger-torn betrayed,Unworthy of him.DAVIDSpeak of her no more,Nor of her cruelty, unless to prayHe she has ruined may forget her.MICHALYetIf deep she should repent——?DAVIDLeper, no more.[A moment; then a jackal’s cry shrills to them.Davidstarts.]The signal. [He listens.] Thrice repeated? Word at last?[ToMichal.] He who is near may prove to thee less kind.[She goes. He springs to look down the cliff.]Abishai? Abiathar? It is!But staggering and wounded? breathless? torn?[He watches, then turns to meet them. They enter—Abiatharwith bloody ephod and broken breastplate—and sink in panting exhaustion.]Abishai, what is it that you bring?Abiathar, up! answer!ABIATHARWater!DAVIDUp![He brings the water-skin. They drain it fiercely.]What is it now so fevered from you staresAnd breathing too abhorrence? Gasp it out.ABIATHARI stifle—in a universe—he still—Has breath in.DAVIDSaul?ABIATHARI’ll scathe him! ScorpionsOf terror and remorse sting in his soul!DAVIDIf you have tidings, not in words so wild.ABIATHARThen ask and hate shall calm me.DAVIDAsk?ABIATHAROn, on!Seek if he lives!DAVIDWho?ABIATHARSeek if prophecyFounts yet in Judah!DAVIDSamuel…?ABIATHARIs dead!…Dead—and of tidings more calamitous.[A pause.]DAVID [Hoarsely.]Tell on. I hear.ABIATHARSaul gloating to believeThe priests, assembled sacredly at Nob,Plotted assisting you, hath had them——DAVIDNo…!ABIATHARSlain at the hands of Doeg—murdered, all!DAVIDBut he—your father?ABIATHARWas among them; fell.[He stands motionless.]DAVID [Gently.]Abiathar, my friend!… Appeaseless Saul!ABIATHARHear all, hear all! Thy father, too, and mother,Even thy kindred, out of IsraelAre driven into Moab; and this king,Delirious still for blood as desert pard,With Merab, whelp of him, and many armed,Is near us now—aquiver at EngeddiFor your destruction:[Davidstruggles for control.]And yet you will not strike.DAVID[Low.] No, but of Michal, tell me good at once,Lest unendurable this lot, I may—and mount o’er every oath into revenge.ABIATHARHa—Michal!DAVIDShe withholds her father’s wrath?ABIATHARShe’s well.DAVIDNot if you say no more.ABIATHARI knowNothing of her.DAVIDYour look belies.ABIATHARPerhaps:As did her love.DAVIDThat is for me.ABIATHARWell, what?A woman who betrays?DAVIDSpeak, not evade;And judge her when earth has no mystery.ABIATHARThen from your craving put her—wide; she isUnworthy any tremor of your veins.DAVIDDawn-lilies under dew are then unworthy,And nesting doves are horrible to heaven.I will not so believe. Your reason…!ABIATHARSaulHas given her—and she will wed him, aye—To Phalti, a new lord.DAVIDUntrue of her!ABIATHARCry. Yet you will believe it.DAVIDNot untilThe verdant parable of spring is hushedEver of bloom, to prove it. Never tillHermon is swung into the sea! untilThe last void of the everlasting sky——[Looking up he falters, breaks off, and is strangely moved at something beheld.]ABIATHARWhat, what alarm?ABISHAIWhat stare you on?ABIATHARHe’s mad?[Davidpoints. They look up.]ABIATHARAn eaglet!…ABISHAIEaglet?ABIATHARPierct!ABISHAIPierct?…DAVIDFalling here.And beating against death unbuoyantly.[The bird, an arrow through it, drops in throes at their feet.]A destiny, a fate in this is hidden![He bends over it, then quickly back.]ABIATHARA destiny, how, how?DAVIDThe arrow!—His!His, and no other’s. Quick, then, no delay.ABIATHARBe clear, clearer.DAVIDWe are discovered—nearOn us is death. Open the secret chamberWithin the cave, for from the bow of SaulIs yonder bleeding—from no other.ABIATHARSaul’s?But how, was any here?DAVIDTo-day, to-day.A leper wandering.ABIATHARWe are betrayed.[Abishaiwith the water-skin hastens into the cave, Right.DavidandAbiatharstand listening. Noise of approach is heard.]DAVIDThey near.ABIATHARAnd many.DAVIDKing of Israel!Inexorable!ABIATHARO, rebuke him, do!DAVIDAlmost I am beyond this tolerance.ABIATHARIn truth. Therefore it is you rise and shakeOut of his power the sceptre!DAVIDTempt me not!Mercy and memory almost are dead,And craving birth in me is fateful ire.[They follow into the cave. Hardly have they done so when at a shout,Saul, bloodthirsty, withDoeg,Abner,Ishui, and soldiers, pour in from all sides, with drawn weapons.]SAULOn, to him! search the caves! In, in, and bringHim to my sword, and Michal with him.[Pacing terrible the while.] TheyShall couch upon eternity and dust.[Weakly.] I am the king, and Israel is mine.…I’ll sleep upon their grave—I’ll sleep upon it,And hear the worm…![To aSoldierre-entering from one cave.] Where is he? Bring him.SOLDIERO King——SAULYou’ve slain him and you tremble! Say it.SOLDIERNo.SAULThen hither with him; hither!SOLDIERHe’s not here.SAULA treachery! You cunningly contriveTo aid him, so.…[To aSoldierre-entering fearfully from the other cave.]Bring me his head.SOLDIERMy lord,He is not there.SAULI tell you it is lies—Because you deem that he shall be the kingAnd treasure up reward and amnesty.[Into one cave, then another he rushes, then out among them furious.]From me, ill-fruited ineffectual herd!Away from me, he’s fled and none of youIs servant and will find and for me seize him!From me—I’ll sleep—I’ll rest—and then—[All begin to crowd out, overawed, butDoegandAbner.]I’ll sleep.[Slowly he moves into the cave, Left, and lies down.]ABNER[ToDoeg, significantly.] The evil spirit.DOEGYes; is on him swiftAs never before, and as a drunkenness.ABNERThen, safe to leave him?DOEGWill he brook denial?ABNERAnd Merab, too, will soon be here.DOEGWell, come.ABNERI’ll go and look upon him.[Goes toSaul’scave and returns.]Already he sleeps.[Turning they encounterMichalentering, still disguised. She quails.]Woman, who are you, who?MICHALUnclean! away!DOEGUnclean? a leper? in this place? Are thereNo stones to stone you? Hence! And had I notA brother such as thou——MICHALPity! Unclean![She goes quickly; then they. A space. Then she returns trembling, fearful.]I’ll call him! I will save him!—David! David!—I his discomfiture and ruin!—David!David! hear me! David![Searching, she approaches the cave whereSaullies, but recoils terrified.]The king! my father!I cannot—am not—whither shall I, whither?[Confused she flees, as scuffling is heard, andAbishaiandAbiathar, struggling withDavid, appear.]DAVIDLoose me, I say. ’Twas Michal and she called.[Breaking free.] I say that it was she!ABIATHARFoolhardy, no.Return into the cave, and ere too late![Merab, veiled, enters behind them.]DAVID’Twas Michal and no other.ABIATHARYou are duped.DAVIDThe breathing of archangels could not soHave swung the burden from me as her call.[Searching, he faces—and beholdsMerab. His look grows to coldness.]MERABIt is not Michal.DAVIDNo—it is not Michal.[He motionsAbiatharandAbishaiaside.]MERABYet it is one who——DAVIDNeed not lift her veilOr longer stay. The path she came is open.MERABI’m here—and here will speak! I’ve hither stolen,Yearning—I say it—yearning—and I will.DAVIDThese words I do not know.MERABBecause you will not.More all-devouring than a Moloch isThis love within me——DAVIDLove and you are twain,As sun and Sheol.MERABFalse. I am becomeFor want of you as famine-wind, a waveIn the mid-tempest, with no rest, no shore.DAVIDI do not hear the unashamed wordsOf one who has but recently another,Adriel, wedded.MERABYou refuse me then?DAVIDI beg you but to cease.MERABGoaded, chagrined?No, but this will I do. The Philistines,For long at rioting within their walls,Gather again and break toward Gilboa.…DAVIDThis is not true.MERABTo-morrow must my fatherFrom hunting you return and arm for battle.But—many would that you were king.DAVIDWere?…MERABKing!DAVIDI do not understand your eyes.MERABI willFor love of you arouse rebellion up,Murmur about the host your heaven-call,And lift you to the kingdom.DAVIDTo the—stay!Your words again.MERABThe kingdom.DAVIDAwful God!MERABWhat is your mien? you will not?DAVIDTwice the words—Full from her lips—and to betray her father.[AbiathardiscoversSaul.]MERABYou will not? answer!DAVIDOdious utterly!As yonder sea of death and bitter salt,As foam-girt Joppa of idolatry,As Memphian fane of all abhorrencies!Morning would move with horror of it, noonA livid sepulchre of shame span o’er,And night shrink to remember day had been!MERABYou scorn—you scorn me?DAVIDJonathan! your sister!MERABThen Saul shall rend you dead. And Jonathan!…[She laughs shrilly.]Perchance you have not heard that JonathanKnows to the Philistines you fled—and loathes you!DAVIDI have not heard.MERABNor have not, ah? how MichalIs given to the embraces of another?[Davidshrinks.]You desperately breathe and pale at last?[She laughs more bitterly.]To me for aid, to me, you yet shall come.[She goes.Davidslowly lifts his hand to his brow in heavy pain.Abiathar—and soonAbishai—abruptly descends from the cave to him.]ABIATHARDavid——DAVIDLeave me.ABIATHARNot till you know—and strike!DAVIDI tell you go.ABIATHARI tell you ’tis the king.DAVIDWho breaks forbearance—yes.ABIATHARWho lieth yonder,And sleeping lieth—for a thrust to end.DAVID[His sword quickly out, struggling.]This throb and wounds that wring me! and this wailUnder the deeps of me against his wrongs,Awakening remembrance that with burstAnd burn of pain.… O, never-ceasing ill![Flings the sword down, anguished.]ABIATHARYou will not come?DAVIDThe sun is set.ABIATHARHas SaulHunted you to this desert’s verge——?DAVIDEnough!ABIATHARHas he pursued you, all his hate unleashed?Is Samuel not slain? the priests? my father?The kingdom is not in decay, and falls?You are not prophecy’s anointed one?Seize up the sword and strike—or I myself!DAVIDOr … you yourself…?[Silently he puts them aside, takes up the sword, and slowly goes intoSaul’scave.]ABISHAIWhat will he do? Listen![Michalenters unseen.]ABIATHARIf Saul cries out.…ABISHAIBe ready.…MICHAL [To them.]What is this![David, haggard, with drawn sword and a piece ofSaul’scloak in his hand, re-enters from the cave. He seesMichal, pauses, and gazes upon her, as she on him, with rising emotion.]MICHAL [Inarticulate. Then.]Ah, you have slain—Have slain him! Wretch! thou wretch!And sleeping as he was!DAVIDThen it was you?In lying rags?MICHALHave struck him in his sleep!And merciless!—And now will kill me, too?DAVIDIn faithless rags? You are the leper? Who[Growing frenzied.]Drove me a prey unto this wilderness!Upon the blot of it and death and sear!The silence, burning, and relentless swoon!You are the leper, who have broken trothAnd shut the cry of justice from your breast!Who’ve stifled me with desolation’s woe,Who’ve followed still and still have me betrayed!MICHALBetrayed? No, loose me!DAVIDSlain thy father? slain?[Flinging the piece ofSaul’scloak at her feet.]See how I might—see, see you, yonder he liesA king who quits the kingdom, though a cloudOf Philistines is foaming toward Gilboa;Jeoparded leaves it, undefended, forPursuit of me and pitiless harrying!A king who murders priests.…MICHALPriests?DAVIDStifles GodWith penitence that he has shaped the world!Have slain? have slain him! I have slain him! Ah!Ah, that I had thy falseness and could slay him!MICHALDavid!…DAVIDNevermore near me! never withThat quivering and tenderness of lure.Those eyes that hold infinity of fate,That breathing cassia-sweet, but sorcery!MICHALOh.…DAVIDNever thy presence pouring beauty, swift,And seething in the brain as frantic wine!I’ll be no more enspelled of thee—never!I will not hear thee and be wound by wordsInto thy wile as wide as Ashtoreth’s,Back into hope, eternity of pain![In agony he goes,AbiatharandAbishaiafter.Michalstands gazing fearlessly before her, asSaul, awakened, slowly comes from the mouth of the cave down toward her.][CURTAIN.]

DAVID

Water! the fever fills me, and I thirst.

Water!

FIRST FOLLOWER

Listen.

SECOND FOLLOWER

He calls.

DAVID

Water! I thirst.

THE LAD

Yes, yes, my lord. [Takes up a water-skin.] Ah, empty, not a quaff!

They’ve drunk it all from him! My lord, none’s left.

I’ll run and in the valley brim it soon.

[He goes.Davidsinks back.]

SECOND FOLLOWER [ToFirst.]

Youdrank it then.

FIRST FOLLOWER

And should I thirst, not he?

Give me the bread.

SECOND FOLLOWER

If it would strangle you.

FIRST FOLLOWER

I’ll have it.

SECOND FOLLOWER

Or betray him? spitingly?

It is the last. Already you have eat.

And we are here within a wilderness.

FIRST FOLLOWER

Be it, but I’ll not starve.

THIRD FOLLOWER

He utters right.

Why should we but to follow a mere shepherd

Famish and o’er a hundred desert hills?

The prophecy portending him the throne—

Folly, not fate! though it is Samuel’s.

I’ll trust in it no more.

FIRST FOLLOWER

Nor I.

THIRD FOLLOWER

And Saul

Has driven us from waste to waste—pressed us

Even unto the Philistines for shelter,

And now unto this crag. And is not David’s

Thought but of Michal, not of smiting him

And, with a host, of leaping to the kingdom?

[Davidstirs to rise.]

FIRST FOLLOWER

He moves; peace!

THIRD FOLLOWER

Let him.

SECOND FOLLOWER

Peace.

THIRD FOLLOWER

And fawning too?

DAVID[Sufferingly]

Men—men, we must have news.

Perpetual,

Implacable they stare unto each other.

This rock and stony sky.

[Rises and comes down to them.] We must have news.

[They are silent.]

Longer is death. ’Tis overmany days

Of sighing and remembered verdancy;

Nor any dew or upward odor comes.

Who will go now and bring us word of Saul?

THIRD FOLLOWER

Have not Abishai, Abiathar,

And others gone?

DAVID

Bravely.

THIRD FOLLOWER

And none returned!

DAVID

Not one of all.

THIRD FOLLOWER

Well, then, we are not swine,

And life’s but once.

DAVID

So——?

THIRD FOLLOWER

We will follow you

No longer hungered and rewarded never,

But perilously ever.

DAVID

It is well.

[He looses a bracelet from his arm.]

This was a gift from Saul. In it is ease.

[Gives it toThird Follower, who goes.]

This ring was Jonathan’s. The jewel tells

Still of the sunny haven of his heart.

Upon my hand he pressed it—the day we leapt

Deeper than friends into each other’s love.

[Gives it toFirst Follower, who goes.]

This chain——

SECOND FOLLOWER

I want it not.

DAVID

You have not thought;

’Tis riches—such as Sidon marts and Tyre

Would covet.

SECOND FOLLOWER

I care not.

DAVID

None else is left.

SECOND FOLLOWER

No matter.

DAVID

Then——?

SECOND FOLLOWER

There was of Gibeah

A woman—dear to me. Her face at night

Weeping among my dreams.…

The prophecy

Is unfulfilled, and vain!

DAVID

And you would go?

SECOND FOLLOWER

The suffering—this cliff.

DAVID

I understand,

[Motions.] So, without any blame, and to content.

[TheSecond Followerfalters, then goes.]

[Quietly.] A desolation left, of rock and air,

Of barren sea and bitterness as vast.

Thou hast bereft me, Saul! thou hast bereft!

[He moves up the cliff, gazes sadly away, then kneels by a stone, as to pray.]

My flesh cries for oblivion—to sink

Unwaking away into the Night … where is

No tears, but only tides of sleep.…

No, crieth

Not for Oblivion and Night, but for

Rage and revenge! Saul! Saul!… My spirit, peace.

As pants the heart for the water-brook, so I!

[He bows his head.Michalin rags that disguise, enters with theLad, unseen.]

Her lips it was that hurled me unto this!

Yet, yet not violence on him and blood!

I must revenge’s call within me quell,

Though righteously it quivers and aflame.

[He goes slowly into the cave, Right.]

MICHAL

This is the place, then, this?

LAD

Yes, princess.

MICHAL

Here

So long in want and sickness he hath hid?

Under the livid day and lonelier night!

LAD

I brought him water, often.

MICHAL

Little lad!

But he has heard no word from me—not how

My father, Saul, frantic of my repentance,

Had unto Phalti, a new lord, betrothed me?

How then I fled to win unto these wilds?

LAD

He heard not anything—only the tales

I told of Moab, my own land.

[Davidplays within.]

But oh!

It is his harp.

MICHAL

And strains that weep o’er me!…

I’ll speak to him … and yet must be unknown!

A leper? as a leper could I…?

LAD

Why

Must he not know you?

MICHAL

Ask me not, lad, now;

But go a little.

LAD

Yes.

[He sets down the water-skin and goes.]

MICHAL [Delaying, then in a loud voice.]

Unclean! Unclean!

[Conceals her face in her hair.]

DAVID

Who crieth here?

MICHAL

Unclean!

DAVID [Appearing.]

Who cries unclean?

Poor leper in these wilds, who art thou?

MICHAL

One

Outcast and faint, forlorn!

DAVID

Then you have come

To one more bitter outcast than yourself,

One who has less than this lone void to give,

This sterile solitude and sun, this scene

Of leaden desolation that makes mad.

Who has no ease but cave or shading rock,

Or the still moon, or stars that glide the night.

One over whom——

MICHAL

Yet, pity!

DAVID

The pale hours

Flow dead into eternity.

MICHAL

Ah, yet…!

DAVID

My cloak, then, for thy tattered limbs. Or, no—

This chain of Ophir for thy every need.

Once was it dear, but should be so no more.

[Flinging it to her.] Have it, and with it vanish memory

Out of my breast——

MICHAL

No, no.

DAVID

And from me fall

Link upon link her loveliness that bound.

MICHAL

Oh, do not!

DAVID

Woman…?

MICHAL

Nothing. A chain like this

I once beheld wind undulantly bright

O’er Michal, the king’s daughter.

DAVID

Woman, the king’s?

MICHAL

Pity!

DAVID

Who are you?

MICHAL

Stay! Unclean!

DAVID

A spy?

A spy of Saul and hypocrite have crept

Hither to learn…?

MICHAL

Have heed—unclean!

DAVID

How then

Wandering come you here?

MICHAL

Unclean! Unclean!

DAVID

My brain is overfull of fever, mad.

Almost and I had touched thy peril, held

Thy hideous contagion.

MICHAL

Wrong!

DAVID

Then who

Art thou to know and speak of her, of Michal?

MICHAL

One who has served the king.

DAVID

And you have seen

Michal, you have beheld her?

MICHAL

Once, when she

In face was fairer and in heart than now

They say she is.

DAVID

And heard her speak?

MICHAL

A night

Under the leaves of Gibeah—when she

Sang with another—David.

DAVID

Say no more.

MICHAL

And from afar, under the moon, blew faint

The treading of the wine-presses with song.

David she loved, but anger-torn betrayed,

Unworthy of him.

DAVID

Speak of her no more,

Nor of her cruelty, unless to pray

He she has ruined may forget her.

MICHAL

Yet

If deep she should repent——?

DAVID

Leper, no more.

[A moment; then a jackal’s cry shrills to them.Davidstarts.]

The signal. [He listens.] Thrice repeated? Word at last?

[ToMichal.] He who is near may prove to thee less kind.

[She goes. He springs to look down the cliff.]

Abishai? Abiathar? It is!

But staggering and wounded? breathless? torn?

[He watches, then turns to meet them. They enter—Abiatharwith bloody ephod and broken breastplate—and sink in panting exhaustion.]

Abishai, what is it that you bring?

Abiathar, up! answer!

ABIATHAR

Water!

DAVID

Up!

[He brings the water-skin. They drain it fiercely.]

What is it now so fevered from you stares

And breathing too abhorrence? Gasp it out.

ABIATHAR

I stifle—in a universe—he still—

Has breath in.

DAVID

Saul?

ABIATHAR

I’ll scathe him! Scorpions

Of terror and remorse sting in his soul!

DAVID

If you have tidings, not in words so wild.

ABIATHAR

Then ask and hate shall calm me.

DAVID

Ask?

ABIATHAR

On, on!

Seek if he lives!

DAVID

Who?

ABIATHAR

Seek if prophecy

Founts yet in Judah!

DAVID

Samuel…?

ABIATHAR

Is dead!…

Dead—and of tidings more calamitous.

[A pause.]

DAVID [Hoarsely.]

Tell on. I hear.

ABIATHAR

Saul gloating to believe

The priests, assembled sacredly at Nob,

Plotted assisting you, hath had them——

DAVID

No…!

ABIATHAR

Slain at the hands of Doeg—murdered, all!

DAVID

But he—your father?

ABIATHAR

Was among them; fell.

[He stands motionless.]

DAVID [Gently.]

Abiathar, my friend!… Appeaseless Saul!

ABIATHAR

Hear all, hear all! Thy father, too, and mother,

Even thy kindred, out of Israel

Are driven into Moab; and this king,

Delirious still for blood as desert pard,

With Merab, whelp of him, and many armed,

Is near us now—aquiver at Engeddi

For your destruction:

[Davidstruggles for control.]

And yet you will not strike.

DAVID

[Low.] No, but of Michal, tell me good at once,

Lest unendurable this lot, I may—

and mount o’er every oath into revenge.

ABIATHAR

Ha—Michal!

DAVID

She withholds her father’s wrath?

ABIATHAR

She’s well.

DAVID

Not if you say no more.

ABIATHAR

I know

Nothing of her.

DAVID

Your look belies.

ABIATHAR

Perhaps:

As did her love.

DAVID

That is for me.

ABIATHAR

Well, what?

A woman who betrays?

DAVID

Speak, not evade;

And judge her when earth has no mystery.

ABIATHAR

Then from your craving put her—wide; she is

Unworthy any tremor of your veins.

DAVID

Dawn-lilies under dew are then unworthy,

And nesting doves are horrible to heaven.

I will not so believe. Your reason…!

ABIATHAR

Saul

Has given her—and she will wed him, aye—

To Phalti, a new lord.

DAVID

Untrue of her!

ABIATHAR

Cry. Yet you will believe it.

DAVID

Not until

The verdant parable of spring is hushed

Ever of bloom, to prove it. Never till

Hermon is swung into the sea! until

The last void of the everlasting sky——

[Looking up he falters, breaks off, and is strangely moved at something beheld.]

ABIATHAR

What, what alarm?

ABISHAI

What stare you on?

ABIATHAR

He’s mad?

[Davidpoints. They look up.]

ABIATHAR

An eaglet!…

ABISHAI

Eaglet?

ABIATHAR

Pierct!

ABISHAI

Pierct?…

DAVID

Falling here.

And beating against death unbuoyantly.

[The bird, an arrow through it, drops in throes at their feet.]

A destiny, a fate in this is hidden!

[He bends over it, then quickly back.]

ABIATHAR

A destiny, how, how?

DAVID

The arrow!—His!

His, and no other’s. Quick, then, no delay.

ABIATHAR

Be clear, clearer.

DAVID

We are discovered—near

On us is death. Open the secret chamber

Within the cave, for from the bow of Saul

Is yonder bleeding—from no other.

ABIATHAR

Saul’s?

But how, was any here?

DAVID

To-day, to-day.

A leper wandering.

ABIATHAR

We are betrayed.

[Abishaiwith the water-skin hastens into the cave, Right.DavidandAbiatharstand listening. Noise of approach is heard.]

DAVID

They near.

ABIATHAR

And many.

DAVID

King of Israel!

Inexorable!

ABIATHAR

O, rebuke him, do!

DAVID

Almost I am beyond this tolerance.

ABIATHAR

In truth. Therefore it is you rise and shake

Out of his power the sceptre!

DAVID

Tempt me not!

Mercy and memory almost are dead,

And craving birth in me is fateful ire.

[They follow into the cave. Hardly have they done so when at a shout,Saul, bloodthirsty, withDoeg,Abner,Ishui, and soldiers, pour in from all sides, with drawn weapons.]

SAUL

On, to him! search the caves! In, in, and bring

Him to my sword, and Michal with him.

[Pacing terrible the while.] They

Shall couch upon eternity and dust.

[Weakly.] I am the king, and Israel is mine.…

I’ll sleep upon their grave—I’ll sleep upon it,

And hear the worm…!

[To aSoldierre-entering from one cave.] Where is he? Bring him.

SOLDIER

O King——

SAUL

You’ve slain him and you tremble! Say it.

SOLDIER

No.

SAUL

Then hither with him; hither!

SOLDIER

He’s not here.

SAUL

A treachery! You cunningly contrive

To aid him, so.…

[To aSoldierre-entering fearfully from the other cave.]

Bring me his head.

SOLDIER

My lord,

He is not there.

SAUL

I tell you it is lies—

Because you deem that he shall be the king

And treasure up reward and amnesty.

[Into one cave, then another he rushes, then out among them furious.]

From me, ill-fruited ineffectual herd!

Away from me, he’s fled and none of you

Is servant and will find and for me seize him!

From me—I’ll sleep—I’ll rest—and then—

[All begin to crowd out, overawed, butDoegandAbner.]

I’ll sleep.

[Slowly he moves into the cave, Left, and lies down.]

ABNER

[ToDoeg, significantly.] The evil spirit.

DOEG

Yes; is on him swift

As never before, and as a drunkenness.

ABNER

Then, safe to leave him?

DOEG

Will he brook denial?

ABNER

And Merab, too, will soon be here.

DOEG

Well, come.

ABNER

I’ll go and look upon him.

[Goes toSaul’scave and returns.]

Already he sleeps.

[Turning they encounterMichalentering, still disguised. She quails.]

Woman, who are you, who?

MICHAL

Unclean! away!

DOEG

Unclean? a leper? in this place? Are there

No stones to stone you? Hence! And had I not

A brother such as thou——

MICHAL

Pity! Unclean!

[She goes quickly; then they. A space. Then she returns trembling, fearful.]

I’ll call him! I will save him!—David! David!—

I his discomfiture and ruin!—David!

David! hear me! David!

[Searching, she approaches the cave whereSaullies, but recoils terrified.]

The king! my father!

I cannot—am not—whither shall I, whither?

[Confused she flees, as scuffling is heard, andAbishaiandAbiathar, struggling withDavid, appear.]

DAVID

Loose me, I say. ’Twas Michal and she called.

[Breaking free.] I say that it was she!

ABIATHAR

Foolhardy, no.

Return into the cave, and ere too late!

[Merab, veiled, enters behind them.]

DAVID

’Twas Michal and no other.

ABIATHAR

You are duped.

DAVID

The breathing of archangels could not so

Have swung the burden from me as her call.

[Searching, he faces—and beholdsMerab. His look grows to coldness.]

MERAB

It is not Michal.

DAVID

No—it is not Michal.

[He motionsAbiatharandAbishaiaside.]

MERAB

Yet it is one who——

DAVID

Need not lift her veil

Or longer stay. The path she came is open.

MERAB

I’m here—and here will speak! I’ve hither stolen,

Yearning—I say it—yearning—and I will.

DAVID

These words I do not know.

MERAB

Because you will not.

More all-devouring than a Moloch is

This love within me——

DAVID

Love and you are twain,

As sun and Sheol.

MERAB

False. I am become

For want of you as famine-wind, a wave

In the mid-tempest, with no rest, no shore.

DAVID

I do not hear the unashamed words

Of one who has but recently another,

Adriel, wedded.

MERAB

You refuse me then?

DAVID

I beg you but to cease.

MERAB

Goaded, chagrined?

No, but this will I do. The Philistines,

For long at rioting within their walls,

Gather again and break toward Gilboa.…

DAVID

This is not true.

MERAB

To-morrow must my father

From hunting you return and arm for battle.

But—many would that you were king.

DAVID

Were?…

MERAB

King!

DAVID

I do not understand your eyes.

MERAB

I will

For love of you arouse rebellion up,

Murmur about the host your heaven-call,

And lift you to the kingdom.

DAVID

To the—stay!

Your words again.

MERAB

The kingdom.

DAVID

Awful God!

MERAB

What is your mien? you will not?

DAVID

Twice the words—

Full from her lips—and to betray her father.

[AbiathardiscoversSaul.]

MERAB

You will not? answer!

DAVID

Odious utterly!

As yonder sea of death and bitter salt,

As foam-girt Joppa of idolatry,

As Memphian fane of all abhorrencies!

Morning would move with horror of it, noon

A livid sepulchre of shame span o’er,

And night shrink to remember day had been!

MERAB

You scorn—you scorn me?

DAVID

Jonathan! your sister!

MERAB

Then Saul shall rend you dead. And Jonathan!…

[She laughs shrilly.]

Perchance you have not heard that Jonathan

Knows to the Philistines you fled—and loathes you!

DAVID

I have not heard.

MERAB

Nor have not, ah? how Michal

Is given to the embraces of another?

[Davidshrinks.]

You desperately breathe and pale at last?

[She laughs more bitterly.]

To me for aid, to me, you yet shall come.

[She goes.Davidslowly lifts his hand to his brow in heavy pain.Abiathar—and soonAbishai—abruptly descends from the cave to him.]

ABIATHAR

David——

DAVID

Leave me.

ABIATHAR

Not till you know—and strike!

DAVID

I tell you go.

ABIATHAR

I tell you ’tis the king.

DAVID

Who breaks forbearance—yes.

ABIATHAR

Who lieth yonder,

And sleeping lieth—for a thrust to end.

DAVID

[His sword quickly out, struggling.]

This throb and wounds that wring me! and this wail

Under the deeps of me against his wrongs,

Awakening remembrance that with burst

And burn of pain.… O, never-ceasing ill!

[Flings the sword down, anguished.]

ABIATHAR

You will not come?

DAVID

The sun is set.

ABIATHAR

Has Saul

Hunted you to this desert’s verge——?

DAVID

Enough!

ABIATHAR

Has he pursued you, all his hate unleashed?

Is Samuel not slain? the priests? my father?

The kingdom is not in decay, and falls?

You are not prophecy’s anointed one?

Seize up the sword and strike—or I myself!

DAVID

Or … you yourself…?

[Silently he puts them aside, takes up the sword, and slowly goes intoSaul’scave.]

ABISHAI

What will he do? Listen!

[Michalenters unseen.]

ABIATHAR

If Saul cries out.…

ABISHAI

Be ready.…

MICHAL [To them.]

What is this!

[David, haggard, with drawn sword and a piece ofSaul’scloak in his hand, re-enters from the cave. He seesMichal, pauses, and gazes upon her, as she on him, with rising emotion.]

MICHAL [Inarticulate. Then.]

Ah, you have slain—

Have slain him! Wretch! thou wretch!

And sleeping as he was!

DAVID

Then it was you?

In lying rags?

MICHAL

Have struck him in his sleep!

And merciless!—And now will kill me, too?

DAVID

In faithless rags? You are the leper? Who

[Growing frenzied.]

Drove me a prey unto this wilderness!

Upon the blot of it and death and sear!

The silence, burning, and relentless swoon!

You are the leper, who have broken troth

And shut the cry of justice from your breast!

Who’ve stifled me with desolation’s woe,

Who’ve followed still and still have me betrayed!

MICHAL

Betrayed? No, loose me!

DAVID

Slain thy father? slain?

[Flinging the piece ofSaul’scloak at her feet.]

See how I might—see, see you, yonder he lies

A king who quits the kingdom, though a cloud

Of Philistines is foaming toward Gilboa;

Jeoparded leaves it, undefended, for

Pursuit of me and pitiless harrying!

A king who murders priests.…

MICHAL

Priests?

DAVID

Stifles God

With penitence that he has shaped the world!

Have slain? have slain him! I have slain him! Ah!

Ah, that I had thy falseness and could slay him!

MICHAL

David!…

DAVID

Nevermore near me! never with

That quivering and tenderness of lure.

Those eyes that hold infinity of fate,

That breathing cassia-sweet, but sorcery!

MICHAL

Oh.…

DAVID

Never thy presence pouring beauty, swift,

And seething in the brain as frantic wine!

I’ll be no more enspelled of thee—never!

I will not hear thee and be wound by words

Into thy wile as wide as Ashtoreth’s,

Back into hope, eternity of pain!

[In agony he goes,AbiatharandAbishaiafter.Michalstands gazing fearlessly before her, asSaul, awakened, slowly comes from the mouth of the cave down toward her.]

[CURTAIN.]

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