London. A fair between the Tower and the Thames. A motley and noisy Crowd surges, murmuring, to and fro. ADAM, as an elderly man, stands with LUCIFER on a bastion of the Tower. Towards evening.
CHORUS
sounding as the voice of the murmur of the Crowd, and accompanied by soft music.
Ever roars life’s boundless ocean,
With each wave new worlds arise,
Downward sinks one mighty billow,
Mounts another to the skies.
Now thy fear the man shall perish,
By the many, crushed and slain;
Now thou fearest lest a million
Die that one may live and reign.
This day thou for learning tremblest,
And that day for poetry;
Seekest in the path of order
To confine the raging sea.
Thou shalt draw out water only,
Though thou strive and toil and weep;
Thunders on the ceaseless ocean,
Laughs, with laughter loud and deep,
Let it roar, and let it thunder,
Life to life shall set the bounds;
In the turmoil nought shall perish,
Life the old and new doth cherish,
Hark, the mystic song resounds.
ADAM
For this, for this I have for ever sighed;
Till now I walked within a labyrinth;
Now stands before me life: the veil is riven;
This kindling music doth man’s heart inflame.
LUCIFER
The voice of grief, the sigh, the heavy groan
Are music in a strain that sounds on high
As sweet as doth a chant within a church.
So doth God hear, and therefore doth he deem
The he hath made this world in all ways good.
But far below, the song sounds otherwise,
Where, with the music, beats the aching heart.
ADAM
Thou doubting mocker, is not fairer then
This world than all those other worlds ere now,
Through which thou hast, tormented, made me pass?
The hoary barriers are broken down,
The dreadful phantoms, which the past doth leave,
Though clothed in hallowed glory, to torment
The future race of man; they are no more.
A course unfettered doth the soul await;
No longer pyramids are built by slaves.
LUCIFER
The groaning of the slaves on Egypt’s sand
Would not have reached to such a height as this;
And, save for that, how godlike was their work!
And did not once in Athens worthily,
The sovereign people, when it sacrificed
A great man, well beloved, the State to save
From peril might else have threatened it,
If we from such a height all things can view
And tears and idle doubt mar not our sight?
ADAM
Be still, eternal sophist, hold thy peace!
LUCIFER
But even though there were no longer woe;
Instead, were changeless, smooth monotony.
Where were the heights that beckon? Where the depths
That terrify? Where then the chequered hues
That once were life itself? No more a sea
Would flow surging and sinking in its tide;
Nought but a marshy level, full of frogs.
ADAM
The welfare of the many makes amends.
LUCIFER
So dost thou judge, upon thy lofty seat,
Of life that moves below, beneath thy feet,
As history doth judge of ages fled;
It hears no more the falling sigh, the groan,
And writes alone the music of the past.
ADAM
So! Satan hath been stirred to feel romance,
Or be a doctrinaire? Achievements both!
LUCIFER pointing to the Tower
’Tis not so strange, when in this new young world
We stand upon the terror of the old.
ADAM
No more from this grey rampart will I gaze,
But boldly go down into this new world.
I fear not lest I find not midst its waves
The light of poesy and noble thoughts.
Perchance they may no more reveal themselves
In heaven-shaking vast titanic strife,
But in their modest realm they may yet shape
A world more lovely and beneficent.
LUCIFER
Thy fear were vain. While matter yet exists,
So long shall yet endure my power, too;
Denial, that doth ever war with it,
And while the heart of man shall beat, and while
His mind doth ponder, and while yet endures
Existing order, his desires to bar,
So long shall live too, in the spirit world,
Poem and ideal to say it ‘Nay’.
Tell me, in what form shall we clothe ourselves
When we descend to yonder multitude?
For in this guise, we cannot stir from here
Where shadows of the past around us float.
ADAM
Waht form thou wilt. None stands above the rest,
Thanks to his fate. Then let us forward go
Toward the people, and its spirit know.
They both descend into the interior of the Tower and soon emerge, clad as workmen, through the gate and mingle with the Crowd. A puppet SHOWMAN is standing beside his booth on which is perched a monkey on a chain, and wearing a red coat.
SHOWMAN
This way, my masters, come, this way, this way!
The show will soon begin; this way, this way!
How first the serpent woman did beguile,
For she was eager overmuch to know,
And then how woman brought to his plight man.
See with what dignity this nimble ape
Shall play the part of man. Then shall you see
A bear that dances with a master’s grace.
This way, my masters, come, this way, this way!
The CROWD press around the booth.
LUCIFER
Ah, Adam, here our history is shewn.
The piece is excellent that can be played
When twice three thousand years are past and dead,
And yet delight the merry heart of youth.
ADAM
Away from this dull jesting, let us on!
LUCIFER
Dull jesting! See how they delight in it;
These red-cheeked lads who but an hour ago
Were in the school-room, nodding at their desks,
When some dull text of Nepos was construed,
And who shall tell us which are right; are they
Who leap across life’s threshold, confident
In all their waking strength, or he who bows
The hoary head of age, and wearily
Passes with stumbling footsteps forth from life?
Doth Shakespeare please thee more than pleaseth them
This travesty distorted that they watch?
ADAM
Distortion: it is that I cannot bear.
LUCIFER
Somewhat of Ancient Greece still clings to thee.
I am the son, or father, as thou wilt,
(For in the spirit world it matters not)
Of the new movement called Romanticism.
And just in this distortion I delight.
A grinning ape that counterfeits man’s face;
Magnificence; then pelting it with mud;
Concupiscence; a penitent’s hair shirt;
A hymn to chastity from harlot’s lips;
The worship of the worthless and the small;
The curse the worn out rake doth hurl at love;
All this makes me forget my kingdom dies;
For in new forms reborn, I live anew.
SHOWMAN tapping Adam on the shoulder
Why take ye this good place? Know, my fine bird,
He only gives the crowd a spectacle
For nought, who, tired of life gets himself hanged.
ADAM and LUCIFER move away. A young GIRL comes, selling violets.
GIRL
Sweet violets, the messengers of spring,
Sweet violets, sweet violets, come buy!
A little flower gives the orphan bread
And even poverty may render fair.
A MOTHER buying
To put into the hands of my dead child.
A GIRL buying
The fairest jewel for my long, dark hair.
GIRL
Sweet violets, sweet violets, come buy!
She passes on.
A JEWELLER in his booth
Always we meet a rival in these weeds;
We cannot drive them out of fashion still.
And yet a slender neck alone beseems
The precious pearl, for which the diver braves
With courage desperate the hidden depths
That veil the monsters of the ocean bed.
Two GIRLS approach, together.
FIRST GIRL
What splendid silks, what store of precious gems!
SECOND GIRL
If these were fairings for a lad to buy!
FIRST GIRL
A man to-day would suchlike only give
For favours modest maids would best deny.
SECOND GIRL
And not for these. Men have to-day no taste.
They on rich food and trulls their money waste.
FIRST GIRL
Men are so vain that, blind, they pass us by.
SECOND GIRL
Or else, to court a girl, they are too shy.
They pass on. Beneath an arbour, drink is being served; around the table WORKMAN are carousing. In the background, music and dancing. Soldiers, burghers and all manner of folk are enjoying themselves and strolling about.
INNKEEPER among his guests
Come, masters, yesterday is past and gone,
To-morrow never comes. Let us be gay.
God feeds the birds that fly above the trees,
And all is vanity, the scriptures say!
LUCIFER
I find good sense in this philosophy.
Come, let us sit upon this shady seat,
And see how well the people are content
At little cost: bad music and thin beer.
FIRST WORKMAN at a table
The devil’s work are the machines, I say.
They snatch the bread away from workmen’s mouths.
SECOND WORKMAN
Well, if the drink remain, let us forget.
FIRST WORKMAN
The rich, the devils are who suck our blood.
If one came here, I’d send him down to hell.
Ay, more to-day should get what they deserve.
THIRD WORKMAN
What were the gain? He will be hanged to-day.
Our lot will be just as it was before.
SECOND WORKMAN
Idle talk. Let the rich man come to me;
I’d hurt him not, but seat him by my side,
And let us see who is the master then
And who the man who can his pleasure take.
INNKEEPER to Adam
What will ye have, my masters?
ADAM
Nought at all.
INNKEEPER
Then off with you, ye worthless vagabonds.
Think ye I steal the money that I take,
Or that my wife and children are to beg?
ADAM rising up
Thou darest speak thus…
LUCIFER
Leave the rogue; let be.
ADAM
Then, let us go. Why longer stay to see
How man doth sink to be but a brute beast.
LUCIFER
Come, this is that for which I long have sought.
Here may we take our pleasure at our ease.
This din and tumult, and this laughter wild,
This flame of bacchic fire, that every cheek
Suffuses with a rosy shining glow,
As though a fond mask on a tear-stained face,
Is this not excellent?
ADAM
It sickens me.
Meanwhile they approach the dancers. Two BEGGARS come up, wrangling.
FIRST BEGGAR
This stand is mine: it hath been granted me.
SECOND BEGGAR
Have pity on me, else I die of want,
Two weeks are gone, and I can find no work.
FIRST BEGGAR
Then art thou no true beggar, ’tis the proof.
Bungler, begone, or I will call the watch.
The SECOND BEGGAR slinks away. The FIRST BEGGAR takes his place.
Give alms, my masters, to the suffering.
I pray you by the sacred wounds of Christ.
A SOLIDER drags away the GIRL who is dancing with a JOURNEYMAN.
SOLDIER
Away, thou clod! Begone, dost thou believe
Thou art a man of any consequence?
FIRST JOURNEYMAN
I’ll make the feel, if thou dost not believe.
SECOND JOURNEYMAN
Nay, touch him not. ’Twere better to give place.
Authority and favour, both are his.
FIRST JOURNEYMAN
Why doth he use us with such proud contempt?
Already, like a leech, he sucks our blood!
A TROLLOP singing
Golden apples once were taken,
Though the dragons kept the tree,
Long dead they; the watch forsaken,
And the golden fruit grows free.
Foolish he who finds it fair,
Yet to gather will not dare.
She throws her arms around a youth.
LUCIFER lost in contemplation of the revellers
This song doth please me: let the rich man show
What is the treasure which he doth possess,
Within the iron chest whereon doth crouch
The miser, gold is worth no more than sand.
How moving is this raw lad’s jealousy,
Who hangs upon each glance his girl doth give,
How precious is to-day he knoweth well,
And though he think not on it, that his love
To-morrow in another’s arms shall be.
ADAM to one of the Musicians
Why doth thou use thy talent, man, so ill?
Dost thou find pleasure in what thou dost play?
MUSICIAN
Find pleasure? Nay. A torment rather ’tis
To play it day by day and watch, and watch
How men do dance and shout and cry for more.
These wild shouts haunt my dreams upon my bed;
But I must live, and know no other way.
LUCIFER still absorbed in contemplation
Ah, who would think such wise philosophy
Could flow from this swift play of flitting youth?
This maid doth know the pleasure of this hour
Is not the last her life shall bring to her,
And while she doth embrace, her eyes do seek
Already a new lover. Children dear,
How well in you my joy fulfilment finds,
For that ye labour, smiling, for my ends.
Let sin and grief my blessing be on you.
SECOND JOURNEYMAN singing
He whose weekly work is done,
Light of heart may quaff his beer,
Kiss his mistress’ rosy cheek
And the devil need not fear.
A few closing chords of music from a church are heard. EVE comes out, as a burgher’s daughter, with her MOTHER. She holds a prayerbook and a bunch of flowers in her hands.
ONE HUCKSTER
This way, this way, sweet mistress, none can give,
Thee better service or more cheap than I.
SECOND HUCKSTER
Believe him not, his measure falleth short,
And stale are all his wares. This way, fair maid.
ADAM
Ah, Lucifer, thou wouldest have us stay
Amid this sordid scene when, scarce perceived,
Salvation shines embodied, before me?
LUCIFER
’Tis no new thing to see a pretty maid.
ADAM
She comes forth from the church. How fair, how fair!
LUCIFER
She went there to be seen; perchance to see.
ADAM
Nay, touch her not with thy cold mockery.
The grace of worship rests yet on her lips.
LUCIFER
Thou art a convert then to piety.
ADAM
A witless jest, for in my heart be cold,
’Tis ill for me; but in this maiden breast
I would have reverence and simple faith,
And holy song and music of the past;
The petals of the bloom of innocence.
LUCIFER
Nay, shew to me this sight of heaven then,
Since of the devil thou canst scarcely ask
That he should ever seek to know thy taste:
Enough, if then he see this gratified.
ADAM
What else than heaven is this lovely maid?
LUCIFER
So thinks the woodpecker that finds a grub
And marks with jealous eye the tasty bit
And vows it is the best food in the world,
While yet the ring-dove loathes to look on it.
Himself his own salvation man doth find,
And oft where fellow-men have made a hell.
ADAM
What dignity, what virgin purity.
I feel not in me boldness to draw near.
LUCIFER
Courage, thou art no novice with fair maids.
If we watch well, she also may be bought.
ADAM
Be still!
LUCIFER
Perchance more dearly than the rest.
Meanwhile a YOUTH comes shyly up to EVE and offers her a honey-cake made in the shape of a heart.
YOUTH
Fair maiden, I beseech thee to be kind
And this fairing I bring thee to accept.
EVE
Thou art good, Arthur, to remember me.
THE MOTHER
’Tis long since we have seen thee; wherefore so?
They speak in a low tone. ADAM watches them anxiously till the YOUTH leaves.
ADAM
Can then this stripling gain so easily
That treasure I, a man, desire in vain?
How sweetly doth she speak with him and smile,
Nay, waves her hand to him: I cannot look.
I must speak with her.
Approaching EVE.
THE MOTHER to Eve
Arthur’s parents, true,
Have wealth enough, but yet I know how
They look upon his friendship with thee, girl.
Therefore cast not his rival quite away
Whose bunch of flowers thee surprised to-day.
ADAM
Fair ladies, let me bear you company,
Lest in the thronging crowd ye suffer hurt.
EVE
What insolence!
THE MOTHER
Away, impertinent!
Thinkest thou then my daughter is a maid
Whom any man may offer pretty words?
ADAM
What others could he speak? So many times
Of woman pure and perfect have I dreamed.
THE MOTHER
Thou mayest dream of aught that pleaseth thee,
But he on whom this maid her charms bestows
Can never be a ne’er-do-well like thee.
ADAM stands confused. a GIPSY WOMAN approaches EVE.
THE GIPSY WOMAN
Ah, wonder of the earth and sweetest maiden,
Shew me thy dainty hand so soft and white,
And let me tell how destiny comes laden
With all good gifts to make thy fortune bright.
Looks at her hand.
I see a handsome husband - very nigh -
Fair children, health and wealth and property.
EVE gives her a coin.
LUCIFER pointing at Adam
Come, beldame, tell the fortune of my friend.
THE GIPSY WOMAN
I see not clear; ’tis hunger or the rope.
ADAM to Eve
Oh, drive me not thus from thy presence forth;
I feel thou wast created for my heart.
EVE
My mother, bid him go.
THE MOTHER
Begone, thou rogue!
Or I will call the watch.
EVE
Nay, let him be,
He may his wits recover, and indeed
He hath done us no wrong, though strange his words.
They move away.
ADAM
Oh, is there no place, sacred poesy,
Left for thee in this dull, grey world of prose?
LUCIFER
For sure there is a place. This honey-cake,
This posy, and the dance, what else were they
Than poesy? Be not so delicate,
And thou shalt have enough whereof to dream.
ADAM
What profit, if yet greed and avarice
Lurk ever in them, and nowhere is found
Nobility which serves not selfish ends?
LUCIFER
Still is some found within the school-room walls,
Where life is yet untrammelled by the world.
Lo, hither come the lads we think upon.
A few LADS strolling by.
FIRST LAD
’Tis holiday, farewell to musty books!
Come, let us have the best of holidays!
SECOND LAD
Forth to the fields, I hate the city’s streets
And all the narrow rules and busy trade!
THIRD LAD
And let us find someone to quarrel with,
’Tis rousing sport and doth beseem a man.
FIRST LAD
Then let us snatch the maidens from the arms
Of these good soldiers. We shall have war then!
And then flee with them to the meadows green,
For we have coin for music and for beer,
And with the memory of battles won
We shall be just as fine as any duke!
FOURTH LAD
Good, splendid, we will vex the Philistines!
FIRST LAD
And drawing closer yet our friendship’s bond
Our pleasures we will take while yet we may,
Till, it may be, our country claim our hearts
And in a nobler warfare we shall strive.
They move away.
ADAM
Such sights are pleasant in this flat, dull world.
I feel the hope here of a better age.
LUCIFER
Thou soon shalt see what comes of this thy hope,
When once the school-room dust is shaken off.
These manufacturers approaching us
Were in their youth just such as are these boys.
Two MANUFACTURERS approach, conversing.
FIRST MANUFACTURER
’This useless, I no longer can withstand
The press of others who compete with me.
All seek the cheapest merchandise, and I
Most lower the high standard of my wares.
SECOND MANUFACTURER
The wages that we pay must be decreased.
FIRST MANUFACTURER
Impossible. The workmen now rebel,
And say they have not means to live, the dogs!
And there may be some cause for their complaint.
But who doth tell them to take wives, or say
That they shall children breed that must be fed?
SECOND MANUFACTURER
We must see to it that they work the more;
Ay, let them work till midnight in our shops;
Enough to rest the second half of night,
Time spent in sleep is lost to trade and goods.
They move away.
ADAM
Away with them. Why wouldst thou have me see?
But tell me, whither is the maiden gone?
Now, Lucifer, thy power prove to me,
Help me to gain her ear.
LUCIFER
Nay, Lucifer
Wastes not his might on folly such as this.
ADAM
That which is nought to thee, to me is all.
LUCIFER
Win her then. - Learn, though, to control thy heart.
Shrink not from falsehood. When I question thee,
Reply, and she shall fall into thy arms.
Aloud, so that the GIPSY WOMAN listening behind may hear.
Thou seest now, my lord, how wearisome
To go disguised among this teeming throng.
For we do ever meet with fresh affronts.
If these good folk but knew that our four ships,
Returned from India, do even now
Approach the harbour, they with other looks
Would welcome us.
ADAM
Thou speakest truth, perchance.
THE GIPSY WOMAN aside
I should gain much by this discovery.
to Adam
I pray thee hear. Thou didst disguise thyself,
And I did punish thee with boding words,
For nothing lieth hidden from my sight,
Who am, long since, an old friend of the Fiend.
LUCIFER aside
It wanted nought but that, thou lying hag!
THE GIPSY WOMAN
Thy vessels come to-day within the port;
But better fortune yet I tell thee of.
A lovely maid hath lost her heart to thee!
ADAM
How can I win her?
THE GIPSY WOMAN
She is almost thine.
ADAM
She bade me go.
THE GIPSY WOMAN
And therefore shall be thine.
A little while and she shall come again,
Remember then the words I spake to thee.
Departs.
ADAM
The witch will overmatch thee, Lucifer.
LUCIFER
Her splendid merits I do not dispute;
Now doth she do the devil’s work for him.
A MOUNTEBANK on a cart, accompanied by the sound of a trumpet, surrounded by a CROWD, appears and takes his place in the centre of the stage.
THE MOUNTEBANK
Make way, make way, and give due reverence:
My head is hoary grown in wisdom’s lore,
While I have sought with never-flagging toil
The jewels hid in nature’s treasury.
ADAM
What is this wondrous madman, Lucifer?
LUCIFER
’Tis Science, grown a mountebank, to live.
As thou didst live once, buried in thy tomes;
But now more noise is needed than before.
ADAM
Yet never did I bear myself as he.
Shame on him!
LUCIFER
He cannot otherwise;
And in his heart he feareth lest anon
Men read upon his headstone graven deep:
Ex gratia speciali
Mortuus in hospitali.
He who has spent, for others, days and nights,
Has surely earned the right to some reward.
THE MOUNTEBANK
I have toiled for the welfare of mankind,
And lo, here is the crown of all my toil.
This phial holds the elixir of life
That maketh young the old and suffering.
Of this, in years of old the Pharaohs drank;
This was the magic potion Tancred drained;
This unguent Trojan Helen fairer made;
And this is Kepler’s famed Astrology.
ADAM
Hear’st thou his wares? The golden age that we
Sought in the future, in the past he finds.
LUCIFER
The present never is in honour held,
No man is great within his bedroom walls.
’Tis as the wives we married ten years since;
We know full well the wrinkles and the lines.
THE MOUNTEBANK
Come buy, who will: the chance came not before.
Come buy, come buy, for it shall come no more.
ONE FROM THE CROWD
For all things I have use, so, give me here!
I thank thee, master, though it cost me dear.
LUCIFER
Thou seest none believe, and yet they buy,
All eager some new wondrous ware to try.
EVE returns with her Mother, the GIPSY WOMAN follows whispering to them.
EVE
Thy words are vain; we know them all full well.
THE GIPSY WOMAN
Then may I ne’er be saved, if they be false,
That lord is so aflame with love for thee,
Already would he thee his Mistress make,
Thou wouldst be a fine lady, richly lodged,
And drive in coach and four, to ball and play.
THE MOTHER
If we consider well, ’twere better far
Than fade and wither, like an aging wife,
And languish in a cobbler’s musty shop.
THE GIPSY WOMAN
See, there he stands, his eyes are seeking thee.
EVE
It is not nice he hath not found me yet;
His hand are fine, his bearing, as a lord’s.
THE MOTHER
His friend I find no fault with, though perchance
His nose is somewhat crooked, and his legs
Are not too straight. But yet he seems a man.
Of such respectability and years.
I will go on, my daughter; it were best
If to yourselves I left you for a while.
THE GIPSY WOMAN to Adam
See now the beauty, how she sighs for thee!
ADAM
I fly to her, what joy, what wondrous bliss!
THE GIPSY WOMAN
Forget not her who brought you twain to meet.
LUCIFER gives her money.
He giveth money, I thy hand do press.
THE GIPSY WOMAN starting back with a scream
Ah, what a grip!
LUCIFER
It would delight thee more,
If thou wert that thou claimedst to be, hag!
EVE to Adam
Perchance for me a fairing wouldst thou buy,
That magic unguent there, that beauty gives.
ADAM
The magic spell of woman in thy face
More loveliness than any unguent gives.
Meanwhile the MOUNTEBANK departs.
EVE
Thy words are sweet.
ADAM
Nay, make me not ashamed;
Pearls, diamonds shall grace that slender neck,
Not that the jewels render thee more fair,
But since the finest setting they beseem.
EVE
Yonder I saw great store of precious stones,
But richer than befits a simple maid.
ADAM
Nay, let us see.
LUCIFER
Thou needst not go so far.
I chance to have with me a jewel rare.
He produces some jewels which EVE gazes on with great pleasure and tries on.
EVE
How beautiful, all eyes shall envy me.
ADAM pointing to the honey-cake made in the form of a heart
But let me see no more that heart!
EVE
The heart!
I’ll cast it from me if thou like it not.
She throws it down.
LUCIFER
’Tis well, and I will set my heel on it.
He treads on it.
EVE
Was that a cry, or did I nought but dream?
Meanwhile a CONDEMNED MAN is brought across the stage on a cart; the CROWD presses after.
VOICES FROM THE CROWD
Come, hasten! Said I not he was afraid?
Yet still defiant. Up, and follow him!
ADAM
What noise is this? What means this thronging press?
EVE
A hanging. Why, ’Tis well that we are here.
Come, go we too. This sight doth draw me on.
And ’tis a time to wear my sparkling gems.
ADAM
What hath the poor wretch done?
EVE
I do not know.
LUCIFER
It matters not. But yet will I tell thee.
In Lovel’s workshop he hath laboured long,
But lead is poison, and its fumes he breathed.
Then long weeks did he in the sick house lie,
And it befell his wife was left in want,
And Lovel’s son was young and generous;
They found each other, and all else forgot.
FIRST WORKMAN
Bravely, comrade! Thou halt a martyr’s death.
Thy name shall be most glorious to us!
LUCIFER
The man recovered, but found not his wife;
His place was filled; for work he sought in vain.
His heart grew hot, he dared to utter threats.
And Lovel’s son made answer with his fist;
The wretched man saw, and caught up a knife
They bear him now. Old Lovel is gone mad.
At the last words LOVEL approaches, half-crazed with grief.
LOVEL
’Tis false, ’tis false, I am not mad, not mad!
Do I not know what my son’s wound doth breathe?
Take all, take all my wealth, take all from me,
Let me not understand the whispered words,
Lest I grow mad indeed, grow mad indeed!
THIRD WORKMAN
Fear not, the day of reckoning shall come.
FIRST WORKMAN to the Condemned Man
Look boldly up, ’tis they have done the shame!
The CONDEMNED MAN proceeds with his escort.
ADAM
Why dost thou haunt me, spectacle of dread?
Who now would tell which hath the greater guilt?
Perchance the sin lies in Society;
Where that grows rotten, crime doth breed apace.
LOVEL
Society, yea. - Take my gold, take all!
Let me know not the message of his wound.
Departs.
EVE
Come forward, else we shall not find a place.
ADAM
I thank thee, Fate, thou hast not made me judge.
’Tis easy, laws upon a couch to write,
’Tis easy, from the surface, men to judge;
How hard it is for him who probes the heart
And seeks to pierce the secrets of its depths.
LUCIFER
So heard, no trial would an ending have,
No man doth wrong, because it is the wrong.
The devil too, cites reasons for the crime,
And each thinks his own reason weightiest.
The man of law cuts through the tangled knot
That never could philanthropist untie.
Meanwhile they reach the Tower in a recess of which is the image of a saint.
EVE
Be pleased to rest a little here, my friend,
I would upon this shrine my blossoms lay.
LUCIFER whispering
Suffer her not, else we do lose the day.
ADAM
Innocent child - I will not hinder her.
EVE
I have been wont since I was but a child,
To pray before this shrine when I passed near,
And now, too, so much doth it comfort me.
It will take but a moment, and we can,
By walking fast, make up the time we lose.
She sets the flowers by the image, but they suddenly wither and from her neck and arms the jewels slip down, turned to snakes.
Dear Lord, what is this? Dear Lord, what is this?
LUCIFER to Adam
In vain I warned thee!
EVE
Help, for God’s sake, help!
ADAM
Be not so wild, the folk do gaze at us.
And thou shalt richer jewels have in place.
EVE
Away from me! O Heaven, send me aid!
For cunning tricksters and a wicked hag
Have brought disgrace upon a modest maid
A crowd begins to gather, and the GIPSY WOMAN approaches with the Watchmen.
THE GIPSY WOMAN
They should be here. They paid me with false coin.
It melted in my palm to quicksilver.
LUCIFER
Not in the coin, but in thy palm, maybe
The fault lay. Adam, let us hasten hence.
It is not good to seek enjoyment here.
They disappear inside the Tower and, while the throng and the tumult increase, they appear again on the summit of the bastion.
ADAM
One disenchantment more. Enough, I thought,
To overthrow the monsters of the past,
And set free forces freely to compete.
I thrust out from the engine one chief bolt
That keeps all parts together, reverence,
And set no other stronger in its place.
What competition, if one, sword in hand,
Confront another rival weaponless?
What independence, if a hundred starve,
If they will not submit to one man’s yoke?
It is nought but a dog-fight for a bone.
Instead, such a society I would
As should protect, not punish; courage give,
Not threaten, boldly work with common force;
Such as the mind of science should conceive,
Where, o’er its order, Reason should stand guard.
And it shall come, my heart doth know full well.
Lead on, lead on to this world, Lucifer.
LUCIFER
Vain dreamer, since thy vision only sees
Disorder in this thronging crowd below,
Deemest thou there is never harmony,
No system in the workshop of this life?
Gaze, then, a while with spiritual eyes,
And mark the work they bring to plenitude,
Only for us, though; not for their poor selves.
It grows dark. The whole fair is seen as forming one crowd that digs a grave in the centre of the stage; it dances around it, while all, one after another, some silently, others after delivering farewell speeches, leap into it.
CHORUS
On the ground the spade shall ring:
Let the task to-day done,
’Tis too late accomplishing
When to-morrow dawns the sun.
Not a thousand years shall see
Ended what is yet to be.
All are hungry, all are fed,
Crib and coffin are but one;
Let to-day be perfected
Work to-morrow new begun.
Lo, to-day the one who dies,
Shall to-morrow new arise!
The bell tolls.
On the even sounds the chime,
Work is done, go rest, ’tis time.
They whom dawn wakes to life new
Shall the great work start anew.
THE SHOWMAN
Now the comedy at length is played,
Others, merry, not myself I made.
INNKEEPER
All have drunk their wine, and so to all
Good-night, and sweet sleep upon you fall.
GIRL
Sold are all my blossoms. On my tomb
Other violets anon shall bloom.
THE GIPSY WOMAN
Each would know what fate before him lay,
Now in fear his eyes are turned away.
LOVEL
Vainly in my treasure joy I sought,
Now I find repose that costeth nought.
A WORKMAN
Ended is the week, the toil and stress,
Now I rest from all its weariness.
A LAD
Sweet my dream, the waking was but pain,
Come, sweet dream, I follow thee again.
A SOLDIER
Strong and bold I was to challenge all,
Now within a miry pit I fall.
THE TROLLOP
Passion dies, the face grows thin and old,
Will it be, below, so drear and cold?
THE CONDEMNED MAN
Chain, bide with poor dust, this body bind.
Through this gate a new law I shall find.
THE MOUNTEBANK
Each would have the other think him wise,
Now the truth all view with startled eyes.
EVE
Why dost thou gape, dread gulf, before my feet?
Think not my heart doth fail me at thy night.
Only the dust doth fall, clay turn to clay,
But I pass through in passage glorious.
The soul of love, of poesy, of youth,
Do point me on the road to heaven’s bliss.
Upon this earth the smile within my eyes
Brings joy alone if, as the sunlight glow,
It cast upon each face its radiance.
Casting her veil and cloak into the grave, she ascends, transfigured, to the skies.
LUCIFER
Thine eyes are opened, Adam?
ADAM
Eve! ’Tis Eve!