In Egypt. Before an open porch. ADAM, as Pharaoh, young, sits on a throne. LUCIFER as his minister. At a respectful distance a magnificent retinue. In the background, slaves at work on a pyramid under Overseers with whips. Bright sunshine.

LUCIFER
My lord, thy people who would happy be
To shed their blood for thee, disquieted ask
Why doth great Pharaoh, lord of all the earth
Brood, pensive, on his throne, and take no rest.
Why dost thou sacrifice the joys of day,
The fair dream visions of cool dusky night,
And dost not to thy slave, whom it beseems,
Commit the care of thy great purposes?
Since on the whole earth all that man may find
Of glory, might and happiness is thine:
A thousand rich dominions own thee lord,
For thee alone the fragrant flowers blow,
For thee alone the fruit glows on its bough;
A thousand women sigh for love of thee;
The fair-haired beauty with her drooping eyes,
Slender and frail as some shy, fleeting nymph,
The dark enchantress, of the burning lips,
And eyes aflame with passion’s glowing fire:
All, all are thine: thy passing whim their fate;
All feel they have their life work well performed
If they have given thee a moment’s joy.

ADAM
My heart finds no delight in all these things.
They come but as a due that must be paid.
I fight not for them, and I cannot thank
Myself for them. But in this mighty work
Which I do build, I deem that I have found
The path that leads to greatness which is true.
For nature at this art of man is dumb,
Which for a thousand years shall voice my name.
No earthquake, no wild storm shall cast it down.
Man has become more powerful than God.

LUCIFER
Ah Pharaoh, lay thy hand upon thy heart,
Say, does this vision bring thee happiness?

ADAM
Nay, for I feel a void, a void unnameable,
But yet I care not: bliss I did not seek,
Glory alone, and that before me shines.
But let my grief my people never know,
For should they pity, they would not adore.

LUCIFER
How if thou shouldst that glory find to be
A foolish toy that charms but for an hour?

ADAM
It cannot be.

LUCIFER
      But if it were?

ADAM
      Why, then
I would leave life, and dying, curse the world.

LUCIFER
Thou wilt not die, though thou shalt come to know.
Nay, with thy old success, begin anew.
The Overseers beat one of the working slaves so fiercely that he runs in anguish to the porch of Pharaoh and falls before the throne.

SLAVE
Mercy, great lord!
EVE, as his wife, rushes forward front the workers, and embraces her husband with passionate sobs.

EVE
      Thou askest but in vain.
He understands not who hath never known
Our suffering. The cry of woe is faint,
And high the throne. Why callest thou not me,
For I will shield thee, and the blows shall fall
Upon my body.

ADAM
to the Overseers who press forward and would tear her away.
      Let her be. Begone!
They go.
aside
What strange emotion steals upon my heart?
Who is this woman and what spell hath she
To draw great Pharaoh from his mighty throne
To seek her lying lowly in the dust.
Rises.

LUCIFER
Lo, this again is one of those frail threads
With which thy Lord hath compassed thee around
To mock thee, and to have thee bear in mind
Thou wert a sluggish caterpillar once,
If thou would’st spread thy wings, a butterfly.
This little thread, but mark how strong it is,
It slips from out the fingers and therefore
I cannot snap it.

ADAM descends from the throne.
      See thou break it not.
For all its wounding, it is sweet to me.

LUCIFER
But yet it ill becomes a great, wise king
To groan beneath it.

ADAM
      What then should I do?

LUCIFER
A wise man can do nought else than deny
This hidden thread exists: Matter and strength
Must sweep it roughly, with a laugh away.

ADAM
I cannot laugh and I cannot deny.

EVE
Thy blood, beloved, trickles from thy wounds,
See I will stanch it. Dost thou suffer sore?

SLAVE
My life is pain: the pain will not be long.

EVE
Ah nay, why hast thou lived till now to die
In suffering, now, when thou hast found me?

SLAVE
Why lives the slave? To carry stone to raise
The pyramid of Pharaoh, and to leave
His offspring for the yoke, and then to die.
A million for one!

ADAM
      Ah, Lucifer,
How terrible these words from fading lips!

LUCIFER
’Tis but the raving of a slave that dies.

ADAM
But what said he?

LUCIFER
      Great Pharaoh, it is nought.
And I am satisfied to think there is
One slave the less upon this crowded earth.

EVE
One wretched slave to thee. To me the world.
Alas, beloved, who will love me now?

SLAVE
Not I. Forget me evermore, forget.
Dies.

ADAM
Lo, I will love thee. Bear the dead man hence.
They take up the corpse.
Come, lady, by my side upon the throne
Thy place shall be: for thou art queen of grace
As I am lord of strength: fate hath decreed
That we should find each other.

EVE
      Mighty king,
I know thy word ordains my destiny.
I am thy slave: yet grant a little while
For me to grieve, and then speak thy command.

ADAM
No more that word. Oh, shall my power, then,
Never exceed that word, the word ‘command’?

EVE
Let it suffice if, for the present hour,
That which thou dost command grieve not my heart.
Great Pharaoh, be not jealous that I weep
In sorrow’s first regret for my dead love.
How fair he is in death, how beautiful.
Flings herself on him.

ADAM
How fair in death? The dead cannot be fair.
This tranquil stillness mocks our purposes,
And smiles in pity on our vanity.

LUCIFER
A slave who thee defieth, and hath said
‘Lo, I was stronger than thy chains, o King!’

ADAM
Peace to the dead, but to the living, hail!
He cannot feel thy tear: without thy smile
I suffer torment.
They bear away the dead man. ADAM leads EVE to the throne.
      Woman, come to me!
How sweet it is to rest upon thy breast.
A cry of pain from amongst the workers. EVE shudders.
Why dost thou shudder?

EVE
      Dost thou not hear, then,
The people’s cry?

ADAM
      I had not heard before.
The music is not sweet. But pay no heed.
Kiss me, and yet again: forget the world!
to Lucifer
Silence this wailing, let it cease forthwith.

LUCIFER
I cannot still it. ’Tis the people’s right,
And, with the yoke, is its inheritance.
Again a moan. EVE utters a cry. ADAM rises up.

ADAM
Lady, thou sufferest: and I know not how
To help thee. Through thy heart this cry of pain
Strikes like a flash of lightning on my head.
And, as I feel, the whole world cries for aid.

EVE
Oh, Pharaoh, crush me, but forgive it me,
If, when the people moan, I cannot rest.
I know full well I am thy slave. To give
Thee pleasure is the purpose of my life.
All I forget beside, greatness, despair,
Hopes, visions, and the dead, that I may smile
And yield my lips to thee. But when I hear
The people, with its million outstretched arms,
Groaning beneath the lash of hissing scourge,
As doth the smallest member feel the pain
Of the whole aching body, so I too,
A daughter of the people, in my heart
Suffer the torment of its grievous woe.

ADAM
And I with thee. A million for one!
So spake the dead man too.

EVE
      Pharaoh, great King,
Thy face is darkened, and I am the cause.
Drive me from thee, or teach me to grow deaf.

ADAM
Thou should’st thyself a better teacher prove,
For I have learned of thee to hear this cry.
But no more will I hear it. Let the slaves
Be free. What doth the glory profit then,
Which, if a million perish, one shall gain?
Shall one be happy if a million weep,
In whom, too, breathes the breath of that one man?
Joy once, torment a million times I feel.

LUCIFER
Pharaoh, thou art beside thyself. Lo, fate
The common herd dooms, like a beast, to turn
The mill of any sovereignty that rules;
To this end was it formed: deliver it,
It will not gain by what thou throwst away,
And will tomorrow seek another lord.
Couldest thou set thy foot upon its neck
Unless it felt the need to serve a lord,
If, in its breast it did but know itself?

ADAM
Why groaneth it then, as if servitude
Caused it to suffer?

LUCIFER
      Suffering it feels,
Yet knows the reason not. For all men strive
For power; and this longing, not the love
Of man for man, the people driveth on
To follow freedom, though to consciousness
This longing wakes not; only ’tis an urge
Driving it onward to seek all such things
As shall be new, and shall repudiate
That which exists already, and therein
It hopeth to see realised the dreams
It ever cherisheth of happiness.
The people is an ocean, and no ray
Of light can pierce its depths for ever dark,
Only the wave upon its surface shines,
And, it may be, thou art that wave, o King.

ADAM
And wherefore I?

LUCIFER
      Thou, or one like to thee,
In whom the instinct of the people grows
To consciousness, who to thy splendid throne
Doth force his way, the champion adored
Of freedom, while the people nought achieves,
For though his name be changed, the lord remains.

ADAM
Thy logic doth an endless circle trace,
From which it doth seem, there is no escape.

LUCIFER
There is escape. Give to a chosen few
A ring, a chain, or any other toy,
And say ‘Lo, I do raise thee from the crowd,
And dub thee noble.’ They shall deem they are,
And look upon the people with disdain,
Yet gladly brook that thou shouldst hold them mean.

ADAM
Beguile me with no specious argument.
Away with servitude. Let all be free.
Proclaim it them; but hasten, so it be
Too late already if I should repent.

LUCIFER aside
Speed on in thy vain pride upon thy way,
Deem that thou goest, though fate driveth thee.
LUCIFER goes out.

ADAM
And let this work cease, ere it be complete,
A warning sign to him who would be great,
The riddle of our weakness and our strength.
Outside, a great cry of joy. The workmen disperse. LUCIFER returns.
Rejoice, o slave, for greatness bows to thee,
Yet think not greatness was constrained to bow.

EVE
Be comforted, beloved of my soul.
Ah, Pharaoh, what doth glory profit thee,
That glides between us like a serpent cold?

ADAM
But it is great, yea great!

EVE
      Away with it.
The cry of grief is dumb and troubles not
Our bliss. When thou dost lean upon my breast
What wouldst thou else?

ADAM
      Oh, woman, seest thou
So little and so dimly? Yet therefore
Is proud ambitious man toward thee drawn,
For only weakness can be loved by strength.
So in protecting arms the mother bears
Her little child so helpless and so frail.

EVE
Ah, Pharaoh, with this idle, witless talk
I weary thee already, it may be.
But if I be no wiser, pardon me.

ADAM
Ah, strive not to be wiser, dearest love,
Of knowledge have I for myself enough,
I lean not on thy breast because thou art
Mighty and great, and wise all things to know,
For in my books I may find wisdom writ.
Speak, only speak and let me hear thy voice,
And let its music stream into my heart.
I care not what thou speakest, for who asks
What sings a little bird, yet with delight
We hearken to its liquid melody.
A flower be thou only, profitless
Yet beautiful, and therefore love I thee.
to Lucifer
For one thing only long I in my heart,
Madly it may be, but yet grant it me,
I would upon the future boldly gaze
To know, when some few thousand years have passed,
Shall my renown endure?

LUCIFER
      While thou didst kiss,
Didst thou not feel a gentle, cooling breeze
That swept across thy face and then flew on?
A little wave of dust doth mark its flight,
That mounts a few short inches in a year,
And some few cubits in a thousand years;
Yet a few thousand years shall overwhelm
Thy pyramids, and thy great name shall be
Buried beneath a barrier of sand.
Jackals shall in thy pleasure gardens howl,
And, in the desert, dwell a servile race.
While Lucifer speaks all this becomes visible.
All this no raging storm shall bring to pass,
No shuddering upheaval of the earth,
Only a little breeze that gently plays!

ADAM
Dread vision!

LUCIFER with scorn
      But yet fear not, for alone
Thy spirit perisheth, thy body stays,
A mummy, a quaint show for heedless boys
The writing faded from its wizened brow,
To show if thou of old wert slave or king.
A Mummy rises up and appears before the throne, and slowly rolls down the steps of it.

ADAM recoiling
Back, foul delusion, hellish form! Begone!
Ambition is but folly, striving vain.
Ever I hear ‘A million for one!’
A million must live and live through me.
And in a free land only may they dwell.
Let the one perish if the many live,
Which maketh of its units one great whole.

EVE
Dost thou forsake me too who am thy love?

ADAM
Thee, and my throne, and all things do I leave.
Lead on, lead on, to new goals, Lucifer,
Much time already have I tarried here
In this blind path.
Goes forward with a drawn sword.

EVE
      O King, if thou return
With shattered hope, thy heart shall find in mine
A refuge.

ADAM
      Yea, I feel that I shall find
Thee once again, and in a nobler form,
And then thou shalt not kiss me as a slave,
But as an equal with a happy heart.
Departs.

LUCIFER
Haste not so fast: the time sufficeth thee;
And nearer than thy hopes the goal may be:
And thou shalt weep its foolishness to know,
While I shall laugh. Come, let us onward go.