In Constantinople. A public square with a few CITIZENS lounging about. In the centre, the palace of the Patriarch, to the right a convent, and on the left a grove. ADAM as Tancred, in the prime of manhood, with other knights at the head of CRUSADERS returning from Asia, with waving flags and the beating of drums. LUCIFER as his esquire. Evening; later, night.
FIRST CITIZEN
Lo, hither comes again a savage host.
Haste, let us run to bar the doors and gates,
Lest, once again, they rob and plunder us.
SECOND CITIZEN
And hide our women; this wild rabble well
The pleasure of seraglios doth know.
FIRST CITIZEN
Our women too, the right of conquerors.
ADAM
Stay, wherefore do ye flee before our face?
See ye not then this sacred sign we bear,
Which binds us brethren in the same high cause.
To Asia have we borne our holy faith,
The law of love, that those fierce millions
Among whom once Our Saviour’s cradle lay,
Should feel the sweet salvation of its grace.
And is there then no love within your hearts?
FIRST CITIZEN
Full often have we heard such words before,
But yet our homes were burnt above our heads.
They disperse.
ADAM to the Knights
See, ye may mark here this accursed fruit;
If some base brigand, with vile wickedness,
This sacred standard holdeth in his hands,
And flattering the passions of the mob,
Forceth his way, unbidden, to command.
My knightly friends, while our good swords do fight
For honour spotless, for God’s glory, for
Defence of woman, and fair chivalry,
Our task shall be this monster to restrain
And lead it, though against its will, to work
Unceasingly for great and noble ends.
LUCIFER
Fair words, yet if the people shall no more
Have trust in thee as leader? Say, how then?
ADAM
The victory is where the spirit is
And I will strike them down.
LUCIFER
And if they too
Have spirit, wilt thou then descend to them?
ADAM
And wherefore then descend? A nobler way
It were to lift them to a fairer height.
For lack of comrades to desert the field
Were just as base as not to welcome him
Who comes to aid thee in the fight, lest he
Should share the triumph of the victory.
LUCIFER
See, see, how fallen is that noble faith
For which the martyrs in the circus died.
Is this then liberty for every man?
How wonderful a thing this brotherhood!
ADAM
Mock not. Think not I hold not fast this faith,
For this cause do I consecrate my life.
For he in whom this sacred spark doth glow
May fight and win, and him who onward strives
Toward the goal of knighthood, we receive,
And to our Order with a sword’s blow, raise;
But we the Order’s treasures must protect
Against this angry strife which yet doth rage;
Ah, would the time should speedily draw nigh,
Then, only, our redemption’s day shall come
When all divisions cease, for all are pure.
But I should doubt that happy day should dawn
Unless the mighty task had been begun
By God Himself, the Great and Holy God.
Ah, friends, ye see what welcome meets us here,
Ungreeted in the turmoil of this town.
And we can do nought else than pitch our camp
Within this grove, as often have we done
In pagan lands, till time grow happier.
Forward, and I will follow you. Each knight
For all those with him renders me account.
The army of Crusaders pitch camp.
LUCIFER
Alas, that once again thy fair resolve
Only that famous apple bears, without,
Ruddy and ripe, but inside, only dust.
ADAM
Stay, hast thou faith in higher things no more?
LUCIFER
And if I had, what profit, if thy race
Hath none? This knightly Order thou dost set,
Like to a lighthouse midst the ocean’s waves,
Will one day be extinguished, and shall fall,
Half ruined, in the waters, and shall then
Become a rock more perilous to him
Who journeyeth on bold adventure’s path
Than any other reef, where never shone
A lighthouse built to guide seafaring men.
All things that live and shed on others grace
Die in their time; this spirit doth depart,
The body yet abides, a rotting corpse
That spreads a foul contagion on the new
And growing world around it. So with us,
The glories of the past do yet remain!
ADAM
Yet when our Order hath decayed, perchance
Its holy doctrines may the people reach,
And then there comes no danger through its fall.
LUCIFER
The holy doctrines - this sacred doctrine
Has ever been your curse, since ye, by chance,
Stumbled upon it; for ye have it so
Refined and sharpened and divided up
That it shall madness or a fetter be
To chain you. Though man’s mind can never grasp
Exactitude, ’tis this, proud race of man,
Ye ever seek, and seek it to your curse.
Look on this sword, a hair’s breadth less or more,
Yet, in its essence, it has not been changed,
And so forever couldst thou add or take,
But where the point exact to mark the bounds?
And yet thy senses should be quick to note
When in the breadth of blade the change were great.
But wherefore do I strive in argument?
Speech wearieth. Yet gaze around and see.
A few CITIZENS again appear.
ADAM
My friends, my men are tired and shelter seek,
And in the capital of Christendom
Perchance, not vainly?
THIRD CITIZEN
We would know if thou
Art not a heretic, than pagans worse?
FOURTH CITIZEN
Speak, which dost thou confess, that we may know,
Homousion or Homoiusion?
ADAM
I understand not this.
LUCIFER
Admit it not.
Here, it is now the thing of chief import.
FOURTH CITIZEN
See, he doth doubt: that too is heresy!
MORE CITIZENS
Begone! Come, let us shut ourselves within
Our houses, and a curse upon the man
Who shelter giveth them.
They disperse. The PATRIARCH in princely pomp issues with his retinue from his palace. A number of MONKS, accompanying HERETICS in chains, follow him. Behind these come soldiers and the populace.
ADAM
I am amazed.
Tell me, who is this prince who draweth nigh,
So proud and with so arrogant a gaze?
LUCIFER
The first Apostles’ heir - the Patriarch.
ADAM
And this bare-footed rabble, that beneath
A feigned humility yet with grim joy
Doth follow these poor captives bound in chains?
LUCIFER
These? They are Monks. They Christian Cynics are.
ADAM
None such among my mountains have I seen.
LUCIFER
Thou shalt see later. Leprosy doth spread,
Thou knowest, slowly. But take heed, beware
Lest thou insult these men who know not sin
And therefore are relentless.
ADAM
What can be
The virtue that abideth in these hearts?
LUCIFER
Endurance of torment dire, terrible;
Self-abnegation; these their virtues are,
Which first thy Master shewed forth on the Cross.
ADAM
And by His suffering redeemed the world.
But these mean cravens do but God blaspheme
As rebels who despise His gracious gifts.
He, who to crush a flea, such weapon grasps
As he might wield with courage ’gainst a bear,
A fool is.
LUCIFER
Yet if they look on the fly
As though it were a bear? Have they no right,
Whose heart unflinching onward urges them,
To drive all men who life enjoy, to Hell?
ADAM
I see as Thomas, and cannot believe.
But on these visions will I steadfast gaze.
Approaches the PATRIARCH.
Knights of the Holy Sepulchre we are,
My Father, and a weary road have trod.
We would have rest, but can no shelter find
In this great town. Thou hast authority.
Help us.
THE PATRIARCH
My son, I have not now the time
For such small things. God’s glory and my flock
Do claim my service. I must judgment give
On heretics that grow like noxious weeds
And spread foul poison. Though with fire and sword
We root them out, yet ever do they come
In ever greater numbers, sent by hell.
But if ye be Crusaders, wherefore seek
In distant lands the pagan Saracens,
When here the foe is yet more dangerous.
Up, storm their villages and root them out,
Destroy the old, the woman, and the child.
ADAM
Thou wouldst not have us slay the innocent!
THE PATRIARCH
The serpent, too, is harmless, while ’tis small,
Or if it shall have lost its poison fang.
But dost thou spare it, then?
ADAM
The sin must be
In truth abhorrent that the Church of love
Can fire with such fierce anger.
THE PATRIARCH
Hear, my son:
Love is not that which flattereth the flesh,
But that which leadeth back, if it must be,
By sword’s edge or the flames, the soul to Him
Who hath said ‘Not peace but a sword I bring
Upon the earth!’ These falsely do proclaim
Within the doctrine of the Trinity
The Homoiusion, whereas the Church
Hath testified that the Homousion
The true faith is for all men to believe.
THE MONKS
The fire already burns, death, death to them!
ADAM
My friends, renounce this little letter ‘i’.
If life ye scorn, a nobler sacrifice
Ye may make in the holy war to wrest
The Holy Sepulchre from pagan hands.
AN AGED HERETIC
Tempt us not, Satan, we do give our lives
For our true faith where God hath bidden us.
ONE OF THE MONKS
Thou shameless one, dost thou boast that thou hast
The true faith?
THE AGED HERETIC
And the Rimini Synod,
Went it not with us, and a score beside
Of other councils?
THE MONK
Error let them false.
But at Nicaea and at other times
When synods of the true believers met,
Was judgment in our favour not declared?
THE AGED HERETIC
Apostates! Shameless ones who yet essayed
To vie with us: Come, give me answer, say:
Have ye one Father of the Church to match
The two Eusebiuses? Arius?
THE MONK
Have ye one like to Athanasius?
THE AGED HERETIC
And have ye martyrs?
THE MONK
Yea, and more than ye.
THE AGED HERETIC
Fine martyrs whom the devil doth beguile
With false deceits to death and flames of hell.
I say that ye are that great Babylon,
The Harlot that Saint John doth write of, who
Shall perish from the surface of the earth.
THE MONK
The seven-headed dragon, Antichrist,
Ye are of which Saint John doth speak. Base dogs,
Deceivers, boon companions of the Fiend.
THE AGED HERETIC
Thieves, serpents, gluttons and lewd profligates!
THE PATRIARCH
Away with them! Too long we tarry here.
Glory to God, and to the stake with them!
THE AGED HERETIC
Glory to God. Well spoken, wicked one!
The sacrifice doth to God’s glory, die.
Strong are ye, and ye do that which ye will.
But if your deeds be good shall Heaven judge.
Already numbered are your sinful days
And from our blood new warriors shall spring.
The cause doth live and burns, a glowing flame
To light the world for centuries to come.
For us, my friends, shall death be glorious!
THE HERETICS singing in chorus
My God, my God, look upon me; why hast thou forsaken me: and art so far from my health, and from the words of my complaint?
O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not: and in the night season also I take no rest.
And thou continuest holy… (Psalm XXII. v. 1, etc.)
MONKS break in, in chorus
Plead thou my cause o Lord, with them that
strive with me: and fight against them that
fight against me.
Lay hand upon the shield and buckler: and stand
up to help me.
Bring forth the spear and stop the way against
them that persecute me… (Psalm XXXV. v. 1, etc.)
Meanwhile the PATRIARCH and the procession depart. A few MONKS mingle with the Crusaders with tracts in their hands.
LUCIFER
Why standest thou so silent? Tremblest thou?
Seems this a tragedy? Nay, rather deem
This scene a comedy and be thou gay.
ADAM
Alas! Jest not. That for this letter ‘i’
To think they pass so resolute to death.
Ah, then, what is there noble and sublime?
LUCIFER
Perchance that which, to others, folly seems.
A hair’s breadth only doth divide the two,
Sublimity and folly. In the heart
One voice alone may judge betwixt the twain:
This judge mysterious is - sympathy,
Which deifies or slays with mockery.
ADAM
Why were mine eyes this evil forced to see!
This strife unworthy in unyielding creeds:
This deadly poison banefully distilled
From that most glorious, most fair of flowers.
This lovely blossom once full well I knew
When persecution tried our growing faith.
What foe hath trod this flower in the dust?
LUCIFER
The foe is victory, that scattereth
And doth a hundred new desires create.
Defeat, which bindeth close, doth martyrs breed,
And on these heretics is laid defeat,
Uniting them; enduing them with strength.
ADAM
In truth I would my sword now lay aside
And to my northern land return again,
Where, in the shadow of the forest old,
Manhood and simple-heartedness defy
The poison of this smooth and subtle age,
If ever heard I not a secret voice
That tells me I must mould this age anew.
LUCIFER
A vain endavour: for thou canst not set
One man against the age in which he lives.
The one is but a swimmer in the stream
Of time which bears him up or lets him sink,
He doth not guide its flow. Yea, history
Hath counted great those who their century
Have comprehended, children of their time,
Not those who have new doctrines brought to birth.
The day dawns not when cocks begin to crow,
But cocks do crow because that day hath dawned.
They yonder, who in chains pass on to death,
Martyrs surrounded by a mocking crowd,
See one step forward only; this new faith
Dawns in their midst, and that for which they die,
Their heirs will think no more of than the air
They breathe. But let us cease. Look to thy camp.
Why go these scurvy monks within the ranks?
What traffic make they? What wares do they cry
With such loud clamour and such gesture wild?
Come, let us hearken.
A MONK offering his tracts among the press of Crusaders
Heroes! Warriors!
Buy, buy the saving doctrine here proclaimed
Of penitence, and let it be your guide
In all distress and doubt. This teacheth you
How many years shall suffer pain in hell
The murderer, the profligate, and he
Who robbeth shrines and perjureth himself.
This tract doth teach you how the rich may gain
A year’s release from purgatory with
Some twenty Solidi; the poor with three;
And he who hath no means to pay, may win
With some few thousand scourgings, clemency.
Buy this good book that ye may read therein.
CRUSADERS
Give me one, holy Father - and us too!
ADAM
Ah, evil merchants and more base who buy!
Come, draw thy sword. Break up this huckstering.
LUCIFER embarrassed
I crave your grace. This monk hath been of old
My comrade, and I do not hate his kin.
And if the honour of the Lord increased
My honour too was magnified with his.
Thou only hast now somewhat lagged behind.
EVE as Isaura, and HELENA, her maid, rush, uttering piercing cries, to ADAM, pursued by a few Crusaders who immediately make away on seeing him.
EVE fainting
Ah, save me!
ADAM supporting her
Noble lady, have no fear.
Here thou art safe. Come, lift thy lovely eyes.
What magic lies in them! But what hath passed?
HELENA
We were delighting in the fragrant air
Amid the garden’s green and shady calm,
And rested, free of care, upon the sward,
And hearkened to the nightingale’s sweet notes,
When, from behind a thicket dense, we saw
Men’s eyes that burned with glowing, wild desire.
We fled in terror, but with straining breath
And rushing feet four soldiers followed us
And would have seized us, when we ran to thee.
ADAM
I know not if I would thou shouldst awake;
Thou mayest leave me like a fading dream.
How can a body so transfigured be,
So like a spirit, pure, adorable?
LUCIFER
So like a spirit! Truly, destiny
No better punishment could lay upon
A lover for his folly than to grant
All that for which his mistress he doth claim.
ADAM
It seems that once before I knew thy face,
We knelt together by the throne of God.
LUCIFER
I pray thee earnestly to bear in mind
Thy love is pleasant if there are but two,
But brings no whit savour to a third.
ADAM
She looks up, smiles! O Heaven, praise to thee!
EVE
Knight, thou hast saved me, how can I thank thee?
ADAM
Are not these words from thee a rich reward?
LUCIFER to Helena
Poor recompense, and is there none for me?
HELENA
And wherefore owe I gratitude to thee?
LUCIFER
Dost thou then think the noble knight thee too
Hath rescued? Truly that were vanity.
But if the knight the lady fair doth save,
Why surely doth his squire rescue her maid.
HELENA
What have I gained? If I give thee my thanks,
It may be then my lot is perilous,
And if I give thee none, then I am lost.
But not uncomely those who followed us.
ADAM
O Lady, whither shall I lead thee? Speak!
EVE
The portal of the Convent is hard by.
ADAM
The Convent, dost tho say? Oh, but its door
Doth not bar out fair hope when it doth close?
Give me a token, that upon this cross
I may it set, that while I fight in faith,
It may bring back to me my fairest dream,
And I may not grow weary through the years
That must pass ere my prize shall crown my race.
EVE
This ribbon take.
ADAM
This ribbon, black as night?
It is the sign of sorrow, give me hope!
EVE
This is my token, nought else can I give;
Hope groweth not within the Convent walls.
ADAM
Nor love; and lady where thou dost abide,
How should there not be love? Thy dress doth show
Thou hast not taken yet the convent veil.
EVE
Ah, with thy questions torture me no more,
’Tis grief to me to see thy sorrow grow.
LUCIFER
And shall this gloomy wall shut thee in too?
HELENA
Yea, but the key lies not beneath the sea.
LUCIFER
Great pity, I could pen an elegy
On this sad scene.
HELENA
Deceiver, get thee gone!
LUCIFER
Wherefore? The thought were great that I should dive
And seek the key beneath the ocean’s depths.
HELENA
I would not that from thee.
LUCIFER
But see, I go!
The monsters of the deep do gape for me.
HELENA
Back, back, I faint for fear. The key, perchance,
May rather be beside my casement found.
ADAM
Ah, let at least thy name be known to me,
That I may think of thee when I do pray,
And ask that thou be blest, if thou refuse
To let me share the sorrow of thy lot.
EVE
Isaura is my name, and thine, o Knight?
For prayer well beseems the sisterhood.
ADAM
Tancred am I.
EVE
Tancred, God be with thee.
ADAM
Isaura, do not leave me in such haste;
Else, if thou leave me thus, I curse this name
Which now first thou uttered leaving me.
Short was the moment, yea short for a dream,
How may I lengthen it if thou remain
A secret veiled, whose fate, dear to my heart,
Yields me no thread to weave bright fantasies?
EVE
Then thou shalt hear the course my fate hath run.
My father, as thee, of the Holy Sepulchre
A Knight was, and once, in the pagan land,
The fierce foe stormed the camp with shouts and cries
And fire and sword; no hope left of escape.
’Twas then he to the Blessed Virgin vowed
That if he should return, he would to her
Me, was but then a child then, dedicate.
He did return, and then, to keep his oath,
I took the Sacrament.
ADAM
O Mother, thou
Blessed embodiment of stainless love,
Didst thou not turn aside affronted from
A vow unholy that thy holiness
Doth sully with a stain of grief and sin,
And change the grace of Heaven to a curse?
HELENA to Lucifer
And hast thou no desire to know my fate?
LUCIFER
I know already. Thou loved, wast deceived,
Then loved anew, and, then thou didst deceive.
Again thou hast loved, of thy hero grown
Aweary, and thy empty heart doth crave
A lover now.
HELENA
Why, art thou then the Fiend?
I did not think that thou so modest art
That thou shouldst deem my heart is empty now.
LUCIFER to Adam
Hasten, my lord, thou canst not say farewell,
And I cannot prevent my victory.
ADAM
Isaura, all thy words do pierce my heart;
Oh, sweeten with a kiss the poisoned wounds!
EVE
Knight, thou hast heard my vow: what wouldest thou?
ADAM
But I am not forbidden to love thee?
EVE
Thou happy art. How could I thee forget?
Tancred, I must begone, my strength grows faint.
Farewell, in Heaven I shall see thy face.
ADAM
Farewell. For ever shall I think on thee.
She enters the Convent.
HELENA aside
Faint-hearted; am I then all things to do?
aloud
The key will be outside the casement; not
In the sea.
Follows EVE.
ADAM coming to himself
Hence!
LUCIFER
Too late, so ends the tale.
See, Tancred, see how mad this race of thine,
Now woman it doth think on as the aim
Of brutal passion, and with uncouth hands
Brusheth aside from woman’s brow the bloom
Of poetry, and so itself doth rob
Of love’s most gracious blossom, heedlessly;
Or else it setteth woman in a shrine
And bleedeth for her, vainly combating,
While, like a sterile bloom, love’s kiss doth fade.
Why doth it not respect and honour her
As woman, in the realm of womanhood?
Meanwhile it has grown completely dark. The moon rises. EVE as Isaura and HELENA are seen at the window.
EVE
How longingly he gazed and trembled sore:
This mighty hero trembled, and for me.
But virtue and my faith command my heart,
Here shall I die, a holy sacrifice.
HELENA
’Tis marvellous how mad is womankind,
For if from form and use it break away,
It rushes after pleasure like a beast,
And tears the mask of honour from its face,
Wallowing shameless in the filth and mire;
If it break not away, it taketh fright
At its own shadow, and its fairest charms
Leaveth to wither in unfruitfulness,
Robbing itself and others of delight.
Why holdeth it not to the middle way?
A little love-making, so it be done
In seemly wise, I cannot see can hurt;
For woman not mere spirit only is.
EVE
Look, Helena, standeth he yet below?
How could he have so lightly gone away?
I would that once again I heard his voice.
ADAM to Lucifer
Look back, doth she still at the window stand?
Could she not grant me one glance from her eyes?
Saw I but only once her slender form!
Isaura, be not wroth, I am yet here.
EVE
For both of us ’twere better thou shouldst go.
When hearts are torn they may heal easily,
But if once more they break, ’tis grievous pain.
ADAM
Dost not thou fear to gaze into the night
That like a mighty heart love doth beat,
When we, we only, are forbidden love?
Fearest thou not its magic vanquish thee?
EVE
All this to me seems but a fleeting dream,
Which tempts me from high Heaven to this earth.
Upon the waves of air sweet music sounds;
A thousand faces from behind each leaf
Do smile on me with kisses on their lips;
But they no longer, Tancred, speak with us.
ADAM
Why, why a barrier this cruel wall?
I, who so many pagan lines have stormed,
Have I not strength this rampart to surmount?
LUCIFER
Nay, for the spirit of the age stands guard;
Stronger than thou.
ADAM
Hah, who doth speak these words?
In the background the light of flames ascending from the stake flares up.
THE VOICES OF THE HERETICS singing in the distance
Deliver my soul from the sword: my darling from the power of the dog.
Save me from the lion’s mouth: thou hast heard me also from among the horns of the unicorns.
I will declare thy Name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
(Psalm XXII. v. 20-22.)
EVE
Have mercy on their sinful souls, o Lord.
ADAM recoiling
What song of dread!
LUCIFER
Thy bridal song they sing.
ADAM
So be it, I am steadfast, unafraid.
For thee, my dearest love, all will I dare.
THE VOICES OF THE MONKS singing in the distance
Let them be clothed with rebuke and dishonour
that boast themselves against me.
Let them be glad and rejoice, that favour my
righteous dealing, yea let them say always:
Blessed be the Lord, who hath pleasure in the
prosperity of his servant.
At the beginning of the chant, ADAM, who had advanced to the gate of the Convent, again halts. An owl hoots from the tower, WITCHES fly through the air and before the door a SKELETON rises from the ground and confronts ADAM threateningly.
EVE hastily closing the casement
God help us!
SKELETON
Leave this sacred threshold, go!
ADAM
Who art thou, phantom?
SKELETON
I lie hid within
Thy every close embrace, thy every kiss.
WITCHES laughing
Harvest ill from wholesome seed,
Snakes the turtle-dove doth hatch.
Isaura, come, we call!
ADAM
What shapes of dread!
Have ye been changed, or am I changed myself?
I knew you in the past, when ye could smile.
What here reality and what here dream?
My arms are feeble through your magic spell.
LUCIFER
Unwitting, in what pleasant company
I find myself; this happiness of old
I hoped for. Lo, this modest lovely band
Of witches doth in shamelessness surpass
By far the nymphs that sport with naked feet.
And this old comrade death, who doth portray
Stern virtue’s form distorted, doth the son
Of earth make to abhor its face in dread.
To all, my greeting, I grieve I have not
The time to while away the night with you.
The Phantoms disappear.
Up, Tancred, up, thy love hath shut thee out.
Why stand we in the darkness of the night
The wind blows chill, the ague thou wilt take.
And Helena doth come, and what do I?
The devil hath small skill in lover’s arts,
And would be mocked at to eternity,
And so he would his strength himself destroy
’Tis strange that man, with heart aflame, doth yearn
And plead for love and only torment gain.
The devil, with his heart of ice, from love
May scarce escape to save his liberty.
ADAM
Lead me to new fields, onward Lucifer!
I fought for sacred visions; in their base
Interpretation I have found a curse.
To honour God, man has been sacrificed,
Man has too low sunk to fulfil my dream.
I strove our pleasures worthier to make;
Man set the brand of sin on man’s delight:
I lifted high the sword of chivalry;
It stabbed me to the heart. To new worlds, on!
I have shewn forth enough what I am worth,
Who have fought battles, and denied myself,
And I may leave the field and no shame feel.
Let there be nothing more to fire my heart,
And let the world move onward as it will,
No longer will I guide the wheels of it,
But look indifferent on its lurching course;
I am a’weary, and I would have rest.
LUCIFER
Have rest, repose, but scarcely do I deem
Thy spirit, that untiring ceaseless force,
Will let thee rest. Come, Adam, follow me.