O ye mysterious pilgrims of the air,
Would I had wings that I might follow you!
I look forth from these mountains, and behold 15
The omnipotent and omnipresent night,
Mysterious as the future and the fate
That hangs o’er all men’s lives! I see beneath me
The desert stretching to the Dead Sea shore,
And westward, faint and far away, the glimmer 20
Of torches on Mount Olivet, announcing
The rising of the Moon of Passover.
Like a great cross it seems, on which suspended,
With head bowed down in agony, I see
A human figure! Hide, O merciful heaven, 25
The awful apparition from my sight!
And thou, Machærus, lifting high and black
Thy dreadful walls against the rising moon,
Haunted by demons and by apparitions,
Lilith, and Jezerhara, and Bedargon, 30
How grim thou showest in the uncertain light,
A palace and a prison, where King Herod
Feasts with Herodias, while the Baptist John
Fasts, and consumes his unavailing life!
And in thy court-yard grows the untithed rue, 35
Huge as the olives of Gethsemane,
And ancient as the terebinth of Hebron,
Coeval with the world. Would that its leaves
Medicinal could purge thee of the demons
That now possess thee, and the cunning fox 40
That burrows in thy walls, contriving mischief!
Music is heard from within.
Angels of God! Sandalphon, thou that weavest
The prayers of men into immortal garlands,
And thou, Metatron, who dost gather up
Their songs, and bear them to the gates of heaven, 45
Now gather up together in your hands
The prayers that fill this prison, and the songs
That echo from the ceiling of this palace,
And lay them side by side before God’s feet!
He enters the castle.
II.
Herod’s Banquet-Hall
MANAHEM.
THOU hast sent for me, O King, and I am here.
HEROD.
Who art thou?
MANAHEM.
Manahem, the Essenian.
HEROD.
I recognize thy features, but what mean
These torn and faded garments? On thy road
Have demons crowded thee, and rubbed against thee, 5
And given thee weary knees? A cup of wine!
MANAHEM.
The Essenians drink no wine.
HEROD.
What wilt thou, then?
MANAHEM.
Nothing.
HEROD.
Not even a cup of water?
MANAHEM.
Nothing.
Why hast thou sent for me?
HEROD.
Dost thou remember
One day when I, a schoolboy in the streets 10
Of the great city, met thee on my way
To school, and thou didst say to me: Hereafter
Thou shalt be king?
MANAHEM.
Yea, I remember it.
HEROD.
Thinking thou didst not know me, I replied:
I am of humble birth; whereat thou, smiling, 15
Didst smite me with thy hand, and saidst again:
Thou shalt be King; and let the friendly blows
That Manahem hath given thee on this day
Remind thee of the fickleness of fortune.
MANAHEM.
What more?
HEROD.
No more.
MANAHEM.
Yea, for I said to thee: 20
It shall be well with thee if thou love justice
And clemency towards thy fellow-men.
Hast thou done this, O King?
HEROD.
Go, ask my people.
MANAHEM.
And then, foreseeing all thy life, I added:
But these thou wilt forget; and at the end 25
Of life the Lord will punish thee.
HEROD.
The end!
When will that come? For this I sent to thee.
How long shall I still reign? Thou dost not answer!
Speak! shall I reign ten years?
MANAHEM.
Thou shalt reign twenty,
Nay, thirty years. I cannot name the end. 30
HEROD.
Thirty? I thank thee, good Essenian!
This is my birthday, and a happier one
Was never mine. We hold a banquet here.
See, yonder are Herodias and her daughter.
MANAHEM, aside.
‘T is said that devils sometimes take the shape 35
Of ministering angels, clothed with air,
That they may be inhabitants of earth,
And lead man to destruction. Such are these.
HEROD.
Knowest thou John the Baptist?
MANAHEM.
Yea, I know him;
Who knows him not?
HEROD.
Know, then, this John the Baptist 40
Said that it was not lawful I should marry
My brother Philip’s wife, and John the Baptist
Is here in prison. In my father’s time
Matthias Margaloth was put to death
For tearing the golden eagle from its station 45
Above the Temple Gate, — a slighter crime
That John is guilty of. These things are warnings
To intermeddlers not to play with eagles,
Living or dead. I think the Essenians
Are wiser, or more wary, are they not? 50
MANAHEM.
The Essenians do not marry.
HEROD.
Thou hast given
My words a meaning foreign to my thought.
MANAHEM.
Let me go hence, O King!
HEROD.
Stay yet awhile,
And see the daughter of Herodias dance.
Cleopatra of Jerusalem, my mother, 55
In her best days, was not more beautiful.
Music. THE DAUGHTER OF HERODIAS dances.
HEROD.
Oh, what was Miriam dancing with her timbrel,
Compared to this one?
MANAHEM, aside.
O thou Angel of Death,
Dancing at funerals among the women,
When men bear out the dead! The air is hot 60
And stifles me! Oh for a breath of air!
Bid me depart, O King!
HEROD.
Not yet. Come hither.
Salome, thou enchantress! Ask of me
Whate’er thou wilt; and even unto the half
Of all my kingdom, I will give it thee, 65
As the Lord liveth!
DAUGHTER OF HERODIAS, kneeling.
Give me here the head
Of John the Baptist on this silver charger!
HEROD.
Not that, dear child! I dare not; for the people
Regard John as a prophet.
DAUGHTER OF HERODIAS.
Thou hast sworn it.
HEROD.
For mine oath’s sake, then. Send unto the prison; 70
Let him die quickly. Oh, accursed oath!
MANAHEM.
Bid me depart, O King!
HEROD.
Good Manahem,
Give me thy hand. I love the Essenians.
He ‘s gone and hears me not! The guests are dumb,
Awaiting the pale face, the silent witness. 75
The lamps flare; and the curtains of the doorways
Wave to and fro as if a ghost were passing!
Strengthen my heart, red wine of Ascalon!
III.
Under the Walls of Machærus
MANAHEM, rushing out.
; AWAY from this Palace of sin!
The demons, the terrible powers
Of the air, that haunt its towers
And hide in its water-spouts,
Deafen me with the din 5
Of their laughter and their shouts
For the crimes that are done within!
Sink back into the earth,
Or vanish into the air,
Thou castle of despair! 10
Let it all be but a dream
Of the things of monstrous birth,
Of the things that only seem!
White Angel of the Moon,
Onafiel! be my guide 15
Out of this hateful place
Of sin and death, nor hide
In you black cloud too soon
Thy pale and tranquil face!
A trumpet is blown from the walls.
Hark! hark! It is the breath 20
Of the trump of doom and death,
From the battlements overhead
Like a burden of sorrow cast
On the midnight and the blast,
A wailing for the dead, 25
That the gusts drop and uplift!
O Herod, thy vengeance is swift!
O Herodias, thou hast been
The demon, the evil thing,
That in place of Esther the Queen, 30
In place of the lawful bride,
Hast lain at night by the side
Of Ahasuerus the king!
The trumpet again.
The Prophet of God is dead!
At a drunken monarch’s call, 35
At a dancing-woman’s beck,
They have severed that stubborn neck
And into the banquet-hall
Are bearing the ghastly head!
A body is thrown from the tower.
A torch of lurid red 40
Lights the window with its glow;
And a white mass as of snow
Is hurled into the abyss
Of the black precipice,
That yawns for it below! 45
O hand of the Most High,
O hand of Adonai!
Bury it, hide it away
From the birds and beasts of prey,
And the eyes of the homicide, 50
More pitiless than they,
As thou didst bury of yore
The body of him that died
On the mountain of Peor!
Even now I behold a sign, 55
A threatening of wrath divine,
A watery, wandering star,
Through whose streaming hair, and the white
Unfolding garments of light,
That trail behind it afar, 60
The constellations shine!
And the whiteness and brightness appear
Like the Angel bearing the Seer
By the hair of his head, in the might
And rush of his vehement flight. 65
And I listen until I hear
From fathomless depths of the sky
The voice of his prophecy
Sounding louder and more near!
Malediction! malediction! 70
May the lightnings of heaven fall
On palace and prison wall,
And their desolation be
As the day of fear and affliction,
As the day of anguish and ire, 75
With the burning and fuel of fire,
In the Valley of the Sea!
IV.
Nicodemus at Night
NICODEMUS.
THE STREETS are silent. The dark houses seem
Like sepulchres, in which the sleepers lie
Wrapped in their shrouds, and for the moment dead.
The lamps are all extinguished; only one
Burns steadily, and from the door its light 5
Lies like a shining gate across the street.
He waits for me. Ah, should this be at last
The long-expected Christ! I see him there
Sitting alone, deep-buried in his thought,
As if the weight of all the world were resting 10
Upon him, and thus bowed him down. O Rabbi,
We know thou art a Teacher come from God,
For no man can perform the miracles
Thou dost perform, except the Lord be with him.
Thou art a Prophet, sent here to proclaim 15
The Kingdom of the Lord. Behold in me
A Ruler of the Jews, who long have waited
The coming of that kingdom. Tell me of it.
CHRISTUS.
Verily, verily I say unto thee,
Except a man be born again, he cannot 20
Behold the Kingdom of God!
NICODEMUS.
Be born again?
How can a man be born when he is old?
Say, can he enter for a second time
Into his mother’s womb, and so be born?
CHRISTUS.
Verily I say unto thee, except 25
A man be born of water and the spirit,
He cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.
For that which of the flesh is born, is flesh;
And that which of the spirit is born, is spirit.
NICODEMUS.
We Israelites from the Primeval Man 30
Adam Ahelion derive our bodies;
Our souls are breathings of the Holy Ghost.
No more than this we know, or need to know.
CHRISTUS.
Then marvel not, that I said unto thee
Ye must be born again.
NICODEMUS.
The mystery 35
Of birth and death we cannot comprehend.
CHRISTUS.
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and we hear
The sound thereof, but know not whence it cometh,
Nor whither it goeth. So is every one
Born of the spirit!
NICODEMUS, aside.
How can these things be? 40
He seems to speak of some vague realm of shadows,
Some unsubstantial kingdom of the air!
It is not this the Jews are waiting for,
Nor can this be the Christ, the Son of David,
Who shall deliver us!
CHRISTUS.
Art thou a master 45
Of Israel, and knowest not these things?
We speak that we do know, and testify
That we have seen, and ye will not receive
Our witness. If I tell you earthly things,
And ye believe not, how shall ye believe, 50
If I should tell you of things heavenly?
And no man hath ascended up to heaven,
But He alone that first came down from heaven,
Even the Son of Man which is in heaven!
NICODEMUS, aside.
This is a dreamer of dreams; a visionary, 55
Whose brain is overtasked, until he deems
The unseen world to be a thing substantial,
And this we live in, an unreal vision!
And yet his presence fascinates and fills me
With wonder, and I feel myself exalted 60
Into a higher region, and become
Myself in part a dreamer of his dreams,
A seer of his visions!
CHRISTUS.
And as Moses
Uplifted the serpent in the wilderness,
So must the Son of Man be lifted up; 65
That whosoever shall believe in Him
Shall perish not, but have eternal life.
He that believes in Him is not condemned;
He that believes not, is condemned already.
NICODEMUS, aside.
He speaketh like a Prophet of the Lord! 70
CHRISTUS.
This is the condemnation; that the light
Is come into the world, and men loved darkness
Rather than light, because their deeds are evil!
NICODEMUS, aside.
Of me he speaketh! He reprovet
h me,
Because I come by night to question him! 75
CHRISTUS.
For every one that doeth evil deeds
Hateth the light, nor cometh to the light,
Lest he should be reproved.
NICODEMUS, aside.
Alas, how truly
He readeth what is passing in my heart!
CHRISTUS.
But he that doeth truth comes to the light, 80
So that his deeds may be made manifest,
That they are wrought in God.
NICODEMUS.
Alas! alas!
V.
Blind Bartimeus
BARTIMEUS.
BE not impatient, Chilion; it is pleasant
To sit here in the shadow of the walls
Under the palms, and hear the hum of bees,
And rumor of voices passing to and fro,
And drowsy bells of caravans on their way 5
To Sidon or Damascus. This is still
The City of Palms, and yet the walls thou seest
Are not the old walls, not the walls where Rahab
Hid the two spies, and let them down by cords
Out of the window, when the gates were shut, 10
And it was dark. Those walls were overthrown
When Joshua’s army shouted, and the priests
Blew with their seven trumpets.
CHILION.
When was that?
BARTIMEUS.
O my sweet rose of Jericho, I know not.
Hundreds of years ago. And over there 15
Beyond the river, the great prophet Elijah
Was taken by a whirlwind up to heaven
In chariot of fire, with fiery horses.
That is the plain of Moab; and beyond it
Rise the blue summits of Mount Abarim, 20
Nebo and Pisgah and Peor, where Moses
Died, whom the Lord knew face to face, and whom
He buried in a valley, and no man
Knows of his sepulchre unto this day.
CHILION.
Delphi Complete Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Delphi Poets Series Book 13) Page 91
