MICHAL: I am the King’s daughter. Even Saul shall not lift his hand against me. Go down thou to the door, and hold the men whilst thou mayst. Why should we admit them forthwith? Say that Michal is performing her ablutions.
WOMAN-SERVANT: Will I not!
Exit WOMAN-SERVANT.
MICHAL: And shall I strip the bed? They will search the house and the fields. Nay, I will leave it, and they shall see how they were fools. O teraphim, O my god of my own house, hinder them and help me. O thou my teraphim, watch for me!
Sound of knocking below.
VOICE OF SERVANT: Ho, ye! Who knocks, in the Lord’s name?
VOICE OF CAPTAIN: Open! Open ye! In the name of the King.
VOICE OF SERVANT: What would ye in this house of sickness?
VOICE OF CAPTAIN: Open, and thou shalt know.
VOICE OF SERVANT: I may not open, save Michal bid me.
VOICE OF CAPTAIN: Then bid Michal bid thee open forthwith.
VOICE OF SERVANT: O thou captain of the loud shout, surely thou wert here before! Know then, my master is sick, and my mistress performeth her ablutions in the sight of the Lord. At this moment may I not open.
VOICE OF CAPTAIN: An thou open not, it shall cost thee.
VOICE OF SERVANT: Nay, now, is not my mistress King’s daughter, and is not her command laid on me? O Captain, wilt thou hold it against me, who tremble between two terrors?
VOICE OF CAPTAIN: Tremble shalt thou, when the terror nips thee. E’en open the door, lest we break it in.
VOICE OF SERVANT: Oh, what uncouth man is this, that will break down the door of the King’s daughter, and she naked at her bath, before the Lord!
VOICE OF CAPTAIN: We do but the King’s bidding.
VOICE OF SERVANT: How can that be? What, did the King indeed bid ye break down the door of his daughter’s house, and she uncovered in the Lord’s sight, at her ablutions?
VOICE OF CAPTAIN: Yea! The King bade us bring before him instantly the bed of David, and David upon the bed!
VOICE OF SERVANT: Oh, now, what unseemly thing is this! Hath not the King legs long enough? And can he not walk hither on his feet? Oh, send, fetch the King, I pray thee, thou Captain. Say, I pray thee, that Michal prays the King come hither.
VOICE OF CAPTAIN: Word shall be sent. Yet open now this door, that the bird escapes me not.
VOICE OF SERVANT: O Captain! And is my master then a bird? O would he were, even the young eagle, that he might spread wing! O man, hast thou no fear what may befall thee, that thou namest David a bird? O Israel, uncover now thine ear!
VOICE OF CAPTAIN: I name him not.
VOICE OF SERVANT: And what would ye, with this bird my master! Oh, the Lord forbid that any man should call him a bird!
VOICE OF CAPTAIN: We e’en must bring him upon his bed before the King.
VOICE OF SERVANT: Now what is this! Will the King heal him with mighty spells? Or is David on his sick-bed to be carried before the people, that they may know his plight? What new wonder is this?
VOICE OF CAPTAIN: I cannot say — Yet I will wait no longer.
MICHAL: Open, Maiden! Let them come up.
VOICE OF SERVANT: Oh, my mistress crieth unto me, that I open. Yea, O Michal, I will e’en open to these men. For who dare look aslant at the King’s daughter?
Enter CAPTAIN, followed by SOLDIERS.
CAPTAIN: Is David still in the bed? An he cannot rise, will we carry him upon the bed, before the King.
MICHAL: Now what is this?
CAPTAIN: Sleeps he yet? Ho, David, sleepest thou?
2ND SOLDIER: We will take up the bed, and wake him.
3RD SOLDIER: He stirs not at all.
CAPTAIN (to MICHAL): Yea, rouse him and tell him the King’s will.
MICHAL: I will not rouse him.
CAPTAIN (going to the bed): Ho, thou! Ho! David! (He suddenly pulls back the bed-cover.) What is this? (Sudden loud shrilling laughter from the WOMAN-SERVANT, who flees when the men look round.)
SOLDIERS (crowding): We are deceived. Ha-ha! It is a man of wood and a goats’-hair bolster! Ha-ha-ha! What husband is this of Michal’s?
MICHAL: My teraphim, and the god of my house.
CAPTAIN: Where hast thou hidden David?
MICHAL: I have not hidden him.
Pause.
VOICE OF SAUL (on the stair): Why tarry ye here? What! Must the King come on his own errands? (Enter SAUL.) And are ye here?
MICHAL: The Lord strengthen thee, my Father.
SAUL: Ha! Michal! And can then David not rise from his bed, when the King sendeth for him?
CAPTAIN: Lo! O King! Behold the sick man on the bed! We are deceived of Michal.
SAUL: What is this? (Flings the image across the room.)
MICHAL: Oh, my teraphim! Oh, god of my house! Oh, alas, alas, now will misfortune fall on my house! Oh, woe is! woe is me! (Kneels before teraphim.)
SAUL: Where is David? Why hast thou deceived me?
MICHAL: O god of my house, god of my mother’s house, visit it not upon me!
SAUL: Answer me, or I will slay thee!
MICHAL: God of my house, I am slain! I am slain!
SAUL: Where is David?
MICHAL: O my lord, he is gone; he is gone ere the sun made day.
SAUL: Yea, thou hast helped him against me.
MICHAL (weeping): Oh! Oh! He said unto me: Let me go; why shouldst thou make me slay thee, to trouble my face in the sight of men. I could not hinder him, he would have slain me there!
SAUL: Why hast thou deceived me so, and sent away mine enemy, that he escaped?
MICHAL (weeping): I could not prevent him.
SAUL: Even when did he go?
MICHAL: He rose up before the Lord, in the deep night. And then he would away, while no man saw.
SAUL: Whither is he gone?
MICHAL: Verily, and verily, I know not.
Pause.
SAUL: So! He hath escaped me! And my flesh and my blood hath helped mine enemy. Woe to you, Michal! Woe to you! Who have helped your father’s enemy, who would pull down thy father to the ground. Lo! my flesh and my blood rebel against me, and my seed lies in wait for me, to make me fall!
MICHAL: Oh, why must David be slain?
SAUL: Woe to you, Michal! And David shall bring woe to you, and woe upon you. David shall pull down Saul, and David shall pull down Jonathan; thee, Michal, he will pull down, yea, and all thy house. Oh, thou mayst call on the teraphim of thy house. But if thy teraphim love thy house, then would he smite David speedily to the death, for if David liveth I shall not live, and thou shalt not live, and thy brother shall not live. For David will bring us all down in blood.
MICHAL (weeping): O my Father, prophesy not against him!
SAUL: It shall be so. What, have I no insight into the dark! And thou art now a woman abandoned of her man, and thy father castest thee off, because thou hast deceived him, and brought about his hurt.
MICHAL: O my Father, forgive me! Hold it not against me!
SAUL: Nay, thou hast bent thy will against thy father, and called destruction upon thy father’s house.
MICHAL: Ah, no! Ah, no!
CURTAIN
SCENE XV
Naioth in Ramah. A round, pyramid-like hill, with a stair-like way to the top, where is a rude rock altar. Many PROPHETS, young and old, wild and dressed in blue ephods without mantle, on the summit of the hill and down the slope. Some have harps, psalteries, pipes and tabrets. There is wild music and rough, ragged chanting. They are expecting something. Below, SAMUEL and DAVID, talking. Not far on a PROPHET in attendance.
PROPHETS (on hill — irregularly crying and chanting): This is the place of the Lord! Upon us shines the Unseen! Yea, here is very God! Who dare come into the glory! O thou, filled with the Lord, sing with me on this high place. For the egg of the world is filled with God.
SAMUEL (speaking to DAVID): It is time thou shouldst go. As a fox with the dogs upon him, hast thou much fleeing to do.
DAVID: Must I always flee
, my Father? I am already weary of flight.
SAMUEL: Yea, to flee away is thy portion. Saul cometh hither to seek thee. But surely shall he fall before the Lord. When he gets him back to his own city, enquire thou what is his will towards thee. And if it still be evil, then flee from him diligently, while he lives.
DAVID: And shall there never be peace between Saul’s house and mine?
SAMUEL: Who knows the Lord utterly! If there be not peace this time, then shall there never in life be peace between thee and him, nor thy house and his.
DAVID: Yet am I his son-in-law, in Michal my wife! And my flesh yearneth unto mine own.
SAMUEL: Is the house of Saul thine own?
DAVID: Yea, verily!
SAMUEL: Dost thou say, Yea, verily? Hark, now! If this time there be peace between thee and him, it should be peace. But if not, then think of naught but to flee, and save thyself, and keep on fleeing while Saul yet liveth. The Lord’s choice is on thee, and thou shalt be King in thy day. As for me, I shall never see thy day.
DAVID: Would I could make my peace with Saul! Would I could return to mine own house, and to mine own wife, and to the men of my charge!
SAMUEL: My son, once the Lord chose Saul. Now hath He passed Saul over and chosen thee. Canst thou look guiltless into the face of Saul? Can he look guiltless into thy face? Can ye look into each other’s faces, as men who are open and at peace with one another?
DAVID: Yet would I serve him faithfully.
SAMUEL: Yea, verily! And in thine heart, art thou King, and pullest the crown from his brow with thine eyes.
DAVID: O my Father, I would not!
SAMUEL: Wouldst thou not? Willst thou say to me here and now: As the Lord liveth, I will not be King! But Saul and his house shall rule Israel for ever: and Jonathan my friend shall be King over me! Wilt thou say that to me?
DAVID: Does Samuel bid me say this thing?
SAMUEL: He bids thee not. But for Saul’s sake, and for Jonathan’s, and for Michal’s, and for peace, wilt thou say it? Answer me from thine own heart, for I know the smell of false words. Yea, I bid thee, speak!
DAVID: The Lord shall do unto me as He will.
SAMUEL: Yea, for the Lord hath anointed thee, and thou shalt rule Israel when Saul is dead, and I am dead, and the Judges of Israel are passed away. For my day is nearly over, and thine is another day. Yea, Saul has lived in my day, but thou livest in thine own day, that I know not of.
DAVID: O my lord, is there naught but wrath and sorrow between me and Saul henceforth?
SAMUEL: The Lord will show! Knowest thou not?
DAVID: I would it were peace!
SAMUEL: Wouldst thou verily? When the wind changes, will it not push the clouds its own way? Will fire leap lively in wet rain? The Lord is all things. And Saul hath seen a tall and rushing flame and hath gone mad, for the flame rushed over him. Thou seest thy God in thine own likeness, afar off, or as a brother beyond thee, who fulfils thy desire. Saul yearneth for the flame: thou for thy to-morrow’s glory. The God of Saul hath no face. But thou wilt bargain with thy God. So be it! I am old, and would have done. Flee thou, flee, and flee again, and once more, flee. So shalt thou at last have the kingdom and the glory in the sight of men. I anointed thee, but I would see thee no more, for my heart is weary of its end.
DAVID: Wilt thou not bless me?
SAMUEL: Yea, I will bless thee! Yea, I will bless thee, my son. Yea, for now thy way is the way of might; yea, and even for a long space of time it shall be so. But after many days, men shall come again to the faceless flame of my Strength, and of Saul’s. Yea, I will bless thee! Thou art brave, and alone, and by cunning must thou live, and by cunning shall thy house live for ever. But hath not the Lord created the fox, and the weasel that boundeth and skippeth like a snake!
DAVID: O Samuel, I have but tried to be wise! What should I do, and how should I walk in the sight of men? Tell me, my Father, and I will do it.
SAMUEL: Thou wilt not. Thou walkest wisely, and thy Lord is with thee. Yea, each man’s Lord is his own, though God be but one. I know not thy Lord. Yet walk thou with Him. Yea, thou shalt bring a new day for Israel. Yea, thou shalt be great, thou shalt fight as a flower fighteth upwards, through the stones and alone with God, to flower in the sun at last. For the yearning of the Lord streameth as a sun, even upon the stones. (A tumult above among the PROPHETS. SAMUEL looks up — continues abstractedly.) Yea, and as a flower thou shalt fade. But Saul was once a burning bush, afire with God. Alas, that he saw his own image mirrored in the faces of men! (A blare of music above.)
SAMUEL (to PROPHET): What see ye?
PROPHETS (shouting): The sun on the arms of the King.
SAMUEL (to DAVID): Now shalt thou go! For I, too, will not set mine eyes upon Saul the King.
DAVID: Bless me then, O my Father!
SAMUEL: The Lord fill thy heart and thy soul! The Lord quicken thee! The Lord kindle thy spirit, so thou fall into no snare! And now get thee gone! And when Saul is returned to his own place, enquire thou secretly his will towards thee. And then act wisely, as thou knowest.
DAVID: I go forth into the fields, as a hare when the hound gives mouth! But if the Lord go with me . . .
Exit DAVID.
SAMUEL (to PROPHET): Is Saul surely in sight?
PROPHET: Verily, he is not far off. He has passed the well of Shecu.
SAMUEL: Has he company of men?
PROPHET: Ten armed men has he.
SAMUEL: Will he still bring armed men to the high place? Lo! Say thou to him: Samuel hath gone before the Lord, in the hidden places of the Hill.
PROPHET: I will e’en say it.
SAMUEL: Say also to him: David, the anointed, is gone, we know not whither. And let the company of the prophets come down towards the King.
PROPHET: It shall be so.
Exit SAMUEL.
PROPHET (climbing hill and calling): O ye Prophets of the Lord, put yourselves in array, to meet Saul the King.
2ND PROPHET (on hill with flute — sounds flute loudly with a strong tune — shouts): Oh, come, all ye that know our God! Oh, put yourselves in array, ye that know the Name. For that which is without name is lovelier than anything named! (Sounds the tune strongly.)
PROPHETS gather in array — musicians in front; they chant slowly. As SAUL approaches they slowly descend.
CHORUS OF PROPHETS: Armies there are, for the Lord our God!
Armies there are against the Lord!
Wilt thou shake spears in the face of Almighty God?
Lo! in thy face shakes the lightning. [Bis.
Countest thou thyself a strong man, sayest thou Ha-ha!
Lo! We are strong in the Lord! Our arrow seest thou not!
Yet with the unseen arrows of high heaven
Pierce we the wicked man’s feet, pierce we his feet in the fight.
Lo! the bow of our body is strung by God.
Lo! how He taketh aim with arrow-heads of our wrath!
Prophet of God is an arrow in full flight
And he shall pierce thy shield, thou, thou Lord’s enemy.
Long is the fight, yet the unseen arrows fly
Keen to a wound in the soul of the great Lord’s enemy.
Slowly he bleeds, yet the red drops run away
Unseen and inwardly, as bleeds the wicked man.
Bleeding of God! Secretly of God.
SAUL enters with ARMED MEN. PROPHETS continue to chant.
SAUL: Peace be with you!
PROPHET: Peace be with the King!
SAUL: Lo! ye prophets of God! Is not Samuel set over you?
PROPHET: Yea! O King!
SAUL (beginning to come under the influence of the chant and to take the rhythm in his voice): Is Samuel not here?
PROPHET: He hath gone up before the Lord!
SAUL: Surely the Lord is in this place! Surely the great brightness (Looks round.) — and the son of Jesse, is he among the prophets?
PROPHET: Nay, he has gone hence.
SAUL: Gone!
Gone! What, has he fled from the high place! Surely he feared the glory! Yea, the brightness! So he has fled before the flame! Thus shall he flee before the flame! But gone? Whither gone?
PROPHET: We know not whither.
SAUL: Even let him go! Even let him go whither he will! Yea, even let him go! Yea! Come we forth after such as he? Let him go! Is not the Lord here? Surely the brightness is upon the hill! Surely it gleams upon this high place!
Complete Works of D.H. Lawrence (Illustrated) Page 716
