Complete Works of D.H. Lawrence

by D. H. Lawrence

  DAVID: But nor do I forget. — It is as if all caught fire at once, in the flame of the Hope.

  JONATHAN: Sometimes I think the Lord takes from me the flame I have. I love my father. And my father lifts the short spear at me, in wild anger, because, he says, the Fire has left him, and I am undutiful.

  DAVID: The King is the Lord’s anointed. The King has known, as none know, the strong gladness of the Lord’s presence in his limbs. And then the pain of wanting the Lord, when He cometh not, passes the pain of a woman moaning for the man she loves, who has abandoned her.

  JONATHAN: Yet we love the King. The people look up to him. Abner, the chief captain, is faithful to him unto death. Is this nothing to a man?

  DAVID: To a man, it is much. To the Lord’s anointed, it is much riches. But to the King whom the Lord hath rejected, even love is a hurt.

  JONATHAN: Is my father truly rejected from being King, as Samuel said? And merely that he spared Agag and a few Amalekite cattle? I would not willingly have drawn the sword on naked Agag.

  DAVID: Who knows? I know not. — When a people choose a King, then the will of the people is as God to the King. But when the Lord of All chooses a King, then the King must answer to the Lord of All.

  JONATHAN: And the Lord of All required the death of defenceless Agag?

  DAVID: Amalek has set his will against the Whirlwind. There are two motions in the world. The will of man for himself, and the desire that moves the Whirlwind. When the two are one, all is well, but when the will of man is against the Whirlwind, all is ill, at last. So all is decreed ill, that is Amalek. And Amalek must die, for he obstructs the desire of the breathing God.

  JONATHAN: And my father?

  DAVID: He is King, and the Lord’s anointed.

  JONATHAN: But his will is the will of a man, and he cannot bend it with the Lord’s desire?

  DAVID: It seems he cannot. Yet I know nothing.

  JONATHAN: It grieves me for my father. Why is it you can soothe him? Why cannot I?

  DAVID: I know not. It is the Lord.

  JONATHAN: And why do I love thee?

  DAVID: It is the Lord.

  JONATHAN: But do you love me again, David?

  DAVID: If a man from the sheep dare love the King’s son, then I love Jonathan. But hold it not against me for presumption.

  JONATHAN: Of a surety, lovest thou me, David?

  DAVID: As the Lord liveth.

  JONATHAN: And it shall be well between us, for ever?

  DAVID: Thou art the King’s son. But as the Lord liveth and keepeth us, it shall be well between me and thee. And I will serve thee.

  JONATHAN: Nay, but love my soul.

  DAVID: Thy soul is dear to my soul, dear as life.

  They embrace silently.

  JONATHAN: And if my father sends thee away, never forget me.

  DAVID: Not while my heart lives, can I forget thee. — But David will easily pass from the mind of the son of the King.

  JONATHAN: Ah never! For my heart is sorrowful, with my father, and thou art my comfort. I would thou wert King’s son, and I shepherd in Bethlehem.

  DAVID: Say not so, lest thine anger rise on me at last, to destroy me.

  JONATHAN: Nay, it will not.

  CURTAIN

  SCENE VI

  Yard of SAUL’S house in Gilgal. MICHAL, with tambourine, singing or talking to herself.

  MICHAL: As for me, I am sad, I am sad, I am sad, and why should I not be sad? All things together want to make me sad. I hate the house when the men are gone to war. All the men are gone out against the Philistine. Gone these many days. And never a victory. No one coming home with spoil, and no occasion to dance. I am sad, I am sad, my life is useless to me. Even when they come, they will not bring David. My father looked pleasantly on him for a while, then sent him away. So are men! Such is a king! Sent him away again! And I know, some day when the Lord has left Saul, he will marry me to some old sheik. — Unless he dies in the war. Anyhow, everybody is gone, and I am dull, dull. They say it is the Lord. But why should the Lord make the house of Saul dreary? As for me, I don’t know whether the Lord is with me, or whether He is not with me. How should I know? Why should I care? A woman looks with different eyes into her heart, and, Lord or no Lord, I want what I want. I wish I had a sure charm to call back David, son of Jesse. The spells I have tried were no good. I shall try again with the sand and the bones. (She puts a little sand, and three small white bones, in her tambourine — mutters and bends — tosses her tambourine softly and drops it on the ground. Kneels and gazes intently.) Bones, bones, show me the ways in the sand. Sand, lie still; sand, lie still and speak. Now then, I see the hills of Judah, where Bethlehem is. But David is not there, he is gone. At least I don’t see him. In the sand is a road to Gilgal, by the white crown-bone. But he is not coming this way, that I can see. Where else? Where else? This must be Elah in the sand, where my father is. And there is Shochoh, opposite, where the Philistines are. Ah yes, two hills, and a valley between, with a brook in the bottom. And my father with our men on one slope, the Philistines on the other. Ah yes, that will be my father among our men; at least that is his black tent. But Jonathan is not there. O woe, if Jonathan were killed! My heart is afraid for Jonathan. Though how should I know Jonathan as a speck of sand, anyhow? There is nothing in the sand. I am no wise woman, nor a seeress, even though I would like to be. How dull it is! How dull it is here! How dull it is to be a woman! (Throws away her tambourine.) Why do they sit in front of the Philistines without defeating them!

  WATCHMAN (entering from the gate): Men are coming, from the host of Saul. They come with a litter.

  SOLDIER (entering): The Lord strengthen you.

  MICHAL: Who comes? Is it news of victory?

  SOLDIER: No, lady! Jonathan is wounded in the knee, and comes home to rest.

  MICHAL: Wounded in the knee? And what else?

  SOLDIER: How, else?

  MICHAL: Oh, slow-witted! What other news? Are the Philistines defeated and slaughtered?

  SOLDIER: Nay, they are not.

  MICHAL: Then what has happened?

  SOLDIER: Naught has happened.

  MICHAL: Where is the King? Is all well with him?

  SOLDIER: The King is with the host at Elah, and all is well with him.

  MICHAL: Then where are the Philistines?

  SOLDIER: The Philistines are arranged over against us, on the opposite hill at Shochoh.

  MICHAL: And what has happened? Do Israel and the Philistines sing songs to one another?

  SOLDIER: Nay! A portion of the men go forth to fight, wellnigh each day. And the champions of the Philistines come each day to challenge us.

  MICHAL: And who answers out of Israel?

  SOLDIER: None answers.

  MICHAL: None answers! Yea, that is news to hear! Has Israel never a champion? Is my father, the King, sick?

  SOLDIER: Many champions have we, forsooth. But we are men. And this Philistine is huge: he is out of the old days, before the Flood. He is a huge giant, whose great voice alone shakes the tents.

  MICHAL: And not one man answers his challenge?

  SOLDIER: Nay, where shall we find a huge giant among us, to answer him?

  MICHAL: If he were a mountain, I would prick him with my needle.

  SOLDIER: Yes, and would you might prick the eyeballs of him!

  Enter litter-bearers with JONATHAN.

  MICHAL: This is most strange! — Ah, Jonathan, and art thou wounded in the knee?

  JONATHAN: Yea!

  MICHAL: The Lord be praised it is not in the calf!

  JONATHAN: Hush, shrew!

  MICHAL: Did the Philistine giant wound thee in the knee, O Jonathan?

  JONATHAN: A Philistine wounded me.

  MICHAL: But I hear they boast a giant, a champion.

  JONATHAN: Yea, verily.

  MICHAL: A huge unheard-of giant.

  JONATHAN: Huge enough: and heard daily.

  MICHAL: What does he say, daily?

  JON
ATHAN: Oh — he asks that we send down a man to fight with him. And if he, the Philistine of Gath, slay our man, then shall all Israel be servant to the Philistines. But if our man slay this Goliath, then the Philistines shall be our servants. And seeing that this giant be so large, no ordinary man can get past his sword to attack him, therefore the King is not willing that the fight be settled between champions, lest we lose our freedom in a moment.

  MICHAL: And dare no man go up against this huge one?

  JONATHAN: Nay, many dare. And many a man seeks to go. I myself would willingly go. Though I know I should die. But what would I care about dying, if the Philistine died first? Yet I doubt I should die first, and Israel be delivered into bondage. Hence the King will accept no champion from our midst. But we shall sally forth in daily companies, and defeat the Philistines at length.

  MICHAL: At a great length.

  JONATHAN: Hast thou wounds or pain, to find it so?

  MICHAL: Yea, the wound of shame, that Israel, challenged, is dumb. Israel has no champion! What wound of shame for the woman!

  JONATHAN: Why risk the nation in a fight between champions? We are all champions, and we all fight the Philistine.

  MICHAL: Only not this big one.

  JONATHAN: In single combat, with the fate of the nation hanging in the issue, no! But if Goliath mingle in the battle ranks, then every man of Benjamin will have at him.

  MICHAL: And mingles he not in the battle ranks?

  JONATHAN: Ah no! He saves himself for the single combat, for this bawling of the challenge and the rattling of the oversized shield.

  MICHAL: Some man should think of a way.

  JONATHAN: Think thou! I must rest, and recover, and return to the field of battle.

  CURTAIN

  SCENE VII

  The camp of the Israelites at Elah. In the background, black tents of worsted. Morning. Men assembling in arms, to battle. Much shouting of war-cries — much noise of war-like anticipation. DAVID entering, carrying a staff.

  DAVID: Is yon the tent of Eliab of Bethlehem?

  SOLDIER: The tent of the sons of Jesse.

  SHAMMAH (coming armed from the tent): Is not this our brother David? (calling.) Ho! David is here! (embracing DAVID.) And art thou also come to the fight?

  ELIAB (also armed): What, David! Hast thou left the sheep to come among the men-at-arms? (They embrace.)

  DAVID: My father sent me here to inquire of you, and to bring you bread, and the cheeses for the captain of your thousand. The loaves and the parched corn and the cheeses have I left with the keeper of the victuals. But where is Abinadab?

  ELIAB: With the host, where we must form to battle.

  The men are forming in loose array, ABINADAB comes and embraces DAVID.

  ABINADAB: Hast thou come from Bethlehem? And how is our father, and all the homestead?

  DAVID: Yea, all are well. My father sent me with victual, and to see how you fare, and to take your pledge.

  ELIAB: The pledge we will give you after the fight. And how fares my young son at home?

  CAPTAIN (calling): The thousand of Judah, get you to your hundreds: get you to your places. (Bustle of men falling into rank.)

  DAVID (following his brothers): Your son was bitten by a hound, but all is well.

  ELIAB: What hound, forsooth? And lives the dog yet?

  SAUL (passing): Five hundred of Benjamin, lead into the valley!

  SOLDIERS: Ah! Ah! The five hundred are moving forth! (Loud shouting of SOLDIERS.)

  DAVID: And how goes the fight?

  SHAMMAH: Wellah, this way and that, as wind bloweth!

  DAVID: The days are many, that you are afield. My father grew uneasy, and could stay no longer. Long days and no news are ill to live, said he.

  ELIAB: Tell my father, this is no folding of sheep, out here.

  DAVID: And has no weighty blow been struck, on either side?

  SOLDIERS (calling): Ha! Ha! The five hundred are near the brook! And behold, the Philistine champion cometh forth from the ranks, to meet them. (Hush in the camp.)

  MIGHTY VOICE OF GOLIATH: Ho! Ho, there! Israel! Why are ye come to set your battle array? Am I not a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? Choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me.

  DAVID (in the hush): But who is this?

  SOLDIERS: Ha! Ha! The five hundred are fleeing back from him! They are sore afraid.

  A hush.

  SHAMMAH: This is Goliath, their champion.

  VOICE OF GOLIATH: Ha! ha! Why run ye? Choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. If he can fight with me, and kill me, then will we be your servants. But if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us. It is fairly said. Choose you a man for you!

  DAVID (in the hush): Surely he is a huge man! Goeth no man forth to meet him?

  SOLDIER: Have you seen this man! Surely, forty days has he come up to defy Israel. And it shall be, that the man who killeth him, the King will enrich him with great riches, and will give him his daughter, and make his father’s house free in Israel.

  DAVID: What will the King do to the man that killeth this Philistine and taketh away the reproach from Israel? Will he surely give him his daughter? The daughter of his house in Gilgal?

  SOLDIER: Ay, surely he will. And much riches. And make his father’s house free in Israel.

  DAVID: Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?

  SOLDIERS: Ah! He is what thou seest.

  DAVID: As the Lord liveth, there shall be an end to him.

  SOLDIERS: Would it were so! But who shall do it?

  DAVID: Is the Lord naught in the reckoning? The Lord is with me, and I will do it.

  SOLDIERS: Thou? How canst thou kill this great giant?

  DAVID: I can do it. I will kill him, as the Lord liveth in me, were his name six times Goliath.

  SOLDIER: Nay, but how?

  DAVID: The Lord will show you how. I, I will kill him.

  ELIAB (coming forward): What art thou doing here? Why camest thou hither, and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thy heart. For thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle.

  DAVID: What have I now done? Was I not sent by my father, for a cause?

  ELIAB (turning away in anger): Thou didst persuade him, in the vanity of thy mind.

  SOLDIER: Shall we say to Saul of thee, that thou art minded to kill the giant?

  DAVID: Say so to him. For the Lord is with me.

  ANOTHER SOLDIER: Verily, feelest thou in the power to kill this mighty man?

  DAVID: Verily! And is it sooth the King will give his daughter to him that slayeth the roaring Philistine?

  SOLDIER: Yea, it is sooth, for it is so proclaimed. But tell us how thou wilt come nigh him, to slay him.

  DAVID: The Lord will show you.

  SOLDIERS: Saul is coming.

  SAUL (approaching): Which is this man will go forth against the Philistine?

  DAVID: Let no man’s heart fail because of the giant, for thy servant will go out and fight with him.

  SAUL: Thou? Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for thou art but a youth, and he is a man of war from his youth.

  DAVID: Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.

  SAUL: But neither lion nor bear came against thee in greaves of brass nor armed with sword a man’s length. How shallst thou fight with this giant in panoply?

  DAVID: The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of the Philistine.

  SAUL: Thou shalt go. And the Lord be with thee. (To ARMOUR-BEARER.) Fetch hither my armour, and another sword. For we will put them on him.

  Exit ARMOUR-BEARER.

  DAVID: Shall thy servant go in armour clad?

  SAUL: How else
canst thou keep thy life?

  VOICE OF GOLIATH: Ho! men of Saul! Is there no man among you, to answer when a fighter calls? Are you all maidens, combing your hair? Where is Saul, the slayer of foemen? Is he crying like a quail to his God? Call to Baal, and call to Astaroth, for the God of Israel is a pigeon in a box.