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Behind a veil is a column, on which are poised two intersecting disks, terrestrial and celestial, the cut-off part forming a true Vesica, fitting which is a shrine, capable of being opened and removed at will. The column is of gold and ivory. The veil is of azure blue.
Before this column, but without the veil, is a single candle by whose side stands the high priest John. He is of mature age, and has a black beard. He is dressed in robes of gold and scarlet embroidery. A crown is on his head; in one hand he holds a sceptre, in the other an orb. In front of him are two thrones, right and left, each with column and candle. In the first sits a youth in white garments, his head bare; his left hand holds a dagger. In the second sits a grown man in black garments, his head covered with a hood, and in his right hand a coin.
Steps covered with seaweed lead up to the stage from the orchestra (or auditorium), and the edge of the stage gives the appearance of a wharf. In the north are trees; in the south a heap of builder’s refuse.
Within the veil, one on each side the shrine, are two women, one (Julia) in a low-cut robe of green, broidered with roses, the skirt much slit, with a girdle of rose and gold, the other (Joanna) in a deep full robe of blue, covered completely with a thick veil of lace or silver gauze. This woman is slight and young, the other mature and robust.
Within the veil is heard a sixfold chime of bells. The warders spring to their feet.
JULIAN.
Hail, Brother! Wake thy chorus of young voices,
That men may know how innocence rejoices.
JOVIAN.
So mote it be. And thou in turn devise
Response of slumberous antiphonies.
1st Semi-chorus.
Night is nigh; the velvet veil
Drawn on day the faery-frail!
Sleep, O sleep, our angel eyes
Woo thy kiss with symphonies
Hushed to lowlier Lullabies!
2nd Semi-chorus.
Brethren, was the battle long?
All's assuaged for evensong.
Here the God is in his shrine:
Here the golden Bough divine;
Here the dove incarnadine!
1st Semi-chorus.
Dream shall hint what manifold
Mystery our life may hold.
2nd Semi-chorus.
Dreamless sleep shall arm the fray
Fated for the future day.
JOANNA [Within].
Here is corn!
JULIA [Within].
Here is wine!
JOHN [Within].
Life reborn! O deed divine! [A pause.]
Till the morn I close the shrine.
JULIA [Within].
Softly splendid, to his rest
Steals the godhead — to my breast!
JOANNA [Within].
Mute, magnificently male,
Hidden in the holy veil,
Thou and I prepare the rite
Of this night of his delight.
JOHN [Within].
Every brother to his ward!
Every hand to hilt of sword!
Every buckler to its arm,
Lest the Holy One take harm!
[Without, a clash of steel.
Chorus.
The warrior lords are wake and ware,
Three hundred blades of steel are bare.
Their threescore corporals stand steady.
Five captains, all alert and ready,
Watch, lion-heard, against surprise,
As each man had an hundred eyes.
[Again, the clash of steel. Then music played (JULIA and ORCHESTRA), growing ever softer. As it fades away, enter from the trees three men: a CHINESE armed with a scourge and a rope, a red man, like an ARAB, with a hammer and three nails, and a warrior chief, like a ZULU, with an assegai. They move somewhat furtively, and as if afraid. The CHINESE accosts JOVIAN.
CHINESE.
I am the dragon brother of your priest,
And we are come from north and south and east
To build your god a new and nobler shrine.
JOVIAN.
Give me the sign. [Done, each gripping the other’s throat.]
The sign is strict, averred.
Hast thou the holy word? [Whispered.]
The word is rightly spoken.
Hast thou the secret token? [Given, each extending the forefinger and striking it against that of the other.]
The token is in order.
Pass to my brother warder!
[They pass over to JULIAN.
ARAB.
I am the camel brother of your priest,
And we are come from north and south and east
To build your God a new and nobler shrine.
JULIAN.
Give me the sign. [Done, each striking his breast five times with clenched hand.]
The sign is strict, averred.
Hast thou the holy word? [Whispered.]
The word is rightly spoken.
Hast thou the secret token? [Given, each making a wide sweep with the arm, clapping hand to hand, and then clasping.]
The token is right. All Hail!
Pass to the veil!
[They pass on. The black man enters, his companions pulling aside the veil.
ZULU.
I am thy brother, priest.
From north and south and east
We come to build a shrine
Nobler and newer than thine.
CHINESE.
These ropes can bind; this scourge
My myriad slaves can urge.
ARAB.
This hammer and nails suffice
To strike forth fire from ice.
ZULU.
I raise my spear, and fifty kings accord
Their service to their warrior liege lord.
[JOHN remains silent and does not move.
CHINESE.
Come, let us enter to rebuild the shrine!
JOHN.
Give me the sign. [Done, the ZULU moving his hand to the priest’s knee. JOHN makes no motion.]
The sign is wrong.
ARAB.
Not strict averred?
I have the word. [Whispers.]
JOHN.
The word is wrong.
ZULU.
Not rightly spoken?
I have the token. [Gives it by raising his hand and lowering it, then seeking to grasp JOHN's hand. JOHN does not move.]
JOHN.
The token is wrong.
Ye may not pass.
CHINESE.
Thou must, alas!
[The CHINESE strips JOHN of his robes, all but the white under-robe, and binds him to the column. He scourges him to the music of JULIA until the white robe is red with blood.
CHINESE.
Give me the secret of the shrine!
JOHN.
It is not mine.
[The ARAB impales JOHN by hands and feet with his three nails.
ARAB.
Give me the secret of the shrine!
JOHN.
It is not mine.
[The ZULU drives his spear into the body of JOHN.
ZULU.
Give me the secret of the shrine.
JOHN.
It is not mine. [He dies.]
Chorus [Without]
As it was spoken of the earth,
And as the ocean witnesseth,
That which the winter brought to birth
Finds in the spring its death.
Now that the word is come to pass
That bone is dust and flesh is grass,
Let us mix our acclamations
Of jubilance and lamentations!
Are not good and evil one
Before the challenge of the sun?
Shall necessity relax
The brazen fury of her features,
And her steel scimitar turn to wax
For the complaining of her creatures?
The Lord is slain; let us lament
The Word made void, the Work in vain.
Fulfilling their obscure event,
Let us rejoice; the Lord is slain.
ZULU. [To the warders].
Take down the body.
[JULIAN and JOVIAN put out their candles and come forward and unloose JOHN, laying him between their columns. JULIAN covers him with a cloth, and JOVIAN throws a sprig of acacia upon it.
(To the women) Open us the shrine!
JULIA.
The secret is not yours or mine!
[She and JOANNA pull open the doors of the Vesica. A blaze of light sends the three ruffians reeling forth. They fly distracted and blinded about the Temple, and ultimately sink down among the rubble in the south.
[JULIA and JOANNA have let go the doors at once. These spring back and leave the stage lighted only by the single candle of the high priest.
A voice from the shrine.
Avenge the rape!
Let none escape!
A voice from the extreme west behind the audience.
The heavens have let loose the fountains
Of flood upon the mountains!
JULIAN [At wharf].
Ho, Nu! Ho, Nu!
Let no man leave the quay
Without the tokens of the true degree!
NU [Below].
I hear and I obey.
What cargo for to-day?
Chorus.
There is no gold upon the earth
To pay an hundredth of its worth.
There is no treasure of sapphire,
No hidden ruby to compare;
No diamond hath illustrious fire
Beside the burden that we bear;
Nor where the waves of ocean whirl
Hath any cavern such a pearl.
Not heaven in all its happiest hours
Hath such a gracious gift as ours.
In it all principles inhere;
To it all elements conspire;
From it all energies revere
Of it the inscrutable desire!
Mankind, matured from myriad wombs.
Is but the garden where it blooms.
JOVIAN.
Oh, but too precious is the burden we bear.
It is the God’s own priest, the shrine’s sole heir,
Whose corpse must fare into the nether air.
NU. [Mounting the steps]
I have no ship worthy of such a freight.
The voice from the shrine.
Ay, but thou hast.
NU.
Most ancient is her date.
And many a sea hath battered her, and time
Hath eaten her, I fear; corrosive crime
Of the wild aeon. Ho! thou wife o' the waters!
Our three strong sons and our three stalwart daughters.
Bid them discover if the old ship's sound!
The voice from the west.
Beware! Beware! the Lords of Heaven confound
The cities, and their habitants are drowned.
JULIAN and JOVIAN.
We go; our master’s body must be tended.
[They go to the body and occupy themselves with it.
CHINESE.
O that our miserable lives were ended!
ARAB.
Curse this right hand the hammer that extended!
ZULU.
This damnéd spear that holy heart that rended!
CHINESE.
They hunt us for our lives.
ARAB.
The soldiers search.
Now our fate laughs and leaves us in the lurch.
ZULU.
Can we not hide across the sea?
CHINESE.
Who will give aid to such as we?
ARAB.
Come, let us grope eternity!
ZULU.
Hate and despair and guilt still dog our path.
CHINESE.
For misery is murder's aftermath.
[Fearful and obscure music. They grope as blind men about the stage on all fours, and reach the wharf.
The voice from the west.
Still on the mountains pour the avenging rains,
And still the fierce flood swallows up the plains.
The voice from below.
Father, O father Nu! O father Nu!
What miracle is this — tremendous-true!
The old ship is grown new!
The voice from the shrine.
How should a ship grow old
Whose virgin timbers hold
Mine awful ark of gold?
ZULU.
Do I hear one speak of ships?
CHINESE.
Listen, my lord, to these, no lying lips.
ARAB.
Take us aboard; we sail where hunger grips
No more three poor blind beggar men.
NU. [Aside].
May be
These are the assassin three!
[Aloud] Have ye the tokens of the true degree?
[They cower.
CHINESE.
Ah, then, hope fails for ever!
ARAB.
Let us hide
Beyond the borders of this treacherous tide;
Or it may steal upon us as we sleep.
ZULU.
Would we were dead! Yet life is worth a leap.
CHINESE.
O God, eternally to grope
This desert without hope!
ARAB.
Oh, but this flight without faith
Is an eternal death.
ZULU.
Hate is a hell sharper and deadlier
Than all the weapons of the torturer.
[They regain the heap of rubble.
JULIAN.
All is prepared. Seek then once more with me
The traces of the fatal three!
[He finds the CHINAMAN.
Here is the first of the villains. [To shrine] Speak
What vengeance we shall wreak!
JOVIAN.
Foulest phantom flowers of fear.
From his soul like serpents shoot!
The voice from the shrine.
Cut his throat from ear to ear!
Tear his tongue out by the root!
Throw the body in the dark
A cable from high-water mark!
[This is done, the body being thrown from the wharf.
The voice from the west.
The trees are covered: the rain streams
Upon the screes, and screams!
The voice from below.
The water kisses the ship's keel!
JOVIAN.
Out with the steel! [He seizes the ARAB.]
Here is the second ruffian: [To shrine] Say
What price his deed must pay!
JULIAN.
Hear the tongue that was so glib
Stammer, spit its crazy wrath!
The voice from the shrine.
Cut his breast from rib to rib!
Tear his heart out, fling it forth
Where the vultures may enhearse
Its horror from the Universe.
[This is done in the west, but above wharf.
The voice from the west.
The hills are covered; the rain shrieks
Yet fiercer on the peaks.
The voice from below.
The water lifts the ship; she rights.
JULIAN.
Ah! Foulest of foul sights!
Here is the third and greatest villain. (He seizes the ZULU.) [To shrine] Saith
Our God the manner of his death?
JOVIAN.
Black to green grows horror’s blank
Sickening from the stinking soul!
The voice from the shrine.
Cut his navel, flank to flank!
Tear the bowels out; be the whole
Burnt to ashes on the centre!
Black oblivion blot him! Ban
Every trace that might re-enter
Any memory of man!
[The sentence is executed.
The voice from the west.
The mountains are all covered; the rain roars
Now on a sea that hath no shores!
The voice from below.
Haste! the ship slips into the foam.
Haste! leave the hapless home!
[JULIAN and JOVIAN bear the body of JOHN down the steps of the wharf, and so out, either into orchestra or at the back of theatre. They are followed by JULIA and JOANNA, who bear the sacred Vesica in their arms.
NU.
Cast off! three sons bend to the larboard oars,
And three strong daughters man the starboard thwart.
My wife shall spy, while I shall steer for, shores
Worthy to welcome home our Argonaut.
[JULIA plays music. The wind is heard to rise and the waves to wash, until a gust blows out the last candle on the stage, when the curtain falls. The bell tolls twelve strokes. In the distance one hears the chant of the sailors, at first strong and near, gradually dying away.
Through the tempest, toward the dark,
Ploughs the fate-fulfilling bark,
Laden with the sacred ark.
All the earth is drenched and drowned.
Every other ship’s unsound:
We alone are homeward bound.
Harnessed to eternity,
Life’s sole sanctuary, we
Breast alone the winter sea.
We shall sight the surging shore,
Slack the sail and ship the oar,
Hear the anchor rattle and roar.
Through the tempest, toward the dark,
Ploughs the fate-fulfilling bark,
Laden with the sacred ark.
[JULIA's music, which has grown fainter and more distant, now finally fails.