Chapter XXII: Preface (20)

Djabal has deceived himself into a half belief in the sanctity of his mission; but as the day approaches when he is to fulfil his promises his heart fails him, and he loses faith in himself. He struggles with his own heart, and endeavours to be true to himself and people; but he has gone too far, the circumstances in which he is placed are too strong for him, and he is driven forward on the course on which he has entered. He now resolves to solve the difficulty by flight. He will make his escape, but before he does so will kill the prefect with his own hands. He is on his way to the tyrant's chamber when he meets Anael, and learns from her that she has slain the prefect. He now tells her everything. At first she declines to believe in his falseness; but when a conviction of the truth is forced upon her she refuses to drive him from her heart. The Divine nature of Djabal has been in a sense an obstacle to her love in his character as Hakeem. He has seemed too remote for her merely human affection, and she has never deemed herself worthy to be associated with him in his exaltation. In her determination to kill the tyrant, and in the accomplishment of that act of patriotism, she has been actuated principally by her desire to elevate herself to his level, so that she might have a principal share in the liberation of her nation. They now discover that the murder need not have been committed. Lois de Dreux, the young nobleman who has accompanied Djabal from Europe, has fallen in love with Anael also; and though prohibited by the rules of the Order of knighthood of which he is a postulant, to entangle himself with women, he has aspired to win her love. Lois has represented to the chapter of the Order the cruelties inflicted by their prefect on the people, and has succeeded in obtaining an order for his removal. The young Frankish knight has been elevated by the Order to the position occupied by the deposed governor, so that the liberation of the Druses is now close at hand. Anael urges Djabal to confess his deception and own his imposition to his people. This he refuses to do. She cannot forgive him. When she finds him false and cowardly she takes upon herself to denounce him to the European rulers of the island. Djabal is brought to trial. His accuser is Anael, who is closely veiled till the appropriate moment, when the veil drops, and he is confronted by his lover. His life hangs upon her words. He urges her to speak them; but this she cannot do. Djabal is now man, and man only: he is not separated from her by his Divine nature. She could hardly hope to be one with him in his glory: she can at least be united with him in his degradation and disgrace. All her love for him rises within her, and she hails him "Hakeem!" and falls dead at his feet. The human heart has proved victorious, and the man has conquered the god. Djabal, committing the care of the Druses to his friend Lois, and bidding him guard his people home again and win their blessing for the deed, stabs himself as he bends over the body of the faithful Anael. As he dies the Venetians enter the place and plant the Lion of St. Mark. Djabal's last cry mingles with their shouts, "On to the mountain! At the mountain, Druses!"

NOTES--Act i., _Rhodian cross_: that of the Knights of St. John (see below). _Osman_, who founded the Ottoman empire in Asia. _White-cross knights_: the Knights Hospitallers. They wore a white cross of eight points on a black ground. From 1278 till 1289, when engaged on military duties, they wore a plain straight white cross on a red ground. _Patriarch_: in Eastern churches a dignitary superior to an archbishop, as the Patriarch of Constantinople, Alexandria, etc. _Nuncio_: an ambassador from the Pope to an emperor or king. _Hospitallers_: an order of knights who built a hospital at Jerusalem, in A.D. 1042, for pilgrims. They were called _Knights of St. John_, and after the removal of the order to Malta _Knights of Malta_. _Candia_: the ancient Crete. It was sold to the Venetians in 1194. _Rhodes_: an island of the Mediterranean. "_pro fide_": for the faith. "_Bouillon's war_": the crusade of Godfrey de Bouillon.--Act ii., "_sweet cane_": Acorus calamus. It grows in the Levant and in this country; is very aromatic, having a smell when trodden on like incense. Miss Pratt says it has been used from time immemorial for strewing the floors of Norwich Cathedral. _Lilith_: Adam's first wife (see note to ADAM, LILITH and EVE, and art. LILITH). "_incense from a mage-king's tomb_": students of occult science say that sweet odours have been known to issue from the tombs of magicians, and lamps have been found burning therein when broken open. _khandjar_: an Eastern weapon.--Act. iii., _The venerable chapter_: the meeting of an order or community. _Bezants_: gold coins of Byzantium. "_Red-cross rivals of the Temple_": the order of the "Knights Templars" (see notes to _The Heretics' Tragedy_). They wore a red cross of eight points.--Act iv., _Tiar_: a tiara.--Act v., _Biamrallah_: Hakem Biamr Allah, sixth Fatimite Caliph of Egypt. _Fatemite_, or _Fatimite_: named from Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed and wife of Ali, from whom the founder of the dynasty of Fatimites professed to have sprung. "_Romaioi, Ioudaioite kai proselutoi_" (_Gr._, Acts ii. 10, 11): "Strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes."

=Reverie.= (_Asolando_, 1889.) In Mr. Browning's last volume, published in London as he lay dying in Venice, the two closing poems seem strangely and nobly intended to gather into a focus his whole philosophy of life, and give to the world, in two of his most exquisite poems, his fullest and clearest expressions of the faith of his heart and the quintessence of his teaching. Had the poet known they were the last lines he should write, had he foreseen that these were the last accents of his message, it is impossible to imagine that he could have risen higher than he has done in _Reverie_ and the "Epilogue." The purport of _Reverie_ is to reconcile the ideas of Power and Love--to reconcile by proving them indeed to be one. "Power is Love." When power is no longer limited, then is the reign of love. As Mr. Browning says in _Paracelsus_, "with much power always much more love." That "The All-Great" is "The All-Loving too," is the teaching of Christianity. That power, in its perfection, must _necessarily_ be love, is a point in Mr. Browning's philosophical system arrived at independently of dogma. It is the monistic conception of the forces that mould life, as opposed to the dualistic conception. The Power everywhere visible in the universe, pervading everything, in all things from the atom to the sun, making man feel his utter helplessness and insignificance, requires no further demonstration. We are assured that Power is dominant. Our only difficulty is about Love. In face of the evil in the world, the inequalities in life, the dominance of evil, can we say with truth that the All-Powerful is the All-Loving too? Browning in _Reverie_ says that truth comes before us here "fitful and half guessed, half seen, grasped at, not gained, held fast." Notwithstanding this defect, a single page of the world's wide book, properly deciphered, explains the whole. We must try the clod ere we test the star; know all our earth elements ere we apply the spectroscope to Mars. It is true that good struggles but evil reigns; yet earth's good is proved good and incontrovertibly worth loving, and evil can be nothing but a cloud stretched across good's orb--no orb itself. There is no doubt whatever about the infinity of the power. There is equally no doubt about the value of the good so far as it goes. Let power "but enlarge good's strait confine," and perfection stands revealed. "Let on Power devolve Good's right to co-equal reign!" What is wanted is some law which abolishes everywhere that which thwarts good. And the poet avows his confidence that somewhen Good will praise God unisonous with Power.

=Richard, Count of St. Bonifacio= (father and son). (_Sordello._) Guelfs. In a secret chamber in his palace Palma and Sordello hold earnest conference with each other in the first book of the poem.

=Ring and the Book, The.= In twelve books. Published in four volumes, each consisting of three books, from 1868 to 1869.