Chapter X: Act IV: Scene 1

_The Castle on Zion._ MARIAMNE’S _Apartments_. MARIAMNE. ALEXANDRA.

ALEX.

You pose me with your riddles. First the oath
“I kill myself if he return no more!”
Then bitter coldness when he came, so froward
That he was mortified as keen as I
Rejoiced; and now again the deepest mourning!
I’d gladly see the man who comprehends you.

MAR.

If ’tis so hard, why do you plague yourself?

ALEX.

And then the tart repugnance in the manner
With which you fend Soemus to his distance!
His looks betray there’s something on his heart----

MAR.

You think so?

ALEX.

Ay, and he would make avowal
But dare not venture it; he would perhaps,
If he should see you leap into the Jordan,
Be dubious if he were privileged
To rescue you from death; and he were right,
For this blunt gracelessness is past all bounds.

MAR.

You’ll own at least that Herod cannot say
I probed the virtue of his friend, and lured
His secret, if he has one, out of him
With cozening-tongued duplicity. No, no;
It lies on the knees of God if I should learn it;
And my heart says I take no risk therein.[13]

[_Enter_ SAMEAS, _with fetters on his hands_.

SCENE 2

THE SAME. SAMEAS.

SAMEAS.

The Lord is great!

MAR.

He is.

ALEX.

You free, and yet
In fetters? Yet one riddle more!

SAMEAS.

These fetters
I lay not by again. Jerusalem
Shall day by day have brought to its remembrance
That Jonah’s progeny in prison sat.

ALEX.

How came you out, then? Did you bribe the gaolers?

SAMEAS.

What, I? the gaolers?

ALEX.

True, with what I know not.
You still have on your shirt of camel’s hair,
And that they freed you for a wild bees’ nest
Which you, with every hollow tree familiar,
Could have betrayed to them for ransom-price--
That I misdoubt, for there’s enough of honey.

SAMEAS.

Why, what a question! ’Twas Soemus’ self
That oped the gates for me.

MAR.

How could he dare that?

SAMEAS.

How then? And was’t not you that gave him orders?

MAR.

I?

SAMEAS.

No? And yet I thought ’twas what he said.
I may have erred, for I was just then saying
The last psalm backwards-way when he came in
And slackly gave him only half my ear.
Well, good! It seems the Lord has done’t, and I
Must go unto the Temple there to thank Him,
For I have naught to do in David’s castle.

MAR.

The Lord!

SAMEAS.

The Lord. Was I endungeoned justly?

MAR.

The times are now no more in which the Lord
Spoke with the naked word unto His People.
We have instead the Law; that speaks for Him.
Extinguished is the Pillar of Fire and Cloud
Through which our Fathers in the Wilderness
Were shown the paths he led them, and the Prophets
Are dumb as He.

ALEX.

Nay, not yet wholly so!
Only a short time since there was a fire
Foretold by one--a fire that came to pass.

MAR.

Granted; but ’twas himself at mid of night
Applied the kindling flame.

SAMEAS.

Woman, blaspheme not!

MAR.

And I blaspheme not! No, I say what happened.
The man’s a Pharisee like you yourself.
He speaks like you, he raves like you. The fire
Was meant to prove to us that he was truly
A prophet, and could see into the future.
But still a soldier caught him in the act.

SAMEAS.

A Roman?

MAR.

Yes.

SAMEAS.

He lied! He was perhaps
Suborned. He was suborned thereto by Herod,
Suborned by you yourself.

MAR.

Sirrah, your place!

SAMEAS.

You are his wife, you are the wife o’ the miscreant
Who overweens him into the Messiah.
If you can lock him in your arms and kiss him
You can do other things for him as well.

ALEX.

He overweens him now into Messiah?

SAMEAS.

He does! He flung the words into my teeth
When to the dungeon he had ordered me.
I shrieked to God. I cried--“Look on thy folk
And send Messiah unto us, whom Thou
Hast promised for the time of direst need!
The direst need’s upon us!” Then replied he
With a proud curl o’ the lip--“He’s long since here;
But ye--ye know it not! ’Tis I myself!”

ALEX.

Now, Mariamne?

SAMEAS.

Then, with godless wit
He proved that we’re a Folk of scatter-brains
And he alone has got an uncracked pate.
We did not dwell for naught on the Dead Sea
That is devoid of motion--ebb and flood--
And therefore poisons all the world with pest.
It was a trusty mirror of ourselves!
And he was bent to pang us into living
Were he compelled e’en Moses’ numskull book--
So unabashed his words--with force to tatter.
It was for that sole cause our river Jordan,
Whose clear wave laughed and leapt throughout our land,
Symbolled us not instead of a dull bog.

ALEX.

He flung the mask so wholly from him?

SAMEAS.

Ay!
And yet perchance he deemed me, when he did it,
As good as dead by then, for straight thereon
He gave the word of death.

MAR.

He had been goaded.
He found revolt for greeting.

SAMEAS.

Now I warn you
What is your duty. Be renounced from him
As he has now renounced his God. Thereby
You can chastise him, for he loves you dear.
My only notion, when Soemus freed me,
Was that you’d done it. If you do it not
Chide not the shaft that from the welkin falls
As undeserved when it strikes you with him.
I go to sacrifice.

ALEX.

Take then the victims
From out my stall.

SAMEAS.

I take them where they’re missed,
The widow-woman’s lamb, the poor man’s sheep.
What is your ox to God?

[_Exit._ _Enter_ SOEMUS.

SCENE 3

MARIAMNE. ALEXANDRA. SOEMUS.

SOEMUS.

Pardon!

MAR.

Indeed,
I wished even now to have you called. Come in!

SOEMUS.

’Tis the first time you had such wish.

MAR.

Ay, true!

SOEMUS.

You’ve parried me till now.

MAR.

And have you then
Sought for me? Have you aught to seek from me?
I cannot think it so.

SOEMUS.

At least the former;
Behold in me the truest of your servants.

MAR.

I did, but do so now no more.

SOEMUS.

No more?

MAR.

How could you let that rebel, him whom Herod
Ordered to prison, have his dungeon opened?
Is he still King, or is he King no more?

SOEMUS.

The answer’s not so easy as you think.

MAR.

And if you find it hard you’ll pay it dearly.

SOEMUS.

You’ve not yet heard the news the fight is lost?

MAR.

The fight at Actium’s reported lost?

SOEMUS.

Yes. Antony is fallen by his own hand,
With like death Cleopatra.

MAR.

What, could she
Have such fine nerve? Time was she could not bear
A sword to sight, and shuddered back at his
Whene’er he held it toward her for a mirror.

SOEMUS.

Titus the Captain had these very tidings.
Octavian curses that no means were used
To hinder them. Myself I read the letter.

MAR.

Then Death for some long time has had his share
And every head stands firmer than it stood
Ere then.

SOEMUS.

You think so?

MAR.

Why that riddling smile?

SOEMUS.

You do not know Octavian, it would seem.
He will not ask Death if his maw be queasy;
He’ll find the friends of Antony of use
To serve him yet another meal, and one
Where tasty tit-bits will not be so scarce.

MAR.

That touches Herod?

SOEMUS.

Well, if he should hold
To what he purposed----

MAR.

What was that?

SOEMUS.

He said:--
“I have no further love for Antony,
Far sooner do I hate him; but I will
Stand at his side unto the latest hour
Although I fear that he is doomed to fall.
I owe it to myself if not to him.”

MAR.

Right kingly spoke!

SOEMUS.

Ay, true, right kingly spoke!
Only Octavian’s not the man t’admire it,
And Herod if he do so----

MAR.

Who dares doubt it?

SOEMUS.

Then he’s a lost man too, or black affront
Has smirched Octavian’s name when rumour said
The mighty slaughter following Caesar’s death
Was written on his reckoning.

MAR.

That you’re fast
In faith on such an outcome, and that Herod
Is ranked by you with death, is clear enough,
Else had you never dared what you have dared.
Ay, and the shudder takes me, I confess it,
At your calm certainty. You are no fool
And without ground would never dare so much.
But, howsoe’er it be, this thing is true--
I’m still alive, and I, yes I, shall show you
That I am skilled to render him obedience
Even in his death; there’s not a sole command
That he has given shall not be executed.
Such be the Dead Man’s sacrifice.

SOEMUS.

Not one?
I doubt it, Queen! (_Aside._) Now let the blow come down!

MAR.

As true as I am Maccabee you send
This Sameas again into his dungeon.

SOEMUS.

If such your will demand, ’tis done; and if
You will yet more, if he shall die the death
The King had threatened, speak and he is dead.
But now vouchsafe a question of your grace--
Shall I take you, that thus the sacrifice
You think to yield be full and blemishless,
Shall I take you and pierce you with a sword-thrust?
For such injunction too I have from him.

MAR.

Woe!

ALEX.

Nevermore!

MAR.

And so the end is come!
And what an end! One that its own beginning
Engulfs with all beside. The time that’s past,
The time to come, dissolve to naught in me.
Naught I have had and naught I have and naught
I shall have. Oh, was mortal e’er so poor?

ALEX.

Whatever misdeed hatched and wrought by Herod
You told me, every several one I’d credit,
But this----

MAR.

Misdoubt it not, ’tis fixed and sure.

ALEX.

You say’t yourself?

MAR.

O God, I know wherefore!

ALEX.

Then must you know the deed before you!

MAR.

Ay!

[_She thrusts the dagger at herself._

ALEX. (_preventing her_).

Mad fool! Is this his due? Is it his due?
That you should play the butcher on yourself?

MAR.

A topsy-turvy freak! My thanks! This office
He’d chosen for himself. (_Throws the dagger away._) Tempter, begone!

ALEX.

You’ll seek a refuge under Rome’s protection!

MAR.

On none who has a thing at heart to do
I’ll put the hindrance. I myself, I give
A feast to-night.

ALEX.

A feast?

MAR.

And there I dance----[14]
Yes, yes, that is the way!

ALEX.

To gain what end?

MAR.

Hey, servants!

[_Enter_ MOSES _and_ SERVANTS.

Fling the splendid state-rooms wide
And summon all that can be jubilant!
Put fire to every candle that will burn,
Pluck all the flowers from stem that are not faded!
There is no need that any now survive.
(_To_ MOSES.) You tricked our wedding once in famous trappings,
Your task to-day’s a feast more brilliant still.
Spare nothing therefore. (_Advancing._) Herod, tremble now
Though never yet before in life you trembled!

SOEMUS (_approaching her_).

I feel your smart as you do.

MAR.

Keep your pity,
I’ll rob you not! You axe no butcher’s boor,
I dare not doubt it, you have given me proof!
But that has turned you traitor, and to traitors
I give no thanks nor bear them round my person
Whatever use they may be in this world.
For that’s not judged awry. Were you the man
You seemed to be, it had been forced on God
To work a wonder; He were forced to lend
The very air the tongue it lacks for utterance.
That He foresaw or ere your clay He shaped
And made the first of hypocrites--made you!

SOEMUS.

That thing I am not! I was Herod’s friend,
His weapon-brother and his shoulder-fellow,
Before he scaled the throne! I was his servant,
His truest servant, since he’s been a king,
But only so as long as he could hold
The Man in me inviolate and the Human,
As I in him the Hero and the Lord.
He did so till, the eyes of the dissembler
For the first time unworthily down-drooping,
He gave the word of Blood through which he doomed,
All-heartless, me and you to certain death,
Through which he doomed me to your folk’s revenge,
To Roman rage, and to his own slant spite,
And you to be the prey of my sword’s point.
That was my proof how high he rated me.

MAR.

Did you not tell him how your heart recoiled?

SOEMUS.

I did it not because I would protect you.[15]
I took his charge in show and hypocrited,
If you will have the word, that thus no other
Take it instead from him and stab me down.
A Galilean had the deed accomplished.

MAR.

I own me wrong. You stand with him as I;
You have, as I, in your most Holy Place
Felt hurt; as I, am slighted to a Thing,
For what he is as spouse he is as friend.[16]
Come to my feast.

[_Exit._

ALEX.

So you, it seems, were waiting for your time
As I was!

SOEMUS.

For my time? How mean you that?

ALEX.

I’ve often seen it with a wondering eye
How, when the King gives thanks for his high office
Unto the Roman’s whim (the heady swiller!)
And not to lineage and pride of birth,
You bent your back as though you seemed, like him,
Forgetful that you were his equal peer.
But now I pierce your mask; it was your wish
To lull him from suspicion!

SOEMUS.

There you err.
I spoke the truth in all. His equal peer
I do not deem myself nor ever shall.
How many a paltry wight there is I know
Who, just because his blood’s no kin of his,
Yields muttering homage; others too, I know,
Keep troth alone for Mariamne’s sake.
But I am never bonded with that brood
That rather to a baby’s sword is loyal,
If it be birthright, than a hero’s sword
That is not wrought till smithied out of fire.
I ever saw the higher soul in him,
And when the weapon-brother dropped his shield
I raised it for him with as ready will
As e’er I raised his sceptre for the King.
The crown and the first woman: both I yielded
With grudgeless heart, for I had felt his worth.

ALEX.

But you too are a man!

SOEMUS.

That I am not
Forgetful of such truth I prove you now.
There’s none so great that I’m a working-tool
Fit to his use. Who calls on me for service
That rendered or not rendered, come what may,
Makes me to sure and shameful death devote,
That man annuls my every bond, to him
My duty is to show that ’twixt the King
And slave there is an intermediate stage
And that the Man takes stand on this.

ALEX.

To me
’Tis one what ground you had. Enough; you’ve come
To join my faction.

SOEMUS.

Fear no battle more,
He is as good as dead. Octavian
Is scarce an Antony who lets the flesh
Be hacked from body and forgives the deed
Because he can admire the hand that does it.
_He_ only sees the strokes.

ALEX.

And what says Titus?

SOEMUS.

He thinks as I do. I had Sameas
Set free alone because it is my wish
To answer my account. Indeed I had
No other way to audience with the Queen.
Now knows she what she needs must know, and now
When the death-tidings come is strong to meet them.
That was my aim. A noble heart! and kill her?
Her very tears would rouse the soul of pity!

ALEX.

Ay, true! And what a tender husband! Seek her,
Persuade her only that she give herself
To Rome for shelter, and attend the feast
Which is the signal that she breaks with Herod
Be he now dead or living.

SOEMUS (_following her_).

He is dead!

[_Exeunt._

SCENE 4

_The Castle on Zion. A Hall._

MOSES, ARTAXERXES, JEHU, _and other_ SERVANTS _preparing a feast_.

_Afterwards_ SOEMUS, SILO, JUDAS.

MOSES.

Come, Artaxerxes! Still with wits a-rambling?
Look sharp, look sharp! You play no clock with us.

ART.

Had you done that for livelong years, as I,
You’d be in just the case that touches me,
More so if every night you got to dreaming
You had the old-time post still in your care.
I make machine-like grasp with my right hand
Toward my left hand’s pulse-tick, counting, counting,
And counting off to sixty ere the thought
Comes over me I am a clock no more.

MOSES.

Then once for ever--mark ye that with us
You’re not to take the time. We have for that
The sand and the sun-dial. For yourself,
You’ll take the time like all of us--for action.
Sheer lazy-lumpishness!

ART.

Nay, let me swear it!

MOSES.

Peace, peace! You’ve never counted at your meals.
What’s more, oath-swearing’s not the mode with us,
And (_aside_) if the King had not been half a heathen
We’d not be blessed with this outlandish slave.
Why, here the music-makers come! Look sharp!

[_Goes out to the others._

JEHU.

Say, is it really true, this tale of you
They tell?

ART.

Why what’s to stop it being true?
And must I then a hundred times aver it?
At the great satrap’s court I was a clock,
Well-off at that, much better than with you.
At nights I had a spell, then ’twas my brother,
And in the day too when I went to eat.
And I must say I do not thank your King
That with the other prisoners of war
He dragged me here. True, toward the end my post
Was somewhat hard. They marched me to the field
And what with arrows right and left a-flying
And men a-falling, you will botch your count
More easily of course than in a hall
Where folks are come together for the dancing.
I screwed my eyes up tight, for I’m no hero
Such as my father was. He found an arrow
Standing at post--he was a clock like us,
Me and my brother, every one a-clocking--
Even then he called the hour and died. What say ye?
That was a man! A trifle over-kind
That trick of Fate to drive at him the arrow!

JEHU.

And have you then no sand among your people
That you must do this?

ART.

We? Have _we_ no sand?
Enough to blot and bury all Judaea!
It’s just because the satrap there with us
Will have things better done than others do them.
Why, know you not a man’s pulse tallies truer,
If he be sound and have no fevered blood,
Than ever sand of yours runs through its pipes?
And have your dials any jot of use
If it should please the sun to stop his shining?
(_Counts_). One! Two!

MOSES (_coming back_).

Off! Off! The guests are coming now!

ART.

So that’s the feast? Why _there_ I saw feasts, look ye,
Where never fruit went past the lips if not
Brought from some foreign part; where penalty,
Oft the death-penalty, was fixed if ever
A single water-drop were drunk; where people
All trussed with hempen cerements and with pitch
Beplastered, in the garden-parks at nights
Were burnt for torches----

MOSES.

Peace! What evil then
Had those poor fellows on the satrap done?

ART.

Done? Naught at all! With us a funeral
Is far more gorgeous than a wedding here.

MOSES.

And I suppose you gobble up your dead?
It pairs well with the rest o’ the tale!

ART.

But then
Is it not true as well that once your Queen
Melted a pearl to nothing in her wine,
That was more costly than the King’s whole realm,
And that she gave this wine unto a beggar
Who gulleted it down like common stuff?

MOSES.

It is not true, thank God!

ART. (_to_ JEHU).

Well--but you said it!

JEHU.

Because I felt it was a brave thing for her,
And such is told of the Egyptian Woman.

MOSES.

Be off with you!

ART. (_pointing to the roses which_ JEHU _carries_).

Real roses! Why they’re cheap.
Among our folk we’ve silvern ones and golden.
These should be sent to other lands where flowers
Are costly--rare as gold and silver here.

[_The servants scatter. The guests, among
them_ SOEMUS, _have been assembling during
the latter half of this scene. Music and
dancing._ SILO _and_ JUDAS _detach themselves
from the others and advance to the
foreground_.

SILO.

What does this mean?

JUDAS.

You ask what does this mean?
The King is coming back, and that to-day.

SILO.

You think so?

JUDAS.

Can you ask? Could there well be
Another ground than this for such a feast?
Go, practise some new-fangled bob o’ the back!

SILO.

Yet it was said that----

JUDAS.

Sham and Flam, as ever,
If it were said some evil overtook him,
But quite in order, since there’s many a one
That wishes him this evil. Do men dance
In houses where there’s wailing for the dead?

SILO.

Then soon there’ll be a deal of blood set pouring--
The dungeons since the outbreak are cram full.

JUDAS.

I know that better than you e’er could know’t;
I’ve dragged them in; full many a one, myself.
For ’twas so crass, this outbreak, so wrong-headed,
That every man who did not bend his thoughts
To hang himself was bound to stem its current.
You know I have no heartfelt love for Herod
However low I set my back a-bobbing--
But he has right in this--the Romans are
Too mighty for our strength, we are no more
Than a mere insect in the lion’s gullet.
It cannot sting him, for it’s gulped and gone.

SILO.

I’m only sorry for my gardener’s son
Who threw a stone against the Roman Eagle
And had the ill success to hit his mark.

JUDAS.

How old is he?

SILO.

Let’s see! How long is it
From when I broke my foot? He was born then.
I know it since his mother could not nurse me.
Yes, that’s right! Twenty!

JUDAS.

Then he suffers naught.

[MARIAMNE _and_ ALEXANDRA _appear_.

The Queen!

[_Is about to go._

SILO.

What do you mean by that? A word more!

JUDAS.

Good; but between ourselves! Because he’s twenty
He suffers naught. But if he were nineteen
Or one-and-twenty ’twould befall him ill.
Next year the case is altered.

SILO.

Cease your jest!

JUDAS.

I tell you it is thus, and if you’ll know
The why, because the King’s self has a son
Of twenty years, and yet he knows him not.
The mother took the child when he forsook her
By stealth away and swore a solemn oath
She would corrupt it----

SILO.

Oh, the hideous woman!
A heathen!

JUDAS.

Likely so; but I know not--
Corrupt it so that he’d be forced to kill it.
But to my mind it was a frenzy-freak
That spumed away with the first foaming rage;
But still it pricks his peace, and no death-sentence
Has ever been fulfilled on any person
Whose years have tallied with his own son’s age.
Comfort your gardener, but--between ourselves!

[_They disappear among the others._

SCENE 5

MARIAMNE, ALEXANDRA, _who appear in the foreground_.

ALEX.

And so you’ll not take refuge with the Romans?

MAR.

With what intent?

ALEX.

Why, to have life in safety.

MAR.

Life? Surely so. One must have that in safety,
For Pain would have no sting if robbed of that.

ALEX.

Then give at least the hour its meed of right.
You give a feast; then show to all your friends
A face all festal-fair as is but meet.

MAR.

I am no pipe to play on and no candle,
Not made for sounding and not made for lighting.
Then take me as I am. No, do it not!
Drive me to have my own neck’s cleaver whetted--
What idle words! Drive me to share your joyance.
Soemus, come!

[SALOME _enters and advances towards her_.

SCENE 6

THE SAME. SALOME. _Afterwards_, SOEMUS.

MARIAMNE (_to_ SALOME).

Salome, you? Be welcome
Above all others, ’spite your mourning-garments.
This I could scarce have hoped.

SALOME.

Indeed I must
If I will learn how matters stand. I have been
Invited to a feast, and yet they say
No word of why the feast is being given.
True, I can guess it, but I must have knowledge.
Herod returns, of course, and we shall see him
This very day. The candles answer “yes,”
The music’s merry din; do you too say it!
I ask not for my own sake, but you know--
Nay, nay, you know it not, you have forgotten,
Perhaps you’ve had a dream that she is buried,
Else had you not concealed from her the news.
Ah but your dream was tricksy, for she sits
Ever in the old corner where she sat
When once she blessed you----

MAR.

What is this you say?

SALOME.

Enough, enough! Herod still has a mother
Who trembles for her son and pines away.
And I, I beg you, let her criminal misdeed
In bearing me prolong no more its penance;
Give the relief for which her old heart yearns.

MAR.

To mother of his I cannot give relief.

SALOME.

Are you not then to-day expecting Herod?

MAR.

Him least of all. I heard that he is dead.

SALOME.

And celebrate this feast?

MAR.

Since I’m still living!
And should not one be glad that one still lives?

SALOME.

I’ll not believe you!

MAR.

For this doubt much thanks!

SALOME.

The candles----

MAR.

Do they not stand there for light?

SALOME.

The cymbals----

MAR.

Are for ringing--what end else?

SALOME (_pointing to_ MARIAMNE’S _rich attire_).

The precious stones----

MAR.

Of course would suit you better.

SALOME.

All this would indicate----

MAR.

A joyous feast.

SALOME.

And one that on a grave----

MAR.

’Tis possible.

SALOME.

Then, Mariamne, hear my earnest word!
I ever hated you, but there was left me
A clinging doubt if I were right therein
And oft with rue in heart I’ve come anear you
To----

MAR.

Give me kisses! Once indeed you did it!

SALOME.

But now I see that you are----

MAR.

Bad enough
To let you stand while I depart to join
With yonder throng that now begins the dance.
Soemus!

[SOEMUS _advances and gives_ MARIAMNE _his arm_.

SOEMUS.

Queen!

MAR.

’Twas just in this attire,
Ay just, that Herod saw me when he gave
The bloody order to you. Wonderful!
It all has happened, yes, in just this fashion.
(_As she leaves, to_ SALOME.) But you’ll look on?

[_Is led by_ SOEMUS _to the background,
where both are now no longer seen_.

SALOME.

This woman’s still more wicked
Than I had ever thought, and that says much!
Therefore she has the gay-hued serpent-skin
With which she lures each victim--yes, she dances!
Then now at least I have a peaceful conscience;
On her no soul on earth could work a wrong.

[_She watches_ MARIAMNE. _Enter_ ALEXANDRA _and_ TITUS.

SCENE 7

SALOME. ALEXANDRA. TITUS.

_Afterwards_, MARIAMNE.

ALEX.

Titus, you notice how my daughter’s mourning.

TITUS.

’Twould seem she has some new despatch from Herod.

ALEX.

Despatch that all is over with him, yes!

TITUS (_watching_ MARIAMNE).

She dances!

ALEX.

Less like widow than like bride!
Titus, until to-day she’s worn a mask,
And mark you this, not she alone has done’t.

TITUS.

Well for her! She’ll not change from what she is,
For if she ranks her with the foes of Herod
She will not share the pangs his friends must suffer.

ALEX.

And to prove that she gives, you see, this feast.

[_Moves away from_ TITUS.

TITUS.

Oh what a shudder takes me at these women!
One, plotting at a hero, whom she first
With hoodwink-kisses lulled to lying peace,
Hews off his head in sleep; the other dances,
Merely to keep firm hands upon the crown,
Like one possessed upon her husband’s grave.
And sure I was invited this to see.

[_Watches_ MARIAMNE _again_.

Yes, yes, I see’t. In Rome she’ll have my witness!
But here I drink no single drop of wine.

SALOME.

What say you, Titus? Stands it with the King
In such ill plight that she may now dare all?

TITUS.

If he’s not straightway given Octavian
His turncoat loyalty and helped to deal
The home-thrust ere his fall at Antony,
And that I must misdoubt, it stands not well.

SALOME.

Oh, if he had but done it! If her head
Be kept to her, I know not why the Lord
Gave o’er the blood of hot-eyed Jezebel
For dogs to lick.

[_She is lost among the others._

TITUS.

She dances still, and yet
Seems forced in mien and mood. She should be glowing
And yet is blanched as though, enchained in musing,
She did some other thing, and sleepy-willed
Followed the dancing. Then it seems this Judith
Brought not her work unanguished to the full.
Ay, and the last kiss given by her husband,
She here and now disowns with pompous show,
Must leave upon her lips the cling of feeling.
She’s not yet even seen him dead--She comes!

[MARIAMNE _appears again_. ALEXANDRA _and_ SOEMUS _follow her_.

ALEX. (_to_ MARIAMNE).

I spoke with Titus.

[MARIAMNE _suddenly turns and sees her image in a mirror_.

MAR.

Ha!

ALEX.

What ails you, then?

MAR.

’Twas thus I saw myself but late in dream--
This was the cause, then, why I could not rest me
Till that lost ruby came again to light
That now casts from my breast such dusky glimmer--
The image had been flaw-marred lacking it!
On this the last treads hot----

ALEX.

Come to yourself!

MAR.

Nay, let me be! A mirror just like this,
At first with glazy muffle, as o’erbreathed
By living lips; then, like the pictures which
It showed in linked procession, softly clearing
And lastly luminant as polished steel.
I saw my life in sum. First I appeared
As child in light of roses tender-ambient
Of ever redder, ever darker hue.
But then the features, though my own, were strange
And only in the third-changed scene I knew
Myself in such an all too youthful face.
And now there came the Virgin and the moment
When Herod took me to the flowery garden,
Bearing me company, and flattering spoke:--
“There’s none so fair she would not need to pluck
The lily of your hand.” Ha, be he cursed
That he forgot so full, so full! And then
It all grew eerie, and against my will
I saw the future, saw me thus and thus
And lastly as I stand here. (_To_ ALEXANDRA.) Is it then
Not passing strange if dreams step into life?
Again the gleaming mirror overmisted,
The light grew ashen-coloured and myself,
So shortly since a blooming creature, blanched
As though beneath the splendour of this garb
My every vein had long been stilly bleeding.
A shudder gripped me, and I cried “I come now
As skull and bones and that I will not see!”
And then I turned away--

[_She turns away from the mirror._

VOICES IN THE BACKGROUND.

The King!

[_General stir._

ALEX.

Who? who?

SCENE 8

THE SAME. HEROD, _in war accoutrement_. JOAB, _and Retinue_.

MARIAMNE.

’Tis Death, Death, Death, has come amongst us,
Without announcement, as he ever comes!

SALOME.

Ay, Death for you in truth! You feel’t yourself?
My brother!

[_Offers to embrace_ HEROD; _he thrusts her back_.

HEROD.

Mariamne!

MAR. (_repulsing him with a violent gesture_).

Draw the sword!
Give me the poison-goblet! You are Death,
Death gives embrace and kiss with sword and poison!

HEROD (_turning round to_ SALOME).

And what means this? A thousand candles called
From distant regions through the night to me--
“Your courier did not fall in Arab hands
A captive. He arrived; you are awaited!”
And now----

SALOME.

The candles lyingly deceived you,
The jubilation here was for your death!
Your courier arrived not, and your mother
Has rent her raiment over you.

[HEROD _looks round about_; _sees_ TITUS _and beckons to him_.

TITUS (_advancing_).

It is so.
No single soul here could have thought, myself
The least of all, that you before the fight
At Actium would turn from Antony
And, as I grant, at prudence’ call give Caesar
Transferred allegiance. But that you have done it
Is proved by your returning here. Then good.
My--gratulations.

MAR. (_approaching him_).

And my deep regrets
That no occasion offered you the chance
To slay Mark Antony with your own hand.
’Twas this way you would show your new Lord best
You had no further dealings with the old one.
You would have brought your own friend’s head to him,
He would have recompensed you with the crown.

HEROD.

Pooh, Titus, pooh! Even you think thus of me?
I made my southward march to Araby
Pursuing orders Antony had given.
But there I found no foe, so I made ready
To start for Actium, and there’s no blame
Attaints me if I came too late. Had he
Maintained the attitude I thought he would,
In such a case (_to_ MARIAMNE) occasion had been sought
To make him present of Octavian’s head
As payment for the crown. (_To_ TITUS.) He did it not.
He was long dead ere I appeared, nor was there
A further need for friend, and I set out
To see Octavian, not indeed as King--
I laid the crown aside--but all the more
For that, no beggar. Drawing sword I spoke:--
“This I’d have used against you, and perchance
I would have dyed it with your very blood
If things here had gone better. That is o’er.
I sink it at your feet and lay it by.
Weigh then in mind the sort of friend I was
And not whose friend. The Dead has set me free
And now, if so you will, I can be yours.”

TITUS.

And he?

HEROD.

He said:--“Where have you placed your crown?
I’ll set another noble stone therein.
Receive the province which till now has lacked you,
This only shall my largess make you feel,
That I am victor, not Mark Antony.
From Cleopatra it had ne’er been taken,
What she till now possessed I give to you.”

TITUS.

That--I had ne’er conceived, nor praise I aught
Except your star.

HEROD.

O Titus, praise it not!
I have been spared for a harsh work. Soemus!

[SOEMUS _remains standing where he is and does not answer_.

What, recreant? You are dumb! I know enough.
Oh oh, away with him!

SOEMUS (_as he is led off_).

Naught I deny,
But that I deemed you dead--you may believe it.
And now I do your will.

[_Exit._

HEROD.

And after death
The end of all, eh, friend? Yes, yes, my Titus,
Had you but known the man as I, you never
Would stand there so composed, so unperturbed
As I stand here; you would be foaming, gnashing,
And raving. (_To_ MARIAMNE.) Woman, what were you about
To lure so good a man so far? Salome,
So you were right! I must be washing, washing--
Blood here! I institute an inquisition!
You’re silent? Case you still in haughty challenge?
And I know why. You have not yet forgotten
What once you were to me. I’d rip more lightly
E’en now heart out of breast--Titus, it is so--
Than (_again to_ MARIAMNE) you from out my heart. And yet I do it.

MAR. (_turning round abruptly_).

I am your prisoner?

HEROD.

Yes.

MAR. (_to the soldiers_).

Then lead me hence.

[_Turns round._ _At a signal from_ HEROD,
JOAB _follows her with soldiers_.

Death cannot be my husband any more.

[_Exit._

HEROD.

Ha ha! To her in time past I had spoken:--
“Two souls that love each other as they should love
Could never bear each other to outlive.
If I on some far battlefield had fallen
You would not need a courier’s announcing,
You’d feel that on the instant death had happened
And woundless die in sentience of mine.”
Titus, bemock me not. ’Tis so, ’tis so,
But, ah the pity, mankind loves not thus.

[_Exit._