7 
 -- 
 
 Ex Libris 
 Luster R. Kleinknight
 
 HEROD 
 A TRAGEDY
 
 HEROD 
 
 A TRAGEDY 
 
 BY 
 
 STEPHEN PHILLIPS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 DODD, MEAD & COMPANY 
 1922
 
 Published in U. S. A. 
 By DODD, MEAD & COMPANY, Inc. 
 
 Printed in U. S. A.
 
 06 / 
 
 ' 
 
 TO 
 
 HERBERT BEERBOHM TREE 
 
 IN LIFE A TRUE FRIEND, AND ON THE STAGE 
 THE HEROD OF MY DREAMS 
 
 I DEDICATE THIS TRAGEDY
 
 This play is published in its present form 
 to meet the demand which has arisen in con- 
 nection with its production at Her Majesty's 
 Theatre. The text has received such revision 
 as was possible in the titm ; but the autlior 
 hopes at some future day to return to the 
 theme.
 
 Characters of the Play 
 
 Ai produced at Her Majesty's Theatre, London, England, 
 October ji, 1900 
 
 HEROD MR. TREE. 
 
 King of the Jews. 
 
 ARISTOBULUS MR. NORMAN SHARF. 
 
 High Priest and Brother of Mariamnt. 
 
 GADIAS MR. C. W. SOMERSET. 
 
 Chief Councillor. 
 
 SOHEMUS MR. F. H. MACKLIN. 
 
 A Gaul. 
 
 PHERORAS MR. F. PERCIVAL STEVENS. 
 
 Brother of Herod. 
 
 A PRIEST MR. S. A. COOKSON. 
 
 A PHYSICIAN MR. CHARLES FULTON. 
 
 SYLL>EUS MR. J. FISHER WHITE 
 
 A Blind Man. 
 
 A CAPTAIN MR. JAMES SMYTHE. 
 
 ENVOY FROM ROME . . . MR. C. F. COLLINGS. 
 
 CUP-BEARER MR L'ESTRANGE. 
 
 SERVANT MR. CAVENDISH MORTON. 
 
 MARIAMNE Miss MAUD JEFFRIES. 
 
 Queen and Wife of Herod.
 
 6 CHARACTERS 
 
 CYPROS Miss BATEMAN (MRS. CROWE) 
 
 Mother of Herod, 
 BATHSHEBA Miss ROSALIE JACOBI. 
 
 Maid to Mariamne. 
 HAGAR Miss LILLIAN MOUBREY. 
 
 An Old Woman. 
 
 JUDITH Miss FRANCES DILLON. 
 
 A Lady of the Court. 
 SALOME Miss ELEANOR CALHOUN. 
 
 Sister of Herod.
 
 ACT I
 
 HEROD 
 
 TIME. Afternoon of the last day of the Feast of 
 Tabernacles. 
 
 SCENE. The great hall of audience in the Palace 
 of Herod at Jerusalem, festooned with garlands 
 and bravest offerings for the Feast of Taber- 
 nacles. Through the colonnade at back is seen 
 the sacred Hill of Jerusalem, with the Temple 
 courts and Castle of Antonia, separated from 
 the Palace by the Tyropceon valley. On the R. 
 a flight of stairs ascends to a gallery, leading 
 to the royal apartments. At the top of this, 
 guarding a bronze door, stands SOHEMUS.
 
 io HEROD 
 
 GADIAS sits reading documents at foot of throne. 
 As the Curtain rises, a faint sound of accla- 
 mation is heard without. SOHEMUS goes and 
 gazes towards Jerusalem, then resumes his 
 guard. 
 
 Enter hurriedly three MESSENGERS. 
 
 IST M. Is the king risen? From Samaria we, 
 Breathless, and with a burning tale to tell. 
 
 Son. My place is here : to sentinel this door. 
 
 2ND M. But these are tidings 
 
 SOH. Here I stand and stir not. 
 
 3RD M. Believe it, sir look on this dust and 
 haste. 
 
 SOH. I am a soldier, and obey. 
 
 IST M. But, sir 
 
 T is Herod's throne his life perhaps this news 
 
 SOH. Must wait. 
 
 IST M. When is there hope of audience?
 
 HEROD il 
 
 SOH. The king is taking now his noon-day sleep, 
 But shortly will descend with ceremony 
 To greet Aristobulus, the queen's brother, 
 Who from the Feast of Tabernacles comes, 
 Newly anoint High-Priest. 
 
 2ND M. Aristobulus? 
 
 IST M. Why, 't is of him we come to speak. 
 3RD M. " is 'he 
 
 Whom the fanatics of Samaria 
 Would throne 
 
 SOH. And then the kinf wiV sit in Council. 
 
 IST M. Well, sirs we must nwait the king : 
 come then. 
 
 [MESSENGERS retire inlv background. SOHE- 
 MUS resumes h\* guard. Enter below 
 SALOME in agitation. 
 SALOME. Is the king waked ? 
 SOH. Princess, I stand on guard. 
 
 He hath commanded, and I know no more.
 
 12 HEROD 
 
 SALOME. Rouse him. 
 
 Son. 'T is not in my direction. 
 
 SALOME. Then give way to me. 
 
 Son. I stir not. 
 
 SALOME. I will pass. 
 
 SOH. Princess, not while I live. 
 
 SALOME. The king shall hear me. 
 
 Her arrogance, her stillness and her stare 
 
 SOH. The king will hear no tale against the queen. 
 
 SALOME. Why, in the streets, along the public 
 
 ways, 
 
 Are pointing figures, and a running taunt, 
 ' See Herod's low-born sister ! ' And the children 
 Are lifted upon shoulders to behold 
 ' The Idumean woman Now give way. 
 
 SOH. The king will hear no tale against the queen. 
 
 SALOME. O, 't is a madness, but it shall be cured 
 Now and by me. 
 
 SOH. Princess, there is no passing.
 
 HEROD 13 
 
 SALOME. I am refused then. Am refused redress. 
 
 She turns and perceives GADIAS. 
 Ah there, Gadias ! Witness you this thing ? 
 Witness I am denied by my own brother. 
 Where is the king then ? 
 
 GADIAS. Well, he rests, no doubt. 
 
 All night he wanders through Jerusalem, 
 And listens in disguise the public talk, 
 And he resorts with priest and Pharisee, 
 With smithy gossips, bearers at the well, 
 With travellers and with feasters in the booths. 
 Little their talk will please him 
 
 [A cry of acclamation. 
 
 SALOME. Whence that cry ? 
 
 GADIAS. The multitude acclaims Aristobulus. 
 
 SALOME. Ah ! 
 
 GADIAS. Well 
 
 SALOME. I '11 bear no more with Mariamne, 
 
 Although the blood of all the Maccabees
 
 4 HEROD 
 
 Runs in her veins, and we are alien, 
 
 Alien and kinless, yet doth this excuse 
 
 That still superb unrealising stare 
 
 Or deeper and diviner disregard, 
 
 And silence full of arrows and of tongues? 
 
 And he shall hear me yet. 
 
 \Exit. 
 
 GADIAS. A woman's quarrel 
 
 And nothing more ? Well 
 [To SOHEMUS.] Is the king awake ? 
 
 Son. I know not, sir ; here were three fellows, hot 
 Out of Samaria, and there too they scheme 
 To enthrone Aristobulus. 
 
 GADIAS. Still and still 
 
 Aristobulus ! 
 
 Enter PHERORAS. 
 Is the guard, Pheroras, 
 Safe? To be leaned on? 
 
 PHER. To the uttermost.
 
 HEROD 15 
 
 GADIAS. We shall have need of them. 
 
 PHER. And on the instant? 
 
 Some new thing? 
 
 GADIAS. In Samaria a plot 
 
 To crown Aristobulus. 
 
 PHER. Is the king 
 
 'Ware of all this? 
 
 GADIAS. He is 'ware of all things but 
 
 PHER. Why then? 
 
 GADIAS. The woman. 
 
 PHER. Who ? 
 
 GADIAS. Always the woman. 
 
 PHER. But how? 
 
 GADIAS. The boy Aristobulus bears 
 
 Some likeness to his sister the loved queen, 
 Some mole at the back of his neck or 
 
 PHER. Come, Gadias 
 
 GADIAS. Your pardon he is like to Mariamne, 
 Therefore, although he may hurl Herod down,
 
 10 HEROD 
 
 We may not touch him he may grasp the throne ; 
 
 Well he is like to Mariamne or 
 
 He may kill Herod. Well, he is most like 
 
 To Mariamne. All to please the queen 
 
 He is made high-priest : Herod, to please the queen 
 
 Hath raised himself a rival in this boy. 
 
 [During this speech various COUNCILLORS, 
 etc., have come slowly in. Another cry 
 of acclamation is heard. 
 
 IST COUN. Gadias, there is peril in that cry. 
 
 2ND COUN. For young Aristobulus is the shout. 
 
 3RD COUN. The darling of the multitude. 
 
 IST COUN. And sprung 
 
 Of the old blood. 
 
 YOUNG COUN. And all behind him is 
 A sense of something coming on the world, 
 A crying of dead prophets from their tombs, 
 A singing of dead poets from their graves. 
 
 GADIAS. I ever dread the young : well, as you know,
 
 HEROD 15 
 
 Herod is our sole stay. 
 
 2ND COUN. Our brain our arm. 
 
 PHER. He, he alone postpones the Roman doom. 
 
 3RD COUN. If Herod then by mutiny should fall 
 
 IST CAPT. That moment swoop the yelling eagles 
 down. 
 
 2ND CAPT. Have those two eagles with the world 
 
 for prey 
 Vet closed to talon reach? 
 
 PHER. I know not, sir. 
 
 COUN. Octavius Csesar and Marc Antony. 
 
 GADIAS. Herod is fast bound unto Antony. 
 
 IST CAPT. If Csesar then should triumph 
 
 GADIAS. Then 't were il 
 
 For friends of Antony. 
 
 COUN. Herod and us. 
 
 2ND CAFI\ Bui Antony 's the elder soldier . 
 
 GADIAS. Well 
 
 PHER. Octavius is a lad
 
 i8 HEROD 
 
 I 
 GADIAS. The lad fights free, 
 
 No Cleopatra hangs about his neck. 
 
 Enter SERVANT rapidly down gallery stairs. 
 SERV. \To GADIAS.] 
 
 The king, sir, will descend with ceremony 
 To greet the new High-Priest Aristobulus. 
 GADIAS. And in what mood? 
 SERV. He hath said nothing, sir. 
 
 \Another cry of acclamation. 
 Listen, that cry. It was not for the king. 
 
 \_Music is heard from without, and grows louder 
 as the procession of people from the Feasts of 
 Tabernacles comes in dancing and carrying 
 wreaths of fruit and flowers, with boughs of 
 palm, willow and citron. Following them walks 
 CYPROS and SALOME, and lastly MARIAMNE, lead- 
 ing ARISTOBULUS by the hand. As these takt 
 place by the foot of the throne, the door of the 
 private apartments opens, and HEROD, ceremoni-
 
 HEROD 19 
 
 ally dressed, comes down the stairs and seats 
 himself on the throne. There is a loud acclama- 
 tion for ARISTOBULUS, and a faint one, led by 
 GADIAS, for HEROD. 
 
 MAR. {Leading ARISTOBULUS before HEROD.] 
 Herod, before all these I here would thank you 
 For honouring thus the Asmonean House. 
 And making thus my brother the high-priest. 
 Since his ancestral office he resumes, 
 We three are bound unto each other more : 
 With him the rites of peace, with thee the sword, 
 With me a reconciling love for both. 
 
 CH. PRIEST. [Speaking on steps advancing^] 
 Oh, people, lo the anointed of the Lord ; 
 May God send down on him His glory of old, 
 And for his sake forbear to bend the bow, 
 In the day of ire and darkness, in that day. 
 Lo, the High-Priest of God Aristobulus. 
 \_A vast shout of acclamation, taken up by the throng;
 
 20 HEROD 
 
 MARIAMNE in sudden delight leaves HEROD'S side t 
 and embraces ARISTOBULUS. 
 
 MAR. Brother, I glow all o'er to hear your name 
 Cried and cried out. O thou art holy, child ; 
 About thee is the sound of rushing wings 
 And a breathing as of angels thro' thy hair. 
 Yet, brother, even now forget me not. 
 
 ARIS. O Mariamne, tell me not. I am tired. 
 
 MAR. Even in this hour remember still faint dawns 
 When you and I together slipp'd away 
 To the dark fields, and cried out to each other 
 At each new flower we found. 
 
 ARTS. I am a man 
 
 Now, and must put such softnesses away. 
 
 MAR. Was ever brother loved as thou art loved ? 
 
 ARTS. I am deaf with praises, and all dazed with 
 
 flowers ; 
 Cling any to me yet? 
 
 MAR. Yes, here and here.
 
 HEROD 21 
 
 ARTS. Give me that palm leaf, I will wear it so. 
 WOMAN. [Advancing from the crowd.] 
 O holy, wilt thou suffer these my children 
 To touch thy garment hem ? 
 
 ARIS. Oh, yes. 
 
 \_The CHILDREN are brought forward and 
 
 touch his robe. 
 
 OLD MAN. And me 
 
 To kiss thy hands. 
 
 ARIS. My hands are worn with kisses. 
 
 OLD MAN. O thou of the old Asmonean 
 
 blood, 
 Remember those dead priests that yet were kings. 
 
 [A general shout. HEROD'S brow darkens. 
 ARIS. Their blood is thrilling in me. 
 
 [Another shout 
 
 MAR. Beautiful, 
 
 Thy face did dim the gold of the Temple yet 
 ARIS. Well, sister.
 
 22 HEROD 
 
 MAR. Oh, let it not lure thee, child. 
 
 [She again puts her arm round his neck. 
 
 ARIS. Ah, sister. Kiss me not. I am tired. 
 
 MAR. Still 
 
 Remember me. I am so wrapped in thee ; 
 My love hath hovered round thee since thy birth ; 
 I have suffered like a mother in my dreams 
 For thee. 
 
 ARTS. But oh, the raining of the blooms ; 
 The cymbals and the roarings and the roses ! 
 I seemed to drink bright wine and run on flowers. 
 Nay, Mariamne, how should I forget thee ? 
 
 MAR. Child, I would be with thee to hold thee close. 
 
 ARIS. No, lean henceforth on my protecting arm. 
 
 MAR. Almost I could laugh at you, but 't is laughter 
 That dies off sudden. 
 
 CH. PRIEST. To the closing feast 
 
 Depart, O people, now, with song and dance. 
 
 [Exeunt all but HEROD and GADIAS.
 
 HEROD 23 
 
 HEROD. A child ! Gadias, wandering night by night 
 Among the people of Jerusalem, 
 I hear a whispering of some new king, 
 A child that is to sit where I am sitting ; 
 The general boding hath ta'en hold of me. 
 If this thing has been fated from the first 
 
 GADIAS. It is the fault of dreamers to fear fate. 
 
 HEROD. \_Dreamily.~] 
 And he shall charm and smoothe, and breathe and 
 
 bless, 
 
 The roaring of war shall cease upon the air, 
 Falling of tears and all the voices of sorrow, 
 And he shall take the terror from the grave. 
 
 GADIAS. The malady is too old and too long rooted. 
 The earth ailed from the first ; war, pestilence, 
 Madness and death are not as ills that she 
 Contracted, but are in her bones and blood. 
 
 HEROD. And he shall still that old sob of the sea, 
 And heal the unhappy fancies of the wind,
 
 *4 HEROD 
 
 And turn the moon from all that hopeless quest ; 
 Trees without care shall blossom, and all the fields 
 Shall without labour unto harvest come. 
 
 GADIAS. Dangerous labourers thrown from work 
 
 rebel. 
 HEROD. A gentle sovereign. Ah, might there 
 
 not be 
 Some power in gentleness we dream not of? 
 
 GADIAS. The gentle are tame birds that feed the 
 
 hawk. 
 
 HEROD. To overcome by other ways than steel. 
 GADIAS. A somewhat sudden change of policy. 
 It has not been our way ; and was not when 
 You murdered the whole Sanhedrin, 
 
 Nor when 
 
 You struck down Malchus on the Tyrian beach, 
 Or bribed Mark Antony to slay 
 
 HEROD. Ah, no 
 
 'T is not for us. A momentary thought
 
 HEROD 25 
 
 Like a strange breeze in darkness on the cheek. 
 Still must we trample, crush, corrupt, and kill. 
 And he shall be king of the Jews. 
 
 GADIAS. Perhaps Aristobulus, then? 
 
 HEROD. Wild is the time ; 
 
 Abroad, Octavius and Marc Antony, 
 Like rival thunders from opposed poles, 
 Are rushing to that shock which splits the world. 
 Now Antony is grappled to my side, 
 And on his victory this realm depends. 
 Enter in haste three MESSENGERS followed by various 
 COUNCILLORS and CAPTAINS. 
 
 IST M. Lo, out of Egypt, we breathless, O 
 king. 
 
 HEROD. Well well? 
 
 IST M. O king disaster. 
 
 HEROD. Speak then, speak. 
 
 2ND M. O king, the demi-emperor of the world 
 
 HEROD. Say say.
 
 26 HEROD 
 
 2ND M. O king Marc Antony is dead. 
 
 [ General consternation. 
 HEROD. Antony dead? Antony dead? How 
 
 slain ? 
 
 3RD M. Off Actium his fleet from Caesar fled. 
 He, with dishonour mad, fell on his sword. 
 HEROD. Antony dead? 
 
 GADIAS. Now trembles all Judaea. 
 
 HEROD. My sole friend of the world, grasping 
 
 whose hand, 
 
 I feared not Caesar nor the roar of Rome. 
 Can ye not hear the legions on the wind ? 
 Now, now 
 
 [Several CAPTAINS rush in. 
 CAPT. Arm arm and without pause. 
 ANOTHER. Equip 
 
 Ships on the instant. 
 
 COUN. Make submission straight. 
 
 PHER. Retire to the inner fort.
 
 HEROD 27 
 
 ANOTHER. To Antonia. 
 
 GADIAS. Bribe Cleopatra with the balsam groves 
 Of Jericho to hold young Caesar fast 
 With kisses, till the stabber find his way. 
 
 HEROD. I will do none of these. I '11 go and meet 
 
 Octavius Csesar. 
 GADIAS. Madness. 
 
 HEROD. If 't were thou. 
 
 IST M. To Syria comes he, and must touch at 
 
 Rhodes. 
 HEROD. To Rhodes I go then. 
 
 [ General surprise. 
 And I go to-night. 
 
 [ Various COUNCILLORS approach HEROD with dis- 
 suading gestures. 
 HEROD. To-night ! You are dismissed. To you, 
 
 Pheroras, 
 
 My legions on all frontiers or within 
 The walls : to you, Gadias, all the strings
 
 28 HEROD 
 
 Of policy I leave : whom to corrupt 
 And whom to kill, and whom to magnify : 
 To you, Sohemus, I commend the queen. 
 Away ! Gadias, stay. 
 
 \_Exeunt SOHEMUS and PHERORAS, 
 
 And yet to leave 
 Behind - 
 
 GADIAS. Ah there my point is. 
 HEROD. Mariamne. 
 
 GADIAS. O Herod, others must you leave behind. 
 Aristobulus 
 
 HEROD. Ah 
 
 GADIAS. You go and leave him 
 
 Brain of the east ; by thee we stand or fall ; 
 You are Judaea, and in this large thought 
 No single life is rich, not mine, not his. 
 This morn three fellows from Samaria 
 A plot to crown him, and to have your life. 
 
 HEROD. What messenger can tell me a new thing?
 
 HEROD 29 
 
 GADIAS. And knowing this, you leave that seed 
 of peril 
 
 HEROD. But Mariamne loves him so. 
 
 GADIAS. Most plain 
 
 To all indeed it seemed that pardon. 
 
 HEROD. Cease. 
 
 And he is like to her about the brow 
 I strike at Mariamne, striking him, 
 Perhaps even at myself; perhaps myself. 
 
 GADIAS. Then if because he hath her face, her 
 voice 
 
 HEROD. Ah, hath he not ? 
 
 GADIAS. A trick perhaps. 
 
 HEROD. A trick. 
 
 One could not get by heart that sweetness, not 
 From noon-foam of the Mediterranean 
 Nor long and leafy Lebanonian sigh 
 To lone Abanah under Syrian stars. 
 
 GADIAS. If for this likeness you postpone the realm,
 
 30 HEROD 
 
 T were wiser not to go. 
 
 HEROD. I go 
 
 GADIAS. And then 
 
 Aristobulus. 
 
 HEROD. I have said it. 
 
 GADIAS. But 
 
 Aristobulus ? 
 
 HEROD. I will flatter Csesar 
 
 GADIAS. Aristobulus then ? 
 
 Enter SOHEMUS in haste. 
 
 SOH. The city is up ; 
 
 The multitude about the temple roars 
 ' Aristobulus,' and ' Herod the Upstart ' ; 
 And blind Syllaeus hails him as that king 
 That is to come. 
 
 GADIAS. You have no need of me, 
 
 You know my mind and here are younger men. 
 
 [Earnestly and privately to HEROD befort 
 going.
 
 HEROD 31 
 
 Still must we trample, crush, corrupt, and kill? 
 
 \Exit GADJAS. Murmurs outside. 
 
 HEROD. Sohemus, in the midst of this I go 
 And leave behind Aristobulus well, 
 I have preferred you, lifted you on high. 
 
 SOH. Herod, I am your slave, your dog. 
 
 HEROD. Well then, 
 
 If I should have a need of you. But how? 
 When I shall put this ring upon your finger, 
 Then one must be removed for the State's welfare. 
 Enter SERVANT. 
 
 SERV. O king ! the Prince Aristobulus asks 
 To say farewell to you. 
 
 Enter ARISTOBULUS. 
 
 ARIS. Brother, I come 
 
 To say farewell to you. I go to cool me 
 
 Outside the walls, and feared you should be 
 gone 
 
 When I returned.
 
 32 HEROD 
 
 HEROD. [Going to touch his head, but cannot. J 
 Farewell, Aristobulus. 
 
 ARIS. [Lightly.] And, sir, you leave the city in 
 
 strong hands. 
 
 I have grown up in a day. Did you not hear 
 The acclamations as I waded hither 
 Knee-deep in flowers? You go then with less fear 
 And Mariamne 
 
 HEROD. Cease. Then whither go you ? 
 
 ARIS. To bathe. 
 
 HEROD. To bathe? [L00&satSoHEMUs,wh0 starts. 
 
 ARIS. Yonder in the great pool. 
 
 HEROD. And are you to deep waters used? 
 
 ARIS. Oh, yes. 
 
 HEROD. You know the pool well ? 
 
 ARIS. Oh, from side to side. 
 
 HEROD. Yet are there no entangling reeds that 
 
 drag 
 Downward ?
 
 HEROD 33 
 
 ARIS. I fear them not. Ah, for the plunge, 
 The upward burst, and the long dart through waters. 
 
 HEROD. Go you alone ? 
 
 ARTS. Oh, yes. 
 
 HEROD. Were it not well 
 
 Some other went with you Sohemus here? 
 
 ARIS. I shall be glad of him. 
 
 HEROD. Stay not too long. 
 
 ARIS. Farewell then, Herod. 
 
 HEROD. I have said it. 
 
 ARIS. So ? 
 
 It may be that I shall return in time. 
 But I so love the waters, I may linger 
 Floating upon my back thus, and my face 
 Skyward, and you depart not seeing me ; 
 So now farewell ! 
 
 Will you not look at me? 
 
 HEROD. Farewell again. 
 
 \Exit ARIS., slowly. SOHEMUS starts for-
 
 34 HEROD 
 
 ward, HEROD puts the ring on his 
 finger. 
 SOH. O king ! 
 
 [HEROD points meaningly to SOHEMUS to 
 follow ARIS. 
 
 [Exit SOHEMUS. 
 HEROD. He hath her eyes. 
 Thou art too like to Mariamne ah ! 
 
 Enter ATTENDANT from back. 
 ATTEN. O king ! the queen would have you go to her. 
 HEROD. The queen? ah, no. Not yet not on 
 
 the instant. 
 
 Say I will come at dusking, ere I go. 
 No, no ; I cannot look on thee so soon. 
 I have struck him down, and fear is come on me ; 
 Yet I ne'er feared before ; not when I slew 
 The assembled Sanhedrin. Why do I tremble? 
 Not that I have contrived this murder, this 
 Most politic, most necessary act.
 
 HEROD 35 
 
 Then why this apprehension mystical, 
 This beaded forehead, and this quailing flesh? 
 Dimly I dread lest having struck this blow 
 Of my free-will, I by this very act 
 Have signed and pledged me to a second blow 
 Against my will. What if the powers permit 
 The doing of that deed which serves us now ; 
 Then of that very deed do make a spur 
 To drive us to some act that we abhor? 
 The first step is with us ; then all the road, 
 The long road is with Fate. O horrible ! 
 If he being dead demand another death. 
 
 \_Walks backwards into MARIAMNE'S arms, 
 she having entered softly behind him. 
 
 MAR. You are in some peril, Herod? 
 
 HEROD. I ? No no. 
 
 MAR. But see, great drops have gathered on your 
 brow. 
 
 HEROD. I am well now.
 
 36 HEROD 
 
 MAR. Then come for the first time 
 
 You have deferred me come you go to-night, 
 Our love is at its noon then be with me. 
 [They slowly ascend the gallery steps. Half-way up 
 
 he makes as if to descend. 
 
 HEROD. I have a thing to do, and on the instant. 
 MAR. [Putting her arm about him.'] 'T is not of 
 
 such import. 
 
 HEROD. The pool ! 
 
 MAR. Come, come. 
 
 [They go off together. Music. Pause. The sky 
 
 darkens. 
 
 [Various WOMEN and BATHSHEBA come slowly on in 
 the gallery above. A tinkling sound rises up from 
 the city. First a WOMAN enters, fanning herself. 
 BATH. A breeze, a breeze. Did yon not feel it? 
 A WOMAN. Yes. 
 
 But when again? 
 
 ANOTHER. I droop.
 
 HEROD 37 
 
 ANOTHER. I faint. 
 
 ANOTHER. Oh, when? 
 
 ANOTHER. Stand from me. Air is coming ah ! 
 
 ANOTHER. At last. 
 
 ANOTHER. Delicious. 
 
 ANOTHER. There is mercy from the West. 
 
 BATH. Slowly it lifts my hair. 
 
 ANOTHER. Listen, the trees. 
 
 WOMAN. The low long ' Ah ' of foliage. 
 
 ANOTHER. And a star. 
 
 BATH. O breathing of balsam and of citron groves. 
 A moment ! 
 
 ANOTHER. Myrtle then. 
 
 ANOTHER. And then a waft 
 
 Of cassia 
 
 ANOTHER. And a wandering cedar scent. 
 
 ANOTHER. Now one can breathe. Come out into 
 the cool. 
 
 [Music, Exeunt ALL but BATHSHEBA.
 
 38 HEROD 
 
 BATH. Above, star after star ; in the city beneath 
 Lamp after lamp. Oh ! would I were down there ! 
 Now strings are touched, and they begin to dance. 
 Oh, would I were down there ! How sweet the 
 night 1 
 
 \Exit. 
 Enter CYPROS and SALOME. 
 
 SALOME. No ; I '11 not stay. 
 
 CYPROS. A little patience, child. 
 
 SALOME. I hate her, mother. 
 
 CYPROS. Do I love her? 
 
 SALOME. Time 
 
 Hath taken the sting from you. 
 
 CYPROS. I do not waste it, 
 
 And when I dart it forth I kill, not prick. 
 
 SALOME. If you can patiently support 
 
 CYPROS. I can, 
 
 And patiently prepare revenge. 
 
 SALOME. But how?
 
 HEROD 39 
 
 CVPROS. Child, I foresee, though dimly, a great 
 vengeance. 
 
 SALOME. If I saw that 
 
 CYPROS. Remember Herod's love 
 
 That madness, easy to be worked upon 
 For Mariamne. Then her love, how deep 
 For young Aristobulus. 
 
 SALOME. Yet how, how? 
 
 CYPROS. Still clearer then? Remember Herod's 
 
 rage 
 
 At acclamations on her brother heaped ; 
 Remember the set teeth and veiled glare. 
 
 SALOME. Oh I begin to see. 
 
 CYPROS. No more is ripe. 
 
 I keep this phial here close to my heart. 
 Did not the great astrologer foretell 
 ' Herod shall famous be o'er all the world, 
 But he shall kill that thing which most he loves.' 
 I feared then ; but not now.
 
 40 HEROD 
 
 SALOME. No we are safe. 
 
 CYPROS. Then will you leave the palace? 
 
 SALOME. No ; I '11 stay 
 
 Upon the chance ; yet would I tear her beauty 
 Thus with my nails. 
 
 CYPROS. You speak as might a girl, 
 
 But I will have 
 
 SALOME. What what ? 
 
 CYPROS. Her life ; no less ; 
 
 I '11 send her to that democratic doom 
 Down to the levelling grave ; and she shall die 
 Not at our hands. 
 
 SALOME. Who then shall do this thing? 
 Speak ; who ? 
 
 CYPROS. Wait : wait, I say, and watch. 
 
 [Exeunt CYPROS and SALOME. 
 
 HEROD. That star is languorous with divine excess ! 
 
 MAR. O world of wearied passion dimly bright ! 
 
 HEROD. Now the armed man doth lay his armour by,
 
 HEROD 41 
 
 And now the husband hasteth to the wife. 
 
 MAR. The brother to the sister maketh home. 
 HEROD. Now cometh the old lion from the pool. 
 MAR. And the young lion having drunk enough. 
 How still the time is for this journey wild. 
 But, Herod, you are going into peril. 
 
 HEROD. The peril hath a glitter for thy sake. 
 
 \_Comes down steps. 
 MAR. Ah must you go? 
 
 HEROD. To match myself with Rome. 
 
 Great difficulties bring delight to me. 
 
 MAR. And most for this I love you, and have 
 
 loved, 
 
 That when you wooed, behind you cities crashed, 
 Those eyes that dimmed for me flamed in the 
 
 breach, 
 And you were scorched and scarred and dressed in 
 
 spoils, 
 Magnificent in livery of ruin.
 
 42 HEROD 
 
 You swept denial off and all delay, 
 You rushed on me like fire, and a wind drove you, 
 Thou who didst never fear, Herod, my Herod. 
 Now clasp me again as thou didst clasp me then, 
 When like a hundred lightning brands upsprung 
 In the night sudden. Then did you laugh out 
 And whirled me like a god through the dark away. 
 
 HEROD. How shall I go now ? 
 
 MAR. I 'd not have you stay. 
 
 For could you stay you were no more my Herod. 
 How bright the towered world ! 
 
 HEROD. The towered world ; 
 
 And we, we two will grasp it, we will burst 
 Out of the East unto the setting sun. 
 
 MAR. Thou art a man. 
 
 HEROD. With thee will be a god ; 
 
 Now stand we on the hill in red sunrise. 
 
 MAR. Now hand in hand into the morning. 
 
 HEROD. Ever
 
 HEROD 43 
 
 Upward and upward ever hand in hand ; 
 Shall nothing stay thy love, Mariamne, nothing? 
 Nothing shall stay it nothing ? 
 
 MAR. No unless 
 
 HEROD. What what ? 
 
 MAR. I cannot say but 
 
 HEROD. Mariamne, 
 
 Tell me that nothing 
 
 MAR. Nothing from outside 
 
 HEROD. How then? 
 
 MAR. Why speak of what shall never be ? 
 
 Pull back my head, and look down in my eyes, 
 Herod, my Herod, such a love as grows 
 For you within me, it could never die. 
 
 HEROD. Ah ! 
 
 MAR. And I take a kind of maiden pleasure 
 
 In hushing what I feel will be so wild, 
 In staying what I know shall be so swift ; 
 This love could never fade.
 
 44 HEROD 
 
 HEROD. O eyes of dew ! 
 
 MAR. Not time, absence, or age ever could 
 touch it. 
 
 HEROD. O liquid language of Eternity ! 
 
 MAR. Only 
 
 HEROD. You start up and you lay both hands 
 
 Thus on my shoulder, and your eyes are full. 
 Close to my heart. 
 
 MAR. No stand so far from me. 
 
 HEROD. Utter what is behind. 
 
 MAR. Yet might you kill it. 
 
 HEROD. Say 
 
 MAR. In a night murder it in a moment ; 
 
 It is so brave you would not hear a cry, 
 But- 
 
 HEROD. If I did such murder then 
 
 MAR. Oh, then 
 
 You 'd stoop and lift a dead face up to you, 
 And pull me out from reeds like one just drowned,
 
 HEROD 45 
 
 More dead than those who die ; and I should move, 
 Go here and there, and words would fall from me. 
 But, ah you 'd touch but an embalmed thing. 
 Do nothing, Herod, that shall hurt my soul. 
 Listen ! 
 
 HEROD. O Mariamne. 
 
 MAR. Listen ! 
 
 HEROD. What? 
 
 MAR. Be still ; did you not hear it ? Nearer now. 
 
 HEROD. What what ? 
 
 MAR. A wailing ! And again you start 
 
 As once this noontide. 
 
 HEROD. Mariamne, say 
 
 That nothing ever shall divide us two. 
 
 MAR. Again ! What hath been found ? 
 
 HEROD. Ah ; close to me 
 
 MAR. I cannot hear, I am all blind and dumb ; 
 They are bringing what is found toward us, Herod. 
 
 HEROD. This cannot touch us.
 
 46 HEROD 
 
 MAR. And they bring it slowly. 
 
 They wail not for the old, as these are wailing. 
 Steps now 
 
 HEROD. A knocking. Ere they shall come in 
 
 Say, Mariamne, nothing shall divide us. 
 MAR. Let them come in. 
 
 HEROD. Bring in your burden then. 
 
 [Enter BEARERS with a litter on which lies 
 a body covered over. Wailing women 
 walk before and after. HEROD takes 
 MARIAMNE away R. General En- 
 trance. 
 
 MAR. A moment stay, sirs. Now disclose the 
 face. [Reels back with a cry. 
 
 Son. The queen falls. 
 HEROD. \_Catching her in his arms.~\ 
 
 Mariamne, die not. 
 
 MAR. Oh ! [Recovers herself slowly and wiln 
 
 effort
 
 HEROD 47 
 
 Sirs, set the litter here. I '11 sit by it. 
 And leave me, all of you. 
 
 HEROD. But I ? 
 
 MAR. Oh, you ; 
 
 You are my husband, stay. 
 
 \Exeunt all but HEROD and MARIAMNE. 
 
 HEROD. Mariamne, there 's no help we can but 
 
 give 
 
 Honour, and he in such magnificence 
 Shall lie Mariamne, hear you? that his tomb 
 Shall with its golden glory bear strange sails. 
 Will you not turn ever so little? There 
 Aloe and cinnamon and cassia balm 
 Shall breathe, and mighty poets will I charge 
 To make their verse in funeral thunders roll, 
 Or wail as women or wind out of the sea. 
 A word now but a whisper. 
 
 Re-enter SOHEMUS. 
 
 Son ^.11 things wait.
 
 48 HEROD 
 
 Night rushes on us. 
 
 HEROD. Now into your hands 
 
 I do commend the queen. Mariamne, I 
 Am going into peril say farewell. 
 
 MAR. [Rising.] I stand between the living and 
 the dead. 
 
 [Moving away. 
 HEROD. For the last time your lips for the last 
 
 time. 
 
 MAR. Oh, take them, Herod, but 
 HEROD. What have I done? 
 
 If she 
 
 [A trumpet. 
 
 Son. Away, O king, the trumpet calls. 
 HEROD. My bugle from the hill shall say fare- 
 well. 
 
 Hither from that dead body. Hither. I grow 
 Even jealous of the dead. Hither ! Ah, no ; 
 Farewell, farewell for Rhodes.
 
 HEROD 
 
 [HEROD rushes off, attended by SOHEMUS. 
 
 MARIAMNE remains by the litter. 
 Enter PHERORAS and GADIAS. 
 PHER. Mariamne, we would not break in on you, 
 But unto me the army is committed. 
 
 [MARIAMNE bows her head : exit PHERORAS. 
 GADIAS. And unto me the strings of policy. 
 
 [MARIAMNE bows her head. 
 [GADIAS, gazing on the body, and speaking as if 
 
 to himself. 
 
 Perhaps it is as well as well for all : 
 He, had he lived, had been a public peril. 
 
 [Exit GADIAS. 
 MAR. [Rising and looking after him.'} Perhaps it 
 
 is as well as well for all : 
 He, had he lived, had been a public peril. 
 
 [MARIAMNE turns and looks at SOHEMUS. 
 SOH. O queen, why are your eyes so fixed on me? 
 What is it I shall do? Shall I fetch hither
 
 50 HEROD 
 
 Bathsheba? Still your eyes between the candles 
 Burn through me. What then would you have me do ? 
 [Crosses at back to round R. 
 
 MAR. Come hither and stand near to me, Sohemus. 
 [SOHEMUS comes to her side. 
 And he was a strong swimmer yet was drowned. 
 
 Son. The entangling reeds. 
 
 MAR. Lay upon mine your hand. 
 
 SOH. O queen, I tremble at your touch. 
 
 MAR. This morn 
 
 The people cried out that he should be king. 
 
 SOH. It was a madness. 
 
 MAR. Look into my eyes. 
 
 Will you not? Kings have gazed in them. 
 
 SOH. O qr.eu. : 
 
 I am dazed ; thy beauty takes away my life 
 And being. 
 
 MAR. Herod goes and leaves behind 
 
 SOH. 'Tis very still.
 
 HEROD 51 
 
 MAR. You have been true to Herod? 
 
 Son. O until death. 
 
 MAR. Yes, unto death. Sohemus, 
 
 Start not away. 
 
 Son. O queen, I cannot stir. 
 
 I am held as in a dream. 
 
 MAR. Sohemus, stay. 
 
 Was not this dying fortunate for Herod? 
 Came it not just upon the time? O speak, 
 And fear not kings must not be lightly blamed, 
 No, nor king's instruments. Now, in your ear, 
 Was not this drowning fortunate for Herod? 
 
 Son. Oh, kill me, but command me not to speak. 
 
 MAR. A necessary death then. Was it so? 
 
 SOH. What shall I say ? 
 
 MAR. The truth. I know it now. 
 
 This child was murdered. 
 
 Son. Murdered ? 
 
 MAT;. They came round
 
 52 HEROD 
 
 And held him under, and great bubbles rose. 
 Now by this beauty can you answer No? 
 SOH. I I I cannot. 
 MAR. Go. 
 
 \Exit SOHEMUS. 
 
 [MARIAMNE turns again to the litter. At 
 this moment the faint sound of a bugU 
 is heard far off, and in the distant* 
 torches are seen and HEROD'S retinu* 
 moving over a hill. MARIAMNE turn*. 
 Ah, Herod, Herod !
 
 ACT II
 
 SCENE. The hall of audience in HEROD'S palace as 
 before, but ungarlanded ; on various points of 
 vantage without are SENTINELS watching for the 
 arrival of HEROD. 
 
 Enter SOHEMUS meeting GADIAS. 
 
 GADIAS. No sight yet of the king? 
 SOH. \_Calling up^\ The king in sight? 
 
 SENT. Nothing ! 
 2ND S. Nothing ! 
 
 GADIAS. And never will be sight 
 
 SOH. Gadias ! 
 
 GADIAS. Young Octavius is no fool ! 
 
 Herod hath walked into Octavius's arms. 
 Son. I trust 't is not so.
 
 56 HEROD 
 
 GADIAS. Yes, for every hour 
 
 The murmuring of the people louder grows. 
 
 IST S. A cloud of dust ! 
 
 2ND S. At last ! 
 
 IST S. See you 
 
 2ND S. Ah, there. 
 
 GADIAS. Where is the queen? 
 
 Son. Returned from dropping blooms 
 Upon the grave of young Aristobulus. 
 
 GADIAS. These passings 'twixt the palace and the 
 
 tomb 
 
 Madden the multitude ! They crane their necks, 
 Remembering her brother in her face. 
 Last morn there followed her a hoarse uproar. 
 
 SOH. When Herod shall 
 
 GADIAS. If Herod shall 
 
 SOH. Return 
 
 GADIAS. Here 's his first task ; in fear of mutiny, 
 Of mutiny by Mariamne roused,
 
 HEROD 57 
 
 To interdict these visits to the tomb. 
 And it shall be my business that he do so. 
 
 [Exit GADIAS. 
 IST S. A solitary horseman 
 
 2ND S. NO 
 
 IST S. Indeed 
 
 It is. A furious and a lonely rider. 
 
 Enter MARIAMNE, behind, clothed in black. 
 
 MAR. \To SOHEMUS.] Then Herod left direction 
 
 that if death 
 O'ertook him, I too should that moment die. 
 
 SOH. O queen, I have told unto your beauty what 
 No torture could have wrung, and have betrayed 
 My master's secrets. 
 
 IST S. Ah ! A golden breastplate ! 
 
 2ND S. It cannot be. 
 
 IST S. Yet look ! O burning gold ! 
 
 SOH. This was the very madness of his love ! 
 How could he face that fear lest you should walk
 
 58 HEROD 
 
 Behind Octavius's high- triumphing car? 
 
 MAR. I might 
 
 Have seen a grandeur in this thought, 
 Even magnificence of flattery, 
 Once, but not now. The dead boy makes him vile 
 In this thing as in all things. Was not this 
 The tiger's act ? beast fury ! 
 
 IST S. It is he ! 
 
 ZND S. Impossible ! 
 
 IST S. 'T is he ! Herod the king ! 
 
 [Enter GADIAS and the Court, hastily ?\ 
 
 SOH. Said you the king? 
 
 IST S. The king, sir, all alone ! 
 
 2ND S. Up on my shoulder there see, see the 
 king ! 
 
 A CHILD. Show me ! Show me ! 
 
 ANOTHER. But where, O where ? 
 
 ANOTHER. O look ! 
 
 IST S. Hark, how he thunders !
 
 HEROD 59 
 
 ND S. White with foam the horse. 
 
 SOH. He leaps down, and his armour jangles loud. 
 ATTEND. The king, the king, he is rushing in 
 
 alone. 
 
 IST S. He clangs along the corridors 
 2ND S. And burns 
 
 From pillar to pillar like fire before the wind. 
 
 HEROD. [ Without.~\ Mariamne ! Mariamne ! 
 Mariamne ! 
 
 [HEROD rushes in, while all present make 
 obeisance. MARIAMNE alone remains 
 standing. He makes his way to her 
 and kisses her hand. 
 GADIAS. O king, what tidings ? 
 PHER. What success? 
 
 IST C. What news? 
 
 HEROD. O unimagined ! I will pour it forth ! 
 Mariamne, I pursued and came on Caesar 
 A face young and yet wary.
 
 60 HEROD 
 
 I came in 
 
 Amid the courtiers, and omitted nothing 
 Of royalty but this my diadem. 
 Mariamne, do you hear? I did not cringe, 
 But stood and looked on him as man on man, 
 As king on king. Then I spoke out I mourned 
 Dead Antony with frankness as my friend 
 Mariamne, hear you ? You shall glow at this 
 And unto Caesar proffered the same aid 
 I gave to Antony. ' Judge me,' I cried, 
 ' By what I was to him to you I '11 be 
 No worse a friend You '11 say 't is policy 
 I '11 not deny it ; but 't is durable ; 
 I am your friend by sea, by land henceforth, 
 If you will have me so.' Then, Mariamne, 
 He looked long on me then without a word 
 
 \Takes her hand* 
 
 Gave me his hand, and bade me sit by him, 
 We sat together do you listen ? and
 
 HEROD 61 
 
 He called for wine. ' I drink to my friend Herod 
 And to his Mariamne.' 
 MAR. [ Groaning.~\ Ah ! 
 
 \_On the groan he falls away from her, then 
 looks in her face. With a gesture he 
 dismisses the Court, who disperse, whis- 
 pering. HEROD and MARIAMNE are left 
 alone. He moves to embrace her with 
 passion, but she repels him. 
 MAR. I am come 
 
 From young Aristobulus that was murdered. 
 HEROD. Murdered ! 
 
 MAR. Or taken as we take a dog 
 
 And strangled in that pool whose reeds I hear 
 Sighing within my ears until I die. 
 You like a tiger purred about me : oh ! 
 Your part it was to soothe and hush me while 
 He gasped benenth their hands your hands O 
 yes,
 
 62 HEROD 
 
 You were not near, 't was yours to kiss and lie 
 But none the less your hands were round his throu, 
 O liar ! 
 
 HEROD. Mariamne ! 
 
 MAR. You forest beast ! 
 
 HEROD. Mariamne ! 
 
 MAR. Back, and in the jungle burr 
 
 Whence you did leap out at my brother's throat. 
 Can you deny your part in this ? O subtle ! 
 Half suitor and half strangler, with one arm 
 About the sister's neck, the other hand 
 About the brother's throat ! 
 
 HEROD. I '11 not endure 
 
 MAR. Can you deny you slew Aristobulus ? 
 Look in my eyes ; speak truth if still 't is in you. 
 
 HEROD. I '11 not deny my part in the boy's death. 
 
 MAR. Will you weep now? Strive, and the tears 
 will come. 
 
 HEROD. 'T was I I, Herod who commanded it.
 
 HEROD 63 
 
 MAR. Commanded ! 
 
 HEROD. Yes, and would again command. 
 
 MAR. You ! You a sudden thing sprung up in 
 
 the night 
 
 To dip your hands in our most ancient blood ! 
 That he should perish by an Idumean ! 
 
 HEROD. I stand where I have climbed, and by 
 
 your side 
 
 I could not leave him 't was not for myself 
 I struck, but for the State 't was for Judaa 1 
 And for the throne your throne your throne 
 
 MAR. O glib ! 
 
 The assassin first, and now the orator ! 
 
 HEROD. I '11 burn this bitterness away ! 
 
 MAR. I am grown 
 
 Listless to all concerning you. 
 
 HEROD. [ Groaning.] Ah ah ! 
 
 MAR. Herod, because I once did love you so 
 How long since is it ? And because that lov
 
 64 HEROD 
 
 With time had grown much greater, now I speak. 
 Even the red misery of my brother's murder, 
 That extreme pang, is pale beside this loss, 
 This drying up within me of my soul. 
 
 HEROD. O madness ! 
 
 MAR. You have stopped my life, and ended 
 
 My very being in a moment. Here 
 
 \ 
 
 [Rising slowly. 
 I stand and look on you who were my husband 
 
 HEROD. \_Fiercely embraces hcr.~] And still, in 
 spite of all. 
 
 MAR. No, never more ! 
 
 Herod, that love I did conceive for you, 
 And from you, it was even as a child 
 More dear, indeed, than any child of flesh, 
 For all its blood was as a colour of dreams, 
 And it was veined with visions delicate. 
 Then came a sudden labour ere my time 
 Terrible travail And I bring it forth,
 
 HEROD 65 
 
 Dead, dead. And here I lay it at your feet. 
 
 HEROD. I '11 break this barrier down as I have others. 
 
 MAR. Never never ! 
 
 HEROD. When first I wooed, was I 
 
 Not blood-stained? 
 
 MAR. Not with blood of his ! 
 
 HEROD. O, stib 
 
 You shall forget him. He is dead, and I 
 Live still, and glow, and sigh, and burn for you. 
 
 MAR. Almost I am moved to laughter at that passion 
 Which once could sway and thrill me to the bone. 
 Terrible when we laugh at what we loved ! 
 
 HEROD. My brain, my brain, I shall go mad ! 
 
 One kiss ! 
 
 MAR. Never ! 
 
 HEROD. One touch ! 
 
 MAR. No more ! 
 
 HEROD. One word ! 
 
 MAR. Farewell ! 
 
 5
 
 66 HEROD 
 
 HEROD. You will go from me ? 
 
 MAR. No, I '11 move about 
 
 The palace. You shall have no scorn from me ; 
 My love is dead, but I am still a queen ; 
 Only, I must not be with you alone. 
 
 HEROD. Where 's now the boast, the glory, O 
 
 where now? 
 
 What was this triumph but in the telling of it 
 To you ! And what this victory but to pour it 
 Into your ears ! I had imagined all 
 Meetings but this this only I foresaw not ; 
 Here I disband my legions. Arise, 
 And spill the wine of glory on the ground ; 
 I turn my face into the night. And yet 
 Why am I bowed thus I that am Herod ? Come, 
 I '11 take you in my arms. I '11 have your lips 
 By force, and chain your body up to me ; 
 I am denied your soul, but I will slake 
 This thirst of the flesh, and drink your beauty deep 1
 
 HEROD 67 
 
 MAR. \Repulsing him."] I '11 not endure your 
 
 touch ! Your hands are curved 
 From that fell throttle. Now stretch out your 
 
 arms; 
 
 What is between us ? It is more than air. 
 [ Wildly. ~\ I tell you, Herod, that your arm but then 
 Passed through the dead boy that now stands be- 
 tween us. 
 
 \_Passes up steps -with a long, shuddering cry 
 
 of horror. 
 
 HEROD. Mariamne, leave me not thus, Mariamne ! 
 
 \Exit MARIAMNE. 
 Aristobulus, art thou satisfied? 
 Oh ! since my birth I have lived in fierce contrast, 
 For ever half in lightning, half in gloom ; 
 The brighter still the public brilliance glows, 
 The deeper falls the darkness of the hearth. 
 Never the calm and uneventful warmth 
 Where other men like creatures bask and browse,
 
 68 HEROD 
 
 The metal of my mind attracts the tempest. 
 
 Enter GADIAS. 
 
 Gadias, is there any thirst like this? 
 Or any hunger like unto this hunger? 
 I am denied her lips, her touch. 
 
 GADIAS. I came 
 
 To speak on graver matters. 
 
 HEROD. Graver ! Why? 
 
 GADIAS. The queen 
 
 HEROD. 'T is her I speak of. 
 
 GADIAS. In your absence 
 
 HEROD. What? What? 
 
 GADIAS. Hath visited continually 
 
 The tomb of young Aristobulus. 
 
 HEROD. Why, 
 
 What need of her to pace those yards of earth? 
 Her spirit standeth by his tomb for ever. 
 
 GADIAS. There 's peril in this going to and fro. 
 
 HEROD. Think you if I forbade her that with time
 
 HEROD 69 
 
 The image of this boy might grow more dim ? 
 
 GADIAS. O king, the matter is more grave. The 
 
 people 
 
 Assemble now to see her pass. They whisper, 
 Then come to sullen threats. And yesterday 
 Rose up behind her a long, hoarse uproar. 
 
 HEROD. To have once possessed, and then to be 
 
 debarred ! 
 GADIAS. The Pharisees are fanning this chance 
 
 flame. 
 
 HEROD. Now when I have returned in a fond 
 glory 
 
 Enter CYPRUS and SALOME behind. 
 GADIAS. Pardon, O king, these goings to the tomb 
 Must be forbidden ! 
 
 HEROD. Aching with great news. 
 
 GADIAS. Your pardon, but the people 
 HEROD. Why, all this 
 
 Concerns me not.
 
 70 HEROD 
 
 GADIAS. O king ! 
 
 HEROD. To me the people, 
 
 My mother, sister, you all these are nothing 
 GADIAS. Well 
 
 HEROD. Speak of Mariamne, how to win her back. 
 GADIAS. You will take some measure to suppress 
 HEROD. Suppress? No, but to kindle what is 
 quenched. 
 
 [GADIAS motions to CYPROS and SALOME 
 
 with despairing gesture. 
 
 GADIAS. I will return at some more prosperous 
 moment. 
 
 [Exit GADIAS. CYPROS AND SALOME come down. 
 CYPROS. You waved us off. We with the crowd 
 
 were banished, 
 
 But now that you have spoken with Mariamne 
 Your mother and your sister may perhaps 
 Have leave 
 
 HEROD. I will not have your kiss or hers J
 
 HEROD 71 
 
 I am exiled from Mariamne's lips. 
 
 SALOME. Why, would she not 
 
 HEROD. When I rushed in, she rose 
 
 Like a black pine out of the bending wheat. 
 
 CYPROS. Doth she deny you? 
 
 HEROD. Utterly ! 
 
 SALOME. Yet why ? 
 
 HEROD. Because I killed Aristobulus. 
 
 SALOME. Oh ! 
 
 CYPROS. Is this the sole cause ? 
 
 HEROD. Why, what other? 
 
 CYPROS. Herod, 
 
 Men I well know that you can trample down, 
 Or flatter or deceive women you know not. 
 
 HEROD. Well well 
 
 CYPROS. And you suppose this the sole cause ? 
 
 HEROD. What mean you ? 
 
 CYPROS. At the least I '11 fend and watch 
 
 Over you.
 
 72 HEROD 
 
 SALOME. Unto whom did you confide 
 
 This murder ? Unto all the court ? 
 
 HEROD. No no. 
 
 CVPROS. To whom, then? 
 
 HEROD. To Gadias. 
 
 SALOME. To Gadias? 
 
 CYPROS. And to no other? 
 
 HEROD. To Sohemus. 
 
 SALOME. To 
 
 Sohemus? 
 
 CVPROS. To Sohemus? 
 
 [HEROD, ascending staircase, turns, looks 
 from CYPROS to SALOME, then exit, 
 with gesture of disbelief. 
 
 CYPROS. He is now 
 
 Wrought to the very mood when we can use him 
 To strike at Mariamne. We must not 
 Suffer him now to cool. 
 
 SALOME. He is most silent.
 
 HEROD 7* 
 
 CYPROS. And then most capable of dangerous act. 
 
 SALOME. How ? How ? 
 
 CYPROS. The queen is wont about this hour 
 
 To bring his posset to the king, which she 
 Prepares with her own hands. Now if a moment 
 I could distil this poison in the cup, 
 Then warn him not to drink ! 
 
 SALOME. Still to and fro 
 
 He paces, making the vast room a cage. 
 
 \_Pause, moves up steps, and listens, kneeling. 
 Still pacing up and down, and to and fro, 
 And now a sudden pause. And now again, 
 Like a stung creature, fitfully resumes. 
 
 Enter CUP-BEARER, with a cup of wine. 
 
 CYPROS. Ah, whither do you take that cup? 
 
 Cup-B. I take it 
 
 In to the king. 
 
 CYPROS. But the queen takes the cup. 
 
 Cup-B. To-day she will not take it.
 
 74 HEROD 
 
 CYPROS. Give it me. 
 
 [CuP-BEARER comes over and hands her the 
 
 cup. CYPROS smells it. 
 
 The queen prepared this cup with her own hands ? 
 Cup-B. The queen prepared the cup with her own 
 hands. 
 
 \_As he bows low, CYPROS drops in the 
 poison. As he looks up again, she 
 again smells the wine. 
 
 CYPROS. Does it not seem the wine has a strange 
 smell ? 
 
 \_Gives cup to CUP-BF.ARER. 
 SALOME. Most strange. 
 CYPROS. Or is it fancy? 
 
 Cup-B. A strange smell I 
 
 CYPROS. Were it not better then to warn the king 
 Before he drinks it? 
 
 Cup-B. I will warn the king. 
 
 \_Exit up steps.
 
 HEROD 75 
 
 CYPROS. Now, Herod being warned, will instantly 
 Summon the queen and ask of her to drink ; 
 This is his mood. If she refuse, he '11 deem 
 She hath put poison in with her own hands. 
 SALOME. And if she drink it ? 
 CYPROS. Then we see her fall 
 
 For it is deadly and die upon the instant. 
 So either way 
 
 [Cry from HEROD within. 
 SALOME. A cry ! 
 
 CYPROS. He is stung to madness. 
 
 SALOME. Or wounded, by his voice. 
 Enter HEROD, in grim silence, with the CUP-BEARER. 
 HEROD. [To ATTENDANT.] Summon the queen, 
 Pheroras, and Gadias, and Sohemus. 
 
 [A pause, during which enter PHERORAS, 
 
 SOHEMUS and GADIAS. 
 [HEROD and CUP-BEARER stand motionless. 
 Enter MARIAMNE, and stands with
 
 ;6 HEROD 
 
 back to door at top of steps, where she 
 remains throughout following action. 
 HEROD. Did you prepare this cup with your own 
 
 hands ? 
 
 MAR. With my own hands as is my custom. 
 HEROD. Yet 
 
 You did not bring it me as is your custom. 
 MAR. I chose to send it. 
 
 HEROD. As it chanced, my mother 
 
 And sister intercepted the cup-bearer. 
 
 CYPROS. I had sworn to guard you, Herod. 
 HEROD. And they drew 
 
 A strange smell from the wine. Now drink it ! 
 Drink. 
 
 MAR. \_Giving her the cup^\ Is this a second 
 treachery? I know not. 
 
 \_Looks towards CYPROS and SALOME, and 
 
 from them back to HEROD. 
 He who could drown can poison.
 
 HEROD 77 
 
 HEROD. Drink it or 
 
 MAR. I am so weary, I will drink it, and 
 If it is mortal, then I go at once 
 Down to Aristobulus. 
 
 Now farewell ! 
 
 Jerusalem, city of God, farewell, 
 My cradle first, my home, and now my grave, 
 For I, the last of all the Maccabees, 
 I, the lone daughter of that flaming line, 
 I perish without fear and without cry. 
 For a doom is come upon us, and an ending. 
 Brother, I drink and hasten down to you. 
 
 \_As she puts the cup to her lips, HEROD 
 
 dashes it down. 
 HEROD. Ah, no ! though you prepared this for my 
 
 death, 
 I cannot see you drink it. 
 
 Mariamne, 
 Now, even now
 
 78 HEROD 
 
 MAR. [Pointing to the spilt wineJ] Between us a. 
 red stream. 
 
 [Angry shouts are heard from the city. 
 
 PHERORAS and SOHEMUS go out. 
 CYPROS. What is that sound ? 
 GADIAS. [Listening.'] It was an angry sound. 
 
 Enter an OFFICER OF THE GUARD. 
 OFFICER. Your pardon, but our captain, where is 
 
 he? 
 SALOME. What is the danger, then? 
 
 [Exit OFFICER. 
 
 CYPROS. What does this mean ? 
 
 Crash is heard at the gates. PHERORAS enters. 
 PHER. They have shattered down the outer gate. 
 CYPROS. They ? Who ? 
 
 PHER. The mob, by Mariamne's public grief 
 To fury urged. They are beating at the palace. 
 SALOME. They are fighting. 
 CYPROS. There are groans and sudden falls.
 
 HEROD 79 
 
 PHER. Sohemus falls he is wounded they '11 
 
 break through. 
 HEROD. [To PHERORAS.] Call the reinforcements 
 
 from the citadel, 
 
 So that they steal in and surround the mob. 
 Meanwhile, I will detain them in some speech. 
 When you are ready, let the trumpet sound. 
 
 [Exit PHERORAS. 
 
 [HEROD'S guards are now forced back into 
 the Hall, some falling. A MOB of 
 political plotters, priests, and populace 
 swarms in with stones, staves and 
 chance weapons, blind SYLL^EUS in 
 front. HEROD speaks from the stairs. 
 Stand out, the chief of you, and answer me. 
 
 [SEVERAL then stand out. 
 The cause why you have broke into the palace. 
 
 SYLL. Herod, these sightless eyes can yet behold 
 The blood on you of young Aristobulus. [A murmur.
 
 8o HEROD 
 
 It is so bright, it dazzles even the blind. 
 
 And near to you his sister flaming stands ; 
 
 Her wrongs, her injuries we will avenge. 
 
 Can you deny that you you struck him down ? 
 
 HEROD. I struck him down ! And did he live again, 
 Again I 'd strike him down. And any other 
 That 's in my path I '11 set my foot upon. 
 
 \A murmur which swells into a roar. 
 Why, why, then ? Because Herod is Judaea ; 
 I am your bulwark and your bastion ; I, 
 Herod alone. 
 
 A MAN. You have sold us to the Roman. 
 
 [Cries of* Yes, yes.' 
 
 A MAN. Antony 's dead ! 
 
 ANOTHER. And Caesar lives. 
 
 ANOTHER. You chose 
 
 The wrong. 
 
 HEROD. 'T is true that Antony's dead. 
 T is true [Murmurs.
 
 HEROD 81 
 
 That Caesar lives. And I this very day 
 Have come from grasping Caesar's hand, and him 
 I now have grappled to my side as once 
 I grappled Antony. I have sold you to the Roman? 
 Now hearken with what gifts I come from Rome. 
 Henceforward in all cities which Rome sways, 
 Freedom to each Jew by our ancient law, 
 
 [.Movements and murmurs of satisfaction 
 
 checked by a gesture from HEROD. 
 So long as I reign o'er you and my heirs. 
 Then leave to adore the God of Israel 
 
 [Renewed murmurs of gratitude, again 
 
 checked by HEROD. 
 
 So long as I reign o'er you and my heirs. 
 Last, in all cities under Roman rule, 
 The heavy hand of persecution 
 Upon our people shall be lifted up 
 And all our burdens lightened from henceforth, 
 
 \Applause.
 
 8a HEROD 
 
 So long as I reign o'er you and my heirs. 
 Some other cause then ? Stand you out and speak. 
 A PRIEST. You would destroy the Temple. 
 HEROD. But to build 
 
 A vaster Temple and more glorious. 
 This task have I foreseen and have prepared ; 
 And now I bid you on the instant choose 
 A thousand priests to work in metal and ore 
 Until this mightier Temple shall arise. 
 Till then no stone of the old sanctuary 
 Shall be removed. To priests and priests alone 
 I give the charge I am not worthy of it. 
 I will enrol a thousand priests to-day. 
 
 \_Murmurs of satisfaction renewed among 
 
 priests and populace. 
 Now I come down among you. 
 
 [He descends. 
 Here 's my breast 
 Now strike who wills. Does any hesitate ?
 
 HEROD 83 
 
 Why, such a blow as this none ever struck 
 That breathed since the beginning of the world ; 
 For he who strikes this breast, strikes at a city, 
 Who stabs at this my heart, stabs at a kingdom. 
 These veins are rivers, and these arteries 
 Are very roads. This body is your country. 
 Strike strike strike ! None of you ? 
 
 \Trumpet. Armed men appear at the back, 
 filling the corridors and colonnade. 
 
 Lo then my spears 
 
 That circle you about with no escape ! 
 I lift my finger and all ye are dead ! 
 CROWD. \Fawningly.~} O Herod ! 
 HEROD. But I will not. Go ! 
 
 \To POLITICIANS.] And you ! 
 
 Remember with what gifts I come from Rome. 
 \To PRIESTS.] You to the task of building gird 
 
 yourselves. 
 \To MOB.] And you, my people, now depart in peace,
 
 84 HEROD 
 
 And ere you sleep, give to Jehovah thanks 
 That Herod is your shepherd and your king ! 
 
 [TiiEY come round him, some kneeling, 
 kissing his garments, and gradually 
 disperse. Exeunt MOB. 
 
 CYPROS. \_To HEROD.] Now 'tis our lives or hers. 
 SALOME. She hath denied you 
 
 Her lips, her love. 
 
 CYPROS. She hath prepared you poison. 
 
 GADIAS. These things are not important. That 
 
 which was 
 
 A private trouble between you and her 
 Is now a public peril. 'T is not you 
 That now are shaken, but the throne itself. 
 
 PHER. Brother, that this will cost you a fierce pang 
 I know but for the country she must die. 
 GADIAS. And quickly. 
 CYPROS. Kill her, Herod. 
 SALOME. Kill her ! kill her !
 
 HEROD 85 
 
 HEROD. Would you commit such beauty to the 
 
 earth? 
 
 Those eyes that bring upon us endless thoughts ! 
 That face that seems as it had come to pass 
 Like a thing prophesied ! To kill her ! 
 And I, if she were dead, I too would die, 
 Or linger in the sunlight without life ; 
 Oh, terrible to live but in remembering ! 
 To call her name down the long corridors ; 
 To come on jewels that she wore, laid by ; 
 Or open suddenly some chest, and see 
 Some favourite robe she wore on such a day ! 
 I dare not bring upon myself such woe. 
 
 GADIAS. T i.s not yourself, O king, it is the State. 
 
 PHER. It is our country that asks this of you. 
 
 HEROD. If it must be, then, here I sit in judgment ! 
 [ Moves to throne and sits, 
 I call upon you, Mariamne, here 
 To answer for yourself that you deny
 
 86 HEROD 
 
 All rights of marriage unto me your husband. 
 Answer. 
 
 CYPROS. She will not. 
 
 SALOME. Cannot rather say. 
 
 HEROD. Then for this poison of your own preparing. 
 
 SALOME. She cannot speak. 
 
 CVPROS. No answer still? 
 
 SALOME. You hear. 
 
 HEROD. Last, for this insurrection of your making, 
 You stir my people up against their king, 
 They break into the palace, and would have slain us. 
 
 GADIAS. This visiting so oft your brother's tomb 
 Has wrought the people up to mutiny. 
 
 MAR. I '11 not forbear my visits to his tomb 
 No, not though all Jerusalem went mad, 
 And pulled these pillars down upon our heads. 
 
 HEROD. Remember, I have power upon your life, 
 That I can sentence you to death. 
 
 MAR. Oh, that 1
 
 HEROD 7 
 
 PHER. What further need of words ? 
 CYPROS. Or witnesses. 
 
 HEROD. Then as a traitor not alone to me, 
 But to the State itself, you have incurred 
 The pains of death. 
 
 MAR. I am ready. 
 
 CYPROS. Let her die. 
 
 GADIAS. King, she must die. 
 HEROD. Away from us a moment. 
 
 [Exeunt all but MARIAMNE and HEROD. 
 HEROD beckons her down ; she comes 
 before him. 
 
 MAR. Herod, I cannot change my love is dead. 
 HEROD. Die then yourself die, die upon the 
 
 instant. 
 
 Such beauty should pass suddenly away, 
 Such loveliness should vanish like the lightning, 
 Die die 
 
 But ere you go, witness at least
 
 M HEROD 
 
 That never woman was so loved as thou, 
 That never man from the beginning loved 
 As I. 
 
 MAR. \Moves down to him.'] And yet you left 
 
 behind direction 
 That were you slain, that moment I should die. 
 
 HEROD. Here has imagination made me cruel, 
 So that one death should end what is one life, 
 And we two simultaneously cease : 
 If cease we do, let 's perish the same instant. 
 Never could I decay while you still breathed, 
 Nor could I rot while you moved in the light ; 
 What grave could hold me fast ? What sepulchre 
 Could so press on me that I would not rend it? 
 Burn me in fire, and see me ashes, yet 
 No lighted fire hath force upon this fire : 
 Or did I live again, then should I float 
 All inarticulate and invisible 
 About you still mad to recover words
 
 HEROD 89 
 
 A spirit groping for the trick of speech, 
 Mad for the ancient touches of the hand, 
 Yet wordless, handless, helpless, near yet dumb. 
 Close, yet unseen. This was the love I bore you. 
 MAR. A tiger's fury not the love of man ! 
 
 \Turns to go. 
 
 HEROD. [Moves up to steps.'} O stay yet ! 
 
 I forgive the love denied : 
 See I forgive the poison. I but crawl 
 Here at your feet, and kiss your garments' hem, 
 And I forgive this mutiny all all 
 But for one kiss from you, one touch, one word. 
 O like a creature, I implore some look, 
 Some syllable, some sign, ere I go mad, 
 Mariamne ! Mariamne ! Mariamne ! 
 
 [MARIAMNE goes out without saying a word 
 
 or looking round. 
 
 [Throwing himself on steps. ~} I am denied her soul, 
 and that which was
 
 90 HEROD 
 
 A glow hath now become a wasting flame. 
 1 am a barren, solitary pyre ! 
 
 [Takes ashes from brazier and strews them 
 
 over his head. 
 
 Enter PHERORAS, GADIAS, CYPROS and SALOME. 
 PHER. I will give order for the execution. 
 CYPROS. Let her drink poison die by that same 
 
 death 
 Prepared for you. 
 
 [PHERORAS is about to go up steps. 
 HEROD. Pheroras, and you others, 
 
 I '11 not excuse her, but she had at least 
 Some provocation in that fierce command 
 I left behind that should I die, she too 
 Should perish. 
 
 [SALOME exchanges look with CYPROS. 
 SALOME. And to whom did you confide 
 So intimate, so secret a command ? 
 Not to Gadias?
 
 HEROD 91 
 
 GADIAS. No. 
 
 HEROD. Why, to Sohemus. 
 
 Son. Oh, take me to the king. 
 Enter, dying of wounds received in attack on palace. 
 
 Forgive me, Herod. 
 {Dies. 
 
 HEROD. He was my friend ! 
 
 CYPROS. Your friend ! And yet from him 
 She learned the murder of Aristobulus ? 
 
 SALOME. But this command, so dear, so perilous, 
 Would not be blurted out 't was wrung from him. 
 
 HEROD. Impossible ! By torture ? 
 
 SALOME. No, perhaps 
 
 By loveliness more terrible than torture 
 Slow sweetness with more exquisite a pang. 
 
 CYPROS. He was so true, no tortures could have 
 shook him. 
 
 SALOME. Only in one way drew she this from him. 
 
 CYPROS. Know, son, that women the most delicate,
 
 92 HEROD 
 
 And most high-born, feed often on strange fancies ; 
 They are so screened, they come to long for peril, 
 And we are secret, Herod very secret. 
 
 SALOME. Thus only, Herod, lying on his breast, 
 And gazing in his eyes, one arm about him, 
 Could she have drawn him, swooning at her sweetness, 
 To such betrayal. 
 
 HEROD. Like a fiend you hold me 
 
 In an eternal torture. 
 
 SALOME. Till he gave 
 
 His soul up in the incense of her hair. 
 
 HEROD. [Th rowing SALOME from him.~\ Devil! 
 
 CYPROS. And, Herod, not for the first time 
 She hath languished for a soldier lowly born. 
 
 HEROD. Incredible ! Unthinkable ! And yet, 
 O God ! Sohemus' cry, ' Forgive me, Herod ! ' 
 
 CYPROS. A dying cry ! 
 
 HEROD. \_Rushing to the body and kneeling."} 
 
 Sohemus, speak speak speak !
 
 HEROD 93 
 
 Thou art not dead so long art but a little 
 The other side of the grave, and canst reveal 
 If not, let God then thunder through your lips 
 He is dumb and God himself is silent ! Kill her ! 
 
 GADIAS. He has said it ! 
 
 CYPROS. Oh, at last ! Let her drink poison 
 And on the instant. 
 
 GADIAS. Quickly, lest he change. 
 
 [Exit SERVANT, quickly. 
 
 HEROD. I have said it ! And it was foretold of me 
 That I should slay the thing that most I loved. 
 Fate is upon me with the hour, the word. 
 A dreadful numbness all my spirit seals. 
 Yet will I not be bound, I will break free, 
 She shall not die she shall not die she shall not 
 Trumpets. Enter ATTENDANT. 
 
 ATTEND. O king, the Roman eagles ! See ! 
 
 A CRY. [ Without^ From Rome I 
 
 Enter ROMAN ENVOY and SUITE.
 
 94 HEROD 
 
 ENVOY. O king, great Caesar sent us after you, 
 But, though we posted fast, you still outran us. 
 Thus then by word of mouth great Caesar greets 
 Herod his friend. But he would not confine 
 That friendship to the easy spoken word, 
 And hear I bear a proof of Caesar's faith. 
 Herein is added to thy boundaries 
 Hippo, Samaria and Gadara, 
 And high-walled Joppa, and Anthedon's shore, 
 And Gaza unto these, and Straton's towers. 
 
 \Moves down. 
 
 Here is the scroll, with Caesar's own hand signed. 
 HEROD. \Taking the scroll at foot of steps ^\ 
 Mariamne, hear you this? Mariamne, see you? 
 
 \Turns to look at scroll. 
 [SERVANT enters and moves down to GADIAS 
 down L. 
 
 [He goes up the stairs. 
 Hippo, Samaria and Gadara,
 
 HEROD 95 
 
 And high- walled Joppa, and Anthedon's shore, 
 And Gaza unto these, and Straton's towers. 
 
 SERV. [Aside to GADIAS.] O sir, the queen is dead ! 
 GADIAS. [Aside to PHERORAS, CYPROS and SALOME.] 
 
 The queen is dead ! 
 
 HLKOD. Mariamne, hear you this? Mariamne, see 
 you? 
 
 [Repeating the words and going up steps. 
 Hippo, Samaria and Gadara, 
 And high-walled Joppa, and Anthedon, 
 
 [As he moves up 
 And Gaza unto these, and Straton's towers 1
 
 ACT III
 
 SCENE. The Hall of Audience as before ; sunset. 
 The CHIEF CAPTAINS, COUNCILLORS and PRIESTS 
 assembled, including GADIAS, a PHYSICIAN, CY- 
 PROS, etc. On one side of the throne stand 
 PRIESTS, who are displaying ivory and marble 
 and precious stones. On the other side are 
 various ARCHITECTS and CHIEF MASONS, who are 
 eagerly displaying charts and plans. As the 
 Curtain rises there is the hum of many voices, 
 but GADIAS rising to speak with uplifted hand, 
 there is a sudden silence. 
 
 GADIAS. Priests, councillors and captains nigh the 
 
 throne, 
 
 Who are partakers of our private mind ; 
 Long time, ye know, the melancholy king
 
 too HEROD 
 
 Herod hath brooded by the Dead Sea wave 
 Incapable of empire : but to-day 
 Returns to grasp the reins of sovereignty. 
 
 [A murmur of approbation. 
 Priests, councillors and captains nigh the throne, 
 All Jewry on that single brain depends. 
 Herod alone defers the Roman doom, 
 That general fate whereto the world is born. 
 
 \A low assenting murmur. 
 That moment when the reason of the king 
 Shall tremble, trembles with it all this realm. 
 And now it seems that by the Dead Sea marge 
 Long since his mind had maddened, but for one 
 Idea with which he still doth rock himself. 
 
 [A movement of surprise. 
 Some fancy, all incredible to me, 
 But which alone diverts insanity, 
 And what this is, from the Physician hear ! 
 
 PHYS. Councillors, priests, my business is to mend
 
 HEROD roi 
 
 The mind, not mingle with affairs of State. 
 
 Now listen : though the embalmed queen is cold, 
 
 Yet from that irremediable thought 
 
 The king's brain starts aside : such is his love 
 
 He dares not to imagine she is dead. 
 
 [A movement of astonishment. 
 And in the wild foam of insanity 
 He clasps this rock : that Marianne lives. 
 Once let her death rush in upon his brain, 
 Madness will seize him ! 
 
 PRIEST. And darkness the land. 
 
 GADIAS. Seeing the issue then how vast ; whate'er 
 You and myself may deem of this, our aim 
 Must be to fend from him reality, 
 And for as long as may be to conspire 
 Against the idea of Mariamne's death. 
 
 PHYS. [Pointing to PRIESTS.] With ivory distract 
 
 him and with gems ! 
 Have music to avert some sudden rush,
 
 102 HEROD 
 
 And dancers to allure him from the truth. 
 
 If he send messages unto the dead, 
 
 Let messages be carried : if he ask 
 
 An answer from the dead, be answer given. 
 
 Only from one thought save him ! 
 
 PRIEST. And so save 
 
 Your wives, your children, this beloved land 
 From ruin and the nearing roar of Rome ! 
 
 PHYS. Remember, if we can but bring him safe 
 Through the sharp crisis of his malady ; 
 If for the first few hours of his return 
 We can with music and with gems divert him 
 From realising Mariamne's death, 
 Then is there hope that he, with stealing time 
 And reconciling lapse of quiet hours, 
 May come to acquiesce and to submit 
 To the dread fact of Mariamne's death. 
 Enter SALOME. 
 
 GADIAS. Princess Salome I
 
 HEROD loj 
 
 SALOME. Mother, he is coming. 
 
 We must be tender with him : this is left us. 
 
 [She turns to Court. 
 
 Councillors, priests, my brother now is coming. 
 When you shall see him if there be of you 
 Any that envied or that hated him, 
 His face shall make you to forget your wrongs. 
 
 \_A movement of sympathy. 
 I have been close to him by day, by night, 
 When he would dash him 'gainst Masada's walls 
 With piteous climbings ; for it seemed to him 
 That he again was bearing off the queen. 
 I have been near him when like some wild beast 
 He turned upon himself as on some prey ; 
 But me he loathes, and ' Mariamne ' cries, 
 And ' Mariamne ! ' until I, who wrought 
 This ruin, would revive her if I might. 
 I would support how gladly now ! her look, 
 Her high disdain, I would bow down to it,
 
 104 HEROD 
 
 Only to bring her in alive to him : 
 But he shall not be happy till he die. 
 And now far more to see her face again, 
 As he imagines, than to take up rule, 
 He cometh hither. 
 
 PRIEST. Hither? 
 
 SALOME. Here he saw her 
 
 Last ; and he heard her speak for the last time. 
 O sirs, let him not rush in on her body 
 Suddenly : but by every art divert him 
 From realising that the queen is dead. 
 
 [Murmurs are heard without. 
 
 GADIAS. He comes. 
 
 PHYS. Each man stand sentinel 'gainst truth, 
 And watch the gates against reality ! 
 
 A CRY. The king ! 
 [Nearer] The king ! 
 
 [Near the throne.] The king ! 
 
 THE COURT. Herod, all hail !
 
 HEROD 105 
 
 Enter HEROD unkempt and in ragged apparel. He 
 slowly ascends the throne and sits in it. 
 
 GADIAS. O king, restore to us that mastering brain, 
 That grappling will, those disentangling hands. 
 
 THE COURT. Herod, Herod ! 
 
 HEROD. The business now? 
 
 GADIAS. O king ! 
 
 Since thou wast sitting where thou sittest now, 
 A pestilence hath fallen upon the land, 
 Then famine ! And the realm is filled with bones. 
 What should we do? Where 's succour and where 
 
 hope? 
 To me it seemed 
 
 HEROD. Import from Egypt grain ! 
 
 And I myself out of my private purse 
 Will fifty thousand of my subjects feed. 
 Dispatch to Egypt ! 
 
 COUNCILLOR. The king's mind is clear 
 
 Still, thre is hope.
 
 ro6 HEROD 
 
 HEROD. This is the hour is 't not? when 
 
 Mariamne 
 GADIAS. [Interrupting^ Lo ! the chief builders, 
 
 masons, engineers, 
 
 Who make at thy command the sea-coast ring 
 From Gaza northward unto Caesarea. 
 
 CHIEF BUILDER. O king, since thou wast sick all 
 
 idle stands 
 
 In scaffolded and roofless interruption, 
 An unborn desolation of blank stone, 
 Bird-haunted as a dead metropolis. 
 
 HEROD. I will create a city of my own ; 
 And therefore with sea-thwarting bastions 
 And mighty moles have made impregnable 
 That beach where Caesarea shall arise. 
 
 \_He passes his hand over his brow. 
 How easy this ! Yet against flooding thoughts 
 [Sits."] [Turns to the Court. 
 
 Well, well, a harbour then for every nation,
 
 HEROD 107 
 
 Whereon shall ride the navies of the world. 
 There vessels from the sunset shall unlade ; 
 The harbour one vast bosom shall become 
 For towering galleons of the ocean weary ; 
 For driven things a place of rest. Rest rest 
 How easy this yet for the driven mind ! 
 [Suddenly.] Go, tell the queen that I would speak to her. 
 
 \_A general movement. 
 She knows not yet I am returned ? 
 
 GADIAS. O king ! 
 
 Not yet ! 
 
 HEROD. Then tell her I would speak to her. 
 
 \_An ATTENDANT starts to go. 
 Come hither you ! I will not have her vexed, 
 Nor troubled to come ; perchance she is asleep, 
 Asleep then rouse her not you understand. 
 I '11 wait her waking. [Exit ATTENDANT. 
 
 [HEROD turns to the Court. 
 This then is my design.
 
 io8 HEROD 
 
 And now that in ray coffers 'gins to pour 
 
 Pearl of barbaric kings and savage gold, 
 
 And emeralds of Indian emperors, 
 
 And wafted ivory in silent night, 
 
 And floated marble in the moonbeams, now 
 
 That the green waves are glooming pearls for me, 
 
 And metals cry to me to be delivered, 
 
 And screened jewels wait like brides, I '11 have 
 
 No stint no waiting on how much, how far 
 
 [GADIAS beckons CHIEF ARTIFICER. 
 You understand? 
 
 CHIEF A. O king, even now the city 
 
 Seems rising as by incantation ! 
 Each dawn new spires will dazzle, sudden towers 
 And masonry in morning magical. 
 
 HEROD. Hence to the coast ! And every hour 
 
 dispatch 
 
 New messengers of rising domes and halls, 
 And terraces of bloom and blowing gardens,
 
 HEROD 109 
 
 Or some repulse of the invading sea ! 
 
 CHIEF A. O king ! it shall be done. 
 
 HEROD. Dismiss them. Where 
 
 [Exeunt ARTIFICERS, etc. 
 Is he I sent in to the queen how long? 
 
 A PRIEST. Lo! those whom thou hast caused to 
 
 build the Temple, 
 
 The chief artificers in gold and silver, 
 Marble and porphyry and red pumice-stone, 
 Trimmers of jewel sparks 
 
 HEROD. Pour out those pearls, 
 
 And give me in my hand that bar of gold. [Rises. 
 I heard an angel crying from the Sun, 
 
 [ Court listen intently. 
 For glory, for more glory on the earth ; 
 And here I '11 build the wonder of the world. 
 I have conceived a Temple that shall stand 
 Up in such splendour that men bright from it 
 Shall pass with a light glance the pyramids.
 
 no HEROD 
 
 I '11 have 
 
 Re-enter ATTENDANT. 
 
 Ah I come you from the queen ? Fear not 
 
 She is asleep? [Murmur of satisfaction. 
 
 GADIAS. \To whom ATTENDANT has whispered.'} 
 
 She is fallen in a deep sleep. 
 HEROD. Ah, rouse her not. 
 \To ATTENDANT.] 
 
 You did not touch her? No? 
 You did not speak o'er loud ? She did not stir then ? 
 ATTEND. O king ! she stirred not once. 
 HEROD. Such sleep is good. 
 
 But there was still the moving of the breast ? 
 ATTEND. O king 
 
 HEROD. [Hastily."] Yes yes I understand I 
 PRIEST. Sir, 
 
 Each moment wasted from this huge emprize 
 The Temple 
 
 HEROD. \To ATTENDANT.] Hither ! Quietly in my ear.
 
 HEROD in 
 
 I say you saw her bosom stirred ? 
 
 ATTEND. I saw 
 
 HEROD. You saw ! It is enough ! 
 [To Court.] Bear with me oh ! 
 
 I dreamed last night of a dome of beaten gold 
 To be a counter-glory to the Sun. 
 There shall the eagle blindly dash himself, 
 There the first beam shall strike, and there the moon 
 Shall aim all night her argent archery ; 
 And it shall be the tryst of sundered stars, 
 The haunt of dead and dreaming Solomon ; 
 Shall send a light upon the lost in Hell, 
 And flashings upon faces without hope 
 
 [Murmur of sympathy. 
 
 And I will think in gold and dream in silver, 
 Imagine in marble and in bronze conceive, 
 Till it shall dazzle pilgrim nations 
 And stammering tribes from undiscovered lands, 
 Allure the living God out of the bliss,
 
 112 HEROD 
 
 And all the streaming seraphim from heaven. 
 
 [HEROD looks at door and sits. 
 \A murmur of admiration. 
 That bag of emeralds give it to me so : 
 And yonder sack of rubies ; I will gaze 
 On glittering things. 
 
 \Sits listlessly, hands down 
 Let one of you go forth 
 
 And rouse the queen not roughly be it done 
 But rouse her ! I would have her waked from sleep 
 
 [A general embarrassment. 
 Why linger you ? Is it not easy? Go you, 
 Bathsheba, child, and touch her gently thus. 
 There is no haste for her to come I am 
 Not over-eager, and will wait but rouse her ! 
 Rouse her or go ! 
 
 \_Exit BATHSHEBA in lingering terror. 
 HEROD again turns to the Court, 
 Now, sirs, unceasingly
 
 HEROD 113 
 
 Let all the sounds of building rise to me 
 By day, by night and now let anvils clang, 
 Melodious axes ring through Lebanon, 
 Masons let me behold so far aloft 
 They crawl like flies, ant-like artificers, 
 Swarming with tiny loads, and labourers 
 Hither and thither murmuring like bees. 
 Away with inspiration of these words ! 
 
 [Exeunt CHIEF ARTIFICERS. 
 Is Bathsheba returned? T is a light task 
 To rouse a sleeping woman, to awake her. 
 'T is all I ask : I 'd not compel her here ; 
 I do not ask things out of reason only 
 To know that she is waked to know to know. 
 Re-enter BATHSHEBA, who whispers to GADIAS. 
 
 GADIAS. O king, the queen is waked ! 
 
 HIROD. 'T is all I ask. 
 
 I am not o'er-impatient. Bathsheba, 
 
 [BATHSHEBA goes trembling up to the KING.
 
 114 HEROD 
 
 Knows she as yet I am returned ? 
 
 BATH. O king, 
 
 I I 
 
 HEROD. [Quickfy.~\ Ah, yes! Speak not no, 
 
 speak not, child, 
 
 I understand she has learned it. Bathsheba, 
 Speak low now, said she anything? 
 
 BATH. O king, 
 
 I I 
 
 HEROD. No matter. No, repeat it not ! 
 I can so well imagine those first words. 
 But, child, you heard her speak ? I ask no more, 
 You heard the sound of spoken words ? 
 
 BATH. O king 
 
 HEROD. You heard her yes it is enough; but 
 I- 
 
 SALOME. Lo ! the musicians whom you did com- 
 mand 
 
 HEROD. Touch me not sister ah ! 
 
 SALOME. Forgive me, brother
 
 HEROD 115 
 
 Enter MUSICIANS. 
 
 HEROD. Music, O music ! Now create a land 
 From lovely chords, that land where we would be ; 
 Where life no longer jars, nor jolts, but glides ; 
 The end may recompense us, but meantime 
 [Rises and looks at doorJ] Too bare, O God, too 
 
 bare thy universe ! 
 
 I am so hurt that the half-light seems good 
 There should be veils between us and the sun. 
 
 [Music. 
 
 Or why not ever moonlight, ever the moon 
 With bathing and obliterating beauty? 
 Now introduce with melody a life 
 Which we can live, where there is no farewell, 
 Nor any death, but 
 
 \He looks towards the door again, rises and 
 
 sits again. 
 SAI.OME. Listen, brother, listen. 
 
 \They play soft music before the KING;
 
 Ii6 HEROD 
 
 after a while he starts up, he is soothed 
 for a moment. 
 
 HEROD. Bathsheba, go again and ask the queen 
 To come to me. [A movement and murmur. 
 
 I am not mad ! Look not 
 So wildly ! [HEROD rises. Music stops. 
 
 HEROD. Say to her I have been patient, 
 I have been very patient. [Moves down.'} Ask of her, 
 That for the sake of that one night when I, 
 
 [ Taking BATHSHEBA by the arm. 
 Catching her thus, burst thro' the robber swords, 
 And she feared not, but looked up in my eyes, 
 That she will come to me when she hath robed. 
 
 [Beating his hands gently together. 
 But oh, oh, she must come ! 
 
 PHYS. O king, the minstrel 
 
 That singeth to the dulcimer 
 
 HEROD. [Puts the PHYSICIAN aside.] 
 
 [To BATHSHEBA.] Say to her
 
 HEROD 117 
 
 I have guessed sweet messages, fond brevities, 
 But you, so young, know that the sight is much. 
 
 GADIAS. Go, child,and bid the queen to robe and come. 
 
 HEROD. I have been very patient. 
 
 SALOME. Lo, the minstrel ! 
 
 O listen, brother, listen. 
 
 \_The BOY sings to a dulcimer ; but as the last 
 notes die away, the KING rises slowly. 
 
 HEROD. I have a fear ! 
 
 GADIAS. Will you not make, O king, 
 Some gift to the sweet singer? 
 
 HEROD. Take this ruby. 
 
 Re-enter BATHSHEBA, who whispers to GADIAS. 
 Ah, she will come? 
 
 GADIAS. The queen but waits to robe her 
 
 Ainl she will come. 
 
 HEROD. [&'&.] Why doth the child for ever 
 Pour in your ear the tale which you repeat? 
 And you, Gadias, think you not the king
 
 n8 HEROD 
 
 That is to come, might with pure gentleness 
 Found such a kingdom as no sword could make ? 
 
 GADIAS. O king, a folly 1 
 
 HEROD. Is it is it ? Ah ! 
 
 The queen ! She comes not yet and oh, Gadias 
 Oh, if she cannot come ! 
 
 GADIAS. Cannot ! 
 
 HEROD. I say 
 
 Cannot ! She would she hath forgiven all. 
 Yet cannot traverse with her feet those yards 
 That separate us. If she would but cannot ! 
 I tell you we are fooled by the eye, the ear, 
 These organs muffle us from that real world 
 That lies about us, we are duped by brightness. 
 The ear, the eye doth make us deaf and blind ; 
 Else should we be aware of all our dead, 
 Who pass above us, through us and beneath us. 
 
 [Recovering. 
 O little Bathsheba [She moves down.~], how beautiful
 
 HEROD 119 
 
 You seem for you have twice gone in to her 
 And twice come back. I have a fear. 
 
 [Rises wildly. 
 
 PHYS. O king ! 
 
 pnter at a sign from PHYSICIAN a TROUPE OF DANC- 
 ING GIRLS who perform a slow, elaborate dance ; 
 but at its height, and when the movements are 
 growing furious, suddenly the KING is seen in 
 the midst, unkempt, ragged, and scattering the 
 DANCERS. 
 
 HEROD. Mariamne ! 
 GADIAS. \To PHYSICIAN.] Now, what's best? 
 
 Quickly devise. 
 
 HEROD. Mariamne ! Mariamne ! 
 A COUNCILLOR. \To PHYSICIAN.] Now Judaea 
 Hangs on thy wit. 
 
 PHYS. Myself am crazed almost. 
 
 HEROD. Mariamne, Mariamne, Mariamne, 
 Come, come !
 
 120 HEROD 
 
 [He rushes up the gallery to the door, at 
 which he casts himself, sinking ex- 
 hausted on steps. Amid the consterna- 
 tion, BATHSHEBA goes up, and taking his 
 hand, leads him gently down like a 
 child until he again sits on the throne. 
 CYPROS. [Placing her hands on his shoulders.~\ 
 
 My child, 
 I bore thee 'neath a wild moon by the sea. 
 
 [HEROD puts CYPROS'S hands gently away. 
 GADIAS. O Herod, thou art royal, rise and reign. 
 HEROD. [Recovering himself."] I had forgotten. I 
 
 am still a king ! 
 Bring me my crown, and set it on my head. 
 
 [GADIAS puts his crown on his head. 
 GADIAS. All hail ! all hail ! Herod, king of the Jews ! 
 
 [ Court repeat the cries. 
 
 HEROD. Bring forth the purple robe and vest me 
 in it.
 
 HEROD 121 
 
 [Cup-BEARER brings his robe. They crown 
 
 and robe him. 
 
 Summon the queen, and on the instant : I '11 
 Not tarry for long robe or ornament. 
 Councillors, captains, priests ! Is there delay ? 
 Look on me and look well ! Am I that Herod 
 That ere the beard was on me, burned up cities, 
 That fired the robbers out of Galilee ? 
 That shook the Parthian and left him dead, 
 Blew like a blast away the Arabian, 
 Who grappled to my side great Antony, 
 And after bound Augustus as my friend ? 
 
 THE COURT. Herod, Herod, Herod ! 
 
 HEROD. \Through murmur .] Am I that Herod 
 Who builded yonder amphitheatre 
 Rivalling Rome? who lured into these ports 
 Wealth of the world, a Temple have conceived 
 That shall dispyramid the Egyptian kings? 
 That so have lived, wrought, suffered, battled, loved?
 
 123 HEROD 
 
 I have outspanned life and the worm of God, 
 
 Imagining I am already dead 
 
 Begins to prey on me. Am I that Herod ? 
 
 [ Cries of < HEROD, HEROD, HEROD ! ' 
 Then on the instant let the queen be brought. 
 I '11 see her with my eyes in flesh and blood ; 
 Oh, nothing yet hath stopped me : to my will 
 No limit hath been set. Summon the queen, 
 Or I will call not earthly vengeance down. 
 I have exhausted earth, I '11 fetch the lightning 
 And call on thunder like an emperor ! [Moves down. 
 And henceforth I discard Augustus's aid ; 
 I '11 bribe Jehovah as my new ally, 
 Flatter the Holy One to be my friend 
 I'll I'll I '11- 
 
 \_Falls back into PHYSICIAN'S arms. 
 
 If you would avert a doom 
 Unheard, unthinkable summon the queen ! 
 PHYS. There is no other way.
 
 HEROD 123 
 
 GADIAS. \To ATTENDANT.] You then go forth 
 And bring the queen with ceremony in. 
 
 [Exeunt ATTENDANTS. After a pause 
 
 HEROD again starts up. 
 HEROD. [Standing.] Why, if I am denied the 
 
 sight of her, 
 
 If there hath been mischance to her I say not 
 There hath been yet so fineless is my will, 
 I '11 re-create her out of endless yearning, 
 And flesh shall cleave to bone, and blood shall run. 
 Do I not know her, every vein? Can I 
 Not imitate in furious ecstasy 
 What God hath coldly made ? I '11 re-create 
 My love with bone for bone and vein for vein. 
 The eyes, the eyes again, the hands, the hair, 
 And that which I have made, O that shall love me. 
 
 \With arms extended towards door, he 
 throws himself on throne. He buries 
 his head in anguish. Steps are heard
 
 124 HEROD 
 
 and the embalmed QUEEN is carried 
 in and laid at the foot of the throne. 
 There is a pause of pained expectancy. 
 HEROD slowly raises his face and de- 
 scends. He touches her on the fore- 
 head and stands suddenly rigid with 
 a fixed and vacant stare. 
 PHYS. He is stricken, and in catalepsy bound. 
 
 \Trumpets are heard. 
 A CRY. From Rome, from Rome, way for the 
 
 messengers 
 
 From Rome ; on Caesar's business. Make a path 
 For Caesar's envoys ! Way there ! 
 Knock. Enter ENVOYS, who make obeisance to HEROD. 
 IST E. Caesar, O king, 
 
 Confers on thee the kingdom of Arabia, 
 On thee and on thy heirs. What Herod's sword 
 Hath won, let Herod's wisdom pacify ! 
 'T is Caesar's pleasure ; and with this he sends
 
 HEROD 125 
 
 A sceptre all inlaid with western gems, 
 The symbol of this added sovereignty. 
 
 [HEROD remains motionless. 
 
 GADIAS. The king is stricken, and can stir not, sirs. 
 
 IST E. O thou Judaea ! O thou frozen land ! 
 
 2ND E. O thou mute East ! 
 
 3RD E. Motionless Orient ! 
 
 THE COURT. All hail, O hail, Herod ! Herod, all hail ! 
 
 SALOME. [To PHYSICIAN.] O lives there any hope 
 for him at last? 
 
 PHYS. Rest, and a world of leaves, and stealing stream 
 Or solemn swoon of music may allure 
 Homeward the ranging spirit of the king. 
 These things avail : but these things are of man. 
 To me indeed it seems, who with dim eyes 
 Behold this Herod motionless and mute, 
 To me it seems that they who grasp the world, 
 The kingdom and the power and the glory, 
 Must pay with deepest misery of spirit,
 
 126 HEROD 
 
 Atoning unto God for a brief brightness, 
 
 And ever ransom, like this rigid king, 
 
 The outward victory with inward loss. 
 
 CH. PRIEST. Now unto Him who brought His 
 people forth 
 
 Out of the wilderness, by day a cloud, 
 
 By night a pillar of fire ; to Him alone, 
 
 Look we at last and to no other look we. 
 
 [Slowly and silently the whole Court meh 
 away, one or two coming and looking 
 on the KING, then departing. HEROD 
 is left alone by the litter, standing mo- 
 tionless. The Curtain descends : then 
 rises, and it is night, with a few stars. 
 It descends, and again rises, and now 
 it is the glimmer of dawn which falls 
 upon HEROD and MARIAMNE, he stilt 
 standing rigid and with fixed stare in 
 the cataleptic trance.
 
 mmSEES i82!!iSL LIBRAR Y FACILITY 
 
 A " ill Hill lllll Hill I II 1 1 III n III II