SAUL, A MYSTERY. 
 
 4 " 
 
 ^^&f''
 
 SAUL, 
 
 A MYSTERY 
 
 An Evil Spirit from the Lord troubled him. 
 
 Co*e> 
 
 THE AUTHOR OF " CHRISTIAN BALLADS," "ATHANASION/ 
 ETC. ETC. ETC. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 D. APPLETON & CO., 200 BROADWAY. 
 
 HARTFORD: 
 H. S. PARSONS, 6 CENTRAL ROW. 
 
 1845.
 
 
 f \\ 
 
 > - 
 
 ; 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1845, by 
 
 H. S, PARSONS, 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Connecticut.
 
 
 EPISTLE, 
 
 T O 
 
 JOHN JAY, ESQ., 
 
 BEDFORD. 
 
 MY DEAR JAY, 
 
 You are too familiar with the wonderful histories of 
 Holy Writ, to need any intimation that the subject of 
 the Mystery which I dedicate to you, is one of the most 
 interesting which the older Scriptures present. The 
 character of Saul appears to me, to combine those attri 
 butes in which the Tragic Muse has heretofore found 
 her noblest material. Magnificent as Prometheus, he 
 is yet wretched as CEdipus, and wicked as Macbeth. 
 1 was aware, therefore, from the beginning, how diffi 
 cult. it would be to do justice to my great theme; but 
 experience has convinced me that the greatest difficul 
 ties attending it were of a class not foreseen, and of 
 which, as others may not suspect it, I am desirous of 
 reminding you. 
 
 I was led to choose a sacred subject, from a convic 
 tion that such are the most noble, and the least 
 1*
 
 VI 
 
 appreciated ; and from a mysterious and almost roman 
 tic love of the very geography of the Holy Land, co 
 existing with a deep desire to recommend the study 
 of sacred lore, in preference of the-wom-out fables of 
 classic Mythology. The finest dramatic hero of Holy 
 Scripture, seemed to me, moreover, to have been singu 
 larly overlooked ; and the endeavour to inspire others 
 with the deep and awful interest which always moved 
 my spirit at the name of Palestine, or the mention of 
 Saul and David, appeared to be a work, on which I 
 might ask and expect the blessing of the GOD of my 
 youth. But I did not apprehend the straits, within 
 which my high estimate of my undertaking would ne 
 cessarily hedge me ; nor the scruples which a deeper 
 inspection of the blessed Scriptures would excite, as to 
 the lawfulness of employing its narrations as material 
 for plastic fancy. I was familiar, it is true, with the 
 delicate sensibility of Racine, expressed in the preface 
 to his Esther ; but I am sorry to say that, at first, 
 the deep conscientiousness which I have since learned 
 to honour even more than the genius of its subject, 
 struck me as morbid, if not weak. The historical 
 books of Scripture are indeed the least objectionable 
 ground-work for fictitious illustration ; and the unin 
 spired narrations of Josephus may be taken as a prov 
 idential intimation that sacred history has also a place 
 in the civil and social history of the world : but I am 
 constrained to acknowledge that, like Jacob at Bethel, I 
 entered comparatively lightly upon a field, in which I 
 was soon brought to exclaim, how awful is this place. 
 Even the least interesting portions of Holy Writ, have
 
 Vll 
 
 convinced me that they came in no sense, " by the will 
 of man." The characters they set before us are the 
 speculative creations of no superficial judgment ; they 
 are, as it were, transcripts from the great books that 
 : shall be opened at the Last Day ; The HOLY SPIRIT 
 { has revealed them, for example and warning, to all suc- 
 : ceeding generations of men ; and with their story, we 
 ! ourselves are in some way mysteriously concerned. 
 
 A deepening sense of this great truth has fettered and 
 restrained me in writing. Passages, which I approved 
 as an artist, I have been forced to prune away, as a 
 Christian. And thus, though I present you with the 
 work completed, I do not pretend that it is finished ; 
 and if, for allowing it to go forth as it is, I shall be 
 thought, by good men, to have erred in judgment, I can 
 only say that I shall rejoice in the oblivion, to which it 
 is probably destined. 
 
 As to the propriety of treating sacred subjects in 
 the dramatic form, I need urge no other plea, than the 
 example of so grave a bishop as S. Gregory Nazian- 
 zen, who could employ this means of setting forth no 
 less a theme than " CHRIST and Him Crucified." Gro- 
 tius, who followed the venerable father, in a Latin Tra 
 gedy with the same high argument, has, in his preface, 
 expressed himself with great beauty, as to the limit 
 of a poet's freedom with inspired narrative, and the 
 revealed order of events ; and although his rules have 
 chief reference to the thrice holy ground of the sacred 
 Gospels, I have endeavoured generally to regard them, 
 in dealing with the story of Saul. What latitude I
 
 via 
 
 have allowed myself, has usually been in accordance 
 with admitted canons of criticism, or at least such as 
 not materially to affect the fact. The purely imagina 
 tive portions of the poem, will be found symbolical of 
 principles which I deemed it important to keep in 
 mind ; and this remark I make with special allusion to 
 the part sustained in the plot by the Ideal of an 
 evil spirit. I was not satisfied, as a mere dramatist 
 would be, with representing the apostate monarch as a 
 prey merely to his own conflicting passions : for the 
 Christian is bound to believe that, like all who trifle 
 with their election of GOD, he had become the subject 
 of infernal excitement to sin, and to ruin. This fear 
 ful truth I have not cared to explain away after the 
 pert and conceited philosophy of an age that lacks 
 the greatest element of noble mind religious venera 
 tion. Exhibiting this principle in the conception of 
 Merodach, I have also united with it an illustration of 
 the evil conscience and unrepented sin, which gave 
 Satan such advantage over the soul of his servant. That 
 haunting of remorse, which the greatest of poets has so 
 powerfully pictured in theblood-boltered Banquo, I have 
 more feebly symbolized in the body of death, which the 
 Evil Spirit is represented as inhabiting for the purpose 
 of producing, in his victim, the deeper despair. From 
 the Hadad of our lamented Hillhouse, I perhaps took 
 the hint of such a demoniacal possession ; and though I 
 employ it for a purpose so different from his that the ac 
 knowledgment might not be demanded, I am glad of the 
 opportunity of paying this passing tribute to a fine fan-
 
 IX 
 
 cy and gentle heart, of which his country has been so 
 prematurely bereaved. 
 
 I will only add that if I have occasionally preferred 
 to walk in other than buskin'd measures,! have found it 
 almost indispensable, in varying a poem of such length 
 and seriousness. One consigned by Inspiration itself 
 to the laugh and scorn, as well as the fear of men, 
 will be found chief speaker in the groundling style : and 
 as for the mere machines of the action, I have not scru 
 pled to let them talk, as I suppose the rustics of all 
 lands have in all ages been wont to talk. And so I 
 leave you to your own criticisms, with the intimation, 
 that though half the Horatian period of seasoning has 
 passed over my poem, between its first sketch, and the 
 present date, you must not expect a much greater degree 
 of finish, on that account. During that time, I have 
 been forced by graver studies to leave it untouched for 
 years together : and duties every way of paramount im 
 portance have only allowed me to make this work 
 an occasional amusement, while (to translate from 
 Grotius) I strove to vary the odd hours which I was 
 able to steal from severer occupations for the refresh 
 ing cultivation of the Muse, in such wise that even 
 they might not be lost to Christian meditation. 
 
 Remember sometimes the charming autumnal eve 
 ning and the delightful retreat, of which my date will 
 remind you. Hither have we often retired together 
 from the noisy city, whose hum is musical when once we 
 hear it across the broad Hudson, so mellowed as only to 
 tell us that we have escaped its din : and here to-day
 
 you have read the completed work, which from the 
 first I proposed to inscribe with a name dear to my 
 country for his sake who wore it once, and to me for 
 his who wears it now. 
 
 Ever faithfully y GUI'S, 
 
 A. C. C. 
 WEEHAWKEN, 
 
 October 13, 1842. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 ALTHOUGH this Poem was announced as about to be 
 published in the fall of 1842, it has been withheld for 
 private reasons, which now no longer interfere with the 
 fulfillment of the author's obligations to those kind 
 friends, who have been pleased to express an impatience 
 to see it forthcoming. It has, perhaps, been benefitted 
 by the delay. 
 
 ST. JOHN'S RECTORY, HARTFORD, 
 February, 1845.
 
 
 SAUL, 
 
 DAVID, 
 
 JONATHAN, 
 
 ABNER, 
 
 ABISHAI, 
 
 AMASA, 
 
 AHIMELECH, 
 
 ABIATHAR, 
 
 ZADOK, 
 
 THE PROPHET SAMUEL, 
 
 AHINOAM, 
 
 ABIGAIL, 
 
 HEZRO, 
 
 MERODACH, 
 
 DOEG, 
 
 HAG, 
 
 HUNCHBACK, 
 
 COWHERD, 
 
 A PHILISTINE CHIEF, 
 
 THE WITCH OF ENDOR, 
 
 HERALDS, OUTLAWS, SHEPHERDS, ETC. ETC. ETC. 
 
 The SCENE is chiefly laid in the hill country of Ju- 
 dcea, and parts adjacent ; but changes in the fourth act 
 to the mountains surrounding the valley of Esdrclon.

 
 
 jj SAUL, I 
 
 A MYSTERY. 
 
 AN EVIL SPIRIT FROM THE LORD TROUBLED HIM. 
 
 ACT I. 
 
 SCENE I. The wilderness near Gibeali of Saul. A 
 high place, looking eastward over a valley. The 
 dawn slowly breaking over Mount Nebo in the dis 
 tance. DAVID worshipping. 
 
 DAVID. 
 
 Now roll the mists away, 
 That swathed the slumbering world, 
 
 Through all the silent night. 
 The heavens are telling, Lord, 
 
 Thy glory and thy power, STJS 
 As light goes forth into the silent soul, 
 
 Of meditative man, 
 And calls as with a voice ; 
 Waking, like echoes in its labyrinths 
 2