Part 22 (1/2)

G.o.d hath given me beauty, and I may Snare with it him whose trap now bites my folk.

There is naught else to think of. Let me go And set those robes in order which best pleased Mana.s.ses' living eyes; and let me fill My gown with jewels, such as kindle sight, And have some stinging sweetness in my hair.-- Mana.s.ses, my Mana.s.ses, lost to me, Gone where my love can nothing search, and hidden Behind the vapours of these worldly years, The many years between me and thy death; Thine ears are sealed with immortal blessedness Against our miserable din of living; Through thy pure sense goeth no soil of grief.

Forgive me! for thou hast left me here to be hurt And moved to pity by the dolour of men.

The garment of my soul is splasht with sorrow, Sorrowful noise and sight; and like to fires Of venom spat on me, the sorrow eats Through the thin robe of sense into my soul.

And it is cried against me, this keen anguish, By my own people and my G.o.d's;--and thou Didst love them. Therefore thou must needs forgive me, That I devise how this my beauty, this Sacred to thy long-dead joy of desire, May turn to weapon in the hand of G.o.d; Such weapon as he hath taken aforetime To sword whole nations at a stroke to their knees,-- Storms of the air and hilted fire from heaven, And sightless edge of pestilence hugely swung Down on the bulk of armies in the night.

Such weapon in G.o.d's hand, and wielded so, A woman's beauty may be now, I pray; A pestilence suddenly in this foreign blood, A blight on the vast growth of a.s.syrian weed, A knife to the stem of its main root, the heart Of Holofernes. G.o.d! Let me hew him down, And out of the ground of Israel wither our plague!

II

BEFORE THE TENT OF HOLOFERNES

_Holofernes_.

Night and her admirable stars again!

And I again envying her and questioning!

What hast thou, Night, achieved, denied to me, That maketh thee so full of quiet stars?

What beauty has been mingled into thee So that thy depth burns with the peace of stars?-- I now with fires of uproarious heat, Exclaiming yellow flames and towering splendour And a huge fragrant smoke of precious woods, Must build against thy overlooking, Stars, And against thy terrible eternal news Of Beauty that burns quietly and pure, A lodge of wild extravagant earthly fire; Even as under pa.s.sions of fleshly pleasure I hide myself from my desiring soul.

[_Enter Guards with_ JUDITH.

_Guard_ 1.

We found this woman wandering in the trenches, And calling out, ”Take me to Holofernes, a.s.syrians, I am come for Holofernes.”

_Guard_ 2.

She would not, for no words of ours, unveil, And something held us back from handling her.

_Guard_ 1.

We think she must be beautiful, although She is so stubborn with that veil of hers.

_Guard_ 2.

We minded my lord's word, that he be shewn All the seized women which are strangely fair.

_Holofernes_.

Take off thy veil.

_Judith_.

I will not.

_Holofernes_.

Take thy veil From off thy face, Jewess, or thou straight goest To entertain my soldiers.

_Judith_.

I will not.

_Holofernes_.

Am I to tear it, then?

_Judith_.

My lord, thou durst not.

_Holofernes_.

Ha, there is spirit here. I have the whim, Jewess, almost to believe thee: I dare not!