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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0d3176e --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #66240 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/66240) diff --git a/old/66240-0.txt b/old/66240-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index a37998e..0000000 --- a/old/66240-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,20019 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Collected Works of Henrik Ibsen -Vol. 05 (of 11), by Henrik Ibsen - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The Collected Works of Henrik Ibsen Vol. 05 (of 11) - -Author: Henrik Ibsen - -Editor: William Archer - -Release Date: September 8, 2021 [eBook #66240] - -Language: English - -Produced by: KD Weeks, Emmanuel Ackerman, Sigal Alon, Eileen Gormly and - the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at - https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images - generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian - Libraries) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COLLECTED WORKS OF HENRIK -IBSEN VOL. 05 (OF 11) *** - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - Transcriber’s Note: - -This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects. -Italics are delimited with the ‘_’ character as _italic_. In the printed -original, emphasis is indicated by gesperrt (spaced) text, but is here -also delimited as the italic. There is a single instance of a one-letter -italic (_I_). - -Footnotes have been collected at the end of each section or act in which -they are referenced. - -Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please -see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding -the handling of any other textual issues encountered during its -preparation. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - -THE COLLECTED WORKS OF - HENRIK IBSEN - - VOLUME V - - EMPEROR AND GALILEAN - - (1873) - - THE COLLECTED WORKS OF - HENRIK IBSEN - - _Copyright Edition. Complete in 11 Volumes._ - _Crown 8vo, price 4s. each._ - - =ENTIRELY REVISED AND EDITED BY= - =WILLIAM ARCHER= - - Vol. I. Lady Inger, The Feast at Solhoug, Love’s - Comedy - - Vol. II. The Vikings, The Pretenders - - Vol. III. Brand - - Vol. IV. Peer Gynt - - Vol. V. Emperor and Galilean (2 parts) - - Vol. VI. The League of Youth, Pillars of Society - - Vol. VII. A Doll’s House, Ghosts - - Vol. VIII. An Enemy of the People, The Wild Duck - - Vol. IX. Rosmersholm, The Lady from the Sea - - Vol. X. Hedda Gabler, The Master Builder - - Vol. XI. Little Eyolf, John Gabriel Borkman, When - We Dead Awaken - - LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN - 21 BEDFORD STREET, W.C. - - THE COLLECTED WORKS OF - HENRIK IBSEN - - COPYRIGHT EDITION - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - VOLUME V - - EMPEROR AND - GALILEAN - - A WORLD-HISTORIC DRAMA - - WITH INTRODUCTIONS BY - - WILLIAM ARCHER - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: title page] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - LONDON - WILLIAM HEINEMANN - 1911 - - - - - - - - - _First printed September 1907_ - _Second Impression April 1911_ - - - - - - - - - _Copyright 1907 by William Heinemann_ - - CONTENTS - - - PAGE - - INTRODUCTION vii - - CAESAR’S APOSTASY 1 - _Translated by_ WILLIAM ARCHER - THE EMPEROR JULIAN 225 - _Translated by_ WILLIAM ARCHER - - - - - EMPEROR AND GALILEAN. - - - - - INTRODUCTION. - - -In a speech delivered at Copenhagen in 1898, Ibsen said: “It is now -thirty-four years since I journeyed southward by way of Germany and -Austria, and passed through the Alps on May 9. Over the mountains the -clouds hung like a great dark curtain. We plunged in under it, steamed -through the tunnel, and suddenly found ourselves at Miramare, where the -beauty of the South, a strange luminosity, shining like white marble, -suddenly revealed itself to me, and left its mark on my whole subsequent -production, even though it may not all have taken the form of beauty.” -Whatever else may have had its origin in this memorable moment of -revelation, _Emperor and Galilean_ certainly sprang from it. The poet -felt an irresistible impulse to let his imagination loose in the -Mediterranean world of sunshine and marble that had suddenly burst upon -him. Antiquity sprang to life before his mental vision, and he felt that -he must capture and perpetuate the shining pageant in the medium of his -art. We see throughout the play how constantly the element of external -picturesqueness was present to his mind. Though it has only once or -twice found its way to the stage,[1] it is nevertheless—for good and for -ill—a great piece of scene-painting. - -It did not take him long to decide upon the central figure for his -picture. What moved him, as it must move every one who brings to Rome -the smallest scintilla of imagination, was the spectacle of a superb -civilisation, a polity of giant strength and radiant beauty, -obliterated, save for a few pathetic fragments, and overlaid by forms of -life in many ways so retrograde and inferior. The Rome of the sixties, -even more than the Rome of to-day, was a standing monument to the -triumph of mediævalism over antiquity. The poet who would give dramatic -utterance to the emotions engendered by this spectacle must almost -inevitably pitch upon the decisive moment in the transition—and Ibsen -found that moment in the reaction of Julian. He attributed to it more -“world-historic” import than the sober historian is disposed to allow -it. Gaetano Negri[2] shows very clearly (what, indeed, is plain enough -in Gibbon) that Julian’s action had not the critical importance which -Ibsen assigns to it. His brief reign produced, as nearly as possible, no -effect at all upon the evolution of Christianity. None the less is it -true that Julian made a spiritual struggle of what had been, to his -predecessors, a mere question of politics, one might almost say of -police. Never until his day did the opposing forces confront each other -in full consciousness of what was at stake; and never after his day had -they even the semblance of equality requisite to give the struggle -dramatic interest. As a dramatist, then—whatever the historian may -say—Ibsen chose his protagonist with unerring instinct. Julian was the -last, and not the least, of the heroes of antiquity. - -Ibsen had been in Rome only two or three months when he wrote to -Björnson (September 16, 1864): “I am busied with a long poem, and have -in preparation a tragedy, _Julianus Apostata_, a piece of work which I -set about with intense gusto, and in which I believe I shall succeed. I -hope to have both finished next spring, or, at any rate, in the course -of the summer.” As regards _Julianus Apostata_, this hope was very far -astray, for nine years elapsed before the play was finished.[3] Not till -May 4, 1866, is the project again mentioned, when Ibsen writes to his -friend, Michael Birkeland, that, though the Danish poet, Hauch, has in -the meantime produced a play on the same theme, he does not intend to -abandon it. On May 21, 1866, he writes to his publisher, Hegel, that, -now that _Brand_ is out of hand, he is still undecided what subject to -tackle next. “I feel more and more disposed,” he says, “to set to work -in earnest at _Kejser Julian_, which I have had in mind for two years.” -He feels sure that Hauch’s conception of the subject must be entirely -different from his; and he does not intend to read Hauch’s play. On July -22, 1866, he writes from Frascati to Paul Botten-Hansen that he is -“wrestling with a subject and knows that he will soon get the upper hand -of the brute.” His German editors take this to refer to _Emperor and -Galilean_, and they are probably right; but it is not quite certain. The -work he actually produced was _Peer Gynt_; and we know that he had a -third subject in mind at the time. We hear no more of Julian until -October 28, 1870, when, in his autobiographic letter to Peter Hansen, he -writes from Dresden: “... Here I live in a tediously well-ordered -community. What will become of me when at last I actually reach home! I -must seek salvation in remoteness of subject, and think of attacking -_Kejser Julian_.” - -This was, in fact, to be his next work; but two years and a half were -still to pass before he finally “got the upper hand of the brute.” On -January 18, 1871, he writes to Hegel: “Your supposition that _Julian_ is -so far advanced that it may go to the printers next month arises from a -misunderstanding. The first part is finished; I am working at the second -part; but the third part is not even begun. This third part will, -however, go comparatively quickly, and I confidently hope to place the -whole in your hands by the month of June.” This is the first mention we -have of the division into three parts, which he ultimately abandoned. If -Hegel looked for the manuscript in June, he looked in vain. On July 12 -Ibsen wrote to him: “Now for the reason of my long silence: I am hard at -work on _Kejser Julian_. This book will be my chief work, and it is -engrossing all my thoughts and all my time. That positive view of the -world which the critics have so long been demanding of me, they will -find here.” Then he asks Hegel to procure for him three articles on -_Julian_ by Pastor Listov, which had appeared in the Danish paper, -_Fædrelandet_, and inquires whether there is in Danish any other -statement of the _facts_ of Julian’s career. “I have Neander’s German -works on the subject; also D. Strauss’s; but the latter’s book contains -nothing but argumentative figments,[4] and that sort of thing I can do -myself. It is facts that I require.” His demand for more facts, even at -this stage of the proceedings, shows that his work must still have been -in a pretty fluid state. - -Two months later (September 24, 1871) Ibsen wrote to Brandes, who had -apparently been urging him to “hang out a banner” or nail his colours to -the mast: “While I have been busied upon _Julian_, I have become, in a -way, a fatalist; and yet this play will be a sort of a banner. Do not be -afraid, however, of any tendency-nonsense: I look at the characters, at -the conflicting designs, at _history_, and do not concern myself with -the ‘moral’ of it all. Of course, you will not confound the moral of -history with its philosophy; for that must inevitably shine forth as the -final verdict on the conflicting and conquering forces.” On December 27 -(still from Dresden) he writes to Hegel: “My new work goes steadily -forward. The first part, _Julian and the Philosophers_, in three acts, -is already copied out.... I am busily at work upon the second part, -which will go quicker and be considerably shorter; the third part, on -the other hand, will be somewhat longer.” To the same correspondent, on -April 24, 1872, he reports the second part almost finished. “The third -and last part,” he says, “will be mere child’s play. The spring has now -come, and the warm season is my best time for working.” To Brandes, on -May 31, he writes, “I go on wrestling with _Julian_”; and on July 23 -(from Berchtesgaden) “That monster Julian has still such a grip of me -that I cannot shake him off.” On August 8 he announces to Hegel that he -has “completed the second part of the trilogy. The first part, _Julian -and the Philosophers_, a play in three acts, will make about a hundred -printed pages. The second part, _Julian’s Apostasy_, a play in three -acts, of which I am now making a fair copy, will be of about equal -length. The third play, _Julian on the Imperial Throne_, will run to -five acts, and my preparations for it are so far advanced that I shall -get it out of hand very much quicker than the others. What I have done -forms a whole in itself, and could quite well be published separately; -but for the sake of the complete impression I think it most advisable -that all three plays should appear together.” - -Two months later (October 14) the poet is back in Dresden, and writes as -follows to a new and much-valued friend, Mr Edmund Gosse: “I am working -daily at _Julianus Apostata_, and ... hope that it may meet with your -approval. I am putting into this book a part of my own spiritual life; -what I depict, I have, under other forms, myself gone through, and the -historic theme I have chosen has also a much closer relation to the -movements of our own time than one might at first suppose. I believe -such a relation to be indispensable to every modern treatment of so -remote a subject, if it is, as a poem, to arouse interest.” In a -somewhat later letter to Mr. Gosse he says: “I have kept strictly to -history.... And yet I have put much self-anatomy into this book.” - -In February 1873 the play was finished. On the 4th of that month Ibsen -writes to his old friend Ludvig Daae that he is on the point of -beginning his fair copy of what he can confidently say will be his -“Hauptwerk,” and wants some guidance as to the proper way of spelling -Greek names. Oddly enough, he is still in search of facts, and asks for -information as to the _Vita Maximi_ of Eunapius, which has not been -accessible to him. Two days later (February 6) he writes to Hegel: “I -have the great pleasure of being able to inform you that my long work is -finished—and more to my satisfaction than any of my earlier works. The -book is entitled _Emperor and Galilean, a World-Drama in Two Parts_. It -contains: Part First, _Caesar’s Apostasy_; play in five acts (170 pp.); -Part Second, _The Emperor Julian_, play in five acts (252 pp.).... Owing -to the growth of the idea during the process of composition, I shall -have to make another fair copy of the first play. But it will not become -longer in the process; on the contrary, I hope to reduce it by about -twenty pages.... This play has been to me a labour of Hercules—not the -actual composition: that has been easy—but the effort it has cost me to -live myself into a fresh and visual realisation of so remote and so -unfamiliar an age.” On February 23, he writes to Ludvig Daae, discussing -further the orthography of the Greek names, and adding: “My play deals -with a struggle between two irreconcileable powers in the life of the -world—a struggle which will always repeat itself. Because of this -universality, I call the book ‘a world-historic drama.’ For the rest, -there is in the character of Julian, as in most that I have written -during my riper years, more of my own spiritual experience than I care -to acknowledge to the public. But it is at the same time an entirely -realistic piece of work. The figures stood solidly before my eyes in the -light of their time—and I hope they will so stand before the readers’ -eyes.” - -The book was not published until the autumn (October 16, 1873). On -September 8, Ibsen wrote to Brandes that he was daily expecting its -appearance. “I hear from Norway,” he went on, “that Björnson, though he -cannot know anything about the book, has declared it to be ‘Atheism,’ -adding that it was inevitable it should come to that with me. What the -book is or is not I won’t attempt to decide; I only know that I have -energetically seen a fragment of the history of humanity, and what I saw -I have tried to reproduce.” On the very day of the book’s appearance, he -again writes to Brandes from Dresden: “The direction public affairs have -taken in these parts gives this poem an actuality I myself had not -foreseen.” - -A second edition of _Emperor and Galilean_ appeared in December 1873. In -the following January Ibsen writes to Mr. Gosse, who had expressed some -regret at his abandonment of verse: “The illusion I wished to produce -was that of reality. I wished to leave on the reader’s mind the -impression that what he had read had actually happened. By employing -verse I should have counteracted my own intention.... The many everyday, -insignificant characters, whom I have intentionally introduced, would -have become indistinct and mixed up with each other had I made them all -speak in rhythmic measure. We no longer live in the days of -Shakespeare.... The style ought to conform to the degree of ideality -imparted to the whole presentment. My play is no tragedy in the ancient -acceptation. My desire was to depict human beings and therefore I would -not make them speak the language of the gods.” A year later (January 30, -1875) he thus answers a criticism by George Brandes: “I cannot but find -an inconsistency between your disapproval of the doctrine of necessity -contained in my book, and your approval of something very similar in -Paul Heyse’s _Kinder der Welt_. For in my opinion it comes to much the -same thing whether, in writing of a person’s character, I say ‘It runs -in his blood’ or ‘He is free—under necessity.’” - -An expression in the same letter throws light on the idea which may be -called the keystone of the arch of thought erected in this play. “Only -entire nations,” Ibsen writes, “can join in great intellectual -movements. A change of front in our conception of life and of the world -is no parochial matter; and we Scandinavians, as compared with other -European nations, have not yet got beyond the parish-council standpoint. -But nowhere do you find a parish-council anticipating and furthering -‘the third empire.’” To the like effect runs a passage in a speech -delivered at Stockholm, September 24, 1887: “I have sometimes been -called a pessimist: and indeed I am one, inasmuch as I do not believe in -the eternity of human ideals. But I am also an optimist, inasmuch as I -fully and confidently believe in the ideals’ power of propagation and of -development. Especially and definitely do I believe that the ideals of -our time, as they pass away, are tending towards that which, in my drama -of _Emperor and Galilean_, I have designated as ‘the third empire.’ Let -me therefore drain my glass to the growing, the coming time.” - -The latest (so far as I know) of Ibsen’s references to this play is -perhaps the most significant of all. It occurs in a letter to the -Danish-German scholar Julius Hoffory, written from Munich, February 26, -1888: “_Emperor and Galilean_ is not the first work I wrote in Germany, -but doubtless the first that I wrote under the influence of German -spiritual life. When, in the autumn of 1868, I came from Italy to -Dresden, I brought with me the plan of _The League of Youth_, and wrote -that play in the following winter. During my four years’ stay in Rome, I -had merely made various historical studies, and taken sundry notes, for -_Emperor and Galilean_; I had not sketched out any definite plan, much -less written any of it. My view of life was still, at that time, -National-Scandinavian, wherefore I could not master the foreign -material. Then, in Germany, I lived through the great time, the year of -the war, and the development which followed it. This brought with it for -me, at many points, an impulse of transformation. My conception of -world-history and of human life had hitherto been a national one. It now -widened into a racial conception; and then I could write _Emperor and -Galilean_.” - -I have now brought together those utterances of Ibsen’s which relate the -external history of the great double-drama, and give us some insight -into the spiritual influences which inspired and shaped it. We have seen -that, at the time of its completion, he confidently regarded it as his -masterpiece. It is the habit of many artists always to think their last -work their best; but there is nothing to show that this was one of -Ibsen’s foibles. Moreover, even towards the end of his life, when the -poet was asked by Professor Schofield, of Harvard, what work he -considered his greatest, he replied, _Emperor and Galilean_. If this was -his deliberate and lasting opinion, we have here another curious -instance of the tendency, so frequent among authors, to capricious -over-valuation of one or another of their less successful efforts. -Certainly we should be very sorry to miss this splendid fresco of the -decadent Empire from the list of Ibsen’s works; but neither technically -nor intellectually—unless I am very much mistaken—can it rank among his -masterpieces. - -Of all historical plays it is perhaps the most strictly historical. -Apart from some unimportant chronological rearrangements, the main lines -of Julian’s career are reproduced with extraordinary fidelity. The -individual occurrences of the first play are for the most part invented, -and the dialogue freely composed; but the second play is a mere mosaic -of historical or legendary incidents, while a large part of the dialogue -is taken, almost word for word, either from Julian’s own writings, or -from other historical or quasi-historical documents. I will try to -distinguish briefly between the elements of history and fiction in the -first play: in the second there is practically no fiction save the -fictions of Gregory and the ecclesiastical historians. - -The details of the first act have no historical foundation. Gallus was -not appointed Caesar on any such occasion as Ibsen describes; and there -seems to be no hint of any intrigue between him and Helena. The -character of Agathon is fictitious, though all that is related of -Julian’s life in Cappadocia is historical. The meeting with Libanius is -an invention; and it was to Nicomedia, not to Pergamus, that Julian was -sent shortly after the elevation of his brother to the second place in -the Empire. - -The chronological order of the events on which the second and third acts -are founded is reversed by Ibsen. Julian fell under the influence of -Maximus before ever he went to Athens. Eunapius relates his saying, “I -go where torches light themselves, and where statues smile,” or words to -that effect; but they were spoken at Pergamus to Chrysantius, a -Neo-Platonist, who, while deprecating the thaumaturgic methods of -Maximus, averred that he himself had witnessed this marvel. For the -details of the symposium at Ephesus there is no foundation, though -Gregory and others relate weird legends of supernatural experiences -which Julian underwent at the instance of Maximus. Not till after the -disgrace and death of Gallus did Julian proceed to Athens, where he did -not study under Libanius. Indeed, I cannot discover that he ever -personally encountered Libanius before his accession to the throne. It -is true that Gregory and Basil were his fellow students at Athens; but -the tender friendship which Ibsen represents as existing between them is -certainly imaginary. - -All the military events at Paris, and the story of Julian’s victory over -Knodomar, are strictly historical. Helena, however, did not die at -Paris, but at Vienne, after her husband had assumed the purple. Her -death was said to have been indirectly due to a jealous machination of -the Empress Eusebia; but the incident of the poisoned fruit is quite -fictitious, and equally so are the vague enormities revealed in the -dying woman’s delirium. From the fact that Julian is strangely silent -about his wife, we may conjecture that their marriage was not a happy -one; but this is all the foundation Ibsen had to build upon.[5] - -For the scene in the Catacombs at Vienne there is nothing that can -fairly be called a historic basis. It is true that, after assuming the -purple, Julian did at one time endanger his position by shutting himself -away from his soldiery; it is true, or at least it is related, that -Julian “brought from Greece into Gaul the high priest of the -mysteries—the Hierophant, as he was called [not Maximus]—and did not -decide to rebel until he had, with the greatest secrecy, accomplished -the prescribed sacred rites.” There is also a vague, and probably -mythical, report of his having gone through some barbarous ceremony of -purification, in order to wipe out the stain of his baptism. On such -slight suggestions did Ibsen build up the elaborate fabric of his fifth -act. The character of Sallust, like that of Oribases, is historical: but -of any approach to double-dealing on the part of the excellent Sallust -there is no hint. As there is no foundation for the infidelity of the -living Helena, so there is no foundation for the part played by Helena -dead in determining Julian’s apostasy. - -While Ibsen invents, however, he does not falsify; it is when he ceases -to invent (paradoxically enough) that falsification sets in. In all -essentials, this first play is a representation of the youth of Julian -as just as it is vivid. His character is very truly portrayed—his -intellectual and moral earnestness, his superstition, his vanity, his -bravery, his military genius. The individual scenes are full of poetic -and dramatic inspiration. There may be some question, indeed, as to the -artistic legitimacy of the employment of the supernatural in the third -act; but of its imaginative power there can be no doubt. The drama -progresses in an ever-ascending scale of interest, from the -idyllic-spectacular opening, through the philosophic second act, the -mystic third act, the stirring and terrible fourth act, up to the -magnificent poetic melodrama of the fifth. In a slightly old-fashioned, -romantic style, the play is as impressive to the imagination as it is, -in all essentials, faithful to historic fact. - -When Julian has ascended the throne, a wholly different method of -treatment sets in. We could almost guess from internal evidence, what -Ibsen’s letters prove to be the fact—that he underwent a decisive change -of mental attitude during the process of composition. The original first -part, we see (that is to say the three-act play which was to have been -called _Julian and the Philosophers_), was finished some time before -January 18, 1871, on which date he tells Hegel that he is already at -work on the second part. But January 18, 1871, was the very day on -which, at Versailles, the King of Prussia was proclaimed German Emperor; -so that the first part must have been written before the Imperialisation -of Germany was even to be foreseen. While the poet was engaged upon the -second part of the “trilogy” he then designed, he was doubtless brooding -over the great event of January 18, and gradually realising its nature -and consequences. That change in his mental attitude was taking place, -which in his letter to Hoffory (p. xvi.) he described as the transition -from a national to a racial standpoint. While in January he “confidently -hopes” to have the whole play finished in June, July finds him, to all -appearance, no further advanced, and (very significantly) asking for -“facts,” documents of detail, whereof, in writing the first play, he had -felt no need. At the same time he tells Hegel that the critics will find -in the play that positive view of the world for which they have long -been clamouring—a _Weltanschauung_, we may fairly conjecture, at which -he has arrived during the six months’ interval since his last letter. - -What, then, was that “positive view”? It can have been nothing else than -the theory of the “third empire,” which is to absorb both Paganism and -Christianity, and is to mark, as it were, the maturity of the race, in -contrast to its Pagan childhood and its Christian adolescence. (Compare -the scene between Julian and Maximus at the end of Part II. Act III.) -The analogy between this theory and the Nietzschean conception of the -“Overman” need not here be emphasised. It is sufficient to note that -Ibsen had come to conceive world-history as moving, under the guidance -of a Will which works through blinded, erring, and sacrificed human -instruments, towards a “third empire,” in which the jarring elements of -flesh and spirit shall be reconciled. - -It may seem like a play on the word “empire” to connect this concept -with the establishment in January 1871 of a political confederation of -petty States, compared with which even Julian’s “orbis terrarum” was a -world-empire indeed. But there is ample proof that in Ibsen’s mind -political unification, the formation of large aggregates inspired by a -common idea, figured as a preliminary to the coming of the “third -empire.” In no other sense can we read the letters to Hoffory and -Brandes cited above (p. xv.); and I give in a footnote[6] a reference to -other passages of similar tenor. “But Julian,” it may be said, -“represented precisely the ideal of political cohesion which was revived -in the unification of Germany; why, then, should Ibsen, in writing the -second play, have (so to speak) turned against his hero?” The reason, I -think, was that Ibsen had come to feel that a loose political unity -could be of little avail without the spiritual fusion implied in a -world-religion; and this fusion it was Julian’s tragic error to oppose. -He was a political imperialist by inheritance and as a matter of course; -but what he really cared for, the point on which he bent his will, was -the restoration of polytheism with all its local cults. And here Ibsen -parted company with him. He sympathised to the full with Julian’s -rebellion against certain phases of Christianity—against book-worship, -death-worship, other-worldliness, hypocrisy, intolerance. He had himself -gone through this phase of feeling. During his first years in Rome, he -had seen the ruins of the ancient world of light and glory sicklied o’er -with the pale cast of mediaevalism; and he had ardently sympathised with -Julian’s passionate resentment against the creed which had defamed and -defaced the old beauty in the name of a truth that was so radically -corrupted as to be no longer true. In this mood he had conceived and in -great measure executed the First Part, as we now possess it. But further -study of detail, in the light of that new political conception which had -arisen out of the events of 1870-71, had shown him that the secret of -Julian’s failure lay in the hopeless inferiority of the religion he -championed to the religion he attacked. That religion, with all its -corruptions, came to seem a necessary stage in the evolution of -humanity; and the poet asked himself, perhaps, whether he, any more than -Julian, had even now a more practical substitute to offer in its place. -In this sense, I take it, we must read his repeated assertion that he -had put into the play much of his own “spiritual experience.” In the -concept of the “third empire” he found, I repeat, the keystone to his -arch of thought, to which everything else must be brought into due -relation. He re-wrote (it seems probable) the scene of the symposium -(Part I. Act III.) in order to emphasise this idea; and it entirely -dominated and conditioned the whole of the second play. - -But what was the effect of the concept? It was to make Julian a -plaything in the hands of some power, some implicitly-postulated -World-Will, working slowly, deviously, but relentlessly, towards a -far-off, dimly-divined consummation. Christianity, no doubt, was also an -instrument of this power; but it was an instrument predestined (for the -moment) to honourable uses, while its opponent was fated to dishonour. -Thus the process of the second part is a gradual sapping of Julian’s -intelligence and power of moral discrimination; while the World-Will, -acting always on the side of Christianity, becomes indistinguishable -from the mechanical Providence of the vulgar melodramatist. - -Whatever we may think of the historical or philosophical value of the -theory of the “third empire,” there can be little doubt that its effect -upon the play has been artistically disastrous. It has led Ibsen to cog -the dice against Julian in a way from which even a Father of the Church -might have shrunk. He has not only accepted uncritically all the -invectives of Gregory, and the other Christian assailants of -“Antichrist,” but he has given to many historic events a fictitious -twist, and always to Julian’s disadvantage.[7] - -It would need a volume to apply to each incident of the Second Part the -test of critical examination. I must be content with a rough outline of -the distorting effect of the poet’s preoccupation with his -“world-historic” idea. - -In the first place, he makes Julian much more of a persecutor than even -his enemies allege him to have been. Nothing is more certain than that -Julian was sincerely convinced of the inefficacy of violence as a means -of conversion, and keenly alive to the impolicy of conferring upon his -opponents the distinction of martyrdom. Tried by the standards of his -age, he was a marvellously humane man. Compared with his uncle, -Constantine, his cousin Constantius, his brother Gallus—to go no further -back among wearers of the purple—he seems like a being of another race. -It is quite true, as his enemies allege, that his clemency was politic -as well as humane; but, whatever its motives, it was real and -consistent. Gregory, while trying to make him out a monster, explicitly -and repeatedly complains that he denied to Christians the crown of -martyrdom. Saint Jerome speaks of his “blanda persecutio”—persecution by -methods of mildness. The worst that can be alleged against him is a lack -of diligence in punishing popular outrages upon the Christians -(generally of the nature of reprisals) which occurred here and there -under his rule. That he incited to such riots is nowhere alleged; and it -is difficult to judge whether his failure to repress them was due to -malicious inertia or to actual lack of power. The policing of the empire -cannot have been an easy matter, and Julian was occupied, during the -whole of his brief reign, in concentrating his forces for the Persian -expedition. It cannot be pretended that his tolerance rose to the pitch -of impartiality. He favoured Pagans, and he more or less oppressed -Christians; though a considerable part of his alleged oppression lay in -the withdrawal of extravagant privileges conferred on them by his -predecessors. In his attempt to undo some of the injustices that -Christians had committed during their forty years of predominance—such -as the seizure of temple glebes and so forth—he was doubtless guilty, on -his own account, of more than one injustice. Wrong breeds wrong, and, in -a time of religious dissolution and reconstruction, equity is always at -the mercy of passion, resentment and greed. There was even, in some of -Julian’s proceedings, a sort of perfidy and insolence that must have -been peculiarly galling to the Christians. It would not be altogether -unjust to accuse him of having instituted against the new religion a -campaign of chicanery; but that is something wholly different from a -campaign of blood. The alleged “martyrdoms” of his reign are few in -number,[8] are recounted by late and prejudiced authorities, are -accompanied by all the manifestly fabulous details characteristic of -such stories, and are none of them, with the smallest show of -credibility, laid to the account of Julian himself. - -But what is the impression we receive from Ibsen? We are given to -understand that Julian drifted into a campaign of sanguinary atrocity, -full of horrors as great as those recorded or imagined of the -persecutions under Decius or Diocletian. It is made to seem, moreover, -that he was personally concerned in some of the worst of these horrors. -We are asked to conceive his life as being passed with the mingled -shrieks and psalms of his victims ringing in his ears. He is made to -gloat in imagination over their physical agonies. (“Where are the -Galileans now? Some under the executioner’s hands, others flying through -the narrow streets, ashy pale with terror, their eyes starting from -their heads,” &c. &c.; p. 314). He is haunted in his last hours by -ghastly visions of whole troops of martyrs. Moreover, his persecutions -are made particularly hateful by the fact that they either fall upon or -threaten his personal friends. The companion of his childhood, Agathon -(a fictitious personage), is goaded by remorseless cruelty to that -madness which eventually makes him the assassin of Antichrist. Gregory -of Nazianzus is first made (what he never was) Julian’s most cherished -comrade, and is then shown as doing what he never did—playing a noble -and heroic part in personally defying the tyrant. Mad and monstrous -designs are attributed to Julian, such as that of searching out (with -the aid of tortures) and destroying all the writings of the Christians. -This trait appears to be suggested by a letter from Julian to the -Prefect of Egypt enjoining him to collect and preserve all the books -which had belonged to George, Bishop of Alexandria: “He had many of them -concerning philosophy and rhetoric, and many of them that contained the -doctrines of the impious Galileans. I would willingly see the last named -all destroyed, if I did not fear that some good and useful books might, -at the same time, be destroyed by mistake. Make, therefore, the most -minute search concerning them. In this search the secretary of George -may be of great help to you.... But if he try to deceive you in this -affair, submit him immediately to the torture.” It is needless to remark -upon the difference between a rhetorical wish that all the Christian -books in a particular library might be destroyed, and an actual attempt -to annihilate all the Christian writings in the world. Thus not only are -the clearest evidences of Julian’s abstention from violence disregarded, -but all sorts of minor incidents are misrepresented to his disadvantage. - -A particularly grave injustice to his character meets us almost on the -threshold of the Second Part. The execution of the Treasurer, Ursulus, -by the military tribunal which Julian appointed on coming to the throne, -is condemned by all historians and was regretted by Julian himself. No -doubt he was culpably remiss in not preventing it; but Ibsen, without -the slightest warrant, gives his conduct a peculiarly odious character -in making it appear that he deliberately sacrificed the old man to his -resentment of a blow administered to his vanity in the matter of the -Eastern Ambassadors. There is nothing whatever to connect Ursulus with -this incident. - -The failure of Julian’s effort to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem is a -matter of unquestioned history. It is impossible now to determine, -though it is easy to conjecture, what natural accidents were magnified -by fanaticism into supernatural intervention. But what does Ibsen do? He -is not even content with the comparatively rational account of the -matter given by Gregory within a few months of its occurrence. He adopts -Ammian’s later and much exaggerated account; he makes Jovian, who had -nothing to do with the affair, avouch it with the authority of an -eye-witness; and, to give the miracle a still more purposeful -significance, he represents it as the instrument of the conversion of -Jovian, who was to be Julian’s successor, and the undoer of his work. -Under ordinary circumstances, this would be a quite admissible -re-arrangement of history, designed to save the introduction of another -character. But the very fact that the poet is, throughout the play, so -obviously sacrificing dramatic economy and concentration to historic -accuracy, renders this heightening of the alleged miracle something very -like a falsification of evidence. It arises, of course, from no desire -to be unjust to Julian, for whom Ibsen’s sympathy remains unmistakable, -but from a determination to make him the tragic victim of a World-Will -pitilessly using him as an instrument to its far-off ends. - -But this conception of a vague external power interfering at all sorts -of critical moments to baffle designs of which, for one reason or -another, it disapproves, belongs to the very essence of melodrama. -Therefore the incident of the Temple of Jerusalem brings with it painful -associations of _The Sign of the Cross_; and still more suggestive of -that masterpiece is the downfall of the Temple of Apollo at Daphne which -brings the second act of the Second Part to a close. Here the poet -deliberately departs from history for the sake of a theatrical effect. -The temple of Apollo was not destroyed by an earthquake, nor in any way -that even suggested a miracle. It was simply burnt to the ground; and -though there was no evidence to show how the conflagration arose, the -suspicion that it was the work of Christians cannot be regarded as -wholly unreasonable. - -An incident of which Ibsen quite uncritically accepts the accounts of -Julian’s enemies is his edict imposing what we should now call a test on -the teachers in public (municipal) schools. This was probably an -impolitic act; but an act of frantic tyranny it certainly was not. Homer -and Hesiod were in Julian’s eyes sacred books. They were the Scriptures -of his religion; and he decreed that they should not be expounded to -children, at the public expense, by “atheists” who (unless they were -hypocrites as well) were bound to cast ridicule and contempt on them as -religious documents. It is not as though Christians of that age could -possibly have been expected to treat the Olympian divinities with the -decent reverence with which even an agnostic teacher of to-day will -speak of the Gospel story. Such tolerance was foreign to the whole -spirit of fourth-century Christianity. It was nothing if not intolerant; -and the teacher would have been no good Christian who did not make his -lessons the vehicle of proselytism. There is something a little -paradoxical in the idea that tolerance should go the length of endowing -the propagation of intolerance. It is quite false to represent Julian’s -measure as an attempt to deprive Christians of all instruction, and hurl -them back into illiterate barbarism. He explicitly states that Christian -children are as welcome as ever to attend the schools. - -As the drama draws to a close, Ibsen shows his hero at every step more -pitifully hoodwinked and led astray by the remorseless World-Will. He -regains, towards the end, a certain tragic dignity, but it is at the -expense of his sanity. “Quos deus vult perdere prius dementat.” Now, -there is no real evidence for the frenzied megalomania, the -“Cäsarenwahn,” which the poet attributes to Julian. It is not even -certain that his conduct of the Persian expedition was so rash and -desperate as it is represented to be. Gibbon (no blind partisan of -Julian’s) has shown that there is a case to be made even for the burning -of the fleet. The mistake, perhaps, lay, not so much in burning it, as -in having it there at all. Even as events fell out, the result of the -expedition was by no means the greatest disaster that ever befell the -Roman arms. The commonplace, self-indulgent Jovian brought the army off, -ignominiously indeed, but in tolerable preservation. Had Julian lived, -who knows but that the burning of the ships might now have ranked as one -of the most brilliant audacities recorded in the annals of warfare? - -It would be too much, perhaps, to expect any poet to resist the -introduction of the wholly unhistoric “I am hammering the Emperor’s -coffin,” and “Thou hast conquered, Galilean!” They certainly fell in too -aptly with Ibsen’s scheme for him to think of weighing their evidences. -But one significant instance may be noted of the way in which he twists -things to the detriment either of Julian’s character or of his sanity. -In the second scene of the fifth act, he makes Julian contemplate -suicide by drowning, in the hope that, if his body disappeared, the -belief would spread abroad that he had been miraculously snatched up -into the communion of the gods. Now Gregory, it is true, mentions the -design of suicide; but he mentions it as an incident of Julian’s -delirium _after_ his wound. Gregory’s virulence of hatred makes him at -best a suspected witness; but even he did not hold Julian capable of so -mad a fantasy before his intellect had been overthrown by physical -suffering and fever. - -Thus from step to step, throughout the Second Part, does Ibsen disparage -and degrade his hero. It is not for me to discuss the value of the -conception of the “third empire” to which poor Julian was sacrificed. -But one thing we may say with confidence—namely, that the postulated -World-Will does not work by such extremely melodramatic methods as those -which Ibsen attributes to it. So far as its incidents are concerned, the -Second Part might have been designed by a superstitious hagiologist, or -a melodramatist desirous of currying favour with the clergy. Nay, it -might almost seem as though the spirit of Gregory of Nazianzus—himself a -dramatist after a fashion—had entered into Ibsen during the composition -of the play. Certainly, if the World-Will decreed that Julian should be -sacrificed in the cause of the larger Imperialism, it made of Ibsen, -too, its instrument for completing the immolation. - -In translating _Kejser og Galilæer_ I was enabled (by arrangement) to -avail myself of occasional aid from Miss Catherine Ray’s version of the -play, published in 1876. To Miss Ray belongs the credit of having been -the first English translator of Ibsen, as Mr. Gosse was his first -expositor. The text of my earlier rendering has been very carefully -revised for the present edition. - -One difficulty has encountered me at every turn. The Norwegians use only -one word—_Riget_ (German _das Reich_)—to cover the two ideas represented -in English by “empire” and “kingdom.” In most cases “empire” is clearly -the proper rendering, since it would be absurd to speak in English of -the Roman or the Byzantine Kingdom. But it would be no less impossible -to say, in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thine is the empire and the power and the -glory.” In the scene with Maximus in Ephesus, and in several other -passages, I have used the word “empire” where “kingdom,” in its Biblical -sense, would have been preferable, were it not necessary to keep the -analogy or contrast between the temporal and the spiritual “empire” -clearly before the reader’s mind. But at the end of the fifth act of -_Caesar’s Apostasy_, where the Lord’s Prayer is interwoven with the -dialogue, I have been forced to fall back on “kingdom.” The reader, -then, will please remember that these two words stand for one -word—_Riget_—in the original. - -The verse from Homer quoted by Julian in the third act of the second -play occurs in the twentieth book of the _Odyssey_ (line 18). Ibsen -prints the sentence which follows it as a second hexameter line; but -either he or one of his authorities has apparently misread the passage -in the treatise, _Against the Cynic Heraclius_, on which this scene is -founded. No such line occurs in Homer; and in the attack on Heraclius, -the phrase about the mad dog appears as part of the author’s text, not -as a quotation. I have ventured, therefore, to “render unto Caesar the -things that are Caesar’s,” and print the phrase as Julian’s own. - ------ - ------ - -Footnote 1: - - It was acted at the Leipzig Stadttheater, December 5, 1896, and at the - Belle-Alliance Theater, Berlin, on the occasion of the poet’s - seventieth birthday, in March 1898. It must, of course, have been - enormously cut down. - -Footnote 2: - - _Julian the Apostate._ 2 vols. London, 1905. - -Footnote 3: - - The poem was never finished at all. It is doubtless that of which a - fragment has been recovered and is about to be published (1907). - -Footnote 4: - - It was, in fact, a pamphlet aimed at Frederick William IV. of Prussia, - and entitled _A Romanticist on the Throne of the Caesars_. - -Footnote 5: - - I may, perhaps, be excused for quoting at this point an extract from a - review of Negri’s _Julian the Apostate_, in which I tried to summarise - the reasons of Julian’s hatred of Christianity: “Firstly, he was - unmoved by the merits of the Christian ethic, even where it coincided - with his own, because he saw it so flagrantly ignored by the corrupt - Christianity of his day. A puritan in the purple, he was morally too - Christian to be a Christian of the fourth-century Church. Secondly, he - hated the pessimism of Christianity—that very throwing-forward of its - hopes to the life beyond the grave which so eminently fitted it to a - period of social catastrophe and dissolution. He found its heaven and - hell vulgar and contemptible, and regarded the average Christian as a - sort of spiritual brandy-tippler, who rejected, for a crude stimulant - and anodyne, the delicate lemonade of Neo-Platonic polytheism. - Thirdly, he resented what he called the ‘atheism’ of Christianity, its - elimination of the divine from Nature, leaving it inanimate and - chilly. Fourthly, like the earlier Emperors, he deemed Christianity - anti-social, and the Christian potentially and probably, if not - actually, a bad citizen of the Empire. Fifthly, he hated the - aggressive intolerance of Christianity, its inability to live and let - live, its polemical paroxysms, and iconoclastic frenzies.... These - were the main elements in his anti-Christianity; and yet they are not, - taken together, quite sufficient to account for the measureless scorn - with which he invariably speaks of ‘Galileans.’ One cannot but feel - that Christianity must have done him some personal injury, not clearly - known to us. Was he simply humiliated by the hypocrisy he had had to - practise in his boyhood and youth? Or was Ibsen right in divining some - painful mystery behind his certainly unsatisfactory relations with his - Christian consort, Helena?” - -Footnote 6: - - For the letter to Hoffory, see _Correspondence_, Letter 198. The - letter to Brandes is numbered 115. See also letters to Hegel (177) and - to Brandes (206). I may also refer to an extract from Ibsen’s - commonplace book, published in the _Die neue Rundschau_, December - 1906, in which he says, “We laugh at the four-and-thirty fatherlands - of Germany: but the four-and-thirty fatherlands of Europe are equally - ridiculous. North America is content with one, or—for the present—with - two.” For a somewhat fuller treatment of this subject, see the - _Nineteenth Century and After_, February 1907. - -Footnote 7: - - He has also, I think, taken too seriously Julian’s ironic self - caricature in the _Misopogon_. - -Footnote 8: - - Between fifteen and twenty are enumerated by Allard (_Julien - l’Apostat_), a writer who gravely reproduces the most extravagant - figments of the hagiographers. - ------ - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CAESAR’S APOSTASY - - - - - CHARACTERS. - - THE EMPEROR CONTSTANTIUS. - THE EMPRESS EUSEBIA. - THE PRINCESS HELENA, _the Emperor’s sister_. - PRINCE GALLUS, _the Emperor’s cousin_. - PRINCE JULIAN, _Gallus’s younger half-brother_. - MEMNON, _an Ethiopian, the Emperor’s body-slave_. - POTAMON, _a goldsmith_. - PHOCION, _a dyer_. - EUNAPIUS, _a hairdresser_. - _A Fruit-seller._ - _A Captain of the Watch._ - _A Soldier._ - _A Painted Woman._ - _A Paralytic Man._ - _A Blind Beggar._ - AGATHON, _son of a Cappadocian vine-grower_. - LIBANIUS, _a Philosopher_. - GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS. - BASIL OF CAESAREA. - SALLUST OF PERUSIA. - HEKEBOLIUS, _a Theologian_. - MAXIMUS THE MYSTIC. - EUTHERIUS, _Julian’s chamberlain_. - LEONTES, _a Quaestor_. - MYRRHA, _a slave_. - DECENTIUS, _a Tribune_. - SINTULA, _Julian’s Master of the Horse_. - FLORENTIUS, }_Generals._ - SEVERUS, } - ORIBASES, _a Physician_. - LAIPSO, } _Subalterns._ - VARRO } - MAURUS, _a Standard-bearer_. - _Soldiers_, _church-goers_, _heathen onlookers_, _courtiers_, - _priests_, _students_, _dancing girls_, _servants_, _the - Quaestor’s retinue_, _Gallic warriors_. - _Visions and voices._ - -_The first act passes in Constantinople, the second in Athens, the third -in Ephesus, the fourth in Lutetia in Gaul, and the fifth in Vienna -[Vienne] in the same province. The action takes place during the ten -years between A.D. 351 and A.D. 361._ - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CAESAR’S APOSTASY. - - PLAY IN FIVE ACTS. - - - - - ACT FIRST. - - -_Easter night in Constantinople. The scene is an open place, with trees, - bushes, and overthrown statues, in the vicinity of the Imperial - Palace. In the background, fully illuminated, stands the Imperial - Chapel. To the right a marble balustrade, from which a staircase - leads down to the water. Between the pines and cypresses appear - glimpses of the Bosphorus and the Asiatic coast._ - -_Service in the church. Soldiers of the Imperial Guard stand on the - church steps. Great crowds of worshippers stream in. Beggars, - cripples, and blind men at the doors. Heathen onlookers, - fruit-sellers, and water-carriers fill up the place._ - - HYMN OF PRAISE. - [_Inside the church._] - - Never-ending adoration - To the Cross of our salvation! - The Serpent is hurled - To the deepest abyss; - The Lamb rules the world; - All is peace, all is bliss. - - POTAMON THE GOLDSMITH. - -[_Carrying a paper lantern, enters from the left, taps one of the -soldiers on the shoulder, and asks_:] Hist, good friend—when comes the -Emperor? - - THE SOLDIER. - -I cannot tell. - - PHOCION THE DYER. - -[_In the crowd, turning his head._] The Emperor? Did not some one ask -about the Emperor? The Emperor will come a little before midnight—just -before. I had it from Memnon himself. - - EUNAPIUS THE BARBER. - -[_Rushes in hastily and pushes a Fruit-seller aside._] Out of the way, -heathen! - - THE FRUIT-SELLER. - -Softly, sir! - - POTAMON. - - The swine grumbles! - - EUNAPIUS. - -Dog, dog! - - PHOCION. - -Grumbling at a well-dressed Christian—at a man of the Emperor’s own -faith! - - EUNAPIUS. - -[_Knocks the Fruit-seller down._] Into the gutter with you! - - POTAMON. - -That’s right. Wallow there, along with your gods! - - PHOCION. - -[_Beating him with his stick._] Take that—and that—and that! - - EUNAPIUS. - -[_Kicking him._] And this—and this! I’ll baste your god-detested skin -for you! - - [_The Fruit-seller hastens away._ - - PHOCION. - -[_With the evident intention of being heard by the Captain of the -Guard._] It is much to be desired that some one should bring this scene -to our blessed Emperor’s ears. The Emperor has lately expressed his -displeasure at the way in which we Christian citizens consort with the -heathen, just as if no gulf divided us—— - - POTAMON. - -You refer to that placard in the market-places? I too have read it. And -I hold that, as there is both true and false gold in the world—— - - EUNAPIUS. - -——we ought not to clip every one with the same shears; that is my way of -thinking. There are still zealous souls among us, praise be to God! - - PHOCION. - -We are far from being zealous enough, dear brethren! See how boldly -these scoffers hold up their heads. How many of this rabble, think you, -bear the sign of the cross or of the fish on their arms? - - POTAMON. - -Not many—and yet they actually swarm in front of the Imperial Chapel—— - - PHOCION. - -——on such a thrice-sacred night as this—— - - EUNAPIUS. - -——blocking the way for true sons of the Church—— - - A PAINTED WOMAN. - -[_In the crowd._] Are Donatists true sons of the Church? - - PHOCION. - -What? A Donatist? Are you a Donatist? - - EUNAPIUS. - -What then? Are not you one? - - PHOCION. - -I? I? May the lightning blast your tongue! - - POTAMON. - -[_Making the sign of the cross._] May plague and boils——! - - PHOCION. - -A Donatist! You carrion! You rotten tree! - - POTAMON. - -Right, right! - - PHOCION. - -You brand for Satan’s furnace! - - POTAMON. - -Right! Give it him; give it him, dear brother. - - PHOCION. - -[_Pushing the Goldsmith away._] Hold your tongue get you behind me. I -know you now;—you are Potamon the Manichæan! - - EUNAPIUS. - -A Manichæan? A stinking heretic! Faugh, faugh! - - POTAMON. - -[_Holding up his paper lantern._] Heyday! Why, you are Phocion the Dyer, -of Antioch! The Cainite! - - EUNAPIUS. - -Woe is me, I have held communion with falsehood! - - PHOCION. - -Woe is me, I have helped a son of Satan! - - EUNAPIUS. - -[_Boxing his ear._] Take that for your help! - - PHOCION. - -[_Returning the blow._] Oh, you abandoned hound! - - POTAMON. - -Accursed, accursed be ye both! - - [_A general fight; laughter and derision among the onlookers._ - - THE CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD. - -[_Calls to the soldiers._] The Emperor comes! - - [_The combatants are parted and carried with the stream of other - worshippers into the church._ - - HYMN OF PRAISE. - [_From the high altar._] - - The Serpent is hurled - To the deepest abyss;— - The Lamb rules the world,— - All is peace, all is bliss! - -_The Court enters in stately procession from the left. Priests with - censers go before; after them men-at-arms and torch-bearers, - courtiers and bodyguards. In their midst the EMPEROR CONSTANTIUS, - a man of thirty-four, of distinguished appearance, beardless, with - brown curly hair; his eyes have a dark, distrustful expression; - his gait and whole deportment betray uneasiness and debility. - Beside him, on his left, walks the EMPRESS EUSEBIA, a pale, - delicate woman, the same age as the Emperor. Behind the imperial - pair follows PRINCE JULIAN, a not yet fully developed youth of - nineteen. He has black hair and the beginnings of a beard, - sparkling brown eyes with a rapid glance; his court-dress sits - badly upon him; his manners are notably awkward and abrupt. The - Emperor’s sister, the PRINCESS HELENA, a voluptuous beauty of - twenty-five, follows, accompanied by maidens and older women. - Courtiers and men-at-arms close the procession. The Emperor’s - body-slave, MEMNON, a heavily-built, magnificently-dressed - Ethiopian, is among them._ - - THE EMPEROR. - -[_Stops suddenly, turns round to_ PRINCE JULIAN, _and asks sharply._] -Where is Gallus? - - JULIAN. - -[_Turning pale._] Gallus? What would you with Gallus? - - THE EMPEROR. - -There, I caught you! - - JULIAN. - -Sire——! - - THE EMPRESS. - -[_Seizing the EMPEROR’S hand._] Come; come! - - THE EMPEROR. - -Conscience cried aloud. What are you two plotting? - - JULIAN. - -We? - - THE EMPEROR. - -You and he! - - THE EMPRESS. - -Oh, come; come, Constantius! - - THE EMPEROR. - -So black a deed! What did the oracle answer? - - JULIAN. - -The oracle! By my Holy Redeemer—— - - THE EMPEROR. - -If any one maligns you, he shall pay for it at the stake. [_Draws the -PRINCE aside._] Oh, let us hold together, Julian! Dear kinsman, let us -hold together! - - JULIAN. - -Everything lies in your hands, my beloved lord! - - THE EMPEROR. - -My hands——! - - JULIAN. - -Oh, stretch them in mercy over us! - - THE EMPEROR. - -My hands? What was in your mind as to my hands? - - JULIAN. - -[_Grasps his hands and kisses them._] The Emperor’s hands are white and -cool. - - THE EMPEROR. - -What else should they be? What was in your mind? There I caught you -again! - - JULIAN. - -[_Kisses them again._] They are like rose-leaves in this moonlight -night. - - THE EMPEROR. - -Well, well, well, Julian! - - THE EMPRESS. - -Forward; it is time. - - THE EMPEROR. - -To go in before the presence of the Lord! I—I! Oh, pray for me Julian! -They will offer me the consecrated wine. I see it! It glitters in the -golden chalice like serpents’ eyes—— [_Shrieks._] Bloody eyes——! Oh, -Jesus Christ, pray for me! - - THE EMPRESS. - -The Emperor is ill——! - - THE PRINCESS HELENA. - -Where is Caesarius? The physician, the physician—summon him! - - THE EMPRESS. - -[_Beckons._] Memnon, good Memnon! - - [_She speaks in a low voice to the slave._ - - JULIAN. - -[_Softly._] Sire, have pity, and send me far from here. - - THE EMPEROR. - -Where would you go? - - JULIAN. - -To Egypt. I would fain go to Egypt, if you think fit. So many go -thither—into the great solitude. - - THE EMPEROR. - -Into the great solitude? Ha! In solitude one broods. I forbid you to -brood. - - JULIAN. - -I will not brood, if only you will let me——Here my anguish of soul -increases day by day. Evil thoughts flock around me. For nine days I -have worn a hair shirt, and it has not protected me; for nine nights I -have lashed myself with thongs, but scourging does not banish them. - - THE EMPEROR. - -We must be steadfast, Julian! Satan is very busy in all of us. Speak -with Hekebolius—— - - THE SLAVE MEMNON. - -[_To the EMPEROR._] It is time now—— - - THE EMPEROR. - -No, no, I will not—— - - MEMNON. - -[_Seizing him by the wrist._] Come, gracious lord;—come, I say. - - THE EMPEROR. - -[_Draws himself up, and says with dignity._] Forward to the house of the -Lord! - - MEMNON. - -[_Softly._] The other matter afterwards—— - - THE EMPEROR. - -[_To JULIAN._] I must see Gallus. - - [_JULIAN folds his hands in supplication to the EMPRESS behind - the EMPEROR’S back._ - - THE EMPRESS. - -[_Hastily and softly._] Fear nothing! - - THE EMPEROR. - -Remain without. Come not into the church with those thoughts in your -mind. When you pray before the altar, it is to call down evil upon -me.—Oh, lay not that sin upon your soul, my beloved kinsman! - - [_The procession moves forward towards the church. On the steps, - beggars, cripples, and blind men crowd round the EMPEROR._ - - A PARALYTIC. - -Oh, mightiest ruler on earth, let me touch the hem of thy garment, that -I may become whole. - - A BLIND MAN. - -Pray for me, anointed of the Lord, that my sight may be restored! - - THE EMPEROR. - -Be of good cheer, my son!—Memnon, scatter silver among them. In, in! - - [_The Court moves forward into the church, the doors of which - are closed; the crowd gradually disperses, PRINCE JULIAN - remaining behind in one of the avenues._ - - JULIAN. - -[_Looking towards the church._] What would he with Gallus? On this -sacred night he cannot think to——! Oh, if I did but know—— [_He turns -and jostles against the blind man, who is departing._] Look where you -go, friend! - - THE BLIND MAN. - -I am blind, my lord! - - JULIAN. - -Still blind! Can you not yet see so much as yonder glittering star? Fie! -man of little faith! Did not God’s anointed promise to pray for your -sight? - - THE BLIND MAN. - -Who are you, that mock at a blind brother? - - JULIAN. - -A brother in unbelief and blindness. - - [_He is about to go off to the left._ - - A VOICE. - -[_Softly, among the bushes behind him._] Julian, Julian! - - JULIAN. - -[_With a cry._] Ah! - - THE VOICE. - -[_Nearer._] Julian! - - JULIAN. - -Stand, stand;—I am armed. Beware! - - A YOUNG MAN. - -[_Poorly clad, and with a traveller’s staff, appears among the trees._] -Hush! It is I—— - - JULIAN. - -Stand where you are! Do not come near me, fellow! - - THE YOUNG MAN. - -Oh, do you not remember Agathon——? - - JULIAN. - -Agathon! What say you? Agathon was a boy—— - - AGATHON. - -Six years ago.—I knew you at once. - - [_Coming nearer._ - - JULIAN. - -Agathon;—by the holy cross, but I believe it is! - - AGATHON. - -Look at me; look well—— - - JULIAN. - -[_Embracing and kissing him._] Friend of my childhood! Playmate! Dearest -of them all! And you are here? How wonderful! You have come all the long -way over the mountains, and then across the sea,—the whole long way from -Cappadocia? - - AGATHON. - -I came two days ago, by ship, from Ephesus. Oh, how I have sought in -vain for you these two days. At the palace gates the guards would not -let me pass, and—— - - JULIAN. - -Did you speak my name to any one? or say that you were in search of me? - - AGATHON. - -No, I dared not, because—— - - JULIAN. - -There you did right; never let any one know more than you needs must——. - -Come hither, Agathon; out into the full moonlight, that I may see -you.—How you have grown, Agathon;—how strong you look. - - AGATHON. - -And you are paler. - - JULIAN. - -I cannot thrive in the air of the palace. I think it is unwholesome -here.—’Tis far otherwise at Makellon. Makellon lies high. No other town -in Cappadocia lies so high; ah, how the fresh snow-winds from the Taurus -sweep over it——! Are you weary, Agathon? - - AGATHON. - -Oh, in no wise. - - JULIAN. - -Let us sit down nevertheless. It is so quiet and lonely here. Close -together; so! [_Draws him down upon a seat beside the balustrade._]—“Can -any good thing come out of Cappadocia,” they say. Yes—friends can come. -Can anything be better? - - [_Looks long at him._ - -How was it possible that I did not know you at once? Oh, my beloved -treasure, is it not just as when we were boys——? - - AGATHON. - -[_Sinking down before him._] I at your feet, as of old. - - JULIAN. - -No, no, no——! - - AGATHON. - -Oh, let me kneel thus! - - JULIAN. - -Oh, Agathon, it is a sin and a mockery to kneel to me. If you but knew -how sinful I have become. Hekebolius, my beloved teacher, is sorely -concerned about me, Agathon. He could tell you—— - -How thick and moist your hair has grown; and how it curls.—But -Mardonius—how goes it with him? His hair must be almost white now? - - AGATHON. - -It is snow-white. - - JULIAN. - -How well Mardonius could interpret Homer! I am sure my old Mardonius has -not his like at that.—Heroes embattled against heroes—and the gods above -fanning the flames. I saw it all, as with my eyes. - - AGATHON. - -Then your mind was set on being a great and victorious warrior. - - JULIAN. - -They were happy times, those six years in Cappadocia. Were the years -longer then than now? It seems so, when I think of all they contained—— - -Yes, they were happy years. We at our books, and Gallus on his Persian -horse. He swept over the plain like the shadow of a cloud.—Oh, but one -thing you must tell me. The church——? - - AGATHON. - -The church? Over the Holy Mamas’s grave? - - JULIAN. - -[_Smiling faintly._] Which Gallus and I built Gallus finished his aisle; -but I——; mine never fully prospered.—How has it gone on since? - - AGATHON. - -Not at all. The builders said it was impossible as you had planned it. - - JULIAN. - -[_Thoughtfully._] No doubt, no doubt. I wronged them in thinking them -incapable. Now I know why it was not to be. I must tell you, -Agathon;—Mamas was a false saint. - - AGATHON. - -The Holy Mamas? - - JULIAN. - -That Mamas was never a martyr. His whole legend was a strange delusion. -Hekebolius has, with infinite research, arrived at the real truth, and I -myself have lately composed a slight treatise on the subject—a treatise, -my Agathon, which certain philosophers are said, strangely enough, to -have mentioned with praise in the lecture-rooms—— - -The Lord keep my heart free from vanity! The evil tempter has countless -wiles; one can never know——. - -That Gallus should succeed and I fail! Ah, my Agathon, when I think of -that church-building, I see Cain’s altar—— - - AGATHON. - -Julian! - - JULIAN. - -God will have none of me, Agathon! - - AGATHON. - -Ah, do not speak so! Was not God strong in you when you led me out of -the darkness of heathendom, and gave me light over all my days—child -though you then were! - - JULIAN. - -All that is like a dream to me. - - AGATHON. - -And yet so blessed a truth. - - JULIAN. - -[_Sadly._] If only it were so now!—Where did I find the words of fire? -The air seemed full of hymns of praise—a ladder from earth to -heaven—[_Gazes straight before him._] Did you see it? - - AGATHON. - -What? - - JULIAN. - -The star that fell; there, behind the two cypresses. [_Is silent a -moment, then suddenly changes his tone._] Have I told you what my mother -dreamed the night before I was born? - - AGATHON. - -I do not recall it. - - JULIAN. - -No, no, I remember—I heard of it after we parted. - - AGATHON. - -What did she dream? - - JULIAN. - -My mother dreamed that she gave birth to Achilles. - - AGATHON. - -[_Eagerly._] Is your faith in dreams as strong as ever? - - JULIAN. - -Why do you ask? - - AGATHON. - -You shall hear; it concerns what has driven me to cross the sea—— - - JULIAN. - -You have a special errand here? I had quite forgotten to ask you—— - - AGATHON. - -A strange errand; so strange that I am lost in doubt and disquietude. -There is so much I should like to know first—about life in the -city—about yourself—and the Emperor—— - - JULIAN. - -[_Looks hard at him._] Tell me the truth, Agathon—with whom have you -spoken before meeting me? - - AGATHON. - -With no one. - - JULIAN. - -When did you arrive? - - AGATHON. - -I have told you—two days ago. - - JULIAN. - -And already you want to know——? What would you know about the Emperor? -Has any one set you on to——? [_Embraces him._] Oh, forgive me, Agathon, -my friend! - - AGATHON. - -What? Why? - - JULIAN. - -[_Rises and listens._] Hush!—No, it was nothing—only a bird in the -bushes—— - -I am very happy here. Wherefore should you doubt it? Have I not all my -family gathered here? at least—all over whom a gracious Saviour has held -his hand. - - AGATHON. - -And the Emperor is as a father to you? - - JULIAN. - -The Emperor is beyond measure wise and good. - - AGATHON. - -[_Who has also risen._] Julian, is the rumour true that you are one day -to be the Emperor’s successor? - - JULIAN. - -[_Hastily._] Speak not of such dangerous matters. I know not what -foolish rumours are abroad.—Why do you question me so much? Not a word -will I answer till you have told me what brings you to Constantinople. - - AGATHON. - -I come at the bidding of the Lord God. - - JULIAN. - -If you love your Saviour or your salvation, get you home again. [_Leans -over the balustrade and listens._] Speak softy; a boat is coming in—— - - [_Leads him over towards the other side._ - -What would you here? Kiss the splinter of the holy cross?—Get you home -again, I say! Know you what Constantinople has become in these last -fifteen months? A Babylon of blasphemy.—Have you not heard—do you not -know that Libanius is here? - - AGATHON. - -Ah, Julian, I know not Libanius. - - JULIAN. - -Secluded Cappadocian! Happy region, where his voice and his teaching -have found no echo. - - AGATHON. - -Ah, he is one of those heathen teachers of falsehood——? - - JULIAN. - -The most dangerous of them all. - - AGATHON. - -Surely not more dangerous than Aedesius of Pergamus? - - JULIAN. - -Aedesius!—who now thinks of Aedesius of Pergamus? Aedesius is in his -dotage—— - - AGATHON. - -Is he more dangerous than even that mysterious Maximus? - - JULIAN. - -Maximus? Do not speak of that mountebank. Who knows anything certain of -Maximus? - - AGATHON. - -He avers that he has slept three years in a cave beyond Jordan. - - JULIAN. - -Hekebolius holds him an impostor, and doubtless he is not far wrong—— - -No, no, Agathon—Libanius is the most dangerous. Our sinful earth has -writhed, as it were, under this scourge. Portents foretold his coming. A -pestilential sickness slew men by thousands in the city. And then, when -it was over, in the month of November, fire rained from heaven night by -night. Nay, do not doubt it, Agathon! I have myself seen the stars break -from their spheres, plunge down towards earth, and burn out on the way. - -Since then he has lectured here, the philosopher, the orator. All -proclaim him the king of eloquence; and well they may. I tell you he is -terrible. Youths and men flock around him; he binds their souls in -bonds, so that they must follow him; denial flows seductively from his -lips, like songs of the Trojans and the Greeks—— - - AGATHON. - -[_In terror._] Oh, you too have sought him Julian! - - JULIAN. - -[_Shrinking back._] I!—God preserve me from such a sin. Should any -rumours come to your ears, believe them not. ’Tis not true that I have -sought out Libanius by night, in disguise. All contact with him would be -a horror to me. Besides, the Emperor has forbidden it, and Hekebolius -still more strictly.—All believers who approach that subtle man fall -away and turn to scoffers. And not they alone. His words are borne from -mouth to mouth, even into the Emperor’s palace. His airy mockery, his -incontrovertible arguments, his very lampoons seem to blend with my -prayers;—they are to me like those monsters in the shape of birds who -befouled all the food of a pious wandering hero of yore. I sometimes -feel with horror that my gorge rises at the true meat of the Word—— -[_With an irrepressible outburst._] Were the empire mine, I would send -you the head of Libanius on a charger! - - AGATHON. - -But how can the Emperor tolerate this? How can our pious, Christian -Emperor——? - - JULIAN. - -The Emperor? Praised be the Emperor’s faith and piety! But the Emperor -has no thoughts for anything but this luckless Persian war. All minds -are full of it. No one heeds the war that is being waged here, against -the Prince of Golgotha. Ah, my Agathon, it is not now as it was two -years ago. Then the two brothers of the Mystic Maximus had to pay for -their heresies with their lives. You do not know what mighty allies -Libanius has. One or other of the lesser philosophers is now and then -driven from the city; on him no one dares lay a finger. I have begged, I -have implored both Hekebolius and the Empress to procure his banishment. -But no, no!—What avails it to drive away the others? This one man -poisons the air for all of us. Oh, thou my Saviour, if I could but flee -from all this abomination of heathendom! To live here is to live in the -lion’s den—— - - AGATHON. - -[_Eagerly._] Julian—what was that you said? - - JULIAN. - -Yes, yes; only a miracle can save us? - - AGATHON. - -Oh, then listen! That miracle has happened. - - JULIAN. - -What mean you? - - AGATHON. - -You shall hear, Julian; for now I can no longer doubt that it is you it -concerns. What sent me to Constantinople was a vision—— - - JULIAN. - -A vision, you say! - - AGATHON. - -A heavenly revelation—— - - JULIAN. - -Oh, for God’s pity’s sake, speak!—Hush, do not speak. Wait—some one is -coming. Stand here, quite carelessly;—look unconcerned. - -_Both remain standing beside the balustrade. A tall, handsome, - middle-aged man, dressed, according to the fashion of the - philosophers, in a short cloak, enters by the avenue on the left. - A troop of youths accompanies him, all in girt-up garments, with - wreaths of ivy in their hair, and carrying books, papers and - parchments. Laughter and loud talk among them as they approach._ - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -Let nothing fall into the water, my joyous Gregory! Remember, what you -carry is more precious than gold. - - JULIAN. - -[_Standing close beside him._] Your pardon,—is aught that a man may -carry more precious than gold? - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -Can you buy back the fruits of your life for gold? - - JULIAN. - -True; true. But why, then, do you entrust them to the treacherous -waters? - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -The favour of man is more treacherous still. - - JULIAN. - -That word was wisdom. And whither do you sail with your treasures? - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -To Athens. - - [_He is about to pass on._ - - JULIAN. - -[_With suppressed laughter._] To Athens! Then, oh man of wealth, you do -not own your own riches. - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -[_Stops._] How so? - - JULIAN. - -Is it the part of a wise man to take owls to Athens? - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -My owls cannot endure the church-lights here in the imperial city. [_To -one of the young men._] Give me your hand, Sallust. - - [_Is about to descend the steps._ - - SALLUST. - -[_Half-way down the steps, whispers._] By the gods, it is _he_! - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -He——? - - SALLUST. - -On my life, ’tis he! I know him;—I have seen him with Hekebolius. - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -Ah! - - [_He looks at Julian with furtive intentness; then goes a step - towards him and says_: - -You smiled just now. At what did you smile? - - JULIAN. - -When you complained of the church-lights, I wondered whether it were not -rather the imperial light of the lecture-halls that shone too bright in -your eyes. - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -Envy cannot hide under the short cloak. - - JULIAN. - -What cannot hide shows forth. - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -You have a sharp tongue, noble Galilean. - - JULIAN. - -Why Galilean? What proclaims me a Galilean? - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -Your court apparel. - - JULIAN. - -There is a philosopher beneath it; for I wear a very coarse shirt.—But -tell me, what do you seek in Athens? - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -What did Pontius Pilate seek? - - JULIAN. - -Nay, nay! Is not truth here, where Libanius is? - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -[_Looking hard at him._] H’m!—Libanius? Libanius will soon be silent. -Libanius is weary of the strife, my lord! - - JULIAN. - -Weary? He—the invulnerable, the ever-victorious——? - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -He is weary of waiting for his peer. - - JULIAN. - -Now you jest, stranger! Where can Libanius hope to find his peer? - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -His peer exists. - - JULIAN. - -Who? Where? Name him? - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -It might be dangerous. - - JULIAN. - -Why? - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -Are you not a courtier? - - JULIAN. - -And what then? - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -[_In a lower voice._] Would you be foolhardy enough to praise the -Emperor’s successor? - - JULIAN. - -[_Deeply shaken._] Ah! - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -[_Hastily._] If you betray me, I shall deny all! - - JULIAN. - -I betray no man; never fear, never fear!—The Emperor’s successor, you -say? I cannot tell whom you mean; the Emperor has chosen no -successor.—But why this jesting? Why did you speak of Libanius’s peer? - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -Yes or no—is there at the imperial court a youth who, by force and -strict commandment, by prayers and persuasions, is held aloof from the -light of the lecture-halls? - - JULIAN. - -[_Hastily._] That is done to keep his faith pure. - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -[_Smiling._] Has this young man so scant faith in his faith? What can he -know about his faith? What does a soldier know of his shield until he -has proved it in battle? - - JULIAN. - -True, true;—but they are loving kinsmen and teachers, I tell you—— - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -Phrases, my lord! Let me tell you this: it is for the Emperor’s sake -that his young kinsman is held aloof from the philosophers. The Emperor -has not the divine gift of eloquence. Doubtless the Emperor is great; -but he cannot endure that his successor should shine forth over the -empire—— - - JULIAN. - -[_In confusion._] And you dare to——! - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -Ay, ay, you are wroth on your master’s account, but—— - - JULIAN. - -Far from it; on the contrary—that is to say—— - -Listen; my place is somewhat near that young prince. I would gladly -learn—— - -[_Turns._] - -Go apart, Agathon; I must speak alone with this man. - - [_Withdraws a few steps along with the stranger._ - -You said “shine forth”? “Shine forth over the empire?” What do you know, -what can any of you know, of Prince Julian? - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -Can Sirius be hidden by a cloud? Will not the restless wind tear a rift -in it here or there, so that—— - - JULIAN. - -Speak plainly, I beg you. - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -The palace and the church are as a double cage wherein the prince is -mewed up. But the cage is not close enough. Now and then he lets fall an -enigmatic word; the court vermin—forgive me, sir—the courtiers spread it -abroad in scorn; its deep meaning does not exist for these -gentlefolk—your pardon, sir—for most of them it does not exist. - - JULIAN. - -For none. You may safely say for none. - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -Yet surely for you; and at any rate for us.—— - -Yes, he could indeed shine forth over the empire! Are there not legends -of his childhood in Cappadocia, when, in disputation with his brother -Gallus, he took the part of the gods, and defended them against the -Galilean? - - JULIAN. - -That was in jest, mere practice in rhetoric—— - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -What has not Mardonius recorded of him? And afterwards Hekebolius! What -art was there not even in his boyish utterances—what beauty, what grace -in the light play of his thoughts! - - JULIAN. - -You think so? - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -Yes, in him we might indeed find an adversary to fear and yet to long -for. What should hinder him from reaching so honourable an eminence? He -lacks nothing but to pass through the same school through which Paul -passed, and passed so unscathed that, when he afterwards joined the -Galileans, he shed more light than all the other apostles together, -because he possessed knowledge and eloquence! Hekebolius fears for his -pupil’s faith. Oh, I know it well; the fear is his. Does he forget then, -in his exceeding tenderness of conscience, that he himself, in his -youth, has drunk of those very springs from which he would now have his -pupil debarred? Or think you it was not from us that he learned to use -the weapons of speech which he now wields against us with such renowned -dexterity? - - JULIAN. - -True, true; undeniably true! - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -And what gifts has this Hekebolius in comparison with the gifts which -declared themselves so marvellously in that princely boy, who, it is -said, in Cappadocia, upon the graves of the slain Galileans, proclaimed -a doctrine which I hold to be erroneous, and by so much the more -difficult to instil, but which he nevertheless proclaimed with such -fervour of spirit that—if I may believe a very widespread rumour—a -multitude of children of his own age were carried away by him, and -followed him as his disciples! Ah, Hekebolius is like the rest of -you—more jealous than zealous; that is why Libanius has waited in vain. - - JULIAN. - -[_Seizes him by the arm._] What has Libanius said? Tell me, I conjure -you, in the name of God? - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -He has said all that you have just heard. And he has said still more. He -has said: “Behold yon princely Galilean; he is an Achilles of the -spirit.” - - JULIAN. - -Achilles! [_Softly._] My mother’s dream! - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -There, in the open lecture-halls, lies the field of battle. Light and -gladness encompass the fighters and the fray. Javelins of speech hurtle -through the air; keen swords of wit clash in the combat; the blessed -gods sit smiling in the clouds—— - - JULIAN. - -Oh, away from me with your heathendom—— - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -——and the heroes go home to their tents, their arms entwined, their -hearts untouched by rancour, their cheeks aglow, the blood coursing -swiftly through every vein, admired, applauded, and with laurels on -their brows. Ah, where is Achilles? I cannot see him. Achilles is -wroth—— - - JULIAN. - -Achilles is unhappy!—But can I believe it? Oh, tell me—my brain is -dizzy—has Libanius said all this? - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -What brought Libanius to Constantinople? Had he any other end than to -achieve the illustrious friendship of a certain youth? - - JULIAN. - -Speak the truth! No, no; this cannot be true. How reconcile it with the -scoffs and jibes that——? Who scoffs at one whose friendship he would -seek? - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -Wiles of the Galileans to build up a wall of wrath and hate between the -two champions. - - JULIAN. - -Yet you will not deny that it was Libanius——? - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -I will deny everything to the uttermost. - - JULIAN. - -The lampoons were not his? - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -Not one of them. They have all been hatched in the palace, and spread -abroad under his name—— - - JULIAN. - -Ah, what do you tell me——? - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -What I will avouch before all the world. You have a sharp tongue—who -knows but that you yourself—— - - JULIAN. - -I——! But can I believe this? Libanius did not write them? Not one of -them? - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -No, no! - - JULIAN. - -Not even those infamous lines about Atlas with the crooked shoulders? - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -No, no, I tell you. - - JULIAN. - -Nor that foolish and ribald verse about the ape in court dress? - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -Ha, ha; that came from the church, not from the lecture-hall. You -disbelieve it? I tell you it was Hekebolius—— - - JULIAN. - -Hekebolius! - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -Yes, Hekebolius, Hekebolius himself, to breed hatred between his enemy -and his pupil—— - - JULIAN. - -[_Clenching his fists._] Ah, if it were so! - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -If that blinded and deceived young man had known us philosophers, he -would not have dealt so hardly with us. - - JULIAN. - -Of what are you speaking? - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -It is too late now. Farewell, my lord! - - [_Going._ - - JULIAN. - -[_Seizes his hand._] Friend and brother, who are you? - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -One who sorrows to see the God-born go to ruin. - - JULIAN. - -What do you call the God-born? - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -The Uncreated in the Ever-changing. - - JULIAN. - -Still I am in the dark. - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -There is a whole glorious world to which you Galileans are blind. In it -our life is one long festival, amid statues and choral songs, foaming -goblets in our hands, and our locks entwined with roses. Airy bridges -span the gulfs between spirit and spirit, stretching away to the -farthest orbs in space—— - -I know one who might be king of all that vast and sunlit realm. - - JULIAN. - -[_In dread._] Ay, at the cost of his salvation! - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -What is salvation? Reunion with the primal deeps. - - JULIAN. - -Yes, in conscious life. Reunion for me, as the being I am! - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -Reunion like that of the raindrop with the sea, like that of the -crumbling leaf with the earth that bore it. - - JULIAN. - -Oh, had I but learning! Had I but the weapons to use against you! - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -Take to yourself weapons, young man! The lecture-hall is the armoury of -intellect and talent—— - - JULIAN. - -[_Recoiling._] Ah! - - THE PHILOSOPHER. - -Look at those joyous youths yonder. There are Galileans among them. -Errors in things divine cause no discord among us. - -Farewell! You Galileans have sent truth into exile. See, now, how we -bear the buffets of fate. See, we hold high our wreath-crowned heads. So -we depart—shortening the night with song, and awaiting Helios. - - [_He descends the steps where his disciples have waited for him; - then the boat is heard rowing away with them._ - - JULIAN. - -[_Gazes long over the water._] Who was he, that mysterious man? - - AGATHON. - -[_Approaching._] Listen to me, Julian——? - - JULIAN. - -[_In lively excitement._] He understood me! And Libanius himself, the -great, incomparable Libanius——! Only think, Agathon, Libanius has said—— -Oh, how keen must the heathen eye not be! - - AGATHON. - -Trust me, this meeting was a work of the Tempter! - - JULIAN. - -[_Not heeding him._] I can no longer endure to live among these people. -It was they, then, who wrote those abominable lampoons! They make a -mockery of me here; they laugh behind my back; not one of them believes -in the power that dwells in me. They ape my gait; they distort my -manners and my speech; Hekebolius himself——! Oh, I feel it—Christ is -deserting me; I grow evil here. - - AGATHON. - -Oh, though you know it not—you, even you, stand under special grace. - - JULIAN. - -[_Walks up and down beside the balustrade._] _I_ am he with whom -Libanius longs to measure swords. How strange a wish! Libanius accounts -_me_ his peer. It is _me_ he awaits—— - - AGATHON. - -Hear and obey: Christ awaits you! - - JULIAN. - -What mean you, friend? - - AGATHON. - -The vision that sent me to Constantinople—— - - JULIAN. - -Yes, yes, the vision; I had almost forgotten it. A revelation, you said? -Oh, speak, speak! - - AGATHON. - -It was at home in Cappadocia, a month ago or a little more. There went a -rumour abroad that the heathens had again begun to hold secret meetings -by night in the temple of Cybele—— - - JULIAN. - -How foolhardy! Are they not strictly forbidden—— - - AGATHON. - -Therefore all we believers arose in wrath. The magistrates ordered the -temple to be pulled down, and we broke in pieces the abominable idols. -The more zealous among us were impelled by the Spirit of the Lord to go -still further. With singing of psalms, and with sacred banners at our -head, we marched through the town and fell upon the godless like -messengers of wrath; we took from them their treasures; many houses were -set on fire, and heathens not a few perished in the flames; still more -we slew in the streets as they fled. Oh, it was a marvellous time for -the glory of God! - - JULIAN. - -And then? The vision, my Agathon! - - AGATHON. - -For three whole nights and days the Lord of Vengeance was strong in us. -But at last the weak flesh could no longer keep pace with the willing -spirit, and we desisted from the pursuit—— - -I lay upon my bed; I could neither wake nor sleep. I felt, as it were, -an inward hollowness, as though the spirit had departed out of me. I lay -in burning heat; I tore my hair, I wept, I prayed, I sang;—I cannot tell -what came over me—— - -Then, on a sudden, I saw before me by the wall a white and shining -light, and in the radiance stood a man in a long cloak. A glory -encircled his head; he held a reed in his hand, and fixed his gaze -mildly upon me. - - JULIAN. - -You saw that! - - AGATHON. - -I saw it. And then he spoke and said: “Agathon; arise, seek him out who -shall inherit the empire; bid him enter the lion’s den and do battle -with the lions.” - - JULIAN. - -Do battle with the lions! Oh, strange, strange!—Ah, if it were——! The -meeting with that philosopher—A revelation; a message to me—; am _I_ the -chosen one? - - AGATHON. - -Assuredly you are! - - JULIAN. - -Do battle with the lions!—Yes, I see it;—so it must be, my Agathon! It -is God’s will that I should seek out Libanius—— - - AGATHON. - -No, no; hear me out! - - JULIAN. - -——worm from him all his arts and his learning—smite the unbelievers with -their own weapons—fight, fight like Paul—conquer like Paul, in the cause -of the Lord! - - AGATHON. - -No, no! that was not the intent. - - JULIAN. - -Can you doubt it? Libanius—is he not strong as the mountain lion, and is -not the lecture-hall——? - - AGATHON. - -I tell you it is not so; for the vision added: “Proclaim to the chosen -one that he shall shake the dust of the imperial city from his feet, and -never more enter its gates.” - - JULIAN. - -Are you sure of that, Agathon? - - AGATHON. - -Absolutely sure. - - JULIAN. - -Not here, then! Do battle with, the lions? Where, where? Oh, where shall -I find light? - - _PRINCE GALLUS, a handsome, strongly-built man of - five-and-twenty, with light curly hair, and fully armed, - enters by the avenue on the left._ - - JULIAN. - -[_Rushing up to him._] Gallus! - - GALLUS. - -What now? [_Points to AGATHON._] Who is that man? - - JULIAN. - -Agathon. - - GALLUS. - -What Agathon? You have so many strange companions——Ah, by heaven, it is -the Cappadocian! You have grown quite a man—— - - JULIAN. - -Do you know, Gallus—the Emperor has asked for you. - - GALLUS. - -[_Anxiously._] Just now? To-night? - - JULIAN. - -Yes, yes; he wanted to speak with you. He seemed greatly angered. - - GALLUS. - -How know you that? What did he say? - - JULIAN. - -I did not understand it. He asked what some oracle had answered. - - GALLUS. - -Ah! - - JULIAN. - -Hide nothing from me. What is the matter? - - GALLUS. - -Death or banishment is the matter. - - AGATHON. - -Gracious Saviour! - - JULIAN. - -I feared as much! But no, the Empress spoke hopefully. Oh, say on, say -on! - - GALLUS. - -What shall I say? How should I know more than you? If the Emperor spoke -of an oracle, a certain messenger must have been intercepted, or some -one must have betrayed me—— - - JULIAN. - -A messenger?—Gallus, what have you dared to do? - - GALLUS. - -How could I live any longer this life of doubt and dread? Let him do -with me as he pleases; anything is better than this—— - - JULIAN. - -[_Softly, leading him some paces aside._] Have a care, Gallus! What is -this about a messenger? - - GALLUS. - -I have addressed a question to the priests of Osiris in Abydus—— - - JULIAN. - -Ah, the oracle! The heathen oracle——! - - GALLUS. - -The heathenism might be forgiven me; but—well, why should you not know -it?—I have inquired as to the issue of the Persian war—— - - JULIAN. - -What madness!—Gallus—I see it in your face: you have asked other -questions! - - GALLUS. - -No more; I have not asked—— - - JULIAN. - -Yes, yes; you have inquired as to a mighty man’s life or death! - - GALLUS. - -And if I had? What can be of more moment to both of us? - - JULIAN. - -[_Throwing his arms around him._] Be silent, madman! - - GALLUS. - -Away from me! You may cringe before him like a cur; but I have no mind -to endure it longer. I will cry it aloud in all the market-places—— -[_Calls to_ AGATHON.] Have you seen him, Cappadocian? Have you seen the -murderer? - - JULIAN. - -Gallus! Brother! - - AGATHON. - -The murderer! - - GALLUS. - -The murderer in the purple robe; my father’s murderer, my step-mother’s, -my eldest brother’s—— - - JULIAN. - -Oh, you are calling down destruction upon us! - - GALLUS. - -Eleven heads in one single night; eleven bodies; our whole house.—Ah, -but be sure conscience is torturing him; it shivers through the marrow -of his bones like a swarm of serpents. - - JULIAN. - -Do not listen to him! Away, away! - - GALLUS. - -[_Seizes JULIAN by the shoulder._] Stay;—you look pale and disordered; -is it you that have betrayed me? - - JULIAN. - -I! Your own brother——! - - GALLUS. - -What matter for that! Brotherhood protects no one in our family. Confess -that you have secretly spied upon my doings! Who else should it be? -Think you I do not know what people are whispering? The Emperor designs -to make you his successor. - - JULIAN. - -Never! I swear to you, my beloved Gallus, it shall never be! I will not. -One mightier than he has chosen me.—Oh, trust me, Gallus: my path is -marked out for me. I will not go thither, I tell you. Oh, God of Hosts—I -on the imperial throne! No, no, no! - - GALLUS. - -Ha-ha; well acted, mummer! - - JULIAN. - -Ay, you may scoff, since you know not what has happened. Myself, I -scarcely know. Oh, Agathon—if this head were to be anointed! Would it -not be an apostasy—a deadly sin? Would not the Lord’s holy oil burn me -like molten lead? - - GALLUS. - -Were that so, then were our august kinsman balder than Julius Caesar. - - JULIAN. - -Beware how you speak! Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s—— - - GALLUS. - -My father’s blood——your father’s and your mother’s——! - - JULIAN. - -Oh, what know we of those horrors? We were children then. The soldiers -were chiefly to blame; it was the rebels—evil counsellors—— - - GALLUS. - -[_Laughing._] The Emperor’s successor rehearses his part! - - JULIAN. - -[_Weeping._] Oh, Gallus, would I might die or be banished in your stead! -I am wrecking my soul here. I ought to forgive—and I cannot. Evil grows -in me; hate and revenge whisper in my ear—— - - GALLUS. - -[_Rapidly, looking towards the church._] There he comes! - - JULIAN. - -Be prudent, my beloved brother!—Ah, Hekebolius! - -_The church door has meanwhile been opened. The congregation streams - forth; some pass away, others remain standing to see the Court - pass. Among those who come out is HEKEBOLIUS; he wears priestly - dress._ - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -[_On the point of passing out to the left._] Is that you, my Julian? Ah, -I have again passed a heavy hour for your sake. - - JULIAN. - -Alas! I fear that happens too often. - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -Christ is wroth against you, my son! It is your froward spirit that -angers him; it is your unloving thoughts, and all this worldly vanity—— - - JULIAN. - -I know it, my Hekebolius! You so often tell me so. - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -Even now I lifted up my soul in prayer for your amendment. Oh, it seemed -as though our otherwise so gracious Saviour repulsed my prayer,—as -though he would not listen to me; he suffered my thoughts to wander upon -trifling things. - - JULIAN. - -You prayed for me? Oh, loving Hekebolius, you pray even for us dumb -animals—at least when we wear court dress? - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -What mean you, my son? - - JULIAN. - -Hekebolius, how could you write those shameful verses? - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -I? I swear by all that is high and holy—— - - JULIAN. - -I see in your eyes that you are lying! I have full assurance that you -wrote them. How could you do it, I ask—and under the name of Libanius, -too? - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -Well, well, my dearly beloved, since you know it, I—— - - JULIAN. - -Ah, Hekebolius! Deceit, and lies, and treachery—— - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -Behold, my precious friend, how deep is my love for you! I dare all to -save the soul of that man who shall one day be the Lord’s anointed. If, -in my zeal for you, I have had recourse to deceit and lies, I know that -a gracious God has found my course well pleasing in his sight, and has -stretched forth his hand to sanction it. - - JULIAN. - -How blind have I been! Let me press these perjured fingers—— - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -The Emperor! - - [_The EMPEROR CONSTANTIUS, with his whole retinue, comes from - the church. AGATHON has already, during the foregoing, - withdrawn among the bushes on the right._ - - THE EMPEROR. - -Oh, blessed peace of heaven in my heart. - - THE EMPRESS. - -Do you feel yourself strengthened, my Constantius? - - THE EMPEROR. - -Yes, yes! I saw the living Dove hovering over me. It took away the -burden of all my sin.—Now I dare venture much, Memnon! - - MEMNON. - -[_Softly._] Lose not a moment, sire! - - THE EMPEROR. - -There they both stand. - - [_He goes towards the brothers._ - - GALLUS. - -[_Mechanically feels for his sword, and cries in terror._] Do me no ill! - - THE EMPEROR. - -[_With outstretched arms._] Gallus! Kinsman! - - [_He embraces and kisses him._] - -Lo, in the light of the Easter stars, I choose the man who lies nearest -my heart.—Bow all to the earth. Hail Gallus Caesar![9] - - [_General astonishment among the Court; a few involuntary shouts - are raised._ - - THE EMPRESS. - -[_With a shriek._] Constantius! - - GALLUS. - -[_Amazed._] Caesar! - - JULIAN. - -Ah! - - [_He tries to seize the EMPEROR’S hands, as if in joy._ - - THE EMPEROR. - -[_Waving him aside._] Away from me! What would you? Is not Gallus the -elder? What hopes have you been cherishing? What rumours have you, in -your blind presumption——? Away; away! - - GALLUS. - -I—I Caesar! - - THE EMPEROR. - -My heir and my successor. In three days you will set out for the army in -Asia. I know the Persian war is much on your mind—— - - GALLUS. - -Oh, my most gracious sire——! - - THE EMPEROR. - -Thank me in deeds, my beloved Gallus! King Sapor lies west of the -Euphrates. I know how solicitous you are for my life; be it your task, -then, to crush him. - - [_He turns, takes JULIAN’S head between his hands, and kisses - him._ - -And you, Julian, my pious friend and brother—so it needs must be. - - JULIAN. - -All blessings on the Emperor’s will! - - THE EMPEROR. - -Call down no blessings! Yet listen—I have thought of you too. Know, -Julian, that now you can breathe freely in Constantinople—— - - JULIAN. - -Yes, praise be to Christ and the Emperor! - - THE EMPEROR. - -You know it already? Who has told you? - - JULIAN. - -What, sire? - - THE EMPEROR. - -That Libanius is banished? - - JULIAN. - -Libanius—banished! - - THE EMPEROR. - -I have banished him to Athens. - - JULIAN. - -Ah! - - THE EMPEROR. - -Yonder lies his ship; he sails to-night. - - JULIAN. - -[_Aside._] He himself; he himself! - - THE EMPEROR. - -You have long wished it. I have not hitherto been able to fulfil your -desire; but now——; let this be a slight requital to you, my Julian—— - - JULIAN. - -[_Quickly seizing his hand._] Sire, do me one grace more. - - THE EMPEROR. - -Ask what you will. - - JULIAN. - -Let me go to Pergamus. You know the old Aedesius teaches there—— - - THE EMPEROR. - -A very strange wish. You, among the heathens——? - - JULIAN. - -Aedesius is not dangerous; he is a high-minded old man, drawing towards -the grave—— - - THE EMPEROR. - -And what would you with him, brother? - - JULIAN. - -I would learn to do battle with the lions. - - THE EMPEROR. - -I understand your pious thought. And you are not afraid——; you think -yourself strong enough——? - - JULIAN. - -The Lord God has called me with a loud voice. Like Daniel, I go fearless -and joyful into the lions’ den. - - THE EMPEROR. - -Julian! - - JULIAN. - -To-night, without knowing it, you have yourself been his instrument. Oh, -let me go forth to purge the world! - - GALLUS. - -[_Softly to the EMPEROR._] Humour him, sire; it will prevent his -brooding on higher things. - - THE EMPRESS. - -I implore you, Constantius—set no bar to this vehement longing. - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -Great Emperor, let him go to Pergamus. I fear I am losing hold of him -here, and now ’tis no longer of such moment. - - THE EMPEROR. - -How could I deny you anything in such an hour? Go with God, Julian! - - JULIAN. - -[_Kissing his hands._] Oh, thanks—thanks! - - THE EMPEROR. - -And now to a banquet of rejoicing! My Capuan cook has invented some new -fast-dishes, carp-necks in Chios wine, and—— Forward;—your place is next -to me, Gallus Caesar! - - [_The procession begins to advance._] - - GALLUS. - -[_Softly._] Helena, what a marvellous change of fortune! - - HELENA. - -Oh, Gallus, dawn is breaking over our hopes. - - GALLUS. - -I can scarce believe it! Who has brought it about? - - HELENA. - -Hush! - - GALLUS. - -You, my beloved? Or who—who? - - HELENA. - -Memnon’s Spartan dog. - - GALLUS. - -What do you mean? - - HELENA. - -Memnon’s dog. Julian kicked it; this is Memnon’s revenge. - - THE EMPEROR. - -Why so silent, Eusebia? - - THE EMPRESS. - -[_Softly, in tears._] Oh, Constantius—how could you make such a choice! - - THE EMPEROR. - -Eleven ghosts demanded it. - - THE EMPRESS. - -Woe upon us; this will not appease the ghosts. - - THE EMPEROR. - -[_Calls loudly._] Flute-players! Why are the rascals silent? Play, play! - - [_All, except PRINCE JULIAN, go out to the left. AGATHON comes - forward among the trees._ - - JULIAN. - -Gallus his successor; and I—free, free, free! - - AGATHON. - -Marvellously are the counsels of the Lord revealed. - - JULIAN. - -Heard you what passed? - - AGATHON. - -Yes, everything. - - JULIAN. - -And to-morrow, my Agathon, to-morrow to Athens! - - AGATHON. - -To Athens? ’Tis to Pergamus you go. - - JULIAN. - -Hush! You do not know——; we must be cunning as serpents. First to -Pergamus—and then to Athens! - - AGATHON. - -Farewell, my lord and friend! - - JULIAN. - -Will you go with me, Agathon? - - AGATHON. - -I cannot. I must go home; I have my little brother to care for. - - JULIAN. - -[_At the balustrade._] There they are weighing anchor.—A fair wind to -you, winged lion; Achilles follows in your wake. - - [_Exclaims softly._] - -Ah! - - AGATHON. - -What was that? - - JULIAN. - -Yonder fell a star. - - - - - ACT SECOND - -_In Athens. An open place surrounded by colonnades. In the square, - statues and a fountain. A narrow street debouches in the left-hand - corner. Sunset._ - -_BASIL OF CAESAREA, a delicately-built young man, sits reading beside a - pillar. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS and other scholars of the University - stroll in scattered groups up and down the colonnades. A larger - band runs shouting across the square, and out to the right; noise - in the distance._ - - BASIL. - -[_Looks up from his book._] What mean these wild cries? - - GREGORY. - -A ship has come in from Ephesus. - - BASIL. - -With new scholars? - - GREGORY. - -Yes. - - BASIL. - -[_Rising._] Then we shall have a night of tumult. Come, Gregory; let us -not witness all this unseemliness. - - GREGORY. - -[_Points to the left._] Look yonder. Is that a pleasanter sight? - - BASIL. - -Prince Julian——; with roses in his hair, his face aflame—— - - GREGORY. - -Ay, and after him that reeling, glassy-eyed crew. Hear how the halting -tongues babble with wine! They have sat the whole day in Lykon’s tavern. - - BASIL. - -And many of them are our own brethren, Gregory; they are Christian -youths—— - - GREGORY. - -So they call themselves. Did not Lampon call himself a Christian—he who -betrayed the oil-seller Zeno’s daughter? And Hilarion of Agrigentum, and -the two others, who did what I shudder to name—— - - PRINCE JULIAN. - -[_Is heard calling without on the left._] Aha! See, see—the Cappadocian -Castor and Pollux. - - BASIL. - -He has caught sight of us. I will go; I cannot endure to see him in this -mood. - - GREGORY. - -I will remain; he needs a friend. - -_BASIL goes out to the right. At the same moment, PRINCE JULIAN, - followed by a crowd of young men, enters from the narrow street. - His hair is dishevelled, and he is clad in a short cloak like the - rest. Among the scholars is SALLUST OF PERUSIA._ - - MANY IN THE CROWD. - -Long live the light of Athens! Long live the lover of wisdom and -eloquence! - - JULIAN. - -All your flattery is wasted. Not another verse shall you have to-day. - - SALLUST. - -When our leader is silent, life seems empty, as on the morning after a -night’s carouse. - - JULIAN. - -If we must needs do something, let it be something new. Let us hold a -mock trial. - - THE WHOLE CROWD. - -Yes, yes, yes; Prince Julian on the judgment-seat! - - JULIAN. - -Have done with the Prince, friends—— - - SALLUST. - -Ascend the judgment-seat, incomparable one! - - JULIAN. - -How could I presume——? There stands the man. Who is so learned in the -law as Gregory of Nazianzus? - - SALLUST. - -That is true! - - JULIAN. - -To the judgment-seat, my wise Gregory; I am the prisoner at the bar. - - GREGORY. - -I beg you, friend, let me stand out. - - JULIAN. - -To the judgment-seat, I say! To the judgment-seat. [_To the others_,] -What is my transgression? - - SOME VOICES. - -Yes, what shall it be? Choose yourself! - - SALLUST. - -Let it be something Galilean, as we of the ungodly say. - - JULIAN. - -Right; something Galilean. I have it. I have refused to pay tribute to -the Emperor—— - - MANY VOICES. - -Ha-ha; well bethought! Excellent! - - JULIAN. - -Here am I, dragged forward by the nape of the neck, with my hands -pinioned—— - - SALLUST. - -[_To GREGORY._] Blind judge—I mean since Justice is blind—behold this -desperate wretch; he has denied to pay tribute to the Emperor. - - JULIAN. - -Let me throw one word into the scales of judgment. I am a Greek citizen. -How much does a Greek citizen owe the Emperor? - - GREGORY. - -What the Emperor demands. - - JULIAN. - -Good; but how much—answer now as though the Emperor himself were in -court—how much has the Emperor a right to demand? - - GREGORY. - -Everything. - - JULIAN. - -Answered as though the Emperor were present indeed! But now comes the -knotty point; for it is written: Render unto Caesar the things that are -Caesar’s—and unto God the things that are God’s. - - GREGORY. - -And what then? - - JULIAN. - -Then tell me, oh sagacious judge—how much of what is mine belongs to -God? - - GREGORY. - -Everything. - - JULIAN. - -And how much of God’s property may I give to the Emperor? - - GREGORY. - -Dear friends, no more of this sport. - - THE SCHOLARS. - -[_Amid laughter and noise._] Yes, yes; answer him. - - JULIAN. - -How much of God’s property has the Emperor a right to demand? - - GREGORY. - -I will not answer. This is unseemly both towards God and the Emperor. -Let me go. - - MANY VOICES. - -Make a ring round him! - - JULIAN. - -Hold him fast! What, you most luckless of judges, you have bungled the -Emperor’s cause, and now you seek to escape? You would flee? Whither, -whither? To the Scythians? Bring him before me! Tell me you servants -that-are-to-be of the Emperor and of wisdom—has he not attempted to -elude the Emperor’s power? - - THE SCHOLARS. - -Yes, yes. - - JULIAN. - -And what punishment do you award to such a misdeed? - - VOICES. - -Death! Death in a wine-jar! - - JULIAN. - -Let us reflect. Let us answer as though the Emperor himself were -present. What limit is there to the Emperor’s power? - - SOME OF THE CROWD. - -The Emperor’s power has no limits. - - JULIAN. - -So I should think. But to want to escape from the infinite, my friends, -is not that madness? - - THE SCHOLARS. - -Yes, yes; the Cappadocian is mad! - - JULIAN. - -And what, then, is madness? How did our forefathers conceive of it? What -was the doctrine of the Egyptian priests? And what says Maximus the -Mystic and the other philosophers of the East? They say that the divine -enigma reveals itself in the brainsick. Our Gregory—in setting himself -up against the Emperor—is thus in special league with Heaven.—Make -libations of wine to the Cappadocian; sing songs to our Gregory’s -praise;—a statue of honour for Gregory of Nazianzus! - - THE SCHOLARS. - -[_Amid laughter and glee._] Praise to the Cappadocian! Praise to the -Cappadocian’s judge! - - _The PHILOSOPHER LIBANIUS, surrounded by disciples, comes across - the square._ - - LIBANIUS. - -Ah, see—is not my brother Julian dispensing wisdom in the open -market-place? - - JULIAN. - -Say folly, dear friend; wisdom has departed the city. - - LIBANIUS. - -Has wisdom departed the city? - - JULIAN. - -Or is on the point of departing; for are not you also bound for the -Piraeus? - - LIBANIUS. - -I, my brother? What should I want at the Piraeus? - - JULIAN. - -Our Libanius, then, is the only teacher who does not know that a ship -has just arrived from Ephesus. - - LIBANIUS. - -Why, my friend, what have I to do with that ship? - - JULIAN. - -It is loaded to the water’s edge with embryo philosophers—— - - LIBANIUS. - -[_Scornfully._] They come from Ephesus! - - JULIAN. - -Is not gold equally weighty whencesoever it may come? - - LIBANIUS. - -Gold? Ha-ha! The golden ones Maximus keeps to himself; he does not let -them go. What sort of scholars is Ephesus wont to send us? Shopkeepers’ -sons, the first-born of mechanics. Gold say you, my Julian? I call it -lack of gold. But I will turn this lack of gold to account, and out of -it I will mint for you young men a coin of true and weighty metal. For -may not a precious lesson in life, set forth in ingenious and attractive -form, be compared to a piece of full-weighted golden currency?— - -Hear then, if you have a mind to. Was it not said that certain men had -rushed eagerly down to the Piraeus? Who are they, these eager ones? Far -be it from me to mention names; they call themselves lovers and teachers -of wisdom. Let us betake ourselves in thought to the Piraeus. What is -passing there at this moment, even as I stand here in this circle of -kindly listeners? I will tell you what is passing. Those men who give -themselves out as lovers and dispensers of wisdom, are crowding upon the -gangway, jostling, wrangling, biting, forgetting all decorum, and -throwing dignity to the winds. And why? To be the first in the field,—to -pounce upon the best dressed youths, to lead them home, to entertain -them, hoping in the end to make profit out of them in all possible ways. -What a shamefaced, empty awakening, as after a debauch, if it should -presently appear—ha-ha-ha!—that these youths have scarcely brought with -them the wherewithal to pay for their supper of welcome! Learn from -this, young men, how ill it becomes a lover of wisdom, and how little it -profits him, to run after good things other than the truth. - - JULIAN. - -Oh, my Libanius, when I listen to you with closed eyes, I seem lapped in -the sweet dream that Diogenes has once more arisen in our midst. - - LIBANIUS. - -Your lips are princely spendthrifts of praise, beloved of my soul! - - JULIAN. - -Far from it. And yet I had almost interrupted your homily for in this -case, one of your colleagues will scarce find himself disappointed. - - LIBANIUS. - -My friend is jesting. - - JULIAN. - -Your friend assures you that the two sons of the governor, Milo, are on -board. - - LIBANIUS. - -[_Grasping his arm._] What do you say? - - JULIAN. - -That the new Diogenes who secures them as his pupils will scarce need to -drink out of the hollow of his hand for poverty. - - LIBANIUS. - -The sons of the Governor Milo! That noble Milo, who sent the Emperor -seven Persian horses, with saddles embroidered with pearls——? - - JULIAN. - -Many thought that too mean a gift for Milo. - - LIBANIUS. - -Very true. Milo ought to have sent a poem, or perhaps a well-polished -speech, or a letter. Milo is a nobly-endowed man; all Milo’s family are -nobly-endowed. - - JULIAN. - -Especially the two young men. - - LIBANIUS. - -No doubt, no doubt. For the sake of their beneficent and generous -father, I pray the gods that they may fall into good hands. After all, -then, you were right, my Julian; the ship brought real gold from -Ephesus. For are not intellectual gifts the purest of gold? But I cannot -rest; these young men’s welfare is, in truth, a weighty matter; so much -depends on who first gains control of them. My young friends, if you -think as I do, we will hold out a guiding hand to these two strangers, -help them to make the wisest choice of teacher and abode, and—— - - SALLUST. - -I will go with you! - - THE SCHOLARS. - -To the Piraeus! To the Piraeus! - - SALLUST. - -We will fight like wild boars for Milo’s sons! - - [_They all go out, with LIBANIUS, to the right; only PRINCE - JULIAN and GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS remain behind in the - colonnade._ - - JULIAN. - -[_Following them with his eyes._] See how they go leaping like a troop -of fauns. How they lick their lips at the thought of the feast that -awaits them this evening. [_He turns to GREGORY._] If there is one thing -they would sigh to God for at this moment, it is that he would empty -their stomachs of their breakfasts. - - GREGORY. - -Julian—— - - JULIAN. - -Look at me; I am sober. - - GREGORY. - -I know that. You are temperate in all things. And yet you share this -life of theirs. - - JULIAN. - -Why not? Do you know, or do I, when the thunderbolt will fall? Then why -not make the most of the bright and sunlit day? Do you forget that I -dragged out my childhood and the first years of my youth in gilded -slavery? It had become a habit, I might almost say a necessity to me, to -live under a weight of dread. And now? This stillness as of the grave on -the Emperor’s part;—this sinister silence! I left Pergamus without the -Emperor’s permission; the Emperor said nothing. I went of my own will to -Nicomedia; I lived there, and studied with Nikokles and others; the -Emperor gave no sign. I came to Athens, and sought out Libanius, whom -the Emperor had forbidden me to see;—the Emperor has said nothing to -this day. How am I to interpret this? - - GREGORY. - -Interpret it in charity, Julian. - - JULIAN. - -Oh, you do not know——! I hate this power without me, terrible in action, -more terrible when at rest. - - GREGORY. - -Be frank, my friend, and tell me whether it is this alone that has led -you into all these strange ways? - - JULIAN. - -What mean you by strange ways? - - GREGORY. - -Is the rumour true, that you pass your nights in searching out the -heathen mysteries in Eleusis? - - JULIAN. - -Oh, pooh! I assure you there is little to be learnt from those -riddle-mongering dreamers. Let us talk no more about them. - - GREGORY. - -Then it is true! Oh, Julian, how could you seek such shameful -intercourse? - - JULIAN. - -I must live, Gregory,—and this life at the university is no life at all. -This Libanius! I shall never forgive him the great love I once bore him! -At my first coming, how humbly and with what tremors of joy did I not -enter the presence of this man, bowing myself before him, kissing him, -and calling him my great brother. - - GREGORY. - -Yes, we Christians all thought that you went too far. - - JULIAN. - -And yet I came here in exaltation of spirit. I saw, in my fancy, a -mighty contest between us two,—the world’s truth in pitched battle -against God’s truth.—What has it all come to? Libanius never seriously -desired that contest. He never desired any contest whatever; he cares -only for his own interest. I tell you, Gregory—Libanius is not a great -man. - - GREGORY. - -Yet all enlightened Greece proclaims him great. - - JULIAN. - -A great man he is not, I tell you. Once only have I seen Libanius great: -that night in Constantinople. Then he was great, because he had suffered -a great wrong, and because he was filled with a noble wrath. But here! -Oh, what have I not seen here? Libanius has great learning, but he is no -great man. Libanius is greedy; he is vain; he is eaten up with envy. See -you not how he has writhed under the fame which I—largely, no doubt, -owing to the indulgence of my friends—have been so fortunate as to -acquire? Go to Libanius, and he will expound to you the inward essence -and the outward signs of all the virtues. He has them ready to hand, -just as he has the books in his library. But does he exercise these -virtues? Is his life at one with his teaching? He a successor of -Socrates and of Plato—ha-ha! Did he not flatter the Emperor, up to the -time of his banishment? Did he not flatter me at our meeting in -Constantinople, that meeting which he has since attempted, most -unsuccessfully, to present in a ludicrous light! And what am I to him -now? Now he writes letters to Gallus, to Gallus Caesar, to the Emperor’s -heir, congratulating him on his successes against the Persians, although -these successes have as yet been meagre enough, and Gallus Caesar is not -distinguished either for learning or for any considerable eloquence.—And -this Libanius the Greeks persist in calling the king of the -philosophers! Ah, I will not deny that it stirs my indignation. I should -have thought, to tell the truth, that the Greeks might have made a -better choice, if they had noted a little more closely the cultivators -of wisdom and eloquence, who of late years—— - - BASIL OF CAESAREA. - -[_Entering from the right._] Letters! Letters from Cappadocia! - - GREGORY. - -For me too? - - BASIL. - -Yes, here; from your mother. - - GREGORY. - -My pious mother! - - [_He opens the paper and reads._ - - JULIAN. - -[_To BASIL._] Is it your sister who writes to you? - - BASIL. - -[_Who has entered with his own letter open._] Yes, it is Makrina. Her -news is both sad and strange. - - JULIAN. - -What is it? Tell me. - - BASIL. - -First of your noble brother Gallus. He rules sternly in Antioch. - - JULIAN. - -Yes, Gallus is hard.—Does Makrina write “sternly.” - - BASIL. - -[_Looking at him._] Makrina writes “bloodily”—— - - JULIAN. - -Ah, I thought as much! Why did the Emperor marry him to that dissolute -widow, that Constantina? - - GREGORY. - -[_Reading._] Oh, what unheard-of infamy! - - JULIAN. - -What is it, friend? - - GREGORY. - -[_To BASIL._] Does Makrina say nothing of what is happening in Antioch? - - BASIL. - -Nothing definite. What is it? You are pale—— - - GREGORY. - -You knew the noble Clemazius, the Alexandrian? - - BASIL. - -Yes, yes; what of him? - - GREGORY. - -He is murdered, Basil! - - BASIL. - -What do you say? Murdered? - - GREGORY. - -I call it murdered;—they have executed him without law or judgment. - - JULIAN. - -Who? Who has executed him? - - GREGORY. - -Yes, who? How can I say who? My mother tells the story thus: Clemazius’s -mother-in-law was inflamed with an impure love for her daughter’s -husband; but as she could not move him to wrong, she gained some -back-stairs access to the palace—— - - JULIAN. - -What palace? - - GREGORY. - -My mother writes only “the palace.” - - JULIAN. - -Well? And then——? - - GREGORY. - -It is only known that she presented a very costly jewel to a great and -powerful lady to procure a death-warrant—— - - JULIAN. - -Ah, but they did not get it! - - GREGORY. - -They got it, Julian. - - JULIAN. - -Oh, Jesus! - - BASIL. - -Horrible! And Clemazius——? - - GREGORY. - -The death-warrant was sent to the governor, Honoratus. That weak man -dared not disobey so high a command. Clemazius was thrown into prison -and executed early next morning, without being suffered, my mother -writes, to open his lips in his own defence. - - JULIAN. - -[_Pale, in a low voice._] Burn these dangerous letters; they might bring -us all to ruin. - - BASIL. - -Such open violence in the midst of a great city! Where are we; where are -we? - - JULIAN. - -Aye, you may well ask where we are! A Christian murderer, a Christian -adulteress, a Christian——! - - GREGORY. - -Denunciations will not mend this matter. What do you intend to do? - - JULIAN. - -I? I will go no more to Eleusis; I will break off all dealings with the -heathen, and thank the Lord my God that he spared me the temptations of -power. - - GREGORY. - -Good; but then? - - JULIAN. - -I do not understand you—— - - GREGORY. - -Then listen. The murder of Clemazius is not all, believe me. This -unheard-of infamy has descended like a plague on Antioch. All evil -things have awakened, and are swarming forth from their lairs. My mother -writes that it seems as though some pestilent abyss had opened. Wives -denounce their husbands, sons their fathers, priests the members of -their own flock—— - - JULIAN. - -This will spread yet further. The abomination will corrupt us all.—— Oh, -Gregory, would I could fly to the world’s end——! - - GREGORY. - -Your place is at the world’s navel, Prince Julian. - - JULIAN. - -What would you have me do? - - GREGORY. - -You are this bloody Caesar’s brother. Stand forth before him—he calls -himself a Christian—and cast his crime in his teeth; smite him to the -earth in terror and remorse—— - - JULIAN. - -[_Recoiling._] Madman, of what are you thinking? - - GREGORY. - -Is your brother dear to you? Would you save him? - - JULIAN. - -I once loved Gallus above all others. - - GREGORY. - -_Once_——? - - JULIAN. - -So long as he was only my brother. But now——; is he not Caesar? -Gregory,—Basil,—oh, my beloved friends,—I tremble for my life, I draw -every breath in fear, because of Gallus Caesar. And you ask me to defy -him to his face, me, whose very existence is a danger to him? - - GREGORY. - -Why came you to Athens? You gave out loudly in all quarters that Prince -Julian was setting forth from Constantinople to do battle with -philosophy, falsely so called—to champion Christian truth against -heathen falsehood. What have you done of all this? - - JULIAN. - -Ah, ’twas not here that the battle was to be. - - GREGORY. - -No, it was not here,—not with phrase against phrase, not with book -against book, not with the idle word-fencing of the lecture-room! No, -Julian, you must go forth into life itself, with your own life in your -hands—— - - JULIAN. - -I see it; I see it! - - GREGORY. - -Yes, as Libanius sees it! You mocked at him. You said he knew the -essence and the outward signs of all the virtues, but his doctrine was -only a doctrine to him. How much of _you_ belongs to God? How much may -the Emperor demand? - - JULIAN. - -You said yourself it was unseemly—— - - GREGORY. - -Towards whom? Towards God or the Emperor? - - JULIAN. - -[_Quickly._] Well then: shall we go together? - - GREGORY. - -[_Evasively._] I have my little circle; I have my family to watch over. -I have neither the strength nor the gifts for a larger task. - - JULIAN. - -[_Is about to answer; suddenly he listens towards the right, and calls -out._] To the bacchanal! - - BASIL. - -Julian! - - JULIAN. - -To the bacchanal, friends! - - [_GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS looks at him a moment; then he goes off - through the colonnade to the left. A large troop of - scholars, with the newcomers among them, rushes into the - square, amid shouts and noise._ - - BASIL. - -[_Coming nearer._] Julian, will you listen to me! - - JULIAN. - -See, see! They have taken their new friends to the bath, and anointed -their hair. See how they swing their cudgels; how they yell and thump -the pavement! What say you, Pericles? Methinks I can hear your wrathful -shade—— - - BASIL. - -Come, come! - - JULIAN. - -Ah, look at the man they are driving naked among them. Now come the -dancing-girls. Ah, do you see what——! - - BASIL. - -Fie! Fie!—turn your eyes away! - - [_Evening has fallen. The whole troop settles down in the square - beside the fountain. Wine and fruits are brought. Painted - damsels dance by torchlight._ - - JULIAN. - -[_After a short silence._] Tell me, Basil, why was the heathen sin so -beautiful? - - BASIL. - -You are mistaken, friend; beautiful things have been said and sung of -this heathen sin; but it was not beautiful. - - JULIAN. - -Oh, how can you say so? Was not Alcibiades beautiful when, flushed with -wine, he stormed at night like a young god through the streets of -Athens? Was he not beautiful in his very audacity when he insulted -Hermes and battered at the citizens’ doors,—when he summoned their wives -and daughters forth, while within the women trembled, and, in -breathless, panting silence, wished for nothing better than to——? - - BASIL. - -Oh listen to me, I beg and entreat you. - - JULIAN. - -Was not Socrates beautiful in the symposium? And Plato, and all the -joyous revellers? Yet they did such things, as, but to be accused of -them, would make those Christian swine out there call down upon -themselves the curse of God. Think of Oedipus, Medea, Leda—— - - BASIL. - -Poetry, poetry; you confound fancies with facts. - - JULIAN. - -Are not mind and will in poetry subject to the same laws as in fact? And -then look at our holy scriptures, both the old and new. Was sin -beautiful in Sodom and Gomorrah? Did not Jehovah’s fire avenge what -Socrates shrank not from?—Oh, as I live this life of revel and riot, I -often wonder whether truth is indeed the enemy of beauty! - - BASIL. - -And in such an hour can you sigh after beauty? Can you so easily forget -what you have just heard——? - - JULIAN. - -[_Stopping his ears._] Not a word more of those horrors! We will shake -off all thoughts of Antioch—— - -Tell me, what does Makrina write further? There was something more; I -remember, you said——; what was it you called the rest of her news? - - BASIL. - -Strange. - - JULIAN. - -Yes, yes;—what was it? - - BASIL. - -She writes of Maximus in Ephesus—— - - JULIAN. - -[_Eagerly._] The Mystic? - - BASIL. - -Yes; that inscrutable man. He has appeared once more; this time in -Ephesus. All the region around is in a ferment. Maximus is on all lips. -Either he is a juggler or he has made a baleful compact with certain -spirits. Even Christians are strangely allured by his impious signs and -wonders. - - JULIAN. - -More, more; I entreat you! - - BASIL. - -There is no more about him. Makrina only writes that she sees in the -coming again of Maximus a proof that we are under the wrath of the Lord. -She believes that great afflictions are in store for us, by reason of -our sins. - - JULIAN. - -Yes, yes, yes!—Tell me, Basil: your sister is surely a remarkable woman. - - BASIL. - -She is, indeed. - - JULIAN. - -When you repeat to me passages from her letters, I seem to be listening -to something full and perfect, such as I have long sighed for. Tell me, -is she still bent on renouncing this world, and living in the -wilderness? - - BASIL. - -That is her steadfast intent. - - JULIAN. - -Is it possible? She on whom all gifts seem to have been lavished? She -who, ’tis known, is both young and beautiful; she, who has riches in -prospect, and in possession such learning as is very rare in a woman! Do -you know, Basil, I long to see her? What has _she_ to do in the -wilderness? - - BASIL. - -I have told you how her affianced lover died. She regards him as her -expectant bridegroom, to whom she owes her every thought, and whom she -is pledged to meet unsullied. - - JULIAN. - -Strange how many feel the attraction of solitude in these times.—When -you write to Makrina, you may tell her that I too—— - - BASIL. - -She knows that, Julian; but she does not believe it. - - JULIAN. - -Why not? What does she write? - - BASIL. - -I pray you, friend, spare me—— - - JULIAN. - -If you love me, do not hide from me one word she writes. - - BASIL. - -[_Giving him the letter._] Read, if you must—it begins there. - - JULIAN. - -[_Reads._] “Whenever you write of the Emperor’s young kinsman, who is -your friend, my soul is filled with a great and radiant joy——” O Basil! -lend me your eye; read for me. - - BASIL. - -[_Reading._] “Your account of the fearless confidence wherewith he came -to Athens was to me as a picture from the ancient chronicles. Yes, I see -in him David born again, to smite the champions of the heathen. God’s -spirit watch over him in the strife, now and for ever.” - - JULIAN. - -[_Grasping his arm._] Enough of that! She too? What is it that you all, -as with one mouth, demand of me? Have I sealed you a bond to do battle -with the lions of power——? - - BASIL. - -How comes it that all believers look towards you in breathless -expectation? - - JULIAN. - -[_Paces once or twice up and down the colonnade, then stops and -stretches out his hand for the letter._] Give it to me; let me see. -[_Reading._] “God’s spirit watch over him in the strife, now and for -ever.”— - -Oh, Basil, if I could——! But I feel like Daedalus, between sky and sea. -An appalling height and an abysmal depth.—What sense is there in these -voices calling to me, from east and west, that I must save Christendom? -Where is it, this Christendom that I am to save? With the Emperor or -with Caesar? I think their deeds cry out, “No, no!” Among the powerful -and high-born;—among those sensual and effeminate courtiers who fold -their hands over their full bellies, and quaver: “Was the Son of God -created out of nothing?” Or among the men of enlightenment, those who, -like you and me, have drunk in beauty and learning from the heathen -fountains? Do not most of our fellows lean to the Arian heresy, which -the Emperor himself so greatly favours?—And then the whole ragged rabble -of the Empire, who rage against the temples, who massacre heathens and -the children of heathens! Is it for Christ’s sake? Ha ha! see how they -fall to fighting among themselves for the spoils of the slain.—Ask -Makrina if Christendom is to be sought in the wilderness,—on the pillar -where the stylite-saint stands on one leg? Or is it in the cities? -Perhaps among those bakers in Constantinople who lately took to their -fists to decide whether the Trinity consists of three individuals or of -three hypostases!—Which of all these would Christ acknowledge if he came -down to earth again?—Out with your Diogenes-lantern, Basil! Enlighten -this pitchy darkness.—Where is Christendom? - - BASIL. - -Seek the answer where it is ever to be found in evil days. - - JULIAN. - -Hold me not aloof from the well of your wisdom! Slake my thirst, if you -can. Where shall I seek and find? - - BASIL. - -In the writings of holy men. - - JULIAN. - -The same despairing answer. Books,—always books! When I came to -Libanius, it was: books, books! I come to you,—books, books, books! -Stones for bread! I cannot live on books;—it is life I hunger -for,—face-to-face communion with the spirit. Was it a book that made -Saul a seer? Was it not a flood of light that enveloped him, a vision, a -voice——? - - BASIL. - -Do you forget the vision and the voice which that Agathon of Makellon——? - - JULIAN. - -An enigmatic message; an oracle I cannot interpret. Was _I_ the chosen -one? The “heir to the empire,” it said. And what empire——? That matter -is beset with a thousand uncertainties. Only this I know: Athens is not -the lion’s den. But where, where? Oh, I grope like Saul in the darkness. -If Christ would have aught of me, he must speak plainly. Let me touch -the nail-wound—— - - BASIL. - -And yet it is written—— - - JULIAN. - -[_With a gesture of impatience._] I know all that is written. This “it -is written” is not the living truth. Do you not feel disgust and nausea, -as on board ship in a windless swell, heaving to and fro between life, -and written doctrine, and heathen wisdom and beauty? There must come a -new revelation. Or a revelation of something new. It must come, I -say;—the time is ripe.—Ah, a revelation! Oh, Basil, could your prayers -call down that upon me! A martyr’s death, if need be——! A martyr’s -death—ah, it makes me dizzy with its sweetness; the crown of thorns on -my brow——! [_He clasps his head with both hands,_ _feels the wreath of -roses, which he tears off, bethinks himself long, and says softly_:] -That! I had forgotten that! [_Casting the wreath away._] One thing alone -have I learnt in Athens. - - BASIL. - -What, Julian? - - JULIAN. - -The old beauty is no longer beautiful, and the new truth is no longer -true. - - _LIBANIUS enters hastily through the colonnade on the right._ - - LIBANIUS. - -[_Still in the distance._] Now we have him; now we have him! - - JULIAN. - -Him? I thought you would have had them both. - - LIBANIUS. - -Both of whom? - - JULIAN. - -Milo’s sons. - - LIBANIUS. - -Ah, yes, I have them too. But we have _him_, my Julian! - - JULIAN. - -Whom, dear brother? - - LIBANIUS. - -He has caught himself in his own net! - - JULIAN. - -Aha—a philosopher then? - - LIBANIUS. - -The enemy of all wisdom. - - JULIAN. - -Who, who, I ask? - - LIBANIUS. - -Do you really not know? Have you not heard the news about Maximus? - - JULIAN. - -Maximus? Oh, pray tell me—— - - LIBANIUS. - -Who could fail to see whither that restless visionary was tending,—step -by step towards madness——? - - JULIAN. - -In other words, towards the highest wisdom. - - LIBANIUS. - -Ah, that is a figure of speech. But now is the time to act, to seize the -opportunity. You, our dearly-prized Julian, you are the man. You are the -Emperor’s near kinsman. The hopes of all true friends of wisdom are -fixed upon you, both here and in Nikomedia—— - - JULIAN. - -Listen, oh excellent Libanius,—seeing I am not omniscient—— - - LIBANIUS. - -Know, then, that Maximus has lately made open avowal of what lies at the -bottom of his teaching. - - JULIAN. - -And do you blame him for that? - - LIBANIUS. - -He has averred that he has power over spirits and shades of the dead. - - JULIAN. - -[_Grasping his cloak._] Libanius! - - LIBANIUS. - -All on board the ship were full of the most marvellous stories, and -here—— [_He shows a letter_], here, my colleague, Eusebius, writes at -length on the subject. - - JULIAN. - -Spirits and shades—— - - LIBANIUS. - -At Ephesus lately, in a large assembly both of his partisans and his -opponents. Maximus applied forbidden arts to the statue of Hecate. It -took place in the goddess’s temple. Eusebius writes that he himself was -present, and saw everything from first to last. All was in pitch-black -darkness. Maximus uttered strange incantations; then he chanted a hymn, -which no one understood. Then the marble torch in the statue’s hand -burst into flame—— - - BASIL. - -Impious doings! - - JULIAN. - -[_Breathlessly._] And then——? - - LIBANIUS. - -In the strong bluish light, they all saw the statue’s face come to life -and smile at them. - - JULIAN. - -What more? - - LIBANIUS. - -Terror seized on the minds of most. All rushed towards the doors. Many -have lain sick or raving ever since. But he himself—would you believe -it, Julian?—in spite of the fate that befell his two brothers in -Constantinople, he goes boldly forward on his reckless and scandalous -way. - - JULIAN. - -Scandalous? Call you that way scandalous? Is not this the end of all -wisdom. Communion between spirit and spirit—— - - BASIL. - -Oh, dear, misguided friend——! - - LIBANIUS. - -More than scandalous, I call it! What is Hecate? What are the gods, as a -whole, in the eyes of enlightened humanity? We have happily left far -behind us the blind old singer’s days. Maximus ought to know better than -that. Has not Plato—and we others after him—shed the light of -interpretation over the whole? Is it not scandalous now, in our own -days, to seek to enshroud afresh in riddles and misty dreams this -admirable, palpable, and, let me add, this laboriously constructed -edifice of ideas and interpretations which we, as lovers of wisdom, as a -school, as—— - - JULIAN. - -[_Wildly._] Basil, farewell! I see a light on my path! - - BASIL. - -[_Flinging his arms around him._] I will not let you go; I will hold you -fast! - - JULIAN. - -[_Extricating himself from his grasp._] No one shall withhold me;—kick -not against the pricks—— - - LIBANIUS. - -What frenzy is this? Friend, brother, colleague, whither would you go? - - JULIAN. - -Thither, thither, where torches light themselves and where statues -smile! - - LIBANIUS. - -And you can do this! You, Julian, our pride, our light, our hope,—you -can think of rushing to bewildered Ephesus, to give yourself into a -juggler’s power! Know that in the hour you so deeply debase yourself, in -that same hour you throw away all that bright renown for learning and -eloquence which, during these years in Pergamos and Nikomedia, and -especially here in the great school of Athens—— - - JULIAN. - -Oh, the school, the school! Do you pore over your books;—you have -pointed my way to the man for whom I have been seeking. - - [_He goes off hastily through the colonnade to the left._ - - LIBANIUS. - -[_Looking after him awhile._] This princely youth is a menace to -enlightenment. - - BASIL. - -[_Half to himself._] Prince Julian is a menace to more than that. - - - - - ACT THIRD - - -_In Ephesus. A brightly lighted hall in PRINCE JULIAN’S dwelling. The - entrance from the vestibule is on the right side; further back, a - smaller door, covered by a curtain. On the left, a door, which - leads to the inner part of the house. The wall in the back is - pierced with an archway, through which a small enclosed court is - visible, decked with small statues._ - -_Servants prepare a festal supper, and lay cushions round the table. The - Chamberlain, EUTHERIUS, stands at the entrance, and, with much - ceremony, half forces GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS and BASIL OF CAESAREA - to enter._ - - EUTHERIUS. - -Yes, yes; I assure you it is as I say. - - GREGORY. - -Impossible! Do not make sport of us. - - BASIL. - -You are jesting, friend! How can your master expect us? Not a creature -knew of our leaving Athens; nothing has detained us on our way; we have -kept pace with the clouds and the wild cranes. - - EUTHERIUS. - -Look around; see yonder table. His daily fare is herbs and bread. - - GREGORY. - -Ay, truly; all our senses bear you witness;—wine-flagons, wreathed with -flowers and leaves; lamps and fruits; incense filling the hall with its -odour; flute-players before the door—— - - EUTHERIUS. - -Early this morning he sent for me. He seemed unwontedly happy, for he -paced the room to and fro, rubbing his hands. “Prepare a rich banquet,” -said he, “for before evening I look for two friends from Athens——” - - [_He glances towards the door on the left, is suddenly silent, - and draws back respectfully._ - - BASIL. - -Is he there? - - [_EUTHERIUS nods in answer; then gives a sign to the servants to - withdraw; they go out by the larger door on the right; he - follows._ - -_PRINCE JULIAN shortly afterwards enters from the left. He is dressed in - long, Oriental garb; his whole demeanour is vivacious, and betrays - strong inward excitement._ - - JULIAN. - -[_Going towards them, and greeting them with great warmth._] I see you! -I have you! Thanks, thanks, for sending your spirits to herald your -bodies! - - GREGORY. - -Julian! - - BASIL. - -My friend and brother! - - JULIAN. - -I have been like a lover, languishing for the pressure of your hands. -The court vermin, eager for certain persons’ applause, called me an -ape;—oh, would I had an ape’s four hands, to squeeze yours all at once! - - GREGORY. - -But explain——; your servants meet us with flutes before the door, want -to lead us to the bath, to anoint our hair and deck us with roses—— - - JULIAN. - -I saw you last night. The moon was full, you see,—and then is the spirit -always strangely alert within me. I sat at the table in my library, and -had fallen asleep, weary, oh! so weary, my friends, with research and -writing. Of a sudden it seemed as though a storm-wind filled the house; -the curtain was swept flapping aloft, and I looked out into the night, -far over the sea. I heard sweet singing; and the singers were two large -birds, with women’s faces. They flew slanting towards the shore; there -they dropped gently earthwards; the bird-forms melted away like a white -mist, and, in a soft, glimmering light, I saw you two. - - GREGORY. - -Are you sure of all this? - - JULIAN. - -Were you thinking of me? Were you speaking of me last night? - - BASIL. - -Yes, yes—forward in the prow—— - - JULIAN. - -What time of the night was it? - - GREGORY. - -What was the time of your vision? - - JULIAN. - -An hour after midnight. - - GREGORY. - -[_With a look at BASIL._] Strange! - - JULIAN. - -[_Rubbing his hands, and walking up and down the room._] You see! Ha-ha; -you see? - - BASIL. - -[_Following him with his eyes._] Ah, then it is true—— - - JULIAN. - -What? What is true? - - BASIL. - -The rumour of the mysterious arts you practise here. - - JULIAN. - -Oh, what will not rumour exaggerate?—But tell me, what has rumour found -to say? I am told there are many reports afloat concerning me. If I -could believe some people’s assurances, it would seem that there are few -men in the empire so much talked about as I. - - GREGORY. - -That you may safely believe. - - JULIAN. - -And what says Libanius to all this? He could never endure that the -multitude should be busied with any one but himself. And what say all my -never-to-be-forgotten friends in Athens? They know I am in disgrace with -the Emperor and the whole court? - - GREGORY. - -You? I have frequent intelligence from the court; but my brother -Caesarius makes no mention of that. - - JULIAN. - -I cannot interpret it otherwise, good Gregory! From all sides they think -it needful to watch me. The other day, Gallus Caesar sent his chaplain -Aëtius hither, to find out whether I hold fast to the orthodox faith. - - BASIL. - -Well——? - - JULIAN. - -I am seldom absent from matins in the church. Moreover, I reckon the -martyrs among the noblest of men; for truly it is no light matter to -endure so great torments, ay, and death itself, for the sake of one’s -creed. On the whole, I believe Aëtius departed well content with me. - - BASIL. - -[_Grasping his hand._] Julian,—for the sake of our true friendship,—open -your heart fully to us. - - JULIAN. - -I am the happiest man on earth, dear friends! And Maximus—ay, he is -rightly named—Maximus is the greatest man that has ever lived. - - GREGORY. - -[_Preparing to depart._] We only wished to see you, my lord! - - JULIAN. - -Can this estrange brother from brother? You shrink in affright from the -inexplicable. Oh, I do not wonder. So I, too, shrank before my eyes were -opened, and I divined that which is the kernel of life. - - BASIL. - -What do you call the kernel of life? - - JULIAN. - -Maximus knows it. In him is the new revelation. - - BASIL. - -And it has been imparted to you? - - JULIAN. - -Almost. I am on the eve of learning it. This very night Maximus has -promised me—— - - GREGORY. - -Maximus is a visionary, or else he is deceiving you——! - - JULIAN. - -How dare you judge of these hidden things? They are beyond your -learning, my Gregory! Fearful is the way into the glory of glories. -Those dreamers in Eleusis were near the right track; Maximus found it, -and I after him—by his help. I have wandered through chasms of darkness. -A dead swampy water lay on my left—I believe it was a stream that had -forgotten to flow. Piercing voices shrilled through the night -confusedly, suddenly, and, as it were, without cause. Now and then I saw -a bluish light; dreadful shapes floated past me;—I went on and on in -deathly fear; but I endured the trial to the end.— - -Since then—oh, beloved ones—with this my body transformed to spirit, I -have passed far into the land of paradise; I have heard the angels chant -their hymns of praise; I have gazed at the midmost light—— - - GREGORY. - -Woe to this ungodly Maximus! Woe to this devil-devoted heathen juggler! - - JULIAN. - -Blindness, blindness! Maximus pays homage to his precursor and -brother—to both his great brothers, the law-giver of Sinai and the seer -of Nazareth.—— - -Would you know how the spirit of realisation filled me?—It happened on a -night of prayer and fasting. I perceived that I was wafted far—far out -into space, and beyond time; for there was broad and sun-shimmering day -around me, and I stood alone on a ship, with drooping sails, in the -midst of the glassy, gleaming Aegean sea. Islands towered aloft in the -distance, like dim, still banks of clouds, and the ship lay heavily, as -though sleeping, upon the wine-blue plain.— - -Then behold! the plain became more and more transparent, lighter, -thinner; at last, it was no longer there, and my ship hung over a -fearful, empty abyss. No verdure down there, no sunlight,—only the dead, -black, slimy bottom of the sea, in all its ghastly nakedness.—— - -But above, in the boundless dome, which before had seemed to me -empty,—there was life; there invisibility clothed itself in form, and -silence became sound.—Then I grasped the great redeeming realisation. - - GREGORY. - -What realisation do you mean? - - JULIAN. - -That which is, is not; and that which is not, is. - - BASIL. - -Oh, you are going to wreck and ruin in this maze of mists and gleams! - - JULIAN. - -I? Do not miracles happen? Do not both omens and certain strange -appearances among the stars declare that the divine will destines me to -issues yet unrevealed? - - GREGORY. - -Do not believe such signs; you cannot know whose work they are. - - JULIAN. - -Am I not to believe in fortunate omens which events have already borne -out? - - [_He draws them nearer to him, and says softly._ - -Know, my friends, that a great revolution is at hand. Gallus Caesar and -I shall ere long share the dominion of the earth—he as Emperor, and I -as—what shall I call it? the unborn cannot be called by a name, for it -has none. So no more of this till the time be fulfilled. But of Caesar I -dare speak.—Have you heard of the vision for which Apollinaris, a -citizen of Sidon, has been imprisoned and put to the torture? - - BASIL. - -No, no; how can we know——? - - JULIAN. - -Apollinaris declared that he heard some one knocking many times at his -door by night. He arose, and went out from his house; and lo! there he -saw an apparition—whether man or woman, he could not tell. And the -apparition spoke to him, and bade him make ready a purple robe, such as -newly-chosen rulers wear. But when Apollinaris, in affright, would have -declined so dangerous a task, the apparition vanished, and only a voice -cried: “Go, go, Apollinaris, and speedily prepare the purple robe.” - - GREGORY. - -Was this the sign that you said events had borne out? - - JULIAN. - -[_Nodding slowly._] Seven days later Caesar’s wife died in Bithynia. -Constantina has always been his bad angel; therefore she had to be -removed, in accordance with the change in the divine will. Three weeks -after Constantina’s death, the Emperor’s emissary, the tribune Scudilo, -came with a great retinue to Antioch, greeted Gallus Caesar with -imperial honours, and invited him, in the Emperor’s name, to visit the -imperial camp at Rome.—Caesar’s journey from province to province is now -like a conqueror’s progress. In Constantinople he has held races in the -hippodrome, and the multitude loudly acclaimed him when he, though as -yet but Caesar by title, stood forth after the manner of the earlier -Emperors, and gave the crown to Corax, the winner in the race. Thus -marvellously does God again exalt our house, which had sunk under sin -and persecution. - - GREGORY. - -Strange! In Athens other reports were abroad. - - JULIAN. - -I have certain information. The purple robe will soon be needed, -Gregory! How, then, can I doubt as to the things which Maximus has -foretold as near at hand for _me_? To-night the last veil falls. Here -shall the great enigma be made manifest. Oh, stay with me, my -brothers—stay with me through this night of anxiety and expectation! -When Maximus comes you shall witness—— - - BASIL. - -Never! - - GREGORY. - -It cannot be; we are on our way home to Cappadocia. - - JULIAN. - -And what has driven you in such haste from Greece? - - BASIL. - -My mother is a widow, Julian! - - GREGORY. - -My father is feeble, both in body and mind; he needs my support. - - JULIAN. - -Oh, at least remain at the hostelry; only until to-morrow——! - - GREGORY. - -Impossible; our travelling companions start at daybreak. - - JULIAN. - -At daybreak? Before midnight the day might dawn for you. - - BASIL. - -Julian, let me not set forth in too great sorrow of soul. Tell me,—when -Maximus has interpreted all riddles for you,—what then? - - JULIAN. - -Do you remember that river whereof Strabo writes—that river which rises -in the Lybian mountains? It grows, and grows in its course; but when it -is at its greatest, it oozes into the desert sands, and buries itself in -the entrails of the earth, whence it arose. - - BASIL. - -Say not that you long for death, Julian! - - JULIAN. - -What you slavishly hope for after death, ’tis the aim of the great -mystery to win for all the initiated, here in our earthly life. ’Tis -regeneration that Maximus and his disciples seek,—’tis our lost likeness -to the godhead. Wherefore so full of doubt, my brothers? Why do you -stand there as though before something insurmountable? I know what I -know. In each successive generation there has been one soul wherein the -pure Adam has been born again; he was strong in Moses the lawgiver; in -the Macedonian Alexander he had power to subdue the world; he was -well-nigh perfect in Jesus of Nazareth. But see, Basil—[_He grasps him -by the arm_]—all of them lacked what is promised to _me_—the pure woman! - - BASIL. - -[_Freeing himself._] Julian, Julian! - - GREGORY. - -Blasphemer—to this has your pride of heart brought you! - - BASIL. - -Oh, Gregory, he is sick and beside himself! - - JULIAN. - -Why all this scornful doubt? Is it my small stature that witnesses -against me? Ha, ha; I tell you this gross and fleshly generation shall -pass away. That which is to come shall be conceived rather in the soul -than in the body. In the first Adam, soul and body were equally -balanced, as in those statues of the god Apollo. Since then the balance -has been lost. Was not Moses tongue-tied? Had not his arms to be -supported when he held them up in imprecation, there by the Red Sea? Did -not the Macedonian need ever to be fired by strong drinks and other -artificial aids? And Jesus of Nazareth, too? Was he not feeble in body? -Did he not fall asleep in the ship, whilst the others kept awake? Did he -not faint under the cross, that cross which the Jew Simon carried with -ease? The two thieves did not faint.—You call yourselves believers, and -yet have so little faith in miraculous revelation. Wait, wait—you shall -see; the Bride shall surely be given me; and then—hand in hand will we -go forth to the east, where some say that Helios is born,—we will hide -ourselves in the solitudes, as the godhead hides itself, seek out the -grove on the banks of Euphrates, find it, and there—oh glory of -glories!—thence shall a new race, perfect in beauty and in balance, go -forth over the earth; there, ye book-worshipping doubters, there shall -the empire of the spirit be founded! - - BASIL. - -Oh, well may I wring my hands in sorrow for your sake. Are you the same -Julian who, three years ago, came out of Constantinople? - - JULIAN. - -Then I was blind, as you are now; I knew only the way that stops short -at doctrine. - - GREGORY. - -Know you where your present way ends? - - JULIAN. - -Where the path and the goal are one.—For the last time, Gregory, Basil—I -implore you to stay with me. The vision I had last night,—that and many -other things, point to a mysterious bond between us. To you, my Basil, I -had so much to say. You are the head of your house; and who knows -whether all the blessings that are promised me—may not come through you -and yours—— - - BASIL. - -Never! No one with my good will shall ever be led away by your frenzies -and your wild dreams. - - JULIAN. - -Ah, why talk of will? I see a hand writing on the wall; soon I shall -interpret the writing. - - GREGORY. - -Come, Basil. - - JULIAN. - -[_With outstretched arms._] Oh, my friends, my friends! - - GREGORY. - -Between us there is a gulf from this day forward. - - [_He drags BASIL with him; both go out to the right._ - - JULIAN. - -[_Looking after them._] Ay, go! Go, go!—What do you two learned men -know? What bring you from the city of wisdom? You, my strong, masterful -Gregory,—and you, Basil, more girl than man—you know only two streets in -Athens, the street to the schools, and the street to the church; of the -third street toward Eleusis and further, you know naught; and still -less——. Ah! - -_The curtain on the right is drawn aside. Two servants in eastern - costume bring in a tall, veiled object, which they place in the - corner, behind the table. Shortly after, MAXIMUS THE MYSTIC enters - by the same door. He is a lean man of middle height, with a - bronzed, hawk-like face; his hair and beard are much grizzled, but - his thick eyebrows and moustache still retain their pitch-black - colour. He wears a pointed cap and a long black robe; in his hand - he carries a white wand._ - -_MAXIMUS goes, without heeding JULIAN, up to the veiled object, stops, - and makes a sign to the servants; they retire noiselessly._ - - JULIAN. - -[_Softly._] At last! - - [_MAXIMUS draws the veil away, revealing a bronze lamp on a high - tripod; then he takes out a little silver pitcher, and pours - oil into the lamp-bowl. The lamp lights of itself, and burns - with a strong reddish glare._ - - JULIAN. - -[_In eager expectancy._] Is the time come? - - MAXIMUS. - -[_Without looking at him._] Art thou pure in soul and body? - - JULIAN. - -I have fasted and anointed myself. - - MAXIMUS. - -Then may the night’s high festival begin! - - [_He gives a sign; dancing-girls and flute-players appear in the - outer court. Music and dancing continue during what - follows._ - - JULIAN. - -Maximus,—what is this? - - MAXIMUS. - -Roses in the hair! Sparkling wine! See, see the lovely limbs at play! - - JULIAN. - -And amid this whirl of the senses you would——? - - MAXIMUS. - -Sin lies only in thy sense of sinfulness. - - JULIAN. - -Roses in the hair! Sparkling wine! [_He casts himself down on one of the -couches beside the table, drains a full goblet, puts it hastily from -him, and asks_:] Ah! What was in the wine? - - MAXIMUS. - -A spark of that fire which Prometheus stole. - - [_He reclines at the opposite side of the table._ - - JULIAN. - -My senses exchange their functions; I hear brightness and I see music. - - MAXIMUS. - -Wine is the soul of the grape. The freed and yet willing captive. Logos -in Pan! - - THE DANCING-GIRLS. - [_Singing in the court_] - - Would’st thou know liberty? - Drain Bacchus’ blood;— - Rock on the rhythm-sea, - Float with its flood! - - JULIAN. - -[_Drinking._] Yes, Yes; there is freedom in intoxication. Canst thou -interpret this rapture? - - MAXIMUS. - -This intoxication is thy marriage with the soul of nature. - - JULIAN. - -Sweet riddle; tempting, alluring——! What was that? Why didst thou laugh? - - MAXIMUS. - -I? - - JULIAN. - -There is whispering on my left hand! The silk cushions rustle—— -[_Springing half up with a pale face._] Maximus, we are not alone! - - MAXIMUS. - -[_Loudly._] We are five at table! - - JULIAN. - -Symposium with the spirits! - - MAXIMUS. - -With the shades. - - JULIAN. - -Name my guests! - - MAXIMUS. - -Not now. Hark, hark! - - JULIAN. - -What is that? There is a rushing, as of a storm, through the house—— - - MAXIMUS. - -[_Shrieks._] Julian! Julian! Julian! - - JULIAN. - -Speak, speak! What is befalling us? - - MAXIMUS. - -The hour of annunciation is upon thee! - - JULIAN. - -[_Springing up and shrinking far back from the table._] Ah! - - [_The table lamps seem on the point of extinction; over the - great bronze lamp rises a bluish circle of light._ - - MAXIMUS. - -[_Casting himself wholly down._] Thine eye toward the light! - - JULIAN. - -Yonder? - - MAXIMUS. - -Yes, yes! - - THE GIRLS’ SONG. - [_Low, from the court._] - - Night spreads her snares for thee, - All-seeing night; - Laughing-eyed Luxury - Lures to delight. - - JULIAN. - -[_Staring at the radiance._] Maximus! Maximus! - - MAXIMUS. - -[_Softly._] Seest thou aught? - - JULIAN. - -Yes. - - MAXIMUS. - -What seest thou? - - JULIAN. - -I see a shining countenance in the light. - - MAXIMUS. - -Man, or woman? - - JULIAN. - -I know not. - - MAXIMUS. - -Speak to it. - - JULIAN. - -Dare I? - - MAXIMUS. - -Speak! speak! - - JULIAN. - -[_Advancing._] Why was I born? - - A VOICE IN THE LIGHT. - -To serve the spirit. - - MAXIMUS. - -Does it answer? - - JULIAN. - -Yes, yes. - - MAXIMUS. - -Ask further. - - JULIAN. - -What is my mission? - - THE VOICE. - -To establish the empire. - - JULIAN. - -What empire? - - THE VOICE. - -The empire. - - JULIAN. - -And by what way? - - THE VOICE. - -By the way of freedom. - - JULIAN. - -Speak clearly! What is the way of freedom? - - THE VOICE. - -The way of necessity. - - JULIAN. - -And by what power? - - THE VOICE. - -By _willing_. - - JULIAN. - -_What_ shall I will? - - THE VOICE. - -What thou _must_. - - JULIAN. - -It pales; it vanishes——! [_Coming closer._] Speak, speak! What must I -will? - - THE VOICE. - -[_Wailing._] Julian! - - [_The circle of light passes away; the table lamps burn as - before._ - - MAXIMUS. - -[_Looking up._] Gone? - - JULIAN. - -Gone. - - MAXIMUS. - -Dost thou _now_ see clearly? - - JULIAN. - -Now less than ever. I hang in the void over the yawning deep—midway -between light and darkness. [_He lies down again._] What is the empire? - - MAXIMUS. - -There are three empires. - - JULIAN. - -Three? - - MAXIMUS. - -First that empire which was founded on the tree of knowledge; then that -which was founded on the tree of the cross—— - - JULIAN. - -And the third? - - MAXIMUS. - -The third is the empire of the great mystery; that empire which shall be -founded on the tree of knowledge and the tree of the cross together, -because it hates and loves them both, and because it has its living -sources under Adam’s grove and under Golgotha. - - JULIAN. - -And this empire shall come——? - - MAXIMUS. - -It stands on the threshold. I have counted and counted—— - - JULIAN. - -[_Breaking off sharply._] The whispering again! Who are my guests? - - MAXIMUS. - -The three corner-stones under the wrath of necessity. - - JULIAN. - -Who, who? - - MAXIMUS. - -The three great helpers in denial. - - JULIAN. - -Name them! - - MAXIMUS. - -I cannot; I know them not;—but I could show them to thee—— - - JULIAN. - -Then show me them! At once, Maximus——! - - MAXIMUS. - -Beware——! - - JULIAN. - -At once; at once! I will see them; I will speak with them, one by one. - - MAXIMUS. - -The guilt be on thy head. - - [_He waves his wand and calls._ - -Take shape and come to sight, thou first-elected lamb of sacrifice! - - JULIAN. - -Ah! - - MAXIMUS. - -[_With veiled face._] What seest thou? - - JULIAN. - -[_In a low voice._] There he lies; just by the corner.—He is great as -Hercules, and beautiful,—yet no, not—— - - [_Hesitatingly._ - -Speak to me if thou canst! - - A VOICE. - -What wouldst thou know? - - JULIAN. - -What was thy task in life? - - THE VOICE. - -My sin. - - JULIAN. - -Why didst thou sin? - - THE VOICE. - -Why was I not my brother? - - JULIAN. - -Palter not with me. Why didst thou sin? - - THE VOICE. - -Why was I myself? - - JULIAN. - -And what didst thou _will_, being thyself? - - THE VOICE. - -What I must. - - JULIAN. - -And wherefore must thou? - - THE VOICE. - -I was myself. - - JULIAN. - -Thou art sparing of words. - - MAXIMUS. - -[_Without looking up._] _In vino veritas._ - - JULIAN. - -Thou hast hit it, Maximus? - - [_He pours forth a full goblet in front of the empty seat._ - -Bathe thee in the fumes of wine, my pallid guest! Refresh thee. Feel, -feel—it mounts aloft like the smoke of sacrifice. - - THE VOICE. - -The smoke of sacrifice does not always _mount_. - - JULIAN. - -Why does that scar redden on thy brow? Nay, nay,—draw not the hair over -it; What is it? - - THE VOICE. - -The mark. - - JULIAN. - -H’m; no more of that. And what fruit has thy sin borne? - - THE VOICE. - -The most glorious. - - JULIAN. - -What callest thou the most glorious? - - THE VOICE. - -Life. - - JULIAN. - -And the ground of life? - - THE VOICE. - -Death. - - JULIAN. - -And of death? - - THE VOICE. - -[_Losing itself as in a sigh._] Ah, _that_ is the riddle! - - JULIAN. - -Gone! - - MAXIMUS. - -[_Looking up._] Gone? - - JULIAN. - -Yes. - - MAXIMUS. - -Didst thou know him? - - JULIAN. - -Yes. - - MAXIMUS. - -Who was it? - - JULIAN. - -Cain. - - MAXIMUS. - -By _that_ way, then! Ask no more! - - JULIAN. - -[_With an impatient gesture._] The second, Maximus! - - MAXIMUS. - -No, no, no; I will not! - - JULIAN. - -The second, I say! Thou hast sworn that I should fathom the meaning of -certain things. The second, Maximus. I will see him; I will know my -guests! - - MAXIMUS. - -Thou hast willed it, not I. - - [_He waves his wand._ - -Arise and come to light, thou willing slave, thou who didst help at the -world’s next great turning-point. - - JULIAN. - -[_Gazes for a moment into the empty space; suddenly he makes a gesture -of repulsion towards the seat at its side, and says in a low voice_:] No -nearer! - - MAXIMUS. - -[_Who has turned his back._] Dost thou see him? - - JULIAN. - -Yes. - - MAXIMUS. - -How dost thou see him? - - JULIAN. - -I see him as a red-bearded man. His garments are rent, and he has a rope -round his neck—— - -Speak to him, Maximus! - - MAXIMUS. - -’Tis thou must speak. - - JULIAN. - -What wast thou in life? - - A VOICE. - -[_Close beside him._] The twelfth wheel of the world chariot. - - JULIAN. - -The twelfth? The fifth is reckoned useless. - - THE VOICE. - -But for me, whither had the chariot rolled? - - JULIAN. - -Whither did it roll by means of thee? - - THE VOICE - -Into the glory of glories. - - JULIAN. - -Why didst thou help? - - THE VOICE. - -Because I _willed_. - - JULIAN. - -What didst thou will? - - THE VOICE. - -What I _must_. - - JULIAN. - -Who chose thee? - - THE VOICE. - -The master. - - JULIAN. - -Did the master foreknow when he chose thee? - - THE VOICE. - -Ah, _that_ is the riddle! - - [_A short silence._ - - MAXIMUS. - -Thou art silent. - - JULIAN. - -He is no longer here. - - MAXIMUS. - -[_Looking up._] Didst thou know him? - - JULIAN. - -Yes. - - MAXIMUS. - -How was he called in life? - - JULIAN. - -Judas Iscariot. - - MAXIMUS. - -[_Springing up._] The abyss blossoms; the night betrays itself! - - JULIAN. - -[_Shrieks to him._] Forth with the third! - - MAXIMUS. - -He shall come! - - [_He waves the wand._ - -Come forth, thou third corner-stone! Come forth, thou third great -freed-man under necessity! - - [_He casts himself down again on the couch, and turns his face - away._ - -What seest thou? - - JULIAN. - -I see nothing. - - MAXIMUS. - -And yet he is here. - - [_He waves the wand again._ - -By Solomon’s seal, by the eye in the triangle—I conjure thee—come to -sight!—— - -What seest thou now? - - JULIAN. - -Nothing, nothing! - - MAXIMUS. - -[_Waving his wand once more._] Come forth, thou——! - - [_He stops suddenly, utters a shriek, and springs up from the - table._ - -Ah! lightning in the night! I see it;—all art is in vain. - - JULIAN. - -[_Rising._] Why? Speak, speak! - - MAXIMUS. - -The third is not yet among the shades. - - JULIAN. - -He lives? - - MAXIMUS. - -Yes, he lives. - - JULIAN. - -And _here_, sayest thou——! - - MAXIMUS. - -Here, or there, or among the unborn;—I know not—— - - JULIAN. - -[_Rushing at him._] Thou liest! Thou art deceiving me! _Here_, here thou -saidst——! - - MAXIMUS. - -Let go my cloak! - - JULIAN. - -Then it is thou, or I! But which of us? - - MAXIMUS. - -Let go my cloak, Julian! - - JULIAN. - -Which of us? Which? All hangs on that! - - MAXIMUS. - -Thou knowest more than I. What said the voice in the light? - - JULIAN. - -The voice in the light——! - -[_With a cry._] The empire! The empire? To found the empire——! - - MAXIMUS. - -The third empire! - - JULIAN. - -No; a thousand times no! Away, corrupter! I renounce thee and all thy -works—— - - MAXIMUS. - -And necessity? - - JULIAN. - -I defy necessity! I will not serve it! I am free, free, free![10] - - [_A noise outside; the dancing-girls and flute-players take to - flight._ - - MAXIMUS. - -[_Listening towards the right._] What is this alarm and shrieking——? - - JULIAN. - -Strange men are forcing their way into the house—— - - MAXIMUS. - -They are maltreating your servants; they will murder us! - - JULIAN. - -Fear not; us no one can hurt. - - THE CHAMBERLAIN EUTHERIUS. - -[_Comes hastily across the court._] My lord, my lord! - - JULIAN. - -What is that noise without? - - EUTHERIUS. - -Strange men have surrounded the house; they have set a watch at all the -doors; they are making their way in—almost by force. Here they come, my -lord! Here they are! - -_The QUAESTOR LEONTES, with a large and richly-attired retinue, enters - from the right._ - - LEONTES. - -Pardon, a thousand pardons, most gracious lord—— - - JULIAN. - -[_Recoiling a step._] What do I see! - - LEONTES. - -Your servants would have hindered me from entering; and as my errand was -of the utmost moment—— - - JULIAN. - -You here, in Ephesus, my excellent Leontes! - - LEONTES. - -I have travelled night and day, as the Emperor’s envoy. - - JULIAN. - -[_Turning pale._] To me? What would the Emperor with me? I swear I am -unwitting of any crime. I am sick, Leontes! This man—[_Pointing to -MAXIMUS_]—attends me as my physician. - - LEONTES. - -Permit me, my gracious lord——! - - JULIAN. - -Why do you force your way into my house? What is the Emperor’s will? - - LEONTES. - -His will is to gladden you, my lord, by a great and weighty -announcement. - - JULIAN. - -I pray you, let me know what announcement you bring. - - LEONTES. - -[_Kneels._] My most noble lord,—with praise to your good fortune and my -own, I hail you Caesar. - - THE QUAESTOR’S FOLLOWERS. - -Long live Julian Caesar! - - MAXIMUS. - -Caesar! - - JULIAN. - -[_Retreating, with an exclamation._] Caesar! Stand up, Leontes! What mad -words are these! - - LEONTES. - -I do but deliver the Emperor’s commands. - - JULIAN. - -I—I Caesar!—Ah, where is Gallus? - - LEONTES. - -Oh, do not ask me. - - JULIAN. - -Where is Gallus? Tell me, I conjure you,—where is Gallus? - - LEONTES. - -[_Standing up._] Gallus Caesar is with his beloved wife. - - JULIAN. - -Dead? - - LEONTES. - -In bliss, with his wife. - - JULIAN. - -Dead! dead! Gallus dead! Dead in the midst of his triumphal progress! -But when,—and where? - - LEONTES. - -Oh, my dear lord, spare me—— - - GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS. - -[_Struggling with the guards at the door._] I must go to him! Aside, I -say!—Julian! - - JULIAN. - -Gregory, brother,—after all, you come again? - - GREGORY. - -Is it true, what rumour is scattering like a storm of arrows over the -city? - - JULIAN. - -I am myself transfixed by one of its arrows. Dare I believe in this -blending of good hap and of ill? - - GREGORY. - -For Christ’s sake, bid the tempter avaunt! - - JULIAN. - -The Emperor’s commands, Gregory! - - GREGORY. - -You will trample on your brother’s bloody corpse—— - - JULIAN. - -Bloody——? - - GREGORY. - -Know you it not? Gallus Caesar was murdered. - - JULIAN. - -[_Clasping his hands._] Murdered? - - LEONTES. - -Ah, who is this audacious——? - - JULIAN. - -Murdered? Murdered? [_To LEONTES._] Tell me he lies! - - LEONTES. - -Gallus Caesar has fallen through his own misdeeds. - - JULIAN. - -Murdered!—Who murdered him? - - LEONTES. - -What has occurred was inevitable, my noble lord! Gallus Caesar madly -misused his power here in the East. He was no longer content with his -rank as Caesar. His conduct, both in Constantinople and elsewhere on his -progress, showed clearly what was in his mind. - - JULIAN. - -’Tis not his crime I would know, but the rest. - - LEONTES. - -Oh, let me spare a brother’s ears. - - JULIAN. - -A brother’s ears can bear what a son’s ears have borne. Who killed him? - - LEONTES. - -The tribune Scudilo, who escorted him, thought it advisable to have him -executed. - - JULIAN. - -Where? Not in Rome? - - LEONTES. - -No, my lord; it happened on the journey thither,—in the city of Pola, in -Illyria. - - JULIAN. - -[_Bowing himself._] The Emperor is great and righteous.—The last of the -race, Gregory!—The Emperor Constantius is great. - - LEONTES. - -[_Taking a purple robe from one of his attendants._] Noble Caesar, deign -to array yourself—— - - JULIAN. - -Red! Away with it! Was it this he wore at Pola——? - - LEONTES. - -This comes fresh from Sidon. - - JULIAN. - -[_With a look at MAXIMUS._] From Sidon! The purple robe——! - - MAXIMUS. - -Apollinaris’s vision! - - GREGORY. - -Julian! Julian! - - LEONTES. - -See, this is sent to you by your kinsman, the Emperor. He bids me tell -you that, childless as he is, he looks to you to heal this the deepest -wound of his life. He wishes to see you in Rome. Afterwards, it is his -will that you should go, as Caesar, to Gaul. The border tribes of the -Alemanni have passed the Rhine, and made a dangerous inroad into the -empire. He builds securely on the success of your campaign against the -barbarians. Certain things have been revealed to him in dreams, and his -last word to me at my departure was that he was assured you would -succeed in establishing the empire. - - JULIAN. - -Establish the empire! The voice in the light, Maximus! - - MAXIMUS. - -Sign against sign. - - LEONTES. - -How, noble Caesar? - - JULIAN. - -I also have been forewarned of certain things; but this—— - - GREGORY. - -Say no, Julian! ’Tis the wings of destruction they would fasten on your -shoulders. - - LEONTES. - -Who are you, that defy the Emperor? - - GREGORY. - -My name is Gregory; I am the son of the Bishop of Nazianzus;—do with me -what you will. - - JULIAN. - -He is my friend and brother; let no one touch him! - - [_A great crowd has meanwhile filled the outer court._ - - BASIL OF CAESAREA. - -[_Making his way through the crowd._] Take not the purple, Julian! - - JULIAN. - -You, too, my faithful Basil. - - BASIL. - -Take it not! For the Lord God’s sake—— - - JULIAN. - -What terrifies you so in this? - - BASIL. - -The horrors that will follow. - - JULIAN. - -Through me shall the empire be established. - - BASIL. - -Christ’s empire? - - JULIAN. - -The Emperor’s great and beautiful empire. - - BASIL. - -Was that the empire which shone before your eyes when, as a child, you -preached the word beside the Cappadocian martyrs’ graves? Was that the -empire you set forth from Constantinople to establish on earth? Was that -the empire——? - - JULIAN. - -Mists, mists;—all that lies behind me like a wild dream. - - BASIL. - -’Twere better you yourself should be at the bottom of the sea, with a -mill-stone about your neck, than that that dream should lie behind -you.—— See you not the work of the tempter? All the glory of the world -is laid at your feet. - - MAXIMUS. - -Sign against sign, Caesar! - - JULIAN. - -One word, Leontes! - - [_Seizing his hand and drawing him aside._ - -Whither do you lead me? - - LEONTES. - -To Rome, my lord. - - JULIAN. - -That is not what I ask. Whither do you lead me: to fortune and power,—or -to the shambles? - - LEONTES. - -Oh, my lord, so odious a suspicion—— - - JULIAN. - -My brother’s body can scarce have mouldered yet. - - LEONTES. - -I can silence all doubt. [_Taking out a paper._] This letter from the -Emperor, which I had thought to hand you in private—— - - JULIAN. - -A letter? What does he write?—— - - [_He opens the paper and reads._ - -Ah, Helena! Oh, Leontes! Helena,—Helena to me! - - LEONTES. - -The Emperor gives her to you, my lord! He gives you his beloved sister, -for whom Gallus Caesar begged in vain. - - JULIAN. - -Helena to me! The unattainable attained!—But she, Leontes——? - - LEONTES. - -At my departure he took the Princess by the hand and led her to me. A -flush of maiden blood swept over her lovely cheeks, she cast down her -eyes, and said: “Greet my dear kinsman, and let him know that he has -ever been the man whom——” - - JULIAN. - -Go on, Leontes! - - LEONTES. - -These words were all she spoke, the modest and pure woman. - - JULIAN. - -The pure woman!—How marvellously is all fulfilled! - - [_He calls loudly._ - -Robe me in the purple! - - MAXIMUS. - -You have chosen? - - JULIAN. - -Chosen, Maximus! - - MAXIMUS. - -Chosen, in spite of sign against sign? - - JULIAN. - -Here is no sign against sign. Maximus, Maximus, seer though you be, you -have been blind. Robe me in the purple! - - [_The QUAESTOR LEONTES attires him in the mantle._ - - BASIL. - -It is done! - - MAXIMUS. - -[_Murmurs to himself with upstretched hands._] Light and victory be to -him who _wills_! - - LEONTES. - -And now to the Governor’s palace; the people would fain greet Caesar. - - JULIAN. - -Caesar, in his exaltation, remains what he was,—the poor lover of -wisdom, who owes all to the Emperor’s grace.—To the Governor’s palace, -my friends! - - VOICES AMONG THE QUAESTOR’S RETINUE. - -Room, room for Julian Caesar! - - [_All go out through the court, amid the acclamations of the - crowd; only GREGORY and BASIL remain behind._ - - BASIL. - -Gregory? Whatever comes of this—let us hold together. - - GREGORY. - -Here is my hand. - - - - - ACT FOURTH - - -_At Lutetia, in Gaul. A hall in Caesar’s palace, “The Warm Baths,” - outside the city. Entrance, door in the back; to the right, - another smaller door; in front, on the left, is a window with - curtains._ - -_THE PRINCESS HELENA, richly attired, with pearls in her hair, sits in - an arm-chair, and looks out of the window. Her slave, MYRRHA, - stands opposite her, and holds the curtain aside._ - - THE PRINCESS HELENA. - -What a multitude! The whole city streams out to meet them.—Hark! -Myrrha,—do you not hear flutes and drums? - - MYRRHA. - -Yes, I think I can hear—— - - HELENA. - -You lie! The noise is too great; you can hear nothing. [_Springing up._] -Oh, this torturing uncertainty! Not to know whether he comes as a -conqueror or as a fugitive. - - MYRRHA. - -Fear not, my noble mistress; Caesar has always returned a conqueror. - - HELENA. - -Ay, hitherto; after all his lesser encounters. But this time, Myrrha! -This great, fearful battle. All these conflicting rumours. If Caesar -were victorious, why should he have sent that letter to the city -magistrates, forbidding them to meet him with shows of honour outside -the gates? - - MYRRHA. - -Oh, you know well, my lady, how little your noble husband cares for such -things. - - HELENA. - -Yes, yes, that is true. And had he been defeated—they must have known it -in Rome—would the Emperor have sent us this envoy who is to arrive -to-day, and whose courier has brought me all these rich ornaments and -gifts? Ah, Eutherius! Well? Well? - - THE CHAMBERLAIN EUTHERIUS. - -[_From the back._] My Princess, it is impossible to obtain any -trustworthy tidings—— - - HELENA. - -Impossible? You are deceiving me! The soldiers themselves must surely -know—— - - EUTHERIUS. - -They are only barbarian auxiliaries who are coming in—Batavians and -others—and they know nothing. - - HELENA. - -[_Wringing her hands._] Oh, have I deserved this torture? Sweet, holy -Christ, have I not called upon Thee day and night—— - - [_She listens and screams out._ - -Ah, my Julian! I hear him!—Julian; my beloved! - - JULIAN CAESAR. - -[_In dusty armour, enters hastily by the back._] Helena! - - EUTHERIUS. - -My noble Caesar! - - JULIAN. - -[_Vehemently embracing the Princess._] Helena!—Bar all the doors, -Eutherius! - - HELENA. - -Defeated! Pursued! - - EUTHERIUS. - -My lord! - - JULIAN. - -Double guards at all the doors; let no one pass! Tell me: has any -emissary arrived from the Emperor? - - EUTHERIUS. - -No, my lord; but one is expected. - - JULIAN. - -Go, go! [_To the Slave._] Away with you. - - [_EUTHERIUS and MYRRHA go out by the back._ - - HELENA. - -[_Sinking into the arm-chair._] Then all is over with us? - - JULIAN. - -[_Drawing the curtains together._] Who knows? If we are cautious, the -storm may yet—— - - HELENA. - -After such a defeat——? - - JULIAN. - -Defeat? What are you talking of, my beloved? - - HELENA. - -Have not the Alemanni defeated you? - - JULIAN. - -If they had, you would not have seen me alive. - - HELENA. - -[_Springing up._] Then, Lord of Heaven, what has happened? - - JULIAN. - -[_Softly._] The worst, Helena;—a stupendous victory. - - HELENA. - -Victory, you say! A stupendous victory? You have conquered, and yet——? - - JULIAN. - -You know not how I stand. You see only the gilded outside of all a -Caesar’s misery. - - HELENA. - -Julian! - - JULIAN. - -Can you blame me for having hidden it from you? Did not both duty and -shame constrain me——? Ah, what is _this_? What a change——! - - HELENA. - -What? What? - - JULIAN. - -How these months have changed you! Helena, you have been ill? - - HELENA. - -No, no; but tell me—— - - JULIAN. - -Yes, you have been ill! You must be ill now;—your fever-flushed temples, -the blue rings round your eyes—— - - HELENA. - -Oh, ’tis nothing, my beloved! Do not look at me, Julian! ’Tis only -anxiety and wakeful nights on your account; ardent prayers to the -Blessed One on the cross—— - - JULIAN. - -Spare yourself, my treasure; it is more than doubtful whether such zeal -is of any avail. - - HELENA. - -Fie; you speak impiously.—But tell me of your own affairs, Julian! I -implore you, hide nothing from me. - - JULIAN. - -Nothing _can_ now be hidden. Since the Empress’s death, I have taken no -single step here in Gaul that has not been evilly interpreted at court. -If I went cautiously to work with the Alemanni, I was called timorous or -inert. They laughed at the philosopher, ill at ease in his coat of mail. -If I gained an advantage over the barbarians, I was told that I ought to -have done more. - - HELENA. - -But all your friends in the army—— - - JULIAN. - -Who, think you, are my friends in the army? I have not one, my beloved -Helena! Yes, one single man—the knight Sallust, of Perusia, to whom, -during our marriage feast at Milan, I had to refuse a slight request. He -magnanimously came to me in the camp, appealed to our old friendship in -Athens, and begged leave to stand at my side in all dangers. But what -does Sallust count for at the imperial court? He is one of those whom -they call heathens. He can be of no help to me.—And the others! Arbetio, -the tribune, who left me in the lurch when I was blockaded by the -Senones! Old Severus, burdened with the sense of his own impotence, yet -unable to reconcile himself to my new strategy! Or think you I can -depend on Florentius, the captain of the Praetorians? I tell you, that -turbulent man is filled with the most unbridled ambitions. - - HELENA. - -Ah, Julian! - - JULIAN. - -[_Pacing up and down._] If I could but come to the bottom of their -intrigues! Every week secret letters pass between the camp and Rome. -Everything I do is set down and distorted. No slave in the empire is so -fettered as Caesar. Would you believe it, Helena, even my cook has to -abide by a bill of fare sent to him by the Emperor; I may not alter it, -either by adding or countermanding a single dish! - - HELENA. - -And all this you have borne in secrecy——! - - JULIAN. - -All know it, except you. All mock at Caesar’s powerlessness. I will bear -it no longer! I will not bear it! - - HELENA. - -But the great battle——? Tell me,—has rumour exaggerated——? - - JULIAN. - -Rumour could not exaggerate.—Hush; what was that? [_Listening towards -the door._] No, no; I only thought—— - -I may say that in these months I have done all that mortal man could do. -Step by step, and in spite of all hindrances in my own camp, I drove the -barbarians back towards the eastern frontier. Before Argentoratum, with -the Rhine at his back, King Knodomar gathered all his forces together. -He was joined by five kings and ten lesser princes. But before he had -collected the necessary boats for his retreat in case of need, I led my -army to the attack. - - HELENA. - -My hero, my Julian! - - JULIAN. - -Lupicinus, with the spearmen and the light-armed troops, outflanked the -enemy on the north; the old legions, under Severus, drove the barbarians -more and more to the eastward, towards the river; our allies, the -Batavians, under the faithful Bainabaudes, stood gallantly by the -legions; and when Knodomar saw that his case was desperate, he tried to -make off southwards, in order to reach the islands. But before he could -escape, I sent Florentius to intercept him with the Praetorian guards -and the cavalry. Helena, I dare not say it aloud, but certain it is that -treachery or envy had nearly robbed me of the fruits of victory. The -Roman cavalry recoiled time after time before the barbarians, who threw -themselves down on the ground and stabbed the horses in the belly. -Defeat stared us in the face—— - - HELENA. - -But the God of Battles was with you! - - JULIAN. - -I seized a standard, fired the Imperial Guards by my shouts, made them a -hasty address, which was, perhaps, not quite unworthy of a more -enlightened audience, and then, rewarded by the soldiers’ acclamations, -I plunged headlong into the thickest of the fight. - - HELENA. - -Julian! Oh, you do not love me! - - JULIAN. - -At that moment you were not in my thoughts. I wished to die; for I -despaired of victory. But it came, my love! It seemed as though -lightnings of terror flashed from our lance-points. I saw Knodomar, that -redoutable warrior—ah, you have seen him too—I saw him fleeing on foot -from the battlefield, and with him his brother Vestralp, and the kings -Hortar and Suomar, and all who had not fallen by our swords. - - HELENA. - -Oh, I can see it; I can see it! Blessed Saviour, ’twas thou that didst -again send forth the destroying angels of the Milvian Bridge! - - JULIAN. - -Never have I heard such shrieks of despair; never seen such gaping -wounds as those we trampled on, as we waded through the slain. The river -did the rest; the drowning men struggled among themselves until they -rolled over, and went to the bottom. Most of the princes fell living -into our hands; Knodomar himself had sought refuge in a bed of reeds; -one of his attendants betrayed him, and our bowmen sent a shower of -arrows into his hiding-place, but without hitting him. Then, of his own -accord, he gave himself up. - - HELENA. - -And after such a victory do you not feel secure? - - JULIAN. - -[_Hesitatingly._] On the very evening of the victory an accident -occurred, a trifle—— - - HELENA. - -An accident? - - JULIAN. - -I prefer to call it so. In Athens we used to speculate much upon -Nemesis.—My victory was so overwhelming, Helena; my position had, as it -were, got out of balance; I do not know—— - - HELENA. - -Oh, speak, speak; you put me on the rack! - - JULIAN. - -It was a trifle, I tell you. I ordered the captive Knodomar to be -brought before me, in the presence of the army. Before the battle, he -had threatened that I should be flayed alive when I fell into his hands. -Now he came towards me with faltering steps, trembling in every limb. -Crushed by disaster, as the barbarians are apt to be, he cast himself -down before me, embraced my knees, shed tears, and begged for his life. - - HELENA. - -His mighty frame quivering with dread—I can see the prostrate -Knodomar.—Did you kill him, my beloved? - - JULIAN. - -I could not kill that man. I granted him his life, and promised to send -him as a prisoner to Rome. - - HELENA. - -Without torturing him? - - JULIAN. - -Prudence bade me deal mercifully with him. But then—I cannot tell how it -happened—with a cry of overflowing gladness, the barbarian sprang up, -stretched his pinioned hands into the air, and, half ignorant as he is -of our language, shouted with a loud voice: “Praise be to thee, Julian, -thou mighty Emperor!” - - HELENA. - -Ah! - - JULIAN. - -My attendants were inclined to laugh; but the barbarian’s shout flew -like a lightning-flash through the surrounding soldiery, kindling as it -went. “Long live the Emperor Julian,” those who stood nearest repeated; -and the cry spread around in wider and ever wider circles to the -furthest distance. ’Twas as though some Titan had hurled a mighty rock -far out into the ocean;—oh, my beloved, forgive me the heathen -similitude, but—— - - HELENA. - -Emperor Julian! He said Emperor Julian! - - JULIAN. - -What did the rude Aleman know of Constantius, whom he had never seen? I, -his conqueror, was in his eyes the greatest—— - - HELENA. - -Yes, yes; but the soldiers——? - - JULIAN. - -I rebuked them sternly; for I saw at a glance how Florentius, Severus, -and certain others stood silently by, white with fear and wrath. - - HELENA. - -Yes, yes, _they_—but not the soldiers. - - JULIAN. - -Before a single night had passed my secret foes had distorted the -affair. “Caesar has induced Knodomar to proclaim him Emperor,” the story -went, “and in requital he has granted the barbarian his life.” And, thus -inverted, the news has travelled to Rome. - - HELENA. - -Are you sure of that? And through whom? - - JULIAN. - -Ah, through whom? through whom? I myself wrote at once to the Emperor -and told him everything, but—— - - HELENA. - -Well—and how did he answer? - - JULIAN. - -As usual. You know his ominous silence when he means to strike a blow. - - HELENA. - -I believe you misinterpret all this. It must be so. You will see that -his envoy will soon assure you of—— - - JULIAN. - -I _am_ assured, Helena! Here, in my bosom, I have some intercepted -letters, which—— - - HELENA. - -Oh, Lord my God, let me see! - - JULIAN. - -By-and-by. - - [_He walks up and down._ - -And all this after the services I have rendered him! I have put a stop -to the inroads of the Alemanni for years to come, whilst he himself has -suffered defeat after defeat on the Danube, and the army in Asia seems -to make no way against the Persians. Shame and disaster on all sides, -except here, where he placed a reluctant philosopher at the head of -affairs. Yet none the less am I the scorn of the court. Even after the -last great victory, they have lampooned me, and called me Victorinus. -This must come to an end. - - HELENA. - -So I, too, think. - - JULIAN. - -On such terms, what is the title of Caesar worth? - - HELENA. - -No; you are right, Julian; things cannot go on thus! - - JULIAN. - -[_Stopping._] Helena, could you follow me? - - HELENA. - -[_Softly._] Have no fear for me; I will not fail you. - - JULIAN. - -Then away from all this thankless toil; away to the solitude I have -sighed for so long——! - - HELENA. - -What do you say? Solitude! - - JULIAN. - -With you, my beloved; and with my dear books, that I have so seldom been -able to open here, save only on my sleepless nights. - - HELENA. - -[_Looking him down from head to foot._] Ah, that is what you mean! - - JULIAN. - -What else? - - HELENA. - -Ay, truly; what else? - - JULIAN. - -Yes, yes—I ask, what else? - - HELENA. - -[_Coming nearer._] Julian—how did the barbarian king hail you? - - JULIAN. - -[_Shrinking._] Helena! - - HELENA. - -[_Still nearer._] What was the name that echoed through the ranks of the -legions? - - JULIAN. - -Rash woman; there may be an eavesdropper at every door! - - HELENA. - -Why should you fear eavesdroppers? Is not God’s grace upon you? Have you -not been victorious in every encounter?—I see the Saviour calling upon -you; I see the angel with the flaming sword, who cleared the way for my -father when he drove Maxentius into the Tiber! - - JULIAN. - -Shall I rebel against the ruler of the empire? - - HELENA. - -Only against those who stand between you. Oh, go, go; smite them with -the lightning of your wrath; put an end to this harassing, joyless life! -Gaul is an outer wilderness. I am so cold here, Julian! I pine for home, -for the sunshine of Rome and Greece. - - JULIAN. - -For home and your brother? - - HELENA. - -[_Softly._] Constantius is but a wreck. - - JULIAN. - -Helena! - - HELENA. - -I can bear it no longer, I tell you. Time is flying. Eusebia is gone; -her empty seat invites me to honour and greatness, while I am ageing—— - - JULIAN. - -You are not ageing; you are young and fair! - - HELENA. - -No, no, no! Time speeds; I cannot bear this patiently; life slips away -from me! - - JULIAN. - -[_Gazing at her._] How temptingly beautiful, how divine you are! - - HELENA. - -[_Clinging to him._] _Am_ I so indeed, Julian? - - JULIAN. - -[_Embracing her._] You are the only woman I have loved,—the only one who -has loved me. - - HELENA. - -I am older than you. I will not age still more. When all is over, then—— - - JULIAN. - -[_Tearing himself away._] Hush! I will hear no more. - - HELENA. - -[_Following him._] Constantius is dying by inches; he hangs by a hair -over the grave. Oh, my beloved Julian, you have the soldiers on your -side—— - - JULIAN. - -No more, no more! - - HELENA. - -He can bear no agitation. What is there, then, to recoil from? I mean -nothing bloody. Fie, how can you think so? The terror will be enough; it -will fold him in its embrace and gently end his sufferings. - - JULIAN. - -Do you forget the invisible bodyguard around the Lord’s anointed? - - HELENA. - -Christ is good. Oh, be pious, Julian, and He will forgive much. I will -help. Prayers shall go up for you. Praised be the saints! Praised be the -martyrs! Trust me, we will atone for everything later. Give me the -Alemanni to convert; I will send out priests among them; they shall bow -under the mercy of the cross. - - JULIAN. - -The Alemanni will not bow. - - HELENA. - -Then they shall die! Like sweet incense shall their blood rise up to -Him, the blessed One. We will magnify His glory; His praise shall be -made manifest in us. I myself will do my part. The women of the Alemanni -shall be my care. If they will not bow, they shall be sacrificed! And -then, my Julian—when next you see me——; young, young once more! Give me -the women of the Alemanni, my beloved! Blood—’twould be no murder, and -the remedy is a sovereign one—a bath of young virgins’ blood—— - - JULIAN. - -Helena, the thought is crime! - - HELENA. - -Is it crime to commit crime for your sake? - - JULIAN. - -You beautiful, you peerless one! - - HELENA. - -[_Bowing herself down over his hands._] My lord before God and men!—Draw -not back this time, Julian! My hero, my Emperor! I see heaven open. -Priests shall sing praises to Christ; my women shall assemble in prayer. -[_With upraised arms._] Oh, thou blessed One! Oh, thou God of -Hosts,—thou, in whose hand lie grace and victory—— - - JULIAN. - -[_With a look towards the door, exclaims_:] Helena! - - HELENA. - -Ah! - - THE CHAMBERLAIN EUTHERIUS. - -[_From the back._] My lord, the Emperor’s emissary—— - - JULIAN. - -Is he come? - - EUTHERIUS. - -Yes, my lord! - - JULIAN. - -His name? Who is he? - - EUTHERIUS. - -The tribune Decentius. - - JULIAN. - -Indeed? The pious Decentius! - - JULIAN. - -Has he talked with any one? - - EUTHERIUS. - -With no one, my lord; he has this moment arrived. - - JULIAN. - -I will see him at once. And listen; one thing more. Summon the captains -and officers to me here. - - EUTHERIUS. - -It is well, most gracious lord. - - [_He goes out by the back._ - - JULIAN. - -Now, my Helena, now we shall see—— - - HELENA. - -[_Softly._] Whatever happens, forget not that you can trust in the -soldiers. - - JULIAN. - -Ah, trust, trust——; I am not sure that I can trust in any one. - - _The TRIBUNE DECENTIUS enters from the back._ - - HELENA. - -[_Meeting him._] Welcome, noble Decentius! A Roman face,—and, above all, -this face,—oh! it sheds genial sunlight over our inclement Gaul. - - DECENTIUS. - -The Emperor meets your longing and your hope half-way, noble Princess! -We may hope that Gaul will not much longer hold you in its chains. - - HELENA. - -Say you so, messenger of gladness? So the Emperor still thinks lovingly -of me? How is it with his health? - - JULIAN. - -Go, go, my beloved Helena! - - DECENTIUS. - -The Emperor’s health is certainly no worse. - - HELENA. - -No, surely not? I thought as much. All those alarming rumours——; God be -praised that they were but rumours! Thank him most lovingly, good -Decentius! And let me thank you too. What splendid gifts have heralded -your coming! Imperial——no, let me say brotherly gifts indeed! Two -shining black Nubians,—you should see them, my Julian!—and pearls! See, -I am wearing them already. And fruits,—sweet, luscious fruits! Ah, -peaches from Damascus, peaches in chalices of gold! How they will -refresh me;—fruit, fruit; I am pining away here in Gaul. - - JULIAN. - -A feast shall end the day; but business first. Go, my precious wife! - - HELENA. - -I go to the church,—to pray for my brother and for all good hopes. - - [_She goes out to the right._ - - JULIAN. - -[_After an instant’s pause._] A message, or letters? - - DECENTIUS. - -Letters. - - [_He hands him a roll of paper._ - - JULIAN. - -[_Reads, represses a smile, and holds out his hand._] More! - - DECENTIUS. - -Noble Caesar, that is well-nigh all. - - JULIAN. - -Truly? Has the Emperor sent his friend all this long way only to——? - - [_He bursts into a short laugh, and then walks up and down._ - -Had Knodomar, the King of the Alemanni, arrived in Rome ere you left? - - DECENTIUS. - -Yes, noble Caesar! - - JULIAN. - -And how fares he in the strange land, ignorant as he is of our tongue! -For he knows nought of it, Decentius! He was positively a laughing-stock -to my soldiers. Only think, he mixed up two such common words as Emperor -and Caesar. - - DECENTIUS. - -[_Shrugging his shoulders._] A barbarian. What can one expect? - - JULIAN. - -No, what can one expect? But the Emperor has received him graciously? - - DECENTIUS. - -Knodomar is dead, my lord! - - JULIAN. - -[_Stopping suddenly._] Knodomar dead! - - DECENTIUS. - -Dead, in the foreigners’ quarters, on the Coelian hill. - - JULIAN. - -Dead? Indeed!—Ah, the Roman air is unwholesome. - - DECENTIUS. - -The King of the Alemanni died of home-sickness, my lord! The longing for -kindred and freedom—— - - JULIAN. - -——wastes a man away, Decentius; yes, yes, I know that.—I should not have -sent him living to Rome. I should have had him killed here. - - DECENTIUS. - -Caesar’s heart is merciful. - - JULIAN. - -H’m——! Home-sickness? Indeed! - - _To the Master of the Horse, SINTULA, who enters by the back._ - -Are you there, old faun? Tempt me no more. - -[_To DECENTIUS._] Since the battle at Argentoratum, he is for ever -talking to me of the triumphal chariot and the white horses. [_To -SINTULA._] ’Twould be like Phaeton’s career with the Lybian sun-horses. -How did that end? Have you forgotten—have you forgotten your heathendom, -I had almost said?—Pardon me, Decentius, for wounding your pious ear. - - DECENTIUS. - -Caesar delights his servant’s ear; he cannot wound it. - - JULIAN. - -Yes, yes; bear with Caesar’s jesting. In truth I know not how else to -take the matter.—Here they are. - - _SEVERUS and FLORENTIUS, together with other captains and - gentlemen of Caesar’s court, enter from the back._ - - JULIAN. - -[_Advancing to receive them._] Greeting to you, brothers in arms and -friends. Blame me not overmuch for summoning you hither, straight from -the dust and toil of the march; truly, I should not have grudged you -some hours’ rest; but—— - - FLORENTIUS. - -Has aught of moment happened, my lord? - - JULIAN. - -Aye, truly. Can you tell me—what was lacking to complete Caesar’s -happiness? - - FLORENTIUS. - -What should be lacking to complete Caesar’s happiness? - - JULIAN. - -_Now_, nothing. [_To DECENTIUS._] The army has demanded that I should -enter the city in triumph. They would have had me pass through the gates -of Lutetia at the head of the legions. Captive barbarian princes, with -pinioned hands, were to march beside my chariot-wheels; women and slaves -from twenty conquered peoples were to follow, crowded closely together, -head against head—— [_Breaking off suddenly._] Rejoice, my valiant -fellow soldiers; here you see the Tribune Decentius, the Emperor’s -trusted friend and councillor. He has arrived this morning with gifts -and greetings from Rome. - - FLORENTIUS. - -Ah, then indeed naught can be lacking to complete Caesar’s happiness. - - SEVERUS. - -[_Softly to FLORENTIUS._] Incomprehensible! Then he is in the Emperor’s -grace again! - - FLORENTIUS. - -[_Softly._] Oh, this unstable Emperor! - - JULIAN. - -You seem all to be struck dumb with astonishment.—They think the Emperor -has done too much, good Decentius! - - FLORENTIUS. - -How can Caesar think such a thought? - - SEVERUS. - -Too much, noble Caesar? By no means. Who doubts that the Emperor knows -how to set due bounds to his favour? - - FLORENTIUS. - -This is in truth a rare and remarkable distinction—— - - SEVERUS. - -I should even call it beyond measure rare and remarkable—— - - FLORENTIUS. - -And especially does it afford a striking proof that our august Emperor’s -mind is free from all jealousy—— - - SEVERUS. - -An unexampled proof, I venture to call it. - - FLORENTIUS. - -But then, what has not Caesar achieved in these few years in Gaul? - - JULIAN. - -A year-long dream, dear friends! I have achieved nothing. Nothing, -nothing! - - FLORENTIUS. - -All this your modesty counts as nothing? What was the army when you took -command? A disorderly rabble—— - - SEVERUS. - -——without coherence, without discipline, without direction—— - - JULIAN. - -You exaggerate, Severus! - - FLORENTIUS. - -And was it not with this undisciplined rabble that you took the field -against the Alemanni? Did you not win battle after battle with these -levies, till your victories transformed them into an invincible host? -Did you not retake Colonia Agrippina——? - - JULIAN. - -Come come, you see with the eye of friendship, my Florentius!—Or is it -really so? Is it a fact, that I drove the barbarians out of the islands -of the Rhine! That I placed the ruined Tres Tabernae in a posture of -defence, making it a bulwark of the empire? Is it really so? - - FLORENTIUS. - -What, my lord! Can you be in doubt as to so great deeds? - - JULIAN. - -No, I cannot but think—— And the battle of Argentoratum? Was I not -there? I cannot but fancy that I defeated Knodomar. And after the -victory——; Florentius, have I dreamt it, or did I rebuild Trajan’s -fortress, when we marched into German territory? - - FLORENTIUS. - -Noble Caesar, is there any man so mad as to deny you the honour of these -exploits? - - SEVERUS. - -[_To DECENTIUS._] I praise the destiny that has vouchsafed to my old age -so victorious a leader. - - FLORENTIUS. - -[_Also to the Tribune._] I dare scarcely think what turn this inroad of -the Alemanni might have taken, but for Caesar’s courage and conduct. - - MANY COURTIERS. - -[_Pressing forward._] Yes, yes; Caesar is great! - - OTHERS. - -[_Clapping their hands._] Caesar is peerless! - - JULIAN. - -[_Looks for a time alternately at DECENTIUS and the others; thereupon -breaks out into a loud, short laugh._] So blind is friendship, -Decentius! So blind, so blind! - - [_He turns to the rest, and taps the roll of paper in his hand._ - -Here I read far other tidings! listen and drink in the refreshing dew of -knowledge. This is the Emperor’s despatch to all the proconsuls of the -empire;—our excellent Decentius has brought me a copy of it. Here we -learn that I have accomplished nothing in Gaul. It was, as I told you, a -dream. Here we have the Emperor’s own words: it was under the Emperor’s -happy auspices that the imminent danger to the empire was averted. - - FLORENTIUS. - -All the affairs of the empire flourish under the Emperor’s auspices. - - JULIAN. - -More, more. It is here set forth that it was the Emperor who fought and -conquered on the Rhine; it was the Emperor who raised up the King of the -Alemanni, as he lay grovelling before him. _My_ name is not fortunate -enough to find any place in this document,—nor yours, Florentius, nor -yours, Severus! And here, in the description of the battle of -Argentoratum—where was it? Yes, here it stands!—it was the Emperor who -determined the order of battle; it was the Emperor himself who, at peril -of his life, fought till his sword was blunted, in the forefront of the -battle: it was the Emperor who, by the terror of his presence, put the -barbarians to headlong flight——; read, read, I tell you! - - SEVERUS. - -Noble Caesar, your word suffices. - - JULIAN. - -What mean you, then, by your deluding speeches, my friends? Would you, -in your too great love for me, make me a parasite, to be fed with the -leavings you have pilfered from my kinsman’s table?—What think you, -Decentius? What say you to this? You see, in my own camp, I have to keep -an eye on adherents who, in their blind zeal, are sometimes in danger of -straying over the border-line of revolt. - - FLORENTIUS. - -[_Hastily, to the Tribune._] I assure you, my words have been sadly -misconstrued if—— - - SEVERUS. - -[_Also to the Tribune._] It could never enter my mind to—— - - JULIAN. - -That is right, my brothers in arms; let us all agree to swallow our -vainglory. I asked what was lacking to complete Caesar’s happiness. Now -you know it. ’Twas the recognition of the truth that was lacking in -Caesar’s happiness. Your silver helmet will never be dimmed with the -dust of the triumph, Florentius! The Emperor has already triumphed for -us, in Rome. He therefore declares all festivities here to be -superfluous. Go, Sintula, and see that the intended procession is -countermanded. The Emperor wishes to give his soldiers a much-needed -rest. ’Tis his will that they remain in the camp outside the walls. - - [_The Master of the Horse, SINTULA, goes out by the back._ - - JULIAN. - -Was I not once a philosopher? They said so, at least, both in Athens and -Ephesus. So weak is human nature in the hours of success; I had almost -been false to philosophy. The Emperor has brought me to my senses. Thank -him most humbly, Decentius. Have you more to say? - - DECENTIUS. - -One thing more. From all the Emperor has learnt, and especially from the -letter you wrote him from Argentoratum, it appears that the great work -of pacification in Gaul is happily accomplished. - - JULIAN. - -Most certainly; the Emperor, partly by his valour, partly by his -magnanimous clemency—— - - DECENTIUS. - -The Rhine frontier of the empire has been placed in security. - - JULIAN. - -By the Emperor, by the Emperor. - - DECENTIUS. - -In the Danubian provinces, on the contrary, affairs are going ill; and -still worse in Asia—King Sapor makes constant progress. - - JULIAN. - -What audacity! Rumour has it that not even in this summer’s campaign has -the Emperor been pleased to let his generals crush him. - - DECENTIUS. - -The Emperor intends to do so himself in the spring. [_Producing a roll -of papers._] Here he makes known his will, noble Caesar. - - JULIAN. - -Let us see, let us see! [_Reading._] Ah! - - [_He reads again for a long time, with signs of deep inward - emotion; then he looks up and says_: - -Then, ’tis the Emperor’s will that——? Good, good, noble Decentius; the -Emperor’s will shall be done. - - DECENTIUS. - -It must be done, this very day. - - JULIAN. - -This very day; of course. Come hither, Sintula! Where is he?—Ah, I -remember!—Call Sintula back! - - [_A courtier goes out by the back; JULIAN retires to the window, - and reads the papers through once more._ - - FLORENTIUS. - -[_In a low voice, to the Tribune._] I implore you not to misinterpret -what I said. When I gave Caesar the credit, of course I did not mean -to—— - - SEVERUS. - -[_In a low voice._] It could never occur to me to doubt that it was the -Emperor’s supreme and wise direction that—— - - A COURTIER. - -[_On the other side of the Tribune._] I beg you, noble sir,—put in a -word for me at court, and release me from this painful position in the -household of a Caesar who——; well, he is the Emperor’s exalted kinsman, -but—— - - ANOTHER COURTIER. - -I could tell you, alas! of things that indicate not only boundless -vanity, but overweening ambition—— - - JULIAN. - -This very day! Let me say one word, Decentius! It has long been my -dearest wish to lay down this burden of responsibility. - - DECENTIUS. - -It shall be conveyed to the Emperor. - - JULIAN. - -I call heaven to witness that I never——; Ah, here is Sintula; now we -can——[_To the Tribune._] You are going? - - DECENTIUS. - -I have affairs to transact with the generals, noble Caesar! - - JULIAN. - -Without my intervention? - - DECENTIUS. - -The Emperor commands me to spare his beloved kinsman. - - [_He goes out by the back, followed by the others, except - SINTULA, who remains standing at the door._ - - JULIAN. - -[_Looking at him awhile._] Sintula! - - SINTULA. - -Yes, noble master! - - JULIAN. - -Come nearer—Yes, by my faith, you look honest. Pardon me; I never -thought you could be so attached to me. - - SINTULA. - -How know you that I am attached to you, my lord? - - JULIAN. - -[_Pointing to the roll of paper._] I can read it here, in this; it is -written that you are to desert me. - - SINTULA. - -I, my lord? - - JULIAN. - -The Emperor disbands the army of Gaul, Sintula! - - SINTULA. - -Disbands——? - - JULIAN. - -Yes, what is it but a disbanding? The Emperor needs reinforcements, both -on the Danube, and against the Persians. Our Batavian and Herulian -auxiliaries are to depart with all speed, in order to reach Asia in the -spring. - - SINTULA. - -But the thing is impossible, my lord. You have solemnly sworn to these -very allies that they shall in no case be called upon to serve beyond -the Alps. - - JULIAN. - -Just so, Sintula! The Emperor writes that I gave that promise over -hastily, and without his consent. This is quite a new light to me; but -here it stands. I am to be forced to break my word, dishonour myself in -the eyes of the army, turn against me the unbridled rage of the -barbarians, perhaps their murderous weapons. - - SINTULA. - -They cannot hurt you, my lord! The Roman legions will make their breasts -your shield. - - JULIAN. - -The Roman legions. H’m;—my simple-minded friend! From every Roman legion -three hundred men are to be drafted off, and are likewise to join the -Emperor by the shortest route. - - SINTULA. - -Ah! This is——? - - JULIAN. - -Well planned, is it not? Every branch of the army is to be set against -me, that I may the more easily be disarmed. - - SINTULA. - -And I tell you, my lord, that not one of your generals will lend himself -to such a design. - - JULIAN. - -My generals are not to be led into temptation. You are the man. - - SINTULA. - -I, my Caesar! - - JULIAN. - -Here it is written. The Emperor commissions you to take all necessary -measures, and then to lead the chosen detachments to Rome. - - SINTULA. - -This task assigned to me? With men here like Florentius and old -Severus—— - - JULIAN. - -You have no victories to your discredit, Sintula! - - SINTULA. - -No, that is true. I have never been allowed an opportunity of showing—— - - JULIAN. - -I have been unjust to you. Thanks for your fidelity. - - SINTULA. - -So great an imperial honour! My lord, may I see—— - - JULIAN. - -What would you see? You surely would not lend yourself to such a design. - - SINTULA. - -God forbid that I should disobey the Emperor! - - JULIAN. - -Sintula,—would you disarm your Caesar? - - SINTULA. - -Caesar has ever undervalued me. Caesar has never forgiven me the fact of -his having to endure about his person a Master of the Horse chosen by -the Emperor. - - JULIAN. - -The Emperor is great and wise; he chooses well. - - SINTULA. - -My lord,—I long to set about my duty; may I beg to see the Emperor’s -commission? - - JULIAN. - -[_Handing him one of the papers._] Here is the Emperor’s commission. Go, -and do your duty. - - MYRRHA. - -[_Entering hastily from the right._] Oh merciful Redeemer! - - JULIAN. - -Myrrha! What is the matter? - - MYRRHA. - -Oh kind heaven, my mistress—— - - JULIAN. - -Your mistress,—what of her? - - MYRRHA. - -Sickness or frenzy——; help, help! - - JULIAN. - -Helena sick! The physician! Oribases must come, Sintula! Summon him! - - [_SINTULA goes out by the back. JULIAN is hastening out to the - right, when at the door he meets the PRINCESS HELENA, - surrounded by female slaves. Her countenance is wild and - distorted, her hair and clothes are in disorder._ - - HELENA. - -Loosen the comb! Loosen the comb, I say! It is red hot. My hair is on -fire; I burn, I burn! - - JULIAN. - -Helena! For God’s pity’s sake——! - - HELENA. - -Will no one help me? They are killing me with needle-pricks! - - JULIAN. - -My Helena! What has befallen you? - - HELENA. - -Myrrha, Myrrha! Save me from the women, Myrrha! - - THE PHYSICIAN ORIBASES. - -[_Entering from the back._] What horror do I hear——? Is it true? Ah! - - JULIAN. - -Helena! My love, light of my life——! - - HELENA. - -Away from me! Oh sweet Jesus, help! - - [_She half swoons among the slave-girls._ - - JULIAN. - -She is raving. What can it be, Oribases?—See—see her eyes, how large——! - - ORIBASES. - -[_To MYRRHA._] What has the Princess taken? What has she been eating or -drinking? - - JULIAN. - -Ah, you think——? - - ORIBASES. - -Answer, women; what have you given the Princess? - - MYRRHA. - -_We_? Oh nothing, I swear; she herself—— - - ORIBASES. - -Well? Well? - - MYRRHA. - -Some fruits; they were peaches, I think;—oh, I know not—— - - JULIAN. - -Fruits! Peaches? Some of those which——? - - MYRRHA. - -Yes—no—yes; I do not know, my lord; it was two Nubians—— - - JULIAN. - -Help, help, Oribases! - - ORIBASES. - -Alas, I fear—— - - JULIAN. - -No, no, no! - - ORIBASES. - -Hush, gracious lord; she is coming to herself. - - HELENA. - -[_Whispering._] Why did the sun go down? Oh holy mysterious darkness! - - JULIAN. - -Helena! Listen; collect your thoughts—— - - ORIBASES. - -My noble Princess—— - - JULIAN. - -It is the physician, Helena! [_He takes her hand._] No, here, where I -stand. - - HELENA. - -[_Tearing her hand away._] Faugh! there he was again! - - JULIAN. - -She does not see me. Here, here, Helena! - - HELENA. - -The loathsome creature;—he is always about me. - - JULIAN. - -What does she mean? - - ORIBASES. - -Stand apart, gracious lord——! - - HELENA. - -Sweet stillness! He does not dream——; oh my Gallus! - - JULIAN. - -Gallus! - - ORIBASES. - -Go, noble Caesar; it is not meet——! - - HELENA. - -How boldly your close-curling hair curves over your neck! Oh that short, -thick neck—— - - JULIAN. - -Abyss of all abysses——! - - ORIBASES. - -The delirium is increasing—— - - JULIAN. - -I see, I see. We must take note, Oribases! - - HELENA. - -[_Laughing softly._] Now he would be taking notes again.—Ink on his -fingers; book-dust in his hair—unwashed; faugh, faugh, how he stinks. - - MYRRHA. - -My lord, shall I not——? - - JULIAN. - -Away with you, woman! - - HELENA. - -How could you let yourself be conquered by him, you great-limbed, -bronzed barbarian? He cannot conquer women. How I loathe this impotent -virtue. - - JULIAN. - -Stand apart, all of you! Not so near, Oribases! I myself will watch the -Princess. - - HELENA. - -Art thou wroth with me, thou glorious one? Gallus is dead. Beheaded. -What a blow that must have been! Be not jealous, oh my first and last? -Burn Gallus in hell fire;—it was none but thou, thou, thou——! - - JULIAN. - -No nearer, Oribases! - - HELENA. - -Kill the priest, too! I will not see him after this. Thou knowest our -sweet secret. Oh thou, my days’ desire, my nights’ delight! It was thou -thyself—in the form of thy servant—in the oratory; yes, yes, thou wast -there; it was thou—in the darkness, in the heavy air, in the shrouding -incense-clouds, that night, when the Caesar growing beneath my heart—— - - JULIAN. - -[_Recoiling with a cry._] Ah! - - HELENA. - -[_With outstretched arms._] My lover and my lord! Mine, mine——! - - [_She falls swooning on the floor; the slave-girls hasten - forward and crowd round her._ - - JULIAN. - -[_Stands for a moment immovable; then shakes his clenched fist in the -air, and cries_:] Galilean! - - [_The slave-girls carry the Princess out on the right; at the - same moment the Knight SALLUST comes hastily in by the door - in the back._ - - SALLUST. - -The Princess in a swoon! Oh, then it is true! - - JULIAN. - -[_Grasps the Physician by the arm, and leads him aside._] Tell me the -truth. Did you know before to-day that——; you understand me; have you -known aught of——the Princess’s condition? - - ORIBASES. - -I, like every one else, my lord. - - JULIAN. - -And you said naught to me, Oribases! - - ORIBASES. - -Of what, my Caesar? - - JULIAN. - -How dared you conceal it from me? - - ORIBASES. - -My lord, there was one thing we none of us knew. - - JULIAN. - -And that was? - - ORIBASES. - -That Caesar knew nothing. [_He is going._] - - JULIAN. - -Where are you going? - - ORIBASES. - -To try the remedies my art prescribes—— - - JULIAN. - -I believe your art will prove powerless. - - ORIBASES. - -My lord, it is yet possible that—— - - JULIAN. - -Powerless, I tell you! - - ORIBASES. - -[_Retiring a step._] Noble Caesar, it is my duty to disobey you in this. - - JULIAN. - -What think you I mean? Go, go; try what your art——; save the Emperor’s -sister; the Emperor will be inconsolable if his thoughtful affection -should bring any disaster in its train. Of course you know that those -fruits were a gift from the Emperor? - - ORIBASES. - -Ah! - - JULIAN. - -Go, go, man,—try what your art—— - - ORIBASES. - -[_Bowing reverently._] I believe my art will prove powerless, my lord! - - [_He goes out to the right._ - - JULIAN. - -Ah, is it you, Sallust? What think you? The waves of fate are once more -beginning to sweep over my race. - - SALLUST. - -Oh, but rescue is at hand. Oribases will—— - - JULIAN. - -[_Shortly and decisively._] The Princess will die. - - SALLUST. - -Oh, if I dared speak! If I dared trace out the secret threads in this -web of destruction! - - JULIAN. - -Be of good cheer, friend; all the threads shall be brought to light, and -then—— - - DECENTIUS. - -[_Entering from the back._] How shall I look Caesar in the face! How -inscrutable are the ways of God! Crushed to earth——; oh that you could -but read my heart! That I should be the harbinger of sorrow and -disaster——! - - JULIAN. - -Yes, that you may say twice over, noble Decentius! And how shall I find -soft and specious enough terms to bring this in any endurable guise to -the ears of her imperial brother! - - DECENTIUS. - -Alas that such a thing should happen so close upon the coming of my -mission! And just at this moment! Oh, what a thunderbolt from a -cloudless sky of hope! - - JULIAN. - -Oh, this towering and devouring tempest, just as the ship seemed running -into the long-desired haven! Oh, this—this——! Sorrow makes us eloquent, -Decentius,—you as well as me. But first to business. The two Nubians -must be seized and examined. - - DECENTIUS. - -The Nubians, my lord? Could you dream that my indignant zeal would for -another instant suffer the two negligent servants to——? - - JULIAN. - -What! Surely you have not already——? - - DECENTIUS. - -Call me hasty, if you will, noble Caesar. But my love to the Emperor and -to his sorrow-stricken house would in truth be less than it is if, in -such an hour, I were capable of calm reflection. - - JULIAN. - -Have you killed both the slaves? - - DECENTIUS. - -Had not their negligence deserved a sevenfold death? They were two -heathen savages, my lord! Their testimony would have been worthless; it -was impossible to wring anything out of them, save that they had left -their precious charge standing for some time unwatched in the -antechamber, accessible to every one—— - - JULIAN. - -Aha! Had they indeed, Decentius? - - DECENTIUS. - -I accuse no one. But oh, beloved Caesar, I bid you beware; for you are -surrounded by faithless servants. Your court—by an unhappy -misunderstanding!—fancies that some sort of disfavour—or what should I -call it?—is implied in the measures which the Emperor has found it -necessary to adopt; in short—— - - SINTULA. - -[_Entering from the back._] My lord, you have imposed on me a charge I -can in no way fulfil. - - JULIAN. - -The Emperor imposed it, good Sintula! - - SINTULA. - -Relieve me of it, my lord; it is utterly beyond me. - - DECENTIUS. - -What has happened? - - SINTULA. - -The camp is in wild revolt. The legions and the allies are banding -together—— - - DECENTIUS. - -Rebelling against the Emperor’s will! - - SINTULA. - -The soldiers are shouting that they appeal to Caesar’s promises. - - JULIAN. - -Hark! hark! that roar outside——! - - SINTULA. - -The rioters are rushing hither—— - - DECENTIUS. - -Let no one enter! - - SALLUST. - -[_At the window._] Too late; the whole courtyard is filled with angry -soldiers. - - DECENTIUS. - -Caesar’s precious life is in danger! Where is Florentius? - - SINTULA. - -Fled. - - DECENTIUS. - -The blustering coward! And Severus? - - SINTULA. - -Severus feigns sickness; he has driven out to his farm. - - JULIAN. - -I myself will speak to the madmen. - - DECENTIUS. - -Not a step, noble Caesar! - - JULIAN. - -What now? - - DECENTIUS. - -’Tis my duty, gracious lord; the Emperor’s command—; his beloved -kinsman’s life—; Caesar is my prisoner. - - SALLUST. - -Ah! - - JULIAN. - -So it has come at last! - - DECENTIUS. - -The household guard, Sintula! You must conduct Caesar in safety to Rome. - - JULIAN. - -To Rome! - - SINTULA. - -What say you, my lord? - - DECENTIUS. - -To Rome, I say! - - JULIAN. - -Like Gallus! [_He shouts through the window._] Help, help! - - SALLUST. - -Fly, my Caesar! Fly, fly! - -_Wild cries are heard without. Soldiers of the Roman legions, Batavian - auxiliaries, and other allies climb in through the window. At the - same time, others swarm in by the door at the back. Amongst the - foremost is the Standard-Bearer MAURUS; women, some with children - in their arms, follow the intruders._ - - CRIES AMONG THE SOLDIERS. - -Caesar, Caesar! - - OTHER VOICES. - -Caesar, why have you betrayed us? - - AGAIN OTHERS. - -Down with the faithless Caesar! - - JULIAN. - -[_Casts himself with outstretched arms into the midst of the soldiers, -crying_:] Fellow-soldiers, brothers in arms,—save me from my enemies! - - DECENTIUS. - -Ah, what is this——? - - WILD CRIES. - -Down with Caesar! Strike him down! - - JULIAN. - -Close round me in a circle; draw your swords! - - MAURUS. - -They are drawn already! - - WOMEN. - -Strike him, cut him down! - - JULIAN. - -I thank you for coming! Maurus! Honest Maurus! Yes, yes; you I can -trust. - - A BATAVIAN SOLDIER. - -How dare you send us to the ends of the earth? Was _that_ what you swore -to us? - - OTHER ALLIES. - -Not over the Alps! We are not bound to go! - - JULIAN. - -Not to Rome! I will not go; they would murder me, as they murdered my -brother Gallus! - - MAURUS. - -What say you, my lord? - - DECENTIUS. - -Do not believe him! - - JULIAN. - -Lay no finger on the noble Decentius; the fault is not his. - - LAIPSO. - -[_A Subaltern._] That is true; the fault is Caesar’s. - - JULIAN. - -Ah, is that you, Laipso! My gallant friend, is that you? You fought well -at Argentoratum. - - LAIPSO. - -Caesar has not forgotten that? - - VARRO. - -[_A Subaltern._] But he forgets his promises! - - JULIAN. - -Was not that the voice of the undaunted Varro? Ah, there he is! Your -wound is healed, I see. Oh, well-deserving soldier,—why would they not -let me make you captain? - - VARRO. - -Was it indeed your wish? - - JULIAN. - -Blame not the Emperor for refusing my request. The Emperor knows none of -you as I know you. - - DECENTIUS. - -Soldiers, hear me——! - - MANY VOICES. - -We have nothing to do with the Emperor! - - OTHERS. - -[_Pressing forward menacingly._] It is Caesar we call to account! - - JULIAN. - -What power has your hapless Caesar, my friends? They would take me to -Rome. They deny even the control of my private affairs. They seize upon -my share of the spoils of war. I thought to give every soldier five gold -pieces and a pound of silver, but—— - - THE SOLDIERS. - -What does he say? - - JULIAN. - -’Tis not the Emperor who forbids it, but bad and envious councillors. -The Emperor is good, my dear friends! But oh, the Emperor is sick; he -can do nothing—— - - MANY SOLDIERS. - -Five gold pieces and a pound of silver! - - OTHER SOLDIERS. - -And that they deny us! - - OTHERS AGAIN. - -Who dares deny Caesar anything? - - MAURUS. - -Is it thus they treat Caesar, the soldiers’ father? - - LAIPSO. - -Caesar, who has been rather our friend than our master? Is it not true? - - MANY VOICES. - -Yes, yes, it is! - - VARRO. - -Should not Caesar, the victorious general, be suffered to choose his -captains as he pleases? - - MAURUS. - -Should he not have free control over the spoils that fall to his share? - - LOUD SHOUTS. - -Yes, yes, yes! - - JULIAN. - -Alas, what would it profit you? What need you care for worldly goods, -you, who are to be led forth to the most distant lands, to meet a -doubtful fate——? - - SOLDIERS. - -We will not go! - - JULIAN. - -Look not at me; I am ashamed; I can scarce help weeping when I think -that, within a few months, you will be a prey to pestilence, famine, and -the weapons of a bloodthirsty foe. - - MANY SOLDIERS. - -[_Pressing round him._] Caesar! Kind Caesar! - - JULIAN. - -And your defenceless wives and children, whom you must leave behind in -your scattered homes! Who shall protect them in their pitiable plight, -soon to be widowed and fatherless, and exposed to the vengeful -onslaughts of the Alemanni? - - THE WOMEN. - -[_Weeping._] Caesar, Caesar, protect us! - - JULIAN. - -[_Weeping likewise._] What is Caesar? What can the fallen Caesar do? - - LAIPSO. - -Write to the Emperor, and let him know—— - - JULIAN. - -Ah, what is the Emperor? The Emperor is sick in mind and body; he is -broken down by his care for the empire’s weal. Is it not so, Decentius? - - DECENTIUS. - -Yes, doubtless; but—— - - JULIAN. - -How it cut me to the heart when I heard—— - - [_Pressing the hands of those around him._ - -Pray for his soul, you who worship the good Christ! Offer sacrifices for -his recovery, you who have remained faithful to the gods of your -fathers!——Know you that the Emperor has held a triumphal entry into -Rome? - - MAURUS. - -The Emperor! - - VARRO. - -What? As he returned, beaten, from the Danube? - - JULIAN. - -As he returned from the Danube, he held a triumph for our victories—— - - DECENTIUS. - -[_Threateningly._] Noble Caesar, reflect——! - - JULIAN. - -Yes, the Tribune says well; reflect how our Emperor’s mind must be -clouded, when he can do such things! Oh, my sorely afflicted kinsman! -When he rode into Rome through the mighty arch of Constantine, he -fancied himself so tall that he bent his back and bowed his head down to -his saddle-bow. - - MAURUS. - -Like a cock in a doorway. - - [_Laughter among the soldiers._ - - SOME VOICES. - -Is _that_ an Emperor? - - VARRO. - -Shall we obey _him_? - - LAIPSO. - -Away with him! - - MAURUS. - -Caesar, do you take the helm! - - DECENTIUS. - -Rebellion——! - - MANY VOICES. - -Seize the throne; seize the throne, Caesar! - - JULIAN. - -Madmen! Is this language for Romans? Would you imitate the barbarous -Alemanni? What was it Knodomar cried at Argentoratum? Answer me, good -Maurus,—what did he cry out? - - MAURUS. - -He cried, “Long live the Emperor Julian!” - - JULIAN. - -Ah, hush, hush! What are you saying? - - MAURUS. - -Long live the Emperor Julian! - - THOSE BEHIND. - -What is afoot? - - VARRO. - -They are proclaiming Julian Emperor! - - LOUD CRIES. - -Long live the Emperor! Long live the Emperor Julian! - -[_The cry spreads in wider and wider circles without; all talk together; - JULIAN cannot make himself heard for some time._ - - JULIAN. - -Oh, I entreat you——! Soldiers, friends, brothers in arms,—see, I stretch -out my trembling arms to you——! Be not alarmed, my Decentius!—Oh that I -should live to see this! I do not blame you, my faithful friends; it is -despair that has driven you to this. You will have it? Good; I submit to -the will of the army.—Sintula, call the generals together.—You, Tribune, -can bear witness to Constantius that ’twas only on compulsion that I—— -[_He turns to VARRO._] Go, captain, and make known throughout the camp -this unlooked-for turn of events. I will write without delay to Rome—— - - SALLUST. - -My lord, the soldiers clamour to see you. - - MAURUS. - -A circlet of gold on your head, Emperor! - - JULIAN. - -I have never possessed such a gaud. - -Maurus. - -This will serve. - - [_He takes off his gold chain, and winds it several times round - Caesar’s brow._ - - SHOUTS OUTSIDE. - -The Emperor, the Emperor! We will see the Emperor! - - SOLDIERS. - -On the shield with him! Up, up! - - [_The bystanders raise JULIAN aloft on a shield, and show him to - the multitude, amid long-continued acclamations._ - - JULIAN. - -The will of the army be done! I bow before the inevitable, and renew all -my promises—— - - LEGIONARIES. - -Five gold pieces and a pound of silver! - - BATAVIANS. - -Not over the Alps! - - JULIAN. - -We will occupy Vienna. ’Tis the strongest city in Gaul, and well -supplied with provisions of every sort. There I intend to wait until we -see whether my afflicted kinsman sanctions what we have here determined, -for the empire’s weal—— - - SALLUST. - -That he will never do, my lord! - - JULIAN. - -[_With upstretched hands._] Divine wisdom enlighten his darkened soul, -and guide him for the best! Be thou with me, Fortune, who hast never yet -deserted me! - - MYRRHA AND THE WOMEN. - -[_Lamenting outside on the right._] Dead, dead, dead! - - - - - ACT FIFTH. - - -At Vienna [in Gaul]. A vaulted space in the catacombs. _To the left a - winding passage running upwards. In the background, a flight of - steps is hewn in the rock, leading up to a closed door. In front, - to the right, a number of steps lead down to the lower passages. - The space is feebly lighted by a hanging-lamp._ - - _JULIAN CAESAR, unshaven, and in dirty clothes, stands bending - over the opening to the right. A subdued sound of psalm-singing - comes through the door from the church beyond it, built on to the - catacomb._ - - JULIAN. - -[_Speaking downwards._] Still no sign? - - A VOICE. - -[_Far below._] None. - - JULIAN. - -Neither yes nor no? Neither for nor against? - - THE VOICE. - -Both. - - JULIAN. - -That is the same as nothing. - - THE VOICE. - -Wait, wait. - - JULIAN. - -I have waited five days; you asked for only three. I tell you——I have no -mind to—— [_He listens towards the entrance, and calls down._] Do not -speak! - - SALLUST. - -[_Entering by the passage on the left._] My lord, my lord! - - JULIAN. - -Is it you, Sallust? What would you down here? - - SALLUST. - -This thick darkness——; ah! now I see you. - - JULIAN. - -What do you want? - - SALLUST. - -To serve you, if I can,—to lead you out to the living again. - - JULIAN. - -What news from the world above? - - SALLUST. - -The soldiers are restless; there are signs on all hands that their -patience will soon be exhausted. - - JULIAN. - -Is the sun shining up there? - - SALLUST. - -Yes, my lord. - - JULIAN. - -The vault of heaven is like a sea of glittering light. Perhaps it is -high noon. It is warm; the air quivers along the walls of the houses; -the river, half-shrunken in its bed, ripples over the white -flints.—Beautiful life! Beautiful earth! - - SALLUST. - -Oh come, my lord, come! This stay in the catacombs is construed to your -hurt. - - JULIAN. - -How is it construed? - - SALLUST. - -Dare I tell you? - - JULIAN. - -You dare, and you must. How is it construed? - - SALLUST. - -Many believe that it is remorse rather than sorrow that has driven you -underground in this strange fashion. - - JULIAN. - -They think I killed her? - - SALLUST. - -The mystery of the case may excuse them, if—— - - JULIAN. - -No one killed her, Sallust! She was too pure for this sinful world; -therefore an angel from heaven descended every night into her secret -chamber, and called upon her. You doubt it? Know you not that this is -how the priests in Lutetia accounted for her death? And the priests -ought to know. Has not the transport of her body hither been like a -triumphal progress through the land? Did not all the women of Vienna -stream forth beyond the gates to meet her coffin, hailing her with green -boughs in their hands, spreading draperies on the road, and singing -songs of praise to the bride of heaven, who was being brought home to -the bridegroom’s house?—Why do you laugh? - - SALLUST. - -I, my lord? - - JULIAN. - -Ever since, I have heard bridal songs night and day. Listen, listen; -they are wafting her up to glory. Ay, she was indeed a true Christian -woman. She observed the commandment strictly;—she gave to Caesar what -was Caesar’s, and to the other she gave——; but ’twas not of _that_ you -came to speak; you are not initiated in the secrets of the faith, -Sallust!—What news, I ask? - - SALLUST. - -The weightiest news is that on learning of the events at Lutetia, the -Emperor fled hastily to Antioch. - - JULIAN. - -That news I know. No doubt Constantius already saw us in imagination -before the gates of Rome. - - SALLUST. - -The friends who boldly cast in their lot with you in this dangerous -business, saw in imagination the same thing. - - JULIAN. - -The time is not auspicious, Sallust! Know you not that in the martial -games, before we left Lutetia, my shield broke in pieces, so that only -the handle remained in my grasp? And know you not that, when I was -mounting my horse, the groom stumbled as I swung myself up from his -folded hands? - - SALLUST. - -Yet you gained the saddle, my lord! - - JULIAN. - -But the man fell. - - SALLUST. - -Better men will fall if Caesar loiters. - - JULIAN. - -The Emperor is at death’s door. - - SALLUST. - -The Emperor still lives. The letters you wrote him as to your election—— - - JULIAN. - -My enforced election. They constrained me, I had no choice. - - SALLUST. - -The Emperor does not hold that explanation valid. He designs, as soon as -he has mustered an army in the eastern provinces, to march into Gaul. - - JULIAN. - -How know you that——? - - SALLUST. - -By an accident, my lord! Believe me, I entreat you——! - - JULIAN. - -Good, good; when that happens, I will go to meet Constantius—not sword -in hand—— - - SALLUST. - -Not? How, then, do you think to meet him? - - JULIAN. - -I will render to the Emperor what is the Emperor’s. - - SALLUST. - -Mean you that you will abdicate? - - JULIAN. - -The Emperor is at death’s door. - - SALLUST. - -Oh that vain hope! [_He casts himself on his knees._] Then take my life, -my lord! - - JULIAN. - -What now? - - SALLUST. - -Caesar, take my life; I would rather die by your will than by the -Emperor’s. - - JULIAN. - -Rise, friend! - - SALLUST. - -No, let me lie at my Caesar’s feet, and confess all. Oh, beloved -master,—to have to tell you this!—When I sought you out in the camp on -the Rhine,—when I recalled to you the old friendship of our Athenian -days,—when I begged to share with you the dangers of war,—then, oh -Caesar, I came as a secret spy, in the Emperor’s pay—— - - JULIAN. - -You——! - - SALLUST. - -My mind had for some time been inflamed against you. You remember that -little variance in Milan—yet no little one for me, who had hoped that -Caesar would help to restore my waning fortunes. Of all this they took -advantage in Rome; they regarded me as the very man to spy out your -doings. - - JULIAN. - -And you could sell yourself so basely? To so black a treachery! - - SALLUST. - -I was ruined, my lord; and I thought Caesar had forsaken me. Yes, my -Caesar, I betrayed you——, during the first few months; but not -afterwards. Your friendliness, your magnanimity, all the favour you -showed me——; I became, what I had professed to be, your faithful -adherent; and in my secret letters to Rome I put my employers on false -scents. - - JULIAN. - -Those letters were from _you_?—Oh, Sallust! - - SALLUST. - -They contained nothing to injure you, my lord! What others may have -written, I know not; I only know that I often enough groaned in anguish -under my enforced and hated silence. I ventured as far as I by any means -dared. That letter written to an unnamed man in your camp, which -contained an account of the Emperor’s triumphal entry in Rome, and which -you found one morning on the march to Lutetia pushed under your -tent-flap——; you did find it, my lord? - - JULIAN. - -Yes, yes——? - - SALLUST. - -That was directed to me, and chance favoured me in bringing it into your -hands. I dared not speak. I longed to, but I could not; I put off from -day to day the confession of my shame. Oh, punish me, my lord; see, here -I lie! - - JULIAN. - -Stand up; you are dearer to me thus,—conquered without my will and -against your own. Stand up, friend of my soul; no one shall touch a hair -of your head. - - SALLUST. - -Rather take the life which you will not long have power to shield. You -say the Emperor is at death’s door. [_He rises._] My Caesar, what I have -sworn to conceal, I now reveal to you. There is no hope for you in the -Emperor’s decay. The Emperor is taking a new wife. - - JULIAN. - -Ah, what madness! How can you think——? - - SALLUST. - -The Emperor is taking a new wife, my lord! [_He hands him some papers._] -Read, read, noble Caesar; these letters will leave you no room for -doubt. - - JULIAN. - -[_Seizing the papers, and reading._] Yes, by the light and might of -Helios——! - - SALLUST. - -Oh that I had dared to speak sooner! - - JULIAN. - -[_Still reading._] He take a woman to wife! Constantius,—that dwindling -shadow of a man——! Faustina,—what is this?—young, scarcely nineteen,—a -daughter of——ah! a daughter of that insolent tribe. Therefore, of -course, a zealous Christian woman. [_He folds the papers together._] You -are right, Sallust; his decay gives no room for hope. What though he be -decrepit, dying,—what of that? Is not Faustina pious. An annunciating -angel will appear; or even——; ha-ha!—in short,—by some means or other,—a -young Caesar will be forthcoming, and thus—— - - SALLUST. - -Delay means ruin. - - JULIAN. - -This move has long been planned in all secrecy, Sallust! Ah, now all the -riddles are solved. Helena——, ’twas not, as I conceived, her heedless -tongue that destroyed her—— - - SALLUST. - -No, my lord! - - JULIAN. - -——they thought,—they believed that——! oh inscrutable, even-handed -retribution! that was why she had to die. - - SALLUST. - -Yes, that was the reason, I was the man they first pitched upon in Rome. -Oh, my lord, you cannot doubt that I refused to do it? I pleaded the -impossibility of finding an occasion; they assured me that the -abominable design was abandoned, and then——! - - JULIAN. - -They will not stop at—at the double corpse in the sarcophagus up yonder. -Constantius takes another wife. That is why I was to be disarmed in -Lutetia. - - SALLUST. - -One thing alone can save you, my Caesar: you must act before the Emperor -has recruited his forces. - - JULIAN. - -What if, of my own free will, I withdrew into solitude, devoting myself -to that wisdom which I have here been forced to neglect? Would the new -men in power leave me undisturbed? Would not the very fact of my -existence be like a sword hanging over their heads? - - SALLUST. - -The kinsmen of the Empress that is to be are the men who surrounded -Gallus Caesar in his last hours. - - JULIAN. - -The tribune Scudilo. Trust me, friend,—I have not forgotten that. And am -I to yield and fall before this bloodthirsty Emperor! Am I to spare him -who for long years has stumbled about among the corpses of my nearest -kin! - - SALLUST. - -If you spare him, in less than three months he will be stumbling among -the corpses of your adherents. - - JULIAN. - -Yes, yes; there you are right. It is almost my imperative duty to stand -up against him. If I do, ’twill not be for my own sake. Do not the weal -and woe of thousands hang in the balance? Are not thousands of lives at -stake? Or could I have averted this extremity? You are more to blame -than I, Sallust! Why did you not speak before? - - SALLUST. - -In Rome they made me swear a solemn oath of secrecy. - - JULIAN. - -An oath? Indeed! By the gods of your forefathers? - - SALLUST. - -Yes, my lord—by Zeus and by Apollo. - - JULIAN. - -And yet you break your oath? - - SALLUST. - -I wish to live. - - JULIAN. - -But the gods? - - SALLUST. - -The gods—they are far away. - - JULIAN. - -Yes, your gods are far away; they hamper no one; they are a burden to no -one; they leave a man elbow-room for action. Oh, that Greek happiness, -that sense of freedom——! - -You said that the Emperor, vengeful as he is, will pour out the blood of -my friends. Yes, who can doubt that? Was Knodomar spared? Did not that -harmless captive pay with his life for an error of language? For—I know -it, Sallust—they killed him; that tale about the barbarian’s -home-sickness was a lie. Then what may not we expect? In what a hateful -light must not Decentius have represented matters in Rome? - - SALLUST. - -That you may best understand from the hasty flight of the court to -Antioch. - - JULIAN. - -And am I not my army’s father, Sallust? - - SALLUST. - -The soldiers’ father; their wives’ and children’s buckler and defence. - - JULIAN. - -And what will be the fate of the empire should I waver now? A decrepit -Emperor, and after him a helpless child, upon the throne; faction and -revolt; every man’s hand against his neighbour, in the struggle for -power.—Not many nights ago I saw a vision. A figure appeared before me, -with a halo round its head; it looked wrathfully upon me, and said: -“Choose!” With that it vanished away, like morning mist. Hitherto I had -interpreted it as referring to something far different; but now that I -know of the Emperor’s approaching marriage—— - -Yes, indeed, it is time to choose, ere misfortune overwhelms the empire. -I am not thinking of my own interest; but _dare_ I shirk the choice, -Sallust? Is it not my duty to the Emperor to defend my life? Have I a -right to stand with folded arms and await the murderers whom he, in his -mad panic, is bribing to hew me down? Have I a right to give this -unhappy Constantius an opportunity of heaping fresh blood-guiltiness -upon his sinful head? Were it not better for him—as the Scriptures -say—that he should suffer wrong rather than do wrong? If, therefore, -this that I do to my kinsman can be called a wrong, I hold that the -wrong is wiped out by the fact that it hinders my kinsman from -inflicting a wrong on me. I think that both Plato and Marcus Aurelius, -that crowned bridegroom of wisdom, would support me in that. At any -rate, it would be no unworthy problem for the philosophers, my dear -Sallust!—Oh that I had Libanius here! - - SALLUST. - -My lord, you are yourself so far advanced in philosophy, that—— - - JULIAN. - -True, true; yet I would fain hear the views of certain others. Not that -I am vacillating. Do not think that! Nor do I see any reason to doubt a -favourable issue. For those omens should by no means discourage us. The -fact that I retained the handle, when my shield broke during the games, -may with ample reason, I think, be taken to mean that I shall succeed in -holding what my hand has grasped. And if, in vaulting upon my horse, I -overthrew the man who helped me to mount, may not this portend a sudden -fall to Constantius, to whom I owe my rise? Be this as it may, my -Sallust, I look forward to composing a treatise which shall most clearly -justify—— - - SALLUST. - -Very good, my gracious lord; but the soldiers are impatient; they would -fain see you, and learn their fate from your own lips. - - JULIAN. - -Go, go and pacify them;—tell them that Caesar will presently show -himself. - - SALLUST. - -My lord, ’tis not Caesar, it is the Emperor himself they want to see. - - JULIAN. - -The Emperor is coming. - - SALLUST. - -Then he comes—though empty-handed—yet with the lives of thousands in his -hands! - - JULIAN. - -A barter, Sallust; the lives of thousands against the death of -thousands. - - SALLUST. - -Have your enemies the right to live? - - JULIAN. - -Happy you, whose gods are afar off. Oh, to possess this hardihood of -will——! - - A VOICE. - -[_Calling from deep in the galleries below._] Julian, Julian! - - SALLUST. - -Ah! What is that? - - JULIAN. - -Leave me, dear friend; go quickly! - - THE VOICE. - -Silence the psalm-singing, Julian! - - SALLUST. - -It calls again. Oh, then it is true! - - JULIAN. - -What is true? - - SALLUST. - -That you abide down here with a mysterious stranger, a soothsayer or a -magician, who came to you by night. - - JULIAN. - -Ha-ha; do they say that? Go, go! - - SALLUST. - -I conjure you, my lord,—have done with these noxious dreams. Come with -me; come up to the light of day! - - THE VOICE. - -[_Nearer, underneath._] All my labour is vain. - - JULIAN. - -[_Speaking down the passage to the right._] No sign, my brother? - - THE VOICE. - -Desolation and emptiness. - - JULIAN. - -Oh, Maximus! - - SALLUST. - -Maximus! - - JULIAN. - -Go, I tell you! If I leave this house of corruption, it will be as -Emperor. - - SALLUST. - -I implore you——; what seek you here in the darkness? - - JULIAN. - -Light. Go, go! - - SALLUST. - -If Caesar loiters, I fear he will find the way barred against him. - - [_He goes by the passage on the left. A little while afterwards, - MAXIMUS THE MYSTIC ascends the steps; he wears a white - sacrificial fillet round his brow; in his hand is a long, - bloody knife._ - - JULIAN. - -Speak, my Maximus! - - MAXIMUS. - -All my labour is vain, I tell you. Why could you not silence the -psalm-singing? It strangled all the omens; they would have spoken, but -could utter nothing. - - JULIAN. - -Silence, darkness;—and I can wait no longer! What do you counsel me to -do? - - MAXIMUS. - -Go forward blindly, Emperor Julian. The light will seek you out. - - JULIAN. - -Yes, yes, yes; that I, too, believe. I need not, after all, have sent -for you all this long way. Know you what I have just heard——? - - MAXIMUS. - -I will not know what you have heard. Take your fate into your own hands. - - JULIAN. - -[_Pacing restlessly up and down._] After all, what is he, this -Constantius—this Fury-haunted sinner, this mouldering ruin of what was -once a man? - - MAXIMUS. - -Be that his epitaph, Emperor Julian! - - JULIAN. - -In his whole treatment of me, has he not been like a rudderless -wreck,—now drifting to the left on the current of suspicion, now hurled -to the right by the storm-gust of remorse? Did he not stagger, -terror-stricken, up to the imperial throne, his purple mantle dripping -with my father’s blood? perhaps with my mother’s too?—Had not all my kin -to perish that he might sit secure? No, not all; Gallus was spared, and -I;—a couple of lives must be left wherewith to buy himself a little -pardon. Then he drifted into the current of suspicion again. Remorse -wrung from him the title of Caesar for Gallus; then suspicion wrung from -him Caesar’s death-warrant. And I? Do I owe him thanks for the life he -has hitherto vouchsafed me? One after the other; first Gallus, and -then——; every night I have sweated with terror lest the next day should -be my last. - - MAXIMUS. - -Were Constantius and death your worst terrors? Think. - - JULIAN. - -No, you are right. The priests——! My whole youth has been one long dread -of the Emperor and of Christ. Oh, he is terrible, that mysterious—that -merciless god-man! At every turn, wheresoever I wished to go, he met me, -stark and stern, with his unconditional, inexorable commands. - - MAXIMUS. - -And those commands—were they within you? - - JULIAN. - -Always without. Always “Thou shalt.” If my soul gathered itself up in -one gnawing and consuming hate towards the murderer of my kin, what said -the commandment: “Love thine enemy!” If my mind, athirst for beauty, -longed for scenes and rites from the bygone world of Greece, -Christianity swooped down on me with its “Seek the one thing needful!” -If I felt the sweet lusts of the flesh towards this or that, the Prince -of Renunciation terrified me with his: “Kill the body that the soul may -live!”—All that is human has become unlawful since the day when the seer -of Galilee became ruler of the world. Through him, life has become -death. Love and hatred, both are sins. Has he, then, transformed man’s -flesh and blood? Has not earth-bound man remained what he ever was? Our -inmost, healthy soul rebels against it all;—and yet we are to will in -the very teeth of our own will! Thou shalt, shalt, shalt! - - MAXIMUS. - -And you have advanced no further than that! Shame on you! - - JULIAN. - -I? - - MAXIMUS. - -Yes, you, the man of Athens and of Ephesus. - - JULIAN. - -Ah, those times, Maximus! ’Twas easy to choose then. What were we really -working at? A philosophic system; neither more nor less. - - MAXIMUS. - -Is it not written somewhere in your Scriptures! “Either with us or -against us”? - - JULIAN. - -Did not Libanius remain the man he was, whether he took the affirmative -in a disputation, or the negative? This lies deeper. Here it is action -that must be faced. “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.” -In Athens I once made a game of that;—but it is no game. You cannot -grasp it, you, who have never been under the power of the god-man. It is -more than a doctrine he has spread over the world; it is an enchantment, -that binds the soul in chains. He who has once been under it,—I believe -he can never quite shake it off. - - MAXIMUS. - -Because you do not wholly _will_. - - JULIAN. - -How can I _will_ the impossible? - - MAXIMUS. - -Is it worth while to _will_ what is possible? - - JULIAN. - -Word-froth from the lecture-halls! You can no longer cram my mind with -that. And yet——oh no, no, Maximus! But you cannot understand how it is -with us. We are like vines transplanted into a new, strange soil; -transplant us back again, and we die; yet in the new soil we cannot -thrive. - - MAXIMUS. - -We? Whom do you call we? - - JULIAN. - -All who are under the terror of the revelation. - - MAXIMUS. - -A terror of shadows! - - JULIAN. - -Be that as it may. But do you not see that this paralysing terror has -curdled and coiled itself up into a wall around the Emperor? Ah, I see -very well why the great Constantine promoted such a will-binding -doctrine to power and authority in the empire. No bodyguard with spears -and shields could form such a bulwark round the throne as this benumbing -creed, for ever pointing beyond our earthly life. Have you looked -closely at these Christians? Hollow-eyed, pale-cheeked, flat-breasted, -all; they are like the linen-weavers of Byssus; they brood their lives -away unspurred by ambition; the sun shines for them, and they do not see -it; the earth offers them its fulness, and they desire it not;—all their -desire is to renounce and suffer, that they may come to die. - - MAXIMUS. - -Then use them as they are; but you yourself must stand without. Emperor -or Galilean;—_that_ is the alternative. Be a thrall under the terror, or -monarch in the land of sunshine and gladness! You cannot will -contradictions; and yet that is what you would fain do. You try to unite -what cannot be united,—to reconcile two irreconcilables; therefore it is -that you lie here rotting in the darkness. - - JULIAN. - -Show me light if you can! - - MAXIMUS. - -Are you that Achilles, whom your mother dreamed that she should give to -the world? A tender heel alone makes no man an Achilles. Arise, my lord! -Confident of victory, like a knight on his fiery steed, you must trample -on the Galilean, if you would reach the imperial throne—— - - JULIAN. - -Maximus! - - MAXIMUS. - -My beloved Julian, look at the world around you! Those death-desiring -Christians you speak of are fewest of the few. And how is it with all -the others? Are not their minds falling away from the Master, one by -one? Answer me,—what has become of this strange gospel of love? Does not -sect rage against sect? And the bishops, those gold-bedecked magnates, -who call themselves the chief shepherds of the church! Do they yield -even to the great men of the court in greed and ambition and -sycophancy——? - - JULIAN. - -They are not all like that; think of the great Athanasius of -Alexandria—— - - MAXIMUS. - -Athanasius stood alone. And where is Athanasius now? Did they not drive -him out, because he would not sell himself to serve the Emperor’s will? -Was he not forced to take refuge in the Libyan desert, where he was -devoured by lions? And can you name me _one_ other like Athanasius? -Think of Maris, the bishop of Chalcedon, who has now changed sides three -times in the Arian controversy. Think of old Bishop Marcus, of Arethusa; -him you know from your boyhood. Has he not lately, in the teeth of both -law and justice, taken all municipal property from the citizens, and -transferred it to the church? And remember the feeble, vacillating -Bishop of Nazianzus, who is the laughing-stock of his own community, -because he answers yes and no in the same cause, in the hope to please -both parties. - - JULIAN. - -True, true, true! - - MAXIMUS. - -These are your brothers in arms, my Julian; you will find none better -among them. Or perhaps you count upon those two great Galilean lights -that were to be, in Cappadocia? Ha-ha; Gregory, the bishop’s son, pleads -causes in his native town, and Basil, on his estate in the far east, is -buried in the writings of secular philosophers. - - JULIAN. - -Yes, I know it well. On all sides they fall away! Hekebolius, my former -teacher, has grown rich through his zeal for the faith, and his -expositions of it; and since then——! Maximus—it has come to this, that I -stand almost alone in earnestness. - - MAXIMUS. - -You stand _quite_ alone. Your whole army is either in headlong flight, -or lying slain around you. Sound the battle-call,—and none will hear -you; advance,—and none will follow you! Dream not that you can do -anything for a cause which has despaired of itself. You will be beaten, -I tell you! And where will you turn then? Disowned by Constantius, you -will be disowned by all other powers on earth,—and over the earth. Or -will you flee to the Galilean’s bosom? How stands the account between -you and him? Did you not own, a moment ago, that you are under the -terror? Have you his commands within you? Do you love your enemy, -Constantius, even if you do not smite him? Do you hate the lusts of the -flesh or the alluring joys of this world, even if you do not, like a -heated swimmer, plunge into their depths? Do you renounce the world, -because you have not courage to make it your own? And are you so very -sure that—if you die here—you shall live yonder? - - JULIAN. - -[_Pacing to and fro._] What has he done for me, he who exacts so much? -If he hold the reins of the world-chariot in his hands, it must have -been within his power to—— - - [_The psalm-singing in the church becomes louder._ - -Listen, listen! They call that serving him. And he accepts it as a -sweet-smelling sacrifice. Praise of himself,—and praise of her in the -coffin! If he be omniscient, how then can he——? - - THE CHAMBERLAIN EUTHERIUS. - -[_Coming hastily down through the passage on the left._] My Caesar! My -lord, my lord; where are you? - - JULIAN. - -Here, Eutherius? What would you with me? - - EUTHERIUS. - -You must come up, my lord;—you must see it with your own eyes;—the -Princess’s body is working miracles. - - JULIAN. - -You lie! - - EUTHERIUS. - -I do not lie, my lord! I am no believer in this foreign doctrine; but -what I have seen I cannot doubt. - - JULIAN. - -What have you seen? - - EUTHERIUS. - -The whole town is in a frenzy. They are bearing the sick and crippled to -the Princess’s bier; the priests let them touch it, and they go away -healed. - - JULIAN. - -And this you yourself have seen? - - EUTHERIUS. - -Yes, my lord; I saw an epileptic woman go forth from the church healed, -praising the Galileans’ God. - - JULIAN. - -Ah, Maximus, Maximus! - - EUTHERIUS. - -Hark, how the Christians exult;—some fresh miracle must have happened. - - THE PHYSICIAN ORIBASES. - -[_Calling out in the passage to the left._] Eutherius,—have you found -him? Eutherius, Eutherius, where is Caesar? - - JULIAN. - -[_Meeting him._] Here, here;—is it true, Oribases? - - ORIBASES. - -[_Coming forward._] Incredible, inexplicable,—and yet true; they touch -the bier, the priests read and pray over them, and they are healed; from -time to time a voice proclaims: “Holy, holy, is the pure woman!” - - JULIAN. - -A voice proclaims——? - - ORIBASES. - -The voice of one invisible, my Caesar; a voice high up under the -vaultings of the church——; no man knows whence it comes. - - JULIAN. - -[_Stands a moment immovable, then turns suddenly to MAXIMUS, and -cries_:] Life or the lie! - - MAXIMUS. - -Choose! - - ORIBASES. - -Come, come, my lord; the awe-stricken soldiers threaten you—— - - JULIAN. - -Let them threaten. - - ORIBASES. - -They accuse you and me of the Princess’s death—— - - JULIAN. - -I will come; I will satisfy them—— - - ORIBASES. - -There is only _one_ way: you must turn their thoughts in another -direction, my lord;—they are wild with despair over the fate awaiting -them if you delay any longer. - - MAXIMUS. - -Now go to heaven, thou fool; now die for thy Lord and Master! - - JULIAN. - -[_Grasping him by the arm._] The Emperor’s empire for me! - - MAXIMUS. - -Achilles! - - JULIAN. - -What looses the covenant? - - MAXIMUS. - -[_Handing him the sacrificial knife._] This. - - JULIAN. - -What washes the water away? - - MAXIMUS. - -The blood of the sacrifice. - - [_He tears off the fillet from his own brow, and fastens it - round Caesar’s._ - - ORIBASES. - -[_Drawing nearer._] What is your purpose, my lord? - - JULIAN. - -Ask not. - - EUTHERIUS. - -Hark to the clamour! Up, up, my Caesar! - - JULIAN. - -First down,—then up. [_To MAXIMUS._] The sanctuary, my beloved -brother——? - - MAXIMUS. - -Straight below, in the second vault. - - ORIBASES. - -Caesar, Caesar,—whither are you going? - - MAXIMUS. - -To freedom. - - JULIAN. - -Through darkness to light. Ah——! - - [_He descends into the lower galleries._ - - MAXIMUS. - -[_Softly, looking after him._] So it has come at last! - - EUTHERIUS. - -Speak, speak; what mean these hidden arts? - - ORIBASES. - -And now, when every instant is precious—— - - MAXIMUS. - -[_Whispering uneasily, as he shifts his place._] These gliding, clammy -shadows! Faugh! The slimy things crawling underfoot——! - - ORIBASES. - -[_Listening._] The turmoil waxes, Eutherius! It is the soldiers; listen, -listen! - - EUTHERIUS. - -It is the song in the church—— - - ORIBASES. - -No, ’tis the soldiers!—here they come! - - _The Knight SALLUST appears up in the gallery, surrounded by a - great crowd of excited soldiers. The Standard-Bearer MAURUS - is amongst them._ - - SALLUST. - -Be reasonable, I entreat you——! - - THE SOLDIERS. - -Caesar has betrayed us! Caesar shall die! - - SALLUST. - -And what then, madmen! - - MAURUS. - -What then? With Caesar’s head we will buy forgiveness—— - - THE SOLDIERS. - -Come forth, come forth, Caesar! - - SALLUST. - -Caesar,—my Caesar, where are you? - - JULIAN. - -[_Calling out, in the vault underneath._] Helios! Helios! - - MAXIMUS. - -Free! - - THE CHOIR IN THE CHURCH ABOVE. - -Our Father which art in heaven! - - SALLUST. - -Where is he? Eutherius, Oribases,—what is here afoot? - - THE CHOIR. - -[_In the church._] Hallowed be Thy name! - -Julian. - -[_Comes up the steps; he has blood on his forehead, on his breast, and -on his hands._] It is finished! - - THE SOLDIERS. - -Caesar! - - SALLUST. - -Blood-stained——! What have you done? - - JULIAN. - -Cloven the mists of terror. - - MAXIMUS. - -Creation lies in your hand. - - THE CHOIR. - -[_In the church._] Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven! - - [_The chant continues during what follows._ - - JULIAN. - -Now Constantius has no longer a bodyguard. - - MAURUS. - -What say you, my lord? - - JULIAN. - -Ah! My faithful ones! Up into the daylight to Rome, and to Greece! - - THE SOLDIERS. - -Long live the Emperor Julian! - - JULIAN. - -We will not look back; all ways lie open before us. Up into the -daylight! Through the church! The liars shall be silenced——! - - [_He rushes up the steps in the background._ - -The army mine, the treasure mine, the throne mine! - - THE CHOIR. - -[_In the church._] Lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from -evil! - - [_JULIAN throws wide the doors, revealing the brightly-lighted - interior of the church. The priests stand before the high - altar; crowds of worshippers kneel below, around the - Princess’s bier._ - - JULIAN. - -Free, free! Mine is the kingdom! - - SALLUST. - -[_Calls to him._] And the power and the glory! - - THE CHOIR. - -[_In the church._] Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory—— - - JULIAN. - -[_Dazzled by the light._] Ah! - - MAXIMUS. - -Victory! - - THE CHOIR. - -[_In the church._] ——For ever and ever, amen! - ------ - ------ - - - - - THE EMPEROR JULIAN - - - - - CHARACTERS - - THE EMPEROR JULIAN. - NEVITA, _a general_. - POTAMON, _a goldsmith_. - CAESARIUS OF NAZIANZUS, _court physician_. - THEMISTIUS, _an orator_. - MAMERTINUS, _an orator_. - URSULUS, _treasurer_. - EUNAPIUS, _a barber_. - BARBARA, _a procuress_. - HEKEBOLIUS, _a theologian_. - _Courtiers and Officers of State._ - _Citizens of Constantinople._ - _People taking part in the procession of Dionysus, - flute-players, dancers, jugglers, and women._ - _Envoys from Eastern Kings._ - THE CHAMBERLAIN EUTHERIUS. - - _Servants of the palace._ - - _Judges, orators, teachers, and citizens of Antioch._ - MEDON, _a corn-dealer_. - MALCHUS, _a tax-gatherer_. - GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, _Caesarius’s brother_. - PHOCION, _a dyer_. - PUBLIA, _a woman of Antioch_. - HILARION, _son of Publia_. - AGATHON OF CAPPADOCIA. - MARIS, _Bishop of Chalcedon_. - _People taking part in the procession of Apollo, priests, - servants of the temple, harp-players and watchmen of the - city._ - _Agathon’s younger brother._ - _A procession of Christian prisoners._ - HERACLIUS, _a poet_. - ORIBASES, _court physician_. - LIBANIUS, _an orator, and chief magistrate of Antioch_. - APOLLINARIS, _a hymn-writer_. - CYRILLUS, _a teacher_. - _An old priest of Cybele._ - _Psalm-singers of Antioch._ - FROMENTINUS, _a captain_. - JOVIAN, _a general_. - MAXIMUS THE MYSTIC. - NUMA, _a soothsayer_. - _Two other Etruscan soothsayers._ - PRINCE HORMISDAS, _a Persian exile_. - ANATOLUS, _captain of the lifeguard_. - PRISCUS, _a philosopher_. - KYTRON, _a philosopher_. - AMMIAN, _a captain_. - BASIL OF CAESAREA. - MAKRINA, _his sister_. - _A Persian deserter._ - _Roman and Greek soldiers._ - _Persian warriors._ - -_The first act passes in Constantinople, the second and third in -Antioch, the fourth in and about the eastern territories of the empire, -and the fifth on the plains beyond the Tigris. The events take place in -the interval between December, A.D. 361, and the end of June, A.D. 363._ - - - - - THE EMPEROR JULIAN. - - PLAY IN FIVE ACTS. - - - - - ACT FIRST. - - - SCENE FIRST. - -_The port of Constantinople. In the foreground to the right, a - richly-decorated landing-stage, spread with carpets. On the - elevated quay, at a little distance from the landing-stage, is - seen a veiled stone, surrounded by a guard. Far out on the - Bosphorus lies the imperial fleet, hung with flags of mourning._ - -_A countless multitude, in boats and on the beach. Near the end of the - landing-stage stands the EMPEROR JULIAN, robed in purple and - decked with golden ornaments. He is surrounded by COURTIERS and - HIGH OFFICERS OF STATE. Among those standing nearest to him are - NEVITA, the commander of the forces, and the court physician, - CAESARIUS, together with the orators, THEMISTIUS and MAMERTINUS._ - - JULIAN. - -[_Looking out over the water._] What a meeting! The dead Emperor and the -living.—Alas that he should have drawn his last breath in such distant -regions! Alas that, in spite of all my haste, I should not have had the -sweet consolation of embracing my kinsman for the last time! A bitter -lot for both of us!— - -Where is the ship with the body? - - NEVITA. - -There it comes. - - JULIAN. - -That long boat? - - NEVITA. - -Yes, most gracious Emperor. - - JULIAN. - -My poor kinsman! So great in life; and now to have to content you with -so low a roof! Now you will not strike your forehead against the -coffin-lid, you who bowed your head in riding through the Arch of -Constantine. - - A CITIZEN AMONG THE SPECTATORS. - -[_To the Goldsmith POTAMON._] How young he looks, our new Emperor! - - POTAMON. - -But he has grown more stalwart. When I last saw him he was a lean -stripling; that is now nine or ten years ago. - - ANOTHER CITIZEN. - -Ay, he has done great things in those years. - - A WOMAN. - -And all the dangers he has passed through, ever since his childhood! - - A PRIEST. - -Marvellously has he been shielded from them all; the hand of heaven is -over him. - - POTAMON. - -Rumour says that in Gaul he placed himself in very different hands. - - THE PRIEST. - -Lies, lies; you may depend upon it. - - JULIAN. - -Now he comes. The Sun, whom I invoke, and the great thunder-wielding -God, know that I never desired Constantius’s death. That was far indeed -from being my wish. I have offered up prayers for his life.—Tell me, -Caesarius,—you must know best,—have they shown all due honour, on the -journey, to the imperial corpse? - - CAESARIUS. - -The funeral procession was like a conqueror’s triumph through the whole -of Asia Minor. In every town we traversed, believers thronged the -streets; through whole nights the churches echoed with prayers and -hymns; thousands of burning tapers transformed the darkness into high -noon—— - - JULIAN. - -Good, good, good!—I am seized with an unspeakable misgiving at the -thought of taking the helm of state after so great and virtuous and -well-beloved an Emperor. Why was it not my lot to live in peaceful -retirement? - - MAMERTINUS. - -And who could have sufficed to this high and difficult calling so -completely as you, incomparable lord? I call fearlessly to all those -others who have aspired to the empire: Come, then, and take the helm of -government; but take it as Julian takes it. Be on the alert night and -day for the common welfare. Be masters in name, and yet servants to -civic freedom. Choose the foremost places in battle, and not at the -feasts. Take nothing for yourselves, but lavish gifts upon all. Let your -justice be equally remote from laxity and from inhumanity. Live so that -no virgin on earth shall wring her hands because of you. Bid -defiance—both to impenetrable Gaul, and inhospitable Germany. What would -they answer? Appalled by such stern conditions, they would stop their -effeminate ears, and cry: “Only a Julian is equal to such a task!” - - JULIAN. - -The Omnipotent grant that such high hopes may not be disappointed. But -how great are my shortcomings! A shudder comes over me. To affront -comparison with Alexander, Marcus Aurelius, and so many other -illustrious princes! Has not Plato said that only a god can rule over -men? Oh pray with me that I may escape the snares of ambition, and the -temptations of power. Athens, Athens! Thither my longings turn! I was as -a man taking reasonable exercise for the sake of his health;—and now, -they come and say to me, “Go forth into the arena, and conquer in the -Olympian games. The eyes of all Greece are upon you!” May I not well be -panic-stricken even before the contest begins? - - THEMISTIUS. - -Panic-stricken, oh Emperor? Have you not already the applause of Greece? -Are you not come to reinstate all exiled virtues in their ancient -rights? Do we not find concentred in you all the victorious genius of -Herakles, of Dionysus, of Solon, of—— - - JULIAN. - -Hush! Only the praise of the dead shall be heard to-day. The boat has -reached the wharf. Take my crown and my chains; I will not wear the -insignia of empire at such a time as this. - - [_He hands the ornaments to one of the bystanders. The funeral - procession advances along the landing-stage, with great - pomp. Priests with lighted candles walk at its head; the - coffin is drawn on a low-wheeled carriage; church banners - are borne before and after the carriage; choristers swing - censers; crowds of Christian citizens follow after._ - - JULIAN. - -[_Laying his hand on the coffin, and sighing audibly._] Ah! - - A SPECTATOR. - -Did he cross himself? - - ANOTHER IN THE CROWD. - -No. - - THE FIRST. - -You see; you see! - - A THIRD SPECTATOR. - -And he did not bow before the sacred image. - - THE FIRST. - -[_To the second._] You see! What did I tell you? - - JULIAN. - -Pass onward to thy home, amid pomp and honour, soulless body of my -kinsman! I make not this dust answerable for the wrongs thy spirit did -me. What do I say? Was it thy spirit that dealt so hardly with my house, -that I alone am left? Was it thy spirit that caused my childhood to be -darkened with a thousand terrors? Was it thy spirit that bade fall that -noble Caesar’s head? Was it thou who didst allot to me, an untried -stripling, so difficult a post in inhospitable Gaul, and afterwards, -when disaffection and mischance had failed to crush me, didst seek to -rob me of the honour of my victories? Oh Constantius, my kinsman,—not -from thy great heart did all this spring. Wherefore didst thou writhe in -remorse and anguish; why didst thou see gory shades around thee, on thy -last bed of pain? Evil councillors embittered thy life and thy death. I -know them, these councillors; they were men who took hurt from living in -the ceaseless sunshine of thy favour. I know them, these men, who so -obsequiously clothed themselves in that garb of faith, which was most in -favour at court. - - HEATHEN CITIZENS. - -[_Among the spectators._] Long live the Emperor Julian! - - CAESARIUS. - -Most gracious lord, the procession waits—— - - JULIAN. - -[_To the priests._] Stay not your pious hymns on my account. Forward, my -friends! - - [_The procession passes slowly out to the left._ - -Follow whoso will, and remain whoso will. But this you shall all know -to-day, that my place is here. - - [_Uneasiness and movement in the crowd._ - -What am I? The Emperor. But in saying that, have I said all? Is there -not one imperial office, which seems to have been shamefully wiped out -of remembrance in these later years? What was that crowned philosopher, -Marcus Aurelius? Emperor? Only Emperor? I could almost ask: was he not -something more than Emperor? Was he not also the Supreme Pontiff? - - VOICES IN THE CROWD. - -What says the Emperor? What was that? What did he say? - - THEMISTIUS. - -Oh sire, is it indeed your purpose——? - - JULIAN. - -Not even my uncle Constantine the Great dared to renounce this dignity. -Even after he had conceded to a certain new doctrine such very -extraordinary privileges, he was still called the Chief Priest by all -who held fast to the ancient divinities of the Grecian race. I will not -here enlarge upon the melancholy disuse into which this office has -fallen of late years, but will merely remark that none of my exalted -predecessors, not even he to whom, with tear-stained faces, we to-day -bid our last farewell, has dared to reject it. Should I presume to take -any step which so wise and just emperors did not deem right or -expedient? Far be it from me! - - THEMISTIUS. - -Oh great Emperor, mean you by this——? - - JULIAN. - -I mean by this, that there shall be perfect freedom for all citizens. -Cling to the Christians’ God, you who find it conduce to your souls’ -repose. As for me, I dare not build my hopes on a god who has hitherto -been my foe in all my undertakings. I know by infallible signs and -tokens that the victories I won on the Gallic frontier I owe to those -other divinities who favoured Alexander in a somewhat similar way. Under -watch and ward of these divinities, I passed unscathed through all -dangers; and, in especial, it was they who furthered my journey hither -with such marvellous speed and success that, as I gathered from cries in -the streets, some people have come to look upon me as a divine -being,—which is a great exaggeration, my friends! But certain it is, -that I dare not show myself ungrateful for such untiring proofs of -favour. - - VOICES IN THE CROWD. - -[_Subdued._] What is he going to do? - - JULIAN. - -Therefore, I restore to their pristine rights the venerable Gods of our -forefathers. But no injury shall be done to the God of the Galileans, -nor to the God of the Jews. The temples, which pious rulers of old -erected with such admirable art, shall rise again in rejuvenated -splendour, with altars and statues, each for its especial God, so that -seemly worship may once more be offered them. But I will by no means -tolerate any vengeful assaults upon the churches of the Christians; -neither shall their graveyards be molested, nor any other places which a -strange delusion leads them to regard as sacred. We will bear with the -errors of others; I myself have laboured under illusions;—but over that -I cast a veil. What I have thought upon things divine since my -one-and-twentieth year, I will not now dwell upon; I will only say that -I congratulate those who follow my example,—that I smile at those who -will not tread in my footsteps,—that I will doubtless try to persuade, -but will not coerce any one. - - [_He stops a moment expectantly; feeble applause is heard here - and there among the crowd. He continues with more warmth._ - -I had reckoned, not unreasonably, on grateful acclamations, where I find -only wondering curiosity. Yet I ought to have known it;—there reigns a -deplorable indifference among those who profess to hold fast to our -ancient faith. Oppression and mockery have caused us to forget the -venerable rites of our forefathers. I have inquired high and low, but -scarcely a single person have I found who could speak with authority as -to the ceremonies to be observed in sacrificing to Apollo or Fortuna. I -must take the lead in this, as in other matters. It has cost me many -sleepless nights to search out in the ancient records what tradition -prescribes in such cases; but I do not complain when I remember how much -we owe to these very divinities; nor am I ashamed to do everything with -my own hands—— Whither away, Caesarius? - - CAESARIUS. - -To the church, most gracious Emperor; I would pray for the soul of my -departed master. - - JULIAN. - -Go, go! In these matters every one is free. - - [_CAESARIUS, with several of the older courtiers and officers of - state, goes out to the left._ - -But the freedom I concede to the meanest citizen, I claim for myself as -well.——Be it known, therefore, to you all, Greeks and Romans, that I -return with my whole heart to the beliefs and rites which our -forefathers held sacred,—that they may be freely propagated and -exercised, no less than all new and foreign opinions;—and as I am a son -of this city, and therefore hold it pre-eminently dear, this I proclaim -in the name of its guardian deities. - - [_JULIAN gives a sign; some of the attendants withdraw the veil - from the stone: an altar is seen, and, at its base, a flagon - of wine, a cruse of oil, a little heap of wood, and other - appurtenances. Strong but speechless emotion in the - multitude, as JULIAN goes up to the altar, and prepares for - the offering._ - - THEMISTIUS. - -Oh well may I, as a Greek, melt into tears at the sight of so much -humility and pious zeal! - - A CITIZEN. - -See, he breaks the fuel himself! - - ANOTHER. - -Over his left thigh. Is that how it ought to be broken? - - THE FIRST CITIZEN. - -Doubtless, doubtless. - - MAMERTINUS. - -In the light of the fire you there kindle, oh, great Emperor, shall -research and learning shine forth, ay, and rise rejuvenated, like that -miraculous bird—— - - NEVITA. - -That fire will temper the weapons of Greece. I know little of the -Galilean figments; but this I have noted, that all who believe in them -are spiritless and unfit for greater things. - - THEMISTIUS. - -In this fire, oh incomparable one, I see wisdom purged of all scandal -and reproach. The wine of your libation is like purple, wherewith you -deck the truth, and set her on a royal throne. Now, as you lift up your -hands—— - - MAMERTINUS. - -Now, as you lift up your hands, it is as though you glorified the brow -of knowledge with a golden wreath; and the tears you shed—— - - THEMISTIUS. - -[_Pressing nearer._] Yes, yes, the tears I see you shed are like costly -pearls, wherewith eloquence shall once more be rewarded in kingly wise. -Once again, then, the Greeks are suffered to raise their eyes to heaven, -and follow the eternal stars in their courses! How long it is since that -was vouchsafed us! Have we not been forced, for fear of spies, to -tremble and bow our faces to the earth, like the brutes? Which of us -dared so much as to watch the rising or the setting of the sun? - - [_He turns to the crowd._ - -Even you husbandmen, who have to-day flocked hither in such numbers, -even you did not venture to note the position of the heavenly bodies, -although by them you should have regulated your labours—— - - MAMERTINUS. - -And you seamen,—have either you or your fathers dared to utter the names -of the constellations by which you steered? Now you may do so; now all -are free to—— - - THEMISTIUS. - -Now no Greek need live on land or sea without consulting the immutable -laws of the heavens; he need no longer let himself be tossed about like -a plaything, by chance and circumstance; he—— - - MAMERTINUS. - -Oh, how great is this Emperor, to whom we owe such blessings! - - JULIAN. - -[_Before the altar, with uplifted arms._] Thus have I openly and in all -humility made libations of oil and wine to you, ye beneficent deities, -who have so long been denied these seemly observances. I have sent up my -thanksgiving to thee, oh Apollo, whom some of the sages—especially those -of the East—call by the name of the Sun-King, because thou bringest and -renewest that light, wherein life has its source and its -fountain-head.—To thee, too, I have made offering, oh Dionysus, god of -ecstasy, who dost lift up the souls of mortals out of abasement, and -exaltest them to an ennobling communion with higher spirits.—And, -although I name thee last, I have not been least mindful of thee, oh -Fortuna! Without thine aid, should I have stood here? I know indeed that -thou dost no longer visibly manifest thyself, as in the golden age, of -which the peerless blind singer has told us. But this I know, too,—and -herein all other philosophers are at one with me—that it is thou who -hast the decisive share in the choice of the guardian spirit, good or -evil, that is to accompany every man on his path through life. I have no -cause to chide thee, oh Fortuna! Rather have I the strongest reason to -yield thee all thanks and praise. This duty, precious to my heart, have -I this day fulfilled. I have not shrunk from even the humblest office. -Here I stand in open day; the eyes of all Greece are upon me; I expect -the voice of all Greece to unite with mine in acclaiming you, oh ye -immortal gods! - - [_During the sacrificial service, most of the Christian - onlookers have gradually stolen away; only a little knot - remains behind. When JULIAN ceases speaking, there arise - only faint sounds of approval mingled with subdued laughter, - and whispers of astonishment_ - - JULIAN. - -[_Looking round._] What is this? What has become of them all? Are they -slinking away? - - THEMISTIUS. - -Yes, red with shame at the ingratitude of so many years. - - MAMERTINUS. - -Nay, ’twas the flush of joy. They have gone to spread the great tidings -throughout the city. - - JULIAN. - -[_Leaving the altar._] The ignorant multitude is ever perplexed by what -is unaccustomed. My task will be arduous; but no labour shall daunt me. -What better befits a philosopher than to root out error? In this mission -I count on your aid, enlightened friends! But our thoughts must turn -elsewhere, for a little time. Follow me; I go to other duties. - - [_He departs hastily, without returning the citizens’ greetings; - the courtiers, and his other attendants, follow him._ - - - SCENE SECOND. - -_A great hall in the Imperial Palace. Doors on both sides, and in the - back; in front, to the left, on a daïs by the wall, stands the - imperial throne._ - -_The EMPEROR JULIAN, surrounded by his court and high officials, among - whom is URSULUS, the Treasurer, with the orators THEMISTIUS and - MAMERTINUS._ - - JULIAN. - -So far have the gods aided us. Now the work will roll onwards, like the -waves of a spring flood. The sullen ill-will which I can trace in -certain quarters where I least expected it, shall not disturb my -equanimity. Is it not precisely the distinguishing mark of true wisdom, -that it begets patience! We all know that by suitable remedies bodily -ills may be allayed;—but can fire and sword annihilate delusions as to -things divine? And what avails it though your hands make offerings, if -your souls condemn the action of your hands? - -Thus will we live in concord with each other. My court shall be open to -all men of mark, whatever their opinions. Let us show the world the rare -and august spectacle of a court without hypocrisy—assuredly the only one -of its kind—a court in which flatterers are counted the most dangerous -of enemies. We will censure and expostulate with one another, when it is -needful, yet without loving one another the less. - - [_To NEVITA, who enters by the back._ - -Your face is radiant, Nevita;—what good tidings do you bring? - - NEVITA. - -The best and happiest indeed. A great company of envoys from princes in -furthest India have come to bring you gifts, and to entreat your -friendship. - - JULIAN. - -Ah, tell me,—to what peoples do they belong? - - NEVITA. - -To the Armenians, and other races beyond the Tigris. Indeed, some of the -strangers aver they come from the islands of Diu and Serandib. - - JULIAN. - -From the uttermost verge of the earth my friends! - - THEMISTIUS. - -Even so far has rumour carried your name and your glory! - - MAMERTINUS. - -Even in those unknown regions is your sword a terror to princes and -peoples! - - THEMISTIUS. - -Diu and Serandib! Far east in the Indian sea—— - - MAMERTINUS. - -I do not hesitate to say: beyond the orb of the world—— - - JULIAN. - -Bid the barber come! - - [_A courtier goes out to the right._ - -I will receive the envoys in seemly guise,—yet without display or -adornment. So would the august Marcus Aurelius have received them; and -him I make my pattern, rather than the Emperor whose death we have -lately had to mourn. No more parade of transitory mundane things! Even -the barbarians shall see that wisdom—in the person, truly, of her -meanest servant—has resumed her place upon the throne. - - [_The courtier returns with EUNAPIUS, the barber, who is - magnificently attired._ - - JULIAN. - -[_Looks at him in astonishment, then goes to meet him, and greets him._] -What seek you here, my lord? - - EUNAPIUS. - -Gracious Emperor, you have commanded my attendance—— - - JULIAN. - -You mistake, friend; I have not sent for any of my councillors. - - EUNAPIUS. - -Most gracious Emperor—— - - URSULUS. - -Pardon me, sire; this man is the imperial barber. - - JULIAN. - -What do I hear? Can it be? This man—oh, you jest—this man, in silken -raiment, with gold-embroidered shoes, is——? Ah, indeed! So you are the -barber! [_He bows before him_] Never shall I presume to let myself be -served by such delicate hands. - - EUNAPIUS. - -Most gracious Emperor,—I pray you, for God and my Saviour’s sake—— - - JULIAN. - -Ho-ho! A Galilean! Did I not think so! Is this the self-denial you boast -of? But I know you well! What temple of what godhead have you plundered, -or how many dips have you made into the Emperor’s coffers, to attain -such magnificence as this?—You may go; I have no occasion for you. - - [_EUNAPIUS goes out to the right._ - -Tell me, Ursulus, what is that man’s wage? - - URSULUS. - -Gracious Emperor, by your august predecessor’s command, the daily -maintenance of twenty men is assigned him—— - - JULIAN. - -Aha! No more than that? - - URSULUS. - -Yes, sire; latterly he has had free stabling in the imperial stables, -together with a certain yearly allowance of money, and a gold piece for -every time he—— - - JULIAN. - -And all this for a barber! What, then, must the others——? This shall not -last a day longer.——Admit the foreign envoys! - - [_NEVITA goes out by the back._ - -I will receive them with uncut hair. Better so; for although I know well -that it is not the unkempt hair, nor the tattered cloak, that makes the -true philosopher, yet surely the example given by both Antisthenes and -Diogenes may well be respected by one who—even on the throne—desires to -follow in such great teachers’ footsteps. - -_He ascends the daïs on which stands the throne. The court ranges itself - below. The Envoys, introduced by NEVITA and the Chamberlain - EUTHERIUS, enter in magnificent procession, accompanied by slaves, - who bear gifts of all sorts._ - - NEVITA. - -Most gracious Lord and Emperor! Not being possessed of the noble idiom -which so many eloquent men, and you yourself not the least, have -perfected beyond all other tongues,—and therewith fearful of letting -barbarous sounds offend your ear,—these envoys from the princes of the -East have deputed me to be their spokesman. - - JULIAN. - -[_Sitting on the throne._] I am ready to hear you. - - NEVITA. - -First, the King of Armenia lays at your feet this suit of mail, begging -you to wear it in battle against the foes of the empire, although he -knows that you, invincible hero, stand under the protecting eye of the -gods, who will suffer no weapon of mortal man to wound you.—Here are -priceless carpets, tents, and saddle-housings from the princes beyond -the Tigris. They thereby acknowledge that, if the gods have granted -those lands exceeding riches, it was with the design that these riches -should be at the service of their favourite.—The King of Serandib, and -likewise the King of Diu, send you these weapons, sword, spear, and -shield, with bows and arrows; for, they say, “We esteem it wisest to -stand unarmed before the victorious lord who, like a divinity, has shown -himself so mighty as to overwhelm all opposition.”—In return, all pray -for the supreme favour of your friendship, and especially beg that if, -as report says, you propose next spring to annihilate the audacious -Persian king, you will spare their territories from hostile invasion. - - JULIAN. - -Such an embassy cannot come quite as a surprise to me. The gifts shall -be deposited in my treasury, and through you I apprise your masters that -it is my will to maintain friendship with all nations who do not—whether -by force or guile—thwart my designs.—As to your being led, in your -distant lands, to regard me as a divinity on account of my fortunate -victories, I will not enter further into the matter. I reverence the -gods too highly to arrogate to myself an unmerited place in their midst, -although I know that frequently, and chiefly in the days of old, there -have lived heroes and rulers who have been so greatly distinguished by -the favour and grace of the gods, that it has been difficult to -determine whether they should rightly be reckoned among mortals or -immortals. Of such things, however, it is rash to judge, even for us -Greeks. How much more, then, for you? Therefore, enough of -that.—Eutherius conduct the strangers to repose, and see that they lack -nothing. - - [_The Envoys and their train leave the hall, conducted by - EUTHERIUS. JULIAN descends from the daïs; the courtiers and - orators surround him with admiring congratulations._ - - THEMISTIUS. - -So young,—and already so highly honoured above all other Emperors! - - MAMERTINUS. - -I ask: will not Fame lack lungs to proclaim your renown, if the gods, as -I confidently hope, grant you a long life? - - THEMISTIUS. - -The yell of fear, uttered by the flying Alemanni on the furthest shores -of the Rhine, has swept eastward until it dashed against Taurus and -Caucasus—— - - MAMERTINUS. - -——and now rolls, like the echoes of thunder, over the whole of Asia. - - NEVITA. - -What has so overawed the Indians is the likeness between our Greek -Julian and the Macedonian Alexander—— - - MAMERTINUS. - -Oh where is the likeness? Had King Alexander secret enemies in his own -camp? Had he to struggle against an envious and backbiting imperial -court? - - NEVITA. - -True, true; and there were no incapable generals to clog Alexander’s -progress. - - JULIAN. - -Ursulus, it is my will that the coming of these envoys shall be made -known both in the city and through all regions of the empire. Everything -shall be exactly set forth,—the places whence they came, and the gifts -they brought with them. I will withhold from my citizens nothing that -concerns my government. You may also allude in passing to the strange -belief among the Indians, that Alexander has returned to earth. - - URSULUS. - -[_Hesitatingly._] Pardon me, most gracious Emperor, but—— - - JULIAN. - -Well? - - URSULUS. - -You have yourself said that in this court no flattery is to be -tolerated—— - - JULIAN. - -True, my friend! - - URSULUS. - -Then let me honestly tell you that these envoys came to seek your -predecessor, not you. - - JULIAN. - -What do you dare to tell me? - - THEMISTIUS. - -Pooh, what preposterous nonsense! - - MAMERTINUS. - -What a fable! - - URSULUS. - -It is the truth. I have long known that these men were on their -way,—long before the Emperor Constantius closed his eyes. Oh, my most -gracious lord, let not a false vanity find its way into your young -mind—— - - JULIAN. - -Enough, enough! Then you mean to say that—— - - URSULUS. - -Think for yourself. How could your victories in Gaul, glorious as they -have been, reach the ears of such distant nations with such rapidity? -When the envoys spoke of the Emperor’s heroic deeds, they had in mind -the war against the King of Persia—— - - NEVITA. - -I did not know that the war against King Sapor had been so conducted as -to spread terror to the ends of the earth. - - URSULUS. - -True; fortune has been against our arms in those regions. But ’twas the -rumour of the great armament which the Emperor Constantius was preparing -for the spring that alarmed the Armenians and the other nations.—Oh, -reckon out the time, sire, count the days if you will, and say if it can -possibly be otherwise. Your march hither from Gaul was marvellously -rapid; but the journey of these men from the Indian isles——; it would be -tenfold more marvellous if——; ask them, and you will hear—— - - JULIAN. - -[_Pale with anger._] Why do you say all this to me? - - URSULUS. - -Because it is the truth, and because I cannot bear to see your fresh and -fair renown darkened by borrowed trappings. - - THEMISTIUS. - -What audacity! - - MAMERTINUS. - -What brazen audacity! - - JULIAN. - -You cannot bear, forsooth! You cannot bear! Oh, I know you better. I -know all you old courtiers. It is the gods whose glory you would -disparage. For is it not to the glory of the gods that through a man -they can compass such great things! But you hate them, these gods, whose -temples you have thrown down, whose statues you have broken to pieces, -and whose treasures you have rifled. You have scarcely even tolerated -these our most beneficent deities. You have scarcely suffered the pious -to cherish them secretly in their hearts. And now you would also break -down the temple of gratitude which I have dedicated to them in my heart; -you would rob me of the grateful belief that I am indebted to the -immortals for a new and much-to-be-coveted benefaction;—for may not -renown be so termed? - - URSULUS. - -The one God of heaven is my witness that—— - - JULIAN. - -The one God! There we have it again! So are you always. What -intolerance! Contrast yourselves with us. Do we say that our gods are -the only ones? Do we not esteem both the gods of the Egyptians and that -Jewish Jehovah, who has certainly done great things among his people? -But you, on the contrary,—and a man like you, too, Ursulus—! Are you a -Roman born of Grecian race? The one God! What barbarous effrontery! - - URSULUS. - -You have promised to hate no man for his convictions’ sake. - - JULIAN. - -That I have promised; but neither will I suffer you to treat us too -insolently. These envoys have not come to——? That is to say, in other -words, that the great and divine Dionysus, whose especial gift it is to -reveal what is hidden,—that he is not as powerful now as in bygone ages. -Ought I to suffer this? Is it not overweening audacity? Am I not forced -to call you to account? - - URSULUS. - -Then all Christians will say that it is their faith you are persecuting. - - JULIAN. - -No one shall be persecuted by reason of his faith. But have I the right -to overlook whatever faults you may commit, simply because you are -Christians? Shall your delusions shield your misdeeds? What have not -your audacious crew for long been doing, both here at court and -elsewhere? Have you not flattered all vices, and bowed before all -caprices? Ay, what have not you yourself, Ursulus, connived at? I am -thinking of that shameless, bedizened barber, that salve-stinking fool, -who just now filled me with loathing. Are not you treasurer? How could -you give way to his impudent demands? - - URSULUS. - -Is it a crime to have done my master’s bidding? - - JULIAN. - -I will have nothing to do with such luxurious servants. All those -insolent eunuchs shall be hunted out of the palace; and all cooks, and -jugglers, and dancers after them. A becoming frugality shall once more -be enforced. - - [_To THEMISTIUS and MAMERTINUS._ - -You, my friends, shall aid me in this.—And you, Nevita, on whom, as a -mark of special distinction, I bestow the title of general-in-chief,—you -I depute to investigate how the offices of state have been administered -under my predecessor, especially of late years. You may call in the aid -of competent men, at your own choice, to decide with you in these -affairs. - - [_To the older courtiers and councillors._ - -Of you I have no need. When my lamented kinsman, on his death-bed, -appointed me his successor, he also bequeathed to me that justice which -his long illness had prevented him from administering. Go home; and when -you have given an account of yourselves, you may go whither you please. - - URSULUS. - -The Lord God uphold and shield you, my Emperor! - - [_He bows, and goes out by the back, together with the older - men. NEVITA, THEMISTIUS, and MAMERTINUS, with all the - younger men, gather round the Emperor._ - - NEVITA. - -My august master, how can I sufficiently thank you for the mark of -favour which you—— - - JULIAN. - -No thanks. In these few days I have learnt to value your fidelity and -judgment. I also commission you to draw up the despatch concerning the -eastern envoys. Word it so that the beneficent gods may find in it no -reason for resentment against any of us. - - NEVITA. - -In both matters I will carry out my Emperor’s will. - - [_He goes out to the right._ - - JULIAN. - -And now, my faithful friends, now let us praise the immortal powers, who -have shown us the right way. - - THEMISTIUS. - -The immortals, and their more than mortal favourite! What joy there will -be throughout the empire, when it is known that you have dismissed those -violent and rapacious men! - - MAMERTINUS. - -With what anxiety and impatient hope will the choice of their successors -be awaited! - - THEMISTIUS. - -All the Greeks will exclaim with one voice: “Plato himself has taken the -helm of state!” - - MAMERTINUS. - -No, no, worthy friend; all the Greeks will exclaim: “Plato’s ideal is -realised—‘Only a god can rule over men!’” - - THEMISTIUS. - -I can but trust that the goodwill of the beneficent powers may follow -Nevita. He has received a great and difficult charge; I know little of -him; but we must all hope that he may prove himself to be the right—— - - MAMERTINUS. - -Undoubtedly; although there might perhaps be other men who—— - - THEMISTIUS. - -Not that I would for a moment imply that your choice, oh peerless -Emperor—— - - MAMERTINUS. - -No, no; far from it! - - THEMISTIUS. - -But if it be an error to burn with zeal to serve a beloved master—— - - MAMERTINUS. - -——then, in truth, you have more than one erring friend—— - - THEMISTIUS. - -——even if you do not honour them, as you have honoured the -thrice-fortunate Nevita—— - - MAMERTINUS. - -——even if they have to be content without any visible token of your -favour—— - - JULIAN. - -We will leave no capable men unemployed or unrewarded. As regards you, -Themistius, I appoint you chief magistrate of this city of -Constantinople; and you, Mamertinus, prepare to betake yourself to Rome -during the coming year, to enter upon one of the vacant consulships. - - THEMISTIUS. - -My Emperor! I am dizzy with so much honour—— - - MAMERTINUS. - -So high a distinction! Consul! Was ever consul so honoured as I? Was -Lucius? Was Brutus? Was Publius Valerius? What were their honours to -mine? They were chosen by the people, I by Julian! - - A COURTIER. - -Praise be to the Emperor, who makes justice his guide! - - ANOTHER COURTIER. - -Praise be to him, whose very name strikes terror to the barbarians! - - THEMISTIUS. - -Praise be to all the exalted gods, who have united in casting their -enamoured eyes on one single man, so that when the day comes—distant may -it be!—when he shall for the first time inflict pain on us by departing -hence, this one man may be said to have cast Socrates, Marcus Aurelius, -and Alexander into the shade! - - JULIAN. - -There you touch the kernel of the matter, my Themistius! ’Tis to the -gods that we must uplift our hands and hearts. I say this, not as -instructing you, but merely to remind you of what has so long been -forgotten at this court. By no means would I seek to coerce any one. But -can I be blamed because I would fain have others share in the sweet -rapture which possesses me when I feel myself uplifted into communion -with the immortals? Praise, praise to thee, vine-clad Dionysus! For it -is chiefly thou who dost bring about such great and mysterious things. -Depart now each to his task. I, for my part, have ordered a festal -procession through the streets of the city. It shall be no mere revel -for my courtiers, nor a banquet within four walls. The citizens shall be -free to join me or to hold aloof; I will discern the pure from the -impure, the pious from the misguided. - -Oh Sun-King, shed light and beauty over the day! Oh Dionysus, let thy -glory descend in floods upon our minds; fill our souls with thy sacred -storm-wind; fill them till all trammels are burst asunder, and ecstasy -enfranchised draws breath in dance and song!—Life, life, life in beauty! - - [_He goes out hastily to the right. The courtiers break up into - whispering groups, and gradually disperse._ - - - SCENE THIRD. - -_A narrow street in Constantinople._ - -_A great concourse of people, all looking in one direction down the - street. Noise, singing, and the music of flutes and drums is heard - at some distance._ - - A SHOEMAKER. - -[_At his house-door, calls across the street._] What a foot, dear -neighbour? - - A SHOPKEEPER. - -[_In the house opposite._] They say ’tis some Syrian jugglers that have -come to town. - - A FRUIT-SELLER. - -[_In the street._] No, no, ’tis a band of Egyptians going around with -apes and dromedaries. - - EUNAPIUS THE BARBER. - -[_Poorly clad, trying in vain to slip through the crowd._] Make room, -you fools! How the devil can any one chatter and play the fool on such a -day of misfortune? - - A WOMAN. - -[_At a small window._] Hist, hist, Eunapius! My comely master! - - EUNAPIUS. - -How dare you speak to me in the open street, you procuress? - - THE WOMAN. - -Slip in by the back way, sweet friend! - - EUNAPIUS. - -Fie upon you! Am I in the humour for folly—— - - THE WOMAN. - -You shall soon be in the humour. Come, fair Eunapius; I had a -consignment of fresh doves the day before yesterday—— - - EUNAPIUS. - -Oh sinful world! [_Tries to pass._] Make room, there, in Satan’s name; -let me pass! - -Hekebolius. - -[_Clad for a journey, and followed by a couple of laden slaves, comes -from a side-street._] Has the town turned into a madhouse? Everyone -seeks to out-bellow his neighbour, and no one can tell me what is astir. -Aha,—Eunapius, my pious brother! - - EUNAPIUS. - -All hail to you, reverend sir! So you have come back to town? - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -This very moment;—I have consecrated the warm autumn months to quiet -devotion, on my estate in Crete. And now pray tell me what is afoot -here? - - EUNAPIUS. - -Confusion and disaster. The new Emperor—— - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -Yes, yes, I have heard strange rumours—— - - EUNAPIUS. - -The truth is ten times worse. All faithful servants are hunted out of -the palace. - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -Is it possible? - - EUNAPIUS. - -Alackaday; I myself was the first—— - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -Terrible! Then, perhaps, I too——? - - EUNAPIUS. - -Most certainly. All accounts are to be examined, all gifts resumed, all -irregular perquisites—— - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -[_Turning pale._] God have mercy on us! - - EUNAPIUS. - -The Lord be praised, I have a good conscience! - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -I too, I too; but nevertheless——! Then no doubt it is true that the -Emperor has sacrificed to Apollo and Fortuna? - - EUNAPIUS. - -Certainly; but who cares for such trifles? - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -Trifles? See you not, my short-sighted friend, that it is our faith, as -good Christians, that he is persecuting? - - EUNAPIUS. - -What do you say? God’s cross, is it possible? - - WOMEN. - -[_In the crowd._] There they come! - - A MAN. - -[_On a housetop._] I can see him! - - OTHER VOICES. - -Who comes? Who, who? - - THE MAN ON THE HOUSETOP. - -The Emperor Julian. He has vine-leaves in his hair. - - PEOPLE IN THE STREET. - -The Emperor! - - EUNAPIUS. - -The Emperor! - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -Come, come, my godly brother! - - EUNAPIUS. - -Let me go, sir. I am in no wise godly. - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -Not godly——? - - EUNAPIUS. - -Who dares accuse me of——? Do you want to ruin me? Godly? When was I -godly? I once belonged to the sect of the Donatists; that was years and -years ago. Devil take the Donatists! [_He knocks at the window._] Hi, -Barbara, Barbara; open the door, old she-cat! - - [_The door is opened and he slips in._ - - THE MULTITUDE. - -There he is! There he comes! - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -All irregular perquisites——! Accounts examined! Oh thunderbolt of -disaster! - - [_He slips away, followed by his two slaves._ - - [_The procession of Dionysus comes down the street. - Flute-players go foremost; drunken men, some of them dressed - as fauns and satyrs, dance to the measure. In the middle of - the procession comes the EMPEROR JULIAN, riding on an ass, - which is covered with a panther-skin; he is dressed as the - god Dionysus, with a panther-skin over his shoulders, a - wreath of vine-leaves round his head, in his hands a staff - wreathed with green, and with a pine-cone fastened on its - upper end. Half-naked, painted women and youths, dancers and - jugglers, surround him; some carry wine-flagons and goblets, - others beat tambourines, and move forward with wild leaps - and antics._ - - THE DANCERS. - [_Singing._] - - Potions of fire drain from goblets o’erflowing! - Potions of fire! - Lips deeply sipping, - Locks unguent-dripping, - Goat-haunches tripping, - Wine-God, we hail thee in rapturous quire! - - THE WOMEN. - [_Singing._] - - Come, Bacchanalians, while noontide is glowing— - Come, do not flee us— - Plunge we in love-sports night blushes at knowing! - There rides Lyaeus, - Pard-borne, delivering! - Come, do not flee us; - Know, we are passionate; feel, we are quivering! - Leaping all, playing all, - Staggering and swaying all— - Come, do not flee us! - - JULIAN. - -Make room! Stand aside, citizens! Reverently make way; not for us, but -for him to whom we do honour! - - A VOICE IN THE CROWD. - -The Emperor in the company of mummers and harlots! - - JULIAN. - -The shame is yours, that I must content myself with such as these. Do -you not blush to find more piety and zeal among these than among -yourselves? - - AN OLD MAN. - -Christ enlighten you, sire! - - JULIAN. - -Aha, you are a Galilean! And you must put in your word? Did not your -great Master sit at meat with sinners? Did he not frequent houses that -were held less than reputable? Answer me that. - - EUNAPIUS. - -[_Surrounded by girls, in the doorway of BARBARA’S house._] Yes, answer, -answer if you can, you fool! - - JULIAN. - -What,—are not you that barber whom——? - - EUNAPIUS. - -A new-made freeman, gracious Emperor! Make way, Bacchanalians; room for -a brother! - - [_He and the girls dance into the ranks of the Bacchanalians._ - - JULIAN. - -I like this well. Take example by this Greek, if you have a spark of -your fathers’ spirit left in you. And this is sorely needed, you -citizens; for no divinity has been so much misunderstood—ay, even -rendered ridiculous—as this ecstatic Dionysus, whom the Romans also call -Bacchus. Think you he is the god of sots? Oh ignorant creatures, I pity -you, if that is your thought. Who but he inspires poets and prophets -with their miraculous gifts? I know that some attribute this function to -Apollo, and certainly not without a show of reason; but in that case the -whole matter must be regarded in quite another aspect,—as I could prove -by many authorities. But this I will not debate with you in the open -streets. This is neither the place nor the time. Ay, mock away! Make the -sign of the cross! I see it! You would fain whistle with your fingers; -you would stone me, if you dared.—Oh, how I blush for this city, so sunk -in barbarism that it knows no better than to cling to an ignorant Jew’s -deluded fantasies!—Forward! Stand aside,—do not block the way! - - THE DANCERS. - - There rides Lyaeus, - Pard-borne, delivering! - - THE WOMEN. - - Know, we are passionate; feel, we are quivering; - Come, do not flee us! - - [_During the singing of the refrain the procession turns into a - side-street; the crowd looks on in dumb astonishment._ - - - - - SCENE IV. - -_The Emperor’s library in the Palace. Entrance door on the left; a - lesser doorway, with a curtain before it, on the right._ - -_The Chamberlain EUTHERIUS enters from the left, followed by two - servants, bearing carpets._ - - EUTHERIUS. - -[_Calling out to the right._] Agilo, Agilo, warm rose-water! A bath for -the Emperor. - - [_He goes out to the right, with both servants._ - -_The EMPEROR JULIAN enters hastily from the left. He still wears the - panther-skin and the vine-leaves; in his hand is the - green-wreathed staff. He paces the room once or twice, then flings - the staff into a corner._ - - JULIAN. - -Was there beauty in this——? - -Where were the white-bearded elders? Where the pure maidens, with the -fillets on their brows, modest, and of seemly bearing, even in the -rapture of the dance? - -Out upon you, harlots! - - [_He tears off the panther-skin, and casts it aside._ - -Whither has beauty fled? When the Emperor bids her come forth again, -will she not obey? - -Out upon this stinking ribaldry!—— - -What faces! All the vices crying aloud in their distorted features. -Ulcers on soul and body—— - -Faugh, faugh! A bath, Agilo! The stench chokes me. - - THE BATH-SERVANT AGILO. - -[_In the doorway to the right._] The bath is prepared, gracious sire! - - JULIAN. - -The bath? Nay, let that be. What is the filth of the body compared with -all the rest? Go! - - [_AGILO goes out again. The Emperor stands some time in - thought._ - -The seer of Nazareth sat at meat among publicans and sinners.— - -Where lies the gulf between that and this?—— - - [_HEKEBOLIUS enters from the left, and stops apprehensively at - the door._ - - JULIAN. - -What would you, man? - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -[_Kneeling._] Sire! - - JULIAN. - -Ah, what do I see? Hekebolius;—is it indeed you? - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -The same, and yet another. - - JULIAN. - -My old teacher. What would you have? Stand up! - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -No, no, let me lie. And take it not ill that I presume on my former -right of entrance to your presence. - - JULIAN. - -[_Coldly._] I asked you what you would have? - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -“My old teacher,” you said. Oh that I could cast the veil of oblivion -over those times! - - JULIAN. - -[_As before._] I understand. You mean that—— - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -Oh that I could sink into the earth, and hide the shame I feel! See, -see,—here I lie at your feet, a man whose hair is growing grey—a man who -has pored and pondered all his days, and has to confess at last that he -has gone astray, and led his beloved pupil into error! - - JULIAN. - -What would you have me understand by that? - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -You called me your old teacher. See, here I lie in the dust before you, -looking up to you with wonder, and calling you my new teacher. - - JULIAN. - -Rise, Hekebolius! - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -[_Rising._] You shall hear everything, sire, and judge me according to -your righteousness.—When you were gone, life at your august -predecessor’s court became almost intolerable to me. I know not whether -you have heard that I was promoted to be the Empress’s reader and -almoner. But ah, could posts of honour console me for the loss of my -Julian! I could scarce endure to see how men who made great show of -outward virtue accepted gifts and bribes of every kind. I grew to hate -this daily intercourse with greedy sycophants, whose advocacy was at the -beck of any one who could pay down sounding gold for sounding words. Oh -my Emperor, you do not know what went on here——! - - JULIAN. - -I know, I know. - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -A frugal life in retirement allured me. As often as I might, I withdrew -to Crete, to my modest Tusculum—my little country house,—where virtue -did not seem to have utterly forsaken the world. There I have been -living this summer as well; meditating upon human life and heavenly -truths. - - JULIAN. - -Happy Hekebolius! - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -Then the rumour of all your marvellous exploits reached Crete—— - - JULIAN. - -Ah! - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -I asked myself: Is he more than mortal, this peerless youth? Under whose -protection does he stand? Is it thus that the God of the Christians is -wont to manifest his power——? - - JULIAN. - -[_In rapt attention._] Well; well! - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -I set myself to search once more the writings of the ancients. Light -after light dawned upon me——; oh, to have to confess this! - - JULIAN. - -Speak out—I beseech you! - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -[_Falling on his knees._] Punish me according to your righteousness, -sire; but renounce your youthful errors on things divine! Yes, most -gracious Emperor, you are entangled in error, and I—oh, I marvel that -the shame does not kill me—I, I have helped to lead you astray—— - - JULIAN. - -[_With outstretched arms._] Come to my closest embrace! - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -Oh, I entreat you, show gratitude to the immortal gods, whose darling -you are! And if you cannot, then punish me because I do it in your -stead—— - - JULIAN. - -Come, come to my open arms, I tell you! - - [_He lifts him up, presses him in his arms, and kisses him._ - -My Hekebolius! What a great and unlooked-for joy! - -_Hekebolius._ - -Sire, how am I to understand this? - - JULIAN. - -Oh, then you do not know——? When came you to the city? - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -I landed an hour ago. - -_Julian._ - -And hurried hither at once? - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -On the wings of anxiety and remorse, sire! - - JULIAN. - -And you have spoken to no one? - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -No, no, I have spoken to no one; but——? - - JULIAN. - -Oh, then you cannot have heard—— - - [_He embraces him again._ - -My Hekebolius, listen and know! I too, like you, have cast off the yoke -of error. The immortal Sun-King, to whom we mortals owe so much, I have -restored to his ancient state; Fortuna has received her offering from my -humble hands; and if, at this moment, you find me weary and somewhat -unstrung, it is because I have but now been celebrating a festival in -honour of the divine Dionysus. - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -I hear, and am amazed! - - JULIAN. - -See,—the garland is still in my hair. Amid the joyous acclaim of the -multitude—yes, I may call it a multitude—— - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -And I did not even dream of such great things! - - JULIAN. - -Now we will gather around us all friends of truth, and lovers of wisdom, -all seemly and reverent worshippers of the gods;—there are already -some—not very many—— - - _The physician CAESARIUS, accompanied by several officials and - notables of the former court, enters from the left._ - - JULIAN. - -Ah, here we have the good Caesarius,—numerously accompanied, and with a -face that betokens urgent business. - - CAESARIUS. - -Most gracious Emperor, will you permit your servant to ask a question, -in his own name, and that of these much disquieted men? - - JULIAN. - -Ask, my dearest Caesarius! Are you not my beloved Gregory’s brother? -Ask, ask! - - CAESARIUS. - -Tell me, then, sire——[_He observes HEKEBOLIUS._] What do I see! -Hekebolius here? - - JULIAN. - -Newly returned—— - - CAESARIUS. - -[_Trying to draw back._] Then I beg leave to defer—— - - JULIAN. - -No, no, my Caesarius; this friend may hear everything. - - CAESARIUS. - -Friend, say you? Oh my Emperor, then you have not ordered these -imprisonments? - - JULIAN. - -What mean you? - - CAESARIUS. - -Do you not know? Nevita—the general-in-chief, as he now calls himself—is -instituting prosecutions under pretext of your authority, against all -the trusted servants of your predecessor. - - JULIAN. - -Investigations, highly necessary investigations, my Caesarius! - - CAESARIUS. - -Oh sire, forbid him to go about it so harshly. The book-keeper Pentadius -is being hunted down by soldiers; and likewise a certain captain of -Praetorians, whose name you have forbidden us to mention; you know whom -I mean, sire—that unhappy man who is already, with his whole household, -in hiding for fear of you. - - JULIAN. - -You do not know this man. In Gaul, he cherished the most audacious -designs. - - CAESARIUS. - -That may be; but now he is harmless. And not he alone is threatened with -destruction; the treasurer, Ursulus, is imprisoned—— - - JULIAN. - -Ah, Ursulus? So that has been found needful. - - CAESARIUS. - -Needful? Could _that_ be needful, sire. Think of Ursulus, that stainless -old man—that man before whose word high and low bend in reverence—— - - JULIAN. - -A man utterly devoid of judgment, I tell you! Ursulus is a prodigal, -who, without any demur, has gorged the rapacity of the court servants. -And besides, he is useless in affairs of state. I have found that to my -cost. I could never trust him to receive the emissaries of foreign -princes. - - CAESARIUS. - -And yet we beg you, sire—all who are here present—to be magnanimous, -both to Ursulus and to the others. - - JULIAN. - -Who are the others? - - CAESARIUS. - -Too many, I fear. I will only name the under-treasurer, Evagrius, the -late chamberlain, Saturninus, the supreme judge, Cyrenus, and—— - - JULIAN. - -Why do you stop? - - CAESARIUS. - -[_With hesitation._] Sire—the late Empress’s reader, Hekebolius, is also -among the accused. - - JULIAN. - -What! - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -I? Impossible! - - CAESARIUS. - -Accused of having accepted bribes from unworthy office-seekers—— - - JULIAN. - -Hekebolius accused of that——? A man like Hekebolius——? - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -What shameful slander! Oh Christ—I mean to say—oh heavenly divinities! - - CAESARIUS. - -Ah! - - JULIAN. - -What mean you? - - CAESARIUS. - -[_Coldly._] Nothing, most gracious Emperor! - - JULIAN. - -Caesarius! - - CAESARIUS. - -Yes, my august master! - - JULIAN. - -Not master; call me your friend. - - CAESARIUS. - -Dare a Christian call you so! - - JULIAN. - -I pray you banish such thoughts, Caesarius! You must not believe that of -me. How can I help all these accused men being Christians? Does it not -merely show that the Christians have contrived to seize all the -lucrative posts? And can the Emperor suffer the most important offices -of the state to be badly administered? - - [_To the others._ - -You surely do not think that it is your creed which has kindled my wrath -against dishonest officials? I call all the gods to witness that I will -permit no proceedings against you Christians that are not consonant with -law and justice, nor will I suffer any one to do you wrong. You, or at -any rate many of you, are pious in your way, since you too adore that -Lord who is all-powerful, and who rules over the whole visible -world.—Oh, my Caesarius, is it not he whom I also adore, though under -other names? - - CAESARIUS. - -Suffer me, gracious Emperor—— - - JULIAN. - -Moreover, it is my intention to show clemency wherever it is fit that I -should do so. As to Hekebolius, his secret enemies must not imagine that -they will be suffered to injure him by tale-bearing or any other sort of -paltry intrigue. - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -My Emperor! My shield and my defence! - - JULIAN. - -Nor is it my will that all the minor court servants should be -unmercifully deprived of their subsistence. I have specially in mind -that barber whom I dismissed. I am sorry for it. The man may remain. He -seemed to me one who understood his business thoroughly. All honour to -such people! So far I can go, my Caesarius, but no further. I cannot -interfere on behalf of Ursulus. I must act so that the blind, and yet so -keen-eyed, Goddess of Justice may have no reason to knit her brows over -a mortal to whom she has confided so great a responsibility. - - CAESARIUS. - -After this, I have not a word more to say for those unfortunates. I only -crave permission to leave the court and city. - - JULIAN. - -Would you leave me? - - CAESARIUS. - -Yes, most gracious Emperor! - - JULIAN. - -You are stiff-necked, like your brother. - - CAESARIUS. - -The new order of things gives me much to reflect upon. - - JULIAN. - -I had great designs for you Caesarius! It would be a great joy to me, if -you could renounce your errors. Can you not? - - CAESARIUS. - -God knows what I might have done a month ago;—now I cannot. - -Julian. - -A marriage into one of the most powerful families should stand open to -you. Will you not bethink you? - - CAESARIUS. - -No, most gracious lord. - - JULIAN. - -A man like you could quickly mount from step to step. Caesarius, is it -not possible that you can give me your aid in furthering the new order -of things? - - CAESARIUS. - -No, most gracious lord! - - JULIAN. - -I do not mean here, but in other places. It is my intention to depart -from here. Constantinople is very unpleasing to me; you Galileans have -spoiled it for me in every way. I shall go to Antioch; there I shall -find better soil to work upon. I thought you would accompany me. Will -you not, Caesarius? - - CAESARIUS. - -Most gracious lord, I too am bound for the east; but I will go alone. - - JULIAN. - -And what will you do there? - - CAESARIUS. - -Visit my old father; help Gregory to strengthen him for the coming -struggle. - - JULIAN. - -Go! - - CAESARIUS. - -Farewell, my Emperor! - - JULIAN. - -Happy father, with such unhappy sons! - - [_He makes a gesture with his hand; CAESARIUS and those with him - bow low, and go out to the left._ - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -What reckless and most unseemly defiance! - - JULIAN. - -My heart is wounded to the quick by this and many other things. You, my -Hekebolius, shall accompany me. The ground burns beneath my feet in this -poisoned Galilean city! I will write to those philosophers, Kytron and -Priscus, who have won so great fame of late years. Maximus I expect -every day; he shall go with us.—I tell you there are joyful days of -victory awaiting us, Hekebolius! In Antioch, my friend,—there we shall -meet the incomparable Libanius,—and there we are nearer Helios at his -rising. Oh, this irresistible yearning towards the Sun-King——! - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -Yes, yes, yes——! - - JULIAN. - -[_Embracing him._] My Hekebolius!—Wisdom; light; beauty! - - - - - ACT SECOND. - - - SCENE FIRST. - -_A spacious vestibule in the Emperor’s Palace, at Antioch. An open - entrance in the background; on the left is a door, leading into - the inner rooms._ - -_On a raised seat in the foreground, to the right, sits the EMPEROR - JULIAN, surrounded by his court. Judges, Orators, Poets, and - Teachers, among them HEKEBOLIUS, sit on lower seats around him. - Leaning against the wall near the entrance stands A MAN, dressed - as a Christian Priest; he hides his face in his hands, and seems - rapt in prayer. A great gathering of citizens fills the hall. - Guards at the entrance, and at the door on the left._ - - JULIAN. - -[_Addressing the assemblage._] So great success have the gods vouchsafed -me. Hardly a single city have I approached on my journey, whence whole -troops of Galileans have not streamed forth to meet me on the road, -lamenting their errors, and placing themselves under the protection of -the divine powers. Compared with this, what signifies the senseless -behaviour of the scoffers? May not the scoffers be likened to dogs, who -in their ignorance yelp at the moon? Yet I will not deny that I have -learned with indignation that some inhabitants of this city have spoken -scornfully of the rule of life which I have enjoined on the priests of -Cybele, the good goddess. Ought not reverence for so exalted a divinity -to protect her servants from mockery? I say to those foolhardy men: Are -ye barbarians, since ye know not who Cybele is? Must I solemnly remind -you how, when the power of Rome was so gravely threatened by that Punic -commander, whose grave I saw not long since in Libyssa, the Cumaean -Sybil counselled that the statue of Cybele should be taken from the -temple in Pessinus, and brought to Rome? As to the priests’ way of life, -some have wondered that they should be forbidden to eat roots, and -everything that grows along the earth, while they are allowed to partake -of upward-growing herbs and fruits. Oh, how dense is your ignorance—I -pity you if you cannot understand this! Can the spirit of man find -nourishment in that which creeps along the ground? Does not the soul -live by all that yearns upward, towards heaven and the sun? I will not -enter more largely into these matters to-day. What remains to be said -you shall learn from a treatise I am composing during my sleepless -nights, which I hope will shortly be recited both in the lecture-halls -and on the market-places. - - [_He rises._ - -And with this, my friends, if no one has anything further to bring -forward—— - - A CITIZEN. - -[_Pressing to the front._] Oh most gracious Emperor, let me not go -unheard! - - JULIAN. - -[_Sitting down again._] Surely not, my friend. Who are you? - - THE CITIZEN. - -I am Medon, the corn-merchant. Oh, if my love for you, exalted and -divine Emperor—— - - JULIAN. - -Come to your case, man! - - MEDON. - -I have a neighbour, Alites, who for many years has done me every -imaginable injury; for he, too, is a dealer in corn, and takes the bread -out of my mouth in the most shameful way—— - - JULIAN. - -Aha, my good Medon; yet you look not ill-fed. - - MEDON. - -Nor is that the matter, most gracious Emperor! Oh, by the august gods, -whom every day I learn to love and praise more highly—his affronts to me -I could overlook; but what I cannot suffer—— - - JULIAN. - -He surely does not insult the gods? - - MEDON. - -He does what is worse,—or at least equally shameless; he—oh, I scarce -know whether my indignation will permit me to utter it,—he insults you -yourself, most gracious Emperor! - - JULIAN. - -Indeed? In what words? - - MEDON. - -Not in words, but worse—in act. - - JULIAN. - -Then in what act? - - MEDON. - -He wears a purple robe—— - - JULIAN. - -A purple robe? Oho, that is bold. - - MEDON. - -Oh, great wing-footed Mercury, when I think how he would have paid for -that robe in your predecessor’s time! And this garment of vainglory I -have daily before my eyes—— - - JULIAN. - -This garment, bought with money that might have been yours—— - - MEDON. - -Oh most gracious Emperor,—punish his audacity; let him be expelled the -city; my love for our great and august ruler will not suffer me to -remain a witness of such shameless arrogance. - - JULIAN. - -Tell me, good Medon, what manner of clothes does Alites wear, besides -the purple cloak? - - MEDON. - -Truly I cannot call to mind, sire; ordinary clothes, I think; I have -only remarked the purple cloak. - - JULIAN. - -A purple cloak, then, and untanned sandals——? - - MEDON. - -Yes, sire; it looks as ludicrous as it is audacious. - - JULIAN. - -We must remedy this, Medon! - - MEDON. - -[_Joyfully._] Ah, most gracious Emperor——? - - JULIAN. - -Come early to morrow to the palace—— - - MEDON. - -[_Still more delighted._] I will come very early, most gracious Emperor! - - JULIAN. - -Give your name to my Chamberlain—— - - MEDON. - -Yes, yes, my most gracious Emperor! - - JULIAN. - -You will receive from him a pair of purple shoes, embroidered with -gold—— - - MEDON. - -Ah, my most generous lord and Emperor! - - JULIAN. - -These shoes you will take to Alites, place them on his feet, and say -that henceforth he must not fail to put them on, whenever he would walk -abroad by daylight in his purple cloak—— - - MEDON. - -Oh! - - JULIAN. - -——and, that done, you may tell him from me, that he is a fool if he -thinks himself honoured by a purple robe, having not the power of the -purple.—Go; and come for the shoes to-morrow! - - [_The Corn Merchant slinks away, amid the laughter of the - citizens; the Courtiers, Orators, Poets, and the rest clap - their hands, with loud exclamations of approval._ - - ANOTHER CITIZEN. - -[_Stepping forward from the crowd._] Praised be the Emperor’s justice! -Oh how richly this envious corn-miser deserves his punishment! Oh hear -me, and let your favour—— - - JULIAN. - -Aha; methinks I know that face. Were not you one of those who shouted -before my chariot as I drove into the city? - - THE CITIZEN. - -None shouted louder than I, incomparable Emperor! I am Malchus, the -tax-gatherer. Ah, grant me your aid! I am engaged in a law-suit with an -evil and grasping man—— - - JULIAN. - -And therefore you come to me? Are there not judges——? - - MALCHUS. - -The affair is somewhat involved, noble Emperor. It concerns a field, -which I leased to this bad man, having bought it seven years since, when -part of the domain belonging to the Apostles’ Church was sold. - - JULIAN. - -So, so; church property, then? - - MALCHUS. - -Honestly purchased; but now this man denies either to pay me rent, or to -give up the property, under pretext that this field once belonged to the -temple of Apollo, and, as he declares, was unlawfully confiscated many -years ago. - - JULIAN. - -Tell me, Malchus,—you seem to be a follower of the Galilean? - - MALCHUS. - -Most gracious Emperor, ’tis an old tradition in our family to -acknowledge Christ. - - JULIAN. - -And this you say openly, without fear? - - MALCHUS. - -My adversary is bolder than I, sire! He goes in and out, as before; he -fled not the city when he heard of your approach. - - JULIAN. - -Fled not? And why should he flee, this man who stands out for the rights -of the gods? - - MALCHUS. - -Most gracious Emperor, you have doubtless heard of the book-keeper, -Thalassius? - - JULIAN. - -What! That Thalassius who, to ingratiate himself with my predecessor, -whilst I was being slandered and menaced in Gaul, proposed, here in -Antioch, in the open market-place, that the citizens should petition the -Emperor to send them Julian Caesar’s head! - - MALCHUS. - -Sire, it is this, your deadly foe, who is wronging me. - - JULIAN. - -Truly, Malchus, I have as great ground of complaint against this man as -you have. - - MALCHUS. - -Tenfold greater, my gracious Emperor? - - JULIAN. - -What think you? Shall we two combine our quarrels, and prosecute him -together? - - MALCHUS. - -Oh, what exceeding grace! Oh tenfold happiness! - - JULIAN. - -Oh tenfold foolishness! Thalassius goes in and out as before, you say? -He has not fled the city at my approach. Thalassius knows me better than -you. Away with you, man! When I indict Thalassius for my head, you may -indict him for your field. - - MALCHUS. - -[_Wringing his hands._] Oh tenfold misery! - - [_He goes out by the back; the assembly again applauds the - Emperor._ - - JULIAN. - -That is well, my friends; rejoice that I have succeeded in making a not -altogether unworthy beginning to this day, which is specially dedicate -to the feast of the radiant Apollo. For is it not worthy of a -philosopher to overlook affronts against himself, whilst he sternly -chastises wrongs done to the immortal gods? I do not recall whether that -crowned cultivator of learning, Marcus Aurelius, was ever in like case; -but if he was, we must hope that he did not act quite unlike me, who -hold it an honour to follow humbly in his footsteps. - -Let this serve as a clue for your future guidance. In the palace, in the -market-place, even in the theatre—did I not loathe to enter such a place -of folly—it is fit that you should greet me with acclamation and joyful -applause. Such homage, I know, was well received both by the Macedonian -Alexander and by Julius Caesar, men who were also permitted by the -Goddess of Fortune to outshine other mortals in glory. - -But when you see me entering a temple, that is another affair. Then I -desire you to be silent, or direct your plaudits to the gods, and not to -me, as I advance with bent head and downcast eyes. And above all, I -trust you will be heedful of this to-day, when I am to sacrifice to so -transcendent and mighty a divinity as he whom we know by the name of the -Sun-King, and who seems even greater in our eyes when we reflect that he -is the same whom certain oriental peoples call Mithra. - -And with this—if no one has more to say—— - - THE PRIEST AT THE DOOR. - -_[Draws himself up._] In the name of the Lord God! - - JULIAN. - -Who speaks? - - THE PRIEST. - -A servant of God and of the Emperor. - - JULIAN. - -Approach. What would you? - - THE PRIEST. - -I would speak to your heart and to your conscience. - - JULIAN. - -[_Springing up._] What voice was that! What do I see! In spite of beard -and habit——! Gregory! - - THE PRIEST. - -Yes, my august master! - - JULIAN. - -Gregory! Gregory of Nazianzus! - - GREGORY. - -Yes, gracious Emperor! - - JULIAN. - -[_Has descended and grasped his hands; he now looks long at him._] A -little older; browner; broader. No; ’twas only at the first glance; now -you are the same as ever. - - GREGORY. - -Oh that it were so with you, sire! - - JULIAN. - -Athens. That night in the portico. No man has lain so near my heart as -you. - - GREGORY. - -Your heart? Ah, Emperor, you have torn out of your heart a better friend -than I. - - JULIAN. - -You mean Basil? - - GREGORY. - -I mean a greater than Basil. - - JULIAN. - -[_Glooming._] Ah! So that is what you come to tell me? And in that -habit—— - - GREGORY. - -I did not choose this habit, sire! - - JULIAN. - -Not you? Who then? - - GREGORY. - -He who is greater than the Emperor. - - JULIAN. - -I know your Galilean phrases. For the sake of our friendship, spare me -them. - - GREGORY. - -Let me, then, begin by telling you how it is that you see me here, -ordained a priest of the church you are persecuting. - - JULIAN. - -[_With a sharp look._] Persecuting! - - [_He ascends the daïs again and sits down._ - -Now speak on. - - GREGORY. - -You know what were my thoughts of things divine, during our happy -comradeship in Athens. But then it was far from my purpose to renounce -the joys of life. Neither ambition nor the thirst for riches, I can -truly say, has ever tempted me; yet I should scarce tell the truth if I -denied that my eye and my mind dwelt wonderingly on all the glories -which the old learning and art of Greece revealed to me. The wranglings -and petty schisms in our church afflicted me deeply; but I took no part -in them; I served my countrymen in temporal things; nothing more—— - -Then came tidings from Constantinople. It was said that Constantius had -died of terror at your proceedings, and had declared you his heir. -Heralded by the renown of your victories, and received as a superhuman -being, you, the hero of Gaul and Germany, had ascended the throne of -Constantine without striking a blow. The earth lay at your feet. - -Then came further tidings. The lord of earth was girding himself up to -war against the Lord of heaven—— - - JULIAN. - -Gregory, what do you presume——! - - GREGORY. - -The lord of the body was girding himself up to war against the Lord of -the soul. I stand here before you in bodily fear and trembling; but I -dare not lie. Will you hear the truth, or shall I be silent? - - JULIAN. - -Say on, Gregory! - - GREGORY. - -What have not my fellow Christians already suffered during these few -months? How many sentences of death have been passed, and executed in -the cruellest fashion? Gaudentius, the state secretary; Artemius, the -former governor of Egypt; the two tribunes, Romanus and Vincentius—— - - JULIAN. - -You know not what you speak of. I tell you, the Goddess of Justice would -have wept had those traitors escaped with their lives. - - GREGORY. - -That may be, my Emperor; but I tell you that one sentence of death has -been passed which the God of Justice can never forgive you. Ursulus! The -man who stood your friend in times of need! Ursulus who, at the risk of -his own life, supplied you with money in Gaul! Ursulus, whose sole crime -was his Christian faith and his sincerity—— - - JULIAN. - -Ah, this you have from your brother, Caesarius! - - GREGORY. - -Punish me, sire; but spare my brother. - - JULIAN. - -You well know that you risk nothing, Gregory! Besides, I will grant you -that Nevita acted too harshly. - - GREGORY. - -Ay, that barbarian, who tries in vain to hide his origin under a Greek -veneer——! - - JULIAN. - -Nevita is zealous in his duty, and I cannot myself be everywhere. For -Ursulus I have mourned sincerely, and I deeply deplore that neither time -nor circumstances allowed me to examine into his case myself. I should -certainly have spared him, Gregory! I have thought, too, of restoring to -his heirs any property he has left behind. - - GREGORY. - -Great Emperor, you owe me no reckoning for your acts. I only wished to -tell you that all these tidings fell like thunderbolts in Caesarea and -Nazianzus, and the other Cappadocian cities. How shall I describe their -effect! Our internal wranglings were silenced by the common danger. Many -rotten branches of the Church fell away; but in many indifferent hearts -the light of the Lord was kindled with a fervour before undreamt-of. -Meanwhile oppression overtook God’s people. The heathen—I mean, my -Emperor, those whom _I_ call heathen—began to threaten, to injure, to -persecute us—— - - JULIAN. - -Retaliation,—retaliation, Gregory! - - GREGORY. - -Far be it from me to justify all that my fellow Christians may have done -in their excessive zeal for the cause of the Church. But you, who are so -enlightened, and have power over all alike, cannot permit the living to -suffer for the faults of the dead. Yet so it has been in Cappadocia. The -enemies of the Christians, few in number, but thirsting after gain, and -burning with eagerness to ingratiate themselves with the new officials, -have awakened fear and perturbation among the people both in town and -country. - -I am not thinking chiefly of the insults we have had to suffer, nor of -the infringements of our just rights of property, to which we have been -constantly exposed of late. What most grieves me and all my earnest -brethren, is the peril to souls. Many are not firm-rooted in the faith, -and cannot quite shake off the care for earthly goods. The harsh -treatment which has now to be endured by all who bear the name of -Christian has already led to more than one apostasy. Sire, this is -soul-robbery from God’s kingdom. - - JULIAN. - -Oh, my wise Gregory,—how can you talk so? I wonder at you? Should you -not rather, as a good Galilean, rejoice that your community is rid of -such men? - - GREGORY. - -Gracious Emperor, I am not of that opinion. I have myself been -indifferent in the faith, and I look upon all such as sick men, who are -not past cure, so long as they remain in the bosom of the Church. So, -too, thought our little congregation at Nazianzus. Brethren and sisters, -in deep distress, assembled to take counsel against the perils of the -time. They were joined by delegates from Caesarea and other cities. My -father is infirm, and—as he owns with sorrow—does not possess the -steadfast, immovable will which, in these troublous times, is needful -for him who sits in the bishop’s chair. The assembly determined that a -younger man should be chosen as his helper, to hold the Lord’s flock -together. - -The choice fell on me. - - JULIAN. - -Ah! - - GREGORY. - -I was then away on a journey. But in my absence, and without consulting -me, my father ordained me a priest and sent me the priestly habit. - -These tidings reached me in Tiberina, at my country house, where I was -passing some days with my brother and with the friend of my youth, Basil -of Caesarea. - -Sire—had my sentence of death been read to me, it could not have -appalled me more than this. - -I a priest! I wished it, and I wished it not. I felt it must be—and yet -my courage failed. I wrestled with God the Lord, as the patriarch -wrestled with him in the days of the old covenant. What passed in my -soul during the night which followed, I cannot tell. But this I know -that, ere the cock crew, I talked face to face with the Crucified -One.—Then I was his. - - JULIAN. - -Folly, folly; I know those dreams. - - GREGORY. - -On my homeward journey I passed through Caesarea. Oh, what misery met me -there! I found the town full of fugitive country people, who had -forsaken house and home because the drought had burnt up their crops, -and laid all the vineyards and olive-gardens desolate. To escape -starvation they had fled to the starving. There they lay—men, women, and -children—in heaps along the walls of the houses; fever shook them, -famine gnawed their entrails. What had Caesarea to offer them—that -impoverished, unhappy town, as yet but half rebuilt after the great -earthquake of two years ago? And in the midst of this, amid scorching -heat and frequent earthquake-shocks, we had to see ungodly festivals -going on day and night. The ruined altars were hastily rebuilt; the -blood of sacrifices ran in streams; mummers and harlots paraded the -streets with dance and song. - -Sire—can you wonder that my much-tried brethren thought they saw in the -visitation that had come upon them a judgment of heaven because they had -so long tolerated heathenism and its scandalous symbols in their midst? - - JULIAN. - -What symbols do you mean? - - GREGORY. - -The cry of the terror-stricken and fevered multitude rose ever higher; -they demanded that the rulers of the city should give a palpable witness -for Christ by ordering the destruction of what still remains of the -former glory of heathendom in Caesarea. - - JULIAN. - -You cannot mean to say that——? - - GREGORY. - -The magistrates of the city called a meeting, where I too was present. -You know, most gracious Emperor, that all temples are the property of -the city; so that the citizens have the right to dispose of them at -their own free will. - - JULIAN. - -Well, well; what if it were so? - - GREGORY. - -In that terrible earthquake that ravaged Caesarea two years ago, all the -temples but one were destroyed. - - JULIAN. - -Yes, yes; the temple of Fortuna. - - GREGORY. - -At the meeting whereof I speak, the congregation determined to complete -God’s work of judgment, in testimony that they would trust wholly and -solely to him, and no longer tolerate the abomination in their midst. - - JULIAN. - -[_Hoarsely._] Gregory,—once my friend—do you hold your life dear? - - GREGORY. - -This resolution I did not myself approve, but almost all voices were in -favour of it. But as we feared that the matter might be represented to -you falsely, and might, perhaps, incense you against the city, it was -determined to send a man hither to announce to you what we have -resolved, and what will presently happen. - -Great ruler,—no one else was found willing to undertake the task. It -fell perforce to me. Therefore it is, sire, that I stand here before you -in all humility, to announce that we Christians in Caesarea have -resolved that the temple where the heathen in bygone days worshipped a -false deity, under the name of Fortuna, shall be pulled down and -levelled with the ground. - - JULIAN. - -[_Springing up._] And I must listen to this with my own ears: One single -man dares to tell me such unheard-of things! - - COURTIERS, ORATORS, AND POETS. - -O pious Emperor, do not suffer it! Punish this audacious man! - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -He is distraught, sire! Let him go. See,—the frenzy glitters in his -eyes. - - JULIAN. - -Ay, it may well be called madness. But ’tis more than madness. To dream -of pulling down that excellent temple, dedicated to a no less excellent -divinity! Is it not to the favour of this very goddess that I ascribe my -achievements, the fame of which has reached the remotest nations? Were I -to suffer this, how could I ever again hope for victory or -prosperity?—Gregory, I command you to return to Caesarea and give the -citizens to understand that I forbid this outrage. - - GREGORY. - -Impossible, sire! The matter has come to such a pass that we have to -choose between the fear of man and obedience to God. We cannot draw -back. - - JULIAN. - -Then you shall feel how far the Emperor’s arm can stretch! - - GREGORY. - -The Emperor’s arm is mighty in earthly things; and I, like others, -tremble under it. - - JULIAN. - -Show it, then, in deeds! Ah, you Galileans, you reckon upon my -long-suffering. Do not trust to it; for truly—— - - _A noise at the entrance. The barber, EUNAPIUS, followed by - several citizens, rushes in._ - - JULIAN. - -What is this? Eunapius, what has befallen you? - - EUNAPIUS. - -Oh that my eyes should see such a sight! - - JULIAN. - -What sight have you seen? - - EUNAPIUS. - -Behold, most gracious Emperor, I come bleeding and bruised, yet happy to -be the first to call down your wrath—— - - JULIAN. - -Speak, man;—who has beaten you? - - EUNAPIUS. - -Permit me, sire, to lay my complaint before you. - -I went forth from the town this morning to visit the little temple of -Venus which you have lately restored. When I came thither, the music of -flutes and singing greeted my ears. Women were dancing gracefully in the -outer court, and within I found the whole space filled with a rapturous -crowd, while at the altar priests were offering up the sacrifices you -have ordained. - - JULIAN. - -Yes, yes; and then——? - - EUNAPIUS. - -Scarcely had I had time to turn my thoughts in devotion toward that -enchanting goddess, whom I especially revere and worship,—when a great -crowd of young men forced their way into the temple—— - - JULIAN. - -Not Galileans? - - EUNAPIUS. - -Yes, sire,—Galileans. - - JULIAN. - -Ah! - - EUNAPIUS. - -What a scene followed! Weeping under the assailants’ insults and blows, -the dancing-girls fled from the outer court to us within. The Galileans -fell upon us all, belaboured us and affronted us in the most shameful -manner. - - JULIAN. - -[_Descending from his throne._] Wait, wait! - - EUNAPIUS. - -Alas, would that their violence had fallen on us alone! But the madmen -went further. Yes, gracious Emperor—in one word, the altar is -overthrown, the statue of the goddess dashed to pieces, the entrails of -the sacrifices cast out to the dogs—— - - JULIAN. - -[_Pacing up and down._] Wait, wait, wait! - - GREGORY. - -Sire, this one man’s word is not enough—— - - JULIAN. - -Be silent! - -[_To EUNAPIUS._] Did you know any of the sacrilegious crew? - - EUNAPIUS. - -Not I, sire; but these citizens knew many of them. - - JULIAN. - -Take a guard with you. Seize as many of the wretches as you can. Cast -them into prison. The prisoners shall give up the names of the rest; and -when I have them all in my power—— - - GREGORY. - -What then, sire? - - JULIAN. - -Ask the executioner. Both you and the citizens of Caesarea shall be -taught what you have to expect if, in your Galilean obstinacy, you -should abide by your resolve. - - [_The Emperor goes out in great wrath, to the left; EUNAPIUS and - his witnesses retire with the watch; the others disperse._ - - - SCENE SECOND. - -_A market-place in Antioch. In front, on the right, a street debouches - into the market; to the left, at the back, there is a view into a - narrow and crooked street._ - -_A great concourse of people fills the market. Hucksters cry their - wares. In several places the townspeople have gathered into - clusters, talking eagerly._ - - A CITIZEN. - -Good God of heaven, when did this misfortune happen? - - ANOTHER CITIZEN. - -This morning, I tell you; quite early this morning. - - PHOCION THE DYER. - -[_Who has entered from the street on the right._] My good man, do you -think it is fitting to call this a misfortune? I call it a crime, and a -most audacious crime to boot. - - THE SECOND CITIZEN. - -Yes, yes; that is quite true; it was a most audacious thing to do. - - PHOCION. - -Only think—of course it is the outrage on the temple of Venus you are -talking of? Only think of their choosing a time when the Emperor was in -the city——! And this day, too, of all others—a day—— - - A THIRD CITIZEN. - -[_Drawing near._] Tell me, good friend, what is the matter——? - - PHOCION. - -This day of all others, I say, when our august ruler is himself to -officiate at the feast of Apollo. - - THE THIRD CITIZEN. - -Yes, I know that; but why are they taking these Christians to prison? - - PHOCION. - -What? Are they taking them to prison? Have they really caught them? - - [_Loud shrieks are heard._ - -Hush; what is that? Yes, by the gods, I believe they have them! - - [_An OLD WOMAN, much agitated, and with dishevelled hair, makes - her way through the crowd; she is beset by other women, who - in vain seek to restrain her._ - - THE OLD WOMAN. - -I will not be held back! He is my only son, the child of my old age! Let -me go; let me go! Can no one tell me where I can find the Emperor? - - PHOCION. - -What would you with the Emperor, old mother? - - THE OLD WOMAN. - -I would have my son again. Help me! My son! Hilarion! Oh, they have -taken him from me! They burst into our house—and then they took him -away! - - ONE OF THE CITIZENS. - -[_To PHOCION._] Who is this woman? - - PHOCION. - -What? Know you not the widow Publia,—the psalm-singer? - - CITIZEN. - -Ah, yes, yes, yes! - - PUBLIA. - -Hilarion! my child! What will they do to him? Ah, Phocion,—are you -there? God be praised for sending me a Christian brother——! - - PHOCION. - -Hush, hush, be quiet; do not scream so loud; the Emperor is coming. - - PUBLIA. - -Oh, this ungodly Emperor! The Lord of Wrath is visiting his sins upon -us; famine ravages the land; the earth trembles beneath our feet! - - [_A detachment of soldiers enters by the street on the right._ - - THE COMMANDER OF THE DETACHMENT. - -Stand aside; make room here! - - PUBLIA. - -Oh come, good Phocion;—help me, for our friendship’s and our -fellowship’s sake—— - - PHOCION. - -Are you mad, woman? I do not know you. - - PUBLIA. - -What? You do not know me? Are you not Phocion the dyer? Are you not the -son of——? - - PHOCION. - -I am not the son of anybody. Get you gone, woman! You are mad! I do not -know you; I have never seen you. - - [_He hastens in among the crowd._ - - A SUBALTERN. - -[_With soldiers, from the right._] Clear the way here! - - [_The soldiers force the multitude back towards the houses. Old - PUBLIA faints in the arms of the women on the left. All gaze - expectantly down the street._ - - PHOCION. - -[_In a knot of people behind the guard, to the right._] Yes, by the -Sun-God, there he comes, the blessed Emperor! - - A SOLDIER. - -Do not push so, behind there! - - PHOCION. - -Can you see him? The man with the white fillet round his brow, that is -the Emperor. - - A CITIZEN. - -The man all in white? - - PHOCION. - -Yes, yes, that is he. - - THE CITIZEN. - -Why is he dressed in white? - - PHOCION. - -Doubtless because of the heat; or,—no, stop,—I think it is as the -sacrificing priest that he—— - - A SECOND CITIZEN. - -Will the Emperor himself offer the sacrifice? - - PHOCION. - -Yes, the Emperor Julian does everything himself. - - A THIRD CITIZEN. - -He does not look so powerful as the Emperor Constantius. - - PHOCION. - -I think he does. He is not so tall as the late Emperor; but his arms are -longer. And then his glance——oh my friends——! You cannot see it just -now; his eyes are modestly lowered as he walks. Yes, modest he is, I can -tell you. He has no eye for women. I dare swear that since his wife’s -death he has but seldom——; you see, he writes the whole night. That is -why his fingers are often as black as a dyer’s; just like mine; for I am -a dyer. I can tell you I know the Emperor better than most people. I was -born here in Antioch; but I have lived fifteen years in Constantinople, -until very lately—— - - A CITIZEN. - -Is there aught, think you, in the rumour that the Emperor is minded to -settle here for good? - - PHOCION. - -I know the Emperor’s barber, and he reports it so. Let us trust these -shameful disturbances may not incense him too much. - - A CITIZEN. - -Alas, alas, that were a pity indeed! - - A SECOND CITIZEN. - -If the Emperor lived here, ’twould bring something in to all of us. - - PHOCION. - -’Twas on that reckoning that I returned here. So now we must do our -best, friends; when the Emperor comes past, we must shout lustily both -for him and for Apollo. - - A CITIZEN. - -[_To another_.] Who is this Apollo, that people begin to talk so much -about? - - THE OTHER CITIZEN. - -Why, ’tis the priest of Corinth,—he who watered what the holy Paul had -planted. - - THE FIRST CITIZEN. - -Ay, ay; to be sure; I think I remember now. - - PHOCION. - -No, no, no, ’tis not that Apollo; ’tis another one entirely;—this is the -Sun-King—the great lyre-playing Apollo. - - THE OTHER CITIZEN. - -Ah indeed; _that_ Apollo! Is he better? - - PHOCION. - -I should think so, indeed.—Look, look, there he comes. Oh, our most -blessed Emperor! - -_The EMPEROR JULIAN, robed as a high priest, enters, surrounded by - priests and servants of the temple. Courtiers and learned men, - among whom is HEKEBOLIUS, have joined the procession; likewise - citizens. Before the Emperor go flute-players and harpers. - Soldiers and men of the city guard, with long staves, clear the - way before the procession and on either side._ - - THE MULTITUDE. - -[_Clapping their hands._] Praise to the Emperor! Praise to Julian, hero -and benefactor! - - PHOCION. - -All hail to Julian and to the Sun-King! Long live Apollo! - - THE CITIZENS. - -[_In the foreground, on the right._] Emperor, Emperor, stay long among -us! - - [_Julian makes a sign for the procession to stop._ - - JULIAN. - -Citizens of Antioch! It were hard for me to name anything that could -more rejoice my heart than these inspiriting acclamations. And my heart -stands sorely in need of this refreshment. - -It was with a downcast spirit that I set forth on this procession, which -should be one of joy and exaltation. Nay, more; I will not hide from you -that I was this morning on the verge of losing that equanimity which it -behoves a lover of wisdom to preserve under all trials. - -But can any one chide me for it? I would have you all remember what -outrages are threatened elsewhere, and have already been committed here. - - PUBLIA. - -My lord, my lord! - - PHOCION. - -Oh pious and righteous Emperor, punish these desperate men! - - PUBLIA. - -My lord, give me back my Hilarion! - - PHOCION. - -All good citizens implore your favour towards this city. - - JULIAN. - -Seek to win the favour of the gods, and of mine you need have no doubt. -And surely it is fitting that Antioch should lead the way. Does it not -seem as though the Sun-God’s eye had dwelt with especial complacency on -this city? Ask of travellers, and you shall hear to what melancholy -extremes fanaticism has elsewhere proceeded in laying waste our holy -places. What is left? A remnant here and there; and nothing of the best. - -But with you, citizens of Antioch! Oh, my eyes filled with tears of joy -when first I saw that incomparable sanctuary, the very house of Apollo, -which seems scarcely to be the work of human hands. Does not the image -of the Glorious One stand within it, in unviolated beauty? Not a corner -of his altar has broken or crumbled away, not a crack is to be seen in -the stately columns. - -Oh, when I think of this,—when I feel the fillet round my brow—when I -look down upon these garments, dearer to me than the purple robe of -empire, then I feel, with a sacred tremor, the presence of the god. - -See, see, the sunlight quivers around us in its glory! - -Feel, feel, the air is teeming with the perfume of fresh-woven garlands! - -Beautiful earth! The home of light and life, the home of joy, the home -of happiness and beauty;—what thou wast shalt thou again become!—In the -embrace of the Sun-King! Mithra, Mithra! - -Forward on our victorious way! - - [_The procession moves on again, amid the plaudits of the crowd; - those in front come to a stop at the mouth of the narrow - street, through which another procession enters the - market-place._ - - JULIAN. - -What hinders us? - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -Gracious lord, there is something amiss in the other street. - - SONG. - - [_Far off._ - - Blissful our pangs, be they never so cruel; - Blissful our rising, the death-struggle o’er. - - PHOCION. - -The Galileans, sire! They have them! - - PUBLIA. - -Hilarion! - - PHOCION. - -They have them! I hear the fetters—— - - JULIAN. - -Pass them by——! - - EUNAPIUS. - -[_Hastening through the press._] We have succeeded marvellously, sire. - - JULIAN. - -Who are they, these ruffians? - - EUNAPIUS. - -Some of them belong to this city; but most, it seems, are peasants -fleeing from Cappadocia. - - JULIAN. - -I will not see them. Forward, as I commanded! - - THE PRISONERS’ SONG. - [_Nearer._ - - Blissful our crowning with martyrdom’s jewel; - Blissful our meeting with saints gone before. - - JULIAN. - -The madmen. Not so near to me! My guard, my guard! - - [_The two processions have meanwhile encountered each other in - the crush. The procession of Apollo has to stand still while - the other, with the prisoners—men in chains, surrounded by - soldiers, and accompanied by a great concourse of - people—passes on._ - - PUBLIA. - -My child! Hilarion! - - HILARION. - -[_Among the prisoners._] Rejoice, my mother! - - JULIAN. - -Poor deluded creatures! When I hear madness thus speaking in you, I -almost doubt whether I have the right to punish you. - - ANOTHER VOICE. - -[_Among the prisoners._] Stand aside; take not from us our crown of -thorns. - - JULIAN. - -Night and horror,—what voice is that? - - THE LEADER OF THE GUARD. - -’Twas this one, sire, who spoke. - - [_He pushes one of the prisoners forward, a young man, who leads - a half-grown lad by the hand._ - - JULIAN. - -[_With a cry._] Agathon! - - [_THE PRISONER looks at him, and is silent._ - -Agathon, Agathon! Answer me; are you not Agathon? - - THE PRISONER. - -I am. - - JULIAN. - -You among these? Speak to me? - - AGATHON. - -I know you not! - - JULIAN. - -You do not know me? You know not who I am? - - AGATHON. - -I know you are the lord of the earth; therefore you are not my lord. - - JULIAN. - -And the boy——? Is he your young brother? - - [_To the leader of the guard._ - -This man must be innocent. - - EUNAPIUS. - -My lord, this man is the very ringleader. He has confessed it; he even -glories in his deed. - - JULIAN. - -So strangely can hunger, and sickness, and misfortune disorder a man’s -mind. - - [_To the prisoners._ - -If you will but say, in one word, that you repent, none of you shall -suffer. - - PUBLIA. - -[_Shrieks._] Say it not, Hilarion! - - AGATHON. - -Be strong, dear brother! - - PUBLIA. - -Go, go to what awaits you, my only one! - - JULIAN. - -Hear and bethink you, you others—— - - AGATHON. - -[_To the prisoners._] Choose between Christ and the Emperor! - - THE PRISONERS. - -Glory to God in the highest! - - JULIAN. - -Terrible is the Galilean’s power of delusion. It must be broken. Pass -them by, the abominable crew! They cloud our gladness; they darken the -day with their brooding death-hunger!—Flute-players—men, women—why are -you silent? A song—a song in praise of life, and light, and happiness. - - THE PROCESSION OF APOLLO. - [_Sings._ - - Gladsome with roses our locks to entwine; - Gladsome to bathe in the sunlight divine! - - THE PROCESSION OF PRISONERS. - - Blissful to sleep ’neath the blood-reeking sod; - Blissful to wake in the gardens of God. - - THE PROCESSION OF APOLLO. - - Gladsome ’mid incense-clouds still to draw breath. - - THE PROCESSION OF PRISONERS. - - Blissful in blood-streams to strangle to death. - - THE PROCESSION OF APOLLO. - - Ever for him who his godhead adoreth - Deep draughts of rapture Apollo outpoureth. - - THE PROCESSION OF PRISONERS. - - Bones racked and riven, flesh seared to a coal, - He shall make whole! - - THE PROCESSION OF APOLLO. - - Gladsome to bask in the light-sea that laves us! - - THE PROCESSION OF PRISONERS. - - Blissful to writhe in the blood-death that saves us! - - [_The processions pass each other during the singing. The crowd - in the market-place looks on in dull silence._ - - - - SCENE THIRD. - -_The sacred grove around the temple of Apollo. The portico, supported by - columns, and approached by a broad flight of steps, is seen among - the trees in the background, on the left._ - -_A number of people are rushing about in the grove with loud cries of - terror. Far away is heard the music of the procession._ - - WOMEN. - -Mercy! The earth is quaking again! - - A MAN IN FLIGHT. - -Oh horror! Thunder beneath our feet——! - - ANOTHER MAN. - -Was it indeed so? Was it the earth that shook? - - A WOMAN. - -Did you not feel it? That tree there swayed so that the branches -whistled through the air. - - MANY VOICES. - -Hark, hark, hark! - - SOME. - -’Tis the roll of chariots on the pavements. - - OTHERS. - -’Tis the sound of drums. Hark to the music——, the Emperor is coming! - - [_The procession of Apollo advances from the right through the - grove, and stations itself amid music of flutes and harps, - in a semicircle in front of the temple._ - - JULIAN. - -[_Turning towards the temple, with upstretched hands._] I accept the -omen!—— - -Never have I felt myself in such close communion with the immortal gods. - -The Bow-Wielder is among us. The earth thunders beneath his tread, as -when of old he stamped in wrath upon the Trojan shore. - -But ’tis not on us he frowns. ’Tis on those unhappy wretches who hate -him and his sunlit realm. - -Yes,—as surely as good or evil fortune affords the true measure of the -gods’ favour towards mortals,—so surely is the difference here made -manifest between them and us. - -Where are the Galileans now? Some under the executioner’s hands, others -flying through the narrow streets, ashy pale with terror, their eyes -starting from their heads—a shriek between their half-clenched -teeth—their hair stiffening with dread, or torn out in despair. - -And where are we? Here in Daphne’s pleasant grove, where the dryads’ -balmy breath cools our brows,—here, before the glorious temple of the -glorious god, lapped in the melodies of flute and lyre,—here, in light, -in happiness, in safety, the god himself made manifest among us. - -Where is the God of the Galileans? Where is the Jew, the carpenter’s -crucified son? Let him manifest himself. Nay, not he! - -’Tis fitting, then, that we should throng the sanctuary. There, with my -own hands, I will perform the services which are so far from appearing -to me mean and unbecoming, that I, on the contrary, esteem them above -all others. - - [_He advances at the head of the procession, through the - multitude, towards the temple._ - - A VOICE. - -[_Calling out in the throng._] Stay, ungodly one! - - JULIAN. - -A Galilean among us? - - THE SAME VOICE. - -No further, blasphemer! - - JULIAN. - -Who is he that speaks? - - OTHER VOICES IN THE CROWD. - -A Galilean priest. A blind old man. Here he stands. - - OTHERS AGAIN. - -Away, away, with the shameless wretch! - - [_A blind OLD MAN, in priestly garments, and supported by two - younger men, also dressed as priests, is pushed forward till - he stands at the foot of the temple steps, facing the - Emperor._ - - JULIAN. - -Ah, what do I see? Tell me, old man, are not you Bishop Maris, of -Chalcedon? - - THE OLD MAN. - -Yes, I am that unworthiest servant of the Church. - - JULIAN. - -“Unworthiest,” you call yourself; and I think you are not far wrong. If -I mistake not, you have been one of the foremost in stirring up internal -strife among the Galileans. - - BISHOP MARIS. - -I have done that which weighs me still deeper down in penitence. When -you seized the empire, and rumour told of your bent of mind, my heart -was beleagured with unspeakable dread. Blind and enfeebled by age, I -could not conceive the thought of setting myself up against the mighty -monarch of the world. Yes,—God have mercy on me—I forsook the flock I -was appointed to guard, shrank timidly from all the perils that gathered -frowning around the Lord’s people, and sought shelter here, in my Syrian -villa—— - - JULIAN. - -In truth a strange story! And you, timid as you say you are, you, who -formerly prized the Emperor’s favour so highly, now step forth before me -and fling insults in my very face! - - BISHOP MARIS. - -Now I fear you no longer; for now has Christ fully possessed my heart. -In the Church’s hour of need, her light and glory burst upon me. All the -blood you shed,—all the violence and wrong you do—cry out to heaven, -and, re-echoing mightily, ring in my deaf ears, and show me, in my night -of blindness, the way I have to go. - - JULIAN. - -Get you home, old man! - - BISHOP MARIS. - -Not till you have sworn to renounce your devilish courses. What would -you do? Would dust rise up against the spirit? Would the lord of earth -cast down the Lord of heaven? See you not that the day of wrath is upon -us by reason of your sins? The fountains are parched like eyes that have -wept themselves dry. The clouds, which ought to pour the manna of -fruitfulness upon us, sweep over our heads, and shed no moisture. This -earth, which has been cursed since the morning of time, quakes and -trembles under the Emperor’s blood-guiltiness. - - JULIAN. - -What favour do you expect of your God for such excess of zeal, foolish -old man? Do you hope that, as of old, your Galilean master will work a -miracle, and give you back your sight? - - BISHOP MARIS. - -I have all the sight I desire; and I thank the Lord that he quenched my -bodily vision, so that I am spared from seeing the man who walks in a -darkness more terrible than mine. - - JULIAN. - -Let me pass! - - BISHOP MARIS. - -Whither? - - JULIAN. - -Into the Sun-King’s house. - - BISHOP MARIS. - -You shall not pass. I forbid you in the name of the only God! - - JULIAN. - -Frantic old man!—Away with him! - - BISHOP MARIS. - -Ay, lay hands upon me! But he who dares to do so, his hand shall wither. -The God of Wrath shall manifest himself in his might—— - - JULIAN. - -Your God is no mighty God. I will show you that the Emperor is stronger -than he—— - - BISHOP MARIS. - -Lost creature!—Then must I call down the ban upon thee, thou recreant -son of the church! - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -[_Pale._] My lord and Emperor, let not this thing be! - - BISHOP MARIS. - -[_In a loud voice._] Cursed be thou, Julianus Apostata! Cursed be thou, -Emperor Julian! God the Lord hath spat thee forth out of his mouth! -Cursed be thine eyes and thy hands! Cursed be thy head and all thy -doings! - -Woe, woe, woe to the apostate! Woe, woe, woe—— - - [_A hollow rumbling noise is heard. The roof and columns of the - temple totter, and are seen to collapse with a thundering - crash, while the whole building is wrapped in a cloud of - dust. The multitude utter shrieks of terror; many flee, - others fall to the ground. There is breathless stillness for - a while. Little by little the cloud of dust settles, and the - temple of Apollo is seen in ruins._ - - BISHOP MARIS. - -[_Whose two conductors have fled, stands alone, and says softly._] God -has spoken. - - JULIAN. - -[_Pale, and in a low voice._] Apollo has spoken. His temple was -polluted: therefore he crushed it. - - BISHOP MARIS. - -And I tell you it was that Lord who laid the temple of Jerusalem in -ruins. - - JULIAN. - -If it be so, then the churches of the Galilean shall be closed, and his -priests shall be driven with scourges to raise up that temple anew. - - BISHOP MARIS. - -Try, impotent man! Who has had power to restore the temple of Jerusalem -since the Prince of Golgotha called down destruction upon it? - - JULIAN. - -I have the power! The Emperor has the power! Your God shall be made a -liar. Stone by stone will I rebuild the temple of Jerusalem in all its -glory, as it was in the days of Solomon. - - BISHOP MARIS. - -Not one stone shall you add to another; for it is accursed of the Lord. - - JULIAN. - -Wait, wait; you shall see—if you _could_ see—you who stand there -forsaken and helpless, groping in the darkness, not knowing where you -next may place your foot. - - BISHOP MARIS. - -Yet I see the glare of the lightning that shall one day fall upon you -and yours. - - [_He gropes his way out. JULIAN remains behind, surrounded by a - handful of pale and terrified attendants._ - - - - ACT THIRD. - - - SCENE FIRST. - -_In Antioch. An open colonnade, with statues and a fountain in front of - it. To the left, under the colonnade, a flight of steps leads up - to the Imperial Palace._ - -_A company of Courtiers, Teachers, Poets, and Orators—among them the - court-physician, ORIBASES, and the poet, HERACLIUS—are assembled, - some in the colonnade, some around the fountain; most of them are - dressed in ragged cloaks, with matted hair and beards._ - - HERACLIUS. - -I can endure this life no longer. To rise with the sun, plunge into a -cold bath, run or fence oneself weary—— - - ORIBASES. - -’Tis all very wholesome. - - HERACLIUS. - -Is it wholesome to eat seaweed and raw fish? - - A COURTIER. - -Is it wholesome to have to devour meat in _great_ lumps, all bloody, as -it comes from the butcher? - - HERACLIUS. - -’Tis little enough meat I have seen for the past week. Most of it goes -to the altars. Ere long, methinks, we shall be able to say that the -ever-venerable gods are the only meat-eaters in Antioch. - - ORIBASES. - -Still the same old mocker, Heraclius. - - HERACLIUS. - -Why, of what are you thinking, friend? Far be it from me to mock at the -Emperor’s wise decrees. Blessed be the Emperor Julian! Does he not -follow in the footsteps of the immortals? For, tell me, does not a -certain frugality seem nowadays to reign, even in the heavenly -housekeeping? - - A COURTIER. - -Ha-ha-ha! There you are not far wrong. - - HERACLIUS. - -Look at Cybele, formerly so bounteous a goddess, whose statue the -Emperor lately found in an ash-pit—— - - ANOTHER COURTIER. - -It was in a dunghill—— - - HERACLIUS. - -Like enough; fertilising is Cybele’s business. But look at this goddess, -I say;—in spite of her hundred breasts, she flows neither with milk nor -honey. - - [_A circle of laughing hearers has gathered round him. While he - is speaking, the EMPEROR JULIAN has come forward on the - steps in the colonnade, unnoticed by_ _those below. He wears - a tattered cloak, with a girdle of rope; his hair and beard - are unkempt, his fingers stained with ink; in both hands, - under his arms, and stuck in his belt, he holds bundles of - parchment rolls and papers. He stops and listens to - HERACLIUS with every sign of exasperation._ - - HERACLIUS. - -[_Continuing._] It seems as though this wet-nurse of the world had -become barren. We might almost think that she had passed the age when -women—— - - A COURTIER. - -[_Observing JULIAN._] Fie, fie, Heraclius,—shame on you! - - [_Julian signs to the courtier to be silent._ - - HERACLIUS. - -[_Continuing._] Well, enough of her. But is Ceres in the same case? -Does she not display a most melancholy—I had almost said an -imperial—parsimony? Yes, believe me, if we had a little more -intercourse with high Olympus nowadays, we should hear much to the -same tune. I dare swear that nectar and ambrosia are measured out as -sparingly as possible. Oh Zeus, how gaunt must thou have grown! Oh -roguish Dionysus, how much is there left of the fulness of thy loins? -Oh wanton, quick-flushing Venus,—oh Mars, inauspicious to married -men—— - - JULIAN. - -[_In great wrath._] Oh most shameless Heraclius! Oh scurvy, -gall-spitting, venom-mouth—— - - HERACLIUS. - -Ah, my gracious Emperor! - - JULIAN. - -Oh ribald scoffer at all sacred things! And this must I endure—to hear -your croaking tongue the instant I leave my library to breathe the fresh -morning air! - - [_He comes nearer._ - -Know you what I hold under my left arm? No, you do not know. ’Tis a -polemic against you, blasphemous and foolish Heraclius! - - HERACLIUS. - -What, my Emperor,—against me? - - JULIAN. - -Yes, a treatise against you. A treatise with which my indignation has -this very night inspired me. Think you I could be other than wroth at -your most unseemly behaviour yesterday? How strange was the licence you -allowed yourself in the lecture-hall, in my hearing, and that of many -other earnest men? Had we not to listen for hours together to the -shameful fables about the gods which you must needs retail? How dared -you repeat such fictions? Were they not lies, from first to last? - - HERACLIUS. - -Ah, my Emperor, if you call _that_ lying, then both Ovid and Lucian were -liars. - - JULIAN. - -What else? Oh, I cannot express the indignation that seized me when I -understood whither your impudent address was tending. “Man, let nothing -surprise you,” I was tempted to say with the comic poet, when I heard -you, like an ill-conditioned cur, barking forth, not expressions of -gratitude, but a string of irrational nursery-tales, and ill-written to -boot. For your verses were bad, Heraclius;—that I have proved in my -treatise. - -How I longed to arise and leave the hall when I saw you, as in a -theatre, making a spectacle both of Dionysus and of the great immortal -after whom you are named! If I constrained myself to keep my seat, I can -assure you ’twas more out of respect to the players—if I dare call them -so—than to the poet. But ’twas most of all for my own sake. I feared it -might seem as though I were fleeing like a frightened dove. Therefore I -made no sign, but quietly repeated to myself that verse of Homer: - - “Bear it, my heart, for a time; heavier things hast thou suffered.” - -Endure, as before, to hear a mad dog yelp at the eternal gods. - -Yes, I see we must stomach this and more. We are fallen on evil days. -Show me the happy man who has been suffered to keep his eyes and ears -uncontaminated in this iron age! - - ORIBASES. - -I pray you, my noble master, be not so deeply moved. Let it comfort you -that we all listened with displeasure to this man’s folly. - - JULIAN. - -That is in nowise the truth! I read in the countenances of most of you -something far different from displeasure while this shameless mountebank -was babbling forth his ribaldries, and then looking round the circle -with a greasy smile, just as though he had done something to be proud -of. - - HERACLIUS. - -Alas, my Emperor, I am most unhappy—— - - JULIAN. - -That you may well be; for this is, in truth, no trifling matter. Think -you the legends of the gods have not a serious and weighty purpose? Are -they not destined to lead the human spirit, by an easy and pleasant -path, up to the mystic abodes where reigns the highest god,—and thereby -to make our souls capable of union with him? How can it be otherwise? -Was it not with that view that the old poets invented such legends, and -that Plato and others repeated them, and even added to their number? -Apart from this purpose, I tell you, these stories would be fit only for -children or barbarians,—and scarcely for them. But was it children and -barbarians, pray, that you had before you yesterday? Where do you find -the audacity to address me as if I were a child? Do you think yourself a -sage, and entitled to a sage’s freedom of speech, because you wear a -ragged cloak, and carry a beggar’s staff in your hand? - - A COURTIER. - -How true, my Emperor! No, no, it needs more than that. - - JULIAN. - -Ay? Does it indeed? And what? To let your hair grow, perhaps, and never -clean your nails? Oh hypocritical Cleon! I know you, one and all. Here, -in this treatise, I have given you a name which——; you shall hear—— - - _He searches through the bundles of papers. At that moment - LIBANIUS enters from the right, richly clad, and with a - haughty mien._ - - ORIBASES. - -[_In a low tone._] Ah, you come in the nick of time, most honoured -Libanius! - - JULIAN. - -[_Continuing his search._] Where can it be—— - - LIBANIUS. - -[_To ORIBASES._] What mean you, friend? - - ORIBASES. - -The Emperor is much enraged; your coming will pacify him. - - JULIAN. - -Ah, here I have it—— - - [_With annoyance._ - -What does that man want? - - ORIBASES. - -Sire, this is—— - - JULIAN. - -No matter, no matter! Now you shall hear whether I know you or not. -There are among the wretched Galileans a number of madmen who call -themselves penitents. These renounce all earthly possessions, and yet -demand great gifts of the fools who treat them as holy men and almost as -objects of worship. Behold, you are like these penitents, except that I -shall give you nothing. For I am not so foolish as those others. Yes, -yes, were I not firm on that point, you would soon overrun the whole -court with your shamelessness. Nay, do you not already do so? Are there -not many among you who would come again, even if I drove them away? Oh -my dear friends, what can this lead to? Are you lovers of wisdom? Are -you followers of Diogenes, whose garb and habits you ape? In truth, you -do not haunt the schools nearly so much as you besiege my treasurer. -What a pitiful and despicable thing has not wisdom become because of -you! Oh, hypocrites and babblers without understanding! Oh you—— But -what is yonder fat man seeking? - - ORIBASES. - -Sire, it is the chief magistrate of the city—— - - JULIAN. - -The chief magistrate must wait. The matters we have in hand must take -precedence of all meaner affairs. How now? Why this air of impatience? -Is your business so weighty—— - - LIBANIUS. - -By no means, sire; I can come another day. - - [_He is going._ - - ORIBASES. - -Sire, do you not recognise this distinguished man? This is the -rhetorician Libanius. - - JULIAN. - -What? Libanius? Impossible. Libanius here—the incomparable Libanius! I -cannot believe it. - - LIBANIUS. - -I thought the Emperor knew that the citizens of Antioch had chosen me as -their chief magistrate. - - JULIAN. - -Assuredly I knew it. But when I made my entrance into the city, and the -magistrates came forth to greet me with an oration, I looked in vain for -Libanius. Libanius was not among them. - - LIBANIUS. - -The Emperor had uttered no wish to hear Libanius speak on that occasion. - - JULIAN. - -The orator Libanius ought to have known what were the Emperor’s wishes -in that respect. - - LIBANIUS. - -Libanius knew not what changes time and absence might have wrought. -Libanius therefore judged it more becoming to take his place among the -multitude. He chose, indeed, a sufficiently conspicuous position; but -the Emperor deigned not to let his eyes fall on him. - - JULIAN. - -I thought you received my letter the day after—— - - LIBANIUS. - -Your new friend Priscus brought it to me. - - JULIAN. - -And none the less—perhaps all the more—you held aloof——? - - LIBANIUS. - -Headache and weighty business—— - - JULIAN. - -Ah, Libanius, in bygone days you were not so chary of your presence. - - LIBANIUS. - -I come where I am bidden. Ought I to be intrusive? Would you have me -stand in the way of the Emperor’s much-honoured Maximus? - - JULIAN. - -Maximus never appears at court. - - LIBANIUS. - -And for good reason. Maximus holds a court of his own. The Emperor has -conceded him a whole palace. - - JULIAN. - -Oh my Libanius, have I not conceded you my heart? How can you envy -Maximus his palace? - - LIBANIUS. - -I envy no man. I do not even envy my colleagues Themistius and -Mamertinus, although you have conferred on them such signal proofs of -your favour. Nor do I envy Hekebolius, whose wealth you have increased -by such princely presents. I even rejoice to be the only man to whom you -have given nothing. For I well know the reason of the exception. You -wish the cities of your empire to abound in everything, and most of all -in oratory, knowing that it is that distinction which marks us off from -the barbarians. Now you feared that I, like certain others, might, if -you gave me riches, become lukewarm in my art. The Emperor has therefore -preferred to let the teacher of his youth remain poor, in order to hold -him the closer to his craft. Thus do I interpret a course of action -which has astonished some whom I forbear to name. ’Tis for the honour -and well-being of the state that you have given me nothing. I am to lack -riches that I may abound in eloquence. - - JULIAN. - -And I, my Libanius, have also understood the reason why the teacher of -my youth has let me pass many months here in Antioch without presenting -himself. Libanius doubtless deemed that any services his former pupil -may have rendered to the gods, to the state, or to learning, were not -great enough to deserve celebration by the man who is called the king of -eloquence. Libanius no doubt thought that meaner orators were better -fitted to deal with such trivial things. Moreover, Libanius has remained -silent out of care for the balance of my mind. You feared, doubtless, to -see the Emperor intoxicated with arrogance, reeling like one who in his -thirst has drunk too deeply of the leaf-crowned wine-bowl, had you -lavished on him any of that art which is the marvel of Greece, and -raised him, so to speak, to the level of the gods, by pouring out before -him so precious a libation. - - LIBANIUS. - -Ah, my Emperor, if I could believe that my oratory possessed such -power—— - - JULIAN. - -And why should you not believe it, incomparable friend? Oh, leave me. I -am wroth with you, Libanius. But it is the lover’s anger against the one -he loves. - - LIBANIUS. - -Is it indeed so? Oh my crowned brother, let me then tell you that not a -day has passed since your coming hither on which I have not cursed the -steadfastness that would not let me make the first advance. My friends -assured me—not without some show of reason—that you had undertaken this -long journey chiefly in order to see me and hear me speak. But Julian -himself gave no sign. What was I to do? Should I flatter as Emperor him -whom I loved as a man? - - JULIAN. - -[_Embracing and kissing him._] My Libanius! - - LIBANIUS. - -[_Kissing the Emperor in return._] My friend and brother! - - ORIBASES. - -How honourable to both! - - COURTIERS AND TEACHERS. - -[_Clapping their hands._] How beautiful! How sublime! - - JULIAN. - -Libanius, cruel friend,—how could you find it in your heart to balk me -so long of this happy moment? During the weeks and months I have waited -for you, my countenance has been veiled in Scythian darkness. - - LIBANIUS. - -Alas, you were in better case than I; for you had those to whom you -could speak about your absent friend. - - JULIAN. - -Say not so. I had only the hapless lover’s comfort: that of sorrowfully -repeating your name, and crying out: “Libanius, Libanius!” - - LIBANIUS. - -Ah, whilst you spoke thus to empty air, I spoke to the four walls of my -chamber. Most of the day I passed in bed, picturing to myself who was -then with you—now this one, now that. “Once it was otherwise,” I said to -myself,—“then it was I who possessed Julian’s ear.” - - JULIAN. - -And meanwhile you let me pine away with longing. Look at me. Have I not -grown a century older? - - LIBANIUS. - -Oh, have I not suffered as great a change? You did not recognise me. - - JULIAN. - -This meeting has been to both of us as a bath, from which we go forth -healed. - - [_They embrace and kiss again._ - -And now, beloved friend, now tell me what has brought you hither to-day; -for I cannot doubt that you have some special errand. - - LIBANIUS. - -To say nothing of my longing—so it is. Would that another had been sent -in my stead! But the post of honour to which the confidence of the -citizens has summoned me makes it my duty to perform all missions alike. - - JULIAN. - -Speak, my Libanius, and tell me how I can serve you. - - LIBANIUS. - -Let me begin by saying that the inhabitants of this city are sunk in -sorrow because you have withdrawn your favour from them. - - JULIAN. - -H’m——! - - LIBANIUS. - -And this sorrow has been coupled with anxiety and disquiet since -Alexander, the new governor, assumed office. - - JULIAN. - -Aha; indeed! - - LIBANIUS. - -The exaltation of such a man could not but take us by surprise. -Alexander has hitherto filled only trifling offices, and that in a -manner little calculated to earn him either the respect or the affection -of the citizens. - - JULIAN. - -I know that well, Libanius! - - LIBANIUS. - -Alexander is violent in all his dealings, and justice is of little -moment in his eyes—— - - JULIAN. - -I know it; I know all you tell me. Alexander is a rough man, without -morals and without eloquence. Alexander has in no way deserved so great -advancement. But you may tell the citizens of Antioch that they have -deserved Alexander. Ay, they have, if possible, deserved a still worse -ruler, covetous and intractable as they are—— - - LIBANIUS. - -It is, then, as we feared; this is a punishment—— - - JULIAN. - -Hear me, Libanius! How did I come hither? With full confidence in the -people of this city. Antioch, chosen by the Sun-King for his especial -seat, was to help me to repair all the wrong and ingratitude which had -so long been shown to the immortals. But how have you met me? Some with -defiance, others with lukewarmness. What have I not to endure here? Does -not that Cappadocian, Gregory of Nazianzus, still wander about the city, -stirring up the ignorant Galileans by his audacious speeches? Has not a -poet arisen among them—a certain Apollinaris—who, with his wild songs, -inflames their fanaticism to the point of madness? - -And what do I not learn from other places? In Caesarea, have they not -carried out their threat, and wrecked the temple of Fortuna! Oh shame -and infamy! Where were the goddess’s worshippers the while? Did they -prevent it? No, they did not lift a finger, Libanius, though they should -have laid down life itself to preserve the sanctuary. - -But wait, wait! The Galileans of Caesarea shall atone with their blood, -and the whole city shall go up in flames as soon as I have time at my -disposal. - - LIBANIUS. - -My lord and friend,—if you would permit me—— - - JULIAN. - -Permit me, first. Say yourself whether I ought to tolerate such things? -Say whether my zeal can bear with such insults to the divinities who -hover over and shield me? But what can I do? Have I not laboured through -many a long night to disprove these unhappy delusions,—writing, -Libanius, till my eyes were red, and my fingers black with ink? And what -good, think you, has it done? I have reaped scorn instead of thanks, not -only from the fanatics themselves, but even from men who pretend to -share my opinions. And now, to crown all these mortifications, I find -you acting as spokesman for the complaints of a handful of citizens -against Alexander, who at least does his best to keep the Galileans in -check. - - LIBANIUS. - -Oh, my august friend,—that is precisely our ground of complaint. - - JULIAN. - -Do _you_ tell me this? - - LIBANIUS. - -’Tis not with my own good will that I do the city’s errands. I urged -upon the council that they ought to choose for this task the most -distinguished man in the town, thereby implying that I did not wish to -be chosen. Despite this hint, the choice fell on me, who am certainly -not—— - - JULIAN. - -Well, well, well! But oh, Libanius, that I must hear from your mouth——! - - LIBANIUS. - -I beg my crowned brother to remember that I speak in the name of the -city! For myself, I prize the immortal gods as highly as any one. Where -would the art of oratory be without the legends which the poets of -bygone days have left to us? May not these legends be likened to a rich -vein of ore, whence an accomplished orator can forge himself both -weapons and ornaments, if only he understands how to work the metal -skilfully? How flat and insipid would not the maxims of wisdom seem, -expressed without images or comparisons borrowed from the supernatural? - -But think, oh my friend—can you expect the multitude to take this view, -especially in such an age as ours? I assure you that in Antioch, at any -rate, ’tis not to be hoped for. The citizens—both Galileans and the more -enlightened—have of late years lived at peace without greatly concerning -themselves as to these matters. There is scarce a household in the city -wherein people are of one mind upon things divine. But, until lately, -domestic peace has nevertheless prevailed. - -Now the case is altered. People have begun to weigh creed against creed. -Discord has broken out between the nearest kinsmen. For example, a -citizen, whose name I forbear to mention, has lately disinherited his -son because the young man separated himself from the Galilean community. -Commerce and social life suffer from all this, especially now, when -scarcity reigns and famine stands at the door. - - JULIAN. - -Enough, enough,—more than enough, Libanius! You complain of scarcity. -But tell me, has luxury ever been more rampant than now? Is the -amphitheatre ever empty when it is reported that a new lion has arrived -from Africa? Last week, when there was a talk of turning all idlers and -vagabonds out of the city because of the dearth, did not the citizens -loudly demand that the gladiators and dancing-girls should be exempted; -for they felt they could not exist without them! - -Ah, well may the gods desert you in wrath over, your folly! There are -plenty of teachers of wisdom in this city, but where is wisdom? Why do -so few tread in my footsteps? Why stop at Socrates? Why not go a few -steps further, and follow Diogenes, or—if I dare say so—me, since we -lead you to happiness? For is not happiness the goal of all philosophy? -And what is happiness but harmony with oneself? Does the eagle want -golden feathers? Or the lion claws of silver? Or does the -pomegranate-tree long to bear fruits of sparkling stone? I tell you no -man has a right to enjoy until he has steeled himself to forbear. Ay, he -ought not to touch enjoyment with his finger-tips until he has learnt to -trample it under foot. - -Ah truly, we are far from that! But for that end will I work with all my -might. For the sake of these things I will give up others which are also -important. The Persian king—alarmed at my approach—has offered me terms -of peace. I think of accepting them, that I may have my hands free to -enlighten and improve you, intractable generation! As to the other -matter, it must remain as it is. You shall keep Alexander. Make the best -you can of him. - -Yet, my Libanius, it shall not be said that I have sent you from me in -disfavour—— - - LIBANIUS. - -Ah, my Emperor—— - - JULIAN. - -You mentioned with a certain bitterness that I had given much to -Themistius and Mamertinus. But did I not also take something from them? -Did I not take from them my daily companionship? ’Tis my intent to give -you more than I gave them. - - LIBANIUS. - -Ah, what do you tell me, my august brother? - - JULIAN. - -’Tis not my intent to give you gold or silver. That folly prevailed with -me only at first, until I saw how people flocked round me, like thirsty -harvesters round a fountain, elbowing and jostling one another, and each -stretching out a hollow hand to have it filled first, and filled to the -brim. I have grown wiser since. I think it may be said in particular -that the Goddess of Wisdom has not withdrawn her countenance from me in -the measures I have taken for the good of this city. - - LIBANIUS. - -Doubtless, doubtless! - - JULIAN. - -Therefore I commission you, oh my Libanius, to compose a panegyric on -me. - - LIBANIUS. - -Ah, what an honour——! - - JULIAN. - -You must lay special stress on the benefits for which the citizens of -Antioch owe me gratitude. I hope you will produce an oration that shall -do honour both to the orator and to his subject. This task, my Libanius, -shall be my gift to you. I know of nothing more fitting to offer to a -man like you. - - LIBANIUS. - -Oh, my crowned friend, what a transcendent favour! - - JULIAN. - -And now to the fencing-hall. Then, my friends, we will walk through the -streets, to give these insolent townsfolk a profitable example of -sobriety in dress and simplicity in manners. - - ORIBASES. - -Through the streets, sire? In this midday heat—— - - A COURTIER. - -Pray, sire, let me be excused; I feel extremely unwell—— - - HERACLIUS. - -I too, most gracious lord! All this morning I have been struggling -against a feeling of nausea—— - - JULIAN. - -Then take an emetic, and see if you cannot throw up your folly at the -same time. - -Oh Diogenes,—how degenerate are your successors! They are ashamed to -wear your cloak in the open street. - - [_He goes out angrily through the colonnade._ - - - SCENE SECOND. - -_A mean street in the outskirts of the city. In the row of houses to the - left stands a small church._ - -_A great multitude of lamenting Christians is assembled. The - psalm-writer APOLLINARIS and the teacher CYRILLUS are among them. - Women with children in their arms utter loud cries. GREGORY OF - NAZIANZUS passes along the street._ - - THE WOMEN. - -[_Rushing up to him and taking hold of his garments._] Ah, Gregory, -Gregory—speak to us! Comfort us in this anguish! - - GREGORY. - -Only One can give comfort here. Hold fast by Him. Cling to the Lord our -Shepherd. - - A WOMAN. - -Know you this, oh man of God,—the Emperor has commanded that all our -sacred scriptures shall be burnt! - - GREGORY. - -I have heard it; but I cannot believe that his folly is so great. - - APOLLINARIS. - -It is true. Alexander, the new governor, has sent out soldiers to search -the houses of the brethren. Even women and children are whipped till -they bleed, if they are suspected of hiding books. - - CYRILLUS. - -The Emperor’s decree applies not to Antioch only, nor even to Syria; it -applies to the empire and the whole world. Every smallest word that is -written concerning Christ is to be wiped out of existence, and out of -the memory of believers. - - APOLLINARIS. - -Oh ye mothers, weep for yourselves and for your children! - -The day will come when ye shall dispute with those ye now carry in your -arms, as to what was in truth written in the lost Word of God. The day -will come when your children’s children shall mock at you, and shall not -know who or what Christ was. - -The day will come when no heart shall remember that once on a time the -Saviour of the world suffered and died. - -The last believer shall go in darkness to his grave, and from that hour -shall Golgotha vanish away from the earth, like the place where the -Garden of Eden lay. - -Woe, woe, to the new Pilate! He is not content, like the first, to slay -the Saviour’s body. He murders the word and the faith! - - THE WOMEN. - -[_Tearing their hair and rending their garments._] Woe, woe, woe! - - GREGORY. - -And I say unto you, be of good cheer! God does not die. ’Tis not from -Julian that the danger comes. The danger was there long ere he arose, in -the weakness and contentiousness of our hearts. - - CYRILLUS. - -Oh, Gregory, how can you ask us to remain steadfast amid these -horrors?—Brethren and sisters—know you what has happened in Arethusa? -The unbelievers have maltreated the old bishop Marcus, dragged him by -the hair through the streets, cast him into the sewers, dragged him up -again, bleeding and befouled, smeared him over with honey and set him in -a tree, a prey to wasps and poisonous flies. - - GREGORY. - -And has not God’s power been gloriously manifested in this very Marcus? -What was Marcus before? A man of doubtful faith. When the troubles broke -out in Arethusa, he even fled from the city. But behold—-no sooner had -he heard in his hiding-place that the raging crew were avenging the -bishop’s flight on innocent brethren, than he returned of his own free -will. And how did he bear the torments which so appalled even his -executioners, that in order to withdraw with some show of credit, they -offered to release him if he would pay a very trifling fine? Was not his -answer: No—and no, and again no? The Lord God was with him. He neither -died nor yielded. His countenance showed neither terror nor impatience. -In the tree wherein he hung, he thanked God for being lifted a few steps -nearer heaven, while the others, as he said, crawled about on the flat -earth. - - CYRILLUS. - -A miracle must have happened to the resolute old man. If you had heard, -as I did, the shrieks from the prison, that day in the summer when -Hilarion and the others were tortured——! They were like no other -shrieks—agonised, rasping, mixed with hissing sounds every time the -white-hot iron buried itself in the raw flesh. - - APOLLINARIS. - -Oh, Cyrillus, have you forgotten how the shrieks passed over into song? -Did not Hilarion sing even in death? Did not that heroic Cappadocian boy -sing until he gave up the ghost under the hands of the torturers? Did -not Agathon, that boy’s brother, sing until he swooned away, and then -woke up in madness? - -Verily I say unto you, so long as song rings out above our sorrows, -Satan shall never conquer! - - GREGORY. - -Be of good cheer. Love one another and suffer one for another, as -Serapion in Doristora lately suffered for his brothers, for love of whom -he let himself be scourged, and cast alive into the furnace! - -See, see,—has not the Lord’s avenging hand already been raised against -the ungodly? Have you not heard the tidings from Heliopolis under -Lebanon? - - APOLLINARIS. - -I know it. In the midst of the ribald feast of Aphrodite, the heathen -broke into the house of our holy sisters, violated them, murdered them -amid tortures unspeakable—— - - THE WOMEN. - -Woe, woe! - - APOLLINARIS. - -——ay, some of the wretches even tore open the bodies of the martyrs, -dragged forth the entrails and ate the liver raw! - - THE WOMEN. - -Woe, woe, woe! - - GREGORY. - -The God of Wrath seasoned the meal. How have they thriven on it? Go to -Heliopolis, and you shall see those men with a putrefying poison in all -their veins, their eyes and teeth dropping out, bereft of speech and -understanding. Horror has fallen on the city. Many heathens have been -converted since that night. - -Therefore I fear not this pestilent monster who has risen up against the -church; I fear not this crowned hireling of hell, who is bent upon -finishing the work of the enemy of mankind. Let him fall upon us with -fire, with sword, with the wild beasts of the amphitheatre! Should his -madness even drive him further than he has yet gone—what does it matter? -For all this there is a remedy, and the path lies open to victory. - - THE WOMEN. - -Christ, Christ! - - OTHER VOICES. - -There he is! There he comes! - - SOME. - -Who? - - OTHERS. - -The Emperor! The murderer! The enemy of God! - - GREGORY. - -Be still! Let him pass by in silence. - - [_A detachment of the Imperial Guards comes along the street. - JULIAN follows, accompanied by courtiers and philosophers, - all surrounded by guards. Another division of the Household - Guard, led by FROMENTINUS, closes the procession._ - - A WOMAN. - -[_Softly to the others._] See, see, he has wrapped himself in rags, like -a beggar. - - ANOTHER WOMAN. - -He must be out of his senses. - - A THIRD WOMAN. - -God has already stricken him. - - A FOURTH WOMAN. - -Hide your little ones against your breasts. Let not their eyes behold -the monster. - - JULIAN. - -Aha, are not these all Galileans? What do you here in the sunshine, in -the open street, you spawn of darkness? - - GREGORY. - -You have closed our churches; therefore we stand without and praise the -Lord our God. - - JULIAN. - -Ah, is that you, Gregory? So you still linger here. But beware; my -patience will not last for ever. - - GREGORY. - -I seek not a martyr’s death; I do not even desire it; but if it be -allotted me, I shall glory in dying for Christ. - - JULIAN. - -Your phrases weary me. I will not have you here. Why cannot you keep to -your stinking dens? Go home, I tell you! - - A WOMAN. - -Oh, Emperor, where is our home? - - ANOTHER WOMAN. - -Where are our houses? The heathen have plundered them and driven us out. - - A VOICE IN THE THRONG. - -Your soldiers have taken from us all our goods. - - OTHER VOICES. - -Oh Emperor, Emperor, why have you seized upon our possessions? - - JULIAN. - -You ask that? I will tell you, ignorant creatures! If your riches are -taken from you, ’tis out of care for your souls’ weal. Has not the -Galilean said that you shall possess neither silver nor gold? Has not -your Master promised that you shall one day ascend to heaven? Ought you -not, then, to thank me for making your rising as easy as possible? - - THE PHILOSOPHERS. - -Oh, incomparably answered! - - APOLLINARIS. - -Sire, you have robbed us of what is more precious than gold and silver. -You have robbed us of God’s own word. You have robbed us of our sacred -scriptures. - - JULIAN. - -I know you, hollow-eyed psalm-singer! Are not you Apollinaris? I believe -if I take away your senseless books, you are capable of making up -others, just as senseless, in their stead. But you are a pitiful -bungler, let me tell you, both in prose and verse! By Apollo! no true -Greek would suffer a line of yours to pass his lips. The pamphlet you -sent me the other day, which you had the effrontery to entitle “The -Truth,” I have read, understood, and condemned. - - APOLLINARIS. - -’Tis possible you may have read it; but understood it you have not; for -if you had, you would not have condemned it. - - JULIAN. - -Ha-ha! the rejoinder I am preparing will prove that I understood it.—But -as to those books whose loss you lament and howl over, I may tell you -that you will presently hold them cheaper when it is proved that Jesus -of Nazareth was a liar and deceiver. - - THE WOMEN. - -Woe to us; woe to us! - - CYRILLUS. - -[_Stepping forward._] Emperor—what mean you by that? - - JULIAN. - -Did not the crucified Jew prophesy that the Temple of Jerusalem should -lie in ruins till the end of time? - - CYRILLUS. - -So shall it be! - - JULIAN. - -Oh fools! At this moment my general, Jovian, with two thousand workmen, -is at Jerusalem, rebuilding the temple in all its glory. Wait, wait, you -stiff-necked doubters—you shall learn who is the mightier, the Emperor -or the Galilean. - - CYRILLUS. - -Sire, that you yourself shall learn to your dismay. I held my peace till -you blasphemed the Highest, and called him a liar; but now I tell you -that you have not a feather-weight of power against the Crucified One! - - JULIAN. - -[_Constraining himself._] Who are you, and what do you call yourself? - - CYRILLUS. - -[_Coming forward._] I will tell you. First and foremost I call myself a -Christian, and that is a most honourable name; for it shall never be -wiped away from the earth. - -Furthermore, I bear the name of Cyrillus, and am known by that name -among my brethren and sisters. - -But if I keep the former name unspotted, I shall reap eternal life as a -reward. - - JULIAN. - -You are mistaken, Cyrillus! You know I am not unversed in the mysteries -of your creed. Believe me—he in whom you put your trust is not the being -you imagine. He died, in very truth, at the time when the Roman, Pontius -Pilate, was governor in Judea. - - CYRILLUS. - -I am not mistaken. ’Tis you, oh Emperor, who err in this. ’Tis you, who -repudiated Christ at the moment when he gave you dominion over the -world. - -Therefore I tell you, in his name, that he will quickly take from you -both your dominion and your life; and then shall you recognise, too -late, how mighty is he whom in your blindness you despise. - -Yea, as you have forgotten his benefits, he will not remember his -lovingkindness, when he shall rise up to punish you. - -You have cast down his altars; he shall cast you down from your throne. -You have taken delight in trampling his law under foot, that very law -which you yourself once proclaimed to believers. In like manner shall -the Lord trample you under his heel. Your body shall be scattered to the -wild winds, and your soul shall descend to a place of greater torments -than you can devise for me and mine! - - [_The women flock around CYRILLUS, with cries and lamentations._ - - JULIAN. - -I would fain have spared you, Cyrillus! The gods are my witnesses that I -hate you not for your faith’s sake. But you have mocked at my imperial -power and authority, and that I must punish. - - [_To the Captain of the Guard._ - -Fromentinus, lead this man to prison, and let the executioner Typhon -give him as many lashes with the scourge as are needful to make him -confess that the Emperor, and not the Galilean, has all power upon -earth. - - GREGORY. - -Be strong, Cyrillus, my brother! - - CYRILLUS. - -[_With upraised hands._] How blessed am I, to suffer for the glory of -God! - - [_The soldiers seize and drag him out._ - - THE WOMEN. - -[_With tears and sobs._] Woe to us! Woe, woe, to the apostate! - - JULIAN. - -Disperse these maniacs! Let them be driven out of the city as rebels. I -will no longer endure this defiance and scandal. - - [_The guard drives the lamenting crowd into the side streets. - Only the Emperor and his suite remain behind. A man who has - hitherto been hidden is now seen lying at the church door; - he is in torn garments, and has ashes strewn on his head._ - - A SOLDIER. - -[_Stirring him with a lance-shaft._] Up, up; be off! - - THE MAN. - -[_Looking up._] Tread under foot this salt without savour, rejected of -the Lord! - - JULIAN. - -Oh everlasting gods!—Hekebolius——! - - THE COURTIERS. - -Ah, so it is,—Hekebolius! - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -That is no longer my name! I am nameless. I have denied the baptism that -gave me my name! - - JULIAN. - -Arise, friend! Your mind is distempered—— - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -Judas’s brother is pestiferous. Away from me—— - - JULIAN. - -Oh feeble-hearted man—— - - HEKEBOLIUS. - -Avaunt, tempter! Take back your thirty pieces of silver! Is it not -written, “Thou shalt forsake wife and children for the Lord’s sake”? And -I——? For the sake of wife and children have I betrayed the Lord my God! -Woe, woe, woe! - - [_He casts himself down again on his face._ - - JULIAN. - -Such flames of madness do these writings kindle over the earth! - -And do I not well to burn them? - -Wait! Ere a year has passed the Temple of the Jews shall stand again on -Zion hill,—the splendour of its golden dome shining over the world, and -testifying: Liar, liar, liar! - - [_He goes hastily away, followed by the philosophers._ - - - SCENE THIRD. - -_A road outside the city. To the left, by the wayside, stands a statue - of Cybele amid the stumps of hewn-down trees. At a little distance - to the left is a fountain, with a stone basin. It is towards - sunset._ - -_On a step at the foot of the goddess’s statue sits an old priest, with - a covered basket in his lap. A number of men and women carry water - from the fountain. Passers-by are seen on the road. From the left - enters the dyer PHOCION, meanly clad, with a great bundle on his - head. He meets EUNAPIUS the barber, who comes from the city._ - - PHOCION. - -Aha!—my friend Eunapius in full court dress! - - EUNAPIUS. - -Shame on you for mocking a poor man. - - PHOCION. - -Call you that mockery? I thought it was the highest distinction. - - EUNAPIUS. - -You may say so indeed. ’Tis now the height of distinction to go in rags, -especially if they have lain long enough in the gutter. - - PHOCION. - -How will all this end, think you? - - EUNAPIUS. - -What should I care? I know how it has ended with me, and that is enough. - - PHOCION. - -Are you no longer in the Emperor’s service? - - EUNAPIUS. - -What should the Emperor Julian want with a barber? Think you he has his -hair cut, or his beard trimmed? He does not even comb them. But how goes -it with you? You do not look much better off. - - PHOCION. - -Alas, Eunapius, purple-dyeing has had its day. - - EUNAPIUS. - -Right, right; now we dye only the backs of the Christians. But what is -that you are toiling with? - - PHOCION. - -A bundle of willow bark. I am to dye fools’ cloaks for the philosophers. - - [_A detachment of soldiers enters from the right; they range - themselves beside the statue of Cybele._ - - PHOCION. - -[_To one of the men beside the stone basin._] What does this mean? - - THE MAN. - -The statue is to be fed once more. - - PHOCION. - -Will the Emperor sacrifice here this evening? - - ANOTHER MAN. - -Does he not sacrifice both morning and evening—sometimes here, sometimes -there? - - A WOMAN. - -Tis hard on us poor folk that the new Emperor is so much in love with -the gods. - - ANOTHER WOMAN. - -Nay, Dione, say not so. Ought we not all to love the gods? - - THE FIRST WOMAN. - -Maybe, maybe; but ’tis hard on us none the less—— - - ONE OF THE MEN. - -[_Points to the right._] Look—there he comes. - - _The EMPEROR JULIAN advances in priestly attire, with a - sacrificial knife. Many philosophers, priests, and servants - surround him, along with his guard. After them comes a crowd - of people, some mocking, some indignant._ - - ONE OF THE NEWCOMERS. - -There stands the goddess. Now you shall see sport. - - AN OLDER MAN. - -Do you call that sport? How many hungry mouths could be fed with what is -wasted here? - - JULIAN. - -[_Approaching the statue._] Oh, this sight! It fills my heart with -rapture and my eyes with tears of sorrow. - -Yes, I must indeed weep, when I remember that this awe-inspiring -goddess’s statue, overthrown by impious and audacious hands, has lain so -long as if in a sleep of oblivion—and that, moreover, in a place I -loathe to mention. - - [_Suppressed laughter among the listeners. JULIAN turns - angrily._ - -But I feel no less rapture when I remember that to me it was vouchsafed -to rescue the Divine Mother from so unworthy a situation. - -May I not well be enraptured by this thought?—Men say of me, that I have -won a few victories over the barbarians, and praise me for them. For my -part, I set more value on what I am doing for the gods; for to them we -owe all our strength and all our care. - - [_To those by the stone basin._ - -It pleases me, however, to find that there are some in this stiff-necked -city who are not deaf to my exhortations, but have come forth with -seemly piety—and, I doubt not, have brought with them suitable -offerings. - - [_He goes up to the Old Priest._ - -What do I see? One solitary old man! Where are your brethren of the -temple? - - THE OLD PRIEST. - -Sire, they are all dead but I. - - JULIAN. - -All dead! The road laid irreverently close to the sanctuary. The -venerable grove hewn down—— - -Old man—where are the sacrificial offerings? - - THE OLD PRIEST. - -[_Pointing to the basket._] Here, sire! - - JULIAN. - -Yes, yes; but the rest? - - THE OLD PRIEST. - -This is all. - - [_He opens the basket._ - - JULIAN. - -A goose! And this goose is all? - - THE OLD PRIEST. - -Yes, sire! - - JULIAN. - -And what pious man have we to thank for so generous an offering? - - THE OLD PRIEST. - -I brought it with me myself. Oh, sire, be not wroth; this one was all I -had. - - [_Laughter and mutterings among the bystanders._ - - SUPPRESSED VOICES. - -’Tis enough. A goose is more than enough. - - JULIAN. - -Oh Antioch—you put my patience to a hard test! - - A MAN IN THE CROWD. - -Bread first, offerings afterwards! - - PHOCION. - -[_Nudging him in the side._] Well said; well said! - - ANOTHER MAN. - -Give the citizens food; the gods may do as best they can. - - A THIRD MAN. - -We were better off under Chi and Kappa! - - JULIAN. - -Oh you shameless brawlers, with your Chi and Kappa! Think you I do not -know whom you mean by Chi and Kappa? Ho-ho, I know very well. ’Tis a -by-word among you. You mean Christ and Constantius. But their dominion -is past, and I shall soon find means of subduing the frowardness and -ingratitude you display both towards the gods and towards me. You are -offended because I allot the gods their due offerings. You mock at my -modest attire and my untrimmed beard. This beard is a very thorn in your -eyes! You call it, irreverently, a goat’s beard. But I tell you, oh -fools, it is a wise man’s beard. I am not ashamed to let you know that -this beard harbours vermin, as willow copses harbour game—and yet this -despised beard is more honourable to me than your smooth-shaven chins to -you! - - EUNAPIUS. - -[_Half aloud._] What foolishness; most unreasonable! - - JULIAN. - -But think you I will leave your mockeries unanswered? No, no, you will -find yourselves mistaken. Only wait; you shall hear from me sooner than -you think. I am at this moment preparing a treatise, entitled “The -Beard-Hater.” And would you know against whom it is directed? It is -directed against you, citizens of Antioch—against you, whom I describe -in it as “those ignorant hounds.” You will find in it my reasons for -many things that now seem strange to you in my behaviour. - - FROMENTINUS. - -[_Entering from the right._] Great Emperor, I bring you good news. -Cyrillus has already given way—— - - JULIAN. - -Ah, I thought so. - - FROMENTINUS. - -Typhon did his work bravely. The prisoner was stripped, tied by the -wrists, and slung to the rafters, so that the tips of his toes barely -touched the floor; then Typhon scourged him from behind with a lash of -ox sinews that circled his body round to the breast. - - JULIAN. - -Oh how wicked to force us to use such means! - - FROMENTINUS. - -Lest he should die under our hands, we had at last to release the -obstinate wretch. He remained for a time quite still, and seemed to -reflect; then suddenly he demanded to be brought before the Emperor. - - JULIAN. - -This pleases me. And you are having him brought hither? - - FROMENTINUS. - -Yes, sire—here they come with him. - - _A detachment of soldiers enters, conducting CYRILLUS._ - - JULIAN. - -Ah, my good Cyrillus,—you are not quite so overweening as you were, I -see. - - CYRILLUS. - -Have you read in the entrails of some beast or bird what I have to say -to you? - - JULIAN. - -Methinks there needs no divination to foresee that you have come to your -senses, that you renounce your delusions concerning the Galilean’s -power, and that you acknowledge both the Emperor and our gods to be -greater than he. - - CYRILLUS. - -Imagine no such thing. Your gods are powerless; and if you cling to -these graven images, that can neither hear nor see, you yourself will -soon be as powerless as they. - - JULIAN. - -Cyrillus—is this what you have to say? - - CYRILLUS. - -No; I come to thank you. Hitherto I have dreaded you and your tortures. -But in the hour of agony I won the victory of the spirit over all that -is corruptible. Yes, Emperor, while your hirelings thought I was hanging -in torment from the prison roof,—I lay, happy as a child, in my -Saviour’s arms; and when your executioners seemed to be flaying my body -with stripes, the Lord passed his healing hand over the wounds, took -away the crown of thorns, and placed on my brow the crown of life. - -Therefore I thank you; no mortal has ever done me so great a service as -you. - -And lest you should think I fear you for the future, see—— - - [_He throws back his cloak, tears open his wounds and casts - pieces of flesh at the Emperor’s feet._ - -—see—see—gorge yourself with the blood you thirst after! But as for me, -know that I thirst after Jesus Christ alone. - - [_Shrieks of horror are heard among the crowd._ - - MANY VOICES. - -This will bring disaster on us all! - - JULIAN. - -[_Who has recoiled._] Hold the madman, lest he lay hands on us! - - [_The soldiers surround CYRILLUS and drag him to the water - basin; at the same moment the voices of singing women are - heard to the right._ - - JULIAN. - -Look there, Fromentinus—what strange company is that——? - - FROMENTINUS. - -My gracious Emperor, ’tis the psalm-singers—— - - JULIAN. - -Ah, that band of raving women—— - - FROMENTINUS. - -The governor Alexander has taken from them some writings which they hold -sacred. They are going out of the city to weep at the graves of the -Christians. - - JULIAN. - -[_With clenched hands._] Defiance; defiance—from men and women alike! - - [_Old PUBLIA, and many other women, come along the road._ - - PUBLIA. - [_Sings._ - - Their gods are of marble, and silver and gold. - They shall crumble to mould. - - CHORUS OF WOMEN. - -To mould; to mould! - - PUBLIA. - - They murder our brothers; our children they smite. - Soar up, doves of song, and pray God to requite! - - CHORUS OF WOMEN. - -Pray God to requite! - - PUBLIA. - -[_Catching sight of JULIAN._] There he stands! Woe to the miscreant who -has burnt the word of the Lord! Think you you can burn the word of the -Lord with fire? I will tell you where it burns. - - [_She wrests a knife from one of the sacrificing priests, cuts - open her breast and probes into the wound._ - -Here the word burns. You may burn our books; but the word shall burn in -the hearts of men until the uttermost end of time! - - [_She casts the knife from her._ - - THE WOMEN. - [_Sing with growing ecstasy._ - - Let writings be burnt, and let bodies be slain; - The word shall remain— - The word shall remain! - - [_They take PUBLIA into their midst and go out towards the - country._ - - THE PEOPLE BY THE FOUNTAIN. - -Woe to us; the Galileans’ God is the strongest! - - OTHER VOICES. - -What avail all our gods against this one? - - OTHERS AGAIN. - -No offering! No worship! ’Twill incense the terrible _one_ against us. - - JULIAN. - -Oh fools! You fear to incense a man long dead,—a false prophet—you shall -have proof of it. He is a liar, I say! Wait but a little longer. Every -day, every hour, may bring tidings from Jerusalem—— - - _JOVIAN, much travel-stained, enters hastily, with a few - followers, from the right._ - - JOVIAN. - -Most gracious Emperor, pardon your servant for seeking you here. - - JULIAN. - -[_With a cry of joy._] Jovian! Oh welcome news-bearer! - - JOVIAN. - -I come direct from Judea. I learned at the palace that you were here—— - - JULIAN. - -Oh, ever-praiseworthy gods,—yon setting sun shall not go down upon the -lie. How far have you progressed? Speak, my Jovian! - - JOVIAN. - -[_With a glance at the crowd._] Sire, shall I tell all? - - JULIAN. - -All, all—from first to last! - - JOVIAN. - -I arrived at Jerusalem with the architects and soldiers, and the two -thousand workmen. We went to work at once to clear the ground. Mighty -remnants of the walls remained. They fell before our pickaxes and -crowbars so easily that it seemed as though some unseen power were -helping us to efface them—— - - JULIAN. - -You see! What did I tell you! - - JOVIAN. - -In the meantime immense heaps of mortar were being brought together for -the new building. Then, without any warning, there arose a whirlwind, -which spread the lime like a cloud over the whole region. - - JULIAN. - -Go on; go on! - - JOVIAN. - -The same night the earth shook repeatedly. - - VOICES IN THE CROWD. - -Hear that! The earth shook. - - JULIAN. - -Go on, I say! - - JOVIAN. - -We were nothing daunted by this strange event. But when we had dug so -deep into the ground as to open the subterranean vaults, and the -stone-hewers went down to work by torchlight—— - - JULIAN. - -Jovian,—what then? - - JOVIAN. - -Sire, a terrible, a monstrous stream of fire burst out of the caverns. A -thundering noise shook the whole city. The vaults burst asunder; -hundreds of workmen were killed in them, and the few who escaped fled -with lacerated limbs. - - WHISPERING VOICES. - -The Galileans’ God! - - JULIAN. - -Can I believe all this? Did you see it? - - JOVIAN. - -With my own eyes. We began anew. Sire, in the presence of many -thousands—awestruck, kneeling, exulting, praying—the same wonder was -twice repeated. - - JULIAN. - -[_Pale and trembling._] And then——? In one word,—what has the Emperor -achieved in Jerusalem? - - JOVIAN. - -The Emperor has fulfilled the Galilean’s prophecy. - - JULIAN. - -Fulfilled——? - - JOVIAN. - -Through you is the saying accomplished: “Not one stone shall remain upon -another.” - - MEN AND WOMEN. - -The Galilean has overcome the Emperor! The Galilean is greater than -Julian! - - JULIAN. - -[_To the priest of Cybele._] You may go home, old man! And take your -goose with you. We will have no sacrifice this evening. - - [_He turns to the crowd._ - -I heard some say the Galilean had conquered. It may appear so; but I -tell you it is a delusion. Oh senseless clods; oh contemptible -dolts,—believe me, it will not be long before the tables are turned! I -will——; I will——! Ah, only wait! I am already collecting material for a -treatise against the Galilean. It is to be in seven chapters; and when -his followers have read _that_,—and when “The Beard-Hater,” too—— - -Give me your arm, Fromentinus! This defiance has wearied me. - - [_To the guard, as he passes the fountain._ - -Set Cyrillus free! - - [_He returns with his retinue to the city._ - - THE CROWD AT THE FOUNTAIN. - -[_Shouting after him with scornful laughter._] There goes the -altar-butcher?—There goes the ragged bear!—There goes the ape with the -long arms! - - - SCENE FOURTH - -_Moonlight. Among the ruins of the temple of Apollo._ - -_The EMPEROR JULIAN and MAXIMUS THE MYSTIC, both in robes, appear among - the overthrown columns._ - - MAXIMUS. - -Whither, my brother? - - JULIAN. - -Where it is loneliest. - - MAXIMUS. - -But here—in this desolation? Among these rubbish-heaps——? - - JULIAN. - -Is not the whole earth a rubbish-heap? - - MAXIMUS. - -Yet you have shown that what has fallen can be restored. - - JULIAN. - -Mocker! In Athens I saw how a cobbler had made himself a little workshop -in the temple of Theseus. In Rome, I hear, a corner of the Basilica -Julia is used for a bullock-stable. Call you _that_ restoration? - - MAXIMUS. - -Why not? Does not everything happen little by little? What is a whole -but the sum of all the parts? - - JULIAN. - -Foolish wisdom! - - [_He points to the overturned statue of Apollo._ - -See this noseless face. See this splintered elbow,—these shattered -loins. Does the sum of all these deformities restore to us the divine -perfection of bygone beauty? - - MAXIMUS. - -How know you that that bygone beauty was beautiful—in itself—apart from -the spectator’s idea? - - JULIAN. - -Ah, Maximus, that is just the question. What _exists_ in itself? After -to-day I know of nothing. - - [_He kicks the head of Apollo._ - -Have you ever been mightier, in yourself? - -Strange, Maximus, that there should dwell such strength in delusion. -Look at those Galileans. And look at me in the old days, when I thought -it possible to build up again the fallen world of beauty. - - MAXIMUS. - -Friend—if delusion be a necessity to you, return to the Galileans. They -will receive you with open arms. - - JULIAN. - -You know well that that is impossible. Emperor and Galilean! How -reconcile that contradiction? - -Yes, this Jesus Christ is the greatest rebel that ever lived. What was -Brutus—what was Cassius, compared with _him_? They murdered only the man -Julius Caesar; but he murders all that is called Caesar or Augustus. Is -peace conceivable between the Galilean and the Emperor? Is there room -for the two of them together upon the earth? For he lives on the earth, -Maximus,—the Galilean lives, I say, however thoroughly both Jews and -Romans imagined that they had killed him; he lives in the rebellious -minds of men; he lives in their scorn and defiance of all visible -authority. - -“Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,—and to God the things -that are God’s!” Never has mouth of man uttered a craftier saying than -that. What lies behind it? What, and how much, belongs to the Emperor? -That saying is nothing but a bludgeon wherewith to strike the crown from -off the Emperor’s head. - - MAXIMUS. - -Yet the great Constantine knew how to compound matters with the -Galilean—and your predecessor too. - - JULIAN. - -Yes, could one only be as easily satisfied as they! But call you that -ruling the empire of the world? Constantine widened the boundaries of -his dominion, but did he not fix narrow boundaries to his spirit and his -will? You rate that man too high when you call him “the great.” Of my -predecessor I will not speak; he was more slave than Emperor, and I -cannot be contented with the name alone. - -No, no, a truce is not to be thought of in this contest. And yet—to have -to give way! Oh, Maximus, after these defeats I cannot retain the -crown—yet neither can I renounce it. - -You, Maximus, who can interpret omens whose mystic meaning is hidden -from all others—you who can read the volume of the eternal stars,—can -you foretell the issue of this struggle? - - MAXIMUS. - -Yes, my brother, I can foretell the issue. - - JULIAN. - -Can you? Then tell me—! Who shall conquer? The Emperor or the Galilean? - - MAXIMUS. - -Both the Emperor and the Galilean shall succumb. - - JULIAN. - -Succumb——? Both——? - - MAXIMUS. - -Both. Whether in our times or in hundreds of years, I know not; but so -it shall be when the right man comes. - - JULIAN. - -And who is the right man? - - MAXIMUS. - -He who shall swallow up both Emperor and Galilean. - - JULIAN. - -You solve the riddle by a still darker riddle. - - MAXIMUS. - -Hear me, brother and friend of truth! I say you shall both succumb—but -not that you shall perish. - -Does not the child succumb in the youth, and the youth in the man? Yet -neither child nor youth perishes. - -Oh, my best-loved pupil—have you forgotten all our discourse in Ephesus -about the three empires? - - JULIAN. - -Ah Maximus, years have passed since then. Speak! - - MAXIMUS. - -You know I have never approved the course you have taken as Emperor. You -have striven to make the youth a child again. The empire of the flesh is -swallowed up in the empire of the spirit. But the empire of the spirit -is not final, any more than the youth is. You have striven to hinder the -growth of the youth,—to hinder him from becoming a man. Oh fool, who -have drawn your sword against that which is to be—against the third -empire, in which the twin-natured shall reign! - - JULIAN. - -And he——? - - MAXIMUS. - -The Jews have a name for him. They call him Messiah, and they await him. - - JULIAN. - -[_Slowly and thoughtfully._] Messiah?—Neither Emperor nor Redeemer? - - MAXIMUS. - -Both in one, and one in both. - - JULIAN. - -Emperor-God—God-Emperor. Emperor in the kingdom of the spirit,—and God -in that of the flesh. - - MAXIMUS. - -_That_ is the third empire, Julian! - - JULIAN. - -Yes, Maximus, _that_ is the third empire. - - MAXIMUS. - -In that empire shall the present watchword of revolt be realised. - - JULIAN. - -“Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,—and to God the things -that are God’s.” Yes, yes, then the Emperor is in God, and God in the -Emperor.—Ah, dreams, dreams,—who shall break the Galilean’s power? - - MAXIMUS. - -Wherein lies the Galilean’s power? - - JULIAN. - -I have brooded over that question in vain. - - MAXIMUS. - -Is it not somewhere written: “Thou shalt have none other gods but me”? - - JULIAN. - -Yes—yes—yes! - - MAXIMUS. - -The Seer of Nazareth did not preach this god or that; he said: “God is -I;—I am God.” - - JULIAN. - -Ay, this thing without me——! ’Tis that which makes the Emperor -powerless. - -The third empire? The Messiah? Not the Jews’ Messiah, but the Messiah of -the two empires, the spirit and the world——? - - MAXIMUS. - -The God-Emperor. - - JULIAN. - -The Emperor-God. - - MAXIMUS. - -Logos in Pan—Pan in Logos. - - JULIAN. - -Maximus,—how comes he into being? - - MAXIMUS. - -He comes into being in the man who wills himself. - - JULIAN. - -My beloved teacher,—I must leave you - - MAXIMUS. - -Whither are you going? - - JULIAN. - -To the city. The Persian king has made overtures of peace, which I too -hastily accepted. My envoys are already on the way. They must be -overtaken and recalled. - - MAXIMUS. - -You will reopen the war against King Sapor? - - JULIAN. - -I will do what Cyrus dreamed of, and Alexander attempted—— - - MAXIMUS. - -Julian! - - JULIAN. - -I will possess the world.—Good-night, my Maximus! - - [_He makes a gesture of farewell, and goes hastily away. MAXIMUS - looks thoughtfully after him._ - - THE CHORUS OF THE PSALM-SINGERS. - [_Far away, beside the graves of the martyrs._ - - Ye gods of the nations, of silver and gold, - Ye shall crumble to mould! - - - - - ACT FOURTH - - - SCENE FIRST. - - -_The eastern frontier of the empire. A wild mountain landscape. A deep - valley separates the high foreground from the mountains behind._ - -_The EMPEROR JULIAN, in military dress, stands on the edge of a rocky - promontory, and looks into the depths. A little way from him, to - the left, stand NEVITA, the Persian prince HORMISDAS, JOVIAN, and - several other generals. To the right, beside a roughly-built stone - altar, crouch the soothsayer, NUMA, and two other Etruscan - soothsayers, examining the entrails of the sacrifices for omens. - Further forward sits MAXIMUS THE MYSTIC on a stone, surrounded by - PRISCUS, KYTRON, and other philosophers. Small detachments of - light-armed men now and then pass over the height from left to - right._ - - JULIAN. - -[_Pointing downwards._] See, see—the legions wind like a scaly serpent -through the ravine. - - NEVITA. - -Those just below us, in sheepskin doublets, are the Scythians. - - JULIAN. - -What piercing howls——! - - NEVITA. - -That is the Scythians’ customary song, sire! - - JULIAN. - -More howl than song. - - NEVITA. - -Now come the Armenians. Arsaces himself is leading them. - - JULIAN. - -The Roman legions must already be out on the plains. All the -neighbouring tribes are hastening to make their submission. - - [_He turns to the officers._ - -The twelve hundred ships, containing all our stores and munitions, lie -assembled on the Euphrates. I am now fully assured that the fleet can -cross over to the Tigris by the ancient canal. The whole army will pass -the river by means of the ships. Then we will advance along by the -eastern bank as rapidly as the current will suffer the ships to follow -us. - -Tell me, Hormisdas, what think you of this plan? - - HORMISDAS. - -Invincible general, I know that under your victorious protection it will -be vouchsafed me to tread once more the soil of my fatherland. - - JULIAN. - -What a relief to be rid of those narrow-breasted citizens! What terror -was in their eyes when they pressed round my chariot as I left the city! -“Come again quickly,” they cried, “and be more gracious to us than now.” -I will never revisit Antioch. I will never again set eyes on that -ungrateful city! When I have conquered I will return by way of Tarsus. - - [_He goes up to the soothsayers._ - -Numa,—what omens for our campaign do you find this morning? - - NUMA. - -The omens warn you not to pass the frontier of your empire this year. - - JULIAN. - -H’m! How read you this omen, Maximus? - - MAXIMUS. - -I read it thus: the omen counsels you to subdue all the regions you -traverse; thus you will never pass the frontier of your empire. - - JULIAN. - -So is it. We must look closely into such supernatural signs; for there -is wont to be a double meaning in them. It even seems at times as if -mysterious powers took a delight in leading men astray, especially in -great undertakings. Were there not some who held it an evil omen that -the colonnade in Hierapolis fell in and buried half a hundred soldiers, -just as we marched through the city? But I say that that is a presage of -a twofold good. In the first place it foreshows the downfall of Persia, -and in the second place the doom of the unhappy Galileans. For what -soldiers were they who were killed? Why, Galilean convict-soldiers, who -went most unwillingly to the war; and therefore fate decreed them that -sudden and inglorious end. - - JOVIAN. - -Most gracious Emperor, here comes a captain from the vanguard. - - AMMIAN. - -[_Entering from the right._] Sire, you commanded me to inform you should -anything strange befall during our advance. - - JULIAN. - -Well? Has anything happened this morning? - - AMMIAN. - -Yes, sire, two portents. - - JULIAN. - -Quick, Ammian,—speak on! - - AMMIAN. - -First, sire, it happened that when we had gone a little way beyond the -village of Zaita, a lion of monstrous size burst from a thicket and -rushed straight at our soldiers, who killed it with many arrows. - - JULIAN. - -Ah! - - THE PHILOSOPHERS. - -What a fortunate omen! - - HORMISDAS. - -King Sapor calls himself the lion of the nations. - - NUMA. - -[_Busied at the altar._] Turn back; turn back, Emperor Julian! - - MAXIMUS. - -Go fearlessly forward, chosen son of victory! - - JULIAN. - -Turn back after this? As the lion fell at Zaita, so shall the lion of -the nations fall before our arrows. Does not history warrant me in -interpreting this omen to our advantage? Need I remind such learned men -that when the Emperor Maximian conquered the Persian king, Narses, a -lion, and a huge wild boar besides, were, in like manner, slain in front -of the Roman ranks? - - [_To Ammian._ - -But now the other——? You spoke of two signs. - - AMMIAN. - -The other is more doubtful, sire! Your charger, Babylonius, was led -forth, as you commanded, fully equipped, to await your descent on the -other side of the mountain. But just at that time a detachment of -Galilean convict-soldiers happened to pass. Heavily laden as they were, -and by no means over willing, they had to be driven with scourges. -Nevertheless they lifted up their arms as in rejoicing, and burst forth -into a loud hymn in praise of their deity. Babylonius was startled by -the sudden noise, reared in his fright, and fell backwards; and as he -sprawled upon the ground, all his golden trappings were soiled and -bespattered with mud. - - NUMA. - -[_At the altar._] Emperor Julian,—turn back, turn back! - - JULIAN. - -The Galileans must have done this out of malice,—and yet, in spite of -themselves, they have brought to pass a portent which I hail with -delight. - -Yes, as Babylonius fell, so shall Babylon fall, stripped of all the -splendour of its adornments. - - PRISCUS. - -What wisdom in interpretation! - - KYTRON. - -By the gods, it must be so! - - THE OTHER PHILOSOPHERS. - -So, and not otherwise! - - JULIAN. - -[_To NEVITA._] The army shall continue to advance. Nevertheless, for -still greater security, I will sacrifice this evening and see what the -omens indicate. - -As for you Etruscan jugglers, whom I have brought hither at so great a -cost, I will no longer suffer you in the camp, where you serve only to -damp the soldiers’ spirits. You know nothing of the difficult calling -you profess. What effrontery! What measureless presumption! Away with -them! I will not set eyes on them again. - - [_Some of the guards drive the Soothsayers out to the left._ - -Babylonius fell. The lion succumbed before my soldiers. Yet these things -do not tell us what invisible help we have to depend upon. The gods, -whose essence is as yet by no means duly ascertained, seem sometimes—if -I may say so—to slumber, or, on the whole, to concern themselves very -little with human affairs. We, my dear friends, are so unfortunate as to -live in such an age. We have even seen how certain divinities have -neglected to support well-meant endeavours, tending to their own honour -and glory. - -Yet must we not judge rashly in this matter. It is conceivable that the -immortals, who guide and uphold the universe, may sometimes depute their -power to mortal hands,—not thereby, assuredly, lessening their own -glory; for is it not thanks to them that so highly-favoured[11] a -mortal—if he exist—has been born into this world? - - PRISCUS. - -Oh matchless Emperor, do not your own achievements afford proof of this? - - JULIAN. - -I know not, Priscus, whether I dare rate my own achievements so highly. -I say nothing of the fact that the Galileans believe the Jew, Jesus of -Nazareth, to have been thus elected; for these men err—as I shall -conclusively establish in my treatise against them. But I will remind -you of Prometheus in ancient days. Did not that pre-eminent hero procure -for mankind still greater blessings than the gods seemed to -vouchsafe—wherefore he had to suffer much, both pain and despiteful -usage, till he was at last exalted to the communion of the gods—to -which, in truth, he had all the while belonged? - -And may not the same be said both of Herakles and of Achilles, and, -finally, of the Macedonian Alexander, with whom some have compared me, -partly on account of what I achieved in Gaul, partly, and especially, on -account of my designs in the present campaign? - - NEVITA. - -My Emperor—the rear-guard is now beneath us—it is perhaps time—— - - JULIAN. - -Presently, Nevita! First I must tell you of a strange dream I had last -night. - -I dreamed that I saw a child pursued by a rich man who owned countless -flocks, but despised the worship of the gods. - -This wicked man exterminated all the child’s kindred. But Zeus took pity -on the child itself, and held his hand over it. - -Then I saw this child grow up into a youth, under the care of Minerva -and Apollo. - -Further, I dreamed that the youth fell asleep upon a stone beneath the -open sky. - -Then Hermes descended to him, in the likeness of a young man, and said: -“Come; I will show thee the way to the abode of the highest god!” So he -led the youth to the foot of a very steep mountain. There he left him. - -Then the youth burst out into tears and lamentations, and called with a -loud voice upon Zeus. Lo, then, Minerva and the Sun-King who rules the -earth descended to his side, bore him aloft to the peak of the mountain, -and showed him the whole inheritance of his race. - -But this inheritance was the orb of the earth from ocean to ocean, and -beyond the ocean. - -Then they told the youth that all this should belong to him. And -therewith they gave him three warnings: he should not sleep, as his race -had done; he should not hearken to the counsel of hypocrites; and, -lastly, he should honour as gods those who resemble the gods. “Forget -not,” they said, on leaving him, “that thou hast an immortal soul, and -that this thy soul is of divine origin. And if thou follow our counsel -thou shalt see our father and become a god, even as we.” - - PRISCUS. - -What are signs and omens to this! - - KYTRON. - -It can scarcely be rash to anticipate that the Fates will think twice -ere they suffer their counsels to clash with yours. - - JULIAN. - -We dare not build with certainty on such an exception. But assuredly I -cannot but find this dream significant, although my brother Maximus, by -his silence—against all reasonable expectation—seems to approve neither -of the dream itself, nor of my relation of it.—But that we must bear -with! - - [_He takes out a roll of paper._ - -See, Jovian; before I arose this morning, I noted down what I had -dreamt. Take this paper, let numerous copies of it be made, and read to -the various divisions of the army. I hold it of the utmost moment, on so -hazardous an expedition, that, amid all dangers and difficulties, the -soldiers may leave their fate securely in their leader’s hands, -considering him infallible in all that concerns the issue of the war. - - JOVIAN. - -I pray you, my Emperor, let me be excused from this. - - JULIAN. - -What do you mean? - - JOVIAN. - -That I cannot lend my aid to anything that is against the truth.—Oh, -hear me, my august Emperor and master! Is there a single one of your -soldiers who doubts that he is safe in your hands? Have you not, on the -Gallic frontier, in spite of overwhelming numbers and difficulties of -all kinds, gained greater victories than any other living commander can -boast of? - - JULIAN. - -Well, well! What startling news! - - JOVIAN. - -All know how marvellously fortune has hitherto followed you. In learning -you excel all other mortals, and in the glorious art of eloquence you -bear the palm among the greatest. - - JULIAN. - -And yet——? In spite of all this——? - - JOVIAN. - -In spite of all this, my Emperor, you are but mortal. By publishing this -dream through the army you would seek to make men deem you a god,—and in -that I dare not assist you. - - JULIAN. - -What say you, my friends, to this speech? - - KYTRON. - -It assuredly shows no less effrontery than ignorance. - - JULIAN. - -You seem to forget, oh truth-loving Jovian, that the Emperor Antoninus, -surnamed the Pious, has been worshipped in a special temple on the Roman -forum as an immortal god. And not he alone, but also his wife, Faustina, -and other Emperors before and after him. - - JOVIAN. - -I know it, sire,—but it was not given to our forefathers to live in the -light of truth. - - JULIAN. - -[_With a long look at him._] Ah, Jovian!—— - -Tell me,—last evening, when I was taking the omens for the coming night, -you brought me a message just as I was laving the blood from my hands in -the water of purification—— - - JOVIAN. - -Yes, my Emperor! - - JULIAN. - -In my haste, I chanced to sprinkle a few drops of the water on your -cloak. You shrank sharply backward and shook the water off, as if your -cloak had been defiled. - - JOVIAN. - -My Emperor,—so that did not escape you? - - JULIAN. - -Did you think it would have escaped me? - - JOVIAN. - -Yes, sire; for it was a matter between me and the one true God. - - JULIAN. - -Galilean! - - JOVIAN. - -Sire, you yourself sent me to Jerusalem, and I was witness to all that -happened there. I have pondered much since then; I have read the -scriptures of the Christians, have spoken with many of them,—and now I -am convinced that in their teaching lies the truth of God. - - JULIAN. - -Is this possible? Can it be possible? Thus does this infectious frenzy -spread! Even those nearest me—my own generals desert me—— - - JOVIAN. - -Place me in the van against your foes, sire,—and you shall see how -gladly I render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. - - JULIAN. - -How much——? - - JOVIAN. - -My blood, my life. - - JULIAN. - -Blood and life are not enough. He who is to rule must rule over the -minds, over the wills of men. It is in this that your Jesus of Nazareth -bars my way and contests my power. - -Think not that I will punish you, Jovian! You Galileans covet punishment -as a benefaction. And after it you are called martyrs. Have they not -thus exalted those whom I have been obliged to chastise for their -obduracy? - -Go to the vanguard! I will not willingly see your face again.—Oh, this -treachery to me, which you veil in phrases about double duty and a -double empire! This shall be altered. Other kings besides the Persian -shall feel my foot on their necks. - -To the vanguard, Jovian! - - JOVIAN. - -I shall do my duty, sire! - - [_He goes out to the right._ - - JULIAN. - -We will not have this morning darkened, which rose amid so many happy -omens. This, and more, will we bear with an even mind. But my dream -shall none the less be published through the army. You, Kytron, and you, -my Priscus, and my other friends, will see that this is done in a -becoming manner. - - THE PHILOSOPHERS. - -With joy, with unspeakable joy, sire! - - [_They take the roll and go out to the right._ - - JULIAN. - -I beg you, Hormisdas, not to doubt my power, although it may seem as -though stubbornness met me on every hand. Go; and you too, Nevita, and -all the rest, each to his post;—I will follow when the troops are all -gathered out on the plains. - - [_All except the EMPEROR and MAXIMUS go out to the right._ - - MAXIMUS. - -[_After a time, rises from the stone where he has been seated and goes -up to the Emperor._] My sick brother! - - JULIAN. - -Rather wounded than sick. The deer that is pierced by the hunter’s shaft -seeks the thicket where its fellows cannot see it. I could no longer -endure to be seen in the streets of Antioch;—and now I shrink from -showing myself to the army. - - MAXIMUS. - -No one sees you, friend; for they grope in blindness. But you shall be -as a physician to restore their sight, and then they shall behold you in -your glory. - - JULIAN. - -[_Gazing down into the ravine._] How far beneath us! How tiny they seem, -as they wind their way forward, amid thicket and brushwood, along the -rocky river-bed! - -When we stood at the mouth of this defile, all the leaders, as one man, -made for the pass. It meant an hour’s way shortened, a little trouble -spared,—on the road to death. - -And the legions were so eager to follow. No thought of taking the upward -path, no longing for the free air up here, where the bosom expands with -each deep draught of breath. There they march, and march, and march, and -see not that the heaven is straitened above them,—and know not there are -heights where it is wider.—Seems it not, Maximus, as though men lived -but to die? The spirit of the Galilean is in this. If it be true, as -they say, that his father made the world, then the son contemns his -father’s work. And it is just for this presumptuous frenzy that he is so -highly revered! - -How great was Socrates compared with him! Did not Socrates love -pleasure, and happiness, and beauty? And yet he renounced them.—Is there -not a bottomless abyss between not desiring, on the one hand, and, on -the other, desiring, yet renouncing? - -Oh, this treasure of lost wisdom I would fain have restored to men. Like -Dionysus of old, I went forth to meet them, young and joyous, a garland -on my brow, and the fulness of the vine in my arms. But they reject my -gifts, and I am scorned, and hated, and derided, by friends and foes -alike. - - MAXIMUS. - -Why? I will tell you why. - -Hard by a certain town where once I lived, there was a vineyard, -renowned far and wide for its grapes; and when the citizens wished to -have the finest fruits on their tables, they sent their servants out to -bring clusters from this vineyard. - -Many years after I came again to that city; but no one now knew aught of -the grapes that were once so renowned. Then I sought the owner of the -vineyard and said to him, “Tell me, friend, are your vines dead, since -no one now knows aught of your grapes?” “No,” he answered, “but let me -tell you, young vines yield good grapes but poor wine; old vines, on the -contrary, bad grapes but good wine. Therefore, stranger,” he added, “I -still gladden the hearts of my fellow citizens with the abundance of my -vineyard, only in another form—as wine, not as grapes.” - - JULIAN. - -[_Thoughtfully._] Yes, yes, yes! - - MAXIMUS. - -You have not given heed to this. The vine of the world has grown old, -and yet you think that you can still offer the raw grapes to those who -thirst for the new wine. - - JULIAN. - -Alas, my Maximus, who thirsts? Name me a single man, outside our -brotherhood, who is moved by a spiritual craving.—Unhappy I, to be born -into this iron age! - - MAXIMUS. - -Do not reproach the age. Had the age been greater, you would have been -less. The world-soul is like a rich man with innumerable sons. If he -share his riches equally, all are well to do, but none rich. But if he -disinherit all but one, and give everything to him, then that one stands -as a rich man amid a circle of paupers. - - JULIAN. - -No similitude could be less apt than this.—Am I like your single heir? -Is not that very thing divided among many which the ruler of the world -should possess in fuller measure than all besides—nay, which he alone -should possess? Oh how is not power divided? Has not Libanius the power -of eloquence in such fulness that men call him the king of orators? Have -not you, my Maximus, the power of mystic wisdom? Has not that madman -Apollinaris of Antioch the power of ecstatic song in a measure I needs -must envy him? And then Gregory the Cappadocian! Has he not the power of -indomitable will in such excess, that many have applied to him the -epithet, unbecoming for a subject, of “the Great”? And—what is stranger -still—the same epithet has been applied to Gregory’s friend, Basil, the -soft-natured man with girlish eyes. And yet he plays no active part in -the world; he lives here, this Basil—here in this remote region, wearing -the habit of an anchorite, and holding converse with none but his -disciples, his sister Makrina, and other women, who are called pious and -holy. What influence do they not exert, both he and his sister, through -the epistles they send forth from time to time. Everything, even -renunciation and seclusion, becomes a power to oppose my power. But the -crucified Jew is still the worst of all. - - MAXIMUS. - -Then make an end of all these scattered powers! But dream not that you -can crush the rebels, by attacking them in the name of a monarch whom -they do not know. In your own name you must act, Julian! Did Jesus of -Nazareth come as the emissary of another? Did he not proclaim himself to -be one with him that sent him? Truly in you is the time fulfilled, and -you see it not. Do not all signs and omens point, with unerring finger, -to you? Must I remind you of your mother’s dream——? - - JULIAN. - -She dreamed that she brought forth Achilles. - - MAXIMUS. - -Must I remind you how fortune has borne you, as on mighty pinions, -through an agitated and perilous life? Who are you, sire? Are you -Alexander born again, not, as before, in immaturity, but perfectly -equipped for the fufilment of the task? - - JULIAN. - -Maximus! - - MAXIMUS. - -There is One who ever reappears, at certain intervals, in the course of -human history. He is like a rider taming a wild horse in the arena. -Again and yet again it throws him. A moment, and he is in the saddle -again, each time more secure and more expert; but off he has had to go, -in all his varying incarnations, until this day. Off he had to go as the -god-created man in Eden’s grove; off he had to go as the founder of the -world-empire;—off he _must_ go as the prince of the empire of God. Who -knows how often he has wandered among us when none have recognised him? - -How know you, Julian, that you were not in him whom you now persecute? - - JULIAN. - -[_Looking far away._] Oh unfathomable riddle——! - - MAXIMUS. - -Must I remind you of the old prophecy now set afloat again? It has been -foretold that so many years as the year has days should the empire of -the Galilean endure. Two years more, and ’twill be three hundred and -sixty-five years since that man was born in Bethlehem. - - JULIAN. - -Do you believe this prophecy? - - MAXIMUS. - -I believe in him who is to come. - - JULIAN. - -Always riddles! - - MAXIMUS. - -I believe in the free necessity. - - JULIAN. - -Still darker riddles. - - MAXIMUS. - -Behold, Julian,—when Chaos seethed in the fearful void abyss, and -Jehovah was alone,—that day when he, according to the old Jewish -scriptures, stretched forth his hand and divided light from darkness, -sea from land,—that day the great creating God stood on the summit of -his power. - -But with man arose will upon the earth. And men, and beasts, and trees, -and herbs re-created themselves, each in its own image, according to -eternal laws; and by eternal laws the stars roll through the heavenly -spaces. - -Did Jehovah repent? The ancient traditions of all races tell of a -repentant Creator. - -He had established the law of perpetuation in the universe. Too late to -repent! The created _will_ perpetuate itself—and is perpetuated. - -But the two onesided empires war one against the other. Where, where is -he, the king of peace, the twin-sided one, who shall reconcile them? - - JULIAN. - -[_To himself._] Two years? All the gods inactive. No capricious power -behind, which might bethink itself to cross my plans—— - -Two years? In two years I can bring the earth under my sway. - - MAXIMUS. - -You spoke, my Julian;—what said you? - - JULIAN. - -I am young and strong and healthy. Maximus—it is my will to live long. - - [_He goes out to the right. MAXIMUS follows him._ - - - SCENE SECOND - -_A hilly wooded region with a brook among the trees. On an elevation a - little farm. It is towards sunset._ - -_Columns of soldiers pass from left to right at the foot of the slope. - BASIL OF CAESAREA, and his sister MAKRINA, both in the dress of - hermits, stand by the wayside and offer water and fruits to the - weary soldiers._ - - MAKRINA. - -Oh, Basil, see—each paler and more haggard than the last! - - BASIL. - -And countless multitudes of our Christian brethren among them! Woe to -the Emperor Julian! This is a cruelty more cunningly contrived than all -the horrors of the torture-chamber. Against whom is he leading his -hosts? Less against the Persian king than against Christ. - - MAKRINA. - -Do you believe this dreadful thing of him? - - BASIL. - -Yes, Makrina, it becomes more and more clear to me that ’tis against -_us_ the blow is aimed. All the defeats he has suffered in Antioch, all -the resistance he has met with, all the disappointments and humiliations -he has had to endure on his ungodly path, he hopes to bury in oblivion -by means of a victorious campaign. And he will succeed. A great victory -will blot out everything. Men are fashioned so; they see right in -success, and before might most of them will bend. - - MAKRINA. - -[_Pointing out to the left._] Fresh multitudes! Innumerable, unceasing—— - - [_A company of soldiers passes by; a young man in the ranks - sinks down on the road from weariness._ - - A SUBALTERN. - -[_Beating him with a stick._] Up with you, lazy hound! - - MAKRINA. - -[_Hastening up._] Oh, do not strike him! - - THE SOLDIER. - -Let them strike me;—I am so glad to suffer. - - AMMIAN. - -[_Entering._] Again a stoppage!—Oh, it is he. Can he really go no -further? - - THE SUBALTERN. - -I do not know what to say, sir; he falls at every step. - - MAKRINA. - -Oh, be patient! Who is this unhappy man?—See, suck the juice of these -fruits.—Who is he, sir? - - AMMIAN. - -A Cappadocian,—one of the fanatics who took part in the desecration of -the temple of Venus at Antioch. - - MAKRINA. - -Oh, one of those martyrs——! - - AMMIAN. - -Try to rise, Agathon! I am sorry for this fellow. They chastised him -more severely than he could bear. He has been out of his mind ever -since. - - AGATHON. - -[_Rising._] I can bear it very well, and I am in my right mind, sir! -Strike, strike, strike;—I rejoice to suffer. - - AMMIAN. - -[_To the Subaltern._] Forward; we have no time to waste. - - THE SUBALTERN. - -[_To the soldiers._] Forward, forward! - - AGATHON. - -Babylonius fell;—soon shall the Babylonian whoremonger fall likewise. -The lion of Zaita was slain—the crowned lion of the earth is doomed! - - [_The soldiers are driven out to the right._ - - AMMIAN. - -[_To BASIL and MAKRINA._] You strange people;—you go astray and yet you -do good. Thanks for your refreshment to the weary; and would that my -duty to the Emperor permitted me to treat your brethren as forbearingly -as I should desire. - - [_He goes off to the right._ - - BASIL. - -God be with you, noble heathen! - - MAKRINA. - -Who may that man be? - - BASIL. - -I know him not. - - [_He points to the left._ - -Oh see, see—there he is himself! - - MAKRINA. - -The Emperor? Is _that_ the Emperor? - - BASIL. - -Yes, that is he. - - _The EMPEROR JULIAN with several of his principal officers, - escorted by a detachment of guards, with their captain - ANATOLUS, enters from the left._ - - JULIAN. - -[_To his retinue._] Why talk of fatigue? Should the fall of a horse -bring me to a standstill? Or is it less becoming to go on foot than to -bestride an inferior animal? Fatigue! My ancestor said that it befits an -Emperor to die standing. I say that it befits an Emperor, not only in -the hour of death, but throughout his whole life, to set an example of -endurance; I say—— Ah, by the great light of heaven! do I not see Basil -of Caesarea before my eyes? - - BASIL. - -[_Bowing deeply._] Your meanest servant, oh most mighty lord! - - JULIAN. - -Ah, I know what that means! Truly you serve me well, Basil! - - [_Approaching._ - -So this is the villa that has become so renowned by reason of the -epistles that go forth from it. This house is more talked of throughout -the provinces than all the lecture-halls together, although I have -spared neither care nor pains to restore their glory. - -Tell me—is not this woman your sister, Makrina? - - BASIL. - -She is, sire! - - JULIAN. - -You are a fair woman, and still young. And yet, as I hear, you have -renounced life. - - MAKRINA. - -Sire, I have renounced life in order truly to live. - - JULIAN. - -Ah, I know your delusions very well. You sigh for that which lies -beyond, of which you have no certain knowledge; you mortify your flesh; -you repress all human desires. And yet I tell you this may be a vanity, -like the rest. - - BASIL. - -Think not, sire, that I am blind to the danger that lurks in -renunciation. I know that my friend Gregory says well when he writes -that he holds himself a hermit in heart, though not in the body. And I -know that this coarse clothing is of small profit to my soul if I take -merit to myself for wearing it. - -But that is not my case. This secluded life fills me with unspeakable -happiness; that is all. The wild convulsions through which, in these -days, the world is passing, do not here force themselves, in all their -hideousness, upon my eyes. Here I feel my body uplifted in prayer, and -my soul purified by a frugal life. - - JULIAN. - -Oh my modest Basil, I fear you are ambitious of more than this. If what -I hear be true, your sister has gathered round her a band of young women -whom she is training up in her own likeness. And you yourself, like your -Galilean master, have chosen twelve disciples. What is your purpose with -them? - - BASIL. - -To send them forth into all lands, that they may strengthen our brethren -in the fight. - - JULIAN. - -Truly! Equipped with all the weapons of eloquence, you send your army -against me. And whence did you obtain this eloquence, this glorious -Greek art? From our schools of learning. What right have you to it? You -have stolen like a spy into our camp, to find out where you can most -safely strike at us. And this knowledge you are now applying to our -greatest hurt! - -Let me tell you, Basil, that I have no mind to suffer this scandal any -longer. I will strike this weapon out of your hands. Keep to your -Matthew and Luke, and other such unpolished babblers. But henceforth you -shall not be permitted to interpret our ancient poets and philosophers; -for I hold it unreasonable to let you suck knowledge and skill from -sources in the truth of which you do not believe. In like manner shall -all Galilean scholars be forbidden our lecture-halls; for what is their -business there? To steal our weapons and use them against us. - - BASIL. - -Sire, I have already heard of this strange determination. And I agree -with Gregory in maintaining that you have no exclusive right either to -Grecian learning or to Grecian eloquence. I agree with him when he -points out that you use the alphabet which was invented by the -Egyptians, and that you clothe yourself in purple, although it first -came into use among the people of Tyre. - -Ay, sire—and more than that. You subdue nations, and make yourself ruler -over peoples, whose tongues are unknown and whose manners are strange to -you. And you have a right to do so. But by the same right whereby you -rule the visible world, he whom you call the Galilean rules the -invisible—— - - JULIAN. - -Enough of that! I will no longer listen to such talk. You speak as -though there were two rulers of the world, and on that plea you cry halt -to me at every turn. Oh fools! You set up a dead man against a living -one. But you shall soon be convinced of your error. Do not suppose that -amid the cares of war I have laid aside the treatise I have long been -preparing against you. Perhaps you think I spend my nights in sleep? You -are mistaken! For “The Beard-Hater” I reaped nothing but scorn,—and that -from the very people who had most reason to lay certain truths to heart. -But that shall in nowise deter me. Should a man with a cudgel in his -hand shrink from a pack of yelping dogs?—Why did you smile, woman? At -what did you laugh? - - MAKRINA. - -Why, sire, do you rage so furiously against one who, you say, is dead? - - JULIAN. - -Ah, I understand! You mean to say that he is alive. - - MAKRINA. - -I mean to say, oh mighty Emperor, that in your heart you feel of a -surety that he lives. - - JULIAN. - -I? What next! _I_ feel——! - - MAKRINA. - -What is it that you hate and persecute? Not him, but your belief in him. -And does he not live in your hate and persecution, no less than in our -love? - - JULIAN. - -I know your tortuous tricks of speech. You Galileans say one thing and -mean another. And that you call rhetoric! Oh mediocre minds! What folly! -_I_ feel that the crucified Jew is alive! Oh what a degenerate age, to -find satisfaction in such sophistries! But such is the latter-day world. -Madness passes for wisdom. How many sleepless nights have I not spent in -searching out the true foundation of things? But where are my followers? -Many praise my eloquence, but few, or none, are convinced by it. - -But truly the end is not yet. A great astonishment will come upon you. -You shall see how all the scattered forces are converging into one. You -shall see how, from all that you now despise, glory shall issue -forth—and out of the cross on which you hang your hopes I will fashion a -ladder for One whom you know not of. - - MAKRINA. - -And I tell you, Emperor Julian, that you are nought but a scourge in the -hand of God—a scourge foredoomed to chasten us by reason of our sins. -Woe to us that it must be so! Woe to us for the discords and the -lovelessness that have caused us to swerve from the true path! - -There was no longer a king in Israel. Therefore has the Lord stricken -you with madness, that you might chastise us. - -What a spirit has he not darkened, that it should rage against us! What -a blossoming tree has he not stripped to make rods for our sin-laden -shoulders! - -Portents warned you, and you heeded them not. Voices called you, and you -heard them not. Hands wrote in letters of fire upon the wall, and you -rubbed out the writing ere you had deciphered it. - - JULIAN. - -Basil—I would I had known this woman before to-day. - - BASIL. - -Come, Makrina! - - MAKRINA. - -Woe is me that ever I saw those shining eyes! Angel and serpent in one; -the apostate’s longing wedded to the tempter’s guile! Oh, how have our -brethren and sisters borne their hope of victory so high, in the face of -such an instrument of wrath? In him dwells a greater than he. Do you not -see it, Basil—in him will the Lord God smite us even to death. - - JULIAN. - -You have said it! - - MAKRINA. - -Not I! - - JULIAN. - -First-won soul! - - MAKRINA. - -Avaunt from me! - - BASIL. - -Come—come! - - JULIAN. - -Stay here!—Anatolus, set a guard about them!—’Tis my will that you shall -follow the army—both you and your disciples,—youths and women. - - BASIL. - -Sire, you cannot desire this! - - JULIAN. - -’Tis not wise to leave fortresses in our rear. See, I stretch forth my -hand and quench the burning shower of arrows which you have sent forth -from yonder villa. - - BASIL. - -Nay, nay, sire—this deed of violence—— - - MAKRINA. - -Alas, Basil—here or elsewhere—all is over. - - JULIAN. - -Is it not written “Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s”? I -require all aid in this campaign. You can tend my sick and wounded. In -that you will be serving the Galilean as well; and if you still think -that a duty, I counsel you to make good use of your time. His end is -near! - - [_Some soldiers have surrounded BASIL and MAKRINA, others hasten - through the thicket towards the house._ - - MAKRINA. - -Sunset over our home; sunset of hope and of light in the world! Oh -Basil! that we should live to see the night! - - BASIL. - -The light _is_. - - JULIAN. - -The light shall be. Turn your backs to the sunset, Galileans! Your faces -to the east, to the east, where Helios lies dreaming. Verily I say unto -you, you shall see the Sun-King of the world. - - [_He goes out to the right; all follow him._ - - - SCENE THIRD. - -_Beyond the Euphrates and Tigris. A wide plain, with the imperial camp. - Copses, to the left and in the background, hide the windings of - the Tigris. Masts of ships rise over the thickets in long rows, - stretching into the far distance. A cloudy evening._ - -_Soldiers and men-at-arms of all sorts are busy pitching their tents on - the plain. All kinds of stores are being brought from the ships. - Watchfires far away. NEVITA, JOVIAN, and other officers come from - the fleet._ - - NEVITA. - -See, now, how rightly the Emperor has chosen! Here we stand, without a -stroke, on the enemy’s territory; no one has opposed our passage of the -river; not even a single Persian horseman is to be seen. - - JOVIAN. - -No, sir, by this route, the enemy certainly did not expect us. - - NEVITA. - -You speak as if you still thought this route unwisely chosen. - - JOVIAN. - -Yes, sir, it is still my opinion that we should rather have taken a more -northerly direction. Then our left wing would have rested on Armenia, -which is friendly towards us, and all our supplies might have come from -that fruitful province. But here? Hampered in our progress by the heavy -freight-ships, surrounded by a barren plain, almost a desert—— Ah! the -Emperor is coming. I will go; I am not in his good graces at present. - -_He goes out to the right. At the same time JULIAN enters with his - retinue from the ships. ORIBASES, the physician, the philosophers - PRISCUS and KYTRON, with several others, appear from among the - tents on the right, and advance to meet the Emperor._ - - JULIAN. - -Thus does the empire grow. Every step I take towards the east shifts the -frontier of my dominion. - - [_He stamps on the earth._ - -This earth is mine! I am in the empire, not beyond it.—Well, Priscus——? - - PRISCUS. - -Incomparable Emperor, your command has been executed. Your marvellous -dream has been read to every division of the army. - - JULIAN. - -Good, good. And how did my dream seem to affect the soldiers? - - KYTRON. - -Some praised you with joyful voices, and hailed you as divine; others on -the contrary—— - - PRISCUS. - -Those others were Galileans, Kytron! - - KYTRON. - -Yes, yes, most of them were Galileans; and these smote upon their -breasts and uttered loud lamentations. - - JULIAN. - -I will not let the matter rest here. The busts of myself, which I have -provided for erection in the towns I am to conquer, shall be set up -round the camp, over all the paymasters’ tables. Lamps shall be lighted -beside the busts; braziers, with sweet-smelling incense, shall burn -before them; and every soldier, as he comes forward to receive his pay, -shall cast some grains of incense on the fire. - - ORIBASES. - -Most gracious Emperor, forgive me, but—is that expedient? - - JULIAN. - -Why not? I marvel at you, my Oribases! - - PRISCUS. - -Ah, sire, you may well marvel! Not expedient to——? - - KYTRON. - -Should not a Julian dare what less god-like men have dared? - - JULIAN. - -I, too, think that the more daring course would now be to disguise the -counsels of the mystic powers. If it be the case that the divinities -have deputed their sovereignty into earthly hands—as many signs justify -us in concluding—it would indeed be most ungrateful to conceal the fact. -In such hazardous circumstances as these, ’tis no trifling matter that -the soldiers should pay their devotions in a quite different quarter -from that in which they are due. - -I tell you, Oribases, and all of you,—if, indeed, there be present any -one else who would set limits to the Emperor’s power,—that this would be -the very essence of impiety, and that I should therefore be forced to -take strong measures against it. - -Has not Plato long ago enunciated the truth that only a god can rule -over men? What meant he by that saying? Answer me—what did he mean? Far -be it from me to assert that Plato—incomparable sage though he was—had -any individual, even the greatest, in his prophetic eye. But I think we -have all seen what disorders result from the parcelling out, as it were, -of the supreme power into several hands. - -Enough of that. I have already commanded that the imperial busts shall -be displayed about the camp. - -Ah! what seek you in such haste, Eutherius? - - _The Chamberlain EUTHERIUS comes from the ships, accompanied by - a man in girt-up garments._ - - EUTHERIUS. - -Exalted Emperor,—this man of Antioch is sent by the governor, Alexander, -and brings you a letter which, he says, is of great importance. - - JULIAN. - -Ah, let me see! Light here! - - [_A torch is brought; the Emperor opens and reads the letter._ - - JULIAN. - -Can this be possible! More light! Yes, here it is written—and here—; -what next?—Truly this exceeds all I could have conceived! - - NEVITA. - -Bad news from the west, sire? - - JULIAN. - -Nevita, tell me, how long will it take us to reach Ctesiphon? - - NEVITA. - -It cannot be done in less than thirty days. - - JULIAN. - -It _must_ be done in less! Thirty days! A whole month! And while we are -creeping forward here, I must let those madmen—— - - NEVITA. - -You know yourself, sire, that, on account of the ships, we must follow -all the windings of the river. The current is rapid, and the bed, too, -shallow and stony. I hold it impossible to proceed more quickly. - - JULIAN. - -Thirty days! And then there is the city to be taken,—the Persian army to -be routed,—peace to be concluded. What a time all this will take! Yet -there were some among you foolish enough to urge upon me an even more -roundabout route. Ha-ha; they would compass my ruin! - - NEVITA. - -Never fear, sire; the expedition shall advance with all possible speed. - - JULIAN. - -It must indeed. Can you imagine what Alexander tells me? The frenzy of -the Galileans has passed all bounds since my departure. And it increases -day by day. They understand that my victory in Persia will bring their -extirpation in its train; and with that shameless Gregory as their -leader, they now stand, like a hostile army in my rear; in the Phrygian -regions secret things are preparing, no one knows to what end—— - - NEVITA. - -What does this mean, sire? What are they doing? - - JULIAN. - -What are they doing? Praying, preaching, singing, prophesying the end of -the world. And would that that were all!—but they carry our adherents -away, and entice them into their rebellious conspiracies. In Caesarea -the congregation has chosen the judge Eusebius to be their -bishop,—Eusebius, an unbaptised man—and he has been so misguided as to -accept their call, which, moreover, the canon of their own church -declares invalid. - -But that is far from being the worst; worse, worse, ten times worse is -it, that Athanasius has returned to Alexandria. - - NEVITA. - -Athanasius! - - PRISCUS. - -That mysterious bishop who, six years ago, vanished into the desert. - - JULIAN. - -A council of the church expelled him on account of his unseemly zeal. -The Galileans were tractable under my predecessor. - -Yes, just think of it—this raging fanatic has returned to Alexandria. -His entrance was like a king’s; the road was strewn with carpets and -green palm-branches. And what followed? What do you think? The same -night a riot broke out among the Galileans. George, their lawful bishop, -that right-minded and well-disposed man, whom they accused of -lukewarmness in the faith, was murdered—torn to pieces in the streets of -the city. - - NEVITA. - -But, sire, how were things suffered to go so far? Where was the -governor, Artemius? - - JULIAN. - -You may well ask where Artemius was. I will tell you. Artemius has gone -over to the Galileans. Artemius himself has broken by force of arms into -the Serapeion, that most glorious of earthly temples,—has shattered the -statues—has plundered the altars, and destroyed that vast treasury of -books, which was of such inestimable value precisely in this age of -error and ignorance. I could weep for them as for a friend bereft me by -death, were not my wrath too great for tears. - - KYTRON. - -Truly, this surpasses belief! - - JULIAN. - -And not to be within reach of these miserable beings to punish them! To -be doomed to look idly on while such atrocities spread wider and wider -around!—Thirty days, you say! Why are we loitering? Why are we pitching -our tents? Why should we sleep? Do my generals not know what is at -stake? We must hold a council of war. When I remember what the -Macedonian Alexander achieved in thirty days—— - - _JOVIAN, accompanied by a man in Persian garb, unarmed, enters from the - camp._ - - JOVIAN. - -Forgive me, sire, for appearing before you: but this stranger—— - - JULIAN. - -A Persian warrior! - - THE PERSIAN. - -[_Prostrating himself to the earth._] No warrior, oh mighty Emperor! - - JOVIAN. - -He came riding over the plains unarmed, and surrendered at the -outposts—— - - JULIAN. - -Then your countrymen are at hand? - - THE PERSIAN. - -No, no! - - JULIAN. - -Whence come you then? - - THE PERSIAN. - - [_Throws open his garments._] Look at these arms, oh ruler of - the world,—bleeding from rusty fetters. Feel this flayed - back,—sore upon sore. I come from the torture chamber, sire! - - JULIAN. - -Ah—a fugitive from King Sapor? - - THE PERSIAN. - -Yes, mighty Emperor, to whom all things are known! I stood high in King -Sapor’s favour until, impelled by the terror of your approach, I dared -to prophesy that this war would end in his destruction. Would you know, -sire, how he has rewarded me? My wife he gave as a prey to his archers -from the mountains; my children he sold as slaves; all my possessions he -divided among his servants; myself he tortured for nine days. Then he -bade me ride forth and die like a beast in the desert. - - JULIAN. - -And what would you with me? - - THE PERSIAN. - -What would I after such treatment? I would help you to destroy my -persecutor. - - JULIAN. - -Ah, poor tortured wretch,—how can you help? - - THE PERSIAN. - -I can lend wings to your soldiers’ feet. - - JULIAN. - -What mean you by that? Rise and explain yourself. - - THE PERSIAN. - -[_Rising._] No one in Ctesiphon expected you to choose this route—— - - JULIAN. - -I know that. - - THE PERSIAN. - -Now ’tis no longer a secret. - - JULIAN. - -You lie, fellow! You Persians know nought of my designs. - - THE PERSIAN. - -You, sire, whose wisdom is born of the sun and of fire, know well that -my countrymen are now acquainted with your designs. You have crossed the -rivers by means of your ships; these ships, more than a thousand in -number, and laden with all the supplies of the army, are to be towed up -the Tigris, and the troops are to advance abreast of the ships. - - JULIAN. - -Incredible——! - - THE PERSIAN. - -When the ships have approached as near Ctesiphon as possible—that is to -say, within two days’ march—you will make straight for the city, -beleaguer it, and compel King Sapor to surrender. - - JULIAN. - -[_Looking round._] Who has betrayed us? - - THE PERSIAN. - -This plan is now no longer practicable. My countrymen have hastily -constructed stone dams in the bed of the river, on which your ships will -run aground. - - JULIAN. - -Man, do you know what it will cost you if you deceive me? - - THE PERSIAN. - -My body is in your power, mighty Emperor! If I speak not the truth, you -are free to burn me alive. - - JULIAN. - -[_To NEVITA._] The river dammed! It will take weeks to make it navigable -again. - - NEVITA. - -If it can be done at all, sire! We have not the implements—— - - JULIAN. - -And that this should come upon us now—just when so much depends on a -speedy victory.[12] - - THE PERSIAN. - -Oh ruler of the world, I have said that I can lend your army wings. - - JULIAN. - -Speak! Do you know of a shorter way? - - THE PERSIAN. - -If you will promise me that after your victory you will restore the -possessions of which I have been robbed, and give me a new wife of noble -birth, I will—— - - JULIAN. - -I promise everything; only speak,—speak! - - THE PERSIAN. - -Strike straight across the plains, and in four days you will be under -the walls of Ctesiphon. - - JULIAN. - -Do you forget the mountain chain on the other side of the plains? - - THE PERSIAN. - -Sire, have you never heard of that strange defile among the mountains? - - JULIAN. - -Yes, yes, a chasm; “Ahriman’s Street” it is called. Is it true that it -exists? - - THE PERSIAN. - -I rode through “Ahriman’s Street” two days ago. - - JULIAN. - -Nevita! - - NEVITA. - -In truth sire, if it be so—— - - JULIAN. - -Miraculous help in the hour of need——! - - THE PERSIAN. - -But if you would pass that way, oh mighty one, there is not a moment to -be lost. The Persian army which had been assembled in the northern -provinces, is now recalled to block the mountain passes. - - JULIAN. - -Know you that for certain? - - THE PERSIAN. - -Delay, and you will discover it for yourself. - - JULIAN. - -How many days will it take your countrymen to get there? - - THE PERSIAN. - -Four days, sire! - - JULIAN. - -Nevita, in three days we must be beyond the defiles! - - NEVITA. - -[_To the PERSIAN._] Is it possible to reach the defiles in three days? - - THE PERSIAN. - -Yes, great warrior, it is possible, if you make use of this night as -well. - - JULIAN. - -Let the camp be broken up! No time now for sleep, for rest! In four -days—or five at the utmost—I must stand before Ctesiphon.—What are you -thinking about! Ah, I know. - - NEVITA. - -The fleet, sire! - - JULIAN. - -Yes, yes, yes, the fleet! - - NEVITA. - -Should the Persian army reach the defiles a day later than we, they -will—if they cannot injure you in any other way—turn westward against -your ships—— - - JULIAN. - -And seize a vast amount of booty, wherewith to continue the war—— - - NEVITA. - -If we could leave twenty thousand men with the ships, they would be -safe—— - - JULIAN. - -What are you thinking of! Twenty thousand? Well nigh a third of our -fighting strength. Where would be the force with which I must strike the -great blow? Divided, dispersed, frittered away. Not one man will I -detach for such a purpose. - -No, no, Nevita; but there may be a middle course—— - - NEVITA. - -[_Recoiling._] My great Emperor—! - - JULIAN. - -The fleet must neither fall into the hands of the Persians, nor yet cost -us men. There is a middle course, I tell you! Why do you falter? Why not -speak it out? - - NEVITA. - -[_To the PERSIAN._] Do you know whether the citizens of Ctesiphon have -stores of corn and oil? - - THE PERSIAN. - -Ctesiphon overflows with supplies of all sorts. - - JULIAN. - -And when we have once taken the city, the whole rich country lies open -to us. - - THE PERSIAN. - -The citizens will open their gates to you, sire. I am not the only one -who hates King Sapor. They will rise against him and straightway submit -to you, if you come upon them, unprepared and panic-stricken, with your -whole united force. - - JULIAN. - -Yes; yes. - - THE PERSIAN. - -Burn the ships, sire! - - NEVITA. - -Ah! - - JULIAN. - -His hate has eyes where your fidelity is blind, Nevita! - - NEVITA. - -My fidelity saw, sire; but it shrank from what it saw. - - JULIAN. - -Are not these ships like fetters on our feet? We have provisions for -four full days in the camp. It is well that the soldiers should not be -too heavily laden. Of what use, then, are the ships? We have no more -rivers to pass—— - - NEVITA. - -Sire, if it be indeed your will—— - - JULIAN. - -My will,—my will? Oh, on an evening like this,—so angry and -tempestuous,—why cannot a flash of lightning descend and—— - - MAXIMUS. - -[_Entering hastily from the left._] Oh chosen son of Helios—hear me, -hear me! - - JULIAN. - -Not now, my Maximus! - - MAXIMUS. - -Nothing can be more pressing than this. You _must_ hear me! - - JULIAN. - -Then in the name of fortune and wisdom, speak, my brother! - - MAXIMUS. - -[_Draws him apart, and says in a low voice._] You know how I have -striven to search and spell out, both in books and through auguries, the -issue of this campaign? - - JULIAN. - -I know that you have been unable to foretell anything. - - MAXIMUS. - -The omens spoke and the writings confirmed them. But the answer which -always came was so strange that I could not but think myself mistaken. - - JULIAN. - -But now——? - - MAXIMUS. - -When we departed from Antioch, I wrote to Rome to consult the Sibylline -Books—— - - JULIAN. - -Yes, yes——! - - MAXIMUS. - -This very moment the answer has arrived; a courier from the governor of -Antioch brought it. - - JULIAN. - -Ah, Maximus,—and its purport——? - - MAXIMUS. - -The same as that of the omens and the books; and now I dare interpret -it. Rejoice, my brother,—in this war you are invulnerable. - - JULIAN. - -The oracle,—the oracle? - - MAXIMUS. - -The Sibylline Books say: “Julian must beware of the Phrygian regions.” - - JULIAN. - -[_Recoiling._] The Phrygian——? Ah, Maximus! - - MAXIMUS. - -Why so pale, my brother? - - JULIAN. - -Tell me, dear teacher—how do you interpret this answer? - - MAXIMUS. - -Is more than one interpretation possible? The Phrygian regions? What -have you to do in Phrygia? In Phrygia—a remote province lying far behind -you, where you need never set your foot. _No_ danger threatens you, -fortunate man—_that_ is the interpretation. - - JULIAN. - -This oracle has a twofold meaning. No danger threatens me in this -war,—but from that distant region—— - -Nevita, Nevita! - - NEVITA. - -Sire——! - - JULIAN. - -In Phrygia? Alexander writes of secret things preparing in Phrygia. It -has been foretold that the Galilean is to come again—— - -Burn the ships, Nevita! - - NEVITA. - -Sire, is this your firm and irrevocable will——? - - JULIAN. - -Burn them! No delay! Lurking dangers threaten us in the rear. - - [_To one of the captains._ - -Give close heed to this stranger. He is to be our guide. Refresh him -with food and drink, and let him have thorough rest. - - JOVIAN. - -My Emperor, I implore you—build not too securely on the reports of a -deserter like this. - - JULIAN. - -Aha—you seem perturbed, my Galilean councillor! All this is not quite to -your mind. Perhaps you know more than you care to tell. - -Go, Nevita,—and burn the ships! - - [_NEVITA bows and goes out to the left. The captain leads the - Persian away among the tents._ - - JULIAN. - -Traitors in my own camp! Wait, wait,—I shall get to the bottom of these -machinations. - -The camp shall break up! Go, Jovian, see that the vanguard is afoot -within an hour. The Persian knows the way. Go! - - JOVIAN. - -As you command, my august Emperor! - - [_He goes out to the right._ - - MAXIMUS. - -You would burn the fleet? Then surely you have great things in your -mind. - - JULIAN. - -Tell me, would the Macedonian Alexander have ventured this? - - MAXIMUS. - -Did Alexander know where the danger threatened? - - JULIAN. - -True, true! _I_ know it. All the powers of victory are in league with -me. Omens and signs yield up their mystic secrets to advance my empire. - -Is it not said of the Galilean, that spirits came and ministered unto -him?—To whom do the spirits now minister? - -What would the Galilean say, were he present unseen among us? - - MAXIMUS. - -He would say: the third empire is at hand. - - JULIAN. - -The third empire is here, Maximus! I feel that the Messiah of the earth -lives in me. The spirit has become flesh and the flesh spirit. All -creation lies within my will and my power. - -See, see,—there are the first sparks drifting aloft. The flames are -licking up the cordage and the clustered masts. - - [_He shouts in the direction of the fire._ - -Spread; spread! - - MAXIMUS. - -The wind anticipates your will. ’Tis rising to serve you. - - JULIAN. - -[_Commanding with clenched hand._] Swell into a storm! More westerly! I -command it! - - FROMENTINUS. - -[_Enters from the right._] Most gracious Emperor,—suffer me to warn you. -A dangerous disturbance has broken out in the camp. - - JULIAN. - -I will have no more disturbances. The army shall advance. - - FROMENTINUS. - -Yes, my Emperor,—but the refractory Galileans—— - - JULIAN. - -The Galileans? What of them? - - FROMENTINUS. - -Before the tables where the paymasters were distributing the soldiers’ -pay, your august image had been set up—— - - JULIAN. - -It is always to be so for the future. - - FROMENTINUS. - -Every man was ordered, as he came forward, to cast a grain of incense -into the braziers—— - - JULIAN. - -Yes—well, well? - - FROMENTINUS. - -Many of the Galilean soldiers did so unthinkingly, but others refused——? - - JULIAN. - -What! they refused? - - FROMENTINUS. - -At first, sire; but when the paymasters told them that ’twas an old -custom revived, in no wise pertaining to things divine—— - - JULIAN. - -Aha! what then? - - FROMENTINUS. - -——they yielded and did as they were bidden. - - JULIAN. - -There you see; they yielded! - - FROMENTINUS. - -But afterward, sire, our own men laughed and mocked at them, and said, -unthinkingly, that now they had best efface the sign of the cross and -the fish which they are wont to imprint upon their arms; for now they -had worshipped the divine Emperor. - - JULIAN. - -Yes, yes! And the Galileans? - - FROMENTINUS. - -They broke out into loud lamentations——; listen, listen, sire! It is -impossible to bring them to reason. - - [_Wild cries are heard without, among the tents._ - - JULIAN. - -The madmen! Rebellious to the last. They know not that their master’s -power is broken. - - [_Christian soldiers come rushing in. Some beat their breasts; - others tear their garments, with loud cries and weeping._ - - A SOLDIER. - -Christ died for me, and I forsook him! - - ANOTHER SOLDIER. - -Smite me, oh wrathful Lord in heaven; for I have worshipped false gods! - - THE SOLDIER AGATHON. - -The devil on the throne has slain my soul! Woe, woe, woe! - - OTHER SOLDIERS. - -[_Tearing off the leaden seals which they wear round their necks._] We -will not serve idols! - - OTHERS AGAIN. - -The Apostate is not our ruler! We will go home! home! - - JULIAN. - -Fromentinus, seize these madmen! Hew them down! - - [_FROMENTINUS and many of the bystanders are on the point of - falling upon the Christian soldiers. At that moment a vivid - glare spreads over the sky, and flames burst from the - ships._ - - OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS. - -[_Terror-stricken._] The fleet is burning! - - JULIAN. - -Yes, the fleet is burning! And more than the fleet is burning. In that -blazing, swirling pyre the crucified Galilean is burning to ashes; and -the earthly Emperor is burning with the Galilean. But from the ashes -shall arise—like that marvellous bird—the God of earth and the Emperor -of the spirit in one, in one, in one! - - SEVERAL VOICES. - -Madness has seized him! - - NEVITA. - -[_Entering from the left._] It is done. - - JOVIAN. - -[_Approaching hastily from the camp._] Quench the fire! Out, out with -it! - - JULIAN. - -Let it burn! Let it burn! - - AMMIAN. - -[_From the camp._] Sire, you are betrayed. That Persian fugitive was a -traitor—— - - JULIAN. - -Man, you lie! Where is he? - - AMMIAN. - -Fled! - - JOVIAN. - -Vanished like a shadow—— - - NEVITA. - -Fled! - - JOVIAN. - -His guards protest that he disappeared almost under their very eyes. - - AMMIAN. - -His horse, too, is gone from its pen; the Persian must have fled over -the plains. - - JULIAN. - -Quench the fire, Nevita! - - NEVITA. - -Impossible, my Emperor! - - JULIAN. - -Put it out, I say. It shall be possible! - - NEVITA. - -Nothing could be more impossible. All the cables are cut; the rest of -the ships are all drifting down upon the burning wrecks. - - PRINCE HORMISDAS. - -[_Coming from among the tents._] Curses upon my countrymen! Oh sire, how -could you give ear to that deceiver? - - CRIES FROM THE CAMP. - -The fleet on fire! Cut off from home! Death before us! - - THE SOLDIER AGATHON. - -False god, false god,—bid the storm to cease! bid the flames die down! - - JOVIAN. - -The storm increases. The fire is like a rolling sea—— - - MAXIMUS. - -[_Whispers._] Beware of the Phrygian regions. - - JULIAN. - -[_Shouts to the army._] Let the fleet burn! Within seven days you shall -burn Ctesiphon. - - - - - ACT FIFTH. - - - SCENE FIRST. - -_A barren, stony desert, without trees or grass. To the right, the - Emperor’s tent. Afternoon._ - -_Exhausted soldiers lie in knots on the plain. Detachments now and again - pass by from left to right. Outside the tent are the philosophers - PRISCUS and KYTRON, with several others of the Emperor’s suite, - waiting in restless anxiety. The captain of the bodyguard, - ANATOLUS, stands with soldiers before the opening of the tent._ - - KYTRON. - -Is is not incredible that this council of war should last so long? - - PRISCUS. - -Ay, truly; one would think there were only two courses to choose -between: to advance or to retire. - - KYTRON. - -’Tis utterly incomprehensible—— - -Tell me, good Anatolus, why, in the name of the gods, do we not advance? - - PRISCUS. - -Yes, why alarm us by halting here in the middle of the desert? - - ANATOLUS. - -See you the quivering air on the horizon, to the north, east, and south? - - KYTRON. - -Of course, of course; that is the heat—— - - ANATOLUS. - -It is the desert burning. - - PRISCUS. - -What say you? The desert burning? - - KYTRON. - -Do not jest so unpleasantly, good Anatolus! Tell us,—what is it? - - ANATOLUS. - -The desert burning, I tell you. Out yonder, where the sand ceases, the -Persians have set the grass on fire. We can make no progress till the -ground cools. - - KYTRON. - -Oh is not this appalling! What barbarians! To have recourse to such -means——! - - PRISCUS. - -Then there is no choice left us. Without provisions, without water——; -why do we not retreat? - - ANATOLUS. - -Over the Tigris and Euphrates? - - KYTRON. - -And the fleet burnt! What way is this to conduct the war? Oh, why does -not the Emperor think more of his friends! How shall I get home again? - - ANATOLUS. - -Like the rest of us, friend! - - KYTRON. - -Like the rest? Like the rest! That is a fine way to talk. With you it is -quite another matter. You are soldiers. ’Tis your calling to endure -certain hardships to which I am not at all accustomed. I did not join -the Emperor’s suite to go through all this. Here am I tortured with -gnats and poisonous flies;—look at my hands! - - PRISCUS. - -Most certainly we did not come for this. We consented to accompany the -army in order to compose panegyrics on the victories the Emperor -intended to win. What has come of these victories? What has been -achieved during the six toilsome weeks since the fleet was burnt? We -have destroyed a few deserted towns of the sorriest kind. A few -prisoners have been exhibited in the camp, whom the advance-guard are -said to have taken—truly I know not in what battles! The prisoners, -methought, looked more like poor kidnapped shepherds and peasants—— - - KYTRON. - -And to think of burning the fleet! Said I not from the first that it -would be a source of disaster? - - ANATOLUS. - -I did not hear you say so. - - KYTRON. - -What? Did I not say so? Oh Priscus, did you not hear me say it? - - PRISCUS. - -Truly, I do not know, friend; but I know that I myself in vain denounced -that luckless measure. Indeed I may say that I opposed the whole -campaign at this time of year. What rash haste! Where were the Emperor’s -eyes? Is this the same hero who fought with such marvellous success upon -the Rhine? One would think he had been struck with blindness or some -spiritual disease. - - ANATOLUS. - -Hush, hush;—what talk is this? - - KYTRON. - -’Twas indeed no fitting way for our Priscus to express himself. Yet I, -too, cannot deny that I observe a deplorable lack of wisdom in many of -the crowned philosopher’s recent proceedings. How precipitate to set up -his busts in the camp, and claim worship as if he were a god! How -imprudent so openly to scoff at that strange teacher from Nazareth, who -undeniably possesses a peculiar power, which might have stood us in good -stead in these perilous conjunctures. - -Ah! here comes Nevita himself. Now we shall hear—— - - [_NEVITA comes out of the tent. In the opening he turns and - makes a sign to some one within. The physician ORIBASES - immediately comes out._ - - NEVITA. - -[_Drawing him aside._] Tell me openly, Oribases,—is there anything amiss -with the Emperor’s mind? - - ORIBASES. - -What should make you think that, sir? - - NEVITA. - -How else can I interpret his conduct? - - ORIBASES. - -Oh my beloved Emperor——! - - NEVITA. - -Oribases, you must hide nothing from me. - - KYTRON. - -[_Drawing near._] Oh valiant general, if it be not indiscreet—— - - NEVITA. - -Presently, presently! - - ORIBASES. - -[_To NEVITA._] Do not fear, sir! No misfortune shall happen. Eutherius -and I have promised each other to keep an eye upon him. - - NEVITA. - -Ah, you do not mean to say that——? - - ORIBASES. - -Last night he had well nigh shortened his life. Fortunately Eutherius -was at hand——; oh speak of it to no one! - - NEVITA. - -Do not lose sight of him. - - PRISCUS. - -[_Drawing near._] It would greatly relieve our minds to hear what the -council of war——? - - NEVITA. - -Pardon me; I have weighty matters to attend to. - - [_He goes out behind the tent._ - - _At the same moment Jovian enters from the opening._ - - JOVIAN. - -[_Speaking into the tent._] It shall be done, my gracious Emperor! - - KYTRON. - -Ah, most excellent Jovian! Well? Is the retreat decided on? - - JOVIAN. - -I would not counsel any one to call it a retreat. - - [_He goes out behind the tent._ - - KYTRON. - -Oh these soldiers! A philosopher’s peace of mind is nothing to them. Ah! - - [_The EMPEROR JULIAN comes out of the tent; he is pale and - haggard. With him come the Chamberlain EUTHERIUS and several - officers; the latter go off over the plain to the right._ - - JULIAN. - -[_To the philosophers._] Rejoice, my friends! All will soon be well now. - - KYTRON. - -Ah, gracious Emperor, have you discovered an expedient? - - JULIAN. - -There are expedients enough, Kytron; the only difficulty is to choose -the best. We will slightly alter the line of advance—— - - PRISCUS. - -Oh, praise be to your wisdom! - - JULIAN. - -This eastward march—it leads to nothing. - - KYTRON. - -No, no, that is certain! - - JULIAN. - -Now we will turn northward, Kytron! - - KYTRON. - -What, sire,—northward? - - PRISCUS. - -Not westward? - - JULIAN. - -Not westward. Not by any means westward. That might be difficult on -account of the rivers. And Ctesiphon we must leave till another time. -Without ships we cannot think of taking the city. It was the Galileans -who brought about the burning of the fleet; I have noted one thing and -another. - -Who dares call this northward movement a retreat? What know you of my -plans? The Persian army is somewhere in the north; of that we are now -pretty well assured. When I have crushed Sapor—one battle will finish -the matter—we shall find abundant supplies in the Persian camp. - -When I lead the Persian king as my captive through Antioch and the other -cities, I would fain see whether the citizens will not fall at my feet. - - CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS. - - [_Pass singing over the plain._ - - Doomed is the world’s proud cedar-tree, - The axe shall its roots dissever; - The palm He planted on Calvary, - Blood-watered, shall bloom for ever. - - JULIAN. - -[_Following them with his eyes._] The Galileans are always singing. -Songs about death and wounds and pain. Those women whom I brought with -me to tend the sick—they have done us more harm than good. They have -taught the soldiers strange songs, such as I have never heard before. - -But hereafter I will punish no one for such things. It does but lead -them deeper into error. Know you, Priscus, what happened of late, in the -case of those mutineers who refused to show due reverence to the -imperial busts? - - PRISCUS. - -Of _late_, sire? - - JULIAN. - -When, wishing to beget a wholesome dread in their companions in error, I -ordered some of these men to be executed, the oldest of them stepped -forward with loud cries of joy, and begged to be the first to die.—Look -you, Priscus—when I heard that yesterday—— - - PRISCUS. - -Yesterday? Oh, sire, you are mistaken. That happened forty days ago. - - JULIAN. - -So long? Yes, yes, yes! The Hebrews had to wander forty years in the -wilderness. All the older generation had to die out. A new generation -had to spring up; but _they_—mark that!—_they_ entered into the promised -land. - - EUTHERIUS. - -’Tis late in the day, sire; will you not eat? - - JULIAN. - -Not yet, my Eutherius. ’Tis good for all men to mortify the flesh. - -Yes, I tell you, we must make haste to become a new generation. I can do -nothing with you as you are. If you would escape from the desert, you -must lead a pure life. Look at the Galileans. We might learn more than -one lesson from these men. There are none poverty-stricken and helpless -among them; they live together as brethren and sisters,—and most of all -now, when their obstinacy has forced me to chastise them. These -Galileans, you must know, have something in their hearts which I could -greatly desire that you should emulate. You call yourselves followers of -Socrates, of Plato, of Diogenes. Is there one of you who would face -death with ecstasy for Plato’s sake? Would our Priscus sacrifice his -left hand for Socrates? Would Kytron, for Diogenes’ sake, let his ear be -cut off? No, truly! I know you, whited sepulchres! Begone out of my -sight;—I can do nothing with you! - - [_The philosophers slink away; the others also disperse, - whispering anxiously. Only ORIBASES and EUTHERIUS remain - behind with the Emperor. ANATOLUS, the officer of the guard, - still stands with his soldiers outside the tent._ - - JULIAN. - -How strange! Is it not inconceivable, unfathomable? Oribases,—can you -rede me this riddle? - - ORIBASES. - -What riddle do you mean, my Emperor? - - JULIAN. - -With twelve poor ignorant fishermen, he founded all this. - - ORIBASES. - -Oh sire, these thoughts exhaust you. - - JULIAN. - -And who has held it together until this day? Women and ignorant people, -for the most part—— - - ORIBASES. - -Yes, yes, sire; but now the campaign will soon take a happy turn—— - - JULIAN. - -Very true, Oribases; as soon as fortune has taken a turn, all will be -well. The dominion of the carpenter’s son is drawing to its close; we -know that. His reign is to last as many years as the year has days; and -now we have—— - - EUTHERIUS. - -My beloved master, would not a bath refresh you? - - JULIAN. - -Do you think so?—You may go, Eutherius! Go, go! I have something to say -to Oribases. - - [_EUTHERIUS goes off behind the tent. The Emperor draws ORIBASES - over to the other side._ - - JULIAN. - -Has Eutherius told you aught this morning? - - ORIBASES. - -No, sire! - - JULIAN. - -Has he told you nothing about last night——? - - ORIBASES. - -No, my Emperor—nothing at all. Eutherius is very silent. - - JULIAN. - -If he should tell you anything, do not believe it. The thing did not -happen at all as he pretends. ’Tis he who is seeking my life. - - ORIBASES. - -He,—your old and faithful servant! - - JULIAN. - -I shall keep an eye on him. - - ORIBASES. - -I too. - - JULIAN. - -We will both keep an eye on him. - - ORIBASES. - -Sire, I fear you had but little sleep last night. - - JULIAN. - -Very little. - - [_ORIBASES is on the point of saying something, but changes his - mind._ - - JULIAN. - -Know you what kept me from sleeping? - - ORIBASES. - -No, my Emperor. - - JULIAN. - -The victor of the Milvian Bridge was with me. - - ORIBASES. - -The great Constantine? - - JULIAN. - -Yes. For some nights past his shade has given me no rest. He comes a -little after midnight, and does not depart until the dawn is at hand. - - ORIBASES. - -The moon is full, sire; that has always had a strange effect on your -mind. - - JULIAN. - -According to the ancients, such apparitions are wont——What can have -become of Maximus? But their opinions are by no means to be relied on. -We see how greatly they erred in many things. Even what they tell us of -the gods we cannot believe without reserve. Nor what they report as to -the shades, and the powers, as a whole, which rule the destinies of men. -What know we of these powers? We know nothing, Oribases, except their -capriciousness and inconstancy, of which characteristics we have -evidence enough. - -I wish Maximus would come—— - - [_To himself._ - -Here? ’Tis not here that the menacing storm is drawing up. ’Twas said to -be in the Phrygian regions—— - - ORIBASES. - -What regions, sire,—and what storm? - - JULIAN. - -Oh nothing—nothing. - - NEVITA. - -[_Enters from the plain on the right._] My Emperor, the army is now on -the march. - - JULIAN. - -Northwards? - - NEVITA. - -[_Starts._] Of course, sire! - - JULIAN. - -We ought to have waited till Maximus—— - - NEVITA. - -What mean you, my Emperor? There is nothing to wait for. We are without -supplies; scattered bands of the enemy’s horsemen are already appearing -both in the east and in the south—— - - JULIAN. - -Yes, yes, we _must_ advance,—northwards. Maximus must soon be here. I -have sent to the rear for the Etruscan soothsayers; they shall try once -more—— I have also discovered some Magians, who say they are well versed -in the Chaldean mysteries. Our own priests are taking the omens in nine -different places—— - - NEVITA. - -Sire, whatever the omens may say, I tell you we must go hence. The -soldiers are no longer to be depended on; they see clearly that our only -hope lies in reaching the Armenian mountains. - - JULIAN. - -We will do so, Nevita,—whatever the omens say. Nevertheless it gives one -a great feeling of security to know that one is acting, as it were, in -concert with those unfathomable powers who, if they will, can so -potently influence our destinies. - - NEVITA. - -[_Goes from him, and says shortly and decisively._] Anatolus, strike the -Emperor’s tent! - - [_He whispers some words to the Captain of the Guard, and goes - out to the right._ - - JULIAN. - -All auguries for these forty days have been inauspicious; and that -proves that we may place trust in them; for in all that time our affairs -have made but scant headway. But now, you see, my Oribases,—now that I -have a fresh enterprise in view—— - -Ah! Maximus! - - MAXIMUS. - -[_Entering from the plain._] The army is already on the march, sire; get -to horse! - - JULIAN. - -The auguries—the auguries? - - MAXIMUS. - -Oh—the auguries! Ask not about the auguries. - - JULIAN. - -Speak! I demand to know what they say. - - MAXIMUS. - -All auguries are silent. - - JULIAN. - -Silent? - - MAXIMUS. - -I went to the priests; the entrails of the sacrifices gave no sign. I -went to the Etruscan jugglers; the flight and cries of the birds said -nothing. I went also to the Magians; their writings had no answer to -give. And I myself—— - - JULIAN. - -You yourself, my Maximus? - - MAXIMUS. - -Now I can tell you. Last night I studied the aspect of the stars. They -told me nothing, Julian. - - JULIAN. - -Nothing.—Silence—silence, as though in an eclipse. Alone! No longer any -bridge between me and the spirits. - -Where are you now, oh white-sailed fleet, that sped to and fro in the -sunlight and carried tidings between earth and heaven? - -The fleet is burnt. That fleet too is burnt. Oh all my shining ships. - -Tell me, Maximus—what do you believe as to this? - - MAXIMUS. - -I believe in you. - - JULIAN. - -Yes, yes—believe! - - MAXIMUS. - -The world-will has resigned its power into your hands; therefore it is -silent. - - JULIAN. - -So will we read it. And we must act accordingly,—although we might have -preferred that—— This silence! To stand so utterly alone. - -But there are others who may also be said to stand almost alone. The -Galileans. They have but one god; and one god is next thing to no god. - -How is it, then, that we daily see these men——? - - ANATOLUS. - -[_Who has meanwhile had the tent struck._] My Emperor, now must you get -to horse; I dare not let you remain here longer. - - JULIAN. - -Yes, now I will mount. Where is my good Babylonius? See now; sword in -hand—— - -Come, my dear friends! - - [_All go out to the right._ - - - SCENE SECOND. - -_A marshy, wooded country. A dark, still lake among the trees. - Watch-fires in the distance. Moonlight, with driving clouds._ - -_Several soldiers on guard in the foreground._ - - MAKRINA AND THE WOMEN. - [_Singing without, on the left._ - - Woe to us! Woe! - Upon us all - God’s wrath will fall! - Death we shall know! - - ONE OF THE SOLDIERS. - -[_Listening._] Hark! Do you hear? The Galilean women are singing over -yonder. - - ANOTHER SOLDIER. - -They sing like owls and night ravens. - - A THIRD SOLDIER. - -Yet would I willingly be with them. ’Tis safer with the Galileans than -with us. The God of the Galileans is stronger than our gods. - - THE FIRST SOLDIER. - -The thing is that the Emperor has angered the gods. How could he think -of setting himself up in their place? - - THE THIRD SOLDIER. - -What is worse is that he has angered the Galileans’ God. Have you not -heard, they say positively that, a few nights since, he and his magician -ripped open a pregnant woman, to read omens in her entrails? - - THE FIRST SOLDIER. - -Ay, but I do not believe it. At any rate, I am sure ’twas not a Greek -woman; it must have been a barbarian. - - THE THIRD SOLDIER. - -They say the Galileans’ God cares for the barbarians too; and if so, -’twill be the worse for us. - - THE SECOND SOLDIER. - -Oh, pooh—the Emperor is a great soldier. - - THE FIRST SOLDIER. - -They say King Sapor is a great soldier too. - - THE SECOND SOLDIER. - -Think you we have the whole Persian army before us? - - THE FIRST SOLDIER. - -Some say ’tis only the advance-guard; no one knows for certain. - - THE THIRD SOLDIER. - -I would I were among the Galileans. - - THE FIRST SOLDIER. - -Are _you_ going over to them, too? - - THE THIRD SOLDIER. - -So many are going over. In the last few days—— - - THE FIRST SOLDIER. - -[_Calling out into the darkness._] Halt—halt! Who goes there? - - A VOICE. - -Friends from the outposts! - - [_Several soldiers come from among the trees, with AGATHON the - Cappadocian in their midst._ - - THE SECOND SOLDIER. - -Ho-ho; a deserter. - - ONE OF THE NEW-COMERS. - -No; he has gone out of his mind. - - AGATHON. - -I have _not_ gone out of my mind. Oh, for God’s great mercy’s sake,—let -me go! - - THE SOLDIER FROM THE OUTPOSTS. - -He says he wants to slay a beast with seven heads. - - AGATHON. - -Yes, yes, yes, I will, I will. Oh, let me go! See you this spear? Know -you what spear it is? With this spear will I slay the beast with seven -heads, and then I shall get back my soul again. Christ himself has -promised me that. He was with me to-night. - - THE FIRST SOLDIER. - -Hunger and weariness have turned his brain. - - ONE OF THE NEW-COMERS. - -To the camp with him; there he can sleep his weariness away. - - AGATHON. - -Let me go! Oh, if you but knew what spear this is! - - [_The soldiers lead him off by the front, to the right._ - - THE THIRD SOLDIER. - -What could he mean by that beast? - - THE FIRST SOLDIER. - -That is one of the Galilean secrets. They have many such secrets among -them. - - [_EUTHERIUS and ORIBASES enter hastily from the right, looking - anxiously about._ - - EUTHERIUS. - -Do you not see him? - - ORIBASES. - -No.—Ah, soldiers!—Tell me, good friends, has any one passed by here? - - THE FIRST SOLDIER. - -Yes, a detachment of spearmen. - - ORIBASES. - -Good, good! But nobody else? No great person? None of the generals? - - THE SOLDIERS. - -No, none. - - ORIBASES. - -Not here then! Oh, Eutherius, how could you——? - - EUTHERIUS. - -Could I help——? Could I help it——? I have not closed my old eyes for -three nights—— - - ORIBASES. - -[_To the soldiers._] You must help us to search. I demand it in the name -of the general-in-chief. Spread yourselves among the trees; and should -you find any great person, report it at the watch-fire yonder. - - THE SOLDIERS. - -We will not fail, sir! - - [_They all go out by different ways, to the left. Soon after, - the EMPEROR emerges from behind a tree on the right. He - listens, looks round, and beckons to some one behind him._ - - JULIAN. - -Hist! Come forward, Maximus! They did not see us. - - MAXIMUS. - -[_From the same side._] Oribases was one of them. - - JULIAN. - -Yes, yes; both he and Eutherius keep watch on me. They imagine that—— -Has neither of them told you aught? - - MAXIMUS. - -No, my Julian! But why have you awakened me? What would you here in the -darkness? - - JULIAN. - -I would be alone with you for the last time, my beloved teacher! - - MAXIMUS. - -Not for the last time, Julian! - - JULIAN. - -See that dark water. Think you—if I utterly vanished from the earth, and -my body was never found, and none knew what had become of me,—think you -the report would spread abroad that Hermes had come for me, and carried -me away, and that I had been exalted to the fellowship of the gods? - - MAXIMUS. - -The time is at hand when men will not need to die, in order to live as -gods on the earth. - - JULIAN. - -I am pining with home-sickness, Maximus,—with home-sick longing for the -light and the sun and all the stars. - - MAXIMUS. - -Oh, I beseech you—think not of sorrowful things. The Persian army is -before you. To-morrow will come the battle. You will conquer—— - - JULIAN. - -I—conquer? You do not know who was with me an hour ago. - - MAXIMUS. - -Who was with you? - - JULIAN. - -I had fallen asleep on my couch in the tent. Suddenly I was awakened by -a strong red glare, that seemed to burn through my closed eye-lids. I -looked up and beheld a figure standing in the tent. Over its head was a -long drapery, falling on both sides, so as to leave the face free. - - MAXIMUS. - -Knew you this figure? - - JULIAN. - -It was the same face which I saw in the light that night at Ephesus, -many years ago,—that night when we held symposium with the two others. - - MAXIMUS. - -The spirit of the empire. - - JULIAN. - -Since then it has appeared to me once in Gaul,—on an occasion I would -fain forget. - - MAXIMUS. - -Did it speak? - - JULIAN. - -No. It seemed as though it wished to speak; but it did not. It stood -motionless, looking at me. Its face was pale and distorted. Suddenly, -with both arms, it drew the drapery together over its head, hid its -face, and went straight out through the tent-wall. - - MAXIMUS. - -The decisive hour is at hand. - - JULIAN. - -Ay, truly, ’tis at hand. - - MAXIMUS. - -Courage, Julian! He who wills, conquers. - - JULIAN. - -And what does the conqueror win? Is it worth while to conquer? What has -the Macedonian Alexander, what has Julius Caesar won? Greeks and Romans -talk of their renown with cold admiration,—while the other, the -Galilean, the carpenter’s son, sits throned as the king of love in the -warm, believing hearts of men. - -Where is he now?—Has he been at work elsewhere since that happened at -Golgotha? - -I dreamed of him lately. I dreamed that I had subdued the whole world. I -ordained that the memory of the Galilean should be rooted out on earth; -and it was rooted out.—Then the spirits came and ministered to me, and -bound wings on my shoulders, and I soared aloft into infinite space, -till my feet rested on another world. - -It _was_ another world than mine. Its curve was vaster, its light more -golden, and many moons circled around it. - -Then I looked down at my own earth—the Emperor’s earth, which I had made -Galileanless—and I thought that all that I had done was very good. - -But behold, my Maximus,—there came a procession by me, on the strange -earth where I stood. There were soldiers, and judges, and executioners -at the head of it, and weeping women followed. And lo!—in the midst of -the slow-moving array, was the Galilean, alive, and bearing a cross on -his back. Then I called to him, and said, “Whither away, Galilean?” But -he turned his face toward me, smiled, nodded slowly, and said: “To the -place of the skull.” - -Where is he now? What if _that_ at Golgotha, near Jerusalem, was but a -wayside matter, a thing done, as it were, in passing, in a leisure hour? -What if he goes on and on, and suffers, and dies, and conquers, again -and again, from world to world? - -Oh that I could lay waste the world! Maximus,—is there no poison, no -consuming fire, that could lay creation desolate, as it was on that day -when the spirit moved alone over the face of the waters? - - MAXIMUS. - -I hear a noise from the outposts. Come, Julian—— - - JULIAN. - -To think that century shall follow century, and that in them all shall -live men, knowing that ’twas I who was vanquished, and he who conquered! -I _will_ not be vanquished! I am young; I am invulnerable,—the third -empire is at hand—— - - [_With a great cry._ - -There he stands! - - MAXIMUS. - -Who? Where? - - JULIAN. - -Do you see him? There, among the tree-stems—in a crown and a purple -robe—— - - MAXIMUS. - -’Tis the moon glimmering on the water. Come—come, my Julian! - - JULIAN. - -[_Going threateningly towards the vision._] Avaunt! Thou art dead! Thy -empire is past. Off with the juggler’s cloak, carpenter’s son! - -What dost thou there? At what art thou hammering?—Ah! - - EUTHERIUS. - -[_From the left._] All gods be praised!—Oribases,—here, here! - - JULIAN. - -What has become of him? - - ORIBASES. - -[_From the left._] Is he here? - - EUTHERIUS. - -Yes.—Oh my beloved Emperor! - - JULIAN. - -Who was it that said, “I am hammering the Emperor’s coffin”? - - ORIBASES. - -What mean you, sire? - - JULIAN. - -Who spoke, I ask? Who was it that said, “I am hammering the Emperor’s -coffin”? - - ORIBASES. - -Come with me to your tent, I implore you. - - [_Shouts and cries are heard far away._ - - MAXIMUS. - -War-cries! The Persians are upon us—— - - EUTHERIUS. - -There is already fierce fighting at the outposts. - - ORIBASES. - -The enemy is in the camp! Ah, sire, you are unarmed——! - - JULIAN. - -I will sacrifice to the gods. - - MAXIMUS. - -To what gods, oh fool? Where are they—and what are they? - - JULIAN. - -I will sacrifice to this god and to that. I will sacrifice to many. One -or another must surely hear me. I must call upon something without me -and above me—— - - ORIBASES. - -There is not a moment to be lost——! - - JULIAN. - -Ah—saw you the burning torch behind the cloud? It flashed forth and went -out in the same instant. A message from the spirits! A shining ship -between heaven and earth!—My shield! My sword! - - [_He rushes out to the right. ORIBASES and EUTHERIUS follow - him._ - - MAXIMUS. - -[_Calling after him._] Emperor, Emperor—do not fight to-night! - - [_He goes off to the right._ - - - SCENE THIRD. - - -_An open plain, with a village far away. Daybreak and cloudy weather._ - -_A noise of battle. Cries and the clashing of weapons out on the plain. - In the foreground Roman spearmen, under AMMIAN’S command, fighting - with Persian archers. The latter are driven back by degrees - towards the left._ - - AMMIAN. - -Right, right! Close with them! Thrust them down! Give them no time to -shoot! - - NEVITA. - -[_With followers from the right._] Well fought, Ammian! - - AMMIAN. - -Oh sir, why come not the cavalry to our help? - - NEVITA. - -They cannot. The Persians have elephants in their front rank. The very -smell strikes terror to the horses. Thrust—thrust! Upwards, men,—under -their breastplates? - - KYTRON. - -[_In night-clothes, laden with books and rolls of paper, enters from the -right._] Oh that I should be in the midst of such horrors! - - NEVITA. - -Have you seen the Emperor, friend? - - KYTRON. - -Yes, but he heeds me not. Oh, I humbly beg for a detachment of soldiers -to protect me! - - NEVITA. - -[_To his followers._] They are giving ground! The shield-bearers -forward! - - KYTRON. - -You do not listen to me, sir! My safety is of the utmost importance; my -book, “On Equanimity in Affliction,” is not finished—— - - NEVITA. - -[_As before._] The Persians have been reinforced on the right. They are -pressing forward again! - - KYTRON. - -Pressing forward again? Oh this bloodthirsty ferocity! An arrow! It -almost struck me! How recklessly they shoot; no care for life or limb! - - [_He takes to flight by the foreground on the left._ - - NEVITA. - -The battle hangs in the balance. Neither side gains ground. - - [_To FROMENTINUS, who comes with a fresh troop from the right._ - -Ho, captain,—have you seen the Emperor? - - FROMENTINUS. - -Yes, sir; he is fighting at the head of the white horsemen. - - NEVITA. - -Not wounded? - - FROMENTINUS. - -He seems invulnerable. Arrows and javelins swerve aside wherever he -shows himself. - - AMMIAN. - -[_Calling out from the thick of the fight._] Help, help; we can hold out -no longer! - - NEVITA. - -Forward, my bold Fromentinus! - - FROMENTINUS. - -[_To the soldiers._] Shoulder to shoulder, and at them, Greeks! - - [_He hastens to the help of AMMIAN; the mellay rolls backwards a - little._ - - _ANATOLUS, the Captain of the Guard, enters - with followers from the right._ - - ANATOLUS. - -Is not the Emperor here? - - NEVITA. - -The Emperor! Is it not your business to answer for him? - - ANATOLUS. - -His horse was shot under him,—a terrible tumult arose; it was impossible -to get near him—— - - NEVITA. - -Think you he has come to any harm? - - ANATOLUS. - -No, I think not. There was a cry that he was unhurt, but—— - - MANY OF NEVITA’S FOLLOWERS. - -There he is! There he is! - - _The EMPEROR JULIAN, without helmet or armour, with only a sword - and shield, escorted by soldiers of the Imperial Guard, - enters from the right._ - - JULIAN. - -’Tis well I have found you, Nevita! - - NEVITA. - -Ah, sire—without armour; how imprudent—— - - JULIAN. - -In these regions no weapon can touch me. But go, Nevita; take the -supreme command; my horse was shot under me, and—— - - NEVITA. - -My Emperor, then after all you are hurt? - - JULIAN. - -No; only a blow on the head; a little dizzy. Go, go—— What is _this_? So -many strange multitudes thronging in among us! - - NEVITA. - -[_In a low voice._] Anatolus, you must answer for the Emperor. - - ANATOLUS. - -Never fear, sir! - - [_NEVITA goes off with his followers to the right. The EMPEROR - JULIAN, ANATOLUS, and some of the Imperial Guard remain - behind. The fight on the plain rolls further and further - back._ - - JULIAN. - -How many of our men think you have fallen, Anatolus? - - ANATOLUS. - -Certainly not a few, sire; but I am sure the Persians have lost more -than we. - - JULIAN. - -Yes, yes; but many have fallen, both Greeks and Romans. Do you not think -so? - - ANATOLUS. - -Surely you are unwell, my Emperor. Your face is so pale—— - - JULIAN. - -Look at those lying there,—some on their backs, others on their faces, -with outstretched arms. They must all be dead? - - ANATOLUS. - -Yes, sire, beyond a doubt. - - JULIAN. - -They are dead, yes! They know nought, then, either of the defeat at -Jerusalem or the other defeats.—Think you many more Greeks will fall in -the battle, Anatolus? - - ANATOLUS. - -Sire, let us hope the bloodiest work is over. - - JULIAN. - -Many, many more will fall, I tell you! But not enough. Of what use is it -that _many_ should fall? None the less will posterity learn—— - -Tell me, Anatolus, how think you the Emperor Caligula pictured to -himself that sword? - - ANATOLUS. - -What sword, sire? - - JULIAN. - -You know he wished for a sword wherewith he might at one blow—— - - ANATOLUS. - -Hark to the shouts, sire! Now I am sure the Persians are retreating. - - JULIAN. - -[_Listening._] What song is that in the air? - - ANATOLUS. - -Sire, let me summon Oribases; or still better,—come,—come; you are sick! - - JULIAN. - -There is singing in the air. Can you not hear it? - - ANATOLUS. - -If it be so, it must be the Galileans—— - - JULIAN. - -Ay, be sure ’tis the Galileans. Ha-ha-ha, they fight in our ranks, and -see not who stands on the other side. Oh fools, all of you! Where is -Nevita? Why should he attack the Persians? Can he not see that ’tis not -the Persians who are most dangerous?—You betray me, all of you. - - ANATOLUS. - -[_Softly to one of the soldiers._] Hasten to the camp; bring hither the -Emperor’s physician? - - [_The soldier goes out to the right._ - - JULIAN. - -What innumerable hosts! Think you they have caught sight of us, -Anatolus? - - ANATOLUS. - -Who, sire? Where? - - JULIAN. - -Do you not see them—yonder—high up and far away! You lie! You see them -well enough! - - ANATOLUS. - -By the immortal gods, they are only the morning clouds,—’tis the day -dawning. - - JULIAN. - -’Tis the hosts of the Galilean, I tell you! Look—those in the red-edged -garments are the martyrs who died in blood. Singing women surround them, -and weave bowstrings of the long hair torn from their heads. Children -are with them, twining slings from their unravelled entrails. Burning -torches——! Thousandfold—multitudinous! They are hastening hitherward! -They are all looking at me; all rushing straight upon me! - - ANATOLUS. - -’Tis the Persians, sire! Our ranks are giving way—— - - JULIAN. - -They _shall_ not give way!—You _shall_ not! Stand fast, Greeks! Stand, -stand, Romans! Today we will free the world! - - [_The battle has in the meantime swept forward over the plain - again. JULIAN hurls himself with drawn sword into the - thickest of the fight. General confusion._ - - ANATOLUS. - -[_Calling out to the right._] Help, help! The Emperor is in deadly -peril! - - JULIAN. - -[_Among the combatants._] I see him; I see him! A longer sword! Who has -a longer sword to lend me? - - SOLDIERS. - -[_Streaming in from the right._] With Christ for the Emperor! - - AGATHON. - -[_Among the new-comers._] With Christ for Christ! - - [_He throws his spear; it grazes the Emperor’s arm, and plunges - into his side._ - - JULIAN. - -Ah! - - [_He grasps the spear-head to draw it out, but gashes his hand, - utters a loud cry and falls._ - - AGATHON. - -[_Calls out in the tumult._] The Roman’s spear from Golgotha! - - [_He casts himself weaponless among the Persians, and is seen to - be cut down._ - - CONFUSED CRIES. - -The Emperor! Is the Emperor wounded? - - JULIAN. - -[_Attempts to rise, but falls back again, and cries_:] Thou hast -conquered, Galilean! - - MANY VOICES. - -The Emperor has fallen! - - ANATOLUS. - -The Emperor is wounded! Shield him—shield him, in the name of the gods! - - [_He casts himself despairingly against the advancing Persians. - The Emperor is carried away senseless. At that moment, - JOVIAN comes forward upon the plain with fresh troops._ - - JOVIAN. - -On—on, believing brethren; give Caesar what is Caesar’s! - - RETREATING SOLDIERS. - -[_Calling to him._] He has fallen! The Emperor has fallen! - - JOVIAN. - -Fallen! Oh mighty God of vengeance! On, on; ’tis God’s will that his -people shall live! I see heaven open; I see the angels with flaming -swords—— - - THE SOLDIERS. - -[_Hurtling forward._] Christ is among us! - - AMMIAN’S TROOPS. - -The Galileans’ God is among us! Close round him! He is the strongest! - - [_A wild tumult of battle. JOVIAN hews his way into the enemy’s - ranks. Sunrise. The Persians flee in all directions._ - - - SCENE FOURTH. - -_The Emperor’s tent, with a curtained entrance in the background. - Daylight._ - -_The EMPEROR JULIAN lies unconscious on his couch. The wounds in his - right side, arm, and hand are bound up. Close to him stand - ORIBASES and MAKRINA, with EUTHERIUS. Further back BASIL OF - CAESAREA, and PRISCUS. At the foot of the bed stands MAXIMUS THE - MYSTIC._ - - MAKRINA. - -He bleeds again. I must bind the bandage tighter. - - ORIBASES. - -Thanks to you, tender woman; your heedful hands do us good service here. - - EUTHERIUS. - -Is it possible that he still lives? - - ORIBASES. - -Certainly he lives. - - EUTHERIUS. - -But he does not breathe. - - ORIBASES. - -Yes, he breathes. - - _AMMIAN enters softly, with the Emperor’s sword and shield, - which he lays down, and remains standing beside the - curtain._ - - PRISCUS. - -Ah, good captain, how go affairs without? - - AMMIAN. - -Better than here. Is he already——? - - PRISCUS. - -No, no, not yet. But is it certain that we have defeated the Persians? - - AMMIAN. - -Completely. It was Jovian who put them to flight. Three noblemen have -even now arrived as envoys from King Sapor, to beg for a truce. - - PRISCUS. - -And think you Nevita will accede to it? - - AMMIAN. - -Nevita has yielded up the command to Jovian. All flock around him. All -see in him our one hope of safety—— - - ORIBASES. - -Speak low; he moves. - - AMMIAN. - -He moves. Mayhap he is awakening to consciousness! Oh, if he should live -to see this! - - EUTHERIUS. - -What, Ammian? - - AMMIAN. - -Both soldiers and leaders are taking counsel as to the choice of the new -Emperor. - - PRISCUS. - -What say you? - - EUTHERIUS. - -Oh, what shameful haste! - - AMMIAN. - -The perilous situation of the army partly excuses it; and yet—— - - MAKRINA. - -He is waking;—he opens his eyes—— - - [_JULIAN lies for a time quite still, looking kindly at the - bystanders._ - - ORIBASES. - -Sire, do you know me? - - JULIAN. - -Very well, my Oribases. - - ORIBASES. - -Only lie quiet. - - JULIAN. - -Lie quiet? You remind me! I must be up! - - ORIBASES. - -Impossible, sire; I implore you—— - - JULIAN. - -I must up, I say. How can I lie quiet now? I must utterly vanquish -Sapor. - - EUTHERIUS. - -Sapor is vanquished, sire! He has sent envoys to the camp to beg for a -truce. - - JULIAN. - -Has he, indeed? That is good news. So him, at least, I have conquered. - -But no truce. I will crush him to the earth.—Ah, where is my shield? -Have I lost my shield? - - AMMIAN. - -No, my Emperor,—here are both your shield and your sword. - - JULIAN. - -I am very glad of that. My good shield. I should grieve to think of it -in the hands of the barbarians. Give it me, on my arm—— - - MAKRINA. - -Oh, sire, ’tis too heavy for you now! - - JULIAN. - -Ah, _you_? You are right, pious Makrina; ’tis a little too heavy for -me.—Lay it before me, that I may see it. What? Is that you, Ammian? Are -you on guard here? Where is Anatolus? - - AMMIAN. - -Sire, he is now in bliss. - - JULIAN. - -Fallen? My trusty Anatolus fallen for my sake!—In bliss, you say? Ha—— - -One friend the less. Ah, my Maximus!—I will not receive the Persian -king’s envoys to-day. Their design is merely to waste my time. But I -will grant no terms. I will follow up the victory to the utmost. The -army shall turn against Ctesiphon again. - - ORIBASES. - -Impossible, sire; think of your wounds. - - JULIAN. - -My wounds will soon be healed. Will they not, Oribases—do you not -promise me——? - - ORIBASES. - -Above all things rest, sire! - - JULIAN. - -What a most untimely chance! Just at this moment, when so many weighty -matters are crowding in upon me. I cannot leave these things in Nevita’s -hands. In such matters I can trust neither him nor others; I must do all -myself.—’Tis true, I feel somewhat weary. How unfortunate!—Tell me, -Ammian, what is the name of that ill-omened place? - - AMMIAN. - -What place, my gracious Emperor? - - JULIAN. - -The spot where the Persian javelin struck me? - - AMMIAN. - -’Tis called after the village of Phrygia—— - - MAXIMUS. - -Ah! - - JULIAN. - -What is it called——? What say you the region is called? - - AMMIAN. - -’Tis called from the village over yonder, the Phrygian region. - - JULIAN. - -Ah, Maximus—Maximus! - - MAXIMUS. - -Betrayed! - - [_He hides his face, and sinks down at the foot of the bed._ - - ORIBASES. - -My Emperor, what alarms you? - - JULIAN. - -Nothing—nothing—— - -Phrygia? Is it so? Nevita and the others will have to take the command -after all. Go, tell them—— - - AMMIAN. - -Sire, they have already, on your behalf—— - - JULIAN. - -Have they? Yes, yes, that is well. - -The world-will has laid an ambush for me, Maximus! - - MAKRINA. - -Your wound bleeds afresh, sire! - - JULIAN. - -Oh, Oribases, why did you seek to hide it from me? - - ORIBASES. - -What did I seek to hide, my Emperor? - - JULIAN. - -That I must die. Why not have told me before. - - ORIBASES. - -Oh, my Emperor! - - BASIL. - -Julian—Julian! - - [_He casts himself down, weeping, beside the bed._ - - JULIAN. - -Basil,—friend, brother,—we two have lived beautiful days together—— - -You must not weep because I depart from you so young. ’Tis not always a -sign of the Fates’ displeasure when they call a man away in his prime. -What, after all, is death? ’Tis nought but paying our debt to the -ever-changing empire of the dust. No lamentations! Do we not all love -wisdom? And does not wisdom teach us that the highest bliss lies in the -life of the soul, not in that of the body? So far the Galileans are -right, although——; but we will not speak of that. Had the powers of life -and death suffered me to finish a certain treatise, I think I should -have succeeded in—— - - ORIBASES. - -Oh my Emperor, does it not weary you to talk so much? - - JULIAN. - -No, no, no. I feel very light and free. - - BASIL. - -Julian, my beloved brother,—is there nought you would recall? - - JULIAN. - -Truly I know not what it should be. - - BASIL. - -Nothing to repent of, Julian? - - JULIAN. - -Nothing. That power which circumstances placed in my hands, and which is -an emanation of divinity, I am conscious of having used to the best of -my skill. I have never wittingly wronged any one. For this campaign -there were good and sufficient reasons; and if some should think that I -have not fulfilled all expectations, they ought in justice to reflect -that there is a mysterious power without us, which in a great measure -governs the issue of human undertakings. - - MAKRINA. - -[_Softly to ORIBASES._] Oh listen—listen how heavily he breathes. - - ORIBASES. - -His voice will soon fail him. - - JULIAN. - -As to the choice of my successor, I presume not to give any advice.—You, -Eutherius, will divide my possessions among those who have stood nearest -to me. I do not leave much; for I have always held that a true -philosopher—— - -What is _this_? Is the sun already setting? - - ORIBASES. - -Not so, my Emperor; ’tis still broad day. - - JULIAN. - -Strange! It seemed to me to turn quite dark—— - -Ah, wisdom—wisdom. Hold fast to wisdom, good Priscus! But be always -armed against an unfathomable something without us, which—— - -Is Maximus gone? - - MAXIMUS. - -No, my brother! - - JULIAN. - -My throat is burning. Can you not cool it? - - MAKRINA. - -A draught of water, sire? - - [_She holds a cup to his lips._ - - ORIBASES. - -[_Whispers to MAKRINA._] His wound bleeds inwardly. - - JULIAN. - -Do not weep. Let no Greek weep for me; I am ascending to the stars—— - -Beautiful temples—— Pictures—— But so far away. - - MAKRINA. - -Of what is he talking? - - ORIBASES. - -I know not; I think his mind is wandering. - - JULIAN. - -[_With closed eyes._] ’Twas given to Alexander to enter in triumph—into -Babylon.—I too will—— Beautiful wreath—crown’d youths—dancing -maidens,—but so far away. - -Beautiful earth,—beautiful life—— - - [_He opens his eyes wide._ - -Oh, Helios, Helios—why didst thou betray me? - - [_He dies._ - - ORIBASES. - -[_After a pause._] That was death. - - THE BYSTANDERS. - -Dead—dead! - - ORIBASES. - -Yes, now he is dead. - - [_BASIL and MAKRINA kneel in prayer. EUTHERIUS veils his head. A - sound of drums and trumpets is heard in the distance._ - - SHOUTS FROM THE CAMP. - -Long live the Emperor Jovian! - - ORIBASES. - -Oh, heard you that shout? - - AMMIAN. - -Jovian is proclaimed Emperor. - - MAXIMUS. - -[_Laughing._] The Galilean Jovian! Yes—yes—yes! - - ORIBASES. - -Shameful haste! Before they knew that—— - - PRISCUS. - -Jovian,—the victorious hero who has saved us all! The Emperor Jovian -assuredly deserves a panegyric. I trust that crafty Kytron has not -already—— - - [_He hastens out._ - - BASIL. - -Forgotten, ere your hand is cold. And for this pitiful splendour you -sold your immortal soul! - - MAXIMUS. - -[_Rising._] The world-will shall answer for Julian’s soul! - - MAKRINA. - -Blaspheme not; though surely you have loved this dead man—— - - MAXIMUS. - -[_Approaching the body._] Loved, and led him astray—Nay, not _I_! - -Led astray like Cain. Led astray like Judas.—Your God is a spendthrift -God, Galileans! He wears out many souls. - -Wast thou not then, this time either, the chosen one—thou victim on the -altar of necessity? - -What is it worth to live? All is sport and mockery.—To _will_ is to -_have to will_. - -Oh my beloved—all signs deceived me, all auguries spoke with a double -tongue, so that I saw in thee the mediator between the two empires. - -The third empire shall come! The spirit of man shall re-enter on its -heritage—and then shall offerings of atonement[13] be made to thee, and -to thy two guests in the symposium. - - [_He goes out._ - - MAKRINA. - -[_Rising, pale._] Basil—did you understand the heathen’s speech? - - BASIL. - -No,—but it dawns on me like a great and radiant light, that here lies a -noble, shattered instrument of God. - - MAKRINA. - -Ay, truly, a dear and dear-bought instrument. - - BASIL. - -Christ, Christ—how came it that thy people saw not thy manifest design? -The Emperor Julian was a rod of chastisement,—not unto death, but unto -resurrection. - - MAKRINA. - -Terrible is the mystery of election. How know we——? - - BASIL. - -Is it not written: “Some vessels are fashioned to honour, and some to -dishonour”? - - MAKRINA. - -Oh brother, let us not seek to fathom that abyss. - - [_She bends over the body and covers the face._ - -Erring soul of man—if thou wast indeed forced to err, it shall surely be -accounted to thee for good on that great day when the Mighty One shall -descend in the clouds to judge the living dead and the dead who are yet -alive!—— —— - - THE END. - ------ - -Footnote 9: - - The name “Caesar” was at this period used as the title of the heir to - the throne, the Emperor himself being entitled “Augustus.” - -Footnote 10: - - See Ibsen’s _Correspondence_, Letter 115, to George Brandes. - -Footnote 11: - - The original edition here reads “benådet,” and this reading is - followed in the translation. In the collected edition of Ibsen’s works - (Copenhagen 1899) the word becomes “beåndet,” which is probably a - misprint, but may, on the other hand, be a correction. In that case, - for “highly-favoured” we should have to read “specially inspired.” - Ibsen uses the word “beåndet” several times in “Hedda Gabler.” - -Footnote 12: - - In the collected edition (1899) the word “sejre” (to conquer) of - earlier editions is replaced by “rejse” (journey). This is almost - certainly a misprint. - -Footnote 13: - - Here occurs the one clear case I have observed of a revision of the - text. In earlier editions the phrase ran “da skal der tændes - rögoffer,” meaning literally “then shall burnt-offerings - (smoke-offerings) be lighted.” In the collected edition (1899) - “sonoffer” (offerings of atonement) is substituted for “rögoffer.” - This can scarcely be a printer’s error; and as one deliberate - alteration has been made, it would seem that the alterations noted on - pp. 382 and 417 (especially the former) may also be due, not to the - printer, but to the poet. - ------ - - Printed by BALLANTYNE & CO. LIMITED - Tavistock Street, London - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - Transcriber’s Note - -There are quite a few instances of missing punctuation. The conventional -period following the character’s name is sometimes missing and has been -added for consistency’s sake without further comment. Those missing from -setting and stage direction are also added without comment, since there -is no obvious purpose to be served by the omission. However, the -restoration of punctuation missing from dialogue is noted below, since -the punctuation is frequently expressive. - -Volume I of this series included errata for each succeeding volume, but -noted none in this Volume V. - -Errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and -are noted here. The references are to the page and line in the original. - - xiii.14 not the actual composition[:] Restored. - 4.11 I had it from Memnon himself[.] Added. - 7.2 give it him, dear brother[.] Added. - 7.22 Oh, you abandoned hound[!] Added. - 14.19 Stand, stand;—I am armed[.] Added. - 17.13 [I ]am sure my old Mardonius Restored. - 23.19 fire rained from heaven night by night[.] Added. - 31.15 along with the[ the] stranger. Removed. - 48.27 I know it[,] my Hekebolius! Added. - 66.34 once more arisen in our midst[.] Added. - 70.28 calling him my great brother[.] Added. - 75.20 in the midst of a great city[!] Added. - 79.2 To the bacchanal, friends[!] Added. - 82.19 and living in the wilderness[?] Added. - 86.31 dizzy with its sweetness[;] Added. - 147.2 By-and-by[,/.] Replaced. - 158.26 has done too much, good Decentius[!] Added. - 171.23 what have you given the Princess[?] Added. - 179.2 noble Caesar[,/.] But my Replaced. - 182.7 auxiliaries, and other allies[,] climb Removed. - 182.14 Caesar, Caesar[!] Added. - 182.18 Down with the faithless [Cæsar. Caesar!] Inconsistent. - 188.19 Caesar, do you take[ take] the helm! Removed. - 209.19 Think[?/.] Replaced. - 210.32 [“]Either with us or against us”? Added. - 243.28 to sp[r]ead terror to the ends of the earth. Inserted. - 300.7 cry their wares[.] Added. - 300.9 talking eagerly[.] Added. - 308.1 sanctuary, the very house of Apollo[,] which Added. - 322.17 [t/T]here you are not far wrong. Replaced. - 326.29 No, no, it needs more than that[.] Added. - 408.29 Ah, sire, you may well marvel[?/!] Replaced. - 428.21 Woe, woe, woe[!] Added. - 352.24 Arise, friend[?/!] Replaced. - 461.4 _To FROMENTI[N]US_ Inserted. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COLLECTED WORKS OF HENRIK -IBSEN VOL. 05 (OF 11) *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. 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font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Collected Works of Henrik Ibsen Vol. 05 (of 11), by Henrik Ibsen</p> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Collected Works of Henrik Ibsen Vol. 05 (of 11)</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Henrik Ibsen</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Editor: William Archer</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: September 8, 2021 [eBook #66240]</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: KD Weeks, Emmanuel Ackerman, Sigal Alon, Eileen Gormly and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)</p> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COLLECTED WORKS OF HENRIK IBSEN VOL. 05 (OF 11) ***</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> -<div class='tnotes'> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>Transcriber’s Note:</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Footnotes have been collected at the end of each section or act, -and are linked for ease of reference.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please -see the transcriber’s <a href='#endnote'>note</a> at the end of this text -for details regarding the handling of any other textual issues encountered -during its preparation.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The front cover, which had only an embossed decoration, has been augmented -with information from the title page, and, as such, is added to the -public domain.</p> - -<div class='htmlonly'> -<p class='c001'>Any corrections are indicated using an <ins class='correction' title='original'>underline</ins> -highlight. Placing the cursor over the correction will produce the -original text in a small popup.</p> -</div> - -<div class='epubonly'> -<p class='c001'>Any corrections are indicated as hyperlinks, which will navigate the -reader to the corresponding entry in the corrections table in the -note at the end of the text.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<div class='htmlonly'> -<div class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/cover.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -</div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> -<div class='lg-container-l c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>THE COLLECTED WORKS OF</div> - <div class='line in5'>HENRIK IBSEN</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='large'>VOLUME V</span></div> - <div class='c000'><span class='xxlarge'>EMPEROR AND GALILEAN</span></div> - <div class='c000'><span class='large'>(1873)</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='box'> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='large'>THE COLLECTED WORKS OF</span></div> - <div><span class='xlarge'>HENRIK IBSEN</span></div> - <div class='c000'><i>Copyright Edition. Complete in 11 Volumes.</i></div> - <div><i>Crown 8vo, price 4s. each.</i></div> - <div class='c000'><b>ENTIRELY REVISED AND EDITED BY</b></div> - <div><b>WILLIAM ARCHER</b></div> - </div> -</div> - -<table class='table0' summary=''> -<colgroup> -<col width='23%' /> -<col width='76%' /> -</colgroup> - <tr> - <td class='c003'>Vol. I.</td> - <td class='c004'>Lady Inger, The Feast at Solhoug, Love’s Comedy</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'>Vol. II.</td> - <td class='c004'>The Vikings, The Pretenders</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'>Vol. III.</td> - <td class='c004'>Brand</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'>Vol. IV.</td> - <td class='c004'>Peer Gynt</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'>Vol. V.</td> - <td class='c004'>Emperor and Galilean (2 parts)</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'>Vol. VI.</td> - <td class='c004'>The League of Youth, Pillars of Society</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'>Vol. VII.</td> - <td class='c004'>A Doll’s House, Ghosts</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'>Vol. VIII.</td> - <td class='c004'>An Enemy of the People, The Wild Duck</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'>Vol. IX.</td> - <td class='c004'>Rosmersholm, The Lady from the Sea</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'>Vol. X.</td> - <td class='c004'>Hedda Gabler, The Master Builder</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'>Vol. XI.</td> - <td class='c004'>Little Eyolf, John Gabriel Borkman, When We Dead Awaken</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>London</span>: WILLIAM HEINEMANN</div> - <div><span class='sc'>21 Bedford Street, W.C.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div> - <h1 class='c005' title='Collected Works of Henrik Ibsen: Volume 5'>THE COLLECTED WORKS OF <br /> HENRIK IBSEN</h1> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c000'> - <div><span class='sc'>Copyright Edition</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<hr class='c006' /> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>VOLUME V</div> - <div class='c000'><span class='xxlarge'>EMPEROR AND</span></div> - <div><span class='xxlarge'>GALILEAN</span></div> - <div class='c000'><span class='large'>A WORLD-HISTORIC DRAMA</span></div> - <div class='c000'>WITH INTRODUCTIONS BY</div> - <div class='c000'><span class='xlarge'>WILLIAM ARCHER</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<hr class='c006' /> -<div class='figcenter id002'> -<img src='images/i_title_page.jpg' alt='title page' class='ig001' /> -</div> -<hr class='c006' /> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='large'>LONDON</span></div> - <div><span class='large'>WILLIAM HEINEMANN</span></div> - <div>1911</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c007'> - <div><i>First printed September 1907</i></div> - <div><i>Second Impression April 1911</i></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c007'> - <div><i>Copyright 1907 by William Heinemann</i></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c008'>CONTENTS</h2> -</div> - -<table class='table1' summary=''> -<colgroup> -<col width='83%' /> -<col width='16%' /> -</colgroup> - <tr> - <td class='c003'> </td> - <td class='c009'><span class='small'>PAGE</span></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><span class='sc'>Introduction</span></td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_vii'>vii</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><span class='sc'>Caesar’s Apostasy</span></td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c010' colspan='2'> <i>Translated by</i> <span class='sc'>William Archer</span></td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><span class='sc'>The Emperor Julian</span></td> - <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_225'>225</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c010' colspan='2'> <i>Translated by</i> <span class='sc'>William Archer</span></td></tr> -</table> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_vii'>vii</span><span class='xxlarge'>EMPEROR AND GALILEAN.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c008'>INTRODUCTION.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>In a speech delivered at Copenhagen in 1898, Ibsen -said: “It is now thirty-four years since I journeyed -southward by way of Germany and Austria, and passed -through the Alps on May 9. Over the mountains the -clouds hung like a great dark curtain. We plunged in -under it, steamed through the tunnel, and suddenly -found ourselves at Miramare, where the beauty of the -South, a strange luminosity, shining like white marble, -suddenly revealed itself to me, and left its mark on -my whole subsequent production, even though it may -not all have taken the form of beauty.” Whatever -else may have had its origin in this memorable moment -of revelation, <cite>Emperor and Galilean</cite> certainly sprang -from it. The poet felt an irresistible impulse to let -his imagination loose in the Mediterranean world of -sunshine and marble that had suddenly burst upon -him. Antiquity sprang to life before his mental -vision, and he felt that he must capture and perpetuate -the shining pageant in the medium of his art. We -see throughout the play how constantly the element -of external picturesqueness was present to his mind. -Though it has only once or twice found its way to the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_viii'>viii</span>stage,<a id='r1' /><a href='#f1' class='c012'><sup>[1]</sup></a> it is nevertheless—for good and for ill—a great -piece of scene-painting.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It did not take him long to decide upon the central -figure for his picture. What moved him, as it must -move every one who brings to Rome the smallest -scintilla of imagination, was the spectacle of a superb -civilisation, a polity of giant strength and radiant -beauty, obliterated, save for a few pathetic fragments, -and overlaid by forms of life in many ways so retrograde -and inferior. The Rome of the sixties, even -more than the Rome of to-day, was a standing monument -to the triumph of mediævalism over antiquity. -The poet who would give dramatic utterance to the -emotions engendered by this spectacle must almost -inevitably pitch upon the decisive moment in the -transition—and Ibsen found that moment in the -reaction of Julian. He attributed to it more “world-historic” -import than the sober historian is disposed -to allow it. Gaetano Negri<a id='r2' /><a href='#f2' class='c012'><sup>[2]</sup></a> shows very clearly (what, -indeed, is plain enough in Gibbon) that Julian’s action -had not the critical importance which Ibsen assigns to -it. His brief reign produced, as nearly as possible, -no effect at all upon the evolution of Christianity. -None the less is it true that Julian made a spiritual -struggle of what had been, to his predecessors, a mere -question of politics, one might almost say of police. -Never until his day did the opposing forces confront -each other in full consciousness of what was at stake; -and never after his day had they even the semblance -of equality requisite to give the struggle dramatic -<span class='pageno' id='Page_ix'>ix</span>interest. As a dramatist, then—whatever the historian -may say—Ibsen chose his protagonist with unerring -instinct. Julian was the last, and not the least, of the -heroes of antiquity.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Ibsen had been in Rome only two or three months -when he wrote to Björnson (September 16, 1864): -“I am busied with a long poem, and have in preparation -a tragedy, <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><cite>Julianus Apostata</cite></span>, a piece of work -which I set about with intense gusto, and in which I -believe I shall succeed. I hope to have both finished -next spring, or, at any rate, in the course of the -summer.” As regards <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><cite>Julianus Apostata</cite></span>, this hope -was very far astray, for nine years elapsed before -the play was finished.<a id='r3' /><a href='#f3' class='c012'><sup>[3]</sup></a> Not till May 4, 1866, is the -project again mentioned, when Ibsen writes to his -friend, Michael Birkeland, that, though the Danish -poet, Hauch, has in the meantime produced a play -on the same theme, he does not intend to abandon it. -On May 21, 1866, he writes to his publisher, Hegel, -that, now that <cite>Brand</cite> is out of hand, he is still undecided -what subject to tackle next. “I feel more and -more disposed,” he says, “to set to work in earnest -at <cite>Kejser Julian</cite>, which I have had in mind for two -years.” He feels sure that Hauch’s conception of the -subject must be entirely different from his; and he -does not intend to read Hauch’s play. On July -22, 1866, he writes from Frascati to Paul Botten-Hansen -that he is “wrestling with a subject and knows -that he will soon get the upper hand of the brute.” -His German editors take this to refer to <cite>Emperor and -Galilean</cite>, and they are probably right; but it is not -quite certain. The work he actually produced was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_x'>x</span><cite>Peer Gynt</cite>; and we know that he had a third subject -in mind at the time. We hear no more of Julian -until October 28, 1870, when, in his autobiographic -letter to Peter Hansen, he writes from Dresden: -“... Here I live in a tediously well-ordered community. -What will become of me when at last I -actually reach home! I must seek salvation in remoteness -of subject, and think of attacking <span lang="no" xml:lang="no"><cite>Kejser -Julian</cite></span>.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>This was, in fact, to be his next work; but two -years and a half were still to pass before he finally -“got the upper hand of the brute.” On January -18, 1871, he writes to Hegel: “Your supposition -that <cite>Julian</cite> is so far advanced that it may go to the -printers next month arises from a misunderstanding. -The first part is finished; I am working at the second -part; but the third part is not even begun. This -third part will, however, go comparatively quickly, -and I confidently hope to place the whole in your -hands by the month of June.” This is the first mention -we have of the division into three parts, which he -ultimately abandoned. If Hegel looked for the -manuscript in June, he looked in vain. On July 12 -Ibsen wrote to him: “Now for the reason of my long -silence: I am hard at work on <cite>Kejser Julian</cite>. This -book will be my chief work, and it is engrossing all -my thoughts and all my time. That positive view of -the world which the critics have so long been demanding -of me, they will find here.” Then he asks Hegel -to procure for him three articles on <cite>Julian</cite> by Pastor -Listov, which had appeared in the Danish paper, -<span lang="da" xml:lang="da"><cite>Fædrelandet</cite></span>, and inquires whether there is in Danish -any other statement of the <em>facts</em> of Julian’s career. “I -have Neander’s German works on the subject; also -D. Strauss’s; but the latter’s book contains nothing -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xi'>xi</span>but argumentative figments,<a id='r4' /><a href='#f4' class='c012'><sup>[4]</sup></a> and that sort of thing -I can do myself. It is facts that I require.” His -demand for more facts, even at this stage of the proceedings, -shows that his work must still have been in -a pretty fluid state.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Two months later (September 24, 1871) Ibsen wrote -to Brandes, who had apparently been urging him to -“hang out a banner” or nail his colours to the -mast: “While I have been busied upon <cite>Julian</cite>, I have -become, in a way, a fatalist; and yet this play will be -a sort of a banner. Do not be afraid, however, of any -tendency-nonsense: I look at the characters, at the -conflicting designs, at <em>history</em>, and do not concern -myself with the ‘moral’ of it all. Of course, you will -not confound the moral of history with its philosophy; -for that must inevitably shine forth as the final verdict -on the conflicting and conquering forces.” On December -27 (still from Dresden) he writes to Hegel: -“My new work goes steadily forward. The first part, -<cite>Julian and the Philosophers</cite>, in three acts, is already -copied out.... I am busily at work upon the second -part, which will go quicker and be considerably shorter; -the third part, on the other hand, will be somewhat -longer.” To the same correspondent, on April 24, 1872, -he reports the second part almost finished. “The -third and last part,” he says, “will be mere child’s -play. The spring has now come, and the warm season -is my best time for working.” To Brandes, on May 31, -he writes, “I go on wrestling with <cite>Julian</cite>”; and on -July 23 (from Berchtesgaden) “That monster Julian -has still such a grip of me that I cannot shake him -off.” On August 8 he announces to Hegel that he -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xii'>xii</span>has “completed the second part of the trilogy. -The first part, <cite>Julian and the Philosophers</cite>, a play in -three acts, will make about a hundred printed pages. -The second part, <cite>Julian’s Apostasy</cite>, a play in three acts, -of which I am now making a fair copy, will be of -about equal length. The third play, <cite>Julian on the -Imperial Throne</cite>, will run to five acts, and my preparations -for it are so far advanced that I shall get it out -of hand very much quicker than the others. What I -have done forms a whole in itself, and could quite -well be published separately; but for the sake of the -complete impression I think it most advisable that all -three plays should appear together.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Two months later (October 14) the poet is back in -Dresden, and writes as follows to a new and much-valued -friend, Mr Edmund Gosse: “I am working -daily at <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><cite>Julianus Apostata</cite></span>, and ... hope that it may -meet with your approval. I am putting into this book -a part of my own spiritual life; what I depict, I have, -under other forms, myself gone through, and the -historic theme I have chosen has also a much closer -relation to the movements of our own time than one -might at first suppose. I believe such a relation to be -indispensable to every modern treatment of so remote -a subject, if it is, as a poem, to arouse interest.” In -a somewhat later letter to Mr. Gosse he says: “I have -kept strictly to history.... And yet I have put much -self-anatomy into this book.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>In February 1873 the play was finished. On the -4th of that month Ibsen writes to his old friend -Ludvig Daae that he is on the point of beginning his -fair copy of what he can confidently say will be his -“<span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Hauptwerk</span>,” and wants some guidance as to the -proper way of spelling Greek names. Oddly enough, -he is still in search of facts, and asks for information -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xiii'>xiii</span>as to the <span lang="la" xml:lang="la"><cite>Vita Maximi</cite></span> of Eunapius, which has not been -accessible to him. Two days later (February 6) he -writes to Hegel: “I have the great pleasure of -being able to inform you that my long work is finished—and -more to my satisfaction than any of my earlier -works. The book is entitled <cite>Emperor and Galilean, a -World-Drama in Two Parts</cite>. It contains: Part First, -<cite>Caesar’s Apostasy</cite>; play in five acts (170 pp.); Part -Second, <cite>The Emperor Julian</cite>, play in five acts (252 pp.).... -Owing to the growth of the idea during the process -of composition, I shall have to make another fair -copy of the first play. But it will not become longer -in the process; on the contrary, I hope to reduce it -by about twenty pages.... This play has been to me -a labour of Hercules—not the actual <a id='corrxiii.14'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='composition'>composition:</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_xiii.14'><ins class='correction' title='composition'>composition:</ins></a></span> -that has been easy—but the effort it has cost me to -live myself into a fresh and visual realisation of so -remote and so unfamiliar an age.” On February 23, -he writes to Ludvig Daae, discussing further the -orthography of the Greek names, and adding: “My -play deals with a struggle between two irreconcileable -powers in the life of the world—a struggle which will -always repeat itself. Because of this universality, I -call the book ‘a world-historic drama.’ For the rest, -there is in the character of Julian, as in most that -I have written during my riper years, more of my -own spiritual experience than I care to acknowledge -to the public. But it is at the same time an entirely -realistic piece of work. The figures stood solidly before -my eyes in the light of their time—and I hope -they will so stand before the readers’ eyes.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The book was not published until the autumn -(October 16, 1873). On September 8, Ibsen wrote to -Brandes that he was daily expecting its appearance. -“I hear from Norway,” he went on, “that Björnson, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xiv'>xiv</span>though he cannot know anything about the book, has -declared it to be ‘Atheism,’ adding that it was inevitable -it should come to that with me. What the -book is or is not I won’t attempt to decide; I only -know that I have energetically seen a fragment of the -history of humanity, and what I saw I have tried to -reproduce.” On the very day of the book’s appearance, -he again writes to Brandes from Dresden: “The -direction public affairs have taken in these parts -gives this poem an actuality I myself had not foreseen.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>A second edition of <cite>Emperor and Galilean</cite> appeared -in December 1873. In the following January Ibsen -writes to Mr. Gosse, who had expressed some regret -at his abandonment of verse: “The illusion I wished -to produce was that of reality. I wished to leave on -the reader’s mind the impression that what he had -read had actually happened. By employing verse I -should have counteracted my own intention.... The -many everyday, insignificant characters, whom I have -intentionally introduced, would have become indistinct -and mixed up with each other had I made them all -speak in rhythmic measure. We no longer live in the -days of Shakespeare.... The style ought to conform -to the degree of ideality imparted to the whole presentment. -My play is no tragedy in the ancient acceptation. -My desire was to depict human beings and -therefore I would not make them speak the language -of the gods.” A year later (January 30, 1875) he -thus answers a criticism by George Brandes: “I cannot -but find an inconsistency between your disapproval -of the doctrine of necessity contained in my book, and -your approval of something very similar in Paul -Heyse’s <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Kinder der Welt</cite></span>. For in my opinion it comes -to much the same thing whether, in writing of a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xv'>xv</span>person’s character, I say ‘It runs in his blood’ or ‘He -is free—under necessity.’”</p> - -<p class='c001'>An expression in the same letter throws light on the -idea which may be called the keystone of the arch of -thought erected in this play. “Only entire nations,” -Ibsen writes, “can join in great intellectual movements. -A change of front in our conception of life and of the -world is no parochial matter; and we Scandinavians, -as compared with other European nations, have not -yet got beyond the parish-council standpoint. But -nowhere do you find a parish-council anticipating and -furthering ‘the third empire.’” To the like effect -runs a passage in a speech delivered at Stockholm, -September 24, 1887: “I have sometimes been called -a pessimist: and indeed I am one, inasmuch as I do -not believe in the eternity of human ideals. But I -am also an optimist, inasmuch as I fully and confidently -believe in the ideals’ power of propagation and of -development. Especially and definitely do I believe -that the ideals of our time, as they pass away, are -tending towards that which, in my drama of <cite>Emperor -and Galilean</cite>, I have designated as ‘the third empire.’ -Let me therefore drain my glass to the growing, the -coming time.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>The latest (so far as I know) of Ibsen’s references -to this play is perhaps the most significant of all. It -occurs in a letter to the Danish-German scholar Julius -Hoffory, written from Munich, February 26, 1888: -“<cite>Emperor and Galilean</cite> is not the first work I wrote in -Germany, but doubtless the first that I wrote under -the influence of German spiritual life. When, in the -autumn of 1868, I came from Italy to Dresden, I -brought with me the plan of <cite>The League of Youth</cite>, and -wrote that play in the following winter. During my -four years’ stay in Rome, I had merely made various -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xvi'>xvi</span>historical studies, and taken sundry notes, for <cite>Emperor -and Galilean</cite>; I had not sketched out any definite -plan, much less written any of it. My view of -life was still, at that time, National-Scandinavian, -wherefore I could not master the foreign material. -Then, in Germany, I lived through the great time, the -year of the war, and the development which followed -it. This brought with it for me, at many points, an -impulse of transformation. My conception of world-history -and of human life had hitherto been a national -one. It now widened into a racial conception; and -then I could write <cite>Emperor and Galilean</cite>.”</p> - -<p class='c013'>I have now brought together those utterances of -Ibsen’s which relate the external history of the great -double-drama, and give us some insight into the -spiritual influences which inspired and shaped it. We -have seen that, at the time of its completion, he confidently -regarded it as his masterpiece. It is the habit -of many artists always to think their last work their -best; but there is nothing to show that this was one -of Ibsen’s foibles. Moreover, even towards the end -of his life, when the poet was asked by Professor -Schofield, of Harvard, what work he considered -his greatest, he replied, <cite>Emperor and Galilean</cite>. If -this was his deliberate and lasting opinion, we have -here another curious instance of the tendency, so -frequent among authors, to capricious over-valuation -of one or another of their less successful efforts. -Certainly we should be very sorry to miss this splendid -fresco of the decadent Empire from the list of Ibsen’s -works; but neither technically nor intellectually—unless -I am very much mistaken—can it rank among his -masterpieces.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_xvii'>xvii</span>Of all historical plays it is perhaps the most strictly -historical. Apart from some unimportant chronological -rearrangements, the main lines of Julian’s -career are reproduced with extraordinary fidelity. The -individual occurrences of the first play are for the -most part invented, and the dialogue freely composed; -but the second play is a mere mosaic of historical -or legendary incidents, while a large part of the -dialogue is taken, almost word for word, either from -Julian’s own writings, or from other historical or quasi-historical -documents. I will try to distinguish briefly -between the elements of history and fiction in the -first play: in the second there is practically no fiction -save the fictions of Gregory and the ecclesiastical -historians.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The details of the first act have no historical foundation. -Gallus was not appointed Caesar on any such -occasion as Ibsen describes; and there seems to be no -hint of any intrigue between him and Helena. The -character of Agathon is fictitious, though all that is related -of Julian’s life in Cappadocia is historical. The -meeting with Libanius is an invention; and it was to -Nicomedia, not to Pergamus, that Julian was sent -shortly after the elevation of his brother to the second -place in the Empire.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The chronological order of the events on which the -second and third acts are founded is reversed by Ibsen. -Julian fell under the influence of Maximus before ever -he went to Athens. Eunapius relates his saying, “I -go where torches light themselves, and where statues -smile,” or words to that effect; but they were spoken -at Pergamus to Chrysantius, a Neo-Platonist, who, -while deprecating the thaumaturgic methods of Maximus, -averred that he himself had witnessed this marvel. -For the details of the symposium at Ephesus there is -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xviii'>xviii</span>no foundation, though Gregory and others relate -weird legends of supernatural experiences which -Julian underwent at the instance of Maximus. Not -till after the disgrace and death of Gallus did Julian -proceed to Athens, where he did not study under -Libanius. Indeed, I cannot discover that he ever -personally encountered Libanius before his accession -to the throne. It is true that Gregory and Basil were -his fellow students at Athens; but the tender friendship -which Ibsen represents as existing between them -is certainly imaginary.</p> - -<p class='c001'>All the military events at Paris, and the story of -Julian’s victory over Knodomar, are strictly historical. -Helena, however, did not die at Paris, but at Vienne, -after her husband had assumed the purple. Her death -was said to have been indirectly due to a jealous machination -of the Empress Eusebia; but the incident of -the poisoned fruit is quite fictitious, and equally so are -the vague enormities revealed in the dying woman’s -delirium. From the fact that Julian is strangely -silent about his wife, we may conjecture that their -marriage was not a happy one; but this is all the -foundation Ibsen had to build upon.<a id='r5' /><a href='#f5' class='c012'><sup>[5]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_xix'>xix</span>For the scene in the Catacombs at Vienne there is -nothing that can fairly be called a historic basis. It -is true that, after assuming the purple, Julian did at -one time endanger his position by shutting himself -away from his soldiery; it is true, or at least it is related, -that Julian “brought from Greece into Gaul the -high priest of the mysteries—the Hierophant, as he -was called [not Maximus]—and did not decide to rebel -until he had, with the greatest secrecy, accomplished -the prescribed sacred rites.” There is also a vague, -and probably mythical, report of his having gone -through some barbarous ceremony of purification, in -order to wipe out the stain of his baptism. On such -slight suggestions did Ibsen build up the elaborate -fabric of his fifth act. The character of Sallust, like -that of Oribases, is historical: but of any approach to -double-dealing on the part of the excellent Sallust -there is no hint. As there is no foundation for the -infidelity of the living Helena, so there is no foundation -for the part played by Helena dead in determining -Julian’s apostasy.</p> - -<p class='c001'>While Ibsen invents, however, he does not falsify; -it is when he ceases to invent (paradoxically enough) -that falsification sets in. In all essentials, this first play -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xx'>xx</span>is a representation of the youth of Julian as just as it -is vivid. His character is very truly portrayed—his -intellectual and moral earnestness, his superstition, -his vanity, his bravery, his military genius. The individual -scenes are full of poetic and dramatic inspiration. -There may be some question, indeed, as to -the artistic legitimacy of the employment of the supernatural -in the third act; but of its imaginative power -there can be no doubt. The drama progresses in -an ever-ascending scale of interest, from the idyllic-spectacular -opening, through the philosophic second -act, the mystic third act, the stirring and terrible -fourth act, up to the magnificent poetic melodrama of -the fifth. In a slightly old-fashioned, romantic style, -the play is as impressive to the imagination as it is, -in all essentials, faithful to historic fact.</p> - -<p class='c001'>When Julian has ascended the throne, a wholly -different method of treatment sets in. We could almost -guess from internal evidence, what Ibsen’s letters -prove to be the fact—that he underwent a decisive -change of mental attitude during the process of composition. -The original first part, we see (that is to say -the three-act play which was to have been called -<cite>Julian and the Philosophers</cite>), was finished some time -before January 18, 1871, on which date he tells Hegel -that he is already at work on the second part. But -January 18, 1871, was the very day on which, at Versailles, -the King of Prussia was proclaimed German -Emperor; so that the first part must have been written -before the Imperialisation of Germany was even to be -foreseen. While the poet was engaged upon the -second part of the “trilogy” he then designed, he -was doubtless brooding over the great event of -January 18, and gradually realising its nature and -consequences. That change in his mental attitude was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xxi'>xxi</span>taking place, which in his letter to Hoffory (p. xvi.) -he described as the transition from a national to a -racial standpoint. While in January he “confidently -hopes” to have the whole play finished in June, July -finds him, to all appearance, no further advanced, and -(very significantly) asking for “facts,” documents of -detail, whereof, in writing the first play, he had felt -no need. At the same time he tells Hegel that the -critics will find in the play that positive view of the -world for which they have long been clamouring—a -<span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><i>Weltanschauung</i></span>, we may fairly conjecture, at which he -has arrived during the six months’ interval since his -last letter.</p> - -<p class='c001'>What, then, was that “positive view”? It can -have been nothing else than the theory of the “third -empire,” which is to absorb both Paganism and -Christianity, and is to mark, as it were, the maturity -of the race, in contrast to its Pagan childhood and its -Christian adolescence. (Compare the scene between -Julian and Maximus at the end of Part II. Act III.) -The analogy between this theory and the Nietzschean -conception of the “Overman” need not here be emphasised. -It is sufficient to note that Ibsen had -come to conceive world-history as moving, under the -guidance of a Will which works through blinded, -erring, and sacrificed human instruments, towards a -“third empire,” in which the jarring elements of flesh -and spirit shall be reconciled.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It may seem like a play on the word “empire” to -connect this concept with the establishment in January -1871 of a political confederation of petty States, compared -with which even Julian’s <span lang="la" xml:lang="la">“orbis terrarum”</span> was -a world-empire indeed. But there is ample proof that -in Ibsen’s mind political unification, the formation of -large aggregates inspired by a common idea, figured -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xxii'>xxii</span>as a preliminary to the coming of the “third empire.” -In no other sense can we read the letters to Hoffory -and Brandes cited above (p. xv.); and I give in a footnote<a id='r6' /><a href='#f6' class='c012'><sup>[6]</sup></a> -a reference to other passages of similar tenor. -“But Julian,” it may be said, “represented precisely -the ideal of political cohesion which was revived -in the unification of Germany; why, then, should -Ibsen, in writing the second play, have (so to speak) -turned against his hero?” The reason, I think, was -that Ibsen had come to feel that a loose political -unity could be of little avail without the spiritual -fusion implied in a world-religion; and this fusion -it was Julian’s tragic error to oppose. He was a -political imperialist by inheritance and as a matter -of course; but what he really cared for, the point on -which he bent his will, was the restoration of -polytheism with all its local cults. And here Ibsen -parted company with him. He sympathised to the -full with Julian’s rebellion against certain phases of -Christianity—against book-worship, death-worship, -other-worldliness, hypocrisy, intolerance. He had -himself gone through this phase of feeling. During -his first years in Rome, he had seen the ruins of the -ancient world of light and glory sicklied o’er with the -pale cast of mediaevalism; and he had ardently sympathised -with Julian’s passionate resentment against -the creed which had defamed and defaced the old -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xxiii'>xxiii</span>beauty in the name of a truth that was so radically -corrupted as to be no longer true. In this mood he -had conceived and in great measure executed the -First Part, as we now possess it. But further study -of detail, in the light of that new political conception -which had arisen out of the events of 1870-71, had -shown him that the secret of Julian’s failure lay in -the hopeless inferiority of the religion he championed -to the religion he attacked. That religion, with all its -corruptions, came to seem a necessary stage in the -evolution of humanity; and the poet asked himself, -perhaps, whether he, any more than Julian, had even -now a more practical substitute to offer in its place. -In this sense, I take it, we must read his repeated -assertion that he had put into the play much of his -own “spiritual experience.” In the concept of the -“third empire” he found, I repeat, the keystone to -his arch of thought, to which everything else must be -brought into due relation. He re-wrote (it seems probable) -the scene of the symposium (Part I. Act III.) in -order to emphasise this idea; and it entirely dominated -and conditioned the whole of the second play.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But what was the effect of the concept? It was -to make Julian a plaything in the hands of some -power, some implicitly-postulated World-Will, working -slowly, deviously, but relentlessly, towards a far-off, -dimly-divined consummation. Christianity, no doubt, -was also an instrument of this power; but it was an -instrument predestined (for the moment) to honourable -uses, while its opponent was fated to dishonour. -Thus the process of the second part is a gradual sapping -of Julian’s intelligence and power of moral discrimination; -while the World-Will, acting always on the side -of Christianity, becomes indistinguishable from the -mechanical Providence of the vulgar melodramatist.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_xxiv'>xxiv</span>Whatever we may think of the historical or philosophical -value of the theory of the “third empire,” -there can be little doubt that its effect upon the play -has been artistically disastrous. It has led Ibsen to -cog the dice against Julian in a way from which even -a Father of the Church might have shrunk. He has -not only accepted uncritically all the invectives of -Gregory, and the other Christian assailants of “Antichrist,” -but he has given to many historic events a -fictitious twist, and always to Julian’s disadvantage.<a id='r7' /><a href='#f7' class='c012'><sup>[7]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c001'>It would need a volume to apply to each incident of -the Second Part the test of critical examination. I -must be content with a rough outline of the distorting -effect of the poet’s preoccupation with his “world-historic” -idea.</p> - -<p class='c001'>In the first place, he makes Julian much more of a -persecutor than even his enemies allege him to have -been. Nothing is more certain than that Julian was -sincerely convinced of the inefficacy of violence as a -means of conversion, and keenly alive to the impolicy -of conferring upon his opponents the distinction of -martyrdom. Tried by the standards of his age, he was -a marvellously humane man. Compared with his -uncle, Constantine, his cousin Constantius, his brother -Gallus—to go no further back among wearers of the -purple—he seems like a being of another race. It is -quite true, as his enemies allege, that his clemency -was politic as well as humane; but, whatever its -motives, it was real and consistent. Gregory, while -trying to make him out a monster, explicitly and repeatedly -complains that he denied to Christians the -crown of martyrdom. Saint Jerome speaks of his -<span lang="la" xml:lang="la">“blanda persecutio”</span>—persecution by methods of mildness. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xxv'>xxv</span>The worst that can be alleged against him is a -lack of diligence in punishing popular outrages upon -the Christians (generally of the nature of reprisals) -which occurred here and there under his rule. That -he incited to such riots is nowhere alleged; and it is -difficult to judge whether his failure to repress them -was due to malicious inertia or to actual lack of -power. The policing of the empire cannot have been -an easy matter, and Julian was occupied, during the -whole of his brief reign, in concentrating his forces -for the Persian expedition. It cannot be pretended -that his tolerance rose to the pitch of impartiality. -He favoured Pagans, and he more or less oppressed -Christians; though a considerable part of his alleged -oppression lay in the withdrawal of extravagant privileges -conferred on them by his predecessors. In his -attempt to undo some of the injustices that Christians -had committed during their forty years of predominance—such -as the seizure of temple glebes and so -forth—he was doubtless guilty, on his own account, -of more than one injustice. Wrong breeds wrong, -and, in a time of religious dissolution and reconstruction, -equity is always at the mercy of passion, resentment -and greed. There was even, in some of Julian’s -proceedings, a sort of perfidy and insolence that must -have been peculiarly galling to the Christians. It -would not be altogether unjust to accuse him of having -instituted against the new religion a campaign of -chicanery; but that is something wholly different -from a campaign of blood. The alleged “martyrdoms” -of his reign are few in number,<a id='r8' /><a href='#f8' class='c012'><sup>[8]</sup></a> are recounted by late -and prejudiced authorities, are accompanied by all the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xxvi'>xxvi</span>manifestly fabulous details characteristic of such -stories, and are none of them, with the smallest show -of credibility, laid to the account of Julian himself.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But what is the impression we receive from Ibsen? -We are given to understand that Julian drifted into a -campaign of sanguinary atrocity, full of horrors as -great as those recorded or imagined of the persecutions -under Decius or Diocletian. It is made to seem, moreover, -that he was personally concerned in some of the -worst of these horrors. We are asked to conceive his -life as being passed with the mingled shrieks and -psalms of his victims ringing in his ears. He is made -to gloat in imagination over their physical agonies. -(“Where are the Galileans now? Some under the executioner’s -hands, others flying through the narrow -streets, ashy pale with terror, their eyes starting from -their heads,” &c. &c.; p. 314). He is haunted in his -last hours by ghastly visions of whole troops of -martyrs. Moreover, his persecutions are made particularly -hateful by the fact that they either fall upon -or threaten his personal friends. The companion of -his childhood, Agathon (a fictitious personage), is -goaded by remorseless cruelty to that madness which -eventually makes him the assassin of Antichrist. -Gregory of Nazianzus is first made (what he never was) -Julian’s most cherished comrade, and is then shown as -doing what he never did—playing a noble and heroic -part in personally defying the tyrant. Mad and monstrous -designs are attributed to Julian, such as that -of searching out (with the aid of tortures) and destroying -all the writings of the Christians. This trait appears -to be suggested by a letter from Julian to the -Prefect of Egypt enjoining him to collect and preserve -all the books which had belonged to George, -Bishop of Alexandria: “He had many of them -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xxvii'>xxvii</span>concerning philosophy and rhetoric, and many of them -that contained the doctrines of the impious Galileans. -I would willingly see the last named all destroyed, -if I did not fear that some good and useful books -might, at the same time, be destroyed by mistake. -Make, therefore, the most minute search concerning -them. In this search the secretary of George may be -of great help to you.... But if he try to deceive -you in this affair, submit him immediately to the torture.” -It is needless to remark upon the difference -between a rhetorical wish that all the Christian books -in a particular library might be destroyed, and an -actual attempt to annihilate all the Christian writings -in the world. Thus not only are the clearest evidences -of Julian’s abstention from violence disregarded, but -all sorts of minor incidents are misrepresented to his -disadvantage.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A particularly grave injustice to his character -meets us almost on the threshold of the Second Part. -The execution of the Treasurer, Ursulus, by the -military tribunal which Julian appointed on coming -to the throne, is condemned by all historians and was -regretted by Julian himself. No doubt he was -culpably remiss in not preventing it; but Ibsen, -without the slightest warrant, gives his conduct a -peculiarly odious character in making it appear that -he deliberately sacrificed the old man to his resentment -of a blow administered to his vanity in the matter of -the Eastern Ambassadors. There is nothing whatever -to connect Ursulus with this incident.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The failure of Julian’s effort to rebuild the Temple -of Jerusalem is a matter of unquestioned history. It -is impossible now to determine, though it is easy to -conjecture, what natural accidents were magnified by -fanaticism into supernatural intervention. But what -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xxviii'>xxviii</span>does Ibsen do? He is not even content with the comparatively -rational account of the matter given by -Gregory within a few months of its occurrence. He -adopts Ammian’s later and much exaggerated account; -he makes Jovian, who had nothing to do with the -affair, avouch it with the authority of an eye-witness; -and, to give the miracle a still more purposeful significance, -he represents it as the instrument of the conversion -of Jovian, who was to be Julian’s successor, -and the undoer of his work. Under ordinary circumstances, -this would be a quite admissible re-arrangement -of history, designed to save the introduction of -another character. But the very fact that the poet -is, throughout the play, so obviously sacrificing -dramatic economy and concentration to historic accuracy, -renders this heightening of the alleged miracle -something very like a falsification of evidence. It -arises, of course, from no desire to be unjust to Julian, -for whom Ibsen’s sympathy remains unmistakable, -but from a determination to make him the tragic -victim of a World-Will pitilessly using him as an -instrument to its far-off ends.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But this conception of a vague external power -interfering at all sorts of critical moments to baffle -designs of which, for one reason or another, it disapproves, -belongs to the very essence of melodrama. -Therefore the incident of the Temple of Jerusalem -brings with it painful associations of <cite>The Sign of the -Cross</cite>; and still more suggestive of that masterpiece -is the downfall of the Temple of Apollo at Daphne -which brings the second act of the Second Part to a -close. Here the poet deliberately departs from history -for the sake of a theatrical effect. The temple of -Apollo was not destroyed by an earthquake, nor in any -way that even suggested a miracle. It was simply -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xxix'>xxix</span>burnt to the ground; and though there was no -evidence to show how the conflagration arose, the -suspicion that it was the work of Christians cannot be -regarded as wholly unreasonable.</p> - -<p class='c001'>An incident of which Ibsen quite uncritically accepts -the accounts of Julian’s enemies is his edict imposing -what we should now call a test on the teachers in -public (municipal) schools. This was probably an impolitic -act; but an act of frantic tyranny it certainly -was not. Homer and Hesiod were in Julian’s eyes -sacred books. They were the Scriptures of his religion; -and he decreed that they should not be expounded -to children, at the public expense, by -“atheists” who (unless they were hypocrites as well) -were bound to cast ridicule and contempt on them as -religious documents. It is not as though Christians -of that age could possibly have been expected to treat -the Olympian divinities with the decent reverence with -which even an agnostic teacher of to-day will speak of -the Gospel story. Such tolerance was foreign to the -whole spirit of fourth-century Christianity. It was -nothing if not intolerant; and the teacher would have -been no good Christian who did not make his lessons -the vehicle of proselytism. There is something a little -paradoxical in the idea that tolerance should go the -length of endowing the propagation of intolerance. -It is quite false to represent Julian’s measure as an -attempt to deprive Christians of all instruction, and -hurl them back into illiterate barbarism. He explicitly -states that Christian children are as welcome as ever -to attend the schools.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As the drama draws to a close, Ibsen shows his hero -at every step more pitifully hoodwinked and led astray -by the remorseless World-Will. He regains, towards -the end, a certain tragic dignity, but it is at the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xxx'>xxx</span>expense of his sanity. <span lang="la" xml:lang="la">“Quos deus vult perdere prius -dementat.”</span> Now, there is no real evidence for the -frenzied megalomania, the <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">“Cäsarenwahn,”</span> which the -poet attributes to Julian. It is not even certain that -his conduct of the Persian expedition was so rash and -desperate as it is represented to be. Gibbon (no blind -partisan of Julian’s) has shown that there is a case to be -made even for the burning of the fleet. The mistake, -perhaps, lay, not so much in burning it, as in having -it there at all. Even as events fell out, the result of -the expedition was by no means the greatest disaster -that ever befell the Roman arms. The commonplace, -self-indulgent Jovian brought the army off, ignominiously -indeed, but in tolerable preservation. Had -Julian lived, who knows but that the burning of -the ships might now have ranked as one of the -most brilliant audacities recorded in the annals of -warfare?</p> - -<p class='c001'>It would be too much, perhaps, to expect any poet -to resist the introduction of the wholly unhistoric -“I am hammering the Emperor’s coffin,” and “Thou -hast conquered, Galilean!” They certainly fell in too -aptly with Ibsen’s scheme for him to think of weighing -their evidences. But one significant instance may -be noted of the way in which he twists things to the -detriment either of Julian’s character or of his sanity. -In the second scene of the fifth act, he makes Julian -contemplate suicide by drowning, in the hope that, if -his body disappeared, the belief would spread abroad -that he had been miraculously snatched up into the -communion of the gods. Now Gregory, it is true, -mentions the design of suicide; but he mentions it as -an incident of Julian’s delirium <em>after</em> his wound. -Gregory’s virulence of hatred makes him at best a -suspected witness; but even he did not hold Julian -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xxxi'>xxxi</span>capable of so mad a fantasy before his intellect had -been overthrown by physical suffering and fever.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Thus from step to step, throughout the Second -Part, does Ibsen disparage and degrade his hero. It -is not for me to discuss the value of the conception of -the “third empire” to which poor Julian was sacrificed. -But one thing we may say with confidence—namely, -that the postulated World-Will does not work -by such extremely melodramatic methods as those -which Ibsen attributes to it. So far as its incidents -are concerned, the Second Part might have been designed -by a superstitious hagiologist, or a melodramatist -desirous of currying favour with the clergy. -Nay, it might almost seem as though the spirit of -Gregory of Nazianzus—himself a dramatist after a -fashion—had entered into Ibsen during the composition -of the play. Certainly, if the World-Will decreed -that Julian should be sacrificed in the cause of the -larger Imperialism, it made of Ibsen, too, its instrument -for completing the immolation.</p> - -<p class='c013'>In translating <span lang="no" xml:lang="no"><cite>Kejser og Galilæer</cite></span> I was enabled (by -arrangement) to avail myself of occasional aid from -Miss Catherine Ray’s version of the play, published -in 1876. To Miss Ray belongs the credit of having -been the first English translator of Ibsen, as Mr. -Gosse was his first expositor. The text of my earlier -rendering has been very carefully revised for the present -edition.</p> - -<p class='c001'>One difficulty has encountered me at every turn. -The Norwegians use only one word—<span lang="no" xml:lang="no"><i>Riget</i></span> (German -<span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><i>das Reich</i></span>)—to cover the two ideas represented in -English by “empire” and “kingdom.” In most cases -“empire” is clearly the proper rendering, since it -would be absurd to speak in English of the Roman -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xxxii'>xxxii</span>or the Byzantine Kingdom. But it would be no less -impossible to say, in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thine is -the empire and the power and the glory.” In the -scene with Maximus in Ephesus, and in several other -passages, I have used the word “empire” where -“kingdom,” in its Biblical sense, would have been -preferable, were it not necessary to keep the analogy -or contrast between the temporal and the spiritual -“empire” clearly before the reader’s mind. But at -the end of the fifth act of <cite>Caesar’s Apostasy</cite>, where -the Lord’s Prayer is interwoven with the dialogue, -I have been forced to fall back on “kingdom.” The -reader, then, will please remember that these two -words stand for one word—<span lang="no" xml:lang="no"><i>Riget</i></span>—in the original.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The verse from Homer quoted by Julian in the -third act of the second play occurs in the twentieth -book of the <cite>Odyssey</cite> (line 18). Ibsen prints the -sentence which follows it as a second hexameter line; -but either he or one of his authorities has apparently -misread the passage in the treatise, <cite>Against the -Cynic Heraclius</cite>, on which this scene is founded. No -such line occurs in Homer; and in the attack on -Heraclius, the phrase about the mad dog appears -as part of the author’s text, not as a quotation. I -have ventured, therefore, to “render unto Caesar the -things that are Caesar’s,” and print the phrase as -Julian’s own.</p> - -<hr class='c014' /> -<hr class='c014' /> -<div class='footnote' id='f1'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r1'>1</a>. It was acted at the Leipzig Stadttheater, December 5, -1896, and at the Belle-Alliance Theater, Berlin, on the occasion -of the poet’s seventieth birthday, in March 1898. It must, of -course, have been enormously cut down.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f2'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r2'>2</a>. <cite>Julian the Apostate.</cite> 2 vols. London, 1905.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f3'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r3'>3</a>. The poem was never finished at all. It is doubtless that of -which a fragment has been recovered and is about to be -published (1907).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f4'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r4'>4</a>. It was, in fact, a pamphlet aimed at Frederick William IV. -of Prussia, and entitled <cite>A Romanticist on the Throne of the -Caesars</cite>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f5'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r5'>5</a>. I may, perhaps, be excused for quoting at this point an -extract from a review of Negri’s <cite>Julian the Apostate</cite>, in which -I tried to summarise the reasons of Julian’s hatred of Christianity: -“Firstly, he was unmoved by the merits of the -Christian ethic, even where it coincided with his own, because -he saw it so flagrantly ignored by the corrupt Christianity of -his day. A puritan in the purple, he was morally too Christian -to be a Christian of the fourth-century Church. Secondly, he -hated the pessimism of Christianity—that very throwing-forward -of its hopes to the life beyond the grave which so eminently -fitted it to a period of social catastrophe and dissolution. He -found its heaven and hell vulgar and contemptible, and regarded -the average Christian as a sort of spiritual brandy-tippler, who -rejected, for a crude stimulant and anodyne, the delicate -lemonade of Neo-Platonic polytheism. Thirdly, he resented -what he called the ‘atheism’ of Christianity, its elimination -of the divine from Nature, leaving it inanimate and chilly. -Fourthly, like the earlier Emperors, he deemed Christianity -anti-social, and the Christian potentially and probably, if not -actually, a bad citizen of the Empire. Fifthly, he hated the -aggressive intolerance of Christianity, its inability to live and let -live, its polemical paroxysms, and iconoclastic frenzies.... -These were the main elements in his anti-Christianity; and yet -they are not, taken together, quite sufficient to account for the -measureless scorn with which he invariably speaks of ‘Galileans.’ -One cannot but feel that Christianity must have done him some -personal injury, not clearly known to us. Was he simply humiliated -by the hypocrisy he had had to practise in his boyhood -and youth? Or was Ibsen right in divining some painful mystery -behind his certainly unsatisfactory relations with his Christian -consort, Helena?”</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f6'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r6'>6</a>. For the letter to Hoffory, see <cite>Correspondence</cite>, Letter 198. -The letter to Brandes is numbered 115. See also letters to -Hegel (177) and to Brandes (206). I may also refer to an -extract from Ibsen’s commonplace book, published in the <span lang="de" xml:lang="de"><cite>Die -neue Rundschau</cite></span>, December 1906, in which he says, “We -laugh at the four-and-thirty fatherlands of Germany: but the -four-and-thirty fatherlands of Europe are equally ridiculous. -North America is content with one, or—for the present—with -two.” For a somewhat fuller treatment of this subject, see the -<cite>Nineteenth Century and After</cite>, February 1907.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f7'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r7'>7</a>. He has also, I think, taken too seriously Julian’s ironic self -caricature in the <cite>Misopogon</cite>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f8'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r8'>8</a>. Between fifteen and twenty are enumerated by Allard -(<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"><cite>Julien l’Apostat</cite></span>), a writer who gravely reproduces the most -extravagant figments of the hagiographers.</p> -</div> -<hr class='c014' /> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_1'>1</span> - <h2 class='c008'><span class='xlarge'>CAESAR’S APOSTASY</span></h2> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_2'>2</span> - <h3 class='c015'>CHARACTERS.</h3> -</div> - - <ul class='ul_1 c000'> - <li><span class='sc'>The Emperor Contstantius.</span> - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>The Empress Eusebia.</span> - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>The Princess Helena</span>, <i>the Emperor’s sister</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Prince Gallus</span>, <i>the Emperor’s cousin</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Prince Julian</span>, <i>Gallus’s younger half-brother</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Memnon</span>, <i>an Ethiopian, the Emperor’s body-slave</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Potamon</span>, <i>a goldsmith</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Phocion</span>, <i>a dyer</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Eunapius</span>, <i>a hairdresser</i>. - </li> - <li><i>A Fruit-seller.</i> - </li> - <li><i>A Captain of the Watch.</i> - </li> - <li><i>A Soldier.</i> - </li> - <li><i>A Painted Woman.</i> - </li> - <li><i>A Paralytic Man.</i> - </li> - <li><i>A Blind Beggar.</i> - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Agathon</span>, <i>son of a Cappadocian vine-grower</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Libanius</span>, <i>a Philosopher</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Gregory of Nazianzus.</span> - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Basil of Caesarea.</span> - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Sallust of Perusia.</span> - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Hekebolius</span>, <i>a Theologian</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Maximus the Mystic.</span> - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Eutherius</span>, <i>Julian’s chamberlain</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Leontes</span>, <i>a Quaestor</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Myrrha</span>, <i>a slave</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Decentius</span>, <i>a Tribune</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Sintula</span>, <i>Julian’s Master of the Horse</i>. -</li><li><span class='multiline'><span class='sc'>Florentius</span>,<br /><span class='sc'>Severus</span>,</span> <span class='multiline'><span class='xxlarge'>}</span> <i>Generals.</i></span> - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Oribases</span>, <i>a Physician</i>. -</li><li><span class='multiline'><span class='sc'>Laipso</span>,<br /><span class='sc'>Varro</span>,</span> <span class='multiline'><span class='xxlarge'>}</span> <i>Subalterns.</i></span> - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Maurus</span>, <i>a Standard-bearer</i>. - </li> - <li><i>Soldiers</i>, <i>church-goers</i>, <i>heathen onlookers</i>, <i>courtiers</i>, - <i>priests</i>, <i>students</i>, <i>dancing girls</i>, <i>servants</i>, <i>the Quaestor’s - retinue</i>, <i>Gallic warriors</i>. - </li> - <li><i>Visions and voices.</i> - </li> - </ul> - -<p class='c001'><i>The first act passes in Constantinople, the second in Athens, -the third in Ephesus, the fourth in Lutetia in Gaul, and -the fifth in Vienna [Vienne] in the same province. The -action takes place during the ten years between <span class='fss'>A.D.</span> 351 and -<span class='fss'>A.D.</span> 361.</i></p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_3'>3</span><span class='xlarge'>CAESAR’S APOSTASY.</span></div> - <div class='c000'>PLAY IN FIVE ACTS.</div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c015'>ACT FIRST.</h3> - -<p class='c016'><i>Easter night in Constantinople. The scene is an open -place, with trees, bushes, and overthrown statues, -in the vicinity of the Imperial Palace. In the -background, fully illuminated, stands the Imperial -Chapel. To the right a marble balustrade, from -which a staircase leads down to the water. Between -the pines and cypresses appear glimpses of -the Bosphorus and the Asiatic coast.</i></p> -<p class='c017'><i>Service in the church. Soldiers of the Imperial Guard -stand on the church steps. Great crowds of worshippers -stream in. Beggars, cripples, and blind -men at the doors. Heathen onlookers, fruit-sellers, -and water-carriers fill up the place.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hymn of Praise.</span></div> - <div>[<i>Inside the church.</i>]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c018'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Never-ending adoration</div> - <div class='line'>To the Cross of our salvation!</div> - <div class='line'>The Serpent is hurled</div> - <div class='line'>To the deepest abyss;</div> - <div class='line'>The Lamb rules the world;</div> - <div class='line'>All is peace, all is bliss.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c000'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_4'>4</span><span class='sc'>Potamon the Goldsmith.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Carrying a paper lantern, enters from the left, taps -one of the soldiers on the shoulder, and asks</i>:] Hist, -good friend—when comes the Emperor?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Soldier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I cannot tell.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion the Dyer.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>In the crowd, turning his head.</i>] The Emperor? -Did not some one ask about the Emperor? The -Emperor will come a little before midnight—just -before. I had it from Memnon <a id='corr4.11'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='himself'>himself.</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_4.11'><ins class='correction' title='himself'>himself.</ins></a></span></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius the Barber.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Rushes in hastily and pushes a Fruit-seller aside.</i>] -Out of the way, heathen!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Fruit-seller.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Softly, sir!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Potamon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>The swine grumbles!</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Dog, dog!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Grumbling at a well-dressed Christian—at a man -of the Emperor’s own faith!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Knocks the Fruit-seller down.</i>] Into the gutter -with you!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Potamon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That’s right. Wallow there, along with your -gods!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_5'>5</span><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Beating him with his stick.</i>] Take that—and -that—and that!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Kicking him.</i>] And this—and this! I’ll baste -your god-detested skin for you!</p> - -<div class='c019'>[<i>The Fruit-seller hastens away.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>With the evident intention of being heard by the -Captain of the Guard.</i>] It is much to be desired -that some one should bring this scene to our -blessed Emperor’s ears. The Emperor has lately -expressed his displeasure at the way in which we -Christian citizens consort with the heathen, just -as if no gulf divided us——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Potamon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You refer to that placard in the market-places? -I too have read it. And I hold that, as there is -both true and false gold in the world——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>——we ought not to clip every one with the -same shears; that is my way of thinking. There -are still zealous souls among us, praise be to -God!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>We are far from being zealous enough, dear -brethren! See how boldly these scoffers hold up -their heads. How many of this rabble, think you, -bear the sign of the cross or of the fish on their -arms?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_6'>6</span><span class='sc'>Potamon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Not many—and yet they actually swarm in front -of the Imperial Chapel——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>——on such a thrice-sacred night as this——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>——blocking the way for true sons of the -Church——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Painted Woman.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>In the crowd.</i>] Are Donatists true sons of the -Church?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What? A Donatist? Are you a Donatist?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What then? Are not you one?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I? I? May the lightning blast your tongue!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Potamon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Making the sign of the cross.</i>] May plague and -boils——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A Donatist! You carrion! You rotten tree!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Potamon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Right, right!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You brand for Satan’s furnace!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span><span class='sc'>Potamon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Right! Give it him; give it him, dear <a id='corr7.2'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='brother'>brother.</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_7.2'><ins class='correction' title='brother'>brother.</ins></a></span></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Pushing the Goldsmith away.</i>] Hold your tongue -get you behind me. I know you now;—you are -Potamon the Manichæan!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A Manichæan? A stinking heretic! Faugh, -faugh!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Potamon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Holding up his paper lantern.</i>] Heyday! Why, -you are Phocion the Dyer, of Antioch! The -Cainite!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Woe is me, I have held communion with falsehood!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Woe is me, I have helped a son of Satan!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Boxing his ear.</i>] Take that for your help!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Returning the blow.</i>] Oh, you abandoned <a id='corr7.22'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='hound'>hound!</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_7.22'><ins class='correction' title='hound'>hound!</ins></a></span></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Potamon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Accursed, accursed be ye both!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>A general fight; laughter and derision -among the onlookers.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span><span class='sc'>The Captain of the Guard.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Calls to the soldiers.</i>] The Emperor comes!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>The combatants are parted and carried with -the stream of other worshippers into the -church.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hymn of Praise.</span></div> - <div>[<i>From the high altar.</i>]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c018'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>The Serpent is hurled</div> - <div class='line'>To the deepest abyss;—</div> - <div class='line'>The Lamb rules the world,—</div> - <div class='line'>All is peace, all is bliss!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c017'><i>The Court enters in stately procession from the left. -Priests with censers go before; after them men-at-arms -and torch-bearers, courtiers and bodyguards. -In their midst the <span class='sc'>Emperor Constantius</span>, a man of -thirty-four, of distinguished appearance, beardless, -with brown curly hair; his eyes have a dark, -distrustful expression; his gait and whole deportment -betray uneasiness and debility. Beside -him, on his left, walks the <span class='sc'>Empress Eusebia</span>, a -pale, delicate woman, the same age as the Emperor. -Behind the imperial pair follows <span class='sc'>Prince -Julian</span>, a not yet fully developed youth of nineteen. -He has black hair and the beginnings of a -beard, sparkling brown eyes with a rapid glance; -his court-dress sits badly upon him; his manners -are notably awkward and abrupt. The Emperor’s -sister, the <span class='sc'>Princess Helena</span>, a voluptuous beauty -of twenty-five, follows, accompanied by maidens -and older women. Courtiers and men-at-arms -close the procession. The Emperor’s body-slave, -<span class='sc'>Memnon</span>, a heavily-built, magnificently-dressed -Ethiopian, is among them.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Stops suddenly, turns round to</i> <span class='sc'>Prince Julian</span>, <i>and -asks sharply.</i>] Where is Gallus?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Turning pale.</i>] Gallus? What would you with -Gallus?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>There, I caught you!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sire——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Empress.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Seizing the <span class='sc'>Emperor’s</span> hand.</i>] Come; come!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Conscience cried aloud. What are you two -plotting?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>We?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You and he!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Empress.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, come; come, Constantius!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>So black a deed! What did the oracle -answer?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The oracle! By my Holy Redeemer——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>If any one maligns you, he shall pay for it at -<span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span>the stake. [<i>Draws the <span class='sc'>Prince</span> aside.</i>] Oh, let us -hold together, Julian! Dear kinsman, let us hold -together!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Everything lies in your hands, my beloved -lord!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My hands——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, stretch them in mercy over us!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My hands? What was in your mind as to my -hands?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Grasps his hands and kisses them.</i>] The Emperor’s -hands are white and cool.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What else should they be? What was in your -mind? There I caught you again!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Kisses them again.</i>] They are like rose-leaves -in this moonlight night.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Well, well, well, Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Empress.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Forward; it is time.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>To go in before the presence of the Lord! I—I! -Oh, pray for me Julian! They will offer me -the consecrated wine. I see it! It glitters in the -golden chalice like serpents’ eyes—— [<i>Shrieks.</i>] -Bloody eyes——! Oh, Jesus Christ, pray for -me!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Empress.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor is ill——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Princess Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Where is Caesarius? The physician, the physician—summon -him!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Empress.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Beckons.</i>] Memnon, good Memnon!</p> - -<div class='c019'>[<i>She speaks in a low voice to the slave.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Softly.</i>] Sire, have pity, and send me far from -here.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Where would you go?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>To Egypt. I would fain go to Egypt, if you -think fit. So many go thither—into the great -solitude.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Into the great solitude? Ha! In solitude one -broods. I forbid you to brood.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I will not brood, if only you will let me——Here -my anguish of soul increases day by day. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span>Evil thoughts flock around me. For nine days I -have worn a hair shirt, and it has not protected -me; for nine nights I have lashed myself with -thongs, but scourging does not banish them.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>We must be steadfast, Julian! Satan is very -busy in all of us. Speak with Hekebolius——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Slave Memnon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To the <span class='sc'>Emperor</span>.</i>] It is time now——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, no, I will not——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Memnon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Seizing him by the wrist.</i>] Come, gracious lord;—come, -I say.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Draws himself up, and says with dignity.</i>] Forward -to the house of the Lord!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Memnon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Softly.</i>] The other matter afterwards——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To <span class='sc'>Julian</span>.</i>] I must see Gallus.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i><span class='sc'>Julian</span> folds his hands in supplication to -the <span class='sc'>Empress</span> behind the <span class='sc'>Emperor’s</span> back.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Empress.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Hastily and softly.</i>] Fear nothing!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Remain without. Come not into the church -with those thoughts in your mind. When you -pray before the altar, it is to call down evil upon -me.—Oh, lay not that sin upon your soul, my -beloved kinsman!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>The procession moves forward towards the -church. On the steps, beggars, cripples, -and blind men crowd round the <span class='sc'>Emperor</span>.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Paralytic.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, mightiest ruler on earth, let me touch the -hem of thy garment, that I may become whole.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Blind Man.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Pray for me, anointed of the Lord, that my sight -may be restored!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Be of good cheer, my son!—Memnon, scatter -silver among them. In, in!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>The Court moves forward into the church, -the doors of which are closed; the crowd -gradually disperses, <span class='sc'>Prince Julian</span> remaining -behind in one of the avenues.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Looking towards the church.</i>] What would he with -Gallus? On this sacred night he cannot think -to——! Oh, if I did but know—— [<i>He turns -and jostles against the blind man, who is departing.</i>] -Look where you go, friend!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Blind Man.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I am blind, my lord!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Still blind! Can you not yet see so much as -yonder glittering star? Fie! man of little faith! -Did not God’s anointed promise to pray for your -sight?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Blind Man.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Who are you, that mock at a blind brother?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A brother in unbelief and blindness.</p> - -<div class='c019'>[<i>He is about to go off to the left.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Softly, among the bushes behind him.</i>] Julian, -Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>With a cry.</i>] Ah!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Nearer.</i>] Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Stand, stand;—I am <a id='corr14.19'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='armed'>armed.</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_14.19'><ins class='correction' title='armed'>armed.</ins></a></span> Beware!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Young Man.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Poorly clad, and with a traveller’s staff, appears -among the trees.</i>] Hush! It is I——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Stand where you are! Do not come near me, -fellow!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Young Man.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, do you not remember Agathon——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Agathon! What say you? Agathon was a -boy——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Six years ago.—I knew you at once.</p> - -<div class='c019'>[<i>Coming nearer.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Agathon;—by the holy cross, but I believe it is!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Look at me; look well——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Embracing and kissing him.</i>] Friend of my childhood! -Playmate! Dearest of them all! And you -are here? How wonderful! You have come all the -long way over the mountains, and then across the -sea,—the whole long way from Cappadocia?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I came two days ago, by ship, from Ephesus. Oh, -how I have sought in vain for you these two days. -At the palace gates the guards would not let me -pass, and——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Did you speak my name to any one? or say that -you were in search of me?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, I dared not, because——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>There you did right; never let any one know -more than you needs must——.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Come hither, Agathon; out into the full moonlight, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>that I may see you.—How you have grown, -Agathon;—how strong you look.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And you are paler.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I cannot thrive in the air of the palace. I think -it is unwholesome here.—’Tis far otherwise at -Makellon. Makellon lies high. No other town in -Cappadocia lies so high; ah, how the fresh snow-winds -from the Taurus sweep over it——! Are -you weary, Agathon?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, in no wise.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Let us sit down nevertheless. It is so quiet and -lonely here. Close together; so! [<i>Draws him down -upon a seat beside the balustrade.</i>]—“Can any good -thing come out of Cappadocia,” they say. Yes—friends -can come. Can anything be better?</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>Looks long at him.</i></div> -<p class='c001'>How was it possible that I did not know you at -once? Oh, my beloved treasure, is it not just as -when we were boys——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Sinking down before him.</i>] I at your feet, as of -old.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, no, no——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, let me kneel thus!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, Agathon, it is a sin and a mockery to kneel -to me. If you but knew how sinful I have become. -Hekebolius, my beloved teacher, is sorely concerned -about me, Agathon. He could tell you——</p> - -<p class='c001'>How thick and moist your hair has grown; and -how it curls.—But Mardonius—how goes it with -him? His hair must be almost white now?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It is snow-white.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How well Mardonius could interpret <a id='corr17.13'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='Homer! am'>Homer! I am</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_17.13'><ins class='correction' title='Homer! am'>Homer! I am</ins></a></span> sure my old Mardonius has not his like at -that.—Heroes embattled against heroes—and the -gods above fanning the flames. I saw it all, as -with my eyes.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Then your mind was set on being a great and -victorious warrior.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>They were happy times, those six years in -Cappadocia. Were the years longer then than -now? It seems so, when I think of all they -contained——</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, they were happy years. We at our books, -and Gallus on his Persian horse. He swept over -the plain like the shadow of a cloud.—Oh, but one -thing you must tell me. The church——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The church? Over the Holy Mamas’s grave?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Smiling faintly.</i>] Which Gallus and I built -Gallus finished his aisle; but I——; mine never -fully prospered.—How has it gone on since?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Not at all. The builders said it was impossible -as you had planned it.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Thoughtfully.</i>] No doubt, no doubt. I wronged -them in thinking them incapable. Now I know -why it was not to be. I must tell you, Agathon;—Mamas -was a false saint.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Holy Mamas?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That Mamas was never a martyr. His whole -legend was a strange delusion. Hekebolius has, -with infinite research, arrived at the real truth, -and I myself have lately composed a slight treatise -on the subject—a treatise, my Agathon, which -certain philosophers are said, strangely enough, to -have mentioned with praise in the lecture-rooms——</p> - -<p class='c001'>The Lord keep my heart free from vanity! The -evil tempter has countless wiles; one can never -know——.</p> - -<p class='c001'>That Gallus should succeed and I fail! Ah, my -Agathon, when I think of that church-building, I -see Cain’s altar——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>God will have none of me, Agathon!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, do not speak so! Was not God strong in -you when you led me out of the darkness of heathendom, -and gave me light over all my days—child -though you then were!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>All that is like a dream to me.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And yet so blessed a truth.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Sadly.</i>] If only it were so now!—Where did I -find the words of fire? The air seemed full of -hymns of praise—a ladder from earth to heaven—[<i>Gazes -straight before him.</i>] Did you see it?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The star that fell; there, behind the two cypresses. -[<i>Is silent a moment, then suddenly changes -his tone.</i>] Have I told you what my mother -dreamed the night before I was born?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I do not recall it.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, no, I remember—I heard of it after we -parted.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What did she dream?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My mother dreamed that she gave birth to -Achilles.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Eagerly.</i>] Is your faith in dreams as strong as -ever?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Why do you ask?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You shall hear; it concerns what has driven me -to cross the sea——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You have a special errand here? I had quite -forgotten to ask you——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A strange errand; so strange that I am lost in -doubt and disquietude. There is so much I should -like to know first—about life in the city—about -yourself—and the Emperor——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Looks hard at him.</i>] Tell me the truth, Agathon—with -whom have you spoken before meeting -me?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>With no one.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>When did you arrive?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I have told you—two days ago.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And already you want to know——? What -would you know about the Emperor? Has any -one set you on to——? [<i>Embraces him.</i>] Oh, forgive -me, Agathon, my friend!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What? Why?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Rises and listens.</i>] Hush!—No, it was nothing—only -a bird in the bushes——</p> - -<p class='c001'>I am very happy here. Wherefore should you -doubt it? Have I not all my family gathered -here? at least—all over whom a gracious Saviour -has held his hand.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And the Emperor is as a father to you?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor is beyond measure wise and good.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Who has also risen.</i>] Julian, is the rumour -true that you are one day to be the Emperor’s -successor?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Hastily.</i>] Speak not of such dangerous matters. -I know not what foolish rumours are abroad.—Why -do you question me so much? Not a word -will I answer till you have told me what brings -you to Constantinople.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I come at the bidding of the Lord God.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>If you love your Saviour or your salvation, get -you home again. [<i>Leans over the balustrade and -listens.</i>] Speak softy; a boat is coming in——</p> - -<div class='c019'>[<i>Leads him over towards the other side.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>What would you here? Kiss the splinter of the -holy cross?—Get you home again, I say! Know -you what Constantinople has become in these last -fifteen months? A Babylon of blasphemy.—Have -you not heard—do you not know that Libanius is -here?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, Julian, I know not Libanius.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Secluded Cappadocian! Happy region, where his -voice and his teaching have found no echo.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, he is one of those heathen teachers of falsehood——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The most dangerous of them all.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Surely not more dangerous than Aedesius of -Pergamus?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Aedesius!—who now thinks of Aedesius of Pergamus? -Aedesius is in his dotage——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is he more dangerous than even that mysterious -Maximus?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Maximus? Do not speak of that mountebank. -Who knows anything certain of Maximus?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He avers that he has slept three years in a cave -beyond Jordan.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Hekebolius holds him an impostor, and doubtless -he is not far wrong——</p> - -<p class='c001'>No, no, Agathon—Libanius is the most dangerous. -Our sinful earth has writhed, as it were, -under this scourge. Portents foretold his coming. -A pestilential sickness slew men by thousands in -the city. And then, when it was over, in the -month of November, fire rained from heaven night -by <a id='corr23.19'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='night'>night.</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_23.19'><ins class='correction' title='night'>night.</ins></a></span> Nay, do not doubt it, Agathon! I have -myself seen the stars break from their spheres, -plunge down towards earth, and burn out on the -way.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Since then he has lectured here, the philosopher, -the orator. All proclaim him the king of -eloquence; and well they may. I tell you he is -terrible. Youths and men flock around him; he -binds their souls in bonds, so that they must follow -him; denial flows seductively from his lips, -like songs of the Trojans and the Greeks——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>In terror.</i>] Oh, you too have sought him -Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Shrinking back.</i>] I!—God preserve me from -such a sin. Should any rumours come to your -ears, believe them not. ’Tis not true that I have -sought out Libanius by night, in disguise. All -contact with him would be a horror to me. Besides, -the Emperor has forbidden it, and Hekebolius -still more strictly.—All believers who -approach that subtle man fall away and turn to -scoffers. And not they alone. His words are -borne from mouth to mouth, even into the -Emperor’s palace. His airy mockery, his incontrovertible -arguments, his very lampoons seem to -blend with my prayers;—they are to me like those -monsters in the shape of birds who befouled all -the food of a pious wandering hero of yore. I -sometimes feel with horror that my gorge rises at -the true meat of the Word—— [<i>With an irrepressible -outburst.</i>] Were the empire mine, I would -send you the head of Libanius on a charger!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>But how can the Emperor tolerate this? How -can our pious, Christian Emperor——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor? Praised be the Emperor’s faith -and piety! But the Emperor has no thoughts -for anything but this luckless Persian war. All -minds are full of it. No one heeds the war that -is being waged here, against the Prince of Golgotha. -Ah, my Agathon, it is not now as it was -two years ago. Then the two brothers of the -Mystic Maximus had to pay for their heresies with -their lives. You do not know what mighty allies -<span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span>Libanius has. One or other of the lesser philosophers -is now and then driven from the city; on -him no one dares lay a finger. I have begged, I -have implored both Hekebolius and the Empress -to procure his banishment. But no, no!—What -avails it to drive away the others? This one man -poisons the air for all of us. Oh, thou my Saviour, -if I could but flee from all this abomination of -heathendom! To live here is to live in the lion’s -den——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Eagerly.</i>] Julian—what was that you said?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes; only a miracle can save us?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, then listen! That miracle has happened.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What mean you?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You shall hear, Julian; for now I can no longer -doubt that it is you it concerns. What sent me -to Constantinople was a vision——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A vision, you say!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A heavenly revelation——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, for God’s pity’s sake, speak!—Hush, do -not speak. Wait—some one is coming. Stand -here, quite carelessly;—look unconcerned.</p> - -<p class='c017'><span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span><i>Both remain standing beside the balustrade. A tall, -handsome, middle-aged man, dressed, according -to the fashion of the philosophers, in a short -cloak, enters by the avenue on the left. A troop -of youths accompanies him, all in girt-up garments, -with wreaths of ivy in their hair, and -carrying books, papers and parchments. Laughter -and loud talk among them as they approach.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Let nothing fall into the water, my joyous -Gregory! Remember, what you carry is more -precious than gold.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Standing close beside him.</i>] Your pardon,—is -aught that a man may carry more precious than -gold?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Can you buy back the fruits of your life for -gold?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>True; true. But why, then, do you entrust -them to the treacherous waters?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The favour of man is more treacherous still.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That word was wisdom. And whither do you -sail with your treasures?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>To Athens.</p> - -<div class='c019'>[<i>He is about to pass on.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>With suppressed laughter.</i>] To Athens! Then, -oh man of wealth, you do not own your own -riches.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Stops.</i>] How so?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is it the part of a wise man to take owls to -Athens?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My owls cannot endure the church-lights here -in the imperial city. [<i>To one of the young men.</i>] -Give me your hand, Sallust.</p> - -<div class='c019'>[<i>Is about to descend the steps.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Half-way down the steps, whispers.</i>] By the gods, -it is <em class='gesperrt'>he</em>!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>On my life, ’tis he! I know him;—I have seen -him with Hekebolius.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He looks at Julian with furtive intentness; -then goes a step towards him and says</i>:</p> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You smiled just now. At what did you smile?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>When you complained of the church-lights, I -wondered whether it were not rather the imperial -light of the lecture-halls that shone too bright in -your eyes.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Envy cannot hide under the short cloak.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What cannot hide shows forth.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You have a sharp tongue, noble Galilean.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Why Galilean? What proclaims me a Galilean?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Your court apparel.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>There is a philosopher beneath it; for I wear a -very coarse shirt.—But tell me, what do you seek -in Athens?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What did Pontius Pilate seek?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Nay, nay! Is not truth here, where Libanius -is?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Looking hard at him.</i>] H’m!—Libanius? Libanius -will soon be silent. Libanius is weary of the strife, -my lord!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Weary? He—the invulnerable, the ever-victorious——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He is weary of waiting for his peer.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Now you jest, stranger! Where can Libanius -hope to find his peer?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>His peer exists.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Who? Where? Name him?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It might be dangerous.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Why?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Are you not a courtier?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And what then?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>In a lower voice.</i>] Would you be foolhardy -enough to praise the Emperor’s successor?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Deeply shaken.</i>] Ah!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Hastily.</i>] If you betray me, I shall deny all!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I betray no man; never fear, never fear!—The -Emperor’s successor, you say? I cannot tell -whom you mean; the Emperor has chosen no -successor.—But why this jesting? Why did you -speak of Libanius’s peer?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes or no—is there at the imperial court a -youth who, by force and strict commandment, by -prayers and persuasions, is held aloof from the -light of the lecture-halls?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Hastily.</i>] That is done to keep his faith pure.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Smiling.</i>] Has this young man so scant faith -in his faith? What can he know about his faith? -What does a soldier know of his shield until he -has proved it in battle?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>True, true;—but they are loving kinsmen and -teachers, I tell you——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Phrases, my lord! Let me tell you this: it is -for the Emperor’s sake that his young kinsman is -held aloof from the philosophers. The Emperor -has not the divine gift of eloquence. Doubtless -the Emperor is great; but he cannot endure -that his successor should shine forth over the -empire——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>In confusion.</i>] And you dare to——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ay, ay, you are wroth on your master’s account, -but——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Far from it; on the contrary—that is to -say——</p> - -<p class='c001'>Listen; my place is somewhat near that young -prince. I would gladly learn——</p> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Turns.</i>]</p> - -<p class='c001'>Go apart, Agathon; I must speak alone with -this man.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>Withdraws a few steps along with <a id='corr31.15'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='the the'>the</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_31.15'><ins class='correction' title='the the'>the</ins></a></span> -stranger.</i></p> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You said “shine forth”? “Shine forth over -the empire?” What do you know, what can any -of you know, of Prince Julian?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Can Sirius be hidden by a cloud? Will not -the restless wind tear a rift in it here or there, so -that——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Speak plainly, I beg you.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The palace and the church are as a double cage -wherein the prince is mewed up. But the cage -is not close enough. Now and then he lets fall -an enigmatic word; the court vermin—forgive me, -sir—the courtiers spread it abroad in scorn; its -<span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>deep meaning does not exist for these gentlefolk—your -pardon, sir—for most of them it does -not exist.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>For none. You may safely say for none.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yet surely for you; and at any rate for -us.——</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, he could indeed shine forth over the empire! -Are there not legends of his childhood in -Cappadocia, when, in disputation with his brother -Gallus, he took the part of the gods, and defended -them against the Galilean?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That was in jest, mere practice in rhetoric——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What has not Mardonius recorded of him? And -afterwards Hekebolius! What art was there not -even in his boyish utterances—what beauty, what -grace in the light play of his thoughts!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You think so?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, in him we might indeed find an adversary -to fear and yet to long for. What should hinder -him from reaching so honourable an eminence? -He lacks nothing but to pass through the same -school through which Paul passed, and passed so -unscathed that, when he afterwards joined the -Galileans, he shed more light than all the other -<span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span>apostles together, because he possessed knowledge -and eloquence! Hekebolius fears for his pupil’s -faith. Oh, I know it well; the fear is his. Does -he forget then, in his exceeding tenderness of -conscience, that he himself, in his youth, has -drunk of those very springs from which he would -now have his pupil debarred? Or think you -it was not from us that he learned to use the -weapons of speech which he now wields against -us with such renowned dexterity?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>True, true; undeniably true!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And what gifts has this Hekebolius in comparison -with the gifts which declared themselves so -marvellously in that princely boy, who, it is said, -in Cappadocia, upon the graves of the slain Galileans, -proclaimed a doctrine which I hold to be -erroneous, and by so much the more difficult to -instil, but which he nevertheless proclaimed -with such fervour of spirit that—if I may believe -a very widespread rumour—a multitude of children -of his own age were carried away by -him, and followed him as his disciples! Ah, -Hekebolius is like the rest of you—more jealous -than zealous; that is why Libanius has waited in -vain.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Seizes him by the arm.</i>] What has Libanius said? -Tell me, I conjure you, in the name of God?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He has said all that you have just heard. And -<span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span>he has said still more. He has said: “Behold -yon princely Galilean; he is an Achilles of the -spirit.”</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Achilles! [<i>Softly.</i>] My mother’s dream!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>There, in the open lecture-halls, lies the field -of battle. Light and gladness encompass the -fighters and the fray. Javelins of speech hurtle -through the air; keen swords of wit clash in the -combat; the blessed gods sit smiling in the -clouds——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, away from me with your heathendom——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>——and the heroes go home to their tents, their -arms entwined, their hearts untouched by rancour, -their cheeks aglow, the blood coursing swiftly -through every vein, admired, applauded, and with -laurels on their brows. Ah, where is Achilles? -I cannot see him. Achilles is wroth——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Achilles is unhappy!—But can I believe it? Oh, -tell me—my brain is dizzy—has Libanius said all -this?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What brought Libanius to Constantinople? -Had he any other end than to achieve the illustrious -friendship of a certain youth?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Speak the truth! No, no; this cannot be true. -How reconcile it with the scoffs and jibes -that——? Who scoffs at one whose friendship -he would seek?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Wiles of the Galileans to build up a wall of -wrath and hate between the two champions.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yet you will not deny that it was Libanius——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I will deny everything to the uttermost.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The lampoons were not his?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Not one of them. They have all been hatched -in the palace, and spread abroad under his -name——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, what do you tell me——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What I will avouch before all the world. You -have a sharp tongue—who knows but that you -yourself——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I——! But can I believe this? Libanius did -not write them? Not one of them?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, no!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Not even those infamous lines about Atlas with -the crooked shoulders?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, no, I tell you.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Nor that foolish and ribald verse about the ape -in court dress?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ha, ha; that came from the church, not from -the lecture-hall. You disbelieve it? I tell you -it was Hekebolius——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Hekebolius!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, Hekebolius, Hekebolius himself, to breed -hatred between his enemy and his pupil——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Clenching his fists.</i>] Ah, if it were so!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>If that blinded and deceived young man had -known us philosophers, he would not have dealt -so hardly with us.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Of what are you speaking?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It is too late now. Farewell, my lord!</p> - -<div class='c019'>[<i>Going.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Seizes his hand.</i>] Friend and brother, who are -you?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>One who sorrows to see the God-born go to -ruin.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What do you call the God-born?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Uncreated in the Ever-changing.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Still I am in the dark.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>There is a whole glorious world to which you -Galileans are blind. In it our life is one long -festival, amid statues and choral songs, foaming -goblets in our hands, and our locks entwined with -roses. Airy bridges span the gulfs between spirit -and spirit, stretching away to the farthest orbs in -space——</p> - -<p class='c001'>I know one who might be king of all that vast -and sunlit realm.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>In dread.</i>] Ay, at the cost of his salvation!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What is salvation? Reunion with the primal -deeps.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, in conscious life. Reunion for me, as the -being I am!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Reunion like that of the raindrop with the sea, -like that of the crumbling leaf with the earth that -bore it.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, had I but learning! Had I but the -weapons to use against you!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Take to yourself weapons, young man! The -lecture-hall is the armoury of intellect and -talent——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Recoiling.</i>] Ah!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosopher.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Look at those joyous youths yonder. There are -Galileans among them. Errors in things divine -cause no discord among us.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Farewell! You Galileans have sent truth into -exile. See, now, how we bear the buffets of fate. -See, we hold high our wreath-crowned heads. So -we depart—shortening the night with song, and -awaiting Helios.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He descends the steps where his disciples -have waited for him; then the boat is -heard rowing away with them.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Gazes long over the water.</i>] Who was he, that -mysterious man?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Approaching.</i>] Listen to me, Julian——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>In lively excitement.</i>] He understood me! And -Libanius himself, the great, incomparable Libanius——! -Only think, Agathon, Libanius has -said—— Oh, how keen must the heathen eye -not be!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Trust me, this meeting was a work of the -Tempter!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Not heeding him.</i>] I can no longer endure to -live among these people. It was they, then, who -wrote those abominable lampoons! They make a -mockery of me here; they laugh behind my back; -not one of them believes in the power that dwells -in me. They ape my gait; they distort my manners -and my speech; Hekebolius himself——! -Oh, I feel it—Christ is deserting me; I grow evil -here.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, though you know it not—you, even you, -stand under special grace.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Walks up and down beside the balustrade.</i>] <i>I</i> am -he with whom Libanius longs to measure swords. -How strange a wish! Libanius accounts <em class='gesperrt'>me</em> his -peer. It is <em class='gesperrt'>me</em> he awaits——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Hear and obey: Christ awaits you!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What mean you, friend?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The vision that sent me to Constantinople——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes, the vision; I had almost forgotten it. -A revelation, you said? Oh, speak, speak!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It was at home in Cappadocia, a month ago or -a little more. There went a rumour abroad that -the heathens had again begun to hold secret -meetings by night in the temple of Cybele——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How foolhardy! Are they not strictly forbidden——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Therefore all we believers arose in wrath. The -magistrates ordered the temple to be pulled down, -and we broke in pieces the abominable idols. The -more zealous among us were impelled by the -Spirit of the Lord to go still further. With singing -of psalms, and with sacred banners at our head, -we marched through the town and fell upon the -godless like messengers of wrath; we took from -them their treasures; many houses were set on -fire, and heathens not a few perished in the -flames; still more we slew in the streets as they -fled. Oh, it was a marvellous time for the glory -of God!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And then? The vision, my Agathon!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>For three whole nights and days the Lord of -Vengeance was strong in us. But at last the -weak flesh could no longer keep pace with the -willing spirit, and we desisted from the pursuit——</p> - -<p class='c001'>I lay upon my bed; I could neither wake nor -sleep. I felt, as it were, an inward hollowness, -as though the spirit had departed out of me. I -lay in burning heat; I tore my hair, I wept, I -prayed, I sang;—I cannot tell what came over -me——</p> - -<p class='c001'>Then, on a sudden, I saw before me by the wall -a white and shining light, and in the radiance -stood a man in a long cloak. A glory encircled -his head; he held a reed in his hand, and fixed -his gaze mildly upon me.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You saw that!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I saw it. And then he spoke and said: “Agathon; -arise, seek him out who shall inherit the -empire; bid him enter the lion’s den and do battle -with the lions.”</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Do battle with the lions! Oh, strange, strange!—Ah, -if it were——! The meeting with that -philosopher—A revelation; a message to me—; -am <i>I</i> the chosen one?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Assuredly you are!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Do battle with the lions!—Yes, I see it;—so it -<span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span>must be, my Agathon! It is God’s will that I -should seek out Libanius——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, no; hear me out!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>——worm from him all his arts and his learning—smite -the unbelievers with their own weapons—fight, -fight like Paul—conquer like Paul, in the -cause of the Lord!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, no! that was not the intent.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Can you doubt it? Libanius—is he not strong -as the mountain lion, and is not the lecture-hall——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I tell you it is not so; for the vision added: -“Proclaim to the chosen one that he shall shake -the dust of the imperial city from his feet, and -never more enter its gates.”</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Are you sure of that, Agathon?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Absolutely sure.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Not here, then! Do battle with, the lions? -Where, where? Oh, where shall I find light?</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span></p><div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'><i><span class='sc'>Prince Gallus</span>, a handsome, strongly-built man of -five-and-twenty, with light curly hair, and fully -armed, enters by the avenue on the left.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Rushing up to him.</i>] Gallus!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What now? [<i>Points to <span class='sc'>Agathon</span>.</i>] Who is that -man?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Agathon.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What Agathon? You have so many strange -companions——Ah, by heaven, it is the Cappadocian! -You have grown quite a man——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Do you know, Gallus—the Emperor has asked -for you.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Anxiously.</i>] Just now? To-night?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes; he wanted to speak with you. He -seemed greatly angered.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How know you that? What did he say?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I did not understand it. He asked what some -oracle had answered.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Hide nothing from me. What is the matter?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Death or banishment is the matter.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Gracious Saviour!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I feared as much! But no, the Empress spoke -hopefully. Oh, say on, say on!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What shall I say? How should I know more -than you? If the Emperor spoke of an oracle, a -certain messenger must have been intercepted, or -some one must have betrayed me——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A messenger?—Gallus, what have you dared to -do?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How could I live any longer this life of doubt -and dread? Let him do with me as he pleases; -anything is better than this——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Softly, leading him some paces aside.</i>] Have a -care, Gallus! What is this about a messenger?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I have addressed a question to the priests of -Osiris in Abydus——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, the oracle! The heathen oracle——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The heathenism might be forgiven me; but—well, -why should you not know it?—I have inquired -as to the issue of the Persian war——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What madness!—Gallus—I see it in your face: -you have asked other questions!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No more; I have not asked——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes; you have inquired as to a mighty -man’s life or death!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And if I had? What can be of more moment -to both of us?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Throwing his arms around him.</i>] Be silent, madman!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Away from me! You may cringe before him -like a cur; but I have no mind to endure it longer. -I will cry it aloud in all the market-places—— -[<i>Calls to</i> <span class='sc'>Agathon</span>.] Have you seen him, Cappadocian? -Have you seen the murderer?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Gallus! Brother!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The murderer!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_46'>46</span><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The murderer in the purple robe; my -father’s murderer, my step-mother’s, my eldest -brother’s——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, you are calling down destruction upon us!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Eleven heads in one single night; eleven -bodies; our whole house.—Ah, but be sure conscience -is torturing him; it shivers through the -marrow of his bones like a swarm of serpents.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Do not listen to him! Away, away!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Seizes <span class='sc'>Julian</span> by the shoulder.</i>] Stay;—you look -pale and disordered; is it you that have betrayed -me?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I! Your own brother——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What matter for that! Brotherhood protects -no one in our family. Confess that you have -secretly spied upon my doings! Who else should -it be? Think you I do not know what people -are whispering? The Emperor designs to make -you his successor.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Never! I swear to you, my beloved Gallus, it -shall never be! I will not. One mightier than -he has chosen me.—Oh, trust me, Gallus: my path -<span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span>is marked out for me. I will not go thither, I tell -you. Oh, God of Hosts—I on the imperial throne! -No, no, no!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ha-ha; well acted, mummer!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ay, you may scoff, since you know not what has -happened. Myself, I scarcely know. Oh, Agathon—if -this head were to be anointed! Would -it not be an apostasy—a deadly sin? Would not -the Lord’s holy oil burn me like molten lead?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Were that so, then were our august kinsman -balder than Julius Caesar.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Beware how you speak! Render unto Caesar -the things that are Caesar’s——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My father’s blood——your father’s and your -mother’s——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, what know we of those horrors? We were -children then. The soldiers were chiefly to blame; -it was the rebels—evil counsellors——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Laughing.</i>] The Emperor’s successor rehearses -his part!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Weeping.</i>] Oh, Gallus, would I might die or -be banished in your stead! I am wrecking my -soul here. I ought to forgive—and I cannot. Evil -grows in me; hate and revenge whisper in my -ear——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Rapidly, looking towards the church.</i>] There he -comes!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Be prudent, my beloved brother!—Ah, Hekebolius!</p> - -<p class='c017'><i>The church door has meanwhile been opened. The -congregation streams forth; some pass away, -others remain standing to see the Court pass. -Among those who come out is <span class='sc'>Hekebolius</span>; he -wears priestly dress.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>On the point of passing out to the left.</i>] Is that -you, my Julian? Ah, I have again passed a heavy -hour for your sake.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Alas! I fear that happens too often.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Christ is wroth against you, my son! It is your -froward spirit that angers him; it is your unloving -thoughts, and all this worldly vanity——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I know <a id='corr48.27'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='it'>it,</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_48.27'><ins class='correction' title='it'>it,</ins></a></span> my Hekebolius! You so often tell -me so.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_49'>49</span><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Even now I lifted up my soul in prayer for your -amendment. Oh, it seemed as though our otherwise -so gracious Saviour repulsed my prayer,—as -though he would not listen to me; he suffered my -thoughts to wander upon trifling things.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You prayed for me? Oh, loving Hekebolius, -you pray even for us dumb animals—at least when -we wear court dress?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What mean you, my son?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Hekebolius, how could you write those shameful -verses?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I? I swear by all that is high and holy——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I see in your eyes that you are lying! I have -full assurance that you wrote them. How could -you do it, I ask—and under the name of Libanius, -too?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Well, well, my dearly beloved, since you know -it, I——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, Hekebolius! Deceit, and lies, and -treachery——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_50'>50</span><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Behold, my precious friend, how deep is my -love for you! I dare all to save the soul of that -man who shall one day be the Lord’s anointed. -If, in my zeal for you, I have had recourse to -deceit and lies, I know that a gracious God has -found my course well pleasing in his sight, and has -stretched forth his hand to sanction it.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How blind have I been! Let me press these -perjured fingers——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>The <span class='sc'>Emperor Constantius</span>, with his whole -retinue, comes from the church. <span class='sc'>Agathon</span> -has already, during the foregoing, -withdrawn among the bushes on the right.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, blessed peace of heaven in my heart.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Empress.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Do you feel yourself strengthened, my Constantius?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes! I saw the living Dove hovering over -me. It took away the burden of all my sin.—Now -I dare venture much, Memnon!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Memnon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Softly.</i>] Lose not a moment, sire!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>There they both stand.</p> - -<div class='c019'>[<i>He goes towards the brothers.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Mechanically feels for his sword, and cries in -terror.</i>] Do me no ill!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>With outstretched arms.</i>] Gallus! Kinsman!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[<i>He embraces and kisses him.</i>]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Lo, in the light of the Easter stars, I choose -the man who lies nearest my heart.—Bow all to -the earth. Hail Gallus Caesar!<a id='r9' /><a href='#f9' class='c012'><sup>[9]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>General astonishment among the Court; a -few involuntary shouts are raised.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Empress.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>With a shriek.</i>] Constantius!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Amazed.</i>] Caesar!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He tries to seize the <span class='sc'>Emperor’s</span> hands, as -if in joy.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Waving him aside.</i>] Away from me! What -would you? Is not Gallus the elder? What hopes -have you been cherishing? What rumours have -you, in your blind presumption——? Away; away!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I—I Caesar!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My heir and my successor. In three days you -will set out for the army in Asia. I know the -Persian war is much on your mind——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, my most gracious sire——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Thank me in deeds, my beloved Gallus! King -Sapor lies west of the Euphrates. I know how -solicitous you are for my life; be it your task, then, -to crush him.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He turns, takes <span class='sc'>Julian’s</span> head between his -hands, and kisses him.</i></p> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And you, Julian, my pious friend and brother—so -it needs must be.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>All blessings on the Emperor’s will!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Call down no blessings! Yet listen—I have -thought of you too. Know, Julian, that now you -can breathe freely in Constantinople——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, praise be to Christ and the Emperor!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You know it already? Who has told you?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What, sire?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That Libanius is banished?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Libanius—banished!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I have banished him to Athens.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yonder lies his ship; he sails to-night.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Aside.</i>] He himself; he himself!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You have long wished it. I have not hitherto -been able to fulfil your desire; but now——; let -this be a slight requital to you, my Julian——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Quickly seizing his hand.</i>] Sire, do me one grace -more.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ask what you will.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Let me go to Pergamus. You know the old -Aedesius teaches there——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A very strange wish. You, among the -heathens——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_54'>54</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Aedesius is not dangerous; he is a high-minded -old man, drawing towards the grave——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And what would you with him, brother?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I would learn to do battle with the lions.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I understand your pious thought. And you -are not afraid——; you think yourself strong -enough——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Lord God has called me with a loud voice. -Like Daniel, I go fearless and joyful into the lions’ -den.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>To-night, without knowing it, you have yourself -been his instrument. Oh, let me go forth to -purge the world!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Softly to the <span class='sc'>Emperor</span>.</i>] Humour him, sire; it -will prevent his brooding on higher things.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Empress.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I implore you, Constantius—set no bar to this -vehement longing.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Great Emperor, let him go to Pergamus. I -<span class='pageno' id='Page_55'>55</span>fear I am losing hold of him here, and now ’tis no -longer of such moment.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How could I deny you anything in such an hour? -Go with God, Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Kissing his hands.</i>] Oh, thanks—thanks!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And now to a banquet of rejoicing! My -Capuan cook has invented some new fast-dishes, -carp-necks in Chios wine, and—— Forward;—your -place is next to me, Gallus Caesar!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[<i>The procession begins to advance.</i>]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Softly.</i>] Helena, what a marvellous change of -fortune!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, Gallus, dawn is breaking over our hopes.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I can scarce believe it! Who has brought it -about?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Hush!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You, my beloved? Or who—who?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Memnon’s Spartan dog.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_56'>56</span><span class='sc'>Gallus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What do you mean?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Memnon’s dog. Julian kicked it; this is Memnon’s -revenge.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Why so silent, Eusebia?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Empress.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Softly, in tears.</i>] Oh, Constantius—how could -you make such a choice!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Eleven ghosts demanded it.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Empress.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Woe upon us; this will not appease the ghosts.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Emperor.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Calls loudly.</i>] Flute-players! Why are the -rascals silent? Play, play!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>All, except <span class='sc'>Prince Julian</span>, go out to the -left. <span class='sc'>Agathon</span> comes forward among the -trees.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Gallus his successor; and I—free, free, free!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Marvellously are the counsels of the Lord -revealed.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Heard you what passed?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_57'>57</span><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, everything.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And to-morrow, my Agathon, to-morrow to -Athens!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>To Athens? ’Tis to Pergamus you go.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Hush! You do not know——; we must be -cunning as serpents. First to Pergamus—and -then to Athens!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Farewell, my lord and friend!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Will you go with me, Agathon?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I cannot. I must go home; I have my little -brother to care for.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>At the balustrade.</i>] There they are weighing -anchor.—A fair wind to you, winged lion; Achilles -follows in your wake.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>[<i>Exclaims softly.</i>]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What was that?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yonder fell a star.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_58'>58</span> - <h3 class='c015'>ACT SECOND</h3> -</div> - -<p class='c017'><i>In Athens. An open place surrounded by colonnades. -In the square, statues and a fountain. A narrow -street debouches in the left-hand corner. Sunset.</i></p> -<p class='c017'><i><span class='sc'>Basil of Caesarea</span>, a delicately-built young man, sits -reading beside a pillar. <span class='sc'>Gregory of Nazianzus</span> -and other scholars of the University stroll in -scattered groups up and down the colonnades. A -larger band runs shouting across the square, and -out to the right; noise in the distance.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Looks up from his book.</i>] What mean these wild -cries?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A ship has come in from Ephesus.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>With new scholars?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Rising.</i>] Then we shall have a night of tumult. -Come, Gregory; let us not witness all this unseemliness.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_59'>59</span><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Points to the left.</i>] Look yonder. Is that a -pleasanter sight?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Prince Julian——; with roses in his hair, his -face aflame——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ay, and after him that reeling, glassy-eyed -crew. Hear how the halting tongues babble with -wine! They have sat the whole day in Lykon’s -tavern.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And many of them are our own brethren, -Gregory; they are Christian youths——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>So they call themselves. Did not Lampon call -himself a Christian—he who betrayed the oil-seller -Zeno’s daughter? And Hilarion of Agrigentum, -and the two others, who did what I shudder to -name——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Prince Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Is heard calling without on the left.</i>] Aha! See, -see—the Cappadocian Castor and Pollux.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He has caught sight of us. I will go; I cannot -endure to see him in this mood.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I will remain; he needs a friend.</p> - -<p class='c017'><span class='pageno' id='Page_60'>60</span><i><span class='sc'>Basil</span> goes out to the right. At the same moment, -<span class='sc'>Prince Julian</span>, followed by a crowd of young -men, enters from the narrow street. His hair is -dishevelled, and he is clad in a short cloak like -the rest. Among the scholars is <span class='sc'>Sallust of -Perusia</span>.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Many in the Crowd.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Long live the light of Athens! Long live the -lover of wisdom and eloquence!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>All your flattery is wasted. Not another verse -shall you have to-day.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>When our leader is silent, life seems empty, as -on the morning after a night’s carouse.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>If we must needs do something, let it be something -new. Let us hold a mock trial.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Whole Crowd.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes, yes; Prince Julian on the judgment-seat!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Have done with the Prince, friends——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ascend the judgment-seat, incomparable one!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How could I presume——? There stands the -man. Who is so learned in the law as Gregory of -Nazianzus?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_61'>61</span><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That is true!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>To the judgment-seat, my wise Gregory; I am -the prisoner at the bar.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I beg you, friend, let me stand out.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>To the judgment-seat, I say! To the judgment-seat. -[<i>To the others</i>,] What is my transgression?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Some Voices.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, what shall it be? Choose yourself!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Let it be something Galilean, as we of the ungodly -say.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Right; something Galilean. I have it. I have -refused to pay tribute to the Emperor——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Many Voices.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ha-ha; well bethought! Excellent!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Here am I, dragged forward by the nape of the -neck, with my hands pinioned——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To <span class='sc'>Gregory</span>.</i>] Blind judge—I mean since -Justice is blind—behold this desperate wretch; he -has denied to pay tribute to the Emperor.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_62'>62</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Let me throw one word into the scales of judgment. -I am a Greek citizen. How much does a -Greek citizen owe the Emperor?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What the Emperor demands.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Good; but how much—answer now as -though the Emperor himself were in court—how -much has the Emperor a right to demand?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Everything.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Answered as though the Emperor were present -indeed! But now comes the knotty point; for -it is written: Render unto Caesar the things that -are Caesar’s—and unto God the things that are -God’s.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And what then?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Then tell me, oh sagacious judge—how much of -what is mine belongs to God?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Everything.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And how much of God’s property may I give to -the Emperor?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Dear friends, no more of this sport.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_63'>63</span><span class='sc'>The Scholars.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Amid laughter and noise.</i>] Yes, yes; answer -him.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How much of God’s property has the Emperor -a right to demand?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I will not answer. This is unseemly both towards -God and the Emperor. Let me go.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Many Voices.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Make a ring round him!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Hold him fast! What, you most luckless of -judges, you have bungled the Emperor’s cause, -and now you seek to escape? You would flee? -Whither, whither? To the Scythians? Bring -him before me! Tell me you servants that-are-to-be -of the Emperor and of wisdom—has he not -attempted to elude the Emperor’s power?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Scholars.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And what punishment do you award to such a -misdeed?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Voices.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Death! Death in a wine-jar!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Let us reflect. Let us answer as though the -Emperor himself were present. What limit is -there to the Emperor’s power?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_64'>64</span><span class='sc'>Some of the Crowd.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor’s power has no limits.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>So I should think. But to want to escape from -the infinite, my friends, is not that madness?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Scholars.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes; the Cappadocian is mad!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And what, then, is madness? How did our -forefathers conceive of it? What was the doctrine -of the Egyptian priests? And what says Maximus -the Mystic and the other philosophers of the -East? They say that the divine enigma reveals -itself in the brainsick. Our Gregory—in setting -himself up against the Emperor—is thus in special -league with Heaven.—Make libations of wine to -the Cappadocian; sing songs to our Gregory’s -praise;—a statue of honour for Gregory of Nazianzus!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Scholars.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Amid laughter and glee.</i>] Praise to the Cappadocian! -Praise to the Cappadocian’s judge!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'><i>The <span class='sc'>Philosopher Libanius</span>, surrounded by -disciples, comes across the square.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, see—is not my brother Julian dispensing -wisdom in the open market-place?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Say folly, dear friend; wisdom has departed the -city.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_65'>65</span><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Has wisdom departed the city?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Or is on the point of departing; for are not -you also bound for the Piraeus?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I, my brother? What should I want at the -Piraeus?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Our Libanius, then, is the only teacher who -does not know that a ship has just arrived from -Ephesus.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Why, my friend, what have I to do with that -ship?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It is loaded to the water’s edge with embryo -philosophers——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Scornfully.</i>] They come from Ephesus!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is not gold equally weighty whencesoever it -may come?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Gold? Ha-ha! The golden ones Maximus -keeps to himself; he does not let them go. What -sort of scholars is Ephesus wont to send us? Shopkeepers’ -sons, the first-born of mechanics. Gold -say you, my Julian? I call it lack of gold. But -<span class='pageno' id='Page_66'>66</span>I will turn this lack of gold to account, and out -of it I will mint for you young men a coin of -true and weighty metal. For may not a precious -lesson in life, set forth in ingenious and attractive -form, be compared to a piece of full-weighted -golden currency?—</p> - -<p class='c001'>Hear then, if you have a mind to. Was it not -said that certain men had rushed eagerly down to -the Piraeus? Who are they, these eager ones? -Far be it from me to mention names; they call -themselves lovers and teachers of wisdom. Let -us betake ourselves in thought to the Piraeus. -What is passing there at this moment, even as I -stand here in this circle of kindly listeners? I -will tell you what is passing. Those men who -give themselves out as lovers and dispensers of -wisdom, are crowding upon the gangway, jostling, -wrangling, biting, forgetting all decorum, and -throwing dignity to the winds. And why? To -be the first in the field,—to pounce upon the best -dressed youths, to lead them home, to entertain -them, hoping in the end to make profit out of -them in all possible ways. What a shamefaced, -empty awakening, as after a debauch, if it should -presently appear—ha-ha-ha!—that these youths -have scarcely brought with them the wherewithal -to pay for their supper of welcome! Learn from -this, young men, how ill it becomes a lover of -wisdom, and how little it profits him, to run after -good things other than the truth.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, my Libanius, when I listen to you with -closed eyes, I seem lapped in the sweet dream -that Diogenes has once more arisen in our <a id='corr66.34'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='midst'>midst.</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_66.34'><ins class='correction' title='midst'>midst.</ins></a></span></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_67'>67</span><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Your lips are princely spendthrifts of praise, -beloved of my soul!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Far from it. And yet I had almost interrupted -your homily for in this case, one of your colleagues -will scarce find himself disappointed.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My friend is jesting.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Your friend assures you that the two sons of -the governor, Milo, are on board.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Grasping his arm.</i>] What do you say?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That the new Diogenes who secures them as -his pupils will scarce need to drink out of the -hollow of his hand for poverty.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The sons of the Governor Milo! That noble -Milo, who sent the Emperor seven Persian horses, -with saddles embroidered with pearls——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Many thought that too mean a gift for Milo.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Very true. Milo ought to have sent a poem, or -perhaps a well-polished speech, or a letter. Milo -is a nobly-endowed man; all Milo’s family are -nobly-endowed.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_68'>68</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Especially the two young men.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No doubt, no doubt. For the sake of their -beneficent and generous father, I pray the gods -that they may fall into good hands. After all, -then, you were right, my Julian; the ship brought -real gold from Ephesus. For are not intellectual -gifts the purest of gold? But I cannot rest; these -young men’s welfare is, in truth, a weighty matter; -so much depends on who first gains control of -them. My young friends, if you think as I do, -we will hold out a guiding hand to these two -strangers, help them to make the wisest choice -of teacher and abode, and——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I will go with you!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Scholars.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>To the Piraeus! To the Piraeus!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>We will fight like wild boars for Milo’s sons!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>They all go out, with <span class='sc'>Libanius</span>, to the -right; only <span class='sc'>Prince Julian</span> and <span class='sc'>Gregory -of Nazianzus</span> remain behind in the -colonnade.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Following them with his eyes.</i>] See how they go -leaping like a troop of fauns. How they lick their -lips at the thought of the feast that awaits them -this evening. [<i>He turns to <span class='sc'>Gregory</span>.</i>] If there is -<span class='pageno' id='Page_69'>69</span>one thing they would sigh to God for at this -moment, it is that he would empty their stomachs -of their breakfasts.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Julian——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Look at me; I am sober.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I know that. You are temperate in all things. -And yet you share this life of theirs.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Why not? Do you know, or do I, when the -thunderbolt will fall? Then why not make the -most of the bright and sunlit day? Do you forget -that I dragged out my childhood and the first -years of my youth in gilded slavery? It had -become a habit, I might almost say a necessity -to me, to live under a weight of dread. And -now? This stillness as of the grave on the -Emperor’s part;—this sinister silence! I left -Pergamus without the Emperor’s permission; the -Emperor said nothing. I went of my own will to -Nicomedia; I lived there, and studied with -Nikokles and others; the Emperor gave no sign. -I came to Athens, and sought out Libanius, whom -the Emperor had forbidden me to see;—the -Emperor has said nothing to this day. How am -I to interpret this?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Interpret it in charity, Julian.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_70'>70</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, you do not know——! I hate this power -without me, terrible in action, more terrible when -at rest.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Be frank, my friend, and tell me whether it is -this alone that has led you into all these strange -ways?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What mean you by strange ways?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is the rumour true, that you pass your nights in -searching out the heathen mysteries in Eleusis?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, pooh! I assure you there is little to be -learnt from those riddle-mongering dreamers. Let -us talk no more about them.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Then it is true! Oh, Julian, how could you -seek such shameful intercourse?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I must live, Gregory,—and this life at the university -is no life at all. This Libanius! I shall -never forgive him the great love I once bore him! -At my first coming, how humbly and with what -tremors of joy did I not enter the presence of -this man, bowing myself before him, kissing him, -and calling him my great <a id='corr70.28'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='brother'>brother.</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_70.28'><ins class='correction' title='brother'>brother.</ins></a></span></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_71'>71</span><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, we Christians all thought that you went -too far.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And yet I came here in exaltation of spirit. I -saw, in my fancy, a mighty contest between us -two,—the world’s truth in pitched battle against -God’s truth.—What has it all come to? Libanius -never seriously desired that contest. He never -desired any contest whatever; he cares only for -his own interest. I tell you, Gregory—Libanius -is not a great man.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yet all enlightened Greece proclaims him great.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A great man he is not, I tell you. Once only -have I seen Libanius great: that night in Constantinople. -Then he was great, because he had -suffered a great wrong, and because he was filled -with a noble wrath. But here! Oh, what have -I not seen here? Libanius has great learning, but -he is no great man. Libanius is greedy; he is -vain; he is eaten up with envy. See you not how -he has writhed under the fame which I—largely, -no doubt, owing to the indulgence of my friends—have -been so fortunate as to acquire? Go to -Libanius, and he will expound to you the inward -essence and the outward signs of all the virtues. -He has them ready to hand, just as he has the -books in his library. But does he exercise these -virtues? Is his life at one with his teaching? He -a successor of Socrates and of Plato—ha-ha! Did -he not flatter the Emperor, up to the time of his -<span class='pageno' id='Page_72'>72</span>banishment? Did he not flatter me at our meeting -in Constantinople, that meeting which he has -since attempted, most unsuccessfully, to present -in a ludicrous light! And what am I to him now? -Now he writes letters to Gallus, to Gallus Caesar, -to the Emperor’s heir, congratulating him on his -successes against the Persians, although these successes -have as yet been meagre enough, and -Gallus Caesar is not distinguished either for learning -or for any considerable eloquence.—And this -Libanius the Greeks persist in calling the king of -the philosophers! Ah, I will not deny that it -stirs my indignation. I should have thought, to -tell the truth, that the Greeks might have made -a better choice, if they had noted a little more -closely the cultivators of wisdom and eloquence, -who of late years——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil of Caesarea.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Entering from the right.</i>] Letters! Letters -from Cappadocia!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>For me too?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, here; from your mother.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My pious mother!</p> - -<div class='c019'>[<i>He opens the paper and reads.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To <span class='sc'>Basil</span>.</i>] Is it your sister who writes to -you?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_73'>73</span><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Who has entered with his own letter open.</i>] Yes, -it is Makrina. Her news is both sad and strange.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What is it? Tell me.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>First of your noble brother Gallus. He rules -sternly in Antioch.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, Gallus is hard.—Does Makrina write -“sternly.”</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Looking at him.</i>] Makrina writes “bloodily”——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, I thought as much! Why did the Emperor -marry him to that dissolute widow, that Constantina?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Reading.</i>] Oh, what unheard-of infamy!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What is it, friend?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To <span class='sc'>Basil</span>.</i>] Does Makrina say nothing of what -is happening in Antioch?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Nothing definite. What is it? You are pale——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You knew the noble Clemazius, the Alexandrian?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_74'>74</span><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes; what of him?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He is murdered, Basil!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What do you say? Murdered?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I call it murdered;—they have executed him -without law or judgment.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Who? Who has executed him?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, who? How can I say who? My mother -tells the story thus: Clemazius’s mother-in-law -was inflamed with an impure love for her daughter’s -husband; but as she could not move him to -wrong, she gained some back-stairs access to the -palace——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What palace?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My mother writes only “the palace.”</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Well? And then——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It is only known that she presented a very -costly jewel to a great and powerful lady to procure -a death-warrant——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_75'>75</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, but they did not get it!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>They got it, Julian.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, Jesus!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Horrible! And Clemazius——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The death-warrant was sent to the governor, -Honoratus. That weak man dared not disobey so -high a command. Clemazius was thrown into -prison and executed early next morning, without -being suffered, my mother writes, to open his lips -in his own defence.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Pale, in a low voice.</i>] Burn these dangerous -letters; they might bring us all to ruin.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Such open violence in the midst of a great <a id='corr75.20'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='city'>city!</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_75.20'><ins class='correction' title='city'>city!</ins></a></span> -Where are we; where are we?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Aye, you may well ask where we are! A Christian -murderer, a Christian adulteress, a Christian——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Denunciations will not mend this matter. What -do you intend to do?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_76'>76</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I? I will go no more to Eleusis; I will break -off all dealings with the heathen, and thank the -Lord my God that he spared me the temptations -of power.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Good; but then?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I do not understand you——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Then listen. The murder of Clemazius is not -all, believe me. This unheard-of infamy has descended -like a plague on Antioch. All evil things -have awakened, and are swarming forth from -their lairs. My mother writes that it seems as -though some pestilent abyss had opened. Wives -denounce their husbands, sons their fathers, priests -the members of their own flock——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>This will spread yet further. The abomination -will corrupt us all.—— Oh, Gregory, would I -could fly to the world’s end——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Your place is at the world’s navel, Prince Julian.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What would you have me do?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You are this bloody Caesar’s brother. Stand -forth before him—he calls himself a Christian—and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_77'>77</span>cast his crime in his teeth; smite him to the -earth in terror and remorse——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Recoiling.</i>] Madman, of what are you thinking?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is your brother dear to you? Would you save -him?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I once loved Gallus above all others.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'><em class='gesperrt'>Once</em>——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>So long as he was only my brother. But -now——; is he not Caesar? Gregory,—Basil,—oh, -my beloved friends,—I tremble for my life, I -draw every breath in fear, because of Gallus -Caesar. And you ask me to defy him to his face, -me, whose very existence is a danger to him?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Why came you to Athens? You gave out loudly -in all quarters that Prince Julian was setting forth -from Constantinople to do battle with philosophy, -falsely so called—to champion Christian truth -against heathen falsehood. What have you done -of all this?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, ’twas not here that the battle was to be.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, it was not here,—not with phrase against -phrase, not with book against book, not with the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_78'>78</span>idle word-fencing of the lecture-room! No, -Julian, you must go forth into life itself, with your -own life in your hands——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I see it; I see it!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, as Libanius sees it! You mocked at him. -You said he knew the essence and the outward -signs of all the virtues, but his doctrine was only -a doctrine to him. How much of <em class='gesperrt'>you</em> belongs to -God? How much may the Emperor demand?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You said yourself it was unseemly——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Towards whom? Towards God or the Emperor?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Quickly.</i>] Well then: shall we go together?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Evasively.</i>] I have my little circle; I have my -family to watch over. I have neither the strength -nor the gifts for a larger task.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Is about to answer; suddenly he listens towards the -right, and calls out.</i>] To the bacchanal!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_79'>79</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>To the bacchanal, <a id='corr79.2'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='friend'>friends!</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_79.2'><ins class='correction' title='friend'>friends!</ins></a></span></p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i><span class='sc'>Gregory of Nazianzus</span> looks at him a -moment; then he goes off through the -colonnade to the left. A large troop of -scholars, with the newcomers among them, -rushes into the square, amid shouts and -noise.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Coming nearer.</i>] Julian, will you listen to me!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>See, see! They have taken their new friends -to the bath, and anointed their hair. See how -they swing their cudgels; how they yell and -thump the pavement! What say you, Pericles? -Methinks I can hear your wrathful shade——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Come, come!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, look at the man they are driving naked -among them. Now come the dancing-girls. Ah, -do you see what——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Fie! Fie!—turn your eyes away!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>Evening has fallen. The whole troop -settles down in the square beside the fountain. -Wine and fruits are brought. -Painted damsels dance by torchlight.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>After a short silence.</i>] Tell me, Basil, why was -the heathen sin so beautiful?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_80'>80</span><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You are mistaken, friend; beautiful things have -been said and sung of this heathen sin; but it -was not beautiful.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, how can you say so? Was not Alcibiades -beautiful when, flushed with wine, he stormed at -night like a young god through the streets of -Athens? Was he not beautiful in his very audacity -when he insulted Hermes and battered at the -citizens’ doors,—when he summoned their wives -and daughters forth, while within the women -trembled, and, in breathless, panting silence, -wished for nothing better than to——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh listen to me, I beg and entreat you.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Was not Socrates beautiful in the symposium? -And Plato, and all the joyous revellers? Yet -they did such things, as, but to be accused of them, -would make those Christian swine out there call -down upon themselves the curse of God. Think -of Oedipus, Medea, Leda——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Poetry, poetry; you confound fancies with -facts.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Are not mind and will in poetry subject to the -same laws as in fact? And then look at our holy -scriptures, both the old and new. Was sin beautiful -in Sodom and Gomorrah? Did not Jehovah’s -fire avenge what Socrates shrank not from?—Oh, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_81'>81</span>as I live this life of revel and riot, I often -wonder whether truth is indeed the enemy of -beauty!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And in such an hour can you sigh after beauty? -Can you so easily forget what you have just -heard——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Stopping his ears.</i>] Not a word more of those -horrors! We will shake off all thoughts of Antioch——</p> - -<p class='c001'>Tell me, what does Makrina write further? There -was something more; I remember, you said——; -what was it you called the rest of her news?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Strange.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes;—what was it?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>She writes of Maximus in Ephesus——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Eagerly.</i>] The Mystic?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes; that inscrutable man. He has appeared -once more; this time in Ephesus. All the region -around is in a ferment. Maximus is on all lips. -Either he is a juggler or he has made a baleful -compact with certain spirits. Even Christians -are strangely allured by his impious signs and -wonders.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_82'>82</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>More, more; I entreat you!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>There is no more about him. Makrina only -writes that she sees in the coming again of Maximus -a proof that we are under the wrath of the -Lord. She believes that great afflictions are in -store for us, by reason of our sins.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes, yes!—Tell me, Basil: your sister is -surely a remarkable woman.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>She is, indeed.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>When you repeat to me passages from her letters, -I seem to be listening to something full and perfect, -such as I have long sighed for. Tell me, is -she still bent on renouncing this world, and -living in the <a id='corr82.19'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='wilderness'>wilderness?</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_82.19'><ins class='correction' title='wilderness'>wilderness?</ins></a></span></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That is her steadfast intent.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is it possible? She on whom all gifts seem -to have been lavished? She who, ’tis known, is -both young and beautiful; she, who has riches in -prospect, and in possession such learning as is -very rare in a woman! Do you know, Basil, I -long to see her? What has <em class='gesperrt'>she</em> to do in the -wilderness?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_83'>83</span><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I have told you how her affianced lover died. -She regards him as her expectant bridegroom, -to whom she owes her every thought, and whom -she is pledged to meet unsullied.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Strange how many feel the attraction of solitude -in these times.—When you write to Makrina, you -may tell her that I too——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>She knows that, Julian; but she does not believe -it.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Why not? What does she write?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I pray you, friend, spare me——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>If you love me, do not hide from me one word -she writes.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Giving him the letter.</i>] Read, if you must—it -begins there.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Reads.</i>] “Whenever you write of the Emperor’s -young kinsman, who is your friend, my soul -is filled with a great and radiant joy——” O -Basil! lend me your eye; read for me.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Reading.</i>] “Your account of the fearless confidence -wherewith he came to Athens was to me -<span class='pageno' id='Page_84'>84</span>as a picture from the ancient chronicles. Yes, I -see in him David born again, to smite the champions -of the heathen. God’s spirit watch over -him in the strife, now and for ever.”</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Grasping his arm.</i>] Enough of that! She too? -What is it that you all, as with one mouth, demand -of me? Have I sealed you a bond to do battle -with the lions of power——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How comes it that all believers look towards -you in breathless expectation?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Paces once or twice up and down the colonnade, -then stops and stretches out his hand for the letter.</i>] -Give it to me; let me see. [<i>Reading.</i>] “God’s -spirit watch over him in the strife, now and for -ever.”—</p> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, Basil, if I could——! But I feel like -Daedalus, between sky and sea. An appalling -height and an abysmal depth.—What sense is -there in these voices calling to me, from east and -west, that I must save Christendom? Where is -it, this Christendom that I am to save? With the -Emperor or with Caesar? I think their deeds -cry out, “No, no!” Among the powerful and -high-born;—among those sensual and effeminate -courtiers who fold their hands over their full -bellies, and quaver: “Was the Son of God created -out of nothing?” Or among the men of enlightenment, -those who, like you and me, have -drunk in beauty and learning from the heathen -fountains? Do not most of our fellows lean to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_85'>85</span>the Arian heresy, which the Emperor himself so -greatly favours?—And then the whole ragged -rabble of the Empire, who rage against the temples, -who massacre heathens and the children of heathens! -Is it for Christ’s sake? Ha ha! see how -they fall to fighting among themselves for the -spoils of the slain.—Ask Makrina if Christendom -is to be sought in the wilderness,—on the pillar -where the stylite-saint stands on one leg? Or is -it in the cities? Perhaps among those bakers in -Constantinople who lately took to their fists to -decide whether the Trinity consists of three individuals -or of three hypostases!—Which of all these -would Christ acknowledge if he came down to -earth again?—Out with your Diogenes-lantern, -Basil! Enlighten this pitchy darkness.—Where -is Christendom?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Seek the answer where it is ever to be found in -evil days.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Hold me not aloof from the well of your wisdom! -Slake my thirst, if you can. Where shall I seek -and find?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>In the writings of holy men.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The same despairing answer. Books,—always -books! When I came to Libanius, it was: books, -books! I come to you,—books, books, books! -Stones for bread! I cannot live on books;—it is -life I hunger for,—face-to-face communion with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_86'>86</span>the spirit. Was it a book that made Saul a seer? -Was it not a flood of light that enveloped him, a -vision, a voice——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Do you forget the vision and the voice which -that Agathon of Makellon——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>An enigmatic message; an oracle I cannot interpret. -Was <i>I</i> the chosen one? The “heir to -the empire,” it said. And what empire——? -That matter is beset with a thousand uncertainties. -Only this I know: Athens is not the lion’s den. -But where, where? Oh, I grope like Saul in -the darkness. If Christ would have aught of me, -he must speak plainly. Let me touch the nail-wound——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And yet it is written——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>With a gesture of impatience.</i>] I know all that -is written. This “it is written” is not the living -truth. Do you not feel disgust and nausea, as on -board ship in a windless swell, heaving to and fro -between life, and written doctrine, and heathen -wisdom and beauty? There must come a new -revelation. Or a revelation of something new. It -must come, I say;—the time is ripe.—Ah, a -revelation! Oh, Basil, could your prayers call -down that upon me! A martyr’s death, if need -be——! A martyr’s death—ah, it makes me -dizzy with its <a id='corr86.31'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='sweetness'>sweetness;</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_86.31'><ins class='correction' title='sweetness'>sweetness;</ins></a></span> the crown of thorns on -my brow——! [<i>He clasps his head with both hands,</i> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_87'>87</span><i>feels the wreath of roses, which he tears off, bethinks -himself long, and says softly</i>:] That! I had forgotten -that! [<i>Casting the wreath away.</i>] One -thing alone have I learnt in Athens.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What, Julian?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The old beauty is no longer beautiful, and the -new truth is no longer true.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><i><span class='sc'>Libanius</span> enters hastily through the colonnade on the right.</i></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Still in the distance.</i>] Now we have him; now -we have him!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Him? I thought you would have had them -both.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Both of whom?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Milo’s sons.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, yes, I have them too. But we have <em class='gesperrt'>him</em>, -my Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Whom, dear brother?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He has caught himself in his own net!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Aha—a philosopher then?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_88'>88</span><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The enemy of all wisdom.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Who, who, I ask?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Do you really not know? Have you not heard -the news about Maximus?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Maximus? Oh, pray tell me——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Who could fail to see whither that restless -visionary was tending,—step by step towards -madness——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>In other words, towards the highest wisdom.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, that is a figure of speech. But now is the -time to act, to seize the opportunity. You, our -dearly-prized Julian, you are the man. You are -the Emperor’s near kinsman. The hopes of all -true friends of wisdom are fixed upon you, both -here and in Nikomedia——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Listen, oh excellent Libanius,—seeing I am not -omniscient——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Know, then, that Maximus has lately made -open avowal of what lies at the bottom of his -teaching.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_89'>89</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And do you blame him for that?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He has averred that he has power over spirits -and shades of the dead.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Grasping his cloak.</i>] Libanius!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>All on board the ship were full of the most -marvellous stories, and here—— [<i>He shows a -letter</i>], here, my colleague, Eusebius, writes at -length on the subject.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Spirits and shades——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>At Ephesus lately, in a large assembly both -of his partisans and his opponents. Maximus applied -forbidden arts to the statue of Hecate. It took -place in the goddess’s temple. Eusebius writes -that he himself was present, and saw everything -from first to last. All was in pitch-black darkness. -Maximus uttered strange incantations; then he -chanted a hymn, which no one understood. Then -the marble torch in the statue’s hand burst into -flame——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Impious doings!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Breathlessly.</i>] And then——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_90'>90</span><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>In the strong bluish light, they all saw the -statue’s face come to life and smile at them.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What more?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Terror seized on the minds of most. All rushed -towards the doors. Many have lain sick or raving -ever since. But he himself—would you believe -it, Julian?—in spite of the fate that befell his two -brothers in Constantinople, he goes boldly forward -on his reckless and scandalous way.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Scandalous? Call you that way scandalous? Is -not this the end of all wisdom. Communion between -spirit and spirit——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, dear, misguided friend——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>More than scandalous, I call it! What is -Hecate? What are the gods, as a whole, in the -eyes of enlightened humanity? We have happily -left far behind us the blind old singer’s days. -Maximus ought to know better than that. Has -not Plato—and we others after him—shed the -light of interpretation over the whole? Is it not -scandalous now, in our own days, to seek to enshroud -afresh in riddles and misty dreams this -admirable, palpable, and, let me add, this -laboriously constructed edifice of ideas and interpretations -which we, as lovers of wisdom, as a -school, as——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_91'>91</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Wildly.</i>] Basil, farewell! I see a light on my -path!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Flinging his arms around him.</i>] I will not let -you go; I will hold you fast!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Extricating himself from his grasp.</i>] No one -shall withhold me;—kick not against the -pricks——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What frenzy is this? Friend, brother, colleague, -whither would you go?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Thither, thither, where torches light themselves -and where statues smile!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And you can do this! You, Julian, our pride, -our light, our hope,—you can think of rushing to -bewildered Ephesus, to give yourself into a juggler’s -power! Know that in the hour you so -deeply debase yourself, in that same hour you -throw away all that bright renown for learning -and eloquence which, during these years in Pergamos -and Nikomedia, and especially here in the -great school of Athens——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, the school, the school! Do you pore over -your books;—you have pointed my way to the man -for whom I have been seeking.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He goes off hastily through the colonnade to -the left.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_92'>92</span><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Looking after him awhile.</i>] This princely youth -is a menace to enlightenment.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Half to himself.</i>] Prince Julian is a menace to -more than that.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_93'>93</span> - <h3 class='c015'>ACT THIRD</h3> -</div> - -<p class='c016'><i>In Ephesus. A brightly lighted hall in <span class='sc'>Prince -Julian’s</span> dwelling. The entrance from the vestibule -is on the right side; further back, a smaller -door, covered by a curtain. On the left, a door, -which leads to the inner part of the house. The -wall in the back is pierced with an archway, -through which a small enclosed court is visible, -decked with small statues.</i></p> -<p class='c017'><i>Servants prepare a festal supper, and lay cushions -round the table. The Chamberlain, <span class='sc'>Eutherius</span>, -stands at the entrance, and, with much ceremony, -half forces <span class='sc'>Gregory of Nazianzus</span> and <span class='sc'>Basil -of Caesarea</span> to enter.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes; I assure you it is as I say.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Impossible! Do not make sport of us.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You are jesting, friend! How can your master -expect us? Not a creature knew of our leaving -Athens; nothing has detained us on our way; we -have kept pace with the clouds and the wild -cranes.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_94'>94</span><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Look around; see yonder table. His daily fare -is herbs and bread.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ay, truly; all our senses bear you witness;—wine-flagons, -wreathed with flowers and leaves; -lamps and fruits; incense filling the hall with its -odour; flute-players before the door——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Early this morning he sent for me. He seemed -unwontedly happy, for he paced the room to and -fro, rubbing his hands. “Prepare a rich banquet,” -said he, “for before evening I look for two friends -from Athens——”</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He glances towards the door on the left, is -suddenly silent, and draws back respectfully.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is he there?</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i><span class='sc'>Eutherius</span> nods in answer; then gives a -sign to the servants to withdraw; they go -out by the larger door on the right; he -follows.</i></p> -</div> - -<p class='c017'><i><span class='sc'>Prince Julian</span> shortly afterwards enters from the -left. He is dressed in long, Oriental garb; -his whole demeanour is vivacious, and betrays -strong inward excitement.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Going towards them, and greeting them with great -warmth.</i>] I see you! I have you! Thanks, thanks, -for sending your spirits to herald your bodies!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_95'>95</span><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My friend and brother!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I have been like a lover, languishing for the -pressure of your hands. The court vermin, eager -for certain persons’ applause, called me an ape;—oh, -would I had an ape’s four hands, to squeeze -yours all at once!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>But explain——; your servants meet us with -flutes before the door, want to lead us to the bath, -to anoint our hair and deck us with roses——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I saw you last night. The moon was full, you -see,—and then is the spirit always strangely alert -within me. I sat at the table in my library, and -had fallen asleep, weary, oh! so weary, my friends, -with research and writing. Of a sudden it seemed -as though a storm-wind filled the house; the -curtain was swept flapping aloft, and I looked out -into the night, far over the sea. I heard sweet -singing; and the singers were two large birds, -with women’s faces. They flew slanting towards -the shore; there they dropped gently earthwards; -the bird-forms melted away like a white mist, and, -in a soft, glimmering light, I saw you two.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Are you sure of all this?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_96'>96</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Were you thinking of me? Were you speaking -of me last night?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes—forward in the prow——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What time of the night was it?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What was the time of your vision?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>An hour after midnight.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>With a look at <span class='sc'>Basil</span>.</i>] Strange!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Rubbing his hands, and walking up and down the -room.</i>] You see! Ha-ha; you see?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Following him with his eyes.</i>] Ah, then it is -true——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What? What is true?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The rumour of the mysterious arts you practise -here.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, what will not rumour exaggerate?—But -tell me, what has rumour found to say? I am told -<span class='pageno' id='Page_97'>97</span>there are many reports afloat concerning me. If -I could believe some people’s assurances, it would -seem that there are few men in the empire so much -talked about as I.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That you may safely believe.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And what says Libanius to all this? He could -never endure that the multitude should be busied -with any one but himself. And what say all my -never-to-be-forgotten friends in Athens? They -know I am in disgrace with the Emperor and the -whole court?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You? I have frequent intelligence from the -court; but my brother Caesarius makes no mention -of that.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I cannot interpret it otherwise, good Gregory! -From all sides they think it needful to watch me. -The other day, Gallus Caesar sent his chaplain -Aëtius hither, to find out whether I hold fast to -the orthodox faith.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Well——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I am seldom absent from matins in the church. -Moreover, I reckon the martyrs among the noblest -of men; for truly it is no light matter to endure -so great torments, ay, and death itself, for the sake -of one’s creed. On the whole, I believe Aëtius -departed well content with me.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_98'>98</span><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Grasping his hand.</i>] Julian,—for the sake of -our true friendship,—open your heart fully to us.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I am the happiest man on earth, dear friends! -And Maximus—ay, he is rightly named—Maximus -is the greatest man that has ever lived.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Preparing to depart.</i>] We only wished to see -you, my lord!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Can this estrange brother from brother? You -shrink in affright from the inexplicable. Oh, I do -not wonder. So I, too, shrank before my eyes -were opened, and I divined that which is the -kernel of life.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What do you call the kernel of life?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Maximus knows it. In him is the new revelation.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And it has been imparted to you?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Almost. I am on the eve of learning it. This -very night Maximus has promised me——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Maximus is a visionary, or else he is deceiving -you——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_99'>99</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How dare you judge of these hidden things? -They are beyond your learning, my Gregory! -Fearful is the way into the glory of glories. Those -dreamers in Eleusis were near the right track; -Maximus found it, and I after him—by his help. -I have wandered through chasms of darkness. A -dead swampy water lay on my left—I believe it -was a stream that had forgotten to flow. Piercing -voices shrilled through the night confusedly, suddenly, -and, as it were, without cause. Now and -then I saw a bluish light; dreadful shapes floated -past me;—I went on and on in deathly fear; but -I endured the trial to the end.—</p> - -<p class='c001'>Since then—oh, beloved ones—with this my -body transformed to spirit, I have passed far into -the land of paradise; I have heard the angels -chant their hymns of praise; I have gazed at the -midmost light——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Woe to this ungodly Maximus! Woe to this -devil-devoted heathen juggler!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Blindness, blindness! Maximus pays homage -to his precursor and brother—to both his great -brothers, the law-giver of Sinai and the seer of -Nazareth.——</p> - -<p class='c001'>Would you know how the spirit of realisation -filled me?—It happened on a night of prayer and -fasting. I perceived that I was wafted far—far -out into space, and beyond time; for there was -broad and sun-shimmering day around me, and I -stood alone on a ship, with drooping sails, in the -midst of the glassy, gleaming Aegean sea. Islands -<span class='pageno' id='Page_100'>100</span>towered aloft in the distance, like dim, still banks -of clouds, and the ship lay heavily, as though -sleeping, upon the wine-blue plain.—</p> - -<p class='c001'>Then behold! the plain became more and more -transparent, lighter, thinner; at last, it was no -longer there, and my ship hung over a fearful, -empty abyss. No verdure down there, no sunlight,—only -the dead, black, slimy bottom of the -sea, in all its ghastly nakedness.——</p> - -<p class='c001'>But above, in the boundless dome, which before -had seemed to me empty,—there was life; there -invisibility clothed itself in form, and silence -became sound.—Then I grasped the great redeeming -realisation.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What realisation do you mean?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That which is, is not; and that which is not, is.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, you are going to wreck and ruin in this -maze of mists and gleams!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I? Do not miracles happen? Do not both -omens and certain strange appearances among the -stars declare that the divine will destines me to -issues yet unrevealed?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Do not believe such signs; you cannot know -whose work they are.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_101'>101</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Am I not to believe in fortunate omens which -events have already borne out?</p> - -<div class='c019'>[<i>He draws them nearer to him, and says softly.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>Know, my friends, that a great revolution is at -hand. Gallus Caesar and I shall ere long share -the dominion of the earth—he as Emperor, and I -as—what shall I call it? the unborn cannot be -called by a name, for it has none. So no more of -this till the time be fulfilled. But of Caesar I -dare speak.—Have you heard of the vision for -which Apollinaris, a citizen of Sidon, has been -imprisoned and put to the torture?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, no; how can we know——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Apollinaris declared that he heard some one -knocking many times at his door by night. He -arose, and went out from his house; and lo! there -he saw an apparition—whether man or woman, he -could not tell. And the apparition spoke to him, -and bade him make ready a purple robe, such as -newly-chosen rulers wear. But when Apollinaris, -in affright, would have declined so dangerous a -task, the apparition vanished, and only a voice -cried: “Go, go, Apollinaris, and speedily prepare -the purple robe.”</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Was this the sign that you said events had borne -out?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_102'>102</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Nodding slowly.</i>] Seven days later Caesar’s -wife died in Bithynia. Constantina has always -been his bad angel; therefore she had to be removed, -in accordance with the change in the -divine will. Three weeks after Constantina’s -death, the Emperor’s emissary, the tribune Scudilo, -came with a great retinue to Antioch, greeted -Gallus Caesar with imperial honours, and invited -him, in the Emperor’s name, to visit the imperial -camp at Rome.—Caesar’s journey from province -to province is now like a conqueror’s progress. In -Constantinople he has held races in the hippodrome, -and the multitude loudly acclaimed him -when he, though as yet but Caesar by title, -stood forth after the manner of the earlier -Emperors, and gave the crown to Corax, the -winner in the race. Thus marvellously does God -again exalt our house, which had sunk under sin -and persecution.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Strange! In Athens other reports were -abroad.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I have certain information. The purple robe -will soon be needed, Gregory! How, then, can -I doubt as to the things which Maximus has foretold -as near at hand for <em class='gesperrt'>me</em>? To-night the last -veil falls. Here shall the great enigma be made -manifest. Oh, stay with me, my brothers—stay -with me through this night of anxiety and -expectation! When Maximus comes you shall -witness——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Never!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_103'>103</span><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It cannot be; we are on our way home to Cappadocia.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And what has driven you in such haste from -Greece?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My mother is a widow, Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My father is feeble, both in body and mind; he -needs my support.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, at least remain at the hostelry; only until -to-morrow——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Impossible; our travelling companions start at -daybreak.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>At daybreak? Before midnight the day might -dawn for you.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Julian, let me not set forth in too great sorrow -of soul. Tell me,—when Maximus has interpreted -all riddles for you,—what then?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Do you remember that river whereof Strabo -writes—that river which rises in the Lybian -mountains? It grows, and grows in its course; -but when it is at its greatest, it oozes into the -desert sands, and buries itself in the entrails of the -earth, whence it arose.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_104'>104</span><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Say not that you long for death, Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What you slavishly hope for after death, ’tis -the aim of the great mystery to win for all the -initiated, here in our earthly life. ’Tis regeneration -that Maximus and his disciples seek,—’tis our -lost likeness to the godhead. Wherefore so full -of doubt, my brothers? Why do you stand there -as though before something insurmountable? I -know what I know. In each successive generation -there has been one soul wherein the pure Adam -has been born again; he was strong in Moses the -lawgiver; in the Macedonian Alexander he had -power to subdue the world; he was well-nigh -perfect in Jesus of Nazareth. But see, Basil—[<i>He -grasps him by the arm</i>]—all of them lacked what is -promised to <em class='gesperrt'>me</em>—the pure woman!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Freeing himself.</i>] Julian, Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Blasphemer—to this has your pride of heart -brought you!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, Gregory, he is sick and beside himself!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Why all this scornful doubt? Is it my small -stature that witnesses against me? Ha, ha; I -tell you this gross and fleshly generation shall pass -away. That which is to come shall be conceived -rather in the soul than in the body. In the first -<span class='pageno' id='Page_105'>105</span>Adam, soul and body were equally balanced, as in -those statues of the god Apollo. Since then the -balance has been lost. Was not Moses tongue-tied? -Had not his arms to be supported when he -held them up in imprecation, there by the Red Sea? -Did not the Macedonian need ever to be fired -by strong drinks and other artificial aids? And -Jesus of Nazareth, too? Was he not feeble in -body? Did he not fall asleep in the ship, whilst -the others kept awake? Did he not faint under -the cross, that cross which the Jew Simon carried -with ease? The two thieves did not faint.—You -call yourselves believers, and yet have so little -faith in miraculous revelation. Wait, wait—you -shall see; the Bride shall surely be given me; and -then—hand in hand will we go forth to the east, -where some say that Helios is born,—we will hide -ourselves in the solitudes, as the godhead hides -itself, seek out the grove on the banks of Euphrates, -find it, and there—oh glory of glories!—thence -shall a new race, perfect in beauty and in balance, -go forth over the earth; there, ye book-worshipping -doubters, there shall the empire of the spirit -be founded!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, well may I wring my hands in sorrow for -your sake. Are you the same Julian who, three -years ago, came out of Constantinople?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Then I was blind, as you are now; I knew only -the way that stops short at doctrine.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Know you where your present way ends?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_106'>106</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Where the path and the goal are one.—For the -last time, Gregory, Basil—I implore you to stay -with me. The vision I had last night,—that and -many other things, point to a mysterious bond -between us. To you, my Basil, I had so much to -say. You are the head of your house; and who -knows whether all the blessings that are promised -me—may not come through you and yours——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Never! No one with my good will shall ever -be led away by your frenzies and your wild -dreams.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, why talk of will? I see a hand writing on -the wall; soon I shall interpret the writing.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Come, Basil.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>With outstretched arms.</i>] Oh, my friends, my -friends!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Between us there is a gulf from this day forward.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He drags <span class='sc'>Basil</span> with him; both go out to -the right.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Looking after them.</i>] Ay, go! Go, go!—What -do you two learned men know? What bring you -from the city of wisdom? You, my strong, -masterful Gregory,—and you, Basil, more girl -than man—you know only two streets in Athens, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_107'>107</span>the street to the schools, and the street to the -church; of the third street toward Eleusis and -further, you know naught; and still less——. -Ah!</p> - -<p class='c017'><i>The curtain on the right is drawn aside. Two servants -in eastern costume bring in a tall, veiled -object, which they place in the corner, behind the -table. Shortly after, <span class='sc'>Maximus the Mystic</span> -enters by the same door. He is a lean man of -middle height, with a bronzed, hawk-like face; -his hair and beard are much grizzled, but his -thick eyebrows and moustache still retain their -pitch-black colour. He wears a pointed cap and -a long black robe; in his hand he carries a white -wand.</i></p> -<p class='c017'><i><span class='sc'>Maximus</span> goes, without heeding <span class='sc'>Julian</span>, up to the -veiled object, stops, and makes a sign to the -servants; they retire noiselessly.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Softly.</i>] At last!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i><span class='sc'>Maximus</span> draws the veil away, revealing a -bronze lamp on a high tripod; then he -takes out a little silver pitcher, and pours -oil into the lamp-bowl. The lamp lights -of itself, and burns with a strong reddish -glare.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>In eager expectancy.</i>] Is the time come?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Without looking at him.</i>] Art thou pure in soul -and body?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_108'>108</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I have fasted and anointed myself.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Then may the night’s high festival begin!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He gives a sign; dancing-girls and flute-players -appear in the outer court. Music -and dancing continue during what -follows.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Maximus,—what is this?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Roses in the hair! Sparkling wine! See, see -the lovely limbs at play!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And amid this whirl of the senses you -would——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sin lies only in thy sense of sinfulness.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Roses in the hair! Sparkling wine! [<i>He casts -himself down on one of the couches beside the table, -drains a full goblet, puts it hastily from him, and -asks</i>:] Ah! What was in the wine?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A spark of that fire which Prometheus stole.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He reclines at the opposite side of the -table.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My senses exchange their functions; I hear -brightness and I see music.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_109'>109</span><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Wine is the soul of the grape. The freed and -yet willing captive. Logos in Pan!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Dancing-Girls.</span></div> - <div>[<i>Singing in the court</i>]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c018'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Would’st thou know liberty?</div> - <div class='line'>Drain Bacchus’ blood;—</div> - <div class='line'>Rock on the rhythm-sea,</div> - <div class='line'>Float with its flood!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c000'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Drinking.</i>] Yes, Yes; there is freedom in -intoxication. Canst thou interpret this rapture?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>This intoxication is thy marriage with the -soul of nature.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sweet riddle; tempting, alluring——! What -was that? Why didst thou laugh?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>There is whispering on my left hand! The silk -cushions rustle—— [<i>Springing half up with a pale -face.</i>] Maximus, we are not alone!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Loudly.</i>] We are five at table!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Symposium with the spirits!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_110'>110</span><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>With the shades.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Name my guests!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Not now. Hark, hark!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What is that? There is a rushing, as of a storm, -through the house——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Shrieks.</i>] Julian! Julian! Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Speak, speak! What is befalling us?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The hour of annunciation is upon thee!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Springing up and shrinking far back from the -table.</i>] Ah!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>The table lamps seem on the point of extinction; -over the great bronze lamp -rises a bluish circle of light.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Casting himself wholly down.</i>] Thine eye toward -the light!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yonder?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_111'>111</span><span class='sc'>The Girls’ Song.</span></div> - <div>[<i>Low, from the court.</i>]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c018'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Night spreads her snares for thee,</div> - <div class='line'>All-seeing night;</div> - <div class='line'>Laughing-eyed Luxury</div> - <div class='line'>Lures to delight.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c000'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Staring at the radiance.</i>] Maximus! Maximus!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Softly.</i>] Seest thou aught?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What seest thou?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I see a shining countenance in the light.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Man, or woman?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I know not.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Speak to it.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Dare I?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Speak! speak!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Advancing.</i>] Why was I born?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_112'>112</span><span class='sc'>A Voice in the Light.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>To serve the spirit.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Does it answer?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ask further.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What is my mission?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>To establish the empire.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What empire?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The empire.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And by what way?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>By the way of freedom.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Speak clearly! What is the way of freedom?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The way of necessity.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And by what power?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_113'>113</span><span class='sc'>The Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>By <em class='gesperrt'>willing</em>.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'><em class='gesperrt'>What</em> shall I will?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What thou <em class='gesperrt'>must</em>.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It pales; it vanishes——! [<i>Coming closer.</i>] -Speak, speak! What must I will?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Wailing.</i>] Julian!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>The circle of light passes away; the table -lamps burn as before.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Looking up.</i>] Gone?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Gone.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Dost thou <em class='gesperrt'>now</em> see clearly?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Now less than ever. I hang in the void over -the yawning deep—midway between light and -darkness. [<i>He lies down again.</i>] What is the -empire?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>There are three empires.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Three?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_114'>114</span><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>First that empire which was founded on the -tree of knowledge; then that which was founded -on the tree of the cross——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And the third?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The third is the empire of the great mystery; -that empire which shall be founded on the tree of -knowledge and the tree of the cross together, because -it hates and loves them both, and because it -has its living sources under Adam’s grove and -under Golgotha.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And this empire shall come——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It stands on the threshold. I have counted and -counted——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Breaking off sharply.</i>] The whispering again! -Who are my guests?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The three corner-stones under the wrath of -necessity.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Who, who?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The three great helpers in denial.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Name them!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_115'>115</span><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I cannot; I know them not;—but I could show -them to thee——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Then show me them! At once, Maximus——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Beware——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>At once; at once! I will see them; I will speak -with them, one by one.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The guilt be on thy head.</p> - -<div class='c019'>[<i>He waves his wand and calls.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>Take shape and come to sight, thou first-elected -lamb of sacrifice!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>With veiled face.</i>] What seest thou?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>In a low voice.</i>] There he lies; just by the -corner.—He is great as Hercules, and beautiful,—yet -no, not——</p> - -<div class='c019'>[<i>Hesitatingly.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>Speak to me if thou canst!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What wouldst thou know?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What was thy task in life?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_116'>116</span><span class='sc'>The Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My sin.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Why didst thou sin?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Why was I not my brother?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Palter not with me. Why didst thou sin?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Why was I myself?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And what didst thou <em class='gesperrt'>will</em>, being thyself?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What I must.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And wherefore must thou?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I was myself.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Thou art sparing of words.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Without looking up.</i>] <i>In vino veritas.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Thou hast hit it, Maximus?</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He pours forth a full goblet in front of the -empty seat.</i></p> -</div> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_117'>117</span>Bathe thee in the fumes of wine, my pallid -guest! Refresh thee. Feel, feel—it mounts aloft -like the smoke of sacrifice.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The smoke of sacrifice does not always <em class='gesperrt'>mount</em>.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Why does that scar redden on thy brow? Nay, -nay,—draw not the hair over it; What is it?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The mark.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>H’m; no more of that. And what fruit has thy -sin borne?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The most glorious.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What callest thou the most glorious?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Life.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And the ground of life?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Death.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And of death?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Losing itself as in a sigh.</i>] Ah, <em class='gesperrt'>that</em> is the -riddle!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_118'>118</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Gone!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Looking up.</i>] Gone?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Didst thou know him?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Who was it?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Cain.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>By <em class='gesperrt'>that</em> way, then! Ask no more!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>With an impatient gesture.</i>] The second, -Maximus!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, no, no; I will not!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The second, I say! Thou hast sworn that I -should fathom the meaning of certain things. The -second, Maximus. I will see him; I will know -my guests!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Thou hast willed it, not I.</p> - -<div class='c019'>[<i>He waves his wand.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_119'>119</span>Arise and come to light, thou willing slave, thou -who didst help at the world’s next great turning-point.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Gazes for a moment into the empty space; suddenly -he makes a gesture of repulsion towards the seat -at its side, and says in a low voice</i>:] No nearer!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Who has turned his back.</i>] Dost thou see him?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How dost thou see him?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I see him as a red-bearded man. His garments -are rent, and he has a rope round his neck——</p> - -<p class='c001'>Speak to him, Maximus!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>’Tis thou must speak.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What wast thou in life?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Close beside him.</i>] The twelfth wheel of the -world chariot.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The twelfth? The fifth is reckoned useless.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>But for me, whither had the chariot rolled?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_120'>120</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Whither did it roll by means of thee?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Voice</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Into the glory of glories.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Why didst thou help?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Because I <em class='gesperrt'>willed</em>.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What didst thou will?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What I <em class='gesperrt'>must</em>.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Who chose thee?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The master.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Did the master foreknow when he chose thee?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, <em class='gesperrt'>that</em> is the riddle!</p> - -<div class='c019'>[<i>A short silence.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Thou art silent.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He is no longer here.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Looking up.</i>] Didst thou know him?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_121'>121</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How was he called in life?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Judas Iscariot.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Springing up.</i>] The abyss blossoms; the night -betrays itself!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Shrieks to him.</i>] Forth with the third!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He shall come!</p> - -<div class='c019'>[<i>He waves the wand.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>Come forth, thou third corner-stone! Come -forth, thou third great freed-man under necessity!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He casts himself down again on the couch, -and turns his face away.</i></p> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What seest thou?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I see nothing.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And yet he is here.</p> - -<div class='c019'>[<i>He waves the wand again.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>By Solomon’s seal, by the eye in the triangle—I -conjure thee—come to sight!——</p> - -<p class='c001'>What seest thou now?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Nothing, nothing!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_122'>122</span><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Waving his wand once more.</i>] Come forth, -thou——!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He stops suddenly, utters a shriek, and -springs up from the table.</i></p> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah! lightning in the night! I see it;—all -art is in vain.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Rising.</i>] Why? Speak, speak!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The third is not yet among the shades.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He lives?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, he lives.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And <em class='gesperrt'>here</em>, sayest thou——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Here, or there, or among the unborn;—I know -not——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Rushing at him.</i>] Thou liest! Thou art deceiving -me! <em class='gesperrt'>Here</em>, here thou saidst——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Let go my cloak!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Then it is thou, or I! But which of us?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Let go my cloak, Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_123'>123</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Which of us? Which? All hangs on that!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Thou knowest more than I. What said the -voice in the light?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The voice in the light——!</p> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>With a cry.</i>] The empire! The empire? To -found the empire——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The third empire!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No; a thousand times no! Away, corrupter! -I renounce thee and all thy works——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And necessity?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I defy necessity! I will not serve it! I am -free, free, free!<a id='r10' /><a href='#f10' class='c012'><sup>[10]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>A noise outside; the dancing-girls and -flute-players take to flight.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Listening towards the right.</i>] What is this alarm -and shrieking——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Strange men are forcing their way into the -house——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_124'>124</span><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>They are maltreating your servants; they will -murder us!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Fear not; us no one can hurt.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Chamberlain Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Comes hastily across the court.</i>] My lord, my -lord!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What is that noise without?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Strange men have surrounded the house; they -have set a watch at all the doors; they are making -their way in—almost by force. Here they come, -my lord! Here they are!</p> - -<p class='c017'><i>The <span class='sc'>Quaestor Leontes</span>, with a large and richly-attired -retinue, enters from the right.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Leontes.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Pardon, a thousand pardons, most gracious -lord——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Recoiling a step.</i>] What do I see!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Leontes.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Your servants would have hindered me from -entering; and as my errand was of the utmost -moment——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You here, in Ephesus, my excellent Leontes!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_125'>125</span><span class='sc'>Leontes.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I have travelled night and day, as the Emperor’s -envoy.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Turning pale.</i>] To me? What would the Emperor -with me? I swear I am unwitting of any -crime. I am sick, Leontes! This man—[<i>Pointing -to <span class='sc'>Maximus</span></i>]—attends me as my physician.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Leontes.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Permit me, my gracious lord——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Why do you force your way into my house? -What is the Emperor’s will?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Leontes.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>His will is to gladden you, my lord, by a great -and weighty announcement.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I pray you, let me know what announcement -you bring.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Leontes.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Kneels.</i>] My most noble lord,—with praise to -your good fortune and my own, I hail you Caesar.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Quaestor’s Followers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Long live Julian Caesar!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Caesar!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Retreating, with an exclamation.</i>] Caesar! Stand -up, Leontes! What mad words are these!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_126'>126</span><span class='sc'>Leontes.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I do but deliver the Emperor’s commands.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I—I Caesar!—Ah, where is Gallus?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Leontes.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, do not ask me.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Where is Gallus? Tell me, I conjure you,—where -is Gallus?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Leontes.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Standing up.</i>] Gallus Caesar is with his beloved -wife.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Dead?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Leontes.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>In bliss, with his wife.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Dead! dead! Gallus dead! Dead in the midst -of his triumphal progress! But when,—and -where?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Leontes.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, my dear lord, spare me——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory of Nazianzus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Struggling with the guards at the door.</i>] I must -go to him! Aside, I say!—Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Gregory, brother,—after all, you come again?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_127'>127</span><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is it true, what rumour is scattering like a storm -of arrows over the city?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I am myself transfixed by one of its arrows. -Dare I believe in this blending of good hap and -of ill?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>For Christ’s sake, bid the tempter avaunt!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor’s commands, Gregory!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You will trample on your brother’s bloody -corpse——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Bloody——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Know you it not? Gallus Caesar was murdered.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Clasping his hands.</i>] Murdered?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Leontes.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, who is this audacious——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Murdered? Murdered? [<i>To <span class='sc'>Leontes</span>.</i>] Tell -me he lies!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Leontes.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Gallus Caesar has fallen through his own -misdeeds.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_128'>128</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Murdered!—Who murdered him?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Leontes.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What has occurred was inevitable, my noble lord! -Gallus Caesar madly misused his power here in the -East. He was no longer content with his rank as -Caesar. His conduct, both in Constantinople and -elsewhere on his progress, showed clearly what -was in his mind.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>’Tis not his crime I would know, but the rest.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Leontes.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, let me spare a brother’s ears.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A brother’s ears can bear what a son’s ears have -borne. Who killed him?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Leontes.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The tribune Scudilo, who escorted him, thought -it advisable to have him executed.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Where? Not in Rome?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Leontes.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, my lord; it happened on the journey -thither,—in the city of Pola, in Illyria.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Bowing himself.</i>] The Emperor is great and -righteous.—The last of the race, Gregory!—The -Emperor Constantius is great.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_129'>129</span><span class='sc'>Leontes.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Taking a purple robe from one of his attendants.</i>] -Noble Caesar, deign to array yourself——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Red! Away with it! Was it this he wore at -Pola——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Leontes.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>This comes fresh from Sidon.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>With a look at <span class='sc'>Maximus</span>.</i>] From Sidon! The -purple robe——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Apollinaris’s vision!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Julian! Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Leontes.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>See, this is sent to you by your kinsman, the -Emperor. He bids me tell you that, childless as -he is, he looks to you to heal this the deepest -wound of his life. He wishes to see you in Rome. -Afterwards, it is his will that you should go, as -Caesar, to Gaul. The border tribes of the Alemanni -have passed the Rhine, and made a dangerous -inroad into the empire. He builds securely -on the success of your campaign against the barbarians. -Certain things have been revealed to -him in dreams, and his last word to me at my -departure was that he was assured you would -succeed in establishing the empire.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_130'>130</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Establish the empire! The voice in the light, -Maximus!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sign against sign.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Leontes.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How, noble Caesar?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I also have been forewarned of certain things; -but this——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Say no, Julian! ’Tis the wings of destruction -they would fasten on your shoulders.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Leontes.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Who are you, that defy the Emperor?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My name is Gregory; I am the son of the Bishop -of Nazianzus;—do with me what you will.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He is my friend and brother; let no one touch -him!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>A great crowd has meanwhile filled the -outer court.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil of Caesarea.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Making his way through the crowd.</i>] Take not -the purple, Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You, too, my faithful Basil.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_131'>131</span><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Take it not! For the Lord God’s sake——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What terrifies you so in this?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The horrors that will follow.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Through me shall the empire be established.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Christ’s empire?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor’s great and beautiful empire.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Was that the empire which shone before your -eyes when, as a child, you preached the word beside -the Cappadocian martyrs’ graves? Was that the -empire you set forth from Constantinople to establish -on earth? Was that the empire——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Mists, mists;—all that lies behind me like a -wild dream.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>’Twere better you yourself should be at the -bottom of the sea, with a mill-stone about your -neck, than that that dream should lie behind -you.—— See you not the work of the tempter? -All the glory of the world is laid at your feet.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_132'>132</span><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sign against sign, Caesar!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>One word, Leontes!</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>Seizing his hand and drawing him aside.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>Whither do you lead me?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Leontes.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>To Rome, my lord.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That is not what I ask. Whither do you lead -me: to fortune and power,—or to the shambles?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Leontes.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, my lord, so odious a suspicion——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My brother’s body can scarce have mouldered -yet.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Leontes.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I can silence all doubt. [<i>Taking out a paper.</i>] -This letter from the Emperor, which I had thought -to hand you in private——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A letter? What does he write?——</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He opens the paper and reads.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, Helena! Oh, Leontes! Helena,—Helena -to me!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Leontes.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor gives her to you, my lord! He -gives you his beloved sister, for whom Gallus -Caesar begged in vain.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_133'>133</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Helena to me! The unattainable attained!—But -she, Leontes——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Leontes.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>At my departure he took the Princess by the -hand and led her to me. A flush of maiden blood -swept over her lovely cheeks, she cast down her -eyes, and said: “Greet my dear kinsman, and let -him know that he has ever been the man -whom——”</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Go on, Leontes!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Leontes.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>These words were all she spoke, the modest and -pure woman.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The pure woman!—How marvellously is all -fulfilled!</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He calls loudly.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>Robe me in the purple!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You have chosen?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Chosen, Maximus!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Chosen, in spite of sign against sign?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Here is no sign against sign. Maximus, Maximus, -seer though you be, you have been blind. -Robe me in the purple!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>The <span class='sc'>Quaestor Leontes</span> attires him in the -mantle.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_134'>134</span><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It is done!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Murmurs to himself with upstretched hands.</i>] -Light and victory be to him who <em class='gesperrt'>wills</em>!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Leontes.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And now to the Governor’s palace; the people -would fain greet Caesar.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Caesar, in his exaltation, remains what he was,—the -poor lover of wisdom, who owes all to the -Emperor’s grace.—To the Governor’s palace, my -friends!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Voices among the Quaestor’s Retinue.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Room, room for Julian Caesar!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>All go out through the court, amid the acclamations -of the crowd; only <span class='sc'>Gregory</span> -and <span class='sc'>Basil</span> remain behind.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Gregory? Whatever comes of this—let us hold -together.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Here is my hand.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_135'>135</span> - <h3 class='c015'>ACT FOURTH</h3> -</div> - -<p class='c016'><i>At Lutetia, in Gaul. A hall in Caesar’s palace, -“The Warm Baths,” outside the city. Entrance, -door in the back; to the right, another smaller -door; in front, on the left, is a window with -curtains.</i></p> -<p class='c017'><i><span class='sc'>The Princess Helena</span>, richly attired, with pearls -in her hair, sits in an arm-chair, and looks out of -the window. Her slave, <span class='sc'>Myrrha</span>, stands opposite -her, and holds the curtain aside.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Princess Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What a multitude! The whole city streams out -to meet them.—Hark! Myrrha,—do you not hear -flutes and drums?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Myrrha.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, I think I can hear——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You lie! The noise is too great; you can hear -nothing. [<i>Springing up.</i>] Oh, this torturing uncertainty! -Not to know whether he comes as a -conqueror or as a fugitive.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Myrrha.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Fear not, my noble mistress; Caesar has always -returned a conqueror.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_136'>136</span><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ay, hitherto; after all his lesser encounters. But -this time, Myrrha! This great, fearful battle. All -these conflicting rumours. If Caesar were victorious, -why should he have sent that letter to the -city magistrates, forbidding them to meet him -with shows of honour outside the gates?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Myrrha.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, you know well, my lady, how little your -noble husband cares for such things.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes, that is true. And had he been defeated—they -must have known it in Rome—would -the Emperor have sent us this envoy who is to -arrive to-day, and whose courier has brought me -all these rich ornaments and gifts? Ah, Eutherius! -Well? Well?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Chamberlain Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>From the back.</i>] My Princess, it is impossible -to obtain any trustworthy tidings——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Impossible? You are deceiving me! The soldiers -themselves must surely know——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>They are only barbarian auxiliaries who are -coming in—Batavians and others—and they know -nothing.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Wringing her hands.</i>] Oh, have I deserved this -<span class='pageno' id='Page_137'>137</span>torture? Sweet, holy Christ, have I not called -upon Thee day and night——</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>She listens and screams out.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, my Julian! I hear him!—Julian; my -beloved!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian Caesar.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>In dusty armour, enters hastily by the back.</i>] -Helena!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My noble Caesar!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Vehemently embracing the Princess.</i>] Helena!—Bar -all the doors, Eutherius!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Defeated! Pursued!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My lord!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Double guards at all the doors; let no one pass! -Tell me: has any emissary arrived from the -Emperor?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, my lord; but one is expected.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Go, go! [<i>To the Slave.</i>] Away with you.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i><span class='sc'>Eutherius</span> and <span class='sc'>Myrrha</span> go out by the back.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Sinking into the arm-chair.</i>] Then all is over -with us?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_138'>138</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Drawing the curtains together.</i>] Who knows? If -we are cautious, the storm may yet——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>After such a defeat——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Defeat? What are you talking of, my beloved?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Have not the Alemanni defeated you?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>If they had, you would not have seen me alive.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Springing up.</i>] Then, Lord of Heaven, what -has happened?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Softly.</i>] The worst, Helena;—a stupendous -victory.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Victory, you say! A stupendous victory? You -have conquered, and yet——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You know not how I stand. You see only the -gilded outside of all a Caesar’s misery.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_139'>139</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Can you blame me for having hidden it from -you? Did not both duty and shame constrain -me——? Ah, what is <em class='gesperrt'>this</em>? What a change——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What? What?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How these months have changed you! Helena, -you have been ill?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, no; but tell me——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, you have been ill! You must be ill now;—your -fever-flushed temples, the blue rings round -your eyes——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, ’tis nothing, my beloved! Do not look at -me, Julian! ’Tis only anxiety and wakeful nights -on your account; ardent prayers to the Blessed -One on the cross——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Spare yourself, my treasure; it is more than -doubtful whether such zeal is of any avail.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Fie; you speak impiously.—But tell me of your -own affairs, Julian! I implore you, hide nothing -from me.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Nothing <em class='gesperrt'>can</em> now be hidden. Since the Empress’s -death, I have taken no single step here in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_140'>140</span>Gaul that has not been evilly interpreted at court. -If I went cautiously to work with the Alemanni, -I was called timorous or inert. They laughed at -the philosopher, ill at ease in his coat of mail. If -I gained an advantage over the barbarians, I was -told that I ought to have done more.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>But all your friends in the army——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Who, think you, are my friends in the army? I -have not one, my beloved Helena! Yes, one single -man—the knight Sallust, of Perusia, to whom, during -our marriage feast at Milan, I had to refuse a -slight request. He magnanimously came to me in -the camp, appealed to our old friendship in Athens, -and begged leave to stand at my side in all dangers. -But what does Sallust count for at the imperial -court? He is one of those whom they call heathens. -He can be of no help to me.—And the others! -Arbetio, the tribune, who left me in the lurch when -I was blockaded by the Senones! Old Severus, -burdened with the sense of his own impotence, yet -unable to reconcile himself to my new strategy! -Or think you I can depend on Florentius, the -captain of the Praetorians? I tell you, that turbulent -man is filled with the most unbridled ambitions.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Pacing up and down.</i>] If I could but come to the -bottom of their intrigues! Every week secret letters -pass between the camp and Rome. Everything I -do is set down and distorted. No slave in the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_141'>141</span>empire is so fettered as Caesar. Would you believe -it, Helena, even my cook has to abide by a bill of -fare sent to him by the Emperor; I may not alter -it, either by adding or countermanding a single -dish!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And all this you have borne in secrecy——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>All know it, except you. All mock at Caesar’s -powerlessness. I will bear it no longer! I will -not bear it!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>But the great battle——? Tell me,—has -rumour exaggerated——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Rumour could not exaggerate.—Hush; what -was that? [<i>Listening towards the door.</i>] No, no; I -only thought——</p> - -<p class='c001'>I may say that in these months I have done all -that mortal man could do. Step by step, and in -spite of all hindrances in my own camp, I drove -the barbarians back towards the eastern frontier. -Before Argentoratum, with the Rhine at his back, -King Knodomar gathered all his forces together. -He was joined by five kings and ten lesser princes. -But before he had collected the necessary boats -for his retreat in case of need, I led my army to -the attack.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My hero, my Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_142'>142</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Lupicinus, with the spearmen and the light-armed -troops, outflanked the enemy on the north; -the old legions, under Severus, drove the barbarians -more and more to the eastward, towards -the river; our allies, the Batavians, under the -faithful Bainabaudes, stood gallantly by the -legions; and when Knodomar saw that his case -was desperate, he tried to make off southwards, in -order to reach the islands. But before he could -escape, I sent Florentius to intercept him with the -Praetorian guards and the cavalry. Helena, I -dare not say it aloud, but certain it is that -treachery or envy had nearly robbed me of the -fruits of victory. The Roman cavalry recoiled -time after time before the barbarians, who threw -themselves down on the ground and stabbed the -horses in the belly. Defeat stared us in the -face——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>But the God of Battles was with you!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I seized a standard, fired the Imperial Guards -by my shouts, made them a hasty address, which -was, perhaps, not quite unworthy of a more enlightened -audience, and then, rewarded by the -soldiers’ acclamations, I plunged headlong into -the thickest of the fight.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Julian! Oh, you do not love me!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>At that moment you were not in my thoughts. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_143'>143</span>I wished to die; for I despaired of victory. But -it came, my love! It seemed as though lightnings -of terror flashed from our lance-points. I saw -Knodomar, that redoutable warrior—ah, you have -seen him too—I saw him fleeing on foot from the -battlefield, and with him his brother Vestralp, and -the kings Hortar and Suomar, and all who had -not fallen by our swords.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, I can see it; I can see it! Blessed Saviour, -’twas thou that didst again send forth the destroying -angels of the Milvian Bridge!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Never have I heard such shrieks of despair; -never seen such gaping wounds as those we -trampled on, as we waded through the slain. The -river did the rest; the drowning men struggled -among themselves until they rolled over, and went -to the bottom. Most of the princes fell living -into our hands; Knodomar himself had sought -refuge in a bed of reeds; one of his attendants -betrayed him, and our bowmen sent a shower of -arrows into his hiding-place, but without hitting -him. Then, of his own accord, he gave himself -up.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And after such a victory do you not feel secure?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Hesitatingly.</i>] On the very evening of the -victory an accident occurred, a trifle——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>An accident?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_144'>144</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I prefer to call it so. In Athens we used to -speculate much upon Nemesis.—My victory was -so overwhelming, Helena; my position had, as it -were, got out of balance; I do not know——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, speak, speak; you put me on the rack!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It was a trifle, I tell you. I ordered the captive -Knodomar to be brought before me, in the presence -of the army. Before the battle, he had -threatened that I should be flayed alive when I -fell into his hands. Now he came towards me -with faltering steps, trembling in every limb. -Crushed by disaster, as the barbarians are apt to -be, he cast himself down before me, embraced my -knees, shed tears, and begged for his life.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>His mighty frame quivering with dread—I can -see the prostrate Knodomar.—Did you kill him, -my beloved?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I could not kill that man. I granted him his -life, and promised to send him as a prisoner to -Rome.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Without torturing him?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Prudence bade me deal mercifully with him. -But then—I cannot tell how it happened—with a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_145'>145</span>cry of overflowing gladness, the barbarian sprang -up, stretched his pinioned hands into the air, and, -half ignorant as he is of our language, shouted -with a loud voice: “Praise be to thee, Julian, -thou mighty Emperor!”</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My attendants were inclined to laugh; but the -barbarian’s shout flew like a lightning-flash through -the surrounding soldiery, kindling as it went. -“Long live the Emperor Julian,” those who stood -nearest repeated; and the cry spread around in -wider and ever wider circles to the furthest distance. -’Twas as though some Titan had hurled a -mighty rock far out into the ocean;—oh, my -beloved, forgive me the heathen similitude, -but——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Emperor Julian! He said Emperor Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What did the rude Aleman know of Constantius, -whom he had never seen? I, his conqueror, was -in his eyes the greatest——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes; but the soldiers——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I rebuked them sternly; for I saw at a glance -how Florentius, Severus, and certain others stood -silently by, white with fear and wrath.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_146'>146</span><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes, <em class='gesperrt'>they</em>—but not the soldiers.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Before a single night had passed my secret foes -had distorted the affair. “Caesar has induced -Knodomar to proclaim him Emperor,” the story -went, “and in requital he has granted the barbarian -his life.” And, thus inverted, the news -has travelled to Rome.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Are you sure of that? And through whom?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, through whom? through whom? I myself -wrote at once to the Emperor and told him everything, -but——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Well—and how did he answer?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>As usual. You know his ominous silence when -he means to strike a blow.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I believe you misinterpret all this. It must be -so. You will see that his envoy will soon assure -you of——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I <em class='gesperrt'>am</em> assured, Helena! Here, in my bosom, I -have some intercepted letters, which——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, Lord my God, let me see!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_147'>147</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'><a id='corr147.2'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='By-and-by,'>By-and-by.</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_147.2'><ins class='correction' title='By-and-by,'>By-and-by.</ins></a></span></p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He walks up and down.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>And all this after the services I have rendered -him! I have put a stop to the inroads of the -Alemanni for years to come, whilst he himself has -suffered defeat after defeat on the Danube, and -the army in Asia seems to make no way against -the Persians. Shame and disaster on all sides, -except here, where he placed a reluctant philosopher -at the head of affairs. Yet none the less -am I the scorn of the court. Even after the last -great victory, they have lampooned me, and -called me Victorinus. This must come to an end.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>So I, too, think.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>On such terms, what is the title of Caesar -worth?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No; you are right, Julian; things cannot go -on thus!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Stopping.</i>] Helena, could you follow me?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Softly.</i>] Have no fear for me; I will not fail -you.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Then away from all this thankless toil; away to -the solitude I have sighed for so long——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_148'>148</span><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What do you say? Solitude!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>With you, my beloved; and with my dear books, -that I have so seldom been able to open here, save -only on my sleepless nights.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Looking him down from head to foot.</i>] Ah, that -is what you mean!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What else?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ay, truly; what else?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes—I ask, what else?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Coming nearer.</i>] Julian—how did the barbarian -king hail you?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Shrinking.</i>] Helena!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Still nearer.</i>] What was the name that echoed -through the ranks of the legions?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Rash woman; there may be an eavesdropper at -every door!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_149'>149</span><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Why should you fear eavesdroppers? Is not -God’s grace upon you? Have you not been victorious -in every encounter?—I see the Saviour -calling upon you; I see the angel with the flaming -sword, who cleared the way for my father when -he drove Maxentius into the Tiber!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Shall I rebel against the ruler of the empire?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Only against those who stand between you. Oh, -go, go; smite them with the lightning of your -wrath; put an end to this harassing, joyless life! -Gaul is an outer wilderness. I am so cold here, -Julian! I pine for home, for the sunshine of -Rome and Greece.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>For home and your brother?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Softly.</i>] Constantius is but a wreck.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Helena!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I can bear it no longer, I tell you. Time is -flying. Eusebia is gone; her empty seat invites -me to honour and greatness, while I am ageing——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You are not ageing; you are young and fair!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_150'>150</span><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, no, no! Time speeds; I cannot bear this -patiently; life slips away from me!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Gazing at her.</i>] How temptingly beautiful, how -divine you are!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Clinging to him.</i>] <em class='gesperrt'>Am</em> I so indeed, Julian?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Embracing her.</i>] You are the only woman I -have loved,—the only one who has loved me.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I am older than you. I will not age still more. -When all is over, then——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Tearing himself away.</i>] Hush! I will hear no -more.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Following him.</i>] Constantius is dying by inches; -he hangs by a hair over the grave. Oh, my -beloved Julian, you have the soldiers on your -side——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No more, no more!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He can bear no agitation. What is there, then, -to recoil from? I mean nothing bloody. Fie, how -can you think so? The terror will be enough; it -will fold him in its embrace and gently end his -sufferings.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_151'>151</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Do you forget the invisible bodyguard around -the Lord’s anointed?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Christ is good. Oh, be pious, Julian, and He -will forgive much. I will help. Prayers shall go -up for you. Praised be the saints! Praised be -the martyrs! Trust me, we will atone for everything -later. Give me the Alemanni to convert; -I will send out priests among them; they shall -bow under the mercy of the cross.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Alemanni will not bow.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Then they shall die! Like sweet incense shall -their blood rise up to Him, the blessed One. We -will magnify His glory; His praise shall be made -manifest in us. I myself will do my part. The -women of the Alemanni shall be my care. If they -will not bow, they shall be sacrificed! And then, -my Julian—when next you see me——; young, -young once more! Give me the women of the -Alemanni, my beloved! Blood—’twould be no -murder, and the remedy is a sovereign one—a bath -of young virgins’ blood——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Helena, the thought is crime!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is it crime to commit crime for your sake?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_152'>152</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You beautiful, you peerless one!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Bowing herself down over his hands.</i>] My lord -before God and men!—Draw not back this time, -Julian! My hero, my Emperor! I see heaven -open. Priests shall sing praises to Christ; my -women shall assemble in prayer. [<i>With upraised -arms.</i>] Oh, thou blessed One! Oh, thou God -of Hosts,—thou, in whose hand lie grace and -victory——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>With a look towards the door, exclaims</i>:] Helena!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Chamberlain Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>From the back.</i>] My lord, the Emperor’s emissary——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is he come?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, my lord!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>His name? Who is he?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The tribune Decentius.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Indeed? The pious Decentius!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_153'>153</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Has he talked with any one?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>With no one, my lord; he has this moment -arrived.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I will see him at once. And listen; one thing -more. Summon the captains and officers to me -here.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It is well, most gracious lord.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He goes out by the back.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Now, my Helena, now we shall see——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Softly.</i>] Whatever happens, forget not that -you can trust in the soldiers.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, trust, trust——; I am not sure that I can -trust in any one.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><i>The <span class='sc'>Tribune Decentius</span> enters from the back.</i></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Meeting him.</i>] Welcome, noble Decentius! A -Roman face,—and, above all, this face,—oh! it -sheds genial sunlight over our inclement Gaul.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor meets your longing and your hope -half-way, noble Princess! We may hope that -Gaul will not much longer hold you in its chains.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_154'>154</span><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Say you so, messenger of gladness? So the -Emperor still thinks lovingly of me? How is it -with his health?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Go, go, my beloved Helena!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor’s health is certainly no worse.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, surely not? I thought as much. All those -alarming rumours——; God be praised that they -were but rumours! Thank him most lovingly, -good Decentius! And let me thank you too. -What splendid gifts have heralded your coming! -Imperial——no, let me say brotherly gifts indeed! -Two shining black Nubians,—you should see them, -my Julian!—and pearls! See, I am wearing them -already. And fruits,—sweet, luscious fruits! Ah, -peaches from Damascus, peaches in chalices of -gold! How they will refresh me;—fruit, fruit; I -am pining away here in Gaul.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A feast shall end the day; but business first. Go, -my precious wife!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I go to the church,—to pray for my brother and -for all good hopes.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>She goes out to the right.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>After an instant’s pause.</i>] A message, or letters?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_155'>155</span><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Letters.</p> - -<div class='c019'>[<i>He hands him a roll of paper.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Reads, represses a smile, and holds out his hand.</i>] -More!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Noble Caesar, that is well-nigh all.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Truly? Has the Emperor sent his friend all -this long way only to——?</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He bursts into a short laugh, and then walks -up and down.</i></p> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Had Knodomar, the King of the Alemanni, -arrived in Rome ere you left?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, noble Caesar!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And how fares he in the strange land, ignorant -as he is of our tongue! For he knows nought of -it, Decentius! He was positively a laughing-stock -to my soldiers. Only think, he mixed up -two such common words as Emperor and Caesar.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Shrugging his shoulders.</i>] A barbarian. What -can one expect?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, what can one expect? But the Emperor -has received him graciously?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_156'>156</span><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Knodomar is dead, my lord!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Stopping suddenly.</i>] Knodomar dead!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Dead, in the foreigners’ quarters, on the Coelian -hill.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Dead? Indeed!—Ah, the Roman air is unwholesome.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The King of the Alemanni died of home-sickness, -my lord! The longing for kindred and freedom——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>——wastes a man away, Decentius; yes, yes, I -know that.—I should not have sent him living to -Rome. I should have had him killed here.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Caesar’s heart is merciful.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>H’m——! Home-sickness? Indeed!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><i>To the Master of the Horse, <span class='sc'>Sintula</span>, who enters by the back.</i></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Are you there, old faun? Tempt me no more.</p> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To <span class='sc'>Decentius</span>.</i>] Since the battle at Argentoratum, -he is for ever talking to me of the triumphal -chariot and the white horses. [<i>To <span class='sc'>Sintula</span>.</i>] -’Twould be like Phaeton’s career with the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_157'>157</span>Lybian sun-horses. How did that end? Have -you forgotten—have you forgotten your heathendom, -I had almost said?—Pardon me, Decentius, -for wounding your pious ear.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Caesar delights his servant’s ear; he cannot -wound it.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes; bear with Caesar’s jesting. In truth -I know not how else to take the matter.—Here -they are.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'><i><span class='sc'>Severus</span> and <span class='sc'>Florentius</span>, together with other captains -and gentlemen of Caesar’s court, enter from -the back.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Advancing to receive them.</i>] Greeting to you, -brothers in arms and friends. Blame me not overmuch -for summoning you hither, straight from -the dust and toil of the march; truly, I should -not have grudged you some hours’ rest; but——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Florentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Has aught of moment happened, my lord?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Aye, truly. Can you tell me—what was lacking -to complete Caesar’s happiness?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Florentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What should be lacking to complete Caesar’s -happiness?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_158'>158</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'><em class='gesperrt'>Now</em>, nothing. [<i>To <span class='sc'>Decentius</span>.</i>] The army -has demanded that I should enter the city in -triumph. They would have had me pass through -the gates of Lutetia at the head of the legions. -Captive barbarian princes, with pinioned hands, -were to march beside my chariot-wheels; women -and slaves from twenty conquered peoples were -to follow, crowded closely together, head against -head—— [<i>Breaking off suddenly.</i>] Rejoice, my -valiant fellow soldiers; here you see the Tribune -Decentius, the Emperor’s trusted friend and -councillor. He has arrived this morning with -gifts and greetings from Rome.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Florentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, then indeed naught can be lacking to complete -Caesar’s happiness.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Severus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Softly to <span class='sc'>Florentius</span>.</i>] Incomprehensible! Then -he is in the Emperor’s grace again!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Florentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Softly.</i>] Oh, this unstable Emperor!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You seem all to be struck dumb with astonishment.—They -think the Emperor has done too -much, good <a id='corr158.26'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='Decentius'>Decentius!</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_158.26'><ins class='correction' title='Decentius'>Decentius!</ins></a></span></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Florentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How can Caesar think such a thought?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_159'>159</span><span class='sc'>Severus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Too much, noble Caesar? By no means. Who -doubts that the Emperor knows how to set due -bounds to his favour?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Florentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>This is in truth a rare and remarkable distinction——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Severus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I should even call it beyond measure rare and -remarkable——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Florentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And especially does it afford a striking proof -that our august Emperor’s mind is free from all -jealousy——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Severus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>An unexampled proof, I venture to call it.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Florentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>But then, what has not Caesar achieved in these -few years in Gaul?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A year-long dream, dear friends! I have achieved -nothing. Nothing, nothing!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Florentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>All this your modesty counts as nothing? What -was the army when you took command? A disorderly -rabble——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Severus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>——without coherence, without discipline, without -direction——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_160'>160</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You exaggerate, Severus!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Florentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And was it not with this undisciplined rabble -that you took the field against the Alemanni? -Did you not win battle after battle with these -levies, till your victories transformed them into an -invincible host? Did you not retake Colonia -Agrippina——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Come come, you see with the eye of friendship, -my Florentius!—Or is it really so? Is it a fact, -that I drove the barbarians out of the islands of -the Rhine! That I placed the ruined Tres Tabernae -in a posture of defence, making it a bulwark -of the empire? Is it really so?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Florentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What, my lord! Can you be in doubt as to so -great deeds?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, I cannot but think—— And the battle of -Argentoratum? Was I not there? I cannot but -fancy that I defeated Knodomar. And after the -victory——; Florentius, have I dreamt it, or did -I rebuild Trajan’s fortress, when we marched into -German territory?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Florentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Noble Caesar, is there any man so mad as to -deny you the honour of these exploits?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Severus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To <span class='sc'>Decentius</span>.</i>] I praise the destiny that has -vouchsafed to my old age so victorious a leader.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_161'>161</span><span class='sc'>Florentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Also to the Tribune.</i>] I dare scarcely think -what turn this inroad of the Alemanni might -have taken, but for Caesar’s courage and conduct.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Many Courtiers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Pressing forward.</i>] Yes, yes; Caesar is great!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Others.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Clapping their hands.</i>] Caesar is peerless!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Looks for a time alternately at <span class='sc'>Decentius</span> and -the others; thereupon breaks out into a loud, short -laugh.</i>] So blind is friendship, Decentius! So -blind, so blind!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He turns to the rest, and taps the roll of -paper in his hand.</i></p> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Here I read far other tidings! listen and -drink in the refreshing dew of knowledge. This -is the Emperor’s despatch to all the proconsuls of -the empire;—our excellent Decentius has brought -me a copy of it. Here we learn that I have accomplished -nothing in Gaul. It was, as I told -you, a dream. Here we have the Emperor’s own -words: it was under the Emperor’s happy auspices -that the imminent danger to the empire -was averted.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Florentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>All the affairs of the empire flourish under the -Emperor’s auspices.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>More, more. It is here set forth that it was -the Emperor who fought and conquered on the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_162'>162</span>Rhine; it was the Emperor who raised up the -King of the Alemanni, as he lay grovelling before -him. <em class='gesperrt'>My</em> name is not fortunate enough to find -any place in this document,—nor yours, Florentius, -nor yours, Severus! And here, in the description -of the battle of Argentoratum—where was it? -Yes, here it stands!—it was the Emperor who -determined the order of battle; it was the Emperor -himself who, at peril of his life, fought -till his sword was blunted, in the forefront of the -battle: it was the Emperor who, by the terror of -his presence, put the barbarians to headlong -flight——; read, read, I tell you!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Severus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Noble Caesar, your word suffices.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What mean you, then, by your deluding speeches, -my friends? Would you, in your too great love -for me, make me a parasite, to be fed with the -leavings you have pilfered from my kinsman’s -table?—What think you, Decentius? What say -you to this? You see, in my own camp, I have to -keep an eye on adherents who, in their blind -zeal, are sometimes in danger of straying over -the border-line of revolt.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Florentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Hastily, to the Tribune.</i>] I assure you, my words -have been sadly misconstrued if——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Severus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Also to the Tribune.</i>] It could never enter my -mind to——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_163'>163</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That is right, my brothers in arms; let us all -agree to swallow our vainglory. I asked what was -lacking to complete Caesar’s happiness. Now you -know it. ’Twas the recognition of the truth that -was lacking in Caesar’s happiness. Your silver -helmet will never be dimmed with the dust of -the triumph, Florentius! The Emperor has already -triumphed for us, in Rome. He therefore declares -all festivities here to be superfluous. Go, Sintula, -and see that the intended procession is countermanded. -The Emperor wishes to give his soldiers -a much-needed rest. ’Tis his will that they remain -in the camp outside the walls.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>The Master of the Horse, <span class='sc'>Sintula</span>, goes -out by the back.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Was I not once a philosopher? They said so, -at least, both in Athens and Ephesus. So weak -is human nature in the hours of success; I had -almost been false to philosophy. The Emperor -has brought me to my senses. Thank him most -humbly, Decentius. Have you more to say?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>One thing more. From all the Emperor has -learnt, and especially from the letter you wrote -him from Argentoratum, it appears that the great -work of pacification in Gaul is happily accomplished.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Most certainly; the Emperor, partly by his -valour, partly by his magnanimous clemency——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_164'>164</span><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Rhine frontier of the empire has been -placed in security.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>By the Emperor, by the Emperor.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>In the Danubian provinces, on the contrary, -affairs are going ill; and still worse in Asia—King -Sapor makes constant progress.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What audacity! Rumour has it that not even -in this summer’s campaign has the Emperor been -pleased to let his generals crush him.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor intends to do so himself in the -spring. [<i>Producing a roll of papers.</i>] Here he -makes known his will, noble Caesar.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Let us see, let us see! [<i>Reading.</i>] Ah!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He reads again for a long time, with signs -of deep inward emotion; then he looks up -and says</i>:</p> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Then, ’tis the Emperor’s will that——? Good, -good, noble Decentius; the Emperor’s will shall -be done.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It must be done, this very day.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>This very day; of course. Come hither, Sintula! -<span class='pageno' id='Page_165'>165</span>Where is he?—Ah, I remember!—Call Sintula -back!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>A courtier goes out by the back; <span class='sc'>Julian</span> -retires to the window, and reads the papers -through once more.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Florentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>In a low voice, to the Tribune.</i>] I implore you not -to misinterpret what I said. When I gave Caesar -the credit, of course I did not mean to——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Severus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>In a low voice.</i>] It could never occur to me to -doubt that it was the Emperor’s supreme and wise -direction that——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Courtier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>On the other side of the Tribune.</i>] I beg you, noble -sir,—put in a word for me at court, and release me -from this painful position in the household of a -Caesar who——; well, he is the Emperor’s exalted -kinsman, but——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Another Courtier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I could tell you, alas! of things that indicate -not only boundless vanity, but overweening -ambition——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>This very day! Let me say one word, Decentius! -It has long been my dearest wish to lay -down this burden of responsibility.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It shall be conveyed to the Emperor.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_166'>166</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I call heaven to witness that I never——; Ah, -here is Sintula; now we can——[<i>To the Tribune.</i>] -You are going?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I have affairs to transact with the generals, -noble Caesar!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Without my intervention?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor commands me to spare his -beloved kinsman.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He goes out by the back, followed by the -others, except <span class='sc'>Sintula</span>, who remains -standing at the door.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Looking at him awhile.</i>] Sintula!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sintula.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, noble master!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Come nearer—Yes, by my faith, you look honest. -Pardon me; I never thought you could be so -attached to me.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sintula.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How know you that I am attached to you, my -lord?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Pointing to the roll of paper.</i>] I can read it -here, in this; it is written that you are to desert -me.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_167'>167</span><span class='sc'>Sintula.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I, my lord?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor disbands the army of Gaul, Sintula!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sintula.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Disbands——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, what is it but a disbanding? The Emperor -needs reinforcements, both on the Danube, and -against the Persians. Our Batavian and Herulian -auxiliaries are to depart with all speed, in order -to reach Asia in the spring.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sintula.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>But the thing is impossible, my lord. You have -solemnly sworn to these very allies that they shall -in no case be called upon to serve beyond the -Alps.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Just so, Sintula! The Emperor writes that I -gave that promise over hastily, and without his -consent. This is quite a new light to me; but -here it stands. I am to be forced to break my -word, dishonour myself in the eyes of the army, -turn against me the unbridled rage of the barbarians, -perhaps their murderous weapons.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sintula.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>They cannot hurt you, my lord! The Roman -legions will make their breasts your shield.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Roman legions. H’m;—my simple-minded -friend! From every Roman legion three hundred -<span class='pageno' id='Page_168'>168</span>men are to be drafted off, and are likewise to join -the Emperor by the shortest route.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sintula.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah! This is——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Well planned, is it not? Every branch of the -army is to be set against me, that I may the more -easily be disarmed.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sintula.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And I tell you, my lord, that not one of your -generals will lend himself to such a design.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My generals are not to be led into temptation. -You are the man.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sintula.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I, my Caesar!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Here it is written. The Emperor commissions -you to take all necessary measures, and then to -lead the chosen detachments to Rome.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sintula.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>This task assigned to me? With men here like -Florentius and old Severus——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You have no victories to your discredit, Sintula!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sintula.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, that is true. I have never been allowed an -opportunity of showing——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_169'>169</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I have been unjust to you. Thanks for your -fidelity.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sintula.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>So great an imperial honour! My lord, may I -see——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What would you see? You surely would not -lend yourself to such a design.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sintula.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>God forbid that I should disobey the Emperor!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sintula,—would you disarm your Caesar?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sintula.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Caesar has ever undervalued me. Caesar has -never forgiven me the fact of his having to endure -about his person a Master of the Horse chosen by -the Emperor.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor is great and wise; he chooses -well.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sintula.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My lord,—I long to set about my duty; may I -beg to see the Emperor’s commission?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Handing him one of the papers.</i>] Here is the -Emperor’s commission. Go, and do your duty.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_170'>170</span><span class='sc'>Myrrha.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Entering hastily from the right.</i>] Oh merciful -Redeemer!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Myrrha! What is the matter?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Myrrha.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh kind heaven, my mistress——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Your mistress,—what of her?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Myrrha.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sickness or frenzy——; help, help!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Helena sick! The physician! Oribases must -come, Sintula! Summon him!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i><span class='sc'>Sintula</span> goes out by the back. <span class='sc'>Julian</span> is -hastening out to the right, when at the door -he meets the <span class='sc'>Princess Helena</span>, surrounded -by female slaves. Her countenance -is wild and distorted, her hair and -clothes are in disorder.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Loosen the comb! Loosen the comb, I say! -It is red hot. My hair is on fire; I burn, I burn!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Helena! For God’s pity’s sake——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Will no one help me? They are killing me -with needle-pricks!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_171'>171</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My Helena! What has befallen you?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Myrrha, Myrrha! Save me from the women, -Myrrha!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Physician Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Entering from the back.</i>] What horror do I -hear——? Is it true? Ah!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Helena! My love, light of my life——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Away from me! Oh sweet Jesus, help!</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>She half swoons among the slave-girls.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>She is raving. What can it be, Oribases?—See—see -her eyes, how large——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To <span class='sc'>Myrrha</span>.</i>] What has the Princess taken? -What has she been eating or drinking?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, you think——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Answer, women; what have you given the -<a id='corr171.23'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='Princess'>Princess?</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_171.23'><ins class='correction' title='Princess'>Princess?</ins></a></span></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Myrrha.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'><em class='gesperrt'>We</em>? Oh nothing, I swear; she herself——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_172'>172</span><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Well? Well?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Myrrha.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Some fruits; they were peaches, I think;—oh, -I know not——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Fruits! Peaches? Some of those which——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Myrrha.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes—no—yes; I do not know, my lord; it was -two Nubians——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Help, help, Oribases!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Alas, I fear——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, no, no!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Hush, gracious lord; she is coming to herself.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Whispering.</i>] Why did the sun go down? Oh -holy mysterious darkness!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Helena! Listen; collect your thoughts——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My noble Princess——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It is the physician, Helena! [<i>He takes her -hand.</i>] No, here, where I stand.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_173'>173</span><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Tearing her hand away.</i>] Faugh! there he was -again!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>She does not see me. Here, here, Helena!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The loathsome creature;—he is always about -me.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What does she mean?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Stand apart, gracious lord——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sweet stillness! He does not dream——; oh -my Gallus!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Gallus!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Go, noble Caesar; it is not meet——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How boldly your close-curling hair curves over -your neck! Oh that short, thick neck——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Abyss of all abysses——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The delirium is increasing——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_174'>174</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I see, I see. We must take note, Oribases!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Laughing softly.</i>] Now he would be taking notes -again.—Ink on his fingers; book-dust in his hair—unwashed; -faugh, faugh, how he stinks.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Myrrha.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My lord, shall I not——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Away with you, woman!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How could you let yourself be conquered by -him, you great-limbed, bronzed barbarian? He -cannot conquer women. How I loathe this impotent -virtue.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Stand apart, all of you! Not so near, Oribases! -I myself will watch the Princess.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Art thou wroth with me, thou glorious one? -Gallus is dead. Beheaded. What a blow that -must have been! Be not jealous, oh my first and -last? Burn Gallus in hell fire;—it was none but -thou, thou, thou——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No nearer, Oribases!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Kill the priest, too! I will not see him after -<span class='pageno' id='Page_175'>175</span>this. Thou knowest our sweet secret. Oh thou, -my days’ desire, my nights’ delight! It was thou -thyself—in the form of thy servant—in the -oratory; yes, yes, thou wast there; it was thou—in -the darkness, in the heavy air, in the shrouding -incense-clouds, that night, when the Caesar growing -beneath my heart——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Recoiling with a cry.</i>] Ah!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Helena.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>With outstretched arms.</i>] My lover and my lord! -Mine, mine——!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>She falls swooning on the floor; the slave-girls -hasten forward and crowd round -her.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Stands for a moment immovable; then shakes his -clenched fist in the air, and cries</i>:] Galilean!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>The slave-girls carry the Princess out on the -right; at the same moment the Knight -<span class='sc'>Sallust</span> comes hastily in by the door in the -back.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Princess in a swoon! Oh, then it is true!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Grasps the Physician by the arm, and leads him -aside.</i>] Tell me the truth. Did you know before -to-day that——; you understand me; have you -known aught of——the Princess’s condition?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I, like every one else, my lord.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_176'>176</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And you said naught to me, Oribases!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Of what, my Caesar?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How dared you conceal it from me?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My lord, there was one thing we none of us -knew.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And that was?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That Caesar knew nothing. [<i>He is going.</i>]</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Where are you going?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>To try the remedies my art prescribes——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I believe your art will prove powerless.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My lord, it is yet possible that——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Powerless, I tell you!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Retiring a step.</i>] Noble Caesar, it is my duty to -disobey you in this.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_177'>177</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What think you I mean? Go, go; try what -your art——; save the Emperor’s sister; the -Emperor will be inconsolable if his thoughtful -affection should bring any disaster in its train. Of -course you know that those fruits were a gift from -the Emperor?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Go, go, man,—try what your art——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Bowing reverently.</i>] I believe my art will prove -powerless, my lord!</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He goes out to the right.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, is it you, Sallust? What think you? The -waves of fate are once more beginning to sweep -over my race.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, but rescue is at hand. Oribases will——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Shortly and decisively.</i>] The Princess will die.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, if I dared speak! If I dared trace out the -secret threads in this web of destruction!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Be of good cheer, friend; all the threads shall -be brought to light, and then——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_178'>178</span><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Entering from the back.</i>] How shall I look -Caesar in the face! How inscrutable are the ways -of God! Crushed to earth——; oh that you -could but read my heart! That I should be the -harbinger of sorrow and disaster——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, that you may say twice over, noble Decentius! -And how shall I find soft and specious -enough terms to bring this in any endurable guise -to the ears of her imperial brother!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Alas that such a thing should happen so close -upon the coming of my mission! And just at this -moment! Oh, what a thunderbolt from a cloudless -sky of hope!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, this towering and devouring tempest, just -as the ship seemed running into the long-desired -haven! Oh, this—this——! Sorrow makes us -eloquent, Decentius,—you as well as me. But -first to business. The two Nubians must be seized -and examined.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Nubians, my lord? Could you dream that -my indignant zeal would for another instant suffer -the two negligent servants to——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What! Surely you have not already——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_179'>179</span><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Call me hasty, if you will, noble -<a id='corr179.2'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='Caesar, But'>Caesar. But</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_149.2'><ins class='correction' title='Caesar, But'>Caesar. But</ins></a></span> -my love to the Emperor and to his sorrow-stricken -house would in truth be less than it is if, in such -an hour, I were capable of calm reflection.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Have you killed both the slaves?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Had not their negligence deserved a sevenfold -death? They were two heathen savages, my lord! -Their testimony would have been worthless; it was -impossible to wring anything out of them, save that -they had left their precious charge standing for -some time unwatched in the antechamber, accessible -to every one——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Aha! Had they indeed, Decentius?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I accuse no one. But oh, beloved Caesar, I bid -you beware; for you are surrounded by faithless -servants. Your court—by an unhappy misunderstanding!—fancies -that some sort of disfavour—or -what should I call it?—is implied in the measures -which the Emperor has found it necessary to adopt; -in short——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sintula.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Entering from the back.</i>] My lord, you have -imposed on me a charge I can in no way fulfil.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor imposed it, good Sintula!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_180'>180</span><span class='sc'>Sintula.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Relieve me of it, my lord; it is utterly beyond -me.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What has happened?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sintula.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The camp is in wild revolt. The legions and -the allies are banding together——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Rebelling against the Emperor’s will!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sintula.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The soldiers are shouting that they appeal to -Caesar’s promises.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Hark! hark! that roar outside——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sintula.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The rioters are rushing hither——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Let no one enter!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>At the window.</i>] Too late; the whole courtyard -is filled with angry soldiers.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Caesar’s precious life is in danger! Where is -Florentius?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sintula.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Fled.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_181'>181</span><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The blustering coward! And Severus?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sintula.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Severus feigns sickness; he has driven out to -his farm.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I myself will speak to the madmen.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Not a step, noble Caesar!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What now?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>’Tis my duty, gracious lord; the Emperor’s -command—; his beloved kinsman’s life—; Caesar -is my prisoner.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>So it has come at last!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The household guard, Sintula! You must conduct -Caesar in safety to Rome.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>To Rome!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sintula.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What say you, my lord?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>To Rome, I say!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_182'>182</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Like Gallus! [<i>He shouts through the window.</i>] -Help, help!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Fly, my Caesar! Fly, fly!</p> - -<p class='c017'><i>Wild cries are heard without. Soldiers of the Roman -legions, Batavian auxiliaries, and other <a id='corr182.7'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='allies,'>allies</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_182.7'><ins class='correction' title='allies,'>allies</ins></a></span> -climb in through the window. At the same time, -others swarm in by the door at the back. Amongst -the foremost is the Standard-Bearer <span class='sc'>Maurus</span>; -women, some with children in their arms, follow -the intruders.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Cries among the Soldiers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Caesar, <a id='corr182.14'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='Caesar'>Caesar!</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_182.14'><ins class='correction' title='Caesar'>Caesar!</ins></a></span></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Other Voices.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Caesar, why have you betrayed us?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Again Others.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Down with the faithless <a id='corr182.18'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='Cæsar.'>Caesar!</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_182.18'><ins class='correction' title='Cæsar.'>Caesar!</ins></a></span></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Casts himself with outstretched arms into the midst -of the soldiers, crying</i>:] Fellow-soldiers, brothers -in arms,—save me from my enemies!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, what is this——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Wild Cries.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Down with Caesar! Strike him down!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Close round me in a circle; draw your swords!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_183'>183</span><span class='sc'>Maurus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>They are drawn already!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Women.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Strike him, cut him down!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I thank you for coming! Maurus! Honest -Maurus! Yes, yes; you I can trust.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Batavian Soldier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How dare you send us to the ends of the earth? -Was <em class='gesperrt'>that</em> what you swore to us?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Other Allies.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Not over the Alps! We are not bound to go!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Not to Rome! I will not go; they would -murder me, as they murdered my brother Gallus!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maurus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What say you, my lord?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Do not believe him!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Lay no finger on the noble Decentius; the -fault is not his.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Laipso.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>A Subaltern.</i>] That is true; the fault is -Caesar’s.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_184'>184</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, is that you, Laipso! My gallant friend, -is that you? You fought well at Argentoratum.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Laipso.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Caesar has not forgotten that?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Varro.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>A Subaltern.</i>] But he forgets his promises!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Was not that the voice of the undaunted Varro? -Ah, there he is! Your wound is healed, I see. -Oh, well-deserving soldier,—why would they not -let me make you captain?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Varro.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Was it indeed your wish?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Blame not the Emperor for refusing my request. -The Emperor knows none of you as I -know you.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Soldiers, hear me——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Many Voices.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>We have nothing to do with the Emperor!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Others.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Pressing forward menacingly.</i>] It is Caesar we -call to account!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_185'>185</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What power has your hapless Caesar, my friends? -They would take me to Rome. They deny even -the control of my private affairs. They seize -upon my share of the spoils of war. I thought to -give every soldier five gold pieces and a pound of -silver, but——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Soldiers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What does he say?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>’Tis not the Emperor who forbids it, but bad -and envious councillors. The Emperor is good, -my dear friends! But oh, the Emperor is sick; -he can do nothing——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Many Soldiers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Five gold pieces and a pound of silver!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Other Soldiers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And that they deny us!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Others Again.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Who dares deny Caesar anything?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maurus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is it thus they treat Caesar, the soldiers’ -father?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Laipso.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Caesar, who has been rather our friend than our -master? Is it not true?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Many Voices.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes, it is!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_186'>186</span><span class='sc'>Varro.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Should not Caesar, the victorious general, be -suffered to choose his captains as he pleases?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maurus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Should he not have free control over the spoils -that fall to his share?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Loud Shouts.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes, yes!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Alas, what would it profit you? What need -you care for worldly goods, you, who are to be led -forth to the most distant lands, to meet a doubtful -fate——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Soldiers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>We will not go!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Look not at me; I am ashamed; I can scarce -help weeping when I think that, within a few -months, you will be a prey to pestilence, famine, -and the weapons of a bloodthirsty foe.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Many Soldiers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Pressing round him.</i>] Caesar! Kind Caesar!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And your defenceless wives and children, whom -you must leave behind in your scattered homes! -Who shall protect them in their pitiable plight, -soon to be widowed and fatherless, and exposed -to the vengeful onslaughts of the Alemanni?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Women.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Weeping.</i>] Caesar, Caesar, protect us!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_187'>187</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Weeping likewise.</i>] What is Caesar? What can -the fallen Caesar do?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Laipso.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Write to the Emperor, and let him know——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, what is the Emperor? The Emperor is -sick in mind and body; he is broken down by -his care for the empire’s weal. Is it not so, -Decentius?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, doubtless; but——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How it cut me to the heart when I heard——</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>Pressing the hands of those around him.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>Pray for his soul, you who worship the good -Christ! Offer sacrifices for his recovery, you who -have remained faithful to the gods of your fathers!——Know -you that the Emperor has held a -triumphal entry into Rome?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maurus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Varro.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What? As he returned, beaten, from the -Danube?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>As he returned from the Danube, he held a -triumph for our victories——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Threateningly.</i>] Noble Caesar, reflect——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_188'>188</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, the Tribune says well; reflect how our -Emperor’s mind must be clouded, when he can do -such things! Oh, my sorely afflicted kinsman! -When he rode into Rome through the mighty arch -of Constantine, he fancied himself so tall that he -bent his back and bowed his head down to his -saddle-bow.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maurus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Like a cock in a doorway.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>Laughter among the soldiers.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Some Voices.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is <em class='gesperrt'>that</em> an Emperor?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Varro.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Shall we obey <em class='gesperrt'>him</em>?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Laipso.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Away with him!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maurus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Caesar, do you <a id='corr188.19'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='take take'>take</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_188.19'><ins class='correction' title='take take'>take</ins></a></span> the helm!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Decentius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Rebellion——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Many Voices.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Seize the throne; seize the throne, Caesar!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Madmen! Is this language for Romans? Would -you imitate the barbarous Alemanni? What was -it Knodomar cried at Argentoratum? Answer me, -good Maurus,—what did he cry out?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_189'>189</span><span class='sc'>Maurus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He cried, “Long live the Emperor Julian!”</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, hush, hush! What are you saying?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maurus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Long live the Emperor Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Those Behind.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What is afoot?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Varro.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>They are proclaiming Julian Emperor!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Loud Cries.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Long live the Emperor! Long live the Emperor -Julian!</p> - -<p class='c017'>[<i>The cry spreads in wider and wider circles -without; all talk together; <span class='sc'>Julian</span> cannot -make himself heard for some time.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, I entreat you——! Soldiers, friends, -brothers in arms,—see, I stretch out my trembling -arms to you——! Be not alarmed, my Decentius!—Oh -that I should live to see this! I do not -blame you, my faithful friends; it is despair that -has driven you to this. You will have it? Good; -I submit to the will of the army.—Sintula, call the -generals together.—You, Tribune, can bear witness -to Constantius that ’twas only on compulsion that -I—— [<i>He turns to <span class='sc'>Varro</span>.</i>] Go, captain, and -make known throughout the camp this unlooked-for -turn of events. I will write without delay to -Rome——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_190'>190</span><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My lord, the soldiers clamour to see you.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maurus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A circlet of gold on your head, Emperor!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I have never possessed such a gaud.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Maurus.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This will serve.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He takes off his gold chain, and winds it -several times round Caesar’s brow.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Shouts outside.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor, the Emperor! We will see the -Emperor!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Soldiers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>On the shield with him! Up, up!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>The bystanders raise <span class='sc'>Julian</span> aloft on a -shield, and show him to the multitude, -amid long-continued acclamations.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The will of the army be done! I bow before -the inevitable, and renew all my promises——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Legionaries.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Five gold pieces and a pound of silver!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Batavians.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Not over the Alps!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_191'>191</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>We will occupy Vienna. ’Tis the strongest city -in Gaul, and well supplied with provisions of every -sort. There I intend to wait until we see whether -my afflicted kinsman sanctions what we have here -determined, for the empire’s weal——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That he will never do, my lord!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>With upstretched hands.</i>] Divine wisdom enlighten -his darkened soul, and guide him for the -best! Be thou with me, Fortune, who hast never -yet deserted me!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Myrrha and the Women.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Lamenting outside on the right.</i>] Dead, dead, -dead!</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_192'>192</span> - <h3 class='c015'>ACT FIFTH.</h3> -</div> - -<p class='c016'>At Vienna [in Gaul]. A vaulted space in the catacombs. -<i>To the left a winding passage running -upwards. In the background, a flight of steps is -hewn in the rock, leading up to a closed door. In -front, to the right, a number of steps lead down -to the lower passages. The space is feebly -lighted by a hanging-lamp.</i></p> - -<p class='c021'><i><span class='sc'>Julian Caesar</span>, unshaven, and in dirty clothes, stands -bending over the opening to the right. A subdued -sound of psalm-singing comes through the door -from the church beyond it, built on to the catacomb.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Speaking downwards.</i>] Still no sign?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Far below.</i>] None.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Neither yes nor no? Neither for nor against?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Both.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That is the same as nothing.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_193'>193</span><span class='sc'>The Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Wait, wait.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I have waited five days; you asked for only -three. I tell you——I have no mind to—— [<i>He -listens towards the entrance, and calls down.</i>] Do not -speak!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Entering by the passage on the left.</i>] My lord, -my lord!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is it you, Sallust? What would you down -here?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>This thick darkness——; ah! now I see you.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What do you want?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>To serve you, if I can,—to lead you out to the -living again.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What news from the world above?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The soldiers are restless; there are signs on all -hands that their patience will soon be exhausted.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is the sun shining up there?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, my lord.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_194'>194</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The vault of heaven is like a sea of glittering -light. Perhaps it is high noon. It is warm; the -air quivers along the walls of the houses; the -river, half-shrunken in its bed, ripples over the -white flints.—Beautiful life! Beautiful earth!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh come, my lord, come! This stay in the -catacombs is construed to your hurt.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How is it construed?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Dare I tell you?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You dare, and you must. How is it construed?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Many believe that it is remorse rather than -sorrow that has driven you underground in this -strange fashion.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>They think I killed her?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The mystery of the case may excuse them, -if——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No one killed her, Sallust! She was too pure for -this sinful world; therefore an angel from heaven -descended every night into her secret chamber, -and called upon her. You doubt it? Know you -<span class='pageno' id='Page_195'>195</span>not that this is how the priests in Lutetia accounted -for her death? And the priests ought -to know. Has not the transport of her body hither -been like a triumphal progress through the land? -Did not all the women of Vienna stream forth -beyond the gates to meet her coffin, hailing her -with green boughs in their hands, spreading draperies -on the road, and singing songs of praise to -the bride of heaven, who was being brought home -to the bridegroom’s house?—Why do you laugh?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I, my lord?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ever since, I have heard bridal songs night and -day. Listen, listen; they are wafting her up to -glory. Ay, she was indeed a true Christian -woman. She observed the commandment strictly;—she -gave to Caesar what was Caesar’s, and to -the other she gave——; but ’twas not of <em class='gesperrt'>that</em> you -came to speak; you are not initiated in the secrets -of the faith, Sallust!—What news, I ask?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The weightiest news is that on learning of the -events at Lutetia, the Emperor fled hastily to -Antioch.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That news I know. No doubt Constantius -already saw us in imagination before the gates of -Rome.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The friends who boldly cast in their lot with -you in this dangerous business, saw in imagination -the same thing.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_196'>196</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The time is not auspicious, Sallust! Know you -not that in the martial games, before we left Lutetia, -my shield broke in pieces, so that only the -handle remained in my grasp? And know you -not that, when I was mounting my horse, the -groom stumbled as I swung myself up from his -folded hands?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yet you gained the saddle, my lord!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>But the man fell.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Better men will fall if Caesar loiters.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor is at death’s door.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor still lives. The letters you wrote -him as to your election——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My enforced election. They constrained me, -I had no choice.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor does not hold that explanation -valid. He designs, as soon as he has mustered an -army in the eastern provinces, to march into Gaul.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How know you that——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_197'>197</span><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>By an accident, my lord! Believe me, I entreat -you——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Good, good; when that happens, I will go to -meet Constantius—not sword in hand——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Not? How, then, do you think to meet him?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I will render to the Emperor what is the -Emperor’s.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Mean you that you will abdicate?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor is at death’s door.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh that vain hope! [<i>He casts himself on his -knees.</i>] Then take my life, my lord!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What now?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Caesar, take my life; I would rather die by your -will than by the Emperor’s.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Rise, friend!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, let me lie at my Caesar’s feet, and confess -all. Oh, beloved master,—to have to tell you this!—When -<span class='pageno' id='Page_198'>198</span>I sought you out in the camp on the Rhine,—when -I recalled to you the old friendship of our -Athenian days,—when I begged to share with -you the dangers of war,—then, oh Caesar, I came -as a secret spy, in the Emperor’s pay——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My mind had for some time been inflamed -against you. You remember that little variance -in Milan—yet no little one for me, who had hoped -that Caesar would help to restore my waning fortunes. -Of all this they took advantage in Rome; -they regarded me as the very man to spy out your -doings.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And you could sell yourself so basely? To so -black a treachery!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I was ruined, my lord; and I thought Caesar -had forsaken me. Yes, my Caesar, I betrayed -you——, during the first few months; but not -afterwards. Your friendliness, your magnanimity, -all the favour you showed me——; I became, what -I had professed to be, your faithful adherent; and -in my secret letters to Rome I put my employers -on false scents.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Those letters were from <em class='gesperrt'>you</em>?—Oh, Sallust!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>They contained nothing to injure you, my lord! -What others may have written, I know not; I -<span class='pageno' id='Page_199'>199</span>only know that I often enough groaned in anguish -under my enforced and hated silence. I ventured -as far as I by any means dared. That letter -written to an unnamed man in your camp, which -contained an account of the Emperor’s triumphal -entry in Rome, and which you found one morning -on the march to Lutetia pushed under your tent-flap——; -you did find it, my lord?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That was directed to me, and chance favoured -me in bringing it into your hands. I dared not -speak. I longed to, but I could not; I put off -from day to day the confession of my shame. Oh, -punish me, my lord; see, here I lie!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Stand up; you are dearer to me thus,—conquered -without my will and against your own. -Stand up, friend of my soul; no one shall touch -a hair of your head.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Rather take the life which you will not long have -power to shield. You say the Emperor is at death’s -door. [<i>He rises.</i>] My Caesar, what I have sworn -to conceal, I now reveal to you. There is no hope -for you in the Emperor’s decay. The Emperor is -taking a new wife.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, what madness! How can you think——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_200'>200</span><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor is taking a new wife, my lord! -[<i>He hands him some papers.</i>] Read, read, noble -Caesar; these letters will leave you no room for -doubt.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Seizing the papers, and reading.</i>] Yes, by the -light and might of Helios——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh that I had dared to speak sooner!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Still reading.</i>] He take a woman to wife! Constantius,—that -dwindling shadow of a man——! -Faustina,—what is this?—young, scarcely nineteen,—a -daughter of——ah! a daughter of that -insolent tribe. Therefore, of course, a zealous -Christian woman. [<i>He folds the papers together.</i>] -You are right, Sallust; his decay gives no room -for hope. What though he be decrepit, dying,—what -of that? Is not Faustina pious. An annunciating -angel will appear; or even——; ha-ha!—in -short,—by some means or other,—a young -Caesar will be forthcoming, and thus——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Delay means ruin.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>This move has long been planned in all secrecy, -Sallust! Ah, now all the riddles are solved. -Helena——, ’twas not, as I conceived, her heedless -tongue that destroyed her——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_201'>201</span><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, my lord!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>——they thought,—they believed that——! -oh inscrutable, even-handed retribution! that was -why she had to die.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, that was the reason, I was the man they -first pitched upon in Rome. Oh, my lord, you -cannot doubt that I refused to do it? I pleaded -the impossibility of finding an occasion; they -assured me that the abominable design was abandoned, -and then——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>They will not stop at—at the double corpse in -the sarcophagus up yonder. Constantius takes -another wife. That is why I was to be disarmed -in Lutetia.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>One thing alone can save you, my Caesar: you -must act before the Emperor has recruited his -forces.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What if, of my own free will, I withdrew into -solitude, devoting myself to that wisdom which I -have here been forced to neglect? Would the -new men in power leave me undisturbed? Would -not the very fact of my existence be like a sword -hanging over their heads?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The kinsmen of the Empress that is to be are -the men who surrounded Gallus Caesar in his last -hours.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_202'>202</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The tribune Scudilo. Trust me, friend,—I -have not forgotten that. And am I to yield and -fall before this bloodthirsty Emperor! Am I to -spare him who for long years has stumbled about -among the corpses of my nearest kin!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>If you spare him, in less than three months he -will be stumbling among the corpses of your adherents.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes; there you are right. It is almost my -imperative duty to stand up against him. If I do, -’twill not be for my own sake. Do not the weal -and woe of thousands hang in the balance? Are -not thousands of lives at stake? Or could I have -averted this extremity? You are more to blame -than I, Sallust! Why did you not speak before?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>In Rome they made me swear a solemn oath of -secrecy.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>An oath? Indeed! By the gods of your forefathers?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, my lord—by Zeus and by Apollo.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And yet you break your oath?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I wish to live.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_203'>203</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>But the gods?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The gods—they are far away.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, your gods are far away; they hamper no -one; they are a burden to no one; they leave a -man elbow-room for action. Oh, that Greek -happiness, that sense of freedom——!</p> - -<p class='c001'>You said that the Emperor, vengeful as he is, -will pour out the blood of my friends. Yes, who -can doubt that? Was Knodomar spared? Did -not that harmless captive pay with his life for an -error of language? For—I know it, Sallust—they -killed him; that tale about the barbarian’s home-sickness -was a lie. Then what may not we expect? -In what a hateful light must not Decentius -have represented matters in Rome?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That you may best understand from the hasty -flight of the court to Antioch.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And am I not my army’s father, Sallust?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The soldiers’ father; their wives’ and children’s -buckler and defence.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And what will be the fate of the empire should -I waver now? A decrepit Emperor, and after him -a helpless child, upon the throne; faction and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_204'>204</span>revolt; every man’s hand against his neighbour, -in the struggle for power.—Not many nights ago -I saw a vision. A figure appeared before me, with -a halo round its head; it looked wrathfully upon -me, and said: “Choose!” With that it vanished -away, like morning mist. Hitherto I had interpreted -it as referring to something far different; -but now that I know of the Emperor’s approaching -marriage——</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, indeed, it is time to choose, ere misfortune -overwhelms the empire. I am not thinking of -my own interest; but <em class='gesperrt'>dare</em> I shirk the choice, -Sallust? Is it not my duty to the Emperor to -defend my life? Have I a right to stand with -folded arms and await the murderers whom he, in -his mad panic, is bribing to hew me down? Have -I a right to give this unhappy Constantius an -opportunity of heaping fresh blood-guiltiness upon -his sinful head? Were it not better for him—as -the Scriptures say—that he should suffer wrong -rather than do wrong? If, therefore, this -that I do to my kinsman can be called a wrong, I -hold that the wrong is wiped out by the fact that -it hinders my kinsman from inflicting a wrong on -me. I think that both Plato and Marcus Aurelius, -that crowned bridegroom of wisdom, would support -me in that. At any rate, it would be no unworthy -problem for the philosophers, my dear Sallust!—Oh -that I had Libanius here!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My lord, you are yourself so far advanced in -philosophy, that——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>True, true; yet I would fain hear the views -<span class='pageno' id='Page_205'>205</span>of certain others. Not that I am vacillating. Do -not think that! Nor do I see any reason to doubt -a favourable issue. For those omens should by -no means discourage us. The fact that I retained -the handle, when my shield broke during the -games, may with ample reason, I think, be taken -to mean that I shall succeed in holding what my -hand has grasped. And if, in vaulting upon my -horse, I overthrew the man who helped me to -mount, may not this portend a sudden fall to -Constantius, to whom I owe my rise? Be this as -it may, my Sallust, I look forward to composing -a treatise which shall most clearly justify——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Very good, my gracious lord; but the soldiers -are impatient; they would fain see you, and learn -their fate from your own lips.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Go, go and pacify them;—tell them that Caesar -will presently show himself.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My lord, ’tis not Caesar, it is the Emperor himself -they want to see.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor is coming.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Then he comes—though empty-handed—yet -with the lives of thousands in his hands!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_206'>206</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A barter, Sallust; the lives of thousands against -the death of thousands.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Have your enemies the right to live?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Happy you, whose gods are afar off. Oh, to -possess this hardihood of will——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Calling from deep in the galleries below.</i>] Julian, -Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah! What is that?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Leave me, dear friend; go quickly!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Silence the psalm-singing, Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It calls again. Oh, then it is true!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What is true?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That you abide down here with a mysterious -stranger, a soothsayer or a magician, who came to -you by night.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ha-ha; do they say that? Go, go!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_207'>207</span><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I conjure you, my lord,—have done with these -noxious dreams. Come with me; come up to the -light of day!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Nearer, underneath.</i>] All my labour is vain.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Speaking down the passage to the right.</i>] No sign, -my brother?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Desolation and emptiness.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, Maximus!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Maximus!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Go, I tell you! If I leave this house of corruption, -it will be as Emperor.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I implore you——; what seek you here in the -darkness?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Light. Go, go!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>If Caesar loiters, I fear he will find the way -barred against him.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He goes by the passage on the left. A -little while afterwards, <span class='sc'>Maximus the -Mystic</span> ascends the steps; he wears a -white sacrificial fillet round his brow; -in his hand is a long, bloody knife.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_208'>208</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Speak, my Maximus!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>All my labour is vain, I tell you. Why could -you not silence the psalm-singing? It strangled -all the omens; they would have spoken, but could -utter nothing.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Silence, darkness;—and I can wait no longer! -What do you counsel me to do?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Go forward blindly, Emperor Julian. The light -will seek you out.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes, yes; that I, too, believe. I need not, -after all, have sent for you all this long way. -Know you what I have just heard——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I will not know what you have heard. Take -your fate into your own hands.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Pacing restlessly up and down.</i>] After all, what -is he, this Constantius—this Fury-haunted sinner, -this mouldering ruin of what was once a man?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Be that his epitaph, Emperor Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>In his whole treatment of me, has he not been -like a rudderless wreck,—now drifting to the left -<span class='pageno' id='Page_209'>209</span>on the current of suspicion, now hurled to the right -by the storm-gust of remorse? Did he not stagger, -terror-stricken, up to the imperial throne, his -purple mantle dripping with my father’s blood? -perhaps with my mother’s too?—Had not all my -kin to perish that he might sit secure? No, not -all; Gallus was spared, and I;—a couple of lives -must be left wherewith to buy himself a little -pardon. Then he drifted into the current of suspicion -again. Remorse wrung from him the title -of Caesar for Gallus; then suspicion wrung from -him Caesar’s death-warrant. And I? Do I owe -him thanks for the life he has hitherto vouchsafed -me? One after the other; first Gallus, and -then——; every night I have sweated with terror -lest the next day should be my last.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Were Constantius and death your worst terrors? -<a id='corr209.19'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='Think?'>Think.</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_209.19'><ins class='correction' title='Think?'>Think.</ins></a></span></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, you are right. The priests——! My whole -youth has been one long dread of the Emperor and -of Christ. Oh, he is terrible, that mysterious—that -merciless god-man! At every turn, wheresoever -I wished to go, he met me, stark and stern, -with his unconditional, inexorable commands.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And those commands—were they within you?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Always without. Always “Thou shalt.” If my -soul gathered itself up in one gnawing and consuming -hate towards the murderer of my kin, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_210'>210</span>what said the commandment: “Love thine -enemy!” If my mind, athirst for beauty, longed -for scenes and rites from the bygone world of -Greece, Christianity swooped down on me with its -“Seek the one thing needful!” If I felt the -sweet lusts of the flesh towards this or that, the -Prince of Renunciation terrified me with his: -“Kill the body that the soul may live!”—All that -is human has become unlawful since the day when -the seer of Galilee became ruler of the world. -Through him, life has become death. Love and -hatred, both are sins. Has he, then, transformed -man’s flesh and blood? Has not earth-bound man -remained what he ever was? Our inmost, healthy -soul rebels against it all;—and yet we are to will -in the very teeth of our own will! Thou shalt, -shalt, shalt!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And you have advanced no further than that! -Shame on you!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, you, the man of Athens and of Ephesus.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, those times, Maximus! ’Twas easy to -choose then. What were we really working at? -A philosophic system; neither more nor less.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is it not written somewhere in your Scriptures! -<a id='corr210.32'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='Either'>“Either</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_210.32'><ins class='correction' title='Either'>“Either</ins></a></span> with us or against us”?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_211'>211</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Did not Libanius remain the man he was, -whether he took the affirmative in a disputation, -or the negative? This lies deeper. Here it is -action that must be faced. “Render unto Caesar -the things that are Caesar’s.” In Athens I once -made a game of that;—but it is no game. You -cannot grasp it, you, who have never been under -the power of the god-man. It is more than a -doctrine he has spread over the world; it is an -enchantment, that binds the soul in chains. He -who has once been under it,—I believe he can -never quite shake it off.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Because you do not wholly <em class='gesperrt'>will</em>.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How can I <em class='gesperrt'>will</em> the impossible?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is it worth while to <em class='gesperrt'>will</em> what is possible?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Word-froth from the lecture-halls! You can no -longer cram my mind with that. And yet——oh -no, no, Maximus! But you cannot understand -how it is with us. We are like vines transplanted -into a new, strange soil; transplant us back again, -and we die; yet in the new soil we cannot thrive.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>We? Whom do you call we?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>All who are under the terror of the revelation.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_212'>212</span><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A terror of shadows!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Be that as it may. But do you not see that this -paralysing terror has curdled and coiled itself up -into a wall around the Emperor? Ah, I see very -well why the great Constantine promoted such a -will-binding doctrine to power and authority in -the empire. No bodyguard with spears and -shields could form such a bulwark round the -throne as this benumbing creed, for ever pointing -beyond our earthly life. Have you looked closely -at these Christians? Hollow-eyed, pale-cheeked, -flat-breasted, all; they are like the linen-weavers -of Byssus; they brood their lives away unspurred -by ambition; the sun shines for them, and they -do not see it; the earth offers them its fulness, and -they desire it not;—all their desire is to renounce -and suffer, that they may come to die.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Then use them as they are; but you yourself -must stand without. Emperor or Galilean;—<em class='gesperrt'>that</em> -is the alternative. Be a thrall under the -terror, or monarch in the land of sunshine and -gladness! You cannot will contradictions; and -yet that is what you would fain do. You try to -unite what cannot be united,—to reconcile two -irreconcilables; therefore it is that you lie here -rotting in the darkness.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Show me light if you can!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_213'>213</span><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Are you that Achilles, whom your mother -dreamed that she should give to the world? A -tender heel alone makes no man an Achilles. -Arise, my lord! Confident of victory, like a -knight on his fiery steed, you must trample on -the Galilean, if you would reach the imperial -throne——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Maximus!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My beloved Julian, look at the world around -you! Those death-desiring Christians you speak -of are fewest of the few. And how is it with all -the others? Are not their minds falling away -from the Master, one by one? Answer me,—what -has become of this strange gospel of love? -Does not sect rage against sect? And the bishops, -those gold-bedecked magnates, who call themselves -the chief shepherds of the church! Do -they yield even to the great men of the court in -greed and ambition and sycophancy——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>They are not all like that; think of the great -Athanasius of Alexandria——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Athanasius stood alone. And where is Athanasius -now? Did they not drive him out, because -he would not sell himself to serve the Emperor’s -will? Was he not forced to take refuge in the -Libyan desert, where he was devoured by lions? -And can you name me <em class='gesperrt'>one</em> other like Athanasius? -<span class='pageno' id='Page_214'>214</span>Think of Maris, the bishop of Chalcedon, who has -now changed sides three times in the Arian controversy. -Think of old Bishop Marcus, of Arethusa; -him you know from your boyhood. Has -he not lately, in the teeth of both law and justice, -taken all municipal property from the citizens, and -transferred it to the church? And remember the -feeble, vacillating Bishop of Nazianzus, who is -the laughing-stock of his own community, because -he answers yes and no in the same cause, in the -hope to please both parties.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>True, true, true!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>These are your brothers in arms, my Julian; you -will find none better among them. Or perhaps -you count upon those two great Galilean lights -that were to be, in Cappadocia? Ha-ha; Gregory, -the bishop’s son, pleads causes in his native town, -and Basil, on his estate in the far east, is buried -in the writings of secular philosophers.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, I know it well. On all sides they fall -away! Hekebolius, my former teacher, has grown -rich through his zeal for the faith, and his expositions -of it; and since then——! Maximus—it -has come to this, that I stand almost alone in -earnestness.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You stand <em class='gesperrt'>quite</em> alone. Your whole army is -either in headlong flight, or lying slain around you. -Sound the battle-call,—and none will hear you; -advance,—and none will follow you! Dream not -<span class='pageno' id='Page_215'>215</span>that you can do anything for a cause which has -despaired of itself. You will be beaten, I tell -you! And where will you turn then? Disowned -by Constantius, you will be disowned by all other -powers on earth,—and over the earth. Or will -you flee to the Galilean’s bosom? How stands the -account between you and him? Did you not own, -a moment ago, that you are under the terror? -Have you his commands within you? Do you love -your enemy, Constantius, even if you do not smite -him? Do you hate the lusts of the flesh or the -alluring joys of this world, even if you do not, -like a heated swimmer, plunge into their depths? -Do you renounce the world, because you have not -courage to make it your own? And are you so -very sure that—if you die here—you shall live -yonder?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Pacing to and fro.</i>] What has he done for me, -he who exacts so much? If he hold the reins of -the world-chariot in his hands, it must have been -within his power to——</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>The psalm-singing in the church becomes louder.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>Listen, listen! They call that serving him. -And he accepts it as a sweet-smelling sacrifice. -Praise of himself,—and praise of her in the coffin! -If he be omniscient, how then can he——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Chamberlain Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Coming hastily down through the passage on the -left.</i>] My Caesar! My lord, my lord; where are -you?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Here, Eutherius? What would you with me?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_216'>216</span><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You must come up, my lord;—you must see it -with your own eyes;—the Princess’s body is working -miracles.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You lie!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I do not lie, my lord! I am no believer in this -foreign doctrine; but what I have seen I cannot -doubt.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What have you seen?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The whole town is in a frenzy. They are bearing -the sick and crippled to the Princess’s bier; -the priests let them touch it, and they go away -healed.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And this you yourself have seen?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, my lord; I saw an epileptic woman go -forth from the church healed, praising the Galileans’ -God.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, Maximus, Maximus!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Hark, how the Christians exult;—some fresh -miracle must have happened.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_217'>217</span><span class='sc'>The Physician Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Calling out in the passage to the left.</i>] Eutherius,—have -you found him? Eutherius, Eutherius, -where is Caesar?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Meeting him.</i>] Here, here;—is it true, Oribases?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Coming forward.</i>] Incredible, inexplicable,—and -yet true; they touch the bier, the priests read -and pray over them, and they are healed; from -time to time a voice proclaims: “Holy, holy, is -the pure woman!”</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A voice proclaims——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The voice of one invisible, my Caesar; a voice -high up under the vaultings of the church——; -no man knows whence it comes.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Stands a moment immovable, then turns suddenly to -<span class='sc'>Maximus</span>, and cries</i>:] Life or the lie!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Choose!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Come, come, my lord; the awe-stricken soldiers -threaten you——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Let them threaten.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_218'>218</span><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>They accuse you and me of the Princess’s -death——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I will come; I will satisfy them——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>There is only <em class='gesperrt'>one</em> way: you must turn their -thoughts in another direction, my lord;—they are -wild with despair over the fate awaiting them if -you delay any longer.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Now go to heaven, thou fool; now die for thy -Lord and Master!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Grasping him by the arm.</i>] The Emperor’s empire -for me!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Achilles!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What looses the covenant?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Handing him the sacrificial knife.</i>] This.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What washes the water away?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The blood of the sacrifice.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He tears off the fillet from his own brow, -and fastens it round Caesar’s.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_219'>219</span><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Drawing nearer.</i>] What is your purpose, my -lord?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ask not.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Hark to the clamour! Up, up, my Caesar!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>First down,—then up. [<i>To <span class='sc'>Maximus</span>.</i>] The -sanctuary, my beloved brother——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Straight below, in the second vault.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Caesar, Caesar,—whither are you going?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>To freedom.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Through darkness to light. Ah——!</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He descends into the lower galleries.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Softly, looking after him.</i>] So it has come at last!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Speak, speak; what mean these hidden arts?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And now, when every instant is precious——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_220'>220</span><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Whispering uneasily, as he shifts his place.</i>] These -gliding, clammy shadows! Faugh! The slimy -things crawling underfoot——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Listening.</i>] The turmoil waxes, Eutherius! It -is the soldiers; listen, listen!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It is the song in the church——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, ’tis the soldiers!—here they come!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'><i>The Knight <span class='sc'>Sallust</span> appears up in the gallery, surrounded -by a great crowd of excited soldiers. -The Standard-Bearer <span class='sc'>Maurus</span> is amongst them.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Be reasonable, I entreat you——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Soldiers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Caesar has betrayed us! Caesar shall die!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And what then, madmen!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maurus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What then? With Caesar’s head we will buy -forgiveness——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Soldiers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Come forth, come forth, Caesar!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_221'>221</span><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Caesar,—my Caesar, where are you?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Calling out, in the vault underneath.</i>] Helios! -Helios!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Free!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Choir in the Church above.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Our Father which art in heaven!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Where is he? Eutherius, Oribases,—what is -here afoot?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Choir.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>In the church.</i>] Hallowed be Thy name!</p> - -<p class='c001'>Julian.</p> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Comes up the steps; he has blood on his forehead, -on his breast, and on his hands.</i>] It is finished!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Soldiers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Caesar!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Blood-stained——! What have you done?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Cloven the mists of terror.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Creation lies in your hand.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_222'>222</span><span class='sc'>The Choir.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>In the church.</i>] Thy will be done on earth as it -is in heaven!</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>The chant continues during what follows.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Now Constantius has no longer a bodyguard.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maurus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What say you, my lord?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah! My faithful ones! Up into the daylight -to Rome, and to Greece!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Soldiers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Long live the Emperor Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>We will not look back; all ways lie open before -us. Up into the daylight! Through the church! -The liars shall be silenced——!</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He rushes up the steps in the background.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>The army mine, the treasure mine, the throne -mine!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Choir.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>In the church.</i>] Lead us not into temptation; -but deliver us from evil!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i><span class='sc'>Julian</span> throws wide the doors, revealing the -brightly-lighted interior of the church. -The priests stand before the high altar; -crowds of worshippers kneel below, around -the Princess’s bier.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_223'>223</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Free, free! Mine is the kingdom!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Sallust.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Calls to him.</i>] And the power and the glory!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Choir.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>In the church.</i>] Thine is the kingdom, and the -power, and the glory——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Dazzled by the light.</i>] Ah!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Victory!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Choir.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>In the church.</i>] ——For ever and ever, amen!</p> - -<hr class='c014' /> -<hr class='c014' /> -<div class='footnote' id='f9'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r9'>9</a>. The name “Caesar” was at this period used as the title of -the heir to the throne, the Emperor himself being entitled -“Augustus.”</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f10'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r10'>10</a>. See Ibsen’s <i>Correspondence</i>, Letter 115, to George Brandes.</p> -</div> -<hr class='c014' /> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_225'>225</span> - <h2 class='c008'><span class='xxlarge'>THE EMPEROR JULIAN</span></h2> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_226'>226</span> - <h3 class='c015'>CHARACTERS</h3> -</div> - - <ul class='ul_1 c000'> - <li><span class='sc'>The Emperor Julian.</span> - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Nevita</span>, <i>a general</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Potamon</span>, <i>a goldsmith</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Caesarius of Nazianzus</span>, <i>court physician</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Themistius</span>, <i>an orator</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Mamertinus</span>, <i>an orator</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Ursulus</span>, <i>treasurer</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Eunapius</span>, <i>a barber</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Barbara</span>, <i>a procuress</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Hekebolius</span>, <i>a theologian</i>. - </li> - <li><i>Courtiers and Officers of State.</i> - </li> - <li><i>Citizens of Constantinople.</i> - </li> - <li><i>People taking part in the procession of Dionysus, flute-players, dancers, - jugglers, and women.</i> - </li> - <li><i>Envoys from Eastern Kings.</i> - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>The Chamberlain Eutherius.</span> -<p class='li-p-last c022'><i>Servants of the palace.</i></p> - </li> - <li><i>Judges, orators, teachers, and citizens of Antioch.</i> - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Medon</span>, <i>a corn-dealer</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Malchus</span>, <i>a tax-gatherer</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Gregory of Nazianzus</span>, <i>Caesarius’s brother</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Phocion</span>, <i>a dyer</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Publia</span>, <i>a woman of Antioch</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Hilarion</span>, <i>son of Publia</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Agathon Of Cappadocia.</span> - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Maris</span>, <i>Bishop of Chalcedon</i>. - </li> - <li><i>People taking part in the procession of Apollo, priests, servants of the temple, - harp-players and watchmen of the city.</i> - </li> - <li><i>Agathon’s younger brother.</i> - </li> - <li><i>A procession of Christian prisoners.</i> - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Heraclius</span>, <i>a poet</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Oribases</span>, <i>court physician</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Libanius</span>, <i>an orator, and chief magistrate of Antioch</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Apollinaris</span>, <i>a hymn-writer</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Cyrillus</span>, <i>a teacher</i>. - </li> - <li><i>An old priest of Cybele.</i> - </li> - <li><i>Psalm-singers of Antioch.</i> - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Fromentinus</span>, <i>a captain</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Jovian</span>, <i>a general</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Maximus the Mystic.</span> - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Numa</span>, <i>a soothsayer</i>. - </li> - <li><i>Two other Etruscan soothsayers.</i> - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Prince Hormisdas</span>, <i>a Persian exile</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Anatolus</span>, <i>captain of the lifeguard</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Priscus</span>, <i>a philosopher</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Kytron</span>, <i>a philosopher</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Ammian</span>, <i>a captain</i>. - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Basil of Caesarea.</span> - </li> - <li><span class='sc'>Makrina</span>, <i>his sister</i>. - </li> - <li><i>A Persian deserter.</i> - </li> - <li><i>Roman and Greek soldiers.</i> - </li> - <li><i>Persian warriors.</i> - </li> - </ul> - -<p class='c001'><i>The first act passes in Constantinople, the second and third -in Antioch, the fourth in and about the eastern territories of -the empire, and the fifth on the plains beyond the Tigris. -The events take place in the interval between December, -<span class='fss'>A.D.</span> 361, and the end of June, <span class='fss'>A.D.</span> 363.</i></p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_227'>227</span> - <h2 class='c008'><span class='xxlarge'>THE EMPEROR JULIAN.</span></h2> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c023'> - <div><span class='large'>PLAY IN FIVE ACTS.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<h3 class='c015'>ACT FIRST.</h3> - -<h4 class='c024'>SCENE FIRST.</h4> - -<p class='c017'><i>The port of Constantinople. In the foreground to the -right, a richly-decorated landing-stage, spread with -carpets. On the elevated quay, at a little distance -from the landing-stage, is seen a veiled stone, surrounded -by a guard. Far out on the Bosphorus -lies the imperial fleet, hung with flags of mourning.</i></p> -<p class='c017'><i>A countless multitude, in boats and on the beach. Near -the end of the landing-stage stands the <span class='sc'>Emperor -Julian</span>, robed in purple and decked with golden -ornaments. He is surrounded by <span class='sc'>Courtiers</span> and -<span class='sc'>High Officers of State</span>. Among those standing -nearest to him are <span class='sc'>Nevita</span>, the commander of the -forces, and the court physician, <span class='sc'>Caesarius</span>, together -with the orators, <span class='sc'>Themistius</span> and <span class='sc'>Mamertinus</span>.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Looking out over the water.</i>] What a meeting! -The dead Emperor and the living.—Alas that he -<span class='pageno' id='Page_228'>228</span>should have drawn his last breath in such distant -regions! Alas that, in spite of all my haste, I -should not have had the sweet consolation of -embracing my kinsman for the last time! A bitter -lot for both of us!—</p> - -<p class='c001'>Where is the ship with the body?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>There it comes.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That long boat?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, most gracious Emperor.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My poor kinsman! So great in life; and now -to have to content you with so low a roof! Now -you will not strike your forehead against the coffin-lid, -you who bowed your head in riding through -the Arch of Constantine.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Citizen among the Spectators.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To the Goldsmith <span class='sc'>Potamon</span>.</i>] How young he -looks, our new Emperor!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Potamon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>But he has grown more stalwart. When I last -saw him he was a lean stripling; that is now nine -or ten years ago.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Another Citizen.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ay, he has done great things in those years.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Woman.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And all the dangers he has passed through, ever -since his childhood!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_229'>229</span><span class='sc'>A Priest.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Marvellously has he been shielded from them -all; the hand of heaven is over him.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Potamon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Rumour says that in Gaul he placed himself in -very different hands.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Priest.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Lies, lies; you may depend upon it.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Now he comes. The Sun, whom I invoke, and -the great thunder-wielding God, know that I never -desired Constantius’s death. That was far indeed -from being my wish. I have offered up prayers -for his life.—Tell me, Caesarius,—you must know -best,—have they shown all due honour, on the -journey, to the imperial corpse?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Caesarius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The funeral procession was like a conqueror’s -triumph through the whole of Asia Minor. In -every town we traversed, believers thronged the -streets; through whole nights the churches echoed -with prayers and hymns; thousands of burning -tapers transformed the darkness into high -noon——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Good, good, good!—I am seized with an unspeakable -misgiving at the thought of taking the -helm of state after so great and virtuous and well-beloved -an Emperor. Why was it not my lot to -live in peaceful retirement?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_230'>230</span><span class='sc'>Mamertinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And who could have sufficed to this high and -difficult calling so completely as you, incomparable -lord? I call fearlessly to all those others who have -aspired to the empire: Come, then, and take the -helm of government; but take it as Julian takes -it. Be on the alert night and day for the common -welfare. Be masters in name, and yet servants to -civic freedom. Choose the foremost places in -battle, and not at the feasts. Take nothing for -yourselves, but lavish gifts upon all. Let your -justice be equally remote from laxity and from -inhumanity. Live so that no virgin on earth shall -wring her hands because of you. Bid defiance—both -to impenetrable Gaul, and inhospitable -Germany. What would they answer? Appalled -by such stern conditions, they would stop their -effeminate ears, and cry: “Only a Julian is equal -to such a task!”</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Omnipotent grant that such high hopes -may not be disappointed. But how great are my -shortcomings! A shudder comes over me. To -affront comparison with Alexander, Marcus Aurelius, -and so many other illustrious princes! Has not -Plato said that only a god can rule over men? Oh -pray with me that I may escape the snares of ambition, -and the temptations of power. Athens, Athens! -Thither my longings turn! I was as a man taking -reasonable exercise for the sake of his health;—and -now, they come and say to me, “Go forth -into the arena, and conquer in the Olympian -games. The eyes of all Greece are upon you!” -May I not well be panic-stricken even before the -contest begins?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_231'>231</span><span class='sc'>Themistius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Panic-stricken, oh Emperor? Have you not -already the applause of Greece? Are you not -come to reinstate all exiled virtues in their ancient -rights? Do we not find concentred in you all the -victorious genius of Herakles, of Dionysus, of -Solon, of——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Hush! Only the praise of the dead shall be -heard to-day. The boat has reached the wharf. -Take my crown and my chains; I will not wear -the insignia of empire at such a time as this.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He hands the ornaments to one of the -bystanders. The funeral procession advances -along the landing-stage, with great -pomp. Priests with lighted candles walk -at its head; the coffin is drawn on a low-wheeled -carriage; church banners are -borne before and after the carriage; -choristers swing censers; crowds of Christian -citizens follow after.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Laying his hand on the coffin, and sighing audibly.</i>] -Ah!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Spectator.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Did he cross himself?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Another in the Crowd.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The First.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You see; you see!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Third Spectator.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And he did not bow before the sacred image.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_232'>232</span><span class='sc'>The First.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To the second.</i>] You see! What did I tell -you?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Pass onward to thy home, amid pomp and -honour, soulless body of my kinsman! I make -not this dust answerable for the wrongs thy spirit -did me. What do I say? Was it thy spirit that -dealt so hardly with my house, that I alone am -left? Was it thy spirit that caused my childhood -to be darkened with a thousand terrors? Was it -thy spirit that bade fall that noble Caesar’s head? -Was it thou who didst allot to me, an untried -stripling, so difficult a post in inhospitable Gaul, -and afterwards, when disaffection and mischance -had failed to crush me, didst seek to rob me of -the honour of my victories? Oh Constantius, my -kinsman,—not from thy great heart did all this -spring. Wherefore didst thou writhe in remorse -and anguish; why didst thou see gory shades -around thee, on thy last bed of pain? Evil councillors -embittered thy life and thy death. I know -them, these councillors; they were men who took -hurt from living in the ceaseless sunshine of thy -favour. I know them, these men, who so obsequiously -clothed themselves in that garb of faith, -which was most in favour at court.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Heathen Citizens.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Among the spectators.</i>] Long live the Emperor -Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Caesarius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Most gracious lord, the procession waits——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_233'>233</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To the priests.</i>] Stay not your pious hymns on -my account. Forward, my friends!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>The procession passes slowly out to the -left.</i></p> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Follow whoso will, and remain whoso will. -But this you shall all know to-day, that my place -is here.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>Uneasiness and movement in the crowd.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>What am I? The Emperor. But in saying -that, have I said all? Is there not one imperial -office, which seems to have been shamefully wiped -out of remembrance in these later years? What -was that crowned philosopher, Marcus Aurelius? -Emperor? Only Emperor? I could almost ask: -was he not something more than Emperor? Was -he not also the Supreme Pontiff?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Voices in the Crowd.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What says the Emperor? What was that? -What did he say?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Themistius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh sire, is it indeed your purpose——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Not even my uncle Constantine the Great dared -to renounce this dignity. Even after he had conceded -to a certain new doctrine such very extraordinary -privileges, he was still called the Chief -Priest by all who held fast to the ancient divinities -of the Grecian race. I will not here enlarge upon -the melancholy disuse into which this office has -fallen of late years, but will merely remark that -none of my exalted predecessors, not even he to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_234'>234</span>whom, with tear-stained faces, we to-day bid our -last farewell, has dared to reject it. Should I -presume to take any step which so wise and just -emperors did not deem right or expedient? Far -be it from me!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Themistius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh great Emperor, mean you by this——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I mean by this, that there shall be perfect freedom -for all citizens. Cling to the Christians’ -God, you who find it conduce to your souls’ repose. -As for me, I dare not build my hopes on a god -who has hitherto been my foe in all my undertakings. -I know by infallible signs and tokens -that the victories I won on the Gallic frontier I -owe to those other divinities who favoured Alexander -in a somewhat similar way. Under watch -and ward of these divinities, I passed unscathed -through all dangers; and, in especial, it was they -who furthered my journey hither with such marvellous -speed and success that, as I gathered from -cries in the streets, some people have come to -look upon me as a divine being,—which is a great -exaggeration, my friends! But certain it is, that -I dare not show myself ungrateful for such untiring -proofs of favour.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Voices in the Crowd.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Subdued.</i>] What is he going to do?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Therefore, I restore to their pristine rights the -venerable Gods of our forefathers. But no injury -shall be done to the God of the Galileans, nor to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_235'>235</span>the God of the Jews. The temples, which pious -rulers of old erected with such admirable art, shall -rise again in rejuvenated splendour, with altars -and statues, each for its especial God, so that -seemly worship may once more be offered them. -But I will by no means tolerate any vengeful -assaults upon the churches of the Christians; -neither shall their graveyards be molested, nor -any other places which a strange delusion leads -them to regard as sacred. We will bear with the -errors of others; I myself have laboured under -illusions;—but over that I cast a veil. What I -have thought upon things divine since my one-and-twentieth -year, I will not now dwell upon; I -will only say that I congratulate those who follow -my example,—that I smile at those who will not -tread in my footsteps,—that I will doubtless try -to persuade, but will not coerce any one.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He stops a moment expectantly; feeble -applause is heard here and there among -the crowd. He continues with more -warmth.</i></p> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I had reckoned, not unreasonably, on grateful -acclamations, where I find only wondering curiosity. -Yet I ought to have known it;—there reigns -a deplorable indifference among those who profess -to hold fast to our ancient faith. Oppression and -mockery have caused us to forget the venerable -rites of our forefathers. I have inquired high and -low, but scarcely a single person have I found who -could speak with authority as to the ceremonies -to be observed in sacrificing to Apollo or Fortuna. -I must take the lead in this, as in other matters. -It has cost me many sleepless nights to search out -in the ancient records what tradition prescribes in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_236'>236</span>such cases; but I do not complain when I remember -how much we owe to these very divinities; -nor am I ashamed to do everything with my own -hands—— Whither away, Caesarius?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Caesarius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>To the church, most gracious Emperor; I would -pray for the soul of my departed master.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Go, go! In these matters every one is free.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i><span class='sc'>Caesarius</span>, with several of the older courtiers -and officers of state, goes out to the -left.</i></p> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>But the freedom I concede to the meanest -citizen, I claim for myself as well.——Be it known, -therefore, to you all, Greeks and Romans, that I -return with my whole heart to the beliefs and -rites which our forefathers held sacred,—that they -may be freely propagated and exercised, no less -than all new and foreign opinions;—and as I am a -son of this city, and therefore hold it pre-eminently -dear, this I proclaim in the name of its -guardian deities.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i><span class='sc'>Julian</span> gives a sign; some of the attendants -withdraw the veil from the stone: an altar -is seen, and, at its base, a flagon of wine, -a cruse of oil, a little heap of wood, and -other appurtenances. Strong but speechless -emotion in the multitude, as <span class='sc'>Julian</span> -goes up to the altar, and prepares for the -offering.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Themistius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh well may I, as a Greek, melt into tears at -the sight of so much humility and pious zeal!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_237'>237</span><span class='sc'>A Citizen.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>See, he breaks the fuel himself!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Another.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Over his left thigh. Is that how it ought to be -broken?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The First Citizen.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Doubtless, doubtless.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Mamertinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>In the light of the fire you there kindle, oh, -great Emperor, shall research and learning shine -forth, ay, and rise rejuvenated, like that miraculous -bird——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That fire will temper the weapons of Greece. I -know little of the Galilean figments; but this I -have noted, that all who believe in them are -spiritless and unfit for greater things.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Themistius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>In this fire, oh incomparable one, I see wisdom -purged of all scandal and reproach. The wine of -your libation is like purple, wherewith you deck -the truth, and set her on a royal throne. Now, -as you lift up your hands——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Mamertinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Now, as you lift up your hands, it is as though -you glorified the brow of knowledge with a golden -wreath; and the tears you shed——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Themistius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Pressing nearer.</i>] Yes, yes, the tears I see you -shed are like costly pearls, wherewith eloquence -<span class='pageno' id='Page_238'>238</span>shall once more be rewarded in kingly wise. Once -again, then, the Greeks are suffered to raise their -eyes to heaven, and follow the eternal stars in -their courses! How long it is since that was -vouchsafed us! Have we not been forced, for fear -of spies, to tremble and bow our faces to the earth, -like the brutes? Which of us dared so much as -to watch the rising or the setting of the sun?</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He turns to the crowd.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>Even you husbandmen, who have to-day flocked -hither in such numbers, even you did not venture -to note the position of the heavenly bodies, -although by them you should have regulated your -labours——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Mamertinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And you seamen,—have either you or your -fathers dared to utter the names of the constellations -by which you steered? Now you may do so; -now all are free to——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Themistius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Now no Greek need live on land or sea without -consulting the immutable laws of the heavens; he -need no longer let himself be tossed about like a -plaything, by chance and circumstance; he——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Mamertinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, how great is this Emperor, to whom we owe -such blessings!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Before the altar, with uplifted arms.</i>] Thus have -I openly and in all humility made libations of oil -and wine to you, ye beneficent deities, who have -so long been denied these seemly observances. I -have sent up my thanksgiving to thee, oh Apollo, -whom some of the sages—especially those of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_239'>239</span>East—call by the name of the Sun-King, because -thou bringest and renewest that light, wherein -life has its source and its fountain-head.—To thee, -too, I have made offering, oh Dionysus, god of -ecstasy, who dost lift up the souls of mortals out -of abasement, and exaltest them to an ennobling -communion with higher spirits.—And, although I -name thee last, I have not been least mindful of -thee, oh Fortuna! Without thine aid, should I -have stood here? I know indeed that thou dost -no longer visibly manifest thyself, as in the golden -age, of which the peerless blind singer has told -us. But this I know, too,—and herein all other -philosophers are at one with me—that it is thou -who hast the decisive share in the choice of the -guardian spirit, good or evil, that is to accompany -every man on his path through life. I have no -cause to chide thee, oh Fortuna! Rather have I -the strongest reason to yield thee all thanks and -praise. This duty, precious to my heart, have I -this day fulfilled. I have not shrunk from even -the humblest office. Here I stand in open day; -the eyes of all Greece are upon me; I expect the -voice of all Greece to unite with mine in acclaiming -you, oh ye immortal gods!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>During the sacrificial service, most of the -Christian onlookers have gradually stolen -away; only a little knot remains behind. -When <span class='sc'>Julian</span> ceases speaking, there arise -only faint sounds of approval mingled -with subdued laughter, and whispers of -astonishment</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Looking round.</i>] What is this? What has -become of them all? Are they slinking away?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_240'>240</span><span class='sc'>Themistius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, red with shame at the ingratitude of so -many years.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Mamertinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Nay, ’twas the flush of joy. They have gone to -spread the great tidings throughout the city.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Leaving the altar.</i>] The ignorant multitude is -ever perplexed by what is unaccustomed. My task -will be arduous; but no labour shall daunt me. -What better befits a philosopher than to root out -error? In this mission I count on your aid, enlightened -friends! But our thoughts must turn -elsewhere, for a little time. Follow me; I go to -other duties.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He departs hastily, without returning the -citizens’ greetings; the courtiers, and his -other attendants, follow him.</i></p> -</div> - -<h4 class='c024'>SCENE SECOND.</h4> - -<p class='c017'><i>A great hall in the Imperial Palace. Doors on both -sides, and in the back; in front, to the left, on a -daïs by the wall, stands the imperial throne.</i></p> -<p class='c017'><i>The <span class='sc'>Emperor Julian</span>, surrounded by his court and -high officials, among whom is <span class='sc'>Ursulus</span>, the Treasurer, -with the orators <span class='sc'>Themistius</span> and <span class='sc'>Mamertinus</span>.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>So far have the gods aided us. Now the work -will roll onwards, like the waves of a spring flood. -The sullen ill-will which I can trace in certain -quarters where I least expected it, shall not disturb -<span class='pageno' id='Page_241'>241</span>my equanimity. Is it not precisely the distinguishing -mark of true wisdom, that it begets -patience! We all know that by suitable remedies -bodily ills may be allayed;—but can fire and sword -annihilate delusions as to things divine? And -what avails it though your hands make offerings, -if your souls condemn the action of your hands?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Thus will we live in concord with each other. -My court shall be open to all men of mark, whatever -their opinions. Let us show the world the -rare and august spectacle of a court without -hypocrisy—assuredly the only one of its kind—a -court in which flatterers are counted the most -dangerous of enemies. We will censure and expostulate -with one another, when it is needful, yet -without loving one another the less.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>To <span class='sc'>Nevita</span>, who enters by the back.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>Your face is radiant, Nevita;—what good tidings -do you bring?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The best and happiest indeed. A great company -of envoys from princes in furthest India have -come to bring you gifts, and to entreat your -friendship.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, tell me,—to what peoples do they belong?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>To the Armenians, and other races beyond the -Tigris. Indeed, some of the strangers aver they -come from the islands of Diu and Serandib.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>From the uttermost verge of the earth my -friends!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_242'>242</span><span class='sc'>Themistius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Even so far has rumour carried your name and -your glory!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Mamertinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Even in those unknown regions is your sword a -terror to princes and peoples!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Themistius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Diu and Serandib! Far east in the Indian -sea——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Mamertinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I do not hesitate to say: beyond the orb of the -world——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Bid the barber come!</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>A courtier goes out to the right.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>I will receive the envoys in seemly guise,—yet -without display or adornment. So would the -august Marcus Aurelius have received them; -and him I make my pattern, rather than the -Emperor whose death we have lately had to mourn. -No more parade of transitory mundane things! -Even the barbarians shall see that wisdom—in the -person, truly, of her meanest servant—has resumed -her place upon the throne.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>The courtier returns with <span class='sc'>Eunapius</span>, the -barber, who is magnificently attired.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Looks at him in astonishment, then goes to meet him, -and greets him.</i>] What seek you here, my lord?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Gracious Emperor, you have commanded my -attendance——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_243'>243</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You mistake, friend; I have not sent for any of -my councillors.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Most gracious Emperor——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ursulus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Pardon me, sire; this man is the imperial barber.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What do I hear? Can it be? This man—oh, -you jest—this man, in silken raiment, with gold-embroidered -shoes, is——? Ah, indeed! So you -are the barber! [<i>He bows before him</i>] Never shall -I presume to let myself be served by such delicate -hands.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Most gracious Emperor,—I pray you, for God -and my Saviour’s sake——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ho-ho! A Galilean! Did I not think so! Is -this the self-denial you boast of? But I know you -well! What temple of what godhead have you -plundered, or how many dips have you made into -the Emperor’s coffers, to attain such magnificence -as this?—You may go; I have no occasion for -you.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i><span class='sc'>Eunapius</span> goes out to the right.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>Tell me, Ursulus, what is that man’s wage?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ursulus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Gracious Emperor, by your august predecessor’s -command, the daily maintenance of twenty men -is assigned him——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_244'>244</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Aha! No more than that?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ursulus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, sire; latterly he has had free stabling in -the imperial stables, together with a certain yearly -allowance of money, and a gold piece for every -time he——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And all this for a barber! What, then, must -the others——? This shall not last a day longer.——Admit -the foreign envoys!</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i><span class='sc'>Nevita</span> goes out by the back.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>I will receive them with uncut hair. Better so; -for although I know well that it is not the unkempt -hair, nor the tattered cloak, that makes -the true philosopher, yet surely the example given -by both Antisthenes and Diogenes may well be -respected by one who—even on the throne—desires -to follow in such great teachers’ footsteps.</p> - -<p class='c017'><i>He ascends the daïs on which stands the throne. The -court ranges itself below. The Envoys, introduced -by <span class='sc'>Nevita</span> and the Chamberlain <span class='sc'>Eutherius</span>, -enter in magnificent procession, accompanied -by slaves, who bear gifts of all sorts.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Most gracious Lord and Emperor! Not being -possessed of the noble idiom which so many eloquent -men, and you yourself not the least, have -perfected beyond all other tongues,—and therewith -fearful of letting barbarous sounds offend -your ear,—these envoys from the princes of the -East have deputed me to be their spokesman.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_245'>245</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Sitting on the throne.</i>] I am ready to hear you.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>First, the King of Armenia lays at your feet -this suit of mail, begging you to wear it in battle -against the foes of the empire, although he knows -that you, invincible hero, stand under the protecting -eye of the gods, who will suffer no weapon of -mortal man to wound you.—Here are priceless -carpets, tents, and saddle-housings from the -princes beyond the Tigris. They thereby acknowledge -that, if the gods have granted those lands -exceeding riches, it was with the design that these -riches should be at the service of their favourite.—The -King of Serandib, and likewise the King -of Diu, send you these weapons, sword, spear, and -shield, with bows and arrows; for, they say, “We -esteem it wisest to stand unarmed before the victorious -lord who, like a divinity, has shown himself -so mighty as to overwhelm all opposition.”—In -return, all pray for the supreme favour of your -friendship, and especially beg that if, as report -says, you propose next spring to annihilate the -audacious Persian king, you will spare their territories -from hostile invasion.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Such an embassy cannot come quite as a surprise -to me. The gifts shall be deposited in my -treasury, and through you I apprise your masters -that it is my will to maintain friendship with all -nations who do not—whether by force or guile—thwart -my designs.—As to your being led, in your -distant lands, to regard me as a divinity on account -<span class='pageno' id='Page_246'>246</span>of my fortunate victories, I will not enter further -into the matter. I reverence the gods too highly -to arrogate to myself an unmerited place in their -midst, although I know that frequently, and chiefly -in the days of old, there have lived heroes and -rulers who have been so greatly distinguished by -the favour and grace of the gods, that it has been -difficult to determine whether they should rightly -be reckoned among mortals or immortals. Of -such things, however, it is rash to judge, even for -us Greeks. How much more, then, for you? -Therefore, enough of that.—Eutherius conduct -the strangers to repose, and see that they lack -nothing.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>The Envoys and their train leave the hall, -conducted by <span class='sc'>Eutherius</span>. <span class='sc'>Julian</span> descends -from the daïs; the courtiers and -orators surround him with admiring congratulations.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Themistius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>So young,—and already so highly honoured -above all other Emperors!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Mamertinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I ask: will not Fame lack lungs to proclaim -your renown, if the gods, as I confidently hope, -grant you a long life?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Themistius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The yell of fear, uttered by the flying Alemanni -on the furthest shores of the Rhine, has swept -eastward until it dashed against Taurus and -Caucasus——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Mamertinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>——and now rolls, like the echoes of thunder, -over the whole of Asia.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_247'>247</span><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What has so overawed the Indians is the likeness -between our Greek Julian and the Macedonian -Alexander——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Mamertinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh where is the likeness? Had King Alexander -secret enemies in his own camp? Had he to -struggle against an envious and backbiting imperial -court?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>True, true; and there were no incapable generals -to clog Alexander’s progress.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ursulus, it is my will that the coming of these -envoys shall be made known both in the city and -through all regions of the empire. Everything -shall be exactly set forth,—the places whence -they came, and the gifts they brought with them. -I will withhold from my citizens nothing that concerns -my government. You may also allude in -passing to the strange belief among the Indians, -that Alexander has returned to earth.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ursulus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Hesitatingly.</i>] Pardon me, most gracious Emperor, -but——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Well?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ursulus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You have yourself said that in this court no -flattery is to be tolerated——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>True, my friend!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_248'>248</span><span class='sc'>Ursulus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Then let me honestly tell you that these envoys -came to seek your predecessor, not you.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What do you dare to tell me?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Themistius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Pooh, what preposterous nonsense!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Mamertinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What a fable!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ursulus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It is the truth. I have long known that these -men were on their way,—long before the Emperor -Constantius closed his eyes. Oh, my most gracious -lord, let not a false vanity find its way into your -young mind——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Enough, enough! Then you mean to say -that——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ursulus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Think for yourself. How could your victories -in Gaul, glorious as they have been, reach the ears -of such distant nations with such rapidity? -When the envoys spoke of the Emperor’s heroic -deeds, they had in mind the war against the King -of Persia——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I did not know that the war against King Sapor -had been so conducted as to <a id='corr243.28'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='spead'>spread</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_243.28'><ins class='correction' title='spead'>spread</ins></a></span> terror to the -ends of the earth.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_249'>249</span><span class='sc'>Ursulus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>True; fortune has been against our arms in -those regions. But ’twas the rumour of the great -armament which the Emperor Constantius was -preparing for the spring that alarmed the Armenians -and the other nations.—Oh, reckon out the -time, sire, count the days if you will, and say if it -can possibly be otherwise. Your march hither -from Gaul was marvellously rapid; but the journey -of these men from the Indian isles——; it would -be tenfold more marvellous if——; ask them, and -you will hear——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Pale with anger.</i>] Why do you say all this to -me?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ursulus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Because it is the truth, and because I cannot -bear to see your fresh and fair renown darkened -by borrowed trappings.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Themistius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What audacity!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Mamertinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What brazen audacity!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You cannot bear, forsooth! You cannot bear! -Oh, I know you better. I know all you old -courtiers. It is the gods whose glory you would -disparage. For is it not to the glory of the gods -that through a man they can compass such great -things! But you hate them, these gods, whose -temples you have thrown down, whose statues you -have broken to pieces, and whose treasures you -<span class='pageno' id='Page_250'>250</span>have rifled. You have scarcely even tolerated -these our most beneficent deities. You have -scarcely suffered the pious to cherish them secretly -in their hearts. And now you would also break -down the temple of gratitude which I have dedicated -to them in my heart; you would rob me -of the grateful belief that I am indebted to the -immortals for a new and much-to-be-coveted -benefaction;—for may not renown be so termed?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ursulus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The one God of heaven is my witness that——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The one God! There we have it again! So -are you always. What intolerance! Contrast -yourselves with us. Do we say that our gods are -the only ones? Do we not esteem both the gods -of the Egyptians and that Jewish Jehovah, who -has certainly done great things among his people? -But you, on the contrary,—and a man like you, -too, Ursulus—! Are you a Roman born of -Grecian race? The one God! What barbarous -effrontery!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ursulus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You have promised to hate no man for his convictions’ -sake.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That I have promised; but neither will I suffer -you to treat us too insolently. These envoys have -not come to——? That is to say, in other words, -that the great and divine Dionysus, whose especial -gift it is to reveal what is hidden,—that he is not -as powerful now as in bygone ages. Ought I to -suffer this? Is it not overweening audacity? Am -I not forced to call you to account?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_251'>251</span><span class='sc'>Ursulus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Then all Christians will say that it is their faith -you are persecuting.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No one shall be persecuted by reason of his -faith. But have I the right to overlook whatever -faults you may commit, simply because you are -Christians? Shall your delusions shield your misdeeds? -What have not your audacious crew for -long been doing, both here at court and elsewhere? -Have you not flattered all vices, and bowed before -all caprices? Ay, what have not you yourself, -Ursulus, connived at? I am thinking of that -shameless, bedizened barber, that salve-stinking -fool, who just now filled me with loathing. Are -not you treasurer? How could you give way to -his impudent demands?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ursulus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is it a crime to have done my master’s -bidding?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I will have nothing to do with such luxurious -servants. All those insolent eunuchs shall be -hunted out of the palace; and all cooks, and -jugglers, and dancers after them. A becoming -frugality shall once more be enforced.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>To <span class='sc'>Themistius</span> and <span class='sc'>Mamertinus</span>.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>You, my friends, shall aid me in this.—And you, -Nevita, on whom, as a mark of special distinction, -I bestow the title of general-in-chief,—you I depute -to investigate how the offices of state have -been administered under my predecessor, especially -of late years. You may call in the aid of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_252'>252</span>competent men, at your own choice, to decide with -you in these affairs.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>To the older courtiers and councillors.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>Of you I have no need. When my lamented -kinsman, on his death-bed, appointed me his successor, -he also bequeathed to me that justice -which his long illness had prevented him from -administering. Go home; and when you have -given an account of yourselves, you may go whither -you please.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ursulus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Lord God uphold and shield you, my -Emperor!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He bows, and goes out by the back, together -with the older men. <span class='sc'>Nevita</span>, <span class='sc'>Themistius</span>, -and <span class='sc'>Mamertinus</span>, with all the younger -men, gather round the Emperor.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My august master, how can I sufficiently thank -you for the mark of favour which you——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No thanks. In these few days I have learnt to -value your fidelity and judgment. I also commission -you to draw up the despatch concerning the -eastern envoys. Word it so that the beneficent -gods may find in it no reason for resentment -against any of us.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>In both matters I will carry out my Emperor’s -will.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He goes out to the right.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_253'>253</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And now, my faithful friends, now let us praise -the immortal powers, who have shown us the right -way.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Themistius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The immortals, and their more than mortal -favourite! What joy there will be throughout the -empire, when it is known that you have dismissed -those violent and rapacious men!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Mamertinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>With what anxiety and impatient hope will the -choice of their successors be awaited!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Themistius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>All the Greeks will exclaim with one voice: -“Plato himself has taken the helm of state!”</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Mamertinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, no, worthy friend; all the Greeks will exclaim: -“Plato’s ideal is realised—‘Only a god -can rule over men!’”</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Themistius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I can but trust that the goodwill of the beneficent -powers may follow Nevita. He has received -a great and difficult charge; I know little of him; -but we must all hope that he may prove himself -to be the right——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Mamertinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Undoubtedly; although there might perhaps -be other men who——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_254'>254</span><span class='sc'>Themistius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Not that I would for a moment imply that your -choice, oh peerless Emperor——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Mamertinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, no; far from it!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Themistius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>But if it be an error to burn with zeal to serve a -beloved master——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Mamertinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>——then, in truth, you have more than one -erring friend——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Themistius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>——even if you do not honour them, as you -have honoured the thrice-fortunate Nevita——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Mamertinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>——even if they have to be content without -any visible token of your favour——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>We will leave no capable men unemployed or -unrewarded. As regards you, Themistius, I -appoint you chief magistrate of this city of Constantinople; -and you, Mamertinus, prepare to -betake yourself to Rome during the coming year, -to enter upon one of the vacant consulships.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Themistius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My Emperor! I am dizzy with so much -honour——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_255'>255</span><span class='sc'>Mamertinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>So high a distinction! Consul! Was ever consul -so honoured as I? Was Lucius? Was Brutus? -Was Publius Valerius? What were their honours -to mine? They were chosen by the people, I by -Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Courtier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Praise be to the Emperor, who makes justice -his guide!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Another Courtier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Praise be to him, whose very name strikes terror -to the barbarians!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Themistius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Praise be to all the exalted gods, who have united -in casting their enamoured eyes on one single man, -so that when the day comes—distant may it be!—when -he shall for the first time inflict pain on us -by departing hence, this one man may be said to -have cast Socrates, Marcus Aurelius, and Alexander -into the shade!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>There you touch the kernel of the matter, my -Themistius! ’Tis to the gods that we must uplift -our hands and hearts. I say this, not as instructing -you, but merely to remind you of what has so -long been forgotten at this court. By no means -would I seek to coerce any one. But can I be -blamed because I would fain have others share in -the sweet rapture which possesses me when I feel -myself uplifted into communion with the immortals? -Praise, praise to thee, vine-clad Dionysus! -For it is chiefly thou who dost bring about such -great and mysterious things. Depart now each -<span class='pageno' id='Page_256'>256</span>to his task. I, for my part, have ordered a festal -procession through the streets of the city. It shall -be no mere revel for my courtiers, nor a banquet -within four walls. The citizens shall be free to -join me or to hold aloof; I will discern the pure -from the impure, the pious from the misguided.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Oh Sun-King, shed light and beauty over the -day! Oh Dionysus, let thy glory descend in -floods upon our minds; fill our souls with thy -sacred storm-wind; fill them till all trammels are -burst asunder, and ecstasy enfranchised draws -breath in dance and song!—Life, life, life in -beauty!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He goes out hastily to the right. The courtiers -break up into whispering groups, and -gradually disperse.</i></p> -</div> - -<h4 class='c024'>SCENE THIRD.</h4> - -<p class='c017'><i>A narrow street in Constantinople.</i></p> -<p class='c017'><i>A great concourse of people, all looking in one direction -down the street. Noise, singing, and the -music of flutes and drums is heard at some -distance.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Shoemaker.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>At his house-door, calls across the street.</i>] What -a foot, dear neighbour?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Shopkeeper.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>In the house opposite.</i>] They say ’tis some Syrian -jugglers that have come to town.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Fruit-seller.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>In the street.</i>] No, no, ’tis a band of Egyptians -going around with apes and dromedaries.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_257'>257</span><span class='sc'>Eunapius the Barber.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Poorly clad, trying in vain to slip through the crowd.</i>] -Make room, you fools! How the devil can any -one chatter and play the fool on such a day of -misfortune?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Woman.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>At a small window.</i>] Hist, hist, Eunapius! My -comely master!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How dare you speak to me in the open street, -you procuress?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Woman.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Slip in by the back way, sweet friend!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Fie upon you! Am I in the humour for -folly——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Woman.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You shall soon be in the humour. Come, fair -Eunapius; I had a consignment of fresh doves -the day before yesterday——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh sinful world! [<i>Tries to pass.</i>] Make room, -there, in Satan’s name; let me pass!</p> - -<p class='c001'>Hekebolius.</p> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Clad for a journey, and followed by a couple of -laden slaves, comes from a side-street.</i>] Has the town -turned into a madhouse? Everyone seeks to out-bellow -his neighbour, and no one can tell me what -is astir. Aha,—Eunapius, my pious brother!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_258'>258</span><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>All hail to you, reverend sir! So you have -come back to town?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>This very moment;—I have consecrated the -warm autumn months to quiet devotion, on my -estate in Crete. And now pray tell me what is -afoot here?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Confusion and disaster. The new Emperor——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes, I have heard strange rumours——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The truth is ten times worse. All faithful -servants are hunted out of the palace.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is it possible?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Alackaday; I myself was the first——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Terrible! Then, perhaps, I too——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Most certainly. All accounts are to be examined, -all gifts resumed, all irregular perquisites——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Turning pale.</i>] God have mercy on us!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Lord be praised, I have a good conscience!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_259'>259</span><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I too, I too; but nevertheless——! Then no -doubt it is true that the Emperor has sacrificed to -Apollo and Fortuna?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Certainly; but who cares for such trifles?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Trifles? See you not, my short-sighted friend, -that it is our faith, as good Christians, that he is -persecuting?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What do you say? God’s cross, is it possible?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Women.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>In the crowd.</i>] There they come!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Man.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>On a housetop.</i>] I can see him!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Other Voices.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Who comes? Who, who?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Man on the Housetop.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor Julian. He has vine-leaves in his -hair.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>People in the Street.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Come, come, my godly brother!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Let me go, sir. I am in no wise godly.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_260'>260</span><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Not godly——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Who dares accuse me of——? Do you want to -ruin me? Godly? When was I godly? I once -belonged to the sect of the Donatists; that was -years and years ago. Devil take the Donatists! -[<i>He knocks at the window.</i>] Hi, Barbara, Barbara; -open the door, old she-cat!</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>The door is opened and he slips in.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Multitude.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>There he is! There he comes!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>All irregular perquisites——! Accounts examined! -Oh thunderbolt of disaster!</p> - -<div class='c019'>[<i>He slips away, followed by his two slaves.</i></div> -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>The procession of Dionysus comes down -the street. Flute-players go foremost; -drunken men, some of them dressed as -fauns and satyrs, dance to the measure. -In the middle of the procession comes the -<span class='sc'>Emperor Julian</span>, riding on an ass, which -is covered with a panther-skin; he is -dressed as the god Dionysus, with a -panther-skin over his shoulders, a wreath -of vine-leaves round his head, in his hands -a staff wreathed with green, and with a -pine-cone fastened on its upper end. Half-naked, -painted women and youths, dancers -and jugglers, surround him; some carry -wine-flagons and goblets, others beat tambourines, -and move forward with wild -leaps and antics.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_261'>261</span><span class='sc'>The Dancers.</span></div> - <div>[<i>Singing.</i>]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c018'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Potions of fire drain from goblets o’erflowing!</div> - <div class='line in16'>Potions of fire!</div> - <div class='line in16'>Lips deeply sipping,</div> - <div class='line in16'>Locks unguent-dripping,</div> - <div class='line in16'>Goat-haunches tripping,</div> - <div class='line'>Wine-God, we hail thee in rapturous quire!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c000'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Women.</span></div> - <div>[<i>Singing.</i>]</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c018'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Come, Bacchanalians, while noontide is glowing—</div> - <div class='line in16'>Come, do not flee us—</div> - <div class='line'>Plunge we in love-sports night blushes at knowing!</div> - <div class='line in16'>There rides Lyaeus,</div> - <div class='line in16'>Pard-borne, delivering!</div> - <div class='line in16'>Come, do not flee us;</div> - <div class='line'>Know, we are passionate; feel, we are quivering!</div> - <div class='line in16'>Leaping all, playing all,</div> - <div class='line in16'>Staggering and swaying all—</div> - <div class='line in16'>Come, do not flee us!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c000'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Make room! Stand aside, citizens! Reverently -make way; not for us, but for him to whom -we do honour!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Voice in the Crowd.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor in the company of mummers -and harlots!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The shame is yours, that I must content myself -with such as these. Do you not blush to find -more piety and zeal among these than among -yourselves?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_262'>262</span><span class='sc'>An Old Man.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Christ enlighten you, sire!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Aha, you are a Galilean! And you must put in -your word? Did not your great Master sit at meat -with sinners? Did he not frequent houses that -were held less than reputable? Answer me that.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Surrounded by girls, in the doorway of <span class='sc'>Barbara’s</span> -house.</i>] Yes, answer, answer if you can, you fool!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What,—are not you that barber whom——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A new-made freeman, gracious Emperor! Make -way, Bacchanalians; room for a brother!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He and the girls dance into the ranks of the -Bacchanalians.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I like this well. Take example by this Greek, -if you have a spark of your fathers’ spirit left in -you. And this is sorely needed, you citizens; for -no divinity has been so much misunderstood—ay, -even rendered ridiculous—as this ecstatic Dionysus, -whom the Romans also call Bacchus. Think -you he is the god of sots? Oh ignorant creatures, -I pity you, if that is your thought. Who but he -inspires poets and prophets with their miraculous -gifts? I know that some attribute this function -to Apollo, and certainly not without a show of -reason; but in that case the whole matter must -<span class='pageno' id='Page_263'>263</span>be regarded in quite another aspect,—as I could -prove by many authorities. But this I will not -debate with you in the open streets. This is -neither the place nor the time. Ay, mock away! -Make the sign of the cross! I see it! You would -fain whistle with your fingers; you would stone -me, if you dared.—Oh, how I blush for this city, -so sunk in barbarism that it knows no better than -to cling to an ignorant Jew’s deluded fantasies!—Forward! -Stand aside,—do not block the way!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Dancers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c018'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in13'>There rides Lyaeus,</div> - <div class='line in13'>Pard-borne, delivering!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c000'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Women.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c018'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Know, we are passionate; feel, we are quivering;</div> - <div class='line in13'>Come, do not flee us!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c025'>[<i>During the singing of the refrain the procession -turns into a side-street; the crowd -looks on in dumb astonishment.</i></p> -</div> - -<h3 class='c015'>SCENE IV.</h3> - -<p class='c017'><i>The Emperor’s library in the Palace. Entrance door -on the left; a lesser doorway, with a curtain -before it, on the right.</i></p> -<p class='c017'><i>The Chamberlain <span class='sc'>Eutherius</span> enters from the left, -followed by two servants, bearing carpets.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Calling out to the right.</i>] Agilo, Agilo, warm -rose-water! A bath for the Emperor.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He goes out to the right, with both servants.</i></div> - -<p class='c017'><span class='pageno' id='Page_264'>264</span><i>The <span class='sc'>Emperor Julian</span> enters hastily from the left. -He still wears the panther-skin and the vine-leaves; -in his hand is the green-wreathed staff. -He paces the room once or twice, then flings the -staff into a corner.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Was there beauty in this——?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Where were the white-bearded elders? Where -the pure maidens, with the fillets on their brows, -modest, and of seemly bearing, even in the rapture -of the dance?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Out upon you, harlots!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He tears off the panther-skin, and casts it -aside.</i></p> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Whither has beauty fled? When the Emperor -bids her come forth again, will she not obey?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Out upon this stinking ribaldry!——</p> - -<p class='c001'>What faces! All the vices crying aloud in their -distorted features. Ulcers on soul and body——</p> - -<p class='c001'>Faugh, faugh! A bath, Agilo! The stench -chokes me.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Bath-Servant Agilo.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>In the doorway to the right.</i>] The bath is prepared, -gracious sire!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The bath? Nay, let that be. What is the filth -of the body compared with all the rest? Go!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i><span class='sc'>Agilo</span> goes out again. The Emperor -stands some time in thought.</i></p> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The seer of Nazareth sat at meat among publicans -and sinners.—</p> - -<p class='c001'>Where lies the gulf between that and this?——</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i><span class='sc'>Hekebolius</span> enters from the left, and stops -apprehensively at the door.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_265'>265</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What would you, man?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Kneeling.</i>] Sire!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, what do I see? Hekebolius;—is it indeed -you?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The same, and yet another.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My old teacher. What would you have? Stand -up!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, no, let me lie. And take it not ill that I -presume on my former right of entrance to your -presence.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Coldly.</i>] I asked you what you would have?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>“My old teacher,” you said. Oh that I could -cast the veil of oblivion over those times!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>As before.</i>] I understand. You mean that——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh that I could sink into the earth, and hide -the shame I feel! See, see,—here I lie at your -feet, a man whose hair is growing grey—a man who -has pored and pondered all his days, and has to -confess at last that he has gone astray, and led his -beloved pupil into error!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_266'>266</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What would you have me understand by that?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You called me your old teacher. See, here I -lie in the dust before you, looking up to you with -wonder, and calling you my new teacher.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Rise, Hekebolius!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Rising.</i>] You shall hear everything, sire, and -judge me according to your righteousness.—When -you were gone, life at your august predecessor’s -court became almost intolerable to me. I know -not whether you have heard that I was promoted -to be the Empress’s reader and almoner. But ah, -could posts of honour console me for the loss of -my Julian! I could scarce endure to see how men -who made great show of outward virtue accepted -gifts and bribes of every kind. I grew to hate -this daily intercourse with greedy sycophants, -whose advocacy was at the beck of any one who -could pay down sounding gold for sounding words. -Oh my Emperor, you do not know what went on -here——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I know, I know.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A frugal life in retirement allured me. As often -as I might, I withdrew to Crete, to my modest -Tusculum—my little country house,—where virtue -did not seem to have utterly forsaken the world. -There I have been living this summer as well; -meditating upon human life and heavenly truths.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_267'>267</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Happy Hekebolius!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Then the rumour of all your marvellous exploits -reached Crete——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I asked myself: Is he more than mortal, this -peerless youth? Under whose protection does he -stand? Is it thus that the God of the Christians -is wont to manifest his power——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>In rapt attention.</i>] Well; well!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I set myself to search once more the writings of -the ancients. Light after light dawned upon me——; -oh, to have to confess this!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Speak out—I beseech you!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Falling on his knees.</i>] Punish me according to -your righteousness, sire; but renounce your youthful -errors on things divine! Yes, most gracious -Emperor, you are entangled in error, and I—oh, -I marvel that the shame does not kill me—I, I -have helped to lead you astray——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>With outstretched arms.</i>] Come to my closest -embrace!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_268'>268</span><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, I entreat you, show gratitude to the immortal -gods, whose darling you are! And if you -cannot, then punish me because I do it in your -stead——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Come, come to my open arms, I tell you!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He lifts him up, presses him in his arms, -and kisses him.</i></p> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My Hekebolius! What a great and unlooked-for -joy!</p> - -<p class='c001'><i>Hekebolius.</i></p> - -<p class='c001'>Sire, how am I to understand this?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, then you do not know——? When came -you to the city?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I landed an hour ago.</p> - -<p class='c001'><i>Julian.</i></p> - -<p class='c001'>And hurried hither at once?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>On the wings of anxiety and remorse, sire!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And you have spoken to no one?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, no, I have spoken to no one; but——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, then you cannot have heard——</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He embraces him again.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_269'>269</span>My Hekebolius, listen and know! I too, like -you, have cast off the yoke of error. The immortal -Sun-King, to whom we mortals owe so -much, I have restored to his ancient state; Fortuna -has received her offering from my humble hands; -and if, at this moment, you find me weary and -somewhat unstrung, it is because I have but now -been celebrating a festival in honour of the divine -Dionysus.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I hear, and am amazed!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>See,—the garland is still in my hair. Amid the -joyous acclaim of the multitude—yes, I may call -it a multitude——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And I did not even dream of such great -things!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Now we will gather around us all friends of -truth, and lovers of wisdom, all seemly and reverent -worshippers of the gods;—there are already -some—not very many——</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'><i>The physician <span class='sc'>Caesarius</span>, accompanied by several -officials and notables of the former court, enters -from the left.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, here we have the good Caesarius,—numerously -accompanied, and with a face that betokens -urgent business.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_270'>270</span><span class='sc'>Caesarius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Most gracious Emperor, will you permit your -servant to ask a question, in his own name, and -that of these much disquieted men?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ask, my dearest Caesarius! Are you not my -beloved Gregory’s brother? Ask, ask!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Caesarius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Tell me, then, sire——[<i>He observes <span class='sc'>Hekebolius</span>.</i>] -What do I see! Hekebolius here?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Newly returned——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Caesarius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Trying to draw back.</i>] Then I beg leave to -defer——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, no, my Caesarius; this friend may hear -everything.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Caesarius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Friend, say you? Oh my Emperor, then you -have not ordered these imprisonments?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What mean you?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Caesarius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Do you not know? Nevita—the general-in-chief, -as he now calls himself—is instituting -prosecutions under pretext of your authority, -against all the trusted servants of your predecessor.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_271'>271</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Investigations, highly necessary investigations, -my Caesarius!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Caesarius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh sire, forbid him to go about it so harshly. -The book-keeper Pentadius is being hunted down -by soldiers; and likewise a certain captain of -Praetorians, whose name you have forbidden us to -mention; you know whom I mean, sire—that -unhappy man who is already, with his whole -household, in hiding for fear of you.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You do not know this man. In Gaul, he -cherished the most audacious designs.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Caesarius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That may be; but now he is harmless. And not -he alone is threatened with destruction; the -treasurer, Ursulus, is imprisoned——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, Ursulus? So that has been found needful.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Caesarius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Needful? Could <em class='gesperrt'>that</em> be needful, sire. Think -of Ursulus, that stainless old man—that man -before whose word high and low bend in -reverence——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A man utterly devoid of judgment, I tell you! -Ursulus is a prodigal, who, without any demur, -has gorged the rapacity of the court servants. -And besides, he is useless in affairs of state. I -<span class='pageno' id='Page_272'>272</span>have found that to my cost. I could never -trust him to receive the emissaries of foreign -princes.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Caesarius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And yet we beg you, sire—all who are here -present—to be magnanimous, both to Ursulus and -to the others.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Who are the others?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Caesarius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Too many, I fear. I will only name the under-treasurer, -Evagrius, the late chamberlain, Saturninus, -the supreme judge, Cyrenus, and——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Why do you stop?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Caesarius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>With hesitation.</i>] Sire—the late Empress’s -reader, Hekebolius, is also among the accused.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I? Impossible!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Caesarius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Accused of having accepted bribes from unworthy -office-seekers——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Hekebolius accused of that——? A man like -Hekebolius——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_273'>273</span><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What shameful slander! Oh Christ—I mean -to say—oh heavenly divinities!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Caesarius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What mean you?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Caesarius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Coldly.</i>] Nothing, most gracious Emperor!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Caesarius!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Caesarius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, my august master!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Not master; call me your friend.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Caesarius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Dare a Christian call you so!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I pray you banish such thoughts, Caesarius! -You must not believe that of me. How can I -help all these accused men being Christians? -Does it not merely show that the Christians have -contrived to seize all the lucrative posts? And can -the Emperor suffer the most important offices of -the state to be badly administered?</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>To the others.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>You surely do not think that it is your creed -which has kindled my wrath against dishonest -officials? I call all the gods to witness that I will -<span class='pageno' id='Page_274'>274</span>permit no proceedings against you Christians that -are not consonant with law and justice, nor will I -suffer any one to do you wrong. You, or at any rate -many of you, are pious in your way, since you too -adore that Lord who is all-powerful, and who rules -over the whole visible world.—Oh, my Caesarius, -is it not he whom I also adore, though under other -names?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Caesarius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Suffer me, gracious Emperor——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Moreover, it is my intention to show clemency -wherever it is fit that I should do so. As to -Hekebolius, his secret enemies must not imagine -that they will be suffered to injure him by tale-bearing -or any other sort of paltry intrigue.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My Emperor! My shield and my defence!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Nor is it my will that all the minor court servants -should be unmercifully deprived of their -subsistence. I have specially in mind that barber -whom I dismissed. I am sorry for it. The man -may remain. He seemed to me one who understood -his business thoroughly. All honour to such people! -So far I can go, my Caesarius, but no further. I -cannot interfere on behalf of Ursulus. I must act -so that the blind, and yet so keen-eyed, Goddess -of Justice may have no reason to knit her brows -over a mortal to whom she has confided so great a -responsibility.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_275'>275</span><span class='sc'>Caesarius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>After this, I have not a word more to say for -those unfortunates. I only crave permission to -leave the court and city.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Would you leave me?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Caesarius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, most gracious Emperor!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You are stiff-necked, like your brother.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Caesarius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The new order of things gives me much to -reflect upon.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I had great designs for you Caesarius! It would -be a great joy to me, if you could renounce your -errors. Can you not?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Caesarius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>God knows what I might have done a month -ago;—now I cannot.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Julian.</p> - -<p class='c001'>A marriage into one of the most powerful -families should stand open to you. Will you not -bethink you?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Caesarius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, most gracious lord.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_276'>276</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A man like you could quickly mount from step -to step. Caesarius, is it not possible that you can -give me your aid in furthering the new order of -things?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Caesarius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, most gracious lord!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I do not mean here, but in other places. It is -my intention to depart from here. Constantinople -is very unpleasing to me; you Galileans have -spoiled it for me in every way. I shall go to -Antioch; there I shall find better soil to work -upon. I thought you would accompany me. Will -you not, Caesarius?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Caesarius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Most gracious lord, I too am bound for the east; -but I will go alone.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And what will you do there?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Caesarius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Visit my old father; help Gregory to strengthen -him for the coming struggle.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Go!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Caesarius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Farewell, my Emperor!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_277'>277</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Happy father, with such unhappy sons!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He makes a gesture with his hand; <span class='sc'>Caesarius</span> -and those with him bow low, and -go out to the left.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What reckless and most unseemly defiance!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My heart is wounded to the quick by this and -many other things. You, my Hekebolius, shall -accompany me. The ground burns beneath my -feet in this poisoned Galilean city! I will write -to those philosophers, Kytron and Priscus, who -have won so great fame of late years. Maximus I -expect every day; he shall go with us.—I tell you -there are joyful days of victory awaiting us, Hekebolius! -In Antioch, my friend,—there we shall -meet the incomparable Libanius,—and there we -are nearer Helios at his rising. Oh, this irresistible -yearning towards the Sun-King——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes, yes——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Embracing him.</i>] My Hekebolius!—Wisdom; -light; beauty!</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_278'>278</span> - <h3 class='c015'>ACT SECOND.</h3> -</div> - -<h4 class='c024'>SCENE FIRST.</h4> - -<p class='c017'><i>A spacious vestibule in the Emperor’s Palace, at -Antioch. An open entrance in the background; on -the left is a door, leading into the inner rooms.</i></p> -<p class='c017'><i>On a raised seat in the foreground, to the right, sits -the <span class='sc'>Emperor Julian</span>, surrounded by his court. -Judges, Orators, Poets, and Teachers, among -them <span class='sc'>Hekebolius</span>, sit on lower seats around him. -Leaning against the wall near the entrance stands -<span class='sc'>A Man</span>, dressed as a Christian Priest; he hides -his face in his hands, and seems rapt in prayer. -A great gathering of citizens fills the hall. -Guards at the entrance, and at the door on the -left.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Addressing the assemblage.</i>] So great success -have the gods vouchsafed me. Hardly a single -city have I approached on my journey, whence -whole troops of Galileans have not streamed forth -to meet me on the road, lamenting their errors, -and placing themselves under the protection of -the divine powers. Compared with this, what -signifies the senseless behaviour of the scoffers? -May not the scoffers be likened to dogs, who in -their ignorance yelp at the moon? Yet I will not -deny that I have learned with indignation that -some inhabitants of this city have spoken scornfully -of the rule of life which I have enjoined on -<span class='pageno' id='Page_279'>279</span>the priests of Cybele, the good goddess. Ought -not reverence for so exalted a divinity to protect -her servants from mockery? I say to those foolhardy -men: Are ye barbarians, since ye know not -who Cybele is? Must I solemnly remind you how, -when the power of Rome was so gravely threatened -by that Punic commander, whose grave I saw not -long since in Libyssa, the Cumaean Sybil counselled -that the statue of Cybele should be taken -from the temple in Pessinus, and brought to Rome? -As to the priests’ way of life, some have wondered -that they should be forbidden to eat roots, -and everything that grows along the earth, while -they are allowed to partake of upward-growing -herbs and fruits. Oh, how dense is your ignorance—I -pity you if you cannot understand this! -Can the spirit of man find nourishment in that -which creeps along the ground? Does not the soul -live by all that yearns upward, towards heaven and -the sun? I will not enter more largely into these -matters to-day. What remains to be said you -shall learn from a treatise I am composing during -my sleepless nights, which I hope will shortly be -recited both in the lecture-halls and on the -market-places.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He rises.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>And with this, my friends, if no one has anything -further to bring forward——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Citizen.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Pressing to the front.</i>] Oh most gracious -Emperor, let me not go unheard!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Sitting down again.</i>] Surely not, my friend. -Who are you?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_280'>280</span><span class='sc'>The Citizen.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I am Medon, the corn-merchant. Oh, if my -love for you, exalted and divine Emperor——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Come to your case, man!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Medon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I have a neighbour, Alites, who for many years -has done me every imaginable injury; for he, too, -is a dealer in corn, and takes the bread out of my -mouth in the most shameful way——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Aha, my good Medon; yet you look not ill-fed.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Medon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Nor is that the matter, most gracious Emperor! -Oh, by the august gods, whom every day I learn -to love and praise more highly—his affronts to me -I could overlook; but what I cannot suffer——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He surely does not insult the gods?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Medon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He does what is worse,—or at least equally -shameless; he—oh, I scarce know whether my -indignation will permit me to utter it,—he insults -you yourself, most gracious Emperor!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Indeed? In what words?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Medon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Not in words, but worse—in act.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_281'>281</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Then in what act?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Medon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He wears a purple robe——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A purple robe? Oho, that is bold.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Medon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, great wing-footed Mercury, when I -think how he would have paid for that robe in -your predecessor’s time! And this garment of -vainglory I have daily before my eyes——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>This garment, bought with money that might -have been yours——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Medon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh most gracious Emperor,—punish his audacity; -let him be expelled the city; my love for our -great and august ruler will not suffer me to remain -a witness of such shameless arrogance.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Tell me, good Medon, what manner of clothes -does Alites wear, besides the purple cloak?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Medon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Truly I cannot call to mind, sire; ordinary -clothes, I think; I have only remarked the purple -cloak.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A purple cloak, then, and untanned sandals——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_282'>282</span><span class='sc'>Medon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, sire; it looks as ludicrous as it is audacious.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>We must remedy this, Medon!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Medon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Joyfully.</i>] Ah, most gracious Emperor——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Come early to morrow to the palace——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Medon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Still more delighted.</i>] I will come very early, -most gracious Emperor!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Give your name to my Chamberlain——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Medon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes, my most gracious Emperor!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You will receive from him a pair of purple shoes, -embroidered with gold——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Medon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, my most generous lord and Emperor!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>These shoes you will take to Alites, place them -on his feet, and say that henceforth he must not -fail to put them on, whenever he would walk -abroad by daylight in his purple cloak——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_283'>283</span><span class='sc'>Medon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>——and, that done, you may tell him from me, -that he is a fool if he thinks himself honoured by -a purple robe, having not the power of the purple.—Go; -and come for the shoes to-morrow!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>The Corn Merchant slinks away, amid the -laughter of the citizens; the Courtiers, -Orators, Poets, and the rest clap their -hands, with loud exclamations of approval.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Another Citizen.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Stepping forward from the crowd.</i>] Praised be -the Emperor’s justice! Oh how richly this envious -corn-miser deserves his punishment! Oh hear -me, and let your favour——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Aha; methinks I know that face. Were not -you one of those who shouted before my chariot -as I drove into the city?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Citizen.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>None shouted louder than I, incomparable Emperor! -I am Malchus, the tax-gatherer. Ah, -grant me your aid! I am engaged in a law-suit -with an evil and grasping man——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And therefore you come to me? Are there not -judges——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Malchus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The affair is somewhat involved, noble Emperor. -It concerns a field, which I leased to this bad man, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_284'>284</span>having bought it seven years since, when part of -the domain belonging to the Apostles’ Church was -sold.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>So, so; church property, then?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Malchus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Honestly purchased; but now this man denies -either to pay me rent, or to give up the property, -under pretext that this field once belonged to the -temple of Apollo, and, as he declares, was unlawfully -confiscated many years ago.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Tell me, Malchus,—you seem to be a follower -of the Galilean?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Malchus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Most gracious Emperor, ’tis an old tradition in -our family to acknowledge Christ.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And this you say openly, without fear?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Malchus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My adversary is bolder than I, sire! He goes -in and out, as before; he fled not the city when he -heard of your approach.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Fled not? And why should he flee, this man -who stands out for the rights of the gods?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Malchus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Most gracious Emperor, you have doubtless -heard of the book-keeper, Thalassius?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_285'>285</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What! That Thalassius who, to ingratiate himself -with my predecessor, whilst I was being -slandered and menaced in Gaul, proposed, here in -Antioch, in the open market-place, that the -citizens should petition the Emperor to send them -Julian Caesar’s head!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Malchus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sire, it is this, your deadly foe, who is wronging -me.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Truly, Malchus, I have as great ground of -complaint against this man as you have.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Malchus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Tenfold greater, my gracious Emperor?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What think you? Shall we two combine our -quarrels, and prosecute him together?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Malchus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, what exceeding grace! Oh tenfold happiness!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh tenfold foolishness! Thalassius goes in and -out as before, you say? He has not fled the city -at my approach. Thalassius knows me better than -you. Away with you, man! When I indict -Thalassius for my head, you may indict him for -your field.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Malchus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Wringing his hands.</i>] Oh tenfold misery!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He goes out by the back; the assembly -again applauds the Emperor.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_286'>286</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That is well, my friends; rejoice that I have -succeeded in making a not altogether unworthy -beginning to this day, which is specially dedicate to -the feast of the radiant Apollo. For is it not worthy -of a philosopher to overlook affronts against -himself, whilst he sternly chastises wrongs done -to the immortal gods? I do not recall whether that -crowned cultivator of learning, Marcus Aurelius, -was ever in like case; but if he was, we must hope -that he did not act quite unlike me, who hold -it an honour to follow humbly in his footsteps.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Let this serve as a clue for your future guidance. -In the palace, in the market-place, even in the -theatre—did I not loathe to enter such a place of -folly—it is fit that you should greet me with -acclamation and joyful applause. Such homage, -I know, was well received both by the Macedonian -Alexander and by Julius Caesar, men who were -also permitted by the Goddess of Fortune to -outshine other mortals in glory.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But when you see me entering a temple, that is -another affair. Then I desire you to be silent, or -direct your plaudits to the gods, and not to me, as -I advance with bent head and downcast eyes. And -above all, I trust you will be heedful of this to-day, -when I am to sacrifice to so transcendent and -mighty a divinity as he whom we know by the -name of the Sun-King, and who seems even -greater in our eyes when we reflect that he is the -same whom certain oriental peoples call Mithra.</p> - -<p class='c001'>And with this—if no one has more to say——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Priest at the Door.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'><i>[Draws himself up.</i>] In the name of the Lord -God!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_287'>287</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Who speaks?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Priest.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A servant of God and of the Emperor.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Approach. What would you?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Priest.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I would speak to your heart and to your conscience.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Springing up.</i>] What voice was that! What -do I see! In spite of beard and habit——! -Gregory!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Priest.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, my august master!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Gregory! Gregory of Nazianzus!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, gracious Emperor!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Has descended and grasped his hands; he now -looks long at him.</i>] A little older; browner; broader. -No; ’twas only at the first glance; now you are -the same as ever.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh that it were so with you, sire!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Athens. That night in the portico. No man -has lain so near my heart as you.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_288'>288</span><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Your heart? Ah, Emperor, you have torn out -of your heart a better friend than I.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You mean Basil?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I mean a greater than Basil.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Glooming.</i>] Ah! So that is what you come to -tell me? And in that habit——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I did not choose this habit, sire!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Not you? Who then?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He who is greater than the Emperor.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I know your Galilean phrases. For the sake of -our friendship, spare me them.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Let me, then, begin by telling you how it is -that you see me here, ordained a priest of the -church you are persecuting.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>With a sharp look.</i>] Persecuting!</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He ascends the daïs again and sits down.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>Now speak on.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_289'>289</span><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You know what were my thoughts of things divine, -during our happy comradeship in Athens. But -then it was far from my purpose to renounce the -joys of life. Neither ambition nor the thirst for -riches, I can truly say, has ever tempted me; yet -I should scarce tell the truth if I denied that my -eye and my mind dwelt wonderingly on all the -glories which the old learning and art of Greece -revealed to me. The wranglings and petty schisms -in our church afflicted me deeply; but I took no -part in them; I served my countrymen in temporal -things; nothing more——</p> - -<p class='c001'>Then came tidings from Constantinople. It was -said that Constantius had died of terror at your -proceedings, and had declared you his heir. -Heralded by the renown of your victories, and -received as a superhuman being, you, the hero of -Gaul and Germany, had ascended the throne of -Constantine without striking a blow. The earth -lay at your feet.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Then came further tidings. The lord of earth -was girding himself up to war against the Lord of -heaven——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Gregory, what do you presume——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The lord of the body was girding himself up -to war against the Lord of the soul. I stand here -before you in bodily fear and trembling; but I -dare not lie. Will you hear the truth, or shall I -be silent?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Say on, Gregory!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_290'>290</span><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What have not my fellow Christians already -suffered during these few months? How many -sentences of death have been passed, and executed -in the cruellest fashion? Gaudentius, the state -secretary; Artemius, the former governor of -Egypt; the two tribunes, Romanus and Vincentius——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You know not what you speak of. I tell you, -the Goddess of Justice would have wept had -those traitors escaped with their lives.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That may be, my Emperor; but I tell you that -one sentence of death has been passed which the -God of Justice can never forgive you. Ursulus! -The man who stood your friend in times of need! -Ursulus who, at the risk of his own life, supplied -you with money in Gaul! Ursulus, whose sole -crime was his Christian faith and his sincerity——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, this you have from your brother, Caesarius!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Punish me, sire; but spare my brother.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You well know that you risk nothing, Gregory! -Besides, I will grant you that Nevita acted too -harshly.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ay, that barbarian, who tries in vain to hide -his origin under a Greek veneer——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_291'>291</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Nevita is zealous in his duty, and I cannot myself -be everywhere. For Ursulus I have mourned -sincerely, and I deeply deplore that neither -time nor circumstances allowed me to examine -into his case myself. I should certainly have -spared him, Gregory! I have thought, too, of -restoring to his heirs any property he has left -behind.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Great Emperor, you owe me no reckoning for -your acts. I only wished to tell you that all these -tidings fell like thunderbolts in Caesarea and -Nazianzus, and the other Cappadocian cities. How -shall I describe their effect! Our internal wranglings -were silenced by the common danger. Many -rotten branches of the Church fell away; but in -many indifferent hearts the light of the Lord was -kindled with a fervour before undreamt-of. Meanwhile -oppression overtook God’s people. The -heathen—I mean, my Emperor, those whom <i>I</i> call -heathen—began to threaten, to injure, to persecute -us——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Retaliation,—retaliation, Gregory!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Far be it from me to justify all that my fellow -Christians may have done in their excessive zeal -for the cause of the Church. But you, who are -so enlightened, and have power over all alike, -cannot permit the living to suffer for the faults of -the dead. Yet so it has been in Cappadocia. The -enemies of the Christians, few in number, but -thirsting after gain, and burning with eagerness -<span class='pageno' id='Page_292'>292</span>to ingratiate themselves with the new officials, -have awakened fear and perturbation among the -people both in town and country.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I am not thinking chiefly of the insults we have -had to suffer, nor of the infringements of our just -rights of property, to which we have been constantly -exposed of late. What most grieves me -and all my earnest brethren, is the peril to souls. -Many are not firm-rooted in the faith, and cannot -quite shake off the care for earthly goods. The -harsh treatment which has now to be endured by -all who bear the name of Christian has already led -to more than one apostasy. Sire, this is soul-robbery -from God’s kingdom.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, my wise Gregory,—how can you talk so? I -wonder at you? Should you not rather, as a good -Galilean, rejoice that your community is rid of -such men?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Gracious Emperor, I am not of that opinion. I -have myself been indifferent in the faith, and I -look upon all such as sick men, who are not past -cure, so long as they remain in the bosom of the -Church. So, too, thought our little congregation -at Nazianzus. Brethren and sisters, in deep distress, -assembled to take counsel against the perils -of the time. They were joined by delegates from -Caesarea and other cities. My father is infirm, -and—as he owns with sorrow—does not possess -the steadfast, immovable will which, in these -troublous times, is needful for him who sits in the -bishop’s chair. The assembly determined that a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_293'>293</span>younger man should be chosen as his helper, to -hold the Lord’s flock together.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The choice fell on me.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I was then away on a journey. But in my -absence, and without consulting me, my father -ordained me a priest and sent me the priestly -habit.</p> - -<p class='c001'>These tidings reached me in Tiberina, at my -country house, where I was passing some days -with my brother and with the friend of my youth, -Basil of Caesarea.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Sire—had my sentence of death been read to -me, it could not have appalled me more than -this.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I a priest! I wished it, and I wished it not. I -felt it must be—and yet my courage failed. I -wrestled with God the Lord, as the patriarch -wrestled with him in the days of the old covenant. -What passed in my soul during the night which -followed, I cannot tell. But this I know that, ere -the cock crew, I talked face to face with the -Crucified One.—Then I was his.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Folly, folly; I know those dreams.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>On my homeward journey I passed through -Caesarea. Oh, what misery met me there! I -found the town full of fugitive country people, -who had forsaken house and home because the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_294'>294</span>drought had burnt up their crops, and laid all the -vineyards and olive-gardens desolate. To escape -starvation they had fled to the starving. There -they lay—men, women, and children—in heaps -along the walls of the houses; fever shook them, -famine gnawed their entrails. What had Caesarea -to offer them—that impoverished, unhappy town, -as yet but half rebuilt after the great earthquake -of two years ago? And in the midst of this, amid -scorching heat and frequent earthquake-shocks, -we had to see ungodly festivals going on day and -night. The ruined altars were hastily rebuilt; the -blood of sacrifices ran in streams; mummers -and harlots paraded the streets with dance and -song.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Sire—can you wonder that my much-tried -brethren thought they saw in the visitation that -had come upon them a judgment of heaven because -they had so long tolerated heathenism and its -scandalous symbols in their midst?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What symbols do you mean?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The cry of the terror-stricken and fevered multitude -rose ever higher; they demanded that the -rulers of the city should give a palpable witness -for Christ by ordering the destruction of what -still remains of the former glory of heathendom -in Caesarea.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You cannot mean to say that——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_295'>295</span><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The magistrates of the city called a meeting, -where I too was present. You know, most gracious -Emperor, that all temples are the property of the -city; so that the citizens have the right to dispose -of them at their own free will.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Well, well; what if it were so?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>In that terrible earthquake that ravaged -Caesarea two years ago, all the temples but one -were destroyed.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes; the temple of Fortuna.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>At the meeting whereof I speak, the congregation -determined to complete God’s work of judgment, -in testimony that they would trust wholly and -solely to him, and no longer tolerate the abomination -in their midst.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Hoarsely.</i>] Gregory,—once my friend—do you -hold your life dear?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>This resolution I did not myself approve, but -almost all voices were in favour of it. But as we -feared that the matter might be represented to -you falsely, and might, perhaps, incense you against -the city, it was determined to send a man hither -to announce to you what we have resolved, and -what will presently happen.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Great ruler,—no one else was found willing to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_296'>296</span>undertake the task. It fell perforce to me. Therefore -it is, sire, that I stand here before you in all -humility, to announce that we Christians in -Caesarea have resolved that the temple where -the heathen in bygone days worshipped a false -deity, under the name of Fortuna, shall be pulled -down and levelled with the ground.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Springing up.</i>] And I must listen to this with -my own ears: One single man dares to tell me such -unheard-of things!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Courtiers, Orators, and Poets.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>O pious Emperor, do not suffer it! Punish this -audacious man!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He is distraught, sire! Let him go. See,—the -frenzy glitters in his eyes.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ay, it may well be called madness. But ’tis -more than madness. To dream of pulling down -that excellent temple, dedicated to a no less excellent -divinity! Is it not to the favour of this -very goddess that I ascribe my achievements, the -fame of which has reached the remotest nations? -Were I to suffer this, how could I ever again hope -for victory or prosperity?—Gregory, I command -you to return to Caesarea and give the citizens to -understand that I forbid this outrage.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Impossible, sire! The matter has come to such -a pass that we have to choose between the fear of -man and obedience to God. We cannot draw back.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_297'>297</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Then you shall feel how far the Emperor’s arm -can stretch!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor’s arm is mighty in earthly things; -and I, like others, tremble under it.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Show it, then, in deeds! Ah, you Galileans, -you reckon upon my long-suffering. Do not -trust to it; for truly——</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'><i>A noise at the entrance. The barber, <span class='sc'>Eunapius</span>, -followed by several citizens, rushes in.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What is this? Eunapius, what has befallen -you?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh that my eyes should see such a sight!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What sight have you seen?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Behold, most gracious Emperor, I come bleeding -and bruised, yet happy to be the first to call -down your wrath——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Speak, man;—who has beaten you?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Permit me, sire, to lay my complaint before -you.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_298'>298</span>I went forth from the town this morning to -visit the little temple of Venus which you have -lately restored. When I came thither, the music -of flutes and singing greeted my ears. Women -were dancing gracefully in the outer court, and -within I found the whole space filled with a -rapturous crowd, while at the altar priests were -offering up the sacrifices you have ordained.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes; and then——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Scarcely had I had time to turn my thoughts in -devotion toward that enchanting goddess, whom -I especially revere and worship,—when a great -crowd of young men forced their way into the -temple——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Not Galileans?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, sire,—Galileans.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What a scene followed! Weeping under the -assailants’ insults and blows, the dancing-girls -fled from the outer court to us within. The Galileans -fell upon us all, belaboured us and affronted -us in the most shameful manner.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Descending from his throne.</i>] Wait, wait!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_299'>299</span><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Alas, would that their violence had fallen on -us alone! But the madmen went further. Yes, -gracious Emperor—in one word, the altar is overthrown, -the statue of the goddess dashed to -pieces, the entrails of the sacrifices cast out to the -dogs——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Pacing up and down.</i>] Wait, wait, wait!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sire, this one man’s word is not enough——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Be silent!</p> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To <span class='sc'>Eunapius</span>.</i>] Did you know any of the -sacrilegious crew?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Not I, sire; but these citizens knew many of -them.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Take a guard with you. Seize as many of the -wretches as you can. Cast them into prison. The -prisoners shall give up the names of the rest; and -when I have them all in my power——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What then, sire?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ask the executioner. Both you and the citizens -of Caesarea shall be taught what you have to expect -if, in your Galilean obstinacy, you should abide -by your resolve.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>The Emperor goes out in great wrath, to -the left; <span class='sc'>Eunapius</span> and his witnesses -retire with the watch; the others disperse.</i></p> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_300'>300</span> - <h4 class='c024'>SCENE SECOND.</h4> -</div> - -<p class='c017'><i>A market-place in Antioch. In front, on the right, -a street debouches into the market; to the left, -at the back, there is a view into a narrow and -crooked street.</i></p> -<p class='c017'><i>A great concourse of people fills the market. Hucksters -cry their <a id='corr300.7'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='wares'>wares.</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_300.7'><ins class='correction' title='wares'>wares.</ins></a></span> In several places the townspeople -have gathered into clusters, talking -<a id='corr300.9'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='eagerly'>eagerly.</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_300.9'><ins class='correction' title='eagerly'>eagerly.</ins></a></span></i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Citizen.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Good God of heaven, when did this misfortune -happen?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Another Citizen.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>This morning, I tell you; quite early this -morning.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion the Dyer.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Who has entered from the street on the right.</i>] -My good man, do you think it is fitting to call -this a misfortune? I call it a crime, and a most -audacious crime to boot.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Second Citizen.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes; that is quite true; it was a most -audacious thing to do.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Only think—of course it is the outrage on the -temple of Venus you are talking of? Only think -of their choosing a time when the Emperor was -in the city——! And this day, too, of all others—a -day——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_301'>301</span><span class='sc'>A Third Citizen.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Drawing near.</i>] Tell me, good friend, what is -the matter——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>This day of all others, I say, when our august -ruler is himself to officiate at the feast of Apollo.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Third Citizen.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, I know that; but why are they taking -these Christians to prison?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What? Are they taking them to prison? Have -they really caught them?</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>Loud shrieks are heard.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>Hush; what is that? Yes, by the gods, I -believe they have them!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>An <span class='sc'>Old Woman</span>, much agitated, and with -dishevelled hair, makes her way through -the crowd; she is beset by other women, -who in vain seek to restrain her.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Old Woman.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I will not be held back! He is my only son, -the child of my old age! Let me go; let me go! -Can no one tell me where I can find the -Emperor?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What would you with the Emperor, old mother?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Old Woman.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I would have my son again. Help me! My -son! Hilarion! Oh, they have taken him from -me! They burst into our house—and then they -took him away!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_302'>302</span><span class='sc'>One of the Citizens.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To <span class='sc'>Phocion</span>.</i>] Who is this woman?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What? Know you not the widow Publia,—the -psalm-singer?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Citizen.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, yes, yes, yes!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Publia.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Hilarion! my child! What will they do to -him? Ah, Phocion,—are you there? God be -praised for sending me a Christian brother——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Hush, hush, be quiet; do not scream so loud; -the Emperor is coming.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Publia.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, this ungodly Emperor! The Lord of -Wrath is visiting his sins upon us; famine ravages -the land; the earth trembles beneath our feet!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>A detachment of soldiers enters by the -street on the right.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Commander of the Detachment.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Stand aside; make room here!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Publia.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh come, good Phocion;—help me, for our -friendship’s and our fellowship’s sake——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Are you mad, woman? I do not know you.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_303'>303</span><span class='sc'>Publia.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What? You do not know me? Are you not -Phocion the dyer? Are you not the son of——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I am not the son of anybody. Get you gone, -woman! You are mad! I do not know you; I -have never seen you.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He hastens in among the crowd.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Subaltern.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>With soldiers, from the right.</i>] Clear the way -here!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>The soldiers force the multitude back -towards the houses. Old <span class='sc'>Publia</span> faints -in the arms of the women on the left. -All gaze expectantly down the street.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>In a knot of people behind the guard, to the right.</i>] -Yes, by the Sun-God, there he comes, the blessed -Emperor!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Soldier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Do not push so, behind there!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Can you see him? The man with the white -fillet round his brow, that is the Emperor.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Citizen.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The man all in white?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes, that is he.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_304'>304</span><span class='sc'>The Citizen.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Why is he dressed in white?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Doubtless because of the heat; or,—no, stop,—I -think it is as the sacrificing priest that he——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Second Citizen.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Will the Emperor himself offer the sacrifice?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, the Emperor Julian does everything himself.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Third Citizen.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He does not look so powerful as the Emperor -Constantius.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I think he does. He is not so tall as the late -Emperor; but his arms are longer. And then -his glance——oh my friends——! You cannot -see it just now; his eyes are modestly lowered as -he walks. Yes, modest he is, I can tell you. He -has no eye for women. I dare swear that since -his wife’s death he has but seldom——; you see, -he writes the whole night. That is why his fingers -are often as black as a dyer’s; just like mine; for -I am a dyer. I can tell you I know the Emperor -better than most people. I was born here in -Antioch; but I have lived fifteen years in Constantinople, -until very lately——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Citizen.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is there aught, think you, in the rumour that -the Emperor is minded to settle here for good?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_305'>305</span><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I know the Emperor’s barber, and he reports it -so. Let us trust these shameful disturbances may -not incense him too much.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Citizen.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Alas, alas, that were a pity indeed!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Second Citizen.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>If the Emperor lived here, ’twould bring something -in to all of us.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>’Twas on that reckoning that I returned here. -So now we must do our best, friends; when the -Emperor comes past, we must shout lustily both -for him and for Apollo.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Citizen.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To another</i>.] Who is this Apollo, that people -begin to talk so much about?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Other Citizen.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Why, ’tis the priest of Corinth,—he who watered -what the holy Paul had planted.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The First Citizen.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ay, ay; to be sure; I think I remember now.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, no, no, ’tis not that Apollo; ’tis another -one entirely;—this is the Sun-King—the great -lyre-playing Apollo.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_306'>306</span><span class='sc'>The Other Citizen.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah indeed; <em class='gesperrt'>that</em> Apollo! Is he better?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I should think so, indeed.—Look, look, there -he comes. Oh, our most blessed Emperor!</p> - -<p class='c017'><i>The <span class='sc'>Emperor Julian</span>, robed as a high priest, -enters, surrounded by priests and servants of the -temple. Courtiers and learned men, among whom -is <span class='sc'>Hekebolius</span>, have joined the procession; -likewise citizens. Before the Emperor go flute-players -and harpers. Soldiers and men of the -city guard, with long staves, clear the way -before the procession and on either side.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Multitude.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Clapping their hands.</i>] Praise to the Emperor! -Praise to Julian, hero and benefactor!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>All hail to Julian and to the Sun-King! Long -live Apollo!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Citizens.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>In the foreground, on the right.</i>] Emperor, -Emperor, stay long among us!</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>Julian makes a sign for the procession to stop.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Citizens of Antioch! It were hard for me to -name anything that could more rejoice my heart -than these inspiriting acclamations. And my -heart stands sorely in need of this refreshment.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It was with a downcast spirit that I set forth -<span class='pageno' id='Page_307'>307</span>on this procession, which should be one of joy and -exaltation. Nay, more; I will not hide from you -that I was this morning on the verge of losing -that equanimity which it behoves a lover of -wisdom to preserve under all trials.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But can any one chide me for it? I would -have you all remember what outrages are threatened -elsewhere, and have already been committed -here.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Publia.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My lord, my lord!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh pious and righteous Emperor, punish these -desperate men!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Publia.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My lord, give me back my Hilarion!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>All good citizens implore your favour towards -this city.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Seek to win the favour of the gods, and of mine -you need have no doubt. And surely it is fitting -that Antioch should lead the way. Does it not -seem as though the Sun-God’s eye had dwelt with -especial complacency on this city? Ask of -travellers, and you shall hear to what melancholy -extremes fanaticism has elsewhere proceeded in -laying waste our holy places. What is left? A -remnant here and there; and nothing of the -best.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But with you, citizens of Antioch! Oh, my -eyes filled with tears of joy when first I saw that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_308'>308</span>incomparable sanctuary, the very house of <a id='corr308.1'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='Apollo'>Apollo,</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_308.1'><ins class='correction' title='Apollo'>Apollo,</ins></a></span> -which seems scarcely to be the work of human -hands. Does not the image of the Glorious One -stand within it, in unviolated beauty? Not a -corner of his altar has broken or crumbled away, -not a crack is to be seen in the stately columns.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, when I think of this,—when I feel the fillet -round my brow—when I look down upon these -garments, dearer to me than the purple robe of -empire, then I feel, with a sacred tremor, the -presence of the god.</p> - -<p class='c001'>See, see, the sunlight quivers around us in its -glory!</p> - -<p class='c001'>Feel, feel, the air is teeming with the perfume -of fresh-woven garlands!</p> - -<p class='c001'>Beautiful earth! The home of light and life, -the home of joy, the home of happiness and -beauty;—what thou wast shalt thou again become!—In -the embrace of the Sun-King! Mithra, -Mithra!</p> - -<p class='c001'>Forward on our victorious way!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>The procession moves on again, amid the -plaudits of the crowd; those in front -come to a stop at the mouth of the narrow -street, through which another procession -enters the market-place.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What hinders us?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Gracious lord, there is something amiss in the -other street.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Song.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='c019'>[<i>Far off.</i></div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c018'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Blissful our pangs, be they never so cruel;</div> - <div class='line'>Blissful our rising, the death-struggle o’er.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c000'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_309'>309</span><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Galileans, sire! They have them!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Publia.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Hilarion!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>They have them! I hear the fetters——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Pass them by——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Hastening through the press.</i>] We have succeeded -marvellously, sire.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Who are they, these ruffians?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Some of them belong to this city; but most, it -seems, are peasants fleeing from Cappadocia.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I will not see them. Forward, as I commanded!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Prisoners’ Song.</span></div> - <div>[<i>Nearer.</i></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c018'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Blissful our crowning with martyrdom’s jewel;</div> - <div class='line'>Blissful our meeting with saints gone before.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c000'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The madmen. Not so near to me! My guard, -my guard!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>The two processions have meanwhile encountered -each other in the crush. The -<span class='pageno' id='Page_310'>310</span>procession of Apollo has to stand still -while the other, with the prisoners—men -in chains, surrounded by soldiers, and -accompanied by a great concourse of -people—passes on.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Publia.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My child! Hilarion!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hilarion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Among the prisoners.</i>] Rejoice, my mother!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Poor deluded creatures! When I hear madness -thus speaking in you, I almost doubt whether I -have the right to punish you.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Another Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Among the prisoners.</i>] Stand aside; take not -from us our crown of thorns.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Night and horror,—what voice is that?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Leader of the Guard.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>’Twas this one, sire, who spoke.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He pushes one of the prisoners forward, -a young man, who leads a half-grown lad -by the hand.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>With a cry.</i>] Agathon!</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i><span class='sc'>The Prisoner</span> looks at him, and is silent.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>Agathon, Agathon! Answer me; are you not -Agathon?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Prisoner.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I am.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_311'>311</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You among these? Speak to me?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I know you not!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You do not know me? You know not who I -am?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I know you are the lord of the earth; therefore -you are not my lord.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And the boy——? Is he your young brother?</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>To the leader of the guard.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>This man must be innocent.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My lord, this man is the very ringleader. He -has confessed it; he even glories in his deed.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>So strangely can hunger, and sickness, and misfortune -disorder a man’s mind.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>To the prisoners.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>If you will but say, in one word, that you repent, -none of you shall suffer.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Publia.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Shrieks.</i>] Say it not, Hilarion!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Be strong, dear brother!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Publia.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Go, go to what awaits you, my only one!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_312'>312</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Hear and bethink you, you others——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To the prisoners.</i>] Choose between Christ and -the Emperor!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Prisoners.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Glory to God in the highest!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Terrible is the Galilean’s power of delusion. It -must be broken. Pass them by, the abominable -crew! They cloud our gladness; they darken the -day with their brooding death-hunger!—Flute-players—men, -women—why are you silent? A -song—a song in praise of life, and light, and -happiness.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Procession of Apollo.</span></div> - <div>[<i>Sings.</i></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c018'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Gladsome with roses our locks to entwine;</div> - <div class='line'>Gladsome to bathe in the sunlight divine!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c000'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Procession of Prisoners.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c018'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Blissful to sleep ’neath the blood-reeking sod;</div> - <div class='line'>Blissful to wake in the gardens of God.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c000'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Procession of Apollo.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c018'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Gladsome ’mid incense-clouds still to draw breath.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c000'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Procession of Prisoners.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c018'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Blissful in blood-streams to strangle to death.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c000'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Procession of Apollo.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c018'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Ever for him who his godhead adoreth</div> - <div class='line'>Deep draughts of rapture Apollo outpoureth.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c000'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_313'>313</span><span class='sc'>The Procession of Prisoners.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c018'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Bones racked and riven, flesh seared to a coal,</div> - <div class='line in10'>He shall make whole!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c000'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Procession of Apollo.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c018'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Gladsome to bask in the light-sea that laves us!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c000'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Procession of Prisoners.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c018'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Blissful to writhe in the blood-death that saves us!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c025'>[<i>The processions pass each other during the -singing. The crowd in the market-place -looks on in dull silence.</i></p> -</div> - -<h4 class='c026'>SCENE THIRD.</h4> - -<p class='c017'><i>The sacred grove around the temple of Apollo. The -portico, supported by columns, and approached by -a broad flight of steps, is seen among the trees -in the background, on the left.</i></p> -<p class='c017'><i>A number of people are rushing about in the grove -with loud cries of terror. Far away is heard the -music of the procession.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Women.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Mercy! The earth is quaking again!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Man in Flight.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh horror! Thunder beneath our feet——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Another Man.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Was it indeed so? Was it the earth that shook?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_314'>314</span><span class='sc'>A Woman.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Did you not feel it? That tree there swayed -so that the branches whistled through the air.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Many Voices.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Hark, hark, hark!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Some.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>’Tis the roll of chariots on the pavements.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Others.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>’Tis the sound of drums. Hark to the music——, -the Emperor is coming!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>The procession of Apollo advances from -the right through the grove, and stations -itself amid music of flutes and harps, in -a semicircle in front of the temple.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Turning towards the temple, with upstretched hands.</i>] -I accept the omen!——</p> - -<p class='c001'>Never have I felt myself in such close communion -with the immortal gods.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The Bow-Wielder is among us. The earth -thunders beneath his tread, as when of old he -stamped in wrath upon the Trojan shore.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But ’tis not on us he frowns. ’Tis on those -unhappy wretches who hate him and his sunlit -realm.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yes,—as surely as good or evil fortune affords -the true measure of the gods’ favour towards -mortals,—so surely is the difference here made -manifest between them and us.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Where are the Galileans now? Some under the -executioner’s hands, others flying through the -narrow streets, ashy pale with terror, their eyes -<span class='pageno' id='Page_315'>315</span>starting from their heads—a shriek between their -half-clenched teeth—their hair stiffening with -dread, or torn out in despair.</p> - -<p class='c001'>And where are we? Here in Daphne’s pleasant -grove, where the dryads’ balmy breath cools our -brows,—here, before the glorious temple of the -glorious god, lapped in the melodies of flute and -lyre,—here, in light, in happiness, in safety, the -god himself made manifest among us.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Where is the God of the Galileans? Where is -the Jew, the carpenter’s crucified son? Let him -manifest himself. Nay, not he!</p> - -<p class='c001'>’Tis fitting, then, that we should throng the -sanctuary. There, with my own hands, I will -perform the services which are so far from appearing -to me mean and unbecoming, that I, on -the contrary, esteem them above all others.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He advances at the head of the procession, -through the multitude, towards the temple.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Calling out in the throng.</i>] Stay, ungodly one!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A Galilean among us?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Same Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No further, blasphemer!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Who is he that speaks?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Other Voices in the Crowd.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A Galilean priest. A blind old man. Here he -stands.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_316'>316</span><span class='sc'>Others again.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Away, away, with the shameless wretch!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>A blind <span class='sc'>Old Man</span>, in priestly garments, -and supported by two younger men, also -dressed as priests, is pushed forward till -he stands at the foot of the temple steps, -facing the Emperor.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, what do I see? Tell me, old man, are not -you Bishop Maris, of Chalcedon?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Old Man.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, I am that unworthiest servant of the -Church.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>“Unworthiest,” you call yourself; and I think -you are not far wrong. If I mistake not, you -have been one of the foremost in stirring up -internal strife among the Galileans.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Bishop Maris.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I have done that which weighs me still deeper -down in penitence. When you seized the empire, -and rumour told of your bent of mind, my heart -was beleagured with unspeakable dread. Blind -and enfeebled by age, I could not conceive the -thought of setting myself up against the mighty -monarch of the world. Yes,—God have mercy on -me—I forsook the flock I was appointed to guard, -shrank timidly from all the perils that gathered -frowning around the Lord’s people, and sought -shelter here, in my Syrian villa——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_317'>317</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>In truth a strange story! And you, timid as -you say you are, you, who formerly prized the -Emperor’s favour so highly, now step forth before -me and fling insults in my very face!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Bishop Maris.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Now I fear you no longer; for now has Christ -fully possessed my heart. In the Church’s hour -of need, her light and glory burst upon me. All -the blood you shed,—all the violence and wrong -you do—cry out to heaven, and, re-echoing -mightily, ring in my deaf ears, and show me, in -my night of blindness, the way I have to go.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Get you home, old man!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Bishop Maris.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Not till you have sworn to renounce your devilish -courses. What would you do? Would dust rise -up against the spirit? Would the lord of earth -cast down the Lord of heaven? See you not that -the day of wrath is upon us by reason of your sins? -The fountains are parched like eyes that have -wept themselves dry. The clouds, which ought -to pour the manna of fruitfulness upon us, sweep -over our heads, and shed no moisture. This earth, -which has been cursed since the morning of time, -quakes and trembles under the Emperor’s blood-guiltiness.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What favour do you expect of your God for such -excess of zeal, foolish old man? Do you hope -that, as of old, your Galilean master will work a -miracle, and give you back your sight?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_318'>318</span><span class='sc'>Bishop Maris.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I have all the sight I desire; and I thank the -Lord that he quenched my bodily vision, so that -I am spared from seeing the man who walks in a -darkness more terrible than mine.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Let me pass!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Bishop Maris.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Whither?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Into the Sun-King’s house.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Bishop Maris.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You shall not pass. I forbid you in the name -of the only God!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Frantic old man!—Away with him!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Bishop Maris.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ay, lay hands upon me! But he who dares to -do so, his hand shall wither. The God of Wrath -shall manifest himself in his might——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Your God is no mighty God. I will show you -that the Emperor is stronger than he——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Bishop Maris.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Lost creature!—Then must I call down the ban -upon thee, thou recreant son of the church!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Pale.</i>] My lord and Emperor, let not this -thing be!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_319'>319</span><span class='sc'>Bishop Maris.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>In a loud voice.</i>] Cursed be thou, Julianus -Apostata! Cursed be thou, Emperor Julian! -God the Lord hath spat thee forth out of his -mouth! Cursed be thine eyes and thy hands! -Cursed be thy head and all thy doings!</p> - -<p class='c001'>Woe, woe, woe to the apostate! Woe, woe, -woe——</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>A hollow rumbling noise is heard. The -roof and columns of the temple totter, -and are seen to collapse with a thundering -crash, while the whole building is wrapped -in a cloud of dust. The multitude utter -shrieks of terror; many flee, others fall -to the ground. There is breathless stillness -for a while. Little by little the -cloud of dust settles, and the temple of -Apollo is seen in ruins.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Bishop Maris.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Whose two conductors have fled, stands alone, and -says softly.</i>] God has spoken.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Pale, and in a low voice.</i>] Apollo has spoken. -His temple was polluted: therefore he crushed it.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Bishop Maris.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And I tell you it was that Lord who laid the -temple of Jerusalem in ruins.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>If it be so, then the churches of the Galilean -shall be closed, and his priests shall be driven -with scourges to raise up that temple anew.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_320'>320</span><span class='sc'>Bishop Maris.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Try, impotent man! Who has had power to -restore the temple of Jerusalem since the Prince -of Golgotha called down destruction upon it?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I have the power! The Emperor has the -power! Your God shall be made a liar. Stone -by stone will I rebuild the temple of Jerusalem -in all its glory, as it was in the days of Solomon.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Bishop Maris.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Not one stone shall you add to another; for it -is accursed of the Lord.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Wait, wait; you shall see—if you <em class='gesperrt'>could</em> see—you -who stand there forsaken and helpless, groping -in the darkness, not knowing where you next -may place your foot.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Bishop Maris.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yet I see the glare of the lightning that shall -one day fall upon you and yours.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He gropes his way out. <span class='sc'>Julian</span> remains -behind, surrounded by a handful of pale -and terrified attendants.</i></p> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_321'>321</span> - <h3 class='c027'>ACT THIRD.</h3> -</div> - -<h4 class='c024'>SCENE FIRST.</h4> - -<p class='c017'><i>In Antioch. An open colonnade, with statues and a -fountain in front of it. To the left, under the -colonnade, a flight of steps leads up to the Imperial -Palace.</i></p> -<p class='c017'><i>A company of Courtiers, Teachers, Poets, and -Orators—among them the court-physician, <span class='sc'>Oribases</span>, -and the poet, <span class='sc'>Heraclius</span>—are assembled, -some in the colonnade, some around the fountain; -most of them are dressed in ragged cloaks, with -matted hair and beards.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Heraclius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I can endure this life no longer. To rise with -the sun, plunge into a cold bath, run or fence oneself -weary——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>’Tis all very wholesome.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Heraclius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is it wholesome to eat seaweed and raw fish?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Courtier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is it wholesome to have to devour meat in -<em class='gesperrt'>great</em> lumps, all bloody, as it comes from the -butcher?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_322'>322</span><span class='sc'>Heraclius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>’Tis little enough meat I have seen for the past -week. Most of it goes to the altars. Ere long, -methinks, we shall be able to say that the ever-venerable -gods are the only meat-eaters in -Antioch.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Still the same old mocker, Heraclius.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Heraclius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Why, of what are you thinking, friend? Far be -it from me to mock at the Emperor’s wise decrees. -Blessed be the Emperor Julian! Does he not -follow in the footsteps of the immortals? For, -tell me, does not a certain frugality seem nowadays -to reign, even in the heavenly housekeeping?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Courtier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ha-ha-ha! <a id='corr322.17'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='there'>There</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_322.17'><ins class='correction' title='there'>There</ins></a></span> you are not far wrong.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Heraclius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Look at Cybele, formerly so bounteous a goddess, -whose statue the Emperor lately found in an -ash-pit——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Another Courtier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It was in a dunghill——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Heraclius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Like enough; fertilising is Cybele’s business. -But look at this goddess, I say;—in spite of her -hundred breasts, she flows neither with milk nor -honey.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>A circle of laughing hearers has gathered -round him. While he is speaking, the -<span class='sc'>Emperor Julian</span> has come forward on -the steps in the colonnade, unnoticed by</i> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_323'>323</span><i>those below. He wears a tattered cloak, -with a girdle of rope; his hair and beard -are unkempt, his fingers stained with ink; -in both hands, under his arms, and stuck -in his belt, he holds bundles of parchment -rolls and papers. He stops and listens -to <span class='sc'>Heraclius</span> with every sign of exasperation.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Heraclius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Continuing.</i>] It seems as though this wet-nurse -of the world had become barren. We might -almost think that she had passed the age when -women——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Courtier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Observing <span class='sc'>Julian</span>.</i>] Fie, fie, Heraclius,—shame -on you!</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>Julian signs to the courtier to be silent.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Heraclius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Continuing.</i>] Well, enough of her. But is -Ceres in the same case? Does she not display -a most melancholy—I had almost said an -imperial—parsimony? Yes, believe me, if we -had a little more intercourse with high Olympus -nowadays, we should hear much to the same tune. -I dare swear that nectar and ambrosia are -measured out as sparingly as possible. Oh Zeus, -how gaunt must thou have grown! Oh roguish -Dionysus, how much is there left of the fulness -of thy loins? Oh wanton, quick-flushing Venus,—oh -Mars, inauspicious to married men——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>In great wrath.</i>] Oh most shameless Heraclius! -Oh scurvy, gall-spitting, venom-mouth——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_324'>324</span><span class='sc'>Heraclius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, my gracious Emperor!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh ribald scoffer at all sacred things! And this -must I endure—to hear your croaking tongue the -instant I leave my library to breathe the fresh -morning air!</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He comes nearer.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>Know you what I hold under my left arm? No, -you do not know. ’Tis a polemic against you, -blasphemous and foolish Heraclius!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Heraclius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What, my Emperor,—against me?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, a treatise against you. A treatise with -which my indignation has this very night inspired -me. Think you I could be other than wroth at -your most unseemly behaviour yesterday? How -strange was the licence you allowed yourself in -the lecture-hall, in my hearing, and that of many -other earnest men? Had we not to listen for -hours together to the shameful fables about the -gods which you must needs retail? How dared -you repeat such fictions? Were they not lies, -from first to last?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Heraclius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, my Emperor, if you call <em class='gesperrt'>that</em> lying, then -both Ovid and Lucian were liars.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What else? Oh, I cannot express the indignation -that seized me when I understood whither -<span class='pageno' id='Page_325'>325</span>your impudent address was tending. “Man, let -nothing surprise you,” I was tempted to say with -the comic poet, when I heard you, like an ill-conditioned -cur, barking forth, not expressions of -gratitude, but a string of irrational nursery-tales, -and ill-written to boot. For your verses were bad, -Heraclius;—that I have proved in my treatise.</p> - -<p class='c001'>How I longed to arise and leave the hall when -I saw you, as in a theatre, making a spectacle both -of Dionysus and of the great immortal after whom -you are named! If I constrained myself to keep -my seat, I can assure you ’twas more out of respect -to the players—if I dare call them so—than to the -poet. But ’twas most of all for my own sake. I -feared it might seem as though I were fleeing like -a frightened dove. Therefore I made no sign, but -quietly repeated to myself that verse of Homer:</p> - -<div class='quote'> - -<p class='c001'>“Bear it, my heart, for a time; heavier things -hast thou suffered.”</p> - -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Endure, as before, to hear a mad dog yelp at the -eternal gods.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, I see we must stomach this and more. We -are fallen on evil days. Show me the happy man -who has been suffered to keep his eyes and ears -uncontaminated in this iron age!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I pray you, my noble master, be not so deeply -moved. Let it comfort you that we all listened -with displeasure to this man’s folly.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That is in nowise the truth! I read in the -countenances of most of you something far different -from displeasure while this shameless -<span class='pageno' id='Page_326'>326</span>mountebank was babbling forth his ribaldries, and -then looking round the circle with a greasy smile, -just as though he had done something to be proud -of.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Heraclius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Alas, my Emperor, I am most unhappy——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That you may well be; for this is, in truth, no -trifling matter. Think you the legends of the -gods have not a serious and weighty purpose? -Are they not destined to lead the human spirit, -by an easy and pleasant path, up to the mystic -abodes where reigns the highest god,—and thereby -to make our souls capable of union with him? -How can it be otherwise? Was it not with that -view that the old poets invented such legends, and -that Plato and others repeated them, and even -added to their number? Apart from this purpose, -I tell you, these stories would be fit only for children -or barbarians,—and scarcely for them. But -was it children and barbarians, pray, that you had -before you yesterday? Where do you find the -audacity to address me as if I were a child? Do -you think yourself a sage, and entitled to a sage’s -freedom of speech, because you wear a ragged -cloak, and carry a beggar’s staff in your hand?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Courtier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How true, my Emperor! No, no, it needs more -than <a id='corr326.29'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='that'>that.</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_326.29'><ins class='correction' title='that'>that.</ins></a></span></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ay? Does it indeed? And what? To let -your hair grow, perhaps, and never clean your nails? -Oh hypocritical Cleon! I know you, one and all. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_327'>327</span>Here, in this treatise, I have given you a name -which——; you shall hear——</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'><i>He searches through the bundles of papers. At that -moment <span class='sc'>Libanius</span> enters from the right, richly -clad, and with a haughty mien.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>In a low tone.</i>] Ah, you come in the nick of -time, most honoured Libanius!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Continuing his search.</i>] Where can it be——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To <span class='sc'>Oribases</span>.</i>] What mean you, friend?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor is much enraged; your coming -will pacify him.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, here I have it——</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>With annoyance.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>What does that man want?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sire, this is——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No matter, no matter! Now you shall hear -whether I know you or not. There are among -the wretched Galileans a number of madmen who -call themselves penitents. These renounce all -earthly possessions, and yet demand great gifts of -the fools who treat them as holy men and almost -as objects of worship. Behold, you are like -<span class='pageno' id='Page_328'>328</span>these penitents, except that I shall give you nothing. -For I am not so foolish as those others. Yes, -yes, were I not firm on that point, you would -soon overrun the whole court with your shamelessness. -Nay, do you not already do so? Are -there not many among you who would come -again, even if I drove them away? Oh my dear -friends, what can this lead to? Are you lovers -of wisdom? Are you followers of Diogenes, whose -garb and habits you ape? In truth, you do not -haunt the schools nearly so much as you besiege -my treasurer. What a pitiful and despicable thing -has not wisdom become because of you! Oh, -hypocrites and babblers without understanding! -Oh you—— But what is yonder fat man seeking?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sire, it is the chief magistrate of the city——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The chief magistrate must wait. The matters -we have in hand must take precedence of all -meaner affairs. How now? Why this air of -impatience? Is your business so weighty——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>By no means, sire; I can come another day.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He is going.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sire, do you not recognise this distinguished -man? This is the rhetorician Libanius.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What? Libanius? Impossible. Libanius -here—the incomparable Libanius! I cannot believe -it.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_329'>329</span><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I thought the Emperor knew that the citizens -of Antioch had chosen me as their chief magistrate.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Assuredly I knew it. But when I made my -entrance into the city, and the magistrates came -forth to greet me with an oration, I looked in -vain for Libanius. Libanius was not among -them.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor had uttered no wish to hear -Libanius speak on that occasion.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The orator Libanius ought to have known -what were the Emperor’s wishes in that respect.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Libanius knew not what changes time and absence -might have wrought. Libanius therefore -judged it more becoming to take his place among -the multitude. He chose, indeed, a sufficiently -conspicuous position; but the Emperor deigned -not to let his eyes fall on him.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I thought you received my letter the day -after——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Your new friend Priscus brought it to me.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And none the less—perhaps all the more—you -held aloof——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_330'>330</span><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Headache and weighty business——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, Libanius, in bygone days you were not so -chary of your presence.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I come where I am bidden. Ought I to be -intrusive? Would you have me stand in the way -of the Emperor’s much-honoured Maximus?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Maximus never appears at court.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And for good reason. Maximus holds a court -of his own. The Emperor has conceded him a -whole palace.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh my Libanius, have I not conceded you my -heart? How can you envy Maximus his palace?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I envy no man. I do not even envy my colleagues -Themistius and Mamertinus, although you have -conferred on them such signal proofs of your -favour. Nor do I envy Hekebolius, whose wealth -you have increased by such princely presents. I -even rejoice to be the only man to whom you have -given nothing. For I well know the reason of the -exception. You wish the cities of your empire to -abound in everything, and most of all in oratory, -knowing that it is that distinction which marks us -off from the barbarians. Now you feared that I, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_331'>331</span>like certain others, might, if you gave me riches, -become lukewarm in my art. The Emperor has -therefore preferred to let the teacher of his youth -remain poor, in order to hold him the closer to -his craft. Thus do I interpret a course of action -which has astonished some whom I forbear to name. -’Tis for the honour and well-being of the state -that you have given me nothing. I am to lack -riches that I may abound in eloquence.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And I, my Libanius, have also understood the -reason why the teacher of my youth has let me pass -many months here in Antioch without presenting -himself. Libanius doubtless deemed that any services -his former pupil may have rendered to the -gods, to the state, or to learning, were not great -enough to deserve celebration by the man who is -called the king of eloquence. Libanius no doubt -thought that meaner orators were better fitted to -deal with such trivial things. Moreover, Libanius -has remained silent out of care for the balance of -my mind. You feared, doubtless, to see the Emperor -intoxicated with arrogance, reeling like one -who in his thirst has drunk too deeply of the leaf-crowned -wine-bowl, had you lavished on him any -of that art which is the marvel of Greece, and -raised him, so to speak, to the level of the -gods, by pouring out before him so precious a -libation.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, my Emperor, if I could believe that my -oratory possessed such power——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_332'>332</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And why should you not believe it, incomparable -friend? Oh, leave me. I am wroth with you, -Libanius. But it is the lover’s anger against the -one he loves.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is it indeed so? Oh my crowned brother, let -me then tell you that not a day has passed since -your coming hither on which I have not cursed -the steadfastness that would not let me make the -first advance. My friends assured me—not without -some show of reason—that you had undertaken -this long journey chiefly in order to see me and -hear me speak. But Julian himself gave no sign. -What was I to do? Should I flatter as Emperor -him whom I loved as a man?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Embracing and kissing him.</i>] My Libanius!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Kissing the Emperor in return.</i>] My friend and -brother!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How honourable to both!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Courtiers and Teachers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Clapping their hands.</i>] How beautiful! How -sublime!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Libanius, cruel friend,—how could you find it -in your heart to balk me so long of this happy -moment? During the weeks and months I have -waited for you, my countenance has been veiled in -Scythian darkness.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_333'>333</span><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Alas, you were in better case than I; for you -had those to whom you could speak about your -absent friend.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Say not so. I had only the hapless lover’s comfort: -that of sorrowfully repeating your name, and -crying out: “Libanius, Libanius!”</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, whilst you spoke thus to empty air, I spoke -to the four walls of my chamber. Most of the day -I passed in bed, picturing to myself who was then -with you—now this one, now that. “Once it was -otherwise,” I said to myself,—“then it was I who -possessed Julian’s ear.”</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And meanwhile you let me pine away with -longing. Look at me. Have I not grown a century -older?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, have I not suffered as great a change? You -did not recognise me.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>This meeting has been to both of us as a bath, -from which we go forth healed.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>They embrace and kiss again.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>And now, beloved friend, now tell me what has -brought you hither to-day; for I cannot doubt -that you have some special errand.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_334'>334</span><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>To say nothing of my longing—so it is. Would -that another had been sent in my stead! But the -post of honour to which the confidence of the -citizens has summoned me makes it my duty to -perform all missions alike.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Speak, my Libanius, and tell me how I can serve -you.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Let me begin by saying that the inhabitants of -this city are sunk in sorrow because you have -withdrawn your favour from them.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>H’m——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And this sorrow has been coupled with anxiety -and disquiet since Alexander, the new governor, -assumed office.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Aha; indeed!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The exaltation of such a man could not but take -us by surprise. Alexander has hitherto filled only -trifling offices, and that in a manner little calculated -to earn him either the respect or the affection of -the citizens.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I know that well, Libanius!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Alexander is violent in all his dealings, and -justice is of little moment in his eyes——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_335'>335</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I know it; I know all you tell me. Alexander -is a rough man, without morals and without -eloquence. Alexander has in no way deserved so -great advancement. But you may tell the citizens -of Antioch that they have deserved Alexander. -Ay, they have, if possible, deserved a still worse -ruler, covetous and intractable as they are——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It is, then, as we feared; this is a punishment——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Hear me, Libanius! How did I come hither? -With full confidence in the people of this city. -Antioch, chosen by the Sun-King for his especial -seat, was to help me to repair all the wrong and -ingratitude which had so long been shown to the -immortals. But how have you met me? Some -with defiance, others with lukewarmness. What -have I not to endure here? Does not that Cappadocian, -Gregory of Nazianzus, still wander about -the city, stirring up the ignorant Galileans by his -audacious speeches? Has not a poet arisen among -them—a certain Apollinaris—who, with his wild -songs, inflames their fanaticism to the point of -madness?</p> - -<p class='c001'>And what do I not learn from other places? In -Caesarea, have they not carried out their threat, -and wrecked the temple of Fortuna! Oh shame -and infamy! Where were the goddess’s worshippers -the while? Did they prevent it? No, -they did not lift a finger, Libanius, though they -should have laid down life itself to preserve the -sanctuary.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_336'>336</span>But wait, wait! The Galileans of Caesarea shall -atone with their blood, and the whole city shall -go up in flames as soon as I have time at my disposal.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My lord and friend,—if you would permit -me——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Permit me, first. Say yourself whether I ought -to tolerate such things? Say whether my zeal can -bear with such insults to the divinities who hover -over and shield me? But what can I do? Have -I not laboured through many a long night to disprove -these unhappy delusions,—writing, Libanius, -till my eyes were red, and my fingers black with ink? -And what good, think you, has it done? I have -reaped scorn instead of thanks, not only from the -fanatics themselves, but even from men who pretend -to share my opinions. And now, to crown -all these mortifications, I find you acting as spokesman -for the complaints of a handful of citizens -against Alexander, who at least does his best to -keep the Galileans in check.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, my august friend,—that is precisely our -ground of complaint.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Do <em class='gesperrt'>you</em> tell me this?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>’Tis not with my own good will that I do the -city’s errands. I urged upon the council that they -ought to choose for this task the most distinguished -<span class='pageno' id='Page_337'>337</span>man in the town, thereby implying that I did not -wish to be chosen. Despite this hint, the choice -fell on me, who am certainly not——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Well, well, well! But oh, Libanius, that I must -hear from your mouth——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I beg my crowned brother to remember that I -speak in the name of the city! For myself, I prize -the immortal gods as highly as any one. Where -would the art of oratory be without the legends -which the poets of bygone days have left to us? -May not these legends be likened to a rich vein -of ore, whence an accomplished orator can forge -himself both weapons and ornaments, if only he -understands how to work the metal skilfully? -How flat and insipid would not the maxims of -wisdom seem, expressed without images or comparisons -borrowed from the supernatural?</p> - -<p class='c001'>But think, oh my friend—can you expect the -multitude to take this view, especially in such an -age as ours? I assure you that in Antioch, at any -rate, ’tis not to be hoped for. The citizens—both -Galileans and the more enlightened—have of late -years lived at peace without greatly concerning -themselves as to these matters. There is scarce a -household in the city wherein people are of one -mind upon things divine. But, until lately, domestic -peace has nevertheless prevailed.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Now the case is altered. People have begun to -weigh creed against creed. Discord has broken out -between the nearest kinsmen. For example, a -citizen, whose name I forbear to mention, has -lately disinherited his son because the young man -<span class='pageno' id='Page_338'>338</span>separated himself from the Galilean community. -Commerce and social life suffer from all this, -especially now, when scarcity reigns and famine -stands at the door.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Enough, enough,—more than enough, Libanius! -You complain of scarcity. But tell me, has luxury -ever been more rampant than now? Is the -amphitheatre ever empty when it is reported that -a new lion has arrived from Africa? Last week, -when there was a talk of turning all idlers and -vagabonds out of the city because of the dearth, -did not the citizens loudly demand that the -gladiators and dancing-girls should be exempted; -for they felt they could not exist without them!</p> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, well may the gods desert you in wrath over, -your folly! There are plenty of teachers of wisdom -in this city, but where is wisdom? Why do -so few tread in my footsteps? Why stop at -Socrates? Why not go a few steps further, and -follow Diogenes, or—if I dare say so—me, since -we lead you to happiness? For is not happiness -the goal of all philosophy? And what is happiness -but harmony with oneself? Does the eagle -want golden feathers? Or the lion claws of silver? -Or does the pomegranate-tree long to bear fruits -of sparkling stone? I tell you no man has a right -to enjoy until he has steeled himself to forbear. -Ay, he ought not to touch enjoyment with -his finger-tips until he has learnt to trample it -under foot.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Ah truly, we are far from that! But for that -end will I work with all my might. For the sake of -these things I will give up others which are also -important. The Persian king—alarmed at my -<span class='pageno' id='Page_339'>339</span>approach—has offered me terms of peace. I think -of accepting them, that I may have my hands free -to enlighten and improve you, intractable generation! -As to the other matter, it must remain as -it is. You shall keep Alexander. Make the best -you can of him.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet, my Libanius, it shall not be said that I -have sent you from me in disfavour——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, my Emperor——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You mentioned with a certain bitterness that I -had given much to Themistius and Mamertinus. -But did I not also take something from them? -Did I not take from them my daily companionship? -’Tis my intent to give you more than I gave them.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, what do you tell me, my august brother?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>’Tis not my intent to give you gold or silver. -That folly prevailed with me only at first, until I -saw how people flocked round me, like thirsty -harvesters round a fountain, elbowing and jostling -one another, and each stretching out a hollow -hand to have it filled first, and filled to the brim. -I have grown wiser since. I think it may be said -in particular that the Goddess of Wisdom has not -withdrawn her countenance from me in the -measures I have taken for the good of this city.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Doubtless, doubtless!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_340'>340</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Therefore I commission you, oh my Libanius, to -compose a panegyric on me.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, what an honour——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You must lay special stress on the benefits for -which the citizens of Antioch owe me gratitude. -I hope you will produce an oration that shall do -honour both to the orator and to his subject. This -task, my Libanius, shall be my gift to you. I know -of nothing more fitting to offer to a man like you.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Libanius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, my crowned friend, what a transcendent -favour!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And now to the fencing-hall. Then, my friends, -we will walk through the streets, to give these -insolent townsfolk a profitable example of sobriety -in dress and simplicity in manners.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Through the streets, sire? In this midday -heat——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Courtier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Pray, sire, let me be excused; I feel extremely -unwell——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Heraclius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I too, most gracious lord! All this morning -I have been struggling against a feeling of -nausea——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_341'>341</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Then take an emetic, and see if you cannot -throw up your folly at the same time.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Oh Diogenes,—how degenerate are your successors! -They are ashamed to wear your cloak -in the open street.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He goes out angrily through the colonnade.</i></div> - -<h4 class='c024'>SCENE SECOND.</h4> - -<p class='c017'><i>A mean street in the outskirts of the city. In the row -of houses to the left stands a small church.</i></p> -<p class='c017'><i>A great multitude of lamenting Christians is assembled. -The psalm-writer <span class='sc'>Apollinaris</span> and -the teacher <span class='sc'>Cyrillus</span> are among them. Women -with children in their arms utter loud cries. -<span class='sc'>Gregory of Nazianzus</span> passes along the street.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Women.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Rushing up to him and taking hold of his garments.</i>] -Ah, Gregory, Gregory—speak to us! -Comfort us in this anguish!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Only One can give comfort here. Hold fast -by Him. Cling to the Lord our Shepherd.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Woman.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Know you this, oh man of God,—the Emperor -has commanded that all our sacred scriptures shall -be burnt!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I have heard it; but I cannot believe that his -folly is so great.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_342'>342</span><span class='sc'>Apollinaris.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It is true. Alexander, the new governor, has -sent out soldiers to search the houses of the -brethren. Even women and children are whipped -till they bleed, if they are suspected of hiding -books.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Cyrillus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor’s decree applies not to Antioch -only, nor even to Syria; it applies to the empire -and the whole world. Every smallest word that -is written concerning Christ is to be wiped out of -existence, and out of the memory of believers.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Apollinaris.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh ye mothers, weep for yourselves and for your -children!</p> - -<p class='c001'>The day will come when ye shall dispute with -those ye now carry in your arms, as to what was in -truth written in the lost Word of God. The day -will come when your children’s children shall mock -at you, and shall not know who or what Christ -was.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The day will come when no heart shall remember -that once on a time the Saviour of the -world suffered and died.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The last believer shall go in darkness to his -grave, and from that hour shall Golgotha vanish -away from the earth, like the place where the -Garden of Eden lay.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Woe, woe, to the new Pilate! He is not content, -like the first, to slay the Saviour’s body. He -murders the word and the faith!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Women.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Tearing their hair and rending their garments.</i>] -Woe, woe, woe!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_343'>343</span><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And I say unto you, be of good cheer! God -does not die. ’Tis not from Julian that the danger -comes. The danger was there long ere he arose, -in the weakness and contentiousness of our -hearts.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Cyrillus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, Gregory, how can you ask us to remain -steadfast amid these horrors?—Brethren and -sisters—know you what has happened in Arethusa? -The unbelievers have maltreated the old bishop -Marcus, dragged him by the hair through the -streets, cast him into the sewers, dragged him up -again, bleeding and befouled, smeared him over -with honey and set him in a tree, a prey to wasps -and poisonous flies.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And has not God’s power been gloriously manifested -in this very Marcus? What was Marcus -before? A man of doubtful faith. When the -troubles broke out in Arethusa, he even fled from -the city. But behold—-no sooner had he heard in -his hiding-place that the raging crew were avenging -the bishop’s flight on innocent brethren, than -he returned of his own free will. And how did -he bear the torments which so appalled even his -executioners, that in order to withdraw with some -show of credit, they offered to release him if he -would pay a very trifling fine? Was not his -answer: No—and no, and again no? The Lord -God was with him. He neither died nor yielded. -His countenance showed neither terror nor impatience. -In the tree wherein he hung, he thanked -<span class='pageno' id='Page_344'>344</span>God for being lifted a few steps nearer heaven, -while the others, as he said, crawled about on the -flat earth.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Cyrillus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A miracle must have happened to the resolute -old man. If you had heard, as I did, the shrieks -from the prison, that day in the summer when -Hilarion and the others were tortured——! They -were like no other shrieks—agonised, rasping, -mixed with hissing sounds every time the white-hot -iron buried itself in the raw flesh.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Apollinaris.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, Cyrillus, have you forgotten how the shrieks -passed over into song? Did not Hilarion sing -even in death? Did not that heroic Cappadocian -boy sing until he gave up the ghost under the -hands of the torturers? Did not Agathon, that -boy’s brother, sing until he swooned away, and -then woke up in madness?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Verily I say unto you, so long as song rings out -above our sorrows, Satan shall never conquer!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Be of good cheer. Love one another and suffer -one for another, as Serapion in Doristora lately -suffered for his brothers, for love of whom he let -himself be scourged, and cast alive into the -furnace!</p> - -<p class='c001'>See, see,—has not the Lord’s avenging hand -already been raised against the ungodly? Have -you not heard the tidings from Heliopolis under -Lebanon?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_345'>345</span><span class='sc'>Apollinaris.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I know it. In the midst of the ribald feast of -Aphrodite, the heathen broke into the house of -our holy sisters, violated them, murdered them -amid tortures unspeakable——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Women.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Woe, woe!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Apollinaris.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>——ay, some of the wretches even tore open -the bodies of the martyrs, dragged forth the entrails -and ate the liver raw!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Women.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Woe, woe, woe!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The God of Wrath seasoned the meal. How -have they thriven on it? Go to Heliopolis, and -you shall see those men with a putrefying poison -in all their veins, their eyes and teeth dropping -out, bereft of speech and understanding. Horror -has fallen on the city. Many heathens have been -converted since that night.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Therefore I fear not this pestilent monster who -has risen up against the church; I fear not this -crowned hireling of hell, who is bent upon finishing -the work of the enemy of mankind. Let him -fall upon us with fire, with sword, with the wild -beasts of the amphitheatre! Should his madness -even drive him further than he has yet gone—what -does it matter? For all this there is a -remedy, and the path lies open to victory.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Women.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Christ, Christ!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_346'>346</span><span class='sc'>Other Voices.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>There he is! There he comes!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Some.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Who?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Others.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor! The murderer! The enemy of -God!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Be still! Let him pass by in silence.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>A detachment of the Imperial Guards comes -along the street. <span class='sc'>Julian</span> follows, accompanied -by courtiers and philosophers, all -surrounded by guards. Another division -of the Household Guard, led by <span class='sc'>Fromentinus</span>, -closes the procession.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Woman.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Softly to the others.</i>] See, see, he has wrapped -himself in rags, like a beggar.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Another Woman.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He must be out of his senses.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Third Woman.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>God has already stricken him.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Fourth Woman.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Hide your little ones against your breasts. Let -not their eyes behold the monster.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Aha, are not these all Galileans? What do you -here in the sunshine, in the open street, you spawn -of darkness?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_347'>347</span><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You have closed our churches; therefore we -stand without and praise the Lord our God.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, is that you, Gregory? So you still linger -here. But beware; my patience will not last for -ever.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I seek not a martyr’s death; I do not even -desire it; but if it be allotted me, I shall glory in -dying for Christ.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Your phrases weary me. I will not have you -here. Why cannot you keep to your stinking -dens? Go home, I tell you!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Woman.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, Emperor, where is our home?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Another Woman</span>.</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Where are our houses? The heathen have -plundered them and driven us out.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Voice in the Throng.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Your soldiers have taken from us all our goods.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Other Voices.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh Emperor, Emperor, why have you seized -upon our possessions?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You ask that? I will tell you, ignorant creatures! -If your riches are taken from you, ’tis out -<span class='pageno' id='Page_348'>348</span>of care for your souls’ weal. Has not the Galilean -said that you shall possess neither silver nor gold? -Has not your Master promised that you shall one -day ascend to heaven? Ought you not, then, to -thank me for making your rising as easy as -possible?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosophers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, incomparably answered!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Apollinaris.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sire, you have robbed us of what is more -precious than gold and silver. You have robbed -us of God’s own word. You have robbed us of -our sacred scriptures.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I know you, hollow-eyed psalm-singer! Are -not you Apollinaris? I believe if I take away -your senseless books, you are capable of making -up others, just as senseless, in their stead. But -you are a pitiful bungler, let me tell you, both in -prose and verse! By Apollo! no true Greek -would suffer a line of yours to pass his lips. The -pamphlet you sent me the other day, which you -had the effrontery to entitle “The Truth,” I have -read, understood, and condemned.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Apollinaris.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>’Tis possible you may have read it; but understood -it you have not; for if you had, you would -not have condemned it.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ha-ha! the rejoinder I am preparing will prove -that I understood it.—But as to those books whose -<span class='pageno' id='Page_349'>349</span>loss you lament and howl over, I may tell you -that you will presently hold them cheaper when -it is proved that Jesus of Nazareth was a liar and -deceiver.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Women.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Woe to us; woe to us!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Cyrillus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Stepping forward.</i>] Emperor—what mean you -by that?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Did not the crucified Jew prophesy that the -Temple of Jerusalem should lie in ruins till the -end of time?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Cyrillus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>So shall it be!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh fools! At this moment my general, Jovian, -with two thousand workmen, is at Jerusalem, -rebuilding the temple in all its glory. Wait, -wait, you stiff-necked doubters—you shall learn -who is the mightier, the Emperor or the Galilean.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Cyrillus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sire, that you yourself shall learn to your dismay. -I held my peace till you blasphemed the -Highest, and called him a liar; but now I tell -you that you have not a feather-weight of power -against the Crucified One!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Constraining himself.</i>] Who are you, and what -do you call yourself?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_350'>350</span><span class='sc'>Cyrillus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Coming forward.</i>] I will tell you. First and -foremost I call myself a Christian, and that is a -most honourable name; for it shall never be wiped -away from the earth.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Furthermore, I bear the name of Cyrillus, and -am known by that name among my brethren and -sisters.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But if I keep the former name unspotted, I -shall reap eternal life as a reward.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You are mistaken, Cyrillus! You know I am -not unversed in the mysteries of your creed. -Believe me—he in whom you put your trust is not -the being you imagine. He died, in very truth, -at the time when the Roman, Pontius Pilate, was -governor in Judea.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Cyrillus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I am not mistaken. ’Tis you, oh Emperor, who -err in this. ’Tis you, who repudiated Christ at -the moment when he gave you dominion over the -world.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Therefore I tell you, in his name, that he will -quickly take from you both your dominion and -your life; and then shall you recognise, too late, -how mighty is he whom in your blindness you -despise.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yea, as you have forgotten his benefits, he will -not remember his lovingkindness, when he shall -rise up to punish you.</p> - -<p class='c001'>You have cast down his altars; he shall cast -you down from your throne. You have taken -delight in trampling his law under foot, that very -law which you yourself once proclaimed to believers. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_351'>351</span>In like manner shall the Lord trample -you under his heel. Your body shall be scattered -to the wild winds, and your soul shall descend to -a place of greater torments than you can devise -for me and mine!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>The women flock around <span class='sc'>Cyrillus</span>, with -cries and lamentations.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I would fain have spared you, Cyrillus! The -gods are my witnesses that I hate you not for -your faith’s sake. But you have mocked at my -imperial power and authority, and that I must -punish.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>To the Captain of the Guard.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>Fromentinus, lead this man to prison, and let -the executioner Typhon give him as many lashes -with the scourge as are needful to make him confess -that the Emperor, and not the Galilean, has -all power upon earth.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Gregory.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Be strong, Cyrillus, my brother!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Cyrillus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>With upraised hands.</i>] How blessed am I, to -suffer for the glory of God!</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>The soldiers seize and drag him out.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Women.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>With tears and sobs.</i>] Woe to us! Woe, woe, -to the apostate!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Disperse these maniacs! Let them be driven -<span class='pageno' id='Page_352'>352</span>out of the city as rebels. I will no longer endure -this defiance and scandal.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>The guard drives the lamenting crowd into -the side streets. Only the Emperor and -his suite remain behind. A man who has -hitherto been hidden is now seen lying at -the church door; he is in torn garments, -and has ashes strewn on his head.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Soldier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Stirring him with a lance-shaft.</i>] Up, up; be -off!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Man.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Looking up.</i>] Tread under foot this salt without -savour, rejected of the Lord!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh everlasting gods!—Hekebolius——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Courtiers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, so it is,—Hekebolius!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That is no longer my name! I am nameless. -I have denied the baptism that gave me my -name!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Arise, <a id='corr352.24'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='friend?'>friend!</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_352.24'><ins class='correction' title='friend?'>friend!</ins></a></span> Your mind is distempered——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Judas’s brother is pestiferous. Away from -me——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh feeble-hearted man——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_353'>353</span><span class='sc'>Hekebolius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Avaunt, tempter! Take back your thirty -pieces of silver! Is it not written, “Thou shalt -forsake wife and children for the Lord’s sake”? -And I——? For the sake of wife and children -have I betrayed the Lord my God! Woe, woe, -woe!</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He casts himself down again on his face.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Such flames of madness do these writings kindle -over the earth!</p> - -<p class='c001'>And do I not well to burn them?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Wait! Ere a year has passed the Temple of -the Jews shall stand again on Zion hill,—the -splendour of its golden dome shining over the -world, and testifying: Liar, liar, liar!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He goes hastily away, followed by the -philosophers.</i></p> -</div> - -<h4 class='c024'>SCENE THIRD.</h4> - -<p class='c017'><i>A road outside the city. To the left, by the wayside, -stands a statue of Cybele amid the stumps of -hewn-down trees. At a little distance to the left -is a fountain, with a stone basin. It is towards -sunset.</i></p> -<p class='c017'><i>On a step at the foot of the goddess’s statue sits an -old priest, with a covered basket in his lap. A -number of men and women carry water from the -fountain. Passers-by are seen on the road. From -the left enters the dyer <span class='sc'>Phocion</span>, meanly clad, -with a great bundle on his head. He meets -<span class='sc'>Eunapius</span> the barber, who comes from the city.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_354'>354</span><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Aha!—my friend Eunapius in full court dress!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Shame on you for mocking a poor man.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Call you that mockery? I thought it was the -highest distinction.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You may say so indeed. ’Tis now the height of -distinction to go in rags, especially if they have -lain long enough in the gutter.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How will all this end, think you?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What should I care? I know how it has ended -with me, and that is enough.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Are you no longer in the Emperor’s service?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What should the Emperor Julian want with a -barber? Think you he has his hair cut, or his beard -trimmed? He does not even comb them. But -how goes it with you? You do not look much -better off.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Alas, Eunapius, purple-dyeing has had its -day.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_355'>355</span><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Right, right; now we dye only the backs of -the Christians. But what is that you are toiling -with?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A bundle of willow bark. I am to dye fools’ -cloaks for the philosophers.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>A detachment of soldiers enters from the -right; they range themselves beside the -statue of Cybele.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To one of the men beside the stone basin.</i>] What -does this mean?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Man.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The statue is to be fed once more.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Will the Emperor sacrifice here this evening?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Another Man.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Does he not sacrifice both morning and evening—sometimes -here, sometimes there?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Woman.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Tis hard on us poor folk that the new Emperor -is so much in love with the gods.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Another Woman.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Nay, Dione, say not so. Ought we not all to -love the gods?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The First Woman.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Maybe, maybe; but ’tis hard on us none the -less——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_356'>356</span><span class='sc'>One of the Men.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Points to the right.</i>] Look—there he comes.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'><i>The <span class='sc'>Emperor Julian</span> advances in priestly attire, -with a sacrificial knife. Many philosophers, -priests, and servants surround him, along with -his guard. After them comes a crowd of people, -some mocking, some indignant.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>One of the Newcomers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>There stands the goddess. Now you shall see -sport.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>An Older Man.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Do you call that sport? How many hungry -mouths could be fed with what is wasted here?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Approaching the statue.</i>] Oh, this sight! It -fills my heart with rapture and my eyes with tears -of sorrow.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, I must indeed weep, when I remember -that this awe-inspiring goddess’s statue, overthrown -by impious and audacious hands, has lain -so long as if in a sleep of oblivion—and that, -moreover, in a place I loathe to mention.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>Suppressed laughter among the listeners. -<span class='sc'>Julian</span> turns angrily.</i></p> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>But I feel no less rapture when I remember -that to me it was vouchsafed to rescue the Divine -Mother from so unworthy a situation.</p> - -<p class='c001'>May I not well be enraptured by this thought?—Men -say of me, that I have won a few victories -over the barbarians, and praise me for them. -For my part, I set more value on what I am doing -<span class='pageno' id='Page_357'>357</span>for the gods; for to them we owe all our strength -and all our care.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>To those by the stone basin.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>It pleases me, however, to find that there are -some in this stiff-necked city who are not deaf -to my exhortations, but have come forth with -seemly piety—and, I doubt not, have brought -with them suitable offerings.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He goes up to the Old Priest.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>What do I see? One solitary old man! Where -are your brethren of the temple?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Old Priest.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sire, they are all dead but I.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>All dead! The road laid irreverently close -to the sanctuary. The venerable grove hewn -down——</p> - -<p class='c001'>Old man—where are the sacrificial offerings?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Old Priest.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Pointing to the basket.</i>] Here, sire!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes; but the rest?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Old Priest.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>This is all.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He opens the basket.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A goose! And this goose is all?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Old Priest.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, sire!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_358'>358</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And what pious man have we to thank for so -generous an offering?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Old Priest.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I brought it with me myself. Oh, sire, be not -wroth; this one was all I had.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>Laughter and mutterings among the bystanders.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Suppressed Voices.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>’Tis enough. A goose is more than enough.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh Antioch—you put my patience to a hard -test!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Man in the Crowd.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Bread first, offerings afterwards!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Phocion.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Nudging him in the side.</i>] Well said; well -said!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Another Man.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Give the citizens food; the gods may do as -best they can.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A third Man.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>We were better off under Chi and Kappa!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh you shameless brawlers, with your Chi and -Kappa! Think you I do not know whom you -mean by Chi and Kappa? Ho-ho, I know very -well. ’Tis a by-word among you. You mean -Christ and Constantius. But their dominion is past, -and I shall soon find means of subduing the frowardness -<span class='pageno' id='Page_359'>359</span>and ingratitude you display both towards -the gods and towards me. You are offended because -I allot the gods their due offerings. You mock -at my modest attire and my untrimmed beard. -This beard is a very thorn in your eyes! You call -it, irreverently, a goat’s beard. But I tell you, oh -fools, it is a wise man’s beard. I am not ashamed -to let you know that this beard harbours vermin, -as willow copses harbour game—and yet this -despised beard is more honourable to me than your -smooth-shaven chins to you!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eunapius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Half aloud.</i>] What foolishness; most unreasonable!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>But think you I will leave your mockeries -unanswered? No, no, you will find yourselves -mistaken. Only wait; you shall hear from me -sooner than you think. I am at this moment -preparing a treatise, entitled “The Beard-Hater.” -And would you know against whom it is directed? -It is directed against you, citizens of Antioch—against -you, whom I describe in it as “those -ignorant hounds.” You will find in it my reasons -for many things that now seem strange to you in -my behaviour.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Fromentinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Entering from the right.</i>] Great Emperor, I bring -you good news. Cyrillus has already given -way——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, I thought so.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_360'>360</span><span class='sc'>Fromentinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Typhon did his work bravely. The prisoner -was stripped, tied by the wrists, and slung to the -rafters, so that the tips of his toes barely touched -the floor; then Typhon scourged him from behind -with a lash of ox sinews that circled his body -round to the breast.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh how wicked to force us to use such means!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Fromentinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Lest he should die under our hands, we had at -last to release the obstinate wretch. He remained -for a time quite still, and seemed to reflect; then -suddenly he demanded to be brought before the -Emperor.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>This pleases me. And you are having him -brought hither?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Fromentinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, sire—here they come with him.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><i>A detachment of soldiers enters, conducting <span class='sc'>Cyrillus</span>.</i></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, my good Cyrillus,—you are not quite so -overweening as you were, I see.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Cyrillus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Have you read in the entrails of some beast or -bird what I have to say to you?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Methinks there needs no divination to foresee -that you have come to your senses, that you -<span class='pageno' id='Page_361'>361</span>renounce your delusions concerning the Galilean’s -power, and that you acknowledge both the -Emperor and our gods to be greater than he.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Cyrillus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Imagine no such thing. Your gods are powerless; -and if you cling to these graven images, that can -neither hear nor see, you yourself will soon be as -powerless as they.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Cyrillus—is this what you have to say?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Cyrillus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No; I come to thank you. Hitherto I have -dreaded you and your tortures. But in the hour -of agony I won the victory of the spirit over all -that is corruptible. Yes, Emperor, while your -hirelings thought I was hanging in torment from -the prison roof,—I lay, happy as a child, in my -Saviour’s arms; and when your executioners -seemed to be flaying my body with stripes, the -Lord passed his healing hand over the wounds, -took away the crown of thorns, and placed on my -brow the crown of life.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Therefore I thank you; no mortal has ever done -me so great a service as you.</p> - -<p class='c001'>And lest you should think I fear you for the -future, see——</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He throws back his cloak, tears open his -wounds and casts pieces of flesh at the -Emperor’s feet.</i></p> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>—see—see—gorge yourself with the blood you -thirst after! But as for me, know that I thirst -after Jesus Christ alone.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>Shrieks of horror are heard among the -crowd.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_362'>362</span><span class='sc'>Many Voices.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>This will bring disaster on us all!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Who has recoiled.</i>] Hold the madman, lest he -lay hands on us!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>The soldiers surround <span class='sc'>Cyrillus</span> and drag -him to the water basin; at the same -moment the voices of singing women are -heard to the right.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Look there, Fromentinus—what strange company -is that——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Fromentinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My gracious Emperor, ’tis the psalm-singers——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, that band of raving women——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Fromentinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The governor Alexander has taken from them -some writings which they hold sacred. They are -going out of the city to weep at the graves of the -Christians.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>With clenched hands.</i>] Defiance; defiance—from -men and women alike!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>Old <span class='sc'>Publia</span>, and many other women, come -along the road.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Publia.</span></div> - <div>[<i>Sings.</i></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c018'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Their gods are of marble, and silver and gold.</div> - <div class='line in4'>They shall crumble to mould.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c000'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_363'>363</span><span class='sc'>Chorus of Women.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>To mould; to mould!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Publia.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c018'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>They murder our brothers; our children they smite.</div> - <div class='line'>Soar up, doves of song, and pray God to requite!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c000'> - <div><span class='sc'>Chorus of Women.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Pray God to requite!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Publia.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Catching sight of <span class='sc'>Julian</span>.</i>] There he stands! -Woe to the miscreant who has burnt the word of -the Lord! Think you you can burn the word -of the Lord with fire? I will tell you where it -burns.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>She wrests a knife from one of the sacrificing -priests, cuts open her breast and -probes into the wound.</i></p> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Here the word burns. You may burn our books; -but the word shall burn in the hearts of men until -the uttermost end of time!</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>She casts the knife from her.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Women.</span></div> - <div>[<i>Sing with growing ecstasy.</i></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c018'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Let writings be burnt, and let bodies be slain;</div> - <div class='line in10'>The word shall remain—</div> - <div class='line in10'>The word shall remain!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c025'>[<i>They take <span class='sc'>Publia</span> into their midst and go -out towards the country.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The People by the Fountain.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Woe to us; the Galileans’ God is the -strongest!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_364'>364</span><span class='sc'>Other Voices.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What avail all our gods against this one?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Others again.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No offering! No worship! ’Twill incense the -terrible <em class='gesperrt'>one</em> against us.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh fools! You fear to incense a man long dead,—a -false prophet—you shall have proof of it. -He is a liar, I say! Wait but a little longer. -Every day, every hour, may bring tidings from -Jerusalem——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><i><span class='sc'>Jovian</span>, much travel-stained, enters hastily, with a few</i></div> - <div><i>followers, from the right.</i></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Most gracious Emperor, pardon your servant for -seeking you here.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>With a cry of joy.</i>] Jovian! Oh welcome news-bearer!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I come direct from Judea. I learned at the -palace that you were here——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, ever-praiseworthy gods,—yon setting sun -shall not go down upon the lie. How far have -you progressed? Speak, my Jovian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>With a glance at the crowd.</i>] Sire, shall I tell -all?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_365'>365</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>All, all—from first to last!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I arrived at Jerusalem with the architects and -soldiers, and the two thousand workmen. We went -to work at once to clear the ground. Mighty -remnants of the walls remained. They fell before -our pickaxes and crowbars so easily that it seemed -as though some unseen power were helping us to -efface them——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You see! What did I tell you!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>In the meantime immense heaps of mortar were -being brought together for the new building. -Then, without any warning, there arose a whirlwind, -which spread the lime like a cloud over the -whole region.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Go on; go on!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The same night the earth shook repeatedly.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Voices in the Crowd.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Hear that! The earth shook.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Go on, I say!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>We were nothing daunted by this strange event. -But when we had dug so deep into the ground -as to open the subterranean vaults, and the stone-hewers -went down to work by torchlight——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_366'>366</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Jovian,—what then?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sire, a terrible, a monstrous stream of fire burst -out of the caverns. A thundering noise shook -the whole city. The vaults burst asunder; hundreds -of workmen were killed in them, and the -few who escaped fled with lacerated limbs.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Whispering Voices.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Galileans’ God!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Can I believe all this? Did you see it?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>With my own eyes. We began anew. Sire, in -the presence of many thousands—awestruck, -kneeling, exulting, praying—the same wonder -was twice repeated.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Pale and trembling.</i>] And then——? In -one word,—what has the Emperor achieved in -Jerusalem?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor has fulfilled the Galilean’s prophecy.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Fulfilled——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Through you is the saying accomplished: “Not -one stone shall remain upon another.”</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_367'>367</span><span class='sc'>Men and Women.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Galilean has overcome the Emperor! The -Galilean is greater than Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To the priest of Cybele.</i>] You may go home, old -man! And take your goose with you. We will -have no sacrifice this evening.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He turns to the crowd.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>I heard some say the Galilean had conquered. -It may appear so; but I tell you it is a delusion. -Oh senseless clods; oh contemptible dolts,—believe -me, it will not be long before the tables are turned! -I will——; I will——! Ah, only wait! I am -already collecting material for a treatise against -the Galilean. It is to be in seven chapters; and -when his followers have read <em class='gesperrt'>that</em>,—and when -“The Beard-Hater,” too——</p> - -<p class='c001'>Give me your arm, Fromentinus! This defiance -has wearied me.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>To the guard, as he passes the fountain.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>Set Cyrillus free!</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He returns with his retinue to the city.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Crowd at the Fountain.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Shouting after him with scornful laughter.</i>] There -goes the altar-butcher?—There goes the ragged -bear!—There goes the ape with the long arms!</p> - -<h4 class='c024'>SCENE FOURTH</h4> - -<p class='c017'><i>Moonlight. Among the ruins of the temple of Apollo.</i></p> -<p class='c017'><i>The <span class='sc'>Emperor Julian</span> and <span class='sc'>Maximus the Mystic</span>, -both in robes, appear among the overthrown -columns.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_368'>368</span><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Whither, my brother?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian</span>.</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Where it is loneliest.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>But here—in this desolation? Among these -rubbish-heaps——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is not the whole earth a rubbish-heap?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yet you have shown that what has fallen can be -restored.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Mocker! In Athens I saw how a cobbler had -made himself a little workshop in the temple of -Theseus. In Rome, I hear, a corner of the Basilica -Julia is used for a bullock-stable. Call you <em class='gesperrt'>that</em> -restoration?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Why not? Does not everything happen little -by little? What is a whole but the sum of all the -parts?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Foolish wisdom!</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He points to the overturned statue of Apollo.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>See this noseless face. See this splintered -elbow,—these shattered loins. Does the sum of -all these deformities restore to us the divine perfection -of bygone beauty?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_369'>369</span><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How know you that that bygone beauty was -beautiful—in itself—apart from the spectator’s -idea?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, Maximus, that is just the question. What -<em class='gesperrt'>exists</em> in itself? After to-day I know of nothing.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He kicks the head of Apollo.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>Have you ever been mightier, in yourself?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Strange, Maximus, that there should dwell such -strength in delusion. Look at those Galileans. -And look at me in the old days, when I thought -it possible to build up again the fallen world of -beauty.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Friend—if delusion be a necessity to you, return -to the Galileans. They will receive you with -open arms.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You know well that that is impossible. Emperor -and Galilean! How reconcile that contradiction?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, this Jesus Christ is the greatest rebel that -ever lived. What was Brutus—what was Cassius, -compared with <em class='gesperrt'>him</em>? They murdered only the -man Julius Caesar; but he murders all that is -called Caesar or Augustus. Is peace conceivable -between the Galilean and the Emperor? Is there -room for the two of them together upon the earth? -For he lives on the earth, Maximus,—the Galilean -lives, I say, however thoroughly both Jews and -Romans imagined that they had killed him; he -lives in the rebellious minds of men; he lives in -their scorn and defiance of all visible authority.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_370'>370</span>“Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,—and -to God the things that are God’s!” Never -has mouth of man uttered a craftier saying than -that. What lies behind it? What, and how -much, belongs to the Emperor? That saying is -nothing but a bludgeon wherewith to strike the -crown from off the Emperor’s head.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yet the great Constantine knew how to compound -matters with the Galilean—and your predecessor -too.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, could one only be as easily satisfied as they! -But call you that ruling the empire of the world? -Constantine widened the boundaries of his -dominion, but did he not fix narrow boundaries to -his spirit and his will? You rate that man too -high when you call him “the great.” Of my -predecessor I will not speak; he was more slave -than Emperor, and I cannot be contented with -the name alone.</p> - -<p class='c001'>No, no, a truce is not to be thought of in this -contest. And yet—to have to give way! Oh, -Maximus, after these defeats I cannot retain the -crown—yet neither can I renounce it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>You, Maximus, who can interpret omens whose -mystic meaning is hidden from all others—you -who can read the volume of the eternal stars,—can -you foretell the issue of this struggle?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, my brother, I can foretell the issue.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_371'>371</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Can you? Then tell me—! Who shall conquer? -The Emperor or the Galilean?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Both the Emperor and the Galilean shall -succumb.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Succumb——? Both——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Both. Whether in our times or in hundreds of -years, I know not; but so it shall be when the -right man comes.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And who is the right man?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He who shall swallow up both Emperor and -Galilean.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You solve the riddle by a still darker riddle.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Hear me, brother and friend of truth! I say -you shall both succumb—but not that you shall -perish.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Does not the child succumb in the youth, and -the youth in the man? Yet neither child nor -youth perishes.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, my best-loved pupil—have you forgotten all -our discourse in Ephesus about the three empires?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_372'>372</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah Maximus, years have passed since then. -Speak!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You know I have never approved the course -you have taken as Emperor. You have striven to -make the youth a child again. The empire of the -flesh is swallowed up in the empire of the spirit. -But the empire of the spirit is not final, any more -than the youth is. You have striven to hinder the -growth of the youth,—to hinder him from becoming -a man. Oh fool, who have drawn your sword -against that which is to be—against the third -empire, in which the twin-natured shall reign!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And he——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Jews have a name for him. They call him -Messiah, and they await him.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Slowly and thoughtfully.</i>] Messiah?—Neither -Emperor nor Redeemer?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Both in one, and one in both.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Emperor-God—God-Emperor. Emperor in the -kingdom of the spirit,—and God in that of the -flesh.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'><em class='gesperrt'>That</em> is the third empire, Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_373'>373</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, Maximus, <em class='gesperrt'>that</em> is the third empire.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>In that empire shall the present watchword of -revolt be realised.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>“Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,—and -to God the things that are God’s.” Yes, -yes, then the Emperor is in God, and God in the -Emperor.—Ah, dreams, dreams,—who shall break -the Galilean’s power?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Wherein lies the Galilean’s power?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I have brooded over that question in vain.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is it not somewhere written: “Thou shalt have -none other gods but me”?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes—yes—yes!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Seer of Nazareth did not preach this god -or that; he said: “God is I;—I am God.”</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ay, this thing without me——! ’Tis that which -makes the Emperor powerless.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The third empire? The Messiah? Not the -Jews’ Messiah, but the Messiah of the two empires, -the spirit and the world——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_374'>374</span><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The God-Emperor.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor-God.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Logos in Pan—Pan in Logos.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Maximus,—how comes he into being?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He comes into being in the man who wills -himself.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My beloved teacher,—I must leave you</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Whither are you going?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>To the city. The Persian king has made overtures -of peace, which I too hastily accepted. My -envoys are already on the way. They must be -overtaken and recalled.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You will reopen the war against King Sapor?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I will do what Cyrus dreamed of, and Alexander -attempted——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_375'>375</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I will possess the world.—Good-night, my -Maximus!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He makes a gesture of farewell, and goes -hastily away. <span class='sc'>Maximus</span> looks thoughtfully -after him.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Chorus of the Psalm-Singers.</span></div> - <div>[<i>Far away, beside the graves of the martyrs.</i></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c018'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Ye gods of the nations, of silver and gold,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Ye shall crumble to mould!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_376'>376</span> - <h3 class='c015'>ACT FOURTH</h3> -</div> - -<h4 class='c024'>SCENE FIRST.</h4> - -<p class='c016'><i>The eastern frontier of the empire. A wild mountain -landscape. A deep valley separates the high foreground -from the mountains behind.</i></p> -<p class='c017'><i>The <span class='sc'>Emperor Julian</span>, in military dress, stands on -the edge of a rocky promontory, and looks into -the depths. A little way from him, to the left, -stand <span class='sc'>Nevita</span>, the Persian prince <span class='sc'>Hormisdas</span>, -<span class='sc'>Jovian</span>, and several other generals. To the right, -beside a roughly-built stone altar, crouch the soothsayer, -<span class='sc'>Numa</span>, and two other Etruscan soothsayers, -examining the entrails of the sacrifices for omens. -Further forward sits <span class='sc'>Maximus the Mystic</span> on a -stone, surrounded by <span class='sc'>Priscus</span>, <span class='sc'>Kytron</span>, and other -philosophers. Small detachments of light-armed -men now and then pass over the height from left -to right.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Pointing downwards.</i>] See, see—the legions -wind like a scaly serpent through the ravine.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Those just below us, in sheepskin doublets, are -the Scythians.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What piercing howls——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_377'>377</span><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That is the Scythians’ customary song, sire!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>More howl than song.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Now come the Armenians. Arsaces himself is -leading them.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Roman legions must already be out on the -plains. All the neighbouring tribes are hastening -to make their submission.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He turns to the officers.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>The twelve hundred ships, containing all our -stores and munitions, lie assembled on the Euphrates. -I am now fully assured that the fleet can -cross over to the Tigris by the ancient canal. The -whole army will pass the river by means of the -ships. Then we will advance along by the eastern -bank as rapidly as the current will suffer the ships -to follow us.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Tell me, Hormisdas, what think you of this -plan?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hormisdas.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Invincible general, I know that under your victorious -protection it will be vouchsafed me to tread -once more the soil of my fatherland.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What a relief to be rid of those narrow-breasted -citizens! What terror was in their eyes when they -pressed round my chariot as I left the city! “Come -again quickly,” they cried, “and be more gracious -to us than now.” I will never revisit Antioch. I -<span class='pageno' id='Page_378'>378</span>will never again set eyes on that ungrateful city! -When I have conquered I will return by way of -Tarsus.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He goes up to the soothsayers.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>Numa,—what omens for our campaign do you -find this morning?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Numa.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The omens warn you not to pass the frontier of -your empire this year.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>H’m! How read you this omen, Maximus?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I read it thus: the omen counsels you to subdue -all the regions you traverse; thus you will never -pass the frontier of your empire.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>So is it. We must look closely into such supernatural -signs; for there is wont to be a double -meaning in them. It even seems at times as if -mysterious powers took a delight in leading men -astray, especially in great undertakings. Were -there not some who held it an evil omen that the -colonnade in Hierapolis fell in and buried half a -hundred soldiers, just as we marched through the -city? But I say that that is a presage of a twofold -good. In the first place it foreshows the -downfall of Persia, and in the second place the -doom of the unhappy Galileans. For what soldiers -were they who were killed? Why, Galilean -convict-soldiers, who went most unwillingly to the -war; and therefore fate decreed them that sudden -and inglorious end.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_379'>379</span><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Most gracious Emperor, here comes a captain -from the vanguard.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ammian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Entering from the right.</i>] Sire, you commanded -me to inform you should anything strange befall -during our advance.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Well? Has anything happened this morning?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ammian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, sire, two portents.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Quick, Ammian,—speak on!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ammian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>First, sire, it happened that when we had gone -a little way beyond the village of Zaita, a lion of -monstrous size burst from a thicket and rushed -straight at our soldiers, who killed it with many -arrows.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosophers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What a fortunate omen!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Hormisdas.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>King Sapor calls himself the lion of the nations.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Numa.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Busied at the altar.</i>] Turn back; turn back, -Emperor Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Go fearlessly forward, chosen son of victory!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_380'>380</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Turn back after this? As the lion fell at Zaita, -so shall the lion of the nations fall before our -arrows. Does not history warrant me in interpreting -this omen to our advantage? Need I -remind such learned men that when the Emperor -Maximian conquered the Persian king, Narses, -a lion, and a huge wild boar besides, were, in like -manner, slain in front of the Roman ranks?</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>To Ammian.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>But now the other——? You spoke of two -signs.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ammian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The other is more doubtful, sire! Your -charger, Babylonius, was led forth, as you commanded, -fully equipped, to await your descent on -the other side of the mountain. But just at that -time a detachment of Galilean convict-soldiers -happened to pass. Heavily laden as they were, -and by no means over willing, they had to be -driven with scourges. Nevertheless they lifted -up their arms as in rejoicing, and burst forth into -a loud hymn in praise of their deity. Babylonius -was startled by the sudden noise, reared in his -fright, and fell backwards; and as he sprawled -upon the ground, all his golden trappings were -soiled and bespattered with mud.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Numa.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>At the altar.</i>] Emperor Julian,—turn back, -turn back!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Galileans must have done this out of -malice,—and yet, in spite of themselves, they -<span class='pageno' id='Page_381'>381</span>have brought to pass a portent which I hail with -delight.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, as Babylonius fell, so shall Babylon fall, -stripped of all the splendour of its adornments.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Priscus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What wisdom in interpretation!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Kytron.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>By the gods, it must be so!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The other Philosophers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>So, and not otherwise!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To <span class='sc'>Nevita</span>.</i>] The army shall continue to -advance. Nevertheless, for still greater security, -I will sacrifice this evening and see what the -omens indicate.</p> - -<p class='c001'>As for you Etruscan jugglers, whom I have -brought hither at so great a cost, I will no longer -suffer you in the camp, where you serve only to -damp the soldiers’ spirits. You know nothing of -the difficult calling you profess. What effrontery! -What measureless presumption! Away with -them! I will not set eyes on them again.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>Some of the guards drive the Soothsayers -out to the left.</i></p> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Babylonius fell. The lion succumbed before -my soldiers. Yet these things do not tell us what -invisible help we have to depend upon. The gods, -whose essence is as yet by no means duly ascertained, -seem sometimes—if I may say so—to -slumber, or, on the whole, to concern themselves -very little with human affairs. We, my dear -friends, are so unfortunate as to live in such an -<span class='pageno' id='Page_382'>382</span>age. We have even seen how certain divinities -have neglected to support well-meant endeavours, -tending to their own honour and glory.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yet must we not judge rashly in this matter. -It is conceivable that the immortals, who guide -and uphold the universe, may sometimes depute -their power to mortal hands,—not thereby, -assuredly, lessening their own glory; for is it not -thanks to them that so highly-favoured<a id='r11' /><a href='#f11' class='c012'><sup>[11]</sup></a> a mortal—if -he exist—has been born into this world?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Priscus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh matchless Emperor, do not your own -achievements afford proof of this?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I know not, Priscus, whether I dare rate my -own achievements so highly. I say nothing of -the fact that the Galileans believe the Jew, Jesus -of Nazareth, to have been thus elected; for these -men err—as I shall conclusively establish in my -treatise against them. But I will remind you of -Prometheus in ancient days. Did not that pre-eminent -hero procure for mankind still greater -blessings than the gods seemed to vouchsafe—wherefore -he had to suffer much, both pain and -despiteful usage, till he was at last exalted to the -communion of the gods—to which, in truth, he -had all the while belonged?</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_383'>383</span>And may not the same be said both of Herakles -and of Achilles, and, finally, of the Macedonian -Alexander, with whom some have compared me, -partly on account of what I achieved in Gaul, -partly, and especially, on account of my designs -in the present campaign?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My Emperor—the rear-guard is now beneath -us—it is perhaps time——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Presently, Nevita! First I must tell you of a -strange dream I had last night.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I dreamed that I saw a child pursued by a rich -man who owned countless flocks, but despised -the worship of the gods.</p> - -<p class='c001'>This wicked man exterminated all the child’s -kindred. But Zeus took pity on the child itself, -and held his hand over it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Then I saw this child grow up into a youth, under -the care of Minerva and Apollo.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Further, I dreamed that the youth fell asleep -upon a stone beneath the open sky.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Then Hermes descended to him, in the likeness -of a young man, and said: “Come; I will show -thee the way to the abode of the highest god!” -So he led the youth to the foot of a very steep -mountain. There he left him.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Then the youth burst out into tears and lamentations, -and called with a loud voice upon Zeus. -Lo, then, Minerva and the Sun-King who rules -the earth descended to his side, bore him aloft to -the peak of the mountain, and showed him the -whole inheritance of his race.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_384'>384</span>But this inheritance was the orb of the earth -from ocean to ocean, and beyond the ocean.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Then they told the youth that all this should -belong to him. And therewith they gave him -three warnings: he should not sleep, as his race -had done; he should not hearken to the counsel -of hypocrites; and, lastly, he should honour as -gods those who resemble the gods. “Forget not,” -they said, on leaving him, “that thou hast an -immortal soul, and that this thy soul is of divine -origin. And if thou follow our counsel thou shalt -see our father and become a god, even as we.”</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Priscus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What are signs and omens to this!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Kytron.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It can scarcely be rash to anticipate that the -Fates will think twice ere they suffer their -counsels to clash with yours.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>We dare not build with certainty on such an -exception. But assuredly I cannot but find this -dream significant, although my brother Maximus, -by his silence—against all reasonable expectation—seems -to approve neither of the dream itself, -nor of my relation of it.—But that we must bear -with!</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He takes out a roll of paper.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>See, Jovian; before I arose this morning, I -noted down what I had dreamt. Take this paper, -let numerous copies of it be made, and read to -the various divisions of the army. I hold it of -the utmost moment, on so hazardous an expedition, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_385'>385</span>that, amid all dangers and difficulties, the -soldiers may leave their fate securely in their -leader’s hands, considering him infallible in all -that concerns the issue of the war.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I pray you, my Emperor, let me be excused from -this.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What do you mean?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That I cannot lend my aid to anything that is -against the truth.—Oh, hear me, my august -Emperor and master! Is there a single one of -your soldiers who doubts that he is safe in your -hands? Have you not, on the Gallic frontier, in -spite of overwhelming numbers and difficulties of -all kinds, gained greater victories than any other -living commander can boast of?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Well, well! What startling news!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>All know how marvellously fortune has hitherto -followed you. In learning you excel all other -mortals, and in the glorious art of eloquence you -bear the palm among the greatest.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And yet——? In spite of all this——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>In spite of all this, my Emperor, you are but -mortal. By publishing this dream through the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_386'>386</span>army you would seek to make men deem you a -god,—and in that I dare not assist you.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What say you, my friends, to this speech?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Kytron.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It assuredly shows no less effrontery than -ignorance.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You seem to forget, oh truth-loving Jovian, that -the Emperor Antoninus, surnamed the Pious, has -been worshipped in a special temple on the Roman -forum as an immortal god. And not he alone, but -also his wife, Faustina, and other Emperors before -and after him.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I know it, sire,—but it was not given to our -forefathers to live in the light of truth.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>With a long look at him.</i>] Ah, Jovian!——</p> - -<p class='c001'>Tell me,—last evening, when I was taking the -omens for the coming night, you brought me a -message just as I was laving the blood from my -hands in the water of purification——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, my Emperor!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>In my haste, I chanced to sprinkle a few drops -of the water on your cloak. You shrank sharply -backward and shook the water off, as if your cloak -had been defiled.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_387'>387</span><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My Emperor,—so that did not escape you?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Did you think it would have escaped me?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, sire; for it was a matter between me and -the one true God.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Galilean!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sire, you yourself sent me to Jerusalem, and I -was witness to all that happened there. I have -pondered much since then; I have read the -scriptures of the Christians, have spoken with -many of them,—and now I am convinced that in -their teaching lies the truth of God.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is this possible? Can it be possible? Thus -does this infectious frenzy spread! Even those -nearest me—my own generals desert me——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Place me in the van against your foes, sire,—and -you shall see how gladly I render to Caesar -the things that are Caesar’s.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How much——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My blood, my life.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_388'>388</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Blood and life are not enough. He who is to -rule must rule over the minds, over the wills of -men. It is in this that your Jesus of Nazareth -bars my way and contests my power.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Think not that I will punish you, Jovian! -You Galileans covet punishment as a benefaction. -And after it you are called martyrs. Have they -not thus exalted those whom I have been obliged -to chastise for their obduracy?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Go to the vanguard! I will not willingly see -your face again.—Oh, this treachery to me, which -you veil in phrases about double duty and a double -empire! This shall be altered. Other kings -besides the Persian shall feel my foot on their -necks.</p> - -<p class='c001'>To the vanguard, Jovian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I shall do my duty, sire!</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He goes out to the right.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>We will not have this morning darkened, which -rose amid so many happy omens. This, and -more, will we bear with an even mind. But my -dream shall none the less be published through -the army. You, Kytron, and you, my Priscus, -and my other friends, will see that this is done in -a becoming manner.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Philosophers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>With joy, with unspeakable joy, sire!</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>They take the roll and go out to the right.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_389'>389</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I beg you, Hormisdas, not to doubt my power, -although it may seem as though stubbornness -met me on every hand. Go; and you too, -Nevita, and all the rest, each to his post;—I will -follow when the troops are all gathered out on -the plains.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>All except the <span class='sc'>Emperor</span> and <span class='sc'>Maximus</span> go -out to the right.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>After a time, rises from the stone where he has been -seated and goes up to the Emperor.</i>] My sick -brother!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Rather wounded than sick. The deer that is -pierced by the hunter’s shaft seeks the thicket -where its fellows cannot see it. I could no longer -endure to be seen in the streets of Antioch;—and -now I shrink from showing myself to the -army.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No one sees you, friend; for they grope in -blindness. But you shall be as a physician to -restore their sight, and then they shall behold you -in your glory.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Gazing down into the ravine.</i>] How far beneath -us! How tiny they seem, as they wind their -way forward, amid thicket and brushwood, along -the rocky river-bed!</p> - -<p class='c001'>When we stood at the mouth of this defile, all -the leaders, as one man, made for the pass. It -meant an hour’s way shortened, a little trouble -spared,—on the road to death.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_390'>390</span>And the legions were so eager to follow. No -thought of taking the upward path, no longing -for the free air up here, where the bosom expands -with each deep draught of breath. There they -march, and march, and march, and see not that -the heaven is straitened above them,—and know -not there are heights where it is wider.—Seems -it not, Maximus, as though men lived but to die? -The spirit of the Galilean is in this. If it be true, -as they say, that his father made the world, then -the son contemns his father’s work. And it is -just for this presumptuous frenzy that he is so -highly revered!</p> - -<p class='c001'>How great was Socrates compared with him! -Did not Socrates love pleasure, and happiness, and -beauty? And yet he renounced them.—Is there -not a bottomless abyss between not desiring, on -the one hand, and, on the other, desiring, yet renouncing?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, this treasure of lost wisdom I would fain -have restored to men. Like Dionysus of old, I -went forth to meet them, young and joyous, a -garland on my brow, and the fulness of the vine -in my arms. But they reject my gifts, and I am -scorned, and hated, and derided, by friends and -foes alike.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Why? I will tell you why.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Hard by a certain town where once I lived, -there was a vineyard, renowned far and wide for -its grapes; and when the citizens wished to have -the finest fruits on their tables, they sent their -servants out to bring clusters from this vineyard.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Many years after I came again to that city; but -no one now knew aught of the grapes that were -once so renowned. Then I sought the owner of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_391'>391</span>the vineyard and said to him, “Tell me, friend, -are your vines dead, since no one now knows aught -of your grapes?” “No,” he answered, “but let -me tell you, young vines yield good grapes but -poor wine; old vines, on the contrary, bad grapes -but good wine. Therefore, stranger,” he added, -“I still gladden the hearts of my fellow citizens -with the abundance of my vineyard, only in another -form—as wine, not as grapes.”</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Thoughtfully.</i>] Yes, yes, yes!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You have not given heed to this. The vine of -the world has grown old, and yet you think that -you can still offer the raw grapes to those who -thirst for the new wine.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Alas, my Maximus, who thirsts? Name me a -single man, outside our brotherhood, who is moved -by a spiritual craving.—Unhappy I, to be born -into this iron age!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Do not reproach the age. Had the age been -greater, you would have been less. The world-soul -is like a rich man with innumerable sons. If -he share his riches equally, all are well to do, but -none rich. But if he disinherit all but one, and -give everything to him, then that one stands as a -rich man amid a circle of paupers.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No similitude could be less apt than this.—Am -I like your single heir? Is not that very thing -<span class='pageno' id='Page_392'>392</span>divided among many which the ruler of the world -should possess in fuller measure than all besides—nay, -which he alone should possess? Oh how is -not power divided? Has not Libanius the power -of eloquence in such fulness that men call him the -king of orators? Have not you, my Maximus, the -power of mystic wisdom? Has not that madman -Apollinaris of Antioch the power of ecstatic song -in a measure I needs must envy him? And then -Gregory the Cappadocian! Has he not the power -of indomitable will in such excess, that many have -applied to him the epithet, unbecoming for a -subject, of “the Great”? And—what is stranger -still—the same epithet has been applied to -Gregory’s friend, Basil, the soft-natured man with -girlish eyes. And yet he plays no active part in -the world; he lives here, this Basil—here in this -remote region, wearing the habit of an anchorite, -and holding converse with none but his disciples, -his sister Makrina, and other women, who are called -pious and holy. What influence do they not exert, -both he and his sister, through the epistles they -send forth from time to time. Everything, even -renunciation and seclusion, becomes a power to -oppose my power. But the crucified Jew is still -the worst of all.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Then make an end of all these scattered powers! -But dream not that you can crush the rebels, by -attacking them in the name of a monarch whom -they do not know. In your own name you must -act, Julian! Did Jesus of Nazareth come as the -emissary of another? Did he not proclaim himself -to be one with him that sent him? Truly in -you is the time fulfilled, and you see it not. Do -<span class='pageno' id='Page_393'>393</span>not all signs and omens point, with unerring finger, -to you? Must I remind you of your mother’s -dream——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>She dreamed that she brought forth Achilles.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Must I remind you how fortune has borne you, -as on mighty pinions, through an agitated and -perilous life? Who are you, sire? Are you -Alexander born again, not, as before, in immaturity, -but perfectly equipped for the fufilment of the -task?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Maximus!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>There is One who ever reappears, at certain -intervals, in the course of human history. He is -like a rider taming a wild horse in the arena. -Again and yet again it throws him. A moment, -and he is in the saddle again, each time more secure -and more expert; but off he has had to go, in all -his varying incarnations, until this day. Off he -had to go as the god-created man in Eden’s grove; -off he had to go as the founder of the world-empire;—off -he <em class='gesperrt'>must</em> go as the prince of the -empire of God. Who knows how often he has -wandered among us when none have recognised -him?</p> - -<p class='c001'>How know you, Julian, that you were not in -him whom you now persecute?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Looking far away.</i>] Oh unfathomable -riddle——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_394'>394</span><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Must I remind you of the old prophecy now set -afloat again? It has been foretold that so many -years as the year has days should the empire of -the Galilean endure. Two years more, and ’twill be -three hundred and sixty-five years since that man -was born in Bethlehem.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Do you believe this prophecy?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I believe in him who is to come.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Always riddles!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I believe in the free necessity.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Still darker riddles.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Behold, Julian,—when Chaos seethed in the -fearful void abyss, and Jehovah was alone,—that -day when he, according to the old Jewish scriptures, -stretched forth his hand and divided light from -darkness, sea from land,—that day the great -creating God stood on the summit of his power.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But with man arose will upon the earth. And -men, and beasts, and trees, and herbs re-created -themselves, each in its own image, according to -eternal laws; and by eternal laws the stars roll -through the heavenly spaces.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Did Jehovah repent? The ancient traditions -of all races tell of a repentant Creator.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_395'>395</span>He had established the law of perpetuation in -the universe. Too late to repent! The created -<em class='gesperrt'>will</em> perpetuate itself—and is perpetuated.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But the two onesided empires war one against -the other. Where, where is he, the king of peace, -the twin-sided one, who shall reconcile them?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To himself.</i>] Two years? All the gods inactive. -No capricious power behind, which might bethink -itself to cross my plans——</p> - -<p class='c001'>Two years? In two years I can bring the earth -under my sway.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You spoke, my Julian;—what said you?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I am young and strong and healthy. Maximus—it -is my will to live long.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He goes out to the right. <span class='sc'>Maximus</span> follows -him.</i></p> -</div> - -<h4 class='c024'>SCENE SECOND</h4> - -<p class='c017'><i>A hilly wooded region with a brook among the trees. -On an elevation a little farm. It is towards sunset.</i></p> -<p class='c017'><i>Columns of soldiers pass from left to right at the foot -of the slope. <span class='sc'>Basil of Caesarea</span>, and his -sister <span class='sc'>Makrina</span>, both in the dress of hermits, stand -by the wayside and offer water and fruits to the -weary soldiers.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Makrina.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, Basil, see—each paler and more haggard -than the last!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_396'>396</span><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And countless multitudes of our Christian -brethren among them! Woe to the Emperor -Julian! This is a cruelty more cunningly contrived -than all the horrors of the torture-chamber. -Against whom is he leading his hosts? Less -against the Persian king than against Christ.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Makrina.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Do you believe this dreadful thing of him?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, Makrina, it becomes more and more clear -to me that ’tis against <em class='gesperrt'>us</em> the blow is aimed. All -the defeats he has suffered in Antioch, all the -resistance he has met with, all the disappointments -and humiliations he has had to endure on his -ungodly path, he hopes to bury in oblivion by -means of a victorious campaign. And he will -succeed. A great victory will blot out everything. -Men are fashioned so; they see right in success, -and before might most of them will bend.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Makrina.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Pointing out to the left.</i>] Fresh multitudes! -Innumerable, unceasing——</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>A company of soldiers passes by; a young -man in the ranks sinks down on the road -from weariness.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Subaltern.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Beating him with a stick.</i>] Up with you, lazy -hound!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Makrina.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Hastening up.</i>] Oh, do not strike him!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_397'>397</span><span class='sc'>The Soldier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Let them strike me;—I am so glad to suffer.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ammian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Entering.</i>] Again a stoppage!—Oh, it is he. -Can he really go no further?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Subaltern.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I do not know what to say, sir; he falls at every -step.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Makrina.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, be patient! Who is this unhappy man?—See, -suck the juice of these fruits.—Who is he, -sir?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ammian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A Cappadocian,—one of the fanatics who took -part in the desecration of the temple of Venus at -Antioch.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Makrina.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, one of those martyrs——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ammian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Try to rise, Agathon! I am sorry for this -fellow. They chastised him more severely than -he could bear. He has been out of his mind ever -since.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Rising.</i>] I can bear it very well, and I am in -my right mind, sir! Strike, strike, strike;—I -rejoice to suffer.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ammian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To the Subaltern.</i>] Forward; we have no time -to waste.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_398'>398</span><span class='sc'>The Subaltern.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To the soldiers.</i>] Forward, forward!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Babylonius fell;—soon shall the Babylonian -whoremonger fall likewise. The lion of Zaita was -slain—the crowned lion of the earth is doomed!</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>The soldiers are driven out to the right.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ammian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To <span class='sc'>Basil</span> and <span class='sc'>Makrina</span>.</i>] You strange people;—you -go astray and yet you do good. Thanks for -your refreshment to the weary; and would that -my duty to the Emperor permitted me to treat -your brethren as forbearingly as I should desire.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He goes off to the right.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>God be with you, noble heathen!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Makrina.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Who may that man be?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I know him not.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He points to the left.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh see, see—there he is himself!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Makrina.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor? Is <em class='gesperrt'>that</em> the Emperor?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, that is he.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'><i>The <span class='sc'>Emperor Julian</span> with several of his principal -officers, escorted by a detachment of guards, with -their captain <span class='sc'>Anatolus</span>, enters from the left.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_399'>399</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To his retinue.</i>] Why talk of fatigue? Should -the fall of a horse bring me to a standstill? Or -is it less becoming to go on foot than to bestride -an inferior animal? Fatigue! My ancestor said -that it befits an Emperor to die standing. I say -that it befits an Emperor, not only in the hour of -death, but throughout his whole life, to set an -example of endurance; I say—— Ah, by the -great light of heaven! do I not see Basil of -Caesarea before my eyes?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Bowing deeply.</i>] Your meanest servant, oh -most mighty lord!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, I know what that means! Truly you serve -me well, Basil!</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>Approaching.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>So this is the villa that has become so renowned -by reason of the epistles that go forth from it. -This house is more talked of throughout the provinces -than all the lecture-halls together, although -I have spared neither care nor pains to restore -their glory.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Tell me—is not this woman your sister, Makrina?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>She is, sire!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You are a fair woman, and still young. And -yet, as I hear, you have renounced life.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Makrina.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sire, I have renounced life in order truly to -live.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_400'>400</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, I know your delusions very well. You sigh -for that which lies beyond, of which you have no -certain knowledge; you mortify your flesh; you -repress all human desires. And yet I tell you this -may be a vanity, like the rest.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Think not, sire, that I am blind to the danger -that lurks in renunciation. I know that my friend -Gregory says well when he writes that he holds -himself a hermit in heart, though not in the body. -And I know that this coarse clothing is of small -profit to my soul if I take merit to myself for -wearing it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But that is not my case. This secluded life -fills me with unspeakable happiness; that is all. -The wild convulsions through which, in these days, -the world is passing, do not here force themselves, -in all their hideousness, upon my eyes. Here I -feel my body uplifted in prayer, and my soul -purified by a frugal life.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh my modest Basil, I fear you are ambitious -of more than this. If what I hear be true, your -sister has gathered round her a band of young -women whom she is training up in her own likeness. -And you yourself, like your Galilean -master, have chosen twelve disciples. What is -your purpose with them?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>To send them forth into all lands, that they may -strengthen our brethren in the fight.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_401'>401</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Truly! Equipped with all the weapons of -eloquence, you send your army against me. And -whence did you obtain this eloquence, this glorious -Greek art? From our schools of learning. What -right have you to it? You have stolen like a -spy into our camp, to find out where you can -most safely strike at us. And this knowledge you -are now applying to our greatest hurt!</p> - -<p class='c001'>Let me tell you, Basil, that I have no mind to -suffer this scandal any longer. I will strike this -weapon out of your hands. Keep to your Matthew -and Luke, and other such unpolished babblers. -But henceforth you shall not be permitted to -interpret our ancient poets and philosophers; for -I hold it unreasonable to let you suck knowledge -and skill from sources in the truth of which you -do not believe. In like manner shall all Galilean -scholars be forbidden our lecture-halls; for what -is their business there? To steal our weapons -and use them against us.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sire, I have already heard of this strange determination. -And I agree with Gregory in maintaining -that you have no exclusive right either to -Grecian learning or to Grecian eloquence. I -agree with him when he points out that you use -the alphabet which was invented by the Egyptians, -and that you clothe yourself in purple, although it -first came into use among the people of Tyre.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Ay, sire—and more than that. You subdue -nations, and make yourself ruler over peoples, -whose tongues are unknown and whose manners -are strange to you. And you have a right to do -<span class='pageno' id='Page_402'>402</span>so. But by the same right whereby you rule the -visible world, he whom you call the Galilean rules -the invisible——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Enough of that! I will no longer listen to -such talk. You speak as though there were two -rulers of the world, and on that plea you cry halt -to me at every turn. Oh fools! You set up a -dead man against a living one. But you shall -soon be convinced of your error. Do not suppose -that amid the cares of war I have laid aside the -treatise I have long been preparing against you. -Perhaps you think I spend my nights in sleep? -You are mistaken! For “The Beard-Hater” I -reaped nothing but scorn,—and that from the -very people who had most reason to lay certain -truths to heart. But that shall in nowise deter -me. Should a man with a cudgel in his hand -shrink from a pack of yelping dogs?—Why did -you smile, woman? At what did you laugh?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Makrina.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Why, sire, do you rage so furiously against one -who, you say, is dead?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, I understand! You mean to say that he -is alive.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Makrina.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I mean to say, oh mighty Emperor, that in -your heart you feel of a surety that he lives.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I? What next! <i>I</i> feel——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_403'>403</span><span class='sc'>Makrina.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What is it that you hate and persecute? Not -him, but your belief in him. And does he not live -in your hate and persecution, no less than in our -love?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I know your tortuous tricks of speech. You -Galileans say one thing and mean another. And -that you call rhetoric! Oh mediocre minds! -What folly! <i>I</i> feel that the crucified Jew is -alive! Oh what a degenerate age, to find satisfaction -in such sophistries! But such is the -latter-day world. Madness passes for wisdom. -How many sleepless nights have I not spent in -searching out the true foundation of things? -But where are my followers? Many praise my -eloquence, but few, or none, are convinced by it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But truly the end is not yet. A great astonishment -will come upon you. You shall see how all -the scattered forces are converging into one. -You shall see how, from all that you now despise, -glory shall issue forth—and out of the cross on -which you hang your hopes I will fashion a ladder -for One whom you know not of.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Makrina.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And I tell you, Emperor Julian, that you are -nought but a scourge in the hand of God—a -scourge foredoomed to chasten us by reason of our -sins. Woe to us that it must be so! Woe to us for -the discords and the lovelessness that have caused -us to swerve from the true path!</p> - -<p class='c001'>There was no longer a king in Israel. Therefore -has the Lord stricken you with madness, that -you might chastise us.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_404'>404</span>What a spirit has he not darkened, that it -should rage against us! What a blossoming tree -has he not stripped to make rods for our sin-laden -shoulders!</p> - -<p class='c001'>Portents warned you, and you heeded them -not. Voices called you, and you heard them not. -Hands wrote in letters of fire upon the wall, and -you rubbed out the writing ere you had deciphered -it.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Basil—I would I had known this woman before -to-day.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Come, Makrina!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Makrina.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Woe is me that ever I saw those shining eyes! -Angel and serpent in one; the apostate’s longing -wedded to the tempter’s guile! Oh, how have -our brethren and sisters borne their hope of -victory so high, in the face of such an instrument -of wrath? In him dwells a greater than he. Do -you not see it, Basil—in him will the Lord God -smite us even to death.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You have said it!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Makrina.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Not I!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>First-won soul!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Makrina.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Avaunt from me!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_405'>405</span><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Come—come!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Stay here!—Anatolus, set a guard about them!—’Tis -my will that you shall follow the army—both -you and your disciples,—youths and women.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sire, you cannot desire this!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>’Tis not wise to leave fortresses in our rear. -See, I stretch forth my hand and quench the -burning shower of arrows which you have sent -forth from yonder villa.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Nay, nay, sire—this deed of violence——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Makrina.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Alas, Basil—here or elsewhere—all is over.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is it not written “Render unto Cæsar the -things that are Cæsar’s”? I require all aid in -this campaign. You can tend my sick and -wounded. In that you will be serving the Galilean -as well; and if you still think that a duty, -I counsel you to make good use of your time. His -end is near!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>Some soldiers have surrounded <span class='sc'>Basil</span> and -<span class='sc'>Makrina</span>, others hasten through the -thicket towards the house.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_406'>406</span><span class='sc'>Makrina.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sunset over our home; sunset of hope and of -light in the world! Oh Basil! that we should -live to see the night!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The light <em class='gesperrt'>is</em>.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The light shall be. Turn your backs to the -sunset, Galileans! Your faces to the east, to the -east, where Helios lies dreaming. Verily I say -unto you, you shall see the Sun-King of the -world.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He goes out to the right; all follow him.</i></div> - -<h4 class='c024'>SCENE THIRD.</h4> - -<p class='c017'><i>Beyond the Euphrates and Tigris. A wide plain, -with the imperial camp. Copses, to the left and -in the background, hide the windings of the -Tigris. Masts of ships rise over the thickets in -long rows, stretching into the far distance. A -cloudy evening.</i></p> -<p class='c017'><i>Soldiers and men-at-arms of all sorts are busy pitching -their tents on the plain. All kinds of stores -are being brought from the ships. Watchfires -far away. <span class='sc'>Nevita</span>, <span class='sc'>Jovian</span>, and other officers -come from the fleet.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>See, now, how rightly the Emperor has chosen! -Here we stand, without a stroke, on the enemy’s -territory; no one has opposed our passage of the -river; not even a single Persian horseman is to be -seen.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_407'>407</span><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, sir, by this route, the enemy certainly did -not expect us.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You speak as if you still thought this route -unwisely chosen.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, sir, it is still my opinion that we should -rather have taken a more northerly direction. -Then our left wing would have rested on Armenia, -which is friendly towards us, and all our supplies -might have come from that fruitful province. But -here? Hampered in our progress by the heavy -freight-ships, surrounded by a barren plain, almost -a desert—— Ah! the Emperor is coming. I -will go; I am not in his good graces at present.</p> - -<p class='c017'><i>He goes out to the right. At the same time -<span class='sc'>Julian</span> enters with his retinue from the ships. -<span class='sc'>Oribases</span>, the physician, the philosophers <span class='sc'>Priscus</span> -and <span class='sc'>Kytron</span>, with several others, appear -from among the tents on the right, and advance -to meet the Emperor.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Thus does the empire grow. Every step I -take towards the east shifts the frontier of my -dominion.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He stamps on the earth.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>This earth is mine! I am in the empire, not -beyond it.—Well, Priscus——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Priscus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Incomparable Emperor, your command has been -executed. Your marvellous dream has been read -to every division of the army.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_408'>408</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Good, good. And how did my dream seem to -affect the soldiers?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Kytron.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Some praised you with joyful voices, and hailed -you as divine; others on the contrary——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Priscus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Those others were Galileans, Kytron!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Kytron.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes, most of them were Galileans; and -these smote upon their breasts and uttered loud -lamentations.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I will not let the matter rest here. The busts -of myself, which I have provided for erection in -the towns I am to conquer, shall be set up round -the camp, over all the paymasters’ tables. Lamps -shall be lighted beside the busts; braziers, with -sweet-smelling incense, shall burn before them; -and every soldier, as he comes forward to receive -his pay, shall cast some grains of incense on the -fire.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Most gracious Emperor, forgive me, but—is that -expedient?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Why not? I marvel at you, my Oribases!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Priscus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, sire, you may well <a id='corr408.29'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='marvel?'>marvel!</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_408.29'><ins class='correction' title='marvel?'>marvel!</ins></a></span> Not expedient -to——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_409'>409</span><span class='sc'>Kytron.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Should not a Julian dare what less god-like men -have dared?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I, too, think that the more daring course would -now be to disguise the counsels of the mystic -powers. If it be the case that the divinities have -deputed their sovereignty into earthly hands—as -many signs justify us in concluding—it would indeed -be most ungrateful to conceal the fact. In -such hazardous circumstances as these, ’tis no -trifling matter that the soldiers should pay their -devotions in a quite different quarter from that in -which they are due.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I tell you, Oribases, and all of you,—if, indeed, -there be present any one else who would set limits -to the Emperor’s power,—that this would be the -very essence of impiety, and that I should therefore -be forced to take strong measures against it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Has not Plato long ago enunciated the truth -that only a god can rule over men? What meant -he by that saying? Answer me—what did he -mean? Far be it from me to assert that Plato—incomparable -sage though he was—had any individual, -even the greatest, in his prophetic eye. -But I think we have all seen what disorders result -from the parcelling out, as it were, of the supreme -power into several hands.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Enough of that. I have already commanded that -the imperial busts shall be displayed about the -camp.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Ah! what seek you in such haste, Eutherius?</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'><i>The Chamberlain <span class='sc'>Eutherius</span> comes from the ships, -accompanied by a man in girt-up garments.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_410'>410</span><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Exalted Emperor,—this man of Antioch is sent -by the governor, Alexander, and brings you a letter -which, he says, is of great importance.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, let me see! Light here!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>A torch is brought; the Emperor opens and -reads the letter.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Can this be possible! More light! Yes, here -it is written—and here—; what next?—Truly -this exceeds all I could have conceived!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Bad news from the west, sire?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Nevita, tell me, how long will it take us to reach -Ctesiphon?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It cannot be done in less than thirty days.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It <em class='gesperrt'>must</em> be done in less! Thirty days! A -whole month! And while we are creeping forward -here, I must let those madmen——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You know yourself, sire, that, on account of the -ships, we must follow all the windings of the river. -The current is rapid, and the bed, too, shallow -and stony. I hold it impossible to proceed more -quickly.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_411'>411</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Thirty days! And then there is the city to be -taken,—the Persian army to be routed,—peace to -be concluded. What a time all this will take! -Yet there were some among you foolish enough -to urge upon me an even more roundabout route. -Ha-ha; they would compass my ruin!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Never fear, sire; the expedition shall advance -with all possible speed.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It must indeed. Can you imagine what Alexander -tells me? The frenzy of the Galileans has -passed all bounds since my departure. And it -increases day by day. They understand that my -victory in Persia will bring their extirpation in its -train; and with that shameless Gregory as their -leader, they now stand, like a hostile army in my -rear; in the Phrygian regions secret things are -preparing, no one knows to what end——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What does this mean, sire? What are they -doing?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What are they doing? Praying, preaching, -singing, prophesying the end of the world. And -would that that were all!—but they carry our -adherents away, and entice them into their rebellious -conspiracies. In Caesarea the congregation -has chosen the judge Eusebius to be their bishop,—Eusebius, -an unbaptised man—and he has been -<span class='pageno' id='Page_412'>412</span>so misguided as to accept their call, which, moreover, -the canon of their own church declares -invalid.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But that is far from being the worst; worse, -worse, ten times worse is it, that Athanasius has -returned to Alexandria.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Athanasius!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Priscus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That mysterious bishop who, six years ago, -vanished into the desert.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A council of the church expelled him on account -of his unseemly zeal. The Galileans were tractable -under my predecessor.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, just think of it—this raging fanatic has -returned to Alexandria. His entrance was like a -king’s; the road was strewn with carpets and -green palm-branches. And what followed? What -do you think? The same night a riot broke out -among the Galileans. George, their lawful bishop, -that right-minded and well-disposed man, whom -they accused of lukewarmness in the faith, was -murdered—torn to pieces in the streets of the -city.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>But, sire, how were things suffered to go so far? -Where was the governor, Artemius?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You may well ask where Artemius was. I will -tell you. Artemius has gone over to the Galileans. -Artemius himself has broken by force of arms -<span class='pageno' id='Page_413'>413</span>into the Serapeion, that most glorious of earthly -temples,—has shattered the statues—has plundered -the altars, and destroyed that vast treasury -of books, which was of such inestimable value -precisely in this age of error and ignorance. I -could weep for them as for a friend bereft me by -death, were not my wrath too great for tears.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Kytron.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Truly, this surpasses belief!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And not to be within reach of these miserable -beings to punish them! To be doomed to look -idly on while such atrocities spread wider and -wider around!—Thirty days, you say! Why are -we loitering? Why are we pitching our tents? -Why should we sleep? Do my generals not know -what is at stake? We must hold a council of war. -When I remember what the Macedonian Alexander -achieved in thirty days——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><i><span class='sc'>Jovian</span>, accompanied by a man in Persian garb, unarmed, enters from the camp.</i></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Forgive me, sire, for appearing before you: -but this stranger——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A Persian warrior!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Persian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Prostrating himself to the earth.</i>] No warrior, oh -mighty Emperor!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_414'>414</span><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He came riding over the plains unarmed, and -surrendered at the outposts——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Then your countrymen are at hand?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Persian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, no!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Whence come you then?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Persian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>Throws open his garments.</i>] Look at these arms, -oh ruler of the world,—bleeding from rusty fetters. -Feel this flayed back,—sore upon sore. I come -from the torture chamber, sire!</p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah—a fugitive from King Sapor?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Persian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, mighty Emperor, to whom all things are -known! I stood high in King Sapor’s favour until, -impelled by the terror of your approach, I dared -to prophesy that this war would end in his destruction. -Would you know, sire, how he has -rewarded me? My wife he gave as a prey to his -archers from the mountains; my children he sold -as slaves; all my possessions he divided among -his servants; myself he tortured for nine days. -Then he bade me ride forth and die like a beast in -the desert.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And what would you with me?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_415'>415</span><span class='sc'>The Persian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What would I after such treatment? I would -help you to destroy my persecutor.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, poor tortured wretch,—how can you help?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Persian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I can lend wings to your soldiers’ feet.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What mean you by that? Rise and explain -yourself.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Persian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Rising.</i>] No one in Ctesiphon expected you to -choose this route——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I know that.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Persian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Now ’tis no longer a secret.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You lie, fellow! You Persians know nought of -my designs.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Persian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You, sire, whose wisdom is born of the sun and -of fire, know well that my countrymen are now -acquainted with your designs. You have crossed -the rivers by means of your ships; these ships, -more than a thousand in number, and laden with -all the supplies of the army, are to be towed up -the Tigris, and the troops are to advance abreast -of the ships.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_416'>416</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Incredible——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Persian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>When the ships have approached as near Ctesiphon -as possible—that is to say, within two days’ -march—you will make straight for the city, beleaguer -it, and compel King Sapor to surrender.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Looking round.</i>] Who has betrayed us?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Persian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>This plan is now no longer practicable. My -countrymen have hastily constructed stone dams -in the bed of the river, on which your ships will -run aground.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Man, do you know what it will cost you if you -deceive me?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Persian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My body is in your power, mighty Emperor! -If I speak not the truth, you are free to burn me -alive.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To <span class='sc'>Nevita</span>.</i>] The river dammed! It will take -weeks to make it navigable again.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>If it can be done at all, sire! We have not the -implements——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_417'>417</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And that this should come upon us now—just -when so much depends on a speedy victory.<a id='r12' /><a href='#f12' class='c012'><sup>[12]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Persian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh ruler of the world, I have said that I can -lend your army wings.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Speak! Do you know of a shorter way?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Persian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>If you will promise me that after your victory -you will restore the possessions of which I have -been robbed, and give me a new wife of noble -birth, I will——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I promise everything; only speak,—speak!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Persian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Strike straight across the plains, and in four -days you will be under the walls of Ctesiphon.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Do you forget the mountain chain on the other -side of the plains?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Persian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sire, have you never heard of that strange defile -among the mountains?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_418'>418</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes, a chasm; “Ahriman’s Street” it is -called. Is it true that it exists?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Persian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I rode through “Ahriman’s Street” two days -ago.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Nevita!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>In truth sire, if it be so——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Miraculous help in the hour of need——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Persian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>But if you would pass that way, oh mighty one, -there is not a moment to be lost. The Persian -army which had been assembled in the northern -provinces, is now recalled to block the mountain -passes.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Know you that for certain?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Persian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Delay, and you will discover it for yourself.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How many days will it take your countrymen to -get there?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Persian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Four days, sire!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_419'>419</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Nevita, in three days we must be beyond the -defiles!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To the <span class='sc'>Persian</span>.</i>] Is it possible to reach the -defiles in three days?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Persian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, great warrior, it is possible, if you make -use of this night as well.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Let the camp be broken up! No time now for -sleep, for rest! In four days—or five at the -utmost—I must stand before Ctesiphon.—What -are you thinking about! Ah, I know.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The fleet, sire!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes, yes, the fleet!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Should the Persian army reach the defiles a day -later than we, they will—if they cannot injure -you in any other way—turn westward against your -ships——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And seize a vast amount of booty, wherewith to -continue the war——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>If we could leave twenty thousand men with -the ships, they would be safe——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_420'>420</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What are you thinking of! Twenty thousand? -Well nigh a third of our fighting strength. Where -would be the force with which I must strike the -great blow? Divided, dispersed, frittered away. -Not one man will I detach for such a purpose.</p> - -<p class='c001'>No, no, Nevita; but there may be a middle -course——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Recoiling.</i>] My great Emperor—!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The fleet must neither fall into the hands of the -Persians, nor yet cost us men. There is a middle -course, I tell you! Why do you falter? Why -not speak it out?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To the <span class='sc'>Persian</span>.</i>] Do you know whether the -citizens of Ctesiphon have stores of corn and oil?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Persian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ctesiphon overflows with supplies of all sorts.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And when we have once taken the city, the -whole rich country lies open to us.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Persian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The citizens will open their gates to you, sire. -I am not the only one who hates King Sapor. -They will rise against him and straightway submit -to you, if you come upon them, unprepared and -panic-stricken, with your whole united force.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_421'>421</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes; yes.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Persian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Burn the ships, sire!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>His hate has eyes where your fidelity is blind, -Nevita!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My fidelity saw, sire; but it shrank from what -it saw.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Are not these ships like fetters on our feet? -We have provisions for four full days in the camp. -It is well that the soldiers should not be too -heavily laden. Of what use, then, are the ships? -We have no more rivers to pass——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sire, if it be indeed your will——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My will,—my will? Oh, on an evening like -this,—so angry and tempestuous,—why cannot a -flash of lightning descend and——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Entering hastily from the left.</i>] Oh chosen son of -Helios—hear me, hear me!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Not now, my Maximus!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_422'>422</span><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Nothing can be more pressing than this. You -<em class='gesperrt'>must</em> hear me!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Then in the name of fortune and wisdom, speak, -my brother!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Draws him apart, and says in a low voice.</i>] You -know how I have striven to search and spell out, -both in books and through auguries, the issue of -this campaign?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I know that you have been unable to foretell -anything.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The omens spoke and the writings confirmed -them. But the answer which always came was -so strange that I could not but think myself mistaken.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>But now——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>When we departed from Antioch, I wrote to -Rome to consult the Sibylline Books——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>This very moment the answer has arrived; a -courier from the governor of Antioch brought it.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, Maximus,—and its purport——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_423'>423</span><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The same as that of the omens and the books; -and now I dare interpret it. Rejoice, my brother,—in -this war you are invulnerable.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The oracle,—the oracle?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Sibylline Books say: “Julian must beware -of the Phrygian regions.”</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Recoiling.</i>] The Phrygian——? Ah, Maximus!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Why so pale, my brother?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Tell me, dear teacher—how do you interpret -this answer?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is more than one interpretation possible? The -Phrygian regions? What have you to do in -Phrygia? In Phrygia—a remote province lying -far behind you, where you need never set your foot. -<em class='gesperrt'>No</em> danger threatens you, fortunate man—<em class='gesperrt'>that</em> -is the interpretation.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>This oracle has a twofold meaning. No danger -threatens me in this war,—but from that distant -region——</p> - -<p class='c001'>Nevita, Nevita!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_424'>424</span><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sire——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>In Phrygia? Alexander writes of secret things -preparing in Phrygia. It has been foretold that -the Galilean is to come again——</p> - -<p class='c001'>Burn the ships, Nevita!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sire, is this your firm and irrevocable will——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Burn them! No delay! Lurking dangers -threaten us in the rear.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>To one of the captains.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>Give close heed to this stranger. He is to be -our guide. Refresh him with food and drink, and -let him have thorough rest.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My Emperor, I implore you—build not too -securely on the reports of a deserter like this.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Aha—you seem perturbed, my Galilean councillor! -All this is not quite to your mind. Perhaps -you know more than you care to tell.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Go, Nevita,—and burn the ships!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i><span class='sc'>Nevita</span> bows and goes out to the left. -The captain leads the Persian away -among the tents.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Traitors in my own camp! Wait, wait,—I shall -get to the bottom of these machinations.</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_425'>425</span>The camp shall break up! Go, Jovian, see that -the vanguard is afoot within an hour. The Persian -knows the way. Go!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>As you command, my august Emperor!</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He goes out to the right.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You would burn the fleet? Then surely you -have great things in your mind.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Tell me, would the Macedonian Alexander have -ventured this?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Did Alexander know where the danger threatened?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>True, true! <i>I</i> know it. All the powers of -victory are in league with me. Omens and signs -yield up their mystic secrets to advance my -empire.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Is it not said of the Galilean, that spirits came -and ministered unto him?—To whom do the spirits -now minister?</p> - -<p class='c001'>What would the Galilean say, were he present -unseen among us?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He would say: the third empire is at hand.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The third empire is here, Maximus! I feel -that the Messiah of the earth lives in me. The -<span class='pageno' id='Page_426'>426</span>spirit has become flesh and the flesh spirit. All -creation lies within my will and my power.</p> - -<p class='c001'>See, see,—there are the first sparks drifting -aloft. The flames are licking up the cordage and -the clustered masts.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He shouts in the direction of the fire.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>Spread; spread!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The wind anticipates your will. ’Tis rising to -serve you.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Commanding with clenched hand.</i>] Swell into a -storm! More westerly! I command it!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Fromentinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Enters from the right.</i>] Most gracious Emperor,—suffer -me to warn you. A dangerous disturbance -has broken out in the camp.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I will have no more disturbances. The army -shall advance.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Fromentinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, my Emperor,—but the refractory Galileans——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Galileans? What of them?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Fromentinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Before the tables where the paymasters were -distributing the soldiers’ pay, your august image -had been set up——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It is always to be so for the future.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_427'>427</span><span class='sc'>Fromentinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Every man was ordered, as he came forward, to -cast a grain of incense into the braziers——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes—well, well?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Fromentinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Many of the Galilean soldiers did so unthinkingly, -but others refused——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What! they refused?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Fromentinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>At first, sire; but when the paymasters told -them that ’twas an old custom revived, in no -wise pertaining to things divine——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Aha! what then?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Fromentinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>——they yielded and did as they were bidden.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>There you see; they yielded!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Fromentinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>But afterward, sire, our own men laughed and -mocked at them, and said, unthinkingly, that now -they had best efface the sign of the cross and the -fish which they are wont to imprint upon their -arms; for now they had worshipped the divine -Emperor.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_428'>428</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes! And the Galileans?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Fromentinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>They broke out into loud lamentations——; -listen, listen, sire! It is impossible to bring them -to reason.</p> - -<div class='c019'>[<i>Wild cries are heard without, among the tents.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The madmen! Rebellious to the last. They -know not that their master’s power is broken.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>Christian soldiers come rushing in. Some -beat their breasts; others tear their -garments, with loud cries and weeping.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Soldier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Christ died for me, and I forsook him!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Another Soldier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Smite me, oh wrathful Lord in heaven; for I -have worshipped false gods!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Soldier Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The devil on the throne has slain my soul! -Woe, woe, <a id='corr428.21'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='woe'>woe!</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_428.21'><ins class='correction' title='woe'>woe!</ins></a></span></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Other Soldiers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Tearing off the leaden seals which they wear round -their necks.</i>] We will not serve idols!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Others Again.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Apostate is not our ruler! We will go -home! home!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_429'>429</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Fromentinus, seize these madmen! Hew them -down!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i><span class='sc'>Fromentinus</span> and many of the bystanders -are on the point of falling upon the -Christian soldiers. At that moment a -vivid glare spreads over the sky, and -flames burst from the ships.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Officers and Soldiers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Terror-stricken.</i>] The fleet is burning!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, the fleet is burning! And more than -the fleet is burning. In that blazing, -swirling pyre the crucified Galilean is burning to -ashes; and the earthly Emperor is burning with -the Galilean. But from the ashes shall arise—like -that marvellous bird—the God of earth and -the Emperor of the spirit in one, in one, in one!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Several Voices.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Madness has seized him!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Entering from the left.</i>] It is done.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Approaching hastily from the camp.</i>] Quench the -fire! Out, out with it!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Let it burn! Let it burn!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ammian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>From the camp.</i>] Sire, you are betrayed. That -Persian fugitive was a traitor——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_430'>430</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Man, you lie! Where is he?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ammian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Fled!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Vanished like a shadow——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Fled!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>His guards protest that he disappeared almost -under their very eyes.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ammian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>His horse, too, is gone from its pen; the Persian -must have fled over the plains.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Quench the fire, Nevita!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Impossible, my Emperor!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Put it out, I say. It shall be possible!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Nothing could be more impossible. All the -cables are cut; the rest of the ships are all drifting -down upon the burning wrecks.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Prince Hormisdas.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Coming from among the tents.</i>] Curses upon my -countrymen! Oh sire, how could you give ear to -that deceiver?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_431'>431</span><span class='sc'>Cries from the Camp.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The fleet on fire! Cut off from home! Death -before us!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Soldier Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>False god, false god,—bid the storm to cease! -bid the flames die down!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The storm increases. The fire is like a rolling -sea——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Whispers.</i>] Beware of the Phrygian regions.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Shouts to the army.</i>] Let the fleet burn! Within -seven days you shall burn Ctesiphon.</p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_432'>432</span> - <h3 class='c015'>ACT FIFTH.</h3> -</div> - -<h4 class='c024'>SCENE FIRST.</h4> - -<p class='c017'><i>A barren, stony desert, without trees or grass. To the -right, the Emperor’s tent. Afternoon.</i></p> - -<p class='c017'><i>Exhausted soldiers lie in knots on the plain. Detachments -now and again pass by from left to right. -Outside the tent are the philosophers <span class='sc'>Priscus</span> and -<span class='sc'>Kytron</span>, with several others of the Emperor’s -suite, waiting in restless anxiety. The captain of -the bodyguard, <span class='sc'>Anatolus</span>, stands with soldiers -before the opening of the tent.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Kytron.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is is not incredible that this council of war -should last so long?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Priscus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ay, truly; one would think there were only -two courses to choose between: to advance or to -retire.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Kytron.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>’Tis utterly incomprehensible——</p> - -<p class='c001'>Tell me, good Anatolus, why, in the name of the -gods, do we not advance?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Priscus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, why alarm us by halting here in the middle -of the desert?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_433'>433</span><span class='sc'>Anatolus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>See you the quivering air on the horizon, to the -north, east, and south?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Kytron.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Of course, of course; that is the heat——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Anatolus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It is the desert burning.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Priscus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What say you? The desert burning?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Kytron.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Do not jest so unpleasantly, good Anatolus! -Tell us,—what is it?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Anatolus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The desert burning, I tell you. Out yonder, -where the sand ceases, the Persians have set the -grass on fire. We can make no progress till the -ground cools.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Kytron.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh is not this appalling! What barbarians! -To have recourse to such means——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Priscus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Then there is no choice left us. Without -provisions, without water——; why do we not -retreat?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Anatolus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Over the Tigris and Euphrates?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_434'>434</span><span class='sc'>Kytron.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And the fleet burnt! What way is this to conduct -the war? Oh, why does not the Emperor -think more of his friends! How shall I get home -again?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Anatolus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Like the rest of us, friend!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Kytron.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Like the rest? Like the rest! That is a fine -way to talk. With you it is quite another matter. -You are soldiers. ’Tis your calling to endure certain -hardships to which I am not at all accustomed. -I did not join the Emperor’s suite to go through -all this. Here am I tortured with gnats and -poisonous flies;—look at my hands!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Priscus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Most certainly we did not come for this. We -consented to accompany the army in order to -compose panegyrics on the victories the Emperor -intended to win. What has come of these victories? -What has been achieved during the six -toilsome weeks since the fleet was burnt? We -have destroyed a few deserted towns of the sorriest -kind. A few prisoners have been exhibited in -the camp, whom the advance-guard are said -to have taken—truly I know not in what battles! -The prisoners, methought, looked more like poor -kidnapped shepherds and peasants——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Kytron.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And to think of burning the fleet! Said I not -from the first that it would be a source of disaster?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_435'>435</span><span class='sc'>Anatolus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I did not hear you say so.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Kytron.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What? Did I not say so? Oh Priscus, did you -not hear me say it?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Priscus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Truly, I do not know, friend; but I know that -I myself in vain denounced that luckless measure. -Indeed I may say that I opposed the whole campaign -at this time of year. What rash haste! -Where were the Emperor’s eyes? Is this the -same hero who fought with such marvellous -success upon the Rhine? One would think he -had been struck with blindness or some spiritual -disease.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Anatolus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Hush, hush;—what talk is this?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Kytron.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>’Twas indeed no fitting way for our Priscus to -express himself. Yet I, too, cannot deny that I -observe a deplorable lack of wisdom in many of -the crowned philosopher’s recent proceedings. -How precipitate to set up his busts in the camp, -and claim worship as if he were a god! How imprudent -so openly to scoff at that strange teacher -from Nazareth, who undeniably possesses a peculiar -power, which might have stood us in good -stead in these perilous conjunctures.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Ah! here comes Nevita himself. Now we shall -hear——</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i><span class='sc'>Nevita</span> comes out of the tent. In the -opening he turns and makes a sign to -some one within. The physician <span class='sc'>Oribases</span> -immediately comes out.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_436'>436</span><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Drawing him aside.</i>] Tell me openly, Oribases,—is -there anything amiss with the Emperor’s -mind?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What should make you think that, sir?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How else can I interpret his conduct?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh my beloved Emperor——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oribases, you must hide nothing from me.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Kytron.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Drawing near.</i>] Oh valiant general, if it be not -indiscreet——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Presently, presently!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To <span class='sc'>Nevita</span>.</i>] Do not fear, sir! No misfortune -shall happen. Eutherius and I have promised -each other to keep an eye upon him.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, you do not mean to say that——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Last night he had well nigh shortened his life. -Fortunately Eutherius was at hand——; oh speak -of it to no one!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_437'>437</span><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Do not lose sight of him.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Priscus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Drawing near.</i>] It would greatly relieve our -minds to hear what the council of war——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Pardon me; I have weighty matters to attend -to.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He goes out behind the tent.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><i>At the same moment Jovian enters from the opening.</i></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Speaking into the tent.</i>] It shall be done, my -gracious Emperor!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Kytron.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, most excellent Jovian! Well? Is the -retreat decided on?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I would not counsel any one to call it a retreat.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He goes out behind the tent.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Kytron.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh these soldiers! A philosopher’s peace of -mind is nothing to them. Ah!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>The <span class='sc'>Emperor Julian</span> comes out of the -tent; he is pale and haggard. With him -come the Chamberlain <span class='sc'>Eutherius</span> and -several officers; the latter go off over the -plain to the right.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To the philosophers.</i>] Rejoice, my friends! All -will soon be well now.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_438'>438</span><span class='sc'>Kytron.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, gracious Emperor, have you discovered an -expedient?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>There are expedients enough, Kytron; the only -difficulty is to choose the best. We will slightly -alter the line of advance——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Priscus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, praise be to your wisdom!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>This eastward march—it leads to nothing.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Kytron.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, no, that is certain!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Now we will turn northward, Kytron!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Kytron.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What, sire,—northward?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Priscus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Not westward?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Not westward. Not by any means westward. -That might be difficult on account of the rivers. -And Ctesiphon we must leave till another time. -Without ships we cannot think of taking the city. -It was the Galileans who brought about the burning -of the fleet; I have noted one thing and -another.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Who dares call this northward movement a retreat? -<span class='pageno' id='Page_439'>439</span>What know you of my plans? The Persian -army is somewhere in the north; of that we are -now pretty well assured. When I have crushed -Sapor—one battle will finish the matter—we shall -find abundant supplies in the Persian camp.</p> - -<p class='c001'>When I lead the Persian king as my captive -through Antioch and the other cities, I would -fain see whether the citizens will not fall at my -feet.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Christian Soldiers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='c019'>[<i>Pass singing over the plain.</i></div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c018'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Doomed is the world’s proud cedar-tree,</div> - <div class='line'>The axe shall its roots dissever;</div> - <div class='line'>The palm He planted on Calvary,</div> - <div class='line'>Blood-watered, shall bloom for ever.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c000'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Following them with his eyes.</i>] The Galileans -are always singing. Songs about death and wounds -and pain. Those women whom I brought with -me to tend the sick—they have done us more -harm than good. They have taught the soldiers -strange songs, such as I have never heard before.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But hereafter I will punish no one for such -things. It does but lead them deeper into error. -Know you, Priscus, what happened of late, in the -case of those mutineers who refused to show due -reverence to the imperial busts?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Priscus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Of <em class='gesperrt'>late</em>, sire?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>When, wishing to beget a wholesome dread in -their companions in error, I ordered some of these -men to be executed, the oldest of them stepped -<span class='pageno' id='Page_440'>440</span>forward with loud cries of joy, and begged to be -the first to die.—Look you, Priscus—when I heard -that yesterday——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Priscus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yesterday? Oh, sire, you are mistaken. That -happened forty days ago.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>So long? Yes, yes, yes! The Hebrews had to -wander forty years in the wilderness. All the -older generation had to die out. A new generation -had to spring up; but <em class='gesperrt'>they</em>—mark that!—<em class='gesperrt'>they</em> -entered into the promised land.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>’Tis late in the day, sire; will you not eat?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Not yet, my Eutherius. ’Tis good for all men -to mortify the flesh.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, I tell you, we must make haste to become -a new generation. I can do nothing with you as -you are. If you would escape from the desert, you -must lead a pure life. Look at the Galileans. We -might learn more than one lesson from these men. -There are none poverty-stricken and helpless among -them; they live together as brethren and sisters,—and -most of all now, when their obstinacy has -forced me to chastise them. These Galileans, you -must know, have something in their hearts which -I could greatly desire that you should emulate. -You call yourselves followers of Socrates, of Plato, -of Diogenes. Is there one of you who would face -death with ecstasy for Plato’s sake? Would our -Priscus sacrifice his left hand for Socrates? Would -<span class='pageno' id='Page_441'>441</span>Kytron, for Diogenes’ sake, let his ear be cut -off? No, truly! I know you, whited sepulchres! -Begone out of my sight;—I can do nothing with -you!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>The philosophers slink away; the others -also disperse, whispering anxiously. Only -<span class='sc'>Oribases</span> and <span class='sc'>Eutherius</span> remain behind -with the Emperor. <span class='sc'>Anatolus</span>, the officer -of the guard, still stands with his soldiers -outside the tent.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How strange! Is it not inconceivable, unfathomable? -Oribases,—can you rede me this riddle?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What riddle do you mean, my Emperor?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>With twelve poor ignorant fishermen, he founded -all this.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh sire, these thoughts exhaust you.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And who has held it together until this day? -Women and ignorant people, for the most -part——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes, sire; but now the campaign will soon -take a happy turn——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Very true, Oribases; as soon as fortune has -taken a turn, all will be well. The dominion of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_442'>442</span>the carpenter’s son is drawing to its close; we -know that. His reign is to last as many years as -the year has days; and now we have——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My beloved master, would not a bath refresh -you?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Do you think so?—You may go, Eutherius! -Go, go! I have something to say to Oribases.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i><span class='sc'>Eutherius</span> goes off behind the tent. The -Emperor draws <span class='sc'>Oribases</span> over to the -other side.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Has Eutherius told you aught this morning?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, sire!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Has he told you nothing about last night——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, my Emperor—nothing at all. Eutherius is -very silent.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>If he should tell you anything, do not believe it. -The thing did not happen at all as he pretends. -’Tis he who is seeking my life.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He,—your old and faithful servant!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I shall keep an eye on him.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_443'>443</span><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I too.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>We will both keep an eye on him.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sire, I fear you had but little sleep last night.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Very little.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i><span class='sc'>Oribases</span> is on the point of saying something, -but changes his mind.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Know you what kept me from sleeping?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, my Emperor.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The victor of the Milvian Bridge was with me.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The great Constantine?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes. For some nights past his shade has given -me no rest. He comes a little after midnight, and -does not depart until the dawn is at hand.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The moon is full, sire; that has always had a -strange effect on your mind.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_444'>444</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>According to the ancients, such apparitions are -wont——What can have become of Maximus? -But their opinions are by no means to be relied -on. We see how greatly they erred in many -things. Even what they tell us of the gods we -cannot believe without reserve. Nor what they -report as to the shades, and the powers, as a -whole, which rule the destinies of men. What -know we of these powers? We know nothing, -Oribases, except their capriciousness and inconstancy, -of which characteristics we have evidence -enough.</p> - -<p class='c001'>I wish Maximus would come——</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>To himself.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>Here? ’Tis not here that the menacing storm -is drawing up. ’Twas said to be in the Phrygian -regions——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What regions, sire,—and what storm?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh nothing—nothing.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Enters from the plain on the right.</i>] My Emperor, -the army is now on the march.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Northwards?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Starts.</i>] Of course, sire!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>We ought to have waited till Maximus——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_445'>445</span><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What mean you, my Emperor? There is nothing -to wait for. We are without supplies; scattered -bands of the enemy’s horsemen are already appearing -both in the east and in the south——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes, we <em class='gesperrt'>must</em> advance,—northwards. -Maximus must soon be here. I have sent to the -rear for the Etruscan soothsayers; they shall try -once more—— I have also discovered some -Magians, who say they are well versed in the -Chaldean mysteries. Our own priests are taking -the omens in nine different places——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sire, whatever the omens may say, I tell you -we must go hence. The soldiers are no longer to -be depended on; they see clearly that our only -hope lies in reaching the Armenian mountains.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>We will do so, Nevita,—whatever the omens say. -Nevertheless it gives one a great feeling of security -to know that one is acting, as it were, in concert -with those unfathomable powers who, if they will, -can so potently influence our destinies.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Goes from him, and says shortly and decisively.</i>] -Anatolus, strike the Emperor’s tent!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He whispers some words to the Captain of -the Guard, and goes out to the right.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_446'>446</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>All auguries for these forty days have been -inauspicious; and that proves that we may place -trust in them; for in all that time our affairs have -made but scant headway. But now, you see, -my Oribases,—now that I have a fresh enterprise -in view——</p> - -<p class='c001'>Ah! Maximus!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Entering from the plain.</i>] The army is already -on the march, sire; get to horse!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The auguries—the auguries?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh—the auguries! Ask not about the -auguries.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Speak! I demand to know what they say.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>All auguries are silent.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Silent?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I went to the priests; the entrails of the sacrifices -gave no sign. I went to the Etruscan -jugglers; the flight and cries of the birds said -nothing. I went also to the Magians; their -writings had no answer to give. And I myself——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You yourself, my Maximus?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_447'>447</span><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Now I can tell you. Last night I studied the -aspect of the stars. They told me nothing, -Julian.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Nothing.—Silence—silence, as though in an -eclipse. Alone! No longer any bridge between -me and the spirits.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Where are you now, oh white-sailed fleet, that -sped to and fro in the sunlight and carried tidings -between earth and heaven?</p> - -<p class='c001'>The fleet is burnt. That fleet too is burnt. Oh -all my shining ships.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Tell me, Maximus—what do you believe as to -this?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I believe in you.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes—believe!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The world-will has resigned its power into your -hands; therefore it is silent.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>So will we read it. And we must act accordingly,—although -we might have preferred that—— This -silence! To stand so utterly alone.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But there are others who may also be said to -stand almost alone. The Galileans. They have -but one god; and one god is next thing to no -god.</p> - -<p class='c001'>How is it, then, that we daily see these -men——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_448'>448</span><span class='sc'>Anatolus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Who has meanwhile had the tent struck.</i>] My -Emperor, now must you get to horse; I dare not -let you remain here longer.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, now I will mount. Where is my good -Babylonius? See now; sword in hand——</p> - -<p class='c001'>Come, my dear friends!</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>All go out to the right.</i></div> - -<h4 class='c024'>SCENE SECOND.</h4> - -<p class='c017'><i>A marshy, wooded country. A dark, still lake among -the trees. Watch-fires in the distance. Moonlight, -with driving clouds.</i></p> -<p class='c017'><i>Several soldiers on guard in the foreground.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Makrina and the Women.</span></div> - <div>[<i>Singing without, on the left.</i></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c018'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Woe to us! Woe!</div> - <div class='line'>Upon us all</div> - <div class='line'>God’s wrath will fall!</div> - <div class='line'>Death we shall know!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c000'> - <div><span class='sc'>One of the Soldiers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Listening.</i>] Hark! Do you hear? The Galilean -women are singing over yonder.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Another Soldier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>They sing like owls and night ravens.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A third Soldier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yet would I willingly be with them. ’Tis safer -<span class='pageno' id='Page_449'>449</span>with the Galileans than with us. The God of the -Galileans is stronger than our gods.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The first Soldier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The thing is that the Emperor has angered the -gods. How could he think of setting himself up -in their place?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The third Soldier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What is worse is that he has angered the Galileans’ -God. Have you not heard, they say positively -that, a few nights since, he and his magician -ripped open a pregnant woman, to read omens in -her entrails?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The first Soldier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ay, but I do not believe it. At any rate, I am -sure ’twas not a Greek woman; it must have been -a barbarian.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The third Soldier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>They say the Galileans’ God cares for the barbarians -too; and if so, ’twill be the worse for us.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The second Soldier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, pooh—the Emperor is a great soldier.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The first Soldier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>They say King Sapor is a great soldier too.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The second Soldier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Think you we have the whole Persian army -before us?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The first Soldier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Some say ’tis only the advance-guard; no one -knows for certain.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_450'>450</span><span class='sc'>The third Soldier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I would I were among the Galileans.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The first Soldier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Are <em class='gesperrt'>you</em> going over to them, too?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The third Soldier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>So many are going over. In the last few -days——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The first Soldier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Calling out into the darkness.</i>] Halt—halt! -Who goes there?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>A Voice.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Friends from the outposts!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>Several soldiers come from among the trees, -with <span class='sc'>Agathon</span> the Cappadocian in their -midst.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The second Soldier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ho-ho; a deserter.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>One of the New-comers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No; he has gone out of his mind.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I have <em class='gesperrt'>not</em> gone out of my mind. Oh, for God’s -great mercy’s sake,—let me go!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Soldier from the Outposts.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He says he wants to slay a beast with seven -heads.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes, yes, I will, I will. Oh, let me go! -See you this spear? Know you what spear it is? -<span class='pageno' id='Page_451'>451</span>With this spear will I slay the beast with seven -heads, and then I shall get back my soul again. -Christ himself has promised me that. He was -with me to-night.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The first Soldier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Hunger and weariness have turned his brain.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>One of the New-comers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>To the camp with him; there he can sleep his -weariness away.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Let me go! Oh, if you but knew what spear -this is!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>The soldiers lead him off by the front, to -the right.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The third Soldier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What could he mean by that beast?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The first Soldier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That is one of the Galilean secrets. They have -many such secrets among them.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i><span class='sc'>Eutherius</span> and <span class='sc'>Oribases</span> enter hastily -from the right, looking anxiously about.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Do you not see him?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No.—Ah, soldiers!—Tell me, good friends, has -any one passed by here?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The first Soldier.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, a detachment of spearmen.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_452'>452</span><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Good, good! But nobody else? No great -person? None of the generals?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Soldiers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, none.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Not here then! Oh, Eutherius, how could -you——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Could I help——? Could I help it——? I -have not closed my old eyes for three nights——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To the soldiers.</i>] You must help us to search. -I demand it in the name of the general-in-chief. -Spread yourselves among the trees; and should -you find any great person, report it at the watch-fire -yonder.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Soldiers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>We will not fail, sir!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>They all go out by different ways, to the -left. Soon after, the <span class='sc'>Emperor</span> emerges -from behind a tree on the right. He -listens, looks round, and beckons to some -one behind him.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Hist! Come forward, Maximus! They did -not see us.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>From the same side.</i>] Oribases was one of -them.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_453'>453</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes; both he and Eutherius keep watch -on me. They imagine that—— Has neither of -them told you aught?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, my Julian! But why have you awakened -me? What would you here in the darkness?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I would be alone with you for the last time, my -beloved teacher!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Not for the last time, Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>See that dark water. Think you—if I utterly -vanished from the earth, and my body was never -found, and none knew what had become of me,—think -you the report would spread abroad that -Hermes had come for me, and carried me away, -and that I had been exalted to the fellowship of the -gods?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The time is at hand when men will not need to -die, in order to live as gods on the earth.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I am pining with home-sickness, Maximus,—with -home-sick longing for the light and the sun -and all the stars.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, I beseech you—think not of sorrowful -things. The Persian army is before you. To-morrow -<span class='pageno' id='Page_454'>454</span>will come the battle. You will conquer——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I—conquer? You do not know who was with -me an hour ago.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Who was with you?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I had fallen asleep on my couch in the tent. -Suddenly I was awakened by a strong red glare, -that seemed to burn through my closed eye-lids. -I looked up and beheld a figure standing in the -tent. Over its head was a long drapery, falling -on both sides, so as to leave the face free.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Knew you this figure?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>It was the same face which I saw in the light -that night at Ephesus, many years ago,—that night -when we held symposium with the two others.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The spirit of the empire.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Since then it has appeared to me once in Gaul,—on -an occasion I would fain forget.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Did it speak?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_455'>455</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No. It seemed as though it wished to speak; -but it did not. It stood motionless, looking at -me. Its face was pale and distorted. Suddenly, -with both arms, it drew the drapery together over -its head, hid its face, and went straight out through -the tent-wall.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The decisive hour is at hand.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ay, truly, ’tis at hand.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Courage, Julian! He who wills, conquers.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And what does the conqueror win? Is it worth -while to conquer? What has the Macedonian -Alexander, what has Julius Caesar won? Greeks -and Romans talk of their renown with cold -admiration,—while the other, the Galilean, the -carpenter’s son, sits throned as the king of love in -the warm, believing hearts of men.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Where is he now?—Has he been at work elsewhere -since that happened at Golgotha?</p> - -<p class='c001'>I dreamed of him lately. I dreamed that I -had subdued the whole world. I ordained that -the memory of the Galilean should be rooted out -on earth; and it was rooted out.—Then the spirits -came and ministered to me, and bound wings on -my shoulders, and I soared aloft into infinite -space, till my feet rested on another world.</p> - -<p class='c001'>It <em class='gesperrt'>was</em> another world than mine. Its curve was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_456'>456</span>vaster, its light more golden, and many moons -circled around it.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Then I looked down at my own earth—the -Emperor’s earth, which I had made Galileanless—and -I thought that all that I had done was very -good.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But behold, my Maximus,—there came a procession -by me, on the strange earth where I -stood. There were soldiers, and judges, and -executioners at the head of it, and weeping women -followed. And lo!—in the midst of the slow-moving -array, was the Galilean, alive, and bearing -a cross on his back. Then I called to him, and -said, “Whither away, Galilean?” But he turned -his face toward me, smiled, nodded slowly, and -said: “To the place of the skull.”</p> - -<p class='c001'>Where is he now? What if <em class='gesperrt'>that</em> at Golgotha, -near Jerusalem, was but a wayside matter, a thing -done, as it were, in passing, in a leisure hour? -What if he goes on and on, and suffers, and dies, -and conquers, again and again, from world to -world?</p> - -<p class='c001'>Oh that I could lay waste the world! Maximus,—is -there no poison, no consuming fire, that -could lay creation desolate, as it was on that day -when the spirit moved alone over the face of the -waters?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I hear a noise from the outposts. Come, -Julian——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>To think that century shall follow century, and -that in them all shall live men, knowing that ’twas -I who was vanquished, and he who conquered! -<span class='pageno' id='Page_457'>457</span>I <em class='gesperrt'>will</em> not be vanquished! I am young; I am -invulnerable,—the third empire is at hand——</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>With a great cry.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>There he stands!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Who? Where?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Do you see him? There, among the tree-stems—in -a crown and a purple robe——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>’Tis the moon glimmering on the water. Come—come, -my Julian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Going threateningly towards the vision.</i>] Avaunt! -Thou art dead! Thy empire is past. Off with -the juggler’s cloak, carpenter’s son!</p> - -<p class='c001'>What dost thou there? At what art thou -hammering?—Ah!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>From the left.</i>] All gods be praised!—Oribases,—here, -here!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What has become of him?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>From the left.</i>] Is he here?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes.—Oh my beloved Emperor!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Who was it that said, “I am hammering the -Emperor’s coffin”?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_458'>458</span><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What mean you, sire?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Who spoke, I ask? Who was it that said, “I -am hammering the Emperor’s coffin”?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Come with me to your tent, I implore you.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>Shouts and cries are heard far away.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>War-cries! The Persians are upon us——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>There is already fierce fighting at the outposts.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The enemy is in the camp! Ah, sire, you are -unarmed——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I will sacrifice to the gods.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>To what gods, oh fool? Where are they—and -what are they?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I will sacrifice to this god and to that. I will -sacrifice to many. One or another must surely -hear me. I must call upon something without me -and above me——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>There is not a moment to be lost——!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_459'>459</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah—saw you the burning torch behind the -cloud? It flashed forth and went out in the same -instant. A message from the spirits! A shining -ship between heaven and earth!—My shield! My -sword!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He rushes out to the right. <span class='sc'>Oribases</span> and -<span class='sc'>Eutherius</span> follow him.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Calling after him.</i>] Emperor, Emperor—do not -fight to-night!</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He goes off to the right.</i></div> - -<h3 class='c028'>SCENE THIRD.</h3> - -<p class='c016'><i>An open plain, with a village far away. Daybreak -and cloudy weather.</i></p> -<p class='c017'><i>A noise of battle. Cries and the clashing of weapons -out on the plain. In the foreground Roman -spearmen, under <span class='sc'>Ammian’s</span> command, fighting -with Persian archers. The latter are driven -back by degrees towards the left.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ammian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Right, right! Close with them! Thrust them -down! Give them no time to shoot!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>With followers from the right.</i>] Well fought, -Ammian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ammian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh sir, why come not the cavalry to our help?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_460'>460</span><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>They cannot. The Persians have elephants in -their front rank. The very smell strikes terror to -the horses. Thrust—thrust! Upwards, men,—under -their breastplates?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Kytron.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>In night-clothes, laden with books and rolls of paper, -enters from the right.</i>] Oh that I should be in the -midst of such horrors!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Have you seen the Emperor, friend?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Kytron.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, but he heeds me not. Oh, I humbly beg -for a detachment of soldiers to protect me!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To his followers.</i>] They are giving ground! -The shield-bearers forward!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Kytron.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You do not listen to me, sir! My safety is of -the utmost importance; my book, “On Equanimity -in Affliction,” is not finished——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>As before.</i>] The Persians have been reinforced -on the right. They are pressing forward again!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Kytron.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Pressing forward again? Oh this bloodthirsty -ferocity! An arrow! It almost struck me! How -recklessly they shoot; no care for life or limb!</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He takes to flight by the foreground on the left.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_461'>461</span><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The battle hangs in the balance. Neither side -gains ground.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>To <span class='sc'><a id='corr461.4'></a><span class='htmlonly'><ins class='correction' title='Fromentius'>Fromentinus</ins></span><span class='epubonly'><a href='#c_461.4'><ins class='correction' title='Fromentius'>Fromentinus</ins></a></span></span>, who comes with a fresh -troop from the right.</i></p> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ho, captain,—have you seen the Emperor?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Fromentinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, sir; he is fighting at the head of the white -horsemen.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Not wounded?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Fromentinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He seems invulnerable. Arrows and javelins -swerve aside wherever he shows himself.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ammian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Calling out from the thick of the fight.</i>] Help, -help; we can hold out no longer!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Forward, my bold Fromentinus!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Fromentinus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>To the soldiers.</i>] Shoulder to shoulder, and at -them, Greeks!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He hastens to the help of <span class='sc'>Ammian</span>; the -mellay rolls backwards a little.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><i><span class='sc'>Anatolus</span>, the Captain of the Guard, enters</i></div> - <div><i>with followers from the right.</i></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Anatolus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is not the Emperor here?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_462'>462</span><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor! Is it not your business to answer -for him?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Anatolus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>His horse was shot under him,—a terrible tumult -arose; it was impossible to get near him——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Think you he has come to any harm?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Anatolus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, I think not. There was a cry that he was -unhurt, but——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Many of Nevita’s Followers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>There he is! There he is!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'><i>The <span class='sc'>Emperor Julian</span>, without helmet or armour, with -only a sword and shield, escorted by soldiers of -the Imperial Guard, enters from the right.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>’Tis well I have found you, Nevita!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, sire—without armour; how imprudent——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>In these regions no weapon can touch me. But -go, Nevita; take the supreme command; my -horse was shot under me, and——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My Emperor, then after all you are hurt?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_463'>463</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No; only a blow on the head; a little dizzy. -Go, go—— What is <em class='gesperrt'>this</em>? So many strange -multitudes thronging in among us!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Nevita.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>In a low voice.</i>] Anatolus, you must answer for -the Emperor.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Anatolus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Never fear, sir!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i><span class='sc'>Nevita</span> goes off with his followers to the -right. The <span class='sc'>Emperor Julian</span>, <span class='sc'>Anatolus</span>, -and some of the Imperial Guard remain -behind. The fight on the plain rolls -further and further back.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>How many of our men think you have fallen, -Anatolus?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Anatolus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Certainly not a few, sire; but I am sure the -Persians have lost more than we.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, yes; but many have fallen, both Greeks -and Romans. Do you not think so?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Anatolus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Surely you are unwell, my Emperor. Your face -is so pale——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Look at those lying there,—some on their backs, -others on their faces, with outstretched arms. -They must all be dead?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_464'>464</span><span class='sc'>Anatolus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, sire, beyond a doubt.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>They are dead, yes! They know nought, then, -either of the defeat at Jerusalem or the other -defeats.—Think you many more Greeks will fall -in the battle, Anatolus?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Anatolus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sire, let us hope the bloodiest work is over.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Many, many more will fall, I tell you! But not -enough. Of what use is it that <em class='gesperrt'>many</em> should fall? -None the less will posterity learn——</p> - -<p class='c001'>Tell me, Anatolus, how think you the Emperor -Caligula pictured to himself that sword?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Anatolus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What sword, sire?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>You know he wished for a sword wherewith he -might at one blow——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Anatolus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Hark to the shouts, sire! Now I am sure the -Persians are retreating.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Listening.</i>] What song is that in the air?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Anatolus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sire, let me summon Oribases; or still better,—come,—come; -you are sick!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_465'>465</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>There is singing in the air. Can you not hear -it?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Anatolus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>If it be so, it must be the Galileans——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ay, be sure ’tis the Galileans. Ha-ha-ha, they -fight in our ranks, and see not who stands on the -other side. Oh fools, all of you! Where is -Nevita? Why should he attack the Persians? -Can he not see that ’tis not the Persians who are -most dangerous?—You betray me, all of you.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Anatolus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Softly to one of the soldiers.</i>] Hasten to the -camp; bring hither the Emperor’s physician?</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>The soldier goes out to the right.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What innumerable hosts! Think you they have -caught sight of us, Anatolus?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Anatolus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Who, sire? Where?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Do you not see them—yonder—high up and far -away! You lie! You see them well enough!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Anatolus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>By the immortal gods, they are only the morning -clouds,—’tis the day dawning.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_466'>466</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>’Tis the hosts of the Galilean, I tell you! Look—those -in the red-edged garments are the martyrs -who died in blood. Singing women surround them, -and weave bowstrings of the long hair torn from -their heads. Children are with them, twining -slings from their unravelled entrails. Burning -torches——! Thousandfold—multitudinous! They -are hastening hitherward! They are all looking -at me; all rushing straight upon me!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Anatolus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>’Tis the Persians, sire! Our ranks are giving -way——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>They <em class='gesperrt'>shall</em> not give way!—You <em class='gesperrt'>shall</em> not! -Stand fast, Greeks! Stand, stand, Romans! Today -we will free the world!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>The battle has in the meantime swept forward -over the plain again. <span class='sc'>Julian</span> hurls -himself with drawn sword into the thickest -of the fight. General confusion.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Anatolus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Calling out to the right.</i>] Help, help! The -Emperor is in deadly peril!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Among the combatants.</i>] I see him; I see him! -A longer sword! Who has a longer sword to lend -me?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Soldiers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Streaming in from the right.</i>] With Christ for -the Emperor!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_467'>467</span><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Among the new-comers.</i>] With Christ for Christ!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He throws his spear; it grazes the Emperor’s -arm, and plunges into his side.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He grasps the spear-head to draw it out, -but gashes his hand, utters a loud cry and -falls.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Agathon.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Calls out in the tumult.</i>] The Roman’s spear from -Golgotha!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He casts himself weaponless among the -Persians, and is seen to be cut down.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Confused Cries.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor! Is the Emperor wounded?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Attempts to rise, but falls back again, and cries</i>:] -Thou hast conquered, Galilean!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Many Voices.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor has fallen!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Anatolus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Emperor is wounded! Shield him—shield -him, in the name of the gods!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He casts himself despairingly against the -advancing Persians. The Emperor is -carried away senseless. At that moment, -<span class='sc'>Jovian</span> comes forward upon the plain with -fresh troops.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_468'>468</span><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>On—on, believing brethren; give Caesar what -is Caesar’s!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Retreating Soldiers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Calling to him.</i>] He has fallen! The Emperor -has fallen!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Jovian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Fallen! Oh mighty God of vengeance! On, -on; ’tis God’s will that his people shall live! I -see heaven open; I see the angels with flaming -swords——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Soldiers.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Hurtling forward.</i>] Christ is among us!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ammian’s Troops.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The Galileans’ God is among us! Close round -him! He is the strongest!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>A wild tumult of battle. <span class='sc'>Jovian</span> hews his -way into the enemy’s ranks. Sunrise. -The Persians flee in all directions.</i></p> -</div> - -<h4 class='c024'>SCENE FOURTH.</h4> - -<p class='c017'><i>The Emperor’s tent, with a curtained entrance in the -background. Daylight.</i></p> -<p class='c017'><i>The <span class='sc'>Emperor Julian</span> lies unconscious on his couch. -The wounds in his right side, arm, and hand are -bound up. Close to him stand <span class='sc'>Oribases</span> and -<span class='sc'>Makrina</span>, with <span class='sc'>Eutherius</span>. Further back <span class='sc'>Basil -of Caesarea</span>, and <span class='sc'>Priscus</span>. At the foot of the -bed stands <span class='sc'>Maximus the Mystic</span>.</i></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_469'>469</span><span class='sc'>Makrina.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He bleeds again. I must bind the bandage -tighter.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Thanks to you, tender woman; your heedful -hands do us good service here.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is it possible that he still lives?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Certainly he lives.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>But he does not breathe.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, he breathes.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'><i><span class='sc'>Ammian</span> enters softly, with the Emperor’s sword and -shield, which he lays down, and remains standing -beside the curtain.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Priscus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, good captain, how go affairs without?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ammian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Better than here. Is he already——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Priscus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, no, not yet. But is it certain that we have -defeated the Persians?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ammian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Completely. It was Jovian who put them to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_470'>470</span>flight. Three noblemen have even now arrived -as envoys from King Sapor, to beg for a truce.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Priscus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>And think you Nevita will accede to it?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ammian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Nevita has yielded up the command to Jovian. -All flock around him. All see in him our one hope -of safety——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Speak low; he moves.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ammian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He moves. Mayhap he is awakening to consciousness! -Oh, if he should live to see this!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What, Ammian?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ammian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Both soldiers and leaders are taking counsel as -to the choice of the new Emperor.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Priscus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What say you?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, what shameful haste!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ammian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The perilous situation of the army partly excuses -it; and yet——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Makrina.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>He is waking;—he opens his eyes——</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i><span class='sc'>Julian</span> lies for a time quite still, looking -kindly at the bystanders.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_471'>471</span><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sire, do you know me?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Very well, my Oribases.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Only lie quiet.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Lie quiet? You remind me! I must be up!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Impossible, sire; I implore you——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I must up, I say. How can I lie quiet now? I -must utterly vanquish Sapor.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Eutherius.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sapor is vanquished, sire! He has sent envoys -to the camp to beg for a truce.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Has he, indeed? That is good news. So him, -at least, I have conquered.</p> - -<p class='c001'>But no truce. I will crush him to the earth.—Ah, -where is my shield? Have I lost my shield?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ammian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, my Emperor,—here are both your shield -and your sword.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I am very glad of that. My good shield. I -should grieve to think of it in the hands of the -barbarians. Give it me, on my arm——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_472'>472</span><span class='sc'>Makrina.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, sire, ’tis too heavy for you now!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, <em class='gesperrt'>you</em>? You are right, pious Makrina; ’tis -a little too heavy for me.—Lay it before me, that -I may see it. What? Is that you, Ammian? -Are you on guard here? Where is Anatolus?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ammian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sire, he is now in bliss.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Fallen? My trusty Anatolus fallen for my sake!—In -bliss, you say? Ha——</p> - -<p class='c001'>One friend the less. Ah, my Maximus!—I will -not receive the Persian king’s envoys to-day. -Their design is merely to waste my time. But I -will grant no terms. I will follow up the victory -to the utmost. The army shall turn against -Ctesiphon again.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Impossible, sire; think of your wounds.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My wounds will soon be healed. Will they not, -Oribases—do you not promise me——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Above all things rest, sire!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What a most untimely chance! Just at this -moment, when so many weighty matters are -crowding in upon me. I cannot leave these -<span class='pageno' id='Page_473'>473</span>things in Nevita’s hands. In such matters I can -trust neither him nor others; I must do all myself.—’Tis -true, I feel somewhat weary. How unfortunate!—Tell -me, Ammian, what is the name of -that ill-omened place?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ammian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What place, my gracious Emperor?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>The spot where the Persian javelin struck me?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ammian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>’Tis called after the village of Phrygia——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What is it called——? What say you the region -is called?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ammian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>’Tis called from the village over yonder, the -Phrygian region.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, Maximus—Maximus!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Betrayed!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He hides his face, and sinks down at the -foot of the bed.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My Emperor, what alarms you?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_474'>474</span><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Nothing—nothing——</p> - -<p class='c001'>Phrygia? Is it so? Nevita and the others will -have to take the command after all. Go, tell -them——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ammian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Sire, they have already, on your behalf——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Have they? Yes, yes, that is well.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The world-will has laid an ambush for me, -Maximus!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Makrina.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Your wound bleeds afresh, sire!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, Oribases, why did you seek to hide it from -me?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>What did I seek to hide, my Emperor?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>That I must die. Why not have told me -before.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, my Emperor!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Julian—Julian!</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i>He casts himself down, weeping, beside the -bed.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Basil,—friend, brother,—we two have lived -beautiful days together——</p> - -<p class='c001'><span class='pageno' id='Page_475'>475</span>You must not weep because I depart from you -so young. ’Tis not always a sign of the Fates’ -displeasure when they call a man away in his -prime. What, after all, is death? ’Tis nought -but paying our debt to the ever-changing empire -of the dust. No lamentations! Do we not all -love wisdom? And does not wisdom teach us that -the highest bliss lies in the life of the soul, not in -that of the body? So far the Galileans are right, -although——; but we will not speak of that. -Had the powers of life and death suffered me to -finish a certain treatise, I think I should have -succeeded in——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh my Emperor, does it not weary you to talk -so much?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, no, no. I feel very light and free.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Julian, my beloved brother,—is there nought -you would recall?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Truly I know not what it should be.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Nothing to repent of, Julian?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Nothing. That power which circumstances -placed in my hands, and which is an emanation of -divinity, I am conscious of having used to the best -of my skill. I have never wittingly wronged any -one. For this campaign there were good and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_476'>476</span>sufficient reasons; and if some should think that -I have not fulfilled all expectations, they ought in -justice to reflect that there is a mysterious power -without us, which in a great measure governs the -issue of human undertakings.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Makrina.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Softly to <span class='sc'>Oribases</span>.</i>] Oh listen—listen how -heavily he breathes.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>His voice will soon fail him.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>As to the choice of my successor, I presume not -to give any advice.—You, Eutherius, will divide -my possessions among those who have stood -nearest to me. I do not leave much; for I have -always held that a true philosopher——</p> - -<p class='c001'>What is <em class='gesperrt'>this</em>? Is the sun already setting?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Not so, my Emperor; ’tis still broad day.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Strange! It seemed to me to turn quite -dark——</p> - -<p class='c001'>Ah, wisdom—wisdom. Hold fast to wisdom, -good Priscus! But be always armed against an -unfathomable something without us, which——</p> - -<p class='c001'>Is Maximus gone?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No, my brother!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>My throat is burning. Can you not cool it?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_477'>477</span><span class='sc'>Makrina.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>A draught of water, sire?</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>She holds a cup to his lips.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Whispers to <span class='sc'>Makrina</span>.</i>] His wound bleeds -inwardly.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Do not weep. Let no Greek weep for me; I -am ascending to the stars——</p> - -<p class='c001'>Beautiful temples—— Pictures—— But so -far away.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Makrina.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Of what is he talking?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>I know not; I think his mind is wandering.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Julian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>With closed eyes.</i>] ’Twas given to Alexander to -enter in triumph—into Babylon.—I too will—— Beautiful -wreath—crown’d youths—dancing -maidens,—but so far away.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Beautiful earth,—beautiful life——</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He opens his eyes wide.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, Helios, Helios—why didst thou betray -me?</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He dies.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>After a pause.</i>] That was death.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>The Bystanders.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Dead—dead!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_478'>478</span><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Yes, now he is dead.</p> - -<div class='direction'> -<p class='c020'>[<i><span class='sc'>Basil</span> and <span class='sc'>Makrina</span> kneel in prayer. -<span class='sc'>Eutherius</span> veils his head. A sound of -drums and trumpets is heard in the -distance.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Shouts from the Camp.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Long live the Emperor Jovian!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh, heard you that shout?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Ammian.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Jovian is proclaimed Emperor.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Laughing.</i>] The Galilean Jovian! Yes—yes—yes!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Oribases.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Shameful haste! Before they knew that——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Priscus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Jovian,—the victorious hero who has saved us -all! The Emperor Jovian assuredly deserves a -panegyric. I trust that crafty Kytron has not -already——</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He hastens out.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Forgotten, ere your hand is cold. And for this -pitiful splendour you sold your immortal soul!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Rising.</i>] The world-will shall answer for Julian’s -soul!</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_479'>479</span><span class='sc'>Makrina.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Blaspheme not; though surely you have loved -this dead man——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Maximus.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Approaching the body.</i>] Loved, and led him -astray—Nay, not <i>I</i>!</p> - -<p class='c001'>Led astray like Cain. Led astray like Judas.—Your -God is a spendthrift God, Galileans! He -wears out many souls.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Wast thou not then, this time either, the -chosen one—thou victim on the altar of necessity?</p> - -<p class='c001'>What is it worth to live? All is sport and -mockery.—To <em class='gesperrt'>will</em> is to <em class='gesperrt'>have to will</em>.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Oh my beloved—all signs deceived me, all -auguries spoke with a double tongue, so that I -saw in thee the mediator between the two -empires.</p> - -<p class='c001'>The third empire shall come! The spirit of -man shall re-enter on its heritage—and then shall -offerings of atonement<a id='r13' /><a href='#f13' class='c012'><sup>[13]</sup></a> be made to thee, and to -thy two guests in the symposium.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>He goes out.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Makrina.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>[<i>Rising, pale.</i>] Basil—did you understand the -heathen’s speech?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>No,—but it dawns on me like a great and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_480'>480</span>radiant light, that here lies a noble, shattered -instrument of God.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Makrina.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Ay, truly, a dear and dear-bought instrument.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Christ, Christ—how came it that thy people -saw not thy manifest design? The Emperor -Julian was a rod of chastisement,—not unto -death, but unto resurrection.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Makrina.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Terrible is the mystery of election. How know -we——?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Basil.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Is it not written: “Some vessels are fashioned -to honour, and some to dishonour”?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Makrina.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>Oh brother, let us not seek to fathom that -abyss.</p> -<div class='c019'>[<i>She bends over the body and covers the face.</i></div> - -<p class='c001'>Erring soul of man—if thou wast indeed forced -to err, it shall surely be accounted to thee for -good on that great day when the Mighty One -shall descend in the clouds to judge the living -dead and the dead who are yet alive!—— ——</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='large'>THE END.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<hr class='c014' /> -<hr class='c014' /> -<div class='footnote' id='f11'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r11'>11</a>. The original edition here reads “benådet,” and this reading -is followed in the translation. In the collected edition -of Ibsen’s works (Copenhagen 1899) the word becomes -“beåndet,” which is probably a misprint, but may, on the -other hand, be a correction. In that case, for “highly-favoured” -we should have to read “specially inspired.” -Ibsen uses the word “beåndet” several times in “Hedda -Gabler.”</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f12'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r12'>12</a>. In the collected edition (1899) the word <span lang="no" xml:lang="no">“sejre”</span> (to conquer) -of earlier editions is replaced by <span lang="no" xml:lang="no">“rejse”</span> (journey). This is -almost certainly a misprint.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f13'> -<p class='c001'><a href='#r13'>13</a>. Here occurs the one clear case I have observed of a -revision of the text. In earlier editions the phrase ran <span lang="no" xml:lang="no">“da skal -der tændes rögoffer,”</span> meaning literally “then shall burnt-offerings -(smoke-offerings) be lighted.” In the collected -edition (1899) <span lang="no" xml:lang="no">“sonoffer”</span> (offerings of atonement) is substituted -for <span lang="no" xml:lang="no">“rögoffer.”</span> This can scarcely be a printer’s error; -and as one deliberate alteration has been made, it would seem -that the alterations noted on pp. 382 and 417 (especially the -former) may also be due, not to the printer, but to the poet.</p> -</div> -<hr class='c014' /> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>Printed by <span class='sc'>Ballantyne & Co. Limited</span></div> - <div>Tavistock Street, London</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> -<p class='c001'><a id='endnote'></a></p> -<div class='tnotes'> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='large'>Transcriber’s Note</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c001'>There are quite a few instances of missing punctuation. The -conventional period following the character’s name is sometimes -missing and has been added for consistency’s sake without -further comment. Those missing from setting and stage direction -are also added without comment, since there is no obvious purpose to be -served by the omission. However, the restoration of punctuation -missing from dialogue is noted below, since the punctuation is -frequently expressive.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Volume I of this series included errata for each succeeding volume, -but noted none in this Volume V.</p> - -<p class='c001'>Errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and -are noted here. The references are to the page and line in the original.</p> - -<table class='table2' summary=''> -<colgroup> -<col width='12%' /> -<col width='69%' /> -<col width='18%' /> -</colgroup> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_xiii.14'></a><a href='#corrxiii.14'>xiii.14</a></td> - <td class='c003'>not the actual composition[:]</td> - <td class='c029'>Restored.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_4.11'></a><a href='#corr4.11'>4.11</a></td> - <td class='c003'>I had it from Memnon himself[.]</td> - <td class='c029'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_7.2'></a><a href='#corr7.2'>7.2</a></td> - <td class='c003'>give it him, dear brother[.]</td> - <td class='c029'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_7.22'></a><a href='#corr7.22'>7.22</a></td> - <td class='c003'>Oh, you abandoned hound[!]</td> - <td class='c029'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_14.19'></a><a href='#corr14.19'>14.19</a></td> - <td class='c003'>Stand, stand;—I am armed[.]</td> - <td class='c029'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_17.13'></a><a href='#corr17.13'>17.13</a></td> - <td class='c003'>[I ]am sure my old Mardonius</td> - <td class='c029'>Restored.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_23.19'></a><a href='#corr23.19'>23.19</a></td> - <td class='c003'>fire rained from heaven night by night[.]</td> - <td class='c029'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_31.15'></a><a href='#corr31.15'>31.15</a></td> - <td class='c003'>along with the[ the] stranger.</td> - <td class='c029'>Removed.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_48.27'></a><a href='#corr48.27'>48.27</a></td> - <td class='c003'>I know it[,] my Hekebolius!</td> - <td class='c029'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_66.34'></a><a href='#corr66.34'>66.34</a></td> - <td class='c003'>once more arisen in our midst[.]</td> - <td class='c029'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_70.28'></a><a href='#corr70.28'>70.28</a></td> - <td class='c003'>calling him my great brother[.]</td> - <td class='c029'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_75.20'></a><a href='#corr75.20'>75.20</a></td> - <td class='c003'>in the midst of a great city[!]</td> - <td class='c029'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_79.2'></a><a href='#corr79.2'>79.2</a></td> - <td class='c003'>To the bacchanal, friends[!]</td> - <td class='c029'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_82.19'></a><a href='#corr82.19'>82.19</a></td> - <td class='c003'>and living in the wilderness[?]</td> - <td class='c029'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_86.31'></a><a href='#corr86.31'>86.31</a></td> - <td class='c003'>dizzy with its sweetness[;]</td> - <td class='c029'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_147.2'></a><a href='#corr147.2'>147.2</a></td> - <td class='c003'>By-and-by[,/.]</td> - <td class='c029'>Replaced.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_158.26'></a><a href='#corr158.26'>158.26</a></td> - <td class='c003'>has done too much, good Decentius[!]</td> - <td class='c029'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_171.23'></a><a href='#corr171.23'>171.23</a></td> - <td class='c003'>what have you given the Princess[?]</td> - <td class='c029'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_179.2'></a><a href='#corr179.2'>179.2</a></td> - <td class='c003'>noble Caesar[,/.] But my</td> - <td class='c029'>Replaced.</td> - </tr> - - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_182.7'></a><a href='#corr182.7'>182.7</a></td> - <td class='c003'>auxiliaries, and other allies[,] climb</td> - <td class='c029'>Removed.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_182.14'></a><a href='#corr182.14'>182.14</a></td> - <td class='c003'>Caesar, Caesar[!]</td> - <td class='c029'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_182.18'></a><a href='#corr182.18'>182.18</a></td> - <td class='c003'>Down with the faithless [Cæsar. Caesar!]</td> - <td class='c029'>Inconsistent.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_188.19'></a><a href='#corr188.19'>188.19</a></td> - <td class='c003'>Caesar, do you take[ take] the helm!</td> - <td class='c029'>Removed.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_209.19'></a><a href='#corr209.19'>209.19</a></td> - <td class='c003'>Think[?/.]</td> - <td class='c029'>Replaced.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_210.32'></a><a href='#corr210.32'>210.32</a></td> - <td class='c003'>[“]Either with us or against us”?</td> - <td class='c029'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_243.28'></a><a href='#corr243.28'>243.28</a></td> - <td class='c003'>to sp[r]ead terror to the ends of the earth.</td> - <td class='c029'>Inserted.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_300.7'></a><a href='#corr300.7'>300.7</a></td> - <td class='c003'>cry their wares[.]</td> - <td class='c029'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_300.9'></a><a href='#corr300.9'>300.9</a></td> - <td class='c003'>talking eagerly[.]</td> - <td class='c029'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_308.1'></a><a href='#corr308.1'>308.1</a></td> - <td class='c003'>sanctuary, the very house of Apollo[,] which</td> - <td class='c029'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_322.17'></a><a href='#corr322.17'>322.17</a></td> - <td class='c003'>[t/T]here you are not far wrong.</td> - <td class='c029'>Replaced.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_326.29'></a><a href='#corr326.29'>326.29</a></td> - <td class='c003'>No, no, it needs more than that[.]</td> - <td class='c029'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_408.29'></a><a href='#corr408.29'>408.29</a></td> - <td class='c003'>Ah, sire, you may well marvel[?/!]</td> - <td class='c029'>Replaced.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_428.21'></a><a href='#corr428.21'>428.21</a></td> - <td class='c003'>Woe, woe, woe[!]</td> - <td class='c029'>Added.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_352.24'></a><a href='#corr352.24'>352.24</a></td> - <td class='c003'>Arise, friend[?/!]</td> - <td class='c029'>Replaced.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c003'><a id='c_461.4'></a><a href='#corr461.4'>461.4</a></td> - <td class='c003'><i>To <span class='sc'>Fromenti[n]us</span></i></td> - <td class='c029'>Inserted.</td> - </tr> -</table> - -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COLLECTED WORKS OF HENRIK IBSEN VOL. 05 (OF 11) ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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