As captured January 17, 2025

2 files changed, 11786 insertions, 11786 deletions

diff --git a/72364-0.txt b/72364-0.txt
index 2d19fa6..03d72cc 100644
--- a/72364-0.txt
+++ b/72364-0.txt
@@ -1,4959 +1,4959 @@
-

-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE NAME OF TIME ***

-

-

-

-

-

-                          IN THE NAME OF TIME

-

-                     OTHER WORKS BY MICHAEL FIELD

-

-

-        CALLIRRHOE                                       1884

-        FAIR ROSAMUND                             1884 & 1897

-        THE TRAGIC MARY                                  1890

-        UNDERNEATH THE BOUGH                             1893

-        THE WORLD AT AUCTION                             1898

-        THE RACE OF LEAVES                               1901

-        JULIA DOMNA                                      1903

-        BORGIA                                           1905

-        WILD HONEY                                       1908

-        QUEEN MARIAMNE                                   1908

-        THE ACCUSER                                      1911

-        THE TRAGEDY OF PARDON                            1911

-        POEMS OF ADORATION                               1912

-        MYSTIC TREES                                     1913

-        DEDICATED                                        1914

-        DEIRDRE                                          1918

-

-[Illustration]

-

-

-

-

-                                IN THE

-                             NAME OF TIME

-

-                                   A

-                                TRAGEDY

-

-                                  BY

-                                MICHAEL

-                                 FIELD

-

-

-                          THE POETRY BOOKSHOP

-                    35 DEVONSHIRE ST. THEOBALDS RD.

-                              LONDON W.C.

-                                MCMXIX

-

-

-

-

-                         IN THE NAME OF TIME:

-

-                               A TRAGEDY

-

-

-      “IN THE NAME OF TIME.”--_The Winter’s Tale_, iv, I, _chorus_.

-

-          ἅπανθ᾽ ὁ μακρὸς κἀναρίθμητος χρόνος

-          φύει τ᾽ ἄδηλα καὶ φανέντα κρύπτεται:

-          κοὐκ ἔστ᾽ ἄελπτον οὐδέν, ἀλλ᾽ ἁλίσκεται

-          χὠ δεινὸς ὅρκος χαἰ περισκελεῖς φρένες.

-

-                            _Sophocles--Ajax 646._

-

-      _Quoted from R. C. Trevelyan’s Translation on the Cover._

-

-

-

-

-                                PERSONS

-

-

-                CHILPERIC     _King of the Franks_.

-                CARLOMAN }  { _Sons of Charles Martel,_

-                PEPIN    }  { _Consuls and Mayors of the Palace_.

-                MARCOMIR      _A Frankish Count_.

-                RACHIS        _King of the Lombards_.

-                ASTOLPH       _His brother_.

-                ZACHARIAS     _The Pope_.

-                DAMIANI       _An Italian Bishop_.

-                BONIFACE      _A Missionary Saint_.

-                GENEVIVA      _Wife to Carloman_.

-

-                _Cardinals, Nobles, Monks, Servants._

-

-

-

-

-                          IN THE NAME OF TIME

-

-                               A TRAGEDY

-

-

-

-

-ACT I.

-

-

-SCENE: _Paris. A Hall in the Royal Palace._

-

-CARLOMAN _is pacing backward and forward: he pauses by a crucifix set up

-at the further end of the hall_.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    _Thou sayest truly that I am--a King_

-    He said Who laid His life down on the Cross:

-    So will I be, a King. I will possess

-    The great reality. I war and govern,

-    I can strike hard as Charles the Hammerer;

-    Men say I have my father’s qualities,

-    And in the brief months of my sovereignty

-    The infidel has recognised my blood:

-    But this is nothing! Phantom-Emperors

-    Have made the throne phantasmal. I have felt

-    In Zacharias, the great Pope, a force

-    That spreads like spring across the world. No more

-    Will I be petty marshal to a crew

-    That hack and murder, while the royal faces

-    Of wandering martyrs scintillate and thrill.

-    There is a glorious Betterness at work

-    Amid the highways and the solitudes;

-    I would be with it--in obscurity,

-    No matter!--with the river as it shapes

-    Its cisterns in the hills or where the wind

-    First draws its silver volumes to a voice:

-    Behind, at the beginning, from within:

-    A cry, a pang--what shall respond to it,

-    Who help me? I have fiery thoughts of God,

-    I would attempt Him. In the wilderness

-    Maybe He will unbosom.

-

-[_Enter a_ SERVANT.]

-

-

-SERVANT.

-

-                          The Archbishop

-    Of Mentz would see you.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                          Blessèd Boniface!

-    He brings me my enfranchisement.

-

-[_As_ BONIFACE _enters the_ SERVANT _withdraws_.]

-

-                                    Great Angel,

-    My spirit leaps within me to be born,

-    Beholding you.

-

-

-BONIFACE.

-

-                  My son, the Holy Father

-    Receives you joyously.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_kissing_ BONIFACE] To go to God

-    Living, unscathed, to give Him everything

-    One has, to pour one’s soul into His lap,

-    To let Him play upon one as the wind,

-    To feel His alternations ...!

-

-

-BONIFACE.

-

-                                  Carloman,

-    Your childlike transport shall be surely blessed:

-    Yet in the convent there are bitter hours

-    Of exile from God’s presence, penances--

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    But will they choke my solitude with prayers?

-

-

-BONIFACE.

-

-    The holy brethren chant in unison

-    For hours within the chapel; there is buzz

-    About the cloister like a hive of bees.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    There have been hermits! Might I live alone,

-    I could breathe unrepiningly the while

-    It pleased God to keep silence. I would tame

-    Some wistful, kingly beast to roam with me,

-    And we would wait His pleasure. Boniface,

-    Oh, tell me of His coming! It is plain

-    He has been with you--You became His friend?

-

-

-BONIFACE.

-

-    His servant rather.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                        That I cannot be;

-    I am a Knight free-born; I come as those

-    Great nobles of the East, and all my service

-    Is adoration. You may have some converts,

-    Brute-tribes, who give allegiance to His name,

-    As those who do not speak the Emperor’s tongue

-    May rank his subjects. I am not of these.

-

-

-BONIFACE.

-

-    Thou speakest truth, my son; there are some souls

-    Loved of the Lord as Paul in Araby

-    With whom one must not meddle. In good time

-    You will exalt the Church; meanwhile your brother

-    Who has a tighter grip of circumstance

-    Than you--

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    He is short-sighted, politic,

-    External in his bent. I lead the charge

-    In battle, I foresee the combinations

-    Of foreign forces; he is good at siege,

-    And all the hectoring process of delay.

-    He is not like my father. That great fight

-    At Tours! I feel the onslaught in my blood;

-    It never can run sluggish.

-

-

-BONIFACE.

-

-                               Had you seen

-    King Chilperic’s flower-wreathed waggon in the street!--

-    You should have looked a last time on the world

-    Ere you renounced it.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                          Scanned the heir of Clovis

-    Drawn like a senseless idol in his car!

-    You judge unworthily. God bade me come

-    Up higher to Him on a battlefield

-    Where I was victor. It was in the night--

-    I moved about among my sleeping men,

-    I heard them shout for triumph in their dreams:

-    It was enough!

-

-

-BONIFACE.

-

-                   Yes, all is vanity;

-    The pride of life, its splendour, _vanitas_!

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    There is no vanity in life; life utters

-    Unsparing truth to us,--there is no line

-    Or record in our body of her printing

-    That stamps a falsehood. Do not so confound,

-    Father, life’s transience and sincerity.

-    What makes the show out in the streets so vile

-    Is that it blazons forth the lie that youth,

-    Kingship and power are ineffectual.

-    A show of death where life should radiate

-    Is vanity. And if I now fling off

-    The honourable titles of my state,

-    Consul and Patriarch, it is not because

-    I have not nobly borne them; by my sword

-    The Church has been defended, and the corn

-    That bows in shocks about your monasteries

-    Bows down above the battlefields I won.

-    You misconceive.

-

-

-BONIFACE.

-

-                     A sweep of piety

-    Beyond my censure! [_half-aside_] Will he thrive at Rome?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Why should you look so fearful? I have chosen

-    The path of life, choosing to be a monk,

-    And I have wisely chosen.

-

-

-BONIFACE.

-

-    Ah, beloved!

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Now I must face my brother. Would he come

-    By chance! I dare not crave a conference.

-    I am arrested at the lips if ever

-    We speak of anything beyond affairs.

-    He will not understand--at least to-day,

-    When fresh from the procession of that cursed

-    Do-nothing Chilperic.

-

-

-BONIFACE.

-

-                          Set your purpose forth

-    At once, and let him freely misconceive:

-    You must not cloud for that.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                                 These mighty thoughts,

-    Mingled with God, how put them to the shame

-    Of the world’s censure! What you call my soul

-    Flees as a shy girl that escapes pursuit.

-

-

-BONIFACE.

-

-    Take your shame meekly. Do not let your eyes

-    Grow wild and hostile!

-

-     [BONIFACE, _who has seen_ PEPIN _approaching, withdraws to the back

-     of the hall, stands before the Crucifix in mute prayer, and then

-     passes out, looking back at the brothers_. PEPIN _is a short, stout

-     man, with florid complexion and much vehemence of manner. He wipes

-     the perspiration from his face and addresses_ CARLOMAN _without

-     looking at him_.]

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-                              Woden, what a sight!

-    This Chilperic is an idol that the people

-    No longer worship as his car rolls on.

-    Contempt, indifference! A few more months

-    Will rid us of the calf. We pull together

-    In right good part, fraternal, taking pride

-    Each in the other’s excellence: ere long

-    The Pope will pour his oil upon our heads

-    To nourish our short curls.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    He has the power

-    Of making Kings?

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-    Liutbrand the Lombard winced

-    Before him and resigned the Exarchite:

-    And he who can impoverish may endow.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_with a sudden movement_]

-    Pepin, we have not looked upon the face

-    Of Zacharias: I am bound for Rome.

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-    A pilgrimage? Stay where you are! Tut, tut!

-    Wait till he seek us. Frankland is his hope

-    Against the Lombard: when he seeks us then

-    We twain will offer him our dutiful,

-    Strong swords, and keep St. Peter’s realm intact;

-    While, in return, that gracious influence,

-    That something that we lack to give our strength

-    Supremacy, shall be poured down on us.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    _Something we lack!_ I dream of a possession--

-    Pepin, the world if I became a monk

-    Would recognise that I lay down my rights,

-    None wrests them from me.

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-                              Are you clean gone mad!

-    Become a monk, you, Consul, Patriarch!

-    Our mother had been Christian scarce a year

-    Before your birth, and haply took the priest

-    Too much into her privacy. By Thor--

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_taking him by the throat_]

-    No, but by God Incarnate, you shall swear

-    You own me son of Christendom’s great guard

-    Ere you again draw unimperilled breath!

-    I, Carloman, your elder, the first-born

-    Of Charles Martel, of my own choice renounce

-    My portion in his honours. Own my birthright!

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-    Plague take you!

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Own it!

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-                             Give a fellow breath,

-    Don’t ...

-    You have your father’s temper, that’s the test!

-    I loved you as a boy and set my teeth

-    Against a rare, sweet craziness that takes you

-    In certain moods--you need a keeper then:

-    You need one now. Hold fast your birthright, man;

-    Don’t trust me with temptation. Geneviva

-    Will relish this new folly less than I--

-    Chuck her beneath the chin and threaten her

-    With your design! She is too young a widow

-    For me to govern.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_apart_] Deaf down to the soul!

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-    That flush across your forehead like a scar

-    At mention of your wife! Her lovers!--Think

-    If you withdrew protection....

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                                   Purity,

-    In woman the ideal and the dream,

-    Has its firm seat amid the altitudes

-    Of manhood’s nature--There alone are seats

-    Of holy contemplation, sexless thoughts,

-    Love that in God finds goal, a loneliness

-    That truth, not sympathy, can cure. ’Tis vain

-    The hope that woman, made to minister

-    To momentary passion, can provide

-    Solace and inspiration to her mate.

-    She breeds no hope; she cannot offer us

-    A clime for our ideals and our dreams,

-    Or plant a footstep soft as memory’s

-    Across futurity’s unimpressed sands.

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-    You speak from fact, I own.

-                                But Boniface,

-    What does he say?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    He aids me.

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-    [_slapping him on the shoulder_] Carloman,

-    ’Twould be cold work without you.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    But my son----

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-    Nay, nay, no substitute! You are my brother,

-    I know the secret how to humour you,

-    I weave your projects in our policy,

-    And now and then you marshal us the way

-    Of an archangel ... but no substitute!

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Yet love him for my sake; give him free training

-    In war and letters.

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-                        Fie, fie! Geneviva

-    Will put you from this project. In the cloister

-    What would you see but men who dig and pray?--

-    No royal pageants.

-

-     [KING CHILPERIC _is borne in a litter with great pomp. His golden

-     hair sweeps over the sides of the litter; his face is nerveless and

-     exhausted._]

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_with an ironic smile_] Such as this. The King!

-    Tell him I have transferred the Mayoralty

-    To you, and do not taunt me any more.

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-    [_to_ CHILPERIC]

-    Sire, you are weary, yet we crave the grace

-    Of a brief audience.

-

-

-CHILPERIC.

-

-                         Business! I can brook

-    No more of these distractions. Your good brother

-    Relieves me of all business. I can hear

-    Scarcely the people’s clamour when they shout,

-    And I am shy at facing them. To know

-    There is a god indifferent to its whims

-    Gives the world courage of its natural awe;

-    So I expose these curls; that duty done,

-    Leave me at ease, an idol in his niche.

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-    But, sire, my brother has persuaded me,

-    If you consent, to take on me his burthens,

-    His duties and his honours; being summoned,

-    He holds, by God to a monastic life.

-

-

-CHILPERIC.

-

-    [_with passing animation_]

-    This interests us. After so brief a term

-    Of dignity! But I applaud his sense:

-    The convent is a place for peace of mind;

-    One has no interruption, one may watch

-    The gold-fish in the fountain half a day,

-    If so one will; and, though the prayers are long,

-    One grows accustomed to them as to meals

-    And looks for their recurrence.

-    [_suspiciously_] But, my Consul,

-    With you it cannot be the luxury

-    Of doing nothing that attracts. For us

-    It is the happy and predestined lot;

-    But for an untamed youth whose pleasures still

-    Are running in the current of his blood,

-    Such choice is of ill-omen.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                                Courage, sire,

-    Is constant industry for happiness.

-    When I become a monk----

-

-

-CHILPERIC.

-

-                              Nay, no confession,

-    No putting reasons to your Overlord.

-    [_to his nobles_]

-    You need not shake your spears so stormily,

-    We leave you a stout leader for your wars,

-    [_to_ CARLOMAN] And you, your liberty. What use of it

-    You make is of no moment to the world,

-    And does not raise my curiosity,

-    Who for myself have found in meat and drink,

-    In sleep and long, long abstinence from care

-    The pleasure proper to me. Pepin, come!

-

-     [_Exeunt_ CHILPERIC, PEPIN _and the Frankish Nobles_.]

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    He has no sight of God, is imbecile

-    And dropping into clay. I should not let

-    This show dishearten me; but I have suffered

-    A vulgar tongue to tell what from my lips

-    Alone is truth--that as the hidden spring,

-    Restless at touch of the diviner’s rod

-    Is dragged through to the surface by his spells,

-    I am discovered and borne upward, made

-    The answer to some perilous appeal:

-    And for my folly I must be dismissed

-    By a mere dotard with a passing sigh

-    Of envy, who forego the battlefield,

-    The Council-chamber, the sweet clang of arms

-    For just a pricking wonder at my heart,

-    A knowledge I would give to secrecy

-    Plunging it headlong in the ear of God.

-    Oh for the cloister! I will make escape

-    At once, in silence, without taking leave:

-    My joy is in the consciousness that Time

-    Will never draw me back to any wish

-    To any fondness I am flinging off....

-

-     [_Enter_ GENEVIVA.]

-

-    My wife!

-            Is Geneviva come to me?

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-    Now the dull monk has left you. Rouse your head!

-    I have been taking thought how best to trim

-    My beauty for you. Boniface was slow

-    In giving counsel; slowly I took up,

-    Handled and dropt my jewels. Of a sudden,

-    When Pepin’s voice was heard upon the stair,

-    I laid these blossoms in a ruddy knot

-    Thus hasty on my bosom. Come to me.

-    My lord, you owe me many hours of love,

-    So many hours I have been beautiful

-    In vain. You do not see me when I sing,

-    You miss the marks of music in my face,

-    You do not love the hunt, and you have never

-    Ridden beside me in the morning light.

-    You see me but as now when I am vexed

-    And haughty for caresses.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_after a pause_] Geneviva,

-    You are a Christian?

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-                            Dear my lord, you speak

-    As if I were laid sick.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    You were baptised?

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-    Assuredly, but the cold font has left

-    No chill upon my heart. Think not of that,

-    Think of our marriage-day. You leave me lonely

-    While Boniface enthralls you.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_with hesitation_] Women even

-    Have put aside their pomps and vanities ...

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-    Oh, leave me, you are insupportable!

-    You bring me word of kingdoms and of monks,

-    And thoughts of things that have not come to pass,

-    Or should be quite forgotten. We could spend

-    So sweet a moment now, for you are loved,

-    My Carloman--What need is there of talk

-    Concerning other matters?--loved of me,

-    Dreamed of when I am dreaming, when I wake

-    Wept for, sighed after. I have never cared

-    To listen to the minstrels, for the praise

-    My beauty covets most is in your eyes.

-    How wild they look and solemn!

-

-     [CARLOMAN _folds her in his arms quietly. Then with great effort

-     bends over her and speaks_]

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                                   Marcomir

-    Is restless for a pilgrimage to Rome.

-    I think we shall be starting presently:

-    And afterward ... If I am long away ...

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-    [_breaking from him_]

-    Oh, think a little! Can you leave this hair

-    So crisp and burnished? When the sun is bright

-    Across your shield, it has no livelier flash--

-    Confess, it has not? But you come to me

-    Stale, weary from your dreams and abstinence,

-    And tingle my suspicion.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                             If these dreams

-    Were growing all the world to me!--You start,

-    You turn away, you will not understand.

-    The fear of hurting you has made me keep

-    So distant from you lately, and my eyes

-    You thought were worn with vigil and with books

-    Have burnt with tears at night for many a month

-    To think you have not known the tyrant-joy

-    That moves a soul to change and severance,

-    Except upon the day when for my sake

-    You parted from your home: but by the rapture

-    That made such tumult in the daughter’s grief

-    When she became a bride, your husband now

-    Implores your comprehension.

-                                  _All thou hast_,

-    So the Church teaches, _family and spouse,

-    The child thou hast begotten, thine own life

-    Thou must abhor, if thou would’st have new days_

-    _Of blessing on the Earth._ I feel this law

-    Is written in my very heart of hearts,

-    There is such haunting freshness deep below

-    The sorrow of farewell.

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-    [_defiantly_] My God is Love--

-    The God who made a bower in Paradise,

-    Who wedded Eve and Adam, who abode

-    In the sweet incense of His Church to bless

-    My marriage.

-      [CARLOMAN _stretches out his hand to support her_.]

-                 Have no fear that I shall fall,

-    I cannot swoon while I remember it--

-    How in the songful hush a restless hand

-    Grew tight about my fingers, and a vow

-    Thrilled all the girl in me to womanhood,

-    And stung the future lying at my heart

-    To joy and frankness. That was years ago ...

-      [_She breaks into a bitter laugh_]

-    O Carloman, you know not what you do,

-    You know not what I am, nor what a blank

-    Of mercy there is in you!

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                              Were I dead,

-    You would not be so violent: in a trance

-    Of resignation you would think of me,

-    With tears, not gasping laughter.

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-    [_pacing the room excitedly_] _Pilgrimage!_

-    Did you say, pilgrimage? To think of you

-    Growing each day more cramped about the mouth,

-    More full of resolution in the eyes.

-    What shall I do? _Pray for you_--but the dead,

-    You have just told me, should be left unmourned,

-    Forgotten as last summer’s autumn-leaves.

-    [_facing him coldly_] My lord, I am no reliquary-urn;

-    There is no widow in me.

-

-    [_with still greater change of manner_] If you leave

-    Your Kingdom, there are certain things to do

-    Before you start. There is that Gothic King,

-    The captive Hermann--you must break his chains.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Hermann is dead. Count Marcomir reports

-    Last night he found him lifeless.

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-    [_gasping_] Late last night?

-    Marcomir!--Take your fingers from my sleeve;

-    But summon Marcomir, and if again

-    There is intelligence to break to me

-    Likely to hurt, give him the charge of it.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    No, Geneviva. I have little speech;

-    But when the secret crept into my soul

-    I loved you, it was not to Marcomir

-    I spoke: and if another secret now

-    Is breaking through my nature, do not think

-    That he will be the spokesman.

-    [_noticing her agitation_] Hermann died

-    I think by his own hand; he courted death.

-    What can a man prize in captivity?

-    [_as_ GENEVIVA _grows more agitated_]

-    There! I will speak no more of him. Your maids--

-    [_turning to summon her attendants_].

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-    Weave the great arras. They have no concern

-    With me, except in silence to array.

-    You thought I cared to gossip with my maids!

-    But summon Marcomir.

-

-     [_She looks after_ CARLOMAN, _who walks out, stroking his chin_].

-

-                         To think he dared

-    To lean above me with those burning eyes

-    Unconscious what they glassed. I did not learn

-    From him the magic that was born in me,

-    I learnt it when great Hermann passed in chains,

-    And he is dead. I promised I would go

-    To-day and visit him. How could he die?

-      [MARCOMIR _enters_.]

-    Why, you are deadly pale!

-      [_She recoils, and says in a faint voice_]

-                              It is the hour

-    Fixed for our visit.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    But the man is dead.

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-    What does he look like now? Is he so changed

-    I must not see him?

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                        Death is not a fact

-    To touch with simile. What looks he like?

-    All men in moonlight mind one of the moon,

-    All dead men look like death.

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-                                  He lies in chains?

-    Are the brows restful?

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                           Had you been a man

-    You would have asked me how he came to die,

-    No more!

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-             I had forgotten ... then he perished

-    As Carloman reports?

-    [MARCOMIR _turns away_.] You cannot bear

-    That I should mourn him?

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    [_facing her again_] Oh, a lifetime, if

-    It please you! I am going to a place

-    Where love is held of little consequence.

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-    Then you are bound for hell.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    [_between his teeth_] But you are safe!

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-    Keep me recluse from love, as men from war,

-    You spoil my faculties. Where will you go?

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    To any coast you have not trod, wherever

-    The flowers are different from the flowers you wear,

-    To some Italian convent. Geneviva,

-    I am not framed to see you minister

-    To other men; but when long years are passed,

-    It may be in a fresco, I shall find

-    Some figure of a lady breaking bread

-    To mendicants, and kneel and pray to her

-    That she may bless me also: but till then ...

-    [_covering his eyes_]

-    O God, you shall not tempt me, though I feel

-    Just how your hair burns in a fiery wreath

-    Above your brow, and how your eyes are soft

-    With blue, and deeper blue, as through the hills

-    The valley stretches azure to the close.

-    You shall not tempt me, though I almost hear

-    Your bosom taking record of your breath,

-    And I could sit and watch that tide of life

-    Rising and falling through the lovely curves,

-    Till I was lost in ecstasy.

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-                                 Oh, hush!

-    But then you love me. It was in a fit ...?

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    Of devilish malice.

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-                        In a jealous fit?

-    You shall remain.

-

-     [_She goes up to him: he takes her hands in his, kisses them

-     coldly, and puts them away._]

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                      I did not answer you--

-    His face was drawn.

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-                        And I had given you charge

-    Of the great restive soldier.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                                  True, I swerved;

-    I have confessed my sin, and now must bear

-    The settling of my spirit on the Cross.

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-    So many favours!

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                     But you kissed his brows--

-    What need was there of that?

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-                                 You love me then,

-    You love me! Would you murder him again

-    If I again should touch him with my breath?

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    Again, again.

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-                  And Carloman complains

-    I am indifferent to him!

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                             He forgets;

-    But, Geneviva, if a thousand years

-    Broke over me, when Time had cleared his storms

-    I should look up and know your face by heart.

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-    Then stay, stay, stay with me!

-                                   Have you once thought

-    Through the long years how it will fare with me--

-    Nothing to watch except the sullen waste

-    Of my own beauty? Marcomir, I hold

-    If there be judgment it shall be required

-    Of women what delight their golden hair

-    Has yielded--have they put its wealth to use,

-    Or suffered it to lie by unenjoyed?

-    I rather would die spendthrift, nothing left

-    Of my rich heritage, save memory

-    Of the wild, passing pleasure it conferred

-    Than keep it untransmuted. And you choose

-    To take from me the only eyes that care

-    To mirror mine! I have so often thought

-    That some day I shall drown myself: the water

-    Reflects me with desire.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    [_bitterly, as he turns away_] A soul so wide

-    In innocence, so regal, on the day

-    He wedded, he appointed me your squire!

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-    [_following him_]

-    He keeps you with him, you can read his heart,

-    You know what way he travels, when his soul

-    Flies homeward. Tell me--’tis the only knowledge

-    I crave for in the world--does Carloman

-    Still hold me in affection? I beseech,

-    Tell me the truth. He loves you----

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                                        Yes, he loves,

-    He does not use me for his purposes.

-    [_perceiving_ PEPIN]

-    Not Carloman--his brother on the stair

-    Laughs at your light behaviour. So you lose

-    One last poor opportunity.

-

-[_Re-enter_ PEPIN.]

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-                               Good even.

-    Well, my fair sister, you have heard the news,

-    Wept [_glancing at_ MARCOMIR]

-         and found consolation.

-                                But to think

-    The son of Charles Martel should be a monk!

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-    A monk!--a pilgrim?

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-    No, a cloistered monk.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    What is his crime?

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-                       Oh, no impiety;

-    A crazy fit: he must get near to God,

-    So puts away all intercourse with man:

-    And while I rule he thinks to thrill the world

-    With some convulsive movement from his prayers.

-    Ha, ha! But you shall queen it as before.

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-    Go fetch my husband and remain without,

-    For he alone can speak to me of this.

-

-    [_Exit_ PEPIN.]

-

-    [_turning to_ MARCOMIR]

-    You are a murderer: this act of yours

-    Will leave me very lonely.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    I repent.

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-    There is no sin like that of looking back

-    When one has sinned. Whatever one attempts

-    It perfected in patience brings reward.

-    My Carloman will prosper: his whole heart

-    Is gone away from me.

-                          Why there he is,

-    Passing in zealous talk with Boniface.

-

-     [CARLOMAN _and_ BONIFACE _cross from right to left at the back of

-     the hall_. GENEVIVA _intercepts them_.]

-

-    Farewell!

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_arrested_] O Geneviva!

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-                             Not my name,

-    Never my name again. Say, holy father--

-    They take new titles who renounce the world?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_with flushing eagerness_]

-    Then you too will renounce it? oh, the joy!

-    There is a strange new passion in your eyes.

-    Speak to me ... but you cannot! I could take

-    No leave of you in your fierce, worldly mood;

-    Now all is changed.

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-                        Yes, all. How long ago

-    It seems since we were married!

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                                    Think the day

-    Is yet to come, the joy is all before.

-    [_taking her face between his hands_]

-    O Boniface, this is no temptress’ face!

-    God has been with her, and she starts as I

-    Free in the great endeavour.

-

-

-BONIFACE.

-

-                                Do you choose,

-    Lady, a mere retreat among the nuns,

-    Or, like your husband, do you break all ties

-    That bind you to the earth?

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-                                They all are broken:

-    Except ... oh, I forgot! I have a son.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_nervously_]

-    Pepin will guard him.

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-                          Are you dreaming still?

-    Fool, fool! I tell you Pepin shall decide

-    What robes I wear, and haply suffer me

-    Sometimes at entertainments to look on,

-    And see young Charlemagne praised. But for my child

-    He shall remain with me.

-      [_Re-enter_ PEPIN] All is confirmed.

-    I shall not quit the world. How easily

-    A man is duped with God upon the brain!

-    I shall continue in my womanhood,

-    Giving, receiving pleasure.

-                                I have heard

-    So much and suddenly; for Marcomir

-    Is to become a monk.

-    [_to_ CARLOMAN] Give him no welcome.

-    He takes the cowl a penitent; he is not,

-    Like you, a white-souled wayfarer.

-    [_to_ PEPIN] How strange

-    That we must pair together, you and I;

-    I know so little of your tastes and now

-    I must be often in your company.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    My lord, speak to her.

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-                           Come, an end to this!

-    Brother, if you are wise you will not leave

-    This woman in the world. Convents are made

-    To tame the pride of such and keep them cool.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    O Geneviva, for my sake, and yet....

-    Not so, beloved.

-

-     [_He turns away and covers his face._]

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-                     Marcomir, farewell!

-    You will be monks together. When my husband

-    Forgets me, you must bring me to his thoughts

-    Recall that day we hunted and you fell;

-    I stayed to tend you; but the whole live day

-    My voice rang through the woods for Carloman

-    Until I wearied you; he was not found;

-    But you remember how I cried for him.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    Consul, have pity on her. I am free,

-    But she has need of love.

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-                             O insolence!--

-    The virginal chill heart!--No intercession!

-    [_to_ CARLOMAN]

-    Our marriage is dissolved. How great a stranger

-    You have become to me! I should grow mad

-    To breathe by you another single hour.

-    [_to_ BONIFACE]

-    And you, old man, who stand with such meek eyes,

-    Though you have robbed me of my name of wife,

-    And made my boy an orphan--go your way!

-    I cannot curse you, but I prophesy:

-    Dishonour motherhood, plant virgin homes,

-    Give to religion the sole charge of love,

-    And you will rear up lust of such an ice

-    As Death himself will shiver at.

-    [_to_ PEPIN] Lead on!

-    Now there is hope you may become a King,

-    There should be some high festival to keep

-    To-night in everlasting memory.

-    Lead me away.

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-                  Brother, in all--good luck!

-    And may the Convent’s fare be angels’ food.

-    Your wife’s tears soon will dry.

-

-     [_Exeunt_ PEPIN _and_ GENEVIVA.]

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                                     The thing to do

-    Is simply just the sole thing to be done.

-    There should have been no tears, no taking leave;

-    A freeman can do anything he will.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    Take me along with you.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                            Ah where--to God?

-    Why would you come with me?

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                                You must not ask.

-    Some rival slain in haste--the ebbing back

-    Of hatred that has left the face exposed

-    Of a dead foe I spared not. I have struck

-    On something in my nature that is foul,

-    That goes on breeding in me, that will taint

-    My fellows: I must purify my heart

-    With lonely fasting and continual prayers.

-    My hope is all in Time: though Time defaces

-    So much of what is fair, it dims the spots:

-    I who am just a murderer to myself,

-    Who close my eyes upon a sleeping guilt

-    And waking, answer to the bloody name,

-    Have some faint courage that a transformation

-    Will come ...

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                  Oh, do not put your trust in Time;

-    Put on at once _forever_ leap to God!

-    Have done with age and death and faltering friends,

-    Assailing circumstance, the change of front

-    That one is always meeting in oneself,

-    The plans, the vacillations--let them go!

-    And you will put on immortality

-    As simply as a vesture.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                            And you think

-    Of starting--when?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Now: we are on the road.

-

-

-

-

-ACT II

-

-

-SCENE: _An audience-chamber in the old Lateran Palace, Rome._

-

-

-[_Enter_ ZACHARIAS _and_ DAMIANI.]

-

-

-DAMIANI.

-

-    And so the Lombard yielded ...?

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-    Not to me,

-    But to my God. Each man of woman born

-    Is fashioned in God’s outer image: few

-    Are so compact of Him they feel His strength

-    Within their body as a force that pushes

-    Its way and dissipates the hollow crowd

-    Of godless men; but from my youth I prayed

-    I might be like Him in my inward parts

-    As in my form of dust: and there was nothing

-    That stood against me. It was simple joy

-    To meet the opposition of my foes,

-    To meet triumphant wickedness, to meet

-    The deadliest torpor; for they had an end

-    As night and mist are ended by the sun.

-

-

-DAMIANI.

-

-    You act on a dread thought.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-    The thought conceived,

-    Life has no terrors. It is emptiness

-    Alone that makes us timid and inert:

-    Fill up the void, we go from strength to strength

-    In our possession. When I worship God,

-    The pyx upon the altar where He dwells

-    Has not a closer hold on Him than I.

-

-

-DAMIANI.

-

-    No wonder that men fear you in their hearts,

-    And yield when you approach them!

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-    But you questioned

-    About my recent journey to the hills,

-    That I might save Perugia from the craft

-    Of Rachis, the vile Lombard King. I went

-    And faced him ... all his treachery gave way,

-    The town was mine again; and more than this,

-    All his ambition vanished--at my feet

-    He promised to renounce the world itself,--

-    Like Carloman, the Consul of the Franks,

-    Who left his wife, his honours and his home

-    To dwell on Mount Soracte.

-

-

-DAMIANI.

-

-                                Carloman--

-    His fame spreads every day.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-                                 I felt a warmth

-    Myself to see the man, and when he came

-    A welcome rushed out from my soul, such life

-    Tempered the resolution of his face.

-    God dwelt in him--yet fitfully it seemed,

-    A fever in his blood, not constant health,

-    Unalterable habit, as with those

-    To whom God is the same now, yesterday,

-    And always. As I blessed him I became

-    Disquieted--his long hands were never still.

-    He needed discipline, such changeless hours

-    As make the spirit stable. Now he seeks

-    Another meeting, so this letter says,

-    To ask me some petition for himself,

-    And for his friend.

-

-

-DAMIANI.

-

-                        He leaves a noble brother,

-    Religious and undaunted, in his place,

-    Pepin the Mayor.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-                     On whom I build my trust.

-    I would that Rachis left upon his throne

-    A brother who could stand by Carloman’s:

-    But Astolph has a rebel’s countenance,

-    The only eyes that never bent to mine.

-    He looked upon me as a robber might

-    Who saw in God’s own altar but a setting

-    To jewels that he coveted. And when

-    Rachis knelt down and vowed to leave the world,

-    And there was silence in the Lombard host,

-    I heard a ringing laugh, and Astolph shook

-    His yellow hair with joy. I never saw

-    So mad a gesture--God will strike him down!

-

-     [_Enter a_ CARDINAL.]

-

-

-CARDINAL.

-

-    The Lombard King would see you.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS

-

-                                    Lead him in,

-    We will receive our penitent. [_Exit_ CARDINAL.]

-                                  This Rachis

-    Shall make your Convent famous: Mount Casino

-    Shall have its royal monk.

-

-

-DAMIANI.

-

-    A gracious thought.

-

-     [_Enter_ RACHIS _with two_ CARDINALS.]

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-    Welcome! You come to Rome to take your vow.

-

-

-RACHIS.

-

-    I come to ask your counsel first. My father,

-    I have no trust in Astolph, he is stubborn,

-    Heretical, and will bewitch my people

-    From all allegiance to your holy throne.

-    I speak of certain danger.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-    Ah!

-

-

-RACHIS.

-

-                                   I love you,

-    I love the peaceful service of the cell,

-    And each affection tears me bitterly:

-    Yet for the sake of keeping my wild hordes

-    Your servants, I am willing to renounce

-    The pleasure of the cloister, if your wisdom

-    Absolve me from my promise and restore me

-    To Kingship over Astolph.

-

-     [_He watches_ ZACHARIAS _with the utmost anxiety_.]

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-                              What you plead

-    Is politic ... but, stay, I rob the Church

-    Of glory if I think of what is safe;

-    God can protect His own--the fiercer battle,

-    The heavenlier triumph. He received your oath,

-    Not I.

-

-

-RACHIS.

-

-           You are His Pope, you can remit ...

-    And you would rule in peace.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-                                 How dare you tempt

-    The Lord your God, upon whose earthly throne

-    I sit? Get from me! One short month ago

-    You were yourself blaspheming in the land,

-    A heretic like Astolph and a slave

-    To your own lust. Begone! The convent walls

-    Alone can save you. If you drop away

-    There is no limit to the punishment

-    God deals to such backslider; you become

-    Perjured for all eternity.

-

-

-RACHIS.

-

-                               Alas,

-    Is there no service that will soften God,

-    Except the cloister?

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-                         Fool and hypocrite,

-    There is no way to Him except the path

-    A man’s best moment finds, and you are lost

-    If you regret your vow--to break from it

-    Is utterly impossible: a star

-    Can no more leave the music of its course

-    Than any mortal break his word to God.

-    Your soul is bound for ever.

-

-     [_Enter_ CARLOMAN _and_ MARCOMIR _with another Cardinal_.]

-

-                                 Dearest son,

-    I greet you with God’s blessing,

-    [_to_ MARCOMIR] And on you

-    Confer the same. How prospers Carloman?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Oh, well, dear father.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-                           He who keeps his knees

-    Is Rachis, King of Lombardy. He takes

-    Like you the fearful vow to be a monk.

-

-

-RACHIS.

-

-    [_to_ CARLOMAN] Protect me, help me, holy Carloman;

-    Let me return with you. I am distracted ...

-    A perjured man God will destroy in hate.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Come with me, come ... but not to make confession,

-    To tabulate your crimes; come to the cloister,

-    To solitude, the simple light of God.

-    You must not dream, because your wickedness

-    Has waked you to disgust, that you are called.

-    The trouble is not betwixt God and sin;

-    Sin does not shut God out, it is the lantern

-    Flashing across the dark void of the world--

-    Most penetrative pulses; use the flare

-    For such poor revelation as it yields.

-    But this new life ... you must arise and go

-    Toward it as disencumbered as of old

-    Abraham went up to Ur, all his possessions

-    Kept for him in a mystery out of sight.

-    To dream of them is faith, and to forget

-    All one has touched and handled, loved or wrought

-    Of sin or righteousness, the perfect sign

-    The new man is begotten.

-

-

-RACHIS.

-

-                             Pray for me,

-    If you are in God’s favour. Teach me how

-    To win a better throne than I have lost,

-    Safe from my brother, a perpetual seat

-    High in the heavens.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_with a ringing laugh_] If that is your ambition,

-    Oh then, how clear it is that you are damned,

-    Wherever you may lodge!

-

-

-RACHIS.

-

-                            Ha--terrible!

-    You must not curse me; as the meanest slave

-    I am content to cringe ...

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                               And heaven detests

-    A beggar’s whining. God is made for Kings,

-    Who need no favours, come to Him for nothing

-    Except Himself.

-

-

-RACHIS.

-

-                    But does that satisfy?

-    You who have borne the Convent many months--

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-    Yes, you can now bear witness to this poor

-    Mistrusting wretch that you have no regrets.

-    Speak out your true experience.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_catching his breath_] I am sad.

-    [_to_ ZACHARIAS] I cannot speak with this petitioner

-    Trembling beside me: give him judgment first,

-    And then hear my complaint.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-    [_sternly_] No: let him hear--

-    What have you against God?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    I have not found Him.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-    You fast? You have been diligent in prayer?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_more excitedly_] I cannot pray--scarcely at Angelus--

-    The Sun so flares and changes ... in the cold

-    East clouds there is such witness to His strength

-    Ere he lay him down: the life, the passion

-    Arrest me and I weep.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-    You _cannot pray_!

-    But in the cloister....

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Oh, those other prayers

-    That I am set, I say them when I must,

-    I sing within the chapel, dig and plant.

-    And eat my portion; then there comes an hour,

-    For which my heart has saved itself all day,

-    When I can be alone--sole preparation

-    The spirit makes when she would be with God--

-    I turn from Time’s small dues of speech and habit

-    To serve Eternity, the joy is coming

-    That has no moment: and a noise is made,

-    A monk approaches me, and I am summoned

-    To visitors who seek me as a marvel

-    To gaze upon. O father, when they look

-    I reel with shame.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-                       What would you? Such example

-    As yours confounds the foolish.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                                    Grant my prayer--

-    Our prayers, for Marcomir’s are joined to mine--

-    That we may leave Soracte and retire

-    To some far convent hidden in the hills.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-    Wisely you ask the natural medicine

-    Your state requires.

-                         Good prior Damiani,

-    The brothers Carloman and Marcomir

-    Together with King Rachis join your rule.

-    Let them obey you, leading tranquil lives.

-    [_apart to_ DAMIANI]

-    Firm discipline!

-

-

-RACHIS.

-

-    [_from the ground_] O holy pontiff, grant

-    That I may change with Carloman--Soracte

-    For me, if you are merciful.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-                                 Not so.

-    This zealous son of ours has felt the poison

-    Of worldly visits trouble him.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    [_sharply_] Sin needs

-    A tomb in which to die.

-

-

-RACHIS.

-

-    Fool! I am lost!

-

-     [_He throws himself again on the ground in despair._]

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    We thank you, father, for we bound our hearts

-    And brains and bodies with the fearful oath

-    To live in God, and the great Tempter--Time--

-    Has thwarted us persistently with bondage

-    Of interruption. Claims and trifles hinder

-    Our worship of what passes not away;

-    [_vehemently_]

-    And I am chafed, my father.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-                                There is something

-    Terribly painful in your eyes--pray much,

-    And think but seldom.

-

-     [_Enter another Cardinal._]

-

-

-CARDINAL.

-

-                          Saintly Boniface

-    Comes from the Frankish Court.

-

-     [_He ushers_ BONIFACE _in_.]

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-                                   A triple blessing

-    On this most reverend head. You come from Pepin

-    Or Chilperic? Here is Carloman.

-

-

-BONIFACE.

-

-                                     Beloved,

-    Why have you left Soracte?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                               Visitors

-    Wasted my leisure: I became a sight,

-    Like some caged animal.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-                            He leaves to-day

-    For Mount Casino.

-

-

-BONIFACE.

-

-    [_to_ CARLOMAN] You are happy?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                                    Yes ...

-    Oh, no, not happy; it is different:

-    Not as you feel when you have won the goal,

-    But as you feel when racing.

-

-

-BONIFACE.

-

-                                 Do you care

-    To ask no news of Pepin or ... of ...?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    No. [_he turns away._]

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-    What is your mission, good Archbishop?

-

-

-BONIFACE.

-

-                                           Pepin

-    Sends me to ask your blessing and to pray

-    That you would place upon his head the crown

-    That Chilperic seems to wear, but which, in truth,

-    He, Pepin, owns unworn!

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-                            We have considered

-    This matter on our knees before our God,

-    And questioned what the power He lodged with us

-    Might in such case attempt: we have been taught

-    A glorious lesson--that as Samuel made

-    And unmade Kings, because God ruled in him,

-    So we can put away the _fainéant_,

-    Disgraceful Chilperic, and proclaim as King

-    Pepin, our doughty servant.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_starting_] Pepin--King!

-    [_turning aside again_]

-    Why should this news so knock to enter--why?

-    It seems to make me open a shut door:

-    I see the Rhone, I see my father’s roof,

-    The gay French faces!--Pepin, King!

-

-

-BONIFACE.

-

-                                        I hear

-    Your will with joy. It is a deadly peril

-    To France that she is governed by a man

-    No better than an image, golden-haired

-    But lifeless as a stone. The very people

-    Laugh at the word, _a King_. But all will change

-    When Pepin’s bulk of character extends

-    The meaning of his office.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                               Pepin, King!

-    O Marcomir, you have heard it?

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                                   Yes, I heard ...

-    No matter! He has ruled so long, the title

-    Will fall on him as new years follow old.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-    [_to_ BONIFACE.]

-    We bid you see he is proclaimed; ourself

-    Have hope to crown him when occasion brings

-    Either the Frank to us or us to him.

-    Although he want our oil, we give him grace

-    To exercise all sovereignty, immuring

-    Chilperic within the cloister where he dwells.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_suddenly to_ ZACHARIAS.]

-    Oh, you can act for God, and I must pray;

-    There is a distance from Him in my life

-    Since I can only pray: while there is nearness

-    Between your life and His creative _Be_!

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-    [_astonished_] My son, what do you mean?

-

-

-BONIFACE.

-

-    O Carloman!

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Pardon. I spoke aloud a scudding thought

-    That filled my head one moment. So divine

-    It is to act God’s Counsel.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-                                We can serve Him

-    Only if stable, for the life of life

-    Is calm as the untroubled sea and changeless.

-    Go, follow Damiani, dearest son!

-

-

-BONIFACE

-

-    Peace be to you, belovèd Carloman.

-    My prayers, though often offered on the earth

-    Of heathen lands, are yours at morn and night.

-    I never can forget you.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                            Pepin, King!--

-    O Boniface, I think you said farewell.

-    You journey far and far; you see strange faces,

-    And woods where idols live in solitude,

-    Hamlets and forges, feasts, the glare of arms,

-    And great unpeopled plains so full of wind

-    It seems the owner, while the little trees

-    And grass are slaves: and thus you wander on

-    God’s messenger ... Ha, ha! The little trees

-    And grass!... Good-bye!

-

-

-BONIFACE.

-

-    My child--

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_gently_] Yes, Boniface?

-

-

-BONIFACE.

-

-    Nothing. I can but bless you. Go, _in peace_.

-

-     [_As_ CARLOMAN _moves away_, MARCOMIR _bends forward_.]

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    Is the Queen well?

-

-

-BONIFACE.

-

-    Ask not; he has not asked.

-

-

-

-

-ACT III

-

-

-SCENE: _The Garden and Cloisters of Monte Casino._

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    [_striking himself with a stone_]

-    What tides of rapture spring at every stroke!

-    Have mercy, God! Such agony of pleasure

-    I felt when _she_ came near. Oh, can it be

-    I have not yet inflicted utter pain?

-    Is there some chaste and vigorous suffering

-    Beyond the shameful wiles, with which the lash

-    Unnerves me? Pain, more pain!

-

-     [_He strikes himself without pity; then, seeing_ DAMIANI _enter the

-     court, he hurriedly drops the shard_.]

-

-

-DAMIANI.

-

-                                  Your hand is bleeding.

-    I see!--Although I took away your silex

-    You yet have braved my will.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    I need the rod.

-

-

-DAMIANI.

-

-    You need obedience. Flog yourself again,

-    You will be locked in prison like your friend.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    [_in a low voice_]

-    He has no guilt.

-

-

-DAMIANI.

-

-                     No guilt! You have not heard

-    I caught him flushed with triumph at the news

-    That Astolph in defiance of the Pope

-    Is laying siege to Rome. Good Rachis wept

-    As well he might, but Carloman blasphemed

-    _Would I were with your brother!_ and for this

-    I had him shut in darkness fourteen days.

-    The term is over, and to change your sullen,

-    Ascetic mood--it is a festival--

-    You shall restore your friend to liberty.

-    You err through over-discipline, a fault,

-    But one that brings us honour; stubbornness

-    Like his disgraces the whole brotherhood.

-    Admonish him! If he is quite subdued

-    He shall be suffered to resume his rank

-    Among his fellows: for yourself, remember

-    Humility is satisfied with penance

-    The Church inflicts. No private luxury!

-    Do not offend again.

-

-    [_Exit._]

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                         Not use the rod!

-    Not use it when I feel incitements rapid

-    As points of fire awake me to the knowledge

-    That all my flesh is burning! Every flint

-    Becomes a new temptation. How confess

-    To _him_ I love his wife, and guiltily!

-    O Geneviva, do the swans still crowd

-    Round you to feed them? Are you mistress still

-    In the old palace? Can there be a doubt?

-    If Pepin dare insult you--O this frock,

-    This girdle, not a sword belt! And your husband

-    Who brought you to such peril with his dreams,

-    Let the light wake him!

-

-     [MARCOMIR _unlocks the prison-door, flings it open and draws back

-     behind the trellis of vines_.]

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                            What has struck my eyes?

-    Is it the air, the sun, an open door?

-    Oh, it is dark with brightness, and half-blinds,

-    So rushing in! I would have been with God

-    When the light broke in answer to His cry;

-    I would have seen it pushing its broad leaves

-    Through Chaos as it travelled!--

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    [_advancing_] I am come

-    To give you freedom.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_seizing his hand like a boy_]

-                         Are the throstles fledged

-    I left within the orchard?

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                               They are gone ...

-    Besides, we must not wander--recollect!

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    I do; I was a goatherd on those hills

-    Before my punishment [_pointing to the prison_].

-    How sad you look! Come with me; I will show you

-    The flock of goats leaping from crag to crag--

-    And have you ever drunk their milk? It foams;

-    Its thousand little bubbles seem themselves

-    Full of an airy life, and in the smack

-    Of the warm draught something exhilarates

-    And carries one along. Come to the hills!

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    Dear Carloman--

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                    These cloisters are so dull

-    Where you sit brooding morn and eve; beyond

-    One sees the clouds laying their restless fingers

-    Across the scaurs.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                       But is that meditation,

-    And does one so find peace?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                                The dew is there

-    In the green hollows; when I see those steeped

-    And shining fields, my heart fills to the brim,

-    And, though I yearn, my yearning satisfies.

-    Come with me: fast as I attain, with you

-    I share the secret.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                        But you strike me dumb.

-    You have forgotten, we are bound by vows,

-    By our obedience.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                      Are we bound by hopes,

-    By yesterday’s lost hopes?

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    But promises--

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    I promised to be God’s, ah yes, I promised,

-    As two on earth agree to be together

-    For evermore, vowed lovers. Is the marriage

-    In the companionship or in the vow?

-    Why, Geneviva is still vowed my wife.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    But we must keep our troth.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                                We must escape

-    From anything that is become a bond,

-    No matter who has forged the chain,--ourselves,

-    An enemy, a friend: and this escape,

-    This readjustment is the penitence,

-    The sole that I will practise.

-    [_looking more narrowly at_ MARCOMIR] But your eyes

-    Are witheringly remorseful. One would say

-    That you had been some sunshines in the dark,

-    You, and not I. Open your heart to me.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    I hate you.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Hate me, why? For heresy?

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    No, for your blindness: think what you have done,

-    Think of ... at least, think of your only child

-    Mewed within convent walls.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    There is escape.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    What, for a child?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_clenching his hand_] _Per Baccho_, but my son

-    Shall never wear a tonsure.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                                Time will prove!

-    You stand so free and noble in the light

-    Yet it is you who brought me to despair.

-    One cannot be a fool, one of God’s fools,

-    Unconscious of the ill in others’ hearts,

-    And not breed deadly mischief.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                                   I entreated

-    You would not come with me.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                                You drew me on;

-    You cannot help it, you make life so royal

-    Men follow you and think they will be Kings,

-    And then--

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    What ails you?

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                              Have you watched the lepers?

-    Waiting outside the churches to be blest?--

-    They pray, they linger, they receive their God,

-    And yet depart uncleansed.

-                               Do not continue

-    To question me, but listen. Bend your eyes

-    Full on me! I have never told the Prior,

-    I cannot; and I would not breathe it now

-    But for her sake. The lady Geneviva

-    Is spotless; but my thoughts have been defiled.

-    I love her, I have never won her love,

-    Must never strive to win it. It is hell

-    To think of her.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    You never won her love?

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    Never.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-           She had so many favourites,

-    Poor boy! and you were thwarted.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                                     But her bond,

-    My deep disloyalty!

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    No more of this--

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    If I were in the world, it is to her

-    I should return.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                     The doors are strongly barred:

-    There is no other hindrance.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                                 They are come

-    The brethren and the prior: you must kneel

-    And then be reinstated. I forgot.

-

-     [_Enter_ DAMIANI _and a number of monks_.]

-

-

-DAMIANI.

-

-    Brother, we have great joy in your release,

-    And hasten to embrace you. Own your fault

-    Submissively, then rise and take your place

-    In our rejoicing band.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    I will not kneel.

-

-

-DAMIANI.

-

-    Respect your vow.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                      But there is no such thing--

-    A vow! as well respect the case that sheathes

-    The chrysalis, when the live creature stirs!

-    We make these fetters for ourselves, and then

-    We grow and burst them. It is clear no man

-    Can so forecast the changes of his course

-    That he can promise _so I will remain,

-    Such, and no other_. Words like these are straws

-    The current plays with as it moves along.

-

-

-DAMIANI.

-

-    My brethren, do not listen; he is mad.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    No, you are mad; you cannot see that Time

-    Is God’s own movement, all that He can do

-    Between the day a man is born and dies.

-    Listen a little: is there one of you

-    Who looks upon the sunlight and the buds

-    That moss the vines in March, and does not feel

-    _Now I am living with these changeful things;

-    The instant is so golden for us all,

-    And this is life?_ Think what the vines would be

-    If they were glued forever, and one month

-    Gave them a law--the richness that would cease,

-    The flower, the shade, the ripening. We are men,

-    With fourscore years for season, and we alter

-    So exquisitely often on our way

-    To harvest and the end. It must be so.

-

-

-DAMIANI.

-

-    Is this what darkness and strict punishment

-    Have wrought in the corruption of your mind?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    I lay as seeds lie in the prison-house,

-    Dying and living--living evermore,

-    Pushed by a spark of time to join the hours,

-    To go along with them.

-

-

-A MONK.

-

-                           But, brother, this

-    Is overwhelming.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    Sin, can that be dropped?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Never, there is no need. Life seizes all

-    Its own vile refuse, hurries it along

-    To something different; religion makes

-    The master-change, turning our black to white;

-    But so, as from earth’s foulness, the stem drains

-    Corruption upward, and the cleanly flower

-    Waves like a flame at last.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                                O Carloman,

-    My brother, I am saved!

-

-     [_The monks press round_ CARLOMAN _tumultuously_.]

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                            But all of you

-    Be saved, and on the instant! Yes, the prior,

-    You all of you, do not believe me mad.

-    It is your misery, I think, that more,

-    More than the urgent torment of my soul

-    Has brought me to the truth, the healing truth

-    That we must give our natures to the air,

-    To light and liberty, suppressing nothing,

-    Freeing each passion: we have slaves within,

-    So many slaves, and I have learnt that saints

-    Have dungeons that they dare not look into,

-    The horror is so deadly. Force the locks,

-    Let the fierce captives ravage. Better far

-    Murder and rapine in the city-streets,

-    Than lust and hatred’s unfulfilled desires!

-    Be saved; strike free into the world--come out!

-    Oh, you can do it--I have spoken truth,

-    I see that by your faces.

-

-

-OLD MONK.

-

-    [_touching_ DAMIANI’S _shoulder_] Surely, prior,

-    We must arrest this traitor.

-

-

-DAMIANI.

-

-    [_in a whisper_] Half the brethren

-    Are in the chapel: I will bring them down

-    In mass on these insurgent novices.

-    [_aloud_] Children, I leave you: wrestle with temptation;

-    I now can only aid you with my prayers.

-    When you have heard him through, decide; and either

-    Lead him in chains to me; or if his lies

-    Prevail with you, then put me in your prisons,

-    And let the devil rule.

-    [_to_ CARLOMAN] Now do your worst

-    With your blaspheming tongue.

-

-    [_Exit._]

-

-

-OLD MONK.

-

-                                  We should be fools

-    To listen to him--it is mutiny;

-    And there are walled-up dungeons.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                                      No, the hills

-    For all, if all are reckless; it is just

-    The one that fears who is the traitor-foe

-    Imperilling brave men.

-

-

-1st MONK.

-

-    But how break free?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    How? All of us march with a single mind

-    Making a strong procession from the gates.

-

-

-2nd MONK.

-

-    The Church has soldiers: whither could we go

-    Unarmed and with an angry multitude ...

-

-

-1st MONK.

-

-    Whither?

-

-

-3rd MONK.

-

-             Besides we are not of one mind

-    Now he stops preaching; it was like a spell.

-

-

-4th MONK.

-

-    The heretic!

-

-

-OLD MONK.

-

-                 Tush! ’Tis the kind of frenzy

-    That seizes every novice. Carloman,

-    Will you not hear my voice?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                                No, good old monk,

-    God’s servants must not listen but to Him.

-    You have grown comfortable as the years

-    Rolled on,--no matter. What the novice suffers,

-    What every novice suffers, speak of that.

-

-

-OLD MONK.

-

-    I have forgotten it.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                         You can forget

-    What you have suffered; then ’tis waste of time

-    To listen to you. What we suffer once

-    In youth--in childhood and our secret youth,

-    We suffer to our grave.

-    [_turning to another monk_] Have you forgotten?

-

-

-1st MONK.

-

-    No, but the pain is numb, so long ago

-    My parents spoilt my life to have their will;

-    I must endure the best they could conceive,

-    And save their souls.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                         If you should lose your own!

-    A curse on parents! The one truth that led me

-    To seek the cloister was my certitude

-    A man’s existence lodges in himself

-    And is not owned by kindred.

-

-

-OLD MONK.

-

-                                 Gently, brother,

-    You had your way, and made yourself a monk;

-    Now you are all for change--so is the world

-    For bitter change.

-

-

-1st MONK.

-

-                       My mistress has been married,

-    And would but laugh at me.

-

-

-OLD MONK.

-

-                               Time works such wonders

-    If we will give him time to work them in.

-

-

-1ST MONK.

-

-    It is too late.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                    A maxim for the dead.

-    It never is too late for any seeing,

-    For any recognition we are wrong.

-    It is a man’s despair, not his confession

-    Proves him contemptible. _Too late_, you say,

-    _Too late_--but there are countries where ’tis spring

-    And harvest many times within the year.

-    Besides, we must not tarry in a place

-    The moments do not wash with dew; we wither,

-    Death has his secret will with us. Believe!

-    Act on the instant.

-

-

-OLD MONK.

-

-                        The high gates are barred,

-    And yonder is the Prior.

-

-     [DAMIANI, _with_ RACHIS _and a large troop of monks, is seen coming

-     from the Chapel_.]

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                             The gates are strong;

-    But you and I and all of us can pass

-    Through them in simple triumph if we will--

-    With one consent.

-                      Why, they are opening now!

-    How gloriously! Armed riders!

-

-     [_Enter_ ASTOLPH _with a band of Lombard soldiers_.]

-

-

-MONKS.

-

-                                  Miracle!

-    A sign from God.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                     Not one of you shall come.

-    What, flocking to my side because a door

-    Turns on its hinges--shame!

-

-

-ASTOLPH.

-

-    Where’s Carloman?

-

-

-DAMIANI.

-

-    [_advancing_] Who asks?

-

-

-ASTOLPH.

-

-    The King of Lombardy.

-                          Give place!

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    My saviour!

-

-

-ASTOLPH.

-

-    Are you Carloman the Frank?

-    I like you--yes, your face is eloquent.

-    You do not keep your eyes upon the ground,

-    Like this dear relative.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_staring fixedly at_ ASTOLPH] You glitter so,

-    You glitter like the golden Vines, your hair

-    Is gold, your armour full of spokes and rays.

-

-

-ASTOLPH.

-

-    And you are muffled in a sackcloth-bag;

-    The contrast strikes you.

-    [_to_ DAMIANI] Lunatic?

-

-

-DAMIANI.

-

-                                       And worse--

-    A rebel, an apostate, noble prince,

-    For whom I bring these manacles.

-

-

-ASTOLPH.

-

-                                     And I

-    An extra horse; for, lunatic or sane,

-    I must have speech with----

-

-    [_turning to_ CARLOMAN _with a laugh_]

-

-                                Do you know your name?

-    We who are kings and soldiers know it well,

-    And Christendom remembers. Ah, I see!

-    You are not happy, so they call you mad.

-

-

-RACHIS.

-

-    Have you no word for me? I am a King,

-    A King discrowned--and more, you have my crown.

-    Are you grown sick of it?

-

-

-ASTOLPH.

-

-                              My dear old Rachis,

-    Do not look covetous! I am not come

-    To take you from your prayers.

-

-

-RACHIS.

-

-                                   You think you triumph,

-    But when you roll your thirsty tongue in hell,

-    And see me in the peace of Abraham’s bosom,

-    Watching your pain--

-

-

-ASTOLPH.

-

-                         To every dog his day!

-    [_with a shudder_]

-    Ah, then--meanwhile there is a blowing wind,

-    And all the world to ravish ... Carloman,

-    We are the brothers now ... [_to_ DAMIANI] Yes, I and this

-      [RACHIS _sneaks off, hissing curses_.]

-    Fraternal soul, your madman.

-

-

-DAMIANI.

-

-                                 Do you need

-    An interview?

-

-

-ASTOLPH.

-

-                  I take it, thank you. Glance

-    A moment at my soldiers--and retire.

-

-    [_They all withdraw._]

-

-    Come to the well, where we can sit and talk,

-    And I can have a draught.

-

-     [_He looses his helmet and dips it in the well._ CARLOMAN _puts

-     both hands round it as soon as it is full of water_.]

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                              Wait! [_drinking_] Cool and strong!

-    That prison-stuff was stagnant. Sunshine’s warmth,

-    The cool of water, how they both refresh!

-    [_looking up with a smile_]

-    Now, brilliant one, your business?

-

-

-ASTOLPH.

-

-                                       Will you leave

-    The Monastery?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    At once.

-

-

-ASTOLPH.

-

-                            You have no terror?

-    You will not creep back, conscience in your nerves?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Let me but pass the door.

-

-

-ASTOLPH.

-

-    [_laughing_] You see it swings.

-    I left it open.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Then we start at once.

-

-

-ASTOLPH.

-

-    [_checking him_]

-    No, stay a little. Are you still the friend

-    Of Zacharias?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    He is great.

-

-

-ASTOLPH.

-

-                               No doubt--

-    And most sagacious, for he seeks your brother

-    To win him with the bribe of sacred oil

-    As vassal and ally against myself.

-    I started here from Rome the hour I heard

-    That Zacharias had crept out by night

-    To travel northward and defeat my hopes.

-    You must arrive before him! I am come

-    Sure, from report, that you will help my cause,

-    You, who have been a ruler. I contend

-    No supernatural power should have control

-    Of lands and cities, troops and civil rights,

-    Matters distinct from God, as from the world

-    The service he requires. Life is so easy

-    If we will keep it human--quarrel, murder,

-    And then make friends: we have so short a time

-    To sin together ... but this hate deferred,

-    These pestilential menaces!--

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                                  The Pope

-    Shall never injure France!

-

-

-ASTOLPH.

-

-                               It lies with you

-    To break the threatened treaty. You have owned

-    Power over Pepin?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                      Yes; tho’ tardily,

-    He followed all my counsels.

-

-

-ASTOLPH.

-

-                                 Ride, and stop

-    This treaty. If you ride you will forestall

-    The Pontiff’s slower march; and I meantime

-    Will press the siege of Rome ... you must not mind

-    The ache of stiffened muscles.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                                   Hills and plains

-    And trees--the olives, cypresses and vines;

-    Then France with nuts and poplars! But you keep me

-    In one great palpitation.

-

-

-ASTOLPH.

-

-                              Zacharias,

-    Besetting me from north and southward, crushes

-    My strongest forces. What a splendid thing

-    For the old man to travel in the heat

-    So far to work my ruin!

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                            But the world

-    Is for the young, my Astolph.

-

-

-ASTOLPH.

-

-                                  Carloman,

-    I love you. Why, I feel a lad, eighteen,

-    When looking on you. Come, we two must kiss;

-    We may not burn together, flame in flame,

-    Again--so we must kiss.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                            My blessed one,

-    Would I could cleave to you! You give me freedom,

-    A gift so rarely thought of.

-

-

-ASTOLPH.

-

-    [_calling a monk_] Fetch the Prior,

-    The brethren, now--this instant. We must start.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Grant me beside the freedom for myself

-    Salvation for another.

-

-

-ASTOLPH.

-

-                           What, a monk

-    Still half of you! Such trouble for men’s souls--

-    But have your wish. Once on the battlefield,

-    Men will become your prey. This solid jaw

-    Means grip you will not loose. O Carloman,

-    If I can circumvent the Pope, and then

-    Stretch him a bleeding quarry at my feet--

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    What, Zacharias!

-                     But I plead for France;

-    Popes must not meddle with her.

-

-

-ASTOLPH.

-

-    [_as the_ PRIOR _and Monks re-enter_] I require

-    The services of Carloman: another

-    Whom he will choose attends him.

-

-

-DAMIANI.

-

-                                     Impious wretch,

-    You steal from God His servants!

-

-     [ASTOLPH _laughs and moves up the courtyard to summon his men_:

-     DAMIANI _and_ RACHIS _talk to each other; the monks listen in a

-     scared group_.]

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_drawing_ MARCOMIR _to the front_] Marcomir,

-    Come from this graveyard.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                              No, I must not come,

-    I dare not; she is yours.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                              Is mine? You wrong her--

-    Not yours nor mine. Earth’s wisdom will begin

-    When all relationships are put away,

-    With their dull pack of duties, and we look

-    Curious, benignant, with a great compassion

-    Into each other’s lives.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                             It is not so

-    I look; I have a lust to gratify,

-    A lust for very shame I loathe to mix

-    With Geneviva’s image.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                           Faugh! because

-    You think that I possess her! Cursèd bonds,

-    Cursed law that makes this riot in the heart!

-    Come forth; all will be gentle out of doors.

-    Gird up your habit.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    She?--

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                               Is but herself,

-    O Marcomir, we tarry--and the leaves

-    Are tossing through the air--

-

-     [ASTOLPH _throws his scarlet riding-cloak over_ CARLOMAN, _who

-     seizes_ MARCOMIR _with an impetuous movement and draws him toward

-     the horses that champ at the gate_.]

-

-

-

-

-ACT IV

-

-

-SCENE: _The Hall of the Frankish Palace. Early morning; the remains of a

-banquet on the table, drinking-cups, wine bottles, faded leaves._

-

-[_A_ SERVANT _is wiping away the stains of wine from the floor_.]

-

-

-SERVANT.

-

-    It is a cheerful thing to make all clean

-    When one is brisk and cool: this early air

-    Before the sun gets up is fit for men

-    To breathe when they are working.

-                                      Spot on spot!

-    A stranger to the revel of last night

-    Would take it there had been a massacre

-    To daub the floor so thickly.

-

-     [_Enter another_ SERVANT.]

-

-

-2ND SERVANT.

-

-                                  What a strew

-    Of glass and muddy wine-drops! Come up close

-    And listen. There’s a curious monk outside

-    Who asks to see the King--almost a beggar,

-    And yet a red embroidered riding-cloak

-    Flaunts round his ragged sackcloth; while his voice

-    Has such a wanton ring we need not trouble

-    Lest he should take the scandal of this room

-    Too much to heart. The jolly soul can pipe!

-

-     [_A voice is heard richly humming._]

-

-    _Wine is for drinking,

-    Glasses for chinking--

-    Fellowship, pleasure,

-    Of the full cup:

-    Lift it up, lift it up!

-    And let us be gay and be friends without measure._

-

-

-1ST SERVANT.

-

-    A monk indeed! Why we must drink again!

-    A minstrel!

-

-

-2ND SERVANT.

-

-    And his comrade took the horses

-    As he had been a squire.

-

-

-1ST SERVANT.

-

-    Oh, but the song!

-    I never heard another one like this.

-

-

-2ND SERVANT.

-

-    Man, they are all the same: but then he sings it

-    As if he had just learnt that grapes have juice,

-    That makes it sound so well. You’re pouring wine?

-

-

-1ST SERVANT.

-

-    Yes, he must drink for that. Ho, there again!

-    Have you not caught the line?

-

-     [_They join in as the voice sings_]

-

-    _These are the treasure

-    Of the full cup;

-    Lift it up, lift it up!

-    And let us be gay and be friends without measure._

-    Ha, ha!

-

-

-2ND SERVANT.

-

-    Come in!

-

-     [_Enter_ CARLOMAN.]

-

-                     You praise deep drinking--you ...

-    For shame! A churchman! But ...

-                                    How thin!

-

-

-1ST SERVANT.

-

-    What eyes!

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Shall I have long to wait? Is Pepin ill,

-    Or is he grown luxurious? I would say

-    That I remember how your King is famed

-    For industry. He does not lie abed?

-

-

-1ST SERVANT.

-

-    No, father.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                Call me brother if you will.

-    Why do you choke with laughter? I am ready

-    To laugh with you, to laugh to very tears

-    At what I am and have been. Do not hide

-    A thing so good and bright as laughter--Eh?

-

-

-2ND SERVANT.

-

-    Mad! It were best to leave him to himself.

-

-    [_They draw back._]

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_Looking round the room_]

-    Throw the door wide open. Here we need

-    Fresh air even more than water. How the wine

-    Cries from the ground--shut in with walls, and cast

-    Below men’s feet, a slough where animals

-    Might wallow, and so sour! Let in the breeze.

-    Let in the dawn outside there!

-

-

-1ST SERVANT.

-

-    [_propping the door_] After all

-    He is abstemious and sad at sin.

-    Look how profoundly sad!

-

-

-2ND SERVANT.

-

-                             Such twins of temper

-    Are frequent with the crazy. Now he drops

-    His mantle, have you ever seen such limbs--

-    A very scare-crow’s!

-

-

-1ST SERVANT.

-

-    But a kindly smile.

-

-

-2ND SERVANT.

-

-    He touches things and lifts them up and down

-    Just like an idiot. We must warn the King.

-

-    [_Exeunt._]

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    A feast, how nasty! Dabbled vine-leaves, vessels

-    Broken to shivers, the inspiring juice

-    Black on the boards--a feast! Can happiness

-    Leave refuse such as this? It visits slaves,

-    And then its track is loathsome. Ah, the air

-    Has entered like a wedge, keen, reaching me

-    Through all the mustiness ... and now I breathe!

-    The door is not enough, the windows too ...

-    [_opening one_]

-    There! How it enters!

-                            [_turning toward another window_]

-                          In this room I lived;

-    It is not altered? No, the fireplace, east;

-    My chair in front, and hers ... but they are crowned

-    At present; and my name upon that bench.

-    It is more terrible than nightmare--this

-    Besieging of one’s life by chairs and walls

-    And memories. Ah yes, the walls, the walls,

-    They do the mischief; and this reek of age

-    From every corner sickens worse than stale

-    Imprisoned fumes of wine. More air!

-

-     [_He throws wide all the windows: then leans out of the last. While

-     his back is turned_, GENEVIVA _staggers drowsily in, reels to the

-     board, tries to drink, then flings herself against the throne

-     sleeping_.]

-

-                                        O Earth,

-    How beautiful to think I travelled on

-    And on, yet rode against no wall, so freely

-    The outworks of your sky gave up their space.

-    My brain is tired with interest: what men do

-    Or speak enthrals me, I who often paced

-    This room as blind to anything alive

-    As if a child unborn.

-

-     [_Impulsively beginning to pace._]

-

-                          And yet, my God,

-    How great a Captain thou wilt have in me

-    If this bond-King, this Pepin can be freed;

-    If I can do this thing, while Astolph batters

-    The very gates of Rome.

-

-     [_pausing at sight of_ GENEVIVA.]

-

-                            But who is this

-    Strange, beautiful, wild woman?

-                                    Oh, how delicious

-    Her arms, her bosom! Through the sodden hair,

-    Trailing the ground, what glitter, and how clean

-    This naked shoulder lies against the floor.

-    Why, this is Sleep itself!

-

-     [_He comes close._]

-

-                               O Geneviva,

-    So you too have learnt freedom, and are grown

-    How marvellous in beauty!--Marcomir!--

-

-     [MARCOMIR _stands at the door_.]

-

-    He must not see her drunken and so flushed;

-    He shall not.

-    [_moving quickly to the door_.]

-

-                  I am looking every moment

-    For Pepin; do not enter.

-

-    [MARCOMIR _turns and goes out_.]

-

-                             Oh, my shame,

-    If she should open her gray eyes on me,

-    And find me frocked and tonsured ... for the sun

-    Strikes sheer across her face.

-

-     [_He bends over her; she wakes, looks up, laughs in his face, and

-     then speaks._]

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-                                   So young a guardian!

-    Most holy father, but I am not dead;

-    Do not bring rosemary, or sprinkle me

-    With holy drops.

-    [_rubbing her eyes_] They call this morning sleep

-    A beauty sleep. You must not stare so hard.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    But do not laugh.

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-                      I must; you are a monk

-    Shame-faced and awkward. [_rising_] Have you travelled far?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    I came on embassy: the Lombard King ...

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-    These kings and princes! But whoever rules

-    Young men must have their pleasure. You and I--

-    Shall we not drink together?

-

-     [_She pours wine into a goblet--he drinks_]

-

-                                 God, what thirst!

-    Now you must rest awhile.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Who are you, lady?

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-    So should a novice lisp. I am a woman.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Glorious!

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-    And _you_? [_she laughs._]

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                         Oh, do not jest with me;

-    You bring a devil to the paradise

-    It is to gaze on you. I am escaped

-    From convent-walls, the wrong, the bitterness!

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-    These monks are cruel, cruel, and I shudder

-    At their embrace; yet if I have a joy

-    It is to bring their manhood back to them.

-    Ha, ha! To see them look the murderer’s guilt

-    After a moment’s pleasure in my arms.

-    You shall not slip me.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                           I have left the convent

-    A novice, as you say. But who are you

-    So terrible in pity that you touch

-    My hand and draw me to you, though my habit

-    And shaven hair insult you worse, more grossly

-    Than the most wanton bearing you have met

-    In any other man? I am ashamed

-    That you should see me thus.

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-                                 My dearest lovers

-    Forsook me to be monks. You are as one

-    That comes to bring me tidings of the dead,

-    The holy dead who have no evil thoughts

-    Or trouble from temptation.

-    [_She laughs bitterly_] For their sakes

-    You are beloved.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                     Then put away all speech:

-    When love draws on me put it by as scholars

-    Their task when night falls thick upon the page.

-    Bend over me and kiss me. Do not laugh--

-    I love you.

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-    Did you ever love before?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    _Never._

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-             Then I must tell you who I am:

-    A harlot ... in my palace--Do not wince!

-

-     [_she looks at him doubtfully_]

-

-    I had a husband counted me a temptress

-    And fled: I laugh now to remember it.

-    I loved once; he I loved became a monk,

-    And therefore I make sport of holy men.

-    I would not scoff at you, not tempt you even.

-    You have deep, burning eyes.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                                 He was a monk?

-    His name, who fled you? Would you have your pleasure

-    With me, his name!

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-    [_to herself, shaking her head_]

-                       _He_ had oblivious eyes!

-    [_vindictively_]

-    My lover’s name was Marcomir.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                                  The monk

-    Who journeys with me on this embassy

-    Is Marcomir. If you are amorous still

-    Of him ...

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-               Not now--no more. I am afraid ...

-    Who are you? You are surely of my race,

-    Have known me in my youth. A flushing shame

-    Breaks on me--

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                   And to find you are beloved

-    Moves you?

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-               Not that! I hear it every day.

-    It is too stale a story. Could I love----

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-     [_Observing_ MARCOMIR _passing and re-passing the windows_]

-

-    How dare he watch us! But I recollect

-    You told me he had been your paramour.

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-    You come ... he comes, I mean, from Mount Soracte--

-    Then ... yes, I will have speech with him.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_bitterly_] Oh, gossip,

-    The convent’s gossip. I can furnish that.

-    If you desire him carnally, I yield;

-    But if ...

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-    He knows so much of long ago.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_impulsively_]

-    Then he shall speak.

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-                         Not now; you must not call!

-    Not now; for he remembers--

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                                Ay, the harlot

-    Was once a girl, the monk was once a man.

-    If you would speak of life

-    Before it was apprenticed to these trades--

-    Of life and youth, virginity and love,

-    My ear will be as ripe for your confession

-    As his. We all remember; but our wisdom

-    Is to forget: our powers of penitence

-    Must be enfranchised, sin itself set free,

-    No clog or fetter on us!

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-                             Carloman,

-    My husband!

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                Your free lover. Oh, I burn,

-    Burn toward your beauty! How can you forgive

-    The years I simply owned you!

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-                                  Am I sweet,

-    So sweet to you--these lips so many men

-    Have kissed, this body.... But you bid me speak

-    Of life and youth, virginity and love,

-    And by a miracle I can. We two

-    Can argue of such matters.

-

-    [_As_ MARCOMIR _passes she calls_] Marcomir!

-

-     [_She restrains_ CARLOMAN _and goes to the door_.]

-

-    No, _I_ must summon him.

-

-     [MARCOMIR _enters_.]

-

-                             Were we not happy,

-    Those days we sat together quite alone

-    Praising and talking of him? We adored,

-    We each adored him, but we had no part

-    In that lone heart of his. Now all is changed

-    He loves me--

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    Lady Geneviva!

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-                                 No--

-    The harlot, loves the harlot. You can tell me

-    So much of him. What, with him every day!--

-    All through the golden summer and no rain,

-    All through the autumn and its violence!

-    Did he fall sick of fever?

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                               I have known

-    So little of the seasons. Day and night

-    I prayed that God would keep you chaste. No prayer

-    Of mine was ever answered.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_to_ MARCOMIR] Dare you pray

-    That this should be or that? The only prayer

-    That is not futile in impiety

-    Is like a plunge beneath a river’s flow

-    To feel the strength and pureness of the life

-    That courses through the world.

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-                                    Ah, yes, to bathe,

-    And then to rise up clean.

-    [_to_ MARCOMIR] The very moment

-    He spoke of youth, virginity and love

-    I prayed: I am alive. O Marcomir,

-    And there are other words of fellowship,

-    Of joy and youth-time. Let us hold him dear

-    Because he has delivered us; together

-    Let us give thanks, give courage each to each

-    Unenvious; let us talk of him once more,

-    Though with a difference--I will not use

-    Your comradeship profanely as I did,

-    To set you up against him in caprice,

-    Then leave you wild and empty. He has much

-    To pardon; you have more.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    No, no!

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                                      Ah, no--

-    Not pardon. Where’s the need? We mortal men

-    Are brought to riot, brought to abstinence

-    That we may grow on either ready soil

-    The mustard-seed of pleasure, that is filled

-    With wings and sunny leaves. As time goes by

-    We shall have true relations each with each,

-    And with clean hearts receive the usufruct

-    Of what is best, and growing better still

-    In every soul among us.

-    [_leading her up to_ MARCOMIR]

-                            Geneviva,

-    His kiss will free your penitence, and teach you

-    He never could regret the past, because

-    It made to-day.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    [_kissing her_] Now, and beyond, beyond

-    Your friend--and lover.

-                            I have prayed, like you,

-    The difficult is possible as once.

-    O life, O Geneviva, I were doomed

-    Indeed, if I should dare to rob myself

-    Of all the joy it is to be with you;

-    That were to die forever. What, reject

-    The gift you have for me, because for him

-    You have a different gift! But take my passion,

-    As I shall learn to take your friendship--each

-    Accepting what the other has to give,

-    All will be well between us.

-

-     [_Enter_ PEPIN.]

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-                                 Holy brothers,

-    At last I join you. Come, this is unseemly ...

-    A pleasant dame--but not within my palace

-    Shall you be tempted to forsake your vows.

-    [_to_ GENEVIVA.]

-    Go, get your lovers on the highway; here

-    You bring disgrace.

-    (_to_ CARLOMAN _in a low voice_) A courtesan.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    My wife.

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-    Thor! are you crazy?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                         And I trusted you,

-    I left her in your charge. Where is my child?

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-    Dead in the cloister half a year ago ...

-    That was no fault of mine. As for your wife--

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_to_ MARCOMIR] Take Lady Geneviva to her rooms,

-    Her rooms within the palace.

-    [_to_ GENEVIVA, _as she goes from him_] So our boy

-    Is dead! Can you forgive me?

-

-     [_He shudders and bows his head. Exeunt_ MARCOMIR _and_ GENEVIVA.]

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-                                 On my oath,

-    I could not be her keeper, Carloman.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    No, that is no man’s office. Of herself

-    She was what she has been, and each of us

-    Should say no word against her to our shame,

-    Nor any word to one another more

-    Than what we just have said. These fearful things

-    Should be within a fosse below all speech;

-    While we live sound above them and forget.

-    I come to you....

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-                      The same, magnanimous,

-    My brother, as of old.

-    [_laying his hand on_ CARLOMAN’S _shoulder_]

-                           What bones!

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                                       Ah, yes.

-    I have not flesh as full of life as yours;

-    Why, your mere touch can warm one like the sun.

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-    Six years ago! You come as if the dead

-    Could rise and make a visit.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_gasping_] Pepin, hush!

-    I have been dead, and yet I am no ghost;

-    You strike me through with anguish.

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-                                        But you suffer

-    Unnecessary pain. I give you welcome

-    With all my heart; yet you yourself must know

-    Your presence in the place where once you ruled

-    Is--well, unlooked for.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_vehemently_] Brother, I can prove

-    I am no spectre, outcast from the fortunes

-    Of breathing men,--that I too have a part

-    Once more in worldly business. I am come....

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-    [_close to him_]

-    What are you come for?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                            I am come to live,

-    To share again your counsels.

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-                                  You are come

-    For _what_?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                Once more to think of France, and act

-    As you and I determine.

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-                            Willingly

-    I hear advice; but now the throne is mine

-    Decision rests with me and not with you,

-    Who have been shut away from everything

-    But prayers and convent-policy. Forgive,

-    We are no longer equals--you a Saint,

-    I a mere statesman. But you have not said

-    One word about the cloister.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                                 Do we waste

-    Much talk on vaults, we men who are alive?

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-    And yet you chose it!

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Now I choose again.

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-    You cannot. Are you mad? Who sent you here?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Astolph the Lombard.

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-                         Humph! What prelate gave

-    Authority to him? He could not use

-    Your services by force.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                            I left the convent

-    At his request alone, in opposition

-    To bishop Damiani. I am free!

-    I proved it, acting freely.

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-    Whew!--this Astolph ...?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Would save you from alliance with the Pope,

-    Alliance with a foreign tyranny,

-    Opposed to human life and thwarting it.

-    Astolph is on your borders, and a King

-    Is more your natural fellow than this Pope,

-    Who seizes on the natural power of Kings,

-    Confusing his tiara with their crowns.

-    I speak the truth, for Zacharias travels

-    In haste to put his yoke on France and you.

-    Before he can arrive ...

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-    The Pope is here.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Impossible!

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-    He reached us yesterday.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Pepin, you are in league with him?

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-    I am.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    As you are wise and manly, break your promise;

-    It injures France, the freedom-loving plains

-    The aweless stock we come of. Will you give

-    The future of your people to a priest,

-    You who profess the tonsure round my head

-    Disables for a crown?

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-                          I, break my treaty,

-    And ruin my whole scheme!

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                              The Pope is gray,

-    And Astolph young and sound in force as you.

-    Which is the deadlier foe?

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-                               The Pope and I

-    Are age and youth together. Carloman,

-    I love you still; you take me at the heart

-    Now that your face is glowing: I must speak,

-    For either you are mad, or have forgotten

-    How deeds are judged here in the actual world.

-    You are a monk, a runaway, and worse--

-    A heretic blasphemer, one who tempts

-    Both to rebellion and to perjury,

-    Yourself as disobedient as forsworn.

-    You must go back and bear your punishment

-    Without the least delay; for you are lost

-    If Zacharias find you here.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Go back!

-             Go back!

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-    You are a danger to yourself

-    Remaining, and a danger to my throne.

-    All I have said is true. Have you not broken

-    Your vow?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    I have.

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-    And are you not a rebel?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    I am, I am, because I am alive--

-    And not a slave who sleeps through Time, unable

-    To share its agitation. What, go back!

-    You might as well dismiss me to the womb

-    From which I was delivered.

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-                                Of yourself

-    You left the world.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_trembling_] O Pepin, the same mother,

-    Gave us our lives, and we had worked and thought

-    And breathed in common till I went away--

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-    We cannot any more. Why will you fix

-    A look so obstinate and hot?

-    By heaven, you are a fool. I cannot change

-    Myself, nor you, nor what has come to pass

-    I soon shall hate you, wish that you were dead.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    How horrible! I never will go back;

-    But I can live without my brother’s love,

-    For ties are not existence.

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-                                Will you raise

-    Divisions in my kingdom?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    I must live.

-

-     [_Enter_ POPE ZACHARIAS, BONIFACE _and a number of Churchmen and

-     nobles_.]

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-    [_to_ ZACHARIAS.]

-

-    There stands my brother and your enemy.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-    Who?--Carloman? You wrong him. But what mission

-    Has brought him to the palace?

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-                                   He has left

-    His convent, and is here to plead the cause

-    Of Astolph, the arch-heretic.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-                                  My son,

-    Defend yourself.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_putting his hands over his brow as if in confusion_]

-

-                     But I can never say

-    What he could comprehend. How strange to feel

-    So slow, as if I walked without the light,

-    Deep in a valley.

-    [BONIFACE _touches him_] Ah!

-

-

-BONIFACE.

-

-                                 You do not listen!

-    Beloved, the Pope is speaking.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_to_ BONIFACE] But you know

-    What drove you forth to wander foreign lands,

-    With joy in every limb and faculty:

-    _That_ drove me from the convent.

-

-

-BONIFACE.

-

-                                      As a monk

-    I left the English cloister, with a blessing

-    From him who ruled me. Is it as a monk,

-    Oh, is it--that we see you in our midst?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    No, no, enfranchised!

-    [_suddenly standing forth_] Hear me! The _I am_

-    Has sent me to you and has given me power

-    To rend your idols, for you have not known

-    The God I worship. He is just _to-day_--

-    Not dreaming of the future,--in itself,

-    Breath after breath divine! Oh, He becomes!

-    He cannot be of yesterday, for youth

-    Could not then walk beside Him, and the young

-    Must walk with God: and He is most alive

-    Wherever life is of each living thing.

-    To-morrow and to-morrow--those to-days

-    Of unborn generations; the _I am_

-    To none of them a memory or a hope,

-    To each the thirst, the wine-cup and the wine,

-    The craving, the satiety--my God!

-    O Holy Father, you who sway the world

-    Through Him, must not deny Him.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-                                    I deny!

-    God does not alter; you have changed to Him

-    Who is Eternal.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                    Yes, in change, and free

-    As we are free who move within His life,

-    And shape ourselves by what is moulding Earth

-    And men and ages. In my cell I lost

-    The motion of His presence. I was dead.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-    No, you are dead to what you dare blaspheme,

-    To what the cloister holds, if any place

-    Can hold it, the immutability

-    Of God’s inherent nature, while without

-    His words are trying men by chance and change

-    And manifold desires. You left His works

-    Behind, you chose Himself: your oath was taken

-    To His deep heart; and now you would forswear

-    That oath, you cannot. No one who blasphemes

-    The light of God shall see the light of day:

-    For him the darkness and for him the grave.

-    I am no more your father, but your judge,

-    Who represents the God you have disowned,

-    Insulted and forgotten. He requites--

-    And you shall answer to the uttermost.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    I can.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-           You still persist in carnal thoughts,

-    Confounding Deity with things that pass?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    God is the Movement, if He is the Life

-    Of all--I live in Him.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-                           You left the convent

-    Against command?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Against command of men.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-    And leagued with Astolph?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    In fast brotherhood.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-    You hear his full confession. O apostate

-    In vain, weep at your sentence.

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-                                    Holy Father,

-    I pray you send him back, but spare his life--

-    Spare him, if I have power with you.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-                                         His doom

-    Is but his choice made permanent on earth.

-    [_to_ CARLOMAN] O fallen from blessedness of will, become

-    The friend of heretics, the false of word

-    To everlasting Truth, you are condemned

-    Life-long to be a prisoner in your cell,

-    Life-long to watch the scourge and crucifix.

-    You chose them, as the God whom you abjure

-    Chose them, _forever_; you have lapsed and they

-    Become tormentors, till they force contrition

-    At last and save you.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_with a low, panting moan_] Prison!

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-                                         At Vienne,

-    There till you die the prison you have made

-    Of an eternal vow shall compass you.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Think what it is--by God Himself, remember

-    What you would do to me. The very dead

-    Rise ... Everything must have escape to live,

-    And I shall still be living.

-

-     [_He throws both arms over his face, then suddenly removing them,

-     makes a frenzied movement closer to the Pope._]

-

-                                 Let me die

-    Here, now! It is most impious, horrible

-    To bury me, full to the lips with life.

-    Sharpness-of-death, give _that_, but not to feel

-    The prison walls close on an energy

-    Beating its claim to worlds.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-                                 What I have spoken

-    Is and remains irrevocable.

-

-

-BONIFACE.

-

-    [_gently to_ CARLOMAN] Yield,--

-    Yield to a God Who compasses you round

-    With love so strong it binds you.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                                      And is hell--

-    But I reject such love.

-                            O Pepin, listen!

-    I see so far! Your pact with Rome undoes

-    Long centuries, and yields your country up

-    To spiritless restriction, and a future

-    Entombed alive, as mine will be, in night.

-    Simply renounce your promise, bid your soldiers

-    Seize the old man who numbs us. You and I

-    Could set to music that would never end

-    The forces of our people.

-

-

-PEPIN.

-

-                              You are crazy

-    Or worse, and I disown you.

-    [_to_ ZACHARIAS] On his head

-    Let fall what curse you will.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-                                  Then he shall see

-    The sacred pact between us re-confirmed.

-    [_to Monks_]

-    Fetch Chilperic! [_Exeunt Monks._]

-                     And meanwhile bring fetters in

-    To bind this renegade.

-

-     [_moving up to the royal board that crosses the hall at the further

-     end_]

-

-    The treaty--sign!

-

-     [PEPIN _and his nobles follow_ ZACHARIAS: _Attendants bring in

-     fetters_. CARLOMAN _submits mechanically to be bound, staring at_

-     PEPIN, _who affixes his signature to the treaty_.]

-

-     [BONIFACE _goes round to_ CARLOMAN.]

-

-

-BONIFACE.

-

-    Son, you do well to take your shame so meekly,

-    And bear in patience.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_sharply_] Have they bound me then?

-    Look, Boniface! And Pepin is a slave.

-    Nothing remains now in the world. That treaty,

-    That pact!

-

-     [CHILPERIC _is taken before_ ZACHARIAS _and_ PEPIN; _they appear to

-     address him, to consult with each other: then a monk advances and

-     cuts off_ CHILPERIC’S _long hair, while he weeps bitterly_.

-     GENEVIVA _and_ MARCOMIR _re-enter hurriedly as if they had heard

-     bad news and see_ CARLOMAN _bound_.]

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-    Be true to him.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    I will.

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-                                       Then share

-    His prison--say you left his monastery,

-    Step forth and save him from his loneliness,

-    My Marcomir, his friend. This is the moment;

-    And, as you love him, speak.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    [_drawing his cowl closer_] No! Once before

-    I went along with him: I went to hell.

-    Renew that pain and foulness for his sake,

-    Because I love him----?

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-                            Then because I love,

-    If nothing else will urge you--_for my sake_,

-    Only for mine.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                   And would you be a harlot

-    Again, for him?

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-    Hush, never!

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                                 No, we two

-    Should understand each other, for we dare not

-    Become what we have been. For my own sake

-    I will not leave the world.

-

-

-GENEVIVA.

-

-                                He watches us ...

-    O agony! And he is turned away,

-    And casts me off for ever. Go to him--

-    I cannot; for he sees me as I am,

-    The glory dropt away.

-    [MARCOMIR _makes a forward movement_]

-                          You shall not go!

-    What do I say? I should not have the strength,

-    Not all alone. Stay with me! It is plain

-    What I must do to win him, and so hard--

-    It smiles so in the stream. Oh, hush! Look there!

-    That is worse dying. How they pass before him,

-    There, standing in his chains.

-                                   And Pepin looks

-    And hurries on, but all _his_ gaze is fixed

-    On Chilperic’s shorn head.

-                               See, how they pass!

-    Now Zacharias--

-                    And he curses him:

-    The earth is trembling.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_making a movement as if to curse_ ZACHARIAS]

-

-                            But I have no God

-    To curse you with. I cannot do you harm.

-    I have no God, no friend, no glowing hate:

-    You all will pass before me in procession

-    Day after day as shadows.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-    To his cell!

-

-

-

-

-ACT V

-

-

-SCENE: _The Prison at Vienne_.

-

-     [CARLOMAN _lying on a plank bed_.]

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Though Time has played me false--it is not that:

-    It is the fading colours in my soul,

-    And all the brilliant darkness through that chink;

-    It is--

-

-     [_The door opens and a_ WARDER _enters_.]

-

-            O Warder, put the food away;

-    But come and chat with me.

-

-

-WARDER.

-

-                               I have instructions

-    I must not speak a word.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                             Is that the sentence?

-    Sit down.

-

-

-WARDER.

-

-              But I must see you drink this wine.

-    The Pope, King Pepin too--they all are anxious

-    Your life should be preserved.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                                   Sit down and drink.

-    Now you will chat with me!

-

-

-WARDER.

-

-    [_drinking, and speaking always in an undertone_]

-

-                               How do you feel?

-    Here’s to your health.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                           Why, that is like a prayer--

-    Warmed by your voice. They who would shut men up,

-    And bar them from their fellows’ kindly voices,

-    God cripple every motion of their soul!

-    So I am here for ever.

-                           Take that bread:

-    I like to see you eat. Now talk again.

-

-

-WARDER.

-

-    But you will eat some too?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                               No, my good jailer,

-    You shall not forge that chain. You know I’m dying;

-    Bring me my food and eat it here and talk,

-    Then you will stay a little longer. Tell me,

-    How is it with the sky to-day, the winds

-    And the flowers crying after them? O God!

-

-     [_He buries his face in his hand._]

-

-

-WARDER.

-

-    Sir, it’s a south wind.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                            Do the birds fly high?

-    I watched them in great circles as I travelled--

-

-

-WARDER.

-

-    I have not noticed them.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                             In wheeling flocks

-    They mounted ...

-                     Have you nothing more to say?

-    It must be early morning in the world

-    Where all is changing.

-

-

-WARDER.

-

-                           Ah, you’d know the time;

-    Most prisoners get confused.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                                 No night nor day;

-    God promised them forever--morn and eve,

-    The gathering of the shadows, the decline,

-    The darkness with no footfall: then the day

-    And all things reappearing. That’s for all--

-    Most for the prisoners, if you’d have them gentle.

-    Throw down this shutter!

-

-

-WARDER.

-

-    [_shaking his head_] That is just the point--

-    In prison you get thwarted every way;

-    You won’t ask that to-morrow.

-

-     [_He rises, shakes the crumbs from his lap, sets the half-empty

-     wine-bottle on a ledge within_ CARLOMAN’S _reach and goes out_.]

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Is he gone?

-

-     [CARLOMAN _drags himself up and props himself by the wall with his

-     ear against it_.]

-

-    I hear the river rushing past the walls,

-    Rushing and rushing, and through all my dreams

-    I labour to keep pace with it: awake,

-    I give myself to rest. It comforts me,

-    To hear the bounding current pass along,

-    To think of the far travel of the drops,

-    Crisping the tiny waves. Away, away!

-    It is great peace to follow: to pursue

-    Is misery.

-               And if I kneel down here,

-    I can just catch the glitter of the sun

-    A-tumble down the stream....

-

-     [_He crouches and looks through the chinks._]

-

-     [_Enter_ ZACHARIAS _and two_ MONKS.]

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-    Where is he?

-

-

-MONK.

-

-                                              There,

-    Peering between the loosened stones.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_turning_] The Pope!

-    Leave me in peace. You promised me seclusion.

-    I told you I would be alone with God.

-    Leave me!

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-              But you are shut up with the devil!

-    Deep as you lie, you dare not make pretence

-    That you have found your God.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_laughing nervously_] The seeker lost

-    More than the thing to find. Leave me alone--

-    You break the thread, you break it!

-                                        O the stream,

-    It flows and flows, and there are waterfalls

-    Somewhere, great, heaving torrents ...

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-    [_bending over him_] To Vienne

-    Pilate, they say, was banished--here to die.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    What, Pilate!

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-    Do you tremble at the name?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    O God, he saw the light and knew it not,

-    He had worse memories than Iscariot had

-    Misusing his great office. He had power,

-    Power to avert even Calvary ... and yet

-    We owe salvation to him.

-    [_lifting himself up from the ground_] Can it be

-    My blunder, my effacement shall prevail?

-    [_to_ ZACHARIAS] So he was banished and came here to die--

-    As you have banished me; it is enough;

-    In chains and soon to die. There, hear them rattle;

-    Now you have done your part.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-                                 Not till you yield,

-    Not till I see you suffer. [_aside_] Are hell’s rings

-    Of fire prepared in vain for him?--Repent!

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Leave me!

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-              No sinner has withstood me yet.

-    You shall repent.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                      But I am strong as you:

-    I will not.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-                Oh, you must, for God’s own sake,

-    His Majesty--He cannot strive and fail;

-    His heart is set on you and He must have you,

-    If but to bind in hell. Repent the past,

-    Repent, repent!

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                    Not anything--the whole

-    Strange journey and its perils that have brought me

-    Here to the brink of Death: and all will come

-    And touch that wonder, all will enter in,

-    And rest and be revived. Why should one trouble?

-    Death comes to all, you cannot banish him,

-    And Death has all we seek for!

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-                                   These are words

-    For men the Church has blessed: but if you die

-    Without the holy Sacraments, unshriven,

-    And unabsolved, you will be flung away

-    To yonder stream, shroudless and like a dog.

-    Thus heretics are judged.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_excitedly_] Be borne along,

-    Borne with the current. Is that possible?

-    Borne _dead_--well, each man takes his full desert--

-    Mine ... is it possible? And further on

-    Past towns and cities ... then at last the sea.

-

-

-ZACHARIAS.

-

-    Vain hope! You are God’s prisoner. No escape,

-    No waves to hide you and no help of man;

-    For prayer itself like hope is quenched before

-    The everlasting Prison-house. Farewell!

-

-     [_Exit with the_ MONKS.]

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Ha! ha! He shuts the door--so blank a sound!

-    And now the river comes about my brain,

-    And now the music foams incessantly,

-    The music of my funeral. Enough

-    For me that I shall lie against the heart

-    Of that on-pouring volume ...

-                                  I am left

-    By every creature I have breathed beside--

-    They do not want me. God--He least of all!

-    He has a King to crown.

-    All’s well, all are provided for.... My brother

-    Is in my place; my friend will take my wife.

-    How Geneviva shuddered at my chains

-    And clung to her old paramour! So easy

-    The world’s wounds are to heal. A little time,

-    Ten years, a year--and all is found defeat

-    In any life, all turned to ridicule.

-

-     [_Enter_ MARCOMIR _in lay dress_.]

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    I have great news for you.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                               But I am dying!

-    And now if all the doors were open wide

-    I should not move to pass through any one.

-    You cannot bring great news; I know it all,

-    All that must come now: I can alter nothing.

-    Rome will be succoured.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                            Yes, the siege is raised,

-    And Astolph in retreat. I am not come

-    To talk of politics.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                         Of private matters?

-    My Astolph, Lombardy ...

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                             To say farewell,

-    To bless you. I am here as from the King;

-    I showed the monks a parchment with the seal

-    You used when you were ruler: it was found

-    Among _her_ jewels ...

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                           Ah, I see, a gift.

-    So you too play the King. My signet yours,

-    Ay, and all else that ever bore my name.

-    Keep it.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    But Carloman--

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                            I cannot wait

-    To hear; I have so very little time

-    To speak in and such hatred; hate that burns

-    My heart through to the core. You, all of you,

-    So glad that I am sunk here; Geneviva

-    Moving no step to me; and that great Pope,

-    I gave my soul to in a wondering love,

-    Vexed that he cannot tame me, not desiring

-    My help, my pardon. You must hear it all--

-    I am not in despair: I have a treasure,

-    A burthen at my heart--where it belongs

-    I do not know. I have tried many names,

-    Tried God’s ... You see me dying, that may be;

-    But not till I have cast my burthen down

-    Can I be certain of my journey’s end.

-    How very still your face is! Are you dreaming,

-    You look so happy? And that scarlet cloak--

-    Where is your habit?

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                         I have cast it off

-    Forever; all my oaths are pushed aside,

-    With all my penitence, by something holy,

-    And the world seems new-born about me now;

-    I live as in a kind of bliss,--such joy,

-    Such fresh, warm sorrow.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                             Geneviva--yes

-    I know she loves you. Wait till I am dead.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-    O Carloman, I dare not break my news,

-    Not yet, you are not worthy. Do you hear

-    How the Rhone sings outside?

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                                 Beyond these shutters--

-    The light, the lightning music!

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                                    So life sweeps

-    Down through my blood; at last I have its secret.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    Go, dash yourself into the Rhone and die!

-    There is no secret hid in life--illusion,

-    That is the great discovery.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                                 O listen!

-    I am left poor and lonely in the world,

-    So poor, so lonely, not a soul that needs,

-    That ever can have need of me! Unloved

-    And undesired, with just the sun to hail,

-    The spring to welcome till I die, no more.

-    And yet--

-    If they should thrust me in a prison-cell

-    I should sing on in rapture.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                                 _Undesired!_

-    She desires no one ... but you dote on her,

-    And that will set you singing.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                                   On my lips

-    Already there is savour of rich song.

-    That is the joy I spoke of. Oh, to spread

-    The fame of my dead lady through the lands,

-    To sing of Geneviva!

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                         She is dead?

-    Come closer. Chafe my hands--

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                                  They mocked at her:

-    “If the Monk-King should ask now for his wife,

-    And we presented him the prostitute,

-    Would he not feel the ribaldry!” She stood

-    Quite silent, and the ashen lines turned black

-    On cheek and forehead; and they mocked her more:

-    “The harlot and the monk!” Then suddenly

-    A young, wild, girlish glory crossed her face,

-    She grasped me by the hand--but how we went

-    Through the hot streets I know not.

-                                        On the bridge

-    She turned to me--“Tell Carloman his wife

-    Is dead”--and looking down, I saw her stretched

-    Across the buoyant waters: from my sight

-    Sucked under by the current ’neath the bridge,

-    She did not rise.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_triumphantly_] And Marcomir, they promise

-    To cast my body to the river there,

-    And let it sweep along.

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                            But I shall sing

-    Of life and youth, virginity and love.

-    You leave me in the world; O Carloman,

-    You leave me here delivered.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-                                 We shall meet;

-    And yet such life wells up in me I fear

-    Lest I should not be dying. Geneviva!

-    [_turning to_ MARCOMIR]

-    And you will sing to me?

-

-    [_He lies back, wrapt in ecstasy._]

-

-

-MARCOMIR.

-

-                             To you, to all.

-    A tax is laid upon my very heart

-    To sing the sweeping music of the Rhone,

-    That rushes through my ears, that chants of her,

-    Of all you have delivered. In its depths

-    You will be buried, but the very burthen

-    You die to utter, far away in France

-    Will be caught up; Love will be free, and life

-    Free to make change as childhood.

-                                      Someone comes--

-    Hush, very softly, do not be afraid.

-

-     [BONIFACE _enters and steals up to_ CARLOMAN.]

-

-

-BONIFACE.

-

-    Beloved--

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_putting his hand on the lips of_ BONIFACE]

-    No more! Dear voice, end with that word:

-    _Beloved_ is not a prelude, it is all

-    A dying man can bear.

-

-

-BONIFACE.

-

-    [_blessing him_] All that I go

-    To publish to the folk in heathen lands.

-    Tho’ very often it means martyrdom

-    To listen to my story, I am blest

-    Proclaiming it.

-

-

-CARLOMAN.

-

-    [_opening his eyes wide and raising himself_]

-

-                    O Boniface, before

-    I saw you as an angel.

-                           Is that wine

-    Still on the stony ledge?

-

-     [MARCOMIR _brings the wine-bottle_]

-

-                              Now let us drink,

-    Drink all of us.

-    [_to_ BONIFACE] Go to your heathen lands

-    With that great lay of love.

-                                 This is a poet,

-    And he too has a burthen, but more sad--

-    Men love so fitfully. I for myself

-    Drink deep to life here in my prison-cell.

-    I had a song ... O Marcomir, the words--

-    Why do you stumble? Once again the cup!

-

-    _Fellowship, pleasure

-    These are the treasure_--

-

-    So I believe, so in the name of Time ...

-

-     [_He sinks back and dies._]

-

-

-

-

-    Printed in England by

-    The Westminster Press, Harrow Road

-    London

-

-

-

+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE NAME OF TIME ***
+
+
+
+
+
+                          IN THE NAME OF TIME
+
+                     OTHER WORKS BY MICHAEL FIELD
+
+
+        CALLIRRHOE                                       1884
+        FAIR ROSAMUND                             1884 & 1897
+        THE TRAGIC MARY                                  1890
+        UNDERNEATH THE BOUGH                             1893
+        THE WORLD AT AUCTION                             1898
+        THE RACE OF LEAVES                               1901
+        JULIA DOMNA                                      1903
+        BORGIA                                           1905
+        WILD HONEY                                       1908
+        QUEEN MARIAMNE                                   1908
+        THE ACCUSER                                      1911
+        THE TRAGEDY OF PARDON                            1911
+        POEMS OF ADORATION                               1912
+        MYSTIC TREES                                     1913
+        DEDICATED                                        1914
+        DEIRDRE                                          1918
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+                                IN THE
+                             NAME OF TIME
+
+                                   A
+                                TRAGEDY
+
+                                  BY
+                                MICHAEL
+                                 FIELD
+
+
+                          THE POETRY BOOKSHOP
+                    35 DEVONSHIRE ST. THEOBALDS RD.
+                              LONDON W.C.
+                                MCMXIX
+
+
+
+
+                         IN THE NAME OF TIME:
+
+                               A TRAGEDY
+
+
+      “IN THE NAME OF TIME.”--_The Winter’s Tale_, iv, I, _chorus_.
+
+          ἅπανθ᾽ ὁ μακρὸς κἀναρίθμητος χρόνος
+          φύει τ᾽ ἄδηλα καὶ φανέντα κρύπτεται:
+          κοὐκ ἔστ᾽ ἄελπτον οὐδέν, ἀλλ᾽ ἁλίσκεται
+          χὠ δεινὸς ὅρκος χαἰ περισκελεῖς φρένες.
+
+                            _Sophocles--Ajax 646._
+
+      _Quoted from R. C. Trevelyan’s Translation on the Cover._
+
+
+
+
+                                PERSONS
+
+
+                CHILPERIC     _King of the Franks_.
+                CARLOMAN }  { _Sons of Charles Martel,_
+                PEPIN    }  { _Consuls and Mayors of the Palace_.
+                MARCOMIR      _A Frankish Count_.
+                RACHIS        _King of the Lombards_.
+                ASTOLPH       _His brother_.
+                ZACHARIAS     _The Pope_.
+                DAMIANI       _An Italian Bishop_.
+                BONIFACE      _A Missionary Saint_.
+                GENEVIVA      _Wife to Carloman_.
+
+                _Cardinals, Nobles, Monks, Servants._
+
+
+
+
+                          IN THE NAME OF TIME
+
+                               A TRAGEDY
+
+
+
+
+ACT I.
+
+
+SCENE: _Paris. A Hall in the Royal Palace._
+
+CARLOMAN _is pacing backward and forward: he pauses by a crucifix set up
+at the further end of the hall_.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    _Thou sayest truly that I am--a King_
+    He said Who laid His life down on the Cross:
+    So will I be, a King. I will possess
+    The great reality. I war and govern,
+    I can strike hard as Charles the Hammerer;
+    Men say I have my father’s qualities,
+    And in the brief months of my sovereignty
+    The infidel has recognised my blood:
+    But this is nothing! Phantom-Emperors
+    Have made the throne phantasmal. I have felt
+    In Zacharias, the great Pope, a force
+    That spreads like spring across the world. No more
+    Will I be petty marshal to a crew
+    That hack and murder, while the royal faces
+    Of wandering martyrs scintillate and thrill.
+    There is a glorious Betterness at work
+    Amid the highways and the solitudes;
+    I would be with it--in obscurity,
+    No matter!--with the river as it shapes
+    Its cisterns in the hills or where the wind
+    First draws its silver volumes to a voice:
+    Behind, at the beginning, from within:
+    A cry, a pang--what shall respond to it,
+    Who help me? I have fiery thoughts of God,
+    I would attempt Him. In the wilderness
+    Maybe He will unbosom.
+
+[_Enter a_ SERVANT.]
+
+
+SERVANT.
+
+                          The Archbishop
+    Of Mentz would see you.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                          Blessèd Boniface!
+    He brings me my enfranchisement.
+
+[_As_ BONIFACE _enters the_ SERVANT _withdraws_.]
+
+                                    Great Angel,
+    My spirit leaps within me to be born,
+    Beholding you.
+
+
+BONIFACE.
+
+                  My son, the Holy Father
+    Receives you joyously.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_kissing_ BONIFACE] To go to God
+    Living, unscathed, to give Him everything
+    One has, to pour one’s soul into His lap,
+    To let Him play upon one as the wind,
+    To feel His alternations ...!
+
+
+BONIFACE.
+
+                                  Carloman,
+    Your childlike transport shall be surely blessed:
+    Yet in the convent there are bitter hours
+    Of exile from God’s presence, penances--
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    But will they choke my solitude with prayers?
+
+
+BONIFACE.
+
+    The holy brethren chant in unison
+    For hours within the chapel; there is buzz
+    About the cloister like a hive of bees.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    There have been hermits! Might I live alone,
+    I could breathe unrepiningly the while
+    It pleased God to keep silence. I would tame
+    Some wistful, kingly beast to roam with me,
+    And we would wait His pleasure. Boniface,
+    Oh, tell me of His coming! It is plain
+    He has been with you--You became His friend?
+
+
+BONIFACE.
+
+    His servant rather.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                        That I cannot be;
+    I am a Knight free-born; I come as those
+    Great nobles of the East, and all my service
+    Is adoration. You may have some converts,
+    Brute-tribes, who give allegiance to His name,
+    As those who do not speak the Emperor’s tongue
+    May rank his subjects. I am not of these.
+
+
+BONIFACE.
+
+    Thou speakest truth, my son; there are some souls
+    Loved of the Lord as Paul in Araby
+    With whom one must not meddle. In good time
+    You will exalt the Church; meanwhile your brother
+    Who has a tighter grip of circumstance
+    Than you--
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    He is short-sighted, politic,
+    External in his bent. I lead the charge
+    In battle, I foresee the combinations
+    Of foreign forces; he is good at siege,
+    And all the hectoring process of delay.
+    He is not like my father. That great fight
+    At Tours! I feel the onslaught in my blood;
+    It never can run sluggish.
+
+
+BONIFACE.
+
+                               Had you seen
+    King Chilperic’s flower-wreathed waggon in the street!--
+    You should have looked a last time on the world
+    Ere you renounced it.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                          Scanned the heir of Clovis
+    Drawn like a senseless idol in his car!
+    You judge unworthily. God bade me come
+    Up higher to Him on a battlefield
+    Where I was victor. It was in the night--
+    I moved about among my sleeping men,
+    I heard them shout for triumph in their dreams:
+    It was enough!
+
+
+BONIFACE.
+
+                   Yes, all is vanity;
+    The pride of life, its splendour, _vanitas_!
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    There is no vanity in life; life utters
+    Unsparing truth to us,--there is no line
+    Or record in our body of her printing
+    That stamps a falsehood. Do not so confound,
+    Father, life’s transience and sincerity.
+    What makes the show out in the streets so vile
+    Is that it blazons forth the lie that youth,
+    Kingship and power are ineffectual.
+    A show of death where life should radiate
+    Is vanity. And if I now fling off
+    The honourable titles of my state,
+    Consul and Patriarch, it is not because
+    I have not nobly borne them; by my sword
+    The Church has been defended, and the corn
+    That bows in shocks about your monasteries
+    Bows down above the battlefields I won.
+    You misconceive.
+
+
+BONIFACE.
+
+                     A sweep of piety
+    Beyond my censure! [_half-aside_] Will he thrive at Rome?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Why should you look so fearful? I have chosen
+    The path of life, choosing to be a monk,
+    And I have wisely chosen.
+
+
+BONIFACE.
+
+    Ah, beloved!
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Now I must face my brother. Would he come
+    By chance! I dare not crave a conference.
+    I am arrested at the lips if ever
+    We speak of anything beyond affairs.
+    He will not understand--at least to-day,
+    When fresh from the procession of that cursed
+    Do-nothing Chilperic.
+
+
+BONIFACE.
+
+                          Set your purpose forth
+    At once, and let him freely misconceive:
+    You must not cloud for that.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                                 These mighty thoughts,
+    Mingled with God, how put them to the shame
+    Of the world’s censure! What you call my soul
+    Flees as a shy girl that escapes pursuit.
+
+
+BONIFACE.
+
+    Take your shame meekly. Do not let your eyes
+    Grow wild and hostile!
+
+     [BONIFACE, _who has seen_ PEPIN _approaching, withdraws to the back
+     of the hall, stands before the Crucifix in mute prayer, and then
+     passes out, looking back at the brothers_. PEPIN _is a short, stout
+     man, with florid complexion and much vehemence of manner. He wipes
+     the perspiration from his face and addresses_ CARLOMAN _without
+     looking at him_.]
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+                              Woden, what a sight!
+    This Chilperic is an idol that the people
+    No longer worship as his car rolls on.
+    Contempt, indifference! A few more months
+    Will rid us of the calf. We pull together
+    In right good part, fraternal, taking pride
+    Each in the other’s excellence: ere long
+    The Pope will pour his oil upon our heads
+    To nourish our short curls.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    He has the power
+    Of making Kings?
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+    Liutbrand the Lombard winced
+    Before him and resigned the Exarchite:
+    And he who can impoverish may endow.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_with a sudden movement_]
+    Pepin, we have not looked upon the face
+    Of Zacharias: I am bound for Rome.
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+    A pilgrimage? Stay where you are! Tut, tut!
+    Wait till he seek us. Frankland is his hope
+    Against the Lombard: when he seeks us then
+    We twain will offer him our dutiful,
+    Strong swords, and keep St. Peter’s realm intact;
+    While, in return, that gracious influence,
+    That something that we lack to give our strength
+    Supremacy, shall be poured down on us.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    _Something we lack!_ I dream of a possession--
+    Pepin, the world if I became a monk
+    Would recognise that I lay down my rights,
+    None wrests them from me.
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+                              Are you clean gone mad!
+    Become a monk, you, Consul, Patriarch!
+    Our mother had been Christian scarce a year
+    Before your birth, and haply took the priest
+    Too much into her privacy. By Thor--
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_taking him by the throat_]
+    No, but by God Incarnate, you shall swear
+    You own me son of Christendom’s great guard
+    Ere you again draw unimperilled breath!
+    I, Carloman, your elder, the first-born
+    Of Charles Martel, of my own choice renounce
+    My portion in his honours. Own my birthright!
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+    Plague take you!
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Own it!
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+                             Give a fellow breath,
+    Don’t ...
+    You have your father’s temper, that’s the test!
+    I loved you as a boy and set my teeth
+    Against a rare, sweet craziness that takes you
+    In certain moods--you need a keeper then:
+    You need one now. Hold fast your birthright, man;
+    Don’t trust me with temptation. Geneviva
+    Will relish this new folly less than I--
+    Chuck her beneath the chin and threaten her
+    With your design! She is too young a widow
+    For me to govern.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_apart_] Deaf down to the soul!
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+    That flush across your forehead like a scar
+    At mention of your wife! Her lovers!--Think
+    If you withdrew protection....
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                                   Purity,
+    In woman the ideal and the dream,
+    Has its firm seat amid the altitudes
+    Of manhood’s nature--There alone are seats
+    Of holy contemplation, sexless thoughts,
+    Love that in God finds goal, a loneliness
+    That truth, not sympathy, can cure. ’Tis vain
+    The hope that woman, made to minister
+    To momentary passion, can provide
+    Solace and inspiration to her mate.
+    She breeds no hope; she cannot offer us
+    A clime for our ideals and our dreams,
+    Or plant a footstep soft as memory’s
+    Across futurity’s unimpressed sands.
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+    You speak from fact, I own.
+                                But Boniface,
+    What does he say?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    He aids me.
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+    [_slapping him on the shoulder_] Carloman,
+    ’Twould be cold work without you.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    But my son----
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+    Nay, nay, no substitute! You are my brother,
+    I know the secret how to humour you,
+    I weave your projects in our policy,
+    And now and then you marshal us the way
+    Of an archangel ... but no substitute!
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Yet love him for my sake; give him free training
+    In war and letters.
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+                        Fie, fie! Geneviva
+    Will put you from this project. In the cloister
+    What would you see but men who dig and pray?--
+    No royal pageants.
+
+     [KING CHILPERIC _is borne in a litter with great pomp. His golden
+     hair sweeps over the sides of the litter; his face is nerveless and
+     exhausted._]
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_with an ironic smile_] Such as this. The King!
+    Tell him I have transferred the Mayoralty
+    To you, and do not taunt me any more.
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+    [_to_ CHILPERIC]
+    Sire, you are weary, yet we crave the grace
+    Of a brief audience.
+
+
+CHILPERIC.
+
+                         Business! I can brook
+    No more of these distractions. Your good brother
+    Relieves me of all business. I can hear
+    Scarcely the people’s clamour when they shout,
+    And I am shy at facing them. To know
+    There is a god indifferent to its whims
+    Gives the world courage of its natural awe;
+    So I expose these curls; that duty done,
+    Leave me at ease, an idol in his niche.
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+    But, sire, my brother has persuaded me,
+    If you consent, to take on me his burthens,
+    His duties and his honours; being summoned,
+    He holds, by God to a monastic life.
+
+
+CHILPERIC.
+
+    [_with passing animation_]
+    This interests us. After so brief a term
+    Of dignity! But I applaud his sense:
+    The convent is a place for peace of mind;
+    One has no interruption, one may watch
+    The gold-fish in the fountain half a day,
+    If so one will; and, though the prayers are long,
+    One grows accustomed to them as to meals
+    And looks for their recurrence.
+    [_suspiciously_] But, my Consul,
+    With you it cannot be the luxury
+    Of doing nothing that attracts. For us
+    It is the happy and predestined lot;
+    But for an untamed youth whose pleasures still
+    Are running in the current of his blood,
+    Such choice is of ill-omen.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                                Courage, sire,
+    Is constant industry for happiness.
+    When I become a monk----
+
+
+CHILPERIC.
+
+                              Nay, no confession,
+    No putting reasons to your Overlord.
+    [_to his nobles_]
+    You need not shake your spears so stormily,
+    We leave you a stout leader for your wars,
+    [_to_ CARLOMAN] And you, your liberty. What use of it
+    You make is of no moment to the world,
+    And does not raise my curiosity,
+    Who for myself have found in meat and drink,
+    In sleep and long, long abstinence from care
+    The pleasure proper to me. Pepin, come!
+
+     [_Exeunt_ CHILPERIC, PEPIN _and the Frankish Nobles_.]
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    He has no sight of God, is imbecile
+    And dropping into clay. I should not let
+    This show dishearten me; but I have suffered
+    A vulgar tongue to tell what from my lips
+    Alone is truth--that as the hidden spring,
+    Restless at touch of the diviner’s rod
+    Is dragged through to the surface by his spells,
+    I am discovered and borne upward, made
+    The answer to some perilous appeal:
+    And for my folly I must be dismissed
+    By a mere dotard with a passing sigh
+    Of envy, who forego the battlefield,
+    The Council-chamber, the sweet clang of arms
+    For just a pricking wonder at my heart,
+    A knowledge I would give to secrecy
+    Plunging it headlong in the ear of God.
+    Oh for the cloister! I will make escape
+    At once, in silence, without taking leave:
+    My joy is in the consciousness that Time
+    Will never draw me back to any wish
+    To any fondness I am flinging off....
+
+     [_Enter_ GENEVIVA.]
+
+    My wife!
+            Is Geneviva come to me?
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+    Now the dull monk has left you. Rouse your head!
+    I have been taking thought how best to trim
+    My beauty for you. Boniface was slow
+    In giving counsel; slowly I took up,
+    Handled and dropt my jewels. Of a sudden,
+    When Pepin’s voice was heard upon the stair,
+    I laid these blossoms in a ruddy knot
+    Thus hasty on my bosom. Come to me.
+    My lord, you owe me many hours of love,
+    So many hours I have been beautiful
+    In vain. You do not see me when I sing,
+    You miss the marks of music in my face,
+    You do not love the hunt, and you have never
+    Ridden beside me in the morning light.
+    You see me but as now when I am vexed
+    And haughty for caresses.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_after a pause_] Geneviva,
+    You are a Christian?
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+                            Dear my lord, you speak
+    As if I were laid sick.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    You were baptised?
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+    Assuredly, but the cold font has left
+    No chill upon my heart. Think not of that,
+    Think of our marriage-day. You leave me lonely
+    While Boniface enthralls you.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_with hesitation_] Women even
+    Have put aside their pomps and vanities ...
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+    Oh, leave me, you are insupportable!
+    You bring me word of kingdoms and of monks,
+    And thoughts of things that have not come to pass,
+    Or should be quite forgotten. We could spend
+    So sweet a moment now, for you are loved,
+    My Carloman--What need is there of talk
+    Concerning other matters?--loved of me,
+    Dreamed of when I am dreaming, when I wake
+    Wept for, sighed after. I have never cared
+    To listen to the minstrels, for the praise
+    My beauty covets most is in your eyes.
+    How wild they look and solemn!
+
+     [CARLOMAN _folds her in his arms quietly. Then with great effort
+     bends over her and speaks_]
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                                   Marcomir
+    Is restless for a pilgrimage to Rome.
+    I think we shall be starting presently:
+    And afterward ... If I am long away ...
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+    [_breaking from him_]
+    Oh, think a little! Can you leave this hair
+    So crisp and burnished? When the sun is bright
+    Across your shield, it has no livelier flash--
+    Confess, it has not? But you come to me
+    Stale, weary from your dreams and abstinence,
+    And tingle my suspicion.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                             If these dreams
+    Were growing all the world to me!--You start,
+    You turn away, you will not understand.
+    The fear of hurting you has made me keep
+    So distant from you lately, and my eyes
+    You thought were worn with vigil and with books
+    Have burnt with tears at night for many a month
+    To think you have not known the tyrant-joy
+    That moves a soul to change and severance,
+    Except upon the day when for my sake
+    You parted from your home: but by the rapture
+    That made such tumult in the daughter’s grief
+    When she became a bride, your husband now
+    Implores your comprehension.
+                                  _All thou hast_,
+    So the Church teaches, _family and spouse,
+    The child thou hast begotten, thine own life
+    Thou must abhor, if thou would’st have new days_
+    _Of blessing on the Earth._ I feel this law
+    Is written in my very heart of hearts,
+    There is such haunting freshness deep below
+    The sorrow of farewell.
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+    [_defiantly_] My God is Love--
+    The God who made a bower in Paradise,
+    Who wedded Eve and Adam, who abode
+    In the sweet incense of His Church to bless
+    My marriage.
+      [CARLOMAN _stretches out his hand to support her_.]
+                 Have no fear that I shall fall,
+    I cannot swoon while I remember it--
+    How in the songful hush a restless hand
+    Grew tight about my fingers, and a vow
+    Thrilled all the girl in me to womanhood,
+    And stung the future lying at my heart
+    To joy and frankness. That was years ago ...
+      [_She breaks into a bitter laugh_]
+    O Carloman, you know not what you do,
+    You know not what I am, nor what a blank
+    Of mercy there is in you!
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                              Were I dead,
+    You would not be so violent: in a trance
+    Of resignation you would think of me,
+    With tears, not gasping laughter.
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+    [_pacing the room excitedly_] _Pilgrimage!_
+    Did you say, pilgrimage? To think of you
+    Growing each day more cramped about the mouth,
+    More full of resolution in the eyes.
+    What shall I do? _Pray for you_--but the dead,
+    You have just told me, should be left unmourned,
+    Forgotten as last summer’s autumn-leaves.
+    [_facing him coldly_] My lord, I am no reliquary-urn;
+    There is no widow in me.
+
+    [_with still greater change of manner_] If you leave
+    Your Kingdom, there are certain things to do
+    Before you start. There is that Gothic King,
+    The captive Hermann--you must break his chains.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Hermann is dead. Count Marcomir reports
+    Last night he found him lifeless.
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+    [_gasping_] Late last night?
+    Marcomir!--Take your fingers from my sleeve;
+    But summon Marcomir, and if again
+    There is intelligence to break to me
+    Likely to hurt, give him the charge of it.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    No, Geneviva. I have little speech;
+    But when the secret crept into my soul
+    I loved you, it was not to Marcomir
+    I spoke: and if another secret now
+    Is breaking through my nature, do not think
+    That he will be the spokesman.
+    [_noticing her agitation_] Hermann died
+    I think by his own hand; he courted death.
+    What can a man prize in captivity?
+    [_as_ GENEVIVA _grows more agitated_]
+    There! I will speak no more of him. Your maids--
+    [_turning to summon her attendants_].
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+    Weave the great arras. They have no concern
+    With me, except in silence to array.
+    You thought I cared to gossip with my maids!
+    But summon Marcomir.
+
+     [_She looks after_ CARLOMAN, _who walks out, stroking his chin_].
+
+                         To think he dared
+    To lean above me with those burning eyes
+    Unconscious what they glassed. I did not learn
+    From him the magic that was born in me,
+    I learnt it when great Hermann passed in chains,
+    And he is dead. I promised I would go
+    To-day and visit him. How could he die?
+      [MARCOMIR _enters_.]
+    Why, you are deadly pale!
+      [_She recoils, and says in a faint voice_]
+                              It is the hour
+    Fixed for our visit.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    But the man is dead.
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+    What does he look like now? Is he so changed
+    I must not see him?
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                        Death is not a fact
+    To touch with simile. What looks he like?
+    All men in moonlight mind one of the moon,
+    All dead men look like death.
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+                                  He lies in chains?
+    Are the brows restful?
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                           Had you been a man
+    You would have asked me how he came to die,
+    No more!
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+             I had forgotten ... then he perished
+    As Carloman reports?
+    [MARCOMIR _turns away_.] You cannot bear
+    That I should mourn him?
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    [_facing her again_] Oh, a lifetime, if
+    It please you! I am going to a place
+    Where love is held of little consequence.
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+    Then you are bound for hell.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    [_between his teeth_] But you are safe!
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+    Keep me recluse from love, as men from war,
+    You spoil my faculties. Where will you go?
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    To any coast you have not trod, wherever
+    The flowers are different from the flowers you wear,
+    To some Italian convent. Geneviva,
+    I am not framed to see you minister
+    To other men; but when long years are passed,
+    It may be in a fresco, I shall find
+    Some figure of a lady breaking bread
+    To mendicants, and kneel and pray to her
+    That she may bless me also: but till then ...
+    [_covering his eyes_]
+    O God, you shall not tempt me, though I feel
+    Just how your hair burns in a fiery wreath
+    Above your brow, and how your eyes are soft
+    With blue, and deeper blue, as through the hills
+    The valley stretches azure to the close.
+    You shall not tempt me, though I almost hear
+    Your bosom taking record of your breath,
+    And I could sit and watch that tide of life
+    Rising and falling through the lovely curves,
+    Till I was lost in ecstasy.
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+                                 Oh, hush!
+    But then you love me. It was in a fit ...?
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    Of devilish malice.
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+                        In a jealous fit?
+    You shall remain.
+
+     [_She goes up to him: he takes her hands in his, kisses them
+     coldly, and puts them away._]
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                      I did not answer you--
+    His face was drawn.
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+                        And I had given you charge
+    Of the great restive soldier.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                                  True, I swerved;
+    I have confessed my sin, and now must bear
+    The settling of my spirit on the Cross.
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+    So many favours!
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                     But you kissed his brows--
+    What need was there of that?
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+                                 You love me then,
+    You love me! Would you murder him again
+    If I again should touch him with my breath?
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    Again, again.
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+                  And Carloman complains
+    I am indifferent to him!
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                             He forgets;
+    But, Geneviva, if a thousand years
+    Broke over me, when Time had cleared his storms
+    I should look up and know your face by heart.
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+    Then stay, stay, stay with me!
+                                   Have you once thought
+    Through the long years how it will fare with me--
+    Nothing to watch except the sullen waste
+    Of my own beauty? Marcomir, I hold
+    If there be judgment it shall be required
+    Of women what delight their golden hair
+    Has yielded--have they put its wealth to use,
+    Or suffered it to lie by unenjoyed?
+    I rather would die spendthrift, nothing left
+    Of my rich heritage, save memory
+    Of the wild, passing pleasure it conferred
+    Than keep it untransmuted. And you choose
+    To take from me the only eyes that care
+    To mirror mine! I have so often thought
+    That some day I shall drown myself: the water
+    Reflects me with desire.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    [_bitterly, as he turns away_] A soul so wide
+    In innocence, so regal, on the day
+    He wedded, he appointed me your squire!
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+    [_following him_]
+    He keeps you with him, you can read his heart,
+    You know what way he travels, when his soul
+    Flies homeward. Tell me--’tis the only knowledge
+    I crave for in the world--does Carloman
+    Still hold me in affection? I beseech,
+    Tell me the truth. He loves you----
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                                        Yes, he loves,
+    He does not use me for his purposes.
+    [_perceiving_ PEPIN]
+    Not Carloman--his brother on the stair
+    Laughs at your light behaviour. So you lose
+    One last poor opportunity.
+
+[_Re-enter_ PEPIN.]
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+                               Good even.
+    Well, my fair sister, you have heard the news,
+    Wept [_glancing at_ MARCOMIR]
+         and found consolation.
+                                But to think
+    The son of Charles Martel should be a monk!
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+    A monk!--a pilgrim?
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+    No, a cloistered monk.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    What is his crime?
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+                       Oh, no impiety;
+    A crazy fit: he must get near to God,
+    So puts away all intercourse with man:
+    And while I rule he thinks to thrill the world
+    With some convulsive movement from his prayers.
+    Ha, ha! But you shall queen it as before.
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+    Go fetch my husband and remain without,
+    For he alone can speak to me of this.
+
+    [_Exit_ PEPIN.]
+
+    [_turning to_ MARCOMIR]
+    You are a murderer: this act of yours
+    Will leave me very lonely.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    I repent.
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+    There is no sin like that of looking back
+    When one has sinned. Whatever one attempts
+    It perfected in patience brings reward.
+    My Carloman will prosper: his whole heart
+    Is gone away from me.
+                          Why there he is,
+    Passing in zealous talk with Boniface.
+
+     [CARLOMAN _and_ BONIFACE _cross from right to left at the back of
+     the hall_. GENEVIVA _intercepts them_.]
+
+    Farewell!
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_arrested_] O Geneviva!
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+                             Not my name,
+    Never my name again. Say, holy father--
+    They take new titles who renounce the world?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_with flushing eagerness_]
+    Then you too will renounce it? oh, the joy!
+    There is a strange new passion in your eyes.
+    Speak to me ... but you cannot! I could take
+    No leave of you in your fierce, worldly mood;
+    Now all is changed.
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+                        Yes, all. How long ago
+    It seems since we were married!
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                                    Think the day
+    Is yet to come, the joy is all before.
+    [_taking her face between his hands_]
+    O Boniface, this is no temptress’ face!
+    God has been with her, and she starts as I
+    Free in the great endeavour.
+
+
+BONIFACE.
+
+                                Do you choose,
+    Lady, a mere retreat among the nuns,
+    Or, like your husband, do you break all ties
+    That bind you to the earth?
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+                                They all are broken:
+    Except ... oh, I forgot! I have a son.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_nervously_]
+    Pepin will guard him.
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+                          Are you dreaming still?
+    Fool, fool! I tell you Pepin shall decide
+    What robes I wear, and haply suffer me
+    Sometimes at entertainments to look on,
+    And see young Charlemagne praised. But for my child
+    He shall remain with me.
+      [_Re-enter_ PEPIN] All is confirmed.
+    I shall not quit the world. How easily
+    A man is duped with God upon the brain!
+    I shall continue in my womanhood,
+    Giving, receiving pleasure.
+                                I have heard
+    So much and suddenly; for Marcomir
+    Is to become a monk.
+    [_to_ CARLOMAN] Give him no welcome.
+    He takes the cowl a penitent; he is not,
+    Like you, a white-souled wayfarer.
+    [_to_ PEPIN] How strange
+    That we must pair together, you and I;
+    I know so little of your tastes and now
+    I must be often in your company.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    My lord, speak to her.
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+                           Come, an end to this!
+    Brother, if you are wise you will not leave
+    This woman in the world. Convents are made
+    To tame the pride of such and keep them cool.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    O Geneviva, for my sake, and yet....
+    Not so, beloved.
+
+     [_He turns away and covers his face._]
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+                     Marcomir, farewell!
+    You will be monks together. When my husband
+    Forgets me, you must bring me to his thoughts
+    Recall that day we hunted and you fell;
+    I stayed to tend you; but the whole live day
+    My voice rang through the woods for Carloman
+    Until I wearied you; he was not found;
+    But you remember how I cried for him.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    Consul, have pity on her. I am free,
+    But she has need of love.
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+                             O insolence!--
+    The virginal chill heart!--No intercession!
+    [_to_ CARLOMAN]
+    Our marriage is dissolved. How great a stranger
+    You have become to me! I should grow mad
+    To breathe by you another single hour.
+    [_to_ BONIFACE]
+    And you, old man, who stand with such meek eyes,
+    Though you have robbed me of my name of wife,
+    And made my boy an orphan--go your way!
+    I cannot curse you, but I prophesy:
+    Dishonour motherhood, plant virgin homes,
+    Give to religion the sole charge of love,
+    And you will rear up lust of such an ice
+    As Death himself will shiver at.
+    [_to_ PEPIN] Lead on!
+    Now there is hope you may become a King,
+    There should be some high festival to keep
+    To-night in everlasting memory.
+    Lead me away.
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+                  Brother, in all--good luck!
+    And may the Convent’s fare be angels’ food.
+    Your wife’s tears soon will dry.
+
+     [_Exeunt_ PEPIN _and_ GENEVIVA.]
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                                     The thing to do
+    Is simply just the sole thing to be done.
+    There should have been no tears, no taking leave;
+    A freeman can do anything he will.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    Take me along with you.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                            Ah where--to God?
+    Why would you come with me?
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                                You must not ask.
+    Some rival slain in haste--the ebbing back
+    Of hatred that has left the face exposed
+    Of a dead foe I spared not. I have struck
+    On something in my nature that is foul,
+    That goes on breeding in me, that will taint
+    My fellows: I must purify my heart
+    With lonely fasting and continual prayers.
+    My hope is all in Time: though Time defaces
+    So much of what is fair, it dims the spots:
+    I who am just a murderer to myself,
+    Who close my eyes upon a sleeping guilt
+    And waking, answer to the bloody name,
+    Have some faint courage that a transformation
+    Will come ...
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                  Oh, do not put your trust in Time;
+    Put on at once _forever_ leap to God!
+    Have done with age and death and faltering friends,
+    Assailing circumstance, the change of front
+    That one is always meeting in oneself,
+    The plans, the vacillations--let them go!
+    And you will put on immortality
+    As simply as a vesture.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                            And you think
+    Of starting--when?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Now: we are on the road.
+
+
+
+
+ACT II
+
+
+SCENE: _An audience-chamber in the old Lateran Palace, Rome._
+
+
+[_Enter_ ZACHARIAS _and_ DAMIANI.]
+
+
+DAMIANI.
+
+    And so the Lombard yielded ...?
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+    Not to me,
+    But to my God. Each man of woman born
+    Is fashioned in God’s outer image: few
+    Are so compact of Him they feel His strength
+    Within their body as a force that pushes
+    Its way and dissipates the hollow crowd
+    Of godless men; but from my youth I prayed
+    I might be like Him in my inward parts
+    As in my form of dust: and there was nothing
+    That stood against me. It was simple joy
+    To meet the opposition of my foes,
+    To meet triumphant wickedness, to meet
+    The deadliest torpor; for they had an end
+    As night and mist are ended by the sun.
+
+
+DAMIANI.
+
+    You act on a dread thought.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+    The thought conceived,
+    Life has no terrors. It is emptiness
+    Alone that makes us timid and inert:
+    Fill up the void, we go from strength to strength
+    In our possession. When I worship God,
+    The pyx upon the altar where He dwells
+    Has not a closer hold on Him than I.
+
+
+DAMIANI.
+
+    No wonder that men fear you in their hearts,
+    And yield when you approach them!
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+    But you questioned
+    About my recent journey to the hills,
+    That I might save Perugia from the craft
+    Of Rachis, the vile Lombard King. I went
+    And faced him ... all his treachery gave way,
+    The town was mine again; and more than this,
+    All his ambition vanished--at my feet
+    He promised to renounce the world itself,--
+    Like Carloman, the Consul of the Franks,
+    Who left his wife, his honours and his home
+    To dwell on Mount Soracte.
+
+
+DAMIANI.
+
+                                Carloman--
+    His fame spreads every day.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+                                 I felt a warmth
+    Myself to see the man, and when he came
+    A welcome rushed out from my soul, such life
+    Tempered the resolution of his face.
+    God dwelt in him--yet fitfully it seemed,
+    A fever in his blood, not constant health,
+    Unalterable habit, as with those
+    To whom God is the same now, yesterday,
+    And always. As I blessed him I became
+    Disquieted--his long hands were never still.
+    He needed discipline, such changeless hours
+    As make the spirit stable. Now he seeks
+    Another meeting, so this letter says,
+    To ask me some petition for himself,
+    And for his friend.
+
+
+DAMIANI.
+
+                        He leaves a noble brother,
+    Religious and undaunted, in his place,
+    Pepin the Mayor.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+                     On whom I build my trust.
+    I would that Rachis left upon his throne
+    A brother who could stand by Carloman’s:
+    But Astolph has a rebel’s countenance,
+    The only eyes that never bent to mine.
+    He looked upon me as a robber might
+    Who saw in God’s own altar but a setting
+    To jewels that he coveted. And when
+    Rachis knelt down and vowed to leave the world,
+    And there was silence in the Lombard host,
+    I heard a ringing laugh, and Astolph shook
+    His yellow hair with joy. I never saw
+    So mad a gesture--God will strike him down!
+
+     [_Enter a_ CARDINAL.]
+
+
+CARDINAL.
+
+    The Lombard King would see you.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS
+
+                                    Lead him in,
+    We will receive our penitent. [_Exit_ CARDINAL.]
+                                  This Rachis
+    Shall make your Convent famous: Mount Casino
+    Shall have its royal monk.
+
+
+DAMIANI.
+
+    A gracious thought.
+
+     [_Enter_ RACHIS _with two_ CARDINALS.]
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+    Welcome! You come to Rome to take your vow.
+
+
+RACHIS.
+
+    I come to ask your counsel first. My father,
+    I have no trust in Astolph, he is stubborn,
+    Heretical, and will bewitch my people
+    From all allegiance to your holy throne.
+    I speak of certain danger.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+    Ah!
+
+
+RACHIS.
+
+                                   I love you,
+    I love the peaceful service of the cell,
+    And each affection tears me bitterly:
+    Yet for the sake of keeping my wild hordes
+    Your servants, I am willing to renounce
+    The pleasure of the cloister, if your wisdom
+    Absolve me from my promise and restore me
+    To Kingship over Astolph.
+
+     [_He watches_ ZACHARIAS _with the utmost anxiety_.]
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+                              What you plead
+    Is politic ... but, stay, I rob the Church
+    Of glory if I think of what is safe;
+    God can protect His own--the fiercer battle,
+    The heavenlier triumph. He received your oath,
+    Not I.
+
+
+RACHIS.
+
+           You are His Pope, you can remit ...
+    And you would rule in peace.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+                                 How dare you tempt
+    The Lord your God, upon whose earthly throne
+    I sit? Get from me! One short month ago
+    You were yourself blaspheming in the land,
+    A heretic like Astolph and a slave
+    To your own lust. Begone! The convent walls
+    Alone can save you. If you drop away
+    There is no limit to the punishment
+    God deals to such backslider; you become
+    Perjured for all eternity.
+
+
+RACHIS.
+
+                               Alas,
+    Is there no service that will soften God,
+    Except the cloister?
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+                         Fool and hypocrite,
+    There is no way to Him except the path
+    A man’s best moment finds, and you are lost
+    If you regret your vow--to break from it
+    Is utterly impossible: a star
+    Can no more leave the music of its course
+    Than any mortal break his word to God.
+    Your soul is bound for ever.
+
+     [_Enter_ CARLOMAN _and_ MARCOMIR _with another Cardinal_.]
+
+                                 Dearest son,
+    I greet you with God’s blessing,
+    [_to_ MARCOMIR] And on you
+    Confer the same. How prospers Carloman?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Oh, well, dear father.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+                           He who keeps his knees
+    Is Rachis, King of Lombardy. He takes
+    Like you the fearful vow to be a monk.
+
+
+RACHIS.
+
+    [_to_ CARLOMAN] Protect me, help me, holy Carloman;
+    Let me return with you. I am distracted ...
+    A perjured man God will destroy in hate.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Come with me, come ... but not to make confession,
+    To tabulate your crimes; come to the cloister,
+    To solitude, the simple light of God.
+    You must not dream, because your wickedness
+    Has waked you to disgust, that you are called.
+    The trouble is not betwixt God and sin;
+    Sin does not shut God out, it is the lantern
+    Flashing across the dark void of the world--
+    Most penetrative pulses; use the flare
+    For such poor revelation as it yields.
+    But this new life ... you must arise and go
+    Toward it as disencumbered as of old
+    Abraham went up to Ur, all his possessions
+    Kept for him in a mystery out of sight.
+    To dream of them is faith, and to forget
+    All one has touched and handled, loved or wrought
+    Of sin or righteousness, the perfect sign
+    The new man is begotten.
+
+
+RACHIS.
+
+                             Pray for me,
+    If you are in God’s favour. Teach me how
+    To win a better throne than I have lost,
+    Safe from my brother, a perpetual seat
+    High in the heavens.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_with a ringing laugh_] If that is your ambition,
+    Oh then, how clear it is that you are damned,
+    Wherever you may lodge!
+
+
+RACHIS.
+
+                            Ha--terrible!
+    You must not curse me; as the meanest slave
+    I am content to cringe ...
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                               And heaven detests
+    A beggar’s whining. God is made for Kings,
+    Who need no favours, come to Him for nothing
+    Except Himself.
+
+
+RACHIS.
+
+                    But does that satisfy?
+    You who have borne the Convent many months--
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+    Yes, you can now bear witness to this poor
+    Mistrusting wretch that you have no regrets.
+    Speak out your true experience.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_catching his breath_] I am sad.
+    [_to_ ZACHARIAS] I cannot speak with this petitioner
+    Trembling beside me: give him judgment first,
+    And then hear my complaint.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+    [_sternly_] No: let him hear--
+    What have you against God?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    I have not found Him.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+    You fast? You have been diligent in prayer?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_more excitedly_] I cannot pray--scarcely at Angelus--
+    The Sun so flares and changes ... in the cold
+    East clouds there is such witness to His strength
+    Ere he lay him down: the life, the passion
+    Arrest me and I weep.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+    You _cannot pray_!
+    But in the cloister....
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Oh, those other prayers
+    That I am set, I say them when I must,
+    I sing within the chapel, dig and plant.
+    And eat my portion; then there comes an hour,
+    For which my heart has saved itself all day,
+    When I can be alone--sole preparation
+    The spirit makes when she would be with God--
+    I turn from Time’s small dues of speech and habit
+    To serve Eternity, the joy is coming
+    That has no moment: and a noise is made,
+    A monk approaches me, and I am summoned
+    To visitors who seek me as a marvel
+    To gaze upon. O father, when they look
+    I reel with shame.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+                       What would you? Such example
+    As yours confounds the foolish.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                                    Grant my prayer--
+    Our prayers, for Marcomir’s are joined to mine--
+    That we may leave Soracte and retire
+    To some far convent hidden in the hills.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+    Wisely you ask the natural medicine
+    Your state requires.
+                         Good prior Damiani,
+    The brothers Carloman and Marcomir
+    Together with King Rachis join your rule.
+    Let them obey you, leading tranquil lives.
+    [_apart to_ DAMIANI]
+    Firm discipline!
+
+
+RACHIS.
+
+    [_from the ground_] O holy pontiff, grant
+    That I may change with Carloman--Soracte
+    For me, if you are merciful.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+                                 Not so.
+    This zealous son of ours has felt the poison
+    Of worldly visits trouble him.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    [_sharply_] Sin needs
+    A tomb in which to die.
+
+
+RACHIS.
+
+    Fool! I am lost!
+
+     [_He throws himself again on the ground in despair._]
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    We thank you, father, for we bound our hearts
+    And brains and bodies with the fearful oath
+    To live in God, and the great Tempter--Time--
+    Has thwarted us persistently with bondage
+    Of interruption. Claims and trifles hinder
+    Our worship of what passes not away;
+    [_vehemently_]
+    And I am chafed, my father.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+                                There is something
+    Terribly painful in your eyes--pray much,
+    And think but seldom.
+
+     [_Enter another Cardinal._]
+
+
+CARDINAL.
+
+                          Saintly Boniface
+    Comes from the Frankish Court.
+
+     [_He ushers_ BONIFACE _in_.]
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+                                   A triple blessing
+    On this most reverend head. You come from Pepin
+    Or Chilperic? Here is Carloman.
+
+
+BONIFACE.
+
+                                     Beloved,
+    Why have you left Soracte?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                               Visitors
+    Wasted my leisure: I became a sight,
+    Like some caged animal.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+                            He leaves to-day
+    For Mount Casino.
+
+
+BONIFACE.
+
+    [_to_ CARLOMAN] You are happy?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                                    Yes ...
+    Oh, no, not happy; it is different:
+    Not as you feel when you have won the goal,
+    But as you feel when racing.
+
+
+BONIFACE.
+
+                                 Do you care
+    To ask no news of Pepin or ... of ...?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    No. [_he turns away._]
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+    What is your mission, good Archbishop?
+
+
+BONIFACE.
+
+                                           Pepin
+    Sends me to ask your blessing and to pray
+    That you would place upon his head the crown
+    That Chilperic seems to wear, but which, in truth,
+    He, Pepin, owns unworn!
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+                            We have considered
+    This matter on our knees before our God,
+    And questioned what the power He lodged with us
+    Might in such case attempt: we have been taught
+    A glorious lesson--that as Samuel made
+    And unmade Kings, because God ruled in him,
+    So we can put away the _fainéant_,
+    Disgraceful Chilperic, and proclaim as King
+    Pepin, our doughty servant.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_starting_] Pepin--King!
+    [_turning aside again_]
+    Why should this news so knock to enter--why?
+    It seems to make me open a shut door:
+    I see the Rhone, I see my father’s roof,
+    The gay French faces!--Pepin, King!
+
+
+BONIFACE.
+
+                                        I hear
+    Your will with joy. It is a deadly peril
+    To France that she is governed by a man
+    No better than an image, golden-haired
+    But lifeless as a stone. The very people
+    Laugh at the word, _a King_. But all will change
+    When Pepin’s bulk of character extends
+    The meaning of his office.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                               Pepin, King!
+    O Marcomir, you have heard it?
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                                   Yes, I heard ...
+    No matter! He has ruled so long, the title
+    Will fall on him as new years follow old.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+    [_to_ BONIFACE.]
+    We bid you see he is proclaimed; ourself
+    Have hope to crown him when occasion brings
+    Either the Frank to us or us to him.
+    Although he want our oil, we give him grace
+    To exercise all sovereignty, immuring
+    Chilperic within the cloister where he dwells.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_suddenly to_ ZACHARIAS.]
+    Oh, you can act for God, and I must pray;
+    There is a distance from Him in my life
+    Since I can only pray: while there is nearness
+    Between your life and His creative _Be_!
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+    [_astonished_] My son, what do you mean?
+
+
+BONIFACE.
+
+    O Carloman!
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Pardon. I spoke aloud a scudding thought
+    That filled my head one moment. So divine
+    It is to act God’s Counsel.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+                                We can serve Him
+    Only if stable, for the life of life
+    Is calm as the untroubled sea and changeless.
+    Go, follow Damiani, dearest son!
+
+
+BONIFACE
+
+    Peace be to you, belovèd Carloman.
+    My prayers, though often offered on the earth
+    Of heathen lands, are yours at morn and night.
+    I never can forget you.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                            Pepin, King!--
+    O Boniface, I think you said farewell.
+    You journey far and far; you see strange faces,
+    And woods where idols live in solitude,
+    Hamlets and forges, feasts, the glare of arms,
+    And great unpeopled plains so full of wind
+    It seems the owner, while the little trees
+    And grass are slaves: and thus you wander on
+    God’s messenger ... Ha, ha! The little trees
+    And grass!... Good-bye!
+
+
+BONIFACE.
+
+    My child--
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_gently_] Yes, Boniface?
+
+
+BONIFACE.
+
+    Nothing. I can but bless you. Go, _in peace_.
+
+     [_As_ CARLOMAN _moves away_, MARCOMIR _bends forward_.]
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    Is the Queen well?
+
+
+BONIFACE.
+
+    Ask not; he has not asked.
+
+
+
+
+ACT III
+
+
+SCENE: _The Garden and Cloisters of Monte Casino._
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    [_striking himself with a stone_]
+    What tides of rapture spring at every stroke!
+    Have mercy, God! Such agony of pleasure
+    I felt when _she_ came near. Oh, can it be
+    I have not yet inflicted utter pain?
+    Is there some chaste and vigorous suffering
+    Beyond the shameful wiles, with which the lash
+    Unnerves me? Pain, more pain!
+
+     [_He strikes himself without pity; then, seeing_ DAMIANI _enter the
+     court, he hurriedly drops the shard_.]
+
+
+DAMIANI.
+
+                                  Your hand is bleeding.
+    I see!--Although I took away your silex
+    You yet have braved my will.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    I need the rod.
+
+
+DAMIANI.
+
+    You need obedience. Flog yourself again,
+    You will be locked in prison like your friend.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    [_in a low voice_]
+    He has no guilt.
+
+
+DAMIANI.
+
+                     No guilt! You have not heard
+    I caught him flushed with triumph at the news
+    That Astolph in defiance of the Pope
+    Is laying siege to Rome. Good Rachis wept
+    As well he might, but Carloman blasphemed
+    _Would I were with your brother!_ and for this
+    I had him shut in darkness fourteen days.
+    The term is over, and to change your sullen,
+    Ascetic mood--it is a festival--
+    You shall restore your friend to liberty.
+    You err through over-discipline, a fault,
+    But one that brings us honour; stubbornness
+    Like his disgraces the whole brotherhood.
+    Admonish him! If he is quite subdued
+    He shall be suffered to resume his rank
+    Among his fellows: for yourself, remember
+    Humility is satisfied with penance
+    The Church inflicts. No private luxury!
+    Do not offend again.
+
+    [_Exit._]
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                         Not use the rod!
+    Not use it when I feel incitements rapid
+    As points of fire awake me to the knowledge
+    That all my flesh is burning! Every flint
+    Becomes a new temptation. How confess
+    To _him_ I love his wife, and guiltily!
+    O Geneviva, do the swans still crowd
+    Round you to feed them? Are you mistress still
+    In the old palace? Can there be a doubt?
+    If Pepin dare insult you--O this frock,
+    This girdle, not a sword belt! And your husband
+    Who brought you to such peril with his dreams,
+    Let the light wake him!
+
+     [MARCOMIR _unlocks the prison-door, flings it open and draws back
+     behind the trellis of vines_.]
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                            What has struck my eyes?
+    Is it the air, the sun, an open door?
+    Oh, it is dark with brightness, and half-blinds,
+    So rushing in! I would have been with God
+    When the light broke in answer to His cry;
+    I would have seen it pushing its broad leaves
+    Through Chaos as it travelled!--
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    [_advancing_] I am come
+    To give you freedom.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_seizing his hand like a boy_]
+                         Are the throstles fledged
+    I left within the orchard?
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                               They are gone ...
+    Besides, we must not wander--recollect!
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    I do; I was a goatherd on those hills
+    Before my punishment [_pointing to the prison_].
+    How sad you look! Come with me; I will show you
+    The flock of goats leaping from crag to crag--
+    And have you ever drunk their milk? It foams;
+    Its thousand little bubbles seem themselves
+    Full of an airy life, and in the smack
+    Of the warm draught something exhilarates
+    And carries one along. Come to the hills!
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    Dear Carloman--
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                    These cloisters are so dull
+    Where you sit brooding morn and eve; beyond
+    One sees the clouds laying their restless fingers
+    Across the scaurs.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                       But is that meditation,
+    And does one so find peace?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                                The dew is there
+    In the green hollows; when I see those steeped
+    And shining fields, my heart fills to the brim,
+    And, though I yearn, my yearning satisfies.
+    Come with me: fast as I attain, with you
+    I share the secret.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                        But you strike me dumb.
+    You have forgotten, we are bound by vows,
+    By our obedience.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                      Are we bound by hopes,
+    By yesterday’s lost hopes?
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    But promises--
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    I promised to be God’s, ah yes, I promised,
+    As two on earth agree to be together
+    For evermore, vowed lovers. Is the marriage
+    In the companionship or in the vow?
+    Why, Geneviva is still vowed my wife.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    But we must keep our troth.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                                We must escape
+    From anything that is become a bond,
+    No matter who has forged the chain,--ourselves,
+    An enemy, a friend: and this escape,
+    This readjustment is the penitence,
+    The sole that I will practise.
+    [_looking more narrowly at_ MARCOMIR] But your eyes
+    Are witheringly remorseful. One would say
+    That you had been some sunshines in the dark,
+    You, and not I. Open your heart to me.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    I hate you.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Hate me, why? For heresy?
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    No, for your blindness: think what you have done,
+    Think of ... at least, think of your only child
+    Mewed within convent walls.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    There is escape.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    What, for a child?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_clenching his hand_] _Per Baccho_, but my son
+    Shall never wear a tonsure.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                                Time will prove!
+    You stand so free and noble in the light
+    Yet it is you who brought me to despair.
+    One cannot be a fool, one of God’s fools,
+    Unconscious of the ill in others’ hearts,
+    And not breed deadly mischief.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                                   I entreated
+    You would not come with me.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                                You drew me on;
+    You cannot help it, you make life so royal
+    Men follow you and think they will be Kings,
+    And then--
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    What ails you?
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                              Have you watched the lepers?
+    Waiting outside the churches to be blest?--
+    They pray, they linger, they receive their God,
+    And yet depart uncleansed.
+                               Do not continue
+    To question me, but listen. Bend your eyes
+    Full on me! I have never told the Prior,
+    I cannot; and I would not breathe it now
+    But for her sake. The lady Geneviva
+    Is spotless; but my thoughts have been defiled.
+    I love her, I have never won her love,
+    Must never strive to win it. It is hell
+    To think of her.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    You never won her love?
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    Never.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+           She had so many favourites,
+    Poor boy! and you were thwarted.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                                     But her bond,
+    My deep disloyalty!
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    No more of this--
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    If I were in the world, it is to her
+    I should return.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                     The doors are strongly barred:
+    There is no other hindrance.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                                 They are come
+    The brethren and the prior: you must kneel
+    And then be reinstated. I forgot.
+
+     [_Enter_ DAMIANI _and a number of monks_.]
+
+
+DAMIANI.
+
+    Brother, we have great joy in your release,
+    And hasten to embrace you. Own your fault
+    Submissively, then rise and take your place
+    In our rejoicing band.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    I will not kneel.
+
+
+DAMIANI.
+
+    Respect your vow.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                      But there is no such thing--
+    A vow! as well respect the case that sheathes
+    The chrysalis, when the live creature stirs!
+    We make these fetters for ourselves, and then
+    We grow and burst them. It is clear no man
+    Can so forecast the changes of his course
+    That he can promise _so I will remain,
+    Such, and no other_. Words like these are straws
+    The current plays with as it moves along.
+
+
+DAMIANI.
+
+    My brethren, do not listen; he is mad.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    No, you are mad; you cannot see that Time
+    Is God’s own movement, all that He can do
+    Between the day a man is born and dies.
+    Listen a little: is there one of you
+    Who looks upon the sunlight and the buds
+    That moss the vines in March, and does not feel
+    _Now I am living with these changeful things;
+    The instant is so golden for us all,
+    And this is life?_ Think what the vines would be
+    If they were glued forever, and one month
+    Gave them a law--the richness that would cease,
+    The flower, the shade, the ripening. We are men,
+    With fourscore years for season, and we alter
+    So exquisitely often on our way
+    To harvest and the end. It must be so.
+
+
+DAMIANI.
+
+    Is this what darkness and strict punishment
+    Have wrought in the corruption of your mind?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    I lay as seeds lie in the prison-house,
+    Dying and living--living evermore,
+    Pushed by a spark of time to join the hours,
+    To go along with them.
+
+
+A MONK.
+
+                           But, brother, this
+    Is overwhelming.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    Sin, can that be dropped?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Never, there is no need. Life seizes all
+    Its own vile refuse, hurries it along
+    To something different; religion makes
+    The master-change, turning our black to white;
+    But so, as from earth’s foulness, the stem drains
+    Corruption upward, and the cleanly flower
+    Waves like a flame at last.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                                O Carloman,
+    My brother, I am saved!
+
+     [_The monks press round_ CARLOMAN _tumultuously_.]
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                            But all of you
+    Be saved, and on the instant! Yes, the prior,
+    You all of you, do not believe me mad.
+    It is your misery, I think, that more,
+    More than the urgent torment of my soul
+    Has brought me to the truth, the healing truth
+    That we must give our natures to the air,
+    To light and liberty, suppressing nothing,
+    Freeing each passion: we have slaves within,
+    So many slaves, and I have learnt that saints
+    Have dungeons that they dare not look into,
+    The horror is so deadly. Force the locks,
+    Let the fierce captives ravage. Better far
+    Murder and rapine in the city-streets,
+    Than lust and hatred’s unfulfilled desires!
+    Be saved; strike free into the world--come out!
+    Oh, you can do it--I have spoken truth,
+    I see that by your faces.
+
+
+OLD MONK.
+
+    [_touching_ DAMIANI’S _shoulder_] Surely, prior,
+    We must arrest this traitor.
+
+
+DAMIANI.
+
+    [_in a whisper_] Half the brethren
+    Are in the chapel: I will bring them down
+    In mass on these insurgent novices.
+    [_aloud_] Children, I leave you: wrestle with temptation;
+    I now can only aid you with my prayers.
+    When you have heard him through, decide; and either
+    Lead him in chains to me; or if his lies
+    Prevail with you, then put me in your prisons,
+    And let the devil rule.
+    [_to_ CARLOMAN] Now do your worst
+    With your blaspheming tongue.
+
+    [_Exit._]
+
+
+OLD MONK.
+
+                                  We should be fools
+    To listen to him--it is mutiny;
+    And there are walled-up dungeons.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                                      No, the hills
+    For all, if all are reckless; it is just
+    The one that fears who is the traitor-foe
+    Imperilling brave men.
+
+
+1st MONK.
+
+    But how break free?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    How? All of us march with a single mind
+    Making a strong procession from the gates.
+
+
+2nd MONK.
+
+    The Church has soldiers: whither could we go
+    Unarmed and with an angry multitude ...
+
+
+1st MONK.
+
+    Whither?
+
+
+3rd MONK.
+
+             Besides we are not of one mind
+    Now he stops preaching; it was like a spell.
+
+
+4th MONK.
+
+    The heretic!
+
+
+OLD MONK.
+
+                 Tush! ’Tis the kind of frenzy
+    That seizes every novice. Carloman,
+    Will you not hear my voice?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                                No, good old monk,
+    God’s servants must not listen but to Him.
+    You have grown comfortable as the years
+    Rolled on,--no matter. What the novice suffers,
+    What every novice suffers, speak of that.
+
+
+OLD MONK.
+
+    I have forgotten it.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                         You can forget
+    What you have suffered; then ’tis waste of time
+    To listen to you. What we suffer once
+    In youth--in childhood and our secret youth,
+    We suffer to our grave.
+    [_turning to another monk_] Have you forgotten?
+
+
+1st MONK.
+
+    No, but the pain is numb, so long ago
+    My parents spoilt my life to have their will;
+    I must endure the best they could conceive,
+    And save their souls.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                         If you should lose your own!
+    A curse on parents! The one truth that led me
+    To seek the cloister was my certitude
+    A man’s existence lodges in himself
+    And is not owned by kindred.
+
+
+OLD MONK.
+
+                                 Gently, brother,
+    You had your way, and made yourself a monk;
+    Now you are all for change--so is the world
+    For bitter change.
+
+
+1st MONK.
+
+                       My mistress has been married,
+    And would but laugh at me.
+
+
+OLD MONK.
+
+                               Time works such wonders
+    If we will give him time to work them in.
+
+
+1ST MONK.
+
+    It is too late.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                    A maxim for the dead.
+    It never is too late for any seeing,
+    For any recognition we are wrong.
+    It is a man’s despair, not his confession
+    Proves him contemptible. _Too late_, you say,
+    _Too late_--but there are countries where ’tis spring
+    And harvest many times within the year.
+    Besides, we must not tarry in a place
+    The moments do not wash with dew; we wither,
+    Death has his secret will with us. Believe!
+    Act on the instant.
+
+
+OLD MONK.
+
+                        The high gates are barred,
+    And yonder is the Prior.
+
+     [DAMIANI, _with_ RACHIS _and a large troop of monks, is seen coming
+     from the Chapel_.]
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                             The gates are strong;
+    But you and I and all of us can pass
+    Through them in simple triumph if we will--
+    With one consent.
+                      Why, they are opening now!
+    How gloriously! Armed riders!
+
+     [_Enter_ ASTOLPH _with a band of Lombard soldiers_.]
+
+
+MONKS.
+
+                                  Miracle!
+    A sign from God.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                     Not one of you shall come.
+    What, flocking to my side because a door
+    Turns on its hinges--shame!
+
+
+ASTOLPH.
+
+    Where’s Carloman?
+
+
+DAMIANI.
+
+    [_advancing_] Who asks?
+
+
+ASTOLPH.
+
+    The King of Lombardy.
+                          Give place!
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    My saviour!
+
+
+ASTOLPH.
+
+    Are you Carloman the Frank?
+    I like you--yes, your face is eloquent.
+    You do not keep your eyes upon the ground,
+    Like this dear relative.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_staring fixedly at_ ASTOLPH] You glitter so,
+    You glitter like the golden Vines, your hair
+    Is gold, your armour full of spokes and rays.
+
+
+ASTOLPH.
+
+    And you are muffled in a sackcloth-bag;
+    The contrast strikes you.
+    [_to_ DAMIANI] Lunatic?
+
+
+DAMIANI.
+
+                                       And worse--
+    A rebel, an apostate, noble prince,
+    For whom I bring these manacles.
+
+
+ASTOLPH.
+
+                                     And I
+    An extra horse; for, lunatic or sane,
+    I must have speech with----
+
+    [_turning to_ CARLOMAN _with a laugh_]
+
+                                Do you know your name?
+    We who are kings and soldiers know it well,
+    And Christendom remembers. Ah, I see!
+    You are not happy, so they call you mad.
+
+
+RACHIS.
+
+    Have you no word for me? I am a King,
+    A King discrowned--and more, you have my crown.
+    Are you grown sick of it?
+
+
+ASTOLPH.
+
+                              My dear old Rachis,
+    Do not look covetous! I am not come
+    To take you from your prayers.
+
+
+RACHIS.
+
+                                   You think you triumph,
+    But when you roll your thirsty tongue in hell,
+    And see me in the peace of Abraham’s bosom,
+    Watching your pain--
+
+
+ASTOLPH.
+
+                         To every dog his day!
+    [_with a shudder_]
+    Ah, then--meanwhile there is a blowing wind,
+    And all the world to ravish ... Carloman,
+    We are the brothers now ... [_to_ DAMIANI] Yes, I and this
+      [RACHIS _sneaks off, hissing curses_.]
+    Fraternal soul, your madman.
+
+
+DAMIANI.
+
+                                 Do you need
+    An interview?
+
+
+ASTOLPH.
+
+                  I take it, thank you. Glance
+    A moment at my soldiers--and retire.
+
+    [_They all withdraw._]
+
+    Come to the well, where we can sit and talk,
+    And I can have a draught.
+
+     [_He looses his helmet and dips it in the well._ CARLOMAN _puts
+     both hands round it as soon as it is full of water_.]
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                              Wait! [_drinking_] Cool and strong!
+    That prison-stuff was stagnant. Sunshine’s warmth,
+    The cool of water, how they both refresh!
+    [_looking up with a smile_]
+    Now, brilliant one, your business?
+
+
+ASTOLPH.
+
+                                       Will you leave
+    The Monastery?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    At once.
+
+
+ASTOLPH.
+
+                            You have no terror?
+    You will not creep back, conscience in your nerves?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Let me but pass the door.
+
+
+ASTOLPH.
+
+    [_laughing_] You see it swings.
+    I left it open.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Then we start at once.
+
+
+ASTOLPH.
+
+    [_checking him_]
+    No, stay a little. Are you still the friend
+    Of Zacharias?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    He is great.
+
+
+ASTOLPH.
+
+                               No doubt--
+    And most sagacious, for he seeks your brother
+    To win him with the bribe of sacred oil
+    As vassal and ally against myself.
+    I started here from Rome the hour I heard
+    That Zacharias had crept out by night
+    To travel northward and defeat my hopes.
+    You must arrive before him! I am come
+    Sure, from report, that you will help my cause,
+    You, who have been a ruler. I contend
+    No supernatural power should have control
+    Of lands and cities, troops and civil rights,
+    Matters distinct from God, as from the world
+    The service he requires. Life is so easy
+    If we will keep it human--quarrel, murder,
+    And then make friends: we have so short a time
+    To sin together ... but this hate deferred,
+    These pestilential menaces!--
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                                  The Pope
+    Shall never injure France!
+
+
+ASTOLPH.
+
+                               It lies with you
+    To break the threatened treaty. You have owned
+    Power over Pepin?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                      Yes; tho’ tardily,
+    He followed all my counsels.
+
+
+ASTOLPH.
+
+                                 Ride, and stop
+    This treaty. If you ride you will forestall
+    The Pontiff’s slower march; and I meantime
+    Will press the siege of Rome ... you must not mind
+    The ache of stiffened muscles.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                                   Hills and plains
+    And trees--the olives, cypresses and vines;
+    Then France with nuts and poplars! But you keep me
+    In one great palpitation.
+
+
+ASTOLPH.
+
+                              Zacharias,
+    Besetting me from north and southward, crushes
+    My strongest forces. What a splendid thing
+    For the old man to travel in the heat
+    So far to work my ruin!
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                            But the world
+    Is for the young, my Astolph.
+
+
+ASTOLPH.
+
+                                  Carloman,
+    I love you. Why, I feel a lad, eighteen,
+    When looking on you. Come, we two must kiss;
+    We may not burn together, flame in flame,
+    Again--so we must kiss.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                            My blessed one,
+    Would I could cleave to you! You give me freedom,
+    A gift so rarely thought of.
+
+
+ASTOLPH.
+
+    [_calling a monk_] Fetch the Prior,
+    The brethren, now--this instant. We must start.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Grant me beside the freedom for myself
+    Salvation for another.
+
+
+ASTOLPH.
+
+                           What, a monk
+    Still half of you! Such trouble for men’s souls--
+    But have your wish. Once on the battlefield,
+    Men will become your prey. This solid jaw
+    Means grip you will not loose. O Carloman,
+    If I can circumvent the Pope, and then
+    Stretch him a bleeding quarry at my feet--
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    What, Zacharias!
+                     But I plead for France;
+    Popes must not meddle with her.
+
+
+ASTOLPH.
+
+    [_as the_ PRIOR _and Monks re-enter_] I require
+    The services of Carloman: another
+    Whom he will choose attends him.
+
+
+DAMIANI.
+
+                                     Impious wretch,
+    You steal from God His servants!
+
+     [ASTOLPH _laughs and moves up the courtyard to summon his men_:
+     DAMIANI _and_ RACHIS _talk to each other; the monks listen in a
+     scared group_.]
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_drawing_ MARCOMIR _to the front_] Marcomir,
+    Come from this graveyard.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                              No, I must not come,
+    I dare not; she is yours.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                              Is mine? You wrong her--
+    Not yours nor mine. Earth’s wisdom will begin
+    When all relationships are put away,
+    With their dull pack of duties, and we look
+    Curious, benignant, with a great compassion
+    Into each other’s lives.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                             It is not so
+    I look; I have a lust to gratify,
+    A lust for very shame I loathe to mix
+    With Geneviva’s image.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                           Faugh! because
+    You think that I possess her! Cursèd bonds,
+    Cursed law that makes this riot in the heart!
+    Come forth; all will be gentle out of doors.
+    Gird up your habit.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    She?--
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                               Is but herself,
+    O Marcomir, we tarry--and the leaves
+    Are tossing through the air--
+
+     [ASTOLPH _throws his scarlet riding-cloak over_ CARLOMAN, _who
+     seizes_ MARCOMIR _with an impetuous movement and draws him toward
+     the horses that champ at the gate_.]
+
+
+
+
+ACT IV
+
+
+SCENE: _The Hall of the Frankish Palace. Early morning; the remains of a
+banquet on the table, drinking-cups, wine bottles, faded leaves._
+
+[_A_ SERVANT _is wiping away the stains of wine from the floor_.]
+
+
+SERVANT.
+
+    It is a cheerful thing to make all clean
+    When one is brisk and cool: this early air
+    Before the sun gets up is fit for men
+    To breathe when they are working.
+                                      Spot on spot!
+    A stranger to the revel of last night
+    Would take it there had been a massacre
+    To daub the floor so thickly.
+
+     [_Enter another_ SERVANT.]
+
+
+2ND SERVANT.
+
+                                  What a strew
+    Of glass and muddy wine-drops! Come up close
+    And listen. There’s a curious monk outside
+    Who asks to see the King--almost a beggar,
+    And yet a red embroidered riding-cloak
+    Flaunts round his ragged sackcloth; while his voice
+    Has such a wanton ring we need not trouble
+    Lest he should take the scandal of this room
+    Too much to heart. The jolly soul can pipe!
+
+     [_A voice is heard richly humming._]
+
+    _Wine is for drinking,
+    Glasses for chinking--
+    Fellowship, pleasure,
+    Of the full cup:
+    Lift it up, lift it up!
+    And let us be gay and be friends without measure._
+
+
+1ST SERVANT.
+
+    A monk indeed! Why we must drink again!
+    A minstrel!
+
+
+2ND SERVANT.
+
+    And his comrade took the horses
+    As he had been a squire.
+
+
+1ST SERVANT.
+
+    Oh, but the song!
+    I never heard another one like this.
+
+
+2ND SERVANT.
+
+    Man, they are all the same: but then he sings it
+    As if he had just learnt that grapes have juice,
+    That makes it sound so well. You’re pouring wine?
+
+
+1ST SERVANT.
+
+    Yes, he must drink for that. Ho, there again!
+    Have you not caught the line?
+
+     [_They join in as the voice sings_]
+
+    _These are the treasure
+    Of the full cup;
+    Lift it up, lift it up!
+    And let us be gay and be friends without measure._
+    Ha, ha!
+
+
+2ND SERVANT.
+
+    Come in!
+
+     [_Enter_ CARLOMAN.]
+
+                     You praise deep drinking--you ...
+    For shame! A churchman! But ...
+                                    How thin!
+
+
+1ST SERVANT.
+
+    What eyes!
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Shall I have long to wait? Is Pepin ill,
+    Or is he grown luxurious? I would say
+    That I remember how your King is famed
+    For industry. He does not lie abed?
+
+
+1ST SERVANT.
+
+    No, father.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                Call me brother if you will.
+    Why do you choke with laughter? I am ready
+    To laugh with you, to laugh to very tears
+    At what I am and have been. Do not hide
+    A thing so good and bright as laughter--Eh?
+
+
+2ND SERVANT.
+
+    Mad! It were best to leave him to himself.
+
+    [_They draw back._]
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_Looking round the room_]
+    Throw the door wide open. Here we need
+    Fresh air even more than water. How the wine
+    Cries from the ground--shut in with walls, and cast
+    Below men’s feet, a slough where animals
+    Might wallow, and so sour! Let in the breeze.
+    Let in the dawn outside there!
+
+
+1ST SERVANT.
+
+    [_propping the door_] After all
+    He is abstemious and sad at sin.
+    Look how profoundly sad!
+
+
+2ND SERVANT.
+
+                             Such twins of temper
+    Are frequent with the crazy. Now he drops
+    His mantle, have you ever seen such limbs--
+    A very scare-crow’s!
+
+
+1ST SERVANT.
+
+    But a kindly smile.
+
+
+2ND SERVANT.
+
+    He touches things and lifts them up and down
+    Just like an idiot. We must warn the King.
+
+    [_Exeunt._]
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    A feast, how nasty! Dabbled vine-leaves, vessels
+    Broken to shivers, the inspiring juice
+    Black on the boards--a feast! Can happiness
+    Leave refuse such as this? It visits slaves,
+    And then its track is loathsome. Ah, the air
+    Has entered like a wedge, keen, reaching me
+    Through all the mustiness ... and now I breathe!
+    The door is not enough, the windows too ...
+    [_opening one_]
+    There! How it enters!
+                            [_turning toward another window_]
+                          In this room I lived;
+    It is not altered? No, the fireplace, east;
+    My chair in front, and hers ... but they are crowned
+    At present; and my name upon that bench.
+    It is more terrible than nightmare--this
+    Besieging of one’s life by chairs and walls
+    And memories. Ah yes, the walls, the walls,
+    They do the mischief; and this reek of age
+    From every corner sickens worse than stale
+    Imprisoned fumes of wine. More air!
+
+     [_He throws wide all the windows: then leans out of the last. While
+     his back is turned_, GENEVIVA _staggers drowsily in, reels to the
+     board, tries to drink, then flings herself against the throne
+     sleeping_.]
+
+                                        O Earth,
+    How beautiful to think I travelled on
+    And on, yet rode against no wall, so freely
+    The outworks of your sky gave up their space.
+    My brain is tired with interest: what men do
+    Or speak enthrals me, I who often paced
+    This room as blind to anything alive
+    As if a child unborn.
+
+     [_Impulsively beginning to pace._]
+
+                          And yet, my God,
+    How great a Captain thou wilt have in me
+    If this bond-King, this Pepin can be freed;
+    If I can do this thing, while Astolph batters
+    The very gates of Rome.
+
+     [_pausing at sight of_ GENEVIVA.]
+
+                            But who is this
+    Strange, beautiful, wild woman?
+                                    Oh, how delicious
+    Her arms, her bosom! Through the sodden hair,
+    Trailing the ground, what glitter, and how clean
+    This naked shoulder lies against the floor.
+    Why, this is Sleep itself!
+
+     [_He comes close._]
+
+                               O Geneviva,
+    So you too have learnt freedom, and are grown
+    How marvellous in beauty!--Marcomir!--
+
+     [MARCOMIR _stands at the door_.]
+
+    He must not see her drunken and so flushed;
+    He shall not.
+    [_moving quickly to the door_.]
+
+                  I am looking every moment
+    For Pepin; do not enter.
+
+    [MARCOMIR _turns and goes out_.]
+
+                             Oh, my shame,
+    If she should open her gray eyes on me,
+    And find me frocked and tonsured ... for the sun
+    Strikes sheer across her face.
+
+     [_He bends over her; she wakes, looks up, laughs in his face, and
+     then speaks._]
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+                                   So young a guardian!
+    Most holy father, but I am not dead;
+    Do not bring rosemary, or sprinkle me
+    With holy drops.
+    [_rubbing her eyes_] They call this morning sleep
+    A beauty sleep. You must not stare so hard.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    But do not laugh.
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+                      I must; you are a monk
+    Shame-faced and awkward. [_rising_] Have you travelled far?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    I came on embassy: the Lombard King ...
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+    These kings and princes! But whoever rules
+    Young men must have their pleasure. You and I--
+    Shall we not drink together?
+
+     [_She pours wine into a goblet--he drinks_]
+
+                                 God, what thirst!
+    Now you must rest awhile.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Who are you, lady?
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+    So should a novice lisp. I am a woman.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Glorious!
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+    And _you_? [_she laughs._]
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                         Oh, do not jest with me;
+    You bring a devil to the paradise
+    It is to gaze on you. I am escaped
+    From convent-walls, the wrong, the bitterness!
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+    These monks are cruel, cruel, and I shudder
+    At their embrace; yet if I have a joy
+    It is to bring their manhood back to them.
+    Ha, ha! To see them look the murderer’s guilt
+    After a moment’s pleasure in my arms.
+    You shall not slip me.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                           I have left the convent
+    A novice, as you say. But who are you
+    So terrible in pity that you touch
+    My hand and draw me to you, though my habit
+    And shaven hair insult you worse, more grossly
+    Than the most wanton bearing you have met
+    In any other man? I am ashamed
+    That you should see me thus.
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+                                 My dearest lovers
+    Forsook me to be monks. You are as one
+    That comes to bring me tidings of the dead,
+    The holy dead who have no evil thoughts
+    Or trouble from temptation.
+    [_She laughs bitterly_] For their sakes
+    You are beloved.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                     Then put away all speech:
+    When love draws on me put it by as scholars
+    Their task when night falls thick upon the page.
+    Bend over me and kiss me. Do not laugh--
+    I love you.
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+    Did you ever love before?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    _Never._
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+             Then I must tell you who I am:
+    A harlot ... in my palace--Do not wince!
+
+     [_she looks at him doubtfully_]
+
+    I had a husband counted me a temptress
+    And fled: I laugh now to remember it.
+    I loved once; he I loved became a monk,
+    And therefore I make sport of holy men.
+    I would not scoff at you, not tempt you even.
+    You have deep, burning eyes.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                                 He was a monk?
+    His name, who fled you? Would you have your pleasure
+    With me, his name!
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+    [_to herself, shaking her head_]
+                       _He_ had oblivious eyes!
+    [_vindictively_]
+    My lover’s name was Marcomir.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                                  The monk
+    Who journeys with me on this embassy
+    Is Marcomir. If you are amorous still
+    Of him ...
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+               Not now--no more. I am afraid ...
+    Who are you? You are surely of my race,
+    Have known me in my youth. A flushing shame
+    Breaks on me--
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                   And to find you are beloved
+    Moves you?
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+               Not that! I hear it every day.
+    It is too stale a story. Could I love----
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+     [_Observing_ MARCOMIR _passing and re-passing the windows_]
+
+    How dare he watch us! But I recollect
+    You told me he had been your paramour.
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+    You come ... he comes, I mean, from Mount Soracte--
+    Then ... yes, I will have speech with him.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_bitterly_] Oh, gossip,
+    The convent’s gossip. I can furnish that.
+    If you desire him carnally, I yield;
+    But if ...
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+    He knows so much of long ago.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_impulsively_]
+    Then he shall speak.
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+                         Not now; you must not call!
+    Not now; for he remembers--
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                                Ay, the harlot
+    Was once a girl, the monk was once a man.
+    If you would speak of life
+    Before it was apprenticed to these trades--
+    Of life and youth, virginity and love,
+    My ear will be as ripe for your confession
+    As his. We all remember; but our wisdom
+    Is to forget: our powers of penitence
+    Must be enfranchised, sin itself set free,
+    No clog or fetter on us!
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+                             Carloman,
+    My husband!
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                Your free lover. Oh, I burn,
+    Burn toward your beauty! How can you forgive
+    The years I simply owned you!
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+                                  Am I sweet,
+    So sweet to you--these lips so many men
+    Have kissed, this body.... But you bid me speak
+    Of life and youth, virginity and love,
+    And by a miracle I can. We two
+    Can argue of such matters.
+
+    [_As_ MARCOMIR _passes she calls_] Marcomir!
+
+     [_She restrains_ CARLOMAN _and goes to the door_.]
+
+    No, _I_ must summon him.
+
+     [MARCOMIR _enters_.]
+
+                             Were we not happy,
+    Those days we sat together quite alone
+    Praising and talking of him? We adored,
+    We each adored him, but we had no part
+    In that lone heart of his. Now all is changed
+    He loves me--
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    Lady Geneviva!
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+                                 No--
+    The harlot, loves the harlot. You can tell me
+    So much of him. What, with him every day!--
+    All through the golden summer and no rain,
+    All through the autumn and its violence!
+    Did he fall sick of fever?
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                               I have known
+    So little of the seasons. Day and night
+    I prayed that God would keep you chaste. No prayer
+    Of mine was ever answered.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_to_ MARCOMIR] Dare you pray
+    That this should be or that? The only prayer
+    That is not futile in impiety
+    Is like a plunge beneath a river’s flow
+    To feel the strength and pureness of the life
+    That courses through the world.
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+                                    Ah, yes, to bathe,
+    And then to rise up clean.
+    [_to_ MARCOMIR] The very moment
+    He spoke of youth, virginity and love
+    I prayed: I am alive. O Marcomir,
+    And there are other words of fellowship,
+    Of joy and youth-time. Let us hold him dear
+    Because he has delivered us; together
+    Let us give thanks, give courage each to each
+    Unenvious; let us talk of him once more,
+    Though with a difference--I will not use
+    Your comradeship profanely as I did,
+    To set you up against him in caprice,
+    Then leave you wild and empty. He has much
+    To pardon; you have more.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    No, no!
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                                      Ah, no--
+    Not pardon. Where’s the need? We mortal men
+    Are brought to riot, brought to abstinence
+    That we may grow on either ready soil
+    The mustard-seed of pleasure, that is filled
+    With wings and sunny leaves. As time goes by
+    We shall have true relations each with each,
+    And with clean hearts receive the usufruct
+    Of what is best, and growing better still
+    In every soul among us.
+    [_leading her up to_ MARCOMIR]
+                            Geneviva,
+    His kiss will free your penitence, and teach you
+    He never could regret the past, because
+    It made to-day.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    [_kissing her_] Now, and beyond, beyond
+    Your friend--and lover.
+                            I have prayed, like you,
+    The difficult is possible as once.
+    O life, O Geneviva, I were doomed
+    Indeed, if I should dare to rob myself
+    Of all the joy it is to be with you;
+    That were to die forever. What, reject
+    The gift you have for me, because for him
+    You have a different gift! But take my passion,
+    As I shall learn to take your friendship--each
+    Accepting what the other has to give,
+    All will be well between us.
+
+     [_Enter_ PEPIN.]
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+                                 Holy brothers,
+    At last I join you. Come, this is unseemly ...
+    A pleasant dame--but not within my palace
+    Shall you be tempted to forsake your vows.
+    [_to_ GENEVIVA.]
+    Go, get your lovers on the highway; here
+    You bring disgrace.
+    (_to_ CARLOMAN _in a low voice_) A courtesan.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    My wife.
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+    Thor! are you crazy?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                         And I trusted you,
+    I left her in your charge. Where is my child?
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+    Dead in the cloister half a year ago ...
+    That was no fault of mine. As for your wife--
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_to_ MARCOMIR] Take Lady Geneviva to her rooms,
+    Her rooms within the palace.
+    [_to_ GENEVIVA, _as she goes from him_] So our boy
+    Is dead! Can you forgive me?
+
+     [_He shudders and bows his head. Exeunt_ MARCOMIR _and_ GENEVIVA.]
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+                                 On my oath,
+    I could not be her keeper, Carloman.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    No, that is no man’s office. Of herself
+    She was what she has been, and each of us
+    Should say no word against her to our shame,
+    Nor any word to one another more
+    Than what we just have said. These fearful things
+    Should be within a fosse below all speech;
+    While we live sound above them and forget.
+    I come to you....
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+                      The same, magnanimous,
+    My brother, as of old.
+    [_laying his hand on_ CARLOMAN’S _shoulder_]
+                           What bones!
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                                       Ah, yes.
+    I have not flesh as full of life as yours;
+    Why, your mere touch can warm one like the sun.
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+    Six years ago! You come as if the dead
+    Could rise and make a visit.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_gasping_] Pepin, hush!
+    I have been dead, and yet I am no ghost;
+    You strike me through with anguish.
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+                                        But you suffer
+    Unnecessary pain. I give you welcome
+    With all my heart; yet you yourself must know
+    Your presence in the place where once you ruled
+    Is--well, unlooked for.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_vehemently_] Brother, I can prove
+    I am no spectre, outcast from the fortunes
+    Of breathing men,--that I too have a part
+    Once more in worldly business. I am come....
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+    [_close to him_]
+    What are you come for?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                            I am come to live,
+    To share again your counsels.
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+                                  You are come
+    For _what_?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                Once more to think of France, and act
+    As you and I determine.
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+                            Willingly
+    I hear advice; but now the throne is mine
+    Decision rests with me and not with you,
+    Who have been shut away from everything
+    But prayers and convent-policy. Forgive,
+    We are no longer equals--you a Saint,
+    I a mere statesman. But you have not said
+    One word about the cloister.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                                 Do we waste
+    Much talk on vaults, we men who are alive?
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+    And yet you chose it!
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Now I choose again.
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+    You cannot. Are you mad? Who sent you here?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Astolph the Lombard.
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+                         Humph! What prelate gave
+    Authority to him? He could not use
+    Your services by force.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                            I left the convent
+    At his request alone, in opposition
+    To bishop Damiani. I am free!
+    I proved it, acting freely.
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+    Whew!--this Astolph ...?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Would save you from alliance with the Pope,
+    Alliance with a foreign tyranny,
+    Opposed to human life and thwarting it.
+    Astolph is on your borders, and a King
+    Is more your natural fellow than this Pope,
+    Who seizes on the natural power of Kings,
+    Confusing his tiara with their crowns.
+    I speak the truth, for Zacharias travels
+    In haste to put his yoke on France and you.
+    Before he can arrive ...
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+    The Pope is here.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Impossible!
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+    He reached us yesterday.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Pepin, you are in league with him?
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+    I am.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    As you are wise and manly, break your promise;
+    It injures France, the freedom-loving plains
+    The aweless stock we come of. Will you give
+    The future of your people to a priest,
+    You who profess the tonsure round my head
+    Disables for a crown?
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+                          I, break my treaty,
+    And ruin my whole scheme!
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                              The Pope is gray,
+    And Astolph young and sound in force as you.
+    Which is the deadlier foe?
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+                               The Pope and I
+    Are age and youth together. Carloman,
+    I love you still; you take me at the heart
+    Now that your face is glowing: I must speak,
+    For either you are mad, or have forgotten
+    How deeds are judged here in the actual world.
+    You are a monk, a runaway, and worse--
+    A heretic blasphemer, one who tempts
+    Both to rebellion and to perjury,
+    Yourself as disobedient as forsworn.
+    You must go back and bear your punishment
+    Without the least delay; for you are lost
+    If Zacharias find you here.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Go back!
+             Go back!
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+    You are a danger to yourself
+    Remaining, and a danger to my throne.
+    All I have said is true. Have you not broken
+    Your vow?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    I have.
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+    And are you not a rebel?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    I am, I am, because I am alive--
+    And not a slave who sleeps through Time, unable
+    To share its agitation. What, go back!
+    You might as well dismiss me to the womb
+    From which I was delivered.
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+                                Of yourself
+    You left the world.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_trembling_] O Pepin, the same mother,
+    Gave us our lives, and we had worked and thought
+    And breathed in common till I went away--
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+    We cannot any more. Why will you fix
+    A look so obstinate and hot?
+    By heaven, you are a fool. I cannot change
+    Myself, nor you, nor what has come to pass
+    I soon shall hate you, wish that you were dead.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    How horrible! I never will go back;
+    But I can live without my brother’s love,
+    For ties are not existence.
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+                                Will you raise
+    Divisions in my kingdom?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    I must live.
+
+     [_Enter_ POPE ZACHARIAS, BONIFACE _and a number of Churchmen and
+     nobles_.]
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+    [_to_ ZACHARIAS.]
+
+    There stands my brother and your enemy.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+    Who?--Carloman? You wrong him. But what mission
+    Has brought him to the palace?
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+                                   He has left
+    His convent, and is here to plead the cause
+    Of Astolph, the arch-heretic.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+                                  My son,
+    Defend yourself.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_putting his hands over his brow as if in confusion_]
+
+                     But I can never say
+    What he could comprehend. How strange to feel
+    So slow, as if I walked without the light,
+    Deep in a valley.
+    [BONIFACE _touches him_] Ah!
+
+
+BONIFACE.
+
+                                 You do not listen!
+    Beloved, the Pope is speaking.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_to_ BONIFACE] But you know
+    What drove you forth to wander foreign lands,
+    With joy in every limb and faculty:
+    _That_ drove me from the convent.
+
+
+BONIFACE.
+
+                                      As a monk
+    I left the English cloister, with a blessing
+    From him who ruled me. Is it as a monk,
+    Oh, is it--that we see you in our midst?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    No, no, enfranchised!
+    [_suddenly standing forth_] Hear me! The _I am_
+    Has sent me to you and has given me power
+    To rend your idols, for you have not known
+    The God I worship. He is just _to-day_--
+    Not dreaming of the future,--in itself,
+    Breath after breath divine! Oh, He becomes!
+    He cannot be of yesterday, for youth
+    Could not then walk beside Him, and the young
+    Must walk with God: and He is most alive
+    Wherever life is of each living thing.
+    To-morrow and to-morrow--those to-days
+    Of unborn generations; the _I am_
+    To none of them a memory or a hope,
+    To each the thirst, the wine-cup and the wine,
+    The craving, the satiety--my God!
+    O Holy Father, you who sway the world
+    Through Him, must not deny Him.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+                                    I deny!
+    God does not alter; you have changed to Him
+    Who is Eternal.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                    Yes, in change, and free
+    As we are free who move within His life,
+    And shape ourselves by what is moulding Earth
+    And men and ages. In my cell I lost
+    The motion of His presence. I was dead.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+    No, you are dead to what you dare blaspheme,
+    To what the cloister holds, if any place
+    Can hold it, the immutability
+    Of God’s inherent nature, while without
+    His words are trying men by chance and change
+    And manifold desires. You left His works
+    Behind, you chose Himself: your oath was taken
+    To His deep heart; and now you would forswear
+    That oath, you cannot. No one who blasphemes
+    The light of God shall see the light of day:
+    For him the darkness and for him the grave.
+    I am no more your father, but your judge,
+    Who represents the God you have disowned,
+    Insulted and forgotten. He requites--
+    And you shall answer to the uttermost.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    I can.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+           You still persist in carnal thoughts,
+    Confounding Deity with things that pass?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    God is the Movement, if He is the Life
+    Of all--I live in Him.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+                           You left the convent
+    Against command?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Against command of men.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+    And leagued with Astolph?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    In fast brotherhood.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+    You hear his full confession. O apostate
+    In vain, weep at your sentence.
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+                                    Holy Father,
+    I pray you send him back, but spare his life--
+    Spare him, if I have power with you.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+                                         His doom
+    Is but his choice made permanent on earth.
+    [_to_ CARLOMAN] O fallen from blessedness of will, become
+    The friend of heretics, the false of word
+    To everlasting Truth, you are condemned
+    Life-long to be a prisoner in your cell,
+    Life-long to watch the scourge and crucifix.
+    You chose them, as the God whom you abjure
+    Chose them, _forever_; you have lapsed and they
+    Become tormentors, till they force contrition
+    At last and save you.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_with a low, panting moan_] Prison!
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+                                         At Vienne,
+    There till you die the prison you have made
+    Of an eternal vow shall compass you.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Think what it is--by God Himself, remember
+    What you would do to me. The very dead
+    Rise ... Everything must have escape to live,
+    And I shall still be living.
+
+     [_He throws both arms over his face, then suddenly removing them,
+     makes a frenzied movement closer to the Pope._]
+
+                                 Let me die
+    Here, now! It is most impious, horrible
+    To bury me, full to the lips with life.
+    Sharpness-of-death, give _that_, but not to feel
+    The prison walls close on an energy
+    Beating its claim to worlds.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+                                 What I have spoken
+    Is and remains irrevocable.
+
+
+BONIFACE.
+
+    [_gently to_ CARLOMAN] Yield,--
+    Yield to a God Who compasses you round
+    With love so strong it binds you.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                                      And is hell--
+    But I reject such love.
+                            O Pepin, listen!
+    I see so far! Your pact with Rome undoes
+    Long centuries, and yields your country up
+    To spiritless restriction, and a future
+    Entombed alive, as mine will be, in night.
+    Simply renounce your promise, bid your soldiers
+    Seize the old man who numbs us. You and I
+    Could set to music that would never end
+    The forces of our people.
+
+
+PEPIN.
+
+                              You are crazy
+    Or worse, and I disown you.
+    [_to_ ZACHARIAS] On his head
+    Let fall what curse you will.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+                                  Then he shall see
+    The sacred pact between us re-confirmed.
+    [_to Monks_]
+    Fetch Chilperic! [_Exeunt Monks._]
+                     And meanwhile bring fetters in
+    To bind this renegade.
+
+     [_moving up to the royal board that crosses the hall at the further
+     end_]
+
+    The treaty--sign!
+
+     [PEPIN _and his nobles follow_ ZACHARIAS: _Attendants bring in
+     fetters_. CARLOMAN _submits mechanically to be bound, staring at_
+     PEPIN, _who affixes his signature to the treaty_.]
+
+     [BONIFACE _goes round to_ CARLOMAN.]
+
+
+BONIFACE.
+
+    Son, you do well to take your shame so meekly,
+    And bear in patience.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_sharply_] Have they bound me then?
+    Look, Boniface! And Pepin is a slave.
+    Nothing remains now in the world. That treaty,
+    That pact!
+
+     [CHILPERIC _is taken before_ ZACHARIAS _and_ PEPIN; _they appear to
+     address him, to consult with each other: then a monk advances and
+     cuts off_ CHILPERIC’S _long hair, while he weeps bitterly_.
+     GENEVIVA _and_ MARCOMIR _re-enter hurriedly as if they had heard
+     bad news and see_ CARLOMAN _bound_.]
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+    Be true to him.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    I will.
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+                                       Then share
+    His prison--say you left his monastery,
+    Step forth and save him from his loneliness,
+    My Marcomir, his friend. This is the moment;
+    And, as you love him, speak.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    [_drawing his cowl closer_] No! Once before
+    I went along with him: I went to hell.
+    Renew that pain and foulness for his sake,
+    Because I love him----?
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+                            Then because I love,
+    If nothing else will urge you--_for my sake_,
+    Only for mine.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                   And would you be a harlot
+    Again, for him?
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+    Hush, never!
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                                 No, we two
+    Should understand each other, for we dare not
+    Become what we have been. For my own sake
+    I will not leave the world.
+
+
+GENEVIVA.
+
+                                He watches us ...
+    O agony! And he is turned away,
+    And casts me off for ever. Go to him--
+    I cannot; for he sees me as I am,
+    The glory dropt away.
+    [MARCOMIR _makes a forward movement_]
+                          You shall not go!
+    What do I say? I should not have the strength,
+    Not all alone. Stay with me! It is plain
+    What I must do to win him, and so hard--
+    It smiles so in the stream. Oh, hush! Look there!
+    That is worse dying. How they pass before him,
+    There, standing in his chains.
+                                   And Pepin looks
+    And hurries on, but all _his_ gaze is fixed
+    On Chilperic’s shorn head.
+                               See, how they pass!
+    Now Zacharias--
+                    And he curses him:
+    The earth is trembling.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_making a movement as if to curse_ ZACHARIAS]
+
+                            But I have no God
+    To curse you with. I cannot do you harm.
+    I have no God, no friend, no glowing hate:
+    You all will pass before me in procession
+    Day after day as shadows.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+    To his cell!
+
+
+
+
+ACT V
+
+
+SCENE: _The Prison at Vienne_.
+
+     [CARLOMAN _lying on a plank bed_.]
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Though Time has played me false--it is not that:
+    It is the fading colours in my soul,
+    And all the brilliant darkness through that chink;
+    It is--
+
+     [_The door opens and a_ WARDER _enters_.]
+
+            O Warder, put the food away;
+    But come and chat with me.
+
+
+WARDER.
+
+                               I have instructions
+    I must not speak a word.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                             Is that the sentence?
+    Sit down.
+
+
+WARDER.
+
+              But I must see you drink this wine.
+    The Pope, King Pepin too--they all are anxious
+    Your life should be preserved.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                                   Sit down and drink.
+    Now you will chat with me!
+
+
+WARDER.
+
+    [_drinking, and speaking always in an undertone_]
+
+                               How do you feel?
+    Here’s to your health.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                           Why, that is like a prayer--
+    Warmed by your voice. They who would shut men up,
+    And bar them from their fellows’ kindly voices,
+    God cripple every motion of their soul!
+    So I am here for ever.
+                           Take that bread:
+    I like to see you eat. Now talk again.
+
+
+WARDER.
+
+    But you will eat some too?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                               No, my good jailer,
+    You shall not forge that chain. You know I’m dying;
+    Bring me my food and eat it here and talk,
+    Then you will stay a little longer. Tell me,
+    How is it with the sky to-day, the winds
+    And the flowers crying after them? O God!
+
+     [_He buries his face in his hand._]
+
+
+WARDER.
+
+    Sir, it’s a south wind.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                            Do the birds fly high?
+    I watched them in great circles as I travelled--
+
+
+WARDER.
+
+    I have not noticed them.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                             In wheeling flocks
+    They mounted ...
+                     Have you nothing more to say?
+    It must be early morning in the world
+    Where all is changing.
+
+
+WARDER.
+
+                           Ah, you’d know the time;
+    Most prisoners get confused.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                                 No night nor day;
+    God promised them forever--morn and eve,
+    The gathering of the shadows, the decline,
+    The darkness with no footfall: then the day
+    And all things reappearing. That’s for all--
+    Most for the prisoners, if you’d have them gentle.
+    Throw down this shutter!
+
+
+WARDER.
+
+    [_shaking his head_] That is just the point--
+    In prison you get thwarted every way;
+    You won’t ask that to-morrow.
+
+     [_He rises, shakes the crumbs from his lap, sets the half-empty
+     wine-bottle on a ledge within_ CARLOMAN’S _reach and goes out_.]
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Is he gone?
+
+     [CARLOMAN _drags himself up and props himself by the wall with his
+     ear against it_.]
+
+    I hear the river rushing past the walls,
+    Rushing and rushing, and through all my dreams
+    I labour to keep pace with it: awake,
+    I give myself to rest. It comforts me,
+    To hear the bounding current pass along,
+    To think of the far travel of the drops,
+    Crisping the tiny waves. Away, away!
+    It is great peace to follow: to pursue
+    Is misery.
+               And if I kneel down here,
+    I can just catch the glitter of the sun
+    A-tumble down the stream....
+
+     [_He crouches and looks through the chinks._]
+
+     [_Enter_ ZACHARIAS _and two_ MONKS.]
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+    Where is he?
+
+
+MONK.
+
+                                              There,
+    Peering between the loosened stones.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_turning_] The Pope!
+    Leave me in peace. You promised me seclusion.
+    I told you I would be alone with God.
+    Leave me!
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+              But you are shut up with the devil!
+    Deep as you lie, you dare not make pretence
+    That you have found your God.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_laughing nervously_] The seeker lost
+    More than the thing to find. Leave me alone--
+    You break the thread, you break it!
+                                        O the stream,
+    It flows and flows, and there are waterfalls
+    Somewhere, great, heaving torrents ...
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+    [_bending over him_] To Vienne
+    Pilate, they say, was banished--here to die.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    What, Pilate!
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+    Do you tremble at the name?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    O God, he saw the light and knew it not,
+    He had worse memories than Iscariot had
+    Misusing his great office. He had power,
+    Power to avert even Calvary ... and yet
+    We owe salvation to him.
+    [_lifting himself up from the ground_] Can it be
+    My blunder, my effacement shall prevail?
+    [_to_ ZACHARIAS] So he was banished and came here to die--
+    As you have banished me; it is enough;
+    In chains and soon to die. There, hear them rattle;
+    Now you have done your part.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+                                 Not till you yield,
+    Not till I see you suffer. [_aside_] Are hell’s rings
+    Of fire prepared in vain for him?--Repent!
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Leave me!
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+              No sinner has withstood me yet.
+    You shall repent.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                      But I am strong as you:
+    I will not.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+                Oh, you must, for God’s own sake,
+    His Majesty--He cannot strive and fail;
+    His heart is set on you and He must have you,
+    If but to bind in hell. Repent the past,
+    Repent, repent!
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                    Not anything--the whole
+    Strange journey and its perils that have brought me
+    Here to the brink of Death: and all will come
+    And touch that wonder, all will enter in,
+    And rest and be revived. Why should one trouble?
+    Death comes to all, you cannot banish him,
+    And Death has all we seek for!
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+                                   These are words
+    For men the Church has blessed: but if you die
+    Without the holy Sacraments, unshriven,
+    And unabsolved, you will be flung away
+    To yonder stream, shroudless and like a dog.
+    Thus heretics are judged.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_excitedly_] Be borne along,
+    Borne with the current. Is that possible?
+    Borne _dead_--well, each man takes his full desert--
+    Mine ... is it possible? And further on
+    Past towns and cities ... then at last the sea.
+
+
+ZACHARIAS.
+
+    Vain hope! You are God’s prisoner. No escape,
+    No waves to hide you and no help of man;
+    For prayer itself like hope is quenched before
+    The everlasting Prison-house. Farewell!
+
+     [_Exit with the_ MONKS.]
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Ha! ha! He shuts the door--so blank a sound!
+    And now the river comes about my brain,
+    And now the music foams incessantly,
+    The music of my funeral. Enough
+    For me that I shall lie against the heart
+    Of that on-pouring volume ...
+                                  I am left
+    By every creature I have breathed beside--
+    They do not want me. God--He least of all!
+    He has a King to crown.
+    All’s well, all are provided for.... My brother
+    Is in my place; my friend will take my wife.
+    How Geneviva shuddered at my chains
+    And clung to her old paramour! So easy
+    The world’s wounds are to heal. A little time,
+    Ten years, a year--and all is found defeat
+    In any life, all turned to ridicule.
+
+     [_Enter_ MARCOMIR _in lay dress_.]
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    I have great news for you.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                               But I am dying!
+    And now if all the doors were open wide
+    I should not move to pass through any one.
+    You cannot bring great news; I know it all,
+    All that must come now: I can alter nothing.
+    Rome will be succoured.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                            Yes, the siege is raised,
+    And Astolph in retreat. I am not come
+    To talk of politics.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                         Of private matters?
+    My Astolph, Lombardy ...
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                             To say farewell,
+    To bless you. I am here as from the King;
+    I showed the monks a parchment with the seal
+    You used when you were ruler: it was found
+    Among _her_ jewels ...
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                           Ah, I see, a gift.
+    So you too play the King. My signet yours,
+    Ay, and all else that ever bore my name.
+    Keep it.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    But Carloman--
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                            I cannot wait
+    To hear; I have so very little time
+    To speak in and such hatred; hate that burns
+    My heart through to the core. You, all of you,
+    So glad that I am sunk here; Geneviva
+    Moving no step to me; and that great Pope,
+    I gave my soul to in a wondering love,
+    Vexed that he cannot tame me, not desiring
+    My help, my pardon. You must hear it all--
+    I am not in despair: I have a treasure,
+    A burthen at my heart--where it belongs
+    I do not know. I have tried many names,
+    Tried God’s ... You see me dying, that may be;
+    But not till I have cast my burthen down
+    Can I be certain of my journey’s end.
+    How very still your face is! Are you dreaming,
+    You look so happy? And that scarlet cloak--
+    Where is your habit?
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                         I have cast it off
+    Forever; all my oaths are pushed aside,
+    With all my penitence, by something holy,
+    And the world seems new-born about me now;
+    I live as in a kind of bliss,--such joy,
+    Such fresh, warm sorrow.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                             Geneviva--yes
+    I know she loves you. Wait till I am dead.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+    O Carloman, I dare not break my news,
+    Not yet, you are not worthy. Do you hear
+    How the Rhone sings outside?
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                                 Beyond these shutters--
+    The light, the lightning music!
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                                    So life sweeps
+    Down through my blood; at last I have its secret.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    Go, dash yourself into the Rhone and die!
+    There is no secret hid in life--illusion,
+    That is the great discovery.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                                 O listen!
+    I am left poor and lonely in the world,
+    So poor, so lonely, not a soul that needs,
+    That ever can have need of me! Unloved
+    And undesired, with just the sun to hail,
+    The spring to welcome till I die, no more.
+    And yet--
+    If they should thrust me in a prison-cell
+    I should sing on in rapture.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                                 _Undesired!_
+    She desires no one ... but you dote on her,
+    And that will set you singing.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                                   On my lips
+    Already there is savour of rich song.
+    That is the joy I spoke of. Oh, to spread
+    The fame of my dead lady through the lands,
+    To sing of Geneviva!
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                         She is dead?
+    Come closer. Chafe my hands--
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                                  They mocked at her:
+    “If the Monk-King should ask now for his wife,
+    And we presented him the prostitute,
+    Would he not feel the ribaldry!” She stood
+    Quite silent, and the ashen lines turned black
+    On cheek and forehead; and they mocked her more:
+    “The harlot and the monk!” Then suddenly
+    A young, wild, girlish glory crossed her face,
+    She grasped me by the hand--but how we went
+    Through the hot streets I know not.
+                                        On the bridge
+    She turned to me--“Tell Carloman his wife
+    Is dead”--and looking down, I saw her stretched
+    Across the buoyant waters: from my sight
+    Sucked under by the current ’neath the bridge,
+    She did not rise.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_triumphantly_] And Marcomir, they promise
+    To cast my body to the river there,
+    And let it sweep along.
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                            But I shall sing
+    Of life and youth, virginity and love.
+    You leave me in the world; O Carloman,
+    You leave me here delivered.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+                                 We shall meet;
+    And yet such life wells up in me I fear
+    Lest I should not be dying. Geneviva!
+    [_turning to_ MARCOMIR]
+    And you will sing to me?
+
+    [_He lies back, wrapt in ecstasy._]
+
+
+MARCOMIR.
+
+                             To you, to all.
+    A tax is laid upon my very heart
+    To sing the sweeping music of the Rhone,
+    That rushes through my ears, that chants of her,
+    Of all you have delivered. In its depths
+    You will be buried, but the very burthen
+    You die to utter, far away in France
+    Will be caught up; Love will be free, and life
+    Free to make change as childhood.
+                                      Someone comes--
+    Hush, very softly, do not be afraid.
+
+     [BONIFACE _enters and steals up to_ CARLOMAN.]
+
+
+BONIFACE.
+
+    Beloved--
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_putting his hand on the lips of_ BONIFACE]
+    No more! Dear voice, end with that word:
+    _Beloved_ is not a prelude, it is all
+    A dying man can bear.
+
+
+BONIFACE.
+
+    [_blessing him_] All that I go
+    To publish to the folk in heathen lands.
+    Tho’ very often it means martyrdom
+    To listen to my story, I am blest
+    Proclaiming it.
+
+
+CARLOMAN.
+
+    [_opening his eyes wide and raising himself_]
+
+                    O Boniface, before
+    I saw you as an angel.
+                           Is that wine
+    Still on the stony ledge?
+
+     [MARCOMIR _brings the wine-bottle_]
+
+                              Now let us drink,
+    Drink all of us.
+    [_to_ BONIFACE] Go to your heathen lands
+    With that great lay of love.
+                                 This is a poet,
+    And he too has a burthen, but more sad--
+    Men love so fitfully. I for myself
+    Drink deep to life here in my prison-cell.
+    I had a song ... O Marcomir, the words--
+    Why do you stumble? Once again the cup!
+
+    _Fellowship, pleasure
+    These are the treasure_--
+
+    So I believe, so in the name of Time ...
+
+     [_He sinks back and dies._]
+
+
+
+
+    Printed in England by
+    The Westminster Press, Harrow Road
+    London
+
+
+
 *** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE NAME OF TIME ***
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/72364-h/72364-h.htm b/72364-h/72364-h.htm
index 71a9d84..a533d86 100644
--- a/72364-h/72364-h.htm
+++ b/72364-h/72364-h.htm
@@ -1,6828 +1,6828 @@
-<!DOCTYPE html>

-<html lang="en">

-  <head>

-<link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover">

-

-<meta charset="utf-8">

-<title>

-  The Project Gutenberg eBook of In the name of Time, by Michael Field.

-</title>

-<style>

-

-a:link {background-color:#ffffff;color:blue;text-decoration:none;}

-

-  link {background-color:#ffffff;color:blue;text-decoration:none;}

-

-a:visited {background-color:#ffffff;color:purple;text-decoration:none;}

-

-a:hover {background-color:#ffffff;color:#FF0000;text-decoration:underline;}

-

-.big {font-size: 130%;}

-

-.cbig250 {text-align:center;text-indent:0%;font-weight:bold;

-font-size:175%;}

-

-body{margin-left:4%;margin-right:6%;background:#ffffff;color:black;font-family:"Times New Roman", serif;font-size:medium;}

-

-.blockquot {margin-top:2%;margin-bottom:2%;}

-

-.c {text-align:center;text-indent:0%;}

-

-.fint {text-align:center;text-indent:0%;

-margin-top:2em;}

-

-.figcenter   {margin:3% auto 3% auto;clear:both;

-text-align:center;text-indent:0%;}

-

- h1 {margin-top:5%;text-align:center;clear:both;

-font-weight:normal;}

-

- h2 {margin-top:4%;margin-bottom:2%;text-align:center;clear:both;

- font-size:120%;font-weight:normal;}

-

- h3 {margin:2% auto 1% auto;text-align:center;clear:both;

- font-size:75%;font-weight:normal;}

-

- hr {width:90%;margin:2em auto 2em auto;clear:both;color:black;}

-

- hr.full {width: 60%;margin:2% auto 2% auto;border-top:1px solid black;

-padding:.1em;border-bottom:1px solid black;border-left:none;border-right:none;}

-

- img {border:none;}

-

-.nind {text-indent:0%;}

-

- p {margin-top:.2em;text-align:justify;margin-bottom:.2em;text-indent:4%;}

-

-.pagenum  {font-style:normal;position:absolute;

-left:95%;font-size:55%;text-align:right;color:gray;

-background-color:#ffffff;font-variant:normal;

-font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;

-text-decoration:none;text-indent:0em;}

-

-.rt {text-align:right;vertical-align:bottom;}

-

-small {font-size: 70%;}

-

-.smcap  {font-variant:small-caps;font-size:100%;}

-

-table {margin-top:2%;margin-bottom:2%;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;border:none;}

-

-div.poetry {text-align:center;}

-div.poem {font-size:100%;margin:auto auto;text-indent:0%;

-display: inline-block; text-align: left;}

-.poem .stanza     {margin-top: 1em;margin-bottom:1em;}

-.poem span.i0     {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-.poem span.i2     {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-.poem span.i5     {display: block; margin-left: 3.5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-.poem span.i8     {display: block; margin-left: 7em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-.poem span.i10     {display: block; margin-left: 8em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-.poem span.i15     {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-

-.toc {margin:1em auto;max-width:25em;

-border:2px solid black;text-indent:0%;text-align:center;}

-    .poem span.i11     {display: block; margin-left: 5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-    .poem span.i12     {display: block; margin-left: 6em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-    .poem span.i13     {display: block; margin-left: 6em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-    .poem span.i14     {display: block; margin-left: 7em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-    .poem span.i16     {display: block; margin-left: 8em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-    .poem span.i17     {display: block; margin-left: 8em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-    .poem span.i18     {display: block; margin-left: 8em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-    .poem span.i19     {display: block; margin-left: 8em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-    .poem span.i20     {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-    .poem span.i21     {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-    .poem span.i22     {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-    .poem span.i23     {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-    .poem span.i24     {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-    .poem span.i25     {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-    .poem span.i26     {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-    .poem span.i27     {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-    .poem span.i28     {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-    .poem span.i29     {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-    .poem span.i30     {display: block; margin-left: 15em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-    .poem span.i31     {display: block; margin-left: 15em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-    .poem span.i32     {display: block; margin-left: 15em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-    .poem span.i33     {display: block; margin-left: 15em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-    .poem span.i34     {display: block; margin-left: 15em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-    .poem span.i35     {display: block; margin-left: 15em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-    .poem span.i36     {display: block; margin-left: 15em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-    .poem span.i37     {display: block; margin-left: 15em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-    .poem span.i39     {display: block; margin-left: 15em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-    .poem span.i42     {display: block; margin-left: 15em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-    .poem span.i7     {display: block; margin-left: 7em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-    .poem span.i9     {display: block; margin-left: 9em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}

-</style>

-  </head>

-<body>

-<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE NAME OF TIME ***</div>

-<hr class="full">

-

-<div class="figcenter">

-<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="344" height="550" alt="[The

-image of the book's cover is unavailable.]">

-</div>

-

-<p class="toc">

-<a href="#IN_THE_NAME_OF_TIME">IN THE NAME OF TIME</a><br>

-<a href="#PERSONS">PERSONS</a><br>

-<a href="#ACT_I">ACT I., </a>

-<a href="#ACT_II">ACT II.,</a>

-<a href="#ACT_III">ACT III.,</a>

-<a href="#ACT_IV">ACT IV.,</a>

-<a href="#ACT_V">ACT V.</a>

-</p>

-

-<p class="c">IN THE NAME OF TIME</p>

-

-<p class="c"><span class="big">OTHER WORKS BY MICHAEL FIELD</span></p>

-

-<table>

-<tr><td>CALLIRRHOE</td><td class="rt">1884</td></tr>

-<tr><td>FAIR ROSAMUND</td><td class="rt">1884 &amp; 1897</td></tr>

-<tr><td>THE TRAGIC MARY</td><td class="rt">1890</td></tr>

-<tr><td>UNDERNEATH THE BOUGH</td><td class="rt">1893</td></tr>

-<tr><td>THE WORLD AT AUCTION</td><td class="rt">1898</td></tr>

-<tr><td>THE RACE OF LEAVES</td><td class="rt">1901</td></tr>

-<tr><td>JULIA DOMNA</td><td class="rt">1903</td></tr>

-<tr><td>BORGIA</td><td class="rt">1905</td></tr>

-<tr><td>WILD HONEY</td><td class="rt">1908</td></tr>

-<tr><td>QUEEN MARIAMNE</td><td class="rt">1908</td></tr>

-<tr><td>THE ACCUSER</td><td class="rt">1911</td></tr>

-<tr><td>THE TRAGEDY OF PARDON</td><td class="rt">1911</td></tr>

-<tr><td>POEMS OF ADORATION</td><td class="rt">1912</td></tr>

-<tr><td>MYSTIC TREES</td><td class="rt">1913</td></tr>

-<tr><td>DEDICATED</td><td class="rt">1914</td></tr>

-<tr><td>DEIRDRE</td><td class="rt">1918</td></tr>

-</table>

-

-<p class="c"><img src="images/logo.png"

-width="100"

-height="100"

-alt=""></p>

-

-<h1>

-IN THE<br>

-NAME OF TIME</h1>

-

-<p class="c">

-<span class="big">A<br>

-TRAGEDY</span><br>

-<br>

-BY<br>

-MICHAEL<br>

-FIELD<br>

-<br>

-<br>

-THE POETRY BOOKSHOP<br>

-35 DEVONSHIRE ST. THEOBALDS RD.<br>

-LONDON W.C.<br>

-MCMXIX<br>

-</p>

-

-<h1>IN THE NAME OF TIME:<br>

-<small>A TRAGEDY</small></h1>

-

-<p class="c">“<span class="smcap">In the Name of Time.</span>”&mdash;<i>The Winter’s Tale</i>, iv, <span class="smcap">I</span>, <i>chorus</i>.</p>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">ἅπανθ᾽ ὁ μακρὸς κἀναρίθμητος χρόνος<br></span>

-<span class="i0">φύει τ᾽ ἄδηλα καὶ φανέντα κρύπτεται:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">κοὐκ ἔστ᾽ ἄελπτον οὐδέν, ἀλλ᾽ ἁλίσκεται<br></span>

-<span class="i0">χὠ δεινὸς ὅρκος χαἰ περισκελεῖς φρένες.<br></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i10"><i>Sophocles&mdash;Ajax 646.</i><br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<p class="c"><i>Quoted from R. C. Trevelyan’s Translation on the Cover.</i></p>

-

-<h2><a id="PERSONS"></a>PERSONS</h2>

-

-<table>

-<tr><td><span class="smcap">Chilperic</span></td><td><i>King of the Franks</i>.</td></tr>

-<tr><td><span class="smcap">Carloman</span> }</td><td>{ <i>Sons of Charles Martel,</i></td></tr>

-<tr><td><span class="smcap">Pepin</span>&#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; }</td><td>{ <i>Consuls and Mayors of the Palace</i>.</td></tr>

-<tr><td><span class="smcap">Marcomir</span></td><td><i>A Frankish Count</i>.</td></tr>

-<tr><td><span class="smcap">Rachis</span></td><td><i>King of the Lombards</i>.</td></tr>

-<tr><td><span class="smcap">Astolph</span></td><td><i>His brother</i>.</td></tr>

-<tr><td><span class="smcap">Zacharias</span></td><td><i>The Pope</i>.</td></tr>

-<tr><td><span class="smcap">Damiani</span></td><td><i>An Italian Bishop</i>.</td></tr>

-<tr><td><span class="smcap">Boniface</span></td><td><i>A Missionary Saint</i>.</td></tr>

-<tr><td><span class="smcap">Geneviva</span></td><td><i>Wife to Carloman</i>.</td></tr>

-</table>

-

-<p class="c"><i>Cardinals, Nobles, Monks, Servants.</i><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_1">{1}</a></span></p>

-

-<hr>

-

-<p class="cbig250"><a id="IN_THE_NAME_OF_TIME"></a>IN THE NAME OF TIME<br>

-<small>A TRAGEDY</small></p>

-

-<h2><a id="ACT_I"></a>ACT I.</h2>

-

-<p><span class="smcap">Scene</span>: <i>Paris. A Hall in the Royal Palace.</i></p>

-

-<p><span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>is pacing backward and forward: he pauses by a crucifix set up

-at the further end of the hall</i>.</p>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0"><i>Thou sayest truly that I am&mdash;a King</i><br></span>

-<span class="i0">He said Who laid His life down on the Cross:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">So will I be, a King. I will possess<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The great reality. I war and govern,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I can strike hard as Charles the Hammerer;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Men say I have my father’s qualities,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And in the brief months of my sovereignty<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The infidel has recognised my blood:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">But this is nothing! Phantom-Emperors<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Have made the throne phantasmal. I have felt<br></span>

-<span class="i0">In Zacharias, the great Pope, a force<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That spreads like spring across the world. No more<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Will I be petty marshal to a crew<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That hack and murder, while the royal faces<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of wandering martyrs scintillate and thrill.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">There is a glorious Betterness at work<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Amid the highways and the solitudes;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I would be with it&mdash;in obscurity,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">No matter!&mdash;with the river as it shapes<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Its cisterns in the hills or where the wind<br></span>

-<span class="i0">First draws its silver volumes to a voice:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Behind, at the beginning, from within:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A cry, a pang&mdash;what shall respond to it,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_2">{2}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">Who help me? I have fiery thoughts of God,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I would attempt Him. In the wilderness<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Maybe He will unbosom.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<p class="c">[<i>Enter a</i> <span class="smcap">Servant</span>.]</p>

-

-<h3>SERVANT.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i22">The Archbishop<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of Mentz would see you.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i22">Blessèd Boniface!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">He brings me my enfranchisement.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<p class="c">[<i>As</i> <span class="smcap">Boniface</span> <i>enters the</i> <span class="smcap">Servant</span> <i>withdraws</i>.]</p>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i32">Great Angel,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">My spirit leaps within me to be born,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Beholding you.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i14">My son, the Holy Father<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Receives you joyously.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>kissing</i> <span class="smcap">Boniface</span>] To go to God<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Living, unscathed, to give Him everything<br></span>

-<span class="i0">One has, to pour one’s soul into His lap,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To let Him play upon one as the wind,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To feel His alternations ...!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i30">Carloman,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Your childlike transport shall be surely blessed:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Yet in the convent there are bitter hours<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of exile from God’s presence, penances&mdash;<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">But will they choke my solitude with prayers?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">The holy brethren chant in unison<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_3">{3}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">For hours within the chapel; there is buzz<br></span>

-<span class="i0">About the cloister like a hive of bees.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">There have been hermits! Might I live alone,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I could breathe unrepiningly the while<br></span>

-<span class="i0">It pleased God to keep silence. I would tame<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Some wistful, kingly beast to roam with me,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And we would wait His pleasure. Boniface,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Oh, tell me of His coming! It is plain<br></span>

-<span class="i0">He has been with you&mdash;You became His friend?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">His servant rather.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i20">That I cannot be;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I am a Knight free-born; I come as those<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Great nobles of the East, and all my service<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is adoration. You may have some converts,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Brute-tribes, who give allegiance to His name,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">As those who do not speak the Emperor’s tongue<br></span>

-<span class="i0">May rank his subjects. I am not of these.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Thou speakest truth, my son; there are some souls<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Loved of the Lord as Paul in Araby<br></span>

-<span class="i0">With whom one must not meddle. In good time<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You will exalt the Church; meanwhile your brother<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Who has a tighter grip of circumstance<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Than you&mdash;<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">He is short-sighted, politic,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">External in his bent. I lead the charge<br></span>

-<span class="i0">In battle, I foresee the combinations<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of foreign forces; he is good at siege,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And all the hectoring process of delay.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">He is not like my father. That great fight<br></span>

-<span class="i0">At Tours! I feel the onslaught in my blood;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">It never can run sluggish.<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_4">{4}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i27">Had you seen<br></span>

-<span class="i0">King Chilperic’s flower-wreathed waggon in the street!&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You should have looked a last time on the world<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Ere you renounced it.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i22">Scanned the heir of Clovis<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Drawn like a senseless idol in his car!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You judge unworthily. God bade me come<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Up higher to Him on a battlefield<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Where I was victor. It was in the night&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I moved about among my sleeping men,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I heard them shout for triumph in their dreams:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">It was enough!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i15">Yes, all is vanity;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The pride of life, its splendour, <i>vanitas</i>!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">There is no vanity in life; life utters<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Unsparing truth to us,&mdash;there is no line<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Or record in our body of her printing<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That stamps a falsehood. Do not so confound,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Father, life’s transience and sincerity.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">What makes the show out in the streets so vile<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is that it blazons forth the lie that youth,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Kingship and power are ineffectual.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A show of death where life should radiate<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is vanity. And if I now fling off<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The honourable titles of my state,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Consul and Patriarch, it is not because<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I have not nobly borne them; by my sword<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The Church has been defended, and the corn<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That bows in shocks about your monasteries<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Bows down above the battlefields I won.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You misconceive.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i17">A sweep of piety<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Beyond my censure! [<i>half-aside</i>] Will he thrive at Rome?<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_5">{5}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Why should you look so fearful? I have chosen<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The path of life, choosing to be a monk,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And I have wisely chosen.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Ah, beloved!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Now I must face my brother. Would he come<br></span>

-<span class="i0">By chance! I dare not crave a conference.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I am arrested at the lips if ever<br></span>

-<span class="i0">We speak of anything beyond affairs.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">He will not understand&mdash;at least to-day,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">When fresh from the procession of that cursed<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Do-nothing Chilperic.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i22">Set your purpose forth<br></span>

-<span class="i0">At once, and let him freely misconceive:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You must not cloud for that.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i29">These mighty thoughts,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Mingled with God, how put them to the shame<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of the world’s censure! What you call my soul<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Flees as a shy girl that escapes pursuit.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Take your shame meekly. Do not let your eyes<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Grow wild and hostile!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Boniface</span>, <i>who has seen</i> <span class="smcap">Pepin</span> <i>approaching, withdraws to the back

-of the hall, stands before the Crucifix in mute prayer, and then

-passes out, looking back at the brothers</i>. <span class="smcap">Pepin</span> <i>is a short, stout

-man, with florid complexion and much vehemence of manner. He wipes

-the perspiration from his face and addresses</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>without

-looking at him</i>.]</p></div><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_6">{6}</a></span></p>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i26">Woden, what a sight!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">This Chilperic is an idol that the people<br></span>

-<span class="i0">No longer worship as his car rolls on.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Contempt, indifference! A few more months<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Will rid us of the calf. We pull together<br></span>

-<span class="i0">In right good part, fraternal, taking pride<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Each in the other’s excellence: ere long<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The Pope will pour his oil upon our heads<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To nourish our short curls.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">He has the power<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of making Kings?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Liutbrand the Lombard winced<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Before him and resigned the Exarchite:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And he who can impoverish may endow.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>with a sudden movement</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Pepin, we have not looked upon the face<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of Zacharias: I am bound for Rome.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">A pilgrimage? Stay where you are! Tut, tut!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Wait till he seek us. Frankland is his hope<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Against the Lombard: when he seeks us then<br></span>

-<span class="i0">We twain will offer him our dutiful,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Strong swords, and keep St. Peter’s realm intact;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">While, in return, that gracious influence,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That something that we lack to give our strength<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Supremacy, shall be poured down on us.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0"><i>Something we lack!</i> I dream of a possession&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Pepin, the world if I became a monk<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Would recognise that I lay down my rights,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">None wrests them from me.<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_7">{7}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i26">Are you clean gone mad!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Become a monk, you, Consul, Patriarch!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Our mother had been Christian scarce a year<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Before your birth, and haply took the priest<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Too much into her privacy. By Thor&mdash;<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>taking him by the throat</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">No, but by God Incarnate, you shall swear<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You own me son of Christendom’s great guard<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Ere you again draw unimperilled breath!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I, Carloman, your elder, the first-born<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of Charles Martel, of my own choice renounce<br></span>

-<span class="i0">My portion in his honours. Own my birthright!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Plague take you!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Own it!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i25">Give a fellow breath,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Don’t ...<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You have your father’s temper, that’s the test!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I loved you as a boy and set my teeth<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Against a rare, sweet craziness that takes you<br></span>

-<span class="i0">In certain moods&mdash;you need a keeper then:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You need one now. Hold fast your birthright, man;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Don’t trust me with temptation. Geneviva<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Will relish this new folly less than I&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Chuck her beneath the chin and threaten her<br></span>

-<span class="i0">With your design! She is too young a widow<br></span>

-<span class="i0">For me to govern.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>apart</i>] Deaf down to the soul!<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_8">{8}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">That flush across your forehead like a scar<br></span>

-<span class="i0">At mention of your wife! Her lovers!&mdash;Think<br></span>

-<span class="i0">If you withdrew protection....<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i31">Purity,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">In woman the ideal and the dream,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Has its firm seat amid the altitudes<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of manhood’s nature&mdash;There alone are seats<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of holy contemplation, sexless thoughts,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Love that in God finds goal, a loneliness<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That truth, not sympathy, can cure. ’Tis vain<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The hope that woman, made to minister<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To momentary passion, can provide<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Solace and inspiration to her mate.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">She breeds no hope; she cannot offer us<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A clime for our ideals and our dreams,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Or plant a footstep soft as memory’s<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Across futurity’s unimpressed sands.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">You speak from fact, I own.<br></span>

-<span class="i28">But Boniface,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">What does he say?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">He aids me.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>slapping him on the shoulder</i>] Carloman,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">’Twould be cold work without you.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">But my son&mdash;&mdash;<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Nay, nay, no substitute! You are my brother,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I know the secret how to humour you,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I weave your projects in our policy,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_9">{9}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">And now and then you marshal us the way<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of an archangel ... but no substitute!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Yet love him for my sake; give him free training<br></span>

-<span class="i0">In war and letters.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i20">Fie, fie! Geneviva<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Will put you from this project. In the cloister<br></span>

-<span class="i0">What would you see but men who dig and pray?&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">No royal pageants.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">King Chilperic</span> <i>is borne in a litter with great pomp. His golden

-hair sweeps over the sides of the litter; his face is nerveless and

-exhausted.</i>]</p></div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>with an ironic smile</i>] Such as this. The King!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Tell him I have transferred the Mayoralty<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To you, and do not taunt me any more.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Chilperic</span>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Sire, you are weary, yet we crave the grace<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of a brief audience.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CHILPERIC.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i21">Business! I can brook<br></span>

-<span class="i0">No more of these distractions. Your good brother<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Relieves me of all business. I can hear<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Scarcely the people’s clamour when they shout,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And I am shy at facing them. To know<br></span>

-<span class="i0">There is a god indifferent to its whims<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Gives the world courage of its natural awe;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">So I expose these curls; that duty done,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Leave me at ease, an idol in his niche.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">But, sire, my brother has persuaded me,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_10">{10}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">If you consent, to take on me his burthens,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">His duties and his honours; being summoned,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">He holds, by God to a monastic life.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CHILPERIC.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>with passing animation</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">This interests us. After so brief a term<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of dignity! But I applaud his sense:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The convent is a place for peace of mind;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">One has no interruption, one may watch<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The gold-fish in the fountain half a day,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">If so one will; and, though the prayers are long,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">One grows accustomed to them as to meals<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And looks for their recurrence.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>suspiciously</i>] But, my Consul,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">With you it cannot be the luxury<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of doing nothing that attracts. For us<br></span>

-<span class="i0">It is the happy and predestined lot;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">But for an untamed youth whose pleasures still<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Are running in the current of his blood,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Such choice is of ill-omen.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i28">Courage, sire,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is constant industry for happiness.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">When I become a monk&mdash;&mdash;<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CHILPERIC.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i26">Nay, no confession,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">No putting reasons to your Overlord.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>to his nobles</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You need not shake your spears so stormily,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">We leave you a stout leader for your wars,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span>] And you, your liberty. What use of it<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You make is of no moment to the world,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And does not raise my curiosity,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Who for myself have found in meat and drink,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">In sleep and long, long abstinence from care<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The pleasure proper to me. Pepin, come!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Exeunt</i> <span class="smcap">Chilperic</span>, <span class="smcap">Pepin</span> <i>and the Frankish Nobles</i>.]</p></div><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_11">{11}</a></span></p>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">He has no sight of God, is imbecile<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And dropping into clay. I should not let<br></span>

-<span class="i0">This show dishearten me; but I have suffered<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A vulgar tongue to tell what from my lips<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Alone is truth&mdash;that as the hidden spring,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Restless at touch of the diviner’s rod<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is dragged through to the surface by his spells,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I am discovered and borne upward, made<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The answer to some perilous appeal:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And for my folly I must be dismissed<br></span>

-<span class="i0">By a mere dotard with a passing sigh<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of envy, who forego the battlefield,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The Council-chamber, the sweet clang of arms<br></span>

-<span class="i0">For just a pricking wonder at my heart,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A knowledge I would give to secrecy<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Plunging it headlong in the ear of God.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Oh for the cloister! I will make escape<br></span>

-<span class="i0">At once, in silence, without taking leave:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">My joy is in the consciousness that Time<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Will never draw me back to any wish<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To any fondness I am flinging off....<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Geneviva</span>.]</p></div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">My wife!<br></span>

-<span class="i8">Is Geneviva come to me?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Now the dull monk has left you. Rouse your head!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I have been taking thought how best to trim<br></span>

-<span class="i0">My beauty for you. Boniface was slow<br></span>

-<span class="i0">In giving counsel; slowly I took up,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Handled and dropt my jewels. Of a sudden,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">When Pepin’s voice was heard upon the stair,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I laid these blossoms in a ruddy knot<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Thus hasty on my bosom. Come to me.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">My lord, you owe me many hours of love,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">So many hours I have been beautiful<br></span>

-<span class="i0">In vain. You do not see me when I sing,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You miss the marks of music in my face,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_12">{12}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">You do not love the hunt, and you have never<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Ridden beside me in the morning light.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You see me but as now when I am vexed<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And haughty for caresses.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>after a pause</i>] Geneviva,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You are a Christian?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i24">Dear my lord, you speak<br></span>

-<span class="i0">As if I were laid sick.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">You were baptised?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Assuredly, but the cold font has left<br></span>

-<span class="i0">No chill upon my heart. Think not of that,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Think of our marriage-day. You leave me lonely<br></span>

-<span class="i0">While Boniface enthralls you.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>with hesitation</i>] Women even<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Have put aside their pomps and vanities ...<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Oh, leave me, you are insupportable!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You bring me word of kingdoms and of monks,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And thoughts of things that have not come to pass,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Or should be quite forgotten. We could spend<br></span>

-<span class="i0">So sweet a moment now, for you are loved,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">My Carloman&mdash;What need is there of talk<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Concerning other matters?&mdash;loved of me,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Dreamed of when I am dreaming, when I wake<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Wept for, sighed after. I have never cared<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To listen to the minstrels, for the praise<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_13">{13}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">My beauty covets most is in your eyes.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">How wild they look and solemn!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>folds her in his arms quietly. Then with great effort

-bends over her and speaks</i>]</p></div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i31">Marcomir<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is restless for a pilgrimage to Rome.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I think we shall be starting presently:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And afterward ... If I am long away ...<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>breaking from him</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Oh, think a little! Can you leave this hair<br></span>

-<span class="i0">So crisp and burnished? When the sun is bright<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Across your shield, it has no livelier flash&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Confess, it has not? But you come to me<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Stale, weary from your dreams and abstinence,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And tingle my suspicion.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i25">If these dreams<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Were growing all the world to me!&mdash;You start,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You turn away, you will not understand.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The fear of hurting you has made me keep<br></span>

-<span class="i0">So distant from you lately, and my eyes<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You thought were worn with vigil and with books<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Have burnt with tears at night for many a month<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To think you have not known the tyrant-joy<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That moves a soul to change and severance,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Except upon the day when for my sake<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You parted from your home: but by the rapture<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That made such tumult in the daughter’s grief<br></span>

-<span class="i0">When she became a bride, your husband now<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Implores your comprehension.<br></span>

-<span class="i30"><i>All thou hast</i>,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">So the Church teaches, <i>family and spouse,</i><br></span>

-<span class="i0"><i>The child thou hast begotten, thine own life</i><br></span>

-<span class="i0"><i>Thou must abhor, if thou would’st have new days</i><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_14">{14}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0"><i>Of blessing on the Earth.</i> I feel this law<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is written in my very heart of hearts,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">There is such haunting freshness deep below<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The sorrow of farewell.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>defiantly</i>] My God is Love&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The God who made a bower in Paradise,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Who wedded Eve and Adam, who abode<br></span>

-<span class="i0">In the sweet incense of His Church to bless<br></span>

-<span class="i0">My marriage.<br></span>

-<span class="i2">[<span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>stretches out his hand to support her</i>.]<br></span>

-<span class="i13">Have no fear that I shall fall,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I cannot swoon while I remember it&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">How in the songful hush a restless hand<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Grew tight about my fingers, and a vow<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Thrilled all the girl in me to womanhood,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And stung the future lying at my heart<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To joy and frankness. That was years ago ...<br></span>

-<span class="i2">[<i>She breaks into a bitter laugh</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">O Carloman, you know not what you do,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You know not what I am, nor what a blank<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of mercy there is in you!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i26">Were I dead,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You would not be so violent: in a trance<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of resignation you would think of me,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">With tears, not gasping laughter.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>pacing the room excitedly</i>] <i>Pilgrimage!</i><br></span>

-<span class="i0">Did you say, pilgrimage? To think of you<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Growing each day more cramped about the mouth,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">More full of resolution in the eyes.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">What shall I do? <i>Pray for you</i>&mdash;but the dead,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You have just told me, should be left unmourned,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Forgotten as last summer’s autumn-leaves.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>facing him coldly</i>] My lord, I am no reliquary-urn;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">There is no widow in me.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_15">{15}</a></span><br></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>with still greater change of manner</i>] If you leave<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Your Kingdom, there are certain things to do<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Before you start. There is that Gothic King,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The captive Hermann&mdash;you must break his chains.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Hermann is dead. Count Marcomir reports<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Last night he found him lifeless.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>gasping</i>] Late last night?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Marcomir!&mdash;Take your fingers from my sleeve;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">But summon Marcomir, and if again<br></span>

-<span class="i0">There is intelligence to break to me<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Likely to hurt, give him the charge of it.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">No, Geneviva. I have little speech;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">But when the secret crept into my soul<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I loved you, it was not to Marcomir<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I spoke: and if another secret now<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is breaking through my nature, do not think<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That he will be the spokesman.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>noticing her agitation</i>] Hermann died<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I think by his own hand; he courted death.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">What can a man prize in captivity?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>as</i> <span class="smcap">Geneviva</span> <i>grows more agitated</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">There! I will speak no more of him. Your maids&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>turning to summon her attendants</i>].<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Weave the great arras. They have no concern<br></span>

-<span class="i0">With me, except in silence to array.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You thought I cared to gossip with my maids!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">But summon Marcomir.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>She looks after</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span>, <i>who walks out, stroking his chin</i>].</p></div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i21">To think he dared<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To lean above me with those burning eyes<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_16">{16}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">Unconscious what they glassed. I did not learn<br></span>

-<span class="i0">From him the magic that was born in me,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I learnt it when great Hermann passed in chains,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And he is dead. I promised I would go<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To-day and visit him. How could he die?<br></span>

-<span class="i2">[<span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>enters</i>.]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Why, you are deadly pale!<br></span>

-<span class="i2">[<i>She recoils, and says in a faint voice</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i26">It is the hour<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Fixed for our visit.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">But the man is dead.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">What does he look like now? Is he so changed<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I must not see him?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i20">Death is not a fact<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To touch with simile. What looks he like?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">All men in moonlight mind one of the moon,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">All dead men look like death.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i30">He lies in chains?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Are the brows restful?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i23">Had you been a man<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You would have asked me how he came to die,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">No more!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i9">I had forgotten ... then he perished<br></span>

-<span class="i0">As Carloman reports?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>turns away</i>.] You cannot bear<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That I should mourn him?<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_17">{17}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>facing her again</i>] Oh, a lifetime, if<br></span>

-<span class="i0">It please you! I am going to a place<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Where love is held of little consequence.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Then you are bound for hell.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>between his teeth</i>] But you are safe!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Keep me recluse from love, as men from war,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You spoil my faculties. Where will you go?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">To any coast you have not trod, wherever<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The flowers are different from the flowers you wear,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To some Italian convent. Geneviva,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I am not framed to see you minister<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To other men; but when long years are passed,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">It may be in a fresco, I shall find<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Some figure of a lady breaking bread<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To mendicants, and kneel and pray to her<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That she may bless me also: but till then ...<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>covering his eyes</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">O God, you shall not tempt me, though I feel<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Just how your hair burns in a fiery wreath<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Above your brow, and how your eyes are soft<br></span>

-<span class="i0">With blue, and deeper blue, as through the hills<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The valley stretches azure to the close.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You shall not tempt me, though I almost hear<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Your bosom taking record of your breath,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And I could sit and watch that tide of life<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Rising and falling through the lovely curves,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Till I was lost in ecstasy.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i29">Oh, hush!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">But then you love me. It was in a fit ...?<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_18">{18}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Of devilish malice.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i20">In a jealous fit?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You shall remain.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>She goes up to him: he takes her hands in his, kisses them

-coldly, and puts them away.</i>]</p></div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i18">I did not answer you&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">His face was drawn.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i20">And I had given you charge<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of the great restive soldier.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i30">True, I swerved;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I have confessed my sin, and now must bear<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The settling of my spirit on the Cross.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">So many favours!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i17">But you kissed his brows&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">What need was there of that?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i29">You love me then,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You love me! Would you murder him again<br></span>

-<span class="i0">If I again should touch him with my breath?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Again, again.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i14">And Carloman complains<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I am indifferent to him!<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_19">{19}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i25">He forgets;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">But, Geneviva, if a thousand years<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Broke over me, when Time had cleared his storms<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I should look up and know your face by heart.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Then stay, stay, stay with me!<br></span>

-<span class="i31">Have you once thought<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Through the long years how it will fare with me&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Nothing to watch except the sullen waste<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of my own beauty? Marcomir, I hold<br></span>

-<span class="i0">If there be judgment it shall be required<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of women what delight their golden hair<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Has yielded&mdash;have they put its wealth to use,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Or suffered it to lie by unenjoyed?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I rather would die spendthrift, nothing left<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of my rich heritage, save memory<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of the wild, passing pleasure it conferred<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Than keep it untransmuted. And you choose<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To take from me the only eyes that care<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To mirror mine! I have so often thought<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That some day I shall drown myself: the water<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Reflects me with desire.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>bitterly, as he turns away</i>] A soul so wide<br></span>

-<span class="i0">In innocence, so regal, on the day<br></span>

-<span class="i0">He wedded, he appointed me your squire!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>following him</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">He keeps you with him, you can read his heart,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You know what way he travels, when his soul<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Flies homeward. Tell me&mdash;’tis the only knowledge<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I crave for in the world&mdash;does Carloman<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Still hold me in affection? I beseech,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Tell me the truth. He loves you&mdash;&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_20">{20}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i36">Yes, he loves,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">He does not use me for his purposes.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>perceiving</i> <span class="smcap">PEPIN</span>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Not Carloman&mdash;his brother on the stair<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Laughs at your light behaviour. So you lose<br></span>

-<span class="i0">One last poor opportunity.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<p class="c">[<i>Re-enter</i> <span class="smcap">Pepin</span>.]</p>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i27">Good even.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Well, my fair sister, you have heard the news,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Wept [<i>glancing at</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span>]<br></span>

-<span class="i5">and found consolation.<br></span>

-<span class="i28">But to think<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The son of Charles Martel should be a monk!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">A monk!&mdash;a pilgrim?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">No, a cloistered monk.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">What is his crime?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i19">Oh, no impiety;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A crazy fit: he must get near to God,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">So puts away all intercourse with man:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And while I rule he thinks to thrill the world<br></span>

-<span class="i0">With some convulsive movement from his prayers.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Ha, ha! But you shall queen it as before.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Go fetch my husband and remain without,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">For he alone can speak to me of this.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>Exit</i> <span class="smcap">Pepin</span>.]<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>turning to</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You are a murderer: this act of yours<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Will leave me very lonely.<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_21">{21}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">I repent.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">There is no sin like that of looking back<br></span>

-<span class="i0">When one has sinned. Whatever one attempts<br></span>

-<span class="i0">It perfected in patience brings reward.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">My Carloman will prosper: his whole heart<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is gone away from me.<br></span>

-<span class="i22">Why there he is,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Passing in zealous talk with Boniface.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Boniface</span> <i>cross from right to left at the back of

-the hall</i>. <span class="smcap">Geneviva</span> <i>intercepts them</i>.]</p></div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Farewell!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>arrested</i>] O Geneviva!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i25">Not my name,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Never my name again. Say, holy father&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">They take new titles who renounce the world?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>with flushing eagerness</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Then you too will renounce it? oh, the joy!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">There is a strange new passion in your eyes.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Speak to me ... but you cannot! I could take<br></span>

-<span class="i0">No leave of you in your fierce, worldly mood;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Now all is changed.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i20">Yes, all. How long ago<br></span>

-<span class="i0">It seems since we were married!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i32">Think the day<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is yet to come, the joy is all before.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>taking her face between his hands</i>]<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_22">{22}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">O Boniface, this is no temptress’ face!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">God has been with her, and she starts as I<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Free in the great endeavour.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i28">Do you choose,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Lady, a mere retreat among the nuns,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Or, like your husband, do you break all ties<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That bind you to the earth?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i28">They all are broken:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Except ... oh, I forgot! I have a son.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>nervously</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Pepin will guard him.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i22">Are you dreaming still?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Fool, fool! I tell you Pepin shall decide<br></span>

-<span class="i0">What robes I wear, and haply suffer me<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Sometimes at entertainments to look on,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And see young Charlemagne praised. But for my child<br></span>

-<span class="i0">He shall remain with me.<br></span>

-<span class="i2">[<i>Re-enter</i> <span class="smcap">Pepin</span>] All is confirmed.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I shall not quit the world. How easily<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A man is duped with God upon the brain!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I shall continue in my womanhood,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Giving, receiving pleasure.<br></span>

-<span class="i28">I have heard<br></span>

-<span class="i0">So much and suddenly; for Marcomir<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is to become a monk.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span>] Give him no welcome.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">He takes the cowl a penitent; he is not,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Like you, a white-souled wayfarer.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Pepin</span>] How strange<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That we must pair together, you and I;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I know so little of your tastes and now<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I must be often in your company.<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_23">{23}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">My lord, speak to her.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i23">Come, an end to this!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Brother, if you are wise you will not leave<br></span>

-<span class="i0">This woman in the world. Convents are made<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To tame the pride of such and keep them cool.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">O Geneviva, for my sake, and yet....<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Not so, beloved.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>He turns away and covers his face.</i>]</p></div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i17">Marcomir, farewell!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You will be monks together. When my husband<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Forgets me, you must bring me to his thoughts<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Recall that day we hunted and you fell;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I stayed to tend you; but the whole live day<br></span>

-<span class="i0">My voice rang through the woods for Carloman<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Until I wearied you; he was not found;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">But you remember how I cried for him.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Consul, have pity on her. I am free,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">But she has need of love.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i25">O insolence!&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The virginal chill heart!&mdash;No intercession!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Our marriage is dissolved. How great a stranger<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You have become to me! I should grow mad<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To breathe by you another single hour.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Boniface</span>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And you, old man, who stand with such meek eyes,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Though you have robbed me of my name of wife,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And made my boy an orphan&mdash;go your way!<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_24">{24}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">I cannot curse you, but I prophesy:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Dishonour motherhood, plant virgin homes,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Give to religion the sole charge of love,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And you will rear up lust of such an ice<br></span>

-<span class="i0">As Death himself will shiver at.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Pepin</span>] Lead on!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Now there is hope you may become a King,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">There should be some high festival to keep<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To-night in everlasting memory.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Lead me away.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i14">Brother, in all&mdash;good luck!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And may the Convent’s fare be angels’ food.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Your wife’s tears soon will dry.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Exeunt</i> <span class="smcap">Pepin</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Geneviva</span>.]</p></div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i33">The thing to do<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is simply just the sole thing to be done.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">There should have been no tears, no taking leave;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A freeman can do anything he will.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Take me along with you.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i24">Ah where&mdash;to God?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Why would you come with me?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i28">You must not ask.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Some rival slain in haste&mdash;the ebbing back<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of hatred that has left the face exposed<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of a dead foe I spared not. I have struck<br></span>

-<span class="i0">On something in my nature that is foul,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That goes on breeding in me, that will taint<br></span>

-<span class="i0">My fellows: I must purify my heart<br></span>

-<span class="i0">With lonely fasting and continual prayers.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">My hope is all in Time: though Time defaces<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_25">{25}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">So much of what is fair, it dims the spots:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I who am just a murderer to myself,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Who close my eyes upon a sleeping guilt<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And waking, answer to the bloody name,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Have some faint courage that a transformation<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Will come ...<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i14">Oh, do not put your trust in Time;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Put on at once <i>forever</i> leap to God!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Have done with age and death and faltering friends,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Assailing circumstance, the change of front<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That one is always meeting in oneself,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The plans, the vacillations&mdash;let them go!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And you will put on immortality<br></span>

-<span class="i0">As simply as a vesture.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i24">And you think<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of starting&mdash;when?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Now: we are on the road.<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_26">{26}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h2><a id="ACT_II"></a>ACT II</h2>

-

-<p class="c"><span class="smcap">Scene</span>: <i>An audience-chamber in the old Lateran Palace, Rome.</i></p>

-

-<p class="c">[<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Zacharias</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Damiani</span>.]</p>

-

-<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">And so the Lombard yielded ...?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Not to me,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">But to my God. Each man of woman born<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is fashioned in God’s outer image: few<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Are so compact of Him they feel His strength<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Within their body as a force that pushes<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Its way and dissipates the hollow crowd<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of godless men; but from my youth I prayed<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I might be like Him in my inward parts<br></span>

-<span class="i0">As in my form of dust: and there was nothing<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That stood against me. It was simple joy<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To meet the opposition of my foes,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To meet triumphant wickedness, to meet<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The deadliest torpor; for they had an end<br></span>

-<span class="i0">As night and mist are ended by the sun.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">You act on a dread thought.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">The thought conceived,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Life has no terrors. It is emptiness<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Alone that makes us timid and inert:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Fill up the void, we go from strength to strength<br></span>

-<span class="i0">In our possession. When I worship God,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The pyx upon the altar where He dwells<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Has not a closer hold on Him than I.<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_27">{27}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">No wonder that men fear you in their hearts,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And yield when you approach them!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">But you questioned<br></span>

-<span class="i0">About my recent journey to the hills,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That I might save Perugia from the craft<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of Rachis, the vile Lombard King. I went<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And faced him ... all his treachery gave way,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The town was mine again; and more than this,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">All his ambition vanished&mdash;at my feet<br></span>

-<span class="i0">He promised to renounce the world itself,&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Like Carloman, the Consul of the Franks,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Who left his wife, his honours and his home<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To dwell on Mount Soracte.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i28">Carloman&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">His fame spreads every day.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i29">I felt a warmth<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Myself to see the man, and when he came<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A welcome rushed out from my soul, such life<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Tempered the resolution of his face.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">God dwelt in him&mdash;yet fitfully it seemed,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A fever in his blood, not constant health,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Unalterable habit, as with those<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To whom God is the same now, yesterday,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And always. As I blessed him I became<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Disquieted&mdash;his long hands were never still.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">He needed discipline, such changeless hours<br></span>

-<span class="i0">As make the spirit stable. Now he seeks<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Another meeting, so this letter says,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To ask me some petition for himself,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And for his friend.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i20">He leaves a noble brother,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_28">{28}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">Religious and undaunted, in his place,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Pepin the Mayor.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i17">On whom I build my trust.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I would that Rachis left upon his throne<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A brother who could stand by Carloman’s:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">But Astolph has a rebel’s countenance,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The only eyes that never bent to mine.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">He looked upon me as a robber might<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Who saw in God’s own altar but a setting<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To jewels that he coveted. And when<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Rachis knelt down and vowed to leave the world,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And there was silence in the Lombard host,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I heard a ringing laugh, and Astolph shook<br></span>

-<span class="i0">His yellow hair with joy. I never saw<br></span>

-<span class="i0">So mad a gesture&mdash;God will strike him down!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Enter a</i> <span class="smcap">Cardinal</span>.]</p></div>

-

-<h3>CARDINAL.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">The Lombard King would see you.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i32">Lead him in,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">We will receive our penitent. [<i>Exit</i> <span class="smcap">Cardinal</span>.]<br></span>

-<span class="i30">This Rachis<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Shall make your Convent famous: Mount Casino<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Shall have its royal monk.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">A gracious thought.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Rachis</span> <i>with two</i> <span class="smcap">Cardinals</span>.]</p></div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Welcome! You come to Rome to take your vow.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>RACHIS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">I come to ask your counsel first. My father,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I have no trust in Astolph, he is stubborn,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_29">{29}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">Heretical, and will bewitch my people<br></span>

-<span class="i0">From all allegiance to your holy throne.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I speak of certain danger.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Ah!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>RACHIS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i31">I love you,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I love the peaceful service of the cell,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And each affection tears me bitterly:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Yet for the sake of keeping my wild hordes<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Your servants, I am willing to renounce<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The pleasure of the cloister, if your wisdom<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Absolve me from my promise and restore me<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To Kingship over Astolph.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>He watches</i> <span class="smcap">Zacharias</span> <i>with the utmost anxiety</i>.]</p></div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i26">What you plead<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is politic ... but, stay, I rob the Church<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of glory if I think of what is safe;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">God can protect His own&mdash;the fiercer battle,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The heavenlier triumph. He received your oath,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Not I.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>RACHIS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i7">You are His Pope, you can remit ...<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And you would rule in peace.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i29">How dare you tempt<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The Lord your God, upon whose earthly throne<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I sit? Get from me! One short month ago<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You were yourself blaspheming in the land,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A heretic like Astolph and a slave<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To your own lust. Begone! The convent walls<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Alone can save you. If you drop away<br></span>

-<span class="i0">There is no limit to the punishment<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_30">{30}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">God deals to such backslider; you become<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Perjured for all eternity.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>RACHIS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i27">Alas,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is there no service that will soften God,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Except the cloister?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i21">Fool and hypocrite,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">There is no way to Him except the path<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A man’s best moment finds, and you are lost<br></span>

-<span class="i0">If you regret your vow&mdash;to break from it<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is utterly impossible: a star<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Can no more leave the music of its course<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Than any mortal break his word to God.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Your soul is bound for ever.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>with another Cardinal</i>.]</p></div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i29">Dearest son,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I greet you with God’s blessing,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span>] And on you<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Confer the same. How prospers Carloman?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Oh, well, dear father.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i23">He who keeps his knees<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is Rachis, King of Lombardy. He takes<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Like you the fearful vow to be a monk.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>RACHIS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span>] Protect me, help me, holy Carloman;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Let me return with you. I am distracted ...<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A perjured man God will destroy in hate.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Come with me, come ... but not to make confession,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To tabulate your crimes; come to the cloister,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_31">{31}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">To solitude, the simple light of God.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You must not dream, because your wickedness<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Has waked you to disgust, that you are called.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The trouble is not betwixt God and sin;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Sin does not shut God out, it is the lantern<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Flashing across the dark void of the world&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Most penetrative pulses; use the flare<br></span>

-<span class="i0">For such poor revelation as it yields.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">But this new life ... you must arise and go<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Toward it as disencumbered as of old<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Abraham went up to Ur, all his possessions<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Kept for him in a mystery out of sight.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To dream of them is faith, and to forget<br></span>

-<span class="i0">All one has touched and handled, loved or wrought<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of sin or righteousness, the perfect sign<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The new man is begotten.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>RACHIS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i25">Pray for me,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">If you are in God’s favour. Teach me how<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To win a better throne than I have lost,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Safe from my brother, a perpetual seat<br></span>

-<span class="i0">High in the heavens.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>with a ringing laugh</i>] If that is your ambition,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Oh then, how clear it is that you are damned,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Wherever you may lodge!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>RACHIS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i24">Ha&mdash;terrible!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You must not curse me; as the meanest slave<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I am content to cringe ...<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i27">And heaven detests<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A beggar’s whining. God is made for Kings,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Who need no favours, come to Him for nothing<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Except Himself.<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_32">{32}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>RACHIS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i16">But does that satisfy?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You who have borne the Convent many months&mdash;<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Yes, you can now bear witness to this poor<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Mistrusting wretch that you have no regrets.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Speak out your true experience.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>catching his breath</i>] I am sad.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Zacharias</span>] I cannot speak with this petitioner<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Trembling beside me: give him judgment first,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And then hear my complaint.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>sternly</i>] No: let him hear&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">What have you against God?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">I have not found Him.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">You fast? You have been diligent in prayer?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>more excitedly</i>] I cannot pray&mdash;scarcely at Angelus&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The Sun so flares and changes ... in the cold<br></span>

-<span class="i0">East clouds there is such witness to His strength<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Ere he lay him down: the life, the passion<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Arrest me and I weep.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">You <i>cannot pray</i>!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">But in the cloister....<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Oh, those other prayers<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That I am set, I say them when I must,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_33">{33}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">I sing within the chapel, dig and plant.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And eat my portion; then there comes an hour,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">For which my heart has saved itself all day,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">When I can be alone&mdash;sole preparation<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The spirit makes when she would be with God&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I turn from Time’s small dues of speech and habit<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To serve Eternity, the joy is coming<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That has no moment: and a noise is made,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A monk approaches me, and I am summoned<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To visitors who seek me as a marvel<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To gaze upon. O father, when they look<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I reel with shame.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i19">What would you? Such example<br></span>

-<span class="i0">As yours confounds the foolish.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i32">Grant my prayer&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Our prayers, for Marcomir’s are joined to mine&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That we may leave Soracte and retire<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To some far convent hidden in the hills.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Wisely you ask the natural medicine<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Your state requires.<br></span>

-<span class="i21">Good prior Damiani,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The brothers Carloman and Marcomir<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Together with King Rachis join your rule.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Let them obey you, leading tranquil lives.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>apart to</i> <span class="smcap">Damiani</span>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Firm discipline!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>RACHIS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>from the ground</i>] O holy pontiff, grant<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That I may change with Carloman&mdash;Soracte<br></span>

-<span class="i0">For me, if you are merciful.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i29">Not so.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">This zealous son of ours has felt the poison<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of worldly visits trouble him.<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_34">{34}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>sharply</i>] Sin needs<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A tomb in which to die.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>RACHIS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Fool! I am lost!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>He throws himself again on the ground in despair.</i>]</p></div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">We thank you, father, for we bound our hearts<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And brains and bodies with the fearful oath<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To live in God, and the great Tempter&mdash;Time&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Has thwarted us persistently with bondage<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of interruption. Claims and trifles hinder<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Our worship of what passes not away;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>vehemently</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And I am chafed, my father.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i28">There is something<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Terribly painful in your eyes&mdash;pray much,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And think but seldom.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Enter another Cardinal.</i>]</p></div>

-

-<h3>CARDINAL.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i22">Saintly Boniface<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Comes from the Frankish Court.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>He ushers</i> <span class="smcap">Boniface</span> <i>in</i>.]</p></div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i31">A triple blessing<br></span>

-<span class="i0">On this most reverend head. You come from Pepin<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Or Chilperic? Here is Carloman.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i33">Beloved,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Why have you left Soracte?<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_35">{35}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i27">Visitors<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Wasted my leisure: I became a sight,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Like some caged animal.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i24">He leaves to-day<br></span>

-<span class="i0">For Mount Casino.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span>] You are happy?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i32">Yes ...<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Oh, no, not happy; it is different:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Not as you feel when you have won the goal,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">But as you feel when racing.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i29">Do you care<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To ask no news of Pepin or ... of ...?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">No. [<i>he turns away.</i>]<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">What is your mission, good Archbishop?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i39">Pepin<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Sends me to ask your blessing and to pray<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That you would place upon his head the crown<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That Chilperic seems to wear, but which, in truth,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">He, Pepin, owns unworn!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i24">We have considered<br></span>

-<span class="i0">This matter on our knees before our God,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And questioned what the power He lodged with us<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_36">{36}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">Might in such case attempt: we have been taught<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A glorious lesson&mdash;that as Samuel made<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And unmade Kings, because God ruled in him,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">So we can put away the <i>fainéant</i>,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Disgraceful Chilperic, and proclaim as King<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Pepin, our doughty servant.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>starting</i>] Pepin&mdash;King!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>turning aside again</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Why should this news so knock to enter&mdash;why?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">It seems to make me open a shut door:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I see the Rhone, I see my father’s roof,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The gay French faces!&mdash;Pepin, King!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i36">I hear<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Your will with joy. It is a deadly peril<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To France that she is governed by a man<br></span>

-<span class="i0">No better than an image, golden-haired<br></span>

-<span class="i0">But lifeless as a stone. The very people<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Laugh at the word, <i>a King</i>. But all will change<br></span>

-<span class="i0">When Pepin’s bulk of character extends<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The meaning of his office.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i27">Pepin, King!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">O Marcomir, you have heard it?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i31">Yes, I heard ...<br></span>

-<span class="i0">No matter! He has ruled so long, the title<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Will fall on him as new years follow old.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Boniface</span>.]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">We bid you see he is proclaimed; ourself<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Have hope to crown him when occasion brings<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Either the Frank to us or us to him.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Although he want our oil, we give him grace<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_37">{37}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">To exercise all sovereignty, immuring<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Chilperic within the cloister where he dwells.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>suddenly to</i> <span class="smcap">Zacharias</span>.]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Oh, you can act for God, and I must pray;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">There is a distance from Him in my life<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Since I can only pray: while there is nearness<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Between your life and His creative <i>Be</i>!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>astonished</i>] My son, what do you mean?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">O Carloman!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Pardon. I spoke aloud a scudding thought<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That filled my head one moment. So divine<br></span>

-<span class="i0">It is to act God’s Counsel.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i28">We can serve Him<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Only if stable, for the life of life<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is calm as the untroubled sea and changeless.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Go, follow Damiani, dearest son!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Peace be to you, belovèd Carloman.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">My prayers, though often offered on the earth<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of heathen lands, are yours at morn and night.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I never can forget you.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i24">Pepin, King!&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">O Boniface, I think you said farewell.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You journey far and far; you see strange faces,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And woods where idols live in solitude,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Hamlets and forges, feasts, the glare of arms,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_38">{38}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">And great unpeopled plains so full of wind<br></span>

-<span class="i0">It seems the owner, while the little trees<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And grass are slaves: and thus you wander on<br></span>

-<span class="i0">God’s messenger ... Ha, ha! The little trees<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And grass!... Good-bye!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">My child&mdash;<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>gently</i>] Yes, Boniface?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Nothing. I can but bless you. Go, <i>in peace</i>.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>As</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>moves away</i>, <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>bends forward</i>.]</p></div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Is the Queen well?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Ask not; he has not asked.<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_39">{39}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h2><a id="ACT_III"></a>ACT III</h2>

-

-<p class="c"><span class="smcap">Scene</span>: <i>The Garden and Cloisters of Monte Casino.</i></p>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>striking himself with a stone</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">What tides of rapture spring at every stroke!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Have mercy, God! Such agony of pleasure<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I felt when <i>she</i> came near. Oh, can it be<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I have not yet inflicted utter pain?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is there some chaste and vigorous suffering<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Beyond the shameful wiles, with which the lash<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Unnerves me? Pain, more pain!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>He strikes himself without pity; then, seeing</i> <span class="smcap">Damiani</span> <i>enter the

-court, he hurriedly drops the shard</i>.]</p></div>

-

-<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i30">Your hand is bleeding.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I see!&mdash;Although I took away your silex<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You yet have braved my will.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">I need the rod.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">You need obedience. Flog yourself again,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You will be locked in prison like your friend.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>in a low voice</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">He has no guilt.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i17">No guilt! You have not heard<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I caught him flushed with triumph at the news<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That Astolph in defiance of the Pope<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_40">{40}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is laying siege to Rome. Good Rachis wept<br></span>

-<span class="i0">As well he might, but Carloman blasphemed<br></span>

-<span class="i0"><i>Would I were with your brother!</i> and for this<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I had him shut in darkness fourteen days.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The term is over, and to change your sullen,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Ascetic mood&mdash;it is a festival&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You shall restore your friend to liberty.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You err through over-discipline, a fault,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">But one that brings us honour; stubbornness<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Like his disgraces the whole brotherhood.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Admonish him! If he is quite subdued<br></span>

-<span class="i0">He shall be suffered to resume his rank<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Among his fellows: for yourself, remember<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Humility is satisfied with penance<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The Church inflicts. No private luxury!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Do not offend again.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>Exit.</i>]<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i21">Not use the rod!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Not use it when I feel incitements rapid<br></span>

-<span class="i0">As points of fire awake me to the knowledge<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That all my flesh is burning! Every flint<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Becomes a new temptation. How confess<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To <i>him</i> I love his wife, and guiltily!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">O Geneviva, do the swans still crowd<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Round you to feed them? Are you mistress still<br></span>

-<span class="i0">In the old palace? Can there be a doubt?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">If Pepin dare insult you&mdash;O this frock,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">This girdle, not a sword belt! And your husband<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Who brought you to such peril with his dreams,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Let the light wake him!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>unlocks the prison-door, flings it open and draws back

-behind the trellis of vines</i>.]</p></div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i24">What has struck my eyes?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is it the air, the sun, an open door?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Oh, it is dark with brightness, and half-blinds,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">So rushing in! I would have been with God<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_41">{41}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">When the light broke in answer to His cry;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I would have seen it pushing its broad leaves<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Through Chaos as it travelled!&mdash;<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>advancing</i>] I am come<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To give you freedom.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>seizing his hand like a boy</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i21">Are the throstles fledged<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I left within the orchard?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i27">They are gone ...<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Besides, we must not wander&mdash;recollect!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">I do; I was a goatherd on those hills<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Before my punishment [<i>pointing to the prison</i>].<br></span>

-<span class="i0">How sad you look! Come with me; I will show you<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The flock of goats leaping from crag to crag&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And have you ever drunk their milk? It foams;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Its thousand little bubbles seem themselves<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Full of an airy life, and in the smack<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of the warm draught something exhilarates<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And carries one along. Come to the hills!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Dear Carloman&mdash;<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i16">These cloisters are so dull<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Where you sit brooding morn and eve; beyond<br></span>

-<span class="i0">One sees the clouds laying their restless fingers<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Across the scaurs.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i19">But is that meditation,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And does one so find peace?<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_42">{42}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i28">The dew is there<br></span>

-<span class="i0">In the green hollows; when I see those steeped<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And shining fields, my heart fills to the brim,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And, though I yearn, my yearning satisfies.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Come with me: fast as I attain, with you<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I share the secret.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i20">But you strike me dumb.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You have forgotten, we are bound by vows,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">By our obedience.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i18">Are we bound by hopes,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">By yesterday’s lost hopes?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">But promises&mdash;<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">I promised to be God’s, ah yes, I promised,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">As two on earth agree to be together<br></span>

-<span class="i0">For evermore, vowed lovers. Is the marriage<br></span>

-<span class="i0">In the companionship or in the vow?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Why, Geneviva is still vowed my wife.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">But we must keep our troth.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i28">We must escape<br></span>

-<span class="i0">From anything that is become a bond,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">No matter who has forged the chain,&mdash;ourselves,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">An enemy, a friend: and this escape,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">This readjustment is the penitence,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The sole that I will practise.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>looking more narrowly at</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span>] But your eyes<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Are witheringly remorseful. One would say<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_43">{43}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">That you had been some sunshines in the dark,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You, and not I. Open your heart to me.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">I hate you.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Hate me, why? For heresy?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">No, for your blindness: think what you have done,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Think of ... at least, think of your only child<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Mewed within convent walls.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">There is escape.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">What, for a child?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>clenching his hand</i>] <i>Per Baccho</i>, but my son<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Shall never wear a tonsure.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i28">Time will prove!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You stand so free and noble in the light<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Yet it is you who brought me to despair.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">One cannot be a fool, one of God’s fools,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Unconscious of the ill in others’ hearts,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And not breed deadly mischief.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i31">I entreated<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You would not come with me.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i28">You drew me on;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You cannot help it, you make life so royal<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_44">{44}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">Men follow you and think they will be Kings,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And then&mdash;<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">What ails you?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i26">Have you watched the lepers?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Waiting outside the churches to be blest?&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">They pray, they linger, they receive their God,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And yet depart uncleansed.<br></span>

-<span class="i27">Do not continue<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To question me, but listen. Bend your eyes<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Full on me! I have never told the Prior,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I cannot; and I would not breathe it now<br></span>

-<span class="i0">But for her sake. The lady Geneviva<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is spotless; but my thoughts have been defiled.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I love her, I have never won her love,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Must never strive to win it. It is hell<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To think of her.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">You never won her love?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Never.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i7">She had so many favourites,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Poor boy! and you were thwarted.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i33">But her bond,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">My deep disloyalty!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">No more of this&mdash;<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">If I were in the world, it is to her<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I should return.<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_45">{45}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i17">The doors are strongly barred:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">There is no other hindrance.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i29">They are come<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The brethren and the prior: you must kneel<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And then be reinstated. I forgot.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Damiani</span> <i>and a number of monks</i>.]</p></div>

-

-<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Brother, we have great joy in your release,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And hasten to embrace you. Own your fault<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Submissively, then rise and take your place<br></span>

-<span class="i0">In our rejoicing band.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">I will not kneel.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Respect your vow.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i18">But there is no such thing&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A vow! as well respect the case that sheathes<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The chrysalis, when the live creature stirs!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">We make these fetters for ourselves, and then<br></span>

-<span class="i0">We grow and burst them. It is clear no man<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Can so forecast the changes of his course<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That he can promise <i>so I will remain,</i><br></span>

-<span class="i0"><i>Such, and no other</i>. Words like these are straws<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The current plays with as it moves along.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">My brethren, do not listen; he is mad.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">No, you are mad; you cannot see that Time<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is God’s own movement, all that He can do<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_46">{46}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">Between the day a man is born and dies.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Listen a little: is there one of you<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Who looks upon the sunlight and the buds<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That moss the vines in March, and does not feel<br></span>

-<span class="i0"><i>Now I am living with these changeful things;</i><br></span>

-<span class="i0"><i>The instant is so golden for us all,</i><br></span>

-<span class="i0"><i>And this is life?</i> Think what the vines would be<br></span>

-<span class="i0">If they were glued forever, and one month<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Gave them a law&mdash;the richness that would cease,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The flower, the shade, the ripening. We are men,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">With fourscore years for season, and we alter<br></span>

-<span class="i0">So exquisitely often on our way<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To harvest and the end. It must be so.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Is this what darkness and strict punishment<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Have wrought in the corruption of your mind?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">I lay as seeds lie in the prison-house,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Dying and living&mdash;living evermore,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Pushed by a spark of time to join the hours,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To go along with them.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<p>A MONK.</p>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i23">But, brother, this<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is overwhelming.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Sin, can that be dropped?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Never, there is no need. Life seizes all<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Its own vile refuse, hurries it along<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To something different; religion makes<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The master-change, turning our black to white;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">But so, as from earth’s foulness, the stem drains<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Corruption upward, and the cleanly flower<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Waves like a flame at last.<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_47">{47}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i28">O Carloman,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">My brother, I am saved!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>The monks press round</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>tumultuously</i>.]</p></div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i24">But all of you<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Be saved, and on the instant! Yes, the prior,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You all of you, do not believe me mad.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">It is your misery, I think, that more,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">More than the urgent torment of my soul<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Has brought me to the truth, the healing truth<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That we must give our natures to the air,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To light and liberty, suppressing nothing,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Freeing each passion: we have slaves within,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">So many slaves, and I have learnt that saints<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Have dungeons that they dare not look into,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The horror is so deadly. Force the locks,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Let the fierce captives ravage. Better far<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Murder and rapine in the city-streets,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Than lust and hatred’s unfulfilled desires!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Be saved; strike free into the world&mdash;come out!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Oh, you can do it&mdash;I have spoken truth,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I see that by your faces.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>OLD MONK.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>touching</i> <span class="smcap">Damiani’s</span> <i>shoulder</i>] Surely, prior,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">We must arrest this traitor.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>in a whisper</i>] Half the brethren<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Are in the chapel: I will bring them down<br></span>

-<span class="i0">In mass on these insurgent novices.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>aloud</i>] Children, I leave you: wrestle with temptation;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I now can only aid you with my prayers.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">When you have heard him through, decide; and either<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Lead him in chains to me; or if his lies<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Prevail with you, then put me in your prisons,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_48">{48}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">And let the devil rule.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span>] Now do your worst<br></span>

-<span class="i0">With your blaspheming tongue.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>Exit.</i>]<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>OLD MONK.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i30">We should be fools<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To listen to him&mdash;it is mutiny;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And there are walled-up dungeons.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i34">No, the hills<br></span>

-<span class="i0">For all, if all are reckless; it is just<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The one that fears who is the traitor-foe<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Imperilling brave men.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>Ist OLD MONK.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">But how break free?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">How? All of us march with a single mind<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Making a strong procession from the gates.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>2nd OLD MONK.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">The Church has soldiers: whither could we go<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Unarmed and with an angry multitude ...<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>Ist OLD MONK.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Whither?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>3rd OLD MONK.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i9">Besides we are not of one mind<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Now he stops preaching; it was like a spell.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>4th OLD MONK.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">The heretic!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>OLD MONK.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i13">Tush! ’Tis the kind of frenzy<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That seizes every novice. Carloman,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Will you not hear my voice?<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_49">{49}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i28">No, good old monk,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">God’s servants must not listen but to Him.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You have grown comfortable as the years<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Rolled on,&mdash;no matter. What the novice suffers,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">What every novice suffers, speak of that.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>OLD MONK.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">I have forgotten it.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i21">You can forget<br></span>

-<span class="i0">What you have suffered; then ’tis waste of time<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To listen to you. What we suffer once<br></span>

-<span class="i0">In youth&mdash;in childhood and our secret youth,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">We suffer to our grave.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>turning to another monk</i>] Have you forgotten?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>Ist OLD MONK.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">No, but the pain is numb, so long ago<br></span>

-<span class="i0">My parents spoilt my life to have their will;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I must endure the best they could conceive,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And save their souls.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i21">If you should lose your own!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A curse on parents! The one truth that led me<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To seek the cloister was my certitude<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A man’s existence lodges in himself<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And is not owned by kindred.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>OLD MONK.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i29">Gently, brother,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You had your way, and made yourself a monk;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Now you are all for change&mdash;so is the world<br></span>

-<span class="i0">For bitter change.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>Ist OLD MONK.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i19">My mistress has been married,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And would but laugh at me.<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_50">{50}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>OLD MONK.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i27">Time works such wonders<br></span>

-<span class="i0">If we will give him time to work them in.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>IST MONK.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">It is too late.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i16">A maxim for the dead.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">It never is too late for any seeing,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">For any recognition we are wrong.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">It is a man’s despair, not his confession<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Proves him contemptible. <i>Too late</i>, you say,<br></span>

-<span class="i0"><i>Too late</i>&mdash;but there are countries where ’tis spring<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And harvest many times within the year.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Besides, we must not tarry in a place<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The moments do not wash with dew; we wither,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Death has his secret will with us. Believe!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Act on the instant.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>OLD MONK.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i20">The high gates are barred,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And yonder is the Prior.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Damiani</span>, <i>with</i> <span class="smcap">Rachis</span> <i>and a large troop of monks, is seen coming

-from the Chapel</i>.]</p></div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i25">The gates are strong;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">But you and I and all of us can pass<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Through them in simple triumph if we will&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">With one consent.<br></span>

-<span class="i18">Why, they are opening now!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">How gloriously! Armed riders!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Astolph</span> <i>with a band of Lombard soldiers</i>.]</p></div>

-

-<h3>MONKS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i30">Miracle!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A sign from God.<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_51">{51}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i17">Not one of you shall come.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">What, flocking to my side because a door<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Turns on its hinges&mdash;shame!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Where’s Carloman?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>advancing</i>] Who asks?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">The King of Lombardy.<br></span>

-<span class="i22">Give place!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">My saviour!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Are you Carloman the Frank?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I like you&mdash;yes, your face is eloquent.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You do not keep your eyes upon the ground,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Like this dear relative.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>staring fixedly at</i> <span class="smcap">Astolph</span>] You glitter so,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You glitter like the golden Vines, your hair<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is gold, your armour full of spokes and rays.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">And you are muffled in a sackcloth-bag;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The contrast strikes you.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Damiani</span>] Lunatic?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i35">And worse&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A rebel, an apostate, noble prince,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">For whom I bring these manacles.<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_52">{52}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i33">And I<br></span>

-<span class="i0">An extra horse; for, lunatic or sane,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I must have speech with&mdash;&mdash;<br></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>turning to</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>with a laugh</i>]<br></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i28">Do you know your name?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">We who are kings and soldiers know it well,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And Christendom remembers. Ah, I see!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You are not happy, so they call you mad.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>RACHIS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Have you no word for me? I am a King,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A King discrowned&mdash;and more, you have my crown.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Are you grown sick of it?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i26">My dear old Rachis,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Do not look covetous! I am not come<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To take you from your prayers.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>RACHIS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i31">You think you triumph,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">But when you roll your thirsty tongue in hell,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And see me in the peace of Abraham’s bosom,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Watching your pain&mdash;<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i21">To every dog his day!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>with a shudder</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Ah, then&mdash;meanwhile there is a blowing wind,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And all the world to ravish ... Carloman,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">We are the brothers now ... [<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Damiani</span>] Yes, I and this<br></span>

-<span class="i2">[<span class="smcap">Rachis</span> <i>sneaks off, hissing curses</i>.]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Fraternal soul, your madman.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i29">Do you need<br></span>

-<span class="i0">An interview?<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_53">{53}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i14">I take it, thank you. Glance<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A moment at my soldiers&mdash;and retire.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>They all withdraw.</i>]<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Come to the well, where we can sit and talk,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And I can have a draught.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>He looses his helmet and dips it in the well.</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>puts

-both hands round it as soon as it is full of water</i>.]</p></div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i26">Wait! [<i>drinking</i>] Cool and strong!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That prison-stuff was stagnant. Sunshine’s warmth,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The cool of water, how they both refresh!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>looking up with a smile</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Now, brilliant one, your business?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i35">Will you leave<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The Monastery?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">At once.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i24">You have no terror?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You will not creep back, conscience in your nerves?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Let me but pass the door.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>laughing</i>] You see it swings.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I left it open.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Then we start at once.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>checking him</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">No, stay a little. Are you still the friend<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of Zacharias?<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_54">{54}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">He is great.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i27">No doubt&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And most sagacious, for he seeks your brother<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To win him with the bribe of sacred oil<br></span>

-<span class="i0">As vassal and ally against myself.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I started here from Rome the hour I heard<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That Zacharias had crept out by night<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To travel northward and defeat my hopes.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You must arrive before him! I am come<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Sure, from report, that you will help my cause,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You, who have been a ruler. I contend<br></span>

-<span class="i0">No supernatural power should have control<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of lands and cities, troops and civil rights,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Matters distinct from God, as from the world<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The service he requires. Life is so easy<br></span>

-<span class="i0">If we will keep it human&mdash;quarrel, murder,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And then make friends: we have so short a time<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To sin together ... but this hate deferred,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">These pestilential menaces!&mdash;<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i30">The Pope<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Shall never injure France!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i27">It lies with you<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To break the threatened treaty. You have owned<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Power over Pepin?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i18">Yes; tho’ tardily,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">He followed all my counsels.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i29">Ride, and stop<br></span>

-<span class="i0">This treaty. If you ride you will forestall<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_55">{55}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">The Pontiff’s slower march; and I meantime<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Will press the siege of Rome ... you must not mind<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The ache of stiffened muscles.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i31">Hills and plains<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And trees&mdash;the olives, cypresses and vines;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Then France with nuts and poplars! But you keep me<br></span>

-<span class="i0">In one great palpitation.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i26">Zacharias,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Besetting me from north and southward, crushes<br></span>

-<span class="i0">My strongest forces. What a splendid thing<br></span>

-<span class="i0">For the old man to travel in the heat<br></span>

-<span class="i0">So far to work my ruin!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i24">But the world<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is for the young, my Astolph.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i30">Carloman,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I love you. Why, I feel a lad, eighteen,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">When looking on you. Come, we two must kiss;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">We may not burn together, flame in flame,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Again&mdash;so we must kiss.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i24">My blessed one,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Would I could cleave to you! You give me freedom,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A gift so rarely thought of.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>calling a monk</i>] Fetch the Prior,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The brethren, now&mdash;this instant. We must start.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Grant me beside the freedom for myself<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Salvation for another.<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_56">{56}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i23">What, a monk<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Still half of you! Such trouble for men’s souls&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">But have your wish. Once on the battlefield,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Men will become your prey. This solid jaw<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Means grip you will not loose. O Carloman,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">If I can circumvent the Pope, and then<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Stretch him a bleeding quarry at my feet&mdash;<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">What, Zacharias!<br></span>

-<span class="i17">But I plead for France;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Popes must not meddle with her.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>as the</i> <span class="smcap">Prior</span> <i>and Monks re-enter</i>] I require<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The services of Carloman: another<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Whom he will choose attends him.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i33">Impious wretch,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You steal from God His servants!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Astolph</span> <i>laughs and moves up the courtyard to summon his men</i>:

-<span class="smcap">Damiani</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Rachis</span> <i>talk to each other; the monks listen in a

-scared group</i>.]</p></div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>drawing</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>to the front</i>] Marcomir,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Come from this graveyard.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i26">No, I must not come,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I dare not; she is yours.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i26">Is mine? You wrong her&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Not yours nor mine. Earth’s wisdom will begin<br></span>

-<span class="i0">When all relationships are put away,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_57">{57}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">With their dull pack of duties, and we look<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Curious, benignant, with a great compassion<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Into each other’s lives.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i25">It is not so<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I look; I have a lust to gratify,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A lust for very shame I loathe to mix<br></span>

-<span class="i0">With Geneviva’s image.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i23">Faugh! because<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You think that I possess her! Cursèd bonds,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Cursed law that makes this riot in the heart!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Come forth; all will be gentle out of doors.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Gird up your habit.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">She?&mdash;<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i27">Is but herself,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">O Marcomir, we tarry&mdash;and the leaves<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Are tossing through the air&mdash;<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Astolph</span> <i>throws his scarlet riding-cloak over</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span>, <i>who

-seizes</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>with an impetuous movement and draws him toward

-the horses that champ at the gate</i>.]</p></div><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_58">{58}</a></span></p>

-

-<h2><a id="ACT_IV"></a>ACT IV</h2>

-

-<p class="c"><span class="smcap">Scene</span>: <i>The Hall of the Frankish Palace. Early morning; the remains of a

-banquet on the table, drinking-cups, wine bottles, faded leaves.</i></p>

-

-<p class="c">[<i>A</i> <span class="smcap">Servant</span> <i>is wiping away the stains of wine from the floor</i>.]</p>

-

-<h3>SERVANT.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">It is a cheerful thing to make all clean<br></span>

-<span class="i0">When one is brisk and cool: this early air<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Before the sun gets up is fit for men<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To breathe when they are working.<br></span>

-<span class="i34">Spot on spot!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A stranger to the revel of last night<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Would take it there had been a massacre<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To daub the floor so thickly.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Enter another</i> <span class="smcap">Servant</span>.]</p></div>

-

-<h3>2ND SERVANT.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i30">What a strew<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of glass and muddy wine-drops! Come up close<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And listen. There’s a curious monk outside<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Who asks to see the King&mdash;almost a beggar,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And yet a red embroidered riding-cloak<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Flaunts round his ragged sackcloth; while his voice<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Has such a wanton ring we need not trouble<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Lest he should take the scandal of this room<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Too much to heart. The jolly soul can pipe!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>A voice is heard richly humming.</i>]</p></div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0"><i>Wine is for drinking,</i><br></span>

-<span class="i0"><i>Glasses for chinking&mdash;</i><br></span>

-<span class="i0"><i>Fellowship, pleasure,</i><br></span>

-<span class="i0"><i>Of the full cup:</i><br></span>

-<span class="i0"><i>Lift it up, lift it up!</i><br></span>

-<span class="i0"><i>And let us be gay and be friends without measure.</i><br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_59">{59}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>1ST SERVANT.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">A monk indeed! Why we must drink again!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A minstrel!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>2ND SERVANT.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">And his comrade took the horses<br></span>

-<span class="i0">As he had been a squire.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>1ST SERVANT.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Oh, but the song!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I never heard another one like this.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>2ND SERVANT.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Man, they are all the same: but then he sings it<br></span>

-<span class="i0">As if he had just learnt that grapes have juice,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That makes it sound so well. You’re pouring wine?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>1ST SERVANT.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Yes, he must drink for that. Ho, there again!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Have you not caught the line?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>They join in as the voice sings</i>]</p></div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0"><i>These are the treasure</i><br></span>

-<span class="i0"><i>Of the full cup;</i><br></span>

-<span class="i0"><i>Lift it up, lift it up!</i><br></span>

-<span class="i0"><i>And let us be gay and be friends without measure.</i><br></span>

-<span class="i0">Ha, ha!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>2ND SERVANT.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Come in!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span>.]</p></div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i17">You praise deep drinking&mdash;you ...<br></span>

-<span class="i0">For shame! A churchman! But ...<br></span>

-<span class="i32">How thin!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>1ST SERVANT.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">What eyes!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Shall I have long to wait? Is Pepin ill,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Or is he grown luxurious? I would say<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That I remember how your King is famed<br></span>

-<span class="i0">For industry. He does not lie abed?<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_60">{60}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>1ST SERVANT.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">No, father.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i12">Call me brother if you will.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Why do you choke with laughter? I am ready<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To laugh with you, to laugh to very tears<br></span>

-<span class="i0">At what I am and have been. Do not hide<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A thing so good and bright as laughter&mdash;Eh?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>2ND SERVANT.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Mad! It were best to leave him to himself.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>They draw back.</i>]<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>Looking round the room</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Throw the door wide open. Here we need<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Fresh air even more than water. How the wine<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Cries from the ground&mdash;shut in with walls, and cast<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Below men’s feet, a slough where animals<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Might wallow, and so sour! Let in the breeze.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Let in the dawn outside there!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>1ST SERVANT.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>propping the door</i>] After all<br></span>

-<span class="i0">He is abstemious and sad at sin.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Look how profoundly sad!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>2ND SERVANT.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i25">Such twins of temper<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Are frequent with the crazy. Now he drops<br></span>

-<span class="i0">His mantle, have you ever seen such limbs&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A very scare-crow’s!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>1ST SERVANT.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">But a kindly smile.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>2ND SERVANT.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">He touches things and lifts them up and down<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Just like an idiot. We must warn the King.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>Exeunt.</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_61">{61}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">A feast, how nasty! Dabbled vine-leaves, vessels<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Broken to shivers, the inspiring juice<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Black on the boards&mdash;a feast! Can happiness<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Leave refuse such as this? It visits slaves,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And then its track is loathsome. Ah, the air<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Has entered like a wedge, keen, reaching me<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Through all the mustiness ... and now I breathe!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The door is not enough, the windows too ...<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>opening one</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">There! How it enters!<br></span>

-<span class="i24">[<i>turning toward another window</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i22">In this room I lived;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">It is not altered? No, the fireplace, east;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">My chair in front, and hers ... but they are crowned<br></span>

-<span class="i0">At present; and my name upon that bench.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">It is more terrible than nightmare&mdash;this<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Besieging of one’s life by chairs and walls<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And memories. Ah yes, the walls, the walls,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">They do the mischief; and this reek of age<br></span>

-<span class="i0">From every corner sickens worse than stale<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Imprisoned fumes of wine. More air!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>He throws wide all the windows: then leans out of the last. While

-his back is turned</i>, <span class="smcap">Geneviva</span> <i>staggers drowsily in, reels to the

-board, tries to drink, then flings herself against the throne

-sleeping</i>.]</p></div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i36">O Earth,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">How beautiful to think I travelled on<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And on, yet rode against no wall, so freely<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The outworks of your sky gave up their space.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">My brain is tired with interest: what men do<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Or speak enthrals me, I who often paced<br></span>

-<span class="i0">This room as blind to anything alive<br></span>

-<span class="i0">As if a child unborn.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Impulsively beginning to pace.</i>]</p></div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i22">And yet, my God,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">How great a Captain thou wilt have in me<br></span>

-<span class="i0">If this bond-King, this Pepin can be freed;<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_62">{62}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">If I can do this thing, while Astolph batters<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The very gates of Rome.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>pausing at sight of</i> <span class="smcap">Geneviva</span>.]</p></div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i24">But who is this<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Strange, beautiful, wild woman?<br></span>

-<span class="i32">Oh, how delicious<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Her arms, her bosom! Through the sodden hair,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Trailing the ground, what glitter, and how clean<br></span>

-<span class="i0">This naked shoulder lies against the floor.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Why, this is Sleep itself!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>He comes close.</i>]</p></div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i27">O Geneviva,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">So you too have learnt freedom, and are grown<br></span>

-<span class="i0">How marvellous in beauty!&mdash;Marcomir!&mdash;<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>stands at the door</i>.]</p></div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">He must not see her drunken and so flushed;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">He shall not.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>moving quickly to the door</i>.]<br></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i14">I am looking every moment<br></span>

-<span class="i0">For Pepin; do not enter.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>turns and goes out</i>.]<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i25">Oh, my shame,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">If she should open her gray eyes on me,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And find me frocked and tonsured ... for the sun<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Strikes sheer across her face.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>He bends over her; she wakes, looks up, laughs in his face, and

-then speaks.</i>]</p></div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i31">So young a guardian!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Most holy father, but I am not dead;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Do not bring rosemary, or sprinkle me<br></span>

-<span class="i0">With holy drops.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>rubbing her eyes</i>] They call this morning sleep<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A beauty sleep. You must not stare so hard.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">But do not laugh.<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_63">{63}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i18">I must; you are a monk<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Shame-faced and awkward. [<i>rising</i>] Have you travelled far?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">I came on embassy: the Lombard King ...<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">These kings and princes! But whoever rules<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Young men must have their pleasure. You and I&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Shall we not drink together?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>She pours wine into a goblet&mdash;he drinks</i>]</p></div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i29">God, what thirst!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Now you must rest awhile.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Who are you, lady?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">So should a novice lisp. I am a woman.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Glorious!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">And <i>you</i>? [<i>she laughs.</i>]<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i21">Oh, do not jest with me;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You bring a devil to the paradise<br></span>

-<span class="i0">It is to gaze on you. I am escaped<br></span>

-<span class="i0">From convent-walls, the wrong, the bitterness!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">These monks are cruel, cruel, and I shudder<br></span>

-<span class="i0">At their embrace; yet if I have a joy<br></span>

-<span class="i0">It is to bring their manhood back to them.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Ha, ha! To see them look the murderer’s guilt<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_64">{64}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">After a moment’s pleasure in my arms.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You shall not slip me.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i23">I have left the convent<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A novice, as you say. But who are you<br></span>

-<span class="i0">So terrible in pity that you touch<br></span>

-<span class="i0">My hand and draw me to you, though my habit<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And shaven hair insult you worse, more grossly<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Than the most wanton bearing you have met<br></span>

-<span class="i0">In any other man? I am ashamed<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That you should see me thus.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i29">My dearest lovers<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Forsook me to be monks. You are as one<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That comes to bring me tidings of the dead,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The holy dead who have no evil thoughts<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Or trouble from temptation.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>She laughs bitterly</i>] For their sakes<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You are beloved.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i17">Then put away all speech:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">When love draws on me put it by as scholars<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Their task when night falls thick upon the page.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Bend over me and kiss me. Do not laugh&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I love you.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Did you ever love before?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0"><i>Never.</i><br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i9">Then I must tell you who I am:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A harlot ... in my palace&mdash;Do not wince!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>she looks at him doubtfully</i>]</p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_65">{65}</a></span>

-</div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-I had a husband counted me a temptress<br> And fled: I laugh now to

-remember it.<br> I loved once; he I loved became a monk,<br> And therefore I

-make sport of holy men. <br>I would not scoff at you, not tempt you even.<br>

-You have deep, burning eyes.

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i29">He was a monk?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">His name, who fled you? Would you have your pleasure<br></span>

-<span class="i0">With me, his name!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>to herself, shaking her head</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i19"><i>He</i> had oblivious eyes!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>vindictively</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">My lover’s name was Marcomir.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i30">The monk<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Who journeys with me on this embassy<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is Marcomir. If you are amorous still<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of him ...<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i11">Not now&mdash;no more. I am afraid ...<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Who are you? You are surely of my race,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Have known me in my youth. A flushing shame<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Breaks on me&mdash;<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i15">And to find you are beloved<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Moves you?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i11">Not that! I hear it every day.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">It is too stale a story. Could I love&mdash;&mdash;<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Observing</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>passing and re-passing the windows</i>]</p></div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">How dare he watch us! But I recollect<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You told me he had been your paramour.<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_66">{66}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">You come ... he comes, I mean, from Mount Soracte&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Then ... yes, I will have speech with him.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>bitterly</i>] Oh, gossip,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The convent’s gossip. I can furnish that.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">If you desire him carnally, I yield;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">But if ...<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">He knows so much of long ago.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>impulsively</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Then he shall speak.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i21">Not now; you must not call!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Not now; for he remembers&mdash;<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i28">Ay, the harlot<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Was once a girl, the monk was once a man.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">If you would speak of life<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Before it was apprenticed to these trades&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of life and youth, virginity and love,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">My ear will be as ripe for your confession<br></span>

-<span class="i0">As his. We all remember; but our wisdom<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is to forget: our powers of penitence<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Must be enfranchised, sin itself set free,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">No clog or fetter on us!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i25">Carloman,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">My husband!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i12">Your free lover. Oh, I burn,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Burn toward your beauty! How can you forgive<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The years I simply owned you!<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_67">{67}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i30">Am I sweet,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">So sweet to you&mdash;these lips so many men<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Have kissed, this body.... But you bid me speak<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of life and youth, virginity and love,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And by a miracle I can. We two<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Can argue of such matters.<br></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>As</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>passes she calls</i>] Marcomir!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>She restrains</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>and goes to the door</i>.]</p></div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">No, <i>I</i> must summon him.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>enters</i>.]</p></div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i25">Were we not happy,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Those days we sat together quite alone<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Praising and talking of him? We adored,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">We each adored him, but we had no part<br></span>

-<span class="i0">In that lone heart of his. Now all is changed<br></span>

-<span class="i0">He loves me&mdash;<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Lady Geneviva!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i29">No&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The harlot, loves the harlot. You can tell me<br></span>

-<span class="i0">So much of him. What, with him every day!&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">All through the golden summer and no rain,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">All through the autumn and its violence!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Did he fall sick of fever?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i27">I have known<br></span>

-<span class="i0">So little of the seasons. Day and night<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I prayed that God would keep you chaste. No prayer<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of mine was ever answered.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span>] Dare you pray<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That this should be or that? The only prayer<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That is not futile in impiety<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_68">{68}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is like a plunge beneath a river’s flow<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To feel the strength and pureness of the life<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That courses through the world.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i32">Ah, yes, to bathe,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And then to rise up clean.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span>] The very moment<br></span>

-<span class="i0">He spoke of youth, virginity and love<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I prayed: I am alive. O Marcomir,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And there are other words of fellowship,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of joy and youth-time. Let us hold him dear<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Because he has delivered us; together<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Let us give thanks, give courage each to each<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Unenvious; let us talk of him once more,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Though with a difference&mdash;I will not use<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Your comradeship profanely as I did,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To set you up against him in caprice,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Then leave you wild and empty. He has much<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To pardon; you have more.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">No, no!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i34">Ah, no&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Not pardon. Where’s the need? We mortal men<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Are brought to riot, brought to abstinence<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That we may grow on either ready soil<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The mustard-seed of pleasure, that is filled<br></span>

-<span class="i0">With wings and sunny leaves. As time goes by<br></span>

-<span class="i0">We shall have true relations each with each,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And with clean hearts receive the usufruct<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of what is best, and growing better still<br></span>

-<span class="i0">In every soul among us.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>leading her up to</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span>]<br></span>

-<span class="i24">Geneviva,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">His kiss will free your penitence, and teach you<br></span>

-<span class="i0">He never could regret the past, because<br></span>

-<span class="i0">It made to-day.<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_69">{69}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>kissing her</i>] Now, and beyond, beyond<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Your friend&mdash;and lover.<br></span>

-<span class="i24">I have prayed, like you,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The difficult is possible as once.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">O life, O Geneviva, I were doomed<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Indeed, if I should dare to rob myself<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of all the joy it is to be with you;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That were to die forever. What, reject<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The gift you have for me, because for him<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You have a different gift! But take my passion,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">As I shall learn to take your friendship&mdash;each<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Accepting what the other has to give,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">All will be well between us.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Pepin</span>.]</p></div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i29">Holy brothers,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">At last I join you. Come, this is unseemly ...<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A pleasant dame&mdash;but not within my palace<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Shall you be tempted to forsake your vows.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Geneviva</span>.]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Go, get your lovers on the highway; here<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You bring disgrace.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">(<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>in a low voice</i>) A courtesan.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">My wife.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Thor! are you crazy?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i21">And I trusted you,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I left her in your charge. Where is my child?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Dead in the cloister half a year ago ...<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That was no fault of mine. As for your wife&mdash;<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span>] Take Lady Geneviva to her rooms,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_70">{70}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">Her rooms within the palace.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Geneviva</span>, <i>as she goes from him</i>] So our boy<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is dead! Can you forgive me?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>He shudders and bows his head. Exeunt</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Geneviva</span>.]</p></div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i29">On my oath,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I could not be her keeper, Carloman.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">No, that is no man’s office. Of herself<br></span>

-<span class="i0">She was what she has been, and each of us<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Should say no word against her to our shame,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Nor any word to one another more<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Than what we just have said. These fearful things<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Should be within a fosse below all speech;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">While we live sound above them and forget.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I come to you....<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i18">The same, magnanimous,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">My brother, as of old.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>laying his hand on</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman’s</span> <i>shoulder</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i23">What bones!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i35">Ah, yes.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I have not flesh as full of life as yours;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Why, your mere touch can warm one like the sun.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Six years ago! You come as if the dead<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Could rise and make a visit.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>gasping</i>] Pepin, hush!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I have been dead, and yet I am no ghost;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You strike me through with anguish.<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_71">{71}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i36">But you suffer<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Unnecessary pain. I give you welcome<br></span>

-<span class="i0">With all my heart; yet you yourself must know<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Your presence in the place where once you ruled<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is&mdash;well, unlooked for.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>vehemently</i>] Brother, I can prove<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I am no spectre, outcast from the fortunes<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of breathing men,&mdash;that I too have a part<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Once more in worldly business. I am come....<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>close to him</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">What are you come for?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i24">I am come to live,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To share again your counsels.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i30">You are come<br></span>

-<span class="i0">For <i>what</i>?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i12">Once more to think of France, and act<br></span>

-<span class="i0">As you and I determine.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i24">Willingly<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I hear advice; but now the throne is mine<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Decision rests with me and not with you,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Who have been shut away from everything<br></span>

-<span class="i0">But prayers and convent-policy. Forgive,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">We are no longer equals&mdash;you a Saint,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I a mere statesman. But you have not said<br></span>

-<span class="i0">One word about the cloister.<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_72">{72}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i29">Do we waste<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Much talk on vaults, we men who are alive?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">And yet you chose it!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Now I choose again.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">You cannot. Are you mad? Who sent you here?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Astolph the Lombard.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i21">Humph! What prelate gave<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Authority to him? He could not use<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Your services by force.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i24">I left the convent<br></span>

-<span class="i0">At his request alone, in opposition<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To bishop Damiani. I am free!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I proved it, acting freely.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Whew!&mdash;this Astolph ...?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Would save you from alliance with the Pope,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Alliance with a foreign tyranny,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Opposed to human life and thwarting it.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Astolph is on your borders, and a King<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is more your natural fellow than this Pope,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Who seizes on the natural power of Kings,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Confusing his tiara with their crowns.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_73">{73}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">I speak the truth, for Zacharias travels<br></span>

-<span class="i0">In haste to put his yoke on France and you.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Before he can arrive ...<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">The Pope is here.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Impossible!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">He reached us yesterday.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Pepin, you are in league with him?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">I am.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">As you are wise and manly, break your promise;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">It injures France, the freedom-loving plains<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The aweless stock we come of. Will you give<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The future of your people to a priest,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You who profess the tonsure round my head<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Disables for a crown?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i22">I, break my treaty,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And ruin my whole scheme!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i26">The Pope is gray,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And Astolph young and sound in force as you.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Which is the deadlier foe?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i27">The Pope and I<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Are age and youth together. Carloman,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I love you still; you take me at the heart<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_74">{74}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">Now that your face is glowing: I must speak,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">For either you are mad, or have forgotten<br></span>

-<span class="i0">How deeds are judged here in the actual world.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You are a monk, a runaway, and worse&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A heretic blasphemer, one who tempts<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Both to rebellion and to perjury,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Yourself as disobedient as forsworn.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You must go back and bear your punishment<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Without the least delay; for you are lost<br></span>

-<span class="i0">If Zacharias find you here.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Go back!<br></span>

-<span class="i9">Go back!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">You are a danger to yourself<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Remaining, and a danger to my throne.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">All I have said is true. Have you not broken<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Your vow?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">I have.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">And are you not a rebel?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">I am, I am, because I am alive&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And not a slave who sleeps through Time, unable<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To share its agitation. What, go back!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You might as well dismiss me to the womb<br></span>

-<span class="i0">From which I was delivered.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i28">Of yourself<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You left the world.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_75">{75}</a></span><span class="i0">[<i>trembling</i>] O Pepin, the same mother,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Gave us our lives, and we had worked and thought<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And breathed in common till I went away&mdash;<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">We cannot any more. Why will you fix<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A look so obstinate and hot?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">By heaven, you are a fool. I cannot change<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Myself, nor you, nor what has come to pass<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I soon shall hate you, wish that you were dead.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">How horrible! I never will go back;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">But I can live without my brother’s love,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">For ties are not existence.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i28">Will you raise<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Divisions in my kingdom?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">I must live.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Pope Zacharias</span>, <span class="smcap">Boniface</span> <i>and a number of Churchmen and

-nobles</i>.]</p></div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Zacharias</span>.]<br></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">There stands my brother and your enemy.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Who?&mdash;Carloman? You wrong him. But what mission<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Has brought him to the palace?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i31">He has left<br></span>

-<span class="i0">His convent, and is here to plead the cause<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of Astolph, the arch-heretic.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i30">My son,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Defend yourself.<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_76">{76}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>putting his hands over his brow as if in confusion</i>]<br></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i17">But I can never say<br></span>

-<span class="i0">What he could comprehend. How strange to feel<br></span>

-<span class="i0">So slow, as if I walked without the light,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Deep in a valley.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<span class="smcap">Boniface</span> <i>touches him</i>] Ah!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i29">You do not listen!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Beloved, the Pope is speaking.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Boniface</span>] But you know<br></span>

-<span class="i0">What drove you forth to wander foreign lands,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">With joy in every limb and faculty:<br></span>

-<span class="i0"><i>That</i> drove me from the convent.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i34">As a monk<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I left the English cloister, with a blessing<br></span>

-<span class="i0">From him who ruled me. Is it as a monk,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Oh, is it&mdash;that we see you in our midst?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">No, no, enfranchised!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>suddenly standing forth</i>] Hear me! The <i>I am</i><br></span>

-<span class="i0">Has sent me to you and has given me power<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To rend your idols, for you have not known<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The God I worship. He is just <i>to-day</i>&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Not dreaming of the future,&mdash;in itself,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Breath after breath divine! Oh, He becomes!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">He cannot be of yesterday, for youth<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Could not then walk beside Him, and the young<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Must walk with God: and He is most alive<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Wherever life is of each living thing.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To-morrow and to-morrow&mdash;those to-days<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of unborn generations; the <i>I am</i><br></span>

-<span class="i0">To none of them a memory or a hope,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_77">{77}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">To each the thirst, the wine-cup and the wine,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The craving, the satiety&mdash;my God!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">O Holy Father, you who sway the world<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Through Him, must not deny Him.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i32">I deny!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">God does not alter; you have changed to Him<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Who is Eternal.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i16">Yes, in change, and free<br></span>

-<span class="i0">As we are free who move within His life,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And shape ourselves by what is moulding Earth<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And men and ages. In my cell I lost<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The motion of His presence. I was dead.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">No, you are dead to what you dare blaspheme,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To what the cloister holds, if any place<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Can hold it, the immutability<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of God’s inherent nature, while without<br></span>

-<span class="i0">His words are trying men by chance and change<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And manifold desires. You left His works<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Behind, you chose Himself: your oath was taken<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To His deep heart; and now you would forswear<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That oath, you cannot. No one who blasphemes<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The light of God shall see the light of day:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">For him the darkness and for him the grave.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I am no more your father, but your judge,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Who represents the God you have disowned,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Insulted and forgotten. He requites&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And you shall answer to the uttermost.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">I can.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i7">You still persist in carnal thoughts,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Confounding Deity with things that pass?<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_78">{78}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">God is the Movement, if He is the Life<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of all&mdash;I live in Him.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i23">You left the convent<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Against command?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Against command of men.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">And leagued with Astolph?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">In fast brotherhood.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">You hear his full confession. O apostate<br></span>

-<span class="i0">In vain, weep at your sentence.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i32">Holy Father,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I pray you send him back, but spare his life&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Spare him, if I have power with you.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i37">His doom<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is but his choice made permanent on earth.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span>] O fallen from blessedness of will, become<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The friend of heretics, the false of word<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To everlasting Truth, you are condemned<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Life-long to be a prisoner in your cell,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Life-long to watch the scourge and crucifix.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You chose them, as the God whom you abjure<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Chose them, <i>forever</i>; you have lapsed and they<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Become tormentors, till they force contrition<br></span>

-<span class="i0">At last and save you.<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_79">{79}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>with a low, panting moan</i>] Prison!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i37">At Vienne,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">There till you die the prison you have made<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of an eternal vow shall compass you.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Think what it is&mdash;by God Himself, remember<br></span>

-<span class="i0">What you would do to me. The very dead<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Rise ... Everything must have escape to live,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And I shall still be living.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>He throws both arms over his face, then suddenly removing them,

-makes a frenzied movement closer to the Pope.</i>]</p></div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i29">Let me die<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Here, now! It is most impious, horrible<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To bury me, full to the lips with life.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Sharpness-of-death, give <i>that</i>, but not to feel<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The prison walls close on an energy<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Beating its claim to worlds.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i29">What I have spoken<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is and remains irrevocable.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>gently to</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span>] Yield,&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Yield to a God Who compasses you round<br></span>

-<span class="i0">With love so strong it binds you.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i34">And is hell&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">But I reject such love.<br></span>

-<span class="i24">O Pepin, listen!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I see so far! Your pact with Rome undoes<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Long centuries, and yields your country up<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_80">{80}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">To spiritless restriction, and a future<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Entombed alive, as mine will be, in night.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Simply renounce your promise, bid your soldiers<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Seize the old man who numbs us. You and I<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Could set to music that would never end<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The forces of our people.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>PEPIN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i26">You are crazy<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Or worse, and I disown you.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Zacharias</span>] On his head<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Let fall what curse you will.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i30">Then he shall see<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The sacred pact between us re-confirmed.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>to Monks</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Fetch Chilperic! [<i>Exeunt Monks.</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i17">And meanwhile bring fetters in<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To bind this renegade.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>moving up to the royal board that crosses the hall at the further

-end</i>]</p></div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">The treaty&mdash;sign!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Pepin</span> <i>and his nobles follow</i> <span class="smcap">Zacharias</span>: <i>Attendants bring in

-fetters</i>. <span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>submits mechanically to be bound, staring at</i>

-<span class="smcap">Pepin</span>, <i>who affixes his signature to the treaty</i>.]</p>

-

-<p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Boniface</span> <i>goes round to</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span>.]</p></div>

-

-<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Son, you do well to take your shame so meekly,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And bear in patience.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>sharply</i>] Have they bound me then?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Look, Boniface! And Pepin is a slave.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_81">{81}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">Nothing remains now in the world. That treaty,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That pact!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Chilperic</span> <i>is taken before</i> <span class="smcap">Zacharias</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Pepin</span>; <i>they appear to

-address him, to consult with each other: then a monk advances and

-cuts off</i> <span class="smcap">Chilperic’s</span> <i>long hair, while he weeps bitterly</i>.

-<span class="smcap">Geneviva</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>re-enter hurriedly as if they had heard

-bad news and see</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>bound</i>.]</p></div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Be true to him.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">I will.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i35">Then share<br></span>

-<span class="i0">His prison&mdash;say you left his monastery,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Step forth and save him from his loneliness,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">My Marcomir, his friend. This is the moment;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And, as you love him, speak.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>drawing his cowl closer</i>] No! Once before<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I went along with him: I went to hell.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Renew that pain and foulness for his sake,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Because I love him&mdash;&mdash;?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i24">Then because I love,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">If nothing else will urge you&mdash;<i>for my sake</i>,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Only for mine.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i15">And would you be a harlot<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Again, for him?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Hush, never!<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_82">{82}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i29">No, we two<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Should understand each other, for we dare not<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Become what we have been. For my own sake<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I will not leave the world.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i28">He watches us ...<br></span>

-<span class="i0">O agony! And he is turned away,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And casts me off for ever. Go to him&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I cannot; for he sees me as I am,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The glory dropt away.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>makes a forward movement</i>]<br></span>

-<span class="i22">You shall not go!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">What do I say? I should not have the strength,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Not all alone. Stay with me! It is plain<br></span>

-<span class="i0">What I must do to win him, and so hard&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">It smiles so in the stream. Oh, hush! Look there!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That is worse dying. How they pass before him,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">There, standing in his chains.<br></span>

-<span class="i31">And Pepin looks<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And hurries on, but all <i>his</i> gaze is fixed<br></span>

-<span class="i0">On Chilperic’s shorn head.<br></span>

-<span class="i27">See, how they pass!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Now Zacharias&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i16">And he curses him:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The earth is trembling.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>making a movement as if to curse</i> <span class="smcap">Zacharias</span>]<br></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i24">But I have no God<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To curse you with. I cannot do you harm.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I have no God, no friend, no glowing hate:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You all will pass before me in procession<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Day after day as shadows.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">To his cell!<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_83">{83}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h2><a id="ACT_V"></a>ACT V</h2>

-

-<p class="c"><span class="smcap">Scene</span>: <i>The Prison at Vienne</i>.</p>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>lying on a plank bed</i>.]</p></div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Though Time has played me false&mdash;it is not that:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">It is the fading colours in my soul,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And all the brilliant darkness through that chink;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">It is&mdash;<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>The door opens and a</i> <span class="smcap">Warder</span> <i>enters</i>.]</p></div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i8">O Warder, put the food away;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">But come and chat with me.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>WARDER.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i27">I have instructions<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I must not speak a word.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i25">Is that the sentence?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Sit down.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>WARDER.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i10">But I must see you drink this wine.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The Pope, King Pepin too&mdash;they all are anxious<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Your life should be preserved.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i31">Sit down and drink.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Now you will chat with me!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>WARDER.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>drinking, and speaking always in an undertone</i>]<br></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i27">How do you feel?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Here’s to your health.<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_84">{84}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i23">Why, that is like a prayer&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Warmed by your voice. They who would shut men up,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And bar them from their fellows’ kindly voices,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">God cripple every motion of their soul!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">So I am here for ever.<br></span>

-<span class="i23">Take that bread:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I like to see you eat. Now talk again.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>WARDER.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">But you will eat some too?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i27">No, my good jailer,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You shall not forge that chain. You know I’m dying;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Bring me my food and eat it here and talk,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Then you will stay a little longer. Tell me,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">How is it with the sky to-day, the winds<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And the flowers crying after them? O God!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>He buries his face in his hand.</i>]</p></div>

-

-<h3>WARDER.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Sir, it’s a south wind.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i24">Do the birds fly high?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I watched them in great circles as I travelled&mdash;<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>WARDER.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">I have not noticed them.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i25">In wheeling flocks<br></span>

-<span class="i0">They mounted ...<br></span>

-<span class="i17">Have you nothing more to say?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">It must be early morning in the world<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Where all is changing.<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_85">{85}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>WARDER.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i23">Ah, you’d know the time;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Most prisoners get confused.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i29">No night nor day;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">God promised them forever&mdash;morn and eve,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The gathering of the shadows, the decline,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The darkness with no footfall: then the day<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And all things reappearing. That’s for all&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Most for the prisoners, if you’d have them gentle.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Throw down this shutter!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>WARDER.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>shaking his head</i>] That is just the point&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">In prison you get thwarted every way;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You won’t ask that to-morrow.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>He rises, shakes the crumbs from his lap, sets the half-empty

-wine-bottle on a ledge within</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman’s</span> <i>reach and goes out</i>.]</p></div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Is he gone?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>drags himself up and props himself by the wall with his

-ear against it</i>.]</p></div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">I hear the river rushing past the walls,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Rushing and rushing, and through all my dreams<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I labour to keep pace with it: awake,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I give myself to rest. It comforts me,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To hear the bounding current pass along,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To think of the far travel of the drops,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Crisping the tiny waves. Away, away!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">It is great peace to follow: to pursue<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is misery.<br></span>

-<span class="i11">And if I kneel down here,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I can just catch the glitter of the sun<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A-tumble down the stream....<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>He crouches and looks through the chinks.</i>]</p>

-

-<p class="c">[<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Zacharias</span> <i>and two</i> <span class="smcap">Monks</span>.]</p></div><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_86">{86}</a></span></p>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Where is he?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MONK.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i42">There,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Peering between the loosened stones.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>turning</i>] The Pope!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Leave me in peace. You promised me seclusion.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I told you I would be alone with God.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Leave me!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i10">But you are shut up with the devil!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Deep as you lie, you dare not make pretence<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That you have found your God.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>laughing nervously</i>] The seeker lost<br></span>

-<span class="i0">More than the thing to find. Leave me alone&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You break the thread, you break it!<br></span>

-<span class="i36">O the stream,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">It flows and flows, and there are waterfalls<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Somewhere, great, heaving torrents ...<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>bending over him</i>] To Vienne<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Pilate, they say, was banished&mdash;here to die.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">What, Pilate!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Do you tremble at the name?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">O God, he saw the light and knew it not,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">He had worse memories than Iscariot had<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Misusing his great office. He had power,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Power to avert even Calvary ... and yet<br></span>

-<span class="i0">We owe salvation to him.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_87">{87}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>lifting himself up from the ground</i>] Can it be<br></span>

-<span class="i0">My blunder, my effacement shall prevail?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Zacharias</span>] So he was banished and came here to die&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">As you have banished me; it is enough;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">In chains and soon to die. There, hear them rattle;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Now you have done your part.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i29">Not till you yield,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Not till I see you suffer. [<i>aside</i>] Are hell’s rings<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of fire prepared in vain for him?&mdash;Repent!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Leave me!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i10">No sinner has withstood me yet.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You shall repent.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i18">But I am strong as you:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I will not.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i12">Oh, you must, for God’s own sake,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">His Majesty&mdash;He cannot strive and fail;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">His heart is set on you and He must have you,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">If but to bind in hell. Repent the past,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Repent, repent!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i16">Not anything&mdash;the whole<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Strange journey and its perils that have brought me<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Here to the brink of Death: and all will come<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And touch that wonder, all will enter in,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And rest and be revived. Why should one trouble?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Death comes to all, you cannot banish him,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And Death has all we seek for!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i31">These are words<br></span>

-<span class="i0">For men the Church has blessed: but if you die<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_88">{88}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">Without the holy Sacraments, unshriven,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And unabsolved, you will be flung away<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To yonder stream, shroudless and like a dog.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Thus heretics are judged.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>excitedly</i>] Be borne along,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Borne with the current. Is that possible?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Borne <i>dead</i>&mdash;well, each man takes his full desert&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Mine ... is it possible? And further on<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Past towns and cities ... then at last the sea.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Vain hope! You are God’s prisoner. No escape,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">No waves to hide you and no help of man;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">For prayer itself like hope is quenched before<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The everlasting Prison-house. Farewell!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Exit with the</i> <span class="smcap">Monks</span>.]</p></div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Ha! ha! He shuts the door&mdash;so blank a sound!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And now the river comes about my brain,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And now the music foams incessantly,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The music of my funeral. Enough<br></span>

-<span class="i0">For me that I shall lie against the heart<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of that on-pouring volume ...<br></span>

-<span class="i30">I am left<br></span>

-<span class="i0">By every creature I have breathed beside&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">They do not want me. God&mdash;He least of all!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">He has a King to crown.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">All’s well, all are provided for.... My brother<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is in my place; my friend will take my wife.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">How Geneviva shuddered at my chains<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And clung to her old paramour! So easy<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The world’s wounds are to heal. A little time,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Ten years, a year&mdash;and all is found defeat<br></span>

-<span class="i0">In any life, all turned to ridicule.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>in lay dress</i>.]</p></div><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_89">{89}</a></span></p>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">I have great news for you.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i27">But I am dying!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And now if all the doors were open wide<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I should not move to pass through any one.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You cannot bring great news; I know it all,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">All that must come now: I can alter nothing.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Rome will be succoured.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i24">Yes, the siege is raised,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And Astolph in retreat. I am not come<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To talk of politics.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i21">Of private matters?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">My Astolph, Lombardy ...<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i25">To say farewell,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To bless you. I am here as from the King;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I showed the monks a parchment with the seal<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You used when you were ruler: it was found<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Among <i>her</i> jewels ...<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i23">Ah, I see, a gift.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">So you too play the King. My signet yours,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Ay, and all else that ever bore my name.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Keep it.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">But Carloman&mdash;<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i24">I cannot wait<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To hear; I have so very little time<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To speak in and such hatred; hate that burns<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_90">{90}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">My heart through to the core. You, all of you,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">So glad that I am sunk here; Geneviva<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Moving no step to me; and that great Pope,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I gave my soul to in a wondering love,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Vexed that he cannot tame me, not desiring<br></span>

-<span class="i0">My help, my pardon. You must hear it all&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I am not in despair: I have a treasure,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A burthen at my heart&mdash;where it belongs<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I do not know. I have tried many names,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Tried God’s ... You see me dying, that may be;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">But not till I have cast my burthen down<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Can I be certain of my journey’s end.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">How very still your face is! Are you dreaming,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You look so happy? And that scarlet cloak&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Where is your habit?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i21">I have cast it off<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Forever; all my oaths are pushed aside,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">With all my penitence, by something holy,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And the world seems new-born about me now;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I live as in a kind of bliss,&mdash;such joy,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Such fresh, warm sorrow.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i25">Geneviva&mdash;yes<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I know she loves you. Wait till I am dead.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">O Carloman, I dare not break my news,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Not yet, you are not worthy. Do you hear<br></span>

-<span class="i0">How the Rhone sings outside?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i29">Beyond these shutters&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The light, the lightning music!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i32">So life sweeps<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Down through my blood; at last I have its secret.<br></span>

-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_91">{91}</a></span></div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Go, dash yourself into the Rhone and die!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">There is no secret hid in life&mdash;illusion,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That is the great discovery.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i29">O listen!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I am left poor and lonely in the world,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">So poor, so lonely, not a soul that needs,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That ever can have need of me! Unloved<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And undesired, with just the sun to hail,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The spring to welcome till I die, no more.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And yet&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">If they should thrust me in a prison-cell<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I should sing on in rapture.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i29"><i>Undesired!</i><br></span>

-<span class="i0">She desires no one ... but you dote on her,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And that will set you singing.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i31">On my lips<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Already there is savour of rich song.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That is the joy I spoke of. Oh, to spread<br></span>

-<span class="i0">The fame of my dead lady through the lands,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To sing of Geneviva!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i21">She is dead?<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Come closer. Chafe my hands&mdash;<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i30">They mocked at her:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">“If the Monk-King should ask now for his wife,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And we presented him the prostitute,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Would he not feel the ribaldry!” She stood<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Quite silent, and the ashen lines turned black<br></span>

-<span class="i0">On cheek and forehead; and they mocked her more:<br></span>

-<span class="i0">“The harlot and the monk!” Then suddenly<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_92">{92}</a></span><br></span>

-<span class="i0">A young, wild, girlish glory crossed her face,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">She grasped me by the hand&mdash;but how we went<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Through the hot streets I know not.<br></span>

-<span class="i36">On the bridge<br></span>

-<span class="i0">She turned to me&mdash;“Tell Carloman his wife<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Is dead”&mdash;and looking down, I saw her stretched<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Across the buoyant waters: from my sight<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Sucked under by the current ’neath the bridge,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">She did not rise.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>triumphantly</i>] And Marcomir, they promise<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To cast my body to the river there,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And let it sweep along.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i24">But I shall sing<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of life and youth, virginity and love.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You leave me in the world; O Carloman,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You leave me here delivered.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i29">We shall meet;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And yet such life wells up in me I fear<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Lest I should not be dying. Geneviva!<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>turning to</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And you will sing to me?<br></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>He lies back, wrapt in ecstasy.</i>]<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i25">To you, to all.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A tax is laid upon my very heart<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To sing the sweeping music of the Rhone,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">That rushes through my ears, that chants of her,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Of all you have delivered. In its depths<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You will be buried, but the very burthen<br></span>

-<span class="i0">You die to utter, far away in France<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Will be caught up; Love will be free, and life<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Free to make change as childhood.<br></span>

-<span class="i34">Someone comes&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Hush, very softly, do not be afraid.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Boniface</span> <i>enters and steals up to</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span>.]</p></div><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_93">{93}</a></span></p>

-

-<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">Beloved&mdash;<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>putting his hand on the lips of</i> <span class="smcap">Boniface</span>]<br></span>

-<span class="i0">No more! Dear voice, end with that word:<br></span>

-<span class="i0"><i>Beloved</i> is not a prelude, it is all<br></span>

-<span class="i0">A dying man can bear.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>blessing him</i>] All that I go<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To publish to the folk in heathen lands.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Tho’ very often it means martyrdom<br></span>

-<span class="i0">To listen to my story, I am blest<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Proclaiming it.<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">[<i>opening his eyes wide and raising himself</i>]<br></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i16">O Boniface, before<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I saw you as an angel.<br></span>

-<span class="i23">Is that wine<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Still on the stony ledge?<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>brings the wine-bottle</i>]</p></div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i26">Now let us drink,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Drink all of us.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Boniface</span>] Go to your heathen lands<br></span>

-<span class="i0">With that great lay of love.<br></span>

-<span class="i29">This is a poet,<br></span>

-<span class="i0">And he too has a burthen, but more sad&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Men love so fitfully. I for myself<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Drink deep to life here in my prison-cell.<br></span>

-<span class="i0">I had a song ... O Marcomir, the words&mdash;<br></span>

-<span class="i0">Why do you stumble? Once again the cup!<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="poetry">

-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0"><i>Fellowship, pleasure</i><br></span>

-<span class="i0"><i>These are the treasure</i>&mdash;<br></span>

-</div><div class="stanza">

-<span class="i0">So I believe, so in the name of Time ...<br></span>

-</div></div>

-</div>

-

-<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>He sinks back and dies.</i>]</p></div><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_94">{94}</a></span></p>

-

-<p class="fint">Printed in England by<br>

-The Westminster Press, Harrow Road<br>

-London</p>

-

-<hr class="full">

-<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE NAME OF TIME ***</div>

-</body>

-</html>

+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html lang="en">
+  <head>
+<link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover">
+
+<meta charset="utf-8">
+<title>
+  The Project Gutenberg eBook of In the name of Time, by Michael Field.
+</title>
+<style>
+
+a:link {background-color:#ffffff;color:blue;text-decoration:none;}
+
+  link {background-color:#ffffff;color:blue;text-decoration:none;}
+
+a:visited {background-color:#ffffff;color:purple;text-decoration:none;}
+
+a:hover {background-color:#ffffff;color:#FF0000;text-decoration:underline;}
+
+.big {font-size: 130%;}
+
+.cbig250 {text-align:center;text-indent:0%;font-weight:bold;
+font-size:175%;}
+
+body{margin-left:4%;margin-right:6%;background:#ffffff;color:black;font-family:"Times New Roman", serif;font-size:medium;}
+
+.blockquot {margin-top:2%;margin-bottom:2%;}
+
+.c {text-align:center;text-indent:0%;}
+
+.fint {text-align:center;text-indent:0%;
+margin-top:2em;}
+
+.figcenter   {margin:3% auto 3% auto;clear:both;
+text-align:center;text-indent:0%;}
+
+ h1 {margin-top:5%;text-align:center;clear:both;
+font-weight:normal;}
+
+ h2 {margin-top:4%;margin-bottom:2%;text-align:center;clear:both;
+ font-size:120%;font-weight:normal;}
+
+ h3 {margin:2% auto 1% auto;text-align:center;clear:both;
+ font-size:75%;font-weight:normal;}
+
+ hr {width:90%;margin:2em auto 2em auto;clear:both;color:black;}
+
+ hr.full {width: 60%;margin:2% auto 2% auto;border-top:1px solid black;
+padding:.1em;border-bottom:1px solid black;border-left:none;border-right:none;}
+
+ img {border:none;}
+
+.nind {text-indent:0%;}
+
+ p {margin-top:.2em;text-align:justify;margin-bottom:.2em;text-indent:4%;}
+
+.pagenum  {font-style:normal;position:absolute;
+left:95%;font-size:55%;text-align:right;color:gray;
+background-color:#ffffff;font-variant:normal;
+font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;
+text-decoration:none;text-indent:0em;}
+
+.rt {text-align:right;vertical-align:bottom;}
+
+small {font-size: 70%;}
+
+.smcap  {font-variant:small-caps;font-size:100%;}
+
+table {margin-top:2%;margin-bottom:2%;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;border:none;}
+
+div.poetry {text-align:center;}
+div.poem {font-size:100%;margin:auto auto;text-indent:0%;
+display: inline-block; text-align: left;}
+.poem .stanza     {margin-top: 1em;margin-bottom:1em;}
+.poem span.i0     {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+.poem span.i2     {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+.poem span.i5     {display: block; margin-left: 3.5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+.poem span.i8     {display: block; margin-left: 7em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+.poem span.i10     {display: block; margin-left: 8em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+.poem span.i15     {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+
+.toc {margin:1em auto;max-width:25em;
+border:2px solid black;text-indent:0%;text-align:center;}
+    .poem span.i11     {display: block; margin-left: 5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i12     {display: block; margin-left: 6em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i13     {display: block; margin-left: 6em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i14     {display: block; margin-left: 7em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i16     {display: block; margin-left: 8em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i17     {display: block; margin-left: 8em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i18     {display: block; margin-left: 8em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i19     {display: block; margin-left: 8em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i20     {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i21     {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i22     {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i23     {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i24     {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i25     {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i26     {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i27     {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i28     {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i29     {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i30     {display: block; margin-left: 15em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i31     {display: block; margin-left: 15em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i32     {display: block; margin-left: 15em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i33     {display: block; margin-left: 15em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i34     {display: block; margin-left: 15em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i35     {display: block; margin-left: 15em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i36     {display: block; margin-left: 15em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i37     {display: block; margin-left: 15em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i39     {display: block; margin-left: 15em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i42     {display: block; margin-left: 15em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i7     {display: block; margin-left: 7em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i9     {display: block; margin-left: 9em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+</style>
+  </head>
+<body>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE NAME OF TIME ***</div>
+<hr class="full">
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="344" height="550" alt="[The
+image of the book's cover is unavailable.]">
+</div>
+
+<p class="toc">
+<a href="#IN_THE_NAME_OF_TIME">IN THE NAME OF TIME</a><br>
+<a href="#PERSONS">PERSONS</a><br>
+<a href="#ACT_I">ACT I., </a>
+<a href="#ACT_II">ACT II.,</a>
+<a href="#ACT_III">ACT III.,</a>
+<a href="#ACT_IV">ACT IV.,</a>
+<a href="#ACT_V">ACT V.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="c">IN THE NAME OF TIME</p>
+
+<p class="c"><span class="big">OTHER WORKS BY MICHAEL FIELD</span></p>
+
+<table>
+<tr><td>CALLIRRHOE</td><td class="rt">1884</td></tr>
+<tr><td>FAIR ROSAMUND</td><td class="rt">1884 &amp; 1897</td></tr>
+<tr><td>THE TRAGIC MARY</td><td class="rt">1890</td></tr>
+<tr><td>UNDERNEATH THE BOUGH</td><td class="rt">1893</td></tr>
+<tr><td>THE WORLD AT AUCTION</td><td class="rt">1898</td></tr>
+<tr><td>THE RACE OF LEAVES</td><td class="rt">1901</td></tr>
+<tr><td>JULIA DOMNA</td><td class="rt">1903</td></tr>
+<tr><td>BORGIA</td><td class="rt">1905</td></tr>
+<tr><td>WILD HONEY</td><td class="rt">1908</td></tr>
+<tr><td>QUEEN MARIAMNE</td><td class="rt">1908</td></tr>
+<tr><td>THE ACCUSER</td><td class="rt">1911</td></tr>
+<tr><td>THE TRAGEDY OF PARDON</td><td class="rt">1911</td></tr>
+<tr><td>POEMS OF ADORATION</td><td class="rt">1912</td></tr>
+<tr><td>MYSTIC TREES</td><td class="rt">1913</td></tr>
+<tr><td>DEDICATED</td><td class="rt">1914</td></tr>
+<tr><td>DEIRDRE</td><td class="rt">1918</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class="c"><img src="images/logo.png"
+width="100"
+height="100"
+alt=""></p>
+
+<h1>
+IN THE<br>
+NAME OF TIME</h1>
+
+<p class="c">
+<span class="big">A<br>
+TRAGEDY</span><br>
+<br>
+BY<br>
+MICHAEL<br>
+FIELD<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+THE POETRY BOOKSHOP<br>
+35 DEVONSHIRE ST. THEOBALDS RD.<br>
+LONDON W.C.<br>
+MCMXIX<br>
+</p>
+
+<h1>IN THE NAME OF TIME:<br>
+<small>A TRAGEDY</small></h1>
+
+<p class="c">“<span class="smcap">In the Name of Time.</span>”&mdash;<i>The Winter’s Tale</i>, iv, <span class="smcap">I</span>, <i>chorus</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">ἅπανθ᾽ ὁ μακρὸς κἀναρίθμητος χρόνος<br></span>
+<span class="i0">φύει τ᾽ ἄδηλα καὶ φανέντα κρύπτεται:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">κοὐκ ἔστ᾽ ἄελπτον οὐδέν, ἀλλ᾽ ἁλίσκεται<br></span>
+<span class="i0">χὠ δεινὸς ὅρκος χαἰ περισκελεῖς φρένες.<br></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i10"><i>Sophocles&mdash;Ajax 646.</i><br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="c"><i>Quoted from R. C. Trevelyan’s Translation on the Cover.</i></p>
+
+<h2><a id="PERSONS"></a>PERSONS</h2>
+
+<table>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Chilperic</span></td><td><i>King of the Franks</i>.</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Carloman</span> }</td><td>{ <i>Sons of Charles Martel,</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Pepin</span>&#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; }</td><td>{ <i>Consuls and Mayors of the Palace</i>.</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Marcomir</span></td><td><i>A Frankish Count</i>.</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Rachis</span></td><td><i>King of the Lombards</i>.</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Astolph</span></td><td><i>His brother</i>.</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Zacharias</span></td><td><i>The Pope</i>.</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Damiani</span></td><td><i>An Italian Bishop</i>.</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Boniface</span></td><td><i>A Missionary Saint</i>.</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Geneviva</span></td><td><i>Wife to Carloman</i>.</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class="c"><i>Cardinals, Nobles, Monks, Servants.</i><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_1">{1}</a></span></p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p class="cbig250"><a id="IN_THE_NAME_OF_TIME"></a>IN THE NAME OF TIME<br>
+<small>A TRAGEDY</small></p>
+
+<h2><a id="ACT_I"></a>ACT I.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Scene</span>: <i>Paris. A Hall in the Royal Palace.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>is pacing backward and forward: he pauses by a crucifix set up
+at the further end of the hall</i>.</p>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><i>Thou sayest truly that I am&mdash;a King</i><br></span>
+<span class="i0">He said Who laid His life down on the Cross:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">So will I be, a King. I will possess<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The great reality. I war and govern,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I can strike hard as Charles the Hammerer;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Men say I have my father’s qualities,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And in the brief months of my sovereignty<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The infidel has recognised my blood:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">But this is nothing! Phantom-Emperors<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Have made the throne phantasmal. I have felt<br></span>
+<span class="i0">In Zacharias, the great Pope, a force<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That spreads like spring across the world. No more<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Will I be petty marshal to a crew<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That hack and murder, while the royal faces<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of wandering martyrs scintillate and thrill.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">There is a glorious Betterness at work<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Amid the highways and the solitudes;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I would be with it&mdash;in obscurity,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">No matter!&mdash;with the river as it shapes<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Its cisterns in the hills or where the wind<br></span>
+<span class="i0">First draws its silver volumes to a voice:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Behind, at the beginning, from within:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A cry, a pang&mdash;what shall respond to it,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_2">{2}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">Who help me? I have fiery thoughts of God,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I would attempt Him. In the wilderness<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Maybe He will unbosom.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="c">[<i>Enter a</i> <span class="smcap">Servant</span>.]</p>
+
+<h3>SERVANT.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i22">The Archbishop<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of Mentz would see you.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i22">Blessèd Boniface!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">He brings me my enfranchisement.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="c">[<i>As</i> <span class="smcap">Boniface</span> <i>enters the</i> <span class="smcap">Servant</span> <i>withdraws</i>.]</p>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i32">Great Angel,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">My spirit leaps within me to be born,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Beholding you.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i14">My son, the Holy Father<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Receives you joyously.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>kissing</i> <span class="smcap">Boniface</span>] To go to God<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Living, unscathed, to give Him everything<br></span>
+<span class="i0">One has, to pour one’s soul into His lap,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To let Him play upon one as the wind,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To feel His alternations ...!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i30">Carloman,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Your childlike transport shall be surely blessed:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Yet in the convent there are bitter hours<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of exile from God’s presence, penances&mdash;<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But will they choke my solitude with prayers?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The holy brethren chant in unison<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_3">{3}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">For hours within the chapel; there is buzz<br></span>
+<span class="i0">About the cloister like a hive of bees.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">There have been hermits! Might I live alone,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I could breathe unrepiningly the while<br></span>
+<span class="i0">It pleased God to keep silence. I would tame<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Some wistful, kingly beast to roam with me,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And we would wait His pleasure. Boniface,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh, tell me of His coming! It is plain<br></span>
+<span class="i0">He has been with you&mdash;You became His friend?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">His servant rather.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i20">That I cannot be;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I am a Knight free-born; I come as those<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Great nobles of the East, and all my service<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is adoration. You may have some converts,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Brute-tribes, who give allegiance to His name,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">As those who do not speak the Emperor’s tongue<br></span>
+<span class="i0">May rank his subjects. I am not of these.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Thou speakest truth, my son; there are some souls<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Loved of the Lord as Paul in Araby<br></span>
+<span class="i0">With whom one must not meddle. In good time<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You will exalt the Church; meanwhile your brother<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Who has a tighter grip of circumstance<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Than you&mdash;<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">He is short-sighted, politic,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">External in his bent. I lead the charge<br></span>
+<span class="i0">In battle, I foresee the combinations<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of foreign forces; he is good at siege,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And all the hectoring process of delay.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">He is not like my father. That great fight<br></span>
+<span class="i0">At Tours! I feel the onslaught in my blood;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">It never can run sluggish.<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_4">{4}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i27">Had you seen<br></span>
+<span class="i0">King Chilperic’s flower-wreathed waggon in the street!&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You should have looked a last time on the world<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Ere you renounced it.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i22">Scanned the heir of Clovis<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Drawn like a senseless idol in his car!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You judge unworthily. God bade me come<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Up higher to Him on a battlefield<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Where I was victor. It was in the night&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I moved about among my sleeping men,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I heard them shout for triumph in their dreams:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">It was enough!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i15">Yes, all is vanity;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The pride of life, its splendour, <i>vanitas</i>!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">There is no vanity in life; life utters<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Unsparing truth to us,&mdash;there is no line<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Or record in our body of her printing<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That stamps a falsehood. Do not so confound,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Father, life’s transience and sincerity.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">What makes the show out in the streets so vile<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is that it blazons forth the lie that youth,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Kingship and power are ineffectual.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A show of death where life should radiate<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is vanity. And if I now fling off<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The honourable titles of my state,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Consul and Patriarch, it is not because<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I have not nobly borne them; by my sword<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The Church has been defended, and the corn<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That bows in shocks about your monasteries<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Bows down above the battlefields I won.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You misconceive.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i17">A sweep of piety<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Beyond my censure! [<i>half-aside</i>] Will he thrive at Rome?<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_5">{5}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Why should you look so fearful? I have chosen<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The path of life, choosing to be a monk,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And I have wisely chosen.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Ah, beloved!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Now I must face my brother. Would he come<br></span>
+<span class="i0">By chance! I dare not crave a conference.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I am arrested at the lips if ever<br></span>
+<span class="i0">We speak of anything beyond affairs.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">He will not understand&mdash;at least to-day,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">When fresh from the procession of that cursed<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Do-nothing Chilperic.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i22">Set your purpose forth<br></span>
+<span class="i0">At once, and let him freely misconceive:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You must not cloud for that.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i29">These mighty thoughts,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Mingled with God, how put them to the shame<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of the world’s censure! What you call my soul<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Flees as a shy girl that escapes pursuit.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Take your shame meekly. Do not let your eyes<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Grow wild and hostile!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Boniface</span>, <i>who has seen</i> <span class="smcap">Pepin</span> <i>approaching, withdraws to the back
+of the hall, stands before the Crucifix in mute prayer, and then
+passes out, looking back at the brothers</i>. <span class="smcap">Pepin</span> <i>is a short, stout
+man, with florid complexion and much vehemence of manner. He wipes
+the perspiration from his face and addresses</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>without
+looking at him</i>.]</p></div><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_6">{6}</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i26">Woden, what a sight!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">This Chilperic is an idol that the people<br></span>
+<span class="i0">No longer worship as his car rolls on.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Contempt, indifference! A few more months<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Will rid us of the calf. We pull together<br></span>
+<span class="i0">In right good part, fraternal, taking pride<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Each in the other’s excellence: ere long<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The Pope will pour his oil upon our heads<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To nourish our short curls.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">He has the power<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of making Kings?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Liutbrand the Lombard winced<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Before him and resigned the Exarchite:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And he who can impoverish may endow.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>with a sudden movement</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Pepin, we have not looked upon the face<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of Zacharias: I am bound for Rome.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">A pilgrimage? Stay where you are! Tut, tut!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Wait till he seek us. Frankland is his hope<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Against the Lombard: when he seeks us then<br></span>
+<span class="i0">We twain will offer him our dutiful,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Strong swords, and keep St. Peter’s realm intact;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">While, in return, that gracious influence,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That something that we lack to give our strength<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Supremacy, shall be poured down on us.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><i>Something we lack!</i> I dream of a possession&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Pepin, the world if I became a monk<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Would recognise that I lay down my rights,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">None wrests them from me.<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_7">{7}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i26">Are you clean gone mad!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Become a monk, you, Consul, Patriarch!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Our mother had been Christian scarce a year<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Before your birth, and haply took the priest<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Too much into her privacy. By Thor&mdash;<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>taking him by the throat</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">No, but by God Incarnate, you shall swear<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You own me son of Christendom’s great guard<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Ere you again draw unimperilled breath!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I, Carloman, your elder, the first-born<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of Charles Martel, of my own choice renounce<br></span>
+<span class="i0">My portion in his honours. Own my birthright!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Plague take you!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Own it!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i25">Give a fellow breath,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Don’t ...<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You have your father’s temper, that’s the test!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I loved you as a boy and set my teeth<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Against a rare, sweet craziness that takes you<br></span>
+<span class="i0">In certain moods&mdash;you need a keeper then:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You need one now. Hold fast your birthright, man;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Don’t trust me with temptation. Geneviva<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Will relish this new folly less than I&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Chuck her beneath the chin and threaten her<br></span>
+<span class="i0">With your design! She is too young a widow<br></span>
+<span class="i0">For me to govern.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>apart</i>] Deaf down to the soul!<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_8">{8}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">That flush across your forehead like a scar<br></span>
+<span class="i0">At mention of your wife! Her lovers!&mdash;Think<br></span>
+<span class="i0">If you withdrew protection....<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i31">Purity,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">In woman the ideal and the dream,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Has its firm seat amid the altitudes<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of manhood’s nature&mdash;There alone are seats<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of holy contemplation, sexless thoughts,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Love that in God finds goal, a loneliness<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That truth, not sympathy, can cure. ’Tis vain<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The hope that woman, made to minister<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To momentary passion, can provide<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Solace and inspiration to her mate.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">She breeds no hope; she cannot offer us<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A clime for our ideals and our dreams,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Or plant a footstep soft as memory’s<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Across futurity’s unimpressed sands.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">You speak from fact, I own.<br></span>
+<span class="i28">But Boniface,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">What does he say?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">He aids me.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>slapping him on the shoulder</i>] Carloman,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">’Twould be cold work without you.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But my son&mdash;&mdash;<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Nay, nay, no substitute! You are my brother,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I know the secret how to humour you,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I weave your projects in our policy,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_9">{9}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">And now and then you marshal us the way<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of an archangel ... but no substitute!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Yet love him for my sake; give him free training<br></span>
+<span class="i0">In war and letters.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i20">Fie, fie! Geneviva<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Will put you from this project. In the cloister<br></span>
+<span class="i0">What would you see but men who dig and pray?&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">No royal pageants.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">King Chilperic</span> <i>is borne in a litter with great pomp. His golden
+hair sweeps over the sides of the litter; his face is nerveless and
+exhausted.</i>]</p></div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>with an ironic smile</i>] Such as this. The King!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Tell him I have transferred the Mayoralty<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To you, and do not taunt me any more.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Chilperic</span>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Sire, you are weary, yet we crave the grace<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of a brief audience.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CHILPERIC.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i21">Business! I can brook<br></span>
+<span class="i0">No more of these distractions. Your good brother<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Relieves me of all business. I can hear<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Scarcely the people’s clamour when they shout,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And I am shy at facing them. To know<br></span>
+<span class="i0">There is a god indifferent to its whims<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Gives the world courage of its natural awe;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">So I expose these curls; that duty done,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Leave me at ease, an idol in his niche.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But, sire, my brother has persuaded me,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_10">{10}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">If you consent, to take on me his burthens,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">His duties and his honours; being summoned,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">He holds, by God to a monastic life.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CHILPERIC.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>with passing animation</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">This interests us. After so brief a term<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of dignity! But I applaud his sense:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The convent is a place for peace of mind;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">One has no interruption, one may watch<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The gold-fish in the fountain half a day,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">If so one will; and, though the prayers are long,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">One grows accustomed to them as to meals<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And looks for their recurrence.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>suspiciously</i>] But, my Consul,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">With you it cannot be the luxury<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of doing nothing that attracts. For us<br></span>
+<span class="i0">It is the happy and predestined lot;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">But for an untamed youth whose pleasures still<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Are running in the current of his blood,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Such choice is of ill-omen.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i28">Courage, sire,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is constant industry for happiness.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">When I become a monk&mdash;&mdash;<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CHILPERIC.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i26">Nay, no confession,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">No putting reasons to your Overlord.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>to his nobles</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You need not shake your spears so stormily,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">We leave you a stout leader for your wars,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span>] And you, your liberty. What use of it<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You make is of no moment to the world,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And does not raise my curiosity,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Who for myself have found in meat and drink,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">In sleep and long, long abstinence from care<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The pleasure proper to me. Pepin, come!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Exeunt</i> <span class="smcap">Chilperic</span>, <span class="smcap">Pepin</span> <i>and the Frankish Nobles</i>.]</p></div><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_11">{11}</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">He has no sight of God, is imbecile<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And dropping into clay. I should not let<br></span>
+<span class="i0">This show dishearten me; but I have suffered<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A vulgar tongue to tell what from my lips<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Alone is truth&mdash;that as the hidden spring,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Restless at touch of the diviner’s rod<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is dragged through to the surface by his spells,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I am discovered and borne upward, made<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The answer to some perilous appeal:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And for my folly I must be dismissed<br></span>
+<span class="i0">By a mere dotard with a passing sigh<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of envy, who forego the battlefield,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The Council-chamber, the sweet clang of arms<br></span>
+<span class="i0">For just a pricking wonder at my heart,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A knowledge I would give to secrecy<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Plunging it headlong in the ear of God.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh for the cloister! I will make escape<br></span>
+<span class="i0">At once, in silence, without taking leave:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">My joy is in the consciousness that Time<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Will never draw me back to any wish<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To any fondness I am flinging off....<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Geneviva</span>.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">My wife!<br></span>
+<span class="i8">Is Geneviva come to me?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Now the dull monk has left you. Rouse your head!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I have been taking thought how best to trim<br></span>
+<span class="i0">My beauty for you. Boniface was slow<br></span>
+<span class="i0">In giving counsel; slowly I took up,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Handled and dropt my jewels. Of a sudden,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">When Pepin’s voice was heard upon the stair,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I laid these blossoms in a ruddy knot<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Thus hasty on my bosom. Come to me.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">My lord, you owe me many hours of love,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">So many hours I have been beautiful<br></span>
+<span class="i0">In vain. You do not see me when I sing,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You miss the marks of music in my face,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_12">{12}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">You do not love the hunt, and you have never<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Ridden beside me in the morning light.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You see me but as now when I am vexed<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And haughty for caresses.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>after a pause</i>] Geneviva,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You are a Christian?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i24">Dear my lord, you speak<br></span>
+<span class="i0">As if I were laid sick.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">You were baptised?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Assuredly, but the cold font has left<br></span>
+<span class="i0">No chill upon my heart. Think not of that,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Think of our marriage-day. You leave me lonely<br></span>
+<span class="i0">While Boniface enthralls you.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>with hesitation</i>] Women even<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Have put aside their pomps and vanities ...<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Oh, leave me, you are insupportable!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You bring me word of kingdoms and of monks,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And thoughts of things that have not come to pass,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Or should be quite forgotten. We could spend<br></span>
+<span class="i0">So sweet a moment now, for you are loved,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">My Carloman&mdash;What need is there of talk<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Concerning other matters?&mdash;loved of me,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Dreamed of when I am dreaming, when I wake<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Wept for, sighed after. I have never cared<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To listen to the minstrels, for the praise<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_13">{13}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">My beauty covets most is in your eyes.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">How wild they look and solemn!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>folds her in his arms quietly. Then with great effort
+bends over her and speaks</i>]</p></div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i31">Marcomir<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is restless for a pilgrimage to Rome.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I think we shall be starting presently:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And afterward ... If I am long away ...<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>breaking from him</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh, think a little! Can you leave this hair<br></span>
+<span class="i0">So crisp and burnished? When the sun is bright<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Across your shield, it has no livelier flash&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Confess, it has not? But you come to me<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Stale, weary from your dreams and abstinence,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And tingle my suspicion.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i25">If these dreams<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Were growing all the world to me!&mdash;You start,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You turn away, you will not understand.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The fear of hurting you has made me keep<br></span>
+<span class="i0">So distant from you lately, and my eyes<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You thought were worn with vigil and with books<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Have burnt with tears at night for many a month<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To think you have not known the tyrant-joy<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That moves a soul to change and severance,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Except upon the day when for my sake<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You parted from your home: but by the rapture<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That made such tumult in the daughter’s grief<br></span>
+<span class="i0">When she became a bride, your husband now<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Implores your comprehension.<br></span>
+<span class="i30"><i>All thou hast</i>,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">So the Church teaches, <i>family and spouse,</i><br></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>The child thou hast begotten, thine own life</i><br></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Thou must abhor, if thou would’st have new days</i><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_14">{14}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Of blessing on the Earth.</i> I feel this law<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is written in my very heart of hearts,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">There is such haunting freshness deep below<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The sorrow of farewell.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>defiantly</i>] My God is Love&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The God who made a bower in Paradise,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Who wedded Eve and Adam, who abode<br></span>
+<span class="i0">In the sweet incense of His Church to bless<br></span>
+<span class="i0">My marriage.<br></span>
+<span class="i2">[<span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>stretches out his hand to support her</i>.]<br></span>
+<span class="i13">Have no fear that I shall fall,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I cannot swoon while I remember it&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">How in the songful hush a restless hand<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Grew tight about my fingers, and a vow<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Thrilled all the girl in me to womanhood,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And stung the future lying at my heart<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To joy and frankness. That was years ago ...<br></span>
+<span class="i2">[<i>She breaks into a bitter laugh</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">O Carloman, you know not what you do,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You know not what I am, nor what a blank<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of mercy there is in you!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i26">Were I dead,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You would not be so violent: in a trance<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of resignation you would think of me,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">With tears, not gasping laughter.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>pacing the room excitedly</i>] <i>Pilgrimage!</i><br></span>
+<span class="i0">Did you say, pilgrimage? To think of you<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Growing each day more cramped about the mouth,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">More full of resolution in the eyes.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">What shall I do? <i>Pray for you</i>&mdash;but the dead,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You have just told me, should be left unmourned,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Forgotten as last summer’s autumn-leaves.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>facing him coldly</i>] My lord, I am no reliquary-urn;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">There is no widow in me.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_15">{15}</a></span><br></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>with still greater change of manner</i>] If you leave<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Your Kingdom, there are certain things to do<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Before you start. There is that Gothic King,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The captive Hermann&mdash;you must break his chains.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Hermann is dead. Count Marcomir reports<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Last night he found him lifeless.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>gasping</i>] Late last night?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Marcomir!&mdash;Take your fingers from my sleeve;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">But summon Marcomir, and if again<br></span>
+<span class="i0">There is intelligence to break to me<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Likely to hurt, give him the charge of it.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">No, Geneviva. I have little speech;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">But when the secret crept into my soul<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I loved you, it was not to Marcomir<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I spoke: and if another secret now<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is breaking through my nature, do not think<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That he will be the spokesman.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>noticing her agitation</i>] Hermann died<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I think by his own hand; he courted death.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">What can a man prize in captivity?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>as</i> <span class="smcap">Geneviva</span> <i>grows more agitated</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">There! I will speak no more of him. Your maids&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>turning to summon her attendants</i>].<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Weave the great arras. They have no concern<br></span>
+<span class="i0">With me, except in silence to array.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You thought I cared to gossip with my maids!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">But summon Marcomir.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>She looks after</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span>, <i>who walks out, stroking his chin</i>].</p></div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i21">To think he dared<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To lean above me with those burning eyes<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_16">{16}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">Unconscious what they glassed. I did not learn<br></span>
+<span class="i0">From him the magic that was born in me,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I learnt it when great Hermann passed in chains,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And he is dead. I promised I would go<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To-day and visit him. How could he die?<br></span>
+<span class="i2">[<span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>enters</i>.]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Why, you are deadly pale!<br></span>
+<span class="i2">[<i>She recoils, and says in a faint voice</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i26">It is the hour<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Fixed for our visit.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But the man is dead.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">What does he look like now? Is he so changed<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I must not see him?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i20">Death is not a fact<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To touch with simile. What looks he like?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">All men in moonlight mind one of the moon,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">All dead men look like death.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i30">He lies in chains?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Are the brows restful?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i23">Had you been a man<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You would have asked me how he came to die,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">No more!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">I had forgotten ... then he perished<br></span>
+<span class="i0">As Carloman reports?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>turns away</i>.] You cannot bear<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That I should mourn him?<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_17">{17}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>facing her again</i>] Oh, a lifetime, if<br></span>
+<span class="i0">It please you! I am going to a place<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Where love is held of little consequence.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Then you are bound for hell.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>between his teeth</i>] But you are safe!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Keep me recluse from love, as men from war,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You spoil my faculties. Where will you go?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">To any coast you have not trod, wherever<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The flowers are different from the flowers you wear,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To some Italian convent. Geneviva,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I am not framed to see you minister<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To other men; but when long years are passed,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">It may be in a fresco, I shall find<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Some figure of a lady breaking bread<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To mendicants, and kneel and pray to her<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That she may bless me also: but till then ...<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>covering his eyes</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">O God, you shall not tempt me, though I feel<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Just how your hair burns in a fiery wreath<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Above your brow, and how your eyes are soft<br></span>
+<span class="i0">With blue, and deeper blue, as through the hills<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The valley stretches azure to the close.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You shall not tempt me, though I almost hear<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Your bosom taking record of your breath,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And I could sit and watch that tide of life<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Rising and falling through the lovely curves,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Till I was lost in ecstasy.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i29">Oh, hush!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">But then you love me. It was in a fit ...?<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_18">{18}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Of devilish malice.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i20">In a jealous fit?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You shall remain.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>She goes up to him: he takes her hands in his, kisses them
+coldly, and puts them away.</i>]</p></div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i18">I did not answer you&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">His face was drawn.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i20">And I had given you charge<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of the great restive soldier.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i30">True, I swerved;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I have confessed my sin, and now must bear<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The settling of my spirit on the Cross.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">So many favours!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i17">But you kissed his brows&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">What need was there of that?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i29">You love me then,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You love me! Would you murder him again<br></span>
+<span class="i0">If I again should touch him with my breath?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Again, again.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i14">And Carloman complains<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I am indifferent to him!<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_19">{19}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i25">He forgets;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">But, Geneviva, if a thousand years<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Broke over me, when Time had cleared his storms<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I should look up and know your face by heart.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Then stay, stay, stay with me!<br></span>
+<span class="i31">Have you once thought<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Through the long years how it will fare with me&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Nothing to watch except the sullen waste<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of my own beauty? Marcomir, I hold<br></span>
+<span class="i0">If there be judgment it shall be required<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of women what delight their golden hair<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Has yielded&mdash;have they put its wealth to use,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Or suffered it to lie by unenjoyed?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I rather would die spendthrift, nothing left<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of my rich heritage, save memory<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of the wild, passing pleasure it conferred<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Than keep it untransmuted. And you choose<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To take from me the only eyes that care<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To mirror mine! I have so often thought<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That some day I shall drown myself: the water<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Reflects me with desire.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>bitterly, as he turns away</i>] A soul so wide<br></span>
+<span class="i0">In innocence, so regal, on the day<br></span>
+<span class="i0">He wedded, he appointed me your squire!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>following him</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">He keeps you with him, you can read his heart,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You know what way he travels, when his soul<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Flies homeward. Tell me&mdash;’tis the only knowledge<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I crave for in the world&mdash;does Carloman<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Still hold me in affection? I beseech,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Tell me the truth. He loves you&mdash;&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_20">{20}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i36">Yes, he loves,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">He does not use me for his purposes.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>perceiving</i> <span class="smcap">PEPIN</span>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Not Carloman&mdash;his brother on the stair<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Laughs at your light behaviour. So you lose<br></span>
+<span class="i0">One last poor opportunity.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="c">[<i>Re-enter</i> <span class="smcap">Pepin</span>.]</p>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i27">Good even.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Well, my fair sister, you have heard the news,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Wept [<i>glancing at</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span>]<br></span>
+<span class="i5">and found consolation.<br></span>
+<span class="i28">But to think<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The son of Charles Martel should be a monk!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">A monk!&mdash;a pilgrim?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">No, a cloistered monk.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">What is his crime?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i19">Oh, no impiety;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A crazy fit: he must get near to God,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">So puts away all intercourse with man:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And while I rule he thinks to thrill the world<br></span>
+<span class="i0">With some convulsive movement from his prayers.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Ha, ha! But you shall queen it as before.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Go fetch my husband and remain without,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">For he alone can speak to me of this.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>Exit</i> <span class="smcap">Pepin</span>.]<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>turning to</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You are a murderer: this act of yours<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Will leave me very lonely.<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_21">{21}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I repent.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">There is no sin like that of looking back<br></span>
+<span class="i0">When one has sinned. Whatever one attempts<br></span>
+<span class="i0">It perfected in patience brings reward.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">My Carloman will prosper: his whole heart<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is gone away from me.<br></span>
+<span class="i22">Why there he is,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Passing in zealous talk with Boniface.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Boniface</span> <i>cross from right to left at the back of
+the hall</i>. <span class="smcap">Geneviva</span> <i>intercepts them</i>.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Farewell!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>arrested</i>] O Geneviva!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i25">Not my name,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Never my name again. Say, holy father&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">They take new titles who renounce the world?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>with flushing eagerness</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Then you too will renounce it? oh, the joy!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">There is a strange new passion in your eyes.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Speak to me ... but you cannot! I could take<br></span>
+<span class="i0">No leave of you in your fierce, worldly mood;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Now all is changed.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i20">Yes, all. How long ago<br></span>
+<span class="i0">It seems since we were married!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i32">Think the day<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is yet to come, the joy is all before.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>taking her face between his hands</i>]<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_22">{22}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">O Boniface, this is no temptress’ face!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">God has been with her, and she starts as I<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Free in the great endeavour.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i28">Do you choose,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Lady, a mere retreat among the nuns,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Or, like your husband, do you break all ties<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That bind you to the earth?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i28">They all are broken:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Except ... oh, I forgot! I have a son.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>nervously</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Pepin will guard him.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i22">Are you dreaming still?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Fool, fool! I tell you Pepin shall decide<br></span>
+<span class="i0">What robes I wear, and haply suffer me<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Sometimes at entertainments to look on,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And see young Charlemagne praised. But for my child<br></span>
+<span class="i0">He shall remain with me.<br></span>
+<span class="i2">[<i>Re-enter</i> <span class="smcap">Pepin</span>] All is confirmed.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I shall not quit the world. How easily<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A man is duped with God upon the brain!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I shall continue in my womanhood,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Giving, receiving pleasure.<br></span>
+<span class="i28">I have heard<br></span>
+<span class="i0">So much and suddenly; for Marcomir<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is to become a monk.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span>] Give him no welcome.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">He takes the cowl a penitent; he is not,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Like you, a white-souled wayfarer.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Pepin</span>] How strange<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That we must pair together, you and I;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I know so little of your tastes and now<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I must be often in your company.<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_23">{23}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">My lord, speak to her.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i23">Come, an end to this!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Brother, if you are wise you will not leave<br></span>
+<span class="i0">This woman in the world. Convents are made<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To tame the pride of such and keep them cool.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">O Geneviva, for my sake, and yet....<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Not so, beloved.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>He turns away and covers his face.</i>]</p></div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i17">Marcomir, farewell!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You will be monks together. When my husband<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Forgets me, you must bring me to his thoughts<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Recall that day we hunted and you fell;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I stayed to tend you; but the whole live day<br></span>
+<span class="i0">My voice rang through the woods for Carloman<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Until I wearied you; he was not found;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">But you remember how I cried for him.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Consul, have pity on her. I am free,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">But she has need of love.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i25">O insolence!&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The virginal chill heart!&mdash;No intercession!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Our marriage is dissolved. How great a stranger<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You have become to me! I should grow mad<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To breathe by you another single hour.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Boniface</span>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And you, old man, who stand with such meek eyes,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Though you have robbed me of my name of wife,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And made my boy an orphan&mdash;go your way!<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_24">{24}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">I cannot curse you, but I prophesy:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Dishonour motherhood, plant virgin homes,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Give to religion the sole charge of love,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And you will rear up lust of such an ice<br></span>
+<span class="i0">As Death himself will shiver at.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Pepin</span>] Lead on!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Now there is hope you may become a King,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">There should be some high festival to keep<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To-night in everlasting memory.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Lead me away.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i14">Brother, in all&mdash;good luck!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And may the Convent’s fare be angels’ food.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Your wife’s tears soon will dry.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Exeunt</i> <span class="smcap">Pepin</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Geneviva</span>.]</p></div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i33">The thing to do<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is simply just the sole thing to be done.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">There should have been no tears, no taking leave;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A freeman can do anything he will.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Take me along with you.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i24">Ah where&mdash;to God?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Why would you come with me?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i28">You must not ask.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Some rival slain in haste&mdash;the ebbing back<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of hatred that has left the face exposed<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of a dead foe I spared not. I have struck<br></span>
+<span class="i0">On something in my nature that is foul,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That goes on breeding in me, that will taint<br></span>
+<span class="i0">My fellows: I must purify my heart<br></span>
+<span class="i0">With lonely fasting and continual prayers.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">My hope is all in Time: though Time defaces<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_25">{25}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">So much of what is fair, it dims the spots:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I who am just a murderer to myself,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Who close my eyes upon a sleeping guilt<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And waking, answer to the bloody name,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Have some faint courage that a transformation<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Will come ...<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i14">Oh, do not put your trust in Time;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Put on at once <i>forever</i> leap to God!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Have done with age and death and faltering friends,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Assailing circumstance, the change of front<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That one is always meeting in oneself,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The plans, the vacillations&mdash;let them go!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And you will put on immortality<br></span>
+<span class="i0">As simply as a vesture.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i24">And you think<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of starting&mdash;when?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Now: we are on the road.<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_26">{26}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h2><a id="ACT_II"></a>ACT II</h2>
+
+<p class="c"><span class="smcap">Scene</span>: <i>An audience-chamber in the old Lateran Palace, Rome.</i></p>
+
+<p class="c">[<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Zacharias</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Damiani</span>.]</p>
+
+<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And so the Lombard yielded ...?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Not to me,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">But to my God. Each man of woman born<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is fashioned in God’s outer image: few<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Are so compact of Him they feel His strength<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Within their body as a force that pushes<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Its way and dissipates the hollow crowd<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of godless men; but from my youth I prayed<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I might be like Him in my inward parts<br></span>
+<span class="i0">As in my form of dust: and there was nothing<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That stood against me. It was simple joy<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To meet the opposition of my foes,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To meet triumphant wickedness, to meet<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The deadliest torpor; for they had an end<br></span>
+<span class="i0">As night and mist are ended by the sun.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">You act on a dread thought.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The thought conceived,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Life has no terrors. It is emptiness<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Alone that makes us timid and inert:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Fill up the void, we go from strength to strength<br></span>
+<span class="i0">In our possession. When I worship God,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The pyx upon the altar where He dwells<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Has not a closer hold on Him than I.<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_27">{27}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">No wonder that men fear you in their hearts,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And yield when you approach them!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But you questioned<br></span>
+<span class="i0">About my recent journey to the hills,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That I might save Perugia from the craft<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of Rachis, the vile Lombard King. I went<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And faced him ... all his treachery gave way,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The town was mine again; and more than this,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">All his ambition vanished&mdash;at my feet<br></span>
+<span class="i0">He promised to renounce the world itself,&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Like Carloman, the Consul of the Franks,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Who left his wife, his honours and his home<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To dwell on Mount Soracte.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i28">Carloman&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">His fame spreads every day.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i29">I felt a warmth<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Myself to see the man, and when he came<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A welcome rushed out from my soul, such life<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Tempered the resolution of his face.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">God dwelt in him&mdash;yet fitfully it seemed,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A fever in his blood, not constant health,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Unalterable habit, as with those<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To whom God is the same now, yesterday,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And always. As I blessed him I became<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Disquieted&mdash;his long hands were never still.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">He needed discipline, such changeless hours<br></span>
+<span class="i0">As make the spirit stable. Now he seeks<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Another meeting, so this letter says,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To ask me some petition for himself,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And for his friend.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i20">He leaves a noble brother,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_28">{28}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">Religious and undaunted, in his place,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Pepin the Mayor.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i17">On whom I build my trust.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I would that Rachis left upon his throne<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A brother who could stand by Carloman’s:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">But Astolph has a rebel’s countenance,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The only eyes that never bent to mine.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">He looked upon me as a robber might<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Who saw in God’s own altar but a setting<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To jewels that he coveted. And when<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Rachis knelt down and vowed to leave the world,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And there was silence in the Lombard host,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I heard a ringing laugh, and Astolph shook<br></span>
+<span class="i0">His yellow hair with joy. I never saw<br></span>
+<span class="i0">So mad a gesture&mdash;God will strike him down!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Enter a</i> <span class="smcap">Cardinal</span>.]</p></div>
+
+<h3>CARDINAL.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Lombard King would see you.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i32">Lead him in,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">We will receive our penitent. [<i>Exit</i> <span class="smcap">Cardinal</span>.]<br></span>
+<span class="i30">This Rachis<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Shall make your Convent famous: Mount Casino<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Shall have its royal monk.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">A gracious thought.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Rachis</span> <i>with two</i> <span class="smcap">Cardinals</span>.]</p></div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Welcome! You come to Rome to take your vow.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>RACHIS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I come to ask your counsel first. My father,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I have no trust in Astolph, he is stubborn,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_29">{29}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">Heretical, and will bewitch my people<br></span>
+<span class="i0">From all allegiance to your holy throne.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I speak of certain danger.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Ah!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>RACHIS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i31">I love you,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I love the peaceful service of the cell,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And each affection tears me bitterly:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Yet for the sake of keeping my wild hordes<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Your servants, I am willing to renounce<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The pleasure of the cloister, if your wisdom<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Absolve me from my promise and restore me<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To Kingship over Astolph.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>He watches</i> <span class="smcap">Zacharias</span> <i>with the utmost anxiety</i>.]</p></div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i26">What you plead<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is politic ... but, stay, I rob the Church<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of glory if I think of what is safe;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">God can protect His own&mdash;the fiercer battle,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The heavenlier triumph. He received your oath,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Not I.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>RACHIS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i7">You are His Pope, you can remit ...<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And you would rule in peace.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i29">How dare you tempt<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The Lord your God, upon whose earthly throne<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I sit? Get from me! One short month ago<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You were yourself blaspheming in the land,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A heretic like Astolph and a slave<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To your own lust. Begone! The convent walls<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Alone can save you. If you drop away<br></span>
+<span class="i0">There is no limit to the punishment<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_30">{30}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">God deals to such backslider; you become<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Perjured for all eternity.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>RACHIS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i27">Alas,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is there no service that will soften God,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Except the cloister?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i21">Fool and hypocrite,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">There is no way to Him except the path<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A man’s best moment finds, and you are lost<br></span>
+<span class="i0">If you regret your vow&mdash;to break from it<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is utterly impossible: a star<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Can no more leave the music of its course<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Than any mortal break his word to God.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Your soul is bound for ever.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>with another Cardinal</i>.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i29">Dearest son,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I greet you with God’s blessing,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span>] And on you<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Confer the same. How prospers Carloman?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Oh, well, dear father.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i23">He who keeps his knees<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is Rachis, King of Lombardy. He takes<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Like you the fearful vow to be a monk.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>RACHIS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span>] Protect me, help me, holy Carloman;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Let me return with you. I am distracted ...<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A perjured man God will destroy in hate.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Come with me, come ... but not to make confession,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To tabulate your crimes; come to the cloister,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_31">{31}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">To solitude, the simple light of God.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You must not dream, because your wickedness<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Has waked you to disgust, that you are called.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The trouble is not betwixt God and sin;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Sin does not shut God out, it is the lantern<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Flashing across the dark void of the world&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Most penetrative pulses; use the flare<br></span>
+<span class="i0">For such poor revelation as it yields.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">But this new life ... you must arise and go<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Toward it as disencumbered as of old<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Abraham went up to Ur, all his possessions<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Kept for him in a mystery out of sight.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To dream of them is faith, and to forget<br></span>
+<span class="i0">All one has touched and handled, loved or wrought<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of sin or righteousness, the perfect sign<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The new man is begotten.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>RACHIS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i25">Pray for me,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">If you are in God’s favour. Teach me how<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To win a better throne than I have lost,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Safe from my brother, a perpetual seat<br></span>
+<span class="i0">High in the heavens.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>with a ringing laugh</i>] If that is your ambition,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh then, how clear it is that you are damned,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Wherever you may lodge!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>RACHIS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i24">Ha&mdash;terrible!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You must not curse me; as the meanest slave<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I am content to cringe ...<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i27">And heaven detests<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A beggar’s whining. God is made for Kings,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Who need no favours, come to Him for nothing<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Except Himself.<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_32">{32}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>RACHIS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i16">But does that satisfy?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You who have borne the Convent many months&mdash;<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Yes, you can now bear witness to this poor<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Mistrusting wretch that you have no regrets.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Speak out your true experience.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>catching his breath</i>] I am sad.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Zacharias</span>] I cannot speak with this petitioner<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Trembling beside me: give him judgment first,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And then hear my complaint.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>sternly</i>] No: let him hear&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">What have you against God?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I have not found Him.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">You fast? You have been diligent in prayer?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>more excitedly</i>] I cannot pray&mdash;scarcely at Angelus&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The Sun so flares and changes ... in the cold<br></span>
+<span class="i0">East clouds there is such witness to His strength<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Ere he lay him down: the life, the passion<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Arrest me and I weep.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">You <i>cannot pray</i>!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">But in the cloister....<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Oh, those other prayers<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That I am set, I say them when I must,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_33">{33}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">I sing within the chapel, dig and plant.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And eat my portion; then there comes an hour,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">For which my heart has saved itself all day,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">When I can be alone&mdash;sole preparation<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The spirit makes when she would be with God&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I turn from Time’s small dues of speech and habit<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To serve Eternity, the joy is coming<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That has no moment: and a noise is made,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A monk approaches me, and I am summoned<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To visitors who seek me as a marvel<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To gaze upon. O father, when they look<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I reel with shame.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i19">What would you? Such example<br></span>
+<span class="i0">As yours confounds the foolish.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i32">Grant my prayer&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Our prayers, for Marcomir’s are joined to mine&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That we may leave Soracte and retire<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To some far convent hidden in the hills.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Wisely you ask the natural medicine<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Your state requires.<br></span>
+<span class="i21">Good prior Damiani,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The brothers Carloman and Marcomir<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Together with King Rachis join your rule.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Let them obey you, leading tranquil lives.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>apart to</i> <span class="smcap">Damiani</span>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Firm discipline!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>RACHIS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>from the ground</i>] O holy pontiff, grant<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That I may change with Carloman&mdash;Soracte<br></span>
+<span class="i0">For me, if you are merciful.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i29">Not so.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">This zealous son of ours has felt the poison<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of worldly visits trouble him.<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_34">{34}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>sharply</i>] Sin needs<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A tomb in which to die.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>RACHIS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Fool! I am lost!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>He throws himself again on the ground in despair.</i>]</p></div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">We thank you, father, for we bound our hearts<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And brains and bodies with the fearful oath<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To live in God, and the great Tempter&mdash;Time&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Has thwarted us persistently with bondage<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of interruption. Claims and trifles hinder<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Our worship of what passes not away;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>vehemently</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And I am chafed, my father.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i28">There is something<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Terribly painful in your eyes&mdash;pray much,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And think but seldom.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Enter another Cardinal.</i>]</p></div>
+
+<h3>CARDINAL.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i22">Saintly Boniface<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Comes from the Frankish Court.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>He ushers</i> <span class="smcap">Boniface</span> <i>in</i>.]</p></div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i31">A triple blessing<br></span>
+<span class="i0">On this most reverend head. You come from Pepin<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Or Chilperic? Here is Carloman.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i33">Beloved,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Why have you left Soracte?<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_35">{35}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i27">Visitors<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Wasted my leisure: I became a sight,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Like some caged animal.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i24">He leaves to-day<br></span>
+<span class="i0">For Mount Casino.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span>] You are happy?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i32">Yes ...<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh, no, not happy; it is different:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Not as you feel when you have won the goal,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">But as you feel when racing.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i29">Do you care<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To ask no news of Pepin or ... of ...?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">No. [<i>he turns away.</i>]<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">What is your mission, good Archbishop?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i39">Pepin<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Sends me to ask your blessing and to pray<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That you would place upon his head the crown<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That Chilperic seems to wear, but which, in truth,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">He, Pepin, owns unworn!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i24">We have considered<br></span>
+<span class="i0">This matter on our knees before our God,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And questioned what the power He lodged with us<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_36">{36}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">Might in such case attempt: we have been taught<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A glorious lesson&mdash;that as Samuel made<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And unmade Kings, because God ruled in him,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">So we can put away the <i>fainéant</i>,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Disgraceful Chilperic, and proclaim as King<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Pepin, our doughty servant.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>starting</i>] Pepin&mdash;King!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>turning aside again</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Why should this news so knock to enter&mdash;why?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">It seems to make me open a shut door:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I see the Rhone, I see my father’s roof,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The gay French faces!&mdash;Pepin, King!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i36">I hear<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Your will with joy. It is a deadly peril<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To France that she is governed by a man<br></span>
+<span class="i0">No better than an image, golden-haired<br></span>
+<span class="i0">But lifeless as a stone. The very people<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Laugh at the word, <i>a King</i>. But all will change<br></span>
+<span class="i0">When Pepin’s bulk of character extends<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The meaning of his office.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i27">Pepin, King!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">O Marcomir, you have heard it?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i31">Yes, I heard ...<br></span>
+<span class="i0">No matter! He has ruled so long, the title<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Will fall on him as new years follow old.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Boniface</span>.]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">We bid you see he is proclaimed; ourself<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Have hope to crown him when occasion brings<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Either the Frank to us or us to him.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Although he want our oil, we give him grace<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_37">{37}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">To exercise all sovereignty, immuring<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Chilperic within the cloister where he dwells.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>suddenly to</i> <span class="smcap">Zacharias</span>.]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh, you can act for God, and I must pray;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">There is a distance from Him in my life<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Since I can only pray: while there is nearness<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Between your life and His creative <i>Be</i>!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>astonished</i>] My son, what do you mean?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">O Carloman!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Pardon. I spoke aloud a scudding thought<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That filled my head one moment. So divine<br></span>
+<span class="i0">It is to act God’s Counsel.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i28">We can serve Him<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Only if stable, for the life of life<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is calm as the untroubled sea and changeless.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Go, follow Damiani, dearest son!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Peace be to you, belovèd Carloman.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">My prayers, though often offered on the earth<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of heathen lands, are yours at morn and night.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I never can forget you.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i24">Pepin, King!&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">O Boniface, I think you said farewell.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You journey far and far; you see strange faces,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And woods where idols live in solitude,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Hamlets and forges, feasts, the glare of arms,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_38">{38}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">And great unpeopled plains so full of wind<br></span>
+<span class="i0">It seems the owner, while the little trees<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And grass are slaves: and thus you wander on<br></span>
+<span class="i0">God’s messenger ... Ha, ha! The little trees<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And grass!... Good-bye!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">My child&mdash;<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>gently</i>] Yes, Boniface?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Nothing. I can but bless you. Go, <i>in peace</i>.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>As</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>moves away</i>, <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>bends forward</i>.]</p></div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Is the Queen well?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Ask not; he has not asked.<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_39">{39}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h2><a id="ACT_III"></a>ACT III</h2>
+
+<p class="c"><span class="smcap">Scene</span>: <i>The Garden and Cloisters of Monte Casino.</i></p>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>striking himself with a stone</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">What tides of rapture spring at every stroke!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Have mercy, God! Such agony of pleasure<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I felt when <i>she</i> came near. Oh, can it be<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I have not yet inflicted utter pain?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is there some chaste and vigorous suffering<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Beyond the shameful wiles, with which the lash<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Unnerves me? Pain, more pain!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>He strikes himself without pity; then, seeing</i> <span class="smcap">Damiani</span> <i>enter the
+court, he hurriedly drops the shard</i>.]</p></div>
+
+<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i30">Your hand is bleeding.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I see!&mdash;Although I took away your silex<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You yet have braved my will.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I need the rod.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">You need obedience. Flog yourself again,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You will be locked in prison like your friend.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>in a low voice</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">He has no guilt.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i17">No guilt! You have not heard<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I caught him flushed with triumph at the news<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That Astolph in defiance of the Pope<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_40">{40}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is laying siege to Rome. Good Rachis wept<br></span>
+<span class="i0">As well he might, but Carloman blasphemed<br></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Would I were with your brother!</i> and for this<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I had him shut in darkness fourteen days.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The term is over, and to change your sullen,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Ascetic mood&mdash;it is a festival&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You shall restore your friend to liberty.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You err through over-discipline, a fault,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">But one that brings us honour; stubbornness<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Like his disgraces the whole brotherhood.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Admonish him! If he is quite subdued<br></span>
+<span class="i0">He shall be suffered to resume his rank<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Among his fellows: for yourself, remember<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Humility is satisfied with penance<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The Church inflicts. No private luxury!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Do not offend again.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>Exit.</i>]<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i21">Not use the rod!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Not use it when I feel incitements rapid<br></span>
+<span class="i0">As points of fire awake me to the knowledge<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That all my flesh is burning! Every flint<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Becomes a new temptation. How confess<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To <i>him</i> I love his wife, and guiltily!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">O Geneviva, do the swans still crowd<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Round you to feed them? Are you mistress still<br></span>
+<span class="i0">In the old palace? Can there be a doubt?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">If Pepin dare insult you&mdash;O this frock,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">This girdle, not a sword belt! And your husband<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Who brought you to such peril with his dreams,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Let the light wake him!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>unlocks the prison-door, flings it open and draws back
+behind the trellis of vines</i>.]</p></div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i24">What has struck my eyes?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is it the air, the sun, an open door?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh, it is dark with brightness, and half-blinds,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">So rushing in! I would have been with God<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_41">{41}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">When the light broke in answer to His cry;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I would have seen it pushing its broad leaves<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Through Chaos as it travelled!&mdash;<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>advancing</i>] I am come<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To give you freedom.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>seizing his hand like a boy</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i21">Are the throstles fledged<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I left within the orchard?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i27">They are gone ...<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Besides, we must not wander&mdash;recollect!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I do; I was a goatherd on those hills<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Before my punishment [<i>pointing to the prison</i>].<br></span>
+<span class="i0">How sad you look! Come with me; I will show you<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The flock of goats leaping from crag to crag&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And have you ever drunk their milk? It foams;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Its thousand little bubbles seem themselves<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Full of an airy life, and in the smack<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of the warm draught something exhilarates<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And carries one along. Come to the hills!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Dear Carloman&mdash;<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i16">These cloisters are so dull<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Where you sit brooding morn and eve; beyond<br></span>
+<span class="i0">One sees the clouds laying their restless fingers<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Across the scaurs.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i19">But is that meditation,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And does one so find peace?<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_42">{42}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i28">The dew is there<br></span>
+<span class="i0">In the green hollows; when I see those steeped<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And shining fields, my heart fills to the brim,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And, though I yearn, my yearning satisfies.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Come with me: fast as I attain, with you<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I share the secret.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i20">But you strike me dumb.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You have forgotten, we are bound by vows,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">By our obedience.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i18">Are we bound by hopes,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">By yesterday’s lost hopes?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But promises&mdash;<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I promised to be God’s, ah yes, I promised,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">As two on earth agree to be together<br></span>
+<span class="i0">For evermore, vowed lovers. Is the marriage<br></span>
+<span class="i0">In the companionship or in the vow?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Why, Geneviva is still vowed my wife.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But we must keep our troth.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i28">We must escape<br></span>
+<span class="i0">From anything that is become a bond,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">No matter who has forged the chain,&mdash;ourselves,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">An enemy, a friend: and this escape,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">This readjustment is the penitence,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The sole that I will practise.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>looking more narrowly at</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span>] But your eyes<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Are witheringly remorseful. One would say<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_43">{43}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">That you had been some sunshines in the dark,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You, and not I. Open your heart to me.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I hate you.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Hate me, why? For heresy?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">No, for your blindness: think what you have done,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Think of ... at least, think of your only child<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Mewed within convent walls.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">There is escape.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">What, for a child?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>clenching his hand</i>] <i>Per Baccho</i>, but my son<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Shall never wear a tonsure.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i28">Time will prove!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You stand so free and noble in the light<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Yet it is you who brought me to despair.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">One cannot be a fool, one of God’s fools,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Unconscious of the ill in others’ hearts,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And not breed deadly mischief.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i31">I entreated<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You would not come with me.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i28">You drew me on;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You cannot help it, you make life so royal<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_44">{44}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">Men follow you and think they will be Kings,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And then&mdash;<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">What ails you?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i26">Have you watched the lepers?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Waiting outside the churches to be blest?&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">They pray, they linger, they receive their God,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And yet depart uncleansed.<br></span>
+<span class="i27">Do not continue<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To question me, but listen. Bend your eyes<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Full on me! I have never told the Prior,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I cannot; and I would not breathe it now<br></span>
+<span class="i0">But for her sake. The lady Geneviva<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is spotless; but my thoughts have been defiled.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I love her, I have never won her love,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Must never strive to win it. It is hell<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To think of her.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">You never won her love?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Never.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i7">She had so many favourites,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Poor boy! and you were thwarted.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i33">But her bond,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">My deep disloyalty!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">No more of this&mdash;<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">If I were in the world, it is to her<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I should return.<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_45">{45}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i17">The doors are strongly barred:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">There is no other hindrance.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i29">They are come<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The brethren and the prior: you must kneel<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And then be reinstated. I forgot.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Damiani</span> <i>and a number of monks</i>.]</p></div>
+
+<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Brother, we have great joy in your release,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And hasten to embrace you. Own your fault<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Submissively, then rise and take your place<br></span>
+<span class="i0">In our rejoicing band.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I will not kneel.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Respect your vow.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i18">But there is no such thing&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A vow! as well respect the case that sheathes<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The chrysalis, when the live creature stirs!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">We make these fetters for ourselves, and then<br></span>
+<span class="i0">We grow and burst them. It is clear no man<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Can so forecast the changes of his course<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That he can promise <i>so I will remain,</i><br></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Such, and no other</i>. Words like these are straws<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The current plays with as it moves along.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">My brethren, do not listen; he is mad.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">No, you are mad; you cannot see that Time<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is God’s own movement, all that He can do<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_46">{46}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">Between the day a man is born and dies.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Listen a little: is there one of you<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Who looks upon the sunlight and the buds<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That moss the vines in March, and does not feel<br></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Now I am living with these changeful things;</i><br></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>The instant is so golden for us all,</i><br></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>And this is life?</i> Think what the vines would be<br></span>
+<span class="i0">If they were glued forever, and one month<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Gave them a law&mdash;the richness that would cease,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The flower, the shade, the ripening. We are men,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">With fourscore years for season, and we alter<br></span>
+<span class="i0">So exquisitely often on our way<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To harvest and the end. It must be so.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Is this what darkness and strict punishment<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Have wrought in the corruption of your mind?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I lay as seeds lie in the prison-house,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Dying and living&mdash;living evermore,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Pushed by a spark of time to join the hours,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To go along with them.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<p>A MONK.</p>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i23">But, brother, this<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is overwhelming.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Sin, can that be dropped?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Never, there is no need. Life seizes all<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Its own vile refuse, hurries it along<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To something different; religion makes<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The master-change, turning our black to white;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">But so, as from earth’s foulness, the stem drains<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Corruption upward, and the cleanly flower<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Waves like a flame at last.<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_47">{47}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i28">O Carloman,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">My brother, I am saved!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>The monks press round</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>tumultuously</i>.]</p></div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i24">But all of you<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Be saved, and on the instant! Yes, the prior,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You all of you, do not believe me mad.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">It is your misery, I think, that more,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">More than the urgent torment of my soul<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Has brought me to the truth, the healing truth<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That we must give our natures to the air,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To light and liberty, suppressing nothing,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Freeing each passion: we have slaves within,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">So many slaves, and I have learnt that saints<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Have dungeons that they dare not look into,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The horror is so deadly. Force the locks,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Let the fierce captives ravage. Better far<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Murder and rapine in the city-streets,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Than lust and hatred’s unfulfilled desires!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Be saved; strike free into the world&mdash;come out!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh, you can do it&mdash;I have spoken truth,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I see that by your faces.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>OLD MONK.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>touching</i> <span class="smcap">Damiani’s</span> <i>shoulder</i>] Surely, prior,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">We must arrest this traitor.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>in a whisper</i>] Half the brethren<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Are in the chapel: I will bring them down<br></span>
+<span class="i0">In mass on these insurgent novices.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>aloud</i>] Children, I leave you: wrestle with temptation;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I now can only aid you with my prayers.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">When you have heard him through, decide; and either<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Lead him in chains to me; or if his lies<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Prevail with you, then put me in your prisons,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_48">{48}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">And let the devil rule.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span>] Now do your worst<br></span>
+<span class="i0">With your blaspheming tongue.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>Exit.</i>]<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>OLD MONK.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i30">We should be fools<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To listen to him&mdash;it is mutiny;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And there are walled-up dungeons.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i34">No, the hills<br></span>
+<span class="i0">For all, if all are reckless; it is just<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The one that fears who is the traitor-foe<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Imperilling brave men.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>Ist OLD MONK.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But how break free?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">How? All of us march with a single mind<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Making a strong procession from the gates.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>2nd OLD MONK.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Church has soldiers: whither could we go<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Unarmed and with an angry multitude ...<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>Ist OLD MONK.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Whither?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>3rd OLD MONK.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">Besides we are not of one mind<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Now he stops preaching; it was like a spell.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>4th OLD MONK.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The heretic!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>OLD MONK.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i13">Tush! ’Tis the kind of frenzy<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That seizes every novice. Carloman,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Will you not hear my voice?<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_49">{49}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i28">No, good old monk,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">God’s servants must not listen but to Him.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You have grown comfortable as the years<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Rolled on,&mdash;no matter. What the novice suffers,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">What every novice suffers, speak of that.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>OLD MONK.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I have forgotten it.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i21">You can forget<br></span>
+<span class="i0">What you have suffered; then ’tis waste of time<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To listen to you. What we suffer once<br></span>
+<span class="i0">In youth&mdash;in childhood and our secret youth,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">We suffer to our grave.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>turning to another monk</i>] Have you forgotten?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>Ist OLD MONK.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">No, but the pain is numb, so long ago<br></span>
+<span class="i0">My parents spoilt my life to have their will;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I must endure the best they could conceive,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And save their souls.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i21">If you should lose your own!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A curse on parents! The one truth that led me<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To seek the cloister was my certitude<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A man’s existence lodges in himself<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And is not owned by kindred.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>OLD MONK.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i29">Gently, brother,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You had your way, and made yourself a monk;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Now you are all for change&mdash;so is the world<br></span>
+<span class="i0">For bitter change.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>Ist OLD MONK.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i19">My mistress has been married,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And would but laugh at me.<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_50">{50}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>OLD MONK.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i27">Time works such wonders<br></span>
+<span class="i0">If we will give him time to work them in.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>IST MONK.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">It is too late.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i16">A maxim for the dead.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">It never is too late for any seeing,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">For any recognition we are wrong.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">It is a man’s despair, not his confession<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Proves him contemptible. <i>Too late</i>, you say,<br></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Too late</i>&mdash;but there are countries where ’tis spring<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And harvest many times within the year.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Besides, we must not tarry in a place<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The moments do not wash with dew; we wither,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Death has his secret will with us. Believe!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Act on the instant.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>OLD MONK.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i20">The high gates are barred,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And yonder is the Prior.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Damiani</span>, <i>with</i> <span class="smcap">Rachis</span> <i>and a large troop of monks, is seen coming
+from the Chapel</i>.]</p></div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i25">The gates are strong;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">But you and I and all of us can pass<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Through them in simple triumph if we will&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">With one consent.<br></span>
+<span class="i18">Why, they are opening now!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">How gloriously! Armed riders!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Astolph</span> <i>with a band of Lombard soldiers</i>.]</p></div>
+
+<h3>MONKS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i30">Miracle!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A sign from God.<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_51">{51}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i17">Not one of you shall come.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">What, flocking to my side because a door<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Turns on its hinges&mdash;shame!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Where’s Carloman?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>advancing</i>] Who asks?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The King of Lombardy.<br></span>
+<span class="i22">Give place!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">My saviour!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Are you Carloman the Frank?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I like you&mdash;yes, your face is eloquent.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You do not keep your eyes upon the ground,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Like this dear relative.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>staring fixedly at</i> <span class="smcap">Astolph</span>] You glitter so,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You glitter like the golden Vines, your hair<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is gold, your armour full of spokes and rays.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And you are muffled in a sackcloth-bag;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The contrast strikes you.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Damiani</span>] Lunatic?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i35">And worse&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A rebel, an apostate, noble prince,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">For whom I bring these manacles.<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_52">{52}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i33">And I<br></span>
+<span class="i0">An extra horse; for, lunatic or sane,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I must have speech with&mdash;&mdash;<br></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>turning to</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>with a laugh</i>]<br></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i28">Do you know your name?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">We who are kings and soldiers know it well,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And Christendom remembers. Ah, I see!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You are not happy, so they call you mad.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>RACHIS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Have you no word for me? I am a King,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A King discrowned&mdash;and more, you have my crown.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Are you grown sick of it?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i26">My dear old Rachis,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Do not look covetous! I am not come<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To take you from your prayers.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>RACHIS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i31">You think you triumph,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">But when you roll your thirsty tongue in hell,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And see me in the peace of Abraham’s bosom,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Watching your pain&mdash;<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i21">To every dog his day!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>with a shudder</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Ah, then&mdash;meanwhile there is a blowing wind,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And all the world to ravish ... Carloman,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">We are the brothers now ... [<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Damiani</span>] Yes, I and this<br></span>
+<span class="i2">[<span class="smcap">Rachis</span> <i>sneaks off, hissing curses</i>.]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Fraternal soul, your madman.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i29">Do you need<br></span>
+<span class="i0">An interview?<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_53">{53}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i14">I take it, thank you. Glance<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A moment at my soldiers&mdash;and retire.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>They all withdraw.</i>]<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Come to the well, where we can sit and talk,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And I can have a draught.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>He looses his helmet and dips it in the well.</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>puts
+both hands round it as soon as it is full of water</i>.]</p></div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i26">Wait! [<i>drinking</i>] Cool and strong!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That prison-stuff was stagnant. Sunshine’s warmth,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The cool of water, how they both refresh!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>looking up with a smile</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Now, brilliant one, your business?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i35">Will you leave<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The Monastery?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">At once.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i24">You have no terror?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You will not creep back, conscience in your nerves?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Let me but pass the door.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>laughing</i>] You see it swings.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I left it open.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Then we start at once.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>checking him</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">No, stay a little. Are you still the friend<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of Zacharias?<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_54">{54}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">He is great.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i27">No doubt&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And most sagacious, for he seeks your brother<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To win him with the bribe of sacred oil<br></span>
+<span class="i0">As vassal and ally against myself.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I started here from Rome the hour I heard<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That Zacharias had crept out by night<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To travel northward and defeat my hopes.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You must arrive before him! I am come<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Sure, from report, that you will help my cause,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You, who have been a ruler. I contend<br></span>
+<span class="i0">No supernatural power should have control<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of lands and cities, troops and civil rights,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Matters distinct from God, as from the world<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The service he requires. Life is so easy<br></span>
+<span class="i0">If we will keep it human&mdash;quarrel, murder,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And then make friends: we have so short a time<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To sin together ... but this hate deferred,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">These pestilential menaces!&mdash;<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i30">The Pope<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Shall never injure France!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i27">It lies with you<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To break the threatened treaty. You have owned<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Power over Pepin?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i18">Yes; tho’ tardily,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">He followed all my counsels.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i29">Ride, and stop<br></span>
+<span class="i0">This treaty. If you ride you will forestall<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_55">{55}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">The Pontiff’s slower march; and I meantime<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Will press the siege of Rome ... you must not mind<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The ache of stiffened muscles.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i31">Hills and plains<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And trees&mdash;the olives, cypresses and vines;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Then France with nuts and poplars! But you keep me<br></span>
+<span class="i0">In one great palpitation.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i26">Zacharias,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Besetting me from north and southward, crushes<br></span>
+<span class="i0">My strongest forces. What a splendid thing<br></span>
+<span class="i0">For the old man to travel in the heat<br></span>
+<span class="i0">So far to work my ruin!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i24">But the world<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is for the young, my Astolph.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i30">Carloman,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I love you. Why, I feel a lad, eighteen,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">When looking on you. Come, we two must kiss;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">We may not burn together, flame in flame,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Again&mdash;so we must kiss.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i24">My blessed one,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Would I could cleave to you! You give me freedom,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A gift so rarely thought of.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>calling a monk</i>] Fetch the Prior,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The brethren, now&mdash;this instant. We must start.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Grant me beside the freedom for myself<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Salvation for another.<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_56">{56}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i23">What, a monk<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Still half of you! Such trouble for men’s souls&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">But have your wish. Once on the battlefield,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Men will become your prey. This solid jaw<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Means grip you will not loose. O Carloman,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">If I can circumvent the Pope, and then<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Stretch him a bleeding quarry at my feet&mdash;<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">What, Zacharias!<br></span>
+<span class="i17">But I plead for France;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Popes must not meddle with her.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ASTOLPH.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>as the</i> <span class="smcap">Prior</span> <i>and Monks re-enter</i>] I require<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The services of Carloman: another<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Whom he will choose attends him.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>DAMIANI.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i33">Impious wretch,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You steal from God His servants!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Astolph</span> <i>laughs and moves up the courtyard to summon his men</i>:
+<span class="smcap">Damiani</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Rachis</span> <i>talk to each other; the monks listen in a
+scared group</i>.]</p></div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>drawing</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>to the front</i>] Marcomir,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Come from this graveyard.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i26">No, I must not come,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I dare not; she is yours.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i26">Is mine? You wrong her&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Not yours nor mine. Earth’s wisdom will begin<br></span>
+<span class="i0">When all relationships are put away,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_57">{57}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">With their dull pack of duties, and we look<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Curious, benignant, with a great compassion<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Into each other’s lives.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i25">It is not so<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I look; I have a lust to gratify,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A lust for very shame I loathe to mix<br></span>
+<span class="i0">With Geneviva’s image.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i23">Faugh! because<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You think that I possess her! Cursèd bonds,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Cursed law that makes this riot in the heart!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Come forth; all will be gentle out of doors.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Gird up your habit.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">She?&mdash;<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i27">Is but herself,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">O Marcomir, we tarry&mdash;and the leaves<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Are tossing through the air&mdash;<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Astolph</span> <i>throws his scarlet riding-cloak over</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span>, <i>who
+seizes</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>with an impetuous movement and draws him toward
+the horses that champ at the gate</i>.]</p></div><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_58">{58}</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a id="ACT_IV"></a>ACT IV</h2>
+
+<p class="c"><span class="smcap">Scene</span>: <i>The Hall of the Frankish Palace. Early morning; the remains of a
+banquet on the table, drinking-cups, wine bottles, faded leaves.</i></p>
+
+<p class="c">[<i>A</i> <span class="smcap">Servant</span> <i>is wiping away the stains of wine from the floor</i>.]</p>
+
+<h3>SERVANT.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">It is a cheerful thing to make all clean<br></span>
+<span class="i0">When one is brisk and cool: this early air<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Before the sun gets up is fit for men<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To breathe when they are working.<br></span>
+<span class="i34">Spot on spot!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A stranger to the revel of last night<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Would take it there had been a massacre<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To daub the floor so thickly.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Enter another</i> <span class="smcap">Servant</span>.]</p></div>
+
+<h3>2ND SERVANT.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i30">What a strew<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of glass and muddy wine-drops! Come up close<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And listen. There’s a curious monk outside<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Who asks to see the King&mdash;almost a beggar,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And yet a red embroidered riding-cloak<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Flaunts round his ragged sackcloth; while his voice<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Has such a wanton ring we need not trouble<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Lest he should take the scandal of this room<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Too much to heart. The jolly soul can pipe!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>A voice is heard richly humming.</i>]</p></div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><i>Wine is for drinking,</i><br></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Glasses for chinking&mdash;</i><br></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Fellowship, pleasure,</i><br></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Of the full cup:</i><br></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Lift it up, lift it up!</i><br></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>And let us be gay and be friends without measure.</i><br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_59">{59}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>1ST SERVANT.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">A monk indeed! Why we must drink again!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A minstrel!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>2ND SERVANT.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And his comrade took the horses<br></span>
+<span class="i0">As he had been a squire.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>1ST SERVANT.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Oh, but the song!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I never heard another one like this.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>2ND SERVANT.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Man, they are all the same: but then he sings it<br></span>
+<span class="i0">As if he had just learnt that grapes have juice,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That makes it sound so well. You’re pouring wine?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>1ST SERVANT.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Yes, he must drink for that. Ho, there again!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Have you not caught the line?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>They join in as the voice sings</i>]</p></div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><i>These are the treasure</i><br></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Of the full cup;</i><br></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Lift it up, lift it up!</i><br></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>And let us be gay and be friends without measure.</i><br></span>
+<span class="i0">Ha, ha!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>2ND SERVANT.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Come in!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span>.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i17">You praise deep drinking&mdash;you ...<br></span>
+<span class="i0">For shame! A churchman! But ...<br></span>
+<span class="i32">How thin!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>1ST SERVANT.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">What eyes!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Shall I have long to wait? Is Pepin ill,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Or is he grown luxurious? I would say<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That I remember how your King is famed<br></span>
+<span class="i0">For industry. He does not lie abed?<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_60">{60}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>1ST SERVANT.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">No, father.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i12">Call me brother if you will.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Why do you choke with laughter? I am ready<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To laugh with you, to laugh to very tears<br></span>
+<span class="i0">At what I am and have been. Do not hide<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A thing so good and bright as laughter&mdash;Eh?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>2ND SERVANT.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Mad! It were best to leave him to himself.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>They draw back.</i>]<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>Looking round the room</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Throw the door wide open. Here we need<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Fresh air even more than water. How the wine<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Cries from the ground&mdash;shut in with walls, and cast<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Below men’s feet, a slough where animals<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Might wallow, and so sour! Let in the breeze.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Let in the dawn outside there!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>1ST SERVANT.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>propping the door</i>] After all<br></span>
+<span class="i0">He is abstemious and sad at sin.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Look how profoundly sad!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>2ND SERVANT.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i25">Such twins of temper<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Are frequent with the crazy. Now he drops<br></span>
+<span class="i0">His mantle, have you ever seen such limbs&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A very scare-crow’s!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>1ST SERVANT.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But a kindly smile.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>2ND SERVANT.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">He touches things and lifts them up and down<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Just like an idiot. We must warn the King.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>Exeunt.</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_61">{61}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">A feast, how nasty! Dabbled vine-leaves, vessels<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Broken to shivers, the inspiring juice<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Black on the boards&mdash;a feast! Can happiness<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Leave refuse such as this? It visits slaves,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And then its track is loathsome. Ah, the air<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Has entered like a wedge, keen, reaching me<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Through all the mustiness ... and now I breathe!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The door is not enough, the windows too ...<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>opening one</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">There! How it enters!<br></span>
+<span class="i24">[<i>turning toward another window</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i22">In this room I lived;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">It is not altered? No, the fireplace, east;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">My chair in front, and hers ... but they are crowned<br></span>
+<span class="i0">At present; and my name upon that bench.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">It is more terrible than nightmare&mdash;this<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Besieging of one’s life by chairs and walls<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And memories. Ah yes, the walls, the walls,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">They do the mischief; and this reek of age<br></span>
+<span class="i0">From every corner sickens worse than stale<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Imprisoned fumes of wine. More air!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>He throws wide all the windows: then leans out of the last. While
+his back is turned</i>, <span class="smcap">Geneviva</span> <i>staggers drowsily in, reels to the
+board, tries to drink, then flings herself against the throne
+sleeping</i>.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i36">O Earth,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">How beautiful to think I travelled on<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And on, yet rode against no wall, so freely<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The outworks of your sky gave up their space.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">My brain is tired with interest: what men do<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Or speak enthrals me, I who often paced<br></span>
+<span class="i0">This room as blind to anything alive<br></span>
+<span class="i0">As if a child unborn.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Impulsively beginning to pace.</i>]</p></div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i22">And yet, my God,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">How great a Captain thou wilt have in me<br></span>
+<span class="i0">If this bond-King, this Pepin can be freed;<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_62">{62}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">If I can do this thing, while Astolph batters<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The very gates of Rome.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>pausing at sight of</i> <span class="smcap">Geneviva</span>.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i24">But who is this<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Strange, beautiful, wild woman?<br></span>
+<span class="i32">Oh, how delicious<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Her arms, her bosom! Through the sodden hair,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Trailing the ground, what glitter, and how clean<br></span>
+<span class="i0">This naked shoulder lies against the floor.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Why, this is Sleep itself!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>He comes close.</i>]</p></div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i27">O Geneviva,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">So you too have learnt freedom, and are grown<br></span>
+<span class="i0">How marvellous in beauty!&mdash;Marcomir!&mdash;<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>stands at the door</i>.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">He must not see her drunken and so flushed;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">He shall not.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>moving quickly to the door</i>.]<br></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i14">I am looking every moment<br></span>
+<span class="i0">For Pepin; do not enter.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>turns and goes out</i>.]<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i25">Oh, my shame,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">If she should open her gray eyes on me,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And find me frocked and tonsured ... for the sun<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Strikes sheer across her face.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>He bends over her; she wakes, looks up, laughs in his face, and
+then speaks.</i>]</p></div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i31">So young a guardian!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Most holy father, but I am not dead;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Do not bring rosemary, or sprinkle me<br></span>
+<span class="i0">With holy drops.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>rubbing her eyes</i>] They call this morning sleep<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A beauty sleep. You must not stare so hard.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But do not laugh.<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_63">{63}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i18">I must; you are a monk<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Shame-faced and awkward. [<i>rising</i>] Have you travelled far?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I came on embassy: the Lombard King ...<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">These kings and princes! But whoever rules<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Young men must have their pleasure. You and I&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Shall we not drink together?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>She pours wine into a goblet&mdash;he drinks</i>]</p></div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i29">God, what thirst!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Now you must rest awhile.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Who are you, lady?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">So should a novice lisp. I am a woman.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Glorious!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And <i>you</i>? [<i>she laughs.</i>]<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i21">Oh, do not jest with me;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You bring a devil to the paradise<br></span>
+<span class="i0">It is to gaze on you. I am escaped<br></span>
+<span class="i0">From convent-walls, the wrong, the bitterness!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">These monks are cruel, cruel, and I shudder<br></span>
+<span class="i0">At their embrace; yet if I have a joy<br></span>
+<span class="i0">It is to bring their manhood back to them.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Ha, ha! To see them look the murderer’s guilt<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_64">{64}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">After a moment’s pleasure in my arms.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You shall not slip me.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i23">I have left the convent<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A novice, as you say. But who are you<br></span>
+<span class="i0">So terrible in pity that you touch<br></span>
+<span class="i0">My hand and draw me to you, though my habit<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And shaven hair insult you worse, more grossly<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Than the most wanton bearing you have met<br></span>
+<span class="i0">In any other man? I am ashamed<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That you should see me thus.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i29">My dearest lovers<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Forsook me to be monks. You are as one<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That comes to bring me tidings of the dead,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The holy dead who have no evil thoughts<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Or trouble from temptation.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>She laughs bitterly</i>] For their sakes<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You are beloved.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i17">Then put away all speech:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">When love draws on me put it by as scholars<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Their task when night falls thick upon the page.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Bend over me and kiss me. Do not laugh&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I love you.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Did you ever love before?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><i>Never.</i><br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">Then I must tell you who I am:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A harlot ... in my palace&mdash;Do not wince!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>she looks at him doubtfully</i>]</p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_65">{65}</a></span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+I had a husband counted me a temptress<br> And fled: I laugh now to
+remember it.<br> I loved once; he I loved became a monk,<br> And therefore I
+make sport of holy men. <br>I would not scoff at you, not tempt you even.<br>
+You have deep, burning eyes.
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i29">He was a monk?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">His name, who fled you? Would you have your pleasure<br></span>
+<span class="i0">With me, his name!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>to herself, shaking her head</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i19"><i>He</i> had oblivious eyes!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>vindictively</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">My lover’s name was Marcomir.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i30">The monk<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Who journeys with me on this embassy<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is Marcomir. If you are amorous still<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of him ...<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i11">Not now&mdash;no more. I am afraid ...<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Who are you? You are surely of my race,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Have known me in my youth. A flushing shame<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Breaks on me&mdash;<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i15">And to find you are beloved<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Moves you?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i11">Not that! I hear it every day.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">It is too stale a story. Could I love&mdash;&mdash;<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Observing</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>passing and re-passing the windows</i>]</p></div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">How dare he watch us! But I recollect<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You told me he had been your paramour.<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_66">{66}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">You come ... he comes, I mean, from Mount Soracte&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Then ... yes, I will have speech with him.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>bitterly</i>] Oh, gossip,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The convent’s gossip. I can furnish that.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">If you desire him carnally, I yield;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">But if ...<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">He knows so much of long ago.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>impulsively</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Then he shall speak.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i21">Not now; you must not call!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Not now; for he remembers&mdash;<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i28">Ay, the harlot<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Was once a girl, the monk was once a man.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">If you would speak of life<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Before it was apprenticed to these trades&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of life and youth, virginity and love,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">My ear will be as ripe for your confession<br></span>
+<span class="i0">As his. We all remember; but our wisdom<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is to forget: our powers of penitence<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Must be enfranchised, sin itself set free,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">No clog or fetter on us!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i25">Carloman,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">My husband!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i12">Your free lover. Oh, I burn,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Burn toward your beauty! How can you forgive<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The years I simply owned you!<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_67">{67}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i30">Am I sweet,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">So sweet to you&mdash;these lips so many men<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Have kissed, this body.... But you bid me speak<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of life and youth, virginity and love,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And by a miracle I can. We two<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Can argue of such matters.<br></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>As</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>passes she calls</i>] Marcomir!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>She restrains</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>and goes to the door</i>.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">No, <i>I</i> must summon him.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>enters</i>.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i25">Were we not happy,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Those days we sat together quite alone<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Praising and talking of him? We adored,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">We each adored him, but we had no part<br></span>
+<span class="i0">In that lone heart of his. Now all is changed<br></span>
+<span class="i0">He loves me&mdash;<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Lady Geneviva!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i29">No&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The harlot, loves the harlot. You can tell me<br></span>
+<span class="i0">So much of him. What, with him every day!&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">All through the golden summer and no rain,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">All through the autumn and its violence!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Did he fall sick of fever?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i27">I have known<br></span>
+<span class="i0">So little of the seasons. Day and night<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I prayed that God would keep you chaste. No prayer<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of mine was ever answered.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span>] Dare you pray<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That this should be or that? The only prayer<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That is not futile in impiety<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_68">{68}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is like a plunge beneath a river’s flow<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To feel the strength and pureness of the life<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That courses through the world.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i32">Ah, yes, to bathe,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And then to rise up clean.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span>] The very moment<br></span>
+<span class="i0">He spoke of youth, virginity and love<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I prayed: I am alive. O Marcomir,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And there are other words of fellowship,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of joy and youth-time. Let us hold him dear<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Because he has delivered us; together<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Let us give thanks, give courage each to each<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Unenvious; let us talk of him once more,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Though with a difference&mdash;I will not use<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Your comradeship profanely as I did,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To set you up against him in caprice,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Then leave you wild and empty. He has much<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To pardon; you have more.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">No, no!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i34">Ah, no&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Not pardon. Where’s the need? We mortal men<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Are brought to riot, brought to abstinence<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That we may grow on either ready soil<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The mustard-seed of pleasure, that is filled<br></span>
+<span class="i0">With wings and sunny leaves. As time goes by<br></span>
+<span class="i0">We shall have true relations each with each,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And with clean hearts receive the usufruct<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of what is best, and growing better still<br></span>
+<span class="i0">In every soul among us.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>leading her up to</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span>]<br></span>
+<span class="i24">Geneviva,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">His kiss will free your penitence, and teach you<br></span>
+<span class="i0">He never could regret the past, because<br></span>
+<span class="i0">It made to-day.<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_69">{69}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>kissing her</i>] Now, and beyond, beyond<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Your friend&mdash;and lover.<br></span>
+<span class="i24">I have prayed, like you,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The difficult is possible as once.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">O life, O Geneviva, I were doomed<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Indeed, if I should dare to rob myself<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of all the joy it is to be with you;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That were to die forever. What, reject<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The gift you have for me, because for him<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You have a different gift! But take my passion,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">As I shall learn to take your friendship&mdash;each<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Accepting what the other has to give,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">All will be well between us.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Pepin</span>.]</p></div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i29">Holy brothers,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">At last I join you. Come, this is unseemly ...<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A pleasant dame&mdash;but not within my palace<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Shall you be tempted to forsake your vows.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Geneviva</span>.]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Go, get your lovers on the highway; here<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You bring disgrace.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">(<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>in a low voice</i>) A courtesan.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">My wife.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Thor! are you crazy?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i21">And I trusted you,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I left her in your charge. Where is my child?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Dead in the cloister half a year ago ...<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That was no fault of mine. As for your wife&mdash;<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span>] Take Lady Geneviva to her rooms,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_70">{70}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">Her rooms within the palace.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Geneviva</span>, <i>as she goes from him</i>] So our boy<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is dead! Can you forgive me?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>He shudders and bows his head. Exeunt</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Geneviva</span>.]</p></div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i29">On my oath,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I could not be her keeper, Carloman.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">No, that is no man’s office. Of herself<br></span>
+<span class="i0">She was what she has been, and each of us<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Should say no word against her to our shame,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor any word to one another more<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Than what we just have said. These fearful things<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Should be within a fosse below all speech;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">While we live sound above them and forget.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I come to you....<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i18">The same, magnanimous,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">My brother, as of old.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>laying his hand on</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman’s</span> <i>shoulder</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i23">What bones!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i35">Ah, yes.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I have not flesh as full of life as yours;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Why, your mere touch can warm one like the sun.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Six years ago! You come as if the dead<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Could rise and make a visit.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>gasping</i>] Pepin, hush!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I have been dead, and yet I am no ghost;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You strike me through with anguish.<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_71">{71}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i36">But you suffer<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Unnecessary pain. I give you welcome<br></span>
+<span class="i0">With all my heart; yet you yourself must know<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Your presence in the place where once you ruled<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is&mdash;well, unlooked for.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>vehemently</i>] Brother, I can prove<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I am no spectre, outcast from the fortunes<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of breathing men,&mdash;that I too have a part<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Once more in worldly business. I am come....<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>close to him</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">What are you come for?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i24">I am come to live,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To share again your counsels.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i30">You are come<br></span>
+<span class="i0">For <i>what</i>?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i12">Once more to think of France, and act<br></span>
+<span class="i0">As you and I determine.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i24">Willingly<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I hear advice; but now the throne is mine<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Decision rests with me and not with you,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Who have been shut away from everything<br></span>
+<span class="i0">But prayers and convent-policy. Forgive,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">We are no longer equals&mdash;you a Saint,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I a mere statesman. But you have not said<br></span>
+<span class="i0">One word about the cloister.<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_72">{72}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i29">Do we waste<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Much talk on vaults, we men who are alive?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And yet you chose it!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Now I choose again.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">You cannot. Are you mad? Who sent you here?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Astolph the Lombard.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i21">Humph! What prelate gave<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Authority to him? He could not use<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Your services by force.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i24">I left the convent<br></span>
+<span class="i0">At his request alone, in opposition<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To bishop Damiani. I am free!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I proved it, acting freely.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Whew!&mdash;this Astolph ...?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Would save you from alliance with the Pope,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Alliance with a foreign tyranny,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Opposed to human life and thwarting it.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Astolph is on your borders, and a King<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is more your natural fellow than this Pope,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Who seizes on the natural power of Kings,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Confusing his tiara with their crowns.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_73">{73}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">I speak the truth, for Zacharias travels<br></span>
+<span class="i0">In haste to put his yoke on France and you.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Before he can arrive ...<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Pope is here.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Impossible!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">He reached us yesterday.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Pepin, you are in league with him?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I am.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">As you are wise and manly, break your promise;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">It injures France, the freedom-loving plains<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The aweless stock we come of. Will you give<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The future of your people to a priest,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You who profess the tonsure round my head<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Disables for a crown?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i22">I, break my treaty,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And ruin my whole scheme!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i26">The Pope is gray,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And Astolph young and sound in force as you.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Which is the deadlier foe?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i27">The Pope and I<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Are age and youth together. Carloman,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I love you still; you take me at the heart<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_74">{74}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">Now that your face is glowing: I must speak,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">For either you are mad, or have forgotten<br></span>
+<span class="i0">How deeds are judged here in the actual world.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You are a monk, a runaway, and worse&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A heretic blasphemer, one who tempts<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Both to rebellion and to perjury,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Yourself as disobedient as forsworn.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You must go back and bear your punishment<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Without the least delay; for you are lost<br></span>
+<span class="i0">If Zacharias find you here.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Go back!<br></span>
+<span class="i9">Go back!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">You are a danger to yourself<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Remaining, and a danger to my throne.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">All I have said is true. Have you not broken<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Your vow?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I have.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And are you not a rebel?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I am, I am, because I am alive&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And not a slave who sleeps through Time, unable<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To share its agitation. What, go back!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You might as well dismiss me to the womb<br></span>
+<span class="i0">From which I was delivered.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i28">Of yourself<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You left the world.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_75">{75}</a></span><span class="i0">[<i>trembling</i>] O Pepin, the same mother,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Gave us our lives, and we had worked and thought<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And breathed in common till I went away&mdash;<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">We cannot any more. Why will you fix<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A look so obstinate and hot?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">By heaven, you are a fool. I cannot change<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Myself, nor you, nor what has come to pass<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I soon shall hate you, wish that you were dead.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">How horrible! I never will go back;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">But I can live without my brother’s love,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">For ties are not existence.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i28">Will you raise<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Divisions in my kingdom?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I must live.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Pope Zacharias</span>, <span class="smcap">Boniface</span> <i>and a number of Churchmen and
+nobles</i>.]</p></div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Zacharias</span>.]<br></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">There stands my brother and your enemy.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Who?&mdash;Carloman? You wrong him. But what mission<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Has brought him to the palace?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i31">He has left<br></span>
+<span class="i0">His convent, and is here to plead the cause<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of Astolph, the arch-heretic.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i30">My son,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Defend yourself.<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_76">{76}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>putting his hands over his brow as if in confusion</i>]<br></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i17">But I can never say<br></span>
+<span class="i0">What he could comprehend. How strange to feel<br></span>
+<span class="i0">So slow, as if I walked without the light,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Deep in a valley.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<span class="smcap">Boniface</span> <i>touches him</i>] Ah!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i29">You do not listen!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Beloved, the Pope is speaking.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Boniface</span>] But you know<br></span>
+<span class="i0">What drove you forth to wander foreign lands,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">With joy in every limb and faculty:<br></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>That</i> drove me from the convent.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i34">As a monk<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I left the English cloister, with a blessing<br></span>
+<span class="i0">From him who ruled me. Is it as a monk,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh, is it&mdash;that we see you in our midst?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">No, no, enfranchised!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>suddenly standing forth</i>] Hear me! The <i>I am</i><br></span>
+<span class="i0">Has sent me to you and has given me power<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To rend your idols, for you have not known<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The God I worship. He is just <i>to-day</i>&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Not dreaming of the future,&mdash;in itself,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Breath after breath divine! Oh, He becomes!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">He cannot be of yesterday, for youth<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Could not then walk beside Him, and the young<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Must walk with God: and He is most alive<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Wherever life is of each living thing.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To-morrow and to-morrow&mdash;those to-days<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of unborn generations; the <i>I am</i><br></span>
+<span class="i0">To none of them a memory or a hope,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_77">{77}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">To each the thirst, the wine-cup and the wine,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The craving, the satiety&mdash;my God!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">O Holy Father, you who sway the world<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Through Him, must not deny Him.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i32">I deny!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">God does not alter; you have changed to Him<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Who is Eternal.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i16">Yes, in change, and free<br></span>
+<span class="i0">As we are free who move within His life,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And shape ourselves by what is moulding Earth<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And men and ages. In my cell I lost<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The motion of His presence. I was dead.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">No, you are dead to what you dare blaspheme,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To what the cloister holds, if any place<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Can hold it, the immutability<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of God’s inherent nature, while without<br></span>
+<span class="i0">His words are trying men by chance and change<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And manifold desires. You left His works<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Behind, you chose Himself: your oath was taken<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To His deep heart; and now you would forswear<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That oath, you cannot. No one who blasphemes<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The light of God shall see the light of day:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">For him the darkness and for him the grave.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I am no more your father, but your judge,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Who represents the God you have disowned,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Insulted and forgotten. He requites&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And you shall answer to the uttermost.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I can.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i7">You still persist in carnal thoughts,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Confounding Deity with things that pass?<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_78">{78}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">God is the Movement, if He is the Life<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of all&mdash;I live in Him.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i23">You left the convent<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Against command?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Against command of men.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And leagued with Astolph?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">In fast brotherhood.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">You hear his full confession. O apostate<br></span>
+<span class="i0">In vain, weep at your sentence.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i32">Holy Father,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I pray you send him back, but spare his life&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Spare him, if I have power with you.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i37">His doom<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is but his choice made permanent on earth.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span>] O fallen from blessedness of will, become<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The friend of heretics, the false of word<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To everlasting Truth, you are condemned<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Life-long to be a prisoner in your cell,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Life-long to watch the scourge and crucifix.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You chose them, as the God whom you abjure<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Chose them, <i>forever</i>; you have lapsed and they<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Become tormentors, till they force contrition<br></span>
+<span class="i0">At last and save you.<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_79">{79}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>with a low, panting moan</i>] Prison!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i37">At Vienne,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">There till you die the prison you have made<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of an eternal vow shall compass you.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Think what it is&mdash;by God Himself, remember<br></span>
+<span class="i0">What you would do to me. The very dead<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Rise ... Everything must have escape to live,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And I shall still be living.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>He throws both arms over his face, then suddenly removing them,
+makes a frenzied movement closer to the Pope.</i>]</p></div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i29">Let me die<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Here, now! It is most impious, horrible<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To bury me, full to the lips with life.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Sharpness-of-death, give <i>that</i>, but not to feel<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The prison walls close on an energy<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Beating its claim to worlds.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i29">What I have spoken<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is and remains irrevocable.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>gently to</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span>] Yield,&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Yield to a God Who compasses you round<br></span>
+<span class="i0">With love so strong it binds you.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i34">And is hell&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">But I reject such love.<br></span>
+<span class="i24">O Pepin, listen!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I see so far! Your pact with Rome undoes<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Long centuries, and yields your country up<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_80">{80}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">To spiritless restriction, and a future<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Entombed alive, as mine will be, in night.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Simply renounce your promise, bid your soldiers<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Seize the old man who numbs us. You and I<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Could set to music that would never end<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The forces of our people.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>PEPIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i26">You are crazy<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Or worse, and I disown you.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Zacharias</span>] On his head<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Let fall what curse you will.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i30">Then he shall see<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The sacred pact between us re-confirmed.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>to Monks</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Fetch Chilperic! [<i>Exeunt Monks.</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i17">And meanwhile bring fetters in<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To bind this renegade.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>moving up to the royal board that crosses the hall at the further
+end</i>]</p></div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The treaty&mdash;sign!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Pepin</span> <i>and his nobles follow</i> <span class="smcap">Zacharias</span>: <i>Attendants bring in
+fetters</i>. <span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>submits mechanically to be bound, staring at</i>
+<span class="smcap">Pepin</span>, <i>who affixes his signature to the treaty</i>.]</p>
+
+<p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Boniface</span> <i>goes round to</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span>.]</p></div>
+
+<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Son, you do well to take your shame so meekly,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And bear in patience.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>sharply</i>] Have they bound me then?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Look, Boniface! And Pepin is a slave.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_81">{81}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">Nothing remains now in the world. That treaty,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That pact!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Chilperic</span> <i>is taken before</i> <span class="smcap">Zacharias</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Pepin</span>; <i>they appear to
+address him, to consult with each other: then a monk advances and
+cuts off</i> <span class="smcap">Chilperic’s</span> <i>long hair, while he weeps bitterly</i>.
+<span class="smcap">Geneviva</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>re-enter hurriedly as if they had heard
+bad news and see</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>bound</i>.]</p></div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Be true to him.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I will.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i35">Then share<br></span>
+<span class="i0">His prison&mdash;say you left his monastery,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Step forth and save him from his loneliness,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">My Marcomir, his friend. This is the moment;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And, as you love him, speak.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>drawing his cowl closer</i>] No! Once before<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I went along with him: I went to hell.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Renew that pain and foulness for his sake,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Because I love him&mdash;&mdash;?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i24">Then because I love,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">If nothing else will urge you&mdash;<i>for my sake</i>,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Only for mine.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i15">And would you be a harlot<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Again, for him?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Hush, never!<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_82">{82}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i29">No, we two<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Should understand each other, for we dare not<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Become what we have been. For my own sake<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I will not leave the world.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>GENEVIVA.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i28">He watches us ...<br></span>
+<span class="i0">O agony! And he is turned away,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And casts me off for ever. Go to him&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I cannot; for he sees me as I am,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The glory dropt away.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>makes a forward movement</i>]<br></span>
+<span class="i22">You shall not go!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">What do I say? I should not have the strength,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Not all alone. Stay with me! It is plain<br></span>
+<span class="i0">What I must do to win him, and so hard&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">It smiles so in the stream. Oh, hush! Look there!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That is worse dying. How they pass before him,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">There, standing in his chains.<br></span>
+<span class="i31">And Pepin looks<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And hurries on, but all <i>his</i> gaze is fixed<br></span>
+<span class="i0">On Chilperic’s shorn head.<br></span>
+<span class="i27">See, how they pass!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Now Zacharias&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i16">And he curses him:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The earth is trembling.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>making a movement as if to curse</i> <span class="smcap">Zacharias</span>]<br></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i24">But I have no God<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To curse you with. I cannot do you harm.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I have no God, no friend, no glowing hate:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You all will pass before me in procession<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Day after day as shadows.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">To his cell!<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_83">{83}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h2><a id="ACT_V"></a>ACT V</h2>
+
+<p class="c"><span class="smcap">Scene</span>: <i>The Prison at Vienne</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>lying on a plank bed</i>.]</p></div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Though Time has played me false&mdash;it is not that:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">It is the fading colours in my soul,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And all the brilliant darkness through that chink;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">It is&mdash;<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>The door opens and a</i> <span class="smcap">Warder</span> <i>enters</i>.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i8">O Warder, put the food away;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">But come and chat with me.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>WARDER.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i27">I have instructions<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I must not speak a word.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i25">Is that the sentence?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Sit down.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>WARDER.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i10">But I must see you drink this wine.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The Pope, King Pepin too&mdash;they all are anxious<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Your life should be preserved.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i31">Sit down and drink.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Now you will chat with me!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>WARDER.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>drinking, and speaking always in an undertone</i>]<br></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i27">How do you feel?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Here’s to your health.<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_84">{84}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i23">Why, that is like a prayer&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Warmed by your voice. They who would shut men up,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And bar them from their fellows’ kindly voices,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">God cripple every motion of their soul!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">So I am here for ever.<br></span>
+<span class="i23">Take that bread:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I like to see you eat. Now talk again.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>WARDER.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But you will eat some too?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i27">No, my good jailer,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You shall not forge that chain. You know I’m dying;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Bring me my food and eat it here and talk,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Then you will stay a little longer. Tell me,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">How is it with the sky to-day, the winds<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And the flowers crying after them? O God!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>He buries his face in his hand.</i>]</p></div>
+
+<h3>WARDER.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Sir, it’s a south wind.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i24">Do the birds fly high?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I watched them in great circles as I travelled&mdash;<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>WARDER.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I have not noticed them.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i25">In wheeling flocks<br></span>
+<span class="i0">They mounted ...<br></span>
+<span class="i17">Have you nothing more to say?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">It must be early morning in the world<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Where all is changing.<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_85">{85}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>WARDER.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i23">Ah, you’d know the time;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Most prisoners get confused.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i29">No night nor day;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">God promised them forever&mdash;morn and eve,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The gathering of the shadows, the decline,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The darkness with no footfall: then the day<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And all things reappearing. That’s for all&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Most for the prisoners, if you’d have them gentle.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Throw down this shutter!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>WARDER.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>shaking his head</i>] That is just the point&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">In prison you get thwarted every way;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You won’t ask that to-morrow.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>He rises, shakes the crumbs from his lap, sets the half-empty
+wine-bottle on a ledge within</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman’s</span> <i>reach and goes out</i>.]</p></div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Is he gone?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Carloman</span> <i>drags himself up and props himself by the wall with his
+ear against it</i>.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I hear the river rushing past the walls,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Rushing and rushing, and through all my dreams<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I labour to keep pace with it: awake,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I give myself to rest. It comforts me,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To hear the bounding current pass along,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To think of the far travel of the drops,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Crisping the tiny waves. Away, away!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">It is great peace to follow: to pursue<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is misery.<br></span>
+<span class="i11">And if I kneel down here,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I can just catch the glitter of the sun<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A-tumble down the stream....<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>He crouches and looks through the chinks.</i>]</p>
+
+<p class="c">[<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Zacharias</span> <i>and two</i> <span class="smcap">Monks</span>.]</p></div><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_86">{86}</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Where is he?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MONK.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i42">There,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Peering between the loosened stones.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>turning</i>] The Pope!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Leave me in peace. You promised me seclusion.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I told you I would be alone with God.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Leave me!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i10">But you are shut up with the devil!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Deep as you lie, you dare not make pretence<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That you have found your God.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>laughing nervously</i>] The seeker lost<br></span>
+<span class="i0">More than the thing to find. Leave me alone&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You break the thread, you break it!<br></span>
+<span class="i36">O the stream,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">It flows and flows, and there are waterfalls<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Somewhere, great, heaving torrents ...<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>bending over him</i>] To Vienne<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Pilate, they say, was banished&mdash;here to die.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">What, Pilate!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Do you tremble at the name?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">O God, he saw the light and knew it not,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">He had worse memories than Iscariot had<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Misusing his great office. He had power,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Power to avert even Calvary ... and yet<br></span>
+<span class="i0">We owe salvation to him.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_87">{87}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>lifting himself up from the ground</i>] Can it be<br></span>
+<span class="i0">My blunder, my effacement shall prevail?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Zacharias</span>] So he was banished and came here to die&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">As you have banished me; it is enough;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">In chains and soon to die. There, hear them rattle;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Now you have done your part.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i29">Not till you yield,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Not till I see you suffer. [<i>aside</i>] Are hell’s rings<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of fire prepared in vain for him?&mdash;Repent!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Leave me!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i10">No sinner has withstood me yet.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You shall repent.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i18">But I am strong as you:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I will not.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i12">Oh, you must, for God’s own sake,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">His Majesty&mdash;He cannot strive and fail;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">His heart is set on you and He must have you,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">If but to bind in hell. Repent the past,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Repent, repent!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i16">Not anything&mdash;the whole<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Strange journey and its perils that have brought me<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Here to the brink of Death: and all will come<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And touch that wonder, all will enter in,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And rest and be revived. Why should one trouble?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Death comes to all, you cannot banish him,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And Death has all we seek for!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i31">These are words<br></span>
+<span class="i0">For men the Church has blessed: but if you die<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_88">{88}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">Without the holy Sacraments, unshriven,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And unabsolved, you will be flung away<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To yonder stream, shroudless and like a dog.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Thus heretics are judged.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>excitedly</i>] Be borne along,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Borne with the current. Is that possible?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Borne <i>dead</i>&mdash;well, each man takes his full desert&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Mine ... is it possible? And further on<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Past towns and cities ... then at last the sea.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>ZACHARIAS.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Vain hope! You are God’s prisoner. No escape,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">No waves to hide you and no help of man;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">For prayer itself like hope is quenched before<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The everlasting Prison-house. Farewell!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Exit with the</i> <span class="smcap">Monks</span>.]</p></div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Ha! ha! He shuts the door&mdash;so blank a sound!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And now the river comes about my brain,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And now the music foams incessantly,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The music of my funeral. Enough<br></span>
+<span class="i0">For me that I shall lie against the heart<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of that on-pouring volume ...<br></span>
+<span class="i30">I am left<br></span>
+<span class="i0">By every creature I have breathed beside&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">They do not want me. God&mdash;He least of all!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">He has a King to crown.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">All’s well, all are provided for.... My brother<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is in my place; my friend will take my wife.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">How Geneviva shuddered at my chains<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And clung to her old paramour! So easy<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The world’s wounds are to heal. A little time,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Ten years, a year&mdash;and all is found defeat<br></span>
+<span class="i0">In any life, all turned to ridicule.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>in lay dress</i>.]</p></div><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_89">{89}</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I have great news for you.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i27">But I am dying!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And now if all the doors were open wide<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I should not move to pass through any one.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You cannot bring great news; I know it all,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">All that must come now: I can alter nothing.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Rome will be succoured.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i24">Yes, the siege is raised,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And Astolph in retreat. I am not come<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To talk of politics.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i21">Of private matters?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">My Astolph, Lombardy ...<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i25">To say farewell,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To bless you. I am here as from the King;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I showed the monks a parchment with the seal<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You used when you were ruler: it was found<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Among <i>her</i> jewels ...<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i23">Ah, I see, a gift.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">So you too play the King. My signet yours,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Ay, and all else that ever bore my name.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Keep it.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But Carloman&mdash;<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i24">I cannot wait<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To hear; I have so very little time<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To speak in and such hatred; hate that burns<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_90">{90}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">My heart through to the core. You, all of you,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">So glad that I am sunk here; Geneviva<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Moving no step to me; and that great Pope,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I gave my soul to in a wondering love,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Vexed that he cannot tame me, not desiring<br></span>
+<span class="i0">My help, my pardon. You must hear it all&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I am not in despair: I have a treasure,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A burthen at my heart&mdash;where it belongs<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I do not know. I have tried many names,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Tried God’s ... You see me dying, that may be;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">But not till I have cast my burthen down<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Can I be certain of my journey’s end.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">How very still your face is! Are you dreaming,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You look so happy? And that scarlet cloak&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Where is your habit?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i21">I have cast it off<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Forever; all my oaths are pushed aside,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">With all my penitence, by something holy,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And the world seems new-born about me now;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I live as in a kind of bliss,&mdash;such joy,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Such fresh, warm sorrow.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i25">Geneviva&mdash;yes<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I know she loves you. Wait till I am dead.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">O Carloman, I dare not break my news,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Not yet, you are not worthy. Do you hear<br></span>
+<span class="i0">How the Rhone sings outside?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i29">Beyond these shutters&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The light, the lightning music!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i32">So life sweeps<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Down through my blood; at last I have its secret.<br></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_91">{91}</a></span></div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Go, dash yourself into the Rhone and die!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">There is no secret hid in life&mdash;illusion,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That is the great discovery.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i29">O listen!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I am left poor and lonely in the world,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">So poor, so lonely, not a soul that needs,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That ever can have need of me! Unloved<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And undesired, with just the sun to hail,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The spring to welcome till I die, no more.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And yet&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">If they should thrust me in a prison-cell<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I should sing on in rapture.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i29"><i>Undesired!</i><br></span>
+<span class="i0">She desires no one ... but you dote on her,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And that will set you singing.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i31">On my lips<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Already there is savour of rich song.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That is the joy I spoke of. Oh, to spread<br></span>
+<span class="i0">The fame of my dead lady through the lands,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To sing of Geneviva!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i21">She is dead?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Come closer. Chafe my hands&mdash;<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i30">They mocked at her:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">“If the Monk-King should ask now for his wife,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And we presented him the prostitute,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Would he not feel the ribaldry!” She stood<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Quite silent, and the ashen lines turned black<br></span>
+<span class="i0">On cheek and forehead; and they mocked her more:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">“The harlot and the monk!” Then suddenly<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_92">{92}</a></span><br></span>
+<span class="i0">A young, wild, girlish glory crossed her face,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">She grasped me by the hand&mdash;but how we went<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Through the hot streets I know not.<br></span>
+<span class="i36">On the bridge<br></span>
+<span class="i0">She turned to me&mdash;“Tell Carloman his wife<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is dead”&mdash;and looking down, I saw her stretched<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Across the buoyant waters: from my sight<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Sucked under by the current ’neath the bridge,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">She did not rise.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>triumphantly</i>] And Marcomir, they promise<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To cast my body to the river there,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And let it sweep along.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i24">But I shall sing<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of life and youth, virginity and love.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You leave me in the world; O Carloman,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You leave me here delivered.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i29">We shall meet;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And yet such life wells up in me I fear<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Lest I should not be dying. Geneviva!<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>turning to</i> <span class="smcap">Marcomir</span>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And you will sing to me?<br></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>He lies back, wrapt in ecstasy.</i>]<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MARCOMIR.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i25">To you, to all.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A tax is laid upon my very heart<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To sing the sweeping music of the Rhone,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">That rushes through my ears, that chants of her,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Of all you have delivered. In its depths<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You will be buried, but the very burthen<br></span>
+<span class="i0">You die to utter, far away in France<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Will be caught up; Love will be free, and life<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Free to make change as childhood.<br></span>
+<span class="i34">Someone comes&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Hush, very softly, do not be afraid.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Boniface</span> <i>enters and steals up to</i> <span class="smcap">Carloman</span>.]</p></div><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_93">{93}</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Beloved&mdash;<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>putting his hand on the lips of</i> <span class="smcap">Boniface</span>]<br></span>
+<span class="i0">No more! Dear voice, end with that word:<br></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Beloved</i> is not a prelude, it is all<br></span>
+<span class="i0">A dying man can bear.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>BONIFACE.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>blessing him</i>] All that I go<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To publish to the folk in heathen lands.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Tho’ very often it means martyrdom<br></span>
+<span class="i0">To listen to my story, I am blest<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Proclaiming it.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CARLOMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">[<i>opening his eyes wide and raising himself</i>]<br></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i16">O Boniface, before<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I saw you as an angel.<br></span>
+<span class="i23">Is that wine<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Still on the stony ledge?<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<span class="smcap">Marcomir</span> <i>brings the wine-bottle</i>]</p></div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i26">Now let us drink,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Drink all of us.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">[<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Boniface</span>] Go to your heathen lands<br></span>
+<span class="i0">With that great lay of love.<br></span>
+<span class="i29">This is a poet,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And he too has a burthen, but more sad&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Men love so fitfully. I for myself<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Drink deep to life here in my prison-cell.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">I had a song ... O Marcomir, the words&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Why do you stumble? Once again the cup!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="poetry">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><i>Fellowship, pleasure</i><br></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>These are the treasure</i>&mdash;<br></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">So I believe, so in the name of Time ...<br></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="c">[<i>He sinks back and dies.</i>]</p></div><p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_94">{94}</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="fint">Printed in England by<br>
+The Westminster Press, Harrow Road<br>
+London</p>
+
+<hr class="full">
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE NAME OF TIME ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>