SCENES FROM "SAUL"

DAVID EXORCISING MALZAH, THE EVIL SPIRIT FROM THE LORD

SCENE. A chamber of the palace. DAVID playing on his harp. SAUL enters and listens, and at length DAVID ceases.

Saul. Still more, still more: I feel the demon move

Amidst the gloomy branches of my breast, As moves a bird that buries itself deeper Within its nest at stirring of the storm.

[DAVID plays again. Were ever sounds so sweet! - where am I? O,

I have been down in hell, but this is heaven!

It grows yet sweeter, - 't is a wondrous air. Methinks I lately died a hideous death, And that they buried me accursed and cursing.

But this is not the grave; for, surely, music

Comes not to reanimate man 'neath the clods.

Let me not think on 't! yet a fiend fierce

tore me.

Ah, I remember now, too much remember;
But I am better: still methinks I fainted;
Or was the whole a fearful, nightmare
dream?

Nay, am I yet not dreaming? No; I wake:
And, as from dream or as from being born,
Without the outcry of a mother's travail;
Or, as if waking from a revery,
I to myself am ushered by strange music,
That, in its solemn gentleness, falls on me
Like a superior's blessing. Give me more
Of this sweet benefit.

[After having listened again. Who is this stranger? Yes, I know him

now.

'T is not a heavenly spirit, though so like one,
With curving arms encompassing the harp,
As clasps the landscape the aërial bow :
It is the minstrel youth from Bethlehem;
In form, indeed, surpassing beautiful.
Methinks he doth address himself to sing:
I'll listen, for I love him as he sits
Rapt, like a statue conjured from the air.
Hist!

David. [Sings, accompanying himself on

his harp.]

O Lord, have mercy on the king;
The evil spirit from him take;
His soul from its sore suffering
Deliver, for thy goodness' sake.

Saul. [Aside.] He for me prays.

O, heal thine own Anointed's hurt ;
Let evil from his thoughts be driven ;
And breathe upon his troubled heart
The balmy sense of fault forgiven.

Saul. [Aside.] I would not hide my
faults; amen.

Great God, thou art within this place ;
The universe is filled with thee :
To all thou givest strength and grace;
O, give the king thy grace to see.

Saul. [Aside.] What have I done de-
served the loss of grace?

I cannot say "amen"; - and if I did,
My feeble amen would be blown away
Before it had reached heaven. I cannot
say it:

There disbelief takes prisoner my tongue !

As after winter cometh spring,
Make joy unto his soul return; -
And me, in thy good pleasure, bring
To tend my flock where I was born.

Saul. [Aside.] So able, yet so humble ! [Aloud.] David, no; Thou shalt remain and be mine armorbearer.

What, wouldst thou seek again the idle downs, 'Midst senseless sheep, to spend the listless day, Watching the doings of thy ewes and rams ! Thou shalt go with me to the martial field And see great deeds thereon. Myself will teach thee military lessons; To tell the enemy's numbers; to discover His vulnerable points; by stratagem To draw him from his posts of vantage;

how

Swift to advance; how to surprise the foe;

THE FLIGHT OF MALZAH

Malzah. Music, music hath its sway; Music's order I obey : I have unwound myself at sound From off Saul's heart, where coiled I lay. 'Tis true, awhile I've lost the game; Let fate and me divide the blame. And now away, away; but whither, Whither, meantime, shall I go? Erelong I must returned be hither. There's Jordan, Danube, and the Po, And Western rivers huge, I know: There's Ganges, and the Euphrates, Nilus and the stretching seas : There's many a lake and many a glen To rest me, as in heaven, again; With Alps, and the Himalayan range: And there 's the Desert for a change. Whither shall I go?

I'll sit i' the sky,

And laugh at mortals and at care;
(Not soaring, as before, too high,
And bring upon myself a snare ;)
But out my motley fancies spin
Like cobwebs on the yellow air;
Laugh bright with joy, or dusky grin
In changeful mood of seance there.
The yellow air! the yellow air!
He's great who's happy anywhere.

Albeit I've seen, perhaps, flowers as mean in heaven.

Well, I will think that these are heaven's.
Alack,

This is a poor excuse for asphodel;
And yet it has the true divine aroma.
Here's ladslove, and the flower which even
death

Cannot unscent, the all-transcending rose.
Here's gilly-flower, and violets dark as eyes
Of Hebrew maidens. There's convolvulus,
That sickens ere noon and dies ere evening.
Here's monkey's-cap. - Egad! 't would
cap a monkey

To say what I have gathered; for I spread my arms

And closed them like two scythes. I have crushed many;

I've sadly mangled my lilies. However,

here

down narcissus,

A true and perfect emblem of myself.
I'll count it my own likeness; and so leave
it
For delectation of my radiant mistress,

Who, lieu of keeping watch and ward o'er me, May keep it over my pale effigy.

[Drops the narcissus. I'll hang this matchless rose upon my lips, And whilst I'm flying will inhale its breath. [Exit.

MALZAH AND THE ANGEL ZELEHTHA

SCENE. - The Alps. Time, night, with stars. Enter MALZAH, walking slowly.

Malzah. So, so; I feel the signal. It seems to reach me through the air, To Saul it prompts me to repair. I wish 't would cease; it doth not please Me now to terminate my leisure. I was alone; and here to groan At present is my greatest pleasure. I'll come anon; I say begone; What is the wayward King to me? I say begone; I'll come anon. O, thou art strong; I'll follow thee.

[Exit, and enter the angel Zelehtha. Zelehtha. He flees, he flees, across the

No sight so beautiful in all the world? Ohn. I have seen herds of these brave gallant beasts.

this?

Rob. [Quickly.] When? where was Ohn. When that I was a child A tribe came scouting from the sinking sun, The hatchet buried, on a pilgrimage To take salt water back from out the sea, As is their custom in their solemn rites. They all were mounted, every one, on steeds. Rob. Indeed!

Ohn. Our brethren, who live six moons nearer night,

And many more in number than the stars, With steeds in number many more than they,

Dwell on the boundless, grassy, huntingplains, Beyond which mountains higher than the clouds, And on the other side of them the sea. Rob. Important this, but of it more [They enter the caserne. These are called books. These are the strangest things

anon.

Thou yet hast seen. I take one of them down,

And lo! a learned dead man comes from his grave,

Sits in my chair and holds discourse with me. And these are pictures.

Ohn.

Rob. These, maps. Ohn.

They are good totem.

I, with a stick, upon the sand

Can trace the like. Rob.

By 'r Lady of St. Roque That shalt thou do! The Pilot missed it there;

These savages must know their country well. This girl shall be my chief topographer, By her I 'll learn the gold and silver coast That Cartier could not find. Come hither to this window. Music, ho! [Band plays.

And show the perturbation of weak minds. Ohn. I see new marvels that I ne'er have seen,

But when I once have seen them they are old.

Art thou not pleased with these melodious