John the Baptist: A Play Part 25

JOHN

Sooner would I talk to these black walls, that they might perhaps fall; sooner to thy hungry children, that my words might fill them. But the belief that looketh up to me, transfigured because it believeth....

That hurts me.

AMARJA

[_Low to Josaphat._] It is now the second hour. Wilt thou not mention Herod to him?

JOHN

[_As Josaphat comes nearer to him._] I sent the youngest of you to search for the Galilean. Where is he?

JOSAPHAT

He has not yet come back, master.

JOHN

May be he has lost the way.

JOSAPHAT

I told him where to come to, master.

JOHN

I want the Galilean.... Ye shall procure me the Galilean.... See ye not that my strength rests in my King ... Even if I serve Him like an unworthy vessel ... I serve Him according to my measure.... I have borne witness to Him.... Is that not true?

JOSAPHAT

Thou hast borne witness, indeed, Rabbi.

JOHN

But the testimony hath grown up in my soul. When He comes, will He bear it out?

JOSAPHAT

He will, master; for G.o.d sendeth Him.

JOHN

Else my soul hath not known Him, even as it hath not known you. Have ye no news of Mana.s.sa? Go and keep watch outside, that he doth not miss the house.

JOSAPHAT

That will be he! [_Goes to open the door._]

SCENE V

_The same. Matthias._

JOSAPHAT

Thou, Matthias? Hast thou not seen Mana.s.sa?

MATTHIAS

No. Rabbi, I come to thee in the night because of Herod.

JOHN

Because of Herod? [_Seats himself with head turned away._]

MATTHIAS

I sent spies to the Palace up till the time of the Pa.s.sover Feast. The priests were coming to and fro. What their business was no one knows.

And if he cometh now to the morning sacrifice at eight of the clock, as is his custom on high festivals ... and comes with that woman ...

flaunting his sin in the face of the people.... Rabbi, speak! What then?

JOHN

[_Does not answer,_]

AMARJA

He hears thee not.

JOSAPHAT.

He is thinking of the Galilean.

JOHN

I heard some one here speak of sin. Know ye in what raiment sin clothes itself gorgeously when it goeth abroad among the people? Say courtliness, say hate, say what ye will, and I shall laugh at you.

Hear, and mark well. They call it love. Everything that is small, and stoops because it is small, that throws crumbs from its table in order not to throw bread; that covers up graves that they may stink secretly; that hews off the thumb of the left hand that it may have nothing to say to the thumb of the right; take care; all that is called love. And they call it love when in spring the a.s.s brays and the dogs whine; when a woman herself gathers together the stones whereon to rest with her lover in the evening, stones which in the morning the people will hurl at her, and the woman speaketh: "See beloved, how sweet is our couch."

... They call this love.

MATTHIAS

[_After exchanging a look with Josaphat._] Rabbi, forgive us, but the people are waiting for thee. The many who desert their beds, expectant of the morrow, think only of one thing--judgment! The judgment of Herod.

JOHN

Judgment of Herod--well.

JOSAPHAT