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.