SCENE 1

_A Castle on Zion. A large Audience-Chamber._ JOAB, SAMEAS, ZERUBABEL _and his Son_ PHILO, TITUS, JUDAS, _and many others_. _Enter_ HEROD.

JOAB (_advancing towards the King_).

I’m back again.

HEROD.

I’ll speak with you anon. Announce the weightiest first!

JOAB (_retreating: aside_).

The weightiest! I had a kind of notion ’twere to learn Whether my head sits shoulder-tight or not.

HEROD (_beckoning to_ JUDAS).

How is it with the fire?

JUDAS.

With the fire? Know you already what I came to tell?

HEROD.

At midnight it broke out; I was the first To mark it, and the first to call the watch. Am I at fault, or did I wake yourself?

JUDAS.

It is extinguished. (_Aside._) Ha, then it is true The mummer dogs the town-ways in disguise When others are asleep! Then bridle tongue! A chance may prick it blind against his ear!

HEROD.

I saw when all was in a reel of flames A woman, young, through the window of a house; She seemed quite sense-numbed. Was this woman saved?

JUDAS.

She’d none of it.

HEROD.

She’d none of it?

JUDAS.

By Heaven, She made defence against the force essayed To bear her off; she laid about with hands And feet; she clutched and clung to the bed On which she sat, shrieking “that very hour She’d chosen for a death by her own hands. And now that death was come by lucky chance!”

HEROD.

She must have been a maniac.

JUDAS.

Possibly The poignancy of pain gave her the wrench. Her husband had just died the moment ere then. His corpse, still warm, was lying in his bed.

HEROD (_aside_).

That tale’s in point: I’ll tell’t to Mariamne And fix her eyes i’ the very telling! (_Aloud._) This woman Has had no child belike; in the other case The child shall be my care; as for herself, Let her have rich and princely burial. I feel she was among all women queen.

SAMEAS (_advancing towards_ HEROD).

A burial? I protest the thing can’t be, Or, at the least, not in Jerusalem, For it is written----

HEROD.

Are you not known to me?

SAMEAS.

You’ve had ere now a chance to make acquaintance; I was the tongue once of the Sanhedrim When it was dumb before you.

HEROD.

Sameas, I hope you know me too. Hard on the heel You have pursued the youngling, and were lief To make the hangman richer by the head Of that same youngling. I forgive your deeds As man and King. Your neck still carries yours.

SAMEAS.

If for the grace that bade you leave it me I dare not use it, here it is! That were A worse mischance than loss for good and all.

HEROD.

Why did you come? I never saw you here Till now within these walls.

SAMEAS.

That’s just the reason You see me here to-day. You may have thought It was through fear of you. I fear you not! Not even now, when many learnt to fear you Who till this time--I mean up till the death Of Aristobulus--had no fear of you; And now at offered opportunity To give you proof I have a grateful heart, I grasp the chance, and warn you solemnly Against a deed that the Lord God abhors. This woman’s bones unhallowed are accursed, She has rejected rescue heathen-wise; No less the act than had she killed herself. And then----

HEROD.

Some other time! (_To_ ZERUBABEL.) From Galilee! Zerubabel as well who once----Be welcome! Yourself’s to blame I’ve seen you not till now.

ZER.

’Tis a high honour, King, you know me still. (_Pointing to his mouth._) But then of course these teeth, these mighty twins That make me a blood-cousin to the boar----

HEROD.

The look of my own face will I forget Sooner than his who’s served me trustily. When I was brigand-hunting in your land, My sharpest sleuth-hound you! Why come you now?

ZER. (_pointing to his son_).

Small cause enough. This Philo here’s my son. Soldiers you need, and I--well none need I. This one’s a Roman. By some oversight A Hebrew daughter gave him to the world.[2]

HEROD.

From Galilee comes to me naught but good. I’ll have you summoned later.

[ZERUBABEL _retires with his son_.

TITUS (_advancing_).

A cheat’s fraud I have discovered forces----

HEROD.

Out with it!

TITUS.

The dumb speak!

HEROD.

Riddle not!

TITUS.

Your halberdier Who, companied with one of my centurions, Last night was standing guard at your bed-chamber----

HEROD (_aside_).

The man whom Alexandra, my wife’s mother, Enlisted in my service----

TITUS.

He’s not dumb, Though not a soul but seems to think so of him. In dreaming he has found his voice and cursed.

HEROD.

In dreaming!

TITUS.

Yes, he fell asleep on guard, And my centurion had no mind to wake him, Thinking his duty’s scope made no exaction, Because he is not drafted with his cohort. But his sharp eye was on him, if he fell To catch him that your rest be not disturbed, Since it was early and you lay asleep. While he does this the dumb one sudden starts A-murmuring, and calls aloud your name, And couples it with a most fearsome curse.

HEROD.

And this centurion suffers no delusion?

TITUS.

If so, he must himself have fallen asleep, An omen, for the eternal city’s future, Worse than the bolt of thunder which of late Blasted the She-wolf on the Capitol.

HEROD.

My thanks to you--and now----

[_Dismisses all except_ JOAB.

Ay, so it stands! Traitors in my own house, open defiance From Pharisaic scum, the more unblushing Since I dare not deal chastisement unless I’m mad enough to turn fools into martyrs; And from those Galileans some scant love, No, a self-interested hanging-on, Since I’m the Bogy of the Shining Sword That from the distance scares their rabble-dregs. And--this man brings me certain news of ill; He was too hasty-eager to announce it. For even he, though my own body-slave, Delights in my chagrin if he but knows I must don mask as though I saw it not. (_To_ JOAB.) The news from Alexandria!

JOAB.

I had speech With Antony.

HEROD.

O prologue marvellous! Had speech with Antony! I’m used to see My couriers to his audience vouchsafed. You are the first who finds himself compelled To reassure me he was privileged thus.

JOAB.

A privilege hardly won! I was repulsed, Obdurately repulsed!

HEROD (_aside_).

A sign he stands Still better with Octavian than I thought! (_Aloud._) That shows you picked the right hour clumsily.

JOAB.

I picked each single one o’ the twenty-four That make the total day. Whate’er was doing I budged not from the spot, never a foot, Even when the soldiers offered me some morsel, And, when I spurned their bounty, vented japes:-- “He’ll only eat the leavings of the cat And what the dogs have tattered with their jaws!” At last I had success----

HEROD.

Some cleverer man Had won forthwith----

JOAB.

In gaining audience. It was now night, and the first notion forced Upon my mind was that I had been summoned To lengthen out his gibing soldiers’ jest. For, as I entered, there before my eyes A ring of cushion-sprawling drinkers lay; But he with his own hand filled me with a goblet And called out to me--“Drain this to my health!” I courteously declined, whereat he said:-- “If killing yonder fellow were my mood I’d merely need for but an eight-days’ space To have him at my board, and pile thereon The tribute paid me by the earth and ocean. He’d sit an-idling, peak away from famine, And swear in dying he’d a bellyful!”

HEROD.

Yes, yes, they know our breed! It must be altered. What Moses merely bade, to shield this folk From a backsliding to its old calf-cult, Though _he_ was not a fool, such law this folk Holds fatuous as a self-sufficient end; So sick men cured still use the healing drug As though their food and physic were the same. This must----Continue!

JOAB.

I was soon assured I had mistook my man, for he dismissed All State-affairs while cups were going round, Appointed magistrates and duly ordered The sacrifice to Zeus, consulted augurs, Spoke with the couriers fast as e’er they came, Not me alone. Oh, a rare sight he made! A slave behind him with his ear acock, A tablet and a stylus in his hand, Was scribbling down--absurdly solemn owl! Whatever crank escaped his tippler-mood. And on the morning after, so I learnt, He reads the contents through, his head aburst With drunkard-dregs, and holds his words so true That--hear the latest oath they say he swore-- With his own fist he’d choke his very windpipe Had he the night before in fuddled fit Made a fool’s freakish present of the world He dubs his own, and thereby forfeited His right to one sole single place thereon. Whether, then too his walk’s a zigzag waddle, As when at night he seeks his bed, I know not; But to my thinking, both are on all fours.

HEROD.

Thou’rt conqueror, Octavian! Soon or late; That’s all the question. Well?

JOAB.

When at long last The turn had come to me and I delivered The letter for him that I bore with me, He then and there, instead of opening it, Tossed it contemptuous to his secretary, Bade his cup-bearer bring a certain picture Which I should thoroughly scan, and say to him Whether I found the likeness good or no.

HEROD.

It was the likeness of----

JOAB (_with sinister malice_).

Aristobulus, The High-Priest drowned a trifle suddenly. A long time since your royal Consort’s mother, Queen Alexandra, who’s had doings with him, Had sent it; but ’twas swallowed ravenously As though he’d ne’er set eyes on it before. Stock-still I stood, mutely confused. He spoke When he saw this--“The lamps here burn too dim!” Then, stretching out his hand toward your letter, Plunged it in flame and let it flicker slow Before the picture like an uninked sheet.

HEROD.

Bold, e’en for him: but ’twas a wine-caprice.

JOAB.

I cried--“What’s that you’re doing? Why, you’ve not So much as read the letter!” He replied:-- “My will’s to speak with Herod! That’s the meaning! He is arraigned by me on capital charge!” Then I was bade relate how the High Priest Came by his death, and as I told the tale-- A dizziness had gripped him in his bath-- He cut me short and quick--“Gripped! Ay, that is The fitting word. That dizziness had fists!” Then I perceived--pardon if I declare it,-- Rome’s not persuaded that the youth is drowned; Nay, but there’s accusation in the wind That by your chamberlain’s kind offices You’ve had him strangled in the river-depths.

HEROD.

Thanks, Alexandra, thanks!

JOAB.

Then, waving hand, He bade me thence--I went. But, once again, He called to me and spoke--“You’ve not yet paid The question I first put you its due answer; Then hear it twice. This picture, does it favour The Dead?” As I assented with forced nod, “And favours Mariamne then her brother? Say, favours she the youth so piteous--dead? Is she so fair that every woman hates her?”

HEROD.

And you?

JOAB.

Hear first what all the others said Who meanwhile rose, and, gathered at my side, Circled the picture. With a laugh they said, Changing with Antony the double glance, “Say yes! If e’er you took the dead man’s largess, Hap or mishap, you’ll see his death avenged.” But I replied I knew no jot of it, For never else but draped in veils had I Beheld the Queen: and that’s the very truth.

HEROD (_aside_).

Ha, Mariamne! But--I laugh at that, I’ll know the trick to shield me from that danger, This way or that, whatever way it come. (_To_ JOAB.) And what commission did you take for me?

JOAB.

No smallest. If commission I had taken I’d not have roundabouted thus. As ’tis It seemed imperative.

HEROD.

Good: you return At once to Alexandria with me. You leave the palace under penalty.

JOAB.

Your servant! I’ll hold talk with none i’ the palace.

HEROD.

That’s credible! Who hankers for the cross Now of all times when figs begin to ripe? My Mute must have the axe, and should he question The why, he’s answered--“Just that you can question.” (_Aside._) So now I see through whom the Ancient Serpent So often learned what I--A wicked wench! (_To_ JOAB.) See to’t! When done I must behold the head. I’ll send a present to my mother-in-law. (_Aside._) She needs a little warning-sign, it seems.

JOAB.

At once!

HEROD.

This too: the Galilean lad-- Take him beneath your wing--Zerubabel’s son. I’ll have a word with him too ere we go.[3]

[_Exit_ JOAB.