CALVARY

First Musician.
Motionless under the moon-beam,
Up to his feathers in the stream;
Although fish leap, the white heron
Shivers in a dumbfounded dream.

Second Musician.
God has not died for the white heron.

Third Musician.
Although half famished he’ll not dare
Dip or do anything but stare
Upon the glittering image of a heron,
That now is lost and now is there.

Second Musician.
God has not died for the white heron.

First Musician.
But that the full is shortly gone
And after that is crescent moon,
It’s certain that the moon-crazed heron
Would be but fishes’ diet soon.

Second Musician.
God has not died for the white heron.
[The three Musicians are now seated by the drum, flute, and zither at the back of stage.

First Musician. The road to Calvary, and I beside it
Upon an ancient stone. Good Friday’s come,
The day whereon Christ dreams His passion through.
He climbs up hither but as a dreamer climbs.
The cross that but exists because He dreams it
Shortens His breath and wears away His strength.
And now He stands amid a mocking crowd,
Heavily breathing.
[A player with the mask of Christ and carrying a cross has entered and now stands leaning upon the cross.
Those that are behind
Climb on the shoulders of the men in front
To shout their mockery: ‘Work a miracle,’
Cries one, ‘and save yourself’; another cries,
‘Call on your father now before your bones
Have been picked bare by the great desert birds’;
Another cries, ‘Call out with a loud voice
And tell him that his son is cast away
Amid the mockery of his enemies.’

[Singing]
O, but the mockers’ cry
Makes my heart afraid,
As though a flute of bone
Taken from a heron’s thigh,
A heron crazed by the moon,
Were cleverly, softly played.

[Speaking]
Who is this from whom the crowd has shrunk,
As though he had some look that terrified?
He has a deathly face, and yet he moves
Like a young foal that sees the hunt go by
And races in the field.
[A player with the mask of Lazarus has entered.

Lazarus. — He raised me up.
I am the man that died and was raised up;
I am called Lazarus.

Christ. — Seeing that you died,
Lay in the tomb four days and were raised up,
You will not mock at me.

Lazarus. — For four whole days
I had been dead and I was lying still
In an old comfortable mountain cavern
When you came climbing there with a great crowd
And dragged me to the light.

Christ. — I called your name:
‘Lazarus, come out,’ I said, and you came out
Bound up in cloths, your face bound in a cloth.

Lazarus. You took my death, give me your death instead.

Christ. I gave you life.

Lazarus. — But death is what I ask.
Alive I never could escape your love,
And when I sickened towards my death I thought,
‘I’ll to the desert, or chuckle in a corner,
Mere ghost, a solitary thing.’ I died
And saw no more until I saw you stand
In the opening of the tomb; ‘Come out!’ you called;
You dragged me to the light as boys drag out
A rabbit when they have dug its hole away;
And now with all the shouting at your heels
You travel towards the death I am denied.
And that is why I have hurried to this road
And claimed your death.

Christ. — But I have conquered death,
And all the dead shall be raised up again.

Lazarus. Then what I heard is true. I thought to die
When my allotted years ran out again;
And that, being gone, you could not hinder it;
But now you will blind with light the solitude
That death has made; you will disturb that corner
Where I had thought I might lie safe for ever.

Christ. I do my Father’s will.

Lazarus. — And not your own;
And I was free four days, four days being dead.
Climb up to Calvary, but turn your eyes
From Lazarus that cannot find a tomb
Although he search all height and depth: make way,
Make way for Lazarus that must go search
Among the desert places where there is nothing
But howling wind and solitary birds. — [He goes out.

First Musician. The crowd shrinks backward from the face that
seems
Death-stricken and death-hungry still; and now
Martha, and those three Marys, and the rest
That live but in His love are gathered round Him.
He holds His right arm out, and on His arm
Their lips are pressed and their tears fall; and now
They cast them on the ground before His dirty
Blood-dabbled feet and clean them with their hair.

[Sings]
Take but His love away,
Their love becomes a feather
Of eagle, swan or gull,
Or a drowned heron’s feather
Tossed hither and thither
Upon the bitter spray
And the moon at the full.

Christ. I felt their hair upon my feet a moment
And then they fled away — why have they fled?
Why has the street grown empty of a sudden
As though all fled in terror?

Judas (who has just entered]. I am Judas
That sold you for the thirty pieces of silver.

Christ. You were beside me every day, and saw
The dead raised up and blind men given their sight,
And all that I have said and taught you have known,
Yet doubt that I am God.

Judas. — I have not doubted;
I knew it from the first moment that I saw you;
I had no need of miracles to prove it.

Christ. And yet you have betrayed me.

Judas. — I have betrayed you
Because you seemed all-powerful.

Christ. — My Father
Even now, if I were but to whisper it,
Would break the world in His miraculous fury
To set me free.

Judas. — And is there not one man
In the wide world that is not in your power?

Christ. My Father put all men into my hands.

Judas. That was the very thought that drove me wild.
I could not bear to think you had but to whistle
And I must do; but after that I thought,
‘Whatever man betrays Him will be free’;
And life grew bearable again. And now
Is there a secret left I do not know,
Knowing that if a man betrays a God
He is the stronger of the two?

Christ. — But if
‘Twere the commandment of that God Himself,
That God were still the stronger.

Judas. — When I planned it
There was no live thing near me but a heron
So full of itself that it seemed terrified.

Christ. But my betrayal was decreed that hour
When the foundations of the world were laid-

Judas. It was decreed that somebody betray you —
I’d thought of that — but not that I should do it,
I the man Judas, born on such a day,
In such a village, such and such his parents;
Nor that I’d go with my old coat upon me
To the High Priest, and chuckle to myself
As people chuckle when alone, and do it
For thirty pieces and no more, no less,
And neither with a nod nor a sent message,
But with a kiss upon your cheek. I did it,
I, Judas, and no other man, and now
You cannot even save me.

Christ. — Begone from me.
[Three Roman Soldiers have entered.

First Roman Soldier. He has been chosen to hold up the cross.

[During what follows, Judas holds up the cross while Christ stands with His arms stretched out upon it.

Second Roman Soldier. We’ll keep the rest away; they are too persistent;
They are always wanting something.

Third Roman Soldier. — Die in peace.
There’s no one here but Judas and ourselves.

Christ. And who are you that ask your God for nothing?

Third Roman Soldier. We are the gamblers, and when you are dead
We’ll settle who is to have that cloak of yours
By throwing dice.

Second Roman Soldier. Our dice were carved
Out of an old sheep’s thigh at Ephesus.

First Roman Soldier. Although but one of us can win the cloak
That will not make us quarrel; what does it matter?
One day one loses and the next day wins.

Second Roman Soldier. Whatever happens is the best, we say,
So that it’s unexpected.

Third Roman Soldier. Had you sent
A crier through the world you had not found
More comfortable companions for a deathbed
Than three old gamblers that have asked for nothing.

First Roman Soldier. They say you’re good and that you made the world,
But it’s no matter.

Second Roman Soldier. Come now; let us dance
The dance of the dice-throwers, for it may be
He cannot live much longer and has not seen it.

Third Roman Soldier. If he were but the God of dice he’d know it,
But he is not that God.
First Roman Soldier. — One thing is plain,
To know that he has nothing that we need
Must be a comfort to him.

Second Roman Soldier. — In the dance
We quarrel for a while, but settle it
By throwing dice, and after that, being friends,
Join hand to hand and wheel about the cross. [They dance.

Christ. My Father, why hast Thou forsaken Me?
[Song for the folding and unfolding of the cloth]
 

First Musician.
Lonely the sea-bird lies at her rest,
Blown like a dawn-blenched parcel of spray
Upon the wind, or follows her prey
Under a great wave’s hollowing crest.

Second Musician.
God has not appeared to the birds.

Third Musician.
The ger-eagle has chosen his part
In blue deep of the upper air
Where one-eyed day can meet his stare;
He is content with his savage heart.

Second Musician.
God has not appeared to the birds.

First Musician.
But where have last year’s cygnets gone?
The lake is empty; why do they fling
White wing out beside white wing?
What can a swan need but a swan?

Second Musician.
God has not appeared to the birds.
 

THE END