by Unknown
(The only person on the scene is JONATHAN, son of Saul. He is a boy of about DAVID’S size and age of twelve, and must be played by a real boy. He is cultured, good-looking, and intelligenty but not imaginative, and his chief note is of open honesty. He is attired in armour, mostly of leather, which is ornamental rather than useful, for he is considered too precious to be risked. He is looking dejected, and an occasional horn or trumpet is heard from back, not suggesting activity but merely camp routine. These sounds he disregards. He comes and sits on the tree trunks, distressed. To him there hurriedly enters a real fighting man, OPHIR, a young captain of Israel, OPHIR is brave and devoted to Saul, though presently we see that he can be rather complacent and thick-headed. He salutes Jonathan.)
JONATHAN (remaining seated and glad to welcome a friend). You, Ophir! You seek my father?
OPHIR (in an excited state).. Ay, Prince Jonathan, I seek the King. I was told I should find him here — far from the camp. My King, far from his camp! (It is a cry of anguish, with the Israelite excess of voice and gesture.)
JONATHAN (dispirited). You find Jonathan alone, Ophir, and Jonathan is downcast.
OPHIR (treating him as a boy and going to him kindly). I grieve, my lord Jonathan, that you are downcast. (In a blaze)
But of the downcast is every captain, ay, and every foot man in the army of Israel these forty days.
JONATHAN. None more than Saul himself. Look on him, Ophir.
(OPHIR looks.)
OPHIR (with passionate devotion). My King!
JONATHAN. See how irresolutely he paces — backwards and forwards.
OPHIR (in horror of the idea). Saul grown irresolute!
JONATHAN. Ophir, I think a distress has come upon him. I have seen him with his eyes open, yet he saw me not, and I have touched him and still he knew me not and muttered to himself.
OPHIR (he speaks low and guardedly). I have heard of a night when the cry went forth, ‘Behold a dark spirit troubleth the King.’ And servants were sent out to seek a cunning player on a harp and he played before Saul, and the burden was lifted off him.
JONATHAN. Think of it. He gazes north, south, east and west, for a prophet who never comes.
OPHIR (grinding his teeth). This Samuel!
(A distant horn and trumpets answering, produce an outburst from him.)
Why falls he not upon the Philistines now drawn up against him? A King heretofore sweeping his enemies before him, and to-day more like one with clothes rent and with earth upon his face!
(Begging) My prince, come to our aid!
JONATHAN. Ah, my friend, he looks upon me as a child, decked in the trappings of war, but shielded from the fray.
(Scorning himself) That is all we are, my pretty armour and I.
OPHIR. Know you that he even forbids us to take up the challenges to single combat thrown across our lines by insolent Philistines? There is among them one Goliath who tries us sore, strutting before our outposts daily and crying that Israel cannot find a champion to stand up against him.
JONATHAN (boyishly). Goliath! I have heard of the monster Goliath. Ophir, you must take me to see the sight. Is it true that he is beyond mortal bulk, in a harness of unbeaten brass, and that the staff of his spear is of the thickness of a weaver’s beam?
OPHIR. Truly, the story grows with the telling.
JONATHAN. Ophir, if we are in such a strait, why do the Philistines wait for us to strike?
OPHIR. It is a cunning enemy which knows that our army weakens as the bread becomes spent in our vessels.
JONATHAN. See, my father’s javelin. As he moved away he left it here, as a thing of war and therefore of no account.
OPHIR. The javelin of Saul! (He treats it with reverence, then kisses it.)
JONATHAN. Why did you kiss it?
OPHIR. In forgiveness, my lord Jonathan; for when I have said my say to Saul I have a sinking that this javelin will enter into me.
JONATHAN (reproving). You speak thus of the sweetest master!
OPHIR (fervently). He is, he is! But who has countered Saul and lived?
JONATHAN (looking). He comes back — haste away, Ophir. Leave your words to him unspoken.
OPHIR (firmly). What I have to say I must say. (As one saying goodbye to life) Israel, farewell.
(saul comes on. He should be presented in the play as a noble figure in Israel’s history, though the clouds have begun to gather and he is to be a broken column. He is dark-bearded and at most about forty years of age. For an idea of his appearance a study should be made of Rembrandt’s famous picture of David playing before Saul, which, however, is a conception of much later date, and all the garments in the play must be of those Israelite days.)
SAUL. You bring word from Samuel? (He is quiet and dignified.)
OPHIR (who has saluted him). There is none, O King.
SAUL (concealing his feelings). Then trouble me not further, good Ophir.
OPHIR (on his knee). My King, I pray you, hear me. Your captains drew lots who should hazard this, and it fell upon me. Forty days have we lain here, ready but not striking. There is murmuring in the tents; deserters steal away by night, and the ranks of the Philistines swell as ours diminish. (Aware of his daring.) Your captains, O King, beg — they demand — that the battle be engaged.
SAUL. Demand! (He becomes dangerous, but retains his kingly quality.) Take heed to yourself, Ophir. You know the temper of my blood. Now is your head in jeopardy.
OPHIR (bravely). As one about to be slain, O King, I speak the words given to me to say. ‘The battle now,’ they cry, or ‘Does a priest rule in Israel?’ (He bows his head as offering it for the stroke.)
(saul is very threatening and half draws his sword. For a moment there is silence, and then he controls his passion, OPHIR looks up with a brave smile.)
Am I still alive, O my King?
SAUL (with the charm that sits so well on monarchs). Shake your head, Ophir, and let me see. Ay, it seems not to fall off.
OPHIR. For a moment I thought it to be severed.
SAUL. For a moment perhaps it was. You faithful servant, I return it to you. (He graciously helps OPHIR to rise. He moves away and sits on the tree trunks. There is a smile on his face.)
Now shall we converse more intimately of Saul and his transgressions? (He points to the ground.)
(OPHIR sits on it near him. Jonathan is on the sloped bank.)
(saul is still gentle.) Ophir, who would reign if he could lay down his kingship? Not Saul, not for another day. (It is an honestly meant statement, but it is not in accord with Jonathan’s knowledge of him.)
JONATHAN. You say that, father!
SAUL (smiling like one found out). You will know it, Jonathan, when you are king after me. (Fervently) To be nameless for ever and my tomb unknown — the boon of boons! What else say my captains?
OPHIR. They say that a priest’s place is not where two armies stand drawn up, the one against the other.
SAUL. Never more, my friend, than then. The charge may not sound till the Blessing comes from on high — (Lowering)
— and Samuel brings it not.
JONATHAN. Must it come through Samuel? Have you not told me, father, that the Lord speaks to you direct?
SAUL (sternly obedient to his God). Thus has it been in the past. But now He seeks me out no more, as if His face is turned from me, and He repents that He has made me great. Only through Samuel will He answer me — and Samuel comes not. I must await His bidding, for it is the Lord and not Saul who is King over Israel.
OPHIR (uncomfortably). To your captains it looks as if this prophet ruled. Are the days of the Judges come back? Your captains would know whether you more love Samuel or fear him.
SAUL. I love him as my own soul.
JONATHAN. Oh, father!
SAUL (defending himself). There was a time when I loved him even thus, and so has Samuel seemed to love me. (His fingers suddenly twitch to be at the throat of the prophet.) Yet now if I could — (He controls himself.) But he is a holy
man, and we must all bow before holy men — even kings. I am vowed to this waiting till he comes and I get his bidding to fall to.
(The venom of it makes them draw back. They hear sound from off saul signs to OPHIR, who draws his sword and goes. He returns.)
OPHIR. A messenger from Samuel!
(saul indicates that he is to be brought forward, and from this moment the King is a subtle one, holding himself in check and concealing his real feelings though his mind is seething. A guard, rough-bearded and wearing a loin skin of leather, brings in the messenger who is a young priest with the fire of asceticism on his face. The messenger makes an ungracious obeisance.)
SAUL. Your message, Nathan? Comes the prophet hither?
MESSENGER. Samuel says thus unto King Saul—’ I will not come to thee nor will I look again upon thee.’ OPHIR (outraged). Will not! (He advances upon the MESSENGER.) This fellow —
SAUL. Nay, he seems a friendly soul and finds favour in mine eyes.
(The puzzled OPHIR, who is of plodding mind, though he is not aware of it, signs to guard, who goes off.)
Was it not Samuel who, in a day far past, sought me out in my fields in Benjamin, but I had gone thence to search for my father’s asses?
MESSENGER. Thus I have heard did Samuel.
SAUL. When he found me did he not anoint me King?
(MESSENGER makes a grudging assent.)
Who sent him to Benjamin for that end? And why?
(messenger is reluctant to reply, but saul, quite quiet, forces it out of him.)
Come, answer me.
MESSENGER (reluctant). It was the Lord — Who even then was loth to have anyone over Israel save Himself alone.
SAUL. Yet was I sought out in the smallest of the tribes in Israel, I who was content in my fields, and thus had my life disturbed.
MESSENGER. It was done because of this stubborn people, who clamoured for a visible king.
SAUL (stoutly). Ay, a visible king — such as other nations have.
MESSENGER (imperiously). There are no other nations.
SAUL (humbly). It is so. For are not the pillars of the earth the Lord’s, and hath not He set the world upon them?
MESSENGER. Nevertheless I ask how He who is omnipotent did need to bow to the wishes of a clamorous people?
(saul is perhaps being more subtle now than the messenger had expected of him.)
Need! Have you never asked yourself why you, of little Benjamin, were chosen?
SAUL (confidently). It was because I had the most kingly qualities.
MESSENGER (for once smiling at him). Ay, you have loved being a King!
SAUL (with simple dignity). I have loved it.
MESSENGER. And never saw that such a one as you were chosen as a punishment to Israel for its clamour!
SAUL (to whom this is a shock, but controlling himself). Punishment? Was that just to Saul?
OPHIR (in rage). Let me speak —
SAUL (stopping him with a gesture). I asked and I have been answered.
MESSENGER. For long the Lord succoured you, seeing you as one little in your own eyes.
SAUL. Since then have I not, as He enjoined me, ever gone into the battle in front of my people — striking always the first blow?
MESSENGER. Not your people — His people.
SAUL. Ay, His, yet all who had known me in Benjamin marvelled at the wisdom of my words, crying, ‘What is this that has come over the son of Kish?’ MESSENGER. And what was it that had come over you?
SAUL (sadly). I vowed to strip this base tenement of its littleness. To serve the Lord without ceasing till I join those who dwell in dust. Such, when I became King, was the vow of Saul too recent from the plough to know his own wild heart.
III — had ever meant to go the way I was sent.
MESSENGER. When you were ordered to destroy the Amalekites, men, women and sucklings, every one and their sheep and their oxen, did you go, Saul, the way you were sent?
SAUL. I spared the sheep and the oxen — it was as spoil for my soldiers, for only thus are battles won.
MESSENGER (scornful). Only thus — in Israel?
SAUL. (humbly). I spoke hastily.
MESSENGER. You also sought to spare one of the Amalekites — the man Agag.
SAUL. Because he was, too, a King.
MESSENGER (contemptuously). You Kings!
SAUL. In that again I sinned.
MESSENGER. And showed your repentance by building at Carmel a trophy to the glory of the conqueror Saul! With a crown upon your head. Who said that Saul might wear a crown?
SAUL. If I had hearkened not to my Master, I sought to atone by making sacrifices — (Losing his humility) — with a sufficiency of blood even for Him!
MESSENGER. TO obey is better than sacrifices, and to hearken better than the fat of rams. You would be the one-over-all. He who was once little in his own eyes has become too much a King. Thou seest thyself lifted up to the skies like a cedar of Lebanon — and the Lord wearies of you.
SAUL (stung). Is it that he is jealous of Saul?
MESSENGER. NOW dost thou reveal thyself!
SAUL (scared). I meant it not of Him but of Samuel.
MESSENGER. For long Samuel interceded for you, and seeking to placate the wrath, he did himself hew Agag to pieces before your eyes. But at last Samuel removes you from his presence. Take now from me the words I bear from him, and heed them well.
JONATHAN. This to my father!
SAUL (again controlling himself and as one obedient te messengers). Say on.
MESSENGER. Thus says Samuel unto Saul: ‘Get your battle in array, for this day shall the Philistines fall before Israel.’ OPHIR (exultant). This day!
SAUL (with a smile, though undeceived). You like the prophet better now, Ophir!
OPHIR. I had misjudged him.
SAUL. Be not too sure of that. I think our gentle messenger has more to say.
MESSENGER. I have more. This day, says Samuel, shall the first blow be struck — but not by thee, 0 King.
OPHIR. What is this?
SAUL. Let our soft-spoken one proceed.
MESSENGER. When the sun is hot there will come through the tents of Israel one riding on an ass. To him shall be the first blow.
SAUL (with polite interest). While the King to whom hitherto has always been the first blow —
MESSENGER. While the King stands aside and waits: for thus it is decreed.
OPHIR. This messenger craves for the sublimity of death.
SAUL. Ophir, you are hasty. (To the MESSENGER) And if I hearken not to the commands of your master?
MESSENGER. Then woe unto Saul, for a boy will rule in thy place.
SAUL. Are you in such hurry, Jonathan?
MESSENGER. Thus ends the message of Samuel, whose prophecies ever come to pass. (He makes a defiant how.)
SAUL (still in his baffling mood, which is beginning to puzzle even the messenger). What say you, Ophir, how shall we discharge this messenger?
JONATHAN. Grant him his craving, father, and let him be quit of life.
SAUL. Thus to a messenger? (As if in great good-humour)
Nay, Ophir, fill our friend with honey and the grape and speed him courteously upon his way.
MESSENGER. I am of the holy seed, and I will not eat nor drink of thine.
SAUL (becoming grim). If he refuses my bounty, thrust it down the gullet of him till he expands. Saul swears in this, his hour, to be kingly unto all. (An explosion of cold fury follows.)