by Unknown
(The curtain rises on a scene of wild tumult between Israelites and Philistines, though the latter are unseen and are shouting from offstage, the idea to be suggested being that they are about twenty yards away. No command to attack having as yet been given by either side, those clashes at outposts are no more than brawls. A number of the Israelites rush into the glade and up the rock but do not go out of sight. The attire of the PHILISTINES was at once more gay and showy than that of Israel. They varied, as there was no fixed uniform, but shining breastplates, brass helmets, feathered headdresses were common, and they had better arms and were better disciplined. Their horse-chariots were dreaded by the ISRAELITES, who were practically all foot men. At present there are not at the moment more than twenty men visible. They are SLINGERS of Israel. The SLINGERS carry their slings, but the ban against fighting is still in force and the SLINGERS are prohibited from using their weapons. They, however, demonstrate with them as they shout. It is mainly an outburst of cries and vituperations of a deafening kind between the seen ISRAELITES and the unseen PHILISTINES, so that the actual words are little heard though they will be supplied. They are animals thirsting to be at each other in an eruption of barbaric declamation and big gestures such as are inconceivable nowadays: shouts, taunts, etc., poured forth across the glade like lava, and the wildness of the scene can only be rendered by a producer acquainted with the stage representation of Old Testament turbulent incidents. This turmoil should last, at most, not more than two minutes and be like a bonfire — a leap of flame, then suddenly be burnt out. It ends with the blowing of a horn from the unseen Philistine ranks. An immediate silence follows, and the effect is to make all the Israelites drop into hiding, so that they seem to have disappeared. The Philistines appear noisily escorting an important person. They settle on their rocks as he proudly descends into the glade. He is the armour-bearer of Goliath, finely and picturesquely attired, and with a bugle round his neck. He is a young man and, though self-important, must not be in the least farcical, for nothing may be done to mar the drama of the scene. He stands in the glade and sounds a defiant note on his bugle. Then he addresses the concealed Israelites.)
armour-bearer. Wake up, you Slingers of this outpost of Saul, and listen to me, the Armour-bearer of Goliath. Find you not that forty days sufficeth you for one sleeping? Come out from the rocks where you are hiding, and hearken again to the challenge of my master, Goliath of Gath.
ALL. Come out! cowards.
ARMOUR-BEARER. Nay, then, lurk in your hiding holes, you dogs, till he sends servants with whips to lash you out.
FIRST PHILISTINE. We are the whips!
SECOND PHILISTINE. The whips of Goliath!
ARMOUR-BEARER. Thus says Goliath: ‘Am I not a Philistine and ye the cravens of Saul! Go out into your camp and search among all your captains, and let one come there to the Vale of Elah where Goliath awaits him.’ ALL. Your champion.
ARMOUR-BEARER. ‘Then shall the tent of Goliath become his and the spear of Goliath become his. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then shall ye be our servants and serve us, ye and your Gods.’ ALL. You shall be our servants.
THIRD PHILISTINE. The servants of the men of Goliath!
(OPHIR jumps up fiercely but Jonathan pulls him out of sight.)
ARMOUR-BEARER. There is no man among you, no, not one! Dogs of Israel, the challenge is still open. Get you a champion. Haul him hither by rope. His bugle has but to sound, and Goliath is ready. (He again blows his challenge.) Behold!
FOURTH PHILISTINE. Get you a champion.
ALL. Haul him!
ARMOUR-BEARRR. His bugle of defiance has but to sound, and lo, the spear of Goliath will be ready in the vale.
(He returns up the rocks, blows his bugle, and they all exit exultantly. There is now no one left on the Philistine rocks. The Captain of the Slingers, abner, signals to the Israelites to arise, and they do so, raging at the indignity they have had to endure. Some of them leap into the arena, slings in evidence, to pursue the Philistines, but he drives them back.)
A SLINGER. You dogs.
ABNER. We may not fight. The King forbids.
A SLINGER. Skulkers! It is what we are!
ANOTHER. Ay, it is what we are.
ANOTHER. If we may not let loose our slings, why should we carry them?
ANOTHER. If we may not fight, why carry our slings?
ANOTHER. TO show no longer are we fighting men?
A THIRD. Down with our slings, I say — no longer are we fighting men.
ALL. Down with our slings!
(Several throw down their weapons, abner draws his sword on them.)
ABNER. Up with your swords or you shall die by YOUR Captain’s hands.
A SLINGER. We have no Captain who could stand up against him.
ALL. We have no Captain.
ANOTHER. Must we wait another forty days till our horn answers?
OTHERS. The horns of Israel are broken.
ALL. Broken, broken, the horns of Israel are broken.
(An unseen horn, different in tone, is heard as from some distance, low yet clear, and all are stirred.)
A SLINGER. Did you hear?
ANOTHER. Someone accepts the challenge!
ANOTHER. Who could he be?
ABNER. If only I could be he!
ANOTHER. A champion for Israel.
ALL. A champion for Israel.
OTHERS. At last!
ANOTHER. He comes down the hill.
A SLINGER. Where is he?
ANOTHER. Now he is behind a rock.
A SLINGER. Where?
ANOTHER. Over there.
ANOTHER. Now I see him.
ANOTHER. He comes this way.
(Similar cries from OTHERS.)
ALL. He comes! He comes!
A SLINGER. He comes.
ANOTHER. A boy. Lo, it is a boy riding on an ass!
(others crowd round upstage and their excitement changes into mirth.)
Behold the champion of Israel!
(DAVID comes riding forward at hack on the ass and with a horn in his hand. He is in his exalted condition, and it should have the effect of keeping the scene serious, which is essential. He is now a boy of high resolve, with no playfulness about him.)
DAVID (with dignity). Greetings to this outpost of the Slingers of Israel. (All murmur ‘Greetings.’)
ABNER (roughly). Whence come you?
DAVID. I am David, the son of Jesse, and lo —
ABNER. I care not whose son you be, nor do I believe you ever had parentage. What seek you here?
(OPHIR and JONATHAN enter.)
DAVID. I say unto you, speak not thus of my parentage, and I seek here a lion who is called Goliath of Gath.
ABNER. And when you have found him?
DAVID (calm and resolved and simple, and without any boasting). Then shall I slay him.
ABNER. With your sling or with your harp?
DAVID (with dignity). It is to be with my sling.
A SLINGER. Behold the champion of Israel!
DAVID. Deride me not because I am a boy. This day shall I slay Goliath.
A SLINGER. What say you?
ANOTHER. Hast ever heard the like?
ANOTHER. This poor Goliath!
(His quiet assurance impresses the slingers, and they are perplexed and ponder.)
A SLINGER. What cast of boy is this? (All start murmuring.)
ABNER (also puzzled). What I would know is, how came it to pass that they let you ride unchecked through the camp of Saul?
DAVID. All were kind and sped me on my way, and they did give me this horn on which to blow my challenge, and behold I will blow it again. (He is about to do so.)
ABNER. Hold him!
SEVERAL. Hold him!
(SLINGERS RESTRAIN DAVID.)
A SLINGER. They sped him on his way!
ANOTHER. It is unbelievable —
ANOTHER. Yet the poor soul believes it.
ANOTHER (with awe). Is he bereft?
DAVID. I am not bereft. I am exalted.
A SLINGER. There are things happening in these days that pass the wit of man.
(OPHIR and JONATHAN have remained in this scene, hardly noticed; but they have listened intently, and OPHIR now comes forward.)
OPHIR. Abner!
ABNER (relieved to see a superior officer). Now are you pleasant in my eyes, Ophir, for you are a captain of five hundred and I but of fifty, and there is that to decide which I shall gladly leave to you. This boy —
OPHIR. I have heard all. (He signs to the slingers to stand back.)
(They do so, but keeping hand on the ass on which DAVID still sits.)
ABNER. What to do with him? There is something untoward about this boy.
OPHIR. Ay, more so than you know of. I have known it since he came here riding on an ass.
ABNER. He says that all he met in the camp encouraged him on his way.
OPHIR. Ay, but that I cannot believe. (He goes to DAVID.)
Say you, boy, that no guards opposed your coming hither through the camp to this uttermost outpost of the slingers? How could it be so?
DAVID. At first they did stay me ribaldly, dragging me from the ass and otherwise misusing me, but when I showed it to them they all did speed me on my way.
ABNER. They were mocking you.
OPHIR. What showed you to them that did make so great a man of you?
DAVID. This which he gave me. (He puts the token into the hands of OPHIR, whom it startles.)
(He shows it to abner.)
ABNER (equally taken aback). The token of Saul!
OPHIR. Ay! (He calls to DAVID) HOW came you by this?
DAVID. A shepherd did give it to me in a clearing in the wood.
ABNER. Shepherd?
OPHIR. He was once that. (To DAVID) HOW did he look?
DAVID. He did look noble, and he sat on an open space in the wood in a purple cloak, and a javelin was near by.
(OPHIR and abner exchange glances.)
OPHIR. He spoke with you?
DAVID. He did so. He is my greatest friend, and I am his greatest friend.
OPHIR (to ABNER). Be wary, Abner, the boy knows not who it was. A shepherd, he believes; and so Saul wants him to believe. What do you conceive is now in the secret mind of Saul?
ABNER. The token of the King! No thinking is needed. All know its meaning: ‘Do as the Bearer asks, or incur the wrath of Saul.’ OPHIR. Ay, so it means — and what asks this Bearer? — To fight Goliath!
ABNER. That turns it all to folly.
OPHIR (grimly). Does it? Let me think. (He moves about, brooding.)
(ABNER goes TO DAVID.)
ABNER. NOW would I make amends. If you will be pleased to alight —
DAVID (with dignity). It is MY pleasure. (He alights and examines his ass solicitously.) It is a valuable ass (irubbing his head on it). Also I do love it.
ABNER. It shall be in my charge, well tended.
DAVID. Peace be yours, O ass. I shall come to see how it is with you when I have slain this Goliath.
(abner gasps at this, but evidently gives orders to a slinger who mounts the ass and is going with him upstage. DAVID frowns.)
DAVID. Who is he that doth mount my ass?
ABNER. His name is Hiram — your ass is safe with him.
(The ass turns its head and looks oddly at ABNER.)
DAVID. The ass may be safe with Hiram, but Hiram is not safe with the ass.
(hiram rides the ass off. Immediately they are out of sight a scuffle is heard off DAVID cannot see what has happened, but he explains to abner.)
DAVID. Hiram is no longer on the ass.
(The slingers hasten to see what has happened, DAVID and abner go with them. For a brief space OPHIR and Jonathan are alone on the stage, OPHIR in his broodings meets Jonathan downstage, and has shown him the token.)
JONATHAN. Let the boy go unharmed, Ophir. You can see what hand has touched him — he is afflicted.
OPHIR. My prince, do you forget the words of but an hour ago—’ One who shall come riding on an ass’?
JONATHAN. Samuel did not say a boy.
OPHIR. He said: ‘To that one who comes riding on an ass must be given the first blow, or a boy shall rule in the place of Saul.’ JONATHAN. He meant me.
OPHIR. So we thought, but it has now come to me that this is the boy he meant — and so I believe has it come to the King.
(This is a shock to JONATHAN.) What asks the boy? To fight Goliath. What orders this token? To grant him that boon!
JONATHAN. Of death!
OPHIR. Ay, but in that one stroke he is removed for ever from the path of Saul.
JONATHAN. Poor shepherd boy!
OPHIR (whose loyalty to his King is still a redeeming feature). See you not also that, with the fate of the boy, Samuel falls in the eyes of Israel?
JONATHAN. The people know not that this champion is the choice of Samuel.
OPHIR. Mine the part to let them know.
JONATHAN. If thus my father wanted he would have made his meaning clear.
OPHIR. Kings speak not their wishes clear but leave it to their servants to interpret them.
JONATHAN. Consider your peril, Ophir — what if you interpret him awry?
OPHIR. I have considered it. Yet even if I err the King would still be unharmed. He would but seem to have followed in the way he was told. This prophet is a deep one, but he shall find that I am deeper.
JONATHAN. It is not, I think, the deepness of you that commends you to the King. If you read him wrongly now —
OPHIR (finely). It would be the end of Ophir, but what matter if I was seeking to serve Saul? Jonathan (touched by his devotion). Truly you love him!
OPHIR (passionately). Ay, do I!
(Shouts and declamation of the soldiers as they return.
abner pushes forward in front of them.)
A SLINGER. Away with the child. Thus say we all.
ALL. All. All. All.
OPHIR. How now?
ABNER (who has DAVID’S horn in his hand). His horn. They took it from him, crying that to let such a one face the man of Gath would be to make sport of us before the Philistines.
(Cries of corroboration of this rend the air—’ We will not have him — Shall Israel be shamed? What means Saul by giving us such a champion?’)
OPHIR. First hear me.
(The turmoil subsides.)
Israelites, the boy comes not from Saul, he is the choice of Samuel. Saul scorns this champion, but Samuel proclaims that this boy and no other shall strike the first blow. For forty days has Saul hungered to fall upon the Philistines, but he cannot because he has been under the weight of a vow to the Prophet.
FIRST SLINGER. A vow to the Prophet?
SECOND SLINGER. Saul is under a vow to Samuel.
THIRD SLINGER. I have heard of this.
FOURTH SLINGER. What is this vow.?
FIFTH SLINGER. We know this vow.
SIXTH SLINGER. It is not to fight.
SEVENTH SLINGER. Samuel orders it.
EIGHTH SLINGER. Yes, he orders it.
NINTH SLINGER. Does Samuel rule in Israel?
TENTH SLINGER. Ophir, speak. Tell us why Saul obeys him — this Samuel.
OPHIR. I bring word to you from Saul. Thus says Saul to his people, ‘Let Samuel have his wish.’ At such a moment what is the life of a boy or the triumph of a braggart? Samuel’s be the shame.
ALL. Yes, Samuel’s be the shame.