CURTAIN
SCENE III
Bethlehem: an open place in the village. An old man on a roof calling aloud and kindling a signal fire.
1ST ELDER (calling, on the roof): Come in! Come in! Come in! Come all men in! Come all in to the place of counsel! Gather into the place of counsel, all men gather now. Come in! Come in!
2ND ELDER (on the plaza): What now?
3RD ELDER: The watchman on the fourth hill saw a host of prophets coming, even Samuel among them.
2ND ELDER: Yea! What does this bode?
JESSE: What have we done wrong, that Samuel comes down upon us? If he curses us we are dead men.
4TH ELDER: Dread is on me. The sun looks darkened.
3RD ELDER: Nay, let us wait. It may be he comes in peace.
ELIAB (brother of DAVID): Why do we, who are men that fear not the lion nor the bear, nor even the Philistine, tremble before the raging of these prophets?
2ND ELDER: Hush then! For the Bolt is above us, and can strike out of a clear sky. Canst thou hear His meaning, or know His vision, Who is secret save to the prophets? Peace then, hush thy mouth.
JESSE: Verily, there is no open vision, and the word of One is precious. Without Samuel, we should stare with the stare of deaf men, and the fixed eyes of the blind. We should run our faces against the wall, and fall with our feet into a hole. We should not hear the lion roaring upon us.
ELIAB: Not so, my Father. Without a prophet I seek the lion when he roars about the herd, I slay him without advice from the Lord. We live our lives as men, by the strength of our right hand. Why heed the howlings of priests in linen ephods, one or many!
JESSE: My son, shut thy teeth on such words. Seal thy heart to silence. The strength of a man lasts for a little time, and wastes like the oil in a lamp. You are young, and your lamp is unbroken. But those that live long needs must renew their strength again, and have their vessel replenished. And only from the middle-middle of all the worlds, where God stirs amid His waters, can strength come to us.
ELIAB: Will it not come without Samuel?
JESSE: There is a path that the gazelle cannot follow, and the lion knows not, nor can the eagle fly it. Rare is the soul of the prophet, that can find the hidden path of the Lord. There is no open vision, and we, who can see the lion in the thicket, cannot see the Lord in the darkness, nor hear Him out of the cloud. But the word of One is precious, and we perish without it.
ELIAB: I cannot bow my heart to Samuel. Is he a King to lead us into battle, and share the spoil with us? Why should we fare worse without him?
JESSE: My son, day follows day, and night travels between the days. But the heart of man cannot wander among the years like a wild ass in the wilderness, running hither and thither. The heart at last stands still, crying: Whither? Whither? Like a lost foal whinnying for his dam, the heart cries and nickers for God, and will not be comforted. Then comes the prophet with the other vision in his eyes, and the inner hearing in his ears, and he uncovers the secret path of the Lord, Who is at the middlemost place of all. And when the heart is in the way of God, it runs softly and joyously, without weariness.
ELIAB: I would sooner follow the King, with spear and shield.
JESSE: Samuel is more precious than the King, and more to be obeyed. As God is to Samuel, Samuel to the King is God. The King is as a boy awaiting his father’s bidding, uneasy till he is told what he shall do. Even so Samuel speaks to Saul, with the mouth of authority, to be obeyed. For he is the lips of God.
ELIAB: For me, give me the right arm of Saul.
SAMUEL enters — followed by wild prophets. The ELDERS go to meet him.
1ST ELDER: The Lord be with thee!
SAMUEL: The Lord keep this people!
1ST ELDER: Comest thou in peace?
SAMUEL: In peace. I come to sacrifice unto the Lord. Sanctify yourselves and come to sacrifice, according to your families. Renew your clothes and purify yourselves.
1ST ELDER: Into which house will you go?
SAMUEL: Into the house of Jesse.
JESSE: I am here, my lord.
SAMUEL: Call your household together, and sanctify yourselves, for we will sacrifice a heifer to the Lord this day, in your house. And it shall be a feast unto you.
CURTAIN
SCENE IV
JESSE’S house. A small inner courtyard: a rude altar smoking, and blood sprinkled round: SAMUEL before the altar, hands bloody. In another part a large red fire with a great pot seething, and pieces of meat roasting on spits. JESSE turning the spits. It is evening, sun going down.
SAMUEL: Call your sons. Call them one by one to pass before me. For I will look on them, before we sit around to the feast of the sacrifice.
JESSE: They are in the house, waiting. I will call the first-born first. (Calling.) Eliab, come forth! Samuel asks for thee!
ELIAB (entering): The Lord be with you.
SAMUEL (aside): Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him! (Gazes at ELIAB who is big and handsome.)
SAMUEL (aside): I shall not look on his countenance, nor on the height of his stature. For the voice of my soul tells me he is rejected. The Lord sees not as men see. For man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.
SAMUEL (to JESSE): Him hath the Lord not chosen. Call thy other son.
JESSE: Ha! Abinadab! And, Eliab, gather all thy brothers together, for the feast shall be set forth.
Exit ELIAB.
ABINADAB (entering): The Lord be with you.
SAMUEL (gazing on ABINADAB): Neither hath the Lord chosen this.
JESSE: Go thou, Abinadab! Be all thy brethren ready in the house?
ABINADAB: They be all there, waiting for the sacrifice meat.
JESSE (calling): Come, Shammah! And when I call, come you others in your order, one by one.
SHAMMAH (entering): The Lord be with you.
SAMUEL (slowly): Neither hath the Lord chosen this.
JESSE: Go thou! Nay! Rather go to the fire and turn the spitted meat.
SHAMMAH: Yea! For it should not singe.
JESSE (calling): Ho! Son! Come forward!
FOURTH SON: The Lord be with you!
SAMUEL: Neither hath the Lord chosen this.
JESSE: Go thou hence, and wait yet a while.
FOURTH SON: What wouldst thou then with me?
JESSE (calling): Ho! Son! (To him who waits.) Nay, go or stay, as thou wilt. But stand aside. (He stands aside.)
FIFTH SON: The Lord be with you.
JESSE: Turn thy face to the sun, that it may be seen.
SAMUEL: Neither hath the Lord chosen this.
JESSE: Thou art not he whom Samuel seeks. Stand thou aside. (Calling.) Ho! Son! (To him who waits.) Bring in thy brother.
Enter SIXTH SON: all the other brothers edge in after him.
SIXTH SON: The Lord be with you!
SAMUEL: Neither hath the Lord chosen this.
SIXTH SON: Wherefore hast thou called me, my Father?
JESSE: Samuel would look on the faces of all my sons. Go now! Who then was not called? Who among you has not come forward?
SEVENTH SON: I! Wilt thou me?
JESSE: Nay, but come into the light before the prophet of God.
SAMUEL: Neither hath the Lord chosen this.
JESSE: Nay, then it is finished, for there be no more.
SAMUEL: Are here all thy children?
JESSE: Yea, verily, there remaineth yet the youngest. And behold he keepeth the sheep.
SAMUEL: Send and fetch him. For we will not sit down till he come hither.
JESSE: Go thou, Shammah, for he will be coming in now. I will see — !
Exit JESSE, also SHAMMAH.
ELIAB: My lord, will the Lord of Hosts anoint a King, while Saul yet liveth?
SAMUEL: My son, out of the deep cloud the lightning cometh, and toucheth its own. Even so, from the whirlwind of the whole world’s middle, leaneth out the Wonderful and toucheth His own, but whether the anointing be for prophecy or priesthoo
d, or for a leader or a King over Israel, the Mover of all hath it in His own deeps.
ELIAB: Yea! But if the Lord anoint a man to be King, can the Lord again take back the anointing, and wipe out the oil, and remove the gift, and undo the man He has made?
SAMUEL: The power is beyond us, both before and after. Am I not anointed before the people? But if I should say: The power is my own; I will even do my own bidding, then this is the sin of witchcraft, which stealeth the power of the whirlwind for its own. And the power will be taken from me, and I shall fall into a pit.
ELIAB: It is a hard thing, to be the Lord’s anointed.
SAMUEL: For the froward and irreverent spirit, it is a thing well-nigh impossible.
Enter JESSE with DAVID.
JESSE: This is David, the last of the sons of Jesse.
Enter SHAMMAH.
SAMUEL (aside): I shall arise and anoint him. For this is he. (Aloud.) The Lord hath chosen this one. (Takes the horn of oil and holds it over DAVID’S head.) The skies will anoint thee with their glory, the oil of the Sun is poured over thee, and the strength of His power. Thou shalt be a master of the happenings among men. Answer then. Does thy soul go forth to the Deep, does the Wonderer move in thy soul?
DAVID: Yea, my lord. Surely my soul leaps with God!
SAMUEL (anointing DAVID): The Glory pours Himself out on thee. The Chooser chooseth thee. Thou shalt be no more thine own, for the chosen belongs to the Chooser. When thou goest in, it shall be at the whisper of the Mover, and when thou comest out, it shall be the Lord. Thy strength is at the heart of the world, and thy desires are from thence. The walls of thy breast are the front of the Lord, thy loins are the Deep’s, and the fire within them is His. The Lord looketh out of thy eyes and sits on thy lips. Thou closest thy fist on the Deep, and thy knees smile with His strength. He holdeth the bow of thy body erect, and thy thighs are the pillars of His presence. Henceforward thou art not thine own. The Lord is upon thee, and thou art His.
DAVID (making an obeisance): I am thy servant, my lord.
SAMUEL: Ye shall sit around, and divide the meat, and eat of the feast, and bid the neighbours to your feast of sacrifice this night.
They move around, fetching trenchers of wood, and a huge dish, and a heap of flat bread. They begin to take the meat from the fire, and with a cry lift down the pot.
JESSE: David is a child, and the Lord hath chosen him. What shall become of him? Make it plain to us, O Samuel, this night!
SAMUEL: Ask not, for none knoweth. Let him live till such time as the Unseen stretcheth out His hands upon him. When the time is fulfilled, then we shall know. Beforehand no man knoweth. And now the meat is ready from the fire, and the feast of sacrifice is prepared, and I have done. Eat you of the feast, and live before the Lord, and be blessed. Speak nothing of this hour, lest mischance befall you. I go my way. Do not seek to stay me. Call whom ye will to meat, eat then what is before you, for this is your hour.
JESSE: The sun has gone down, and it is night. Wilt thou verily go forth?
Exit SAMUEL.
ELIAB: He has anointed the youngest, and the oldest he has passed over.
JESSE: It is the Lord. Go, Abinadab, and bid in the neighbours to the feast.
ELIAB: Nay, it is Samuel, who envies a strong man his strength, and settles on the weak.
JESSE: These things, at this hour, thou shalt not say. Is my son David chosen beneath the heavens, and shall Eliab his brother cast it up a reproach to him? Yea! pile up the dish from the pot, that it may cool, and not burn the hand of him that tasteth.
ELIAB (to DAVID): Wilt thou be a priest in a blue ephod?
DAVID: I know not. To-day and to-morrow I shall keep my father’s sheep. More I know not.
ELIAB: Canst thou see the Bolt within the cloud? Canst thou hear His voice out of the ground?
DAVID: I know not. I wish the Lord be with me.
ELIAB: Is He nearer thee, than thine own father?
DAVID: My father sits before me and I see his face. But the Lord is in my limbs as a wind in a tree, and the tree is shaken.
ELIAB: Is not the Lord also in me, thou stripling? Is thine the only body that is visited?
DAVID: I know not. My own heart I know. Thou knowest thine own. I wish the Lord be with me.
ELIAB: Yea, I know my own heart indeed. Neither is it the heart of a whelp that minds the sheep, but the heart of a man that holds a spear. Canst thou draw my bow, or wield my sword?
DAVID: My day is not yet come.
JESSE: It is enough. The guests we have bidden are here! O David, my son, even carry out their portion to the womenfolk, for they may not come here. And think thou no more of this day. The Lord will move in His own time, thou canst not hasten Him. Exit DAVID. (To the NEIGHBOURS.) Nay, come! And sit ye to meat! For we will eat this night of the sacrifice that Samuel hath slain before the Lord.
Complete Works of D.H. Lawrence Page 708