DAVID: Ha! Lord God! Deliver him into my hand this day!
SAUL: Yea!
Enter ARMOUR-BEARER.
Put the coat of proof upon him, and the helmet of brass.
They put the armour of the KING on DAVID.
DAVID: I am not used to it.
SAUL (unbuckling his sword): Take thou my sword.
DAVID (girding it on): Thy servant hath honour beyond his lot. Lo! I am strange in this array! The Lord hath not intended it for me. (Takes shield.)
SAUL: Now thou art ready. A man shall bear thy shield.
DAVID: Then let me go. But let me assay this sword and battle harness that is on me. (Sets forth. Tries his sword; goes a little way. Turns suddenly back.) I cannot go with these, for I have not proved them.
Drops his shield. Hastily unbuckles sword, and gives it to SAUL. Unfastens the helmet. The ARMOUR-BEARER disarms DAVID.
SAUL: Then thou goest not! Uncovered thou canst not go.
DAVID: As the Lord liveth, I will go with naught but God upon me.
VOICE OF GOLIATH: The God of Israel is a blue pigeon in a box, and the men of Israel are quails in the net of the Philistine. Baal is laughing aloud, and Astarte smiles behind her sleeve, for Israel is no more than worms in a dung-hill.
DAVID: I shall go. Sound the trumpet!
He picks up his staff, recrosses hastily to the back of the stage, downwards as to a valley. Stoops in the distance: meanwhile trumpet sounds and the voice of the HERALD is heard, crying:
HERALD: Come down, Goliath! Come forward, Philistine! For Israel sendeth a champion against thee. (Noise of shouting in both camps.)
SHAMMAH: See, David is picking smooth stones from the brook bed.
ABINADAB: He has put them in his leather pouch, and taken his sling in his hand. Surely he will go after the Philistine as after a wolf.
SAUL: The Philistine cometh down with his shield-bearer before him. — Yea, but the youth is naked and unafraid.
VOICE OF GOLIATH: Where art thou, champion of Israel? I see thee not. Hast thou already perished of thy dread?
VOICE OF DAVID (small): Yea, I am coming.
VOICE OF GOLIATH: Thou!
SAUL: How he disdains the youth! If we have lost all on this throw!
VOICE OF GOLIATH: Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves? Now shall Astaroth slay thee with spittle, and Baal shall break thy bones with a loud laugh.
VOICE OF DAVID: Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, Whom thou hast defied.
VOICE OF GOLIATH: Come! Ha-ha! Come to me, and I will give thy flesh to the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the hills.
Meanwhile the bystanders, SHAMMAH, ABINADAB, SOLDIERS, all save the ARMOUR-BEARER and SAUL, have been running to the far background, to look closer.
VOICE OF DAVID: This day will the Lord deliver thee into my hand; and I will smite thee, and take thy head from thee.
VOICE OF GOLIATH: Ha! Ha! Canst thou chirp? Come over, thou egg, that they see me swallow thee. (Loud yelling from Philistines.)
VOICE OF DAVID: I will give the carcass of the host of the Philistines this day to the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the earth. That all the earth may know there is a God in Israel. (Loud yelling of Israel.)
VOICE OF GOLIATH: Come, thou whistling bird! Come! Seest thou this sword? (Loud yelling of Philistines.)
VOICE OF DAVID: Yea! and all this people shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will deliver you into our hands. (Great defiance heard in Israel.)
VOICE OF GOLIATH: Must we die of thy talking? And wilt thou not come forth? Then must I fetch thee. . . . (Tumult in Philistia.)
ARMOUR-BEARER: The Philistine is hastening down! — Oh, and behold, the youth is running at him fast! Ha-a-a!
ARMOUR-BEARER rushes away, leaving SAUL alone.
SAUL (in a pause): Ah! Ah! — Lord, my Lord! — Is he down? (Great shouting heard — men running.) What? Yea, the Philistine has fallen! The boy but slang a stone at him! It is the Lord! Nay, he riseth not! — Ah God! was it so easy a thing? Why had I not done it! See, see, Saul, see, thou King of Israel, see this nameless boy who hath run upon the fallen Philistine, and seized his sword from his hand, and stands upon his body hewing at the neck of the giant! Ah, sight for the King of Israel, who stands alone, in safety, far off, and watches this thing done for him! Yea, they may shout! It is not for me. It is for that boy, whom I know not. How should I know him, with his young beard on his lip! It is a hard thing to hack off the head of such a giant, and he cannot find the neck joint. I see him stooping! (A great wild shout is heard.) Ah! Even so! Even so!
ABNER enters, running.
ABNER: The youth hath slain the Philistine with a stone from a sling, and even now has hewn his head loose, and is holding it up before the armies.
SAUL: Even so!
ABNER: Yea! He stands upon the body of that which was Goliath, and holds up the head to Israel! The Lord has prevailed. (Loud shouting.)
SOLDIERS (running past): The host of the Philistines is in flight! After them! After them!
ABNER: Shall we not pursue? Will not the King lead the pursuit? Lo! they flee in abandon, flinging away their spears in their haste.
SAUL: This needs no leader. Any man can strike in the back of a running enemy. What of the youth?
ABNER: He hath stripped the Philistine of his gear. Yea, I can see the body of the giant naked in blood upon the ground.
SAUL: Who is this youth? Whose son is he?
ABNER: As thy soul liveth, O King, I cannot tell.
SAUL: Enquire thou whose son the stripling is.
ABNER: He is coming towards the brook. I will bring him hither.
Exit ABNER.
SAUL: Yea, he is coming! And alone up the slope, for the men have gone like hounds after the Philistine, and to the stripping of the tents. Yea, as bees swarm in upon the sweetmeats, when the window is opened. This is a day to make songs for. But not in the name of Saul. Whom will the maidens sing to? To him yonder, coming up the hill slowly, with the swinging head, and the bright brass armour of the Philistine. To that ruddy-faced fair youth, with a young beard on his mouth. It seems I should know him, if I would. Yea, I shall know him in my hour. Ah the blithe thing! Ah the blithe boy! Ah God! God! was I not blithe? Where is it gone? Yea, where! Blitheness in a man is the Lord in his body. Nay, boy, boy! I would not envy thee the head of the Philistine. Nay, I would not envy thee the Kingdom itself. But the blitheness of thy body, that is thy Lord in thee, I envy it thee with a sore envy. For once my body too was blithe. But it hath left me. It hath left me. Not because I am old. And were I ancient as Samuel is, I could still have the alertness of God in me, and the blithe bearing of the living God upon me. I have lost the best. I had it, and have let it go. Ha! whither is he going? He turns aside, among the tents. Aha! Aha! So it is. Among the tents of Judah, and to the booth of the Bethlehemite! So, he has gone in to lay down his spoil, the helmet of brass, and the greaves of brass, the coat, the great sword, and the shirt fringed with scarlet. Lay them by, they are thine. Yea, they are thine, lay them in thy tent. No need to bring them unto the King. They are no king’s spoil. Yea, lead him hither, Abner! Lead him hither! He is bringing the head in his hand. Oh yes, the champion, the victor! He is bringing the head in his hand, to swing it under the nose of the King. But the sword, the great sword, and the greaves of brass and the body-spoil he has e’en laid by in his own tent, where no man may lay hand on it. Oh! it is a shrewd youth, and a canny youth, cunning as the Lord makes them.
Enter DAVID, with head of GOLIATH — and ABNER.
SAUL: So! Comest thou again?
DAVID: Even so! To lay the head of thine enemy before thee, O King!
SAUL: Whose son art thou, thou young man?
DAVID: I am the son of thy servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.
SAUL: Art thou s
o! Ay, thou art David! And brother to Eliab, and Abinadab, and Shammah, three men of war! — Thou hast put cunning in thy skill, and slain thine enemy as he were a hare among the bushes.
ABNER: See! The place where the stone sunk in, in the side of the forehead bone! It lies still there, the stone of David.
SAUL: Yea, that was death without weapons meeting, indeed.
ABNER: Surely the Lord was in that round stone, that digged the pit in Goliath’s head-bone!
DAVID: Except the Lord had been with me, I had not done it.
SOLDIERS (standing round): Yea, the Lord sped the hand of David. The Lord is with this young man.
SAUL: Praise we must give to the Lord, and to David the promised reward. Seekest thou thy reward at the King’s hand, thou young man?
DAVID: It is as the King willeth. Yet what should the reward be?
SAUL: Hast thou not heard it proclaimed?
DAVID: Nay, I arrived but in the dawn, with provender from my father to my brethren.
SAUL: Didst thou not set forth even now against the Philistine, hoping big for the reward?
DAVID: Not so, O King. But the Lord moved me to go, to take off the shame and the reproach from the army of the living God.
SAUL: Thou hast done well! Yet claimest thou thy reward?
DAVID: Shall I not hear from the King’s mouth, what the reward should be?
SAUL: How was it said, Abner? Recallest thou?
ABNER: Yea, O King! Riches and the King’s daughter, and freedom for his father’s house, to the man that should slay Goliath in the single combat.
SAUL: Single-handed hath David slain Goliath, indeed! Even without any combat at all. But how likest thou thy reward, thou young man?
DAVID: Were it mine, O King, I should rejoice for my father’s sake and fall to the ground beneath the honour put upon me, being son-in-law to the King.
SAUL: Even so! Now thou shalt stay with me, and live in my house and return no more to thy father’s house. And all shall be done to thee, as was said. — For surely thou hast brought much honour upon Israel. And we will make much of thee. For thou art champion of Israel in the sight of all the people. And thou shalt sit at the King’s right hand, that all men may delight in thee. Yet, since thou art young, and fresh from the sheepfold, we will not hasten thee to thy confusion. But thou shalt dwell as a son among us, and rise in degree as a son rises, sitting at the King’s meat. And behold, my elder daughter Merab, her will I give thee to wife. Only be thou valiant for me, and fight the Lord’s battles.
DAVID: Let but thy servant serve thee, O King, in the sight of the Lord. And Saul will take the head of this Philistine to put it on a pole?
SAUL: Nay! Thou thyself shalt bring it before the people, in Jerusalem of Judah.
CURTAIN
SCENE VIII
The king’s tent at Elah: a square tent of dark worsted, with the wide front open. Heaps of panoply and spoil without. Within, in the public part of the tent, SAUL, with DAVID on his right hand, JONATHAN on his left, and sitting around, the CAPTAINS of the armies of Israel.
SAUL: We have numbered the armies in tens, in hundreds, and in thousands. And now are all men returned from pursuing after the Philistine, and the spoil is all brought in. And the wounded of the Philistine have fallen by the way, even to the valley of Ekron and the gates of Gath, their dead are more than their living. Yet are their princes within the land, holding on to strong places. Therefore we will rejoice not yet, nor go home to the feasting. But while his heart is sunk low, we will follow up the Philistine in every place where he holds out. Is it sooth?
CAPTAINS: It is good, O King.
ABNER: The blow that was struck with a pebble, we will follow up with swords and spears, till in the Lord’s name not one uncircumcised remains in the land.
CAPTAINS: It is good! It is good! (They strike their shields.)
SAUL (presenting DAVID): This is David, that slew Goliath the Philistine, and delivered Israel from reproach. Sits not David high in the heart of every man in Israel, this day?
CAPTAINS: Yea! David! David! (Striking shields.)
SAUL: Who is first among the men of war this day? Is it not David, my son David?
CAPTAINS: David! David! It is David!
SAUL: Yea, Captains! Your King is but captain of the captains! Whom shall we set over the men of war this day? Shall it not be David? This time, shall not David lead the hosts? Is he not the first against the Philistine? Yea, in this foray of triumph and this campaign of victory, should any man lead but David?
CAPTAINS: It is good! David shall command, till we return home this time from smiting the Philistine. (They clash shields with martial noise.)
SAUL (to DAVID): Hearest thou, David, son of my delight?
DAVID: O King, I am no leader of men of war. I have no skill in arts of battle. Honour me not to my confusion.
SAUL: Nay, this time shalt thou take the charge. For in this fight art thou the first man among the men of war in Israel. Answer, Captains! Is it not so?
CAPTAINS: Verily! This time we will have David.
ABNER: Verily, save David lead us, we will not go.
The CAPTAINS rise, and lift locked shields before DAVID as if to raise him up.
SAUL: If we go not now, we lose the golden hour. The choice is upon thee, David.
DAVID: Thy servant will do according to thy will, O King, and according to the will of Abner, and of the Captains. (He rises before the CAPTAINS.) But I am young, and not brought up to war. And the Captains and the strong men will laugh at me, seeing my inexperience and my presumption.
ABNER: Nay! No man shall find occasion to laugh at thee, for the fight is in thee as in a young eagle. Leading to war shalt thou learn war.
DAVID: It is as the King and the Captains shall bid me.
SAUL (rising): We will make ready, and send out the news through the camp: In this is David our leader! Then David shall choose his men, and go forth. He shall give his orders, and the Captains shall march at his bidding. David, the day is thine!
Salutes. The CAPTAINS again salute DAVID with spear on shield, then they go out.
CAPTAINS: To thee, David!
Exeunt CAPTAINS.
DAVID (to JONATHAN): How shall I bring this to a pass?
JONATHAN: Thy soul will not fail thee. Thou art the young lion of Judah, thou art the young eagle of the Lord. O David, is it well between me and thee, and hast thou verily not forgotten me?
DAVID: Verily, thou hast not left my soul. But how shall I go before these men?
JONATHAN: We have sworn a covenant, is it not between us? Wilt thou not swear with me, that our souls shall be as brothers, closer even than the blood? O David, my heart hath no peace save all be well between thy soul and mine, and thy blood and mine.
DAVID: As the Lord liveth, the soul of Jonathan is dearer to me than a brother’s. — O brother, if I were but come out of this pass, and we might live before the Lord, together!
JONATHAN: What fearest thou then?
DAVID: In the Lord, I fear nothing. But before the faces of men, my heart misgives me.
JONATHAN: Sittest thou not high in the hearts of Israel?
DAVID: Yea, but who am I, to be suddenly lifted up! Will they not throw me as suddenly down?
JONATHAN: Who would throw thee down, that art strong as a young eagle, and subtle as the leopard?
DAVID: I will rest in the Lord.
JONATHAN: And in me wilt thou not trust?
DAVID: I will trust thee, Jonathan, and cleave to thee till the sun sets on me. Thou art good to me as man never before was good to me, and I have not deserved it. Say thou wilt not repent of thy kindness towards me!
JONATHAN: O brother, give me the oath, that naught shall sunder our souls, for ever.
DAVID: As the Lord liveth, my soul shall not part for ever from the soul of my brother Jonathan; but shall go with him up the steeps of heaven, or down the sides of the pit. And between his house and my house the covenant shall be everlasting. For as th
e hearts of men are made on earth, the heart of Jonathan is gentlest and most great.
JONATHAN: The covenant is between us. (Covers his face.)
DAVID (after a pause): But how shall I go before these captains, O my brother? Comest thou not with me? Wilt thou not stand by me? Oh, come!
Complete Works of D.H. Lawrence Page 711