SAUL: So is it! So is it! — To-morrow he shall go forth with his men, and the hand of the Philistine shall be upon him. I will not lift my hand upon him, for fear of the Dark! Yet where is he now? What is he conniving at this moment, in the house of Saul? Go see what he is about, O Adriel!
Exit ADRIEL.
ABNER: It is a bad thing, O Saul, to let this jealous worm eat into a King’s heart, that always was noble!
SAUL: I cannot help it. The worm is there. And since the women sang — nay, in all the cities they sang the same — Saul hath slain his thousands, but David hath slain his tens of thousands, it gnaws me, Abner, and I feel I am no longer King in the sight of the Lord.
ABNER: Canst thou not speak with the Morning Wind? And if the Lord of Days have chosen David to be king over Israel after thee, canst thou not answer the great Wish of the Heavens, saying: It is well!?
SAUL: I cannot! I cannot deny my house, and my blood! I cannot cast down my own seed, for the seed of Jesse to sprout. I cannot! Wellah, and I will not! Speak not to me of this!
ABNER: Yet wert thou chosen of God! And always hast thou been a man of the bright horn.
SAUL: Yea, and am I brought to this pass! Yea, and must I cut myself off? Almost will I rather be a man of Belial, and call on Baal. Surely Astaroth were better to me. For I have kept the faith, yet must I cut myself off! Wellah, is there no other strength?
ABNER: I know not. Thou knowest, who hast heard the thunder and hast felt the Thunderer.
SAUL: I hear It no more, for It hath closed Its lips to me. But other voices hear I in the night — other voices!
Enter ADRIEL.
SAUL: Well, and where is he?
ADRIEL: He is sitting in the house of Jonathan, and they make music together, so the women listen.
SAUL: Ah! And sings the bird of Bethlehem? What songs now?
ADRIEL: Even to the Lord: How excellent is thy name in all the earth. And men and women listen diligently, to learn as it droppeth from his mouth. And Jonathan, for very love, writes it down.
SAUL: Nay, canst thou not remember?
ADRIEL: I cannot, O King. Hark!
A man is heard in the courtyard, singing loud and manly, from Psalm viii.
Voice of singer: What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands;
Thou hast put all things under his feet:
All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
SAUL listens moodily.
SAUL: I hear him! Yea, they sing after him! He will set all Israel singing after him, and all men in all lands. All the world will sing what he sings. And I shall be dumb. Yea, I shall be dumb, and the lips of my house will be dust! What, am I naught; and set at naught! What do I know? Shall I go down into the grave silenced, and like one mute with ignorance? Ha! Ha! There are wells in the desert that go deep. And even there we water the sheep, when our faces are blackened with drought. Hath Saul no sight into the unseen? Ha, look! look down the deep well, how the black water is troubled. — Yea, and I see death, death, death! I see a sword through my body, and the body of Jonathan gaping wounds, and my son Abinadab, and my son Melchishua, and my son Ishbosheth lying in blood. Nay, I see the small pale issue of my house creeping on broken feet, as a lamed worm. Yea, yea, what an end! And the seed of David rising up and covering the earth, many, with a glory about them, and the wind of the Lord in their hair. Nay, then they wheel against the sun, and are dark, like the locusts sweeping in heaven, like the pillars of locusts moving, yea, as a tall, dark cloud upon the land. Till they drop in drops of blood, like thunder-rain, and the land is red. Then they turn again into the glory of the Lord. Yea, as a flight of birds down all the ages, now shedding sun and the gleam of God, now shedding shadow and the fall of blood, now as quails chirping in the spring, now as the locust pillars of cloud, as death upon the land. And they thicken and thicken, till the world’s air grates and clicks as with the wings of locusts. And man is his own devourer, and the Deep turns away, without wish to look on him further. So the earth is a desert, and manless, yet covered with houses and iron. Yea, David, the pits are digged even under the feet of thy God, and thy God shall fall in. Oh, their God shall fall into the pit, that the sons of David have digged. Oh, men can dig a pit for the most high God, and He falls in — as they say of the huge elephant in the lands beyond the desert. And the world shall be Godless, there shall no God walk on the mountains, no whirlwind shall stir like a heart in the deeps of the blue firmament. And God shall be gone from the world. Only men there shall be, in myriads, like locusts, clicking and grating upon one another, and crawling over one another. The smell of them shall be as smoke, but it shall rise up into the air, without finding the nostrils of God. For God shall be gone! gone! gone! And men shall inherit the earth! Yea, like locusts and whirring on wings like locusts. To this the seed of David shall come, and this is their triumph, when the house of Saul has been swept up, long, long ago into the body of God. Godless the world! Godless the men in myriads even like locusts. No God in the air! No God on the mountains! Even out of the deeps of the sky they lured Him, into their pit! So the world is empty of God, empty, empty, like a blown egg-shell bunged with wax and floating meaningless. God shall fall Himself into the pit these men shall dig for Him! Ha! Ha! O David’s Almighty, even He knows not the depth of the dark wells in the desert, where men may still water their flocks! Ha! Ha! Lord God of Judah, thou peepest not down the pit where the black water twinkles. Ha-ha! Saul peeps and sees the fate that wells up from below! Ha! Lo! Death and blood, what is this Almighty that sees not the pits digged for Him by the children of men? Ha! Ha! saith Saul. Look in the black mirror! Ha!
ABNER: It is not well, O King.
SAUL: Ha! It is very well! It is very well. Let them lay their trap for his Lord. For his Lord will fall into it. Aha! Aha! Give them length of days. I do not ask it.
ABNER: My lord, the darkness is over your heart.
SAUL: And over my eyes! Ha! And on the swim of the dark are visions. What? Are the demons not under the works of God, as worms are under the roots of the vine? Look! (Stares transfixed.)
ABNER (to ADRIEL): Go quickly and bring Jonathan, and David, for the Kings is prophesying with the spirit of the under-earth.
Exit ADRIEL.
SAUL: The room is full of demons! I have known it filled with the breath of Might. The glisten of the dark, old movers that first got the world into shape. They say the god was once as a beetle, but vast and dark. And he rolled the earth into a ball, and laid his seed in it. Then he crept clicking away to hide for ever, while the earth brought forth after him. He went down a deep pit. The gods do not die. They go down a deep pit, and live on at the bottom of oblivion. And when a man staggers, he stumbles and falls backwards down the pit — down the pit, down through oblivion after oblivion, where the gods of the past live on. And they laugh, and eat his soul. And the time will come when even the God of David will fall down the endless pit, till He passes the place where the serpent lies living under oblivion, on to where the Beetle of the Beginning lives under many layers of dark. I see it! Aha! I see the Beetle clambering upon Him, Who was the Lord of Hosts.
ABNER: I cannot hear thee, O King. I would e’en be deaf in this hour. Peace! I bid thee! Peace!
SAUL: What? Did someone speak within the shadow? Come thou forth then from the shadow, if thou hast aught to say.
ABNER: I say Peace! Peace, thou! Say thou no more!
SAUL: What? Peace! saith the voice? And what is peace? Hath the Beetle of the Beginning peace, under many layers of oblivion? Or the great serpent coiled for ever, is he coiled upon his own peace?
Enter JONATHAN, DAVID, and MEN.
SAUL (continuing): I tell you, till the end of time, unrest will come upon the serpent of serpents, and he will lift his head and hiss against the children of men — thus will he hiss! (SAUL hisses.) Hiss! Hiss! and he will strike the children of men — thus —
SAUL strikes as a serpent, and with his javelin.
JONATHAN: Father, shall we sound music?
SAUL: Father! Who is father? Know ye not, the vast, dark, shining beetle was the first father, who laid his eggs in a dead ball of the dust of forgotten gods? And out of the egg the serpent of gold, who was great Lord of Life, came forth.
JONATHAN (to DAVID): Now sing, that peace may come back upon us.
DAVID: If he heed me. (Sings Psalm viii.)
SAUL meanwhile raves — then sinks into gloom, staring fixedly.
SAUL: And the serpent was golden with life. But he said to himself: I will lay an egg. So he laid the egg of his own undoing. And the Great White Bird came forth. Some say a dove, some say an eagle, some say a swan, some say a goose — all say a bird. And the serpent of the sun’s life turned dark, as all the gods turn dark. Yea, and the Great White Bird beat wings in the firmament, so the dragon slid into a hole, the serpent crawled out of sight, down to the oblivion of oblivion, yet above the oblivion of the Beetle.
DAVID meanwhile sings.
SAUL (striking with his hands as if at a wasp): Na-a! But what is this sound that comes like a hornet at my ears, and will not let me prophesy! Away! Away!
JONATHAN: My Father, it is a new song to sing.
SAUL: What art thou, Jonathan, thy father’s enemy?
JONATHAN: Listen to the new song, Father.
SAUL: What? (Hearkens a moment.) I will not hear it! What! I say I will not hear it! Trouble me not, nor stop the dark fountain of my prophecy! I will not hearken! (Listens.)
DAVID (singing): When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained.
SAUL: What! art thou there, thou brown hornet, thou stealer of life’s honey! What, shalt thou stay in my sight! (Suddenly hurls his javelin at DAVID. DAVID leaps aside.)
JONATHAN: My Father, this shall not be!
SAUL: What! art thou there? Bring me here my dart.
JONATHAN (picking up the javelin): Look then at the hole in the wall! Is not that a reproach against the house of the King for ever? (Gives the javelin to SAUL.)
SAUL sinks into moody silence, staring. DAVID begins to sing very softly.
DAVID (singing): O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! Who has set thy glory above the heavens.
SAUL very softly, with the soft, swift suddenness of a great cat, leaps round and hurls the javelin again. DAVID as swiftly leaps aside.
SAUL: I will smite David even to the wall.
ABNER: Go hence, David! Swiftly hence!
JONATHAN: Twice, Father!
Exit DAVID.
ABNER (seizing javelin): The evil spirits upon thee have done this. O Saul! They have not prevailed.
SAUL: Have I pierced him? Is he down with the dead? Can we lay him in the sides of the pit?
ABNER: He is not dead! He is gone forth.
SAUL (wearily): Gone forth! Ay! He is gone forth! — What, did I seek to slay him?
JONATHAN: Yea, twice.
SAUL: I was out of myself. I was then beside myself.
ABNER: Yea, the evil spirits were upon thee.
SAUL: Tell him, O Jonathan, Saul seeks not his life. Nay! Nay! Do I not love him, even as thou dost, but more, even as a father! O David! David! I have loved thee. Oh, I have loved thee and the Lord in thee. — And now the evil days have come upon me, and I have thrown the dart against thee, and against the Lord. I am a man given over to trouble, and tossed between two winds. Lo, how can I walk before the faces of men! (Covers his face with his mantle.)
ABNER: The evil spirits have left him. Peace comes with sorrow.
JONATHAN: And only then.
SAUL: Bring David hither to me, for I will make my peace with him, for my heart is very sore.
JONATHAN: Verily, shall it be peace?
SAUL: Yea! For I fear the Night.
Exit JONATHAN.
Surely now will David publish it in Judah: Saul hath lilted his hand to slay me.
ABNER: He will not publish it in Judah.
SAUL: And wherefore not? Is he not as the apple of their eyes to the men of Judah, who love not overmuch the tribe of Benjamin?
ABNER: But David is the King’s man.
SAUL: Ah, would it were verily so.
Enter JONATHAN and DAVID.
DAVID: The Lord strengthen the King!
SAUL: Ah, David, my son, come, and come in peace. For my hands are bare and my heart is washed and my eyes are no longer deluded. May the Lord be with thee, David, and hold it not against me, what I have done. Spirits of the earth possess me, and I am not my own. Thou shalt not cherish it in thy heart, what Saul did against thee, in the season of his bewilderment?
DAVID: Naught has the King done against me. And the heart of thy servant knoweth no ill.
SAUL: Hatest thou me not, David?
DAVID: Let the word be unspoken, my Father!
SAUL: Ah, David! David! Why can I not love thee untroubled? — But I will right the wrong. — Thou shalt henceforth be captain of the thousand of Hebron, and dwell in thine own house, by the men. And behold, Merab, my elder daughter, I will give thee to wife.
DAVID: Who am I, and what is my life, or my father’s family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the King?
SAUL: Nay, thou art of mine own heart, and the Lord is thy great strength. Only be valiant for me, and fight the Lord’s battles.
DAVID: All my life is the King’s, and my strength is to serve.
SAUL: It shall be well. And with thy thousand shalt thou succour Israel.
CURTAIN
SCENE XII
The well at Gilgal: MAIDENS coming with water-jars. Two HERDSMEN filling the trough — one below, at the water, one on the steps. They swing the leathern bucket back and forth with a rough chant: the lower shepherd swinging the load to the upper, who swings it to the trough, and hands it back. DAVID approaching.
1ST HERDSMAN: Ya! David missed her.
2ND HERDSMAN: Let him get her sister — Oh! Oh-oh-h!
1ST HERDSMAN: Ya! David missed her.
2ND HERDSMAN: Let him get her sister — Oh-h-h-h! (Continue several times.)
1ST MAIDEN: How long, O Herdsman!
2ND HERDSMAN: Ho-o-o! Enough!
1ST HERDSMAN (coming up): Ya! David missed her!
MAIDENS run away from him.
1ST MAIDEN: Ho, thou! Seest thou not David?
1ST HERDSMAN: Yea, he is there! Ho! David! And hast thou missed her?
MAIDENS laugh.
DAVID: What sayest thou, O Man?
1ST HERDSMAN: Thou hast missed her — say! — am I not right?
DAVID: And whom have I missed?
1ST HERDSMAN: Wellah! And knowest thou not?
DAVID: Nay!
1ST HERDSMAN: Wellah! But Merab, the King’s elder daughter! Wellah! We feasted her week half a moon ago, whilst you and your men were gone forth against the Philistines. Wellah, man, and didst thou not know?
DAVID: Sayest thou so?
1ST HERDSMAN: Wellah! And is it not so? Say, Maidens, hath not Adriel the Meholathite got Merab, Saul’s daughter, to wife? And hath he not spent his week with her? Wellah, thou art ousted from that bed, O David.
DAVID: And hath the King given his daughter Merab unto Adriel the Meholathite! Wellah, shall he not do as he choose, with his own?
1ST HERDSMAN: Ay, wellah, shall he! But thou wert promised. And in thy stead, another hath gone in unto her. Is it not so, O Maidens? Sleeps not Merab in the tent of Adriel the Meholathite?
1ST MAIDEN: Yea, the King hath married her to the man.
DAVID: And sings she as she shakes his butter-skin?
1ST MA
IDEN: Nay, as yet she sings not. But if David sits here beneath the tree, she will come with her jar. Nay, is that not Adriel the Meholathite himself, coming forth? O Herdsman, drive not the cattle as yet to the drinking troughs! (Goes down and fills her pitcher.)
2ND MAIDEN: Will David sit awhile beneath the tree?
DAVID: Yea!
2ND MAIDEN: Then shall Michal, daughter of Saul, come hither with her water-jar. Is it well, O David?
Complete Works of D.H. Lawrence Page 713