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SCENE I.—JUDAS MACCABÆUS in armor before his tent.
JUDAS. THE TRUMPETS sound; the echoes of the mountains | |
| Answer them, as the Sabbath morning breaks | |
| Over Beth-horon and its battle-field, | |
| Where the great captain of the hosts of God, | |
| A slave brought up in the brick-fields of Egypt, | 5 |
| O’ercame the Amorites. There was no day | |
| Like that, before or after it, nor shall be. | |
| The sun stood still; the hammers of the hail | |
| Beat on their harness; and the captains set | |
| Their weary feet upon the necks of kings, | 10 |
| As I will upon thine, Antiochus, | |
| Thou man of blood!—Behold the rising sun | |
| Strikes on the golden letters of my banner, | |
| Be Elohim Yehovah! Who is like | |
| To thee, O Lord, among the gods?—Alas! | 15 |
| I am not Joshua, I cannot say, | |
| “Sun, stand thou still on Gibeon, and thou Moon, | |
| In Ajalon!” Nor am I one who wastes | |
| The fateful time in useless lamentation; | |
| But one who bears his life upon his hand | 20 |
| To lose it or to save it, as may best | |
| Serve the designs of Him who giveth life. | |
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SCENE II.—JUDAS MACCABÆUS; JEWISH FUGITIVES.
JUDAS. Who and what are ye, that with furtive steps | |
Steal in among our tents?
FUGITIVES. O Maccabæus, | |
| Outcasts are we, and fugitives as thou art, | 25 |
| Jews of Jerusalem, that have escaped | |
| From the polluted city, and from death. | |
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JUDAS. None can escape from death. Say that ye come | |
| To die for Israel, and ye are welcome. | |
What tidings bring ye?
FUGITIVES. Tidings of despair. | 30 |
| The Temple is laid waste; the precious vessels, | |
| Censers of gold, vials and veils and crowns, | |
| And golden ornaments, and hidden treasures, | |
| Have all been taken from it, and the Gentiles | |
| With revelling and with riot fill its courts, | 35 |
| And dally with harlots in the holy places. | |
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JUDAS. All this I knew before.
FUGITIVES. Upon the altar | |
| Are things profane, things by the law forbidden; | |
| Nor can we keep our Sabbaths or our Feasts, | |
| But on the festivals of Dionysus | 40 |
| Must walk in their processions, bearing ivy | |
To crown a drunken god.
JUDAS. This too I know. | |
| But tell me of the Jews. How fare the Jews? | |
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FUGITIVES. The coming of this mischief hath been sore | |
| And grievous to the people. All the land | 45 |
| Is full of lamentation and of mourning. | |
| The Princes and the Elders weep and wail; | |
| The young men and the maidens are made feeble; | |
| The beauty of the women hath been changed. | |
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JUDAS. And are there none to die for Israel? | 50 |
| ’T is not enough to mourn. Breastplate and harness | |
| Are better things than sackcloth. Let the women | |
| Lament for Israel; the men should die. | |
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FUGITIVES. Both men and women die; old men and young: | |
| Old Eleazer died: and Máhala | 55 |
With all her Seven Sons.
JUDAS. Antiochus, | |
| At every step thou takest there is left | |
| A bloody footprint in the street, by which | |
| The avenging wrath of God will track thee out! | |
| It is enough. Go to the sutler’s tents: | 60 |
| Those of you who are men, put on such armor | |
| As ye may find; those of you who are women, | |
| Buckle that armor on; and for a watch-word | |
| Whisper, or cry aloud, “The Help of God.” | |
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SCENE III.—JUDAS MACCABÆUS; NICANOR.
NICANOR. Hail, Judas Maccabæus!
JUDAS. Hail!—Who art thou | 65 |
| That comest here in this mysterious guise | |
Into our camp unheralded?
NICANOR. A herald | |
Sent from Nicanor.
JUDAS. Heralds come not thus | |
| Armed with thy shirt of mail from head to heel, | |
| Thou glidest like a serpent silently | 70 |
| Into my presence. Wherefore dost thou turn | |
| Thy face from me? A herald speaks his errand | |
| With forehead unabashed. Thou art a spy | |
Sent by Nicanor.
NICANOR. No disguise avails! | |
| Behold my face; I am Nicanor’s self. | 75 |
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JUDAS. Thou art indeed Nicanor. I salute thee. | |
| What brings thee hither to this hostile camp | |
Thus unattended?
NICANOR. Confidence in thee. | |
| Thou hast the nobler virtues of thy race, | |
| Without the failings that attend those virtues. | 80 |
| Thou canst be strong, and yet not tyrannous, | |
| Canst righteous be and not intolerant. | |
Let there be peace between us.
JUDAS. What is peace? | |
| Is it to bow in silence to our victors? | |
| Is it to see our cities sacked and pillaged, | 85 |
| Our people slain, or sold as slaves, or fleeing | |
| At night-time by the blaze of burning towns; | |
| Jerusalem laid waste; the Holy Temple | |
| Polluted with strange gods? Are these things peace? | |
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NICANOR. These are the dire necessities that wait | 90 |
| On war, whose loud and bloody enginery | |
| I seek to stay. Let there be peace between | |
Antiochus and thee.
JUDAS. Antiochus? | |
| What is Antiochus, that he should prate | |
| Of peace to me, who am a fugitive? | 95 |
| To-day he shall be lifted up; to-morrow | |
| Shall not be found, because he is returned | |
| Unto his dust; his thought has come to nothing. | |
| There is no peace between us, nor can be, | |
| Until this banner floats upon the walls | 100 |
Of our Jerusalem.
NICANOR. Between that city | |
| And thee there lies a waving wall of tents | |
| Held by a host of forty thousand foot, | |
| And horsemen seven thousand. What hast thou | |
To bring against all these?
JUDAS. The power of God, | 105 |
| Whose breath shall scatter your white tents abroad, | |
As flakes of snow.
NICANOR. Your Mighty One in heaven | |
| Will not do battle on the Seventh Day; | |
It is his day of rest.
JUDAS. Silence, blasphemer. | |
Go to thy tents.
NICANOR. Shall it be war or peace? | 110 |
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JUDAS. War, war, and only war. Go to thy tents | |
| That shall be scattered, as by you were scattered | |
| The torn and trampled pages of the Law, | |
Blown through the windy streets.
NICANOR. Farewell, brave foe! | |
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JUDAS. Ho, there, my captains! Have safe-conduct given | 115 |
| Unto Nicanor’s herald through the camp, | |
| And come yourselves to me.—Farewell, Nicanor! | |
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SCENE IV.—JUDAS MACCABÆUS; CAPTAINS AND SOLDIERS.
JUDAS. The hour is come. Gather the host together | |
| For battle. Lo, with trumpets and with songs | |
| The army of Nicanor comes against us. | 120 |
| Go forth to meet them, praying in your hearts, | |
And fighting with your hands.
CAPTAINS. Look forth and see! | |
| The morning sun is shining on their shields | |
| Of gold and brass; the mountains glisten with them, | |
| And shine like lamps. And we, who are so few | 125 |
| And poorly armed, and ready to faint with fasting, | |
| How shall we fight against this multitude? | |
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JUDAS. The victory of a battle standeth not | |
| In multitudes, but in the strength that cometh | |
| From heaven above. The Lord forbid that I | 130 |
| Should do this thing, and flee away from them. | |
| Nay, if our hour be come, then let us die; | |
Let us not stain our honor.
CAPTAINS. ’T is the Sabbath. | |
| Wilt thou fight on the Sabbath, Maccabæus? | |
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JUDAS. Ay; when I fight the battles of the Lord, | 135 |
| I fight them on his day, as on all others. | |
| Have ye forgotten certain fugitives | |
| That fled once to these hills, and hid themselves | |
| In caves? How their pursuers camped against them | |
| Upon the Seventh Day, and challenged them? | 140 |
| And how they answered not, nor cast a stone, | |
| Nor stopped the places where they lay concealed, | |
| But meekly perished with their wives and children, | |
| Even to the number of a thousand souls? | |
| We who are fighting for our laws and lives | 145 |
Will not so perish.
CAPTAINS. Lead us to the battle! | |
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JUDAS. And let our watchword be, “The Help of God!” | |
| Last night I dreamed a dream; and in my vision | |
| Beheld Onias, our High-Priest of old, | |
| Who holding up his hands prayed for the Jews. | 150 |
| This done, in the like manner there appeared | |
| An old man, and exceeding glorious, | |
| With hoary hair, and of a wonderful | |
| And excellent majesty. And Onias said: | |
| “This is a lover of the Jews, who prayeth | 155 |
| Much for the people and the Holy City,— | |
| God’s prophet Jeremias.” And the prophet | |
| Held forth his right hand and gave unto me | |
| A sword of gold; and giving it he said: | |
| “Take thou this holy sword, a gift from God, | 160 |
| And with it thou shalt wound thine adversaries.” | |
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CAPTAINS. The Lord is with us!
JUDAS. Hark! I hear the trumpets | |
| Sound from Beth-horon; from the battle-field | |
| Of Joshua, where he smote the Amorites, | |
| Smote the Five Kings of Eglon and of Jarmuth, | 165 |
| Of Hebron, Lachish, and Jerusalem, | |
| As we to-day will smite Nicanor’s hosts | |
| And leave a memory of great deeds behind us. | |
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CAPTAINS AND SOLDIERS. The Help of God!
JUDAS. Be Elohim Yehovah! | |
| Lord, thou didst send thine Angel in the time | 170 |
| Of Esekias, King of Israel, | |
| And in the armies of Sennacherib | |
| Didst slay a hundred fourscore and five thousand. | |
| Wherefore, O Lord of heaven, now also send | |
| Before us a good angel for a fear, | 175 |
| And through the might of thy right arm let those | |
| Be stricken with terror that have come this day | |
| Against thy holy people to blaspheme! | |
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