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Page 1 of 21910 · PDF PAGE 167
II4 THE WORLD’S TRAGEDY. ISSA Lie down, then ! On thine oath, no knavery ! JOHN Sleep well, dear master ! Kiss me ! ISSA Pah, young thickhead ! The door opens. No peace, saith someone somewhere, for the wicked ! Enter Magda. What is it now ? MAGDA If Rabbi Pip is gone, It’s Back to Bed ! Issa wearily rises. ISSA Then — Back to Bed with John ! JOHN What, wilt Thou go ? ISSA Yea, by the holy hem Of Aaron’s robe — off to Jerusalem ! He goes out, followed by the protesting pair.
1910 · PDF PAGE 162
THE BLUE DWARF. I09 JOHN Crystal clear. ISSA I came from heaven. JOHN We guessed it. ISSA Guess again ! What follows ? JOHN — Er — ISSA To humbug me is vain. Guess ! JOHN Well, to come from heaven — Thou com’st to reign ? ISSA I die — thou mark’st me ? JOHN Truly : plain as plain !
1910 · PDF PAGE 163
II0 THE WORLD’S TRAGEDY. ISSA And then, to counterbalance the effect — What next ? JOHN I cannot say. ISSA I resurrect. JOHN What good would that do ? ISSA As I understand, It would spoil life for everyone. JOHN How grand ! How simple ! ISSA Look, boy, I am tired of things. Joy, that had legs before, hath now got wings. I am exceeding weary.
1910 · PDF PAGE 161
I08 THE WORLD’S TRAGEDY. ISSA Take note of it : Matter is muck ! JOHN True wisdom and true wit ! The upshot, Lord ? ISSA Than living, I would rather Play the fool’s game of my unnatural Father. JOHN Thy father, Lord ? Thy pardon, but we heard — ISSA No odds — all genealogy’s absurd. JOHN Suppose, Lord, I should simply call Thee “ Word ” ? ISSA Happy the thought ! But, in thy secret ear, There was a scheme — thou mark’st me ?
1910 · PDF PAGE 160
THE BLUE DWARF. I07 JOHN The upshot ? ISSA I am sick of everything. JOHN Of me, Lord ? ISSA Thou the least, sweet queen and king. But — finally — in sooth, lad — even of thee. JOHN Lord, have I failed in love ? ISSA Failure must be. Not by thy fault, but fixed in every feature Of Mistress Smirking Whore, our Mother Nature, Whose filthy dugs our poisoned kisses suck. Pah ! the whole world is just a mass of muck. JOHN Wait, master ! that’s a Phrase.
1910 · PDF PAGE 156
THE BLUE DWARF. I03 Fighting the leanness of thy lechery That hags thee — Faugh ! MAGDA Art thou not lewd with me ? ISSA Ay ! and the rot of Egypt pays me for’t. MAGDA To match thy rotten soul, thou pimping ort ! Marrowless bone ! Dry fig ! ISSA Enough, black bitch ! The Seventy shall stone thee for a witch. MAGDA More than enough. I’ll call thy darling itch, Thy— He fists her in the abdomen. ISSA Take the name back to thy bloated belly ! Speak, and I kick thy carcass to a jelly !
1910 · PDF PAGE 164
THE BLUE DWARF. III JOHN Even of me ? ISSA Yes — no — yes — what thou wilt. All’s one. JOHN I see. Then thou wilt slay thyself ? ISSA ’Twere too much trouble, Having cut the corn, to clear away the stubble. Hire thou a knave to slay me. JOHN Lord, I dare not. ISSA Denounce me to the Seventy — I care not. Indeed, since Death is Death, small odds the plan of it ! I’ll rather choose to get what fun I can of it. JOHN I have it, Lord ! Well make thy death suggest
1910 · PDF PAGE 165
II2 THE WORLD’S TRAGEDY. Adonis, Attis, Mithras, and the rest ; And if there lack some detail — ISSA Thou art wise Enough to write in all the prophecies Fulfilled. That’s settled, then. JOHN I’d love to see The goggling eyes of duped posterity, Its mouth agape (while priests scoop out its poke) At the wild sequel of our harmless joke. ISSA Only one further fret balls up my brain : — The nuisance, if I have to rise again. JOHN Fear not ! The style suffices. ISSA Then be off, And tell the Seventy my bitter scoff
1910 · PDF PAGE 170
…whose light now illumines the pale and tortured features of a man, with outstret- ched arms, who is hanging (apparently) in space. It is Issa, but the weariness is gone ; and noble-strong is the scarred brow of his agony. ALEXANDER. In the puissance of my will, Issa, I uphold thee still. ISSA. Thou art ? ALEXANDER Keeper of the Way.
1910 · PDF PAGE 166
…-the-temple joke : And make the fell indictment yet completer With my bewildering pun on ’ rock ’ and ’ Peter ’ ! JOHN It shall be done. ISSA Nay, thou wouldst feel remorse. Let the whole matter simply take its course ! Our Youdesh is a thief ; so, sure to rat. He’ll raise their camel to conceal his gnat. JOHN How choice a metaphor ! How terse ! How dry ! Apt as thy’ camel and the needle’s eye’. ISSA Agreed, then ! Now if Brothers Louse and Bug Will let me be, I’ll settle slack and snug Till noon. JOHN I too, Lord, I would sleep with Thee.
1910 · PDF PAGE 158
THE BLUE DWARF. I05 ISSA Undone me quite, Nagged me with sordid greediness all night, Greed for my gold, my person — all I have. Saith not the prophet : “ Cruel as the grave ” ? That grinning mask, that musk-rat, hath enriched Her rags by every inch of me that itched ; And for one itch hath planted me another, The “ friend that sticketh closer than a brother ”. Ten groans of mine for every grin of hers ! What saith the prophet ? — “ Whited sepulchres ! ” JOHN Nay, Lord, the phrase unique is all thine own. ISSA Then write it down, an nothing les…
1910 · PDF PAGE 159
I06 THE WORLD’S TRAGEDY. ISSA Yes, lad, yes. — Tinged through with many-coloured bitterness ! For as I lay this night of hateful heat, The blow-flies buzzing, the eternal bleat Of strayed sheep, the intense malefic hum Of the accurst mosquito, the far drum Of the winged beetle, the reiterate stings Of fouler vermin, the hot breath that brings The sunset’s garlic to the midnight’s rose, The red whore’s writhings, clutches swift to close On this worn limb, exact the woman-debt To the last mite, the cold grey glutinous sweat — These things, I say,…
1910 · PDF PAGE 185
…ic devil, have done ! Before He is dead a schism begun ? Say Homoousios ! THE GREEK Never, dog Jew ! Homoiousios ! JOHN Master, decide ! ISSA O may I cease ! If my spirit to you I must commend. JOHN Are you now satisfied ? Clear as — THE GREEK You lie, pathic ! JOHN Pandar !
1910 · PDF PAGE 189
…s one divorcement. AGRIPPA Pooh ! The stern old Roman ! Fudge ! Even Horatio would budge. Kill that Jew, men ! A SOLDIER Heard and done. ISSA It is finished ! PUBLIUS Ill begun When the Roman virtue sleeps ! AGRIPPA Death, man ! See the tide that sweeps From his side, a pinkish flood Of foaming water mixed with blood. It swells; it washes all the hill —
1910 · PDF PAGE 180
…ed on their spears The guard lean ! AGRIPPA Rather a thousand years Of strife than this black peace. Accurst I know this night shall be. ISSA I thirst. AGRIPPA Give him to drink ! PUBLIUS How strange a fate ! Those noble eyes irradiate This leprous luster.
1910 · PDF PAGE 181
… will back to night and chaos. — Ha ! Hoo ! Formlessly presiding Over the ruined earth. Ga ! Ga ! Ab — ab — ab — ab — ab — He flies off. ISSA Behold ! He hath forsaken me. The doom is fixed, but my spirit is free From his loathsome company.
1910 · PDF PAGE 154
…t. On a truckle bed strewn with dirty straw lie a naked man and woman. MAGDA Give me more money, Baa-Baa, for a kiss ; One of my kisses. ISSA Youdesh has the bag. (A pause.) Also I weary of thy sordidness. Love is at bottom a most noisome hag. Mother and brothers ! all the pageant passes Like a loud caravan of braying asses ; And now I — love thee ! in this hole of hell. A rotting camel by a dried-up well !
1910 · PDF PAGE 183
…o it ease life’s friction. AGRIPPA Anoint the next fair lambkin’s fleece With rock-sand in the stead of grease. PUBLIUS He speaks again. ISSA Forgive me, brothers ! I knew not what I did. PUBLIUS His mother’s Here; wants the body.
1910 · PDF PAGE 148
… I go back to the grove of Pan. GOVINDA What is thy name ? I will proclaim Thy marvellous fame From the Gulf of Kutch to the shores of Orissa. MIRIAM I pray your Majesty, call him Issa.
1910 · PDF PAGE 171
II8 THE WORLD’S TRAGEDY. ISSA I am ? ALEXANDER Man, at mine essay. By the Balance reaching forth To the south and to the North Have I consecrated thee Co-victim with humanity. O mis-begotten, miscreate Dwarf as thou wast, the child of hate ; Thou who hast felt the sordidness Of thine own effect on thine own distress ; Art come thereby to the stature of man By my power, who am Pan. And by this death shalt laugh to know Thy father’s final overthrow. My soul the heights and depths has spanned. I hold the star-streams in mine hand. I am the master …