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Page 1 of 31905 · PDF PAGE 253
TANNHAUSER WOLFRAM, For very feebleness Your limbs shake under you. Llow hither, friend ? Your horse and arms? Your squire? TANNHAUSER. My squire is dead. [Ith sudden passion. I am no weakling that I need a knave Hanging upon me—'tis an incubus. LANDGRAVE, And then your horse ? TANNHAUSER. I know not; possibly Kept as an hostage. I was prisoner once. WOLFRAM. Prisoner? By here? TANNHAUSER. A-many castles, sir, Held by old ogres—and not all of them Stand in the mid-day, front the sober sun, Answer the slug-horn.! LANDGRAVE, You are pleased to ri…
1905 · PDF PAGE 247
240 TANNHAUSER That human light and living ! I shall win. He must have banished Her—and dreams of me. TANNHAUSER (27 sleep). Elizabeth ! VENUS. Flis far-off baby-love ! I triumph, then! The Goddess hath with- drawn. His mind works back to childhood, babydom ; Will grow to manhood and remember me. TANNHAUSER (awaking, leaps to his feet). Freedom! Elizabeth! All hail to Her! Radiant Goddess! Liberty and love! VENUS. What sayest thou? Curse Her! TANNHAUSER. My Elizabeth ! VENUS. What? art thou mad? again. Forget this nightmare. Rather, tell me it,…
1905 · PDF PAGE 240
TANNHAUSER 233 VENUS. Answer that call—and thou art lost indeed ! Wake thou thy spirit in this hateful sleep, Keeping the vision, rise, and spit on her! TANNHAUSER. Spit on Thy likeness? I who love Thee sor VENUS. Yes, yes: obey me! She will leave thee then. She hath assumed mine image ! [ Thunder. TANNHAUSER. What is that? VENUS. Mere thunder on the mountain top. Do this, And I will come in sleep, in sleep renew The carnal joys of day. TANNHAUSER. Hast Thou forgot? It is the fleshly I would flee ! VENUS. Forget ? But I strive fleshwards. Let o…
1905 · PDF PAGE 252
TANNHAUSER The proper minstrel! The ideal lover ! The pure, unsullied soul. Even so, forsooth! They tell no secrets in the scullery. And there is Heinrich, wastrel of the Court, Yet hides a heart beneath the foolish face. And lo! The Landgrave! Flushed, undigni- fied ! The chase was long—if he could see himself! Wind, wind the mort! What call will answer me When I step forward? Am I dead, I wonder, Or merely on my hare-brain quest? ‘Three years Since I was seen in Germany ! (He descends the hill and enters the CoM pany. Hail, friends ! Good cou…
1905 · PDF PAGE 264
TANNHAUSER 257 You, ladies! Are your faces painted thus Not to hide wrinkles of debauchery? To catch new lovers? LANDGRAVE. Stop the lying mouth! Friends, your sword-service ! TANNHAUSER. Will they answer you? My arm is weary as your souls are not Of beastliness: I have drawn my father’s sword, Hard as your virtue is the easy sort, Heavy to handle as your loves are light, Smooth as your lies, and sharper than your hates ! I know you! Cowards to the very bone! [Driving them out. Who fights me, of this sworded company? Cannot my words have sting …
1905 · PDF PAGE 239
232 TANNHAUSER Clothed in the Christ! Ah! Triumphed He at last? Nay, not in death! again ! Alas! Alas! The slave—He rose VENUS, Alas indeed, my knight! We love not! Being both enamoured of Just the one thing that is impossible. But in this carnal strife the Intimate Achieves for one snatched swiftness. me, love! Kiss TANNHAUSER. Ah, but the waking! As [ sink to sleep >illowed in nuptial arms —so fresh and cool— (Yet in their veins I know the fire that runs Racing and maddening from the crown of flame, The monolithic core of mystical Red fury th…
1905 · PDF PAGE 251
244 TANNHAUSER TANNHAUSER. Ah no! I have been shown another way than yours | I am too old in this world’s weariness, Too hungry in its hunger unto God, Too foolish-wise, too passionate-cynical, To seek your royal road to Deity ! ANOTHER PILGRIM. Leave him! Belike ‘tis some philosopher With words too big to understand himself. TANNHAUSER. With heart too seared to understand himself! With mind too wise to understand himself ! With soul too small to understand himself ! ELDEST PILGRIM. Cling to the Cross, sir, there is hope in that ! TANNHAUSER. Y…
1905 · PDF PAGE 242
TANNHAUSER 235 TANNHAUSER. I sleep not. Those were Her mysterious words As faded the great vision, And I knew In some forgotten corner of my brain Some desperate truth. VENUS, Forget this foolishness ! [ There cometh a shadow. I am afraid, even I! What moves me thus? TANNHAUSER. I saw the mighty vision as before Forming in front of the awakening east, All permeated with the rose of dawn, And pale with delicate green light and shade, Marvellous! So, you say, she is a witch Seeking to rob or trick you of your power? VENUS. Isayso? No! Idare not! …
1905 · PDF PAGE 261
254 TANNHAUSER Two is by shape the Coptic aspirate,! Life breathed, and death indrawn. And so Rounds you at last the ten, completion’s self, The circle and the line. Why stick at nought? BERTRAM. Only a donkey fastened to a post Moves in a circle. LANDGRAVE. This is noble talk ! THE UNKNOWN MINSTREL. Leave the wide circle—word and argument ! Move to the line—the steady will of man, That shall attract the Two, the Breath of Life, The Holy Spirit: land you in the Three, Where form is perfect—in the triangle. TANNHAUSER, My friend, the Three is in…
1905 · PDF PAGE 254
TANNHAUSER 247 HEINRICH. Envy? This day when he comes back to us! Why, we are Iucky tou! We thought you dead ! WOLFRAM. Begrudge you, no! But—wish our luck were yours? Yes! Come, Tannhiauser, there’s my hand on it! Luck, love, and loyalty—the triple toast ! FORESTERS. Tannhauser ! Luck, and love, and loyalty ! TANNHAUSER. I thank you, loving kinsmen and my friends. But see, I am impatient to be gone! (Zo the verderer.) Your horse-—that favour I shall not forget, Nor linger to repay. Good morrow then! Good sport all day ! LANDGRAVE. God speed th…
1905 · PDF PAGE 266
TANNHAUSER 259 Itself a speck in solar life ; the sun, For all I know, a speck among the stars, Themselves one corporate molecule of space !— You from your perch judge, label, limit Him! Not that your corner is not equally The centre and the whole. Fool’s talk it is! Consider the futility of mind ! Realise utterly how mean, how dull, How fruitless is Philosophy ! ELIZABETH. Indeed My brain is baffled. But I see your point. Talking of God, even imagining, Insane! But for aspiring—that I will! TANNHAUSER. That is true marriage, in my estimate. As…
1905 · PDF PAGE 249
242 TANNHAUSER TANNHAUSER. This shakes my spirit as a winnower Whose fan is the eternal breath of God ; Yet on my forehead I perceive a Star That shames thy beauties and thy manifold Mind with Its tiny triple flame. I go! VENUS, Try not the impossible. Thou knowest my power. I shall renew the charm. TANNHAUSER. I see a Power Above thy mockery of witchcraft. Work Thy devilish lusts on me unfortunate ! There is no gateway to this fortalice? Thy fiends surround me? Hein! their pangs begin ! I have one word, one cry, one exorcism : Avé Maria ! VENU…
1905 · PDF PAGE 233
226 TANNHAUSER ing of Tannhauser useful, if only to brace them to a more courageous attempt to understand the ‘‘Great Arcanum,” and to attain at last, no matter at what cost, to ‘*true Wisdom and perfect Happiness.” So may all happen! KANDY, CEYLON, Sepé. 1901. PERSONS CONCERNED. THE WORLD OF GODS. IsIs. HATHOOR. THE WORLD OF MEN. TANNHAUSER,. ELIZABETH. AN UNKNOWN MINSTREL. THE LANDGRAVE., WOLFRAM, BERTRAM, HEINRICH, A SHEPHERD Boy. PILGRIMS, FORESTERS, COURTIERS, ETC. \a t the Court of the Landgrave. THE WORLD OF DEMONS. THE EVIL AND AVERSE H…
1905 · PDF PAGE 267
260 TANNHAUSER In this low twilight and the hanging boughs. I have slept worse than this. Poor Tann- hauser ! I met him walking, as in dream, across The courtyard, while behind him skulked that crew That lurked, and itched to kill him, him unarmed, Not daring! But he reached his hand to me! ‘‘Good luck, old friend!” and, smiling, he was gone. Gone to the Pope—great soul to mounte- bank ! It was her wish, they whisper. Well-a-day ! He’s gone, and not a friend have [ again. This bank is soft with delicate white moss, No pillow better in broad Ger…
1905 · PDF PAGE 255
248 TANNHAUSER The living purpose and the mystic life Of lonely seeking for the Grail of God ! I—call you husband? When I said your name, It was to set the task impossible, Ifad they but known it—just as one should say : ‘* Bring down St. Michael: let me marry him !” They knew the angels were too pure; but you, They guessed not how exalted were your hopes; How utterly unselfish, pure, and true, Your great heart beat ! TANNHAUSER (w¢7th bitterness). I hardly knew, myself! (Aszde.) Here is the virgin insight of the truth | Or—cannot purity be bro…
1905 · PDF PAGE 248
TANNHAUSER 241 TANNHAUSER. One lover! Who makes up the equal soul Of all the wickedness beneath the sun? Lilith ! Seek out thy children to devour! Leave me. I go to my Elizabeth. VENUS. Ono! It kills me! That is naked truth. I am the soul and symbol of desire, Yet individual to thy love. Stay! Stay! One last caress, and then I let thee go, And—die. I fear, and I detest, this death. I am not mortal, doomed to it! I slip Into mere slime; no resurrection waits Me, made the vilest of the stars that fell. I must not die. .I dare not. But for thee, T…
1905 · PDF PAGE 260
TANNHAUSER 253 This is the evil destiny of man: The desperate plan Made by the Ancient One, to keep His power. Limits He set, made space unsearchable Yet bounded, made time endless to transcend Man's thought to comprehend : Builded the Tower | Of life, and girded it with walls of hell, The name of Death. This limit in all things Baffles the spirit wings, Chains the swift soul; for even Death is bound. In its apparent amplitude I saw, I, who have slept through death, have surely found The old accurséd law, And death has changed to life. alone Sh…
1905 · PDF PAGE 250
TANNHAUSER 243 Hail to Thy splendour, Holy, I cry! Mary shall bend her Face from the sky, Subtle and tender— Then I can die! TANNHAUSER. The simple love of life and gladness there! Merely to be, and worship at the heart. How complex, the machinery of me! Better? I doubt it. SHEPHERD-BOY (s2725). O Gretchen, when the morn Is gray, Forsake thy flocks and steal away To that low bank where, shepherds say, The flowers eternal are. Thine eyes should gleam to see me there, As fixed upon a star, And yet thy lips should take a tune, And match me unaware…
1905 · PDF PAGE 265
258 TANNHAUSER We are not so feeble /—But death anyhow Cuts and not loosens the entangled life. Be mine the harder and the better way, The single chance: not hope; appeal no more $ Hardly the arrowy wisdom of despair ; Hardly the cowardice or courage yet To drift, nor cursing nor invoking God. ELIZABETH. I heard, I pure, I virginal, your song; The shameful story of your intercourse With—fiend or woman? And your burning will, Even in that horror, to the Highest ; at last Your choice of me—the middle course of them, Pure human love? And, if your …
1905 · PDF PAGE 243
236 TANNHAUSER This, though I know thee. Aphrodite, no! Nor Anael,! nor Eva! Lather thou Lilith, the woman-serpent, she who sucks The breath of little children in their sleep, Strangles young maidens, and presides upon Sterile debauchery and unnatural loves. VENUS. Lilith! Ah, lover! name ! Thou hast known my TANNHAUSER, So; yet I love thee! MRended is the veil! Calling thee Ugliness, I guessed aright, Who saw, and see, all Beauty in thee still. Only, a beauty risen out of Hell ; Death and delusion—ay, corruption’s self, Wickedness sliming into…