Thelema ScholarTHE ALEISTER CROWLEY COLLECTION
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1898 · PDF PAGE 13

Jephthah

JEPHTHAH. CHORUS. A sword, a sword, to smite our foes withal ! ELEAZAR. A help shall come from desert lands to us. CHORUS. Toward what end? For present help is much, But uttermost destruction more, for we Have no strong hope in any hand of man: God is our refuge and our tower of strength. In Him if any man abide; but if He put his faith in horsemen, or the sword, The sword he trusted shall be for an end. ELEAZAR. But evils fall like rain upon the land. CHORUS. Let us not call the hail to give us peace. ELEAZAR. Nor on the sun, lest he too eat u…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 19

Jephthah

JEPHTHAH. 15 ELEAZAR. Get thee to horse and carry me this message: The Elders unto Jephthah, greeting : Help! No single cry beyond that Help! Be gone! Exit Messenger. CHORUS. I fear me our necessity is sure. But they come hither. Shall we rather flee ? ELEAZAR. I stand here manly, and will die a man. CHORUS. For cowardice not pleases God, nor fear. Shall we not take up weapons? Or shall He Rather defend us with His Holy Arm, We not presuming in our arrogance To come with cunning, and defend ourselves ? ELEAZAR. Nay, but God smites with sharpnes…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 64

Jephthah

…u art one of them that trouble me; for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back. ADULAH. My father, O my father! Enter Eleazar and Chorus. ELEAZAR.| Most welcome, conqueror! [ Jephthah waves him aside, What is this? What is this? CHORUS. Speak, Jephthah, speak! What ill has fallen? Speak! [Szlence. After a little the Chorus of Maidens understand, and break into watling. The old men gradually understand, and fill the atr with incoherent lamentations. BehindJephthah the soldiers, with white lips, have assumed their military form…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 24

Jephthah

…herefore our tribute to thy feet we bring ; Conquer our foes, and reign our king! JEPHTHAH. | . Ye have no king but God: see ye to that! ELEAZAR. — _ Behold, these people are as children, hiding Thoughts beautiful and true in profuse words, Not meaning all the lofty flight that fancy And the strong urgement of a tune discover. Be thou our judge, as Joshua long ago. JEPHTHAH. Swear by the Name unspoken that the truth Flashes between the lips that tremble thus! Ye love me not; ye fear me; ye might thrust Some petty obstacle before my hands When I…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 8

Jephthah

CHARACTERS. JEPHTHAH. ADULAH, Ais Daughter. JARED, A Gileadtte, cousin to Jephthah. A Prophet of the Lord. ELEAZAR, Chief of the Elders of Israel. AHINOAM, an aged Priest. First Messenger. Second Messenger. First Herald. Second Herald. Soldiers of Jephthah. Soldiers of Israel. Chorus of Elders of Israel. Maidens of Israel. SCENE :—An Open Place before Mizpeh. In the midst an Altar. TiME :—The duration of the play is from noon of the first day to dawn of the third.

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1898 · PDF PAGE 11

Jephthah

…nd pleasures. Oh! The god is fast upon my back ; he rides My spirit like a stallion ; for I hate The awful thong his hand is heavy with. ELEAZAR. Speak, for the god compels, and we behold. PROPHET. A harlot shall be mother of Israel. CHORUS. He speaks of her who sighed for Gilead. PROPHET. A maiden shall be slain for many men. CHORUS. A doubtful word, and who shall fathom it? | PROPHET. Thy help is from the hills and desert lands. CHORUS. Our help is from the hills: we know the Lord. PROPHET. Death rides most violently against the sun.

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1898 · PDF PAGE 61

Jephthah

…ep his way, With streams of holy balm, The prayers of them that pray, We go to bring him home and raise to Thee our holy psalm, Elohim ! ELEAZAR. Go ye, make ready for the happy march. [Exeunt Adulah and Maidens.

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1898 · PDF PAGE 12

Jephthah

… The god has overcome me, I am silent. CHORUS. He lies as one lies dead; none wakens him. Nor life nor death must touch him now: beware! ELEAZAR. Beware now, all ye old wise men, of this. For high things spoken and unjustly heard, Or heard and turned aside, are fruitless words, Or bear a blossom evil and abhorred, Lest God be mocked : consider well of this.

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1898 · PDF PAGE 51

Jephthah

…Monstrous impossible villainy of fate. CHORUS. O wise old man, thou speakest cleverly. AHINOAM. So do, and praise be given you from God. ELEAZAR. God, Who this day has sliumbered not, nor slept, He only keepeth Israel: He is God! CHORUS. When God uplifted hands to smite, And earth from chaos was unrolled, And skies and seas from blackest night Unfurled, twin sapphires set with gold, And tumult of the boisterous deep Roared from its slow ungainly sleep, And flocks of heaven were driven to fold, Then rose the walls of Israel] steep, For in His pr…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 46

Jephthah

…arch! JARED. Good luck be with your spears ; and homecoming Gladden victorious eyes ere set of sun. [Exeunt Jephthah and Soldiers. Enter Eleazar, Ahinoam, Chorus of Elders. CHORUS. The sun is past meridian. No sound Of trampling hoofs assails th’ unquiet wind, Nor trembles in the pillared echo-places, And windy corridors of pathless snow. But let us wait, expecting victory. No fugitive returns, nor messenger : They have not shocked together, or perchance The grim fight rolls its sickening tide along

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1898 · PDF PAGE 17

Jephthah

… My lords, take heed now, prayer is good to save - While yet the foemen are far off ; but now They howl and clamour at our very gates. ‘ ELEAZAR. Blaspheme not God, but tell thy woeful news. CHORUS. I fear me for the sorrow that he speaks. MESSENGER. The tribe of Ephraim went forth to fight Armed, and with bows, and turned them back to-day.

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1898 · PDF PAGE 54

Jephthah

…reaming, Fortune is powerless, to all good seeming; Fate is stricken, and flees afraid. JARED. Bring me the sackcloth and the ashes now. ELEAZAR. Behold! the crown of all our maiden wreath, Adulah, white and lissome, with the flames Of dawn forth blushing through her flower-crowned hair. . CHORUS. Behold a virgin to the Lord! Behold a maiden pale as death, Whose glance is silver as a sword, And flowers of Kedar fill her breath, Whose fragrance saturates the sward, Whose sunny perfume floating saith : From my ineffable desire is drawn The awful …

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1898 · PDF PAGE 9

Jephthah

JEPHTHAH. Eleazar. Pvrophet. Chorus. CHORUS. OW is our sin requited of the Lord. For, scorning Jephthah for an harlot’s son, We cast him forth from us, and said: Begone, Thou shalt not enter in with us; thy mouth Shall thirst for our inheritance in vain ; Thou hast no lot nor part in Gilead. And now, he gathers to himself vain men, Violent folk, and breakers of the law, And holds aloof in rocky deserts, where The land, accurst of God, is barren still Of any herb, or flower, or any tree, And has no shelter, nor sweet watersprings, Save where a l…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 72

Jephthah

…erhead ; She stands upon the snow, her eyes Fixed fast upon the fountain-head Whence from Eternity is drawn The awful glory of the dawn! ELEAZAR. Let every man depart unto his house. CHORUS. He hath made His face as a fire; His wrath as a sword; He hath smitten our soul’s desire; He is the Lord.

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1898 · PDF PAGE 20

Jephthah

…urn again To his own bosom, and the sword of fear Smites not in vain the heart of cowardice. But who hath called me hither to what end ? ELEAZAR. For these, and for the sake of Israel. JEPHTHAH. And who are these? And who are Israel? CHORUS. Turn not thy face from us in wrath, for we Are thine own father’s children, and his loins With double fervour gat a double flower ; And we indeed were born of drudging wives, Pale spouses whom his heart despised, but thou Wast of a fairer face and brighter eyes,

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1898 · PDF PAGE 38

Jephthah

…nd torch of rapine in my pleasant land. Between the folk of Ammon and the folk Of Israel this day be God the judge. [Exzt Second Herald. ELEAZAR. Well spoken: but the ear that will not hear Is deafer than the adder none may charm. JEPHTHAH. I know it, and will not await the answer. But dawn shall see a solemn sacrifice, And solemn vows, and long swords glittering, And moving columns that shall shake the earth With firm and manly stride; and victory Most like a dove amid the altar-smoke. CHORUS. We, passing here the night in prayer, will wait An…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 59

Jephthah

JEPHTHAH. 55 ‘I will keep silence, though they tear my tongue Blaspheming from my throat. My servant now! ELEAZAR. Mingled emotions quickly following Fear upon fear, and joy and hope at last Crowning, have maddened Jephthah’s kinsman here. Mark his lips muttering, and his meaningless Furious gestures, and indignant eyes Starting, and hard-drawn breath! Him lead away Tenderly, as beseems the mercy shown To his repentance by this maiden queen. The Lord is merciful to them that show Mercy, and all such as are pure of heart ; Thy crown, Adulah, wea…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 14

Jephthah

…soul to flee, A charm for the lips to bind; And the struggle is keen as the strife to be, And the heart is tossed by the thankless wind. ELEAZAR, Nay, for a man’s sure purpose is of God. CHORUS. The large pale limbs of the earth are tanned With the sun and the sea and the yellow sand And the face of earth is dark with love Of the lords of hell and the spirits above That move in the foggy air of night, And the spirit of God, most like a dove, Hovers, and lingers, and wings his flight, Spurned and rejected and lost to sight; But we desire him, a …

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1898 · PDF PAGE 57

Jephthah

…ly dear. For O! my father comes to gladden me With those enduring kisses that endow Heart, hope, and life with gladness. Comes he soon ? ELEAZAR. Maiden most perfect, daughter of our lord, And ye, most fairest branches of our tree, Maidens of Israel, we await you here That ye, no other, may go forth to meet The chief victorious. And after you Those villains that once cast him out shall forth In sackcloth to his feet, if haply so He spare their vagabond and worthless lives. . ADULAH. Not so, my father. In my father’s name I promise unto all grea…

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