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Page 1 of 21901 · PDF PAGE 44
{ 30) THE FATAL FORCE ‘* She In the habiliments of the goddess Isis That day appeared.”—Antony and Cleopatra, iii. 6, 16. “Stoop not down, for a precipice lieth beneath the earth, reached by a descending ladder which hath Seven Steps, and therein is established the throne of an evil and fatal force.”— ZOROASTER. PEOPLE. RATOUM, Queen of Egyft. PACHAD, her son (by the son of herself and the LEPER). THE LEPER, her divorced husband. THE KING OF SYRIA. AMENHATEP, High Priest. Chorus of Priests. Soldiers of Egypt. Syrian Troops. PACHAD. HY is thy ba…
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56 THE FATAL FORCE RATOUM. I have loved thee ever, I have made thee god. PACHAD. I hate myself, and therefore I hate thee. RATOUM. I am still goddess, still desire thy love. That leper lies: thou art indeed a god. PACHAD. I am a god to execute my will. [ Threatens her with his dagger. RATOUM. Mercy! Thou canst not strike a woman down! PACHAD. So! The thin casing of the godhead rots, Mere mummy-cloth: the rotten corpse within, Dust and corruption! I am still the god, And gods slay women: therefore I slay thee. RATOUM. Then thou shalt see me once…
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THE FATAL FORCE 65 I am a leper: get ye hence! [Exeunt soldiers. Unclean! [Szence. This was the hour that my ambitious hopes Centred upon: and now I grasp the hour— So fares mortality. [ Szlence. Unclean! unclean! CURTAIN.
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36 THE FATAL FORCE Is broken, and the balance of her mind Made one with the fool’s bauble, and her wand, That was of steel and fire, like a reed, snapped! PACHAD. So lived my father. Tell me of his death. AMENHATEP. At thy first breath the gods were patient still, Till the abomination filled its cup, And hatred took her heart. She slew thy sire, And made his body the banquet of her sin In the infernal temple. “So,” she said, ‘‘T reap the incarnation of the god.” So, gloomy and hideous, she would prowl about Seeking fresh human feasts, and blood…
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CONTENTS PROLOGUE—SIN: AN ODE THE MOTHER’s TRAGEDY THE FaTAL Force THE SUMMIT OF THE AMOROUS MOUNTAIN THE MOTHER AT THE SABBATH THE BRIDEGROOM . THE CoURSE OF TRUE LOVE MADONNA OF THE GOLDEN EYEs . CONVENTIONAL WICKEDNESS . Mors JANUA AMORIS SIDONIA THE SORCERESS THE WHORE IN HEAVEN THE LesBiaN HELL THE REAPER . . THE Lorp’s Day THE GROWTH OF Gop . Love’s WISDOM PAGE vil 30 66 67 70 73 75 79 80 84 85 9° 94 97 98 102
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THE FATAL FORCE 37 PACHAD. I have heard you as a god Immutable. CHORUS. Thou art as proud and calm As statued Memnon. Thou art more than god And less than man. Thine eyelids tremble not. PACHAD. I shall avenge it as a god. The land Shall be made free. AMENHATEP. And the old gods have sway, Re-born from incorruption. PACHAD. The old gods! - I must muse deeply. Keep your ancient ways A little. I must play the part through so. CHORUS. In the ways of the North and the South, Whence the dark and the dayspring are drawn, We pass with the song of the …
1901 · PDF PAGE 75
THE FATAL FORCE Give the token of thy fire Trident in the lambent air, Till our spirits unaware Worship and aspire! Hear, beyond all periods, Timeless, formless, multiform, Thou, supreme above the storm, Spirit of the Holy Ones, Spirit of the Gods! Enter Messenger. MESSENGER. The battle rages: even now the shock Of hostile spears makes the loud earth resound, The wide sky tremble. AMENHATEP. Here lies Horus dead, There Isis slain. We have no leader left. MESSENGER. The fight is doubtful. We may conquer still. AMENHATEP. By this shed blood and d…
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32 THE FATAL FORCE Are silent at your blasphemy; my ears Are strong to hear if there be truth at all In your mixed murmurs: I command you, speak! AMENHATEP. The burden of the madness of the Queen Lies on the land: the Syrian is near ; And she, believing that her godhead guards Her people, sleeps. The altars are thrown down ; The people murmur. She hath done thee wrong, But be thou mighty to avenge! PACHAD. To-day I, Horus, am to grow Osiris. Yea, Strange secret dreams of some mysterious fate Godlike have come upon me, and the throne Totters for…
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50 THE FATAL FORCE Hear, O hear the mystic song Of the serpent-moving throng, Isis mother, Isis maiden, Isis beautiful and strong! Even as the traitor’s breath Goeth forth, he perisheth By the secret sibilant word that is spoken unto death. RATOUM. The hour is given unto death. Bring in Dead Horus, for the night is shed above. [Coffin brought in. CHORUS. The noise of the wind of the winter; the sound Of the wings of the charioted night ; The song of the sons of the seas profound ; The thunder of death; the might Of the eloquent silence of black…
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THE FATAL FORCE 63 AMENHATEP. We shall be patient, and we shall be strong. THE LEPER. The noise of rushing feet! The corridor Rings with their scurrying fear. This is the end. [Enter a flying soldier, crying aloud, and seeks a hiding-place. Speak not, thou trembling slave: we understand! [The soldier slips on the marble floor, and lies groaning. AMENHATEP. See that due silence greets catastrophe! No word from now without command of mine. [Szlence. Then grows a nowse of men fighting, &c.; above this after a while rises a shrill laughter, terrify…
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THE FATAL FORCE — 49 Even as the powers of ill, Broken by the wanded will, Shriek about the holy place, vain and vague and terrible. Even as the lords of hell, Chained in fires before the spell, Strain upon the sightless steel, break not fetters nor compel. So be distant, O profane! Children of the hurricane ! Lest the sword of fire destroy, lest the ways of death be plain! So depart, and so be wise, Lest your perishable eyes Look upon the formless fire, see the maiden sacrifice ! So depart, and secret flame Burn upon the stone of shame, That t…
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60 THE. FATAL FORCE Sacred, secret, let the length East and west, the depth and height, North and south, with music tingle, Ring with battled clarion choirs of the far-resound- ing light! Let the might Of Osirian sacrifice Dwell upon the self-slain king! Consecrate him, consecrate him, consecrate, ye holy ones, The imperial mind Thrice, and thrice the higher soul, Thrice the spirit, till the sun’s Utter glory burn upon him, till the freed Osiris find He is god above mankind, Thrice united unto man, As the living gold that ran Molten to the fier…
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THE FATAL FORCE 39 In the wonderful flowers of the foam, Blue billows and breakers grown grey, When the storm sweeps triumphantly home From the bed of the violate day, In the furious waves of the sea, wild world of tem- pestuous night, Our song is as light! In the tumult of manifold fire, Multitudinous mutable feet That dance to an infinite lyre On the heart of the world as they beat, In the flowers of the bride of the flame, in the warrior Lord of the Fire, There burns our desire! AMENHATEP. Cry now, bewail the broken house, bewail The ruin of…
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THE FATAL FORCE 59 At the fountain-heads of light; Fanned to whirling fiery flight, As the spark of life is dwindled In the sacramental span, In the star that flashes white In the body of a man; By the swart Osirian power, If, when strikes the holy hour Of the holy sacrifice, Angels swoon from starry homes Full of inexpressive eyes, That the blood that swells and foams Lighten with the fervid air, To create from death’s despair Masteries of music, domes Gilded with the splendid essence of the highest hope of man; If the sombre stream that ran F…
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48 THE FATAL FORCE The mother of all things, the full desire, The immitigable, intelligible one, Reality beyond realities! This hour the foolish ones shall see their souls Shrink at my manifest deity. This night My spirit on my spirit shall beget Myself for my own child. Behold! they come, Fantastically moving through the dance, The many mourners, and the fatal bier Looms in the dimness of the anteroom. It is enough. My hour is at hand! CHORUS enter and circumambulate. Even as the traitor’s breath Goeth forth, he perisheth By the secret sibilan…
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THE FATAL FORCE 43 And worship, seeing justice as a spouse Lean on thine iron hand. For Murder walks by night, and hides her face, But righteous Wrath in the light, and knows his place; For hate of a mother is ill, and the lightning flashes, But foil a harlot’s will, burn the earth to ashes, Cleanse the incestuous sty of a whore’s desire, Scatter the dung to the sky, and burn her with fire! So the avenging master shall cleanse his fate of shame, Set his seal of disaster, a royal seal to his name. [Exeunt. PACHAD. I am not Horus, but I shall be …
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62 THE FATAL FORCE Hath not enough of misery been wrought, Enough of expiation? We have sinned, But our iniquity he purged away, Who as avenger hath denied his life, To be made one with ye. O by his blood And strong desire of holiness, and might And justice, let him mediate between And mitigate your anger, that the name Of Egypt may not perish utterly. Make, make an end! THE LEPER. All things must work themselves To their own end. Created sin grown strong Must claim its guerdon. Ye abase yourselves Well for repentance; but ye shall not ward Wit…
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THE FATAL FORCE 55 Speak, that I rise from chaos, from the world Of shapeless and illusionary forms, And dead men’s husks, and unsubstantial things. O mother, mother, mother! I arise! RATOUM. Horus, dread godhead, child of me, arise! Arise Osiris, to the sacred rites: And marriage-bed of fuller deity, Now, at the serpent-motion of this wand, Rise from the dead! Arise, dead Horus, rise To be Osiris. Isis speaks! Arise! | Zhe coffin ts opened. The leper ts raised out of zt swathed in bandages. Out of the sleep of ages wake and live! [ The wrappin…
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THE FATAL FORCE 5 3 Glow from his palace, as the sun Leaps to the spring, whose coursers run Flaming before their golden master, As death and winter and disaster Fall from the Archer’s bitter kiss Fast to their mute abyss. The pale sweet blooms of lotos burn ; The scent of spring is in the soul; Men’s spirits to the loftiest turn; Light is extended and made whole. The waters of the whispering Nile Lisp of their loves a little while, Then break, like songsters, into sighing, Because the lazy days are dying; And swift and tawny streams must rise …
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52 THE FATAL FORCE The incense fumes before me: I am come, Isis, within this body that ye know, Transmuting! Look upon me, ye blind eyes! Behold, dull souls and ignorant desires! See if I be not altogether god! [She assumes the appearance of her mature beauty, standing before them with the wand upratsed. Wonder and worship! Sing to me the song Of the extreme spring! Rejoice in my great strength And infinite youth and new fertility, And lave your foreheads in this holy milk That springs, the fountain of humanity, Luminous in the temple! Raise th…