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A TALE OF OLD ENGLAND,

WHERE MEN SPOKE DIFFERENTLY

A Drama in three acts, each act having four scenes.

Speaking Characters, in order of Appearance:

Thomas Scientist

Joal “

John “

James “

Ignatius the Merciful Friar Advisor to King

King William Usurper of Natzur’s Lott

Marilyn A Lady of the royal court

A Father Act1, Sc3

A Daughter “

A Doctor “

A Beggar “

Five Citizens Some citizens of Natzur’s Lot

Guardsman Act1, Sc4

3 Scientists

Markus A scientist

Spy Servant of Ignacius

Old Mark Leader of the scientists

Darin A scientist, friend of Thomas

Guard Act 2, Sc 1. Castle Guard

Jailman Prison Guard

Colonel Leader of the Rebel soldiors

2 Soldiors Leaders of the rebellion

4 Mobsters Mob incited by Spy

King Leonard True King of Natzur’s Lott

Non-speaking characters, in order of appearance:

Some assistants to Ignatius’ rite

Some guardsmen at the palace

Some soldiers loyal to King

Some soldiers loyal to King Leonard

Attendant to King Leonard

ACT 1, SCENE 1:

[Thomas, in the forest, at sundown, pacing and anguished.]

THOMAS: Black sunlight of the blazing sun

That sinks into its grave:

Man thinks ye bright, yet ye be dun

If he, e’ermore away

From grasping drops. —His work undone,

Too quickly pass the days,

Perfection, though he tries to reach it, bades

Farewell upon that final hour of life,

For all his striving and his inner strife

Shant win him that, and thus, in grief, he dies.

How fast the sun doth sink its blackened rays!

What horrid, stricken pain! –The darkness fades

As soft-enbalming night sinks o’er the glades.

The acts of day go nestling o’er the knolls

And hidden forest glens. The weary souls

Of Slowly dying men are there consoled.

Yet love hath gripped my heart. I cannot sleep,

I cannot close my eye, lest havoc wreak

My ordered thoughts, cruel horrors inward creep

With dreams of loss eternal, death’s last coup,

Too soon to tear life fragile through and through

And toss it, dead, ‘fore beauty shall be knewn.

‘Tis why men call thy passage dark, O night?

For scarce the gloomy day sink from our sight,

Scarce loudness fades, new sound—or is it light?

Casts views ethereal within my soul:

A blinding sun whose light man can’t behold,

A beauty’s song eternal ages old.

‘Tis singing! Soft, divine, with perfect Grace.

It sounds so near, yet hidden be its place.

O hide Thou not, but let let me see Thy face!

[Shortly after he ends, a whistle sounds]

What sound of fools, who know not what they do?

[Enter John, Joal, James. Joal whistles again.]

JOHN: Hallo! Hallo! Who goes?

JOAL: No one

JOHN: No, no.

THOMAS: [Shouting] It’s Thomas. [All run up to him.]

JOAL: Thomas! At so late, and pacing, Why?

JOHN: Yea, why? Thy silence speaks more loud

Than any words.

JOAL: Methinks some ghastly light

Is cast upon his face. What odd look this?

That I’ve ne’er seen before, for’t is most strange,

That seems both joy and grief.

THOMAS: Thank you my friends!

[Muses] But can a man know truly what he loves?

JOAL: Know you not us well, good Thomas?

THOMAS: I know not what I know, but know it nought,

Nought and nothing, zero, falsely got!

JOAL: [Taken aback] What fury in those words!

[To John] You understand?

JOHN: No.

JAMES: Thy experiments that make thee so?

THOMAS: How so?

JAMES: We saw thee working day and night

And many marveled at thy passioned state.

Whene’er thou fashioned new tools to compare

Some new thought to truth, then with thy stare,

Intense and critical, thy silence spoke

Of something wonderous. Is that then it?

Your work has failed, and all for nought?

THOMAS: [Sighs] Indeed it’s partly true. And just as you,

A thousand paths, each one I would travail

Its end to find, each one a beckoning light,

And I need choose the single one that might

These paths unite in one high-honored hall

So far away, so far! Their echoed call

Doth beckon men and nations o’er the earth.

“Fulfill,” they call, “the promise of your birth.

March on, march on, ‘fore death shall seize your bones,

When history of you be set in stone.”

JAMES: [Sighs] So I see it, too.

THOMAS: Now, as you know, as past months have unfolded,

My work forcast a dreadful storm to come,

A storm of rain and wind where shores succumb

As angry waves our rocky shores would lash,

Whole fleets would sink unless they were made fast

To drydock safe, and all their men recalled,

Until such time the furied storm withdrawled.

We told the King, who did our fears deride,

And found them false; no measures did he take.

And he was right, as least in this one case;

This day of doom is passed, and not a breeze

Disturbed the clearest air and earth beneath.

JOAL: This case, your error should to you bring joy,

Since nought was lost, just as, in fact, you wanted.

THOMAS: Yea so; I fear however all was vain;

And, yet, there’s more.

JAMES: More than this? What then?

THOMAS: Nothing I know, but rather, what I don’t.

A truth has come upon my mind today.

How terrible it is!

JAMES: What truth is that?

JOAL: Have no fear; Here be your closest friends.

THOMAS: Which makes it worse.

You are close, yet e’en closest I can’t know.

JOAL: Us better far than any else, not so?

THOMAS: [Pausing a bit before speaking]

My friends, it’s love, but of unusual sort

JOAL: [Gleefully] Of woman? Thomas, can it be?

You the one who’s so much in the clouds?

You, the one who never rests from work?

THOMAS: Before you glee at what you think my fall,

Hear the catch; it’s Lady Marilyn.

JOAL: ‘Tis most high that you have aimed your sights!

JOHN: High in honor, but not high in pride,

For she wants none of that; her highest birth

Means nought to her; she loves humanity.

If thou, as I, engaged in politics,

And as James, here, thou wouldst well know,

This Marilyn is not one of that crowd,

Who wills to dance, in comfort , in the clouds,

While all her nation dies.

JAMES: Yea.

THOMAS: [Surprised] You two know her?

JAMES: Thomas! Her chaste honor is well known

To all to hold the nation close to heart.

I wish thee came to be as John and I.

Thy heart is pure, but lacking is the mind

If it shant live within the sphere of men.

Thus work thou hard, and harder, ever still,

Thy mind shall find great things for men below.

But know: these men below are just as well,

As precious as thou art. Thus, love them so

Their suffering, their loyalty, their pain

Shall burn into thy heart and break it twain

Lest thou join to end this tyranny.

THOMAS: [Aside] My riddle’s clue?

JOHN: I know not if thy wish can be fulfilled,

But loving what is true, fulfills thy will,

By proving it is pure, so if thou failst,

Thou lose an object but fulfill thy goal.

THOMAS: [Aside] Can these two souls partake within the song

I heard upon the air? As long ago,

Gone high to angel realms, long, long, ago,

Yet stand e’en now, alive, before my feet?

[Aloud, half musing, half-speaking to John and James.]

‘T is a wretched land whose people drool

Upon false pleasures of a foul misrule,

Bubbling, swimming, in the bloody pool,

Enjoying! It is pleasure born of fear,

A fear of their potent, which doth appear

Within their hearts, a blinding light austere

And calls to them: “Come hither, to thy home

Before thy fleeting life away is blown;

Come hither, quick, where pleasures can’t be known.”

“Fade, phantom, fade!” they cry. “Back to the shades!

Your voice of terror through our hearts invades.

Away! Away! We shall your voice evade:

Our wills t’ward endless pleasures shall be flung

From one to one, that ever there among,

Our wild, racing hearts shall e’er be young.”

But what of he who looks truth in the eye?

It’s blinding light dost wrest despairing cry

From out his broken heart: “Oh lift me high!

Let not my soul into the darkness fall.”

[Now, taking directly to John and James]

When I first met this one, this Marilyn

--By accident, it seems—down in the slums

Where men lose hope, and blackly shines the sun,

A kindly love did shine from out this one;

Some citizens did gather ‘round her. All

Stood more upright, proud, not as they often crawl.

“Dear friends,” she said. “To you, I make this call.

This air ye breath, this nation, it is thine.

No Man to ye hath e’er this gift consigned,

Thus no man e’er can take the beautied mind

Which holds steadfast through fires or through shades,

Which marches firm within a battle fray,

And winces not, nor e’er can be afraid

Of earthly things, of armies or of Kings.”

I had come near to her, but, then I stopped.

I looked, amazed, into her flashing eyes,

And she did notice me, and looking back

As though could see into my deepest heart,

Said: “friend, I see thou come to offer help”

“Of course,” I muttered loud. My words came strange.

But, then, ashamed, I wheeled, and turned away.

And left them there, and went back to my work.

Once more I saw her, this time being hid

Behind the crowd of people gathered ‘round,

Grown in size from one week thence,

As had her light, yet brighter still.

[Faint drumbeat in distance. Thomas doesn’t hear, but continues, while Joal turns to hear it, and James and Joan continue to listen to Thomas]

So kind her heart, my own fell shamed down,

Like the proudest ship that’s run aground.

The world I know is spinning ‘round and ‘round.

My past has come to nought.

JAMES: [Inturupting] Thomas?

THOMAS [Surprized] Yes? [Drumbeat sounds again, much closer]

JAMES: Thou hearest?

THOMAS: Yes, what is it?

JOAL: [Pointing] There are lights.

JOHN: [To James] ‘T is what I think?

JAMES: I think so, yes. It cometh quick. Come.

[He motions all to hide. Enter Ignatius the Merciful Friar, King Wm, and four others, dressed in black robes, with their faces hidden. Each of them holds a lantern. One

has a drum. The men in black robes are organized in a pentagon, with Ignatius at the leading point, leading the precession. The King, wearing a white robe, is at the

center of the pentagon. All march to mid-stage. ]

IGNATIUS: The blackness of the night is complete.

The silence of the world is unending.

All is motionless, as it is in death.

And we surrender our thoughts to thee. [Drum sounds]

THOMAS: [Astounded] What is this?

JAMES: Shhh!

IGNATIUS: No man is here except for us.

And not even we are truly here.

Nothing is, nor ever was, until now.

Thus, we shall now define what is and what is not.

[Drum sounds. King kneels to the ground.]

FOUR OTHERS: Thus, we shall now define what is and not.

IGNATIUS: We pray to darkness. We pray to silence.

We pray to motionlessness. We pray to nothingness.

Hear us now!

FOUR OTHERS: Hear us now! [Drum sounds]

IGNATIUS: Never before has this rite been performed

In England, for its secret was not known.

Thus, we just now, begin a whole new age.

Let this age prosper many centuries more.

Let those who know its secrets rule the land

And conquer many more. Let them be feared.

Let them march through many fields of blood.

A new race born of them, with iron fists

Shall adhere to secrets that did make them.

Let this come to pass. O hear us now!

FOUR OTHERS: Hear us now! [Drum sounds]

JOAL: Sweet Lord, above. That man there is the King!

JAMES: Shhh!

[Ignatius the Merciful Friar places some incense-opiate on the ground and lights it. A smoke wafts around the ceremony.]

IGNATIUS:We breathe the breath of life; its sweetest wine

Doth drug the sense and in our hearts entwine

With magic mystery

[They breathe in the opiate. Ignatius motions for the King to rise.]

Let us now walk the shining path’s new way.

Our minds are ready for the mystery

To flow down in our warm and flowing blood

So that our power seep out in a flood

That covers all the world.

[The ceremony marches off stage, with drum sounding and fading in the distance.]

THOMAS: Had my own eyes not seen what they just did,

I never would have thought it.

JOAL: Did you see?

That man, there, in the center, was the King!

O, superstition foul! Shall we follow?

JAMES: My sickened heart is numb.

[To John] Willt thou follow?

JOHN: My gut is not so strong. Yet, yes, I will.

This must be followed and the scandal spilled.

Thus, I shall follow, lone, with quiet skill.

[To Joal and Thomas]

You two must stay behind with good James here.

I fear thy ignorance will be your doom.

This night is full of danger, and their looms

Dark storms o’er our sweet England, breaking soon

To drown us all in death. Goodbye my friends!

If we shall meet again, we’ll hear report. [Exit John]

JOAL: It’s not so much a fear as it is grief

That’s fallen o’er my soul. O what is this?

[To James] You seem to know. Then speak!

What is it then? Where go these monsters now?

JAMES: They go where no men go, but only beasts.

--Nay, less than beasts. The beasts are innocent,

For though they never know the light of thought,

Nor know they of its lack, for they know nought.

THOMAS: They pray to nothingness!
JAMES: A foolish rot,

For, if not so, there’s sense it what he says.

JOAL: I have heard told strange tales about this wood,

Just recently. The townsfolk now have fear.

Strange noises, shrieks, and such they claim to hear

From out this wood, since starting of this year.

Or, so they say. I thought it but a tale.

JAMES: They spoke of what, these folk?

JOAL: Of ghosts and goblins, creatures that do creep,

That break nights peace with horrid screaming shrieks.

They say there dwells therein some evil power,

That, if you come alone here, it devours

Your body whole, and you shall disappear.

To ne’er be seen again.

JAMES: They say this?

JOAL: Yes, and even claim that some have vanished

And ne’er been seen again. –But listen now.

[Distant roll of drumming sounds]

JAMES: From the forest depths it comes; we need not fear

But we shall hear report.

The scientists all meet in two days hence

To trade each others’ thoughts. Thou shallt be there?

And thou, too, Thomas? Thou, both, take thy care

And watch thee well, since spies are everywhere.

Some truth is better spoke through filtered glass.

But listen well, and thee its tale shall grasp.

I pray thy noble visions are unmasked

As mine once was.

JOAL: Shall we carry on?
JAMES: Yes, let us go. [To Thomas]

One parting, happy thought:

E’en as we met we were full on our way

To Old Mark’s house to lay our fateful plan,

Of science wonderous, to save our land,

And win our place in heaven. Thou shallt hear it.

E’en in this darkness, it doth bring some light.

And thou shallt hear it all but two days hence,

A secret wonderous. Thou shallt be there?

THOMAS: For you, I shall.

JAMES: Goodbye then, Thomas. We shall meet anon.

And get thee home; stay not here all alone.

[Exit James and Joal.]

THOMAS:

How quick they bring me ‘fore some awesome task,

And quick the world of men they open vast.

Before my eye, a fearful hidden path

Doth burn into my soul. What danger lies

There, lurking in the shadows, by its sides?

O fear! I must now fling thee from my mind

And walk this path of danger, though I die.

[Exit Thomas.]

ACT 1, SCENE 2

[The royal gardens. Enter Ignatius and King X]

KING: Thy name, in full, is odd. Why is it so?

This must you tell me, else I shall not know

Your name and personage that’s thus defined.

‘Ignatius’ yes, but why ‘The Merciful’?

Except your mercy gives each what he’s owed

E’en be that death. I guess that this is it:

Your mercied punishment. But, still, why ‘friar?’

‘Ignatius the Merciful Friar.’ What a name!

Yet, not like clergymen, you seem to me,

For they are dull that pray the whole day long,

That flee the body’s pleasures and the world,

Cooped within their narrow churchyard walls

While many things—so many—all surround,

The sights and sounds and pleasures to be had.

A man could drink and drink and never fill.

But, you, Ignatius, you your pleasures have,

Though pleasures of a most unusual bent.

--Thus, you can be no friar.

IGNATIUS: Some men their pleasures turn t’ward other things,

And they attract another type of man

Than most men do enjoy. It’s no man’s fault

What instinct calls within his heart to do.

Nor should a man impede what passion calls,

Lest he may violate the plan of God.

For why did God put instincts in our hearts

Except for that they might fulfill His plan?

Which plan is surely great, and can’t be known

By any mortal man. Nor, can we know

Just how our instincts fit within God’s plan,

And must we take our care to fill our needs,

However wild and strange that they may be.

I’m friar to a God who can’t be seen,

Nor known, nor understood in any way.

--And instinct is my faith.

KING: Ah, now I see!

You are a friar of another sort.

IGNATIUS: You see, my God is mystery, itself.

KING: A feeling mystery, you mean, I think,

So that the feeling of not knowing truth

Becomes a warming comfort to our hearts.

[Pointing] Look there! You see that bird within the tree

Where leaves are blowing? It’s a mystery

How this bird came about. And, there’s your God.

And other things as well: Look on the ground.

These stones, this dirt mysterious, is God,

As countless things and pleasures I can name.

This feeling of unknowing fills them all.

IGNATIUS: Exactly as you say it, it is so,

For what is it a man can truly know

Besides this warming feeling? Like a glow,

Relaxes him and eases all his thoughts.

He need not fret and suffer all the pain

That fills up other men. He lives in peace.

As time goes on, I’ll teach you this and more.

KING: Your wisdom is as music to my ears.

E’er since you came at starting of the year,

Your speaking matches closely what I would hear

From down within. No more my mind need pain

The doubt I did when I usurped the throne

From my own brother and the rightful King

And sent him into exile, far away.

But, now, I am at peace; my doubts can rest

From all this noise of men. –But, tell me this:

Have you arranged my wish, what I had asked?

You know my heart is burning with desire

For Lady Marilyn, that woman sweet.

Have you arranged that accident should meet

Herself with me, alone within this place?

IGNATIUS: Indeed, this very place she often walks

Around this time of morn. Some say she’s cold.

Yet, how can e’en she scorn a King’s own love?

For it is backed with power to fulfill

Whatever woman’s dream she ever had.

KING: Some say her mood is changed these past few weeks.

She wanders, lone, and speaks words to herself.

You heard?

IGNATIUS: Yes. It’s strange actions for a girl

Or Royalty, I hope a passing mood

Of fancy that is followed not by acts.

Beware of love, my King. It makes men blind,

Unless they have control o’er what they love.

KING: If she’s convinced, she soon shall do by bidding.

--Oh! Look you there! Is that she walking there?

IGNATIUS: Your youthful eyes are sharper than are mine.

Each day has dulled my vision of the world.

KING: Hush, then. Yes, it is her! Let us hide.

I’ll come out presently. You stay behind.

[Aside] The friar’s clever to find us such a place,

Where we can hide and see but none see us.

His cleverness, in fact, do give me faith,

For what the clever do shant turn on them

To do the same: no man shall spy on us.

[To Ignatius] Quick, quick.

[They hide. Enter Marilyn, at a distance.]

MARILYN: O fie on my high birth! And fie the love

That nobles rain on me. I say thereof,

Thou savage fools! Go, go, let God above

Have mercy on my soul—else I am lost,

And shame shall burn my soul for evermore.

Not wealth, nor title, nor fair woman’s form

Shall save my wretched soul. Throw them away!

Dear God! Dear God! Let this now be the day

Thy mercy shows and lights for me a way.

My people’s plight doth call my heart to war.

Where are my soldiers? Must I fight alone?

Look down, dear God, where all Thy people cry.

They cry for hope. Their sickened children die.

Our England’s honor in the gutter lies,

And foreign men decide our nation’s fate.

KING: What does she say? Can you hear her words?
IGNATIUS: No, but from the manner that she speaks

I think she’s pining for some man to love.

KING: You think so? Then, my plan shall soon succeed!

[King moves to come out of hiding, but Ignatius holds him back.]

IGNATIUS: Wait a minute.

[Marilyn moves closer to them, and sits on a bench nearby.]

MARILYN: O God have mercy on my loveless soul!

Why did I shun those worthy of my love?

Why leave them cold, those poor defenseless souls,

While I remained, aloof, at comfort’s hearth

So proud, so proud, in useless finery?

KING: By heavens! You were right. You heard those words?

IGNATIUS: [Holding him back] But wait one minute more. [A bird sings. Marilyn looks to it.]

MARILYN: Sweet bird, that sings thy song so lovelily,

I wish thy mindless heart could hear my plea.

But no, it can’t. Yet, sing on beautily.

I love thy innocence. And nought compares

With nature’s sweetness, save the love of man.

KING: She love of man shall have!

[Ignatius tries to hold King back, but he springs forth. At first, Marilyn does not notice him, and when she does, regards him calmly.]

KING: Fair Marilyn! What fortunes tenderest

Have graced my garden with your lovely self?

What fortune, aye, that passing through the bush

I came upon you hear. Perhaps ‘t was fate

That willed that it would be.

MARILYN: Indeed, fate sometimes plays ironic games.

If fate be chance, then let us play no more,

For what is wrought by it is lacking worth:

Though chance can bring together fire and ice,

It ne’er can make two opposites alike.

KING: Only love makes opposites the same:

As men and woman, dark and light.

But, when I spoke of fate, I meant not chance,

But some design that regulates men’s hearts.

MARILYN: What regulates men’s hearts be only Grace.

‘T is freely gave, though not all freely take.

But, if this fate, thou speakest, be not chance,

Men need tread carefully where’er it come,

Lest they shall miss the chance that’s given them,

And, by remiss, thus prove their lowly worth.

KING: Speak not in riddles, Marilyn, my dear.

I does befit you not, though I forgive:

Your sweetness, in my eye, does purge your sin,

Your sin of thinking too much as old men,

Thou you are young and fresh and wanting love.

[He sits down on the bench with her. She quickly gets up. He also gets up, but does not follow her. She walks a slight distance away. ]

MARILYN: [Aside] I shall not let the devil torment me,

Nor be seduced by power. It shant be!

Though this one hold a kingdom in his hand,

I shall not yield to him.

KING: [Aside] So proud she is!

Yet, with my ears, I did, myself, just hear

How she did pine for love. Have patience, then

And let her proudness break. Then, she returns,

And I her favors win.

MARILYN: [Aside] The devil’s argument doth run as this:

‘Power gives thee strength to do the good,

Yet, power can’t be got by doing good,

So, if thou do some bad, thou doest good.’

O, foul devil! Let thy whispering flee.

I shall not let your darkness swallow me.

KING: [Aside] What passes in this strangest woman’s mind?

If I did know, I think my luck would grow,

For, I would be more wise in how to act.

MARILYN: [Aside] If God His love gives each man equally,

There follow two ideas that I can see:

First, I shant love one more than the rest,

Else I be blind to all the others blessed.

Next, God hath hope for e’en the lowest souls.

Thus, I, too, must attempt to raise the low.

Come then, let us test.

[Marilyn turns to the King and walks to him.]

My Lord?

KING: Yes?

MARILYN: Why art thou here, my lord?

KING: Because I—I was passing through the bush

And saw you here.

MARILYN: Thou beat around the bush.

Some purpose brings thee here. What is it, then.

KING: If I am but an open book, read on.

In truth, I have desire for yourself.

Much richer are your pleasures it does seem

Than all the others who do seek to please,

And win my favored eye to be my Queen.

MARILYN: [Aside] Hide my disgust and give this soul a chance.

I shall discover if there is some light

Deep-hidden in his pleasure-greedy heart,

Or whether he has fallen ‘yond the reach

Of love’s redemption.

[Aloud, to King, pointing to the city below]

Look thou down below.

How many thousand men are overruled

By thy decree? If each stood here, as I,

Would thou love him as well?

KING: Good heavens! No!

You are far better than the sum of them.

I love them not at all, but only you,

For they do seem a dirty, rotten lot,

Who, by no folly, can with you compare,

Else make a mockery of your fine worth.

MARILYN: If thou shant love them equally, as I,

Then, thou dost love me not.

KING: What!? You negate the very thought of love!

What? Love those men as you? I’d sooner die,

Than so degrade your name. How can a King

So high and mighty stoop to love the men

Who wallow ‘neath his rule?

MARILYN: How can he not?

What if the oceans signed a new decree

That water drops be banned from every sea?

All ships would sink, and man would have to fly.

KING: Ah, riddles, riddles! Marilyn, not again!

It does befit you not! Why not accept

What countless others would in happiness?

Do you know how others seek my eye,

What pains they take, how much they dote on me?

You have a nasty side, as well, it seems

Which will not yield unto your woman’s side,

--Your gentle side—the side that I so love.

MARILYN: Thou love in me precisely that which lacks

In all thy subject, ‘neath.

KING: That is it! [Marilyn thinks a moment]

MARILYN: Never love what makes man not like man,

What places him above them—falsely put,

But, rather, love what makes him more like man.

Then, what thou love in me, thou love in man,

So thou shallt love each one and not just one.

For, many are more worthy of thy love

Than one who is kept separate from the rest,

And held up as an idol.

KING: Let is rest!

Oh, let this silly prahting not go on!

MARILYN: [Aside] Can he, then, be redeemed, or is he lost?

[Looking directly into his eye] My lord?

KING: [Surprised again] Yes, what?

MARILYN: Would thou walk with me?

KING: Why, gladly so. To where, though. Do you know?

MARILYN: There is one spot where beauty greater reigns

Far more than anyplace that most here know.

‘T is secret, though not very hard to reach

By those whose disposition opes their eyes.

KING: Some special place? Then let us go to there!

[Aside] What sudden change of heart she undergoes!

She is a creature strange.

[Locking arms with her] Come, let us go.

[Speaking in Ignatius’ direction]

If any spirits heard what we have said,

Than, let those ones disperse and follow not.

Where we two go, we would go there alone.

[Exit Marilyn and the King. Ignatius comes out of hiding.]

IGNATIUS: Most foul and dangerous girl, I like you not.

Nor any of your kind, whose loving plots

Can sink a well-thought plan in but an hour,

Though many years went into its design.

Any your strange words, your plan, what can it be?

How do you plan to lead the king astray?

Oh, curse on you! And curse on all your plans,

And curse on all the spells your little hand

As iron brands upon a youthful man

Whose mind is not yet firmed—I restless go.

Until the King and I do meet again,

Dank worry hangs o’er me. The pact is poised

To go down in defeat and ruin me.

[Exit Ignatius]

ACT 1, SCENE 3

[A peasant, in his home, watching over his gravely ill daughter.]

FATHER: Rest on, my little one, and gain your strength.

You seem so peaceful there, as’t was before

This illness broke your youth. You make me fear

--Fear for you—when you strange shadows see,

Strange visions I see not, not of this world,

But of some world where living men can’t dwell,

Where I can’t comfort you. You hear me not.

So far away you are. [She stirs slightly.]

Dear heaven, let her rest! She has not slept

For all last night, so wretched was her pain,

She turned and turned, but demons followed her

And kept her wake.

DAUGHER: [Mutters] Away! /. . /Away!

FATHER: Dear daughter, are you well?

DAUGHTER: / . / Who goes there?

FATHER: Your own father. Do you see me not?

DAUGHTER: O father! Hast thou come? Where hast thou been?

Thou come to save me, then. Come close to me.

Thou stand so far away.

FATHER: To save you, yes.

But, closer I can’t come, for even now

I stand just by your bed. You see me here?
DAUGHTER: [Mutters] So far, so far, within the misty fog,

He left me here, alone. Shall he return?

Or was’t a ghost, a figment of my hope?

Abandoned I have been! I’ve done some sin

So great all men doth flee away from me

And leave me on this plain of icy cold.

FATHER: Dear daughter, I am here, nor shall I leave

Until your self is saved. / . / Have no fear

Your pure and sinless soul is more to me

Than my own self.

DAUGHTER: O father! Art thou real?

I hear thy voice, but cannot see thee here.

My eyes or ears doth fool me. –Ah, this wind

Is colder than the ice!

FATHER: [Puts more blankets on her] Here, feel my hand.

‘T is I who even now beside you stands.

DAUGHTER: O joy if it were true, and I forgiven!

If so, I could now face what demons come.

FATHER: Sweet daughter, scarce a soul e’er walked the earth

More pure than are yourself. Speak not of sin,

For you have none of it, nor ever will.

DAUGHTER: There was a sign that came before my eye

When I was fleeing from the monster’s grip.

Within the dark, a portal opened wide,

And briefly, all around was brightly lit.

An angel’s voice did say, “This home is thine,

If thou dost earn it by thy human deeds.”

Then, even as the vision faded out,

I saw there, in the heavens, one I knew:

It was my mother. She did smile at me

With kindest grace—but, then, the heavens closed

And left me in the darkness, all alone.

FATHER: Oh, can I bear this grief? How, can I reach

Into her tortured heart and bring her hope?

E’er since her mother passed, two years ago,

She is my only light, that gives me hope.

For, nought else in this world now gives me joy.

Oh God! Oh God! Shall she now leave me here,

And fly away into that other world?

[He buries his head in his hands. Presently, there is a knock at his door. He hurries to open. Enter doctor.]

DOCTOR: Good man, the signs of sorrow cloud your face.

I come to bring you comfort, if I may:

When I received your note, I made all haste

To come to you and help you in your plight.

FATHER: God bless you! You are like an angel come

In this dark hour.

DOCTOR: As you, I’m only man.

But, let us see if doctors who are passed

May prove their worth by giving us the means

To bring more beauty to this darkened land

/ . . . . . / You have a light?

[Father lights a lantern and holds up. They go near the daughter.]

DAUGHTER: What flaming light is this that hath no warmth?

But, where am I?

DOCTOR: She often speaks like this?

FATHER: All day and night, it seems, these past few days.

She cannot sleep, for demons torture her.

DOCTOR: Bad signs these are. Here, hold the lamp up high.

[Doctor looks into daughter’s eye, takes pulse and otherwise check on her. After a short time, he comes back, sighing.]

‘T is even as I feared. She’s gravely ill.

If you had come to me much earlier

More easy this would be.

FATHER: Can she be saved?
DOCTOR: The chances are not good.

FATHER: Then, fie on chance. / . / What, then, must I do?

She is too young. Her life is not fulfilled.

I’ll face an army of a thousand men,

I’ll swim an ocean, climb the highest crag

To give her hope again. What must I do?

DOCTOR: Have courage, my good man. She’s in God’s hands.

FATHER: / . / Nay, not that.

DOCTOR: [Takes a bottle from his bag] A sip of this shall do

Enough each hour to ease away her pain

That you may speak to her. There is no cure

She must eat well, but, looking at your frame,

I fear you give your portions all to her

And eat them not yourself, so thin you are.

Do you eat, good man?

FATHER: I am too poor these days to feed us both,

And so, I feed the one I love the most.

DOCTOR: [Aside] Oh, what grief!

This noble man is probably ill himself.

[To Father] You need some rest. I’ll do what I can do.

To save her now.

FATHER: If you but gave some hope.

DOCTOR: [Sighing] This nation’s honor left some time ago,

When our good King succumbed to sudden death.

But, shall his works now die, all that he wrought,

So that he lived for nought? Oh, were he here,

I’d have the cure she needs within my reach.

FATHER: What? There is a cure?
DOCTOR: Not in my reach.

And, e’en if so, perhaps would be too late.

FATHER: Heavens! What is it? Where is it found?

DOCTOR: [Puts hand of father’s shoulder]

Think no more of it. It can’t be got.

E’er since this year began, new laws are passed

Which ban its making in our sorrowed land,

With other bans as well. It drains the fund

On which our nation lies, or so’t is said.

FATHER: But, what of the supplies? Are there yet some?
DOCTOR: Two weeks ago, I used up what I had.

If I had more, most gladly would I give,

E’en though I may need pay the price myself,

But I can’t change the laws that Kings do make.

Such powers I don’t have. It can’t be got,

Unless you pay a huge and royal sum

To they who still have stocks.

FATHER: What is the cost?

Whate’er it be, somehow I’ll find the means.

DOCTOR: [Aside] Oh, had I not now given him false hope!

[Aloud] When our last King was ruling o’er our land,

‘T was well within our reach, since it was made

Just here, within this town. Now, not e’en I

Can purchase what I need.

FATHER: What is the cost?

DOCTOR: ‘T is more than what you earn in all your life,

A thousand gold.

FATHER: Oh, cruel, cruel hope! [Sinks down in despair]

DOCTOR: [Quietly] Have faith, my friend.

[Doctor is silent for some moments.]

[Aside] What can I do to help this stricken man?

And thousands like him in this stricken land

Who I can’t even reach? What can I do?
How many more must come to me with hope

But find their faith betrayed? Oh, horrid fate!

I can’t just leave him here, yet I must go,

For many others need my help this hour

And wait in grief, just as this man does here.

[He moves as though to speak to the father. Knock sounds. He looks at the father, then at the door.]

I’ll get the door for you. [Father nods. Doctor opens door.]

BEGAR: Have mercy on this poor and broken man

Who comes to beg of you.

DOCTOR: What is your tale?

BEGGAR: Have mercy, my good man, and let me speak.

My wife and children hunger in their beds,

Too weak to move, for famine stalks out land.

This year is hard, and many souls need help.

Have mercy my good man!

DOCTOR: [Giving him some money] Here, take this then.

BEGGAR: God bless your kindness!

DOCTOR: Speak you not of it.

I give it as a payment for the good

That you allowed me make. But, be not loud.

A girl sleeps there, within.

BEGGAR: Most sorry, sir. Away, now I will go. [Exit Beggar]

DOCTOR: Oh, sorrowed, sorrowed land that bears such grief!

Our King who’s dead is turning in his grave

For what his son has wrought.

[Turns back to the father. The two look at each other silently for a few moments.]

FATHER: You must go now, I know.

DOCTOR: When she awakes,

Her pain shall ease away, and she shall speak

Much as you knew her. I shall leave you this.

[Gives bottle of medicine to the man]

Until it grows far worse, this shall do well.

Spend what time remains with love and care.

I leave you now. God bless. [Exit Doctor]

FATHER: There he goes, and with him, all my hope

/ . / Dies away, much as an evening fading.

The dark is crowding in. There is no chance

That any man, my helpless lot be aiding.

What utter darkness! Must I now resign

Myself to this? Is hope, then, truly dead?

[Daughter stirs]

DAUGHTER: Father, art thou there?
FATHER: You hear me now?

DAUGHTER: I wake, as from a dream. The pain hath fled.

Was there a doctor here, or was’t a dream

That haunts my memory?

FATHER: [Hesitates] He just now went.

DAUGHTER: He came to see my mother? How is she?

FATHER: Sweet daughter, she is passed two years ago.

Have you forgot? She dwells where angels dwell.

DAUGHTER: My mind is clearing now, yet’t seems so close,

As yesterday. So dear and good she was.

She was a saintly mother.

FATHER: Yes, she was.

DAUGHTER: And, when that doctor came, he was so kind.

When he left, she seemed to gain her health

For some time more. Dost thou remember that?

FATHER: [Fighting back tears] Yes, yes, I do.

DAUGHTER: What sorrow on thy face? Is it for her?

Ne’er mind, my father, for she dwells with God,

And I am here, to be thy company.

FATHER: It’s tiredness you see –nothing more.

DAUGHTER: Then, thou must rest. What hour is it now?

FATHER: Late morning. It’s not quite the time to sleep.

I shall anon.

DAUGHTER: This fever takes my strength

And makes me sleep, but when it passes by,

My spirit shall fly up with burning flame.

--A doctor here? Such a one I’ll be

When I grow older. ‘T is an honored trade!

A trade that brings much joy to sorrowed lives.

If I am doctor, I shall tour the land

And save men’s souls. –I must now sleep, I fear.

FATHER: Rest well, my daughter. I shall see you soon.

[Daughter sleeps.]

Now, I’m in a battle with the fates.

Oh, heart of desperation, find a way!

She must not die. She is too innocent.

I’ll beg a thousand gold, and thereby pay

To have her saved. / . / Surely, men have hearts,

And when they hear how desperate is the case,

They shall be kind, and from their money part.

[Exit father. Curtain.]

ACT 1, SCENE 4

[A street in the city. Father, from the last scene, begging.]

FATHER: [To man passing] Good man, can you help?

1^ST MAN: No, I cannot spare.

FATHER: ‘T is to help me save my daughter’s life.

1^ST MAN: I would if I were able, but cannot.

FATHER: Not at all?

1^ST MAN: [Pausing] Most sorry. [Hurries on.]

FATHER: Pride! Flee you away. Think of her life.

I must not falter, else I fail in this.

[To 2^nd man] Good man, please help here.

2^NDMAN: I cannot. [Pointing up to the sky]

Do you watch the sky? [Hurries away]

FATHER: [Looking up] Watch the sky? I see that clouds are coming.

It seems a storm is rushing into town.

[To 3^rd man] Stop here.

3^RD MAN: Nay, I can’t that. [Exit 3rd man. After some time, fourth man enters and passes by the father.]

FATHER: Help me, my good man.

[Fourth man dismisses him arrogantly, without speaking, and exits. The father sinks down in despair. ]

CHORUS: [Aside] O men of Natzur’s Lot, ope up your hearts!

The time is fleeing. Soon, your cowardice

Shall kill his daughter, and the world be robbed

Of one more precious mind. Be ye so proud,

So arrant ‘fore this beggar that ye think

That God doth prize ye greater in His Mind?

Are ye so cruel and arrant as to kill

A mind of innocence? O, wretched men.

[Enter fifth man]

FATHER: Stop here, I ask, I need your help for this.

5^THMAN: What is it?

FATHER: Life and death.

5^TH MAN: I have not wealth

In quantity. Yet, tell me: what’s your tale?

FATHER: My only daughter hovers near her death,

And needs a medicine that’s very rare

Whose cost is very high.

5^TH MAN: Have many stopped?

FATHER: Since two hours I have been here, 10 have stopped.

5^TH MAN: And what amount? / . / Shall it be enough?

FATHER: I feared to count it yet. It’s not enough.

[5^th man motions for him to count, which he does.]

One quarter, half, / . / one, another one.

Oh horror! / . / Two pieces only there!

It ne’er shall be enough! [Despairs]

5^TH MAN: Good man, you break my heart. What is the cost

Of what it is you need?

FATHER: A thousand gold.

5^TH MAN: Good man, you need some rest. It can’t be done.

A thousand gold, at your rate, shant be reached

In a hundred years. Here, take this though,

It is a fifty-piece. I can’t do more.

FATHER: [Taking it quietly] Thank you.

5^TH MAN: It’s all that I can do, for I can’t change

The laws of they who rule. It’s not my fault:

‘T was not I wrote those laws. My hands are clean.

I help howe’er I can, but I can’t fight

Against the mighty powers of the land.

I am too weak. I’m but a single man.

CHORUS: [Aside] Whyfor shant thou fight? Whyfor not save

Thy broken nation, ‘fore the dooming waves

Poor over her. O man, be thou more brave!

5^TH MAN: [Looks up] There comes a storm. Where do you live?

FATHER: I live up higher, where the waves won’t come.

5^TH MAN: Than, I would urge you there. This storm looks fierce,

Far too fierce for any man to face

And fight its fury./

FATHER: I shall go anon. [Exit 5^th man]

What then now? Is there another way?

[Father is silent for a while, thinking. Presently, enter Marilyn and King, in distance.]

But, who are these that come,

Who walk in stately garments in this slum?

Shall this, then, be my chance?

[He looks hopefully toward them. They at first don’t notice him.]

KING: The place most beautiful in all my land

You say is here? What queerness. Do you mock?

MARILYN: How can I mock a mind lest it be mocked

By its own bad design, that’s freely built?

Nay, mock I not, and I do mean this well:

Of all the places that this land enfolds

The greatest beauty shines from out these slums.

KING: My dear, then you are mad. It’s black and white,

Yet, you say black is white and white is black,

That ugliness is beauty. Look around!
Do you not see the broken buildings here?
And what of men? They slouch around as rats.

I wish the sea would come and swallow them

And cleanse this dirty slum from out my land.

MARILYN: [Aside] O keep my faith! He knows not what he sayth.

There must be something good within this one

Which I can find to make him see his err.

If God forgives the souls that doth repent,

It shows He love them. Shall I not then, too?

[Aloud] The beauty here is found within the souls

Of lowly men who walk with Godly grace.

‘T is not the low, itself, but high in low,

For there be many low thou mayest find

As bad as those above, who, on the throne,

Would be as bad in ruling as some are.

For, bad comes not from stature, but the soul

Which freely sins. And, yet, in many men,

We find more men than can sit on a throne,

And, thus, more good potent, for which I find

More beauty with more souls.

KING: What rambling talk!

My dear, you seem in err, yet you are sweet,

So I forgive your foulness. Let us walk

To where more beauty lies. [He takes her hand]

MARILYN: God help me now.

[They walk a little way. As they approach the father, he steps forth, before their path.]

FATHER: My Sir, Madame, O hear my passioned plea.

A broken man I am.

KING: Get back, you dog!

MARILYN: [To King] No, no!

FATHER: [Falling on knees before them]

O hear my plea! O hear my plea!

KING: Get back! Get back!

[King kicks the father to the side, with several kicks, who falls heavily. Marilyn stares at the sight in shock.]

MARILYN: What hast thou done—to him, and to thy land?

KING: A thousand like him roam these dirty streets.

MARILYN: [Kneels by father] Art thou well?
FATHER: O, help me God!

KING: [Aside] I’ve made her now upset.

Her woman’s heart is too weak for these things.

MARILYN: [Rising and turning to the King.]

The thread is broke: On this day I renounce

My royal blood. To war I shall now go

To send the devil back where he belongs.

[To father] Here, take this, my good man. I need it not.

[She tears off her gold necklace, and throws it down by the man, then empties all the gold from her purse on him, and

throws the empty purse down afterwards. King tries to grab her arm to stop her.]

KING: Are you insane?

MARILYN: [Shaking him off] Lay off, lest anger burn thee black as ash!

Lay off! Lay off!

KING: [Astonished] Marilyn! I am King.

MARILYN: [Aside] O God forgive my rage, yet I can’t hold.

[Aloud] King of what, who hates those whom he rules?

For what one hates need seem not worth to rule.

Thus, in thy mind, thy rule is worth to nought.

KING: Your folly goes too far. [Tries to grab her again]

MARILYN: Beware of me!

[Thunder, a noise of running, chaos; all look off-stage, toward where the noise originates. Trumpet sounds. After a pause, enter guardsman.]

GUARDSMAN: All men of Natzur’s Lot! A storm is coming!

The waves are coming! Come, away, away!

[Thunder sounds. Guardsman notices the King.]

Your majesty is here?! I beg you, flee!

The waves come quick.

KING: Come with me, Marilyn.

MARILYN: Nay, go thee on. I stay to help this man.

GUARDSMAN: Down yonder, look: the angry waves bear down!

The beach is overrun. A giant wave

Is forming out at sea! Come, let us go!

All men of Natzur’s Lot, away, away!

To higher ground!

KING: [More loudly] Marilyn, come with me!

MARILYN: No storm can match the raging in my heart.

[Aside] O I must calm my soul. [To the father.]

Art thou now well?

FATHER: By your kind grace, I am.

KING: Come away!

MARILYN: Nay, get thee gone! I soon shall follow thee.

KING: [Exasperated, pulls guardsman aside]

I shall go ahead. You see her safe

And bring her to the castle. I will go.

GUARDSMAN: I shall obey, Sir. [Exit King]

[To other guardsmen] You all go ahead. I must stay here.

Go quick! The time is short.

GUARDSMEN: [As exiting] Godspeed! Godspeed!

MARILYN: Let’ s help him to his feet.

[Guardsman and Marilyn help the father up. Marilyn gathers up the things she had thrown down and puts it into his bag.]

That is thine now. Do with it what thou willt,

For I shant need it now. Come, let us go.

FATHER: Dear madame, I do thank you. It’s enough

To get what I shall need. You rescued me

And saved my daughter. / . / How can I thank you?

MARILYN: By winning in this battle. Let us go.

A life of freedom lies before us now.

[All exit. Thunder. Chorus speaks.]

CHORUS: O now the storm clouds gather and the wind

Doth rage in fury. See the seas rear up

In roaring thunder, crashing on the shores,

As though to tear this city all apart.

O men of Natzur’s Lot, what have you done

To let this fury from the depths of hell

Come here unopposed? O change your hearts!

The time has come to fight with Marilyn

Who just now has resolved an awesome deed.

Look there upon the storm. Will you not fight?

How many souls are drowning now to death

Beneath its churning waters and its foam?

Rise up, you fools, and set your nation free!

Else sink down with its wreckage and debris.

[Curtain. End of Act 1]

ACT 2, SCENE 1

[A house in the town. Enter Thomas, Markus and other scientists, variously.]

1^ST SCIENTIST: Hello, my friends! Oh, what a vicious storm!
The city has been smashed. How many dead?

2^ND SCI: The count is going. It’s not known as yet,

But many thousands. What a wretched day!

MARKUS: So suddenly it came! I scarce escaped.

I was below and fled to higher ground.

Yet, once, the waves did wrench my fleeing self

And churn me down. I grabbed onto a post,

With dirty water foaming o’er my head,

Thinking all was lost. The undertow

Sucked all within its path back out to sea.

A hoard of struggling men swept past my place.

I saw them disappear and nearly lost

My grip upon my pole. The wave then passed.

And I made all my haste to flee from there.

2^ND SCI: I hear the fleet is lost. ‘T was not made fast,

Three ships are smashed upon the rocks nearby

Beyond repair. The others all are sunk.

Much other damage has been done the town.

The lower town is gone; there’s nothing there.

3^RD SCI: Yea, yea, and news is out the King shall speak

A statement of some sort. I heard the news

He took the storm unkindly as he watched

From his strong castle on the mountain heights.

For, as it came in, rushing, t’ward his ships

Which he loves dearly, more than their good use,

He shouted at the waves, ‘fall back, I say.

Touch not my pretty ships! Get back, get back!’

Yet, waves would not obey him, though he’s King.

E’en through the swirling mists and rain he saw

His prizes sinking down. Oh, how he raved!

--I heard this from my friend within the castle.

1^ST SCI: There comes Old Mark! Perhaps he has some news.

Hello, Old Mark!

2^ND SCI: What news?

OTHER: What news is there?

[Enter Old Mark, to stand before them]

OLD MARK: My friends, we are at war against the fates

Of nature’s whims, which, lately, seized out land

And stole our man-built wealth. Yet, let us pause

And mourn the fallen dead from this last storm

Which swept throughout the town just hours since

And swept ten thousand souls beneath the waves:

They drowned and passed away! Ten thousand souls!

Or even more. Their history, set in stone,

Can nevermore be changed. Oh, mourn for them

As each were one of us and we had lost

One of our fellows here. [All bow heads in silence.]

1^ST SCI: But, where are John and James? They are not here.

OLD MARK: Some are delayed. The roadways all are blocked

By crumbled homes and debris of the sea.

‘T was, by far, the greatest storm I’ve seen

In my long life. / . / Nothing could compare

To this storm’s fury. It came as a god

From out the hell of Rome’s mythology:

A god capricious who plays with men as toys

--Oh, friends, let us now speak our oathe,

our oathe of scientists—look how the sun

Breaks ope the angry clouds and casts it rays

Upon our ruined town, as though to say

That all this be forgot; nay, it shall not.

We shall remember. –Now speak solemnly,

Not with the jest we usually do speak.

[All put hands over their hearts and recite solemnly,

‘The Scientists’ Oathe.]

ALL: Too long your cruel bite has man harassed

With whims of desert dry or bogged morass.

Too long men lived not knowing when the mask

Of beauty fair would snarl and sink its grasp

--its grasp of death—uncaring in his side.

What wild whims. Your cruelty be accursed!

‘T is not that man your beauty must deny,

But, lest ‘t is faithful, beauty is the worst

Which softly coos, but then / . / storms again.

Its wild nature has no human soul,

With crashing tide and raging hurricane,

Sweeps o’er the land and downs a people whole.

Foul nature! You are nought but whorish brute!

You shall be tamed—else man shall strike you mute.

2^ND SCI: Foul nature! You are nothing but a whore!

You shall be tamed, else be kicked out the door.

1^ST SCI: Her punishment for sin shall be that man

Increase her beauty and her gentleness.

OLD MARK [To Thomas] Art thou well? Thy face is pale as death?

THOMAS: [Quiety] The shadow of my failure haunts my soul

And dreadens me. Yet, I shall carry on. [Old Mark nods]

2^ND SCI: To jail with monster nature! Let her go

And ne’er come out again.

OLD MARK: Listen all. [All fall silent]

Now, friends, we gathered here to hear good news,

Though this be overshadowed by the storm.

Thou knowest famine stalks the land this year.

Our people groan in pain beneath the yoke

Of nature’s tyrant rule, which knows no thought.

Much have we grieved to see our people die,

To see out children’s hope die in the cradle.

Much have we wept and passed tormented nights

Of sleeplessness, full knowing that the morn

Would bring more death and sorrow to our ears.

But now our friends, who shall arrive anon

--John and James—who labored with much hope,

Whose passion raised their minds to unheard heights

Who took their nation’s fate into their hands

And feared not what would come: these two have found

The means to save our nation and mankind,

A plan whose splendor shines across the age

And brings to other ages man’s design.

--They shall come here just now to lay all this

Before thy minds.

1^ST SCI: Can you give us a clue?
2^ND SCI: But, let them hurry here to give the news.

3^RD SCI: They must be held up by the cluttered roads

But, let them come, that hope may light our gloom.

OLD MARK: The honor to unveil the plan is theirs,

Though they have told it me. We all here know

For what they strove. No secret is that note:

To help those men who toil on the farms

At mercy of the whims of nature’s winds,

Who toil hard and well, yet still can’t lift

Themselves from poverty. Now, John and James

Have sought the means to double farmers’ yields

Through science—this thou know—and they have won.

1^ST SCI: What joyous news!

2^ND SCI: And this will please the King,

For, if the crops are doubled, he shall gain

If all his starving people rise again

To build works in his name.

THOMAS: They hinted this

When I did meet them last, just two nights since.

That was in the wood.

OLD MARK [Looking intently at Thomas] Then, thou wert there?

THOMAS: You heard report?

OLD MARK: Strange doings curse our land

And nature’s guises come in many forms.

When we say ‘nature’ we doth mean the lack

Of human dignity. Where’er that be,

We find no humans, but the beasts of prey.

For beasts think not; nor can they rule o’er men.

SPY: What do you mean by this?

OLD MARK: Oh, nothing more

Than what the trees would whisper in the wind.

1^ST SCI: A man is coming. Maybe it is them.

[All go to the window to look, except Mark and Thomas.

While the others are looking away, Mark speaks to Thomas.]

MARK: Be careful of thy speech, lest some would hear

Who we may not have hear. See me alone

Whene’er this meeting ends. I’ll tell thee more.

1^ST SCI: ‘T is Darin coming. Hey there, / . / hello!

[Enter Darin.]

DARIN: Hello! /…/ [Looks around] Where are John and James?

And also Joal? / . / What a nasty storm!

1^ST SCI: They have not come as yet.

2^ND SCI: And we await

To hear from them.

DARIN: I have with me a note

Just written by the King and sent around

As some dark carrion bird.

2^ND SCI: Does it have meat?

DARIN: The bird or King?

2^ND SCI: Why, both of them, I think.

DARIN: It’s meat not fit for e’en a bird to eat.

But, let me read. [He reads public note from the King, speaking in a mimicking, arrogant tone of voice.]

“Greetings from his Lordship,

The King of Natzur’s Lot:

I bid you strength, for painful is the day.

Our town is damaged; friends are washed away.

Our broken town is filled with sad dismay,

While we must build again without delay.

They left the work to us, when they were slayed.”

2^ND SCI: [Inturupting sarcastically]

Yea, those lazy bums who died on us!

DARIN: [Continuing] “But, if I may, let me a hopeful ray

Of light bring in. I think this need be said,

Though it may hurt to say: But, when we weigh

The good against the bad, we soon shall find

Some good condolences do come to mind.

Remember that the dark has a good side.

The good news here is: when the storm abides

The population left is less.” –Signed

The King of Natzur’s Lot.

2^ND SCI: Oh, what a smell!

OLD MARK: [Solemnly] Nay, speak ne’er of the King with disregard.

For he is as wise as other Kings that ruled,

--As wise as any horse—and it be said

Within the world of beasts the horse is wise.

2^ND SCI: And also known the horse is fleet in foot.

Thus, let him run away.

OLD MARK: [Sternly] No more of this!

Now, leave our King in peace—for evermore,

Just as the graves are left, where no noise comes,

Where none disturb their peace, nor are disturbed.

Just thus keep his good name protected safe.

2^ND SCI: [Reluctantly] Then, very well. I shall to keep our peace.

But, where are John and James? They should be here.

And Joal? The roads are surely cleared by now.

Thus, why delay?

3^RD SCI: Yea, I am worried now.

What, possibly, could hold them back so long?
MARKUS: Perhaps its to prepare the happy news,

Which they shall tell us.

1^ST SCI: [Excitedly] / . / Another comes!

[All look out the window excitedly]

What wild man is this?

Who comes full-drooping with his reddened eyes,

His hair a nest abandoned by the birds,

Which blows back in the wind. –Is that Joal?

[Peering] Good heavens! It is he! [Shouts] Hello! Hello!

But where the others. Why is he alone?

[Enter Joal, very messily dressed, and generally wild appearance. All gasp.]

1^ST SCI: Good Joal, you are a mess. What ails you so?

JOAL: O black your hearts, my friends. Turn them to stone!

O steel your nerves! O brace yourself for hell!

What I must say, would crack a mountain down

And burn it all to ash, could drain the sea

And turn the night ablaze. O woe’s the day!

O woe upon our land!

THOMAS: What is it then? My heart is sunk in fear.

A crushing weight would stifle out my breath.

The light is fading out. The time is hung

Upon this dreadful moment. Speak you now!

JOAL: Our friends are washed away and drowned to death.

Most noble John and James—They are gone!

They perished in the waves. [All stare in horror]

OLD MARK: O heaven curse this day!
So near to greatness. Are they truly gone?

JOAL: I saw them die myself. The vision hangs

Forever ‘fore my ghastly vision clear,

As iron burned it there. I shant escape

From those last horrid moments.

DARIN: Heavens, no!

1^ST SCI: Please say that this is false.

2^ND SCI: Turn back the time.

[All look at Joal, as if hoping he would deny, but his look reasserts this.]

3^RD SCI: How could it be?

JOAL: We were below when first the storm came in,

When waves came crashing in with wind and rain.

The sky had darkened with portended fate,

With lightning-volleys swirling ‘gainst the black

In ugly patterns, like hellfire’s flames.

“Come, let us go,” I cried. “It cometh quick!

The water churns with hatred and with rage

As though it were offended. It shall strike

And crush all in its pathway. Let us flee

Before it claws us down.” Then, James looked up

With look upon his face I’ve never seen,

A horrid look of joy, or so it seemed,

So strange a look it was, and calmly said:

“Our hearts are free. No fear can claw us down

Save fear of history. Come, let us go

To save the townsmen. Let us warn them all

And save those who we can.” And John agreed.

The waves were crashing in, each one so high,

It towered like a mountain. None could stand

Before such mightiness. I cried again:

“Nay, let us go, the storm is coming quick.

Look to our safety. Think about our lives.”

But they prevailed. We ran then to the town,

The part below, and raised a hue and cry,

And helped those sheltered in their homes to flee

To higher ground. Then, others came around,

Inspired by our acts, and helped us there.

Then, thousands heeded us and fled their homes.

The roads that lead up higher filled with men

That fled the lower town. The wind was strong

And shrieked with fury at our efforts there

As though we foiled its plot. It shrieked and raved,

And waves were picking up. Just then, we saw

A massive wave was forming out to sea.

I shouted in the wind: “It’s time to leave!

Nought more can be done. Now, come with me!”

And John said: “Thou goest. We follow soon.”

“Nay, nay,” I shouted loud. “Come with me now.”

But, those two stayed below. I fled up high,

With grieving in my heart. The wave now grew

First slowly, then more quick. It hung with fate

--What horrid fate!—It hung across the sky,

Towering, towering high, and, then, it fell.

It fell with such a shock, it must have shook

This Isle of England whole, from end to end.

Whole homes were ripped as pebbles from the ground

And men as matchsticks—so they perished there,

And left me shamed to live.

[Long silence]

OLD MARK: Most noble souls.

They died in honor, just as they had lived.

Their passioned souls, which made them wise on earth,

Thus earned their peace within that other world.

THOMAS: [Aside] Ah, one day late, and for this they have died?

Could not my err have killed them, and not me?

[He bows head in anguish]

1^ST SCI: Our hearts are full of grief. Come, let us go

To mourn them at the church and give our thoughts,

Our love and prayers to where’er they are

And find the strength to carry on their task.

2^ND SCI: Yes, let us go. I can’t remain in here,

Lest memory be to sharp.

DARIN: Yes, let us go.

More heavily than lead my heart has sunk,

And all my hopes are dead. I mourn for you,

And, England, you have lost your greatest sons,

And we our dearest friends.

SPY: Oh, now we can’t act out the plan they made.

[Some look surprised Spy, because of the stupidity of this last remark, but say nothing.]

OLD MARK: I soon shall come. But you all go ahead.

[Old Mark motions for Thomas to stay, as others exit.]

[To Thomas]

I scarce can speak, so heavy is my heart,

And, yet, I must, for evil presses in.

Two lives are gone already. More will come

Before the devil please his gluttony.

Our kingdom’s enemies who seized the throne

Now press with vengenge down with bloody plot

To drown our land forever. Now they wage

High treason ‘gainst their own Creator’s mind.

Ah, Thomas! John and James fought nigh alone

Against this evil. Now these two are slain.

THOMAS: [Anguished] What must I do. But tell me. I will do it.

OLD MARK: Fulfill the history of our two friends,

Fulfill their task. Fulfill their passioned hope

By showing its reflection in thyself,

Which by its flame, shall lift thy deadened heart.

No more be hidden from thy nation’s fate,

Seclused from politics, but show thy face

--Thy true face—to history and men.

THOMAS: No more my heart is sand, I promise thee,

But burns with grief and shame. I shall fulfill

However hard, whate’er our dear friends would.

OLD MARK: Then, Thomas, listen well. Thou knowest they

Did daily risk their lives in dangerous acts

Of building the resistance to the rule

Which grows more cruel and bloody every day.

Small groups that daily grow shall soon rebel.

But time is running out and spies close in

To break the plan and spill blood o’er the land.

We must act quick, with courage, for our friends:

The science they bequeathed the world must live

In glorious rebellion ‘gainst the rule

That wills to stifle such philosophy.

Before they left, those two left their design

That it might be fulfilled. An obstacle

Now liest in the way. Our deranged King

Cannot be moved by passion or by joy

O’er what another mind brings to this world.

More’er the evil friar counseling him,

Though less a friar than a snake is man,

Yet holds his mind in sway. And this friar

Mistrusts my every act and word with hate,

A hate of that which he can never know

Because his fallen soul is in the ditch

And can’t look up again, lest it shall sink

With horror of itself. –Nay, ‘t is worse:

This one is ‘yond remorse. This vile snake

Reviles in its evil and its hate

And hates all beauty so because he hates

Its own Creator’s mind. And this one fears

What any free man makes, and so fears me,

And nought that comes from me this friar will take.

Thus, you must bring our friends’ plan to the King.

Appeal not to his love—for he has none—

But to desires that he so wills to sate,

Such as his want of wealth and fame. Relate

No higher things with him. He shall not hear.

But, show him how this famine brings him loss,

And how its ending lessens all the cost

Which dead men bring, which men are labor lost.

Now, go thou forth with passion and with love.

E’en death is far less bed than still to live

Betraying what our dearest friends did give.

THOMAS: O, let us go. Our friends await us there.

Our friends in heaven come to meet us there.

[Exit both. Curtain]

ACT 2, SCENE 2

[A room in the castle. Ignatius, pacing.]

It’s fools who think that gold shall rule the world.

Ha, ha, ha! What fools! Whose showered wealth

Rains down on them just as their master feeds

Their slouching pig mouths full. It’s for the feast

Of his own power’s gain. No fame for him:

No public scrutiny or high-clad wealth,

Nor pain nor misery when the ruler falls

To be replaced again by other pigs,

Each loyal to his master who remains

Though many Kings be fallen. So he rules.

[Shaking his fist at the audience]

Ha, ha, ha! You fools! If thus you think:

That wealth alone is power, you are tool

In my deceiving hand, a feather crushed.

Your mind is as a flute on which I play

Shrill with tone, with fury dancing in it,

That shrieks foul music as you dance about

Upon my puppet strings. For you know not

That mightier than money is the will

Of power’s self-design—But who comes now?

[A noise is heard]

Ah, it is the King, that sod of clay,

The one who thinks he rules.

KING: Ho, Ignatius there! I need your words

To cheer my fallen spirits. Ah, what gloom!

IGNATIUS: My dearest lord and friend, what is it then?

KING: My fleet is gone. My beautiful tall ships:

Some dashed upon the rocks, the others sunk.

Their lovely sails shant flutter in the wind,

Nor show their armaments. Oh, what a loss

This storm has left me!

IGNATIUS: Yes, it’s quite a loss.

A state left undefended can be lost.

KING: What shall we do?

IGNATIUS: We must find the money to rebuild

KING: But, wherefrom can it come?

The times are hard. The coffers all are dry,

The taxes at their limit. We have cut

Expenses left and right. Not much is left

Except, which cut, would raise the subjects up

Rebelling ‘gainst my rule.

IGNATIUS: Think not of them.

Their thoughts are in their bellies and their groins,

Wherein domain your ruling is complete.

Never worry. Those ones shant rebel,

For, history is not made by lowly ones,

But by the one with proud, unyielding hand,

Who, calm, surveys the world with deadened heart

Who does what must be done and feels no pain

Whene’er his marching horse would crush the brains

Of men caught underfoot, caught in his way.

He must be apt to swim a sea of blood

And feel no qualms whene’er a child’s face

Is stuck upon his sword. No weakling’s thoughts

May blemish his resolve and iron heart.

KING: These words you speak full fascinate my soul:

So horrid, yet so true.

IGNATIUS: I speak with truth

To you the King, for I would have you great.

KING: And, what more now?

IGNATIUS: I would say this:

The act that most defies the weakling’s thoughts

Is glorious in might, though, in your past

Your weaker self recoil from it in dread.

The more your act defies the customed rule,

The mightier it is. Your act is law,

If you but only crush who say its not

And if your might prevails.

KING: What act, just now?

IGNATIUS: Let me tell you this, there is a trust

Far wider in extent than any else

A mightly bank that loans out many funds

And asks not much.

KING: You mean that worldly bank.

My father made me make an iron oathe

To borrow not from it. I never knew

What hatred of it chilled his heart just so.

Yet, oaths are oaths. I cannot break one now,

And much less, one to him.

IGNATIUS: But, listen well.

Your father had a cause to think this way,

Perhaps because he feared who ran it then.

But, now it’s other men, and as they changed

The fund’s design, yet, too, your father’s will

Can change with time. His will is that which counts.

And, though the acting of his will can change,

His will, itself, does not. Thus, if you break

You oath you made, you change its purposed aim,

Yet not that is was willed. The will still lives.

KING: Confusing words you speak.

IGNATIUS: Yet, true ones too.

KING: I don’t quite understand.

IGNATIUS: Then, let me say

A slightly different point. Your father lived

Within a time when what he did was right.

But, we live not therein, and what was true

May not be ever true, for truth must change.

Each age has its truth, as, so, does ours.

KING: You speak with weighty arguments, it seems

Not all is clear to me, yet I can see

That you do hold my being well at heart,

And thank you for it. Though I am inclined

To do as you are bidding, I cannot.

Though what you say be true, my oath be done,

Though acting it shall curse my rule thereon.

IGNATIUS: But, would your father wish a curse on you?

KING: Intentionally not.

IGNATIUS: Then you must live

By his intent, which was to have you well.

KING: Yes, you are right, if there were but a way

To circumvent this point, I’d seize the chance.

If all your wisdom could but find a way

My heart could rest at ease, be haunted not

By shadows of a promise I had broke.

IGNATIUS: Your noble heart is troubled for good cause

For love of your dead father. Great he was

But don’t forget his other iron wish:

To have his home defended over all.

Do you remember that?

KING: Indeed, I do

He spent his life preparing for a war

He feared would be unleashed . He did say

That if I loved him, I must guard the place

For fiercely than he did. He said it thus.

IGNATIUS: Then, his two wishes clash, for, if you would

Fulfill the last, than you must break the first.

For you need worldly funds to build a fleet.

KING: It’s true, what you are saying is the means

To break the oath and yet feel eased at heart.

For, if, by breaking it, I do fulfill

His other wish, why, then, his will be done.

Then, let his doubt stick no more in my heart,

But flee away. Yea, flee. Why do you stay?

As though not now resolved. Flee from my heart

And let me rest in peace.

IGNATIUS: Think not of doubt.

You are exhausted. So, your doubts persist.

But, give your mind some rest. The mind that sleeps

Shant haunted be by shadows of its past,

But sleeps in pleasant dreams. You need some rest.

KING: I shall need some anon.

IGNATIUS: In any case,

You can reverse and act if you so wish.

Let me propose: but take a single loan.

If your lot, then, increase, and only then,

Continue all the rest.

KING: Yes, that sounds well.

I still control my fate.

IGNATIUS: And ever shall

If you abide by wisdom.

KING: Let it rest.

And what else is there? [Enter castle guard]

GUARD: Your majesty:
The lady Marilyn comes. You will see her?
KING: Yes, bring her here. [Exit guard]

IGNATIUS: This most rash girl must be brought into line.

Be wary of her love and woman’s tricks.

You know their power not, nor know just yet

That love ‘tween men is greater and do please

The senses far more well.

KING: It is that

She is to me a flower—nothing more.

A pretty rose. Her thoughts mean nought.

[Enter Marilyn]

MARILYN: Good day to thee! ‘T is a lovely day!

Not so? Thou callest me?

KING: [Taken aback] Indeed, I did,

To ask apology for what you said

When we were in the town. You were most rash

You are recovered from this state, I hope.

MARILYN: Just now, my soul is free, just as a bird

I soar above with burden laiden down,

And nought to carry save the pain of hope

Which pain is also joy. And, in this state,

My past lies spread beneath me as a map

Whole line are incomplete. Thus, I say:

O’er what I e’er said which brought disgrace

Let He who is His highest, in His grace,

Pass judgement on my soul.

KING: Than, let it be.

No doubt he shall forgive you on account

Of woman’s weakness, and your prettiness.

But, do it not again.

MARILYN: I am resolved to ne’er do bad again

To fight but for the good, and ne’er ceace.

KING: [Happily] Ah, this is far more simpler than I’d thought!

We need not argue more. [Noise of state. Re-enter guard]

GUARD: Your majesty: again your time is sought

By one so bold, as though in fear of nought,

He stode within the gates, and slowed there not,

But made demand: ‘Bring me before the King.

I have a word for him.’

KING: Who is this man?

GUARD: A scientist of note. Yea, one who thinks

--It’s what he’s paid to do.

KING: A man who thinks!

And paid for it? Pah! It’s a common man.

/ . / Block his way. I have no time for him.

IGNATIUS: But wait, if I may say. It’s worth to hear,

If but to know what scheme this one has planned

And keep our eye, in watching o’er the kingdom.

KING: If you think so, than be it, let him come,

Though I don’t like such fellows. Bring him in.

[Exit guard]

Marilyn, you stand aside for now.

I shall come back to you when this is done.

[Marilyn stands slightly to the side. Enter Thomas to stand before King, Ignatius, and guards. King speaks to him]

Well, what is it you want, you man of thought?

Stand not there silently. Speak up, speak up!

THOMAS: Thy majesty: I come to bring thee news

As thy own herald: a discovery

Of newest means to fill thy coffers full,

And increase the true wealth in thy land,

Yet, still rebuild what just now was destroyed

By nature’s ravaging.

KING: [Interested] What do you have?
THOMAS: A plan most wonderous. A chemical,

Which, spead across the crops, doth double yields,

Thus ending this foul famine. It is thus

Thy subjects, weak with hunger, shall grow strong,

And build up works of greatness in thy name.

Thy greatness shall increase, and thy great yields

Shall bring in gold from kingdoms near and far,

Not based on what appears, but what is true.

And, in thy kingdom, men shall sing thee praise

For what thou didst for them.

KING: Ah, this sounds well.

IGNATIUS: [Aside] Oh, cursed be my god that I did err

In bringing this one in to ‘tice the King.

THOMAS: All this is in our means.

KING: What? Is it true?

THOMAS: It is. All this be premised on the mind

Whose thinking, to the world, doth bring the means

To make the driest desert bloom with life

And fill that new-greened desert with new minds,

That, thus, thy wealth make limitless in scope.

For wealth is born of mind.

KING: Strange talk this is.

Which I don’t comprehend in full just yet.

But has a pleasant sound.

[To Ignatius] What think you?

IGNATIUS: This plan sounds nice, but what shall be its cost?

Lest, this part be the catch. Nice dreams are nice,

But only for their dreamers.

KING: [Aside] Bitterness

Now racks the friars heart. Shall I have doubt?

THOMAS: ‘T is easy said: Any gold well-spent

On this design shall breed its like in ten,

For more wealth shall return than what was spent.

Thus, worry not on that.

KING: Good heavens, what?

[King looks back and forth between Ignatius and Thomas, who are looking at each other wordlessly]

Let me confer with my most-trusted friend

In private. I shall soon come back to you.

[King and Ignatius go over to the side of the room to discuss. Marilyn steps closer to Thomas and speaks in low voice to him.]

MARILYN: While they be gone, let me speak to thee, quick.

Trust me and fear not.

THOMAS: I met thee once,

And know well who thou art.

MARILYN: Then, meet me hence,

Tomorrow’s sundown, near the garden gate

--The western gate—‘T is safe there. Dost thou know?

THOMAS: I know the place.

MARILYN: Let no one else know this.

THOMAS: I shant.

[She steps back. He stares down at the floor.]

KING: He seems to know the subject of this talk.

IGNATIUS: Yet, seeming is to shallow by itself.

KING: Perhaps we should hear more. It seems to me

If what he says be true, I have a means

By which to build again and never break

The oath I made my father.

IGNATIUS: Nay, not that!
[King looks to Ignatius, surprised by his sudden loudness. Ignatius gathers his composure again.]

KING: And, whyfor not? What troubles you so much

[Ignatius racks his brain for a few moments]

IGNATIUS: We must first see the plan, and not be rash

As though each doting boy that comes to us

Shall turn this kingdom’s course. Nay, it can’t be.

We must decide with wisdom what we do,

And weight the good with bad, and know the sea

Which into we are sailing, ‘fore be turn

This giant ship. A course is better sailed

Whose way is known than one whose way is not.

KING: I know not either course, but trust in you

And others wise, who this man seems to be.

The way is dark; then, let my helmsman lead,

For I know not the way, yet, still, I hope.

IGNATIUS: This plan sounds much too good. I fear it false,

Like many of its kind. It ne’er is done.

Thus, so much for its sounding; if not done,

Then, not fulfilled, thus false.

KING: Then, let us do:

Experiment its worth; if it shall fail,

Why, let the scoundrel hang who spent our time.

But, if it work, why, let it be the route

By which we sail to glory.

IGNATIUS: Trust in me.

I like this not. This plan has smell to me

Of some foul plotting. I am trained in this.

KING: If so, then we shall know it soon enough.

Yet, I still think it’s worth our trying it,

Lest fear may cost too much in its wrong place.

What can we lose, save if your fear proves true,

Some scoundrels who shall hang?

IGNATIUS: Let us then wait

And not commit ourselves. I shall review

The plan in full, and tell you what I think\

Tomorrow, when we meet.

KING: Quite well, then. Come.

[They walk back to Thomas]

Your plan we shall consider. It’s enough.

We thank your coming. We shall answer soon

And send you message. / . / Where are you found.

THOMAS: With the scientists.

KING: --The ones who think.

Thank you. We shall call. / . / You may go.

THOMAS: I thank thee. [Exit Thomas]

KING: Now, Marilyn, may I speak with you alone?
MARILYN: Yes, let us walk around the battlements

To breathe the air thy noble father did

And be reminded of his honored fights

To keep our land protected. He ne’er would

Betray our land to traitors or to foes.

KING: That sounds well.

[To Ignatius]

You will see the plan and give report?

IGNATIUS: Yes, I will.

KING: You mind if I now go?

IGNATIUS: Nay, go, but I shall see you soon again.

And rest your mind, so, when you come to me,

You hear me better.

KING: I shall do so.

[Exit King and Marilyn. Ignatius stands alone, as curtain falls.]

ACT 2, SCENE 3

[The western garden gate at sunset. Thomas.]

THOMAS: Forbidden garden, heavy is thy air

With fragrant perfumes that doth dull the sense

And turn the whole world dim. Thy image casts

A terrored vision deep into my heart.

[He pauses]

What place is this? What gentle rose wave

Their beautied petals in this fragrent wind?

‘T is what bird sings, e’en as the sun goes down,

A morning song, e’en as the night grows dim

And light doth fade outside the garden walls?

[Bird chirps]

What terror knocks my heart? This place is not

Where normal men doth tread. Its dangers press

Like monsters in my soul. O, Marilyn, come!

Let me not face my horrid fate alone!
[He is silent. Presently, enter Marilyn]

MARILYN: Thomas, art thou there?

THOMAS: O, she comes!
MARILYN: Not so loud, my friend. Speak quietly.

There’s danger in the air: a plot is hatched

By that foul friar. Go not home tonight,

Else I shall fear for thee.

THOMAS: / . . / A plot?

MARILYN: If thou hadst seen today what I did see,

Then thou wouldst understand. The friar raged

About this plan thou gavst him yesterday.

Today, the castle grounds became a war

--A war for the King’s mind—the friar spent

The day in fierce debate. Not e’er before

Such fierce emotions raged. His mind was made.

He battered on the King, he threatened, plead

And made as he would weep and cried aloud,

‘It you do trust me not, then stab my heart!’

‘T was clever acting. Yet, one thought was real:

That never should thy plan be acted on.

/ . / This he did believe.

THOMAS: / . / And the King?

MARILYN: The King resisted, first. He could not see

Whyfor the friar made demand of him,

And tried to change the topic. But he failed.

The friar did persist. ‘T was never seen

That such a day within the castle passed.

Messengers came—to hustle—and then went,

Each bearers of some angle of the plot

To bend the stubborn King.

THOMAS: What messengers?

MARILYN: These men were new to me, for, ne’er before

Had I laid eyes on them. It did seem though

They knew the friar well. Thus, I would say,

They were connivers in some plot of his.

THOMAS: Then, fear, thou art fulfilled. Thy ugly mask

Doth stare at me, and what I did suspect

Be now confirmed. O, evil are those minds!

What beasts of darkness so much hate the good

As will to turn it out. O blackest hearts

Whose horror makes me wiser to myself!

And light a truth for me, whose beastly souls

Are locked in war with mine eternally,

Beyond the boundaries of this time and place.

/ . . / I must face thee now!

[Marilyn puts her hand on his shoulder]

MARILYN: All doubt is gone

--What little did remain. Thy cause is just

And truth flames from thine eyes. No man could act

With such a fervent passion and be false.

Then, tell me what it is thou knowst so well.

[He looks at her in wonder, then removes her hand from his shoulder and speaks humbly.]

THOMAS: This plan is not my own, but of my friends

--Two dearest friends—who died two days ago,

Who, in their passing, left their hopes to me

In all nobility.

MARILYN: What honored souls

To so imprint their passion on their friends.

Then, let us love them more, now, in their deaths

And sour our passions high, onto those realms

Wherefrom their love be streaming. Let us walk

With honor in their stead, fulfil their plan.

Let no fear halt us, lest it then be said

We loved them not, and spat upon their graves

--And all our lives be dirt.

THOMAS: [Musing, half-turned away] O, John and James:

My heart doth follow ye into this war.

Where, ‘fore, I knew ye not, ye now are known,

For I have come there too.

MARILYN: [Aside] His soul is great.

O, joy that such a one hath met with me

To speak such honored thoughts. Now, hope returns:

I know him not, and yet feel that I did

Long ‘fore I met him here.

THOMAS: [Aside] Her soul is wise

I think that God, himself, has sent her down

As herald of His mercy to my soul.

[Aloud and ackwardly] Marilyn?
MARILYN: I—let me tell thee something. ‘T is a dream

That came across my vision this past night

Though strange its language, I would thee relate

Its tale in all its strangeness. /…./

[She waits expectantely. He recites “The Scientist’s Dream.”]

E’en as I homeward went, a swooning cloud

Fell o’er my sense. Just as I reached my home,

It bore me to some other land unknown,

As though beyond this world my soul were blown,

As though dispersed across some more-real place

Whose width seemed endless. Neither could I trace

Its timing, not its starting nor its date.

The world around had changed, as though immersed

In air vibrating. All time, aft and erst

Did seem to play its drama on that earth:

Great scenes and histories from many times,

Man’s love and valor. / . / And all his crimes

In endless plethora of sole lifetimes

Laid bare, before my vision, wide and vast.

‘T was there that Plato wrote the final drafts

Of his great writings. There, cruel Ceasar laughed

About man’s frailty in ancient Rome.

‘T was there all ancient ages had been blown

Alongside future ages, not yet known.

Then, from the heavens, duty’s light was cast

Upon the ground before me. ‘T was a path

Best with grief and hardships to surpass.

Its very sight did wrest from me a gasp

Despairing hope before its great impasse.

It climbed o’er mountains, towering o’er the earth,

O’er canyons deep as hell, o’er rocky turf,

Where each rock were a knife. ‘T was hunger, thirst,

And every evil nature doth apply

To helpless men. O, how it stunned my eye!
And filled my heart with dread. I don’t deny

This very vision doth in some men sow

Such fear, they turn in dread back from the road

And live in pleasure, blocking out their woe.

Thus fear did rage upon me and assailed

To turn my mind away. This wind of bale

Screeched on around and by me with its wails

As though to deafen me. But, then I threw

My mind ahead. Then, all my strength I drew.

‘O, walk thou forth,’ I cried. ‘Don’t murder truth!’

Then, like a fragile flower in the wind,

I forward lurched. How weak my weary limbs!

The way ahead was hard and glum and dim.

O, how to tell what torments wrenched my soul!

What pain and grief, what lonely weeping dole

As I plunged onward.—Heavy was the toll

And each step taken harder than the last,

The hope so dim, so dim! I could not grasp

Its beautied form. O, how my breathing gasped

Against that mighty weight and wind of screams.

Yet, still I thought: ‘Look to that distant gleam;

Look ‘yond the furthest mountains and ravines,

Far ‘yond this world. Look there. What thou hast seen

Is joy eternal, joy that hath no name.

Its light outshines all comfort and all fame.

‘T is light more mighty than a million flames,

Though each flame be a sun. Will thou than choose

To give that up? Will thou betray thy muse,

And, for such trifles, all of heaven lose?

‘O, no!’ I cried. ‘No pain can be too great;

No raging storm, nor craggy narrow strait

Can be too hard to pass, for beauty’s sake.

Thus, suffer on for others, and redeem

Thy fallen soul. Look to the One Supreme

Who wills thee love. –Nay, truth is not a dream!

Thus, on and on I went. It would amaze

Most men to see what agonizing ways

What towering hardships and what painful days

I spent for them. O, mightily I strove

To lift them up from where they were below!

Though great the pain, far greater was the love

That drove me on, so that I could not rest

Until I reached my striving end of quest

‘March on, march on. For truth doth all men test!

Thus, on I went, for many, many years

My youth did flee away, and it appeared

My strength was failing. Scarcely could I veer

To carry forward. Old I was, and bent.

The ending hours of my life were spent

As I went, gasping, up that steep ascent.

‘O, halt thou time, ‘ I said, ‘that come too fast!

Too quick my hour of doom doth come at last.

O halt! O halt! I’ve not fulfilled my task.’

Despite my plea, my strength did die and fade.

I stumbled through some trees, into a glade.

But, then, the path did ease. I stood amazed.

Where was I? ‘T was a city, shining bright!

A mighty city stood before my sight

With wonderous buildings, shining beauty’s light.

The path had leveled off just where I stood.

My body lightened there, so that I could

Walk forward and discover what I would.

O, wonderous city! Even from afar

I knew its men were wise. No ugly scars

Did blight its beauty. Even heaven’s stars,

With all their beauty, looked with favor down

Upon that perfect city’s blessed ground.

Its people’s noble goodness was renown

Across all heaven. O, those men were wise!

They were a generation that comprised

Man’s history eons long, across all time,

So, all man’s love and striving of the past

Had given all such penetrating grasp

Of all the universe. O, couldst thou ask

Whyfor I felt ashamed before those men?

For, all my precious hard-earned knowledged jems

For which I’d stove so hard, did pale by them,

Before the perfect wisdom that they knew.

Their very children from the heavens drew

The purest light of love and perfect truth.

And I, a man so old and weak and bent

Did grieve my weakness, and I did lament.

So far they were from me! Yet, now the end

Of my life came, and now my history’s page

Was set in ink eternal, ne’er to change.

O, I had failed! For, all the fight I’d waged

Had failed to find the wisdom of that place.

My life was nought. I dared not show my face

To purest truth, else I would be disgraced.

But, then, those wisest people grew aware

That I had come, that I was standing there.

A kind of cry went up. O, it was fair!

‘O, hail to thee,’ they cried, ‘thou wisest man.

O, hail to thee who gave us this great land.

O, hail to thy good soul and to thy good hand

Which bravely fought for us.’ And then they raced

With joy and love to give me their embrace

And said: ‘O, thanks to God that he is safe.’

And I received them, choking on my grief.

‘Nay, nay,’ I said, ‘give not this honor me,

For, I am far less wise, compared to ye.’

But, they would hear me not. Though I was coy,

They raised me up. Each man and girl and boy

Then raised their voices in a song of joy,

A song of praise and thanks unto the Lord.

O, what a wonderous song! Its every chord

Was perfect beauty. ‘T was an angel horde.

And, then, they lifted me onto such heights

As words can ne’er describe. O, how the sights

Filled all my soul with joy and love and light.

Then, presently, just as the nighttime fled,

My dreaming ceased, and, like a piece of lead,

I fell to ground, and woke up in my bed.

[He pauses for a long time at the end]

O, Marilyn, it was the strangest dream

My soul hath ever dreamt; and even now

Its image still lives on, before my eyes,

Though I don’t fully comprehend its truth.

MARILYN: Most noble Thomas, let me go with thee

And join my heart to thine—not for myself,

But for mankind. O, let me know the well

From which thy passion springs.

[He takes her hand]

THOMAS: Marilyn, with thee near, my soul is saved

From fear and darkness. Let thy wisest heart

Be close to mine, and light my path ahead.

[She takes his other hand. They embrace, briefly]

THOMAS: [Aside] O, bravest soul! She is a miracle!

MARILYN: I have fear for thee.

THOMAS: Fear not. I shall be safe. I’ll go tonight

To stay at a friends home. / . / One not known

By any of the spies the friar has,

For now, at least. It seems our task is great

If we need break the will of our own King

--Since that has come—to do a rightful deed

Without his backing, or his treasury.

MARILYN: I was a royal ‘fore I joined this race

Of higher men. –Yet, still I have the means

To draw a royal fund. My own estate

Can pay for what we need.

[Thomas thinks silently]

Nay, not that.

What use have I for money at this time

With such a debt to God? Fie, Let it go.

What use is it ten thousand years from now

Unless I spend it well?

THOMAS: Then, let it rest.

We shall now—dost thou hear?

[Drum sounds in the distance, interrupting him]

MARILYN: Yes, ‘t is the King, his ceremonies dark.

He comes not our direction, have no fear.

[Drums sound again]

THOMAS: See those yonder lanterns. These I saw

Some eves ago. ‘T is craziness, I’m told

With which the friar intrenches the King’s head

And turns him from his father.

MARILYN: Yes, they go

Into the wood to act out secret rites.

Much rumor doth abound on what they do.

THOMAS: [Peering tward the drums]

Such evil and such ignorance as one

[Shakes his head disapprovingly]

But I need go, with warning to my friends

Before the night grows older. Marilyn,

Until we meet again.

MARILYN: [Embrace] Be careful though

THOMAS: Be careful ‘for our God.

[Exit Thomas]
MARILYN: O, heaven give him light and guard his way

Upon this dangerous path. O, give us fire,

For now we shall do battle with the friar.

[Exit Marilyn. Curtain falls.]

ACT 2, SCENE 4

[The chamber of Ignatius the Merciful Friar. Ignatius, sits at a desk, reading some papers.]

CHORUS: O evil friar! Now thy bloody plot

Doth come to its completion. Grusomeness

And murder fill thy power-scheming thoughts.

Have thou not killed enough? How many wives

Weep o’er their murdered husbands and their children?

How many men? How many ages hence

Shall suffer for these acts of thine today?

O evil friar! Be that not enough?

Yet, still thou thirst for power and for blood.

All happiness from out thy heart had fled,

For, with the devil’s heart thine own is wed.

[Enter Spy]

IGNATIUS: Sit down. [Motions him to sit]

SPY: You called for me?

IGNATIUS: [Nods] Some trouble comes.

We have reports of actions brewing up,

Disorder and rebellion. It must cease.

Before its out of hand. Its not so great

As can’t be stopped. But do remember this:

The brother of the King shall come days hence

No doubt to claim his own and rightful crown

That we have stole from him. /…./

We let him come, but only by himself.

And one attendant. We shall send him back

Without his wish.

SPY: He has no power now

To take that which he wants

IGNATIUS: I know, I know.

Yet, there is something else. What if he comes

Amid disorder? That will be as fuel

Unto his claims, so that when he leaves thence,

Returning to his hosts, he has the means

To sway them to his side. It’s what I fear.

SPY: What of it then? His hosts lack strength and means

To harm us, since their army be tied down

In fight o’er heven’s lak, that lakeshore town

That Millan also wants. But, let them fight

As long as they fight on, it helps our cause.

That town of heven’s lak, lacks all but dirt.

IGNATIUS: Be wary yet.

Our strength is not complete. Now keep close watch

Report all movements. I most now suspect

The scientists are plotting something now.

I know not what, but I have warned the King

And turned him ‘gainst all science, as a plague

Will fearful tales that science fills the world,

And poisons earth, and fouls our pure air.

I’ve loosed a silent spring within his mind

That sprang a horror of what humankind

Can build on earth. He hates all science now

And thinks more on our lines. Yet, still, I fear,

Until I purge those minds that think too much

And know more than we know, though without strength.

--I want you watching them.

SPY: Then, very well.

IGNATIUS: Especially Mark, the oldest one.

He is most dangerous, and was a friend

To this King’s father, and his brother to.

SPY: Yes, this I know.

IGNATIUS: Find all that you can.

Quite soon we’ll purge then, crush them one by one.

And, with them gone, our coup shall be complete,

With none opposing. Report me all the news

Most often and precise. Keep me alert.

But, leave me now, for I have much to read.

[Exit Spy]

My plan now nears completion. Yet there lurks

Great worry. Though I’m closer to my goal,

I still can’t be content, for even now,

There still are men not under my control:

The order of the world is not my own.

[Curtain. End of Act 2]

ACT 3, SCENE 1

[A dark field. Markus, standing silently, with a sack of fertalizer. Enter Darin, also with a sack, throwing the contents of his sack onto the field.]

DARIN: / . / Markus, is that you?

MARKUS: / . / Shh!It is. [Darin runs up to him]

DARIN: Greetings!

MARKUS: Shh!

DARIN: What fear?

MARKUS: Speak quietly. Each sound seems as a shout

That calls our foes to find us.

DARIN: Have you heard?

MARKUS: [Nods] The King has teethed his order ‘gainst this plan.

--What visious lies!—Yet, still, his word is law.

He has decreed that any who do break

His ruling thus shall die.

DARIN: Yes, I know.

What vile garbage! Did you see it, though?

What hate of reason made him think this way?

MARKUS: What made him think that some have broke his will?

That is most ominous.

DARIN: But did you see

The argument he used? / . . / I quote:

‘The earth is pure, and shant be touched by man,

By dirtiness he makes. My land shall be

As pure in wind and waters as it was

‘Fore man invaded it with ugly acts.

Then shall I walk my wide and lovely lands

Where none else walk. There, I shall find my peace

In mother nature’s body.” –Oh, what rot!

He’s never felt the teeth this nature has,

Save through the luxury of castle walls

Where half the land must serve him. It is thus

That lunatics do rave. But let him loose

‘Fore nature’s whims, without his luxuries.

How long before his tender white, pure skin

Shall feel the pain that many others do?

That incestuous, whorish—

MARKUS: Shh!

DARIN [Quietly] What is it?
MARKUS: I heard a noise nearby.

DARIN: It was the wind.

[Enter Thomas, with sack]

THOMAS: What? Am I alone tonight? [He looks around]

Hello? Darin, Markus, are ye there?

MARKUS: [Relieved] Oh, it’s only Thomas. We are here.

[Thomas comes over to them.]

THOMAS: What fear is this that makes ye huddle here

So quietly?

DARIN: No fear.

THOMAS: [Looking up] There is a smell

Of something dangerous in the air tonight.

--Where are the others? Are we lone this time?

Are all the others frightened by the King?

[Markus and Darin are silent. Thomas continues]

As I came here, I saw upon the hill

Much action at the castle. ‘T is most strange

For such a nightly hour.

MARKUS: Action, what?

THOMAS: I know not; I was quite far away.

DARIN: Oh, let us not talk thus. Its weariness

From many nights at work that makes our minds

Too quick-imagining. But tell me this,

For I would hear good news: what is the count?

How much is covered by our work this week?

THOMAS: This night, we seem alone, but we have had

Some fifty on some nights who helped us spread

These chemicals on every field we found.

Some eighty fields are covered, no small task.

No fame for us, but only honor when

These fields bear fruit and fill our stocks again.

Our people shall be graced, not knowing how

Their deadened crops so fine and plentied grew

To rescue them from famine by our works.

DARIN: We need no fame, but we do need more men.

THOMAS: Yes, ten times more than this, at better rares.

I would a thousand men would help us here

To cover every field. It shall be hard.

Each night the numbers dwindle. Now the King

Has issued his decree to scare more off,

For few will pay that price.

MARKUS: Let us be quick,

And finish here, and get back to our homes.

There. / . . / This field shall grow anon.

[He throws down the contents of his sack very rapidly]

DARIN: Nay, spread it sparingly, not all at once.

This whole field must be covered, and this night

Two more need be done.

MARKUS: What is that?

DARIN: What?

[Sound of walking in the distance]

MARKUS: I heard some one

Walking. On the road up yonder. There.

[All listen]

DARIN: It’s your imagination, and, if not,

Why men do walk on roads. It’s why they’re built.

MARKUS: Nay, listen. No, it’s gone. / . . / Wait!

[Dog barks]

Oh it’s most foul. What? Another bark? [2^nd bark]

At whom are these dogs barking?

DARIN: At the moon,

[Looks up] Or lack of it, for there is none tonight.

Fear not. Dogs always bark.

[Dogs bark in chorus. Markus throws down his sack]

MARKUS: The dogs of hell are loose! Goodbye! I flee!

THOMAS: Nay, stay a moment.

MARKUS: You may laugh at me

--At my blind fear--yet I am sooner safe

With friend that laugh at me than mourn my death.

I can’t stay here. Come with me, if you will.

[Exit Markus, running]

THOMAS: Laugh at him? Nay weep. Willt thou go, too

And leave me here alone?

DARIN: Nay, never that.

I stand with thee before the fires of hell,

And ‘fore whatever comes. I am thy friend.

Come, let us carry on.

THOMAS: I am most sad.

Of all our friends, he was one of the best.

Is this all that he was. Like all the rest,

He flees when faced before his history’s test.

DARIN: Grieve not, dear Thomas. These be trying times,

Which test the souls of each and every man.

While, some turn coward, some who did seem so,

May now make known the true worth of their faith.

For every man deserting, let us hope

That others now come forth, whom we knew not

Until their courage, in this time of war,

Did bring them here to battle at our side.

THOMAS: Thou art right. My hope returns to me.

From us two, lone, an army need spring up

Among our citizens. O let it be.

O, let them come to us, that we serve them.

However few, let all those noble come,

For, with these few, the battle shall be won.

[A shout of “Hey!” is heard. Sound of soldiers running]

DARIN: They come. Markus was right. / . / Shall we flee?

THOMAS: Nay, ‘t is too late. Nay, Markus was not right

To fear. Now face our fate.

DARIN: [Tears out sword] Let all fear flee!

The foe must face my battle.

THOMAS: Throw it down!

We are surrounded. [He throws down Darin’s sword]

We have not a chance

If we go that way. [Soldiors rush onto stage]

SOLDIOR: Hold there! There they are! Seize them both.

[Soldiors seize Thomas and Darin]

Hold them there. Let me call the King.

[Noise of stage. Enter King, Ignatius, others]

SOLDIOR: Your majesty: we have them.

KING: Who are they?

Hold the lantern high. Who are you? Ah!

It’s you, you wretched schemer, you who came

To tell your lies to me. Who is your friend?

What matter in those sacks?

[Soldiors look into sacks, and hold up some of the chemicals.]

DARIN: My name is Darin.

KING: Darin, you are vile!

You break the law. You know?

DARIN: I break no law

That conscience doth decree.

KING: Indolent boy!

DARIN: I serve the Lord, thy majesty, not thee.

Thus, do what satan bids. I shall not bend.

KING: What? I have half a mind to drive my sword

And run it through you now, indolent wretch.

[King unsheathes his sword. Ignatius stops him]

IGNATIUS: Nay, not yet. Let us find from them

Who else is in this plot.

KING: Aye, we shall

And hang them all above the rampart heights

As decorations for those scheming men

Who criticize their King.

DARIN: You sewer rat!

Pah! I spit on you!

KING: What? Take this then. [Strikes him]

I shall ensure a painful death for you,

That full rewards your arrance.

THOMAS: Darin, stop.

The King’s not worth thy anger. Turn thy mind

Away from unimportant things like him.

KING: Yea! [Stops] What, you slithering snake! You shant fool me.

[To guards] Bring them both away and guard them well

In the dungeon. Lock them there in chains

Until the time when we shall come again

To pass the sentence on them—very soon.

Come! Go quick! Search all the other fields

For any other like them. I shall go.

[Exit King, Ignatius, and others to one side, soldiers to the other. Curtain]

ACT 3, SCENE 3

[The King’s chamber. King, pacing]

KING: Ah, what to do with such a one as that?
She loves me not, and all my powered might

Would seem as dirt to her, if I would judge

By that look of coldness in her eye

That looks as stone at all my offered things,

Though when, in fact, all wished lie before her.

What cool demeanor and reptilian tongue

Of darting wit. –Oh, hauty poison girl!

You woman torturer, who, with your mind

In tyrant o’er my soul, with judgement cold,

Unyielding to my want. Have you a heart?

[He thrusts his hand away bitterly, then paces faster]

[Sarcastically] Ah, yes, how quick your sterness melts away

For others. In the town, the common folk

Win all your words of kindness, as their worth

Meant more to them than mine, the King of them.

You speak of them as though they were divine.

To them you are most kind, to me most cold.

[As he continues to pace, a knock sounds at his door.

He is surprised because of the late hour.]

So late? Who comes?

IGNATIUS: The friar.

KING: Come in. [Enter Ignatius]

IGNATIUS: I would not break your peace at this late hour,

Except I saw your lamp was burning still.

You are disturbed?

KING: No matter.

IGNATIUS: I have news.

KING: Oh, so late?

IGNATIUS: Yes, but tell me this.

What lot is it that keeps you up so late

While all your land is sleeping and the night

Drags on in darkness?

KING: Ah, this night is long,

As it will never end.

IGNATIUS: Confide in me.

Your brother comes. Perhaps he brings bad thoughts?
KING: Oh, no, not that. I’ll face him well, no doubt

And tell him how it stands. I shall not bend

To his demands. I’ve firmed myself on that.

But something else is bothering my mind

Whose source I can’t control or bring to heel

Before my royal will. It’s as one bird,

Alone, which do defy me, though the rest

Have all, in turn, submitted to my rule.

This one does spoil everything I’ve gained

By flying from my reach, this only one

Escapes. It makes a mockery of my strength.

Its seeming is so close, just ‘yond my reach

Until I move to grasp it. Then, it flies

Far, further, ‘yond my reach, where I can’t follow.

I know not what to do to catch this one.

And so I hate it—though I love it, too.

To catch it and to put it in a cage

Would bring me happiness. Elusive bird:

You are the only one. You shall me mine

And my might be complete.

IGNATIUS: Tormented King,

Who is it who has wronged you. Let me know,

For it shall suit me well to share your grief,

To act on it thereby.

KING: It’s Marilyn.

IGNATIUS: [Tries to hide his glee]

She? Oh, dreadful lot. E’en now I came

With news of her.

KING: What now?

IGNATIUS: Betrayal, King.

Oh, how love blinds the eye to lower things

Such as the real world brings. Unhappy lot.

KING: What lot? What now?

IGNATIUS: Ne’er trust a woman, King,

Else she shall sell you to your enemies

And reap the profits.

KING: What has Marilyn done?
[Ignatius pauses to have maximum effect]

IGNATIUS: Was she who gave the funding to those two

Whom we arrested, just one night ago,

The ones who broke your rule.

KING: Oh, can it be?

IGNATIUS: My spies confirmed it. We have found the source

And witnesses. Two bankers swore to us

That she drew heavily on her families fund.

And, when we traced the gold, and where it went,

All doubt was cleared: ‘t was she.

KING: Oh, can it be?

Now, fire fills my veins. The world goes dim.

She scorned me, while she gave her heart to them?

Oh, death of love! Oh, let my ears not hear

This horrid news. Turn my heart to stone

And flee away, from out this horrid world.

IGNATIUS: My friend, the strong man never places love

‘Fore duty. You are King. Your word is law

Your nation’s fate do hang upon your word.

Your act must be decisive and not fail

With sympathy. This girl has broke the law

And must be dealt the same as any else.

KING: You think this?

IGNATIUS: Yes.

KING: Her arrance is too much,

But that.

[King thinks quietly. Ignatius pretends to be impatient]

IGNATIUS: The weakling’s thoughts don’t shake the stongest men.

But sleep with that in mind. Now I must go.

KING: Wait.

IGNATIUS: What?

KING: You are offended?

IGNATIUS: No, I wait.

To hear what you decide. What more is there?

KING: Nay, go.

[Ignatius puts on an air of false compassion for the King]

IGNATIUS: If you knew how she scorned you, then your love

Would little be for her.

KING: You know it, too?

IGNATIUS: My friend, how you are blinded! Do you know

Her scorn for you is now the talk of court

And you the butt of jokes? If you but knew

How cruelly you are taken. Oh, the jokes

Are biting, and while all the women laugh

I pain to hear they’ve made you as an ass,

Yet, dare not tell you, lest I break you fast

And turn you stricken. Yet, I cannot hold.

You must assert yourself and clear your name

From shamefulness.

KING: The woman laugh at me?

IGNATIUS: Yes, yes, and tell all horrid sort of tales

That fill the house with mirth at your expence

Oh, I can’t bear this more.—Those hypocrites!

[Ignatius moves as though to go again. King stops him]

KING: Oh, no, how can this be? And Mariylyn?

Is she with them?

IGNATIUS: Oh yes, I’ve heard report.

Some nights ago, a donkey was brought in

With Kingly crown. Then, one of them did call:

‘Hear, hear, the King do speak his wisdom, now.

Hear, hear the donkey.’ Then the donkey brayed,

And all within that house did laugh in fits,

Laughing on the night in merriment.

KING: Ignatius, you have oped my eyes to this.

IGNATIUS: In interest of the King.

KING: / . . / I know

IGNATIUS: I’ll see you in the morning.

KING: [Quietly] Good night.

[Ignatius exits out door, to where King cannot see him, but the audience can.]

IGNATIUS: Now half my work is done. He’ll do the rest.

Let half-truth torment him, until he breaks

And comes yet nearer to his loving friar.

[Exit Ignatius. King sits on his bed, silent for a while]

KING: What have I done that I deserve this lot?

--Nay, nothing. –Hypocrite! The friar is right:

To kindly I have treated you thus far.

[Lies down, face up on bed, with hands behind his head]

Ignatius cares for me, but thinks me weak,

A weakling who won’t act. I know his thoughts.

[Turns on side, and is silent for a while. Suddenly, he sits up.]

How cruel she is! Oh, hell. [Walks over to the window]

Ungrateful woman! I gave you my best,

Yet still you did betray me, to those two,

And laughed at me. Oh, hell, this night drags on,

As though to never end. Yet, I can’t sleep.

Your image, o’er and o’er is ‘fore my mind.

I see you press your heart with passion true

Unto the ones who hate me and conspire

To bring my rule to ruin. And your voice

In tones of sweetness desecrates my name

To them. Oh hell. How can I bear this pain?

Shall I be kind, forgiving,bear this shame

And look to higher things? Is that the way?

[He pauses as though struggling with himself,

looking out the window. At last, he flings away his hand wildly.]

Nay, nay, I have been wronged. I’ll have revenge.

/ . / Let her share the fate of her two friends.

--Ignatius, I am coming. [Exit King. Curtain.]

ACT 3, SCENE 3

[A prison cell, occupied by Thomas and Darin. Thomas paces for a while, then stops.]

THOMAS: Dear God! I must now look upon thy face

With all my faults and all my sins debased

Upon my heavy conscience. Wide the gates

Doth open through which men return no more.

[Looks at Darin, who is sleeping]

What goes through his mind while he, at last,

His last sleep takes. He swore he would not sleep,

But live his final hours full-awake.

Yet, still, the weighty swoon fell over him

To rob his precious time. How quick time flees

But shall I wake him then?

[Views Darin, trying to decide whether to wake him. Knock sounds on outer dungeon gate. Darin stirs and wakes.]

DARIN: What time is it? How long was I asleep?

[Second knock sounds on outer gate]

Oh, is that hour come?

THOMAS: Nay, ‘t is not yet.

DARIN: How did I sleep? How much time is lost

Before that dreaded dawn shall stalk in here.

--What was that knock?

[Knock sounds for third time. The following dialogue occurs off-stage]

GUARD: [Sleepily] What? Who goes there this hour?

IGNATIUS: Open up!

GUARD: Whyfor? And who goes there?
IGNATIUS: It is I,

Ignatius the merciful friar.

Ope up! Ope up! I have the King with me.

[Sound of gates opening]

KING: What, guard? Were you asleep? Why did you wait

To open?

GUARD: Nay, not that. I was awake

But thought your knocking was the ghosts of men

Who lived their last days here, and wander ‘round

As lonely shadows.

KING: What? And are you drunk?

What smell of wine is this?

GUARD: Nay, it’s not wine.

That is the reeking smell of they who died

But ne’er repented sin.

KING: You lie! Shut up!

Where are your prisoners?

GUARD: They sleep within,

Though less than they soon shall.

KING: Then, bring us in.

[Guard opens door to dungeon. Enter Ignatius, King, Marilyn, with royal guards attending. Prison guard exits.]

THOMAS: What new turn is this?

DARIN: They found her too?

[King pushes Marilyn toward an open cell]

KING: Oh you ungrateful swine. Get you in there!

You flower false—with thorns—Ah vileness!

You loved these traitors more than you did me?

Oh, you ungrateful swine. Get you in there!

[King throws her into the empty cell.]

DARIN: [To King] Stop, you fool!

KING: [Reeling around] Shut up! Shut up!

[King locks the door to Marilyn’s cell.]

Now, let you rest there with your wretched friends,

And die with them.

DARIN: [To King] Come here, you sewer rat!

So I can wring your neck!

KING: What? Do you dare?

To speak thus to a King?

DARIN: You are no King,

Except o’er that which barfs from satan’s gut,

Or, maybe o’er what spews from out his butt.

KING: What! [He runs over to Darin and wrestles with him through the bars of the cell. Darin gives him a blow to the head, which sends him reeling. The King tries to jump back at him, but Darin steps back from the bars, out of King’s reach.]

Give me the key. Let me into his cell

To break his arrant mouth. Come guard! Come guard!

THOMAS: [To Darin] Calm thy rage. It hath no value here

In these last hours of life.

IGNATIUS: [To King] Calm down yourself.

You shall have your revenge, revenge most sweet.

Don’t wreck it now by facing him alone

When he is stronger.

GUARD: [Reentering] What is it?

IGNATIUS: Nay, never mind. Go back to where you were.

[King nods. Guard re-exits]

KING: [To Darin] But, you shall die a tortured, vicious death,

So painful that its ending be to you

As heaven, when compared.

DARIN: It’s not so bad

Nor painful as your death, when that shall come

KING: Let us see if arrance serve you well

When day comes in and brings to you your fate,

When torturers do run their swords through you

A hundred times, and feed the grass your blood.

[Turns to Marilyn]

And you: your beauty shall not help you now.

Another of your fairness I can find

Whose fairness be not blemished by your mind

Or your ungratefulness. Now, will you beg

Your life of me. Nay, you shall not it,

But you shall die a whore.

MARILYN: I only say

The death of evil men be tragedy

Much more than good one’s deaths. For bad men’s crimes

Weigh heavier upon them when they die,

And even as the world each day unfolds

Their consequence, they sink more in the sea

Of blood and grime. They sink for evermore

They cry, ‘O let us change what we have done!

O, let us live again!’ But, then they sink

More down into the depths, and more, and more

For what be passed can ne’er be changed again.

For this, I weep for them, and for their souls.

[King has been getting more and more exasperated as she speaks]

KING: Oh, praht no more your moralistic speech.

Its tone do bore and irritate my ear.

--Ignatius, let us plan a fitting end

For her and them, an end most merciful,

Mercied in proportion to their crime,

Thus just, and dreadful. Let you be the judge,

Oh friar merciful. What do you think?

IGNATIUS: It’s well. A dreadful death I shall devise,

Since that be merciful and therefore just.

For, they did violate the highest law,

Which came from you, yourself, whose word is law.

What law could higher be? Therefore, their crime

When weighed against all others, must be worst

And, logically, need be punished well,

By whichever punishment is worst.

We kill them not with hatred, but with thought

Most logical and sound.

KING: Ah! It’s true

Most merciful revenge! How sweet it is!

--But also just, let us remember that.

IGNATIUS: The night is ending. Let us go to bed

And come back here tomorrow.

KING: Very well.

And I shall steel my nerves. No weakling’s thoughts

Shall blunt my bloody duty—for it’s just

That traitors must all die a horrid death.

IGNATIUS: Guard! Let us out.

[Exit Ignatius, King, King’s guards. Following dialogue takes place off-stage]

KING: Guard these gates well, you dog! No more of that.

GUARD: I shall do so, as though was heaven’s gate

O’er which I watched. No evil e’er shall come

Through it again.

KING: Good. Let us leave here then.

[Sound of outer gates opening, then closing]

DARIN: The filthy rat is gone.

THOMAS: Marilyn,

What happened. How is it thou wast caught?

MARILYN: Worry not o’er me, for God is just

And we aimed toward the good, and nothing less.

If this, then, be the price, then, whyfor grieve

Before our honored fortune and our lot?

DARIN: Oh, my blood boils

With hatred for that rat! Let him come near

To me, so I can beat his brains apart!

MARILYN: Nay, free thy heart from this. Thy ending nears.

What good is it to hate e’en evil men

Before eternity. Where shall he be

--This King—ten thousand years away from now?

Shall he then be remembered? Shall his acts

Still fill some men with fear? Nay, never that.

He’ll die and be forgotten. What doth last

Shall only print his fallen name with curse.

DARIN: My mind hears all your words, but not my heart,

For it still rages on. Yet, you are right.

MARILYN: Wouldst thou have it that thy worth be judged

By hate? Is that the measure of thy soul?

Or, didst thou love in life? What of thy friends?
DARIN: I loved them well and dear they were to me.

MARILYN: What of thy countrymen. Didst thou love them?

And what of all mankind? Art thou not here

Within this very jail because of that?

DARIN: It is so.

MARILYN: Than, that is thy true worth; think now of that.

Let thy true good now reign in these last hours,

And by its passion, burn away thy sins,

And turn thy errs to good, if those same errs

Were steps onto the glories halls of love

From which thy errs had purpose. Let it be

That thy true self shines forth.

DARIN: [Overcome with emotion] Oh, you are right!

[Darin sits, exhausted and quiet. Presently, Thomas speaks]

THOMAS: No great discovery as John’s and James’

Doth grace our lives. We think of countless minds

Who lived their lives and wisely spent their time

In gloried acts, surpassing thine and mine.

Yet, e’en in these last moments, let our hearts

Soar free, and on the wings of love depart.

Let God forgive our sins, that we impart

Our passion to the ages, that our flame

Doth shine across all men, although our names

Forgotten be.

[Darin is silent for a long time, then speaks, as though awakening]

DARIN: This night, a vision came

E’en while I shortly slept. This vision bodes

Some joy immense to shortly lift our souls

Across the sky, a mighty army rode

In never-ending glory. At the lead,

In one full-charging mighty company,

With all the other angels, I did see

Our friends, both John and James, upon their steeds

Come racing down to save us and reveive

Our souls to heaven and e’erlasting joy.

[He is silent for awile, as though half-disbeleiving

what he had just said. Cock crows.]

What, so soon? Our doom do fast approach!

Oh, let this fear dissolve! E’en now the light

Of morn springs o’er the trees and wakes the fields

And kisses men awake. Oh, wake, ye men!
A precious day do stand before ye now

Whose passage shall be sweet and hours fair

With love and laughter wafting through the air

E’en as the sun climbs slowly up the sky

Ye men shall act your trials and your deeds

Each precious moment acting as the judge

Of your true worth. Oh, precious, precious day!

Whose end I’ll never see.

THOMAS: Keep fast to God,

For, now thou shallt revert to thy true state

Which always thou shallt be, and always wert

Wherefrom, upon this life, thou hast enwrit

Thine own eternal plan.

DARIN: Ah, it is hard!

MARILYN: Remember thy good deeds and know thou that

Infinite mercy burns away our sins

If we allow it. Thou hast faced the test

When no one else would fight, thou stoodst alone

Despite thy other errs, whate’er they be.

[Fierce knocking on the outer gate. Dialogue off-stage]

VOICE: Open up the gates!

DARIN: Oh, they are come!

VOICE: [Knocking] Open, open, in the name of God!

GUARD: [Drunkenly] Who wakes me now? What? In the name of God?

[Shouts] If you be God, then let me see your pass

Else you shant come herein. The sun’s not up

Until one half an hour. Let us sleep.

VOICE: What pass? What dost thou mean?

GUARD: You need your pass

For passing here, for only good men pass

These heaven’s gates. Thus, go, unless you’re passed

And your past is your pass.

VOICE: What talk is this?

Open up I say.

GUARD: Nay, I shant that.

VOICE: Then we shall come! My friends, break down the gates!

[Loud cheer is heard.]

THOMAS: [Amazed] What is this?

GUARD: Oh my gate is broken! Who are ye?

Halt there I say. Nay, come not all at once.

VOICE: Unlock this second door or we shall break

Its frame to splinters.

GUARD: Nay, don’t do that. [Opens door. Enter Joal, soldiers and others.]

THOMAS: What miracle is this?

JOAL: The dam hath broke

That held our people back.

[To guard] Give me the key.

Is Lady Marilyn here?

MARILYN: How didst thou know.

I was? ‘T was only hours ere I came.

JOAL: Thy maid ran to our homes and woke us all,

While all the town did shake. The air is strange.

Our land is up in arms. I know not how.

[He unlocks cell of Thomas and Darin]

DARIN: Be this really true, or doth I dream?

JOAL: Nay, come out, for we have much to do.

[Thomas and Darin leave cell. Darin kisses ground.]

O glorious day. I scarce believe my eyes,

Yet, history doth let me live again.

JOAL: [Unlocking Marilyn’s cell] We must go fast

Before the word of this doth reach the King

And send his soldiers coming.

THOMAS: [Pointed to soldiers there] Who are these?

How did they come. I still don’t understand.

JOAL: Very well, then let me tell in brief

These odd events, whose nature I know not

In total, though their truth is dawning fast

As though the brilliant heavens opened up:

The soldiers here are loyal to the one

Who should have been our King, but who was thrown

Far out away to exile. /…/

Now, as we rose this morn, the town abuzzed

Excited, restless. Rumor did abound:

The true King came to throw the tyrant down.

And, then, the news spread ‘round about you three,

Who, for your goodness, faced the penalty

Of death!—O had ye seen what I did see!

For Marilyn, especially, is known

To those poor souls, for kindness she has shown.

[He pauses, looking at them with awe]

‘T were as a mighty anger, through them blown

Had filled them all with fire. They cried loud:

‘O let us march! The tyrant must fall down!

No man can take the rights that God hath bound

Within our human hearts.’ --And then they came,

Marching, marching, like a mighty wave.

The soldiers thought ‘t was us who led the march

And came to us with help. We thought ‘t was they.

But nay, ‘t was neither. Thus, with them we came

With God behind us all.

THOMAS: O is it true?

Our land is free again and man is saved.

DARIN: [Awed] Even Joal is changed!

JOAL: I should have been

With ye when ye were caught, but I was gone

Working up the courage. When I came

It was to see you being led away.

SOLDIER: Come, let us go.

JOAL: Yea, we shall.

[Speaking to Thomas and Darin]

Last night I saw a vision that portends

What lies ahead. I thought a blinding light

Had shot across the sky, but when I turned

‘T was gone. Yet, in my mind, the knowledge came:

The light was promise that I must fulfill,

And came from John and James. Thus, fear is dead.

Come then: A joyous day doth lie ahead.

[All exit. Curtain.]

ACT 3, SCENE 4

[A room in the King’s palace. Enter King and Ignatius, from opposite sides.]

KING: Ho friar.

IGNATIUS: Ho.

KING: Good morning.

IGNATIUS: And to you.

KING: A nightmare fouled my sleep.

IGNATIUS: Of what was it?

KING: I dreamt a second storm swept o’er my land

With giant waves that leapt up to the walls

Of my own castle; then the water rose

And chased me through the hallways, where I fled

In seeking out the tower. Up I went

The steps there, but the waves came close behind.

With mounting fear, I higher, higher climbed

Far up into the sky, above mankind.

But, when I reached the top, and looked around,

I saw that all my land had sunken down

Beneath the raging seas. I was alone.

No other soul was there. The endless sea

Passed far and wide, as far as I could see.

I cried aloud, ‘Oh, help!’ But none heard me.

And, then, the waters reared up. Still they came,

Lapping, lashing, ‘till they reached my foot,

Then leg, then theigh, then quickly rose thereup.

I tried to swim, but bubbles bubbled up

And churned me into darkness. –Then, I woke.

IGNATIUS: Too much is on your mind.

KING: This dream has left

A hollow feeling. / . / Almost a dread

Of ill foreboding.

IGNATIUS: Oh, you think too much.

Come. Let us set our will toward what’s ahead,

And steel our minds. Think not on idle things

And get our bloody business over with.

Last night we had resolved a gory death

--Most merciful of course—opon those ones

Who so defiled your name. Now, let me add

More reason why their end must horrid be:

Remember there are some who would rebel

Against your rule and seize from you your crown

And change all of your laws. These ones do plot

E’en now. Yet, when the traitors drown in blood,

It shall act as a warning to those ones

Who will to follow them. You understand?

KING: I do.

IGNATIUS: It shall affirm your firm control

O’er all your land and prove your iron fist

Can smash those in the way.

KING: Then, let it be,

And may it smash the fate that bodes for me.

IGNATIUS: Good, then let me say what I propose

Now, first--

KING: [Interupting] / . / Wait.

IGNATIUS: [Surprised] /… / What is it?

[Enter messenger]

MESSENGER: Your majesty, I have some news for you.

Bad news.

KING: What news?

MESSENGER: The dungeon has been broke.

KING: What broke? What do you mean?

MESS: Yes, broke, attacked. The prisoners are gone.

KING: What do you mean?

MESS: The dungeon was attacked, and those within

Escaped.

IGNATIUS: Repeat not o’er and o’er boy.

Who did it? Tell us that?

MESS: The citizens.

Now they are up in arms and march toward us.

IGNATIUS: The citizens! But how did they grow brave?

Who led them?

MESS: I know not.

IGNATIUS: Then let us find

This one, who captured, scatters all the rest.

[To King] Quickly must we act. Let’s send the troops

to crush them. King, we must have them cleared up

Before your brother comes this afternoon,

Else it shall be a fuel onto his claim

That he take back the throne.

MESS: A mutiny

Has seized the troops and broke them into two.

The sides come close together down below

And clash, the rebels ‘gainst the loyalists.

[Ignatius and King rush to window to look out]

I fear the rebels gain. It’s as a storm

Encroaching.

IGNATIUS: Oh foul day! This is some plot

Which your own brother hatched.

KING: What shall we do?

[Suddenly, a pounding on the castle gates, sound of fighting.]

What noise is this?

MESS: It’s pounding on the gates.

I fear we are surprised.

KING: Listen, there.

[Sound of trumpets, noise of many people]

REBEL CHORUS: March merrily. The battle has begun,

And soon shall meet in end, when we have won.

Fight bravely all, each man and everyone.

Remember: killing satan can be fun!

KING: What talk is this?

[More pounding on the gates.]

REBEL CHORUS: Oh victory. The enemy do run

Away from us. The battle shall be won.

It’s true that killing satan can be fun,

Though he not die on earth.

KING: Oh, save the King!

Guards, guards, defend your King!

[Exit King, running, followed by messenger. Ignatius remains.]

IGNATIUS: Perhaps it’s time to jump this sinking ship

Before I sink with it. But let me see.

[Another round of pounding at the gates. Enter Spy]

SPY: Ignatius, Sir, the day is upsidedown.

Revolt now shakes the city. Our control

Is breaking. The army fights itself,

With rebels gaining. Now, the loyal side

Do throw down all its weapons with a cry:

We shall not fight our kinsmen and our friends

In war ‘gainst our own country.” Then they bend

With tears and join with all the other men

Who e’en now march toward us.

IGNATIUS: What is this

That suddenly upfouls what we had planned?

Go out and find the source, and do it quick,

Corrupt it, bend it, turn it to a mob

That we can then divert to our own use.

[Ignatius pauses, thinking]

Defend you not the King. For his is lost.

We need betray him now to save our cause.

[Spy nods, exits. Ignatius looks out the window.]

Oh, hell! What army marching is that there

That fills up all the city. Now it comes

With pressing power toward these castle walls.

What is this? Who did this? How can it be?

My instincts tell me now to jump the ship,

And leave the King to drown.

[More pounding at the gates, then a crash. Presently,

re-enter King, running]

KING: The frontal gate is broke! Come, let us flee!

Before they overwhelm the guard below

And pour herein.

IGNATIUS: / . / I shant go with you.

KING: What did you say?

IGNATIUS: I’m angry with you now, you foolish King.

KING: [Stunned and hurt] Ignatius, friend, what are you saying now?

IGNATIUS: If you had listened more to my advice,

This never would have happened. It’s your fault.

No sympathy from me.

KING: Ignatius, friend.

IGNATIUS: I have nought to do with you.

KING: Nay, say not that.

My people and my army have rebelled

With hatred of my name. The very sky

Now shouts with anger. Will you do so to

And leave me friendless, ‘fore my fate alone?

IGNATIUS: [Turning away] I have no interest now.

KING: Oh, cruel lot!

What have I done that I deserve this fate?

[Sounds of fighting. Rebel soldier burst into the room, and quickly surround King and Ignatius.]

COLONEL: Halt there, thou two. Halt in the name of God.

KING: I shant resist.

IGNATIUS: I’m at your service now.

[Enter Thomas, Darin, Joal, Marilyn at other end of stage. Colonel takes out and reads a proclamation.]

COLONEL: We citizens, in service of the Lord

Make void thy rule, which had usurped the throne

And lost eternal grace. ‘T is not by us

This judgement hath been passed, but by the One

Whose law supreme rules over even Kings.

KING: I have no choice, but let me have a knife

That I may stab myself to ‘scape this lot.

THOMAS: To live this is less painful than to die

With all this on thy conscience. Therefore, live.

[King looks to Thomas. Re-enter Spy with mob of citizens. Spy points to King.]

SPY: There he is!

The cause of all your suffering. Let him die!

Stab him, have revenge!

MOB: Yes, kill the King!

[Members of mob draw knife to stab the King. Soldiers ruch to defend him, with drawn swords. Mob halts.]

THOMAS: You have killed satan. Therefore, let man live.

SPY: Nay, he has wronged us all!
1^ST MOBSTER: He killed my son!

2^ND MOBSTER: [Shaking fist] He stole my horse!

3^RD MOBSTER: [Shaking fist] He shouted at my dog!

COLONEL: If thou wert wronged, whyfor do more wrong,

As though, by wronging, thou shalt make wrong right?

SPY: We come not to aright, but have revenge.

COLONEL: Nay, we will none of that.

SPY: What, will you stop.

These rightful claims of ours? Then you betray

This angry orgy to o’erthrow the King

And make yourself the foe.

1^ST MOBSTER: It’s true!

2^ND MOBSTER: Hear, hear!

3^RD MOBSTER: If this is true, then let us fight them now.

MOB: Yea, yea! Hear, hear!
COLONEL: Silence! Silence all!

Thou hast not understood whyfor we fought,

And thus degrate thyselves. Think on our land.

Will thou spillt blood e’en on the very hour

When joy doth free us. Shallt thou be a blight

Onto our future?

SPY: You divert our rage.

We only understand that we were wronged.

Try not to sway our feeble peasant minds

With your high-sounding talk. We trust it not.

2^ND MOBSTER: What he says is true.

3^RD MOBSTER: We think alike!

2^ND MOBSTER: Then, let us fight with them and have revenge!
MARILYN: Wait. [All look to her. She points to the Spy]

This man I know, for he lurks ‘round this place,

Awaiting on the friar and his plots.

It is well known within this Kingdom’s court

That these two men together have designed

Much evil: thefts, assassinations, plots.

For, he works for the friar.

[Mobsters stare intently at the spy]

COLONEL: Is it true?

DARIN: Ah yes! I recognize who this man is.

For, he came snooping to some gatherings

We scientists had had. I liked him not,

Nor trusted him.

MARILYN: He often walked around

In rich attire, with the friar here

Around the castle grounds, while others, too,

Did serve upon their scheming.

[Mobsters glare at the spy]

SPY: [To mob] Will you believe these ones?

4^TH MOBSTER: Oh, what a fool

I was to not look closer. Yes, it’s he.

He is the one I saw down in the town

Last week, who payed to have that merchant killed,

And laughed when he was dead.

1^ST MOBSTER: Which merchant that?

4^TH MOBSTER: The young one, who had scarcely come of age.

It’s said he built his industries alone

Without an agent helping from the funds

That dominate the place.

1^ST MOBSTER: [Anguished] That was my son!

[To Spy] Oh, you deceiver!

[Stabs Spy] Doubly be you cursed!

1^ST SOLDIOR: Nay, stop. [He grabs 1^st Mobster]

JOAL: Too late.

1^ST SOLDIOR: The man is fortunate.

The stab did miss its target, else a blight

Would clutter this great day.

COLONEL: Bring him away.

And find a surgeon, quick! [To Mob] Get thee away.

[Exit some soldiers bearing wounded spy. Exit Mob, in a state of confusion]

O thanks to heaven that our citizens

Are wiser than those ones. Let us go down

Into the chamber to await the King,

--Our true King, who shall come.

CHORUS: Oh, joyous day!

2^ND SOLDIER: [Looking out window] But, look out there!

Some word hath reached the citizens outside,

For they erupt in joy, and shout and sing

And throw their hats above, into the air.

And now they make to speak. What shall they say?

CHORUS: (Off-stage)

Hail to Justice! Hallowed be its’ name!

It stays with man through trials and through pain.

It tries good men but always doth remain.

His guidance and his friend, whatever comes.

Oh hail to Truth! For all the noble souls

That turn t’ward it, and keep upon the road

Are ne’er denied a place in joy’s abode.

Thus hail to Justice! Hail to Truth and Love!

Hail to Him who rules here from above

Hail His Grace and let Him be beloved!

For only then can man fulfill his need.

For only then can man be truly freed.

For only then fulfill his destiny,

So that’s God’s will; through His will, doth issue

And he doth live in freedom and in truth.

2^ND SOLDIER: And there the King doth come! His banner flies

Across the cheering throngs.

CHORUS: [Cheers]

COLONEL: How swiftly doth he come! Prepare the way

To meet his honor.

3^RD SOLDIER: Sir, he’s at the gate.

No lightning bolt could faster come our way.

[Sounds of trumpets, footsteps, cheers, soldiers fall into line. Enter King Leonard, with attendants.

[Many speak except King, Leonard, Ignatius]

MANY: [Variously] Greetings to the King.

LEONARD: Who are the authors of this miracle

With doth amaze my eye? For, when I came,

It was to claim what this man ne’er would give:

The state its rightful ruler. I had thought

This one would laugh with scorn, refusingly

And send me hither. What hath happened here?

[To false King] What hast thou done to bring the state to this

And earn such anger? Even as I came,

The news did reach me of a great revolt

Of people in the streets. Rebellion brewed

Which was the surest sign thy rule had lost

Its mandate. / . / How came it thus to this?

FALSE KING: Why need I add more feasting to your eye?

You see what goes. Let it rest at that,

For I have nought to say.

LEONARD: Nor ever did,

For thou wert but a pet to viler ones

Who used thee to their end. But let me say

If e’er thy lack of ruling were in doubt

What more need I to do but point to thee

And thy disasterous rule. Look on our land!

‘T is as a war had ravaged through the city.

The farms are idle, broken houses fall.

The people groan in hunger and disease.

How couldst thou be so cruel? E’en as I came.

I saw my people broken, trampled, weak,

So thin as scarce could could stand, their lives in ruin.

Yet even then, those beaten broken men

Did raise their voice in joy as I rode in

To show their souls were greater than their pain

Is this thy rule, O King?

FALSE KING: I’ve nought to say.

LEONARD: Very well then.

[Looking to friar] Who art thou?

IGNATIUS: Ignatius, Sir.

LEONARD: The friar merciful?

IGNATIUS: The same. I put my service to your name

If you will have it.

LEONARD: Nay, I shall not that,

For blood drips from thy mouth whene’er thou speak,

And vilely doth it smell. Let them go.

Until we make decision on their fate,

Treat them with kindness, e’en though this be hard,

And let this be a test onto thy faith

Of worthiness and love. Give them a place

Within thy prayers. Pray that they be saved

From death’s eternal grief.

[Exit soldiers with Ignatius and false King.]

There goes my kinsman, though unlike myself

As night to day. –True brothers, tell me now

How these glad tidings came, for while I know

In part their cause, yet would I hear far more,
For wisdom’s bounty in this story lies,

And I need much of that. Who authored this?

[All look around at each other. Finally, Colonel speaks.]

COLONEL: Thy Majesty, we welcome thee with joy

And crown thee with our love and trusting hearts.

I am the leaders of these soldiers here,

But I would hate myself if I did lie

And told you it was I who led our land

In battle, for’t was not. It was not I,

Though I fought bravely. No, ‘t was something else

Whose beauty I beheld, but can’t explain

In words.

[With much emotion] O King! How blessed

is our land!

LEONARD: [Moved by his passion]

My friend, thy humbleness befits thee well

And wins my trust. No doubt thou art a man

Who loves his country dearly and would die

Far rather than allow a tyrant’s rule.

But tell me this. How many helped thee here?

COLONEL: It was not many in these dark months passed.

Most soldiers feared. The friar’s arm was long

And reached its twisting talons deep and far

O’er everything. Men feared him as a ghost

Unseen and hidden, lurking in the dark

Who knew his every thought.

LEONARD: Then, who are these? [Points to soldiers]

COLONEL: These are the noblest ones who fought with me

And led the final charges. At the end,

The others joined as well. These were the best

And proud I was to lead them.

LEONARD: Let these ones

Be constituted as the leadership

Of our new army. These men doth I trust

Far more than any others, for they led

In hardship and success. / . / And thyself,

I make thee General and give command

Of this new noble army to thy hand.

COLONEL: [Bows] Most honored, Sir.

LEONARD: [To scientists] And, who art thou?

THOMAS: We all are scientists.

LEONARD: [Delighted] Scientists!

What news of Mark, the old, my dearest friend

Who once advised my father? Is he here.

THOMAS: He is.

LEONARD: I would see him whene’er I can.

My father always said true scientists

Would lead man unto freedom. Much he loved

The mind which, freed from hardship, turned intent

Upon the riddles that the world presents.

--But, tell me, did thou lead them?

THOMAS: [Bows, humbly] Nay, not I.

The two that led this fight are passed us here

Into another world.

LEONARD: They died today?

In battle?

THOMAS: Nay, they passed some time before

In battle yes, but slightly different form,

Before the victory.

LEONARD: Why did they die?

THOMAS: Thy Majesty, forgive me if I speak

In language strange. Yet it doth seem to me

That these two have not died, although they passed.

And, now, a joy so bright doth burn in me

As though they had returned and stood here now

To share this joy with us. They seem more near

More closer to my heart than e’er before.

[He looks up slightly, toward the heavens]

O my two friends! My riddle hath been solved!

LEONARD: [Regarding him with much amazement and emotion]

O day of miracles, that hath such things!

Such wonders, and such passions, and such truth.

Thy friends need have been wise and noble too

To make thee speak this way.

THOMAS: Such noble souls

Doth rarely walk this earth.

LEONARD: Then, let them be

Remembered, loved and cherished in our land.

Let men strive after them and sing them praise

With souls raised high to heaven. Let there be

A monument of honor in their name.

--But, tell me only this, for I need know:

Who killed them and whyfor?

THOMAS: ‘T was nature’s hand

And all the men who failed to tame her fury.

JOAL: Thou heard about the storm that hit us here?

LEONARD: Aye, yes, a vicious storm, and many killed.

JOAL: They were among them. Fighting ‘gainst the tide,

They sought to save men’s souls, and for that died.

LEONARD: Brave soldiers of the mind who fight so well

In body as in mind, and as in soul

No fate can shake, nor any death divide

From us. And soon, when there shall be the time,

Please tell me all this tale, for I would know

What wonderous souls they were, and how our land

By Grace and by their freedom hath been saved.

THOMAS: We shall and do much more, for we shall strive

Upon the path they set, fulfill their goal,

To make their ending all the happier.

DARIN: Aye that, else I would ever damned be

To scorn this second life that’s given me.

[King Leonard regards him, then looks to Marilyn]

LEONARD: And thou? A scientist?

MARILYN: I am not that,

But like in heart. The form doth matter not,

But will and courage.

LEONARD: ‘T is most wisely said.

What wonderous people! And how wise in heart.
Thou shallt by my advisors and my friends,

And our good Kingdom wisest in this isle.

[Seeing Old Mark, who has entered]

Old Mark, my dearest friend! [Embraces him]

OLD MARK: O hath this day of joy now come at last?

My old and weary soul doth leap again

Across the highest mountain. We are free!

Our land is free again, and thee returned.

LEONARD: My joy is now complete. No words I speak

Can show its brightness. Let us go outside

And meet our citizens. Come, Mark, with me.

Come all. These castle walls be too restaining.

Joy hath no boundaries. Therefore, let us go.

[All move to go. Marilyn motions Thomas aside.]

MARILYN: Promise this to me: Thou never shall

/ . / Love me more than any other soul,

But equally.

THOMAS: Dear Marilyn, I do:
I promise thee to never love thee more

Than any other, but, by loving thee,

To love all men through thee.

MARILYN: Then, come with me,

For thou art wise, and I belong with thee

For mankind’s sake, for now and evermore.

[Exit Marilyn and Thomas, after the others. An appropriate piece of music can be played, such as the “Hallayullah” chorus form Handel’s Messiah, or the “Ode to Joy” of Beethoven. Curtain. End of drama.]

Completed Christmas Day, 1992, by Jeremy Batterson

A TALE OF OLD ENGLAND,

WHERE MEN SPOKE DIFFERENTLY

A Note On the Text

JOAL: No one

JOAL: Know you not us well, good Thomas?

A fear of their potent, which doth appear

JAMES: Thou hearest?

ACT 1, SCENE 2

MARILYN: O fie on my high birth! And fie the love

MARILYN: Would thou walk with me?

ACT 1, SCENE 3

He left me here, alone. Shall he return?

That you may speak to her. There is no cure

DAUGHTER: He came to see my mother? How is she?

ACT 1, SCENE 4

The time is fleeing. Soon, your cowardice

Of what it is you need?

Thy broken nation, ‘fore the dooming waves

What then now? Is there another way?

There must be something good within this one

My royal blood. To war I shall now go

KING: Are you insane?

KING: Come away!

ACT 2, SCENE 1

ALL: Too long your cruel bite has man harassed

The population left is less.” –Signed

Could not my err have killed them, and not me?

ACT 2, SCENE 2

KING: What act, just now?

That love ‘tween men is greater and do please

To ask apology for what you said

To breathe the air thy noble father did

ACT 2, SCENE 3

And light doth fade outside the garden walls?

MARILYN: [Aside] His soul is great.

I think that God, himself, has sent her down

That came across my vision this past night

ACT 2, SCENE 4

ACT 3, SCENE 1

DARIN: Greetings!

By dirtiness he makes. My land shall be

Are all the others frightened by the King?

At whom are these dogs barking?

What matter in those sacks?

ACT 3, SCENE 3

KING: Come in. [Enter Ignatius]

Whose source I can’t control or bring to heel

IGNATIUS: Was she who gave the funding to those two

Oh, death of love! Oh, let my ears not hear

So that’s God’s will; through His will, doth issue