Delphi Complete Works of Oscar Wilde (Illustrated) (45 page)

HERODIAS
No; the moon is like the moon, that is all, Let us go within . . . . We have nothing to do here.

HEROD
I will stay here! Manasseh, lay carpets there. Light torches. Bring forth the ivory tables, and the tables of jasper. The air here is sweet. I will drink more wine with my guests. We must show all honours to the ambassadors of Cæsar.

HERODIAS
It is not because of them that you remain.

HEROD
Yes; the air is very sweet. Come, Herodias, our guests await us. Ah! I have slipped! I have slipped in blood! It is an ill omen. It is a very ill omen. Wherefore is there blood here? . . . and this body, what does this body here? Think you I am like the King of Egypt, who gives no feast to his guests but that he shows them a corpse? Whose is it? I will not look on it.

FIRST SOLDIER
It is our captain, sire. It is the young Syrian whom you made captain of the guard but three days gone.

HEROD
I issued no order that he should be slain.

SECOND SOLDIER
He slew himself, sire.

HEROD
For what reason? I had made him captain of my guard!

SECOND SOLDIER
We do not know, sire. But with his own hand he slew himself.

HEROD
That seems strange to me. I had thought it was but the Roman philosophers who slew themselves. Is it not true, Tigellinus, that the philosophers at Rome slay themselves?

TIGELLINUS
There be some who slay themselves, sire. They are the Stoics. The Stoics are people of no cultivation. They are ridiculous people. I myself regard them as being perfectly ridiculous.

HEROD
I also. It is ridiculous to kill one’s-self.

TIGELLINUS
Everybody at Rome laughs at them. The Emperor has written a satire against them. It is recited everywhere.

HEROD
Ah! he has written a satire against them? Cæsar is wonderful. He can do everything. . . . It is strange that the young Syrian has slain himself. I am sorry he has slain himself. I am very sorry. For he was fair to look upon. He was even very fair. He had very languorous eyes. I remember that I saw that he looked languorously at Salomé. Truly, I thought he looked too much at her.

HERODIAS
There are others who look too much at her.

HEROD
His father was a king. I drave him from his kingdom. And of his mother, who was a queen, you made a slave, Herodias. So he was here as my guest, as it were, and for that reason I made him my captain. I am sorry he is dead. Ho! why have you left the body here? It must be taken to some other place. I will not look at it, — away with it! (They take away the body.)
It is cold here. There is a wind blowing. Is there not a wind blowing?

HERODIAS
No; there is no wind.

HEROD
I tell you there is a wind that blows . . . . And I hear in the air something that is like the beating of wings, like the beating of vast wings. Do you not hear it?

HERODIAS
I hear nothing.

HEROD
I hear it no longer. But I heard it. It was the blowing of the wind. It has passed away. But no, I hear it again. Do you not hear it? It is just like a beating of wings.

HERODIAS
I tell you there is nothing. You are ill. Let us go within.

HEROD
I am not ill. It is your daughter who is sick to death. Never have I seen her so pale.

HERODIAS
I have told you not to look at her.

HEROD
Pour me forth wine. (Wine is brought.)
Salomé, come drink a little wine with me. I have here a wine that is exquisite. Cæsar himself sent it me. Dip into it thy little red lips, that I may drain the cup.

SALOMÉ
I am not thirsty, Tetrarch.

HEROD
You hear how she answers me, this daughter of yours?

HERODIAS
She does right. Why are you always gazing at her?

HEROD
Bring me ripe fruits. (Fruits are brought.)
Salomé, come and eat fruits with me. I love to see in a fruit the mark of thy little teeth. Bite but a little of this fruit, that I may eat what is left.

SALOMÉ
I am not hungry, Tetrarch.

HEROD
(To Herodias)
You see how you have brought up this daughter of yours.

HERODIAS
My daughter and I come of a royal race. As for thee, thy father was a camel driver! He was a thief and a robber to boot!

HEROD
Thou liest!

HERODIAS
Thou knowest well that it is true.

HEROD
Salomé, come and sit next to me. I will give thee the throne of thy mother.

SALOMÉ
I am not tired, Tetrarch.

HERODIAS
You see in what regard she holds you.

HEROD
Bring me — What is it that I desire? I forget. Ah! ah! I remember.

THE VOICE OF IOKANAAN
Behold the time is come! That which I foretold has come to pass. The day that I spake of is at hand.

HERODIAS
Bid him be silent. I will not listen to his voice. This man is for ever hurling insults against me.

HEROD
He has said nothing against you. Besides, he is a very great prophet.

HERODIAS
I do not believe in prophets. Can a man tell what will come to pass? No man knows it. Also he is for ever insulting me. But I think you are afraid of him . . . . I know well that you are afraid of him.

HEROD
I am not afraid of him. I am afraid of no man.

HERODIAS
I tell you you are afraid of him. If you are not afraid of him why do you not deliver him to the Jews who for these six months past have been clamouring for him?

A JEW
Truly, my lord, it were better to deliver him into our hands.

HEROD
Enough on this subject. I have already given you my answer. I will not deliver him into your hands. He is a holy man. He is a man who has seen God.

A JEW
That cannot be. There is no man who hath seen God since the prophet Elias. He is the last man who saw God face to face. In these days God doth not show Himself. God hideth Himself. Therefore great evils have come upon the land.

ANOTHER JEW
Verily, no man knoweth if Elias the prophet did indeed see God. Peradventure it was but the shadow of God that he saw.

A THIRD JEW
God is at no time hidden. He showeth Himself at all times and in all places. God is in what is evil even as He is in what is good.

A FOURTH JEW
Thou shouldst not say that. It is a very dangerous doctrine. It is a doctrine that cometh from Alexandria, where men teach the philosophy of the Greeks. And the Greeks are Gentiles. They are not even circumcised.

FIFTH JEW
No man can tell how God worketh. His ways are very dark. It may be that the things which we call evil are good, and that the things which we call good are evil. There is no knowledge of anything. We can but bow our heads to His will, for God is very strong. He breaketh in pieces the strong together with the weak, for He regardeth not any man.

FIRST JEW
Thou speakest truly. Verily, God is terrible. He breaketh in pieces the strong and the weak as men break corn in a mortar. But as for this man, he hath never seen God. No man hath seen God since the prophet Elias.

HERODIAS
Make them be silent. They weary me.

HEROD
But I have heard it said that Iokanaan is in very truth your prophet Elias.

THE JEW
That cannot be. It is more than three hundred years since the days of the prophet Elias.

HEROD
There be some who say that this man is Elias the prophet.

A NAZARENE
I am sure that he is Elias the prophet.

THE JEW
Nay, but he is not Elias the prophet.

THE VOICE OF IOKANAAN
Behold the day is at hand, the day of the Lord, and I hear upon the mountains the feet of Him who shall be the Saviour of the world.

HEROD
What does that mean? The Saviour of the world?

TIGELLINUS
It is a title that Cæsar adopts.

HEROD
But Cæsar is not coming into Judæa. Only yesterday I received letters from Rome. They contained nothing concerning this matter. And you, Tigellinus, who were at Rome during the winter, you heard nothing concerning this matter, did you?

TIGELLINUS
Sire, I heard nothing concerning the matter. I was but explaining the title. It is one of Cæsar’s titles.

HEROD
But Cæsar cannot come. He is too gouty. They say that his feet are like the feet of an elephant. Also there are reasons of state. He who leaves Rome loses Rome. He will not come. Howbeit, Cæsar is lord, he will come if such be his pleasure. Nevertheless, I think he will not come.

FIRST NAZARENE
It was not concerning Cæsar that the prophet spake these words, sire.

HEROD
How? — it was not concerning Cæsar?

FIRST NAZARENE
No, my lord.

HEROD
Concerning whom then did he speak?

FIRST NAZARENE
Concerning Messias, who hath come.

A JEW
Messias hath not come.

FIRST NAZARENE
He hath come, and everywhere He worketh miracles!

HERODIAS
Ho! ho! miracles! I do not believe in miracles. I have seen too many. (To the Page.)
My fan.

FIRST NAZARENE
This Man worketh true miracles. Thus, at a marriage which took place in a little town of Galilee, a town of some importance, He changed water into wine. Certain persons who were present related it to me. Also He healed two lepers that were seated before the Gate of Capernaum simply by touching them.

SECOND NAZARENE
Nay; it was two blind men that He healed at Capernaum.

FIRST NAZARENE
Nay; they were lepers. But He hath healed blind people also, and He was seen on a mountain talking with angels.

A SADDUCEE
Angels do not exist.

A PHARISEE
Angels exist, but I do not believe that this Man has talked with them.

FIRST NAZARENE
He was seen by a great multitude of people talking with angels.

HERODIAS
How these men weary me! They are ridiculous! They are altogether ridiculous! (To the Page.)
Well! my fan? (The Page gives her the fan.)
You have a dreamer’s look. You must not dream. It is only sick people who dream. (She strikes the Page with her fan.)

SECOND NAZARENE
There is also the miracle of the daughter of Jairus.

FIRST NAZARENE
Yea, that is sure. No man can gainsay it.

HERODIAS
Those men are mad. They have looked too long on the moon. Command them to be silent.

HEROD
What is this miracle of the daughter of Jairus?

FIRST NAZARENE
The daughter of Jairus was dead. This Man raised her from the dead.

HEROD
How! He raises people from the dead?

FIRST NAZARENE
Yea, sire; He raiseth the dead.

HEROD
I do not wish Him to do that. I forbid Him to do that. I suffer no man to raise the dead. This Man must be found and told that I forbid Him to raise the dead. Where is this Man at present?

SECOND NAZARENE
He is in every place, my lord, but it is hard to find Him.

FIRST NAZARENE
It is said that He is now in Samaria.

A JEW
It is easy to see that this is not Messias, if He is in Samaria. It is not to the Samaritans that Messias shall come. The Samaritans are accursed. They bring no offerings to the Temple.

SECOND NAZARENE
He left Samaria a few days since. I think that at the present moment He is in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem.

FIRST NAZARENE
No; He is not there. I have just come from Jerusalem. For two months they have had no tidings of Him.

HEROD
No matter! But let them find Him, and tell Him, thus saith Herod the King, “I will not suffer Thee to raise the dead.” To change water into wine, to heal the lepers and the blind . . . . He may do these things if He will. I say nothing against these things. In truth I hold it a kindly deed to heal a leper. But no man shall raise the dead . . . . It would be terrible if the dead came back.