Act IV: Scene II. — Judas Maccabaeus; Jason; Jews

JEWS.Lurking among the ruins of the Temple,Deep in its inner courts, we found this man,Clad as High-Priest.

JUDAS.I ask not who thou art.I know thy face, writ over with deceitAs are these tattered volumes of the LawWith heathen images. A priest of GodWast thou in other days, but thou art nowA priest of Satan. Traitor, thou art Jason.

JASON.I am thy prisoner, Judas Maccabaeus,And it would ill become me to concealMy name or office.

JUDAS.Over yonder gateThere hangs the head of one who was a Greek.What should prevent me now, thou man of sin,From hanging at its side the head of oneWho born a Jew hath made himself a Greek?

JASON.Justice prevents thee.

JUDAS.Justice? Thou art stainedWith every crime against which the DecalogueThunders with all its thunder.

JASON.If not Justice,Then Mercy, her handmaiden.

JUDAS.When hast thouAt any time, to any man or woman,Or even to any little child, shown mercy?

JASON.I have but done what King AntiochusCommanded me.

JUDAS.True, thou hast been the weaponWith which he struck; but hast been such a weapon,So flexible, so fitted to his hand,It tempted him to strike. So thou hast urged himTo double wickedness, thine own and his.Where is this King? Is he in AntiochAmong his women still, and from his windowsThrowing down gold by handfuls, for the rabbleTo scramble for?

JASON.Nay, he is gone from there,Gone with an army into the far East.

JUDAS.And wherefore gone?

JASON.I know not. For the spaceOf forty days almost were horsemen seenRunning in air, in cloth of gold, and armedWith lances, like a band of soldiery;It was a sign of triumph.

JUDAS.Or of death.Wherefore art thou not with him?

JASON.I was leftFor service in the Temple.

JUDAS.To pollute it,And to corrupt the Jews; for there are menWhose presence is corruption; to be with themDegrades us and deforms the things we do.

JASON.I never made a boast, as some men do,Of my superior virtue, nor deniedThe weakness of my nature, that hath made meSubservient to the will of other men.

JUDAS.Upon this day, the five and twentieth dayOf the month Caslan, was the Temple hereProfaned by strangers,--by AntiochusAnd thee, his instrument. Upon this dayShall it be cleansed. Thou, who didst lend thyselfUnto this profanation, canst not beA witness of these solemn services.There can be nothing clean where thou art present.The people put to death Callisthenes,Who burned the Temple gates; and if they find theeWill surely slay thee. I will spare thy lifeTo punish thee the longer. Thou shalt wanderAmong strange nations. Thou, that hast cast outSo many from their native land, shalt perishIn a strange land. Thou, that hast left so manyUnburied, shalt have none to mourn for thee,Nor any solemn funerals at all,Nor sepulchre with thy fathers.--Get thee hence!

(Music. Procession of Priests and people,with citherns, harps, and cymbals. JUDASMACCABAEUS puts himself at theirhead, and they go into the inner courts.)