Act I: Scene I

ABNER.TO worship the Eternal, yea, I comeInto his temple, come to celebrate,According to our ancient, solemn use,In company with you, the hallowed dayOn which upon Mount Sinai unto usThe law was given. How changed are the times!No sooner did the sacred trumpet soundThat day's return, than holy people throngedIn multitudes the temple's porticos;And all in order 'fore the altar placed,Bearing the fields' new produce in their hands,Those first-fruits offered up to the One God:The sacrifices overtaxed the priests!Stopping that concourse, an audacious womanHas changed those glorious days to days of gloom.Scarce a small number of true worshippersDare give faint semblance of the ancient times;The rest have shewn a fatal thoughtlessnessTowards their God, or worse, have even rushedTo Baal's altars to initiateThemselves into his shameful mysteries;And curse the name their fathers have invoked.To speak right openly, I am in dreadThat Athaliah from the altar willTear you, yourself; and casting off, at length,The remnants of her forced respect, completeOn you her deadly vengeance.

JOAD.Whence comes to-day this dark presentiment?

ABNER.Think you that with impunity you canBe just and pure? since, for so long a timeThe queen has hated that rare constancyWhich adds, in Joad, new splendour to his office;Since, for so long, your ardour for your faithHas been construed sedition and revolt.The jealous-minded queen hates, above all,The dazzling worth of Josabet, your wife.Though Joad is the successor of the priest--The high priest, Aaron--Josabet is stillThe last king's sister. Mathan, besides, Mathan--Apostate priest--more vile than Athaliah,Is importuning her at every hour;Mathan, the base deserter from our altars,And persecutor of all righteous zeal.'Tis not enough his brow's encircled withA foreign mitre; e'en his ministryThis Levite lends to Baal: this temple frets him,And his impiety doth wish to crushThe God he has abjured. To ruin youNo snare he can devise will be unwrought.Sometimes he pities you, and frequentlyHe even praises, and affects for youA treacherous gentleness; and by this meansHe deepens his malignity's dark dye.Now, to that queen he paints you terrible;Now, seeing her insatiate lust for gold,He feigns that in a place, to you but known,You hide the treasures David had amassed.At last, the sombre Athaliah's seemedFor two days buried in a dark chagrin.I saw her yesterday, and watched her eyeFlash on this holy place a furious glance,As if the depths of this vast edificeConcealed God's 'venger, armed to punish her.Believe me, more I think of it and lessI doubt that 'tis on you her wrath's to burst;And that the cruel Athaliah willAssail our God, e'en in His sanctuary.

JOAD.He who can rein the fury of the wavesKnows also how to check the base one's plots:Submit with reverence to His holy will.Dear Abner, I fear God, and no one elseI have to fear. I thank you, ne'ertheless,For the observant zeal with which your eyesAre open to my peril. Secretly,I see injustice galls you,--that you haveWithin you still the heart of Israel:Thank God for that! But are you satisfiedWith this unpractised virtue--secret wrath?Ah! Can that faith which acts not be sincere?Usurping all the rights of David's sway,An impious stranger, now for eight years past,Hath weltered in the blood of Judah's kingsUnpunished,--odious murderer of her sons;And now e'en raiseth her perfidious arm'Gainst God: and you, though nourished in the campOf Josaphat, the saintly king, are oneOf the upholders of this tottering state;Who led our armies under Joram's son,And who alone revived our towns alarmedWhen the abrupt decease of OchoziahDispersed all his camp at Jehu's sight;God fear, I say you, and His word affects me!Hear, how that God rebukes you by my mouth:--"What use to vaunt your ardour for My law?By empty vows think you to honour Me?What value all your offerings to Me?Need I the blood of he-goats and of heifers?The blood of kings exclaims and is not heard:Break, break all compact with the impious!Drive out the offences from your people's midst;And then return to offer Me your victims."

ABNER.Ah! what can I amongst this down-trod race?Powerless is Benjamin, and Judah droops:The day which saw their race of kings no moreExtinguished all their spirits' ancient fire;E'en God, say they, withholds Himself from us:So jealous, formerly, of Hebrews' fame,He sees, unmoved, our grandeur crushed to earth,And, in the end, His mercy's wearied out:No more, for us, His terrible arm is seenTo awe mankind with marvels numberless:The ark is mute, its oracles unspoken.

JOAD.Yet, when was time so full of miracles?When did God show His power with more effect?Will you have always eyes that do not seeA people thankless?--still your ear be struckWith greatest wonders, and your heart unmoved?Must I, then, Abner, call to mind the courseOf prodigies accomplished in our days?Of Israel's tyrants, the notorious shame,And God found true in all His menaces;The impious Ahab ruined, and his bloodThat drenched the field by homicide usurped;Jezebel slaughtered near that fatal field;That queen beneath the feet of horses crushed;The dogs in her inhuman blood quenched full,And the torn members of her hideous corpse;Of lying prophets, the confounded crew,And flames upon the altar fall'n from heaven;Elijah speaking like a potentateUnto the elements, the firmamentAs heated brass becoming, closed by him;The earth three years without both rain and dew;The dead reviving at Elisha's voice?O, Abner, own in these transcendant deeds,A God such as He was throughout all time.Who knoweth, when He wills, to show His glory,His people always present in His thoughts.

ABNER.But where the dignities to David promised,And e'en foretold by Solomon, his son?Alas! we hoped that from that happy raceWas to descend a numerous train of kings;That over every nation, every tribe,His domination one of them should fix;Make war and tumult cease in every land,And at their feet behold all earthly kings.

JOAD.Wherefore renounce the promises of heaven?

ABNER.Where shall we seek that monarch, David's son?Can heaven itself repair that withered tree,Dead, even to its roots? The infant king,By Athaliah murdered in his cradle;Can those, for eight years dead, forsake the tomb?Ah! in her fury were she but deceived!If of the royal blood one drop escaped!

JOAD.What would you then?

ABNER.O happy day for me!O with what ardour would I own my king!Doubt you, that at his feet our eager tribes--But wherefore flatter me with these vain thoughts?The wretched heir of our triumphant kingsAlone was Ochoziah, with his children;By Jehu's shafts I saw the father pierced;You, by the mother, saw the son despatched.

JOAD.I say no more; but when the star of dayShall have performed a third part of his courseOn the horizon, come with this same zealAgain into the temple, whilst to prayersThe third hour summons us, and God to youWill show, by benefactions weighty, thatHis word is stable, that it ne'er deceives.Depart: I must prepare for this great day,And dawn already gilds the temple's summit.

ABNER.What are those favours that I cannot fathom?The illustrious Josabet approaches you:I go to mingle with the faithful bandWhich this day's solemn pomp enticeth forth.