A square with a few citizens strolling about. The palace of the Patriarch is seen in the centre, with a convent to the right and a grove to the left. Adam, as Tancred, a man in his prime, and other knights at the head of Crusaders returning from Asia with banners flying and drums beating. Lucifer is Tancred’s squire. Evening; later, night.
1ST CITIZEN
Another troop of those barbarians!
Let’s run and fasten every gate and door
before they come and plunder us again.
2ND CITIZEN
And what is more, let’s hide our womenfolk.
These savages well know the harems’ pleasures.
1ST CITIZEN
And our women the right of conquerors.
ADAM
Don’t run away! You needn’t flee from us.
Why? Can’t you see this sacred sign we bear?
This makes us brethren in the selfsame cause.
We’ve been as far as Asia with the doctrine
of love, the light of faith, that millions there
amongst whom rocked our holy Saviour’s cradle
perverse as yet they are, may have His grace.
Can you be lacking in this holy love?
1ST CITIZEN
We’ve heard that story many times before
and all too soon our houses were on fire.
The Citizens disperse and Adam turns to his band of followers.
ADAM
See for yourselves the accursed fruit of evil:
this happens when some brigand brandishing
our sacred flag and subtly flattering
the fickle passions of the populace
assumes command - uncalled to be the leader.
Comrades-in-arms, whose swords are dedicated
to honour undefiled, God’s holy service,
defence of women and of utmost valour,
it must remain our bounden duty therefore
to curb ambition, that repugnant demon,
and so harness its force, despite itself,
that it is put to good and noble use.
LUCIFER
Fine words, Tancred, but should the populace
be disinclined to take you for the leader…?
ADAM
Where there is spirit, there is victory.
I’d crush them.
LUCIFER
But they too may have that spirit.
Will you then condescend…?
ADAM
Why condescend?
To raise them higher would be more becoming.
For not to welcome new comrades-in-arms
and grudging them their share of victory
would be as mean as it is infamous
for lack of comrades to desert the field.
LUCIFER
Behold the lofty vision - in decline!
Absurd to think that martyrs died for it.
What freedom for the individual
in this amazing brand of brotherhood?
ADAM
Don’t scoff: Don’t say that I’ve misunderstood
my vision - and my life’s main aspiration.
Men with the sacred spark are free to act,
and let them act, free to approach our order;
once dubbed, they are like any one of us.
Of course we must protect our treasured values
against the turmoil of this present time,
until the day when all divisions cease
amongst all people, all equally cleansed,
when our redemption will attain fulfilment.
That perfect end one might have called in doubt,
if it were not Almighty God Himself
planning His handiwork from the beginning.
My friends, you’ve witnessed our reception here;
unwelcome as we are amongst these people
we cannot choose but settle in the woods,
pitching our tents there as we used to do
amongst the heathen. Times may change for better.
Dismiss! I’ll join you later. Every knight
is answerable for his retinue.
The army of crusaders pitch camp. Lucifer is watching them.
LUCIFER
Look at the fruit of your crusading efforts:
like that proverbial apple, are they not?
The red without, the rot within.
ADAM
Stop gibing!
Have you no faith in anything that’s noble?
LUCIFER
If I had, what of it? Your own kind hasn’t.
This knightly order which you try to picture
a towering lighthouse in the stormy sea,
shall lose its light one day, the darkened ruin
a greater hazard to the mariner
than reefs which never boasted any light.
All things that live, though wholesome in their life,
must die in turn: the spirit will depart,
but their remains are left, a foul cadaver,
from which a murderous contagion issues,
polluting all the new-born life around.
Such is our legacy from greater days.
ADAM
Before this fellowship will come to ruin
its sacred doctrines may pervade the masses.
All will be well…
LUCIFER
You and your sacred doctrines!
[to the audience]
These sacred doctrines, Man, have been your bane.
You will debate them over and again,
and splitting hairs or talking round about
you clarify, assert and call in doubt,
till words become a sheer impediment
or madness terminates the argument.
Frustrating though it is, you’ll never find
exactness - that’s beyond the human mind.
For take this sword and call it large or small,
it won’t affect the sword itself at all,
but problems which that differentia stages:
what’s large, what’s small - could be argued for ages,
and yet it’s quite apparent to the senses
which take account of grosser differences…
But what’s the use? I shouldn’t have to delve
into all this. Go, and see it for yourself!
[A few Citizens appear.]
ADAM
Good friends! My men are tired and need refreshment.
The capital of Christianity
surely can’t turn us down.
3RD CITIZEN
Depends. You may be
worse than the heathen in your heresy.
4TH CITIZEN
Is it HOMOIOUSIAN you profess,
or HOMOOUSIAN?
ADAM
Cannot see the point.
LUCIFER
Don’t tell them. It’s a burning issue here.
4TH CITIZEN
He hesitates! Another heretic!
OTHERS
Don’t speak to them! Take shelter in your houses!
Curse him who gives them hospitality.
The Citizens disperse. The Patriarch, with a princely retinue and in great splendour, appears from his palace, followed by a number of monks and friars escorting heretics in chains. Soldiers and townspeople close the procession.
ADAM
Amazing! Look, who is this royalty
approaching with a proud, disdainful bearing?
LUCIFER
The high priest, to be sure. The apostles’ heir.
ADAM
And those barefooted, nasty-looking creatures
who eye their prisoners with sordid pleasure?
Their feigned humility can barely hide it.
LUCIFER
Some sort of Christian cynics: monks and friars.
ADAM
This is unheard of in my highland country.
LUCIFER
It won’t take long to get there. Leprosy,
you know, is slow to spread, but then - beware,
for those are folk of absolute conviction:
they practise virtues and intolerance.
ADAM
What virtues can they practise? Tell me that.
LUCIFER
Through self denial, self-inflicted torture
they ape your master dying on the cross.
ADAM
But He redeemed the world and paid our ransom:
whereas those scoundrels practise blasphemy.
It’s sacrilege to throw away His blessings.
Why, they are swatting midges with the weapon
which one might bravely wield against a bear!
They must be fools!
LUCIFER
But what if they believe
that midges are bears? Would it not be fair?
Finding their fortitude in abstinence
can’t they damn others who succumb to pleasure?
ADAM
I see like Thomas, but I can’t believe.
We’ll shed some light on this confusion here.
[stepping in the path of the Patriarch]
As soldiers of the Holy Sepulchre
we’ve had a long and tiresome journey, Father,
but people here deny us food and shelter.
Use your authority and speak for us.
PATRIARCH
My son, I have no time for trifling matters.
Glory of God, salvation of the faithful
enjoins me to condemn these heretics.
They grow like noxious weeds and spread their poison,
and though we thin them out with fire and sword,
Hell sends them forth in greater numbers still.
So if you are the warriors of the Cross,
you needn’t seek the distant Saracen:
here is the foe that’s far more dangerous.
Destroy their villages, put to the sword
their old, their women with their suckling babes…
ADAM
Father, you do not mean the innocent?
PATRIARCH
Are serpents innocent, though newly hatched?
Even those which are without their poison fangs?
Yet would you spare them?
ADAM
What’s this heinous crime
which can provoke the church of love to seethe
with so much hatred?
PATRIARCH
Be advised, my son.
The man who loves will not cajole the flesh:
he’ll do his best to guide the erring soul
through flames, if need be, even by the sword,
to Him who said: “It is not peace, but war
I bring into the world.” These are dissenters
who try to introduce HOMOIOUSIAN
to doctrine on the Holy Trinity,
whereas the church establishing the faith
has clearly instituted HOMOOUSIAN.
MONKS, FRIARS
They’ll suffer for it! Burn them at the stake!
ADAM
[to the heretics]
Listen, my friends! Forget this letter “i”:
giving your life to free the Holy Land
would be a more becoming sacrifice.
OLD HERETIC
Satan, begone! We’ll keep our faith untainted
and shed our blood as God directed it.
A MONK
Boast of untainted faith? What arrogance!
OLD HERETIC
In Rimini the Synod ratified it,
and others did as well.
A MONK
They are in error.
One in Nicea clearly stood for us,
and so did other synods of the true faith.
OLD HERETIC
The renegades! Trying to rival us.
Have you a single Father of the Church
on your side like our Father Arius,
or either of the Eusebiuses?
A MONK
And how about our Athanasius?
OLD HERETIC
Have you a martyr?
A MONK
More than you can boast of.
OLD HERETIC
Some martyrs, those. The devil has beguiled them
into deception and accursed death.
I’d say you are that Babylon the Great,
the Harlot which Saint John has spoken of.
You are to be destroyed!
A MONK
You Antichrist!
That’s what you are: the Seven Headed Dragon,
of whom Saint John has written. You deceivers!
You villains, Satan’s own associates…
OLD HERETIC
You thieves! You serpents, gluttons, fornicators…
PATRIARCH
Take them away! We’re wasting time with talking.
To God the glory: march them to the stake!
OLD HERETIC
To God the glory! As you say, you monster.
To God the glory - and our sacrifice!
Do what you will - you have the power to do it -
the day will come and Heaven shall judge the deed.
Your days of sin are numbered. Out of our blood
new warriors shall rise a thousandfold.
Our faith shall live. These flames shall be a beacon,
a shining light for centuries to come.
Friends! Let us march along - to glorious death!
THE HERETICS
[singing in unison]
1. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, and from heeding my groans?
2. O my God, I cry in the day-time, yet you do not answer, and in the night I cry, but I get no respite.
3. And yet you are holy… [Psalm XXII]
MONKS, FRIARS
[cutting in, likewise singing in unison]
1. Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight me.
2. Take hold of shield and buckler and rise up to help me.
3. Uncover the spear and bar the way against my persecutors… [Psalm XXXV]
Meanwhile the Patriarch and the procession move away. A few friars are seen trying to sell the crusaders various tracts and scrolls.
LUCIFER
Well, are you speechless? Are you terrified?
You think it’s tragic? Take it for a farce.
A comedy. You’ll find it entertaining.
ADAM
O, keep your jests! But for a single “i”
to march unwavering to certain death?
What else so glorious, so superlative?
LUCIFER
What might appear ridiculous to others:
a question of that shade of difference
between the two, a shift of emphasis,
as this mysterious juror, sympathy,
is drawn to eulogy or deadly scorn.
ADAM
Why have I got to witness all this evil,
this bickering about conflicting learning,
this deadly poison deftly extricated
from flowers which sprung up fresh and beautiful?
Did I not know myself those fragrant flowers
in early days of persecuted faith!
What is to blame for all this decadence?
LUCIFER
Success itself. That is the culprit, breeding
this fragmentation, clash of interests,
while danger brings together, makes for martyrs,
encourages, witness the heretics.
ADAM
Truly, I’d like to fling away my sword
and fly to my own country in the north,
where in my ancient forests manly virtues,
a pure and simple life will guard against
the pestilence this subtle age has nurtured,
but for this faint, persistent voice within me
which says it’s up to me to change the world.
LUCIFER
A waste of effort. You will never set
a single man against the age he lives in.
It is a stream in which he drifts or drowns:
he swims in it, but never can direct it.
Those men whom history assigns to greatness
can understand their time, can act upon it,
but don’t themselves create its motive forces.
Cocks do not crow to cause the dawn to break:
they crow because the dawn’s already breaking.
Look at those men in chains, reviled and sneered at,
so adamant to die the martyr’s death,
among their ranks there dawns a distant epoch,
though they can only see a pace ahead.
They’re dying for an age their progeny
will take for granted, like the air they breathe.
But this can wait. Look, all the camp’s a-bustle!
What are those scruffy friars up to now?
They’re selling something. What a great commotion!
Their comic gestures punctuate the show.
Let’s go and see.
A FRIAR
And this one, men at arms,
the finest teaching yet on penitence,
will see you through with all your doubts and fears.
It tells you here how many years you must
suffer in Hell for sins of fornication,
false witness, murder and of sacrilege.
It tells you also how the rich redeem
one year’s punishment if they pay the church
some twenty solidi. The poor pay three,
and those who cannot pay will buy the same
with seven thousand lashes, to be sure.
Invaluable book! Now, who’s the buyer?
CRUSADERS
I’ll take one! Me too! And another, father!
ADAM
O, damned salesman and worse customers!
[to Lucifer]
Get out your sword! Break up this filthy market!
LUCIFER
[with a show of embarrassment]
Sorry, this friar hawks on my behalf.
Besides, I cannot share your disapproval:
seeing God’s business so much on the go,
I took the chance myself and joined the sale.
It’s you who seem to lag behind the times.
Eve, as Isaura, and Helena, her companion, rush to Adam with a piercing shriek, pursued by a few crusaders who disappear into the grove as soon as they see their commander. Eve collapses into Adam’s arms. He is holding her gently.
EVE
O, save us, gentle knight!
ADAM
Come, come, my lady!
You’re quite safe now. Open your lovely eyes.
How charming!
[to Helena]
Tell me, what has frightened you?
HELENA
We had been out enjoying in the garden
the cool of evening air among the trees,
we walked around without expecting trouble,
then heard a nightingale, followed the sound,
and suddenly we saw a pair of eyes
behind a bush, staring with frenzied passion.
We ran in fright, followed by four crusaders,
panting, making a din, in hot pursuit.
They nearly caught us when we reached you here.
ADAM
I wonder if I really want to wake you:
you’d go and leave me like a passing vision.
To see a body ever so transcendent,
so excellent and so adorable!
LUCIFER
Transcendent body? Ugh! Could destiny
punish lovers more aptly for their madness
than granting them the nonsense they would lavish
on their beloved objects of desire?
ADAM
It seems that I had known you long ago:
before God’s holy throne we stood together.
LUCIFER
I beg of you, remember where you are!
Love may be fun in pairs, but tedious
to him who finds himself the odd one out.
ADAM
She looks up and she’s smiling! O, thank Heaven!
EVE
You’ve saved me, gallant knight.
How can I thank you?
ADAM
Words from your lips are more than rich reward.
LUCIFER
[to Helena]
I’d call it miserly. Will I get none?
HELENA
You, Sir? For what? I owe you gratitude?
LUCIFER
Perhaps you think this honourable knight
has saved you too? Aren’t we a bit presumptuous?
The knight has had her ladyship delivered
now may the squire - recover her companion.
HELENA
Then where’s my gain? If I show gratitude,
I end up where I would have done - unsaved;
if I refuse, my lot may be the same.
The four pursuers might have served me better.
ADAM
Madam, where do you wish to be escorted?
EVE
The convent gate, knight, is across the road.
ADAM
The convent, did you say? I hope its gate
won’t bar you from my love. A keepsake, Madam!
I’ll fasten it against this holy cross:
one will exhort me in my sacred mission,
the other will recall my sweetest dream
and comfort me in future with the hope
that in the end I’ll win my high reward.
EVE
You may have this.
ADAM
A ribbon? Black as night?
Madam, it’s hope I want, not misery!
EVE
This is the only token I can give.
Love’s hope will never flourish in the convent.
ADAM
No. No love either. Yet could any place
remain devoid of love when you are there?
Your dress belies your words. You’re not a nun.
EVE
Don’t force me, knight, to give an explanation.
To see you sad is more than I can suffer.
LUCIFER
You’re going to be locked in there?
HELENA
I am,
but the key’s not on the bottom of the sea.
LUCIFER
Alas! I could have written sombre verses
of tragic love.
HELENA
You’re teasing! Go away!
LUCIFER
Why? Don’t you find the notion overwhelming?
To dive into the sea to fetch your key…
HELENA
I shouldn’t ask that much.
LUCIFER
Right! Here I go.
The monsters of the deep may bare their fangs…
HELENA
Come back! Come back! The fright would kill me too.
Suppose I leave the key beside the window?
ADAM
What is your name? Allow me that at least.
I will adorn with it my daily prayer,
and bless the name of one who won’t allow me
to share the burden of her destiny.
EVE
My name’s Isaura. Tell me yours. The prayers
better become the virgin of the convent.
ADAM
They call me Tancred.
EVE
Tancred, then. Goodbye!
ADAM
Don’t go away, Isaura! Not so soon.
Or I’ll despair and curse that very name
you uttered with your blessing even now.
It’s been too brief, too brief for any dream,
and how could I prolong this moment’s pleasure
with no legend to weave around your name,
enigma as you are?
EVE
Well, here’s my story.
My father, also a crusader knight,
was ambushed by a band of savages
who set upon his camp one dreadful morning
with fire and sword. He could see no escape.
He made a promise to our Blessed Lady
that he would dedicate his youngest child
to Her if he returned. I was the child;
he did return; I took the Sacrament
to seal his solemn vow.
ADAM
O, Holy Mother!
Embodiment of Love Immaculate!
Did you not turn away in indignation,
offended by this sacrilegious oath,
your virtues’ profanation by the sinner
who’d barter Heavenly grace for hellish curse?
HELENA
Now, would you like to hear my story too?
LUCIFER
I know: you loved, then you were crossed in love;
you loved again, this time you turned deceitful;
loved yet again, but tired of him who loves you,
your heart awaits another occupant.
HELENA
You had the devil tell you this. However,
I wouldn’t have thought you were so unassuming
to think my heart was vacant at the moment.
LUCIFER
[to Adam]
Hurry, my lord! While you prolong your parting,
I’m struggling to forestall my victory.
ADAM
Your words have pierced me through the heart, Isaura.
Make sweet our bitter parting with a kiss.
EVE
How can you, knight? You know the vow I made.
ADAM
Has anyone forbidden me to love you?
EVE
You’re happy then, but I… Could I forget?
I feel exhausted, Tancred. I must go now.
Goodbye, again, goodbye! We’ll meet in Heaven.
ADAM
Goodbye! Goodbye! This day shall live for ever.
Eve goes into the convent, but Helena turns to the audience and then to Lucifer before she follows her.
HELENA
[to the audience]
You chicken-heart, must I do all the wooing?
[to Lucifer]
The key’s not in the sea, but - try the window.
ADAM
[suddenly jerked into action]
Well then, let’s go!
LUCIFER
Too late. You’ve had your chance.
O, crazy and uncomprehending man!
You’d either treat your women as the object
of brutal passion and with clumsy fingers
you smudge the untainted beauty of romance,
and so, unwittingly, deprive yourselves
of more exquisite blossoms of delight,
or place them on an altar for an idol
and bleed and yearn for them left out of reach,
till unfulfilled their love grows cold and dies.
Why not appreciate them as they are,
in their own chosen terms of womanhood?
The scene grows quite dark. The moon rises. Isaura and Helena appear in the window of the convent.
EVE
He looked at me with yearning in his eyes.
He trembled, this strong man, before me. Trembled.
Hush! Modesty and faith must hold their own,
although I die a burning sacrifice.
HELENA
The crazy ways of women leave me baffled.
Case one: we say goodbye to prejudice
and lust for satisfaction like a beast,
throwing away respectability
and wallowing regardless in the mire.
The other case: we keep that prejudice -
and let frustrated feelings pine away,
depriving others, and ourselves, of fun.
I’m sure there is a middle way. Romance
discreetly handled, or a mild affair,
I don’t suppose could do us any harm.
Our bodies aren’t made of spirit, surely!
EVE
Helena, go and see if he is there.
I hope he hasn’t gone away already.
How much I’d love to hear his voice again!
ADAM
Lucifer, see if she is in the window.
Perhaps she’ll take another parting glance.
How much I’d love to see her shapely form!
Isaura, let me stand here for a while!
EVE
I’ve wished for both of us that you had gone,
for severed hearts will promptly reunite
and it hurts them all the more to part again.
ADAM
Listen! You hear the silent night a-stirring,
throbbing with love like one gigantic heart,
and in the midst - ourselves, debarred from love.
You think we can escape its fascination?
EVE
Already I can feel the spell unfolding;
it’s like a life-long dream I’ve brought from Heaven:
sweet music floating in the languid air,
a thousand nymphs with fairy faces smiling
and blowing kisses from their dewy groves -
but, Tancred, they no longer speak to us.
ADAM
But why? Because a wall stands in the way?
I won tributes from heathen battlements:
why shouldn’t I surmount this barricade?
LUCIFER
The genius of this age protects it, Tancred.
He’s stronger, so you can’t.
ADAM
I don’t believe it!
Flames rising in the background cast a red glow over the scene. From the distance the heretics are heard singing.
THE HERETICS
21. Deliver my soul from the sword, my only one from the power of the dog.
22. Save me from the mouth of the lion, and from the horns of the wild oxen you answer me.
23. I will declare your fame to my brethren; in the midst of the congregration will I praise you… [Psalm XXII]
EVE
May God have mercy on their sinful souls!
ADAM
[with a shiver]
A doleful chant.
LUCIFER
It is. Your bridal hymn.
ADAM
So be it, then! I will not be affrighted.
Nothing will stand between my love and me.
MONKS, FRIARS
[In the distance]
26. … Let them be clothed with shame and dishonour, who exalt themselves against me.
27. Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that delight in my righteousness, and say evermore, “Great is the Lord, who delights in the peace of His servant”… [Psalm XXXV]
Meantime Adam has reached the gate of the convent. He stops. An owl hoots in the tower, witches fly through the air, and in front of the gate a skeleton rises from the ground confronting Adam menacingly. Eve slams the window in fright.
EVE
May God forgive us!
SKELETON
Quit this sacred threshold!
ADAM
Who are you, dreadful shape?
SKELETON
A sentinel,
present in all your kisses and embraces.
WITCHES
[shrieking with laughter and chanting]
Wholesome seeds of harvest sicken:
serpents hatch with love-birds’ chicken!
Isaura, come and join us!
ADAM
Ghastly creatures,
you’ve been transmogrified, or I am changed.
You once had smiling faces, I remember.
Which is the dream, which is reality?
Your hellish witchcraft has unnerved my limbs.
LUCIFER
An unexpected, charming company.
How long I’ve waited for the privilege
to meet a coven of such reputation.
You can with all the semblance of decorum
outstrip the naked nymph in shamelessness.
And you, old comrade, awe-inspiring death,
who drive men into blind despair to see
virtue perverted in your hall of mirrors,
hail and farewell! I wish I had the time
to pass the evening in your friendly circle.
[The apparitions vanish.]
Come on, Tancred! Your girl has slammed the window.
So what’s the point of waiting in the dark?
Catch aches and pains? It’s bitter cold tonight.
[to the audience]
And then Helena comes and I am for it.
Think of the devil making love - my foot?
I would be booed for all eternity:
good-bye to my prestige and influence.
It’s funny though that men with hearts ablaze
can yearn for love and find themselves rejected,
when here’s the devil with his heart of ice
hard put to dodge it and escape in time.
ADAM
Show me a new existence, Lucifer!
I’ve striven for the highest of ideals
which shallow understanding desecrated -
and offered God a human sacrifice!
Mankind’s too base to live up to my dreams!
I’ve given mankind noble interests,
denouncing self-indulgence as a sin,
and set up chivalry, this knightly order,
which breaks my heart… Enough! I want a change!
Too long have I displayed my worth and virtues
both in my struggles and in self-denial:
I may without dishonour leave the field.
Let nothing disarrange my peace of mind:
I’ll let the world get by the way it will,
I shall no more attempt to change the course,
but watch its faltering progress unconcerned.
I feel exhausted and I want to rest.
LUCIFER
Rest while you can, although I have my doubts
that your spirit, that unremitting force,
will let you rest for long. Now, follow me!