Katherine Bradley

“ CARLOMAN.
Grant me beside the freedom for myself
Salvation for another.
{56} ASTOLPH.
What, a monk
Still half of you! Such trouble for men’s souls—
But have your wish. Once on the battlefield,
Men will become your prey. This solid jaw
Means grip you will not loose. O Carloman,
If I can circumvent the Pope, and then
Stretch him a bleeding quarry at my feet—
CARLOMAN.
What, Zacharias!
But I plead for France;
Popes must not meddle with her.
ASTOLPH.
[as the Prior and Monks re-enter] I require
The services of Carloman: another
Whom he will choose attends him.
DAMIANI. ”

“ PEPIN.
Holy Father,
I pray you send him back, but spare his life—
Spare him, if I have power with you.
ZACHARIAS.
His doom
Is but his choice made permanent on earth.
[to Carloman] O fallen from blessedness of will, become
The friend of heretics, the false of word
To everlasting Truth, you are condemned
Life-long to be a prisoner in your cell,
Life-long to watch the scourge and crucifix.
You chose them, as the God whom you abjure
Chose them, forever; you have lapsed and they
Become tormentors, till they force contrition
At last and save you. ”

“ Death is not a fact
To touch with simile. What looks he like?
All men in moonlight mind one of the moon,
All dead men look like death.
GENEVIVA.
He lies in chains?
Are the brows restful?
MARCOMIR.
Had you been a man
You would have asked me how he came to die,
No more!
GENEVIVA.
I had forgotten ... then he perished
As Carloman reports?
[Marcomir turns away.] You cannot bear
That I should mourn him?
{17} MARCOMIR.
[facing her again] Oh, a lifetime, if
It please you! I am going to a place
Where love is held of little consequence.
GENEVIVA.
Then you are bound for hell. ”

“ CARLOMAN.
[with a sudden movement]
Pepin, we have not looked upon the face
Of Zacharias: I am bound for Rome.
PEPIN.
A pilgrimage? Stay where you are! Tut, tut!
Wait till he seek us. Frankland is his hope
Against the Lombard: when he seeks us then
We twain will offer him our dutiful,
Strong swords, and keep St. Peter’s realm intact;
While, in return, that gracious influence,
That something that we lack to give our strength
Supremacy, shall be poured down on us.
CARLOMAN.
Something we lack! ”

“ CARLOMAN.
Once more to think of France, and act
As you and I determine.
PEPIN.
Willingly
I hear advice; but now the throne is mine
Decision rests with me and not with you,
Who have been shut away from everything
But prayers and convent-policy. Forgive,
We are no longer equals—you a Saint,
I a mere statesman. But you have not said
One word about the cloister.
{72} CARLOMAN.
Do we waste
Much talk on vaults, we men who are alive?
PEPIN.
And yet you chose it!
CARLOMAN.
Now I choose again.
PEPIN.
You cannot. Are you mad? Who sent you here?
CARLOMAN.
Astolph the Lombard. ”

“ CARLOMAN.
[to Marcomir] Dare you pray
That this should be or that? The only prayer
That is not futile in impiety{68}
Is like a plunge beneath a river’s flow
To feel the strength and pureness of the life
That courses through the world.
GENEVIVA.
Ah, yes, to bathe,
And then to rise up clean.
[to Marcomir] The very moment
He spoke of youth, virginity and love
I prayed: I am alive. O Marcomir,
And there are other words of fellowship,
Of joy and youth-time. Let us hold him dear
Because he has delivered us; together
Let us give thanks, give courage each to each
Unenvious ”

“ Pepin, King!—
O Boniface, I think you said farewell.
You journey far and far; you see strange faces,
And woods where idols live in solitude,
Hamlets and forges, feasts, the glare of arms,{38}
And great unpeopled plains so full of wind
It seems the owner, while the little trees
And grass are slaves: and thus you wander on
God’s messenger ... Ha, ha! The little trees
And grass!... Good-bye!
BONIFACE.
My child—
CARLOMAN.
[gently] Yes, Boniface?
BONIFACE.
Nothing. I can but bless you. Go, in peace.
[As Carloman moves away, Marcomir bends forward.]
MARCOMIR.
Is the Queen well? ”

“ Damiani and Rachis talk to each other; the monks listen in a scared group.]
CARLOMAN.
[drawing Marcomir to the front] Marcomir,
Come from this graveyard.
MARCOMIR.
No, I must not come,
I dare not; she is yours.
CARLOMAN.
Is mine? You wrong her—
Not yours nor mine. Earth’s wisdom will begin
When all relationships are put away,{57}
With their dull pack of duties, and we look
Curious, benignant, with a great compassion
Into each other’s lives.
MARCOMIR.
It is not so
I look; I have a lust to gratify,
A lust for very shame I loathe to mix
With Geneviva’s image.
CARLOMAN.
Faugh! ”

“ CARLOMAN.
No, Geneviva. I have little speech;
But when the secret crept into my soul
I loved you, it was not to Marcomir
I spoke: and if another secret now
Is breaking through my nature, do not think
That he will be the spokesman.
[noticing her agitation] Hermann died
I think by his own hand; he courted death.
What can a man prize in captivity?
[as Geneviva grows more agitated]
There! I will speak no more of him. Your maids—
[turning to summon her attendants] .
GENEVIVA.
Weave the great arras. ”

“ CARLOMAN.
[excitedly] Be borne along,
Borne with the current. Is that possible?
Borne dead—well, each man takes his full desert—
Mine ... is it possible? And further on
Past towns and cities ... then at last the sea.
ZACHARIAS.
Vain hope! You are God’s prisoner. No escape,
No waves to hide you and no help of man;
For prayer itself like hope is quenched before
The everlasting Prison-house. Farewell!
[Exit with the Monks.]
CARLOMAN.
Ha! ”

“ Besides, we must not tarry in a place
The moments do not wash with dew; we wither,
Death has his secret will with us. Believe!
Act on the instant.
OLD MONK.
The high gates are barred,
And yonder is the Prior.
[Damiani, with Rachis and a large troop of monks, is seen coming from the Chapel.]
CARLOMAN.
The gates are strong;
But you and I and all of us can pass
Through them in simple triumph if we will—
With one consent.
Why, they are opening now!
How gloriously! Armed riders!
[Enter Astolph with a band of Lombard soldiers.]
MONKS.
Miracle! ”

“ ZACHARIAS.
What I have spoken
Is and remains irrevocable.
BONIFACE.
[gently to Carloman] Yield,—
Yield to a God Who compasses you round
With love so strong it binds you.
CARLOMAN.
And is hell—
But I reject such love.
O Pepin, listen! ”

“ As points of fire awake me to the knowledge
That all my flesh is burning! Every flint
Becomes a new temptation. How confess
To him I love his wife, and guiltily!
O Geneviva, do the swans still crowd
Round you to feed them? Are you mistress still
In the old palace? Can there be a doubt?
If Pepin dare insult you—O this frock,
This girdle, not a sword belt! And your husband
Who brought you to such peril with his dreams,
Let the light wake him!
[Marcomir unlocks the prison-door, flings it open and draws back behind the trellis of vines.]
CARLOMAN.
What has struck my eyes? ”

“ PEPIN.
I, break my treaty,
And ruin my whole scheme!
CARLOMAN.
The Pope is gray,
And Astolph young and sound in force as you.
Which is the deadlier foe?
PEPIN.
The Pope and I
Are age and youth together. Carloman,
I love you still; you take me at the heart{74}
Now that your face is glowing: I must speak,
For either you are mad, or have forgotten
How deeds are judged here in the actual world. ”

“ It never can run sluggish.
{4} BONIFACE.
Had you seen
King Chilperic’s flower-wreathed waggon in the street!—
You should have looked a last time on the world
Ere you renounced it.
CARLOMAN.
Scanned the heir of Clovis
Drawn like a senseless idol in his car!
You judge unworthily. God bade me come
Up higher to Him on a battlefield
Where I was victor. It was in the night—
I moved about among my sleeping men,
I heard them shout for triumph in their dreams:
It was enough!
BONIFACE.
Yes, all is vanity;
The pride of life, its splendour, vanitas!
CARLOMAN.
There is no vanity in life ”

“ DAMIANI.
You act on a dread thought.
ZACHARIAS.
The thought conceived,
Life has no terrors. It is emptiness
Alone that makes us timid and inert:
Fill up the void, we go from strength to strength
In our possession. ”

“ And you will rear up lust of such an ice
As Death himself will shiver at.
[to Pepin] Lead on!
Now there is hope you may become a King,
There should be some high festival to keep
To-night in everlasting memory.
Lead me away.
PEPIN.
Brother, in all—good luck!
And may the Convent’s fare be angels’ food.
Your wife’s tears soon will dry.
[Exeunt Pepin and Geneviva.]
CARLOMAN.
The thing to do
Is simply just the sole thing to be done.
There should have been no tears, no taking leave;
A freeman can do anything he will.
MARCOMIR.
Take me along with you.
CARLOMAN.
Ah where—to God? ”

“ Sure, from report, that you will help my cause,
You, who have been a ruler. I contend
No supernatural power should have control
Of lands and cities, troops and civil rights,
Matters distinct from God, as from the world
The service he requires. Life is so easy
If we will keep it human—quarrel, murder,
And then make friends: we have so short a time
To sin together ... but this hate deferred,
These pestilential menaces!—
CARLOMAN.
The Pope
Shall never injure France!
ASTOLPH.
It lies with you
To break the threatened treaty. You have owned
Power over Pepin?
CARLOMAN.
Yes ”

“ But for my child
He shall remain with me.
[Re-enter Pepin] All is confirmed.
I shall not quit the world. How easily
A man is duped with God upon the brain!
I shall continue in my womanhood,
Giving, receiving pleasure.
I have heard
So much and suddenly; for Marcomir
Is to become a monk.
[to Carloman] Give him no welcome.
He takes the cowl a penitent; he is not,
Like you, a white-souled wayfarer.
[to Pepin] How strange
That we must pair together, you and I;
I know so little of your tastes and now
I must be often in your company.
{23} MARCOMIR.
My lord, speak to her. ”

“ Disgraceful Chilperic, and proclaim as King
Pepin, our doughty servant.
CARLOMAN.
[starting] Pepin—King!
[turning aside again]
Why should this news so knock to enter—why?
It seems to make me open a shut door:
I see the Rhone, I see my father’s roof,
The gay French faces!—Pepin, King!
BONIFACE.
I hear
Your will with joy. It is a deadly peril
To France that she is governed by a man
No better than an image, golden-haired
But lifeless as a stone. The very people
Laugh at the word, a King. ”

“ Of all you have delivered. In its depths
You will be buried, but the very burthen
You die to utter, far away in France
Will be caught up; Love will be free, and life
Free to make change as childhood. ”

“ Of the world’s censure! What you call my soul
Flees as a shy girl that escapes pursuit.
BONIFACE.
Take your shame meekly. Do not let your eyes
Grow wild and hostile!
[Boniface, who has seen Pepin approaching, withdraws to the back of the hall, stands before the Crucifix in mute prayer, and then passes out, looking back at the brothers. Pepin is a short, stout man, with florid complexion and much vehemence of manner. He wipes the perspiration from his face and addresses Carloman without looking at him.]
{6}
PEPIN.
Woden, what a sight! ”

“ Than any mortal break his word to God.
Your soul is bound for ever.
[Enter Carloman and Marcomir with another Cardinal.]
Dearest son,
I greet you with God’s blessing,
[to Marcomir] And on you
Confer the same. How prospers Carloman?
CARLOMAN.
Oh, well, dear father.
ZACHARIAS.
He who keeps his knees
Is Rachis, King of Lombardy. He takes
Like you the fearful vow to be a monk.
RACHIS.
[to Carloman] Protect me, help me, holy Carloman;
Let me return with you. I am distracted ...
A perjured man God will destroy in hate.
CARLOMAN.
Come with me, come ... ”

“ ASTOLPH.
And you are muffled in a sackcloth-bag;
The contrast strikes you.
[to Damiani] Lunatic?
DAMIANI.
And worse—
A rebel, an apostate, noble prince,
For whom I bring these manacles.
{52} ASTOLPH.
And I
An extra horse; for, lunatic or sane,
I must have speech with——
[turning to Carloman with a laugh]
Do you know your name?
We who are kings and soldiers know it well,
And Christendom remembers. Ah, I see!
You are not happy, so they call you mad.
RACHIS.
Have you no word for me? ”

“ Look, Boniface! And Pepin is a slave.{81}
Nothing remains now in the world. That treaty,
That pact!
[Chilperic is taken before Zacharias and Pepin; they appear to address him, to consult with each other: then a monk advances and cuts off Chilperic’s long hair, while he weeps bitterly. Geneviva and Marcomir re-enter hurriedly as if they had heard bad news and see Carloman bound.]
GENEVIVA.
Be true to him. ”

“ You do not keep your eyes upon the ground,
Like this dear relative.
CARLOMAN.
[staring fixedly at Astolph] You glitter so,
You glitter like the golden Vines, your hair
Is gold, your armour full of spokes and rays. ”

“ To listen to the minstrels, for the praise{13}
My beauty covets most is in your eyes.
How wild they look and solemn!
[Carloman folds her in his arms quietly. Then with great effort bends over her and speaks]
CARLOMAN.
Marcomir
Is restless for a pilgrimage to Rome.
I think we shall be starting presently:
And afterward ... If I am long away ...
GENEVIVA.
[breaking from him]
Oh, think a little! Can you leave this hair
So crisp and burnished? When the sun is bright
Across your shield, it has no livelier flash—
Confess, it has not? ”