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 PR5765.W5H8"""'""""-"'"^'' 
 
 pt.2 
 
 The house of Omri; a dramatic poem. 
 
 3 1924 013 362 920 
 
a Cornell University 
 S Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 92401 3362920 
 
THE HOUSE OF OMRI 
 PART II. THE SONS OF ABAB. 
 
THE HOUSE OF OMRl, 
 
 ^ Bvamatix |9ocm. 
 
 PART II. THE SONS OF AHAB. 
 
 STANLEY WE ALL 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.G. 
 
 1893. 
 
A.I (2.0(1 
 
 
THE PERSONS. 
 
 Chorus : Women of Jezebel. 
 Watchman. 
 
 JEHORAM. 
 
 Jezebel. 
 Herald. 
 Ahaziah. 
 Jehu. 
 
 Messenger. 
 
THE HOUSE OF OMRI. 
 
 PART II.— THE SONS OF AHAB. 
 
 Scene — Open Court in the Palace of Jezreel. 
 The Chorus. 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 Prune we our roses till deliverance dawn ! 
 
 Lop off the lily ! Let the myrtle die ! 
 
 Mock us no more, blue sky, 
 
 Bright fountain, mossy lawn ! ' 
 
 Bright fountain, from the heart of Naboth drawn 
 
 With guiltless blood to fertilise the field. 
 
 Darken the splendour of thy crystal shield, 
 
 And cease awhile the music of thy flow : 
 
 Nor any longer lade the passing hours 
 
 With fragrance, O ye flowers 
 
 That o'er the tomb of the unburied blow ! 
 
 With quiet voices and in sad array 
 
 I 
 
.2 The House of Omri. 
 
 Let us for peace our prayers pray : 
 
 Peace in the daytime, peace at fall of night, 
 
 Peace in the night-time, peace at dawn of day. 
 
 Peace in the passes, peace in the broad way ; 
 
 Peace on the city-crested height, 
 
 And peace amid the houses of the mean ; 
 
 Peace with the wrathful prophets of the Queen ; 
 
 Peace on the navied sea, the embattled sod ; 
 
 Peace between god and god. 
 
 For helpless we and undefended 
 
 Hear yet the mutterings of old alarms ; 
 
 How should we think the just man's quarrel 
 
 ended ? 
 Pollution gathers from the ground he tended ^ 
 The hot air listens for the clash of arms. 
 Then tarry not, great Chief ! 
 Come soon, O Captain ! be thy warfare brief : 
 Upon thy helm be victory bright. 
 And on thy shield with slaughter gilded : 
 Strengthen the towers the Syrian hath builded, 
 And bring our husbands home from fight. 
 Oh, bring the maid her lover, bring the boy. 
 Thou son of Nimshi, to a welcoming breast : 
 After war's trouble fitting is love's rest, 
 And toil remembered sweetens joy ; 
 With thankful heart, well quit of camp's annoy 
 And leaguer, shall he sing 
 Thy name in Kirharaseth and of late 
 
The Sons of Akab. 3 
 
 In Gilead's captive gate 
 
 Exalted by prosperity and the King. 
 
 Alas ! not dear, not dear to wives 
 
 The bridle's clash, the burnishing of knives, 
 
 And girding on of swords. 
 
 When the great masters and the mighty lords. 
 
 Which have dominion over tent and town 
 
 And flock and granary and field and fold, 
 
 As merchants with their merchandise come down 
 
 To sell man's flesh for gold. 
 
 They counted not our hands that could not smite, 
 
 Nor measured they our tears, 
 
 But sent with lamentation and with fears 
 
 To war long since their glittering battle rolled : 
 
 And O ye gods who render dreams aright, 
 
 Interpret me the perils, night by night 
 
 Which I thenceforth behold : 
 
 Seeming to lie, a weary vigil keeping, 
 
 Musing old prophecy and past record. 
 
 With unforbidden eyelids fondly weeping 
 
 The absence of my lord, 
 
 When lo ! a shout hath waked the city sleeping, 
 
 And sudden fire, and thrusting with the sword ; 
 
 Rouse, maid and mother, rouse ye from your rest ! 
 
 Weep, wail, and beat the breast ! 
 
 Hark ! for the Syrian trumpet calls, 
 
 And dreadful shapes apparent in the gloom. 
 
 Larger than man. disdainful of her doom 
 
 1—2 
 
4 The House of Omri. 
 
 Pass from the city walls : 
 
 A quiet land they seek and ampler room. 
 
 I hear, ah me ! I hear 
 
 The approach of war, the chariot wildly driven. 
 
 Swift shock, and crash of axle riven, 
 
 And flying feet, and plunging of the spear. 
 
 Hide us, ye mountains ! for the foe is near. 
 
 Only the valiant and the vain 
 
 At no god's altar seek to kneel, 
 
 But, gathered to the fitful trumpet's peal, 
 
 With labour and with pain 
 
 A heavy cause uphold 
 
 'Mid the broke marble and the burning gold 
 
 Of thy fair palaces, Jezreel, 
 
 Until the dim day-breaking 
 
 For token of thy sorrow doth discover 
 
 A piteous row of prisoners ringed with steel. 
 
 She shall depart, depart her dead forsaking. 
 
 New-widowed wife, or maid that lacks a lover ; 
 
 She shall not deck his bier, 
 
 Nor make long tarrying here. 
 
 Led captive through the morning gray 
 
 To serve the Syrian mothers far away. 
 
 Yet wherefore of defeat and lamentation, 
 
 O Israel, sing the song ? 
 
 To whom should rather merriment belong, 
 
 And duteous supplication. 
 
 With corn and wine on faithful altars poured. 
 
The Sons of Ahab. 5 
 
 For careless now the fisher floats unmoored, 
 
 At the wind's will, on Galilee's blue lake, 
 
 And through swart pastureland and tangled brake 
 
 The shepherd leads the sheep 
 
 How far soe'er afield their thirst to slake ; 
 
 And the tired hind may 'neath the cedar sleep ; 
 
 And swords no more thy scanty harvest reap : 
 
 For all thine enemies, Israel, are brought low. 
 
 Hazael in Damascus waits : 
 
 He spies far off the watch-fires of the foe ; 
 
 And funerals block the gates. 
 
 O women, wherefore sing the song of woe ? 
 
 His counsellors about him stand. 
 
 Gold-crested kings, and captains from the fray ; 
 
 They look with wonder on the desolate land. 
 
 And musing softly say, 
 
 ' Rimmon hath seen what in the dark was done 
 
 Let us with oil and wine the god appease : 
 
 Though in the dark ye do it, yet he sees : 
 
 Slay not his servant ; reverence his son.' 
 
 O Israel, why the strain 
 
 Of city sacked, of captive maiden ? 
 
 Thine are the arrows of the rushing rain ; 
 
 For thee the thunder-clouds are laden ; 
 
 Thy war the winds maintain. 
 
 Heard ye not how Moab fell ? 
 
 Kings came from Edom and the land was dry : 
 
 As lies a lion in mid-course to die, 
 
6 The House of Omri. 
 
 Whom hunter's darts or grievous pangs compel 
 
 From the far coolness of his bushy dell, 
 
 So lay they ; and the vagrant foe 
 
 Knew it and gathered, as the jackals know 
 
 And gather round him, pacing in a ring, 
 
 And grind their teeth accursed. 
 
 Each fearful if too soon he spring. 
 
 And ekch one grudging but he flesh him first. 
 
 Therefore spake Judah's King, 
 
 ' Seek out a minstrel ; ye have heard — 
 
 Perform — the prophet's word. 
 
 And look that what he biddeth that ye do.' 
 
 And straightway from his tent, 
 
 Brought to no banquet, by no riotous crew 
 
 Constrained, yet still delaying. 
 
 Like to a lamb in unknown pastures straying, 
 
 Amazed amid their armament, 
 
 One of the minstrels to Elisha went. 
 
 And the fierce kings were silent for a space ; 
 
 And the seer looked upon his face. 
 
 A harp they set, a harp of heavy gold ; 
 
 Softly he struck the string, 
 
 And sang the while, as mournful maidens sing. 
 
 Disasters great, and miseries of old, 
 
 Ships sunk, towns sacked, and burnings of the 
 
 bold, 
 And treasons toward the King : 
 Anger and pain, fire, famine and the sword 
 
The Sons of A had. 7 
 
 Thrilled through each deepening chord. 
 
 Howbeit nought prophesied the seer, 
 
 Standing apart as one that doth not hear, 
 
 His shaggy eyes upon the ground fast keeping. 
 
 Then with loud hand the wide harp sweeping, 
 
 The minstrel sang the song of men. 
 
 The joy of war, great armies blocked by ten. 
 
 Cities delivered, massacres and fires, 
 
 And tyrants clothed with shame ; 
 
 And while he sang of valour and of fame. 
 
 Chanting the glories of our sires. 
 
 There leapt a spirit from the clashing wires. 
 
 And counsel out of music came. 
 
 And Israel smote the foe, 
 
 (Suph words the son of Shaphat spake,) 
 
 And djave their tossing banners to and fro, 
 
 And marred the good land utterly, and did break 
 
 All their fenced cities, every one ; 
 
 And Mesha grieved and offered up his son 
 
 For a burnt-offering in the face of all. 
 
 Even his first-born, on the city wall. 
 
 Watchman. 
 
 Ye servants of Jehoram, spread the feast 
 Bid the musicians and the singing-men 
 Make ready ; for the south is full of spears. 
 And harness and bright bridles and red plumes : 
 Great Ahaziah, Judah's King, draws nigh. 
 
8 The House of Omri. 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 O city ever prosperous for the wrong ! 
 
 O refuge for the slayer of men ! 
 
 Thine is it, Ramoth, if our song 
 
 Be as in old time sad ; if now as then 
 
 We look for no good from the murderer's den, 
 
 Small comfort, Ramoth, brief prosperity, 
 
 Being guiltless, out of thee. 
 
 Under the pestilent shadow of thy walls 
 
 The good man's cattle rot ; 
 
 They droop and die ; the good man prospers not : 
 
 But welfare to the wicked falls, 
 
 And his fields flourish and his stores increase. 
 
 O city of destruction, send us peace. 
 
 And unscarred warriors from a woundless fray ; 
 
 Thine ancient anger let the King's hurt stay, 
 
 And bring us no more wail and crying. 
 
 With dead men's biers and litters of the dying 
 
 Choking the steep highway. 
 
 Woe didst thou work in Omri's day, 
 
 A city of sorrow unto Israel still ; 
 
 His mighty men of valour turned and fled ; 
 
 With blood he did thy rivers fill. 
 
 He levelled all thy valleys with his dead. 
 
 Small honour won the King, nor better sped 
 
 A name more bright in battle when our lord 
 
 Took shield again and drew his veteran sword. 
 
 And through the morning went 
 
The Sons of Ahab. 9 
 
 To free thy stricken turrets from the foe, 
 Nor drank at eve triumphant in his tent, 
 Nor sorrowed for his captains slain. 
 But fought his last or ever the light was low, 
 O Gilead, on thy bloody plain : 
 The archer bent his bow, 
 
 And with glad wing for no mean bosom bound 
 The shaft accursed, her prey descrying, 
 Sang like a bird above the battle flying, 
 And passage through his harness found. 
 And in a king's heart rest. Was this 
 Thy work, O city, or unsandalled Fate 
 By devious path approaching soon or late, 
 Or a god's wrath for honour given amiss. 
 For sacrifice and fire and midnight wail 
 And much regard of Baal ? 
 
 [Jehoram and Jezebel enter. 
 
 Jehoram. 
 
 What hidden pleasure may in pomp abide 
 Use hath forgotten and love never knew : 
 Yon sturdy hills which,. climbing step by step. 
 Fling their blue shadows upon Jordan's flood, 
 And this embowered glade, this marble grove, 
 This vine-clad casement of the summer sky, 
 Where evermore from dawn to fall of dew 
 The dove, grey-breasted visitor, laments, 
 Methinks are fairer to a King's tired sight 
 
lo The House of Omri. 
 
 Than scarlet canopies ; the fountain's plash 
 
 More musical in his accustomed ear 
 
 Than trumpets or the voice of singing-men. 
 
 Jezebel. 
 
 Yet have I known not one king, no, nor two 
 Liker to grieve at lessening of their state 
 Than find a joy in tedious honours docked. 
 Remit no due observance. Go ye hence. 
 And greet the King of Judah, bowing low. 
 And wash his feet, and crown his cup with wine. 
 And bid him reverent welcome to Jezreel. 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 We speed to do him service, mighty Queen. 
 
 \They go out. 
 
 Jezebel. 
 
 Some gifts, my son, are given us by the gods. 
 And some doth our own forethought give ourselves 
 Of greater price and stuff more durable : 
 Let such be thine ; the gods have done their part. 
 Delivering up, as 'twere a. vanquished foe 
 Whom thou should'st hack and splinter with thy 
 
 sword, 
 A friend whom thou must tangle with thy tongue. 
 The gods have done their part : if thou do thine 
 This trivial embassy shall mark a day 
 Kept in earth's calendar with feast and flower 
 
Th^ Sons of Ahab. 1 1 
 
 For ever, if I err not : towns which yet 
 Are sleeping silent in the unquarried stone 
 Shall on their gateways and their bastions grave 
 In golden characters the words we spake, 
 And where we stood, as if on holy ground. 
 Kings unbegotten shall do sacrifice. 
 Nor scorn the purpose which thy sire maintained. 
 Famine, and querulous discord of the tribes, 
 And war, and pestilence accounting nought, 
 So might he patch as far as fortune willed 
 That robe whose royalty the ShilohiteH tore. 
 And make two kingdoms in free friendship one. 
 Howbeit ever the dark seers of Jah, 
 Moving with spells among the common kind, 
 Opposed him, and the heart of Judah's King 
 Was troubled, for he feared : whose sceptre now 
 Borne by the blood of Sidon will not blench : 
 This youth, our kin, will aid our purposes ; 
 Not only eager as ourselves to slay 
 Yon crowned assassin of his master's sleep, 
 But prompt with policy and simple heart 
 •To press our cause the wide world's circle through, 
 A loyal friend of our advantage still, 
 Our gain his guerdon and our honour his. 
 Be instant therefore ; take this happy time 
 And bind him fast, nor fear in turn to pledge 
 All friendship ; for thy father sowed the grain, 
 But hard and ever stubborn was the field. 
 
12 The House of Omri. 
 
 Jehoram. 
 
 My father's will is mine; nor, lady, less 
 
 Thy wishes move me : he that lacks a sire 
 
 Oft lacks the shield to shelter his frail youth, 
 
 Oft lacks the spur to prick him to renown ; 
 
 Untimely death is ill inheritance : 
 
 But more than father, yea, than mother more 
 
 The gods, great Queen, permitted me in thee ; 
 
 Thee have I reverenced ever ; from that brow 
 
 Bent over me, austerely ringed with gold. 
 
 And from thy port and majesty divine 
 
 My boyhood imaged holy Ashtaroth, 
 
 Scarce mortal thinking thee, and scarce a king 
 
 The dim imperial shadow at thy side. 
 
 Base were it therefore if I scorned thee now 
 
 Or did refuse thy counsel ; for in me 
 
 Dwells neither craft nor wit nor wariness ; 
 
 The fighting, not the winning, makes my joy ; 
 
 And as my father lived and kept thy word, 
 
 So would I live, and die not otherwise. 
 
 Where the red swords are thickest, and men toil 
 
 With dust and groans and pressings of the knee. 
 
 In the mid gulf, on the frayed edge of war. 
 
 Jezebel. 
 O boy, be thou more fortunate than thy sire. 
 Like in all else ! Dominion and esteem 
 Were his, and honour, handmaid of the brave : 
 
The Sons of A hub. 13 
 
 Peerless in war, in peace no parallel 
 
 Hath Israel found nor Judah ; quickly moved, 
 
 Yet to forgiveness as to anger prone ; 
 
 Mild in his monarchy and gracious aye, 
 
 And princely in his going ; to the proud 
 
 A scourge of steel, but balsam to the meek ; 
 
 By Ashtaroth favoured and by Heaven's King : — 
 
 Even such I knew him. Lo, yon marble form, 
 
 Which fronts our fretfulness with calm regard. 
 
 Dreaming, it may be, of fights lost and won, 
 
 Great things forgotten, unremembered names, 
 
 And marriages and banquets of the dead ! 
 
 Let not thy father be a record mere, 
 
 Nor hold his fame a shadow : yonder casque 
 
 To his own hurt the ruthless Syrian spoiled, 
 
 And from the sweep of that war-dinted sword 
 
 Fled thirty kings and three. — O chieftain high, 
 
 If that be true which holy bards have taught. 
 
 And thou with gracious influence serene 
 
 Dost the bright marches of the sun invade, 
 
 To tilth and fallow bounteous, fold and byre 
 
 Blessing with health, and with well-nurtured 
 
 young 
 Increasing ; or at what diviner board. 
 In what dread company a welcome guest. 
 Thou dost the savour and the fume partake 
 Of ample sacrifice and incense rich. 
 For aye undying mid thy deathless peers : 
 
14 The House of Omri. 
 
 Oh yet regard with favour, mighty King, 
 The narrow bounds that were of old thine own, 
 Nor scorn the base necessities of earth. 
 Hear this our crying, and awhile forget 
 The blue cloud-paven palaces of Baal ; 
 Heaven forget, forget the choral stars : 
 Turn, turn upon thy children those clear eyes 
 Which unabashed endure the blazing gold 
 Of Moloch's armour ; to our lips incline 
 That ear which melodies immortal fill ; 
 Nor visit on us, O great god, the offence 
 That we ignored thee cradled in thy clay. 
 
 Jehoram. 
 
 O lady, let my prayer climb heaven with thine ! 
 Sweet sound the father's praises to the son. 
 
 Jezebel. 
 
 Fond worshipper, thy prayer hath maimed her 
 
 wing, 
 And limps and lags and flutters fruitless home 
 Unaided : for what skilleth prayer from thee 
 Who hast contemned the god thy father served. 
 And marred the sacred Image he set up ? 
 Ah me ! where lies it, that resplendent form 
 Which leaf on leaf, and gem by lustrous gem, 
 With servile sweat and tributary gold 
 Supreme artificers from Sidon wrought. 
 
The Sons of Ahab. 1 3 
 
 Raising it high, a world's religion once, 
 
 To soar beyond Samaria's utmost towers 
 
 And dim day's advent with its brighter beams ? 
 
 Doth it inhabit the drear-plunging sea, 
 
 And take, for plash of penitential blood. 
 
 The lapping of the idle wave, and hear 
 
 For those loud litanies the sea-bird's moan ? 
 
 Or in the unflowering desert it doth lie. 
 
 Shot evermore with noontide's fiery darts. 
 
 And overwhelmed with midnight's lashing flood ; 
 
 There is no man regardeth it ; that arm 
 
 Of whose protection mighty kings were fain 
 
 Now shields the grey kite's offspring from the 
 
 cold: 
 That brow, which glittering like another star 
 Did take the homage and the prayers of men. 
 Beasts of the wilderness with cloven hoof 
 Now stamp upon and mangle. Woe is me! 
 Where'er he dwelleth all may scorn him now : 
 All now may scorn whom few might worship 
 
 once; 
 When the isles sent ambassadors, when lute 
 Rang, and trump sounded, and the nations heard, 
 And priests, the chosen of a chosen tribe. 
 With wine and oil, with victim and with song. 
 At sacred eve, at holy morn, adored 
 The bland presentment of almighty Baal. 
 
1 6 The House of Omn. 
 
 Jehoram. 
 
 Not moved by fear of any threat divine, 
 Nor for mine own advantage did I this ; 
 Far less, elate and arrogant at heart, 
 As one contemptuous of Heaven's Lord 
 Whom thou and I yet dutifully serve. 
 But, deeming that it ill became a king 
 To choose too nicely of his people's gods, 
 I did with reverence and sorrow move. 
 Not violate, — nor was thy voice, O Queen, 
 Urgent against it, — that tremendous form. 
 The like of which there was not in the world. 
 
 Jezebel. 
 
 Yet have we sinned, Jehoram, thou and I, 
 Nor gained our purpose, nor are like to gain. 
 War, war hath sundered the eternal heavens ; 
 The gods have armed them and arrayed their 
 
 ranks : 
 Proffer of peace they make not nor accept : 
 Choose thou thy captain. In the distant days, 
 Nigh that blue sea which never tempest moved, 
 In Sidon's marble palaces there sate 
 A grey-haired king, Baal's servant : every turn 
 And trick of governing in peace and war 
 Beyond compare of human wit he knew ; 
 And to the slender maiden at his side. 
 
The Sons of Ahab, 1 7 
 
 Whom best he loved, his late and lonely joy, 
 He did impart tl^em : but his warlike sons 
 Abode far off, neglectful of his lore, 
 Seeking brute battle or the chase. And still 
 He spake of Baal, the shelter of his house, 
 ' With him was Baal,' he wrote it on his shield, 
 He graved it on his signet for a charm. 
 And prospering in that name shook off assault, 
 From bright-eyed manhood to late-lingering age, 
 As the unriven rock doth shake the foam. 
 Or as the lion shakes the hunter dog. 
 Oh, we have fallen away, we have done ill. 
 Baal built the house, and with his props we fall. 
 No vantage of Elijah's death have we ; 
 No hope of concord to outweigh our guilt : 
 For Shaphat's son hath dead or living caught 
 His cloak, and lo 1 from Beersheba to Dan 
 That warrior people to whose king my sire 
 Betrothed me, that blood-spattered eager stock 
 Which left in Canaan from red end to end 
 No god inviolate and no altar whole. 
 Shrinks from the breath of some rope-girdled seer, 
 And shuts up fiery Conquest, and denies 
 Hot-fingered Vengeance pining for her meat. 
 Oh, be the sword drawn and the trumpet blown, 
 And no more parley granted them ! do men 
 Hold parley with the poison in their veins, 
 Or make concession to the stormy sea ? 
 
1 8 The House of Omri. 
 
 Alas ! ill fares the people, ill the king, 
 When Treason, like a wolf in sheepskin clad, 
 Preys on unhindered in the weeds of Faith. 
 
 Jehoram. 
 Peace, mother, be with thee and with thy words ! 
 Lo ! Judah's lion ramps on yonder shields. 
 And in yon arch his royal banner dips. 
 
 Chorus (without). 
 Oh, set your ranks in order, maidens ; sing. 
 And let your cymbals clash accord : 
 Benjamin's undefeated King 
 And Judah's mighty lord 
 Upon his way with merriment we bring. 
 Ye mountains of Gilboa, bow your heads ! 
 Lo ! your delight, the longing of your eyes ! 
 His feet are shod with silver ; where he treads 
 Watersprings in the desert rise ; 
 The drought avoids him and the famine flies. 
 His neck is like a castle of offence, 
 Whiter than Hebron's snow ; 
 Sweeter he is than frankincense. 
 And softer-stepping than the mountain roe 
 That hears the hunter's trumpet blow. 
 Oh weave the dance and foot the happy ground ; 
 Let psaltery and sackbut sound ; 
 And bid the dulcimer upraise 
 Loud melodies of praise. 
 
The Sons of Ahab. 19 
 
 This is our lover, our desire ; his breast 
 Is mid the battle like a buckler thrown 
 'Gainst sword and arrow to defend his own ; 
 His front is like the ocean when the west 
 Hath laid its waves to rest. 
 Lift up your song, O maidens, and rejoice ; 
 And ye rejoice, Jerusalem's fair daughters ! 
 His wrath is like the midnight, and his voice 
 Terrible as the sound of waters. 
 His eyes are like the lamps of Tyre 
 Far-flashing through the dark o'er frith and foam, 
 When weary sailors journey home 
 After much travel, and with soft desire 
 Toward sweet wife and sweeter children yearn ; 
 The brazen prow they turn. 
 With chilly fingers kindling the rude fire, 
 And worship Ashtaroth, and crown the stern. 
 
 [Enter Ahaziah attended. 
 
 Herald. 
 
 Welfare and glory be with Israel's King, 
 Peace and success and honour ! The great name 
 Of Jezebel I salute, and all the sons 
 Of Ahab : may prosperity be theirs ! 
 King Ahaziah from Judah's border these 
 Hath brought, slight earnest of his studious love, 
 And bids my mouth deliver them : ten mules 
 With ivory laden, and with spice more rich 
 
 2 — 2 
 
20 The House of Omri. 
 
 In bloom and scent than Sharon's richest rose: 
 Two talents of weighed silver : twenty cups 
 Carved with the tale of Mesha's twenty towns ; 
 Ruin smokes on them ; Kirharaseth stands 
 Alone : great store of vesture, warp and woof 
 The captive toil of Moabitish looms, 
 Soft as a swan and twice at Sidon dipt : 
 This belt, moreover, which the indignant breast 
 Of great Benhadad nigh Samaria's walls 
 Encircled, Ahab at Samaria won, 
 And for a sign thereafter of his love 
 Gave to Jehoshaphat, mild Judah's King ; 
 Silver it is, with bosses of red gold, 
 Thirty and two, a crown surmounting each ; 
 Here fitliest rendered : also yonder girls, 
 Clear-voiced, quick-footed, apt to weave the dance : 
 Armour from Edom, corn from Benjamin, 
 And thirty slaves from Tyre. 
 
 Jezebel. 
 
 O mighty prince. 
 Now is it worthier such gifts to give. 
 Or happier to receive them ? 
 
 Jehoram. 
 
 Be it not ours. 
 Lady, to question. O dear youth and King, 
 Our will toward thee doth outpace our words : 
 
The Sons of Ahab. 2 i 
 
 Thrice welcome art thou : sword of the ahen 
 Reap thy fields never! 
 
 Ahaziah. 
 
 Blight and pestilence 
 Be far from thine, and all the gods defend 
 Thee and this kindred house ! To Jezebel 
 I kneel for greeting ; the fierce darts of time 
 Have left no dint upon that placid brow, 
 The council-chamber of victorious kings. 
 Age doth thee suit and service, even as I, 
 O royal dame, changing the cypress locks 
 To silver, and uneasy hope to calm, 
 Loud war to peace, and in the hearts of men 
 Mere love to veneration. Teach me now. 
 Here suppliant, like a son who fain would learn 
 To govern seated at his father's side, 
 What magic force is thine, what potent spell 
 That moulds disaster into lesser gain, 
 And wins compliance seeming to comply. 
 Barter for gold the secret of the charm 
 Wherewith thou hast, a generation long, 
 Kept Plenty captive to thy beckoning hand. 
 And shut the shy bird Victory in a cage, 
 Or clipped his wanton pinions that he fly 
 No further than Samaria to Jezreel. 
 
 Jezebel. 
 
 Kneel to thy sword, dear kinsman, not to her 
 
2 2 The House of Omri. 
 
 Whose toilsome day is nigh the finish now, 
 Whate'er she did or ventured : woman's craft 
 Pales at the loud apparison of arms, 
 As pale the beaten Syrians when they hear 
 The battle-cry of Judah. 
 
 Jehoram. 
 
 Couch we now, 
 Couch we together, and in this cool glade 
 The dusty road's long weariness forget. 
 And mock the breath of Heaven's flaming lord. 
 Trouble and care and all their brood abide 
 Far from this haunt of peace ; this is the home 
 Of still tranquillity, where never sounds 
 Aught louder than the nested dove's complaint. 
 Or whispering winds that to compassion woo 
 The swordsmen of the summer. Sit we nigh 
 In love, who nigh in battle sate, and be 
 Our chairs no further than in that red hour 
 Our chariots ; when we spied the rebel's wall 
 Rock with the ram, and thundering spoke to spoke, 
 Each hard on each, both fain and neither first. 
 Raced for the crashing gap that Ramoth gave 
 Together. And let all attendant here, 
 Of Israel and of Judah, host and guest. 
 Stand off and leave us private with the Queen 
 Till the day darken to our banquet high. 
 
 YThcy go out. 
 
The Sons of Ahab. 23 
 
 Jezebel, 
 Many respects in one main welcome join 
 To greet the boast of Ahab's blood, the ilower 
 Last -left and proudest of King David's stock. 
 O prince, Desert hath been thy trumpeter 
 Within our courts ; and ten full-laden years 
 Have come and gone the richer for thy deeds 
 Since at Jerusalem in tourney first, (^) 
 A stalwart boy new-clad in glittering arms. 
 These aged eyes beheld thee and were blessed. 
 How present yet is that day's memory 
 Unto my heart ! High-throned upon the wall 
 We sate, and the green meadowland beneath 
 Thundered and lightened with the festal fray. 
 And headless javelins canopied the sun. 
 Shading our view, and all the air was loud 
 With cries of the unhurt : and still I marked, 
 Musing amid that turbulence and noise. 
 How far astray the old King's glances roamed 
 O'er the bright peers and comrades of thy blood 
 Which Judah then in youth and pride adorned(*) 
 Ere Death's unpitying sickle pruned the house, 
 Nor stayed for any, neither dwelt on shield 
 With past achievement rich, nor crown acquired 
 In bloodier war, but sought and singled thee. 
 The best, the blithest of that youngling band 
 Which hurled the dart, and clashed the sword, and 
 fled, 
 
24 The House of Omri. 
 
 Swift as a flock of sea-birds down the gale, 
 With cheeks that put their ruddy plumes to shame, 
 And eyes that matched their morions : fair thou 
 
 wert 
 In boyhood's dawn, and fair thou art, O King, 
 In manhood's day ; nor count it cause of wrath 
 If somewhat idly my fond heart o'erflpw, 
 For joy and silence never yet were friends. 
 Of this enough. My lord the Kfng and I, 
 Jezebel, mate and mother of the King, 
 As to thy sire and grandsire, so to thee 
 Do now hereby make proffer of our love. 
 Nor ask nor use we any hindering help 
 Of unconsidere'd scroll or legate^vain, 
 Which oftentimes the likeliest purpose mar, 
 But trust, and pray thee thou wilt also trust, 
 No word but that which lives upon the lip ; 
 For kings with kings should converse or with 
 
 none. 
 Take counsel, Ahaziah ; we are thine ; 
 And where canst thou more firmlier base thy 
 
 throne 
 Than on the rock Ahab and Omri built. 
 Sun-lit and storm-contemning ? No brief raid 
 Against the Syrian, no fame-frittered war, 
 No drought-foiled foray, no midsummer siege, 
 But one broad front of enmity and love, 
 A compact barrier to what foe soe'er. 
 
The Sons of Ahab. 25 
 
 One sword, one shield, one aim, and one success, 
 
 We offer ; light alliance, casual bonds, 
 
 Go ask thy counsellors if such availed 
 
 Him that begat thee ; go where Edom's top, 
 
 Ringed with wrecked chariots and splintered 
 
 speats, 
 Records ':heir value in thy captains' blood : 
 Or ask it of the burgher lords that lie 
 Where Libnah's milk-white citadel delays 
 Thy vengeance, pranked upon her sunny plain ; 
 At ease they lie and make thine arms a mock ; 
 And part the lagging day mid sleep and song. 
 And crown the cup of toll and tithe secure ! 
 Yea, we too proved the profit of such bonds, 
 We too of Israel, at our worst extreme, 
 When plague and famine in Samaria slew, 
 And spearmen of Damascus kept the gate. 
 And none drew nigh for counsel or for war. 
 Oh, what ill wind hath blown upon our love 
 And tainted it with doubt ? What hope, what 
 
 help 
 Have we, but in each other ? All our friends 
 Fall off : Tyre's narrow lordship 'neath the weight 
 Of two crowns totters. All our foes press on : 
 The Assyrian horse already sniff the sea ; 
 Egypt besets thy boundaries, and looks 
 Sideways upon occasion ; Moab hates 
 And trembles ; and e'en now on Ramoth's hill 
 
26 The House of Omri. 
 
 The gloomy murderer numbers up his dead. 
 Think then, O King, — for thee it touches : thee 
 The early birth of morning yet illumes ; » 
 
 Us the night follows : — these two kingdoms think 
 As children whom Necessity, dire nurse. 
 Hath put at foolish variance for her jest. 
 And let thine own, let Judah eldest-born 
 With joyful tears receive her brother babe 
 At last, long penitent, to peace and love. 
 
 Ahaziah. 
 
 Lady, thy words are rain upon the sea. 
 What more can I ? Is Gilead forgot ? 
 Hath not my house been ever one with thine ? 
 And are not all ill memories long since 
 Washed clean away in blood of common war ? 
 
 Jezebel. 
 
 Ay, soothly are they : we have waded deep. 
 Each in his grave the untroubled dead abide : 
 They fold their hands and rest ; and why should 
 
 we 
 Remember those old quarrels they forget ? 
 Ay, there is no such stain upon our love : 
 'Tis no such easy difference that doth part 
 Israel from Judah, and from Judah's King 
 His kingdom ; but impiety, and a god 
 Offended for a people : tell me thou, 
 
The Sons of Ahab. 27 
 
 Sprung even as I from Sidon's royal stock, 
 
 Is there a pang in the wide world so keen 
 
 As insult, and the memory of wrong 
 
 Foregone but not forgiven ? With axe and cord 
 
 They pulled him down ; they took his glory hence j 
 
 They left his temple desolate : the vile 
 
 Smote his mute lips : and for dishonour done. 
 
 For profanation and permitted shame. 
 
 What reap we of reward ? Doth J ah descend 
 
 In blessing on us ? Doth the priest that bows, 
 
 Unchided, at thy very palace gate 
 
 Remit one curse from my devoted head, 
 
 Or pray for thy prosperity, his King ? 
 
 'Tis all or nothing that Jehovah seeks : 
 
 Divided sacrifice He brooketh not : 
 
 And there shall be — or so I think, if age 
 
 Which dulls the body hath forborne the mind — 
 
 No certain love between us, apt to join 
 
 Our kingdoms in a true and lasting peace. 
 
 Till every tongue Jehovah's name forswear 
 
 And every knee at Baal's altar bow. 
 
 Lo then, I speak it not in wrath or haste : 
 
 Judge and determine, for the cause is thine. 
 
 Ahaziah. 
 
 O Queen, my cause is but thine own in brief : 
 For as that shape immortal whom we mourn 
 Did soar beyond all meaner peaks and lift 
 
28 The House of Omri. 
 
 A brow above our darkness bright with day, 
 
 So in the radiance of thy wisdom thou, 
 
 Remote from earth and earth's comparisons. 
 
 Dost shine exalted o'er thy fellow kings. 
 
 Think not I lack the veneration due, 
 
 O Jezebel, to thee ; whate'er thy will. 
 
 Even such is mine : and though Jehovah tread 
 
 With firmer foot among our tribes than here, 
 
 Yet can no shadowy blessings from a god 
 
 Outweigh the sure displeasure of a king : 
 
 Death and advancement, gold and steel, are 
 
 charms 
 More powerful to coerce and to persuade 
 Than all the thunderbolts in heaven packed. 
 
 Jezebel. 
 
 Why then, thou art the sentry for whose step 
 We long have listened, keeping watch all night 
 Upon the edge of this corpse-covered field : 
 Now breaks the golden morning, and our guard 
 Henceforth is thine ; we sheath the sword, and doff 
 The battered harness, and hang up the helm. 
 And well-content give place to younger limbs. 
 For grey-haired Time is captain of our watch. 
 Take then the perilous wardship we have kept, 
 O King, and prosper ; let the sword maintain 
 What the sword won, and may no mercy dull 
 The point of thy success. Our lot shall be 
 
The Sons of Ahab. 29 
 
 More humble, yet not lack its pleasure too : 
 For sweet the solace of inglorious days 
 To the tired veterans of life-long war ; 
 Sweet is't at length to be set free of care ; 
 Sweet to lie softly in the perfumed hall 
 And hear the minstrel chant at eventide, 
 Sounding the silver harp, of priest and king 
 And them that for their country died of wounds : 
 When all are still ; and down the festal board 
 The rows of jewelled cups unlifted shine ; 
 While happy tears the radiant cressets dim, 
 And Joy sits dreaming in the Ivory House. (') 
 
 Watchman. 
 I see a company. 
 
 Jezebel. 
 The Watchman cries. 
 
 Watchman. 
 
 I see a company, my lord the King ; 
 A cloud of dust that down the mountain crawls 
 J^igh where the widening water-course is low 
 At summer solstice ; numerous by its girth ; 
 And warlike, by the guess of glittering spears. 
 
 Jehoram. 
 Take horse, and find their purport ! Shut the 
 gates, 
 
30 The House of Omri. 
 
 And see that no man enter in nor out 
 Till he return, and call straightway to arms 
 The warriors in the city and her youth. 
 Look not amazed, my lord, for wisdom still 
 Doth teach great care is parent of long life : 
 Our humble town to-day from end to end 
 Is stocked as full with princes as the hut 
 Of avarice with gold : a prize were we 
 Rich and desirable. 
 
 Ahaziah. 
 
 Yet surely none 
 Of force to win it could unmarked draw nigh : 
 No pillar of black smoke against the blue ; 
 No horse foam-flecked to noise him ; not a word 
 Of harried cattle or down-trampled corn. 
 The feet of War are cased in louder steel. 
 Yonder, belike, are certain of my kin.C) 
 Who had in mind, as well I know, to come 
 And cheer with me, whate'er our wit avail. 
 This tedious retirement of thy sword. 
 
 Jezebel. 
 
 How chance they come by Jordan, mighty King ? 
 Southward the way : and if their purpose hold 
 They lie within Samaria's gates to-night ; 
 To-morrow with the rosy dawn we rise 
 And greet their love and bring them to Jezreel. 
 
The Sons of Ahab. 3! 
 
 They that inarch yonder are not decked and 
 
 trapped 
 In hoHday attire, but girt for war, 
 Steel-clad in total harness ; and methinks 
 O'er many for a peaceful retinue. 
 
 Jehoram. 
 I strain mine eyes, but nothing can I see 
 Save a confusion of bright mail and dust 
 Crimson as blood in the declining sun. 
 
 Watchman. 
 The messenger, my lord the King, took horse 
 And reached their ranks, but cometh not again. 
 He cometh not again, nor tarry they. 
 Slowly and steadily they march, and now 
 Discover plain to see on nearer view 
 Ensigns of Israel and domestic arms. 
 
 Jehoram. 
 
 Let one of the chief captains of the gate 
 Ride forth, and have charge absolute to turn 
 Back with all speed. If yonder ranks be ours 
 I marvel who should stay my messenger. 
 
 Jezebel. 
 
 When kings are sick obedience sickens too. 
 Some tidings of grave import, good or bad, 
 To make or mar this banquet that we hold. 
 
32 The House of Omri. 
 
 Are on their way toward our battlements ; 
 But which in truth I know not nor can guess : 
 Disaster rides with looser rein, and what 
 Should Victory do hither ? 
 
 Ahaziah. 
 
 Hath my lord 
 Heard aught of late from Gilead, how they fare ? 
 
 Jehoram. 
 
 'Tis now three days and all things there were well .: 
 The breach we made was strengthened, and the 
 
 foe, 
 Albeit grudgingly, were falling back ; 
 Their trumpets echoed faintlier day by day. 
 And night by night their watch-fires further shone. 
 
 Watchman. 
 The messenger, my lord, comes not again : 
 And up and down between their ranks I see 
 One driving hke to Jehu, Nimshi's son, 
 Who furiously driveth. 
 
 Jezebel. 
 
 Even so : 
 Aye doth the people's favourite o'ertask 
 The King's regard. There is no person else 
 But only Nimshi's too-much honoured child 
 Dare pick and choose among thy strait com- 
 mands. 
 
The Sons of Ahab. 3; 
 
 He hath some eager history of war, 
 Some tale of doubtful stratagem or fight, 
 That told by other tongue might lack its meed ; 
 And therefore hath he kept thy messenger : 
 My lord doth ill to grant him so much grace. 
 
 Jehoram. 
 
 Mayhap he bringeth us Hazael's head. 
 
 And that shall be his pardon. Let them yoke 
 
 My chariot, if it like thee, thou and I, 
 
 King Ahaziah, will ourselves set out 
 
 And meet what fortune bringeth us midway. 
 
 Ahaziah. 
 My path, O King Jehoram, lies with thine. 
 
 [They go out. 
 Jezebel. 
 
 Now let the quarry turn what way it will 
 There is no rescue from the savage dogs 
 That gape upon its flank. Let hart and hind 
 Look for like mercy on a hunting-morn 
 With such as serve Jehovah : I will not 
 Be pitiful as of old ; I will not bound 
 My fell pursuit with favour or with place ; 
 Prayer shall not turn me neither woman's tears ; 
 Nor age already to the tomb addressed ; 
 Nor childhood wailing on the brink of life. 
 As runneth a red fire from field to field 
 
 3 
 
34 The House of Omri. 
 
 "When the winds follow and no human help 
 
 Can quench it, and the mowers mourn and lift 
 
 Palms unavailing to the empty sky, 
 
 E'en so my anger and my hot revenge 
 
 Shall run across this kingdom : I will be 
 
 More terrible with years ; gray locks shall clothe 
 
 Authority and wrath with double dread. 
 
 There is no niche remaining in the world, 
 
 There is no corner they can fly to now : 
 
 Judah, the sheepfold, hath an open door. 
 
 And gives her weanlings naked to the wind, 
 
 And leaves her lambs defenceless to the wolf. 
 
 And if he will or nil my son for shame, 
 
 Bound by the preparation that we make. 
 
 No longer can forbear them. Sleep be far! 
 
 Be far, ye trivial thoughts and light affairs ! 
 
 And thou, e'en thou, inevitable Death, 
 
 Delay thy dart, until high heaven's intent 
 
 I may accomplish ; till the clouds that long 
 
 Have dimly canopied our hapless realm 
 
 Melt, and the priests of desolation fly ; 
 
 And wretched men, once more, the little while 
 
 They win from darkness, may enjoy the day 
 
 And quaff their cups, and sleep their sleep, and live. 
 
 Their lives untrammelled of vain fear or hope. 
 
 Watchman. 
 Alas ! the King is slain ! 
 
The Sons of Ahab. 35 
 
 Jezebel. 
 
 What cry is this ? 
 
 Watchman. 
 Jehu hath slain the King and Judah flies ; 
 To right and left they scatter, and the King 
 Is slain. 
 
 Jezebel. 
 O treason black ! 
 
 Watchman. 
 
 Be hence ! 
 All's rout, dismay, and casting of the shield. 
 
 Jezebel. 
 
 The rout is theirs, and the dismay is thine : 
 Doth Jezebel yet live, thou voice of fear ? 
 
 {She goes into the palace. There is a 
 soimd of assault, and after a pause 
 the Chorus enter confusedly. 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 O mothers, upon Ashtaroth call ! 
 
 Cry out on Ashtaroth, maidens, cry ! 
 
 For lo ! indifferent round us all 
 
 The random wraths of the Immortals fly ; 
 
 Their bolts enlarged blacken the blue sk3^ 
 
 Oh, to what haven shall our sails be set ? 
 
 3—2 
 
36 The House of Omri. 
 
 Where shall the innocent take horse and flee ? 
 With a king's blood the sword is wet. 
 Helpless and shelterless to thee 
 We come ; O mother of the night, be near ! 
 What yet abideth guilt, if guilt there be. 
 Oh, hide us in thy darkness ere we see. 
 And cover up our faces lest we hear. 
 
 [Jezebel re-enters and passes across the stage. 
 
 Jezebel. 
 Bark, Baal-Zephon, for the foe is nigh. 
 Discord and treachery break thy kingdom up. 
 The feet of Death come hither ; the loud axe 
 Beats at the door. Aidless and desolate. 
 Childless, abandoned of mine own I stretch 
 These hands, O Baal, toward thee, until now 
 Ne'er without gifts upon thine altar laid. 
 And charge thee by the odour of slain blood. 
 That still hath mounted upward morn and eve. 
 Thou check thy golden rein ere day be done, 
 And bend to hear me from thy chariot bright, 
 And grant the boon I beg, this while the last. 
 Dying, not life, not vengeance, but to die. 
 As fits, O Baal, thy votaress and their Queen. 
 
 [She goes in. 
 
 Chorus. 
 I.oud upon post, loud upon lintel sounding. 
 
The Sons of Ahab. 2>7 
 
 The axes crash, the hammers ring : 
 
 I see a line of fire the gates surrounding ; 
 
 I hear the deadly hail of bow and sling. 
 
 Treason invades thy sanctuary, O King ! 
 
 The panels gape apart, the bolts are burst. 
 
 And dreadful faces, black with smoke and flame, 
 
 And haggard eyes for blood athirst, 
 
 Come, as in visions of the night they came ; 
 
 And one I see, erewhile of better fame. 
 
 Hard-riding where the broken gates are down ; 
 
 His arms in blood are dabbled, and his bow 
 
 Is bent ; his form I know ; 
 
 But on his glittering helmet shines a crown. 
 
 [Jehu enters attended. 
 
 Jehu. 
 Mothers and maids of Israel, greet your King ! 
 I have o'erthrown the oppressor : I have slain 
 The leavings of the Arabian. (*) 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 Thee we greet 
 With humble heart, O Captain, or if King. 
 
 Jehu. 
 
 Fear not : this wrath is of the Lord your God. 
 Lift up your eyes, and let your lips declare 
 Which way Rath fled the sorceress whom we 
 seek. ' 
 
38 The House of Omri. 
 
 Chorus. 
 Bid not our lips slay her who nourished them. 
 
 Jehu. 
 Or condemnation takes the guiltless too. 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 We speak of force, unwilling : from our sight 
 At yonder door, brief supplication made. 
 Passed like a phantom the white-vested Queen. 
 
 Jehu. 
 
 Come then, ye fellows of mine enterprise. 
 And uproot utterly this cursed house. 
 
 [They go in. 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 Who shall distribute judgment ? who shall dare 
 
 To take upon him to apportion guilt ? 
 
 For the just blood unjustly spilt 
 
 Dividing his own share, 
 
 Nor more nor less, to each. 
 
 Since the gods never taught us nor will teach. 
 
 And unto dead men oft it appertaineth. 
 
 Who lie safe-housed and little care 
 
 Though wrath come late and when the field be 
 
 bare. 
 After much prophecy and doubtful speech. 
 
The Sons of Aliab. 39 
 
 The gods glean what remaineth; 
 
 For so they hang their laws out of our reach. 
 
 And we upon foundations not our own 
 
 Build, adding stone to stone, 
 
 And level the four walls with plumb and line 
 
 Which shut us closely round, do what we can, 
 
 Nor reck that half was built ere we began. 
 
 That other fingers wove the dark design 
 
 Long since and drew the plan. 
 
 A narrow choice the gods have given to man : 
 
 Only, for they would have it so. 
 
 Blood drips on blood, we know. 
 
 And one or other pays the debt of all : 
 
 Sooner or later him the waves o'erwhelm ; 
 
 And they that slew the pilot take the helm, 
 
 And where new hopes and happier fortunes call 
 
 With equal sheet and freshening gale they go, 
 
 Fearless though tempests blow 
 
 And clouds make black the heaven ; yet for these 
 
 There waits perchance ere any port they gain 
 
 Like peril and like pain ; 
 
 For the gods watch them, and the popular breeze 
 
 Prevails on dangerous seas. 
 
 [Jehu enters. 
 
 Jehu. 
 
 More apt at warfare than at words am I, 
 And one for whom 'tis easier to succeed. 
 
40 The House of Otnri. 
 
 O mothers, than to justify success. 
 
 Yet will I now set right mine innocence, 
 
 If words can do it ; knowing, as I look 
 
 Upon the shaded aspect of your brows. 
 
 And on your crouching forms and faces pale. 
 
 How grim and treasonous these deeds appear. 
 
 For now is the great house of Ahab fallen ; 
 
 Jehoram in the plot of Naboth lies : 
 
 They sleep one sleep, the oppressor and the 
 
 oppressed. 
 And he whom divine judgment or ill chance 
 Joined to his kin is dead, or hurt to death. 
 And with idolatry pollutes no more 
 The diadem of Asa ; only one 
 Abode my coming ; only one withstood 
 My righteous wrath, and splashed upon these arms 
 Behold the blood of Jezebel your Queen ! 
 Her in whose baleful radiance king by king 
 Walked insignificant, and crown by crown 
 Shone of its glory robbed. For passing hence 
 Under the tower neath the river- gate 
 There fell a sudden silence, and a hush 
 Upon our ranks ; no trumpet blew, the song 
 Of triumph died ; sword clashed not upon shield ; 
 And every man stood doubtful in his place. 
 For throned above us on the outer wall. 
 Beyond her wont magnificent, she sate. 
 She whom we sought : with trembling arm a slave 
 
The Sons of Ahab. 41 
 
 Fanned her ; and left and right about her chair 
 
 The eunuchs of the inner palace stood, 
 
 Blazing with gold : nor Merodach herself 
 
 Was ever yet upon a summer's morn 
 
 More decked for festival than she for death. 
 
 And while we stared amazedly, as one 
 
 That brooked no passage of unbended knee, 
 
 She stooped, and cried with a loud voice and clear, 
 
 ' Greeting to Zimri, slayer of his lord !' 
 
 And none threw dart or javelin, such a spell 
 
 Had her doomed majesty : wherefore I bade, 
 
 If any were on my side, let them straight 
 
 Cast her before me ; and the eunuchs took 
 
 Firm hold upon her robes, and cast her down, 
 
 A mass of jewelled garniture and blood, 
 
 Among the trampling forefeet of my steeds. 
 
 Such a death died Sidoriian Jezebel : 
 
 And all that looked upon her loathly fall 
 
 Upraised a clamour jubilant to heaven. 
 
 For this was the Lord's doing: now fulfilled. 
 
 Though late, the word Elijah spake of old, 
 
 When nigh King Ahab's chariot I stood, 
 
 That in his son's day He would bring the curse, 
 
 And in the plot of Naboth of Jezreel 
 
 He would requite him, said the Lord his God. 
 
 Whereof on me was the fulfilment laid 
 
 To utterly destroy my master's house. 
 
 Commissioned to the death of each and all 
 
42 The House of Omi'i. 
 
 By that wild messenger who ran untired 
 To Ramoth, and upon our council brake, 
 Took me apart, and with the holy oil 
 Anointed ; and the captains of the host, 
 Who, gathered then, were meditating war, 
 Hearing the word of doom Elisha sent, 
 Blew trumpet, and accepted me their King. 
 And what I did ye know, and what I do 
 Henceforth shall not be hidden : in the light 
 Are all my deeds, by all men to be judged. 
 For lo ! what manner of a King was this, 
 Who, while the weary soldier dug the trench, 
 And ground the arrow, and kept bright the mail. 
 Lay nerveless in the arms of luxury ? 
 Who stayed not for the rough embrace of war. 
 But at the first touch of her fingers fled 
 And sought brief shelter in a woman's robe ? 
 Was this the blood of Omri ? This the stock 
 Of princely Ahab ? This the mighty house 
 That crowned with victory and kingship came 
 From four long years of battle and of toil ? 
 Nor earlier suffered in those seven days 
 Foothold on earth to that usurping lord, 
 But inch by inch, and street by flaming street, 
 Still kept him close and ever drave him back, 
 Till he and all his counsels soared to Heaven 
 In one great blast of fire ? — Go, sit ye down, 
 And ponder now these doings of the Lord ; 
 
' The Sons of Ahab. 43 
 
 Nor think him slain unjustly of whose life 
 Indolence first made forfeit. For ourselves, 
 With travel and with bloodshed worn we go ; 
 Lamps for another kindled light us hence, 
 And ahen banquets call us to the board. 
 
 \Hi goes in. 
 
 Chorus. 
 Alas ! in an ill hour the bark, 
 First fatal messenger of friendly kings, 
 With woodland wealth betwixt her wings, 
 High-piled, a mighty store. 
 Pale fir and cedar dark, 
 Eager another goal to mark. 
 Put off from palaces by Sidon's shore. 
 And turned her rudder to fresh waves, and bore 
 To Joppa that rich load : for then 
 Fated, though hidden from the sons of men. 
 Albeit no prophet knew, 
 Fated already was the bridal crew 
 Which came with music at the break of morn 
 And silken sail with laughter set, 
 Bringing upon our coast, ill-met 
 For many a child unborn. 
 And strange to a strange nation. 
 The dark-browed priestess-maid. 
 While heaven rang and all the winds were laid 
 With harp and song and cries of gratulation. 
 For even so 
 
44 The House of Omri. 
 
 They steered light-hearted to a port of woe : 
 
 And nigh the hospitable strand 
 
 The Tyrian ships which convoyed them to land 
 
 Did at the word, this way and that, divide ; 
 
 And 'neath a canopy of carven gold 
 
 A pinnace brought the bride : 
 
 Twelve rowers clad in scarlet rowed a side ; 
 
 As pale and fair, a wonder to behold, 
 
 Over against the day begun, 
 
 Proudly she came in royal purple dight, 
 
 And red as blood her rubies took the sun 
 
 Amid her tresses black as night : 
 
 And valiant kings upon her left and right 
 
 Sate in that hour, her father and her lord, 
 
 Seeming a double bulwark and a sword 
 
 Two-edged ; yet all their might 
 
 Is fallen, and their war-cry dumb in fight. 
 
 And when the narrow space was o'er 
 
 Light leapt the King to shore, 
 
 And on the beach, for that the sea was calm 
 
 And temperate blew the gale, 
 
 Gave thanks, and duteous in no rite to fail 
 
 Lit perfume to the Lady of the Palm,(") 
 
 And bade all gods be noted, 
 
 And trumpet loud and dulcimer full-throated 
 
 Salute the blissful deity of Baal. 
 
 So to new lands, with pomp of silver mail. 
 
 And prancing horsemen clustering round the prow, 
 
The Sons of Ahab. 45 
 
 'Neath flower-decked banners came the Queen, 
 
 who now 
 Wanders a bloodless spirit pale, 
 Seeking her own in desolate abodes, 
 Having long borne the unremitted goads 
 Of angry Fortune, having seen her own 
 Arrived at that drear place by many roads, 
 Each sad accepter of a blood-stained throne 
 Slain ere his day by sickness or by sword. 
 And him, her kindly, her undaunted lord. 
 Worse woe than prophet e'er revealed. 
 Ignobly dead, a fugitive from field. 
 Ah who, to whatso measure sorrow bade 
 Tuning his harp, what minstrel might essay 
 To fitly sing the record of that day 
 For which all songs are sad ? 
 When not in royal raiment clad. 
 Neither apparelled as the risen sun 
 In robes of glittering sheen. 
 But bare of blazonry, in armour mean. 
 With naught that might his worth betoken, 
 Misdoubting if Jehovah's doom had spoken 
 Through many or through one, 
 The gracious leader whom our songs lament 
 To his last foray went : 
 
 And round about him stood the ranks unbroken. 
 And no man knew him : but the Syrian said, 
 ' The cubs shall scatter if the lion be dead : 
 
46 The House of Omri. 
 
 Fight not with great nor small, 
 
 But with the King of Israel ; him pursue.' 
 
 Yet not the thirty captains nor the two 
 
 With footmen or with horsemen wrought his fall, 
 
 Ranging the long day through ; 
 
 But one that spied a warrior tall. 
 
 From whose encounter every sword did shrink, 
 
 Doughtily doing on the battle's brink. 
 
 And to the barb his deathly arrow drew, 
 
 Unknown himself, nor knowing whom he slew : 
 
 And that great head, the fear 
 
 Of Israel's foemen, drooped and fell. 
 
 Beacon whereby his flags shall steer 
 
 No more across the battle's stormy swell. 
 
 And that strong voice which did the battle quell, 
 
 And check the sounding rout, doth cry. 
 
 Whispering weakly, ' Sorely hurt am I : 
 
 Oh, turn thy rein, thou charioteer.' 
 
 Who bent his head the word to hear. 
 
 And turned his rein, and far to southward fled, 
 
 O'er shivered arms and splashing pools of dead. 
 
 Back to the quiet tent : 
 
 And a great cry, hard upon evening, went 
 
 Through all the host, ' Let every man depart 
 
 To his own city, and to his own land.' 
 
 They laid him in Samaria sword in hand. 
 
 Deep in the rock, midmost the busy mart. 
 
 And reared a tomb above, with Tyrian art 
 
The Sons of Ahab. 47 
 
 Engraven ; all the battles which he won, 
 
 And all the towns he built : 
 
 There Moab fled ; there Hadad's mighty son 
 
 Weighed out the lavish gold, his life redeeming ; 
 
 And radiant columns high to heavenward gleaming 
 
 They set, of fragrant cedar carved and gilt ; 
 
 And frankincense about the tomb they spilt. 
 
 And blood, that with due service he might go 
 
 'Mid them which reign below; 
 
 And priest and prophet wrought mysterious 
 
 charms. 
 And burnt their spices round him to and fro, 
 And did the king much honour ; yet men say 
 That where they washed his chariot and his arms 
 Dogs lapped his blood that day : 
 Though soothly little recked he if 'twere so, 
 In cerements swathed, or no, 
 Mute in the earth, all trouble past and pain ; 
 Neither would we with over-hasty strain 
 Affirm it nor deny. 
 If Heaven, angered at the cry 
 Of Naboth and his unavenged wrong. 
 The bounds of human malice might disdain 
 And desecrate the slain. 
 
 Howe'er it be his warriors mourned him long. 
 And they that loved him for his sake were sad ; 
 They let their harness rust, no joy they had : 
 They put away their banquetings and song : 
 
48 The House of Omri. 
 
 No Image in Samaria now was clad 
 
 With festal garb, no shrine was decked with 
 
 flowers ; 
 But heavily went Israel all his hours, 
 Being weak, and sorrowed for the strong ; 
 And watched his banners in the war-front falter. 
 With stubborn knee unbent and sullen brow, 
 Nor cared to make vain sacrifice and vow 
 Upon a careless altar ; 
 
 For frail the might that led his banners now. 
 But the fierce masters of the fleece 
 Did in their bounds increase. 
 And Chemosh gave them triumph and waxed fat : 
 Rich with his servants' gratitude he sate, 
 Whose might was now approved, whose promise 
 
 kept. 
 In peace and war obedient to their claim : 
 And ever if he waked or slept 
 Around his furnaces armed figures leapt. 
 And flung the spoil upon them, and sang shame 
 On Israel's ancient fame. 
 Crying ' Great things of him are told ; 
 Yea, mighty deeds he did in days of old. 
 And many nations knew his arrows keen, 
 Judsean, Assyrian, Damascene, 
 And honoured his high places : 
 But now his knees are loose, his blood is cold, 
 His gods have hid their faces ; 
 
The Sons of Ahab. 49 
 
 His strength is gone astray : 
 
 He hath a sword of rush ; he sHngeth clay ; 
 
 And floating emptily afar 
 
 As wheat upon the wind his arrows are.' 
 
 So chanted Moab to their rising star ; 
 
 But grief with us bare sway, 
 
 And indignation in our breast abode ; 
 
 Till the King died the death he owed 
 
 Whom no man feared, whom every foe o'ercame. 
 
 Lord to our loss and leader to our shame, 
 
 Whose chariots ne'er set forward but to fly, 
 
 Whose ships for aught but shipwreck never sailed : 
 
 Little the whisper of his god availed 
 
 At Ekron, that he might not die. 
 
 When came his hour, and pass as pass the mean ; 
 
 For not amid the blaze of battle seen. 
 
 Wedging the shielded phalanx of the foe. 
 
 When wrath and valour conquer woe. 
 
 And the press thickens and the axes swing, 
 
 But in his darkened chamber died the King. 
 
 Alas, what sorrows new 
 
 Come toward us now? Why flock the rabble 
 
 through, 
 With eager faces, half-averse ? 
 And who be these which walk before 
 And carry litters splashed with gore ? 
 Ay me ! must every woe forebode a worse 
 To Israel evermore ? 
 
 4 
 
50 The House of Omri. 
 
 And the dread Angel of the curse 
 Stay but to strike the stroke of doom 
 On one and on another, then resume 
 His journey to the ending, 
 His awful way in silence wending 
 Into the nethermost recess of gloom ? 
 
 \The Messenger enters. 
 
 Messenger. 
 
 Set down, set down the load of death ye bear, 
 And stand apart till Jehu's will be known. 
 O maidens, bring me to my lord the King. 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 Look to the man who cometh, purple-robed, 
 Out of the feast, and hath upon his brow 
 A kingly circlet : him, or whom thou wilt, 
 Take for thy lord if lord of thine he be. 
 
 [Jehu enters. 
 
 Messenger. 
 
 Before thy feet, victorious King, I fall ; 
 
 Low I abase me to the ground, and lay 
 
 Dust on thy servant's forehead. Peace and health 
 
 By me the elders of Samaria send, 
 
 To whom there came a letter from my lord : 
 
 ' Horses and chariots and a city fenced 
 
 Ye have, and armour and your master's sons ; 
 
The Sons of Ahab. 5 1 
 
 Look out the meetest of your master's sons, 
 And set him on his father's throne, and fight 
 For the King's house.' Whereat to prove their 
 
 love, 
 Illustrious captain, unto thee, they slew 
 The seed of Ahab, even seventy men, 
 Whose heads, no doubtful token of goodwill, 
 Upon these litters to my lord I bear. 
 
 Jehu. 
 
 O mothers, ye be righteous ! true it is 
 
 Jezebel and Jehoram I have slain. 
 
 Two branches of one stock, and Judah's King. 
 
 But whose insatiate sword hath slaughtered these? 
 
 O mothers, of your righteousness, condemn, 
 
 If ye condemn, judge, if ye needs must judge, 
 
 All Israel, judging me. 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 The weak may well 
 Pardon, dread King, what mighty heaven permits. 
 Judgment and condemnation are not ours. 
 
 Jehu. 
 Hear yet how God hath fought upon my side. 
 And clearly manifested my revenge 
 One with His own. I bade them take and lay 
 In earth this woman whom the Lord had doomed, 
 
5-' 
 
 The House of Omri. 
 
 Not willing a king's daughter at our hands 
 Should lack a base man's burial : to the Lord 
 It seemed far other ; for no more they found 
 But only the bare skull and splintered bones 
 Of her that sate majestical so long 
 Governing Israel : was not this the word 
 Wherewith Elijah to King Ahab spake ? 
 ' Dogs of the city shall devour thy dead 
 And birds of heaven them that flee away.' 
 And touching Jezebel he spake again, 
 ' The Lord Almighty, even the Lord God 
 Shall throw her in the portion of Jezreel, 
 On the field's face, a carcase for the kites 
 To mangle, and a quarrelling for dogs ; 
 And none shall say hereafter when ye search, 
 Take up and bury : this was Jezebel.' 
 Look to it then if ye by word or deed, 
 Or gloomy face reproachful of our joy, 
 Be found among the Lord God's enemies. 
 And ye of Shamar, set your offerings up. 
 This bloody tribute that your elders send, 
 Heaped in two heaps before my palace-gate ; 
 That all men which go in and out may see 
 How Israel hath been weary of this house. 
 And what deliverance the Lord our God 
 Hath wrought for us and our posterity. 
 
 \He goes in . 
 
The Sons of A had. 5 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 Pile up the heads, the heads of princes ! We 
 
 Have known them oft in banquet and in fight, 
 
 Leading the van upon their kinsman's right, 
 
 Or in the halls of revel bending knee. 
 
 Pile them the pillars of thine house to be. 
 
 Nor dream that a God watcheth day and night* 
 
 With eyes unclosed, o'er us all. 
 
 And houses in blood founded in blood fall. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 lUUotSfoik, 6% Pa/sincitct Holt, Loniion . f'..C 
 
NOTES. 
 
 (') Ramoth-Gilead was one of the Cities of Refuge. — 
 Deut. iv. 43. 
 
 (2) Ahijah. — i Kings xi. 30. 
 
 (3) Cf. Josephus, Ant. ix. 3. i. 
 
 (4) 2 Chronicles xxi. 17. 
 
 (s) 'And the Ivory House which he made.' — 1 Kings 
 xxii. 39. 
 
 (^) Cf. 2 Kings X. 13. 
 
 (7) The palm was the symbol of Ashtaroth. 
 
PART I. ELIJAH. 
 
 In tastefid crotvn 8vo., price 7.s. 6d. 
 
 ' The poem will consist of three parts : " Elijah," " The Sons of 
 Ahab," and " The Levites." If the others be equal in merit to the 
 first, the completed whole will form a very striking piece of 
 dramatic composition. It contains power and poetry. There is a 
 splendid swing and roll in the verse, especially in the speeches put 
 into the mouth of the Prophet, and in the lyrical utterances of the 
 chorus. It is the best effort of the kind we have seen for years." — 
 Glasgow Herald. 
 
 ' A dramatic poem dealing with a stirring theme in a stirring 
 manner. The delineation of Jezebel is a fine piece of character 
 analysis, and the language and thoughts throughout are worthy of 
 an heroic subject.' — English Churchman. 
 
 ' From the high level of thought and diction maintained through- 
 cut this first act, we may fairly anticipate that this poem when 
 complete will be one of rare excellence.' — Liverfool Mercury. 
 
 ' A poem of distinct dramatic merit. Did space permit it, we 
 should have liked to have quoted from the fine " Baal " chorus.' — 
 Whitehall Review. 
 
 ' We hesitate to praise any poetry, lest the author should spend 
 hope and money in vain by issuing more to a public neglectful of 
 this kind of literature. But it is only right to say we have been 
 struck by the vigour and masculinity of Mr. Weall's blank verse, 
 and by the truly classic character of his pieces for the chorus in his 
 drama. If he is a young writer he has a future, but he has aimed 
 very high, and to suggest ^schylus or Milton is to provoke 
 hazardous comparisons. The suggestion is inevitable — but that is 
 praise. Two parts remain of the poem. Severe self-expression may 
 enable the poet to more than sustain the promise of the first.' — 
 /nguirer. 
 
 LONDON : 
 ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.G. 
 
M