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FOREWORD 
 
 The following caustic portrait, burnt in with acid, with cor- 
 rosive sublimate, is taken from the advance sheets of ARMAGED- 
 DON, an orchestral drama of physical, spiritual, and political evo- 
 lution, to be published in London next fall. The author is Leonard 
 Van Noppen. 
 
 Bashti-Beki, whether so intended or not, will be found by some 
 to fit the career of a prominent American politician and pubHcist. 
 Few will fail to recognize the portrait. 
 
 Bashti-Beki is, however, only one of a vast gallery of portraits, 
 comprising men of great prominence in business and in politics, 
 both here and abroad. 
 
 The play is one of intrigue. It has a vivid plot, and several 
 hundred characters. It pictures the modem Phihstines in ancient 
 Philistia. It runs the gamut of the emotions, depicts the battle of 
 the strong and the weak; and, for the first time in literature, in 
 the antithesis of the Eternal Mother and the Eternal Courtesan, 
 it pictures the New Woman in a remarkable impersonation of 
 militant motherhood. 
 
 The poetry, according to the nature of the characters, ranges 
 from the commonplace to the sublime. In the intermezzoes, for 
 orchestration, all the ages of civilization are represented, other 
 portions burst into lyrical expression. The scenes are laid in 
 Heaven, in Hell, and on the Earth. Lucifer and Mammon are 
 
two of the chief characters ; others are Michael and the Archangels, 
 and certain personages known to fable and legend, who are but 
 transparent masks for modern characters. Only part of the por- 
 trait is here given; the passages are taken at random, though the 
 best is omitted, as the story can here be only suggested. (The 
 name of the hero and of one of the heroines is reserved for the 
 book.) 
 
 Copyright 1912 
 
 fay 
 
 E. Elliott 
 
 PRICE 25 CENTS 
 
 All orders should be sent to 
 Brown-Morrison Co., Printers, Lynchburg, Va. 
 
 All advance orders for Armageddon, a book of more than 500 
 pages, will be registered by Brown-Morrison Co. 
 
From the advance sheets of 
 Armageddon 
 
 Hero: Bashti-Beki. ha! 
 
 That blusterer of loud loquacity? 
 What will he do? 
 
 He promises to lead 
 The people against their tyrants. 
 
 Ha! ha! ha! 
 The toilers of all lands, both near and far. 
 And of the farthest provinces, espouse 
 His shining banner. 
 
 Ha! what can he do? 
 An eagle to his own profit, to their rights 
 He is a very mole. What will he do? 
 He says he labors for the people's cause. 
 Labors? Ha! ha! He never labored, save 
 Under the strange delusion of his worth. 
 Was it not he who from the jungle came. 
 Splashed with himself? Who stood before the 
 
 Sphinx, 
 Thinking to dwarf that giantess, the while, 
 Facing colossal littleness, she laughed. 
 Conscious of only vacancy? Oh, he. 
 The groaning people's heaviness will take 
 But lightly upon him. Lions are his words. 
 But all his deeds are mice; his promises 
 A shoal of blowing porpoises, no more. 
 
 1st Soldier: He is reputed valiant and brave. 
 
 Hero: The coward hides in him, ready to fly. 
 
 What can he do? who is the architect 
 3 
 
 1st Soldier: 
 
 Hero: 
 
 3d Soldier: 
 
 Hero: 
 
 2d Soldier: 
 Hero: 
 
2d Soldier: 
 
 Hero: 
 
 3d Soldier 
 Hero: 
 
 Of nothing but a frame of mind? Ha! ha! 
 Valour grows fat when he dines on his deeds. 
 His vanity fasts only when he sleeps. 
 He thinks himself a prophet, and assumes 
 To be the people's voice. 
 
 I know that he 
 Can oracle like any owl, and that 
 He blunders, as by accident, at times 
 Into the realms of reason; but he toils 
 Only to build himself a pedestal. 
 To tower his nothingness before the world. 
 Yet can talk humbly. 
 
 True, his modesty 
 Is but the horse he rides to show him off. 
 But never think that this prodigious boaster. 
 This satyr, butting through the common herd. 
 Pities the poor. Was it not he who gave 
 The counsel of content to Egypt's thralls? 
 I know him well, too well, and all his kind. 
 In secret he is allied with the kings. 
 
 In the next scene the Hebrews invoke the aid of the Hero, com- 
 plaining of their hard lot under the Philistines. 
 
 Hero: And have ye then no champion? 
 
 1st Hebrew: Yes, one. 
 
 Whom many follow, Bashti-Beki, he. 
 Ha! Bashti-Beki, that abortion, who 
 Foaled of a night-mare, stabled in a dream. 
 Deludes the world with his omniscience. Ha! 
 That Peace in armour, wath his vizor down 
 And shield upraised, provoking the attack. 
 That maker of postures and tongue-hero, that 
 Prodigious vaunter, who invokes the peace 
 To provoke war! Ha! 
 4 
 
 1st Soldier: 
 
 Hero: 
 
1st Hebrew: The very same. 
 
 Hero: That dead sun lighted by his satellites. Ha! 
 
 Ha! 
 That opportunist, like a parrot, perched 
 Upon the finger of chance, where he repeats 
 The echo of the time. Ha! Ha! 
 
 2d Hebrew: The same. 
 
 Hero: And do they follow him, this mountebank. 
 
 Itinerant statesman, and perpetual pageant? 
 This hero, cut to the measure? This rantipole, 
 And vain hysteric, roaring to and fro, 
 Exhorting all to look on him and live? 
 This brazen serpent? 
 
 It is said that he 
 Will at the time of the Passover present 
 Himself before the people. 
 
 Ha! ha! ha! 
 He is most popular. 
 
 Incredible ! 
 
 This ring in the nose of the populace, who stands 
 On all fours with the people, and whose bray 
 Sounds like an Assyrian edict! Doth he still 
 Flaunt his red flag of modesty and coin 
 A mint of shining virtues, whereupon 
 His ramping image counterfeits the truth? 
 2d Hebrew: They still believe him worthy of belief. 
 
 Hero: This blusterer, bloated with self, who towers 
 
 Only by pigmies ; who, most positive. 
 Is never certain; this Astonishment, 
 Whose look is a pronouncement, as if to say ; 
 "I am infallible," and doth he still 
 As in a spasm of per-fervid virtue, 
 Deny his deeds, though proved unto the hilt? 
 5 
 
 1st Hebrew: 
 
 Hero: 
 
 3d Hebrew: 
 
 Hero: 
 
1st Hebrew: 
 Hero: 
 
 3d Hebrew: 
 2d Hebrew: 
 1st Hebrew: 
 
 3d Hebrew: 
 Hero: 
 
 1st Hebrew: 
 
 2d Hebrew: 
 3d Hebrew: 
 
 And still pontificate before the world 
 As the one just and only honest man? 
 
 Still doth he promise prodigies, but we. 
 Unlike the multitude, are not deceived. 
 Seeing his shadow once, by candle-light. 
 Loom on the wall, he reasoned he was great 
 To have so great a shadow. Ha ! ha ! ha ! 
 He prates of justice, yet is growTi so proud. 
 He scarce can brook his shadow by his side. 
 Duties he still prescribes — for others, he 
 Owes only one, his duty to himself. 
 Of late, the money-lender, Egibi, 
 The builder of the Highway to the West, 
 Gave out a letter he received from him. 
 Therein with prate of practicalities. 
 And cant of wisdom and necessity, 
 "The only Honest Man," made compromise 
 With principle for fifty-thousand dovwi. 
 
 Still he disowns his illegitimate deeds. 
 Fathered at night with opportunity. 
 
 Ha! ha! the leopard might as well attempt 
 To run away from his spots. Accused of truth. 
 His words stand up and prove an alibi. 
 
 Subjected to much bitter harriment. 
 The letters and the shekels he denied 
 With such vociferations, and assumed 
 Such injured innocence, that half the world 
 Will still believe their idol was maligned. 
 He is the people's god. 
 
 Yet it was proved 
 That he and his abettors had received 
 Gold to mislead the people. 
 
Hero: Yet for himself, 
 
 No doubt this jackal in the lion's skin. 
 This Hittite, whose rude sceptre is a stick. 
 This brazen-faced hierophant of brawn, 
 Received the lion's share? 
 
 3d Hebrew: He did not starve. 
 
 1st Hebrew: And then, to prove his honesty, he feigned 
 A righteous rage, assumed, so all could see, 
 A most accusing manner; without ruth 
 Deflowered fair names, tore reputations down. 
 And as upon a promontory stood 
 And from that outlook thundered at the world. 
 Soldiers and citizens, both low and high. 
 He in his rabid virtue, then assailed; 
 With mud he sought to soil them, while he flung 
 The lie into the very face of truth. 
 And still the people follow him, this voice 
 Crying forever, in the wilderness. 
 Of one to come, himself? 
 
 They still believe. 
 At least, so do the ignorant, and such 
 Alas! are multitudes. 
 
 And though he lends 
 His ear to their complaints, aifects good will, 
 And feigns the virtues popular, proclaiming. 
 Yea, in the market-place, to all the poor. 
 And all the disinherited, that he. 
 The people's champion, will right their wrongs. 
 And re-establish justice, yet he spent 
 Out of the revenues, wrung from our hearts. 
 Enormous sums for pleasure. 
 
 3d Hebrew: When of late. 
 
 Companioned by his petty parasites, 
 7 
 
 2d Hebrew: 
 
 Hero: 
 
 3d Hebrew: 
 1st Hebrew: 
 
 2d Hebrew: 
 
He visited far countries, spending there 
 His plentitude of commonplace, and sowing 
 The wind with platitudes, no less than when. 
 To popularize his features, he went through 
 The highways and the by-ways of the land. 
 The people paid, not he, for that display 
 And joyful junketing, the people paid. 
 
 1st Hebrew: I mind me too how, when the East and West 
 Were joined in deadly conflict, he proposed 
 Himself as arbiter. 
 
 2d Hebrew: And so became. 
 
 Hero: So is become a man of peace. His reasons. 
 
 Like crabs, go every way at once. 
 
 1st Hebrew: Indeed, 
 
 2d Hebrew: Upon the roaring billows of loud war. 
 Much oil he poured. 
 
 Hero: Then afterwards, no doubt, 
 
 With fiery breath he set the oil aflame. 
 
 1st Hebrew: Even so. 
 
 Hero: I know the man. Before him goes 
 
 A roar of acclamations like a sea ; 
 Behind him praise is gulped in a vast yav«i 
 Like a prayer for swift relief. 
 
 3d Hebrew: For this we pray. 
 
 His plausible bluntness looks so like the truth. 
 That his asseverations are believed. 
 
 Hero: I tell you truly, if for nothing more, 
 
 That man should die to lessen ignorance. 
 
 2d Hebrew: Of late he wrote a book. 
 
 Hero: Another one? 
 
 I know the subject. I have read the others. 
 And every one a capital offence. 
 8 
 
3d Hebrew: 
 
 Hero: 
 
 2d Hebrew: 
 
 Hero: 
 
 3d Hebrew: 
 Hero: 
 
 1st Hebrew: 
 
 Hero: 
 
 3d Hebrew: 
 2d Hebrew: 
 1st Hebrew: 
 
 3d Hebrew: 
 
 Vehement, voluble, that pulpiteer 
 Speaks volumes to say nothing. Ha! ha! ha! 
 How shall posterity forgive him, who 
 Courts posthumous honesty, I fear, in vain? 
 The world will find him out. 
 
 And then will know nothing. 
 May it be soon. 
 
 Yet hath he skill 
 To play upon the people as on a flute. 
 Making the hollowness of empty minds 
 To sound his praises. 
 
 'Tis a popular tune. 
 In his discourse, as in a copious stream, 
 A minnow of thought becomes a whale of sound. 
 How bold he was, how very bold, when he. 
 Plotting for replications of applause. 
 Pelted the dead with epithets ! Oh bold. 
 This militant Pen and stylus without a style. 
 Whose pompous name goes strutting through a 
 
 book. 
 Oh, verily the kings have chosen well; 
 Is he not called the captain of the hosts? 
 The Dictator of Philistia? 
 
 Ha! ha! ha! 
 Is he so mighty then, this blusterer? 
 This swaggering braggart, with a tongue of 
 
 brass ? 
 All fear him. 
 
 For he vnelds a perilous power. 
 Those that still trust him think that he intends 
 A sudden blow to win our freedom. 
 
 Others 
 Think he is plotting to usurp the throne. 
 
 9 
 
Hero: Oh trust him not. The man is drunk with self. 
 
 And will to others offer but the dregs. 
 The Hero is then told of Bashti-Beki's theft of the Ark of the 
 
 Covenant, which seems here the symbol of the American Consti- 
 tution. He also has stolen the shew-bread, and broken the tables 
 
 of stone. 
 
 In a following scene the Devil, now known as the Man with 
 
 the Golden Mask, visits the heroine and prompts her to use Bashti- 
 
 Beki as a pawTi to win the throne of Philistia. 
 
 Gold Mask: Does not the Hittite Bashti-Beki? 
 
 Heroine: Well? 
 
 Gold Mask: Dance at your bidding like a well-tamed bear? 
 
 Heroine: He loves to think himself in love, and oft 
 
 Puts on a sentimental tenderness; 
 But is in love with his infirmity. 
 
 Gold Mask: Which is? 
 
 Heroine : Himself. 
 
 Gold Mask: I see you know him. 
 
 Heroine: Know him? 
 
 That hero to the groundlings, always dull — 
 Gold Mask : Yet is his dullness to the point ; for he 
 
 Doth bear his honors as if he hoped for more. 
 
 And can be used. 
 Heroine: That joyless one dejects me. 
 
 And I do scorn to angle for such a fish. 
 Gold Mask: Yet many think that you coquet with him. 
 Heroine: 'Tis true that I, of late, have played with him. 
 
 But only for amusement. Ha! ha! ha! 
 Gold Mask: To see his antics is diverting. 
 Heroine : Yet 
 
 I weary of this performing seal, with his 
 10 
 
Flamboyant modesty, that only dives 
 To bob up unexpectedly, and so 
 Surprises the beholder into applause. 
 This Prince of Peradventure, who puts on 
 Superior airs to hide inferior aims. 
 
 Gold Mask: You think so? Ha! 
 
 Heroine: A demagogue, who rides. 
 
 Without relays, his poHcies to death! 
 A pulpiteer! A sermonizing knave! 
 A boaster, a puff-ball! who, at will, assumes 
 A virtuous indignation when it pays. 
 Ha! ha! we mix like oil and water. 
 
 Gold Mask: Yet 
 
 Is he not modest? 
 
 Heroine : When he does not boast 
 
 He boasts he could boast if he only would. 
 
 Gold Mask: You must admit he's brave. 
 
 Heroine: Ha! all men know 
 
 When he is in the perilous front of war, 
 That he is there by accident, or because 
 He was attacked in the rear. 
 
 Gold Mask: Then why not be 
 
 His prompter, and play the prologue to his end? 
 So he act vanity, the puppet, till 
 This Sir Pomposo, with tragedian tread, 
 Shall strut his strength away. 
 
 Heroine: I doubt 
 
 The wisdom of this policy, for I 
 
 Have pared his soul to the quick and found it 
 
 dead. 
 He pays the vicious when they furnish him 
 Occasions to seem virtuous, and is 
 So over-strenuous he strains at ease. 
 Gold Mask: You use the scalpel like a surgeon born, 
 
 11 
 
Heroine : 
 
 Gold Mask: 
 
 Heroine: 
 Gold Mask: 
 
 Heroine: 
 
 Gold Mask: 
 
 Heroine: 
 Gold Mask: 
 
 Heroine: 
 Gold Mask: 
 Heroine : 
 Gold Mask: 
 
 Heroine: 
 Gold Mask: 
 
 Thirsting for praise, he hides his virtues only 
 Where they are sure to be found. Upon his 
 
 face 
 Beauty dies hard, and every time he laughs 
 He invents another pain. How use this bungler. 
 This charlatan and swaggering martialist. 
 This tadpole of the puddle, grown a toad. 
 Throned on the toadstool of his ovra conceit? 
 
 He leads the royal armies, and aspires 
 To be Dictator — 
 
 Yes? 
 
 With the imperial I- 
 
 Is drunken too 
 
 It does seem strange 
 That he speaks never writh the royal we. 
 But with an absolute, autocratic I. 
 It is most singular, and this, I think. 
 Means that he is ambitious. 
 
 That is pledn. 
 Not merely so for Gaza and her crown. 
 But for the rulership of the whole realm. 
 *Tis possible. 
 
 Most probable. 
 
 And so? 
 Make him the architect to rear your throne. 
 Your pliant tool, the wedge to cleave in twain 
 Philistia's rotting empire. 
 
 What, with him. 
 That crude straight speaker from a crooked 
 heart? 
 
 His forth-right crookedness will make for you 
 An easement to the throne. 
 
 12 
 
Heroine: That make-shift, who, 
 
 Plotting himself, got famous by mistake. 
 And took it seriously. 
 
 Gold Mask: So profiting 
 
 By his mistakes, he kept on making them. 
 And so will he continue until the end. 
 Till of his labors we shall reap the fruit. 
 The crown we covet, you and I. 
 
 Heroine : While he 
 
 Gold Mask: Shall vanish into an echo, or else fade 
 Into an exclamation point. 
 
 Heroine: Must I 
 
 Give up my pleasure for this Spectacle, 
 This National calamity, this rough 
 And ready tonguester, whose far-blovm ex- 
 ploits 
 Were littered of a fatted opportunity? 
 Is there no other way? 
 
 Gold Mask: No other way. 
 
 Heroine: This battering-ram, who, most obstreperous. 
 
 Lowers his mind to elevate his head. 
 This vain unsecret babbler; who, in public 
 Practices secrecy, and to the world 
 Publishes his compunctions. 
 
 Gold Mask: As you know. 
 
 He poses as an ornament, and so. 
 Postured for popular applauses, cocks 
 His ears for praise — 
 
 Heroine: Though when beside himself 
 
 He can look modest. 
 
 Gold Mask: So you must contrive 
 
 To flatter his hate of flattery. 
 
 Heroine: I see. 
 
 13 
 
Gold Mask: 
 
 Heroine : 
 
 Gold Mask: 
 
 Heroine : 
 Gold Mask: 
 
 Heroine: 
 
 Gold Mask: 
 
 Heroine: 
 Gold Mask: 
 Heroine: 
 
 Pretend to be the puppet of his will. 
 Suggest to him what he most longs to do. 
 Yet seem to be persuaded to the course 
 To which you shall persuade him. So shall he 
 Jump through the hoops that you hold up for 
 
 him. 
 Like a trained dog. 
 
 I like it not, I say 
 He is impossible; as soon expect 
 The shell to keep the secret of the sea. 
 No! no! he is too weak. 
 
 Weak, very weak. 
 But strong enough to break a promise. Let 
 His weakness be your strength. 
 But how? 
 
 No doubt 
 He wearies of these milky times of peace. 
 Dish up a war, sauced with a little love. 
 But scant your kisses. 
 
 Love without the thrill. 
 And when I kiss I will reserve my heart. 
 That suits me better. His Hurly Burly air 
 Is little to my taste. 
 
 And as he snaps 
 At opportunities, as toads at flies. 
 He will go willingly to any goal. 
 Which hath himself for end. 
 
 I see a light. 
 Ignore him, and he stifles. 
 
 True, for he. 
 Should one but speak of others, always veers 
 The praise back to himself, till he is deaf 
 With his own name. 
 
 14 
 
Gold Mask: Though his corrupted heart 
 
 Is barked with honest ruggedness, we know 
 That for self-profit he will soon suspend 
 His honesty. 
 
 Heroine: That is? 
 
 Gold Mask: If wrongs are done. 
 
 If done but secretly, he will approve, 
 So he enjoy the profit, unaccused. 
 
 Heroine: And so, to keep suspicion from our plot. 
 
 Like the sly hen, that cackles beyond her nest. 
 He'll clamour the loudest, when he hatches lies. 
 Of truth and righteousness. 
 
 Gold Mask: So from his own 
 
 To others' vices will divert the world 
 Blurting the lie as if it were the truth. 
 
 Heroine: We'll let him fulminate his fustian thought. 
 
 This brawler, this time-pleaser, who succeeds 
 By his defects; this circulating conscience. 
 Never at home when called upon. 
 
 Gold Mask: So we 
 
 Shall lash his weakness till it simulates 
 A valiant virility. 
 
 Heroine: And have 
 
 Him roar for us. 
 
 Gold Mask: Humour his royal hopes. 
 
 Flatter his bristles to a sleek content — 
 Heroine: And let him play the hero at his will. 
 
 Gold Mask: But trust him not. 
 Heroine: No! No! 
 
 Gold Mask: By all accounts 
 
 Never accused of accuracy, he needs 
 Our constant watching. 
 
 15 
 
Heroine: Ha! ha! he does, indeed. 
 
 Gold Mask: With artful praise and grossest flatteries. 
 Fatten this person to a personage. 
 Then we'll dispose of him, as men discharge 
 Their consciences, for being too faithful. 
 
 Heroine: Ha! 
 
 Trust me for that. 
 
 Gold Mask: I will, and though his brow 
 
 Bulges as it would burst with utterless thought. 
 And though he looks so wise before he speaks, 
 I'm sure you can hoodwink him to the end. 
 
 Heroine: I'll send my features for awhile to school. 
 
 And dress my craft in smiles. He'll not suspect. 
 
 I'll race his mind with a snail, and when they 
 run, 
 
 I'll wager on the snail. 
 Gold Mask: And while we plot. 
 
 We'll let this ass chew the thistle of content. 
 
 He must not smell suspicion. 
 Heroine: Meanwhile, shall 
 
 The orchestration of his attitudes 
 
 From our dissembled plots divert the world? 
 
 Gold Mask: Let him believe that you believe in him. 
 
 And then he will believe you. 
 Heroine: Doubtless, while 
 
 His ambling mind will, like the lumbering 
 thunder. 
 
 Labor behind the lightning of our Vfit. 
 
 Gold Mask: And when we stand triumphant at the goal. 
 
 We'll stretch the skin of that dead ass. 
 Heroine: For what? 
 
 Gold Mask: To drum on. 
 
 16 
 
Heroine: For that purpose he will do 
 
 As well alive, since he is, as you know, 
 A rattle-brain. 
 
 Gold Mask: You prove your point, ha! ha! 
 
 By a dull example. 
 Heroine : True. 
 
 Gold Mask: Let us take care 
 
 Not to be swayed by prejudice. 
 Heroine: No! no! 
 
 Gold Mask: He has no doubt some noble qualities. 
 
 Of which of late he gave us living proof. 
 
 Did he not say that for the common weal 
 
 He'd give up ease and fortune? 
 Heroine: Everything. 
 
 Gold Mask: Would even, should necessity require. 
 
 Shoulder the government alone? 
 Heroine: Poor man! 
 
 Gold Mask: Would, should the people call him to high place, 
 
 Come forth from his retirement. 
 Heroine: So he said. 
 
 Gold Mask : To prove himself the patriot, I believe 
 That he would sacrifice — 
 
 Heroine: His dearest friend. 
 
 As for a reputation, he would sacrifice 
 His character, if he had such to lose — 
 
 Gold Mask: I think he will be safe with you. 
 
 Heroine: So safe, 
 
 I shall fall dead for laughing to behold him 
 Balance the world upon his thumb, the while 
 He loses his own footing. 
 
 Gold Mask: If you laugh. 
 
 Laugh not too loudly; though we see this toad 
 17 
 
Dilating his dimensions, let our mirth 
 
 Be secret and judicious. 
 Heroine: Yet with him 
 
 There is no danger. You will see that sponge 
 
 Drink up a sea of flattery. 
 Gold Mask: Go slow. 
 
 Having sounded the heroine as to her feelings towards Bashti- 
 Beki, and obtained from her a promise to employ him as an in- 
 strument to obtain the throne of Philistia, Gold Mask, or Mam- 
 mon, now persuades her to use another, called El-Attick, one as 
 oily and astute as Bashti-Beki is blunt and dull, as a foil to the 
 dullness of the Hittite. Omitting the scene of the Heroine with 
 Bashti-Beki, which shows the psychology of the latter, and paints 
 his portrait in the colors of life, we quote part of the Heroine's 
 conversation with El-Attick, whom it is her policy to set against 
 Bashti-Beki. 
 
 Heroine: 
 
 El-Attick: 
 Heroine: 
 El-Attick : 
 
 Heroine: 
 
 El-Attick: 
 
 Heroine: 
 
 El-Attick: 
 
 Heroine: 
 
 I know your subtlety, which makes me sure, 
 Yet one there is, a rival, who aspires 
 To reach the self-same goal. 
 
 Who? 
 
 Bashti-Beki. 
 That irrepressible! that bubbling geyser. 
 Spouting spontaneous dullness — Ha! ha! ha! 
 That over-topping arrogance, who thinks 
 He masquerades in modesty, and feigns 
 To affect his bluntness, fearing that the world 
 Might think it natural. 
 
 Which he suspects. 
 What, he? 
 
 Even he, the only honest man. 
 That epithet clings to him like a burr. 
 It is his epitaph. 
 18 
 
El-Attick: He'll find it hard 
 
 To live up to his epitaph. Ha ! ha ! 
 
 And should have chosen a modest one, instead. 
 Heroine : Yet many do believe him, since they think 
 
 He is of truth the very buttress. 
 El-Attick: Ha! 
 
 The flying buttress. 
 Heroine: Are you not too hard? 
 
 El-Attick : Ha! ha! so he aspires to Gaza's throne. 
 
 This public-crier in motley, with his foot 
 
 Upon the pedal of organized applause? 
 Heroine: Even he, and thinks that he is sure to win. 
 
 El-Attick: Yet at the moment when he faces me 
 
 Shall his momentum come to sudden stop. 
 Heroine: That must you prove. 
 
 El-Attick : And so I shall, ha ! ha ! 
 
 That pestilent vow-maker, who lays down 
 
 The law of his uprightness, and who gives 
 
 Judgment before he thinks. 
 Heroine: And when he thinks 
 
 Proves only lack of judgment. 
 El-Attic1C: Does he not 
 
 Furnish the nation every other day 
 
 A calendar of precepts? 
 
 Heroine: Yet it finds 
 
 In others its examples. 
 
 El-Attick: Wonderful! 
 
 That he shines least when he reflects most. 
 
 Heroine : Yet, 
 
 They say few dare to face him. 
 
 El-Attick : Ha! ha! ha! 
 
 Facing his face, his very mirror cracked 
 Itself with laughing. He it was who brayed — 
 19 
 
His trump the marrowless bone of a dead ass — 
 So that the land, as with an earthquake shook. 
 
 Heroine: He thinks himself a lion. 
 
 El-Attick: Lion! Bah! 
 
 This wart upon the nose of war, this wrangler. 
 Commanding order for disorder's sake! 
 His flaming oriilamme, plucked from a goose. 
 All follow to the fore-front of the rear. 
 
 Heroine: A running commentary. Thus, when he 
 
 Shows the white feather, do his followers 
 
 Show their heels. 
 El-Attick: Let him threaten. Expectation 
 
 Grew lean when he began to do. Ha! ha! 
 
 Peace follows in his wake, and like an imp 
 
 Sticks out its tongue. 
 Heroine: Yet is he versatile. 
 
 Equally dull in all he touches, keen 
 
 In all he lets alone. 
 El-Attick : Save us! when 
 
 He calls a man a liar, or a fool. 
 
 He thinks he stabs him with an epigram. 
 
 Heroine: He spares himself no pleasure, us, no pains. 
 
 And though he goes, pied in the checks of 
 
 change. 
 Yet in one thing he surely is consistent: 
 He always is what he was born, a fool. 
 Clearly himself for all his cloudy ways. 
 
 El-Attick : Making his virtues his incontinence. 
 
 He grafts his name on popular applause, 
 And well he knows — who better in the land? 
 How he, for his advantage, with a lie 
 Can modulate his duty. 
 
 Heroine: On the spur 
 
 20 
 
Of the moment, where the world must see, he 
 
 stands, 
 Posing before the multitude. 
 
 El-Attick : Already 
 
 Are they grown weary of his posturings. 
 This epidemic of the obvious, 
 This superficializing Pleonast, 
 Who when he finds his tongue, proves nothing, 
 
 save 
 That he has lost his head. 
 
 Heroine: His swelling words 
 
 Prove that his speech is hollow; yet who else 
 Has made of dullness a fine art? 
 
 El-AtticK: And though 
 
 He but repeats himself, and so says nothing, 
 Still will this Mumbo-Jumbo in the mart. 
 Or on the rostrum, find in his own life 
 The dear occasion of an orator. 
 And while he mouths his large magniloquence, 
 A scribe takes down as sacred every word. 
 
 Heroine: Ha! ha! most sacred, when he is profane. 
 
 The people swallow him with a grimace. 
 Sure, an emetic. 
 
 El-AtticK: When they throw him up. 
 
 They'll feel relieved. As unoriginal 
 As fluent, this misguiding publicist 
 Now dons canonicals and preaches peace; 
 Now bounds into the arena, where he glares. 
 Posed, hke a gladiator, for applause. 
 
 Heroine: Yes, everywhere the rabble whoops for him. 
 
 He says he hates these milky times of peace. 
 
 El-AtticK: Yet his incessant goings up and down 
 Churns them to butter for his bread. 
 21 
 
Heroine: When he 
 
 Smiles, he reveals the felon in his face. 
 
 El-AtticK: That face is verily of all our commerce 
 
 The most important staple. Could we but 
 Export his features to the shores of hell! 
 
 Heroine: This must we do, so they will not return. 
 
 But since they are so heavy, we must beware 
 Lest we sink with them on the way. 
 
 El-Attick: You make 
 
 Too much of him, this controversialist! 
 This bastard son of Destiny I whose speech. 
 Weighted with lightness, like a comet, bums 
 Because it is but gas. 
 
 Heroine: I wonder — 
 
 El-Attick: Need 
 
 We loose a catapult to kill a fly? 
 
 Heroine: Of him think not too lightly, so prepare 
 
 Your utmost, and whatso the kings propose 
 To frustrate his ambition, known to all. 
 We, you and I, wdll to ourselves divert 
 As measures for our safety. 
 
 El-Attick : Well conceived. 
 
 And though he bristles into bravery. 
 And counterfeits fierce courage with his teeth. 
 Setting the time on edge, and though he roars. 
 As if his looks to lions went to school, 
 I have of him no fear. Since he essays 
 To exorcise the age of evil ; he 
 Should sacrifice his own superfluous life. 
 
 Heroine: You ask too much, this you and I must do. 
 
 Strike when I give the word, but not before. 
 Strike not haphazardly. 
 
 El-Attick : I shall await 
 
 The signal like an executioner, 
 
 22 
 
And when I flash his head off with one stroke. 
 
 The Age shall lose its tail. 
 Heroine: And with its tail 
 
 Lose its distemper. 
 El-Attick: Like a curtailed hound. 
 
 Heroine: And yet the man is plausible, the kings, 
 
 Also that coalition of great lords. 
 
 Fear him; for he is strangely popular. 
 El-AtticK: Yes, strangely so, yet is it strange? For he 
 
 Can wag his pate in a wise way, and has 
 
 Attacks of virtue in public. 
 Heroine: Thus he seems 
 
 The people's paragon. 
 El-AtticK: Yet be assured 
 
 Although he prates of justice, and harangues 
 
 With violent, loud volubility, 
 
 That the "square deal" comes round to him at 
 last. 
 Heroine: He trims the edges till it fits his need. 
 
 El-Attick : He but mistakes his loss of memory 
 
 For a clear conscience. When he blusters 
 "liar!" 
 
 He proves his enemy has told the truth. 
 Heroine : Soon, soon, no doubt, we shall know all his 
 
 plans. 
 El-AtticK: He will, as heretofore, undress his mind. 
 
 Windowed to all the world, then, turning, do 
 
 Homage to his ovm honesty, the while. 
 
 To see his politic frankness, all applaud. 
 Heroine: His plans nest high, and when they are full- 
 
 fledged. 
 
 We'll shake the tree and spill them. 
 
 El-AtticK: And we shall have 
 
 An omelette of feathers. 
 
 23 
 
Heroine: For all his bluff 
 
 And honest heartiness, he sends his looks 
 In secret, as apprentices to pride. 
 
 El-Attick: And when, of late, he swaggered through the 
 land 
 With the courage of convictions not his own. 
 Prigged with false learning, pranked with 
 
 promises ; 
 The stork his heraldry, the Patriarch 
 Of a diatribe of attributes, of which 
 He stood the unblushing father; as he sold 
 His virtues like commodities, and moved 
 With more of arrogance than suits a god. 
 And parodied his Maker, I remarked: 
 No wonder God is grown unpopular. 
 Since this man tells us Deity was made 
 In his own image. 
 
 Heroine: Always when he speaks. 
 
 His sallies of dullness leave me in a drowse. 
 
 El-Attick : And when he would be light, his levity 
 
 Flounders, a porpoise, in the shallows of sense. 
 Heroine: Flounders, but never floats. 
 
 El-Attick : And when he laughs. 
 
 It seems as if he tries to celebrate. 
 Successful cerebration, though of this 
 I have ray doubts. 
 
 Heroine: Not he, ha! ha! 
 
 Know he is breathless, if he says not "I." 
 He says he loves me. 
 
 El-Attick: Ha! when out of breath? 
 
 And you believe he loves you? 
 
 Heroine: His loud praise 
 
 Makes me in love with silence. How I loathe 
 24 
 
El-Attick: 
 
 His lumpish loutings! Always he affects 
 The pose heroic — 
 
 Ha! ha! say imposes. 
 He bulges into importance like, a toad. 
 Till some believe his bluster is what it seems. 
 For all his vauntery, not soon his deeds 
 Of courage shall convict this blusterer. 
 Of him I have no fear. 
 
 I wait the proof. 
 Like heated glass, I'll mould him with my 
 
 breath. 
 And shape him to our purpose. 
 
 Tease to roars 
 The whole menagerie of his convictions. 
 Till he is deaf with his own righteousness. 
 So we can plot his overthrow. 
 
 The next scene in this play of intrigue is between the Heroine 
 and the High Priest, whom she inveigles into the plot. 
 
 Need we fear the King? 
 
 Heroine : 
 
 El-Attick : 
 
 El-Tauin : 
 (The High 
 Priest) 
 
 Heroine : 
 
 El-Tauin : 
 Heroine : 
 
 El-Tauin : 
 Heroine: 
 El-Tauin : 
 Heroine : 
 El-Tauin : 
 
 No! no! no harm in him. 
 But I do fear — 
 
 Whom? 
 
 Too over-zealous. 
 
 One less circumspect. 
 
 Bashti-Beki? 
 
 Yes. 
 
 So he is snared? 
 
 Ha ! ha ! yes, in the trap. 
 Curb him, or we are lost. 
 25 
 
Heroine: He only knows 
 
 What he must do. 
 
 El-TauiN: I fear he knows too much. 
 
 Heroine: Yet knew he less we scarcely could succeed. 
 
 El-Tauin: His devious virtues, dangerous as vices. 
 
 And his abruptness and precipitate speech. 
 May cost us dear. 
 
 Heroine: Fear not, his deeds are marked. 
 
 Of us he can say little, only blurt 
 His honest ignorance. I only fear 
 That he will do too much. 
 
 El-TauiN: Let him not strike 
 
 Until the chosen hour. 
 
 Heroine: If I so long 
 
 Can keep his muleship stabled; now emd then. 
 Disquieted with quiet, with his hoofs 
 He stamps so restively within his stall, 
 I fear he wakes suspicion from its sleep. 
 
 El-TauiN: We must cast dovra this upstart without fail. 
 
 Heroine: Hope is a horse he rides to death, we'll lash 
 
 It over a precipice. This is the plan: 
 As soon as he is seated on the throne. 
 He'll lose both love and immortality; 
 For I, myself, shall give the fatal cup. 
 Which of his presence shall relieve the world. 
 
 El-TauiN: a queen of poisons! Make the potion sure. 
 
 I never liked him, he is all deceit. 
 Wrapped in himself — 
 
 Heroine: Ha! nothing in that package. 
 
 All that is in it shows on the outside. 
 
 El-TauiN: You weigh him lightly. 
 
 26 
 
Heroine: 
 
 El-Tauin: 
 Heroine : 
 
 El-Tauin: 
 Heroine : 
 
 El-Tauin : 
 
 Heroine : 
 
 Yet I find him heavy 
 
 El-Tauin : 
 
 With what he lacks. 
 
 Some say he's Gaza's master. 
 
 Master of nothing. No, I'll take that back, 
 For he is master in that art of arts 
 They call design; for who as well as he 
 Can draw a crowd? 
 
 This no one can dispute. 
 
 With every tone he proves his heart is hollow; 
 With every word, that he is void of thought. 
 
 Give time the sharp emetic of his deeds. 
 So it vomit his black memory, for else 
 His name, embalmed in legend, will become 
 The ear-ache of the ages. 
 
 When that name 
 Which like a thunder roared around the world. 
 Follows him to the Styx, it wnll drop dead 
 Of sheer heart failure on the very brink, 
 And rot unspoken. 
 
 This will be his end. 
 
 The next scene is the Heroine with her maidens, who tease 
 her with her many lovers. 
 
 Amillam: 
 Heroine : 
 
 Saddasu : 
 
 Who is the favorite? Who is it now, 
 El-Attick, Bashti-Beki, or the Priest? 
 
 The Hittite or the Hebrew? Ha! ha! ha! 
 Those counter-irritants, correctives, poisons. 
 That antidote each other. 
 
 Is not Bashti 
 
 The man of Destiny? 
 27 
 
Heroine: 
 
 Wavani : 
 Heroine: 
 
 NoROMO: 
 Heroine: 
 
 Beltani: 
 Heroine: 
 
 Kas-Beya: 
 Heroine: 
 
 His own, not mine. 
 
 Screaming success, is his, no doubt. It is 
 Also the peacock's, as it swells with pride 
 When pompously it struts before the world. 
 Spreading the wonder of its tail, and screams 
 Its head off, all for lack of brains. Ha ! ha ! 
 
 The whole world speaks of him. 
 
 Believe me, this 
 Burly ebullient soon will bubble to air. 
 And leave no echo of his bluster, save 
 A buzz in the ear of time. 
 
 All 
 
 admit 
 
 Himself is his sole burden. 
 
 Would to God 
 It were also his refrain. With loud guffaws. 
 Flashing his teeth, as if he found a brother. 
 He claps the world upon the back, and takes 
 Into his confidence his father's god. 
 
 He thinks, indeed, 'twas he invented truth. 
 
 Deny him, and he calls you atheist. 
 When he aids others, it is to help himself; 
 When he is witty, it is because his mind 
 Has a relapse; when he is reverent. 
 You know he bows in secret to himself. 
 
 Why do you hate him? 
 
 Why? I hate him, hate 
 This overweening wrangler, bellicose 
 With cowards, meek among the brave. I hate 
 This would-be-great, mock-valiant posturer, 
 
 28 
 
Immune to ridicule as he cavorts 
 
 For popular applause; I hate this dull 
 
 And voluble monotony, this quack. 
 
 Whose wet-nurse was a duck; who, in the mud 
 
 Waddles to cry his nostrums, and affects 
 
 All things save baseness; this burlesquing mole. 
 
 Who feigns to be a seer ; this prancing bear, 
 
 And stilting modesty, who reckless spends 
 
 A language to say nothing; hate this blaring, 
 
 Stentorian mouth-piece of a bladder burst. 
 
 This bulbous face, whose back-bone is his nose — 
 
 I hate him — ha! I hate him all the more 
 
 Because he loves me. 
 
 Kas-BeyA: I would hate him too. 
 
 Heroine: His smile smells of corruption. Though he 
 
 smiles. 
 Going and coming, day and night, yet I 
 Have seen his face blubbered with facile tears. 
 He can wax lachrymose when weeping pays. 
 
 AmillaM: Yet many praise him. 
 
 Heroine: True, and the renov\mers 
 
 That chronicle his littleness grow big. 
 While he diminishes into himself. 
 So eager is he to see his name, ha! ha! 
 Lying in state, that from the many samples. 
 Sent for approval, he, with infinite pains 
 Selected his own epitaph, which leaves 
 Nothing but truth to wish for. 
 
 WavanI: And for this 
 
 He is not anxious. 
 
 Heroine : No, he dreads the truth. 
 
 As cats fear water. Though this blinking toad 
 Ogles at opportunity, and though 
 
 29 
 
With most portentous unimportance, he 
 Simulates greatness, so he may impress; 
 Yet will this bogey in perspective seem 
 The midget of the moment, nothing more. 
 
 ZiLLAH: Some say his knowledge is enormous, some 
 
 That he fights with blunt weapons, as a wile 
 To hide his penetration. 
 
 Heroine: Just as soon 
 
 Accuse of rare acumen the wild ass; 
 Of poetry, the hippopotamus. 
 Oh, he is subtle, since the veil he wears 
 Was fashioned by a blacksmith in a forge. 
 
 As for his knowledge, it is but too plain 
 Omniscience is his ignorance. Indeed, 
 Nothing that he begins but has at once 
 The accent of finality. He ends 
 Always where he began, in nothing. Ha ! 
 And what he will not meddle wdth, God knows. 
 Though it is surely nothing under Heaven, 
 Nor on the earth, nor in the waters. I 
 Would quote him at his best, did I not fear 
 That you might say I lied. 
 
 EquisibeL: And yet the world 
 
 Esteems his worth so highly — 
 
 Heroine: 'Tis, indeed. 
 
 Of the highest relative value, always he 
 Dons virtue as a vizor. Ha! ha! ha! 
 This antic who untunes the times, dilutes 
 All greatness with himself, infects the world 
 As with a fever of virtue, and so, ha! ha! 
 Purrs after each debauch of purity. 
 You'd think he hums a hymn, when he but sings 
 A paean to himself. 
 30 
 
SaDDASU: You are severe. 
 
 Heroine: Only because I tell the truth. Shall I 
 
 Echo the puffery that inflates this bladder. 
 Blown up from pigmy to gigantic, till. 
 Bloated to mountain size, he condescends 
 To patronize the Deity? Yet once. 
 Ha! he forgot himself. 
 
 Ardia: Arid when was that? 
 
 Heroine: When he was witty. You smile, but it is true. 
 
 I will be just. 
 The Maidens: Ha! ha! 
 
 Heroine: I heard him once 
 
 Put all his wisdom in one grain of wit. 
 Which left his reason bankrupt. To this day 
 He laughs at his own cleverness, and still 
 Keeps burnishing that solitary jest. 
 So that, no longer mournful, it laughs back 
 At its dull father, with a shining face. 
 
 Amillam: And yet he loves you? 
 
 Heroine: Only because he 
 
 Imagines I am part of his career. 
 If he loves me, it proves he loves himself. 
 And how I love this briding yokel, this 
 Sir Hurly Burly, this Belligerent 
 Muscular Brawler of invertebrate brawn — 
 This self-succeeder ! How I love, ha! ha! 
 Will soon appear. Oh, you shall hear thereof. 
 
 KaRIMONA: Will you forego the bride-rights without tears? 
 
 Heroine: One moment only let him monarchize. 
 
 Then see him faint into a ghost and fade 
 Into his native nothingness. Shall I 
 Beside that blusterer lie cheek by jowl? 
 
 31 
 
Equisibel: 
 Heroine: 
 
 Pah ! garbage ! Liefer would I die. I'll flee 
 
 This epileptic seizure ere his arms 
 
 Can clasp me. Watch, and you will see his 
 
 soul 
 Shrivel into a louse; which, when he sees. 
 The Devil, whom the people call Old Scratch, 
 Will punish with the mad pursuit of Hell. 
 Have pity on your affianced. 
 
 Now you know him 
 As I do. For your sake, not his, have I 
 Emptied my treasury of compliments. 
 
 The rest of the mighty deeds of that great Hero, Bashti-Beki, 
 the would-be king of Philistia, are they not written in the chroni- 
 cle called Armageddon? 
 
 32