Scene III
SCENE: The same.
TIME: The same night.
Wine and food are set by the couch.
A lamp is burning.
BAGOAS (at back entrance to tent, calling to people off). To your beds, all of you. Let none remain. (He stands a moment at the entrance; a few distant shouts are heard; then silence. Bagoas comes within the tent towards the couch. To Holofernes.) The waiters are gone, Prince. There is no one left to disturb the night.
HOLOFERNES. Hast thou seen her?
BAGOAS (after a pause). No, prince.
HOLOFERNES. But didst thou look?
BAGOAS. I looked, O illustrious.
HOLOFERNES. Is there moonlight?
BAGOAS. The moon is clouded, highness.
HOLOFERNES. Give me wine. (Bagoas obeys.) Bagoas!
BAGOAS. Prince?
(The hangings of the tent R., balloon inwards a little.)
HOLOFERNES (looking behind him sharply, spilling some wine). The wind is rising.
BAGOAS. It is but a night breeze.
HOLOFERNES (as he drinks gloomily). Bagoas, she has escaped back to her own people.
BAGOAS (aside). I would she had, the jade! (To Holofernes.) Prince, she cannot escape. Every path from the valley is guarded.
HOLOFERNES. What guard could restrain such a woman?
BAGOAS. Ah! Prince! What guard could restrain her?
HOLOFERNES. Dost thou echo me?
BAGOAS. I humbly think the thought of his highness.
HOLOFERNES. Do thy thinking outside.
(Bagoas bows and moves towards the entrance. Judith is standing there. The two look at each other for a moment.)
BAGOAS (with a gesture, indicating Judith). Highness!
HOLOFERNES (Jumping up. To Bagoas). Begone to thy post!
(Judith glides in silently. Bagoas goes out. They pass by each other without a word or a salutation, but mutually scrutinizing.)
JUDITH. The great feast of the captains is over?
HOLOFERNES. The captains are departed, drunken with wine and their pride. But thy feast and my feast is not begun. (Points to the repast.)
JUDITH (enigmatically.) I am here.
HOLOFERNES (ecstatic.) Art thou in truth here, or do my eyes behold that which is not?
JUDITH. Did I not say that I should come in the night?
HOLOFERNES. Yea, I trusted thee. I trusted thee so much that at the feast of the captains I commanded that all my hosts shall attack Bethulia, with bow, and sling, and spear, at sunrise, and also I gave the word of Holofernes for a pledge that naught in the heavens or on the earth should resist the onset of the Assyrians; for some among them feared the word of Achior which they had heard.
JUDITH. You have not done this thing?
HOLOFERNES. I have done it.
JUDITH. Would you forestall God, and would you speak the decrees of God before they are uttered?
HOLOFERNES. Thou saidst thou wouldst pray to thy god this night and that he would tell thee when the Israelites in Bethulia had committed their sin, and that thou wouldst come to me to proclaim the hour of my triumph.
JUDITH. I said: I will pray to God and mayhap he will tell me.
HOLOFERNES. Thou hast prayed, and thy god hath not answered?
JUDITH. He has not answered.
HOLOFERNES (with bravado). He is no god, then, thy god. Let us drink.
JUDITH (as Holofernes moves towards her, solemnly). Touch not your handmaid, and touch not the goblet. (She goes to the skins, R.)
HOLOFERNES (following Judith gently). Thou art offended.
JUDITH. Stand afar off, Holofernes, and meddle not with her that communes with the Most High.
(Judith kneels. Holofernes goes in the direction of the couch. Silence. Bagoas has been seen once or twice in the porch of the tent, his back turned. He has now gone again. Two half-veiled Assyrian women appear through the hangings, R., and watch a moment, then vanish. Judith slowly rises.)
HOLOFERNES. What has befallen thee?
JUDITH. It has befallen me that this moment the God of Israel has spoken and my ear has heard his command. (Approaching Holofernes.)
HOLOFERNES. What saith thy god?
JUDITH. My ear has heard that the Israelites in Bethulia have committed their sin, and at sunrise the Assyrians shall assault Bethulia and none shall withstand them.
HOLOFERNES. A miracle!
JUDITH. A miracle in thy tent, O great warrior!
HOLOFERNES. To-morrow is appointed to be the day of my triumph.
JUDITH (moved). Yea, it is so.
HOLOFERNES (gratefully). Hear me, Judith. Thy god shall be my god.
JUDITH. In truth thou art set apart to be his. HOLOFERNES (close to her). Thy body trembles.
JUDITH (smiling). Thinkst thou then that I was not afraid for thee? But my fear is gone from me, for now I know thy fate and the decree of heaven concerning thee.
HOLOFERNES (aside). To-morrow is appointed for my triumph, but this night also shall I exult. (To Judith.) Let us eat and drink together, for we are alone in the night, and thou hast promised.
JUDITH (gaily). Let us feast.
HOLOFERNES (animated by her responsive tone). Take off thy tunic; thou art in thy own house. Let Holofernes be thy tire-woman. (Approaching her.)
JUDITH. No! (Moving from him to the further side of the couch.) But he shall be my slave to serve me. Pour out the wine, great slave.
(While Holofernes cheerfully obeys, Judith takes the knife from her garments and places it behind the couch. Then, as he stands with the wine, gazing at her and separated from her only by the couch, she slowly removes her tunic and appears in indoor attire. She comes towards him and takes the wine from him and drinks.)
HOLOFERNES. I feared that in the strictness of thy Hebrew scruples thou wouldst not drink of my wine.
JUDITH. I will drink again. (She does so.)
HOLOFERNES (taking the goblet and drinking). Dost thou verily know thy power and thy dominion, Judith?
JUDITH (simply). Yes, I know it now better than thou.
HOLOFERNES. Thou dost not. For I am mad for thee, and thou hast set thy seal upon me for evermore. My heart cannot hold thee, for thou hast filled it to overflowing, and all men see that my heart is full of thee and runneth over. Yea, I have a hundred and two and thirty thousand that bow themselves at my feet and that live and die by my glance. And I am at thy feet and thy glance is my joy and my sorrow according to thy whim. Judith, I entreat thee, command me something. For whatever thou command me, that will I execute. And be not afraid in thy command, for my power is very great and there is none like it save only my lord Nebuchadnezzar’s.
JUDITH (tenderly). I command thee that thou be happy. For thy captive has no other desire.
HOLOFERNES. Say not my captive. For it is I that am thy prisoner. And I will set thee on my throne, and in my great boldness I will dare to sit beside thee. But thou shalt reign. And we will live together in Assyria long years.
JUDITH (changing her mood). There is no requisition in the grave whether you have lived ten or an hundred or a thousand years. But the God of Israel is a shield.
HOLOFERNES (eagerly). And I have told thee that thy god shall be my god; but in secret, because of that which I owe to King Nebuchadnezzar. Yet shall the whole earth know that thou, Judith, alone art my god.
JUDITH. But thou hast other wives.
HOLOFERNES. No!
JUDITH. Yes! It has been whispered to me that thou hast many wives, and concubines without number.
HOLOFERNES. It is a lie. For from this night I have put away from me all women but thee, and there is not one among them to compare with thee. (Appealingly). And since the judgment of heaven hath done a miracle by thee in the tent of Holofernes this night, wilt thou deny, O tenderness! that thou hast been divinely appointed to me, and I to thee?
JUDITH. I will not deny that the Lord is in this thing. And for thy comfort I will tell thee that which thou knowest not.
HOLOFERNES (expectant). Tell me.
JUDITH. Before I escaped from Bethulia, as I lay on my bed, a vision came to me, and it was the vision of Holofernes in the likeness of his majesty and his might. And I saw the vision by my bed, and so it was that I came down into the valley.... (Softly.) And wouldst thou that I should have uttered this secret to any but thee!
HOLOFERNES (full of emotion). I will kiss thy lips, and thou art mine, O fragrance!
JUDITH. Kiss my lips.
(Holofernes kisses her, and then in an excess of feeling stumbles backward.)
(A half-veiled Assyrian woman appears at the opening R., and watches. Bagoas, in the porch of the tent, turns and sees her, and dashes at her with a weapon. Both disappear through the opening, R.)
JUDITH (moving with stealth towards the hidden knife, comfortingly). O mighty child, where is thy strength, and where is thy terribleness? Rest thee a moment on the couch, and thy soul’s captive will tend thee.
(Holofernes drops on the couch, and Judith caresses him.)
HOLOFERNES (murmuring). My great joy has overthrown me.
(Judith, seizing the knife and leaning over Holofernes, kills him while she is still caressing.)
JUDITH (as she uses the knife; murmuring). Thou that wouldst go against the pleasure of the Most High! Thou that wouldst defile Judea! Thou that hast dishonoured with thy kiss the widow of Manasses! Thou that hast compelled me to guile and deceit and much lying so that I might perform the will of God! The grave shall be thy house!
Enter Haggith, L.
JUDITH (turning to Haggith, firmly and impressively). I have done that which I had to do, and the power of Assyria is fallen. (Pointing.) Take the head by the beard, and put it in thy sack, and let us depart.
CURTAIN.