Plays of Near Far | Page 5

the uttermost.
KING: And neither man confessed?
QUESTIONER: They would not confess.
KING: Ask them the Supreme Question.
[The acolytes break out into renewed moaning.
QUESTIONER: It shall be asked, O King.
[Exit QUESTIONER. The acolytes moan on.
KING: They would have made me drink of a poisoned cup. I say there
is poison in that cup. Your priests would have had me drink it. (The
acolytes only answer by moans.) Bid them confess. Bid them confess
their crime and why it was done, and the Supreme Question shall be
spared them. (The acolytes only answer by moans.) Strange! They have
done strangely. (To acolytes.) Why has your priest spoken falsely? (The
acolytes only moan.) Why has he spoken falsely in the name of the
gods? (The acolytes moan on.) Be silent! Be silent! May I not question
whom I will? (To himself). They prophesied falsely in the name of the
gods.
[Enter the QUESTIONERS.
FIRST QUESTIONER: The Supreme Question is asked.
[The acolytes suddenly cease moaning.

KING: Well?
FIRST QUESTIONER: They would not answer.
KING: They would not answer the Supreme Question?
FIRST QUESTIONER: They spoke at last, but they would not answer
the question. They would not confess.
KING: What said they at last?
FIRST QUESTIONER: O, the King's Majesty, they but spake idly.
KING: What said they?
FIRST QUESTIONER: O, the King's Majesty, they said nought fitting.
KING: They muttered so that no man heard them clearly?
FIRST QUESTIONER: They spake. But it was not fitting.
KING: Did they speak of small things happening long ago?
FIRST QUESTIONER: O, the King's Majesty, it was not fitting.
KING: What said they? Speak!
FIRST QUESTIONER: The man you gave to me, O King, said: "No
man that knew the counsels of the gods, who alone see future things,
would say the gods advised King Hamaran ill when they bade him
drink out of a poisoned cup." Then I put the question straightly and he
died.
KING: The gods! He said it was the gods!... And the other?
SECOND QUESTIONER: He also said the same, O the King's
Majesty.
KING: Both said the same. They were questioned in different

chambers?
FIRST QUESTIONER: In different chambers, O King. I questioned
mine in the Red Chamber.
KING (to SECOND QUESTIONER): And yours?
SECOND QUESTIONER: In the Chamber of Rats.
KING: Begone!
[Exeunt QUESTIONERS.
So ... It was the gods.
[The acolytes are crouched upon the floor. He does not notice them
since they ceased to moan.
The gods! With what dark and dreadful thing have they clouded the
future?
Well, I will face it! But what is it? Is it one of those things a strong man
can bear? Or is it----?
The future is more terrible than the grave, that has its one secret only.
No man, he said, could say that the gods had advised me ill when they
bade me drink out of a poisoned cup.
What have the gods seen? What dreadful work have they overlooked
where Destiny sits alone, making evil years? The gods, he said, who
alone see future things.
Yes, I have known men who never were warned by the gods, and did
not drink poison, and came upon evil days, suddenly like a ship upon
rocks no mariner knows. Yes, poison to some of them would have been
very precious.
The gods have warned me and I have not hearkened, and must go on

alone: must enter that strange country of the future whose paths are so
dark to man ... to meet a doom there that the gods have seen.
The gods have seen it! How shall I thwart the gods? How fight against
the shapers of the hills?
Would that I had been warned. Would I had heeded when they bade me
drink of the cup the Ambassador said was poisoned.
[Far off is heard that merry bar of music blown by the
AMBASSADOR'S HERALD on his horn.]
Is it too late?
There it stands yet with its green emeralds winking.
[He clutches it and looks down into it.
How like to wine it is, which is full of dreams. It is silent and dreamy
like the gods, whose dreams we are.
Only a moment in their deathless minds: then the dream passes.
[He lifts up his arm and drinks it seated upon his throne with his head
back and the great cup before his face. The audience begin to wonder
when he will put it down. Still he remains in the attitude of a drinker.
The acolytes begin to peer eagerly. Still he remains upright with the
great cup to his lips. The acolytes patter away and the KING is left
alone.
[Enter the KING'S POLITICIAN hurriedly. He goes up to the KING
and seizes his right arm and tries to drag the cup