 | Brangonar |  |
Scene I.
Chamber of the Council of Six.Riordo, Lovéro, Trifone, Carlan.
RIORDO.
Of public men the basest sort are they
Who keep bold places in the general view,
And lack the manly pith to dress their words
As heralds of the heart.
TRIFONE.
But baser still
Are the poor hirelings of occasion, who,
Hanging their judgment on the moment's nod,
Still wait and wait to see where time will strike.
CARLAN.
To which of these belong our absent colleagues?
RIORDO.
One to the one, one to the other sort.
LOVÉRO.
Let us not weigh them in too subtle scales.
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They cannot cope with our lean nimbleness,
Who are and make the disincumbered now.
RIORDO.
The load of this day's duty is so great
'T were guiltiness to waste more speech on them.
Shall an imperious soldier wrest the State
From its wide orbit's drift, distorting it
To his small option; and shall we, who are
High trustees of the nation, tamely bide,
And let this wicked usurpation range;
Or, wield the holy lordship in our keep,
And strike it to the earth ere it hath hardened?
This is the question we to-day must solve.
CARLAN.
To-day, this very hour; for Brangonar,
Strong in the sinews of ambitious will,
And daily stronger in the selfish love
Of a triumphant soldiery, hath now
His hand upon the hilt, with faithless sword
To carve a despot's brutal diadem.
TRIFONE.
Our function's fullness he hath disallowed,
Hath played the chief where he was subaltern,
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Spurned our decrees, and from their clean intent
Our orders wrenched with contumacious will,
Sole wielding proud the dues of sovereignty.
RIORDO.
Wherefor with dangerous disobedience' bane—
Defiant of the State's authority—
He stands attainted. Thence, I move he be
To-day deposed. Generals we have as good
And less assumptive.
LOVÉRO.
To depose him now,
In mid career, when on our eager flag
Victory and he are stampt inseparable,
When lustiest foemen shrink before his tread,
And every soldier in our onward host
Feels that the soul of bounding Brangonar
Glows in his own,—this were to paralyze
The Nation's heart. Let us be one with him,
Not dare him with abrupt hostility.
His is a rightful power, as well as ours.
United we might hold the world in awe,
For its great betterment.
CARLAN.
My voice, like yours,
Riordo, is for instant deposition.
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And mine.
Enter Brangonar.
RIORDO
(confronting him).
How come you here? You are deposed.
BRANGONAR.
You are deposed.
RIORDO.
What ho! Without there! Guards!
Enter three or four soldiers.
BRANGONAR.
Arrest these three, and let them be safe guarded.
LOVÉRO.
Soldiers, hold off!
BRANGONAR.
Who dares withstand my act?
LOVÉRO.
Justice and the dread majesty of law.
But now you stood upon a single height,
Whence none could wrest you, saving one,—yourself.
Unsay that heinous word: 't is not yet act.
If you descend, you fall to rise no more.
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Soldiers, do you your duty. Take them hence.
[Exeunt the soldiers with the three. Lovéro gazes after them a moment, then walks to the Council-table and seats himself.
BRANGONAR
(approaching him).
Lovéro—Know you what you do, Lovéro?
LOVÉRO.
Know you what you have done? You do not know:
Men see not wrong for inward turbidness.
Were every act to th' actor luminous
With its whole nature, he would feel its being
So in the core of his, that false and bad
Would hideously themselves demonstrate bare,
And the quick soul, with its then insight sure,
Would shun corruptive contacts, as the hand
Its waste from fire, the blood decease from frost.
You know not what you 've done; for if you did,
Did see th' uncoiling horrors of this act,
Did read its lengthening scroll, ghastly with blood,
Ghastlier with every freedom's quivering death,
With most unholy hopes all apoplexed,
The vision would the temporal senses blast,
Swiftly dismember your incorporate being,
The soul escaping to securer home,
To leave its clay here cold upon the ground.
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These bubbles of the brain, these emptinesses,
Are transient toys, and have no driving pith.
Blow them if 't be your humor; but alone.
You will not help me: hinder me you shall not.
LOVÉRO.
Can emptiness be emptier than this,
[Rising.
For you to deem that me you can command?
How much you lack for the sublimest part!
How much for the full making of a man!
None other can command my speech, my act.
BRANGONAR.
Beware, beware, Lovéro, how you thwart me.
LOVÉRO.
Go you the way you 've chosen: I go mine.
[Exit.
BRANGONAR.
He is incurable—or I am so.
Men visionary range so high, the thoughts
They chase mount so to vague imaginations,
They cannot stoop to give their words effect
In action. Action needs directness clear,
Marriage 'twixt thought and clean accomplishment.
When thought has not the body for fulfillment,
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Best purposes grow lame and impotent.
Lovéro ever chases fleeing hopes.
He thinks men better than they e'er will be.
In times like these such men are dangerous;
For passions heated must be bound in moulds,
And not have room to spread and flame at large;
For so, their untamed fiery virtue shoots
To conflagration, that consumes itself,
And choicest building stuff to ashes turns.
He 's true, but has, although he knows it not,
Ambition to be first. If he would serve,
He were for me a peerless instrument.
[Exit.
| Brangonar | |