 | Joseph And His Brethren |  |
Scene X.
—A Vale in Goshen.Enter Judah and Joseph's Steward, meeting.
Steward.
All hail to Joseph's brother!
Judah.
His steward, I think?
Steward.
Your countenance lives in my memory.—
An unfamiliar face is sometimes tied
About the neck of our remembrances
By something that affects our sympathies,—
Subtle in act, and entering the heart
By some peculiar passage that it holds.—
The sweetest evening, and the fairest star,
That ever I remember to have seen,
Pass'd in my early youth, with one that's dead,
In thought, and vow, and fine reflection,
Of what in future was to be our lot,—
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Wherein I see once more the deep blue sky,
And taste the fragrance of the jasmine bower,
And feel the mellow beauty of the scene,
And overcount each precious thought and act
That the vast tomb hath swallow'd.—Even so,
Your face is graven on my memory
Because I saw your brother and yourself
Weep in eachother's arms; a thousand since
Have pass'd me and re-pass'd me, yet no one
Do I remember.
Judah.
Dust and travel, join'd
To the long sitting of our jaded mules,
Make any change a luxury: sit down
Beside me on this verdant shady bank,
And straight unfold into my eager ear
The bearing of the ruler and his health.
Steward.
If that impatience be a malady
(Seeing that Time, like a vile subtle leech
Who plays the tyrant as his power decays,
Still with his medicine doth increase desire
As the relief draws near),—then is he ill.
Judah.
You do bespeak him with a loving tongue.
Steward.
Each man who serveth him excels his trust,
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All his high servants their own masters are,
For he requires each one should proudly keep
His independence, in his office done,
As for the people's good, and general weal,
Not as for him. Bondmen he has not one,
Nor slaves, but what are kept for humble tasks,
As hewing wood, and drawing at the well,
Which would disgrace the worst of all the rest.
Judah.
He is a proper lord, and we shall soon
See him in Egypt.
Steward.
Not so late as that,
For he is come to pitch his scarlet tent
In Goshen's vale; because, saith he (his tongue
Being rich with honey'd joy), in mellow tone,
‘The bearded Israel, Patriarch of his tribe,
The son of Isaac, sire of Benjamin,
The rever'd father of my favour'd self,
Comes with his people, and his remnant years,
To fill the sight and touch of me his son;
And 'midst the comforts of the Egyptian land
(Far from the famine-eaten Canaan)
Thank God, and live.’ Therewith he stoop'd and leap'd
Into his iron car; the charioteer,
Noting his haste, halloo'd the fretful steeds;
And he and all his host are coming down
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To outride the slow procession o'er the hills,
And greet the agèd Jacob in these words:
‘Young Joseph, thy dear son, is coming on
To fill his father's arms. Praise be to God!’
Judah.
I, as the herald of our father's tribe,
Was sent before to greet my brother's love,
And tell him of his joy and anxious eye
To see his new-found son.
Steward.
We to our charges!—
I hear the cymbal singing in the wind,
And they approach amain.
[Exeunt severally.
| Joseph And His Brethren | |