The sons of Usna a tragi-apotheosis, in five acts |
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| 12. | SCENE XII. |
 | The sons of Usna |  |
SCENE XII.
The Throne Room in Eman of Macha.—The Nobles assembled.—Heraldic music.—Enter Naisa, Ainli, and Ardan, leading in Daidra, Darthula, and Mevia, Queen of Connaught, attended by Fergus, Cuchullan, Conal Carnach, the King of Duntrone, and the Sons of Dura.—Enter Caffa the Druid.CAFFA.
From the low Valley-lands, where all was night,
We reach this Mountain-top of joyful day,
Where all is cloudless, everlasting peace—
The realization of our brightest hopes.
For Usna's Sons shall now be jointly crowned
To reign three Kings, as one, on Eman's throne—
Darthula with Daidra, Mevia, reign
The three fair Queens of these three peerless Kings.
These Bridal Chaplets now shall crown them Queens,
While with these crowns I crown their husbands Kings.
[Caffa first places the three Crowns on the heads of the Sons of Usna; then the three Bridal Chaplets on the heads of the three Queens. Enter Lavercam.—Celestial music attending her.
Welcome forever more!
LAVERCAM.
The Angels wait,
In golden Chariots, at the Gates of Heaven,
To crown thee with their branches of pure palm,
The immortal Son of God! Thy fame
Shall outlive Time! thy days are as the years of God!
CAFFA.
For like some new-born thought, unborn before,
Rising, in luminous beauty, from the depths
Of some great Poet's soul, sublime, to Heaven—
Turning the Night of Ages into Day,
Until the World drinks gladness from its beams;
So thou dost come, translucent from the Past,
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Filling my soul with bliss forever more!
LAVERCAM.
Showing what value God doth place upon
That soul in time who can transmute the things
Of earth into their Prototypes in Heaven—
Echoing the golden voices of the Gods!
Thy soul is so completely stored with all
The infinite riches of the skies, that even
The universe were nought compared with thee.
This comes from wandering, all day long, amid
Those aboriginal flowery groves which make
Sweet Edens of the Meadowy Seas of God.
CAFFA.
Oh! as the Rainbow canopies the earth
With its prismatic arms, so does my soul,
With its Cherubic wings, thy nestling love!
LAVERCAM.
Thy words are sweeter far to me than songs;
More eloquent than the Nuncio of the Gods—
(Adumbrative smile of the weeping Heavens)—
Risus plorantis Olympi—for it is
An Emblem of our covenant of hope.
Here have I been these eighteen tedious years,
Waiting for thy dear soul—praying to God
That he might lift thee up to Heaven to make
It Paradise indeed; but thou hast still stayed here,
Striving for knowledge, how to find me there,
Sinless, though tempted. Faithful to the last,
And true in all things—thou shalt long no more,
But be rewarded with those endless joys
That God has laid up for thee in the Heavens.
I am Slessama—Lavercam—thy wife!
CAFFA.
Oh! my Slessama! Lavercam! my wife!
[Embraces her.
I hear the Angels' voices from on high,
Pouring sweet benediction on thy soul!
LAVERCAM.
They come to welcome thee to bliss in Heaven!
CAFFA.
Oh! beautiful Vision of the Heaven of Heavens!
[Celestial music heard.
I hear the Angels' voices singing now—
Overflowing the earth with melody!
Was ever song so sweet to me as that?
It seems to bind my soul in golden chains—
Lifting me captive into God's own arms!
Oh! I am rapt above all earthly things,
And made partaker of celestial joys!
Their voices sound like bliss—but sadder far
Than voices of the Pleiades waiting for their
Lost Sister at the Gates of Heaven! They come!
Blest triumph of my consummated will!
Most glorious victory of supernal Power!
As I have lived, so will I die, for God!
Walking the world, from Age to Age, with Christ,
Teaching the harmonies of Truth to man.
LAVERCAM.
Thus Genius is arrested in his flight
Of Apollonian victory over Hell,
And smothered in the embrace of Angels, sent
To bear him Godward through the opening Heavens,
Which seem to bend down to receive his soul!
CAFFA.
Thus will I walk, like Hercules, all power,
Forever striving, in immortal youth!
Crowned now the Real of my Ideal here,
Practised what I believe—sowed, reaped the truth—
I now am ready to lie down with Christ,
And slumber three days in the grave of Hell;
Then soar with him to Heaven, no more to die.
My star of life will soon go down on earth,
Never to reillume its light in time;
But to burn on again above the Sun,
Brighter than Constellations of great Suns!
LAVERCAM.
What binds thee now on earth!
CAFFA.
Nothing, my love!
My soul is ready now to go with thee!
The Trumpet of the Lord is sounding now!
I see the Angels on the eternal Hills,
Gathering the immortal branches of pure palm,
Waving me now to come aloft to them—
Up to the eternal supper of the Gods!
And I must go! The morning star is mine!
Victory! Victory! Heaven opens for my soul!
[Celestial music heard in Heaven.
How sweet it is to die for one we love—
Exhaling our pure souls away to Heaven,
Like perfume when it dies out of the Rose—
Wafted away in bliss, as I am now!
Oh! Lavercam! Slessama! my dear wife!
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Silence can only tell my speechless love—
The unutterable rapture of my heart!
The void that we now leave behind, shall be the tongue
To tell Posterity our living joys—
Making melodious all the after years,
Till rapt Eternity grows vocal with our praise.
CAFFA.
Oh! my Slessama! Lavercam! my wife!
[Caffa, during his Apotheosization, is wafted, gently, by Angels, in company with Slessama, his wife, as if borne on an atmosphere of music, into Heaven.
Curtain Falls.
End of Act Fifth.
| The sons of Usna | |