University of Virginia Library

SCENE THE FIRST.

David.
Da.
Here, God omnipotent, wilt thou that I
Restrain that course to which thou hast impell'd me?
Here will I stand?—These are Gilboa's mountains,
Now forming Israel's camp, exposed in front
To the impious Philistine. Ah, that I
Might fall to-day beneath the enemy's sword!
But death awaits me from the hand of Saul.
Ah cruel and infatuated Saul,
Who, without giving him a moment's respite,
Through caverns, and o'er cliffs, dost chase thy champion.
And, notwithstanding David formerly
Was thy defender: all thy confidence
In me hadst thou reposed; me didst thou raise
To honour's pinnacle; and as a spouse
I was by thee selected for thy daughter ...
But, as an inauspicious dowry, thou
Didst ask of me, dissevered from thy foes,
A hundred heads: and I have brought of them
To thee, faithfully brought, a double harvest ...
But Saul, I clearly see, in thought is stricken;
Long hath he been so; to an evil spirit
His God abandons his perverted mind:
Oh Heaven! Distracted mortals, what are we
If God forsake us?—Night, do thou soon yield
Thy shades to the glad sun; for he to-day
The witness of a generous enterprise
Is destined to shine forth. Gilboa, thou
Shalt, to the latest ages, be renown'd;
They shall record of thee, that David here
Himself surrendered to ferocious Saul.—
March forth, oh Israel, from thy peaceful tents;
March forth from them, oh King: I challenge you
To-day to witness, if I yet am versed
In military arts. And march thou forth,
Impious Philistine; march thou forth, and see
Whether my sword have yet the power to smite.