University of Virginia Library

Scene III.

The extremity of the wood: wild rocks with the entrance to a cave. Carpophorus comes forth from the cave, but is for a while unseen by Chrysanthus, who enters.
Chrysanthus.
What a labyrinthine thicket
Is this place that I have entered!
Nature here takes little trouble,
Letting it be seen how perfect
Is the beauty that arises
Even from nature's careless efforts:
Deep within this darksome grotto
Which no sunbeam's light can enter,
I shall penetrate: it seemeth
As if until now it never
Had been trod by human footsteps.
There where yonder marge impendeth
O'er a streamlet that swift-flying
Carries with it the white freshness
Of the snows that from the mountains
Ever in its waves are melted,
Stands almost a skeleton;
The sole difference it presenteth
To the tree-trunks near it is,
That it moves as well as trembles,
Slow and gaunt, a living corse.
Oh! thou venerable elder
Who, a reason-gifted tree,
Mid mere natural trees here dwelleth.—

Carpophorus.
Wo! oh! wo is me!—a Roman!

(At seeing Chrysanthus, he attempts to fly.)
Chrysanthus.
Though a Roman, do not dread me:
With no evil end I seek thee.

Carpophorus.
Then what wouldst thou have, thou gentle
Roman youth? for thou hast silenced
My first fears even by thy presence.

Chrysanthus.
'T is to ask, what now I ask thee,
Of the rocks that in this desert
Gape for ever open wide
In eternal yawns incessant,
Which is the rough marble tomb
Of a living corse interred here?
Which of these dark caves is that
In whose gloom Carpophorus dwelleth?
'T is important I speak with him.

Carpophorus.
Then, regarding not the perils,
I will own it. I myself
Am Carpophorus.

Chrysanthus.
Oh! let me,
Father, feel thy arms enfold me.

Carpophorus.
To my heart: for as I press thee,
How, I know not, the mere contact
Brings me back again the freshness
And the greenness of my youth,
Like the vine's embracing tendrils
Twining round an aged tree:
Gallant youth, who art thou? tell me.

Chrysanthus.
Father, I am called Chrysanthus,
Of Polemius, the first member
Of the Roman senate, son.

Carpophorus.
And thy purpose?

Chrysanthus.
It distresses
Me to see thee standing thus:
On this bank sit down and rest thee.

Carpophorus.
Kindly thought of; for, alas!
I a tottering wall resemble:
At the mouth of this my cave
Let us then sit down together.
[They sit down.
What now wouldst thou have, Sir Stranger?

Chrysanthus.
Sir, as long as I remember,
I have felt an inclination
To the love of books and letters.
In my casual studies lately
I a difficulty met with
That I could not solve, and knowing
No one in all Rome more learnéd
Than thyself (thy reputation
Having with this truth impressed me)
I have hither come to ask thee
To explain to me this sentence:
For I cannot understand it.
'T is, sir, in this book.

Carpophorus.
Pray, let me
See it then.

Chrysanthus.
'T is at the beginning;
Nay, the sentence that perplexes
Me so much is that.

Carpophorus.
Why, these
Are the Holy Gospels! Heavens!

Chrysanthus.
What! you kiss the book?

Carpophorus.
And press it
To my forehead, thus suggesting
The profound respect with which
I even touch so great a treasure.

Chrysanthus.
Why, what is the book, which I
By mere accident selected?

Carpophorus.
'T is the basis, the foundation
Of the Scripture Law.

Chrysanthus.
I tremble
With an unknown horror.

Carpophorus.
Why?

Chrysanthus.
Deeper now I would not enter
Into the secrets of a book
Which are magic spells, I'm certain.

Carpophorus.
No, not so, but vital truths.

Chrysanthus.
How can that be, when its verses
Open with this line that says
(A beginning surely senseless)
“In the beginning was the Word,
And it was with God”: and then it
Adds: this Word itself was God;
Then unto the Word reverting,
Says explicitly that It
“Was made flesh”?

Carpophorus.
A truth most certain:
For this first evangelist
Here to us our God presenteth
In a twofold way: the first
As being God, as Man the second.

Chrysanthus.
God and Man combined together?

Carpophorus.
Yes, in one eternal Person
Are both natures joined together.

Chrysanthus.
Then, for this is what more presses
On my mind, can that same Word
When it was made flesh, be reckoned
God?

Carpophorus.
Yes, God and Man is Christ
Crucified for our transgressions.

Chrysanthus.
Pray explain this wondrous problem.

Carpophorus.
He is God, because He never
Was created: He is the Word,
For, besides, He was engendered
By the Father, from both whom
In eternal due procession
Comes the Holy Ghost, three Persons,
But one God, thrice mystic emblem!—
In the Catholic faith we hold
In one Trinity one God dwelleth,
And that in one God is also
One sole Trinity, ever blesséd,
Which confounds not the three Persons,
Nor the single substance severs.
One is the person of the Father,
One the Son's, beloved for ever,
One, the third, the Holy Ghost's.
But though three, you must remember
That in the Father, and in the Son,
And in the Holy Ghost ...

Chrysanthus.
Unheard of
Mysteries these!

Carpophorus.
There's but one God,
Equal in the power exerted,
Equal in the state and glory;
For ...

Chrysanthus.
I listen, but I tremble.

Carpophorus.
The eternal Father is
Limitless, even so unmeasured
And eternal is the Son,
And unmeasured and eternal
Is the Holy Ghost; but then
Three eternities are not meant here,
Three immensities, no, but One,
Who is limitless and eternal.
For though increate the three,
They are but one Uncreated.
First the Father was not made,
Or created, or engendered;
Then engendered was the Son
By the Father, not created;
And the Spirit was not made
Or created, or engendered
By the Father or the Son,
But proceeds from both together.
This is God's divinity
Viewed as God alone, let's enter
On the human aspect.

Chrysanthus.
Stay:
For so strange, so unexpected
Are the things you say, that I
Need for their due thought some leisure.
Let me my lost breath regain,
For entranced, aroused, suspended,
Spell-bound your strong reasons hold me.
Is there then but one sole God
In three Persons, one in essence,
One in substance, one in power,
One in will?

Carpophorus.
My son, 't is certain.

(Enter Aurelius and Soldiers.)
Aurelius
to the Soldiers.
Yonder is the secret cavern
Of Carpophorus, at its entrance
See him seated with another
Reading.

A Soldier.
Why delay?
Arrest them.

Aurelius.
Recollect Polemius bade us,
When we seized them, to envelope
Each one's face, that so, the Christians,
Their accomplices and fellows,
Should not know or recognize them.

A Soldier.
You're our prisoners.

[A veil is thrown over the head of each]
Chrysanthus.
What! base wretches ...

Aurelius.
Gag their mouths.

Chrysanthus.
But then I am ...

Aurelius.
Come, no words: now tie together
Both their hands behind their backs.

Chrysanthus.
Why I am ...

Carpophorus.
Oh! sacred heaven!
Now my wished-for day has come.

A Voice from Heaven.
No, not yet, my faithful servant:—
I desire the constancy
Of Chrysanthus may be tested:—
Heed not him, as for thyself,
In this manner I preserve thee.

[Carpophorus disappears.
(Enter Polemius.)
Polemius.
What has happened?

Aurelius.
Oh! a wonder.—
We Carpophorus arrested,
And with him this other Christian;
Both we held here bound and fettered,
When from out our hands he vanished.

Polemius.
By some sorcery 'twas effected,
For those Christians use enchantments,
And then miracles pretend them.

A Soldier.
See, a crowd of them there flying
To the mountains.

Polemius.
Intercept them,
And secure the rabble rout;
This one I shall guard myself here:—
[Exeunt Aurelius and soldiers.
Miserable wretch! who art thou?
Thus that I may know thee better,
Judging from thy face thy crimes,
I unveil thee. Gracious heaven!
My own son!

Chrysanthus.
Oh! heavens! my father!

Polemius.
Thou with Christians here detected?
Thou here in their caverns hidden?
Thou a prisoner? Wherefore, wherefore,
O immense and mighty Jove,
Are thy angry bolts suspended?

Chrysanthus.
'Twas to solve a certain doubt
Which some books of thine presented,
That I sought Carpophorus,
That I wandered to these deserts,
And ...

Polemius.
Cease, cease; for now I see
What has led to this adventure:
Thou unhappily art gifted
With a genius ill-directed;
For I count as vain and foolish
All the lore that lettered leisure
Has in human books e'er written;
But this passion has possessed thee,
And to learn their magic rites
Here, a willing slave, has led thee.

Chrysanthus.
No, not magic was the knowledge
I came here to learn—far better—
The high mysteries of a faith
Which I reverence, while I dread them.

Polemius.
Cease, oh! cease once more, nor let
Such vile treason find expression
On thy lips. What! thou to praise them!

Aurelius
(within).
Yonder wait the two together.

Polemius.
Cover up thy face once more,
That the soldiers, when they enter,
May not know thee, may not know
How my honour is affected
By this act, until I try
Means more powerful to preserve it.

Chrysanthus
(aside).
God, whom until now I knew not,
Grant Thy favour, deign to help me:
Grant through suffering and through sorrow
I may come to know Thee better.

(Enter Aurelius and Soldiers.)
Aurelius.
Though we searched the whole of the mountain,
Not one more have we arrested.

Polemius.
Take this prisoner here to Rome,
And be sure that you remember
All of you my strict commands,
That no hand shall dare divest him
Of his veil:—
[Chrysanthus is led out.
[aside.
Why, why, O heavens!
Do I pause, but from my breast here
Tear my bleeding heart? How act
In so dreadful a dilemma?
If I say who he is, I tarnish
With his guilt my name for ever,
And my loyalty if I'm silent,
Since he being here transgresses
By that fact alone the edict:
Shall I punish him? The offender
Is my son. Shall I free him? He
Is my enemy and a rebel:—
If between these two extremes
Some mean lies, I cannot guess it.
As a father I must love him,
And as a judge I must condemn him.

[Exeunt.