Why drag again into the light of day The errors of an age long passed away?"I answer: "For the lessons that they teach:
The tolerance of opinion and of speech.
Hope, Faith, and Charity remain,--these three;And greatest of them all is Charity."
Let us remember, if these words be true, That unto all men Charity is due;Give what we ask; and pity, while we blame, Lest we become copartners in the shame, Lest we condemn, and yet ourselves partake, And persecute the dead for conscience' sake.
Therefore it is the author seeks and strives To represent the dead as in their lives, And lets at times his characters unfold Their thoughts in their own language, strong and bold;He only asks of you to do the like;
To hear hint first, and, if you will, then strike.
ACT I.
SCENE I.-- Sunday afternoon.The interior of the Meeting-house.
On the pulpit, an hour-glass; below, a box for contributions.
JOHN NORTON in the pulpit.GOVERNOR ENDICOTT in a canopied seat, attended by four halberdiers.The congregation singing.
The Lord descended from above, And bowed the heavens high;And underneath his feet He cast The darkness of the sky.
On Cherubim and Seraphim Right royally He rode, And on the wings of mighty winds Came flying all abroad.
NORTON (rising and turning the hourglass on the pulpit).
I heard a great voice from the temple saying Unto the Seven Angels, Go your ways;Pour out the vials of the wrath of God Upon the earth.And the First Angel went And poured his vial on the earth; and straight There fell a noisome and a grievous sore On them which had the birth-mark of the Beast, And them which worshipped and adored his image.
On us hath fallen this grievous pestilence.
There is a sense of terror in the air;
And apparitions of things horrible Are seen by many; from the sky above us The stars fall; and beneath us the earth quakes!
The sound of drums at midnight from afar, The sound of horsemen riding to and fro, As if the gates of the invisible world Were opened, and the dead came forth to warn us,--All these are omens of some dire disaster Impending over us, and soon to fall, Moreover, in the language of the Prophet, Death is again come up into our windows, To cut off little children from without, And young men from the streets.And in the midst Of all these supernatural threats and warnings Doth Heresy uplift its horrid head;A vision of Sin more awful and appalling Than any phantasm, ghost, or apparition, As arguing and portending some enlargement Of the mysterious Power of Darkness!
EDITH, barefooted, and clad in sackcloth, with her hair hanging loose upon her shoulders, walks slowly up the aisle, followed by WHARTON and other Quakers.The congregation starts up in confusion.
EDITH (to NORTON, raising her hand).
Peace!
NORTON.
Anathema maranatha! The Lord cometh!
EDITH.
Yea, verily He cometh, and shall judge The shepherds of Israel who do feed themselves, And leave their flocks to eat what they have trodden Beneath their feet.
NORTON.
Be silent, babbling woman!
St.Paul commands all women to keep silence Within the churches.
EDITH.
Yet the women prayed And prophesied at Corinth in his day;And, among those on whom the fiery tongues Of Pentecost descended, some were women!
NORTON.
The Elders of the Churches, by our law, Alone have power to open the doors of speech And silence in the Assembly.I command you!
EDITH.
The law of God is greater than your laws!
Ye build your church with blood, your town with crime;The heads thereof give judgment for reward;The priests thereof teach only for their hire;Your laws condemn the innocent to death;
And against this I bear my testimony!
NORTON.
What testimony?
EDITH.
That of the Holy Spirit, Which, as your Calvin says, surpasseth reason.
NORTON.
The laborer is worthy of his hire.
EDITH.
Yet our great Master did not teach for hire, And the Apostles without purse or scrip Went forth to do his work.Behold this box Beneath thy pulpit.Is it for the poor?
Thou canst not answer.It is for the Priest And against this I bear my testimony.
NORTON.
Away with all these Heretics and Quakers!
Quakers, forsooth! Because a quaking fell On Daniel, at beholding of the Vision, Must ye needs shake and quake? Because Isaiah Went stripped and barefoot, must ye wail and howl?
Must ye go stripped and naked? must ye make A wailing like the dragons, and a mourning As of the owls? Ye verify the adage That Satan is God's ape! Away with them!
Tumult.The Quakers are driven out with violence, EDITHfollowing slowly.The congregation retires in confusion.
Thus freely do the Reprobates commit Such measure of iniquity as fits them For the intended measure of God's wrath And even in violating God's commands Are they fulfilling the divine decree!
The will of man is but an instrument Disposed and predetermined to its action According unto the decree of God, Being as much subordinate thereto As is the axe unto the hewer's hand!
He descends from the pulpit, and joins GOVERNOR ENDICOTT, who comes forward to meet him.
The omens and the wonders of the time, Famine, and fire, and shipwreck, and disease, The blast of corn, the death of our young men, Our sufferings in all precious, pleasant things, Are manifestations of the wrath divine, Signs of God's controversy with New England.
These emissaries of the Evil One, These servants and ambassadors of Satan, Are but commissioned executioners Of God's vindictive and deserved displeasure.
We must receive them as the Roman Bishop Once received Attila, saying, I rejoice You have come safe, whom I esteem to be The scourge of God, sent to chastise his people.
This very heresy, perchance, may serve The purposes of God to some good end.
With you I leave it; but do not neglect The holy tactics of the civil sword.
ENDICOTT.
And what more can be done?
NORTON.
The hand that cut The Red Cross from the colors of the king Can cut the red heart from this heresy.
Fear not.All blasphemies immediate And heresies turbulent must be suppressed By civil power.
ENDICOTT.
But in what way suppressed?
NORTON.
