PERSONS: INTEMPERANCE, — a Youth grimly disguised. FOLLOWERS and SERVANTS, some flashily, others shabbily dressed. TEMPERANCE, personated by a Miss in white. ATTENDANTS, Girls and Boys neatly dressed.
SCENE: A gin palace with bottles and glasses, in the midst a puncheon for throne.
Enter INTEMPERANCE with a flagon of red wine, and a gnarled, thorny rod for scepter; SERVANTS following with clanking chain and a black flag.
Intemperance — When man, once pure, from childish innocence fell,
And lost the smiling countenance of God,
Out of the yawning deeps of passion’s hell
Fiercely I rose, and earth’s fair fields I trod.
Though blooming gardens withered at my look,
And homes of beauty at my touch decayed,
Though love turned madness, joy my paths forsook,
And wailing miseries throned the track I made, —
Man knew not, knows not, but shall know ere long,
Whence I am come, and what I am, perverse, —
Commissioned fiend to bind in fetters strong
Earth’s groveling worms, their shriveled soul to curse!
Through their thick legions, Death’s Pale Horse I urge,
And o’er the nations like the whirlwind sweep;
War’s blood steel, green Pest, and Famine’s scourge
But glean the harvest which In wrath I reap/
Over all realms shall stretch my growing reign
And farthest lands burn fiercely in my glance,
Redeeming angels barb their shafts in vain
Against the throne of dark Intemperance.
Heaven’s harping host this hour I have defied,
And the black banner of my band unfurled
The old, thin mask is trampled in my pride.
As here I mount, sole monarch of the world!
(He ascends the throne, between two servants, waving the black flag and clanking the chain. Stamping his foot savagely, he cries)
Slaves! from your dens and loathsome kennels come!
Now learn to taste my undisguised control;
(Enter Followers, one with a woman and child.)
Leave your pale mates and starveling whelps at home,
And drain once more your monarch’s sparkling bowl.
(Exit woman, with the child.)
Why crouch ye there, ye scared and tattered train,
With knees that beat in mockery of the heart?
‘Tis Christian fortitude to kiss the chain
Whose chafing links your fingers cannot part!
Oh, now ye Everlasting Powers below
I thank you all for this my triumph-hour!
See, how the bowed and trampled menials go
Crouching and trembling at my word of power.
These are my conquests, mine for nether hell,
From earth’s bright legions won by this right hand,
Like lilies plucked from Eden’s sunny dell
To droop and wither in a desert land.
Ho, minions! slaves! round my eternal throne
Gather yourselves, and bow the trembling knee!
(They bow reluctantly.)
Readier and lower! Now my kindness own,
And tell the saints your tender love for me!
I pause. No voice? Rise, dastards, and advance!
Kiss the sweet scepter, as I stretch it forth!
This arm shall teach you swift allegiance,
Aye, and to-day shall quell the whole round earth.
First Follower, (Advancing.) —
O heaven! no more a heaven to my lost soul,
Was it for this I quaffed the first bright bowl?
(He kisses the rod, and is dragged aside with the chain about his neck.)
Second Follower —
And must I? O my wife, my murdered wife,
Of this you warned me in your martyred life;
Laugh not from heaven upon my overthrow,
Vengeance hath come for all your hours of woe!
(He kisses the scepter, and is dragged off by the chain, as the first.)
Third Follower —
Ha! so the unholy sowing of my fair
Young life, yields shame and misery and despair.
(One by one submits to the degrading ordeal, but the last stands sullenly.)
Intemperance — Why stand you there, wrapt up in sullen pride,
When every slave has bent the knee, beside?
Bow, dastard!
Last Follower. (Fiercely.) —
Never! no! no! never more
Before thy throne I bend me to adore;
False-hearted demon, I have given thee all,
Only beneath thy iron heel to fall:
Give back my home, my name, my wasted life,
My scattered friends, and o, my grief-slain wife!
Recall from death my well-belovèd child,
The spotless prey of passion, blind and wild,
When thy keen scourge my brain to madness lashed
And steeled my bosom to that deed of hell,
As this right-hand my shrieking cherub dashed
On my own hearthstone! Ha! I see him there!
The red blood matting all his golden hair!
Out, dreadful vision! Fiend, I know thee well
And withered be the knee to thee I bend
Though all thy wrath should on this heart descend!
Intemperance — Then die, proud scorner! may thy life-blood freeze
And curdle, drop by drop, and every vein
Forget its office, and by sow degrees
The shriveled sinews, pinched with cureless pain,
Draw down that stubborn neck till thy proud lip
Shall kiss the foot that spurns my fellowship;
While all my knotted serpents choke thy breath,
Gaspingly gurgling a vain prayer for death!
Last Follower.—
The causeless curse shall smite the curser’s head;
Obedience to thy power hath been my curse,
And now I scorn thee; be thy vengeance sped;
Not all the gulf can make my suffering worse!
(Exit Last Follower.)
Intemperance —
Go, then, but round thy restless heart again
I will bind fast my firm invisible chain;
The scorpion conscience, spurring on remorse
For thy chastising, shall again to sleep,
And wild and bitless as the prairie-horse
Shall thy proud soul into my lariat sweep.
Now, slaves, return,—you dastard, goes forlorn!
Take at my hand the bright and brimming bowl:
Drink swift confusion to the traitor’s scorn,
Joy to yourselves, and triumph to my soul!
First Follower. (Advancing and starting back with horror.)
Ha, back! ‘tis blood! and mirrored redly there,
A grisly Death sits crouching, with his dart;
His eyeless sockets wildly on me glare:
Heaven, if thou canst, oh quench this burning heart!
Intemperance—
Ha, ha! drink deep, my merry boys, ‘tis sweet,
You know it well, you’ve quaffed it long before;
Drink minions! (They taste and shrink back shuddering.)
Now my triumph is complete,
And man, redeemed, falls back forevermore!
A Voice. (From without.)—
Boast not thyself; behold, thy hour of doom
Is near at hand; yea, even now hath come!
(Enter BOYS and GIRLS, strewing flowers in the path of TEMPERANCE. The Goddess following with a slender wand and white flag.)
Children in concert.—
Tyrant, on thy awful throne,
With thy minions bent before thee,
And thy sable banner o’er thee,
Tremble for thy evil done!
Tremble for thy doom begun
Terrible and pitiless one!
On, bright angel, Temperance,
Bear aloft thy lily banner,
While we pour the glad hosanna,
Wheeling in a happy dance,
Joying in thy joyous glance,
As thy welcome steps advance.
In thy radiant path we throw
Roses rich, and lilies blooming,
All the murmurous air perfuming,
And the purest flowers that grow,
Braiding deftly as we go,
Wreathe we for thy brown of snow.
(They circle about her, and crown her with the garland.)
Intemperance — Ha, Water Spirit! On my trail again,
Dogging my steps, like some unquiet ghost!
What sent thee hither, with thy baby-train?
Off, silly thing! I scorn thee and thy hose!
The Goddess Temperance.—
Dark tyrant, though long thou has mocked my power,
I come in the name of Jehovah,
And bid thee to tremble, for this is the hour
When the reign of thy terror is over!
The children thou scornest shall dance in their glee
O’er the wreck of thy thunder-scarred palace,
And clasp their glad hands, as they rally to me
Who have kissed the hot lips of thy chalice.
The mothers of Israel and vestals of God
Come forth with devotion for valor;
The blessings they win are as dew on the sod,
To the victims trod down in their squalor.
From the slumbers of ages the nations awake;
The drunkards of Ephraim are shaken,
They rise from their shame, and thy manacles break,
Thy lures of the pit are forsaken.
Dark tyrant, thy doom is recorded on high
In fire such as burned over Teman;
At the touch of my wand to thy gloomy gulf fly!
Fly, brood of the pitiless demon!
(She waves her wand over Intemperance and his Followers, who rush off shrieking in terror, trailing the black banner and chain. Children march about the vacant throne, reciting in concert:)
The Boys.— Now the tyrant’s day is done,
Now his horrid race is run;
Gulfs of Hades, give him room
For his everlasting doom!
Round about his awful throne
Let us peal a joyous tone,
Hide its dismal shape in flowers,
There to throne this Queen of ours
With her snow-white flag unfurled,
Regnant o’er a ransomed world!
(She mounts the transformed throne.)
The Girls.—Now begins thy perfect reign,
Temperance, over earth again;
Bow to every blighted home
Love and Joy and Peace shall come,
Smiling Industry and Wealth,
Sweet Content and buoyant Health;
And the lamp of holy lives
Shall re-light the human hives
Where, till now, like angry bees
Swarmed innumerous blasphemies.
In Concert— Father, mother
Sister, brother,
Now that every heart rejoices,
Join with ours your willing voices.
(Voices join them.)
Bless the Lord, for He hath done it;
Victory! His arm hath won it.
Aye, Eternal, unto Thee
Praise and choral songs shall be
For his glorious victory!
Lead us on, O Temperance,
Round the rescued world advance;
Bear aloft the lily banner;
Heaven shall echo our Hosanna,
And our joy,—smile down upon it;
O Hosanna! O Hosanna!
Bless the Lord, for He hath done it.
George Shepard Burleigh
