Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen (162 page)

CAESARIUS.
After this, I have not a word more to say for those unfortunates. I only crave permission to leave the court and city.

JULIAN.
Would you leave me?

CAESARIUS.
Yes, most gracious Emperor!

JULIAN.
You are stiff-necked, like your brother.

CAESARIUS.
The new order of things gives me much to reflect upon.

JULIAN.
I had great designs for you Caesarius! It would be a great joy to me, if you could renounce your errors. Can you not?

CAESARIUS.
God knows what I might have done a month ago; — now I cannot.

JULIAN.
A marriage into one of the most powerful families should stand open to you. Will you not bethink you?

CAESARIUS.
No, most gracious lord.

JULIAN.
A man like you could quickly mount from step to step. Caesarius, is it not possible that you can give me your aid in furthering the new order of things?

CAESARIUS.
No, most gracious lord!

JULIAN.
I do not mean here, but in other places. It is my intention to depart from here. Constantinople is very unpleasing to me; you Galileans have spoiled it for me in every way. I shall go to Antioch; there I shall find better soil to work upon. I thought you would accompany me. Will you not, Caesarius?

CAESARIUS.
Most gracious lord, I too am bound for the east; but I will go alone.

JULIAN.
And what will you do there?

CAESARIUS.
Visit my old father; help Gregory to strengthen him for the coming struggle.

JULIAN.
Go!

CAESARIUS.
Farewell, my Emperor!

JULIAN.
Happy father, with such unhappy sons!
[He makes a gesture with his hand;
Caesarius
and those with him bow low, and go out to the left.

HEKEBOLIUS.
What reckless and most unseemly defiance!

JULIAN.
My heart is wounded to the quick by this and many other things. You, my Hekebolius, shall accompany me. The ground burns beneath my feet in this poisoned Galilean city! I will write to those philosophers, Kytron and Priscus, who have won so great fame of late years. Maximus I expect every day; he shall go with us. — I tell you there are joyful days of victory awaiting us, Hekebolius! In Antioch, my friend, — there we shall meet the incomparable Libanius, — and there we are nearer Helios at his rising. Oh, this irresistible yearning towards the Sun-King — !

HEKEBOLIUS.
Yes, yes, yes — !

JULIAN.
[Embracing him
.] My Hekebolius! — Wisdom; light; beauty!

ACT SECOND
.

SCENE FIRST.

 
A spacious vestibule in the Emperor’s Palace, at Antioch. An open entrance in the background; on the left is a door, leading into the inner rooms. On a raised seat in the foreground, to the right, sits the
Emperor Julian,
surrounded by his court. Judges, Orators, Poets, and Teachers, among them
Hekebolius, sit
on lower seats around him. Leaning against the wall near the entrance stands
A Man,
dressed as a Christian Priest; he hides his face in his hands, and seems rapt in prayer. A great gathering of citizens fills the hall. Guards at the entrance, and at the door on the left.

JULIAN.
[Addressing the assemblage
.] So great success have the gods vouchsafed me. Hardly a single city have I approached on my journey, whence whole troops of Galileans have not streamed forth to meet me on the road, lamenting their errors, and placing themselves under the protection of the divine powers. Compared with this, what signifies the senseless behaviour of the scoffers? May not the scoffers be likened to dogs, who in their ignorance yelp at the moon? Yet I will not deny that I have learned with indignation that some inhabitants of this city have spoken scornfully of the rule of life which I have enjoined on the priests of Cybele, the good goddess. Ought not reverence for so exalted a divinity to protect her servants from mockery? I say to those foolhardy men: Are ye barbarians, since ye know not who Cybele is? Must I solemnly remind you how, when the power of Rome was so gravely threatened by that Punic commander, whose grave I saw not long since in Libyssa, the Cumaean Sybil counselled that the statue of Cybele should be taken from the temple in Pessinus, and brought to Rome? As to the priests’ way of life, some have wondered that they should be forbidden to eat roots, and everything that grows along the earth, while they are allowed to partake of upward-growing herbs and fruits. Oh, how dense is your ignorance — I pity you if you cannot understand this! Can the spirit of man find nourishment in that which creeps along the ground? Does not the soul live by all that yearns upward, towards heaven and the sun? I will not enter more largely into these matters to-day. What remains to be said you shall learn from a treatise I am composing during my sleepless nights, which I hope will shortly be recited both in the lecture-halls and on the market-places.
[He rises.
And with this, my friends, if no one has anything further to bring forward — A Citizen.
[Pressing to the front.]
Oh most gracious Emperor, let me not go unheard!

JULIAN.
[Sitting down again.]
Surely not, my friend. Who are you?

THE CITIZEN.
I am Medon, the corn-merchant. Oh, if my love for you, exalted and divine Emperor —

JULIAN.
Come to your case, man!

MEDON.
I have a neighbour, Alites, who for many years has done me every imaginable injury; for he, too, is a dealer in com, and takes the bread out of my mouth in the most shameful way —

JULIAN.
Aha, my good Medon; yet you look not ill-fed.

MEDON.
Nor is that the matter, most gracious Emperor! Oh, by the august gods, whom every day I learn to love and praise more highly — his affronts to me I could overlook; but what I cannot suffer —

JULIAN.
He surely does not insult the gods?

MEDON.
He does what is worse, — or at least equally shameless; he — oh, I scarce know whether my indignation will permit me to utter it, — he insults you yourself, most gracious Emperor!

JULIAN.
Indeed? In what words?

MEDON.
Not in words, but worse — in act.

JULIAN.
Then in what act?

MEDON.
He wears a purple robe —

JULIAN.
A purple robe? Oho, that is bold.

MEDON.
Oh, great wing-footed Mercury, when I think how he would have paid for that robe in your predecessor’s time! And this garment of vainglory I have daily before my eyes —

JULIAN.
This garment, bought with money that might have been yours —

MEDON.
Oh most gracious Emperor, — punish his audacity; let him be expelled the city; my love for our great and august ruler will not suffer me to remain a witness of such shameless arrogance.

JULIAN.
Tell me, good Medon, what manner of clothes does Alites wear, besides the purple cloak?

MEDON.
Truly I cannot call to mind, sire; ordinary clothes, I think; I have only remarked the purple cloak. —

JULIAN.
A purple cloak, then, and untanned sandals — ?

MEDON.
Yes, sire; it looks as ludicrous as it is audacious.

JULIAN.
We must remedy this, Medon!

MEDON.
[Joyfully
.] Ah, most gracious Emperor — ?

JULIAN.
Come early to morrow to the palace —

MEDON.
[Still more delighted
.] I will come very early, most gracious Emperor!

JULIAN.
Give your name to my Chamberlain —

MEDON.
Yes, yes, my most gracious Emperor!

JULIAN.
You will receive from him a pair of purple shoes, embroidered with gold —

MEDON.
Ah, my most generous lord and Emperor!

JULIAN.
These shoes you will take to Alites, place them on his feet, and say that henceforth he must not fail to put them on, whenever he would walk abroad by daylight in his purple cloak —

MEDON.
Oh!

JULIAN.
 
— and, that done, you may tell him from me, that he is a fool if he thinks himself honoured by a purple robe, having not the power of the purple. — Go; and come for the shoes to-morrow!
[The Corn Merchant slinks away, amid the laughter of the citizens; the Courtiers
,
Orators, Poets, and the rest clap their hands, with loud exclamations of approval.

ANOTHER CITIZEN.
[Stepping forward from the crowd
.] Praised be the Emperor’s justice! Oh how richly this envious corn-miser deserves his punishment! Oh hear me, and let your favour —

JULIAN.
Aha; methinks I know that face. Were not you one of those who shouted before my chariot as I drove into the city?

THE CITIZEN.
None shouted louder than I, incomparable Emperor! I am Malchus, the tax-gatherer. Ah, grant me your aid! I am engaged in a law-suit with an evil and grasping man — JULIAN. And therefore you come to me? Are there not judges — ?

MALCHUS.
The affair is somewhat involved, noble Emperor! It concerns a field, which I leased to this bad man, having bought it seven years since, when part of the domain belonging to the Apostles’ Church was sold.

JULIAN.
So, so; church property, then?

MALCHUS.
Honestly purchased; but now this man denies either to pay me rent, or to give up the property, under pretext that this field once belonged to the temple of Apollo, and, as he declares, was unlawfully confiscated many years ago.

JULIAN.
Tell me, Malchus, — you seem to be a follower of the Galilean?

MALCHUS.
Most gracious Emperor, ‘tis an old tradition in our family to acknowledge Christ.

JULIAN.
And this you say openly, without fear?

MALCHUS.
My adversary is bolder than I, sire! He goes in and out, as before; he fled not the city when he heard of your approach.

JULIAN.
Fled not? And why should he flee, this man who stands out for the rights of the gods?

MALCHUS.
Most gracious Emperor, you have doubtless heard of the book-keeper, Thalassius?

JULIAN.
What! That Thalassius who, to ingratiate himself with my predecessor, whilst I was being slandered and menaced in Gaul, proposed, here in Antioch, in the open market-place, that the citizens should petition the Emperor to send them Julian Caesar’s head!

MALCHUS.
Sire, it is this, your deadly foe, who is wronging me.

JULIAN.
Truly, Malchus, I have as great ground of complaint against this man as you have.

MALCHUS.
Tenfold greater, my gracious Emperor?

JULIAN.
What think you? Shall we two combine our quarrels, and prosecute him together?

MAYLCHUS.
Oh, what exceeding grace! Oh tenfold happiness!

JULIAN.
Oh tenfold foolishness! Thalassius goes in and out as before, you say? He has not fled the city at my approach. Thalassius know’s me better than you. Away with you, man! When I indict Thalassius for my head, you may indict him for your field.

MALCHUS.
[
Wringing his hands.]
Oh tenfold misery!
[He goes out by the back; the assembly again applauds the Emperor.

JULIAN.
That is well, ray friends; rejoice that I have succeeded in making a not altogether unworthy beginning to this day, which is specially dedicate to the feast of the radiant Apollo. For is it not worthy of a philosopher to overlook affronts against himself, whilst he sternly chastises wrongs done to the immortal gods? I do not recall whether that crowned cultivator of learning, Marcus Aurelius, was ever in like case; but if he was, we must hope that he did not act quite unlike me, who hold it an honour to follow humbly in his footsteps. Let this serve as a clue for your future guidance. In the palace, in the market-place, even in the theatre — did I not loathe to enter such a place of folly — it is fit that you should greet me with acclamation and joyful applause. Such homage, I know, was well received both by the Macedonian Alexander and by Julius Caesar, men who were also permitted by the Goddess of Fortune to outshine other mortals in glory. But when you see me entering a temple, that is another affair. Then I desire you to be silent, or direct your plaudits to the gods, and not to me, as I advance with bent head and downcast eyes. And above all, I trust you will be heedful of this today, when I am to sacrifice to so transcendent and mighty a divinity as he whom we know by the name of the Sun-King, and who seems even greater in our eyes when we reflect that he is the same whom certain oriental peoples call Mithra. And with this — if no one has more to say —

THE PRIEST AT THE DOOR.
[Draws himself up
.] In the name of the Lord God!

JULIAN.
Who speaks?

THE PRIEST.
A servant of God and of the Emperor.

JULIAN.
Approach. What would you?

THE PRIEST.
I would speak to your heart and to your conscience.

JULIAN.
[Springing up
.] What voice was that! What do I see! In spite of beard and habit — ! Gregory!

THE PRIEST.
Yes, my august master!

JULIAN.
Gregory! Gregory of Nazianzus!

GREGORY, Yes, gracious Emperor!

JULIAN.
[Has descended and grasped his hands; he now looks long at him
.] A little older; browner; broader. No; ‘twas only at the first glance; now you are the same as ever.

GREGORY.
Oh that it were so with you, sire!

JULIAN.
Athens. That night in the portico. No man has lain so near my heart as you.

GREGORY.
Your heart? Ah, Emperor, you have tom out of your heart a better friend than I.

JULIAN.
You mean Basil?

GREGORY.
I mean a greater than Basil.

JULIAN.
[G
looming
.] Ah! So that is what you come to tell me? And in that habit —

GREGORY.
I did not choose this habit, sire!

JULIAN.
Not you? Who then?

GREGORY.
He who is greater than the Emperor.

JULIAN.
I know your Galilean phrases. For the sake of our friendship, spare me them.

GREGORY.
Let me, then, begin by telling you how it is that you see me here, ordained a priest of the church you are persecuting.

JULIAN.
[With a sharp look
.] Persecuting!
[He ascends the dais again and sits down.
Now speak on.

GREGORY.
You know what were my thoughts of things divine, during our happy comradeship in Athens. But then it was far from my purpose to renounce the joys of life. Neither ambition nor the thirst for riches, I can truly say, has ever tempted me; yet I should scarce tell the truth if I denied that my eye and my mind dwelt wonderingly on all the glories which the old learning and art of Greece revealed to me. The wranglings and petty schisms in our church afflicted me deeply; but I took no part in them; I served my countrymen in temporal things; nothing more — Then came tidings from Constantinople. It was said that Constantius had died of terror at your proceedings, and had declared you his heir. Heralded by the renown of your victories, and received as a superhuman being, you, the hero of Gaul and Germany, had ascended the throne of Constantine without striking a blow. The earth lay at your feet. Then came further tidings. The lord of earth was girding himself up to war against the Lord of heaven —