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ACT THREE
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The Atrium of Pilate's House
Claudia and Bemba
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CLAUDIA
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O heaven! Spare this hour. Let not the name
Of Pilate be accursed by every tongue!
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BEMBA
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Be comforted, my lady. ‘Tis sad indeed
To see a good man wronged; and when the guilt
Comes nearer home, ‘tis grief beyond compare.
Your sorrow’s mine, for never did I dream
The master would lay a finger on the good.
But still there may be chance of a better ending.
Who knows but by his power, the Christ may
Save himself from death and Pilate’s shame.
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CLAUDIA
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Alas Three nightmare hours have not
dispelled my fears.
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(ENTER Pilate) |
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PILATE
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My Claudia!
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CLAUDIA
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O fool and folly’s child! No longer
Shall I abide within this cursed hall.
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PILATE
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Stay, Claudia, stay!
Cold terror many-visaged stalks abroad.
The dead arise. Chill corpses feigning life
Desert their tombs and mingle with the quick.
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CLAUDIA
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True light eclipsed and darkness over all!
Death masquerades as life; the living die.
O Pontius, why didst thou provoke such wrath?
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PILATE
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The gods have played me false. Where lurks yon seer?
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(EXIT Pilate) |
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CLAUDIA
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Poor foolish man, ‘twas thou played false
Condemning truth unheard.
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BEMBA
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Listen, the sound of horses. Someone comes.
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(ENTER Longinus) |
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LONGINUS
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Where is my master?
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CLAUDIA
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You’ve come
From Calvary? Speak out. Has he escaped?
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LONGINUS
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I would my lips spake words so fair.
‘Tis finished.
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CLAUDIA
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Dead?
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LONGINUS
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Even so. Three hours of pain
And universal torment wracked his corse
Ere death brought kind release.
Three hours those tender limbs in anguish writhe.
His dimming eyes survey the crowd. He speaks –
Not cursing but in soft forgiving prayer
For his tormentors, authors of his death;
Consoles his mother standing by the cross.
And once his parched lips confess their thirst
But waive the proffered draught. Three time he spoke
In accents that revealed him more than man.
He called on God as "father" – and most strange –
Though faint and agonising, he cried aloud
In death and yielded up his spirit.
That man I deem was innocent and good.
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CLAUDIA
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O what guilt
Must brand our consciences for this event
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LONGINUS
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Forgive me; I have pained you by my words.
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CLAUDIA
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Regret it not. Pain, grief, remorse uneased
Must be my lot till death.
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LONGINUS
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My master comes.
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(ENTER Pilate) |
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PILATE
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Perdition take him!
One single day exhausts his prophecies.
The truths of yestermorn are false today.
Forsooth he mingles blasphemy with craft.
The great god Pan is dead, he says,
And leaves him mute!
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CLAUDIA
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Has the prophet guessed the truth?
‘Tis comfort to hear sanity give voice
When prophecy can only rant and rave
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PILATE
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How went the execution?
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LONGINUS
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He’s crucified As thou didst order.
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PILATE
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Be not so Spartan-tongued
Nor spare what details may enhance the telling.
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LONGINUS
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Though helpless, pinioned to the cruel wood,
And dying slavishly, no slave seemed he
But master of his life. In solemn tones
The Temple trumpets brayed his death salute.
The heavens cracked amain; a thunderbolt
Cleft deep into Golgotha’s craggy side.
All nature seemed to shudder at his death
As if he was—somehow--more than man.
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PILATE
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You mean that he was—somehow—a god?
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LONGINUS
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No man who owned a soul, a human heart,
Could gaze unmoved at what my eyes have seen
And still refuse belief. Did I not see
The trembling priests and ancients backward shrink
In terror from the chasm’s yawning mouth?
The clamourous populace were hushed in fear And struck their breasts.
(aside) Alas, my ears have heard too much of woe.
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(EXIT Claudia) |
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PILATE
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Did none uphold the deed?
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LONGINUS
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At first the soldiery,
Rough, savage, heartless men showed no dismay.
Anon they too showed pallor, and their armour
Did scarce conceal the quaking of their hearts.
Deep plunged in desolation, Jerusalem
Has rent its festal robes. The Temple stands
Deserted, like a bride whose nuptial day
Dawns full of expectation, but at eve
She sits alone, unwed, unwanted and unloved.
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PILATE
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The Jews desired the bodies be unfixed
And buried ere the night.
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LONGINUS
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It will be done.
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(ENTER Mindaro) |
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MINDARO
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Joseph of Arimathea stands without
And begs thy pleasure.
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PILATE
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Bid him come in.
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(ENTER Joseph)
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JOSEPH
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Hail sir! I come to ask a favour.
Grant unto me the body of the Christ
That I entomb it in my private vault.
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PILATE
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What means a malefactor’s corpse to thee
Who are so noble of birth, a counsellor,
And well beloved by Rome?
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JOSEPH
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Not mine the right
To criticise a judgment passed by Rome.
But in the Council I withstood the priests
When they condemned the Nazarene.
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PILATE
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Hast thou conclusive proof that he is dead?
The cross brings tardy death.
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LONGINUS
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Permit me, sir, to speak as witness.
Barca’s men did break the robbers’ legs
To speed their end. The Christ seemed dead;
But with my lance I opened wide a passage
To his heart. Some blood and water trickled out.
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JOSEPH
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Whatever price thou askest I shall pay.
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PILATE
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Go, bury him as thou dost wish.
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JOSEPH
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No boon
Couldst thou have granted greater, save his life.
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(EXIT Joseph) |
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PILATE
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Get soldiers to
Attend him at the tomb.
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(EXIT Longinus) |
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