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Nazareth: A Morality in One Act
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In: Plays/Films/Dramas·British Literature·Religion/Spirituality
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #69644.
The opening · free to read
Copyright, 1916 By LAURENCE HOUSMAN
CAUTION.--Amateurs and Professionals are hereby warned that “NAZARETH,” being fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States, is subject to royalty, and any one presenting the play without the consent of the author or his authorized agent, will be liable to the penalties by law provided. Application for the right to produce “NAZARETH” must be made to Samuel French, 28-30 West 38th Street, New York City.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
NAZARETH.
PROLOGUE.
Since Love first looked on life with human eyes, Twixt him and us time like a curtain lies. Of all the years while He made life His own With dear familiar touch--how little’s known! The gospels of His Birth, the tale make plain Then two years till He died and rose again, Naught else remains to us of all, save when He, at Jerusalem, with learned men Was by His parents found, and taken thence Back to far Nazareth. And by no sense Of mortal mind from where they now lie hid Can we recover the fair things He did, Growing to man’s estate, that He might die For man’s salvation; hidden there they lie, The days which mounted up to Calvary.
Yet here on earth that lovely deed was done; Love in man’s form took life from wind and sun, Waked, slept, ate bread, and toiled, and without speed, Patient, made test of each frail weak human need; Found means on small frail feet men’s ways to go; From mother tongue was taught man’s speech to know; So, for man’s making, childhood, boyhood, youth, Each he endowed in turn with deathless truth, Himself the type and pattern for each stage Of human growth. Oh! in what future age Shall we who, seeking that lost Pattern, roam, Find it again, and to that form come home?
Ah, friends! this simple showing that ye see Of Love at Nazareth, this is not He! ’Tis but a thought, a fathering wish, a prayer That with hearts knit we may come closelier there, Where He lived lowly. Lo, He by your side Lies hidden, a waiting guest, still multiplied By man’s still growing needs,--with such intent He made humanity His Sacrament; The flesh and blood, which here we beat and bruise, Is Christ’s. Ah, put it to some better use! Be members all with all! Hear what Love saith, And make your home with Him at Nazareth!
Nazareth
SCENE:--_The Carpenter’s shop is a low, broad chamber built of wood. At the back to the left-center a wide open doorway reveals a level stretch of landscape. It is late afternoon, but the air is still pale with the heat of day. To the right of the door is a small square window with wooden shutters thrown wide; before it stands a carpenter’s bench upon which lies a wooden door frame nearly finished. The carpenter and his assistant are quietly at work planing, and boring holes for the fitting in of the rivets; beneath them the floor is strewn with shavings, saw-dust, and odds and ends of wood. Away to the left, near a spinning wheel, sits an aged woman combing flax. Against the wall to the same side of the doorway sits_ MARY, the carpenter’s wife, with a book upon her knees; on the other side her son stands against the door-post, with his back to the interior, looking out into the sunshine.
After the scene has opened the carpenter raises himself from a stooping position, and hands over to REUBEN, his assistant, a beam of wood, which the latter lays aside.
CARPENTER. ’Twill soon be done. Nay, we’ll not need that now. Yes, speak on. If you read slowly enough, I can give heed.
MARY. (Reading). “Because his visage was so marred, many did marvel at him then, for more than most his form was scarred, yea, more than all the sons of men. Yet him shall all the nations hear, and kings shall shut their mouths for fear.”
CARPENTER. (To REUBEN) Be careful, now the cross-beam’s laid.
OLD ANNA. What cause have kings to be afraid?
MARY. (Reading) “Who hath believed our report? To whom is the Lord’s arm revealed? He shall grow up in tender sort, and as a root from a dry field, having no form nor comeliness, that men who see should scorn him less.”
CARPENTER. Hold it fast, now! Nay, don’t let go.
Mary.--
“He is rejected and despised, A man of sorrows, grief his lot, He came to us unrecognized, Despising, we esteemed him not. Surely our sorrows he hath borne, And for our sins hath felt the rod, Wherefore he seemed a shape for scorn---- One smitten by the hand of God. But he was wounded for our sins, For our iniquities was scourged, By chastisement our peace he wins, And with his stripes mankind is purged. All we like sheep have gone astray, Turned everyone to his own way. And upon him the Lord doth lay The iniquity of all.”
(OLD ANNA touches her daughter, and points toward the child.)
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