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Where is our gain at the Two-bars? Hardly our eyes reveal the inward bliss,
Sealed by no speech and shadowed by no
XV , ”I
kiss.
Love is no wizard to elude recapture
Esffuga, 7/0/7115?” Μία.
͵
In the strong prison of his silences!
On we drift : where looms the dim PQR? Let deeper silence shield the deeper rapture !
Heaven'
the import—— ... -
on earth by earthly bars
Show it us, Hugues of Saxe-Gotha
.
“31113715631118
᾽
vided
!
!
.א161\1`10?סםם Heaven
1 !
?ג
To tell me that it beams above thee— Not to thy mind the lightnings truthward
1
hurled
. . .
I should not tell thee that I love thee ! I turn. I laugh dead dlstance to der1s1on !—
Spirit to Spirit : there our loves are curled,
1
The reference is to the five acts of the play. Not to thy presence in the veil and Vision !
222
PREFACE 223
Beyond the gold and glamour of Life’s lotus, later the same battle may be lucidly, tersely,
The flower that falls from this our stronger and connectedly described, so that a child
sight, is able to follow its varying fortunes with
We dwell, eternal shapes of shadowy light. delight and comprehension: just so has my
Only the love on earth that shook and smote own observation of a life-history more subtle,
us a battle more terrible, been at last co-ordi-
Begets new stars——truth’s flowers fallen nated: I can view the long struggle from a
through night standpoint altogether complete, calm, and
Beyond the gold and glamour of Life’s lotus !
philosophical; and the result of this review
is the present story of Tannhauser, just as
Eternal bliss of Love in birthless bowers !
the isolated and often apparently contra-
Light, the gemmed robes of Love Life,
!
dictory incidents of the fight were recorded
lifted breath, in that jungle of chaotic emotions which I
Ageless existence deifying death !
printed under the title of “The Soul of
Love, the sole flower beyond these lesser Osiris,”1 calling it a history so that my
flowers !— readers might discover for themselves (if
In thee at last the live fruit quickeneth ? they chose to take the trouble) the real
Eternal bliss of Love in birthless bowers !
continuity in the apparent disjointedness.
The history of any man who seriously and
There, secret !
Know it !
Now forget ! desperately dares to force a passage into the
Betray not Wisdom unto Folly ! penetralia2 of nature; not with the calm
Less sweet is Joy than Melancholy !— philosophy of the scientist, but with the
Why should our eyes for this be wet? burning conviction that his immortal destiny
Enough : be silent and be holy ! is at stake; must he a strange one: to me
There, secret !
Know it !
Now forget ! at least strangely attractive. The constant
illusions; the many disappointments; the
Now I have told thee that I love thee ! hitter earnestness of the man amid the grim
To me our Star in Heaven burning humour, or more often sheer cacchination
Tells me thy heart as mine is yearning ; of his surroundings; all the bestial mockery
Tells me Love’s fragrance stolen above thee of the baffling fiends ; the still more hideous
Thy soul to mine'at last is turning mockery in which the Powers of Good them-
Now I have told thee that I love thee ! selves seem to indulge; doubt of the reality
of that which he seeks; doubt even of the
seeker; the irony of the whole strife: are
fascinating to me as they are, I make no
PREFACE. doubt, to the majority of mankind.
AS, after long observation and careful study,
This is the subtler form of that mental
the biologist sees that what at first seemed bewilderment which the Greek Tragedians
isolated and arbitrary acts are really part of were so fond of depicting ; as subtle in effect,
a series of regular changes, and presently yet grosser in its determining factors. For
has the life-history of the being that he is we are thus changed from the times of
examining clear from Alpha to Omega in Sophocles and Euripides; that the fixed
his mind; as, during a battle, the relative ideas of morality and religion which they
importance of its various incidents is lost, employed as the motives of pathos or of
the more so owing to the excitement and horror are now shattered. Ibsen, otherwise
in spirit and style purely Greek, and dealing
activity of the combatant, and to the fact
that he is himself involved in the vicissitudes as the Greeks did with the emotions of the
which he may have set himself to observe; soul, has realised the changed and infinitely
while even for the commander, though the more complex conditions of life; our self-
smoke-pall may lift now and again to show appointed spiritual guides notwithstanding,
some brilliant charge or desperate hand-to- or, rather, withstanding in vain. Conse-
hand struggle, he may fail to grasp its quently it is impossible any more to divine
whether virtue or vice (as understood of old)
significance in his dispositions; or indeed
find it to be quite unexpected and foreign 1
Now “ The Temple of the Holy Ghost.”
to his calculations ; yet a few years or months >
2 Hidden
places.
224 TANNHAUSER
will cause the irreparable catastrophe which “great spiritual giants” (can there be any
is the one element of drama which we may etymological link between “yogi ”1 and
still (in the work of a modern dramatist) “ ” ?) and that such
ogre persons, themselves
await with any degree of confidence. perceiving Truth, have tried to “diminish
I trust that I may be forgiven for adopting the message to the dog”2 for the benefit,
the idea that Tannh'auser was one of those of less exalted minds, and hidden that Truth
mysterious Germans whose reputed existence (which, unveiled, would but blind men
so perturbed the Middle Ages; in short, a with its glory) in a mass of symbols often
Rosicrucian.1 Some people may be surprised perverted or grotesque, yet to the proper
that a Member of that illustrious but unhappy man transparent; a “bait of falsehood to
fraternity should take cognizance of what my catch the carp of truth.” Now, regarded
friend Bhikku Ananda Maitriya calls “hog- in this light, all religions, qua religions, are
nosed Egyptian deities,” still more that he equally contemptible. The Hindu Gnanis3
should show reverence to symbols like the say “That which can be thought is not
B. V. M. and the Holy Grail. But the true.” As machineries for the exercise of
most learned and profound students of the spiritual and intellectual powers innate or
Mysteries of the Rosy Cross assure me that developed, certain sets of symbols may be
it was the special excellence of these mystics more or less convenient to a special trend
that they declined to be bound down by of mind, reason, or imagination; no more:
any particular system in their sublime search I deny to any one religion the possession
for the Eternal and the Real. of any essential truth which is not also
Under these circumstances I have not formulated (though in a different language)
scrupled to subvert anything that appeared in every other. To this rule Buddhism
to me to need subverting in the interests, appears a solitary exception. Whether it
always identical, of beauty and of truth. is truly so I have hardly yet decided: the
Anachronism may be found piled upon answer depends upon certain recondite mathe-
anachronism, and symbolism mixed with matical considerations, to discuss which would
symbolism. be foreign to the scope of my present pur-
In one direction I have restrained myself. pose, but which I hope to advance in a
Nowhere does Tannh'auser refer to the Vedas subsequent volume.4
and Shastras2 or to the Dhamma3 of that If you do not accept my conclusion that
blameless hypochondriac, Gotama Buddha. all religions are the expression of truth under
I take all the blame for so important an different aspects, facets of the same intoler-
omission, not without a shrewd suspicion able gem, you are forced back on the con-
that the commination will take the form of clusions of those unpleasing persons the
“ For this relief much thanks 1” Phallicists. But should you travel to the
The particular object that I have in view East, and tell a Lingam-worshipping Sivite
in speaking both in Hebrew and Egypto- that his is a phallic worship he will not be
Christian symbolism is that by this means pleased with you. Compare on this point
I may familiarise my readers with the one Arnold, “India Revisited,” 1886, p. 112.
thing of any importance that life, travel, and So much for the symbolology of this, I
study have taught me, to wit: the Origin fear, much-mangled drama. Drama indeed
of Religions. is an altogether misleading term ; monodrama
I take it that there have always, or is perhaps better. It is really a series of in-
nearly always, been on the earth those trospective studies; not necessarily a series
whom Councillor von Eckartshausen,4 the in time, but in psychology, and that rather
Svami Vivekananda5 and their like, call the morbid psychology of the Adept than
the gross mentality of the ordinary man.
1 See
their original documents, fairly enough It may help some of my readers if I say
translated in “ Real History of the Rosicru- that
cians,” by A. E. Waite. my Tannhauser is nearly identical in
2 Hindu sacred books.
3 The law. 1
“Yogi” is “one who seeks union,” z'.e.
4 Author of the “Cloud
upon the Sanctuary," with the Supreme.
a profound mystical treatise.
‘3
Browning, “Mr. Sludge the Medium.”
5 A
well-known Indian mystic, author of 3
Philosophers.
“ Raja Yoga.” 4 Berashith,
gra. infra, vol. ii.
PREFACE 225
scheme with the “ Pilgrim’s Progress.” these words of elementary instruction. You
Literary and spiritual experts will however are perfectly welcome to do with my work
readily detect minor differences in the treat- in its entirety what Laertes did with his
ment. It will be sufficient if I state that allegiance and his vows: but do not pick
“the Unknown,” whether minstrel, pilgrim, out and gloat over a few isolated passages
or Egyptian sage, represents Tannhauser in from the Venusberg scenes and call me a
his true Self,—the “Only Being in an sensualist, nor from the Fourth Act and groan
Abyss of Light!” The Tannhauser who “ Mysticisml”; do not quote “Two is by
talks is the “Only Being in an Abyss of shape the Coptic Aspirate” as a sample of
Darkness,” the natural man ignorant of his my utmost in lyrics; do not take the song
identity with the Supreme Being. The of Wolfram as my best work in either senti-
various other characters are all little parts ment or melody. As a ??”שקמqua I give
of Tannh'auser’s own consciousness and not you all full permission to conclude your re-
real persons at all: whether good or bad, view of this book by quoting from Act
all alike hinder and help (and there is not III. “ Forget this nightmare ” !
one whose function is not thus double) the I must express my great sense of gratitude
, '
realisation of his true unity with all life. to Oscar Eckenstein,1 Gerald Kelly, and
This circumstance serves to explain, though Allan MacGregor, who have severally helped
perhaps not to excuse, the lack of dramatic. me in the work of revision, which has ex-
action in the story. Love being throughout tended over more than a year of time and
the symbol of his method, as Beauty of its nearly twenty thousand miles of space. Some
object, it is through Love, refined into Pity, few of the very best lines were partially or
that he at last attains the Supreme Know- wholly suggested by themselves, and I have
ledge, or at least sufficient of it to put the not scrupled to incorporate these: if the
last straw on the back of his corporeal book be but a Book, the actual authorship
camel, and bring the story to a fitting end. seems to me immaterial.
To pass to more mundane affairs. I may I have written this preface in lighter vein,
mention for the benefit of those who may but I hope that no one will be led to suppose
not be read in certain classes of literature, that my purpose is anything but deadly
and so think me original when I am hardly serious. This poem has been written in
even paraphrasing, that Tannhauser’s songs the blood of slain faith and hope; each
in Act IV. are partly adapted from the foolish utterance of Tannhauser stings me
so-called “Oracles of Zoroaster," partly with shame and memory of old agony; each
from the mysterious utterances of the great Ignis Fatuus that he so readily pursues,
angel Ave',1 perhaps equally spurious. Of reminds me of my own delusions. But,
course Bertram’s song is merely a rather these follies and delusions being the common
free adaptation of the two principal frag- property of mankind, I have thought them
ments of Sappho, which so many people of sufficient interest, dramatic and philo-
have failed to translate that one can feel sophical, to form the basis of a poem. Let
no shame in making yet another attempt. no man dare to reproach me with posing as
There may be one or two conscious plagiar- the hero of my tale. I fall back on the last
isms besides, for which I do not apologise. utterance of Tannhauser himself: “I say,
For any unconscious ones which may have then, ‘I’: and yet it is not ‘I’ Distinct,
crept in owing to my prolonged absence but ‘I’ incorporate in All.” Above all,
from civilised parts, and the consequent lack pray understand that I do not pose as a
of opportunity for reference and comparison, teacher. I am but an asker of questions,
I emphatically do. such as may be found confronting those who
One word to the reviewers. It must not have indeed freed their minds from the con.-
be taken as ungracious if I so speak. From ventional commonplaces of the platitudinous,
nearly all I have received the utmost justice, but have not yet dared to uproot the mass
kindness, and consideration: two or three of their convictions, and to examine the
only seem to take delight in deliberately whole question of religion from its most
perverting the sense of my remarks: and fundamental source in the consciousness of
to them, for their own sake, I now address mankind. Such persons may find the reason-
1
In “Dr. Dee.” 1
The famous mountaineer.
VOL. I. P
226 TANNHAUSER
ing of Tannhauser useful, if only to brace Six days. I journey to the black unknown,
them to a more courageous attempt to Always in hope the Infinite may rise
understand the “Great Arcanum,” and to Some unexpected instant, as ’twere
attain at last, no matter at what cost, to grown
A magic palace to enchanted eyes ;
“true Wisdom and perfect Happiness.” A wizard guerdon for a minstrel wise.
So may all happen!
A lonely and desolate plain. TANNHAUSER I would that I were desolate and dumb,
riding towards a great mountain. Naked and poor That He might mani-
!
fest
TANNHAUSER. A crimson glory subtly caught and come,
SIX days. Creation took no longer !
Yet An opal crucible of Alkahest !3
I wander eastward, and no light is found. And yet—what gain of vital gold expressed?
The stars their motion shirk, or else forget.
The sun—the moon? Imprisoned under- 1 A vessel
containing the blood of Jesus. See
ground Malory, “ Morte d’Arthur.”
2 Sat-Chit-Ananda, the
Where gnomes disport, and devils do the Soul. qualities of Atman,
abound. 3 See Eirenaeus
Philalethes, his treatise.
TANNHAUSER 227
This were my guerdon : to fade utterly Let me ride on more hastily than this,
Into the rose-heart of that sanguine vase, That so my body may be tired of me,
And lose my purpose in its silent sea, And fling me to the old forgetful kiss,
And lose my life, and find my life, and Sleep’s, when my mind goes, riderless and
pass free,
Up to the sea that is as molten glass. Into some corner of eternity.
I mind me of that old Egyptian, Alas that mind returns from its abode
!
Met where Aurora streamed her rainbow With newer problems, fiercer thoughts !
But stay !
hair,
Who called me from the quest. An holy Suppose it came not? It must be with
God !—
man !
A crown of light scintillant in the air Then this dull house of gold and iron and
Shone over him : he bade me not despair. clay
Is happy also—’tis an easy way !
“The Blood of the Osiris !” was his word : So easy, I am fearful of mishap.
(Meaning the Christ?) “ The life, the Some fatal argument the God must find
tears, the tomb !
That linked us first. The dice are in His
“ The Love of Isis is its name ” !
(I heard lap—
This for the love of Mary.) In her womb Let Him decide in His imperial mind !
Brews the Elixir, and the roses bloom. My choice ; to see entirely—and be blind!
For the Three Maries (so he said) were One : Yet I bethink me of that holy man,
Three aspects of the mystic spouse of God, (Pagan albeit) my stirrup’s wisdom-share :
Isis! This pagan! “Look towards the “ Learn this from Thothmes the Egyptian.
Sun” 1 “ Use only in thine uttermost despair !”
(Quoth he), “and seek a winepress to be He whispered me a Word.1 “ Beware !
trod; Beware !
Look to the Cross, whereon I take mine ease Vague threats and foolish words
!
!
Quite
Let be Just so the Roman soldier said.
!
meaningless
Esaias ?2 He is dead—as I am dead !
The empty sounds he muttered in mine ear.
Why should their silly mystery impress
What was his symbol and his riddle’s key? My thoughtful forehead with the lines of
Go, seek the stars and count them and fear ?
explore!
(This riding saps my courage as my cheer.)
Go, sift the sands beyond a starless sea !
Still, I must see his symbol of the Sun, Warm breasts that glow with light ephemeral
The Winepress, and the Beauty! Puerile And move with passionate music to en-
And pagan to that old mysterious one, thral,
The awful Light and the anointed Vial, To charm, to enchant, to seal the entrancing
The Dawning of the Blood, even as a breath.
smile :— I fall Stop
!
Spare me !——Slay me
! !
Ye who have watched the far unfolding Isis am I, and from my life are fed
plan— All showers and suns, all moons that
How is time shorter than eternity ? wax and wane,
Prove it and weigh By mind it cannot be.
! All stars and streams, the living and the
dead,
All our divisions spring in our own brain. The mystery of pleasure and of pain.
See! As upsprings on the horizon there I am the mother I the speaking sea
! !
A clefted hill contemptuous of the plain. I am the earth and its fertility !
(Why, which is higher?) I am in despair. Life, death, love, hatred, light, darkness,
Let me essay the Pharaoh and his prayer ! return to me—
[TANNHAUSER spear/es the Wora7 of To me !
Double Power.
Hatho'or am I, and to my beauty drawn
Oh God, Thy blinding beauty, and the light All glories of the Universe bow down,
Shed from Thy shoulders, and the golden The blossom and the mountain and the
night dawn,
Of mingling fire and stars and roses swart F ruit’s blush, and woman, our creation’s
In the long flame of hair that leaps athwart, crown.
Live in each tingling gossamer ! Dread I am the priest, the sacrifice, the shrine,
eyes! I am the love and life of the divine !
Each flings its arrow of sharp sacrifice, Life, death, love, hatred, light, darkness, are
Eating me up with poison ! I am hurled surely mine—
Far through the vaporous confines of the Are mine !
world
With agony of sundering sense, beholding Venus am I, the love and light of earth,
Thy mighty flower, blood-coloured death, The wealth of kisses, the delight of tears,
unfolding! The barren pleasure never come to birth,
Lithe limbs and supple shoulders and lips The endless, infinite desire of years.
curled, I am the shrine at which thy long desire
Curled out to draw me to their monstrous Devoured thee with intolerable fire.
world ! I was song, music, passion, death, upon thy
lyre—
1
To invest with divine attributes. Thy lyre!
TANNHAUSER 229
I am the Grail and I the Glory now: Vainly, unless the shaking sense beware
I am the flame and fuel of thy breast ; The crested snakes shot trembling through
I am the star of God upon thy brow ; our hair,
I am thy queen, enraptured and possessed. Their wisdom But our souls leap, flash,
!
awake,
Rise, rise, my knight My king My
! !
Droop at my kisses ; the long lashes slake
love, arise ! Their sleek and silky thirst in tears of
See the grave avenues of Paradise, light!
The dewy larches bending at my breath, Thine eyes! They burn me, even me!
Portentous cedars prophesying death !
They smite
See the long vistas and the dancing sea, Me who am scatheless, and a flame of fire.
The measured motion of fecundity !
See, in our sorrow and intense desire
Bright winds set swaying the soft-sounding All worlds are caught and sealed! The
flowers stars are taken
(Here flowers have music) in my woven In love’s weak web, and gathered up, and
bowers, shaken !
Where sweet birds blossom, and in chorusr Our word is mighty on the magic moon !
quire The sun resurges to our triple tune!
The rapt beginnings of immense desire. (See, it is done !) O chosen of the Christ !
Here is the light and rapture of the Will : My knight, and king, and lover, wast thou
We touch the stars—and they are tiny priced,
still ! A portion in the all-pervading bliss,
O mighty thews O godlike face and hair!
!
Thou, whom I value at my ageless kiss?
Rise up and take me ; ay, and keep me Chosen of Me Thou heart of hearts,
!
Thy lips sing fondly—to another tune. One word of my unutterable praise ;
Nay ’twas my breathing beauty made
!
And I was utterly and ever lost,
thee swoon, Lost in the whirlwind of thy love, and
Dread forkéd fire across the cloven sky ; tossed
Stripped off thy body of mortality— A wreck on its irremeable sea !
Nay, but on steeper slopes my love shall Life Life This kiss Draw in thy
! ! !
strive !
breath To me! !
Love, sleep !—
And lover lies with lover VENUS.
On air’s substantial steep. Those are thy true joys? Cruelty for love?
TANNHAUSER.
TANNHAUSER.
And death in kissing. How I have despised,
Ah! sweeter was September—— Riding through meadows of the rushing
The amber rain of leaves, Rhine,
The harvest to remember, To watch the gentle foresters of spring
The load of sunny sheaves. Crush dainty violets in their dalliance,
In gardens deeply scented, Laughing in chorus with the birds ; and then
In orchards heavily hung, (Coming at harvest time upon my tracks)
Love flung See these same lovers in the golden sheaves
Away the days demented Under the sun. The same, the fuller fruit,
With lips that curled and clung. Say you? But somehow, nearer to the end.
Lost the old sense of mystery, and lost
Ah sweeter still October,
!
That curious reverence in sacrilege
When russet leaves go grey, With Wonder—the child’s faculty Less joy,
!
And sombre loves and sober Less laughter, yes that symptom I approve;
!
Rather the coming of a dull despair, That journey’s wonder to the womb of death :
And not at all that keen despair, that sharp Because no soul of man has ever crossed
Maddening pain that should torment a man Again that River—the old fable’s wrong;
With deadliest delight, the self-same hour fEneas came never to the ghostly side !
That he unveils the Isis of desire. Was not the boat weighed with his body still?
These little lovers strip their maidens bare, Felt he the keen emotions of the dead?
And find them—naked !
Poor and pitiful
!
Could he, the mortal and the warrior,
Look at our love instead Ι raised Thy veil,
!
Converse with Them, and understand? Be-
Nay, tore Thy vesture from Thee, and lieve!
Surrounds Thy heart, as with a core of light Yet Moses looked upon His hinder parts,1
Shut in the mystery of a dead world. And I— yes, goddess in this passionate
!
Thou formless sense of gloom and terror ! Life in our secret mountain, well I know
Thou Thy beauty, and Thy love (although they be
Upas,1 new tree of life—by sinister Infinite, far beyond the mortal mind,
Cherubim with averted faces kept !
Body, or soul to touch, to comprehend,
Nay This one secret I suspect, and gloat
! And dwell in), that the utter intimate
Over the solemn purport of the dream Knowledge of Thee, if once I ravelled out
With subtle shuddering of joy,—and that Thy secret, laid Thee naked to the bone—
Keener delight, a sense of deadly fear !
Nay, to the marrow were to come, aware,
!
This secret : Thou art darkness in Thyself, Face to face full with deity itself.
And evil wrapped in light, and ugliness .And this I strive at
!
Therefore is my love
Vested in beauty !
Therefore is my love Wholly in tune with that concealed desire
No petty passion like these country-folk’s : Bred, in each mortal, though he never know
N 0 fertile glory (as the Love of God) : (Few do know), to transcend the bound of
But vast and barren as the winter sea, things,
Holding I know not what enormous soul And find in Death the purpose of this life.
In its salt bitter bosom, underneath
The iron waters and the serpent foam ; VENUS.
Below, where sight and sound are set no
more, Yes, there you tear one veil away from me !
But only the intolerable weight Yet, am not I the Willing one? Indeed
Of its own gloomy selfhood. This am I : I feel the wonder of that same desire
This passion, lion—mouthed and adder-eyed. From mine own side of the Impassible.
A mass compressed, a glowing central core, See then how equal God and man are made !
Like molten metal in the crucible ! For I have clothed me in the veil of flesh,
Death’s secret is some sweetness ultimate, And strive toward thy finite consciousness
Sweeter than poison. Ah! My very words, As thou art reaching to my infinite,
Chance phrases, ravel out the tale for me—- Nurturing my Godhead at the breast of Sin
Sweetness and death —- poison and love. With milk of fleshly stings—even to pain :—
Consider
How this same striving to the Infinite, TANNHAUSER.
Which I intend by “love,” is likest to I see, I see the Christian mystery !
1
A legendary tree in Java, which had the That was the purpose of High God Himself
property of p01soning any one who rested in
its shade. 1 See Exodus xxxiii. 18
to end.
232 TANNHAUSER
again!
TANNHAUSER.
Alas !
Alas !
VENUS.
Keen on my spirit ; as if all I sought
In Thine own symbol, Beauty, were con-
Answer that call—and thou art lost indeed !
cealed
Wake thou thy spirit in this hateful sleep, Under her l)rows——howwider than the air !
Keeping the vision, rise, and spit on her ! How deeper than the sea How radiant
!
TANNHAUSER.
[Tlzunder.
That is my intent.
TANNHAUSER. It is the spiritual life of things
What is that? I seek—Thou knowest
!
VENUS.
VENUS.
Oh, I did not mean !
TANNHAUSER.
TANNHAUSER.
Ah, you murder me !
The breathing life of thee, and swoons, and Now is the solemn portal of the dusk
sighs, Lifted ; and in the gleaming silver-gray,
And dies ! The eastern sky, steps out the single One,
None but the dead can know the worth of Hathoor and Aphrodite—whom I mock !
love !
I may not follow in the dimness—I
Chained unto matter by my evil will,
Come, love, thy bosom to my heart recalls Delight of death and carnal life. But see !
love!
Into mine own unending pain and hate
To be one devil more upon the earth.—
Come, love, thy lips, curved hollow as the Come ye my serpents, wrap his bosom
!
moon’s! round
Bring me thy kisses, for the seawind tunes, With your entangling leprosy !
And me,
The song that soars, and reads the starry Let me assume the belovéd limber shape,
runes, The crested head, the jewelled eyes of death,
And swoons !
And sinuous sinewy glitter of serpenthood,
N one but the dead can tune the lyre of love! That I may look once more into his face,
And, kissing, kill him! Thus to hold him
Come, love, thy body serpentine and bright !
fast,
What love is this, the heart of sombre light,
Drawing his human spirit into mine
Impossible, and therefore infinite? For strength, for life, for poison! Ah, my
Sheer height ! God !
None but the dead can twine the limbs of These pangs, these torments! See! the
love ! sleeper wakes !
I am triumphant !
For he reaches out
Come, love My body in thy passion weeps
!
The sleepy arms, and turns the drowsy head
Tears keen as dewfall’s, salter than the
To catch the dew dissolving of my lip.
deep’s.
Wake, lover, wake! Thy Venus waits for
My bosom! How its fortress wakes, and thee !
As faded the great vision. And I knew Spare me the last illusion !—She is gone !
I cannot bear the glory of the gaze. Death Dost thou live, Tannh'auser? Sayest
!
I am—alone !
TANNHAUSER.
HATHooR. Still. I am not in any sense estranged.
Truth, arise, arise I yearn for thee in the first hour of spring,
Light, !
Thou, Whom I sought through ages of deep This, though I saw thee crawl
upon the earth,
sleep l-lowl at Her presence Whom thou wouldest
1
Lilith, among other shapes, can assume ape,
that of a scorpion. Thy tale reversed. I read that thunder now !
236 TANNHAUSER
This, though I know thee. Aphrodite, no ! And, to forget her, found due somnolence
Nor Anael,1 nor Eva !
Rather thou In such a warm brown bosom as thine own
Lilith, the woman-serpent, she who sucks Is fire and amber. Then I came away :—
The breath of little children in their sleep,
I heard of knights no better horsed than I,
Strangles young maidens, and presides upon No better sworded, with no gift of song,
Sterile debauchery and unnatural loves. Who, caught by one ineffable desire,
Rode on by old mysterious watersheds,
VENUs Traversed strange seas, or battled with strange
Lilith!
Ah, lover ! Thou hast known my folk,
Held vigil in wild forests, all to seek
name !
So Persephone must hold See the rich blood that mantles to my touch,
Thy life divided in Her dark domain.2 Invites the tooth to bite the shimmering skin,
Till I could watch the ripe red venom flow
TANNHAUSER. Slow on the hills of amber, staining them
Already I have tasted once of this Its own warm purple. Look, the tender
In its own lesser way. Ten years ago stream !
The fact, and leave the dream, and so disdain What song? My tunes are played upon
These far-off splendours, catch the nearer joy, too oft
Take squalid kisses, banish crested love My first great cry of love inaudible
Intangible. Delights it thee, my friend, Sapped me of music.
To reach the summits unattained before,
And stumble on their snows? Thine old
desire VENUS.
Was just to touch the mere impalpable, Sing me that again !
And you—you keep me worrying, fair queen, Send out thine opiate breath,
In logic and its meshes, when to-day And lull me to the everlasting sleep,
I rather would be caught in other nets, That, closing from the kisses of disdain
The burning gold and glory of your hair, To ecstasy of pain,
Lightning and sunshine, storm and radiance, I may sob out my life into their dangerous
Your flaming pell 1!
deep.
VENUS.
Who cometh from the mountain as a tower
Come, sing to me again !
Stalwart and set against the fiery foes?
That we may watch each other as you sing ; Who, breathing as a jasmine-laden bower?
Feel how it overmasters and o’erwhelms, Who, crowned and lissome as a living rose?
The growing pang of hunger for a kiss !
Sharp thorns in thee are set ;
In me, in me beget
TANNHAUSER. The dolorous despair of this desire.
Brood evil, then, in your amazing eyes, Thy body sways and swings
Above the tide of things,
That I may see the serpent grow in you ;
As I were just the bird upon the bough—~— Laps me as ocean, wraps me round as fire !
So let the twittering grow faint and still, Ye elemental sorceries of song,
And let me fall, fall into the abyss, Surge, strenuous and strong,
Your arms—a culminating ecstasy, Seeking dead dreams, the secret of the shrine ;
So that she drain my life and being up
Darkness and death and rapture. Sing to
As from a golden cup,
you ?
To mingle in her blood, death’s kiss incarna-
1
From Latin pellis, skin. dine.
238 TANNHAUSER
Who cometh from the ocean as a flower? Back from the. purple where her bosom
Who blossometh above the barren sea? heaved,
Thy lotus set beneath thee for a bower, Back from the chosen body that I love?
Thine eyes awakened, lightened, fallen Whose lips cling faster still
on me ? In desperate sweet will?
0 Goddess, queen, and wife ! Whose body melts as fire caught in Wine
0 Lady of my life &
Filling the soul with fear, Bid thorns and thistles mingle in delight !
Till nameless shudders course in every limb?
And from the athanor of death and
Whose breath is quick and fierce?
Whose teeth are keen to pierce pain
The arms that clasp her? Whose the eyes Bring golden showers of rain
To crown our bed withal, the empire of the
that swim
Night !
The very centre of my mouth, and meet 0 Life 0 Death Love unimaginable !
! !
In one supreme and conquering kiss, Despair grows hope, as hope grows despe-
and cleave rate;
And Heaven bridges the great gulf of
Unto the wound they leave,
Hell.
Bringing all heart’s blood to one house, too
Thy life is met With mine,
sore and sweet?
Transmuted, grown divine,
Even in this, the evil of the world !
again,
Transfigured by the dream: slow rapture
VENUS. steals
In the kiss. Over his face. Mere godhead could not
[TANN HAUSER sleeps. bring
24o TANNHAUSER
TANNHAUSER (awakz'ng, Zea/>5 fo lzz'sfeet). Fresh pleasure hourly filled the crystal cup.
Shalt thou find wine so comely and so keen,
Freedom !
Elizabeth !
All hail to Her So fresh with life to fill each aching vein
!
TANNHAUSER.
I must begone. She waits. VENUS.
N o doubt of that success !
VENUS.
A child is easy to degrade !
Who waits? Come here !
Let us talk fondly, set together still,
TANNHAUSER.
Not with these shouts and wavings of the
Vile thing !.
arms,
Struts and unseemly gestures. Tannhauser ! I will try otherwise—to raise myself :
But if I fail, I will not drag her down ;
TANNHAUSER. I will return.
She waits for me, my sweet Elizabeth !
TANNHAUSER. VENUS.
One lover Who makes up the equal soul
!᾽ Meanwhile my chant shall tremble in the air,
Of all the wickedness beneath the sun? And rack thy limbs with poison, wither up
Lilith Seek out thy children to devour
! ! The fine full blood, breed serpents in thy
Leave me. I go to my Elizabeth. heart,
And worms to eat thee. Living thou shalt
VENUS. 'be
A sensible corpse, a walking sepulchre.
O no !
It kills me
That is naked truth.
!
Stay ! !
One last caress, and then I let thee go, Belial, cheat his ears and blind his eyes !
And—die. I fear, and I detest, this death. Come, all ye tribes of serpents and foul fish !
I am not mortal, doomed to it Beetle and worm, I have a feast for you !
I slip !
1
Which would have given her power to use A female demon. She rides in a chariot. 1
his body as an habitation, according to legend. drawn by an ox and an ass. See Deut. xxii. IO.-
VOL. I. Q
TANNHAUSER
power.
I shall renew the charm. SHEPH ERD-BOY.
Ta-lirra-lirra Hillo ho! The morning
! !
begin!
Ι have one word, one cry, one exorcism : Forgive, forgive Lead, lead me to Thy
!
SHEPHERD-BOY (sings).
VENUS.
Light in the sky
Mercy Mercy, God
! !
Dawns to the East !
For in the pit of horror, and the clay The night falls asunder ;
Of death I cried, and Thou hast holpen me, The darkness is riven !
1
Psalm xl. Sun on the lawn !
TANNHAUSER 243
The simple love of life and gladness there! How long ago since he took pleasure in
Merely to be, and worship at the heart. Such love— [A kom winds.
How complex, the machinery of me ! such music as yon horn below—
Better? I doubt it. Hark ! he tunes again. [A cium! z's heard.
Such worship as the simple chant that steals
SHEPHERD-BOY (sings). Calm and majestic in the solitude
Up from the valley. Pilgrims, by my fay !
The bloom upon the peach is fine ; Hail to Thy holy name !
Merely to love—to take such pride in it Hunger and thirst, in His sweet Name—
M4 TANNHAUSER
TANNHAUSER. TANNHAUSER.
Ah no !
On mine, ah mine !
Amen,
I have been shown another way than yours 1
Amen to that !
ANOTHER PILGRIM.
Leave him ! Belike ’tis some philosopher PILGRIMS (sing).
With words too big to understand himself. Hail, hail, 0 Queen, to Thee,
Spouse of Eternity !
With soul too small to understand himself ! Queen of the Angel Host !
TANNHAUSER. TANNHAUSER.
You know not, friend, the man to Whom The love of Isis N 0 mere love to Her
!
I have lived long in miracles enough, It is Her love to Christ that we must taste,
Myself the crowning miracle of all, Uniting us with Her eternal sigh.
That I am merely here. God speed you, sirs There is a problem infinite again.
!
I ask your blessing, not to stay therewith I have not gained one jot since first I saw
My soul’s own need (though that is dire The stately bosom of the Venusberg,
enough) Save that mine eyes have seen a little truth,
But—he that blesseth shall himself be My body found a little weariness.
blessed !
I am very feeble Hither comes the hunt!
!
My blessing were small help to you, my [A kom winds quite close ᾧ}.
friends. The noble, doomed, swift beauty! Closer
yet
AN INTELLIGENT PILGRIM. Pant the long hounds What heart he has ! !
hunters up.
ELDEST PILGRIM. My very kinsmen! There rides Wolfram
too !
[He descends Με in'/l and 6721675 the Where have you been? Upon the sacred
company. quest
Hail, friends !
Still riding?
Good cousin Landgrave, merry be the meet!
TANNHAUSER.
LANDGRAVE.
Ay, my lord, upon the quest.
Hands off me, fellow ! Who are you?
LANDGRAVE.
TANNHAUSER.
You travelled in far lands?
My lord,
Your cousin. Is my face so changed with TANNHAUSER.
care,
Far, .very far !
TANNHAUSER. LANDGRAVE.
N o, the naughty one !
Why is such suffering written in dark lines,
And painted in the greyness of your hair?
HEINRICH.
TANNHAUSER.
Tannh'auser! Yes! And we have thought
you dead. I had an evil dream.
LANDGRAVE. LANDGRAVE.
Friends, will you swear to him? You saw the Grail?
WOLFRAM. LANDGRAVE.
For very feebleness Even in jest, such words !——-Most dangerous
Your limbs shake under you. How hither, Even to think of !-——but to speak !
friend ?
Your horse and arms? Your squire? HEINRICH (aside). .
These fools !
TANNHAUSER.
[He remains, lizaug/zz‘falb/ regarding
My squire is dead. TANNHAUSER.
[W
sudden passz'on.
z'z‘lz
TANNHAUSER.
(Aloud, Mag/ling) I was in Venusberg !
Well, no !
ALL (except HEINRICH, 20/20 [aug/w). The details, unfamiliar! But the theme
Save us, Maria I knew. And therefore leaps my bosom up :
!
[Tlzey [001: aéeaz‘ t/ze/a fem/fully and I rob your verderer of his nag, and ho
!
HEINRICH.
Envy? This day when he comes back to us ACT IV.
!
Why, we are lucky too! We thought you “ So, force is sorrow, and each sorrow, force :
TANNHAUSER. SCENE I.
I thank you, loving kinsmen and my friends. A mom 7'72 1/26 palace of 1/26 LANDGRAVF.
But see, I am impatient to be gone!
(To 1/26 ).67616767 ?שYour home—that favour ELIZABETH.
I shall not forget, I AM ashamed to look upon thy face !
He has passed through some unimagined test, Listen. You loved me when I was a child ;
Or undergone some sorrow. Leave it so !
And, in my childish way, I looked to you,
I saw high grief upon him, and new love !
Loved sitting at your knee and toying with
HEINRICH. The great cross-hilt, or watching how the
You are the poet steel
Το your instinct then
! !
I—call you husband? When I said your Besides—Our Lady showed me in a dream
name, How you would come.
It was to set the task impossible,
Had they but known it—-—just as one should TANNHAUSER.
say : And now? So sure are you
“Bring down St. Michael: let me marry The loving word you spoke an hour ago
him !” Came from the heart—who called me by
They knew the angels were too pure; but mistake Ρ
you, ELIZABETH.
They guessed not, wa exalted were your
hopes ; So sure? You want me to confess again
How utterly unselfish, pure, and true, The deep pure love, the love indicible.
Your great heart beat !
TANNHAUSER (to himself).
Words, thoughts, that fail her? How should
TANNHAUSER (will; oilterness). acts exceed?
(Aload.) Better sit thus and read each
I hardly knew, myself !
other’s thoughts—-
(Asz'de.) Here is the virgin insight of the I in the blue
eyes, in the hazel you !
truth I
Then, bending, I may touch my lips upon
Or—cannot purity be brought to know Sweet thoughtful brows.
Aught but itself? Some poets tell us that !
ELIZABETH.
TANNHAUSER (aside). I am so happy—~50 !
This is my punishment !
The mystical ideal. Therefore too In the old fashion, dear to Germany,
I minded me of our old baby-love, My child’s betrothal to this noble youth,
TANN HAUSER 249
Great lord, true knight, and honest gentle- Even as the stars together sing (we hear)
man, So sings the married life, a tuneful sphere.
So long who journeyed on the holy quest Husband is he, and she is very dear.
Forgotten of these younger days, and now
Come back among us to receive reward How truly beautiful it is to see
For those long sufferings ; in days of peace, Old age in perfect unanimity,
In fruitful love, and marriage happiness. Affections smooth, and buzzing like a bee.
So, to the poet’s tourney.
The sun sets, in conjunction with the moon.
HERALD.
Death comes at last, a pleasure and a boon,
Sire, Lord Heinrich And they arrive in heaven
very soon.
Craves your high pardon. [Immensa spontaneous, uncontrollaole
applause sweeps [z'/ee a zoliirlwina’
LANDGRAVE.
through z‘lze court.
Ha ! He is not here !
As sad spring’s sun starts on his daily race, We do not know you, yet have borne with
Reddens the east, as if in sad disgrace ; you,
So love first blushes on true maiden’s face. Rudely uprising ere your turn was come :—
And you abuse our patience to insult
Soft, soft, the gaze of married folk, I think, The noble minstrel whose impassioned song
Limpid and calm as pools where cattle drink; Touched every heart. Sing in your turn
And, when they kiss, most discontentments you may.
shrink ! Love is the theme, not imbecility !
25o TANNHAUSER
WOLFRAM.
Peer of Gods is he, equal soul to theirs,
Who lingers in thy passionate embrace :
That is the subject next his heart, no doubt !
Whose languor-laden kiss
[Laug/zle7'. Cleaves where thy bosom is
A throne of beauty for thy throat and face!
HERALD. In these dark joys and exquisite despairs,
Lord Bertram ! Ο Love, let Death lay finger unawares !
BERTRAM. LANDGRAVE.
I shall sing in other key. Passion and musio—but no Principle !
He is the equal of the gods, my queen, (To Με unknown Minstrel) You, sir, next !
He crowned and chosen out of men, Sing of pure love and noble womanhood.
Who sits beside thee, sees Our court loves not these wastrel troubadours,
Love’s laughing ecstasies Loose locks, flushed faces, soul’s unseemli-
Flame in thy face, and alter then ness.
To the low light of passion dimly seen
In shaded woods and dells, Love’s wide THE UNKNOWN MINSTREL (sings).
demesne.
Amid earth’s motley, Gaia’s cap and bells,
But me! I burn with love! My lips are This too material, too unreal life,
wan ! Sing, sing the crown of tender miracles,
Thy face is turned—I flame ! I melt I
! The pure true wife !
fall !
My heart is chilled and dark; 'Sing not of love, the unutterable one,
My soul’s ethereal spark The love divine that Mary has to men.
Is dulled for sorrow ; my despairs recall Seek not the winepress and the rising sun
At last Thy name, Ο gracious Paphian, Beyond thy ken !
TANNHAUSER (aside).
Come, come, immortal, of the many thrones !
Sparrows and doves in chariot diamonded Who is this man that reads my inmost
Drawn through the midmost air thoughts?
!
O Lady of despair,
Who bound the golden helmet of Thine
head ? THE UNKNOWN MINSTREL.
Whose voice rings out the pitiful low tones: I sing of love, most delicate and pure,
“ Who, who hath wronged thee? And my Surely the crown of life How slow !
“She who now doth flee, shall soon pursue Sunshine on wheat?
thee;
“ She who spurns thy gifts, with gifts shall Where leads this gentle love? I see you
woo thee ; sigh !
“ She who loves not, she shall cleave unto The scythe is laid unto the golden grain :
I sing not of that other flame of hell The bitter birth of Nature : uttermost Night
Wrapping with torture the delighted Dwelt, inaccessible to sound and sight ;
brow—- Shielded from Voice, impervious to Light.
But thou! who knowest, and hast known,
so well,
Sing thou ! Lo on the barren bosom, on the brine,
!
Looked from the shadow of His throne, At the creative sigh the Light became.
The curtain of Eternity; Chaos rolled back in the abundant flame.
He looked—and saw Himself alone, The vast and mystic Soul,
And on the sombre sea, the primal one, The Firmament, a living coal,
Faint faces, that might not abide ; Flamed ’twixt the glory and the sea below.
Flicker, and are fordone. The whirling force began. The atom whirled
᾽
So were they caught. within the spacious tide, In vortices of flashing matter : wild as snow
The sleepy waters that encased the world. On mountain tops by the wind-spirits hurled,
Monsters rose up, and turned themselves, Blinding and blind, the sparks of spirit curled
and curled Each ito its proper soul ; the wide wheels flow,
Into the deep again. Orderly streams, and lose the rushing speed,
Meet, mingle, marry. Fire and air express
The darkness brooded, and the bitter pain Their dews and winds of molten loveliness,
Of chaos twisted the vast limbs 'of time Fine flakes of arrowy light, the dawn’s first
In horrid rackings: then the spasm came : deed,
The Serpent rose, the servant of the slime, Metallic showers and smoke self-glittering
In one dark miracle of flame For many an aeon. Wild the pennons spring
Unluminous and void : the silent claim Of streaming flame !
Then, surging from
Of that which was, to be the cry to climb,
: the tide,
252 TANNHAUSER
Grew the desirable, the golden one, Her members, let them differ ; be no soul
Separate from the sun. Equal ! Let thought, let reasonable things,
Now fire and air no more exult, exceed, Bow to thy wings,
Are balanced in the sphere. The waters wide Thy manifest control,
Glow on the bosom of fixed earth ; and Need, Vexation weeding out of one another.
!
The Lady of Beginning, also was. Their dwelling-places, let them lose their
Thus was the firmament a vital glass, name !
The waters as the vessel of the soul ; The work of man, and all his pomp and power,
Thus earth, the mystic basis of the whole, Deface them : shatter the aspiring tower !
Was smitten through with fire, as chrysopras,‘ Let all his houses be as caves and holes,
Blending, uniting, and dividing it, Unto the Beast I give them. And their
Volcanic, airy, and celestial. souls—
Lift up the shadowy hand !-—
I rose within the elemental ball, Confound with darkness them that under-
And lo the Ancient One of Days did sit
! ! stand !
His head and hair were white as wool, His For why?
eyes Me, the Most High,
A flaming fire : and from the splendid mouth It doth repent Me, having made mankind !
Flashed the Eternal Sword 1 ! Let her be known a little while, and then
Lo Lying at his feet as dead, I saw
! A little While a stranger. Dumb and blind,
The leaping-forth of Law : Deaf to the Light and Breath of Me be men !
Division of the North wind and the South, She is become an harlot’s bed, the home
The lightning of the armies of the Lord ; And dwelling of the fallen one Arise
! !
East rolled asunder from the rended West ; Ye heavens, ye lower serving skies !
“ Let there be Life, and Death !” Destroy the rotten Let no shores
!
“The Earth, she shall be governed by her Diminish. and discrown, until the stars
Be numbered Rise, ye adamantinebars !
!
parts : 2
Division be upon her !
Let her glory Let pass your Masters Move ye and
!
Always be vexed and drunken, that the So shed the primal curse
hearts
Its dreadful stature, its appalling shape.
Ruling her course round alway in the sky ;
And as an handmaid let her serve and die !
In giant horror the clouds rolling drape
One season, let it still confound another ; Earth, like a pluméd pall upon an hearse,
Till God looms up, half devil and half ape,
No man behold his brother ;
Heaven exulting in the hateful rape ;
N o creature in it or upon, the same !
This is the evil destiny of man : Beauty in all things and—for you—true love !
The desperate plan All the blind horror of the song recedes.
Made by the Ancient One, to keep His There is a sequel ; is there not, my friend?
power. Of love, your theme, we have not heard a
Limits He set, made space unsearchable note.
Yet bounded, made time endless to transcend
Man’s thought to comprehend : TANNHAUSER.
Builded the Tower That is a question. I am not so sure
Of life, and girded it with walls of hell,
My song was not entirely to that end.
The name of Death. This limit in all things
Baffles the spirit wings, WOLFRAM.
Chains the swift soul ; for even Death is
bound. Yes, poet, true one that you are indeed !
In its apparent amplitude I saw, You show us the dilemma of the soul,
The Gordian knot Love only hews asunder.
I, who have slept through death, have surely
found
The old accurse’d law, TANNHAUSER.
And death has changed to life. This task Or—shall I say ?—--soothes only, bandages,
alone Not heals the sore of Destiny?
Shoots to the starry throne :
That if man lack not purpose, but succeed, WOLFRAM.
Reaching in very deed No, certes,
Impersonal existence ;—Lo ! But substitutes for one reality
Man is made one with God, an equal soul. Another—and a lovely pleasant one.
For he shall know
The harmony, the oneness of the Whole. TANNHAUSER.
Even while you sang. But see! the light Zero, the circle, grows to one, the line :
of day !
Both limitless in their own way. Proceed.
254 TANNHAUSER
Move to the line—the steady will of man, There is a sequel to our poet’s song,
That shall attract the Two, the Breath of And he will sing it.
Life,
TANNHAUSER.
The Holy Spirit : land you in the Three,
Where form is perfect—in the triangle. No I know it not ! !
TANNHAUSER.
THE UNKNOWN MINSTREL.
The winepress and the sun
᾽
The awful grasping at the Infinite, Stoop not, 0- stoop not, to you splendid
Even as I grapple at the breasts of thee, world,
The seeking and the striving to the light Yon darkly-splendid, airless, void, inane,
Deep in thine eyes, where Hell flames Blind confines in stupendous horror curled,
steadily ? The sleepless place of Terror and distress,
I am not clinging thus Luring damned souls with lying loveliness,
Despairing to the body of thy sin The Habitation and the House of Pain.
For mere delight—Ah, deadly is to us For that is their abode, the Wretched Ones,
The pleasure wrapping us, and holding in Of all unhappiness the sons !
Dawns no devouring day And when, invoking often, thou shalt see
Still on the infinite slow tune of limbs That formless Fire ; when all the earth is
Moving in rapture ; sleepy echo swims shaken,
In the dissolving brain, The stars abide not, and the moon is gone,
Love conquering lassitude at last to win All Time crushed back into Eternity,
Pain out of peace, and pleasure from a pang ; The Universe by earthquake overtaken ;
Then, scorpion-stung of its own terrible tang, Light is not, and the thunders roll,
Burnt of its own fire, soiled of its own stain, The World is done :
Falls conquered as a bird When in the darkness Chaos rolls again
Bolt-stricken through the brain, In the excited brain :
To the resounding plain : Then, O then call not to thy view that visible
The double word, Image of Nature ; fatal is her name !
The seesaw of all misery—begin It fitteth not thy body to behold
The alluring mysteries of lust and sin ; That living light of Hell,
Ends their delight !——and are they clear to The unluminous, dead flame,
sight ? Until that body from the crucible
Or mixed with death, compact of night? Hath passed, pure gold !
Begin-—the bitter tears of impotence, For, from the confines of material space,
The sad permuted sense The twilight-moving place,
Of this despair—what would you? and re- The gates of matter, and the dark threshold,
new Before the faces of the Things that dwell
The long soft warfare~the enchanted arms, In the Abodes of Night,
The silken body’s charms, Spring into sight
The lips that murmur and the breasts that Demons dog—faced, that show no mortal sign
sting ; Of Truth, but desecrate the Light Divine,
The eyes that sink so deep Seducing from the sacred mysteries.
Beyond the steeps and avenues of sleep,
And of their wonder bring But, after all these Folk of Fear are driven
No ultimation from the halls of night, Before the avenging levin
The slippery staircase, and the Fatal Throne, That rives the opening skies,
The Evil House, the Fugitive of Light, Behold that Formless and that Holy Flame
The great U nluminous, the Formless One !
That hath no name ;
Stoop not !
Beneath, a precipice is set, That Fire that darts and flashes, writhes and
The Seven Steps. Stoop not, forget creeps
Never the Splendid Image, and the realm Snake-wise in royal robe,
Where lightnings overwhelm Wound round that vanished glory of the
The evil, and the barren, and the vile, globe,
In God’s undying smile !
Unto that sky beyond the starry deeps,
256 TANNHAUSER
Beyond the Toils of Time—then formulate In deepest hell—in the profoundest sky !
In thine own mind, luminous, concentrate, This knowledge, the true immortality,
The Lion of the Light, a child that stands I came unto through pain and tears,
On the vast shoulders of the Steed of God : Tigerish hopes, and serpent loves, and dragon
Or winged, or shooting flying shafts, or shod fears,
With the flame-sandals. Then, lift up thine Most bitter kisses, salted springs and dry ;
hands !
In those deep caverns and slow-moving years,
Centre thee in thine heart one scarlet thought When dwelt I, in the Mount of Venus, even I !
Limpid with brilliance of the Light above !
[T/ze spell is broken, and uproar
Draw into nought ensues.
All life, death, hatred, love :
All self concentred in the sole desire—— LANDGRAVE.
Hear thou the Voice of Fire !
The fiend! The atheist! Devil that you
are !
To this clear knowledge hath my path been You, Wolfram, lover of the kitchen maids !
TANNHAUSER.
TANNHAUSER. You know? You know ! The new illusion
Will they answer you? gone!
My arm is weary as your souls are not Bitter, Ο bitter will it be to say !
TANNHAUSER.
THE UNKNOWN MINS’I‘REL.
My soul is sick of riddling. Fare you well !
Cuts and not loosens the entangled life. And, falling, be it from so great a height
Be mine the harder and the better way, That I may reach some uttermost Abyss,
The single chance : not hope ; appeal no Inhabit it and reign, most evil one
more ; Of all the Horrors there—and in that path
Hardly the arrowy wisdom ‘of despair ; Seem, even deluded, to approach once more
Hardly the cowardice or courage yet Infinity. For all the limitless
To drift, nor cursing nor invoking God. Hath no distinction—evil is no more,
And good no more.
ELIZABETH.
I heard, I pure, I virginal, your song; ELIZABETH.
The shameful story of your intercourse But God is absolute Good !
Or be led by you, in the pleasant path. Not good Not wise Not anything at all
! !
For me, I enter not—Blessed be God !— That heart can grasp, or reason frame, or soul
In those dark problems that disturb your soul. Shadow the sense of !
Mine is the simple nature. Look at me !
ELIZABETH.
TANNHAUSER.
He is far too great !
And I perceive the truth that lies beyond—— Their many generations moulded so
One further step into a new-fallen night. To fix in definite ideas, and clothe
Hear then—I hate to hurt your perfect soul;
.
Their Maker in the rags. If skies are vast,
So gems are tiny : who shall choose between?
I hate myself because I love you still
In that strange intermediate consciousness, Who reads the riddle of' the Universe?
The reason and the mind This middle way
!
All words Thus, from his rock-wrought
!
Let me be God !
Or, failing of that task,
It shines elsewhere. You from your tiny
perch,
1 “
In medio tutissimus ibis.”-—-OVID. The corner of the corner of the earth,
TANNHAUSER 259
space !—
You from your perch judge, label, limit Him! ELIZABETH.
Not that your corner is not equally
Go then the bitter pilgrimage to Rome,
The centre and the whole. Fool’s talk it is !
Gain absolution for this piteous past
Consider the futility of mind !
From him that owns the twin all-opening keys
Realise utterly how mean, how dull,
That bar your infinite on either side.
How fruitless is Philosophy !
Then ! look with freshness, hope, and fortitude
ELIZABETH.
Still to the summit—the ideal God.
Indeed
TANNHAUSER.
My brain is baffled. But I see your point.
Talking of God, even imagining, I have no hope nor trust in man at all ;
Insane !
But for aspiring—that I will ! But I will go. Fare well, Elizabeth !
ELIZABETH. ELIZABETH.
This one thing clearly do I understand : Dare I? I kiss you once upon the brow,
We shall not marry. It is well, my lord. Praying that God will make the purpo—e clear,
And on the eyes—that He may lend them light.
TANNHAUSER. [TANNHAUSER rises, and silent/y de—
Miserable, miserable me !
I bring parts.
Hate and disruption and unhappiness Oh God Oh God That_I have loved him so
! ! !
I have no hope but I am fallen now ; The great high soul, bound in the lofty sin ;
So journey, in this purpose of despair, To me, the little soul, the little sin !
TANNHAUSER.
“Good luck, old friend!” and, smiling, he
was gone. I came to Rome across the winter snows
Gone to the Pope—great soul to mounte- Barefoot, and through the lovely watered
bank ! land
It was her wish, they whisper. Well-a-day ! Rich in the sunshine—even unto Rome.
He’s gone, and not a friend have I again. There knelt I with the other sinful folk
This bank is soft with delicate white moss, At the great chair of Peter. Sobbed they
N 0 pillow better in broad Germany. out
Were Madeline but here What rustle stirs ! From full repentant hearts their menial sins,
These leaves? A strong man sobbing The ! And got them peace. But I told brutally
earth quakes (Cynical phrase, contempt of self and him)
Responsive. Hillo-ho Who comes by ! My sojourn in the Venusberg ; then he
there ? Rose in his wrath, and shook the barren staff
[TANNHAUS ER enters. He appears Over my head, and cried—I heard his voice
0ch and worn; eat from 122's wile/e Most like the dweller of the hurricane
body radiates a dazzling [ig/zi, and Calm, small, and still, directing desolation ;
]zz's face z's that of t/ze C/zrz’st cruci- Death to the world athwart its path.—So he
fiea’. Cried out upon me, “ Till this barren staff
Save us, Saints, save us !
I have looked on Take life, and bud, and blossom, and bear
God ! fruit,
And shed sweet scent——-so long God casteth
TANNHAUSER. thee
Out from His glory!” Stricken, smitten,
Heinrich my friend, my old true-hearted
!
slain—
friend !
When—one unknown, a pilgrim with the rest,
Fear not I am not ghost, but living man
! !
Darting long rugged fingers and deep eyes,
Ah me, ah me, the sorrow of the world ! Reached to the sceptre with his word and
will——
Your body glows—with what unearthly light ? Out flames the miracle of life and love !
TAN NHAUSER.
storm !
That glowed with most internal brilliance ; Limitless fields of Time. I knew in me
Borne up, borne up by hands invisible That I must fall into the ground and die ;
Into a firmament of secret light Dwell in the deep a-many years, at last
Manifest, open, permeating me ! To rise again—Osiris, slain and risen !
Clasping my hands upon the scarlet rose I am the Rising Sun of Life and Light,
That flamed upon my bösom, the keen thorns The Glory of the Shining of the Dawn !
Pierced me and slew My spirit was with-
!
I am Osiris I the Lord of Life
!
And he—-his heart was great enough for The moon is crescent, waxing in the West.
all, Take the last kiss, dear.
The fall of sparrows as the crash of stars. What is the strange song?
The tears of lonely forests, and the pain [The great Goddess arisez‘lz, weeping
Of the least atom—all were in his heart. for the slain ()sz'rz's TANNHAUSER,
Was that indeed the truth? that he should 6616627/?!!!}עקשthrough suflérz'ng.
come
At last a Christ upon the waiting world,
Redeem it to more purpose than the ISIS.
last ! Isis am I, and from my life are fed
So fills his sorrow, and Her sympathy, All stars and suns, all moons that wax and
My common soul, that I am fain to fall wane,
Upon my face, and cry aloud to God : Create and uncreate, living and dead,
“ 0 Thou, Sole Wise, Sole Pure, Sole The Mystery of Pain.
Merciful, I am the Mother, I the silent Sea,
Who hast thus shown Thy mystery to The Earth, its travail, its fertility.
[mm : Life, death, love, hatred, light, darkness,
Grant that his coming may be very soon ” !
return to me—
See, the sobs shake me like a little child. To Me !
SCANS FROM ALEISTER CROWLEY’S
THE EQUINOX
More at https://keepsilence.org/the-equinox
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Tony Iannotti
for providing for scans of the first edition
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we
IAOI31
Jay Lee
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