Easter Day by John Masefield - Part 1

I'm having a break from my blog for the Easter holidays, and so here is something I prepared earlier. It is the first of four parts of a transcript of an Easter play by John Masefield (best known for "The Box of Delights"), published in 1929. Other parts will follow in the week. Like his Christmas play, this is quite non-traditional and imaginative.

Easter Day by John Masefield - Part 1

Easter: A  Play For   Singers

John  Masefield

London

William  Heinemann  Ltd.

Persons And Spirits

The Way Of The World

First Soldier

Second Soldier

The Spirit Of The Place

A Dead Man

Another Dead Man

The Wind Above

Anima Christi

Gestas

Dismas

Mary Magdalen

The Young Man

A Quire Of Angels

EASTER

THE WAY OF THE WORLD

(appears and sings)

I am the welter of life, and the glory of power,

I am the winner in battle, I carry the day,

I am the word of the time and the strength of the hour ;

Those who are mine I devour,

Those who oppose me I slay.

What though men gabble of Truth and the Beauty of

Trying

Paths that lead Godward ?  I know them, these rebels

unhung.

Ay, and the World knows them, too, and rewards

them with dying,

Death checks their knack of replying,

Death puts the bit on their tongue.

Now I have compasst the death of the healer and preacher

Jesus, the Bringer of Tidings, I brought him his end ;

Scourging at Pilate's, and lastly the cross for the creature ;

Here lies the corpse of the teacher,

Dead without ever a friend.

What though through all of the city a rumour be spreading

That Jesus is sleeping, not dead ?  That He will arise ?

Bah I he is speared, he is dead, and the stones are his

bedding ;

Yonder my sentries are treading ;

Where the tree falls, there it lies.

FIRST SOLDIER

Come, rouse, the night is passing, or has past.

SECOND SOLDIER

Even the weariest watching ends at last.

FIRST SOLDIER

You have not watcht, but slept the whole night through.

SECOND SOLDIER

I'm shivering to the marrow, are not you ?

FIRST SOLDIER

Truly ; but there is dawn, in those pale streaks.

SECOND SOLDIER

I wish that limbs could toughen like our cheeks.

FIRST SOLDIER

Let's see the seals : bear witness to me here

These seals are fast upon the sepulchre.

SECOND SOLDIER

I bear you witness, the red wax is whole.

FIRST SOLDIER

Nothing can burrow granite, man or mole.

The Teacher lies secure : no friends will take

His body now for their devotion's sake,

As Pilate feared they might before the feast.

These teachers are a product of the East :

They rise, and stir up trouble, then they come

Atilt against the majesty of Rome

And end as he did ; then, for some short space

The man's disciples wrangle in the place

About his meaning, till they're dead or sane,

Then some new seer begins it all again.

I've seen it often in these few short years.

SECOND SOLDIER

It's sad to see their women all in tears

As His were, when we rolled the lintel stone.

FIRST SOLDIER

Ay, it's no mirth to leave the dead alone

Shut up forever, and the less like this,

A young man killed because of words of his.

But words that work disturbance are not sweet

To men in Pontius Pilate's troublous seat.

Order, of sorts, is here and must be kept.

The man is dead, and when the tears are wept,

The women will go on as others do.

This man stirred up a hell to struggle through

And died in struggling, to what earthly end ?

A felon's tomb, and not one single friend

Who dares to give him better : let him lie ;

He had not any future, but to die

And give us both cold watches by his grave.

There are the red seals fixed above the cave

And here is dawn and we are free to go.

SECOND SOLDIER

We'll be abed before the trumpets blow,

They'll let us sleep till noon ; brush off your gear.

FIRST SOLDIER
Come on, then ; back to barrack : shoulder spear.
(They go off)