Critical and miscellaneous essays

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Pagi

Edinburgh Review.— No. XC1. 1827.

Edinburgh Review— No. XCII. 1827.

Scene Second

Cemetery of (he Templars, under (he Church. The scene is lighted em!r by a Lamp which hangs down from the vault. Around are Tombstones of deceased Knights, marked with Crosses and sculptured Bones. In the background, two colossal Skeletons holding between them a large white Book, marked with a red Cross; from ibe under end of the Book hangs a Iodj black curtain. The Book, of which only the cover is visible, has an inscription in black ciphers. The Skeleton on the right holds in its right hand • naked drawn sword ; lhat on the left holds in its left baud a Palm turned down ivarJs. On the right side of the foreground, stands a black Coffin open ; on the left, a similar one wi'h the body of a Templar in full dresi of his Order ; on both Coffins are inscriptions in white ciphers. On each side, nearer the back-ground, are seen the lowest steps of the stairs, which lead up into the Temple Church above (be vault.

ARMED MAX (not yet visible ; above on the right-hand stairs.) Dreaded : Is the grave laid open ?

CONCEALED VOICES.

Yea!

ARMED MAX (who after a pause shows himself on the stairs.)

Shall he behold the Tombs o' th' fathers?

COXCEALED VOICES.

Yea!

(armed man with drawn sword leads Adalbert carefully down the steps on the right hand.)

ARMED MAX (to ADALBERT.) Look down ! 'Tis on thy life !

(Leads him to the open Coffin.) What seest thou ?

ADALBERT.

An open empty Coffin.

aKMED max.

'Tis the house Where thou one uay shalt dwell. Canst read th* inscription ?

ADALBERT.

No.

ARMED MAX.

Hear it, then; "Thy rvages, Sin, is Death." (Leads him to the opposite Coffin where the Body is iytng- Look down ! 'T is on thy life !— What seest thou • (Shows the Coffin.)

ADALBERT.

A Coffin with a Corpse.

AHMED .to AX.

He is thy Brother, One day thou ar* as he.— Canst read the inscription?

Na

CARLYLE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS.

AHMED MAN.

Hear: " Corruption is the name of Life." Now look around ; go forward,— move, and act : —

(He pushes him towards the background of the stage.)

ADALBERT (observing the Book.)

Ha! Here the Book of Ordination !— Seems (Approaching.) A* if th* inscription on it might be read.

(He reads it.) "Knock four times on the ground, Thou shalt behold thy loved one." O Heavens ! And may I see thee, sainted Agnes ?

(Hastening close to the Book.) My bosom yearns for thee ! —

(With the following words, he stamps four times on the ground.) One,— Two,— Three,— Four !— (The Curtain hanging from the Book rolls rapidly up, and covers it. A colossal Devil' s-head appears between the two Skeletons : its form is horrible ; it is gilt ; has a kuge golden Crown, a Heart of the same in its Brow ; rolling flaming Eyes: Serpents instead of Hair: golden Chains round its neck, which is visible to the.breast : and a golden Cross, yet n^tt Qrfirucifix, whh&bises over its right shoulder, as if crushing it down. The whole Bust rests on four gilt Dragon's feet. At sight of it, Adalbert starts back in horror, and exclaims :) Defend us!

ARMED MAN".

Dreaded, may he hear it?

CONCEALED VOICES.

Yea ! armed man (touches the Curtain with his sword: it rolls down over the Devil's-head, concealing it again ; and above, as before, appears the Book, but now opened, with white colossal leaves and red characters. The armed maw, pointing constantly to the Book with his Sicord, and therewith turning the leaves, addresses Adalbert, who stands on the other side of the Book, and nearer the foreground.)

List to the Story of the Fallen Master.

(He reads the following from the Book : yet not standing before it but on one side, at some paces distance, and whilst he reads, turning the leaves with his sword.) "So now when the foundation-stone was laid, The Lord called forth the Master, Baffometus, And said to him : Go and complete my Temple ! But in his heart the Master thought : What boots it Building thee a temple? and took the stones, And built himself a dwelling, and what stones Were left he gave for filthy gold and silver. Now after forty moons the Lord returned, And spake : Where is my temple, Baffometus ? The Master said : I had to build myself A dwelling : grant me other forty weeks. And after forty weeks, the Lord returns, And asks : where is my temple, Baffometus ? He said: There were no stones (but he had sold them For filthy gold ;) so wait yet forty days. In forty days thereafter came the Lord, And cried : Where is my temple, Baffometus ? Thei. like a mill-stone fell it on his soul How he for lucre had betrayed his Lord ; But yet to other sin the Fiend did tempt him, And he answered, saying : Give me forty hours ! And when the forty hours were gone, the Lord Came down in wrath : My Temple, Baffometus? Then fell he quaking on his face, and cried For mercy ; but the Lord was wroth, and said : Since thou hast cozened me with empty lies, And those the stones I lent thee for my Temple Hast sold them for a purse of filthy gold, J.o, I will cast thee forth, and with the Mammon Will chastise thee, until a Saviour rise Of thy own seed, who shall redeem thy trespass.

-■en did the Lord lift up the purse of Gold ;

And shook the gold into a melting-pot,

And set the melting-pot upon the Sun,

So that the metal fused into a fluid mass

And then he dipt a finger in the same,

And,, straightway touching Baffometus,

Anoints him on the chin and brow and cheeks.

Then was the face of Baffometus changed:

His eye-balls rolled like fire-flames,

His nose became a crooked vuKure's bill,

The tongue hung bloody from his throat ; the flesh

Went from his hollow cheeks; and of his hair

Grew snakes, and of the snakes grew Devil's-horn*

Again the Lord put forth his finger with the gold

And pressed it upon Baffometus' heart;

Whereby the heart did bleed and wither up,

And all his members bled and withered up,

And fell away, the one and then the other.

At last his back itself sunk into ashes :

The head alone continued gilt and living;

And instead of back, grew dragon's-talons,

Which destroyed all life from off the Earth.

Then from the ground the Lord took up the heart,

Which, as he touched it, also grew of gold,

And placed it on the brow of Baffometus;

And of the other metal in the pot

He made for h : m a burning crown of gold,

And crushed it on his serpent-hair, so that

Ev'n to the bone and brain, the circlet scorched him.

And round the neck he twisted golden chains,

Which strangled him and pressed his breath together

What in the pot remained he poured upon the ground.

Athwart, along, and there it formed a crvss;

The which he lifted and laid upon his neck,

And bent him that he could not raise his head.

Two Deaths moreover he appointed warders

To guard him : Death of Life, and Death of Hope.

The sword of the first he sees not but it smites him;

The other's Palm he sees, but it escapes him.

So languishes the outcast Baffometus

Four thousand years and four-and-forty moons,

Till once a Saviour rise from his own seed,

Redeem his trespass, and deliver him."

(To ADALBERT.)

This is the Story of the Fallen Master. (With his sword he touches the Curtain, which now as before rolls up over the book: so that the head under it again becomes visible, in its former shape.)

ADALBERT (looking at the HEAD.) Hah, what a hideous shape !

head (with a hollow voice.)

Deliver me !

armed max.

Dreaded! Shall the work begin?

CONCEALED VOICES

\ta ARMED MAN (to ADALBERT.)

Take the Neckband Away ! (Pointing to the head.) ADALBERT.

I dare not! head (with a still more piteous tone.) O, deliver me!

ADALBERT (taking off the chains.) Poor fallen one .

ARMED MAN.

Now lift the Crown from 's head*.

ADALBEHT

It seems so heavy!

LIFE ANL WRITINGS OF WERNER.

AHMED MAN.

Touch it, it grows Jight.

AEALBERT (taking off the Croicn, and casting it, as he did the chains, on the ground.)

ARMED MAX.

Njtv take the golden heart from off his brow!

ADALBERT.

E teems to burn!

ARMED MAX.

Thou errest ; ice is warmer.

ADALBERT (taking the Heart from the Brow.) Hfaht shivering frost!

ARMED MAN.

Take from his back the Cross, And throw it from thee !—

ADALBERT.

How ! the Saviour's token ?

Deliver, O deliver me !

ARMED MAN.

This Cross Is not thy Master's, not that bloody one : Its counterfeit is this : throw 't from thee !

ADALBERT (taking it from the Bust, and laying it softly

on the ground.) The Cross of the Good Lord that died for me 7

ARMED MAN.

Thou shalt no more believe in one that died ,' Thou shalt henceforth believe in one that liveth And never dies /—Obey, and question not,— Step over it !

ADALBERT.

Take pity on me !

ARMED MAN (threatening him with his sword.) Step!

ADALBERT. t do 't with shuddering—

(Steps over, and then looks up to the head which raises itself, as if freed from a load.) How the figure rises And looks in gladness!

ARMED MAN.

Him whom thou hast served Till now, deny !

ADALBERT (horror-struck.)

Deny the Lord my God 1

ARMED MAN.

Tfcy God 'tis not: the Idol of this world! Deny him, or —

(Pressing on him with tke Sirord in a threatening posture.) — thou diest !

ADALBERT.

I deny!

ARMED MAI (pointing to the Head with his Sword.) Go to the Fallen !— Kiss his lips !—

— And so on through many other sulphurous pages ! How much of this mummery is copied from the actual practice of the Templars we know not with certainty; nor what precisely either they or Werner intended, by this marvellous "Story of the Fallen Master," to sha« dow forth. At first view, one might take it for an allegory, couched in masonic language, — and truly no flattering allegory, — of the Catholic Church; and this trampling on the Cross, which is said to have been actually enjoined on every Templar at his initiation, to be a type of his secret behest to undermine that Institution, and redeem the spirit of Religion from the state of thraldom and distortion under which it was there held. It is known at least, and was well known to Werner, that the heads of the Templars entertained views, both on religion and politics, which they did not think meet for communicating to their age, and only imparled by degrees, and under mysterious adumbrations, to the wiser of their own Order. They had even publicly resisted, and succeeded in thwarting, some iniquitous measures of Philippe Auguste, the French King, in regard to his coinage; and this, while it secured them the love of the. people, was one great cause, perhaps second only to their wealth, of the hatred which that sovereign bore them, and of the savage doom which he at last executed on the whole body.

But on these secret principles of theirs, as on Werner's manner of conceiving them, we are only enabled to guess; for Werner, too, has an esoteric doctrine, which he does not promulgate, except in dark Sybilline enigmas, to the unitiated. As we are here seeking chiefly for his religious creed, which forms, in truth, with its changes, the main thread whereby his wayward, desultory existence attains any unity or even coherence in our thoughts, we may quote another passage from the same First Part of this rhapsody; which, at the same time, will afford us a glimpse of his favourite hero, Robert d'Heredon, lately the darling of the Templars, but now, for some momentary infraction of their rules, cast into prison, and expecting death, or, at best, exclusion from the Order. Gottfried is another Templar, in all points the reverse of Robert.