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← The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Epilogue

Part 8 of 13 · Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Public domain text

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Source: Project Gutenberg e-text #1365, public domain in the United States · text not rewritten or summarized · How RedLectern is built

 

Contents (73)
  1. Opening about 7 min
  2. III. THE NEW ENGLAND TRAGEDIES. John Endicott Giles Corey of the Salem Farms Finale. St. John about 44 min
  3. Dramatis Personae under 1 min
  4. Act I about 6 min
  5. Act I, Scene III — PRECIOSA'S chamber. She stands at the open window about 6 min
  6. Act I, Scene IV — An inn on the road to Alcala. BALTASAR asleep on a bench. Enter CHISPA about 2 min
  7. Act I, Scene V — VICTORIAN'S chambers at Alcala. HYPOLITO asleep in an arm-chair. He awakes slowly about 7 min
  8. Act II, Scene I — PRECIOSA'S chamber. Morning. PRECIOSA and ANGELICA about 4 min
  9. Act II, Scene II — A room in the ARCHBISHOP'S Palace. The ARCHBISHOP and a CARDINAL seated about 13 min
  10. Act II, Scene V — The COUNT OF LARA'S rooms. Enter the COUNT about 1 min
  11. Act II, Scene VI — A retired spot beyond the city gates. Enter VICTORIAN and HYPOLITO about 3 min
  12. Act II, Scene VII — A lane in the suburbs. Night. Enter CRUZADO and BARTOLOME about 1 min
  13. Act II, Scene IX — The COUNT OF LARA'S chambers. LARA and his friends at supper about 1 min
  14. Act II, Scene X — Street and garden wall. Night. Enter CRUZADO and BARTOLOME about 2 min
  15. Act III about 7 min
  16. Act III, Scene III — A room in the PADRE CURA'S house. Enter the PADRE and HYPOLITO about 1 h 56 min
  17. Dedication about 30 min
  18. Introduction about 6 h 53 min
  19. The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (part 6 of 13) about 1 h 58 min
  20. Dedication about 2 h 2 min
  21. Epilogue about 5 min
  22. Prologue about 1 h 58 min
  23. Epilogue about 7 min
  24. Dramatis Personae under 1 min
  25. Prologue about 2 min
  26. Act I, Scene I — Sunday afternoon. The interior of the Meeting-house about 10 min
  27. Act II, Scene I — JOHN ENDICOTT's room. Early morning about 8 min
  28. Act II, Scene III — A room in the Governor's house, Enter GOVERNOR ENDICOTT and MERRY about 4 min
  29. Act III about 8 min
  30. Act III, Scene II — A street. Enter JOHN ENDICOTT and UPSALL about 1 min
  31. Act III, Scene III — The prison. Night. EDITH reading the Bible by a lamp about 3 min
  32. Act IV about 6 min
  33. Act IV, Scene III — The Governor's private room. Papers upon the table about 4 min
  34. Act IV, Scene V — The Wilderness. Enter EDITH about 1 min
  35. Act V, Scene I — Daybreak. Street in front of UPSALL's house. A light in the window. Enter JOHN ENDICOTT about 2 min
  36. Act V, Scene II — The parlor of the Three Mariners. Enter KEMPTHORN about 3 min
  37. Act V, Scene III — GOVERNOR ENDICOTT'S private room. An open window about 3 min
  38. Dramatis Personae under 1 min
  39. Prologue about 2 min
  40. Act I, Scene I — The woods near Salem Village. Enter TITUBA, with a basket of herbs about 3 min
  41. Act I, Scene II — A room at JUSTICE HATHORNE'S. A clock in the corner. Enter HATHORNE and MATHER about 4 min
  42. Act I, Scene III — A room in WALCOT'S House. MARY WALCOT seated in an arm-chair. TITUBA with a mirror about 3 min
  43. Act II, Scene I — GILES COREY's farm. Morning. Enter COREY, with a horseshoe and a hammer about 7 min
  44. Act II, Scene III — COREY's kitchen. A table with supper. MARTHA knitting about 4 min
  45. Act III, Scene I — GILES COREY'S kitchen. Morning. COREY and MARTHA sitting at the breakfast-table about 2 min
  46. Act III, Scene II — A street in Salem Village. Enter MATHER and HATHORNE about 2 min
  47. Act III, Scene III — A room in COREY's house. MARTHA and two Deacons of the church about 4 min
  48. Act III, Scene IV — Meadows on Ipswich River, COREY and his men mowing; COREY in advance about 4 min
  49. Act IV about 9 min
  50. Act V, Scene I — COREy's farm as in Act II., Scene I. Enter RICHARD GARDNER, looking round him about 2 min
  51. Act V, Scene II — The prison. GILES COREY at a table on which are some papers about 3 min
  52. Act V, Scene III — A street in the Village. Enter GLOYD and others about 3 min
  53. Act I under 1 min
  54. Act I, Scene I — ANTIOCHUS; JASON about 3 min
  55. Act I, Scene II — ANTIOCHUS; JASON; THE SAMARITAN AMBASSADORS about 1 min
  56. Act I, Scene III — ANTIOCHUS; JASON about 1 min
  57. Act II under 1 min
  58. Act II, Scene I — THE MOTHER of the SEVEN SONS alone, listening about 4 min
  59. Act II, Scene II — THE MOTHER; ANTIOCHUS; SIRION, about 3 min
  60. Act III under 1 min
  61. Act III, Scene I — JUDAS MACCABAEUS in armor before his tent about 1 min
  62. Act III, Scene II — JUDAS MACCABAEUS; JEWISH FUGITIVES about 1 min
  63. Act III, Scene III — JUDAS MACCABAEUS; NICANOR about 2 min
  64. Act III, Scene IV — JUDAS MACCABAEUS; CAPTAINS AND SOLDIERS about 2 min
  65. Act IV under 1 min
  66. Act IV, Scene I — JUDAS MACCABAEUS; CAPTAINS; JEWS about 1 min
  67. Act IV, Scene II — JUDAS MACCABAEUS; JASON; JEWS, about 2 min
  68. Act IV, Scene III — JASON, alone about 1 min
  69. Act V under 1 min
  70. Act V, Scene I — ANTIOCHUS; PHILIP; ATTENDANTS about 1 min
  71. Act V, Scene II — ANTIOCHUS; PHILIP; A MESSENGER about 3 min
  72. Dedication about 1 h 7 min
  73. Scene II about 2 h 26 min
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Epilogue

SYMBOLUM APOSTOLORUM

PETER. I believe in God the Father Almighty;

JOHN. Maker of heaven and Earth;

JAMES. And in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord;

ANDREW. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary;

PHILIP. Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried;

THOMAS. And the third day He rose again from the dead;

BARTHOLOMEW. He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God, the Father Almighty;

MATTHEW. From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

JAMES, THE SON OF ALFHEUS. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy Catholic Church;

SIMON ZELOTES. The communion of Saints; the forgiveness of sins;

JUDE. The resurrection of the body;

MATTHIAS. And the Life Everlasting.

FIRST INTERLUDE

THE ABBOT JOACHIM

A ROOM IN THE CONVENT OF FLORA IN CALABRIA. NIGHT.

JOACHIM. The wind is rising; it seizes and shakes The doors and window-blinds and makes Mysterious moanings in the halls; The convent-chimneys seem almost The trumpets of some heavenly host, Setting its watch upon our walls! Where it listeth, there it bloweth; We hear the sound, but no man knoweth Whence it cometh or whither it goeth, And thus it is with the Holy Ghost. O breath of God! O my delight In many a vigil of the night, Like the great voice in Patmos heard By John, the Evangelist of the Word, I hear thee behind me saying: Write In a book the things that thou hast seen, The things that are, and that have been, And the things that shall hereafter be!

This convent, on the rocky crest Of the Calabrian hills, to me A Patmos is wherein I rest; While round about me like a sea The white mists roll, and overflow The world that lies unseen below In darkness and in mystery. Here in the Spirit, in the vast Embrace of God's encircling arm, Am I uplifted from all harm The world seems something far away, Something belonging to the Past, A hostelry, a peasant's farm, That lodged me for a night or day, In which I care not to remain, Nor, having left, to see again.

Thus, in the hollow of Gods hand I dwelt on sacred Tabor's height, When as a simple acolyte I journeyed to the Holy Land, A pilgrim for my master's sake, And saw the Galilean Lake, And walked through many a village street That once had echoed to his feet. There first I heard the great command, The voice behind me saying: Write! And suddenly my soul became Illumined by a flash of flame, That left imprinted on my thought The image I in vain had sought, And which forever shall remain; As sometimes from these windows high, Gazing at midnight on the sky Black with a storm of wind and rain, I have beheld a sudden glare Of lightning lay the landscape bare, With tower and town and hill and plain Distinct and burnt into my brain, Never to be effaced again!

And I have written. These volumes three, The Apocalypse, the Harmony Of the Sacred Scriptures, new and old, And the Psalter with Ten Strings, enfold Within their pages, all and each, The Eternal Gospel that I teach. Well I remember the Kingdom of Heaven Hath been likened to a little leaven Hidden in two measures of meal, Until it leavened the whole mass; So likewise will it come to pass With the doctrines that I here conceal.

Open and manifest to me The truth appears, and must be told; All sacred mysteries are threefold; Three Persons in the Trinity, Three ages of Humanity, And holy Scriptures likewise three, Of Fear, of Wisdom, and of Love; For Wisdom that begins in Fear Endeth in Love; the atmosphere In which the soul delights to be And finds that perfect liberty Which cometh only from above.

In the first Age, the early prime And dawn of all historic time, The Father reigned; and face to face He spake with the primeval race. Bright Angels, on his errands sent, Sat with the patriarch in his tent; His prophets thundered in the street; His lightnings flashed, his hailstorms beat; In earthquake and in flood and flame, In tempest and in cloud He came! The fear of God is in his Book; The pages of the Pentateuch Are full of the terror of his name.

Then reigned the Son; his Covenant Was peace on earth, good-will to man; With Him the reign of Law began. He was the Wisdom and the Word, And sent his Angels Ministrant, Unterrified and undeterred, To rescue souls forlorn and lost, The troubled, tempted, tempest-tost To heal, to comfort, and to teach. The fiery tongues of Pentecost His symbols were, that they should preach In every form of human speech From continent to continent. He is the Light Divine, whose rays Across the thousand years unspent Shine through the darkness of our days, And touch with their celestial fires Our churches and our convent spires. His Book is the New Testament.

These Ages now are of the Past; And the Third Age begins at last. The coming of the Holy Ghost, The reign of Grace, the reign of Love Brightens the mountain-tops above, And the dark outline of the coast. Already the whole land is white With Convent walls, as if by night A snow had fallen on hill and height! Already from the streets and marts Of town and traffic, and low cares, Men climb the consecrated stairs With weary feet, and bleeding hearts; And leave the world and its delights, Its passions, struggles, and despairs, For contemplation and for prayers In cloister-cells of coenobites.

Eternal benedictions rest Upon thy name, Saint Benedict! Founder of convents in the West, Who built on Mount Cassino's crest In the Land of Labor, thine eagle's nest! May I be found not derelict In aught of faith or godly fear, If I have written, in many a page, The Gospel of the coming age, The Eternal Gospel men shall hear. Oh may I live resembling thee, And die at last as thou hast died; So that hereafter men may see, Within the choir, a form of air, Standing with arms outstretched in prayer, As one that hath been crucified! My work is finished; I am strong In faith and hope and charity; For I have written the things I see, The things that have been and shall be, Conscious of right, nor fearing wrong; Because I am in love with Love, And the sole thing I hate is Hate; For Hate is death; and Love is life, A peace, a splendor from above; And Hate, a never-ending strife, A smoke, a blackness from the abyss Where unclean serpents coil and hiss! Love is the Holy Ghost within Hate the unpardonable sin! Who preaches otherwise than this Betrays his Master with a kiss!

PART TWO

THE GOLDEN LEGEND