[DAVID _begins; a strain of wild sadness_. SAUL _enters and with him_ DOEG, ISHUI, JONATHAN--_others_. _He pauses, his hand to his brow, and goes slowly, enspelled of_ DAVID’s _playing, up the dais_.] AHINOAM My lord, shall David sing--to ease us? SAUL Let him. DAVID [_With high sorrow._] O heart of woe, Heart of unrest and broken as a reed! [_Plays._] O heart whose flow Is anguish and all the bitterness of need! [_Plays._] O heart as a roe, Heart as a hind upon the mountain fleeing The arrow-wounds of being, Be still, O heart, and rest and do not bleed! [_Plays longer with bowed head._] O days of life, Days that are driven swift and wild from the womb! [_Plays._] O days so rife-- Days that are torn of trouble, trod of doom! [_Plays._] [MICHAL _enters_.] O days of strife, Days of desire on deserts spread unending, The burning blue o’erbending, O days, our peace, our victory is the tomb! [_He plays to a close that dies in anguished silence._] SAUL [_Rising in tears_] David! DAVID My lord? SAUL Thy breathing! beauteous! Stilling to sorrow! O my friend, my son! DAVID To me is this? I dream it not? The king Again is kind and soft his spirit moves? SAUL To you! DAVID How shelter o’er me then will spring And safety covering! SAUL It ever shall. Loveliest have you been among my days, And singing weary madness from my brain. [DAVID _starts toward him_.] How I have wronged thee! MICHAL Wronged him? [_In fury._] DAVID Michal! SAUL Girl? MICHAL You have not wronged him! DAVID Michal! MICHAL No, but he Is jeopardy and fate about you! drive Him from you utterly and now away! [_Murmurs of astonishment._] SAUL What mean you? ISHUI Speak. SAUL What mean you? MICHAL This! DAVID No word! MICHAL I’ll not be kept-- DAVID