Lords and Lovers, and Other DramasDargan, Olive Tilford
General
Lords and Lovers, and Other Dramas
Dargan, Olive Tilford
American drama -- 20th century
_Vasil._ Put your ear to my violin, and you will hear----
_Zar._ Come!
_Vasil._ You must yield something too, Adrian. Step back to the law of
Moses for vantage if you can leap to Christ with the world in your arms.
_Zar._ You have broken your oath!
_Vasil._ I have not. I will tell you.
_Zar._ Speak then. Who are your confederates?
_Vasil._ There is but one.
_Zar._ Who? Where is he?
_Vasil._ He is here--in this room--he is in every prison in Russia--he
is in every heart that knows the meaning of love--but if you want to
arrest him [_stepping back into the sunlight and pointing upward_] you
must go up there, for he is God.
_Zar._ That for your blasphemy! [_Strikes Vasil on the mouth with his
sword_] Off with him!
[_Guards take Vasil off. Zarkoff follows. Silence broken by a
groan from Adrian_]
_Soph._ Beloved, beloved, he shall be free! The whole world shall help
us!
_Greg._ May we knock down the prisons now, Lavrov?
_Adr._ O God, in all thy ages can this be justified?
_Kore._ _You_ can justify it in a moment. Adrian Lavrov, this is your
call to war. If you respond, his life is well lost.
_Adr._ War? [_Staggers up_] Yes. And I will use the strongest of
earthly weapons, the arms of peace. The powers that upbuild are as
invincible as the universe. By them it stands. Only by their toleration
do the forces of destruction live. Toleration? Only by the _support_ of
the powers of peace do the powers that destroy exist. Is not the army
of the Czar fed by us, clothed by us, paid by us? And if we refuse to
give, must it not beg of us? If he who works not shall not eat, what
is the doom of the destroyer? The sower shall not sow for him, the
reaper shall not reap for him, the builder shall not build for him,
the physician shall not heal him, the scholar shall not teach him, the
lawyer shall not plead for him, no trade shall supply him, no craft
shall assist him, no art shall amuse him. The mills shall be silent,
the wheels shall not turn, the wires shall be dumb, until he cries out
"Peace, thou art master: let me be so much as thy servant!"
_A revolutionist._ Right! This, too, is war!
_Adr._ Yes. The new war of a new day. Not in madness hurling bombs, but
giving our pity as we take our right.
_Man._ And who will pay your soldiers of peace? Must not their women
and children eat?
_Adr._ The money we now pay to our brothers to strike us shall put
bread in our mouths.
_A revolutionist._ Keep the taxes!
_Man._ You join us at last!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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