1896
PERSONS.
The Bridegroom .
A Procession of priests and acolytes.
The Best Man .
The Sacristan .
Eight Painted Windows .
The sacristy of the church of St. Judas. Time: ten minutes before noon. A pealing of bells is heard.
The sacristy is a great octagonal room of sculptured stone; its groined vaulting is upheld by one central column which is wreathed from base to capital with a band of pale carven flowers, and its eight windows — broad and high, trefoiled and quatrefoiled — flood both floor and roof with an endless dapple and ripple of variegated light. Under one of these windows an open door leads into the church. Through this doorway one sees the chancel banked with flowers; and above the decorous murmur of a thousand tongues one hears the tones of the organ and the voices of the choir-boys.
Present in the sacristy: the Bridegroom and his Best Man . Both are in full uniform; each wears white gloves and carries a sword.
( gaily ).
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( with constraint ).
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( fastening his glove ).
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( unfastening his glove ).
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( refastening his glove ).
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[The First of the Eight Windows comes to life; there is a flux of color and of outline among its mullioned lights. Gradually two figures among its ranks of churchly warriors become strangely secularized; they raise their crossed swords on high, while their left hands meet in a clasp of friendship. The colors upon the pavement shift in correspondence, and from the church, or from spaces far above and beyond it, there come the tones of the Ecce, quam bonum
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( vaguely ).
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( as before ).
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[The Second of the Eight Windows is endowed with a moving consciousness. Ten honorable Knights rise in a semicircle and look down, with an open apprehension in their pure young eyes, upon the pair beneath. An indignant diapason rolls in from the organ, and distant voices are heard to chant the In quo corriget?
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[The Knights look into one another's eyes and shake their heads and turn away their faces.]
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[The Third Window sets itself in motion. A band of chaste young Damsels brush forward through ranks of tall and rigid lilies and curve their lustrous palms before their ears to hear the coming words of ill-report. Voices (not theirs) intone the words of the Noli oemulari
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[The Damsels blush, and stoop to hide their faces among the lilies. But their blushes are repeated upon the pavement.]
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[The Fourth Window . An army with banners. The leaders of the host rest on their swordhilts and gaze downward with satirical and contemptuous smiles. Above the ranks rise flags of scarlet and purple that flaunt in airy derision and dapple the sculptured pillar.]
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[The Leader of the Army lifts a foreshortened sword, and makes a movement as if of warning. But neither of the pair interprets his movement, for neither sees it.]
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[The Fifth Window . A rising of the sheeted Dead. The sun, half hidden by a passing cloud, but partly penetrates the dull and spectral panes.]
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[The sun reappears. The Dead throw back their cowls. Their eyes sparkle, their cheeks are flushed with life. They raise their full-fleshed hands in benediction.]
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[The Sixth Window . A trio of female figures — Love, Truth and Purity — entwined in one another's arms. Their eyes are startled; their garments quiver and scintillate in reds and ambers and pale greens. Their mouths open, but whether in condemnation or in defense it is too soon to say. From that quarter, or from another, there comes the chant: Iniquos odio habui
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[The Sacristan enters.]
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[The Sacristan closes the door leading into the church, and retires by means of a second one opposite. Through walls, or doors, or windows are heard the words: Quare fremuerunt gentes?
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[The Seventh Window . The Seven Cardinal Virtues; they change, with a slow but relentless movement of color, of outline, of feature, into the Seven Deadly Sins. This transformation, like all the others, passes unheeded.]
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[The Deadliest of the Seven Sins hides her face; it is too hideous for contemplation.]
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[The sculptured wreath entwined round the great central column writhes in descending spirals, like a vast serpent.]
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( drawing his sword ).
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[The chimes begin to ring. A sound of rumbling wheels and trampling hoofs is heard outside. A procession of, priests and acolytes crosses the sacristy on the way into the church. They pause at the signs of combat.]
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[The procession traverses the sacristy and moves on toward the high altar. The Bridegroom shuts the door behind it. The Best Man , springing forward, thrusts him from it, and then stands staunchly with his own back against its panels.]
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The Eighth Window . The Angelic Host trumpeting from the clouds, while Lucifer plunges headlong toward the Pit: the wonder is that he can fall so long, so fast, so far.
When the Bridegroom opens the door into the church, the Bride is seen coming up the aisle, while the choirboys and the organ unite in a resounding Gloria. Upon the floor of the sacristy lies the body of a man in a pool of blood. As the Bride and the Bridegroom meet before the altar rail, the Eight Windows , dappling the floor of the sacristy with a thousand varied splotches of color — (but there is one, broader and brighter than them all) — shudder back convulsively to their pristine selves.