Siegesallee Fantasia
The Avenue of Hohenzollerns near Berlin. Enter, in full fig, his scabbard dragging at his heels, the KAISER, talking to himself:I'LD like to pack these ancestors of mine
To Königsberg or somewhere over-Rhine
Where they could not keep watch upon me! How,
With them about me, can I face the now
Obvious fact I need not specify?
Old William with his grandpaternal look
Seems always to be calling me to book:--
Bismarck made fun of him: why cannot I?
And these huge Fredericks in a double row,
Electors, kings and what-nots: I could go
Crazy, seeing them stand, week after week
Glaring at me ! I've got a mind to tweak
That Frederick-William's beard, and make him speak,
Pompous old marble idiot! If they'ld only
Say what they mean, I shouldn't feel so lonely
Among them.--But nobody ever said
That to me.--Well, he would have lost his head
For his fool's trouble!--But suppose, suppose
Someone had spoken truth to me! Who knows--?
I might have listened. One in whose aspect
My Prussian-eagle eye could not detect
Any self-interest or any fear.
For once I should have relished not to hear
My All-highness spoken of. If, let us say
Some Roosévelt, fresh from America
Had flouted all my favourites, confronted
Flattery with stark fact: relentless, hunted
Down the deception that we practise, under
My very eyes; with lightning to my thunder
Had answered like a good Republican:
Had made me wrestle with him, man to man,
Bound only by the hard rules of the Ring--
And he the better man because no king.
Would I have taken a drubbing from him? Well
That is a thing I'll argue out in Hell
When we make nights of it around the blaze
To keep away the memory of these days.
I've had twenty-eight years of Kaisering
And, good God, it's enough! But how to fling
The bauble from me with these looking on!
My spirit might be an automaton
For all they care, and not like Alexander's
Hungry for worlds to conquer, that I can't,
Since first I made a mess of it in Flanders.
The thing is plain. Since other worlds I want
I'll have to look for them where I can find them.
The screens of death are solid. But behind them
here must be what I am in search of--
Change,
And room for my ambition's farthest range!.
(He glances impatiently at his wrist watch)Now Where's Our Old Ally? The fellow's late,
Confound him! But here comes old honest pate.
Enter oldMichael, a gardener with harrow and besom. He is dressed in a tasseled cap, leather jacket, and knee-breeches. Seeing the Kaiser, he salutes with military gesture.Kaiser(benevolent to an ancient retainer).
Good morning to you, Michael.
Michael(shaking his head).
It's a sad
Dark morning. Master, as we ever had.
Beg pardon. It is better where you be
Up yonder, but it's bad for such as we.
Kai.
I am surprised, old friend, to hear you grumble.
Whatever grief may fall upon the humble
Remember heavier falls on Us: We bear
The burden of the Empire. None may share
What We must carry.
Mich.
Hearken now, All-Highest!
When you go reckoning up the chaps you've got
I'm "old man Michael," ain't I? Toughest, dryest,
Stubbornest, old curmudgeon of the lot?
Kai.
What's in your head this morning, out with it.
Mich.
I've been a soldier and I've done my bit:
Sergeant I was under the old king here;
And "our Fritz," him, your father. It's a queer
Thing that I'm telling you, but it's a true:
Soldiering's done with.
Kai.
Long ago, for you! . .
Mich.
It isn't that way you can save the folk:
And it needs saving, for our hearts are broke,
So that we can't so much as go to church.
So, Master, if you leave us in the lurch,
As you might say, we're perished.
Kai.
When did we
Hohenzollerns, desert our peasantry
Of the Mark? Since five full centuries ago
Led by the voice that we have come to know
For God's own Word within us, Frederick first
Left his rich lands to redeem one accurst,
Converting its mere sand into a rock
Of bronze against which all the nations shock
Their enviousness in vain. This miracle
To God's praise we have wrought: unto His Will
We've shaped the stubborn metal of this folk,
Till in our hands it is a living sword:
And now the Mark toils in the easy yoke
Of a divinely led and loving Lord.
Mich.
That's just where you mistake, Master. This people
Is a lost people. Each young man's a cripple
That's not a corpse. But there's worse still than that,
For each new child they get's a devil's brat
Marked for damnation. People of the Mark,
Ay, of the Devil's Mark--that's us!--And hark,
Master, there's nary good that we can do
Ourselves, there's only one can save us . . .you.
Not by the sword, but yet the sword's a sign
Grasped by the blade, as often I've held mine
And seen it was a Cross, and wondered when
There would be found some Holy One again
To hang there and redeem us with his passion.
Kai.(severely).
Old man, you should not rant in heathen fashion
Of what you do not understand. The price
Of our salvation is not asked for twice.
God paid it once for all. Each German man,
Woman and child He bought out of the ban
That lies upon the world because of sin.
Are you a Brandenburger and begin
Speaking to us of a lost people? We
Hold the salvation of our Germany
Secure within our care: to doubt of it
Is the sure symptom of a crazy wit.
Mich.
Ay, Master, you're our pledge, and God be praised
For that! But my old wife at home she's crazed;
Sits in the chimney-corner all a-dodder
Muttering "Give me again my cannon-fodder"
(Her twenty grandsons that she doted on)
And sits and curses God. To look upon
You'd say she was a saint. I gets me gone
Out of my little mad-house, every day
Comes here and works among my kings. It's they
As comfort me. Wonderful thoughts do keep
A-running through my noddle while I sweep
The leaves up that are always falling down:
Strange high thoughts that belong under a crown
And not a zipfelhaube! Mark my word,
Master. The whisperings I have overheard
Were meant for you, but as you were not near
They said "This is a good old harmless fool
As never saw the insides of a school,
If we can only make old Michael hear
He'll take our message to the Emperor."
Kai.
We cannot listen to you any more.
Go now, get to your sweeping-------
Mich.(sweeping)
What they said
Day in, day out, rings in old Michael's head:
"Tell him: the soldier's day is done,
Another better day's begun
With a new glory in it!"
Kai.
Go further from us there!--But, stay a minute,
What's this about new glory?
Mich.(as before)
And they said--
Day in, day out, it runs in Michael's head--
"Tell him: there shines a glory on
The cross that is not on the crown,
Would he reach up and win it,
Tell him: the world would now repent
And live again the life it's meant
To live, would he begin it."
[Our Old Ally, who has been sitting perdu behind the statue of the Emperor William, here makes himself seen and catches the KAISER'S eye, who promptly dismisses Michael.]Our Old Ally(looking curiously like Dr.Dryander, advances from amid the dead Hohenzollerns)
Our scourge! Our Attila!--
Kai.(saluting).
Our Old Ally!
O.O.A.
Whenever you're in trouble We are by.
Kai.
We sought You on this Path of Victory
In the august company that is fitting . . .
O.O.A.(with an inclusive gesture).
For Us.
Kai.
Amid our sovereign Family
We sought you.
O.O.A.
We were waiting for you, sitting
Beside your grandfather the Emperor
And our first William, our good simple friend.
We both have many things to thank him for.
Kai.(impatiently)
Yes, yes! but We have little time to spend
And weightiest matters . . .
O.O.A.
Upon us depend
Whenever care weighs heavy on your shoulders.
Kai.
Spare us your rhetoric!--
O.O.A.(admiringly).
You're more imperious
Each time we meet. What an impatience smoulders
Within those royal orbits: something serious
Must have befallen. Have We somewhere hurt
Your delicate majesty with zeal mistaken?
To each his manners! We too, can be curt.--
The pledge we made each other stands unshaken:
Still We supply the Power that still you want.
Kai.
This power of yours that was so loud a vaunt
We have tried and found it insufficient for
The task we have begun.
O.O.A.
You can have more,
There still is plenty: it calls out for using.
Kai.
You are pleased to jest!
O.O.A.
You too, become amusing!
Kai.
What good to Us is power of the wrong kind?
O.O.A.
Ah, yes, we know the tool's always the wrong one
Of a Monday morning!--Presently you'll find
It's still the German Sword, the trusty, strong one,
That rattles so divinely!
Kai.
Even Our Sword
Has failed to make this hand of ours adored.
O.O.A.
It seems our power is the wrong kind of power
Because it is unkind! So you've turned Giaour
From the True Faith!
Kai.
You mock me in your beard!
O.O.A.
Indeed, no!--
Kai.(expanding).
I am sick of being feared,
I am tired of all this avenue of kings:
Weary of pulling all the silly strings
Of this great puppet-show! O I am done
With navies and with places in the sun.
I have had all too much of power, too much
Of Germany. I swear I loathe the touch
Even of my sword, and to tell truth, I'ld die
Rather than go on being your Ally
Another day. I have had Michael here--
Not the Archangel, my plain German
Michael,--
We've talked together, and it's all come clear.
I have been living in another cycle
Of the world--think of it!--and an off-cast one!
When here's a new, beginning:--O a vast one
Beyond those tales you entertained me with.
Already I see my old self as a myth
Of the forgotten days of Grail and Joust!
Farewell! I go to greet the new!
O.O.A.(aside)
Faust! Faust!
Kai.(returning)
But I forgot: there are things to be arranged!
In this to-morrow's world Our part is changed.
We shall put by the sword and give release
To our armed host, and become Prince of Peace.
We feel the War-lord grows anachronistic.
At bottom We have always been a mystic.
We foreknew when We stood on Olivet
And wept over Jerusalem, that yet
We too, should suffer: We too, should redeem
The erring nations from the fond false dream
Wherein they dwell: in Us, also, the power
Of Gospel-love should find its passion-flower:
We should be lifted up and all would see
Our body broken for Humanity.
For this We claim your help. To you, We feel
How mightily our purpose must appeal.
O.O.A.(hesitating)
A new part for a Hohenzollern, eh!
I wonder what the Family will say.
And what henceforth you'll do with your right hand
When no hilt's handy to it?--But command!
We will fulfil your orders as of old.
Kai.
The change is good to us because it's bold.
Half-measures do not catch the public eye.
Once it is understood that We shall die
A willing sacrifice for all men's good . . .
Do you not see, when it is understood
We shall have superadded to the story
Of our tremendous House another glory
Such as will swallow up the rest and hold
The imagination of the world for ever.
O.O.A.
We will so match your deed with our endeavour
No one shall tell the gilding from the gold.
Kai.
No word of yours to-day but is discordant
With our high mood! Your wit that once was mordant
Is now a clown's. Can no occasion oust
This ribald habit?
O.O.A.
My good worthy Faust!
To-day you really seem to have grown blind,
Hypnotised not to see what lies behind
This cardboard Siegesallee puppet-show
Wherein you play the Kaiser!--But you know
Me very well--the spirit that affirms
The proper half of truth, which is far better
Than like a pedant, to spell every letter
Where some of them, being unfamiliar terms,
Inevitably raise misunderstanding!
The whole of truth is like a flight of stairs
That's far too slow to climb: at unawares
I leap the people up, landing by landing!
My better part of truth is like a lift,
It gets them to the top without the trouble:
Half though it be, it is worth more than double
To any ruler, taken as a gift.
Kai.(doubtfully)
A gift?
O.O.A.
Oh, as for that, I have my wages,
Though on my tongue the old-fashioned word sound odd.
A Hohenzollern now for several ages
I've valeted as his familiar god.
(What other house can boast a deity
As practical as yours, Vulcan or Venus
Or Mars?) It's simply understood between us,
The royal Us signifies you and me.
Between us only, but for all the rest
My part, as you may say, is a dead letter.
Acknowledged, but as good as unexpressed.
For here, as always, the half-truth's the better.
Kai.
Come now, to work! Your words are all too plenty.
O.O.A.
With pleasure: shall I call up four and twenty
Brand-new, fully munitioned, army corps,
And let old Hindenburg wind up the war?
Kai.
No, that is not the way the war shall cease.
We've had enough of playing Goth and Vandal:
Now We'll be recognised as Prince of Peace.
O.O.A.
You really think the game is worth the candle?
Your mind is set on it?
Kai.
Our mind is set
On this new title that We have not yet.
O.O.A.
We've but to whistle Peace and she'll arrive
In her tremendous car. A Juggernaut
Over obsequious nations you shall drive,
Vishnu's avatar!
Kai.
You mistake our thought.
We will be lifted up that We may draw
The eyes of all men to Ourself with awe
Of this that never Hohenzollern did
Before Us.
O.O.A.
Your great deed shall not be hid!
We'll have it filmed for the ages yet to be
When all the universe is Germany.
But now before we call her--in my ear,
Whisper--what is it you have grown to fear
More than the last of terrors, for I think
You know the kind of cup you'll have to drink--
Unless of course the whole thing is a bluff.
Kai.
We Germans fear God only..
O.O.A.
O enough
Of that! We Germans understand each other!
We're not a Bonn festkommers, but a brother
Orator. Come now. What is this you dread
So much you'd rather be a ghost instead
And lodge with me for ever?
Kai.
As for you
We have no terror of what you can do.
O.O.A.
Not if I turned old Michael's heart away.
Kai.(startled, but recovering himself)
You daren't do that, for then he'd cease to pay,
Honour as well to you. You can afford
As ill as I not to be Michael's lord.
O.O.A.
There's no denying what you hint is true,
Though I have other subjects--more than you.
However, I'll concede It. It was partly
Because it's mine I guessed your dread so smartly.
What you dread is to lose the simple thing
Without which nobody could be a king.
And what I dread--a little less, maybe--
Is to cease being feared in Germany.
An uncrowned king and an ungodded devil
Sink at a single stroke below the level
Of consciousness: and that we cannot. No,
We must hold on together even though
The price be the uncomfortable Cross
(For you!)--It will secure us both from loss.
You're positive of that? (Kai. nods.) Well, let us trust
The actuaries are right.
Kai.
It will. It must.
There is no other way for Us at all.
O.O.A.(considering)
A Hohenzollern couldn't learn to crawl
As a poor devil might?
Kai.
Certainly not.
We'll set it here upon this very spot.
O.O.A.
Then, hang it all!--the crosses must be got.
Kai.
Crosses? There is but one: and that shall stand
Heaven high.
O.O.A.
But you will have on either hand . . .
Kai.
Nor Pope nor Sultan shall with Us divide
This signal glory.
O.O.A.
No, but malefactors. . . .
Kai.
Sirrah! upon this stage there are no actors
But the All-highest.
O.O.A.
We'll not be denied!
(He produces a scroll with the inscription:"It was to save Our people that We died!"
