<h2><SPAN name="page37"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>THE CHOOSING OF ESTHER<br/> <span class="GutSmall">(FROM THE DRAMA OF MIZPAH)</span></h2>
<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Ahasueras</span></p>
<p class="poetry">Tell me thy name!</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Esther</span></p>
<p class="poetry">My name, great sire, is Esther.</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Ahasueras</span></p>
<p class="poetry">So thou art Esther? Esther! ’tis a
name<br/>
Breathed into sound as softly as a sigh.<br/>
A woman’s name should melt upon the lips<br/>
Like Love’s first kisses, and thy countenance<br/>
Is fit companion for so sweet a name!</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Esther</span></p>
<p class="poetry">Thou art most kind. I would my name and
face<br/>
Were mine own making and not accident.<br/>
Then I might feel elated at thy praise,<br/>
Where now I feel confusion.</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><SPAN name="page38"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span><span class="smcap">Ahasueras</span></p>
<p class="poetry"> Thou hast
wit<br/>
As well as beauty, Esther. Both are gems<br/>
That do embellish woman in man’s sight.<br/>
Yet they are gems of second magnitude!<br/>
Dost <i>thou</i> possess the one great perfect gem—<br/>
The matchless jewel of the world called <i>love</i>?</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Esther</span></p>
<p class="poetry">Sire, in the heart of every woman dwells<br/>
That wondrous perfect gem!</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Ahasueras</span></p>
<p class="poetry"> Then,
Esther, speak!<br/>
And tell me what is <i>love</i>! I fain would know<br/>
Thy definition of that much-mouthed word,<br/>
By woman most employed—least understood.</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Esther</span></p>
<p class="poetry">What can a humble Jewish maiden know<br/>
That would instruct a warrior and a king?<br/>
I have but dreamed of love as maidens will<br/>
While thou hast known its fulness. All the world<br/>
Loves Great Ahasueras!</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><SPAN name="page39"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span><span class="smcap">Ahasueras</span></p>
<p class="poetry"> All the
world<br/>
<i>Fears great</i> Ahasueras! Kings, my child,<br/>
Are rarely loved as anything but kings.<br/>
Love, as I see it in the court and camp,<br/>
Means seeking royal favour. I would know<br/>
How love is fashioned in a maiden’s dreams.</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Esther</span></p>
<p class="poetry">Sire, love seeks nothing that kings can
bestow.<br/>
Love is the king of all kings here below;<br/>
Love makes the monarch but a bashful boy,<br/>
Love makes the peasant monarch in his joy;<br/>
Love seeks not place, all places are the same,<br/>
When lighted by the radiance of love’s flame.<br/>
Who deems proud love could fawn to power and splendour<br/>
Hath known not love, but some base-born pretender.</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Ahasueras</span></p>
<p class="poetry">If this be love, I would know more of it.<br/>
Speak on, fair Esther! What is love beside?</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Esther</span></p>
<p class="poetry">Love is in all things, all things are in
love.<br/>
Love is the earth, the sea, the skies above;<br/>
<SPAN name="page40"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>Love is
the bird, the blossom, and the wind;<br/>
Love hath a million eyes, yet love is blind;<br/>
Love is a tempest, awful in its might;<br/>
Love is the silence of a moon-lit night;<br/>
Love is the aim of every human soul;<br/>
And he who hath not loved hath missed life’s goal!</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Ahasueras</span></p>
<p class="poetry">But tell me of thyself, of thine own dreams!<br/>
How wouldst thou love, and how be loved again?</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Esther</span></p>
<p class="poetry">Who most doth love thinks least of love’s
return;<br/>
She is content to feel the passion burn<br/>
In her own bosom, and its sacred fire<br/>
Consumes each selfish purpose and desire.<br/>
’Tis in the giving, love’s best rapture lies,<br/>
Not in the counting of the things it buys.</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Ahasueras</span></p>
<p class="poetry">Yet, is there not vast anguish and despair<br/>
In love that finds no answering word or smile?</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Esther</span></p>
<p class="poetry">So radiant is love, it lends a glow<br/>
To each dark sorrow and to every woe.<br/>
<SPAN name="page41"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>To love
completely is to part with pain,<br/>
Nor is there mortal who can love in vain.<br/>
Love is its own reward, it pays full measure,<br/>
And in love’s sharpest grief lies subtlest pleasure.</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Ahasueras</span></p>
<p class="poetry">Methinks, a mighty warrior, lord or king<br/>
Must in thy fancy play the lover’s part;<br/>
None else could wake such reverential thought.</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Esther</span></p>
<p class="poetry">When woman loves one born of lowly state,<br/>
Her thought gives crown and sceptre to her mate;<br/>
Yet be he king, or chief of some great clan,<br/>
She loves him but as woman loves a man.<br/>
Monarch or peasant, ’tis the same, I wis<br/>
When once she gives him love’s surrendering kiss.</p>
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