NATHANAEL.
Can any good come out of Nazareth?
Can this be the Messiah?
PHILIP.
Come and see.
NATHANAEL.
The summer sun grows hot: I am anhungered.
How cheerily the Sabbath-breaking quail
Pipes in the corn, and bids us to his Feast
Of Wheat Sheaves! How the bearded, ripening ears
Toss in the roofless temple of the air;
As if the unseen hand of some High-Priest
Waved them before Mount Tabor as an altar!
It were no harm, if we should pluck and eat.
PHILIP.
How wonderful it is to walk abroad
With the Good Master! Since the miracle
He wrought at Cana, at the marriage feast,
His fame hath gone abroad through all the land,
And when we come to Nazareth, thou shalt see
How his own people will receive their Prophet,
And hail him as Messiah! See, he turns
And looks at thee.
CHRISTUS.
Behold an Israelite
In whom there is no guile.
NATHANAEL.
Whence knowest thou me?
CHRISTUS.
Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast
Under the fig-tree, I beheld thee.
NATHANAEL.
Rabbi!
Thou art the Son of God, thou art the King
Of Israel!
CHRISTUS.
Because I said I saw thee
Under the fig-tree, before Philip called thee,
Believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things.
Pages:
795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802
803
804
805
806
807
808
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818
819