Porkopolis

THE DEMONIAC OF GADARA

• A GADARENE.
• He hath escaped, hath plucked his chains asunder,
• And broken his fetters; always night and day
• Is in the mountains here, and in the tombs,
• Crying aloud, and cutting himself with stones,
• Exceeding fierce, so that no man can tame him!
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• THE DEMONIAC from above, unseen.
• O Aschmedai! O Aschmedai, have pity!
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• A GADARENE.
• Listen! It is his voice! Go warn the people
• Just landing from the lake!
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• THE DEMONIAC.
• O Aschmedai!
• Thou angel of the bottomless pit, have pity!
• It was enough to hurl King Solomon,
• On whom be peace! two hundred leagues away
• Into the country, and to make him scullion
• In the kitchen of the King of Maschkemen!
• Why dost thou hurl me here among these rocks,
• And cut me with these stones?
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• A GADARENE.
• He raves and mutters
• He knows not what.
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• THE DEMONIAC, appearing from a tomb among the rocks.
• The wild cock Tarnegal
• Singeth to me, and bids me to the banquet,
• Where all the Jews shall come; for they have slain
• Behemoth the great ox, who daily cropped
• A thousand hills for food, and at a draught
• Drank up the river Jordan, and have slain
• The huge Leviathan, and stretched his skin
• Upon the high walls of Jerusalem,
• And made them shine from one end of the world
• Unto the other; and the fowl Barjuchne,
• Whose outspread wings eclipse the sun, and make
• Midnight at noon o'er all the continents!
• And we shall drink the wine of Paradise
• From Adam's cellars.
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• A GADARENE.
• O thou unclean spirit!
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• THE DEMONIAC, hurling down a stone.
• This is the wonderful Barjuchne's egg,
• That fell out of her nest, and broke to pieces
• And swept away three hundred cedar-trees,
• And threescore villages! — Rabbi Eliezer,
• How thou didst sin there in that seaport town
• When thou hadst carried safe thy chest of silver
• Over the seven rivers for her sake!
• I too have sinned beyond the reach of pardon.
• Ye hills and mountains, pray for mercy on me!
• Ye stars and planets, pray for mercy on me!
• Ye sun and moon, oh pray for mercy on me!
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• CHRISTUS and his disciples pass.
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• A GADARENE.
• There is a man here of Decapolis,
• Who hath an unclean spirit; so that none
• Can pass this way. He lives among the tombs
• Up there upon the cliffs, and hurls down stones
• On those who pass beneath.
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• CHRISTUS.
• Come out of him,
• Thou unclean spirit!
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• THE DEMONIAC.
• What have I to do
• With thee, thou Son of God? Do not torment us.
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• CHRISTUS.
• What is thy name?
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• THE DEMONIAC.
• Legion; for we are many.
• Cain, the first murderer; and the King Belshazzar,
• And Evil Merodach of Babylon,
• And Admatha, the death-cloud, prince of Persia
• And Aschmedai the angel of the pit,
• And many other devils. We are Legion.
• Send us not forth beyond Decapolis;
• Command us not to go into the deep!
• There is a herd of swine here in the pastures,
• Let us go into them.
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• CHRISTUS.
• Come out of him,
• Thou unclean spirit!
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• A GADARENE.
• See how stupefied,
• How motionless he stands! He cries no more;
• He seems bewildered and in silence stares
• As one who, walking in his sleep, awakes
• And knows not where he is, and looks about him,
• And at his nakedness, and is ashamed.
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• THE DEMONIAC.
• Why am I here alone among the tombs?
• What have they done to me, that I am naked?
• Ah, woe is me!
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• CHRISTUS.
• Go home unto thy friends
• And tell them how great things the Lord hath done
• For thee, and how He had compassion on thee!
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• A SWINEHERD, running.
• The herds! the herd! O most unlucky day!
• They were all feeding quiet in the sun,
• When suddenly they started, and grew savage
• As the wild boars of Tabor, and together
• Rushed down a precipice into the sea!
• They are all drowned!
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• PETER.
• Thus righteously are punished
• The apostate Jews, that eat the flesh of swine,
• And broth of such abominable things!
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• GREEKS OF GADARA.
• We sacrifice a sow unto Demeter
• At the beginning of harvest and another
• To Dionysus at the vintage-time.
• Therefore we prize our herds of swine, and count them
• Not as unclean, but as things consecrate
• To the immortal gods. O great magician,
• Depart out of our coasts; let us alone,
• We are afraid of thee.
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• PETER.
• Let us depart;
• For they that sanctify and purify
• Themselves in gardens, eating flesh of swine.
• And the abomination, and the mouse,
• Shall be consumed together, saith the Lord!