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PILATE. WHOLLY incomprehensible to me, | |
| Vainglorious, obstinate, and given up | |
| To unintelligible old traditions, | |
| And proud, and self-conceited are these Jews! | |
| Not long ago, I marched the legions down | 5 |
| From Cæsarea to their winter-quarters | |
| Here in Jerusalem, with the effigies | |
| Of Cæsar on their ensigns, and a tumult | |
| Arose among these Jews, because their Law | |
| Forbids the making of all images! | 10 |
| They threw themselves upon the ground with wild | |
| Expostulations, bared their necks, and cried | |
| That they would sooner die than have their Law | |
| Infringed in any manner; as if Numa | |
| Were not as great as Moses, and the Laws | 15 |
| Of the Twelve Tables as their Pentateuch! | |
| |
| And then, again, when I desired to span | |
| Their valley with an aqueduct, and bring | |
| A rushing river in to wash the city | |
| And its inhabitants,—they all rebelled | 20 |
| As if they had been herds of unwashed swine! | |
| Thousands and thousands of them got together | |
| And raised so great a clamor round my doors, | |
| That, fearing violent outbreak, I desisted, | |
| And left them to their wallowing in the mire. | 25 |
| |
| And now here comes the reverend Sanhedrim | |
| Of lawyers, priests, and Scribes and Pharisees, | |
| Like old and toothless mastiffs, that can bark | |
| But cannot bite, howling their accusations | |
| Against a mild enthusiast, who hath preached | 30 |
| I know not what new doctrine, being King | |
| Of some vague kingdom in the other world, | |
| That hath no more to do with Rome and Cæsar | |
| Than I have with the patriarch Abraham! | |
| Finding this man to be a Galilean | 35 |
| I sent him straight to Herod, and I hope | |
| That is the last of it; but if it be not, | |
| I still have power to pardon and release him, | |
| As is the custom at the Passover, | |
| And so accommodate the matter smoothly, | 40 |
| Seeming to yield to them, yet saving him; | |
| A prudent and sagacious policy | |
| For Roman Governors in the Provinces. | |
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| Incomprehensible fanatic people! | |
| Ye have a God, who seemeth like yourselves | 45 |
| Incomprehensible, dwelling apart, | |
| Majestic, cloud-encompassed, clothed in darkness! | |
| One whom ye fear, but love not; yet ye have | |
| No Goddesses to soften your stern lives, | |
| And make you tender unto human weakness, | 50 |
| While we of Rome have everywhere around us | |
| Our amiable divinities, that haunt | |
| The woodlands, and the waters, and frequent | |
| Our households, with their sweet and gracious presence! | |
| I will go in, and while these Jews are wrangling, | 55 |
| Read my Ovidius on the Art of Love. | |
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