The Poems of Emma Lazarus Volume II Part 28

Knights, counsellors and burghers!

Sir Henry Schnetzen, Governor of Salza, Comes on grave mission from His Highness Frederick, Margrave of Meissen, Landgrave of Thuringia, Our town's imperial Patron and Protector.

SCHNETZEN.

Gentles, I greet you in the Landgrave's name, The honored bearer of his princely script, Sealed with his signet. Read, good Master Clerk.

[He hands a parchment to the Scrivener, who reads aloud]:

Lord President and Deputies of the town of Nordhausen! Know that we, Frederick Margrave of Meissen, and Landgrave of Thuringia, command to be burned all the Jews within our territories as far as our lands extend, on account of the great crime they have committed against Christendom in throwing poison into the wells, of the truth of which indictment we have absolute knowledge.

Therefore we admonish you to have the Jews killed in honor of G.o.d, so that Christendom be not enfeebled by them. Whatever responsibility you incur, we will a.s.sume with our Lord the Emperor, and with all other lords. Know also that we send to you Henry Schnetzen, our Governor of Salza, who shall publicly accuse your Jews of the above-mentioned crime. Therefore we beseech you to help him to do justice upon them, and we will singularly reward your good will.*

Given at Eisenach, the Thursday after St. Walpurgis, under our secret seal.

*This is an authentic doc.u.ment.

A COUNSELLOR (DIETHER VON WERTHER).

Fit silence welcomes this unheard-of wrong!

So! Ye are men--free, upright, honest men, Not hired a.s.sa.s.sins? I half doubted it, Seeing you lend these infamous words your ears.

SCHNETZEN.

Consider, gentlemen of Nordhausen, Ere ye give heed to the rash partisan.

Ye cross the Landgrave--well? he crosses you.

It may be I shall ride to Nordhausen, Not with a harmless script, but with a sword, And so denounce the town for perjured vow.

What was the Strasburg citizens' reward Who championed these lost wretches, in the face Of King and Kaiser--three against the world, Conrad von Winterthur the Burgomaster, Deputy Gosse Sturm, and Peter Schwarber, Master Mechanic? These leagued fools essayed To stand between the people's sacred wrath, And its doomed object. Well, the Jews, no less, Were rooted from the city neck and crop, And their three friends degraded from their rank I' the city council, glad to save their skins.

The Jews are foes to G.o.d. Our Holy Father Thunders his ban from Rome against all such As aid the poisoners. Your oath to G.o.d, And to the Prince enjoins--Death to the Jews.

A BURGHER (REINHARD ROLAPP).

Why all this vain debate? The Landgrave's brief Affirms the Jews fling poison in the wells.

Shall we stand by and leave them unmolested, Till they have made our town a wilderness?

I say, Death to the Jews!

A BURGHER (HUGO SCHULTZ).

My lord and brethren, I have scant gift of speech, ye are all my elders.

Yet hear me for truth's sake, and liberty's.

The Landgrave of Thuringia is our patron, True--and our town's imperial Governor, But are we not free burghers? Shall we not Debate and act in freedom? If Lord Schnetzen Will force our council with the sword--enough!

We are not frightened schoolboys crouched beneath The master's rod, but men who bear the sword As brave as he. By this grim messenger, Send back this devilish missive. Say to Frederick Nordhausen never was enfeoffed to him.

Prithee, Lord President, bid Henry Schnetzen Withdraw awhile, that we may all take counsel, According to the hour's necessity, As free men, whom nor fear nor favor swerves.

TETTENBORN.

Bold youth, you err. True, Nordhausen is free, And G.o.d be witness, we for fear or favor, Would never shed the blood of innocence.

But here the Prince condemns the Jews to death For capital crime. Who sees a snake must kill, Ere it spit fatal venom. I, too, say Death to the Jews

ALL.

Death to the Jews! G.o.d wills it!

TETTENBORN.

Give me your voices in the urn.

(The votes are taken.) One voice For mercy, all the rest for death. (To an Usher.) Go thou To the Jews' quarter; bid Susskind von Orb, And Rabbi Jacob hither to the Senate, To hear the Landgrave's and the town's decree.

[Exit Usher.]

(To Schnetzen.) What learn you of this evil through the State?

SCHNETZEN.

It swells to monstrous bulk. In many towns, Folk build high ramparts round the wells and springs.

In some they shun the treacherous sparkling brooks, To drink dull rain-water, or melted snow, In mountain districts. Frederick has been patient, And too long clement, duped by fleece-cloaked wolves.

But now his subjects' clamor rouses him To front the general peril. As I hear, A fiendish and far-reaching plot involves All Christian thrones and peoples. These vile vermin, Burrowing underneath society, Have leagued with Moors in Spain, with heretics Too plentiful--Christ knows! in every land, And planned a subterraneous, sinuous scheme, To overthrow all Christendom. But see, Where with audacious brows, and steadfast mien, They enter, bold as innocence. Now listen, For we shall hear brave falsehoods.

Enter SUSSKIND VON ORB and RABBI JACOB.

TETTENBORN.

Rabbi Jacob, And thou, Susskind von Orb, bow down, and learn The Council's pleasure. You the least despised By true believers, and most reverenced By your own tribe, we grace with our free leave To enter, yea, to lift your voices here, Amid these wise and honorable men, If ye find aught to plead, that mitigates The just severity of your doom. Our prince, Frederick the Grave, Patron of Nordhausen, Ordains that all the Jews within his lands, For the foul crime of poisoning the wells, Bringing the Black Death upon Christendom, Shall be consumed with flame.

RABBI JACOB (springing forward and clasping his hands).

I' the name of G.o.d, Your G.o.d and ours, have mercy!

SUSSKIND.

n.o.ble lords, Burghers, and artisans of Nordhausen, Wise, honorable, just, G.o.d-fearing men, Shall ye condemn or ever ye have heard?

Sure, one at least owns here the close, kind name Of Brother--unto him I turn. At least Some sit among you who have wedded wives, Bear the dear t.i.tle and the precious charge Of Husband--unto these I speak. Some here, Are crowned, it may be, with the sacred name Of Father--unto these I pray. All, all Are sons--all have been children, all have known The love of parents--unto these I cry: Have mercy on us, we are innocent, Who are brothers, husbands, fathers, sons as ye!

Look you, we have dwelt among you many years, Led thrifty, peaceable, well-ordered lives.

Who can attest, who prove we ever wrought Or ever did devise the smallest harm, Far less this fiendish crime against the State?

Rather let those arise who owe the Jews Some debt of unpaid kindness, profuse alms, The Hebrew leech's serviceable skill, Who know our patience under injury, And ye would see, if all stood bravely forth, A motley host, led by the Landgrave's self, Recruited from all ranks, and in the rear, The humblest, veriest wretch in Nordhausen.

We know the Black Death is a scourge of G.o.d.

Is not our flesh as capable of pain, Our blood as quick envenomed as your own?

Has the Destroying Angel pa.s.sed the posts Of Jewish doors--to visit Christian homes?

We all are slaves of one tremendous Hour.

We drink the waters which our enemies say We spoil with poison,--we must breathe, as ye, The universal air,--we droop, faint, sicken, From the same causes to the selfsame end.

Ye are not strangers to me, though ye wear Grim masks to-day--lords, knights and citizens, Few do I see whose hand has pressed not mine, In cordial greeting. Dietrich von Tettenborn, If at my death my wealth be confiscate Unto the State, bethink you, lest she prove A harsher creditor than I have been.

Stout Meister Rolapp, may you never again Languish so nigh to death that Simon's art Be needed to restore your l.u.s.ty limbs.

Good Hugo Schultz--ah! be those blessed tears Remembered unto you in Paradise!

Look there, my lords, one of your council weeps, If you be men, why, then an angel sits On yonder bench. You have good cause to weep, You who are Christian, and disgraced in that Whereof you made your boast. I have no tears.

A fiery wrath has scorched their source, a voice Shrills through my brain--"Not upon us, on them Fall everlasting woe, if this thing be!"

SCHNETZEN.

My lords of Nordhausen, shall ye be stunned With sounding words? Behold the serpent's skin, Sleek-s.h.i.+ning, clear as sunlight; yet his tooth Holds deadly poison. Even as the Jews Did nail the Lord of heaven on the Cross, So will they murder all his followers, When once they have the might. Beware, beware!

SUSSKIND.

So YOU are the accuser, my lord Schnetzen?

Now I confess, before you I am guilty.