Nathan the Wise; a dramatic poem in five acts. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

treasures I had left you—gave him all,

      Promised him more—much more?

DAYA

         How could we?

NATHAN

         Not?

DAYA

      He came, he went, we know not whence, or whither.

      Quite unacquainted with the house, unguided

      But by his ear, he prest through smoke and flame,

      His mantle spread before him, to the room

      Whence pierced the shrieks for help; and we began

      To think him lost—and her; when, all at once,

      Bursting from flame and smoke, he stood before us,

      She in his arm upheld.  Cold and unmoved

      By our loud warmth of thanks, he left his booty,

      Struggled into the crowd, and disappeared.

NATHAN

      But not for ever, Daya, I would hope.

DAYA

      For some days after, underneath you palms,

      That shade his grave who rose again from death,

      We saw him wandering up and down.  I went,

      With transport went to thank him.  I conjured,

      Intreated him to visit once again

      The dear sweet girl he saved, who longed to shed

      At her preserver’s feet the grateful tear—

NATHAN

      Well?

DAYA

         But in vain.  Deaf to our warmest prayers,

      On me he flung such bitter mockery—

NATHAN

      That hence rebuffed—

DAYA

         Oh, no, oh, no, indeed not,

      Daily I forced myself upon him, daily

      Afresh encountered his dry taunting speeches.

      Much I have borne, and would have borne much more:

      But he of late forbears his lonely walk

      Under the scattered palms, which stand about

      Our holy sepulchre: nor have I learnt

      Where he now is.  You seem astonished—thoughtful—

NATHAN

      I was imagining what strange impressions

      This conduct makes on such a mind as Recha’s.

      Disdained by one whom she must feel compelled

      To venerate and to esteem so highly.

      At once attracted and repelled—the combat

      Between her head and heart must yet endure,

      Regret, Resentment, in unusual struggle.

      Neither, perhaps, obtains the upper hand,

      And busy fancy, meddling in the fray,

      Weaves wild enthusiasms to her dazzled spirit,

      Now clothing Passion in the garb of Reason,

      And Reason now in Passion’s—do I err?

      This last is Recha’s fate—Romantic notions—

DAYA

      Aye; but such pious, lovely, sweet, illusions.

NATHAN

      Illusions though.

DAYA

         Yes: and the one, her bosom

      Clings to most fondly, is, that the brave templar

      Was but a transient inmate of the earth,

      A guardian angel, such as from her childhood

      She loved to fancy kindly hovering round her,

      Who from his veiling cloud amid the fire

      Stepped forth in her preserver’s form.  You smile—

      Who knows?  At least beware of banishing

      So pleasing an illusion—if deceitful

      Christian, Jew, Mussulman, agree to own it,

      And ’tis—at least to her—a dear illusion.

NATHAN

      Also to me.  Go, my good Daya, go,

      See what she’s after.  Can’t I speak with her?

      Then I’ll find out our untamed guardian angel,

      Bring him to sojourn here awhile among us—

      We’ll pinion his wild wing, when once he’s taken.

DAYA

      You undertake too much.

NATHAN

         And when, my Daya,

      This sweet illusion yields to sweeter truth,

      (For to a man a man is ever dearer

      Than any angel) you must not be angry

      To see our loved enthusiast exercised.

DAYA

      You are so good—and yet so sly.  I’ll seek her,

      But listen,—yes! she’s coming of herself.

Nathan, Daya, and RechaRECHA

      And you are here, your very self, my father,

      I thought you’d only sent your voice before you.

      Where are you then?  What mountains, deserts, torrents,

      Divide us now?  You see me, face to face,

      And do not hasten to embrace your Recha.

      Poor Recha! she was almost burnt alive,

      But only—only—almost.  Do not shudder!

      O ’tis a horrid end to die in fire!

NATHAN (embracing her)

      My child, my darling child!

RECHA

         You had to cross

      The Jordan, Tigris, and Euphrates, and

      Who knows what rivers else.  I used to tremble

      And quake for you, till the fire came so nigh me;

      Since then, methinks ’twere comfort, balm, refreshment,

      To die by water.  But you are not drowned—

      I am not burnt alive.—We will rejoice—

      We will praise God—the kind good God, who bore thee,

      Upon the buoyant wings of unseen angels,

      Across the treacherous stream—the God who bade

      My angel visibly on his white wing

      Athwart the roaring flame—

NATHAN (aside)

         White wing?—oh, aye

      The broad white fluttering mantle of the templar.

RECHA

      Yes, visibly he bore me through the fire,

      O’ershadowed by his pinions.—Face to face

      I’ve seen an angel, father, my own angel.

NATHAN

      Recha deserves it, and would see in him

      No fairer form than he beheld in her,

RECHA

      Whom