I20 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



sirable, until we rise to other levels; and it is strictly in accord with 

 cosmic order, as well as cosmic passion, that youth goes toward youth. 

 For their contravention of our recognized moral order they meet a 

 punishment that is no punishment, but merely one more ground for 

 Heine's decision that *'die Liebe mit dem Tode verbunden ist uniiber- 

 windHch." 



In The Sin of David the central conception of love is the same. 

 Thus Lisle says to Miriam in words that still carry an echo from 

 Plato and Dante: 



No! for a revelation breaks from thee, 



Thou hast unlocked the loveliness of earth, 



Leading me through thy beauty to all beauty. 



Thou hast admitted me to mystery, 



Taught me the different souls of all the stars; 



Through thee have I inherited this air. 



Discovered sudden riches at my feet, 



And now on eyes long blinded flames the world. 



Here again unquenchable love is brought into conflict with the moral 

 order, this time with the scarlet taint of blood-guiltiness; for Lisle, 

 maddened by Miriam's moonHt beauty, sends her husband to certain 

 death and watches him ride, dying, into the night. Upon this pair 

 of lovers, even after they are sheltered in happy wedlock, breaks a 

 storm of real punishment in the loss of an idolized child. Nemesis 

 with terrible grimness has caught up the earher words of Lisle, and 

 sending more than mere death, "strikes at his heart, his hope, his 

 home." 



In Herod the face of love is different. The Judaean soldier-king, 

 who has lived forever half in lightning, half in gloom, is possessed 

 by a consuming passion for his queen, whom he has wooed amid 

 the crashing of cities. Mariamne, however, in whose veins there 

 runs the blood of all the Maccabees, loves her stormy, brilliant 

 husband mainly for his impetuous power: 



Those eyes that dimmed for me flamed in the breach; 

 And you were scorched and scarred and dressed in spoils, 

 Magnificent in livery of ruin. 



