ISAAC.  My little Rachel daily mounts in grace!

GARCERAN.  Would that the King, like many another one,
             In jest and play had worn youth’s wildness off! 
             But he, from childhood, knowing only men,
             Brought up by men and tended but by men,
             Nourished with wisdom’s fruits before his time,
             Taking his marriage as a thing of course,
             The King now meets, the first time in his life,
             A woman, female, nothing but her sex,
             And she avenges on this prodigy
             The folly of too staid, ascetic youth. 
             A noble woman’s half, yes all, a man—­
             It is their faults that make them woman-kind. 
             And that resistance, which the oft deceived
             Gains through experience, the King has not;
             A light disport he takes for bitter earn’st. 
             But this shall not endure, I warrant thee! 
             The foe is at the borders, and the King
             Shall hie him where long since he ought to be;
             Myself shall lead him hence.  And so an end.

ISAAC.  Try what you can!  And if not with us, then
             You are against us, and will break your neck
             In vain attempt to clear the wide abyss.

(The sound of flutes.)

But hark!  With cymbals and with horns they come,
As Esther with King Ahasuerus came,
Who raised the Jews to fame and high estate.

GARCERAN.  Must I, then, see in this my King’s debauch
             A picture of myself from early days,
             And be ashamed for both of us at once?

[A boat upon which are the KING, RACHEL and suite, appears on the river.]

KING.  Lay to!  Here is the place—­the arbor here.

RACHEL.  The skiff is rocking—­hold me, lest I fall.

[The KING has jumped to the shore.]

RACHEL.  And must I walk to shore upon this board
             So thin and weak?

KING.  Here, take my hand, I pray!

RACHEL.  No, no, I’m dizzy.

GARCERAN (to himself).

Dizzy are you?  Humph!

KING (who has conducted her to the shore).

It is accomplished now—­this mighty task!

RACHEL.  No, never will I enter more a ship.

(Taking the KING’s arm.)

Permit me, noble Sire, I am so weak! 
Pray feel my heart, how fev’rishly it beats!

KING.  To fear, is woman’s right; but you abuse it.

RACHEL.  You now, hard-hearted, take away your aid! 
             And, oh, these garden walks, how hard they are! 
             With stones, and not with sand, they’re roughly strewn
             For men to walk on, not for women’s feet.