SCENE I

Place: Dothan.

Characters: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Joseph, Several Ishmaelitish Merchants.

[The ten brothers are sitting and lounging on the ground, eating bread.]

Reuben: Shall we stay longer in this place? Our flocks have fed well in Shechem and Dothan. Let us return again unto Canaan and to the tent of our father, Jacob.

Judah: Oh, why should we go back? Our father loveth us not! It is Joseph, our younger brother, that he favoreth!

Levi: Yes, this Joseph! This dreamer of dreams! He thinketh he is greater than we. He thinketh he shall rule over us!

Judah: Ye heard him when he said, "Hear this dream which I have dreamed: Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and bowed down to my sheaf."

Simeon: Ha! Shall he indeed reign over us? Or shall he have dominion over us?

Levi: Yea, and he dreamed yet another dream, for he said, "Behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars bowed down unto me."

Dan: What is this dream which he has dreamed? Shall his mother and father and eleven brethren indeed come to bow down themselves to him?

Simeon: Joseph and his dreams are hateful unto me! I was glad when our father said to us, "Take the flocks to feed in Shechem," for now we are free of him.

Levi: It seemeth to me that I see this Joseph, this dreamer whom we hate. He is yet afar off, but he surely approacheth us!

Reuben: Can it be he?

Dan: Yes, for I see the coat of many colors, the coat our father made for his favorite son.

Levi: Why should he come to us? Cannot our father trust the flocks to our hands without sending this Joseph to spy on us?

Dan: It is he! It is Joseph!

Simeon: What shall we do?

Judah: Our time is come. We despise him; let us slay him.

Reuben: Nay, thou dost not mean to slay him!

Several: Nay! Nay!

Judah: We must surely slay him. We must rid ourselves of this dreamer. Think how he said he should reign over us! Let us be rid of him!

Simeon: Yes, thou art right—we must slay him.

Several: Yea, yea, slay him! Destroy him! He shall dream no more such dreams!

Simeon: Behold, this dreamer cometh near! Come, now, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, "Some evil beast hath devoured him," and we shall see what will become of his dreams.

Reuben: Let us not kill him. Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him.

[Reuben goes away.]

[Joseph runs up. Gad lays one hand roughly on his shoulder.]

Gad: How comes it that thou art here? What is thy business?

Joseph: My father commanded me and said, "Go, I pray thee, and see whether it be well with thy brethren and well with the flocks; and bring me word again." So he sent me out of the vale of Hebron, and I came to Shechem. And you were not there, and I came on after you and found you here. What troubleth you? Hath aught happened to the flocks?

Simeon: Hear his tale! This dreamer of dreams! So he would reign over us, would he! Strip him of his coat of many colors! This favored son!

[Brothers bind Joseph and cast him into the pit.]

Joseph: What have I done to deserve this?

[Brothers sit down again to eat their bread.]

Gad: Behold, I see a caravan!

Simeon: From what country?

Gad: It is a company of Ishmaelites, from Gilead, with their camels, bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going down into Egypt.

Judah: What doth it profit if we slay our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to these Ishmaelites and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh.

Several: So be it.

Gad: Hail the caravan, and bargain with these men.

Simeon [salutes the head man of the caravan; the brothers listen attentively; Gad brings Joseph out of the pit]: What wilt thou give us in exchange for this lad? We would sell him.

Merchant [looks Joseph over, then consults with his men]: Twenty pieces of silver will we give for him.

Simeon [to the brothers]: These merchants will give us twenty pieces of silver for this dreamer.

All: Sell him! Sell him!

[Joseph is taken over by the merchants and they all move on. The brothers are dividing out the money.]

Gad: The lad is gone with the merchants, but what excuse shall we make unto our father?

Simeon: Say unto him that a wild beast hath devoured him. Here is his coat of many colors—we will kill a goat and dip the coat in the blood! Then our father, Jacob, will grieve for his son!

All: As thou sayest, so let us do!

[Brothers move off stage, discussing the money. Reuben comes back. He runs and looks in the pit. He tears his clothes when he finds that Joseph is not there.]

Reuben: The child is not, and I, whither shall I go?