by W. B. Yeats
NONA. You are afraid.
SEPTIMUS. Could not you yourself take it? She does not love you, therefore she will not be terrible.
NONA. If you are a man at all you will take it.
SEPTIMUS. I am more than a man, I am extraordinarily wise. I will take the key.
DECIMA. If you come a step nearer I will shove the key through the grating of the door.
NONA [pulling him back]. Don’t go near her; if she shoves it through the door we shall not be able to escape. The crowd will find us and murder us.
DECIMA. I will unlock this gate when you have taken an oath to drive her from the company, an oath never to speak with her or look at her again, a terrible oath.
SEPTIMUS. You are jealous; it is very wrong to be jealous. An ordinary man would be lost — even I am not yet wise enough.
[Drinks again.] Now all is plain.
DECIMA. You have been unfaithful to me.
SEPTIMUS. I am only unfaithful when I am sober. Never trust a sober man. All the world over they are unfaithful. Never trust a man who has not bathed by the light of the Great Bear. I warn you against all sober men from the bottom of my heart. I am extraordinarily wise.
NONA. Promise, if it is only an oath she wants. Take whatever oath she bids you. If you delay we shall all be murdered.
SEPTIMUS. I can see your meaning. You would explain to me that an oath can be broken, more especially an oath under compulsion, but no, I say to you, no, I say to you, certainly not. Am I a rascally sober man, such a man as I have warned you against? Shall I be foresworn before the very eyes of Delphi, so to speak, before the very eyes of that cold, rocky oracle? What I promise I perform, therefore, my little darling, I will not promise anything at all.
DECIMA. Then we shall wait here. They will come in there and there, they will carry dung-forks with burning wisps. They will put the burning wisps into the roof and we shall be burnt.
SEPTIMUS. I shall die railing upon that beast. The Christian era has come to an end, but because of the machinations of Delphi he will not become the new Adam.
DECIMA. I shall be avenged. She starved me, but I shall have killed her.
NONA [who has crept behind DECIMA and snatched the key], I have it, I have it I [DECIMA tries to take the key again but SEPTIMUS holds her.
SEPTIMUS. Because I am an unforesworn man I am strong: a violent virginal creature, that is how it is put in “The Great Beastery of Paris.”
DECIMA. Go, then. I shall stay here and die.
NONA. Let us go. A half hour since she offered herself to every man in the company.
DECIMA. If you would be faithful to me, Septimus, I would not let a man of them touch me.
SEPTIMUS. Flighty, but beautiful.
NONA. She is a bad woman.
[NONA runs out.
SEPTIMUS. A beautiful, bad, flighty woman I will follow, but follow slowly. I will take with me this noble hat. [He picks up Noah’s hat with difficulty.] I will save the noble, high-crowned hat of Noah. I will carry it thus with dignity. I will go slowly that they may see I am not afraid. — [singing.
Upon the round blue eye I rail
Damnation on the milk-white horn.
But not one word of Delphi.
I am extraordinarily wise. — [He goes.
DECIMA. Betrayed, betrayed, and for a nobody. For a woman that a man can shake and twist like so much tallow. A woman that till now never looked higher than a prompter or a property man. [The OLD BEGGAR comes in.] Have you come to kill me, old man?
OLD BEGGAR. I am looking for straw. I must soon lie down and roll, and where will I get straw to roll on? I went round to the kitchen and ‘Go away’ they said. They made the sign of the cross as if it were a devil that puts me rolling.
DECIMA. When will the mob come to kill me?
OLD BEGGAR. Kill you? It is not you they are going to kill. It’s the itching in my back that drags them hither, for when I bray like a donkey, the crown changes.
DECIMA. The crown? So it is the Queen they are going to kill.
OLD BEGGAR. But, my dear, she can’t die till I roll and bray, and I will whisper to you what it is that rolls. It is the donkey that carried Christ into Jerusalem, and that is why he is so proud; and that is why he knows the hour when there is to be a new King or a new Queen.
DECIMA. Are you weary of the world, old man?
OLD BEGGAR. Yes, yes, because when I roll and bray I am asleep. I know nothing about it, and that is a great pity. I remember nothing but the itching in my back. But I must stop talking and find some straw.
DECIMA [picking up the scissors]. Old man, I am going to drive this into my heart.
OLD BEGGAR. NO, no; don’t do that. You don’t know what you will be put to when you are dead, into whose gullet you will be put to sing or to bray. You have a look of a foretelling sort. Who knows but you might be put to foretell the death of kings; and bear in mind I will have no rivals, I could not endure a rival.
DECIMA. I have been betrayed by a man, I have been made a mockery of. Do those who are dead, old man, make love and do they find good lovers?
OLD BEGGAR. I will whisper you another secret. People talk, but I have never known of anything to come from there but an old jackass. Maybe there is nothing else. Who knows but he has the whole place to himself. But there, my back is beginning to itch, and I have not yet found any straw.
[He goes out. DECIMA leans the scissors upon the arm of the throne and is about to press herself upon them when the QUEEN enters.
QUEEN [stopping her]. No, no, — that would be a great sin.
DECIMA. Your Majesty!
QUEEN. I thought I would like to die a martyr, but that would be different, that would be to die for God’s glory. The Holy Saint Octema was a martyr.
DECIMA. I am very unhappy.
QUEEN. I, too, am very unhappy. When I saw the great angry crowd and knew that they wished to kill me, though I had wanted to be a martyr, I was afraid and ran away.
DECIMA. I would not have run away. Oh no, but it is hard to drive a knife into one’s own flesh.
QUEEN. In a moment they will have come and they will beat in the door, and how shall I escape them?
DECIMA. If they could mistake me for you, you would escape.
QUEEN. I could not let another die instead of me. That would be very wrong.
DECIMA. Oh, your Majesty, I shall die whatever you do, and if only I could wear that gold brocade and those gold slippers for one moment, it would not be so hard to die.
QUEEN. They say that those who die to save a rightful sovereign show great virtue.
DECIMA. Quick! the dress.
QUEEN. If you killed yourself your soul would be lost, and now you will be sure of heaven.
DECIMA. Quick, I hear them coming.
[DECIMA puts on the QUEEN’S robe of state and her slippers. Underneath her robe of state the QUEEN wears some kind of nun-like dress. The following speech is spoken by the QUEEN while she is helping DECIMA to fasten the dress and the slippers.
QUEEN. Was it love? [DECIMA nods.] Oh, that is a great sin. I have never known love. Of all things, that is what I have had most fear of. Saint Octema shut herself up in a tower on a mountain because she was loved by a beautiful prince. I was afraid it would come in at the eye and seize upon me in a moment. I am not naturally good, and they say people will do anything for love, there is so much sweetness in it. Even Saint Octema was afraid of it. But you will escape all that and go up to God as a pure virgin. [The change is now complete.] Goodbye, I know how I can slip away. There is a convent that will take me in. It is not a tower, it is only a convent, but I have long wanted to go there to lose my name and disappear. Sit down upon the throne and turn your face away. If you do not turn your face away, you will be afraid. [The QUEEN goes out.
[DECIMA is seated upon the throne. A great crowd gathers outside the gates.
A BISHOP enters.
BISHOP. Your loyal people, your Majesty, offer you their homage. I bow before you in their
name. Your royal will has spoken by the mouth of the Prime Minister — has filled them with gratitude. All misunderstandings are at an end, all has been settled by your condescension in bestowing your royal hand upon the Prime Minister. [To crowd] Her Majesty, who has hitherto shut herself away from all men’s eyes that she might pray for this kingdom undisturbed, will henceforth show herself to her people.
[To PLAYER QUEEN.] So beautiful a queen need never fear the disobedience of her people [shouts from crowd of ‘never’]
PRIME MINISTER [entering hurriedly]. I will explain all, your Majesty — there was nothing else to be done — This Bishop has been summoned to unite us [seeing the QUEEN]; but, sleep of Adam! — this — who is this?
DECIMA. Your emotion is too great for words. Do not try to speak.
PRIME MINISTER. This — this!
DECIMA [standing up], I am queen. I know what it is to be queen. If I were to say to you I had an enemy you would kill him — you would tear him in pieces. [Shouts ‘we would kill him’, ‘we would tear him in pieces’ etc.] But I do not bid you kill any one — I bid you obey my husband when I have raised him to the throne. He is not of royal blood, but I choose to raise him to the throne. That is my will. Show me that you will obey him so long as I bid you to obey. — [Great cheering, [SEPTIMUS, who has been standing among the crowd, comes forward and takes the PRIME MINISTER by the sleeve. Various persons kiss the hand of the supposed QUEEN, SEPTIMUS. My Lord, that is not the queen; that is my bad wife. [DECIMA looks at them.
PRIME MINISTER. Did you see that? Did you see the devil in her eye. They are mad after her pretty face, and she knows it. They would not believe a word I say; there is nothing to be done till they cool.
DECIMA. Are all here my faithful servants?
BISHOP. All, your Majesty.
DECIMA. All?
PRIME MINISTER [bowing low]. All, your Majesty.
DECIMA [singing].
She pulled the thread, and bit the thread
And made a golden gown.
Hand me that plate of lobster and that bottle of wine. While I am eating I will have a good look at my new man.
[The -plate and bottle of wine are handed to her. The bray of a donkey is heard and the OLD BEGGAR is dragged in.
BISHOP. At last we have found this impostor out. He has been accepted by the whole nation as if he were the Voice of God. As if the crown could not be settled firmly on any head without his help. [Shouts from the mob of ‘impostor’, ‘rogue’ etc.]. It’s plain that he has been in league with the conspirators, and believed that your Majesty had been killed. He is keeping it up still. Look at his glassy eye. But his madman airs won’t help him now.
PRIME MINISTER [shaking SEPTIMUS]. Do you understand that there has been a miracle, that God or the Fiend has spoken, and that the crown is on her head for good, that fate has brayed on that man’s lips. [Aloud.] We will hang him in the morning.
SEPTIMUS. She is my wife.
PRIME MINISTER. The crown has changed and there is no help for it. Sleep of Adam, I must have that woman for wife. The Oracle has settled that.
[Take him away to prison.
SEPTIMUS. She is my wife, she is my bad, flighty wife.
PRIME MINISTER. Seize this man. He has been whispering slanders against her Majesty. Cast him beyond the borders of the kingdom and find the company of players he belongs to. They also are banished and must not return on pain of death. Now, my Lord Bishop, I am ready.
DECIMA [singing].
She wept because she had dreamt that I
Was born to wear a crown.
[She flings the lobster’s claw at the PRIME MINISTER.
Come — crack that claw.
KING OEDIPUS
Based on Sophocles’ Play
PERSONS IN THE PLAY
Oedipus, King of Thebes
Tiresias, a seer
Jocasta, wife of Oedipus —
A Priest
Antigone, daughter of Oedipus —
Messengers
Ismene, daughter of Oedipus
A Herdsman
Creon, brother-in-law of Oedipus
Chorus
KING OEDIPUS
Scene: Outside the Palace of King Oedipus
OEDIPUS. Children, descendants of old Cadmus, why do you come before me, why do you carry the branches of suppliants, while the city smokes with incense and murmurs with prayer and lamentation? I would not learn from any mouth but yours, old man, therefore I question you myself. Do you know of anything that I can do and have not done? How can I, being the man I am, being King Oedipus, do other than all I know? I were indeed hard of heart did I not pity such suppliants.
PRIEST. Oedipus, King of my country, we who stand before your door are of all ages, some too young to have walked so many miles, some — priests of Zeus such as I — too old. Among us stand the pick of the young men, and behind in the market-places the people throng, carrying suppliant branches. We all stand here because the city stumbles towards death, hardly able to raise up its head. A blight has fallen upon the fruitful blossoms of the land, a blight upon flock and field and upon the bed of marriage — plague ravages the city. Oedipus, King, not God but foremost of living men, seeing that when you first came to this town of Thebes you freed us from that harsh singer, the riddling Sphinx, we beseech you, all we suppliants, to find some help; whether you find it by your power as a man, or because, being near the Gods, a God has whispered you. Uplift our State; think upon your fame; your coming brought us luck, be lucky to us still; remember that it is better to rule over men than over a waste place, since neither walled town nor ship is anything if it be empty and no man within it.
OEDIPUS. My unhappy children! I know well what need has brought you, what suffering you endure; yet, sufferers though you be, there is not a single one whose suffering is as mine — each mourns himself, but my soul mourns the city, myself, and you. It is not therefore as if you came to arouse a sleeping man. No! Be certain that I have wept many tears and searched hither and thither for some remedy. I have already done the only thing that came into my head for all my search. I have sent the son of Menoeceus, Creon, my own wife’s brother, to the Pythian House of Phoebus, to hear if deed or word of mine may yet deliver this town. I am troubled, for he is a long time away — a longer time than should be — but when he comes I shall not be an honest man unless I do whatever the God commands.
PRIEST. YOU have spoken at the right time. They have just signalled to us that Creon has arrived.
OEDIPUS. O King Apollo, may he bring brighter fortune, for his face is shining!
PRIEST. He brings good news, for he is crowned with bay.
OEDIPUS. We shall know soon. Brother-in-law, Menoeceus’ son, what news from the God?
CREON. Good news; for pain turns to pleasure when we have set the crooked straight.
OEDIPUS. But what is the oracle? — so far the news is neither good nor bad.
CREON. If you would hear it with all these about you, I am ready to speak. Or do we go within?
OEDIPUS. Speak before all. The sorrow I endure is less for my own life than these.
CREON. Then, with your leave, I speak. Our lord Phoebus bids us drive out a defiling thing that has been cherished in this land.
OEDIPUS. By what purification?
CREON. King Laius was our King before you came to pilot us.
OEDIPUS. I know — but not of my own knowledge, for I never saw him.
CREON. He was killed; and the God now bids us revenge it on his murderers, whoever they be.
OEDIPUS. Where shall we come upon their track after all these years? Did he meet his death in house or field, at home or in some foreign land?
CREON. In a foreign land: he was journeying to Delphi.
OEDIPUS. Did no fellow-traveller see the deed? Was there none there who could be questioned?
CREON. All perished but one man who fled in terror and could tell for certain but one thing of all he had seen.
OEDIPUS. One thing might
be a clue to many things.
CREON. He said that they were fallen upon by a great troop of robbers.
OEDIPUS. What robbers would be so daring unless bribed from here?
CREON. Such things were indeed guessed at, but Laius once dead no avenger arose. We were amid our troubles.
OEDIPUS. But when royalty had fallen what troubles could have hindered search?
CREON. The riddling Sphinx put those dark things out of our thoughts — we thought of what had come to our own doors.