by Steve Moore
Methinks I’ll gallop ’neath the night-dark sky!
PERSES:
My Lord, this is not wise, for who can tell…
ENDYMION:
Obey me, Perses! Wretched man! Obey!
PERSES:
Restrain yourself, my Prince! Here safety lies,
Yet outside who knows what the Fates intend?
ENDYMION:
The Fates? They promise bliss for brave men, or,
They promise death for fools! What care have I?
I laugh at fate, not fate at me. I’ll ride.
PERSES:
If so you are resolv’d, I’ll to it straight,
Though begging you again to stay at home…
ENDYMION:
I’ll not! The stars will guide my course right well!
PERSES [Aside]:
Then ride out, Prince, but I’ll be close behind;
Where’er your will doth lead, there follow I!
[Exeunt]
ACT TWO
SCENE ONE: Night. The slopes of Mount Latmos. A rock, to one side. Enter SELENE and AURORA, opposite, wrapped in black cloaks.
AURORA:
Alas, methinks this night’s adventuring,
If not ill-suited, is at least unwise.
To leave the silv’ry lunar barge invites
The wrath of Zeus and risks all cosmic law;
To even grace a lonely peak so wild
With your supernal beauty tempts the Fates
To wretched plots and trickeries connive.
Not like to high Olympus is this place…
SELENE:
Fie, girl! The lunar barge no steersman needs,
Nor need those silver slaves a word’s command.
Let Zeus upon it unattended come
If he can cease his wenching long enough
To cast his dull wine-clouded eye about!
AURORA:
E’en so, this place is wild and brooding strange,
Grotesquely shadow’d with a wind so chill…
SELENE:
Is this the speech of an immortal maid?
Go tend the Moon-barge if you like it not!
AURORA:
I think of your good comfort, nothing more.
SELENE:
Adventuring’s my comfort this strange night;
It smoulders within like a latent fire.
And if these chill winds fail to fan it bright,
Mayhap we’ll find our warmth in lovers’ arms
Before my sister wafts the night away!
AURORA:
Oh Mistress, now I know you can but jest!
Now, who upon this lonely peak is there
To shower your sweet Goddess-charms upon?
A lonesome shepherd ill-deserves such bliss;
Or would you take a black-heart bandit foul?
SELENE:
Why not? And boast it in the halls of Zeus!
Or taunt that split-tongu’d Hermes with his pledge,
A stolen gem-stone dangling round my neck!
AURORA:
Oh, Mistress, no!
SELENE:
Be not so simple, girl!
E’en so, I sense the weaving Fates conspire
To cast a web around this mountain height—
A web most curious, like Arachne weaves—
Yet what the warp, and what the weft, who knows?
Nor what it catches, netted unaware…
[Sound of hoof-beats, off]
AURORA:
Now listen, Mistress, someone rides this way.
SELENE:
We are invisible; it matters not.
Besides, the speed he rides he’ll pass us by,
And vanish swift in darkness thick and deep,
To slip away like dim forgotten dreams,
And leave us wond’ring why he rides so swift.
[Hoofbeats cease]
AURORA:
Perhaps not so! He draws rein, stops, dismounts…
He comes this way, my Lady! Let’s be gone!
[AURORA draws SELENE to one side. Enter ENDYMION opposite]
SELENE:
No, wait, Aurora, here is much to please;
He’s nobly form’d and has a princely air.
AURORA:
He looks to me, my Mistress, much the same
As any other mortal I beheld.
Be not deceiv’d by looks! Full handsome too
Is Hermes who you do abhor so much!
And this young rider—why, in face and build,
They strike me much alike!
[ENDYMION sits upon a rock]
SELENE:
What nonsense, girl!
I tell you straight, with aid of sight divine,
This cannot be that wretched God disguis’d!
But look how sorrow creases his fair brow!
Observe how desolation o’er him hangs!
AURORA:
I’d guess him lovesick, Lady!
SELENE:
Hold! He speaks!
ENDYMION:
O heaven that looks down on fools, look well!
‘Great Prince Endymion’, lord of widespread lands
So far across the sea—now all I have—
A little rock, and an unruly heart.
SELENE:
A prince, you see? No ill-bath’d shepherd this!
I wonder what afflicts his tragic soul?
AURORA:
’Tis love, I swear, and that will equal strike
At prince or fool, unmanning both alike.
ENDYMION:
It seems this ride was but an idle whim,
My loneliness to drown in lonely night—
It cannot be! But where then shall I find
The solace comforting a splinter’d heart? A crowded palace
seems an empty waste,
A lonely peak too crowded with ill thoughts.
[Takes out picture, looks at it]
Here only, in her image, in her eyes,
Is cooling balm that my delirium soothes,
Yet also fuels its fires and burns me too!
SELENE:
How contradict’ry is this lovesick man!
Disguise yourself now like a vagrant wind,
Aurora—go to him, and from his hand
This image snatch away. In truth, I’d see
What doe-ey’d creature plain can smite him so!
AURORA:
It seems a cruel jest on this poor wretch…
SELENE:
A wretch? A prince should have a sterner heart!
What’s stolen by the wind can soon return
And anguish him for moments only, girl!
A single glance will more than satisfy!
Now be about it, else this cherish’d sketch
Will vanish ’neath his doublet once again!
[AURORA crosses, snatches the picture, and returns]
ENDYMION:
What, no! It cannot be! Oh, cruel wind
That mocks me, snatching off this one small joy!
Oh, jesting Fates, your wit is far too grim!
[ENDYMION gets to his feet and starts searching for the picture]
AURORA:
I have it, Mistress, but I like this not!
Observe how agonis’d he now becomes!
SELENE:
It seems this girl has power to bewitch
That Aphrodite’s envy would arouse!
We’ll see—
[Looks at picture]
By Zeus and all his thunderbolts!
AURORA:
Is this some monster that offends your eye?
Who is this tyrant queen that rules him so?
[SELENE shows her the picture]
SELENE:
It seems it is no other than—myself!
AURORA:
Yourself? Why surely this is mockery!
I swear no mortal dares aspire so high!
The features are a little part alike,
&n
bsp; But beauty as she is, ’twould flatter her
If with your lovely self she was mistook!
SELENE:
The mortal hand has but a little slipp’d,
Unus’d to rendering the higher ones.
Myself it is, no other! This I know…
AURORA:
I dare to say you have an error made.
This picture is coincident, no more!
SELENE:
He speaks again!
ENDYMION:
Selene, dearest dream!
Oh, blackest night! Now even your sweet image
Is stolen away by the looting wind!
SELENE:
He speaks my name! It is myself! It is!
AURORA:
What kind of brute is this, that leaps so high?
Oh, strike him down, my Lady, with all haste!
Such pride must swift be punish’d, lest it grow.
[SELENE gives picture to AURORA]
SELENE:
Be hush’d! Throw down the picture at his feet.
I cannot bear to see such great despair
As settles now about this raptur’d prince!
Be swift, Aurora! Get about your work!
[AURORA tosses picture. ENDYMION picks it up, kisses it]
ENDYMION:
My Goddess! Now at last you reappear
As when you burst forth from the banked clouds.
Perhaps the Fates are smiling once again!
AURORA:
See how he kisses it! Disgusting sight!
That ever man should be so arrogant!
SELENE:
Perhaps he is a mite bemus’d, indeed,
But there’s no cause to take offence at that!
AURORA:
Yet see! He kisses your fair image so,
Again and again, and again still more!
All with such passion and enthusiasm,
And taking liberties as such he might
When merely fondling willing palace maids!
SELENE:
Well, is he not a prince among his kind?
And were I one among his serving girls
I think I’d gladly to his will succumb!
For there is tender passion in this prince
That all his raptur’d cries can ill disguise.
AURORA:
These words, I think, are quite the strangest kind
That e’er I heard escaping from your lips!
I’d almost think you willing to agree
To changing places with a palace slave!
SELENE:
Perhaps I would, for kisses such as these!
AURORA:
Oh say not so! You cannot think of this!
Not bow the knee to mortal will and whim
And let his hands caress your form divine!
SELENE:
Such high alarm, Aurora, only spurs
Me further to adventures strange! Besides,
I am a Goddess, not a mortal slave,
And he it is who’ll bend the knee to me!
AURORA:
Oh, Lady, you’ll not…
SELENE:
Fie, now! Silence, girl!
Methinks I’ll bandy kisses with this prince!
[SELENE moves toward ENDYMION]
SELENE [Whispers]:
Benighted prince, why clutch you so this daub
And press your lips against its lifeless cloth?
ENDYMION: Because it is my fair—
[Looks round]
Whose voice is this,
Both soft and sweet like notes struck from a lyre,
That floats so lightly with the midnight breeze,
Yet emanates from nothing, so ’twould seem…
SELENE:
Why, prince, did ever nothing speak so fair?
Perhaps your sight is dimm’d by lover’s tears.
Fear nothing if you cannot see my form;
I bring no harm and swear it by the name
Of that fair Goddess who you hold most dear.
ENDYMION:
I must be craz’d! The darkness seems to speak,
Its voice most like a mellifluous girl!
And yet, if real, where came that voice sublime?
No vile deluding-hag would swear such oaths.
Then could this be a mountain-sprite, perchance,
Or vapid nymph, ris’ from a sparkling stream?
Aye, that’s it! Nymph, though beautiful you be.
You are as nothing to the one I love!
Away, dull nymph! This prince is not for you!
SELENE:
Is there no curiosity in you?
Not e’en to glimpse the one who speaks these words?
ENDYMION:
Were even Aphrodite standing here,
Her magic girdle only ’bout her hips,
Not even this would tempt my love to change!
SELENE:
How now? Who is this woman you adore
And raise above the Golden One divine?
ENDYMION:
No mortal maiden, but a Goddess sweet;
The fairest quite among great heaven’s host,
Selene, Queen of Night—’tis she I love!
SELENE:
O bold and shameless man! How can you dare?
Repent, lest Zeus should hear, and strike you dead!
ENDYMION:
Then let him, I care little. Life or death
Are much the same if love is not return’d.
I love Selene—let the lightning strike!
For without her I am already dead.
Away now, nymph! Torment my mind no more!
SELENE:
These words are harsh for one who loves you so!
ENDYMION:
Forgive this mortal fool, it must be thus.
Selene has this heart of mine in thrall;
My eyes will look no further for a queen…
SELENE:
Then lift those eyes and gaze at she you love!
[SELENE opens cloak, revealing shining dress]
ENDYMION:
What awesome light is this that dazzles bright
These eyes of mine, long-dimm’d by bitter tears,
Its shining like the silv’ry Moon above?
SELENE:
I am none other than the Moon herself,
The Goddess you have worshipp’d from afar!
Your bright Selene stands before you now…
[ENDYMION prostrates himself]
SELENE:
Oh, come great prince, has your ambition flown?
Your chance is here to take—no grov’lling now!
I’d think you but ador’d an ankle fair,
Or does my robe’s low hem attract your love?
Rise up, Endymion! Clutch me ’gainst your breast!
ENDYMION:
O beauteous Goddess—this I cannot dare!
SELENE:
For shame! I thought you bold and true of heart!
I tire of being Mistress of the Moon;
A prince’s mistress now I wish to be!
Rise up, I say! And kiss these hungry lips!
ENDYMION:
How can I dare? Those lips are too divine
To sully with a lowly mortal’s kiss!
SELENE:
In truth, I hope you’ll dare much more than this,
When love’s sweet magic overcomes your awe!
Be bold and rise, or never more set eyes
On she you worship, she you idolise!
[ENDYMION stands]
ENDYMION:
Such loveliness of face I ne’er have seen,
Nor form so sweet—I scarce can draw a breath!
Too profligate is fortune now I fear!
Such bliss must surely fade and be no more;
I fear such fortune; fear to use it up!
I fear the more I have, the less remains!
SELENE:
Now hush, Endymion! No talk now of fear!
&nb
sp; All things I permit! Kiss your Goddess straight!
[They kiss]
AURORA: [Aside]:
How strange to see my mistress so entwin’d!
Observing this the Gods would snigger loud!
But from such folly no one can be sav’d
If once their heart is set upon this course.
And I can only watch the hilly slope
And see no gross intruder spoils their sport…
[Exit AURORA]
ENDYMION:
O nect’rous kiss! These lips ambrosia drip,
And make my former life mere nothingness
Compar’d with this one moment’s radiant bliss!
These sweetest lips begin my life anew.
I’ll kiss you once again, my Goddess fair,
And should I die the instant after this,
I’d think the time between such kisses sweet
A life well-spent, and ask for nothing more.
[Kisses her again]
SELENE:
But more there is, my now-embolden’d prince!
Another kiss will double your new life.
[Kisses continue]
It’s trebled now, and I’ll not stop until
You’re quite immortal made with fond repeats!
ENDYMION:
This smothering of kisses, lovely one,
Entrances, leaves me little time to think.
Oh, could those palace-scoffers see their prince,
His arms about his Goddess, tight-embrac’d,
They’d tear their eyes in jealous disbelief!
Indeed, I scarce believe this for myself,
That such a wond’rous dream should turn out true!
SELENE:
A Goddess truly, but a dream I’m not!