Tales Before Tolkien
Page 51
That may invisibly be reaching to me—
Shall I be like a huckster, demanding first
To see the good?—or like a faithful heart,
Adventuring in unknown places,
Confiding in the eventual mercy of Heaven?
(She eats)
(While the three are eating their pies, Emerald steps to the front, wringing her hands softly)
Emerald. (aside) The mottoes are not mine—
Old Nightshade, she has written them in her fire!
I don’t know which are good and which is bad—
I dare not ask her!
(She walks about, then comes to a stand again, with clasped hands.)
There’s nothing happening yet!—what will be next?
Will the Witch speak?—
Surely these husbands can’t appear to-day—
This minute?—
The spell must have a time to take effect—
Except that the Witch knows now, and may from malice
Give the bad news for one!
In truth, I overlooked that there might be
This unendurable interval of waiting!
It’s hard, and cruel, and mocking!—
These feelings, I think, must be the dreadful kind
That mortals have—troubling all their faces!
I may be turning mortal! Perhaps I am!—
No! I’m not strong enough—I’d die at once!
(She sings quietly)
He without friend
Cannot love
Cannot defend
Cannot save.
His heart of love
Dungeoned is—
The day above
Through chinks it sees.
His heart of love
Sickens and dies—
It cannot move
After its eyes.
(The sisters have finished their pies. Violetta, drawing near to Emerald, gently touches her arm.)
Violetta. Now always will your song be my song too!
Emerald. (perturbed) Nearly without knowing what I did,
I sang it!—
Yet if its sense has found an echo in you
Because you’ve chosen him it fits so closely,
Your song through life I fear indeed it shall be!—
Dear Rosa and Lila, how is it with you?
Has the song saddened you, like Violetta?
Rosa. I heard you sing, but not attended well—
Much louder in my spirit the pie is singing!
Marvellously gay I feel, and nothing sad!
My Prince—no doubt of it!—is on his way
To kiss and wed me!
Lila. Already mine is here!—or just the same.—
Poor Violetta! with your sweet emotions
Of sympathy and pity! Marry them,
Violetta! For me, a man of flesh and blood!
Lovely shall be the flesh, and high the blood!
Rosa. You’re nearest to me, Lila, after all!
There’s something in the failure to aim high—
Give it the best name we will—
Lila. Stamps a mean nature!—I know! And that’s the way
Of thinking of the world.
If we are called upon to set example—
Rosa. We must be less eccentric!
Violetta, in the low place she has chosen,
May be so if she pleases. Almost the only—
Lila. I know what you would say! Almost the only
Right that the humble have, is to be humble.
She who sits high—
Rosa. Must be as proud as she has been ambitious!
Emerald. But are you sure, dear Violetta’s sisters,
You’ve eaten Princes?
Lila. If I have not now eaten the handsomest Prince,
I make a vow I’ll never eat again!
Rosa. Mine should be statelier and nobler to suit my years
If there is justice in it! And to suit my taste,
Handsomer too!
Lila. If mine’s not handsomer, I’ll be discontent—
And nobler, and richer!
Emerald. (to Rosa) But are you as sure as she?
Rosa. I’m sure I greatly like what I have eaten!
(Lila throws out her arms gaily.)
Lila. The Princess Lila had a dream—
She dreamt that she was poor again.
Her Prince’s eyes with mirth did gleam—
“Why, how could that be, foolish wife,
When all the days of all your life
Within my arms you’ve lain?”
(speaks) And so I have! For this wild hour to come
Has always been predestinate!
Rosa. The Princess Rosa had a dream—
She dreamt that there was higher bliss.
Her Prince’s eyes with fire did gleam—
“Why, how could that be, witless wife,
When all the valleys of your life
Are radiant in my kiss?”—
(speaks) Meaning, there’s nothing higher than the sun,
Which, chasing the earthly shadows of the mountains,
Gilds every hollow. The sun as well’s a Prince!
(The two girls dance about. Of a sudden the Witch takes another quick step forward, raising her staff.)
Nightshade. (in a high, sharp, weird voice) Be still and silent, ye senseless ones!
(Rosa and Lila stop short and face the Witch in alarm. Then loud music sounds, and while it continues the Witch throws off her witch’s things, standing suddenly revealed as Titania, Queen of the Fairies. Rosa and Lila drop to their knees before her. Emerald, after making her a low, frightened, yet very graceful obeisance, likewise sinks to her knees. Only Violetta remains standing before Titania, her feet together, her hands folded, her head bent in reverence. The tableau endures without change for full two minutes, the music always playing. But at the last the music dies away.)
Emerald. (in a low, awed voice) Titania!—dread Queen of Elves and Fairies!
Titania. In the remotest cave the Witch lies sleeping,
Beneath my power! Her semblance I have borrowed—
To-day has no one been here but Titania!
(Violetta slowly kneels.)
Titania. Rosa and Lila!
Because you so desire to marry Princes
And Emerald has begged it for you all,
Have them you shall—and soon!
Right were your choices. But the dawn, Rosa,
Is not full day, and so your Prince as yet
Must something lack of power.—
Lila, to shake is not to bring down to you
Fortune—so that, for all your princely marriage,
Fortune for you must still remain mysterious.—
Yet shall these husbands high be very proud
Young, noble and loving—see you love them well!—
And still a doom I set against my gift,
For that you’ve scorned a poor old wretched woman,
Witch though you deemed her—and have nearly scorned
Your sister, too! I’ll speak it in a minute.
(to Violetta) The third lot you were told!
Violetta. (in low tones) How shall I beg forgiveness for my kissing you?
I could not know you!
Titania. You kissed me good beneath the apparent bad—
So would I test your heart. For needful is it
Your husband’s wife shall have a loving heart—
No other friend is his! Are you content?
Violetta. You will not give me one I cannot love.
Titania. Then who is he without a friend?
Beggars have friends in their adversity
All mortal sufferers of ills have friends
The base have friends in baseness
He who would hide from the world still can’t escape
From some one pitying friend—
Name to me, then, the man without a friend!
Violetta. I cannot.
&n
bsp; Titania. A King!—he has no friend!—
(Rosa and Lila utter sharp, low exclamations.)
Titania. Courtiers a king has, smiling out their lies—
They’re not his friends. Let him be dispossessed
They’ll disappear like smoke. Ministers he has,
Each wishing to be a little king beneath him—
Neither are they his friends, for every hour
They’d rob him of some royal privilege
To make it theirs. Servants and soldiers he has,
Using his name to colour their own virtues
And glories—but let the king die, another king
Will do for them as well. Subjects he has
Honouring his flags and shouting in the streets—
Their friendship’s like a soul without a body,
They do not know the king.
No friend the king has, for he has no equal
Only his Queen’s his equal, and his friend!—
And therefore, Violetta, have I ordered it
That you a King shall marry!
(Violetta humbly kisses her hand in silence.)
Titania. For none of all the women that I see—
No one but you—has such a store of love
As he must need who knows no other love!
So have I tested you this Christmas Eve—
Of purest gold’s your heart, my Violetta!
Violetta. (in the same low voice) How know you I shall love this King?
Titania. I have so managed it
That you’ve both met in Dreamland, and have loved
Each other passing well! He is not old—
Singular is his face in shining majesty
And he is full of care, yet not his own.
Remember also what your motto said—
“Nothing you are to lose”—
But what have you the most of, you might lose?
Love is your chiefest treasure, Violetta!
Therefore you’ll not lose love in marrying him
I have commanded.
(She turns again to Rosa and Lila.)
Titania. You other sisters! this now is the doom
I set upon you for your unkind hearts—
Though I’ve considered, too, you are but children.
If ever help you need in earthly like,
To Violetta you shall have recourse
And she shall help you!
So shall your pride be less, when you shall see
Your equal sister above you, dispensing bounty!
(Lila cries quietly, putting her hands before her eyes. Rosa tries unsuccessfully to control her agitations. Emerald falls before Titania.)
Emerald. Dear Queen! recall this dismal prediction!
Truly their hearts are good—and it is Christmas,
When love and kindness rule!
Titania. So far, then, I’ll diminish it for your sake—
That while they love, they shall not ever need!—
Rise, Emerald!
(Emerald stands up.)
Titania. To-day you also have been tried, O Emerald!
Obedient to me, I hope, are all the fairies—
Rich in their glowing deeds—
These things are not peculiar to any,
They are the very nature of you all.
But, Emerald, with it—on unknown her account
Who was to wed a man wanting a friend—
Suffered you have!
Beautifully with delicate fairy strength
This unacquainted pain you have upborne—
For which, no less than these three mortal maids,
You deserve reward! What then shall it be?
Emerald. Indeed I was in pain, but could not help it,
And did not want it—really, I did not want it!
Why should I be rewarded?
Titania. Light fay! is it your Queen you dare to question?
Name what you most desire!
Emerald. I cannot say so soon. I do not think
I want a thing.
Titania. Consider still!
Emerald. Unless it were—that I might never do
In mortal body!
Titania. Why that, O timorous one?
Emerald. I am too weak!
This hour I seem to know that mortals’ goodness,
Unlike that of th’ fairies, must be a triumph!
Pain and temptation and a host of feelings
Are there within the heart, to say it nay!
Because I am not warlike, I’d not lose
My goodness.
Titania. Mortal you shall not be until you wish it,
I promise you.
Some day, dear Emerald, you will understand
The high adventure of that arm-ed goodness,
Warring with pain, sloth, lies and lovely sin!—
Then may you crave of me what now you dread,
And I shall grant it!—
Meanwhile what other wish have you to ask?
Emerald. None, great Titania!
Titania. So I’ll pronounce the reward!
To-day have not I given you more than you begged?
You begged three Princes for your maidens three—
Two have I given you, and a King withal!
Is not this more?
Emerald. It’s more indeed!
Titania. Then so henceforward shall it always be—
What you shall ask of me in purest kindness,
That I will add to!
(Emerald goes on one knee, and kisses her hand.)
Titania. Rise, all!
(The three sisters and Emerald all stand up.)
Titania. One still awaits her payment!
We must not steal from the Witch an hour of her life
When she’s so few!—What shall I pay her in?
(During a whole minute, while music plays, Titania from time to time makes mystic passes in the air, towards the inner cave. At last Mother Nightshade, in true person, comes stumbling in, rubbing her eyes. She squints at everybody in turn, but starts back a little from Titania. The music ceases.)
Nightshade. Hey-day! There’s company!
I’ve been asleep, and wake to this!
(She goes up to the three sisters.)
And who are you, my dears? You’re much too pretty!
I’d like to blear your eyes, and blotch your cheeks,
And twist your legs in knots!
(She sees Emerald.)
(chuckling) You I know!
The biggest goose among the fairies!
Simple they all are, but you’re the simpleton!
Who bade you here?—Why do I hold assembly?
Is evil work afoot?
(to Titania) Great is the honour, potent Queen,
When you bring your Academy to the Witch!
Perchance you wish instruction in my craft
For these young ladies?
Titania. Your shape I borrowed for an hour, old wife!
I gave you sleep instead. Now I’d repay you.
Nightshade. You took my shape!—unheard-of insolence!
Repay me indeed you shall!
What have you done in my shape, I’d wish to know?
Who gave you leave?
What tricks have you been up to?
Titania. Peace, aged woman! Far too rough your tongue is!
Can you not see between your ill and well-wishers?
A gift I offer you, and let that cancel
All talk and memory between us of this hour—
Do you consent?
Nightshade. The gift must be a good one then!
Titania. Such as you’ve never had before!—
Do you consent?
Nightshade. (suspiciously) What is the gift?
Titania. A magic one—
It will not harm you, but the spell were spoilt
If I informed you first.
Nightshade. Magic and spells I love! Tell me but this—
Will it tak
e from me life, or power of limb?
Titania. I’ve said it will not harm you.
Nightshade. I’m still in hesitation!
Why should you make a gift to me—your enemy?
Titania. Dream not, good wife, that you’re my enemy!
I have no enemy but wickedness,
And you are but its feeble instrument
That might be made to serve another use.
Choose you, however, between this gift I offer
And one that shall be worse!
Nightshade. Come! come! put by your wrath!
I’ll chance the gift!
(Titania makes a pass over her.)
Titania. ’Tis done!—And what can no more be undone
Now I may tell you!
Nightshade. Ay! quickly tell me!
Titania. I have restored your memories, old dame!
So that your childhood’s earliest happenings,
As they were pictures, shall return to you
All painted and vivid!
About the cottage floor you’ll see yourself
Toddling and waiting for your bread-and-butter—
You’ll see your father coming home from work,
Lifting you in his arms and kissing you—
You’ll see and hear your mother singing songs
While she rolls out her pastry.
Not shadowy and forgettable shall be these things
But touching you to the quick! And such the spell
’Twill fiercest work when you are all alone
Here in this cave—or when at other times
You’re out on mischief.
Then shall you ask yourself again and again
Which of your days have happiest been, and best—
When you were fresh, fragrant, pure, as summer morn,
Or now when you are like a human sore,
Offensive to everyone—yourself as well!
Such is my gift, old woman!
It shall begin to move when we are gone,
And have no doubt, before a day is past,
You shall be wondering how your life to renew,
Renouncing malisons and black enchantment
And forbidden occupation with the things
Of death and ugly evil!
Nightshade. Should this be true, you’ve fooled me, Queen of Fairies!
Likewise, I shall have lost the only art
I have to live by! Now I must starve, I suppose!—
Little that matters to you in a holy action!
Titania. You shall not starve. Each day to this cave
Emerald shall bring you milk and a loaf of bread.—
And, till you have changed your character, old, old woman,
See that you harm her not by craft or violence!—
It will be best for you!
(Mother Nightshade offers to reply, but Titania waves her down.)
Titania. Now silent be! I have no more to say.
(She makes a pass.)