PARIS. He has made you sit upon your wings. [HELENA, jumping up, shifts
her position.] You are groping in the darkness.
HELENA. Don't be silly. It's very light in here.
PARIS [undisturbed]. You are stumbling, and I have come to lead you. [He
steps toward her.]
HELENA. Stop right there! [PARIS stops.] No man but the King can come
within ten feet of me. It's a court tradition.
PARIS. Necessity knows no tradition. [He falls on his knees before her.]
I shall come close to you, though the flame of your beauty consume me.
HELENA. You'd better be careful what you say to me. Remember I'm the
Queen.
PARIS. No man weighs his words who has but a moment to live.
HELENA. You said that exactly like an actor. [He leans very close to
her.] What are you doing now?
PARIS. I am looking into you. You are the clear glass in which I read
the secret of the universe.
HELENA. The secret of the universe. Ah! Perhaps you could understand me.
PARIS. First you must understand yourself.
HELENA [instinctively taking up a mirror]. How?
PARIS. You must break with all this prose. [With an unconscious gesture
he sweeps a tray of toilet articles from the table. HELENA emits a
little shriek.]
HELENA. The ointment!
PARIS [rushing to the window and pointing to the distance]. And climb to
infinite poesie!
HELENA [catching his enthusiasm, says very blandly]. There is nothing in
the world like poetry.
PARIS [lyrically]. Have you ever heard the poignant breathing of the
stars?
HELENA. No. I don't believe in astrology.
PARIS. Have you ever smelt the powdery mists of the sun?
HELENA. I should sneeze myself to death.
PARIS. Have you ever listened to the sapphire soul of the sea?
HELENA. Has the sea a soul? But please don't stop talking. You do it so
beautifully.
PARIS. Deeds are sweeter than words. Shall we go hand in hand to meet
eternity?
HELENA [not comprehending him]. That's very pretty. Say it again.
PARIS [passionately]. There's but a moment of life left me. I shall
stifle it in ecstasy. Helena, Helena, I adore you!
HELENA [jumping up in high surprise]. You're not making love to me, you
naughty boy?
PARIS. Helena!
HELENA. You've spoken to me so little, and already you dare to do that.
PARIS [impetuously]. I am a lover of life. I skip the inessentials.
HELENA. Remember who I am.
PARIS. I have not forgotten. Daughter of Heaven. [Suddenly he leaps to
his feet.] Listen!
HELENA. Shhh! That's the King and Analytikos in the library.
PARIS. No! No! Don't you hear the flutter of wings?
HELENA. Wings?
PARIS [ecstatically]. Venus, mother of Love!
HELENA [alarmed]. What is it?
PARIS. She has sent her messenger. I hear the patter of little feet.
HELENA. Those little feet are the soldiers below in the courtyard. [A
trumpet sounds.]
PARIS [the truth of the situation breaking through his emotion]. In a
moment I shall be killed.
HELENA. Killed?
PARIS. Save me and save yourself!
HELENA. Myself?
PARIS. I shall rescue you and lead you on to life.
HELENA. No one has ever spoken to me like that before.
PARIS. This is the first time your ears have heard the truth.
HELENA. Was it of you I've been dreaming?
PARIS. Your dream was but your unrealized desire.
HELENA. Menelaus has never made me feel like this. [And then with a
sudden shriek.] Oh! I'm a wicked woman!
PARIS. No! No!
HELENA. For years I've been living with a man I didn't love.
PARIS. Yes! Yes!
HELENA. I'm lost!
PARIS [at a loss]. No! Yes! Yes! No!
HELENA. It was a profanation of the most holy.
PARIS. The holiest awaits you, Helena! Our love will lighten the
Plutonian realms.
HELENA. Menelaus never spoke to me like that.
PARIS. 'Tis but the first whisper of my adoration.
HELENA. I can't face him every morning at breakfast for the rest of my
life. That's even more than a Queen can bear.
PARIS. I am waiting to release you.
HELENA. I've stood it for seven years.
PARIS. I've been coming to you since the beginning of time.
HELENA. There is something urging me to go with you, something I do not
understand.
PARIS. Quick! There is but a moment left us. [He takes her rapturously
in his arms. There is a passionate embrace in the midst of which TSUMU
enters.]
TSUMU. The chiropodist has come.
HELENA. Bring me my outer garment and my purse.
[TSUMU exits, her eyes wide on PARIS.]
PARIS. Helena! Helena!
[HELENA looks about her and takes up the papyrus that MENELAUS has flung
to the floor.]
HELENA. A last word to the King. [She looks at the papyrus.] No, this
won't do; I shall have to take this with me.
PARIS. What is it?
HELENA. Maskanda's discourse on the hip.
[A trumpet sounds below in the courtyard.]
PARIS [excitedly]. Leave it--or your hip may cost me my head. We haven't
a minute to spare. Hurry! Hurry!
[HELENA takes up an eyebrow pencil and writes on the back of the
papyrus. She looks for a place to put it and seeing the shield she
smears it with some of the ointment and sticks the papyrus to it.]
PARIS [watching her in ecstasy]. You are the fairest of all fair women
and your name will blaze as a symbol throughout eternity. [TSUMU enters
with the purse and the QUEEN'S outer robe.]
HELENA [tossing the purse to PARIS]. Here, we may need this.
PARIS [throwing it back to TSUMU]. This for your silence, daughter of
darkness. A prince has no heed of purses.
TSUMU [looking at him]. A prince!
HELENA [gloriously]. My prince of poetry. My deliverer!
PARIS [divinely]. My queen of love!
[They go out, TSUMU looking after them in speechless amazement. Suddenly
she sees the papyrus on the shield, runs over and reads it and then
rushes to the door of the library.]
TSUMU [calling]. Analytikos. [She hides the purse in her bosom.
ANALYTIKOS enters, scroll in hand.]
ANALYTIKOS. Has the Queen summoned me?
TSUMU [mysteriously]. A terrible thing has happened.
ANALYTIKOS. What's the matter?
TSUMU. Where's the King?
ANALYTIKOS. In the library.
TSUMU. I have news more precious than the gold of Midas.
ANALYTIKOS [giving her a purse]. Well! What is it?
TSUMU [speaking very dramatically and watching the effect of her words].
The Queen has deserted Menelaus.
ANALYTIKOS [receiving the shock philosophically]. Swift are the ways of
Nature. The Gods have smiled upon him.
TSUMU. The Gods have forsaken the King to smile upon a prince.
ANALYTIKOS. What?
TSUMU. He was a prince.
ANALYTIKOS [apprehensively]. Why do you say that?
TSUMU [clutching her bosom]. I have a good reason to know. [There is a
sound of voices below in the courtyard. MENELAUS rushes in expectantly.
TSUMU falls prostrate before him.] Oh, King, in thy bottomless agony
blame not a blameless negress. The Queen has fled!
MENELAUS [in his delight forgetting himself and flinging her a purse].
Is it true?
TSUMU. Woe! Woe is me!
MENELAUS [storming]. Out of my sight, you eyeless Argus!
ANALYTIKOS [to TSUMU]. Quick, send a messenger. Find out who he was.
[TSUMU sticks the third purse in her bosom and runs out.]
MENELAUS [with radiant happiness, kneeling before the bust of Zeus].
Ye Gods, I thank ye. Peace and a happy life at last. [The shouts in the
courtyard grow louder.]
ANALYTIKOS. The news has spread through the palace.
MENELAUS [in trepidation, springing up]. No one would dare stop the
progress of the Queen.
TSUMU [rushes in and prostrates herself before the KING]. Woe is me!
They have gone by the road to the harbor.
MENELAUS [anxiously]. Yes! Yes!
TSUMU. By the King's orders no man has dared gaze upon Her Majesty. They
all fell prostrate before her.
MENELAUS. Good! Good! [Attempting to cover his delight.] Go! Go! You
garrulous dog. [TSUMU gets up and points to shield. ANALYTIKOS and the
KING look toward it. ANALYTIKOS tears off the papyrus and brings it to
MENELAUS. TSUMU, watching them, exits.]
MENELAUS [reading]. "I am not a bad woman. I did what I had to do."
How Greek to blame fate for what one wants to do. [TSUMU again comes
tumbling in.]
TSUMU [again prostrate before the KING]. A rumor flies through the city.
He--he----
ANALYTIKOS [anxiously]. Well? Well?