_In the right wall a large double door leads out to the street.
An arch, which supports the upper part of the house, runs
parallel to the wall at the right, thus screening the court
from the street. At the back, a door leads into the inner
house. Two cages with a bird in each, are hanging on the wall
right. The left side of the court is taken up by a wall about
seven feet high, a niche in its centre containing a well with
ropes, buckets and a large jar or two. Over the wall can be
seen some cypresses of a garden. In the shadow of this wall,
a rose tree grows in a rim of masonry. An awning is stretched
across the Court. A tom-tom stands in one corner._
_The full morning sun over everything._
_MARSINAH, a beautiful girl of fourteen summers (which would
correspond to a girl of eighteen in the west) is seated on some
rough matting, in the centre of the court. She is clad in the
simplest fashion, like the poorest Arabian women. She is busy
with some needlework on a large embroidery frame, which rests
on four legs like a low table._
_Near her, idly fanning away the flies, sits NARJIS, a stout,
old Duenna, with a full-blown face. About them on the matting
lie strands of different coloured wools._
MARSINAH. (_Looking up to the garden wall._) The sun grows hot.
NARJIS. How’s thy border? Will it be done by noon-prayer? I promised it
the merchant.
MARSINAH. (_Impatiently sighing._) I hear, O Narjis, I hear. Hast thou
any yellow wool?
NARJIS. (_Turns away from Marsinah to look for it._) Yellow? Yellow? Did
I not give it thee erstwhile?
MARSINAH. (_Quickly takes the yellow wool and hides it under the folds of
her dress._) ’Twas red thou gavest me.
NARJIS. By the life of thy youth, O Marsinah, ’twas yellow. (_She rises
and searches._)
MARSINAH. Look thyself. Thou seest I lack it to finish the pattern.
NARJIS. Alas! (_Sighs._) What’s to be done? What’s to be done?
(_She sits despondently on the rim of the well._)
MARSINAH. Run to the wool market, O good Narjis.
NARJIS. All the way to the wool market?
MARSINAH. ’Tis none so far for one so sprightly as thou, O sweet Narjis.
Thou didst promise it the merchant—remember!
NARJIS. I could have laid an oath with the All-seeing there was yet
another strand of yellow.
MARSINAH. (_Tucking away a tell-tale thread._) Couldst thou in sooth?
NARJIS. Well-a-day! There’s nought for me but to go. We must finish the
work or the money’s lost.
(_She crosses to the large double door and takes down a huge
iron door key, which hangs on the wall beside the door._)
And O Marsinah! No looking out of windows or peeping over walls.
MARSINAH. By Lady Fatimah’s life of light! What dost thou suppose?
NARJIS. Think of thy father. Thou knowest how he fears for thy safety.
Was not his first wife stolen? His son slaughtered? Art thou not the last
of his race? Is not thine own mother in the tomb of eternity? I tell
thee, should one folly on thy part reach thy father’s ears, ’twere the
undoing of us both.
MARSINAH. Fear nought, O dear Narjis.
(_NARJIS has let herself out and locked the door outside._)
(_MARSINAH rises, and listens at the door. Then she hurries to
the rim of the masonry by the well, gets up on it and peers
over the wall. With a little cry of delight she exclaims
“Waiting! Waiting!” Then claps her left palm with her right
hand twice. She listens,—then claps again. Some one answers the
signal in the same manner. She draws her veil across her face
instinctively and stands expectant._)
(_A youth appears over the masonry. In a moment he is down and
in her arms. By his mole he is seen to be the young CALIPH
ABDALLAH,—but he is now dressed in the simple clothes of an
artisan._)
CALIPH. O my beloved! At last!
MARSINAH. Dost thou still love me, O my master.
CALIPH. Still?
(_He draws away her veil and kisses her between the eyes._)
All my soul lieth between thine eyes! All my longing on thine untouched
lips. Still love thee?
MARSINAH. How can man love maid who unveileth her face as I have to thee?
CALIPH. How can man not love?
MARSINAH. (_Veiling herself again._) I am ashamed at my shamelessness.
CALIPH. Sooner be thou ashamed of mine. ’Twas I that climbed the wall,
broke in on thee to tear the cloud from the new moon.
(_He raises the veil from her face._)
MARSINAH. I swear were to-day three days agone, and thou imploring me
now, by thine eyes, I’d not betray my secrecy again.
CALIPH. What! Is thy love grown faint so soon?
MARSINAH. Allah help me, strong so soon. I am become a thousand times
more watchful, more jealous of myself, and all because of thee. Alas! How
must honour like thine judge of frailty like mine?
CALIPH. (_Passionately._) Mine honour judges as it judged the first
moment of seeing thee: that thou art my love, that I hold thy little
hands in mine, and that thou shalt be my wife—none other before thee.
(_Drawing her towards him._)
MARSINAH. (_Sinking at his feet._) O my loved one; this is a dream of
thine. Think of thy parents. What will they say? What wilt thou tell them?
CALIPH. (_He sits by her on the ground._) What? That I looked out from
my father’s pavilion one blessed evening and saw thee feeding thy little
birds at yon window. That I gazed on thy white wrists long—long. What
more need I say. (_He is about to kiss her wrists._)
MARSINAH. (_Withdrawing them playfully._) My wrists! Hath my face no say
in thy loving?
CALIPH. Thy face! The Forgiver forgive thee. Since I beheld its light, my
nights are sleepless; my days burning sands. This stolen moment alone my
shade, thy hair my breeze, thy voice my fountain.
MARSINAH. (_Drawing away._) O my love, leave me; forget me utterly. Thy
mother will never choose me thy bride. Is thy father not far, far above
my father? Did’st thou not say he was the Caliph’s gardener?
CALIPH. Is the Caliph’s gardener such a mighty man?
MARSINAH. Narjis says he is.
CALIPH. (_Secretly annoyed._) Narjis—the old woman?
MARSINAH. Yea, and she says more. I asked her in a light way—O very
lightly—had she e’er heard spoken of the gardener’s son. And she—the
fool—she swears he never had a son; that his only wife is dead these many
years; that the garden next door hath been leased by a grammarian, the
new Caliph’s tutor; that once even the Caliph himself came to walk there
in the cool of the day.
CALIPH. (_Curtly._) Narjis is an old gossip. She knows not what she
chatters.
MARSINAH. So I told her. But she said, “On with thy work, O thou daughter
of ignorance.” Then I began to laugh, thinking of thee, and flung out a
line of a song, till her forehead swelled with rage and she beat me.
CALIPH. (_Furiously._) She beat thee?
MARSINAH. O ’tis naught. She does so often.
CALIPH. The sister of Satan!
MARSINAH. What would’st thou! She’s not my mother.
CALIPH. (_Tenderly._) O my Marsinah! Has this been thy life? Is thy
mother gone long?
MARSINAH. Three years ’tis now since she entered into the mercy of Allah!
Alas! Those were different days. What I did for my mother I did in
delight. What I learnt from her, I learnt with a dancing heart. All her
songs, the plucking of the lute she taught me—as ’twere so much laughter.
In her hour, ere my father took her to wife, she had been the slave of a
rich merchant. The cunningest teachers in Baghdad had taught her. When
the merchant gave her her freedom, she was besought to sing at all the
rarest feasts. Then Allah took her voice and evil nights fell upon her.
Thus my father found her, outcast and starving. Such was my mother.
(_A short silence._)
CALIPH. Thou did’st not tell me that thou could’st play, that thou
could’st sing! What fresh perfection do I find in thee every moment!
MARSINAH. ’Tis all my mother in me.
CALIPH. ’Tis all thyself in thee. Blessed be He that fashioned thee in
thy splendour of beauty. Thy face is fairer than health; thine eyes are
the eyes of a gazelle; thy lips a cluster of coral; like a silver column
is thy neck: and thy breasts, pomegranates in their glory. O, my beloved,
when will come the hour that I shall hold thee close to my heart, while
the night hangeth her silver lamp over our silence.
MARSINAH. (_In a whisper._) When Allah willeth—and Allah will it soon.
(_Their lips meet in a kiss._)
CALIPH. (_Rises to his knees with sudden passion._) It shall be this
night.
MARSINAH. O, sweet my lord, I have told thee before, it cannot be. Not at
night. Narjis is ever here, and ofttimes my father. My only freedom is a
morn like to-day’s.
CALIPH. (_Drawing close to her._) Thou shalt have other freedom undreamt
of by thee.
MARSINAH. What wilt thou do?
CALIPH. Can’st thou trust me?
MARSINAH. With all my soul, an thou put not thy life in danger.
CALIPH. Dost thou love me so?
MARSINAH. (_Hanging her head._) Sooner would I lose thee for ever.
CALIPH. (_After a pause, with a smile she does not observe._) Fear naught.
MARSINAH. What is’t? Nothing to harm thee?
CALIPH. (_Cheek to cheek._) Thou’lt see! When the evening prayer hath
locked the door of the day, then will I come to open the eyes of thy
heart.
This joy must yield to deeper joy its power;
As bud still rends its veil, to blush as flower.
MARSINAH. (_Improvising._)
Ah me! How oft the foolish petal’s haste
Is scattered to the skies by fatal shower.
CALIPH. (_Turning surprised—joyously._) Yehh! Can’st cap verses too? By
Allah! What is this Wonder of wonders, that the Giver of all things good——
MARSINAH. (_Rises, interrupting him._) Awah!
CALIPH. Nothing.
MARSINAH. It is. Fly, O my beloved.
CALIPH. (_Rises._) How can I leave my soul behind and not die? (_He goes
up to the rim of the well._)
MARSINAH. Go, I implore thee! By all that’s holy! Here! (_She plucks a
rose from the bush, kisses it, and hands it to him._) Go!
(_The CALIPH presses the rose to his lips, then slips it into
his breast and climbs over the wall._)
CALIPH. (_From the top of the wall._) After set of sun! (_He disappears
over the wall._)
NARJIS. (_Outside._) Marsinah! Marsinah!
(_MARSINAH hurries to her work, sits and stitches furiously._)
NARJIS. (_Entering the courtyard._) A gift of good news, O my roe. Thy
father is coming.
MARSINAH. My father? Never yet came he home during the day.
NARJIS. Never yet. But to-day he cometh. I saw him leaving the
hammam-bath, unlike himself—in robes of splendour, his locks combed,
his beard trimmed, and (_imitating him_) striding along as proud and
calm as a camel! I hasted ahead through the alleys. Had he found thee
alone—— (_There is a knock on the door._) By the Prophet! None too soon.
(_Calling out._) I come! I come! (_Goes to the door and calls through
it._) Who art thou? What seekest thou? (_She winks at MARSINAH and feigns
surprise._) Allah! ’tis my master. O Marsinah! Thy father, as I am awake!
(_She unlocks the door._)
(_MARSINAH has risen; drawing her veil about the back of her
head._)
(_HAJJ enters as described, wearing all his stolen robes, his
beard neatly trimmed, his whole being refreshed by the bath.
His manner is far more self-assured. He carries his little
bundle of presents for his daughter, which he flings to the
ground._)
MARSINAH. Salam, O my father.
NARJIS. Salam, O my master.
HAJJ. Salam.
(_All sit, HAJJ between the two women._)
MARSINAH. Thou smellest so sweet; is it musk?
HAJJ. I have lain in the hammam all morning.
MARSINAH. May thy bath profit thee, O my father. What blessed coming is
thine?
HAJJ. Thou mayst indeed call it blessed. For verily the Dispeller of
woe hath turned the murk of my night into a day of light and delight.
What say ye to this. (_He takes out his purse._) Gold! Gold! Gold! What
a sound it is! It chinks straight into the blood and sets the heart
a-beating, so the temples throb and reason flies from the head. Dost thou
mark it, O Marsinah. O Narjis, dost thou?
MARSINAH. (_Clapping her hands._) Yehh!
NARJIS. (_Suspicious._) Whence hadst thou this?
HAJJ. Whence? (_His brow clouds._) Whence? From a fool in his folly! An
accursed for whom it shall weave the rope round his neck. But that’s for
later. (_Chinking the purse._) This for now. (_He slips the purse in his
breast._) Ha! Ha! Ha! O eyes of me! Ye should have beheld them in the
hammam—the bath-keeper and his slaveboys. How they bowed before me—one
and all. “O my master” here, and “O my lord” there. And such rinsings,
and rubbings, and clappings, till my limbs rang aloud with smoothness!
Then they laid me adown on silken sheets, the while censers fumed me
sweetly from head to heel. And the bath-keeper knelt at my feet, and sung
to the tom-tom a song. (_He sings, imitating the playing of a tom-tom
with his hands._)
A bowl of wine! Two bowls of wine!
And three more bowls and that makes nine!
(_He draws out the purse and flings it in the air with a shout,
catching it again._)
MARSINAH. (_Clapping her hands gleefully and rising to her knees._) O my
father! Thou art magnificent!
HAJJ. (_Delighted._) Magnificent—am I?
MARSINAH. Yea! Even as a prince in one of the tales thou tellest.
HAJJ. A Prince! (_He strokes his moustachios._) A King?
MARSINAH. A King, in truth, a King! Is he not, O Narjis?
NARJIS. (_Ironically._) A King, in very sooth.
MARSINAH. Never beheld I thee thus. Never till this hour. White as milk
is this day of mine.
HAJJ. It shall be whiter still, O my dainty. Give me the bundle, O
Narjis. Thou shalt bless the day indeed, O my rose. (_Opening the
bundle._) Ah! Now thine eyes glisten. Now!
MARSINAH. Thou didst remember me?
HAJJ. Remember thee? What doth thy soul most desire in this world? Speak.
MARSINAH. Most? (_She glances unconsciously up over the garden wall, but
looks down again quickly._)
HAJJ. Ah, now thou blushest. What is it?
MARSINAH. (_Confused._) I—know—not.
HAJJ. (_Imitating._) “I know not.” O Narjis, was ever maid such maid. She
knows not. By Allah, thou hast guarded her well. She is as simple as the
hour she was born. “I know not.” (_He fondles MARSINAH’S cheek._)
MARSINAH. (_Hanging her head._) What should I know?
(_HAJJ and NARJIS look at each other smiling knowingly._)
HAJJ. Thou shouldest know that thy father loves thee! (_He kisses her
on both eyes._) And that he has brought thee these. (_He produces the
anklets from the bundle._)
MARSINAH. Anklets! (_She flings off her slippers laughing gleefully and
puts on the anklets._) O Narjis! O Narjis! At last! Now! What girl in our
street can laugh at me now? (_Rises and circles about the two._) Look, O
Narjis, look! Jamilah, or Mubarakah, or any of them. O my master, I kiss
thy feet. (_She kneels before HAJJ and bows down._)
HAJJ. (_Laying his hand on her head._) Thou art content?
MARSINAH. (_Blissfully._) Content? Content?
HAJJ. Then what sayst thou to a veil? (_He unfolds the veil._)
MARSINAH. (_Springs up, then bashfully—overcome._) For me—too? (_HAJJ
hands it to her smilingly._) (_In rapture, holding it up; unconsciously
looking up to the garden wall._) Oh! would I had had it this morn!
HAJJ. This morn! What dost thou mean?
MARSINAH. (_Realising her self-betrayal._) I mean—I know not. My heart is
so happy. La Yayhá! Do I fill thine eyes, O my father? (_She drapes the
veil about her._)
HAJJ. (_Smiling proudly._) Fill mine eyes! Go! Fetch thy lute! We will
have music. This day shall be a day of rejoicing.
MARSINAH. (_Going._) I hear and I obey. (_She hurries off across the
courtyard into the house._)
HAJJ. (_Looking after her._) By Allah! How she glides swimmingly as she
were a lily floating down the Tigris. Blessed indeed is he that taketh
her to wife.
NARJIS. Aye, and she’s ripe to wed, too.
HAJJ. Fourteen! The pick of years! I must seek her a husband.
NARJIS. (_Huddles up to him._) What sayst thou to the basket-weaver’s son
at the corner?
HAJJ. The basket-weaver’s son? O thou hag! (_Slaps her cheek with the
back of his hand._) Why not a bean-seller? (_Slap._) Or a camel-boy?
(_Slap._) Yea, or best and rarest, some blear-eyed mangy beggar? (_Slap._)
(_MARSINAH appears with a lute._)
HAJJ. (_To NARJIS._) Behold her now! I swear the very movement of her
limbs maketh melody.
MARSINAH. What shall I sing thee, O my father? (_She stands tuning her
instrument._)
HAJJ. How many modes canst thou play in?
MARSINAH. One-and-twenty.
HAJJ. One-and-twenty. (_To NARJIS._) Are one-and-twenty modes for the
basket-weaver’s son? (_He slaps NARJIS again. To MARSINAH._) And sing how
many?
MARSINAH. The like number.
HAJJ. And dance? How many steps did thy mother teach thee?
MARSINAH. Far beyond counting.
HAJJ. (_To NARJIS._) Thou hearest! Are they, the countless, for the
basket-weaver’s son? (_A final slap._) I tell thee, Marsinah is rare as
a houri in Paradise. Wouldst thou know what secret the future hideth for
Marsinah?
NARJIS. (_Rubbing her poor cheek._) What secret, O master?
HAJJ. Sit thee down here, O my flower. And here thou, O my cactus. Mark
me close, ye both. (_MARSINAH sits on the ground by HAJJ._)
HAJJ. (_Drawing the purse from his breast._) This money in my bosom will
I take and buy merchandise withal. (_Tossing the purse from hand to hand;
his voice in lyrical exaltation._) And I will trade and sell; and buy
and trade; till it is doubled and trebled a hundred times hundredfold.
Then shall I turn from toil and trouble, to clothe my Marsinah in a rope
of pearls serene; with the crown of a queen on her forehead clear; two
jewels of shine and sheen, pending o’er each ear,—here and there; on her
breast will I set a ruby amulet of flash and fret; and stuffed within a
priceless piece of ambergris.
MARSINAH. (_In wonder._) O my father!
HAJJ. And the name of thy beauty shall be blown abroad, beyond Arabia,
through Sind, into China, even as far as the islands of Wak. And suitors
shall venture across deserts and sea, by caravel and camel, and fall on
their knee in suppliance for thee.
MARSINAH. Yehh!
HAJJ. But I—thy sire, (_leaning on NARJIS lazily as though she were a
feather bed._)—shall lie back on pillows of ostrich plumes, propping mine
elbow thus, nor turning to right nor to left. And there shall be wailings
and gnashings of teeth amongst thy lovers; the while thou, behind many
lintels, in a court of marble with a roof of molten gold, dancest
merrily, airily, to the sound of smitten strings.
MARSINAH. (_Laughing joyfully and clapping her hands._) Ya ha! Ya ha!
HAJJ. (_Triumphantly._) Ha! Ha! (_Eagerly._) Dance now, O dawn-breeze,
now! O Narjis, pluck a tune with thy talons. (_Hands her the lute._) Up,
O Marsinah, up! My tom-tom, O Narjis! My tom-tom!
(_MARSINAH springs up. She begins to dance slowly, then faster
and faster. NARJIS, after handing HAJJ his tom-tom, plays and
occasionally sings as well._)
HAJJ. (_Beating the tom-tom, shrilly._) Yehh! Allah! La Yayhá! La Yayhá!
So shalt thou dance! So! And the kings of the earth shall send their
sons! La Yayhá! By thy youth, thou art as a branch swaying! La Yayhá! But
I shall laugh them to scorn, all and one—“Ye swine,” shall I say— “Ye——”
(_There is a knock at the door._)
(_MARSINAH stops; so does NARJIS._)
HAJJ. Nought. Neighbours. On! (_They begin again._)
HAJJ. “Ye swine—who are ye to——”
(_Another knock._)
A VOICE. (_Outside._) Open in the name of justice.
HAJJ. (_Instinctively looks at his garments._) Wah! Go indoors, O my
delight, go! (_He throws the bundle to MARSINAH._)
(_MARSINAH, taking the bundle, goes into the house wondering._)
HAJJ. (_To NARJIS._) Open! Open! Open! (_NARJIS opens the house door._)
(_HAJJ sits expectant, tracing figures in the sand with his
finger-tips._)
(_The CAPTAIN OF THE WATCH enters—behind him come ZAYD and AMRU
and FOUR ARCHERS. THE ARCHERS fling open the double doors to
the street and guard them. NASIR enters as well._)
CAPTAIN. Is this the house of Hajj, the beggar?
HAJJ. What would ye?
ZAYD. I knew ’twas he! Seize the dog!
HAJJ. Seize me? (_He rises abruptly._)
ZAYD. Those are the very garments.
CAPTAIN. Thou must come before the Wazir Mansur.
HAJJ. (_Terrified at the name._) Mansur? I paid in part—I meant to pay in
full.
AMRU. Thou liest, O split of tongue.
HAJJ. Lie? I? (_He goes for AMRU._)
(_TWO ARCHERS secure HAJJ between them._)
CAPTAIN. No words! Off with him.
(_THE ARCHERS march HAJJ to the door._)
NASIR. (_Darting forward and grinning into HAJJ’S face._) Ha! Ha!
HAJJ. (_Stopping as he sees NASIR._) Oh! Thou!
NASIR. (_Mockingly imitating HAJJ’S voice._) I saw no purse.
HAJJ. (_Spitting in NASIR’S face._) Thou filth! Thou son of filth.
(_He is led off, the other men following._)
NARJIS. (_Wringing her hands._) Allah! Allah! Allah!
[CURTAIN]