[_An antechamber communicating with the QUEEN'S bedroom._]
1ST COURTIER
The air is very heavy this morning.
2D COURTIER
It is as if the clouds had dropped down out of the sky, entered into
this palace, and turned into leaden wheels, running over one, no
matter where one hides.
3D COURTIER
You are lucky to be able to talk. I am too depressed even to breathe.
1ST COURTIER
I am terribly depressed,--but I am still curious. What do you suppose
it is all about?
2D COURTIER
It is all about passions. There have been several conflicting kinds
rushing through the atmosphere lately. Naturally the sea is a bit
choppy for our painted sort of barks.
[_He nods about him rather contemptuously._]
3D COURTIER
You can at least talk no matter what happens.
1ST COURTIER
Well, we don't seem any nearer knowing the truth.
[_Enter two ladies in a state of great excitement._]
1ST LADY
What could you have possibly expected? I suppose the marriage is off.
Josephine could never be interested in anything, and as for the
Prince----
2D LADY
His self-interest would push anything else out of him.
1ST LADY
Of course, if it _is_ off, Josephine must have made him appear
unbecoming and _she_ probably brought all the candles in the palace
to help illuminate Josephine's mistake. Phew! they are all quite
dreadful.
1ST COURTIER
Sh! It is unwise to be so indiscreet, even in a crisis. Remember, we
have to face each other, and all of these others every day for years.
Perhaps the memory of your candour will make you feel a little
ridiculous later.
[_Hand bell tinkles._]
1ST LADY
The Queen's bell.
[_She goes to a door on right and timidly knocks._]
THE QUEEN'S VOICE [_off stage_]
Is the Duchess attending me yet?
1ST LADY
No, Majesty.
QUEEN
Have me informed immediately upon her arrival. Until then, I wish you
would discuss your absorbing trifles in a lower tone. My room is
exactly like a sounding board for your idle conversation. However, I
tell you all this with a recurring regularity that none of the rest of
my life seems to possess.
1ST LADY
Your Majesty is obeyed, and our most humble apologies to your Majesty.
[_She closes the door softly._]
QUEEN
You haven't shut the door. You haven't shut it tight. Oh, for Heaven's
sake, slam it!
[_The court lady bangs the door with discretion._]
1ST COURTIER [_whispering_]
What a humour she is in! What a woman of moods!
2D COURTIER
She is illusive. She is like a succession of masks, seen at dawn. In
her there always appears a terrible wanness, right upon the heels of a
wonderful freshness.
3D COURTIER
I don't wish to seem unpleasant, but I wonder if you could talk a
little less or say something.
2D COURTIER [_regarding him witheringly_]
I should advise you to go off by yourself and drink some _fleur
d'oranger_ and bathe your temples in _eau de cologne_. Isolation is
the only resolution for such ill-humour.
1ST LADY
Wasn't the Duchess radiant last night? If the marriage is not off I
hear she will give a dance, a very small one, to celebrate the first
month of her marriage.
[_Suddenly she looks rather uncomfortable._]
2D LADY
Ah, you are wondering, shall we be invited, considering we are the
Queen's favourite ladies?
1ST COURTIER
If everything is all right, when the Duchess comes let us think of
something especially charming to say to her. Something that will hint,
without asserting, our warmer attachment. [_both ladies nod their
approval_] Sh! Here's Phedro.
PHEDRO
[_Enters, looking for the first time during the play as if a
ghost had sucked his blood._]
Is the Queen up?
1ST COURTIER
She is awake, but wishes to remain undisturbed until the Duchess
arrives.
PHEDRO
Ah, then I shall go and polish my bullet a little more officially.
[_They all stare at him in amazement._]
But has not her Grace been tearing the Queen's curtains back at dawn?
1ST LADY
No, why should she be? What has happened?
[_They all crowd around him._]
A LADY
The air seems sizzling with lightning. Tell us, has the Queen done her
some rudeness again? We were just saying how charming she was and
thinking of how to express our admiration to her on her arrival.
PHEDRO
Don't disturb your vocabulary for the sake of the Duchess.
LADIES AND COURTIERS [_in one voice_]
Why, what has happened?
PHEDRO
The Duchess does not exist any longer.
A COURTIER
She is dead?
2D COURTIER
Artemis has risen to hunt, but in heaven--
3D COURTIER
Good God! [_he gradually recovers himself_] What a shame the classics
are taught. It lends a pulpit to such tedious people.
A LADY
Oh, we must know, if we are to live. What has happened to the
Duchess?
PHEDRO [_grimly--with finality_]
She has become _declassee_.
[_Everybody grows gradually stupefied._]
A LADY [_only partially recovering_]
You mean that she left the door open? Or mislaid one of her jewels
somewhere?
OTHER LADY [_just able to murmur_]
You would suggest that she permitted herself to be--discovered?
PHEDRO
Yes, her apartment was honeycombed with indiscretions.
1ST COURTIER [_sharply_]
But what did that matter? Who plucked them out?
PHEDRO
The Queen.
3D COURTIER
What an appalling mischance!
A LADY
It is an outrage! People who are lazy enough to be found out are a
menace to all of us.
3D COURTIER
A gentleman will hardly know where he is safe when the Duchess of
Beaumont can allow such an occurrence.
PHEDRO
I am afraid I must make my exit from this troubled surface and
scrutinize more silent things. [_Pause. Half to himself_] I wonder how
a man looks who has slept well among the touch and glide of fishes.
A LADY
What sort of horrible, wriggly thing are you saying, Phedro?
PHEDRO
I am tasting my own cooking. It is delicious. However, enough public
reverie. When the Duchess comes, announce her to the Queen in whatever
manner fits your inclination. Take a good breath of bad manners. It
will refresh you all. [_he glances at his watch_] Ah, I shall be late
for a certain melancholy addition of facts.
LADIES
What facts?
PHEDRO
You shall see. I have only read you the prologue.
[_He exits, almost bumping into the DUCHESS, who sweeps by him
into the room. The courtiers stand about perfectly limp, enjoying
their indifference._]
DUCHESS
I am present. [_half turning_] Kindly acquaint her Majesty with that
fact.
A LADY
[_Starts to courtesy, but suddenly remembers that she doesn't
have to._]
Very well, you can wait here.
[_The DUCHESS looks at her with incredulous amazement. Suddenly
the voice of the QUEEN is heard._]
QUEEN
Is that the Duchess?
THE LADY
It is, your Majesty.
QUEEN
Tell her to wait where she is. I shall be with her presently.
Meanwhile you may disperse without formalities.
LADY
Your Majesty is obeyed.
[_She comes back into the room and together with all the rest
gazes insolently at the DUCHESS as they file out. The DUCHESS
stands, staring frigidly ahead of her and looking supremely
beautiful._]
DUCHESS [_clenching her hands slightly_]
Fools! They would look better without their heads.
[_Enter the QUEEN, looking extremely pale and serious, evidently
on the verge of some personal climax._]
QUEEN
My sister.
DUCHESS
Your Majesty?
[_They bow formally to one another, then remain silent a
little._]
QUEEN
O, what is the sense of trying to carry a meeting like this off? I
have been too astonished lately to hold on to my _savoir faire_. Here
are my explosions in a nutshell. The announcement that the clown
Gwymplane is the Prince of Vaucluse I am satisfied is authentic. He is
in consequence your _fiance_.
DUCHESS [_losing her wits in a temper_]
You must be mad to suppose I should really marry with a mountebank, a
deformity, no matter what he has been born.
QUEEN
Evidently you forget the position you enjoy entails implicit
obedience.
[_The DUCHESS is about to break out._]
Please don't be banal. I couldn't bear to hear you say that your life
was slavery. Your life is merely idiotic. Slaves were sturdy,
magnificent people who understood massage, and you look as if a powder
puff could blast you off the earth.
DUCHESS
You hate me!
QUEEN
But you know that I knew you knew that.
DUCHESS
When Charles comes, or perhaps you don't permit him to come--possibly
it would annoy you to see the anguish he will be in over me.
QUEEN
Vain people have the most curious faith in the unselfishness of
everybody else. Ah, here comes the bone of contention, looking
remarkably bright.
[_Enter PRINCE. He bends over the QUEEN'S hand and gazes up into
her eyes, speaking with a new thrill in his voice._]
PRINCE
My gracious cousin, I hope your health matches this exquisite
morning.
QUEEN [_abruptly pointing_]
There is Josephine. Give her some of your after-breakfast optimism.
PRINCE
Ah!
[_He bows rather distantly over JOSEPHINE'S hand that is extended
with unusual cordiality._]
DUCHESS
Charles, my dear, don't let us be absurd. Last night was a fantastic
heaping of mischance.
PRINCE
You are neat in phrases, Josephine, but exactly what do they mean? And
please don't sulk--only well-loved people can afford to do that.
DUCHESS
If you dare to presume to criticize me, I will----
QUEEN
[_Looks nervously at PRINCE, who interposes quickly._]
PRINCE
My dear Josephine, I could not bear to have you hold me responsible
for these grotesque discoveries of last night. Apparently he is my
brother, and it should have been me who suffered those terrible
deformities save for the mischievous meddling of a malicious servant;
but certainly now you are his lawful bride, and I have no other name
than one the Queen's mercy can devise.
JOSEPHINE
But your Majesty will do something for us, after all, we love each
other!
PRINCE
[_Looks at JOSEPHINE over the edge of his buttonhole, into which
his nose becomes completely submerged._]
Do you love me this morning, Josephine?
DUCHESS
You loved me last night.
PRINCE [_sighing_]
I think there has always been something a little angular in our
relations and now that it has become my duty to relinquish you, I
rather fancy there is no harm in assuring you it is also my pleasure.
[_A momentary look of pity for JOSEPHINE crosses the QUEEN'S
countenance, replaced by an obvious flow of childish joy._]
QUEEN
You have not really cared, but----
PRINCE
Save for--but it is so very early and bright, and we are not alone.
DUCHESS
So sorry to be in the way. I shall hope to be dismissed presently. I
can hear you are tuning up, Charles. Ah, well, I shall have a clown
for a husband. What more should a married woman wish for? And plenty
of time to catch the roses and the sighs wafting up from my gardens.
But Charles, where is your little blind girl?
PRINCE
How should I know? She found the Queen and delivered her note.
QUEEN
How did you know she had a note to deliver?
PRINCE
I ran into her with Phedro coming through the garden. He went to see
if all was right with Josephine, while I----
DUCHESS
Mingled hands, at least, for she said: "He told me that he wanted me
for himself and forever, nor was he the Court Steward, for he wore a
great oblong stone upon his hand." I hope she comes back with my
intended, and tells to your Majesty the story of Charles's little
lapse into the romantic. O, listening to her one must believe her, for
she has all that obvious lack of fancy only to be found among rarely
good people. Her face is quite open and classic, unbroken by the
slightest hint of imagination. A lie couldn't possibly twist up
through such regular lines.
QUEEN
[_Over her face has gradually grown a singular change._]
Mingling hands, ah, that was why--[_she bites her lip, passing her
hand across her brow._] However, to that later. Josephine--[_in a
kinder tone_] I have made you acquainted with our disposition. Go now
and prepare to become the Duchess of Vaucluse.
[_JOSEPHINE is about to exit, when PHEDRO enters hurriedly._]
PHEDRO
Your Majesty.
QUEEN
Oh, what an air of rush there is about everything this morning. Well,
speak, speak.
PHEDRO
Her Grace cannot become the Duchess of Vaucluse.
QUEEN
Ah, why not?
PHEDRO
He is beyond us.
QUEEN
Do you mean that he has sought for himself, the only satisfactory
rest!--a sleep without dreams. He is dead!--How?
PHEDRO
The philosopher and the blind girl escaped with him at dawn; long
before sunrise an old, disused hulk was seen going down the river, and
in the blaze of this morning has returned with only the philosopher
and his hired oarsmen. Apparently the blind girl died from the tremors
of escape, and the clown in his grief found nothing left in himself to
face life with, so he threw his distressed person into the sea.
QUEEN
So, Josephine, your second bridegroom has been seduced away from you
by Destiny. Charles, your fortune, which was at any rate confiscate to
your brother, now passes to the Crown. I wonder just how you will
manage.
[_CHARLES throws her a tender, confident look which she evades._]
But one thing at a time. Josephine, what occurs to you in this fitful
moment?
DUCHESS
Life nauseates me so at the moment that it is difficult to imagine any
corner where I would not be too dizzy with hatred to stand. If you
will permit me, I shall return to my rooms to think. There are some
agreeable things scattered through my rooms that may possibly inspire
direction.
QUEEN
Your sensations, Josephine, they have always been so much more acute
than your emotions. I wonder if you could not turn with a certain
surprising equanimity from regarding the marble forms of your Greeks
to the Gothic saints of wood and ivory, then one would detect incense
in the fold of your shroud instead of patchouli in the pleats of your
cambric. You know, probably you could find in the distortions of
religious mania a perfect _pendant_ to your taste for deformities in
life.
DUCHESS
You are cruel, and you are irreverent.
QUEEN
Ah, my dear, in that last epithet speaks your extreme desirability for
the vocation, superstition, which is nothing more nor less than fear
of reason, or possibly a certain instinct that the truth would make
everything look rather second class--if one is second class one's
self.
DUCHESS
I suppose it is not incumbent upon me to stand here in order that my
character inspire you with further Socratic comment.
QUEEN
Not at all, my dear sister; by all means seek your fauns and draperies
and forgive me for prattling on quite regardless of sowing the tragic
seed--_ennui_.
[_At this juncture it is only the intense refinement of the
DUCHESS which prevents her from falling into the unbecoming
posture of powerless invective. PHEDRO, who has listened to the
foregoing, presumes here to interrupt._]
PHEDRO
Your Majesty, have I your permission to retire?
QUEEN [_turning vaguely toward him_]
Certainly, certainly, Phedro. It must be extremely fatiguing to keep
on hitting, one after another, so many peculiar facts.
PHEDRO [_bowing low_]
My position in your Majesty's service is far too exhilarating to
permit of fatigue. To breathe is occasionally difficult [_his voice
lowers to something resembling a hiss_], consequently to rest does not
occur.
[_He glances about him as if at a group of neatly despatched
marionettes--a glare of furtive hatred distorting his features,
which is hastily veiled by his usual laconic humility._
_The QUEEN precipitates his departure with a wave of her hand, to
which he instantly submits._]
[_Exit PHEDRO._]
DUCHESS
[_Resuming in a voice of excessive boredom._]
Well, adieu, Charles, I suppose you will go on alternating between
vice and sentimentality until the curtain drops. You know, one reason
why you never attracted me?
PRINCE
Josephine, is this quite in taste?
DUCHESS
Taste is something one uses on arranging one's rooms, not upon human
beings.
QUEEN
Well hit, Josephine. You have at least the satisfaction of going out
to the ringing of the bull's eye.
DUCHESS
Possibly.
[_She exits after courtseying to the QUEEN, who returns it in
proper measure. There is a silence. PRINCE looks tenderly at the
QUEEN, who moves about in a rather staccato manner, disturbing
perfectly placed bibelots and pieces of furniture._]
PRINCE
We are alone at last.
QUEEN
That word should sound like the fold of wings around one's exhausted
body.
PRINCE [_archly_]
Substitute arms for wings, and could for should, if I may be permitted
to correct----
QUEEN
Oh, Charles, don't woo me with this poetic verbosity to take the place
of feeling. It is so exactly what you would say to the brewer's
daughter, had you selected her to save your estate and pay your bills.
PRINCE
Ah, Anne, Anne, why will you be so ironic?
QUEEN
Once or twice I thought of not being ironic, of looking into some
person's eyes, and not finding that I had to look away, of resting
with someone in a long silence full of exchanged beauties.
PRINCE [_approaching her_]
Anne, dear, how----
[_The QUEEN laughs and backs away from him, where he stands with
his arms stretched out towards her. In her laugh suddenly there
is a slight sob._]
QUEEN
Stand that way another instant, Charles. Ah, here is everything I have
wanted, schemed for, wept about, in the position I have dreamt of it.
[_She glances out at the park._] The back drop is perfect also.
Birds' song, the freshness of morning, sunlight, youth,--youth to be
gotten through somehow. However, here it all is, a dream--and not
turning pale as all the others did in daylight. Yet, strangely enough,
I cannot find a self in me to come forward and take these things as
they are now.
PRINCE
Anne, Anne, for God's sake--I swear to you I can explain everything.
QUEEN
Try not to let your fear of personal consequences intercept the pity
you should feel for me.
PRINCE
Anne, I love you, I love you.
QUEEN
Why, why is it that people cannot watch anything die in silence? I
suppose after all you are not sufficiently ruthless to carry off your
own selfishness with any sort of dignity.
PRINCE [_sulkily_]
You do not believe me. You credit the report of a woman who has every
reason to hate me.
QUEEN
No, I credit intuition, instinct that is always stinging past what one
wants to think and flinging some dismantled idol across one's feet.
Somehow, from looking down at a lie one can never look up to that
particular thing again.
PRINCE
It was the lie you minded more than what I did.
QUEEN
I think a truth, no matter of what kind, would have given me some
point of exhilaration upon which to try you out.
PRINCE
Oh, Anne, I do not understand you.
QUEEN
It is as well we found out. How jocosely casual we are about our
spirits. We tie them into some bondage of eternity for the security of
a night's lodging, and then wonder that life grows sour upon our
palate. [_she smiles over at CHARLES'S bewilderment_] Which means, in
the literal terms of those who credit reincarnation, that if we
married, those things you would have to do to keep your heart up would
cause your next showing to degenerate into a slight motion of slime at
the base of mountains. Think of the distance lost, Charles, for such a
little mincing forward step. Come, the morning wanes. Fortunately
there are things to do, no matter what cannot be done. I shall return
you half of your fortune, which, you will remember, is wholly
confiscate to the Crown, but upon the condition that you pass the
fleeting future from well under my nose. I could not bear to be
incessantly reading my past, which is printed all over you in large
letters. Really, Charles, you are a shifting mass of monuments to the
hope of a ridiculous person.
PRINCE
You have broken my heart. I may as well go, I suppose.
QUEEN
Thank God, I have a literal mind, for what you have said, as you have
said it, literally means, "I see you have found me out, so I suppose
there is no use wasting any more time around here."
PRINCE
You are impossible. You think too quickly.
QUEEN [_smiling broadly_]
Charles, Charles, go now, now, while I am smiling at you. It will be
nice to remember our saying good-bye and smiling.
[_She comes to him, takes his hand, looks up at him, but he will
not let his face be natural. She smooths his face, apparently
looking for some effect of Nature. Finally his features do relax
into a rather sheepish, furtive smile._]
Ah, now, I see you do not want to talk about it any more, and you do
want to get right away. There, go.
[_She pushes him toward the door, and out through it, and he is
heard remonstrating with her down the hallway. In a few seconds
she re-enters with his boutonniere in her hand. She looks rather
strangely about her, and presses his flower to her mouth._]
QUEEN
My child, my love, it had to be good-bye this time.
[_Far in the distance the air of "Clair de Lune" is being played
upon myriad guitars and flutes._]
_CURTAIN_
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes
On page 74, the opening bracket in: [GWYMPLANE _with a strange sad
gesture_] was moved: GWYMPLANE [_with a strange sad gesture_]
Stage directions indented in the original book are shown as
blockquotes.
Quaint and inconsistent spelling and punctuation have been retained
from the original book.