Chapter I: Act I: Scene 1

[_An old park with avenues of trees leading away in all
directions. Directly in background of stage there is a sheet of
water fringed by willow and poplar trees. On the right and left
is a high box hedge formed in curves with the top clipped in
grotesque shapes mostly of birds. A statue is placed in the
centre of each hedge, and beneath the statues are seats._

_When the curtain rises several courtiers are discovered
wandering or sitting about. There is much laughing and whispering
behind fans._]

2D COURTIER

What an extraordinary evening! How calm the water is! It makes the swans look exactly like topaz clouds reflecting in a titanic mirror.

A LADY

Yes. The sky is just as clear as the Queen's ear-rings of aquamarine. A storm could hardly blow up out of such blueness, so the masque is bound to be heavenly.

3D COURTIER [_approaching_]

I hate to interrupt your celestial jargon with human speech, but does anybody know whether Phedro has been able to find the Prince and give him the Queen's command?

LADY [_answering with frigid distinction_]

Probably not, but the Prince can never be found and is always forgiven. It is much to be loved in secret by a----

1ST COURTIER [_laying finger on his lips_]

Hush!

2D COURTIER [_reprovingly_]

At court one must try not to think aloud or one is perhaps overheard by--[_makes the motion of a blade across his throat_].

2D LADY

O nonsense! Why, Phedro confides in everybody, and so nobody ever believes him. Yet he is always quite right.

2D COURTIER

He puts his nose into the dust that is swept out of great corners. Indeed he looks in unthinkable places, and finds the incredible.

1ST COURTIER

Do you know what he told me lately?

LADY

I am ailing with curiosity.

1ST COURTIER

It was a fantastic tale about one of our own lot. Indeed about one wearing strawberry leaves and with two very young sons growing up, and she, apparently imagining the younger to be the living likeness, growing plainer every day, of a former indiscretion, gives directions to her favourite lackey to get rid of this wrong one and he, from spleen, gives the honest child away. The lady dies shortly after; the father never suspects anything. The bastard inherits, so the entire tragedy was in vain.

3D COURTIER

Fear is always absurd. You should be quite sure you are found out first; even then you have only to look rather sharply at anyone you fear in order to reduce _Him_. Indeed, the best of defences is presumption upon the brotherhood of sin.

A LADY

O how true!

PHEDRO

[_A person of shifty, wizened visage enters. In a jocular tone._]

What is "O how true?" [_He glances about him._] You are all looking very _en rapport_ with the Almighty. In fact as if He had been telling you secrets. Did they concern me? I am always a prey to the desire of hearing what is said--just before and just after I am in a room.

1ST COURTIER

[_With much pomposity hiding his embarrassment._]

We were commanded to be in attendance on the Queen. Could you find Prince Charles? You were sent to find him, were you not?

PHEDRO [_nodding to the right_]

I have achieved my significant purpose. The Prince is playing at croquet with the Duchess, and says when the Queen arrives to let him know.

1ST COURTIER

He is very casual. How very indiscreet of him!--to show so plainly his passion for the Duchess.

PHEDRO

Oh no! Mountains cannot knock one another down. They can only be blown up, from underneath [_smiles enigmatically_].

1ST COURTIER

You are difficult to follow.

PHEDRO

My lord, I am speaking in metaphor. It is a dodge I learned from the poets.

3D COURTIER

I repeat, you are difficult and poetry is impossible to follow. However, poetry is no longer the fashion.

[_Takes a pinch of snuff, and looks with agreeable enmity at 2D
COURTIER._]

PHEDRO [_deprecatingly_]

I merely try to match my words against your silks and laces, my lord. But--her Majesty is approaching.

[_Enter the QUEEN, a sharp-featured, neurotic-looking woman. One
of her Cabinet is speaking earnestly to her and she is paying him
scant attention._]

MINISTER

It is vitally necessary that we should discover upon what terms they would capitulate.

QUEEN

Yes, and they must be heavily taxed for holding out so long. Imagine other people presuming to be patriotic. It simply draws everything out to such an absurd length. Ah, how irritable it makes me to think. Phedro, where is the Prince, where is Prince Charles?

[_During the last of her speech she withdraws her arm from the
Minister's, who, seeing there is no further hope of holding her
attention, withdraws respectfully and quite unobserved._]

PHEDRO

Attending impatiently the arrival of your Majesty upon the other side of the copse. I go to make him aware of your presence.

[_He bows himself out, and the QUEEN looking anxiously in the
direction of the vanishing PHEDRO espies PRINCE CHARLES and the
DUCHESS upon a lawn._]

QUEEN [_adjusting her lorgnette_]

How silly people look playing croquet. The Duchess appears to me exactly like a bent hairpin.

2D COURTIER

[_Looking also in the direction of the DUCHESS and half
admiringly._]

Indeed, Madame, her Grace is too tall to look well bending down.

QUEEN [_turning upon him_]

I hope you are not hiding a mud-sling in your silk swallow-tail. Perhaps you forget a courtier's principal duty should be the culture of tact, and tact is nothing whatever but helping me exaggerate my humours until I tire of them.

2D COURTIER

Indeed, indeed, Madame, your Majesty's brilliance blinds my eyes with humility.

[_Enter PRINCE CHARLES, a slender, exotic-looking gentleman._]

PRINCE

Dear Cousin, how delicious you are looking--so royal and alert. [_He bends over her hand._] Ah! [_His vitality seems suddenly to leave him at the thought._] I have just been trying to lessen Josephine's habitual _ennui_ by making her my victim at croquet.

QUEEN

[_With a slight lounge into sentimentality._]

I am sure she, like many others, is easily your victim--at croquet. But come, let us be alone, let us dismiss this chain of faces, they confine my thoughts. I would like to talk well, I would like to talk fantastically, that is, I wish you would think of something original for tonight's entertainment.

[_She signals to the courtiers that they may leave._]

After all it is the prelude to your nuptials. Let us think of something to surprise Josephine.

PRINCE

To _surprise_ Josephine! But nothing could surprise Josephine.

QUEEN

You are probably mistaken. I believe any reality would surprise her. All her life she has watched life passing in a mirror. She has never touched a thing--I think she has very curious hands. But let us----

[_She perceives that some of the courtiers are still lingering
about. Turns to them._]

I have several times intimated that you may disperse.

[_Courtiers go out swiftly._]

[_Looking at Prince wistfully._] You can imagine that I am a little sad today. There is a mist between me and everything else, the gardens are dull, the flowers have lost their fragrance. A sirocco seems blowing up from the graves of all young people who have never been given a chance. Tell me, do you care much for Josephine?

CHARLES [_pompously_]

My Cousin, my Sovereign, this marriage has been arranged, I presume in lieu of my lost brother, the Prince of Vaucluse, and apparently in order further to quilt your Majesty's exchequer.

QUEEN [_interrupting him_]

Your poor brother; your poor brother; if it had been he, how much heartbreak I would have been spared.

PRINCE

Which means, your Majesty?

QUEEN

That I have been talking to myself, and you have been listening, which is ungallant, as if you were to let me put rouge on my nose instead of on my cheeks without stopping me.

PRINCE

[_Rather uneasily returning to a favourite subject._]

Well, your Majesty, now I have accustomed myself so long to the idea of my marriage that it gives me pleasure and calm to dwell on it, especially when I gaze upon Josephine's tapering regality--then I am most inclined to think your esteemed father, our former King, was wise in recommending it, and that Fate was not too unkind in disposing of my half-brother in her own mysterious way.

[_He smiles rather unpleasantly._]

QUEEN

[_Who has not attended the last part of his speech._]

Yes. To provide at one clip for her--the child of his love, and for me, the result of his duty, proved him a parent, a statesman, and, tonight, I am a little inclined to think, a blackguard. However, you know this marriage has none of my command in it and there are many ways out.

[_PHEDRO invisible to the QUEEN and the PRINCE slides into the
shadow of a giant oak tree._]

PRINCE

You mean if either of us----

QUEEN

That if any charge of unworthiness could be brought by either of you against the other, then it would be my duty even at the last hour----

PRINCE [_suddenly_]

Well, unfortunately, my various dissipations have only rendered me romantic in the eyes of your court, and as for Josephine----

QUEEN

Ah, her appearance gives no clue to her mind [_with an attempted lightness_], save occasionally there is too much scent on her cambric.

PRINCE

Why do you dislike Josephine?

QUEEN

I do not dislike her, but she behaves unbecomingly. She is very arrogant. Arrogance does not become a bastard.

PRINCE [_in a teasing vein_]

You do dislike her. You hate her, even though she is your half-sister, but I find her enchanting. I adore her cold, slender finger tips and the perfection of her contemptuous profile. She moves exactly like a swan.

QUEEN [_trying to control her emotion_]

At last you are giving yourself entirely away. I am hearing what I know. Ugh! how doubly unpleasant!

PRINCE

Why should I not give myself away to you, Cousin?

QUEEN

You mean I am powerless to harm either of you.

PRINCE

Why should you wish to harm us?

QUEEN

There are many things you might not understand; for instance, there is a love that is half hatred. It is sprinkled into life in a rather strange manner--by wounds. However, I am becoming sentimental and I hate sentimentality. It reminds me of people with colds in their heads who have lost their pocket handkerchiefs.

PRINCE [_in evident uneasiness_]

Madame, your eloquence is remarkable, but to say that you are mysterious is all that I dare to say.

QUEEN

You dare to say what you want to say [_bitterly_]. You have courage enough to satisfy your curiosities like everybody else, but I have always noticed that when people are not curious their manners become extraordinary. However, we are forgetting about the fete. Let us call Phedro.

PRINCE [_bowing_]

With pleasure.

[_He calls. PHEDRO emerges after a few seconds at an entirely
different angle from the place where he was concealed._]

PHEDRO

Majesty.

QUEEN

[_Addressing him in a peremptory voice._]

It is my wish that you should think of something bizarre to be included in the festivities of tonight. The Prince and myself do not seem able to put our minds on it.

PHEDRO

I think most certainly, Majesty, there should be something bizarre about these festivities, but Majesty----

[_He makes her a low bow._]

QUEEN [_interrogatively_]

Yes?

PHEDRO [_sliding up to her_]

Could I beg a moment alone with your Majesty? For it would be my humble view that both _fiances_ share the surprise.

QUEEN

[_Turning to the PRINCE with a gesture of dismissal._]

Go along, Charles. At any rate you have a sort of sleight-of-hand manner of looking at your watch that makes me rather nervous.

PRINCE

[_Taking her hand, and becoming mischievously eloquent with
relief._]

Then, _au revoir_, my Cousin. When this garish day is drowned in the sapphire pool of night, and we are all like pallid flowers tossed upon moody currents of mysterious desire, perhaps--who knows? our petals may touch in that tender gloom of night and music.

[_Bends tenderly, whimsically over her hand._]

QUEEN

[_Gazing after his exit enraptured, once more hopeful, then
turning to PHEDRO._]

Ah, Phedro, what joy there is in being foolish!

PHEDRO

Pleasure has two extremes, Madame. One is to have your lover in your arms, the other is to have him in your power.

QUEEN [_pacing up and down_]

I must have one or the other. What can be done. Think for me, advise me. I am too unstrung to think for myself. When one wants a thing very much, everything blurs.

PHEDRO

There are many voices whispering all together in my mind. In a little perhaps one will be louder than the rest--then we may plan.

QUEEN

But the fete. We are continually forgetting about the fete.

PHEDRO

[_Thinking, with his finger against his lips._]

Out of one purpose often comes another perfected.

QUEEN

You are talking in enigmas, and it is growing late. See how long and slender the poplar shadows are getting on the grass. When the wind and sun touch them they look a little like obelisks flashed over with strange writings.

PHEDRO

Your Majesty is adding the accomplishment of a poet to the genius of a sovereign.

QUEEN [_shivering_]

No, I would not like to be a poet. They are always dying of _ennui_ or madness. But, Phedro, to the point.

PHEDRO [_suddenly_]

Majesty, some mountebanks arrived at the park lodge last night. They crave to play before your Majesty.

QUEEN [_coming out of a reverie_]

Are they dancers, or do they act plays?

PHEDRO

Their performance I understand is peculiar. One of them is blind, the other is deformed in some way. With them is a doctor of philosophy, one who heals the scars of flesh or heart with powders or words befitting the case.

QUEEN [_wanly_]

They do not sound original.

PHEDRO

And yet from the effect they stir there must be something. It appears the clown causes those who are incurably sad to faint with laughter.

QUEEN

It would be charming to laugh, to be unable to help laughing. Have them sent to my porter in the northern wing and I will interview them before the masque. Ah, here comes the Duchess leaning upon her Prince's arm. I must say she looks as if there might be something more amusing to lean upon.

[_Enter JOSEPHINE and the PRINCE._]

QUEEN

Well, Josephine.

DUCHESS

Well, my sister.

[_Sighs and stoops over a bed of heliotrope._]

QUEEN

Why are you so melancholy, Josephine? You are standing in the portals of joy--I confess they do not appear very much to intrigue you.

DUCHESS

Possibly I am melancholy because I am not curious.

QUEEN [_sarcastically_]

No, rocks could hardly be curious about the waves or the wrecks washing against them. Come, Phedro.

[_She goes. PRINCE bows after the QUEEN and then comes back to
the DUCHESS._]

PRINCE

Beauty like yours is a penance for other women to regard. You are very like an exquisite temple in which there is no god. Yet I would not put a god in your temple.

DUCHESS [_rather bored_]

No? What would you put there?

PRINCE

In the very centre of your temple I would place a faun with swift, strange limbs, crisp, serpentine hair, and the smile of a demon.

DUCHESS [_turning to him slowly_]

The smile of a demon? I think that would be enchanting. Ah, how tired I am, I think I will go and rest. What in the world is one tired from? What does one rest for----

[_She pauses in rather a lost manner._]

PRINCE

Yes, do go and rest, for tomorrow you must be radiant as a new-blown flower in the first rays of the sun.

DUCHESS

[_Turning to him with a faint curiosity._]

I suppose that afterwards my appearance will please you, even if my spirits are never particularly high.

PRINCE

I do not care about your spirits. I do not care about your soul. I love the pliant rippling motion of your pensive youth. I love your imperial beauty, for it throws open the last sealed chambers of my own fancy.

DUCHESS

Fancy--fancy--I have fancied so many things.

[_The sound of an approaching flute is heard together with the
creaking of a carriage._]

A strange sound, what can it be?

[_During the ensuing speeches the creaking and the flute come
nearer._]

PRINCE

Josephine, our life together will be exquisite. It will be as the lives of the Romans in Greece--a bacchanale of peculiar formalities. We will bury conscience in the poppy-haunted air of exhausting revelry. We will----

DUCHESS

O Charles, you talk exactly like those men who design my dresses, but look----

[_Her eyes are riveted upon a curious cavalcade crossing from
right to left of stage, first a very small house on wheels drawn
by a large wolf-dog; at its side, walking, an old man, his head
bent in deep thought. He wears the cap and gown of a doctor of
philosophy. After him, with dark hair falling almost to the
ground about her pallid face, is walking a girl of extraordinary
beauty. She is looking rigidly ahead of her and is being guided
by a white ribbon suspended from the back of the cart. A few
paces behind her comes a sinuous, coffee-skinned slave girl with
that erect majesty of one who has worn crowns or carried water
pitchers through generations. Behind the slave follows the flute
player, a mountebank, horribly twisted in some manner not visible
in the twilight. The PRINCE, who has permitted the carriage to go
by him in a wonderment intensified by the beauty of the blind
girl, walks over to the mountebank._]

PRINCE [_arrogantly_]

Who are you all? What are you doing here?

[_Instead of answering, the mountebank hastily puts his flute
into his pocket and executes a handspring, the third taking him
altogether behind the scene, while from the front of the
cavalcade, comes a high, cracked voice in answer to the PRINCE'S
question._]

A VOICE

We are players, your Highness, mountebanks commanded for the pleasure of the Queen.

[_The DUCHESS has grown very white and is standing with her hand
pressing her heart._]

DUCHESS

What was that tune he played upon his flute, and what dreadful thing was the matter with him?

PRINCE

I do not know, but as she walked by her face was beautiful. It was like a prayer coming into the presence of God.

DUCHESS [_regarding the PRINCE sharply_]

Really? What can be speaking in you? Surely not yourself?

[_She laughs shrilly and exits. The flute continues to play. The
PRINCE absorbed, unheeding her departure, stands looking after
the mountebanks._]

_CURTAIN_

SCENE 2

[_In the palace grounds at night. Lanterns are suspended
everywhere from the trees. The front of the players' cart is seen
protruding up-stage left. The philosopher is seated on the steps
of the car smoking a pipe. The blind girl with strange, tentative
footsteps and feeling hands is busy with duties around the
cart._]

DEA

Think of it; we are in the park of the Queen, and these lilies and roses are brushed every day by the silken stir of her ladies-in-waiting.

URSUS

Well, I do not feel much elated at being here. An ambition gained is an ambition lost, and I am too old to have many ambitions.

DEA

It is wonderful to be in the park of the Queen--to think that the shade of these same trees darkens her jewels at midday, and that through them is cast over her a shawl of glittering ribbons upon moonlight nights.

URSUS [_patting her shoulder and smiling_]

Joy makes poets out of all of us. [_Half to himself_] But it is only a poet who can sing in the clutches of death and pain.

DEA [_very thoughtfully_]

Yet underneath all my joy I am thinking hard tonight of the beginning of things. I wonder, I wonder is it because I am nearing the end of things.

URSUS

Dea, dearest, you are not ill tonight? You have not again those flutterings in your heart?

DEA

Not more than I can bear. How good Gwymplane has been to me! I wish I had been old enough to see him on the night he got lost, and found me in the snow on my dead mother's breast, and God led us to you.

URSUS

I do not wish to think of that night. You were like a tiny, frozen rose-petal, and he--he was so small himself it didn't seem possible he could have carried you all the way and God----

[_URSUS covers his face with his hands and speaks in a low
voice._]

When you were both under the lamp I asked him what he found to smile at. I asked him roughly to stop smiling.

DEA [_happily_]

Yes, Gwymplane always smiles, doesn't he? He must have a very contented spirit. I wish that I could see his smile. How it provokes other people to laugh!

[_URSUS looks at her pityingly, and pats her on the shoulder._]

I smile and weep a great deal lately over my love for Gwymplane, and I am frightened about one thing.

URSUS

What is that?

DEA

That someone is going to make him unhappy.

URSUS

Gwymplane worships you. While you are singing and smiling I do not think anything could make him unhappy.

DEA

I hope not. You know I feel that he has given his soul into my hands and that I must take care of it as I would a little child. Yes, I feel as if Gwymplane were my child, and yet something more than my child that makes my heart bound and my song tremble into silence.

[_A nightingale sings in the distance._]

URSUS

My Dea!

DEA

Tell me, Ursus, Gwymplane is so wonderful. He--he attracts everyone so. Does he never notice any especial person in the audience? Some one whom he attracts?

URSUS

No, Dea, and you need never worry about that. Gwymplane will never love or be beloved save by you.

DEA

Ah, how good it is to hear that! How beautiful tonight is! I would like to sit forever like this, very near to you and talking of Gwymplane.

[_A sudden voice almost at their elbow. Enter PHEDRO._]

PHEDRO

But everyone is talking of Gwymplane.

[_URSUS rising whispers to DEA to go._]

Why do you dismiss your beautiful daughter? Her pallor, her most haunting stare, have already sown chaos in the heart of a certain important personage.

URSUS

Leave me, Dea.

[_DEA silently exits._]

Who are you who visit us so abruptly?

PHEDRO [_whimsically_]

I think I am a cork upon very troubled waters.

URSUS

That does not answer me enough.

PHEDRO

Then I am a web binding men and women while they sleep to unexpected things.

URSUS

Ah, you are a trouble maker?

PHEDRO

No--but I discover what is unusual in the senses of one person and in the circumstances of another person--Indeed, I have had a splendid training.

URSUS

Where?

PHEDRO

I have been--but I was almost showing you the colour of the water I rose from.

URSUS

Well, I have no curiosity.

PHEDRO

That is exactly why one wishes to talk to you. Curiosity in other people always makes me terribly suspicious. I remember suddenly the reasons that can make _me_ curious. Now I can talk to you, for one feels you might not even listen, so you couldn't possibly care enough to repeat. I was a lackey once.

URSUS

A sordid position.

PHEDRO

[_Becomes slightly frenzied during his speech._]

Yes. A servant is something to absorb the spittle of their irritability. A hand to arrange the pages of their private diary when they get stuck together with filth; and above all a presence between them and the mirror during those grey dawn hours when passing it, they are likely to see themselves as they are. Ah, then one must be armed with the eloquence of Cato to reassure these sow's ears that they are still silk purses. Otherwise the devil has to be bought off in the morning and with three times the effort. One thing they never count on, however.

URSUS

And that?

PHEDRO

The effect on another human being of their absurdity and the passion of malice they rouse from a too long concealed contempt.

URSUS [_looking at him curiously_]

Contempt is the armour of snakes.

PHEDRO [_his face undergoing a change_]

Is it truly, my fine gentleman? Well, my mind has been wandering and stumbled on a _cul-de-sac_ as usual. Ah, the hope of being understood--it is almost extinct. However, if I cannot be understood, I shall, nevertheless, be felt.

URSUS

Well, what do you want of me? I am a philosopher and as such am not occupied with any sort of facts.

PHEDRO

I suppose not. You philosophers are blind men in dark rooms looking for the footprints of shadows, are you not?

URSUS [_smiling_]

Not at all. We philosophers have merely learned to practice humour in the presence of what is commonplace. But what is it you do want of me?

PHEDRO

What everybody wants--to talk about Gwymplane.

URSUS

Well?

PHEDRO

Have you had this gold mine with you long?

URSUS

Years and years.

PHEDRO

You bought him, I suppose, from some travelling show?

URSUS

No, he came to me of his own accord, and yet by accident.

PHEDRO

Was he riding the wind? And did it drop him by chance upon your knees?

URSUS

He came by accident. He remains of his own accord.

PHEDRO

Curious.

URSUS

What is curious?

PHEDRO

The irrelevancy of my mind.

URSUS

Of what were you thinking?

PHEDRO

Tell me, did you--did you--ever hear of the Comprachicos?

URSUS

Yes--why?

PHEDRO

Inhuman people they must have been.

URSUS

Not more so than those who gave them their practice.

PHEDRO

They have provided most of the circuses that roam around the world with freaks.

URSUS

They had a great knowledge of surgery.

PHEDRO

Yes. They had an amusing way of putting young children into a press--young children whose existence it would have been very uncomfortable to admit in certain glittering circles. This press was shaped like a bottle so that the growth became abnormal, and when the press was lifted the human form had already attained the shape of a bottle. They could also print everlastingly rather strange expressions upon the human countenance.

URSUS [_starts_]

Yes, yes, I have heard of that.

PHEDRO

However, even such people were afraid to die.

URSUS

During the death of the worst person his soul shines through for a moment.

PHEDRO [_rather uncomfortable_]

Well, well, to go back. A strange story came under my authority written by one of these Comprachicos.

URSUS

Really, how was that?

PHEDRO

You know I am an official.

URSUS

Of what sort?

PHEDRO

I am the examining magistrate of all the jetsam from the sea that is washed from anywhere whatever upon our shores.

URSUS

That is an original position!

PHEDRO

It was created for me by the Queen to whom I have rendered much service. But I was saying that a most extraordinary story happened along in a medicine bottle that had floated for years upon the sea.

URSUS

Ump!

PHEDRO

Ah--it was a long confession, and it had floated for about fifteen years in the sea.

[_He is watching URSUS narrowly._]

URSUS [_starting visibly_]

PHEDRO

What were you about to say?

URSUS

When one has talked to one's self for a great many years it is hard to hold one's tongue in public.

[_Enter the PRINCE--debonair and haughty. PRINCE ignores
PHILOSOPHER and pulls PHEDRO aside._]

PRINCE

Well! What have you arranged?

PHEDRO

My lord--the desires of youth are swifter than my wits. Yet I have tried.

PRINCE

Nonsense.... No rhetoric.... What is accomplished?

PHEDRO

It will be easily managed. I have your keys.

PRINCE

Is she willing?

PHEDRO

Innocence is always obliging at such a moment.

PRINCE

Neither the Queen nor the Duchess must have an inkling of this.

PHEDRO

No, my lord.

PRINCE

Tonight and tomorrow night.... What contrasts! Two crimes! A secret and a public one!

PHEDRO

My lord is sardonic.

[_URSUS after looking at them for a few moments has wandered off
to the cart, and is seen making preparations for the evening's
performance. There is the sound of DEA'S singing._]

PRINCE

Ah, how exquisite! I think I shall go and speak with her!

PHEDRO [_detaining him_]

Better not, my lord, much better not.

PRINCE [_shaking him off_]

All right, all right. Only don't insist, don't irritate me or I shall spite myself.... I cannot bear to take any one's advice.

PHEDRO

Nor do you, my lord. I merely reminded you of the presence of your own common sense.

PRINCE

[_A pettish grimace flashing across his countenance_]

I hope this performance may make the Duchess forget herself for a few moments. She has seemed more than ordinarily bored today.

PHEDRO [_murmuring_]

To be so matchless as her Grace is as bad as being blind. It gives one nowhere to look.

PRINCE

She is perfection outside; inside--I do not know. Where is that distorted fellow that bounded away from me in the darkness just before dinner?

PHEDRO

Oh--Gwymplane--he is probably off somewhere charming the birds awake with his flute.

PRINCE [_in reverie_]

Yes, Josephine is magnificent. Yet I think there is a strange grimace upon the face of her soul. I am longing to find out what is at the bottom of her smile. Ah, I shall be the first to bathe in her delights. It is a most invigorating thought.

[_He plucks a flower and places it in his buttonhole._]

PHEDRO

My lord finds it enchanting to be the first?

PRINCE

It is the only enchantment. If you were a real man, you would know that, Phedro, but if you were really a man I could not confide in you.

PHEDRO [_winces then recovers himself_]

My lord was saying----

PRINCE [_in a mood of reverie_]

That passion yearns for surprises--and love hankers after peace.

PHEDRO

And in your marriage, my lord?

PRINCE

I yearn for surprises. Of course the right sort of surprises.

PHEDRO

You will get them, my lord.

PRINCE

[_Who is not attending him but listening to Dea's song._]

What?

PHEDRO

My sixth sense whispers to me, my lord, that you are on the eve of many surprises.

[_The noise of the wand of the COURT STEWARD is heard pounding
through the park._]

AN APPROACHING VOICE

The Queen's court is arriving. The Queen's court precedes the Queen. See that the performance is ready. See that the performance is ready.

[_The voice dies away. There is the sound of much commotion in
the vicinity of the cart. The voice of DEA ceases and someone
calls: GWYMPLANE! GWYMPLANE answering distantly: Yes. URSUS:
Hurry. GWYMPLANE: I come. The PRINCE and PHEDRO steal quickly
away._]

_CURTAIN_

SCENE 3

[_Courtiers entering. A lady looking through her lorgnette._]

A LADY

I hope this is not going to be too boring.

3D COURTIER

Ah, that, Madame, is the pleasure-seeker's prayer. Save me this night from being bored to death.

2D COURTIER [_a great dandy_]

I hope they have enchanting costumes, and that they are well perfumed.

[_He smells a scrap of lace._]

LADY

I hear he is remarkable.

2D COURTIER

Who?

LADY

The mountebank, I forget his name. He has a Latin name besides, which I forget also, but they say that when he appears....

COURT USHER [_announces_]

The Queen.

[_The Queen arrives surrounded by a brilliant court. JOSEPHINE
attends her, dressed entirely in silver and wearing immense
emeralds. Her hair is very formally powdered, and she wears a
cherry-coloured cloak. A coloured slave in black moire carries
her train._]

QUEEN

I am not in a mood for laughing tonight. [_She glances at Josephine._] At any rate it is always singularly depressing to go anywhere in order to laugh. And if this clown causes me even to smile he shall have some rare reward.

[_Seats herself upon a raised dais. Courtiers group themselves
around her. Most of the ladies have seats. Many of the gentlemen
sit at their feet._]

JOSEPHINE

[_Listlessly fluttering her fan; she is on the left of the QUEEN
and near the audience._]

How tedious! For what are they delaying?

PRINCE [_standing over her_]

We are scarcely seated.

JOSEPHINE

Waiting is so tedious. It puts me in a bad humour, and I lose my enthusiasm.

PRINCE

Before you have quite found it, eh?

[_A gong sounds. Two stalwart men move the cart to left centre of
stage; with a click the sides of the carriage are flung open and
a stage about twelve feet wide and four feet above the ground
appears. In the back is a green curtain, ornamented with
constellations. Suddenly a grotesque figure completely hooded and
masked, attended by two small drummer boys, makes its appearance.
The figure squats upon the floor in direct centre of stage. The
drummers seat themselves beside it and all three begin to play;
the attendants upon their drums, the centre figure upon a flute.
No human part of him can be seen, save his hands which are
remarkably beautiful, sensitive and pallid. He moves them with
extraordinary grace. He plays upon his flute an air from India.
Suddenly upon the stage above him appears a Hindu girl. She
executes a sinuous pantomimic dance of youth and desire. The
figure playing upon the flute gradually turns his back to the
audience and facing the dancer continues to play. Finally the
dancer, noticing her admirer, commences to dance for him alone.
The music becomes more breathless; the hooded figure plays a
screaming tone upon his flute. Immediately a third slave, attired
as a drummer, rushes out and catches his flute from the green
masque, who jumps upon the stage, and seizing the dancer,
savagely--gracefully, about her slim waist, dances with her, at
once tenderly and primitively._]

QUEEN

What agility and strength the man has got. He has made me catch my breath already, which is far better than to laugh.

JOSEPHINE

He dances like a demon over burning altars.

PRINCE

What was that, Josephine?

JOSEPHINE

Don't distract my attention.

PRINCE [_laughing_]

Attention? Attention? Why, Josephine, I never knew that gift was among your talents!

JOSEPHINE

Sh! Sh!

[_During the dance, the Hindu girl becomes more and more
enamoured of her partner, who eludes and attacks her in a perfect
frenzy of grace and passion. Finally she tries to unmask him or
to pull off his cloak, without success. A chime is heard. The
drummers play a strange, sinister march. An old man enters--the
slave owner. He sees his slave in the arms of one whom she
obviously loves, and rushes at the masked figure with his sword.
At this the green mask flings the girl away from him, tears off
his mask, throws open his coat and stands revealed before the
slave owner, but with his back to the audience. The man is about
to let fall his sword when he looks upon what he is about to
kill. Gradually his jaw drops with amazement and he lets out a
terrible yell of laughter. The slave girl who has stood watching
him, now creeps round to see what is causing him so much mirth,
and gazing up suddenly into the face of her partner utters a
shriek of horror and runs from the stage. The slave owner follows
her, his sides shaking with laughter. The figure stands rigidly
transfixed, his back still to the audience._]

JOSEPHINE [_leaning forward eagerly_]

What can he be like! I wish he would turn round.

PRINCE

You seem interested, Josephine. Do these wretched mummers really ...

[_But JOSEPHINE is leaning forward intently for the music has
begun again. This time the figure is doing a strange dance of
loneliness and search for his departed partner, his mask lies
upon the ground, but he shields himself with his cloak.
Occasionally in the wildness of his dance it slips a little,
permitting glimpses of parts of his face._]

QUEEN [_suddenly in a tone of fright_]

What is it the man has upon his face? Is it a great scar?

JOSEPHINE

No! No! It is his mouth that is like that.

[_Her excitement is obviously gathering to an almost unbearable
point as the dance proceeds. In a low voice:_]

Oh, he is deformed, he is terribly deformed, his shoulders are not abreast of one another. Or is it some devil's head squatting upon his body of an angel.

A VOICE

No, it is his legs; they are bent in opposite directions.

A VOICE

No wonder the lady will not come back to him!

[_GWYMPLANE'S dance seems to be reaching a climax; he has nosed
about the floor like a dog; he has tried to leap over the roof
in order to discover his lost sweetheart, and now he turns facing
the audience, his arms outstretched in pitiful dejection. There
is an instant's deep silence, and then a great laugh rings out
from the audience. The QUEEN herself rocks to and fro, backward
and forward behind her fan. JOSEPHINE starts forward, in her face
a mixture of amusement, giving gradually way to some sinister
thought which makes her gaze fixedly at the mountebank with
parted lips. Her unswerving glance at length draws his eyes
towards her and for one single instant their glances seem to pass
through one another--the exquisite duchess, the grotesque clown.
No one has seen the look, save PHEDRO, who wipes his lips with an
expression of intense amusement. Suddenly from behind GWYMPLANE
steps DEA, and he returns with an almost imperceptible start to
his act. Seeing this lovely apparition, he throws himself at her
feet, and she, apparently perceiving him, does not repel him but
puts her slim hands in his wild hair, and they go through some
tender motions to an exquisite melody upon the flute. Gradually
with gestures of pity and love she invites him to go with her,
and he hardly believing is about to be led away, when suddenly
the oriental melody begins again. The dancer appears. She glances
at GWYMPLANE with the hypnotized fascination of utter horror. DEA
attempts drawing GWYMPLANE away, but he resists, becoming again a
victim to the old charm. The slave girl, with a wild gesture,
offers herself to him. Simultaneously, DEA motions him with
prayer to go with her. He makes some pitiful indecisive motions
between them. DEA wrings her hands; the slave girl smiles; when,
with a sudden gesture of despair, GWYMPLANE takes out his knife
and makes a motion of cutting out his heart, then sinks upon the
ground, and suddenly holds up his heart dripping with blood in
his two pale hands. The slave girl tries to snatch it, but he
gives it to DEA, who presses it against her own. GWYMPLANE
breathes his last, and the slave, falling at the feet of DEA,
licks the blood from the heart of her dancer off the floor._

_Miniature curtain descends to some strange music recalling the
chimes of a clock._]

QUEEN

What an extraordinary pantomime! I think these mummers act too well. They will leave a memory, and I have far too many memories already.

JOSEPHINE

[_Trying to conceal the impression the play has made on her._]

I shall never have any memories. When the door closes I shall forget.

PRINCE

Perhaps you are not so agile as you think. Something of you may catch in the door when it slams, and go on aching forever.

QUEEN [_tolerantly_]

Inexperience can always afford to be a little ridiculous, can it not? [_rises_] Well, it has all been very entertaining. I have really immensely enjoyed myself.

[_Turning to her courtiers and taking a brooch from her lace._]

I think we should give the clown some token of tonight's amusement. [_to a servant_] Go and tell Messire Gwymplane to attend us.

PRINCE

The performance of this mountebank has agitated me. [_passing his hand over his brow._] I want to forget something in motion, in motion.

JOSEPHINE

[_Looking at him and at the QUEEN, and twinkling with a sort of
spiteful mischief._]

It will be delicious to dance tonight. The starving should dance, the replete should dream! Come! [_takes his arm_]

PRINCE

What an exquisite thing for you to say to me--just at this moment.

[_QUEEN glances at them with an expression of pain and hatred. An
attendant approaches the QUEEN, who breaks sharply out of her
reverie._]

QUEEN

You have not brought the clown?

ATTENDANT

The owner of the van begs indulgence of your Majesty. The clown has wandered off somewhere, as is his habit, and cannot be found.

QUEEN

How annoying! Well, the amusement I should have had in giving him this is really the only reason for such a gift.

[_Replaces her brooch and turns to an attendant._]

Tell these mountebanks to leave the palace grounds before dawn.

ATTENDANT

Yes, your Majesty. [_bows himself out_]

JOSEPHINE

I am glad he did not appear. He would have been horrible to look at closely.

PRINCE

You are cold. Let me arrange your cloak more closely about your shoulders.

QUEEN

Wrap my dear sister by all means, Charles, but if you can--from the inside out.

[_Continues her conversation with a courtier._]

JOSEPHINE [_in a low voice_]

How she dislikes me! But dislike is amusing when the hours are just ending that make one the slave of its temper.

PRINCE [_bending over her_]

Tomorrow, Josephine.... Tomorrow you will be safe forever from her rudeness. She will need us; our united fortunes will be the bank for her gambling.

JOSEPHINE

Ah! tomorrow--tomorrow!

QUEEN

Josephine, take your prince and await me in the ballroom.

JOSEPHINE [_glancing toward the cart_]

It is very pleasant here, your Majesty. The air is cool so far away from candlelight, and I have an inclination to headache.

QUEEN

Why, a moment ago you said, "Let us dance," to which you added as your own a quotation from something you had read.

JOSEPHINE

[_Who has been edging nearer the cart and looking with curiosity
about her._]

Idle people are moody, your Majesty, but if ...

QUEEN [_sharply_]

It is my pleasure that you should await me in the ballroom.

JOSEPHINE

Your Majesty....

[_Bowing low and taking the arm of the PRINCE, looks up archly
into his eyes._]

We will ask the musicians to play one of those new waltzes, that make me close my eyes quite up with delight.

[_PRINCE gazing enraptured, leads her out._]

QUEEN

[_Furiously, turning to PHEDRO who has flitted in and out since
the cessation of the performance, in a low voice._]

I would speak to you. [_to courtiers_] You are at liberty to precede me to the ballroom.

[_Courtiers go out._]

QUEEN [_leaning against a balcony_]

Ah, Phedro!

PHEDRO [_answering her tone_]

My Majesty, my sovereign star.

QUEEN

It is growing late and still nothing has been done. I cannot see that there is anything to do. Oh what discomfort!

PHEDRO

Your Majesty's eyes are too full of pain to see clearly perhaps.

QUEEN

I am obsessed by a dream, and in this dream my whole life lies snared and gasping.

[_DEA appears in the background of the cart, arranging things for
the night. PHEDRO glances at her quickly and then back at the
QUEEN._]

PHEDRO

There is a loose stone in every wall if one scratches long enough, yet in taking one's desire there may be surprises, unpleasant surprises.

QUEEN

But if ever one clutches the echo of one's own heart, what difference if a pox of madness seize the whole world?

PHEDRO

If you are willing to mean always what you feel now, your Majesty.

QUEEN

Don't talk absurdly, Phedro. Always is never more than now. And now is ever a part of eternity. Ah, I will make you more than you would dare ask if there is something to be done and you do it. Only I would rather not know the means. I would rather not be mixed up in the brew or it might sicken me afterwards to drink--of the Spring of Life.

PHEDRO

May I beg for the reason of my scheme to be left by your Majesty for a little?

QUEEN

Yes, yes, I go, Phedro. Oh, I would not have this if I thought it would deprive him of anything he really wanted, but he is ephemeral, aesthetic--in fact, he is a poet and doesn't really care for people. It is only for what they can make him feel that he likes them. Ah, how fascinating it is in him to be like that!

[_PHEDRO bows over her hand, and she goes out. Sound of DEA'S
singing comes very near the stage. PHEDRO hides behind some tall
shrubbery. DEA steps out, tenderly sniffing the air._]

DEA

At last the Queen is gone; the night is mine. What a fragrance, what an exciting fragrance! It is as if all the rose petals in the world were fighting in the air!

PHEDRO [_stepping out, masked_]

Fighting in the air and in the dark, but that is human destiny, my dear young lady.

DEA [_starting_]

Who are you?

PHEDRO

A deep and disinterested friend of yours.

DEA

It is late.... I must be ... [_attempts to leave_]

PHEDRO

Tell me ... whom would you like to help most in the world?

DEA [_gaily and innocently_]

Him whom I love most in the world.

PHEDRO

Ah, that is Gwymplane.

DEA

How did you guess?

PHEDRO

You are too innocent to understand the keeping of secrets, but if you wish to render Gwymplane a service ...

DEA

I should like to more than to live ...

PHEDRO

Well, take this letter in your hands tonight ... to where I shall lead you, and give it to whom I shall appoint to receive it.

DEA

But explain ...

PHEDRO

There is little I may tell you, and much that you will have to believe. I know of Gwymplane unknown facts that would make him respected and rich to the end of his days, and of course you would not wish him always to remain a clown.

DEA

I love him too much to detain him in the little area of my wishes. Yet why should _I_ carry this note?

PHEDRO

Because it must reach her Majesty by you before dawn.

DEA

Her Majesty? Shall I approach her Majesty?

PHEDRO

You will observe many distinguished persons tonight, and at close range.

DEA

What shall I say?

PHEDRO

That you know, that you carry proof that Gwymplane is fully entitled to all the immediate riches and respect this letter begs for him.

DEA

Oh, it will be wonderful to tell the Queen that Gwymplane is entitled to immediate riches and respect. How happy he shall be made at my hands!

PHEDRO [_half aside_]

Just so much chance have any of us got at the hands of those who love us.

[_Sound of a flute is heard._]

DEA

Gwymplane is coming!

PHEDRO [_walking swiftly to DEA_]

Mind what I tell you. Walk, feel your way down this long avenue of cypress to your right, and stop at the first white marble door you touch upon your left. Wait there for me. When I come I shall imitate the call of a cuckoo in order that the attendants may open to us immediately.

[_DEA goes out hurriedly. GWYMPLANE saunters in with his strange,
twisted walk._]

PHEDRO

You roam late in solitude among the damp grasses. Does that not make you too melancholy for jests?

GWYMPLANE

My ability to jest was affixed upon me by the gods in one of their humorous moments; however, anything may be written in the parchment under the seal.

[_He attempts to pass on._]

PHEDRO [_intently regarding him_]

You are a curious fellow.

GWYMPLANE

I think it is you who are curious, sir.

PHEDRO

Ah, that was spoken after the manner of your class.

GWYMPLANE

My class, of mountebanks, you mean?

PHEDRO

No, my meaning is gathering slowly. After all, rain does not pour from the clouds until there has been sufficient mist.

[_GWYMPLANE looks at him intently, then once more attempts
departure._]

PHEDRO

One moment.

GWYMPLANE

I beg you, sir, to let me pass. I am a prey tonight to reveries that make of me a dull companion.

PHEDRO [_experimentally_]

A lady of the court was enraptured by your performance, a lady who for many years has been aware of nothing but herself.

GWYMPLANE [_starting almost imperceptibly_]

I am glad if my performance pleased.

PHEDRO

It did much more.

GWYMPLANE

In the measure of amusement I may have caused I am not interested.

PHEDRO

Nevertheless, it seemed to me that you were a little burned by the flame you cast out.

GWYMPLANE

Ah, I see that you enjoy pursuing other people's business; consequently you free me from the necessity of listening to you.

PHEDRO [_assuming anger_]

Come now, don't offend me. After all I am the steward of the Queen's court. It was I who obtained your licence to act in the palace grounds, and so apparently gratify a long-felt ambition of your lovely fellow artiste.

GWYMPLANE [_softened_]

Ah--Dea, yes. She has always dreamed of playing in the palace park. No, I do not wish to be rude to you, but I beg of you to cease your gossip. My task was harder tonight than usual. I am perhaps overtired.

[_He puts a hand to his head._]

PHEDRO

Come, are you not a man? Is not the admiration of----

GWYMPLANE

Do not talk to me of these things. Do not talk of these things, I beg of you. [_with a suggestion of sob in his voice_] I am not like other men.

[_Unnoticed an equerry enters, and stands at PHEDRO'S side with a
large, scented and sealed envelope._]

EQUERRY

Your pardon, sirs.

PHEDRO

[_Going swiftly over to the equerry, and in a low aside._]

For whom is your letter?

EQUERRY [_in a whisper_]

For one Messire Gwymplane.

PHEDRO [_attempts to take the letter_]

I will see he gets it and reads it.

EQUERRY

Who are you?

[_PHEDRO pulls up his mask._]

O, Messire Phedro.

[_He bows low and hands him the note._]

PHEDRO [_in a grand voice_]

You may leave. I will deliver your note. [_then in a low voice for the equerry alone_] Wait behind the hedge and I will give you an answer.

[_Exit equerry. GWYMPLANE starts to depart. PHEDRO puts his arm
on his, detaining him, while he opens the letter and reads it. A
smile of malicious joy crosses his countenance which he quickly
cloaks with a look of alarm. He speaks aside:_]

How strange this is! Strange as if a precious bird long waited for in the night were to suddenly fly down and peck at my very gun. However ...

[_He returns to himself with a start, walks over to the hedge
where the equerry is waiting for the reply._]

Say to her Grace that she is understood, and shall be almost instantly obeyed. [_He turns to GWYMPLANE._]

GWYMPLANE

I beg of you, sir, permit me to depart.

PHEDRO

There is trouble abroad and it concerns you.

GWYMPLANE

Me?

PHEDRO

Still there is probably much time.

GWYMPLANE

Explain.

PHEDRO

What do you call the blind girl?

GWYMPLANE

Dea. It is not anything about Dea? There was not anything about Dea in that letter, was there?

PHEDRO

It was all about her.

GWYMPLANE

How?

PHEDRO

Listen. Instead of attending to this myself, as I have done in hundreds of similar cases, I am going to take you into my confidence.

GWYMPLANE

What is it? What is it?

PHEDRO

Your lovely fellow artiste is gone.

GWYMPLANE [_crying out_]

Gone? My Dea! That is impossible. She does not wish to go anywhere that I am not.

PHEDRO

Perhaps her wishes remained unconsulted. She may have been abducted.

GWYMPLANE [_drawing back_]

What are you saying? It is so monstrous I must laugh or scream if I go on listening to you. [_shakes PHEDRO by the arm_] Come out with it. Where has she gone? But she is in bed! Where else?

[_He runs back to the cart, and is heard calling frantically. The
voice of URSUS answers him. PHEDRO stands listening, an evil
smile contorting his mouth._]

GWYMPLANE [_off stage_]

Dea!

[_There is no answer._]

GWYMPLANE

[_Re-entering hurriedly. Goes up to PHEDRO in a threatening
manner._]

I do not understand. There is something moving around me that is foul and stealthy. Tell me what it is or I'll make you feel as if you were falling down an abyss of knives.

PHEDRO

Calm, my gentle talker. To consider alternatives, one must keep one's presence of mind.

GWYMPLANE

I know. I can imagine what these courts are like and I'll usher you into hell at once if you are trying to spatter any foul scheme upon what I love.

PHEDRO

Ah, Dea is yours?

GWYMPLANE

No, you squinting rodent. She is mine only as the light is mine, and she belongs to my soul as my prayers do.

PHEDRO

Be calm. You have misconstrued me and are wasting time hurling invectives at some unclean figure in your own fancy.

GWYMPLANE

Well, then, speak out quickly.

PHEDRO

The Prince has fallen desperately in love with her. He confided in me so much. The letter I received informed me that he had prevailed upon her in some manner to go with him and that I was to meet him in the palace at the stroke of the quarter to render him some service.

GWYMPLANE

I cannot believe it; let me see the letter.

PHEDRO

[_Searching his pockets and vest for the letter._]

Gracious, I must have torn it up in my nervousness. Ah yes, there it is.

[_He points to some pieces of torn paper lying at his feet in the
darkness._]

GWYMPLANE [_knocking his fists to his forehead._]

You mean this letter came from him who is to marry the Duchess tomorrow? He who looks like the Athenian Victory. [_glancing at his own distorted limbs_] But Dea cannot see this. [_and in a voice almost of triumph_] And she cannot see him! He must have stolen her.

PHEDRO [_acidly_]

His eloquence would steal the pollen out of a flower.

GWYMPLANE

Ah Dea! But after all--he may have _told_ her.

PHEDRO

What?

GWYMPLANE [_with a strange sad gesture_]

How I am.

PHEDRO

She has never known?

GWYMPLANE

Why should she? [_half to himself_] It was sweet that she should love what I am--not what I appear.

PHEDRO

Perhaps he has told her, and her hands have travelled over his face and found that it is very fair.

[_GWYMPLANE bends his head between his arms._]

But maybe she has gone against her will.

GWYMPLANE

Yes, that is it. I must find out--O, God, take me to where I can find out.

PHEDRO

Wait for me here a moment and I will prepare for your entrance into the palace. It may be very difficult to effect an entrance.

[_He goes out and a few seconds after there is a sound of a
cuckoo calling, followed by the noise of a slammed door.
GWYMPLANE walks up and down in distraction._]

URSUS [_from the cart_]

Gwymplane! Gwymplane! Is there anything the matter?

GWYMPLANE

I am nervous and restless. I have never been so restless.

URSUS

Well, walk far into the night, my son, until the iron clamping your brain with wakefulness melts, fades into that dew of restfulness falling upon all things before the dawn.

PHEDRO [_returning abruptly_]

Are you ready?

GWYMPLANE

I am dying of readiness.

[_They go out._]

_CURTAIN_

ACT II