Chapter III: Act II: A hall in the KING'S palace, with high windows at the hack (2)

To which of them shall I speak? I shall speak to him and he will make reply.

Each cries, "Like us you must pay for the right to be alive!" But as I say I have no handicraft,

I can only pay with myself.

And all men are full of faults,

--But you, do you think that such a man exists?

TÊTE-D'OR: You lay your hand on an old wound!--He exists.

CÉBÈS: He exists then.

But which of us speaks and is not understood?

Has he rejected me, or am I in any way to blame?

I bear witness to the Truth

That there is nothing here I am not ready to leave behind as one rises from a chair.

But I see a fly, a plant, a stone, yet him I do not see.

And if I do not find him why have my eyes been dowered with the faculty of seeing, and my hands with fingers as if they saw!

For I raise my hands and move them here and there!

And will someone speak of self-control and of works of betterment by which the noble man consecrates himself like a temple?

I do not care to be loved. But I know how to love and I would see and have!

And against these sure desires there is only a vague perhaps.

And why will it later be otherwise? For I am made of flesh and blood, as my mother made me.

TÊTE-D'OR: What is it? You look at me strangely and there is something in you that I do not recognise.

CÉBÈS: You have come, O Conqueror,

To all the rest like the promise of a future of happy days!

For me alone you bring no rescue!

TÊTE-D'OR: What do you mean?

CÉBÈS (_lying down again_): I am dying.

TÊTE-D'OR: What did you say?

CÉBÈS: What the doctors told me, and it is the truth.

TÊTE-D'OR: No!

CÉBÈS: I shall not live through another night. I shall not live till noon.

TÊTE-D'OR: No! No!

CÉBÈS: It is not the pain that I fear, and the cramps, and the horrible struggle to vomit,

When my mouth is filled with bile and blood and the sweat pours out of my body like water from a sponge.

This I can bear, for my heart is stout, and I shall look in your face, my brother, in the hour of my torture.

Why was I born? For I die and then I shall exist no more.

The shadows had closed about me so that I slept in darkness and woke in darkness. And I saw nothing; and I was deaf and heard no sound.

For I am like a man buried alive, and I am confined as in an oven!

Give me light! Give me light! Give me light! Give me light! For I would see!

Give me air, for I stifle!

Give me to drink, for I do not want the water that they bring me.

But you, give me water to drink, that I may die in peace, for I am consumed with thirst!

O brother! I have put my trust in you! Will you not help me? I beg you, soldier, head of gold, O my bright-haired brother!

TÊTE-D'OR: Oh! That I could do as does the eagle,

Who, letting fall a useless prey, perishes in his ravaged eyrie!

Why did you cross my path?

Why, like pride, having kneeled before me, did you clasp me in your arms like a tree or a fountain?

On my heart, he pressed his face against this throbbing regret!

And again he asks my help in the hour of his death!

I do not understand! I have done my best

And I have turned my steps towards that house of sin,

And I thought that, having renounced all selfish hope,

To-day I would work with my hands.

You speak of desire, the necessity of the present hour constrains me!

The rapacious desire drags me forward through this place of horror.

And he asks, and I cannot reply to this poor luckless child, and he is dying before my eyes!

CÉBÈS: You weep? Is that your only answer?

TÊTE-D'OR: I beg you

To leave me alone and not to question me. What do you want of me? Shall I hide you in my belly and give birth to you again?

It is most horrible

That you should draw these woman's tear-drops from me.

You question me and, like a brutish thing,

I can reply only by these vain waters!

CÉBÈS: You shall not escape me thus. Answer and I will question you. For you are my teacher and must answer me.

Answer! When a man dies does something still survive?

TÊTE-D'OR: Be still, and try me no more.

CÉBÈS: Answer! Is there an end of the personality? For as for the bodily form we know that it disappears.

TÊTE-D'OR: I answer that man has been conceived according to the flesh.

CÉBÈS: And to die is not to escape?

TÊTE-D'OR: This world was made for man and a limit was set about him,

That he might not escape and that no one might enter in.

CÉBÈS: Then I shall die and shall no longer exist?

TÊTE-D'OR: I will tell you what I know when I do not know it.

And my answer is silence, and the breath that blows from the open and black abyss.

You did not breathe in the days when you lay in the womb of your mother,

But her blood entered into your body and flowed in you and your heart was moored to her heart through the middle of your belly,

And having come out of her you breathed and uttered a cry!

I also have uttered a cry,

A cry like a babe new-born, and I have drawn the keen and burning sword, and have beheld

Humanity divide before me like the separation of the waters!

And now I return to you and find you in the lassitude of death!

Must everyone that I love die and leave me alone?

Must you wither in my hands like a flower of the stream before I had asked "Who are you?" and you had answered me?

Pit of weariness! Horror in which I stand! Is there someone here?

Is there something stable here? Who will carve a letter upon the face of the Mountain?

We can eat; we can lay a dish before ourselves and feed;

But the gravel sets our teeth on edge and ever from our eyes there flow invisible tears.

Then go to the common home! And now I say to you,

Hope not to still survive, being dead,

For how can any man see without his eyes, and how else will he be able

To grasp than with his hands?

CÉBÈS: If this is so,

O my body you have been of little worth,

For you die and I must die along with you.

I shall die like a four-footed beast, and shall exist no more.

Why then has it been given to me to know this?

(_He begins to scream._) Ah! Ah!

TÊTE-D'OR: Yes, cry!

CÉBÈS: Night! O Night!

TÊTE-D'OR: The night is vast and wide, and the sun is lost in it,

And the silence, that no voice breaks nor any word, endures.

CÉBÈS: Forever and ever!

TÊTE-D'OR: Cry! Cry!

CÉBÈS: As for you, you live. You live and you watch me dying at your feet! Oh! Oh!

O Tête-d'or, can't you do anything for me? For I suffer!

TÊTE-D'OR (_changing his tone_): Do not be afraid! I am here! Do not be afraid

To die. All is vanity and nothingness.

CÉBÈS: Do not go! Be my nurse! Stay here. Let me be with you

A little longer. Do not be disgusted with me because I die.

TÊTE-D'OR: Look, I hold your hand. What was it I said just now?

Come! Death is nothing. Smile! Won't you smile for me?

CÉBÈS: Alone!

TÊTE-D'OR: What's that?

CÉBÈS: Alone....

TÊTE-D'OR: Alone? What are you saying?

CÉBÈS: ... I die!

TÊTE-D'OR: Am I not with you?

CÉBÈS: Alone I die!

For I do not know who I am and I flee away and vanish like a spring that disappears!

Then why do you say that you love me? Why do you lie?

For who can love me

Since I cease to be when my body dies?

A bitter indignation boils within me!

My bowels bloat! I am racked with fearful retchings

That strive to rive apart the fastening of my bones!

Alone I die! And I pant in vain for breath and there is something in me that is not satisfied;

More alone than the strangled babe that its murderous mother buries at the bottom of a dunghill,

Among the broken dishes and dead cats, in earth that is full of fat pink worms!

_(He tries to get up._

TÊTE-D'OR: What are you doing? Stay where you are!

Come, you cannot get out of bed!

_(He holds him back._

CÉBÈS: I want to get up, to walk again! Oh! I can live!

Leave me alone! Let go of me!

TÊTE-D'OR: Stay where you are! Are you mad? Don't you recognise me?

What would you do?

CÉBÈS: Will you not let me go, wretched man! O coward!

I hate you--O the great beast, he holds me!

--Will you not let me go!

_(He bites his hand, frees himself, struggles to his feet and falls, TÊTE-D'OR puts him back on his bed._

TÊTE-D'OR: You see!

CÉBÈS (_screaming_): Ho, ho, ho!

TÊTE-D'OR: Be quiet! Calm yourself!

CÉBÈS (_screaming_): Ho!

TÊTE-D'OR: You turn my heart to ice! Do not howl like a wolf in this unholy night!

CÉBÈS: Oh! O God!

TÊTE-D'OR: Cébès!

CÉBÈS: Let me alone!

TÊTE-D'OR: Have you forgotten....

CÉBÈS: Leave me!

_(His mouth still open, he slowly lays his head on his pillow. Then he begins to smile. Pause._

Tête-d'or, there are many kinds of men, the weak and the strong, the sick and the well.

I pity them; the incompetent and the stammering, the poor of spirit and those that ask for alms

With the deprecating smile that masks the shudder of shame behind.

And those that are mocked and cannot make reply, and cowards,

And those who from the darkness of their souls exhale a prayer devoid of savor!

And you, do you not also pity me?

And I say to you like that woman

When she lay at the roadside in the shadow of death;

"Why do you let me die?"

TÊTE-D'OR: Take me with you if you wish! Do you think that I am not weary?

Groaning, I strove to tear myself from those strong and bony hands.

And now you weep and would bring me again to that terrible repose!

The wind ruffles my hair and the heartbreak of the earth lies stark and bare before my despairing eyes! And I look and am filled with shame!

O the fate of the bee and the fly whose life lasts only a season and endures but a single day!

And the birds of the wood are also alive; and the caterpillar that crawls on the leaf and the broom that roots in the sand,

And the ravening beast and the thistle with purple flowers!

And you, who are dying, you counsel me to die!

I cannot loose my limbs from these tough ligatures!

O world! O self! O shameful destiny!

Let me be iron and like a thing of wood!

CÉBÈS: What hope....

TÊTE-D'OR: I look at you and is it thus you lie!

CÉBÈS: Come, let's not talk of it. Things are better than you think. But, tell me....

I do not understand ... you follow me ... eh? What inner pride, what secret flame....

TÊTE-D'OR: Neither do I, I do not understand! I am tired!

You speak of hidden things that the thick tongue shudders to say,

Tales with no basis of reason, blood that flows like saliva!

A little word of consolation watches beneath all wretchedness,

Sweet forget-me-not of fire that lights us mournfully with its faithful gleam!

--Beyond the silence a voice like the human voice

Spoke to my soul and it melted and flowed like iron in the foundry!

Still it resounds! That fervent hope warms us again like coffee!

O glowing geranium! O clot of sunlight! It throbs! It bleeds like a fragment of living flesh!

For there is a force and a spirit in me

Like the bellows blowing on iron in the fire.

I beg of you, do not ask me anything more!

CÉBÈS: Yet it must be.

--Mother, my brother! O nurse with sides caparisoned in steel!

TÊTE-D'OR: Well?

CÉBÈS: O brother, so at the last you have found no word to tell me! Ah well,

I, I have something to tell to you.

TÊTE-D'OR: What?

CÉBÈS: It has not been permitted that I should die in such despair! And now I am beyond all pain,

And it troubles me no more. Tête-d'or!

TÊTE-D'OR: What, brother?

CÉBÈS: Take me in your arms and hold me, for there is no longer any strength in me. And put me on your shoulder like an armful of leafy branches.

O Tête-d'or! you have baptised me with your blood. Now like a babe I lie upon your breast and pour forth on your bosom all myself,

For every tie is dissolved and I am like a severed branch.

_(TÊTE-D'OR takes CÉBÈS in his arms._

TÊTE-D'OR: Thus in my turn I take you in my arms.

CÉBÈS: They say

That if in the midst of his path through a dreary solitude,

Of a sudden the wanderer halts at the summons of his heart,

It is love, that locks the man and woman in agonised embrace.

They do not recognise themselves and the lover feels a pang like the stab of a knife beneath his ribs,

And invents those phrases that begin with O,

Imitating the piercing cries of sea-birds, for their silence is like the peace of the waters.

TÊTE-D'OR: What have you to say to me?

CÉBÈS: O Tête-d'or! I am not a woman and neither am I a man,

For I am not of age, and I am already as if I were no more.

TÊTE-D'OR: Who are you then?

CÉBÈS: O Tête-d'or, all pain is past!

The snare is broken and I am free! I am the plant that has been uprooted from the earth!

There is a joy that comes with man's last hour. That joy am I and the secret that can no longer be told.

O Tête-d'or, I give myself to you and deliver myself into your hands! So hold me while I am with you.

TÊTE-D'OR: O Cébès, whom thus I have taken in my arms, I will question you in my turn. Hand yearns to hand

And mouth to mouth, yet never do they meet, for an invisible barrier lies between.

That is the pang of love through which it is like the water that boils and disappears.

CÉBÈS: Then love me more for I scarcely can be called a living man.

And I am like a bird that one seizes on the wing.

TÊTE-D'OR: O brother, I have jealously taken from you the woman you loved. And you would have been happy with her. But it was destined that your love should be given to none but me.

Brother! Child!

O all the tenderness of my heart, I have taken you between my hands!

O burden! O sacrifice that I bear in my arms like a sheep whose feet are bound together!

Shall I call you my child or my brother? For I am more mindful of you

Than a father would have been of that pallid little face. And my heart is attached to yours by a stronger and sweeter tie

Than that which binds a brother to his little brother in the nursery when he plays with him in the evening, and lulls him to sleep with stories and helps in taking off his shoes.

O my friend that I have found in the gloom, are you going to abandon me and leave me all alone?

CÉBÈS: O Tête-d'or, as you gave yourself to me

Even so I give myself to you,

And as you did not trust your secret to me,

Neither shall I entrust to you mine.

I am strangely light and like a thing that can no longer be held.

_(He kisses him on the cheek._

Good-bye!

And now put me back on my bed.

_(Meanwhile the first faint signs of dawn appear._

TÊTE-D'OR: The day!

CÉBÈS: The chilly violet of dawn

Glances across the distant plains, tinting each track and rut with its glamor!

And in the silent farms the roosters cry

Cock-a-doodle-doo!

It is the hour when the traveller, huddled among the cushions of his coach,

Awakes, and peers through the pane, and coughs, and sighs,

And souls new-born in the shadows of walls and forests,

Uttering feeble cries like little naked birds,

Fly back again, guided by flaring meteors, into the regions of obscurity.

--What is the hour?

TÊTE-D'OR: The night is over.

CÉBÈS: It is over!--And the daybreak that kindles the sea to flame and with far-reaching fires

Colors the roofs and the towered gateways once again is born.

I feel the freshness of the breeze. Open the window!

_(TÊTE-D'OR opens it._

_(Prolonged silence._

TÊTE-D'OR: Can you hear me?

_(Pause, CÉBÈS turns his eyes towards him and faintly smiles._

TÊTE-D'OR: Can you hear me still?

"Put the table under the tree for we shall eat out of doors."--How beautiful the night is!

O Cébès, everything is hushed and there is no voice to break the stillness.

And like the smell of the cupboard in which the bread is kept and like the breath of the oven when the door of it is opened,

There lies before us the plenty of the fields.

It is night. The meadow is thick with harvest and far away one can almost hear

The swish of the scythe in the lush grass.

Already the fires of the routed stars are paling.

And the nightingale who sings at intervals

When the ascension of the starry heavens above the earth begins....

_(He stops.--CÉBÈS is dead._

_(TÊTE-D'OR remains motionless for an instant, then he lays down the body, shuddering._

Oh, horrible!

_(He sits down._

I am alone. I am cold.

What difference does it make?

Indeed it matters little that he is dead.

Why should we mourn? Why should we be disconcerted by anything that may happen?

What man of sense would lend himself to such buffoonery?

He who bursts into tears and whose head is bowed with his sobbing

Will pucker his face into the same wrinkles when he is roaring with laughter. Thus they bawl and contort their mouths. Puppets!

--He is dead and I am alone.--

Am I of stone? The leaves of the trees seem made of cloth or iron

And all outdoors is a painted scene to be looked at or not at one's pleasure.

And this sun, whose earliest rays formerly made me resound

Like a stone that clangs against bronze, why, let it rise!

I would as soon see the lung of a cow that floats at the door of a slaughter-house!

Yes, and like an insensible trunk of coral,

I could see my limbs drop from me.

Why should I live? I have no concern with life. I find no pleasure in existence. This is not good for me!

_(He rises._

To-day!

To-day has come and I must show who I am! There is myself to think of! It must be done!

Alone against them all! I will march forward and I will maim with the blow of an armored fist the slimy muzzle of bestiality!

I will speak before this assembly of slovens and cowards. And either I will perish at their hands or I will found my appointed empire!

Hola! Hola! Hola!

_(He leans against the wall._

_(Tremendous hubbub outside. Slamming of doors. Calls on the stairs. Enter a great crowd of people. Prominent among them is the TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE. Three or four women accompany him. He is surrounded with people who jostle him and shake hands with him. Beside him, carrying his overcoat, is the GO-BETWEEN. In the group are the HIGH PREFECT, the SCHOOLMASTER, and other public officials. Also the BROTHER OF THE KING. Among the others is the KING to whom no one pays the slightest attention. Those representing the people are dumb actors. Enter after everyone else the MAN OUT OF OFFICE. He holds himself apart with three or four ill-dressed people. No one appears to notice the presence of TÊTE-D'OR, although all keep a certain distance away from him._

_(The hall is filled in a moment and through the open door one can see people crowding the vestibule and lining the stairs and climbing on benches to see better. All talk at once. Noise of many feet._

THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE (_speaking and laughing very loudly, in sudden outbursts_): Ah, well, yes, it is I, here I am.--Good morning, old fellow.--Eh?--Good morning.--Perfectly mad about me, aren't you! Just can't get along without me! Oh! Oh! Oh!--What's that, my dear?--Good morning,--Yes, sir!--Don't eat me. There is something for everyone! Ouf! Good morning!--Make room for me, I am far from small!

THE MAN OUT OF OFFICE (_in his group, feverishly_): Pig!...

That's right! Go on! Keep it up! Play with your good moment!

Hmmm! We shall see! We shall see!

_(He rubs his hands._

What has he done with the funds of the commissariat?

And how about the automatic guns? I shall attack him before the assembly. We shall see!

Look how he plumes himself! See how he struts among those nanny-goats!

SOMEONE (_of his following, in a low voice_): Do you know the story about him and the wife of the High Prefect? He had set up an establishment with the wife of the Paymaster-General,

And the other trollop came to join them. Such scenes as they had!

A CITIZEN (_loudly to the tribune of the people_): Sir, you have saved the State!

_(He presses his hand._

THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE: Don't say that! I love my country, Sir! (_Very loudly_) I did not despair of my country!

The people did it all.

THE CITIZEN: All the same I say it was you! You did the organizing!

It isn't the soldiers who win the battles. You did the organizing.

All the Women (_together_): It is true!

_(Nodding of heads._

MURMUR (_in the crowd, spreading to the stairways_): It is true.

_(Uproar outside._

What is that?

THE GO-BETWEEN (_excitedly_): The whole city is roused. They are all clamoring for you. You must speak to them from the balcony.

_(He talks to him in a low voice._

_(Someone passes a paper to the TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE. the GO-BETWEEN reads it over his shoulder._

CLAMOR (_outside_). Jacquot! Jacquot! Jacquot! Jacquot! Jacquot! Hurrah!

THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE: Say that I am going to speak to them!

_(The GO-BETWEEN goes out on to the balcony. He can be seen bending over the rail and waving his arms. The TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE takes the arm of the HIGH PREFECT and walks across the hall with him, talking and gesturing._

THE MAN OUT OF OFFICE: See them! Not him!

His Excellency the High Prefect! Serious as a tethered ass!

Did you know that he writes verses in secret?

THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE (_pointing sideways at_ TÊTE-D'OR _with his chin_): Eh?

THE HIGH PREFECT (_authoritatively_): Don't alarm yourself!

THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE: Tell me, Albert....

THE HIGH PREFECT: Don't alarm yourself. All this is absurd!

He has profited by the....

Shall I say the enervation? in which we were. One does not like that, once the panic is past.

He has overtaxed the people outrageously!

He is an adventurer,

A fellow picked off the streets! And as haughty as a god!

None are allowed to touch him and if any approach too near,

Men or women, he fetches them a rap on the head with his stick.

The people know their friends.

THE GO-BETWEEN (_making a gesture with his arm_): This way!

_(The TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE goes out on the balcony and is seen speaking in the glow of the dawn._

_(Bursts of applause from time to time. Uproar in the hall. Groups form here and there, one of them around the bed of CÉBÈS. Noise of a breaking pane in the upper story._

_(The GO-BETWEEN speaks excitedly to the MAN OUT OF OFFICE and his group._

A CITIZEN (_all alone in the midst of the hall, contemplating the_ TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE): What a man! What a bag of wind!

_(The TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE, smiling, re-enters the hall, and looking about for the KING, he finds him and leads him out on to the balcony. He is seen to speak, patting the KING on the shoulder._

THE GO-BETWEEN (_who stands near the_ HIGH PREFECT, _glancing quickly and furtively in all directions, and especially towards_ TÊTE-D'OR) (_to the_ HIGH PREFECT _in a low voice_): What do you think of him, eh?

THE HIGH PREFECT: Hmm! He has the army back of him!

_(The TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE re-enters the hall with the king._

_(Little by little a silence falls._

SOMEONE (_in a low voice_): Why are there no lights? The dawn makes us look hideous.

_(The silence has become complete. All keep their eyes fixed on TÊTE-D'OR._

_(Pause._

Someone (_near_ CÉBÈS): He is dead.

TÊTE-D'OR (_turning towards the assembly_): Who says that he is dead?

SOMEONE: He is paler than any of us and his lips are discolored.

_(The crowd recoils, leaving the KING, with his brother beside him, in front, opposite TÊTE-D'OR. To the right and behind the KING, the HIGH PREFECT, the SCHOOLMASTER and the other officials of the Government, to the left the TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE, the MAN OUT OF OFFICE. A young man, with the group of women, stands close to TÊTE-D'OR._

TÊTE-D'OR: Is it yet day?

THE YOUNG MAN: Day?

A WOMAN: The sun is rising.

TÊTE-D'OR: It rises!

--The pallid morn illumines the mud of the roads, And under the hedges the cabbage leaves and the flowers

Pour on the tawny earth their burden of rain.

Those who are dead depart, and those who are living

Must stand before the world and confess their o'er burdened souls.

I stand alone and wounded.

THE KING: This child is dead?

TÊTE-D'OR: He is dead.

_(The KING drops his head on his breast._

Yes, that sight is bitterer than sourest herbs! Oh!

I was for him as Athens was for Argos,

Yet I shall bear this also and my patient heart shall not be shaken

For now I must proclaim myself to all.

--O soul, farewell, enter before us into the splendor of Noon!

_(Pause._

A FAT WOMAN (_of about fifty standing near_ TÊTE-D'OR, _in a loud voice_): Speak, general, what have you to say?

TÊTE-D'OR: What is this woman doing here? Clear the hall of these females!

Who let loose these mares upon me! Out! Off with you! Begone!

_(The women go out._

As for you, I scarcely know who you are or what is the meaning of this assembly.

O King, is it thus you grant access to your presence?

But it is well. I will speak before this rabble and they shall hear what I have to say.

_(He stands silent, with downcast eyes._

THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE: Speak! What have you to say?

TÊTE-D'OR: You have seen what I have done.

Nevertheless I shall tell it again that you may contradict me.

I say that this land was like an estate without a master, like a building that robbers themselves have abandoned, taking even the locks and bolts.

O King! they left you alone in your palace and old women brought their goats to pasture in your garden.

Everything was piled in a heap, and like cowards, the citizens lifted their impotent hands in air.

I appeared in the market-place! I appeared in that land made desolate, bringing the force of hope to a perishing people,

And I spoke with the voice of command. And those who slumbered

Heard, and thrilled at the call of the leader,

Like the blast of the trumpet, like the creating word!

Thus I gathered an army about me. I conceived and I executed.

I hurled the enemy to the ground and tore the sword from his hand. I killed the lion that sprang upon you to devour you.

That is what I did. Has anyone anything to say?

THE KING: That is what you did, Tête-d'or.

THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE: Well and good. But you didn't do it alone.

TÊTE-D'OR: I say that I did it all alone,

I alone! I did it! I alone! Not another, but I!

--What will you give me, then, as a proper recompense?

--What will you give me

That you have not received from my hands?

_(The HIGH PREFECT breathes through his nose as if he wished to speak._

THE SCHOOLMASTER: You only did your duty.

THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE: You have only done your duty to your country.

TÊTE-D'OR: What duty? What country?

What have you done for me? I wandered your roads like a vagabond. My bed was the breast of the earth.

And I know how you welcome the man with swarthy cheeks

When he takes off his cap uncovering a forehead that still can redden.

I was hungry and you offered me no bread. I am hungry!

And behold I stand at your door!

THE KING: Ask then, that we may know what you wish.

TÊTE-D'OR: Examine me well and inspect me from every standpoint.

Weigh me, measure me. Study each foot as you would with a horse, and put my teeth to the test.

And considering everything, calculate

If

The buyable bulk of myself comprises the profit

Winnowed out by your wisdom's sieve.

SOMEONE: What does all this mean?

ANOTHER: His voice is strange. It strikes the heart so that it vibrates like a plucked string and gives out notes.

TÊTE-D'OR: Hear me, men that are here!

Listen to me, O you that hear through the ear and the hole that pierces the skull!

Up to this time, O grass, you have only heard the murmuring of yourself.

Listen to the command, listen to the word that ordains, hearken to intelligence!

I am the strength of the voice and the power of the living word!

THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE: Then what do you ask?

TÊTE-D'OR: I ask for everything.

I ask you for everything that you may give it to me.

That supreme power may be mine to do everything and to have everything.

For who shall fix the limits of the intelligence and the place where it is stayed, and who shall set a bound to the power of its arm?

Let nothing in the world escape me when I pronounce the sacred word!

And as that burning king, the heart,

Is throned in the midst of the lungs that envelop him,

Receiving all the blood in himself and sending it out again through his gates,

Even so it is that the contemplation of my intellect was made

To establish itself on a royal seat, on the throne of the memory and the will. It is my wish

To reign.

_(Murmur. Exclamations. The sound of words whispered from one to another._

THE KING: Tête-d'or....

THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE: Let me! I will reply to him.

_(The MAN OUT OF OFFICE makes an exclamation. The GO-BETWEEN seems disturbed and agitated and looks to left and right._

THE SCHOOLMASTER (_with a grimace_): This young man is utterly mad!

THE HIGH PREFECT: Hmm! He has the army back of him.

_(The TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE looks at them out of the corner of his eye._

THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE (_to_ TÊTE-D'OR): If I have rightly understood what you just said, young man, you are asking for absolute power.

TÊTE-D'OR: Yes. You have understood rightly.

_(Murmur._

THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE: You heard! It was not I who put the words in his mouth!

Listen to me, young man, your success has destroyed your sense of proportion.

Gently!

You yourself have informed us of all that you imagine

You have done (_very loudly_) for your native land,

And that it was not done through any love you bore her,

And thus you doubly spare us

The trouble of thanking you.

You have done it all

Alone! I take you to witness, gentlemen!

Alone! But science declares, young man,

That no one can do anything alone.

_(He claps his hat on his head with an air of defiance._

If one of those brave soldiers who have won the day were here,

If one of those thousands and thousands of heroes

Who have saved this land were here,

Perhaps he would say that you were not your country's sole defender and we should hear the true account of how these events occurred.

And if, sir, following your example,

We advertised broadcast all that we had done according to the measure of the power with which in that hour of peril the people honored us,

We should see to whom in actual fact belonged

The greater part of the credit for our glorious victory.

But at least, my friends,

(_He slowly lifts his right hand_) Here I swear it to you! (_he holds it uplifted_) and I ask you all to join me in the oath!

In the darkest hour we kept our faith in our country!

CRIES: True! It was he! He did it all!

_(Loud applause._

THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE: No,

No, my friends! Your pardon! Not that! A man is only a man. Do not say that I did it all, I alone.

Do you know who did it all? I will tell you.

The people, my friends. The noble people of our native land! They did it all!

_(Silence._

THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE (_slowly and impressively_): My friends, honor to the people of our country!

_(He solemnly bares his head._

_(Loud clapping, hurrahs, uproar._

SOMEONE (_in the crowd_): Very good indeed!

ANOTHER: No more the one than the other!

THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE: As for you, sir, we shall recognise what you were able to do

According as we find it good.

I do not know what dark designs you cherish. But if you tamper with our liberty

You will find, sir, that you have to deal with me!

_(He crosses his arms and plants himself opposite TÊTE-D'OR._

THE MAN OUT OF OFFICE: You are not by yourself in that, Jacquot.

_(He likewise crosses his arms and plants himself beside the TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE, confronting TÊTE-D'OR._

_(To TÊTE-D'OR._

Don't imagine yourself the least bit bigger than anybody else.

TÊTE-D'OR: Another? Who is this?

A VOICE (_in the crowd_): I am Envy!

THE MAN OUT OF OFFICE: Hah! Who do you think that you are, sir? All men are equal!

_(He makes a horizontal gesture._

One is no greater than another.

THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE: Don't flatter yourself that the people will consent to renounce their rights!

TÊTE-D'OR: Kill me then, for I shall not renounce mine!

THE MAN OUT OF OFFICE: They will cling to their liberty.

TÊTE-D'OR: I also would be free.

THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE: Are you not free, then, madman?

TÊTE-D'OR: While there is something not beneath my sway I am not free.

_(Murmur._

I say to you, kill me while there still is time! You are a cityful and I am all alone. Kill me, then!

For if you do not kill me I will put my hand upon you with power.

THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE: Tête-d'or....

TÊTE-D'OR: Let me speak in my turn!

Listen, noise! Listen, nothing!

And listen, flocks dispersed in your folds and pastures, and you

Dogs that believe yourselves the shepherd!

_(He shakes his head violently. His helmet drops off and his long yellow hair falls down on to his shoulders. He becomes very red. All are silent and stare at him open-mouthed._

A VOICE: Look at that woman!

TÊTE-D'OR: Who says that I am a woman?

Truly I am a savage virgin on whom you will not easily lay your hand!

Indeed I am a woman! Behold what manner of woman I am!

I bear a longing in me

Like the seduction of fire

Unconquerable. And I say to you that there is no one here, however vile, that I do not wish

To seize, that I do not desire

To lay hold on like roaring flame

That is not nice in choosing the fuel with which it burns!

Let not my day be disputed!

The Phœnix

Finds her nest in the furnace, aflame with blistering light;

The enraptured lark soars upward towards the sky,

Yes, and the infinite fields of shining air

Overflow with the passionate cry of that throbbing cluster of plumes!

And it is thus I also rise, not like a little bird,

But like the Sphinx, shrilling momentous cries, the flying horse, woman-breasted, eagle-taloned!

--I shall not live for you, but you must live for me.

And that is why I stand alone before you like a virgin.

_(Pause._

_(the TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE, the MAN OUT OF OFFICE and the others withdraw a little leaving in front the group of the KING and his officials._

THE SCHOOLMASTER: But what does all this mean?

THE HIGH PREFECT: Sire, will you make no answer? Why do you stand there motionless and mute, like a man who does not hear or one who has nothing at stake?

THE KING: Say what you have to say. The King will be the last to speak.

THE HIGH PREFECT: Maker of Demands, you are exorbitant in what you ask.

For he who demands must give an equivalent return, And you offer us nothing but stand before us with dishevelled hair,

And say that you wish to be Master and he who speaks unchallenged, and that you would seat yourself

Like a sovereign on the consecrated throne,

And not to administer

With prudent thrift for the common good of all,

But like a man at his desk to whom his tenants bring their money

That he may spend it in another place.

TÊTE-D'OR: I have saved you all! Like a man who takes another in his arms.

THE HIGH PREFECT: All society, Tête-d'or,

Exists for the common advantage.

And each one has his place that he may serve the rest.

And the Sovereign, if one is needed, is he who serves everyone,

With his officials, according to their functions.

TÊTE-D'OR: And what is the good that they seek in living together?

THE SCHOOLMASTER: And you, what good have you to promise us, seducer?

But they seek for peace and to live in peace by the fruits of their daily toil.

TÊTE-D'OR: You have not answered well, Schoolmaster. You think you are very wise and in truth you are only an ignoramus.

Man is like the insatiable fire which at the last will consume the world,

And at present sleeps beneath the ashes and is used for cooking food.

But behold I appear before you like roaring flame

Mightily rearing itself under the mouth of the wind!

THE SCHOOLMASTER: There is no other good than that which I have named.

And that is why society exists. Men join together that each may serve his neighbor.

TÊTE-D'OR: Serve?

And what is the function for which they fashioned me? What implement am I?

I am not the spade nor the bag nor the scales. But I am the fire and the sword!

I have no place among you but now I shall make myself one,

And I present myself before you

Like the Bear who puts his paw in the hive and takes the honey and honeycomb.

I shall beat upon the drum and the sound shall be heard in the four corners of the earth, and I shall reunite all that is male about me.

Woman, your son is no longer your son! I shall take the peasant from his plough, I shall take the man from his trade, and I shall bid the bridegroom rise from the bed of his bride, and I shall divide the flesh from the flesh!

And I shall bear him with me

Into the heart of the hurricane, into war.

That is why, O King,

Shadow, sign, you must disappear, thing that is and is not!

Clear the path to the throne, such as it is, and I shall mount on a table to speak to the multitude, and I shall tread it under my feet.

THE KING: My son, listen to what the king has to say.

TÊTE-D'OR: What have you to say, old man?

THE KING: O young man, the old man is the man of the present time.

Respect that which is mine. Respect the possessions of the father of the family.

This kingdom was made by my fathers and I am its rightful monarch according to the law of inheritance.

And I am like a man who goes about his estate, saying, "These trees were planted by my father.

And that broad field

Belonged to his cousin, who died, leaving no children, and it was gotten after a lengthly lawsuit.

The higher levels are good but nothing will grow on the flats.

And yonder farm was part of my grandmother's wedding portion; her marriage is still remembered."

Thus my fathers sat, throned in their wooden armchairs, ruling honestly, giving ear to the needs of their people and settling their differences.

And the people held them in reverence although often they were harsh and unjust and gluttonous and overfond of women.

And me they have found too old and they have set me aside, like an old man who remains wherever they place his chair.

But the creaking of the great door still is dear to my heart

When it opens wide to receive the carts, piled high with the harvest, that the horses straining their utmost can barely draw.

Do not take what is mine; do not despoil my daughter. For where will be the blessing that you will earn among men

If you tread the hallowed law of inheritance under your feet?

TÊTE-D'OR: Father of the family, I shall not respect you.

For I am like a first-born son forced from his heritage, whose place the steward has taken, the son of a favored slave.

O miserly old man who would keep what you cannot use,

Slothful monarch, most like the pitiful king of the chess-board

Shut in by the castle, guarded by pawns, and assaulted by the knight.

You are the man of the present hour, but already that hour is over.

Your right, I do not know what it is. But as for me, despised by all, I have sworn in my misfortune and in my solitude

By the air and by the earth,

That I would rise above the will of others.

And as for what my right is, listen all!

I did not gain that victory, but a beggar, a man unknown,

I enter here and claim the book and crown!

Out of my way, old man!

THE KING: I will not let you pass.

TÊTE-D'OR: Out of my way, old man! For your hour is over and the night is past and another day is born.

Out, for there cannot be two kings in the hive! One of the two must vanish.

THE KING: I will not let you pass.

TÊTE-D'OR: You will not stand aside?

_(The KING shakes his head._

Then die!

_(He draws his sword and kills him._

_(Stir of horror in the crowd and tremendous confusion, spreading and increasing to the furthest recesses of the hall and to the lower story. Then a sort of silence._

_(A great noise, the uproar commencing below and spreading to the back of the hall. The spectators of the front rows are very pale and stand as if fascinated, staring with an expression of horror and curiosity at the blood, which pours forth on the floor in a great stream, TÊTE-D'OR laughs._

A VOICE (_at the back of the hall_): Death to him!

FIVE OR SIX VOICES (_at the back_): Kill him! Seize him!

_(They surge forward._

TÊTE-D'OR: Back!

Vile scum, who of you will venture to defy me and confront me face to face!

Here is your King!

And as for this contract, if there is anyone who putting his hand upon you has made you convey yourselves to this ancient shadow,

I tear it to pieces and throw the bits in your face, as I throw you

This!

_(With a violent movement he tears of his sword and throws it into the midst of the crowd._

Listen to me, you that are gathered here!

_(Murmur in the hall. Tremendous uproar below._

Listen to me, you that are under my feet!

_(He stamps his foot violently. He casts his eyes about the hall with a savage glare, then bringing them back to the king, who is stretched at his feet, he laughs, and, raising his hand to his face, smears it with blood._

O King!

You asked me what right I had to reign. Will you deny the right of blood?

Look, with this I emblazon the title upon my face, like a light!

You have watered me with your blood and I am covered with it like one who sacrifices,

And I glory in that purple.

_(He goes up to the throne and kicks it over._

Thus I overthrow you, throne of a day!

For I shall stand and not be seated.

CRIES (_in the crowd_): Kill him! Seize him!

TÊTE-D'OR: Now the moment has come between you and me

When either you must kill me or I must become your master.

Look, I am alone and unarmed!

_(Pause._

Do you say nothing now? I say to you that you have no power to act and this is the reason why.

Because you are cowards, because you bear the brand of a threefold degradation.

And the first is ignorance through which you cannot answer yes or no, but stand open-mouthed like men bereft of their wits.

And the second is the woman, on whom there hangs a curse; and she was made to remain at home and submit to the strong and capable hand; but you have taken the woman to be your mistress.

And the third is the spirit of the word and of speech.

But I shall let loose upon you a speech that you do not know,

Insatiable, irresistible,

I shall establish over you the empire of the sword,

The sword that pierces and divides, the sword that penetrates and pursues!

O imbecility! O inertia! Enormous burden of ignorant men! Behold I have risen,

Like a nurse that overlies a child you lay upon me; but I have risen and dashed you to the earth.

And the world is crushing me, but I shall prevail against it.

_(He marches across the hall with an ominous air, then halting, he turns towards them._

In the name of the infinite ocean!

By the tragic birth of this day!

By the tempest

With which the peaks and pyramids that loom over desolated cities

Arm the South, assaulting the bleeding sky!

By the echoing crash of the thunder, by the sulphurous lung of ruddy lightning!

By the team of the winds that drag their roller over the tossing mass of roaring forests! By the winter

With its wind that bends the pines, routs the battalions of clouds, and riddles with sand the withered potato leaves; and with its blinding snow;

And with its flooding rain that bombards the roads and the bushes and the windmills and the ploughed fields!

By the tranquillity of the murky air!

By armed apparitions in the blackness of the pines!

By the dreadful force of conflagration and irresistible flood,

By the whirlwind! By silence!

And by all terrible things!

Will not you that are here recognise at last who I am?

_(Silence; then a lamentable VOICE in the crowd._

Tête-d'or! Tête-d'or!

SOMEONE (_his eyes fixed on the blood_): I have never seen the shedding of human blood!

TÊTE-D'OR: I have not come like the humble god of the soup,

Benevolent, blinking his eyes in the steam of meat and cabbage.

--Utter a bitter cry, my soul, rush forward! Men, I propose to wash away your shame and to lift you from your baseness.

Here you are pinched for room, I propose to lead you forth

And, having drawn you up in lines and columns, to advance with you against the whole world,

That you may become acquainted with all the earth, and indeed that you may make it yours

By force and by possession.

_(Murmur in the crowd. Four groups form. In the first the TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE and his adherents. In the second the MAN OUT OF OFFICE. In the third, the OFFICIALS OF THE STATE. In the fourth, the BROTHER OF THE KING._

THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE (_shouting_): Never! I will not permit the setting up of a tyrant.

THE GO-BETWEEN: He has us in his hand. In an hour the army will be here.

THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE: I will show the daughter of the King to the people.

_(The air is filled with the clamor of bells. Cannon in the distance._

THE GO-BETWEEN: Do you hear?

_(He goes to the Second Group. To the man OUT OF OFFICE, pointing to the TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE._

He is going to fetch the King's daughter and show her to the people.

THE MAN OUT OF OFFICE: Does he plan to make himself dictator? I shall oppose him in that. I prefer the other one.

THE GO-BETWEEN (_to the_ BROTHER OF THE KING): He says that he wants to have them crown the daughter of the King.

THE BROTHER OF THE KING: Her?

It is to me that the crown reverts. What does Tête-d'or intend to make of this little kingdom here?

THE GO-BETWEEN (_in the group of the officials_): Well? Which? What do you say? The daughter or the brother?

THE CHIEF JUSTICE: The brother? Never. A thoroughly impractical theorist. A man unstable as water. And he would always be close at hand watching whatever we do. I prefer the ruler that's far away.

And no women!

SOMEONE (_aside_): His wife hates the Princess.

TÊTE-D'OR: Tribune of the People, my sword is close beside you. Pick it up and bring it to me.

_(The TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE brings him the sword._

TÊTE-D'OR: Take it!

_(He hands him the sword in its sheath._

You are the ruler, do what you please. You are like a man with a knife in his hand before a loaf of bread.

_(The TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE shakes his head and gives him back the sword._

I said, "Do what you please." Can you not keep it yourself?

THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE: I ... I am the ... the....

The clamor of the yelling crowd.

TÊTE-D'OR: Who would like my sword?

_(He holds the sword in his hands. No one answers._

Then I will draw you myself, O sword disdained that no one cares to take! O how you rest in your sheath!

Sword! Sword!

Gage, unfailing hope, you

That have already conquered once!

I will lift you up like a torch, sign of immortal victory that I hold!

O people whose tongues stutter and stammer, here is a searching question between my hands!

You are plunged in indescribable ignorance, but the illusion lies where he who does not know declares that he knows.

Man lives in illusion and piles up books around himself like straw.

But now I will devour all! I hold you, uplifted sword!

I stand in the midst of animals and I will not be seated.

And anger rises in me!

_(He throws away the scabbard._

I defy you, arid country! You that refuse me any joy,

I will make you my domain!

Shine bare, bright blade, till this enterprise is ended!

And if anyone is tired of this scurvy tailor's life, let him come and follow me! If there is anyone

Dissatisfied with this vile, monotonous afternoon devoted to the process of digestion, let him come and follow me!

If you fancy that you are men, and if your blood

Boils at the badges of your servitude,

Vent your pent rage! Oh cry,

And end your infamy!

Come! Let us set out!

And I will march before you, holding the sword in my hand, and already there is blood upon its blade.

SOMEONE: Tête-d'or, what can we do?

TÊTE-D'OR: And I, I say to you, "Who will dare to dare,

And, stamping the earth, cry 'I can' in the silence of Nothingness?"

THE SAME: Will you dare, yourself?

_(Silence._

TÊTE-D'OR: Time that moves and disposes all things

Withdraws from us like the sea,

And now on the solid earth there stands

For the first time a king.

_(He picks up the crown from the floor._

Vanish, like wreaths of smoke, dreams, prestige, past, and you

Who look at me, I bid you dare

To contemplate with new eyes a new day!

In the name of everything, and not

Of the appearances that the dream of custom brings,

But of everything as it actually is, and in the name of truth and reason,

I place this crown on my head.

_(He puts the crown on his head._

To-day for the first time the king of men uplifts a head encircled with gold!