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_ ACT II SCENE II
SCENE II: The Cross-ways: on the Long Road to Rudersheim.
[A wooded country: high hills at back. The place is wild and overgrown,
like the haunted spot it is reputed to be. In the foreground, right,
a ruined stone well appears, in a mass of weeds and vines. Opposite,
left, tall trees and dense thickets. Where the roads cross (to left of
centre), stands a large, neglected shrine, with a weather-worn figure
of Christ,--again the 'Lonely Man'--facing towards Hamelin.--The stage
is empty, at rise of the curtain; but the sound of chanting from burghers
just gone by fades slowly, on the road to Rudersheim.
From the hillside at the rear comes the PIPER, wrapped in a long green
cloak, his pipe in his hand. He looks after the procession, and back
to Hamelin.--Enter, springing from the bushes to the right, MICHAEL,
who seizes him.]
Their speech goes breathlessly.]
MICHAEL.
QUICK!--tell me--
PIPER.
Patience.
MICHAEL.
Patience?--Death and hell!
Oh, save her--save her! Give the children back.
PIPER.
Never. Have you betrayed us?
MICHAEL.
I!--betrayed?
PIPER.
So, so, lad.
MICHAEL.
But to save her--
PIPER.
There's a way,--
Trust me! I save her, or we swing together
Merrily, in a row.--How did you see her?
MICHAEL.
By stealth: two days ago, at evening,
Hard by the vine-hid wall of her own garden,
I made a warbling like a nightingale;
And she came out to hear.
PIPER.
A serenade!
Under the halter!
MICHAEL.
Hush.--A death-black night,
Until she came.--Oh, how to tell thee, lad!
She came,--she came, not for the nightingale,
But even dreaming that it would be I!
PIPER.
She knew you?--We are trapped, then.
MICHAEL.
No, not so!
She smiled on me.--Dost thou remember how
She smiled on me that day? Alas, poor maid,
She took me for some noble in disguise!
And all these days,--she told me,--she had dreamed
That I would come to save her!
PIPER.
Said she this?
MICHAEL.
All this--all this, and more! . . .
What could lies do?--I lied to her of thee;
I swore I knew not of thy vanishment,
Nor the lost children. But I told her true,
I was a stroller and an outcast man
That hid there, like a famished castaway,
For one more word, without a hope,--a hope;
Helpless to save her.
PIPER.
And she told thee then,
She goes to be a nun?
MICHAEL.
Youth to the grave!
And I--vile nothing--cannot go to save her,
Only to look my last--
PIPER.
Who knows?
MICHAEL
[bitterly]
Ah, thou!--
PIPER.
Poor Nightingale!
[Fingers Us pipe, noiselessly.]
MICHAEL
[rapt with grief]
Oh, but the scorn of her!
PIPER.
She smiled on thee.
MICHAEL.
Until she heard the truth:--
A juggler,--truly,--and no wandering knight!
Oh, and she wept.
[Wildly]
Let us all hang together.
PIPER.
Thanks. Kindly spoken.--Not this afternoon!
MICHAEL.
Thou knowest they are given up for dead?
PIPER.
Truly.
MICHAEL.
Bewitched?
PIPER.
So are they.
MICHAEL.
Sold to the Devil?
PIPER
[Facing softly up and down, with the restless cunning
of a squirrel at watch]
Pfui! But who else? Of course. This same old Devil!
This kind old Devil takes on him all we do!
Who else is such a refuge in this world?
Who could have burned the abbey in this place,
Where holy men did live? Why, 't was the Devil!
And who did guard us one secluded spot
By burying a wizard at this cross-ways?--
So none dare search the haunted, evil place!
The Devil for a landlord!--So say I!
And all we poor, we strollers, for his tenants;
We gypsies and we pipers in the world,
And a few hermits and sword-swallowers,
And all the cast-aways that Holy Church
Must put in cages--cages--to the end!
[To Michael, who is overcome]
Take heart! I swear,--by all the stars that chime!
I'll not have things in Cages!
MICHAEL.
Barbara!
So young,--so young and beautiful!
PIPER.
And fit
To marry with friend Michael!
MICHAEL.
Do not mock.
PIPER.
I mock not.--(Baa--Baa--Barbara!)
MICHAEL.
Ay, she laughed,
On that first day. But still she gazed.--I saw
Her, all the while! I swallowed--
PIPER.
Prodigies!
A thousand swallows, and no summer yet!
But now,--'t is late to ask,--why did you not
Swallow her father?--That had saved us all.
MICHAEL.
They will be coming soon. They will cut off
All her bright hair,--and wall her in forever.
PIPER
Never. They shall not.
MICHAEL
[dully]
Will you give them back,
_Now_?
PIPER.
I will never give them back. Be sure.
MICHAEL.
And she is made an offering for the town!
I heard it of the gossips.--They have sworn
Jacobus shall not keep his one ewe-lamb
While all the rest go childless.
PIPER.
And I swear
That he shall give her up,--to none but thee!
MICHAEL.
You cannot do it!
PIPER.
Have I lived like Cain,
But to make good one hour of Life and Sun?
And have I got this Hamelin in my hands,
To make it pay its thousand cruelties
With such a fool's one-more? . . .
--You know right well,
'T was not the thousand guilders that I wanted
For thee, or me, or any!--Ten would serve.
But there it ached; _there_, in the money-bag
That serves the town of Hamelin for an heart!
That stab was mortal! And I thrust it deep.
Life, life, I wanted; safety,--sun and wind!--
And but to show them how that daily fear
They call their faith, is made of blasphemies
That would put out the Sun and Moon and Stars,
Early, for some last Judgment!
[He laughs, up to the tree-tops]
And the Lord,
Where will He get His harpers and singing-men
And them that laugh for joy?--From Hamelin guilds?--
Will you imagine Kurt the Councillor
Trying to sing?
[He looks at his pipe again; then listens intently.
MICHAEL.
His lean throat freeze!--But she--
Barbara! Barbara!--
PIPER.
Patience. She will come,
Dressed like a bride.
MICHAEL.
Ah, do not mock me so.
PIPER.
I mock not.
MICHAEL.
She will never look at me.
PIPER.
Rather than be a nun, I swear she will
Look at thee twice,--and with a long, long look.
[Chant approaches in the distance, coming from Hamelin.
VOICES.
Dies irae, dies illa
Solvet saeclum in favilla,
Teste David cum Sibylla.
Quantus tremor est futurus,
Quando judex est venturus,
Cuncta stricte discussurus!
PIPER.
Bah, how they whine! Why do they drag it so?
MICHAEL
[overcome]
Oh, can it be the last of all? O Saints!--
O blessed Francis, Ursula, Catherine!
Hubert--and Crispin--Pantaleone--Paul!
George o' the Dragon!--Michael the Archangel!
PIPER.
Michael Sword-eater, canst not swallow a chant?
The well, the well!--Take care.
VOICES
[nearer]
Inter oves locum praesta,
Et ab hoedis me sequestra,
Statuens in parte dextra.
Confutatis maledictis,
Flammis acribus addictis:
Voca me cum benedictis.
[MICHAEL climbs down the ancient well, reaching his head up warily,
to see.
The PIPER waves to him debonairly, points to the tree-tops, left,
and stands a moment showing in his face his disapproval of the
music. He fingers his pipe. As the hymn draws near, he scrambles
among the bushes, left, and disappears.
Enter slowly, chanting, the company of burghers from Hamelin,--men
together first, headed by priests; then the women.--ANSELM and all
the townsfolk appear (saving VERONIKA, the wife of KURT); JACOBUS
is meek; KURT very stern.--As they appear, the piping of the Dance-spell
begins softly, high in air. The hymn wavers; when the first burghers
reach the centre of the stage, it breaks down.
They look up, bewildered: then, with every sign of consternation,
struggle, and vacant fear, they begin to dance, willy-nilly. Their
faces work; they struggle to walk on; but it is useless. The music
whirls them irresistibly into a rhythmic pace of 3/4 time, and
jogs their words, when they try to speak, into the same dance-measure.
One by one,--two and two they go,--round and round like corks at first,
with every sign of struggle and protest, then off, on the long road
to Rudersheim. Fat priests waltz together.--KURT the fierce and
JACOBUS the sleek hug each other in frantic endeavor to be released.
Their words jolt insanely.]
KURT, JACOBUS.
( No, no.--No, no--No, no.--No, no!
( Yes, yes.--I, yes.--Yes, yes.--Yes, yes!
SOME.
( _La--crymos--a--Dies--ill--_
( Bewitched--the Devil!--bewitched--bewitched!
( I will not--will not--will--I will!
( No, no--but where!--Help--help!--To arms!
OTHERS.
( _Suppli--canti--suppli--Oh_!
( To Hamelln--back--to Hamelln--stay!
( No, no!--No, no,--Away,--away!
[They dance out, convulsively, towards Rudersheim.
KURT and JACOBUS, still whirling, cry,--
JACOBUS, KURT.
( Yes, yes!--yes, yes!--Let go--let go--
( No, no!--I will not--No! . . . No
[Exeunt left, dancing.
OTHERS.
( Keep time, keep time! Have mercy!--Time!
( Oh, let me--go!--Let go--let go!
( Yes, yes--Yes, yes--No, no--no--no!
[BARBARA appears, pale and beautiful;--richly dressed in white,
with flowing locks. She is wan and exhausted.--The dance-mania,
as it seizes her, makes her circle slowly and dazedly with a
certain pitiful silliness. The nuns and monks accompanying her
point in horror. But they, too, dance off with each other,
willy-nilly,--like leaves in a tempest. BARBARA is left alone,
still circling slowly. The piping sounds softer. She staggers
against a tree, and keeps on waving her hands and turning her head,
vaguely, in time.]
[MICHAEL looks forth from the well; then climbs out and approaches her.]
MICHAEL.
She is so beautiful,--how dare, I tell her?
My heart, how beautiful! The blessed saint! . . .
Fear nothing, fairest Lady.--You are saved.
[She looks at him unseeingly, and continues to dance.--He holds
out his arms to stop her.
Pray you, the danger's gone. Pray you, take breath!
Poor, shining dove,--I would not hold thee here,
Against thy wish.--'Tis Michael, the sword-eater.
[The piping ceases.]
BARBARA
[murmuring]
Yes, yes--I must--I must--I must. . .
[Reenter the PIPER from the thickets.]
MICHAEL.
Look, I will guard you like a princess, here;
Yes, like Our Lady's rose-vine.
BARBARA
[gasping]
Ah, my heart!
[The PIPER comes towards her. She sees him and holds out
her arms, crying:--
Oh, he has saved me!--I am thine--thine--thine!
[Falls into his arms half-fainting. The PIPER
stands amazed, alarmed, chagrined.
PIPER.
Mine?
MICHAEL
[furiously]
_Thine_?--So was it? All a trap? Cock's blood!
Thine, thine!--And thou hast piped her wits away.
Thine!
PIPER
[holding her off]
No, not mine!
BARBARA
[to him]
Why did you steal me hence?
When did you love me?--Was it on first sight?
PIPER
[confounded]
I, love thee?
MICHAEL.
--Knave! thief! liar!
PIPER.
--Give me breath.
[Holds off BARBARA gently.]
BARBARA.
Where are you taking me?
PIPER.
I? Taking thee?
MICHAEL
[to her]
He shall not steal thee!
BARBARA
[in a daze]
I must follow him.
PIPER.
No! 'T is too much. You shall not follow me!
I'll not be followed.--Damsel, sit you down.
Here is too much! I love you not.
BARBARA
[wonderingly]
You do not?
Why did you pipe to me?
MICHAEL.
--And steal her wits,
Stealer of all the children!
BARBARA
[vaguely]
Are they safe?
PIPER
[to MICHAEL]
Oh, your good faith!--
[To her]
They're safe.
BARBARA.
I knew--I knew it!
PIPER.
And so art thou. But never shall they go
To Hamelin more; and never shale thou go
To be a nun.
BARBARA
To be a nun,--no, no! Ah me, I'm spent.
Sir, take me with you.
MICHAEL
[still enraged to the PIPES]
Rid her of the spell!
Is this thy pledge?
PIPER
[distracted]
I do but rub my wits--
To think--to think.
[To himself]
What shall I do with her,
Now that she's here!--Suppose her bound to stay!
[To them]
Hearken.--You, Michael, on to Rudersheim--
MICHAEL.
And leave her here? No, no!
PIPER.
Then take the girl.
BARBARA.
To Rudersheim? No, never, never!
PIPER.
Well . . .
Hearken.--There is the hermit, over the hill.
[Apart, wildly]
But how--suppose she will not marry him?
I will not take her where the children are.
And yet--
[An idea strikes him. To her]
Hark, now;--hark, now, and tell me truly;
Can you spin cloth?
BARBARA
[amazed]
I? Spin?
PIPER
[eagerly]
Can you make shoes?
BARBARA.
I--_I_ make shoes!--Fellow!
PIPER.
So.
MICHAEL.
Art thou mad!
PIPER.
With me you may not go! But you'll be safe.
Hearken:--you, Michael, go to Rudersheim;
And tell the nuns--
BARBARA.
No, no! I dare not have it!
Oh, they would send and take me! No, no, no!
PIPER.
Would you go back to Hamelin?
BARBARA.
No--no--no!
Ah, I am spent.
[Droops towards the PIPER; falters and sinks down on the bank
beside the well, in a swoon.--The PIPER is abashed and rueful
for the moment.
MICHAEL.
All this, your work!
PIPER
[looking at her closely]
Not mine.
This is no charm. It is all youth and grief,
And weariness. And she shall follow you.--
Tell the good nuns you found her sore bewitched,
Here in this haunt of 'devils';--clean distraught.
No Church could so receive a dancing nun!
Tell them thou art an honest, piteous man
Desires to marry her.
MICHAEL.
Marry the Moon!
PIPER.
No, no, the Moon for me!--She shall be yours;
And here she sleeps, until her wits be sound.
[He spreads his cloak over her, gently]
The sun's still high. 'T is barely afternoon.--
[Looks at the sunshine. A thought strikes him with sudden dismay]
'T is--no, the time is going!--On my life,
I had forgot Them!--And They will not stay
After the Rainbow fades.
MICHAEL
[confounded]
Art thou moon-mad?
PIPER
[madly]
No. Stir not! Keep her safe! I come anon.
But first I go.--They'll not mind Cheat-the-Devil!
They'll creep, to find out where the Rainbow went.
I know them! So would I!--They'll all leak out!
MICHAEL.
Stay--stay!
PIPER.
No; guard her, you!--Anon, anon!
MICHAEL.
But you will pipe her up and after you!
PIPER
[flinging him the pipe from his belt]
Do you fear this? Then keep it till I come.
You bide!--The Other cannot.
MICHAEL.
Who?
PIPER.
The Rainbow,
The Rainbow!--
[He runs madly up the hillside, and away.]
[Curtain] _
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