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The Blue Bird: A Fairy Play in Six Acts, a play by Maurice Maeterlinck |
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Act 3 - Scene 1 |
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_ ACT III - SCENE I SCENE 1.--The Palace of NIGHT. [A large and wonderful hall of an austere, rigid, metallic and sepulchral magnificence, giving the impression of a Greek temple with columns, architraves, flagstones and ornaments of black marble, gold and ebony. The hall is trapezium-shaped. Basalt steps, occupying almost the entire width, divide it into three successive stages, which rise gradually toward the back. On the right and left, between the columns, are doors of sombre bronze. At the back, a monumental door of brass. The palace is lit only by a vague light that seems to emanate mainly from the brilliancy of the marble and the ebony. At the rise of the curtain, NIGHT, in the form of a very old woman, clad in long, black garments, is seated on the steps of the second stage between two children, of whom one, almost naked, like Cupid, is smiling in a deep sleep, while the other is standing up, motionless and veiled from head to foot.] [Enter from the right, in the foreground, the CAT.]
THE CAT (_sinking heavily upon the marble steps_) It is I, Mother Night.... I am worn out.... NIGHT What's the matter, child?... You look pale and thin and you are splashed with mud to your very whiskers.... Have you been fighting on the tiles again, in the snow and rain?... THE CAT It has nothing to do with the tiles!... It's our secret that's at stake!... It's the beginning of the end!... I have managed to escape for a moment to warn you; but I greatly fear that there is nothing to be done.... NIGHT Why?... What has happened?... THE CAT I have told you of little Tyltyl, the woodcutter's son, and of the magic diamond.... Well, he is coming here to demand the Blue Bird of you.... NIGHT He hasn't got it yet..... THE CAT He will have it soon, unless we perform some miracle.... This is how the matter stands: Light, who is guiding him and betraying us all, for she has placed herself entirely on Man's side, Light has learned that the Blue Bird, the real one, the only one that can live in the light of day, is hidden here, among the blue birds of the dreams that live on the rays of the moon and die as soon as they set eyes on the sun.... She knows that she is forbidden to cross the threshold of your palace, but she is sending the children; and, as you cannot prevent Man from opening the doors of your secrets, I do not know how all this will end.... In any case, if, unfortunately, they should lay their hands on the real Blue Bird, there would be nothing for us but to disappear.... NIGHT Oh dear, oh dear!.... What times we live in!... I never have a moment's peace.... I cannot understand Man, these last few years.... What is he aiming at?... Must he absolutely know everything?... Already he has captured a third of my Mysteries, all my Terrors are afraid and dare not leave the house, my Ghosts have taken flight, the greater part of my Sicknesses are ill.... THE CAT I know, Mother Night, I know, the times are hard and we are almost alone in our struggle against Man.... But I hear them coming.... I see only one way: as they are children, we must give them such a fright that they will not dare to persist or to open the great door at the back, behind which they would find the Birds of the Moon.... The secrets of the other caverns will be enough to distract their attention and terrify them.... NIGHT (_listening to a sound outside_) What do I hear?... Are there many of them?... THE CAT It is nothing; it is our friends, Bread and Sugar; Water is not very well and Fire could not come, because he is related to Light.... The Dog is the only one who is not on our side; but it is never possible to keep him away.... (Enter timidly, on the right, in the foreground, TYLTYL, MYTYL, BREAD, SUGAR and the DOG.) THE CAT (rushing up to TYLTYL) This way, little master, this way.... I have told Night, who is delighted to see you.... You must forgive her, she is a little indisposed; that is why she was not able to come to meet you.... TYLTYL Good-day, Mrs. Night.... NIGHT (_in an offended voice_) Good-day?... I am not used to that.... You might say, Good-night, or, at least. Good-evening.... TYLTYL (_mortified_) I beg your pardon, ma'am....I did not know....(_Pointing to the two_ CHILDREN.) Are those your two little boys?... They are very nice.... NIGHT This is Sleep.... TYLTYL Why is he so fat?... NIGHT That is because he sleeps well.... TYLTYL And the other, hiding himself?... Why does he veil his face?...Is he ill?... What is his name?... NIGHT That is Sleep's sister.... It is better not to mention her name.... TYLTYL Why?... NIGHT Because her name is not pleasant to hear.... But let us talk of something else.... The Cat tells me that you have come here to look for the Blue Bird.... TYLTYL Yes, ma'am, if you will allow me.... Will you tell me where he is?... NIGHT I don't know, dear.... All I can say is that he is not here.... I have never seen him.... TYLTYL Yes, yes.... Light told me that he was here; and Light knows what she is saying.... Will you hand me your keys?... NIGHT But you must understand, dear, that I cannot give my keys like that to the first comer.... I have the keeping of all Nature's secrets and I am absolutely forbidden to deliver them to anybody, especially to a child.... TYLTYL You have no right to refuse them to Man when he asks you for them....I know that.... NIGHT Who told you?... TYLTYL Light.... NIGHT Light again! Always Light!... How dare she interfere, how dare she?... THE DOG Shall I take them from her by force, my little god?... TYLTYL Hold your tongue, keep quiet and try to behave.... (To NIGHT) Come, madam, give me your keys, please.... NIGHT Have you the sign, at least?... Where is it?... TYLTYL (_touching his hat_) Behold the Diamond!... NIGHT (_resigning herself to the inevitable_) Well, then... Here is the key that opens all the doors of the hall.... Look to yourself if you meet with a misfortune.... I will not be responsible.... BREAD (_very anxiously_) Is it dangerous?... NIGHT Dangerous?... I will go so far as to say that I myself do not know what I shall do when certain of those bronze doors open upon the abyss.... All around the hall, in each of those basalt caves, are all the evils, all the plagues, all the sicknesses, all the terrors, all the catastrophes, all the mysteries that have afflicted life since the beginning of the world.... I have had trouble enough to Imprison them there with the aid of Destiny; and it is not without difficulty, I assure you, that I keep some little order among those undisciplined characters.... You have seen what happens when one of them escapes and shows itself on earth.... BREAD My great age, my experience and my devotion make me the natural protector of these two children; therefore, Mrs. Night, permit me to ask you a question.... NIGHT Certainly.... BREAD In case of danger, which is the way of escape?... NIGHT There is no way of escape. TYLTYL (_taking the key and climbing the first steps_) Let us begin here.... What is behind this bronze door?... NIGHT I think it is the Ghosts.... It is long since I opened the door and since they came out.... TYLTYL (_placing the key in the lock_) I will see.... (To BREAD) Have you the cage for the Blue Bird?... BREAD (_with chattering teeth_) I'm not frightened, but don't you think it would be better not to open the door, but to peep through the keyhole?... TYLTYL I don't want your advice.... MYTYL (_suddenly beginning to cry_) I am frightened!... Where is Sugar?... I want to go home!... SUGAR (_eagerly, obsequiously_) Here I am, miss, here I am.... Don't cry, I will break off one of my fingers so that you may have a sugar-stick.... TYLTYL Enough of this!... (He turns the key and cautiously opens the door. Forthwith, five or six GHOSTS of strange and different forms escape and disperse on every side. MYTYL gives a scream of fright, BREAD, terrified, throws away the cage and goes and hides at the back of the hall, while NIGHT, running after the GHOSTS, cries out to TYLTYL.) NIGHT Quick! Quick!... Shut the door!... They will all escape and we should never be able to catch them again!... They have felt bored in there, ever since Man ceased to take them seriously.... (_She runs after the_ GHOSTS _and endeavours, with the aid of a whip formed of snakes, to drive them back to the door of their prison_.) Help me!... Here!... Here!... TYLTYL (_to the_ DOG) Help her, Tylo, at them!... THE DOG (_leaping up and barking_) Yes, yes, yes!... TYLTYL And Bread, where's Bread?... BREAD (_at the back of the hall_) Here.... I am near the door to prevent them from going out.... (One of the_ GHOSTS _moves in that direction and he rushes away at full speed, uttering yells of terror.) NIGHT (_to three_ GHOSTS _whom she has seized by the neck_) This way, you!... (_To_ TYLTYL) Open the door a little.... (_She pushes the_ GHOSTS _into the cave_.) There, that's it.... (_The_ DOG _brings up two more_.) And these two.... Come, quick, in with you!... You know you're only allowed out on All-hallows.... (_She closes the door._) TYLTYL (_going to another door_) What's behind this one?.... NIGHT What is the good?...I have already told you the Blue Bird has never been here.... However, as you please.... Open the doors if you like.... It's the Sicknesses.... TYLTYL (_with the key in the lock_.) Must I be careful in opening?... NIGHT No, it is not worth while.... They are very quiet, the poor little things.... They are not happy.... Man, for some time, has been waging such a determined war upon them!... Especially since the discovery of the microbes.... Open, you will see.... (TYLTYL opens the door quite wide. Nothing appears.) TYLTYL Don't they come out? NIGHT I told you they are almost all poorly and very much discouraged.... The doctors are so unkind to them.... Go in for a moment and see for yourself.... (TYLTYL enters the cavern and comes out again immediately.) TYLTYL The Blue Bird is not there.... They look very ill, those Sicknesses of yours.... They did not even lift their heads.... (_One little Sickness in slippers, a dressing-gown and a cotton nightcap escapes from the cavern and begins to frisk about the hall_.) Look!... There's a little one escaping.... Which one is it?... NIGHT It's nothing, one of the smallest; it's Cold-in-the-Head.... It is one of those which are least persecuted and which enjoy the best health.... (_Calling to_ COLD-IN-THE-HEAD) Come here, dear....It's too soon yet; you must wait for the winter.... (COLD-IN-THE-HEAD, sneezing, coughing and blowing its nose, returns to the cavern and TYLTYL shuts the door.) TYLTYL NIGHT Take care!... It is the Wars.... They are more terrible and powerful than ever.... Heaven knows what would happen if one of them escaped!... Fortunately, they are rather heavy and slow-moving.... But we must stand ready to push back the door, all of us together, while you take a rapid glance into the cavern.... (TYLTYL, with a thousand precautions, opens the door ajar so that there is only a little gap to which he can put his eye. He at once doubles his back against the door, shouting.) TYLTYL Quick! Quick!... Push with all your might!... They have seen me!... They are all coming!... They are breaking down the door!... NIGHT Come, all together!... Push hard!... Bread, what are you doing?... Push, all of you!... How strong they are!... Ah, that's it!... They are giving way!... It was high time!... Did you see them?... TYLTYL Yes, yes!... They are huge and awful!... I don't think that they have the Blue Bird.... NIGHT You may be sure they haven't.... If they had, they would eat him at once.... Well, have you had enough of it?... You see there is nothing to be done.... TYLTYL I must see everything.... Light said so.... NIGHT Light said so!... It's an easy thing to say when one's afraid and stays at home.... TYLTYL Let us go to the next.... What is in here?... NIGHT This is where I lock up the Shades and the Terrors.... TYLTYL Can I open the door?... NIGHT Certainly.... They are pretty quiet; they are like the Sicknesses.... TYLTYL (_half-opening the door, with a certain mistrustfulness, and taking a look into the cavern_) Are they not there?... NIGHT (_looking into the cavern in her turn_) Well, Shades, what are you doing?... Come out for a moment and stretch your legs; it will do you good.... And the Terrors also.... There is nothing to be afraid of.... (_A few_ SHADES _and a few_ TERRORS, _in the shape of women, shrouded, the former in black veils and the latter in greenish veils, piteously venture to take a few steps outside the cavern; and then, upon a movement of_ TYLTYL'S, _hastily run back again_.) Come, don't be afraid.... It's only a child; he won't hurt you.... (To TYLTYL) They have become extremely timid, except the great ones, those whom you see at the back.... TYLTYL (_looking into the depths of the cave_) Oh, how terrifying they are!... NIGHT They are chained up.... They are the only ones that are not afraid of Man.... But shut the door, lest they should grow angry.... TYLTYL (_going to the next door_) I say!... This is a darker one.... What is here? NIGHT There are several Mysteries behind this one.... If you are absolutely bent upon it, you may open it too.... But don't go in.... Be very cautious and let us get ready to push back the door, as we did with the Wars.... TYLTYL NIGHT What?... TYLTYL (_upset_) I don't know, it was awful!... They were all seated like monsters without eyes.... Who was the giant who tried to seize me?... NIGHT It was probably Silence; he has charge of this door.... It appears to have been alarming?... You are quite pale still and trembling all over.... TYLTYL Yes, I would never have believed.... I had never seen.... And my hands are frozen.... NIGHT It will be worse presently if you go on.... TYLTYL (_going to the next door_) And this one?... Is this terrible also?... NIGHT No; there is a little of everything here.... It is where I keep the unemployed Stars, my personal Perfumes, a few Glimmers that belong to me, such as Will-o'-the-Wisps, Glow-worms and Fireflies, also the Dew, the Song of the Nightingales and so on.... TYLTYL Just so, the Stars, the Song of the Nightingales.... This must be the door.... NIGHT Open it, if you like; there Is nothing very bad inside....
TYLTYL And how well they dance!... MYTYL And how sweet they smell!... TYLTYL And how beautifully they sing!... MYTYL What are those, whom one can hardly see?... NIGHT Those are the Perfumes of my Shadow. TYLTYL And those others, over there, in spun glass?... NIGHT They are the Dew of the plains and forests.... But enough!... They would never have done.... It is the devil's own business to get them back, once they begin to dance.... (The STARS, PERFUMES, etc., take to flight in dismay and rush back into the cavern; and the door is closed upon them. At the same time, the song of the NIGHT INGALE ceases.)
NIGHT (_gravely_) Do not open that one... TYLTYL Why not?.... NIGHT Because it's not allowed.... TYLTYL Then it's here that the Blue Bird is hidden; Light told me so.... NIGHT (_maternally_) Listen to me, child ... I have been kind and indulgent ... I have done for you what I have never done for any one before ... I have given up all my secrets to you.... I like you, I feel pity for your youth and innocence and I am speaking to you as a mother.... Listen to me, my child, and believe me; relinquish your quest, go no further, do not tempt fate, do not open that door.... TYLTYL (_a little shaken_) But why?... NIGHT Because I do not wish you to be lost.... Because not one of those, do you hear, not one of those who have opened it, were it but by a hair's breadth, has ever returned alive to the light of day.... Because every awful thing imaginable, because all the terrors, all the horrors of which men speak on earth are as nothing compared with the most harmless of those which assail a man from the moment when his eye lights upon the first threats of the abyss to which no one dares give a name.... So much so that I myself, if you are bent, in spite of everything, upon touching that door, will ask you to wait until I have sought safety in my windowless tower... Now it is for you to know, for you to reflect.... (MYTYL, all in tears, utters cries of inarticulate terror and tries to drag TYLTYL away.) BREAD (_with chattering teeth_) Don't do it, master dear!... (_Flinging himself on his knees_) Take pity on us!... I implore you on my knees.... You see that Night is right.... THE CAT You are sacrificing the lives of all of us.... TYLTYL I must open the door.... MYTYL (_stamping her feet, amid her sobs_) I won't!... I sha'n't!... TYLTYL Sugar and Bread, take Mytyl by the hand and run away with her.... I am going to open the door.... NIGHT Run for your lives!... Come quickly!... It is time!... (_She flees._) BREAD (_fleeing wildly_) At least wait till we are at the end of the hall!... THE CAT (_also fleeing_) Wait! Wait!... (They hide behind the columns at the other end of the hall. TYLTYL remains alone with the DOG by the monumental door.) THE DOG (_panting and hiccoughing with suppressed fright_) I shall stay, I shall stay!... I'm not afraid!... I shall stay!... I shall stay with my little god!... I shall stay!... I shall stay!... TYLTYL (_patting the_ DOG) That's right, Tylo, that's right!... Kiss me.... You and I are two.... And now, steady!...
MYTYL (_covered with blue birds_) I have caught seven already!.... Oh, how they flap their wings!.... I can't hold them!.... TYLTYL Nor can I!.... I have too many of them!... They're escaping!.... They're coming back!.... Tylo has some, too!.... They will drag us with them!.... They will take us up to the sky!.... Quick, let us go out this way!.... Light is waiting for us!.... How pleased she will be!.... This way, this way!.... (They escape from the garden, with their hands full of struggling birds, and, crossing the whole hall amid the mad whirl of the azure wings, go out on the right, where they first entered, followed by BREAD and SUGAR, who have caught no birds. NIGHT and the CAT, left alone, return to the back of the stage and look anxiously into the garden.)
THE CAT No.... I see him there, on that moonbeam.... They could not reach him, he kept too high.... (The CURTAIN _falls. Immediately after, before the dropped curtain, ENTER, at the same time, on the left, LIGHT and on the right, TYLTYL, MYTYL and the DOG, who run up all covered by the birds which they have captured. But already the birds appear lifeless and, with hanging heads and drooping wings, are nothing more in their hands than inert remains.) LIGHT Well, have you caught him?... TYLTYL Yes, yes!...As many as we wanted!... There are thousands of them!... Here they are!... Do you see them?... (He hides his head in his arms and his whole frame is shaken with sobs.)
THE DOG (_They all go out on the left_.) _ |
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