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_ ACT SECOND
SCENE I.--A fountain in the park.
[Enter PELLEAS and MELISANDE.]
PELLEAS.
You do not know where I have brought you?--I often come to sit here, toward noon, when it is too hot in the gardens. It is stifling to-day, even in the shade of the trees.
MELISANDE.
Oh, how clear the water is!...
PELLEAS.
It is as cool as winter. It is an old abandoned spring. It seems to have been a miraculous spring,--it opened the eyes of the blind,--they still call it "Blind Man's Spring."
MELISANDE.
It no longer opens the eyes of the blind?
PELLEAS.
Since the King has been nearly blind himself, no one comes any more....
MELISANDE.
How alone one is here!... There is no sound.
PELLEAS.
There is always a wonderful silence here.... One could hear the water sleep.... Will you sit down on the edge of the marble basin? There is one linden where the sun never comes....
MELISANDE.
I am going to lie down on the marble.--I should like to see the bottom of the water....
PELLEAS.
No one has ever seen it.--It is as deep, perhaps, as the sea.--It is not known whence it comes.--Perhaps it comes from the bottom of the earth....
MELISANDE.
If there were anything shining at the bottom, perhaps one could see it....
PELLEAS.
Do not lean over so....
MELISANDE.
I would like to touch the water....
PELLEAS.
Have a care of slipping.... I will hold your hand....
MELISANDE.
No, no, I would plunge both hands in it.... You would say my hands were sick to-day....
PELLEAS.
Oh! oh! take care! take care! Melisande!... Melisande!...--Oh! your hair!...
MELISANDE
(starting upright).
I cannot,... I cannot reach it....
PELLEAS.
Your hair dipped in the water....
MELISANDE.
Yes, it is longer than my arms.... It is longer than I....
[A silence.]
PELLEAS.
It was at the brink of a spring, too, that he found you?
MELISANDE.
Yes....
PELLEAS.
What did he say to you?
MELISANDE.
Nothing;--I no longer remember....
PELLEAS.
Was he quite near you?
MELISANDE.
Yes; he would have kissed me.
PELLEAS.
And you would not?
MELISANDE.
No.
PELLEAS.
Why would you not?
MELISANDE.
Oh! oh! I saw something pass at the bottom of the water....
PELLEAS.
Take care! take care!--You will fall! What are you playing with?
MELISANDE.
With the ring he gave me....
PELLEAS.
Take care; you will lose it....
MELISANDE.
No, no; I am sure of my hands....
PELLEAS.
Do not play so, over so deep a water....
MELISANDE.
My hands do not tremble.
PELLEAS.
How it shines in the sunlight I--Do not throw it so high in the air....
MELISANDE.
Oh!...
PELLEAS.
It has fallen?
MELISANDE.
It has fallen into the water!...
PELLEAS.
Where is it? where is it?...
MELISANDE.
I do not see it sink?...
PELLEAS.
I think I see it shine....
MELISANDE.
My ring?
PELLEAS.
Yes, yes; down yonder....
MELISANDE.
Oh! oh! It is so far away from us!... no, no, that is not it ... that is not it.... It is lost ... lost.... There is nothing any more but a great circle on the water.... What shall we do? What shall we do now?...
PELLEAS.
You need not be so troubled for a ring. It is nothing.... We shall find it again, perhaps. Or else we will find another....
MELISANDE.
No, no; we shall never find it again; we shall never find any others either.... And yet I thought I had it in my hands.... I had already shut my hands, and it is fallen in spite of all.... I threw it too high, toward the sun....
PELLEAS.
Come, come, we will come back another day;... come, it is time. They will come to meet us. It was striking noon at the moment the ring fell.
MELISANDE.
What shall we say to Golaud if he ask where it is?
PELLEAS.
The truth, the truth, the truth....
[Exeunt.]
SCENE II.--An apartment in the castle. GOLAUD discovered, stretched upon his bed; MELISANDE, by his bedside.
GOLAUD.
Ah! ah! all goes well; it will amount to nothing. But I cannot understand how it came to pass. I was hunting quietly in the forest. All at once my horse ran away, without cause. Did he see anything unusual?... I had just heard the twelve strokes of noon. At the twelfth stroke he suddenly took fright and ran like a blind madman against a tree. I heard no more. I do not yet know what happened. I fell, and he must have fallen on me. I thought I had the whole forest on my breast; I thought my heart was crushed. But my heart is sound. It is nothing, apparently....
MELISANDE.
Would you like a little water?
GOLAUD.
Thanks, thanks; I am not thirsty.
MELISANDE.
Would you like another pillow?... There is a little spot of blood on this.
GOLAUD.
No, no; it is not worth while. I bled at the mouth just now. I shall bleed again perhaps....
MELISANDE.
Are you quite sure?... You are not suffering too much?
GOLAUD.
No, no; I have seen a good many more like this. I was made of iron and blood.... These are not the little bones of a child; do not alarm yourself....
MELISANDE.
Close your eyes and try to sleep. I shall stay here all night....
GOLAUD.
No, no; I do not wish you to tire yourself so. I do not need anything; I shall sleep like a child.... What is the matter, Melisande? Why do you weep all at once?...
MELISANDE
(bursting into tears).
I am ... I am ill too....
GOLAUD.
Thou art ill?... What ails thee, then; what ails thee, Melisande?...
MELISANDE.
I do not know.... I am ill here.... I had rather tell you to-day; my lord, my lord, I am not happy here....
GOLAUD.
Why, what has happened, Melisande? What is it?... And I suspecting nothing.... What has happened?... Some one has done thee harm?... Some one has given thee offence?
MELISANDE.
No, no; no one has done me the least harm.... It is not that.... It is not that.... But I can live here no longer. I do not know why.... I would go away, go away!... I shall die if I am left here....
GOLAUD.
But something has happened? You must be hiding something from me?... Tell me the whole truth, Melisande.... Is it the King?... Is it my mother?... Is it Pelleas?...
MELISANDE.
No, no; it is not Pelleas. It is not anybody.... You could not understand me....
GOLAUD.
Why should I not understand?... If you tell me nothing, what will you have me do?... Tell me everything and I shall understand everything.
MELISANDE.
I do not know myself what it is.... I do not know just what it is.... If I could tell you, I would tell you.... It is something stronger than I....
GOLAUD.
Come; be reasonable, Melisande.--What would you have me do?--You are no longer a child.--Is it I whom you would leave?
MELISANDE.
Oh! no, no; it is not that.... I would go away with you.... It is here that I can live no longer.... I feel that I shall not live a long while....
GOLAUD.
But there must be a reason nevertheless. You will be thought mad. It will be thought child's dreams.--Come, is it Pelleas, perhaps?--I think he does not often speak to you.
MELISANDE.
Yes, yes; he speaks to me sometimes. I think he does not like me; I have seen it in his eyes.... But he speaks to me when he meets me....
GOLAUD.
You must not take it ill of him. He has always been so. He is a little strange. And just now he is sad; he thinks of his friend Marcellus, who is at the point of death, and whom he cannot go to see.... He will change, he will change, you will see; he is young....
MELISANDE.
But it is not that ... it is not that....
GOLAUD.
What is it, then?--Can you not get used to the life one leads here? Is it too gloomy here?--It is true the castle is very old and very sombre.... It is very cold, and very deep. And all those who dwell in it, are already old. And the country may seem gloomy too, with all its forests, all its old forests without light. But that may all be enlivened if we will. And then, joy, joy, one does not have it every day; we must take things as they come. But tell me something; no matter what; I will do everything you could wish....
MELISANDE.
Yes, yes; it is true.... You never see the sky here. I saw it for the first time this morning....
GOLAUD.
It is that, then, that makes you weep, my poor Melisande?--It is only that, then?--You weep, not to see the sky?--Come, come, you are no longer at the age when one may weep for such things.... And then, is not the summer yonder? You will see the sky every day.--And then, next year.... Come, give me your hand; give me both your little hands. [_He takes her hands._] Oh! oh! these little hands that I could crush like flowers....--Hold! where is the ring I gave you?
MELISANDE.
The ring?
GOLAUD.
Yes; our wedding-ring, where is it?
MELISANDE.
I think.... I think it has fallen....
GOLAUD.
Fallen?--Where has it fallen?--You have not lost it?
MELISANDE.
No, no; it fell ... it must have fallen.... But I know where it is....
GOLAUD.
Where is it?
MELISANDE.
You know ... you know well ... the grotto by the seashore?...
GOLAUD.
Yes.
MELISANDE.
Well then, it is there.... It must be it is there.... Yes, yes; I remember.... I went there this morning to pick up shells for little Yniold.... There were some very fine ones.... It slipped from my finger ... then the sea came in; and I had to go out before I had found it.
GOLAUD.
Are you sure it is there?
MELISANDE.
Yes, yes; quite sure.... I felt it slip ... then, all at once, the noise of the waves....
GOLAUD.
You must go look for it at once.
MELISANDE.
I must go look for it at once?
GOLAUD.
Yes.
MELISANDE.
Now?--at once?--in the dark?
GOLAUD.
Now, at once, in the dark. You must go look for it at once. I had rather have lost all I have than have lost that ring. You do not know what it is. You do not know whence it came. The sea will be very high to-night. The sea will come to take it before you.... Make haste. You must go look for it at once....
MELISANDE.
I dare not.... I dare not go alone....
GOLAUD.
Go, go with no matter whom. But you must go at once, do you understand?--Make haste; ask Pelleas to go with you.
MELISANDE.
Pelleas?--With Pelleas?--But Pelleas would not....
GOLAUD.
Pelleas will do all you ask of him. I know Pelleas better than you do. Go, go; hurry! I shall not sleep until I have the ring.
MELISANDE.
Oh! oh! I am not happy!... I am not happy!...
[Exit, weeping.]
SCENE III.--Before a grotto.
[Enter PELLEAS and MELISANDE.]
[_Speaking with great agitation._] Yes; it is here; we are there. It is so dark you cannot tell the entrance of the grotto from the rest of the night.... There are no stars on this side. Let us wait till the moon has torn through that great cloud; it will light up the whole grotto, and then we can enter without danger. There are dangerous places, and the path is very narrow between two lakes whose bottom has not yet been found. I did not think to bring a torch or a lantern, but I think the light of the sky will be enough for us.--You have never gone into this grotto?
MELISANDE.
No....
PELLEAS.
Let us go in; let us go in.... You must be able to describe the place where you lost the ring, if he questions you.... It is very big and very beautiful. There are stalactites that look like plants and men. It is full of blue darks. It has not yet been explored to the end. There are great treasures hidden there, it seems. You will see the remains of ancient shipwrecks there. But you must not go far in it without a guide. There have been some who never have come back. I myself dare not go forward too far. We will stop the moment we no longer see the light of the sea or the sky. When you strike a little light there, you would say the vault was covered with stars like the sky. It is bits of crystal or salt, they say, that shine so in the rock.--Look, look, I think the sky is going to clear.... Give me your hand; do not tremble, do not tremble so. There is no danger; we will stop the moment we no longer see the light of the sea.... Is it the noise of the grotto that frightens you? It is the noise of night or the noise of silence.... Do you hear the sea behind us?--It does not seem happy to-night.... Ah! look, the light!...
[The moon lights up abundantly the entrance and part of the darkness of the grotto; and at a certain depth are seen three old beggars with white hair, seated side by side, leaning upon each other and asleep against a bowlder.]
MELISANDE.
Ah!
PELLEAS.
What is it?
MELISANDE.
There are ... there are....
[She points out the three Beggars.]
PELLEAS.
Yes, yes; I have seen them too....
MELISANDE.
Let us go!... Let us go!...
PELLEAS.
Yes ... it is three old poor men fallen asleep.... There is a famine in the country.... Why have they come to sleep here....
MELISANDE.
Let us go!... Come, come.... Let us go!...
PELLEAS.
Take care; do not speak so loud.... Let us not wake them.... They are still sleeping heavily.... Come.
MELISANDE.
Leave me, leave me; I prefer to walk alone....
PELLEAS.
We will come back another day....
[Exeunt.]
SCENE IV.--An apartment in the castle, ARKEL and PELLEAS discovered.
ARKEL.
You see that everything retains you here just now and forbids you this useless journey. We have concealed your father's condition from you until now; but it is perhaps hopeless; and that alone should suffice to stop you on the threshold. But there are so many other reasons.... And it is not in the day when our enemies awake, and when the people are dying of hunger and murmur about us, that you have the right to desert us. And why this journey? Marcellus is dead; and life has graver duties than the visit to a tomb. You are weary, you say, of your inactive life; but activity and duty are not found on the highways. They must be waited for upon the threshold, and let in as they go by; and they go by every day. You have never seen them? I hardly see them any more myself; but I will teach you to see them, and I will point them out to you the day when you would make them a sign. Nevertheless, listen to me; if you believe it is from the depths of your life this journey is exacted, I do not forbid your undertaking it, for you must know better than I the events you must offer to your being or your fate. I shall ask you only to wait until we know what must take place ere long....
PELLEAS.
How long must I wait?
ARKEL.
A few weeks; perhaps a few days....
PELLEAS.
I will wait.... _
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