{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_55611/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_55611","id":"gutenberg_55611","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55611","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Plays/Films/Dramas","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Reincarnation -- Drama"],"text":"KARMA\n\n\n\n\n                                  KARMA\n\n                          A RE-INCARNATION PLAY\n                                   IN\n                     PROLOGUE, EPILOGUE & THREE ACTS\n\n                                   BY\n                           ALGERNON BLACKWOOD\n             AUTHOR OF \u201cJULIUS LE VALLON,\u201d \u201cTHE WAVE,\u201d ETC.\n                                   AND\n                              VIOLET PEARN\n\n                             [Illustration]\n\n                                NEW YORK\n                         E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY\n                            681 FIFTH AVENUE\n\n                            COPYRIGHT, 1918,\n                        BY E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY\n\n                 Printed in the United States of America\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n                                         PAGE\n    PROLOGUE. PRESENT DAY                   3\n\n    ACT I. THEIR FIRST LIFE TOGETHER.\n      TIME--2000 B.C. EGYPT                38\n\n    ACT II. THEIR SECOND LIFE TOGETHER.\n      TIME--325 B.C. GREECE                81\n\n    ACT III. THEIR THIRD LIFE TOGETHER.\n      TIME--FIFTEENTH CENTURY. ITALY      123\n\n    EPILOGUE. PRESENT DAY                 189\n\n\n\n\nPROLOGUE\n\nPRESENT DAY\n\n\nCHARACTERS\n\n    PHILLIP LATTIN (45), British Agent in Egypt.\n    MRS. LATTIN, his wife (40), mentally and physically ill; a woman\n        of strong personality and exacting.\n    THE DOCTOR, unpretentious, simple in bearing, gentle in manner.\n    NURSE.\n\n\nPROLOGUE\n\n    SCENE--_Room in LATTIN\u2019S London house. MRS. LATTIN lies on sofa.\n    A picture of Ancient Egypt, showing the Nile, palms and temples\n    on wall easily visible to her._\n\n    TIME--_Present day, evening._\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nWhat time is it, nurse--_now_?\n\n_Nurse_\n\nClose on half-past five.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\n(_With irritability of a sick woman._) Not later? Are you sure? It\u2019s so\ndark.\n\n_Nurse_\n\n(_Soothingly._) The dusk is closing in; I\u2019ll light your lamp.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nHalf-past five, you said? My husband expected to be back before this.\nHasn\u2019t he come? The appointment was for half-past two.\n\n_Nurse_\n\nThe Foreign Office takes its time. Mr. Lattin will come to you the moment\nhe gets in.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nYou\u2019re sure? I thought I heard his step.\n\n_Nurse_\n\nI\u2019ll go and see the moment the lamp is lit. But he never forgets. He\nalways comes in here first.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nBut he\u2019s so long to-day, longer than usual. And he looked so grave,\nnurse, when he left. He looked worried, I thought. You noticed it?\n\n_Nurse_\n\nHe _is_ taken up with these politics just now. It\u2019s only natural,\nconsidering the crisis in Egypt. But he\u2019s always so in earnest, isn\u2019t he?\nI noticed nothing unusual. The Government is lucky to have him at such a\ntime. No one could fill _his_ place. (_Brings lamp._) There\u2019s the lamp.\nIs the shading right?\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nFill his place! No, indeed. Phillip understands the natives better than\nanybody in the world. And the country too (_wistfully_). If only I could\nbring myself to go back to Egypt with him. (_Irritably._) The light\ncatches my eye there. To the left a little. Now to the right. Thank you.\n\n_Nurse_\n\nThe doctors all agree it\u2019s best not, don\u2019t they? The dry climate----\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nIt\u2019s not that, nurse. Dryness is what I _need_--warmth and dryness. It\u2019s\nsomething else. Egypt frightens me. I can\u2019t sleep there. Dreams come to\nme.\n\n_Nurse_\n\nThe doctors said it was the effect of the climate on the nerves.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nOh, I know. I\u2019d face it if I could--another winter. It means so much to\nMr. Lattin, doesn\u2019t it? Nurse! It\u2019s curious--it\u2019s strange, don\u2019t you\nthink--that Mr. Lattin feels nothing of that _I_ feel there? I mean----\n\n_Nurse_\n\nHark! I think that\u2019s Mr. Lattin\u2019s step. I\u2019ll go and see.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nIt can\u2019t be the new doctor, can it?\n\n_Nurse_\n\nDr. Ogilvie? Not yet. Six o\u2019clock he was to come. He won\u2019t be here before\nhis time. These great specialists are busy men.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\n(_Wearily._) I\u2019ve seen so many doctors. I hardly feel as if I had the\nstrength for a new examination. Dr. Ogilvie will do me no good.\n\n_Nurse_\n\nStill you will see him. For your husband\u2019s sake.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nAh, yes, for Phillip\u2019s sake. I think my husband\u2019s coming, nurse.\n\n(_Enter PHILLIP._)\n\n_Nurse_\n\nGood-evening, Mr. Lattin. Mrs. Lattin is a trifle better. I\u2019ll leave you\nfor a little, but she must not tire herself. We are expecting Dr. Ogilvie\nat six.\n\n_Phillip_\n\nI\u2019ll be very careful.\n\n    [_NURSE exit._\n\n(_PHILLIP comes to his wife._)\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nAt last, Phillip. I\u2019m so glad you\u2019ve come, dear. I\u2019ve been waiting and\nlonging so. They kept you--but you belong to me, don\u2019t you? You\u2019re tired,\npoor old thing. Come to me, Phillip--closer. (_Stretches out hand._)\n\n_Phillip_\n\nI _am_ a bit late. I\u2019m sorry, Little Child. They kept me, yes. But\n_you_----?\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nI\u2019m well enough to listen. You\u2019re back; I forgive you. And it\u2019s all\narranged as you wished--as you hoped?\n\n_Phillip_\n\nSir George was kindness itself----\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nYou saw the Foreign Secretary!\n\n_Phillip_\n\nYou didn\u2019t know I was such a big-wig, did you? It is important, you see,\ndear. The situation out there is complicated. I\u2019ve left them in the lurch\na little, and my advice--er--my knowledge, Sir George was good enough to\nsay--at such a time----\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nIn the lurch, Phillip! How in the lurch? You\u2019re only asking a longer\nleave than usual.\n\n_Phillip_\n\nThere, there. I don\u2019t want you to worry your dear head with politics. The\nnew doctor will be here any minute now. That\u2019s far more important.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nI would rather know exactly. It doesn\u2019t worry me.\n\n_Phillip_\n\nIt\u2019s all been arranged most satisfactorily, dear; and I\u2019m very pleased.\nSo _you\u2019re_ pleased with me--eh?\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nPhillip--what has been arranged?\n\n_Phillip_\n\nSir George was most complimentary. The Government would recognise\nmy services--my long services, he called it. He even discussed with\nme--asked my advice, if you _must_ know the full weight of honour placed\nupon me!--as to my successor----\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nSuccessor!\n\n_Phillip_\n\nBut, darling, _some one_ must fill my place. There must be a _locum\ntenens_, as they say in the church.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nYou\u2019ve--resigned!\n\n_Phillip_\n\nDear one, there was no other way. It\u2019s a formality, you see. I can always\ntake it up again where I left it off. Our man in Egypt--just now--must be\n_there_. He must be on the spot, of course----\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nBut six months\u2019 leave! Surely, six months\u2019 leave----\n\n_Phillip_\n\nMeans the entire winter. There, there, Little Child, it\u2019s nothing. You\nmust not exaggerate like this. What is my work in Egypt compared to being\nwith you. The doctors forbid you to go out. It\u2019s quite simple: I prefer\nto stay with you. _My_ world lies in your heart. I--I can always take up\nthe work again when--when you\u2019re better.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nResigned, resigned! You have actually resigned. Your career--I have\nbroken your career--at last--completely. Is it wrong, then, that I need\nyou so?\n\n_Phillip_\n\nHush, dearest----\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nYou have paid this tremendous price--and I have made you pay it.\n\n_Phillip_\n\nI wish to be always with you. That is my only wish, my only happiness.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nFor my sake you have sacrificed----\n\n_Phillip_\n\nIt\u2019s I who am selfish to tire you with all this stupid Government\nbusiness. There, now; you\u2019ve talked too much and I have done you\nharm. There\u2019s only happiness in my heart. No more nonsense-talk about\nsacrifice. You must lie quiet and rest again. I can be always with you.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nYes, to the end--my end and yours. O God! Why did I not understand before?\n\n_Phillip_\n\nYou must not speak like that. Love--our love--knows no end.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nOh, I am miserable, Phillip, miserable, miserable.\n\n_Phillip_\n\n_Please_, do not say such things.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nBut I must, I must. My selfishness has brought you to this last\nrenouncement. Egypt has meant so much to you.\n\n_Phillip_\n\nToo much, Mary, too much. Egypt was coming between us.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nYour work there, the great work I have ruined\u2026! Egypt meant home to you.\n\n_Phillip_\n\nHome is where you are, dearest, and nowhere else. You have taught me\nthis--in time. (_To himself._) Egypt! Ah, Egypt!\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nI hate it. It terrifies me. There is pain for me in Egypt. An instinctive\ndread comes over me always--something from very far away. I _have_\nstruggled against it, for your sake, but--oh, it\u2019s so, so strong. If only\nyou could forgive me----!\n\n_Phillip_\n\nHush, dearest!\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nBut it _has_ come between us. You love it so. And it\u2019s my fault that you\ncan\u2019t--your career, I mean----\n\n_Phillip_\n\nDear one, whatever is, is right. There is nothing to regret. Egypt,\nindeed, has drawn me strangely. There is some power out there--a\nspiritual power--that has cast a glamour over me. It has been a passion\nwith me.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nMy instinctive terror!\n\n_Phillip_\n\nAnd my instinctive love!\n\n    [_They glance together in silence at a great picture above the\n    bed--an Egyptian night-scene, with stars and Nile._\n\nYes \u2026 yes \u2026 strange indeed! From my earliest days it drew me. Those palms\nand temples, that majestic desert----!\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nPhillip, don\u2019t! Those stars, that river bring me sadness--immense regret.\nI feel them always rising over me. They watch me!\n\n_Phillip_\n\nForgive me. It was the marvellous beauty took me. I----\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nBut it\u2019s an unearthly beauty. And something in it--lost. It\u2019s lost\nto you. And I--oh, but I do love you so; for ever and ever you are\n_mine_--aren\u2019t you?\n\n    [_He stoops and kisses her. She half rises, whispering_:\n\nPhillip, dearest--something strange comes over me. I see a lifting of\nthis heavy English sky. I have been through this before--I have done this\nvery thing before--long, long ago--injured you somehow! Oh, Phillip,\ncan it be that we have lived before--pre-existence--is it true? (_Sinks\nback._) I think \u2026 I think I must be near to \u2026 death!\n\n_Phillip_\n\nHush, hush, my darling. These are sick fancies only. Your brain is tired.\nWe must not talk like this.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nI _am_ tired, yes; but it is my soul that aches and not my body. Phillip,\nI want your forgiveness.\n\n_Phillip_\n\nThere is nothing to forgive. I love you.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\n(_Spiritually tortured and perplexed._) I want your real\nforgiveness--before I go. I have been suffering deeply, deeply. Curtains\nhave been rising. I almost see. Something seems growing clearer to me.\nI\u2019ve done wrong somewhere! Why have I pulled against you all these\nyears--against your work? It cannot be my love that is at fault. You\u2019re\nwholly mine--and yet I want your forgiveness somehow----\n\n_Phillip_\n\n(_Deep patience._) All the love and forgiveness in the world I give you,\nLittle Child. But you ask for what was always yours.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nYour broken mission. You alone have the strength and patience Egypt\nneeds. I have ruined all, all, all!\n\n_Phillip_\n\nThere! I forgive you, then. (_Kisses her._) I forgive you all, all, all.\nBut please calm yourself. This excitement does you harm. You torment\nyourself for nothing. It is I who have been, and am, the egoist. All men\nwho think their work is a mission are shameless egoists.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nThank you, Phillip, for this great gift of your forgiveness. But it is\nnot enough. I want to understand--and so forgive _myself_.\n\n_Phillip_\n\nYou must rest now a little. It was criminal of me to let you talk so\nmuch. No, not another word. I\u2019ll leave you for a bit. You must be calm to\nsee the Doctor. It\u2019s nearly six----\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nDr. Ogilvie can\u2019t help me.\n\n_Phillip_\n\nWhat! The first man of the day! His wonderful cures----\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nHe cures the body only. _I_ need a soul physician. Oh, Phillip, I believe\nsometimes my yearning _must_ bring him to me.\n\n_Phillip_\n\nMy darling, it is your body alone that is ill. Your suffering gives you\nthese strange fancies.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nYou love me too well to understand. (_Sighs._) My illness is not only of\nthe body. Now, leave me, dearest. I wish to see him quite alone.\n\n_Phillip_\n\nLittle Child, you shall. You can dismiss the nurse. (_Glances at clock._)\nIt is close on six.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nKiss me. (_He kisses her softly and goes out._) If only--ah, if only my\ngreat yearning.\u2026\n\n    [_She lies back exhausted. Sighs. Covers her face with her hands.\n    After a moment she uncovers her face and half sits up again. She\n    stares hard at Egyptian picture on the wall._\n\nThe fault lies in my soul, and it comes first from there--from Egypt.\nThe river is rising, rising once again. The stars are rising too. They\nwatch me, and they wait. They\u2019re always watching us. O God! If only some\none could make me understand! If some great doctor of the soul\u2026! (_Sinks\nback. Her eyes close. She lies very still._)\n\n    [_A big clock on the mantelpiece strikes the first three strokes\n    of six o\u2019clock, then stops. The door opens slowly and a man\n    enters quietly. He looks round the room, sees her on the sofa\n    apparently asleep, and stands still, a few feet inside the door.\n    He looks steadily at her a moment, then glances at the picture of\n    Egypt on the wall. He smiles gently. His figure is a little bent,\n    perhaps. He is not a big man with any marked presence. As he\n    smiles, she opens her eyes and sees him. She shows surprise and\n    slight embarrassment. She raises herself on one arm. Her voice\n    is hushed rather when she speaks. He remains near the open door._\n\nI beg your pardon. Is it--Dr. Ogilvie?\n\n_Doctor_\n\nI am the Doctor.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nI must apologise. Did no one----?\n\n_Doctor_\n\nI found my way.\n\n    [_Both pause, gazing._\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\n(_With relief._) Ah! Thank you.\n\n    [_She makes an unfinished gesture towards a seat. Her eyes remain\n    fixed on his. She smiles faintly._\n\n_Doctor_\n\nYou called for me. (_He makes one step nearer._)\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nMy husband, I believe, did write. We--expected you.\n\n_Doctor_\n\nI am come.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nIt is exceedingly--it is more than kind of you. You are so good. I\nmean--(_stammers; sinks back upon the cushions, unable to maintain the\neffort_). I am very ill.\n\n_Doctor_\n\nI know.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nYou know! Ah yes--you know.\n\n_Doctor_\n\nThat is why you called me. That is why I am here now.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nI can tell you very briefly what----\n\n_Doctor_\n\nIt is unnecessary.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nBut----\n\n_Doctor_\n\nI have been watching you.\n\n    [_He straightens up a little; a new dignity is in him. She\n    gazes intently. She stretches out a hand, then withdraws it,\n    hesitatingly, again._\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nYou mean----?\n\n_Doctor_\n\nI knew--that you would send for me.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nAh! The medical journals! My case, of course--its peculiar--er--its\nhopelessness.\n\n_Doctor_\n\nThere are no hopeless cases. (_He smiles. His voice is very gentle._)\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\n(_Bewildered._) You are very ki--good. I thank you, already.\n\n_Doctor_\n\n(_Shaking his head quietly._) And you already--I see--are on the way to\nyour recovery.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nRecovery!\n\n_Doctor_\n\nSince you realise that you are very ill.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nOh--in that sense.\n\n_Doctor_\n\nIn every sense.\n\n    [_She is more and more aware of something unusual in him. She\n    keeps her gaze steadily on his face. She makes a gesture\n    towards him, then hesitates. She seems on the point of saying\n    more--speaking more freely._\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nI think--there must be a mistake somewhere. I don\u2019t quite understand how\nyou----\n\n_Doctor_\n\nThere are no mistakes.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nBut you are sure it is _me_ you have come to see?\n\n_Doctor_\n\nIt is you.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nMrs. Lattin?\n\n    [_He bows his head._\n\nIn this street and house--13 Bristol Square?\n\n_Doctor_\n\nThis street, this square (_moves nearer and puts his hand upon her\nhead_), this very house you occupy--for the moment.\n\n    [_She stares at him. They smile. She is aware of another meaning\n    in his words. A touch of awe shows in her manner._\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\n(_Low._) This--body?\n\n_Doctor_\n\nWhich, for the moment, _you_--are occupying, Little Child.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\n(_Awed._) You know that name! My husband\u2019s secret name!\n\n_Doctor_\n\nIt is--_your_ name.\n\n    [_He moves back a step so that she can see the picture. One hand\n    he stretches towards her as in blessing. Her eyes turn from the\n    Egyptian night-scene to his face again._\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\n(_Softly, to herself._) My little secret love-name. It is too\nmarvellous--this. I am completely at a loss to--(_breaks off, as he looks\ndown and smiles at her_).\n\n_Doctor_\n\nLove names truly always.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nHe \u2026 has \u2026 always \u2026 called me so.\n\n_Doctor_\n\nHe has loved you truly--always.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\n(_Sitting up._) But you know everything in the world! Who are\nyou--really? (_Awe increases in her._)\n\n_Doctor_\n\nI am the Doctor.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nDoctor! The greatest calling in world! A doctor\u2019s powers----\n\n_Doctor_\n\nAre, by rights, divine.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nLife or death----\n\n_Doctor_\n\nLife _and_ death.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\n(_Hushed._) But--you are more than doctor; you are also--Priest.\n\n_Doctor_\n\nI am at your service.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\n(_Light breaking on her face. She stretches out a hand to him. He takes\nit._) To heal me. I feel great power pouring from you--into me. It is\nlike wind and fire.\n\n_Doctor_\n\nLife is a wind and fire. It is life you feel. Your claim is great,\nbecause of your great wish, your true desire. You deserve. And I have\ncome.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\n(_Puzzled._) Deserve! My great desire! My claim\u2026!\n\n_Doctor_\n\nYour sickness is not of the heart, but of the soul. Your desire was\nprayer.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nYou have read my heart.\n\n_Doctor_\n\nLittle Child, it is in your eyes.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nAnd you know my very soul.\n\n_Doctor_\n\nLittle Child, I am come to heal it.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nRecovery! You said recovery. While I lie dying here by inches!\n\n_Doctor_\n\nYou love.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nWith all my heart.\n\n_Doctor_\n\nAnd--soul?\n\n    [_He looks questioningly down at her with great tenderness. Her\n    expression shows the dawn of comprehension._\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\n(_Very low._) I love--wrongly--somewhere. I forgot--my soul. And I have\nwrecked him, wrecked his life, his work.\n\n_Doctor_\n\n(_To himself._) Again.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\n(_Not catching his word._) Is there recovery for _that_? Can you heal\nthat?\n\n_Doctor_\n\nHe does not question your love for him?\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nHe is too big-hearted. He has sacrificed all for me. It is regret and\nremorse that kill me now--they bring death more quickly. If only I could\nunderstand!\n\n_Doctor_\n\nYou shall.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\n(_Bitterly._) When it is too late. Can you give recovery for that? Can\nthe forgiveness that I crave--his forgiveness--undo what has been?\n(_Hides her face and sobs._) I must die without forgiveness.\n\n_Doctor_\n\nRecovery begins with understanding.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nI want _his_ forgiveness.\n\n_Doctor_\n\nYou must--forgive yourself.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nOh, oh, I do not understand. My remorse goes with me even into the grave.\n\n_Doctor_\n\nRemorse brings weakness. The forgiveness of another affects that other\nonly.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\n(_Looking up._) Yes?\n\n_Doctor_\n\nUnderstand. Then, without regret, go forward. To forgive yourself\nis--true forgiveness.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nI feel something wonderful in you. Your words bring life again.\u2026 I.\u2026\nThere seems something I remember--remember almost--very dim and far\naway.\u2026 (_Her eye falls upon the Egyptian picture. She gazes fascinated at\nit._) The stars \u2026 the river \u2026 are rising, surely.\u2026\n\n_Doctor_\n\nYou remember--life. And life shall teach you this.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nLife! My life! Oh, what is it rising in me? A curtain lifts. I see \u2026\nmyself. Ah, now it goes again.\u2026 The pain \u2026 the pain is awful! It all has\nbeen before somewhere, I know.\u2026 Have I done this before, then? If only I\ncould see, I might understand.\n\n_Doctor_\n\nYou shall see. Understanding shall bring recovery.\n\n    [_As he speaks he retires slowly backwards towards the open door.\n    Her eyes remain fixed upon the picture._\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nRecovery! I half remember.\u2026 I begin to \u2026 understand\u2026!\n\n_Doctor_\n\nThe soul reaps ever its own harvest, for the soul is linked to all its\npast.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\n(_Faintly._) The past! _My_ past\u2026! _Our_ past together.\u2026\n\n_Doctor_\n\nYour pain and prayer may lift for once the curtain. Remembering, you\nshall understand. And, understanding, you shall learn to--forgive\nyourself.\n\n    [_A light falls on his face and figure by the door. Just before\n    he disappears she tears her gaze away from the picture, and turns\n    to him with outstretched hands. He raises his hands as though he\n    were lifting a curtain and holding it up._\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nIt lifts, it lifts! I hear wind among the palms, and lapping waters. A\nvoice is whispering \u2026 \u201cLittle Child\u201d \u2026 yet in another tongue.\u2026\n\n    [_From beyond the door his last words reach her with a distant,\n    half-chanting sound._\n\n_Doctor_\n\nEgypt! Where you began--with him. Your earliest life. Then other lives as\nwell. See--and understand.\n\n    [_She sinks back exhausted. Her face is radiant through her\n    tears. She has just strength enough to touch the pneumatic bell\n    beside the bed._\n\n\nCURTAIN\n\n\n\n\nACT I\n\nTHEIR FIRST LIFE TOGETHER.\n\nTIME--2000 B.C.\n\nEGYPT\n\n\nCHARACTERS\n\n    MENOPHIS, a young Egyptian, well born, about 30.\n    NEFERTITI, an Egyptian dancing-girl.\n    SETHOS, Egyptian youth.\n    RAMES, High Priest in Temple of Aton.\n\n\nACT I\n\n    SCENE--_Banks of the Nile. White temple visible in distance.\n    Kephren\u2019s Pyramid seen very far away._\n\n    _Late evening, sunset._\n\n    (_NEFERTITI and SETHOS enter and pause._)\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\nNow leave me, Sethos. And go swiftly. (_With gesture of pushing him\noff._) I must be alone. You follow me as wind follows a bird.\n\n_Sethos_\n\nYet never touch you as wind does the bird. And when you dance your feet\ndance on my heart. No other dancing-girl compares with you.\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\nLast moon Pharaoh himself told me that. I know it. But now leave me. I am\nhere to worship.\n\n_Sethos_\n\n(_Supplicating._) May I not stay a moment--at least, until Menophis----?\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\nSethos, you heard me. It is the sacred night. The tear of Isis falls into\nour River when the dusk has passed to darkness. And I must worship.\n\n_Sethos_\n\nMenophis comes also with the dusk. You meet here every evening; and when\nhe comes I am forgotten. May I not stay and be remembered--till he comes?\n(_Implores._) Your beauty makes me slavish. Out of his plenty he will not\nmiss so little, and I--starve.\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\nNot now. Sethos, I tell you, go! His coming, as you know, makes the\ndry desert live for me. I would not have him troubled for so little.\nHe hardly is aware of your existence--as yet. But, should I ever need\nyou--slave----!\n\n_Sethos_\n\n(_Eagerly._) As yet! Need me! Oh, Nefertiti, if you could use me I should\ndie of happiness.\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\nThen prepare to die, for the time _may_ come.\n\n_Sethos_\n\nOh, may it happen soon!\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Teasing._) The Gods alone know what may happen, and when. You are my\nslave. Then, vanish!\n\n_Sethos_\n\n(_Bowing._) Your slave obeys. (_Rising._) But your lover will wait among\nthe palm-trees yonder. Menophis may not come. The Gods know what will\nhappen, and it is said the Gods have claimed him for themselves. He is a\nprize, it seems, that earth and heaven both desire. I have heard rumours.\n(_Moves off lingeringly._) If you need escort back to Memphis your\nlightest call will reach me.\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\nGo! I shall not need your escort. My happiness and his are in the keeping\nof the Gods. Leave me to worship.\n\n_Sethos_\n\n(_With boy\u2019s passion._) Oh, Nefertiti, the wild sweetness of the desert\nis in your breath! To me you are holy as our sacred River! May the Gods\ngrant you all your heart\u2019s desire. Sethos is your slave for ever--even\nthough his heart should break.\n\n    [_Exit, slowly, looking back._\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Smiling to herself._) A slave is always useful--for slavish purposes. I\nmay put you to the test some day!\n\n    [_She watches him out of sight behind the palms, then goes to the\n    water\u2019s edge and splashes idly with her bare foot several times\n    in succession, accompanying each splash with a remark._\n\nHe\u2019ll bury himself in the Temple.\u2026 He\u2019ll bury himself in my arms.\u2026 He\u2019ll\nbecome a monk at Rames\u2019 bidding.\u2026 He\u2019ll become mine. (_Makes biggest\nsplash of all._) I\u2019ve got him \u2026 under this very foot! (_Hears his\nfootstep._)\n\n_Menophis_\n\n(_Entering._) You here! Nefertiti! (_She pretends not to hear. She is\nworshipping._) Nefertiti!\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Startled._) Menophis!\n\n_Menophis_\n\nYou worship here at dusk \u2026 beside the Nile!\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\nI often come at sunset--as you know.\n\n_Menophis_\n\nI \u2026 had \u2026 forgotten.\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\nForgotten! Has some Afreet blinded you? Only last night, too, you passed\nme by without a glance--on your way to Aton\u2019s new Temple.\n\n_Menophis_\n\nIt was moonless and I did not see you. No Afreet power could hide you in\nthe sunshine.\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Mocking._) Oh, thank you, Menophis. I thought your heart was too full\nperhaps to see me.\n\n_Menophis_\n\nYou have been worshipping alone--and you were lonely. Forgive me, Little\nChild, I----\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\nI forgive you, O handsome Menophis. But I was not lonely. Sethos kept me\ncompany awhile.\n\n_Menophis_\n\nSethos! The Syrian banker\u2019s son! You can find pleasure in such company?\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Softly._) You did not come here to talk with me of Sethos. You came,\nlike me, to worship----!\n\n_Menophis_\n\nHe is rich.\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\nHe is forgotten too. When you call me \u201cLittle Child\u201d the whole world is\nforgotten. There is only--You.\n\n_Menophis_\n\nLittle \u2026 Child.\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Goes closer._) Your eyes seem strange to me to-night: they look far\naway into space. Your voice sounds distant like the desert jackal\u2019s cry.\n(_She puts a hand on his and looks searchingly into his eyes._) Yet you\ncall me Little Child, as of old, when we met here every evening in the\ndusk \u2026 to play and talk and dream together \u2026 of the future. Menophis\n(_taking his other hand and drawing her body closer to him_), will you\nnot tell me--your Little Child--this sacred night when the Tear of Isis\nbids our river rise--tell me what wonderful new dream has crept into this\nfaithful heart? (_Lowers her head as though to hear its beating._) I\nhear another music in your blood. (_Lifts her face to his._) And it is \u2026\nbeautiful. (_Waits for his reply._)\n\n_Menophis_\n\nIt is the Sacred Night. That means--Had you forgotten?\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Alarmed, but half teasing._) Oh, you Solemnity! Forgotten what?\n\n_Menophis_\n\n(_Gravely._) A choice--a decision--made to-night is made for ever.\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Low._) I know.\n\n_Menophis_\n\nLittle Child, it is for me a crisis, and I must choose between great\nissues. My life, too, is rising. I must decide in what direction it shall\nflow.\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\nYou mean \u2026 with whom?\n\n_Menophis_\n\n_For_ whom.\n\n    [_He turns his head a moment towards the distant Temple of Aton,\n    just visible still in the last sunset light. Its whiteness\n    gleams. She notices the gesture._\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\nHow cold it has grown. Menophis.\u2026 I feel the desert-wind\u2019s fingers at\nmy heart. It is the North wind from the sea. You, too, seem distant\nsuddenly. (_Lowering voice._) I fear for you. Why is it? I fear something\n\u2026 for myself \u2026 as well----\n\n_Menophis_\n\nThere is no fear this sacred night. There is courage only. Life increases\neverywhere. The river rises. The Tear of Isis falls into the Nile and----\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\nHark! (_She listens._) There are awful things about in Egypt when----\n\n_Menophis_\n\nShe is alive, that\u2019s all.\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\nListen!\n\n_Menophis_\n\nIt is the lapping waves. It is the wind among the palms.\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Whispering._) The waters! That cold desert wind! It blows between\nus--between you and me. There is a shadow! (_Shudders closer to him._)\nSurely great Kephren bowed this way!\n\n_Menophis_\n\nThe stars shine over us. They cast no shadow. The pyramid stands fast.\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\nYet something passed between us, for I felt it. (_Grips him._) You are\nall _mine_?\n\n_Menophis_\n\n(_Holds her close._) There is no room. A shadow cannot separate us.\nAnything _real_ would bind us closer only.\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\nThen why are you so solemn, your eyes so far away, your voice so distant?\nThis crisis that you speak of--it could not take you from _me_?\n\n_Menophis_\n\nNothing can take you from me, or me from you--for long. The chain of our\npast and future lives is bound together beyond all breaking.\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\nWhat is it, then, that frightens me?\n\n_Menophis_\n\n(_With grave tenderness._) Ah, Nefertiti, Little Child, to-night I\nstand--_we_ stand together--at the very gates of life. The choice is\ndifficult, for it involves you too. Since first, three years ago, I saw\nyou flitting, like a swallow, down the river bank at Memphis--since those\nenchanted days I have had no other human love but you----\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Startled._) No other _human_ love!\n\n_Menophis_\n\n(_Slowly._) There _is_ another love, my Nefertiti--a greater; not more\nenduring, perhaps, but nobler. For it demands the greater sacrifice. And,\ncold though it seem to your warm, passionate heart--_if_ it should call\nme----\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Catching him by the arm._) Greater! Yet would take you from me! But you\n_are_ mine!\n\n_Menophis_\n\nYour beauty troubles me; my blood rebels. I cannot look at you and hear\nthe call this sacred night may bring me. I must make a still place for\nmy soul to listen. (_Slowly._) Oh, Nefertiti, you must leave me--for a\nlittle.\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\nNot knowing what is in your troubled heart! Not hearing from your own\nlips if we shall meet again!\n\n_Menophis_\n\n(_Sees RAMES approaching._) You should know all. If not from my lips,\nthen from----\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Sees RAMES too._) Rames, the great Priest! I understand. He would steal\nyou from me for his dismal Temple, steal you away from life.\n\n_Menophis_\n\nHe is among the wisest and noblest of our land, the Great One of Vision,\nAton\u2019s servant.\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Pouting, alarmed._) Aton!\n\n_Menophis_\n\nHush! Be careful! Even if Aton takes me, the chain of lives _must_ bring\nus again together. It were but a brief separation--a sacrifice of pain\nand joy we both may offer as one being. And when, in our next life, we\nmeet again, what ecstasy of strengthened, purified love would be ours--to\nknow each had been faithful to the other--for His sake.\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Roused._) Me grow old in loneliness while you satisfy your soul with\nselfish worship! _Our_ sacrifice!\n\n_Menophis_\n\nIn dreams we still----\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\nWe should never meet; a dream\u2019s a dream. No children would come to me.\n\n_Menophis_\n\nYou would not pine. It would be, for both of us, a preparation for our\nmeeting in a future life----\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Playing on his feelings._) You are right, Menophis. I should not pine,\nfor I should marry and know joy. Your sacrifice, if you choose it, you\nmay bear alone, for Nefertiti will not certainly be lonely. There is no\nlack of those who offer life to her in place of the dream that Rames sets\nbefore you----\n\n_Menophis_\n\nOthers! Is there another? Nefertiti----! (_Approaches._)\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Withdraws._) Rames is coming. I hear his cautious step. Make your\nchoice with him. I will not influence you. You wished to be alone; I\u2019ll\nleave you. (_Makes to move away._)\n\n_Menophis_\n\n(_With passion and regret._) One moment more. Will you not say farewell?\nAnd if--and if--until you hear from my own lips----\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Softly._) If you decide to leave me, Menophis, you will not quite\nforget----\n\n_Menophis_\n\nLittle Child, you know. Always I shall think of you----\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Mocking._) As happy and light-hearted--with another. I am no \u201cdream\u201d to\nSethos.\n\n_Menophis_\n\nYour beauty tortures me.\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\nYou do not torture _me_; you cannot. If you loved me you could not give\nme up so lightly. You may think of me--of _us_--walking along this\nriver bank at sunset with laughter and without regret, talking maybe of\nMenophis, and his passing dream. The echo of our laughter may reach into\nyour little cell.\n\n_Menophis_\n\n(_Advancing._) Unsay those haunting words.\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\nIt is but impulse that betrays you. You have a \u201cgreater love\u201d than me.\nI have one too! Farewell. I shall not come again unless you call me.\n\n    [_Exit._\n\n    [_MENOPHIS paces to and fro, hides his face in his hands, sighs,\n    looks after the girl, pauses, then bows his head and waits while\n    RAMES comes up to him._\n\n_Rames_\n\nYour eyes are troubled, although I cannot see them. (_Looks down at the\nyoung man\u2019s footsteps._) And your steps leave an uneven pattern on the\nsands.\n\n_Menophis_\n\n(_Looking up._) There are too many voices in my ears; and all are sweet.\nI know not which is true. I am unhappy and afraid. My peace of yesterday\nis gone.\n\n_Rames_\n\nThese stars that watch you now shall watch your future lives as well.\nBefore they pale at dawn they shall have marked your choice. They are\nrising in the east. They watch you--and they wait.\n\n_Menophis_\n\n(_Turning his look away from the sky._) I came here to find\npeace--between the sunset and the sunrise.\n\n_Rames_\n\nSunrise and sunset--the two great moments of the day. Death and\nresurrection--the two great moments of our life. (_Watches him closely._)\n\n_Menophis_\n\nNot death--a disappearance only (_smiles_) for a little time.\n\n_Rames_\n\n(_Pleased._) To return again and again, each new life linked to those\nthat went before; and each determined by opportunities left or taken.\n\n_Menophis_\n\nThe choice! Oh, Rames, there are two calls in me. I hear two voices\nalways. My future life hangs upon the decision that I make.\n\n_Rames_\n\n_You_ will not make it. It will make itself. The stronger call must\nwin (_points across the Nile towards the sinking sun_). It is whether\nyou shall live unto yourself alone, or consecrate your powers to Aton.\n(_Points towards the Temple._) It is not alone your future life that\nhangs upon the choice; it is your future lives.\n\n    [_They spread their arms and bow towards the West. The sun sinks\n    below the Libyan horizon of the desert. The dusk creeps up._\n\n_Menophis_\n\n(_Rising._) If only the whole of me could choose. I should then know that\nI am worthy.\n\n_Rames_\n\n(_Approving._) There can be no half-heartedness in the service of our\nDeity.\n\n_Menophis_\n\n(_With enthusiasm._) Our Deity--the sun!\n\n    [_Turns and gazes at the great Temple of Aton whose white columns\n    still gleam in the golden after-glow some distance across the\n    desert._\n\n_Rames_\n\n(_Moving closer, with hand on his shoulder._) Egypt, our great land, now\nwitnesses the climax of her splendour. A change, which is divine, steals\nover her. It is no longer the mere disc of the sun we worship; it is the\npower behind.\n\n_Menophis_\n\n(_Reverently._) The heat and glory that are in Aton, eternal and\nall-loving Deity.\n\n_Rames_\n\n(_Smiling._) Who calls you for the offering of--yourself. (_Pauses._) The\nTemples of our regenerated Egypt demand the best.\n\n_Menophis_\n\n(_Eagerly._) And I might help towards this great uplifting?\n\n_Rames_\n\n(_Gravely._) Menophis, Aton calls you to himself.\n\n_Menophis_\n\n(_Enthusiasm and awe on his face._) I hear the call!\n\n_Rames_\n\n(_Slowly._) But other, lesser, calls as well?\n\n_Menophis_\n\nThere can be no turning back!\n\n_Rames_\n\nNo turning back.\n\n_Menophis_\n\nI must be sure!\n\n_Rames_\n\nIt is for ever.\n\n_Menophis_\n\n(_Very low._) I know which call is highest, yet I hear that sweeter\nvoice. If only I could smother it.\n\n_Rames_\n\n(_Understanding._) It is the lust of life--of woman!\n\n_Menophis_\n\nIt is love.\n\n    [_The dusk is turning into darkness. The stars begin to peep._\n\n_Rames_\n\nI may not influence you. Years ago I heard these two calls, as you do,\nsinging in my soul.\n\n_Menophis_\n\n(_Looking eagerly, with respect, into the old man\u2019s face._) And you have\nnever known regret?\n\n_Rames_\n\n(_Gravely._) I have known perfect joy.\n\n_Menophis_\n\nTo yield what is most dear to another is very hard. Oh, Rames, I am so\nyoung, the choice is difficult. If I had some sign that Aton accepts\nme----! (_With rising passion._) Aton, guide my decision and grant my\nchoice be wise!\n\n    [_NEFERTITI is seen returning. SETHOS is with her. They are\n    laughing together. SETHOS\u2019 arm is about NEFERTITI. MENOPHIS does\n    not see them._\n\n_Rames_\n\nWeigh carefully. Hear every call with honesty. Aton, indeed, does call\nyou, but it is all or nothing. (_Withdraws slowly down river bank towards\nthe Temple. Waves his hand solemnly._) I leave you--to yourself.\n\n    [_Exit._\n\n_Menophis_\n\nGreat Aton, guide me.\n\n    [_Stretches arms to the sky; looks up at stars. Then bows his\n    head upon his hands in prayer. NEFERTITI draws near with SETHOS._\n\n_Sethos_\n\nMy head spins, Nefertiti. Then it was in play that you dismissed me? I\ncan hardly believe my happiness is real.\n\n    [_Tries to embrace her._\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Escaping gaily._) Everything\u2019s real--at the moment when--you\u2019ve got it.\n\n    [_MENOPHIS hears their voices. Turns and sees them._\n\n_Menophis_\n\nWith \u2026 Sethos\u2026! (_To her._) You\u2019ve come back\u2026!\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Pretending she has just noticed him._) The river bank is public,\nI believe. All Memphis will be here presently--this sacred night.\n(_Mocking._) Forgive me--forgive _us_--if we disturbed your meditations.\n(_Glancing at SETHOS._) We enjoy the starlight like the other lovers!\n\n_Menophis_\n\nTogether!\n\n_Sethos_\n\nA young girl does not come out unattended. I am proud that Nefertiti\naccepts my protection--as before.\n\n_Menophis_\n\nLittle Child!\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_To SETHOS, laughing._) Menophis, you know, is half a priest already. He\nhas put aside all common things--youth, dancing, laughter--love.\n\n_Sethos_\n\n(_Half insolently._) Wise Menophis! I envy a man grown old before his\ntime. He has had some bitter disappointment probably.\n\n_Menophis_\n\n(_Suffering keenly._) If you _really_ love each other, I----\n\n_Sethos_\n\nCome this way, Nefertiti. I hear a pipe. (_Melody on pipe heard\nfaintly._) Let\u2019s go and dance. This atmosphere is too holy. (_Tries to\ndraw her away._)\n\n_Menophis_\n\n(_Pain._) Can this be a sign from Aton--that you are worthless?\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Stung._) We\u2019ll dance, yes, as we did at Memphis when the harvest\nripened. And then we\u2019ll bathe together, Sethos. It all is worship, and my\nblood this sacred night is burning----\n\n_Sethos_\n\n(_Wild._) And to-morrow I may see your father----?\n\n    [_NEFERTITI whispers in his ear. They laugh. He tries again to\n    kiss her. She escapes again, and dances seductively, taking care\n    to go close past MENOPHIS, who makes several half movements\n    towards her, but controls himself._\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Singing mischievously to the tune of the distant pipe, and holding\nSETHOS by the hand. As she goes past MENOPHIS she holds out her free hand\nto him temptingly._)\n\n    \u201cCome, dance together. Take my hand\n      Beside the rising river;\n    We\u2019ll dance upon the starlit sand,\n      And then through life--for ever!\u201d\n\n_Menophis_\n\n(_Catching at her hand as she flits past._) Nefertiti!\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Escaping his touch. Still hand in hand with SETHOS._) I heard a dead\nvoice calling from a Tomb. (_To SETHOS._) It\u2019s not for us. _We_ are\nalive!\n\n    [_Sings as before, glancing mockingly at MENOPHIS, who again\n    would seize her as she goes by._\n\n    \u201cThe rising river takes our feet,\n      And life flows full of laughter;\n    Come, dance with me while youth is sweet----\u201d\n\n_Menophis_\n\n(_Touching her._) Little Child!\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Slowing down. Sings last line lingeringly._)\n\n    \u201cThe wedding follows after!\u201d\n\n_Menophis_\n\n_My_ Little Child.\n\n_Sethos_\n\n(_Trying to draw her away._) Come, Nefertiti. Come with me, lest the\nTemple snatch you, too.\n\n_Menophis_\n\nListen! The waters wait the sign! (_Warningly._) A few brief moments and\nthe Tear of Isis falls--and the choice is made, not for this life only,\nbut for ever. (_Solemnly to NEFERTITI._) You would bind your soul to his\n\u2026 for all future lives \u2026 for ever?\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Drawing back._) \u201cFor ever\u201d! \u201cFor all future lives\u201d! For an hour--a few\nhours, perhaps----\n\n_Sethos_\n\nYou swore to me that you----\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\nI danced and played and sang with you. You dance lightly and your voice\nis sweet. But--if it is true that vows taken to-night can bind me to your\nsoul for ever----\n\n_Menophis_\n\nIt is true.\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n\u2026 the journey would tire me.\n\n_Sethos_\n\nNefertiti!\n\n_Menophis_\n\n(_Steps between them. NEFERTITI hesitates._) Let her alone. Since\nher eyes first opened to the sun she has been mine. A hundred future\nlives shall take our feet together. And she knows it. She plays with\nyou--this singing, dancing. She _lives_ with me. (_Seizes her, all else\nforgotten._) Leave us together, Sethos. Go!\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\nI played with you. You know it. (_To MENOPHIS._) You had forgotten our\nappointment! I did it--for my love\u2019s sake.\n\n    [_SETHOS shrinks from his sudden violence, startled, but keeps\n    her hand._\n\n_Menophis_\n\nShe has finished with you. Go!\n\n_Sethos_\n\n(_Sneers._) Finished! You are mistaken, Menophis. Only a while ago she\nsaid my love was precious to her--(_Realising._) You (_to her_) have\nstrange ideas of play. You\u2019re a----\n\n_Menophis_\n\n(_Threateningly._) Enough, Sethos. You knew, at least, that we belonged\nto one another. You have yourself to blame.\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Proud of him._) Of course. Sethos says the same sweet things to many\nanother maiden too.\n\n_Sethos_\n\n(_Bitterly._) The Gods have set me free of you, and I am glad. When next\nwe meet, Menophis, you shall hear the soft promises she made me (_turns\nhis back to go_), and how she spoke of _you_! (_Moves faster, as MENOPHIS\nadvances threateningly._) She called you half woman and half monk--no\nman at all (_runs_), fit \u2026 only \u2026 for \u2026 the Temples!\n\n    [_Exit._\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_A last shot at him._) Yet if I raised my little finger you\u2019d come\ntumbling back--a helpless slave! (_Turns to MENOPHIS._) I am ashamed.\n(_Demurely._) I did pretend he pleased me.\n\n_Menophis_\n\nLittle Child.\u2026\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Happy._) I was a little jealous of--of--your Aton.\n\n_Menophis_\n\nAnd I, perhaps, of your \u2026 Sethos.\n\n    [_They smile and embrace. The pipe is heard. She breaks away and\n    dances before him happily._\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_sings_)\n\n    \u201cCome, dance with me, and take my hand\n      Beside the rising river;\n    We\u2019ll dance upon the starlit sand,\n      And then through life--for ever.\u201d\n\n_Menophis_\n\nYou are a daughter of the sun!\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\nIsis and Aton both are in our blood!\n\n_Menophis_\n\nYour beauty blinds me. I hear no other voice than your dear singing. I\nsee no stars, your twinkling feet are everywhere.\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Triumphantly._) It is the call of Life.\n\n    [_A sound is heard, like wind in an Eolian harp, faint._\n\n_Menophis_\n\n(_Startled._) Listen! The moment comes.\n\n    [_With the sound is mingled the lapping of water._\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Awed._) It is here.\n\n    [_A star falls from the sky._\n\n_Both together_\n\nThe Tear of Isis!\n\n_Menophis_\n\nOur river takes it.\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\nThe waters rise.\n\n_Menophis_\n\nOur choice is made--for ever.\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\nMy beloved. (_Embrace._) Mine \u2026 for ever and ever \u2026 all our future lives.\n\n_Menophis_\n\nThe Temple was a dream. Your beauty makes me see it. (_Breaks off as he\nsees RAMES and SETHOS approaching through the palms._) Rames comes.\n(_Makes to hide._) Great One of Visions!\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Triumphantly._) And Sethos with him. Let them see us both. (_Catches\nhis arm._) Do not hide, but tell them boldly of your glorious choice.\n\n    [_RAMES and SETHOS have been talking together. SETHOS now turns\n    and goes off towards the Temple, walking slowly with bowed head,\n    but looking back over his shoulder sometimes. Disappears. RAMES\n    comes slowly forward. Holds up his hands to bless them._\n\n_Rames_\n\n(_Smiling gravely._) May Aton bless you both--now--and in all lives to\ncome.\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Confidently._) Aton _has_ blessed us--both.\n\n_Menophis_\n\n(_Dazed, troubled._) Rames--you come to know my choice. (_Very gravely._)\nThe Tear has fallen. The river is rising, and I--(_lowers head_) I have\nheard the call.\n\n_Rames_\n\nThe choice is yours--(_solemnly_) and _hers_.\n\n    _Menophis._  I have } chosen. The rising waters and the risen stars\n    _Nefertiti._ He has } bear witness.\n\n_Rames_\n\nThey \u2026 bear \u2026 witness.\n\n_Menophis_\n\n(_Half sadly to RAMES._) I have weighed both voices. Another--a worthier\nthan I--must replace me in the Temple.\n\n_Rames_\n\nAton does not compel. The call will come to you again--in following\nlives, until----\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Interrupting._) Our love comes from Aton. He has given Menophis to me\nfor my own.\n\n_Rames_\n\nAll gifts are his.\n\n_Menophis_\n\nHoly Rames, I cannot let her go from me.\n\n_Rames_\n\n(_Solemnly._) The choice is made. The future lives will bring again, and\nyet again (_turning to NEFERTITI_), this same deep opportunity, when\nyou--again--shall lead his soul higher, or (_with emphasis_) delay and\nhinder by vain selfish love.\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Defiant, yet frightened._) He is mine--for ever. No priest or god shall\nrob me of him. I keep him for myself. (_Clutches him._)\n\n_Rames_\n\nThe rising water bears witness to your vow. (_With prophetic and intense\ngravity._) Where the Temple gleams white in the sunlight, and where\nthe palaces run down to the sea, you shall hear the waters in your\nsoul--_and--shall--remember_.\n\n_Nefertiti_\n\n(_Alarmed._) Listen! He prophesies!\n\n_Menophis_\n\n(_Awed._) Great One of Visions!\n\n\nCURTAIN\n\n\n\n\nACT II\n\nTHEIR SECOND LIFE TOGETHER.\n\nTIME--325 B.C.\n\nGREECE\n\n\nCHARACTERS\n\n    PHOCION (40), Athenian General.\n    LYDIA (35), his wife.\n    LYSANDER, a youth, PHOCION\u2019S brother.\n    ALEXANDER THE GREAT.\n    ATHENIAN CITIZENS.\n\n\nACT II\n\n    SCENE--_Room in PHOCION\u2019S house in Athens. Simple. Altar to Zeus\n    with brazier burning. Colonnade with pillars and view towards\n    Acropolis._\n\n    _Late evening._\n\n    (_LYDIA is half-kneeling, half-leaning over the marble\n    balustrade, gazing into the distance. Enter PHOCION. He comes\n    near and touches her._)\n\n_Lydia_\n\nHow you startled me!\n\n_Phocion_\n\nWere your thoughts so far away, Little Child?\n\n_Lydia_\n\nI was thinking.\n\n_Phocion_\n\nAnd gazing across the sea as usual. What is there so attractive beyond\nthat dim horizon? The future or----?\n\n_Lydia_\n\nPerhaps its dimness only. That\u2019s southwards, is it not? There Egypt lies,\nand--Alexandria--you said--the great, new city.\n\n_Phocion_\n\n(_Searchingly._) Distance still haunts your eyes. Little wonder that I\nstartled you. (_Kisses her._) But do not speak of Alexander\u2019s city. Our\nthoughts lie nearer home--in Athens.\n\n_Lydia_\n\nWhere have you been, Phocion? All day I\u2019ve missed you.\n\n_Phocion_\n\nOn the hills--alone. I have been thinking.\n\n_Lydia_\n\nThinking--you too!\n\n_Phocion_\n\nI came home by way of Theseus\u2019 Temple, saying a prayer for our loved city\nand for ourselves.\n\n_Lydia_\n\nBut you are weary, and your feet are splashed with mud.\n\n_Phocion_\n\nI crossed the Ilissus to be sooner home, and found it rising--in flood\nalmost. Yesterday\u2019s rains on Mount Hymettus--(_breaks off as she makes a\nsudden gesture_). Why, what ails you, Lydia? Do I startle you a second\ntime?\n\n_Lydia_\n\nForgive me, Phocion; do not notice my little weaknesses. It was\nmerely--there, I\u2019ve often told you--a rising river is an omen that causes\nme strange uneasiness.\n\n_Phocion_\n\nLittle Child, I understand. I know your feelings. Athens herself is on\nedge these days--and little wonder.\n\n_Lydia_\n\nPhocion, let me tell you honestly--I am afraid.\n\n_Phocion_\n\nAnxious, perhaps, but not afraid. The mood of our beloved city takes you\nwith it, as it takes us all. We all are patriots to-day. But the wife of\nPhocion has proved herself no coward.\n\n_Lydia_\n\n(_Low voice._) Alexander is so powerful. Some say the Macedonian is a God.\n\n_Phocion_\n\nPshaw! In his own land, perhaps. But Athens has her own Gods. He is a\nconqueror, yes; but a conqueror can only take a city, not the souls who\ndwell in it.\n\n_Lydia_\n\n(_Softly._) Phocion, when I hear your words my fear melts away. Yet\nAthens _is_ conquered. Our city trembles----\n\n_Phocion_\n\nHush, Lydia. I do not like to hear you say such things.\n\n_Lydia_\n\nWho can stand against him, then? Who is there can oppose this conqueror\nof the Persians?\n\n_Phocion_\n\nEvery Athenian--every Greek who loves our city more than he fears the\nMacedonian.\n\n_Lydia_\n\nAll Athens, then!\n\n_Phocion_\n\nAll the best in Athens.\n\n    [_LYDIA looks nervously over her shoulder towards the city and\n    Acropolis. The dusk deepens. The first star shows._\n\n_Lydia_\n\n(_Shudders._) Your speech is often mysterious like this now--dark with\nmeaning. Each night as twilight gathers from the sea about our city,\nthere are footsteps on the causeway that make me tremble. No sooner has\nHymettus darkened than shadows move silently over the courtyard and\nbetween the pillars. (_Turns and flings her arms about him._) Oh, my\nPhocion, it is for you, not for myself, I am afraid.\n\n_Phocion_\n\nCalm yourself, beloved. I am an Athenian who obeys his unconquerable\nGods. I do no more than accept the destiny they lay upon him who loves\nhis country----\n\n_Lydia_\n\nBut if Alexander discovered you--if----!\n\n_Phocion_\n\nDiscovered me! What thought is this?\n\n_Lydia_\n\nIf he discovered you were true to Athens, I was about to say. If he took\nyou from me! Oh, Phocion! In dreams I have seen you lying dead at his\nfeet--lost to me for ever.\n\n_Phocion_\n\nNot lost, most loving woman. If the Gods take me--if I die for Athens----\n\n_Lydia_\n\nAm I, then, less than Athens?\n\n_Phocion_\n\nAthens is great because of women like you, Lydia. You would not see her\nless?\n\n_Lydia_\n\nHow less?\n\n_Phocion_\n\nLess free. Liberty is the breath of life.\n\n_Lydia_\n\nWhat is my liberty if I lose you? Your voice, your touch, your living\npresence here beside me (_embraces him_)--I want you alive and loving----\n\n_Phocion_\n\nOur love has grown with Athens. On the green Cephissian banks we first\ndiscovered it, and that evening on Hymettus when the honey--ah, I see\nit in your eyes, dear heart--you remember even as I remember. If Athens\nlive----\n\n_Lydia_\n\nBut if _you_ die! If Alexander crush you, kill you! Oh, my Phocion, this\nstruggle against the conqueror is vain. You tempt the Gods. I fear for\nyou and for your hopeless schemes----\n\n_Phocion_\n\nMy schemes! Lydia, what do you know?\n\n_Lydia_\n\nI suspect only. I feel you planning dangerous things that must take you\nfrom me. Those silent footsteps on our causeway in the dusk, the shadows\nthat pass between the pillars, the rising waters--Phocion! your strange\ndeep love of Athens takes no account of me, your little, suffering wife.\n\n_Phocion_\n\nThe love of Athens is _ours_. It is the love of country that the Gods\ncall sacred. (_Looks out across the fading city._) Hellas, your valleys\nand mountains, streams and happy groves \u2026 beautiful, beloved \u2026 who would\nnot die for you\u2026!\n\n_Lydia_\n\nI love _you_. If you live for me, you live for Hellas even more. Athens\nlives in our hearts, not otherwise.\n\n_Phocion_\n\n(_Sternly._) If a barbarian rule our dear city, our hearts are dead. It\nis better for my heart to mingle with the soil of Hellas than beat as the\nslave of Alexander.\n\n_Lydia_\n\nI love you too much to see you run on death. Your wild plot to save our\ncity is but the Fates\u2019 way of taking you away from me.\n\n_Phocion_\n\nTry, Lydia, to love me as I love Athens.\n\n_Lydia_\n\nYou ask too much of me. I love Hellas, but I love you more.\n\n_Phocion_\n\nThen--not enough. (_Looks away._) You make it hard for me. I see the\nright so clearly, but your clinging love makes me weak.\n\n_Lydia_\n\nThere is nothing in the world for a woman but her love. If you were lost\nto me, Phocion, these lips could kiss one other only--the rising flood\n(_shudders_) of our little Athenian river--or the sea.\n\n_Phocion_\n\nWhat comes, sweet wife, comes to both of us together. You are overwrought\nwith sleeplessness and watching. Trust me and love me--more I cannot tell\nyou now. Your love shall give me strength. (_He embraces her and moves\nslowly off towards the colonnade._) And if there is a greater love than\nyours, some day we shall find it--know it both together. What comes to me\nto do now--I must do.\n\n    [_Goes slowly off._\n\n_Lydia_\n\n(_At him._) A greater love! Ah, Phocion--you\u2019re going from me--going\ntowards death. I know not what you mean. There is no greater love.\n(_Watches him disappear._) Then I must save you, since you will not save\nyourself. I cannot lose you. My love, I cannot let you--(_Covers her face\nwith her hands_). My love shall save you from yourself. If I do wrong the\nGods forgive----\n\n    [_Knocking is heard. She starts and looks round. A MESSENGER is\n    seen in the courtyard._\n\n(_Cautiously._) You would see--whom?\n\n_Messenger_\n\nThe wife of Phocion.\n\n_Lydia_\n\n(_Frightened._) Hush! Come softly, I am she. (_MESSENGER enters\nstealthily._) You bring a message for me? You bring a token?\n\n_Messenger_\n\n(_With respect._) She who sends me bids me say as token this: From one\nwho loves her Lord more than his earthly glory--to her who loves as\ngreatly.\n\n_Lydia_\n\n(_Faintly._) To her who loves as greatly. (_Hesitates, shows agitation,\na distraught expression on her face._) It is to save him that I do\nit--to save his life for--both of us. (_Turns to MESSENGER._) Your great\nmistress bid you bring an answer back to her?\n\n_Messenger_\n\nWithout delay--my orders are.\n\n_Lydia_\n\nHave you no more to say? No further message? Do you bring only the token\nthat you come from her?\n\n_Messenger_\n\nShe bid me say that you should feel perfect confidence.\n\n_Lydia_\n\nThe word of Alexander----?\n\n_Messenger_\n\nHas been given, and cannot change.\n\n_Lydia_\n\nThough it concern the life of one who was his enemy?\n\n_Messenger_\n\nThe Queen bid me assure you. He has given her his promise. It will not\nalter.\n\n_Lydia_\n\n(_Whispers._) Then take this message back to her who sent you: To one\nwho comes hither to-night when the moon is high enough to cast a shadow\nI will reveal what I have promised to reveal. In return I claim the boon\nthe conqueror has sworn--through her--to give me.\n\n_Messenger_\n\nHer word and his are both securely given. I take back yours.\n\n_Lydia_\n\nGo swiftly, silently. I shall await fulfilment here--when the moon is\nhigh enough to cast a shadow on the marble causeway. Behind that pillar I\nshall wait. Go swiftly!\n\n    [_Exit MESSENGER. LYDIA, looking anxiously at the sky, withdraws\n    into the shadow of the pillars. PHOCION enters, his arm upon the\n    shoulder of LYSANDER, his youthful brother. LYDIA overhears their\n    talk._\n\n_Lysander_\n\n(_With enthusiasm._) Our last meeting now, and then to action. Oh,\nPhocion, I feel the Gods are with us. Your daring shall save Athens, and\nHellas will live--even if we die.\n\n_Phocion_\n\nWe all stand or fall together. They are picked men, and heroes; no one\namong them thinks of self. The risk, of course, is great, but it is\nnothing when the stake is considered.\n\n_Lysander_\n\nEverything favours us. The best troops of Alexander\u2019s army are still in\nEgypt. The entire city is behind us. All Athens will rise when it sees\nyou are our leader. (_Vehemently._) We shall drive the proud Macedonian\nout. Oh, I\u2019m glad the talk is over soon! I burn for action.\n\n_Phocion_\n\nI, too, want action. I am not made for stealth and for conspiracy.\nPlotting and hesitation weary me. (_Sighs._)\n\n_Lysander_\n\nPhocion, you feel no doubt, though--? I heard you sigh. Are you less sure\nof--of anything?\n\n_Phocion_\n\nFor myself, boy, I have no doubt. For Athens I am sure and strong. Did\nI sigh perhaps? If so--if so, it was for others whose lives I hold in\ntrust. For others--the truest, best, and bravest men in all Athens.\n\n_Lysander_\n\nThe Gods will bear that burden for you, Phocion.\n\n_Phocion_\n\nYes, yes; the Gods will bear it--partly.\n\n_Lysander_\n\nNo one can lead but you. We are of one accord.\n\n_Phocion_\n\nI _will_ lead, Lysander. Have no fear. Of myself I do not think. (_Looks\nout._) The moon is up. I see the evening star o\u2019er Salamis. They will be\nhere very shortly.\n\n_Lysander_\n\nWe are quite safe here. I took the password round myself at noon.\n\n_Phocion_\n\nWe cannot be too cautious. Alexander\u2019s spies are more numerous than the\nbees upon Hymettus. They can sting as sharply too.\n\n_Lysander_\n\nOh, our secret is well guarded. Yet the least whisper or thoughtless word\ncould so easily betray us. (_Looks round with a moment\u2019s hesitation, then\ncontinues in a lower voice._) I only would--that Lydia----\n\n_Phocion_\n\nLydia!\n\n_Lysander_\n\nShe is in great favour with Alexander\u2019s queen, Statira.\n\n_Phocion_\n\nSo much the better! Since she knows nothing there is nothing she can\nreveal. Alexander seeks to play the generous conqueror. That the wife\nof Phocion accepts favours that Phocion spurns can only save us from\nsuspicion. The Persian woman helps us without knowing it. And so does\nLydia!\n\n_Lysander_\n\nYou are right, Phocion. The Gods show their will in little things like\nthis. We are under their protection. Yet if word reached Alexander of our\ngathering in your house to-night----\n\n_Phocion_\n\nKeep your words for later, boy; you waste your strength. How can you hold\nsuch idle thoughts? Hellas a Macedonian province! Her ancient liberties\ncrushed! Our last hope dead as soon as born, and no blow struck!\n\n_Lysander_\n\nPhocion, forgive me! And, Selene, in yonder rising moon, forgive me too.\nThe Gods protect and help us!\n\n_Phocion_\n\nPallas Athena, give us wisdom to plan and strength to strike.\n\n    [_LYDIA comes forward from her hiding-place among the columns.\n    The moonlight falls on her. As she moves she notices that it\n    casts a shadow. She hurries. LYSANDER watches her somewhat\n    closely._\n\nAh, Lydia.\n\n_Lydia_\n\n_You_ did not call me, Phocion? It seemed----\n\n_Phocion_\n\n(_Smiling._) Your maidens called you to the bath. It is your bathing hour.\n\n_Lydia_\n\n(_To LYSANDER._) Lysander, good-evening! You are fortunate. (_Half\nlaughing, half jealous._) Phocion has more time for his brother than for\nhis wife.\n\n_Lysander_\n\nHad I a wife as brave and faithful as my brother has, I should be more\nfortunate still! These are grave times, good Lydia, for true Athenian\nmen.\n\n_Phocion_\n\nAh, Lydia knows too well, Lysander. But do not detain her now. (_To\nLYDIA._) I will come later for you, Little Child--an hour at the most.\n\n_Lydia_\n\nI am always ready for you, Phocion, and always true. I, too, am an\nAthenian.\n\n_Phocion_\n\nThe Gods watch over you!\n\n_Lydia_\n\nAnd over you!\n\n    [_PHOCION moves to the balustrade and leans over, watching the\n    night. He waits for her to go. LYDIA turns to LYSANDER and speaks\n    low and hurriedly._\n\nYou love him, I know, Lysander, and he loves you.\n\n_Lysander_\n\nBefore he even knew your name, I loved Phocion, (_sternly_) and more than\nPhocion I love Phocion\u2019s honour.\n\n_Lydia_\n\nAnd so loving him you would urge him--to his death. (_With passion._) You\nshall not, Lysander; Phocion is mine and he belongs to me. I will hold\nhim fast to this life. A glorious career now lies at Phocion\u2019s feet.\n\n_Lysander_\n\nI love Phocion\u2019s honour too well to tempt him to dishonour.\n\n_Lydia_\n\nTush, boy! You do not understand. I would not tempt him. Fate does not\ntempt, it commands. The high Gods bid us to accept fate bravely. The weak\nresist it; the strong accept and make it glorious. And a glorious career\nnow lies at Phocion\u2019s feet.\n\n_Lysander_\n\nYou speak with knowledge, Lydia? If so, how come you by such knowledge?\n\n_Lydia_\n\nHush, not so loud. Lysander, you faithful brother, I tell you it is\ncommon knowledge. The Military Governorship of Alexandria--once offered\nto Phocion already and refused by him--is open to him still. Alexander\nknows his worth----\n\n_Lysander_\n\nHis incorruptibility too. But how know _you_ this, Lydia?\n\n_Lydia_\n\nI only know that Alexander is generous and will raise him to even greater\nhonour. He places Phocion above all men in Athens----\n\n_Lysander_\n\n(_Coldly._) Has Alexander\u2019s queen informed you thus. (_Louder._) It\nseems strange to me, Lydia, that the wife of--an Athenian patriot----\n\n_Phocion_\n\nHow loud your voices grow. Lydia, Little Child, you had best leave us\nnow, for Lysander and I have grave business to transact together--and we\nexpect others too.\n\n    [_There is a low knocking at the door._\n\n_Lydia_\n\nLysander chides me that I accept kindness from the queen of Athens\u2019\nconqueror.\n\n_Phocion_\n\nI see no harm in that, and possibly much good. Your love will ever guide\nyou. Farewell, now, for a little while. And happiness go with you!\n\n_Lydia_\n\nI leave you. It is your friends who come to you at twilight now so often.\nThe Fates protect you, my Phocion! (_Whispers to LYSANDER as she goes._)\nOh, save him, Lysander! Save him from himself--for me, his wife!\n\n    [_Exit slowly, looking back fondly at PHOCION as she goes.\n    LYSANDER watches her with an expression that betrays doubt,\n    anxiety and disapproval. He shakes his head. The knocking is\n    repeated. It is a definite knock that has been pre-arranged._\n\n_Phocion_\n\nOpen, Lysander. It is the Citizens.\n\n    [_A dozen CITIZENS enter quietly. Their leader holds a scroll in\n    his hand. In turn they greet PHOCION with obvious respect, each\n    giving the password, while PHOCION replies with the countersign_:\n\n_Citizen_\n\nThe Gods deliver Athens!\n\n_Phocion_\n\nThey will deliver her!\n\n    [_When all are in, they group themselves. An elderly CITIZEN,\n    holding the scroll, acts as spokesman._\n\nIt is safest our meeting should be brief, and no words wasted.\n\n_First Citizen_\n\nWe stand for action.\n\n_Second Citizen_\n\nImmediate action.\n\n_Third Citizen_\n\nEach day that passes consolidates the barbarian power that would ruin\nAthens.\n\n_Lysander_\n\nCitizens, we need two conditions for success--to strike hard, and to\nsurprise.\n\n_Phocion_\n\nWe must move warily. The Macedonian\u2019s spies hide everywhere, and money\nhas been flowing.\n\n_Lysander_\n\nThere are ten thousand hearts in Athens above gold----!\n\n_Phocion_\n\n(_Gravely._) Our preparations must be sure. You bring to-night the list\nof patriots?\n\n_First Citizen_\n\nIt is drawn up (_holds out scroll_). Twenty names stand written here,\neach signed by his own hand, each guaranteeing three hundred men of\narms----\n\n_Phocion_\n\nWhom we can trust?\n\n_First Citizen_\n\nThe names are guarantee, as you will see--the best in Athens.\n\n_Second Citizen_\n\nReady to live or die as our beloved city lives--or dies.\n\n_Lysander_\n\nAnd thousands more will follow once we show the way.\n\n_Phocion_\n\nOur forlorn hope (_takes the scroll_) is favoured of the Gods, and will\nbe led by them.\n\n    [_Begins to read names._\n\n_Citizen_\n\nUpon great leadership hangs success or failure. There can be one leader\nonly.\n\n_Citizens_\n\nPhocion! Phocion!\n\n_Lysander_\n\nPhocion is our leader.\n\n    [_PHOCION reads silently. LYSANDER suddenly turns his head\n    towards the moon-lit courtyard._\n\n(_Low._) I saw a figure pass.\n\n_Citizen_\n\nA few moments ago I saw one too--between the pillars.\n\n_Another Citizen_\n\nAre we alone here?\n\n_Phocion_\n\n(_Looking up._) My wife--and her maidens--are about. We are alone.\n\n_First Citizen_\n\nOnce read, Phocion, the list must be instantly destroyed. Each signature\nis a warrant for the writer\u2019s death.\n\n_Lysander_\n\n(_Nervously._) I counsel haste. The very stones move as with footsteps.\nThe sky has eyes.\n\n    [_Turns towards a burning brazier close behind him._\n\n_Phocion_\n\n(_Calmly._) I have read. The names are--what Athens would expect.\n\n_Lysander_\n\nThen let me burn it.\n\n_First Citizen_\n\n(_Rising._) Phocion, in the names you read, and in the names of all\nassembled here, we offer you the leadership--the military leadership.\nWe ask you to lead our beloved city back to liberty again. (_Muffled\napplause._)\n\n    [_While PHOCION has been reading, a woman\u2019s figure is seen\n    creeping from pillar to pillar where the shadows are deepest.\n    She is followed closely by a second figure--a man swathed in a\n    head-dress such as that worn by the Persian warrior in the Elgin\n    Marbles. Unnoticed in the dimness they reach the colonnades\n    where they can hear all that passes._\n\n_Phocion_\n\n(_Slowly._) Citizens, in the name of Athens, and with the approval of the\ndeathless Gods of Athens--I accept the leadership.\n\n    [_He hands the scroll to LYSANDER, who has stepped forward\n    eagerly to seize it. LYSANDER turns towards the fire._\n\n_First Citizen_\n\nThen we are half-way to success already. (_Applause._) The sooner we\ndisband, the better. Three of us may stay with Phocion to decide the\nfinal----\n\n    [_At this moment the cloaked figure steps out into the centre\n    of the courtyard. He is plainly visible in the moonlight.\n    Consternation reigns. PHOCION reaches for his sword. LYSANDER\n    fumbles over the brazier, thrusting the scroll into the flames.\n    The CITIZENS stand firm, not trying to hide, but visibly\n    startled._\n\n_Citizen_\n\nWe are betrayed!\n\n_Citizen_\n\nA spy! We have been overheard!\n\n_Citizen_\n\nA Persian!\n\n_Phocion_\n\n(_Self-possessed._) No stranger is unwelcome in my house, even though he\nenter--without permission. (_Louder to stranger._) You would see Phocion?\nI am he.\n\n    [_LYDIA remains hidden in the shadows._\n\n_Stranger_\n\n(_Advancing._) I ask forgiveness for my unannounced intrusion. I disturb\nyou. But my need is urgent. This is my warrant: I am a messenger from\nAlexander.\n\n    [_Stands erect and waits._\n\n_Others_\n\nFrom Alexander!\n\n_Phocion_\n\n(_Calmly._) You bring Phocion a message from Alexander?\n\n_Stranger_\n\nOf first importance.\n\n_Phocion_\n\nYou may deliver it.\n\n    [_LYSANDER pauses to listen too._\n\n_Stranger_\n\nA gift I am bid offer first--a gift from Egypt, where Phocion fought so\nbravely and so well. (_Holds out an object of gold._) From the Temple of\nAmmon himself in Lybia.\n\n_Phocion_\n\n(_Coldly._) Phocion fights not for gifts; nor can he accept anything from\nthe barbarian conqueror of Athens.\n\n_Stranger_\n\nI am bid to urge reflection on you. First words are not the truest\nalways, nor the wisest. (_Pauses._)\n\n_Phocion_\n\n(_Simply, with scorn._) I am an Athenian.\n\n_Stranger_\n\n(_Lays gift on a marble table beside PHOCION._) Alexander commands me say\nfurther--that, with this gift, he would honour Phocion by yet another\none. He bids me call you the Military Governor of his new city in Egypt.\n\n_Phocion_\n\nThe two gifts are one. I have one answer only.\n\n_Stranger_\n\n(_Smoothly._) Then, with your answer, I ask permission to take back some\ntrifle--such as that parchment the youth there would destroy--as proof to\nAlexander that the House of Phocion is loyal.\n\n    [_LYSANDER, startled, desists a moment. PHOCION takes a sudden\n    step forwards._\n\n_Phocion_\n\n(_Alarmed._) Loyal----!\n\n_Stranger_\n\n(_Throws off disguise._) The parchment.\n\n    [_Voice of command. Holds hand out._\n\n_Phocion_\n\nAlexander!\n\n    [_All recognise ALEXANDER. Confusion, consternation, and murmurs:\n    \u201cAlexander!\u201d \u201cAlexander!\u201d_\n\n_Alexander_\n\nHand it to me, boy, before another name is burned. (_Laughs._)\n\n    [_ALEXANDER strides towards him. LYSANDER defies him. ALEXANDER\n    seizes him._\n\n_He_ shall be surety, Phocion, for your loyalty.\n\n    [_PHOCION, holding his sword, rushes on ALEXANDER to aid\n    LYSANDER, and above all to rescue the scroll. The CITIZENS stand\n    their ground and are about to interfere, when LYDIA rushes in and\n    throws herself on PHOCION, checking his violent attack. At the\n    same moment ALEXANDER stamps on the marble floor. SOLDIERS enter.\n    PHOCION and ALEXANDER stand facing one another in silence for a\n    moment._\n\nI hold you the bravest man in Athens, Phocion, and such men as you I\nneed. (_Holds out the scroll, as yet unread._) But lesser men than you I\ndo not--need!\n\n_Lydia_\n\nPhocion! Great Alexander!\u2026 Statira promised me.\u2026 Oh, he is too brave to\ndie\u2026!\n\n_Alexander_\n\n(_To SOLDIERS._) Three of you take the boy away. The rest withdraw. No,\nlet these greybeards go.\n\n    [_A few CITIZENS creep out, following LYSANDER and SOLDIERS._\n\n_Lysander_\n\n(_Calling back to PHOCION._) The Gods will not desert us\u2026!\n\n_Phocion_\n\n(_With dignity._) You are the conqueror of Athens.\n\n_Alexander_\n\nLesser men than you I do not need. Give me your allegiance (_pointing\nsignificantly to the scroll_) and I give you--these lives!\n\n_Lydia_\n\n(_Whispering._) Phocion, you cannot sacrifice such men!\n\n_Citizen_\n\nDo not think of us! What is life to the conquered? Gladly would we die\nfor Athens.\n\n_Alexander_\n\nI wait your decision, Phocion.\n\n_Phocion_\n\n(_Bitterly._) Phocion, Military Governor of Alexandria, is Alexander\u2019s\nhost.\n\n_Alexander_\n\nThe word of Phocion is enough. (_Burns the scroll unread._) Lysander,\nthe boy, shall be Captain of your Bodyguard in Egypt. The Gods--your\nGods--are witness to what I say.\n\n    [_ALEXANDER salutes PHOCION and goes out. PHOCION is alone with\n    LYDIA. There is a moment\u2019s silence._\n\n_Phocion_\n\n(_Brokenly._) Athens! I have failed you! My life is broken in pieces.\n\n    [_Hides face in hands._\n\n_Lydia_\n\nBut I meant to save you, Phocion. My love would save you. Have I done\nwrong? Oh, tell me.\n\n_Phocion_\n\n(_Low._) You have done--your--best. No one--no woman--can do more.\n\n_Lydia_\n\nI could not face life without you. I could not see you die. My love made\nthe desperate plan. I bargained with Alexander\u2019s queen--life with honour\nand glory for you in Egypt, the land you love. Oh, Phocion, beloved, do\nnot judge me hardly. You do not speak.\n\n_Phocion_\n\n(_Patiently._) There is something here I cannot understand.\n\n    [_His hand touches the gift from Egypt. He looks at it curiously,\n    then looks out away from her._\n\n_Lydia_\n\nI love you too much. Is that hard to understand?\n\n_Phocion_\n\n(_Sadly._) Yet the love the Gods bring is otherwise \u2026 I think.\n\n\nCURTAIN\n\n\n\n\nACT III\n\nTHEIR THIRD LIFE TOGETHER.\n\nTIME--FIFTEENTH CENTURY ITALY\n\n\nCHARACTERS\n\n    PAULO SALVIATI, a painter, age about 25.\n    LUCIA, his wife, a beautiful Florentine.\n    PRINCE DAMIANO DI MEDICI, art patron.\n\n\nACT III\n\n    SCENE--_PAULO\u2019S studio in Venice. A bare room of obvious poverty.\n    PAULO painting at a large canvas._\n\n    (_Enter Lucia._)\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Turning happily._) Lucia! At last you return. My love, how I have\nmissed you. (_Kisses her._) It seemed so long. (_Examining her._) You are\nexcited! Then my uneasiness was not for nothing. Tell me. An adventure,\nperhaps? An admirer, _of course_! This flush\u2026! (_Laughs._) Little Child\u2026!\n(_Teasingly._)\n\n_Lucia_\n\nI\u2019ve been but a short hour, my Paulo. And, as for adventures and\nadmirers, they have but one name--Paulo. (_Looks embarrassed slightly._)\nHow quick you are!\n\n_Paulo_\n\nLove makes me quick. I think I guess.\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Ashamed a little._) Listen! (_They listen. The waves of the sea are\naudible beating against the outer walls._) You hear?\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Patiently._) I hear, but I do not understand. It is the water only----\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Lower._) The rising water. (_Pauses, while passing hand over her\nforehead._) Nor do _I_ understand. It is my weakness, I suppose. All\nwomen have something that makes them fear without a reason, and this is\nmine----\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Protectively._) For which I love you all the more. For had you reasoned\nyou would not have married me. (_To himself._) Strange, strange.\u2026\n(_Recovers gaiety and turns to picture._) See how it grows, Lucia.\nAll that I scraped out yesterday I have repainted. Long before the\nCompetition Day I shall have finished it. (_Enthusiastically._) Look!\n\n_Lucia_\n\nThe glow, the warmth, the colour--you\u2019ve caught it all?\n\n_Paulo_\n\nI hope so. But when my model _and_ my critic desert me both at once like\nthis----\n\n_Lucia_\n\nDear Paulo. (_Sighs._) And it\u2019s so difficult for me to make five scudi do\nthe work of ten. (_Shows agitation._) I know, oh, I know. (_Excitement._)\nYet somehow, somehow we shall find a way. And it will be wonderful----\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Noticing her mood and wondering._) It is you who are\nwonderful--(_shakes finger at her_) intriguing with Fate as ever----\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Quickly._) No, not intriguing. I am but your wife--and model.\n(_Laughs._)\n\n_Paulo_\n\nAnd inspiration----\n\n_Lucia_\n\nAnd critic----\n\n_Paulo_\n\nAnd manager! That is the wonder--that you who fled with a painter to\nlearn poverty like this (_shows bare room_) and this (_shows clothes_)\nand this (_touches heart_) should bargain so cleverly in the market-place\nand carry home our fish and vegetables in your coloured apron--the Lady\nLucia, a house-wife of the people!\n\n_Lucia_\n\nForgetting the wine as usual, and dropping half the fish on my way!\n(_Seriously._) Love makes it beautiful. It is for love\u2019s sake, Paulo.\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Emphatically._) And the work\u2019s sake.\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Quickly._) The work, ah yes, the work\u2019s sake. (_Excitedly._) Oh,\nmy Paulo, what would I not do--what would I not sacrifice for your\nadvancement--I mean, for your art, your wonderful great art. (_Confused._)\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Quietly._) This shall be our love\u2019s first-fruits (_pointing to canvas_).\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Repeats low to herself._) Our love\u2019s first-fruits.\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Rapt._) When you and I float over the lagoons as dust upon the\nwind--(_turns to her from picture, and lowers voice_) when you and I are\ngone--remembered, perhaps, only as Paulo the painter, and Lucia his\ninspiration--this beauty--ah, that is my dream--this beauty shall still\nshine out for the world.\n\n    [_They watch the picture for a moment._\n\n_Lucia_\n\nI fear one thing only for you--poverty. You should have _everything_.\n\n_Paulo_\n\nI have. Everything that matters to an artist, and its name is inspiration.\n\n    [_Looks with passionate admiration at her._\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_With growing agitation._) You left Florence for my sake. But for me,\nthe great Princes--(_with an effort_) the Medici--would have helped.\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Brusquely._) We agreed--(_pretended severity_)--solemnly, you\nremember--never to mention your princely lover\u2019s name. Nothing stops\ngood painting like jealousy, and at _that_ name I see blood.\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Smiling._) Our Palace is too poor to house even that thin ghost. You\nhave no need to think of jealousy.\n\n_Paulo_\n\nNo need now, Lucia. In Venice we are safe from Damiano di Medici. Now,\nwill you sit for me? I burn to work. Come! You must have roses in your\nhands. I will go to the flower-sellers by the bridge.\n\n_Lucia_\n\nI would have brought them with me from the market-place--one scudi each!\nI hesitated----\n\n_Paulo_\n\nAnd bought ten sprats instead! My wonderful, clever house-wife. Without\nsprats to eat I never could paint roses! But I must have them. I shall\nbe but a moment away, my love--a single moment (_throwing kisses from the\ndoor_) that will seem like years! Farewell \u2026 Little Child.\n\n_Lucia_\n\nLittle Child! Ah, how I love that name, given to me with our first kiss.\nI love it better than my own. (_Thinks a moment, puzzled._) For somehow\nit seems my _very_ own----\n\n_Paulo_\n\nIt is your own. The little love-name that seems to travel like memory up\nthe ages. I shall be back as soon as you are ready.\n\n    [_Exit_\n\n    [_Knocking at the door startles her._\n\n    (_Enter DAMIANO DI MEDICI._)\n\n_Lucia_\n\nYou! And so soon. It is _too_ soon. I\u2019ve had no time to prepare him\nyet----\n\n_Medici_\n\nA painter receives his patron without preparation surely----\n\n_Lucia_\n\nPatron! You must not use that word to him, or all is ruined before it is\neven begun. You must remember----\n\n_Medici_\n\n(_Bows ironically._) \u201cMust\u201d to me! And \u201cmust\u201d again! My gracious Lady\nLucia forgets----\n\n_Lucia_\n\nNothing. She remembers that her husband, first of all, is proud, as I\nhave already warned you. He does not yet know that I have been to see\nyou--you, of all men in the world.\n\n_Medici_\n\n(_Frowning._) When you say \u201cproud\u201d you mean, I take it, jealous.\n\n_Lucia_\n\nI mean both. (_Manner changing._) Oh, Prince, you promised--I have your\nword that you would be guided in this by me.\n\n_Medici_\n\n(_Unbending._) I was in haste to see the picture----\n\n_Lucia_\n\nBut too great haste----\n\n_Medici_\n\n(_Ignoring her interruption._) For he is, I swear truly, the man I\nneed--his work, that is to say. (_Threateningly._) As once, my Lady, you\nwere the woman that I needed. But needs do not last for ever, nor is any\nindispensable--perhaps.\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_More control._) Oh, give me time, Prince, please. You do not want to\nlose him. I have your word and trust it. (_Anxiously._) Will you not\ntake your gondola to the islands--the sun is sweet upon the water--and\nreturn in half an hour? I--by that time I----\n\n_Medici_\n\nThe light is sweet upon your face as well. What do you offer me in return\nfor so great a favour?\n\n_Lucia_\n\nI am the wife of Paulo Salviati.\n\n_Medici_\n\nAnd have, as I see, married poverty as well as genius! I was too slow\nfor once, as now, it seems, I am too hasty. I should have asked--and\ntaken--all before this fellow----\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Scorn._) Poverty with Salviati is beauty for _eternity_. The wealth of\na Florentine princess belongs to _time_.\n\n_Medici_\n\nAnd, therefore, you come humbly to ask _me_ a favour.\n\n_Lucia_\n\nOne it should be an honour for you to grant (_with earnest\npersuasion_)--that you may share in giving eternal beauty to the world.\nHad I asked the Collona or the Calviere to see the work of a great\npainter whom poverty----\n\n_Medici_\n\nYou came, instead, to me.\n\n_Lucia_\n\nYou have bought the palace on the Grand Canal and need a great--the\ngreatest--painter for your ceiling-----\n\n_Medici_\n\nEnthusiasm becomes you. You look divine with that passion in your eyes.\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Cunningly._) I am his model too, you see.\n\n_Medici_\n\nAnd that delicious gesture. (_Steps nearer._) A little more fire, a touch\nmore of abandon, and I swear that--on certain conditions--oh, very small\nones!--I would grant everything you ask.\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Icily._) An hour ago, when we talked together, you passed me your word.\nI appealed to you as lover of the beautiful--the best, the noblest in\nyou. I was, it seems, mistaken, and our interview now had better end.\n(_Moves to window._) I will call my husband.\n\n_Medici_\n\nThis change from fire to ice is exquisite! (_Admiringly._) But why so\nproud, fair Lady Lucia? (_She stands listening._) You hear him coming?\n(_She hears the water lapping. Hides her face a moment._) It is only the\nwaves. The tide is rising still. That\u2019s all.\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Distraught._) Yes, rising, rising. Please leave me, Prince. No,\nno--please stay--a moment longer. (_Frightened._) Forgive me.\nSomething--a vision-flashed upon me out of darkness. I am confused. I\nfear. (_To herself._) Oh, I have done this very thing before----\n\n_Medici_\n\nBut not with me, alas!\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Goes to his side._) Forgive me. I thought only of myself. For a moment\nI forgot the work, the beauty that is his divine, his holy mission. Now\nI\u2019m myself again. The water, the rising water--somehow--in some strange\nway--reminds me. Oh, I will be wise and loving in the noblest way.\n(_Looks into his eyes. Imploringly._) It is his need, his poverty, that\ndrive me to ask a favour of you who once aspired to be my lover. Have you\nno pity? We fled from Florence to escape you--it is true. I would rather\nask favours of any in the world but you---- (_Confused._)\n\n_Medici_\n\nAnd yet--(_To himself._) And you are his model. You could live for ever\non my ceiling! (_To her._) You are, indeed, a Goddess belonging to\neternity! (_Admiringly._)\n\n_Lucia_\n\nAnd yet--yes, I came to you an hour ago--as patron. It is true. It was\nfor his sake and for his great art I came. (_Voice singing outside._) Oh,\nI ask no favour now more than a little time to talk with him. That is his\nvoice. I will persuade him. I will gain his consent, and he will do the\npicture for you--for your palace. Leave me, I beg, a few moments with him\nalone, and then return--to find--I promise it--the greatest painter in\nall Italy----\n\n_Medici_\n\nIn all the world.\n\n_Lucia_\n\nPrepared to give you of his best.\n\n    [_Clasps her hands and stares into his face._\n\n_Medici_\n\nTo have you in my palace so (_admiringly_) is, perhaps, the next best\nthing to--have you in my----\n\n_Lucia_\n\nOh, I implore you. Leave me with him. (_Singing comes very close._) I\npromise.\n\n_Medici_\n\n(_Shrugging._) You have chosen the one spell that moves me. Even more\nstrong than the love of a fair woman is my love of art--its wonder, its\nbeauty, and its triumph. His picture will outlive even your loveliness.\n(_Sighs._) My name and my great palace will remind a later world of me,\nand of what I did for beauty. Well, well, my Lady Lucia, you win me\nover--for the moment, at any rate. I will stand behind this screen and\nlisten. I must hear how you persuade genius to abjure its principles!\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Firmly._) Then I do nothing. You must first go.\n\n_Medici_\n\nAnother \u201cmust.\u201d Your self-will is adorable. Upon my word! But I, too,\nhave a \u201cmust\u201d--his work, with yourself as model, on my palace ceiling!\n(_Yields with a sarcastic bow._)\n\n    [_Exit._\n\n    [_LUCIA mounts the model\u2019s throne and stands, arranging her\n    drapery, as PAULO enters._\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Breathless; carries roses._) Only two! They were so dear. I have not\nyour skill in bargains. (_Holds out roses._) We must make them do.\n(_Kisses her._) Have I been very long? I had to go nearly to the Zucca.\n\n_Lucia_\n\nTwo roses added to our love makes a whole garden. And one day soon you\nshall lack nothing the work needs. (_Tenderly._) Oh, Paulo, beloved, by\nrights everything should be yours now. There is not a painter in Italy\nwho comes near you.\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Quietly._) I shall win the Competition. We shall have plenty then.\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Lower._) Your art needs it _now_. (_Sighs._) I am so useless to\nyou--and yet----\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Looking._) And yet--? Lucia, this anxiety, this nervousness is strange\nto you. You use unaccustomed words. \u201cUseless\u201d! What can you mean?\n\n_Lucia_\n\nYou would never be angry--you would not scold me, no matter what I might\ndo--for your work\u2019s sake?\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Passionately._) You have such darling moods. I love you. The work\nis ours, not mine. (_Caresses her._) I understand so well. It is your\nlove that makes you tremble for the work\u2019s sake: the picture grows, the\nCompetition Day comes nearer. It\u2019s like the sea-tides rising--it affects\nyou--_I_ understand!\n\n_Lucia_\n\nYes, yes. You always know. You\u2019re always right. An inner tide seems\nrising in me as the time draws near. You understand my woman\u2019s moods, and\nso forgive them.\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Painting._) Picture the scene, as we used to do when scudi were very\nscarce. It always makes us happy--the brilliant forecast.\n\n_Lucia_\n\nTell me again. I love to hear it all.\n\n_Paulo_\n\nThe judging will be in the Council Hall where the Doge holds high state,\ncrowded with the noblest and loveliest of all Venice. The pictures chosen\nfor the final verdict--that\u2019s Vernio\u2019s and Marco Gagliano\u2019s, and mine--I\nmean ours--of course--will stand apart on easels. And on a pillar in\nfront of them shines the jewelled casket with the thousand gold pieces\nthat Venice bestows--a mere trifle--upon him she decrees the greatest\nartist----\n\n_Lucia_\n\nAnd the pillar is garlanded with roses--more than these two, but not more\nlovely, Paulo.\n\n_Paulo_\n\nOf course. And the competitors waiting in a hungry, anxious group----\n\n_Lucia_\n\n_You_ won\u2019t be hungry. I\u2019ll have so many sprats the night before----\n\n_Paulo_\n\nI shan\u2019t be anxious either.\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Happier._) You will be dressed in a new doublet of purple cloth. If we\ncan buy no golden thread for the embroidery I shall weave this across it.\n(_Holds out her hair._) You\u2019ll look magnificent----\n\n_Paulo_\n\nThe picture----\n\n_Lucia_\n\nStill more magnificent. They won\u2019t know which to look at----\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Merry._) Then they\u2019ll squint.\n\n_Lucia_\n\nThe judge will call aloud your name: Paulo Salviati. You will be victor,\nand all the Assembly will rise to honour you----\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Correcting her again._) The work. My art, not me. My art, my work----\n\n    [_LUCIA stands up to show the judge\u2019s gestures. She hears the\n    water lapping. Her face changes._\n\nWhat is it, Little Child?\n\n_Lucia_\n\nN--nothing, Paulo. I--I merely thought a moment of those other painters,\nof Vernio, of Gagliano, the favoured ones who have wealthy patrons, so\nthat they can work in ease and comfort, lacking nothing----\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Grandly._) Except my inspiration--and my liberty. Think what that\nmeans. My work is done in freedom, and _must_ surpass their best since it\nis bought of luxury. (_Earnest and contemptuous._) What artist, no matter\nhis genius, that can see truth while a patron jogs his brush, bidding him\ndo this and that, set here a touch of gold and there of scarlet, put here\na flower, a bird, and there a--a (_explodes_)--a sprat--! Why not? It is\nthe soul alone that sees truth, and such men have sold their souls. They\nwill be paid accordingly.\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Agitated._) There are some patrons who--it is said--give freedom,\nliberty too.\n\n_Paulo_\n\nI never heard their names.\n\n_Lucia_\n\nThere are some who know, who understand better. (_Confused and rapidly._)\nThey say the Medicis----\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Stops painting._) Such painters and their patrons live for time,\nnot for eternity, my Little Child. And among them the worst--the very\nworst--is that Florentine whose best claim to merit is that he dared to\naspire to your love.\n\n_Lucia_\n\nI hate and despise him. Yet I dread his help--for others. He is as great\nin influence almost as his elder brother, Cosimo.\n\n_Paulo_\n\nBah!\n\n_Lucia_\n\nForgive me, Paulo--I reproach myself often that we fled from him--from\nFlorence--where he might--(_lower_) oh, he _could_ have done so much for\nyou--his patronage.\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Staring._) The mere name, as you see, stops me painting. You must\nnot speak of it, here least of all in our place of work, of worship.\nPatronage--bah! My fire would go out, my inspiration leave me, my soul\ndie in bondage. I must have (_loudly_) liberty.\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Frightened._) The Madonna help me! Paulo, beloved, see what I have\nbrought you--something your picture needs. My present and my surprise. No\nquestions, now!\n\n    [_Holds out richly-coloured silk._\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Delighted, amazed._) That very broidery we saw together! Lucia--Little\nChild! How did you pay for it, or--or did you steal it? The merchant\nasked ten lira, I remember--and we had but three. (_Examines it._) The\ncolour of wine and pomegranate! Gorgeous! How did you pay for it? Quick,\ntell me. (_LUCIA turns her head from side to side._) The long gold\nearrings! Your last jewel! Lucia! (_Takes her in his arms._) I\u2019ll kiss\nyour ears (_softly_) till they leave blushes you cannot sell, fairer than\nany jewels, for they are the kisses of my soul which sees eternal beauty.\n\n_Lucia_\n\nWould that I had a whole casket of both kinds, my Paulo! Of one kind\nI would sell all. You should have a studio with north light, the best\npaints that can be bought, the choicest hangings, the fairest models,\nand--and, oh, everything these others possess who have not risked all\nfor Love and brought a wife from Florence---- (_Voice breaks and stops._)\n\n_Paulo_\n\nHush, hush, Little Child! You have given all you had--and that is\neverything. My art, if it is inspired as we dream, is stronger than\ncircumstances, and will conquer. And I have liberty--love, beauty,\nliberty! What more can I ask of Heaven? Come, see the picture with me a\nmoment. (_Draws her to it._) Let us look at it together. (_They stand\nbefore it._)\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Low._) The Gods painted it.\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Moved._) Your soul and mine, say rather. The hand is nothing. It is\nthe inspiration. (_They look a moment._) It was conceived, at least, in\nliberty--(_Starts and looks at her._) You whispered something? I did not\ncatch it. Tell me, Little Child. You feel--? Why, I declare, you tremble.\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Very low._) One thing, I fear, one thing alone! The golden bloom, the\nwarmth, the joyous laughter and the richness all Venetians love. It will\nbe judged with the work of--of others whom plenty and comfort and--and\nall that help which money can provide----\n\n_Paulo_\n\nMen who feed from their patron\u2019s hands like obedient lap-dogs----\n\n_Lucia_\n\nMadonna, help me! They have never to calculate if their blue paint can\nlast till the sky is finished. (_Impetuously._) Why, in Florence, the\nMedici gives his painters----\n\n_Paulo_\n\nThat name again!\n\n_Lucia_\n\nI chose it at random--by mistake. It slipped out, I mean. (_Losing\ncontrol more._) Oh, my too proud Paulo, if you only knew how I love your\npride and worship it. I only thought--for a moment only--the merest\nfoolish moment--that this young Medici--oh, he loves beauty too, he\nworships art and beauty--_perhaps_--I wondered--he _might_ have helped in\na way that even you could have accepted without losing your liberty. I\nreproach myself so----\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Sternly._) Lucia, I need no man\u2019s help. I have told you. You doubt\nmy art, my power, when you show this fear. It is fear that makes you\nreproach yourself. Our love knows no fear. (_Soothes her._)\n\n_Lucia_\n\nIt is, perhaps, myself I fear, Paulo. A strange dread haunts me like a\ndream. I fear lest I injure your great work, your mission----\n\n_Paulo_\n\nYou tremble still. You are excited. Tell me, Little Child--do you know\nsomething that you hide from me--that you cannot tell me?\n\n    [_Pause._\n\n_Lucia_\n\nNothing, nothing, but my woman\u2019s mood. My passion to help you is so great\nI sometimes fear lest I guide it wrongly--(_breaks off_). See, Paulo, the\nlight is good, and we have this broidery you need (_replaces old drapery\nwith the new silk piece_)--the very thing--exactly the tint and texture.\nI\u2019ll sit for you. (_Shows hurry._) There is no time to lose. Some one\nmight disturb us.\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_A look of suspicion comes and goes. He watches her puzzled, while\nmixing his paints._) Your mood is _new_. That is what disquiets me. You\nseem expectant almost. And this strange haste, Lucia? We never hurry!\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Laughing gaily._) Only that I long to see this colour (_touches silk_)\nin your picture--on the very canvas, alive and burning--before it is seen\nby--by others.\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Absorbed._) Yet who should see it before the Competition Day?\n\n_Lucia_\n\nOf course, of course. Still I am anxious. Time is precious. (_Poses._)\nOh, how lovely the silk lies on me! Look! And am _I_ right? (_Whispers._)\nPaulo, I feel your brushes on my heart. Paint swiftly, beloved, swiftly.\n\n_Paulo_\n\nBeautiful! Perfect! Divine! There--just as you are now. Don\u2019t move! Even\nyour heart must stop!\n\n_Lucia_\n\nMadonna, help me!\n\n_Paulo_\n\nShe does. Have no fear for the result. (_Paints hard._) Now, talk to me\nwhile I work--no movement, mind! Just words. I love the music of your\nvoice. It soothes and blesses me. The gossip of the market-place, for\ninstance?\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Quickly._) Ah, well, then the Eros will interest you--the one we\ncoveted so.\u2026 It\u2019s gone from the merchant\u2019s booth at last.\n\n_Paulo_\n\nOur Grecian Eros! Our little statue! I shall miss it. I wonder who bought\nit. Or has it flown back to Samos, starved with yearning, on our summer\nwind? Some day we\u2019ll follow it. Greece! Glorious mother of artists! My\nheart lies there--sometimes, I almost think, my memory too. (_Pause._)\nWho bought our Eros? Did you hear that as well?\n\n_Lucia_\n\nThe critics say that in your art Greece has come back to life again.\n\n_Paulo_\n\nWho bought it, Lucia? Your head to the right a little--so.\n\n_Lucia_\n\nA great Prince, a stranger to Venice, they said, who has bought the\nCavaliere Palazzo on the Grand Canal. Gossip is full of it. He has sworn\nto make it more beautiful than Cosimo Medici\u2019s in Florence----\n\n_Paulo_\n\nThat odious name again! (_Smiling._) It haunts you, Little Child! (_She\nstarts._) Don\u2019t move! don\u2019t move! The pose is perfect.\n\n_Lucia_\n\nHaunts the gossip of the town, rather--for which you asked me, Signor!\nThe ceilings are to be painted with classical scenes alone--the loves of\nApollo, and Athena\u2019s triumph.\n\n_Paulo_\n\nWhat subjects! And I know that Palazzo. Its ceilings are superb,\nenormous! Painting the very sky! (_Steps back to examine his work._) It\u2019s\ncoming, it\u2019s coming, the very colour I wanted. Yes, yes, they are the\nbiggest in all Venice, so I\u2019m told. (_Turns to her._) Now, just suppose,\nLucia--just suppose that one day----\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Nervous._) Paulo, beloved, do not stop. Paint on quickly. You are in\nyour best vein. Paint on before--before the light changes. Yes, and I\nheard one other thing.\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Painting._) Ah!\n\n_Lucia_\n\nThat this Prince will commission the winner of the Competition----\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Looking up._) To paint those ceilings! Not unlikely, Lucia! There are\nmenial fellows enough with talent who would do it. _I_--win or lose--_I_\naccept no commission tainted by patronage. And I _shall_ win. What was\nthis Prince\u2019s name?\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Excited._) And those ceilings might be yours!\n\n_Paulo_\n\nWho is he?\n\n_Lucia_\n\nS--some said one thing, some another. I----\n\n_Paulo_\n\nThe merchant must have delivered his Eros--to somebody--somewhere.\n\n    [_Watches her._\n\n_Lucia_\n\nHe didn\u2019t say. I didn\u2019t ask _him_. It was the gondolier as I came home.\nOh, Paulo, I cannot sit well for you if you cross-question me like this!\nYou\u2019re like a judge. I love you so. Why should you suspect----?\n\n    [_Rises agitated._\n\n_Paulo_\n\nSuspect! _You!_ Clear water cannot hide the reflections in it.\n(_Expression of comprehension dawns on his face._) Even if your love\nguided you amiss, I--I could never think, and far less use--that ugly\nword! Lucia! Little Child! You tremble---- (_Starts forward._)\n\n    [_Enter OLD WOMAN, flustered. LUCIA\u2019S hand flies to her heart._\n\n_Woman_\n\nSignor! Signora! A great gentleman comes for you. His gondola is already\nat the steps. I heard him give orders to wait. I ran on to warn you.\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Cry._) Already!\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Half incredulous still._) Great gentleman! (_Looking at LUCIA._) Asking\nfor--us!\n\n    [_LUCIA silent, face in hands._\n\n_Woman_\n\nHe is no Venetian. By his liveries he must be a Prince at least, and a\ngreat one. Your dress, Signora! (_Arranges it._) He\u2019s come to buy the\nSignor\u2019s pictures! Your fortune\u2019s made. Oh, happy day! _I_ will open the\ngate for him, so he will not know you have no servant.\n\n    [_Exit._\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Grim._) I do not understand. (_Makes to fasten door, hesitates, then\nturns to LUCIA._) _You_ can explain this to me--Little Child--perhaps?\n\n_Lucia_\n\nPaulo, Paulo, do not be angry. Oh, forgive me, I implore. For your dear\nsake--for your work, your art--for you, I did it. It is not _me_ he comes\nto see. It is your work, your picture. I went this very day--but an hour\nago--to make him come. Oh, tell me, tell me I have not done wrong!\n\n    (_OLD WOMAN opens door. Enter MEDICI._)\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Aghast._) Damiano di Medici! Here!\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Hand on his arm._) Paulo! Paulo!\n\n_Medici_\n\nAt your service, Signor Salviati. (_To LUCIA._) Signora bellissima! Am I\ntoo early still? My promise--you remember--I was impatient to fulfil it.\n\n_Paulo_\n\nPromise! What can a Prince of the Medici promise to my wife?\n\n_Medici_\n\n(_Gravely._) That which only the proudest painter may receive gladly from\na humble prince: appreciation of his work.\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Coldly._) My work is not done for the appreciation of princes. I have\nno work to show.\n\n_Medici_\n\nYour wife, Signor, said otherwise. And she is a rare judge of values.\n(_Bows._) A faultless critic! (_Bows to her._)\n\n_Paulo_\n\nThe Prince di Medici knows.\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_To Paulo._) Oh, do not anger him. And think a little of _me_. You\nforget the risk--for your sake--that I ran--(_imploring_) your career----\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Watches her thoughtfully, weighing things that perplex him._) Love led\nyou a strange errand.\n\n_Lucia_\n\nFor the work\u2019s sake, my Paulo.\n\n_Medici_\n\nThe Medici have short memories for their failures. (_Laughs._) Her\ncourage--in coming to visit me--was even more rare than her (_glances at\nthe picture_)--her judgment.\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_With effort._) She went to see you--yes. It was a mistaken courage that\nearned you a favour of that kind.\n\n_Medici_\n\n(_Suave._) Even in Venice a Medici does not receive strangers--without\na name--or, shall I say, whose name is yet to win. Your wife, Signor,\nhad the courage to get her way to me past half a hundred lacqueys. But\nmore! She had the eloquence and wit to persuade my return visit--here.\nShe assured me your picture was worthy of my personal, my immediate\ninspection.\n\n    [_Goes to it. PAULO starts forward to prevent him._\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Catches his arm._) Paulo, beloved--by our love, by little Eros\n(_frantic_), by everything!\n\n    [_MEDICI moves the picture into better light._\n\n_Medici_\n\n(_Watching them out of corner of his eye._) With your permission.\n(_Bows._) You will, perhaps, forgive the liberty. The light fails\nsuddenly a little. So--(_examines critically, with signs of pleasure_).\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Back turned._) For your sake, Little Child, I endure this cruelty.\n\n_Lucia_\n\nI yearned to help----\n\n_Paulo_\n\nSo it was he who bought the Eros too? (_To himself._) This is an evil\nomen. (_To her._) I thought us safe in Venice.\n\n_Lucia_\n\nYou are so calm, so quiet. You terrify. I would fear your anger less.\nOh, my great Paulo, my dear, listen to me one moment. This family--this\nman--vile though he be--loves art and beauty, and in so far is not--Oh, I\nmean--oh, Paulo, it is his ceilings, his palace, his help to your career\nthat have betrayed me! You could bring Greece to life in Venice--and for\never. Think not of him. Think only of your beauty--lighting the world\nwhen he is dust----\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Quietly._) Is my art so poor a thing--have you so misunderstood\nit--that you think it is for sale?\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Distraught._) Have I done _that_!\n\n    [_MEDICI turns from the picture to PAULO._\n\n_Medici_\n\n(_With reverence._) You have been taught of the Gods--the Gods of Greece.\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Frigidly._) Your praise----\n\n_Lucia_\n\nHush, oh, I beg you--for _my_ sake.\n\n_Medici_\n\nThe drawing is the equal of del Sarto\u2019s and the composition no poorer\nthan da Vinci\u2019s. I swear it. Yet--the colour--hmm--I miss Titian\u2019s glory.\nThose shadows (_pointing_) are out of tone a little----\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Quickly._) We ran out of blue that day, alas----\n\n_Medici_\n\nYour model was, certainly, perfect. But why have you painted the nymphs\nfrom her as well as their divine mistress?\n\n_Lucia_\n\nModels demand impossible prices----\n\n    [_PAULO puts his hand on her mouth angrily._\n\n_Medici_\n\n(_Reflecting._) So little more, and it were a masterpiece. Even now it\nshould win the Competition, by rights. Yet Vernio\u2019s is just a shade more\nrich, more splendid. I have seen it. And Gagliano has a purer colour. But\nthen, of course, Gagliano buys his paint from that fellow by the Zucca\nwho has a secret method--and charges accordingly, the scoundrel!\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Unable to contain himself longer._) I paint as I desire, and as I can.\nThe picture is mine. And not for sale!\n\n_Medici_\n\n(_Kindly._) I admire your spirit, Signor. It has the independence of\nancient Greece herself. Yet at what price? You may be satisfied with\nyourself, but your art thereby suffers. It becomes a slave of your\nconditions--if you will allow the language.\n\n_Lucia_\n\nOh, it must be so! Paulo, it must be so! You see?\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Proudly._) Conditions that leave the spirit free, at least. The spirit\nof beauty owns no master----\n\n_Medici_\n\nThe husband of such beauty should be more gracious. (_Frankly._) Ah,\nSalviati, you speak to a Medici, indeed, but also to one who loves beauty\nas you yourself do. I might--had I persisted--have taken your golden bird\nin my own net. (_Pauses._) It is my pleasure now to set you free from the\nhard conditions that enslave you. In this way can a Medici reward good\nfor evil. Signor, I forgive all for the sake of your genius. I admire\nyour picture--its true classic spirit. Yet it has not quite the warmth,\nthe fire, the bounteous splendour we Italians ask. Give but your sky a\ndeeper hue, add to that robe the undertone of scarlet it needs to make it\nfelt, flood our prodigal Italian sunshine over it all--and I will buy\nyour picture at your price.\n\n_Lucia_\n\nYes, yes. Oh, Paulo, what an offer! Think!\n\n_Paulo_\n\nIt is not for sale.\n\n_Medici_\n\nWhile you may still enter it for the Competition. The judges--er--may\nhear that Damiano di Medici has bought it for his new\nPalazzo--and--judge--accordingly.\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Low._) The gold, the blue, the scarlet you desire--I mean, suggest--are\nnot in my scheme.\n\n_Medici_\n\nYet they would add the perfect touch now lacking--in my judgment, Signor.\nCome, now, I will go further. I have sworn that my Palazzo shall surpass\neven that of Cosimo, my ambitious brother, in Florence. I will have a\nGorgione for his Lippo Lippi, and--if you will--a Salviati for his da\nVinci. I offer you, further, the painting of my ceilings, Signor--seven\nyears\u2019 inspired and happy labour.\n\n_Paulo_\n\nSeven years of bondage to another\u2019s taste and purse.\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_To PAULO._) You could do your own work too.\n\n    [_Looking at MEDICI._\n\n_Medici_\n\nWhy not?\n\n_Paulo_\n\nTo add this gold and blue and scarlet is--for me--a lie.\n\n_Lucia_\n\nOh, my beloved, think, think a little, and weigh your words!\n\n_Medici_\n\nMy offer stands--but not against unreasonable resistance. I repeat it:\nthis picture at your figure, and seven years to paint the ceilings,\nwith a certain freedom in design and subject, and permission to do\nyour own work in your leisure. It is a matter to conclude now quickly.\n(_Ominously._) It is not amusing, though it may be novel, for a Medici to\nbe thwarted of his will--his deep design. (_Bows._)\n\n_Paulo_\n\nA poor painter dares the novelty.\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Cries._) You forget everything, Paulo--me you forget even--when you say\nsuch words!\n\n_Medici_\n\n(_Impatient, half-threatening._) Beauty has turned your head, maybe.\nExcess, I have heard it said, (_significantly_) can affect the reason.\nYou have (_glancing towards LUCIA_) _too_ much beauty. But there are\nremedies----\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Startled._) I do not understand you.\n\n_Medici_\n\nAs a great patron, I have my duties too. (_Slowly._) If the possession\nof too much beauty threaten your great gift, I owe it to the world to\n(_sinister tone and look_) help--to save you.\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Facing him._) I prefer plain spoken language from a man--even though he\nbe patron.\n\n_Lucia_\n\nOh, guard your tongue at least! The Prince is patient with us.\n\n_Medici_\n\n(_Softly._) You robbed me once of beauty I desired. You fled from\nFlorence. I accepted with a smile, and did not bestir myself to follow\nand prevent--as I could well have done. I was too kind, perhaps----\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Breaks in._) But, great Prince, you--you have forgotten all that. You\nswore----\n\n_Medici_\n\n(_To her._) The sight of beauty stirs my memory again. (_Suggestively._)\nFor beauty grows, it seems. (_Smiles admiringly._)\n\n    [_He moves a little towards her. PAULO, with clenched hands, is\n    held back by LUCIA._\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_To MEDICI._) My Lord! (_To PAULO._) Oh, Paulo, hold yourself! Am I so\nlittle to you?\n\n_Medici_\n\nAnd this increase of beauty makes me remember something I had--(_to\nLUCIA_) as you say--forgotten. To see him who robbed me become my\ndependant--would have the true Grecian touch of comedy. (_Turns abruptly\nto PAULO with changed tone._) Salviati--before the light fails, will you\nnow dip your brush in the gold and scarlet _we_ suggested?\n\n_Paulo_\n\nNever! Even in fading light I see only truth.\n\n_Lucia_\n\nAh! Oh!\n\n_Medici_\n\n(_Looking from one to the other, then to the picture._) There are many\nflowers in my gardens, but Italy holds one Salviati only. (_Reflects._)\nMy ceilings need him. I swore, besides, to Cosimo----\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Distraught._) My Lord, my Lord, you promised----!\n\n_Medici_\n\n(_Brusquely._) That I would see the work and offer my patronage--if\nit pleased me. That offer still holds good. But your husband is\nobstinate----\n\n_Paulo_\n\nI am true. I claim only liberty.\n\n_Medici_\n\n(_Darkly._) So I must remember my duties as a patron--and apply remedies\nthat may save his unreason--and his--art.\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Alarmed._) What can you mean----?\n\n    [_MEDICI claps his hands._\n\n_Medici_\n\nHo! Ho! Without there! (_Four MEN in livery rush in._) Take the woman,\nbut do not hurt her.\n\n    [_MEN seize her._\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Struggling._) Ah, Dios! Madonna, help me! Alive--never! Paulo! Paulo!\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Tries to fight his way to her._) Never while I live either.\n\n    [_Draws a dagger._\n\n_Medici_\n\n(_To MEN._) Disarm him--gently, gently. No injury. Who bruises that\nright hand of his answers with his life, remember! Strike up the dagger\ninstantly.\n\n_Men_\n\n(_Struggling._) For a painter he fights well.\n\nCareful there! His hand--your sword\u2019s point!\n\nHis right hand, yes. Be wary.\n\nThis is rare sport.\n\nHave you got the arm? Hold fast.\n\nI\u2019ve got the dagger.\n\nHe\u2019s safe, my Lord.\n\n    [_They hold him, disarmed._\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Held._) Paulo, my Paulo! (_Moans._) Oh, that I were dead, to have done\nthis thing!\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Firmly._) My soul stands by yours. I know you true. Fear nothing!\n\n_Medici_\n\n(_Quietly._) Signor Salviati, I regret that my sense of duty--my deep\ndesire that you shall achieve your greatest--force me to this unpleasant\nremedy. But poverty is not helpful to your work, and I must--as patron of\nunreasonable genius--protect your art and yourself. I offer, therefore,\nthe best help in my power. If you accept--then I need take nothing\n(_glancing at LUCIA_) from your store of beauty.\n\n_Paulo_\n\nDios! This cruelty--this treachery!\n\n_Lucia_\n\nNo, no, no. Paulo, do not think of _me_----\n\n_Paulo_\n\nIt is too late. (_To MEDICI, with effort._) Your vile scheme means this,\nthen: that I submit my art to your paid dictation, become your creature,\nor you will--(_struggles violently_). Let me free! (_to MEN_). This\nbastard is not fit to live.\n\n_A Man_\n\nHush! He is a Medici--Cosimo\u2019s own brother.\n\n_Medici_\n\nMy gondola waits. My new Palazzo lies but half an hour distant--ready to\nwelcome its first fair ornament.\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Wild._) To be broken and thrown away when done with! Death is better\nnow.\n\n    [_Tries to injure his right hand against a sword._\n\n_Medici_\n\n(_To MEN._) Careful. Hold him. Or your lives----\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Frantic._) Beloved, it is _not_ too late. Forget that I live--oh,\nforget me--for your work\u2019s sake! Remember beauty only----\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Tender patience._) Little Child! My work and beauty live with liberty.\n(_Very softly._) Had you forgotten? Did belief in me waver, or did love\nguide you strangely--misconceiving----?\n\n_Medici_\n\n(_Impatient._) The light fails rapidly. The gold and scarlet should be\nlaid on now, before dusk falls. (_To MEN._) One of you go and prepare my\ngondola--for a lady. (_MAN goes to door._) Lay a soft silken scarf upon\nthe cushion--there must be no screams in Venice. (_To PAULO._) Oh, I will\ndo it gently, Signor, with my own two hands. There shall be no roughness,\nno unkindness. (_MAN gives scarf._) Oh, here is the very thing. (_Goes\ntowards LUCIA._) You will take this small attention from me, I beg, if\nnothing else.\n\n_Lucia_\n\nI hate you! Your touch is poison.\n\n    [_Struggles._\n\n_Medici_\n\nYou should not ask favours, then, of those who poison you. (_Puts scarf\nround her arms._) For the mouth I have a yet softer silk, as you shall\nsee. Ah, the Medici, they say, are fortunate in love, and I shall find a\nway to win you. These arms I am forced to bind shall yet twine willingly\nabout my neck----\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Shouts._) All I possess to him who kills him!\n\n_Medici_\n\nAll you possess!\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Yields._) And more--my liberty. Let her go!\n\n_Medici_\n\nSo reason returns, at last. The remedy works already towards a cure.\n\n_Paulo_\n\nSet her free. I give my word.\n\n_Medici_\n\nThough I trust no man, I trust _your_ word, Salviati.\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Stammering._) Unfasten me. Give me my palette.\n\n_Medici_\n\n(_To MEN._) Release him. Release the lady too. But watch him closely,\nlest he hide a weapon.\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Free._) This is my only weapon (_takes brushes, etc._). With it I put\nchains upon my soul. So--and so.\n\n    [_Dabs on paint. LUCIA silent. Collapses to her knees and hides\n    her face._\n\n_Medici_\n\nImproved already! So swiftly! You are, indeed, the greatest of them all.\nWe shall beat Verio out of court, and Gagliano will die of envy on the\nspot. (_To MEN._) Begone with you! No, stay a moment--take the picture\nwith you and lay it carefully in the gondola. It shall be finished under\nmy own eye--before the ceilings are begun. (_MEN obey._) Carefully! One\nsmear and your lives are forfeit. (_Turns to LUCIA and raises her._) You\nare not quick to thank me, Signora, yet I have fulfilled my promise to\nyou. All that you begged of me is accomplished. Henceforth Salviati, your\nhusband, shall work in comfort and lack nothing.\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Faint._) How--how could I have done this thing? What ancient deep\nperversity--what lack of faith--what hidden destiny in me? (_To PAULO._)\nPaulo, look, look at me! (_He keeps his back to her. MEDICI watches them\nquietly._) Hark!\n\n    [_Sound of water lapping heard outside._\n\n_Medici_\n\nSo you will not thank me--either one of you? No matter. I like a little\nspirit. (_Goes to door._) Carefully, now! The edges safe. No flick of\ndust, mind.\n\n    [_Stands looking down steps._\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Low._) Hark! (_To PAULO._) It is another sound I hear. (_Whispers._)\nPaulo! It is water. (_Stands listening intently to the lap of the\nsea. Distress increases. Passes hand over forehead, as if trying to\nremember something._) The rising water! (_She turns her head slowly\nto look at PAULO. He turns slowly too. Their eyes meet. Very low._)\nYou hear? (_Whispers._) That sound is in my soul. Paulo--I half\nremember--something--that hides behind it, yet comes with it. (_Goes up\nand clings to him._) I have done this thing before--destroyed you--with\nmy selfish love.\n\n_Paulo_\n\nHush, hush!\n\n_Lucia_\n\nYou look so strangely at me. Your face changes. Dios! (_Frantic._) Speak\nto me, beloved! If you cannot forgive--say that you understand. Oh, what\nis it in your eyes? (_Fear._)\n\n    [_Dusk increases._\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Tender whisper._) The night is coming--with her stars. In my eyes is\nonly love. (_Patiently._) There is nothing to forgive. (_Embraces her for\nseveral moments. Then breaks suddenly away._) Where is the gold--the\nscarlet? (_Bewildered. To MEDICI._) What is my Lord\u2019s desire?\n\n_Lucia_\n\n(_Screams._) Oh, I have killed--killed _again_.\n\n    [_Falls._\n\n_Paulo_\n\n(_Catching her._) Little Child!\n\n_Medici_\n\n(_Turning at the scream._) She is even more beautiful than I\nfirst thought. Well, well, the picture is mine at any rate, and\nshe--(_smiles_). A good evening\u2019s work. How dark it grows. And the rising\ntide is at the full. Ho! Without there! My gondola!\n\n    [_Exit._\n\n    [_PAULO and LUCIA in each other\u2019s arms._\n\n\nCURTAIN\n\n\n\n\nEPILOGUE\n\nPRESENT DAY\n\n\nCHARACTERS\n\n    PHILLIP LATTIN.\n    MRS. LATTIN.\n    THE DOCTOR.\n\n\nEPILOGUE\n\n    SCENE--SAME AS PROLOGUE.\n\n    TIME--PRESENT.\n\n    (_MRS. LATTIN opens her eyes slowly. The DOCTOR, near the bed,\n    is seen making a gesture with his arms as if lowering a curtain.\n    MRS. LATTIN shows bewilderment._)\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\n(_Dreamily._) Where am I? Florence \u2026 Greece \u2026 Egypt \u2026 where are they? I\nam back again. But _who_ am I?\n\n_Doctor_\n\nYou are your Past.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nI slept? But yet I lived it. I understand at last. I have found life.\n\n_Doctor_\n\n_You_ cannot die, nor can _you_ sleep.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nBut time.\u2026\n\n_Doctor_\n\nIs the body\u2019s measuring.\n\n    [_She looks round the room, and finally into his face. He moves\n    slowly backwards towards the door._\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\n(_Thinking._) It was not a dream. I was in Greece with Phocion \u2026 with\nPaulo in Italy \u2026 with.\u2026 Oh, it is too long ago, too far away. It\u2019s\nfading. (_Eagerly._) Oh, I would not forget!\n\n_Doctor_\n\nThe results lie in you. That is memory.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nEach time I injured \u2026 thwarted the highest in him by my selfish love. How\nsmall my love! Oh, tell me it is not now too late.\u2026\n\n_Doctor_\n\n(_By door._) There is no \u201ctoo late.\u201d What he could do without was added\nto him. You have taught Menophis, Phocion and Paulo to become \u2026 Phillip.\n\n    [_He begins to fade._\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\n(_Joyfully._) I understand at last, and I am healed. I delayed Menophis.\nI shall inspire Phillip. I shall go with him \u2026 back to \u2026 Egypt. Phocion,\nPaulo, how happy _they_ will be!\n\n_Doctor_\n\n(_Almost invisible._) _He_ is coming now. I leave you.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nBut _he_ must see you too.\u2026\n\n_Doctor_\n\n(_Invisible, only a voice heard._) He cannot.\n\n    [_Door opens. PHILLIP enters quietly. He shows surprise at\n    finding her sitting up. Her hands are stretched out towards the\n    door where the DOCTOR has vanished. As he enters, the clock\n    strikes the last three strokes of six o\u2019clock._\n\n_Phillip_\n\nYou rang. I just slipped back to see----\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\n(_Low._) Phocion \u2026 my faithful.\u2026\n\n_Phillip_\n\nEh? Are you all right? I mustn\u2019t stay. Doctor Ogilvie will be here any\nminute.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\n(_Low._) Paulo \u2026 my dear one.\u2026 I----\n\n_Phillip_\n\n(_Puzzled._) You slept a moment probably. Good! (_Startled by her happy\nexpression._) You look \u2026 so much better!\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nHe came. And I am healed.\n\n    [_NURSE enters hurriedly._\n\n_Nurse_\n\n(_Whispering to PHILLIP so that MRS. LATTIN does not hear._) Dr. Ogilvie\nhas just telephoned. He is detained. He cannot get here till seven\no\u2019clock.\n\n_Phillip_\n\nAll right. Hush!\n\n    [_Exit NURSE._\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nHe told me \u2026 showed me \u2026 everything.\n\n_Phillip_\n\n(_Humouring her._) He gave you hope--the best? I see it in your eyes.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nIt\u2019s not--_I_ am not--too late. That\u2019s all.\n\n_Phillip_\n\nHush! Hush! Lie quiet a little longer. (_Goes on to ask, still humouring\nher._) You mean the doctor says----?\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nI am so happy. I know and understand now. It\u2019s glorious.\n\n_Phillip_\n\nMy darling! Gently, gently! Do not excite yourself. Lie still and sleep,\nif you can, again. He has given you something? Later, you shall tell\nme----\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nAh, your great patient strength! It is too wonderful. And to think that\nmy weakness helped, my selfish----!\n\n    [_Sits up and peers closely at him, shading her eyes with one\n    hand._\n\n_Phillip_\n\n(_Anxious, puzzled._) The lamp is in your eyes. I\u2019ll move it. Do not\nstir. There, is that better?\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nThank you, but I do not mind the light. I mind nothing. Thank you (_the\nname comes back suddenly_), Phillip. Ah, it _is_ Phillip! I know you\nagain--as you are--to-day!\n\n    [_Passes hand over forehead. Sighs and leans back. But face happy\n    and at peace._\n\n_Phillip_\n\nMary!\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nNot Mary: Little Child.\n\n_Phillip_\n\nMy--Little Child. (_Doubting and perplexed._)\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nPhillip, dear heart, I\u2019ve seen--I\u2019ve seen my past--with you.\n\n_Phillip_\n\n(_Soothingly._) Yes, yes. When you\u2019re more rested you shall tell me\neverything. Your dreams----\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nI must speak now. I\u2019ve seen _our_ past.\n\n_Phillip_\n\n(_Bewildered._) Tell me, then, dearest, tell me. Then you must lie\nstill----\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\n(_Firmly._) Life!\n\n_Phillip_\n\n(_Impressed._) Life!\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nI have recovered. I love you more--but differently. I can forgive myself\nat last.\n\n_Phillip_\n\nRecovery! Forgiveness! I do not understand.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nYou have not _seen_. I understand for both of us.\n\n_Phillip_\n\nYou have had dreams that troubled you. I implore you, dearest----\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nLook in my face. There is no trouble there--but only joy and life.\n\n_Phillip_\n\nYes, yes, but--my darling, what _can_ you mean?\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nHe came--and went.\n\n_Phillip_\n\nAnd left one word behind him only----?\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nOne word--Life.\n\n_Phillip_\n\n(_Almost convinced._) Then----?\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\n(_Radiant, rising from couch._) I shall go back with you.\n\n_Phillip_\n\nTo Egypt!\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nI shall never delay or thwart again. Ah, so many times I have--by my\nselfish love--(_breaks off_). Your work _is_ a mission--always. It is\nyour soul\u2019s career. I understand at last.\n\n_Phillip_\n\nHush, hush, Little Child! You say wild things. I could never hear of it.\nI know your dread, your shrinking fear of Egypt. It would make you ill\nagain. All the doctors agreed----\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nI have _no_ dread! My shrinking was--a memory. It was instinctive--a\ncowardice that shirked sweet expiation--_there_, where it is due. (_In\nspite of him, she rises to her feet. Vigorous._) I am well again. I shall\ngo back with you. Your work--_my_ work--lies out there--in Egypt. Oh,\nPhillip, be glad with me, for I am forgiven, I am healed!\n\n_Phillip_\n\n(_Stirred._) Dear heart! Your soul is too grand for this frail, precious\nbody. You injure yourself. Such sacrifice from you I could never,\nnever----\n\n    [_Breaks off, as he notes the radiant expression in her face.\n    They stand close together beneath the picture._\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\n(_Inflexibly._) It is no sacrifice. It is love, love, love!\n\n_Phillip_\n\n(_Tenderly._) That deep love I never doubted. But--the ingrained dread,\nthe fear, the shrinking that have undermined your willing strength. How\ncan you----?\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nThey are gone for ever. Phillip, how often must I tell you? I am healed.\nI go back with you. We go together. Our life is there, in Egypt.\n\n_Phillip_\n\n(_Almost convinced._) I feel some great new reality in you. You are\nmost wonderfully changed. Some star of life is rising over us--again.\n(_He gazes into her radiant face with a touch of respect and wonder._)\nIf--if----\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nYou must at once withdraw your resignation. There is no \u201ctoo late\u201d!\n(_Laughs a little._) You promise me!\n\n    [_Amazement in him gives place to dawning belief at last. Yet he\n    still hesitates._\n\n_Phillip_\n\nI will see the doctor myself. I promise that if he----\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\n_You_ cannot.\n\n_Phillip_\n\nCannot! (_Awe._) You mean--you have had a vision?\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nHe has--gone.\n\n_Phillip_\n\n(_Convinced._) It _was_ a vision\u2026?\n\n    [_She turns slowly and looks up at the picture on the wall above\n    them. He turns with her. He is speechless. He holds her very\n    close. They stare together at the palms, the river, the stars,\n    the temples._\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\n(_Softly._) Egypt--where I first delayed and thwarted him, loving him\nfor myself alone--Egypt, beneath your risen stars, beside your rising\nriver--I _shall undo--at last_.\n\n    [_A new expression steals into his face. He gazes at the picture\n    with her. He holds her still closer to him._\n\n_Phillip_\n\n(_Moved and wondering._) Little Child! It is very strange. Almost, it\nseems, some dream, some memory of long, long ago stirs in me.\n\n    [_A slight pause, as they gaze side by side at the picture._\n\n(_With effort._) It is beyond me somewhere, but there is great\nbeauty--that deep, unearthly Egyptian beauty in it. (_Lowers voice._)\nThose palms are rustling, those stars seem to move, the Nile flows down\ntowards the sea. Perhaps.\u2026 The Tear of Isis falls.\u2026\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nListen \u2026 yes\u2026!\n\n_Phillip_\n\n(_Turns to her._) Something about you, something new and--and familiar\nalmost--steals upon me. I half believe.\u2026\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\n(_Whispering._) Phillip, my faithful one, I heard another name as you\nsaid that. I heard an ancient name--was it Menophis?\n\n_Phillip_\n\n(_Hushed voice._) _I_ thought a name came to me too. It floated\npast--Nefertiti. It must have been the beating of your heart against my\nown.\n\n    [_They stand motionless, gazing, listening._\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nDear, ancient names. How sweet they sound!\n\n_Phillip_\n\n(_Smiling._) I think we are bewitched!\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nEgypt! (_Pause. Adds softly._) I understand--at last.\n\n    [_He draws her head back and looks tenderly into her eyes._\n\n_Phillip_\n\nAll but one thing.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nWhich is----?\n\n_Phillip_\n\nThat what you call delay has helped and taught me.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\n(_Low._) Perhaps I understand that too. That which the soul can do\nwithout is added to it. (_Whispers._) Is it not that?\n\n_Phillip_\n\nAh, you put it so. Perhaps you put it better. I only know that you have\ngiven me the thing I needed most--perspective, the longer sight. My\nvision clears. (_Bends down and kisses her._) I feel new power for my\nwork. I see it whole.\n\n_Mrs. Lattin_\n\nThen my forgiveness is complete.\n\n\nCURTAIN","title":"Karma: A Re-incarnation Play: In Prologue, Epilogue & Three Acts","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":19448}