Part 2

For last night I beheld In dreams deeper than day how it must be. I saw a tomb far-hidden in the earth And Life within it Mixing salt and sulphur-- Twin elements Of the great trinity. I saw her hands pour out quick mercury Upon a bat's wing wrought with hieroglyphics, And then I saw her cast in gold and silver That melted with strange voice and sudden flame, The while she gazed on me most meaningly. And then ... when all was done....

[_The vision consuming him._

My wife, my Rhea, lit with loveliness And as a spirit clad with resurrection, Rose up within my dream ... fair, young and glad!...

_Rhasis._ But, master ... are dreams true?

_Arduin._ Such dreams as these?

[_Kindling._

_Rhasis._ Pardon! I know not--only that you say Some come of Ophiuchus-- The demon you have warned me of--who oft With thwarting laugh has struck the secret from you.... Many before have followed the mirage Of dreams--but to more thirst: trust not too much!

_Arduin._ But fear? fear? you are falling from me too? Like Ion the son of him who ... you? you too? At the prime moment?

_Rhasis._ No, my master, no! But I would spare you pain unbearable.

_Arduin._ Ha! and believe--you do?--that all wise men Of all the world could so have been deceived? Believe--do, do?--that she _cannot_ arise? Did not great Hermes say of the Elixir It should be found-- And did not Polydos, The Greek, chancing upon it, raise his friends In battle slain?... Did not the Jew of Galilee, the Christ, Whom even you name Prophet, likewise win it?

[_Peacelessly._

Speak!

_Rhasis._ Master, yes!... But O! trust not too much. Wiser, I know, than all Arabia Are you--like to Mahomet--were it not That you have set within your heart a woman. But if, perchance, the Elixir does not prove----

_Arduin._ Availing? Have not all things pointed to it? The day she died Did I not hear a voice That breathed into my brain she should arise? And as I waited did a book of wisdom Not chance into my hands to show the way? Were the first words I read not, _In ten years The miracle shall come-- Revealed to you within the land of the Sphinx_?

_Rhasis._ So read it, so! But----

_Arduin._ Is this not that land? Are not those stones the pyramids that thro The ages have stood waiting for this hour-- When I shall bring her beauty back, today? Is not that face the Sphinx, Whose timeless and intemperable meaning No man has read in desert, star, or sea, But which must be the secret I unsphere?

_Rhasis._ O master!

_Arduin._ Fail, fail, fail? now to restore her? Who died as you shall know, here ere she rises, Because my brother--aieh! the father of Ion-- Who bore as well that name-- Desiring her, vilely accused her----

_Myrrha_ (_involuntarily, behind curtains_). Oh!...

_Arduin_ (_bewildered_). Who spoke? It was her voice?

[_Runs to sarcophagus._

_Rhasis._ No, master, no!...

_Arduin_ (_slowly returning_). Fail, fail to bring her fairness from the tomb! Her face which can alone sow finitude's Fell desolation with enverdured dreams And fill the ways of the world again with hope? I tell you she eternal must arise-- Tho God die for it!

[_Begins to gird himself._

Must!... and the hour is now!-- Venus is in the house of ready Taurus, The moon is full, and as I toiled today,

[_Goes to furnace._

From the alembic a strange cloud arose, And once again her face!... Prepare! prepare!

_Rhasis._ I will do all you say. But, master, if----

_Arduin_ (_immitigably_). No death-word more of doubt. It is the power Which holds us futile from omnipotence. Mete out the sulphur Into the alembic Of Cleopatra's crystal.--I must see her!

[_Rhasis hastens._

See her again, my Rhea, as she was, When plucking first the poppies of Provence! And hear flow from her Words sweeter than Memnon's in the wind of dawn! Here's gold and silver (_hands them_). She shall rise and say: "Years pale you, pale your brow, my Arduin, And touch to gray the treasure of your hair, But not Antinous could be so fair To me--or wonderful: For you have brought me from the cold tomb to life!..." The bat's wing then! And to the sarcophagus To lift its lid! for I will wait no longer----

[_Takes alembic, as Rhasis obeys, and continues invokingly_:

But now, vial of immortality! By the presaging of the seven planets, And by the searchless sources of the Nile, And by the prayers of Christian and of Heathen, And by the elements earth, air and fire, That hold within their intermingled veins The secret of illimitable life-- By fate and time and God--I here conjure you Bring forth the Elixir which shall make her rise!

[_He pours the ingredients, and quickly fumes arise. They clear and a liquid is seen in the bottom of the glass. With a cry he starts toward the sarcophagus, when Myrrha's face--which, excited, has parted the curtains--stops him enspelled. Rhasis, unnerved, quits the room--leaving them agaze._

_Arduin_ (_at length, as if to a spirit_). I do not dream?... you have arisen?... Rhea!

[_Starting toward her._

Arisen ere I touched you?--O fear not! For I am Arduin! do you not know me?

[_She trembles speechless._

O wonderful awaking! O ... at last! Tho yet the memory of the tomb is on you!... This land is Egypt, whither in my grief I brought you, my dead bride! Look on me! see!

[_Stops quickly._

But no, not yet! until my youth comes back, As now it will, Over the sea from France! Already passion lifts away the years That weight its wings and I am as I was. Now gaze upon me, now! Is it not I?

_Myrrha._ Sir--!

_Arduin._ Sir! O quickly see. For to my breast Again has striving brought you, to my bosom! The bitter nights are ended--the blind pits Sleepless and infinite. Awake! stare not So strangely! press your lips in praise to mine, Your breast upon my breast!... Delay you still?

_Myrrha._ O sir--!

_Arduin._ See, see! the years have been too long.

[_Clasps her, dropping alembic._

My arms have waited an infinitude.

[_She struggles._

Do you not now remember with my lips To yours, the brimming beauty of our youth?

_Myrrha._ Release me!

_Arduin._ Awake and know me! It is I! Your lover Arduin whom once you wooed: Whose every word was to you as a wind Of God! whose every kiss.... Do you not see?

_Myrrha._ No, no! I'm not your love--

_Arduin._ Not--? You uprisen? Has the tomb treachery to change the soul? Ye skies, must I go mad now at this moment When I have brought her back from destiny? Not mine?... Awake! Oblivion enthralls you.

[_Suddenly starting from her._

Or is it that there in the grave, another--?

_Myrrha._ No, no! but--

_Arduin._ Ha, then! if not--if it be not-- Is it that here returned you wish another? You who so gaze upon my goaded brow And face grown old with toil to conquer death? O youth ruthless to age! e'en tho its furrows Were got for your delight!--Ingratitude!-- Have I so hungered thro long years to pluck A flower of Hell back to the light!... No, No! It cannot be!... You shall be mine!

_Myrrha_ (_in terror_). Sir, sir!

_Arduin._ Mad will I be, as they have thought me, mad In holding that which I have given life.

_Myrrha._ But you mistake!... I am not what you think. Hear me, for I love one who----

_Arduin._ Is not--I?

[_As to invisible judges._

You hear her say it?

_Myrrha._ O, I love but Ion, Your--

_Arduin._ Ion, my brother! Then, God! it was true, And being true thy Heaven is but a brothel! She was unfaithful to me, as he said! And in the other world has met and clasped him!

_Myrrha._ No, let me speak!

_Arduin._ And spurn me more with it? Shall I abide mockery like a mummy! Ha-ha! (_A laugh that racks him._) Years but to hear her say that she loves him! To see her come back from the grave, where she Has still embraced him, still--and to my face, On which the rage of sleepless toil is wrought, Tell me.... She shall die for it! God, whose stars Are vermin, she shall die!

_Myrrha._ O!

_Arduin_ (_frenziedly_). Die, die, die! As trustless women should: until no womb Of lies is left in the world! Die, and be shut Again into the curst sarcophagus From whence I brought her ...

_Myrrha_ (_in his grasp_). Sir!--help!--sir! do not! O, I will love you!

_Arduin._ Liar! and turn from him Whom you betrayed me for--and swear again False love to me? Then ... in the tomb do it!

[_Begins to choke her._

_Myrrha._ O!

_Arduin._ Aieh! cry out to him! will he not help you?

_Myrrha._ Ion!

_Arduin._ That word withering in your throat Shall stale you past all hope of resurrection.

[_Strangles her--and then looks around._

So, it is done.... And now, back to your tomb, Which I will bury in the desert sands So deep that not eternity can find it.

[_Begins to draw her toward sarcophagus._

And yet (_stopping stricken_) all is not well ... I now could weep.

[_With lone anguish._

I know not wherefore--only that my heart Is wounded and seems bleeding o'er the hours That I must live!... O Rhea!... O, my love!

[_Strangely kissing her._

Do you not hear the nightingale that sang The song of our betrothal in Provence? It sits upon....

[_Changing again._

Accursed face! accurst! forevermore! Within the tomb lie (_dragging her_) blind, deaf, motionless, Until--

[_Looking into the coffin becomes transfixed, while MYRRHA'S limp body slips slowly from his arms. He gazes at her, at his wife, and tries to understand. But cannot, and so, standing long troubled, moans_:

I am not well; perchance Rhasis will come And tell me what it is that I desired. Men should not toil o'ermuch; there's madness in it.

[_Then seeing MYRRHA'S face and starting from it wildly_:

Rhasis! Rhasis! Rhasis!... Oh-oh-oh-oh!

[_Runs madly off right, as ION and RHASIS enter left. They look around, see MYRRHA and rush to her--with a cry._

CURTAIN

O-UME'S GODS

CHARACTERS

O-UME _A Samurai Girl_ AMA _Her Servant, an old woman_ SANKO _A Young Samurai_ and A YOUNG JESUIT PRIEST

O-UME'S GODS

TIME: _The Sixteenth Century._

PLACE: _Japan._

SCENE: _A room in the house of O-Ume in a province near the sea. Its_ shoji, _or sliding paper doors, open in the rear upon a wistaria arbor over-hanging a river, upon which lighted lanterns, sent forth on the night of the Feast of the Dead, are dimly floating; while the moon above gleams upon the pale distant snow-cone of Fujiyama. The room with its deep straw mats and walls delicately portrayed with pine and bamboo has a paper-paned door on the right leading to a garden, and is lighted by_ andon--_one beneath a shrine to Buddha on the left wall, and one to the left centre where O-UME and AMA are sitting on their heels, constrained, foreboding and verging toward inevitable words._

_Ama_ (_at length_). Down to the sea! the sea! Oh the dead! Do they not seem On the night air to hover? There by the lights Are not their spirits present? The lights lit for them?

[_O-UME is silent._

All our ancestors are they! Fathers and mothers Of many lives back! They hear us speaking, They hear from the Buddha-shrine There on the wall. They see us thinking.

[_Meaningly._

They see in our hearts!

_O-Ume_ (_who trembles_). Be silent! silent!

_Ama_ (_bowing but continuing_). They know if we care for them-- Know as the wind That visits all shoji, Know as the night That searches all places. Alas for the son Who does not honor them! And for the daughter Who does not cherish them! They shall----

_O-Ume._ Be silent!

[_A pause._

_Ama._ Alas for the daughter!

_O-Ume_ (_who rises disturbedly_). The lips of the old Are like leaves dying-- Leaves of Autumn That ever flutter!

[_Walks about._

_Ama._ And a girl's mind Is like the dawn mist-- Knowing not whither To rest or wander-- Until, perchance, It clings to Fuji, To Fuji mountain, Lord of the air! The mind of a girl ... straying! And what is O-Ume's?... whose?

_O-Ume._ It is O-Ume's!

_Ama._ Ai! Not Sanko's!... But were I she, O-Ume the fair, O-Ume the mist Of happy karmas, Sanko should be My Fuji mountain. Him would I cling to, Nor would I hunger To stray far from him With a white priest! To stray far from him To foreign gods That hang on a cross.

[_Again bowing._

Is he not strong?

_O-Ume._ Be silent!

[_To herself, troubled._

The lips of the old! The lips of the old!

_Ama._ Is he not brave?

_O-Ume._ I care not. A samurai is he-- One whose sword is his soul.

_Ama._ And should his tongue be Like that of the other, The priest of the pain-god?

[_Immovably._

Is he not kind?

_O-Ume._ He is kind.

_Ama._ Kind! as O-Ume is cruel!

_O-Ume._ No, but as men are, Wanting women: Yet not once so was he! For as children We caught together The June-night fire-flies Out by the shrine of Jiso.

_Ama._ And then he loved you, And ever has loved you, And faithful is he!

_O-Ume._ Ai, and terrible!...

_Ama._ Terrible only Because O-Ume Turns from her fathers And from the gods. She sees their soul-ships Sail to the sea-- The lights lit for them,

[_Motions without._

And yet she offers No cakes of welcome-- None of farewell! No prayer to Buddha, Lotus-loving, And none to Kwannon Who is all mercy. But inward, inward She turns her eyes To see this stranger, Priest of the Christ-god. Outward, outward, Ever she gazes And ever listens, Ever, for him!... Oh false, false one! False to the dead-- False to Sanko!...

_O-Ume_ (_more distressedly_). The words of the old Are like the leaves,

[_Her voice breaks._

Like Autumn leaves That ever flutter.

_Ama._ And those of the young----

_O-Ume_ (_becoming distraught_). Oh will she hush not!... Will this servant, Whom my mother Dying left me, Waste my heart so?

[_Weeps in her sleeve._

Sanko I fear, And fears of many Worlds crowd round me-- Many karmas Of pain and passion, Births and rebirths.

_Ama._ And 'tis because This evil priest Stands in the door of your heart.

_O-Ume._ Will you revile him?

_Ama._ Cursed be he!

_O-Ume._ Ama!

_Ama._ I pray it!

[_Rises slowly._

And curst he shall be.

[_O-Ume stares trembling._

For, O blind one, By him blinded, Do you not know The people have heard How he has bid you Cast away from you The gods of your house? The blessed Buddha And all the tablets Kept, ancestral? Ai, they have heard And tonight have risen! This night of the dead They have gone forth, With Sanko to lead them-- Gone to tear down The house of the priest! Gone to destroy The image he worships! Gone to----

_O-Ume_ (_stricken_). Ama!

[_Shrinks from her and then speaks wanly._

Never is there Trust in any? Only faith that fades? This was known-- But kept from me, Kept in silence, Kept for Sanko?... O lord Buddha, Thou, or Christ, Is there peril?----

[_Turns on her._

You have done ill!

_Ama._ I have done well.

_O-Ume._ Ill! and ill shall come to you! For do you think So to prevent me From my fate-way? No, I will find it! The Buddha and all The tablets ancestral Will I take down from the wall, And from me cast them Into the river ... They shall float down to the sea.

[_Turns and goes to shrine._

_Ama._ O-Ume! O-Ume!

[_Catching at her kimono._

The gods forsaken Will pardon never! The gods--and the people! You will become Eta, an outcast, From them driven away. O-Ume!

[_The girl takes the shrine._

Remember your father Dead, and your mother. They are hovering Round your fingers, Faint, offended! Will you pause not?

[_When O-Ume continues._

Ah for Sanko! for Sanko!

[_Runs calling to door._

Sanko! Sanko!

[_O-Ume stops motionless._

Sanko!...

_O-Ume_ (_after a pause_). He waits then there?

_A Voice_ (_without_). Ama! (_nearer_) Ama!...

[_SANKO enters from the garden, dishevelled and breathless, but controlled. As he does so O-UME drops the shrine and the image falls out._

_Sanko_. O-Ume! O-Ume!

[_Ama goes quickly out._

_O-Ume_ (_again motionless_). Honourable friend!

[_With polished anger._

You dwell in my garden? And is my house Even as your house?

_Sanko._ Be pleased to pardon!...

_O-Ume._ And you conspire here With Ama against me?

_Sanko._ O-Ume knows The samurai's honour.

_O-Ume._ O-Ume thought so, But does no longer!

_Sanko._ Ah the plum-blossom! Then it too Has thorns and poison?

_O-Ume._ Yes, for the hand of Sanko! Knowing the deed From whence he comes. Knowing that ...

[_Breaks off, tensely._

Where is the priest's house?

_Sanko_ (_angrily_). Cast in the river!

_O-Ume._ Ai, for I see The blood on your hand From the torn rafters! Red, red blood Of a deed of fury. So I tell you, Samurai rude, Not for one life, Even for one, Will I be yours. Please ... to leave me.

[_He looks at his hand and is going._

And yet ... (_as he stops_) ... not thus!

[_She struggles._

The priest would bid me Bind up your wound. And you were once Sanko my friend!-- Put forth your hand!

[_He does so._

The blood----

_Sanko_ (_with sudden fierceness_). The blood is his!

[_As she falls back with a cry._

His! I have slain him!

[_Mockingly._

And did his ghost Not come here flitting? Coldly flitting? Here with moaning Does it not hang Upon the roof-tree Hungering for you? He lay in the dark-- One lay with him-- One who escaped to the river. But him I slew That you might never Turn from the Buddha And from your fathers; Turn dishonoured Of all who greet you.

_O-Ume_ (_speech coming at last_). Ah! A-hi! Slain!... It cannot be!

_Sanko_ (_drawing a bloody sword_). And is this wet with dew?

_O-Ume._ O let it pierce Your own heart, samurai! For you shall never Again know peace. I will pray to The lord of Nippon, To the Shogun-- Who gave entrance Here to the Christ-priest. Nay, I will die Myself that ever You may be hated By your own heart.

[_Starts toward river._

I will cast Myself to the soul-world And bid the dead To bring you evil! Then the priest shall ...

[_Breaks off--for standing in the arbour is the priest, pale and spectral. He has come up to the steps from the river. At the sight SANKO plucks her back, as if from a ghost. A pause, then the priest speaks sacrosanctly._

_The Priest._ The Christ looks on you,

[_Lifts a crucifix._

You, a murderer-- Tho it is not I you have murdered.

[_SANKO gazes._

One slept with me, A gentle servant, Slept in my cloak ... you have slain him.

[_Steps forward._

The Christ looks on you. He will forgive you.

[_A pause._

_Sanko_ (_recovering_). Priest!

_The Priest._ Forgive you.

[_Holds crucifix toward him._

_Sanko._ By the eight million Gods, he mocks me!

[_Dashes it to floor._

And shall perish Or go from this village!

_The Priest._ Aye ... but only When goes this maiden Whom you would hold Still to her idols. She must follow The Cross of Heaven.

_Sanko._ She shall follow O priest, but me.

_The Priest._ Murderer, pause!... There is a Hell Where the lost burn Even as say your sutras.

[_Sanko lifts his sword._

Pause! and strike not! The smitten Christ No longer holds My hands from strife.

[_Towers over him._

O-Ume, I bid you Now cast away The gilded gods you have worshipped.

_Sanko._ And I forbid O-Ume _to move_.

_O-Ume_ (_heedless of either_). And I, O-Ume, O'er whom you quarrel, And whom you tear Twixt Christ and Buddha, I, O-Ume, will end it.

[_Lifts the BUDDHA from the floor, and the crucifix, over her head._

Be all the gods forsaken-- Even as these!

[_Goes to river and casts them in. Then meets their horror with ever increasing passion._

Be all! And be you gone Forevermore! For if again I see your faces, If again They grieve my hours, If again While Fuji stands there-- The river shall gulf me, too. I swear it by the dead.

[_They look at her awed, then go slowly, silently out. She sinks on her heels, hands folded, and stares before her. The lights on the river drift on._

CURTAIN

THE IMMORTAL LURE

CHARACTERS

VISHWAMYA _A Renowned Ascetic_ RISHYAS _His Son, a Young Saint_ SUNANDI _An Old Woman of the Court of the Rajah of Anga_ KOIL _A Young Girl of the Court_

THE IMMORTAL LURE

TIME: _The antiquity of India._

SCENE: _Before the hermitage of VISHWAMYA and RISHYAS, in a forest near the Ganges. It is an open space spread with kusa-grass and over-hung with trees--the hermitage itself being a cell constructed of earth and of hanging roots of the banyan, and having by it an altar before which lies a deer-skin. Glimmering lights and running water penetrate the shades, whose sacredness is soon disturbed by the appearance of SUNANDI, wantonly compelling KOIL, with alternate harshness and wheedling, to enter with her._

_Sunandi_ (_peering about_). The place, my jewel-bird! the place for it! Under these boughs of peepul and asoka The young saint dwells With his restraining sire, Singing the Vedas morning, eve and noon, And they are gone somewhither now in the wood To gather fruit for sacrifice, and flowers.

[_With a leer._

But he, the boy, will soon return, my pretty.

_Koil_ (_whom she has released_). And you have drawn me from the city here To break into his holy breast with passion? To dance and sing and seize him? I you have taught the wiles of winning men, As the cobra-charmer teaches, Must lure him from his saintly innocence, And with the beauty I was born unto Must tangle him?... You, O Sunandi, are an evil woman, To lead me to it!

_Sunandi._ And you talk as flies talk! Who know not that the gods sow food or famine.

[_Harshly._

I tell you that great Indra of the skies Is wroth with us And will not send us rain, So wisest Brahmins vow-- Until this boy, This saintly one, is brought unto the Raja! Are we to die because not otherwise Than with alluring now we can appease them?

[_Leering again._

And why are women fair, my cunning Koil, But to tempt men then, when they seek to take us----

_Koil._ Sunandi!

_Sunandi._ It is so, unwitted girl! Be silent then And do what I command.

[_Wheedling again._

But it will be sweet doing, beamy Koil, For the young saint Is fairer than the god-born, His body like warm gold and lotos-lithe-- Made for the wants that tremble in your heart. And when your eyes rest on him they will kindle Like passion-stars.

_Koil._ And burn away his peace-- Which is the pearl Of sainthood thro all worlds! Unless his father, strange and terrible, And mighty thro austerities--one whose Curse were as heavy as an hundred births--! O let us trust it not! So young a saint Should be the holy mate of solitude. I would not have him gaze upon me so, For he is innocent of love, nor ever As yet has looked upon a woman's face.

_Sunandi._ Then may he loathe you if he does not! for Only in woman's faces is there beauty And who beholds not beauty is as dead.

[_Starts._

But ha? 'tis he? No, only parakeets, Chattering as you chatter, idle girl! Who ever were resistant to my teachings! I tell you chirp no more these chastities! If you come back to the Raja And without him, Know you what then will happen?

_Koil._ I know not.

[_Hears a voice._

Nor care not. I will return.

_Sunandi._ Stop, girl.

_Koil._ I will not. All others will I tempt, but----

_Sunandi_ (_holding her_). Him will _love_!

[_RISHYAS slowly approaches, chanting._

And you were suckled at the breast of fortune To be the first so fair a saint shall look on. Use well your charms--and chain him with enchantment.

[_Sees the girl is enthralled by the voice and goes into wood. RISHYAS soon enters opposite, laden and singing_:

Spirit of the risen sun! Now returns the offering-hour. Fruit I bring to you and flower, Here receive them, O great--

[_Breaks off, at sight of her, and the offerings fall slowly from his arms._