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Eric, Aslaug.
ERIC
They say the anarchy of love disturbs ‘
Gods even, shaken are the marble natures,
The deathless¹ hearts are melted to the pang
And rapture. Still, O Odin, I would be
Monarch of a calm royalty within,
My blood my subject. But I hear her come.
(to Aslaug who enters)
Art thou resolved and hast thou made thy choice ?
ASLAUG
I choose, if there is anything to choose,
The truth.
ERIC
Who art thou?
ASLAUG
Aslaug, who am now
A dancing-woman.
ERIC
And afterwards ? Hast thou
Understood nothing?²
ASLAUG
What should I understand ?
¹iron
² Another version, starting with this line, omits the next speech of Aslaug and continues
Eric’s words:
Yet nothing understood? Or art thou, Aslaug,
Surrendered to thy fate? This earthly heaven
Page – 499
ERIC
What I shall do with thee. This earthly heaven
In which thou liv’st shall not be thine at all;
It was not shaped to bear¹ thy joy but mine
And only made for my immense desire.
This hast thou understood ?
ASLAUG
(pale and troubled)
Thou triest me still.
ERIC
I saw thee shake.
ASLAUG
It is not easily
A woman’s heart sinks² prostrate in such absolute
Surrender.
ERIC
Thy heart! Is it thy heart that yields?
(taking her hands in his own)
O thou unparalleled enchanting frame
For housing of a strong immortal guest!
If man could seize the heart as palpably,
The forms, the limbs, the substance of this soul!
That, that we ask for; all else can be seized
So vainly! Walled from ours are other hearts:
He touches her eyes and body as he speaks.
For if life’s barriers twixt our souls were broken
Men would be free and our earth paradise
And the gods live neglected.
ASLAUG
(quickly)
This heart of mine ?
Purchase it richly, for it is for sale.
¹It was not fashioned for
²falls
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ERIC
Yes, speak!
ASLAUG
With love. I meant no more.
ERIC
With love?
Thou namest lightly a tremendous word.
If thou hadst known this mightiest thing on earth
And named it, should it not have upon thy lips
So moving an impulsion for a man
That he would barter worlds to hear it once ?
Words are but ghosts unless they speak the heart.
ASLAUG
I have yielded.
ERIC
Then tonight. Thou shak’st?
ASLAUG
There is
A trouble in my blood. I do not shake.
ERIC
Thou heard’st me ?
ASLAUG
Not tonight. Thou art too swift,
Too sudden.
ERIC
Thou hast had leisure to consult
Thy comrade smaller, subtler than thyself?
Better hadst thou chosen candour and thy frank soul
Consulted, not a guile by others breathed.
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ASLAUG
What guile, who gave¹ all for an equal price ?
Thou giv’st thy blood of rubies, I my life.
ERIC
Thou hast not chosen then to understand.
Thy soul is truthfuller, Aslaug, than thy words:
Thy lips consent, thy eyes defy me still.
ASLAUG
Because I sell myself, yet keep my pride ?
ERIC
Thou shalt keep nothing that I choose to take.
I see a tyranny I will delight in
And force a oneness; I will violently
Compel the goddess that thou art. But I know
What soul is lodged within thee, thou as yet
Ignorest mine. I still hold in my strength,
Though it hungers like a lion for the leap,
And give thee time once more; misuse it not.
Beware, provoke not the fierce god too much;
Have dread of his flame round thee.
He goes out.
ASLAUG
(breaking into a laugh)
Odin and Freya, you have snares! But see,
I have not thrown the dagger from my heart,
But clutch it still. How strange that look and tone
That things of a corporeal potency
Not only travel coursing through the nerves
But seem to touch the seated soul within!
It was a moment’s wave; for it has passed
And the high purpose in my soul lives on
Unconquerably intending to fulfil.
¹give
Curtain
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