Collected Plays and Stories

 

CONTENTS

 

Pre-content

 

PLAYS

THE VIZIERS OF BASSORA

 

Rodogune

Act One

Act Two

Act Three

Act Four

Act Five

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE I

SCENE II  

SCENE III

SCENE IV

SCENE V

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

 

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE IV

SCENE V

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE IV

 

 

Perseus the Deliverer

Act One

Act Two

Act Three

Act Four

Act Five

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE IV

SCENE V

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

 

Eric

Act One

Act Two

Act Three

Act Four

Act Five

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE IV

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE I

 

Vasavadutta

 

Incomplete and Fragmentary Plays

The Witch of Ilni

Act One

 

Act Two

 

Act Three

SCENE I

SCENE II

 

SCENE I

 

 SCENE I

SCENE II

 

The House of Brut

Act  twO

 

SCENE I

 

The Maid in the Mill

Act One

 

 

 

Act Two

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE Iii

SCENE Iv

SCENE v

 

 

 

SCENE I

 

The Prince of Edur

The Prince of Mathura

Act  One

SCENE I

 

The Birth of Sin

Act ONE

 

Fragment of a Play

Act  One

SCENE I

 

STORIES

Occult Idylls

The Phantom Hour

 The Door at Abelard

 

Incomplete and Fragmentary Stories

Fictional Jottings

Fragment of a Story

The Devil's Mastiff

The Golden Bird

 

 

Act II

 

Bassora.

 

Scene 1

 

Ibn Sawy's house. An upper chamber in the women's apartments.

Doonya, Anice-aljalice.

 

DOONYA

You living sweet romance, you come from Persia.

'Tis there, I think, they fall in love at sight?

 

ANICE

But will you help me, Doonya, will you help me?

To him, to him, not to that grizzled King!

I am near Heaven with Hell that's waiting for me.

 

DOONYA

I know, I know! you feel as I would, child,

If told that in ten days I had to marry

My cruel boisterous cousin. I will help you.

But strange! to see him merely pass and love him!

Did he look back at you?

 

ANICE

While he could see me.

 

DOONYA

Yes, that was Nureddene.

 

Page – 35


ANICE

You'll help me?

 

DOONYA

Yes,

With all my heart and soul and brains and body.

But how? My uncle's orders are so strict!

 

ANICE

And do you always heed your uncle's orders,

You dutiful niece?

 

DOONYA

Rigidly, when they suit me.

It shall be done although my punishment

Were even to wed Fareed. But who can say

When he'll come home?

 

ANICE

Comes he not daily then?

 

DOONYA

When he's not hawking. Questing, child, for doves,

White doves.

 

ANICE

I'll stop all that when he is mine.

 

DOONYA

Will you? and yet I think you will, nor find it

A task at all. You can do it?

 

ANICE

I will.

 

DOONYA

You have relieved my conscience of a load.

 

Page – 36


Who blames me? I do this to reform my cousin,

Gravely, deliberately, with serious thought,

And am quite virtuously disobedient.

I almost feel a long white beard upon my chin,

The thing's so wise and sober. Gravely, gravely!

She marches out, solemnly stroking

an imaginary beard.

ANICE

My heart beats reassuringly within.

The destined Prince will come and all bad spells

Be broken; then —  You angels up in Heaven

Who guard sweet shame and woman's modesty,

Hide deep your searching eyes with those bright wings.

It is not wantonness, though in a slave

Permitted, spurs me forward. O tonight

Let sleep your pens, in your rebuking volumes

Record not this. I am on such a brink,

A hound of horror baying at my heels,

I cannot pause to think what fire of blushes

I choose to flee through, nor how safe cold eyes

May censure me. I pass though I should burn.

You cannot bid me pick my careful steps!

Oh, no, the danger is too near. I run

By the one road that's left me, to escape,

To escape, into the very arms I love.

Curtain

Page – 37


Scene 2

 

Ibn Sawy's house. A room in the women's apartments.

Ameena, Doonya.

 

AMEENA

Has he come in?

 

DOONYA

He has.

 

AMEENA

For three long days!

I will reprove him. Call him to me, Doonya.

I will be stern.

 

DOONYA

That's right. Lips closer there!

And just try hard to frown. That's mildly grim

And ought to shake him. Now you spoil all by laughing.

 

AMEENA

Away, you madcap! Call him here.

 

DOONYA

The culprit

Presents himself unsummoned.

Enter Nureddene.

NUREDDENE (at the door)

Ayoob, Ayoob!

A bowl of sherbet in my chamber.

(entering)

 

Page – 38


Well, mother,

Here I am back, your errant gadabout,

Your vagabond scapegrace, tired of truancy

And very hungry for my mother's arms.

It's good to see you smile!

 

AMEENA

My dearest son!

 

NUREDDENE

Why, Doonya, cousin, what wild face is this?

 

DOONYA

This is a frown, a frown, upon my forehead.

Do you not tremble when you see it? No?

To tell you the plain truth, my wandering brother,

We both were practising a careful grimness

And meant to wither you with darting flames

From basilisk eyes and words more sharp than swords,

Burn you and frizzle into simmering cinders.

Oh, you'ld have been a dolorous spectacle

Before we had finished with you! Ask her else.

 

AMEENA

Heed her not, Nureddene. But tell me, child,

Is this well done to wander vagrant-like

Leaving your mother to anxieties

And such alarms? Oh, we will have to take

Some measure with you!

 

DOONYA

Oh, now, now, we are stern!

 

NUREDDENE

Mother, I only range abroad and learn

Of manners and of men to fit myself

For the after-time.

 

Page – 39


DOONYA

True, true, and of the taste

Of different wines and qualities of girls;

What eyes Damascus sends, the Cairene sort,

Bagdad's red lips and Yemen's willowy figures,

Who has the smallest waist in Bassora,

Or who the shapeliest little foot moonbright

Beneath her anklets. These are sciences

And should be learned by sober masculine graduates.

Should they not, cousin?

 

NUREDDENE

These too are not amiss,

Doonya, for world-wise men. And do you think,

Dear mother, I could learn the busy world

Here, in your lap, within the shadowy calm

Of women's chambers?

 

AMEENA

No, child, no. You see,

Doonya, it is not all so bad, this wandering.

And I am sure they much o'erstate his faults

Who tell of them.

 

DOONYA

Oh, this is very grim!

 

AMEENA

But, Nureddene, you must not be so wild;

Or when we are gone, what will you do, if now

You learn no prudence? All your patrimony

You'll waste, —  and then?

 

NUREDDENE

Then, mother, life begins.

I shall go forth, a daring errant-knight,

To my true country out in faeryland;

 

Page – 40


Wander among the Moors, see Granada,

The delicate city made of faery stone,

Cairo, Tangier, Aleppo, Trebizond;

Or in the East, where old enchantment dwells,

Find Pekin of the wooden piles, Delhi

Of the idolaters, its brazen pillar

And huge seven-storied temples sculpture-fretted,

And o'er romantic regions quite unknown

Preach Islam, sword in hand; sell bales of spice

From Bassora to Java and Japan;

Then on through undiscovered islands, seas

And Oceans yet unnamed; yes, everywhere

Catch Danger by the throat where I can find him, —

 

DOONYA

Butcher blood-belching dragons with my blade,

Cut ogres, chop giants, tickle cormorants, —

 

NUREDDENE

Then in some land, I have not settled which, —

 

DOONYA

Call it Cumcatchia or Nonsensicum.

 

NUREDDENE

Marry a Soldan's daughter, sweet of eye

And crowned with gracious hair, deserving her

By deeds impossible; conduct her armies

Against her foemen, enter iron-walled

Cities besieged with the loud clang of war,

Rescue imperilled kingdoms, mid the smoke

Of desperate cities slay victorious kings,

And so extend my lady's empire wide —

 

DOONYA

From Bassora to the quite distant moon.

 

Page – 41


NUREDDENE

There I shall reign with beauty and splendour round

In a great palace built of porphyry,

Marble and jasper, with strange columns made

Of coral and fair walls bright-arabesqued

On which the Koran shall be written out

In sapphires and in rubies. I will sit

Drinking from cups of gold delightful wine,

Watching slow dances, while the immortal strain

Of music wanders to its silent home.

And I shall have bright concubines and slaves

Around me crowding all my glorious house

With beautiful faces, thick as stars in heaven.

My wealth shall be so great that I can spend

Millions each day nor feel the want. I'll give

Till there shall be no poor in all my realms,

Nor any grieved; for I shall every night,

Like Haroun Alrasheed, the mighty Caliph,

Wander disguised with Jaafar and Mesrour

Redressing wrongs, repressing Almuenes,

And set up noble men like my dear father

In lofty places, giving priceless boons,

An unseen Providence to all mankind.

 

DOONYA

And you will marry me, dear Nureddene,

To Jaafar, your great Vizier, so that we

Shall never part, but every blessed night

Drink and be merry in your halls, and live

Felicitously for ever and for aye,

So long as full moons shine and brains go wrong

And wine is drunk. I make my suit to you from now,

Caliph of Faeryland.

 

NUREDDENE

Your suit is granted.

And meanwhile, Doonya, I amuse myself

Page – 42


With nearer kingdoms, Miriam's wavy locks

And Shazarath-al-Durr's sweet voice of song.

 

DOONYA

And meanwhile, brother, till you get your kingdom,

We shall be grim, quite grim.

 

AMEENA

Your father's angry.

I have not known him yet so moved. My child,

Do not force us to punish you.

 

NUREDDENE

With kisses?

Look, Doonya, at these two dear hypocrites,

She with her gentle honey-worded threats,

He with his stormings. Pooh! I care not for you.

 

AMEENA

Not care!

 

NUREDDENE

No, not a jot for him or you,

My little mother, or only just so much

As a small kiss is worth.

 

AMEENA

I told you, Doonya,

He was the dearest boy in all the world,

The best, the kindest.

 

DOONYA

Oh yes, you told me that.

And was the dearest boy in all the world

Rummaging the regions for the dearest girl,

While the admiring sun danced round the welkin

A triple circuit?

Page – 43


NUREDDENE

I have found her, Doonya.

 

DOONYA

The backward glance?

 

AMEENA

Your father!

Enter Ibn Sawy.

 

IBN SAWY

Ameena,

I'm called to the palace; something is afoot.

Ah, rascal! ah, you villain! you have come?

 

NUREDDENE

Sir, a long hour.

 

IBN SAWY

Rogue! scamp! what do you mean?

Knave, is my house a caravanserai

For you to lodge in when it is your pleasure?

 

NUREDDENE

It is the happiest home in Bassora,

Where the two kindest parents in the world

Excuse their vagabond son.

 

IBN SAWY

Hum! well! What, fellow,

You will buy trinkets? you will have me dunned?

And fleeced?

 

NUREDDENE

Did he dun you? I hope he asked

A fitting price; I told him to.

Page – 44


IBNSAWY

Sir, sir,

What game is this to buy your hussies trinkets

And send your father in the bill? Who taught you

This rule of conduct?

 

NUREDDENE

You, sir.

 

IBN SAWY

I, rascal?

 

NUREDDENE

You told me

That debt must be avoided like a sin.

What other way could I avoid it, sir,

Yet give the trinket?

 

IBN SAWY

Logic of impudence!

Tell me, you curled wine-bibbing Aristotle,

Did I tell you also to have mistresses

And buy them trinkets?

 

NUREDDENE

Not in so many words.

 

IBN SAWY

So many devils!

 

NUREDDENE

But since you did not marry me

Nor buy a beautiful slave for home delight,

I thought you'ld have me range outside for pleasures

To get experience of the busy world.

If 'twas an oversight, it may be mended.

 

Page – 45


IBNSAWY

I'm dumb!

 

NUREDDENE

There is a Persian Muazzim sells,

Whom buy for me, —  her rate's ten thousand pieces —

 

IBN SAWY

A Persian! Muazzim sells! ten thousand pieces!

(to himself )

Where grows this tangle? I become afraid.

 

NUREDDENE

Whom buy for me, I swear I'll be at home

Quite four days out of seven.

 

IBN SAWY

Hear me, young villain!

I'm called to the palace, but when I return,

Look to be bastinadoed, look to be curried

In boiling water. (aside) I must blind him well.

Ten days I shall be busy with affairs;

Then for your slavegirl. Bid the broker keep her.

Oh, I forgot! I swore to pull your curls

For your offences.

 

NUREDDENE

I must not let you, sir;

They are no longer my own property.

There's not a lock that has not been bespoken

For a memento.

 

IBN SAWY

What! what! Impudent rascal!

(aside)

You handsome laughing rogue! Hear, Ameena,

Let Doonya sleep with Anice every night.

Page – 46


No, come; hear farther.

Exit with Ameena.

NUREDDENE

O Doonya, Doonya, tall, sweet, laughing Doonya!

I am in love, —  drowned, strangled, dead with longing.

 

DOONYA

For the world's Persian? But she's sold by now.

 

NUREDDENE

I asked Muazzim.

 

DOONYA

A quite absolute liar.

 

NUREDDENE

O if she is, I'll leave all other cares

And only seek her through an empty world.

 

DOONYA

What, could one backward glance sweep you so forward?

 

NUREDDENE

Why, Doonya!

 

DOONYA

Brother, I know a thing I know

You do not know. A sweet bird sang it to me

In an upper chamber.

 

NUREDDENE

Doonya, you're full of something,

And I must hear it.

 

DOONYA

What will you give me for it?

 

Page – 47


None of your nighthawk kisses, cousin mine!

But a mild loving kind fraternal pledge

I'll not refuse.

 

NUREDDENE

You are the wickedest, dearest girl

In all the world, the maddest sweetest sister

A sighing lover ever had. Now tell me.

 

DOONYA

More, more! I must be flattered.

 

NUREDDENE

No more. Come, mischief,

You'll keep me in suspense?

(pulls her ears)

 

DOONYA

Enough, enough!

The Persian —  listen and perpend, O lover!

Lend ear while I unfold my wondrous tale,

A tale long, curled and with a tip, —  Oh Lord!

I'll clip my tale. The Persian's bought for you

And in the upper chambers.

 

NUREDDENE

Doonya, Doonya!

But those two loving hypocrites, —

 

DOONYA

All's meant

To be surprise.

 

NUREDDENE

Surprise me no surprises.

I am on fire, Doonya, I am on fire.

The upper chambers?

Page – 48


DOONYA

Stop, stop! You do not know;

There is an ogre at her door, a black

White-tusked huge-muscled hideous grinning giant,

Of mood uproarious, horrible of limb,

An Ethiopian fell ycleped Harkoos.

 

NUREDDENE

The eunuch!

 

DOONYA

Stop, stop, stop. He has a sword,

A fearful, forceful, formidable blade.

 

NUREDDENE

Your eunuch and his sword! I mount to heaven

And who shall stop me?

Exit.

DOONYA

Stop, stop! yet stop! He's off

Like bolt from bowstring. Now the game's afoot

And Bassora's Soldan, Mohamad Alzayni,

May whistle for his slavegirl. I am Fate,

For I upset the plans of Viziers and of Kings.

Exit.

Page – 49


Scene 3

 

Ibn Sawy's house. The upper chambers of the women's apartments.

Doonya, sleeping on a couch. Enter Nureddene and Anice.

 

NUREDDENE

I told you 'twas the morning.

 

ANICE

Morning so early?

This moment 'twas the evening star; is that

The matin lustre?

 

NUREDDENE

There is a star at watch beside the moon

Waiting to see you ere it leave the skies.

Is it your sister Peri?

 

ANICE

It is our star

And guards us both.

 

NUREDDENE

It is the star of Anice,

The star of Anice-aljalice who came

From Persia guided by its silver beams

Into these arms of vagrant Nureddene

Which keep her till the end. Sweet, I possess you!

Till now I could not patently believe it.

Strange, strange that I who nothing have deserved,

Should win what all would covet! We are fools

Who reach at baubles taking them for stars.

Page – 50


O wiser woman who come straight to Heaven!

But I have wandered by the way and staled

The freshness of delight with gadding pleasures,

Anticipated Love's perfect fruit with sour

And random berries void of real savour.

Oh fool! had I but known! What can I say

But once more that I have deserved you not,

Who yet must take you, knowing my undesert,

Whatever come hereafter?

 

ANICE

The house is stirring.

 

NUREDDENE

Who is this sleeping here? My cousin Doonya!

 

DOONYA (waking)

Is morning come? My blessing on you, children.

Be good and kind, dears; love each other, darlings.

 

NUREDDENE

Dame Mischief, thanks; thanks, Mother Madcap.

 

DOONYA

Now, whither?

 

NUREDDENE

To earth from Paradise.

 

DOONYA

Wait, wait! You must not

Walk off the stage before your part is done.

The situation now with open eyes

And lifted hands and chidings. You'll be whipped,

Anice, and Nureddene packed off to Mecca

On penitential legs; I shall be married.

(opening the door)

 

Page – 51


Oh, our fell Ethiopian snoozing here?

Snore, noble ogre, snore louder than nature

To excuse your gloomy skin from worse than thwacks.

Wait for me, Nureddene.

Exit.

ANICE

They will be angry.

 

NUREDDENE

Oh, with two smiles I'll buy an easy pardon.

 

ANICE

Whatever comes, we are each other's now.

 

NUREDDENE

Nothing will come to us but happy days,

You, my surpassing jewel, on my neck

Closer to me than my own heartbeats.

 

ANICE

Yes,

Closer than kisses, closer than delight,

Close only as love whom sorrow and delight

Cannot diminish, nor long absence change

Nor daily prodigality of joy

Expend immortal love.

 

NUREDDENE

You have the lore.

Doonya returns.

DOONYA

I have told Nuzhath to call mother here.

There will be such a gentle storm.

Enter Ameena at the door.

Page – 52


AMEENA

Harkoos!

Sleeping?

 

HAROOKS

Gmn —  mmn —

 

DOONYA

Grunted almost like nature,

Thou excellent giant.

 

AMEENA

Harkoos, dost thou sleep?

 

HAROOKS

Sleep! I! I was only pondering a text of Koran with closed eyes, lady. You give us slaves pitiful small time for our devotions; but 'twill all be accounted for hereafter.

 

AMEENA

And canst thou meditate beneath the lash?

For there thou'lt shortly be.

 

HAROOKS

Stick or leather, 'tis all one to Harkoos. I will not be cudgelled out of my straight road to Paradise.

 

AMEENA

My mind misgives me.

(enters the room)

Was this well done, my child?

 

NUREDDENE

Dear, think the chiding given; do not pain

Your forehead with a frown.

Page – 53


AMEENA

You, Doonya, too

Were part of this?

 

DOONYA

Part! you shall not abate

My glory; I am its artificer,

The auxiliary and supplement of Fate.

 

AMEENA

Quite shameless in your disobedience, Doonya?

Your father's anger will embrace us all.

 

NUREDDENE

And nothing worse than the embrace which ends

A chiding and a smile, our fault deserves.

You had a gift for me in your sweet hands

Concealed behind you; I have but reached round

And taken it ere you knew.

 

AMEENA

For you, my son?

She was not for you, she was for the King.

This was your worst fault, child; all others venial

Beside it.

 

NUREDDENE

For the King! You told me, Doonya,

That she was bought for me, a kind surprise

Intended?

 

DOONYA

I did; exact!

 

AMEENA

Such falsehood, Doonya!

Page – 55


DOONYA

No falsehood, none. Purchased she was for him,

For he has got her. And surprise! Well, mother,

Are you not quite surprised? And uncle will be

Most woefully. My cousin and Anice too

Are both caught napping, —  all except great Doonya.

No falsehood, mere excess of truth, a bold

Anticipation of the future, mother.

 

NUREDDENE

I did not know of this. Yet blame not Doonya;

For had I known, I would have run with haste

More breathless to demand my own from Fate.

 

AMEENA

What will your father think? I am afraid.

He was most urgent, grave beyond his wont.

Absent yourself awhile and let me bear

The first keen breathings of his anger.

 

NUREDDENE

The King!

And if he were the Caliph of the world,

He should not have my love. Come, fellow-culprit.

Exit with Doonya.

AMEENA

Harkoos, go fetch your master here; and stiffen

The muscles of your back. Negligent servant!

 

HAROOKS

'Tis all one to Harkoos. Stick or leather! leather or stick! 'Tis the way of this wicked and weary world.

Exit.

AMEENA

Yet, Anice, tell me, is't too late? Alas!

Page – 55


Your cheeks and lowered eyes confess the fault.

I fear your nature and your nurture, child,

Are not so beautiful as is your face.

Could you not have forbidden this?

 

ANICE

Lady,

Remember my condition. Can a slave

Forbid or order? We are only trained

To meek and quick obedience; and what's virtue

In freemen is in us a deep offence.

Do you command your passions, not on us

Impose that service; 'tis not in our part.

 

AMEENA

You have a clever brain and a quick tongue.

And yet this speech was hardly like a slave's!

I will not blame you.

 

ANICE

I deny not, lady,

My heart consented to this fault.

 

AMEENA

I know

Who 'twas besieged you, girl, and do not blame

Your heart for yielding where it had no choice.

Go in.

Exit Anice. Enter Harkoos and Ibn Sawy.

IBN SAWY

I hope, I hope that has not chanced

Which I have striven to prevent. This slave

Grins only and mutters gibberish to my questions.

 

AMEENA

The worst.

 

Page – 56


IBN SAWY

Why, so! the folly was my own

And I must bear its heavy consequence.

Sir, you shall have your wage for what has happened.

 

HAROOKS

The way of the world. Whose peg's loose? Beat Harkoos. Because my young master would climb through the wrong window and mistake a rope-ladder for the staircase, my back must ache. Was the windowsill my post? Have I wings to stand upon air or a Djinn's eye to see through wood? How bitter is injustice!

 

IBN SAWY

You shall be thrashed for your poor gift of lying.

 

AMEENA

Blame none; it was unalterable fate.

 

IBN SAWY

That name by which we put our sins on God,

Yet shall not so escape. 'Twas our indulgence

Moulded the boy and made him fit for sin;

Which now, by our past mildness hampered quite,

We cannot punish without tyranny.

Offences we have winked at, when they knocked

At foreign doors, how shall we look at close

When they come striking home?

 

AMEENA

What will you do?

 

IBN SAWY

The offence here merits death, but not the offender.

Easy solution if the sin could die

And leave the sinner living!

Page – 57


AMEENA

Vizier, you are perplexed, to talk like this.

Because a little's broken, break not more.

Let Nureddene have Anice-aljalice,

As Fate intended. Buy another slave

Fairer than she is for great Alzayni's bed,

Return his money to the treasury

And cover up this fault.

 

IBN SAWY

With lies?

 

AMEENA

With silence.

 

IBN SAWY

Will God be silent? will my enemies?

The son of Khakan silent? Ameena,

My children have conspired my shame and death.

 

AMEENA

Face not the thing so mournfully. Vizier, you want

A woman's wit beside you in the Court.

Muene may speak; will you be dumb? Whom then

Will the King trust? Collect your wits, be bold,

Be subtle; guard yourself, protect your child.

 

IBN SAWY

You urge me on a road my weaker heart

Chooses, not reason. But consider, dame,

If we excuse such gross and violent fault

Done in our house, what hope to save our boy, —

Oh, not his body, but the soul within?

'Twill petrify in vice and grow encrusted

With evil as with a leprosy.

Page – 58


AMEENA

Do this.

Show a fierce anger, have a gleaming knife

Close at his throat, let him be terrified.

Then I'll come in with tears and seem to save him

On pledge of fairer conduct.

 

IBN SAWY

This has a promise.

Give me a knife and let me try to frame

My looks to anger.

 

AMEENA

Harkoos, a dagger here!

Harkoos gives his dagger.

IBN SAWY

But see you come not in too early anxious

And mar the game.

 

AMEENA

Trust me.

 

IBN SAWY

Go, call my son,

Harkoos; let him not know that I am here.

Exit Harkoos.

Go, Ameena.

Exit Ameena.

Plays oft have serious fruit,

'Tis seen; then why not this? 'tis worth the trial.

Prosper or fail, I must do something quickly

Before I go upon the Caliph's work

To Roum the mighty. But I hear him come.

Enter Nureddene and Harkoos.

 

Page – 59


NUREDDENE

You're sure of it? You shall have gold for this

Kind treason.

 

HAROOKS

Trust Harkoos; and if he beats me,

Why, sticks are sticks and leather is but leather.

 

NUREDDENE

Father!

 

IBN SAWY

O rascal, traitor, villain, imp!

He throws him down on a couch and

holds him under his dagger.

I'll father you. Prepare, prepare your soul,

Your black and crime-encrusted soul for hell.

I'm death and not your father.

 

NUREDDENE

Mother, quick!

Help, mother!

Ameena comes hurrying in.

The poor dear old man is mad.

 

IBN SAWY

Ahh, woman! wherefore do you come so soon?

 

NUREDDENE

How his eyes roll! Satan, abandon him.

Take him off quickly.

 

IBN SAWY

Take me off, you villain?

 

NUREDDENE

Tickle him in the ribs, that's the best way.

 

Page – 60


IBN SAWY

Tickle me in the ribs! Impudent villain!

I'll cut your throat.

 

AMEENA (frightened)

Husband, what do you? think,

He is your only son.

 

IBN SAWY

And preferable

I had not him. Better no son than bad ones.

 

NUREDDENE

Is there no help then?

 

IBN SAWY

None; prepare!

 

NUREDDENE

All right.

But let me lie a little easier first.

 

IBN SAWY

Lie easier! Rogue, your impudence amazes.

You shall lie easier soon on coals of hell.

 

AMEENA

This goes no farther.

 

ANICE (looking in)

They are in angry talk.

Oh, kill me rather!

 

NUREDDENE

Waste not your terrors, sweetheart.

We are rehearsing an old comedy,

"The tyrant father and his graceless son".

Page – 61


Foolish old man!

 

IBN SAWY

What! what!

 

NUREDDENE

See now the end

Of all your headstrong moods and wicked rages

You would indulge yourself in, though I warned you,

Against your gallant handsome virtuous son.

And now they have turned your brain! Vicious indulgence,

How bitter-dusty is thy fruit! Be warned

And put a rein on anger, curb in wrath,

That enemy of man. Oh, thou art grown

A sad example to all angry fathers!

 

IBN SAWY

Someone had told you of this. (to Harkoos) Grinning villain!

 

HAROOKS

Oh yes, it is I, of course. Your peg's loose; beat Harkoos.

 

IBN SAWY

My peg, you rogue! I'll loose your peg for you.

 

NUREDDENE

No, father, let him be, and hear me out.

I swear it was not out of light contempt

For your high dignity and valued life

More precious to me than my blood, if I

Transgressed your will in this. I knew not of it,

Nor that you meant my Anice for the King.

For me I thought her purchased, so was told,

And still believe religiously that Fate

Brought her to Bassora only for me.

Page – 62


IBN SAWY

It was a fault, my child.

 

NUREDDENE

Which I cannot repent.

IBN SAWY

You are my son, generous and true and bold,

Though faulty. Take the slave-girl then, but swear

Never hereafter mistress, slave or wife

Lies in your arms but only she; neither,

Until herself desire it, mayst thou sell her.

Swear this and keep thy love.

 

NUREDDENE

I swear it.

IBN SAWY

Leave us.

Exit Nureddene.

Anice, in care for thee I have required

This oath from him, which he, perhaps, will keep.

Do thou requite it; be to him no less

Than a dear wife.

 

ANICE

How noble is the nature

That prompts you to enforce on great offenders

Their dearest wishes!

 

IBN SAWY

Go in, my child; go, Anice.

Exit Anice.

Last night of my departure hence to Roum

To parley with the Greek for great Haroun

I spoke with you, and my long year of absence, —

 

Page – 63


AMEENA

It is a weary time.

 

IBN SAWY

Wherein much evil

May chance; and therefore will I leave my children

As safe as God permits. Doonya to nuptials.

The son of Khakan wants her for his cub,

But shall not have her. One shall marry her

Who has the heart and hand to guard her well.

 

AMEENA

Who, husband?

 

IBN SAWY

Murad, Captain of the City.

He rises daily in Alzayni's favour.

 

AMEENA

He is a Turk. Our noble Arab branch

Were ill engrafted on that savage stock.

 

IBN SAWY

A prejudice. There is no stock in Islam

Except the Prophet. For our Nureddene,

I will divide my riches in two halves,

Leave one to him and one for you with Murad,

While you are with your kin or seem to be.

 

AMEENA

Oh wherefore this?

 

IBN SAWY

'Tis likely that the boy,

Left here in sole command, will waste his wealth

And come to evil. If he's sober, well;

If not, when he is bare as any rock,

Page – 64


Abandoned by his friends, spewed out by all,

It may be that in this sharp school and beaten

With savage scourges the wild blood in him

May learn sobriety and noble use:

Then rescue him, assist his better nature.

And we shall see too how the loves endure

Betwixt him and the Persian; whether she

Deserves her monarchy in his wild will,

Or, even deserving, keeps it.

 

AMEENA

But, dear husband,

Shall I not see my boy for a whole year?

 

IBN SAWY

No tears! Consider it the punishment

Of our too fond indulgent love, —  happy

If that be worst. All will end well, I hope,

And I returning, glad, to Bassora

Embrace a son reformed, a happy niece

Nursing her babe, and you, the gentle mother

Like the sweet kindly earth whose patient love

Embraces even our faults and sins. Grant it,

O Allah, if it be at all Thy will.

Exeunt.

Page – 65


Scene 4

 

A room in Ajebe's house.

Ajebe.

 

AJEBE

Balkis, do come, my heart.

Enter Balkis.

BALKIS

Your will?

 

AJEBE

My will!

When had I any will since you came here,

You rigorous tyrant?

 

BALKIS

Was it for abuse

You called me?

 

AJEBE

Bring your lute and sing to me.

 

BALKIS

I am not in the mood.

 

AJEBE

Sing, I entreat you.

I am hungry for your voice of pure delight.

 

BALKIS

I am no kabob, nor my voice a curry.

Page – 66


Hungry, forsooth!

Exit.

AJEBE

Oh, Balkis, Balkis! hear me.

Enter Mymoona.

MYMOONA

It's useless calling; she is in her moods.

And there's your Vizier getting down from horse

In the doorway.

AJEBE

I will go and bring him up.

Mymoona, coax her for me, will you, girl?

Exit.

MYMOONA

It is as good to meet a mangy dog

As this same uncle of ours. He seldom comes.

She conceals herself behind a curtain.

Re-enter Ajebe with Almuene.

ALMUENE

He goes tomorrow? Well. And Nureddene

The scapegrace holds his wealth in hand? Much better.

I always said he was a fool. (to himself ) Easily

I might confound him with this flagrant lapse

About the slave-girl. But wait! wait! He gone,

His memory waned, his riches squandered quite,

I'll ruin his son, ruin the insolent Turk

He has preferred to my Fareed. His Doonya

And Anice slave-girls to my lusty boy,

His wife —  but she escapes. It is enough.

They come back to a desolate house. Oh, let

Their forlorn wrinkles hug an empty nest

In life's cold leafless winter! Meanwhile I set

 

Page – 67


My seal on every room in the King's heart;

He finds no chamber open when he comes.

 

AJEBE

Uncle, you ponder things of weight?

 

ALMUENE

No, Ajebe;

Trifles, mere trifles. You're a friend, I think,

Of Ibn Sawy's son?

 

AJEBE

We drink together.

 

ALMUENE

Right, right! Would you have place, power, honours, gold,

Or is your narrow soul content with ease?

 

AJEBE

Why, uncle!

 

ALMUENE

Do you dread death? furious disgrace?

Or beggary that's worse than either? Do you?

 

AJEBE

All men desire those blessings, fear these ills.

 

ALMUENE

They shall be yours in overflowing measure,

Good, if you serve me, ill, if you refuse.

 

AJEBE

What service?

 

ALMUENE

Ruin wanton Nureddene.

Page – 68


Gorge him with riot and excess; rob him

Under a friendly guise; force him to spend

Till he's a beggar. Most, delude him on

To prone extremity of drunken shame

Which he shall feel, yet have no power to check.

Drench all his senses in vile profligacy,

Not mere light gallantries, but gutter filth,

Though you have to share it. Do this and you're made;

But this undone, you are yourself undone.

Eight months I give you. No, attend me not.

Exit.

AJEBE

Mymoona! girl, where are you?

 

MYMOONA

Here, here, behind you.

 

AJEBE

A Satan out of hell has come to me.

 

MYMOONA

A Satan, truly, and he'ld make you one,

Damning you down into the deepest hell of all.

 

AJEBE

What shall I do?

 

MYMOONA

Not what he tells you to.

 

AJEBE

Yet if I do not, I am gone. No man

In Bassora could bear his heavy wrath.

On the other side —

Page – 69


MYMOONA

Leave the other side. 'Tis true,

The dog will keep his word in evil; for good,

'Tis brittle, brittle. But you cannot do it;

Our Balkis loves his Anice so completely.

 

AJEBE

Girl, girl, my life and goods are on the die.

 

MYMOONA

Do one thing.

 

AJEBE

I will do what you shall bid me.

 

MYMOONA

He has some vile companions, has he not?

 

AJEBE

Cafoor and Ayoob and the rest; a gang

Of pleasant roisterers without heart or mind.

 

MYMOONA

Whisper the thing to them; yourself do nothing.

Check him at times. Whatever else you do,

Take not his gifts; they are the price of shame.

If he is ruined, as without their urging

Is likely, Satan's satisfied; if not,

We'll flee from Bassora when there's no help.

 

AJEBE

You have a brain. Yet if I must be vile,

A bolder vileness best becomes a man.

 

MYMOONA

And Balkis?

Page – 70


AJEBE

True.

 

MYMOONA

Be safe, be safe. The rest

Is doubtful, but one truth is sadly sure,

That dead men cannot love.

 

AJEBE

I'll think of it.

Mymoona, leave me; send your sister here.

Exit Mymoona.

The thing's too vile! and yet —  honours and place,

And to set Balkis on a kingdom's crest

Breaking and making men with her small hands

The lute's too large for! But the way is foul.

Enter Balkis.

BALKIS

What's your command?

 

AJEBE

Bring me your lute and sing.

I'm sad and troubled. Cross me not, my girl;

My temper's wry.

 

BALKIS

Oh, threats?

 

AJEBE

Remember still

You are a slave, however by my love

Pampered, and sometimes think upon the scourge.

 

BALKIS

Do, do! Yes, beat me! Or why beat me only?

Kill me, as you have killed my heart already

Page – 71


With your harsh words. I knew, I knew what all

Your love would end in. Oh! oh! oh! (weeps)

 

AJEBE

Forgive me,

O sweetest heart. I swear I did not mean it.

 

BALKIS

Because in play I sometimes speak a little —

O scourge me, kill me!

 

AJEBE

'Twas a jest, a jest!

Tear not my heart with sobs. Look, Balkis, love,

You shall have necklaces worth many thousands,

Pearls, rubies, if you only will not weep.

 

BALKIS

I am a slave and only fit for scourging,

Not pearls and rubies. Mymoona! oh, Mymoona!

Bring him a scourge and me a cup of poison.

Exit.

AJEBE

She plays upon me as upon her lute.

I'm as inert, as helpless, as completely

Ruled by her moods, as dumbly pleasureless

By her light hands untouched. How to appease her?

Mymoona! oh, Mymoona!

Exit.

Page – 72