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 III

 

The Palace in Antioch. Under the hills.

 

Scene 1

 

The Audience-Chamber in the Palace.

Nicanor, Phayllus and others seated; Eunice, Philoctetes, Thoas

apart near the dais.

 

THOAS

Is it patent? Is he the elder? do we know?

 

EUNICE

Should he not rule?

 

THOAS

If Fate were wise, he should.

 

EUNICE

Will Timocles sack great Persepolis?

Sooner I think Phraates will couch here,

The mighty, steadfast, patient, subtle man,

And from the loiterer take, the sensualist

Antioch of the Seleucidae.

 

THOAS

Perhaps.

But shall I rise against the country's laws

That harbours me? The sword I draw, is hers.

 

Page – 248


EUNICE

Are law and justice always one? Reflect.

 

THOAS

If justice is offended, I will strike.

He withdraws to another part of the hall.

EUNICE

The man is wise, but when ambition's heaped

In a great bosom, Fate takes quickly fire.

It only needs the spark.

 

PHILOCTETES

Is it only that

That's needed? there shall be the spark.

He withdraws.

EUNICE

Fate or else Chance

Work out the rest. I have given your powers a lead.

Nicanor, who has drawn near, stops before her.

NICANOR

Your council's finished then?

 

EUNICE

What council, father?

 

NICANOR

I have seen, though I have not spoken. Meddle not

In things too great for you. This realm and nation

Are not a skein for weaving fine intrigues

In your shut chambers.

 

EUNICE

We have other sports.

What do you mean?

 

Page – 249


NICANOR

See less Antiochus.

Carry not there your daring spirit and free rein

To passion and ambition nor your bright scorn

Of every law that checks your headstrong will.

Or must I find a curb that shall restrain you?

He withdraws.

EUNICE

My prudent father! These men think that wisdom

Is tied up to beards. We too have heads

And finer brains within them, as I think!

She goes up on the dais. Leosthenes, Callicrates

and others enter together.

THOAS

Leosthenes from Parthia! Speeds the war?

 

LEOSTHENES

It waits a captain.

 

THOAS

It shall have today

A king of captains.

 

LEOSTHENES

I have seen the boy.

But there's a mystery? Shall he be the king?

 

THOAS

If Fate agrees with Nature.

 

LEOSTHENES

Neither can err

So utterly, I think; for, if they could,

Man's will would have a claim to unseat Fate,

Which cannot be.

 

Page – 250


Cleopatra enters with Antiochus and

Timocles; Cleone, Rodogune in attendance,

the latter richly robed.

PHILOCTETES

See where she places him!

 

THOAS

'Tis on her right!

 

PHAYLLUS

It is a woman's ruse.

Or must I at disadvantage play the game

With this strong piece against?

 

CLEOPATRA

The strong Antiochus has gone too early

Down the dim gorges to that silent world

Where we must one day follow him. A younger hand

Takes up his sceptre and controls his sword.

These are the Syrian twins, Nicanor's sons,

These are Antiochus and Timocles.

Why so long buried, why their right oppressed,

Why their precedence tyrannously concealed,

Forget. Forget old griefs, old hatreds; let them rest

Inurned, nor from their night recover them.

 

NICANOR

We need not raise the curtains that conceal

Things long inurned, but lest by this one doubt

The dead past lay a dark and heavy hand

Upon our fairer future, let us swear

The Queen shall be obeyed as if she spoke

For Heaven. Betwixt the all-seeing gods and her

Confine all cause of quarrel.

 

Page – 251


PHAYLLUS

Let the princes swear;

For how can subjects jar if they agree?

 

CLEOPATRA

O not with oaths compel the Syrian blood!

My sons, do you consent?

 

TIMOCLES

Your sovereign will must rule,

Mother, your children and our fraternal kindness

Will drown the loser's natural chagrin

In joy at the other's joy.

 

CLEOPATRA

Antiochus, my son!

 

ANTIOCHUS

Your question, Madam, was for Timocles;

From me it needs no answer.

 

PHAYLLUS

You accept

Your mother's choice?

 

ANTIOCHUS

God's choice. My mother speaks

A thing concealed, not one unsettled.

 

PHAYLLUS

Prince,

Syria demands a plainer answer here.

 

ANTIOCHUS

Who art thou? Art thou of Seleucus' blood

Who questionest Syria's kings?

 

Page – 252


CLEOPATRA

Enough. My sons

Will know how to respect their kingly birth.

Today begins another era. Rise,

Princess of Parthia; sit upon this throne,

Phraates' daughter; thou art peace and love

And must today be crowned. Marvel not, Syrians;

For it is peace my envoys bear by now

Upon their saddles to Persepolis.

 

THOAS

This was a secret haste!

 

LEOSTHENES

Is it possible?

We had our heel upon the Parthian's throat.

 

CLEOPATRA

Since Parthia swept through the Iranian East

Wrecking the mighty Macedonian's toil,

War sways for ever like a darkened sea

In turmoil twixt our realms. How many heart-strings

Have broken, what tears of anguish have been wept

And eyes sought eastward unreturning eyes!

Joy has been buried in the blood-drenched sands.

Vain blood, vain weeping! Earth was made so wide

That many might have majesty and joy

Upon one mother's equal breast. But we

Arresting others' portions lose our own.

Nations that conquer widest, perish first,

Sapped by the hate of an uneasy world.

Then they are wisest victors who in time

Knowing the limits of their prosperous fate

Avoid the violence of Heaven. Syrians,

After loud battles I have founded glorious peace.

That fair work I began as Syria's queen;

To seal it Syria's king must not refuse.

 

Page – 253


ANTIOCHUS

I do refuse it. There shall be no peace.

 

CLEOPATRA

My son!

 

ANTIOCHUS

Peace! Are the Parthians at our gates?

Has not alarm besieged Ecbatana?

When was it ever seen or heard till now

That victors sued for peace? And this the reason,

A woman's reason, because many have bled

And more have wept. It is the tears, the blood

Prodigally spent that build a nation's greatness.

I here annul this peace, this woman's peace,

I will proclaim with noise of victories

Its revocation.

 

PHAYLLUS

Now!

 

THOAS

Thou speakest, King!

 

TIMOCLES

You are not crowned as yet, Antiochus.

 

ANTIOCHUS

Syria forbids it, Syria's destiny

Sends forth her lion voices from the hills

Where trumpets blare towards Persepolis,

Forbidding peace.

 

CLEOPATRA

We do not sue for peace,

My son, but give peace, taking provinces

And taking Rodogune.

 

Page – 254


TIMOCLES

Who twenty times

Outweighs all hero's actions and exceeds

Earth's widest conquests.

 

ANTIOCHUS

For her and provinces!

O worse disgrace! The sword had won us these.

We wrong the mighty dead who conquered. Provinces!

Whose soil are they that we must sue for them?

The princess! She's my prisoner, is she not?

Must I entreat the baffled Parthian then

What I shall do with my own slave-girl here

In Antioch, in my palace? Queen of Syria,

This was ignobly done.

 

CLEOPATRA

I know you do not love me; in your cold heart

Love finds no home; but still I am your mother.

You will respect me thus when you are king?

 

ANTIOCHUS

I will respect you in your place, enshrined

In your apartments, governing your women,

Not Syria.

 

CLEOPATRA

Leave it. You will not think of peace?

 

ANTIOCHUS

Yes, when our armies reach Persepolis.

 

MELITUS

How desperate looks the Queen! What comes of this?

 

NICANOR (who has been watching Eunice)

End this debate; let Syria know her king.

Cleopatra rises and stands silent for a moment.

 

Page – 255


TIMOCLES

Mother!

 

CLEOPATRA

Behold your king!

 

MENTHO

She has done it, gods!

There is an astonished silence.

NICANOR

Speak once more, daughter of high Ptolemy,

Remembering God. Speak, have we understood?

Is Timocles our king?

 

CLEOPATRA (with a mechanical and rigid gesture)

Behold your king!

Nicanor makes a motion of assent as

to the accomplished fact.

NICANOR

Let then the King ascend his throne.

 

LEOSTHENES (half-rising)

Thoas!

 

PHILOCTETES

Speak, King Antiochus, God's chosen king

Who art, not Cleopatra's.

 

THOAS

Speak, Antiochus.

 

ANTIOCHUS

Why didst thou give to me alone the name

Of Syria's princes? why upon thy right

Hast seated me? or wherefore mad'st thou terms

For that near time when I should be the king,

 

Page – 256


Chaffering for my consent with arguments

Unneeded if the younger were preferred?

Wilt thou invoke the gods to seal this lie?

 

CLEOPATRA

Dost thou insult me thus before my world?

Ascend the throne, my son.

 

ANTIOCHUS

Stay, Timocles.

Make not such haste, my brother, to supplant

Thy elder.

 

TIMOCLES

My elder?

He looks at Cleopatra.

CLEOPATRA

I have spoken the truth.

 

MENTHO

Thou hast not; thou art delivered of a lie,

A monstrous lie.

 

CLEONE

Silence, thou swarthy slave!

 

MENTHO

I'll not be silent. She offends the gods.

I am Mentho the Egyptian, she who saw

The royal children born. She lies to you,

O Syrians. Royal young Antiochus

Was first on earth.

 

THOAS

The truth breaks out at last.

 

Page – 257


PHAYLLUS

This is a slave the surplus mud of Nile

Engendered. Shall we wrong the Queen by hearing her?

 

MENTHO

I was a noble Egyptian's wife in Memphis,

No slave, thou Syrian mongrel, and my word

May stand against a perjured queen's.

 

EUNICE (leaning forward)

 

Is't done?

Nicanor who has been hesitating, observes

her action and stands forward to speak.

NICANOR

The royal blood of Egypt cannot lie.

Shall Syria's queen be questioned? Shall common words

Of common men be weighed against the breath of kings?

Let not wild strife arise, O princes, let it not.

Antiochus, renounce unfilial pride;

Wound not thy mother and thy motherland,

Son of Nicanor.

 

THOAS

Shall a lie prevail?

 

NICANOR (looking again at Eunice)

It was settled then among you! Be it so.

My sword is bare. I stand for Syria's king.

 

PHILOCTETES (in the midst of a general hesitation)

Egyptian Philoctetes takes thy challenge,

Nicanor.

 

ANTIOCHUS

Who is for me in Syria?

 

Page – 258


THOAS

I set my sword

Against Nicanor's.

 

LEOSTHENES

I am Leosthenes.

I draw my victor steel for King Antiochus.

 

ANTIOCHUS

Who else for me?

 

OTHERS

I! I! and I! and I!

 

CALLICRATES AND OTHERS

We for King Timocles.

 

LEOSTHENES

Slay them, cut down

The party of the liars.

There is a shouting and tumult with

drawing and movement of swords.

NICANOR

Protect the King.

Let insolent revolt at once be quenched

And sink in its own blood.

 

LEOSTHENES

I slay all strife

With the usurper.

 

THOAS

Stay, stay, Leosthenes.

 

ANTIOCHUS

Forbear! forbear, I say! let all be still!

 

Page – 259


The great Seleucus' house shall not be made

A shambles. Not by vulgar riot, not

By fratricidal murder will I climb

Into my throne, but up the heroic steps

Of ordered battle. Brother Timocles,

That oft-kissed head is sacred from my sword.

Nicanor, thou hast thrown the challenge down;

I lift it up.

 

CLEOPATRA

O, hear me, son Antiochus.

 

ANTIOCHUS

I have renounced thee for my mother.

 

RODOGUNE

Alas!

 

CLEOPATRA

O wretched woman!

She hurries out followed by Rodogune,

Eunice and Cleone.

NICANOR

Thou shalt not do this evil,

Though millions help thee.

He goes out with Timocles, Phayllus,

Callicrates and the others of his party.

PHILOCTETES

Can we hold the house

And seize the city? We are many here.

 

THOAS

Nicanor's troops hold Antioch.

 

Page – 260


LEOSTHENES

Not here, not here.

Out to the army on the marches! There

Is Syria's throne, not here in Antioch.

 

ANTIOCHUS

Mentho,

Go with us. Gather swiftly all our strength,

Then out to Parthia!

Page – 261


Scene 2

 

A hall in the Palace.

Rodogune, Eunice.

 

RODOGUNE

God gave my heart and mind; they are not hers

To force into this vile adultery.

I am a Parthian princess, of a race

Who choose one lord and cleave to him for ever

Through death, through fire, through swords, in hell, in heaven.

 

EUNICE

The Queen's too broken. It was Phayllus said it.

He has leaped into the saddle of affairs

And is already master. What can we hope for

Left captive in such hands? Not Syria's throne

Shall you ascend beside your chosen lord,

But as a slave the bed of Timocles.

 

RODOGUNE

If we remain! But who remains to die?

In Parthian deserts, in Antiochus' tents!

There we can smile at danger.

 

EUNICE

Yes, oh, yes!

Deserts for us are safe, not Antioch. Come.

Antiochus and Philoctetes enter from without.

ANTIOCHUS

I sought for you, Eunice, Rodogune.

To saddle! for our bridal pomp and torches

 

Page – 262


Are other than we looked for.

Phayllus enters from within with Theras.

PHAYLLUS

Today, no later.

The Egyptian rebel ravishes our queen!

Help! help!

 

ANTIOCHUS

Off, Syrian weasel!

He flings off Phayllus and goes out with

Eunice, Rodogune, Philoctetes.

PHAYLLUS

Theras, pursue them!

Theras hastens out; Phayllus rushes to the window.

Antiochus escapes! Oppose him, sentinels.

A thousand pieces for his head! He's through.

O for a speedy arrow!

Timocles enters with Cleone.

TIMOCLES

Who escapes?

 

PHAYLLUS

Thy brother, forcing with him Rodogune,

And with them fled Eunice.

 

TIMOCLES

Rodogune!

 

PHAYLLUS

By force he carried her.

 

TIMOCLES

O no, she went

Smiling and glad. O thou unwise Phayllus,

 

Page – 263


Why dost thou stay with me, a man that's doomed?

He will come back and mount his father's throne

And rule the nations. Why wouldst thou be slain?

All, all's for him and ever was. I have had

Light loves, light friends, but no one ever loved me

Whom I desired. So was it in our boyhood's days,

So it persists. He is preferred in heaven

And earth is his and his humanity.

Even my own mother is a Niobe

Because he has renounced her.

 

PHAYLLUS

I understand,

Seeing this, the reason.

 

TIMOCLES

Why should he always have the things I prize?

What is his friendship but a selfish need

Of souls to unbosom himself to, who will share,

Mirror and serve his greatness? Yet it was he

The clear discerning Philoctetes chose;

Upon his shoulder leaned my royal uncle

Preferring him to admonish and to love;

On me he only smiled as one too light

For praise or censure. What's his kingliness

But a lust of grandiose slaughter, an ambition

Almost inhuman and a haughty mind

That lifts itself above the highest heads

As if his mortal body held a god

And all were mean to him? Yet proudest men,

Thoas, Theramenes, Leosthenes,

Become unasked his servants. What's his love?

A despot's sensual longing for a slave,

Carnal, imperious, harsh, without respect,

The hunger of the vital self, not raised,

Refined, uplifted to the yearning heart.

Yet Rodogune, my Rodogune to him

 

Page – 264


Has offered up her moonlit purity,

Her secret need of sweetness. O she has

Unveiled to him her sweet proud heart of love.

She would not look at me who worshipped her.

You too, Phayllus, go, Cleone, go

And serve him in his tents: the future's there,

Not on this brittle throne with which the gods

In idle sport have mocked me.

 

PHAYLLUS

There must be a man

Somewhere within this!

 

CLEONE

You shall not speak so to him.

Look round, King Timocles, and see how many

Prefer you to your brother. I am yours,

Phayllus works for you, princely Nicanor

Protects you, famed Callicrates supports.

Your mother only weeps in fear for you,

Not passion for your brother.

 

TIMOCLES

Rodogune

Has left me.

 

PHAYLLUS

We will have her back. Today

Began, today shall end this rash revolt.

Rise up, King Timocles, and be thyself,

Possess thy throne, recover Rodogune.

 

TIMOCLES

I cannot live unless you bring her back.

 

PHAYLLUS

That is already seen to. My couriers ride

 

Page – 265


Before them to Thrasyllus on the hills.

Their flight will founder there.

 

TIMOCLES

O subtle, quick

And provident Phayllus! Thou, thou, deviser,

Art the sole minister for me. Cleone,

The gods have made thee wholly beautiful

That thou mightst love me.

He goes out with Cleone.

PHAYLLUS

Minister! That's something,

Not all I work for.

(to Theras who enters)

Well?

THERAS

He has escaped.

Your throw this time was bungled, Chancellor.

 

PHAYLLUS

I saw his rapid flight; but afterwards?

 

THERAS

The band of Syrian Phliaps kept the gates.

We shouted loud, but he more quick, more high,

Like some clear-voiced Tyrrhenian trumpet cried,

"Syrians, I am your king," and they at once,

"Hail, glorious King!" and followed at his word,

Galloping, till on the Orient road they seemed

Like specks on a white ribbon.

 

PHAYLLUS

Let them go.

There's yet Thrasyllus. Or if he returns,

Though gods should help, though victory march his friend,

I am here to meet him.

 

Page – 266


Scene 3

 

Under the Syrian hills.

Antiochus, his generals, soldiers; Eunice, Rodogune, Mentho.

 

ANTIOCHUS

What god has moved them from their passes sheer

Where they were safe from me?

 

THOAS

They have had word,

No doubt, to take us living.

 

LEOSTHENES

On!

 

THOAS

They are

Three thousand, we six hundred armed men.

Shall we go forward?

 

LEOSTHENES

Onward, still, I say!

 

ANTIOCHUS

Yes, on! I turn not back lest my proud Fate

Avert her eyes from me. A hundred guard

The princesses.

He goes, followed by Thoas,

Leosthenes, Philoctetes.

EUNICE

He'll break them like sea-spray;

 

Page – 267


They shall not stand before him.

 

RODOGUNE

You missioned angels, guard Antiochus.

As she speaks, the Eremite

enters and regards her.

EUNICE

He is through them, he is through them! How they scatter

Before his sword! My warrior!

 

RODOGUNE

Who is this man,

Eunice? He is terrible to me.

 

EREMITE

Who art thou rather, born to be a torch

To kingdoms? Is not thy beauty, rightly seen,

More terrible to men than monstrous forms

Which only frighten?

 

EUNICE

What if kingdoms burn,

So they burn grandly?

 

EREMITE

Spirits like thine think so.

Princess of Antioch, hast thou left thy father

To follow younger eyes? Alas, thou knowst not

Where they shall lead thee! It is to gates accursed

And by a dolorous journey.

 

EUNICE

Beyond all portals

I'ld follow! I am a woman of the Greeks

Who fear not death nor hell.

Antiochus returns.

 

Page – 268


ANTIOCHUS

Our swords have hewn

A road for us. Who is this flamen?

 

EREMITE

Hail!

"Rejoice" I cannot say, but greet Antiochus

Who never shall be king.

 

ANTIOCHUS

Who art thou, speak,

Who barst with such ill-omened words my way

Discouraging new-born victory? What thou knowest,

Declare! Curb not thy speech. I have a mind

Stronger than omens.

 

EREMITE

I am the appointed voice

Who come to tell thee thou shalt not be king,

But at thy end shall yield to destiny

For all thy greatness, genius, pride and force

Even as the tree that falls. March then no farther,

For in thy path Fate hostile stands.

 

ANTIOCHUS

If Fate

Would have me yield, let her first break me. On!

 

EREMITE

The guardians of the path then wait for thee

Vigilant lest the world's destiny be foiled

By human greatness. March on to thy doom.

 

ANTIOCHUS

I will. Straight on, whatever doom it be!

 

Page – 269


EREMITE

Farewell, thou mighty Syrian, soul misled,

Strength born untimely! We shall meet again

When death shall lead thee into Antioch.

He goes.

ANTIOCHUS

March.

Page – 270