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

 

 

 

 

A page of Vasavadutta

 


Eric

A Dramatic Romance

 


Characters

 

ERIC

SWEGN

GUNTHAR

HARDICNUT

RAGNAR

HARALD

 

ASLAUG

HERTHA

 


Act I

Eric's Palace at Yara.

Scene 1

ERIC

Eric of Norway, first whom these cold fiords,

Deep havens of disunion, from their jagged

And fissured crevices at last obey,

The monarch of a thousand Vikings! Yes,

But how long shall that monarchy endure

Which only on the swiftness of a sword

Has taken its restless seat? Strength's iron hound

Pitilessly bright behind his panting prey

Can guard for life's short splendour what it won.

But when the sword is broken or when death

Proves swifter? All this realm with labour built

Dissolving like a transitory cloud

Becomes the thing it was, cleft, parcelled out

By discord. I have found the way to join,

The warrior's sword, builder of unity,

But where's the way to solder? where? O Thor

And Odin, masters of the northern world,

Wisdom and force I have; some strength is hidden

I have not; I would find it out. Help me,

Whatever power thou art who mov'st the world,

To Eric unrevealed. Some sign I ask.

 

ASLAUG (singing, outside)

Love is the hoop of the gods

Hearts to combine.

 

Page – 533


Iron is broken, the sword

Sleeps in the grave of its lord.

Love is divine.

Love is the hoop of the gods

Hearts to combine.

 

ERIC

Is that your answer? Freya, mother of heaven,

Thou wast forgotten. The heart! the seat is there.

For unity is sweet substance of the heart

And not a chain that binds, not iron, gold,

Nor any helpless thought the reason knows.

How shall I seize it? where? give me a net

By which the fugitive can be snared. It is

Too unsubstantial for my iron mind.

 

ASLAUG (singing, outside)

When Love desires Love,

Then Love is born.

Nor golden gifts compel,

Nor even beauty's spell

Escapes his scorn.

When Love desires Love,

Then Love is born.

 

ERIC (calling)

Who sings outside? Harald! who sings outside?

 

HARALD (entering)

Two dancing-girls from Gothberg. Shall they come?

 

ERIC

Admit them.

Harald goes out.

From light lips and casual thoughts

The gods speak best as if by chance, nor knows

 

Page – 534


The speaker that he is an instrument

But thinks his mind the mover of his words.

Harald returns with Aslaug and Hertha.

HARALD

King Eric, these are they who sang.

 

ERIC

Women,

Who are you? or what god directed you?

 

ASLAUG

The god who rules all men, Necessity.

 

ERIC

It was thou who sangst!

 

ASLAUG

My lips at least were used.

 

ERIC

Thou sayest. Dost thou know by whom?

 

ASLAUG

By Fate.

For she alone is prompter on our stage,

And all things move by an established doom,

Not freely. Eric's sword and Aslaug's song,

Music and thunder are the rhythmic chords

Of one majestic harp. With equal mind

She breaks the tops that she has built; her thrones

Are ruins. She treads her way foreseen; our steps

Are hers, our wills are blinded by her gaze.

 

ERIC

I think the soul is master. Who art thou?

 

Page – 535


HERTHA

Expelled from Gothberg with displeasure fierce,

Norwegians by the wrathful Swede constrained,

To Norway we return.

 

ERIC

Why went you forth?

 

HERTHA

From a bleak country rich by spoil alone

Of kinder populations, far too cold,

Too rough to love the sweetness of a song,

The rhythm of a dance, with need for spur,

We fled to an entire and cultured race,

Whose hearts come apt and liberal from the gods

Are steel to steel, but flowers to a flower.

 

ERIC

And wherefore war they upon women now?

 

ASLAUG

By thy aggressions moved.

 

ERIC

A nobler choice

Of vengeance I will give them, though more hard.

(to Gunthar who enters)

Gunthar, thou comest from the front. What news?

 

GUNTHAR

Swegn, earl of Trondhjem, lifts his outlawed head.

By desperate churls and broken nobles joined

He moves towards the Swede.

 

ERIC

Let Sigurd's force

Cut off from Sweden and his lair the rude

Page – 536


Revolted lord. He only now resists,

Champion of discord, remnant like our seas,

The partisan and pattern of the past.

They waste their surge of strength in sterile foam,

Hungry for movement, careless what they break,

Splendid, disastrous, active for no fruit.

Such men are better with the gods than here

To trouble earth. Taken, let him not live.

 

ASLAUG

Taken! Our words are only an arrogant breath,

Who all are here, the doomer and the doomed,

As captives of a greater doom than ours,

To live or die.

 

HERTHA

Be silent.

 

ASLAUG

I silence my heart

Which has remembered what all men forget,

That Olaf of the seas was Norway's head

And Swegn his son.

 

ERIC

Will you remain with me?

Though from my act there flowed on you distress,

Make me be fountain of your better days;

Your loss shall turn a fall to splendid gains.

 

HERTHA

Thy royal bounty shall atone for much.

 

ASLAUG (low, to herself )

Nobler atonement's needed.

 

Page – 537


ERIC

It is yours.

Harald, make room for them within my house.

Gunthar, we will converse some other hour.

(alone)

Love! If it were this girl with antelope eyes

And the high head so proudly lifted up

Upon a neck as white as any swan's!

But how to sway men's hearts rugged and hard

As Norway's mountains, as her glaciers cold,

The houses of their violent desires,

Whose guests are interest and power and pride?

Perhaps this stag-eyed woman comes for that,

To teach me.

Page – 538


Scene 2

 

Hertha, Aslaug.

 

ASLAUG

Hertha, we dance before the man tonight.

Why not tonight?

 

HERTHA

Because I will not act

Lifting in vain a rash frustrated hand.

When all is certain, I will strike.

 

ASLAUG

To near,

To strike while all posterity applauds!

For Norway's poets to the end of time

Shall sing in phrases noble as the theme

Of Aslaug's dance and Aslaug's dagger.

 

HERTHA

Yes,

If we succeed, but who will sing the praise

Of foiled assassins? Shall we risk defeat?

While we sleep flung in a dishonoured tomb,

And Swegn of Norway roams until the end

The desperate snows and forest silences

Hopeless, proscribed, alone?

 

ASLAUG

No more defeat!

Too often, too deeply have we drunk that cup!

 

Page – 539


HERTHA

The man we come to slay, —

 

ASLAUG

A mighty man!

He has the face and figure of a god,

A marble emperor with brilliant eyes.

How came the usurper by a face like that?

 

HERTHA

His father was a son of Odin's stock.

 

ASLAUG

His fable since he rose! A pauper house

Of one poor vessel and a narrow fiord

And some bare pine-trees possessor, —  this was he,

The root he sprang from.

 

HERTHA

But from this to tower

In three swift summers undisputed lord

Of Norway, before years had put their growth

Upon his chin! If not of Odin's race,

Odin is for him. Are you not afraid,

You who see Fate even in a sparrow's flight,

When Odin is for him?

 

ASLAUG

Aslaug is against.

He has a strength, an iron strength, and Thor

Strikes hammerlike in his uplifted sword.

But Fate alone decides when all is said,

Not Thor, nor Odin. I will try my fate.

 

HERTHA

He is a pure usurper, is he not?

Norway's election made him king, men say.

Page – 540


ASLAUG

Left Olaf Sigualdson no heirs behind?

Was his chair vacant?

 

HERTHA

Of Trondhjem; but they cried,

The inland and the north were free to choose.

 

ASLAUG

As rebels are.

 

HERTHA

Discord was seated there.

To the South rejoicing in her golden gains,

Crying, "I am Norway", all the rude-lipped North

Blew bronze refusal and its free stark head

To breathe cold heaven was lifted like its hills.

We sought the arbitration of the sword,

That sharp blind last appeal. The sword has judged

Against our claim.

 

ASLAUG

The dagger overrides.

 

HERTHA

When it is keen and swift enough! O yet,

If kindly peace even now were possible!

The suzerainty? it is his. We fought for it,

We have lost it. Let it rest where it has fallen.

 

ASLAUG

Better our barren empire of the snows!

Better with reindeer herding to survive,

Or else a free and miserable death

Together!

 

Page – 541


HERTHA

It is well to be resolved.

Therefore I flung the doubt before your mind,

To strike more surely. Aslaug, did you see

The eyes of Eric on you?

 

ASLAUG (indifferently)

I am fair.

Men look upon me.

 

HERTHA

You see nothing more?

 

ASLAUG (disdainfully)

What is it to me how he looks? He is

My human obstacle and that is all.

 

HERTHA

No, Aslaug, there's much more. Alone with you,

Absorbed, —  you see it, —  suddenly you strike

And strike again, swift great exultant blows.

 

ASLAUG

It is too base!

 

HERTHA

Unlulled, he could not perish.

Have you not seen his large and wakeful gaze?

This is our chance. Must not Swegn mount his throne?

 

ASLAUG

So that I have not to degrade myself,

Arrange it as you will. You own a swift,

Contriving, careful brain I cannot match.

To dare, to act was always Aslaug's part.

Page – 542


HERTHA

You will not shrink?

 

ASLAUG

I sprang not from the earth

To bound my actions by the common rule.

I claim my kin with those whom Heaven's gaze

Moulded supreme, Swegn's sister, Olaf's child,

Aslaug of Norway.

 

HERTHA

Then it must be done.

 

ASLAUG

Hertha, I will not know the plots you weave:

But when I see your signal, I will strike.

 

HERTHA (alone)

Pride violent! loftiness intolerable!

The grandiose kingdom-breaking blow is hers,

The baseness, the deception are for me.

It was this, the assumption, the magnificence,

Made Swegn her tool. To me his lover, counsellor,

Wife, worshipper, his ears were coldly deaf.

But, lioness of Norway, thy loud bruit

And leap gigantic are ensnared at last

In my compelling toils. She must be trapped!

She is the fuel for my husband's soul

To burn itself on a disastrous pyre.

Remove its cause, the flame will sink to rest, —

And we in Trondhjem shall live peacefully

Till Eric dies, as some day die he must,

In battle or by a revolting sword,

And leaves the spacious world unoccupied.

Then other men may feel the sun once more.

Always she talks of Fate: does she not see,

This man was born beneath exultant stars,

 

Page – 543


Had gods to rock his cradle? He must possess

His date, his strong and unresisted time

When Fate herself runs on his feet. Then comes, —

All things too great end soon, —  death, overthrow,

The slow revenges of the jealous gods.

Submitting we shall save ourselves alive

For a late summer when cold spring is past.

Page – 544


Scene 3

 

Eric, Aslaug.

 

ERIC

Come hither.

 

ASLAUG

Thou hast sent for me?

 

ERIC

Come hither.

What art thou?

 

ASLAUG

What thou knowest.

 

ERIC

Do I know?

 

ASLAUG (to herself )

Does he suspect? (aloud) I am a dancing-girl.

My name is Aslaug. That thou knowest.

 

ERIC

Where

Did Odin forge thy sweet imperious eyes,

Thy noble stature and thy lofty look?

Thou dancest, —  yes, thou hast that motion; song,

The natural expression of thy soul,

Comes from thy lips, floats, hovers and returns

Like a wild bird which wings around its nest.

This art the princesses of Sweden use,

 

Page – 545


And those Norwegian girls who frame themselves

On Sweden.

 

ASLAUG

It may be, my birth and past

Were nobler than my present fortunes are.

 

ERIC

Why cam'st thou to me?

 

ASLAUG (to herself )

Does Death admonish him

Of danger? does he feel the impending stroke?

Hertha could turn the question.

 

ERIC

Why soughtst thou out

Eric of Norway? Wherefore broughtst thou here

This beauty as compelling as thy song

No man can gaze on and possess his soul?

 

ASLAUG

I am a dancing-girl; my song, my face

Are my best stock. I carried them for gain

Here to the richest market.

 

ERIC

Hast thou so?

I buy them for a price. Aslaug, thy body too.

 

ASLAUG

Release me! Wilt thou lay thy hands on death?

(wrenching herself free)

All Norway has not sold itself thy slave.

 

ERIC

This was not spoken like a dancing-girl!

Page – 546


ASLAUG (to herself )

What is this siege? I have no dagger with me.

Will he discover me? will he compel?

 

ERIC

Though Norway has not sold itself my slave,

Thou hast. Remember what thou art, or else

Thou feignst to be.

 

ASLAUG (to herself )

I am caught in his snare.

He is subtle, terrible. I see the thing

He drives at and admire unwillingly

The marble tyrant.

 

ERIC

Better play thy part

Or leave it.

If thou wert fashioned nobler than thou feignst,

Confess that mightier name and lay thyself

Between my hands. But if a dancing-girl,

I have bought thee for a hire, thy face, thy song,

Thy body. I turn not, girl, from any way

I can possess thee, more than the sea hesitates

To engulf what it embraces.

 

ASLAUG

Thou speakest words

I scorn to answer.

 

ERIC

Or to understand?

Thou art an enemy who in disguise

Invad'st my house to spy upon my fate.

 

ASLAUG

What if I were?

 

Page – 547


ERIC

Thou hast too lightly then

Devised thy chains and close imprisonment,

Too thoughtlessly adventured a divine

And glorious stake, this body, heaven's hold,

This face, the earth's desire.

 

ASLAUG

What canst thou do?

I do not think I am afraid of death.

 

ERIC

Far be death from thee who, if heaven were just,

Wouldst walk immortal! Thou seest no nearer peril?

 

ASLAUG

None that I tremble at or wish to flee.

 

ERIC

Let this shake thee that thou art by thy choice

Caged with the danger of the lion's mood,

Helpless hast seen the hunger of his eyes

And feelst on thee the breath of his desire.

 

ASLAUG (alarmed)

I came not here to spy.

 

ERIC

Why cam'st thou then?

 

ASLAUG

To sing, to dance, to earn.

 

ERIC

Richly then earn.

Thou hast a brain, and knowest why I looked

On thee, why I have kept thee in my house.

Page – 548


My house! what fate has brought thy steps within?

Thou, thou hast found the way to my desire!

Thinkst thou thy feet have entered to escape

As lightly as a wild bee from a flower,

The lair and antre of thy enemy?

Disguise? Canst thou disguise thy splendid soul?

Then if thy face and speech more nobly express

The truth of thee than this vocation can,

Reveal it and deserve my clemency.

 

ASLAUG (violently)

Thy clemency!

(restraining herself )

I am a dancing-girl;

I came to earn.

 

ERIC

Thou art obstinate in pride!

Choose yet.

 

ASLAUG

I have not any choice to make.

 

ERIC

Wilt thou still struggle vainly in the net?

Because thou hast the lioness in thy mood,

Thou thoughtst to play with Eric! It is I

Who play with thee; thou liest in my grasp,

As surely as if I held thee on my knees.

I am enamoured of thy golden hair,

Thy body like the snow, thy antelope eyes,

This neck that seems to know it carries heaven

Upon it easily. Thy song, thy speech,

This gracious rhythmic motion of thy limbs

Walking or dancing, all the careless pride

That undulates in every gesture and tone,

Have seized upon me smiling to possess.

Page – 549


But I have only learned from Fate and strength

To seize by force, master, enjoy, compel,

As I will thee. Enemy and prisoner,

Or dancing-girl and purchased chattel, choose!

Thou wilt not speak? thou findest no reply?

 

ASLAUG

Because I am troubled by thy violent words.

I cannot answer thee, or will not yet.

(turning away)

How could he see this death? Is he a god

And knows men's hearts? This is a terrible

And iron pressure!

 

ERIC

What was thy design?

To spy? to slay? For thou art capable

Even of such daring.

 

ASLAUG (to herself )

Swiftly, swiftly done

It might be still! To put him off an hour,

Some minutes, —  O, to strike!

 

ERIC

What hast thou chosen?

 

ASLAUG (turning to him)

King, mend thy words and end this comedy.

I have laughed till now and dallied with thy thoughts,

A little amazed. Unfearing I stand here,

Who come with open heart to seek a king,

Pure of all hostile purpose, innocent

Of all the guileful thoughts and blood-stained plans

Thou burdenest thy fierce suspicions with.

This is the Nemesis of men who rise

Too suddenly by fraud or violence

Page – 550


That they suspect all hearts, yes, every word

Of sheltering some direr violence,

Some subtler fraud, and they expect their fall

Sudden and savage as their rise has been.

 

ERIC

Thou art my dancing-girl and nothing more?

Assume this chain, this necklace, for thy life.

Nor think it even thy price.

She dashes the necklace to the ground.

Thou art not subtle!

 

ASLAUG (agitated)

It is not so that women's hearts are wooed.

 

ERIC

Yet so I woo thee, so do all men woo

Enamoured of what thou hast claimed to be.

Art thou the dancing-girl of Norway still

Or some disguised high-reaching nobler soul?

 

ASLAUG (suddenly)

I am thy dancing-girl, King Eric. Look,

I lift thy necklace.

 

ERIC

Take it, yet be free.

Thou canst not slip out from my hands by this.

No feigned decision will I let thee make,

But one which binds us both. I give thee time,

In hope thy saner mind will yet prevail,

Not courage most perverse, though ardent, rule.

Only one way thou hast to save thyself:

Reveal thy treason, Aslaug, trust thy king.

Aslaug, alone, lifts the chain, admires

it and throws it on a chair.

 

Page – 551


ASLAUG

You are too much like drops of royal blood.

She lifts it again.

A necklace? No, my chain! Or wilt thou prove

A god's death-warrant?

She puts it round her neck.

Hertha, Hertha, here!

(to Hertha, as she enters)

O counsellor, art thou come?

 

HERTHA

I heard thee call.

 

ASLAUG

I called. Why did I call? See, Hertha, see

How richly Norway's Eric buys his doom!

 

HERTHA

He gave thee this? It is a kingdom's price.

 

ASLAUG

A kingdom's price! the kingdom of the slain!

A price to rid the nations of a god.

O Hertha, what has earth to do with gods,

Who suffers only human weight? Will she

Not go too swiftly downward from her base

If Eric treads her long?

 

HERTHA

Sister of Swegn,

There are new lustres in thy face and eyes.

What said he to thee?

 

ASLAUG

What did Eric say,

Eric to Aslaug, sister of King Swegn?

A kingdom's price! Swegn's kingdom! And for him,

Page – 552


My marble emperor, my god who loves,

This mortal Odin? What for him? By force

Shall he return to his effulgent throne?

 

HERTHA

You were not used to a divided mind.

 

ASLAUG

Nor am I altered now, nor heart-perplexed.

But these are thoughts which naturally arise.

 

HERTHA

He loves you then?

 

ASLAUG

He loves and he suspects.

 

HERTHA

What, Aslaug?

 

ASLAUG

What we are and we intend.

 

HERTHA

If he suspects!

 

ASLAUG

It cannot matter much,

If we are rapid.

 

HERTHA

If we spoil it all!

I will not torture Swegn with useless tears

Perishing vainly. I will slay and die.

He shall remember that he wears his crown

By our great sacrifice and soothe his grief

With the strong magnificent circle, or else bear it

 

Page – 553


A noble duty to the nobly dead.

(after a moment's reflection)

Child, you must humour him, you must consent.

 

ASLAUG

To what?

 

HERTHA

To all.

 

ASLAUG

Hast thou at all perused

The infamy which thou advisest?

 

HERTHA

Yes.

I do not bid you yield, but seem to yield.

Even I who am Swegn's wife, would do as much.

But though you talk, you still are less in love,

Valuing an empty outward purity

Before your brother's life, your brother's crown.

 

ASLAUG

You know the way to bend me to your will!

 

HERTHA

Give freedom, but no licence to his love,

For when he thinks to embrace, we shall have struck.

 

ASLAUG

And, Hertha, if a swift and violent heart

Betrayed my will and overturned your plans?

Is there no danger, Hertha, there?

 

HERTHA

Till now

I feared not that from Aslaug, sister of Swegn.

Page – 554


But if you fear it!

 

ASLAUG

No, since I consent.

You shall not blame again my selfishness,

Nor my defect of love.

 

HERTHA (alone)

Swegn then might rule!

(with a laugh)

I had almost forgotten Fate between

Smiling, alert, and his too partial gods.

Page – 555


Scene 4

 

ERIC

They say the anarchy of love disturbs

Gods even: shaken are the marble natures,

The deathless hearts are melted to the pang

And rapture. I would be, O Odin, still

Monarch of my calm royalty within,

My thoughts my subjects. Do I hear her come?

(to Aslaug who enters)

Thou com'st? thou art resolved? thou hast 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 then

Understood nothing?

 

ASLAUG

What should I understand?

 

ERIC

What I shall do with thee. This earthly heaven

In which thou liv'st shall not be thine at all.

 

Page – 556


It was not fashioned for 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 sinks prostrate in such absolute

Surrender.

 

ERIC

Thy heart? Is it thy heart that yields?

O thou unparalleled enchanting frame

For housing of a strong immortal guest,

If man could seize the heart as palpably,

The form, 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:

For if life's barriers twixt our souls were broken,

Men would be free and one, earth paradise

And the gods live neglected.

 

ASLAUG

This heart of mine?

Purchase it richly, for it is for sale.

 

ERIC

Yes, speak.

 

ASLAUG

With love; I meant no more.

 

Page – 557


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 heardst 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.

 

ASLAUG

What guile, who give all for an equal price?

Thou giv'st thy blood of rubies; I my life.

Page – 558


ERIC

Thou hast not chosen then to understand.

 

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.

 

ASLAUG (alone)

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.

 

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