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

 

A room in Eric's house.

 

Scene 1

Hertha, Aslaug.

 

HERTHA

See what a keen and fatal glint it has,

Aslaug.

 

ASLAUG

Hast thou been haunted by a look,

O Hertha, has a touch bewildered thee,

Compelling memory?

 

HERTHA

Then the gods too work?

 

ASLAUG

A marble statue gloriously designed

Without that breath our cunning maker gives,

One feels it pain to break. This statue breathes!

Out of these eyes there looks an intellect

That claims us all; this marble holds a heart,

The heart holds love. To break it all, to lay

This glory of God's making in the dust!

Why do these thoughts besiege me? Have I then —

No, it is nothing; it is pity works,

It is an admiration physical.

O he is far too great, too beautiful

 

Page – 560


For a dagger's penetration. It would turn,

The point would turn; it would deny itself

To such a murder.

 

HERTHA

Aslaug, it is love.

 

ASLAUG (angrily)

What saidst thou?

 

HERTHA

When he lays a lingering hand

Upon thy tresses, —  Aslaug, for he loves, —

Canst thou then strike?

 

ASLAUG

What shakes me? Have I learned

To pity, to tremble? That were new indeed

In Olaf's race. Give me self-knowledge, Gods.

What are these unaccustomed moods you send

Into my bosom? They are foreign here.

Eric enters and regards them. Hertha,

seeing him, rises to depart.

ERIC

Thou art the other dancing-woman come

From Sweden to King Eric!

 

HERTHA

He has eyes

That look into the soul. What mean his words?

But they are common. Let me leave you, Aslaug.

She goes out.

ASLAUG

I would have freedom here from thy pursuit.

 

Page – 561


ERIC

Why shouldst thou anywhere be free from me?

I am full of wrath against thee and myself.

Come near me.

 

ASLAUG (to herself )

It is too strange —  I am afraid!

Of what? Of what? Am I not Aslaug still?

 

ERIC

Art thou a sorceress or conspirator?

But thou art both to seize my throne and heart,

And I will deal with thee, thou dreadful charm,

As with my enemy.

 

ASLAUG

Let him never touch!

 

ERIC

I give thee grace no longer; bear thy doom.

 

ASLAUG

My doom is in my hands, not thine.

 

ERIC (with a sudden fierceness)

Thou errst,

And thou hast always erred. Dar'st thou imagine

That I who have enveloped in three years

All Norway more rebellious than its storms,

Can be resisted by a woman's strength,

However fierce, however swift and bold?

 

ASLAUG

I have seen thy strength. I cherish mine unseen.

 

ERIC

And I thy weakness. Something yet thou fearst.

Page – 562


ASLAUG

Nothing at all.

 

ERIC

Yes! though thy eyes defy me,

Thy colour changes and thy limbs betray thee.

All is not lionlike and masculine there

Within.

He advances towards her.

ASLAUG

Touch me not!

 

ERIC

It is that thou fearst?

Why dost thou fear it? Is it thine own heart

Thou tremblest at? Aslaug, is it thy heart?

He takes her suddenly into his arms

and kisses her. Aslaug remains like

one stricken and bewildered.

Lift up thine eyes; let me behold thy strength!

 

ASLAUG

O gods! I love! O loose me!

 

ERIC

Thou art taken.

Whatever was thy purpose, thou art mine,

Aslaug, thou sweet and violent soul surprised,

Intended for me when the stars were planned!

Sweetly, O Aslaug, to thy doom consent,

The doom to love, the death of hatred. Draw

No useless curtaining of shamed refusal

Betwixt our yearnings, passionately take

The leap of love across the abyss of hate.

Force not thy soul to anger. Leave veils and falterings

For meaner hearts. Between us let there be

 

Page – 563


A noble daylight.

 

ASLAUG

Let me think awhile!

Thy arms, thy lips prevent me.

 

ERIC

Think not! Only feel,

Love only!

 

ASLAUG

O Eric, king, usurper, conqueror!

O robber of men's hearts and kingdoms! O

Thou only monarch!

 

ERIC

Art thou won at last,

O woman who disturbst the musing stars

With passion? Soul of Aslaug, art thou mine?

 

ASLAUG

Thine, Eric? Eric! Whose am I, by whom am held?

(sinking on a seat)

I cannot think. I have lost myself! My heart

Desires eternity in an embrace.

 

ERIC

Wilt thou deny me anything I claim

Ever, O Aslaug? Art thou mine indeed?

 

ASLAUG

What have I done? What have I spoken? I love!

(after a silence, feeling in her bosom)

But what was there concealed within my breast?

 

ERIC (observing her action)

I take not a divided realm, a crown

Page – 564


That's shared. Thou hadst a purpose in thy heart

I know not, but divine. Thou lov'st at length;

But I have knowledge of the human heart,

What opposite passions wrestle there with gusts

And treacherous surprises. I trust not then

Too sudden a change, but if thou canst be calm,

Yet passionately submit, I will embrace thee

For ever. Think and speak. Art thou all mine?

 

ASLAUG

I know no longer if I am my own.

The world swims round me and heaven's points are changed.

A purpose! I had one. I had besides

A brother! Had! What have I now? You Gods,

How have you rushed upon me! Leave me, King.

It is not good to trust a sudden heart.

The blood being quiet, we will speak again

Like souls that meet in heaven, without disguise.

 

ERIC

I do not leave thee, for thou art ominous

Of an abysm uncrossed.

 

ASLAUG

Yet that were best.

For there has been too much between us once

And now too little. Leave me, King, awhile

To wrestle with myself and calmly know

In this strange strife the gods have brought me to,

Which thing of these in me must live and which

Be dumb for ever.

 

ERIC

Something yet resists.

I will not leave thee till I know it and tame,

For, Aslaug, thou wast won.

Page – 565


ASLAUG

King, thou art wise

In war and counsel, not in women's hearts.

Thou hast surprised a secret that my soul

Kept tremblingly from my own knowledge. Yet,

If thou art really wise, thou wilt avoid

To touch with a too rude and sudden hand

The direr god who made my spirit fear

To own its weakness.

 

ERIC

Art thou wise thyself?

I take thee not for counsellor.

 

ASLAUG

Yet beware.

There was a gulf between my will and heart

Which is not bridged yet.

 

ERIC

Break thy will, unless

Thou wouldst have me break it for thee.

The older Aslaug rises now against the new.

 

ASLAUG

It rises, rises. Let it rise. Leave me

My freedom.

 

ERIC

Aslaug, no, for free thou roamst

A lioness midst thy passions.

 

ASLAUG (with a gesture)

Do then, O King,

Whatever Fate commands.

Page – 566


ERIC

I am master of my Fate.

 

ASLAUG

Too little, who are not masters of ourselves!

 

ERIC

Art thou that dancing-woman, Aslaug, yet?

 

ASLAUG

I am the dancing-girl who sought thee, yet,

Eric.

 

ERIC

It may be still the swiftest way.

Let then my dancing-woman dance for me

Tonight in my chambers. I will see the thing

Her dancing means and tear its mystery out.

 

ASLAUG

If thou demandest it, then Fate demands.

 

ERIC

Thy god grows sombre and he menaces,

It seems! For afterwards I can demand

Whatever soul and body can desire

Twixt man and woman?

 

ASLAUG

If thy Fate permits.

Thy love, it seems, communes not with respect.

 

ERIC

The word exists not between thee and me.

It is burned up in too immense a fire.

Wilt thou persist even after thou hast lain

Upon my bosom? Thou claimest my respect?

Page – 567


Yet art a dancing-woman, so thou sayst?

Aslaug, let not the darker gods prevail.

Put off thy pride and take up truth and love.

 

ASLAUG (sombre)

I am a dancing-woman, nothing more.

 

ERIC

The hate love struck down rises in thy heart.

But I will have it out, by violence,

Unmercifully.

He strides upon her, and she half

cowers from him, half defies.

(taking her violently into his arms)

Thus blotted into me

Thou shalt survive the end of Time. Tonight!

He goes out.

ASLAUG

How did it come? What was it leaped on me

And overpowered? O torn distracted heart,

Wilt thou not pause a moment and give leave

To the more godlike brain to do its work?

Can the world change within a moment? Can

Hate suddenly be love? Love is not here.

I have the dagger still within my heart.

O he is terrible and fair and swift!

He is not mortal. Yet be silent, yet

Give the brain leave. O marble brilliant face!

O thou art Odin, thou art Thor on earth!

What is there in a kiss, the touch of lips,

That it can change creation? There's a wine

That turns men mad; have I not drunk of it?

To be his slave, know nothing but his will!

Aslaug and Eric! Aslaug, sister of Swegn,

Who makes his bed on the inclement snow

And with the reindeer herds, that was a king.

Page – 568


Who takes his place? Eric and Aslaug rule.

Eric who doomed him to the death, if seized,

Aslaug, the tyrant, the usurper's wife,

Who by her brother's murder is secured

In her possession. Wife! The concubine,

The slave of Eric, —  that his pride intends.

What was it seized on me, O heavenly powers?

I have given myself, my brother's throne and life,

My pride, ambition, hope, and grasp, and keep

Shame only. Tonight! What happens then tonight?

I dance before him, —  royal Olaf's child

Becomes the upstart Eric's dancing-girl!

What happens else tonight? One preys upon

Aslaug of Norway! O, I thank thee, Heaven,

That thou restorest me to sanity.

It was his fraudulent and furious siege,

And something in me proved a traitor. Fraud?

O beauty of the godlike brilliant eyes!

O face expressing heaven's supremacy!

No, I will put it down, I put it down.

Help me, you gods, help me against my heart.

I will strike suddenly, I will not wait.

'Tis a deceit, his majesty and might,

His dreadful beauty, his resistless brain.

It will be very difficult to strike!

But I will strike. Swegn strikes, and Norway strikes,

My honour strikes, the Gods, and all his life

Offends each moment.

(to Hertha, who enters)

Hertha, I strike tonight.

 

HERTHA

Why, what has happened?

 

ASLAUG

That thou shalt not know.

I strike tonight.

She goes out.

 

Page – 569


HERTHA

It is not difficult

To know what drives her. I must act at once,

Or this may have too suddenly a tragic close.

Not blood, but peace, not death, you Gods, but life,

But tranquil sweetness!

Page – 570


Scene 2

 

Eric, Hertha.

 

ERIC

I sent for thee to know thy name and birth.

 

HERTHA

My name is Hertha and my birth too mean

To utter before Norway's lord.

 

ERIC

Yet speak.

 

HERTHA

A Trondhjem peasant and a serving-girl

Were parents to me.

 

ERIC

And from such a stock

Thy beauty and thy wit and grace were born?

 

HERTHA

The Gods prodigiously sometimes reverse

The common rule of Nature and compel

Matter with soul. How else should it be guessed

That Gods exist at all?

 

ERIC

Who nurtured thee?

 

HERTHA

A dancing-girl of Gothberg by a lord

 

Page – 571


Of Norway entertained, to whom a child

I was delivered. Song and dance were hers;

I made them mine.

 

ERIC

Their names? the thrall? the lord?

HERTHA

Olaf of Norway, earl of Trondhjem then,

And Thiordis whom he loved.

 

ERIC

Thou knowest Swegn,

The rebel?

 

HERTHA

Yes, I know.

 

ERIC

And lov'st perhaps?

 

HERTHA

Myself much better.

 

ERIC

Yes? He is a man

Treacherous and rude and ruthless, is he not?

 

HERTHA (with a movement)

I would not speak of kings and mighty earls:

These things exceed my station.

 

ERIC

Ah, thou lov'st!

Thou wilt not blame.

Page – 572


HERTHA

Thou art mistaken, King.

He cannot conquer and he will not yield,

But weakens Norway. This in him I blame.

 

ERIC

Thou hast seen that? Thy peasant father got

A wondrous politician for his child!

Do I abash thee?

 

HERTHA

 

Have made me. But I understand at last;

Thou thinkst me other than I seem.

 

ERIC

Some thought

Like that I had.

 

HERTHA

King Eric, wilt thou hear?

 

ERIC

I much desire it, if I hear the truth.

 

HERTHA

Betray me not to Aslaug then.

 

ERIC

That's just.

She shall not know.

 

HERTHA

What if I came, O King,

For other purpose, not to sing and dance,

And yet thy friend, the well-wisher, at least,

Of Norway and her peace?

 

Page – 573


ERIC

Speak plainly now.

 

HERTHA

If I can show thee how to conquer Swegn

Without one stroke of battle, wilt thou grant

My bitter need?

 

ERIC

I would give much.

 

HERTHA

Wilt thou?

ERIC

If so I conquer him and thy desire

Is something I can grant without a hurt

To Norway or myself.

 

HERTHA

It is.

 

ERIC

Speak then,

Demand.

 

HERTHA

I have not finished yet. Meantime

If I avert a danger from thy head

Now threatening it, do I not earn rewards

More ample?

 

ERIC

More? On like conditions, then.

 

HERTHA

If I yield up great enemies to thy hands

Page – 500


Thou knowst not of, wilt thou reject my price,

Confusing different debts in one account?

 

ERIC

Hast thou yet more to ask? Thou art too shrewd

A bargainer.

 

HERTHA

Giving Norway needed peace,

Thyself friends, safety, empire, is my claim

Excessive then?

 

ERIC

I grant thee three demands.

 

HERTHA

They are all. He asks not more who has enough.

Thrice shall I ask and thrice shall Eric give

And never have an enemy again

In Norway.

 

ERIC

Speak.

 

HERTHA

Thy enemies are here,

No dancing-girls, but Hertha, wife of Swegn,

And Aslaug, child of Olaf Sigualdson,

His sister.

 

ERIC

It is well.

 

HERTHA

The danger lies

In Aslaug's hand and dagger which she means

To strike into thy heart. Tonight she strikes.

 

Page – 575


ERIC

And Swegn?

 

HERTHA

Send me to him with perilous word

Of Aslaug in thy hands; so with her life

Buy his surrender, afterwards his love

With kingly generosity and trust.

 

ERIC

Freely and frankly hast thou spoken, Queen

Who wast in Trondhjem: now as freely ask.

 

HERTHA

The life of Swegn; his liberty as well,

Submitting.

 

ERIC

They are thine.

 

HERTHA

And Aslaug's life

And pardon, not her liberty.

 

ERIC

They are given.

 

HERTHA

And, last, forgiveness for myself, O King,

My treason and my plots.

 

ERIC

This too I grant.

 

HERTHA

I have nothing left to ask for.

Page – 576


ERIC

Thou hast done?

Let me consign thee to thy prison then.

 

HERTHA

My prison! Wilt thou send me not to Swegn?

 

ERIC

I will not. Why, thou subtle, dangerous head,

Restored to liberty, what perilous schemes

Might leap into thy thoughts! Shall I give Swegn,

That fierce and splendid fighter, such a brain

Of cunning to complete and guide his sword?

What if he did not yield, rejected peace?

Wilt thou not tell him Aslaug's life is safe?

To prison!

 

HERTHA

Thou hast promised, King.

 

ERIC

I keep

My promise to thee, Hertha, wife of Swegn.

For Swegn thou askest life and liberty,

For Aslaug life and pardon, for thyself

Forgiveness only. I can be cunning too.

Hertha, thou art my prisoner and thrall.

 

HERTHA (after a pause, smiling)

I see. I am content. Thou showest thyself

Norway's chief brain as her victorious sword.

Free or a prisoner, let me do homage

To Eric, my King and Swegn's.

 

ERIC

Thou art content?

 

Page – 577


HERTHA

This face and noble bearing cannot lie.

I am content and feel as safe with thee

As in my husband's keeping.

 

ERIC (smiling)

So thou art,

Thou subtle voice, thou close and daring brain.

I would I felt myself as safe with thee.

 

 

HERTHA

King Eric, think me not thy enemy.

What thou desirest, I desire yet more.

 

ERIC

Keep to that well; let Aslaug not suspect.

My way I'll take with her and thee and Swegn.

Fear nothing, Hertha; go.

Hertha goes out.

O Freya Queen,

Thou helpst me even as Thor and Odin did.

I make my Norway one.

Page – 578