. 7*1 MSKfiW TSrANStJaEDJB' kmiy;KI!»$yj«tKK1 111 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES 13 CESARE BORGIA ISEULT OF BRITTANY THE TOY CART BY THE SAME WRITER Poems {Collected Edition in Two Volumes). 1902. An Introduction to the Study of Browning. 1886. 1906. Aubrey Beardsley. 1898. 1905. The Symbolist Movement in Literature. 1899. Plays, Acting, and Music. 1903. Cities. 1903. Studies in Prose and Verse. 1904. Spiritual Adventures. 1905. The Fool of the World and Other Poems. 1906. Studies in Seven Arts. 1906. William Blake. 1907. Cities of Italy. 1907. The Romantic Movement in English Poetry. 1909. Knave of Hearts. 1913. Fi'.i res of Several Centuries. 1916. Tragedies. 1916. Tristan and Iseult. 1917. Cities and Sea Coasts and Islands. 1918. CESARE BORGIA ISEULT OF BRITTANY THE TOY CART BY ARTHUR SYMONS NEW YORK BRENTANO'S 1920 Copyright, 1920 Bbextano'b TUE-PL1MPTON-PKESS NOBWOOD-MASS-D-S-A 553.'. TO ROBIN DE LA CONDAMINE 48 LIBRARY CONTENTS Cesare Borgia 3 Iseult of Brittany 75 The Toy Cart 91 CESARE BORGIA A TRAGEDY IN ONE ACT By ARTHUR SYMONS THE PERSONS cesare borgia, Cardinal of Valencia sancia, Princess of Aragon michelotto, Cesare's Servant lucrezia borgia, the Pope's Daughter Giovanni borgia, Duke of Sandia POPE ALEXANDER VI ASSASSINS vannozza catanei, the Pope's Mistress IMPERIA scene: Rome, June, 1^97. CESARE BORGIA SCENE ONE A Room of cesare in the Vatican Enter cesare and sancia SANCIA Why is our flesh more cruel than man's love? CESARE There is no love that can outmeasure love. SANCIA I only know I am a tortured thing And none of all the casuists of souls Can set me dancing in the naked air. CESARE I am no Casuit, nor are my nerves tortured As evil spirits are. SANCIA An evil spirit Burns in you, Cesare. See, how it burns in me! [3] CESARE BORGIA CESAKE Hate not the Beast, that laughs out of the Flesh! >Vliy do you touch your burning web of hair? SANCIA Do I? Sheer nerves, my dear! Rome's hot enough For our blood's heat to be June's heat. I beat My feet on the floor, as if one dances. CESARE Sancia, What is obscure and inevitable in ourselves Comes not from dancing nor from dreaming: dreams Are the mirror of our consciousness; the dance The rhythm of our being: but our Fate Entangles us in a net we can't escape from. SANCIA This network that knots my hair — why subtilise Beyond it? CESARE To mock mine own illusions. There's something monstrous in your kind of beauty, Yet Beauty, when accursed, becomes less monstrous, And so more poisonous. SANCIA Am I a poison-flower Grown in a soil only weeds grew in before Some Satan planted my seed? [4] CESARE BORGIA CESARE Start not, Sancia, At the shadow the setting sun casts on me — the shadow Of a mere leaf in the wind. SANCIA And if I start? I tell you, Cesare, there's a wind in my heart That will not let me rest; there are great wings Of birds that beat against the winds; storms Everlasting and the unresting waters; loves That are more drowsy than the bees at noon That have trafficked on the heath and sucked the heather: And I am all of these and none of these. CESARE Find out the dancing measures in our blood And we'll not blush. SANCIA If blushes do become you — Blush. CESARE I am neither sad nor am I sorry We thus have met. Sadness befits not love; But since the moon is far and your strange face No fairer than the moon's, let all the winds Invade our spirits; but, when we have drunk wine, Always the dregs remain. SANCIA Of all sad songs This is the saddest men ever sang. Come now, [51 CESARE BORGIA There are no ghosts to go along with us; And you that have so many mistresses May tire of me that am your Saneia, Your Saneia of the minute. CESARE There's no jesting-time From this till midnight and when midnight's over The jests begin: we shall have some wondrous jesting When craft enters your eyes: you have more craft Than the street-girls in Naples. SANCIA You think of — what? CESARE Of nothing. SANCIA Nay, of Giovanni. CESARE And if I choose to love him? As one tries To love a thing one hates when one's in bed And so turns on his pillow and forgets And, waking, might remember either dream. You might as well ask of a burning flame To turn aside from burning not in love The wood next it on the hearth. SANCIA Do you fear God? [6] CESARE BORGIA CESARE I use his name, I neither fear nor love God, more than mine own Sire; who, sick at heart, Fears God; and, with heart at ease after our revels, Loves God. Our flesh must sleep to live. I sweep Certain things to sideways, thus! He unsheathes his dagger, turns his wrist and pierces a hole in the wall. SANCIA Madness and nerves, In these I praise you, Cesare; as for Lucrezia, I honour her; yea, I am honourless, And yet I love Lucrezia. CESARE One must love her In her strange tragic beauty; fires of Carthage Burn in her eyes and Matho makes her mad Because she has given him wine, and madness lies Wherever poisoned love is mixed with hate. SANCIA There may be treason in you against me, Cesare! CESARE You might think twice before you think to say it And I think thrice before I answer you. SANCIA You cannot hurt me much, not much, Cesare, That burn two ways at once. [7] I CESARE BORGIA CESARE One mine own way? SANCIA Perhaps: but that's no matter. Let it pass As stolen kisses. We are not here for nothing. I swear to you with all body, Cesare ! We are watched, we are watched. CESARE The Devil watches all things, Waking and sleeping. He outwatches God Whose heaven is not more lonely than his hell. SANCIA Night for the blood of animals, and the day For men to crush each other; certain hours For strategy: then the blood-beaten pulses Of the world — ours, that is — as it reels into night, Or staggers into day through the red mists. CESARE These shining wings of words as gaudy poppies That flame at noon serve you. SANCIA As for Giulia, I never saw such hair in all my life, Pure red gold hair down to her feet when she undoes it. CESARE Satan my father knows what beauty is. [8] CESARE BORGIA SANCIA So Giulia, the adulteress: what else In this so moral Rome? CESARE Why, what else? Giulia Holds in her little hands the spiritual head Of the world's Church. SANCIA Purple paid for her shame. CESARE It marvels me You never loved Giovanni's fair bedfellow — One sleeps with shame — Maria Enriquez. SANCIA Love her or like her. Leave the creature alone. Am I not Sancia, Princess of Aragon? And who is she? Some say a household rat, But I say no. Yet I have a mind, I say, To let some honest creature such as her Stumble into a deep grave. CESARE Leave alone honesty. SANCIA You make me laugh. Make me a toy. Cesare, I'm a wicked child — such children love strange toys; And mine must be a cruel-featured idol [9] CESARE BORGIA Made after Artemis who hangs on the horns Of the Crescent moon, mocking her own image As she swung in the wind there. CESARE Satan's child you are not, In spite of what I might be. Satan makes Strange mistakes sometimes; and he gave me gifts God never thought of. SANCIA What gifts had he to give you, Cesare? CESARE Mysterious, merciless, monstrous things, And tales of those who had played chess on many nights, Waiting and waiting for the stroke of a sword. SANCIA \_slowl)j~\ You mean, there may be playing of chess to-night, Or next night, to be decided by the sword? CESARE Nay, I mean nothing. When shall I sleep with you Next? SANCIA W T hen the half-moon shines over Rome. CESARE The night after to-morrow. Enter michelotto I never sent for you. [10] CESARE BORGIA MICHELOTTO Pardon me, my lord. CESARE Pardon? You mean you have strangled — what do I know? Some lewder rogue than you are. MICHELOTTO I have not strangled Anyone. Only His Holiness the Pope Bade me say he desires you come to him, The case being urgent. CESARE Urgent? What do you mean? MICHELOTTO My words have no other meaning. CESARE Sancia, I leave you in the care of — Michelotto ! Exit CESARE SANCIA Your name's more terrible than your reputation. MICHELOTTO Mere stricken sounds upon a hollow drum A zany plays before a mountebank. [11] CESARE BORGIA SANCIA An elevated kind of criminal That has the knavery of evils? MICHELOTTO Nearer the mark. SANCIA Arc you not Cesare's damned soul? MICHELOTTO For him I'd dare damnation! SANCIA I admire you. I have some hates that hang about my throat — No hates that you have strangled. MICHELOTTO I strangle no hates But I am paid to strangle hateful men. SANCIA Part of your business, of this trade of yours, And then — assassination! MICHELOTTO Assassination ! Princess ! SANCIA So did Aegisthus, the hateful, helping the hateful Clytemnestra, in the Tale that's on all tongues. A murder says one — a squabble before supper. [12] CESARE BORGIA MICIIELOTTO These were old wicked mountains in the air That had the abhorred conscience of some murder. And, what am I beside these? I exist. SANCIA "Naked as brown feet of unburied men," Someone said that; it means that burial May not be needed. Ah, you chafe at this! I speak of Cesare; yea, even at this time, This most keen joint of time, when there's confusion That might turn to worse than ruin, even God's wrath Might turn not back, spare nothing: I ask of you: Who knows what Cesare means? MICHELOTTO I know not. sancia \_sloioly~\ You know not? MICHELOTTO Nay: only the benediction that he gave me One night after the wine. Re-enter cesare cesare I caught one word. Enough: the Zodiac's changed! Exit MICHELOTTO Does God forgive ever? sancia God never. Do you forgive? [13] CESARE BORGIA CESARE Can I forgive? Nay, in me all my desires Burn up each part and parcel of my life As if my feet trod down the infernal fires. And the Pope tires me. Enter lucrezia LUCREZIA Does the Pope tire you, Cesare? You start : your colour runs up like a maid's, i CESARE I would I were one; hey, you startled me, As one who has stolen a peach and drops it. The heat's intense. LUCREZIA Give me your fan, Sancia, I dropt mine. You laugh? Thanks. I were fain there were a toneless storm Murmuring, with wind behind it. How my heart beats. I can't keep quiet. Am I not beautiful. Sancia? SANCIA Beautiful. LUCREZIA She says it, Cesare, Between her lips, just like some dainty word You think might please a caged bird. The bird Nods its head and hates its cage and you. I must hate someone. There's no one here to hate. Where's Giovanni? CESARE He may be here to-night. I saw him last enter Imperia's house [14] CESARE BORGIA As I turned a corner. She leaned from a window; vine Crawled on her naked back; and she had seen him And laughed as some man caught her by her arms Behind her in the room. Such are bought kisses. LUCREZIA Bought kisses from a painted creature? There's No symbol of the vine nor of the wine But of the window and her naked back. And then you hear her cry on God: "O hell! What's left but hell, when I am but a name, Who had such beauty, to be whirled with wind, Hot wind in hell's intense heat? And all my spices And all my vices gone ! And I that loved Men's kisses more than life; to have come to shame, And so die shamed." Cesare, you hear her cry! CESARE So might Imperia when death comes on her And she lies wasted, and her beauty's vain As her face seen in her mirror. LUCREZIA I say to you, poured On the ground like untasted water, after the wine Is tasted, such beauty might be, when desire Desires desire and that desire's denied. BANCIA Hopeless, estranged, unchanged. LUCREZIA What do you mean? [15] CESARE BORGIA SANCIA Nay, I mean nothing; any more than sleep Tells ever what it means. LUCREZIA To be estranged Is what I want, who want so little else. CESARE So little else? LUCREZIA Do you think I want the world? I want — I know not what; for all I have Is given me: life and youth and health and beauty — And riches and jewels and rings; these clothes I wear This fan, not mine, I take from Sancia. Nay, One's beauty is one's beauty. SANCIA Do you love, Lucrezia, Giovanni? LUCREZIA How you startle me, Sancia dear! My blood stirs not at his name; only this fan Trembles a little: or is it the wind in the room That stirs it? In so much heat, how hot the wind, June's wind. Giovanni? Shameless you are, Sancia, Who ought to know — sancia Who ought to know too much? [16] CESARE BORGIA CESARE Giovanni sacrifices to the rebellious angels. LUCREZIA How this heat tires me! There are nets to weave Out of soft sleep and subtler scents to snare Youth that is so much younger than the world. SANCIA "Rebellious angels?" So, one sacrifices, Still, to the fallen gods? CESARE Shed blood, my Sancia, May still be sacrificed. LUCREZIA In some cunning way, As look you, out of this my sinful soul, On those my sinful lips when, being vexed, They bite the blood? CESARE A goodly bait to men. LUCREZIA God send me a better bait! These Spaniards, now, Where are they? CESARE They live with me. [17] CESARE BORGIA LUCREZIA They keep me waiting. An evil genius Presided at my tragic birth, yet am I Evil? My life shall be tragic; Spanish blood Runs ever hotly in us, Cesare! I know I shall be a mockery in men's ears In women's mouths a scorn; a windy laughter, A fire that flamed, a sail in a grey rain: And this shall be my Dirge. "Of what is't fools make such vain keeping? Sin, their conception, their birth, weeping? Their life, a general mist of error, Their death, a hideous storm of terror." Enter giovanni Giovanni [sings mockingly^ "Their death, a hideous storm of terror!" I came light-hearted; now you dash my mirth As from Gian the jester might have in Verone At Can La Scala's Court, where Dante turned The fool's jest to a witty pun on words. CESARE These are but senseless cries out of your mouth. Only, I seem to see a shadow slanting, That lengthens, and is thrusting out a foot That might be yours. Come you, aside with me. Exeunt [18] CESARE BORGIA SCENE TWO In the Vatican Enter pope Alexander and cesare borgia THE POPE There is a monstrous error in the world: Who shall deliver us from too much love Save the sunderer of hearts? This is not love, But some horrible conspiracy of things That casts one's days out like departing guests. CESARE If there is anyone you love with rage, Who but Giulia Farnese? Her eyes and mouth Deny and invite. They say she is Christ's Bride, But when she dances she lures one : when she laughs She is the image of one who stands at the door Of a Tavern giving on a den of thieves. THE POPE I would that I were moral, Cesare, That know myself abnormal; know that vice Is simply vice, and, if there exists virtue Here in these hot streets where the wanton women — CESARE Go painted like the idolatrous images That worship only the clang of metal; those Have but brief lives, and thieve the lives of men. [19] CESARE BORGIA THE POPE Thieves that steal forth at night: none shall requite them. We are dramatic; poised on a point of time Not even poisonous. Last night that hot feast-room When Lucrezia was so pale, so strangely pale, And Sancia flushed with wine and lust of the flesh Stared down Giovanni with her treacherous eyes Where Vannozza was not, strike on all my senses As if the door of a furnace had been suddenly Opened in that brief, speechless minute, showing Glimpses of hell, and then as suddenly shut. And yet the feast went on. CESARE The feast went on. I had no fever, thought of no such things; A conjuror might juggle in his hands And so deceive you; there's no such deception Left to us now. THE POPE None, none ! Are we not too naked In all men's sight? Yea, God hath fashioned us For other uses than these, for other means. CESARE Do we not play into each other's hands? THE POPE I have no rival. CESARE Nay, you have no rival. So far you hold all your vices well in hand: [20] CESARE BORGIA So far. I say no more. We have had content — Content with our own selves. I say to you We shall soon move pity and terror. THE POPE One must act, Cesare. CESARE And, after having mimed and acted, God's to be reckoned with. THE POPE Sublime you are not; Shall God have ever pity of us, Cesare? cesare Site, if I see not as God or Satan might Myself, I find you, godless on your throne, A splendid strangling serpent of strange cunning - Image of the pride, defiance, revolt and sin That makes the axles of the live earth turn — Coiling around some semblances of good, And venomously round semblances of evil. THE POPE So it might be, Cesare, so it might be. I am I, yet I know not what I am Some say of me — they may be right or wrong — That in mine own self I possess the ignoblest Vices whose heads have risen since Satan fell — Crowned serpent of the nether clefts of Hell — Out of the heaven he hated. [21] CESARE BORGIA CESARE A word in your ear, Sire. Pardon me, but has not Giovanni Accused you, accused me, with strange menaces Of incest with Lucrezia — lies more damnable Than truths on a liar's tongue? THE POPE I curse not him Yet. Such menaces are the Devil's own Inventions for the credulous ears of those Whose tongues do lick up poison. It has been known The pavement sinks under a woman's feet; It has been known that limbs are easily Contaminated; and that some, being foully tortured Have eaten strange flesh. Such prodigious things Breed more prodigious mixtures. CESARE More prodigious Than these there shall not be. Mere menaces Shall make us more merciless. Sweet Christ of mine, What shall I do for your sake? Some smell of blood Some dust that hurts me, some wind's thunderstorm, Some puddled rain-shallows: more teasing things Than these that bite and sting one: just for her Sake, Lucrezia's. Sire, her life's too flame-like And her desires consume her. THE POPE In you and me Lives a live cloud and a more living flame. Which flame shall rise, rise, to consume the cloud? Which cloud, which flame, shall beat the other back? [22] CESARE BORGIA CESARE Let flesh and blood make answer. I have none. THE POPE Men shall cast hard stones at me, drag me alive Before they think to slay me, in God's sight These being shameless; they have eaten poisonous words And are not choked withal. Nay, I may drink Be made drink, the Lord's cup of derision. Yet shall not I Die by these means. For having made me man He shall not slay me utterly, being his Pope, And His anointed. CESARE Look you between your feet, Lest a snare take them though the ground be good. Death will have nought of altar and altar-song Although a man go cloaked up to the chin. THE POPE Verily I may be smitten by other gods That are to me most alien. CESARE I bid you hold Keen danger by the skirt, grip hands with him. THE POPE Yea, one Creed chokes another as gross weeds That hate the flowers they mix with, hideously. [23] CESARE BORGIA To move men's minds to travail: that's the word I want. Might I but have the Spirit of God! CESARE Yea, the Almighty. Soon shall come the time When we shall stand, naked, and face to face Before no throne, nor Satan's throne nor God's. THE POPE Then shall the Vatican tremble, filled with clouds Contagious. CESARE Time comes not on leaden wings. Yet on a certain night, when no sun shines And moonlight's pale, and we shall only hear Men stir uneasily as in sleep that pace The Piazza, and there enter, insolently, The Wind and air of night (the air we breathe, The wind bat-like) and every corner of our souls, Corner and coign and cranny shall be filled With an ominous sense of deeds that have been done And undone deeds, and find no way to grope Anywhere out of the nets of guilt and sin, Of crime and blood-shedding: then shall the Wheel of Fortune Turn in the void, and, on one turning wheel, No Christ fall off his Crucifix, but the image Of the Temptress of our Sins, pale as in Naples, Sancia, with painted cheeks, ripe for hell's fire. Exeunt [24] CESARE BORGIA SCENE THREE The Appartamento Borgia in the Vatican Enter cesare and lucrezia CESARE If God exists, then I exist; my Sire Also, with length of years, unnatural nights, Dreams abominable, fleshly desires that make His very limbs ache; for with blood like his — Hot as the African sun that burns on Spain Over Elche and Valencia — Arab blood That makes one mad; I ask you, Lucrezia, What more can any desire in any father Than we who have Christ's Vicar for our Sire? LUCREZIA "Why not? We have all we want; but wanting means More than we want. Our birth's enravelling We must leave to Nature. Why is it I don't love Rome? Because I hate not to be wholly Spanish, Not to have been born in Spain, and not to have had Raven tresses: blue black, lustrous, coiled, Such as they dip in a fountain in Cordova — Josef a, Dolores; and they sit in the sun there And drink the fierce sky in. CESARE You ask me why? Because our flaming hearts burn inward, burn not Outward, to escape the intolerable pain Of their reclusion. [25] CESARE BORGIA LUCREZIA We are like stormy sunsets That have no sunrises. Have we not seen in visions Christ's blood stream in the firmament? CESARE And God's wrath In painted pictures. Yet we were born in April. LUCREZIA I love lilies more than the roses; roses Burn in my cheeks, my skin is white as lilies. And yet I sigh for Venus and Adonis, He the sweet Knight she loved, and she the wanton That let him perish; I sigh more for Atalanta, That strange pure virgin, stainless save for the wild blood She shed — the boar's — for whose sake Meleager Perished, Althea's virginal son, in Calydon. CESARE Will you pray for me, Lucrezia, if I am suddenly Slain? LUCREZIA Pray for your soul, I might; as for your body, No. CESARE How your eyes are upon me! Stir not madness In this hot blood that aches for loveliness, Yours more than other's. [26] CESARE BORGIA LUCREZIA I cannot love you more Than I have always loved you, Cesare. And, now I love you as you love me : yet All my love is not wholly yours. You love? CESARE LUCREZIA Vanozzal. CESARE And the Pope? LUCREZIA No more nor less, If I think well of the manner of my loving To him-ward: and I would the winds and waters Washed me as clean in certain men's reports As I am pure in nature. CESARE Heed nothing now! LUCREZIA Cesare, We have drunk the wine of love as lovers have Ever since love itself created love. This drunk, We never are the same. Shame be to me If ever I forget you or forgive you ! CESARE Why, you suspect me? [27] CESARE BORGIA LUCREZIA If I do suspect you, Why not? CESARE Why not? Have I done you wrong? Much wrong. LUCREZIA CESARE More than Giovanni? LUCREZIA O, much less, much less. CESARE You know that I am evil? LUCREZIA Evil and cruel : one None ever fathomed; you are unfathomable. Deep as the sea in storms. In wronging me You wrong yourself. CESARE How wonderful you are Lucrezia ! I could kiss these feet of yours Now — if it were worth kneeling. LUCREZIA So you say, Who have knelt often to Sancia. [28] Sancia. CESARE BORGIA CESARE Sancia? LUCREZIA CESARE You are most fair and fearful, feminine, Not faultless, but you breathe warm heights of the air, And the extreme heavens find favour in your sight. LUCREZIA Feminine I am, not fearful; fair, not fierce; And when I breathe the warm air things ruinous Pass in my vision : I see the realms of the Dead — Not the extreme heavens — where Faustina dances With Helen, and the dark gods of Hades laugh. CESARE Were I in Hades I would dance with them! LUCREZIA You mean with Sancia? CESARE With Faustina. LUCREZIA I see: With living beauty in hell rather than with living Beauty on earth. We spoke of wine. Drink this. She offers him wine It might be, for all I know, made of hell's fire. [29] CESARE BORGIA Why do you turn so pale? As if some stupor Had fallen on you, and hell lay just beneath The Vatican, and a dead man's face stared up Out of the depths? cesare dashes the glass of urine on the floor with a nervous gesture; the wine stains the floor like blood. cesare \_slowly] Out of some stupor? Lucrezia? I have seen no dead man's face; we are not in hell; I know that I am pale and you are not. There lies the blood of the wine that I have spilt, And there it shines between us; blood turned wine: Wine that no man shall drink; blood that no man Shall ever taste. LUCREZIA This is most strange in you. CESARE Forgive me for what I have said. LUCREZIA Of me? To me? Against me? CESARE Against you, never; of you, perhaps; To you, too often. LUCREZIA Nay, not often enough. Listen ! I think I hear the Pope's footsteps. [30] CESARE BORGIA CESARE Let's share him. Some are of the Devil's crew And none from the Ghetto steered them. The pope enters THE POPE I catch your word. You know for certain what one says in Spain Sounds in Rome just as jarring in one's ears As someone coughing when one hangs him up. LUCREZIA There's much more evil here Than one supposes. THE POPE Evil, why not evil? This insolent heat Is over; but I have a quickened sense In my imagination; some hollow heat Of hell returning makes this room turn red. Now to supplant some evil: as when the Tiber Turns hideous with dead drifting things upon it. CESARE There is between its banks a troublous tide — A tide tongued with windless words, that takes None of the laughing colours of our streets. LUCREZIA "Dead drifting things": that makes me shudder; somehow This day has been most evil; women's praise Is lost on me: I am thrown into some humour. [311 CESARE BORGIA THE POPE Some fever in the blood, a girl's mere malady That leaves her, laughing; something under the girdle Perhaps too warm. CESARE Now he jests cruelly Yea, but blood slain shall not be healed again Nor heat the forsaken flesh. Enter giovanni GIOVANNI You jibe at flesh? CESARE Nay, at forsaken flesh; and blood unhealed. GIOVANNI You are too keen on blood. LUCREZIA Giovanni mine, There's little love between you. GIOVANNI Was there ever? CESARE Was there ever? LUCREZIA You ring the echo like unchristened bells On a Cathedral that some demon pulls. Giovanni, there was laughter on your lips When your lips smote on Cesare's. [32] CESARE BORGIA GIOVANNI He checked mine, Lucrezia, he checks mine always now. CESARE Now, Now, more than ever? Giovanni [with irony] More than ever, Cesare. THE POPE Cease, cease your words, O my evil sons ! Certainly mine, as certainly not of God's Begetting, why do you tear at each other so, Not literally, but with more hateful words Than hate might utter? Satan, had he had sons, His might have fought no less, for less just reasons, Than you, my Giovanni, than you, my Cesare. CESARE We may be of Satan's seed, we are seed of our sire, Seed of Vannozza. THE POPE I think there is a menace in the air; I feel it in every fibre of my being. LUCREZIA In hell are beds of perfume and sad sound, And there with nerve and bone one multiplies Extreme pleasure out of an extreme pain; And all the gateways smoke with fumes of flames And all the serpents hiss and lift their heads. [33] CESARE BORGIA CESARE Giovanni, you must know one has been in hell — Take you deep note of this — where are shaken sighs In that uncertain state where women walk Along the streets with loosened hair and girdles Unbound and eyes that frighten you : the Sun Ceases and the stars wonder, and all Hell Is filled from end to end with endless shame. GIOVANNI There is a terror in the roots of my hair And a certain seething fire beneath my head And all my flesh grows faint and feverish And there's an anguish in my very bones. What God, what Devil, shall deliver me Out of the hands of these mine enemies? CESARE Shall Gods bear bit and bridle, fool, of men? Can any fool baffle Satan and God? For all these rest now as lots that yet undrawn Lie in the lap of the unknown hour. THE POPE Cry not so much, Giovanni, Words far too feverish. On this Crucifix I have upon me I bid you cease your raving! GIOVANNI Do I grovel? Am I a thing made to spit on, A thing for shame to spit on? [34] CESARE BORGIA cesare [aside] This night hell's lips Shall open and shut once. LUCREZIA Giovanni, why This monstrous mockery that has no name: No name, say I? as if our very name Were rent as carrion by the vulturous beaks That feed on fame and soil it. THE POPE Will you hear me, Giovanni? Were but Vannozza here that she might hear me Last night I dreamed — God help me! — that I climbed Infinite spirals that touched not hell nor heaven But changed to ladders, every rung of them Dropt away from me as my feet felt them, then I fell, I fell, sucked under a slimy floor Where serpents crawled, coiled, curdled; and then down Into annihilation. Yet I heard over me The moon's evil laugh, the sea-waves' hiss; Then soul and body parted at the stroke And out of an infinitely sharp suspense I woke. GIOVANNI God's mercy! May I never dream The like of that! Such dreams forebode much evil. CESARE God's mercy, say you? Ask not that of Him. I shall not tell you the evil dream I had [35] CESARE BORGIA For if three dream bad dreams one of us three Has life's hand on his left, death's on his right. GIOVANNI Death's on his right, you say? I take no heed, This night, of life nor death. I sleep not here To-night. CESARE In the Trastavere? GIOVANNI Why do you ask Me? Where I go is not far from the Ghetto, Where stands a hideous palace whose huge stone walls Exude the slime of an embodied crime. CESARE The Cenci Palace. Opening of stealthy doors There have I heard; near by stand villainous houses; And, on a certain night, being alone, Giovanni, I heard scrape on a window-pane What certainly was the sharpening of a knife. Exit GIOVANNI THE POPE He bade me not good-night! LUCREZIA The corpse-like bride That leads in endless night, awaits him there. CESARE A corpse-like curse. [36] CESARE BORGIA THE POPE I would this night were over! LUCREZIA I would it were not over. A brideless bride, Whose eyes have sucked in the noon's heat, whose perfumed Body is odorous as the Orient, her heavy Eyes masking a pool that has no depth Save unseen nakedness, her subtle hands Mesmeric, her pure breath that slays a man, Awaits him, pale before her mirror, whose fair flesh Lures a man's steps more than a snake a bird. CESARE You make me think of Ostia, where the Tiber Bends, making its escape seaward, where, on a night, A perfumed night, Cleopatra's galley went, A scented galley like the scented Queen, Its way to Egypt, where, on a certain day, No Caesar came but news of Caesar's death. Exeunt [37] CESARE BORGIA SCENE FOUR A Room in miciielotto's House CESARE, MICHELOTTO and ASSASSINS CESARE Aut Cesar, aut Nihil: invented maliciously, Out of old logic and tenacious will, That's my device. But for the present this Question is all-important, vital as life: What must be done and never left undone; If not we lose our time in vain conjectures. Blood of his blood, bone of his bone, my Father Owns me his first-born. He has done much for me But nothing like the length of my desires. Think what I have done for him and myself! What have you gained from serving him, Michelotto? MICHELOTTO My Lord, none works for nothing: he gave me nothing. CESARE I am a Cardinal — with a difference — And the Pope made me Cardinal. Perhaps I chafe A little at the title. Blood is blood And in my blood desire in the extreme excites me To deeds the night might start at; deeds not done Yet, in the seven hells. FIRST ASSASSIN Our trade is trade; We beg not. [38] CESARE BORGIA SECOND ASSASSIN And we love not. CESARE If I love not This brother of mine, nor ever loved him, I Begged never a favour from him. Words like these Stir up intents that lead to events. The event To come is just as ripe as a ripe apple A snake stung in the grass. So if one bites it, The apple, that is, he is just dead. You seize The meaning of my parable? MICHELOTTO I seize it. CESARE I name not the name I need not name. Let pass His name as the wind that passes. Sin is sin And love is love and that's not all : the end Of all is death. THIRD ASSASSIN Yea, you have said the word. CESARE And after that the Judgment. I judge not The man I name as God might judge me, when We meet, if meet we might. This dagger's point Of mine that aches in its sheath so quickens me, Now, as I touch it: don't you see, Michelotto, That every nerve in my mind is touched to the quick As the dagger's point that touches a man's skin; And that in my subtle and most intricate spirit [39] CESARE BORGIA Visions are laid bare, and that the speech must come From stress and struggle of things, till there be per- fected The keystone of mine own work, and I set myself Utterly free from a being that cries in mine ear. Forever? MICHELOTTO Fire is not more fervent than you are; Yet certain flames are easily put out. THIRD ASSASSIN As in a tavern where the candles burn The roof-trees down. CESARE Nay, nay, no wine-gossip; Something more wonderful than wine! What else But naked and bare tragedy? THIRD ASSASSIN Bare tragedy? FIRST ASSASSIN It may sound singular, but I think you mean Just what we mean on any common day That hit our heels together in the jumping Of that which preys on actless action. CESARE There You strike a note that rings. One must take heart And bend no idle knees to any God [40] CESARE BORGIA That grimaces in a garden. If I could put The hate I have, the love I have not, for Him I have named, why, then, if God is God, God must not be thought on; for the act that's mine Acts with God never. MICHELOTTO So mad Nero said That set Rome's roofs on fire, and loved the fire That bade destruction ruin half of Rome. CESARE Let me see for myself if this be so! And then, one gives a name to a certain name. MICHELOTTO A very nameless thing, an evil thing That needs no devil's sanction. FIRST ASSASSIN What the devil Are we here for? The devil take me if — CESARE We need something dramatic, grip and strength, And more than that, a drama never acted Yet, on so small a stage. Now, here's one crisis That has no climax. MICHELOTTO You others there, look up; Don't be such tongue-tied beasts. I'm body and soul Cesare's; say the same. [41] CESARE BORGIA ASSASSINS Body and soul we are his. CESARE I thank you all; take this, a Spaniard's thanks. Conspirators, I think, have no braver souls Than we have; and I seal my Catholic faith, Not for the first nor the last time, on this deed The moon shall hate not, hot in our Roman sky. There is no greater question than this peril That imperils all of us. Were it so paid. All's over. You must not so stormily Stare on me, for here is simply naught but storm, Tempest and terror. THIRD ASSASSIN Here are simply our bodies; Hell knows if we have souls. CESARE Our souls are tossed On winds of flame and over waves that waft us I know not what strange scents. Above is hell, Let one suppose, and underneath is heaven. And God's in hell and Satan is in heaven. And we, we watch and pray not: yet the hour We pray not for is nigh at hand. MICHELOTTO What hour? [42] CESARE BORGIA CESARE A certain moonlit night. One's out of tune, The Pope might well be; for I know he knows not Aught of my meaning I have here delivered By word of mouth. And yet he guessed at it, By certain signs in his eyes and in his gestures. MICHELOTTO Always he adored Giovanni : for his sins Are sensual enough : he is capricious, And shadows make him start. CESARE So shall the shadows Start when Giovanni passes, mighty ministers Of all the mischiefs. Nay, there is never a vengeance Anywhere in this world like mine own vengeance That cries and must not be hurt. To strike but once. SECOND ASSASSIN The great thing is THIRD ASSASSIN The great thing is to strike Till there's no room to think a man's alive. CESARE There is no room, and yet the man's alive, The being that cries ever in mine ears, A crying that is more insatiable than the wind's, [43] CESARE BORGIA A crying that is more intolerable than the sea's. I hold to the helm of Fortune. And have I not Every just reason in this reasonless world To remit this just, this deadly deed to other's Hands and not mine? I remit this to your hands: And, with these words, I bid you all Good-night. Exit CESARE SCENE FIVE vannozza's Vineyard in San Pietro in Vincola VANNOZZA The Serpents have been gliding in the streets And we're outside the gates of Paradise But not as exiles from the wrath of God. CESARE Fear not God's anger. Satan is a Serpent. These live in passionately un tempered evil And sin has clothed them with their slimy skin That makes thought itself weary. SANCIA Thought itself Thinks inwardly. The snakes have fascination And never think even of the poison in them That turns from violent life to violent death. GIOVANNI Cesare, your strangling, cruel, serpent eyes Arc fixed on mine; they will not draw me in Your magic circle. [44] CESARE BORGIA VANNOZZA Why do you shiver, Giovanni? CESARE As one whose leg is sunk up to the knee In the earth of a new-made grave? GIOVANNI No, no, no, no! Does a wolf caught in a trap shiver? SANCIA You make me laugh. I think of a girl we know, one Benedicta, A pretty sort of baggage is that child ! GIOVANNI Pretty she may be: the devil take me if I know what you are driving at, you two — Conspirators, perhaps. CESARE That's very strange Giovanni mine; and the devil take me if You haven't uttered a word I never thought Had leapt to your lips. SANCIA How your lips twist and twitch, Giovanni! Have we hurt you? Anyhow You seem to grudge us every word we say — If grudging were worth a coin one tosses. [45 1 CESARE BORGIA GIOVANNI Lucrezia — Would she were here! — would hate you; how I hate You, Sancia! SANCIA Me, Sancia? Because the stars are fewer In heaven's span, and June's not over yet, And stings are stings: the Ghetto's something too And people quite improper who trip there On their own errands; these you ought to know. GIOVANNI Suppose I do not, or suppose I do, What matters it? CESARE It matters very much; You may have greater knowledge than we have Of those one hangs like rats that squeak too much And care not overmuch for the merciful bowels Of Mother Church, and get few crumbs cast to them, Anyhow, from anyone's table. GIOVANNI That's odd enough; For don't Jews help one to one's sins, who help None to the Gods they don't believe in? CESARE 'Thou sayest If." [ 46 ] CESARE BORGIA VANNOZZA How your nerves are jangling! Wrangle not With wicked words. This is no orchard-pit Where bones of dead men lie. GIOVANNI " Where dead men lie?" CESARE Nay, bones of dead men. VANNOZZA Will you never end? You play on words, words always. By the light of love I have for you, this Thursday is wholly mine, Mine utterly and yours. It is Passion Week! For God's dear sake, don't leave me on this night Of nights, for I am passionate to want you In all my love to keep you here all night. CESARE Your fairer son leaves with your swarthier son, This very night of nights. GIOVANNI This night of nights? So says your swarthier son Who has all that's lacking in me; so he thinks; So think not I. He ever had his will Fixed as the four winds in the world's four quarters. They change their will : he changes his : some wind Is ever in his laughter; but his laughter Is colder than the winter wind. [47] CESARE BORGIA SANCIA You are right, Giovanni : What keen insight suddenly Shakes you out of your wonted fashion? VANNOZZA Can Cesare Answer this? CESARE Why should I answer? You might as well ask me Is the road safe to Naples? That I know not. Only, whether the roads be safe or not, To-morrow finds us on our way to Naples. GIOVANNI So Pontius Pilate might have said to Christ. Outside is heard a voice singing Don Cesare laughs at God And drinks light wine to the brim. He scourges the Pope with a rod Of his wrath and his head makes nod The stars that laugh at him. GIOVANNI It is your turn to shiver, Cesare, Now. CESARE I ? Never. It is the voice of Gian the Jester Who followed me: not that he's mine; Lucrezia's Favourite Jester. SANCIA Why's not Lucrezia here? [48] CESARE BORGIA CESARE For her soul's sake. GIOVANNI For her soul's sake ! For her sins' sake, more likely, Considering the life we lead. VANNOZZA She's my child. If she be sinless or sinful, she's my child; And I defy the world to sever us ! CESARE There flames the real Vannozza; she who keeps Herself so much out of our way. The mother in her Survives the Sinneress. VANNOZZA Eh, you still jibe at me: Your jests strike never hard. For I am one That has but little will, one easily swayed, And never know if evil turns to right: Nor if God really loves us. GIOVANNI That's a saying Our Sire might solve. CESARE A saying he dare not solve. SANCIA Indeed he dare not. [49] CESARE BORGIA CESARE Now take this case, Giovanni : Suppose I choose to go by night, as you do, always, Masked and disguised, in quest of one knows what, Tripping on light heels after any adventure? GIOVANNI Where sportive ladies have their doors ajar? CESARE Exactly so. You must not hunt me out, In that case, for I never hunted you. GIOVANNI Hugely you say these threats; when the street's hushed You won't do that. CESARE Nay, not for some intense girl That entreats you with the eyes, when one in Church Crosses her: not for Christ's passion on the Cross! SANCIA You get about the best that God invents In finding simple beauty, with a soul. VANNOZZA Why talk of women always? This one night — Nay, not our last — don't spoil: that were bad luck. GIOVANNI Cesare, forgive me, for our Mother's sake. They take each other's hands [50] CESARE BORGIA CESARE There's no forgiveness needed. Words are wind And wine is wine; and we are at the Feast. gian [passes singing] I have gone on without thinking If the cup that I am drinking May not overflow the brim; And I wonder this should be, Death can dare to think of me Seeing I never thought of him. Giovanni [leaping up] Confound the creature ! Had I the chance to catch him His ears had paid for this insult. SANCIA Sit down; be quiet. There have been things worse Than this to be endured. By all the Saints You are wrong, wrong. Giovanni [sits down] Suppose I am, or right It is no mercy of mine to let him go Unhanged, who well might decorate a gateway; Only, I let him go, his neck unbroken. CESARE Is that your choice? You had no other choice. GIOVANNI Suppose I had my choice the man were hanged. [51] CESARE BORGIA CESARE You said before: "his neck." You change your mind. GIOVANNI Men's necks are broken easily enough. CESARE Not half as easily as having a man slain. GIOVANNI Slain, yes. CESARE Nay, I say, striving after things done right Or acts done wrong can never lead to much. GIOVANNI Will you rain curses on a woman's lips? CESARE Even the rain can't wash a wound quite clean. S A NCI A Well, what with wounds and blood and rain and curse And necks and nothing, surely our wine might turn To a bitter taste. VANNOZZA Nay, never, Sancia. I drink thus pure red wine to all of you. Have I, who loved and love you, ever praised You for your beauty, Giovanni — overmuch? For mine is on the wane. [52] CESARE BORGIA GIOVANNI You have praised me beyond All belief of praise. VANNOZZA One gains eternal fame. CESARE I pledge you both, now, in the spirit's name. They drink r SANC1A How lovely is your vineyard; now the hour On the sundial points to ten. Night's shadows fall As ours might on the grass; the crocuses Like little flames of gold shine. The swift lizards Leap in delight and flash and vanish away. Only the wind's restless always in hot June; And can a man be quiet in his soul And love the wind? CESARE I love the wind and sea, And I love wine and kisses; and I love blood. GIOVANNI Nothing but blood that's blood and wine that's wine And death that's death: and where do I come in? CESARE You come in always as you used to come. [53] CESARE BORGIA GIOVANNI With blood before me and with blood behind As an image out of hell's flames risen to earth Out of a spirit of sheer mockery? CESARE We are not in Spain: and you are not in hell — Yet; and there are worse things than mere blood- shedding When death exacts from blood some reckoning We reek not of that alive. The stain of blood Flies upward: so I read in a Spanish Tragedy That deals with sinister matters; now corruption Stalks in with spell-bound gestures; now the scent Of graveyard earth stinks in our nostrils; now A phantom, in a wizard shape, comes dancing With blood upon the delicate soles of his feet. GIOVANNI Sancia, I suffer from the intensity of this heat. One stifles. I were fain the heavens took fire And the rain fell like drops of blood. To think Even of sleeping is as if one asked the owls To stop their hooting. CESARE Sleep may come on you. I am no owl to beat against your windows With wings the rain has hurt with drops of blood. SAXCIA I say to you, the root of hate grows hellward And from the roots of evil reptiles thrive. [54] CESARE BORGIA CESARE I say to you that reptiles always thrive. VANNOZZA I tell you here's too much of treasonous malice. Here, in this very shoal and shore of time, We'll jump the life to come; imaginings Beat at our hearts, and present fears are less Than such uncertain images of things We know too little of. Let us arise now, And taste, after our feast, the air of night. They walk to and fro CESARE Mother, I fear it is time for us to leave — To leave in peace — this place of holy rest. VANNOZZA Why go so soon, my son? The air is fresh. CESARE The air is fresh. The wind will soon blow shrewdly. GIOVANNI I have no haste to hasten back to Rome. SANCIA I stay here for the night, with your kind leave, Vannozza. [55] CESARE BORGIA VANNOZZA Certainly, dear child. Yet these must go — Alas, alas ! They must — these sons of mine Their Holy Father waits for in the Vatican To bid them both farewell. CESARE Alas, dear Mother, The Pope desired me — ardently — to return To the Vatican before he takes his rest. GIOVANNI His rest? Sleep sound he may — sleep he may not. CESARE I am quite certain you shall sleep to-night. GIOVANNI I have no hope at all to sleep to-night. CESARE I catch your meaning. Let our mules be harnessed. VANNOZZA I see they are both harnessed at the gate. CESARE Wish us good-night, for we must both be gone. [56] CESARE BORGIA VANNOZZA Good-night, Cesare; good-night, Giovanni mine. They embrace Cesare, who is that hooded man I see Behind the mule-guides? CESARE You need not fear A man whose face is masked. He comes at nights When I am — not in the Vatican. Good-night. Giovanni [aside~] Cesare, you must leave me at the Cesarini. cesare [aside] A palace named after me? That's sinister. Leave you I shall; my way lies not your way; For I must go to the Piazza degli Ebrei To pray some damned soul shirks not his own Hell. Exeunt SCENE SIX A Square in the Trastavere Enter michelotto with two assassins michelotto The hour is after midnight, not death's hour Sounds yet, and there are ghosts that mope in Hell, And Satan stalks in Rome and goblins laugh From the house-roofs. Perdition awaits us if — [57] CESARE BORGIA FIRST ASSASSIN Tremendous If? Why, in the devil's name, Have you brought us here? MICHELOTTO To do a sinister deed. SECOND ASSASSIN A storm of ghosts to give us ghostly aid? That shall make men shudder in their very graves; There shall be blood on the untimely lips of Death And a certain dusty hunger in his bones. The deed, you ask? A deed that has no name, Yet has a name. In the name of toad-stools, what? MICHELOTTO Something less harsh than murder; nay, a deed That has no shape of breath; nay, not the wind Can shape it to its purpose. FIRST ASSASSIN Our purposes Are plain and simple. We know many a trick; We know your name; we have entered in your pay; Here we three are: and there the Tiber crawls. MICHELOTTO And there the Tiber crawls. We are but three, And soon shall come a fourth. I am an Artist In the fine art one names the Art of Slaying. You Are less than slaves. [58] CESARE BORGIA SECOND ASSASSIN So you may think of us. It seems there's here a kind of perfidy, A thing that has a mask on, an apology For Vice. MICHELOTTO You seem to grasp my meaning. What's Vice But Vice, and that's perfidious, as one's death? Time's up, by the moon's shadow: how time slips Under one's feet! Brats have grown into whores. It is a whoremonger you have to slay. FIRST ASSASSIN The lordliest whoremonger that lives in Rome? MICHELOTTO The lordliest. SECOND ASSASSIN There is no wind at all in this fierce heat; The air we breathe is hell's; my knife wants sharpening. MICHELOTTO You see that house with the white balconies, Two windows open and the other shut — Rough whitewood shutters, silent as blind death — Where someone sleeps and someone wakes (no angels, No angel ever sleeps) that not the dawn Yet flares on, blood-red-weaponed out of heaven — Where lives a woman with olive skin, black eyes, A morbid languid Asiatic creature Who gives, not sells, her body? [59] CESARE BORGIA SECOND ASSASSIN That naked house? MICIIELOTTO Yes. Behind it stands The ancient Basilica of Santa Maria In Trastavere, delicate in desolation; And beyond that, the Tiber. FIRST ASSASSIN One ought to know it! The refuse of the filthiest part of the city Lies on its banks abandoned; a muddy river, An ugly yellow river. MICIIELOTTO There you will have to swing the man you have slain Into the depths where slime is crawling. first assassin {showing his knife he has sharpened^] The first man That opens yonder door, and comes with wine And lust after his limbs have danced all night Into the street where none hold Carnival? MIMIELOTTO The same. He will have played dice on the harlot's bed Desiring to divine his future. This Shall he divine to-night. Exit [60] CESARE BORGIA SECOND ASSASSIN Hanged Judas' price Of Blood, that's all our hell-hound, Don Michele Michelotto, gave us. Destruction take his throat ^Yhen next he pays assassins! FIRST ASSASSIN Do you know her name, Hers, who lives there? SECOND ASSASSIN No. FIRST ASSASSIN Imperia, a Lamia, a strange snake-woman, Some call a Vampire. SECOND ASSASSIN You mean dead-living creatures that rise from graves At midnight and suck the blood out of one's veins And grow the lovelier for the taste of blood? FIRST ASSASSIN Those that she slays turn Vampires. SECOND ASSASSIN I see a face — A man's, I think — pass inside the window. FIRST ASSASSIN Perhaps a Vampire! [61] CESARE BORGIA SECOND ASSASSIN Silence! Listen! Wait in the shade. The door opens and Giovanni, flushed with loine, comes into the street and shuts the door behind him. Giovanni [singing] What a lovely thing this youth is, If but Youth could always stay so! You'd be happy? Be to-day so, In to-morrow's tale no truth is. FIRST ASSASSIN Sackful of Vices, Pit of Infamy, There are several deaths by which a man may die. Look not so pale: there's no escape for you. GIOVANNI Your dire looks harbour death. You are mad! Give way! SECOND ASSASSIN No other way. GIOVANNI O I am trapped, I am trapped! O fair Night be not fatal to me! In your ear, You there, I'll give you a heap of golden ducats. first assassin [aside to second] Were he the Pope's Son, now, we'd give him life. GIOVANNI Let not gush forth my blood! O spare my life Or you'll be damned forever. I am the Son — I 62 ] CESARE BORGIA SECOND ASSASSIN Here's a fine drug for you — GIOVANNI They stab him A spirit of hell Has turned hell's gate back for me. He falls O God, God, Be not pitiful ! Dies FIRST ASSASSIN May God have mercy on him! SECOND ASSASSIN The man we have slain was innocent of blood: We keep the taint of it on ours. Come now Lift up his head, I will lift up his heels. Before they have raised him imperia rushes out and falls on her knees beside the body of Giovanni. imperia What have they done to you, Giovanni? What have they done? Giovanni, Giovanni, they have killed the heart that was mine! The curtain falls [63] CESARE BORGIA SCENE SEVEN The Vatican Enter the pope and cesare borgia THE POPE For seven whole days and nights (such nights that slay The soul) I was alone as God might be On His throne lonely; sleeping not, one thought In my mind always (a thought to make one mad) Beat in the hollow corners of my brain And drove me into curses dread and deep And direr imprecations that howled in the air As the wolves howl that hunger, thirst for prey: I was, was not, myself. CESARE You are alive, Giovanni's dead, and what is Rome is hell. I have confessed to you the deed I did not do, That had it done; for vengeance in my spirit Hurled me against the fiery gates where Satan Waits, hurled me back, not in the name of God. THE POPE .Virne not God's name. An eternity has passed Prom the instant when I saw, dead, the adored Dear body of my son — the blood washed clean, Alas, of his nine wounds — whereon my senses Left me and I fell — [04] CESARE BORGIA CESARE As Dante, Sire, in hell After Francesca had sighed out the last Sob of her tragic heart, whirled on by flame — THE POPE — Fell and was dead, dead to awake to life, And, living, to have had your breath on mine And heard your accursed lips that dared not he Smite mine. CESARE I smote you not. I smote with words Your lips that loathed me. THE POPE Cesare, if flesh is blood And blood is flesh, this that was veritable man Is now no longer man nor veritable. But what is veritable is the naked fact That we who have talked one hour over what is Both flesh and blood are not heartless as his heart Now silenced: yet he is as absent from us now As we are from God's thought, we who have passed Out of his death-chamber: and we, even as he, Shall get no answer from a dead man's lips. CESARE You have spent your curses on me. Curse yourself, Who have need of curses. Loveless are we now, That have to live, and live down hate and love. [65] CESARE BORGIA THE POPE Blood of my blood you are and of Vannozza's, And therefore are you a devil not yet damned No absolution ever can absolve : For what is absolution if I give it To one who sets his right foot on my throne And might, one night, set foot upon my face? CESARE I might, one night, set foot upon your throne. THE POPE I have been monstrous, you have overpassed me; I have been perverse, always — Your perversion Conceives against me and for me vast conceptions Most terrible and unholy and atrocious — Because you are my son. Yea, you have helped me Because you are my son. Son, if you slay me — There's still one reason — because you are my son. CESARE Because I am your son, I shall not slay you. Because you are my father, who shall slay you? The question of the slaying of a Sire Is out of my conception. Of you begotten And of Yannozza conceived, I am not yours Wholly, nor hers: and therefore I have chosen The one course left me. I live. Giovanni's dead. THE POPE Yea, one lies dead, who had a right to live, And one stands living, who had the right to die. [GO] CESARE BORGIA CESARE Who had the right to live. Nay, all your curses Shall give not the dead back life; nor give me, living, The right to smite you with curses. There's an end Of all things, not of this thing, that lies beneath us. Wounds have no words: he shall not speak again. THE POPE You say it, you whose hands are not clean of blood. CESARE Are your hands clean? THE POPE They taste of blood. CESARE Do mine? THE POPE Mine shall taste always of blood. Have we not felt it? CESARE Yes, we have felt it, and the taste remains. THE POPE Always to be haunted by the smell of blood? CESARE Mere physical disgust and that wears off. There's an intense intoxication in a crime [67] CESARE BORGIA That is not wine's intoxication, but the revenge Of heated blood against heated blood: a thing, I say, that has no more meaning than a word The lip lets slip; only, if someone slips, The other follows. He makes the gesture THE POPE The God that made us evil Did that irrevocably; for, as we make ourselves, Ourselves can be unmade; what's good in us Comes not of our own goodness. Lucrezia Has the evil of her beauty made as a snare For men's souls. But — as for the one soul that's fled? CESARE Ask of the Great, ask not of me, Sire Father! THE POPE As the wind wavers a man — as Judas swings Forever on a pale wild olive bough Where Satan tempts him everlastingly And begs from him his soul he cannot give Because its thirst can never be extinguished — I might be hung between the Sun and Moon And see the clouds scowl, hear the winds blow, The owls that shriek, the minutes as they go, And, with distracted countenance, still live on W ho saw God made and eaten all day long And blessed the world; and never see my Son, Giovanni. Well, what recompense for that? [68] CESARE BORGIA CESARE None, Sire. It is I that keep the shame of it. We have drunk deep of our impurity, And there's but one most certain dining-time Betwixt us and confusion; and then waste. For Malice waits on us with her stooped brows, And time's eternal motion will not stay One instant for our sakes. And she may come, Lucrezia, she must come; and with her bring I know not what — what all the burning waters Of the wide seas' conflagration might present To our unrepining spirits. THE POPE She will come And with her all the beauty of the world. I dare not breathe; the air grows heavy. My senses Are terrible to contend with. Let not my feet Stagger, O God, into the abyss of hell! CESARE Sire, be not sinister. The Gods forbid We take them sinister- wise; such knavery Is ever unrewarded. He that is proud Eats up himself: that's an old proverb; we Are no food fit for the Gods. Our generation Breeds vipers; there is more subtle craft in love Than love in craft. Nights are too brief; our taste Is violent and for things most violent. THE POPE Out of such violence comes more violence, As when a beast is wild and frenzy seizes [69] CESARE BORGIA His hungry eyes, so that he bites the ground And paws the earth up; so, if my God forgets me, Let him forget the beast that's in me! CESARE God forbid! We are no such beasts, but very subtle serpents, Inextricably coiled, that cling and sting And hate and hiss. THE POPE Not all eternity Shall eat up all these hours. CESARE Not even the hunger That gnaws the edges of Eternity Shall give Lucrezia what's beyond all hunger: The gift of the vision of the fall of the Axe of Fate. Enter lucrezia in wild excitement lucrezia I have seen Giovanni ! Give me wine to drink ! CESARE Here's wine. LUCREZIA No, no, there's red blood in the cup, And if I taste it, I shall surely die. THE POPE Giovanni and alive? [70] CESARE BORGIA LUCREZIA Yea, in my room, Alive and wounded. Never a word said he But showed me all his wounds; one on his throat His left hand touched. I saw all the red stains, But not the blood. He wavered and was gone. CESARE His violent spirit tried to outride the wind. I am the hinge of the gate that opens Hell And is he not the key that locks the Gate? LUCREZIA You slew him ! CESARE Nay, I slew him not, Lucrezia. LUCREZIA You lie to me, Cesare: you have always lied, You always will lie. You are ravenous with the thirst Of blood you live for, and blood's not all. Seven devils Take you! If ever I believe in you again, Let seven devils take me! I have seen hell's fire In my room. I have seen blood on Giovanni's bosom, Blood on his mouth, and still you cry for his blood! CESARE I swear on the black Crucifix that hangs there — There on the wall, that all souls kneel before — That I lie not. [71] CESARE BORGIA LUCREZIA I tell you that you lie, Lie in your throat. If he should enter here! I think you are mad that will not answer me. THE POPE Child, I have given Giovanni absolution But never as one gives it to the living. CESARE I am the hinge of the Gate that opens Hell. lucrezia puts her hand to her forehead, and gazes on them wildly, as the Curtain falls. [72] ISEULT OF BRITTANY ISEULT OF BRITTANY The scene represents a room in the Palace of duke jovelin of brittany, with a door on the right and at the back a window overlooking the sea. On the right, iseult of brittany sits at an embroidery-frame, with three of her ladies, ygraine, elaine, and Imogen. iseult of brittany How can I think of Tristan while I sit And sew these idle flowers into a field? Tristan is fighting for his life, he plucks The harp-strings in a lady's chamber, sings Of battles or of love that fights in hearts Wherever hearts are gentle. Where he is, There life is; and I sew my idle flowers Among their grasses, and I do not live. ygraine Lady, when women live there is an end Of peace in life : it were as well we loved. ISEULT OF BRITTANY Would you not love to love? YGRAINE I have loved, madam. [75] ISEULT OF BRITTANY ISEULT OF BRITTANY Is this an answer? YGRAINE I have no other one Can say so much in little. ISEULT OF BRITTANY When you loved Had you no joy then? YGRAINE When I loved I had The bitter joy to know I loved a man. ISEULT OF BRITTANY And evil came of it? YGRAINE Evil it was. ISEULT OF BRITTANY I could love well, and yet be happy. Some Ask such a great and heavy deal of Love: He cannot make all happy overmuch. Hut I would build up the live air with peace About a quiet nesting-place for love. YGRAINE H< will not nest, but he will fly abroad Until the waters are loud under him. [76] ISEULT OF BRITTANY ISEULT OF BRITTANY [to ELAINE^ Look out, and tell me if the sea by now Has lapped the seaweed off the sand? elaine [rising and going to the window^ The sea Is thin and grey and wrinkled and speaks low. ISEULT OF BRITTANY It speaks to me of Cornwall. I would be Again in Cornwall. There the iron rocks Are always white with foam, and there the wind Talks with the sea in caverns underground. YGRAINE The demons of the sea have ancient homes In Cornwall, and their names are like our names; We worshipped the same gods before they died. ISEULT OF BRITTANY The Irish Iseult worships the old gods Within her heart, and only with her lips Prays by the name of Christ. She has a mind More manly-hearted than a man's. And now She is the queen of Cornwall. ELAINE She was made To be a queen. ISEULT OF BRITTANY Ah! you have seen her? [77] ISEULT OF BRITTANY YGRAINE Once; In Ireland: all the women of her isle Are fiercer than our women, but in her There is the majesty of cruel beasts. ISEULT OF BRITTANY Could she be cruel? YGRAINE As a noble beast; Not crafty, not for less than hate or death. ISEULT OF BRITTANY My thread is knotted; pray you, take the frame She rises, and moves to the window, where she sits down. I will work no longer. Will you sing to me? IMOGEN What shall I sing? ISEULT OF BRITTANY The song that Tristan made When he was wounded, and, being like to die, Put all his pain, to ease it, in a song. Imogen [sings'^ If this be love I die, I die of hoping love, That will not hence remove, Nor will not all deny. [78] ISEULT OF BRITTANY His sharp and bitter dart Is fast within my side; Come, my old courage, hide Thy death within thy heart. I will not shrink although This death in love there be: She whom I love is she Who is through love my foe. ISEULT OF BRITTANY A bitter and proud song, a lying song; It is not love nor any woman born That is so cruel to a man. I think A man may be so if one loves a man. YGRAINE Have I not said it, lady? ISEULT OF BRITTANY Yet I think Tristan could love. ELAINE He had an eager face; His eyes were swifter than a falcon's flight After a heron startled from the reeds Till a cloud hides him. YGRAINE Tristan could love well. [79] ISEULT OF BRITTANY ISEULT OF BRITTANY Why am I lonely when I think of him? I would that I had never gone to Cornwall. And yet I would not. Tristan is my foe, As the song says, because I could have loved him. And now I send my heart out in weak sighs, Sewing them in with stitches, plaiting them Into a mere song's pattern, and I hear Nothing but my heart sighing in the wind, And in the sea that only used to sigh For its own old forgotten loneliness. The Irish Iseult, if she loved a man, Would take him with her little warrior's hands Out of a field of fighters; she would walk Through blood, yes, through her mother's feud of blood To Tristan, if she loved him; as indeed She hates him more than any man on earth. ELAINE Iseult of the White Hands is not so fierce To snatch her joy out of unwilling hands. Yet can she wait, and there is not a joy Which may not come to patience. The door opens, and an attendant enters. ATTENDANT Madam, the Duke. The old duke comes in. He goes up to his daughter The maids go out, one by one. DUKE Peace to my daughter. He sits down beside her Is it peace with you? [80] ISEULT OF BRITTANY ISEULT OF BRITTANY Father, I have forgotten where peace dwells. DUKE Why here, my child, if you but stay at home And furnish a guest-chamber in your heart. I am an old man, I have suffered loss Of well-nigh all a man can have to lose, Yet peace has never left me. Enemies Have torn my castles out of these weak hands, Harried my fields and farms, my people are My people now no longer; yet I still Sit by my fireside, while these walls are mine, And talk with peace. I am old, you are young: The young have many wants, as infants have, Who want the stars, the brightness of sharp swords, The burning rose of fire. What troubles you? ISEULT OF BRITTANY Father, the oldest trouble in the world. She rises from her seat and sits on a stool at his feet. DUKE Ah, this is the first trouble of young maids, Before they learn what grief is. I have lived So long, and it has always been the same. W 7 ho is the man my daughter loves? ISEULT OF BRITTANY A knight Who is the bravest knight in all the world. [81] ISEULT OF BRITTANY DUKE What is his name? ISEULT OF BRITTANY Tristan. DUKE A noble name, I have heard only honour of the name; If he were here, his sword would gain my cause. Does Tristan know that Iseult loves him? ISEULT OF BRITTANY No. I have but spoken with him twice or thrice, In Cornwall; I have looked upon his face; He knows mc not from any other maid. DUKE He has not spoken love to you? ISEULT OF BRITTANY Ono. lie is in Cornwall, as I think; he serves Mark and my cousin Iseult; but alas, She hates him for her mother's feud of blood. DUKE They tell me there are women of that land Fairer than other women; it may be That Tristan loves some lady of the court. [82] ISEULT OF BRITTANY ISEULT OF BRITTANY It may well be. DUKE And yet? ISEULT OF BRITTANY And yet I love Tristan, and I could take him to my arms Even out of another woman's arms. DUKE My child, if this be so, and this is so, There is a power, I think, in patient love, Love draws its own unto itself, although The whole strewn world, violently opposed, Lie like a chasm between. I have seen hope Wrench its fulfilment from the grasp of things; And love is power, and hope is only sight. There is no witchcraft that can draw a man Like a weak woman's love, when that can wait And never waver. Can you wait? ISEULT OF BRITTANY m As those That wait for morning. DUKE Yet if you would live Your very life, hope without fear, and will Without foreboding. Life is in to-day, Yesterday and to-morrow are but words, [83] ISEULT OF BRITTANY And all despair and fear and melancholy Are shadows of that shadow. Cast away Remembrance, and the fear of things to come, And live between the dawn and sunsetting; So shall desire die or be satisfied, So shall all things live out their hour, and die, So shall the world be constant to its change. ISEULT OF BRITTANY Father, there is no surety in the w T orld. DUKE Then trust the world no more; trust your own soul, That makes the world as you would have the world. Imogen [from outside] If this be love I die, I die of hoping love. DUKE What is that song? ISEULT OF BRITTANY A song that Tristan made. ELAINE AND IMOGEN \_OUtside] If this be love I die, I die of hoping love, That will not hence remove, Nor will not all deny. DUKE Come, let us follow where these voices are. He takes iseult by the hand, and they go out together. [84] THE TOY CART A PLAY IN FIVE ACTS DECOR "There is your majesty at dice with the queen: behind you stands one damsel with the betel box, whilst another is waving the chounri over your head: the dwarf is playing with the monkey, and the parrot abusing the buffoon." FOUNDED ON THE MRICHCHHAKATI OF SUDRAKA COSTUMES WOMEN Waist decorated with tinkling bells; anklets of silver, large ear-rings set with pearls, bodice buttoned below the waist with gems; forehead stained with saffron, silver chains on the feet, on the forehead a mark brighter than the new moon; dress embroidered with the buds of the lotus; saffron-dyed vest; string of cowries round the neck, lips ruddy with betel; forehead marked with a saffron crescent. MENDICANTS Rosary in the hand, forehead stained with sandal, wallet at the side covered with black deer skin, vest- ments dyed in ochre, bamboo staves, long beards. Readers of the Puranas, carrying under their arms the sacred volumes wrapped up in the cloth on which they take their seat. PERSONS OF THE DRAMA charadutta, a Brahmin ROHASENA, his SOU maitreya, a Brahmin, his friend samstiianaka, the brother -in-law of the king THREE GAMBLERS THE JUDGE THE PROVOST THE RECORDER two chandalas (public executioners) A MENDICANT FRIAR THE SERVANT OF CHARADUTTA vasantasena, a dancer rambha, her mother HER MAID maid-servant in Charaduttd's house CROWD, ATTENDANTS, GUARDS the scene takes place in the city of Ujjayin, in the Western part of India THE TOY CART ACT I A room in charadutta's house, 'poorly furnished, with a few books and musical instruments, a drum, a tabor, a lute, and piper, lying about. At the back is a door open- ing into an outer court or garden, with a wall visible at the back, beyond which is the street. The order door is not seen. There is a curtained door at the side of the room, leading into the inner part of the house. CHARADDTTA Rebhila sang exquisitely! And as for his lute, it is a sea-pearl; it was more comfortable to my heart than a friend consoling a friend for the absence of the be- loved; it had a voice like the very voice of love. MAITREYA Well, well, for my part I am very thankful to be out of it. [lie sits down, as if tired.2 CHARADUTTA Rebhila surpassed himself. MAITREYA Now, there are two things that I can never help laugh- ing at: A woman reading Sanskrit and a man singing [91] THE TOY CART a song. The woman snuffles like a young cow when the rope is first passed through her nostrils, and the man wheezes like an old pandit who has been saying his beads till the flowers of his chaplet are as dry as his throat; and the one seems to me as ridiculous as the other. CHARADUTTA Is it possible that you did not admire Rebhila's mar- vellous skill? His voice was at once so sweet and so passionate, so flowing and yet so precise, so full of the ecstasy of delight, that I half fancied I was listening to a woman whom I could not see. And now, though the music is over, I can still hear the voice and the lute, the hurrying, rising, sinking, the pause and return of the wandering melody. MAITREYA The dogs were all asleep in the streets as we came back. They were wiser than we. [servant enters.^ Here, Vardhamana, tell Radanika to bring water and wash the master's feet. CHARADUTTA No, do not call her: she will be looking after the child. SERVANT I'll bring the water, sir, and Maitreya here can wash your feet. MAITREYA Do you hear this son of a slave? He to bring the water, and /, who am a Brahmin, to wash your feet! [92] THE TOY CART CHARADUTTA Well, my friend, take the water, and leave him to do the rest. SERVANT Come, Mr. Maitreya, pour out the water. [He washes charadutta's feet and is going, .] CHARADUTTA Stay, Vardhamana, wash the feet of the Brahmin. MAITREYA Never mind; it is of little use; I must soon be off tramping again, like a beaten ass. SERVANT Are you a Brahmin, Mr. Maitreya? MAITREYA I am a Brahmin among Brahmins, as the python is a serpent among serpents. SERVANT Well, in that case I will wash your feet. [Washes them and goes out.~\ MAITREYA My very good Charadutta, do you want to know why that music went straight to your head, and has kept you ever since in the shadow of an intoxication? CHARADUTTA The music, and the memory of it. [93] THE TOY CART MAITREYA Memory, that is it: it reminds you of Vasantasena. CHARADUTTA Vasantasena ! MAITREYA You need not echo her name like that. Was I not with you in the garden of the temple of Kamadeva, and did you not see her, covered with gold upon gold, jingling with bracelets and anklets, like the chief actress in a new play? And what is more, did she not see you, and did she see anyone else after she had seen you? CHARADUTTA I must not think of her, Maitreya; and indeed I have no intention of thinking of her any more. MAITREYA Then hear no more music, offer up rice to the gods. [lie looks out of the window.^ Here are a few small birds picking at three seeds in the garden; there used to be storks and swans there, and enough food for them; and forget all women, I say, forget all women. CHARADUTTA While Rohasena lives, how can I forget women? I love no living woman as I love the child of my dead wife. MAITREYA Perhaps not, but 'tis of a very different kind of love I am thinking. Vasantasena is a courtesan, and [94] THE TOY CART though she were the best dancer on hearts in the king- dom, and a woman of true religion, and loving to her lovers (and I neither say nor unsay any part of it), yet I would have you beware of her, and for a good round dozen of reasons. CHARADUTTA You are mistaken, Maitreya, both in her and in me; but you may give me your reasons. MAITREYA Well now, take myself. I can quite well remember in old days when I used to sit here, where we now are, but on cushions, where they now are not, and eating scented dishes until I could eat no more, like a city bull in the market-place. Now I wander about from house to house like a tame pigeon, to pick up what crumbs I can find. CHARADUTTA Forgive me, friend of all seasons; you are always welcome, and to my best; but it is my sorrow that I cannot now feast my friends as I did before. MAITREYA They feasted you out of house and home. You have a royal heart, Charadutta, and you kept a king's kitchen. CHARADUTTA Then it was not only my own doing, it was the loss of the royal favour. [95] THE TOY CART MAITREYA Well, you see where your friends and the present king (may his reign be brief and happy !) have brought you. CHARADUTTA Death would be better. Have you seen how all my friends desert me, Maitreya? MAITREYA Like a cowboy, who drives his herd from place to place in the thicket, always in search of fresh pasture. CHARADUTTA To be poor is like dying slowly. But what has all this to do with Vasantasena? MAITREYA A very great deal. Do you know that at the house of Vasantasena the porter dozes in a big chair, as stately as a Brahmin deep in the Vedas; and the very crows, crammed with rice and curds, disdain the rice thrown to the gods? CHARADUTTA And if so? maitreya \_more and more rapidly] The kitchen smells like the heaven of Indra, and the gateway, they tell me, to the inner court is like the bow of Indra in the sky. There are jewellers setting pearls and sapphires and rubies and topazes and other jewels; they cut lapis lazuli, polish coral, squeeze out [96] THE TOY CART sandal juice, and dry saffron; and there are men and women laughing and singing, and chewing musk and betel, and drinking wine; and quails fight, and par- tridges cry, and cranes stalk about the court, and peacocks dance on the grass and wave their jewelled tails like fans, and in the midst of them, like the mis- tress of Indra's garden, is Vasantasena ! CHARADUTTA Whether you speak on your own knowledge or on hearsay, I do not see how all this concerns me, or the least of your twelve good reasons. MAITREYA You have said it; you said it is better to die than to be poor. My first reason, then, and a sufficient reason, is this, that, as there is no lotus that has not a stalk, no trader that is not a cheat, no goldsmith that is not a thief, and no village meeting without a quarrel, so there never will be a woman of that profession of love that does not love gold first. CHARADUTTA There at least you are wrong. The beggars at all the gates of the city have blessed her: I listen to their voices. But enough of this, I have more serious matters to tell you of. MAITREYA All men are fools, and all women are like fortune, that is as sliding and slippery as a serpent. O, the folly of men, that will not know that a woman laughs [97] THE TOY CART money and cries money, and is altogether money, and that she squeezes a man like colour from a bag till he is drained dry, and then casts him out into any corner of the field. CHARADUTTA You think evil of women, because, it may be, you have known evil women. Such there are, and I pity them, because, having no souls for the life to come, they have not made for themselves delicate shadows of souls for the adornment of this present life. But you are right: I am too poor to be in any danger from this fair lady, not because she would come to me for gold, but because I should desire to cover her wrists and her ankles with fine gold. If I have heard rightly of her, she would give gold rather than take it. MAITREYA Heaven send her to your house with only a few pounds, weight of the gold and jewels she carries upon her person. CHARADUTTA Maitreya, this is unseemly. I tell you I have other matters to talk of, dangers, or perhaps hopes, that are now in men's minds. What do you think of the chances of Aryaka the cowherd against those of Pulaka the king? MAITREYA Aryaka has a prophet behind him, Pulaka only a throne. Yet a throne is stable, until many men over- turn it. [98] THE TOY CART CHARADUTTA Many men are pledged to overturn the throne of Pulaka. MAITREYA Here at least is one shoulder for the occasion. CHARADUTTA Is that meant for a word or a deed? MAITREYA Try me. CHARADUTTA I will try you. Will you share a secret with me? MAITREYA Give me half then. CHARADUTTA You must bear half of the burden. I am in the coun- sels of Aryaka. MAITREYA I knew it. Why did you not trust me sooner? CHARADUTTA You know, then, that he is to escape from prison? MAITREYA Is it so? When? CHARADUTTA To-morrow or the day after. His followers await him outside the gates. [99] THE TOY CART MAITREYA To escape from prison is hard enough, but not so hard as to get through the city gates. CHARADUTTA Have I not free passage at every gate? Is my carriage ever detained or examined? MAITREYA Ah ! you will send him in your carriage. CHARADUTTA I will take him in my carriage, and you will be with me. They will say at the gate: "That is Charadutta in his carriage with his friend Maitreya." No one will stop us. Once outside the gate he is among friends. Then we will return quietly. Will you come with me? MAITREYA I would come with you to the cross-roads by the southern cemetery, beyond which no man goes with his head on his shoulders. CHARADUTTA We risk no less. MAITREYA Go on. CHARADUTTA A messenger brings me word when he is out of prison, and where he is, there my coaehman finds himself by precise accident, not knowing why. Promise me your help and your silence. [100] THE TOY CART MAITREYA My help and my silence are yours. Why who knows, if the cowherd becomes king, Maitreya may creep into comfort at a cow's tail. CHARADUTTA Aryaka will not fail. He will bring us freedom, and is not freedom more than all things? MAITREYA Can you say that? CHARADUTTA Why not? MAITREYA More than women and music? Why, your whole soul was filled with Vasantasena a minute ago, and will be filled with her again next minute. CHARADUTTA Do you think so? I do not think any woman will ever come between me and my duty. MAITREYA If Aryaka has many such followers he will not fail. Pulaka has none. His friends leave Pulaka daily, and not so much for love of one or the other as for hatred of the king's brother-in-law, Prince Sams- thanaka. CHARADUTTA If there is any man in the kingdom I would be least willing to welcome in my house, that is the man. [101] THE TOY CART MAITREYA Do you take him to be your enemy? CHARADUTTA I take him to be every honest man's enemy, and I could hope he has made no exception of me. MAITREYA They say he is madly in love with Vasantasena, and that she will not suffer the odour of his cloak within three leagues of her nostrils. CHARADUTTA He is not only a terror to honest men, because he is afraid of the scabbard of his own sword; but women fear him because he is not ashamed that they should be afraid. Listen! What was that? A cry? MAITREYA It was nothing; the high road at this time of the evening is a-swarm with all sorts of loose persons, courtiers, and cut-throats. Let them all go their own way to destruction. CHARADUTTA That is an evil wish, and may bring us misfortune. Listen! Someone is knocking at the door. Sounds of hubbub are heard from the street, cries and scuffling. Then a knocking, charadutta and maitreya have both risen, maitreya opens the door and looks out. [ 102 ] THE TOY CART MAITREYA Vardhamana is opening the door. Someone wants to come in. He tries to shut the door. It is pushed open. It is a woman, I can hear the sound of her anklets. She is richly dressed and covered with jewels. CHARADUTTA A woman, richly dressed, why does she seek to enter my house? MAITREYA I will call to her not to come in. She is running through the court. He starts and falls bade from the door as a woman comes hurriedly forward and stands on the threshold, veiled, and with her head bowed in an attitude of humility. VASANTASENA Master, forgive me ! A long pause charadutta [in a stifled voice] Vasantasena ! maitreya [to someone without] No, no, not you, too ! A puffing and blowing is heard, and an immense woman, leaning on a stick, thrusts herself in, past MAITREYA and VASANTASENA. RAMBHA Vasantasena, indeed! Don't pretend that you don't know who it is. Who else should it be? Oh! my [103] THE TOY CART poor breath, who else would spend the last breath of her poor old mother with running about the streets at night, and without her attendants, and at the time of the evening when all the bad, wicked people are abroad on the king's highway! But indeed his Royal High- ness, if the girl could but see with the eyes of wisdom, her mother's eyes, I would say. . . . MAITREYA \_at the doOT~\ They are all coming into the garden. It is the prince. I will go out and tell him what I think of him. [He snatches up a stick and goes out. Noise of voices is heard.~\ charadutta [coming forward^] Honoured guests, my house is yours. If it is too humble for your entertainment, it is at least a safe shelter against those who have dared to molest you. Deign to enter and be seated. RAMBHA You would come, Vasantasena; now won't you go in and sit down? I told you the prince meant no harm; it was only his way of showing his uncontrol- lable passion, and the uncontrollable passion of a great prince is a great honour. Thank you, sir, I will sit down with pleasure. [She sits down heavily and painfully.'] vasantaskxa moves forward and stands beside her And I suppose you have frightened away the prince for good and all. [104] THE TOY CART maitreya [outside the door} Not a step further, or you measure your sword against my stick. SAMSTHANAKA [without] Who has got my sword? No, don't take it out of its sheath. maitreya [backing to the door] Not a step further. CHARADUTTA [calls'] Maitreya, give way! [He goes forward.'} My lord, all guests are welcome to my house, who enter it in peace. SAMSTHANAKA [without] Stand back, all of you; not a step further. I go alone. [He appears, extravagantly and awkwardly overdressed, carrying his heavy sword. He disregards charadutta, and holds out his hands towards vasantasena.3 Vasan- tasena ! rambha His Royal Highness is speaking to you. SAMSTHANAKA Why have you fled away from me, Vasantasena, like the deer from the hunter? But it is I that am hunted; all the dogs of the god of love are upon me. Why have you fled from me? You and sleep have fled from me together, and I dream by day, and if I see you, you flee away from me like a dream when one awakens. [105] THE TOY CART RAMBHA The prince is speaking to you, Vasantasena. SAMSTHANAKA Why have you fled from me like a peacock when her tail is in full feather in summer, and like a crane when she hears the thunder in the clouds, and like a jackal hunted by dogs? Your feet that were made for dancing have fled swiftly, like a snake from the king of the birds. I could outstrip the wind in its course, and shall I not overtake so delicate a flyer? Your ear-rings tinkled at your ears like a lute played swiftly by a master. But I have come upon you, and no man can take you out of my power. CHARADUTTA My lord! SAMSTHANAKA The king, Vasantasena, is my brother-in-law; the king will do anything that I ask of him; he will give me any of his treasures; you have only to ask of me, and I will give you everything you want. RAMBHA Do you hear that, Vasantasena? Listen to what he is saying, my daughter. SAMSTHANAKA How is it that I, who am the king's brother-in-law, have to beg and not to command? How have you turned your eyes from my face, which is as the sun [106] THE TOY CART upon the face of the master of this house, which is as the moon in her last quarter? And you, sir, if you will deliver this woman into my hands, without dis- pute, her delivery shall be rewarded with my most particular regard ; but if you will not, then count upon my eternal and exterminating enmity. VASANTASENA turns and looks at CHARADITTTA CHARADUTTA My lord, you have honoured me with your presence in my humble abode; be pleased to remove your shadow from my door. It is too protracted an honour. samsthanaka [retreating] The dog is disloyal. He shall surfer for it. Sir, no haste. [He retreats. 2 maitreya comes towards him from the side with a threatening aspect. Vasantasena, what have you done to me? You have bewitched me. rambiia [hobbling after him~] Stop, stop, kind sir. She is not in her proper mind. If you will only listen to me, my lord! MAITREYA [to SAMSTHANAKA] Have you any more speeches to make? samsthanaka [looking at him with contempt] I do not see you. Wait, Vasantasena! [107] THE TOY CART He goes out, followed by kambha, who plucks at his sleeve, and by maitreya, who stops outside the door. vasantasena [dropping on her knees before charadutta] You have saved more than my life. CHARADUTTA I have but opened my door. It is you who have come in, and you are Vasantasena, you have brought the spring, like an army with banners. VASANTASENA I am unworthy to come under your roof. CHARADUTTA It is because I made an offering this morning to my household gods that they have brought you under it. VASANTASENA I have found safety, but to remain longer would be too dangerous for me. CHARADUTTA My poverty is my safeguard. VASANTASENA Alas! sir, I would that it sheltered you not. maitreya [at the door] Yes, if you have done whispering to your fine prince, and can leave his company for ours, come in, madam. They both crrme in, and RAMBHA stands talking to maitreya, and then hobbles back to vasantasena. [108] THE TOY CART RAMBHA Why cannot all folks live peaceably with one another? I, who am no longer in my first youth and full maturity of beauty, have in my time known many men, and some of them princes; but never have two men come to blows in my name! Conciliate them, I say to my daughter, conciliate them all: one never knows who may be king to-morrow. Vasantasena, the good excellent prince has gone away in a great rage, and I know not what he would have done if I had not fol- lowed and spoken peaceably to him. Oh! we are all undone, and it is this kind gentleman who took us in (the seven mouths of hell chew him up!) that will be the means of bringing trouble upon us. CHARADUTTA It is by such princes that kingdoms fall. I am glad to know myself his enemy. But no harm shall come on you. In my house you are safe, and I will not leave you till you are safe in your own house. RAMBHA Listen, my daughter, how kind the gentleman is. I think, sir, you have seen better days? VASANTASENA Mother! CHARADUTTA A better night I have never seen. But I forget my duties. I have but poor entertainment to offer you, but, such as I have — Radanika! maid comes from the inner room, bringing glasses which she offers and then stands in a corner of the room. [109] THE TOY CART VASANTASENA Sir, we were on our way homeward, and have stayed too long already. CHARADUTTA I pray you, stay. VASANTASENA Sir, I pray you, let us go. MAITREYA Very pretty on both sides; and whilst you two stand there, nodding your heads to one another like a field of long grass, permit me to bend mine, in the manner of a young camel with stiff knees, and request you will be pleased to hold yourselves upright again. RAMBHA A wise fellow. But we must indeed be going. VASANTASENA If your friend here would vouchsafe us the defence of his company on our way home. CHARADUTTA Maitreya, attend the ladies. MAITREYA You will do better to go with them yourself, sir, for I truly fear that these court libertines would have no more respect for my person than dogs have for a meat- offering in the streets. [110] THE TOY CART CHARADUTTA I will attend them, but meanwhile see that torches are prepared. MAITREYA Ho, Vardhamana! [He comes in.~\ Light the torches. SERVANT How are they to be lighted without oil? MAITREYA [to CHARADUTTA aside'] To say the truth, sir, our torches are like harlots: they shine not in poor men's houses. CHARADUTTA Silence! I will go and see to them myself. I crave leave of absence, that I may prepare for your safe conveying. Come with me, Maitreya. They go out into the court, rambha gets up and prowls about, looking at everything. RAMBHA Not enough here, my daughter, to look decent on the walls of a kitchen- wench. Poor man, and this is what you would come to! VASANTASENA Poor man! From, behind the curtain over a door is heard the voice of a child wailing out, "I don't want it," and throwing something on the ground. [HI] THE TOY CART RAMBHA A child! [To the maid.] Has your master children? MAIDSERVANT One son, madam. VASANTASENA Then he is not poor. Oh, let me see him. The child pushes aside the curtain, and comes in crying and dragging a clay toy-cart by the wheel. maid runs up to him. MAIDSERVANT Run away, Rohasena, and play with your cart. ROHASENA I don't want this cart; it's only clay; I want the gold one. VASANTASENA Poor little fellow! MAIDSERVANT And where are we to get the gold, my little man? Wait till your father is rich again; then he will buy you a gold one. ROHASENA I want a gold one now. VASANTASENA Come here and kiss me, my child. (She takes him in her arms and kisses him.) How like his father he is! [112] THE TOY CART MAIDSERVANT He is not only like him in face; but is just the same in disposition. He is the sweetest child in the world. His father worships him. VASANTASENA Why is he crying? Don't cry, little man. What are you crying for? ROHASENA For my cart. I don't want this cart. VASANTASENA What does he mean? MAIDSERVANT Our neighbour's child had a cart of gold, and the child here used to play with it. Now the other has taken it away, and he wants it back. I made him this one of clay, but he keeps saying: "I want the gold one!" VASANTASENA Is it not terrible that a child should want anything and not have it? I thought that children had everything that they wanted. And here is a little child who suffers already because another is more fortunate than he is. The fates of men are like water-drops trembling on the leaves of a lotus. But for a child! I did not know there was so much cruelty in the world. Child, child, don't cry, and you shall have a gold cart. [113] THE TOY CART ROHASENA Iladanika, who is this lady? Is she my new mother? vasantasena looks on the ground in silence. MAIDSERVANT No, no, this isn't your new mother. ROHASENA I thought she might be, Radanika; but then how could it be my mother when she wears such fine things? CHARADUTTA [outside] Radanika! you must come here. maidservant goes hurriedly into the court. VASANTASENA O, my child, you do not know what pitiful things you are saying. [Jlalf -laughing and half-crying, takes off her jewels one by one, and holds them up to the child, and then drops them into the toy-cart^] Here is a little gold chain for you, and I will take this long chain off my neck. RAMBHA Vasantasena! VASANTASENA Do you see this bracelet? A King of the West gave that to me. RAMBHA Ya,santasena! the king's bracelet! [114] THE TOY CART VASANTASENA But I don't care for it: I give it to you. And here is another, that was given ine by somebody I loved very much; but I don't care for it any longer. You shall have that too. RAMBHA Vasantasena! the bracelet of Rama. Are you beside yourself ! VASANTASENA Silence, mother! And here is a diamond that came from deep under the earth in Africa, and this pearl was brought up by a diver from a bottomless sea. You shall have them both. RAMBHA All our treasures ! O, Vasantasena ! VASANTASENA They are all yours, because you are a child, and Chara- dutta's, and because you are unhappy. Now I am really your mother. ROHASENA Why are you crying? I won't take them, because you are crying. VASANTASENA Now, I am not crying any more. Look, now your cart is more beautiful than any gold cart; it is more beauti- ful than any cart in the world. Go and play now, child. rohasena and radanika go into the inner room. [115] THE TOY CART RAMBHA Vasantasena, you are foolish and wicked. You have given away treasures as if they were trinkets. And I know why you have done it. vasantasena [with sudden severity] Mother, you will know nothing. Not a word of this. Hark, they are coming back. I will cover myself with this cloak, it is Charadutta's, it is like a garden of jasmine. charadutta and maitreya enter with torches. CHARADUTTA We have found but little oil for the torches, but the moon is at the full, and all the stars wait upon Vasan- tasena. vasantasena followed by her mother, moves towards the door, charadutta and maitreya stand with their torches lifted. CURTAIN [116] THE TOY CART ACT II A room in vasantasena's house, luxuriantly fur- nished, with an inner door, covered with curtains, lead- ing into the house. A large door on the left leads from the street, through inner courts. Near this door are tables, at one of which three men are playing dice with cowries. GAMBLER No more dice for me! How many times am I to be ruined by this evil fate that shakes out always odd for even and even for odd. A curse on all cowries! [Throws down the dice.~\ SECOND GAMBLER It is always the next throw that brings luck. FIRST GAMBLER So you say when you have been winning. How am I to pay you if I let you win any more? SECOND GAMBLER A gambler asks that! As if this man did not know every cunning short cut to fortune! How many parts have you played already, O player at all games, under all disguises FIRST GAMBLER No more dice for me! [117] THE TOY CART SECOND GAMBLER Dice and women never played any man false, unless the man first played false with dice and women. FIRST GAMBLER Where is the man who has never played false with either? SECOND GAMBLER I know such a man, and he has lost deeper than any gamester. FIRST GAMBLER Who is the man? SECOND GAMBLER Charadutta. THIRD GAMBLER Charadutta does not need to suffer from dice or women; the gods are against him, and against the gods there is no remedy. FIRST GAMBLER What has befallen him? SECOND GAMBLER He was the richest man in the city, and now he is penniless and without more than a single friend, who sticks to him like a poor man's dog; he was married, and his wife is dead; he was a good servant to the king, and his place has been taken from him. What dice have ever thrown such a fortune? [118] THE TOY CART THIRD GAMBLER If I hear rightly, it is his own bounty that has ruined him, and no fault of his. He was eaten up by hungry friends. SECOND GAMBLER Is it easier to bear chastisement because one is inno- cent? Now, if it had been our friend here? FIRST GAMBLER I make no pretences, and the gods have little enough need to concern themselves with my doings. What need have they, when I am here, and with you, and with these accursed cowries? And are any of us here except by the aid and for the profit of the old mer- cenary mother of Vasantasena, the mountainous Rambha? SECOND GAMBLER Say nothing against the mother of Vasantasena. But for her, as you say, should we be here? Vasan- tasena is adorable to all, and it is the mother who chooses and approves of the adorers. FIRST GAMBLER Is there anything more foolish in the world than to spend money on Vasantasena? She has never cared for a man in her life, and there is not a man who has seen her dance who would not give his life for her. THIRD GAMBLER [to SECOND GAMBLER] Except your impeccable Charadutta. [119] THE TOY CART FIRST GAMBLER I tell you if Vasantasena did but lift the corner of her veil before him, your sober Charadutta, your model of all the virtues (he is wise, he won't dice with you), Charadutta, I say, would be kissing her feet before the veil was safely back over her eyes. SECOND GAMBLER Charadutta would die rather than enter this house, or look into the eyes under that veil. FIRST GAMBLER What will you wager? SECOND GAMBLER Ten suvarnas. Pick up the cowries that you threw on the ground. gambler picks up the cowries. At this moment vasantasena's maid looks anxiously through the curtain. second gambler Wait. Here is Mandanika! Perhaps Vasantasena is coming at last. Where is your mistress? maid [coming in} That is what I want to know. She is with her mother, and where she has led her mother no one can know. Now it's here, now it's there, always as the whim of the moment takes her. I had to put all her best clothes and her best jewels on her! The gods send her back safe, these late thieving evenings! [120] THE TOY CART FIRST GAMBLER Has Prince Samsthanaka been here lately? MAID Lately? Not a day, not an hour passes but he, or his messengers, or his body-servants with flowers, or his house-servants with heavy baskets, are here wait- ing for answers that never come. FIRST GAMBLER The prince is not used to wait for an answer. MAID Here he must learn it then, for Vasantasena will have none of him, though he is next to the king, and a man of great valour and learning. SECOND GAMBLER Valour and learning, Mandanika? Who has told you this of him? MAID He told me himself. But listen, I hear footsteps. Someone is coming. Is it Vasantasena? She rushes to the door, which opens, and rambha comes in, puffing and blowing. Where . . .? RAMBHA Here, of course. Take her to her room and help her to change her dress. vasantasena, veiled and closely wrapped in chara- dutta's cloak, passes across the stage, and goes in at an inner door, followed by mandianka. [121] THE TOY CART Come, Charadutta, you must come in: no denial. Come. charadutta enters slowly, and as if unwillingly, followed by maitreya, who gazes curiously around. SECOND GAMBLER Charadutta ! FIRST GAMBLER What was the wager? In any case, I have won it. SECOND GAMBLER This passes belief, and must be confirmed by the dice before I shall believe it. RAMBHA If you will be so good as to sit down. These gentlemen care only for dice and conversation, and will not dis- turb us. CHARADUTTA We have brought you home in safety: suffer us to retire. maitreya [whispering^ Already? RAMBHA My daughter will not allow it. You are to sit down, and she will with be you in a moment. Ho, Pallava, Madhavika! Women come in and offer refreshments to chara- dutta and MAITREYA. [122] THE TOY CART MAITREYA [to CHARADUTTA] Is it a house or a palace? Have you ever seen so many useless and beautiful things in a single room? FIRST GAMBLER Though Charadutta is here, he would sooner be any- where else by the look in his eyes, and the uneasiness of his fingers. MAITREYA Did I not tell you? Did I tell you half? I should take you away from here at once, but the fact is I am far too well off myself to think of getting up from these heavenly cushions and setting down this nectar of Sudra. RAMBHA [to CHARADUTTA^ Your friend does more justice to our humble hospitality than you do. CHARADUTTA My eyes are feasted with colour; what other sense need feast? MAITREYA If there should only be music in addition to all these luxuries of the senses, my poor friend is lost for ever. RAMBHA Ah, dear sir, if you knew the cost of the least small thing in the place. Every one of them bought with the best money. There remains little enough to one who, like myself, has to keep the house, as they say, going. And Vasantasena, who is so free with her [123] THE TOY CART costliest jewels, always giving them away, giving away more than she gets, and to those who can have no pretence to deserve them. CHARADUTTA I once knew what pleasure it was to give gifts. Now I can only envy her. RAMBHA For that you have no good reason. She gives them away, throws them away, as if jewels were meant for the poor. CHARADUTTA The poor have rarely the chance of knowing that such things exist. To see them, worn by Vasantasena, is riches enough to a poor man. RAMBHA How can you talk of jewels? FIRST GAMBLER Do you see how blackly the old witch looks into his eyes, mumbling words that she doesn't say to him? Charadutta is no welcome guest here. SECOND GAMBLER Wait till Vasantasena returns. Who knows? I have won from you. FIRST GAMBLER I was not looking. Show me the dice. [124] THE TOY CART CHARADUTTA I must bid farewell to Vasantasena. RAMBHA Tell Vasantasena that Charadutta is going. One of the women goes into the inner room. maitreya [rising slowly"] Charadutta, I am sure it would be better to go before she comes back. We have time to go before she comes back. first gambler Show me the dice, I say. SECOND GAMBLER Here are the numbers. FIRST GAMBLER Give me the dice into my hand! charadutta [with disgust, rising] What is this angry talk? FIRST GAMBLER You cheated. SECOND GAMBLER What do you mean? FIRST GAMBLER Give me the dice. Your dice were loaded. [125] THE TOY CART THIRD GAMBLER It is true. He has been cheating. You insult me. SECOND GAMBLER FIRST GAMBLER Here are proofs. Give me back all that you have won from me, or I will call the officer of justice, and you shall be banished from the kingdom. SECOND GAMBLER Let me go. FIRST GAMBLER Give me back my money. THIRD GAMBLER Give him back the ten suvarnas. In the midst of the hubbub the curtains over the inner room are thrust back, and vasantasena, dressed as a dancer, in gorgeous clothes, is seen standing, motionless, looking with disdain at the gamblers, the face of the maid visible over her shoulder. She stands there without a word, until suddenly the gamblers catch sight of her, and become silent. She comes slowly into the room, with scornful eyes. vasantasena Gentlemen, this is my house, and disputes are settled in the street. They go out confusedly, quarrelling, vasantasena turns apologetically to charadutta, and then says bitterly to her mother: [12G] THE TOY CART These were your friends! [To Cliaradutta.l My lord, may this be forgotten? CHARADTJTTA It is forgotten already. But I must not wait here another moment. VASANTASENA Then you do not forget. CHARADTJTTA You must not think that. A duty calls me; I must go back. VASANTASENA You are my guest. I have only music and dancing to welcome you; but do you not love music? Nay, be seated. [They sit doum.^] CHARADTJTTA More than anything in the world. VASANTASENA I love music so much that my body follows it wherever it goes. When I dance, it is to say more clearly, and in my own voice, what music says. We will have music, and I will dance for you. Call in the musicians. maid goes into the inner part of the house and returns presently with Musicians. CHARADTJTTA I have often dreamed of a dance which should be more articulate, more human, than music: dance that dance to me, Vasantasena, for I have never seen it. [127] THE TOY CART RAMBHA He must never see it. MAITREYA Now she will dance the heart out of his body. VASANTASENA Have you never thought how we, whose business is love, have learned to speak without speech, to sing without words, to express every emotion by a gesture? They teach us to dance, and we dance as they teach us; but there is something which no master can ever teach us. CHARADUTTA Have you learned that lesson which no master can teach you? VASANTASENA I am beginning to learn it. I will show you how it begins. But I will sing first, because words follow music the first part of the way. [Sings'^ How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights! As the apple upon the bough Thy sweetness invites. A fountain of gardens, a well Of water alone; A pomegranate fruit and the smell Of Lebanon. Awake, O north wind, and blow On my garden, O south! What spices are these that outflow From the kiss of her mouth? [128] THE TOY CART O vineyard, she is thy vine: What are aloes and myrrh? Her love is much better than wine: What is like unto her? CHARADUTTA A lover wrote it, and when you sing it, it makes every man a lover. VASANTASENA Shall I sing you or say you out of love then, and in a song of the same singer? But this is better for speak- ing than for singing. [She repeats a song against love.~] There is a thing in the world that has been since the world began: The hatred of man for woman, the hatred of woman for man. When shall this thing be ended? When love ends, hatred ends, For love is a chain between foes, and love is a sword between friends. Shall there never be love without hatred? Not since the world began, Until man teach honour to woman, and woman teach pity to man. O that a man might live his life for a little tide Without this rage in his heart, and without this foe at his side! He could eat and sleep and be merry and forget, he could live well enough, Were it not for this thing that remembers and hates, and that hurts and is love. [129] THE TOY CART But peace has not been in the world since love and the world began, For the man remembers the woman, and the woman remembers the man. CHARADUTTA That was written by a lover who knew all that goes to make up love, and you say it as if you knew that hate is the salt and savour of love. VASANTASENA Indeed I know no such thing; but speak what I have learned. If I give over words I shall have to speak truth, whether I will or not, for the body cannot lie. rambha [getting up and coming over to her~\ Vasantasena, you are not to dance. VASANTASENA Mother, I am going to dance. RAMBHA It kills you when you dance, and there are no princes here; no one will give you jewels and gold and slaves; you dance with too much of your soul and body. VASANTASENA T am going to dance. rambha hobbles grumhlingly bach to her seat. [ 130 ] THE TOY CART MAITREYA Now she is going to capture him; if she dies for it she will capture him. Will not anything keep her from dancing? CHARADUTTA Dance, Vasantasena! There is music; women come forward strewing roses, and slowly vasantasena rises, and steps for- ward. She dances a dance of sloiv and various movement, with pantomime; at the climax she crouches and utters a wordless song, hoarse and harsh, pathetic and terrible, after ichich she rises, takes a step, and staggers, as if about to fall. Mean- while, charadutta, towards whom her whole dance is directed, follows her motions in a low voice, like an undertone or accompaniment, interpreting them to himself, and falling gradually into an ecstasy, always restrained, and as if her soul were a mirror to her movements. At the last movement when she has come almost close to him, he catches her in his arms as she is about to fall. CHARADUTTA What is she dancing? It is the dawn, it is herself, it is spring, it is an awakening. It is the soul awaken- ing to love. And love comes as a little child, and she smiles to it, unafraid. And her eyes grow graver, and her mouth has tasted love like a rose-leaf, and the scent of roses is in her nostrils. Now she breathes more heavily, a delicious pain is in her eyes, and her hands reach after the hands of love. Her heart is full of a strange sorrow, which is sweeter than honey; [131] THE TOY CART knowledge comes into her eyes like an anguish and like a solace; her mouth thirsts and laughs; and the mouth of love is upon her mouth. Now she knows what joy is, and how near joy is to sorrow, and a langour of vehement peace envelops her. She is a garden of roses, she is the mystical rose of a garden of roses: the rose is full of joy in the wind that is in the garden of spices. O rose, rose, the joy of love is forever! But the wind is turning chill and she shivers, the rose trembles because the wind envelops her; and the sun has gone down, and it is evening, and the night begins to creep about her. She suffers cold, darkness and shame; she that was a flower has become a weed: shall not the weed be plucked up and cast out in the burning? Here he is silent, while vasantasena sings her word- less song. O fate, the sickle of time, cut not down this weed that was a rose. Sharp death is upon her, she bows her head: is it too late? Is it too late for love? He rushes forward and catches her in his arms as she falls. Vasantasena, was it all truth? Speak, answer me, Vasantasena ! She lies with closed eyes, and he lays her back on the cushions, rambha, mandanika, and the women hurry up and press around her, holding salts and scents to her. RAMBHA 1 knew it, I knew it. She is bewitched and will put an end to her own life in mere joy and intoxication. I beg you, sir, to stand back: do you wish literally to kill her? [132] THE TOY CART MAITREYA The tricks of a woman are numberless as the hairs of her head; what man shall count them? CHARADUTTA Awaken, Vasantasena. vasantasena looks up, and puts her hands silently on his. rambha [to the singers and musicians'] You can all go ! They go out And now, my child, now that you have had your way, and danced all the breath out of your body, perhaps you will lie quiet a little. A servant enters Who called you? SERVANT Madam. RAMBHA Say and go. SERVANT The royal Prince Samsthanaka craves leave to enter. vasantasena [starting up] Never ! charadutta [drawing his sword] Vasantasena, give me leave! vasantasena [catching hold of him] No, no, you must stay here till he has gone. Mother, go to the prince and tell him that I will not see him, [133] THE TOY CART tell him that I will never see hirn, tell him whatever will make a man most hate a woman, that he may hate me and be gone out of my way for ever. RAMBHA I will go to him, my daughter, and he shall not come in to you, but I shall not say to him what you have said to me, or the worse things that you have not said to me. Come, Mandanika, lend me your arm: I cannot go quickly enough to where the prince is waiting. She hobbles out through the door on the left, leaning on the maid, maitreya goes ostentatiously to the other end of the room, and turns his back with a shrug upon charadutta and vasantasena. CHARADUTTA Why do you keep me back, when with one stroke of my sword I would have rid you of this enemy, and the hand of a tyrant worse than the tyrant on the throne? VASANTASENA Would you have done this for me? CHARADUTTA Let me go and I will do it. VASANTASENA Then I will hold you, for now I am more careful of your life than of my own. [134] THE TOY CART CHARADUTTA What is my life worth, now that I am a beggar? But your life has the power and should have the immortality of the stars. VASANTASENA Promise me that you will be careful of your life as of a thing whose loss I must needs die of. Do not seek Samsthanaka! Let all such vermin be: he is a snake whose poison is death, and he seeks your life. CHARADUTTA I set my heel on no snake that does not lift up his head against me. VASANTASENA No more of him: my mother will be coming back, and this moment will be over. \ CHARADUTTA Why should this moment ever be over? If you wish it, why did you look at me in the garden of the temple at Kamsdeva? VASANTASENA I did not look at you. Some god looked at me through your eyes, and my being fainted, as Sanjna when her lord, the sun, looked at her. CHARADUTTA You looked at me, and I began to remember. VASANTASENA And I to forget. [135] THE TOY CART CHAHADUTTA What would you forget? VASANTASENA Everything. Every pleasure, I have no happiness to forget. CHARADUTTA You have made happiness for others. VASANTASENA Has one of them thanked me? CHARADUTTA Many have loved you. VASANTASENA Would one of them have thanked me for love? Of all who have come to me with gifts and tears, saying "Love me or I die," is there one who would have rejoiced if I had given him all myself, all my love? That is a gift much too costly for any man to accept. CHARADUTTA Vasantasena, give me that gift. VASANTASENA No, I will be kinder to you. For love of you I must not let you love me. CHARADUTTA You have called me; first your eyes spoke to me, and I came, not knowing why I came; now you have [136] THE TOY CART danced to me, and your body has spoken, and I know all your heart. You have thrown over me a net that you cannot loosen. VASANTASENA Charadutta, is this truth, or is it nothing but music? CHAKADUTTA The music is over, the dance has spoken; it is my heart that you hear now. Will you tell me that you do not love me? VASANTASENA 1 will not tell you. When I would say the name of another, why does the name of Charadutta come to my lips? When I speak to my maid, and know not what I have told her, and she smiles, why is it that I am so absent? Why is it that I am as an altar on which a perpetual fire has been lighted? CHARADUTTA I am a beggar, and have no gifts to bring. What will you ask of me that I may do for you? VASANTASENA Will you put out the perpetual fire? Many waters cannot put it out. Will you give me forgetfulness? Many bowls of sleep cannot drink down memory. Will you bring back the scent into dead roses, and bring back the honey to the honeycomb, and the grapes to the vineyard where they have been plucked and trodden in the winepress, and the feet of men are [137] THE TOY CART red with them, and their eyes drunken? I have been the rose of the garden, and the honey in the honey- comb, and the grapes in the vineyard. CHARADUTTA I am a beggar, but I can give you all this. Love is like light, and light washes the earth. VASANTASENA I thirst, but have I not drunk wine, and is there more wine in the world that shall slake this thirst in me? Oh, stranger, if I could be the friend of any man, if I could love and not destroy, if I could humble myself, if I could believe and forget, and if all that I have been could be forgotten, then would Vasantasena be the beggar at the feet of Charadutta. charadutta [kneeling'] The beggar at her feet! VASANTASENA Rise, Charadutta! The maid comes in hurriedly and whispers in her ear. charadutta rises, maitreya comes for- ward and touches him. maitreya I have been shutting my ears so long that I am only now able to realize that we are to go. I will accompany you, Charadutta. charadutta [vaguely"] Are we going? [138] THE TOY CART VASANTASENA Go now. Alas! you must go. But to-morrow, meet me — to-morrow at noon in the old flower garden. I do not know if I can live so long. CHARADUTTA Death shall not delay me. MAITREYA Remember ! CHARADUTTA What? MAITREYA Aryaka ! CHARADUTTA [to VASANTASENA]] If a thing stronger than death delays me, and I do not come, believe me, wait for me. I will surely come. VASANTASENA I will believe you. I will wait for you. maid takes charadutta and maitreya to the outer door and returns hurriedly to vasantasena. maid Your mother has been talking smoothly to the prince all this time: she has taken him aside there [_she points to the outer courQ so that he should not meet Chara- dutta; but she will not be able to hold him back much longer; he grows madder and madder, and will see you if he puts us all to the sword. [139] THE TOY CART vasantasena [with concentrated rage~\ He shall see me. Let him come in. The maid goes out and returns presently, followed by samsthanaka and rambha, who goes aside. SAMSTUANAKA I am not angry with you, Vasantasena, though you have kept me waiting like a dog upon your threshold. I have the power of the kingdom in my hands; the power of my brother-in-law, who is the king; but I wait at your door, Vasantasena, like a dog upon the threshold. Why have you kept me waiting while you practised the songs that are meant for my enchant- ment? I heard your more than celestial voice. You were singing a song I have never heard before. VASANTASENA I was singing a new song. SAMSTUANAKA Sing it to me, Vasantasena? I not only love singing, but I myself, though born royal, and able to command all singers of music, I also sing. My slaves prepare for me dishes fried in oil, and seasoned with assafoetida: that is your only diet for a sweet voice. Another time I will sing to you, but now sing your song to me, Yasantasena. VASANTASENA I will not sing my new song to you. [140] THE TOY CART SAMSTHANAKA How is that? I could command you. You are no better than a slave, a dancing woman, a singer; I could have you beaten if I liked. I could have you beaten until you sang whatever I wanted. There is nothing I could not do. But I will not even com- mand you. I will entreat you. VASANTASENA It is useless. SAMSTHANAKA You say it is useless and you are a woman. What is a woman when she speaks? She is a bough in the wind. What are women such as you but a creeper that grows by the roadside, and the crow and peacock perch on the same branch? Are you not free to all men, and am I not a man as well as a prince? If it is because of Charadutta that you put me aside, remem- ber that Charadutta is a beggar, and, if a beggar stands in my light, he dies. VASANTASENA You have no power over Charadutta. SAMSTHANAKA I gave way to him in his own house, because every man is king in his own house, and I will do nothing against the law. Am I not the law? But I am here that I may tell you for the last time that I will suffer no man to come between us. What I will becomes mine. [141] THE TOY CART VASANTASENA What is it that you will here, prince? SAMSTHANAKA Your love. VASANTASENA I have given it away. Charadutta has taken it. SAMSTHANAKA The beggar, Charadutta? I will give you the crown jewels ! RAMBHA My daughter! vasantasena [rising and moving slowly towards the inner door^\ To-morrow, at noon, in the old flower garden, Chara- dutta will give me a flower. [_She goes in.~] SAMSTHANAKA \Yhat shall I do to this seed of jackals, this brother to hyenas? Shall I grind his head between my teeth, as a nut is ground under a door? RAMBHA Nothing would be too bad for him, my good, kind prinrc. Let it be not less than heading and quartering. Von ~f-e it is not my daughter at all that is against your royal highness, but only the beggarman, the dried rattling bean-stalk, that has bewitched her. [142] THE TOY CART SAMSTHANAKA I saw, I saw it clearly. She could not possibly have an aversion for me; it is this Brahmin that deludes her. We must remove Charadutta. RAMBHA Noble prince, if you could but. . . . SAMSTHANAKA Silence. I must consult my own mind. RAMBHA If you could only. . . . SAMSTHANAKA Woman, you will not allow me to think. I shall soon have a magnificent idea. Anger is fruitful to ideas and I have been mocked. I must have a large re- venge. I will think out my revenge, and take less time to execute than to invent it. rambha [creeping up and whispering mysteriously in his ear] Do you know to whom she has given all her jewels? SAMSTHANAKA Her jewels? To whom? RAMBHA To Charadutta's child. [143] THE TOY CART SAMSTHANAKA To the child? RAMBHA The father will say he knows nothing of it; but I know what I have seen. SAMSTHANAKA She gave her jewels to Charadutta's child? RAMBHA All that she had upon her, heaped them like pebbles of the road in the child's toy cart. SAMSTHANAKA She gives him her jewels, and she will not take my jewels ' RAMBHA Sir, when she comes to listen to me, by-and-by, she will take your jewels. SAMSTHANAKA He must be removed. Ah, I have it! "To-morrow, at noon, in the Old Flower Garden." He is to give her a flower! He shall never give her a flower. I will meet him on the way. I will give him his choice of deaths. I will meet her in his place. I will show her on my sword the blood of the man who was weaker than I; she has a strong soul, and will love the stronger of two men, and the man who is alive rather than a dead man. I will take men with me, lest he should [144] THE TOY CART escape me. I will win Vasantasena at the sword's point. Take this. [He gives rambha gold.'] And say nothing. RAMBHA My daughter will be well and safe? SAMSTHANAKA Have no fear. And fear nothing if it should please her, rather than returning home, to follow me to the royal palace. RAMBHA You have given me only twenty pieces of gold. SAMSTHANAKA You shall have more gold, you shall have as much gold as you want. See that she comes to the Garden. I will see that Charadutta does not come. And now call someone who can call my carriage for me. I go on foot only before gods and Brahmins. They go towards the door as the curtain falls, rambha hobbling obsequiously before the prince. CURTAIN [145] THE TOY CART ACT III The Old Flower Garden, with an open temple at one side. Enter samsthanaka and attendant. At in- tervals during the early part of the scene samsthanaka picks flowers, until he has gradually made a large bunch. He seems to do it unconsciously as the thought of vasanta- sena recurs to him. amsthanaka [walking up and down] Are my men ready for him; are they lying in wait on the road that he is sure to come? ATTENDANT Yes, my lord. SAMSTHANAKA When he comes they are to surround him, and, if he resists, kill him. ATTENDANT Yes, my lord. SAMSTHANAKA Perhaps I should meet him face to face; it would be more royal; draw my sword upon him; but no, that would be to treat him as my equal, and he is only a Brahmin, and I am a prince. Is Charadutta a good fight' ar? ATTENDANT It is said so, my lord. [146] THE TOY CART SAMSTHANAKA One can never judge by reports. In any case he would not stand against me if he saw me sword in hand, like a king and the avenger of kings. There is a majesty in my aspect, is there not, son of a slave? ATTENDANT The majesty of Indra. SAMSTHANAKA Need I condescend to the business? The slaying of a man is less to me than the stringing of a lute. My men shall deal with him. I will not meddle in it. ATTENDANT The way my lord chooses is always the way of wisdom. SAMSTHANAKA Does a man suffer much when he is killed with the sword? You have seen men killed in battle. ATTENDANT A man who is killed in battle dies gladly; he touches joy for an instant and then rests for an eternity. SAMSTHANAKA Why should I prepare joy or rest for Charadutta? I am too kind if I kill him with the sword. I would iiave him linger, and be without hope, and not be able to die. I would have him die of shame before death [147] THE TOY CART overtook him. Otherwise my revenge will be paltry, a mean man's revenge, not the judgment of a king. What would hurt Charadutta more than death? ATTENDANT His honour. SAMSTHANAKA Are you sure of that? Strange, that dishonour should hurt more than death. I do not understand it. Tell me why you think this strange thing of Charadutta. ATTENDANT He has lost everything else; honour he has not lost; if he had to choose between losing life and losing honour, what could there be to make him hesitate? SAMSTHANAKA How do you know these things that are above your station? You are not to think of them any more. But you seem to know Charadutta, and I will believe you. Charadutta must not die until he has lost his honour. After that he shall lose his life. ATTENDANT My lord can do all things. SAMSTHANAKA Let me take counsel with my mind. Stand further off, that I may have room to think. ATTENDANT mores a few steps away. SAMSTHANAKA stands si ill with a fixed look. Pause. I have it. The jewels of Vasantasena! [148] THE TOY CART attendant [coming forward] My lord. SAMSTHANAEA I will accuse him of theft. He shall be brought before the court of law, he shall be convicted on evidence, he shall be condemned to death as a thief. I shall have killed more than his life. ATTENDANT It will be easier for my lord to have killed him by the sword. SAMSTHANAKA Easier? Then I will take the more difficult way. If I could have him arrested before he can come to the garden! or, if not arrested, at least detained. I will find out a way. Some god who helps princes will open a way for me; perhaps the god whose empty shrine is before me. As he speaks the first gambler runs hurriedly in. FIRST GAMBLER In the name of all the gods, do not betray me! He walks backivards into the temple and sits down on the empty pedestal. He is immediately followed by others, who rush into the garden and look around in surprise. THIRD GAMBLER I saw him enter the garden; he must have taken sanctuary in the temple. [149] THE TOY CART SECOND GAMBLER He may hide in hell, but he shall not escape me till he has paid every farthing. THIRD GAMBLER Let me ask this lord. My lord, we are following a gambler who has cheated us of ten suvarnas; has any man passed this way? SAMSTHANAKA I have seen no one but the god. SECOND GAMBLER He must be inside. We will wait. Then he will think we have gone away, and he will come out, and we shall have him. Let us wait here in the porch of the temple. TIirRD GAMBLER Look, here are his footsteps. He was shaking with fear, every limb of him. I can see it by the marks of his feet, as they slipped and stumbled over the ground. SECOND GAMBLER The track is lost here; there are no more footmarks. THIRD GAMBLER Hey, they are all reversed. He has walked backward into the temple. SECOND GAMBLER I thought the temple was empty; there used to be no image in it. What is this image? [150] THE TOY CART THIRD GAMBLER Is it of wood, do you think? SECOND GAMBLER I think it is of stone. They show by their side-glances that they have recog- nized the gambler. They go near him and put out their hands as if to feel. THIRD GAMBLER Never mind. Let us sit down and play out our game. They sit down under the 'pedestal, take out their cowries, scratch four compartments upon the ground and play. SECOND GAMBLER Fourteen. Eleven. Fifteen. THIRD GAMBLER SECOND GAMBLER THIRD GAMBLER Now, if one had no money, the mere sound of the rattling of the dice would be as tantalizing as the sound of a drum to a king without a kingdom. SECOND GAMBLER Or a cup of strong drink to a drunkard. It is my throw. THIRD GAMBLER No, it is mine. [151] THE TOY CART first gambler [jumping down] No, it is mine. \_They seize him.] SECOND GAMBLER Now, hypocrite, villain, mocker of the gods, are you caught or not? ^VYill you pay or no? Do you owe me ten suvarnas or no? FIRST GAMBLER If you will take your hands off me I will answer your questions one at a time. SECOND GAMBLER Answer them all at once. FIRST GAMBLER Yes, no, yes. SECOND GAMBLER What do you mean by yes, no, yes? FIRST GAMBLER Let me explain to you in your ear. [Aside.] If I pay you half the money will you let me off the rest? SECOND GAMBLER Agreed. FIRST GAMBLER Let me speak to him a moment. [Whispers to the third gambler.] I will give you security for half the debt if you cry quits for the other half. [152] THE TOY CART THIRD GAMBLER Agreed. L to FIRST GAMBLER [to SECOND GAMBLER aloud] You let me off half the debt? SECOND GAMBLER I do. FIRST GAMBLER And you give up half? THIRD GAMBLER I do. FIRST GAMBLER Then good morning to you, gentlemen. [He turns as if to go.'] SECOND GAMBLER Not so fast; where are you going? FIRST GAMBLER Why look you, one of you has let me off one half, and the other has let me off another half. Is it not clear that I am quits for the whole? I wish you a good morning. second gambler [seizing hini] Stop a moment. You know my name, you know that I know a thing or two; you know if I am going to be done like this. Down with the whole sum, or you come with me to prison. [153] THE TOY CART FIRST GAMBLER O merciful sir! SECOND GAMBLER Pay and go free. FIRST GAMBLER Where am I to get the money? SECOND GAMBLER Sell your father. FIRST GAMBLER Is my father here to sell? SECOND GAMBLER Sell your mother. FIRST GAMBLER Is my mother here to sell? SECOND GAMBLER Sell yourself. FIRST GAMBLER Myself? If anyone would only buy me! Who'll buy? Who'll buy? Here's a gentleman who will perhaps buy me for ten suvarnas. SAMSTIIANAKA Are you worth it? FIRST GAMBLER Am I not a cat in climbing, a deer in running, a snake in twisting, a hawk in darting upon its prey? I am Maya in disguising myself, and Sarawasti in the gift of tongues. [154] THE TOY CART SAMSTHANAKA I buy you. You are the man I want. Here are ten suvarnas. Loose him and let him go. SECOND GAMBLER The property is yours. Takes the money and they both go FIRST GAMBLER I am your slave for life. What shall I do for you? SAMSTHANAKA Sir, I have a piece of work for you. If you do it you shall be rewarded, though seeing that I have bought you, you belong to me already. I am Prince Sams- thanaka, and I can reward you like a prince. FIRST GAMBLER My lord, I will be a hawk for you in the air: what is there I should see? I will be a wolf in seizing: what is there I should seize? SAMSTHANAKA Seize Charadutta. FIRST GAMBLER What, the new lover of Vasantasena? SAMSTHANAKA Why do you think he is a lover of Vasantasena? [155] THE TOY CART FIRST GAMBLER It was at her house that I played dice once too often. Last night Charadutta was there. samstiianaka [flinging down the flowers] You saw him? you? at her house? The thunder of all the gods blacken her and him ! That is why she would not let me in! I have not only been insulted, I have been deceived. If she were not more beautiful than the dawn I would put her to death with my own hands. If she were not more desirable than the dawn I would bring eternal night upon her. But first I will avenge myself upon Charadutta. I have the means, if you will do my service swiftly and without fault. FIRST GAMBLER Tell me, and I will do it. SAMSTHANAKA Can you disguise yourself as an officer of justice, intercept Charadutta, who is now on his way to this garden, and convey him secretly to my palace, where I will lodge a charge against him that he has stolen the jewels of Vasantasena? FIRST GAMBLER I have personated a god. Can I not personate an officer of justice? [lie alters the arrangement of his clothes, and disguises his face.] [156] THE TOY CART SAMSTHANAKA Go at once. Take no one with you. He will follow you in the name of the law. Go at once. gambler goes out hurriedly. [Turns to attendant] I have no further need of you nor of my men. Return home and leave me alone here. attendant goes. The sun sits like an angry ape in the sky; I breathe flame, and there is no shade under the trees. O Vasantasena, you burn my heart like the sun at noon- day. I wait for you, and I do not know if it is with love or hatred. There is a sound of wheels. He listens. She is here. She is sending away her carriage. She is alone. He sees the flowers, hurriedly picks them up, and then draws back, in the shadow of a tree, vasantasena comes slowly forward, looking from side to side. vasantasena [stopping and putting her hand to her eye] My right eye throbs: it is an evil omen. [She catches sight of samsthanaka]. Ah! samsthanaka [speaking in tones of cold malice] Why do you stand with your eyes cast down to the earth, like cattle that hang their heads against the rain? Why do you turn pale and shrink back, as if it were not I, Prince Samsthanaka, your lover, that you had come to meet? [1571 THE TOY CART vasantasena [faintly, looking round as if for help] I did not come to meet you. samsthanaka [coming nearer, and offering her flowers] Here are flowers for my little Vasantasena, my dove, my gazelle; all the flowers of the garden wait for her; she has come to receive the gift, not of a flower, but of all the flowers of the garden. This garden was made to be a place of delight, and these trees were planted to give shelter to the unsheltered. Come under their shadow, for the sun is a flame in the sky. You are pale, Vasantasena: take these flowers and come into the shadow of the trees. lie offers her the flowers but she does not take them, and they fall to the ground between them. VASANTASENA I will not come out of the sun. SAMSTHANAKA You have cast away my flowers, Vasantasena. Yet you came here for a flower. No one is here to give you that flower. Look around, he is not here. He is not anywhere among the trees; he is not hiding in the temple; he is not even under the ground. vasantasena [eagerly] What do you mean? [158] THE TOY CART SAMSTHANAKA Has Charadutta already forgotten that he was to meet you? You see he does not come. If he were here I would go away. I take the place of the absent. VASANTASENA What have you done to him? something stronger than death, he said: what have you done to Charadutta? SAMSTHANAKA You are a dancing girl, Vasantasena, you are the mart of love, you are the mine of pleasure. It is your trade to welcome alike the man whom you love and the man whom you do not love. Why, even if you do not love me, have you always spurned me? Why do you turn your eyes and your heart only on the man who is not here, on Charadutta? It is not too late, Vasantasena. And as for Charadutta, you see that he is not here. \_He comes closer to her7\ VASANTASENA Why is he not here? O where is Charadutta? SAMSTHANAKA Do not ask me, Vasantasena. He is not here, yet you run after him. VASANTASENA I will run after him until I find him. Let me pass, perhaps he is here, somewhere in the garden. [159] THE TOY CART SAMSTHANAKA Listen. This man is a beggar, and a beggar is an empty pool. VASANTASENA The pool is full to the brim whose water is unfit for drinking. SAMSTHANAKA Will you always scorn me? And is it always for his sake that you scorn me? VASANTASENA Let me go to him. SAMSTHANAKA He is not here. But I am here, Vasantasena. VASANTASENA Shall the swan's mate harbour with crows? SAMSTHANAKA You are a strangling creeper. You are a deadly weed. You must be rooted up out of the garden. VASANTASENA Let me go. I am afraid of your eyes and your hands. SAMSTHANAKA Do you see these hands? These ten fingers are not the petals of the lotus. What if they should take you by the hair of your head as Jatayn seized the wife of Bali? [100] THE TOY CART VASANTASENA Why do you cry upon me as if I had done you a wrong? I have done you no wrong. Let me go, let me go home. [She turns and tries to pass.2 SAMSTHANAKA Do you see these hands? It is not with henna that they are red. It is not the sun that blinds me as I look upon you. What shall I do to the woman who has spurned me as jackals spurn carrion? VASANTASENA Let me go. SAMSTHANAKA The tiger does not only kill. Why should I kill you when you might live for my delight? Choose! VASANTASENA There is nothing to choose. SAMSTHANAKA Are you not in my power? VASANTASENA My body, not my innocence. SAMSTHANAKA We are alone; who shall see us? [161] THE TOY CART VASANTASENA The ten points of the compass, the eyes of the wood- gods, the moon, the sun that now burns upon us, the judge of the dead, the wind, the air, your conscience, and the earth: these are the witnesses of all things. SAMSTHANAKA I will cast my cloak over you and you shall not be seen. VASANTASENA Are you mad? SAMSTHANAKA I fear nothing, and I will do a great deed. Are you ready to die, Vasantasena? VASANTASENA No, no, I am not ready to die. I have not lived yet. Let me go. [In struggling vrilh him she strikes him in the face.~\ SAMSTHANAKA A woman has struck me, a light woman. She must die. VASANTASENA Have pity on me, have pity! O I cannot die. [She jails on her knees before him.~] SAMSTHANAKA Do jackals fly or crows run? Then how should I have pity? [lie takes off his girdle and makes a noose of it.^} [162] THE TOY CART VASANTASENA Mother, where are you? O Charadutta, I shall die and I shall not have known your love. The gods bless Charadutta ! samsthanaka [drawing the noose about her nech~\ That name ! again, daughter of a slave ! vasantasena [in a half-choked voice] The gods bless Charadutta! She falls motionless on the ground, samsthanaka leans over her, then looks up and around, moves away, comes back and gazes down at her, then takes off his cloak and is laying it over her when he notices the arms embroidered on it; snatches back his cloak, looks helplessly and anxiously round, then gathers handfuls of dry leaves and covers her body. Then furtively and stealthily hurries out. There is a pause. Then a rough voice is heard singing in a kind of slow chant, like an old beggar, and mendicant friar comes in. He carries a rosary in his hand, a wallet of black deerskin at his side, an ochre-red cloak over his arm; he has a long beard. MENDICANT [si?igs] Good fellow-men, I bid you heap Good deeds, and halter appetite; The drum of meditation keep Your souls awake, lest in the night, The thieving senses at the door Break in and take away your store. [163] THE TOY CART He who has slain the senses five, Five brethren, and the hangman self, Nor left poor ignorance alive, Has conquered heaven for himself. What profits it a shaven head? Show me a shaven soul instead. Shade at last, and the hour advises me to rest. I have washed my cloak; where shall I put it to dry? I will hang it on the boughs of this tree. No, they are too high: I will lay it on the ground. No, there is too much dust. Ah! the wind has blown together a heap of dry leaves: I will put it there. There, it will soon be dry. He spreads out his cloak over the body of vasan- tasena and sits down a little way off against a tree. Glory to Buddha! How beautifully everything in the world is adapted to its purpose. Here am I, a mendi- cant friar, begging my way about the world. I have come to this city, which is the most virtuous city in this region; in this city I come by mere good fortune to the Old Flower Garden, which is the most famous garden in the city : I find a pond to wash my cloak in, a shady tree to sit under, and I am alone, far from the enemities of men and the too pleasing wiles of women, where I can meditate on the divine perfections. I will close my eyes and repeat the sacred "Om." What was that? lie sits up and looks round. Something stirred or sighed in the leaves. Ah, it was only the crackling of the scorched leaves under the wetness of my cloak. T will compose myself to medi- tation; I will think neither upon my sins, which are of [164] THE TOY CART old, nor upon the virtues which I would acquire; but I will gaze fixedly at the leaves yonder, on which I have laid my cloak and I will repeat — O what is this? The leaves spread outward like the wings of a bird? And there is a hand, a woman's hand, with rich ornaments on it. What can this mean? The gods preserve me from pollution! He rises and draws his cloak carefully away, dis- closing vasantasena, who lies at full length. She feebly raises her hand and points to her mouth. She wants water: the pool is far away: what can I do? Ah, my cloak is still wet. [He squeezes some water out of his cloak upon her face, and fans her with it.~\ vasantasena {raising her head'] Thanks, friend. Who are you? MENDICANT I am a mendicant friar. I was meditating in this garden of peace. VASANTASENA Of peace ! MENDICANT WTiat has befallen you, lady? VASANTASENA I think I have been dead. MENDICANT Rise, lady. VASANTASENA I cannot rise; give me your hand. [165] THE TOY CART MENDICANT That I may not do; take hold of this creeper and raise yourself. He bends down to her a creeper on the trees; she lays hold of it and draws herself up. Come, I will lead you. VASANTASENA I cannot walk. MENDICANT If you will take hold of this, I will lead you, and I shall not have broken my oath, which forbids me to touch a woman. VASANTASENA I cannot go far. MENDICANT There is a convent close by; you shall rest there, and recover your strength. Come, lady, gently. VASANTASENA Am I really alive? [She walks feebly, holding the end of the creeper r\ MENDICANT What should the just man care for life or death? His is the world to come. They go out together. CURTAIN [166] THE TOY CART ACT IV The Hall of Justice. The judge, the provost, and the recorder seated. People standing; at the back sams- THANAKA. CRIER Give ear, all men, to the words of the judge! judge [rising"] I am here to do justice, on the just and on the unjust alike. A judge should be learned, wise, eloquent, dis- passionate, impartial; he should pronounce judgment only after due enquiry and deliberation; he should be a guardian to the weak, a terror to the wicked; his heart should be without covetousness, his mind intent only on truth and equity, and his should it be to keep aloof the anger of the king. PROVOST Your worship has painted his own picture in deline- ating the features of the perfect judge. recorder You shall be taxed with favour when the moon is charged with obscurity. JUDGE The quality of a judge is readily the subject of censure. It is always hard to see into the hearts of others, and [167] THE TOY CART hard also is it to disentangle the coils of their doings. How often is truth far from the lips of men, and how often is an accusation brought against the innocent. Justice is in the hands of the gods alone; it is enough for us if we will to be just, and put our trust in the justice of the gods. [He seats himself.'] Officer, go forth and see who comes to demand justice. officer goes to the other end of the court and cries: OFFICER By order of his honour, the judge, I ask who is there that demands justice? SAMSTHANAKA I, the king's brother-in-law. JUDGE This is out of order. There are other cases that have to be tried first. Go to him and tell him that his case cannot be tried to-day. officer [_going down the IlalQ I am desired to inform your excellency that your case cannot be tried to-day. SAMSTIIANAKA How, not to-day? Tell the judge that I shall go straight to the king, my brother-in-law, and that I shall have him dismissed from his office, and his office given to another. My case is to be heard to-day. OFFICER Stay one moment, your honour, and I will carry your message to the Court. [He goes back to the judge.] [108] THE TOY CART Please your worship, his excellency is very angry, and declares if you will not try his suit to-day he will go to the king and procure your worship's dismissal. JUDGE It is in the fool's power. He must be heard. Call him, and let him come hither. OFFICER Will your excellency be pleased to come forward? Your case will be heard. SAMSTHANAKA indeed! first it could not be heard; now it will be heard. Very well: the judges fear me: they will do my will. [He goes up to the judges. .] I am well pleased, gentlemen, by your decision; it is for you also to be well pleased, for your good pleasure lies in my hands. judge [aside'] Is this the language of a plaintiff? Be seated. SAMSTHANAKA Assuredly. Are not all these places mine, and shall 1 not be seated where I please? [To the provost] I will sit here. No. [To the recorder] I will sit here; no no. [To the judge, laying his hand on his shoulder.] I will sit here. judge Your excellency has a complaint to bring? [169] THE TOY CART SAMSTHANAKA I have indeed. JUDGE Prefer it. SAMSTHANAKA All in good time. Do not forget that I am of noble family, that my father is the king's father-in-law, the king is my father's son-in-law, I am the brother-in-law of the king. JUDGE All this we know; but what have birth and rank to do with virtue? Thorns grow most plentifully on the richest soil. Declare therefore your suit. SAMSTHANAKA It is this; but it is no fault of mine. My noble brother- in-law, for his good pleasure, presented me, for my ease and recreation, with the fairest of the royal gardens, the Old Flower Garden. I go there daily, to see that it is well kept and weeded and in order. To-day I go there as usual, and what do I see (how could I believe my eyes?) but the dead body of a murdered woman! JUDGE Did you recognize the woman? SAMSTHANAKA Alas, how could I fail to recognize her, the pride of our city, all her jewels gone from her, stolen no doubt by some miscreant who had lured her into the lonely garden? I saw Vasantasena, strangled by his hands, not by me. [He breaks short.~] [170] THE TOY CART JUDGE The city is ill guarded. Gentlemen, you have heard the compliant; let it be recorded, including the words "not by me." recorder [writing'} It is written. SAMSTHANAKA What have I said? My lords, I was going to say, not by me was the deed beheld. It is not necessary to note down these mere trifles. JUDGE How, then, if you did not see it done, do you know that Vasantasena was strangled, and for the sake of her jewels? SAMSTHANAKA I conclude so, for the neck was bare and swollen, and her dress rifled of its jewels. PROVOST It seems like enough. samsthanaka [aside} I breathe again. JUDGE First of all, let officers be sent with speed to the Old Flower Garden, and let them bring hither the body of the murdered woman. Officers go out. There is a stir in the court, and the first gambler comes in hurriedly and makes signs to samsthanaka, who leaves his -place and goes aside with him. [ 1711 THE TOY CART GAMBLER My lord, I have failed. I have found Charadutta nowhere, though I have searched every corner of the city. I have failed to delay him from my lord's path. SAMSTIIANAKA Fool, the god whose place you took in the temple has done better than you. A murder has been committed in the garden: remember, it was Charadutta who did it, and he did it for the jewels of Vasantasena. He goes back to his place. PROVOST On what further evidence does this suit depend? JUDGE The case is twofold, and must be investigated both in relation to facts and to assertions; the verbal in- vestigation relates to plaintiff and respondent, that of facts depends upon the judge. SAMSTIIANAKA My lords, I have further evidence to give, I have an accusation to make. JUDGE Whom do you accuse? SAMSTIIANAKA I accuse Charadutta. [172] THE TOY CART JUDGE Prince, you are jesting. It were as easy to weigh Himalaya, to ford the ocean, or to grasp the wind, as to fix a stain on Charadutta. SAMSTHANAKA I have evidence. JUDGE Give your evidence. And meanwhile let Charadutta be summoned, not as one accused, but as one who would rather that evil tales were told of him to his face than behind his back. Say, at his perfect convenience. Officer is going out. SAMSTHANAKA I demand the mother of Vasantasena as a witness. JUDGE Let her be summoned, but with all courtesy. officer goes out and returns immediately with RAMBHA. OFFICER She was waiting outside the court. RAMBHA My lords, my lords, where is my daughter? O my heart! I am fainting, what with the heat and the emotion. Will your worships allow me to sit down? JUDGE Be seated. [173] THE TOY CART RAMBHA What have I heard? What has happened to my daughter? JUDGE You are the mother of Vasantasena? RAMBHA I am. JUDGE Where is your daughter? RAMBHA That is what I ask? Where is my daughter? JUDGE You are not to ask questions. You are to answer them. W T here did you last see your daughter? RAMBHA She was preparing to go to meet a friend. JUDGE Where was she to meet this friend? RAMBHA In the Old Flower Garden. JUDGE The name of the friend? [174] THE TOY CART RAMBHA Surely, your worship, that is not a fit question for your worship to ask? JUDGE No hesitation. The law asks the question. PROVOST Speak out, there is no harm in saying it. The law asks the question. RAMBHA Well then, gentlemen, to tell the truth, as you insist upon it, and the very own truth it is (not that I ever spoke otherwise), the friend is a good gentleman who is the son of Sagaradatta, who was the son of the Provost Vinayaddatta, whose own name is Charadutta. He lives near the Exchange. My daughter went to meet him this morning in the Old Flower Garden. Where is my daughter? SAMSTHANAKA You hear, judges: let this be set down in writing. It is Charadutta whom I have accused. You see that he is guilty. PROVOST He is her friend: what is more natural than that she should go to meet him? RAMBHA My lords, tell me where is my daughter? charadutta enters with the officer. [175] THE TOY CART RECORDER Here is Charadutta : such straight features could never hide a crooked mind. JUDGE Sir, be seated. Officer, a seat. OFFICER It is here. Be seated, Sir. SAMSTHANAKA All this pother for a woman-killer! But never mind. JUDGE Noble Charadutta, I have to ask you _ any intimacy or connection has ever subsisted between you and the daughter of this woman? CHARADUTTA What woman? JUDGE This. charadutta [rising^ Lady, I salute you. RAMBHA Sir, is it you that . . . JUDGE Be silent. And now tell me, Charadutta, were you ever acquainted with Vasantasena? charadutta hesitates. [176] THE TOY CART SAMSTHANAKA See how modest he is or pretends to be! But it is a cloak, a cloak. PROVOST Do not hesitate, Charadutta. There is a charge against you. CHARADUTTA What if Vasantasena were my friend? JUDGE No evasion, Charadutta. The law obliges you to speak out, and to speak the whole truth. CHARADUTTA First tell me who is my accuser. samsthanaka [rising~] I am. charadutta {contemptuously^ You! Then it is a serious matter. SAMSTHANAKA A serious matter indeed. What! Do you think you are going to rob and murder a woman and that no one is ever to know of it? CHARADUTTA Are you out of your mind? What do you mean? [177 ] THE TOY CART JUDGE Enough of this. Tell me, was Vasantasena your friend ? CHARADUTTA She was, she is. Why do you say she was? Tell me what all this means? SAMSTHANAKA You see his agitation? Guilt will out. JUDGE When did you last see her? CHARADUTTA At her house last night. JUDGE And what appointment did she make with you? CHARADUTTA Appointment? JUDGE You are to answer. CHARADUTTA I promised to meet her at noon to-day in the Old Flower Garden. SAMSTHANAKA You hear, judges; you hear him confess his crime? [178] THE TOY CART CHARADUTTA Sirs, what is this talk of crime? You want to make me believe that some terrible thing has happened to Vasantasena. But you will not tell me what it is? Why do you torture me? SAMSTHANAKA You hear the guilty wretch? He betrays himself, JUDGE Be silent, both of you. And tell me, Charadutta, did you meet Vasantasena at noon in the Old Flower Garden as you had appointed? CHARADUTTA I did not. JUDGE Why? CHARADUTTA I was unavoidably prevented. PROVOST This sounds strange. JUDGE You were prevented from keeping such an appoint- ment? What prevented you? CHARADUTTA I cannot tell you. JUDGE I must insist upon an answer. [179] THE TOY CART CHARADUTTA I cannot answer you. JUDGE You endanger your life by your silence. For the sake of your honour I command you to answer. CHARADUTTA It is my honour that forbids me to answer. BAMSTHANAKA Listen to him, my lord? He has confessed all. He was going to the garden, he did not go to the garden, he cannot say where he went when he did not go to the garden. He is condemned out of his own mouth. Give sentence on him. JUDGE My lord, I am the judge here and not you. I am here to weigh truth and falsehood to hear evidence, and to learn truth. Sit down in your place and be silent. RECORDER [t.0 PROVOSt] It is strange that Charadutta will not answer. PROVOST It is so much against him. JUDGE Have the officers returned from the garden? OFFICER They are here, my lord. [180] THE TOY CART JUDGE Let them come forward. An officer comes forward. Tell me, what you have seen and done? OFFICER We went with haste, my lord, to the Old Flower Garden, and we found that the body of a woman had been there, but beasts of prey had seized upon it and devoured it. JUDGE How do you know that it was the body of a woman? OFFICER By the remains of the hair, and the marks of the hands and feet. RAMBHA O Vasantasena is really and truly dead, and I am alive to hear it? Accursed be the evil-doer that has done it. Is it you, beggar and murderer? [_She shakes her fist at Charadutta r\ charadutta [as if stunned^] Dead ! dead ! Vasantasena dead ! PROVOST Do you hear what he says? He does not know what he is saying. JUDGE Charadutta, you are accused by the Prince Sams- thanaka of the murder of Vasantasena: have you any defence to make? [181] THE TOY CART CHARADUTTA Dead! and I might have saved her. RECORDER He means he might have repented in time. JUDGE Answer me: have you any defence to make? CHARADUTTA None. JUDGE Where were you at the time of the murder? CHARADUTTA I cannot tell you. JUDGE Do you then plead guilty? CHARADUTTA No. JUDGE [to SAMSTHANAKa] Why do you accuse Charadutta? What proof have you of your accusation? samsthanaka My lord, what proof can there be but one? The jewels of Vasantasena! JUDGE If they had been found, but they have not been found. [182] THE TOY CART SAMSTHANAKA They have not been sought for. Where should they be but in the house of Charadutta? Send officers, my lords, to the house of Charadutta; see whether the jewels that Vasantasena was accustomed to wear are not to be found there. Those jewels, if they are found in that impoverished house, will speak the truth louder than I, they will at once prove the crime and show the reason of the crime. CHARADUTTA Let my guilt rest on this question. Search my house, and if a single jewel of Vasantasena is found there, let me be held guilty of a viler thing than murder. JUDGE Go, let the house be searched. {Officers go out.~\ Again, Charadutta, it is for your sake that I search fully into the matter. Innocence fears no exposure, and though the evidence so far is against you I do not doubt that this last accusation will turn to your favour. CHARADUTTA How can I care any longer if I am found guilty or innocent if Vasantasena is really dead? SAMSTHANAKA It is the hypocrite who speaks. Wait, you will see the hypocrite confounded, the robber disclosed, the mur- derer convicted. [183] THE TOY CART RAMBHA This is a matter, my lords, in which it would be well for you to call me as a witness. SAMSTHANAKA Do not listen to her; what has she to do with this matter? This is a fact to be made evident; not an argument to be decided. JUDGE Charadutta, do you desire the evidence of Vasan- tasena's mother? CHARADUTTA I need no evidence. I await the test. RAMBHA Very well, my good sir. I have no wish to press into the company of my betters, whether it be to do good to them or to do harm to them. I am sure it is Prince Samsthanaka who knows all about it, and what he finds out will be sure to be the truth. [She looks impudently at samsthanaka.] judge Has the officer returned from the house of Charadutta? An officer carrying the toy cart containing the jewels of vasantasena comes forward, followed by maitreya in great agitation, maitreya thrusts himself forward. MAITREYA Friend, peace be with you! [184] THE TOY CART CHARADUTTA Perhaps I shall find it again. MAITREYA What is this? Why are you here? Why have these men forced their way into your house? JUDGE Be silent there, and let the officer come forward and deliver his report. OFFICER My lords, I went to the house of Charadutta, and this man offered violent resistance to my entry. I went in, and had not searched long before I found, thrust aside into a corner as if to escape observation, a child's toy cart filled with jewels. It is here. \He hands it to the judge. ~] JUDGE What is this, Charadutta? CHARADUTTA Either I am bewitched . . . JUDGE [to RAMBHA] Are these the jewels of your daughter? samsthanaka gets wp and goes down as if to examine them. RAMBHA I must see them closely: give them into my hands; my eyes are old. [185] THE TOY CART samsthanaka [significantly] Tell the truth. JUDGE Are these ornaments your daughter's? rambha [peering into them] They are very like, I would not be saying they are the same. SAMSTHANAKA Fifty suvarnas if you tell the truth. PROVOST Surely you will know them if they are your daughter's? RAMBHA [to SAMSTHANAKA] I want a hundred. Well, well, it is difficult to trust one's eyes, what with these cunning workmen. They are very like. samsthanaka [aside] ] A hundred then. JUDGE You cannot declare on oath that they are not your daughter's? RAMBHA My lord, I have no doubt about them now. I have recognized them by a secret sign. They are my daughter's. JUDGE [to CHARADUTTA] Does she speak the truth? CHARADUTTA Yes. [186] THE TOY CART JUDGE How have they come into your possession? CHARADUTTA I do not know. Some enemy has done this. JUDGE Again you will not answer me. CHARADUTTA I have nothing to answer. The gods are in league against me. [He looks wildly round him and says as if speaking to himself :~] I seem to be dreaming, and yet I am awake, and you are the judge, and you are de- bating about my life, and Vasantasena is dead, and yet I cannot awaken. JUDGE Officer, remove him from his seat. officer takes his seat from charadutta. CHARADUTTA Do you see, Maitreya? I must not sit down before these lords or, if I do, only in the dust. But what does it matter? maitreya [pointing to samsthanaka] There is the enemy who has done this! samsthanaka [laughing scornfully] Little Brahmin, have a care. Your virtuous friend there has killed Vasantasena and robbed her of her jewels, and if you are not careful I will have you arrested for helping him in the matter. [ 187 1 THE TOY CART MAITREYA Son of an adultress, monkey tricked out with gold, stuffed stock of vices, it is you, you, who dare to accuse this man who has never plucked a flower roughly from its stalk — you accuse him of a crime more hateful than has ever been seen in this world! I will break your head into a thousand pieces with this staff, as knotty and crooked as your own heart! If I could only say what I know! SAMSTHANAKA Listen, my lords, to this suspicious violence. They are in league together. CHARADTJTTA Maitreya, my friend, be silent. For my sake. JUDGE Stay, let your inconsiderate friend give witness on your behalf. I see only one chance for you. Sir, you seem by your language to be an intimate friend of Charadutta? MAITREYA I am his slave: he is my benefactor. JUDGE Well and good. And you are frequently in his com- pany? MAITREYA He is rarely out of my sight. [188] JUDGE MAITREYA THE TOY CART JUDGE Were you with Charadutta at noon to-day? MAITREYA Yes — no. charadutta looks at him fixedly, and slightly raises his hand. You were not? No. JUDGE Where was Charadutta at that hour? charadutta looks at him more fixedly. MAITREYA [slowly] I do not know. SAMSTHANAEA Judge, pass sentence. Is there further cause for delay? judge [speaks aside with provost and recorder, then risesj, Charadutta, it rests now only with you to confess the crime which has been proved against you. The evi- dence is complete, the charge has been substantiated on every point, and you can give no account of your- self at the time when the murder must have been committed. That which has seemed to our minds incredible, has none the less been proved to the con- viction of our minds. It is better, at the last moment, to admit the truth, rather than to add falsehood to dishonour. Charadutta, are you guilty of the murder of Vasantasena? [189] THE TOY CART CHARADUTTA I am of a race incapable of crime. But what is it to me if I am innocent and a crime is imputed to me which I cannot gainsay? If Vasantasena is dead, of what use is life to me? Have your way. What is it I am to say after you? SAMSTHANAKA That you killed Vasantasena: say that you killed her. CHARADUTTA You have said it. SAMSTHANAKA Sentence, my lord. JUDGE Charadutta, you have confessed that you are guilty of the murder of Vasantasena. This is your sentence: the ornaments of Vasantasena be hung about your neck, and that you be conducted by beat of drum to the place of execution in the southern cemetery, and that you be there beheaded by the public executioner, and your body impaled upon a stake for a warning to all malefactors in the kingdom of our supreme lord and king. SAMSTHANAKA Let the king's justice be done. CHARADUTTA Let the justice of the gods be done. The curtain jails as the officers lay hold on chara- dutta. [190 j THE TOY CART ACT V A place of execution, an open space at the cross-roads, by the side of the public cemetery. A crowd is assembled. FIRST BYSTANDER Are they nearly here? SECOND BYSTANDER Nearly. The Chandalas are leading Charadutta by way of the four stations, and at each station they read the proclamation. He must be nearer now to the fourth than to the third. FIRST BYSTANDER What a pilgrimage! The shame will be more to him than death itself. He was the proudest man in the city. SECOND BYSTANDER Do you believe he is really guilty? FIRST BYSTANDER How is it possible either to doubt or believe it? THIRD BYSTANDER I salute you, neighbours. Are you here for the cere- mony? They tell me it is not the only one. Is it true that Aryaka has escaped? [191] THE TOY CART SECOND BYSTANDER It is perfectly true. He has got through the gates, nobody knows how. They flock to him from all sides. THIRD BYSTANDER Do you think anyone here would be averse to a change of dynasty? FIRST BYSTANDER Hush! it is better to wait and accept whatever comes to pass. Perhaps Charadutta will be the last victim of Palaka. SECOND BYSTANDER Is he not a friend of Aryaka? THIRD BYSTANDER "Would that Aryaka were here to help him. FOURTH BYSTANDER They are coming, they are coming. A CHILD Lift me up, father. I want to see them. The man is hung all over with garlands. Are they going to offer him up to the gods? FOURTH BYSTANDER Yes, my son. CHILD But I do not see any priests. Why does he carry a sharp stake over his shoulder! [192] THE TOY CART FOURTH BYSTANDER You will see presently. Get down now, and wait till the Chandalas stop here. This is the best place for seeing. FIRST BYSTANDER Is this the face of a criminal? He steps as noble as a beast led to the sacrifice. But it is a sacrifice that will not please the gods. charadutta appears between the two chandalas, garlanded with flowers, like a beast led to the sacrifice, and with the jewels of vasantasena tied round his neck. He bears on his shoulder the stake with which he is to be impaled. His clothes are covered with dust; his face is pale and weary. FIRST CHANDALA Out of the way, sirs, out of the way for Charadutta, all good people who stand about here to see a man's procession on his way to death. Make way for the executioners of the king, the doers of justice by be- heading of living and impaling of dead men. This is Charadutta, who bears the stake and the garland; he goes now on his way to death as a lamp goes out when it has not been replenished with oil. CHARADUTTA What are these crows, good Chandala, and why are they croaking about this place? SECOND CHANDALA They are before their time, sir; they wait on you. Stand out of the way there, what is there for you to [193] THE TOY CART see but a tree that is to be cut down, a good man that is to be cut short by the axe of fate? CHARADTJTTA The people look kindly on me; I am at least not shamed before their kind hearts, though I stand here like an ox to be slaughtered; they cannot help me in this life, but I can see that they pray that my fortune in my next life may be better than it has been in this. FIRST CHAXDALA Out of the way, sirs, back; what do you want to see? There are four things not to be looked at: Indra when he bends his bow, a cow when she gives birth to her calf, a shooting star, and a good man when he is leaving this life. But look you, brother, a hint, the whole city is under sentence; can the sky weep without a cloud? SECOND CHAXDALA No, brother Goha, the sky cannot weep without a cloud, but this cloud is a cloud of women-folk, and the rain falls from their eyes, and cannot so much as lay the dust. CHARADUTTA Why do all these pity me and cry, Alas! poor Chara- dutta? I am to die, and not one of them can help me. FIRST CHAXDALA Let all men hear the proclamation of the king. First, let the drum be beaten. The drum is beaten. And now hear, all of ye. This is Charadutta, the son of Sagaradatta, the son of the Provost Vinayaddatta, [194] THE TOY CART by whom Vasantasena the courtesan has been robbed and murdered. The spoil has been found in his hands, and he has confessed his crime with his own mouth. He has been convicted and condemned to death in the name of King Palaka; so will the king punish all malefactors accursed in this life and the next. CHARADUTTA O Chandalas, how is it that your hands defile a name that has been made sacred to the gods, age after age, by priests about a sacred fire? But now, my friends, turn from me; they hide their faces in their cloaks. Once every stranger desired to be my friend ! FIRST CHANDALA Every man loves him that is in prosperity, and him that is in adversity he forsakes. Does this surprise you, and yet you are a wise man? CHARADUTTA O Maitreya, why does not my one friend come to fulfil my last wishes! SECOND CHANDALA Are you ready, sir, and if you are ready will you come a little further along? voices [behind the scenes^ Father! father! Charadutta! CHARADUTTA Chandalas, will you grant me one favour? [195] THE TOY CART FIRST CHANDALA What ! will you take a favour from us? CHAliADUTTA You are of the caste of the Chandalas, but you are gentler than the king, who is a Brahmin. Hear me, good friends. Let me see the face of my child before I die. the voice [wiihiri] Father! FIRST CHANDALA It shall be done. Make way there: let him pass. This way, sir. maitreya makes his way through the crowd, leading ROHASENA. MAITREYA Quick, child, quick, or your father will be dead before we come to him. ROHASENA Father! father! fHARADUTTA My son! Alas, child, will you leave me as thirsty in the other world as I am now? Such little hands as yours, what food and drink can they offer upon my grave? MAITREYA Friend, is it too late to speak now? Let me speak, tell all, and save you. CHARADTJTTA These Chandalas can take my life: would you take my honour? [190] THE TOY CART ROHASENA Where are you taking my father, you wicked Chan- dalas? FIRST CHANDALA Hark, ye, my boy, they who are born Chandalas are not the only ones. There are Chandalas who do evil to good men. ROHASENA Then why are you killing my father? SECOND CHANDALA It is the king's order; it is his fault, not ours. ROHASENA Kill me and let my father go. FIRST CHANDALA A long life to you, my brave child. CHARADUTTA The essence of the world is mine: such treasure be- longs to the poor man as well as to the rich. I have one friend, and in him I shall live twice over. MAITREYA One friend indeed: here's another. Pray, master Chandalas, one body is as good as another to your trade: let my friend's go: you can have mine. [197] THE TOY CART CnAltADUTTA What have I said? I thought adversity left a man without a friend, and here are two of them ! FIRST CIIANDALA Now then, stand back, all of you. What do you want to see now? A good man who has fallen into darkness, like a bucket of gold when the rope is broken and it falls into the well ! CHARADUTTA They are going to beat the drum: it tells the time when I am to die. child, if I had but something to leave you! I have only the cord of the Brahmin, and I will take it from my shoulder and put it over yours. It is not made of gold or jewels, but a Brahmin who wears the cord is the mate of the gods and can talk with them face to face. rohasena [pointing to the jewels round charadutta's neck'] Father, give me back my jewels. CHARADUTTA They are not yours, dear child, and they are not mine. I cannot give them to you. ROHASENA But yes, they are mine, a lady gave them to me. CHARADUTTA What lady? [198] THE TOY CART ROHASENA I don't know, a beautiful lady. She put them into my toy cart because it wasn't the gold one. MAITREYA What is this! Tell me all about it, child! Quick! you shall be cleared of this charge after all, Chara- dutta ! rohasena [crying} I don't know, I don't know. CHARADUTTA My friend, I begin to understand something of this mystery, but it is too late to matter, and now it only adds to my misery. Was not this, which has been part of the noose of fate in snaring me, but some lovely secret deed of Vasantasena, and Vasantasena is dead, and what does it all matter now? Say nothing, Maitreya, death is welcome, and now it will come with more sweetness. The drum is beaten on a sign from the chandalas, and they come nearer to charadutta, who is about to say fareivell to his son. At the sound of the drum a passage is suddenly opened in the croivd, and armed men come forward, followed by samsthanaka. They fall back; he comes insolently forward. SAMSTHANAKA Why do you beat the death-drum before I am ready to look on my enemy dying? I was feasting in my palace, when I heard your voices, Chandalas, as harsh [199] THE TOY CART as a cracked bell, and the first beat of the death- drum. But the destruction of an enemy is a better feast than has ever been served in any palace. What a crowd has come together, and merely to see this man die ! If so many flock together to see this beggar die, how great a concourse would there be if it were a great personage, like myself, that was to be put to death. He is decked out for the slaughter like a young bull, he is turned to the south to die. But why is not the proclamation said over again? I would have it said over and over again, until everybody has heard it. I would have Charadutta say it over with his own mouth. Chandalas, why have you delayed the exe- cution so long? FIRST CHANDALA My lord, we cannot both delay and hasten. If you would be quicker than we, that do but our trade by rote, why, sir, do it yourself. Will you have my axe, or my fellow's? [He lifts the axe high in the air. sams- tiianaka steps back hurriedly .] ROHASENA [to SAMSTHANAKA] Kill me and let my father go. SAMSTHANAKA Put down your axe, down, edge to the earth, not that way. Who is the child? SECOND CHANDALA He is the son of Charadutta. [200 ] THE TOY CART SAMSTHANAKA Kill them both. CHARADUTTA Go home, my child. Who knows what this madman will do? Maitreya, take him with you into safety. He must live, and not be dishonoured by my shame. MAITREYA my friend, do you think that I mean to outlive you? CHARADUTTA Friend, you are alive, and no power forbids you to live. Do not cast away what is not yours to give or take. MAITREYA 1 will put the child into a place of safety, and then, then I will come back and share your fate. [He falls at charadutta's feet, embraces him, and is going to lead away the child.~} SAMSTHANAKA Stop ! I said, kill them both, father and son. charadutta lifts his hands in terror. FIRST CHANDALA The king's orders concerned the father, not the son. We carry out our orders. Off with you, boy! They thrust maitreya and rohasena away into the crowd. SAMSTHANAKA As you will. I am concerned only to do justice. But, as many here present look as if they do not believe [201] THE TOY CART that this crime was committed by Charadutta, I call upon him, as he is an honest man, to say now before them all: I, Charadutta, killed Vasantasena. He will not speak. Strike him, Chandalas, as if he were a drum, with your drum-sticks. FIRST CHANDALA Are you not going to speak, Charadutta? CHARADUTTA Strike, if you will. Your axe will strike harder presently. I am afraid neither of you nor of death; only of one thing: that this thing may be remembered against me, and it may be said that I killed the woman whom I loved. SAMSTHANAKA Confess, confess. Speak the truth at last CHARADUTTA What shall I say that I may have peace in my death? That I am a malefactor, that I hated this woman, and that by me this woman . . . Let this man say the rest. SAMSTHANAKA Was murdered. CHARADUTTA So be it. FIRST CHANDALA Come : it is you who have to execute the prisoner. SECOND CHANDALA No, the turn is yours. [202 ] THE TOY CART FIRST CHANDALA Let us reckon. [They begin to calculate on their fingers .] Well, if it is my turn I shall be in no hurry about it. SECOND CHANDALA Why so? FIRST CHANDALA I will tell you. My father, when about to depart this life to a better, being in the exercise of like func- tions with ours, a gentle-hearted stemman; my father said to me: Son, when you have a heading business in hand, go about it cautiously, deliberately, do nothing in a hurry. And why? Because, said he, some good man may come forward and pay down the price of his head; or a son at the very next moment of time be born to the king, and a general pardon proclaimed; or an elephant may break loose, and the prisoner may get clean off in the confusion; or (who knows?) there may be a change of rulers, and everybody in prison be set at liberty. SAMSTHANAKA A change of rulers! W T hat are you lingering over, Chandalas? To your work, sirs. FIRST CHANDALA Have patience, my lord; we are reckoning which of us two is to do the work. SAMSTHANAKA Is there an elephant on earth more slow-footed than justice? How long am I to wait on your pleasure? [He walks up and down impatiently.^ [203 ] THE TOY CART FIRST CHANDALA Noble Charadutta, we but do our duty, and duty must be done. Before you kneel down at this block, and after asking your pardon, is there anything you wish to think of or speak out? CHARADUTTA If virtue prevail in the world, I ask of the gods that my fair fame may some day be restored by Vasan- tasena, whether from heaven above or on this earth. Now do your duty. FIRST CHANDALA Do you see this block? CHARADUTTA Too well. FIRST CHANDALA Those that see it as close as you see it now have not much longer to live, [charadutta recoils.~\ Are you afraid, Charadutta? CHARADUTTA Of dishonour, not of death. FIRST CHANDALA Sir, in heaven itself the sun and moon are not free from change and suffering: how should we, in this lower world, escape them? One man rises but to fall, another falls to rise; and the vesture of this carcase is at one time laid aside and taken up again at another. Lay these things to your heart, and be [204] THE TOY CART firm. My hand also shall be firm, and the axe shall fall but once. Now must the proclamation be made for the last time. Goha, repeat it. SECOND CHANDALA This is Charadutta, the son of Sagaradatta, the son of the Provost Vinayaddatta, by whom Vasantasena the courtesan has been robbed and murdered. The spoil has been found in his hands, and he has confessed his crime with his own mouth. He has been convicted and condemned to death, and we are now to put him to death in the name of King Palaka: so will the king punish all malefactors, accursed in this life and in the next. FIRST CHANDALA Kneel down: your neck so: sir, let me arrange your last comfort. He sets the head of charadutta carefully on the block. There has been a movement in the crowd, cries of "Make way!" and the mendicant friar leading vasantasena by the hand appears suddenly through the crowd, as charadutta, his head lying on the block says: CHARADUTTA The gods are mighty. MENDICANT Make way there, good people, in the name of charity. Make way ! The first CHANDALA has raised his axe; at the stir in the crowd the second chandala arrests his arms. [205 ] THE TOY CART SECOND CHANDALA Hold. Someone is coming, it may be from the king. FIRST CHANDALA I see only a begging friar and a dishevelled woman. CRIES Make way there, make way! ciiARADUTTA [from the block~\ Good Chandala, I have composed myself for death. Make haste to end this waiting. vasantasena [crying from the crovxT] Stop ! stop ! in the gods' name, stop ! FIRST CHANDALA Who is this woman that cries and runs like a wounded beast? VASANTASENA Stop! it is I. It is I. It is Vasantasena. FIRST CHANDALA Can this be Vasantasena? SECOND CHANDALA Charadutta seems to say so. CHABADUTTA has risen from the block, and stands swaying helplessly, vasantasena runs up to him and puts her arms round him as if to support him. [206 ] THE TOY CART VASANTASENA It is I, it is Vasantasena. Look at me. I am not too late? VOICES IN THE CROWD It is Vasantasena! CHARADUTTA Are you alive or dead, Vasantasena? VASANTASENA I am alive. But you, but you? I have run, I have run, to save you. VOICES IN THE CROWD It is a miracle. Vasantasena is alive. CHARADUTTA I think we have both died, but you have brought me to life again. SAMSTHANAKA If the dead come to life, where shall I hide from the sight of them? And if she be not dead, where shall I hide from the sight of justice? \_He turns to go. The chandalas lay hold of him.'] FIRST CHANDALA Sir, you are to remain here. SAMSTHANAKA This to me, hound? Let me go. [207] THE TOY CART SECOND CHANDALA Our orders are from the king, and if this woman has come back from the dead, it is you that must say who sent her there. \_They lay hold of him.'] VASANTASENA I thought I had died for you, and it was hard, because I loved you with all my life; and is there any love in the grave? But you too, would you have died for me? CHARADUTTA Look, Vasantasena! are not these garlands woven for my death more like bridal garlands? Cannot the death-drums play marriage music as well? VASANTASENA Let me die again, only let me hear those words! But what is it they have done to you, and who is it that has sought your life? CHARADUTTA They said I had killed you, and for these jewels, which I wear now for punishment; your jewels. VASANTASENA Ah, the toy cart! CHARADUTTA They have brought me through anguish to this joy. vasantasena [turning and catching sight of sams- tiiaxaka, shrieks:] The murderer! [208] THE TOY CART samsthanaka [trying to fall on his knees'] Forgive me, Vasantasena. The chandalas hold him up so that he cannot go down on his knees. FIRST CHANDALA Stand up, sir, like a man. Again there is a stir in the crowd, and maitreya bursts through, almost breathless. MAITREYA Charadutta, you will be saved! I have come. . . . [Stops as he sees vasantasena.] CHARADUTTA Vasantasena has already saved me. MAITREYA This is a day of miracles. But hear, and not you alone, Charadutta, hear, all of you, Chandalas, guards, people: Aryaka is king, Palaka is killed, Aryaka reigns in his place! Long live Aryaka! Some in the crowd repeat it, others look at one another in doubt. Glory to Siva, glory to the god of battles! I hold the signet ring of Palaka, that Aryaka has taken off his finger. I bring it from Aryaka to Charadutta that he may not only be set free but that he may be next to Aryaka in his kingdom. [209] THE TOY CART SAMSTHANAKA Alas! woe is me, my brother-in-law is dead, and I am myself no more than a dead man. MAITREYA Hold him, Chandalas, in the name of Aryaka. Guards of Samsthanaka, your master is a captive. Aryaka will be your master! GUARDS Long live Aryaka! CHARADUTTA Maitreya, then it is not my life only that is saved but liberty itself. Let us give thanks to the gods. VOICES Long live Aryaka! Long live Charadutta! CHARADUTTA And now, Vasantasena. . . . VOICES Down with the murderer! Send him after Palaka! He would have killed Charadutta! SAMSTHANAKA Charadutta, save me! I have no hope but in you. \_Brealcs away from the Chandalas and grovels before him.~\ Save me! [210] THE TOY CART VOICES Kill him! kill him! Give him to us. VASantasena [taking the garland from chara- dutta's neck and throwing it over samsthanaka's] Take the death-garland! SAMSTHANAKA I die, I die. I kiss your feet, most noble Charadutta, I kiss the dust before your feet. Only save me from death ! VOICES Give him to us. CHARADUTTA Have I power over this man? VOICES Yes, yes. CHARADUTTA Will you do with him in everything as I bid you? VOICES Yes, yes. CHARADUTTA Then I bid you with all due haste. . . . VOICES To kill him. CHARADUTTA No, to set him free. VOICES Let him be killed, let him be killed. [211] THE TOY CART CHARADUTTA Vasantasena, why is he to be set free? Vasantasena [taking the garland from the neck of samsthanaka, and throwing it on the ground^ Samsthanaka, your punishment shall be the mercy of Charadutta. CHARADUTTA Vasantasena has said it. Loose him and let him go. samsthanaka [rising] Gods! I am alive again. [He goes out.~] mendicant After all I did well to help a woman, though it is against the rules of my order. VASANTASENA This was my helper, when I was nearly dead. He led me into safety. CHARADUTTA What shall we do for this good friar? MENDICANT Give me leave to go begging about the world in the old way: my masters, save me and your own selves from the misery of riches ! [He goes out.~] VOICES They are coming this way! Aryaka and the soldiers are coming this way! Let us go and see them. All run out, leaving charadutta alone with vasan- tasena and MAITREYA. [212] THE TOY CART CHARADUTTA Shall we follow these children? They go to see a new thing, having forgotten the thing now past. But here is a man and woman who have seen death, each for the sake of the other; and only by life can death be forgotten. When we find Aryaka we will bid him to our marriage-feast. *& v vasantasena [kissing his hand} My lord! CURTAIN [213] I MVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. LOS ANGELES THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY This book is DUE on the last date stamped below JUN 1 1950 PR 3 - 5527 Coo Cesare Borgia. 5527 C33 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 000 376 437 o