University of Virginia Library

ACT III.

Scene, same as Acts I. and II.
Lutin discovered sitting, in deep dejection. Zayda is at his feet trying to arouse him. Ethais is lying insensible at entrance to bower, covered with a mantle.
Zay.
Come, Lutin, speak to me—for hours in vain
I've sought to wean thee from thine inner self;
I've sung in vain to thee—thou wilt not sing—

Lut.
I cannot sing.

Zay.
Or dance?

Lut.
I do not dance.

Zay.
Then let us float on yonder silver stream (they rise),

Or plunge headlong into its mossy depths,
And wander, hand in hand, from grot to grot;
Or, if thou wilt, I'll whirl thee through the air,
And light with thee on yon tall pinnacle.
Come, Lutin—take my hand, and we'll away!

Lut.
Don't be ridiculous! I do not fly!
You're very good—you mean it well, I know—
But I've no taste for such alarming joys.
I can't help thinking of my lost Darine,
She was so much too good for me, and now
I am so much too good for her!

Zay.
Alas!
Dost thou love her?

Lut.
I can't help loving her.

Zay.
Dismiss the worthless creature from thy thoughts.
I know her well—she don't deserve thy love!
She always was a very wicked girl.

Lut.
Wicked? The best of women!

Zay.
(maliciously).
So she seemed.

Lut.
She had her faults, I know.

Zay.
She hath a soul
In which hypocrisy, intemperance,
Hate, envy, vanity, untruthfulness
Run riot at their will!

Lut.
(astonished).
You don't say so?
I'd no idea of this— (weeping)


Zay.
As for her crimes—

Lut.
Tell me the worst at once!

Zay.
The worst? No, that
Would be too cruel—but—bigamy's the best!

Lut.
What! Bigamy! Has she two husbands, then?

Zay.
Two? Half a dozen!

Lut.
What!

Zay.
Why even now
She seeks to add a seventh to her list!
Sir Ethais—

Lut.
Ah, there I've thwarted her.
Enter Darine, who goes to Ethais. She overhears what follows.
I have a potion that will heal his wounds;
She begged it of me, but I cheated her,
And put into her hands a sleeping draught.
By this time he's as helpless as the dead,
And she may shout until she wakes the dead,
Before she wakes him!

(Darine comes forward. Exit Zayda, in terror.)
Dar.
(down).
Why, thou envious churl—
Thou wanton trifler with the purest fire
That ever burnt in love-sick woman's breast,
Why hast thou done this thing?

Lut.
She does not quail
Beneath her injured Lutin's outraged eye, (she goes up to Ethais)

But calmly asks him why he's done this thing!

Dar.
Say, is he dead? Come—answer quickly!

Lut.
Well,
He's dead to all intents and purposes.

Dar.
How has he injured thee?

Lut.
He hasn't as yet:
And I'll take care he don't!

Dar.
Oh, misery!
In half an hour my brothers will be here;
In half an hour he must return to earth!
(Referring to Ethais.)
Awake, insensate knight—arouse thee, dolt!
I—I, Darine, am waiting here for thee.
Dost thou not hear me? Ethais, awake!

Lut.
Oh—shout away!

Dar.
Oh! I will be revenged!
(To Lutin.)
I know not why thou wagest bitter war
Against my unoffending happiness;
But I will thwart thy schemes. Sir Phyllon comes!
[Enter Phyllon.
Come hither, Phyllon—come to me, fair knight!
Say, dost thou love me still?

Phy.
Indeed I do!

Dar.
(to Lutin).
Thou hearest him—he loves me! (To Phyll.)
Tenderly?

Phy.
Most tenderly! (Embracing her.)


Dar.
He loves most tenderly!
He is awake!

Lut.
Yes, much too wide awake!
Disreputable woman, let him be!
Unhand this lady!

Dar.
Why, thou selfish knave,
May I love nobody on earth but thee?

Lut.
Of course you may not!

Dar.
Go, sir, get thee gone?
There are fair maids enough awaiting thee;
I do not interfere 'twixt thee and them.

Lut.
Well no, to do you justice, you do not!
I do not want them. I'm a married man!
What married man cares twopence for intrigues
At which his wife connives?

Phy.
Is this thy wife?

Lut.
I blush to say she is!

Dar.
(amazed).
I am thy wife!
Oh, monstrous! Stay, there has been some mistake,
Some dreadful error! See I've found a clue!
No doubt I am her fairy prototype,
In face resembling her, but that is all.

Lut.
Then thou art not my wife?

Dar.
Not I, indeed!
(Lutin kisses her.)
I am a fairy. Be thou reassured;
Thy wife is on the earth (kisses her again)
—Give me the charm
To cure my Ethais, and sit thee down (he gives it to her),

And I will send for Zayda and Locrine,
And thou shall talk of love to both of them.

Lut.
Well no—upon the whole—I'd rather not.
(Darine administers the potion to Ethais, who gradually revives.)
I have reformed, Darine, and had I not,
I don't think I could talk to them of love
With all the eloquence the theme deserves,
In the distracting company of one,
Who, if she's not in point of fact my wife,
Is so uncomfortably like my wife,
That she may be my wife for aught I know;
And more than that, I can't stand tamely by
And notice with uninterested gaze
A lady, who's so very like my wife,
Hanging on everybody's neck but mine.
Don't send for Zayda—I'm a married man!

[Exit.
Dar.
He wakes! He lives—my own, own Ethais!

Eth.
(awaking).
Why—where am I? Have I then been asleep?

Dar.
Indeed thou hast! See, thou must soon return
To yonder earth—I've much to say to thee.

Eth.
But how came I to sleep? I recollect!
Thou gavest me a potion, and I— (sees Phyllon)
Ha! (Flies at his throat.)

So I'm a cur, Sir Liar, and my wound
Is but a scratch which I have magnified
That I might shun the terrors of thy sword!

Phy.
Hands off, thou drunken madman! Set me free.
I never said these things!

Eth.
Thou craven cur,
Dost thou then fear to reap before my face
The crop that thou hast sown behind my back?
Thy life shall pay for this!

Phy.
(contemptuously).
I am not wont
To weigh the words I speak to such as thou.
No need to taint thine honour with a lie.
Why, Ethais, the truth is black enough;
I know thee as a brawling tavern bully,
A hollow friend—a cruel unsparing foe—
A reckless perjurer—a reprobate—
The curse of woman and the scourge of man!
(Shaking him off.)
Is not the truth enough, that I should grudge
The one brute-virtue of thy satyr-soul—
The instinct courage of a hungry dog!

Eth.
(with suppressed fury).
I'll place these charges to the long account
That I've to settle when we go below!
(to Dar.)
Didst thou not tell me he had said these things?

Dar.
I did, indeed!

Phy.
And by what warrant, pray?

Dar.
It was an artifice to gain thy love. (To Ethais.)

Has man monopoly of lover's lies?
Forgive me, Phyllon—

Phy.
Bah! Release my hand,
Thou shameless woman—I have done with thee.

[Exit Phyl.
Dar.
Oh! Ethais, be not enraged with me—
Think of my love—

Eth.
The devil take thy love—
I'll none of it! Begone! See, hither comes
The woman that thy bitter lie hath wronged.
Hast thou the heart to stand before her?

Dar.
No!

[Exit.
Enter Selene from bower.
Sel.
Thou here? and with Darine!

Eth.
Stay, hear me out!
It's true I've trifled with thy love, but then
Thy love is not as mortal woman's love.
I did not know that it would move thee thus?

Sel.
Thou didst not know!
Art thou so dull that thou canst understand
No pain that is not wreaked upon thy frame?
Hast thou no knowledge of the form of woe
That comes of cheated hopes and trampled hearts?
To find thy love a lie, thy kiss a jest,
The byewords of thy love a mockery?
Oh, there are words
For other agonies, but none for this!

Eth.
Nay, hear me! I have wronged thee bitterly—
I will atone for all!

Sel.
Thou shalt atone;
I'll be the curse of thy remaining years!
Harkye, Sir Knight, I'll yield my fairyhood
That I may go to yonder earth, and join
The whispering sisterhood of hidden hate.
The busy band who bear within their lips
The deadliest weapon of earth's armoury:
A blighting tongue—a woman's blighting tongue!
I will so deftly wield this talisman
To twist and turn and torture good to ill,
That were it in thee to amend thy ways,
Turn anchorite, and yield to holy deeds
Of peace and prayer, goodwill and charity,
Thy holiness should seem an infamy,
Thy peace a war, thy charity a theft,
Thy calm a fury, and thy prayer a curse!

Eth.
Stay thine unholy tongue—go thou to earth,
And learn that that which thou hast undergone—
All women undergo.

Sel.
Am I as they?
I am immortal. Can a few brief years
Of bitter shame and bitter sorrow weigh
Against an immortality of woe?
A mortal's love is framed to last a life,
But my love to outlive eternity!
Blind mortal, as Eternity to Time—
So is my wrong to theirs!

Enter Locrine.
Loc.
Selene, see,
Through the far distant air, with rapid flight,
Our absent brothers wing their way to us;
[Enter Zayda and Lutin.
These mortals must return to their own earth!

Lut.
Now, by my head, but this is welcome news!

Zay.
(horrified).
Return to earth? No, Lutin; no, not yet.
Life without Lutin! what can that be worth?

Lut.
I cannot tell you, for I never tried.
[Enter Darine and Phyllon struggling.
Nay, seek not to detain me; I have had
Enough of fairy love—I seek my wife.

Phy.
Come, Ethais; to earth, to earth again!

Dar.
(releasing him).
Aye, go, and take thy fellow man with thee. (Lutin and Phyllon descend.)

We want but this to crown our misery!

(Ethais, about to follow him, is detained by Selene.)
Sel.
(suddenly).
No! no! Thou shalt not go, thou shalt not go!
My hope—my shattered hope; but still my hope!
My love—my blighted love; but still my love!
My life—my ruined life; but still my life!
Forgive me, Ethais: thou hast withdrawn
The very core and substance of thy love.
No matter! give me but the empty husk,
And it will stay the famine of my heart.
I'll work and toil for thee—I'll be thy slave,
Thine humble, silent, and submissive slave;
I'll come but at thy beck—I will not speak
But at thy word—my Ethais! my love!
(Furiously)
Nay, but I'll hold thee back! I have the strength
Of fifty women! See, thou canst not go! (with passionate triumph.)

Nay, but I'll wrest thy love away from thee,
And fetter it in bondage to my heart.
I will be one with thee; I'll cling to thee,
And thou shalt take me to that world of thine.

Eth.
Take thee to earth? I love the earth too well
To curse it with another termagant.
We have enough of them! Release me, fool!
Man hath no appetite for proffered love!
Away from me, I go to that good world
Where women are not devils till they die!

[Throws off Selene, who falls senseless. He leaps through cloud, and descends. As Ethais disappears, the fairies, who have grouped themselves about the stage in attitudes of despair, gradually seem to wake as from a dream.]
Sel.
Where am I? Zayda! Neodie! Darine!
Oh, sisters, I am waking from a dream—
A fearful dream—a dream of evil thoughts,
Of mortal passion and of mortal hate,
I thought that Ethais and Phyllon too
Had gone to mid-earth—

Zay.
Nay, it was no dream,
A sad and sorrowful reality!
Yes, we have suffered much—but, Heaven be praised,
These mortal souls have gone to their own earth,
And taken with them the bad influence
That spread like an infection through our ranks.
See! we are as we were! (Embracing her.)


Sel.
Darine! Darine!
My well-beloved sister—speak to me!

Dar.
I dare not speak to thee—I have no words—
I am ashamed.

Sel.
Oh, sister, let that shame
Sit heavily on all—for all have sinned.
Oh, let us lay this lesson to our hearts;
Let us achieve our work with humbled souls,
Free from the folly of self-righteousness.
Behold, is there so wide a gulf between
The humbled wretch who, being tempted, falls,
And that good man who rears an honoured head
Because temptation hath not come to him?
Shall we, from our enforced security,
Deal mercilessly with poor mortal man,
Who struggles, single-handed, to defend
The demon-leaguered fortress of his soul?
Shall we not rather (seeing how we fell)
Give double honour to the champion, who
Throughout his mortal peril, holds his own,
E'en though
His walls be somewhat battered in the fight?
Oh let us lay this lesson to our hearts!

Enter Lutin, followed by Ethais and Phyllon, as fairies.
Lut.
Your brothers have returned.

Sel.
(embracing Ethais).
My Ethais!

Eth.
Selene—sisters all—rejoice with us,
We bear the promise of a priceless gift,
A source of new and endless happiness! (All eager to know.)

Take every radiant blessing that adorns
Our happy land, and all will pale before
The lustre of this precious privilege.
It is—that we may love as mortals love!

Sel.
(eagerly).
No, no—not that—no Ethais—not that!
It is a deadly snare—beware of it!
Such love is for mankind, and not for us;
It is the very essence of the earth,
A mortal emblem, bringing in its train
The direst passions of its antitype.
No, Ethais—we will not have this love;
Let us glide through our immortality
Upon the placid lake of sister-love,
Nor tempt the angry billows of a sea,
Which, though it carry us to unknown lands,
Is so beset with rocks and hidden shoals,
That we may perish ere our vessel reach
The unsafe haven of its distant shore.
No, Ethais—we will not have this love!