 | The Duchess de la Vallière |  |
SCENE I.
An Ante-Chamber in the Palace of Madame la Duchesse de la Vallière at Versailles.Enter Lauzun and Madame de Montespan, at opposite doors.
LAUZUN.
Ha! my fair friend, well met!—how fares Athenè?
MADAME DE MONTESPAN.
Weary with too much gaiety! Now, tell me,
Do you ne'er tire of splendor? Does this round
Of gaudy pomps—this glare of glitt'ring nothings—
Does it ne'er pall upon you? To my eyes
'Tis as the earth would be if turfed with scarlet,
Without one spot of green.
LAUZUN.
We all feel thus
Until we are used to it. Art has grown my nature,
68
I cry ‘how artificial!’ With me, ‘Nature’
Is ‘Paris and Versailles.’ The word, ‘a man,’
Means something noble, that one sees at court.
Woman's the thing Heaven made for wearing trinkets
And talking scandal. That's my state of nature!
You'll like it soon; you have that temper which
Makes courts its element.
MADAME DE MONTESPAN.
And how?—define, Sir.
LAUZUN.
First, then—but shall I not offend?
MADAME DE MONTESPAN.
Be candid.
I'd know my faults, to make them look like virtues.
LAUZUN.
First, then, Athenè, you've an outward frankness.
Deceit in you looks honester than truth.
Thoughts, at a court, like faces on the stage,
Require some rouge. You rouge your thoughts so well
That one would deem their only fault, that nature
Gave them too bright a bloom!
69
Proceed!
LAUZUN.
Your wit,
Is of the true court breed—it plays with nothings;
Just bright enough to warm, but never burn—
Excites the dull, but ne'er offends the vain.
You have much energy; it looks like feeling!
Your cold ambition seems an easy impulse;
Your head most ably counterfeits the heart,
But never, like the heart, betrays itself!
Oh! you'll succeed at court!—you see I know you!
Not so this new-made Duchess—young La Vallière.
MADAME DE MONTESPAN.
The weak, fond, fool!
LAUZUN.
Yes, weak—she has a heart;
Yet you, too, love the King!
MADAME DE MONTESPAN.
And she does not!
She loves but Louis—I but love the King:
Pomp, riches, state, and power—these who would love not?
70
Bravo! well said!—Oh, you'll succeed at court!
I knew it well! it was for this I chose you—
Induced your sapient lord to waste no more
Your beauty in the shade—for this prepared
The Duchess to receive you to her bosom,
Her dearest friend; for this have duly fed
The King's ear with your praise, and cleared your way
To rule a sovereign and to share a throne.
MADAME DE MONTESPAN.
I know thou hast been my architect of power;
And, when the pile is built—
LAUZUN
(with a smile.)
Could still o'erthrow it,
If thou couldst play the ingrate!
MADAME DE MONTESPAN.
I!—nay!
LAUZUN.
Hear me!
Each must have need of each. Long live the King!
Still let his temples ache beneath the crown.
But all that kings can give—wealth, rank, and power—
Must be for us—the King's friend and his favourite.
71
But is it easy to supplant the Duchess?
All love La Vallière! Her meek nature shrinks
Ev'n from our homage; and she wears her state
As if she pray'd the world to pardon greatness.
LAUZUN.
And thus destroys herself! At court, Athenè,
Vice, to win followers, takes the front of virtue,
And looks the dull plebeian things called moral
To scorn, until they blush to be unlike her.
Why is De Lauzun not her friend? Why plotting
For a new rival? Why?—Because De Lauzun
Wins not the power he looked for from her friendship!
She keeps not old friends!—and she makes no new ones!
For who would be a friend to one who deems it
A crime to ask his Majesty a favour?
‘Friends’ is a phrase at Court that means Promotion!
MADAME DE MONTESPAN.
Her folly, I confess, would not be mine.
But, grant her faults—the King still loves the Duchess!
72
Since none are by, I'll venture on a treason,
And say, the King's a man!—and men will change!
I have his ear, and you shall win his eye.
'Gainst a new face, and an experienced courtier,
What chance hath this poor, loving, simple woman?
Besides, she has too much conscience for a king!
He likes not to look up, and feel how low,
Ev'n on the throne that overlooks the world,
His royal greatness dwarfs beside that heart
That never stooped to sin, save when it loved him!
MADAME DE MONTESPAN.
You're eloquent, my Lord!
LAUZUN.
Ah! of such natures
You and I know but little!— (Aside.)
This must cease,
Or I shall all disclose my real aims!
(Aloud.)
The King is with the Duchess?
MADAME DE MONTESPAN.
Yes!
LAUZUN.
As yet
She doth suspect you not?
73
Suspect!—the puppet!
No; but full oft, her head upon my bosom,
Calls me her truest friend!—invites me ever
To amuse the King with my enlivening sallies,—
And still breaks off, in sighing o'er the past,
To wish her spirit were as blithe as mine,
And fears her Louis wearies of her sadness!
LAUZUN.
So, the plot ripens!—ere the King came hither,
I had prepared his royal pride to chafe
At that sad face, whose honest sorrow wears
Reproach unconsciously! You'll learn the issue!
Now, then, farewell!—we understand each other!
[Exit Lauzun.
MADAME DE MONTESPAN.
And once I loved this man!—and still might love him,
But that I love ambition! Yes, my steps
Now need a guide; but once upon the height,
And I will have no partner! Thou, lord Duke,
With all thine insolent air of proud protection,
Thou shalt wait trembling on my nod, and bind
Thy fortune to my wheels! O man!—vain man!
Well sung the poet,—when this power of beauty
74
Which makes the world a slave! And I will wield it!
[Exit Madame de Montespan.
| The Duchess de la Vallière | |