 | Cyrano de Bergerac: A Play in Five Acts |  |
Scene VIII.
Roxane, Christian. In the distance cadets coming and going. Carbon and De Guiche give orders.ROXANE
(running up to Christian)
Ah, Christian, at last!. . .
CHRISTIAN
(taking her hands)
Now tell me why-- Why, by these fearful paths so perilous-- Across these ranks of ribald soldiery, You have come?
ROXANE
Love, your letters brought me here!
What say you?
ROXANE
'Tis your fault if I ran risks! Your letters turned my head! Ah! all this month, How many!--and the last one ever bettered The one that went before!
CHRISTIAN
What!--for a few Inconsequent love-letters!
ROXANE
Hold your peace! Ah! you cannot conceive it! Ever since That night, when, in a voice all new to me, Under my window you revealed your soul-- Ah! ever since I have adored you! Now Your letters all this whole month long!--meseemed As if I heard that voice so tender, true, Sheltering, close! Thy fault, I say! It drew me, The voice o' th' night! Oh! wise Penelope Would ne'er have stayed to broider on her hearthstone, If her Ulysses could have writ such letters! But would have cast away her silken bobbins, And fled to join him, mad for love as Helen!
CHRISTIAN
But. . .
ROXANE
I read, read again--grew faint for love; I was thine utterly. Each separate page
CHRISTIAN
A love sincere! Can that be felt, Roxane!
ROXANE
Ay, that it can!
CHRISTIAN
You come. . .?
ROXANE
O, Christian, my true lord, I come-- (Were I to throw myself, here, at your knees, You would raise me--but 'tis my soul I lay At your feet--you can raise it nevermore!) --I come to crave your pardon. (Ay, 'tis time To sue for pardon, now that death may come!) For the insult done to you when, frivolous, At first I loved you only for your face!
CHRISTIAN
(horror-stricken)
Roxane!
ROXANE
And later, love--less frivolous-- Like a bird that spreads its wings, but can not fly-- Arrested by your beauty, by your soul Drawn close--I loved for both at once!
And now?
ROXANE
Ah! you yourself have triumphed o'er yourself, And now, I love you only for your soul!
CHRISTIAN
(stepping backward)
Roxane!
ROXANE
Be happy. To be loved for beauty-- A poor disguise that time so soon wears threadbare-- Must be to noble souls--to souls aspiring-- A torture. Your dear thoughts have now effaced That beauty that so won me at the outset. Now I see clearer--and I no more see it!
CHRISTIAN
Oh!. . .
ROXANE
You are doubtful of such victory?
CHRISTIAN
(pained)
Roxane!
ROXANE
I see you cannot yet believe it. Such love. . .?
CHRISTIAN
I do not ask such love as that! I would be loved more simply; for. . .
For that Which they have all in turns loved in thee?-- Shame! Oh! be loved henceforth in a better way!
CHRISTIAN
No! the first love was best!
ROXANE
Ah! how you err! 'Tis now that I love best--love well! 'Tis that Which is thy true self, see!--that I adore! Were your brilliance dimmed. . .
CHRISTIAN
Hush!
ROXANE
I should love still! Ay, if your beauty should to-day depart. . .
CHRISTIAN
Say not so!
ROXANE
Ay, I say it!
CHRISTIAN
Ugly? How?
ROXANE
Ugly! I swear I'd love you still!
CHRISTIAN
My God!
ROXANE
Are you content at last?
(in a choked voice)
Ay!. . .
ROXANE
What is wrong?
CHRISTIAN
(gently pushing her away)
Nothing. . .I have two words to say:--one second. . .
ROXANE
But?. . .
CHRISTIAN
(pointing to the cadets)
Those poor fellows, shortly doomed to death,-- My love deprives them of the sight of you Go,--speak to them--smile on them ere they die!
ROXANE
(deeply affected)
Dear Christian!. . .
(She goes up to the cadets, who respectfully crowd round her.)
| Cyrano de Bergerac: A Play in Five Acts | |