Читать книгу The Saxons - Edwin Davies Schoonmaker - Страница 8

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SCENE ONE—A forest on the mountain tops, the great trees glooming with the shadows of nightfall. In the distance, between the dark boles, patches of sky with the fading light of evening. The scene slopes down into a clump of tangle-wood on the left. Up the slope, upon a stump that stands out from among the trees, Selma is sitting with her head bowed, her face almost hidden by her hair which has fallen forward across her shoulders. She is dressed in dappled fawn-skin. In her hand she has a spray of dog-wood blossoms from which she is thoughtlessly tearing the leaves. From the thicket below, three fairies steal in one after another, having in their hands wild-flowers and ferns.

TIME—Early spring, three years later.

First Fairy— (Running a little way up the slope and stopping.) Sister, see! (Holding forth her flowers.) Kingcups!

Second Fairy—(Running closer.) Sister, see, I bring The laced fern.

Third Fairy—(Running still closer.) See, see! Violets, sister! I found them waking in an open place Where the dew falls. (Together they approach the stump.)

Second Fairy—(Softly.) Sister!

Third Fairy— Flowers, sister.

(The first stoops down and looks up into Selma's face. The others whisper together. From the thicket below, two other fairies enter.)

Fourth Fairy—(Stopping.) Hark, how it tinkles!

Fifth Fairy—It's the dew falling. (They hurry up the slope.)

First Fairy—(Rising quickly.) Her eyes are wet!

Second and Third—(To fourth and fifth.) Her eyes are wet!

Fourth Fairy— Sister,

Anemones are opening in the wind.

Fifth Fairy—And every pink is jeweled in the fells.

First Fairy—And here are buttercups.

Third Fairy— And violets.

Second Fairy— (Stooping.) See, sister, here I bring the first frilled fern. I found it where the dashing water-fall Sprayed it. It was uncurling near a rock.

Selma— (Without looking up.) I do not like you, for you will not tell.

(The fairies start and exchange glances.)

First Fairy—Oh, see the dew-globes break upon the moss!

(She runs back a little way among the trees. The others follow her and they talk among themselves.)

Second Fairy—Where is he now?

Third Fairy— He is making his way

To his cold dark cell in the cold dark house

Where the lizards dart and the crickets call.

First Fairy—I heard the grind of his wooden shoe

On the mountain road; but she must not know.

Fourth Fairy—We stood in the pines and we saw him pass,

A thin white shadow she would not know.

Fifth Fairy—And, sisters, he turned his face to the stars

And we heard him sigh.

Fourth Fairy— And we heard him sigh.

Third Fairy—It must be, it must be, for he cannot see.

First Fairy—He cannot see till he sees no more.

Selma— (As before.) You said he would come when the dog-wood bloomed.

Second Fairy—Oh, see them!

Third Fairy— See the fairies!

(They all look up the slope.)

First Fairy— Round they go,

In their ringlets whirling, whirling.

Fourth Fairy—At every sparkle racing through the wood,

From crottle, kingcup, and green maiden-hair

In dainty gowpens fetch the dewy globes

And slide them down the sagging gossamers

To light them in the dance.

(They glance toward the stump. Seeing that they have not succeeded in attracting Selma's attention, they take hands and circle toward her singing.)

Hark the bracken rustle, sister. Other elves are awaking, peeping, While the cowslip buds are weeping On the downs and in the dells. Trip it softly, softly, sister, Lest the stock-dove, lightly sleeping, Wake and hear our fairy bells.

(After circling round the stump and seeking in every way to induce her to join them, one of them tries gently to take the spray of dog-wood blossoms from her hand.)

Selma—(Calling aloud.) Father!

First Fairy—Oh, smell the wood pinks! They are waking now.

Second Fairy—The bees are stirring in the gum.

Third Fairy— O sisters,

I know a brake where the brown quails sleep.

Let's tip the leaves and let the star-light on them.

(Four of them run up the slope one after another and each in turn as she disappears among the trees glances back and calls to Selma.)

First Fairy—Sister!

Second Fairy— Sister!

Third Fairy— Sister!

Fourth Fairy— Sister!

(The fifth fairy stands for a time looking after the others, then comes to the stump and sits down at Selma's feet.)

Fifth Fairy— Sister,

If you will come and play, I'll show you slim

Young heath-bells in the dingle. Won't you, if

We take you where may-apples grow and pinks

Bend with their fairy mirrors on the moss?

Voice— (From the thicket below.) O sister!

(The fairy starts up and skips down the slope.)

Selma— (Without looking up.) Three times it has bloomed and he does not come.

Sixth Fairy— (Entering hurriedly from the thicket.) We were floating along on the river mist And saw them creep up the mountain side—

Seventh Fairy— (Entering.) And heard them plotting and heard them say: "We will throw him down, we will throw him down."

Sixth Fairy—We called in his ear, but he did not hear,

(The seventh starts up the slope toward Selma.)

Fifth Fairy—Oh, do not tell her! Oh, do not tell!

Seventh Fairy—They will throw him down! They will throw him down!

Fifth Fairy—Oh, catch him with delicate hands as he falls

Into the mist and—

Sixth Fairy— Save him!

Seventh Fairy— Save him!

Fifth Fairy—And I will run to the mountain cave.

(The two fairies hasten out through the thicket, the fifth disappears back among the trees, left. Singing is heard up the slope. A moment later, a number of fairies circle in with green boughs in their hands.)

On the downs and in the dells. Trip it softly, softly, sister, Lest the stock-dove, lightly sleeping, Wake and hear our fairy bells.

First Fairy—Oh, something black tumbled into the mist!

Second Fairy—And something bright—what was it, sister?

First Fairy—A star, I think; it glanced and fell.

Third Fairy—Sister, it flashed like a silver cross.

Fourth Fairy—And plopped into the brook. Did you see the ripples

Glitter in the moon?

Second Fairy— O sisters, see!

The will-o'-the-wisps rush down the valley fogs,

Their white veils trailing round the tall dark crags.

(They hurry down the mountain. Selma, startled, gets off the stump and runs a little way back in the wood and, stopping, looks after them.)

Voice of Canzler— (Up the slope.) Where are you, child? (He enters.) Why do you stand out here In darkness?

Selma—They have gone away again.

Canzler— (Who waits till she comes near him.) Do not ask anything to stay, my child. Where the leaf goes the tree goes, and the rocks Flow away with the waters to the sea. (They go up the slope together.)

Selma—He does not come and they will not tell.

(She stops and looks back.)

Canzler—Let us go home and watch the stars come out

Above the mountains where Val-father lives.

Perhaps the Norns will spin us a white thread.

(They go out, Selma looking back.)

SCENE TWO—A mountain cavern with jutting ledges of rock. From the bones that lie about, one would imagine it to be a den to which wild beasts drag and devour their prey. To the right, a vine, growing out of the crevice in the rear wall, shows by its leaves becoming a darker green as it spreads to the right that the entrance is in that direction and near by. Bowlders, evidently used for seats, lie here and there, and in the rear, center, a smouldering fire throws their shadows about the floor and walls. Several willow baskets freshly woven hang on pegs driven into seams in the rocks. To the left, an old spinning wheel with a thread trailing from it, and near it, upon the floor, a quantity of black wool. Farther over in the corner, a couch of rushes and forest grass. From the ledge that projects out over it hang bunches of dry herbs. In the left wall, extending to the ceiling and barely wide enough to admit of one's passing through, is a cleft whence are heard at intervals the muffled sound of hammers far down in the earth.

To the right of the fire, Sigurd, the dwarf, is peeling osiers. He is barefooted. About his neck he wears a string of buckeyes. Beside him, upon the floor, lies a pile of white osiers newly peeled. Occasionally he takes the withes in his mouth and tears the bark off with his teeth. On the other side of the fire, reclining upon his elbow, the gnome Kilo is poking the coals with a stick.

Despite the red glow of the fire, the cave is quite dark.

Kilo—Love the monks, eh?

Voice—(To the left.) Kilo!

Kilo— Granny says you do.

Voice—Kilo!

Kilo—Hush! I'm tired.

Voice—Loki wants you. (After a pause.) Kilo!

Kilo— (To himself.) Call on; Kilo don't care. It's sweat and drudge And puff and hammer the livelong day At the blazing forge, and then all night The big black sledges swing and fall. I'm tired. You love the bells?

Voice— Kilo! You hear?

Kilo—

Dumb, are you, elf-brat? You squealed loud enough

The night that Granny found you on the moss

White as a hail-stone, thunder-whelped, and cold.

"Tweakle! tweakle!" Elf-cub, are you?

Voice— Kilo!

Kilo— (Out of temper.) Tell him I've gone with Granny.