  Scene: A forest glade On the left, a green bank and a pool, back of which is a thicket; on the right, a vista, beneath boughs, of a distant volcano, rising through the wet light of dawn. EGIL’S VOICE [Outside.] Help—O! help—O! SHRILL VOICES [Outside.] A troll! a troll! a troll! [Enter, right, Egil, running. He is completely surrounded and swarmed over by little children in bright spring garb. One little girl has climbed upon his shoulder, where she clings.] THE CHILDREN Heigh! hold him fast. Troll! troll! EGIL Help, gentle greenwood! Am I but now escaped men’s prison walls To fall into this ambush of thine elves! Save me, you wrens and warblers! Fetch me wings! THE CHILDREN [Taking hands, dance about him, singing.] Thrice, thrice, Thrice around thee! Star-wise Our steps surround thee; Now yield thee, yield thee, proud Sir Troll! Body and soul Our spells have bound thee. EGIL Thrice, thrice, Thrice around me! Star-wise Your steps surround me. Now yield I me and pay my toll— Body and soul As ye have bound me. [He lies down, pretending death; each child places his foot upon him, with a shout. At this he springs up, laughing, seizes a little boy and girl, and, seating himself on a log, places them on his knees. The others cluster about him.] Ha, sirrah! is this maid thy sister? THE LITTLE BOY Yes, She’s mine. EGIL What wouldst thou do if I should steal her? THE LITTLE BOY I’d kill you. EGIL Ha! wouldst let him? THE LITTLE GIRL Oh, of course; He is my brother. EGIL ’Tis a brother’s right To kill, I see. THE LITTLE GIRL In play, you know. EGIL In play. THE CHILDREN Come play! Come play! EGIL What now? THE CHILDREN [Severally.] Fox and wild geese! Glass-mountain, Spinning-fairy, Cat-skin, Crows, Frog-bridegroom! THE LITTLE GIRL I know what! EGIL [Takes both her hands, smiling.] Well, what? THE LITTLE GIRL I’ll be Red Riding-hood, and you shall be the wolf. [Egil drops her hands and rises.] THE LITTLE BOY I’m the good hunter and these are my men. EGIL [Vassal-like to the little boy.] Beseech you, sir, may I not play your part? I’d fain be the good hunter. THE LITTLE BOY Granted, earl. I’d fainer be the wolf. [To the children.] Come! gather your flowers. EGIL And when you’ve filled your laps and aprons up With wind-flowers and arbutus, bring them here. Mind! ’tis our lady Thordis’ wedding-day. THE CHILDREN [Running from the little boy.] The wolf! the wolf! [Passing left into the wood, they are seen for some time gathering flowers and watching, in their game, the stealthy approachments of the little boy.] EGIL O freedom! happy world! [Where he lies thus rapt in the sylvan landscape, the first sunlight breaks through the wood, and by it the Shadow of a man is thrown sharply, from the left, across the reclining form of Egil. At the same time, from the right, is heard Arfi’s voice, singing.] THE VOICE OF ARFI Thy heart, love, give or take Or cast away; Mine shall not break Forever and a day; For lovers kiss their mates where thoughts are kind. Love lives within the mind—the mind—the mind. [Slowly having risen to his feet, Egil perceives the human shadow and starts.] EGIL Yorul! [The shadow recedes, left, from the scene.] Yorul, stay! Come back! THE VOICE OF ARFI The redstart and the rose, The clear sunrise, What mortal knows Their grace to immortalise? Seek them again, where Death can never find, By love, within the mind—the enamour’d mind. EGIL It must not be.—Yorul!—What, I Was mad, who now am sane and innocent. Come back! It shall not—Yorul! THORDIS [Calls outside.] Egil! EGIL [Pausing.] She! [Enter, right, Thordis and Arfi. They are dressed in white, the dwarf being quaintly garlanded. They are followed by Wuldor. Thordis goes gaily toward Egil, extending both her hands.] THORDIS Deserter! runagate!—Look, Arfi, here’s Our truant brought to bay. And will not yield! And will not even surrender up his eyes To his imploring gaolers.—O proud brother! Not even a hand-clasp in return for all Thy struck-off shackles? [Taking her hands, he still looks off left.] EGIL Lady! THORDIS Still no eyes For mortals? Quite enamoured of a wood-sprite? Alas! we’ve broke a tryst and she has flown! Call her: perchance she’ll hear. EGIL [Looking upon Thordis.] Lady!— [Quickly then turning away, speaks under his breath to Wuldor.] A word, A word! ARFI He’s deeply moved. THORDIS He’s deeply changed. Saw you his eyes when they turned full on me, And he said, “Lady”? There were tears in them, Tears, and yet through them glowed the ancient fire, Not now in wrath, but tenderness. EGIL [Aside to Wuldor.] Overtake him; The oath he swore to Egil—tell him—Egil Now countermands. Bid him do nothing; go! [Watches Wuldor off, left. Arfi, quietly looking at him, speaks to Thordis.] ARFI You love him dearly? THORDIS Very dearly. EGIL Brother, Thordis, your hands again! ARFI [Smiling.] Have you despatched Wuldor to find the lady wood-sprite? EGIL Friends, Were we less deeply known to one another, And chiefly I to you—what thing I was, What now, perchance, am grown—well, I suppose ’Twere custom, were it not? to wreathe our lips With honey-blossoms of superfluous Congratulation: you are to be wed, And I am free, and my emancipation Owes all itself to you.—“Heaven be with you!” “I thank you well,” “Joy is to me!”—But these Things being said, and rung with all the chimes Of truth, I beg of you let now these hands Speak the unsaid remainder for our hearts In silence. [The three hold hands.] ARFI [After a pause.] Vaster powers than we have wrought This friendship. Whom the gods join hand in hand Their fates thenceforth are mingled. THORDIS [Loosening her hands with a laugh.] So, dear lord, Be merry! ARFI [Speaks low, with a smile.] Have I not divinest reason? This is the place. THORDIS Arfi! The sacred pool? ARFI The pool of Freyja—there! The wood-folk call it Her mirror, for they say that once i’ the year, Ever at May-day, the fresh goddess comes To sit beside it with her elves, whilst they Comb her bright hair. THORDIS And then she peers within it? ARFI As you do now.—Sweetest, good-bye! THORDIS Good-bye? But where are you going? ARFI The wood pathway to heaven. I’m going to hasten that laggard priest, your father, To make him make you mine. EGIL Stop! You’re alone. ARFI Well? EGIL [Embarrassed.] Will it be now? ARFI Am I not written large With bridal runes? Hang not these garlands thick As invocations from an inn-house gable? “Here light ye down, fair guests! Light down, light down, Dear lady, at the sign of the ‘Green Bridegroom!’”— Farewell, sweetheart. This day is clothed in green For joy. I will return with Ingimund As swift as longing. EGIL Stay; we must be wise. You must not leave me here alone with her. ARFI Why? Are you not my brother? EGIL I am he Who vowed against you hatred and revenge. ARFI Also you are my brother. EGIL I am he That with a brutish fang struck at your life. ARFI Good-bye, dear brother. EGIL Wait! Was I not then Your brother—then? Will not a brother lust? A brother covet? Are not beauty, grace, Lures to a brother’s eyes? Are brothers’ souls By nature kin? Or is that name a spell To render heart and mind innocuous That else might murder, ravish? Oh, be not So rash as put your trust in me because I am your brother. ARFI [Returning to Egil, embraces him.] Lad, keep this with you. I would not be so rash as not to trust In you a power more august than yourself For all the joy and honour which this day Holds out to me.—Adieu! This day is joy’s. [Exit, right.] EGIL Now we’re alone. How is it with you—sister? THORDIS Strangely, my brother; how is it with you? EGIL O God! How many waking dawns and desperate nights Have I, in sharp imagination, moaned For this sweet hour, to stand—as now I stand—alone with you, in liberty. THORDIS And now that time has come. [She reaches to him her hand; he does not take it.] EGIL Now it is come, But ah! how sternly different is this truth From all I dreamed. Can this be freedom? See! What hangs upon these arms? They wear no chains. Why, then, do they not catch you breathless up And bear you hence in rapture? In your eyes— Lo! veilless I behold your virgin soul! And yet she does not fly, nor I pursue. THORDIS What should she fear? EGIL What should she not?—These eyes Renouncing hers; these hands that dare not press Her vesture’s hem, lest they consume like coals That robÈd sanctuary; these desires That burn around her like the hedge of flames Round Brunhild’s bower; this waiting dawn, this hush And solitary wood—What fear? Herself, Herself that, all resolved to beauty, breathes Herself unto these eyes, these hands, this dawn, These leash’d desires! THORDIS You love me, you would say. Why should you not? EGIL I have renounced you. THORDIS Me, But not your love for me. Surely that still Is happiness. EGIL Why, yes, I must be happy; For this is pain, and pain is very sweet To those who love; and this is bitter sweet To breathe the name of “sister” ’gainst your cheek Where but so late the sigh of “sweetheart” stole Warm from my brother’s lips.—O lure and vision! Do you not see? I have climbed up to you Out of the rank abyss; this is the verge: One word, one look, from you must hurl me back, Or save me. THORDIS Look. EGIL How have you dared to trust me? THORDIS When have we ever ceased to trust you? EGIL “We”? THORDIS Arfi and I. Oh, he is very wise. His judgment is as gracious as a child’s That in the wonderland of its own wisdom Imagines nothing baser than itself. EGIL But I am baser. THORDIS Hath it proved so? EGIL [After a pause.] No! No; thanks to you and him and my own pain, It shall not prove so. This at last is power And innocence; this—this at last is freedom. Now when I clasp your hand I clasp his also— My saviour’s; now beneath your face, for shrine, I will confess my spirit to you both, For are you not my gods? You have created My heaven and hell, and builded my path heavenward. Now from your eyes nothing—nothing within This heart shall be concealed. THORDIS [Smiling.] What then is your secret? [On the edge of the scene, left, unobserved by them, reappears the human Shadow.] EGIL [Slowly rises.] My secret? THORDIS Come, sit with me on this bank, And I will be a listening stream, a bird, An opening flower, to overhear you. [He follows and sits beside her; the Shadow slowly moves toward them.] EGIL But— THORDIS That thought which falters now behind your lips. EGIL I have no thought which hides from you. [The Shadow moves between them. Egil starts up with a cry.] Again! Again it falls upon me! THORDIS What? EGIL ’Tis gone. THORDIS What’s gone? EGIL It is no matter. THORDIS A surprise! I see: a wedding-day surprise for us. EGIL No, but a lie. I lied to you. Last night I told you I renounced you, but I lied. THORDIS Egil! EGIL It was the music, the harp-demon; It blinded and then tempted me; it lured me To obtain my freedom falsely. But to-day, This morning when my body fetterless Roamed in this wood-side, and the little children Climbed over me in laughter, and I too Laughed with them, and all nature laughed and echoed “Thou art emancipated!”—I was healed; Then I was healed and now all’s well again; All’s well; no harm shall come to him. THORDIS To whom? I do not understand. EGIL You have no need; I claim your own assurance. Will you trust me? THORDIS So well that, now you have put your secret by, I will tell mine. EGIL What secret can you have For me? THORDIS You have been wicked; so perhaps Have I. EGIL [Smiling.] You! THORDIS [Showing her hand.] Look! look there. EGIL A scar. THORDIS The mark Of fangs. EGIL What thing has dared to give you pain? THORDIS Have you forgot? EGIL Ah me! I had forgot. Cannot you, too, forget? THORDIS I would not; that’s My secret. Yes, this scar is dear to me. EGIL That sign of blasphemy, of him—the werewolf— THORDIS Is dear to me. EGIL Thordis! THORDIS I loved the wolf. It was a life to nourish and protect, A being alien and mysterious, Yearning and captive. It was terrible, And yet so eager, swift, and passionate It fascinated me. It was ignoble, Cruel, yet infinite of promise; cunning, Malicious, yet beautifully animate, Sublimely animal. EGIL O pain! THORDIS To take it Into my bosom, foster its wild growth From hour to hour, to watch from day to day The fierce light of its eyes glow deeper, milder, To nestle it only to set it free—these joys Were pangs to me. EGIL [Low.] Have pity! THORDIS Then it was So lordly, so imperious of strength, EGIL Cease! It wrought some monstrous spell to make you wanton. THORDIS If that be wantonness which fain would take No joy of loving but the giving joy. EGIL But for that beast you turned your thoughts from Arfi? THORDIS You do not understand; Arfi and I Are one; it needs no murmu
red wedding vows To make us that. But I am beautiful, And all who look upon me love to press Nearer and touch my gown, and when I pass I feel the ruddy mantling of their cheeks And the wild admiration start; and these Are joys to Arfi as to me, and we Return their love. EGIL Even so you loved me? THORDIS No, More than all those, for you alone of those Had need of me.—And so you have my secret. I fear indeed it is a wicked one; EGIL For what then have I grown, O gods? THORDIS For this: To be yourself, and free of that nurse-bondage. EGIL Free! but alone, adrift! Oh, take me back Into the bosom of your care. Once more Nestle me there, the wild thing! THORDIS That once more So you might struggle for your freedom? Nay, The wild thing now is dead. [Enter Wuldor, left; he goes to Egil.] WULDOR I cannot speak With him. When I approached, he fled from me, Silent. I called, but both his hands he pressed Over his ears, and silently among The trees eluded me. EGIL [Seizing Wuldor’s wrists, speaks huskily.] I have not willed this; They cannot lay this crime on me—these gods, THORDIS You are ill, Your gestures—they are wild. EGIL Why should they not be? The wild thing is not dead, but is exalted. Gods, why should we, your hinds, coin and devise Dreams of emancipation! We are quibblers And hypocrites, damned, every slave of us, To hug our chains in secret. Rather than Acknowledge what we are, the mind outwits The heart, the heart hoodwinks the mind, the tongue Cajoles and counterplots them both, while truth— [Breaks into laughter.] THORDIS Tell me the truth. EGIL Again? Another version? Why, listen then: I love you; not in the awful, Serene idea of self-sacrifice, But passion, which of right demands return THORDIS What of your brother? EGIL I ask you nothing which he does not ask. He offers nothing which I do not offer. There was a difference between us once, Not now. THORDIS Hath he not made you what you are? EGIL Yes, he and you. THORDIS And in requital now You would seduce his bride? EGIL No, not seduce; Demand. Yes, though I seem to rave, I speak Love and conviction. Judge me, dear my lady. You chose between us brothers when we were Contrasted in our souls as some meek bard Of pity, with a beast. Look on us now Again, before it be too late, and choose Between us now. THORDIS I have chosen once for all. EGIL But have you chosen blindly? [Points into the wood.] Do you see, By yonder pine, that wild crab-apple tree? THORDIS I see a tree just bursting into flower. EGIL Is not it beautiful? THORDIS ’Tis ravishing. EGIL Last winter, had you passed, you might have seen it Writhing its frozen limbs there like a thing Accurst, all pinched and scrambled by the pangs Of screaming winds; you would have shrunk from it Beneath the verdurous pine, in whose sad boughs The same winds sung like voices of tuned lyres. THORDIS It may be so. EGIL Yet now behold it, now! A pale-rose pyre of fragrance and of flame, Wherein, like sacrificial spirits, sit The tawny and vermilion birds, and strike Their silvery chants in unison, and hung Amid the tangled bloom, in murmurous choirs, The blazing gold bees shrill their mellow horns. THORDIS [Gazing at him.] Ah me! EGIL If spring— If spring and the sweet south can so transform, What cannot love? Your warmth, your breath, your soul, Soft on my numbness, my deformity, Breathed, and I sprung—a burning tree of bloom— Beside you. Have you eyes for flights unseen? Hearing for choirs unheard? Here, too, beside you Fierce swarms of golden fancies work in song The fecund pollen of my passion, here A thousand bird-wing’d visions nest them down |
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