Michael Strange

“ Dear Ursus, you were leaving your country and going to face old age among customs, languages, peoples, strange to you, and to save us from the talons of a pack of cards. [Pg 134]
Ursus
You and I are going now, Gwymplane.
Gwymplane
I think I have no more knack for wearing costumes and masks, and I could not ask human beings to accept me as I am, either inside or out. Any reality is like a row of knives and each minute drags me backward and forward across them.
[He seems to commune upon and decide something within himself. His voice breaks clearly over a long pause.] ”

“ Queen
Why are you so melancholy, Josephine? You are standing in the portals of joy—I confess they do not appear very much to intrigue you.
Duchess
Possibly I am melancholy because I am not curious.
Queen [sarcastically]
No, rocks could hardly be curious about [Pg 22] the waves or the wrecks washing against them. Come, Phedro.
[She goes. Prince bows after the Queen and then comes back to the Duchess.]
Prince
Beauty like yours is a penance for other women to regard. You are very like an exquisite temple in which there is no god. Yet I would not put a god in your temple. ”

“ Duchess
Nay, suspect no more mousetraps. Lead her there yourself; see that she is comfortable among the candles and flowers, then return to me for your own interest and for hers.
[Gwymplane leads Dea out door on left and returns.]
You have had a strange evening for a mountebank—an evening filled with such events as to strain almost any amount of discretion.
Gwymplane
I shall not talk.
Duchess
Not of ourselves, of course. No man, not even a clown, but draws a veil across his rejected flesh. ”

“ Gwymplane
Oh, my soul was not in all that.
Ursus
Most people perish from thinking like you. [earnestly] Somewhere in you is a blinding, transfigured face, struggling up out of the sprawled, coiling limbs of infinite pasts, yet put it in certain conditions and it retains its fearful stamp of former bestiality. But during death, death the last condition we follow, what a likeness unto God appears upon the features of the worst of us. ”

“ No human part of him can be seen, save his hands which are remarkably beautiful, sensitive and pallid. He moves them with extraordinary grace. He plays upon his flute an air from India. Suddenly upon the stage above him appears a Hindu girl. She executes a sinuous pantomimic dance of youth and desire. The figure playing upon the flute gradually turns his back to the audience and facing the dancer continues to play. Finally the dancer, noticing her admirer, commences to dance for him alone. The music becomes more breathless; the hooded figure plays a screaming tone upon his flute. ”

“ It is like brushing my face amongst sprays of silken flowers.
Duchess
Ah, do not talk beautifully to me, Gwymplane.
Gwymplane
But you are beauty! What other language would you understand?
Duchess
Do not talk to me beautifully, Gwymplane. Talk to me with the savage pulsating words of your clown language. Talk to me as if you held a whip in your hand. [She catches [Pg 92] at his hand] What marvellous hands you have! Deceitful hands—for they look unlike the things they do—the things they must do.
Gwymplane
[Sitting upon her couch and bending over her lips.] ”

“ Josephine attends her, dressed entirely in silver and wearing immense emeralds. Her hair is very formally powdered, and she wears a cherry-coloured cloak. A coloured slave in black moiré carries her train.]
Queen
I am not in a mood for laughing tonight. [She glances at Josephine.] At any rate it is always singularly depressing to go anywhere in order to laugh. And if this clown causes me even to smile he shall have some rare reward.
[Seats herself upon a raised dais. Courtiers group themselves around her. Most of the ladies have seats. Many of the gentlemen sit at their feet.] ”

“ Queen
Yes, yes, I go, Phedro. Oh, I would not have this if I thought it would deprive him of anything he really wanted, but he is ephemeral, aesthetic—in fact, he is a poet [Pg 61] and doesn't really care for people. It is only for what they can make him feel that he likes them. Ah, how fascinating it is in him to be like that!
[Phedro bows over her hand, and she goes out. Sound of Dea's singing comes very near the stage. Phedro hides behind some tall shrubbery. Dea steps out, tenderly sniffing the air.] ”

“ Ursus sits with his head on his arms, which are resting on Dea's coverlet. There is a faint shrill of sighing wind, with the voices of the sailors rising beneath it, and the ascending sun commences to throw red bars across the water. ”

“ To be so matchless as her Grace is as bad as being blind. It gives one nowhere to look. [Pg 42]
Prince
She is perfection outside; inside—I do not know. Where is that distorted fellow that bounded away from me in the darkness just before dinner?
Phedro
Oh—Gwymplane—he is probably off somewhere charming the birds awake with his flute.
Prince [in reverie]
Yes, Josephine is magnificent. Yet I think there is a strange grimace upon the face of her soul. I am longing to find out what is at the bottom of her smile. Ah, I shall be the first to bathe in her delights. It is a most invigorating thought. ”

“ Queen
There is no one that can overhear us? You have dismissed your servants?
Duchess
O, hours ago. [rather insolently] You may feel quite at your ease with me. [Pg 112]
Queen
You will forgive my poking about, Josephine? But you are so vague—all artistic and beautiful natures are vague—you might easily have forgotten that Piccolo is hanging about somewhere waiting to carry a last goodnight word to your impatient bridegroom. Why, there is a strange girl sitting at this very moment in your conservatory. Her face was somehow familiar. ”

“ Dea [looking around abstracted]
Your Grace, is there anyone else in this room?
Duchess
I don't think so.
[Gwymplane starts imperceptibly. The malicious Duchess, reading his thought, shuts the window and locks it. Gwymplane looks at her in terror.]
And what did you reply to your preposterous lover, little gipsy thief?
Dea
Madame!
Duchess
Unconscious, charming thief of affection that should tonight, if ever, have been faithful! So [half to herself] one can be jealous of a man without caring a rap for him! Well, it is something to have found out that vanity is the ruling passion. ”

“ I feel as if we were in a web. I marry with a clown—the clown a lord—the lord a deformity. [She shudders]
Gwymplane
O, I cannot stand this hellish whirl another [Pg 121] instant. It is biting my ankles off and blinding my eyes in a red sting of madness.
[He attempts to throw open the door. Phedro swiftly forestalls him with widespread arms and a grim expression; Gwymplane turns away bowed from his ferocity of pain and bewilderment, while Phedro, with an incredible, greased swiftness, lets himself out the door, and returns almost upon the instant with Dea terrified, supported on his arm.] ”

“ During the dance, the Hindu girl becomes more and more enamoured of her partner, who eludes and attacks her in a perfect frenzy of grace and passion. Finally she tries to unmask him or to pull off his cloak, without success. A chime is heard. The drummers play a strange, sinister march. An old man enters—the slave owner. He sees his slave in the arms of one whom she obviously loves, and rushes at the masked figure with his sword. ”

“ Indeed, indeed, Madame, your Majesty's brilliance blinds my eyes with humility.
[Enter Prince Charles, a slender, exotic-looking gentleman.]
Prince
Dear Cousin, how delicious you are looking—so royal and alert. [He bends over her hand.] Ah! [His vitality seems suddenly to leave him at the thought.] I have just been trying to lessen Josephine's habitual ennui by making her my victim at croquet.
Queen
[With a slight lounge into sentimentality.] ”

“ Phedro [looking intensely at the Queen]
When the thing that we have longed for comes true, it may sound like madness. I have every credential to prove my extraordinary announcement.
Queen
[Looking whimsically from one to another.]
Ah, let us suppose for a moment, Josephine, that this were true. Surely you would be happy in a marriage so fortified by natural selection, and, as for Charles—the loss of certain things might be replaced by others.
[She gazes at him tenderly.]
Duchess
[In a sudden outburst of confusion and ennui.] ”

“ Dea lies extended upon a low couch, beside the chair of Ursus. In the dim light her form possesses the eternal majesty of sculpture. From afar the voices of sailors chanting some sad litany of the sea. Ursus leans back in his chair, looking up into the face of departing night. Gwymplane paces in and out, anguished with unrest.]
Ursus [to Gwymplane, who hardly heeds him]
Nothing follows us. It never occurred to them that a man should want to escape good fortune. They never think to bolt the door when they have gilded the walls. ”

“ At this the green mask flings the girl away [Pg 50] from him, tears off his mask, throws open his coat and stands revealed before the slave owner, but with his back to the audience. The man is about to let fall his sword when he looks upon what he is about to kill. Gradually his jaw drops with amazement and he lets out a terrible yell of laughter. The slave girl who has stood watching him, now creeps round to see what is causing him so much mirth, and gazing up suddenly into the face of her partner utters a shriek of horror and runs from the stage. ”

“ Immediately a third slave, attired as a drummer, rushes out and catches his flute from the green masque, who jumps upon the stage, and seizing the dancer, savagely—gracefully, about her slim waist, dances with her, at once tenderly and primitively.]
Queen
What agility and strength the man has got. He has made me catch my breath already, which is far better than to laugh. [Pg 49]
Josephine
He dances like a demon over burning altars. ”

“ Mountebank, I think you have ruined and frustrated the life of a most important personage in our court.
Phedro
Hold, hold. A bat has not torn a lily as you suppose, your Majesty.
Queen
No? Then what has happened, Phedro? And do drop your metaphor. We are not wise enough so late to do it justice.
Phedro
Two stars have blundered together, that is all. Her Grace the Duchess of Beaumont and His Highness Prince Ian of Vaucluse. [Pg 119]
Prince
My brother? Here? But my brother is dead! Where can you have imagined to have seen my brother?
Phedro
[Approaches Gwymplane making him a low bow.] ”

“ Dea
I do not understand, but for what is love save to pass understanding? [She puts her arm through his] Come, let us go.
Duchess [with furious malice]
What a charming way of conducting life, little blind girl! When your lover is tired of pursuing his latest fancy and has been thrown out [almost stamping her foot] he will return and grow warm in the rays of your faith.
Dea
Gwymplane will not fancy anyone save me. [Pg 104] Ursus says so, and besides I know it—I could not live if I did not know it.
Duchess [laughing]
[Gwymplane steps menacingly towards her.] ”

“ The announcement that the clown Gwymplane is the Prince of Vaucluse I am satisfied is authentic. He is in consequence your fiancé.
Duchess [losing her wits in a temper]
You must be mad to suppose I should really marry with a mountebank, a deformity, no matter what he has been born.
Queen
Evidently you forget the position you enjoy entails implicit obedience.
[The Duchess is about to break out.]
Please don't be banal. I couldn't bear to hear you say that your life was slavery. Your life is merely idiotic. ”

“ A gentleman will hardly know where he is safe when the Duchess of Beaumont can allow such an occurrence.
Phedro
I am afraid I must make my exit from this troubled surface and scrutinize more silent things. [Pause. Half to himself] I wonder how a man looks who has slept well among the touch and glide of fishes.
A Lady
What sort of horrible, wriggly thing are you saying, Phedro?
Phedro
I am tasting my own cooking. It is delicious. However, enough public reverie. When the Duchess comes, announce her to the Queen in whatever manner fits your inclination. Take a good breath of bad manners. ”

“ Ursus
Well, what do you want of me? I am a philosopher and as such am not occupied with any sort of facts.
Phedro
I suppose not. You philosophers are blind men in dark rooms looking for the footprints of shadows, are you not?
Ursus [smiling]
Not at all. We philosophers have merely learned to practice humour in the presence of what is commonplace. But what is it you do want of me? [Pg 35]
Phedro
What everybody wants—to talk about Gwymplane. ”

“ No, I do not wish to be rude to you, but I beg of you to cease your gossip. My task was harder tonight than usual. I am perhaps overtired.
[He puts a hand to his head.]
Phedro
Come, are you not a man? Is not the admiration of— [Pg 68] —
Gwymplane
Do not talk to me of these things. Do not talk of these things, I beg of you. [with a suggestion of sob in his voice] I am not like other men.
[Unnoticed an equerry enters, and stands at Phedro's side with a large, scented and sealed envelope.]
Equerry
Your pardon, sirs.
Phedro
[Going swiftly over to the equerry, and in a low aside.] ”