Claude Debussy

“ Pelléas.
No, no, no; I have never seen hair like yours, Melisande... Look, look, look, it comes from so high and it inundates me to the very heart. It inundates me more, even to the knees... It is so soft, it is soft as if it fell from heaven! I no longer see the sky through your hair. You see. you see, my hands can no longer hold it. It even reaches to the branches of the willow. It lives as a bird in my hands, and it loves me, it loves me a thousand times more than you!
Melisande. ”

“ Golaud.
At once?... Oh, oh! I must tell her...—Melisande! Melisande!... Leave me alone, leave me alone with her!...
Arkel.
No, no; do not approach... Do not trouble her. Do not speak to her any more... You do not know what the soul is...
Golaud.
It is not my fault, it is not my fault!
Arkel.
Attention...attention... We must speak low.—Do not annoy her any more... The human soul is very silent... The human soul likes to go away alone... It suffers so timidly... But the sadness, Golaud... but the sadness of all one sees!... ”

“ In the Third Act Melisande is seen at a window of the tower arranging her long hair for the night. Pelléas enters the walk below and asks her for her hand to kiss before he goes away. She will not let him have it unless he promises to stay and, when he agrees, she leans so far out to let him reach it that her hair runs down over him in a flood and causes an ecstasy of love to bubble up. Both are so entranced that they give no heed to a menacing shadow in the darkness. It is Golaud. He comes upon them suddenly but treats their alliance as the play of children and leads Pelléas away. ”

“ Enter Genevieve and Melisande.
Melisande.
It is dark in the gardens. And what forests, what forests around the palaces!...
Genevieve.
Yes; it astonished me too when I came here, and it astonishes everybody. There are places where one never sees the sun. But one is soon used to it. It is a long time, it is a long time... It is nearly forty years that I live here...Look on the other side and you will have the light of the sea...
Melisande. ”

“ Pelléas.
My lips cannot reach your hand...
Melisande.
I cannot bend over farther... I am on the point of falling. Oh, oh, my hair descends from the tower!...
(Her hair suddenly revolutes, as she bends over thus, and covers Pelléas.)
Pelléas.
Oh, oh, what is it?... Your hair, your hair comes down toward me!... All your hair, Melisande, all your hair is fallen from the tower... I hold it in my hands, I hold it in my mouth... I hold it in my arms, and I put it around my neck. I shall not open my hands again to-night... ”

“ Pelléas.
Let us enter... You must be able to describe the place where you lost the ring, if he questions you. It is very large and very beautiful. It is full of blue darkness. When one lights a little lamp, it is as if the vault were covered with stars, like the heavens. Give me your hand, do not tremble, do not tremble so. There is no danger: we will stop at the moment when we longer see the light of the sea... Is it the noise of the grotto that frightens you? ”

“ Golaud.
So it is that which makes you weep, my poor Melisande?—Then it is only that.—You weep to have not seen the sky.—Come, you are no longer at the age when one weeps for these things... And then, is not summer here? You will see the sky every day. ”

“ Golaud.
A great innocence! They are bigger than innocence! They are purer than the eyes of a lamb... They would give God lessons in innocence.—A great innocence! Listen: I am so near that I feel the freshness of their lashes when they blink; and yet, I am less far from the great secrets of the other world than from the little secret of these eyes!... A great innocence!... More than innocence! One would think that the angels of heaven were there ceaselessly celebrating a baptism! I know them, these eyes! ”

“ Come here; why do you remain there without answering and without lifting your eyes?—I have kissed you thus far only once, the day you came; and yet, old men want to touch sometimes with their lips, the forehead of a woman or the cheek of a child, to still believe in the freshness of life and to put farther away the threat of death. Are you afraid of my old lips? How I pitied you these past months...
Melisande.
Grandfather. I was not unhappy...
Arkel.
Let me look at you, quite near, a moment...one has so much need of beauty by the side of death...
(Enter Golaud.)
Golaud. ”

“ Golaud.
Bring it. (to Arkel.) They have just found the body of a peasant, starved to death, on the seashore. One would think they all wanted to die under our eyes.— (to Melisande.) Well, my sword?—Why do you tremble thus?—I am not going to kill you. I simply wanted to examine the blade. I do not use a sword for these purposes. Why do you examine me like a pauper?—I do not come to beg of you. You hope to see something in my eyes without my seeing anything in yours? Do you think that I know anything? (to Arkel.) Do you see these big eyes? One would imagine they were proud to be rich... ”

“ I know that my mother will willingly forgive me. But I fear Arkel, spite of all his goodness, for I deceived, by this strange marriage, all his political projects, and I fear that the beauty of Mélisande will not excuse in his eyes, so wise, my folly. If, nevertheless, he consents to receive her as he would receive his own daughter, the third evening that follows this letter, light a lamp at the summit of the tower that looks on the sea. ”

“ He could not remain alone, and since the death of his wife he was sad in being alone; and this marriage was to put an end to long wars and to some ugly hatreds... He would not have it so: Let it be as he wishes. I have never put myself at cross purposes with a destiny: and he knows his future better than me. ”

“ At my age,—and there, perhaps, is the surest fruitage of my life,—at my age, I have acquired, I know not what faith in the truth of events, and I have always seen that every being, young and handsome, created about itself events that were young, handsome and happy... ”

“ It is heavier than all the world.—It is heavier than everything.
I see my golden ball between the rock and this naughty stone and I cannot reach it... My little arm is not long enough—and this stone will not be lifted—One would think it had roots in the earth...
(The bleating of sheep is heard in the distance.)
Oh, oh! I hear the sheep cry.—Hallo, there is no more sun!—They come, the little sheep; they come...what a lot...what a lot! They are afraid of the dark... They press together...they press together! They cry...and they go quickly!... ”

“ I cannot come nearer to you... I am leaning over as much as I can...
Pelléas.
I cannot mount any higher...give me at least your hand to-night...before I go away...I start to-morrow...
Melisande. ”

“ Genevieve, the mother of Golaud and Pelléas, reads a letter to Arkel in which Golaud writes to Pelléas that he has wedded the mysterious Melisande and if it is acceptable to the king a light should be placed on the highest tower at night so that it may be seen from his ship. If no light is there the ship will go on.
The third scene shows the castle. Melisande tells Genevieve how dark and gloomy the place is. The forest is so wild and old with trees that the sky is hidden. Pelléas comes to show the way to Melisande but she is timid of his aid. ”

“ I killed without reason. Is it not enough to make the stones weep?... They were embracing each other like little children... They were brother and sister... And I, I at once!... I did it in spite of myself, you see... ”

“ Nothing, nothing, my child.—I saw a wolf pass in the forest.—They embrace each other sometimes—No?
Yniold.
They embrace each other, little father?—No, no.—Ah, yes; once...once that it was raining... ”

“ I would sooner have lost all I have than to have lost this ring. You do not know what it is. You do not know whence it comes. The sea will be very high to-night. The sea will come to take it before you... You must hurry. ”

“ There, perhaps, happen no useless events...
Genevieve.
He has always been so prudent, so serious and so firm. Since the death of his wife he only lived for his son, the little Yniold. He has forgotten everything.—What shall we do? ”

“ Golaud says he values the ring above all earthly possessions. She must go to seek for it at once. She is afraid in the dark. He tells her to get Pelléas to help her.
In scene three Pelléas and Melisande are in the grotto. As they enter, by a sudden ray of moonlight they see three blind old men, sleeping. Melisande is frightened. Pelléas says the blind men presage misfortune. ”