Floyd Dell

“ THE QUEEN. I have been asking that question of my own heart, fool. I would that I had not come to him a virgin and a Queen, but a light woman skilled in all the ways of love. Then perhaps I could have held him. But now he is gone, and the world is black.
THE FOOL. It is not the world, it is your heart that is black. And it is black with hatred. . . .
THE QUEEN. I think you understand, fool. I would set fire to this palace which the King my father built, I would burn it down tonight, save that it would not make light enough to take away the blackness from my heart.
The sailor again, staggering. ”

“ THE GYPSY. Ah, my dear, that was a wifely speech! You will make a success of marriage.
THE MAID. I shall never marry.
THE GYPSY. It would be a pity not to make some good man happy. You are the ideal of every male being in this kingdom, including its ruler.
THE MAID. Do you really think I am the sort of girl to make the King happy?
THE GYPSY. I am sure of it. You are the very one. You have all the domestic virtues. You are quiet, dignified, obedient. If you have any thoughts or impulses which do not fit into the frame of wifely domesticity, you know how to suppress them. ”

“ THE PRINCESS. I had rather be a Gypsy, and choose my lover as I wandered the roads!
THE KING. But you are a Princess, and your choosing is between peace and war. Do you choose war?
THE PRINCESS (fiercely) For myself, yes. I would gladly lead an army against you. I would destroy with the sword everything that your kingdom stands for. And you—I would kill with pleasure.
THE KING. You might kill me, but the things for which my kingdom stands you cannot kill. They are indestructible. They are older than the world, and will last longer. ”

“ I wish to speak with the Queen.
THE QUEEN. (to the fool) No, stay. (To the Prince) It is not necessary for you to speak. You wish to tell me that the kisses you had from me were so sweet that you would like to buy some more, and are willing to put off your journey for a while.
THE PRINCE. I have given up my journey for ever. I know that the only thing that is real in all the world is love. You are scornful. But I have neither pride nor shame. I kneel at your feet, and beg you to forgive me for my folly.
He kneels. ”

“ It is beautiful—but it is a dream, and the time calls for a deed. We love each other. We can take our happiness now. Will you do it? Will you come away with me?
SHE. No.
HE. Then I if you cannot take your happiness, give me mine. If you cannot be a woman, be an angel, and lean down from your dream heaven to slake my earthly thirst.
SHE. No.
HE. No angel? Then a goddess! You want to be worshipped. You want to be adored. I will worship you, but not from afar, I will adore you in my own fashion. ”

“ THE QUEEN. And now you are afraid to change your mind?
THE PRINCE. Do you think a brave man changes his mind for pleasure's sake?
THE QUEEN. Forgive me. If it is your happiness to go on, to what end I do not know, I will let you. I do not wish to make you unhappy. But I would give you something to take with you, one more flower of my garden, an unfading rose that shall be like a bright memory of me in your heart always. Will you take it?
She leads him back into the palace. The sailor enters, supported by the fool. ”

“ JOSEPH. I doubt it, sir.
POTIPHAR. Joseph, you perturb me. Besides food and dress, there is only one subject, so far as I am aware, of interest to women. I hope you do not imply—
JOSEPH. Far be it from me, sir, to indulge in implications, with respect to an honoured guest, in the household in which I am a slave.
POTIPHAR. Still—it is hard to tell, sometimes. Women are mysterious creatures. What do you think of them, Joseph?
JOSEPH. I try not to, sir.
POTIPHAR. You are a wise man. Yes, I suppose you have your difficulties, too. The morality of the slave-girls is not all it should be. ”

“ GUENEVERE. (coldly) Vivien!
VIVIEN. (contritely) I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. But I do think he's so terribly nice—I don't see how any woman can help being in love with him. Well—I'm off to his studio, to learn my fate. Wish me luck, if you can!
She goes.
GUENEVERE. (looks after her, then drifts over to the mantel, leans against it staring out into space, and then murmurs) —Lancelot!
_She goes slowly back to her chair, sits still a moment, and then quietly resumes the darning of socks.
Enter, from the side door, Mary, the pretty servant girl, who fusses about at the back of the room_. ”

“ No. Not yet. For a moment—a little lifetime—I have life, I Have lips and eyelids made for kisses. I have hands that burn to give caresses, and breasts that ache to take them. I have a body made to suffer the deep stings of love. This flesh of mine shall be a golden web woven of pain and joy.
She takes up the skull again.
You were alive once, and a virgin-martyr? You denied yourself love? You sent away your lover? No wonder you speak so plainly to me now. Back, girl, to your coffin! ”

“ THE QUEEN. I say that it is enough that you should think of me sometimes on your long journey from the east to the west. To be remembered—that is the portion of women.
THE PRINCE. You knew what manner of man I was, and that I would not be detained. Why, if you must have the taste of kisses on your lips always, did you not turn to some man of your own land, who would not stray from your side? Why did you give your love to one you had never seen before, and will never see again? ”

“ THE FOOL. I think that the Queen has sung him to sleep, and that he has not yet awakened.
THE SAILOR. It is likely enough. But I have been sent by the captain, and I must see him.
THE FOOL. You look hot.
THE SAILOR. I am so hot and thirsty that I could drink a barrelful of wine. It is well enough for the Prince to lie about and eat and drink and be sung to by pretty women, but we sailors have work to do. This business of staying only three days in each port disgusts me. No sooner do we get ashore than we have to go back on board again. I saw a girl yesterday, a beauty, and not afraid of a man. ”

“ I shall go alone tomorrow
Whistling, as I came today.
Leave my sword alone, you hussy!
There is blood upon the blade—
Dragon-slaying is a messy
Sort of trade. Put back the blade!
Take my knee and—O you darling!
A man forgets how sweet you are!
Snarling dragons—flowing flagons—
Devil take the morning star!
THE FOOL. Bravo!
THE SAILOR. And there you are! If I do say it myself, I have as good a time as the Prince does. One girl's as nice as another—and maybe nicer, at that. What's a Queen? Can she kiss better than any other girl? ”

“ THE GYPSY. Precisely. Oh, she is not one to mind a little rough handling. She gives as good as she gets. She will not hold that against him. But that he should think her mad because she came unattended, at an unexpected hour, with flushed cheeks and laughing lips to meet her lover—!
THE MAID. Because she came climbing in at the window like a madwoman!
THE GYPSY. You think as the King does. For you there are no ways but the way to which you are accustomed. That is sanity to you, and all else is madness. ”

“ I've known marriage to go to smash on far less than that. When you come to think of it, a taste for dancing and a taste for municipal ownership stand at the two ends of the earth away from each other. They represent two different ways of taking life. And if two people who live in the same house can't agree on those two things, they'd disagree on a hundred things that came up every day. And what's the use for two different kinds of beings to try to live together? It doesn't work, no matter how much, love there is between them. ”

“ THE GYPSY. Your majesty, it would ill become me to deprecate the character of my clientele. They may not be rich, they may not be influential, but they are the foundation of your kingdom's prosperity. And I must say for myself that for the one person that your Gazetteer serves, I serve many. You may sneer at my quality if you like, but I point to my circulation. I am the official Gazetteer of the Red-Horse Tavern, and scores of petty tradesmen, as well as clerks, bricklayers and truck drivers, depend upon me for their knowledge of the world's events. ”

“ SHE. Is that the best you can do in the way of sanity and decency—to talk like that?
HE. You'd like to cover it up with pretty words, wouldn't you? Well, we've had enough of that. I feel as though my face were covered with spider webs. I want to brush them off and get clean again.
SHE. It's not my fault you've got weak nerves. Why don't you try to behave like a gentleman, instead of a hysterical minor poet?
HE. A gentleman, Helen, would have strangled you years ago. It takes a man with crazy notions of freedom and generosity to be the fool that I've been. ”

“ THE GYPSY. Your promise to the King?
THE PRINCESS. I am as mutable as wind.
THE GYPSY. Let us go.
THE PRINCESS. One moment! There is a girl here I am sorry for. Can we not think of some way to help her before we go? She loves the King. Think!
THE GYPSY. I have thought. She is the rightful Princess of Basque— stolen from her cradle by Gypsies. Tomorrow an old woman from the tribe will come with the proofs. The King will marry her, and they will be happy.
THE PRINCESS. And I am the Gypsy child left in her place! But is it really true?
THE GYPSY. What matters reality to us? We are not real. ”

“ Why not enjoy the gifts we have, as the truck driver enjoys his beer and his sweetheart? Let us each have our brief flash of happiness in the sun, O King!
THE KING. Your philosophy is the deadly enemy of mine.
THE PRINCESS. And must we be enemies of each other, too?
THE KING. Never, madam. Let us be friends in spite of our opinions.
THE PRINCESS. Your majesty is very gracious.
THE KING. And now that we are friends, I hope you will not keep up the jest any longer. The lady who is to be my wife and queen arrives in a few hours. ”

“ THE AGENT. If you are wise, you will build yourselves a little nest secretly in the woods, away from civilization, and you will run away together to that nest whenever you are in the mood. A nest so small that it will hold only two beings and one thought—the thought of love. And then you will come back refreshed to civilization, where every soul is different from every other soul—you will let each other alone, forget each other, and do your own work in peace. ”

“ Free men are not beaten in Egypt.
POTIPHAR. Free?
JOSEPH. Unless Potiphar takes back his word. It is true that I have no witnesses to it.
POTIPHAR. (with great dignity) Witnesses are unnecessary. I had forgotten for the moment. Let this remind me. (He gives Joseph a ring.) You are a free man. And so—what I thought was an insolence is merely a pleasantry. But—you take a quick advantage of your freedom.
JOSEPH. I accept the rebuke.
POTIPHAR. And—free man or slave—Joseph, you know too much!
Potiphar walks out of the room. . . . Joseph seats himself at the table, and takes up a scroll of papyrus. ”

“ THE KING (gently) I am a good king, and I shall be a good husband.
THE PRINCESS. It will be easy for you, perhaps. To me it will not come so easy to be a good wife.
THE KING. Put yourself in my hands, and I will teach you.
THE PRINCESS. I will try. (She kneels at his feet.) O King, I will be obedient to you in all things. I will obey your commands, and be as you wish me to be—a good wife and a good queen.
THE KING. (taking her hand and raising her to his side) For my sake!
THE PRINCESS. For the sake of the truck driver and his sweetheart. ”

“ THE FOOL. Did you say that the Queen lies?
He draws his sword.
THE PRINCE. I do not fight with fools. (To the Queen) Send him away, and have him beaten.
THE QUEEN. Are you not willing to fight with him for me?
THE PRINCE. What do you mean?
THE QUEEN. I mean that I have a new appetite, the appetite for death. I have held myself too lightly, I have gone too willingly to the arms of a chance lover. Now there must be blood to sweeten the kisses.
THE PRINCE. Do you wish this fellow killed?
THE QUEEN. Or you. It makes no difference—not the least. ”

“ MADAM POTIPHAR. But I do not understand!
JOSEPH. (in a cold rage) Of course you do not understand. You are a great lady—and a fool. I am a wise man—and but an hour ago a slave. I have more intellect than all the population of Egypt put together. Do you expect me to be content to remain as I am? I want power and riches—and I intend to achieve them. And I cannot achieve them if I allow women to waste my time. ”

“ Her eyes sweep the room imploringly, and rest on the image of the Virgin. She goes over to it and kneels.
SHE. Mary, Mother of God, give me a sign. I do not know what to do. Help me. I must decide. Love has entered my heart, and it may be that I cannot be a good woman any longer. You will be kind to me, and pity me, and send me a sign. Perhaps you will let me have my lover, for you are kind.
She crosses herself, rises, and looks around. She sees the box on the table, and puts her hand to her face with a gesture of sudden thought. She smiles. ”

“ If the old King was alive now, he'd sit in his palace and drink his ale and listen to music, and when he saw the young men giving kisses to the young women under the trees he'd be glad enough. But you still go cawing for blood, like an old crow.
THE OLD WOMAN. I'll not talk to such a one. You can see with your own eyes that our enemies are strong and prosperous. We let them into the kingdom with their silks and their satins and their jewels to sell. They walk about the city here and laugh to themselves, thinking how they will spoil and destroy everything soon. ”

“ JIMMY. You thought it was beautiful. It isn't. It's just blithering, blathering folly. We'll both regret it tomorrow.
ANNABELLE. I Won't!
JIMMY. Yes you will. It's human nature. Face the facts.
ANNABELLE. (tearfully) Facing the facts is one thing and being in love is another,
JIMMY. Quite so. Well, how long do you think your love for me will last?
ANNABELLE. For ever!
JIMMY. H'm! I predict that you will fall in love with the next man you meet.
ANNABELLE. I think you're perfectly horrid.
JIMMY. So do I. I disapprove of myself violently. ”