Percy MacKaye

“ Here in China the world lies a-dream, like a Thousand
Years Ago, and the place of our dreams is eternal.
Here in China Romance still goes masquing serenely
With dragons, magicians, clowns, villains and heroes,
So that five motley fellows like us may resume our
Old tradetricks, and follow our noses to fortune!—
For a taste point your own, Punch, up there at the gate-stone!
PUNCHINELLO [Staring up at the heads]
What pretty young princes!—But where are the rest of them?
SCARAMOUCHE
By Saladin! They’ve plenty of room for their breakfast!
PANTALOON
It makes me light-headed to look at them. ”

“ Our heads are decorative; they will adorn
Your majesty’s collection.
ALTOUM
Nay, not mine.
Those grizzled heads of warriors on the wall
Are mine: the trophies of my victories.
But those above the gate—those youthful brows
Of tragic lovers, hapless in their love—
Those are my daughter’s.
BARAK [To Calaf]
Do you hear, my prince?
His daughter’s! Oh, take heed!
20CAPO.
Your majesty
Allures me. Is your daughter—
ALTOUM
Hush! Come closer. [He leads Capocomico away from the curtain, right. Calaf follows furtively, heedless of Barak’s gestures]
My daughter is my cause of desperation. ”

“ As this tableau shuts in darkness, there comes vaguely to light in the foreground a street scene. Here, at a gateway, beggars with yokes are huddled; before the gate, a moving frieze of dream figures, noiseless, pass fantastically: Chinese soldiers, high stepping; Turandot again, downcast, gliding like a captive with Zelima; Calaf, swift searching in pursuit; the Maskers, lithe, grotesque, pointing after him; rearguarded by Capocomico—blithely dominant in gesture, triumphant with fantasy. ”

“ At the present time, our theatre has been conquered (for the moment) by sedulous recorders of the deeds of here and now; we find the drama in the throes of a new realism, more potent in its actuality than the tentative and groping realism of Goldoni; and our romantic playwrights, like these old adventurous and tattered histrions of Carlo Gozzi, have recently sought refuge in the fabulous and eye-enchanting orient. ”

“ The false name—Keedur, Khan! [Bending above the dreaming form of 100Calaf, the Figure sprinkles from the vial upon his lips; then draws back and listens]
CALAF [Murmurs louder in his sleep]
Be gracious unto me: Calaf, the son
Of Timur, King of Astrakhan!
THE FIGURE OF HARLEQUIN [Laughing silverly]
Aha!
Calaf! Calaf, the son of Timur, King
Of Astrakhan!
CALAF [Starting up on the divan]
Who calls me?
THE FIGURE [Lifting a mandolin strung from the shoulder, strikes a swift chord and bounds away toward the door]
Ahaha!
CALAF [Leaping to the floor, and following]
What are you? ”

“ Brings Love to grief,
But a merry heart makes him mellow,
And a merry heart, O, a merry heart
Never yet kept fond lovers apart,
Nor pinched the shoe of their Punchinello.
TURANDOT [Savagely]
Drive them away, Zelima! Drive them away!
84PUNCHINELLO, SCARAMOUCHE, AND PANTALOON [Singing together outside]
And a merry heart, O, a merry heart
Never yet kept fond lovers apart!
ZELIMA [Going to the door, puts her head out]
Begone! [She returns to Turandot. The twanging outside decreases, but still continues]
Take courage, Lady. ”

“ Scaramouche, Harlequin, Punchinello, Pantaloon and Capocomico.
The last, leading them with his baton, stops in the gateway, before which Harlequin executes a ballet-step dance, while Scaramouche, Pantaloon, and Punchinello play accompaniment on guitar, mandolin and zither.
Breaking off, Punchinello begins to improvise an imitation of Harlequin’s dance, but being beaten over his hump with a thwacking stick by Harlequin, retreats with grotesque pantomime.
At their merriment, the younger beggar, rising, draws away with the elder, making a tragic gesture toward the white-bearded head on the wall. ”

“ Turandot starts, with a cry and look of bewilderment at Capo. Capo addresses Altoum and the Divan]
Your Majesty and lords, the nameless prince
Awaits to learn his name from Turandot.
CALAF [Stepping forward fiercely]
He waits not, for his name has been betrayed
To her—and you, false jester, have betrayed it.
118ALTOUM [Amid commotion]
What’s that?
CALAF
My liege, why should I play the fool
In a Masker’s comedy? Death holds less scorn
Than being duped to dance in a puppet-show
To tinkling mandolins.
ALTOUM
Speak out your grievance! ”

“ William Collier approaches very nearly the method of the old Italian actors. Regardless of the particular points of any play in which he chooses to appear, he always represents precisely the same character—a perennial dramatization of his individual traits as a comedian; and he also habitually exercises the Italian actor’s license of improvisation in the presence of an assembled audience.
Five of these standard acting types of the Commedia dell’ Arte are revivified by Mr. MacKaye in his new play on Gozzi’s old theme. ”

“ TURANDOT’S DREAM 129In the acted performance of this play, the third act commences with a scene which sets forth, wholly in pantomime, a dream of Turandot, representing—by suggestions of mystic light and sound—the state of her distracted mind, trying to solve the riddle of Keedur Khan.
The pantomime takes place in two imaginative settings—a mountain top and an oriental street—blending the one into the other.
Out of darkness first appears the outline of the dark summit, against a blue-gray radiance of sky. Etched upon this Zelima enters, like a shadow-phantom, beckoning. ”

“ Unless we untangle their shadowy intrigues!—
Follow me, then, my playboys! Before the next sunrise
Your pouches shall burst with the gold of their Secret.—
Follow me!—Yonder heads are our mascots to fortune! [Striking their instruments and running through the gate, they all disappear within. As their tinklings die away, the two beggars reënter, from the left]
THE YOUNGER BEGGAR [Prostrating himself again before the white bearded head, rises with up-lifted arms]
Father!—O slaughtered King of Astrakhan,
Timur, my father!—
THE OLDER BEGGAR [Furtively]
Calaf! ”

“ ZELIMA
My lady!
CAPO. [Rushing toward her, with Altoum]
Quick! She’s falling!
ALTOUM
Turandot!—Kill the beggar.
TURANDOT [Faintly, recovering]
No, ’tis nothing. 34 [To Capocomico]
Here, give him this.
CAPO. [Taking it, astounded]
Your ring?
TURANDOT
A token, Sire.—
A token of our new régime: to all
My people—blessing, and to beggars—love. [She goes out]
ALTOUM [Going with her]
Attend her well, Zelima. [All follow after, and at a gesture from Capocomico, pass out. Near the gate the Maskers pause and wait for Capocomico, who returns to Calaf]
CAPO.
Fellow, rise! ”

“ BARAK [Crying aloud]
Calaf, save me!
PANTALOON
We’ll save ’ee in salt, old calf!
58SCARAMOUCHE
Yank-ho, there! [They drag him out, left]
CAPO. [Stands meditating]
Calaf! [Hardly have they disappeared, when Calaf enters hastily, looking about him with a startled expression. He is dressed in princely regalia, and his face is shaved. Seeing Capo., he pauses abruptly, and makes obeisance]
CAPO.
Greetings, Sir Keedur!—You are searching here?
CALAF [Embarrassed]
Nothing, your majesty. It seemed I heard
A voice here cry in terror.
CAPO.
Cry—on whom? ”

“ His head, and Turandot is coming here
In state, to impale the gory token—yonder.
26BARAK [To Calaf]
You hear!—You hear?
CALAF
O happy lover, whom
The dearest of women honors so in death!
BARAK
Madness!
ALTOUM [To Capocomico]
By heaven, I am impatient of
Such slaughter. See you stop it.
CAPO. [Nodding loftily]
We shall bear
In mind your supplication, Sir.—Meanwhile
My crown! [He extends his hand for Altoum’s crown. Altoum, startled, smiles, takes it off and hands it to him]
ALTOUM
Gods of my ancestors! ”

“ Sir Capocomico
Is now your emperor; these are your court
To make a festa of the law’s last day.—
After to-morrow you are free forever.
TURANDOT
Sire, are you jesting?
CAPO.
Signorina, all
We dream or do is jesting, and ourselves
The butts of the jester. We are antics all.
To advertise it is my specialty.
Therefore, if we be kings or deuces hangs
On how the clever jester cuts his pack.
This cut I’m king, and 32 [Pointing to the Maskers]
red is trumps, not black. ”

“ In the crowd Calaf gazes at her passionately. With him is Barak.
The Chinese courtiers prostrate themselves.
The Maskers bow in European fashion]
THE CHINESE COURTIERS AND CROWD
Turandot! Salaam!
CAPO. [Speaks familiarly to the emperor]
Altoum,
Present to us our newly adopted daughter!
ALTOUM
Turandot, heaven to-day has interposed
To grant your prayers. Listen!
TURANDOT [Looking with wonder at Capocomico and the Maskers]
I am listening, Sire.
31ALTOUM
’Tis your strange prayer never to marry. ”

“ Since, however, some modern productions have recently been made in Germany, England and America, under the title of “Turandot,” it is fitting to make clear the relation which my play bears to those and to the older productions of Gozzi and Schiller.
In January, 1762, “Turandotte” by Carlo Gozzi was first acted by the Sacchi company of players at Venice. It was one of a number of “improvised comedies”—or Commedie dell’ Arte Improvisata—composed by Gozzi in his single-handed artistic war against the more naturalistic works of Goldoni, his contemporary. ”

“ The modern stage exhibits many analogies to this identification of an actor with a single rôle. For instance, in the old days of the association of Weber and Fields, these comedians always appeared in precisely the same parts, regardless of any difference of subject-matter in the comic scenes that they presented. Mr. Weber invariably depicted a fat little man who was easily gullible; and the leaner and more strenuous Mr. Fields was forever getting the better of him and using him as a butt for ridiculous persecution. ”

“ With the action set in such a public place, the playwright could experience no embarrassment in motivating his entrances and exits; any characters could meet at any time in the neutral ground of the stage; and the practicable doors and windows of the surrounding houses could be employed by acrobatic actors in the exhibition of exciting scenes of elopement or of robbery.
xxOne of the most definitive features of the Commedia dell’ Arte was the fact that, though the plays presented differed greatly from each other in subject-matter and in plot, they invariably employed the same set of characters. ”

“ My body and soul are his.
I hate you—I hate you—hate you! [She rushes into the dark. Calaf reaches—groping—with a wild cry.]
Curtain
115 ACT FOURTH The scene is the same as the second act, scene second, except that the back of the great hall of the emperor’s Divan is now hidden by a decorated curtain. The assembly is gathered as before: Capocomico, Turandot and Altoum seated on their larger and lesser thrones.
Before them, Harlequin, Scaramouche, Punchinello and Pantaloon are performing a dance.
At its conclusion Capocomico rises, and addresses the Maskers.
CAPOCOMICO
Enough! ”

“ The individual actor appeared in many different plays, wearing always the same costume and the same mask. Harlequin made love to Columbine in play after play; the Doctor, from Bologna University, repeated the same sort of pedantries in plot after plot; and the Captain Spavento (a lineal descendant of the Miles Gloriosus of Plautus) swaggered through story after story. Individual actors became so completely identified with the stock characters they assumed upon the stage that they bore in private life the conventional names of their impersonations. ”

“ He reads xivthem out the plot, and explains every detail of the intrigue. In short, he acts the whole piece before them, points out to each player what his special business requires, indicates the customary sallies of wit and traits of humor, and shows how the several parts and talents of the actors can be best combined into a striking work of scenic art.’”
The four “Maskers” of my play, followers of Capocomico, are, of course, my own renderings of the types familiar to the old Italian comedies. ”

“ Similarly, the famous Scarramuccia from whom the immortal Molière learned the rudiments of his craft as a comedian—an actor described in a rhymed chronicle of the time as “le xxiroi des comédiens et le comédien de rois”—has come down to us in history under the title of Scaramouche, with no recollection of his parental name. ”

“ And being dead, still blooms in death,
Living beyond its little hour
To grow more sweet in fragrance as it grows
In memory? [Turandot gazes pityingly. Calaf speaks with closed eyes]
70CALAF
A withered rose. [Turandot starts suddenly from her throne and sinks back, whispering to Zelima. Capo despatches Harlequin to Turandot, who gives him tremblingly a key, which he carries to Scaramouche]
CAPO.
Unlock the secret box.
SCARAMOUCHE [As Harlequin unlocks the little box on his platter and presents to him a strip of parchment from within it, reads aloud]
A withered rose. ”

“ Above the gate, in a row, severed heads of young men are impaled on stakes. On the wall, at one side, more heads of older men, with grizzled locks, stare down: among them, conspicuous, one with a white beard. ”

“ The president of one of our great American universities has been quoted as saying that any professor who writes and learns a lecture is merely insulting the printing-press; there can be no advantage in speaking on a subject unless the speaking be spontaneous: and this was the attitude of the old Italian public toward the actors that addressed it from the stage.
A single set sufficed for most of the improvised Italian comedies. This set represented a public square in an Italian town, a meeting-point of several streets ”

“ Come, then, this way and beg, for folk are coming. [They draw toward the gate. Barak, starting fearfully, drags Calaf away left]
Great heaven—the emperor!
CALAF
The emperor!
Wait, Barak. Stop!—No further. [On the edge of the scene, they crouch by the wall, like beggars. Through the gate enter Altoum amid Chinese courtiers, accompanied by Capocomico and followed by the other Maskers]
ALTOUM [To Capocomico]
An instant is enough
For inspiration, and you have inspired
Fresh hopes in me. ”