Pelléas and Mélisande

“ 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. ”

“ Melisande.
Oh, oh! you hurt me. What is it, Pelléas? What is it that flies around me?
Pelléas.
It is the doves that come out of the tower. I frightened them. They fly away.
Melisande.
They are my doves, Pelléas.—Let us go, leave me; they would not return...
Pelléas.
Why would they not return?
Melisande.
They will be lost in the obscurity... Let me lift my head... I hear a noise of footsteps... Leave me!—It is Golaud... I think it is Golaud... He has heard us...
Pelléas.
Wait, wait!... Your hair is around the branches... It has got caught in the darkness. ”

“ Mélisande enters. Their greeting is simple. Pelléas bids her come under the shade of the linden. She wishes to remain where it is lighter; she wishes to stay where she may be seen. Golaud, she says, is sleeping. It is late. In an hour the great gates of the castle will be closed. Pelléas tells her that it is perhaps the last time he shall see her, that he must go away forever. She asks him why it is that he is always saying that. "Must I tell you what you know already?" rejoins Pelléas. "You know not what I am going to tell you?" "Why, no; I know nothing," says Mélisande. ”

“ 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... ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The music, as a whole, is as insinuating as it is unparalleled. Many passages are of an hypnotic and abiding fascination. There is something necromantic in the art which can so swiftly and so surely cast an ineluctable spell upon the heart and the imagination: such a spell as is cast in the scene at the Fontaine des Aveugles, in the second act; or when, from the window in the castle tower, Mélisande's unbound hair falls and envelops Pelléas—an unforgettable page; or when the lovers meet for the last time at the Fountain of the Blind ”

“ Mélisande, confused and terrified, dissembles, and answers that she must have lost it in a grotto by the seashore, when she went there in the morning to pick shells for little Yniold. She is sure it is there. Golaud bids her go at once and search for it. She fears to go alone, and he suggests that she ask Pelléas to accompany her.
The next scene discovers Mélisande with Pelléas in the grotto. They are deeply agitated. It is very dark, but Pelléas describes to her the look of the place, for, he tells her, she must be able to answer Golaud if he should question her. ”

“ 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. ”

“ PÉLLÉAS. They have opened all the windows of the castle. It will be unusually hot this afternoon.... Look, there is mother with Mélisande at a window of the tower....
GOLAUD. Yes; they have taken refuge on the shady side.—Speaking of Mélisande, I heard what passed and what was said last night. I am quite aware all that is but child's play; but it need not be repeated. Mélisande is very young and very impressionable; and she must be treated the more circumspectly that she is perhaps with child at this moment.... She is very delicate, hardly woman; and the least emotion might bring on a mishap. ”

“ In speaking of the moral reasons of the success of Pelléas et Mélisande, I would like to draw your attention to a form of thought which is not confined to France, but which is common nowadays in a section of the more distinguished members of European society, and which has found expression in Pelléas et Mélisande. The atmosphere in which Maeterlinck's drama moves makes one feel the melancholy resignation of the will to Fate. We are shown that nothing can change the order of events ”

“ And he feels that he himself is old, much older than Pelléas and Mélisande.
Act IV. Scene X. In a room in the castle Pelléas and Mélisande meet. This evening he must see her. She promises to go in the park to the old fountain where she formerly lost the ring. It will be their last meeting. Yet Mélisande does not understand what is driving the youth away. The old King Arkel enters the room. The aged man has taken Mélisande to his heart. He feels that the young wife is unhappy. Now Golo also enters. He can scarcely remain master of his inner commotion. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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!... ”

“ The Golaud motive is recalled with sombre force in the strings as the rattle of the great chains is heard. "All the better! All the better!" cries Mélisande; and, as they embrace in sudden abandonment, we hear, introduced by an exquisite interplay of tonalities, the motive of Rapture, announced, pp, by divided strings and flutes (page 258, measure 12) :
XXI. RAPTURE
As Mélisande whispers suddenly to Pelléas that there is some one behind them, a menacing version of the Vengeance theme is played, pp, by the basses, trombones, and timpani. ”

“ As the third scene opens (before the castle) , the Mélisande theme is sung, mélancolique et doux, by the oboe against a murmuring accompaniment of the strings. Together with the Pelléas theme, it accompanies the opening portion of the scene. A suggestive use is made of a fragment of the Fate theme at Mélisande's words, after Pelléas prophesies the approach of a storm: "And yet it is so calm now!" (page 44, measure 5) . ”

“ There is an oppressive feeling of disaster in the air. Only little Yniold does not suffer this gripping burden. It is already growing dark when Mélisande goes to Pelléas. And yet in their farewell, perhaps also on account of Golo's outburst of anger, the couple clearly see what has caused their condition. And there comes over them something like the affirmation of death and the joy of dying. How fate shuts-756- the gates upon them; like a fate they see Golo coming. They rejoice in the idea of death. Pelléas falls by Golo's sword, Mélisande flees from her husband's pursuit into the night. ”

“ Pelléas, Mlle. Marie Aubry; Mélisande, Mlle. Meuris; Arkël, Émile Raymond; Golaud, Lugné-Poë; Geneviève, Mme. Camée; Le petit Yniold, Georgette Loyer.
"Take care," warns The Old Man in that most simply touching of Maeterlinck's plays, Intérieur; "we do not know how far the soul extends about men." It is a subtle and characteristic saying, and it might have been used by the dramatist as a motto for his Pelléas et Mélisande; for not only does it embody the central thought of this poignant masque of passion and destiny, but it summarizes Maeterlinck's attitude as a writer of drama. ”

“ ALLADINE. I dare not look upon it longer....
PALOMIDES. See how about us all is luminous.... The light dares hesitate no longer, and we kiss each other in the vestibules of heaven.... Seest thou the precious stones that gem the vaults, drunken with life, that seem to smile on us ”

“ Nichola’s rose, fading in my lace, gave out a fragrance to which some influence in the room was akin; and we both knew.
I said: “Pelleas, I have been remembering that morning long ago at Miss Deborah Ware’s—and our Fountain of Gardens. When we were twenty-something, like Lisa and Eric.”
“But so have I been thinking of that!” Pelleas cried. And we nodded, smiling, for we love to have that happen. Perhaps it makes us momentarily believe that we are each other, and no aid asked of science to bring it about. ”

“ Pelleas admitted justly, “nothing can be. All the same—”
“Pelleas!” I cried in despair, “we could have that young rector over here, and they could be married in the little round drawing-room—or in the rose arbour—or in the garden at large. Think of it—cream sherbet and little cakes afterward and us for parents and wedding party and all. Then you and I could go straight to Dudley Manners at Chynmere and tell him how it was, and I know he would forgive them. Pelleas! Can you really think of that dear child spending two years with an authority on plant life in Alaska?” ”

“ And there on my pillow I saw as she hastened away the great pink tea rose that had blossomed only that day from the rose plant in her own window where she had tended it for months.
Pelleas was in the library across the hall from the drawing-room where those two dear little people were. I opened the library door softly and went in and stood close beside his chair before he turned. Pelleas is not in the least deaf, as we both know; he is simply no longer distracted by small, unnecessary noises. ”

“ When one is seventy and closes one’s eyes it is wonderful how the whole world grows youthful. And when I had almost dozed that tender rustling brought me back so happily that I could hardly tell which was memory of that other little head upon my arm and which was now. At midnight and twice later when the baby’s food had to be warmed it was I who did this, and the old familiar helplessness of Pelleas in this little presence delighted me beyond measure. ”

“ The sorrows, the estrangements, the failures, the ill-health, the little stabs at us, above all the cursed mistakes of my own—do you think we have not had these? Do you think we don’t know, Hobart? Do you think we haven’t paid, to the last farthing? Good God!” said Pelleas. “And yet we are not beaten. And we never shall be beaten, dead or alive. ”

“ I looked up at Pelleas almost fearfully in the flood of Spring moonlight. The radiance was full on his white hair and tranquil face, and he met my eyes with the knowledge that we were suddenly become the custodians of an exquisite secret. The words of the young servant of God came to me understandingly.
“‘And the house shall be filled with the odour of the ointment,’” I said over. “O, Pelleas,” I added, tremulously, “do you think....”
Pelleas lifted his face and I thought that it shone in the dimness.
“Ah, well,” he answered, “we must believe all the beautiful things we can.” ”

“ Miss Willie Lillieblade, taking a Christmas capsule from the head of her white staff; Avis and Lawrence, always dangerously likely to be found conferring in quiet corners; and Enid and David and the baby—we had insisted on the [Pg 334] baby and he had arrived, in a cocoon of Valenciennes. And when the glasses had been handed round, Pelleas slipped across the hall to the library and reappeared among us with Eunice and Hobart. ”