_Arduin._ Ha, then! if not--if it be not-- Is it that here returned you wish another?
You who so gaze upon my goaded brow And face grown old with toil to conquer death?
O youth ruthless to age! e"en tho its furrows Were got for your delight!--Ingrat.i.tude!-- Have I so hungered thro long years to pluck A flower of h.e.l.l back to the light!... No, No!
It cannot be!... You shall be mine!
_Myrrha_ (_in terror_). Sir, sir!
_Arduin._ Mad will I be, as they have thought me, mad In holding that which I have given life.
_Myrrha._ But you mistake!... I am not what you think.
Hear me, for I love one who----
_Arduin._ Is not--I?
[_As to invisible judges._
You hear her say it?
_Myrrha._ O, I love but Ion, Your--
_Arduin._ Ion, my brother! Then, G.o.d! it was true, And being true thy Heaven is but a brothel!
She was unfaithful to me, as he said!
And in the other world has met and clasped him!
_Myrrha._ No, let me speak!
_Arduin._ And spurn me more with it?
Shall I abide mockery like a mummy!
Ha-ha! (_A laugh that racks him._) Years but to hear her say that she loves him!
To see her come back from the grave, where she Has still embraced him, still--and to my face, On which the rage of sleepless toil is wrought, Tell me.... She shall die for it! G.o.d, whose stars Are vermin, she shall die!
_Myrrha._ O!
_Arduin_ (_frenziedly_). Die, die, die!
As trustless women should: until no womb Of lies is left in the world! Die, and be shut Again into the curst sarcophagus From whence I brought her ...
_Myrrha_ (_in his grasp_). Sir!--help!--sir! do not!
O, I will love you!
_Arduin._ Liar! and turn from him Whom you betrayed me for--and swear again False love to me? Then ... in the tomb do it!
[_Begins to choke her._
_Myrrha._ O!
_Arduin._ Aieh! cry out to him! will he not help you?
_Myrrha._ Ion!
_Arduin._ That word withering in your throat Shall stale you past all hope of resurrection.
[_Strangles her--and then looks around._
So, it is done.... And now, back to your tomb, Which I will bury in the desert sands So deep that not eternity can find it.
[_Begins to draw her toward sarcophagus._
And yet (_stopping stricken_) all is not well ... I now could weep.
[_With lone anguish._
I know not wherefore--only that my heart Is wounded and seems bleeding o"er the hours That I must live!... O Rhea!... O, my love!
[_Strangely kissing her._
Do you not hear the nightingale that sang The song of our betrothal in Provence?
It sits upon....
[_Changing again._
Accursed face! accurst! forevermore!
Within the tomb lie (_dragging her_) blind, deaf, motionless, Until--
[_Looking into the coffin becomes transfixed, while MYRRHA"S limp body slips slowly from his arms. He gazes at her, at his wife, and tries to understand. But cannot, and so, standing long troubled, moans_:
I am not well; perchance Rhasis will come And tell me what it is that I desired.
Men should not toil o"ermuch; there"s madness in it.
[_Then seeing MYRRHA"S face and starting from it wildly_:
Rhasis! Rhasis! Rhasis!... Oh-oh-oh-oh!
[_Runs madly off right, as ION and RHASIS enter left. They look around, see MYRRHA and rush to her--with a cry._
CURTAIN
O-UMe"S G.o.dS
CHARACTERS
O-UMe _A Samurai Girl_ AMA _Her Servant, an old woman_ SANKO _A Young Samurai_ and A YOUNG JESUIT PRIEST