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Young. + + + + + +A BLOT IN THE 'SCUTCHEON + +by ROBERT BROWNING + + + + +INTRODUCTORY NOTE + + +ROBERT BROWNING stands, in respect to his origin and his career, +in marked contrast to the two aristocratic poets beside whose dramas +his "Blot in the 'Scutcheon" is here printed. His father was a bank +clerk and a dissenter at a time when dissent meant exclusion +from Society; the poet went neither to one of the great public schools +nor to Oxford or Cambridge; and no breath of scandal touched his name. +Born in London in 1812, he was educated largely by private tutors, +and spent two years at London University, but the influence of his +father, a man of wide reading and cultivated tastes, was probably +the most important element in his early training. He drew well, +was something of a musician, and wrote verses from an early age, +though it was the accidental reading of a volume of Shelley +which first kindled his real inspiration. This indebtedness +is beautifully acknowledged in his first published poem, "Pauline" +(1833). + +Apart from frequent visits to Italy, there is little of incident +to chronicle in Browning's life, with the one great exception +of his more than fortunate marriage in 1846 to Elizabeth Barrett, +the greatest of English poetesses. + +Browning's dramatic period extended from 1835 to the time of his +marriage, and produced some nine plays, not all of which, however, +were intended for the stage. "Paracelsus," the first of the series, +has been fairly described as a "conversational drama," and +"Pippa Passes," though it has been staged, is essentially a poem +to read. The historical tragedy of "Strafford" has been impressively +performed, but "King Victor and King Charles," "The Return of the +Druses," "Colombe's Birthday," "A Soul's Tragedy," and "Luria," +while interesting in many ways, can hardly be regarded as successful +stage-plays. "A Blot in the 'Scutcheon" was performed at Drury Lane, +but its chances of a successful run were spoiled by the jealousy +of Macready, the manager. + +The main cause of Browning's weakness as a playwright lay in the fact +that he was so much more interested in psychology than in action. +But in the present tragedy this defect is less prominent than usual, +and in spite of flaws in construction, it reaches a high pitch +of emotional intensity, the characters are drawn with vividness, +and the lines are rich in poetry. + + + +A BLOT IN THE 'SCUTCHEON +A TRAGEDY +(1843) + +DRAMATIS PERSONAE +MILDRED TRESHAM. +GUENDOLEN TRESHAM. +THOROLD, Earl Tresham. +AUSTIN TRESHAM. +HENRY, Earl Mertoun. +GERARD, and other retainers of Lord Tresham. + +Time, 17-- + + + ACT I + + SCENE I.--The Interior of a Lodge in Lord Tresham's Park. + Many Retainers crowded at the window, supposed to command + a view of the entrance to his Mansion. + + GERARD, the Warrener, his back to a table on which are flagons, + etc. + +FIRST RETAINER. Ay, do! push, friends, and then you'll push down me! +--What for? Does any hear a runner's foot +Or a steed's trample or a coach-wheel's cry? +Is the Earl come or his least poursuivant? +But there's no breeding in a man of you +Save Gerard yonder: here's a half-place yet, +Old Gerard! + +GERARD. Save your courtesies, my friend. Here is my place. + +SECOND RETAINER. Now, Gerard, out with it! +What makes you sullen, this of all the days +I' the year? To-day that young rich bountiful +Handsome Earl Mertoun, whom alone they match +With our Lord Tresham through the country-side, +Is coming here in utmost bravery +To ask our master's sister's hand? + +GERARD. What then? + +SECOND RETAINER. What then? Why, you, she speaks to, if she meets +Your worship, smiles on as you hold apart +The boughs to let her through her forest walks, +You, always favourite for your no-deserts, +You've heard, these three days, how Earl Mertoun sues +To lay his heart and house and broad lands too +At Lady Mildred's feet: and while we squeeze +Ourselves into a mousehole lest we miss +One congee of the least page in his train, +You sit o' one side--"there's the Earl," say I-- +"What then?" say you! + +THIRD RETAINER. I'll wager he has let +Both swans he tamed for Lady Mildred swim +Over the falls and gain the river! + +GERARD. Ralph, +Is not to-morrow my inspecting-day +For you and for your hawks? + +FOURTH RETAINER. Let Gerard be! +He's coarse-grained, like his carved black cross-bow stock. +Ha, look now, while we squabble with him, look! +Well done, now--is not this beginning, now, +To purpose? + +FIRST RETAINER. Our retainers look as fine-- +That's comfort. Lord, how Richard holds himself +With his white staff! Will not a knave behind +Prick him upright? + +FOURTH RETAINER. He's only bowing, fool! +The Earl's man bent us lower by this much. + +FIRST RETAINER. That's comfort. Here's a very cavalcade! + +THIRD RETAINER. I don't see wherefore Richard, and his troop +Of silk and silver varlets there, should find +Their perfumed selves so indispensable +On high days, holidays! Would it so disgrace +Our family, if I, for instance, stood-- +In my right hand a cast of Swedish hawks, +A leash of greyhounds in my left?-- + +GERARD. --With Hugh +The logman for supporter, in his right +The bill-hook, in his left the brushwood-shears! + +THIRD RETAINER. Out on you, crab! What next, what next? The Earl! + +FIRST RETAINER. Oh Walter, groom, our horses, do they match +The Earl's? Alas, that first pair of the six-- +They paw the ground--Ah Walter! and that brute +Just on his haunches by the wheel! + +SIXTH RETAINER. Ay--ay! +You, Philip, are a special hand, I hear, +At soups and sauces: what's a horse to you? +D'ye mark that beast they've slid into the midst +So cunningly?--then, Philip, mark this further; +No leg has he to stand on! + +FIRST RETAINER. No? that's comfort. + +SECOND RETAINER. Peace, Cook! The Earl descends. Well, Gerard, see +The Earl at least! Come, there's a proper man, +I hope! Why, Ralph, no falcon, Pole or Swede, +Has got a starrier eye. + +THIRD RETAINER. His eyes are blue: +But leave my hawks alone! + +FOURTH RETAINER. So young, and yet +So tall and shapely! + +FIFTH RETAINER. Here's Lord Tresham's self! +There now--there's what a nobleman should be! +He's older, graver, loftier, he's more like +A House's head. + +SECOND RETAINER. But you'd not have a boy +--And what's the Earl beside?--possess too soon +That stateliness? + +FIRST RETAINER. Our master takes his hand-- +Richard and his white staff are on the move-- +Back fall our people--(tsh!--there's Timothy +Sure to get tangled in his ribbon-ties, +And Peter's cursed rosette's a-coming off!) +--At last I see our lord's back and his friend's; +And the whole beautiful bright company +Close round them--in they go! + [Jumping down from the window-bench, and making for + the table and its jugs.] + Good health, long life, +Great joy to our Lord Tresham and his House! + +SIXTH RETAINER. My father drove his father first to court, +After his marriage-day--ay, did he! + +SECOND RETAINER. God bless +Lord Tresham, Lady Mildred, and the Earl! +Here, Gerard, reach your beaker! + +GERARD. Drink, my boys! +Don't mind me--all's not right about me--drink! + +SECOND RETAINER [aside]. +He's vexed, now, that he let the show escape! + [To GERARD.] +Remember that the Earl returns this way. + +GERARD. That way? + +SECOND RETAINER. Just so. + +GERARD. Then my way's here. + [Goes.] + +SECOND RETAINER. Old Gerard +Will die soon--mind, I said it! He was used +To care about the pitifullest thing +That touched the House's honour, not an eye +But his could see wherein: and on a cause +Of scarce a quarter this importance, Gerard +Fairly had fretted flesh and bone away +In cares that this was right, nor that was wrong, +Such point decorous, and such square by rule-- +He knew such niceties, no herald more: +And now--you see his humour: die he will! + +SECOND RETAINER. God help him! Who's for the great servants' hall +To hear what's going on inside! They'd follow +Lord Tresham into the saloon. + +THIRD RETAINER. I!-- + +FOURTH RETAINER. I!-- +Leave Frank alone for catching, at the door, +Some hint of how the parley goes inside! +Prosperity to the great House once more! +Here's the last drop! + +FIRST RETAINER. Have at you! Boys, hurrah! + + + SCENE II.--A Saloon in the Mansion + + Enter LORD TRESHAM, LORD MERTOUN, AUSTIN, and GUENDOLEN + +TRESHAM. I welcome you, Lord Mertoun, yet once more, +To this ancestral roof of mine. Your name +--Noble among the noblest in itself, +Yet taking in your person, fame avers, +New price and lustre,--(as that gem you wear, +Transmitted from a hundred knightly breasts, +Fresh chased and set and fixed by its last lord, +Seems to re-kindle at the core)--your name +Would win you welcome!-- + +MERTOUN. Thanks! + +TRESHAM. --But add to that, +The worthiness and grace and dignity +Of your proposal for uniting both +Our Houses even closer than respect +Unites them now--add these, and you must grant +One favour more, nor that the least,--to think +The welcome I should give;--'tis given! My lord, +My only brother, Austin: he's the king's. +Our cousin, Lady Guendolen--betrothed +To Austin: all are yours. + +MERTOUN. I thank you--less +For the expressed commendings which your seal, +And only that, authenticates--forbids +My putting from me... to my heart I take +Your praise... but praise less claims my gratitude, +Than the indulgent insight it implies +Of what must needs be uppermost with one +Who comes, like me, with the bare leave to ask, +In weighed and measured unimpassioned words, +A gift, which, if as calmly 'tis denied, +He must withdraw, content upon his cheek, +Despair within his soul. That I dare ask +Firmly, near boldly, near with confidence +That gift, I have to thank you. Yes, Lord Tresham, +I love your sister--as you'd have one love +That lady... oh more, more I love her! Wealth, +Rank, all the world thinks me, they're yours, you know, +To hold or part with, at your choice--but grant +My true self, me without a rood of land, +A piece of gold, a name of yesterday, +Grant me that lady, and you... Death or life? + +GUENDOLEN. [apart to AUSTIN]. Why, this is loving, +Austin! + +AUSTIN. He's so young! + +GUENDOLEN. Young? Old enough, I think, to half surmise +He never had obtained an entrance here, +Were all this fear and trembling needed. + +AUSTIN. Hush! +He reddens. + +GUENDOLEN. Mark him, Austin; that's true love! +Ours must begin again. + +TRESHAM. We'll sit, my lord. +Ever with best desert goes diffidence. +I may speak plainly nor be misconceived +That I am wholly satisfied with you +On this occasion, when a falcon's eye +Were dull compared with mine to search out faults, +Is somewhat. Mildred's hand is hers to give +Or to refuse. + +MERTOUN. But you, you grant my suit? +I have your word if hers? + +TRESHAM. My best of words +If hers encourage you. I trust it will. +Have you seen Lady Mildred, by the way? + +MERTOUN. I... I... our two demesnes, remember, touch, +I have beer used to wander carelessly +After my stricken game: the heron roused +Deep in my woods, has trailed its broken wing +Thro' thicks and glades a mile in yours,--or else +Some eyass ill-reclaimed has taken flight +And lured me after her from tree to tree, +I marked not whither. I have come upon +The lady's wondrous beauty unaware, +And--and then... I have seen her. + +GUENDOLEN [aside to AUSTIN]. Note that mode +Of faltering out that, when a lady passed, +He, having eyes, did see her! You had said-- +"On such a day I scanned her, head to foot; +Observed a red, where red should not have been, +Outside her elbow; but was pleased enough +Upon the whole." Let such irreverent talk +Be lessoned for the future! + +TRESHAM. What's to say +May be said briefly. She has never known +A mother's care; I stand for father too. +Her beauty is not strange to you, it seems-- +You cannot know the good and tender heart, +Its girl's trust and its woman's constancy, +How pure yet passionate, how calm yet kind, +How grave yet joyous, how reserved yet free +As light where friends are--how imbued with lore +The world most prizes, yet the simplest, yet +The... one might know I talked of Mildred--thus +We brothers talk! + +MERTOUN. I thank you. + +TRESHAM. In a word, +Control's not for this lady; but her wish +To please me outstrips in its subtlety +My power of being pleased: herself creates +The want she means to satisfy. My heart +Prefers your suit to her as 'twere its own. +Can I say more? + +MERTOUN. No more--thanks, thanks--no more! + +TRESHAM. This matter then discussed... + +MERTOUN. --We'll waste no breath +On aught less precious. I'm beneath the roof +Which holds her: while I thought of that, my speech +To you would wander--as it must not do, +Since as you favour me I stand or fall. +I pray you suffer that I take my leave! + +TRESHAM. With less regret 'tis suffered, that again +We meet, I hope, so shortly. + +MERTOUN. We? again?-- +Ah yes, forgive me--when shall... you will crown +Your goodness by forthwith apprising me +When... if... the lady will appoint a day +For me to wait on you--and her. + +TRESHAM. So soon +As I am made acquainted with her thoughts +On your proposal--howsoe'er they lean-- +A messenger shall bring you the result. + +MERTOUN. You cannot bind me more to you, my lord. +Farewell till we renew... I trust, renew +A converse ne'er to disunite again. + +TRESHAM. So may it prove! + +MERTOUN. You, lady, you, sir, take +My humble salutation! + +GUENDOLEN and AUSTIN. Thanks! + +TRESHAM. Within there! + [Servants enter. TRESHAM conducts MERTOUN to the door. + Meantime AUSTIN remarks,] + Well, +Here I have an advantage of the Earl, +Confess now! I'd not think that all was safe +Because my lady's brother stood my friend! +Why, he makes sure of her--"do you say yes-- +She'll not say, no,"--what comes it to beside? +I should have prayed the brother, "speak this speech, +For Heaven's sake urge this on her--put in this-- +Forget not, as you'd save me, t'other thing,-- +Then set down what she says, and how she looks, +And if she smiles, and" (in an under breath) +"Only let her accept me, and do you +And all the world refuse me, if you dare!" + +GUENDOLEN. That way you'd take, friend Austin? What a shame +I was your cousin, tamely from the first +Your bride, and all this fervour's run to waste! +Do you know you speak sensibly to-day? +The Earl's a fool. + +AUSTIN. Here's Thorold. Tell him so! + +TRESHAM [returning]. Now, voices, voices! 'St! the lady's first! +How seems he?--seems he not... come, faith give fraud +The mercy-stroke whenever they engage! +Down with fraud, up with faith! How seems the Earl? +A name! a blazon! if you knew their worth, +As you will never! come--the Earl? + +GUENDOLEN. He's young. + +TRESHAM. What's she? an infant save in heart and brain. +Young! Mildred is fourteen, remark! And you... +Austin, how old is she? + +GUENDOLEN. There's tact for you! +I meant that being young was good excuse +If one should tax him... + +TRESHAM. Well? + +GUENDOLEN. --With lacking wit. + +TRESHAM. He lacked wit? Where might he lack wit, so please you? + +GUENDOLEN. In standing straighter than the steward's rod +And making you the tiresomest harangue, +Instead of slipping over to my side +And softly whispering in my ear, "Sweet lady, +Your cousin there will do me detriment +He little dreams of: he's absorbed, I see, +In my old name and fame--be sure he'll leave +My Mildred, when his best account of me +Is ended, in full confidence I wear +My grandsire's periwig down either cheek. +I'm lost unless your gentleness vouchsafes"... + +TRESHAM... "To give a best of best accounts, yourself, +Of me and my demerits." You are right! +He should have said what now I say for him. +Yon golden creature, will you help us all? +Here's Austin means to vouch for much, but you +--You are... what Austin only knows! Come up, +All three of us: she's in the library +No doubt, for the day's wearing fast. Precede! + +GUENDOLEN. Austin, how we must--! + +TRESHAM. Must what? Must speak truth, +Malignant tongue! Detect one fault in him! +I challenge you! + +GUENDOLEN. Witchcraft's a fault in him, +For you're bewitched. + +TRESHAM. What's urgent we obtain +Is, that she soon receive him--say, to-morrow--, +Next day at furthest. + +GUENDOLEN. Ne'er instruct me! + +TRESHAM. Come! +--He's out of your good graces, since forsooth, +He stood not as he'd carry us by storm +With his perfections! You're for the composed +Manly assured becoming confidence! +--Get her to say, "to-morrow," and I'll give you... +I'll give you black Urganda, to be spoiled +With petting and snail-paces. Will you? Come! + + + SCENE III. + --MILDRED'S Chamber. A Painted Window overlooks the Park + + MILDRED and GUENDOLEN + +GUENDOLEN. Now, Mildred, spare those pains. I have not left +Our talkers in the library, and climbed +The wearisome ascent to this your bower +In company with you,--I have not dared... +Nay, worked such prodigies as sparing you +Lord Mertoun's pedigree before the flood, +Which Thorold seemed in very act to tell +--Or bringing Austin to pluck up that most +Firm-rooted heresy--your suitor's eyes, +He would maintain, were grey instead of blue-- +I think I brought him to contrition!--Well, +I have not done such things, (all to deserve +A minute's quiet cousin's talk with you,) +To be dismissed so coolly. + +MILDRED. Guendolen! +What have I done? what could suggest... + +GUENDOLEN. There, there! +Do I not comprehend you'd be alone +To throw those testimonies in a heap, +Thorold's enlargings, Austin's brevities, +With that poor silly heartless Guendolen's +Ill-time misplaced attempted smartnesses-- +And sift their sense out? now, I come to spare you +Nearly a whole night's labour. Ask and have! +Demand, be answered! Lack I ears and eyes? +Am I perplexed which side of the rock-table +The Conqueror dined on when he landed first, +Lord Mertoun's ancestor was bidden take-- +The bow-hand or the arrow-hand's great meed? +Mildred, the Earl has soft blue eyes! + +MILDRED. My brother-- +Did he... you said that he received him well? + +GUENDOLEN. If I said only "well" I said not much. +Oh, stay--which brother? + +MILDRED. Thorold! who--Who else? + +GUENDOLEN. Thorold (a secret) is too proud by half,-- +Nay, hear me out--with us he's even gentler +Than we are with our birds. Of this great House +The least retainer that e'er caught his glance +Would die for him, real dying--no mere talk: +And in the world, the court, if men would cite +The perfect spirit of honour, Thorold's name +Rises of its clear nature to their lips. +But he should take men's homage, trust in it, +And care no more about what drew it down. +He has desert, and that, acknowledgment; +Is he content? + +MILDRED. You wrong him, Guendolen. + +GUENDOLEN. He's proud, confess; so proud with brooding o'er +The light of his interminable line, +An ancestry with men all paladins, +And women all... + +MILDRED. Dear Guendolen, 'tis late! +When yonder purple pane the climbing moon +Pierces, I know 'tis midnight. + +GUENDOLEN. Well, that Thorold +Should rise up from such musings, and receive +One come audaciously to graft himself +Into this peerless stock, yet find no flaw, +No slightest spot in such an one... + +MILDRED. Who finds +A spot in Mertoun? + +GUENDOLEN. Not your brother; therefore, +Not the whole world. + +MILDRED. I am weary, Guendolen. +Bear with me! + +GUENDOLEN. I am foolish. + +MILDRED. Oh no, kind! +But I would rest. + +GUENDOLEN. Good night and rest to you! +I said how gracefully his mantle lay +Beneath the rings of his light hair? + +MILDRED. Brown hair. + +GUENDOLEN. Brown? why, it IS brown: how could you know that? + +MILDRED. How? did not you--Oh, Austin 'twas, declared +His hair was light, not brown--my head!--and look, +The moon-beam purpling the dark chamber! Sweet, +Good night! + +GUENDOLEN. Forgive me--sleep the soundlier for me! + [Going, she turns suddenly.] + Mildred! +Perdition! all's discovered! Thorold finds +--That the Earl's greatest of all grandmothers +Was grander daughter still--to that fair dame +Whose garter slipped down at the famous dance! + [Goes.] + +MILDRED. Is she--can she be really gone at last? +My heart! I shall not reach the window. Needs +Must I have sinned much, so to suffer. + [She lifts the small lamp which is suspended before the Virgin's + image in the window, and places it by the purple pane.] + There! + [She returns to the seat in front.] +Mildred and Mertoun! Mildred, with consent +Of all the world and Thorold, Mertoun's bride! +Too late! 'Tis sweet to think of, sweeter still +To hope for, that this blessed end soothes up +The curse of the beginning; but I know +It comes too late: 'twill sweetest be of all +To dream my soul away and die upon. + [A noise without.] +The voice! Oh why, why glided sin the snake +Into the paradise Heaven meant us both? + [The window opens softly. A low voice sings.] + + There's a woman like a dew-drop, she's so purer than the purest; + And her noble heart's the noblest, yes, and her sure faith's the + surest: + And her eyes are dark and humid, like the depth on depth of lustre + Hid i' the harebell, while her tresses, sunnier than the wild-grape + cluster, + Gush in golden tinted plenty down her neck's rose-misted marble: + Then her voice's music... call it the well's bubbling, the bird's + warble! + + [A figure wrapped in a mantle appears at the window.] + + And this woman says, "My days were sunless and my nights were + moonless, + Parched the pleasant April herbage, and the lark's heart's outbreak + tuneless, + If you loved me not!" And I who--(ah, for words of flame!) adore + her, + Who am mad to lay my spirit prostrate palpably before her-- + + [He enters, approaches her seat, and bends over her.] + + I may enter at her portal soon, as now her lattice takes me, + And by noontide as by midnight make her mine, as hers she makes me! + + [The EARL throws off his slouched hat and long cloak.] + +My very heart sings, so I sing, Beloved! + +MILDRED. Sit, Henry--do not take my hand! + +MERTOUN. 'Tis mine. +The meeting that appalled us both so much +Is ended. + +MILDRED. What begins now? + +MERTOUN. Happiness +Such as the world contains not. + +MILDRED. That is it. +Our happiness would, as you say, exceed +The whole world's best of blisses: we--do we +Deserve that? Utter to your soul, what mine +Long since, Beloved, has grown used to hear, +Like a death-knell, so much regarded once, +And so familiar now; this will not be! + +MERTOUN. Oh, Mildred, have I met your brother's face? +Compelled myself--if not to speak untruth, +Yet to disguise, to shun, to put aside +The truth, as--what had e'er prevailed on me +Save you to venture? Have I gained at last +Your brother, the one scarer of your dreams, +And waking thoughts' sole apprehension too? +Does a new life, like a young sunrise, break +On the strange unrest of our night, confused +With rain and stormy flaw--and will you see +No dripping blossoms, no fire-tinted drops +On each live spray, no vapour steaming up, +And no expressless glory in the East? +When I am by you, to be ever by you, +When I have won you and may worship you, +Oh, Mildred, can you say "this will not be"? + +MILDRED. Sin has surprised us, so will punishment. + +MERTOUN. No--me alone, who sinned alone! + +MILDRED. The night +You likened our past life to--was it storm +Throughout to you then, Henry? + +MERTOUN. Of your life +I spoke--what am I, what my life, to waste +A thought about when you are by me?--you +It was, I said my folly called the storm +And pulled the night upon. 'Twas day with me-- +Perpetual dawn with me. + +MILDRED. Come what, come will, +You have been happy: take my hand! + +MERTOUN [after a pause]. How good +Your brother is! I figured him a cold-- +Shall I say, haughty man? + +MILDRED. They told me all. +I know all. + +MERTOUN. It will soon be over. + +MILDRED. Over? +Oh, what is over? what must I live through +And say, "'tis over"? Is our meeting over? +Have I received in presence of them all +The partner of my guilty love--with brow +Trying to seem a maiden's brow--with lips +Which make believe that when they strive to form +Replies to you and tremble as they strive, +It is the nearest ever they approached +A stranger's... Henry, yours that stranger's... lip-- +With cheek that looks a virgin's, and that is... +Ah God, some prodigy of thine will stop +This planned piece of deliberate wickedness +In its birth even! some fierce leprous spot +Will mar the brow's dissimulating! I +Shall murmur no smooth speeches got by heart, +But, frenzied, pour forth all our woeful story, +The love, the shame, and the despair--with them +Round me aghast as round some cursed fount +That should spirt water, and spouts blood. I'll not +...Henry, you do not wish that I should draw +This vengeance down? I'll not affect a grace +That's gone from me--gone once, and gone for ever! + +MERTOUN. Mildred, my honour is your own. I'll share +Disgrace I cannot suffer by myself. +A word informs your brother I retract +This morning's offer; time will yet bring forth +Some better way of saving both of us. + +MILDRED. I'll meet their faces, Henry! + +MERTOUN. When? to-morrow! +Get done with it! + +MILDRED. Oh, Henry, not to-morrow! +Next day! I never shall prepare my words +And looks and gestures sooner.--How you must +Despise me! + +MERTOUN. Mildred, break it if you choose, +A heart the love of you uplifted--still +Uplifts, thro' this protracted agony, +To heaven! but Mildred, answer me,--first pace +The chamber with me--once again--now, say +Calmly the part, the... what it is of me +You see contempt (for you did say contempt) +--Contempt for you in! I would pluck it off +And cast it from me!--but no--no, you'll not +Repeat that?--will you, Mildred, repeat that? + +MILDRED. Dear Henry! + +MERTOUN. I was scarce a boy--e'en now +What am I more? And you were infantine +When first I met you; why, your hair fell loose +On either side! My fool's-cheek reddens now +Only in the recalling how it burned +That morn to see the shape of many a dream +--You know we boys are prodigal of charms +To her we dream of--I had heard of one, +Had dreamed of her, and I was close to her, +Might speak to her, might live and die her own, +Who knew? I spoke. Oh, Mildred, feel you not +That now, while I remember every glance +Of yours, each word of yours, with power to test +And weigh them in the diamond scales of pride, +Resolved the treasure of a first and last +Heart's love shall have been bartered at its worth, +--That now I think upon your purity +And utter ignorance of guilt--your own +Or other's guilt--the girlish undisguised +Delight at a strange novel prize--(I talk +A silly language, but interpret, you!) +If I, with fancy at its full, and reason +Scarce in its germ, enjoined you secrecy, +If you had pity on my passion, pity +On my protested sickness of the soul +To sit beside you, hear you breathe, and watch +Your eyelids and the eyes beneath--if you +Accorded gifts and knew not they were gifts-- +If I grew mad at last with enterprise +And must behold my beauty in her bower +Or perish--(I was ignorant of even +My own desires--what then were you?) if sorrow-- +Sin--if the end came--must I now renounce +My reason, blind myself to light, say truth +Is false and lie to God and my own soul? +Contempt were all of this! + +MILDRED. Do you believe... +Or, Henry, I'll not wrong you--you believe +That I was ignorant. I scarce grieve o'er +The past. We'll love on; you will love me still. + +MERTOUN. Oh, to love less what one has injured! Dove, +Whose pinion I have rashly hurt, my breast-- +Shall my heart's warmth not nurse thee into strength? +Flower I have crushed, shall I not care for thee? +Bloom o'er my crest, my fight-mark and device! +Mildred, I love you and you love me. + +MILDRED. Go! +Be that your last word. I shall sleep to-night. + +MERTOUN. This is not our last meeting? + +MILDRED. One night more. + +MERTOUN. And then--think, then! + +MILDRED. Then, no sweet courtship-days, +No dawning consciousness of love for us, +No strange and palpitating births of sense +>From words and looks, no innocent fears and hopes, +Reserves and confidences: morning's over! + +MERTOUN. How else should love's perfected noontide follow? +All the dawn promised shall the day perform. + +MILDRED. So may it be! but-- + You are cautious, Love? +Are sure that unobserved you scaled the walls? + +MERTOUN. Oh, trust me! Then our final meeting's fixed +To-morrow night? + +MILDRED. Farewell! stay, Henry... wherefore? +His foot is on the yew-tree bough; the turf +Receives him: now the moonlight as he runs +Embraces him--but he must go--is gone. +Ah, once again he turns--thanks, thanks, my Love! +He's gone. Oh, I'll believe him every word! +I was so young, I loved him so, I had +No mother, God forgot me, and I fell. +There may be pardon yet: all's doubt beyond! +Surely the bitterness of death is past. + + + ACT II + + SCENE.--The Library + + Enter LORD TRESHAM, hastily + +TRESHAM. This way! In, Gerard, quick! + [As GERARD enters, TRESHAM secures the door.] + Now speak! or, wait-- +I'll bid you speak directly. + [Seats himself.] + Now repeat +Firmly and circumstantially the tale +You just now told me; it eludes me; either +I did not listen, or the half is gone +Away from me. How long have you lived here? +Here in my house, your father kept our woods +Before you? + +GERARD. --As his father did, my lord. +I have been eating, sixty years almost, +Your bread. + +TRESHAM. Yes, yes. You ever were of all +The servants in my father's house, I know, +The trusted one. You'll speak the truth. + +GERARD. I'll speak +God's truth. Night after night... + +TRESHAM. Since when? + +GERARD. At least +A month--each midnight has some man access +To Lady Mildred's chamber. + +TRESHAM. Tush, "access"-- +No wide words like "access" to me! + +GERARD. He runs +Along the woodside, crosses to the South, +Takes the left tree that ends the avenue... + +TRESHAM. The last great yew-tree? + +GERARD. You might stand upon +The main boughs like a platform. Then he... + +TRESHAM. Quick! + +GERARD. Climbs up, and, where they lessen at the top, +--I cannot see distinctly, but he throws, +I think--for this I do not vouch--a line +That reaches to the lady's casement-- + +TRESHAM. --Which +He enters not! Gerard, some wretched fool +Dares pry into my sister's privacy! +When such are young, it seems a precious thing +To have approached,--to merely have approached, +Got sight of the abode of her they set +Their frantic thoughts upon. Ha does not enter? +Gerard? + +GERARD. There is a lamp that's full i' the midst. +Under a red square in the painted glass +Of Lady Mildred's... + +TRESHAM. Leave that name out! Well? +That lamp? + +GERARD. Is moved at midnight higher up +To one pane--a small dark-blue pane; he waits +For that among the boughs: at sight of that, +I see him, plain as I see you, my lord, +Open the lady's casement, enter there... + +TRESHAM. --And stay? + +GERARD. An hour, two hours. + +TRESHAM. And this you saw +Once?--twice?--quick! + +GERARD. Twenty times. + +TRESHAM. And what brings you +Under the yew-trees? + +GERARD. The first night I left +My range so far, to track the stranger stag +That broke the pale, I saw the man. + +TRESHAM. Yet sent +No cross-bow shaft through the marauder? + +GERARD. But +He came, my lord, the first time he was seen, +In a great moonlight, light as any day, +FROM Lady Mildred's chamber. + +TRESHAM [after a pause]. You have no cause +--Who could have cause to do my sister wrong? + +GERARD. Oh, my lord, only once--let me this once +Speak what is on my mind! Since first I noted +All this, I've groaned as if a fiery net +Plucked me this way and that--fire if I turned +To her, fire if I turned to you, and fire +If down I flung myself and strove to die. +The lady could not have been seven years old +When I was trusted to conduct her safe +Through the deer-herd to stroke the snow-white fawn +I brought to eat bread from her tiny hand +Within a month. She ever had a smile +To greet me with--she... if it could undo +What's done, to lop each limb from off this trunk... +All that is foolish talk, not fit for you-- +I mean, I could not speak and bring her hurt +For Heaven's compelling. But when I was fixed +To hold my peace, each morsel of your food +Eaten beneath your roof, my birth-place too, +Choked me. I wish I had grown mad in doubts +What it behoved me do. This morn it seemed +Either I must confess to you or die: +Now it is done, I seem the vilest worm +That crawls, to have betrayed my lady. + +TRESHAM. No-- +No, Gerard! + +GERARD. Let me go! + +TRESHAM. A man, you say: +What man? Young? Not a vulgar hind? What dress? + +GERARD. A slouched hat and a large dark foreign cloak +Wraps his whole form; even his face is hid; +But I should judge him young: no hind, be sure! + +TRESHAM. Why? + +GERARD. He is ever armed: his sword projects +Beneath the cloak. + +TRESHAM. Gerard,--I will not say +No word, no breath of this! + +GERARD. Thank, thanks, my lord! + [Goes.] + +TRESHAM [paces the room. After a pause]. +Oh, thoughts absurd!--as with some monstrous fact +Which, when ill thoughts beset us, seems to give +Merciful God that made the sun and stars, +The waters and the green delights of earth, +The lie! I apprehend the monstrous fact-- +Yet know the maker of all worlds is good, +And yield my reason up, inadequate +To reconcile what yet I do behold-- +Blasting my sense! There's cheerful day outside: +This is my library, and this the chair +My father used to sit in carelessly +After his soldier-fashion, while I stood +Between his knees to question him: and here +Gerard our grey retainer,--as he says, +Fed with our food, from sire to son, an age,-- +Has told a story--I am to believe! +That Mildred... oh, no, no! both tales are true, +Her pure cheek's story and the forester's! +Would she, or could she, err--much less, confound +All guilts of treachery, of craft, of... Heaven +Keep me within its hand!--I will sit here +Until thought settle and I see my course. +Avert, oh God, only this woe from me! + [As he sinks his head between his arms on the table, + GUENDOLEN'S voice is heard at the door.] + +Lord Tresham! + [She knocks.] + Is Lord Tresham there? + + [TRESHAM, hastily turning, pulls down the first book + above him and opens it.] + +TRESHAM. Come in! + [She enters.] +Ha, Guendolen!--good morning. + +GUENDOLEN. Nothing more? + +TRESHAM. What should I say more? + +GUENDOLEN. Pleasant question! more? +This more. Did I besiege poor Mildred's brain +Last night till close on morning with "the Earl," +"The Earl"--whose worth did I asseverate +Till I am very fain to hope that... Thorold, +What is all this? You are not well! + +TRESHAM. Who, I? +You laugh at me. + +GUENDOLEN. Has what I'm fain to hope, +Arrived then? Does that huge tome show some blot +In the Earl's 'scutcheon come no longer back +Than Arthur's time? + +TRESHAM. When left you Mildred's chamber? + +GUENDOLEN. Oh, late enough, I told you! The main thing +To ask is, how I left her chamber,--sure, +Content yourself, she'll grant this paragon +Of Earls no such ungracious... + +TRESHAM. Send her here! + +GUENDOLEN. Thorold? + +TRESHAM. I mean--acquaint her, Guendolen, +--But mildly! + +GUENDOLEN. Mildly? + +TRESHAM. Ah, you guessed aright! +I am not well: there is no hiding it. +But tell her I would see her at her leisure-- +That is, at once! here in the library! +The passage in that old Italian book +We hunted for so long is found, say, found-- +And if I let it slip again... you see, +That she must come--and instantly! + +GUENDOLEN. I'll die +Piecemeal, record that, if there have not gloomed +Some blot i' the 'scutcheon! + +TRESHAM. Go! or, Guendolen, +Be you at call,--With Austin, if you choose,-- +In the adjoining gallery! There go! + [GUENDOLEN goes.] +Another lesson to me! You might bid +A child disguise his heart's sore, and conduct +Some sly investigation point by point +With a smooth brow, as well as bid me catch +The inquisitorial cleverness some praise. +If you had told me yesterday, "There's one +You needs must circumvent and practise with, +Entrap by policies, if you would worm +The truth out: and that one is--Mildred!" There, +There--reasoning is thrown away on it! +Prove she's unchaste... why, you may after prove +That she's a poisoner, traitress, what you will! +Where I can comprehend nought, nought's to say, +Or do, or think. Force on me but the first +Abomination,--then outpour all plagues, +And I shall ne'er make count of them. + + Enter MILDRED + +MILDRED. What book +Is it I wanted, Thorold? Guendolen +Thought you were pale; you are not pale. That book? +That's Latin surely. + +TRESHAM. Mildred, here's a line, +(Don't lean on me: I'll English it for you) +"Love conquers all things." What love conquers them? +What love should you esteem--best love? + +MILDRED. True love. + +TRESHAM. I mean, and should have said, whose love is best +Of all that love or that profess to love? + +MILDRED. +The list's so long: there's father's, mother's, husband's... + +TRESHAM. Mildred, I do believe a brother's love +For a sole sister must exceed them all. +For see now, only see! there's no alloy +Of earth that creeps into the perfect'st gold +Of other loves--no gratitude to claim; +You never gave her life, not even aught +That keeps life--never tended her, instructed, +Enriched her--so, your love can claim no right +O'er her save pure love's claim: that's what I call +Freedom from earthliness. You'll never hope +To be such friends, for instance, she and you, +As when you hunted cowslips in the woods, +Or played together in the meadow hay. +Oh yes--with age, respect comes, and your worth +Is felt, there's growing sympathy of tastes, +There's ripened friendship, there's confirmed esteem: +--Much head these make against the newcomer! +The startling apparition, the strange youth-- +Whom one half-hour's conversing with, or, say, +Mere gazing at, shall change (beyond all change +This Ovid ever sang about) your soul +...Her soul, that is,--the sister's soul! With her +'Twas winter yesterday; now, all is warmth, +The green leaf's springing and the turtle's voice, +"Arise and come away!" Come whither?--far +Enough from the esteem, respect, and all +The brother's somewhat insignificant +Array of rights! All which he knows before, +Has calculated on so long ago! +I think such love, (apart from yours and mine,) +Contented with its little term of life, +Intending to retire betimes, aware +How soon the background must be placed for it, +--I think, am sure, a brother's love exceeds +All the world's love in its unworldliness. + +MILDRED. What is this for? + +TRESHAM. This, Mildred, is it for! +Or, no, I cannot go to it so soon! +That's one of many points my haste left out-- +Each day, each hour throws forth its silk-slight film +Between the being tied to you by birth, +And you, until those slender threads compose +A web that shrouds her daily life of hopes +And fears and fancies, all her life, from yours: +So close you live and yet so far apart! +And must I rend this web, tear up, break down +The sweet and palpitating mystery +That makes her sacred? You--for you I mean, +Shall I speak, shall I not speak? + +MILDRED. Speak! + +TRESHAM. I will. +Is there a story men could--any man +Could tell of you, you would conceal from me? +I'll never think there's falsehood on that lip. +Say "There is no such story men could tell," +And I'll believe you, though I disbelieve +The world--the world of better men than I, +And women such as I suppose you. Speak! + [After a pause.] +Not speak? Explain then! Clear it up then! Move +Some of the miserable weight away +That presses lower than the grave. Not speak? +Some of the dead weight, Mildred! Ah, if I +Could bring myself to plainly make their charge +Against you! Must I, Mildred? Silent still? + [After a pause.] +Is there a gallant that has night by night +Admittance to your chamber? + [After a pause.] + Then, his name! +Till now, I only had a thought for you: +But now,--his name! + +MILDRED. Thorold, do you devise +Fit expiation for my guilt, if fit +There be! 'Tis nought to say that I'll endure +And bless you,--that my spirit yearns to purge +Her stains off in the fierce renewing fire: +But do not plunge me into other guilt! +Oh, guilt enough! I cannot tell his name. + +TRESHAM. Then judge yourself! How should I act? Pronounce! + +MILDRED. Oh, Thorold, you must never tempt me thus! +To die here in this chamber by that sword +Would seem like punishment: so should I glide, +Like an arch-cheat, into extremest bliss! +'Twere easily arranged for me: but you-- +What would become of you? + +TRESHAM. And what will now +Become of me? I'll hide your shame and mine +>From every eye; the dead must heave their hearts +Under the marble of our chapel-floor; +They cannot rise and blast you. You may wed +Your paramour above our mother's tomb; +Our mother cannot move from 'neath your foot. +We too will somehow wear this one day out: +But with to-morrow hastens here--the Earl! +The youth without suspicion. Face can come +>From Heaven and heart from... whence proceed such hearts? +I have dispatched last night at your command +A missive bidding him present himself +To-morrow--here--thus much is said; the rest +Is understood as if 'twere written down-- +"His suit finds favor in your eyes." Now dictate +This morning's letter that shall countermand +Last night's--do dictate that! + +MILDRED. But, Thorold--if +I will receive him as I said? + +TRESHAM. The Earl? + +MILDRED. I will receive him. + +TRESHAM [starting up]. Ho there! Guendolen! + GUENDOLEN and AUSTIN enter +And, Austin, you are welcome, too! Look there! +The woman there! + +AUSTIN and GUENDOLEN. How? Mildred? + +TRESHAM. Mildred once! +Now the receiver night by night, when sleep +Blesses the inmates of her father's house, +--I say, the soft sly wanton that receives +Her guilt's accomplice 'neath this roof which holds +You, Guendolen, you, Austin, and has held +A thousand Treshams--never one like her! +No lighter of the signal-lamp her quick +Foul breath near quenches in hot eagerness +To mix with breath as foul! no loosener +O' the lattice, practised in the stealthy tread, +The low voice and the noiseless come-and-go! +Not one composer of the bacchant's mien +Into--what you thought Mildred's, in a word! +Know her! + +GUENDOLEN. Oh, Mildred, look to me, at least! +Thorold--she's dead, I'd say, but that she stands +Rigid as stone and whiter! + +TRESHAM. You have heard... + +GUENDOLEN. Too much! You must proceed no further. + +MILDRED. Yes-- +Proceed! All's truth. Go from me! + +TRESHAM. All is truth, +She tells you! Well, you know, or ought to know, +All this I would forgive in her. I'd con +Each precept the harsh world enjoins, I'd take +Our ancestors' stern verdicts one by one, +I'd bind myself before then to exact +The prescribed vengeance--and one word of hers, +The sight of her, the bare least memory +Of Mildred, my one sister, my heart's pride +Above all prides, my all in all so long, +Would scatter every trace of my resolve. +What were it silently to waste away +And see her waste away from this day forth, +Two scathed things with leisure to repent, +And grow acquainted with the grave, and die +Tired out if not at peace, and be forgotten? +It were not so impossible to bear. +But this--that, fresh from last night's pledge renewed +Of love with the successful gallant there, +She calmly bids me help her to entice, +Inveigle an unconscious trusting youth +Who thinks her all that's chaste and good and pure, +--Invites me to betray him... who so fit +As honour's self to cover shame's arch-deed? +--That she'll receive Lord Mertoun--(her own phrase)-- +This, who could bear? Why, you have heard of thieves, +Stabbers, the earth's disgrace, who yet have laughed, +"Talk not to me of torture--I'll betray +No comrade I've pledged faith to!"--you have heard +Of wretched women--all but Mildreds--tied +By wild illicit ties to losels vile +You'd tempt them to forsake; and they'll reply +"Gold, friends, repute, I left for him, I find +In him, why should I leave him then, for gold, +Repute or friends?"--and you have felt your heart +Respond to such poor outcasts of the world +As to so many friends; bad as you please, +You've felt they were God's men and women still, +So, not to be disowned by you. But she +That stands there, calmly gives her lover up +As means to wed the Earl that she may hide +Their intercourse the surelier: and, for this, +I curse her to her face before you all. +Shame hunt her from the earth! Then Heaven do right +To both! It hears me now--shall judge her then! + [AS MILDRED faints and falls, TRESHAM rushes out.] + +AUSTIN. Stay, Tresham, we'll accompany you! + +GUENDOLEN. We? +What, and leave Mildred? We? Why, where's my place +But by her side, and where yours but by mine? +Mildred--one word! Only look at me, then! + +AUSTIN. No, Guendolen! I echo Thorold's voice. +She is unworthy to behold... + +GUENDOLEN. Us two? +If you spoke on reflection, and if I +Approved your speech--if you (to put the thing +At lowest) you the soldier, bound to make +The king's cause yours and fight for it, and throw +Regard to others of its right or wrong, +--If with a death-white woman you can help, +Let alone sister, let alone a Mildred, +You left her--or if I, her cousin, friend +This morning, playfellow but yesterday, +Who said, or thought at least a thousand times, +"I'd serve you if I could," should now face round +And say, "Ah, that's to only signify +I'd serve you while you're fit to serve yourself: +So long as fifty eyes await the turn +Of yours to forestall its yet half-formed wish, +I'll proffer my assistance you'll not need-- +When every tongue is praising you, I'll join +The praisers' chorus--when you're hemmed about +With lives between you and detraction--lives +To be laid down if a rude voice, rash eye, +Rough hand should violate the sacred ring +Their worship throws about you,--then indeed, +Who'll stand up for you stout as I?" If so +We said, and so we did,--not Mildred there +Would be unworthy to behold us both, +But we should be unworthy, both of us. +To be beheld by--by--your meanest dog, +Which, if that sword were broken in your face +Before a crowd, that badge torn off your breast, +And you cast out with hooting and contempt, +--Would push his way thro' all the hooters, gain +Your side, go off with you and all your shame +To the next ditch you choose to die in! Austin, +Do you love me? Here's Austin, Mildred,--here's +Your brother says he does not believe half-- +No, nor half that--of all he heard! He says, +Look up and take his hand! + +AUSTIN. Look up and take +My hand, dear Mildred! + +MILDRED. I--I was so young! +Beside, I loved him, Thorold--and I had +No mother; God forgot me: so, I fell. + +GUENDOLEN. Mildred! + +MILDRED. Require no further! Did I dream +That I could palliate what is done? All's true. +Now, punish me! A woman takes my hand? +Let go my hand! You do not know, I see. +I thought that Thorold told you. + +GUENDOLEN. What is this? +Where start you to? + +MILDRED. Oh, Austin, loosen me! +You heard the whole of it--your eyes were worse, +In their surprise, than Thorold's! Oh, unless +You stay to execute his sentence, loose +My hand! Has Thorold gone, and are you here? + +GUENDOLEN. Here, Mildred, we two friends of yours will wait +Your bidding; be you silent, sleep or muse! +Only, when you shall want your bidding done, +How can we do it if we are not by? +Here's Austin waiting patiently your will! +One spirit to command, and one to love +And to believe in it and do its best, +Poor as that is, to help it--why, the world +Has been won many a time, its length and breadth, +By just such a beginning! + +MILDRED. I believe +If once I threw my arms about your neck +And sunk my head upon your breast, that I +Should weep again. + +GUENDOLEN. Let go her hand now, Austin! +Wait for me. Pace the gallery and think +On the world's seemings and realities, +Until I call you. + [AUSTIN goes.] + +MILDRED. No--I cannot weep. +No more tears from this brain--no sleep--no tears! +O Guendolen, I love you! + +GUENDOLEN. Yes: and "love" +Is a short word that says so very much! +It says that you confide in me. + +MILDRED. Confide! + +GUENDOLEN. Your lover's name, then! I've so much to learn, +Ere I can work in your behalf! + +MILDRED. My friend, +You know I cannot tell his name. + +GUENDOLEN. At least +He is your lover? and you love him too? + +MILDRED. Ah, do you ask me that,--but I am fallen +So low! + +GUENDOLEN. You love him still, then? + +MILDRED. My sole prop +Against the guilt that crushes me! I say, +Each night ere I lie down, "I was so young-- +I had no mother, and I loved him so!" +And then God seems indulgent, and I dare +Trust him my soul in sleep. + +GUENDOLEN. How could you let us +E'en talk to you about Lord Mertoun then? + +MILDRED. There is a cloud around me. + +GUENDOLEN. But you said +You would receive his suit in spite of this? + +MILDRED. I say there is a cloud... + +GUENDOLEN. No cloud to me! +Lord Mertoun and your lover are the same! + +MILDRED. What maddest fancy... + +GUENDOLEN [calling aloud.] Austin! (spare your pains-- +When I have got a truth, that truth I keep)-- + +MILDRED. By all you love, sweet Guendolen, forbear! +Have I confided in you... + +GUENDOLEN. Just for this! +Austin!--Oh, not to guess it at the first! +But I did guess it--that is, I divined, +Felt by an instinct how it was: why else +Should I pronounce you free from all that heap +Of sins which had been irredeemable? +I felt they were not yours--what other way +Than this, not yours? The secret's wholly mine! + +MILDRED. If you would see me die before his face... + +GUENDOLEN. I'd hold my peace! And if the Earl returns +To-night? + +MILDRED. Ah Heaven, he's lost! + +GUENDOLEN. I thought so. Austin! + Enter AUSTIN +Oh, where have you been hiding? + +AUSTIN. Thorold's gone, +I know not how, across the meadow-land. +I watched him till I lost him in the skirts +O' the beech-wood. + +GUENDOLEN. Gone? All thwarts us. + +MILDRED. Thorold too? + +GUENDOLEN. I have thought. First lead this Mildred to her room. +Go on the other side; and then we'll seek +Your brother: and I'll tell you, by the way, +The greatest comfort in the world. You said +There was a clue to all. Remember, Sweet, +He said there was a clue! I hold it. Come! + + + ACT III + + SCENE I.--The end of the Yew-tree Avenue under MILDRED'S Window. + A light seen through a central red pane + + Enter TRESHAM through the trees + +Again here! But I cannot lose myself. +The heath--the orchard--I have traversed glades +And dells and bosky paths which used to lead +Into green wild-wood depths, bewildering +My boy's adventurous step. And now they tend +Hither or soon or late; the blackest shade +Breaks up, the thronged trunks of the trees ope wide, +And the dim turret I have fled from, fronts +Again my step; the very river put +Its arm about me and conducted me +To this detested spot. Why then, I'll shun +Their will no longer: do your will with me! +Oh, bitter! To have reared a towering scheme +Of happiness, and to behold it razed, +Were nothing: all men hope, and see their hopes +Frustrate, and grieve awhile, and hope anew. +But I... to hope that from a line like ours +No horrid prodigy like this would spring, +Were just as though I hoped that from these old +Confederates against the sovereign day, +Children of older and yet older sires, +Whose living coral berries dropped, as now +On me, on many a baron's surcoat once, +On many a beauty's whimple--would proceed +No poison-tree, to thrust, from hell its root, +Hither and thither its strange snaky arms. +Why came I here? What must I do? + [A bell strikes.] + A bell? +Midnight! and 'tis at midnight... Ah, I catch +--Woods, river, plains, I catch your meaning now, +And I obey you! Hist! This tree will serve. + [He retires behind one of the trees. After a pause, + enter MERTOUN cloaked as before.] + +MERTOUN. Not time! Beat out thy last voluptuous beat +Of hope and fear, my heart! I thought the clock +I' the chapel struck as I was pushing through +The ferns. And so I shall no more see rise +My love-star! Oh, no matter for the past! +So much the more delicious task to watch +Mildred revive: to pluck out, thorn by thorn, +All traces of the rough forbidden path +My rash love lured her to! Each day must see +Some fear of hers effaced, some hope renewed: +Then there will be surprises, unforeseen +Delights in store. I'll not regret the past. + [The light is placed above in the purple pane.] +And see, my signal rises, Mildred's star! +I never saw it lovelier than now +It rises for the last time. If it sets, +'Tis that the re-assuring sun may dawn. + [As he prepares to ascend the last tree of the avenue, + TRESHAM arrests his arm.] +Unhand me--peasant, by your grasp! Here's gold. +'Twas a mad freak of mine. I said I'd pluck +A branch from the white-blossomed shrub beneath +The casement there. Take this, and hold your peace. + +TRESHAM. Into the moonlight yonder, come with me! +Out of the shadow! + +MERTOUN. I am armed, fool! + +TRESHAM. Yes, +Or no? You'll come into the light, or no? +My hand is on your throat--refuse!-- + +MERTOUN. That voice! +Where have I heard... no--that was mild and slow. +I'll come with you. + [They advance.] + +TRESHAM. You're armed: that's well. Declare +Your name: who are you? + +MERTOUN. (Tresham!--she is lost!) + +TRESHAM. Oh, silent? Do you know, you bear yourself +Exactly as, in curious dreams I've had +How felons, this wild earth is full of, look +When they're detected, still your kind has looked! +The bravo holds an assured countenance, +The thief is voluble and plausible, +But silently the slave of lust has crouched +When I have fancied it before a man. +Your name! + +MERTOUN. I do conjure Lord Tresham--ay, +Kissing his foot, if so I might prevail-- +That he for his own sake forbear to ask +My name! As heaven's above, his future weal +Or woe depends upon my silence! Vain! +I read your white inexorable face. +Know me, Lord Tresham! + [He throws off his disguises.] + +TRESHAM. Mertoun! + [After a pause.] + Draw now! + +MERTOUN. Hear me +But speak first! + +TRESHAM. Not one least word on your life! +Be sure that I will strangle in your throat +The least word that informs me how you live +And yet seem what you seem! No doubt 'twas you +Taught Mildred still to keep that face and sin. +We should join hands in frantic sympathy +If you once taught me the unteachable, +Explained how you can live so and so lie. +With God's help I retain, despite my sense, +The old belief--a life like yours is still +Impossible. Now draw! + +MERTOUN. Not for my sake, +Do I entreat a hearing--for your sake, +And most, for her sake! + +TRESHAM. Ha, ha, what should I +Know of your ways? A miscreant like yourself, +How must one rouse his ire? A blow?--that's pride +No doubt, to him! One spurns him, does one not? +Or sets the foot upon his mouth, or spits +Into his face! Come! Which, or all of these? + +MERTOUN. 'Twixt him and me and Mildred, Heaven be judge! +Can I avoid this? Have your will, my lord! + [He draws and, after a few passes, falls.] + +TRESHAM. You are not hurt? + +MERTOUN. You'll hear me now! + +TRESHAM. But rise! + +MERTOUN. Ah, Tresham, say I not "you'll hear me now!" +And what procures a man the right to speak +In his defence before his fellow man, +But--I suppose--the thought that presently +He may have leave to speak before his God +His whole defence? + +TRESHAM. Not hurt? It cannot be! +You made no effort to resist me. Where +Did my sword reach you? Why not have returned +My thrusts? Hurt where? + +MERTOUN. My lord-- + +TRESHAM. How young he is! + +MERTOUN. Lord Tresham, I am very young, and yet +I have entangled other lives with mine. +Do let me speak, and do believe my speech! +That when I die before you presently,-- + +TRESHAM. Can you stay here till I return with help? + +MERTOUN. Oh, stay by me! When I was less than boy +I did you grievous wrong and knew it not-- +Upon my honour, knew it not! Once known, +I could not find what seemed a better way +To right you than I took: my life--you feel +How less than nothing were the giving you +The life you've taken! But I thought my way +The better--only for your sake and hers: +And as you have decided otherwise, +Would I had an infinity of lives +To offer you! Now say--instruct me--think! +Can you, from the brief minutes I have left, +Eke out my reparation? Oh think--think! +For I must wring a partial--dare I say, +Forgiveness from you, ere I die? + +TRESHAM. I do +Forgive you. + +MERTOUN. Wait and ponder that great word! +Because, if you forgive me, I shall hope +To speak to you of--Mildred! + +TRESHAM. Mertoun, haste +And anger have undone us. 'Tis not you +Should tell me for a novelty you're young, +Thoughtless, unable to recall the past. +Be but your pardon ample as my own! + +MERTOUN. Ah, Tresham, that a sword-stroke and a drop +Of blood or two, should bring all this about +Why, 'twas my very fear of you, my love +Of you--(what passion like a boy's for one +Like you?)--that ruined me! I dreamed of you-- +You, all accomplished, courted everywhere, +The scholar and the gentleman. I burned +To knit myself to you: but I was young, +And your surpassing reputation kept me +So far aloof! Oh, wherefore all that love? +With less of love, my glorious yesterday +Of praise and gentlest words and kindest looks, +Had taken place perchance six months ago. +Even now, how happy we had been! And yet +I know the thought of this escaped you, Tresham! +Let me look up into your face; I feel +'Tis changed above me: yet my eyes are glazed. +Where? where? + [As he endeavours to raise himself, his eye catches the lamp.] + Ah, Mildred! What will Mildred do? +Tresham, her life is bound up in the life +That's bleeding fast away! I'll live--must live, +There, if you'll only turn me I shall live +And save her! Tresham--oh, had you but heard! +Had you but heard! What right was yours to set +The thoughtless foot upon her life and mine, +And then say, as we perish, "Had I thought, +All had gone otherwise"? We've sinned and die: +Never you sin, Lord Tresham! for you'll die, +And God will judge you. + +TRESHAM. Yes, be satisfied! +That process is begun. + +MERTOUN. And she sits there +Waiting for me! Now, say you this to her-- +You, not another--say, I saw him die +As he breathed this, "I love her"--you don't know +What those three small words mean! Say, loving her +Lowers me down the bloody slope to death +With memories... I speak to her, not you, +Who had no pity, will have no remorse, +Perchance intend her... Die along with me, +Dear Mildred! 'tis so easy, and you'll 'scape +So much unkindness! Can I lie at rest, +With rude speech spoken to you, ruder deeds +Done to you?--heartless men shall have my heart, +And I tied down with grave-clothes and the worm, +Aware, perhaps, of every blow--oh God!-- +Upon those lips--yet of no power to tear +The felon stripe by stripe! Die, Mildred! Leave +Their honourable world to them! For God +We're good enough, though the world casts us out. + [A whistle is heard.] + +TRESHAM. Ho, Gerard! + Enter GERARD, AUSTIN and GUENDOLEN, with lights + No one speak! You see what's done. +I cannot bear another voice. + +MERTOUN. There's light-- +Light all about me, and I move to it. +Tresham, did I not tell you--did you not +Just promise to deliver words of mine +To Mildred? + +TRESHAM. I will bear those words to her. + +MERTOUN. Now? + +TRESHAM. Now. Lift you the body, and leave me +The head. + [As they have half raised MERTOUN, he turns suddenly.] + +MERTOUN. I knew they turned me: turn me not from her! +There! stay you! there! + [Dies.] + +GUENDOLEN [after a pause]. Austin, remain you here +With Thorold until Gerard comes with help: +Then lead him to his chamber. I must go +To Mildred. + +TRESHAM. Guendolen, I hear each word +You utter. Did you hear him bid me give +His message? Did you hear my promise? I, +And only I, see Mildred. + +GUENDOLEN. She will die. + +TRESHAM. Oh no, she will not die! I dare not hope +She'll die. What ground have you to think she'll die? +Why, Austin's with you! + +AUSTIN. Had we but arrived +Before you fought! + +TRESHAM. There was no fight at all. +He let me slaughter him--the boy! I'll trust +The body there to you and Gerard--thus! +Now bear him on before me. + +AUSTIN. Whither bear him? + +TRESHAM. Oh, to my chamber! When we meet there next, +We shall be friends. + [They bear out the body of MERTOUN.] + Will she die, Guendolen? + +GUENDOLEN. Where are you taking me? + +TRESHAM. He fell just here. +Now answer me. Shall you in your whole life +--You who have nought to do with Mertoun's fate, +Now you have seen his breast upon the turf, +Shall you e'er walk this way if you can help? +When you and Austin wander arm-in-arm +Through our ancestral grounds, will not a shade +Be ever on the meadow and the waste-- +Another kind of shade than when the night +Shuts the woodside with all its whispers up? +But will you ever so forget his breast +As carelessly to cross this bloody turf +Under the black yew avenue? That's well! +You turn your head: and I then?-- + +GUENDOLEN. What is done +Is done. My care is for the living. Thorold, +Bear up against this burden: more remains +To set the neck to! + +TRESHAM. Dear and ancient trees +My fathers planted, and I loved so well! +What have I done that, like some fabled crime +Of yore, lets loose a Fury leading thus +Her miserable dance amidst you all? +Oh, never more for me shall winds intone +With all your tops a vast antiphony, +Demanding and responding in God's praise! +Hers ye are now, not mine! Farewell--farewell! + + + SCENE II.--MILDRED'S Chamber + MILDRED alone + +He comes not! I have heard of those who seemed +Resourceless in prosperity,--you thought +Sorrow might slay them when she listed; yet +Did they so gather up their diffused strength +At her first menace, that they bade her strike, +And stood and laughed her subtlest skill to scorn. +Oh, 'tis not so with me! The first woe fell, +And the rest fall upon it, not on me: +Else should I bear that Henry comes not?--fails +Just this first night out of so many nights? +Loving is done with. Were he sitting now, +As so few hours since, on that seat, we'd love +No more--contrive no thousand happy ways +To hide love from the loveless, any more. +I think I might have urged some little point +In my defence, to Thorold; he was breathless +For the least hint of a defence: but no, +The first shame over, all that would might fall. +No Henry! Yet I merely sit and think +The morn's deed o'er and o'er. I must have crept +Out of myself. A Mildred that has lost +Her lover--oh, I dare not look upon +Such woe! I crouch away from it! 'Tis she, +Mildred, will break her heart, not I! The world +Forsakes me: only Henry's left me--left? +When I have lost him, for he does not come, +And I sit stupidly... Oh Heaven, break up +This worse than anguish, this mad apathy, +By any means or any messenger! + +TRESHAM [without]. Mildred! + +MILDRED. Come in! Heaven hears me! + [Enter TRESHAM.] + You? alone? +Oh, no more cursing! + +TRESHAM. Mildred, I must sit. +There--you sit! + +MILDRED. Say it, Thorold--do not look +The curse! deliver all you come to say! +What must become of me? Oh, speak that thought +Which makes your brow and cheeks so pale! + +TRESHAM. My thought? + +MILDRED. All of it! + +TRESHAM. How we waded years--ago-- +After those water-lilies, till the plash, +I know not how, surprised us; and you dared +Neither advance nor turn back: so, we stood +Laughing and crying until Gerard came-- +Once safe upon the turf, the loudest too, +For once more reaching the relinquished prize! +How idle thoughts are, some men's, dying men's! +Mildred,-- + +MILDRED. You call me kindlier by my name +Than even yesterday: what is in that? + +TRESHAM. It weighs so much upon my mind that I +This morning took an office not my own! +I might... of course, I must be glad or grieved, +Content or not, at every little thing +That touches you. I may with a wrung heart +Even reprove you, Mildred; I did more: +Will you forgive me? + +MILDRED. Thorold? do you mock? +Oh no... and yet you bid me... say that word! + +TRESHAM. Forgive me, Mildred!--are you silent, Sweet? + +MILDRED [starting up]. Why does not Henry Mertoun come to-night? +Are you, too, silent? + [Dashing his mantle aside, and pointing to his scabbard, + which is empty.] + Ah, this speaks for you! +You've murdered Henry Mertoun! Now proceed! +What is it I must pardon? This and all? +Well, I do pardon you--I think I do. +Thorold, how very wretched you must be! + +TRESHAM. He bade me tell you... + +MILDRED. What I do forbid +Your utterance of! So much that you may tell +And will not--how you murdered him... but, no! +You'll tell me that he loved me, never more +Than bleeding out his life there: must I say +"Indeed," to that? Enough! I pardon you. + +TRESHAM. You cannot, Mildred! for the harsh words, yes: +Of this last deed Another's judge: whose doom +I wait in doubt, despondency and fear. + +MILDRED. Oh, true! There's nought for me to pardon! True! +You loose my soul of all its cares at once. +Death makes me sure of him for ever! You +Tell me his last words? He shall tell me them, +And take my answer--not in words, but reading +Himself the heart I had to read him late, +Which death... + +TRESHAM. Death? You are dying too? Well said +Of Guendolen! I dared not hope you'd die: +But she was sure of it. + +MILDRED. Tell Guendolen +I loved her, and tell Austin... + +TRESHAM. Him you loved: +And me? + +MILDRED. Ah, Thorold! Was't not rashly done +To quench that blood, on fire with youth and hope +And love of me--whom you loved too, and yet +Suffered to sit here waiting his approach +While you were slaying him? Oh, doubtlessly +You let him speak his poor confused boy's-speech +--Do his poor utmost to disarm your wrath +And respite me!--you let him try to give +The story of our love and ignorance, +And the brief madness and the long despair-- +You let him plead all this, because your code +Of honour bids you hear before you strike: +But at the end, as he looked up for life +Into your eyes--you struck him down! + +TRESHAM. No! No! +Had I but heard him--had I let him speak +Half the truth--less--had I looked long on him +I had desisted! Why, as he lay there, +The moon on his flushed cheek, I gathered all +The story ere he told it: I saw through +The troubled surface of his crime and yours +A depth of purity immovable, +Had I but glanced, where all seemed turbidest +Had gleamed some inlet to the calm beneath; +I would not glance: my punishment's at hand. +There, Mildred, is the truth! and you--say on-- +You curse me? + +MILDRED. As I dare approach that Heaven +Which has not bade a living thing despair, +Which needs no code to keep its grace from stain, +But bids the vilest worm that turns on it +Desist and be forgiven,--I--forgive not, +But bless you, Thorold, from my soul of souls! + [Falls on his neck.] +There! Do not think too much upon the past! +The cloud that's broke was all the same a cloud +While it stood up between my friend and you; +You hurt him 'neath its shadow: but is that +So past retrieve? I have his heart, you know; +I may dispose of it: I give it you! +It loves you as mine loves! Confirm me, Henry! + [Dies.] + +TRESHAM. I wish thee joy, Beloved! I am glad +In thy full gladness! + +GUENDOLEN [without]. Mildred! Tresham! + [Entering with AUSTIN.] + Thorold, +I could desist no longer. Ah, she swoons! +That's well. + +TRESHAM. Oh, better far than that! + +GUENDOLEN. She's dead! +Let me unlock her arms! + +TRESHAM. She threw them thus +About my neck, and blessed me, and then died: +You'll let them stay now, Guendolen! + +AUSTIN. Leave her +And look to him! What ails you, Thorold? + +GUENDOLEN. White +As she, and whiter! Austin! quick--this side! + +AUSTIN. A froth is oozing through his clenched teeth; +Both lips, where they're not bitten through, are black: +Speak, dearest Thorold! + +TRESHAM. Something does weigh down +My neck beside her weight: thanks: I should fall +But for you, Austin, I believe!--there, there, +'Twill pass away soon!--ah,--I had forgotten: +I am dying. + +GUENDOLEN. Thorold--Thorold--why was this? + +TRESHAM. I said, just as I drank the poison off, +The earth would be no longer earth to me, +The life out of all life was gone from me. +There are blind ways provided, the fore-done +Heart-weary player in this pageant-world +Drops out by, letting the main masque defile +By the conspicuous portal: I am through-- +Just through! + +GUENDOLEN. Don't leave him, Austin! Death is close. + +TRESHAM. Already Mildred's face is peacefuller, +I see you, Austin--feel you; here's my hand, +Put yours in it--you, Guendolen, yours too! +You're lord and lady now--you're Treshams; name +And fame are yours: you hold our 'scutcheon up. +Austin, no blot on it! You see how blood +Must wash one blot away: the first blot came +And the first blood came. To the vain world's eye +All's gules again: no care to the vain world, +>From whence the red was drawn! + +AUSTIN. No blot shall come! + +TRESHAM. I said that: yet it did come. Should it come, +Vengeance is God's, not man's. Remember me! + [Dies.] + +GUENDOLEN [letting fall the pulseless arm]. +Ah, Thorold, we can but--remember you! + + + +The End + + + + + +Comments on the preparation of this e-text: + +Closing brackets i.e. "]" have been added to some of the stage +directions. + +Leading blanks are reproduced from the printed text. Eg.: + + GUENDOLEN. Where are you taking me? + TRESHAM. He fell just here. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Blot In The 'Scutcheon, by Robert Browning + |