Plays of Near & Far Part 11

OOZIZI: The world would end.

QUEEN: It is quiet now; perhaps I need not fly.

OOZIZI: Lady, you must not.

QUEEN: And yet I would fain go over those green fields all gleaming with summer, and see the golden h.o.a.rds that no man guards, glittering with such a light as glows this June.

OOZIZI: O, speak not, great lady, of the green fields and June. It is these that have intoxicated the Princes so that they do this unrecorded thing, letting sound of them be heard in your sacred room.

QUEEN: Has June intoxicated them, Oozizi?

OOZIZI: Oh, lady, speak not of June.

QUEEN: Is June so terrible?

[_She returns towards_ OOZIZI.

OOZIZI: It does strange things.

[_The noise breaks out again._

Hark!

[_The_ QUEEN _runs to the door again._ OOZIZI _stretches out her arms to the_ QUEEN.

O, lady, never leave the golden palace.

[_The_ QUEEN _listens; all is silent; she looks outside._

QUEEN: I see the green fields gleaming. Strange flowers are standing among them, like princes I have not known.

OOZIZI: Oh, lady, speak not of the bewildering fields. They are all enchanted with Summer, and they have maddened the Princes. It is dangerous to look at them, lady.

[_The_ QUEEN _gazes on over the fields._

And yet you look.

QUEEN: I would fain go far over the strange soft fields; far and far to the high heathery lands----

OOZIZI: Lady, all is quiet; there is no danger; you must not leave the palace.

QUEEN: Yes, all is quiet.

[_The_ QUEEN _returns._

OOZIZI: It was a pa.s.sing madness seized the Princes.

QUEEN: Oozizi, when I hear the sound of all their feet it is dreadful, and I must fly. And when I see the wonderful fields in the sunlight sloping away to lands I have never known, then I long to fly away and away for ever, pa.s.sing from field to field and land to land.

OOZIZI: Lady, no, no!

QUEEN: Oozizi.

OOZIZI: Yes, great lady.

QUEEN: There is a mountain there that towers above the earth. It goes up into a calm of which our world knows nothing. Heaven, like a cloak, is draped about its shoulders. Why have none told me of this mountain, Oozizi?

OOZIZI (_awed_): Aether Mountain.

QUEEN: Why has none told me?

OOZIZI: When your glorious mother, lady, loved for a day ...

QUEEN: Yes, Oozizi ...

OOZIZI: She went, as all songs tell, to Aether Mountain.

QUEEN (_entranced_): To Aether Mountain?

OOZIZI: So they sing at evening, when they throw down their loads of gold and rest.

QUEEN: To Aether Mountain.

OOZIZI: Lady, Destiny sent her; but you must not go. You must not leave your throne to go to Aether Mountain.

QUEEN: There is a calm upon it not of earth.

OOZIZI: You must not go, lady, you must not go.

QUEEN: I will not go.

[_The Princes drum again, still louder with their heels._

Hark!

[OOZIZI _is frightened, The_ QUEEN _runs to the door._

It is louder! They are nearer! They are coming here!

OOZIZI: No, lady. They would not dare!

QUEEN: I must go, Oozizi; I must go.

OOZIZI: No, lady. They will never dare. You must not. Hark! They come no nearer. June has maddened them, but they come no nearer. They are quiet now. Come back, lady. Leave the door, they come no nearer. See, it is all quiet now. They come no nearer, lady. (OOZIZI _catches her by the sleeve._) Lady, you must not.

QUEEN (_much calmer, gazing away_): Oozizi, I must go.

OOZIZI: No, no, lady! All is quiet; you must not go.