Plays of Near & Far - novelonlinefull.com
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ANTONINUS: I will have my scourge ready, if she comes near our holy place.
SATAN: She is with her comrades. They are maying. Seven girls.
(ANTONINUS _grips his scourge._) Her arms are full of may.
ANTONINUS: Speak not of such things. Speak not, I say.
[SATAN _is leaning leisurely against the wall, smiling through the window._
SATAN: How the leaves are shining. Now she is seated on the gra.s.s. They have gathered small flowers, Antoninus, and put them in her hair, a row of primroses.
ANTONINUS (_his eyes go for a moment on to far, far places.
Unintentionally_): What colour?
SATAN: Black.
ANTONINUS: No, no, no! I did not mean her hair. No, no. I meant the flowers.
SATAN: Yellow, Antoninus.
ANTONINUS (_flurried_): Ah, of course, yes, yes.
SATAN: Sixteen and seventeen and fifteen, and another of sixteen. All young girls. The age for you, Antoninus, if I make you twenty. Just the age for you.
ANTONINUS: You--you cannot.
SATAN: All things are possible unto me except salvation.
ANTONINUS: How?
SATAN: Give me your gaud. Then meet me at any hour between star-shining and c.o.c.k-crow under the big cherry tree, when the moon is waning.
ANTONINUS: Never.
SATAN: Ah, Spring, Spring. They are dancing. Such nimble ankles.
[ANTONINUS _raises his scourge._
SATAN (_more gravely_): Think, Antoninus, forty or fifty more Springs.
ANTONINUS: Never, never, never.
SATAN: And no more striving next time. See Antoninus, see them as they dance, there with the may behind them under the hill.
ANTONINUS: Never! I will not look.
SATAN: Ah, look at them, Antoninus. Their sweet figures. And the warm wind blowing in Spring.
ANTONINUS: Never! My scourge is for such.
[SATAN _sighs. The girls laugh from the hill._ ANTONINUS _hears the laughter._
_A look of fear comes over him._
ANTONINUS: Which ... (_a little peal of girlish laughter off_). Which cherry tree did you speak of?
SATAN: This one over the window.
ANTONINUS (_with an effort_): It shall be held accursed. I will warn the brethren. It shall be cut down and hewn asunder and they shall burn it utterly.
SATAN (_rather sorrowfully_): Ah, Antoninus.
ANTONINUS: You shall not tempt a monk of our blessed order.
SATAN: They are coming this way, Antoninus.
ANTONINUS: What! What!
SATAN: Have your scourge ready, Antoninus.
ANTONINUS: Perhaps, perhaps they have not merited extreme chastis.e.m.e.nt.
SATAN: They have made a garland of may, a long white garland drooped from their little hands. Ah, if you were young, Antoninus.
ANTONINUS: Tempt me not, Satan. I say, tempt me not!
[_The girls sing_, SATAN _smiles, the girls sing on._ ANTONINUS _tip-toes to seat, back to window, and sits listening. The girls sing on. They pa.s.s the window and shake the branch of a cherry tree. The petals fall in sheets past the window. The girls sing on and_ ANTONINUS _sits listening._
ANTONINUS (_hand to forehead_): My head aches. I think it is that song.... Perhaps, perhaps it is the halo. Too heavy, too heavy for _us_.
[SATAN _walks gently up and removes it and walks away with the gold disc._ ANTONINUS _sits silent._
SATAN: When the moon is waning.
[_Exit. More petals fall past the window. The song rings on._ ANTONINUS _sits quite still, on his face a new ecstacy._
CURTAIN.
IF SHAKESPEARE LIVED TO-DAY
_DRAMATIS PERSONae_
SIR WEBLEY WOOTHERY-JURNIP} _Members of the_ MR. NEEKS } _Olympus_.
JERGINS, _an old waiter_.
