Plays of Near & Far Part 27

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_.