Pélléas and Mélisande; Alladine and Palomides; HomeMaeterlinck, Maurice
General
Pélléas and Mélisande; Alladine and Palomides; Home
Maeterlinck, Maurice
French drama
When the time is come, we shall go up of ourselves....
SIXTH SERVANT.
There is no longer a sound heard in the house....
SEVENTH SERVANT.
We ought to make the children keep still, who are playing before the
ventilator.
EIGHTH SERVANT.
They will be still of themselves by and by.
NINTH SERVANT.
The time has not yet come....
_Enter an old Servant._
THE OLD SERVANT.
No one can go in the room any longer. I have listened more than
an hour.... You could hear the flies walk on the doors.... I heard
nothing....
FIRST SERVANT.
Has she been left alone in the room?
THE OLD SERVANT.
No, no; I think the room is full of people.
FIRST SERVANT.
They will come, they will come, by and by....
THE OLD SERVANT.
Lord! Lord! It is not happiness that has come into the house.... One
may not speak, but if I could say what I know...
SECOND SERVANT.
It was you who found them before the gate?
THE OLD SERVANT.
Why, yes! why, yes! it was I who found them. The porter says it was
he who saw them first; but it was I who waked them. He was sleeping on
his face and would not get up.--And now he comes saying, "It was I who
saw them first." Is that just?--See, I burned myself lighting a lamp
to go down cellar.--Now what was I going to do down cellar?--I can't
remember any more what I was going to do down cellar.--At any rate I
got up very early; it was not yet very light; I said to myself, I will
go across the courtyard, and then I will open the gate. Good; I
go down the stairs on tiptoe, and I open the gate as if it were an
ordinary gate.... My God! My God! What do I see? Divine a little what
I see!...
FIRST SERVANT.
They were before the gate?
THE OLD SERVANT.
They were both stretched out before the gate!... Exactly like poor
folk that are too hungry.... They were huddled together like little
children who are afraid.... The little princess was nearly dead, and
the great Golaud had still his sword in his side.... There was blood
on the sill....
SECOND SERVANT.
We ought to make the children keep still.... They are screaming with
all their might before the ventilator....
THIRD SERVANT.
You can't hear yourself speak....
FOURTH SERVANT.
There is nothing to be done: I have tried already; they won't keep
still....
FIRST SERVANT.
It seems he is nearly cured?
THE OLD SERVANT.
Who?
FIRST SERVANT.
The great Golaud.
THIRD SERVANT.
Yes, yes; they have taken him to his wife's room. I met them just
now, in the corridor. They were holding him up as if he were drunk. He
cannot yet walk alone.
THE OLD SERVANT.
He could not kill himself; he is too big. But she is hardly wounded,
and it is she who is going to die.... Can you understand that?
FIRST SERVANT.
You have seen the wound?
THE OLD SERVANT.
As I see you, my daughter.--I saw everything, you understand.... I saw
it before all the others.... A tiny little wound under her little left
breast,--a little wound that wouldn't kill a pigeon. Is it natural?
FIRST SERVANT.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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