The Blue Bird: A Fairy Play in Six ActsMaeterlinck, Maurice
General
The Blue Bird: A Fairy Play in Six Acts
Maeterlinck, Maurice
Fairy plays; French drama -- Translations into English
SUGAR (_engagingly_)
Taste them, they are capital... They're made of real barley-sugar....
MYTYL (_tasting one of the fingers_)
Oh, how good they are!... Have you many of them?...
SUGAR (_modestly_)
Yes; as many as I want....
MYTYL
Does that hurt you much, when you break them off?...
SUGAR
Not at all.... On the contrary, it's a great advantage; they grow again at
once and so I always have new, clean fingers....
THE FAIRY
Come, children, don't eat too much sugar.... Don't forget that you are to
have supper presently with your grandpapa and grandmamma....
TYLTYL
Are they here?...
THE FAIRY
You shall see them at once....
TYLTYL
How can we see them, when they are dead?...
THE FAIRY
How can they be dead, when they live in your memory?... Men do not know
this secret, because they know so little; whereas you, thanks to the
diamond, are about to see that the dead who are remembered live as happily
as though they were not dead....
TYLTYL
Is Light coming with us?
THE FAIRY
No, it is more proper that this visit should be confined to the family....
I will wait near here, so as not to appear indiscreet.... They did not
invite me....
TYLTYL
Which way are we to go?...
THE FAIRY
Over there.... You are on the threshold of the Land of Memory.... As soon
as you have turned the diamond, you will see a big tree with a board on it,
which will show you that you are there.... But don't forget that you are
to be back, both of you, by a quarter to nine.... It is extremely
important.... Now mind and be punctual, for all would be lost if you were
late.... Good-bye for the present!...
(_Calling the_ CAT, _the_ DOG, LIGHT, _etc_.) This way.... And the little
ones that way....
(_She goes out to the right, with_ LIGHT, _the_ ANIMALS, _etc., while the_
CHILDREN _go out to the left_.)
CURTAIN
SCENE 2.--_The Land of Memory_.
_A thick fog, from which stands out, on the right, close to the
footlights, the trunk of a large oak, with a board nailed to it. A vague,
milky, impenetrable light prevails_. TYLTYL _and_ MYTYL _are at
the foot of the oak_.
TYLTYL
Here Is the tree!...
MYTYL
There's the board!...
TYLTYL
I can't read it.... Wait, I will climb up on this root.... That's it.... It
says, "Land of Memory."
MYTYL
Is this where it begins?...
TYLTYL
Yes, there's an arrow....
MYTYL
Well, where are grandad and granny?...
TYLTYL
Behind the fog.... We shall see....
MYTYL
I can see nothing at all!... I can't see my feet or my hands....
(_Whimpering_) I'm cold!... I don't want to travel any more.... I want
to go home....
TYLTYL
Come, don't keep on crying, just like Water.... You ought to be ashamed of
yourself.... A great big little girl like you.... Look, the fog is lifting
already.... We shall see what's behind it....
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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