The Dramas of Victor Hugo: Mary Tudor, Marion de Lorme, EsmeraldaHugo, Victor
General
The Dramas of Victor Hugo: Mary Tudor, Marion de Lorme, Esmeralda
Hugo, Victor
French drama -- 19th century -- Translations into English
This is your lodging. You're on the estate
Of the Marquis de Nangis. Behave well,
Try to be quiet, for some one is dead.
The burial is to-morrow. Above all,
Don't mix your songs with the funereal chants
Which will be sung for him throughout the night.
GRACIEUX (_small and hump-backed_).
We'll make less noise than do your hunting-dogs
Who bark around the legs of all who pass!
LACKEY.
Dogs are not actors, my good friend.
TAILLEBRAS (_to Gracieux_).
Be still!
You'll cause us to sleep in the open air!
[_Lackey exits._
SCARAMOUCHE (_to Marion and Didier, who until now have remained
quietly apart_).
Come! let us talk. Now you belong to us.
Why Monsieur fled with Madame on behind,
If you are man and wife or lovers only,
Escaping justice, or black sorcerers
Who held Madame a prisoner, perhaps--
Is not my business. What I want to know
Is what you'll act. Chimènes are best for you,
Black eyes.
[_Marion makes a courtesy._
DIDIER (_aside, indignant_).
To hear that mountebank speak thus!
SCARAMOUCHE (_to Didier_).
For you: if you should want a splendid part,
We need a bully--a long-leggèd man,
Tremendous strides, a thundering voice; and when
Orgon is robbed of wife or niece, you kill
The Moor and terminate the piece. Great part!
High tragedy! 'Twill suit you splendidly.
DIDIER.
Just as you please!
SCARAMOUCHE.
Good! Don't say "you" to me!
I like "thou"! [_With a profound obeisance._
Blusterer, hail!
DIDIER (_aside_).
What fools!
SCARAMOUCHE (_to the other actors_).
Now eat;
Then we'll rehearse our parts.
[_All enter the barn except Marion and Didier._
SCENE VI
_Marion, Didier; afterward Gracieux, Saverny,
afterward Laffemas_
DIDIER (_with bitter laugh, after a long silence_).
Is't bad enough?
My Marion, have I dragged you low enough?
You wished to follow me? My destiny
Precipitates itself and crushes you,
Bound to its wheel! What are we come to now?
I told you so!
MARION (_trembling and clasping her hands_).
Do you reproach me, love?
DIDIER.
Oh, may I be accursed! Cursed first by Heaven,
Then cursed 'mongst men: cursed throughout all my life;
Cursed more than we are now, if a reproach
Shall ever leave my lips for you! What matter
Though all the earth abandon me, you're mine!
You are my savior, refuge, all my hope!
Who duped the jailer, filed my chains for me?
Who came from heaven to follow me to hell?
Who was a captive with the prisoner,
An exile with the fugitive? Ah, who,
Who else had heart so full of love and wit,
Heart to sustain, console, deliver me?
Great, feeble woman, have you not saved me
From destiny, alas! and my own soul?
Had you not pity on my nature, crushed?
Have you not loved one whom all others hate?
MARION (_weeping_).
It is my joy to love you--be your slave.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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