Clair de Lune. Michael Strange
exchequer.
Queen [interrupting him]
Your poor brother; your poor brother; if it had been he, how much heartbreak I would have been spared.
Prince
Which means, your Majesty?
Queen
That I have been talking to myself, and you have been listening, which is ungallant, as if you were to let me put rouge on my nose instead of on my cheeks without stopping me.
Prince
[Rather uneasily returning to a favourite subject.]
Well, your Majesty, now I have accustomed myself so long to the idea of my marriage that it gives me pleasure and calm to dwell on it, especially when I gaze upon Josephine's tapering regality—then I am most inclined to think your esteemed father, our former King, was wise in recommending it, and that Fate was not too unkind in disposing of my half-brother in her own mysterious way.
[He smiles rather unpleasantly.]
Queen
[Who has not attended the last part of his speech.]
Yes. To provide at one clip for her—the child of his love, and for me, the result of his duty, proved him a parent, a statesman, and, tonight, I am a little inclined to think, a blackguard. However, you know this marriage has none of my command in it and there are many ways out.
[Phedro invisible to the Queen and the Prince slides into the shadow of a giant oak tree.]
Prince
You mean if either of us——
Queen
That if any charge of unworthiness could be brought by either of you against the other, then it would be my duty even at the last hour——
Prince [suddenly]
Well, unfortunately, my various dissipations have only rendered me romantic in the eyes of your court, and as for Josephine——
Queen
Ah, her appearance gives no clue to her mind [with an attempted lightness], save occasionally there is too much scent on her cambric.
Prince
Why do you dislike Josephine?
Queen
I do not dislike her, but she behaves unbecomingly. She is very arrogant. Arrogance does not become a bastard.
Prince [in a teasing vein]
You do dislike her. You hate her, even though she is your half-sister, but I find her enchanting. I adore her cold, slender finger tips and the perfection of her contemptuous profile. She moves exactly like a swan.
Queen [trying to control her emotion]
At last you are giving yourself entirely away. I am hearing what I know. Ugh! how doubly unpleasant!
Prince
Why should I not give myself away to you, Cousin?
Queen
You mean I am powerless to harm either of you.
Prince
Why should you wish to harm us?
Queen
There are many things you might not understand; for instance, there is a love that is half hatred. It is sprinkled into life in a rather strange manner—by wounds. However, I am becoming sentimental and I hate sentimentality. It reminds me of people with colds in their heads who have lost their pocket handkerchiefs.
Prince [in evident uneasiness]
Madame, your eloquence is remarkable, but to say that you are mysterious is all that I dare to say.
Queen
You dare to say what you want to say [bitterly]. You have courage enough to satisfy your curiosities like everybody else, but I have always noticed that when people are not curious their manners become extraordinary. However, we are forgetting about the fête. Let us call Phedro.
Prince [bowing]
With pleasure.
[He calls. Phedro emerges after a few seconds at an entirely different angle from the place where he was concealed.]
Phedro
Majesty.
Queen
[Addressing him in a peremptory voice.]
It is my wish that you should think of something bizarre to be included in the festivities of tonight. The Prince and myself do not seem able to put our minds on it.
Phedro
I think most certainly, Majesty, there should be something bizarre about these festivities, but Majesty——
[He makes her a low bow.]
Queen [interrogatively]
Yes?
Phedro [sliding up to her]
Could I beg a moment alone with your Majesty? For it would be my humble view that both fiancés share the surprise.
Queen
[Turning to the Prince with a gesture of dismissal.]
Go along, Charles. At any rate you have a sort of sleight-of-hand manner of looking at your watch that makes me rather nervous.
Prince
[Taking her hand, and becoming mischievously eloquent with relief.]
Then, au revoir, my Cousin. When this garish day is drowned in the sapphire pool of night, and we are all like pallid flowers tossed upon moody currents of mysterious desire, perhaps—who knows? our petals may touch in that tender gloom of night and music.
[Bends tenderly, whimsically over her hand.]
Queen
[Gazing after his exit enraptured, once more hopeful, then turning to Phedro.]
Ah, Phedro, what joy there is in being foolish!
Phedro
Pleasure has two extremes, Madame. One is to have your lover in your arms, the other is to have him in your power.
Queen [pacing up and down]
I must have one or the other. What can be done. Think for me, advise me. I am too unstrung to think for myself. When one wants a thing very much, everything blurs.
Phedro
There are many voices whispering all together in my mind. In a little perhaps one will be louder than the rest—then we may plan.
Queen
But the fête. We are continually forgetting about the fête.
Phedro
[Thinking, with his finger against his lips.]
Out of one purpose often comes another perfected.
Queen
You are talking in enigmas, and it is growing late. See how long and slender the poplar shadows are getting on the grass. When the wind and sun touch them they look a little like obelisks flashed over with strange writings.
Phedro
Your Majesty is adding the accomplishment of a poet to the genius of a sovereign.
Queen [shivering]
No, I would not like to be a poet. They are always dying of ennui or madness. But, Phedro, to the point.
Phedro