GULDSTAD [smiling].There are two, though, are there not?
FALK.It was—the other sister that you meant?
GULDSTAD.That sister, yes, the other one,—just so.Judge for yourself, when you have come to knowThat sister better, if she has not in herMerits which, if they were divined, would win herA little more regard than we bestow.
FALK [coldly].Her virtues are of every known varietyI'm sure.
GULDSTAD.Not quite; the accent of societyShe cannot hit exactly; there she loses.
FALK.A grievous fault.
GULDSTAD.But if her mother choosesTo spend a winter on her, she'll come out of itQueen of them all, I'll wager.
FALK.Not a doubt of it.
GULDSTAD [laughing].Young women are odd creatures, to be sure!
FALK [gaily].Like winter rye-seed, canopied secureBy frost and snow, invisibly they sprout.
GULDSTAD.Then in the festive ball-room bedded out—
FALK.With equivique and scandal for manure—
GULDSTAD.And when April sun shines—
FALK.There the blade is;The seed shot up in mannikin green ladies!
[LIND comes up and seizes FALK's hand.
LIND.How well I chose,—past understanding well;—I feel a bliss that nothing can dispel.
GULDSTAD.There stands your mistress; tell us, if you can,The right demeanor for a plighted man.
LIND [perturbed].That's a third person's business to declare.
GULDSTAD [joking].Ill-tempered! This to Anna's ears I'll bear.[Goes to the ladies.
LIND [looking after him].Can such a man be tolerated?
FALK.YouMistook his aim, however,—
LIND.And how so?
FALK.It was not Anna that he had in view.
LIND.How, was it Svanhild?
FALK.Well, I hardly know.[Whimsically.Forgive me, martyr to another's cause!
LIND.What do you mean?
FALK.You've read the news to-night?
LIND.No.
FALK.Do so. There 'tis told in black and whiteOf one who, ill-luck's bitter counsel taking,Had his sound teeth extracted from his jawsBecause his cousin-german's teeth were aching.
MISS JAY [looking out to the left].Here comes the priest!
MRS. HALM.Now see a man of might!
STIVER.Five children, six, seven, eight—
FALK.And, heavens, all recent!
MISS JAY.Ugh! it is almost to be called indecent.
[A carriage has meantime been heard stopping outsideto the left. STRAWMAN, his wife, and eight littlegirls, all in traveling dress, enter one by one.
MRS. HALM. [advancing to meet them].Welcome, a hearty welcome!
STRAWMAN.Thank you.
MRS. STRAWMAN.It isA party?
MRS. HALM.No, dear madam, not at all.
MRS. STRAWMAN.If we disturb you—
MRS. HALM.Au contraire, your visitCould in no wise more opportunely fall.My Anna's just engaged.
STRAWMAN [shaking ANNA's hand with unction].Ah then, I mustBear witness;—Lo! in wedded Love's presentedA treasure such as neither moth nor rustCorrupt—if it be duly supplemented.
MRS. HALM.But how delightful that your little maidsShould follow you to town.
STRAWMAN.Four tender bladesWe have besides.
MRS. HALM.Ah, really?
STRAWMAN.Three of whomAre still too infantine to take to heartA loving father's absence, when I comeTo town for sessions.
MISS JAY [to MRS. HALM, bidding farewell].Now I must depart.
MRS. HALM.O, it is still so early!
MISS JAY.I must flyTo town and spread the news. The Storms, I know,Go late to rest, they will be up; and oh!How glad the aunts will be! Now, dear, put byYour shyness; for to-morrow a spring-tideOf callers will flow in from every side!
MRS. HALM.Well, then, good-night[To the others.Now friends, what would you sayTo drinking tea?[To MRS. STRAWMAN.Pray, madam, lead the way.
[MRS. HALM, STRAWMAN, his wife and children, withGULDSTAD, LIND, and ANNA go into the house.
MISS JAY [taking STIVER's arm].Now let's be tender! Look how softly floatsQueen Luna on her throne o'er lawn and lea!—Well, but you are not looking!
STIVER [crossly].Yes, I see;I'm thinking of the promissory notes.
[They go out to the left. FALK, who has beencontinuously watching STRAWMAN and his wife,remains behind alone in the garden. It isnow dark; the house is lighted up.
FALK.All is as if burnt out;—all desolate, dead—!So thro' the world they wander, two and two;Charred wreckage, like the blackened stems that strewThe forest when the withering fire is fled.Far as the eye can travel, all is drought.And nowhere peeps one spray of verdure out!
[SVANHILD comes out on to the verandah with aflowering rose-tree which she sets down.
Yes one—yes one—!
SVANHILD.Falk, in the dark?
FALK.And fearless!Darkness to me is fair, and light is cheerless.But are not you afraid in yonder wallsWhere the lamp's light on sallow corpses falls—
SVANHILD.Shame!
FALK [looking after STRAWMAN who appears at the window].He was once so brilliant and strong;Warred with the world to win his mistress; passedFor Custom's doughtiest iconoclast;And pored forth love in paeans of glad song—!Look at him now! In solemn robes and wraps,A two-legged drama on his own collapse!And she, the limp-skirt slattern, with the shoesHeel-trodden, that squeak and clatter in her traces,This is the winged maid who was his MuseAnd escort to the kingdom of the graces!Of all that fire this puff of smoke's the end!Sic transit gloria amoris, friend.
SVANHILD.Yes, it is wretched, wretched past compare.I know of no one's lot that I would share.
FALK [eagerly].Then let us two rise up and bid defianceTo this same order Art, not Nature, bred!
SVANHILD [shaking her head].Then were the cause for which we made allianceRuined, as sure as this is earth we tread.
FALK.No, triumph waits upon two souls in unity.To Custom's parish-church no more we'll wend,Seatholders in the Philistine community.See, Personality's one aim and endIs to be independent, free and true.In that I am not wanting, nor are you.A fiery spirit pulses in your veins,For thoughts that master, you have works that burn;The corslet of convention, that constrainsThe beating hearts of other maids, you spurn.The voice that you were born with will not chime toThe chorus Custom's baton gives the time to.
SVANHILD.And do you think pain has not often pressedTears from my eyes, and quiet from my breast?I longed to shape my way to my own bent—
FALK."In pensive ease?"
SVANHILD.O, no, 'twas sternly meant.But then the aunts came in with well-intendedAdvice, the matter must be sifted, weighed—[Coming nearer."In pensive ease," you say; oh no, I madeA bold experiment—in art.
FALK.Which ended—?
SVANHILD.In failure. I lacked talent for the brush.The thirst for freedom, tho', I could not crush;Checked at the easel, it essayed the stage—
FALK.That plan was shattered also, I engage?
SVANHILD.Upon the eldest aunt's suggestion, yes;She much preferred a place as governess—
FALK.But of all this I never heard a word!
SVANHILD [smiling].No wonder; they took care that none was heard.They trembled at the risk "my future" ranIf this were whispered to unmarried Man.
FALK [after gazing a moment at her in meditative sympathy].That such must be your lot I long had guessed.When first I met you, I can well recall,You seemed to me quite other than the rest,Beyond the comprehension of them all.They sat at table,—fragrant tea a-brewing,And small-talk humming with the tea in tune,The young girls blushing and the young men cooing,Like pigeons on a sultry afternoon.Old maids and matrons volubly averredMorality and faith's supreme felicity,Young wives were loud in praise of domesticity,While you stood lonely like a mateless bird.And when at last the gabbling clamour roseTo a tea-orgy, a debauch of prose,You seemed a piece of silver, newly minted,Among foul notes and coppers dulled and dinted.You were a coin imported, alien, strange,Here valued at another rate of change,Not passing current in that babel martOf poetry and butter, cheese and art.Then—while Miss Jay in triumph took the field—
SVANHILD [gravely].Her knight behind her, like a champion bold,His hat upon his elbow, like a shield—
FALK.Your mother nodded to your untouched cup:"Drink, Svanhild dear, before your tea grows cold."And then you drank the vapid liquor up,The mawkish brew beloved of young and old.But that name gripped me with a sudden spell;The grim old Volsungs as they fought and fell,With all their faded aeons, seemed to riseIn never-ending line before my eyes.In you I saw a Svanhild, like the old,(3)But fashioned to the modern age's mould.Sick of its hollow warfare is the world;Its lying banner it would fain have furled;But when the world does evil, its offenceIs blotted in the blood of innocence.
SVANHILD [with gentle irony].I think, at any rate, the fumes of teaMust answer for that direful fantasy;But 'tis your least achievement, past dispute,To hear the spirit speaking, when 'tis mute.
FALK [with emotion].Nay, Svanhild, do not jest: behind your scoffTears glitter,—O, I see them plain enough.And I see more: when you to dust are fray'd,And kneaded to a formless lump of clay,Each bungling dilettante's scalpel-bladeOn you his dull devices shall display.The world usurps the creature of God's handAnd sets its image in the place of His,Transforms, enlarges that part, lightens this;And when upon the pedestal you standComplete, cries out in triumph: "Now she isAt last what woman ought to be: Behold,How plastically calm, how marble-cold!Bathed in the lamplight's soft irradiation,How well in keeping with the decoration!"[Seizing her hand.But if you are to die, live first! Come forthWith me into the glory of God's earth!Soon, soon the gilded cage will claim its prize.The Lady thrives there, but the Woman dies,And I love nothing but the Woman in you.There, if they will, let others woo and win you,But here, my spring of life began to shoot,Here my Song-tree put forth its firstling fruit;Here I found wings and flight:—Svanhild, I know it,Only be mine,—here I shall grow a poet!
SVANHILD [in gentle reproof, withdrawing her hand].O, why have you betrayed yourself? How sweetIt was when we as friends could freely meet!You should have kept your counsel. Can we stakeOur bliss upon a word that we may break?Now you have spoken, all is over.
FALK.No!I've pointed to the goal,—now leap with me,My high-souled Svanhild—if you dare, and showThat you have heart and courage to be free.
SVANHILD.Be free?
FALK.Yes, free, for freedom's all-in-allIs absolutely to fulfil our Call.And you by heaven were destined, I know well,To be my bulwark against beauty's spell.I, like my falcon namesake, have to swingAgainst the wind, if I would reach the sky!You are the breeze I must be breasted by,You, only you, put vigour in my wing:Be mine, be mine, until the world shall take you,When leaves are falling, then our paths shall part.Sing unto me the treasures of your heart,And for each song another song I'll make you;So may you pass into the lamplit glowOf age, as forests fade without a throe.
SVANHILD [with suppressed bitterness].I cannot thank you, for your words betrayThe meaning of your kind solicitude.You eye me as a boy a sallow, goodTo cut and play the flute on for a day.
FALK.Yes, better than to linger in the swampTill autumn choke it with her grey mists damp![Vehemently.You must! you shall! To me you must presentWhat God to you so bountifully lent.I speak in song what you in dreams have meant.See yonder bird I innocently slew,Her warbling was Song's book of books for you.O, yield your music as she yielded hers!My life shall be that music set to verse!
SVANHILD.And when you know me, when my songs are flown,And my last requiem chanted from the bough,—What then?
FALK [observing her].What then? Ah, well, remember now![Pointing to the garden.
SVANHILD [gently].Yes, I remember you can drive a stone.
FALK [with a scornful laugh].This is your vaunted soul of freedom therefore!All daring, if it had an end to dare for![Vehemently.I've shown you one; now, once for all, your yeaOr nay.
SVANHILD.You know the answer I must make you:I never can accept you in your way.
FALK [coldly, breaking off].Then there's an end of it; the world may take you!
[SVANHILD has silently turned away. She supportsher hands upon the verandah railing, and restsher head upon them.
FALK [Walks several times up and down, takes a cigar,stops near her and says, after a pause:You think the topic of my talk to-nightExtremely ludicrous, I should not wonder?[Pauses for an answer. SVANHILD is silent.I'm very conscious that it was a blunder;Sister's and daughter's love alone possess you;Henceforth I'll wear kid gloves when I address you,Sure, so, of being understood aright.
[Pauses, but as SVANHILD remains motionless, heturns and goes towards the right.
SVANHILD [lifting her head after a brief silence,looking at him and drawing near.Now I will recompense your kind intentTo save me, with an earnest admonition.That falcon-image gave me sudden visionWhat your "emancipation" really meant.You said you were the falcon, that must fightAthwart the wind if it would reach the sky,I was the breeze you must be breasted by,Else vain were all your faculty of flight;How pitifully mean! How paltry! NayHow ludicrous, as you yourself divined!That seed, however, fell not by the way,But bred another fancy in my mindOf a far more illuminating kind.You, as I saw it, were no falcon, butA tuneful dragon, out of paper cut,Whose Ego holds a secondary station,Dependent on the string for animation;Its breast was scrawled with promises to payIn cash poetic,—at some future day;The wings were stiff with barbs and shafts of witThat wildly beat the air, but never hit;The tail was a satiric rod in pickleTo castigate the town's infirmities,But all it compass'd was to lightly tickleThe casual doer of some small amiss.So you lay helpless at my feet imploring:"O raise me, how and where is all the same!Give me the power of singing and of soaring,No matter at what cost of bitter blame!"
FALK [clenching his fists in inward agitation].Heaven be my witness—!
SVANHILD.No, you must be told:—For such a childish sport I am too old.But you, whom Nature made for high endeavour,Are you content the fields of air to treadHanging your poet's life upon a threadThat at my pleasure I can slip and sever?
FALK [hurriedly].What is the date to-day?
SVANHILD [more gently].Why, now, that's right!Mind well this day, and heed it, and beware;Trust to your own wings only for your flight,Sure, if they do not break, that they will bear.The paper poem for the desk is fit,That which is lived alone has life in it;That only has the wings that scale the height;Choose now between them, poet: be, or write![Nearer to him.Now I have done what you besought me; nowMy requiem is chanted from the bough;My only one; now all my songs are flown;Now, if you will, I'm ready for the stone!
[She goes into the house; FALK remains motionless, looking after her; far out on the fjord is seen a boat, from which the following chorus is faintly heard:
My wings I open, my sails spread wide,And cleave like an eagle life's glassy tide;Gulls follow my furrow's foaming;Overboard with the ballast of care and cark;And what if I shatter my roaming bark,It is passing sweet to be roaming!
FALK [starting from a reverie].What, music? Ah, it will be Lind's quartetteGetting their jubilation up.—Well met![To GULDSTAD, who enters with an overcoat on his arm.Ah, slipping off, sir?
GULDSTAD.Yes, with your goodwill.But let me first put on my overcoat.We prose-folks are susceptible to chill;The night wind takes us by the tuneless throat.Good evening!
FALK.Sir, a word ere you proceed!Show me a task, a mighty one, you know—!I'm going in for life—!
GULDSTAD [with ironical emphasis].Well, in you go!You'll find that you are in for it, indeed.
FALK [looking reflectively at him, says slowly].There is my program, furnished in a phrase.[In a lively outburst.Now I have wakened from my dreaming days,I've cast the die of life's supreme transaction,I'll show you—else the devil take me—
GULDSTAD.Fie,No cursing: curses never scared a fly.
FALK.Words, words, no more, but action, only action!I will reverse the plan of the Creation;—Six days were lavish'd in that occupation;My world's still lying void and desolate,Hurrah, to-morrow, Sunday—I'll create!
GULDSTAD [laughing].Yes, strip, and tackle it like a man, that's right!But first go in and sleep on it. Good-night!
[Goes out to the left. SVANHILD appears in theroom over the verandah; she shuts the windowand draws down the blind.
FALK.No, first I'll act. I've slept too long and late.[Looks up at SVANHILD's window, and exclaims, asif seized with a sudden resolution:Good-night! Good-night! Sweet dreams to-night be thine;To-morrow, Svanhild, thou art plighted mine!
[Goes out quickly to the right; from the water theCHORUS is heard again.
Maybe I shall shatter my roaming bark,But it's passing sweet to be roaming!
[The boat slowly glides away as the curtain falls.
Sunday afternoon. Well-dressed ladies and gentlemen are drinking coffee on the verandah. Several of the guests appear through the open glass door in the garden-room; the following song is heard from within.
Welcome, welcome, new plighted pairTo the merry ranks of the plighted!Now you may revel as free as air,Caress without stint and kiss without care,—No longer of footfall affrighted.
Now you are licensed, wherever you go,To rapture of cooing and billing;Now you have leisure love's seed to sow,Water, and tend it, and make it grow;—Let us see you've a talent for tilling!
MISS JAY [within].Ah Lind, if I only had chanced to hear,I would have teased you!
A LADY [within].How vexatious though!
ANOTHER LADY [in the doorway].Dear Anna, did he ask in writing?
AN AUNT.No!Mine did.
A LADY [on the verandah].How long has it been secret, dear?[Runs into the room.
MISS JAY.To-morrow there will be the ring to choose.
LADIES [eagerly].We'll take his measure!
MISS JAY.Nay; that she must do.
MRS. STRAWMAN [on the verandah, to a lady who is busy with embroidery]. What kind of knitting-needles do you use?
A SERVANT [in the door with a coffee-pot].More coffee, madam?
A LADY.Thanks, a drop or two.
MISS JAY [to ANNA].How fortunate you've got your new manteauNext week to go your round of visits in!
AN ELDERLY LADY [at the window].When shall we go and order the trousseau?
MRS. STRAWMAN.How are they selling cotton-bombasine?
A GENTLEMAN [to some ladies on the verandah].Just look at Lind and Anna; what's his sport?
LADIES [with shrill ecstasy].Gracious, he kissed her glove!
OTHERS [similarly, springing up].No! Kiss'd it! Really?
LIND [appears, red and embarrassed, in the doorway].O, stuff and nonsense! [Disappears.
MISS JAY.Yes, I saw it clearly.
STIVER [in the door, with a coffee-cup in one hand anda biscuit in the other].The witnesses must not mislead the court;I here make affidavit, they're in error.
MISS JAY [within].Come forward, Anna; stand before this mirror!
SOME LADIES [calling].You, too, Lind!
MISS JAY.Back to back! A little nearer!
LADIES.Come, let us see by how much she is short.
[All run into the garden-room; laughter and shrilltalk are heard for a while from within.
[FALK, who during the preceding scene has beenwalking about in the garden, advances into theforeground, stops and looks in until the noisehas somewhat abated.
FALK.There love's romance is being done to death.—The butcher once who boggled at the slaughter,Prolonging needlessly the ox's breath,—He got his twenty days of bread and water;But these—these butchers yonder—they go free.[Clenches his fist.I could be tempted—; hold, words have no worth,I've sworn it, action only from henceforth!
LIND [coming hastily but cautiously out].Thank God, they're talking fashions; now's my chanceTo slip away—
FALK.Ha, Lind, you've drawn the prizeOf luck,—congratulations buzz and danceAll day about you, like a swarm of flies.
LIND.They're all at heart so kindly and so nice;But rather fewer clients would suffice.Their helping hands begin to gall and fret me;I'll get a moment's respite, if they'll let me.[Going out to the right.
FALK.Wither away?
LIND.Our den;—it has a lock;In case you find the oak is sported, knock.
FALK.But shall I not fetch Anna to you?
LIND.No—If she wants anything, she'll let me know.Last night we were discussing until late;We've settled almost everything of weight;Besides I think it scarcely goes with pietyTo have too much of one's beloved's society.
FALK.Yes, you are right; for daily food we needA simple diet.
LIND.Pray, excuse me, friend.I want a whiff of reason and the weed;I haven't smoked for three whole days on end.My blood was pulsing in such agitation,I trembled for rejection all the time—
FALK.Yes, you may well desire recuperation—
LIND.And won't tobacco's flavour be sublime!
[Goes out to the right. MISS JAY and some otherLADIES come out of the garden-room.
MISS JAY [to FALK].That was he surely?
FALK.Yes, your hunted deer.
LADIES.To run away from us!
OTHERS.For shame! For shame!
FALK.'Tis a bit shy at present, but, no fear,A week of servitude will make him tame.
MISS JAY [looking round].Where is he hid?
FALK.His present hiding-placeIs in the garden loft, our common lair;[Blandly.But let me beg you not to seek him there;Give him a breathing time!
MISS JAY.Well, good: the graceWill not be long, tho'.
FALK.Nay, be generous!Ten minutes,—then begin the game again.He has an English sermon on the brain.
MISS JAY.An English—?
LADIES.O you laugh! You're fooling us!
FALK.I'm in grim earnest. 'Tis his fixed intentionTo take a charge among the emigrants,And therefore—
MISS JAY [with horror].Heavens, he had the face to mentionThat mad idea? [To the ladies.O quick—fetch all the aunts!Anna, her mother, Mrs. Strawman too.
LADIES [agitated].This must be stopped!
ALL.We'll make a great ado!
MISS JAY.Thank God, they're coming.
[To ANNA, who comes from the garden-room with STRAWMAN,his wife and children, STIVER, GULDSTAD, MRS. HALM andthe other guests.
MISS JAY.Do you know what LindHas secretly determined in his mind?To go as missionary—
ANNA.Yes, I know.
MRS. HALM.And you've agreed—!
ANNA [embarrassed].That I will also go.
MISS JAY [indignant].He's talked this stuff to you!
LADIES [clasping their hands together].What tyranny!
FALK.But think, his Call that would not be denied—!
MISS JAY.Tut, that's what people follow when they're free:A bridegroom follows nothing but his bride.—No, my sweet Anna, ponder, I entreat:You, reared in comfort from your earliest breath—?
FALK.Yet, sure, to suffer for the faith is sweet!
MISS JAY.Is one to suffer for one's bridegroom's faith?That is a rather novel point of view.[To the ladies.Ladies, attend![Takes ANNA's arm.Now listen; then repeatFor his instruction what he has to do.
[They go into the background and out to the right in eager talk with several of the ladies; the other guests disperse in Groups about the garden. FALK stops STRAWMAN, whose wife and children keep close to him. GULDSTAD goes to and fro during the following conversation.
FALK.Come, pastor, help young fervour in its fight,Before they lure Miss Anna from her vows.
STRAWMAN [in clerical cadence].The wife must be submissive to the spouse;—[Reflecting.But if I apprehended him aright,His Call's a problematical affair,The offering altogether in the air—
FALK.Pray do not judge so rashly. I can giveYou absolute assurance, as I live,His Call is definite and incontestable—
STRAWMAN [seeing it in a new light].Ah—if there's something fixed—investable—Per annum—then I've nothing more to say.
FALK [impatiently].You think the most of what I count the least;I mean the inspiration,—to the pay!
STRAWMAN [with an unctuous smile].Pay is the first condition of a priestIn Asia, Africa, America,Or where you will. Ah yes, if he were free,My dear young friend, I willingly agree,The thing might pass; but, being pledged and bound,He'll scarcely find the venture very sound.Reflect, he's young and vigorous, sure to foundA little family in time; assume his willTo be the very best on earth—but stillThe means, my friend—? 'Build not upon the sand,'Says Scripture. If, upon the other hand,The Offering—
FALK.That's no trifle, I'm aware.
STRAWMAN.Ah, come—that wholly alters the affair.When men are zealous in their Offering,And liberal—
FALK.There he far surpasses most.
STRAWMAN."He" say you? How? In virtue of his postThe Offering is not what he has to bringBut what he has to get.
MRS. STRAWMAN [looking towards the background].They're sitting there.
FALK [after staring a moment in amazement suddenlyunderstands and bursts out laughing.].Hurrah for Offerings—the ones that caperAnd strut—on Holy-days—in bulging paper!
STRAWMAN.All the year round the curb and bit we bear,But Whitsuntide and Christmas make things square.
FALK [gaily].Why then, provided only there's enough of it,Even family-founders will obey their Calls.
STRAWMAN.Of course; a man assured thequantum suffof itWill preach the Gospel to the cannibals.[Sotto voce.Now I must see if she cannot be led,[To one of the little girls.My little Mattie, fetch me out my head—My pipe-head I should say, my little dear—[Feels in his coat-tail pocket.Nay, wait a moment tho': I have it here.
[Goes across and fills his pipe, followed by hiswife and children.
GULDSTAD [approaching].You seem to play the part of serpent inThis paradise of lovers.
FALK.O, the pipsUpon the tree of knowledge are too greenTo be a lure for anybody's lips.[To LIND, who comes in from the right.Ha, Lind!
LIND.In heaven's name, who's been ravagingOur sanctum? There the lamp lies dashedTo pieces, curtain dragged to floor, pen smashed,And on the mantelpiece the ink pot splashed—
FALK [clapping him on the shoulder].This wreck's the first announcement of my spring;No more behind drawn curtains I will sit,Making pen poetry with lamp alit;My dull domestic poetising's done,I'll walk by day, and glory in the sun:My spring is come, my soul has broken free,Action henceforth shall be my poetry.
LIND.Make poetry of what you please for me;But how if Mrs. Halm should take amissYour breaking of her furniture to pieces?
FALK.What!—she, who lays her daughters and her niecesUpon the altar of her boarders' bliss,—She frown at such a bagatelle as this?
LIND [angrily].It's utterly outrageous and unfair,And compromises me as well as you!But that's her business, settle it with her.The lamp was mine, tho', shade and burner too—
FALK.Tut, on that head, I've no account to render;You have God's summer sunshine in its splendour,—What would you with the lamp?
LIND.You are grotesque;You utterly forget that summer passes;If I'm to make a figure in my classesAt Christmas I must buckle to my desk.
FALK [staring at him].What, you look forward?
LIND.To be sure I do,The examination's amply worth it too.
FALK.Ah but—you 'only sit and live'—remember!Drunk with the moment, you demand no more—Not even a modest third-class next December.You've caught the bird of Fortune fair and fleet,You feel as if the world with all its storeWere scattered in profusion at your feet.
LIND.Those were my words; they must be understood,Of course,cum grano salis—
FALK.Very good!
LIND.In the forenoons I well enjoy my bliss;That I am quite resolved on—
FALK.Daring man!
LIND.I have my round of visits to the clan;Time will run anyhow to waste in this;But any further dislocation ofMy study-plan I strongly disapprove.
FALK.A week ago, however, you were bentOn going out into God's world with song.
LIND.Yes, but I thought the tour a little long;The fourteen days might well be better spent.
FALK.Nay, but you had another argumentFor staying; how the lovely dale for youWas mountain air and winged warble too.
LIND.Yes, to be sure, this air is unalloyed;But all its benefits may be enjoyedOver one's book without the slightest bar.
FALK.But it was just the Book which failed, you see,As Jacob's ladder—
LIND.How perverse you are!That is what people say when they are free—
FALK [looking at him and folding his hands in silentamazement].Thou also, Brutus!
LIND [with a shade of confusion and annoyance].Pray remember, do!That I have other duties now than you;I have myfiancee. Every plighted pair,Those of prolonged experience not excepted,—Whose evidence you would not wish rejected,—Will tell you, that if two are bound to fareThrough life together, they must—
FALK.Prithee spareThe comment; who supplied it?
LIND.Well, we'll sayStiver, he's honest surely; and Miss Jay,Who has such very great experience here,She says—
FALK.Well, but the Parson and his—dear?
LIND.Yes, they're remarkable. There broods aboveThem such placidity, such quietude,—Conceive, she can't remember being wooed,Has quite forgotten what is meant by love.
FALK.Ah yes, when one has slumber'd over long,The birds of memory refuse their song.[Laying his hand on LIND's shoulder, with anironical look.You, Lind, slept sound last night, I guarantee?
LIND.And long. I went to bed in such depression,And yet with such a fever in my brain,I almost doubted if I could be sane.
FALK.Ah yes, a sort of witchery, you see.
LIND.Thank God I woke in perfect self-possession.
[During the foregoing scene STRAWMAN has been seen from time to time walking in the background in lively conversation with ANNA; MRS. STRAWMAN and the children follow. MISS JAY now appears also, and with her MRS. HALM and other ladies.
MISS JAY [before she enters].Ah, Mr. Lind.
LIND [to FALK].They're after me again!Come, let us go.
MISS JAY.Nay, nay, you must remain,Let us make speedy end of the divisionThat has crept in between your love and you.
LIND.Are we divided?
MISS JAY [pointing to ANNA, who is standing furtheroff in the garden].Gather the decisionFrom yon red eyes. The foreign mission drewThose tears.
LIND.But heavens, she was glad to go—
MISS JAY [scoffing].Yes, to be sure, one would imagine so!No, my dear Lind, you'll take another viewWhen you have heard the whole affair discussed.
LIND.But then this warfare for the faith, you know,Is my most cherished dream!
MISS JAY.O who would buildOn dreaming in this century of light?Why, Stiver had a dream the other night;There came a letter singularly sealed—
MRS. STRAWMAN.It's treasure such a dream prognosticates.
MISS JAY [nodding].Yes, and next day they sued him for the rates.
[The ladies make a circle round LIND and go inconversation with him into the garden.
STRAWMAN [continuing, to ANNA, who faintly tries to escape].From these considerations, daughter mine,From these considerations, buttressed allWith reason, morals, and the Word Divine,You now perceive that to desert your CallWere absolutely inexcusable.
ANNA [half crying].Oh! I'm so young—
STRAWMAN.And it is natural,I own, that one should tremble to essayThese perils, dare the lures that there waylay;But from doubt's tangle you must now break free,—Be of good cheer and follow Moll and me!
MRS. STRAWMAN.Yes, your dear mother tells me that I tooWas just as inconsolable as youWhen we received our Call—
STRAWMAN.And for like cause—The fascination of the town—it was;But when a little money had come in,And the first pairs of infants, twin by twin,She quite got over it.
FALK [sotto voce to STRAWMAN].Bravo, you ablePersuader.
STRAWMAN [nodding to him and turning again to ANNA].Now you've promised me, be stable.Shall man renounce his work? Falk says the CallIs not so very slender after all.Did you not, Falk?
FALK.Nay, pastor—
STRAWMAN.To be sure—![To ANNA.Of something then at least you are secure.What's gained by giving up, if that is so?Look back into the ages long ago,See, Adam, Eve—the Ark, see, pair by pair,Birds in the field—the lilies in the air,The little birds—the little birds—the fishes—
[Continues in a lower tone, as he withdraws withANNA.
[MISS JAY and the AUNTS return with LIND.
FALK.Hurrah! Here come the veterans in array;The old guard charging to retrieve the day!
MISS JAY.Ah, in exact accordance with out wishes![Aside.We have him, Falk!—Now let us tackle her![Approaches ANNA.
STRAWMAN [with a deprecating motion].She needs no secular solicitation;The Spirit has spoken, what can Earth bestead—?[Modestly.If in some small degree my words have sped,Power was vouchsafed me—!
MRS. HALM.Come, no more evasion,Bring them together!
AUNTS [with emotion].Ah, how exquisite.
STRAWMAN.Yes, can there be a heart so dull and deadAs not to be entranced at such a sight!It is so thrilling and so penetrating,So lacerating, so exhilarating,To see an innocent babe devoutly layIts offering on Duty's altar.
MRS. HALM.Nay,Her family have also done their part.
MISS JAY.I and the Aunts—I should imagine so.You, Lind, may have the key to Anna's heart,[Presses his hand.But we possess a picklock, you must know,Able to open where the key avails not.And if in years to come, cares throng and thwart,Only apply to us, our friendship fails not.
MRS. HALM.Yes, we shall hover round you all your life,—
MISS JAY.And shield you from the fiend of wedded strife.
STRAWMAN.Enchanting group! Love, friendship, hour of gladness,Yet so pathetically touched with sadness.[Turning to LIND.But now, young man, pray make an end of this.[Leading ANNA to him.Take thy betrothed—receive her—with a kiss!
LIND [giving his hand to ANNA].I stay at home!
ANNA [at the same moment].I go with you!
ANNA [amazed].You stay?
LIND [equally so].You go with me?
ANNA [with a helpless glance at the company].Why, then, we are divided as before!
LIND.What's this?
THE LADIES.What now?
MISS JAY [excitedly].Our wills are at war—
STRAWMAN.She gave her solemn word to cross the seaWith him!
MISS JAY.And he gave his to stay ashoreWith her!
FALK [laughing].They both complied; what would you more!
STRAWMAN.These complications are too much for me.[Goes toward the background.
AUNTS [to one another].How in the world came they to disagree?
MRS. HALM[To GULDSTAD and STIVER, who have been walkingin the garden and now approach.The spirit of discord's in possession of her.[Talks aside to them.
MRS. STRAWMAN[To MISS JAY, noticing that the table isbeing laid.There comes the tea.
MISS JAY [curtly].Thank heaven.
FALK.Hurrah! a cheerFor love and friendship, maiden aunts and tea!
STIVER.But if the case stands thus, the whole proceedingMay easily be ended with a laugh;All turns upon a single paragraph,Which bids the wife attend the spouse. No pleadingCan wrest an ordinance so clearly stated—
MISS JAY.Doubtless, but does that help us to agree?
STRAWMAN.She must obey a law that heaven dictated.
STIVER.But Lind can circumvent that law, you see.[To LIND.Put off your journey, and then—budge no jot.
AUNTS [delighted].Yes, that's the way!
MRS HALM.Agreed!
MISS JAY.That cuts the knot.
[SVANHILD and the maids have meantime laid the tea-table beside the verandah steps. At MRS. HALM's invitation the ladies sit down. The rest of the company take their places, partly on the verandah and in the summer-house, partly in the garden. FALK sits on the verandah. During the following scene they drink tea.
MRS. HALM [smiling].And so our little storm is overblown.Such summer showers do good when they are gone;The sunshine greets us with a double boon,And promises a cloudless afternoon.
MISS JAY.Ah yes, Love's blossom without rainy skiesWould never thrive according to our wishes.
FALK.In dry land set it, and it forthwith dies;For in so far the flowers are like the fishes—
SVANHILD.Nay, for Love lives, you know, upon the air—
MISS JAY.Which is the death of fishes—
FALK.So I say.
MISS JAY.Aha, we've put a bridle on you there!
MRS. STRAWMAN.The tea is good, one knows by the bouquet.
FALK.Well, let us keep the simile you chose.Love is a flower; for if heaven's blessed rainFall short, it all but pines to death— [Pauses.
MISS JAY.What then?
FALK [with a gallant bow].Then come the aunts with the reviving hose.—But poets have this simile employed,And men for scores of centuries enjoyed,—Yet hardly one its secret sense has hit;For flowers are manifold and infinite.Say, then, what flower is love? Name me, who knows,The flower most like it?
MISS JAY.Why, it is the rose;Good gracious, that's exceedingly well known;—Love, all agree, lends life a rosy tone.
A YOUNG LADY.It is the snowdrop; growing, snow enfurled;Till it peer forth, undreamt of by the world.
AN AUNT.It is the dandelion,—made robustBy dint of human heel and horse hoof thrust;Nay, shooting forth afresh when it is smitten,As Pedersen so charmingly has written.
LIND.It is the bluebell,—ringing in for allYoung hearts life's joyous Whitsun festival.
MRS. HALM.No, 'tis an evergreen,—as fresh and gayIn desolate December as in May.
GULDSTAD.No, Iceland moss, dry gathered,—far the bestCure for young ladies with a wounded breast.
A GENTLEMAN.No, the wild chestnut tree,—high reputeFor household fuel, but with a bitter fruit.
SVANHILD.No, a camellia; at our balls, 'tis said,The chief adornment of a lady's head.
MRS. STRAWMAN.No, it is like a flower, O such a bright one;—Stay now—a blue one, no, it was a white one—What is it's name—? Dear me—the one I met—;Well it is singular how I forget!
STIVER.None of these flower similitudes will run.The flowerpot is a likelier candidate.There's only room in it, at once, for one;But by progressive stages it holds eight.
STRAWMAN [with his little girls round him].No, love's a pear tree; in the spring like snowWith myriad blossoms, which in summer growTo pearlets; in the parent's sap each shares;—And with God's help they'll all alike prove pears.
FALK.So many heads, so many sentences!No, you all grope and blunder off the line.Each simile's at fault; I'll tell you mine;—You're free to turn and wrest it as you please.[Rises as if to make a speech.In the remotest east there grows a plant;(4)And the sun's cousin's garden is its haunt—
THE LADIES.Ah, it's the tea-plant!
FALK.Yes.
MRS. STRAWMAN.His voice is soLike Strawman's when he—
STRAWMAN.Don't disturb his flow.
FALK.It has its home in fabled lands serene;Thousands of miles of desert lie between;—Fill up, Lind!—So.—Now in a tea-oration,I'll show of tea and Love the true relation.[The guests cluster round him.It has its home in the romantic land;Alas, Love's home is also in Romance,Only the Sun's descendants understandThe herb's right cultivation and advance.With Love it is not otherwise than so.Blood of the Sun along the veins must flowIf Love indeed therein is to strike root,And burgeon into blossom, into fruit.
MISS JAY.But China is an ancient land; you holdIn consequence that tea is very old—
STRAWMAN.Past question antecedent to Jerusalem.
FALK.Yes, 'twas already famous when MethusalemHis picture-books and rattles tore and flung—
MISS JAY [triumphantly].And love is in its very nature young!To find a likeness there is pretty bold.
FALK.No; Love, in truth, is also very old;That principle we here no more disputeThan do the folks of Rio or Beyrout.Nay, there are those from Cayenne to Caithness,Who stand upon its everlastingness;—Well, that may be slight exaggeration,But old it is beyond all estimation.
MISS JAY.But Love is all alike; whereas we seeBoth good and bad and middling kinds of tea!
MRS. STRAWMAN.Yes, they sell tea of many qualities.
ANNA.The green spring shoots I count the very first—
SVANHILD.Those serve to quench celestial daughter's thirst.
A YOUNG LADY.Witching as ether fumes they say it is—
ANOTHER.Balmy as lotus, sweet as almond, clear—
GULDSTAD.That's not an article we deal in here.
FALK [who has meanwhile come down from the verandah].Ah, ladies, every mortal has a smallPrivate celestial empire in his heart.There bud such shoots in thousands, kept apartBy Shyness's soon shatter'd Chinese Wall.But in her dim fantastic temple bowerThe little Chinese puppet sits and sighs,A dream of far-off wonders in her eyes—And in her hand a golden tulip flower.For her the tender firstling tendrils grew;—Rich crop or meagre, what is that to you?Instead of it we get an after cropThey kick the tree for, dust and stalk and stem,—As hemp to silk beside what goes to them—
GULDSTAD.That is black tea.
FALK [nodding].That's what fills the shop.
A GENTLEMAN.There's beef tea too, that Holberg says a word of—
MISS JAY [sharply].To modern taste entirely out of date.
FALK.And a beef love has equally been heard of,Wont—in romances—to brow-beat its mate,And still they say its trace may be detectedAmongst the henpecked of the married state.In short there's likeness where 'twas least expected.So, as you know, an ancient proverb tells,That something ever passes from the teaOf the bouquet that lodges in its cells,If it be carried hither over the sea.It must across the desert and the hills,—Pay toll to Cossack and to Russian tills;—It gets their stamp and licence, that's enough,We buy it as the true and genuine stuff.But has not Love the self-same path to fare?Across Life's desert? How the world would raveAnd shriek if you or I should boldly bearOur Love by way of Freedom's ocean wave!"Good heavens, his moral savour's passed away,And quite dispersed Legality's bouquet!"—
STRAWMAN [rising].Yes, happily,—in every moral landSuch wares continue to be contraband!
FALK.Yes, to pass current here, Love must have cross'dThe great Siberian waste of regulations,Fann'd by no breath of ocean to its cost;It must produce official attestationsFrom friend and kindred, devils of relations,From church curators, organist and clerk,And other fine folks—over and aboveThe primal licence which God gave to Love.—And then the last great point of likeness;—markHow heavily the hand of culture weighsUpon that far Celestial domain;Its power is shatter'd, and its wall decays,The last true Mandarin's strangled; hands profaneAlready are put forth to share the spoil;Soon the Sun's realm will be a legend vain,An idle tale incredible to sense;The world is gray in gray—we've flung the soilOn buried Faery,—then where can Love be found?Alas, Love also is departed hence![Lifts his cup.Well let him go, since so the times decree;—A health to Amor, late of Earth,—in tea![He drains his cup; indignant murmurs amongstthe company.
MISS JAY.A very odd expression! "Dead" indeed!
THE LADIES.To say that Love is dead—!
STRAWMAN.Why, here you seeHim sitting, rosy, round and sound, at tea,In all conditions! Here in her sable weedThe widow—
MISS JAY.Here a couple, true and tried,—
STIVER.With many ample pledges fortified.
GULDSTAD.The Love's light cavalry, of maid and man,The plighted pairs in order—
STRAWMAN.In the vanThe veterans, whose troth has laughed to scornThe tooth of Time—
MISS JAY [hastily interrupting].And then the babes new-born—The little novices of yester-morn—
STRAWMAN.Spring, summer, autumn, winter, in a word,Are here; the truth is patent, past all doubt,It can be clutched and handled, seen and heard,—
FALK.What then?
MISS JAY.And yet you want to thrust it out!
FALK.Madam, you quite mistake. In all I spokeI cast no doubt on anything you claim;But I would fain remind you that, from smoke,We cannot logically argue flame.That men are married, and have children, IHave no desire whatever to deny;Nor do I dream of doubting that such thingsAre in the world as troth and wedding-rings;The billets-doux some tender hands inditeAnd seal with pairs of turtle doves that—fight;That sweethearts swarm in cottage and in hall,That chocolate reward the wedding call;That usage and convention have decreed,In every point, how "Lovers" shall proceed:—But, heavens! We've majors also by the score,Arsenals heaped with muniments of war,With spurs and howitzers and drums and shot,But what does that permit us to infer?That we have men who dangle swords, but notThat they will wield the weapons that they wear.Tho' all the plain with gleaming tents you crowd,Does that make heroes of the men they shroud?
STRAWMAN.Well, all in moderation; I must own,It is not quite conducive to the truthThat we should paint the enamourment of youthSo bright, as if—ahem—it stood alone.Love-making still a frail foundation is.Only the snuggery of wedded blissProvides a rock where Love may builded beIn unassailable security.