That gather back my grains of crushèd joy.
JOHANNA
[At the window.]
O starry night! thou art Fortune’s playing-card,
All bright emboss’d with little shining hearts
That dash our own with destiny. Oh, false!
[Turns.]
Go!—to your Eglantine!
SQUIRE
Johanna!
CHAUCER
[Speaks from the darkness.]
Hide, Cleopatra, thy Egyptian hair!
JOHANNA
Hark!
CHAUCER
Esther, let melt thy meekness as the snow.—
JOHANNA
[Draws nearer to Squire.]
What is’t?
CHAUCER
Hide, Ariadne, all thy beauties bare!
SQUIRE
Who speaks?
CHAUCER
Penelope and Marcia Cato,
Drown all your wifely virtues in the Po.—
JOHANNA
Good Aubrey, strike a light.
CHAUCER
Isold and Helen, veil your starlit eyes—
Johannacomes, that doth you jeopardise!
[The Squire lights a candle, revealing Chaucer.]
JOHANNA
O monster! It is he.
[Chaucer takes the candle from the Squire’s hand, and, holding it high, approaches Johanna, thereby throwing the Prioress into his own shadow.]
[Chaucer takes the candle from the Squire’s hand, and, holding it high, approaches Johanna, thereby throwing the Prioress into his own shadow.]
SQUIRE
Nay, gentle sir!
CHAUCER
Laodamia, Hero, and Dido,
And Phyllis, dying for thy Demophon,
And Canace, betroth’d of Cambalo,—
Polixena, that made for love such moan,
Let envy gnaw your beauties to the bone;
Yea, Hypermnestra, swoon in envious sighs—
Johannacomes, that doth you jeopardise!
JOHANNA
Oh, thank you—both. Squire, I congratulate
Your cunning chivalry on luring me
From church to bait me in this bear-trap.
SQUIRE
Lady,
Upon my honour—
[To Chaucer.]
Good sir—
[To Johanna.]
Nay, fear nothing.
Indeed, if you but knew—
JOHANNA
[Catching sight of Prioress.]
If I but knew!
St. Ann! I know too much.
SQUIRE
You would be proud
To have him rhyme your name. Sir, I protest
Had I conceived how fair “Johanna†sounds
In verse—
CHAUCER
[Sternly.]
Hold, signorino! Was it thus
You bade me sonnetise your Eglantine?
You said yourself—
SQUIRE
In sooth, that “Eglantineâ€
Is sweeter.
JOHANNA
Ugh!
CHAUCER
There you were false. For know
As ocean-shells give back the mermaid’s sigh,
The conches of a lover’s ears should hold
Eternal murmurs of his mistress’ name.
“Johanna†should have been thy conjure-word
To raise all spirits; thy muses’nom de plume;
“Johanna†should have learnt thy brook to purl,
Thy pine to sorrow, and thy lark to soar;
And nightingales, forswearing Tereus’ name,
Have charmed thy wakeful midnight with “Johanna.â€
JOHANNA
[To Chaucer.]
Roland of Champions! Ringrazio!
Now, pray, what says the other lady?
SQUIRE
The other?
JOHANNA
[To Prioress.]
Dame Eglantine, your most obsequious.
PRIORESS
Votre servante.—I also, Mademoiselle,
Have been at court.
JOHANNA
Does not Madame applaud, then,
This vintner’s courtly eloquence?
PRIORESS
I think
Monsieur will soon explain how this good youth
And I are dearly tied unto each other.
SQUIRE
What! I—and you, Madame?
JOHANNA
It seems the trap
Hath caught the hunters.
[Aside.]
Oh, my heart!
SQUIRE
I swear
I do not know this lady.
JOHANNA
What! you swear!
[Aside.]
Not perjury?
SQUIRE
I swear that we are strangers;
Of no relationship, and least of love.
JOHANNA
Oh, Aubrey, is this true?
SQUIRE
Why, Mistress—
CHAUCER
[Aside to Squire.]
Soft!
Walk with this nun a moment.
SQUIRE
Sir?
CHAUCER
Dost trust me?
SQUIRE
Yes, but—
CHAUCER
[Indicating Johanna.]
I’ll reconcile her.
[Aside to Prioress.]
Tell him all,
Madame. Leave us alone a moment.
SQUIRE
But—
CHAUCER
[Aloud.]
I will not play the hypocrite.
PRIORESS
[To Squire, as they go out.]
Dear Aubrey—
JOHANNA
“Dear Aubrey!†Gone! gone! and with her. O base
Conspiracy!—To leave me!
[To Chaucer.]
Stand aside!
CHAUCER
Nay, do not follow.
JOHANNA
I? I followher?
Follow the lost Francesca into Limbo!
She’s damned. I seek my ward, De Wycliffe.
CHAUCER
Stay!
JOHANNA
St. Winifred! You’ll force—?
CHAUCER
Donna, my heart
Bleeds tears for you.
JOHANNA
Stand by!
CHAUCER
That one so young,
So seeming virtuous—
JOHANNA
“So seemingâ€â€”thanks!
CHAUCER
As this young squire should, at one look from his—
Should, at one look, forsake your ladyship
For his—alas! But such is man! The bonds
Which nature forges chain us to the flesh,
Though angels pry the links.
JOHANNA
The bonds which nature?—
CHAUCER
Yes, nature: ’tis not love. Had it been love,
Would he have turned, even in his vows of truth,
And left you with his—ah! it chokes me. Nay,
Go, go, great marchioness, seek out your ward;
I crave your pardon.
[Bowing, he steps aside. Johanna, passing disdainfully to the door, there pauses, and turns to Chaucer, as though he had spoken.]
[Bowing, he steps aside. Johanna, passing disdainfully to the door, there pauses, and turns to Chaucer, as though he had spoken.]
JOHANNA
Well?
[Chaucer retires right.]
’Tis very dark.
[Returning.]
I will wait here.
CHAUCER
In sadness, honoured lady,
I take my leave.
[He goes to the door; Johanna rises uneasily.]
Yet I beseech your grace
Will never hint to that poor youth, my friend,
The secret I let slip.
JOHANNA
[Aside.]
“Let slip!†The booby!—
He thinks he’s told me who she is. Soft!now
I’ll worm it out.
[Aloud.]
Wait; if I promise never
To hint the thing we know—you understand.
CHAUCER
That’s it.
JOHANNA
One moment, Master Geoffrey. I
Have rallied you somewhat on your paternal
Vintage.
CHAUCER
To be hit by your Grace’s wit
Is to die smiling.
JOHANNA
[Aside.]
How the big fish bites!
[Aloud, effusively.]
But you’ll forgive me? ’Tis my nature, those
To banter whom I best adore.
[Detaching a knot of ribbon from her gown, she offers it toChaucer.]
Pray, sir,—
CHAUCER
For me?—A love-knot! By your Grace’s favours
I am bewildered.
JOHANNA
Keep it as a pledge—
For you are Aubrey’s friend, my Aubrey’s friend—
As pledge that I will never, so help me Heaven,
Reveal to him my knowledge of his secret,
How Eglantine is his—oh, word it for me,
For I am heartsick.
CHAUCER
Trust me, honoured lady,
You have done bravely. For did he suspect
That I have even whispered to you how
That nun, whose sensuous name he bade me rhyme
In verses meant for you, that Prioress,
Whose cloistral hand even now, lock’d in his palm,
Leads here your Aubrey, how that vestal maid
Hath lived for months, nay years, your lover’s—oh!
JOHANNA
[Seizes Chaucer’s arm.]
Hiswhat? In God’s name, speak it! His—
CHAUCER
His aunt!
[Blows out the candle.]
JOHANNA
Hisaunt?
CHAUCER
[Going off in the dark.]
O shire of Kent! thou shire of Kent!
To sit with thee in parliament
Doth not content
Me, verayment,
Like laughing at lovers after Lent.
Haha! Hahaha!
[Exit.]
Ho! Shire of Kent!
JOHANNA
So—Kent? He mocks my title, doth he?
O gall! If he have made a fool of me—
Yet, if he’ve made a fool of me, O sweet,
Sweet gall!
SQUIRE
[Outside.]
Johanna!
JOHANNA
Aubrey!
SQUIRE
[Returning with Prioress.]
He hath told thee?
JOHANNA
Nay, hath he told metrue?
SQUIRE
This is my aunt,
Dame Eglantine, my father’s sister.
ALISOUN
[Aside.]
Death!
We must be quick.
FRIAR
[Aside.]
I’ll win thy wager for thee.
[Exit Friar at door, front left.]
PRIORESS
[Extending her hand to Johanna.]
My nephew tells me you and he—
JOHANNA
Madame,
I blush to think of my late rudeness; ’twas