Philo
Your throat—is—so white!
(Seizes and chokes her. As he seizes her she gives a cry of terror.Warner,Mrs. W.,Seymour,andBellowsrush up the stairs and enter.Philotakes his hands from thegirl's throat and stands apart. She lies motionless.)
Warner(roaring)
You've managed, Mary Ann!
Bellows(excitedly)
Who's right, now, Seymour?
(Seymourbends overReba,listening for her heart-beat.)
Warner(choking)
A hanging in the family!
Mrs. W.
Is she—dead?
Seymour
No. It is chiefly fear. (Works over her body.)
Philo(to himself)
Poor little bird! Poor little bird!
Bellows(taking a pair of handcuffs from his pocket and offering them toWarner)
Better clap these on him. We're none of us safe.
Philo
Handcuffs, doctor? I'll make no trouble.
(Holds out his hands andBellowsfastens handcuffs.)
Bellows
It's for your own good, Philo.
Seymour
Our mistake—our mistake! Poor boy!
Bellows
Poorgirl, I should say!
Seymour(liftingReba)
I'll take her down-stairs. (Carries her to door.) I shall need you, Mrs. Warner.
(Mrs. W.follows, weeping and looking back atPhilo.)
Philo
I'm all right, mother.
Mrs. W.
All right.Oh, God help him! (Exit.)
Bellows
Clean mad!
Philo(crosses, and looks down on the wreck of his machine)
Silent ... but I have heard! The divine whisper has reached me!
Bellows
That's still on his mind, you see. Better leave him up here till morning. Seymour and I will fix up the papers and take him off to-morrow. I'm sorry, Philo, but you know it's for the best.
Philo
I'll make no trouble. Don't worry, doctor.
Bellows(to himself, going)
Lord, he's cool! (AdvisingWarner,in cautiously lowered tone.) That's the way with the worst of them. (Exit.)
Warner
Want me to stay with you, Philo?
Philo
No, father.
Warner(relieved)
Good night, son. (At door.) Mother'll send up some blankets. (Exit.)
Philo
Blankets!...
(CURTAIN)
Princess Wong Fe,bride of Yu Tai Shun
So Siu,her friend
Prince Ching
Makuro,of Japan
Yu Tai Shun,of all nations
Scene:Room in a farmhouse above Siangtan, where the Siang flows among hills. The rear of room has wide exit to a porch, beyond which show the tops of pear and peach trees in full bloom. Steps lead down to the orchard, and the orchard slopes to the river.
Wong FeandSo Siupresent.
Wong Fe
My lily So Siu, has not the dishonorable color left my wretched cheeks? Is not my face like the dough before it goes into the oven?
So Siu
Oh, my golden Fe, pearls in the dawn are no fairer!
Wong Fe
But these cow-girl's tatters! Would not my gown of meadow-green mist with the peach-gold underrobe make me less haggard?
So Siu
When your lord, Yu Tai Shun, returns from the hills he will say——
Wong Fe
Oh, what will he say?
So Siu
That the fairies have been your friends. They wove for you this robe of rose-leaves, and threw over you a gray cloud from the Witch's Mountain.
(Wong Fetrips gaily, then with sudden surrender begins to weep.)
So Siu
Have no shame, beloved of miserable So Siu. Water must follow the fire. I am only a maid, but I know that when the honeymoon is without tears two pigs have married. Ah, wet my sleeve, my dear one, and not thine that will lie on the neck of the golden lord, Yu Tai Shun.
Wong Fe
When I awoke this morning the sunlight was on my pillow, but Yu Tai Shun was gone. All day I have not seen his face. And now the last swallow has left the sky.
So Siu
Why did Prince Ching and the young Japanese choose this day to be guests of Yu Tai Shun? It is sad for the wife when the friends of her lord find her alone. Yu Tai Shun will beat his doorstep for not calling him.
Wong Fe
He will! Prince Ching is almost his father. May his age climb as the hills, always nearer the sky!
So Siu
Indeed, you would be sitting alone in a cloud of sighs, not fast wedded to the bringer of dawn, Yu Tai Shun, if Prince Ching had not won his way to your brothers, the mighty princes, Wong Li and Wong Sen.
Wong Fe
I kiss his honorable dust! He shall live with my ancestors! And Makuro, the young Japanese, I shall love him too, for he is most dear to Yu Tai Shun. Do they still sit in the orchard?
So Siu
They have not moved, nor paused in their talking. Do you not hear? Like bees that cannot choose their flower. It may be that they have brought news to Yu Tai Shun, and his gloom will pass.
Wong Fe
No, I feel it was their coming, like a far cloud, that shadowed him. Oh, my So Siu, it will be darker now!
So Siu
I have sent tea and cakes to the orchard.
Wong Fe
It shall not be dark. Do not the fairies of the sun weave a white world out of the threads of midnight? I will pray to them. We must be merry, my lily So Siu.
So Siu
And why not?
Wong Fe
I shall dance to-night before Yu Tai Shun. (Tripping.) Is it not good to have feet? My honorable and glorious mamma weeps when I dance, but it is because she was born too soon and they crippled her beloved feet.
So Siu
How glad I am that the old world is gone when only the painted flower-girls could do the happy things!
Wong Fe
And it was my own lord, Yu Tai Shun, who made the earth new again!
(She listens, suddenly still.)
So Siu
He is here!
Wong Fe
My darling So Siu....
So Siu
I go! (Darts from room, right.)
Wong Fe
I would be dancing, but I cannot move. There are anchors of fear on my toes.
(EnterYu Tai Shun,left. He is dressed in gray flannels, of American pattern.)
Shun(stopping beforeWong Fe)
I left a witch-cloud on the hills, and it has dropped down before me.
(She courtesies to the floor. He snatches her up.)
Shun
No! I want my Western bride to-night.
Wong Fe
But this is a Chinese orchard, and it is springtime. Let me worship a little.
Shun
Never, my mountain bird!
(Draws her to the steps, where they sit.)
Wong Fe
You are weary, beloved?
Shun
Not now. I have my rest. To-morrow you shall go with me.
Wong Fe
Up the mountain?
Shun
I will show you where I dropped the storm in my heart.
Wong Fe(timidly)
Will it come again, Yu Tai Shun?
Shun
Nothing can wake it again.
Wong Fe
Then indeed I am your bride!
Shun
Heart of my body art thou, Wong Fe!
(Holds her to his breast a moment, looking distantly out. Suddenly sees his friends approaching.)
Shun
We have guests?
Wong Fe(quickly springing up)
Forgive me! Your friends are here. Prince Ching, and Makuro, from Japan.
Shun
Makuro?
(He throws up his right hand. In a momentPrince ChingandMakuroare seen advancing from the orchard.)
Wong Fe
They have had my welcome. I leave you. (Crosses to right, reluctantly.)
Shun
Return to us soon, my gold of the morning.
(She goes out.Chingand the Japanese enter.)
Ching
We have waited, Yu Tai Shun. We knew that the setting sun would turn a bridegroom home.
Makuro
Master!
Shun
My friend! What brings you to China?
Makuro(with steady gaze)
You know. I have come for you.
Shun(stubbornly, as if chidden)
My work is done. China is free.
Ching
Her slavery is only beginning. You may hide your body but you cannot bury your mind under peach-blossoms.
Shun
The republic is established.
Ching
But not a democracy.
Shun
My work is done. Twenty years have I given to the cause of the people. Now until I die I will toil and sing in the fields of my fathers.
(They have gradually come to centre of room, which servants have lighted.Wong Fesilently returns, but at a sign fromChingshe retreats and remains by wall, right, participating in the scene that follows, thoughYu Tai ShunandMakuroare unaware of her presence.)
Makuro
Do you remember when I stood here once before, Yu Tai Shun?
Shun
Can you ask me that, Makuro?
Makuro
Why not, when you seem to have forgotten all that passed between us? I went from that meeting with an imperishable fire in my heart. I return, and the light that kindled mine is dark. We stood here, and the words you spoke were brighter than the lamps of Siangtan that we looked down upon. Shall I repeat them, Yu Tai Shun?
(Shun is silent.)
Ching
I would hear them, Makuro.
Makuro
The master said: "Forty centuries has China been content to plough, to sow, to reap, and withher harvest support one-quarter of the human lives on our planet. Drudgery has been her lot, frugality her virtue. Only so had she lease of breath. Now she is to unlock her mines, build ships, and roads of commerce, and with the magic of machinery set her people free. If that magic is owned by a few, there will be no freedom, but a slavery whose agony no man can tell. Every owner will be a monarch greater than the Son of Heaven to whom we bowed. We cannot shut them out by war. We can do it solely by making China a true democracy where the people themselves own the magic tools and the great ways to the markets. To do this is the work of all who love Freedom, and I know no other goddess." Were these your words, Yu Tai Shun?
Shun
Yes ... my words.
Makuro
That was five years ago. From all parts of the earth come powers fulfilling your fear. Leagued with our own purblind princes and dwellers in the dusk, they hover over China, waiting for war and bribery to dismember her. And you say your work is done. Yu Tai Shun, where have you buried my master?
Ching
In the heart of the Princess Wong Fe.
Shun(rallying)
May we not be too stern in our judgment of the lords of steam and iron? Lei Kung Sang and the British minister of the So-nan mineral beds have built houses for the people.
Ching
And have taken their land. Men who plucked their own fruit, and took food from their own gardens, now cannot eat until they have torn new treasure out of the earth for the kind Briton and the good Lei Kung Sang.
Shun
Their days of work were always long and weary.
Ching
But they toiled as free men in the sun, and as free men sang from the river-boats when the moon rose. In America, where there is still much land and few people, there are places where children go down into the mines and never see the sun except on the day they call "holy." How will it be with China's four hundred millions, when there are not even waste places where those who would flee may gather? For even her great untilled spaces are being covered by the foreign hand.
Makuro
Slavery will be born again with depths the ancients never knew.
Shun
But the spirit of brotherhood is growing.
Makuro
Power has no brothers! It was you who taught me that, Yu Tai Shun.
Shun
Do you forget that we built our republic with the aid of these same princes of power?
Ching
We forget nothing. They let us beat down the throne because they could not use it—a rigid tradition—but the republic—theyare the republic!
Shun
Can we not trust a little? In our greatest need, alien hands have reached out to help us. And we have true hearts among our Chinese lords. Not all have joined with the invader to herd the people into slave-yards. Pei Chen-Ping and Sa Yi are most liberal. You, Prince Ching, and those you gather to you, have hearts like the rising sun. And the noble princes of the house of Wong—have they not given me my bride?
Ching
Ay, when your sighs had blown around the world for seven years, they yielded her. You were a power to be checked, and they set a woman in your path.
Shun
No!
Ching
It was a Japanese from the Fushun collieries, a Russian prince of the Northern railways, a French buyer of Yunnan copper, a British ship-baron of Hongkong, and the Chinese owners of the unworked gold veins of Szechuan, who went to the brothers of Wong Fe and said: "Give Yu Tai Shun his bride."
Shun
It was you who spoke for me!
Ching
You had no father, and in my heart you were my son. I spoke for you because I believed in you. I did not think that any bribe could lure you from us. Yours was a soul that we thought would be a torch to every nation of earth. And you choose to go out like a candle in the breath of a woman.
(Yu Tai Shunis bowed and silent.Makurotouches his sleeve.)
Makuro
Come with us, master.
Ching
In half an hour the boat will stop at the orchard pier for Makuro. He starts for Japan. It is there you are needed.
Makuro
I come from our friends with their summons. Japan's oligarchy of traders, with every means known to power—school, religion, racial pride and hate—is fostering the spirit of war. All the seeds of the jungle are being deliberately sown once more in men's hearts. They are preparing Japan to hold the largest share of an industrially broken China and weld her millions into one instrument of hate against the West.
Shun
A pigmy's dream!
Ching
A dream that will come true if our giants continue to sleep.
Makuro
It is the menace of America that Japan holds before her people till their hearts roll with fear, their brains grow sick with rage. America, who has insulted us with exclusion—who has snatchedan island chain from our Eastern waters, and shot, starved, imprisoned thousands ignorant enough and brave enough to resist her.Thatis the America my people are taught to believe in. But you know a different America, where people love honor and hate war—whose religion is love thy neighbor as thyself. Come, teach them of that America! You are known in a million homes of Japan. You have taught us to love you, and where we love, we listen.
Shun(with great effort)
I cannot go. If I part from Wong Fe the blood will leave my veins and flow back to her.
Makuro
Then take her with you.
Shun
You know what this journey means.
Ching
Yes, you must go free. With such a weight you would be useless. I will take Wong Fe to her brothers.
Shun
I shall hold her forever!
Ching
You think joy can last so long? (ToMakuro,shrugging.) A boy yet!
Shun
In Japan you have my young scholar, Onoto. All my knowledge I have given him. In his heart is my purpose, his eyes hold my vision.
Makuro
Onoto!
Shun
His years are younger, his flame will leap higher. I am only one who fails you. In every nation our numbers are growing. Do not fear for humanity. Our brothers are everywhere.
Makuro
You say Onoto?
Shun
He has the gift of the shining word—the word that draws the heart as a full moon at sea draws the eye. I can turn my back on the world and rob it of nothing, for I have given it Onoto.
Ching
How long have you been chirping here like a cricket under a leaf, with no news from the roadside?
Shun
It is three weeks to-day since I brought Wong Fe to the door of my fathers.
Ching
Three weeks! On the very day of your joy Onoto was thrown into prison.
Shun
They would not dare!
Makuro
They did dare.
Shun
In prison—Onoto!
Makuro
No, he is not now in prison.
Shun
Free?
Makuro
The enmity of the powers was bitter. Everywhere he was sowing the seed of peace. In many a house the ancestral sword was broken at his bidding.
Shun
But he is free?
Makuro
Yesterday (glances out at the stars), at this hour, he was shot.
Shun(slowly comprehending)
Then I have been twenty-four hours dead.
(He steps uncertainly out to the little porch. They gaze at the floor, respecting his grief.Wong Femakes a motion to follow him.Chingstops her with a gesture, and she shrinks back.Yu Tai Shunre-enters.)
Shun
Your mercy, friends. (Crosses left, to exit.)
Ching
You will go with us now?
Shun(turns and hurls the word)
No!
(An instant of silence follows his exit, thenWong Fecomes forward.)
Wong Fe
Peace to your hearts, honorable friends of Yu Tai Shun! He will depart with you.
Ching
Not yet. We must wait. Invisible chains cannot be broken. But they will disunite of themselves. Then he will come.
Wong Fe
I will send him with you to-night.
Ching
Yousend him?
Wong Fe
Do you think I will divide his life so that the two halves can bear no fruit? That I will wait until he hates me for that ruin?
Ching(with laughter)
Hates you, oh princess!
Wong Fe
Wait till I must glean in his heart behind a spent passion?—like a poor widow in the track of a grain-cart?
Ching
The coral of your lips will defeat their command, Wong Fe. Near you he is a dry fagot seized by a flame.
Wong Fe
I tell you he will go! Wait in the orchard until you hear the first whistle of the boat. Then come for him. He will be ready. Go, honorable friends! He is returning.
Ching
It is useless. Your words may bite like winter, but his eyes will see only the Spring morning.
Wong Fe
Go, I beg you, go!
(They pass out down the steps of porch.Wong Fehurries to a small table, opens a lacquered box and takes from it a stiletto, which she hides in the folds of her sleeve. She is dancing asYu Tai Shunenters, and sings as she dances.)
The thousand odors of SpringAre the thousand arms of love.They find thee in the valleys,On the crest of the hills they reach thee;Till Spring bear no fragranceThou canst not escape them,The thousand arms of love!The orchard pool is a pillow,A pillow for the twin lotus,And the wings of the flying geeseAre warm in the air of heaven;They drop to the shadowy lake-sedge,For sweet looks the earth from the roads of the sky,And in heaven are no cool grasses.Ever listeningAre the leaves of the slim dryanda,Whose heart is the harp of the Spring-wind.A dryanda-tree is my lover,And my thoughts are the leaves that listen.Autumn, Autumn, touch not my leaf-thoughts!Cast them not down when the pool is grey,And the teal no more sail two and twoWith their breasts above one shadow.
The thousand odors of SpringAre the thousand arms of love.They find thee in the valleys,On the crest of the hills they reach thee;Till Spring bear no fragranceThou canst not escape them,The thousand arms of love!
The thousand odors of Spring
Are the thousand arms of love.
They find thee in the valleys,
On the crest of the hills they reach thee;
Till Spring bear no fragrance
Thou canst not escape them,
The thousand arms of love!
The orchard pool is a pillow,A pillow for the twin lotus,And the wings of the flying geeseAre warm in the air of heaven;They drop to the shadowy lake-sedge,For sweet looks the earth from the roads of the sky,And in heaven are no cool grasses.
The orchard pool is a pillow,
A pillow for the twin lotus,
And the wings of the flying geese
Are warm in the air of heaven;
They drop to the shadowy lake-sedge,
For sweet looks the earth from the roads of the sky,
And in heaven are no cool grasses.
Ever listeningAre the leaves of the slim dryanda,Whose heart is the harp of the Spring-wind.A dryanda-tree is my lover,And my thoughts are the leaves that listen.Autumn, Autumn, touch not my leaf-thoughts!Cast them not down when the pool is grey,And the teal no more sail two and twoWith their breasts above one shadow.
Ever listening
Are the leaves of the slim dryanda,
Whose heart is the harp of the Spring-wind.
A dryanda-tree is my lover,
And my thoughts are the leaves that listen.
Autumn, Autumn, touch not my leaf-thoughts!
Cast them not down when the pool is grey,
And the teal no more sail two and two
With their breasts above one shadow.
Shun
Come to me, Wong Fe! I feel that you have blown through my door like a rose petal, and willdrift away again, leaving me not a footprint to kiss.
Wong Fe
Neither in life nor in death shall I leave you, my lord. Though I seem to die, and these graces that please you fall to earth like willow-blossoms, it is not I that will lie on the sand.
Shun
Why do you speak of death, Wong Fe?
Wong Fe
Because I am so happy. The sages say that we can have no fairer fortune than to die in our happiest moment.
Shun
Do not speak of death. The word blisters the air, though your lips be as two drops of June rain.
Wong Fe
But how sweet to die when I am fairest in your eyes! Every year, at this time, you would walk down the peach-flower lanes and recall the glow of my cheek. Oh, Heaven, let me not be a faded wife in the blooming time of the year!
Shun
Thy soul, Wong Fe, is the flower of my worship.
Wong Fe
And death would give my soul wholly to you.I should be near you always. Then morning would not call you to the peaks, leaving me behind in the tear-dew.
Shun
To-morrow we shall go together. Your shadow will be with mine on the rocks, and under the fir-trees we shall forget the valley.
Wong Fe
And the world? Oh, my lord, there are distances farther than the peaks of Siang, and they will call you from me. It cannot be that you who have known all lands will be content with one. I would see the strange people you have made your brothers, would listen to their dreams, and read the future with their hearts. There are dangers you would not let my body share—I do not ask that—but my soul, you could forbid it nothing.
Shun
What have you heard? What has Makuro said to you?
Wong Fe
What should he say but that the cakes were good, and the tea had the flavor of the fields of Hunan?
Shun
We must join our friends. Where do they wait?
Wong Fe
They listen for the boat that will stop at the foot of the orchard. Why do they go? Old friends should not be so brief in greeting. Could they not stay one night?
Shun
No—no. (Sits down.) They must go.
Wong Fe(laying her hand on his shoulder)
What voice dost thou hear, and wilt not answer?
Shun
Nothing—nothing.
Wong Fe
You will not long be deaf between the beating of our two hearts. You will hear and go. That is why I long for the death-fairy to come in my hour of happiness. You have joined with strong men to lift a heavy yoke from the world. My smiles cannot feed your spirit. Go with your friends. Let the whistle of the boat part us.
Shun
The cassia-tree may draw itself from earth, and walk on feet of roots through the world, but I cannot divide my days from yours, for you are myself, Wong Fe.
Wong Fe(resigned)
I believe you, my lord. We shall not part.But what joy it would be to die now in your presence, while the love-cup is full! Oh, I could not meet death alone! You know the poor ghost in the song who died in the absence of her lover? She is always pleading to be allowed to die again when his arms may be around her. So would my ghost go wailing if I lost your kiss in death. (Touches his cheek.) Is that a tear, Yu Tai Shun? I torture you because I am so happy! You shall laugh, my prince! I know a new game we shall play. Little So Siu taught it to me to-day. She says it is an American game. We call it "Guess behind you!" You turn your back—like that—and you must tell me what I am doing. When you miss three times, then I shall tell you what you must pay. Now—what is it I do?
Shun
You throw me a kiss.
Wong Fe
So I do! And now, my soul's light?
(Takes stiletto from her sleeve. The whistle of the boat is heard. He turns. She hides stiletto.)
Shun
Our friends are going.
Wong Fe
But wait—there is time. You must guess once more! Oh, you are slow as ten turns of a river! There!
(Turns his head with her hands, then snatches the stiletto, stabs herself and falls. He turns, kneels dazedly, and takes her in his arms as she dies.ChingandMakuroenter.)
Ching
The boat— (Stops in consternation.)
Makuro(softly)
Master, I did not ask this price.
Shun(rising)
It is paid.
(CURTAIN)
Scene I. The Garden of Joy
Cho-Cho The Clown Everychild Mother, Father, and dancing children
Scene II. Sweat-shop
Father, Mother, three children, Everychild
Scene III. The Farmstead
Jim the Father, Mary the Mother, Billie, Tom, and Rosie, their children. Cho-Cho and Everychild
Scene IV. The Coal-mine
Joe, Jack, Bert—three old miners and two boys
Final Scene. Same as first scene
Cho-Cho, Everychild, Mother, Father. Old group of children and new group with Everychild
BY CHO-CHO