Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen (155 page)

JULIAN.
Myrrha! What is the matter?

MYRRHA.
Oh kind heaven, my mistress —

JULIAN.
Your mistress, — what of her?

MYRRHA.
Sickness or frenzy — ; help, help!

JULIAN.
Helena sick! The physician! Oribases must come, Sintula! Summon him! [Sintula
goes out by the back.
Julian
is hastening out to the right
,
when at the door he meets the
Princess Helena,
surrounded by female slaves. Her countenance is mid and distorted
,
her hair and clothes are in disorder.

HELENA.
Loosen the comb! Loosen the comb, I say! It is red hot. My hair is on fire; I burn, I burn!

JULIAN.
Helena! For God’s pity’s sake — !

HELENA.
Will no one help me? They are killing me with needle-pricks!

JULIAN.
My Helena! What has befallen you?

HELENA.
Myrrha, Myrrha! Save me from the women, Myrrha!

THE PHYSICIAN ORIBASES.
[
Entering from the back.]
What horror do I hear — ? Is it true? Ah!

JULIAN.
Helena! My love, light of my life — !

HELENA.
Away from me! Oh sweet Jesus, help!
[She half swoons among the slave-girls.

JULIAN.
She is raving. What can it be, Oribases? — See — see her eyes, how large — !

ORIBASES.
[To
MYRRHA.] What has the Princess taken? What has she been eating or drinking?

JULIAN.
Ah, you think — ?

ORIBASES.
Answer, women; what have you given the Princess?

MYRRHA.
We? Oh nothing, I swear; she herself —

ORIBASES.
Well? Well?

MYRRHA.
Some fruits; they were peaches, I think; — oh I know not

JULIAN.
Fruits! Peaches? Some of those which — ?

MYRRHA.
Yes — no — yes; I do not know, my lord; it was two Nubians —

JULIAN.
Help, help, Oribases!

ORIBASES.
Alas, I fear — JULIAN. No, no, no!

ORIBASES.
Hush, gracious lord; she is coming to herself. Helena; [
Whispering.]
Why did the sun go down? Oh holy mysterious darkness!

JULIAN.
Helena! Listen; collect your thoughts —

ORIBASES.
My noble Princess —

JULIAN.
It is the physician, Helena!
[He takes her hand.]
No, here, where I stand.

HELENA.
[Tearing her hand away
.] Faugh! there he was again!

JULIAN.
She does not see me. Here, here, Helena! Helena. The loathsome creature; — he is always about me.

JULIAN.
What does she mean?

ORIBASES.
Stand apart, gracious lord — !

HELENA.
Sweet stillness! He does not dream: ——
; oh my Gallus!

JULIAN.
Gallus!

ORIBASES.
Go, noble Caesar; it is not meet — !

HELENA.
How boldly your close-curling hair curves over your neck! Oh that short, thick neck —

JULIAN.
Abyss of all abysses — !

ORIBASES.
The delirium is increasing —

JULIAN.
I see, I see. We must take note, Oribases!

HELENA.
[Laughing softly
.] Now he would be taking notes again. — Ink on his fingers; book-dust in his hair — unwashed; faugh, faugh, how he stinks.

MYRRHA.
My lord, shall I not — ?

JULIAN.
Away with you, woman!

HELENA.
How could you let yourself be conquered by him, you great-limbed, bronzed barbarian? He cannot conquer women. How I loathe this impotent virtue.

JULIAN.
Stand apart, all of you! Not so near, Oribases! I myself will watch the Princess.

HELENA.
Art thou wroth with me, thou glorious one? Gallus is dead. Beheaded. What a blow that must have been! Be not jealous, oh my first and last? Bum Gallus in hell fire; — it was none but thou, thou, thou — !

JULIAN.
No nearer, Oribases!

HELENA.
Kill the priest, too! I will not see him after this. Thou knowest our sweet secret. Oh thou, my days’ desire, my nights’ delight! It was thou thyself — in the form of thy servant — in the oratory; yes, yes, thou wast there; it was thou — in the darkness, in the heavy air, in the shrouding incense-clouds, that night, when the Caesar growing beneath my heart —

JULIAN.
[Recoiling with a
cry.] Ah!

HELENA.
[
With outstretched arms
.] My lover and my lord! Mine, mine — !
[She falls swooning on the floor; the slave girls hasten forward and crowd round her.

JULIAN.
[Stands for a moment immovable; then shakes his clenched fist in the air, and cries
.] Galilean!
[The slave-girls carry the Princess out on the right; at the same moment the Knight
Sallust
comes hastily in by the door in the back.

SALLUST.
The Princess in a swoon! Oh, then it is true!

JULIAN.
[Grasps the Physician by the arm, and leads him aside.]
Tell me the truth. Did you know before
to-day that — ; you understand me; have you known aught of — the Princess’s condition?

ORIBASES.
I, like every one else, my lord!

JULIAN.
And you said naught to me, Oribases!

ORIBASKS.
Of what, my Caesar?

JULIAN.
How dared you conceal it from me?

ORIBASES.
My lord, there was one thing we none of us knew.

JULIAN.
And that was?

ORIBASES.
That Caesar knew nothing.
[He is going.]

JULIAN.
Where are you going?

ORIBASES.
To try the remedies my art prescribes —

JULIAN.
I believe your art will prove powerless.

ORIBASES.
My lord, it is yet possible that —

JULIAN.
Powerless, Ï tell you!

ORIBASES.
[Retiring a step!]
Noble Caesar, it is my duty to disobey you in this.

JULIAN.
What think you I mean? Go, go; try what your art — ; save the Emperor’s sister; the Emperor will be inconsolable if his thoughtful affection should bring any disaster in its train. Of course you know that those fruits were a gift from the Emperor?

ORIBASES.
Ah!

JULIAN.
Go, go, man, — try what your art —

ORIBASES.
[Bowing reverently
.] I believe my art will prove powerless, my lord!
[He goes out to the right.

JULIAN.
Ah, is it you, Sallust? What think you? The waves of fate are once more beginning to sweep over my race.

SALLUST.
Oh, but rescue is at hand. Oribases will ——

JULIAN.
[Shortly and decisively
.] The Princess will die.

SALLUST.
Oh, if I dared speak! If I dared trace out the secret threads in this web of destruction!

JULIAN.
Be of good cheer, friend; all the threads shall be brought to light, and then

DECENTIUS.
[Entering from the back.]
How shall I look Caesar in the face! How inscrutable are the ways of God! Crushed to earth — ; oh that you could but read my heart! That I should be the harbinger of sorrow and disaster — !

JULIAN.
Yes, that you may say twice over, noble Decentius! And how shall I find soft and specious enough terms to bring this in any endurable guise to the ears of her imperial brother!

DECENTIUS.
Alas that such a thing should happen so close upon the coming of my mission! And just at this moment! Oh, what a thunderbolt from a cloudless sky of hope!

JULIAN.
Oh, this towering and devouring tempest, just as the ship seemed running into the long-desired haven! Oh, this — this — ! Sorrow makes us eloquent, Decentius, — you as well as me. But first to business. The two Nubians must be seized and examined.

DECENTIUS.
The Nubians, my lord? Could you dream that my indignant zeal would for another instant suffer the two negligent servants to — ?

JULIAN.
What! Surely you have not already — ?

DECENTIUS.
Call me hasty, if you will, noble Caesar; but my love to the Emperor and to his sorrow-stricken house would in truth be less than it is if, in such an hour, I were capable of calm reflection.

JULIAN.
Have you killed both the slaves?

DECENTIUS.
Had not their negligence deserved a sevenfold death? They were two heathen savages, my lord! Their testimony would have been worthless; it was impossible to wring anything out of them, save that they had left their precious charge standing for some time unwatched in the antechamber, accessible to every one —

JULIAN.
Aha! Had they indeed, Decentius?

DECENTIUS.
I accuse no one. But oh, beloved Caesar, I bid you beware; for you are surrounded by faithless servants. Your court — by an unhappy misunderstanding! — fancies that some sort of disfavour — or what should I call it? — is implied in the measures which the Emperor has found it necessary to adopt; in short —

SINTULA.
[Entering from the back.]
My lord, you have imposed on me a charge I can in no way fulfil.

JULIAN.
The Emperor imposed it, good Sintula!

SINTULA.
Relieve me of it, my lord; it is utterly beyond me.

DECENTIUS.
What has happened?

SINTULA.
The camp is in wild revolt. The legions and the allies are banding together —

DECENTIUS.
Rebelling against the Emperor’s will!

SINTULA.
The soldiers are shouting that they appeal to Caesar’s promises.

JULIAN.
Hark! hark! that roar outside — !

SINTULA.
The rioters are rushing hither —

DECENTIUS.
Let no one enter!

SALLUST.
[At the window.]
Too late; the whole courtyard is filled with angry soldiers.

DECENTIUS.
Caesar’s precious life is in danger! Where is Florentius?

SINTULA.
Fled.

DECENTIUS.
The blustering coward! And Severus? SlNTULA. Severus feigns sickness; he has driven out to his farm.

JULIAN.
I myself will speak to the madmen.

DECENTIUS.
Not a step, noble Caesar!

JULIAN.
What now?

DECENTIUS.
‘Tis my duty, gracious lord; the Emperor’s command — ; his beloved kinsman’s life — ; Caesar is my prisoner.

SALLUST.
Ah!

JULIAN.
So it has come at last!

DECENTIUS.
The household guard, Sintula! You must conduct Caesar in safety to Rome.

JULIAN.
To Rome! SlNTULA. What say you, my lord?

DECENTIUS.
To Rome, I say!

JULIAN.
Like Gallus!
[He shouts through the window.]
Help, help!

SALLUST.
Fly, my Caesar! Fly, fly!
Wild cries are heard without. Soldiers of the Roman legions, Batavian auxiliaries, and other allies, climb in through the window. At the same time, others swarm in by the door at the hack. Amongst the foremost is the Standard-Bearer
Maurus;
women, some with children in their arms, follow the intruders.

CRIES AMONG THE SOLDIERS.
Caesar, Caesar!

OTHER VOICES.
Caesar, why have you betrayed us?

AGAIN OTHERS.
Down with the faithless Caesar.