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Resource name: /E-Library/Works of Sri Aurobindo/English/SABCL/Collected Plays Part-I_Volume-06/Rodogune-Act Four-Scene-1.htm
Act Four
The palace in Antioch. Before the hills.
SCENE I
Cleopatra's chamber.
Cleopatra, Zoyla.
CLEOPATRA
Will he not come this morning ? How my head aches!
Zoyla, smooth the pain out of it, my girl,
With your deft fingers. Oh, he lingers, lingers!
Cleone keeps him still, the rosy harlot
Who rules him now. She is grown a queen and reigns
Insulting me in my own palace. Yes,
He's happy in her arms; why should he care for me
Who am only his mother ?
ZOYLA
Is the pain less at all?
CLEOPATRA
O, it goes deeper, deeper. Ever new revels,
While s
Resource name: /E-Library/Works of Sri Aurobindo/English/SABCL/Collected Plays Part-I_Volume-06/Act One -Scene-1 .htm
Act One
SCENE I
A rocky and surf-beat margin of land
walled in with great frown-
ing cliffs.
Cireas, Diomede.
CIREAS
Diomede ? You here so early and in this wild wanton weather!
DIOMEDE
I can find no fault in the weather, Cireas; it is brilliant and
frolicsome.
CIREAS
The rain has wept itself out and the sun has ventured into the
open; but the wind is shouting like mad and the sea is still in
a mighty passion. Has your mistress Andromeda sent you then
with matin-offerings to Poseidon, or are you walking here to
whip the red roses in your cheeks redder with the sea-breezes ?
DIOMEDE
Resource name: /E-Library/Works of Sri Aurobindo/English/SABCL/Collected Plays Part-I_Volume-06/Vasavadutta-Act Four-Scene-1.htm
Act Four
SCENE I
A room in the royal apartments.
Ungarica, Vasavadutta.
UNGARICA
Thou singest well; a cry of Vuthsa's art
Has stolen into thy song.
She takes Vasavadutta on her lap.
Look up at me,
My daughter, let me gaze into thy eyes
And from their silence learn thy treasured thoughts.
Thou knowest I can read 'twixt human lids
The secrets of the throbbing heart ? I search
In Vasavadutta's eyes by what strange skill
Vuthsa has crept into my daughter's voice.
Thou keepst thy lashes lowered ? thou wilt not let me look ?
But that too I can read.
VASAVADUTTA
O mother, mother mine,
Plag
Resource name: /E-Library/Works of Sri Aurobindo/English/SABCL/Collected Plays Part-I_Volume-06/Vasavadutta-Act Two-Scene-2.htm
SCENE II
A forest-glade in the Vindhya hills.
Vicurna, a Captain.
VICURNA
The hunt rings distant still; but all the way
Troops and more troops besiege. Where is Gopalaca ?
CAPTAIN
.
Our work may, yet be rude before we reach
Our armies on the frontier.
VICURNA
That I desire.
O whistling of the arrows! I have yet
To hear that battle music.
CAPTAIN
Someone comes,
For wild things scurry forth.
They take cover. Gopalaca enters.
VICURNA
Whither so swiftly?
You are near the frontier for a banished man,
Gopalaca.
GOPALACA
W
Resource name: /E-Library/Works of Sri Aurobindo/English/SABCL/Collected Plays Part-I_Volume-06/Vasavadutta-Act Five-Scene-4.htm
SCENE IV
The Avunthian forests; moonlight.
Vuthsa, Vasavadutta, Munjoolica.
VUTHSA .
Thou hast held the reins divinely. We approach
Our kingdom's border.
MUNJOOLICA
But the foe surround.
VUTHSA
We will break through as twice now we have done.
Vicurna comes.
Vicurna arrives ascending.
VICURNA
Vuthsa, yon Rebha asks
For parley; is it given? Fid hold him here
While by a long masked woodland breach I know
Silent we pass their cordon.
VUTHSA
Force is best.
VICURNA
Vuthsa, to my mind more; but I would spare
Our Vasavadutt
Resource name: /E-Library/Works of Sri Aurobindo/English/SABCL/Collected Plays Part-I_Volume-06/Eric-Act One-Scene-2.htm
SCENE II
Hertha, Aslaug.
ASLAUG
Hertha, we dance before the man tonight.,
Why not tonight?
HERTHA
Because I do not choose¹
Merely to wound and then be stayed.²
ASLAUG
To near,
To strike, while all posterity applauds.
For Norway's poets to the end of time
Shall sing in praises noble as the theme
Of Aslaug's dance and Aslaug's dagger.
HERTHA
Yes,
If we succeed; but who will sing the praise
Of foiled assassins ? Shall we³ risk defeat ?
Shall4 Swegn of Norway roam until the end
The desperate snows and forest5 si
Resource name: /E-Library/Works of Sri Aurobindo/English/SABCL/Collected Plays Part-I_Volume-06/Rodogune-Act One-Scene-3.htm
SCENE III
Cleopatra's antechamber in the palace.
Cleopatra seated, Rodogune.
CLEOPATRA
It is their horsehooves ride into my heart.
It shall be done. What have I any more
To do with hatred ? Parthian Rodogune,
Have you forgotten now your former pomps
And princely thoughts in high Persepolis,
Or do your dreams still linger near a throne ?
RODOGUNE
I think all fallen beings needs must keep
Some dream out of their happier past, — or else
How hard it would be to live!
CLEOPATRA
O, if some hope survive
In the black midst of care, however small,
We can live, then only, O t
Resource name: /E-Library/Works of Sri Aurobindo/English/SABCL/Collected Plays Part-I_Volume-06/Eric-Act Two-Scene-1.htm
Act Two
A room in Eric's house.
SCENE I
Hertha, Aslaug.
HERTHA
See what a keen and fatal glint it has,
Aslaug.
ASLAUG
Hast thou been haunted by a look,
O Hertha, has a touch bewildered thee,
Compelling memory ?
HERTHA
Then the gods too work.
ASLAUG
A marble statue gloriously designed
Without that breath our cunning maker gives,
One feels it pain to break. This statue breathes!
Out of these eyes there looks an intellect
That claims us all; this marble holds a heart,
The heart holds love. To break it all, to lay
This glory of God's m
Resource name: /E-Library/Works of Sri Aurobindo/English/SABCL/Collected Plays Part-I_Volume-06/Vasavadutta-Act Three-Scene-4.htm
SCENE IV
The tower-room beside the terrace.
Vuthsa on a couch.
VUTHSA
All that I dreamed or heard of her, her charm
Exceeds. She's mine! she has shuddered at my touch;
Thrice her eyes faltered as they gazed in mine.
He lies back with closed eyes;
Munjoolica enters and contemplates him.
MUNJOOLICA
O golden Love! thou art not of this earth.
He too is Vasavadutta's! All is hers,
As I am now and one day all the earth.
Vuthsa, thou sleep'st not, then.
VUTHSA
Sleep jealous waits
Finding another i